USA > Oregon > History of Oregon, Vol. I, 1834-1848 > Part 42
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The state of disappointment and discontent which followed the first introduction to the new life was after all not long. When spring came with sunny skies and balmy air, they forgot the sorrows of the winter, and yielded contendedly to the witchery of fresh scenes and the pleasure of new beginnings. By autumn they were settled, and had already become well incorporated with the old colony.56
Some mention should be made in this place of the second expedition of Frémont, which though it had
55 It is without doubt just to Dr Whitman to say that in the matter of insisting upon their keeping in motion and accomplishing some distance each day, they were indebted for their success. He knew the weary miles before them, and warned them constantly to travel. Applegate, in Overland Monthly, i. 127.
56 In writing this chapter, I have been often guided by Burnett's Recollec- tions of a Pioneer, New York, 1880, chiefly because he kept a journal of his travels and his early life in Oregon. The book abounds in incidents told in a natural manner. It contains, besides, numerous pen-pictures of other pioneers, with which these pages will be from time to time illustrated, and valuable remarks on early government affairs
420
THE IMMIGRATION OF 1843.
nothing to do with the emigration movement of 1843, was an incident of it. The expedition left the Mis- souri River, near the junction of the Kansas, on the 29th of May, travelling just behind the emigrants as far as Soda Springs at the Great Bend of Bear River, where they turned off to Salt Lake. Having made a hasty visit to that inland sea,57 they returned to the emigrant road, which they followed to the Dalles, 58 arriving there on the 4th of November. There Fre- mont left his men and animals, and took a canoe to Fort Vancouver to purchase supplies for his expedi- tion to California, which were furnished him on the credit of the United States, the company sending the goods to the Dalles in their own boats. The emi- grants ridicule Frémont's sobriquet of 'Pathfinder.' 59
The naturalist Audubon was skirting the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains in the summer of 1843, in pursuit of his favorite study of ornithology; and mention is made of a German botanist named Luders, whom Frémont met on the Columbia, at a little bay below the Cascades, which was called after him Lu- ders' Bay. The toils and dangers of this class of men occupy but little space in history, yet are none the less worthy of mention that they are not performed for gain or political preferment. If it is a brave deed to dare
57 The following absurd report appeared in the St Louis Gazette: 'On the 16th of September they surveyed the Great Salt Lake, supposed to empty into the Pacific, and computed its length to be 280 miles, and its breadth 100.' Niles' Reg., 1xv. 243.
58 Waldo's Critiques, MS., 17; Evans' Hist. Or., MS., 273. According to . Nesmith, J. G. Campbell, Ransom Clark, Chapman, and Major William Gil- pin travelled with Frémont's company. Or. Pioneer Assoc., Trans., 1875, 55-6; Frémont's Rept. Explor. Ex., 107.
59 This feeling is illustrated by the following extract from Nesmith's Address in Or. Pioneer Assoc., Trans., 1875, 60: ' In the eastern states I have often been asked how long it was after Frémont discovered Oregon that I emigrated tliere. It is true that in the year 1843 Frémont, then a lieutenant in the engineer corps, did cross the plains, and brought his party to the Dalles in the rear of our emigration. His outfit contained all the conveniences and luxuries that a government appropriation could procure, while he "roughed it " in a covered carriage, surrounded by servants paid from the public purse. He returned to the States, and was rewarded with a presidential nomination as the "Path- finder." The path he found was that made by the hardy frontiersmen who preceded him to the Pacific, and who stood by their rifles and held the country against hostile Indians and British threats, without government aid or recog- nition until 1849, when the first government troops came to our relief.'
421
BIOGRAPHICAL.
the perils of the wilderness for these, in companies of hundreds, how much nobler is it for the solitary student of science to risk life for the benefit of man- kind ! 60
60 Of the immigration of 1843 many have passed away. John Ford died in Salem Oct. 10, 1875, aged 56. John Gill Campbell died at Oregon City Nov. 21, 1872, aged 55. He was a Philadelphian by birth, and married, in 1846, Miss Rothilda E. Buck of Oregon City. John Howell, born in Tennessee Dec. 6, 1787, died Oct. 4, 1869, aged 82. A. Olinger, a native of Ohio, died near Salem Jan. 3, 1874, aged 62. Thomas Owens dicd Jan. 23, 1873, at Piety Hill in California. He was born in Tazewell County, Virginia, Jan. 12, 1808. He settled first in Oregon near Astoria, where he remained 10 years, when he removed to Roseburg. His age was 65. Stephen Tarbox was born in Maine in 1812, of Irish parentage. He never married. Before emigrating to Oregon he had been a soldier in the U. S. army under Kearny command- ing the 1st regt of dragoons stationed at Leavenworth. He died Nov. 6, 1878, in Benton County, Oregon, aged 66. William Holmes died Sept. IS, 1879, at his home in Oregon City, at the age of 75. Jesse Looney died March 25, 1869, aged 88. His home was in Marion County, where his children still reside. Daniel Matheney died near Wheatland, Yamhill County, Feb. 1, 1872, aged 79. He was born in Virginia Dec. 11, 1793, and removed successively to Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois. He was married Dec. 19, 1819. He served in the war of 1812, receiving his discharge at the victory of New Orleans. He fought again in the Black Hawk war under General Atkinson, and was elected Ist lieutenant of a company, and in 1839 again enlisted and was elected captain in the Mormon war. In the immigretion of 1843 he was one of the most active, exploring and opening the road from Fort Hall to the Dalles. Henry Matheney was married in Indiana in 1828; his wife died in June 1877, the husband preceding her. David T. Lennox was born in New York in 1802, removed to Kentucky in 1819, to Illinois in 1828, to Missouri in 1837. He was among the foremost men of this migration. He settled on the Tualatin plains, where he lived many years, filling several places of public trust. He clied at the home of his son-in-law, John S. White, in Umatilla County, Oct. 19, 1874, aged nearly 73.
Richard Hobson was born in England in Oct. 1829, and was therefore under the age of 16, which entitled him to be enrolled as able-bodied in 1843. He emigrated from Liverpool with his father s family in January 1843, with the design of going to Oregon, and arrived at Vancouver Nov. 17th of that year. His father, John Hobson, located on Clatsop plains in January 1844, where the family still reside. Richard visited Australia, and returned to Oregon in 1859. He then became a pilot on the Columbia River, in which business he remained until his death in 1878, at the age of 49.
John Holman was a native of Woodford County, Kentucky, where he was born Sept. 11, 1787. In Oct. 1810 he married a daughter of Thomas Duvall. About the same time he joined the Baptist church at Hillsboro. In 1817 he emigrated to Middle Tennessee, and resided in the county of Lincoln until 1826, when he removed to Clay County, Missouri. In this insalubrious climate he lost his wife and three children, and in 1843 determined to join the emigration to Oregon, where he spent the decline of his life in tranquil happiness. He died May 15, 1864, at the residence of his son, Daniel Hol- man of McMinnville. His age was 77 years.
Charles H. Eaton, born in Oswego County, N. Y., Dec. 22, 1818, removed with his parents to Paulding County, Ohio, when a boy, whence he emi- grated to Oregon in 1843. In 1846 he settled in the Puget Sound region, with whose history his own is identified. He died Dec. 10, 1876, at Yakima City, aged 58
William Fowler, with the other two of that name, went to California in
422
THE IMMIGRATION OF 1843.
The immigration by sea for the year 1843 amounted to fourteen persons. The bark Fama, Captain Nye, from the Hawaiian Islands, brought Francis W. Pet- tygrove, wife and child, Philip Foster, wife and four children, Peter H. Hatch, wife and child, and Nathan P. Mack. These all settled at or near Oregon City. F. W. Pettygrove was a native of Calais, Maine. He came to Oregon as agent for A. G. and A. W. Benson, with about $15,000 worth of merchandise, supposed to be suited to the trade of the country, and established himself first in competition with the Cush- ings, and the Methodist Mission which opened a store at Oregon City this year, and later competed with the traders of the Hudson's Bay Company very success- fully,61 buying beaver-skins, and erecting a wheat
1844, and settled in the Napa Valley. He was born in Albany, N. Y., and died at the residence of his son, Henry, at Calistoga, Calfornia, Feb. 3, 1865, aged 86.
T. G. Naylor, a native of Albemarle County, Virginia, and later a resi- lent of Missouri, from which state he emigrated, was born Oct. 12, 1814. On coming to Oregon he settled on Tualatin plains, adjoining the land claim on which Forest Grove is situated, where he lived until his death, Dec. 5, 1872, at the age of 59. He was twice married, and the father of 18 children, 15 of whom survive. His character as a true man gave him influence in the Congregational church, of which he was a deacon, and made him a trustee of the Pacific University, and director in the state agricultural society. He was a generous supporter of all worthy public institutions.
Orris Brown was born in Massachusetts, Sept. 4, 1800, his father being the Rev. Clark Brown, and his mother, Tabitha Brown, famous in the history of the Pacific University of Oregon. His parents removed to Maryland, where his father died, and his mother emigrated to Missouri with her children in 1821. In 1843, being then married, he came to Oregon, leaving his family, but returned in 1845 with a small party under White, which was robbed on the road by the Pawnees. He brought back to Oregon in 1846 his own family and his mother's, most of whom settled at Forest Grove. Mr Brown had 12 children. He died May 5, 1874, aged 74.
Daniel Delaney was murdered at the age of more than 70, Jan. 9, 1865, upon his own premises, 18 miles from Salem. One of the men convicted of shooting him to obtain his money was George P. Beale, also an immigrant of 1843, and at that time only a lad. Beale was executed, with his confederate, May 17, 1865.
Margaret Garrison, wife of Rev. Enoch Garrison, was born in Kentucky January 24, 1814. Her maiden name was Herren. At the age of 18 years she removed to Indiana, where in 1836 she was married to Mr Garrison, and with him went to Oregon in 1843. She was the mother of 8 children, only 3 of whom outlived her. She died in Yamhill County, March 26, 1874.
61 In a manuscript called Oregon in 1843, but giving an intelligent view of the business of the country down to 1850, and the gold excitement; with a history of the founding of Portland, of which he was one of the first owners; and of the opening of American commerce on Puget Sound, Pettygrove re- lates his introduction to McLoughlin. He came to the Islands in the ship
423
INCOMERS BY SEA.
warehouse at Champoeg, to purchase the crops of the French Canadians. This course led to the establish- ment of a store at Oregon City by the Hudson's Bay Company, which was placed in charge of Frank Erma- tinger ; so it may be said that Pettygrove added two stores to that infant metropolis.
Mr Foster, from Maine, who also came from New York by the same ship which brought Pettygrove to the Islands, remained for a year or two at Oregon City, but finally settled sixteen miles up the Clack- amas River, on the trail leading to the Dalles, his farm becoming a halting-place for the immigrants who took the Mount Hood road into the Willamette Valley.62 Mack, who was a Massachusetts man, had been in Pacific waters for several years, trading and whaling. Being by vocation a carpenter, he found ample employment at Oregon City for three or four years, after which he settled on a farm ten miles east of that place, but finally removed to Salem.63
About the first of September there arrived in the
Victoria, from New York, Captain John H. Spring, and from the Islands to the Columbia in the Fama, as above stated, the bark lying in the river oppo- site Vancouver for two weeks, and Pettygrove, who had come to Oregon prepared to find only oppression and hostility in all the acts of the fur com- pany's officers, was compelled to remain a guest of McLoughlin and Douglas until some means offered of getting his goods conveyed to Oregon City. Hav- ing at length secured the service of the company's little schooner used for navigating the Willamette, he embarked cargo and family, and repaired to McLoughlin's office to inquire to what extent he was indebted for the favors extended to him. 'Show me your invoice,' said the doctor. I offered him a memorandum-book containing the number of packages shipped in the Fama from Honolulu. He looked it over, and remarked he could 'learn nothing from that.' I did not intend he should; and again asked for my bill cf expenses. He made me a very low bow, and said: "We are happy to receive such men as you in our midst; we charge you nothing.' I felt so humiliated by my unjust suspicions and his generous conduct, that I would gladly have dropped into the ground out of sight.' When the doctor found Pettygrove bought beaver-skins to ship to New York, he offered him all they were worth in that market, giving him a draft on Canada at 25 per cent discount, which offer was accepted. In 1846 McLoughlin asked Pettygrove to take his son David into partnership with him, to learn the American mode of business transactions, offering to furnish $20,000 capital as his portion of the partner- ship. This arrangement was finally made and continued for 2 years, when the firm was dissolved.
62 Honolulu, S. I., Friend, Oct. 15, 1849.
63 Mack's Oregon, MS., 1-3. This manuscript deals only with the author's private affairs, the substance of which here appertaining is given in the above paragraph. It confirms in some particulars Pettygrove's Oregon in 1843, MS.
424
THE IMMIGRATION OF 1843.
Columbia the brig Pallas, Captain Sylvester, from Newburyport, with a cargo of Indian goods consigned to Cushing and Company. In the brig came Edmund Sylvester, also of Maine, brother of the captain, who remained in Oregon, and assisted in building the first . two houses in Portland. In 1846 he removed to Puget Sound,64 and settled at Olympia, of which town he was one of the founders.
It will be observed that those who came by sea were New Englanders. As the missionaries were all from New England and New York, they received these traders and sea-going people with a welcome warmer than that they extended to the western settlers. Their impression on the country was distinct. One class bought and sold, built mills, and speculated in any kind of property. The other, and now the larger class, cultivated the ground, opened roads, exercised an unbounded hospitality, and carried the world of politics on their shoulders.
64 These items are found in Sylvester's Olympia, MS., 1-4, which treats principally of the early settlement and business of Puget Sound in a clear and comprehensive manner. This manuscript is one of the most valuable authorities on Washington Territory. Sylvester says that the brig took away 300 or 400 barrels of salmon; also that his brother sold the Pallas at the Sandwich Islands to a purchaser from Mazatlan, to carry the United States mail between that port and the Islands. He does not say what became of the cargo, or whether it was on the route to Newburyport that she was sold, or on the return to the Columbia River with another cargo. All that is known is that the brig was lost, and that in 1845 Captain Sylvester was in command of the Chenamus, which sailed from the Columbia River for New- buryport. The Chenamus never returned to Oregon after her voyage of 1845-6, of which I shall speak hereafter.
CHAPTER XVI.
LEGISLATIVE PROCEEDINGS.
1844.
CHARACTER OF THE IMMIGRATION OF 1843-THE LAND LAW-OLD AND NEW SETTLERS-ORGANIC LAWS-PERSONNEL OF THE COMMITTEES- MESSAGE OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE-REVISION AND CORRECTION · OF LEGISLATIVE ERRORS-JUDICIAL AFFAIRS-THE BLESSINGS OF LAND AND THE BALLOT-WILLAMETTE FALLS THE SEAT OF GOVERNMENT- THE QUESTION OF BOUNDARY-LAW RELATING TO MARRIAGE-LIQUOR LAW-SLAVERY-NEGROES AND MULATTOES-ATTITUDE TOWARD THE BRITISH FUR COMPANY-INDEPENDENCE OF OREGON.
THE immigration of 1843 was composed of people of pronounced character, rudely arrogant and aggress- ive rather than tame and submissive. The poorest might claim the liberal grant of land offered by con- gress to actual settlers, while the leaders aspired to achievements no less than founding a state, and framing laws to govern it. If what had been already done suited them, well; if not, they would undo, if strong enough. Hence immediately on arrival they were deeply interested in what had been done by the pro- visional government. They then discussed the laws passed by the legislative committee, the most impor- tant of which was the land law, whose objectionable parts were the proviso allowing the missions six miles square of land, and granting but twenty days to new settlers in which to record their claims, the old set- tlers having a year.1
This injurious discrimination against new-comers, joined to the greed of the missionaries, and the inti-
1 Grover's Or. Archives, 35.
( 425 )
423
LEGISLATIVE PROCEEDINGS.
mation given by Jason Lee, who met the immigration at the Dalles, that the Methodist Mission intended to make the laws for the colonists, was sufficient to arouse the independent spirit of the western men, who had besides a liberal contempt for the close-fisted Yankee class to which most of the missionaries belonged.2 But the Methodist was of all the Protestant denomi- nations most popular on the western frontier, where zeal rather than intelligence contributed to the quali- fications of members; and among the immigration were many zealous Methodists. Obviously these were likely to indorse, or at least excuse and condone, any acts of the missionaries.
But of the leading men few were hampered by this religious allegiance. Men of note amongst western communities, they possessed not only greater freedom from conventionalities than the ordinary New Eng- lander, but greater mental culture. By reason of their struggles with the hardships of pioneer life, not to mention that of their ancestors, they were often lacking in refinement of manner, and always in the polish which inherited ease imparts; but their ideas were bold, strong, and speculative, and their conver- sation, though sometimes bookish, was seldom pedantic, while their adventurous past furnished them with original matter of interest far beyond the ordinary topics of salons. That this was so, and that they won the friendship and respect of the more regularly educated and trained gentlemen of the aristocratic Hudson's Bay Company by their true manliness and evident talents, is a matter of history.3
If, then, some of the immigrants of 1843 affiliated at once with the Mission, others openly exhibited a regard and deference for the officers of the fur com- pany, which was in missionary eyes heretical and dan- gerous. There was still another class composed of those who had conscientiously opposed the formation
2 Sylvester's Olympia, MS., 3.
3 Crawford's Missionaries, MS., 17.
427
GOVERNMENT.
of a government in the doubtful condition of national affairs, who comprised nearly half of the former set- tlers, leaving out the Canadian population. These were glad to consult with the new-comers as to the right of the colonists to take such a step, and having some grievances of their own, were not averse to drawing party lines.
That some form of government was made necessary by the present addition, and by the probability that with every year it would be increased, was clear, even to the Hudson's Bay Company, who, however, could not bring themselves to give allegiance to the United States, but favored a temporary government which should be independent of any sovereignty.4 And see- ing the embarrassment under which the fur magnates labored between their allegiance and the pressure brought to bear by the colonists, there were found some Americans prepared to give their consent to such a compromise. But the majority were opposed to the scheme : the Mission, because in the event of a union between the two nationalities it could not hope to preserve a leading position in colonial affairs; and others, because it was not patriotic to act indepen- dently of the United States government. Of this way of thinking were most of the immigrants of 1843, who were prompt to take part in the politics of the colony.
According to Article I., Section 2, of the organic laws adopted the previous year, the election of an executive and legislative committee, and other officers of the provisional government, was held on the second Tuesday of May 1844, and resulted in the choice of W. J. Bailey, Osborne Russell, and P. G. Stewart, to constitute the executive arm of the government; and for the legislative branch, P. H. Burnett, M. M. Mc- Carver, David Hill, and Matthew Gilmore, from the
4 Applegate's Views, MS., 41; Gray's Hist. Or., 261.
428
LEGISLATIVE PROCEEDINGS.
Tualatin district; A. L. Lovejoy, from the Clackamas district; and Daniel Waldo, T. D. Kaiser, and Robert Newell, from the Champoeg district. Yamhill dis- trict was not represented. The reader is already acquainted with most of these men. Bailey had been in Oregon since 1835. He was of English birth and liberal education, though of rude experience, and was well adapted to the position.5 Osborne Russell was a native of Maine, had been several years in the moun- tains with the fur companies, and was of known integrity,6 and was well fitted to represent the con- servative and moral element of colonial society. P. G. Stewart was one of the immigration of 1843, a jeweller, of fair education, a calm, dispassionate, and thoughtful man, deliberate, and careful of the interests of the independent and energetic pioneers who made broad the road to Oregon with laden wagons and lowing herds.
The imperfect laws of Oregon made no provision for the mode of conductiug elections, except by adopt- ing the laws of Iowa, with which the people were not familiar. Two thirds of the voters were of the late immigration, and had had neither time nor opportu- nity to become informed regarding the requirements of their duties as officers of the election. Hence those first regularly elected to the legislature of Oregon received no credentials as members of that body. But there was no disposition on the part of any to dispute their election ; and they met on the 18th of June, at Oregon City, in the residence of Felix Hath- away, where they immediately organized for work by taking an oath to support the laws of Oregon, and faithfully to discharge their duties. McCarver was chosen speaker of the house, and Burnett acted as
5 Niles' Reg., lxvii. 339.
6 Says Burnett: 'All his comrades agreed that he never lost his virtuous habits, but always remained true to his principles. He was never married. He is a man of education and refined feelings. After the discovery of gold he came to the mines, and has been engaged in mining in El Dorado County ever since.' Burnett's Rec., 161-2.
429
EXECUTIVE MESSAGE.
secretary in the absence of J. E. Long.7 The mes- sage of the executive committee was then read.8
Dr John E. Long was born in England and bred to the profession of medicine. He immigrated to the United States in 1833, and to Oregon in 1843. He was a member of the Catholic church of Oregon City, but at the same time was a firm supporter of the provisional government. He was drowned or killed June 21, 1846, by a fall from his horse, which became unmanageable at a ford of the Clackamas River, throwing him into the stream. Or. Spectator, July 9, 1846.
8 To the Honorable the Legislative Assembly of Oregon Territory-Gen- tlemen: As a rising colony, under no immediate external control or civil protection, we have abundant reason for rendering up our thanks to the Great Ruler of the Universe for his parental care and protection over us, from the first entrance into this country unto the present day. And it be- comes us humbly to acknowledge our dependence on him as our protector and preserver, and implore a continuance of his care and watchfulness over us, and wisdom to direct us in the discharge of the duties devolving upon us. This country has been populated by powerful Indian tribes, but it has pleased the great disposer of human events to reduce them to a mere shadow of their former greatness, thus removing the chief obstruction to the entrance of civili- zation, and opening a way for the introduction of Christianity where igno- rance and idolatry have reigned uncontrolled for many ages. There have perhaps been few colonies planted in North America under the same circum- stances in which the present settlers of this territory are placed. We are situated in a portion of country remote from civilized nations, among the few remaining savages who are the original proprietors of the soil. The country is claimed by two powerful, civilized, and enlightened nations, proud of their national liberties, and jealous of their respective rights and privileges. It is obvious that these claims must be adjusted, and the soil purchased from the original proprietors, previous to any right being conferred upon the citizens of those governments, relative to the cultivation of lands in this Ter- ritory. The government of Great Britain has never publicly extended her claim so far south as to include the lands now under cultivation in this colony. But a treaty now exists between that government and the United States, giving to either party the right of mutual occupancy of this Territory in relation to the Indian trade. The United States have held out inducements to their citizens, and indirectly encouraged the settlement of this country by them. Consequently we are now improving the country by their consent, but without their protection; and it is self-evident that every community have a right to make laws for their mutual benefit and protection, where no law exists. It was under these impressions that the settlers in this Territory established a form of government last year, and adopted such rules and regulations as were at that time deemed necessary for the protection and prosperity of the colony. These regulations were so constructed as to be altered or amended by a legislative assembly, whose members were to be chosen by the people, annually, until such time as the government of the United States shall extend their jurisdiction over the Territory. At the time of our organization it was expected that the United States would have taken possession of the country before this time, but a year has rolled around, and there appears little or no prospect of aid from that quarter, con- sequently we are yet left on our own resources for protection. In view of the present state of affairs, gentlemen of the assembly, we would recommend to your consideration the adoption of some measures for a more thorough organization. Also to take into consideration the propriety of laying a light tax for the support of government. We would also recommend to your con- sideration the propriety of vesting the executive power in one person; and the impropriety of vesting the power of supreme, probate, and district judges in one person; and the necessity of having an individual judge for each court. We would recommend that such of the laws of Iowa as have been or may be
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