USA > Oregon > History of Oregon, Vol. II, 1848-1888 > Part 19
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6 Or. Spectator, March 7 and Sept. 12, 1850. See also Pioneer Mag., i. 282, 350.
179
THE UMPQUA COMPANY.
there the United States surveying schooner Ewing, in the hope of obtaining a good report of the harbor. But on learning the designs of the California com- pany, a hearty cooperation was offered on one part, and willingly accepted on the other. Another cir- cumstance in favor of the Umpqua for settlement was the peaccable disposition of the natives, who since the days when they murdered Jedediah Smith's party had been brought under the pacifying influ- ences of the Hudson's Bay Company, and sustained a good reputation as compared with the other coast tribes.
On the morning of the 7th the schooner proceeded up the river, keeping the channel by sounding from a small boat in advance, and finding it one of the love- liest of streams;7 at least, so thought the explorers, one of whom afterward became its historian.8 Finding a good depth of water, with the tide, for a distance of eighteen miles, the boat's crew became negligent, and failing to note a gravelly bar at the foot of a bluff a thousand feet in height the schooner grounded in eight feet of water, and when the tide ebbed was left stranded.9
However, the small boat proceeded to the foot of the rapids, where Scott was located, this being the head of tide-water, and the vessel was afterward brought safely hither. In consideration of their services in
7 It is the largest river between the Sacramento and the Columbia. 'Ves- sels of 800 tons can enter.' Mrs Victor, in Pac. Rural Press, Nov. 8, 1879. "The Umpqua is sometimes supposed to be the river discovered by Flores in 1603, and afterwards referred to as the "River of the West."' Davidson's Coast Pilot, 126.
$ This was Charles T. Hopkins, who wrote an account of the Umpqua ad- venture for the S. F. Pioneer, vol. i. ii., a periodical published in the early days of California magazine literature. I have drawn my account partly from this source, as well as from Gibbs' Notes on Or. Hist., MS., 2-3, and from Historical Correspondence, MS., by S. S. Mann, S. F. Chadwick, H. H. Wood- ward, members of the Umpqua company, and also from other sources, among which are Williams' S. W. Oregon, MS., 2-3 .; Letters of D. J. Lyons, and the Oregon Spertator, Sept. 5, 1850; Deady's Scrap-Book, 83; S. F. Evening Pica- yune, Sept. 6, 1850.
9 Gibbs says: 'The passengers endeavored to lighten the cargo by pouring the vessel's store of liquors down their throats, from which hilarious proceed- ing the shoal took the name of Brandy Bar.' Notes, MS., 4.
180
DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN OREGON.
opening the river to navigation and commerce, Scott presented the company with one hundred and sixty acres of his land-elaim, or that portion lying below the rapids, for a town site. Affairs having progressed so well the members of the expedition now organized regularly into a joint stock association called the "Umpqua Town-site and Colonization Land Com- pany," the property to be divided into shares and drawn by lot among the original members. They divided their forees, and aided by Applegate and Scott proceeded to survey and explore to and through the Umpqua Valley. One party set out for the ferry on the north branch of the Umpqua, and another for the main valley,10 coming out at Applegate's settlement of Yonealla, while a third remained with the schooner. Three weeks of industrious search enabled them to seleet four sites for future settlements. One at the month of the river was named Umpqua City, and contained twelve hundred and eighty acres, being situated on both sides of the entrance. The second location was Scottsburg. The third, called Elkton, was situated on Elk River at its junction with the Umpqua. The fourth, at the ferry above mentioned, was named Winchester, and was purchased by the company from the original claimant, John Aiken, who had a valuable property at that place, the natural centre of the valley.
Having made these selections according to the best judgment of the surveyors, some of the company remained, while the rest reembarked and returned to San Francisco. In October the company having sold quite a number of lots were able to begin operations in Oregon. They despatched the brig Kate Heath, Captain Thomas Wood, with milling machinery, mer- chandise, and seventy-five emigrants. On this vessel were also a number of zinc houses made in Boston,
10 Oakland, a few miles south of Yoncalla, was laid out in 1849 by Chester Lyman, since a professor at Yale College. This is the oldest surveyed town in the Umpqua Valley. Or. Sketches, MS., 3.
181
GIBBS AND CHADWICK.
which were put up on the site of Umpqua City. In charge of the company's business was Addison C. Gibbs, afterward governor of Oregon, who was on his way to the territory when he fell in with the projectors of the scheme, and accepted a position and shares.11
Thus far all went well. But the Umpqua Com- pany were destined to bear some of those misfortunes which usually attend like enterprises. The passage of the Oregon land law in September was the first blow, framed as it was to prevent companies or non- residents from holding lands for speculative purposes, in consequence of which no patent could issue to the company, and it could give no title to the lands it was offering for sale. They might, unrebuked, have carried on a trade begun in timber; but the loss of one vessel loaded with piles, and the ruinous detention of another, together with a fall of fifty per cent in the price of their cargoes, soon left the contractors in debt, and an assignment was the result, an event hastened by the failure of the firm in San Francisco with which the company had deposited its funds. Five months after the return of the Samuel Roberts to San Francisco, not one of those who sailed from the river in her was in any manner connected with the Umpqua scheme. The company in California having ceased to furnish means, those left in Oregon were compelled to direct their efforts toward solving the problem of how to live.12
11 D. C. Underwood, who had become a member of the association, was a passenger on the Kate Heath, a man well known in business and political cir- cles in the state.
12 Drew remained at Umpqua City, where he was subsequently Indian agent for many years, and where he held the office of collector of customs aud subsequently of inspector. He was unmarried. Marysville Appeal, Jan. 20, 1864. Winchester remained in Oregon, residing at Scottsburg, then at Rose- burg and Empire City. He was a lawyer, aud a favorite with the bar of the Second Judicial district. 'He was generous in dealing, liberal in thought, of entire truth, and absolutely incorruptible.' Salem Mercury, Nov. 10, 1876. Gibbs took a land claim seven miles above the mouth of the Umpqua, laying out the town of Gardiner, and residing there for several years, during which time he returned to the east and married Margaret M. Watkins, of Erie county, N. Y. Addison Crandall Gibhs, afterward governor of Oregon, was born at East Otto, Cattaraugus county, N. Y., July 9, 1825, and educated at the New York State Normal school. He hecame a teacher, and studied law,
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182
DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN OREGON.
But although the Umpqua Company failed to carry out its designs, it had greatly benefited southern Oregon by surveying and mapping Umpqua harbor, the notes of the survey being published, with a report of their explorations and discoveries of rich agricul- · tural lands, abundant and excellent timber, valuable water-power, coal and gold mines, fisheries and stone-
being admitted to the bar in May 1849 at Albany. He is descended from a long line of lawyers in England; his great grandfather was a commissioned officer in the revolutionary war. In Oregon he acted well his part of pioneer, carrying the mail in person, or by deputy, from Yoncalla to Scottsburg for a period of four years through the floods and storms of the wild coast mount- ains, never missing a trip. He was elected to the legislature of 1851-2. When Gardiner was made a port of entry, Gibbs became collector of customs for the southern district of Oregon. He afterward removed to the Umpqua Valley, and in 1858 to Portland, where he continued the practice of law. He was ever a true friend of Oregon, taking a great personal interest in her de- velopment and an intelligent pride in her history. He has spared no pains in giving me information, which is embodied in a manuscript entitled. Notes on the History of Oregon.
Stephen Fowler Chadwick, a native of Connecticut, studied law in New York, where he was admitted to practice in 1850, immediately after which he set out for the Pacific coast, joining the Umpqua Company and arriving in Oregon just in time to be left a stranded speculator on the beautiful but lonely bank of that picturesque river. When the settlement of the valley increased he practised his profession with honor and profit, being elected county and probate judge, and also to represent Douglas county in the con- vention which framed the state constitution. He was presidential elector in 1864 and 1868, being the messenger to carry the vote to Washington in the latter year. He was elected secretary of state in 1870, which office he held for eight years, becoming governor for the last two years by the resignation of Grover, who was elected to the U. S. senate. Governor Chadwick was also a distinguished member of the order of freemasons, having been grand master in the lodge of Perfection, and having received the 33d degree in the Scotch rite, as well as having been for 17 years chairman of the committee on foreign correspondence for the grand lodge of Oregon, and a favorite orator of the order. He married in 1856 Jane A. Smith of Douglas county, a native of Virginia, by whom he has two daughters and two sous. Of a lively and ami- able temper and courteous manner, he has always enjoyed a popularity inde- pendent of official eminence. His contributions to this history consist of letters and a brief statement of the Public Records of the Capitol in manuscript. I shall never forget his kindness to me during my visit to Oregon in ISTS. James K. Kelly was born in Center county, Peun., in 1819, educated at Prince- ton college, N. J., and studied law at Carlisle law school, graduating in 1842, and practising in Lewiston, Penn., until 1849, when he started for California by way of Mexico. Not finding mining to his taste, he embarked his fortunes in the Umpqua Company. He went to Oregon City and soon came into notice. He was appointed code commissioner in 1853, as I have elsewhere mentioned, and was in the same year elected to the council, of which he was a member for four years and president for two sessions. As a military man he figured con- spicuously in the Indian wars. He was a member of the constitutional con- vention in 1857, and of the state senate in 1860. In 1870 he was sent to the U. S. senate, and in 1878 was appointed chief justice of the supreme court. His political career will be more particularly noticed in the progress of this history.
183
BIRTH OF TOWNS.
quarries. These accounts brought population to that part of the coast, and soon vessels began to ply be- tween San Francisco and Scottsburg. Gardiner, named after the captain of the Bostonian, which was wrecked in trying to enter the river in 1850, sprang up in 1851. In that year also a trail was constructed for pack-animals across the mountains to Winchester, 13 which became the county seat of Douglas county, with a United States land office. From Winchester the route was extended to the mines in the Umpqua and Rogue River valleys. Long trains of mules laden with goods for the mining region filed daily along the precipitous path which was dignified with the name of road, their tinkling bells striking cheerily the ear of the lonely traveller plodding his weary way to the gold-fields. Scottsburg, which was the point of departure for the pack-trains, became a commercial entrepôt of importance.14 The influence of the Ump- qua interest was sufficient to obtain from congress at the session of 1850-51 appropriations for mail ser- vice by sea and land, a light-house at the mouth of the river, and a separate collection district.15
As the mines were opened permanent settlements were made upon the farming lands of southern Oregon, and various small towns were started from 1851 to
13 Winchester was laid out by Addison C. Flint, who was in Chile in 1845, to assist in the preliminary survey of the railroad subsequently built by the infamous Harry Meigs. In 1849 Flint came to California, and the following yvar to Oregon to make surveys for the Umpqua Company. He also laid out the town of Roseburg in 1854 for Aaron Rose, where he took up his residence in 1857. Or. Sketches, MS., 2-4.
14 Allan, Mckinlay, and McTavish of the Hudson's Bay Company opened a trading-house at Scottsburg; and Jesse Applegate also turned merchant. Applegate's manner of doing business is described by himself in Burnett's Recollections of a Pioneer: 'I sold goods on credit to those who needed them most, not to those who were able to pay, lost $30,000, and quit the business.'
15 The steamers carrying the mails from Panamá to the Columbia River were under contract to stop at the Umpqua, and one entry was made, but the steamer was so nearly wrecked that no further attempt followed. The merchants and others at Scottsburg and the lower towns, as well as at Winchester, had to wait for their letters and papers to go to Portland and be sent up the valley by the bi-monthly mail to Yoncalla, a delay which was severely felt and impatiently resented. The legislature did not fail to repre- sent the matter to congress, and Thurston did all he could to satisfy his con- stituents, though he could not compel the steamship company to keep its contract or congress to annul it.
184
DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN OREGON.
1853 in the region south of Winchester,16 notably the town of Roseburg, founded by Aaron Rose,17 who purchased the claim from its locators for a horse, and a poor one at that. A flouring mill was put in operation in the northern part of Umpqua Valley, and another erected during the summer of 1851 at Win- chester.18 A saw-mill soon followed in the Rogue River Valley,19 many of which improvements were traceable, more or less directly, to the impetus given to settlement by the Umpqua Company.
In passing back and forth to California, the Oregon miners had not failed to observe that the same soil and geological structure characterized the valleys north of the supposed20 northern boundary of California that
16 The first house in Rogue River Valley was built at the ferry on Rogue River established by Joel Perkins. The place was first known as Perkins' Ferry, then Long's Ferry, and lastly as Vannoy's. The next settlement was at the mouth of Evans creek, a tributary of Rogue River, so called from a trader named Davis Evans, a somewhat had character, who located there. The third was the claim of one Bills, also of doubtful repute. Then came the farm of N. C. Dean at Willow Springs, five miles north of Jacksonville, and near it the claim of A. A. Skinner, who built a house in the autumn of 1851. South of Skiuner's, on the road to Yreka, was the place of Stone and Points on Wagner creek, and beyond, toward the head of the valley, those of Dunn, Smith, Russell, Barron, and a few others. Duncan's Settle- ment, MS., 5-6. The author of this work, L. J. C. Duncan, was born in Tennessee in 1818. He came to California in 1849, and worked in the Mari- posa mines until the autumn of 1850, when, becoming ill, he came to Oregon for a change of climate and more settled society. In the autumn of 1851 he determined to try mining in the Shasta Valley, and also to secure a land claim in the Rogue River Valley. This he did, locating on Bear or Stuart creek, 12 miles south-east of Jacksonville, where he resided from 1851 to 1858, during which time he mined on Jackson's creek. Heshared in the Indian wars which troubled the settlements for a number of years, finally establishing himself in Jacksonville in the practice of the law, and being elected to the office of judge.
17 Deady's Hist. Or., MS., 72-3.
18 Or. Spectator, Feb. 10, 1832.
19 J. A. Cardwell was born in Tennessee in 1827, emigrated from Iowa to Oregon in 1850, spent the first winter in the service of Quartermaster Ingalls at Fort Vancouver, and started in the spring for California with 26 others to engage in mining. After a skirmish with the Rogue River Indians and vari- ons other adventures they reached the mines at Yreka, where they worked until the dry season forced a suspension of operations, when Cardwell, with E. Emcry, J. Emery, and David Hurley, went to the present site of Ashland in the Rogue River Valley, and taking up a claim erected the first saw-mill in that region early in 1832. I have derived much valuable information from Mr Cardwell concerning southern Oregon history, which is contained in a manuscript entitled Emigrant Company, in Mr Cardwell's own hand, of the incidents of the immigration of 1850, the settlement of the Rogue River Val- ley, and the Indian wars which followed.
20 As late as 1854 the boundary was still in doubt. 'Intelligence has just
185
MOVEMENT OF MINERS.
were found in the known mining regions, and prospect- ing was carried on to a considerable extent early in 1850. In June two hundred miners were at work in the Umpqua Valley.21 But little gold was found at this time, and the movement was southward, to Rogue River and Klamath. According to the best authori- ties the first discovery on any of the tributaries of the Klamath was in the spring of 1850 at Salmon Creek. In July discoveries were made on the main Klamath, ten miles above the mouth of Trinity River, and in September on Scott River. In the spring of 1851 gold was found in the Shasta Valley,22 at various places,
been received from the surveying party under T. P. Robinson, county sur- veyor, who was commissioned by the governor to survey the boundary line between ('alifornia and Oregon. The party were met on the mountains by several gentlemen of this city, whose statement can be relied on, when they were informed by some of the gentlemen attached to the expedition, that the disputed territory belonged to Oregon, and not California, as was generally supposed. This territory includes two of the finest districts in the country, Sailor's Diggings and Althouse Creek, besides some other minor places not of much importance toeither. The announcement has caused some excitement in that neighborhood, as the miners do not like to he so suddenly transported from California to Oregon. They have heretofore voted both in California and Oregon, although in the former state it has caused several contested election cases, and refused to pay taxes to either. It is also rumored around the city, for which we will not vouch, that Yreka is iu Oregon. But we hardly think it possible, from the observations heretofore taken by scientific men, which brings Yreka 13 iniles within the line.' Cresent City Herald, in D. Alta Cala., June 28, 1854.
21 S. F. C'ourier, July 10, 1850.
22 In the early summer of 1850 Gen. Lane, with a small party of Orego- nians, viz. John Kelly, Thomas Brown, Martin Angell, Samuel and John Simondson, and Lane's Indian servant, made a discovery on the Shasta river near where the town of Yreka was afterward huilt. The Indians proving troublesome the party removed to the diggings on the upper Sacramento, but not finding gold as plentiful as expected set out to prospect on Pit River, from which place they were driven by the Indians back to the Sacramento where they wintered, going in February 1851 to Scott River, from which locality Lane was recalled to the Willamette Valley to run for the office of delegate to congress. Speaking of the Pit river tribe, Lane says: 'The Pit River Indians were great thieves and murderers. They actually stole the blankets off the men in our camp, though I kept one man on guard all the time. They stole our best horse, tied at the head of my bed, which consisted of a blanket spread on the ground, with my saddle for a pillow. They sent an arrow into a miner because he happened to be rolled in his blanket so that they could not pull it from him. They caught Driscoll when out prospecting, and were hurrying him off into the mountains when my Indian boy gave the alarm and I went to his rescue. He was so frightened he could neither move nor speak, which condition of their captive impeded their progress. When I appeared . he fell down in a swoon. I pointed my gun, which rested on my six-shooter, and ordered the Indians to leave. While they hesitated and were trying to flank me my Indian hoy brought the canoe alongside the shore, on seeing
186
DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN OREGON.
notably on Greenhorn Creek, Yreka, and Humbug Creek.
The Oregon miners were by this time satisfied that gold existed north of the Siskiyou range. Their ex- plorations resulted in finding the metal on Big Bar of Rogue River, and in the canon of Josephine Creek. Meanwhile the beautiful and richly grassed valley of Rogue River became the paradise of packers, who grazed their mules there, returning to Scottsburg or the Willamette for a fresh cargo. In February 1852 one Sykes who worked on the place of A. A. Skinner found gold on Jackson Creek, about on the west line of the present town of Jacksonville, and soon after two packers, Cluggage and Pool, occupying themselves with prospecting while their animals were feeding, discovered Rich Gulch, half a mile north of Sykes' discovery. The wealth of these mines23 led to an irruption from the California side of the Siskiyou, and Willow Springs five miles north of Jacksonville, Pleasant Creek, Applegate Creek, and many other localities became deservedly famous, yielding well for a number of years.
Every miner, settler, and trader in this remote in- terior region was anxious to hear from friends, home, and of the great commercial world without. As I have before said Thurston labored earnestly to show congress the necessity of better mail facilities for Ore- gon,2ª the benefit intended to have been conferred
which they beat a hasty retreat thinking I was about to be reenforced. Dris- coll would never cross to the east side of the river after his adventure.' Lane's Autobiography, MS., 104-5.
23 Early Affairs, MS., 10; Duncan's Southern Or., MS., 5-6; Dowell's Scrap-book, 31; Victor's Or., 334. A nugget was found in the Rogue River diggings weighing 8800 and another $1300. See accounts in S. F. Alta, Sept. 14, 1852; S. F. Pac. News, March 14, 1831; and S. F. Herald, Sept. 28, 1851.
24 In October 1845 the postmaster-general advertised for proposals to carry the United States mail from New York by Habana to the Chagre River and back; with joint or separate offers to extend the transportation to Panamá and up the Pacific to the mouth of the Columbia, and thence to the Hawaiian Islands, the senate recommending a mail route to Oregon. Between 1846 and 1848 the government thought of the plan of encouraging by subsidies the
.
187
MAIL SERVICE.
having been diverted almost entirely to California by the exigencies of the larger population and business of that state with its phenomenal growth.
The postal agent appointed at San Francisco for the Pacific coast discharged his duty by appointing postmasters,25 but further than sending the mails to Oregon on sailing vessels occasionally he did nothing for the relief of. the territory.26 Not a mail steamer appeared on the Columbia in 1849. Thurston wrote home in December that he had been hunting up the documents relating to the Pacific mail service, and the reason why the steamers did not come to Astoria. The result of his search was the discovery that the then late secretary of the navy had agreed with Aspinwall that if he should send the Oregon mail and take the same, once a month, by sailing vessel, "at or near the mouth of the Klamath River," and would touch at San Francisco, Monterey, and San Diego free of cost to the government, he should not be required to run steamers to Oregon till after re- ceiving six months' notice.27
Here were good faith and intelligence indeed! The
establishment of a line of steamers between Panamá and Oregon, by way of some port in California. At length Howland and Aspinwall agreed to carry the mails once a month, and to put on a line of three steamers of from 1,000 to 1,200 tons, giving cabin accommodations for about 25 passengers, as many it was thought as would probably go at one time, the remainder of the vessel being devoted to freight. Crosby's Statement, MS., 3. Three steamers were constructed under a contract with the secretary of the navy, viz .: the Cali- fornia, 1,400 tons, with a single engine of 250 horse-power, handsomely fin- ished and carrying 46 cabin and a hundred stcerage passengers; the Panamá of 1,100 tons, and the Oregon of 1,200 tons, similarly built and furnished. 32d, Cong., 1st Sess., S. Doc. 50; Hon. Polynesian, April 7, 1849; Otis' Panamá R. R. The California left port in the autumn of 1848, arriving at Val- paraiso on the 20th of December, seventy-four days from New York, proceed- ing theuce to Callao and Panamá, where passengers from New York to Habana and Chagre were awaiting her, aud reaching San Francisco on the 28th of February 1849, where she was received with great enthusiasm. She brought on this first trip over 12,000 letters. S. F. Alta California in Polynesian, April 14, 1849. See also Hist. Cal. aud Cal. Inter Pocula, this serics.
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