USA > Oregon > History of Oregon, Vol. II, 1848-1888 > Part 26
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9 Or. Jour. Council, 1852-3, 90; Gen. Laws Or., 544. The establishment of Wasco county was opposed by Major Rains of the 4th infantry stationed at Fort Dalles in the winter of 1853-4. He said that Wasco county was the largest ever known, though it had but about thirty-five white inhabitants, and these claimed a right to locate where they chose, in accordance with the act of Sept. 27, 1850. Or. Jour. Council, 1853-4, app. 49-50; U. S. Sen. Doc. 16, vol. vi. 16-17, 33d cong. 2d sess. Rains reported to Washington, which frustrated for a time the efforts of Lane to get a bill through congress regu- lating bounty warrants in Oregon, it being feared that some of them might be located in Wasco county. Or. Statesman, March 20, 1855; Cong. Globe, 3d cong. 2d sess., 490. Wm C. Laughlin, Warren Keith, and John Tomp- kins were appointed commissioners, J. A. Simms sheriff, and Justin Chen- oweth, judge.
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ing the valley of Rogue River and the country west of it to the Pacific. At the session of 1853, it created Coos county from the western portion of Jackson, Tillamook from the western part of Yamhill, and Columbia from the northern end of Washington coun- ty. The county seat of Douglas was changed from Winchester to Roseburg by election, according to an act of the legislature.
The creation of new counties and the loss of those north of the Columbia called for another census, and the redistricting of the territory of Oregon, with the reapportionment of members of the legislative assem- bly, which consisted under the new arrangement of thirty members. The first judicial district was made to comprise Marion, Linn, Lane, Benton, and Polk, and was assigned to Judge Williams. The second district, consisting of Washington, Clackamas, Yam- hill, and Columbia, to Judge Olney; while the third, comprising Umpqua, Douglas, Jackson, and Coos, was given to McFadden, who held it for one term only, when Deady was reinstated.
Notwithstanding the Indian disturbances in south- ern Oregon, its growth continued to be rapid. The shifting nature of the population may be inferred from fact that to Jackson county was apportioned four rep- resentatives, while Marion, Washington, and Clacka- mas were each allowed but three.10
A scheme was put on foot to form a new territory out of the southern countries with a portion of north- ern California, the movement originating at Yreka, where it was advocated by the Mountain Herald. A meeting was held at Jacksonville January 7, 1854, which appointed a convention for the 25th. Memo- rials were drafted to congress and the Oregon and California legislatures. The proceedings of the con- vention were published in the leading journals of the coast, but the project received no encouragement from
10 Or. Statesman, Feb. 14, 1854.
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STEAMERS ON THE WILLAMETTE.
legislators, nor did Lane lend himself to the scheme further than to present the memorial to congress.11 On the contrary, he wrote to the Jacksonville malecon- tents that he could not approve of their action, which would, as he could easily discern, delay the admission of Oregon as a state, a consummation wished for by his supporters, to whom he essayed to add the demo- crats of southern Oregon. Nothing further was thenceforward heard of the projected new territory.12
Nothing was more indicative of the change taking place with the introduction of gold than the improve- ment in the means of transportation on the Willamette and Columbia rivers, which was now performed by steamboats.13
11 U. S. H. Jour., 609, 33d cong. Ist sess.
12 The Oregon men known to have been connected with this movement were Samuel Culver, T. McFadden Patton, L. F. Mosher, D. M. Kenny, S. Ettlinger, Jesse Richardson, W. W. Fowler, C. Sims, Anthony Little, S. C. Graves, W. Burt, George Dart, A. McIntire, G. L. Snelling, C. S. Drew, John E. Ross, Richard Dugan, Martin Angell, and J. A. Lupton. Those from the south side of the Siskiyou Mountains were E. Steele, H. G. Ferris, C. N. Thornbury, E. J. Curtis, E. Moore, O. Wheelock, and J. Darrough. Or. Statesman, Feb. 7 and 28, 1854.
13 The first steamboat built to run upon these waters was called the Colum- bia. She was an oddly shaped and clumsy craft, being a double-ender, like a ferry-boat. Her machinery was purchased in California by James Frost, one of the followers of the rifle regiment, who brought it to Astoria, where his boat was built. Frost was sutler to the regiment in which his brother was quartermaster. He returned to Missouri, and in the civil war held a com- mand in the rebellious militia of that state. His home was afterward in St Louis. Deady, in McCracken's Portland, MS., 7. It was a slow boat, taking 26 hours from Astoria to Oregon City, to which point she made her first voy- age July 4, 1850. S. F. Pac. News, May 11, July 24, and Aug. 1, 1850; S. F. Herald, July 24, 1850; Portland Standard, July 8, 1879.
The second venture in steam navigation was the Lot Whitcomb of Oregon, named after her owner, built at Milwaukie, and launched with much cere- mony on Christmas, 1850. She began running in March following. The name was selected by a committee nominated in a public meeting held for the purpose, W. K. Kilborn in the chair, and A. Bush secretary. The commit- tce, A. L. Lovejoy, Hector Campbell, W. W. Buck, Capt. Kilborn, and Gov- ernor Gaines, decided to give her the name of her owner, who was presented with a handsome suit of colors by Kilborn, Lovejoy, and N. Ford for the meeting. Or. Spectator, Dec. 12, 1850, and June 27, 1851. She was built by a regular ship-builder, named Hanscombe, her machinery being purchased in San Francisco. Deady's Hist. Or., MS., 21; McCracken's Portland, MS., 11; Brigg's Port Townsend, MS., 22; Sacramento Transcript, June 29, 1850; Overland Monthly, i. 37. In the summer of 1853 the Whitcomb was sold to a California company for $50,000, just $42,000 more than she cost. The Lot Whitcomb was greatly superior to the first steamer. Both obtained large prices for carrying passengers and freight, and for towing sailing vessels on
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The navigation of the Willamette was much im- peded by rocks and rapids. On the Clackamas rapids below Oregon City, thirty thousand dollars was ex- pended in removing obstructions to steamers, and the channel was also cleared to Salem in 1852. The Tualatin River was made navigable for some distance by private enterprise. A canal was made to connect
the Columbia. McCracken says he paid two ounces of gold-dust for a pas- sage on the Columbia from Astoria to Portland which lasted two days, sleep- ing on the upper deck, the steamer having a great many on board. Portland, MS., 4. When the Whitcomb began running the fare was reduced to 815. Jolın McCracken came to Oregon from California, where he had been in mer- cantile pursuits at Stockton, in November 1849. He began business in Oregon City in 1850, selling liquors, and was interested in the Island mill. He subsequently removed to Portland, where he became a large owner in shipping, steamboats, and merchandising. His wife was a daughter of Dr Barclay of Oregon City, formerly of the H. B. Co.
From the summer of 1851, steamboats multiplied, though the fashion of them was not very commodious, nor were they elegant in their appointment, but they served the purpose, for which they were introduced, of expediting travel.
The third river steamboat was the Black Hawk, a small iron propeller brought out from New York, and run between Portland and Oregon City, the Lot Whitcomb being too deep to get over the Clackamas rapids. The Wil- lamette, a steam schooner belonging to Howland and Aspinwall, arrived in March 1853, by sailing vessel, being put together on the upper Willamette, finished in the autumn, and run for a season, after which she was brought over the falls, and used to carry the mail from Astoria to Portland; but the arrival of the steamship Columbia, which went to Portland with the mails, rendered her services unnecessary, and she was sold to a company composed of Murray, Hoyt, Breck, and others, who took her to California, where she ran as an opposition boat on the Sacramento, and was finally soll to the Cali- fornia Steam Navigation Company. The Willamette was a side-wheel steamer and finished in fine style, but not adapted to the navigation of the Willam- ette River. Athey's Workshops, MS., 5; Or. Spectator, Sept. 30, 1851. The Hoosier, built to run on the upper river, was finished in May 1851, and the Yamhill in August. In the autumn of the same year a small iron steamer, called the Bully Washington, was placed on the lower river. This boat was subsequently taken to the Umpqua, where she ran until a better one, the Hinsdale, owned by Hinsdale and Lane, was built. The Multnomah was also built this year, followed by the Gazelle, in 1852, handsomely finished, for the upper river trade. She ran a few months and blew up, killing two per- sons and injuring others. The Castle and the Oregon were also running at this time. On the Upper Columbia, between the Cascades and The Dalles, the steamer James P. Flint was put on in the autumn of 1851. She was owned by D. F. Bradford and others. She struck a rock and sunk while bringing down the immigration of 1852, but was raised and repaired. She was commanded by Van Berger, mate J. W. Watkins. Dalles Mountaineer, May 28, 1869. The Belle and the Eagle, two small iron steamers, were run- ning on the Columbia about this time. The Belle was built at Oregon City for Wells and Williams. The Eagle was brought to Oregon by John Irving, who died in Victoria in 1874. The Fashion ran to the Cascades to connect with the Flint. Further facts concerning the history of steamboating will be brought out in another part of this work, this brief abstract being intended only to show the progress made from 1850 to 1853.
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La Créole River with the Willamette. The Yamhill River was spanned at Lafayette with a strong double- track bridge placed on abutments of hewn timber, bolted and filled with earth, and raised fifty feet above low water.14 This was the first structure of the kind in the country. The Rockville Canal and Transportation Company was incorporated in Febru- ary 1853, for the purpose of constructing a basin or breakwater with a canal at and around the falls of the Willamette, which work was completed by December 1854, greatly increasing the comfort of travel by avoiding the portage.15
In 1851 the fruit trees set out in 1847 began to bear, so that a limited supply of fruit was furnished the home market;16 and two years later a shipment was made out of the territory by Meek and Luell- ing, of Milwaukie, who sold four bushels of apples in San Francisco for five hundred dollars. The following year they sent forty bushels to the same market, which brought twenty-five hundred dollars. In 1861 the shipment of apples from Oregon amounted to over seventy-five thousand bushels;17 but they no longer
14Or. Statesman, Sept. 23, 1851.
13 Id., Feb. 26, 1853. Deady gives some account of this important work in his Hist. Or., MS., 28. A man named Page from California, representing capital in that state, procured the passage of the act of incorporation. The project was to build a basin on the west side of the river above the falls, with mills, and hoisting works to lift goods above the falls, and deposit them in the basin, instead of wagoning them a mile or more as had been done. They constructed the basin, and erected mills at its lower edge. The hoisting works were made with ropes, wheels, and cages, in which passsengers and goods were lifted up. Page was killed by the explosion of the Gazelle, owned by the company, after which the enterprise went to pieces through suits brought against the company by employés, and the property fell into the hands of Kelley, one of the lawyers, and Robert Pentland. In the winter of 1860-1, the mills and all were destroyed by fire, when works of a similar nature were commenced on the east side of the river, where they remained until the completion of the canal and locks on the west side, of a recent date.
16 On McCarver's farm, one mile east of Oregon City, was an orchard of 15 acres containing 200 apple-trees, and large numbers of pears, plums, apri- cots, cherries, nectarines, and small fruits. It yielded this year 15 bushels of currants, and a full erop of the above-named fruits. Or. Statesman, July 29, 1851. In 1852, R. C. Geer advertised his nursery as containing 42 varieties of apples, 15 of pears, 5 of peaches, and 6 of cherries. Thomas Cox raised a Rhode Island greening 123 inches in circumference, a good size for a young trce. Id., Dec. 18, 1852.
17 Id., Sept. 22, 1862; Oregonian, July 15, 1862; Overland Monthly, i. 39. HIST. OR., VOL. II. 17
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were worth their weight in gold. The productiveness of the country in every way was well established be- fore 1853, as may be seen in the frequent allusions to extraordinary growth and yield. 18 If the farmer was not comfortable and happy in the period between 1850 and 1860, it was because he had not in him the ca- pacity for enjoying the bounty of unspoiled nature, and the good fortune of a ready market; and yet some there were who in the midst of affluence lived like the starveling peasantry of other countries, from simple indifference to the advantages of comfort in their surroundings. 19
The imports in 1852-3, according to the commerce and navigation reports, amounted to about $84,000, but were probably more than that. Direct trade with China was begun in 1851, the brig Amazon bringing a cargo of tea, coffee, sugar, syrup, and other articles from Whampoa to Portland, consigned to Norris and Company. The same year the schooner John Alleyne brought a cargo of Sandwich Islands products consigned to Allen MeKinlay and Company of Oregon City, but nothing like a regular trade with foreign ports was established for several years later, and the exports generally went no farther than San Francisco. Farming machinery did not begin to be introduced till 1852, the first reaper brought to Ore- gon being a McCormick, which found general use throughout the territory.20 As might be expected, society improved in its outward manifestations, and the rising generation were permitted to enjoy privi-
18 One bunch of 257 stalks of wheat from Geer's farm, Marion county, av- eraged 60 grains to the head. On Hubbard's farm in Yamhill, one head of timothy measured 14 inches. Oats on McVicker's farm in Clackamas stood over 8 feet in height. In the Cowlitz Valley one hill of potatoes weighed 53 pounds and another 40. Two turnips would fill a half-bushel measure. Tolmie, at Nisqually, raised an onion that weighed a pound and ten ounces. Columbian, Nov. 18, 1851. The troops at Stcilacoom raised on 12 acres of ground 5,000 bushels of potatoes, some of which weighed two pounds cach. Or. Spectator, Nov. 18, 1851.
19 De Bow's Encycl., xiv. 603-4; Fisher and Colby's Am. Statistics, 429-30. 20 Or. Statesman, July 24, 1852.
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TRADE AND SOCIETY.
leges which their parents had only dreamed of when they set their faces toward the far Pacific-the priv- ileges of education, travel, and intercourse with older countries, as well as ease and plenty in their Oregon homes.21 And yet this was only the beginning of the end at which the descendants of the pioneers were entitled by the endurance of their fathers to arrive.
21 The 7th U. S. census taken in 1850 shows the following nativities for Or- egon: Missouri, 2,206; Illinois, 1,023; Kentucky, over 700; Indiana, over 700; Ohio, over 600; New York, over 600; Virginia, over 400; Tennessee, over 400; Iowa, over 400; Pennsylvania, over 300; North Carolina, over 200; Massachu- setts, 187; Maine, 129; Vermont, 111; Connecticut, 72; Maryland, 73; Arkan- sas, 61; New Jersey, 69; and in all the other states less than 50 each, the smallest number being from Florida. The total foreign population was 1,159, 300 of whom were natives of British America, 207 English, about 200 Irish, over 100 Scotch, and 150 German. The others were scattering, the greatest number from any other foreign country being 45 from France; unknown, 143; in all 13,013. Abstract of the 7th Census, 16; Moseley's Or., 1850-75, 93; De Bow's Encycl., xiv. 591-600. These are those who are more strictly classed as pioneers; those who came after them, from 1850 to 1853, though assisting so much, as I have shown, in the development of the territory, were only pioneers in certain things, and not pioneers in the larger sense.
CHAPTER X. LAND LAWS AND LAND TITLES.
1851-1855.
THE DONATION LAW-ITS PROVISIONS AND WORKINGS-ATTITUDE OF CON- GRESS-POWERS OF THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT-QUALIFICATION OF VOTERS - SURVEYS - RIGHTS OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN - AMEND- MENTS- PREEMPTION PRIVILEGES-DUTIES OF THE SURVEYOR GENERAL -CLAIMANTS TO LANDS OF THE HUDSON'S BAY AND PUGET SOUND COM- PANIES-MISSION CLAIMS-METHODISTS, PRESBYTERIANS, AND CATHO- LICS-PROMINENT LAND CASES-LITIGATION IN REGARD TO THE SITE OF PORTLAND-THE RIGHTS OF SETTLERS-THE CARUTHERS CLAIM-THE DALLES TOWN-SITE CLAIM-PRETENSIONS OF THE METHODISTS-CLAIMS OF THE CATHOLICS-ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF THE DONATION SYSTEM.
A SUBJECT which was regarded as of the highest importance after the passage of the donation act of September 27, 1850, was the proper construction of the law as applied to land claims under a variety of circumstances. A large amount of land, including the better portions of the Willamette Valley, had been taken, occupied, and to some extent improved under the provisional government, and its land law; the latter having undergone several changes to adapt it to the convenience and best interests of the people, as I have noted elsewhere.
The provisional legislative assemblies had several times memorialized congress on the subject of con- firming their acts, on establishing a territorial gov- ernment in Oregon, chiefly with regard to preserving the land law intact. Their petition was granted with regard to every other legislative enactment excepting that affecting the titles to lands; and with regard to
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DONATION LAW.
this, the organic act expressly said that all laws pre- viously passed in any way affecting the title to lands should be null and void, and the legislative assembly should be prohibited from passing any laws interfer- ing with the primary disposal of the soil which be- longed to the United States. The first section of that act, however, made an absolute grant to the mis- sionary stations then occupied, of 640 acres, with the improvements thereon.
Thus while the missionary stations, if there were any within the meaning of the act of that time, had an incontrovertible right and title, the settlers, whose means were often all in their claims, had none what- ever; and in this condition they were kept for a period of two years, or until the autumn of 1850, when their rights revived under the donation law, whose beneficent provisions all recognized.
This law, which I have not yet fully reviewed, pro- vided in the first place for the survey of the public lands in Oregon. It then proceeded to grant to every white settler or occupant of the public lands, Ameri- can half-breeds included, over eighteen years of age, and a citizen of the United States, or having declared his intention according to law of becoming such, or who should make such declaration on or before the first day of December 1851, then residing in the ter- ritory, or becoming a resident before December 1850 -a provision made to include the immigration of that year-640 acres to a married man, half of which was to belong to his wife in her own right, and 320 acres to a single man, or if he should become married within a year from the 1st of December 1850, 320 more to his wife, no patents to issue until after a four years' residence.
At this point for the first time the act took cog- nizance of the provisional law making the surviving children or heirs of claimants under that law the le- gal heirs also under the donation law; this provision applying as well to the heirs of aliens who had de-
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clared their intention to become naturalized citizens of the United States, but who died before completing their naturalization, as to native-born citizens. The several provisos to this part of the land law declared that the donation should embrace the land actually occupied and cultivated by the settler thereon; that all sales of land made before the issuance of patents should be void; and lastly, that those claiming under the treaty with Great Britain could not claim under the donation act.
Then came another class of beneficiaries. All white male citizens of the United States, or persons who should have made a declaration of their intention to become such, above twenty-one years of age, and emi- grating to and settling in Oregon after December 1, 1850, and before December 1, 1853, and all white male American citizens not before provided for who should become twenty-one years of age in the territory be- tween December 1851 and December 1853, and who should comply with the requirements of the law as already stated, should each receive, if single, 160 acres of land, and if married another 160 to his wife, in her own right; or if becoming married within a year after his arrival in the territory, or one year after becoming twenty-one, the same. These were the conditions of the gifts in respect of qualifications and time.
But further, the law required the settler to notify the surveyor general within three months after the survey had been made, where his claim was located; or if the settlement should commence after the survey, then three months after making his claim; and the law required all claims after December 1, 1850, to be bounded by lines running east and west and north and south, and to be taken in compact form. Proof of having commenced settlement and cultivation had to be made to the surveyor general within twelve months after the survey or after settlement. All these terms being complied with, at any time after the expira- tion of four years from date of settlement the sur-
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CONDITIONS AND QUESTIONS.
veyor general might issue a certificate, when, upon the proof being complete, a patent would issue from the commissioner of the general land office to the holder of the claims. The surveyor general was fur- nished with judicial power to judge of all questions arising under the act; but his judgment was not ne- cessarily final, being preliminary only to a final decision according to the laws of the territory. These were the principal features of the donation law.1
In order to be able to settle the various questions which might arise, it was necessary first to decide what constituted naturalization, or how it was impaired. The first case which came up for consideration was that of John McLoughlin, the principal features of which have been given in the history of the Oregon City claim. It was sought in this case to show a flaw in the proceedings on account of the imperfect organization of the courts. In the discussion which followed, and for which Thurston had sought to pre- pare himself by procuring legal opinions beforehand, considerable alarm was felt among other aliens. S. M. Holderness applied to Judge Pratt, then the only dis- trict judge in the territory, on the 17th of May 1850, to know if the proceedings were good in his case, as many others were similarly situated, and it was im- portant to have a precedent established.
Pratt gave it as his opinion that the Clackamas county circuit court, as it existed on the 27th of March 1849, was a competent court, within the mean- ing of the naturalization laws, in which a declaration of intention by an alien could be legally made as a preparatory step to becoming a citizen of the United States; the naturalization power being vested in con- gress, which had provided that application might be made to any circuit, district, or territorial court, or to any state court which was a court of record, having a
1 See U. S. H. Ex. Doc. ii., vol. ii. pt iii. 5-8, 32d cong. Ist sess .; Deady's Or. Laws, 1845-64, 84-90; Deady's Or. Gen. Laws, 1843, 72, 63-75.
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seal and clerk; and the declaration might be made before the clerk of one of the courts as well as before the court itself. The only question was whether the circuit court of Clackamas county, in the district of Oregon, was on the 24th of March, 1849, or about that time, a territorial court of the United States.
Congress alone had authority to make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory and other property of the United States, and that power was first exercised in Oregon, and an organized gov- ernment given to it by the congressional act of Au- gust 14, 1848. It went into effect, and the territory had a legal existence from and after its passage, and the laws of the United States were at the same time extended over the territory, amongst the others, that of the naturalization of aliens. But it was admitted that the benefits to be derived from proceedings un- der these laws would be practically valueless unless the machinery of justice was at the same time pro- vided to aid in their administration and enforcement. Congress had not omitted this; but there existed an extraordinary state of things in Oregon which made it unlike other territorial districts at the date of its organization. Unusual means had therefore been pro- vided to meet the emergency. Without waiting to go through the ordinary routine of directing the electing of a legislative body to assemble and frame a code of statutes, laws were at once provided by the adoption of those already furnished to their hand by the neces- sities of the late provisional government; and in ad- dition to extending the laws of the United States over the territory, it was declared that the laws thus adopted should remain in force until modified or re- pealed. Congress had thus made its own a system of laws which had been in use by the people before the territory had a legal existence. Among those laws was one creating and establishing certain courts of record in each county, known as circuit courts; and one of those courts composing the circuit was that of
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