USA > Oregon > History of Oregon, Vol. II, 1848-1888 > Part 33
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328
LEGISLATION, MINING, AND SETTLEMENT.
Next to the payment of the war debt was the demand for a more efficient mail service. The peo- ple of the Willamette Valley still complained that their mails were left at Astoria, and that at the best they had no more than two a month. In southern Oregon it was still worse; and again the citizens of Umpqua memorialized congress on this vexations sub- ject. It was represented that the valleys of southern Oregon and northern California contained some 30,000 inhabitants, who obtained their merchandise from Umpqua harbor, and that it was imperatively neces- sary that mail communication should be established between San Francisco and these valleys. Their pe- tition was so brought before congress that an act was passed providing for the delivery of the mails at all the ports along the coast, from Humboldt Bay to Port Townsend and Olympia, and $125,000 appropri- ated for the service.13 Houses were built, a newspa- per14 was established, and hope beat high. But again
foreign vessel entering Oregon during that time. The departures from the Columbia numbered 184, all for S. F. except one for Coos Bay, two for Ca- llao, one for Australia, and one for the S. I. Most of these vessels carried lumber, the number of feet exported being 22,567,000. Or. Statesman, Aug. 1, 1854. The direct appropriations asked for and obtained at the 2d sess. of this cong. were for the creation of a new land district in southern Or. called the Umpqua district, to distinguish it from the Willamette district, with an office at such point as the president might direct, Zabriskie Land Laws, 636; Cong. Globe, vol. 31, app. 380, 33d cong. 2d sess., the appropriation of $40,- 000 to complete the penitentiary at Portland, $27,000 to complete the state house at Salem, and $30,000 to construct the military road from Salem to Astoria, marked out in 1830 by Samuel Culver aud Lieut Wood of the mounted rifles. Or. Statesman, Oct. 3, 1850. The military road to Astoria was partly constructed in 1855, under the direction of Lieut Derby. Money failing, a further appropriation of $15,000 was applied, and still the road re- mained practically useless. The appropriation of $30,000 for a light-house at the Umpqua was also expended by government officers in 1857. The tower was 105 feet high, but being built on a sandy foundation, it fell over into the sea in 1870. It does not appear that the money bestowed upon Oregon by congress in territorial times accomplished the purposes for which it was de- signed. Not one of the military roads was better than a mule trail, every road that could be travelled by wagons being opened by the people at their own expense.
13 U. S. II. Jour., 237, 388, 411, 516, 536, 963, 33d cong. Ist sess .; U. S. II. Ex. Doc., i. pt ii. 615, 624, 701, 33d cong. 2d sess.
14 By D. J. Lyon, at Scottsburg, called the Umpqua Gazette. It was first issued in April 1854, and its printer was William J. Beggs. In Nov. 1854, G. D. R. Boyd purchased a half-interest, and later removed the material to Jacksonville where the publication of the Table Rock Sentinel was begun in
329
BEACH GOLD MINING.
in the summer of 1854, as after the efforts of Thurs- ton, the Pacific Mail Steamship Company made a spasmodic pretence of keeping their contract, which was soon again abandoned out of fear of the Umpqua bar,15 and this abandonment, together with the suc- cessful rivalry of the road from Crescent City to the Rogue River Valley, and the final destruction of the Scottsburg road by the extraordinary storms of 1861-2, terminated in a few years the business of the Ump- qua, except such lumbering and fishing as were after- ward carried on below Scottsburg.
The history of beach mining for gold began in the spring of 1853, the discovery of gold in the sand of the sea-beach leading to one of those sudden migra- tions of the mining population expressively termed a 'rush.' The first discovery was made by some half- breeds in 1852 at the mouth of a creek a few miles north of the Coquille, near where Randolph appears on the map.16 The gold was exceedingly fine, the use of a microscope being often necessary to detect it; yet when saved, by amalgamation with mercury, was
Nov. 1855, by W. G. T'Vault, Taylor, and Blakesly, with Beggs as printer. Or. Statesman, Dec. 8, 1855; Or. Argus, Dec. 8, 1855. The name was changed to that of Oregon Sentinel in 1857. Id., July 25, 1857. D. J. Lyons was born in Cork, Ireland, in 1813, his family being in the middle rank of life, and connected with the political troubles of 1798. His father emigrated to Ken- tucky in 1818. Young Lyons lost his sight in his boyhood, but was well edu- cated by tutors, and being of a musical and literary turn of mind, wrote songs fashionable in the circle in which George D. Prentice, Edmund Flagg, and Amelia Welby were prominent. Lyons was connected with several light literary publications before coming to Oregon. He had married Virginia A. Putnam, daughter of Joseph Putnam of Lexington, with whom he emigrated to Oregon in 1853, settling at Scottsburg, where be resided nearly 30 years, removing afterward to Marshfield, on Coos Bay. Beggs was a brilliant writer on politics, but of dissipated habits. He married a Miss Beebe of Salem, and deserted her. He ran a brief career, dying in misery in New York City.
13 The whole coast was little understood, and unimproved as to harbors. The Anita was lost at Port Orford in Oct. 1852. Three vessels, the J. Meri- thew, Mendora, and Vandalia, were wrecked at the mouth of the Columbia in Jan. 1853. Capt. E. H. Beard of the Vandalia, who was from Baltimore, Md., was drowned.
16 S. S. Mann says that the half-breeds sold their claim to McNamara Brothers for $20,000. Settlement of Coos Bay, MS., 14. Armstrong, in his Oregon, 66, claims that his brother discovered gold on the beach at the Coquille in 1842, being driven in there in a schooner by a storm, while on his way to San Francisco.
330
LEGISLATION, MINING, AND SETTLEMENT.
found to be in paying quantities. The sand in which it was found existed not only on the modern beach, but on the upper Coquille, forty miles in the interior, at a place known as Johnson Diggings; but the prin- cipal deposits were from the Coquille River south along the recent beach to the California line.17
A mining town called Elizabeth sprung up during the summer about thirty miles south of Port Orford, and another seven miles north of the Coquille, called Randolph City.18 The latter name may still be found on the maps, but the town has passed out of ex- istence with hundreds of others. For, although the returns from certain localities were at first flattering, the irregular value of the deposits, and the difficulty of disposing of the gold on account of expense of sep- aration, soon sent most of the miners back to the placer diggings of the interior, leaving a few of the less impatient to further but still futile efforts.
The natives living at the mouth of the Coquille questioned the right of the white men to occupy that region, and added to insolence robbery and murder. Therefore, on the 28th of January, a party of forty, led by George H. Abbott, went to their village, killed fifteen men, and took prisoners the women and chil- dren. Seeing which, the chiefs of other villages were
17 'The deposit where the gold was found is an ancient beach, 1} miles east or back of the present beach. The mines are 180 feet above the level of the ocean, which has evidently receded to that extent. The depth of the gold varies from one to twelve feet, there being 12 feet on the occan side to one foot on what was formerly the shore side. The breadth is from 300 to 500 feet, which is covered with white sand to a depth of 40 feet. The surface is overgrown with a dense forest, and trees of great size are found in the black sand, in a good state of preservation, which proves that there the beach was at no remote period. Iron is a large component of this black sand, and it would probably pay to work it for that metal now.' Gale's Resources of Coos County, 31. See also Tan Tramp's Adventures, 154-5; Armstrong's Or., 64- 5, 57-9; Davidson's Coast Pilot, 119; Harper's Monthly, xiii. 594-5; S. F. C'om. Advertiser, Feb. 23, 1834; Taylor's Spec. Fress, 584; Cram's Top. Mem., 37. W. P. Blake, in Silliman's Journal, vol. 20, 74, says: 'Gold is found in the beach sand from the surface to the depth of 6 feet or more; it is in very small thin scales, and separates from the black sand with difficulty. Platinum and the associate metals, iridosmine, etc., are found with the gold in large quantities, and as they cannot be separated from the gold by washing, its value in the market is considerably lessened.'
18 Parrish, in Ind. Aff. Rept, 1854, 268-75, 288; S. F. Alta, June 5, 6, July 15, and Aug. 16, 1854.
331
COOS BAY COMPANY.
glad to make peace on any terms, and keep it until driven again to desperation. 19
Superintendent Palmer, in the spring of 1854, began a round of visits to his savage wards, going by the way of the Rogue River Valley and Crescent City, and proceeding up the coast to Yaquina Bay. Find- ing the Indians on the southern coast shy and unap- proachable, he left at Port Orford Sub-agent Parrish with presents to effect a conciliation.20
Prominent among matters growing out of beach mining, next after the Indian difficulties, was the more perfect exploration of the Coos Bay country, which resulted from the passing back and forth of supply trains between the Umpqua and the Coquille rivers. In May 1853, Perry B. Marple,21 after hav- ing examined the valley of the Coquille, and found what he believed to be a practicable route from Coos Bay to the interior,22 formed an association of twenty men called the Coos Bay Company, with stock to be divided into one hundred shares, five shares to each joint proprietor,23 and each proprietor being bound to
19 Indian Agent F. M. Smith, after due investigation, pronounced the kill- ing an unjustifiable massacre. U. S. H. Ex. Doc. 76, 268-71, 34th cong. 3d scss.
20See Parrish's Or. Anecdotes, MS., passim; Ind. Aff. Rept, 1854, 254-66. 21 He was an eccentric genius, a great talker, of whom his comrades used to say that he 'came within an ace of being a Patrick Henry, but just missing it, missed it entirely.' He was a man of mark, however, in his county, which he represented in the constitutional convention-a bad mark, in some respects, judging from Deady's observations on disbarring him: 'I have long since ceased to regard anything you assert. All your acts show a degree of mental and moral obliquity which renders you incapable of discriminating between truth and falsehood or right and wrong. Yon have no capacity for the practice of law, and in that profession you will ever prove a curse to yourself and to the community. For these reasons, and altogether overlooking the present alle- gations of unprofessional conduct, it would be an act of mercy to strike your name from the roll of attorneys.' Marple went to the Florence mines in eastern Oregon on the outbreak of the excitement of 18GI, and there died of consumption in the autumn of 1862. Or. Statesman, Dec. 8, 1862, and Jan. 12, 1868.
22 The first settlement was made on Coos Bay in the summer of 1853, and a packer named Sherman took a provision train over the mountains from Grave Creek by a practicable route. He reported discoveries of coal. Or. Statesman, June 28, 1833.
23 The proprietors were Perry B. Marple, James C. Tolman, Rollin L. Bel- knap, Solomon Bowermaster, Joseph H. McVay, J. A. J. McVay, Wm H.
332
LEGISLATION, MINING, AND SETTLEMENT.
proceed without delay to locate in a legal form all the land necessary to secure town sites, coal mines, and all important points whatsoever to the company. If upon due consideration any one wished to withdraw from the undertaking he was bound to hold his claim until a substitute could be provided. Each person remaining in the company agreed to pay the sum of five hundred dollars to the founder, from whom he would receive a certificate entitling him to one twentieth of the whole interest, subject to the regu- lations of the company, the projector of the enterprise being bound on his part to reveal to the company all the advantageous positions upon the bay or on Co- quille river, and throughout the country, and to re- linquish to the company his selections of land, the treasures he had discovered, both upon the earth or in it, and especially the stone-coal deposits by him found.24
The members of the company seemed satisfied with the project, and lost no time in seizing upon the va- rious positions supposed to be valuable. Empire City was taken up as a town site about the time the company was formed,25 and later Marshfield,26 and the affairs of
Harris, F. G. Lockhart, C. W. Johnson, A. P. Gaskell, W. H. Jackson, Presly G. Wilhite, A. P. De Cuis, David Rohren, Charles Pearce, Matthias M. Learn, Henry A. Stark. Charles H. Haskell, Joseph Lane, S. K. Temple. Articles of Indenture of the Coos Bay Company, in Oregonian, Jan. 7, 1834; Gibbs' Notes on Or. Hist., MS., 15.
24 Articles of Indenture of the Coos Bay Company, in Oregonian, Jan. 7, 1854. See S. F. Alta, Jan. 3, 1854.
25 Empire City had (in 1855) some thirty board houses, and a half-finished wharf. Van Tramp's Adventures, 160.
26 I am informed by ohl residents of Marshfield that this was the claim of J. C. Tolman, who was associated in it with A. J. Davis. The usual confu- sion as to titles ensued. Tolman was forced to leave the place on account of his wife's health, and put a man named Chapinan in charge. Davis, having to go away, put a man named Warwick in charge of his half of the town site. Subsequently Davis bought one half of Tolman's half, but having another claim, allowed Warwick to enter the Marshfield claim for him, in his own name, though according to the land law he could not enter land for town-site purposes. Warwick, however, in some way obtained a patent, and sold the claim to H. H. Luce, whose title was disputed because the patent was fraud- ulently obtained. A long contest over titles resulted, others claiming the right to enter it, because Davis had lost his right, and Warwick had never had any. Luce held possession, however. The remaining portion of Tolman's half of the town site was sold to a man named Hatch, whose claim is not dis- puted.
333
COOS BAY COAL.
the company prospered. In January 1854, the ship Demar's Cove from San Francisco entered Coos Bay with a stock of goods, bringing also some settlers and miners, and in the same month the Louisiana, Cap- tain Williams, from Portland took a cargo into Coos Bay for Northup & Simonds of that town, who established a branch business at Empire City,27 Northup accompanying the cargo and settling at that place.29
Coal was first shipped from the Newport mine in April 1855,29 and in 1856 a steam-vessel called the Newport, the first to enter this harbor, was employed in carrying cargoes to San Francisco,30 and the same year two steam saw-mills were in operation with
27 In a letter written by Northup to his partner, and published in the Ore- gonian of April 22, 1854, he tells of the progress of affairs. They had sounded the bay and found from 12 to 30 feet of water. The land was level and tim- bercd, but not hard to clear. The Coquille was 'one of the prettiest rivers' ever seen. Mr Davis of S. F. was forming a company to build a railroad from the branch of the bay to the Coquille, the travel going that way to the Randolph mines. Machinery for a steamer was also coming. The whole of southern Oregon was to be connected with Coos Bay. The miners were doing well, and business was good.
28 . Nelson Northup, a pioneer of Portland, who came to the place in 1851, and soon after formed the firm of Northup & Simonds, well known merchants of those days. In 1854 they disposed of their business to E. J. Northup and J. M. Biossom, and removed to Coos Bay, taking into that port the sec- ond vessel from Portland. Northup remained at Coos Bay several years, and in the mean time opened up, at great expense, the first coal mines in that locality, now so famed in that respect. He died at the residence of his son E. J. Northup, in the 65th year of his age, on the 3d of July, 1874.' Port- land Oregonian, July 4, 1874.
29 S. F. Alta, May 4, 6, 12, June 28, and Oct. 7, 1854; Or. Statesman, May 12, 1854.
30 She was a small craft, formerly the Hartford. Her engines were after- ward transferred to a small teak-wood schooner, which was christened The Fearless, and was the first and for many years the only tug-boat on the bay. She was finally lost near Coos Head. A story has been told to this effect: By one of the early trips of the Newport an order was sent to Estell, her owner, to forward a few laborers for the Newport mine. Estell had charge of the California state prison, and took an interest, it was said, in its occu- pants, so far as to let them slip occasionally. On the return of the Newport, a crowd of forty hard cases appeared upon her deck. A few only were re- quired at the mine, and the remainder dropped ashore at Empire City. The unsuspecting citizens scanned them curiously, and then retired to their domiciles. But consternation soon prevailed. Hen-roosts were despoiled and clothes-lines stripped of gracefully pendent garments. Anything and everything of value began to disappear in a mysterious manner. The people began to suspect, and to 'go for' the strangers, who were strongly urged to cmigrate. The touching recollections connected with this gang led the citizens always after to speak of them as the Forty Thieves. Coos Bay Settlement, 10, 11.
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LEGISLATION, MINING, AND SETTLEMENT.
from three to five vessels loading at a time with lum- ber and coal, since which period coal-mining, lumber- ing, and ship-building have been carried on at this point without interruption. Railroads were early projected, and many who first engaged in the devel- opment of coal mines became wealthy, and resided here till their death.31
Some also were unfortunate, one of the share- holders, Henry A. Stark, being drowned in the spring of 1854, while attempting with five others to go out in a small boat to some vessels lying off the bar.32 Several of the Umpqua company, after the failure of that enterprise, settled at Coos Bay, prominent among whom was S. S. Mann, author of a pamphlet on the early settlement of that region, embellished with an- ecdotes of the pioneers, which will be of interest to their descendants. 33
Any new discovery stimulated the competitive spirit of search in other directions. Siuslaw River was explored with a view to determining whether the
31 P. Flanagan was one of the earliest of the early settlers. At Randolph his pack-train and store were the pioneers of trade. Then at Johnson's and on The Sixes in a similar way. Later, he became associated in the partner- ship of the Newport coal mine, where his skill and experience added largely to its success.
32 Stark was a native of New York, emigrated to Cal. in 1849, thence to Or. in 1850. He was a land claimant for the company at Coos Bay, as well as a shareholder. John Duhy, a native of New York, cmigrated to the S. I. in 1840, thence to Cal. in 1848, going to Yreka in 1851, and thence to Coos Bay at its settlement in 1853. John Robertson was a native of Nova Scotia, and a sailor. John Winters was born in Penn., and came to Or. through Cal. Alvin Brooks, born in Vt, came to Or. in 1851. John Mitchell of New York, a sailor, came to Or. in 1851. Portland Oregonian, March 25, 1854; S. F. Alta, March 22, 1854.
33 Coos Bay Settlement, 18. This pamphlet of 25 pages is made up of scraps of pioneer history written for the Coos Bay Mail, by S. S. Mann, after- ward republished in this form by the Mail publishers. Mann, being one of the earliest of the pioneers, was enabled to give correct information, and to his writings and correspondence I am much indebted for the facts here set down. Mann mentions the names of T. D. Winchester, H. H. Luse, A. M. Simpson, John Pershbaker, James Aiken, Dr Foley, Curtis Noble, A. J. Davis, P. Flanagan, Amos and Anson Rogers, H. P. Whitney, W. D. L. F. Smith, David Holland, I. Hacker, R. F. Ross, Yokam, Landreth, Hodson, Collver, Bogue, Miller, MeKnight, Dryden, Hirst, Kenyon, Nasburg, Coon, Morse, Cammann, Buckhorn, and De Cussans, not already mentioned among the original proprietors of the Coos Bay Company; and also the names of Perry, Leghnherr, Rowell, Dement, Harris, Schroeder, Grant, and Ham- block, among the early settlers of Coquille Valley.
333
ROAD EXPLORATIONS.
course of the river was such that a practicable com- munication could be obtained between it and the Umpqua through Smith River,34 a northern branch of the Siuslaw. The exploration was conducted by N. Schofield. The object of the opening of the proposed route was to make a road from the Willa- mette Valley to the Umpqua, over which the products of the valley might be brought to Scottsburg, at the same time avoiding the most difficult portion of the mountains. But nature had interposed so many ob- stacles; the streams were so rapid and rocky; the mountains so rough and heavily timbered; the valleys, though rich, so narrow, and filled with tangled growths of tough vine-maple and other shrubby trees, that any road from the coast to the interior could not but be costly to build and keep in repair. The Siuslaw exploration, therefore, resulted in nothing more ben- eficial than the acquisition of additional knowledge of the resources of the country in timber, water-power, and soil, all of which were excellent in the valley of the Siuslaw.
Other explorations were at the same time being carried on. A trail was opened across the mountains from Rogue River Valley to Crescent City, which competed with the Scottsburg road for the business of the interior, and became the route used by the gov- ernment troops in getting from the seaboard to Fort Lane.35 Gold-hunting was at the same time prose- cuted in every part of the territory with varying success, of which I shall speak in another place.36
34 This is the stream where Jedediah Smith had his adventure with the Indians who massacred his party in 1828, as related in my History of the Northwest Coast.
35 Deady's Hist. Or., MS., 25.
36 Mount Hood, Indian name Wiyeast, was ascended in August 1854. for the first time, by a party consisting of T. J. Dryer of the Oregonian, G. O. Haller, Olney, Wells Lake, and Travillot, a French seaman. Dryer ascended Mount St Helen, Loowit Letkla, the previous summer, and promised to climb Mounts Jefferson, Phato, and the Three Sisters at some future time. He ascertained the fact that Hood and St Helen were expiring volcanoes, which still emitted smoke and ashes from vents near their summits. Oregonian, Feb. 25 and Aug. 19, 1834. The first ascent of Mount Jefferson was made by P. Loony, John Allphin, William Tullbright, John Walker, and E. L.
336
LEGISLATION, MINING, AND SETTLEMENT.
The politics of 1854 turned mainly on the question of a state constitution, though the election in June revealed the fact that the democracy, while still in the ascendant, were losing a little ground to the whigs, and chiefly in the southern portion of the territory. Of the three prosecuting attorneys elected, one, P. P. Prim,37 was a whig, and was chosen in the 3d district by a majority of seven over the democratic candi- date, R. E. Stratton,38 former incumbent. R. P. Boisé was elected prosecuting attorney for the 1st or middle district, and N. Huber of the 2d or north- ern district.
The democratic leaders were those most in favor of assuming state dignities, while the whigs held up before their following the bill of cost; though none objected
Massey, July 11, 1854, a party prospecting for gold in the Cascade Moun- tains. Or. Statesman, Aug. 22, 1854. Mt Adams was called by the Indians Klickilat, and Mt Rainier, Takoma. Gold-hunting in the Cascade Mountains, passim.
37 Payne P. Prim was born in Tenn. in 1822, emigrated to Or. in 1851, and went to the mines in Rogue River Valley the following year. His elec- tion as prosecuting attorney of the southern district brought him into notice, and on the division of the state of Oregon into four judicial districts, and when Deady, chosen judge of the supreme court from that district, was appointed U. S. dist. judge, the gov. appointed Prim to fill the vacancy from the Ist district for the remainder of the term, to which office he was subsequently elected, holding it for many years. A valuable manuscript, entitled Prim's Judicial Anecdotes, has furnished me very vivid reminiscences of the manner of administering justice in the early mining camps, and first organized courts, to which I have occasion to refer frequently in this work. See Popular Trib- unals, passim, this series.
38 Riley E. Stratton was a native of Penn., born in 1821. He was taught the trade of a millwright, but afterward took a collegiate course, and grad- uated at Marietta, Ohio, with the intention of becoming a minister; his plans being changed, he studied law, and was admitted to the bar in Madi- son, Ind., coming to Or. by way of Cape Horn in 1852, his father, C. P. Stratton, emigrating overland in the same year. C. P. Stratton was born in New York Dec. 30, 1799. He removed to Penn. in his boyhood, and again to Ind. iu 1836. He had twelve children, of whom C. C. Stratton is a minister of the methodist church, and president of the University of the Pacific in California. He settled in the Umpqua Valley, but subsequently removed to Salem, where he died Feb. 26, 1873. Riley E. Stratton settled at Scottsburg. He was elected prosecuting attorney of the southern district by the legislative assembly in 1833-4; but beaten by Prim at the election by the people, as stated above. When Oregon became a state he was elected judge of the 2d judicial district, and reelected in 1864. He married Sarah Dearborn in Madison, Indiana. He left the democratic party to support the union on the breaking-out of the rebellion. lle was an affable, honorable, an 1 popul .r man. His death occurred in Dec. 1866. Eugene State Journal, Dec. 29, 1863; Or. Reports, vol. ii. 193-9; Deady's Scrap Book, 77, 170.
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