History of Oregon, Vol. II, 1848-1888, Part 4

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe, 1832-1918; Victor, Mrs. Frances Auretta Fuller Barrett, 1826-1902
Publication date: 1886-88
Publisher: San Francisco : The History Co.
Number of Pages: 836

USA > Oregon > History of Oregon, Vol. II, 1848-1888 > Part 4

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Friend, Nov. 2, 1846; Id., March 15, June 1, 1847; Album Mexicana, i. 573-4; S. F. Polynesian, iv. 110; S. F.Californian, Sept. 2, 1848; Thornton's Or. and Cal., i. 305; Niles' Reg., Ixix. 381. Senator Benton was the first to take up the championship of the river, which he did in a speech delivered May 28, 1846. He showed that while Wilkes' narrative fostered a poor opinion of the entrance to the Columbia, the chart accompanying the narrative showed it to be good; and the questions he put in writing to James Blair, son of Francis P. Blair, one of the midshipmen who surveyed it (the others were Reynolds and Knox), proved the same. Further, he had consulted John Maginn, for 18 years pilot at New York, and then president of the New York association of pilots, who had a bill on pilotage before congress, and had asked him to compare the entrance of New York harbor with that of the Columbia, to which Maginn had distinctly returned answer that the Columbia had far the better entrance in everything that constituted a good harbor. Cong. Globe, 1843-6, 915; Id., 921-2. When Vancouver surveyed the river in 1792 there existed but one channel. In 1839 when Belcher surveyed it 2 channels existed, and Sand Island was a mile and a half long, covering an area of 4 square miles, where in Vancouver's time there were 5 fathoms of water. In 1841 Wilkes found the south channel closed with accretions from Clatsop Spit, and the middle sands had changed their shape. In 1844, as we have seen, it was open, and in 1846 almost closed again, but once more open in 1847. Subsequent gov- ernment surveys have noted many changes. In 1850 the south channel was in a new place, and ran in a different direction from the old one; in 1852 the new channel was fully cut out, and the bar had moved three fourths of a mile eastward with a wider entrance, and 3 feet more water. The north channel had contracted to half its width at the bar, with its northern line on the line of 1850. The depth was reduced, but there was still one fathom more of water than on the south bar; and other changes had taken place. In 1859 the south channel was again closed, and again in 1868 discovered to be open, with a fathom more water than in the north channel, which held pretty nearly its former position. From these observations it is manifest that the north channel maintains itself with but slight changes, while the south chan- nel is subject to variations, and the middle sands and Clatsop and Chinook spits are constantly shifting. Report of Bvt. Major Gillespie, Engineer Corps, U. S. A., Dec. 18, 1878, in Daily Astorian.

49 Captain N. Croshy is spoken of as taking vessels in and out of the river. This gentleman became thoroughly identified with the interests of Oregon, and especially of Portland, and of shipping, and did much to establish a trade with China.

INTERIOR TRAFFIC.

In the matter of interior transportation there was not in 1848 much improvement over the Indian canoe or the fur company's barge and bateau. The maritime industries seem rather to have been neglected in early times on the north-west coast notwithstanding its natural features seemed to suggest the usefulness if not the necessity of seamanship and nautical science. Since the building of the little thirty-ton schooner Dolly at Astoria in 1811 for the Pacific Fur Com- pany, few vessels of any description had been con- structed in Oregon. Kelley related that he saw in 1834 a ship-yard at Vancouver where several vessels had been built, and where ships were repaired," which is likely enough, but they were small and clumsy affairs,51 and few probably ever went to sea. Some barges and a sloop or two are mentioned by the earliest settlers as on the rivers carrying wheat from Oregon City to Vancouver, which served also to con- vey families of settlers down the Columbia.52 The Star of Oregon built in the Willamette in 1841, was the second vessel belonging to Americans constructed in these waters.

The first vessel constructed by an individual owner, or for colonial trade, was a sloop of twenty-five tons, built in 1845 by an Englishman named Cook, and called the Calapooya. I have also mentioned that she proved of great service to the immigrants of that year on the Columbia and Lower Willamette. The first keel- boats above the falls were owned by Robert Newell, and built in the winter of 1845-6, to ply between Ore-

50 25th Cong., 3d Sess., II. Sup. Rept. 101, 59.

5] The schooner (not the bark) Vancouver was built at Vancouver in 1829. She was about 150 tons burden, and poorly constructed ; and was lost on Rose Spit at the north end of the Queen Charlotte Island in 1834. Captain Dun- can ran her aground in open day. The crew got ashore on the mainland, and reached Fort Simpson, Nass River, in June. Roberts' Recollections, MS., 43.

2 Mack's Or., MS., 2; Ebberts' Trapper's Life, MS., 44; Or. Spectator, April 16, 1846. There is mention in the Spectator of June 25, 1846, of the launching at Vancouver of The Prince of Wales, a vessel of 70 feet keel, 18 feet beam, 14 feet below, with a tonnage register of 74. She was constructed by the company's ship- builder, Scarth, and christened by Miss Douglas, escorted by Captain Baillie of the Modeste, amidst a large concourse of people.

CONDITION OF AFFAIRS.

gon City and Champoeg, the Mogul and the Ben Franklin. From the fact that the fare was one dollar in orders, and fifty cents in cash, may be seen the esti- mation in which the paper currency of the time was held. Other similar craft soon followed,53 and were esteemed important additions to the comfort of trav- ellers, as well as an aid to business. Other transpor- tation than that by water there was none, except the slow-moving ox-wagon.54 Stephen H. L. Meek ad- vertised to take freight or passengers from Oregon City to Tualatin plains by such a conveyance, the wagon being a covered one, and the team consist- ing of eight oxen. 55 Medorum Crawford transported goods or passengers around the falls at Oregon City for a number of years with ox-teams.56

The men in the valley from the constant habit of being so much on horseback became very good riders. The Canadian young men and women were especially fine equestrians and sat their lively and often vicious Cayuse horses as if part of the animal; and on Sun- day, when in gala dress, they made a striking appear- ance, being handsome in form as well as graceful riders.57 The Americans also adopted the custom of 'loping' practised by the horsemen of the Pacific coast, which gave the rider so long and easy a swing, and carried him so fast over the ground. They also became skilful in throwing the lasso and catching wild cat- tle. Indeed, so profitable was cattle-raising, and so

53 Or. Spectator, May 28, 1846. The Great Western ran in opposition to Newell's boatsin May; and two other clinker-built boats were launched in the same month to run between Oregon City and Portland. In June following I notice men- tion of the Salt River Packet, Captain Gray, plying between Oregon and Astoria with passengers. Id., June 11, 1846; Brown's Will. Valley, MIS., 30; Bacon's Merc. Life Or. City, MS., 12; Weed's Queen Charlotte I. Exped., MS., 3.

3+ Brown, in his Willamette Valley, MS., 6, says that before 1849 there was not a span of horses harnessed to a wagon in the territory; and that the first set of harness he saw was brought from California. On account of the roadless condition of the country at its first settlement, horses were little used in harness, but it is certain that many horse-teams came across the plains whose harnesses may having been hanging unused, or made into gearing for riding-animals or for horses doing farm-work.

55 Or. Spectator, Oct. 29, 1846.

56 Crawford's Missionaries, MS., 13-15.

57 Minto's Early Days, MS., 31.

MAIL FACILITIES.

agreeable the free life of the herdsman or owner of stock, who flitted over the endless green meadows, clad in fringed buckskin, with Spanish spurs jingling on his heels, and a crimson silk scarf tied about the waist,53 that to aspiring lads the life of a vaquero of- fered attractions superior to those of soil-stirring.

He who would a wooing go, if unable to return the same day, carried his blankets, and at night threw himself upon the floor and slept till morning, when he might breakfast before leave-taking.

If there were none of the usual means of travel, neither were there mail facilities till 1848. Letters were carried by private persons, who received pay or not according to circumstances. The legislature of 1845 in December enacted a law establishing a gen- eral post-office at Oregon City, with W. G. T'Vault59 as postmaster-general, but the funds of the provisional government were too scanty and the settlements too scattered to make it possible to carry out the inten- tion of the act.60

58 If we may believe some of these same youths, no longer young, they were not always so gayly apparclled and mounted. Says one: 'We rode with a rawhide saddle, bridle, and lasso. The bit was Spanish, the stirrups wooden, the sinch horse-hair, and over all these, rider and all, was a blanket with a hole in it through which the head of the rider protruded.' Quite a suitable costume for rainy weather. Mc Minnville Reporter, Jan. 4, 1877.

69 WV. G. T'Vault was born in Arkansas, whence he removed to Illinois in 1843, and to Oregon in 1844. He was a lawyer, energetic and adventurous, foremost in many exploring expeditions, and also a strong partisan with southern-democracy proclivities. He possessed literary abilities and had something to do with early newspapers, first with the Spectator, as president of the Oregon printing association, and as its first editor; afterward as editor of the Table Rock Sentinel, the first newspaper in southern Oregon; and later of The Intelligencer. He was elected to the legislature in 1846. After the establishment of the territory he was again elected to the legislature, being speaker of the house in 1858. He was twice prosecuting attorney of the 1st judicial district, comprising Jackson County, to which he had removed after the discovery of gold in Rogue River Valley, and held other public positions. When the mining excitement was at its height in Idaho, he was practising his profession and editing the Index in Silver City. Toward the close of his life, he deteriorated through the influence of his political associations, and lost caste among his fellow-pioneers. He died of small-pox at Jacksonville in 1869. Daily Salem Unionist, Feb. 1869; Deady's Scrap-book, 122; Jacksonville, Or., Sentinel, Feb. 6, 1869; Dallas Polk Co. Signal, Feb. 16, 1869.

"0 By the post-office act, postage on letters of a single sheet conveyed for a distance not exceeding 30 miles was fixed at 15 cents; over and not exceeding 80 miles, 25 cents; over and not exceeding 200 miles, 30 cents; 200 miles, 50 cents. Newspapers, each 4 cents. The postmaster-general was to receive 10

CONDITION OF AFFAIRS.

The first contract let was to Hugh Burns in the spring of 1846, who was to carry the mail once to Weston, in Missouri, for fifty cents a single sheet. After a six months trial the postmaster-general had become assured that the office was not remunerative, the expense of sending a semi-monthly mail to each county south of the Columbia having been borne chiefly by private subscription; and advertised that the mail to the different points would be discontinued, but that should any important news arrive at Oregon City, it would be despatched to the several offices. The post-office law, however, remained in force as far as practicable but no regular mail service was in- augurated until the autumn of 1847, when the United States department gave Oregon a deputy-postmaster in John M. Shively, and a special agent in Cornelius Gilliam. The latter immediately advertised for pro- posals for carrying the mail from Oregon City to Astoria and back, from the same to Mary River"1 and back, including intermediate offices, and from the same to Fort Vancouver, Nisqually, and Admiralty Inlet. From this time the history of the mail service belongs to another period.

The social and educational affairs of the colony had by 1848 begun to assume shape, after the fashion of older communities. The first issue of the Spectator contained a notice for a meeting of masons to be held the 21st of February 1846, to adopt measures for obtaining a charter for a lodge. The notice was issued by Joseph Hull, P. G. Stewart, and William P. Dougherty. A charter was issued by the grand lodge of Missouri on the 19th of October 1846, to Mult- nomah lodge, No. 84, in Oregon City. This charter

per cent of all moneys by him received and paid out. The act was made con- formable to the United States laws regulating the post-office department, so far as they were applicable to the condition of Oregon. Or. Spectator, Feb. 5, 1846. See T'Vault's instructions to postmasters, in Id., March 5, 1846.

b1 Mary River signified to where Corvallis now stands. When that town was first laid off it was called Marysville.

EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS.

was brought across the plains in an emigrant wagon in 1848, intrusted to the care of P. B. Cornwall, who turning off to California placed it in charge of Orrin Kellogg, who brought it safely to Oregon City and delivered it to Joseph Hull. Under this authority Multnomah lodge was opened September 11, 1848, Joseph Hull, W. M .; W. P. Dougherty, S. W., and T. C. Cason, J. W. J. C. Ainsworth was the first worshipful master elected under this charter.€2

A dispensation for establishing an Odd Fellows lodge was also applied for in 1846, but not obtained till 1852.63 The Multnomah circulating library was a chartered institution, with branches in the different counties; and the members of the Falls Association, a literary society which seems to have been a part of the library scheme, contributed to the Spectator prose and verse of no mean quality.

The small and scattered population and the scarcity of school-books were serious drawbacks to education. Continuous arrivals, and the printing of a large edition of Webster's Elementary Spelling Book by the Oregon printing association, removed some of the obstacles to advancement" in the common schools. Of private schools and academies there were already several besides the Oregon Institute and the Cath- olic schools. Of the latter there were St Joseph 65 for

62 Address of Grand Master Chadwick, in Yreka Union, Jan. 17, 1874; Seattle Tribune, Aug. 27, 1875; Olympia Transcript, Aug. 2, 1875.

63 This was on account of the miscarriage of the warrant, which was sent to Oregon in 1847 by way of Honolulu, but which did not reach there, the person to whom it was sent, Gilbert Watson, dying at the Islands in 1848. A. V. Fraser, who was sent out by the government in the following year to supervise the revenue service on the Pacific coast, was then appointed a special commissioner to establish the order in California and Oregon; but the gold discoveries gave him so much to do that he did not get to Oregon, and it was not until 3 years afterward that Chemeketa lodge No. I was established at Salem. The first lodge at Portland was instituted in 1853. E. M. Barnum's Early Hist. Odd Fellowship in Or., in Jour. of Proceedings of Grand Lod,je I. O. O. F. for 1877, 2075-84; H. H. Gilfrey in same, 2085; C. D. Moore's Historical Review of Odd Fellowship in Or., 25th Anniversary of Chemeketa Lodge, Dec. 1877; S. F. New Age, Jan. 7, 1865; Constitution, etc., Portland, 1871.

64 S. I. Friend, Sept. 1847, 140 ; Or. Spectator, Feb. 18, 1847.

63 Named after Joseph La Roque of Paris who furnished the funds for its erection. De Smet's Or. Miss., 41.

CONDITION OF AFFAIRS.

boys at St Paul on French Prairie, and two schools for girls, one at Oregon City and one at St Mary, taught by the sisters of Notre Dame. An academy known as Jefferson Institute was located in La Creole Valley near the residence of Nathaniel Ford, who was one of the trustees. William Beagle and James Howard were the others, and J. E. Lyle principal. On the Tualatin plains Rev. Harvey Clark had opened a school which in 1846 had attained to some prom- ise of success, and in 1847 a board of trustees was established. Out of this germ developed two years later the Tualatin Academy, incorporated in Septem- ber 1849, which developed into the Pacific University in 1853-4.

The history of this institution reflects credit upon its founders in more than an ordinary degree. Har- vey Clark, it will be remembered, was one of the independent missionaries, with no wealthy board at his back from whose funds he could obtain a few hundred or thousand of dollars. When he failed to find missionary work among the natives, he settled on the Tualatin plains upon a land-claim where the academic town of Forest Grove now stands, and taught as early as 1842 a few children of the other settlers. In 1846 there came to Oregon, by the southern route, enduring all the hardships of the be- lated immigration, a woman sixty-eight years of age, with her children and grandchildren, Mrs Tabitha Brown. 66 Her kind heart was pained at the num- ber of orphans left to charity by the sickness among

66 Tabitha Moffat Brown was born in the town of Brinfield, Mass., May 1, 1780. Her father was Dr Joseph Moffat. At the age of 19 she mar- Rev. Clark Brown of Stonington, Conn., of the Episcopal church. In the changes of his ministerial life Brown removed to Maryland, where he died early, leaving his widow with 3 children surrounded by an illiterate people. She opened a school and for 8 years continued to teach, support- ing her children until the 2 boys were apprenticed to trades, and assisting them to start in business. The family finally moved to Missouri. Here her children prospered, but one of the sons, Orris Brown, visited Oregon in 1843, returning to Missouri in 1845 with Dr White and emigrating with his mother and family in 1846. His sister and brother-in-law, Virgil K. Pringle, also accompanied him ; and it is from a letter of Mrs Pringle that this sketch has been obtained.

BENEVOLENT MEN AND WOMEN.

the immigrants of 1847, with no promise of proper care or training. She spoke of the matter to Harvey Clark who asked her what she would do. "If I had the means I would establish myself in a comfortable home, receive all poor children, and be a mother to them," said Mrs Brown. " Are you in earnest ?" asked Clark. "Yes." "Then I will try with you, and see what can be done."

There was a log meeting-house on Clark's land, and in this building Mrs Brown was placed, and the work of charity began, the settlers contributing such articles of furnishing as they could spare. The plan was to receive any children to be taught; those whose parents could afford it, to pay at the rate of five dollars a week for board, care, and tuition, and those who had noth- ing, to come free. In 1848 there were about forty children in the school, of whom the greater part were boarders;67 Mrs Clark teaching and Mrs Brown having charge of the family, which was healthy and happy, and devoted to its guardian. In a short time Rev. Cushing Eells was employed as teacher.

There came to Oregon about this time Rev. George H. Atkinson, under the auspices of the Home Mission- ary Society of Boston.69 He had in view the estab-

67 'In 1851,' writes Mrs Brown, 'I bad 40 in my family at $2.50 per week; and mixed with my own hands 3,423 pounds of flour in less than 5 months.' Yet she was a small woman, had been lame many years, and was nearly 70 years of age. She died in 1857. See Or. Argus, May 17, 1856; Portland West Shore, Dec., 1879.

68 Atkinson was born in Newbury, Vermont. He was related to Josiah Little of Massachusetts. One of his aunts, born in 1760, Mrs Anne Harris, lived to within 4 months of the age of 100 years, and remembered well the feeling caused in Newburyport one Sunday morning by the tidings of the death of the great preacher Whitefield; and also the events of the French empire and American revolution. Mr Atkinson Icft Boston, with his wife, iu October 1847, on board the bark Samoset, Captain Hollis, and reached the Hawaiian Islands in the following February, whence he sailed again for the Columbia in the Hudson's Bay Company's bark Cowlitz, Captain Weying- ton, May 23d, arriving at Vancouver on the 20th of June 1848. He at once entered upon the duties of his profession, organized the Oregon association of Congregational ministers, also the Oregon tract society, and joined in the effort to found a school at Forest Grove. He corresponded for a time with the Home Missionary, a Boston publication, from which I have gathered some fragments of the history of Oregon from 1848 to 1851, during the height of the gold excitement. Mr Atkinson became pastor of the Congregational church in Oregon City in 1853; and wasfor many years the pastor of the first Congregational

HIST. OR., VOL. II. 3

CONDITION OF AFFAIRS.

lishment of a college under the patronage of the Con- gregational church and finding his brethren in Oregon about to erect a new building for the school at Tua- latin plains, and to organize a board of trustees, an arrangement was entered into by which the orphan school was placed in the hands of the trustees as the foundation of the proposed college, which at first aspired only to be called the Tualatin academy.

Clark gave two hundred acres of his land-claim for a college and town-site, and Mrs Brown gave a lot belonging to her, and five hundred dollars earned by herself. Subsequently she presented a bell to the Congregational church erected on the town-site; and immediately before her death gave her own house and lot to the Pacific University. She was indeed earnest and honest in her devotion to Christian charity; may her name ever be held in hely remembrance.

Mr Clark also sold one hundred and fifty acres of his remaining land for the benefit of the institution of which he and Mrs Brown were the founders. It is said of Clark, "he lived in poverty that he might do good to others." He died March 24, 1858, at Forest Grove, being still in the prime of life.69 What was so well begun before 1848 continued to grow with the development of the country, and under the fostering care of new friends as well as old, became one of the leading independent educational institu- tions of the north-west coast.70

church in Portland. His health failing about 1866, he gave way to younger meu; but he continued to labor as a missionary of religion and temperance in newer fields as his strength permitted. Nor did he neglect other fields of lahor in the interest of Oregon, contributing many valuable articles on the general features and resources of the country. Added to all was an unspotted repu- tation, the memory of which will be ever cherished by his descendants, 2 sons and a daughter, the latter married to Frank Warren jun. of Portland.

69 Evans' Hist. Or., MS., 341; Gray's Hist. Or., 231; Deady's Hist. Or., MS., 54: Or. Argus, April 10, 1858. Clark's daughter married George H. Durham of Portland.

70 The first board of trustees was composed of Rev. Harvey Clark, Hiram Clark, Rev. Lewis Thompson, W. H. Gray, Alvin T. Smith, James M. Moore, Osborne Russell, and G. H. Atkinson. The land given by Clark was laid out in blocks and lots, except 20 acres reserved for a campus, the half of which was donated by Rev. E. Walker. A building was erected during the reign of high prices, in 1850-1, which cost, unfinished, $7,000; 85,000 of which

THE PACIFIC UNIVERSITY.

A private school for young ladies was kept at Ore- gon City by Mrs N. M. Thornton, wife of Judge Thornton. It opened February 1, 1847. The pupils were taught " all the branches usually comprised in a thorough English education, together with plain and fancy needle-work, drawing, and painting in mezzotints and water-colors."71 Mrs Thornton's school was patro- nized by James Douglas and other persons of distinc- tion in the country. The first effort made at estab- lishing a common-school board was early in 1847 in 1216890

came from the sale of lots, and by contributions. In 1852 Mr Atkinson went east to solicit aid from the college society, which had promised to endow to some extent a college in Oregon. The Pacific University was placed the ninth on their list, with an annual sum granted of $600 to support a permanent pro- fessor. From other sources he received $800 in money, and $700 in books for a library. Looking about for a professor, a young theological student, S. H. Marsh, son of Rev. Dr Marsh of Burlington College, was secured as principal, and with him, and the funds and books, Mr Atkinson returned in 1853. ln the mean time J. M. Keeler, fresh from Union college, Schenectady, New York, had taken charge of the academy as principal, and had formed a pre- paratory class before the arrival of Marsh. The people began to take a lively interest in the university, and in 1854 subscribed in lands and money $6,500, and partially pledged $3,500 more. On the 13th of April 1854 Marsh was chosen president, but was not formally inaugurated until August 21, 1853. This year Keeler went to Portland, and E. D. Shattuck took his place as principal of the academy which also embraced a class of young ladies. The institution struggled on, but in 1856-7 some of its most advanced students left it to go to the better endowed eastern colleges. This led the trustees and president to make a special effort, and Marsh went to New York to secure further aid, leaving the university department in the charge of Rev. II. Ly- man, professor of mathematics, who associated with him Rev. C. Eells. The help received from the college society and others in the east, enabled the uni- versity to improve the general régime of the university. The first graduate was Harvey W. Scott, who in 1863 took his final degree. In IS66 there were 4 graduates. In June 1867 the president having again visited the cast for further aid, over $25,000 was subscribed and 2 additional professors secured: (+. H. Collier, professor of natural sciences, and J. W. Marsh, professor of languages. In May 1868 there were $44,303.60 invested funds, and a library of 5,000 volumes. A third visit to the east in 1869 secured over $20,000 for a presidential endowment fund. The university had in 1876, in funds and other property, $85,000 for its support. The buildings are however of a poor character for college purposes, being built of wood, and not well constructed, and $100,000 would be required to put the university in good condition. President Marsh died in 1879, and was succeeded by J. R. IIerrick. Though founded by Congregationalists, the Pacific University was not controlled by them in a sectarian spirit; and its professors were allowed full liberty in their teaching. Forest Grove, the seat of this institution, is a pretty village nestled among groves of oaks and firs near the Coast Range foot-hills. Centennial Year Hist. Pacific University, in Portland Oregonian, Feb. 12, 1876; l'ictor's Or. and. Wash., 189-90; Or. Argus, Sept. 1, 1855; Deady's Ilist. Or., MS., 54.

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History of Oregon, Vol. II, 1848-1888, Part 4

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe, 1832-1918; Victor, Mrs. Frances Auretta Fuller Barrett, 1826-1902 Publication date: 1886-88 Publisher: San Francisco : The History Co. Number of Pages: 836

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe, 1832-1918; Victor, Mrs. Frances Auretta Fuller Barrett, 1826-1902
Publication date: 1886-88
Publisher: San Francisco : The History Co.
Number of Pages: 836