USA > Oregon > History of Oregon, Vol. II, 1848-1888 > Part 48
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In 1863 the People's Transportation Company built the E. D. Baker to run to the Cascades; another, the Iris, between the Cascades and The Dalles; and a third, the Cayuse, above The Dalles. They lost the contract for carry- ing the government freight, and the O. S. N. Co. so reduced their rates as to leave the opposition small profits in competition. A compromise was effected by purchasing the property of the people's line above the Cascades, paying for the ('ayuse and Iris in three boats running between Portland and Oregon City, and $10,000; the O. S. N. Co. to have the exclusive navigation of the Columbia and the people's line to confine their business to the Willamette, above Portland. In 1865 all the boats on the lower Columbia were purchased. In 1879 the O. S. N. Co. sold its interests, which had greatly multiplied and increased, to the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company, a corporation which included river, ocean, and railroad transportation, and which repre- sented many millions of capital. Ainsworth formerly commanded a Missis- sippi River steamboat. Ruckle came to Oregon in 1855, and became captain of Van Bergen's boat, the Fashion. Then he built a boat for himself, the Mountain Buck, and then the railroad portage. He was a successful projector, and made money in various ways. In 1864-5 he assisted George Thomas and others to construct a stage road over the BIne Mountains; and also engaged in quartz mining, developing the famons Rockfellow lode between Powder and Burnt rivers, which was later the Virtne minc. S. G. Reed came from Massachusetts to Oregon about 1851. He was keeping a small store at Rai- nier in 1853, but soon removed to Portland, where he became a member of the O. S. N. Co. in a few years. He has given much attention to the rais, ing of fine-blooded stock on his farm in Washington county. Parker's Puget Sound, MS., 1; Dalles Inland Empire, Dec. 28, 1878. John H. Wolf com- manded The Cascades; John Babbage the Julia and the Emma Hayward; J. McNulty the Hassaloe and Mountain Queen. Thomas J. Stump could run The Dalles and the Cascades at a certain stage of water with a steamboat. Other steamboat men were Samuel D. Holmes, Sebastian Miller. Leonard HIST. OR., VOL. II. 31
482
WAR AND DEVELOPMENT.
ness, clothing, and provisions were required in large quantities and sold at high prices. Lewiston had also sprung up at the junction of the Clearwater and Snake rivers, besides several mining towns in the gold- fields to the east. Nor were mining and cattle-rais- ing the only industries to which eastern Oregon and Washington proved to be adapted. Contrary to the generally received notion of the nature of the soil of these grassy plains, the ground, wherever it was culti- vated, raised abundant crops, and agriculture became at once a prominent and remunerative occupation of the settlers, who found in the mines a ready market. But down to the close of 1861, when the John Day and Powder River mines were discovered, the bene- fits of the great improvements which I have men- tioned had accrued chiefly to Washington, although founded with the money of Oregonians, a state of things which did not fail to call forth invidious com- ment by the press of Oregon. But now it was anti- cipated that the state was to reap a golden harvest from her own soil, and preparations were made in every part of the Pacific coast for a grand movement in the spring toward the new land of promise.
Before the vivid anticipations of the gold-hunters could be realized a new form of calamity had come.
White, W. P. Gray, Ephraim Baughman of the E. D. Baker and later of the O. S. N. Co.'s boats above The Dalles; Josiah Myrick of the Wilson G. Hunt and other boats; James Strang of the Rescue and Wenat; Joseph Kel- logg of the Rescue and the Kellogg; William Smith of the Wenat; William Turnbull of the Fannie Troup; Richard Hobson of the Josie McNear; James M. Gilman and Sherwood of the Annie Stewart; Gray, Felton, and Holman, whose names are associated with the ante-railroad days of transportation in Oregon. See McCracken's Early Steamboating, MS .; Deady's Hist. Or., MS .; Deady's Scrap-book; Or. Argus, Feb. 22, 1862; Portland Oregonian, Dec. 26, 1864, and July 31, 1865; Or. Statesman, April 7, 1862; Olympia Pioneer and Democrat, Sept. 10, 1858; Olympia Herald, Sept. 10, 1858; Land Of. Rept, 1867, 69; U. S. Sec. War Rept, ii. 509-11, 40th cong. 2d sess .; Cong. Globe, 1865-6, pt v. ap. 317, 39th cong. Ist sess .; Or. City Enterprise, Dec. 29, 1866; Dalles Mountaineer, Jan. 19, 1866; Rusling's Across America, 231, 250; S. F. Bulletin, July 20, 1858; S. F. Alta, March 4, 1862; Or. Laws, 1860, ap. 2; Census, 8th. 331; Ford's Road-makers, MS., 31; Or. Reports, iii. 169-70; Mc- Cormick's Portland Directory, 1872, 30-1; Or. Deutsch Zeitung, June 21, 1879; Portland Standard, July 4, 1879; Astorian, July 11, 1879; Portland Ore- gonian, April 20 and June 15, 1878; Richardson's Mississ., 401; Owen's Di- .rectory, 1865, 141; Bowles' Northwest, 482-3.
483
A DISASTROUS FLOOD.
Toward the last of November a deluge of rain began, which, being protracted for several days, inundated all the valleys west of the Sierra Nevada and Cascade ranges, from southern California to northern Wash- ington, destroying the accumulations of years of indus- try. No flood approaching it in volume had been witnessed since the winter of 1844. All over the Willamette the country was covered with the wreck- age of houses, barns, bridges, and fencing ; while cattle, small stock, storehouses of grain, mills, and other property were washed away. A number of lives were lost, and many imperilled. In the streets of Salem the river ran in a current four feet deep for a quarter of a mile in breadth. At Oregon City all the mills, the breakwater, and hoisting works of the Mill- ing and Transportation Company, the foundery, the Oregon Hotel, and many more structures were destroyed and carried away. Linn City was swept clean of buildings, and Canemah laid waste. Cham- poeg had no houses left; and so on up the river, every where.32 The Umpqua River rose until it carried away the whole of lower Scottsburg, with all the mills and improvements on the main river, and the rains destroyed the military road on which had been expended fifty thousand dollars.33 The weather con- tinued stormy, and toward christmas the rain turned to snow, the cold being unusual. On the 13th of January there had been no overland mail from Cali- fornia for more than six weeks, the Columbia was blocked with ice, which came down from its upper branches, and no steamers could reach Portland from the ocean, while there was no communication by land or water with eastern Oregon and Washington; which state of things lasted until the 20th, when the ice in the Willamette and elsewhere began breaking up, and the cold relaxed.
32 In the following summer the first saw-mill was erected at Gardiner.
38 Or. Statesman, Dec. 9 and 16, 1861. The rain-fall from October to March was 71.60 inches. Id., May 19, 1862.
484
WAR AND DEVELOPMENT.
Such a season as this coming upon miners and travellers in the sparsely settled upper country was sure to occasion disaster. It strewed the plains with dead men, whose remains were washed down by the next summer's flood, and destroyed as many as twenty- five thousand cattle. A herder on the Tucannon froze to death with all the animals in his charge. Travellers lay down by the wayside and slept the sleep that is dreamless. A sad tale is told of the pio- neers of the John Day mines, who were wintering at the base of the Blue mountains to be ready for the opening of spring, many of whom were murdered and their bodies eaten by the Snakes.34
The flood and cold of winter were followed in May by another flood, caused by the rapid melting of the large body of snow in the upper country. The water rose at The Dalles several feet over the principal streets, and the back-water from the Columbia over- flowed the lower portion of Portland. On the 14th of June the river was twenty-eight feet above low- water mark. The damages sustained along the Co- lumbia were estimated at more than a hundred thou- sand dollars, although the Columbia Valley was almost in its wild state. Added to the losses of the winter, the whole country had sustained great injury. On the other hand, there was a prospect of rapidly re- covering from the natural depression. The John Day mines were said by old California miners to be the richest yet discovered. This does not seem to have proved true as compared with Salmon River; but they were undoubtedly rich. By the 1st of July there were nearly a thousand persons mining and trading on the head waters of this river. New discov- eries were made on Granite Creek, the north branch of the North Fork of John Day, later in the season,
34 Of the perilous and fatal adventures of a party of express messengers and travellers in this region, John D. James, J. E. Jagger, Moody, Gay, Niles, Jeffries, Wilson, Bolton, and others, also of a party bound for the John Day River mines, full details are given in California Inter Pocula, this series.
485
JOHN DAY AND POWDER RIVER.
which yielded from twenty to fifty dollars a day. Nor were the mines the sole attraction of this region: the country itself was eagerly seized upon; almost every quarter-section of land along the streams was claimed and had a cabin erected upon it,35 with every prepara- tion for a permanent residence.
About a dozen men wintered in the Powder River Valley, not suffering cold or annoyed by Indians. This valley was found to contain a large amount of fertile land capable of sustaining a large population. It was bounded by a high range of granite mountains, rising precipitously from the western edge of the basin, while on the north and south it was shut in by high rolling hills covered with nutritious grass. To the east rose a lower range of the same rolling hills, beyond which towered another granite ridge similar to that on the west. The river received its numerous tributaries, rising in the south and west, and united them in one on the north-east side of the valley, thus furnishing an abundance of water- courses throughout.
In this charming locality, where a little handful of miners hibernated for several months, cut off from all the world, in less than four months after the snow blockade was raised a thriving town had sprung up and a new county was organized, a hundred votes being cast at the June election, and the returns being made to the secretary of state as "the vote of Baker county."58 The Grand Rond Valley had always been the admiration of travellers. A por-
35 Ehey's Journal, MS., viii. 237-8.
36 'They assumed to organize,' said the Statesman of June 23, 1862, 'and named the precinets Union and Auburn, and elected officers. One precinct made returus properly from Wasco county.' The legislative assembly in the following September organized the county of Baker legally by act. Sydney Abell was the first justice of the peace. He died in May 1863, being over 50 years of age. He was formerly from Springfield, III., but more recently from Marysville, Cal. Portland Oregonian, May 28, 1863. At the first mu- nicipal election of Auburn Jacob Norcross was clected mayor; O. M. Rowe recorder; J. J. Dooley treasurer; A. C. Lowring, D. A. Johnson, J . Lovell, D. M. Belknap, J. R. Totman, aldermen. Or. Statesman, Nov. 17, 1862. Umatilla county was also established in 1862.
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4S6
WAR AND DEVELOPMENT.
tion of the immigration of 1843 had desired to settle here, but was prevented by its distance from a base of supplies. Every subsequent immigration had looked upon it with envying eyes, but had been deterred by various circumstances from set- tling in it. It was the discovery of gold, after all, which made it practicable to inhabit it. In the win- ter of 1861-2 a mill site had been selected, and there were five log houses erected all at one point for greater security from the incursions of the Snake Indians, and the embryo city was called La Grande. It had at this date twenty inhabitants, ten of whom were men. It grew rapidly for three or four years, being incorported in 1864,37 and after the first flush of the mining fever, settled down to steady if slow ad- vancement.
The pioneers of Grand Rond suffered none of those hardships from severe weather experienced in the John Day region or at Walla Walla. Only eighteen inches of snow fell in January, which disappeared in a few days, leaving the meadows green for their cattle to graze on. La Grande had another advantage: it was on the immigrant road, which gave it communication with the Columbia. Another road was being opened eastward fifty miles to the Snake River, on a direct course to the Salmon River mines; and a road was also opened in the previous November from the west- ern foot of the Blue Mountains to the Grande Ronde Valley, which was to be extended to the Powder River Valley.33
37 Owens' Directory, 1865, 140; Or. Jour. House, 1864, 83. The French voyageurs sometimes called the Grand Rond, La Grande Vallée, and the American settlers subsequently adopted the adjective as a name for their town, instead of the longer phrase Ville de la Grande Vallée, which was meant.
38 The last road mentioned was one stipulated for in the treaty of 1855 with the Cayuse and Umatilla Indians, which should be 'located and opened from Powder River or Grand Rond to the western base of the Blue Moun- tains, south of the southern limits of the reservations.' The explorations were made under the direction of H. G. Thornton, by order of Wm H. Rector. The distance by this road from the base to the summit is sixteen miles; from the summit to Grand Rond River, eighteen miles; and down the river to the old emigrant road, twelve miles. It first touched the Grand Rond
487
THE GRAND ROND,
Such was the magical growth of a country four hundred miles from the seaboard, and but recently opened to settlement. In twenty years it had be- come a rich and populous agricultural region, holding its mining resources as secondary to the cultivation of the soil.
River about midway between Grand Rond and Powder River valley, and turned south to the latter from this point. Ind. Aff. Rept, 1861, 154; Port- lund Oregonian. Feb. 6, 1862.
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1859
CHAPTER XX.
MILITARY ORGANIZATION AND OPERATIONS.
1861-1865.
APPROPRIATION ASKED FOR-GENERAL WRIGHT-SIX COMPANIES RAISED- ATTITUDE TOWARD SECESSIONISTS-FIRST OREGON CAVALRY-EXPE- DITIONS OF MAURY, DRAKE, AND CURRY-FORT BOISÉ ESTABLISHED- RECONNAISSANCE OF DREW-TREATY WITH THE KLAMATHS AND MO- DOCS-ACTION OF THE LEGISLATURE-FIRST INFANTRY OREGON VOL- UNTEERS.
SOMETIME during the autumn or winter of 1860 the military department of Oregon was merged in that of the Pacific, Brigadier-general E. V. Sumner com- manding; Colonel Wright retaining his position of commander of the district of Oregon and Washington. The regular force in the country being much reduced by the drafts made upon it to increase the army in the east,1 Wright apologized for the abandoment of the country by troops at a time when Indian wars and disunion intrigue made them seem indispensable, but declared that every minor consideration must give way to the preservation of the union.2
Fearing lest the emigrant route might be left un- protected, a call was made by the people of Walla
1 There were only about 700 men and 19 commissioned officers left in the whole of Oregon and Washington in 1861. The garrisons left were 111 men under Captain H. M. Black at Vancouver; 116 men under Maj. Lugenbeel at Colville; 127 men under Maj. Steen at Walla Walla; 41 men under Capt. Van Voast at Cascades; 43 men under Capt. F. T. Dent at Hoskins; 110 men at the two posts of Steilacoom and Camp Picket; and 54 men under Lieut- colonel Buchanan at The Dalles. U. S. Sen. Doc., 1, vol. ii. 32, 37th cong. 2d sess. Even the revenue cutter Jo Lane belonging to Astoria was ordered to New York. Or. Argus, June 29, 1861.
2 See letter in Or. Statesman, July 1, 1861.
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489
INDIAN TROUBLES.
Walla Valley to form a company to guard the immi- gration, a plan which was abandoned on learning that congress had made an appropriation asked for by the legislature of $50,000 for the purpose of furnishing an escort.3
Although no violent outbreaks occurred in 1861, both the people and the military authorities were ap- prehensive that the Indians, learning that civil war existed, and seeing that the soldiery were withdrawn, might return to hostilities, the opportunities offered by the numerous small parties of miners travelling to and fro heightening the temptation and the danger.4 Some color was given to these fears by the conduct of the Indians on the coast reservation, who, finding Fort Umpqua abandoned, raised an insurrection, took possession of the storehouse at the agency, and at- tempted to return to their former country. They were however prevented carrying out their scheme, only the leaders escaping, and the guard at Fort Hos- kins was strengthened by a small detachment from Fort Yamhill. Several murders having been commit- ted in the Modoc, Pit River, and Pah Ute country, a company of forty men under Lindsey Applegate, who had been appointed special Indian agent, went to the protection of travellers through that region, and none too soon to prevent the destruction of a train of immigrants at Bloody Point, where they were found surrounded.5 On the appearance of Applegate's com-
3 Or. Argus, June 15, 1861; Cong. Globe, 1860-1, pt ii. 1213, 36th cong. 2d Bess .; Id., 1324-5; Id., app. 362.
+On the Barlow route to The Dalles the Tyghe Indians from the Warm Spring reservation murdered several travellers in the month of July. Among the killed were Jarvis Briggs, and his son aged 28 years, residents of Linu county, and pioneers of Oregon, from Terre Haute, Indiana. Or. Statesman, Aug. 26, 1861. The murderers of these two were apprehended and hanged. The Pit River Indians and Modocs killed Joseph Bailey, member elect to the Oregon legislature, in August, while driving a herd of 800 cattle to the Nevada mines. Bailey was a large and athletic man, and fought desperately for his life, killing several Indians after he was wounded. Samuel Evans and Jobn Sims were also killed, the remainder of the party escaping. Or. Statesman, Aug. 19, 1861.
5 Ind. Aff. Rept, 1863, 59; Portland Oregonian, Ang. 27, 1861; O. C. Ap- plegate's Morloc Hist., MS., 17. Present at this ambush were some of the Modocs celebrated afterward in the war of 1872-3; namely, Sconchin, Scar- face, Black Jim, and others.
490
MILITARY ORGANIZATION AND OPERATIONS.
pany the Modocs retreated, and no further violence occurred during the season. In anticipation of simi- lar occurrences, Colonel Wright in June 1861 made a requisition upon Governor Whiteaker for a cavalry company. It was proposed that the company be en- listed for three years, unless sooner discharged, and mustered into the service of the United States, with the pay and according to the rules and regulations of the regular army, with the exception that the com- pany should furnish its own horses, for which they would receive compensation for use or loss in service. A. P. Dennison, former Indian agent at The Dalles, was appointed enrolling officer; but the suspicion which attached to him, as well as to the governor, of sympathy with the rebellion, hindered the success of the undertaking, which finally was ordered discon- tinued,6 and the enlisted men were disbanded.
In the mean time Wright was transferred to Cali- fornia to take the command of troops in the southern part of that state, for the suppression of rebellion, while Lieutenant-colonel Albemarle Cady, of the 7th infantry, was assigned to the command of the district of Oregon. Soon after, Wright was made brigadier- general, and placed in command of the department of the Pacific.7 As troops were withdrawn from the
6 Or. Statesman, June 17 and Oct. 21, 1861; Or. Jour. House, 1862, app. 22-4.
" He was a native of Vt, graduated from West Point in 1822, and was pro- moted to the rank of 2d lieut in the 3d inf. in July, and to the rank of Ist lieut iu Sept. of the same year. He served in the west, principally at Jeffer- son Barracks, Mo., and in Indian campaigns on the frontier, until 1831, when he was transferred to La, with the 3d inf., occupying the position of adj. to that reg. until 1836, when he was promoted to a captaincy in the Sth inf. He served through the Florida war, and under the command of Gen. Taylor, fought at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma in Mexico, after which he was transferred to Scott's command. He received three brevets for gallant ser- vices before being promoted to the rank of maj., onc in the Florida war, one after the battles of Contreras and Churubusco, Mexico, and the last, that of col, after the battle of Molino del Rey. Wright came to the Pacific coast with the 5th inf. in 1852, holding the rank of maj., and was promoted to a colonelcy Feb. 3, 1855, and the following month was appointed to command the reg. of 9th inf., for which provision had just been made by congress. He went east, raised his regiment, and returned in Jan. 1856, when he was or- dered to Or. and Wash. He remained in that military district, as we have scen, until the summer of 1861. In Sept. he was ordered to S. F., and soon after relieved Gen. Sumner in the command of the department of the Pacific,
491
ENLISTING FOR THE WAR.
several posts in Oregon and Washington he replaced then with volunteer companies from California. On the 28th of October 350 volunteer troops arrived at Vancouver and were sent to garrison forts Yamhill and Steilacoom. On the 20th of November five com- panies arrived under the command of Major Curtis, two of which were despatched to Fort Colville, and two to Fort Walla Walla, one remaining at The Dalles.8
The attempt to enlist men through the state authori- ties having failed, the war department in November made Thomas R. Cornelius colonel, and directed him to raise ten companies of cavalry for the service of the United States for three years; this regiment being, as it was supposed, a portion of the 500,000 whose enlistment was authorized by the last congress. R. F. Maury was commissioned lieutenant-colonel, Benjamin F. Harding quartermaster, C. S. Drew major, and J. S. Rinearson junior major. Volun- teers for themselves and horses were to receive thirty- one dollars a month, $100 bounty at the expiration of service, and a land warrant of 160 acres. Notwith- standing wages on farms and in the mines were high, men enlisted in the hope of going east to fight.º Six
being appointed brig .- gen. on the 28th Sept. He remained in command till 1865, when, being transferred to the reestablished Oregon department, he took passage on the ill-fated Brother Jonathan, which foundered near Crescent City July 9, 1865, when Wright, his wife, the captain of the ship, De Wolf, and 300 passengers were drowned. North Pacific Review, i. 216-17.
8 S. F. Alta, Nov. 3 and 14, 1861; Sac. Union, Nov. 16 and 25, 1861. The officers at Walla Walla were Capt. W. T. McGruder, Ist dragoons, lieuts Reno and Wheeler, and surgeon Thomas A. McParlin. Capts A. Rowell and West, of the 4th Cal. reg., were stationed at The Dalles. Or. Statesman, Aug. 11 and Dec. 2, 1861.
" Says J. A. Waymire: 'It was thought as soon as we should become disciplined, if the war should continue, we would be taken east, should there be no war on this coast. For my own part, I should have gone to the army of the Missouri but for this understanding.' Historical Correspondence, MS. Camps were established in Jackson, Marion, and Clackamas counties. The first company, A, was raised in Jackson county, Capt. T. S. Harris. The second, B, in Marion, Capt. E. J. Harding. Company C was raised at Vancouver by Capt. William Kelly. D company was raised in Jackson county by Capt. S. Truax; company E by Capt. George B. Curry, in Wasco county; and company F, of the southern battalion, by Capt. William J. Matthews, principally in Josephine county. Captains D. P. Thompson, of Oregon City, and Remick Cowles, of Umpqua county, also raised companies,
492
MILITARY ORGANIZATION AND OPERATIONS.
companies being fully organized, the regiment was ordered to Vancouver about the last of May 1862, where it was elothed with United States uniforms, and armed with old-fashioned muzzle-loading rifles, pistols, and sabres; after which it proceeded to The Dalles.
On the 3d of June, Colonel Cornelius arrived at Fort Walla Walla with companies B and E, and took command of that post. About two weeks later the three southern companies followed, making a force of 600. The necessity for some military force at home was not altogether unfelt. The early reverses of the federal army gave encouragement to secession on the. Pacific coast. General Wright, on the 30th of April, 1862, issued an order confiscating the property of rebels within the limits of his department, and mak- ing sales or transfers of land by such persons illegal.10 Government officers refused to purchase forage or provisions from disloyal firms; and disloyal newspa- pers were excluded from the mails.11
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