USA > Oregon > Multnomah County > Portland > History of Portland, Oregon : with illustrations and biographical sketches of prominent citizens and pioneers > Part 3
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EARLY HISTORY OF OREGON.
Captain Bonneville was a United States army officer, who had been given permission to lead a party of trappers into the fur regions of the Northwest, the expedition being countenanced by the government only to the extent of this permit. His object, as given by Irving, was: " To make himself acquainted with the country, and the In- dian tribes; it being one part of his scheme to establish a trading post somewhere on the river (Columbia), so as to participate in tlie trade lost to the United States by the capture of Astoria." He and his companions were kindly received by an officer of the Hudson's Bay Company, but when Captain Bonneville asked for supplies, and his lieretofore genial host was made aware of the intention to found a rival trading post on the Columbia, "he then" says Bonneville, "as- sumed a withered up aspect and demeanor, and observed that, how- ever he might feel disposed to serve him personally, he felt bound by his duty to the Hudson's Bay Company to do nothing which should facilitate or encourage the visit of other traders among the Indians in that part of the country."
Bonneville returned home without establishing a post, but in the following year again visited the Columbia River country with quite a large force of trappers and mountain inen and an extensive stock of goods for traffic with the Indians. But the Hudson's Bay Company's officers liad instructed the Indians not to trade with the new comers, and they refused to have anything to do with the Americans. Thus hemmed in and unable to carry on trade Bonneville was forced to abandon the field and leave the English company , practically in un- disputed possession.
Nathaniel J. Wyeth, a Boston inerchant, was another unsuccessful contestant with the Hudson's Bay Company. With eleven inen he made the trip overland to Vancouver in 1832. But he had the inis- fortune to lose his supply ships containing all of his goods while on
within the ever moaning sound of the mighty cataract of the beautiful river, while the humble stone that marks his grave bears this simple inscription :
DR. JOHN MCLOUGHLIN,
DIĘD
September 3rd, 1857, Aged 73 Years.
The Pioneer and Friend of Oregon, also the Founder of this City.
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
the way around Cape Horn, and thus being withont means to carry on business he returned east. Two years later he organized the Col- umbia River Fishing and Trading Company, with a view of contin- ning operations on the Pacific Coast under the same general plan that had been outlined by Astor, adding, however, salmon fishing to the fur trade. Despatching the brig Mary Dacres for the mouth of the Columbia loaded with necessary supplies, he started overland with sixty experienced men. Near the headwater of Snake River he built Fort Hall as an interior trading post, and on Wapatoo Island near the mouth of the Willamette he established Fort Williams. Like his predecessor, Bonneville, he found the Indians completely under the control of the Hudson's Bay Company and it was impossible to establish business relations with them. This fact, including a scarcity of sal- mon in the Columbia River for two successive seasons, as well as ungenerous treatment on the part of his own countrymen engaged in the fur trade, induced him in a spirit of retaliation upon the Ameri- can traders, after an experience of three years, to sell Fort Hall to the British Company.
The two rival American fur companies were consolidated in 1835, as the American Fur Company. To this company and to a few in- dependent American trappers, after the retirement of Bonneville and Wyeth, was left the work of competing with the English corporation. For a few years the unequal struggle was continued, but eventually the Hudson's Bay Company almost wholly absorbed the trade.
While we have been tracing the unsuccessful attempt of the American fur traders to gain a foothold in Oregon, it must be borne in mind that it was not the first effort after the failure of the Astor party to secure the occupation of the country by American settlers. As early as 1817, Hall J. Kelley, of Boston, began to advocate the immediate occupation of the Oregon territory. He became an en- thusiast upon the subject and spent his time and considerable money in promoting a scheme for emigration to the country. In 1829 he procured the incorporation, by the commonwealth of Massachusetts, of " The American Society for the Settlement of the Oregon Terri- tory." This society presented a memorial to Congress in 1831, set- ting forth that it was " engaged in the work of opening to a civilized
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EARLY HISTORY OF OREGON.
population that part of Western America called Oregon." The memoralist state that: "They are convinced that if the country should be settled under the auspices of the United States of America, from such of her worthy sons who have drunk the spirit of those civil and religious institutions which constitute the living fountain and the very perennial source of her national prosperity, great benefits must result to mankind." They further stated: "that the country in question is the most valuable of all the unoccupied portions of the earthi," and designed by Providence "to be the residence of a people whose singular advantages will give them unexampled power and pros- perity."
Congress, however, busy with other political abstractions did not even take the time to investigate or in any way encourage this scheme of colonization. In fact the conduct of the national legisla- ture all through the early struggle for the acquisition of the Oregon territory was halting and dilatory; and had Congress been solely relied upon, Oregon might have became a dependency of Great Britain. The society, however, having constituted Mr. Kelley its general agent, continued its efforts despite the indifference of Congress. In 1831, Mr. Kelley published a pamphlet entitled: "A General Circular to all Persons of Good Character who wish to Einigrate to the Oregon Territory," which set forth the general objects of the society. The names of thirty-seven agents are given in the pamphlet, from any of whom persons desiring to become emigrants to Oregon under its anspices might obtain the proper certificate for that purpose. These agents were scattered over the Union. One of them was Nathaniel J. Wyeth, whose unfortunate fur and fishing ventures have been related. The expedition was to start from St. Louis in March, 1832, with a train of wagons and a supply of stock. Each emigrant was to receive a town and farm lot at the junction of the Columbia and Multnomah Rivers and at the month of the foriner, where seaports and river towns were already platted.
But the scheme bore no immediate fruit. The failure of Congress to take any action in the matter destroyed its force as an organized effort, and only two of its original promoters, Mr. Kelley and Mr. Wyeth ever visited the scene of the proposed colony. Nevertheless [3]
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
the agitation of the project brought the country favorably before the public, and here and there set certain special forces and interests in motion, which in due time materially aided the consum- mation for which Mr. Kelley and Mr. Wyeth so devoutly wished and so long labored. Although their efforts proved financial fail- ures they were not without results conducive to American occupa- tion. Several of the persons who accompanied Wyeth as well as those who came with Kelley, remained and were the beginning of the independent American settlers in the country.
AAmong them were the well known names of Edwin Young, James .A. ('Neil, T. J. Hubbard, Courtney M. Walker and Solomon Smith, all of whom afterwards exerted a positive influence in favor of American interests. There were also two men of French descent-Joseph Gervais and Etienne Lucier, who had come out with Wilson P. Hunt's party and whose sympathies were American. All toll, in 1835, aside from the missionaries, there were about twenty- five men in Oregon who were favorable to the United States.
To Wyeth's expedition must also be given the credit of bringing the first missionaries to Oregon. In his supply ship, the Mary Dacres, came Rev. Jason Lee, Rev. David Lee, Cyrus Shephard and P. L. Edwards. They were sent out by the missionary society of the Methodist Episcopal Church to establish mission stations among the Indian tribes on the Pacific Coast. They established the first station in Oregon in the Willamette Valley, about ten miles below where Salem now stands. Their professed object in coming to the country, as may be said of those of other religions denominations who followed them, was purely a religious one-to convert the Indians to the christian faith-rather than to occupy the country and establish therein an American community. They were not the sort of men who ordinarily develop the resources of a country, but a combination of circumstances ultimately made them of great advan- tage to the carly pioneers and of great benefit to the country. The missionary stations they established became points for future Amer- ican settlement and trade. When they found their missionary labors among the Indians were attended with but seanty harvest, the secular spirit became strong, and gradually the desire grew
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EARLY HISTORY OF OREGON.
among them to become a permanent colony rather than remain mere sojourners among the Indians. "Before long," says Judge Deady, " they began to build and plant as men who regarded the country as their future home. They prospered in this world's goods and when the emigration came flowing into the country from the west, they found at the Willamette Mission, practically an American settlement, whose influence and example were favorable to order, industry, sobriety and economy, and contributed materially to the formation of a moral, industrious and law-abiding community out of these successive waves of unstratified population."
The effective force of the Methodist Missions was increased from 1834 to 1840 by the arrival of Rev. A. F. Waller and wife, Rev. G. Hines and wife, Rev. L. H. Hudson and wife, George Abernethy and wife, H. Campbell and wife, and Dr. J. L. Babcock and wife. Most of those named came in 1840 by sea, around Cape Horn. By their arrival the character of the Mission underwent somewhat of a change. It assmined more of the character of a religious community or associa- tion, than of simple missionaries, actuated by the zeal of its founders to preach the Gospel to the heathen. They saw the necessity of devoting more of their time to the interest and welfare of the white settlers than to the Indians. They began to look upon the country as an inviting one for settlement, for trade, for commerce, and to make permanent homes for themselves and their children. Schools were established and churches were built by them, and thus a nucleus for a colonial settlement was created, which in later years was of essential benefit to the community at large.
The Methodist missionaries were followed by Presbyterian min- isters, in 1837, who, sent out by the American Board of Foreign Missions, came across the Rocky Mountains and remained among the Indians east of the Cascade Mountains. At their head was Dr. Marcus Whitman, who took up his residence among the Cayuse In- dians at Wailatpu, in the Walla Walla Valley. His co-laborers were Rev. H. H. Spalding and W. H. Gray, who were stationed among the Nez Perces Indians, at Lapwai, and among the Flatheads at Alpona. The first two brought their wives with them, they being the first women who crossed the plains. Two years later Rev.
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
Cushing Eells and Rev. Elkanah Walker and their wives established another mission among the Spokane Indians in the vicinity of Fort Colville. Of these missionaries Dr. Whitman was the one at this time most thoroughly alive to the importance of securing Oregon as an American possession against the claims of Great Britain. He was intensely American in all his feelings; a man of indomitable will and perseverance in whatever he undertook to accomplish, whom no danger could daunt and no hardship could deter from the perform- ance of any act which he deemed it a duty to discharge. Gray gave up the mission work in 1842 and settled in the Willamette Valley, and was one of the most active supporters of American inter- ests, and a determined promoter of the organization of the provisional government.
In 1838 the Roman Catholics entered the field. The representa- ters of this church leaned to British interests, and made their headquar- ters at Vancouver. Their influence and teachings among the people were naturally in favor of the authority and interest of the Hudson's Bay Company. They discouraged the early attempt at the formation of a government by American settlers in the country, but submitted to it when established. They pursued their missionary labors zealously throughout the entire region dominated by the Hudson's Bay Com- pany, and founded subordinate missions in many widely separated localities. Between them and the Protestant missionaries bitter hos- tility soon sprang up, and the ignorant savage was pulled hither and hither and given to understand that he was the bone of contention between the two religions, the representatives of each declar- ing by word and deed that the other was false. In the work of proselyting the Catholics were the more successful, and the Protestant missions, as such, were discontinued within ten years.
The Catholic missionaries devoted their time not only to the In- dians, but ministered to the Canadian French, who, after leaving the Hudson's Bay Company, settled in the Willamette Valley and on the Cowlitz. The Willamette Falls was selected by the company in 1829 as a place of settlement for its retired servants. It had previously been the policy of the company not to permit settlements to be made by their servants whose term of service had expired, since they deemed
your Ourclient derount
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EARLY HISTORY OF OREGON.
such settlements detrimental to the preservation of the region as a fur-producing wilderness. But the company was bound under heavy penalties not to discharge any of its servants, even after they could render no service, and was therefore forced to provide homes for them where they could to a degree be self-supporting. They were still retained on the company's books as its servants, and still inclined, as British subjects, to uphold and maintain the supremacy of Great Britain in the country where they lived. The settlement at Willan- ette Falls did not prosper, and a few years later it was abandoned. The ex-servants then located near Champoeg, in Marion County, and became quite a flourishing colony, and there their descendants live to the present day, useful and industrious citizens. 1142490
At the close of 1837 the independent population of Oregon con- sisted of forty-nine souls, about equally divided between Missionary attaches and settlers. With but few exceptions, the arrivals during the next two years were solely of persons connected with the various Missions whose advent has already been noted. The settlers who followed then were moved by no religious incentive. Some were independent trappers from the Rocky Mountains, who had become enamnored of the beautiful Willamette valley, and had come here to settle down from their life of danger and excitement. Some of them were sailors, who had concluded to abandon the sea and dwell in this land of plenty, while still others were of that restless, roving class, who had by one way and another, reached this region in advance of the waves of emigration which swept into it a few years later. Including the arrivals of 1840, among whom were Dr. Robert Newell and Joseph L. Meek, there were in the Fall of that year (exclusive of the officers and employees of the Hudson's Bay Company), one hundred and thirty-seven Americans in Oregon, nearly all in the Willamette Valley, about one-third of whom were connected with the Missions in some capacity. There were also sixty Canadian settlers, former employees of the Hudson's Bay Company, who had left the service of the company and settled in the Willamette Valley, and who eventually cast the weight of their influence on the side of the independent American settlers, as those unconnected with either of the Missionary societies or Hudson's Bay Company were called.
36
HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
Up to 1839, the only law or government administered in this region, was the rule of the Hudson's Bay Company, but in that year, deeming that there should be some authority that settlers would respect, the Methodist Missionaries appointed two persons to act as magistrates. This, the independent settlers acquiesced in, although it had been done without their co-operation or consent. So far as the latter class were concerned they were, through the inat- tention and neglect of Congress, absolutely without government or laws of any kind. The Missionaries had rules and regulations established by themselves which governed them in their social intercourse with each other, and united them in a common cause for their mutual protection. But the independent settlers had not even that security for their lives or their property. By their own gov- ermment, which ought to have thrown around them its protecting care, they were treated literally as political outcasts, nor was Con- gress unaware of their condition. On January 28, 1839, Hon. Lewis F. Linn, one of the United States Senators from Missouri, and the most zealous and indefatigable champion of the American settlers in Oregon and of the claims of the United States to the Oregon Territory, presented to the Senate a petition of J. L. Whitcomb and thirty-five other settlers in Oregon, which in simple and touch- ing language set forth the conditions of the country, its importance to the United States, its great natural resources and necessity of civil government for its inhabitants. The settlers thus plead with the Nation's Representatives:
" We flatter ourselves that we are the germ of a great State, and are anxious to give an early tone to the moral and intellectual character of our citizens-the destiny of our posterity will be intimately affected by the character of those who emigrate. * But, a good community will hardly emigrate to a country which promises no protection to life or property. We can boast of no civil code. We can promise no protection but the ulterior resort of self defense. *
* * We do not presume to suggest the manner in which the country should be occupied by the government, nor the extent to which our settlement should be encouraged. We confide in the wisdom of our national legislators and leave the subject to their candid deliberations. "
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EARLY HISTORY OF OREGON.
The petition concluded by urging the necessity of assumption of jurisdiction of the territory by the United States, and of the inaugu- ration of energetic measures to secure the execution of all laws affecting Indian trade and the intercourse of white men and Indians. " The security" said the petitioners, "of our persons and our prop- erty, the hopes and destinies of our children, are involved in the objects of our petition."
This petition was read, laid on the table and neglected. In June, 1840, Senator Linn again presented a memorial signed by seventy citizens of Oregon, praying Congress to extend Federal juris- diction over the territory, in which the government was warned that the country is too valuable to be lost, that attempts were being made by the rival nations to reduce it to possession, and that appear- ances indicated British intent to hold exclusively the territory northi of the Columbia. Then modestly invoking the attention of Con- gress to the region because of its national importance, they concluded with this patriotic prayer: "Your petitioners would beg leave especially to call the attention of Congress to this, our condition as an infant colony, without military force or civil institutions to protect their lives and property and children, sanctuaries and tombs, from the hands of uncivilized and merciless savages around thein.
"We respectfully ask for the civil institutions of the American Republic-we pray for the high privileges of American citizen- ship; the peaceful enjoyment of life; the right of acquiring, possess- ing and using property and the unrestrained pursuits of rational happiness."
This memorial, like the preceding one, was laid on the table and forgotten by a majority of the Senators to whom it was addressed. Senators Linn and Benton almost alone remained the true and tried friends of Oregon. The former, during three terms of Congress liad not only introduced and urged consideration of bills for the purpose of extending the jurisdiction and laws of the United States over the ter- tory of Oregon, but had also urged the passage of bills granting do- nations of the public lands in Oregon to citizens who had settled there. He did not live to see the measures he had so zealously ad- vocated become laws, but eight years after his death the legislative
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
Assembly of Oregon, in a spirit of gratitude and out of affectionate regard for his memory gave his name to one of the largest and mnost productive counties in the territory.
Why Congress suffered the petitions of the settlers in Oregon to lie unheeded, why it failed to protect them by extension of laws over the territory, as the English government had done for British sub- jeets, must remain a matter of conjecture. But it must be borne in mind that at this time, in the judgment of many of the leading men of the day, Oregon was regarded as valueless and unpractical for American settlement. Statesmen and publicists had been wont to speak derisively of the idea that American civilization would press westward of the Rocky Mountains and secure a foot hold on the shores of the Pacific. Among the first recognition on the part of Congress of such a country as Oregon, which occurred in 1825, on the introduction of a bill by Mr. Floyd, of Virginia, "authorizing the occupation of the Oregon river," Senator Dickinson, of New York, assailed the measure in a sarcastic speech in which he claimed that it would never become a State, that it was 4650 miles from the seat of the Federal Government, and that a young and able-bodied senator might travel from Oregon to Washington and back once a year, but he could do nothing more. He closed his speech with the remark: "as to Oregon Territory, it can never be of any pecuniary advantage to the United States,"-a conclusion which subsequent events and the present situation and prosperity of the State prove him to have been little of a sage and a miserable failure as a prophet. As late as 1843, when Senator Linn's bill was introduced in the senate of the United States, providing for granting land to the inhabitants of Oregon Territory, a senator said, in the disenssion of the bill: " For whose benefit are we bound to pass this bill? Why are we to go there along the line of military posts and take possession of the only part of the territory fit to occupy-that part lying upon the sea coast, a strip less than a hundred miles in width ; for, as I have already stated, the rest of the territory consists of mountains almost inaccessible, and low lands covered with stone and volcanic remains ; where rain never falls except during the spring, and even upon the coast no rain falls from April to October, and for the
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EARLY HISTORY OF OREGON.
remainder of the year there is nothing but rain. Why, sir, of what use will this be for agricultural purposes? I would not for that purpose give a pinch of snuff for the whole territory. I would to God we did not own it. I wish it was an impassible barrier to secure us against intrusion of others. This is the character of the country." This extract will give an idea how dense was the ignorance concern- ing Oregon less than half a century ago by a man presumptively of more than average reading and informnation.
But a new force was about to appear on the scene that was to demonstrate the falsity of the ideas held by many pretentious and assuming statesmen; that was to prove that the 3,500 iniles of land lying between the nation's capital and the mouth of the Columbia could be traversed by the ordinary means of conveyance ; that was to settle the question of America's right to the country, and force Congress to extend the protection and blessings of our forin of government over all the great country lying between the two oceans. It was the home-seeking emigrants, with their wives and children, flocks and herds, who in wagon trains began to make the long pilgrimage across the plains. This movement, on the basis of any magnitude did not begin until after 1840. Then began that steady stream of young, vigorous life which has annually flowed into Oregon for nearly half a century, the end of which will not be seen for many years. Deep causes existed, which moved this living stream to force its way across rocky barriers and arid plains. Very naturally the movement began in the region then known as the West, and had its greatest strength in Missouri, Illinois and Iowa. Trappers returning to St. Louis had sung the praises of the lovely and fertile valley of Willamette, where winter was unknown and the grass remained green all the year round. The Western frontiersmen caught up the refrain as it passed from cabin to cabin, and in a few years the tale was an old one to the pioneers of the West. The panic of 1837 and the consequent stagnation of business, had produced a feeling of despondency in the West, and especially in the States named where there was no market for stock or produce; where credit, public and private was destroyed, and a large number of persons were looking anxiously about for means of subsistence. This state of things
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