USA > Oregon > Douglas County > History of southern Oregon, comprising Jackson, Josephine, Douglas, Curry and Coos counties, comp. from the most authentic sources > Part 15
USA > Oregon > Jackson County > History of southern Oregon, comprising Jackson, Josephine, Douglas, Curry and Coos counties, comp. from the most authentic sources > Part 15
USA > Oregon > Josephine County > History of southern Oregon, comprising Jackson, Josephine, Douglas, Curry and Coos counties, comp. from the most authentic sources > Part 15
USA > Oregon > Coos County > History of southern Oregon, comprising Jackson, Josephine, Douglas, Curry and Coos counties, comp. from the most authentic sources > Part 15
USA > Oregon > Curry County > History of southern Oregon, comprising Jackson, Josephine, Douglas, Curry and Coos counties, comp. from the most authentic sources > Part 15
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Mr. Hunt, after halting one or two days to enable his followers to celebrate, in their forlorn way, the advent of a new year that had presented to them the Grand Ronde valley, a kind of winter paradise in the mountains, continued his course to the west. The Blue mountain ridge was passed, and January 8, 1812, an Indian village on the Umatilla river close to the mountains was reached, where they were hospitably received. From there their route was down this stream to the Columbia river, thence to the mouth of the latter, arriving at Astoria February 15, 1812.
Since leaving Fort Henry, October 19, 1811, out of Mr. Hunt's party, two men had been drowned on Snake river, and poor Michael Carriere, when exhausted, had straggled behind in Grand Ronde valley and was never heard from afterwards. Ram- sey Crooks, John Day and four Canadian voyageurs, had been left half dead on Snake river to remain in the Indian country, die, or reach the Columbia as they best could. Eleven men, among whom were Donald McKenzie, Robert Mclellan and the unfortu- nate John Reed, had been detached on Snake river, and following that stream until its waters mingled with the Columbia, had reached Astoria a month in advance of Mr. Hunt. Mr. Stuart, when returning from his post on the Okinagan, during the first days of April, found Mr. Crooks and John Day on the banks of the Columbia river without weapons, nearly starved, and as naked as when born, having been robbed and stripped by the Dalles Indians. They had wintered in the Blue mountains about Grand Ronde valley, and had reached the Walla Wallas in the spring, who had fed, suecored, and sent them on their way rejoicing down the river. When found, they were making their way back to these early friends of the Americans, who never failed to assist our people when in trouble. At length all but three of those starting from the head waters of Snake river for Astoria had reached that place except the four voyageurs, and later they, too, were found by a return party. On the ninth of May, after Mr. Hunt's arrival, the ship Beaver, with reinforcements and supplies, anchored at Astoria, and the Pacific Fur Company was in condition to enter upon a vigorous fur gathering campaign.
Mr. Hunt, who was at the head of affairs, set out in July for Alaska to fulfill the mission upon which the ill-fated Tonquin had sailed, and his departure left Duncan MeDougal in charge. Prior to this, however, the various expeditions to trap waters and trade with natives between the Rocky and Cascade mountains had started, sixty- two strong, up the Columbia. Among the number was the unfortunate John Day,
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and, as the party approached the scenes of his former sufferings his mind became delirious, and the mere sight of an Indian would throw him into a frenzy of passion. He finally attempted his own life, but was prevented from taking it, after which a con- stant guard was kept over him. It was at length determined to send him back to Astoria, and being placed in charge of two Indians, he was delivered by them at the fort where he died in less than a year. His old compeers and staunch friends, who had shared perils and privations with him, were forced to continue their journey with a sad memory of this companion, whose brain had been shattered by his many mis- fortunes. The stream which had witnessed his many sufferings still bears the heroic trapper's name.
The arrival of trappers at the present site of Wallula, on the twenty-eighth of July, 1812, was the signal for general rejoicing among the friendly Walla Wallas, who greeted them with bonfires, and a night dance, in which they sang the praises of their white friends. Here the four expeditions were to separate, Robert Stuart to cross the continent by Hunt's route ; David Stuart to go up the Columbia to Okina- gan ; Donald MeKenzie to establish a post in the Nez Perce country ; and John Clarke to locate one among the Spokane Indians. Of these several expeditions, Robert Stuart, with his party, including Crooks and MeLellan, reached St. Louis eleven months later, bearing news to Mr. Astor of his enterprise on the Pacific coast. Mckenzie's opera- tions were a failure; David Stuart's success was equal to his most sanguine hopes, and Mr. Clarke's efforts resulted second only to those of Mr. Stuart.
On the twenty-fifth of May, 1813, Mr. Clarke started from his post on the Spo- kane to reach the Walla Walla, the place agreed upon as a general rendezvous, where the different expeditions were to meet and return to Astoria with the furs obtained in their operations during the past season. On his way up, Mr. Clarke had left his canoes in charge of a Palouse chief, living at the mouth of the river of that name, with whom he found them on his return. He had twenty-eight horse packs of furs, and all his men were in high spirits because of the success that had attended their year's work. While stopping at the mouth of this stream to repair their canoes, in which to embark upon the river, an incident happened that cannot well be passed in silence.
Mr. Clarke was a strong disciplinarian, something of an aristocrat, and disposed to inpresss those with whom he came in contact with the dignity of his presence and per- son. He was in the habit of carrying a silver goblet to drink from, and its glittering presence, carefully guarded by its possessor, became an object of strange and strong attraction to the superstitious Indians. In all their land, no such wondrous device had been seen before. They talked to each other concerning it, watched its appearance, and the care with which its lucky possessor laid it away after using. Possibly it was a great medicine, like the spotted shirt and the white quilt among the Cour d'Alenes, or a powerful talisman to ward off danger or shield its owner from harm, a sort of ark near which the great Manitou dwelt. One night it disappeared, and Mr. Clarke was enraged. He threatened to hang the first Indian detected in stealing, and the next night an unfortunate one was caught in the act. A hasty trial followed, and the prisoner was condemned to die, when Mr. Clarke made the assembled savages a speech. He recounted the numerous gifts that had been bestowed, the benefit the white man's
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presence had been to their people, and then, upbraiding them for thefts, told the Indians that he should kill the thief he had captured with pilfered goods. The old chief and his followers besought him to not do this. They were willing that he should be punished severely, and then let go, but the trapper was inexorable, and the poor groveling wretch was dragged to a temporary scaffold, constructed from oars, and was launched into eternity. The other partners of the Pacific Fur Company were unanimous in condemning this act, and Gabriel Franchere, who was one of the company clerks, wrote concerning the killing of the unfortunate John Reed and his party by Indians the ensuing winter: "We had no doubt that his massacre was an act of vengeance, on the part of the natives, in retaliation for the death of one of their people, whom Mr. John Clarke had hanged for theft the spring before." Immediately after this hanging the party embarked for the mouth of the Walla Walla, where Stuart and Mckenzie were waiting, and from this point they all continued their way down the river, arriving at Astoria, June 12, 1813.
Upon re-assembling at headquarters, the return expeditions found that, upon the whole, it had been a successful year's labor, that the peltry brought in, amounting to 157 packs, if sold at market rates in Canton, would pay well for the time spent, and reimburse them for local losses. In addition to this, they had become well established in the fur producing regions, and the outlook was very encouraging except for one thing. War had been raging between Great Britain and the United States for over a year, and they had recently become aware of this fact.
On their arrival at Astoria, J. G. McTavish with nineteen men was found camped near by, awaiting the appearance of a vessel called the Isaac Todd, sent by the North- west Company with stores for them, with letters of marque, and instructions from the British government to destroy everything American found on the Pacific coast. This latter fact was unknown at Astoria at the time, however, but the non-arrival of supplies by sea, combined with the unfavorable news of British success in arms, led the partners to fear that none whatever would reach them. They, consequently, determined to abandon the country, and start on their return overland the ensuing year, if their mis- givings proved well founded. They sold their Spokane fort to McTavish for $848, and then furnished that gentleman with provisions to enable him to return to the upper country ; and, in July, they visited the interior themselves to gather what furs they could before taking final leave of the country.
Three months later, MeTavish returned to Astoria with a force of seventy-five men for the purpose of meeting the vessel that had caused his former visit, bringing, also, the news that her coming to the Columbia was for the purpose of capturing Astoria, and to assist the Northwest Company in gaining ascendancy on the coast. He offered to buy the furs of the Astorians, and, on the sixteenth of October, 1813, a transfer of the entire stock, worth at least $100,000, was made for less than $40,000. Two months later, on December 12, the fort was surrendered to the English under command of a naval officer, Captain Black of the Raccoon, when the American flag was lowered to give the British colors place, and the name of Astoria was changed to Fort George. An amusing incident of this transfer is related by John Ross Cox. "The Indians, at the mouth of the Columbia, knew well that Great Britain and America were distinct nations, and that they were then at war, but were ignorant of the arrangement made between
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WALLING - LITH - PORTLAND-OR.
CRATER LAKE, JACKSON COUNTY.
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Messrs. MeDougal and MeTavish, the former of whom still continued as nominal chief at the fort. On the arrival of the Ruccoon, which they quickly discovered to be one of 'King George's fighting ships,' they repaired, armed, to the fort, and requested an audience of Mr. MeDougal. He was somewhat surprised at their numbers and war- like appearance, and demanded the object of such an unusual visit. Concomly, the principal chief of the Chinooks, (whose daughter MeDougal had married,) thereupon addressed him in a long speech, in the course of which he said that King George had sent a ship full of warriors, and loaded with nothing but big guns, to take the Ameri- cans and make them all slaves, and that, as they (the Americans) were the first white men who settled in their country, and treated the Indians like good relations, they had resolved to defend them from King George's warriors, and were now ready to conceal themselves in the woods close to the wharf, from whence they would be able, with their guns and arrows, to shoot all the men that should attempt to land from the English boats, while the people in the fort could fire at them with their big guns and rifles. This proposition was uttered with an earnestness of manner that admitted no doubt of its sincerity. Two armed boats from the Raccoon were approaching; and, had the people in the fort felt disposed to accede to the wishes of the Indians, every man in them would have been destroyed by an invisible enemy. Mr. MeDougal thanked them for their friendly offer, but added, that, notwithstanding the nations were at war, the people in the boats would not injure him or any of his people, and therefore requested them to throw by their war shirts and arms, and receive the strangers as their friends. They at first seemed astonished at this answer ; but, on assuring them, in the most pos- itive manner, that he was under no apprehension, they consented to give up their weapons for a few days. They afterwards declared they were sorry for having complied with Mr. MeDougal's wishes; for when they observed Captain Black, surrounded by his officers and marines, break the bottle of port on the flag-staff, and hoist the British ensign, after changing the name of the fort, they remarked that however he might wish to conceal the fact, the Americans were undoubtedly made slaves."
Seventy-eight days after the surrender of Astoria to the British, Mr. Hunt arrived at that fort in the brig Pedlar, and judge of his astonishment, to learn that McDongal was a partner no longer of the Pacific, but of the Northwest Company; that he held possession not under the American, but under the English flag; and that all in which Mr. Hunt was interested on this coast had passed, without a struggle, through treachery, into the hands of his country's enemies. Mr. Hunt, finally, secured the papers pertaining to business transactions of the Pacific Fur Company from Me- Dougal, and then sailed, April 3, 1814, from the shore that had seemed to yield only misfortune and disaster in return for the efforts of himself, and those with whom he was associated. The next day, David Stuart, Mckenzie, John Clarke and eighty-five other members and employes of the Pacific Fur Company started up the Columbia river in their boats on their way across the continent, and while passing Wallula, learned from the widow of Pierre Dorion, of the massacre of John Reed and his eight associates, among the Snake Indians near Fort Henry. 14
CHAPTER XIV.
JOINT OCCUPATION OF OREGON.
The Russian Settlements They Establish Themselves at Bodega Bay-Treaty of Ghent-Restoration to the United States of Astoria, or Fort George -- Treaty of Joint Occupancy in 1818 The Florida Treaty of 1819-Fierce Rivalry between the Hudson's Bay and Northwest Companies-The War on Red River-Consoli- dation of the Rival Companies-Description of the Hudson's Bay Company.
During the years that had elapsed since the Russian American Trading Com- pany was chartered, that organization had become exceedingly powerful, establishing many posts on the Alaskan coast and carrying on the fur trade in a systematic and successful manner. In 1799 a settlement was made on King George III. archipelago near Mount Edgecumb, near the 56th parallel. This was destroyed by the natives in 1803, and was rebuilt in 1805, and was then called New Archangel of Sitka. This became the capital of Russian America and so remained until Alaska was purchased by the United States. This was the most southerly settlement at that time, but in 1806 preparations were made to occupy the mouth of the Columbia, which was con- sidered by the company to be embraced within the limits of the country over which their monopoly charter from the czar extended. The execution of this project was deferred for a time, and, as we have seen, was in a few years rendered impossible because of prior possession of the Americans and English. In 1812 the governor of the company, whose headquarters were at Sitka, requested and received permission of the Spanish governor of California to leave a few men on the shore of Bodega bay, a few miles north of Yerba Buena (San Francisco) for the purpose of preparing meat and supplies for their posts in the north. In a few years this little station had become a fortified settlement, and the governor's request and peremptory order to vacate were treated with contempt ; nor were they ever driven from their post, but abandoned it in 1840 at the request of the United States government. During the years of their occupancy many voyages of trade and exploration were made, some of them at the expense of much suffering and many lives, adding materially to the geographical knowledge of the upper portion of the Pacific and the Arctic ocean above Siberia and about Behring's strait.
The treaty of Ghent, which ended the war of 1812, provided that " all territory, places, and possessions, whatsoever, taken by either party from the other during the war, or which may be taken after the signing of this treaty, shall be restored without delay." It failed, however, because the commissioners could not agree, to define a dividing line between the American territory of Louisiana and the possessions of the British, west of the Lake of the Woods. In pursuance of this treaty, Mr. Astor, who was eager to recover possession of Astoria and resume his trading operations in the Pacific, applied to the president for restitution of his property. The minister of Great
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Britain at Washington was accordingly notified in July, 1815, that the United States would at once reoccupy the captured fort at the mouth of the Columbia ; but no ap- parent notice was taken of this by the English government. It was not until Septem- ber, 1817, that actual steps were taken to carry into effect this resolution, and then the sloop of war Ontario was dispatched on this errand, the captain, J. Biddle, and J. B Prevost, his associate commissioner, being instructed to assert the claim of the United States to the sovereignty of the country adjacent to the Columbia, but to do so in a friendly and peaceable manner.
Soon after the departure of the Ontario the representative of Great Britain offi- cially inquired of Secretary Adams the destination and object of the vessel, and was informed that it was directed to take possession of the post at the mouth of the Colum- bia, which, since no attention had been paid to the notification of two years before, it had been assumed Great Britain had no idea of claiming as rightfully hers. This was answered by saying that the post had been purchased by the Northwest Company, subjects of his majesty, from private individuals, and as it was situated in a region which that company had long occupied it was considered as forming a portion of his majesty's dominions. Much controversy was carried on between the two governments on the questions of abstract right and actual possession. It was finally agreed that the post should be restored to the United States but its property should still belong to its purchasers, while the right of dominion over the country should be left for future nego- tiation. The Ontario arrived at Valparaiso in February, 1818, where Mr. Prevost landed to transaet official business with the Chilean government. Captain Biddle con- tinned to the Columbia, sailing into that stream in the month of August and taking formal possession of the surrounding country in the name of the United States. He then departed for other portions of the Pacific. In the meantime Captain Sheriff, of the English navy, having orders to deliver up Fort George, met Mr. Prevost in Chili and offered him passage to the Columbia for that purpose in the frigate Blossom. They entered the river early in October, when Mr. Keith, the gentleman in charge surrendered possession, having been instructed to that effect by the officers of the com- pany. A paper was given to Mr. Prevost setting forth the fact that, in pursuance of orders from the government, Fort George, on the Columbia river, was surrendered to him as the representative of the United States, and he in return gave the officers a written acceptance of the transfer. The British flag was then lowered and the Amer- ican ensign was temporarily displayed over the walls of Fort George, while it was courteously saluted by the guns of the Blossom. Thus the matter stood, the Ameri- cans nominally and the British actually in possession of Oregon.
During the time the Northwest Company had occupied this post many improve- ments had been made, so that the Fort George of 1818 was far different from the Astoria of five years before. A stockade of pine logs, twelve feet high above the ground, enclosed a parallelogram of 150x250 feet, within which were dwellings, store- houses, magazines, shops, etc., all defended by two eighteen-pounders, six six-pounders, four four-pound carronades, two six-pound cohorns, and seven swivels, armament sufficient for a strong fort in those days. The population consisted of twenty-three whites, twenty-six Kanakas and sixteen Canadian half-breeds. The company was not disturbed in the possession of this important post, and Mr. Astor was finally compelled
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to abandon all hope of recovering his property through the action of the government, and not deeming it advisable to found a rival establishment, was reluctantly compelled to abandon his projects in the Pacific altogether.
Negotiations still continued between the two governments during these transac- tions of their agents, and on the twentieth of October, 1818, a treaty of compromise was signed, providing that all territories and their waters west of the Rocky mountains should be free and open to the vessels and to the use and occupation of the citizens and subjects of both nations for the period of ten years, and that no claim of either party should in any manner be prejudiced by this action, and that neither should gain any right of dominion by such use or occupation during the time specified. On the twenty-second of February, 1819, a treaty was concluded between the United States and Spain, generally known as the Florida treaty, by which Spain ceded to the United States her province of Florida and all her rights, claims and pretensions to any territories north and east of a line drawn from the source of the Arkansas north to the 42d parallel and thence west to the Pacific. The 42d parallel remained the boundary between the United States and Mexico until Texas, then California, and still later New Mexico and Arizona were conquered or purchased by the former, and was considered the southern boundary of Oregon.
Fierce rivalry had existed for many years between the Hudson's Bay Company and its energetic competitor. The despised rival had grown in wealth and power until the Northwest Company, though not protected by royal charter and not having vast terri- tories over which to exercise the right of dominion, had become an organization even more wealthy and powerful than the chartered monopoly. In the plenitude of its power it gave employment to 2,000 voyageurs, while its agents penetrated the wilder- ness in all directions in search of furs. The Hudson's Bay Company had confined itself to its granted territory, and had not even explored that with enlightened energy, their method of conducting the business being to build a few posts at central points, to which the Indians repaired for purposes of trade. On the contrary, it was the policy of the rival organization to send its agents far and wide, to trade with the natives and open up new fields of operation. This aggressive policy soon had the effect of arousing the old company to a realizing sense of the precarious condition of its affairs, and the necessity for taking energetic steps to recover the ground it was rapidly losing. The result of the rivalry, growing chiefly out of the improvident methods of the Northwest Company, was so alarming a decrease in the fur-bearing animals as to threaten their complete extinction. A systematic effort was made to crush the old company, or to at least drive its representatives from the most valuable beaver country, with the hope of finally compelling a surrender of its charter.
The first act of actual hostility, other than mere trade rivalry, was committed in 1806, when a trader of the Hudson's Bay Company was forcibly deprived of 480 packs of beaver skins, and a few months later of fifty more. The same year another trader was attacked and robbed of valuable furs by servants of the Northwest Company, and received similar treatment again the following spring. These acts of plundering were numerous, and since no law but the law of might existed in the wilderness, there was no redress for the despoiled company nor punishment for the offenders, since the latter were Canadians and their victims citizens of England and not possessed of facilities
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WALLING. LITH. PORTLAND, OR.
PHILIP DA MOTTA'S BARBER SHOP. U.S. SIGNAL SERVICE OFFICE, UPSTAIRS. ROSEBURG.
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for securing redress in the courts of Canada. In twelve years but one case was brought to trial, in 1809, when a Hudson's Bay Company man was convicted of manslaughter for killing an agent of the other company who was making an attack upon him with a sword ; and this result was accomplished by the powerful influence of the Northwest Company in Montreal.
In 1812, having received a grant of fertile land from the Hudson's Bay Company, Lord Selkirk, a man of energy and an enthusiast on the subject of colonial emigration, commenced a settlement on Red river near its junction with the Assiniboine, south of Lake Winnipeg. No sooner was this accomplished than the rival company expressed a determination to destroy the settlement, and in the autumn of 1814 fitted out an ex- pedition for that purpose at its chief establishment, Fort William, on the shore of Lake Superior. After harrassing the settlement for some months, an attack was made upon it in June, 1815, which was repulsed. Artillery having been brought up, the buildings of Fort Gibraltar, the strong hold of the settlement, were battered down and the place captured. The governor was sent to Montreal a prisoner, the remainder of the settlers were expelled from the country, the cattle were slaughtered and the buildings demol- ished. In the fall, however the colonists returned with a great accession to their num- bers and again established themselves under the leadership of Colin Robertson, being accompanied by Robert Semple, governor of the Hudson's Bay Company territories. In the spring of 1816, Alexander McDonnell, a partner of the Northwest Company collected a strong force with the design of crushing the settlement completely. After capturing the supply train on its way to Red river, the invading force came upon Governor Semple and a force of thirty men all of whom they killed, except one who was made a prisoner and four who escaped. The settlers still remaining in the fort, seeing the hopelessness of resistance, surrendered, and to the number of 200 were sent in canoes to Hudson's bay. They were chiefly Scotch, as were also the attacking party ; but the love of gain was stronger than the ties of blood.
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