USA > Oregon > Douglas County > History of southern Oregon, comprising Jackson, Josephine, Douglas, Curry and Coos counties, comp. from the most authentic sources > Part 34
USA > Oregon > Jackson County > History of southern Oregon, comprising Jackson, Josephine, Douglas, Curry and Coos counties, comp. from the most authentic sources > Part 34
USA > Oregon > Josephine County > History of southern Oregon, comprising Jackson, Josephine, Douglas, Curry and Coos counties, comp. from the most authentic sources > Part 34
USA > Oregon > Coos County > History of southern Oregon, comprising Jackson, Josephine, Douglas, Curry and Coos counties, comp. from the most authentic sources > Part 34
USA > Oregon > Curry County > History of southern Oregon, comprising Jackson, Josephine, Douglas, Curry and Coos counties, comp. from the most authentic sources > Part 34
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The next sequence of events that deserves notice, constitutes the " Humbug War," well known by that name in Northern California. The whole matter, which at one time threatened to assume serious proportions, grew out of a plain case of drunk. Two Indians-whether Shastas, Klamaths, or Rogue Rivers there is no evidence to show, but presumably from the locality of the former tribe-procured liquor and became intoxicated, and while passing along Humbug ereek in California, were met by one Peterson, who foolishly meddled with them. Becoming enraged, one of the Indians shot him, inflicting a mortal wound ; as he fell he drew his own revolver and shot his opponent in the abdomen. The Indians started for the Klamath river at full speed, while the alarm was given. Two companies of men were instantly formed and sent out to arrest the perpetrators. The information that an Indian had shot a white man was enough to arouse the whole community, and no punishment would have been deemed severe enough for the culprit if he had been taken. The citizens found on the next day a party of Indians who refused to answer their questions as they wished, so they arrested three of them and set out for Humbug with them. While on the road, two of the three escaped, the other one was taken to Humbug, examined before a justice of the peace and for want of evidence discharged. When the two escaped prisoners returned to their camp, it was the signal for a massacre of whites. That night (July 28) the Indians of that band passed down the Klamath, killing all but three of the men work- ing between Little Humbug and Horse creeks. Eleven met their death at that time, being William Hennessy, Edward Parish, Austin W. Gay, Peter Hignight, John Pol- lock, four Frenchmen and two Mexicans. Excitement knew no bounds; every man constituted himself an exterminator of Indians, and a great many of that unfortunate race were killed, without the least reference to their possible guilt or innocence. Many miserable captives were deliberately shot, hanged or knocked into abandoned prospeet holes to die. Over twenty-five natives, mostly those who had always been friendly, were thus disposed of. Even infancy and old age were not safe from these " avengers," who were composed chiefly of the rowdy or " sporting " class.
Meantime some had said that the Indians who had committed the massacre had gone north. On the dissemination of this report, preparations for a pursuit were rapidly made, and about the first of August five companies of volunteers started for the north side of the Klamath. These were commanded by Captains Hale, Lynch,
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Martin, Kelly and Ream-the latter's men being mounted, while the others were on foot. The total force amounted to about two hundred. The Indians were found to have fled beyond the Klamath, and the volunteers, finding their trail, followed it closely. The pursued were carrying the man whom Peterson wounded, and had gone over the summit of the Siskiyou range, and down into the valley of the Applegate, and made for the reservation at Fort Lane. When the five companies reached Sterling creek, they camped, finding the Indians had escaped them and gone to the reservation. Here they held a meeting, and like all Americans in seasons of public anxiety, passed resolutions. Those were of the following tenor:
STERLING, Oregon, August 5, 1855.
At a meeting of the volunteer companies of Siskiyou county, State of California, who have been organized for the purpose of apprehending and punishing certain Indians who have committed depredations in our county, E. S. Mowry, Esq., was elected chairman, Dr. D. Ream, secretary, and the following resolutions were unanimously adopted :
WHEREAS, Certain Indians, composed of the Klamath, Horse Creek, and a portion of the Rogue River tribe, on or about the twenty-seventh or twenty-eighth of July, 1855, came upon the Klamath river, and there ruthlessly and without provocation. murdered eleven or more of our fellow-citizens and friends, a portion of whom we know to have escaped into the reservation near Fort Lane, Rogue river valley, Oregon territory, from the fact of having tracked them into said valley and from testimony of certain responsible and reliable witnesses ; it is, therefore,
Resolved, That a committee of five men, one from each company now present, be chosen to present these resolutions to Captain Smith, U. S. A., commandant at Fort Lane, and Mr. Palmer, the Indian agent for Oregon territory. We would respectfully request Captain Smith, U. S. A., and Mr. Palmer, Indian agent, that they would, if in their power, deliver up to us the fugitive Indians who have fled to the reservation, in three days from this date, and if at the end of this time they are not delivered to us, together with all the stock and property, we would most respect- fully beg of Captain Smith, U. S. A., and the Indian agent full permission to apprehend the fugi- tive Indians, and take the property wherever it may be found.
Resolved, That if at the expiration of three days the Indians and property are not delivered to us, and the permission to seek for them is not granted, then we will, on our own responsibility, go and take them where they may be found, at all and every hazard.
Resolved, That the following-named gentlemen compose the committee :
E. S. MOWRY, Chairman.
DR. D. REAM, Secretary.
E S. MOWRY, J. X. HALE, A D. LAKE, WILLIAM PARRISH, A. HAWKINS,
Committee.
The committee went to Fort Lane and found that some of the stock stolen by the Indians was there, and that two Rogue River Indians who had been concerned in the massacre were then in the guard house. The committee waited upon Captain Smith, presented their credentials, and demanded the surrender of the stock and criminals. The Captain said that the animals would be delivered up on proof of ownership, but that the Indians could on no account be surrendered, except to the properly constituted authorities. Lieutenant Mowry then told him plainly that they came after the Indians and proposed to have them, if it was necessary to take them by force. This was too much for hot-tempered Captain Smith to endure. Threats from a citizen to a regular army officer were unheard-of in his experience. He stormed furiously, declined to submit to dictation, and invited the bold Californians to put their threats in execution. They left, declaring that if the Indians were not forthcoming in three days they would
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take the fort by storm. The camp was then removed to a point within three or four miles of the fort, and the volunteers began to mature plans for its capture. Captain Smith made arrangements to repel attacks, placing his artillery (two or three small cannon) in position, loaded and trained upon the approaches, and suspended the visits of troops to the surrounding camps. The invaders evolved a plan for making the soldiers drunk, whereby they might enter the fort, but this fell through on account of communications being sundered ; and within a day or two they left for their homes, feeling that a war against the government might terminate injuriously to them.
After the war of 1855-6 closed, the Indian criminals in question, two in number, were surrendered to the sheriff of Siskiyou, upon a warrant charging them with mur- der. They were taken to Yreka, and kept in jail until the grand jury met, and no indictment being found, they were released. But it happened that a number of men in that town had determined that the savages should die. As they walked forth from the jail these men locked arms with them, led them out of town, shot them and tum- bled their bodies into an old mining shaft where their bones yet lie.
Years later appropriations were made by congress for the pay of the men belong- ing to the five companies, and about 1870 a number of them actually received compen- sation for their services in this expedition.
On the second of September an affray occurred in the upper part of Bear creek valley, Jackson county, which resulted in the death of a white man and the wounding of two others. A few days previously, some Indians, by some supposed to belong to the gang which committed the eleven murders on the Klamath, stole some horses from B. Alberding. The owner summoned his neighbors to assist in recovering them, and a very small company set out on the quest. Following the trail, they walked into an ambuscade of savages, and were fired upon. Granville Keene was killed, Alberding was wounded by a ball that struck him above the eye, J. Q. Faber was shot through the arm, and another man received a wound in the hand. The party hastily retired, leaving the body of Keene where it fell. On the following day a detachment of troops from Fort Lane proceeded to the scene of conflict and obtained the much mutilated remains, but the Indians, of course, were gone. The savages who were concerned in this diabolism were said by different accounts to number from five to thirty.
The next event of the sort is a still more serious one, which occurred on the twenty-fifth of September, and involved the death of two persons. On the previous day Harrison B. Oatman and Daniel P. Brittain, of Phoenix, and Calvin M. Fields, started from Phoenix, each driving an ox-team loaded with flour destined for Yreka. Camping the first night near the foot of the Siskiyou mountains, the train started up the ascent the next morning, doubling their teams frequently as was made necessary by the steepness of the road. . When within three hundred yards of the summit, Oat- man and Fields advancing with two teams and one wagon, while Brittain remained with two wagons and one team, the latter heard five shots fired in the vicinity of the men in advance. Hurrying up the rise he quickly came in sight of the teams, which were standing still, while an Indian was apparently engaged in stripping a fallen man. Turning back, Brittain ran down the mountain, followed by a bullet from the Indian's rifle, but made his way unhurt to the Mountain House, three miles from the scene of the attack. Six men hastily mounted and returned to the summit. Oatman, mean -
WALLING-LITH-PORTLAND-OR.
RESIDENCE OF C. C. MCCLENDON, SAM'SVALLEY, JACKSON CO.
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while had escaped, and got to Hughes' house (now Byron Cole's) on the California side, and obtained help. He reported that at the time the attack began, a youth named Cunningham, who was returning from Yreka with a team, was passing Oatman and Fields when the attack was made, and that he was wounded at the instant Fields fell dead. The latter's body was lying in the road, stripped, but Cunningham was only found the next day, lying dead by a tree behind which he had taken refuge. The exact spot where the catastrophe occurred-says Mr. Brittain, who still resides at Phoenix-is where the railroad tunnel enters from the Oregon side. It is the gentle- man's opinion that about fifteen Indians were concerned in the attack. The date mentioned, September twenty-fifth, is taken from Mr. Robinson's diary, although Mr. Brittain is of the opinion that it took place three days later. Newspaper accounts give the twenty-fourth as the proper date. On the following day Samuel Warner was murdered on Cottonwood creek, not far from the scene of the other tragedy, and most likely by the same Indians. At nearly the same time, two men, Charles Scott and Thomas Snow, were killed on the trail between Yreka and Scott Bar. These repeated killings (whose details are not now known) produced a very considerable degree of alarm, but no military measures of importance were taken, except by the officials at Fort Lane, who sent forty mounted troops to the various scenes of bloodshed, but these returned without having effected anything.
Our account now approaches the beginning of the war of 1855-6, by some thought to have been the result of the incidents above recounted. It is truly difficult at this time to accord these circumstances their proper influence in the acts which followed. It is evident that the people of Rogue river valley toward the end of the summer of 1855, must have felt an additional degree of insecurity, but that it was wholly in con- sequence of the murders which had previously taken place does not seem probable, inasmuch as these murders were committed outside the valley. Their legitimate results could hardly have been sufficient to stir up a general war against the Indians, so we are left to conjecture the growth of a public sentiment determined upon war. The vast majority of settlers, wearied of constant anxiety, heartily and unaffectedly believed that the removal of the Indians was desirable and necessary. Whatever may have been the exact status of the war party, and whatever the influence of the speculative branch of it, it is clear there was no outspoken opposition such as would have been created by a general sentiment in favor of peaceful methods. Almost the only out- spoken advocate of Indians' rights was compelled to leave the country of his adoption from fear of personal violence. Whoever doubts the acerbity of public sentiment at that date, will do well to pause here and digest that statement, comparing with it the tenor of the editorial remarks to be found in the Sentinel at that time. If that paper were a truthful exponent of public opinion, and we believe it was, there must have existed a condition of feeling analogous to that in the southern states in the monthis preceding the rebellion. If such publications may be trusted to gauge public senti- ment, the feeling of absolute enmity against the natives must have increased ten-fold since the signing of the Lane treaty. And as there was nothing in the conduct of the Indians to fully warrant this, we shall not, probably, be far out of the way in assign- ing inch of it to the influence of those who, for various reasons, desired war. Un- doubtedly this view will fail to please those whose belief as to the cause of the war of
32
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1855-6 is founded upon current traditions; but such should remember that those tradi- tions date their commencement from a time when it was extremely unpopular, even dan- gerons, to oppose the war, and as unpopular to print or speak anything of an opposing character. It has thus far been regarded as indisputable fact that Indian outrages brought on the war, and were the sole cause of it. Keeping in view the principle with which we set out, that the war was unavoidable from the very nature of things, it seems a fair and impartial conclusion that it could have been, by the use of tact and justice, postponed at least for a time. Instances might be multiplied to show the drift of public sentiment at the time of which we speak; pages might be written and endless quotations made; but it would seem that the foregoing paragraphs set forth the state of affairs with sufficient clearness. The existence of a war party was assured; and with the unexpected stimulus of the terrible massacre of October ninth, this war party proved powerful enough to effect the deportation of the Indians-a fact not to be regretted. Previous to that date no excuses were deemed necessary for even the most violent measures; but when criticism subsequently awoke, editorials were written, affidavits prepared, and another war (of words) was fought to prove the first one neces- sary. For as matters then existed outside sympathy had to be created-the conscien- ces of some people had to be calmed-some men had to be made heroes of-appropri- ations had to be got-and congress had to be won over.
It is undoubtedly true that those writers and speakers who have attempted to apologize for or extenuate certain acts having a bearing on the question have most blunderingly performed their task. To effect this end required a high degree of tact and skill, both of which it would appear were wanting at that date. For example : Although we have evidence to show that the Lupton incident was the work partly of hair-brained enthusiasts and professed ruffians who in no sense represented the com- munity, still their act was adopted and defended by those who took it upon themselves to advocate the what they styled the cause of the people of Southern Oregon. The act should have been promptly repudiated as of too brutal a nature to represent the wishes of an enlightened and humane public. In other respects these apologists far overstepped the bounds of tact and prudence. Officials of the United States government were antagonized, thereby endangering governmental support. Column after column of the Sentinel, the only paper then published south of Salem, was filled with abuse of Gene- ral Wool, Joel Palmer and other officials, and violent recriminations concerning the conduct of the war generally. The result of this was that the government become sus- picious and sent an agent to investigate, as has been before remarked.
It has always been regarded as a remarkable circumstance that the Indians on and near the reservation should have been (with the exception of Sam's band) fully prepared for an outbreak exactly at the time when the " exterminators " made their attack at the mouth of Little Butte creek, thereby furnishing an all sufficient reason for such outbreak. A still more suggestive fact is the simultaneous beginning of war in Oregon and Washington territory-a fact so striking as to suggest the collusion of those widely separated tribes. How this concert of action was brought about, several have attempted to explain, but never in a satisfactory manner. Leaving this subject we will proceed to consider the Lupton affair.
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INDIAN WARS.
On the seventh of October, 1855, a party of men, principally miners and men- about-town, in Jacksonville, organized and armed themselves to the number of about forty (accounts disagree as to number), and under the nominal leadership of Captain Hays and Major James A. Lupton, representative-elect to the territorial legislature, proceeded to attack a small band of Indians encamped on the north side of Rogue river near the mouth of Little Butte creek a few miles above Table Rock. Lupton, it appears, was a man of no experience in bush fighting, but was rash and headstrong. His mili- tary title, says Colonel Ross, was unearned in war and was probably gratuitous. It is the prevailing opinion that he was led into the affair through a wish to court popu- larity, which is almost the only incentive that could have occurred to him. Certainly it could not have been plunder; and the mere love of fighting which probably drew the greater part of the force together was perhaps absent in his case. The reason why the particular band at Butte creek was selected as victims also appears a mystery, although the circumstances of their location being accessible, their numbers small, and their reputation as fighters very slight, possibly were the ruling considerations. This band of Indians appear to have behaved themselves tolerably ; they were pretty fair Indians, but beggars, and on occasion thieves. They had been concerned in no considerable outrages that are distinctly specified. The attacking party arrived at the river on the evening of the seventh, and selecting a hiding place, remained therein until daylight, the appointed time for the attack. The essential particulars of the fight which followed are, when separated from a tangle of contradictory minutiæ, that Lupton and his party fired a volley into the crowded encampment, following up the sudden and totally unex- pected attack by a close encounter with knives, revolvers, and whatever weapon they were possessed of, and the Indians were driven away or killed without making much resistance. These facts are matters of evidence, as are also the killing of several squaws, one or more old decrepit men, and a number, probably small, of children. The un- essential particulars vary greatly. For instance, Captain Smith reported to govern- ment that eighty Indians were slaughtered. Other observers, perhaps less prejudiced, placed the number at thirty. Certain accounts, notably that contributed to the States- man by A. J. Kane, denied that there were any "bucks" present at the fight, the whole number of Indians being women, old men, and children. It is worth while to note that Mr. A. J. Kane promptly retracted this supposed injurious statement, and in a card to the Sentinel said he believed there were some bucks present. Certain "Indian fighters," also appended their names to the card.
The exact condition of things at the fight, or massacre, as some have characterized it, is difficult to determine. Accounts vary so widely that by some it has been termed a heroic attack, worthy of Leonidas or Alexander; others have called it an indiscriminate butchery of defenceless and peaceful natives, the earliest possessors of the soil. To temporize with such occurrences does not become those who seek the truth only, and the world would be better could such deeds meet at once the proper penalty and be known by their proper name. Whether or not Indian men were present does not con- cern the degree of criminality attached to it. The attack was indiscriminately against all. The Indians were at peace with the whites and therefore unprepared. To fitly characterize the whole proceeding, is to say that it was Indian-like.
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The results of the matter, were the death of Lupton, who was mortally wounded by an arrow which penetrated his lungs, the wounding of a young man, Shepherd by name, the killing of at least a score of Indians, mainly old men, and the revengeful outbreak on the part of the Indians, whose account forms the most important part of this history.
CHAPTER XXIX.
THE MASSACRE OF OCTOBER NINTH, AND WAR IN GRAVE CREEK HILLS.
A Memorable Day-The Indians Leave the Reservation-The Murder of Twenty People- Women in Cap- tivity-Mrs. Harris Defends her Family-Volunteers to the Rescue-General State of Alarm-An Army Organized-An Example of Promptness-Siege of Galice Creek-Discovery of the Indians' Where- abouts-Lieutenant Kautz Surprised-Expedition to Hungry Hill- Battle at Bloody Spring-A Defeat- Causes-The Volunteers and Regulars Disagree-A Parallel-Proclamation of Governor Curry-Army Reorganized -- The Indians Retreat to the Meadows.
Immediately succeeding the event last detailed, came a series of startling and lamentable occurrences, which produced an impression on the community which the lapse of over a quarter of a century has by no means effaced. The ninth of October, 1855, has justly been called the most eventful day in the history of Southern Oregon. On that day nearly twenty persons lost their lives, victims to Indian ferocity and cruelty. Their murder lends a somber interest to the otherwise dry details of Indian skirmishes, and furnishes many a romantic though saddening page to the annalist who would write the minute history of those times. A portion of the incidents of that awful day have been written for publications of wide circulation, and thus have become a part of the country's stock-in-trade of Indian tales. Certain of them have taken their place in the history of our country along with the most stirring and romantic episodes of border warfare. Many and varied are this country's legends of hair- breadth escapes and heroic defense against overpowering odds. There is nothing told in any language to surpass in daring and devotion the memorable defense of the Har- ris home. Mrs. Wagner's mysterious fate still bears a melancholy interest, and while time endures the people of this region cannot forget the mournfully tragic end of all who died on that fateful day.
As the present memories describe it, the attack was by most people wholly unex- pected, in spite of the previous months of anxiety. The recklessness of the whites who precipitated the outbreak by their conduct at the Indian village above Table Rock, had left unwarned the outlying settlers, upon whose defenseless and innocent heads fell the storm of barbaric vengeance. Early on the morning of October ninth, the
WALLING . LITH -PORTLAND-OK,
FARM RESIDENCE OF CONRAD MINGUS, 3 MILES NORTH EAST OF JACKSONVILLE, JACKSON Co.
.
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bands of several of the more warlike chiefs gathered at or near Table Rock, set out traveling westward, down the river, and transporting their families, their arms and other property, and bent on war. It is not at this moment possible to ascertain the names of those chiefs, nor the number of their braves; but it has been thought that Limpy, the chief of the Illinois band, with George, chief of the lower Rogue river band, were the most prominent and influential Indians concerned in the matter. Their numbers, if we follow the most reliable accounts, would indicate that from thirty-five to fifty Indians performed the murders of which we have now to discourse. Their first aet was to murder William Goin or Going, a teamster, native of Missouri, and em- ployed on the reservation, where he inhabited a small hut or house. Standing by the fire-place in conversation with Clinton Schieffelin, he was fatally shot, at two o'clock in the morning. The particular individuals who accomplished this killing were, says Mr. Schieffelin, members of John's band of Applegates, who were encamped on Ward creek, a mile above its mouth, and twelve miles distant from the camp of Sam's band.
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