USA > Oregon > Sources of the history of Oregon > Part 7
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Wyeth, Leonard
72
XCVIII
Boardman, Wm. H.
73 73
C
Hall and Tucker and Williams
73
CI
Wyeth, Leonard
78 79
CIII
Wyeth, Jacob
79
CIV
Baker, Joseph, and Son
79 80
CVI
Livermore, S. K.
81
CVII
Jarvis, Leonard
CVIII
Hall and Tucker and Williams
82
CIX
Von Phull and McGill
83
CX
Wyeth, Leonard
83
CXI
Baker, Joseph, and Son
84
CXII
Simpson, George
84 85
CXIV
Jarvis, Leonard
85
C.XV
Perry, Rev. Clark
89
CXVI
Samuel and More
90
CXVII
Von Phull and McGill
91
CXVIII
Worthington, James
91
CXIX
Wyeth, Charles
91
CXX
Cass, Lewis
92
C.XXI
Rockhill, Thomas C., and Co.
93
CXXII
Wyeth, Leonard
93
CXXIII
Tucker and Williams
94
CXXIV
Tucker and Williams
94
C.K.YI
Tucker and Williams
94
CXXVI
Samuel and More
94
CXXVII
Sublette, M. G.
95
Page 66 67 68 68
LXXXII LXXXIII LXXXIV LXXXV LXXXVI LXXXVII LXXXVIII
Abbot, Wiggin
Samuel, E. M.
Samuel, E. M.
70 70 71
71 71 71
XCIX
Wyeth, Jonas
CII
Editors
CV
Perry, Rev. Clark
CXIII
Wyeth, Charles
7
C
x
CONTENTS
Persons addressed
Page
CXXVIII
Tucker and Williams
95 96
CXXIX CXXX
Sublette, M. G.
96
CXXXI
Wyeth, Charles
96
CXXXII
Sublette, M. G.
97 98 99 100
CXXXVI
Wyeth, Charles
100
CXXXVII
Samuel and More
001 IO2
CXXXIX
Wyeth, Leonard
103
CXL
Nuttall, Thomas
CXLI
Dana, Samuel L.
CXLII
Perry, Rev. Clark
CXLIII
Hallet
-
105 IO5
CXLVI
Sublette, W'm. L.
105
CXLVII
Nuttall, Thomas
106
CXLVIII
Thing, Joseph
107
CXLIX
Wyeth, Charles
107
CL
Tucker and Williams
107
CLI
Pickering, Jno.
108
CLII
Tucker and Williams
108
CLIII
Sublette, Wm. L.
109
CLIV
Rockhill, Thomas C., and Co.
109
CLV
Wyeth, Charles
109
CLVI
Tucker and Williams
109
CLVII
Tucker and Williams
IIO
CLVIII
Sublette, Wm. L.
IIO
CLIX
Tucker and Williams
IIO
CLX
Wyeth, Jacob
III
CLXI
Lee, Rev. Jason
III
CLXII
Tucker and Willliams
III
CLXIII
Thing, Captain Joseph
113
CLXIV
Thing, Captain Joseph
II3
CLXV
Wyeth, Leonard
I13'
CLXVI
Wyeth, Leonard
113 114
CLXVIII
Grant and Stone
114
CLXIX
Thing, Captain Joseph
114
CLXX
Metcalf, Col. E. W.
115
CLXXI
Powers, Deborah
115
CLXXII
Thing, Captain Joseph
115
CLXXIII
Bradenburgh, Jno.
1:6
CLXXIV
Tucker and Williams
116
1
CXXXIII
Samuel and More
CXXXIV
Abbot, Wiggin
CXXXV
Seaton, Alfred
CXXXVIII
Samuel and More
103 104 IC4 104
CXLIV
Cousin Noah
CXLV
Wyeth, Charles
Wyeth, Leonard
CLXVII
Tucker and Williams
二
CONTENTS
xi
Persons addressed
Page
CLXXV
Thing, Captain Joseph
II7
CLXXVI
Thing, Captain Joseph Wife
117
CLXXVII
117
Tudor, F.
118
Tucker and Williams
119
CLXXX
Bradenburgh, Jno.
120
CLXXXI
Thing, Captain Joseph
121
CLXXXII
Tucker and Williams
121
CLXXXIII
Grant and Son
121
CLXXIV
Allison and Anderson
121
CLXXXV
Thing, Captain Joseph
I22
CLXXXVI
Von Phull and McGill
122
CLXXXVII
Tucker and Williams
122
CLXXXVIII
Brown, James
122
CLXXXIX
Wyeth, Charles
122
CXC
Samuel and More
123
CXCI
Brown, James
123
CXCII
Grant and Stone
123
CXCIII
Tucker and Williams
124
CXCIV
Wyeth, Jacob
125
CxCV
Nuttall, Thomas
126
CXCVI
Samuel and More
127
CXCVII
Samuel and More
127
CXCVIII
Wyeth, Leonard
128
CXCIX
Wife
128
CC
Samuel and More
129
CCI
Grant and Stone
129
CCII
Tucker and Williams
129
CCIII
Tucker and Williams
129
CCIV
Tucker and Williams
₫ 30
CCV
Tucker and Williams
131
CCVI
Tucker and Williams
131
CCVII
Tucker and Williams
¥32
CCVIII
Fitzpatric, Thomas
a 32
CCIX
Fitzpatric, Thomas, and Co.
132
CCX
Fenno, James W.
133
CCXI
Tudor, F.
134
CCXII
Jarvis, Leonard
135
CCXIII
Parents
135
CCXIV
Wife
135
CCXV
Brown, James
1 36
CCXVI
Metcalf, Col. E. W.
136
CCXVII
Wyeth, Charles
137
CCXVIII
Wyeth, Leonard
£37
CCXIX
Von Phull and McGill
I38
CCxx
Tucker and Williams
138
CCXXI
Sublette, M. G.
140
CLXXVIII CLXXIX
- -
xii
CONTENTS
Persons addressed
Page
CCXXII
Von Phull and McGill
140
CCXXIII
Ermatinger, Francis
140
CCXXIV
Payette, Francis
14I
CCXXV
Bonneville, Captain
141
CCXXVI
Bonneville, Captain
142
CCXXVII
Jarvis, Leonard et al
142
CCXXVIII
Stewart, Captain William
142
CCXXIX
Tudor, Frederic
142
CCXXX
Fenno, James W.
:43
CCXXXI
Brown, James
144
CCXXXII
Wife
144
CCXXXIII
Wyeth, Jacob
145
CCXXXIV
Wyeth, Leonard
145
CCXXXV
Wyeth, Charles
146
CCXXXVI
Jarvis, Leonard
146
CCXXXVII
Richardson
147 148
CCXXXIX
Tudor, Frederic
149
CCXL
Brown, James
150
CCXLI
Jarvis, Leonard
151
CCXLII
Wyeth, Charles
152
CCXLIII
Wyeth, Leonard
I53
CCXLIV
Parents
153
CCXLV
Wife
154
JOURNALS
First Expedition Second Expediton 221-251
155-219
Letter and Statement Pertaining to Land Claim 253-256
Index
257 -- 262
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CCXXXVIII
Weld
Introduction
The American people are just experiencing some startling disclosures of the depth of significance to them in their destiny springing from the fact that they have a territorial basis contin- ental in its proportions. Their facing of the two oceans through so much of the north temperate zone of itself affords a mighty leverage among the nations of the earth.
The main story of the making of this nation holds two fairly equal interwoven threads-one follows the development of a new order of national institutions; the other shows the lead of that instinctive craving of a progressive people for a territorial basis adequate for their destiny. Who will say which national motive inspired the larger measure of the heroic? The victories of arms have been more resounding where issues of freedom and equality were at stake. There is, however, no brighter page of American history than that which records the victory of American diplomacy when in 1783 against the greatest odds the "father of waters" was secured for our western boundary. And what could have been more sagacious than the stroke of 1803 through which our national domain was more than doubled?
Thrilling were the achievements of George Rogers Clark in the winter of 1778-9 and grand the work of the American commis- sioners at Paris in 1783, still our expansion to the Pacific is a tale of pioneering. The ensigns of an axe on the shoulder of a pioneer, a pack horse, and a "prairie schooner" with a household as occupants-all facing westward -tipify our rise to a world power.
Our national progress towards the occupation of the continent assumed an especially interesting phase in the thirties. During this decade all conditions were maturing for that grand migratory on-sweep across the plains in the forties and fifties. The van- guard of the pioneers had reached the western limits of Iowa, Mis- souri and Arkansas. Settlement of the plains beyond before the age o. railroads was out of the question. The next move then must be as it were a flight to the Pacific coast where communication with the civilized world would again
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INTRODUCTION
be open by the sea. But it was a move the difficulties and dangers of which were appalling. All the previous history of the world had enforced the principle that broad belts of uninhabitable country and high mountain ranges constituted the natural limits of national territory. To overturn this god Terminus and lead the way to a wider and higher national destiny called for effort that was heroic. Wyeth and Whitman will always stand as re- presentative American heroes because of their resolute initiative and achievement in connection with this American problem of ex- pansion to continental proportions.
Let us note the elements of the situation at the opening of the year 1832, when Nathaniel J. Wyeth had first matured his plans for an expedition to the Oregon Territory. A quarter of a century had elaps ed since Lewis and Clark had threaded the valleys of the upper Mis- souri and followed the waters of the Columbia to the western ocean. An accurate account of the character of the country and its in- habitants had been immediately given to the world. The Winships in 1809 and then Astor in 1811 made attempts at occupation with trading posts. Nearly twenty years had now gone since these ventures had suffered dismal discomfiture. These failures had not provoked renewed efforts for the conquest of the difficulties involved in the occupation of the Columbia basin. True, there had been immediately a considerable development of fur-trading activities with St. Louis as a base. Annual expeditions by two or three companies were made to the headwaters of the rivers flowing to the Pacific. Now and then American trapping and trading parties would penetrate to California and far down the tributaries of the Columbia. But American enterprise seemed to quail before the difficulties confronting any project for securing such a foothold in the Pacific Northwest as could become the nucleus of a colony. There was no promise in the posts of the fur companies scattered sporadically through the Rocky moun- tains.
The English were our only persistent rivals for the possession of the Columbia basin. Our claim to it was fortified by priority in discovery, exploration and occupation. Quite different, how- ever, was the outcome of their ventures for joint occupation from the disasters which befell ours. In 1813 the British Northwest Company purchased what was little more than the wreck of Astor's outfit at Astoria. A few months later an English man of war arrived there to formally seize what was already British in sympathy. By the terms of Article I of the treaty of Ghent, 1815, all places "taken by either party from the other during the war" were to be restored, and accordingly in October of 1818 an Ameri- can agent, a Mr. Prevost, received the nominal restitution of what had been Astoria, renamed Fort George. The American occupa- tion of the Columbia basin had dwindled to what was represented in the ceremony of hauling down the British flag and running up
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INTRODUCTION
the Stars and Stripes in the presence of the post of a British fur company, the crew of a British man of war, and a solitary agent of the American government. This lone American, further, "sign- ed a receipt for the delivery of Fort George, and accepted a re- monstrance from the British against the delivery until the final decision of the right of sovereignty to the country between the two governments." A few days later he was hustled away and the British colors were again floated for nearly a generation above the parapets of the fort.
With the consolidation of the Northwest and Hudson's Bay Companies in 1821, the establishment of headquarters at Fort Vancouver, and the effective administration of Dr. John McLough- lin as Chief Factor west of the Rocky mountains British interests developed at a wonderful rate. It was claimed on the floor of congress that "shares in the Hudson's Bay Compay, which origit - ally were of the value of 20 pounds each, were now selling in the market at the enormous price of 200 pounds sterling." And again "that shares of that company have risen from sixty to two-hund- red and forty pounds sterling." With the growth of English in- terests on the Columbia English claims to sovereignty grew apace. American operations were confined to irregular incursions by fur-trading parties and to traffic carried on with natives from the decks of vessels brought into the inlets of the coast. The British were establishing posts and extending a well-organized, lucrative and strongly supported trade.
American enterprise pitted against English on the Columbia in the line of fur trading operations was clearly worsted. It is not difficult to see the reasons why this was so. The Oregon country lay much more accessible to British activity than to ours. Judg- ing merely from the map it seemed almost equally contiguous to British and to American possessions. The forty-ninth parallel had deen extended to the Rocky mountains in 1818 as the divid- ing line between the United States and British America. The southern limit of the Oregon territory was the forty-second paral- lel, the northern boundary was fifty-four degrees and forty min- utes, hence it abutted on the United States through the length of seven degrees and on English territory through nearly six. But considered with reference to actual conditions in this border coun- try the advantage of the English is patent.
'The "Great American Desert"' was never represented as ex- tending into the region lying between Lake Superior and the Hudson Bay on the one side and Rocky mountains on the other. A vast expanse of arid plains lay as a barrier between St. Louis, the base of operations of the American companies, and the game preserves of the Rockies and Oregon. This region had to be traversed with the more expensive pack-horse transit. Before the British company with bases on Lake Superior and the Hud- son Bay there lay stretched an uninterrupted game preserve to the
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INTRODUCTION
headwaters of the Columbia. For traversing this there were wonderfully convenient natural facilities of reticulated water courses making easy water transits. English occupation of the Columbia basin was but a slight extension of a long-established chain of posts. American occupation as contemplated by the Win- ships, by Astor and again by Wyeth depended mainly upon com- munication by sea over a route of 16,000 miles. Formidable as was the advantage of the English in relation to contiguity, her measure of advantage as represented in the organization, resources, personnel, and experience of the Hudson's Bay Company was simply stupendous. How could American comparies, newly organized with raw recruits and small capital, hope cope with a corporation possessing in sole right an im- perial domain enormously rich in just what suited its aims, a capital of two millions and available assets of many mil- lions more, the stability that activity of one hundred and fifty years along the same lines gives, and as its working torce a race bred, adapted and trained to its purposes of exploiting |this vast region with its unnumbered tribes to its profit? I am? re- ferring now to occupation for purposes of trade with the Indians and exploitation of the region for furs and not to occupation, for purposes of agriculture. When conditions were matured for the pioneer movement the very influences that had made so strongly for England in the lower form of occupation told against her quite as effectively as before they had wrought in her favor.
For the time, however, the agreement between the English and American governments to a joint occupation resulted in an ex- clusive occupation by the English company. And immediately Floyd in the House (1820) and Benton in the Senate were sound- ing the alarm that we were in danger of losing Oregon. They urged, further, that with the English fortified there holding influence over the Indians our northwestern frontier would be exposed to depredations like those suffered during the English occupation of the "Old Northwest." These leaders proposed measures to pro- tect and support American interests on the Columbia. The mat- ter was kept before Congress almost continuously during this de- cade. President Monroe in his annual message in 1824.also urg- ed the establishment of a military post at the mouth of the Columbia with the view of protecting and promoting our interests there. Expansion to the Pacific, however, was an idea that did not in the twenties recommend itself to a majority of the two houses of congress.
The expense of the proposed undertaking and the possibility that the step would be viewed by England as a violation of the terms of the existing treaty and thus lead to war were deterring considerations with the law-makers. An Oregon community as a state of the Union was generally held as a chimera in that day be- fore ocean steamships and railway locomotion. Those constitution-
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INTRODUCTION
ally conservative without the gift of prophetic vision or the index of manifest destiny could not but regard it in that light. Under such conditions to lend further inducement to the westward movement of a people already possessed of a perverse bent in that direction seemed to invite a future separation into Atlantic and Pacific nations.
The termination of the ten-year agreement in 1828 made some diplomatic action on the matter necessary. England's interests on the Columbia were now too substantial and preponderant for her to recede in deference to any claim of title based on discovery and exploration. And, further, deceived as to the character of the country she could see no reason for doubting her ability to maintain her su- premacy there. The cause of the United States could hardly develop a weaker aspect than it presented at that time. Both were, therefore, willing to bide their time and continue the status of so-called joint occupation indefinitely subject to termination on a year's notice.
Our chain of right to Oregon had snapped in our failure to hold our own against the strongly organized English trade. But we might easily forego that form of occupation if we could only forge the link of occupation by home-builders. The other links to the chain of our title had been so gloriously welded to fail at this point would be a national disgrace. So thought many. The idea was soon to warm a host of pioneers. It had already set one mind aflame.
Hall J. Kelley, a Boston school teacher, became in 1815 an en- thusiast for saving the Oregon country to the Union through col- onization. From 1824 on he gave himself up to the work of agi- tation. In 1828 an emigration society with a large membership was organized. This was incorporated in 1831, and the spring of 1832 was fixed upon as the time for setting out on an overland expedition to Oregon. But something more than enthusiasm was needed to get an expedition even mustered, equipped and started for Oregon, to say nothing of conducting it successfully through two thousand miles of wilderness.
While preparations for the expedition by the Boston Coloniza- tion Society were in progress Nathaniel J. Wyeth, then twenty- nine years old and superintending a flourshing business with some separate interests of his own, became impressed with the idea there was a role for him in executing one of his country's trusts for civ- ilzation. There was in the Oregon territory a remnant of the conti- nent still to be subdued to man's higher uses and he felt his fitness for the work. He says, "I cannot divest myself of the opinion that I shall compete better with my fellow men in new and untried paths than in those to pursue which requires only patience and at- tention." He partially engaged to attach himself with a company to the expedition planned by the Society of which Kelley was the secretary.
Kelley, the moving spirit of this undertaking, wished to trans- plant a Massachusetts town to Oregon and make it the nucleus of
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xviii
INTRODUCTION
a new state. He hoped to repeat with appropriate variations the history of the Puritan colony of Massachusetts Bay. The New Englander of the nineteenth century, however, was not so ready to sacrifice himself for an idea as had been his progenitors of the seven- teenth. Unless Kelley could organize conditions so that success seemed certain, he could not expect the enthusiasm of his followers to bear them on. Such conditions he could not organize. His colony failed to muster.
Wyeth had proposed to incorporate his company with Kelley's colony solely for the strength there is in union. When Kelley began to falter with his plans, shift dates and change conditions, Wyeth swung clear of the Oregon Colonization Society and or- ganized his expedition independently.
The motive that impelled Wyeth to undertake his expeditions to the Oregon country was that same primal instinct that has been the predominant influence in producing the westward movement of the Aryan peoples since their first promptings of might. The suggestion was received by Adam in the Garden of Eden when he was told to subdue the earth and have dominion over its creatures.
There was much at this time in a Boston environment to bring the Columbia basin very close to the consciousness of natures en- dowed as were Kelley and Wyeth. Boston traders had so far monopolized the American trade with the Indians on the Pacific coast that these had no other name for Americans than "Boston men." The Columbia river had been discovered by a captain in the employ of a company of Boston merchants. Wyeth was cognizant of at least half-a-dozen Boston houses that had grown wealthy in prosecuting the fur trade of the North Pacific coast.
Even before starting Wyeth had appreciated the fact that the American activities beyond the Rockies were of a nomadic order and that the British company with its established posts was supreme. He knew that it represented a higher economic organization and was impregnable against such forms of assault as the Americans had so far brought against it. He, however, believed that the region from the Columbia river south to the forty-second parallel and from the Rocky mountains west to the ocean, a country three hundred by six hunred miles in extent, was still fairly open for occupation. He proposed to occupy it. He expected the status of joint occupation to last but a few years longer. By the time of its termination the American trade from vessels would have wholly disappeared before the more economic methods of the Hudson's Bay Company and his own and he would be left in sole possession of the region above described.
Wyeth as a New Englander .is hardly to be blamed for not having foreseen the impending pioneer movement. It came from the western frontier. So precipitately did this sweep on and con- stitute anoccupation by an agricul+ .. ral population that there could
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INTRODUCTION
not have been successful a occupation by American traders organiz- ed under the higher form with established posts. Moreover, he un- derestimated the overwhelming strength of the Hudson's Bay Company and its grim determination not to brook competition.
His was not to be a hide-bound fur trading enterprise. He be- gan that which has been developed into the great salmon industry . of the North Pacific coast. He located a farm in the Willamette valley. It was his purpose to select those branches of business for which he deemed his company most competent and which ap- peared to hold out the best prospects. Had he been able to get his enterprise fairly on its feet his keen business sagacity would have found and developed those lines for which the time and country were waiting.
With high American spirit he scorned monopoly privileges. Dif- ference of nationality and the bitter clash of business interests did not act as a bar to the good fellowship and mutual regard of Nathaniel J. Wyeth and Dr. John McLoughlin. A life-long friend- ship was cemented between them. Fortunate, indeed, it was for the English and the American peoples that in this crisis they were represented by men of such depth of character and largeness of humanity. The restoration of the correspondence that passed between them would no doubt give much insight into the moving forces of this period of the history of the Pacific Northwest.
In a summary of his views on the Oregon question submitted to a Congressional committee in 1839, three years after his return from his second expedition, Wyeth says: "In conclusion, I will observe that the measures of this [Hudson's Bay] Company have been conceived with wisdom, steadily pursued, and have been well seconded by their government, and the success has been complete; and without being able charge on them any very gross violations of the existing treaties, a few years will make the country west of the mountains as English as they can desire. Already the Americans are unknown as a nation, and, as individuals, their power is despised by the natives of the land. A population is . growing out of the occupancy of the country, whose prejudices are not with us; and before many years they will decide to whom the country shall belong, unless in the meantime the American government make their power felt and seen to a greater degree than has yet been the case."
Not yet had he discerned the rising of that human tide on the western frontier that was so soon to overleap the two-thousand mile barrier of arid plains, deserts and mountains steeps. Still as Bancroft says, "He it was who, more directly than any other man, marked the way for the ox-teams which were so shortly to bring the Americanized civilization of Europe across the roadless continent."
CORRESPONDENCE FROM THE LETTER BOOK OF CAPTAIN NATHANIEL J. WYETH,
Referring to His Expeditions to Oregon.
I. Philad Augt 30th 1831 Hall J Kelley Esq. (Genl Agent for the Oregon Colonization Society Boston)
Dear Sir I write to inform you that I shall not return as soon as I expected having been detained here on buisness. I shall be in Boston about the 6th of next month, and will see you as soon thereafter as practicable in regard to my ap- plication for a scituation in the first expedition to the Oregon Country.
Doct Jacob Wyeth a brother of mine now practicing Medicine and Surgery in N. Jersey at Howell Furnace, wishes me to enter his name as an applicant for the birth of Surgeon in one of the companies of the first expedition, which scituation he is desirous of obtaining only in the event of a scituation being offered me which I shall accept, he not wishing to remove to that Country without me. He is thirty three years old or thereabout was edu- cated at Harvd. University studied medicine with Mr Revere of Baltimore and Doct Shattuck of Boston and attended Lectures in Boston was regularly graduated as a Phisician, he is unmarried.
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