USA > Oregon > The Oregon native son, 1900-1901 > Part 53
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"I had been working for Dr. Mc- Loughlin for some time; had first been at work in the woods cutting sawlogs and later with a gang of men had been putting logs into the Willamette above Canemah for the Oregon Milling Com- pany, and floating them down the river to the mill at Oregon City. Amongst the men that I remember as my fellow- laborers were: Tom Hubbard, who was our foreman ; Dave West, Sterling Rod- gers, Jerry McDonald and George Beale. who was afterwards hung at Salem for the murder of old man Delaney. I had tried to do my work well and to give faithful service to the good old Doctor. who was regarded with the greatest es- teem by his employees. Perhaps he no -. ticed that I was anxious to please : per- haps he thought me trustworthy ; at any rate, he selected me to take charge of the dry house, a position of care and respon- sibility. In this dry house lumber was being seasoned for the erection of a flour- ing mill. It was my duty to watch the furnaces-very simple affairs they were -keep them going and also to guard against fire. This work kept me con- stantly in the vicinity of the mill, but frequently left me a few moments of leisure. Unfortunately for me, one of
those came just right to get me shot with an Indian arrow.
"It was on the 4th of March. 1844. two or three weeks after my talk wit !! Dr. White, that Cock-Stock and several other Indians-I think seven or eight -- saucy young fellows, fully armed, came riding into Oregon City. They rode to the house of the Methodist missionary Rev. A. F. Waller, and halloed several times, but no one came out of the house. Then they rode up and down the town. talking loud, and laughing and acting in an impudent and insulting manner. but not really molesting any one, though many of the people, especially the women and children, were terribly frightened. as they were very panicky about him. any how. Finally the Indians tied un their ponies at the foot of the bluff and taking a boat paddled across the river to where there was a village of Cali- pooias. It was thought from some threats that Cock-Stock had made that he was going to try to get a party to- gether to do some injury to the mission or the people.
"I thought from all I had heard and seen that that man would be doing a good deed for the community who would rid it of this Indian, and while the In- dians were over the river I went up to dinner, and when I came back to the mill I brought my gun with me. I be- lieve that I was a little anxious to take a shot at the Indian, provided he would commit some overt act to justify me in doing so. When the Indians were seen coming back across the river, several men collected about the mill and boat landing, which was under the mill.
"The mill was set up on timbers, and persons could pass under it very easily. There was a bridge or log-way built of slabs sloping up from the ground, over which logs were hauled into the mill. lt was built in a kind of curve. I was stand- ing about the middle of this bridge. Ster- ling Rodgers was standing near me, and Col. J. W. Nesmith was near the end of the bridge on the ground. Nes- mith and I were both armed, but Rod- gers was not. The Indians landed under the mill and came in sight from under
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A REMINISCENCE OF EARLY DAYS.
.Ar bridge going towards their horses. "When they had gone a few steps some "e yelled something at Cock-Stock. I A not catch the words, but the Indian shurled instantly and fired into the crowd with a pistol. I and Colonel Nesmith . th shot at him at the same time, and then the blurr of smoke cleared so I would see, I saw him on his hands and arces, but scrambling up again. Then ! caught sight of Le Breton and heard "he report and saw the smoke of another "istol shot. The next thing I saw was La Breton and the Indian struggling to- gether about the end of the bridge. Then for an instant I saw the mulatto, George Winslow, rushing to them with a gun in his hands. The Indian was down, and the mulatto did not strike with the gun, but he just drove the muzzle of it through the Indian's head as though it were a Towbar or a bayonet. When Cock- Stock fell the other Indians broke into a run for their horses, turning as they ran and shooting back bullets and arrows into the crowd. Le Breton was shot twice and badly stabbed in attempting to arrest Cock-Stock.
"All this had taken place in a few seconds. Rodgers and I still stood on the bridge looking on, and, being up there, made a good target. At any rate, Rodgers suddenly cried out, 'Look out, Bill. they are shooting arrows! I am hit.' Before he was done speaking an arrow hit me also, whereupon we both ran into the mill. Rodgers was wounded in the arm, and the arrow hitting me 'nried itself in the fleshy part of my
hip. Before I thought I caught hold of it and tried to jerk it out, but only par- tially succeeded, as it came out broken, leaving the head imbedded in the flesh, where I have carried it these fifty-six vears. Several shots were fired after the Indians, but they reached their horses, mounted and scrambled up the bluff. One pony was shot, however, and they had to leave it, but the Indians made ·heir escape and were never caught that I know of.
"When Cock-Stock's body was exam- ined there was found the mark of a bullet across the back of his head and neck, which no doubt was what knocked him down. I believe that was iny bul- let, for I was a good shot in those days. and from where I stood could have hit him in that way as he turned to run after firing his pistol.
"Colonel Nesmith thought that shot was his, and I never disputed the honor, if honor it was, with him. However, ours were the only shots fired at that time. It was one of us, and it was a good job, whichever did it.
"Le Breton and Rodgers were taken to the hospital at Vancouver, where both died. . Rodgers was not any worse hurt than I was at first. but blood poison- ing set in, resulting in his death I was urged to go to the hospital, but I was more afraid of the doctors than of my wound. I used some simple remedies. My wound was very painful for awhile. and was tender and sore for several years, but finally ceased to trouble me."
SALLIE APPLEGATE LONG.
The first piano brought to the Pacific Northwest is attracting considerable at- tention at the Ferry museum, in Tacoma, where it has recently been placed. The instrument was brought to Oregon City :n 1847, or 1849, coming by way of the Horn, and was the property of General M. M. McCarver, founder of the cities of
Burlington, Ia., and Tacoma, Wash., who purchased the piano for the use of his daughter and step-daughter From Ore- gon City it was removed 15 Tacoma, in 1869. The instrument is an upright, and was manufactured in Hamburg, Ger- many. Although in need of repairs, it is in fair condition, and of good tone. The wood work is of mahogany.
UNCLAIMED DEAD.
Why this martial pageant, marching with a solemn tread? Why this muffled drumming? Why these prayers for soul be airi O'er a homeless straggler, vagrant, vagabond and tramp, Weary from long wand'ring, sought a change in soldier's camp? Why give him interment, a monument o'er head, Weep as would a mother, for an unclaimed dead?
Pause and hear his story. When a child, his parents lost, With no mother's guidance, long on life's rough sea he tossed Like ship with no rudder, blew about till parent's name Faded out from mem'ry, being long unused through shame. When the drums and bugles, loudly sounding notes of war.
· Swiftly to arms calling, loyal people near and far, Fired his soul for country, he enlisted in the van, Left a gipsy's roving, and became again a man. Marched to fields of fighting with a proud and warlike tread, Died a gallant soldier, now he's unclaimed dead.
In his bittered bosom, that most noble spark innate To his manhood, living, but is smoldering of late. Holy winds of freedom fanned at once into a flame. Seizing chance thus offered, he by bravery won a name For the one discarded. And, by valor. earned a home In this land of plenty where fate had bade him roam; Followed fast and foremost. lead of regimental flag In the heat of battle. Never did his footsteps lag, When, from post of safety, he was called, assault to make, Trench. in place of danger; forward rushed a line to break: Never flinched when bullets whistled thickly near his head: Died at post a hero, now he's unclaimed dead.
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UNCLAIMED DEAD.
Father's, mothers, sisters, gathered 'round your loss to mourn, Hearts in anguish bleeding, for the loved ones from you torn, Spare for him some garlands, on his new-made grave to spread ; Treat them all as brothers, who here lie in lowly bed. Side by side, as comrades, lay them all at peace to rest In ground consecrated. At the long roll for the blest All will be found answ'ring, who for God and country died. And, for lack of kindred he'll not then be denied At the throne a hearing. nor a crown upon his head. There no mark'll distinguish one as unclaimed dead.
Have the grand old colors draped 'round his coffin bier. You, somebody's sweetheart, bravely stop and shed a tear, With no shame or blushing, o'er this unknown soldier's grave- O'er the hero fallen. God and Freedom's cause to save. From the skies o'er hanging, up in His cerulean dome, He now sees the soldier, who had never had a home, Gives a patient hearing. while the prayers are being said. Answers them: "I claim him, from the unclaimed dead."
Build, then, to our soldiers, grand and stately monument, Who, while nobly fighting, to eternity were sent. See their graves are tended ev'ry Decoration Day ; Strew the flowers above them, and, for their souls go pray. In the great hereafter, at the last reveille beat. There will be a rising where all noble men will meet. Then, will stand together-Lord of Hosts has surely said- All your sons and brothers, and the unclaimed dead.
Harra Davis.
About the 20th of June, 1862, a min- ers' meeting was called for the purpose of Electing a recorder of claims for the Blue Canyon district, Baker County. Ore- gon, such being the first election held in that county. The people assembled on the ridge between Blue Canyon and Freezout Gulch and elected a president, it being understood that William H. Packwood and F. C. Brainard were the opposing candidates for the office of Re- corder. The president suggested that a convenient method of voting would be for the crowd to divide according to each one's preference. Pointing to a log a little way to the right, he said : "There's a log for you to stand on, Packwood"; and indicating another one to the left, he said, "and there's a log for sou to stand cn, Brainard."
The candidates took their respective positions, when the president said : "Now, boys, all of you who are in favor of Packwood for Recorder, go over there, and all who are in favor of Brainard go over to him." An Oregonian im- mediately started toward Packwood, call- ing out, "Come on, all yon webfooters, here's our webfoot candidate," and a Californian answered, "Come this way all you tarheads, here's a tarhead candi- date." On counting the two parties, it was found that Brainard nad tlie ma- jority, and he was accordingly declared to be elected Recorder. Mr. Brainard's first official act was recording a claim June 23. 1862, and from that time until May, 1863, he recorded 1201 claims in the Blue Canyon district.
THE PACIFIC TELEGRAPH.
BEGINNING OF THE FIRST LINES IN OREGON.
In the year 1855 Charles F. Johnson, of California, came to Oregon, and broached the project of a line of tele- graph in the Willamette valley from Portland to Eugene, with the purpose ultimately of extending the same to a connection with the telegraphic sys- tem of California, if even then it could be called a "system" in that state. The country here was new and sparse- ly settled, the towns mere villages, dull and sleepy, with no business enter- prises that would seem to warrant the es- tablishment of facilities of communica- tion oftener than once a week between them and Portland, the latter then assum- ing the position of the commercial em- porium of the Willamette valley, that is is to say, of Oregon. The United States mails came by steamer from San Francisco to Portland three times a month, and were carried monthly from New York to San Francisco. Occa- sionally a bark. or other sailing vessel arrived in the Columbia from Boston or New York, with consignments of freight to the wholesale housese in Portland and Oregon City, the latter town not yet hav- 'ing surrendered trade to its ambitious rival down the stream. Money had a few years before been very abundant in the valley, consequent upon the return of settlers from the gold regions of Cal- ifornia with plenty of "the dust." Wages for all kinds of work was high, and prices of all commodities rose in proportion. There are printers still living in' Oregon who will recollect when gold was a bur- den to them. In a few months some had accumulated a thousand or fifteen hun- dred dollars in coin, with no safer place of deposit than an old trunk or box about the office. Banks. were unknown, and "capitalists" a very common order of beings. This was the "golden" age of Oregon, in more senses than one. But the inevitable result of such a state of affairs came on apace. A country or a · community that depends upon other com- munities for its supply of manufactured
articles will in time be reduced to poverty and absolute want. The Willamette val- ley then produced scarcely anything for export but wheat, which was made into flour and shipped to California, the only available market. Presently California produced its own wheat, and the market for that cereal product was considerably abridged. Times began to be dull, al- though money was still plentiful when compared with the state of affairs that now confronts us, when men hurry and scurry over town more eagerly for a nickel than they would do then in pursuit of a dollar. Wheat had declined in price from five dollars a bushel to one dollar. .and everything else had fallen in pro- portion. Truly those were "good old times," and people were happy-but give us rather these days of enterprise and thrift, of improvement and progress, of steam and electric railways, of telegraphs and telephones, of tricycles, bicycles, and unicycles, of splendid school houses, city halls, and hotels, of steam fire-engines, of gas and electric lights, of type- writing and typesetting machines, of splendid newspapers that lay before the public every morning the news gathered from the uttermost parts of the earth the day before, even to the very hour of going to press-give us all these in preference to the times when there were no railroads or telegraphis, no strikes or boycotts, no banks or capitalists, and no mortgages weighing heavily upon houses and farms. ( There was then hardly a real-estate mortgage in the whole Wil- lamette valley. )
At the time of the advent of Mr. Johnson there were six newspapers is- sued in the valley, three in Portland, one in Oregon City, and two in Salem. The political papers were intensely partisan, and bitterly personal, in their editorials and communications, to a degree scarcely credible now. It was the era of news- paper warfare known abroad as the "Oregon style" of journalism. The edi- tors, that is, those who were responsible
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THE PACIFIC TELEGRAPH.
for the editorial utterances, went armed to the teeth, as if in constant apprehen- sion of mortal combat. Personal colli- sions often took place, and arms were sometimes drawn, but no life was ever lost in consequence. The editors, like Lambro the pilot, were the mildest-man- nered of men, and frequently hob-nobbed together in friendly style. They were not so much afraid of each other as of their lampooned victims. As a matter of course, the dissemination of local news was a secondary consideration, especially with the "organs." Items that would now requirie great scare heads and col- umns of description were then turned off in half a dozen lines. The writer calls to mind one instance where a man fired a revolver at his wife with intent to kill, and she falling as if his aim had been effective, he shot himself dead, the .. tragedy not receiving more than a dozen lines under the head of "Suicide" in the next issue of the local paper. Aside from political discussions, news from abroad occupied the greater portion of the pa- pers. The subscribers looked to these journals alone for news from the out- side world, and the trivial events around home were of secondary interest to them. The Statesman, published at Salem, was then the most widely circulated and the most influential paper in the territory, expressed the prevalent conception of the journalist's business in the following disdainful paragraph, taken from its editorial column: "If there is anything in journalism we despise utterly it is the petty village puffery. the habitual announcement that Mr. So-and-so has hung a gate, etc., *
Such was the condition of the country here when Mr. Johnson initiated his scheme of a telegraph line from Port- land southward through the Willamette valley. An organization was formed. known as the Pacific Telegraph Com- pany, of which A. J. Hembree of Yamhill became president, and Mr. Johnson was engaged to solicit subscriptions and con- struct the line. He soon secured an amount, mainly in Portland, Oregon City, and Yamhill county, sufficient to warrant him in undertaking the enterprise,
While one of the canvassers was travelling through Washington county, he called upon a family which had for- merly lived in Pike county, Missouri, and in glowing terms set forth to the rancher the great advantages that would accrue to the farming community to have the telegraph company in their midst, and pressed hard for a subscription to the stock. The settler, however, put the so- licitor off to a future day, to get his wife's opinion. After the agent had gone, the better half-who had all the while maintained an unusual silence, but had kept up a tremendous thinking- turned to the old man, and shaking the ominous index finger, exclaimed : "Now, Nelson, if you take any of that ar stock of the telegraph company, I want them to be good, young American heifers, for these long-horned Spanish cattle I don't go a cent on !"
When success seemed to be assured the work of setting the poles and stretch- ing the wire on the west side of the river toward Oregon City was begun. At the latter place he arrived on Friday after- noon, November 16, 1855. In a short time the wire was stretched across the river, and communication made with Portland, the first dispatch over the line appearing in the Oregonian the next morning. Warren Davis, county clerk of Multnomah, was the operator at Portland, having been under instruction while the work was going on. At Ore- gon City the office was placed in charge of D. W. Craig, then a young school teacher in Clackamas county, who had some experience in telegraphy, having been one of the first operators west of the Wabash. Besides the constructor of the line, these two persons were the first telegraph operators in Oregon. In Jan- uary following the line was extended to Dayton, Yamhill county, where the third office was established, with Mr. Lippincott, a merchant of that place, as operator. The intention had been to continue the line to Eugene, passing through Salem, Albany, and Corvallis, but as the company was not incorporated. and the contractor reckless in the ex- penditure of the money he had collected.
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PACIFIC NORTHWEST LOGGING CAMP.
المتويد.
401
THE PACIFIC TELEGRAPH.
:he subscribers refused to make any further payment on their subscriptions, and the originator of the scheme return- "! to California. The company made mother effort, with H. R. Graham as superintendent, to extend the line. Cap- tain Hembree, having been killed in the Indian war, then raging, was succeeded a. president by Dr. McIteeny, of Corvallis. The line was extended to Lafayette, and thence toward Salem, but the work woon stoped short, as the difficulties that had attended the enterprise from the com- mencement of its construction increased rather than diminished. At last, A. J. Moses, of Eugene, one of the stock- holders undertook to finish the line. but finding it a losing business he relinquish- ed it altogether. The poles in a few years decaved and fell to the ground, the wire being strung along the roads, oftimes to the great detriment of equestrians, whose horse's feet would get entangled in its folds. In time, the wire entirely disap- peared, through the appropriation of it by adjoining settlers.
The enterprise could have been made reasonably profitable had it been in the hands of a capable business man, but dissipation at the start proved its ruin. The operator at each office got half of the receipts in pay for his services, and was obliged to keep the line in repair half way to the next office, and furnish the acids required in working the line. As the line was built the greater part of the way through timber, the trouble was quite considerable in the season of storms to keep it clear from fallen trees. An amusing incident in this connection is recollected of an ignorant settler in the woods west of Oregon City, who seemed to have no idea of the object for which the line was stretched along in front of his cabin. Whenever lie needed wire for any purpose about his premises. he would go unhesitatingly, probably with- out any intention of wrong-doing. pull down the losely stretched line and cut off as much as he wanted. This occurred several times, causing the operator much perplexity as well as trouble. but at last he discovered the depredator. after sex- eral hundred feet of wire had been taken.
and threatened the fellow with prosecu- tion unless he desisted. The rates for transmitting messages would, at the present time, be considered extravagant, the charge between Portland and Oregon City being as great as for a similar mes- sage now from either place to New York or Boston. The receipts at each of tlie two offices ranged from two dollars and a half to twelve dollars a day, many people using the wire because of its novelty. The war with the Nez Perce Indians was then in progress, and thie territorial offi- ces sometimes availed themselves of the line in forwarding messages to Port- land for transmission to the troops in the field. ' Of the three operators named as the first in the territory, Mr. Davis and Mr. Lippincott have been dead many vears; the other one yet lingers in this vale of tears, his keenest delight being the contemplation of the telegraphic wonders of the present tme, as displayed in the columns of our magnificent daily newspapers.
Such was the beginning and end of the first attempt at telegraphic communi- cation on the north Pacific coast, all em- braced within a period of twelve months. The project then remained in abeyance for several years. In the spring of 1861. at the commencement of the Civil war, when Oregon had greatly increased in population and business, and was already a state in the Union, another adverturer from California appeared, in the person of J. E. Strong, who induced many per- sons in Oregon to take stock in an enter- prise of connecting Portland by a line of telegraph with the system of Cali- fornia. He succeeded in building the line some distance south of Salem. in the winter of 1863-64, with the money he col- lected on subscriptions of stock, and then went to California, where he sold out the business to the owners of the tele- graph lines in that state, most of the stockholders here losing all the money they had paid, which was about four- fifths of the amount subscribed. The new owners quickly completed the line, to a connection with the telegraphic sys- tein in California, and of course with the eastern states, and had the same in
402
OREGON NATIVE SON
successful operation when Grant crossed the Rapidan and encountered Lee in the Wilderness, thus giving the people of Oregon daily reports of the great events of that stirring year. Since then the wires have been extended in every direc-
tion on the north Pacific coast, connect- ing its cities and towns by the electric current with all the important points in the known world.
D. W. CRAIG.
A WILLAMETTE VALLEY, OREGON COUNTRY ROAD.
The late ex-Governor George L Woods once landed in Cleveland, O., without a cent in his pocket. He was returning home from New York and a pickpocket relieved him of his purse on the train. Nothing daunted, he regis- tered at the best hotel in Cleveland, and. after "togging up." went to the hotel office and asked the chief clerk who was considered the most amiable and benev- olent banker in the city. Being told, he went to the bank and requested an in- terview. A man who would do that now would be suspected as a bomb-thrower.
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"What can I do for you?" asked the bank president, when the governor had been seated.
"Permit me to give you my name first." said Governor Woods. "My name is George L. Woods, and I am the governor of Oregon. and I want $200 to pay my way home."
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