The centennial history of Oregon, 1811-1912, Part 62

Author: Gaston, Joseph, 1833-
Publication date: 1912
Publisher: Chicago, The S.J. Clarke publishing company
Number of Pages: 1072

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It is a trite but true remark among far west pioneers that no severer test of a man's fitness for leadership was ever devised than the captaincy of an Oregon or California emigrating company; and it is the universal testimony of the 1843 immigrants that Ap- plegate more than met the requirements of this exacting office. By his accurate knowl- edge of the difficulties to be encountered, his resourcefulness in overcoming them, his tact and courage, his commanding personality, and withal, the kind, helpful spirit he always manifested, he not only held the uniform re- spect of all these stanch frontiersmen but won their loyal affection. His charming es- say, "A Day With the Cow Column," de- scriptive of the movement of his company across the plains, is a classic in the litera- ture of western adventure. From Fort Hall westward, the region through which a road had yet to be found, Applegate is said to have been in advance, with his compass, to determine at critical points the route to be taken. In this he was greatly aided by Dr. Marcus Whitman, whose general knowledge of the country enabled him to make valua- ble suggestions. While the company was descending the Columbia with rafts, from Fort Walla Walla, an accident occurred by which three persons were drowned; one of them was Jesse Applegate's eldest son, a bright, studious boy of eleven summers, named, for his friend and patron, Edward Bates.

Mr. Applegate selected a piece of land within the present limits of Polk county, where he remained until the year 1849. He followed farming to some extent, raised a fine herd of cattle, built a small gristmill and worked much at his profession of surveying, laying off the settlers' claims, marking out roads, etc. The legislature of 1844 appointed him surveyor-general of the colony, with the special duty of investigating certain canal projects. He was a man of great activity, industry and skill, accomplishing with ap- parent ease seemingly difficult undertakings, and with the disposition to multiply in- terests in such a way as to keep himself more than fully occupied. There was no busier man in the little colony. Applegate

often averred that he had in this period no time for politics, the care of a growing and still helpless family absorbing all his energies. But his sense of duty impelled him, in the summer of 1845, to devote not only his time but his best talents to the public service in the hope of improving the political condition of the people. Govern- ment in Oregon had thus far been in process of painful evolution. The Hudson's Bay Company's officers had exercised a civil juris- diction adequate to the needs of an unsettled country harboring a few traders. But when Americans began to collect in numbers around the Methodist mission a demand soon arose for some sort of American government. In- asmuch as the United States was merely a claimant to the country, not its sovereign, congress felt unable to afford relief but left the people of Oregon to create for themselves such political institutions as were deemed necessary. A preliminary step was taken in 1841, when, to meet a sudden emergency, a probate judge was elected by the people. This seemed at the time to be all the "gov- ernment" needed. The first formal organiza- tion, in May, 1843, was probably premature. for practically one-half of the settlers voted it to be unnecessary, and the Hudson's Bay Company were prepared, for national rea- sons, to place obstacles in the way of its successful working which there was not strength enough in the American portion of the community to overcome. The organiza- tion itself was faulty. There was a body of "organic laws," somewhat loosely drawn, which had been adopted by popular vote. It professed to create a provisional govern- ment for Oregon until such time as the United States should take the country under its jurisdiction. The frame of government embraced an executive committee of three, a legislative committee of nine, and several justices, constables, a sheriff, recorder, etc. To support this somewhat pretentious sys- tem resort was had to the fatuous expedient of a popular subscription. The executive committee was as ineffectual as such commit- tees usually are, and the judiciary was pecu- liarly ill adapted to its work. Moreover, the Methodist mission, whose agents had engi- neered the provisional government movement, granted to itself an entire township of land, giving a like amount to the Catholic mission, a move which many felt was wholly politi- cal and which engendered much opposition.

When the great body of new immigrants arrived in the following winter, the effect was to subordinate the missionary party as well as the fur company. In the next eles- tion the pioneers secured control of affairs and proceeded at once, by their legislative committee to reorganize the government. The three-headed executive was abolished and "governor" substituted, a legis- lature of thirteen members was created and the judiciary was reformed. The committee also struck a blow at their missionary prede- cessors by restoring to individual entry the two townships of land appropriated by the two missions. Finally they adopted a sim- ple but effective method of raising money

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by virtual taxation. While the character of this legislation was undeniably wholesome. the committee showed a surprising lack of orderliness and foresight in the mode of its enactment. They practically ignored the existence of a constitution, treating the or- ganic laws adopted by the people the year before as mere statutes, subject to unlimited amendment or to abolition by a body which, thoughi actually deriving its existence from them, assumed thus to stand outside of and above the laws. Nor did the committee sub- mit their acts to the people, who alone had the power to legitimize them, but on their own motion declared them to be in effect throughout that part of Oregon south of the Columbia. Since the organic laws had applied to the whole of Oregon, it could be plausibly charged against the committee that in addition to their other high-handed acts, they had also sought to limit the American territorial claims.

Testimony varies as to the effect of this revolution upon the country. Perhaps the danger of "anarchy and internecine war" was not so eminent as Applegate at a later time supposed it to have been, yet, between the positive and the negative acts of the committee, many thoughtful persons felt that the people had been grievously wronged. The upshot of the agitation was another reor- ganization which brought order and political prosperity to the distracted colony. In this final readjustment the guiding hand was that of Jesse Applegate. He allowed himself to be chosen, by the people of Yamhill, a mem- ber of. the legislature of 1845. He entered the session with a complete program of re- form which he was able to carry out to the letter. "My intention was," he wrote at a later time, "to reassert the right of the United States to the whole of Oregon, which the legislature of 1844 had limited to the south bank of the Columbia-and to secure the peace of the country by binding the whole white population in a compact to maintain it." His point of departure was the organic laws of 1843. These he revised and im- proved, producing a document which in form and substance was a true constitution. He then asked the people to choose between the old organic laws and the new, copies of both, written laboriously by hand, being read to them at the polling places. By an over- whelming majority they chose the revision, thereby indicating complete satisfaction with the legislature's work. A new lease of power was also voted to the officers chosen in June.

Mr. Applegate's program having triumphed so signally among the Americans sonth of the Columbia, he proceeded to the more deli- cate task of securing for it the indorsement of the British residents north of the river. For this purpose he became the diplomatic agent of the Oregon government to nego- tiate an arrangement with McLoughlin of the Hudson's Bay Company. McLoughlin at first repelled the idea of British subjects becoming parties to an American govern- ment; but Applegate had prepared the way for union so skillfully, he urged his reasons with such convincing force, and was so fair

in his treatment of the company's interests, his personality commanded such unlimited respect, that gradually every obstacle was removed. The officers of the company for- mally gave in their adherence to the pro- visional government, agreeing to accept its jurisdiction, to pay certain taxes for its sup- port, and in all respects to abide by its laws. This brought to an end the dual juris- diction which had subsisted for several years and incidentally demonstrated to the world that the much mooted occupation of Oregon by Americans was a fact accomplished. The effect upon the British government may be inferred from the words of one of its special agents, Lieutenant Henry Warre, who had been sent to report on conditions in Oregon and who reached Fort Vancouver a few days after this diplomatic episode was closed. "The Hudson's Bay Company," he wrote, "were so completely overruled by the num- ber of Americans that they were obliged to join in this compact which neutralized their authority in the country .

Mr. Applegate's significant work of reor- ganization was now completed and the gov- ernment he put in operation remained in force until March, 1849, when Oregon was pro- claimed a territory of the United States. In all that time it commanded universal re- spect, secured equal justice and promoted the prosperity of the colony. The people had gained full control of affairs, and special in- terests had to comply with laws passed for the general good. "Both the Methodist mis- sion and the Hudson's Bay Company ceased to be political powers either to be feared or courted in the colony, and to the end of its existence the provisional government of Oregon attained all the ends of good govern- ment." The verdict of history on the Ore- gon provisional government is identical with the judgment expressed by Applegate him- self in the words just quoted. Yet, so im- perfectly has the work of 1845 been differ- entiated, in the popular mind. from earlier and tentative essays at political organiza- tion, that Applegate's right to be honored as the true founder of Oregon's pioneer gov- ernment is, by the present generation, com- monly ignored.

In the beginning it was not so. Oregonians of that day gladly acknowledged him as the sage and law-giver of the colony. while Brit- ish visitors to the northwest coast instinct- ively recognized his leadership. Lieutenant Warre and his associate. Lientenant Vava- sour, paid their respects to this extraordinary American frontiersman: and Lieutenant Peel, son of the then premier of Great Britain. vis- ited him at his farm. enjoyed the simple bonn- ties of his table and discoursed with him concerning the qualities of the men who would cross a continent in order to make homes in the Oregon wilderness. Dr. Mc- Loughlin's letters to the Hudson's Bay Com- pany in London afford a complete proof of Applegate's superior agency in securing the company's adherence to the provisional gov- ernment.

The record of the sessions of 1845 is pre- served. with those of carlier and later pro-

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ceedings, in the manuscript archives relative to the provisional government. To the stu- dent who will scan patiently the documents in that mass of unarranged material-reading over resolutions, laws, memorials to congress, and constitutions-so many of which are in Applegate's handwriting, his legislative pre- eminence in this age of beginnings will stand revealed. Such a study cannot fail to en- gender a feeling of profound respect for the pioneer statesman who, under the conditions, was able to lay such true foundations for America's first commonwealth on the Pacific coast.

Jesse Applegate's later career was almost wholly that of a private citizen. In 1857 he represented his southern Oregon constit- uency in the convention which framed the state constitution but, owing to a serious objection to the policies of those who con- trolled that body, he refused to remain till the convention completed its labors. For this he has been much criticised. The incident seems to illustrate some of his shortcomings as a public man-he lacked that sense of humor which characterizes the "good loser" and he had an almost Jacksonian disinclina- tion to follow another's lead.

After the beginning of the gold rush to California, Mr. Applegate, in 1849, had re- moved his family to the Umpqua valley and settled at a place which he named Yoncalla on the Oregon-California trail. There, under the shadow of the mountains, he tilled his fields and cared for extensive herds of cattle reared for the California market. There he built his great house, a kind of latter-day Shirley or Westover, where for many years he dispensed a generous and equal hospitality to visitors of all grades of social merit. To- day it might be a rude woodsman wanting fodder for his cattle, shelter and food for him- self; tomorrow a polished jurist or publicist eager for the sage discourse for which the host was famed. Occasionally he entertained men of national distinction, as in the fall of 1865 when Schuyler Colfax and Samuel Bowles alighted one morning from the Cali- fornia stage to breakfast with him. From his frontier retreat at Yoncalla, Jesse Apple- gate looked out upon the world of politics with the pathetic interest of one whom na- ture has designed for leadership and fate condemned to a humdrum existence. Not being in a position to direct-public affairs, he scrutinized sharply the conduct of those who were, and always assumed a direct per- sonal responsibility for the doings of those he had helped to place in office. His opin- ions on public questions, always luminous and finely wrought, if sometimes suggestive of the closet rather than the council, were impressed upon his fellows through hundreds of letters to friends or public men, through political platforms, legislative bills and news- paper articles. The investigator rarely finds in the spontaneous written utterances of pub- lic men such vitality of thought or such blended vigor and felicity of expression as are to be met with in the everyday familiar letters of this extraordinary pioneer. They reveal a character not unmarred with idio-

syncrasies, not free from peccadillos or even serious faults, yet upright and generous, with broad sympathies and a sensitive regard for social justice. He was an unselfish, sacrific- ing, public-spirited citizen.

Mr. Applegate was a member of the govern- ment commission appointed to settle the treaty claims of the Hudson's Bay Company and the affiliated Puget Sound Agricultural Company. In this connection he prepared a voluminous report which is in the nature of a closely reasoned legal brief. It illus- trates his justice to opponents, his scrupu- lous regard for the public welfare and his extraordinary grasp of the principles of equity which the case involved. He always flattered himself that through this report he had saved the American government a large sum of money. In 1865 Applegate wrote at the request of Schuyler Colfax a series of letters on the then paramount problem of reconstruction. They were printed in the Oregon State Journal, published at Eugene, and also sent to Mr. Colfax. These letters, constituting a treatise, are cast in a pleas- ing literary mold, and, although somewhat disappointing from their impracticable rec- ommendations and their innocence of research, they will not fail to charm the reader who appreciates original thinking on political questions or a unique restatement of time- worn principles. His views on the race ques- tion, on negro enfranchisement, and the gen- eral diffusion of political power are highly suggestive. His theory that the right of suf- frage should be regulated by the nation on a uniform basis was logically consistent but it was destined to make little impression upon the reconstruction committee of con- gress. Samuel Bowles, who possibly as an eastern man was unprepared for such a phe- nomenon. marvelled to find a political sage in the Umpqua forests and wrote it as his opinion that the people of Oregon ouglit to send Jesse Applegate to the United States senate. Applegate. however, had none of the politician's arts and his frontier individual- ism was of that militant cast which rather repelled than encouraged the assistance of friends who sought his elevation to high office. Once, it is said. he could have had a sena- torship at the behest of the reigning "boss" and in declining to receive it on such terms he honored his manhood more than any office could honor it.

In 1831 Jesse Applegate was married to Cynthia Ann Parker, a native of Tennessee and a daughter of Captain Jeremiah Parker. Their marriage was celebrated in St. Louis, Missouri, and to this union thirteen children were born, nine of whom married and had families. The record is as follows: Roselle, who became the wife of Charles Putnam and both are now deceased; Edward Bates. who was drowned in the Columbia river; William Milburn. who passed away in Missouri; Alex- ander McClellan, deceased; Robert Shortess, who has also passed away; Gertrude, the wife of James D. Fay, deceased; William Henry Harrison, a resident of Jackson county, Ore- gon; Daniel Webster. who has departed this life; Sally, the wife of J. J. Long, of Douglas

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county, this state; Peter Skeen Ogden, living in Salem, Oregon; Alenia, who is the widow of M. L. McCall and now resides in Idaho; Flora, the wife of H. C. Long, of Grant county, Oregon; and one who died in infancy. The father of this family died in 1888. He lies buried under a lone fir tree on a gentle slope of Mount Yoncalla, a plain slab of native sandstone marking the grave. The lusty com- monwealth nurtured to vigor by his fostering hand would honor itself and win the blessing of reverence well bestowed by erecting on that spot or elsewhere a suitable memorial to this prince among Oregon pioneers.

WILLIAM ARTHUR HALL is the pro- prietor of one of the leading business inter- ests of the enterprising town of Clatskanie, there conducting a drug store which is well appointed and is accorded a liberal patron- age. Other business interests, too, profit by his cooperation and capable management, and Columbia county classes him with its pro- gressive and representative men. He was born in Pennsylvania, October 5, 1875, a son of William H. and Elizabeth (Shields) Hall, both of whom were natives of the Keystone state, where the father has spent his entire life. For many years the father was actively engaged in farming but is now living retired in Brookville, Pennsylvania. His first wife died in 1903, since which time he married Mrs. Rettie Stahlman of Pennsylvania. By his first marriage ten children were born, of whom nine are yet living: E. O., a resident of Hood River, Oregon; Eleanor Craft, the wife of W. A. Craft, of Sheridan, Oregon; William A., of this review; Walter C., of Summerville, Pennsylvania; H. S., who is living in Brookville, Pennsylvania; Charles and Josepli E., who are residents of Hood River; Jennie M., also living at Hood River; and Fred who lives on the old homestead in Pennsylvania. A daughter, Minnie, who was the eldest, died at the age of eight years.

In the public schools William A. Hall pur- sued his education to the age of twenty years, after which he attended the Grove . an enterprising and representative agricul-

City College of Grove City, Pennsylvania. He, however, had taught school for several terms prior to entering college, which he attended for one year. When twenty-three years of age he made his way westward to the Pacific coast and for three years there- after was engaged in teaching in Clatskanie. He then went to Forest Grove, where he at- tended the Pacific University, from which he was graduated with the class of 1905. On returning to Clatskanie he established a drug store which he is still conducting, building up a large and gratifying business. He has not confined his efforts entirely to one line, however, being interested financially in the Cooperative Creamery Company of Clatskanie and also owning a half interest in the Clat- skanie Telephone Company, of which he is the general manager. He is likewise part owner of a fruit ranch at Sheridan, Oregon, and his real-estate holdings include both business and residence property.

In 1905 Mr Hall was married to Miss Ger- trude Marsh, who was born at Forest Grove,

Oregon, April 27, 1883, and is a daughter of Joseph W. and Mary (Knowlton) Marsh. Her father was born in Vermont and her mother in Canada and they were married in the cast but soon afterward came to Ore- gon, settling in this state among its pioneer residents. In their family were the fol- lowing children: James R., living in Au- rora, Oregon; Mrs. Laura Cadwell, deceased; William, of Boston, Massachusetts; Sidney, who died at the age of twenty years; Fred, a dentist practicing at Woodburn, Oregon; David, of Forest Grove, this state; Ger- trude; and four who died in infancy. To Mr. and Mrs. Hall have been born a son and a daughter: Elizabeth S., whose birth occurred April 15, 1909; and Walter Knowl- ton, born January 10, 1911.

William Arthur Hall votes with the re- publican party and his fellow townsmen, ap- preciative of his worth and ability, have called him to public office. He has served as a member of the city council and the school board. In 1912 he was nominated by the re- publican party as candidate for represen- tative from Columbia county to the state

legislature. He was appointed mayor of Clatskanie in June, 1912, by the city coun- cil. He has been president of the Commercial Club of Clatskanie. Mr. Hall holds member- ship with the Modern Woodmen camp and both he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. Personal worth has gained them high regard and they have a host of friends in Columbia county that is almost coextensive with the number of their acquaintances.

WALTER VIRGIL SCHROEDER lives three miles up the river on the north side of North Fork, Oregon, and gives general super- vision to his farming, dairying and stock- raising interests. He owns eighty-four acres of productive land in Coos county which he has brought to a high state of cultivation and which is improved with modern equip- ment. He is well known in this district as turist. He is a native of Oregon, his birth having occurred in Coos county, November 26, 1874, and a son of John H. and Emily (Perry) Schroeder, the former a native of Baltimore, Maryland, and the latter of Clat- sop county, Oregon. John H. Schroeder re- moved at an early date to Coos county and was numbered among its enterprising and successful agriculturists for many years. He and his two brothers married three Perry sis- ters who were natives of Oregon. The Perry family has been in that state since the early days of its pioneer settlement. The parents of Mrs. Schroeder were in the emigrant train drawn by ox teams which crossed the plains under the guardianship of the famous Kit Carson. The father of our subject engaged in agriculture on Coos bay and was prominent and successful as a farmer. He was the first man in the state of Oregon to own a wagon which was constructed in Empire. He also had the distinction of being the first dairy- man in Coos county. bringing a Jersey cow to Coos bay at an early date. He established

WILLIAM A. HALL

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and organized the first creamery in this sec- tion of the country and upon his death on May 30, 1906, was regarded as an eminent and conspicuously successful agriculturist and business man. His wife is still living at Argo, Oregon, on the old homestead.

Walter V. Schroeder is one of eleven chil- dren born to his parents: Dora A., the wife of Pierce Hanley, of Lampa, Oregon; Mary, now Mrs. Harry S. Cribbs, of Myrtle Point, Oregon; William H., a jeweler in Coquille, Oregon, and the father of three sons; Ella, who married George Loingor of Myrtle Point; George, in the hotel business in Florence, Oregon, of whom more extended mention is made elsewhere in this work; Alice, the wife of A. O. Hite of Coquille, Oregon; Walter V., the subject of this sketch; Clarence E., operating the old home farm in Argo; and Ralph, Gustave and Henry, all of whom are residents of Argo.

Walter Schroeder remained at home and assisted his father in the work of the farm until he was twenty-one years of age. He then followed the timber business for three vears, and worked in the shipyards at North Bend in the employ of A. M. Simpson for a year and a half. At the end of that time he married and immediately began working on a dairy ranch at a monthly salary. In this way he gained personal knowledge of the details connected with dairying, and his in- telligent and alert mind made him an apt scholar. He worked for his cousin for one year and subsequently joined with his brother Clarence in the renting of the old home farm comprising three hundred and twenty acres of the finest Coos county land. He was active in its operation and for three years developed and expanded it along modern and progressive lines. Eventually he purchased eighty-four acres of land on the north fork of the Coquille river eleven miles from Myrtle Point and three miles from Gravel Ford, and began its cultivation and improvement. He does general farming and has brought his land to a high state of cultivation. He has prospered as the years have gone by and his success is indicated by the excellent ap- pearance of his farm. In connection with the general work of tilling and cultivating the soil he makes a specialty of dairying and milks twenty jersey cows. This branch of his activity is rapidly growing in impor- tance and is a substantial source of his in- come. The profit which he gains from each cow averages one hundred dollars a year. He engages to some extent in stock-raising. having been directed into this line of activ, ity by raising his own cows.

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The centennial history of Oregon, 1811-1912, Part 62

Author: Gaston, Joseph, 1833- Publication date: 1912 Publisher: Chicago, The S.J. Clarke publishing company Number of Pages: 1072

Author: Gaston, Joseph, 1833-
Publication date: 1912
Publisher: Chicago, The S.J. Clarke publishing company
Number of Pages: 1072