An illustrated history of Skagit and Snohomish Counties; their people, their commerce and their resources, with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington, Part 9

Author: Inter-state Publishing Company (Chicago, Ill.)
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: [Chicago] Interstate Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1172

USA > Washington > Skagit County > An illustrated history of Skagit and Snohomish Counties; their people, their commerce and their resources, with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington > Part 9
USA > Washington > Snohomish County > An illustrated history of Skagit and Snohomish Counties; their people, their commerce and their resources, with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington > Part 9

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2.5

PERIOD OF SETTLEMENT

persons, of whom seventeen were children, were baptized by Jason Lee at Vancouver.

Wyeth's enterprise, as well as all previous efforts of a like character inaugurated by Americans, was met by crushing and ruinons opposition from the autocratic British monopoly, but the missionaries were assisted and encouraged in every way. Bonne- ville, Wyeth and other American adventurers and traders had come to Oregon to compete with the British traders or to colonize against the interests of their fatherland. Lee and his party were there to Christianize the pagan inhabitants, to instruct the ignorant, to minister to the sick and the dying. and to set a godly example to the irreligious, the reckless and semi-barbarous employees and ex- servants of the corporation. Hence the difference in their reception. The Hudson's Bay Company, shrewd and vigilant though it was, did not and could not foresee that the attempt to convert the Indian would fail, owing to causes over which the missionaries had no control, and that the mission people would form a settlement of their own, around which would naturally cluster all the elements of society independent of the British corporation ; that a social and political force would spring up hostile to the commercial interests and political ambitions of the company, potential to destroy its autocratic sway in the land and forceful to effect the final wresting of the country entirely from its control. The coming of the missionaries has been well styled the entrance of the wedge of American occupancy.

The event which prompted the outfitting of this missionary enterprise is one of the strangest and most romantic character. It shows how affairs apparently the most trivial will deeply influence and sometimes greatly change the current of human history. In one of the former historical works, in the compilation of which the writer has had a part. the story is told by Colonel William Parsons, of Pendleton, Oregon, substantially as follows:

"Far up in the mountains of Montana, in one of the many valleys which sparkle like emeralds on the western slope of the Stony range, a handful of natives, whom the whites call by the now in- appropriate name of 'Flatheads,' met to ponder over the unique tale repeated by some passing mountaineer of a magic book possessed by the white man, which assured its owners of peace and comfort in this life and eternal bliss in the world beyond the grave. The Flatheads were a weak and unwarlike people ; they were sorely beset by the fierce Black- feet, their hereditary foes, through whose terrible incursions the Flatheads had been reduced in num- bers and harassed so continuously that their state was most pitiable. To this remnant of a once prond race the trapper's story was a rainbow of promise ; the chiefs resolved to seek this book, and possess themselves of the white man's treasure. They chose an embassy of four of their wisest and bravest men, and sent them trustfully on the tribe's errand. The

quest of 'three kings of orient,' who, two thou- sand years ago, started on their holy pilgrimage to the manger of the lowly babe of Bethlehem. was not more weird, nor was the search of the knights of King Arthur's round table for the Holy Grail more picturesque and seemingly more hope- less. Though they knew that there were men of the pale-face race on the lower waters of the Columbia, and one of these doubtless had tokdl them of the book, they knew that these uncouth trappers, hunters and fishers were ungodly men in the main and not custodians of the precious volume for which their souls so earnestly longed. These were not like the fishers of old by the sea of Galilee, who received the gospel gladly, and, following in the footsteps of the Master, themselves became fishers of men, but were scoffers, swearers and contemners of holy things, So the Indians, like the ancient wise men, turned their faces towards the cast.

"They threaded their toilsome way by stealth through the dreaded Blackfoot country, scaled the perilous Stony mountains, descending the eastern slope, followed the tributaries of the Missouri through the dreaded country of the Dakotahs, and then pursued the windings of the Missouri till they struck the Father of Waters, arriving at St. Louis in the summer of 1832. Indians were no rarity in this outpost of civilization, and the friendless and forlorn Flatheads soon discovered that the white trappers, hunters, flatboat men, traders, teamsters, and riff-raff of a bustling young city were about the last people in the world to supply Indians who had no furs to sell with either spiritual or material solace. The embassy was not only without money, but its members could not even speak the language of the pale-faces. Nor was anyone found who could serve as interpreter. It would have been easy enough to have obtained a Bible, if they could have met with a stray colporteur, but none was in evidence, and the average denizen of St. Louis was better provided with cartridge belts and guns than with literature of any sort. In despair they applied to Governor Clark, the official head of the territory, whose headquarters were in the town- the same William Clark who, with Captain Meri- wether Lewis, had led the expedition to the month of the Columbia nearly thirty years before. It is possible that they may have heard of Clark by reason of his travels through their country a gen- eration previous. By means of signs and such few words of jargon as they could muster they at- tempted to explain to Governor Clark the purpose of their visit but it is evident that they succeeded none too well. In response to their prayer for spiritual food, he bestowed on them blankets, beads and tobacco-the routine gifts to importunate red- skins-and the discouraged Flatheads abandoned their illusive quest for the magic book. Before leaving for home, the Indians made a farewell call on Governor Clark, during which they, or one of

INTRODUCTORY

them, made a speech. Just what the speaker said, or tried to say, may be a matter of doubt, but the report made of it and given to the press is a marvel of simple eloquence. It is as follows :

We came to you over a trail of many moons from the setting sun. You were the friend of our fathers, who have all gone the long road. We came with our eyes partly opened for more light for our people who sit in darkness. We go back with our eyes closed. How can we go back blind to our blind people? We made our way to you with strong arms, through many enemies and strange lands, that we might carry back much to them. We go back with both arms broken and empty. The two fathers who came with us-the braves of many winters and wars-we leave here asleep by your great water and wigwams. They were tired with their journey of many moons and their moccasins were worn out.

Our people sent us to get the white man's Book of Heaven. You took us where they worship the Great Spirit with candles, but the Book was not there. You showed us the images of good spirits, and pictures of the good land beyond. but the Book was not among them to tell us the way. You made our feet heavy with burdens of gifts, and our moccasins will grow old with carrying them, but the Book is not among them. We are going back the long. sad trail to our people. When we tell them, after one more snow, in the big council, that we did not bring the Book, no word will be spoken by our old men nor by our young braves. One by one they will rise up and go out in silence. Our people will die in darkness, and they will go on the long path to the other hunting grounds. No white man will go with them, and no Book of Heaven to make the way plain. We have no more words.

"The story of the Flathead embassy and their unique quest subsequently reached George Catlin through the medium of Governor Clark. Catlin was an artist who had made a special study of Indian types and dress, and had painted with great ability and fidelity many portraits of noted chiefs. In the national museum at Washington, D. C., may be seen a very extensive collection of his Indian paintings, supplemented with almost innumerable recent photographs, among which are those of Chief Joseph, the great Nez Perce warrior, and the Uma- tilla reservation chieftains-Homeli, Peo and Paul Showeway. Mr. Catlin was not only a portrait painter, but a gifted writer. He converted the plain, unvarnished tale of Governor Clark concern- ing the Flatheads into an epic poem of thrilling interest, and gave it to the press. Its publication in the religious journals created a great sensation, and steps were immediately taken to answer the Mace- donian cry of the Flatheads. The sending of Jason Lee and his party to Oregon was a result.

"The quest of the Flatheads, the sad deaths of all their ambassadors save one on the journey, and the temporary failure of their project seemed a hopeless defeat, but they 'builded wiser than they knew,' for the very fact of their mission stirred mightily the hearts of the church people, and through that instrumentality the attention of Amer- icans was sharply directed to the enormous value of the Pacific Northwest. The interest thus excited was timely-another decade of supine lethargy and

the entire Pacific coast from Mexico to the Russian possessions would have passed irretrievably under British control.

"The Flatheads' search for the magic book was to all appearance an ignominious failure, but their plaintive cry, feeble though it was, stirred the mountain heights, and precipitated an irresistible avalanche of American enterprise into the valley of the Columbia, overwhelming the Hudson's Bay Company with its swelling volume of American immigration.

"In a lesser way, also, their mission succeeded, though success was long on the road. The western movement of white population engulfed the hated Blackfeet, reduced their numbers till they were no longer formidable, even to the Flatheads, confined them within the narrow limits of a reservation in northern Montana, where they were ordered about by a consequential Indian agent, and collared and thrust into the agency jail for every trifling misde- meanor, by the agency police ; while the one time harassed and outraged Flathead roams unvexed through his emerald vales, pursues without fear to its uttermost retreat in the Rockies the lordly elk or the elusive deer, tempts the wily trout from the dark pool of the sequestered mountain torrent with the seductive fly, or lazily floats on the surface of some placid lake, which mirrors the evergreen slopes of the environing hills, peacefully withdraw- ing, now and again, the appetizing salmon trout from its cool, transparent depths, to be transferred presently, in exchange for gleaming silver, to some thrifty pale-face housewife or some unctuous Chinese cook for a tenderfoot tourist's dinner-for- getful all and fearless of Blackfoot ambush or deadly foray. Of a verity, the childlike quest for the magic book was not without its compensation to the posterity of the Flathead ambassadors!"

Of those Americans who came to Oregon with the early expeditions, three in 1832 and twenty- two in 1834 became permanent settlers. The names of these are preserved by W. H. Gray in his history of Oregon as follows: "From Captain Wyeth's party of 1832, there remained S. H. Smith, Sergeant, and Tibbets, a stonecutter ; and from his party of 1834, James O'Neil and T. J. Hubbard. From the wreck of the William and Ann, a survivor named Felix Hathaway remained. With Ewing Young from California in 1834, a party came who remained in Oregon, consisting of Joseph Gale, who died in Union county, that state, in 1882; John McCarty, Carmichael, John Hauxhurst, John Howard, Kil- born, Brandywine, and a colored man named George Winslow. An English sailor named Richard Mc- Cary reached the Willamette from the Rocky moun- tains that year, as did also Captain J. H. Crouch, G. W. Le Breton, John McCaddan and William Johnson from the brig Maryland. This made (with the missionaries heretofore named) twenty-five residents at the close of 1834, who were not in

PERIOD OF SETTLEMENT

any way connected with the Hudson's Bay Com- pany, all of whom were here for other than transient purposes. There were no arrivals in 1835."

However, the year 1836 was, as may be gleaned from previous pages, an important one for Oregon. While, as Gray states, there were no permanent residences established in Oregon in 1835, that was the year in which Rev. Samuel Parker and Dr. Marcus Whitman were sent out by the American Board to explore the country and report upon it as a field for missionary labors. These gentlemen were met at the trappers' rendezvous on Green river by the noted Chief Lawyer, by whom they were persuaded into the plan of establishing their proposed mission among his people, the Nez Perces. When this conclusion was reached, Dr. Whitman started back to the east accompanied by two Nez Perce boys, Mr. Parker continuing his journey west- ward to the shores of the Pacific. It was agreed that Parker should seek out a suitable location among the Nez Perces for the mission, while Dr. Whitman should make arrangements for the west- ward journey of a sufficient force and for the es- tablishment and outfitting of the post. The results of Mr. Parker's journeyings are embodied in a work of great historic value from his own pen, entitled "Parker's Exploring Tour Beyond the Rocky Mountains." From information conveyed by this volume, Gilbert summarizes the conditions in Oregon in 1835 as follows :

"Fort Vancouver on the Columbia, under charge of Dr. John McLoughlin, was established in 1824, and consisted of an enclosure by stockade, thirty- seven rods long by eighteen wide, that faced the south. About one hundred persons were employed at the place, and some three hundred Indians lived in the immediate vicinity. There were eight sub- stantial buildings within the stockade, and a large number of small ones on the outside. There were 459 cattle, 100 horses, 200 sheep. 40 goats and 300 hogs belonging to the company at this place; and during the season of 1835 the crops produced in that vicinity amounted to 5,000 bushels of wheat, 1,300 bushels of potatoes, 1,000 bushels of barley, 1,000 bushels of oats, 2,000 bushels of peas, and garden vegetables in proportion. The garden, con- taining five acres, besides its vegetable products, included apples, peaches, grapes and strawberries. A grist mill with machinery propelled by oxen was kept in constant nse, while some six miles up the Columbia was a saw mill containing several saws, which supplied lumber for the Hudson's Bay Company. Within the fort was a bakery employing three men, also shops for blacksmiths, joiners, car- penters and a tinner.

"Fort Williams, erected by N. J. Wyeth at the mouth of the Willamette, was nearly deserted, Mr. Townsend, the ornithologist. being about the only occupant at the time. Wyeth had gone to his Fort Hall in the interior. Of Astoria, at the mouth of

the Columbia, but two log houses and a garden remained, where two white men dragged ont a dull existence, to maintain possession of the historic ground. Its ancient, romantic grandeur had de- parted from its walls, when dismantled to assist in the construction and defenses of its rival, Fort Vancouver. Up the Willamette river was the Methodist mission, in the condition already noted. while between it and the present site of Oregon City were the Hudson's Bay Company's French settle- ments of Gervais and MeKay, containing some twenty families, whose children were being taught by young Americans. In one of these settlements a grist mill had just been completed. East of the Cascade mountains Fort Walla Walla was situated at the mouth of a river by that name. It was built of logs and was internally arranged to answer the purposes of trade and domestic comfort, and ex- ternally for defense, having two bastions, and was surrounded by a stockade.' It was accidentally burned in 1841 and rebuilt of adobe within a year. At this point the company had 'horses, cows, hogs, fowls, and they cultivated corn, potatoes and a variety of garden vegetables.' This fort was used for a trading post, where goods were stored for traffic with the Indians. Fort Colville, on the Col- umbia, a little above Kettle Falls, near the present line of Washington territory, a strongly stockaded post, was occupied by a half dozen men with Indian families, and Mr. McDonald was in charge. Fort Okanogan, at the mouth of the river of that name, established by David Stuart in 1811, was, in the absence of Mr. Ogden, in charge of a single white man. Concerning Fort Hall, nothing is said: but it fell into the hands of the Hudson's Bay Company in 1836. It was then a stockaded fort. but was rebuilt with adobe in 1838. Mr. Parker is also silent in regard to Fort Boise, which was con- structed on Snake river from poles in 1834 as a rival establishment to Fort Hall, was occupied in 1835 by the Hudson's Bay Company, and later was more substantially constructed from adobe. If there were other establishments in 1835, west of the Rocky mountains, between the forty-second and forty-ninth parallels, the writer has failed to obtain evidences of them."

Meanwhile, Whitman was working in the east with characteristic energy, and he succeeded in raising funds and securing associates for two missions in Oregon territory. The population of Oregon was accordingly increased in the year 1836 by five persons, namely. Dr. Marcus Whitman, Narcissa ( Prentiss ) Whitman, Rev. H. H. Spalding and wife, and W. H. Gray. The ladies mentioned gained the distinction of having been the first white women whose feet pressed the soil of old Oregon, and whose blue and dark eyes looked into the dusky, mystic orbs of the daughters of the Columbia basin. A few months later the Methodist mission was also blessed by the purifying presence

INTRODUCTORY

of noble womanhood, but the laurels of pioneership have ever rested upon the worthy brows of Mrs. Whitman and Mrs. Spalding, and so far as we know, no fair hand has ever been raised to pluck them thence. The missionary party brought with them eight mules, twelve horses and sixteen cows, also three wagons laden with farming utensils, blacksmiths' and carpenters' tools, clothing, seeds, etc., to make it possible for them to support them- selves without an entire dependence upon the Hud- son's Bay Company for supplies. Two of the wagons were abandoned at Fort Laramie, and heavy pressure was brought upon Dr. Whitman to leave the third at the rendezvous on Green river, but he refused to do so. He succeeded in getting it to Fort Hall intact, then reduced it to a two-wheeled cart, which he brought on to Fort Boise, thus demonstrating the feasibility of a wagon road over the Rocky mountains.

Although a reinforcement for the Methodist mission sailed from Boston in July, 1836, it failed to reach its destination on the Willamette until May of the following year, so that the American popu- lation at the close of 1836 numbered not to exceed thirty persons, including the two ladies.

U'ntil 1836 there were no cattle in the country except those owned by the Hudson's Bay Company, and those brought from the east by the Whitman party. The Hudson's Bay Company wished to continue this condition as long as possible. well knowing that the introduction of cattle or any other means of wealth production among the American population would necessarily render the people that much more nearly independent. When, therefore, it was proposed by Ewing Young and Jason Lee that a party should be sent to California for stock, the idea was antagonized by the autocratic Column- bia river monopoly. Thanks largely to the assist- ance of William A. Slacum, of the United States navy, by whom money was advanced and a free passage to California furnished to the people's emissaries, the projectors of the enterprise were rendered independent of the Hudson's Bay Com- pany. Ewing Young was captain of the expedition ; P. L. Edwards, of the Willamette mission, was also one of its leading spirits. The men purchased seven hundred head of cattle at three dollars per head and set out upon their return journey. They suc- ceeded in getting about six hundred head to the Willamette country, notwithstanding the bitter hos- tility of the Indians. Gilbert quotes from the diary of P. L. Edwards, which he says was shown him by the latter's daughter in California, to prove that the trouble with the Indians was caused by the wanton and cold-blooded murder by members of the party of a friendly Indian who was following the band. The Indian hostilities were not incited by the Hudson's Bay Company. as some have stated, but may properly be laid at the doors of the men who committed this barbarous outrage in revenge

for wrongs suffered by a party to which they belonged two years before.

The arrival of neat cattle in the Willamette country provided practically the first means of acquiring wealth independent of the Hudson's Bay Company. "This success in opposition to that interest," says Gilbert, "was a discovery by the settlers, both Americans and ex-employees, that they possessed the strength to rend the bars that held them captives under a species of peonage. With this one blow, directed by missionaries, and dealt by ex-American hunters, an independent main- tenance in Oregon had been rendered possible for immigrants.'

As before stated, the reinforcements for the Methodist mission arrived in May, 1831. By it the American population was increased eight persons, namely, Elijah White and wife, Alanson Beers and wife, W. H. Wilson, the Misses Annie M. Pitman, Susan Downing and Elvina Johnson. In the fall came another reinforcement, the per- sonnel of which was Rev. David Leslie, wife and three daughters, the Rev. W. H. K. Perkins and Miss Margaret Smith. Add to these Dr. J. Bailey, an English physician, George Gay and John Turner, who also arrived this year. and the thirty or thirty- one persons who settled previously, and we have the population of Oregon independent of the Hudson's Bay Company's direct or indirect control in the year 1831.

In January of that year, W. H. Gray, of the American Board's mission, set out overland to the east for reinforcements to the missionary force of which he was a member. His journey was not an uneventful one as will appear from the following narrative, clothed in his own words, which casts so vivid a light upon transcontinental travel during the early days that we feel constrained to quote it :

Our sketches, perhaps, would not lose in interest by giving a short account of a fight which our Flathead Indi- ans had at this place with a war party of the Blackfeet. It occurred near the present location of Helena, in Mon- tana. As was the custom with the Flathead Indians in traveling in the buffalo country, their hunters and warriors were in advance of the main camp. A party of twenty-five Blackfeet warriors was discovered by some twelve of our Flatheads. To see each other was to fight, especially par- ties prowling about in this manner, and at it they went. The first fire of the Flatheads brought five of the Blackfeet to the ground and wounded five more. This was more than they expected. and the Blackfeet made little effort to recover their dead, which were duly scalped and their bodies left for food for the wolves, and the scalps borne in triumph to the camp. There were but two of the Flat- heads wounded; one had a flesh wound in the thigh, and the other had his right arm broken by a Blackfoot ball.

The victory was complete, and the rejoicing in camp corresponded to the number of scalps taken. Five days and nights the usual scalp dance was performed. At the appointed time the big war drum was sounded, when the warriors and braves made their appearance at the appointed place in the open air, painted as warriors. Those who had taken the scalps from the heads of their enemies bore them in their hands upon the ramrods of their guns.

They entered the circle, and the war song, drums, rat-

PERIOD OF SETTLEMENT

tles and noises all commenced. The scalp-bearers stood for a moment (as if to catch the time), and then commenced hopping, jumping and yelling in concert with the music. This continued for a time, when some old painted woman took the scalps and continued to dance. The performance was gone through with as many nights as there were scalps taken.

Seven days after the scalps were taken, a messenger arrived bearing a white flag, and a proposition to make peace for the purpose of trade. After the preliminaries had all been completed, in which the Hudson's Bay Com- pany trader had the principal part to perform, the time was fixed for a meeting of the two tribes. The Flatheads, however, were all careful to dig their warpits, make their corrals and breastworks, and, in short, fortify their camp as much as if they expected a fight instead of peace. Ermatinger, the company's leader, remarked that he would sooner take his chances of a fight off-hand than endure the anxiety and suspense of the two days we waited for the Blackfeet to arrive. Our scouts and warriors were all ready and on the watch for peace or war, the latter of which from the recent fight they had had was expected most. At length the Blackfeet arrived, bearing a red flag with "H. B. C." in white letters upon it, and advancing to within a short distance of the camp, were met by Ermat- inger and a few Flathead chiefs, shook hands and were con- clueted to the trader's lodge-the largest one in the camp- and the principal chiefs of both tribes, seated upon buffalo and bear skins, all went through with the ceremony of smoking a big pipe, having a long handle or stem trimmed with horse hair and porcupine quills. The pipe was filled with the traders' tobacco and the Indians' killikinick. The war chiefs of each tribe took a puff of the pipe, then passed it each to his right-hand man, and so around till all the circle had smoked the big medicine pipe, or pipe of peace. which on this occasion was made by the Indians from a soft stone which they find in abundance in their country, hav- ing no extra ornamental work upon it. The principal chief in command, or great medicine man, went through the ceremony, puffed four times, blowing his smoke in four directions. This was, considered a sign of peace to all around him, which doubtless included all he knew any- thing about. The Blackfeet, as a tribe, are a tall, well formed, slim built and active people. They travel princi- pally on foot, and are considered very treacherous.

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An illustrated history of Skagit and Snohomish Counties; their people, their commerce and their resources, with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington, Part 9

Author: Inter-state Publishing Company (Chicago, Ill.) Publication date: 1906 Publisher: [Chicago] Interstate Publishing Company Number of Pages: 1172

Author: Inter-state Publishing Company (Chicago, Ill.)
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: [Chicago] Interstate Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1172