USA > Washington > Benton County > History of the Yakima Valley, Washington; comprising Yakima, Kittitas, and Benton Counties, Vol. I > Part 15
USA > Washington > Kittitas County > History of the Yakima Valley, Washington; comprising Yakima, Kittitas, and Benton Counties, Vol. I > Part 15
USA > Washington > Yakima County > History of the Yakima Valley, Washington; comprising Yakima, Kittitas, and Benton Counties, Vol. I > Part 15
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111
135
HISTORY OF YAKIMA VALLEY
Just at the critical moment, both for the great Canadian Fur Company, as well as for discovery and acquisition in the region of the Columbia, a most important and remarkable champion entered the lists. This was the "North West Fur Company" of Montreal. It was one of the legitimate consequences of the treaty of Paris in 1763, ceding Canada to Great Britain. The French in Canada became British subjects by that treaty, and many of them had exten- sive interests as well as experience in the fur business. Furthermore, a number of Scotchmen of great enterprise and intelligence betook themselves to Canada, eager to partake of the boundless opportunities offered by the new shuffle of the cards. These Scotchmen and Frenchmen became natural partners in the foundation of enterprises independent of the Hudson's Bay monopoly. In 1783 a group of the boldest and most energetic of these active spirits, of whom the leaders were McGillivray, McTavish, Benjamin and Joseph Frobisher, Reche- bleve, Thain, and Frazer, united in the formation of the North-West Fur Com- pany. Bitter rivalry soon arose between the new company and the old monopoly. Following the usual history of special privilege, the old company, which had now been in existence one hundred and thirteen years, had learned to depend more on privilege than on enterprise, and had become somewhat degenerate. The North-Westers "rustled" for new business in new regions. In 1789 Alexander Mackenzie, one of the North-Westers, made his way with incredible hardship down the river which bears his name to the Frozen Ocean. A few years later he made the first journey to the shore of the Pacific, com- memorating his course by painting on a rock on the shore of Cascade Inlet, northeast of Vancouver Island, these words: "Alexander Mackenzie, from Canada, by land, the twenty-second of July, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-three."
As a result of the new undertakings set on foot by the North-Westers and the re-awakened Hudson's Bay Company, both companies entered the Columbia Valley. The struggle for possession of Oregon between the English and American fur companies and their governments was on. In the Summer of 1807 and several times later David Thompson of the North West Company crossed the continental divide by the Athabasca Pass in lat. 52° 25'. The North-Westers had heard of the Astor enterprise in New York and realized that they must be up and doing if they would control the land of the Oregon. Although the character of soil, climate, and productions of the Columbia Valley was but imperfectly known, enough information had been derived from Lewis and Clark, and from ocean discoveries, to make it plain that the Columbia furnished the most con- venient access to the interior from the sea, and that its numerous tributaries furnished a network of boatable waters unequalled on the western slope, while there was every reason to suppose that its forests abounded in fur-bearing ani- mals and that its climate would admit of much longer seasons of work than was possible in the biting winters of the Athabasca. It became vital to the conti- nental magnitude of the designs of the Canadian companies that they control Oregon.
For greater topical clearness we will anticipate a little at this point and state that after several years of intense rivalry it became plain to the British
136
HISTORY OF YAKIMA VALLEY
Parliament that it was suicidal to allow a policy of division in the face of a common enemy. Hence in 1821, by act of Parliament, the two companies were reorganized and united under a charter which was to last twenty-one years (and as a matter of fact was renewed at the end of that time), and under the pro- visions of which the North-Westers were to have equal shares in both stock and offices, though the name of the Hudson's Bay Company, was retained. It will be remembered therefore, that up to the year 1821, the two great Canadian companies were distinct, and that during that time the North-West Company was much the more active and aggressive in the Columbia Valley, but that after that date the entire force of the Canadian companies was combined under the name of the old monopoly. But, however bitter the first enmity of the Cana- dian rivals, they agreed on the general proposition that the Americans must be checkmated, and during the score of years prior to their coalition they were seizing the pivotal points of the Oregon country. During the next two decades they created a vast network of forts and stations, and reduced the country con- tiguous to the river and its tributaries to a system so elaborate and interesting as to be worthy of extended study. We can sketch only its more general fea- tures. And the more perfectly to understand them, we must arrest here the story of the great Canadian monopoly and bring up the movement of the Amer- ican fur companies.
It may be noted, first of all, that by reason of the quicker colonization and settlement and consequent establishment of agriculture and other arts pertain- ing to home life, the region of the United States east of the Mississippi never became the natural habitat of the trapper and fur trader to anything like the degree of Canada and the western part of our own land. Nevertheless exten- sive fur interests grew up on the Mississippi during the French regime, and in 1763-64 August and Pierre Chouteau located a trading post on the present site of St. Louis, and the fascinating history of that great capital began.
AMERICAN FUR COMPANIES
Most of the American trading companies confined their operations to the east side of the Rocky Mountains. But the Missouri Fur Company of St. Louis, composed of a miscellaneous group of Americans and Hispano-Gallo- Americans, under the presidency of Manuel Lisa, a bold and enterprising Spaniard, took a step over the crest of the mountains and established the first trading post upon the waters of the Columbia. This was in 1809. Andrew Henry, one of the partners of the aforesaid company, crossed the mountains in that year and a year later built a fort on a branch of the Snake River. This seems to have been on what subsequently became known as Henry's River. It was in one of the wildest and grandest regions of all that wild, grand section of the Snake River. Henry's River drains the north side of the Three Tetons, while the south branch, known afterwards as Lewis and finally as Snake River, drains the south of that group of mountains. Henry must be remem- bered as the first American and the first white man recorded in history who built any structure upon Snake River, and the year was 1810. Both Henry and his company had hopes of accomplishing great things in the way of the fur trade in that very favorable region. But the next year the Indians were
137
HISTORY OF YAKIMA VALLEY
so threatening that the fort was forsaken and the party returned to the Mis- souri. When the Hunt party in the Fall of 1811 sought refuge at this point, they found only a group of abandoned huts, with no provision or equipment of which they could make any use.
But though Henry's Fort was but a transient matter, his American coun- trymen were beginning to press through the open gateways of both mountain and sea. In the early part of 1809 the Winship brothers of Boston, together with several other keen-sighted Yankees, formed a project for a definite post on the Columbia River, proposing to reach their destination by ship. Accord- ingly they fitted out an old vessel known as the "Albatross," with Nathan Win- ship as captain, William Gale as captain's assistant, and William Smith as first mate. Captain Gale kept a journal of the entire enterprise, and it is one of the most interesting and valuable of the many ship records of the Northwestern Coast.
Setting sail with a crew of twenty-two men and an excellent supply of stores and ammunition, and an abundance of tools and hardware for erecting needful buildings, the "Albatross" left Boston in the Summer of 1809. After a slow and tedious, but very healthful and comfortable voyage, stopping at the Hawaiian Islands on the route, the "Albatross" reached the mouth of the Col- umbia River on May 26, 1810. Many American and other ships had entered the mouth of the river prior to that date, but so far as known none had ascended any considerable distance. Apparently Gray and Broughton were the only shipmasters who had ascended above the wide expanse now known as Gray's Bay, while the Lewis and Clark Expedition contained the only white men who had seen the river above tidewater. The Winship enterprise may be regarded with great interest, therefore, as the first real attempt to plant a permanent estab- ment on the banks of the river.
Winship and his companions spent some days in careful examination of the river banks and as a result of their search they decided on a strip of valley land formed by a narrowing of the river on the north and an indentation of the mountain on the south. This pleasant strip of fertile land is located on the south bank of the lordly stream, and its lower end is about forty-five miles from the ocean. Being partially covered with a beautiful grove of oak trees, the first to be seen on the ascent of the river, the place received the name of Oak Point. It may be noted that this name was subsequently transferred to a promontory nearly opposite on the north bank, and this circumstance has led many to locate erroneously the site of the first buildings designed for perma- nent use on the banks of the Columbia. And such these were, for the Lewis and Clark structures at what they called Fort Clatsop, erected four and a half years earlier, were meant only for a winter's use. But the Winship party had glowing visions of a great emporium of the fur trade, another Montreal or St. Louis, to inaugurate a new era for their country and themselves. They designed paying the Indians for their lands, and in every way treating them justly. They seem in short to have had a very high conception of the dignity and worth of their enterprise. They were worthy of the highest success, and the student of today cannot but grieve that their high hopes were dashed with disaster.
138
HISTORY OF YAKIMA VALLEY
Tying the "Albatross" to the bank on June 4th, they entered at once with great energy on the task of felling trees, rearing a large log house, clearing a garden spot, in which they at once began the planting of seeds, and getting ready to trade with the natives. But within four days the river began to rise rapidly, and the busy fort-builders perceived to their dismay that they had located on land subject to inundation. All the work thus far done went for naught, and they pulled their fort to pieces and floated the logs down stream a quarter of a mile to a higher place. There they resumed their buildings with redoubled energy. But within a week a much more dangerous situation, and this time permanently, arrested their grand project. This time it was the very men toward whom they had entertained such just and benevolent designs, the Indians, who thwarted their plans. For, as Captain Gale narrates in a most entertaining manner, a large body of Chinooks and Cheheeles, armed with bows and arrows, and some muskets, made their appearance, announcing that they were on their way to war against the Culaworth tribe who had killed one of their chiefs a year before. But the next day the Indians, massing themselves about the whites, gave such plain indications that the previous declaration was a pretense, that the party hastily got into a position of defence. Their cannon on board the "Albatross" had already been loaded in anticipation of emergen- cies, and so plain was it that they could make a deadly defence that the threat- ened attack did not come. A long "pow wow" ensued instead, and the Chinooks insisted that the builders must select a site lower down the river. After due consideration the party decided that any determined opposition by the Indians would so impair their enterprise, even though they might be able to defend themselves, that it would be best to seek a new location. Accordingly they reloaded their effects, dropped down the river, and finally decided to make a voyage down the California coast and return the next year. Return they did, but by that time the next year the Pacific Fur Company had already located at Astoria, the first permanent American settlement, and the Winship enterprise faded away. That the design of the Winships was not at all chimerical is ap- parent from the fact that within twenty years the Hudson's Bay Company had . made of Vancouver, sixty miles farther up the river, the very kind of a trading entrepot of which the Winships had dreamed. Their dream was reasonable, but the time and place were unpropitious.
A quotation from Captain Gale's journal will give a conception of his feelings :
"June 12th .- The ship dropped further down the river, and it was now determined to abandon all attempts to force a settlement. We have taken off the goats and hogs which were left on shore for the use of the settlement, and thus we have to abandon the business, after having, with great difficulty and labor, got about forty-five miles above Cape Disappointment ; and with great trouble began to clear the land and build a house a second time, after cutting timber enough to finish nearly one-half, and having two of our hands disabled in the work. It is, indeed, cutting to be obliged to knuckle to those whom you have not the least fear of, but whom, from motives of prudence, you are obliged to treat with forbearance. What can be more disagreeable than to sit at the table with a number of these rascally chiefs, who while they supply their greedy
139
HISTORY OF YAKIMA VALLEY
mouths with your food with one hand, their bloods boil within them to cut your throat with the other, without the least provocation."
On the way out of the river Captain Winship learned that the Chinooks designed capturing his vessel, and would doubtless have done so, had not his vigilance prevented.
FOUNDING OF ASTORIA
While the crew of the "Albatross" were engaged in these adventures, the largest American fur company yet formed was getting ready to effect a lodg- ment on the shores of the Columbia. This was the Pacific Fur Company. John Jacob Astor was the founder of this enterprise. Though unfortunate in almost every feature of its history and its final outcome, this company had a magnificent conception, a royal grandeur of opportunity, and it possessed also the felicity, shared by no one of its predecessors, of the genius of a great lit- erary star to illuminate its records. To Washington Irving it owes much of its fame. Yet the commercial genius of Astor could not prevent errors of judgment by the management any more than the literary genius of Irving was able to conceal their errors, or the genius of American liberty able to order events so as to prevent victory for a time by the "Britishers." As we view the history in the large it may be that we shall conclude that the British triumph at first was the best introduction to American triumph in the end.
John Jacob Astor may, perhaps, be justly regarded as the first of the great promoters or financial magnates who have made the United States the world's El Dorado. Coming from Germany to this land of opportunity after the close of the Revolutionary war, he soon manifested that keen intuition in money matters, as well as intense devotion to accumulation, which has led to the colos- sal fortunes of his own descendants and of the other multimillionaires of this age. Having made quite a fortune by transporting furs to London, Mr. Astor turned to larger fields. With his broad and keen geographical and commer- cial insight, he could readily grasp the same fact which the North-Westers of Montreal were considering, that the Columbia River might well become the key to an international fur trade, as well as a strategic point for American ex- pansion westward. He made overtures to the North-Westers for a partnership, but they declined. Then he determined to be the chief manager, and to asso- ciate individual Americans and Canadians with himself. With the promptitude of the skilful general, he proceeded to form his company and make his plan of campaign in time to anticipate the apparent designs of the active Canadians. They saw, as well as Astor did, the magnitude of the stake and at once made ready to play their part. For, as already noted, David Thompson crossed the Rockies by the Athabasca Pass in 1807 and on spent the Winter at Lake Windermere on the Columbia River, and in the Summer of 1811 reached Astoria, only to find the Astor Company already established there. It should be especially noted that the Thompson party was the first to descend the river from near its source to the ocean, although of course Lewis and Clark had anticipated them on the portion below the junction of the Snake with the main river.
Mr. Astor's plans provided for an expedition by sea and one by land. The first was to convey stores and equipment for founding and defending the pro-
140
HISTORY OF YAKIMA VALLEY
posed capital of the empire of the fur traders. The organization of Mr. Astor's company provided that there should be a capital stock of a hundred shares, of which he should hold half and his associates half. Mr. Astor was to furnish the money, though not to exceed four hundred thousand dollars, and was to bear all losses for five years. The term of the association was fixed at twenty years though with the privilege of dissolving it in five years if it proved un- profitable. The general plan and the details of the expedition had been decided upon by the master mind of the founder with statesman-like ability. It comes, therefore, as a surprise to the reader that Mr. Astor should have made a capital mistake at the very beginning of his undertaking. This mistake was in the selection of his associates and the captains of some of his ships. Of the part- ners, five were Americans and five were Canadians. Two only of the Ameri- cans remained with the company long enough to have any determining influ- ence on its policies. Take the fact that the majority of the active partners and almost all the clerks, trappers, and other employes of the company were Cana- dians, and put it beside the other fact that war was imminent with Great Britain and did actually break out within two years, and the dangerous nature of the situation can be seen. Of the ship captains, the first one, Captain Jonathan Thorn of the "Tonquin," was a man of such overbearing and obstinate nature that disaster seemed to be fairly invited by placing him in such a vitally respon- sible position. The captain of the second ship, the "Beaver," was Cornelius. Sowles, and he seems to have been as timid and irresolute as Captain Thorn was bold and implacable. Both lacked judgment. It was probably natural that Mr. Astor, having had his main prior experience as a fur dealer in connection with the Canadians centering at Montreal, should have looked in that direction for associates. But inasmuch as war between England and the United States seemed a practical certainty it was a great error, in founding a vast enterprise in remote regions whose ownership was not yet definitely recognized, to share with citizens of Great Britain the determination of the important issues of the enterprise. It would have saved Mr. Astor great loss and chagrin if he had observed the maxim: "Put none but Americans on guard." As to the captains of the two vessels, that was an error that any one might have made. Yet for a man of Astor's exceptional ability and shrewdness to err so conspicuously in judging the character of the men appointed to such important places seems indeed strange.
To these facts in regard to the personnel of the partners, the captains, and the force, must be added two others, i. e., war and shipwreck. The combina- tion of all these conditions made the history of the Astoria enterprise what it was. Yet, with all of its adversity, this was one of the best conceived, and, in most of its details, the best equipped and executed of all the great enterprises which have appeared in the commercial history of our country. As an element in the development of the land of the Oregon, it must be accorded the first place after the period of discovery.
The "Tonquin" left New York on September 6, 1810. She carried a fine equipment of all things needed for founding the proposed emporium. She was manned by a crew of twenty-one and conveyed members of the fur-trading force to the number of thirty-three. Stopping at the Sandwich Islands, an
141
HISTORY OF YAKIMA VALLEY
added force of twenty-four natives was taken aboard. At various times on the journey the rigid ideas of naval discipline and the imperious temper of Captain Thorn came near producing mutiny among the partners and clerks. When the "Tonquin" hove to, off the mouth of the Columbia, on March 22, 1811, the eager voyagers saw little to attract. The wind was blowing in heavy squalls, and the sea ran high. Nevertheless the hard-hearted captain issued orders to the first mate, Fox, with a boat's crew of four men, to go into the foaming waves and sound the channel. The boat was insufficinetly provided, and it seemed scarcely short of murder to despatch a crew under such circumstances. But the tyrannical captain would listen to no remonstrances, and the poor little boat went tossing over the billows on her forlorn hope. Such indeed it proved to be, for neither boat nor any one of the crew was ever heard of again. This was a wholly unnecessary sacrifice of life, for the "Tonquin" was in no danger, and time could just as well have been taken for more propitious weather.
The next day, the wind and sea having abated, the "Tonquin" drew near the dreaded bar, but, no entrance that satisfied the captain appearing, the ship again stood off to spend the night in deep water. On the next day, the 24th, the wind fell and a serene sky seemed to invite another attempt. The pinnace in command of Mr. Aikin, with two white men and two Kanakas, was sent out to find the channel. Following the pinnace the ship moved in so rapidly under a freshening breeze that she passed the pinnace, the unfortunate men on board finding it impossible to effect an entrance and being borne by the refluent cur- rent into the mad surge where ocean tide and outflowing river met in foamy strife. So the pinnace disappeared. But meanwhile the crew had all their energies engaged to save the "Tonquin." For the wind failed at the critical moment and the ship struck the sands with violence. Night came on. Had the men been classically trained (as in fact Franchère was) they might have re- membered Virgil, Ponto nox incubat atra. But they had not time for classical or other quotations. Hastily dropping the anchors they lay to in the midst of the tumult of waters, in that worst of situations, on an unknown coast in the dark and in storm. But as Franchère expresses it, Providence came to their succor, and the tide flooding and the wind rising, they weighed the anchors, and in spite of the obscurity of the night, they gained a safe harbor in a little cove inside of Cape Disappointment, apparently just abreast of the present town of Ilwaco.
Thus the "Tonquin" was saved, and with the light of morning it could be seen that she was fairly within the bar. Natives soon made their appearance, desirous of trading beaver-skins. But the crew were in no mood for commerce while any hope existed for finding the lost sailors. Taking a course toward the shore by what must have been nearly the present route from Ilwaco to Long Beach, the captain and a party with him, began a search and soon found Weeks, one of the crew of the pinnace. He was stark naked and suffering intensely from the cold. As soon as sufficiently revived he narrated the loss of the pinnace in the breakers, the death of three of the crew, and the casting of himself and one of the Kanakas upon the beach. The point where they were cast would seem to have been near the present location of the life saving sta- tion.
142
HISTORY OF YAKIMA VALLEY
The two survivors of the ill-fated pinnace having been revived, the party returned to the "Tonquin," which was now riding safely at anchor in the bay on the north side of the river, named Baker's Bay by Broughton nineteen years. before. Joy for their own escape from such imminent perils was mingled with melancholy at the loss of their eight companions of the two boats, and with the melancholy there was a sense of bitterness toward the captain, who was to. blame, at least for the loss of the small boat.
But now the new land was all before them where to choose, and since Captain Thorn was in great haste to depart and begin his trading cruise along the coast, the partners on the "Tonquin," Messrs. Mckay, McDougal, David Stuart, and Robert Stuart, decided somewhat hurriedly to locate at the point which had received from Lieutenant Broughton the name of Point George. Franchère gives a pleasant picture of the beauty of the trees and sky, and the- surprise of the party to find that, though it was only the 12th of April when they set to work upon the great trees which covered the site of their chosen capital, yet Spring was already far advanced. They did not then understand the effect of the Japan current upon the Pacific Coast climate.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.