While living in Madison County, Indiana, my native home, in my fifth year, 1840, I remember distinctly hearing men riding along the road in front of our house, and singing: "Go it Tip, come it Tyler, beat old Van, or bust your biler."

William Henry Harrison, the hero of the battle of Tippecanoe, was the Whig candidate for President, and John Tyler, the candidate for Vice-President, against Martin Van Buren, the Democratic candidate. Both were elected. That was the fourteenth Presidential election, but Harrison was the ninth President. Harrison died April 4, 1841, one month after his inauguration, and Tyler became President.

In 1844 I remember hearing men riding past our house, singing:

Henry Clay was the Whig candidate for President and James K. Polk was the Democratic candidate. The Democrats were shouting for war with Mexico, while the Whigs were trying to be neutral or were keeping still. That elected ​Polk, an obscure Tennesseean, over Clay, the great statesman and orator of Kentucky.

My father had a little pamphlet of sixty odd pages which he prized very highly, and brought it to Oregon. My mother kept it among her keepsakes for more than sixty years, until she passed away, November 4, 1912, in her 97th year. The inscription on the front page reads as follows:

He quotes from the Prophets and some from the New Testament, frequently from the writings of Paul, and from other noted writers and commentators on the scriptures and religious subjects. He comments extensively and ably on all the sentences he copied as texts, and makes a very plausible argument in favor of universal salvation of all mankind. My father often argued with orthodox preachers, proving by the Bible, to his satisfaction, that the Bible does not teach or does not mean hell and damnation for lost sinners. According to my understanding it does threaten such punishment. But I hope and believe that the writers of such statements were mistaken. I have more confidence in the justice and good sense of the Lord, or God, or Universal Intelligence, than the men had who wrote such things.

In 1851 our family started to Oregon. In Benton County, Indiana, about thirty miles west of Lafayette, my father's oldest brother, James, resided. We stopped there for a short visit and then concluded to settle and give up the journey to Oregon. My father located on a claim, in the wide prairie, near Parish Grove, where he had to haul his firewood sixteen miles. We lived there one winter and summer. I went to Lafayette, when 16 years old, and worked several months in a brick yard at 25 cents a day. I got only a few dollars of my pay and went back in the winter to try to collect the balance. I got about thirty pounds of brown sugar, which ​

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was nearly all I ever received for my summer's work, and carried it thirty miles on my back in a sack, traveling over deep snow in cold weather, and got home about midnight. That was one of my very hard and unpleasant experiences. The winter was very cold and we gave up trying to live there in the bleak prairie, so far from timber. Early in 1853 we started on to Oregon with one ox and one horse team and arrived in the Willamette Valley September 29, 1853.

On the 5th day of May, 1855, I started alone on foot from Eugene with my provisions and bedding on a little Indian pony, for the mines in Southern Oregon and California.

After there was no longer a chance to get work in the mines, on account of the Indian war, I and a young man named John Williams, took our blankets, frying pan and provisions on our backs and walked over the Coast Moun- tains from Althouse Creek to Crescent City on the Pacific Coast in California. I was not yet twenty years old and was slim and light built, but very strong and active. Williams was a good deal larger and several years older and stood the

trip better than I did.

In the spring I left my "partner" there at Crescent City and went to San Francisco, and have never seen nor heard of him since. There was no harbor nor wharf at Crescent City. Steamers anchored out in the ocean and little lighter boats carried passengers and freight to and from them. I took passage in the steerage of a little steamer called the Goliath and paid $20 for the trip to San Francisco.

I took passage on a steamboat at San Francisco and went up the Sacramento River to Sacramento City. There was a bar on the lower deck which was well patronized. Ex-U. S. Senator, who was then Governor of California, John B. Weller, ​

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was on board, and he and others patronized the bar and were a lively crowd.

Returning to Oregon I arrived at the family home, in the hills about three miles southeast of Eugene, about the last week in December, in the year 1857, having been away a little more than 31 months, tramping and working wherever I could find employment, in Southern Oregon and California, usually on ranches at about $25 a month. During my absence my father had purchased six acres of land in the southern part of Eugene, at the south end of Olive street, now in almost the center of the town, and had the deed made to me.

In October, 1866, I started east, intending to visit a World's Fair to be held in Paris, France, the next year. I went with my friend Congressman J. H. D. Henderson, to Washington, D. C, to spend the winter there and witness the proceedings of Congress and the scenes at the national capital, and then intended to go on to France the next Summer. I went to Portland and from Portland to San Francisco by steamer. At San Francisco he engaged the same stateroom for both of us on the new steamer Montana, which had just been sent around Cape Horn.

At Aspinwall, or Colon, we were put on board an old steamer called the Ocean Queen. When in sight of Cuba the boat caught fire and the officers expected it would be de- stroyed. They got the life boats ready, and we all expected to be burned or drowned, unless we could escape in the life boats to Cuba, which was about eight miles north. But after great efforts the fire was put out. One engine was disabled, and the steamer ran to New York with one engine. We were twenty-one days making the trip, about 7,000 miles, from San Francisco to New York. We ran down a tug in the Hudson River and sank it just before landing at the wharf. ​

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We remained a day or two in New York at the old Astor House. I put in the time sight seeing. I climbed to the top of Trinity church, walked from the Battery to Central Park, and saw more of New York City in one day than many people born and raised there had seen in a HTe time. On the cars, going from Jersey City to Washington, Mr. Hen- derson introduced me to Senator Charles Sumner of Massa- chusetts, the famous champion of freedom.

The first day in Washington I visited the dome of the capital, the Smithsonian Institute, the patent office and many of the public buildings, and saw more of the city than many who had resided there all their lives.

Before Congress assembled Mr. Henderson and I went to Richmond and Petersburg, Va., to see the famous battlefield of Petersburg where the last great battle was fought between the Union and Confederate armies before Lee surrendered

to Grant.

As my position in Washington was a pleasant one, and I was promoted from time to time, I remained there about fourteen years, during the sessions of Congress, serving nearly twelve years as clerk in the U. S. Senate, going home to Oregon or visiting other places when Congress was not in session, cross- ing the continent on the Union and Central Pacific railroads eight times, both ways, after they were completed in 1869. C. P. Huntington, Vice-President of the Central Pacific, was the manager in the East, and was around Congress a great deal. His tall form was quite familiar to me, and also his handwriting, for he occasionally wrote me passes and signed them, and they were as good as gold with any conductor or officer of the road. He was a big man, mentally and finan- cially, as well as physically, and his word or written order was law all along the line.

In 1867 I attended a Fourth of July celebration on the battlefield of Manassas Junction or Bull Run. Senator John ​

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A. Logan, of Illinois, delivered the oration. I picked up a shell on the battlefield that had not been exploded. I sent it to Oregon by way of Panama before the railroad across the continent was completed, and have since placed it in the Oregon Historical Society's collections at Portland.

During that year I was sent to western New York to meet a committee of Congress that had gone there to investigate. I did not find the committee, but made the trip, going and returning by way of New York City.

In 1867 I went to Boston and visited the Museum, Harvard College, Bunker Hill Monument, and other places of interest. I arranged with the librarian of Harvard College to have the volumes of the Oregon- State Journal bound by the library and kept in the library. As long as the paper was continued after that date, for more than 40 years, I had every copy of the paper sent to that library. I made the same arrangement with Mr. SpofTord, Librarian of Congress, at Washington, one of the largest libraries in the world, and always furnished the paper, and missing papers when called for, and suppose complete sets may be found in these libraries. To meet these and other demands I had twelve papers each week, after the first two or three years, put in boxes in Eugene, and have had three sets bound, and nine sets not bound. I also sent the paper always free to libraries in Portland, San Francisco, New York and other cities, but in most places they were not bound, but kept on a stick file awhile and then destroyed to make room for newer dates.

From Boston I went to Montreal; then on a steamboat up the St. Lawrence River to Niagara Falls, passing the Thousand Islands on the way. From Niagara Falls I went by rail to the Hudson River and took passage on the steamboat Dean Richmond, at Athens. Some distance below Athens we met the steamboat Vanderbilt, of an opposition line, coming up the river. It was about 11 o'clock at night, and many of the passengers, including myself, had gone to bed in staterooms. ​

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The Vanderbilt ran into the Dean Richmond, intentionally as many believed, and in a short time our boat was resting on the bottom, with the upper deck barely above water, which must have been 25 or 30 feet deep, because both boats were very large and high regular floating palaces. When I heard the shock and commotion I tried to open the door, but the sinking of the boat had cramped the door. I got out through a window. The passengers were crowded on the upper deck. Whether any passengers were drowned on the lower decks I never knew, but supposed some were, the boat went down so fast. The baggage was on the lower deck and was under water several weeks before the boat was raised. I did not get my trunk in Washington for about a month, and then everything was faded. The passengers were taken off on small sail boats that were near, and were taken to New York on another steamboat.

In 1868 I was elected by the Oregon Republican State Convention one of the six delegates to the National Repub- lican Convention at Chicago. A proxy was also sent me to represent one of the other Oregon delegates. I attended and voted for U. S. Grant for President and Schuyler Colfax, then Speaker of the House of Representatives, for Vice-Presi- dent. Both were nominated and elected. I gave my proxy vote to Congressman Rufus Mallory, who attended and voted for the successful nominees. I represented Oregon on the committee on platform. Eugene Hale represented Maine on that committee. He was a young man, then unknown to fame, but afterwards became quite a figure in national affairs as Congressman and Senator, serving in the Senate perhaps about thirty years until lately. He was active and put him- self forward at every opportunity, in making the party plat- form. I noticed and remembered him on that account. He married, some years later, the only daughter of Senator Zach Chandler, of Michigan, distinguished for his wealth and for his speeches, about once a year, in which he twisted the British ​

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lion's tail, and made himself popular with the Michiganders who didn't like the Canadians who lived across the river from them. Chandler was the Senator who telegraphed that Hayes had a majority and was elected. Hayes was finally put into the White House by herculean efforts of the Republicans, and Tilden was kept out.

Again in 1872 the Republican State Convention of Oregon elected me one of their six representatives in the National Convention at Philadelphia and another representative sent me his proxy. So I had two of the six votes of Oregon at Philadelphia the same as at Chicago. I gave the proxy to Senator Henry W. Corbett and he was admitted on it. Grant was re-nominated for President without much or any opposi- tion, but Schuyler Colfax, who had been Vice-President four years, was defeated, and Senator Henry Wilson of Massa- chusetts was nominated and elected, and served until he passed away during his term. He died suddenly in the Vice-Presi- dent's room adjoining the Senate chamber. I was the only person in the Vice-President's room except the doctors when they dissected his body. I voted for Colfax, but did not know how Corbett voted, but thought perhaps he voted for Wilson. It was common rumor among the clerks of the Senate that his name was not Wilson but Colbath. He was either a foundling or an orphan, they said, and was raised by a family named Wilson. On both of these occasions, when given a vote and a proxy in two National Conventions to name a President and Vice-President and formulate a national policy, I was in Washington, D. C, and was, therefore, shown a preference by the convention in Oregon and by the delegate who sent the proxy over many active politicians in Oregon as well as the Senators and Representatives in Congress.

According to popular theories every generation ought to improve on their ancestors. But I once heard Wendell Phillips lecture in Washington, D. C., on the "Lost Arts." He said ​

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a good deal about the superior knowledge of the ancients ; about "Damascus blades," as sharp as a razor, that would cut the hardest substances without dulling; about malleable glass that would bend ; about magnifying glasses that gave them better knowledge of astronomy and the planets than we have ; about the pyramids, composed of immense stones trans- ported long distances and hoisted by machinery much more powerful than any which we now have ; about railroads found in abandoned mines; about mummies preserved for thousands of years by processes not now known to the human race, after "developing" for thousands of years. He did not claim that the masses were then as intelligent as they are now, for they were not educated, but that the educated people then had more and higher knowledge than the same class of people have now. He seemed to believe that our universities and scientists have only found out a little of what their ancestors knew.

In a long letter dated at Washington February 28, 1868, and printed in the State Journal at Eugene April 11, I de- scribed one of the most exciting periods in the history of the United States. A few lines are as follows :

"Sunday, the 23d of February, was a day of excitement in Washington. There has been nothing like it since the close of the war. * * * Monday came, and a vast crowd of people flocked to the capitol. A little after 8 o'clock every seat in the gallery of the house was taken, and by 10 o'clock, when the session opened, two hours earlier than usual, the vast building was alive with people. They swept through every corridor and passage from the first to the third story. The rotunda was full, the corridors around the galleries were blockaded, and the passage on the lower floor, extending the full length of the building, 750 feet, presented the appear- ance of a crowded thoroughfare." * * *

Then followed nearly two columns describing the debate in the House over the impeachment resolution, charging Presi- dent Andrew Johnson with high crimes and misdemeanors, which had been introduced into the 39th Congress by Ashley of Ohio. A great many five-minute speeches were delivered. ​

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Thad. Stevens, chairman of the committee on reconstruction that reported the impeachment resolution, closed the debate. Being too feeble to speak his speech was read by Clerk Mc- Pherson. At 5 o'clock Speaker Col fax called for a vote. The resolution passed, 126 yeas, and 47 nays, every member of the Union party present, including the Speaker, voting for it, and every Democrat against it. The great crowd then dispersed in the midst of a heavy snow storm that had continued all day. They had witnessed, by the House, the impeachment of the first American President, one of the most important acts ever performed by any legislative body in the history of the world. I was absent part of the time at Chicago and lost the run of the impeachment proceedings.

The trial before the Senate as a court, commenced March 30, and ended May 12, 1868, taking about six weeks in the court, presided over by Chief Justice Chase, and about ten weeks from the time it had commenced in the House, Feb- ruary 24.

"Andy" Johnson was in a pitiful condition at the time of this extraordinary trial. The trial was caused more by foolish words and acts on his part, and anger and jealousy on the part of Congress, than by any real necessity for turning him out of office. I believe now that Grimes, Trumbull and Van Winkle were right in voting to let him remain in office until the close of his term. But "old Grimes was dead" politically when he cast that vote, and so were Trumbull and

Van Winkle.

"Andy" was reported to be drunk in the White House nearly all the time and an "old fool" all the time. I do not know that he was drunk any time. I attended his receptions, and he appeared to be sober then, but had a sad, careworn face, showing a life of much labor, care and worry. Perhaps he was being lied about by the Republicans. Perhaps the Demo​

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crats lied about Grant when they said he was nearly always drunk when he was on the Pacific Coast and a good deal of the time afterwards when commander-in-chief of the armies and when President. I attended his receptions when he was General and when he was President, and he always appeared sober, not the least hilarious, but a little sad, showing the effects of much worry and many cares. He did not look quite as sad as Andrew Johnson. Perhaps he did not take his troubles as much to heart as Johnson had. The gossips said President Johnson had a son in an inebriate asylum. I do not know whether there was any foundation for that. The President's wife had died, and the wife of Senator Patterson, of Tennessee, who was the President's daughter or sister and another daughter or sister kept house for him and helped him with his receptions.

Lincoln said he had not much influence with his adminis- tration. In fact, no king, president, governor other important officer has much influence with his administration. They are hedged in with so many circumstances over which they have no control, and which must be controlled by other human power or by the Supreme Power of the Universe, that they are seldom free to do as they wish. President Johnson could have said truthfully that he had no influence with his admin- istration. Nesmith of Oregon said when he got into the Senate he wondered how he got there. After he had been there a little while he wondered how the other fellows got there. Andrew Johnson was not the only man the world is full of them who have held important positions and no doubt have wondered what evil influence ever put them into positions which brought so much trouble upon them. But if they would reflect they might come to the conclusion that there are no two people just alike, and no two positions or conditions in life just alike, and somebody must fill every condition (?) and be in every position, whether he is called Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon, Kaiser, Lincoln, Grant or An​

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drew Johnson. Why is it so? I do not know. After John- son went out of the office of President he was elected a Senator from Tennessee. I sat on a sofa a few feet from him and heard him speak in the Senate about one hour in defense of his administration as President. The Senators did not give him much attention. He did not seem to have any more influence in the Senate than he had with his administration when he was President.

There was more or less rivalry and jealousy between the Senators of nearly every state when there were two belonging to the same party. When there was one Republican and one Democrat they could get along all right, because one could not interfere with the appointments or party affairs of the other. The one belonging to the party in power was sole monarch of all he surveyed, and, like the devil in olden time, could take a constituent up on a high mountain and show him that he owned the whole world with a fence around it. But if there was another Senator of the same party to butt in, there was usually a row in the family or a feeling that one was superior to the other. Morton was the great man from Indiana, and any colleague of the same party who would have had the temerity to interfere with the great "War Governor" would have been reprimanded. Conkling of New York was the unquestioned Republican boss of New York. Edmunds of Vermont did not have to worry about old Morrill of Ver- mont, who usually kept quiet, but sometimes read or spoke a piece, slowly in a kind of stuttering voice, which Senators had heard for thirty years until they had become used to it. He did not interfere with Edmunds, the great, tall, stoop shouldered, bald-headed lawyer who tore to pieces every measure he failed to approve, and he usually disapproved of nearly everything and jumped on it with both feet. Lot M. Morrill, of Maine, whose bald head often arose when, in a loud voice, he laid down the law to his fellow Senators, did not seem to disturb or worry old Hannibal Hamlin, who had ​

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been in office nearly fifty years, part of the time as Vice- President. Hamlin seldom had anything to say, and then only a few words, in a conversational tone, in reply to a question or explaining something, never anything like a "speech." But he always delivered the goods. When he went hunting he nearly always brought in meat. While his colleagues would be orating, Hamlin would perhaps go up to the President or one of the departments to get an appoint- ment, or order, or recommendation for his state or for a con- stituent, and take off his old battered hat, and that old hat would never be put on again until he got what he went for. It was current rumor around the Senate that every President and every Secretary for generations had learned from experi- ence that when that old stovepipe made its appearance and was set down on the floor or desk, there would be something doing before it would ever be taken up again to ornament the head of a statesman. Then there was old Simon Cameron, of Pennsylvania, the greatest Roman of them all. He started out like Ben Franklin as a poor printer boy. When he got into politics his party was in a minority in the legislature. He pulled over two or three of the majority party and elected himself Senator. It was never known just how he did it. But it gave him a great reputation all his life as a worker of wonders. For forty years or more he controlled the politics of the great State of Pennsylvania, and made and unmade presidents, and was a senator, a cabinet officer or foreign minister for nearly half a century. He said he had been called a leader of the people but he never was. He found out which way the people were going and marched right along with them in the front ranks. He could not have a rival, and did not need to be jealous of any other senator. They might orate all day, or two or three days at a time, as Conkling did in favor of the electoral commission bill to settle the dispute between Hayes and Tilden for the Presidency in 1877, but that did not disturb or arouse the envy of Simon Cameron, who had then perhaps lived 80 years, and had been used to ​

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hearing outbursts of eloquence all his life. He never made speeches. He knew better. He would some times take a string and pull it with his fingers, and say a few words in favor of an appropriation to improve some Pennsylvania har- bor on Lake Erie, and ridicule the outlandish names of Ohio towns in which old Ben Wade and John Sherman were inter- ested, such as "Sandusky" and "Ashtabula." When he wanted anything he did not blow a trumpet or make a loud noise, but went around quietly and talked to senators privately, and usually got what he wanted.

In 1872 the Legislature of Oregon met in the summer or fall when Congress was not in session. I came home to Oregon and remained in Salem during the entire session, working for the election of John H. Mitchell for U. S. Sena- tor, the act to locate the University of Oregon at Eugene, and the act to build the locks at the falls of the Willamette at Oregon City. Personally I had the most friendly feeling for Senator Corbett, whose successor was to be elected, but I believed that Mitchell would make the best senator that could be elected, and I wished to help my personal and political friend, Attorney-General Williams, who had often helped me in securing appointments for my friends in Oregon and in many other ways, and who believed that his political future would be helped and depended largely on the success of Mitchell. I sent letters to the Attorney-General in Wash- ington nearly every day, reporting the progress of the con- test, and received frequent replies. Mitchell had a decided majority of the Republicans from the start, but the Democrats had a majority in the Senate, which was presided over by James D. Fay of Southern Oregon. On joint ballot the Republicans had a majority, but of these Senator Corbett had a strong and determined minority. Day in and day out, week in and week out, the struggle continued till Corbett, who had made a good senator and was one of Oregon's honored pioneers and best citizens, withdrew and Mitchell ​

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was elected. Wakefield, the postmaster of Portland, was managing Corbett's campaign, and some mismanagement on his part caused Corbett to withdraw. Senator Bristow of Lane county supported Corbett and withdrew his name. The three Lane county representatives supported Mitchell.

Dr. A. W. Patterson, Democrat, and William W. Bristow, Republican, were the senators from Lane County. The three members of the House from Lane County, all Republicans, were C. W. Washburne, A. S. Powers and Nat Martin. The Senate passed the bill locating the State University at Eugene without much delay and sent it to the House. Rufus Mallory, ex-Member of Congress, was Speaker of the House, and S. A. Clarke was chief clerk of the House. I was well acquainted with both of them, having roomed with Clarke in Washing- ton, and having been with Mallory much during his term in Congress and sometimes having attended to his correspondence when he was absent. When the session of the Legislature was near the close it appeared that the University bill could not be passed by the House. There was no printed calendar. Clarke had the bills tied with a string in a large package. The University bill was at or near the bottom and it would be impossible to reach it. I stood behind a railing at the back of the Speaker a long time to see that the University bill should not be neglected or overlooked in the shuffle, and frequently reminded him and the clerk of its great import- ance. In some way that bill got up from the bottom to the top of the package and was passed. Had it remained on the bottom the University would perhaps have been located at some other place by the next Legislature. How did it get up ? It did get up and became a law! Many large buildings, a number of professors, and hundreds of students are now at Eugene, which would not be there if that bill had not become a law, and it surely would have failed if it had been left to take its chances with other measures and come up in its regular order. I have long believed that everything is possible if you know how to do it. Clarke and Mallory are entitled to much ​

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credit for the success of the University at Eugene. B. F. Dorris, Judge J. J. Walton, W. J. J. Scott and others are entitled to much credit for organizing a society which helped the plan to locate the University at Eugene, but had not the bill been carefully looked after by one who had influence with the clerk and Speaker their efforts would have failed. The bill providing for the locks at Oregon City also became a law after a bitter fight against it by its opponents who called it "the lock and dam swindle."

The most exciting time in Congress while I was in Wash- ington, with the exception of the impeachment trial of Presi- dent Andrew Johnson, was the long and almost revolutionary struggle over the Presidency in 1877, when the Republicans claimed that Rutherford B. Hayes, of Ohio, had been elected, and the Democrats claimed that Samuel J. Tilden, of New York, had been elected at the election in 1876. Dr. J. W. Watts, postmaster at a little town in the Willamette Valley, I believe the place was Lafayette I am writing these sketches entirely from beginning to end from memory without referring to any records was one of the three electors from Oregon. The other two were Gen. W. H. Odell and, if I remember the name, John C. Cartwright. The Democrats objected to allow- ing Dr. Watt's vote to be counted for President, because ac- cording to their construction of a law a Federal "officer" could not hold the office of elector, and they held that a postmaster was an "officer" and an elector was an "officer," and no "officer" of the United States could hold two offices at the same time. I believe Watts had resigned. Governor Grover had appointed a man named [Eugene A.] Cronin to cast the vote in place of Watts. The Democrats also objected to the vote of an elector from the State of Florida. If Dr. Watts and the Florida elector, either one or both, I don't remember which, should be counted out, Tilden was elected. If one or both should be counted in Hayes was elected. The Ore- gon electors, including Governor Grover's man, Cronin, were ​

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there in full force for weeks. Senator Zach Chandler, of Mich- igan, sent telegrams abroad, informing an anxious world, that Hayes was elected and would be inaugurated on the 4th of March. The Democrats threatened that if "old Zach" and his gang undertook to inaugurate Hayes and steal the Presi- dency from "President" Tilden, there would be war. They would march on Washington and destroy the city. The stand- pat Republicans said Hayes should be inaugurated at any cost. The Democrats said Tilden should be President if there were enough Democrats in the United States to put him in. Tilden, an excellent and sensible man, seemed to be more inter- ested in preserving peace than in being President. Before re- sorting to force there was a kind of general agreement among members of Congress to frame some compromise and arbitrate the dangerous dispute.

The electoral commission bill was then introduced, and after long debate passed both houses of Congress. It created a commission composed of Senators and Representatives and one member of the Supreme Court. This commission had power to decide all disputed questions. This bill was debated several days in the Senate. Conkling, of New York, spoke all or a part of two days in favor of it, and had his desk and the floor around him covered with documents from which he quoted. My recollection is that Morton spoke against it. The general impression in and around the Senate was that this commission would decide in favor of Tilden. Elaine came into the room where his brother Bob and I worked and talked about it. He seemed to be worried and was in doubt whether he should vote for or against the bill. I do not re- member how he voted, but the stand-pat Republicans mostly opposed it. Judge David Davis, of the Supreme Court, had been agreed upon to represent the Supreme Court on the com- mission, which otherwise was equally divided between Repub- licans and Democrats. He had Democratic leanings and it was about as certain as any future event can be that he would have cast the deciding vote in favor of Tilden. But while ​

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this was going on in Washington the Illinois Legislature was contending over the re-election of Senator John A. Logan. A few Republicans bolted and helped the Democrats to elect Judge Davis as an independent to the Senate in place of Logan. This unexpected and unforseen act upset the commission. He was then a Senator and not a Judge of the Supreme Court. The Senate and the House both had their members on the commission. Justice Bradley, of New Jersey, was then placed on the commission. He gave the casting vote in favor of Hayes and made him President of the United States. No doubt some of the Republicans who forced the act through Congress were disappointed and surprised. At any rate it was generally believed that Conkling and some of the New York members and their friends in other states did not want Hayes. "The best laid schemes of men aft gang aglee." I am not sure if that- is the correct quotation.

One of the clerks who had charge of enrolling the laws on parchment for preservation in the State Department, with whom I worked several years, named Cole C. Sympson, was from Illinois. He had secured his appointment through Presi- dent Lincoln. When Judge Davis came into the Senate as an independent he went into the Democratic caucus, as soon as they had a majority in the Senate two years later, March 4, 1879. This he did to prevent the Democrats from remov- ing the clerk from his state, while all the other Republicans had to go. This was the only time a change, for political reasons to make places, has been made in the Senate below secretary and sergeant-at-arms, except in 1861, in the time of the war of the rebellion. My Democratic successor is there yet under several Republican Senators. So here again a smaller matter controlled a larger one, the same as the election of a Supreme Justice to be a member of the Senate and the defeat of John A. Logan for re-election, had kept Tilden from becom- ing President of the greatest nation of the world and put Hayes in that office. ​

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There was a clerk in the Senate from Maine named Fitz. He got in through the influence of the Maine Senators, Lot M. Morrill and Hannibal Hamlin, or perhaps the last named. Fitz' desk was near mine. Hamlin used to come in when nothing interesting was going on in the Senate and spend much time talking with Fitz, the same as Senator Kelly of Oregon did with me. Hamlin was then quite old in years but extremely rugged and young for his age. He was of dark complexion, like Logan of Illinois. He had held office, Congressman, Senator, Vice-President and one place after another nearly all of his life after he became old enough. His experience in public affairs had been great. He liked to talk about the interesting things he had seen and heard. On one occasion I heard him telling about Daniel Webster. He said he was present in the Senate, probably then as a member of the House, and heard the famous debate between Hayne of South Carolina and Webster of Massachusetts. He said that while Hayne was speaking Webster was leaning his elbows on his desk with his face in his hands and was sound asleep and "drunk." When Hayne got through Webster appeared to wake up, and raised himself by holding to his desk. He soon seemed to get wide awake, and the result was that world- renowned speech. It is not likely that Webster was sound asleep or "drunk" either, although he used stimulants, as many public men did in those days, but was not a drunkard. It is very doubtful if the Union will be preserved forever. If Nature does not destroy it, by making oceans where con- tinents now are and continents where oceans now exist, as has apparently been done in past ages, man will be likely to destroy it. The "Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites," are not all dead yet. "Religions take their turns and other creeds will rise with other years." And reformers, who can make laws to take the place of Nature, temporarily will destroy the government, perhaps, or change it into an absolute democracy, without constitutions, courts or restraints of any kind, where might makes right. It is not a republican representative gov​

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ment in some of the states now, as it was in Webster's time.

Senator Charles Sumner had secured the appointment of a young man as reading clerk in the Senate. Senator Edmunds of Vermont induced George C. Gorham, Secretary of the Senate, to remove Sumner's clerk and appoint a tall, fine looking man named Flagg from Vermont. Edmunds was a great lawyer, tall, with a head as bald as a billiard ball. He was perhaps the most influential man in the Senate on ques- tions of law. During the administration of President Grant, Morton, of Indiana, whose legs were paralyzed so he could not walk and had to sit when he spoke, in a sledge-hammer, bulldog style, was considered the administration leader. Conkling, Zach Chandler, Edmunds, Logan and a few others were close seconds, and whooped it up for the President whenever he wanted anything. They looked upon Sumner, who had such a great name abroad, with the utmost contempt. In their opinion he was devoid of common sense, a man of one idea, a fanatic who never thought of anything but opposi- tion to negro slavery, which had been abolished and was a dead issue. In their opinion he was a nuisance. He had little or no influence in the Senate for years. They had his clerk discharged and removed the Senator from the chair- manship of the committee on foreign relations, then consid- ered the leading committee of the Senate, as the Secretary of State is considered the leader of the President's cabinet. They were hardly on speaking terms with him. Carl Schurz of Missouri was Sumner's close personal friend, and they voted the same on nearly everything. When the President wanted anything Sumner and Schurz jumped on it with both feet. When the President proposed to purchase and annex San Domingo, which required a two-thirds majority to ratify the treaty, they rejected it. Henry Wilson, the other Massa- chusetts Senator, was just the opposite of Sumner. ​

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When Conkling and Platt were the Senators from New York, just before I left Washington, Conkling became so enraged at Blaine for interfering in the appointment of col- lector of customs at New York City, that he and Platt both resigned. That quarrel perhaps caused the assassination of President Garfield by Guiteau, who in his muddled brain imagined that the President had committed a great wrong in allowing Blaine, Secretary of State, to dictate a New York appointment. Conkling was a very handsome, tall, aristocratic man. Governor William Sprague of Rhode Island raised the first regiment to fight for the Union in the war of the rebellion. He commanded them as General. After the war he was a Senator from Rhode Island for many years. He married Kate Chase, a very beautiful woman, daughter of Chief Justice Chase, Secretary of the Treasury under President Lincoln. Sprague became jealous of his wife, and left her because she was unusually bright and attracted the attention of public men. Shje held brilliant receptions at the Chief Justice's house when he was trying to get the nomination for President in place of Grant. The gossips had Conkling's name mixed up with this affair. They also said he lived mostly on milk and crackers. After Conkling resigned his seat in the Senate he practiced law in New York City. He got out in a deep snow in the streets and took cold and died.

When Fenton was elected Senator to succeed Senator Mor- gan, who had been the "war governor" of New York, the same as Senator Morton had been the "war governor" of Indiana, I was in the gallery of the State House of New York at Albany, and saw and heard the voting when Fenton was elected. When Fenton came into the Senate Conkling and the other administration Senators looked upon him about the same as they did on Sumner.

Russell Sage was the projector and builder of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul railroad. He was when a young man a member of Congress from the State of New York. After​

98 H. R. KINCAID

wards for many years he became one of the most powerful capitalists among railroad men in New York City and a great power in Wall street. It was said that he was the only man in New York at that time who always kept ten million dollars in bank ready to loan or be used in any emergency. When the Senate was not in session I was frequently in New York and became acquainted with Sage. He visited at my house in Washington and I received many autograph letters from him. My reminiscences, covering a period of nearly 80 years, from which these few paragraphs are taken in a condensed form, contain some of Sage's letters, and letters from gov- ernors, senators, congressmen, judges, clergymen, authors and others, taken from a collection of many thousand letters, and some of my editorials and other newspaper comments. It would make a large book and whether it will ever be published I do not know. When an attempt was made to assassinate Sage I wrote a lengthy editorial, taking that for a text. He sent me a letter of thanks, and Senator Dolph sent a letter saying he wished the article could be read by every person in the United States. I sent Sage my paper for twenty years or more, up to the time he passed away, perhaps about fifteen years ago. He left over seventy million dollars ($70,000,000) for the Sage foundation, a charitable institution.

During the four years that I served as Secretary of State of Oregon, along with Governor Lord, his wife was an en- thusiastic advocate of making the growing of flax in Oregon an important industry. She was the pioneer of flax-growing in Oregon, and never lost an opportunity to talk about and explain her hobby. If Oregon ever becomes a flax-growing state, as it probably will, she will be entitled to most of the credit. The Governor was so much occupied with politics and the cares of state that he did not have the time nor patience to give much attention to the flax industry at that time, however important it might become in the distant future. Like Huntington, who said posterity might build their own ​

REMINISCENCES 99

railroads, the Governor perhaps thought that posterity might raise their own flax or do without flax. The Governor was hard of hearing and did not hear all or much of his wife's eloquent appeals for flax in his presence, but he heard enough to know that flax nearly always came in somewhere. On one occasion, when the Secretary of State and the Attorney- General were attending a dinner party with others at the Governor's house, Mrs. Lord was explaining to the guests the great advantages that flax raising would be to Oregon. The Governor did not hear what she was saying but became suspicious that she had started on her hobby. He leaned over at the table and asked the Attorney-General in a low voice: "Is Julia talking about that damn flax?"

• * * * 4

When the 18th regular session of the Legislature of Oregon met in Salem January 14, 1895, I went into office as Secretary of State, to succeed Geo. W. McBride, who had held the office two terms, eight years. I administered the oath of office to Charles B. Moores, Speaker of the House, and to the sixty Representatives. The platform on which I and all the members of the Legislature had been elected had been unanimously adopted, on motion of Rufus Mallory, by the Republican State Convention, at Portland, as follows :

"The American people, from tradition and interest, favor bimetallism, and the Republican party demands the uses of both gold and silver as standard money, with such restrictions and under such provisions, to be determined by legislation, as will secure the maintenance of the parity of values of the two metals, so that the purchasing and debt paying power of the dollar, whether of silver, gold or paper, shall be at all times equal. The interests of the producers of the country, its farm- ers and its workingmen, demand that every dollar, paper or coin, issued by the government, shall be as good as any other."

Senator Dolph had declared in a speech in Boston, or some place in the East, that he "had the temerity to oppose" this silver Republican platform. All the Republicans had been elected on this platform and nearly all were in favor of silver ​

100 H. R. KINCAID

regardless of the platform. All parties on the Pacific Coast then favored it. I had the kindliest feelings for Senator Dolph. I appreciated his valuable services as a Senator and his worth and ability as a man. I tried to persuade him to make some concessions to those who favored silver as standard money, and had written to him in the East to that effect, during the Summer, between the time of the election, June 4, 1894, and the meeting- of the Legislature, January 14, 1895. But he would not. He was the only Republican candidate for Senator before the people when the Legislature was elected, and he reasoned logically that the election of a Republican Legislature settled it. He stood on his dignity and would not try to conciliate or influence any member of the Legislature in any way. The result was that nearly one-half of the Re- publicans refused to vote for him on account of his gold standard views. He lacked two or three votes. "From tra- dition" if not "from interest," I could not do otherwise than sympathize with those who refused to vote for him.

Those who were trying to whip in the opposition believed that the Secretary of State, with the power of his office, which then included the business of Secretary, State Auditor, State Insurance Commissioner, State Corporation Commissioner and member of every state board, could control two or three members and elect the Senator. One Senator introduced a bill in the Senate and two Representatives introduced bills in the House to repeal the laws allowing the Secretary of State fees. The fixed salary was very small and fees had been provided in lieu of salary. Without the fees the office would have been a liability that nobody without a large income would have wanted or could have afforded to hold. They let it be known that if the Secretary would get the members necessary to elect their man, which they said they knew he could, these bills would be withdrawn or put to sleep, otherwise away would go the fees ! They were informed that they might go ahead with their bills and go to any old place with the fees ! Then the fight started in earnest, and lasted till the last day of the ​

REMINISCENCES 101

forty days' session, when Geo. W. McBride was elected after midnight.

Thirty members signed a pledge not to allow any law to be passed such as they threatened. Without that pledge they could not have done it, for the Secretary of State had a ma- jority in both houses and the Governor behind him. I do not blame Senator Dolph and his friends for anything they did or tried to do. They felt sore at the bolters and at the Secretary. He might have felt the same if he had been in their places. Senator Dolph was entitled to re-election on account of his superior ability and his valuable public services. The everlasting money question, the almighty dollar, pre- vented his re-election. It also prevented the re-election of Sena- tor Mitchell, in 1897, and the re-election of Secretary of State Kincaid in 1898.

Gold and silver had been the standard of values at about 16 to 1 throughout the world for 2,000 years, until England adopted the single gold standard in 1816. This was done because England had billions of dollars invested in bonds and other securities in the United States and other debtor nations. Germany and other creditor nations followed Eng- land. These creditor nations used their great financial power to force it upon the United States. Iron, copper and other base metals have so little intrinsic values that they are not suitable for money. Paper is the same. Gold and silver are the only metals suitable for money, and, without silver, there is not enough gold in the world to pay ten cents on the dollar of the debts and carry on the business. Under this gold standard system all debts and all business is made pay- able in "gold coin," a physical impossibility.

The striking out of silver, the greatest part of the money of the world, doubled the value of gold, and the value of billions of bonds and interest and of investments originally made on a basis of gold arid silver, so that it will take for an indefinite time double the amount of the products of labor to pay the ​

102 H. R. KINCAID

principal and interest on these "investments." Now, when England is spending five billions of dollars a year in war, Parliament is assured that they can carry on the war five years on what the debtor nations owe England. Had it not been for the single gold standard, which enabled them to draw such vast wealth from their bonds and "investments," they would not have the means to carry on so great a war. Nor would their interests prompt them to do it. It is the desire to keep up this system of drawing wealth from other nations that has caused the war. England wants a monopoly of this "business," and Germany is fighting for "self-preservation," that is, to keep England from getting all or more than her share of the trade and wealth of other countries. Under the gold and silver system of money that had existed for thou- sands of years these nations could not have drawn such fabulous wealth from "investments" in other countries, and this greatest war the world has ever known would in all human probability not have ever been, and surely not during the present age. It was forced on the United States by the great money power of England and Germany, in the interest of great wealth, when they were drawing billions of dollars for bonds, stocks and all kinds of investments in America, all made payable in gold coin of much greater purchasing power than the original investments, constantly being rein- vested and increasing in values. Now this vast increase of wealth in the hands of the already wealthy owners of stocks and bonds and accumulated money, by laws increasing the power of their accumulated capital, at the expense of the debtors and laborers, is reacting with terrible force against those who did it. It is sweeping away billions of dollars, millions of lives, and destroying the labors of a century. War expenses, war taxes and income taxes will take all their income in "gold coin" and some more, and they will be glad to remonetize silver and have the money of the world, gold and silver, when this war is over.

In the United States silver continued to be standard of ​

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value at 16 to 1 until 1873. Then, by mistake or design, silver was dropped out in revising or codifying the coinage laws. Congressmen denied that it had been done intention- ally. A great clamor went up all over the United States, the great silver producing country of the world, for the remone- tization of silver, for "free silver" or "bimetallism," as it was variously called. The Pacific Coast and all the silver pro- ducing states and territories, which produced about $70,000,000 a year, were greatly damaged. All parties professed to be in favor of remonetizing silver, for twenty years. Suddenly the "gold bugs" took control, first of Grover Cleveland and a part of the Democratic party, and then of Wm. McKinley, who had advocated silver, and the leading faction of the Re- publican party, and changed the financial system of the United States. Now an army of financial doctors are trying to devise some scheme by which promises to pay money can take the place of money, but all the promises stipulated that they must eventually be paid in "gold coin," when the government, the banks, the corporations and the individuals who make these promises know there is not enough "gold coin" in the world and never can be, to pay ten cents on the dollar of their promises.

i

The gold standard candidate for Governor and a lot of imported hired orators from the East made a whirlwind cam- paign throughout Oregon in 1898. They whooped up the war against Spain, and made it clear to themselves and to a majority of the voters that if any nominee on the Union ticket should be elected, the volunteers who were being marched around through Oregon, at large expense, for political effect, would be without food and clothing in the Philippine Islands or wherever they should be. The election of a state officer in Oregon opposed to the gold standard would paralyze the army and navy of the United States, and the sons and brothers of Oregon voters might starve and go naked while fighting for their country in foreign lands! The re-election of the Sec​

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retary of State, as a silver Republican, on the Union ticket, would be the unkindest cut of all to the patriotic soldiers. He had caused to be printed and distributed a pamphlet con- taining his writings against the gold standard for twenty-two years, from 1873 to 1895. A man who would for twenty- two years support the Republican platforms favoring bimetallism silver and gold for standard money and opposing the single gold standard, and would then keep right on doing the same thing, after the leaders of the party, in England and Germany and some in America, had taken control of the party and elected a former free silver advocate President on a gold platform ; a man who would fight for the principle on which he had been elected and which he had always favored, was especially offensive to the refined tastes of the advocates of "sound money" and "criminal aggression," as McKinley at first styled the clamor for a war against Spain. No party could change oftener or faster than they could ! By such represen- tations the gold standard candidates were all elected by large majorities, but the defeated candidate for Secretary of State had more than 1,200 more votes than the average vote for the other Union candidates.

• * * * *

Just before I went out of office of Secretary of State my friend Governor Lord, who stood by me loyally all the time, regardless of political dissensions and divisions in the Re- publican party over the money question, nominated four or five regents of the University of Oregon, my name being one of the number. Dolman, a California newspaper writer, had come to Salem and was writing for the Oregonian. As soon as I was out of office he filled his letters mainly with attacks on my administration. Governor Geer sent a message to the Senate asking for the withdrawal of Governor Lord's nomina- tions. He objected to the name of Kincaid, but would return

i. Alfred Holman, born in Yamhill County, Oregon, July 6, 1857. He began his newspaper career on the Portland Daily Bee in 1876, and was attached to the editorial staff of t'-<e Oregonian from 1888 to 1891. His grandfather, John Holman, was a pioneer of 1843, his father, Francis Dillard Holman, a pioneer of 1845, and his mother, Mrs. Mary McBride Holman, a pioneer of 1846. ​

REMINISCENCES 105

all the others. The Senate refused to return the names, about 25 of the 30 Senators, including nearly all the Republicans, voting against returning and being in favor of confirming, but they were in the hands of a chairman of a committee who refused to report them so the Senate could vote on them. Those who were engaged in inspiring these attacks and this petty spite-work went to the presiding officer and informed him that he had a legal right to send the names to Governor Geer without the consent of the Senate, which he did before the Senate had time or thought to order the committee to report the names. Governor Geer then returned all the names but Kincaid's name, in place of which he substituted the name of Wm. Smith, Populist Senator from Baker County. He remarked that he did not understand why the Governor had objected to a Republican and then sent in the name of a "wild- eyed Populist." Holman was a relative of Senator McBride, for whose election to the Senate I had contributed more than anybody by keeping him in the State House during the entire session of the Legislature in 1895 and by refusing to get a vote or two necessary to elect Senator Dolph as his friends had demanded on threat of cutting off the fees of the office of Secretary of State. But McBride had no part in the fight that was being made on his friend, and was not to blame, and perhaps those in Salem who were inspiring and directing the attacks felt justified. From their point of view I had de- serted the party and had tried to prevent their election. From my point of view they had deserted the principles of the party and had prevented me from being re-elected to an office to which I was entitled "from tradition and interest." The nation was changing its financial system. The party with which I had always acted and have continued to act since, had suddenly reversed itself on a very important subject. It was natural that the majority should go with the party wherever it went, following the name. I was responsible for my defeat by refusing in an interview in the Oregonian to accept a nomi- nation on a gold standard platform. I was the nominee on ​

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the Union ticket, not of the Democrats or Populists, who had their candidates, but of the "Silver Republicans." The senti- ment in favor of a second term, which every Secretary of State had held, was almost unanimous. Nothing could have prevented a re-election on the Republican ticket. Some of my most devoted friends for many years were very angry because I had "deserted" or "betrayed the party," as they called it. Some of them lived to realize, no doubt, and others will if they are in the land of the living long enough, that they and the party made a mistake when they forced the English and German financial system on the United States. ​

SOME DOCUMENTARY RECORDS OF SLAVERY IN OREGON

By FRED LOCKLEY.

Though Oregon is far north of the Mason and Dixon line, yet slaves were held in Oregon in the days of the Provisional Government. Officially slavery never existed in Oregon, but actually some of the Oregon pioneers held slaves. Hidden away in the dry-as-dust records of the county court when what is now Multnomah County was a part of Washington County and when Hillsboro was the county seat, and in con- sequence put on airs over its humble neighbor, Portland, you will find some interesting documents. While looking through one of the early day volumes of records recently I came upon this unique record (this is presented not as an instance of actual slavery in Oregon, but to show that the registration of a document of manumission was considered advisable in Oregon) :

"Know all men by these presents, that for and in consid- eration of five hundred dollars, to me in hand paid by Jane Thomas, late Jane Snowden, a free woman of color, the receipt whereof is hereby confessed and acknowledged, I David Snowden, of the County of Ray, in the State of Mis- souri, have bargained, sold and delivered to her the same Jane Thomas, late Jane Snowden, a free woman of color, one certain negro boy slave named Billy, aged about eleven years and the son of the said Jane Thomas, late Jane Snowden, a free woman of color. This sale is made to gratify the said Jane Thomas the mother of the said negro boy Billy, as she is about to emigrate to Oregon and wishes to take the boy with her. Given under my hand and seal this 17th day of Decem- ber, A. D. 1852. David Snowden (seal).

"Received for record April 10th and and recorded this thirteenth day of April, A. D. 1854. W. S. Caldwell, Auditor and Recorder, Washington County, Oregon Territory."

Look over the early records of Clark County, then a part ​

IT

108 FRED LOCKLEY

of Oreg^ ., but now a part of the State of Washington, and you will find the following record :

"Fort Vancouver, May 5, 1851.

"Mommia Travers, a black woman, aged about forty-five, bought by me from Isaac Burbayg-e, in April, 1849, I have this day given her freedom unconditionally, and she is in all respects free to go and do as may seem to her most to her advantage, without let or hindrance from me, my agents, heirs or assigns. Witness my hand and seal, at Vancouver, May 5th, 1851. Llewellyn Jones, Captain, U. S. A.

"The above named woman, Mommia, is an honest and per- fectly conscientious woman and deserves kind and good treat- ment at the hands of every one. Llewellyn Jones, Captain, U. S. A. Recorded, July 29th, 1857."

Some of the early pioneers of Oregon hailing from the South brought their slaves to Oregon with them and asserted their right to hold them as slaves in Oregon. One of the strong men in politics in Oregon's early clays was Colonel Nathaniel Ford. Some years ago T. W. Davenport, whose son, Homer Davenport, the cartoonist, put Silverton on the world's map, wrote to Judge R. P. Boise, of the Oregon Supreme Court, and received the following reply 1 as to the legal status of slavery in Oregon in the early fifties:

"Yours of the second instant is just received. Colonel Nathaniel Ford came to Oregon from Missouri in 1844 and brought with him three slaves two men and one woman. The woman was married to one of these men and had some small children. Ford claimed these children as slaves and continued to claim them until 1853. One of these children a girl had, prior to that time, been given to Mrs. (Dr.) Boyle, a daughter of Ford. Prior to 1853 the parents of these children (Robbin and Polly) had claimed their freedom and left Ford and in 1852 were living at Nesmith's Mills, but Ford had kept the children. In 1853 Robbin, the father of the

i. This letter was used by Davenport in his discussion of the "Slavery Question in Oregon." (See this Quarterly, Vol. IX, pp. 189-253. The letter is given as a foot note on page 196. Mr. Lockley's version of it corrects the date of Nathaniel Ford's arrival in Oregon.) Mr. Davenport submitted the letter to bear out his statement "There was not one negro slave within its (Oregon Territory's) far-reaching boundaries or within a thousand miles thereof." Of course, the letter proves an instance of such slavery prior to 1853. EDITOR QUAR- TERLY. ​

SLAVERY IN OREGON 109

children, brought a suit by habeas corpus to get possession of the children. The case was heard by Judge George H. Williams in the summer of 1853, and he held that these children, being then (by the voluntary act of Ford) in Oregon, where slavery could not legally exist, were free from the bonds of slavery, and awarded their custody to their father." The history of slavery legislation in Oregon is an interesting chapter of Oregon's state life. Peter H. Burnett, the leader of the Oregon immigration of 1843 and later the first Governor of the State of California, was a member of the Legislative Committee of Oregon in 1844. He was from the South and was opposed to slavery largely on account of the evil to both the white and black races by the inevitable mixing of the races where slavery existed. He was also opposed to the liquor industry. He was the author of the bills prohibiting slavery and regulating the use of liquor. The slavery act passed by the Provisional Legislature was as follows:

"An Act in regard to Slavery and Free Negroes and Mulattoes. "Be It Enacted by the Legislative Committee of Oregon as

follows :

"Section 1. That slavery and involuntary servitude shall be forever prohibited in Oregon.

"Section 2. That in all cases where slaves have been, or shall hereafter be brought into Oregon, the owners of such slaves shall have the term of three years from the intro- duction of such slaves to remove them out of the country.

"Section 3. That if such owners of slaves shall neglect or refuse to remove such slaves from the country within the time specified in the preceding section, such slaves shall be free.

"Section 4. That when any free negro or mulatto shall have come to Oregon, he or she, as the case may be, if of the age of eighteen or upward, shall remove from and leave the country within the term of two years for males and three years for females from the passage of this act ; and that if any free negro or mulatto shall hereafter come to Oregon, if of the age aforesaid, he or she shall quit and leave within the term of two years for males and three years for females from his or her arrival in the country.

"Section 5. That if such free negro or mulatto be under the age aforesaid the terms of time specified in the preceding ​

110 FRED LOCKLEY

section shall begin to run when he or she shall arrive at such age.

"Section 6. That if any such free negro or mulatto shall fail to quit the country as required by this act, he or she may be arrested upon a warrant issued by some justice of the peace, and if guilty upon trial before such justice, shall receive upon his or her bare back not less than twenty nor more than thirty-nine stripes, to be inflicted by the constable of the proper county.

"Section 7. That if any free negro or mulatto shall fail to quit the country within the term of six months after re- ceiving such stripes, he or she shall again receive the same punishment once in every six months until he or she shall quit the country.

"Section 8. That when any slave shall obtain his or her freedom, the time specified in the fourth section shall begin to run from the time when such freedom shall be obtained."

This was passed at the June session in 1844. At the December session of the same year Peter H. Burnett introduced an amendment, which was passed on December 19, 1844, which reads as follows: .

"An Act amendatory of An Act passed June 26th, 1844, in Regard to Slavery and for other purposes.

"Be It Enacted by the Legislative Committee of Oregon as follows :

"Section 1. That the sixth and seventh sections of said act are hereby repealed.

"Section 2. That if any such free negro or mulatto shall fail to quit and leave the country, as required by the act to which this is amendatory, he or she may be arrested upon a warrant issued by some justice of the peace; and if guilty upon trial before such justice had, the said justice shall issue his order to any officer competent to execute process, directing said officer to given ten days' public notice, by at least four written or printed advertisements, that he will publicly hire out such free negro or mulatto to the lowest bidder, on a day and at a place therein specified. On the day and at the place mentioned in said notice, such officer shall expose such free negro or mulatto to public hiring; and the person who will obligate himself to remove such free negro or mulatto from the country for the shortest term of service, shall enter into a bond with good and sufficient security to Oregon, in a ​

SLAVERY IN OREGON 111

penalty of at least one thousand dollars, binding himself to remove said negro or mulatto out of the country within six months after such service shall expire; which bond shall be filed in the clerk's office in the proper county; and upon failure to perform the conditions of said bond, the attorney prosecuting for Oregon shall commence a suit upon a certified copy of such bond in the circuit court against such a delin- quent and his sureties."

John Minto, an Oregon pioneer of 1844, gives an interesting sidelight on the question of slavery under Oregon's provisional government. At the rendezvous of the emigrants on the Mis- souri River he with W. H. Rees fell in with George Wash- ington Bush, a mulatto, who was waiting the gathering of the emigrants to go with them to Oregon. Mr. Minto and Mr. Rees accepted the hospitality of Mr. Bush and his wife and ate dinner with them. They were in the same emigrant train, though Mr. Bush forged ahead of Mr. Morrison, for whom John Minto was working. On September 5th Mr. Minto, who had gone on foot a few miles ahead of the train, again fell in with Mr. Bush. Bush was riding a mule and Minto was afoot. They went back together to the wagon train, and as they journeyed leisurely to rejoin the others they discussed the question of slavery. Mr. Bush told Mr. Minto that if men of his color were discriminated against in Oregon he was going on into California to secure the protection of the Mexican government.

Food getting short John Minto and two other young men, Crockett and Clark by name, struck out ahead for the 600-mile journey, depending on their guns for food. At Fort- Hall they found James W. Marshall, who was later to turn all eyes toward California by his discovery of gold in Sutter's millrace. He told them that Peter H. Burnett, who had come the year before, had sent a letter back to the emigrants. Alexander Grant, the Hudson Bay trader in charge of Fort Hall, had the letter. Mr. Burnett, who within a few years was to become the first American Governor of the State of California, said in his letter to send word on ahead if the emigrants were ​

112 FRED LOCKLEY

apt to need food. While Minto and his two companions were at the Fort G. W. Bush with his wife and five children and his cattle arrived at the Fort. It was decided to have Minto, Clark and Crockett press on as rapidly as possible and tell Peter Burnett to send help to the emigrants. After consid- erable hardship the three young men reached the Willamette Valley and delivered their message to Peter Burnett. For a while they cut rails for General McCarver and then took a contract to get out a considerable number of oak rails for Peter Burnett. When this work was finished they went up in a Hudson Bay bateau furnished by Dr. John McLoughlin to help the emigrants down the river. At The Dalles they found G. W. Bush, who had decided to stay there all winter and take care of his stock and the stock of some of his fellow emigrants. Later he moved to Washougal Prairie. He wanted to come to the Willamette Valley, but on account of the stand taken against negroes he moved on the north side of the Columbia, thinking to be under the British Government, for at that time the British claimed the country north of the Columbia. Bush was very popular with the early settlers on account of his thrift, good nature and generosity. He had helped several white families financially to get their outfits to come in 1844 and he helped many who were destitute when they arrived. He was born in Pennsylvania in 1790. With Colonel M. T. Simmons and some others he settled in the Puget Sound country in 1845. Bush Prairie is named for him. His son, William Owen Bush, won the first premium at the Centennial Exposi- tion at Philadelphia on wheat grown on Bush Prairie.

The question of slavery in Oregon was instrumental in delaying the plan of Oregon to be made a territory. Thomas B. Benton, Oregon's firm friend, writing in 1847 as to the action or rather lack of action by Congress said :

"The House of Representatives as early as the middle of January, passed a bill to give you Territorial Government, and in that bill had sanctioned and legalized your provisional organic act, one of the clauses of which forever prohibited the existence of slavery in Oregon. An amendment from ​

SLAVERY IN OREGON 113

the Senate committee, to which this bill was referred, pro- posed to abrogate that prohibition ; and in the delays and vexa- tions to which that amendment gave rise, the whole bill was laid upon the table and lost for the session. This will be a great disappointment to you, and a real calamity ; already five years without law or legal institution for the protection of life, liberty and property and now doomed to wait a year longer. This is a strange and anomalous condition, almost incredible to contemplate, and most critical to endure, a colony of freemen 4,000 miles from the metropolitan government, and without law or government to preserve them. But do not be alarmed or desperate. You will not be outlawed for not admitting slavery. Your fundamental act against that institution, copied from the ordinance of 1787, the work of the great men of the South in the great day of the South, prohibiting slavery in a territory far less northern than yours, will not be abrogated, nor is that the intention of the prime mover of the amendment. Upon the record the judiciary committee of the Senate is the author of that amendment, but not so the fact. It is only midwife to it. Its author, Mr. Calhoun, is the same mind that 'generated the firebrand' resolutions, of which I send you a copy, and of which the amendment is the legitimate derivation. Oregon is not the object. The most ardent propagandist of slavery cannot ex- pect to plant it on the shores of the Pacific, in the latitude of Wisconsin and the Lakes of the Woods. A home agitation and disunion purposes is all that is intended by thrusting this firebrand question into your bill, and at the next session, when it is thrust in again, we will scourge it out, and pass your bill as it ought to be. I promise you this in the name of the South as well as of the North ; and the event will not deceive me. In the meantime the President will give you all the pro- tection which existing laws and detachments of the army and navy can enable him to extend to you; and until Con- gress has time to act, your friends must rely upon you to govern yourselves as you have heretofore done under the provisions of your own voluntary compact, and with the justice, harmony and moderation which is due to your own character and to the honor of the American name."

On August 18, 1857, the delegates to the Oregon State Constitutional Convention met at the Marion County court house in Salem and took action toward deciding whether Oregon should be a slave state or a free state. Article 18 ​

114 FRED LOCKLEY

provided that: "For the purpose of taking the vote of the electors of the state for the acceptance or rejection of this constitution, an election shall be held on the second Monday of November, in the year 1857. * * * Each elector who offers to vote upon this constitution shall be asked by the judges of election this question: 'Do you vote for the Con- stitution? Yes or No? And also this question: 'Do you vote for slavery in Oregon? Yes or No?' And also this question : 'Do you vote for free negroes in Oregon ? Yes or No.?' * * * If this constitution shall be accepted by the electors, and a majority of all votes given for and against slavery shall be given for slavery, then the following section shall be added to the bill of rights and shall be part of the constitution: 'Persons lawfully held as slaves in any state, territory or district of the United States, under the laws there- of, may be brought into this state: and such slaves and their descendants may be held as slaves within this state, and shall not be emancipated without the consent of their owners.'

"And if a majority of such votes shall be given against slavery, then the foregoing section shall not, but the following section shall be added to the bill of rights, and shall be a part of this constitution : 'There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the state, otherwise than as a punish- ment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly con- victed.'

"And if a majority of all the votes given for and against free negroes shall be given against free negroes, then the following section shall be added to the bill of rights and shall be a part of this constitution : 'No free negro or mulatto, not residing in this state at the time of the adoption of this constitution, shall come, reside or be within this state or hold any real estate, or make any contracts, or maintain any suit therein ; and the legislative assembly shall provide by penal laws for the removal by public officers of all such negroes and mulattoes, and for their effectual exclusion from the state, and ​

SLAVERY IN OREGON

115

for the punishment of persons who shall bring them into the state, or employ or harbor them.' "

When the votes were counted it was found that there were 2,645 votes for slavery and 7,727 votes against making Oregon a slave state. There were 1,081 votes to allow free negroes to come to Oregon and 8,640 against allowing free negroes to reside in the state.

The slavery question a few years later snuffed out the light for all time of some of the leading politicians of Oregon who espoused the South's view on slavery.

Finally on February 14, 1859, in spite of the strained feel- ings upon the question of slavery, Oregon was admitted as a territory and the position of governor of. the newly created territory was offered to Abraham Lincoln. His wife not car- ing to leave her friends in Illinois, Lincoln declined the ap- pointment and General Joseph Lane, who had distinguished himself in the Mexican war, was offered and accepted the place, thus becoming Oregon's first territorial governor. ​

DIARY OF REV. JASON LEE

EDITORIAL NOTE.

"The Jason Lee Memorial Addresses" contain data bearing upon his lineage, life and work. These were published in volume VII. of this Quarterly, pp. 225-291. Special brief characterizations of the different members of the Jason Lee missionary party by Harvey W. Scott are to be found on pp. 252-4, in one of these addresses. These memorial addresses were given at Salem, Oregon, on June 15, 1906, on the occasion of the reinterment of his ashes in the "Lee Missionary Cemetery," near that city. Having died on his second return from Oregon to the East at his native place, Stanstead, just across from the border of Vermont, in the Province of Quebec, he had been there buried.

Left Stanstead, Lower Canada, August 19, 1833.

Sunday, April 20, 1834, arrived at Liberty, Mo., on my way to the Flat Head Indians.

Sunday evening Attempted to preach in the Court House, but when about half through, the wind frightened the people away and I dismissed by pronouncing the blessing, although I did not apprehend any danger.

21. Monday, P. M. Rained very hard. Daniel went to look for Bro. Munroc and, if possible persuade him to. go with us.

22. Went 9 miles to Independence and found Brother Shepard and slept very comfortably with him in the tent de- signed for our journey. Felt thankful that we had arrived safe without accident to the [place] where we were to prepare for our overland trip.

23. This has been spent in making preparation for our departure.

24. This evening D. returned though he could not suc- ceed in getting the man for whom he went, yet he engaged two others, one of whom I had conversed with on the subject and think he will do well to teach the Indians.

April 25. Went over to Liberty and finished our business and accompanied our two friends to our encampment. Took leave of Mr. and [Mrs.] Kelly, who kindly and gratuitously entertained us while at Liberty.

Saturday. Purchased some cows and more horses and re- moved 4 miles from the river with the intention of camping ​

DIARY 117

with Capt. Wyeth 1 about 9 miles from the river, but was be- lated and accepted an invitation to turn in and lodge with a man by name Rickman, pitched our tent. Part lodged in the house and part in the tent. He took nothing for our en- tertainment.

Sun. 27. Prayed with the family and took our departure as soon as possible after an early breakfast, being fearful that the company would start early and we be left behind, but they did not decamp. Had we known that they would not, we should not ; but should have complied with the pressing request of many and preached in Independence.

Mon. 28. After seeing the animals packed ready for start- ing returned to Inde. to attend* to some things which in our hurry we had neglected. Came back and dined at Bro' Fer- ril's, a local preacher, who kindly gave us corn for our horses and entertained some of us; and then rode on and came into camp at dusk thankful that we were on our way to the farthest West.

Tues. 29. Started early, accompanied by Bro. Edwards, 2 to find Bro. T. Johnson at the Shawnee Mission, about 7 miles from camp, but not knowing that course traveled twice that distance, but was much pleased to find Sister Johnson sur- rounded with Shawnee sisters engaged in quilting. Stayed over night; tried to purchase a horse from the Indians but could not agree on the price.

Wednes. 30. Bought of Bro. Johnson a cow for beef. Started accompanied Bro. J. for the camp. After reaching the prairie Bro. Johnson Re'd from me for the Mis. Soc. $150.00.

Came into camp before night and was rejoiced for we feared we should be obliged to camp by ourselves.

Last evening the company encountered a terrible hail storm, but we had only a shower at the Mission.

Thurs. May 1. A little before we encamped, saw a few

1 Capt. Nathaniel J. Wyeth.

2 P. L. Edwards. ​

118 JASON LEE

families of Caw [Kaw] Indians, they are a band broken off from the Osage. No sooner had we encamped than they came from their village of bark huts and thronged around us to our annoyance.

They are a miserable looking set of beings half-naked the children some of them entirely so. Bro. Shepard 1 re- marked that he never before felt half so much like trying to benefit the Indians.

Two females came with two naked children under their blankets and made signs that they were hungry and the chil- dren too.

Multitudes of nearly famishing [dogs] belonging to the Indians were prowling about camp all night.

Friday 2. Did not decamp. Some of our com. visited the Indian camp. I had a desire to go but had so much to do writing letters &c., that I could not. They said that the Is. [Indians] had plenty to eat but they had rather beg than eat their own.

Sat. 3. Struck tent came ahead of the Com. and found a number of wigwams on the bank of the Kansas. They are Caws came here to visit the agent General Clark (cousin to Gen. Clark who went to the Columbia with Lewis).

The company soon came up and immediately set about crossing the baggage in a flatboat. I crossed with ours the first load.

The Indians thronged around us and we were obliged to watch diligently to prevent them from pilfering little things.

Sat down to finish some letters to send back by the wag- goner who had accompanied us from Independence.

Swam the horses all safe but the horned cattle were very troublesome and when drove in would swim back. Our beef cow swam far down the river and went ashore below the men and ran into the woods a man followed her but lost her in the bushes. Four or five went in pursuit of her but could not find her.

i Cyrus Shepard. ​

DIARY 119

Sun. 4. Rained a little in the morning. No regard paid by any of Capt. W's company to the Sabbath and but little in appearance by ours for we were obliged as we judged to do things which we should not have done under other cir- cumstances. We engaged the Indians to look for our cow and looked ourselves but in vain. She either returned to the mission or the Indians made sure of her we think, for they are in a state of starvation we are told having been frightened away by the Cholera and their corn rotted last year.

Monday 5. Exchanged a little cow and calf with a Half Breed for a beef cow. Left some letters [with] General Clark's son to be sent the first chance to the Post Office which is perhaps 30 mi. Related to him the circumstances of the lost cow and requested if found to communicate to F. John- son and request him to take her and account to the Mission So. for her; he promised to do all he could but thought it prob- able that the Indians had eaten her.

Started early before breakfast from the agency and trav- eled till 12 o'clock and then took breakfast.

It is called 75 mi. from the agency to Independence.

Two Indians turned in a yoke of oxen with ours and assisted in driving. Others followed and are cooking their dinner a little distance from us they come and sit down and watch us while cooking as if they had a great desire to be partakers with us but we dare not give them our food lest we should not have enough to last till we reach the buffalo.

Saw one beating something with a stick went to him and he had killed a rattlesnake.

Tues. 6. Stopped to dine and bait our animals a little dis- tance from the Caw Village. Here the Indians remained with their oxen.

Many came from the Village to trade and it was with great difficulty that we could prevent their dogs from devouring our bacon. Just as we were ready to remove it commenced rain- ing but we proceeded and the rain soon ceased the sun shone and dried us. ​

120 JASON LEE

Wedn. 7. Came safe to camp on the little Vermillion which is what I should call a large brook.

Thurs. 8. Milton Sublet [Sublette] returned this morning on account of lameness which detained us till 10 o'clock. Wrote a few words to D. Patten Middleton. Was very sorry to have him leave us for he is a clever man and far better acquainted with the route and with Indians' character and customs than any man in company.

Are now on a stream about as large as the little Vermillion and I think is called black Vermillion.

Friday 9. Encamped on a brook in a beautiful place. Here the first deer was killed.

Sat. 10. Got out of the trail, dined on the Big Vermillion went back about a mile crossed came about 4 m. and camped on the Prairie.

Sun. 11. Decamped early this morning but lost the trail came to a stop about 11 o'clock. Capt. Thing took an obser- vation and found we were 40 18' N. Lat. This has been spent in a manner not at all congenial with my wishes.

Traveling, labouring to take care of the animals by all and cursing and shooting &c by the Com.

Read some of the Psalms and thought truly my feelings in some measure accorded with David's when he longed so much for the House of God.

I have found very little time for reading, writing or medi- tation since reached Liberty for I was almost momentarily employed in making preparations previous to leaving the civ- ilized world and we now find constant employment from daylight till it is time to decamp and then I am engaged in driving cows till we camp, to pitch our tent and make all necessary arrangements for the night fills up the residue of the day.

But still we find a few moments to call our little family together and commend ourselves to God.

May. Mon. 12. This morning the Capt. commenced mending hobbles and we did not expect to decamp till towards ​

DIARY 121

night. While I was writing in my Journal the word came that two cows were gone one of them ours. Bro. Edwards and myself caught our horses to hunt them and started in haste on our back track judging that our cow had returned where we killed her calf yesterday distant I suppose about 10 m. all undulating or open Prairie except a few trees and shrubs on a little creek. It was with some difficulty that we could keep the trail as there was no mark except what was made by our party. When we arrived near where the calf was killed we saw the cows about two miles ahead and urging their way onward, we took a direct course and pro- ceded with all speed until we came up with them and began our return at 11 o'clock. We left camp in a great hurry without compass telescope or food. When we began to con- sider on it we thought it probable that the Capt. would leave by 12 o'clock and felt anxious to return as speedily as pos- sible. We were on no trace we started but thought we should strike it soon. We did not travel far before we struck a trail which we took for granted was ours and followed it.

Having proceeded far enough to reach a certain creek we crossed and not finding it caused me to believe what I had before feared: that we were following Wm. Subletted trail who we were sure was not far behind us.

The different portions of the prairie so much resemble each other that it is impossible for those who [are] not acquainted with them not to be deceived by them.

Though we became convinced that we were on Sublette's trail yet we thought we had better proceed as we should be likely to find him before dark. Saw eight elk ^ a m. distant which were the first we saw. Soon after we left camp the company having found Sublette's trail 2 m. off decamped. We saw two [men] at a distance pursuing us. As we were in the Pawnee country we thought it probable that they were Indians. As they could overtake us in a short time any way we concluded to wait their arrival and in the meantime milk the cow for dinner. While we were thus engaged we saw ​

122 JASON LEE

three others from a little different direction approaching and we now began to think sure enough that they were Pawnees. We finished our milk in [time] to mount and pursue our course before they were near enough to discern whether they were red or white. We resolved we would not run but move on as usual and we soon saw they were of our own party pursuing us to [find] out who we were. Here we see clearly the hand of Providence in bringing us in a way that we knew not of for the Com. was but a mile or two in our [rear] and their march was so crooked that they thought it would have been nearly impossible for us to have followed them if we had returned where we left them.

How mysterious are the ways of Providence and how thankful ought we to be for all His mercies. O, Lord God, write laws of gratitude on our hearts and may we love Thee with our whole souls. Amen and Amen.

Tuesday 13. Last night did not stake the horses. About 1 o'clock they took fright and nearly all ran with all speed with their hobbles on. The guard and others pursued them and soon came back with two-thirds of them but ours were nearly all gone still. I went out about a m. and a half found 9 of the Capt's. The others were all found four in. from Camp in the morning except two of the Captain's.

Three of the Otto [Otoe] Indians came into camp this morning were very friendly but we strongly suspect that they stole the horses that were lost.

Wednesday, May 14. Encamped on a branch of the Blue a large Brook clear good water.

Capt. Thing took a lunar observation and found we were 97 7' West from Greenwich London.

We decamp about j/2 past 7 o'clock stop about 2 hours at noon and camp about y 2 past 6. Make nearly 50 m. per day which is as much as the horses can endure for they are heavily loaded and the grass for two or three days has been poor.

Thurs. 15. Encamped on the Blue. Mr. Walker 1 caught

i Courtney M. Walker. ​

DIARY 123

two cat fish which were very palatible as we had plenty of bacon to cook them. Saw a number of antelope the hunters killed two.

Frid. 16. Came about 20 m. to day. Saw an Indian trail about a week old where a large party had passed. Crossed the Pawnee trail just before we camped it is worn by travel so that it appears like a wagon road. They had just passed and I perc[e]ive our camp is arranged with more care than usual.

Sat. May 17, 1834. Started this morning at 7 o'clock. Made a severe march of 9 hours from the Blue to the Platte. Left the main Blue on the left hand, crossed a small branch or brook and having left the trail on the right we came by compass N. W. till we found the trail of Mr. Wm. Sublet after marching say 15 m. We then took nearly a W. course soon found the old waggon trail saw some small sand Hills a mile distant and as we approached them saw the timber on the banks of Platte. Came a few m. up and encamped the first place where we could find good grass and wood. Mr. Walker caught a cat fish. We came to day 15 m. N. W. and 10 m. W. Total 25 m.

Sun. May 18. J^ past 7 O-c. A. M. The rain has been falling gently since about midnight which is the [first] we have had since the 6th except occasionally [a] few drops though we have been traveling over what is considered a rainy country.

This seems more like Sabbath than any we have passed since we left the settlements. The rain prevents the men from being out hallooing cursing and shooting. Can it be that such men believe that the day will come when the Omnipotent Jehovah "will judge all men in righteousness by that Man whom He hath ordained whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised him from the dead?" I have no dought that many are complete Infidels who have taken but very little thought on the subject. They know that if future rewards and punishments await mankind that the ​

124 JASON LEE

scenes which await them as individuals unless their char- acters are changed (of which they see little prospect) are appalling indeed and ardently and vehemently desiring that it may not be so they by the assistance of Satan easily persuade themselves that a compassionate God will make some more merciful disposition of man than to punish him forever though he may have done wrong and they soon persuade themselves that Christianity can not be true according to that system apparently few will be saved. However I have no dought that and the Holy Ghost lift up their voices leave the sinner but little firmness in his belief till the one is seared and the other grieved.

While writing the above orders were given to prepare for marching.

We packed in the rain and marched 5 hours and encamped in a small spot of wood plenty of grass for the animals.

Mon. 19. Started at ^ past 7 o'clock A. M. After march- ing a few miles saw two men horseback some miles distant approaching us. W 7 hen they arrived near enough to survey our Company they halted and the Capt. and others went out and spoke to them.

They were two Pawnees and made signs that their party was just behind us and would overtake us tomorrow but they will not if we can avoid it for the Capt. intends to make a forced march to keep ahead of them. W^e are on the bank of the Platte waiting about an hour to bait the horses and get a bite of dinner. The Pawnees are generally counted a treacherous tribe and the traders fear such more than those who are decidedly hostile because when they pretend friend- ship they only wait an opportunity to betray.

Tues., May 20. Marched about 26 m. yesterday and as many to day. Saw a band of Elk this afternoon and the Capt. started full speed on horseback after them but his horse was not fleet enough to come up with them but they ran so near the Com. that they frightened the loose horses and they took their back track and ran as fast as they could and the ​

DIARY 125

Capt. and others after them all have returned but the Capt. and one other saw buffalo on the opposite side of this river say 200.

Wednes. 21. The Capt. returned about 11 o'clock last evening with all the horses but two which he lost not being able to run them down having followed them about 25 m. and tired those they rode.

Traveled say 26 m. to day. The Indians have not over- taken us and we are confident they cannot with their Families and they take them along when they go to [the] Buff aloe [country]. Saw at least thousands of Buffaloe to day some were killed by the men they are very good if fat. I think pref- erable to beef. The bottom lands along the river are literally black with them for miles. We killed our cow this morning before we saw the Buffaloe and paid the Capt. what we owed him and let him have all except what we wanted ourselves.

May 20. Some Pawnees Loup Indians came to camp. Their camp is a day and a half march on the opposite side.

Wednes. 21. Traveled about 20 m. and encamped as usual on the bank of the Platte. There were several buff aloe kil[l]ed to day by the hunters and others.

Thursday 22. Were obliged to throw away good fat beef because it would not keep sweet any longer but we [have] plenty of buffalo. There are some Free trappers as they are called with us but we have agreed to do our part [of the] hunting and each mess share the spoil equally.

Fri. 23. Went out with the hunters this morning to learn to kill buffaloe. They intended to kill one for breakfast but it being cold and windy they had retreated to the hills some 3 or 4 m. and thither we followed them and with a great deal of labour we succeeded in killing 3 and wounded as many more.

We became thirsty not having tasted food or water during the day and the hunters soon supplied themselves and invited [us] to partake with them of what they called cider but I choose not to participate in their beverage. It consisted of ​

126 JASON LEE

water drawn from the paunch of the buffaloe by taping but it was too thick with the excrement to please my fancy though they affirmed with oaths that it was very good. Only a small part of the buffaloe is considered good for food. When they fleece it as they term it they cut the skin on the back and skin down the sides far enough to turn out the shoulder and then take the flesh off the ribs which with the tongue, the heart, the marrow bones and the hump ribs is all they use when meat is plenty. Arrived in camp just before sunset.

Sat. 24. This morning forded the south fork of the Platte without accident except one man lost his gun. We have marched six days on the Platte. It is say a mile wide very shallow swift current and very turbid indeed so that when the wind blows it has the appearance of sand it is almost thick with sand if you leave it a short time in a vessel the bottom will be covered with it. Its bed is sand and very soft. The country along the shores is as beautiful as I ever saw. The bottom land is say from 3 to 5 m. wide skirted with sand hills of all heights up to 50 or 60 or 100 ft. Crossed the hills and in a few hours reached the North Fork of the Platte. Saw no buffaloe to day.

Sun. 25, May. Passed a most picturesque country A. M. High Bluffs and deep ravines some of which it was difficult to pass with loaded [animals] . Saw a natural bridge across a ravine but had not time to examine it. A fine spring of water bursting from the hills was now [a] pleasant sight for they are few and far between. While I was journeying along my mind reverted to the past privileges I have enjoyed in the Sanctuary of God and could truly say that I longed exceed- ingly for the house of God but instead of listening to the word of life flowing from the lips of the Heralds of Salvation I am doomed to labour on and hear little but cursing and shooting &c.

Very few of the company know when the Sabbath rolls around except reminded of it. I feel a lack in my own mind, a want [of] a closer walk with him whom my soul loveth, a ​

DIARY 127

more free and constant communion with the Author of all happiness. O, Lord my God make me spiritually minded which is life and peace.

Mon. 26. Came about 25 ms. today. Saw no buffaloe and the Capt. was obliged to kill a steer for food. The land on this Fork is very different from that on the other, consisting mostly of sand capable of producing a little grass, some weeds, &c, but unfit for cultivation.

Tues. 27. For a warm dry day never did I travel in such a disagreeable one. The wind was so strong that it was with great difficulty that I could make headway when on foot, and it was of course very severe on the horses.

The bottom of the vessels which contained our dinner was covered with sand and those who eat most dinner eat most sand, and it was driven with such force that it made the face tingle, and in such quantities that it had the appearance of snow driven before the wind at a distance. We have no wood and are obliged to substitute buffaloe dung which makes a very good fire but does not last long and has a disagreeable smell.

Wednes. 28, May 1834. It being my guard I was called at 2 o'clock this morning and am persuaded that it was the coldest morning I have seen since we left the settlements. Daniel 1 went out with the hunters and brought in a load of buffaloe meat which was very acceptable to the Company for some of them have had a rather scanty portion for a day or so, but we have had a plenty though we take our share with the others and do our part of hunting but we have the milk of two cows and a little corn and flour which helps us much. The hunters came in with plenty of meat. Saw some bands of wild horses, but did not get near. The hunters shot a wild horse with the intention of bringing it in for food but finding buffaloe they abandoned it.

One of the Indians while out hunting saw six Indians with horses two with guns and four with bows and arrows, prob-

i Daniel Lee, a cousin of Jason Lee. ​

128 JASON LEE

ably Pawnees. We are encamped opposite a large rock which has the appearance at a distance of an old castle. From the looks of it not considering the deception of the level prairie and the size I should think it half a m. distant but Professor Nutall [Nuttall] has been out and says it is at least 5 m. The Thermometer stands at 202 in boiling water.

Thurs. 29 Have seen plenty of buffaloe to-day but the hunters did not go out having food enough in camp. It is now 12 o'clock and we are preparing dinner nearly opposite what is called the Chimney 1 and about 2 m. distant Lat. 41 51' North.

It was cold this morning so that it produced a hard frost but is very warm now. There is more difference in tempera- ture of day and night here I think than in New England gen- erally. We have made 5^ days march from the ford of the South Branch of the Chimney.

The Chimney is very appropriately named. The appear- ance of it at a distance is similar to that of a chimney where the house has been burnt but on a nearer approach you dis- cover that it is a huge mass of a conical form about half its height and runs up precisely like a chimney to the top [its height] say 150 or 200 feet. Curiosity prompted me to go and examine it but pity to my horse prevented.

Fri. May 30, 1834. This day passed Scott's Bluff which received its [name] from this circumstance

A Mr. Scott superintendent of General Ashley's fur Com- pany, was taken delirious in the Black Hills but at lucid inter- vals expressed a great desire to go home to die and the[y] thought it best to make a boat of skins and send him down the Platte some distance by water where the Com. if they arrived first were to await their arrival. Two men were sent with him but they were upset in rapids and narrowly escaped being drowned and lost their guns and everything but one knife and a horn of powder. The leader of the Com. did not stop for them and it was with the greatest difficulty that the

i Chimney Rock. ​

DIARY 129

men could find enough to subsist on until they overtook the Com. Their report was that he died and they buried him but his bones and blanket were found a 100 mi. from the place they said he had died and near the Bluff. As we approached the Bluff we passed a ravine in some places say 60 feet and of various depth formed in the level plain wholly by the action of water. The Bluffs have a most beautiful appearance being diverse in their height and size. One resembles the cupola of a church. One near which we passed rises say 200 feet nearly perpendicular and consists of different strata of hard clay and rock. A few scattering red cedars decorated the sides of the stupendous hills. Some of us passed some very deep ravines but the company turning short to the right as soon as they passed the notch avoided them.

Sat. 31. Passed some barren sand hills and traveled over some good bottom lands. The sight of green trees on the river bank was truly delightful. For some days we have been able to find driftwood enough to cook with but to be permitted to encamp beside a beautiful grove of timber is truly exhilarating. Seven Buffaloe were killed to-day. Thus the hand of Providence supplies us with daily food and gives health to enjoy it. We dined Lat. 42 10'.

Sunday, June 1, 1834. Started about the usual [time] and arrived at Laramas [Laramie's] Fork and forded it without difficulty before dinner. It receives its name from the circum- stance that a man by that name was killed by the Indians on that Branch. This stream is generally very difficult to cross, it being very rapid. Some of Sublett's men who are building a Trading Fort a little distance came to us they are planting corn. Three of our party Free Trapers left us here with the intention to catch Beaver in the Black Hills and thus they expose themselves their lives yea they run greater risks for a few Beaver skins than we do to save souls and yet some who call themselves Christians "tell it not in Gath" would have persuaded us to abandon our enterprize because of the danger ​

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which attended it. Often does the following stanzas rush

into my mind :

The sound of the church going bell, These vallies and rocks never heard, Never sighed at the sound of a knell, Or smiled when a Sabbath appeared.'

But blessed be God I rejoice to see the return of a Christian Sabbath though deprived of sanctuary privileges.

On this day ten thousand fervent prayers ascend the throne of grace for Missionary and Mission operations and how can we but rejoice to witness its return. May that time soon come when we shall enjoy the privileges of God's house on the western decline of the Rocky Mountains. I already long to hear from my dear friends in the east but am doomed to wait many long months before I can know anything of what is transpiring among those I love. We have very little pros- pect of doing any good among those with [whom] we jour- ney. Our time while in Camp being almost entirely taken up in taking care of our things horses cooking &c. so that it is with difficulty we find time to write a little in the journal.

Mon. June 2, 1834. We encamped last night near a beauti- ful grove of white ash. We have passed some groves of Cottonwood which is far more prevelent than any other in this part of the Country. We have been climbing the Black Hills which extend some distance South and North to the Missouri and forms the falls of that River. I think they receive their name from their dark appearance occasioned by small pine and cedar scattered over them. They make a very beautiful appearance. Dined on a beautiful little stream of clear water which is the first we have seen for hundreds of miles. Marched late and encamped in a small grove and little grass. Begun to see the snow caped Mountains which to me are a most wel- come sight.

Have been afflicted with a diorhae to-day.

Tues. Ju. 3. Started early this morning and came 15 m. before we could find grass and dined on the bank of the ​

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Platte. Started down the bank of the River under the Bluff but could not find a pass and were obliged [to] ascend the Hill and make our way for some miles over hills and through ra- vines by far worse than any we have passed before.

Wednes. June 4, 1834. This morning forded the north fork of the Platte with safety scarcely weting a bail which is seldom known to be fordable at this season. Thus kind Provi- dence smooths our way before us. Thus we came two days and a half march on this Fork previous to crossing. Searched diligently in a grove of Cottonwood for a tent pole but could find none to please me except a cedar which had drifted down the river.

Thirsday 5. The wind blew so hard that every tent except ours blew down and it was with the utmost difficulty that we could prevent it from falling but we succeeded and eat our breakfast in it. It was very difficult packing this morning on account of the wind, but we were enabled to make a good days march though it was rather disagre[e]able.

Friday, 6. It commenced raining just as the word was given to catch up the horses and made very disagreeable packing but rained little and soon cleared away and we were favored with a fine day.

Sat. June 7, 1834. Arrived before dinner opposite the red Butes which is the point where we leave the old Platte, having been on its waters 21 days. The land on this Fork is broken and consists of sandy plains and sand hills and rugged moun- tains totally unfit I think for cultivation. A few willows some Buffaloe bushes and some cotton trees a few scrub [b] y pine and cedar are all the timber I have seen.

Mon. June 9. Yesterday decamped soon after sunrise and made one long march and encamped on a little brook where we found good grass but short. Was engaged in driving cattle and they were so weary that it was with great difficulty that we got them along. Business so occupied my time that I only found opportunity to read a little in my Bible but not to write in my Journal. I think that I enjoyed less communion with ​

132 JASON LEE

my Heavenly Father than any Sabbath since I left Sabbath and Sanctuary privileges. May the Good Lord quicken me.

Dined at Rock Independence, which stands by itself on a prairie and is say ^4 of a m. in length % 'in breadth 75 ft. high without herbage it being a naked rock of granite. Within a few yards of this rock flows the waters of a small clear stream called Sweet Water.

Found good grass this evening which is a matter of rejoicing and thankfulness for our poor Horses were nearly starved. On either side of the plain which is some miles in diameter curious Mountains rear their stately heads. They are the most barren I ever saw. They are detached ranges of the Rocky M. and if the main range is similar they are most ap- propriately named.

Tues. June 10. Was called last night at 11 o'clock to take charge of my guard it being my middle watch. The wind blew almost a hurricane and it was so cold that it was impos- sible to keep comfortable with a great coat but the wind sub- sided between 12 and 1 o'clock. Though I found some com- munion with God yet I was when 2 o'clock came I relieved from guard. Frost this morning but quite hot at noon. The Capt. sent an express to the Redevous [Rendezvous] this morning. Followed the river part of the way but some times it winds its way through the cragged Mountains. The land here is much the same as it has been for some days past con- sisting chiefly of sand except some spots on the bank of the River. It produces wild sage plentifully some of it is from four to five feet high three or four inches through but is too bitter for tea.

We cooked our dinner with its stocks. We are just at the base of a huge M. of granite.

Wednes. 11. Was constantly engaged in repairing halters fixing the horses shoes &c. until time to pack up. There is more to be done on such an expedition as this [than] any one could possibly think who has never tried it.

The provision is getting short in Camp some have had very ​

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little to-day and we have eaten our last Buffaloe meat for din- ner except some we have dried in case of emergency. Have been leading the Camp for the Capt. this morning and he has gone ahead to kill meat. When we soped [stopped] here it was calm but now the sand flies so that it is almost impossible to write. I must leave writing to take care that the things do not blow away. Shot an Elk this P. M. which was very ac- ceptable as some had eaten little for two days they said. Elk is not considered good meat except very fat. Through the goodness and mercy of God we have had plenty. O that our gratitude may keep pace with his mercies. Bless the Lord I think I do feel thankful for his goodness to me. Glory to God in the highest he feeds me both with corporeal and with spiritual food. Amen. Inste[a]d of taking a due west course as we should have done we followed the River by consequence lost our A. M. march.

Thirs. June 12. Went out with the hunters this morning. They killed a Buffaloe and caught a young Antelope and a Buffalo calf. Saw plenty Buffaloe to-day and killed a supply.

Friday June 13, 1834. Went with the hunters and while trying to kill a Buffaloe one of our cows & one [of] the Capts that had been left to follow came near us and having lost the Company were steering for the Band of Buffaloe and we should probably have lost them if we had not been behind the Company. Left the Sweet Water this morning [turned] to the left and soon after lost Sublet's trail. After noon went out and brought in a piece of meat to dry and some for the Com- pany. Encamped on a branch of the Sweet Water. The grass is very short and the horses are failing fast. The alcohol was handed out freely by the Capt. which soon made some of the crew quite merry. Some quarreled in the night through the effects of it. Would to God that the time may come soon when its use shall be entirely abandoned except as a medi- cine.

Sat. J. 14, 1934. Took the lead of Camp while the Capt. ​

134 JASON LEE

went to see if he could ascertain where he passed when he went out before.

Dined on a spring of as good water as I ever drank. The Buffaloe have eaten nearly all the grass.

Remained behind the Company to assist in butchering a Buffaloe and carrying in meat that I need not have to go out to hunt on the Sabbath, w[h]ich is our day in regular rotation. Was obliged to ride fast to overtake the Com. About 5 m. I think from where we dined we crossed the main Sweet Wa- ter. Rode about 5 m. farther and came up with rear of the Com.

One of our horses tired and though he had carried nothing but his saddle that day we could not get him along and were forced to leave in the Prairie where was but very little grass with very little expectation of seeing him again which we regretted as we knew one would have to walk in consequence until we reached Rendevous. The cattle nearly failed and fell some miles behind.

Night drew on fast and no water nor grass. I could have easily overtaken the foremost part of the Company but chose to remain with Brothers Shepard and D. Lee and Mr. Abot and try to keep the trail after night should come on but it [was] impossible as we were in a country of wild sages which are so large that they impede the progress of the horses and also covered with Buffaloe paths which we sometimes mis- take for the trail even in daylight. Ten o'clock came to a dry creek as they call in this country and finding a little grass we concluded to encamp. We cooked no supper for two rea- sons first because of the labour and time necessary to do it and secondly because we were in the most dangerous part of the Indian country and a light might attract them. We tied our horses milked the cows and drank the milk and lay down to repose feeling safe in the [care of Him] who controlleth all things.

It rained a little but not enough to wet through our blan- kets. Awoke just at daylight after a night's sweet repose ​

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and found all safe. Soon ascertained that the Com. were not more than a mile and a half distant but thought we would have breakfast before we decamped. Roasted Buffaloe meat and poor water made our rich repast and I am persuaded that none even in New England eat a more palatable or wholesome meal. We feel not want of bread and I am more healthy than I have been for some years. Came to camp and when we learned that 12 o'clock was the hour for starting, Mr. Walker and myself saddled two of [the] ablest horses and went for the one we left and found [him] about six miles distant within 15 rods of where we left him and drove him into camp. Think we shall save him if we reach Rendevous soon.

Sun. 15. Decamped near 1 o'clock and crossed a branch of Sandy River which runs [a] south west course and empties into Green River which discharges its waters into the Colorado and through that into the Gulf of California. Here we are now on the height of Land the dividing ridge between the At- lantic and Pacific. Our rise has been gradual most of the way and we have not ascended any such Mountains as I an- ticipated having passed along on the Prairies at their base.

The Rocky Mountains with their summits and parts of their sides clad in eternal snow presents to the eye of the traveler a most grand beautiful and sublime appearance. It rained a little soon after we started but the sun shone again in a short time. Gave my horse to Mr. Walker and went on foot. He was hindered and I was caught in a shower of rain and snow and hail found it rather cold. Passed some singular moun- tains one resembles a hay stack which we left on our left hand.

Encamped on the Main Sandy. Was that weary when we had arranged our things that I lay down on the grass and slept two hours of the Lord's day. O, how my soul longs for the ordinances of God's house. Shall I ever enjoy them again in that land of privileges which I have left far behind? The Lord only knows and his righteous will (I would say in per- fect submission) be done. ​

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Mon. June 16, 1834. Followed down Sandy and could find no grass until 2 o'clock and then very poor. Sunday we trav- eled near W. and this P. M. S. E. and I judge we are not more than 10 m. from where we encamped on the night of the 14th. The Capt. has heard nothing from his express nor from Rendevous and hence he is wandering about not knowing whether he is going to or from it. Two hunters went out on the llth and we have heard nothing from them since. What has become of them we cannot tell but think they are lost or the Indians have found them. We are extremely anxious to know their fate but have no means of ascertaining. Was on guard the first watch.

I think this River is rightly named for the Prairies on both sides of it are sand producing only a little sage and a few spires of grass and a few trees and willow bushes occasionally on the bottoms. The horses are failing fast for want of food more than through excess of labour though that is very severe.

Some of the Com. saw two men belonging to American Fur Com. on the 17th.

Tues. June 17, 1834. This day followed down Sandy but find the grass no better. The hunters came in at noon they have been lost and looking in every direction for us. We are encamped on a dry sand plain where there is no grass except a few scattering spires but the opinion is that we are within 10 miles of Rendevous where we shall find plenty. The horses are nearly wore down but the mules stand it well and are in as good flesh as when we started. The Capt. has just started in search of Rendevous. I find myself quite weary and shall be glad of a few days rest but the animals need it far more than the men.

Though we have but little and no bread in fact nothing but Buffaloe meat and a little tea and coffee yet we suffer no in- convenience whatever by not having the variety we were wont to have formerly but I think derive benefit from it. There are many things which men accustom themselves to use which [are] deleterious. ​

DIARY 137

Wednes. June 18. I o'clock P. M. Though we have come 10 m. yet we have not found Rendevous nor the Capt. Have found a bottom where the grass is a little better. The plains are so dry that the dust rises in clouds where horses pass and makes very disagreeable traveling.

It gives me pleasure to reflect that we are descending towards the vast Pacific. With the blessing and preservation of the Almighty we shall soon stand upon the shores which have resisted the fury of the proud swelling waves of the mighty Pacific from time immemorial. O, Thou God of love give us still thine aid for without thee we can do nothing.

Made a short march and came to a fine bottom of grass. The man who went with the Capt. has returned also the one he sent out on express.

Thrs. Ju. 19. Met the Capt. about 12 o'c. near the Forks of Sandy and Green Rivers. Dined and on the banks of Green R. P. M. crossed and encamped on the shore grass pretty good. Here met an Indian Free Trapper w[h]ich is the first Indian we have seen since we saw the Pawnee Loups before crossing the main Platte.

Friday June 20, 1834. Daniel was very sick last night being in extreme pain and could take no rest or peace until Bro. Shepard bathed his feet in hot water and put hot flannel on his back and bowels. His sickness was occasioned by bathing in cold water I think. He is just able to ride to-day. Started with the hunters ahead of the Comp. and one of them wounded a Buffaloe in the shoulder and after they had run y 2 or 4 of a m. we concluded to give them chase and set off one of them came up before me with the Buffalo but could not get his gun off. I rode within a few yards of the Buf and gave her a deadly shot so that she fell in the spot where she stood. We soon dressed her and loaded most of her on our horses and pursued the Com. which was now some miles ahead. Come up with the Com. near 12 o'clock and continued our march till 4, when we reached a small stream called Ham's Fork ​

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which empties into the Colorado or what is called here for some distance the Green River.

We call this Rendevous or the place where all the Com- panies in the Mountains or in this section of them have fixed upon to meet for the transaction of business.

Some of the companies have not come in, yet most of them are a mile above us on the same creek. They threatened that when we came they would give them Missionaries "hell" and Capt. W. informed us and advised us to be on our guard and give them no offense and if molested to show no symptoms of fear and if difficulty did arise we might depend upon his aid for he never forsook any one who had put himself under his protection.

I replied I was much obliged to him. I feared no man and apprehended no danger from them when sober and when drunk we would endeavor to [keep] out of their way. I judged it best however to go immediately to their camp and get an introduction to them while sober and soon as possible went accompanied by the Capt. Found Wm. Sublett and was warmly received with all that gentlemanly politeness which has always characterized his conduct towards me. Sup[p]ed with him. Was introduced to those who had threatened us and spent some time in conversation with them on the difficulties of the route, changes of habit and various topics and made such a favorable impression on them and was tre[a]ted with such politeness by all that I came away fully satisfied that they would neither molest us themselves nor suffer their men to do so without cause. How easy for the Lord to disconcert the most malicious and deep laid plans of the devil.

Without thy permission O, Lord no weapon formed against thy servants shall prosper in thee will I put my trust and feel safe in thy hands. Some of the men told the Pierced Nose and Flat Head Indians our object in coming into the country and they came and shook hands very cordially and seemed to welcome me to their country.

Sat. Ju. 21. Felt more like laying down and resting than ​

DIARY 139

writing or work. Have had a visit from some 10 or 12 Pierced Nose and 1 or 2 Flat Heads to-day and conversed a little with them through an indifferent interpreter.

But being buisy arranging our things we requested them to come again when we were more at leisure. A man who has just come from Wallah Wallah gave us some encouraging information. Blessed be God I feel more and more to rejoice I was ever counted worthy to carry the glad news of salvation to the far western world.

Sunday, Ju. 22. Was called this morning at 2 o'clock it being my morning guard but having men enough to guard the horses and finding the atmosphere very cold I sat most of the time in the tent.

Felt very stupid after breakfast. Tried to read my Bible but fell asleep and took a long nap. Soon after I awoke as many Indians as could enter our tent came to see us and we told them our object in coming showed them the Bible told them some of the commandments and how they were given to all of which they listened with the utmost attention and then replied that it was all good. They enquired if we could build houses and said that the Indians at Walla wallah gave horses to a white man to build them a house and when he got the horses he went off and did not build it. We of course expressed our strong disapprobation of his conduct. They said if we could build a house for them they would each plenty of Beaver for us which we take as a favourable indication showing their desire for improvement. One said he was going to St. Louis next year but he would leave his three children with his friends who was present and he would give them to us that we might teach them to read and write and be good.

Some of them shook hands very heartily when thefy] left.

One of the men went to purchase meat of the Indians but they would not bring it to him because it was Sunday. Thus while the whites who have been educated in a Christian land pay no regard whatever to the Sabbath these poor savages who have at most only some vague idea of the Christian relig​

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ion respect the Sabbath of the Lord our God. Though we might have a congregation of some hundreds of whites to preach to to-day if they were disposed to hear yet we have no doubt if [we] were to propose such a thing that it would be rejected with disdain and perhaps with abuse, for all hands nearly are employed [in] trading drinking or some such inno- cent amusement. My God My God " there nothing that will have any effect upon them?

Lord of heaven and earth move by thy Spirit upon their hearts and cause the penitential tear to flow.

Mon. June 23. Bro. Shepard washed for us which is the first of any account that we have had done since we left and I have clean clothes yet. Went to Mr. Sublett's Camp to see about purchasing a mule of Mr. Trapp [Frappe]. Heard the Indians in one lodge praying and singing went to listen to them but they were just closing as we approached. How encouraging to see these red men thus religiously inclined. Soon after dark a fire was built in the Prairie for the purpose of a war dance. One with a thing that answered for a drum stood near the fire and sung with others. While the three half-breeds who were all that joined in the war dance were making preparations the whites made themselves perfectly ridiculous by jumping about the fire trying to imitate the In- dian dance while none but the little boys would join them. At length they came and went through their dance which was rather interesting especially that part where they killed and scalped one and went off with the gun in triumph.

Slept with Mr. Sublette and returned in the morning.

June 24, Tues. Purchased some things of the Indians and a mule of Mr. Frapp. Paid in red cloth at 100 per cent $55.00. Found that our red cloth was minus 12 yds.

Wednes. June 25. Removed 10 mi. up the creek and after taking care of the things commenced writing letters in good earnest, but found it very hard to bring my mind to the work.

Thursday 26. Made some repairs on saddles &c, and wrote some letters. ​

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Fri. June 27. Copied a long communication for the Advo- cate. Found peace in believing.

Sat. June 28. 31 years of my almost useless life are like a fable gone. Once I sincerely wished that I had never seen the light but bless the Lord it is otherwise with me now and I thank God that I was ever born of the flesh that I might be born of the spirit. It is hardly probible that I shall see 31 years more but be that as it may I trust that the residue of my days will be spent more to the glory of God and the good of the world than those that have already passed. O my God help me to redeem time. It seems that I am doing nothing and under existing circumstances can do nothing for- thee; Lord open a door for usefulness and give me a heart to labour to promote thy glory and the ultimate salvation of my fellow creatures.

Sunday, June 29.- This day seems more like Sabbath than any since I left St. Louis, and though far from God's visible Temple and the soul cheering and spirit exhilarating ordi- nances of his house yet he whose presence fills the temple and gives it all its charms and all its attractions is here and "He makes our paradise. And where he is is heaven."

Mon. June 30, 1834. Laboured hard making halters of Buffalo hide and though it was my first attempt yet I suc- ceeded in making two I think preferable to any that I have seen. Finished some of my letters. While writing past scenes came fresh to my recollection and cases [causes] me to wish to hear from my friends.

Tues. July 1, 1834. This day sealed a long communication to the Editors of the Advocate one to Dr. Fisk one to Dr. Bangs one to Bro. Tabor and one to Sister Achash (?) and carried them down to Wm. Subletted Camp and he kindly took charge of them. May they safely reach those for whom they are designed. Took my leave of Mr. Sublette and Mr. Fitzpatrick & Christie and they all wished me success express- ing a hope that we might [meet] again in this country. But ​

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in what they wished me success I know not as some of [them] at least are opposed to our enterprise.

Wednes. July 2, 1834. Arose this morning at 2 o'clock it being my guard and after placing the guard lighted a can- dle and wrote a letter to Bro. Finley and one to Br. Sehon ( ?) and sent them by Mr. Greenow.

Left Rendevous rather late being detained on account of some horses that had run away. Had been quite long enough in Camp and glad to pursue out journey. A band of Indians No. Pierce and Flat Heads came with and camped with us on Ham's Fork. They are on their way to the Flat Head

camp.

• * * *

Friday, July 4, 1834. Just as we were on the point of start- ing the Indians came and informed us that they were about to leave us and wished to know if we intended to come back and stop with the Flat Head Camp. We told them we could not say positively now we did not know as we could find their Camp.

I asked them if they would like to have their children learn to read &c one said he would give me his. Some said they would like [to] learn to cultivate land.

And they seemed desirous that we should locate among them. I told them if they came where Capt. Wyeth purposed to build up [a] Fort that if it were not too far I would go and see the Chief and talk with him about it and if we did not come this winter that we would come next or the following.

When we arrived at the place of separation they all shook hands with me in the most cordial hearty and friendly man- ner.

I was very much affected with this parting scene. Lord direct us in our choice of a location. O that these sons of nature may soon be the children of grace. Encamped on Mud- dy Creek. Some of the men caught some fine trout. This being the 4th of July the men must needs show their "Inde- pendance" and such another drunken crazy hooting quarrel​

DIARY 143

ing fighting frolic I seldom witnessed. Yes, even in this western world ardent spirits is the bane of poor infatuated men. Here met Mr. Bonivill's 1 company on their way to St. Louis.

Sat. July 5, 1834. Passed along the base of some very high Mountains, say 300 ft. high of a red hue. Crossed over to Bear River and came down it a few miles and camped. Lost two cruppers off of one mule.

Sun. July 6. Had neglected writing for a day or two and had forgotten the day of the week.

Commenced making cruppers early and finished one before starting though we took a early start. It was not til we had traveled some miles that I found out that it was Sabbath and I could scarce make it seem like Sabbath all day.

Made a very long severe march crossed Bear River twice and came over some of the most mountainous country that we have crossed though not so difficult as some the ascent and descent being more gradual but they were some of them miles from the base to the summit and some places quite steep and thus they were ascending and descending for say 4 or 5 hours 'til we reach the bottom of Bear River where we camped.

Mon. July 7, 1834. Started late from camp. Had difficulty in finding the cows which detained us til the company were two miles out. Came 4 mi. and overtook the comp. and dis- covered we had left one of our horses and were obliged to go back to Camp for him.

Made a short march and camped on Bear R.

Tuesday July 8. Came along the banks of B. R. saw more beautiful little streams of clear water winding through the hills or more properly Mountains and emptying their waters into the River.

Buffaloe has been scarce and it has been difficult to procure enough for food for the Company though we have always had enough. The Capt. went to see Mr. Bonivill's camp but re- turned before night.

i Col. B. L. E. Bonnrille. ​

144 JASON LEE

Some miles before we came into [ ] began to observe

volcanic appearances and soon discovered what I was satis- fied was lava. Saw what [is] called here white clay but I think it is soft chalk.

There seems to be a large bed of it very white but could form no idea of the quantity.

Wednes. July 9, 1834. Did not move camp was employed most of the day in repairing pack-saddles &c. A few yards from our camp is a curious spring called the Soda Spring. There are several places where it boils up within a few rods and though large quantities are thrown up it does not run off upon the surface but finds its way to the river underground where you can see it bubbling up in various places. The boil- ing in one place resembles very much the rapid boiling of water in a large chaldron the agitation being fully as great.

The water is evidently impregnated with gas it has and acid taste is rather pleasant and resembles very much the soda made from powders. There is another half a mile distant still more curious and astonishing. It [is] so warm that the ther- mometer stands at 90 in it. From an aperture in the rock or incrustation formed by the precipitation of particles from the water a large quantity is thrown several feet below into the River. It alternately spurts for a few seconds with consider- able noise and flows more gently for the same length of time. A few feet distant is a hole of an inch in diameter where the atmosphere strongly impregnated with sulphur issues in a manner that strongly resembles respiration and with such force as to be heard several rods and is quite warm. A man on whom I can depend who visited the spring before I did said when the hole was stopped there was a cracking under- neath resembling the report of a gun. The pressure was so great that I think I did not succeed in entirely preventing the escape of the air though I put a wet tuft of grass upon it and forced it in with my foot, but observed while the grass was closely pressed into the hole that the waters spurted with more ​

DIARY 145

force and more constancy and when my foot was removed the grass was instantly raised.

These waters have evidently flowed out in many different places where large quantities of very curious rock has been formed by its precepitations upon moss grass &c. One place I noticed very particularly. The rock at the base is several yards in diameter and rises in a circular form to the height of say 5 ft. and is about that distance across the top the incrusta- tion is a few inches thick at the top and the hollow is filled nearly up with earth. I have no doubt and am persuaded that no person who visits it can have doubt but that water once boiled from this chaldron but has long since found some other place for discharging itself.

Thirs. July 10. Left Bear R. and pursued a north course over the hills and soon reached a small prairie, crossed some small streams or brooks. Passed Boniville's Camp. He is making meat. The country presents many volcanic appear- ances all the stone appear to have been burned. The Company killed a large griz[z]ly bear. I think there were twenty guns fired but know not how many balls hit him. They are a very hard creature to kill.

Fri. July 11, 1834. Encamped last night on a small stream called Black Foot. The [stream] is very muddy and difficult to cross. Capt. McCay [Thos. McKay] formerly of the Hud- son's Bay Company joined us on the 9th and intends to go with us to the place where the Capt. is to build his fort and there wait for his party. Saw a large band of buf. and rode up to them full speed but the dust flew in such clouds that I could not see to shoot with any accuracy and hence killed noth- ing but pursued and overtook three bulls one of which Cool- cooly shot and we took part of it to camp.

Sat. 12. Encamped on the headwaters of Ross Fork. Dan- iel caught a fine string of trout.

Sun. 13. Traveled only a short distance. Was glad to get a little rest on the Lord's day. The [men] are engaged playing ​

146 JASON LEE

cards drinking swearing wrestling &c. May God have mercy upon them.

Mon. July 14. Forded some bad creeks and camped about noon on the bank of Snake River as it called by the Mountain men but on the maps Lewis Fork.

The Capt. is gone to search for a Fort.

Tues. 14. Started from the picket and came 4 or 5 m. and camped where the Capt. is going to build a Fort. Made an attempt for the first time to set horse shoes and I think suc- ceeded very well but for want of propper tools found it a slow job. We are glad of a little rest on account of the animals.

Wednes. 16. Sent out 12 hunters and Walker was among them with orders to remain out 12 days if they did not get their 12 spare animals they took out loaded sooner. The object is to procure meat to last down the Columbia. The men are engaged in building a horse pen. The Capt. thinks he shall be here a fortnight. It will seem long to me.

(To be continued) ​

DOCUMENT

CAPTAIN BLACK'S REPORT ON TAKING OF ASTORIA.

EDITORIAL NOTE.

The contract for the sale of the possessions of the Pacific Fur Company at Astoria and in the interior country to the Northwest Company was made on October 16, 1813. The transfer may not have been actually consummated until the 23rd of this month. The British ship of war that had been momentarily expected did not arrive until November 30. The following account of Captain Black's procedure in taking possession of Fort Astoria is taken from Chittenden's "History of the American Fur Trade of the Far West," Vol. I, pp. 22-3:

"On the 2Qth of October a large party set out for the interior to make a transfer of the various posts and of the property at each. Nothing of note trans- pired at Astoria, except the arrival on November 23rd of Alexander Stuart and Alexander Henry, until the 3oth of that month, when the long expected war vessel hove in sight. It was the Raccoon, of twenty-six guns, commanded by Captain Black. This vessel, with the Isaac Todd, the frigate Phoebe, and the sloop of war Cherub, had sailed from Rio Janeiro on the 6th of July preceding with John McDonald, a partner of the Northwest Company, on board. The Isaac Todd had become separated from her company off Cape Horn, and had not since been seen. The other vessels arrived safely at the agreed rendezvous at the island of Juan Fernandez, and after waiting some time for the Isaac Todd, and hearing of the havoc which the American Commodore Porter was making among the British whalers, it was decided that the Raccoon should go alone with McDonald to Astoria, and that the other vessels should cruise after Porter. The Raccoon arrived in due time within the mouth of the Columbia.

"The officers and crew of the Raccoon had been led to suppose that a valu- able prize awaited them at the end of their long cruise. When they found that the post and property had been sold to British subjects they were greatly cha- grined and disappointed. Captain Black, it is said, even threatened to bring suit for their recovery, but the threat, if made, was not carried out.

"If Captain Black was crestfallen at losing a valuable prize, he was disgusted when he beheld the character of the fort which he had been sent half way around the world to capture. He exclaimed with ill-concealed contempt: 'Is this the fort about which I have heard so much talking? D n me, but I'd batter it down in two hours with a four-pounder!'

"Captain Black, with a retinue of officers, landed at Astoria late on the night of December i2th, and after dinner on the i3th he took formal possession of the fort in the name of the British King, and rechristened it Fort George. The disappointed captain, could he have foreseen the future, would not have felt ashamed of this day of small things. He had done what no British sailor had ever done before in taking possession of this fort he had saved an empire to hit country." EDITOR QUARTERLY.

Racoon, Columbia River

15 December, 1813. Sir:

Agreeable to order from Captain Hillyer, I succeeded in entering Columbia River, in Majesty's Sloop Racoon, Novr. 30, 1813 found party of North West Company here, who had made arrangements with the American party before my arrival.

Country and fort I have taken possession of in name and for British Majesty latter I have named Fort George and left in possession and charge North West Company. ​

148 REPORT ON TAKING OF ASTORIA

Enemies party quite broke up they have no settlement whatever on this River or Coast.

Enemies vessel said on Coast and about [Sandwich] Islands. while Provisions last shall endeavour to destroy them. Weather here set in very bad.

Left Phoebe and Cherub Longitude 82 20' W, Latitude 40 33' S. well. Consort parted from Squadron before reach- ing Cape Horn, not yet arrived. Natives appear well disposed toward English. Sir,

Your Obedt Servt

W. Black

To John Wilson Croker, Esq., Secretary Admiralty, London ​

Correspondence of the Reverend Ezra Fisher

Pioneer Missionary of the American Baptist

Home Mission Society in Indiana,

Illinois, Iowa and Oregon

Edited by

SARAH FISHER HENDERSON

NELLIE EDITH LATOURETTE

KENNETH SCOTT LATOURETTE ​

150 REVEREND EZRA FISHER

(Continued from page 76, March Quarterly.)

Our governor has dispatched an express to California, 141 hop- ing that the bearer of dispatches will find part of our Pacific squadron in San Francisco Bay, who may afford us protec- tion till an express shall reach Washington and our hitherto too tardy government may give us security in the midst of the heathen. It is feared by many that the Jesuit priests were obsequious to the horrid massacre of Dr. Whitman and family. 142 I hope to be able to send you the whole corre- spondence relative to this subject. By this unexpected prov- idence, it is feared that every Protestant mission to the In- dians west of the Rocky Mountains will be broken up. At least they must be discontinued for the present, while Ro- manism holds undisputed sway over all those savage minds. Should not this fact furnish an argument sufficiently power- ful to arouse the sympathies of the friends of missions to new efforts in behalf of the degraded sons of the western plains and mountains, and especially as we trust the time is at the door when our national government will give protec- tion to the lives of the missionaries of the churches? I will assure you, dear brother, as a philanthropist and a Christian minister, I earnestly desire and devoutly pray that our national government will lose no time in extending her excellent laws over our Territory. 143 Our laws, although as much respected as could reasonably be expected, are ineffi- cient in the punishment of crime. The public mind is un- settled constantly, hoping for a better and more complete code of laws; difficulties in relation to land claims will be multiplying and afford fruitful sources of litigation and our relations to the savages will be subject to repeated discon-

141 The overland passengers did not succeed in getting through to California. The letters to California were finally forwarded via the brig "Henry," which sailed after the above was written. Bancroft, Hist, of Ore. 1:679.

142 The long and unfortunate debate over the question of Catholic influence in the Whitman massacre is here reflected.

143 The reference is here, of course, to the laws passed by the provisional government organized in Oregon pending the extension of the protection of the United States over the colony. ​

CORRESPONDENCE 151

tent till our government treats with them for their lands. They have long been told that the Boston Hy-as Tyee (Chief) will come next year and pay them for their lands till they say their turn-turn (heart) is sick and they do not know but they shall mimmelus (die) before the Boston Hy-as Tyee comes. Our Indian neighbors like to have the Bostons settle among them and give them two or three blankets, a gun or a horse for a section of land and are fond of trading with the Whites, yet they are like children in their tradings with the Whites. They have generally great confidence in the honesty of the Whites till they are aroused to jealousy .by some designing person.

March 24th You will probably learn the state of our Indian relations to a later date than this through the me- dium of the return party who will leave the settlements for the States about the 20th of April, and will probably pass sufficiently near the Cayuse nation to learn the state of the war.

I have just received yours under date of April 1st, 1847, which came to the Islands on board the Medora, and will just state that it affords me great pleasure to learn that God still reigns in your anniversaries. May you ever be able truthfully to adopt the language of the Psalmist, "Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell to- gether in unity." I sometimes almost envy you those heav- enly entertainments, yet our Heavenly Father has other- wise ordered it and I would not challenge the wisdom of His counsels. Since I commenced this package God has been graciously pleased to give us more than usual intimations that He has not entirely withdrawn His favors from us. Last Lord's day we organized a little feeble church in Clat- sop Plains consisting of seven members, three males and four females, 144 , and on Monday one of my neighbors sent for me to call and see him. I found him laboring under a deep sense of his condemned condition and he said, "I tell you,

144 This church became extinct in a few years. Mattoon, Bap. An. of Ore. 1:8. ​

152 REVEREND EZRA FISHER

Mr. Fisher, I am a miserable, wretched sinner." The work of grace appeared most distinctly marked, from a conviction of his exceeding sinfulness in the sight of God to that of a full surrender of himself to God and the exercise of faith in a crucified Redeemer. Tuesday, about 5 P. M., hope sprang up in his soul and immediately he arose from his bed, which he had scarcely left for twenty minutes after Sabbath night, and bowed in the presence of his family and a few Christian friends in prayer. He still enjoys the consolation of a hope which fills the minds of his neighbors with surprise. . . . May God give me grace to improve this providence to His glory. All I will now say on this subject is that I find num- bers of our impenitent fellow citizens acknowledging that they have been unusually affected under the preaching of the Word the past winter. We can but feel an additional as- surance that the Spirit's silent, yet powerful influence has attended the preached Word the past winter. We feel great- ly the need of grace, lest these indications of divine favor pass away unimproved. Pray for us in Clatsop and in Ore- gon that we may quit ourselves as missionaries of Jesus Christ as well as missionaries of the churches.

I wrote you a large package by the Brutus and entrusted it to the care of Elder Gary. I also wrote in November by the bark Whiton, Captain Getston 145 a package of three sheets in which I made a regular report from August to No- vember. But I have recently learned that that ship is char- tered for a transport to the Pacific squadron and I fear the letter will be miscarried or be long delayed. We suffer great inconvenience in rendering the amount your Board appro- priate to our support available when needed, but hope to have a regular mail direct from this place to New York as soon as next winter. We shall then be able to make our reports and receive remittances from you timely so as to ob- viate the necessity of the too frequent interruptions of our missionary labors by the imperious demands of our families

145 Gelston, not "Getston." Oregon Spectator, July 22, 1847. ​

CORRESPONDENCE 153

for the bare comforts of life. I know your Board cannot call in question our earnest desire to labor exclusively in the ap- propriate duties of a minister, but, if you will just advert to your books and count up the amount of remittances and then reflect that we have been already in the field two years, you will not wonder that we are compelled to be by far more secular than is desirable. I have received in these two years only about $70 from your Board. Could I have been in Illi- nois and received remittances quarterly, I should have been enabled to devote myself wholly to the work. These are unavoidable providences which will soon be succeeded by a direct and certain communication. I do not complain, but regret that your Board must be driven to the necessity of feeling that your missionaries are doing comparatively little in Oregon.

Anything that our brethren or sisters can send us as ar- ticles of clothing, and especially in cloth, either woolen or cotton, will greatly assist us. I shall make a request that you forward articles of clothing and common household fur- niture and books to the amount of my salary, or nearly so, up to this time the first opportunity after this. I have pur- posed to write you on the subject of the manners and cus- toms and the general character of the people and, from time to time, give a general description of the various detached portions of the country, and the present embarrassments which our colony have to encounter, but this I cannot do at this time. I will simply give my testimony in general terms to the climate. After having spent two years and a half below the Cascade Mountains, I think I have never ex- perienced so salubrious a climate, even in Vermont or Massa- chusetts, and never in my life have I seen so few persons suffering under the influence of disease, in proportion to the number of population. This remark holds emphatically true on the coast. Slight colds seem to be the only prevailing disease, except it be contagious diseases. The measles have prevailed among us this winter and have swept off a very ​

154 REVEREND EZRA FISHER

considerable number of the natives, who have suffered long from the venereal. Our soil is generally productive and yields a generous return to the labors of the husbandman. Yet it is not to be forgotten that we are far removed from the civilized world and consequently the few merchants in Oregon sell their goods of a very ordinary quality at very exorbitant prices, often one, two and three hundred per cent and, in some instances, more than a thousand per cent in advance of the first cost, among which I will name castings, edged tools, nails and all iron wares, coffee, cotton, cloth, leather boots and shoes, hats, cotton and woolen cloth. As yet there is no competition in trade. Much has been said and written of the changes of the mouth of the Columbia. I will venture to remark, upon the best authority, that the harbor within the mouth of the Columbia is one of the easiest of access and the safest in all North America. The last fifty times the bar has been crossed with no other accident than the loss of the anchor of the brig Henry. For further proof on this subject, I would refer you to Mr. Blain's 145 " 8 letter to Honorable Thomas Benton, published in his three days' speech in the U. S. Senate on the subject, "The United States' Title to Oregon in 1846." The publishing of that let- ter in the commercial periodicals in our Atlantic cities would contribute something to the encouraging of commerce in Oregon.

We hope to organize an association in June next in the Willamette Valley. 340 We are beginning to need one or two more efficient missionaries in the Willamette Valley. I have chosen my position as advantageously as I could near the mouth of the Columbia and promise seems to indicate that it is too important to be abandoned. The population is gradu- ally, but constantly, increasing. We have no doubt but the government will make the first national improvements at the mouth of the Columbia, and we think it rather probable that

i45-a Rev. Wilson Hlain, editor of the Oregon Spectator, Oregon City.

146 For the organization of the association, see the letter of Sept. 20, 1848, and Mattoon, Bap. An. of Ore. I:i8. ​

CORRESPONDENCE 155

the commercial town will be near the mouth of the river. These considerations have exerted no small influence in the decisions I have made. At this time we have no other min- ister in the county and there is labor sufficient to occupy the time of one man, although we are farther from the main settlements on the Willamette than is desirable. We need practical, active, common sense preachers, with warm hearts and sound minds, and the churches will soon be able and willing to contribute something for their support.

March 25th. The indications of divine favor appear to wear a favorable aspect and another of my neighbors seems not far from the Kingdom of Heaven. Tomorrow is the Sab- bath and we hope and pray that the Spirit's power may accom- pany the preached Word.

Br. Johnson is making some efforts to build a meeting house in Oregon City. I have not yet learned with what suc- cess. He will probably write you the particulars. 147 Br. Vincent Snelling should be aided, if your Board can make an appropriation for him to labor with the Yam Hill church and the churches in that part of the Valley. Should our next immigration be large, as it probably will, we shall greatly need help in the ministry and a colporteur to travel, preach, sell books, visit and address Sabbath schools. The present and a few coming years are of very great importance in re- lation to all coming time in Oregon. They will constitute the formative period of our Territory, both civilly and moral- ly. Small, immediate results will probably control interests of vast importance to all coming years. Our influence as a denomination should not be lost on the Pacific for the want of a few men and a little means. Your Board will not neg- lect Upper California. There can be little doubt but two mis- sionaries should be sent, as soon as you can find the men, to labor in the vicinity of San Francisco Bay, should that sec-

147 This building, the first Baptist meeting house west of the Rocky, Moun- tains, was completed late in 1848, or early in 1849. Mattoon, Bap. An. of Ore. 1:6. See also the diary of the author dated July 2, 1848, and enclosed in the letter of March i, 1849. The building was situated on Thirteenth and Main streets. ​

156 REVEREND EZRA FISHER

tion of country become a territory of the U. States. 148 Br. Ross, a member of Br. Evart's church, is there selling goods. I cannot close this without once more recommending to our Atlantic brethren, who wish to be instrumental in form- ing the character of some of the most important future states in the Union, to come and labor with us. Very soon the facilities for immigration will be greatly increased, and per- haps no new portion of our whole country will afford a more inviting field for usefulness and enterprise than the one fronting the vast Pacific. Would to God we could make some of our efficient deacons and private brethren arouse to a conviction of duty on this subject and induce them to come over and help us. At the present time it will require less sacrifice in time and property to sail from New York or Boston in October or November for the mouth of the Colum- bia than it does to immigrate by land from Illinois and Iowa in the spring. The farmer leaving your port in November may plant and sow Oregon soil in May, without spending a winter on expense before he can cultivate the soil. Time admonishes me to lay down my pen.

As ever yours, in gospel bonds,

EZRA FISHER.

March the 29th. We still see increasing evidence that the Spirit of the Lord is over us, and although Sabbath was very rainy our congregation was good and solemn. We learn of another case in which we begin to cherish hope a lad of thirteen years. Some backsliders are awakening. Our prayer meetings are becoming interesting. O, for a preparation of heart to lead God's people into the knowledge of every Chris- tian duty and to win sinners to Christ, our all compassionate Saviour !

In view of so many uncertainties in regard to my former letters on board the Whiton reaching you, I think best to

148 Rev. O. C. Wheeler was appointed to California in 1848 by the Home Mission Society. Soon afterward, Rev. H. W. Read was appointed, but stopped in New Mexico on his way out. Bap. Home Missions in N. Am., 1832-1882, p. 339. ​

CORRESPONDENCE 157

give you a bill of goods which I wish you will have pur- chased and forwarded at your earliest convenience. I wrote on board the Whiton for one set of Fuller's works. We need Psalmists and you may send me one dozen, unless you find some friends who will donate them. If second-handed, they would be very gratefully received. I requested you to make an effort to have the A. B. Publication Soc. donate some books for ministers' libraries and Sunday schools and for- ward them to me. I also ordered at that time one bolt of dark calico, ten pounds saleratus put up in an earthen or glass jar, one hat for me (the thread enclosed in this is the circumference of my head), one tin reflector for baking bread, 15 yards of red woolen flannel and 20 yards canton flannel. Please send us one cheap bureau, one good com- mon tea set, one set of plain knives and forks, one set of small dining plates, one common sized deep platter, six half- pint tumblers (a good article), three or four patent wooden pails, one ten-gallon brass kettle, bailed, one box of bar soap, ginger, spice, cinnamon and cloves, two pound each, two Ibs. of best quality African capsicum, two Ibs. black pepper, two bolts of coarse cotton sheeting, three bolts of good, firm, dark calico, one bolt of plaid linsey, 20 or 25 yds. of yellow flannel, 12 yards of red flannel, one pilot cloth over- coat large enough for you, to set easy, suited to a new coun- try and a rainy winter, 15 yards of heavy cadet cloth or dark colored satinet and six yards of black satinet, a good, fine article, four yards of black kerseymere, six pairs of colored woolen half hose, domestic, two pounds of woolen stocking yarn, two pair of women's black worsted hose, two pair of white cotton hose, women's; one cheap fur cap for a boy 15 years old, two lapped leghorn bonnets, trimmed, five yards of Irish linen, three linen handkerchiefs, two silk pocket hand- kerchiefs, two black silk handkerchiefs, two brown linen table cloths, 10 yards of brown toweling, one glass lamp, 13 yards of black silk lustre alpaca, 15 yards of black cambric, and cotton wadding enough to stuff one cloak, five yards of ​

158 REVEREND EZRA FISHER

brown Holland, two pounds of candlewicking, six cakes of shaving soap, one pair heavy calfskin men's shoes, No. 9, two pair of women's shoes, calf skin, No. 4^, two pair of moroc- co shoes, No. 4, two pair of boys' shoes, heavy kip, Nos. 5 and 6, two pair of girls' shoes, calf skin, Nos. 1 and 2, two pair children's calf skin, Nos. 10 and 11. Our climate is wet and we need thick, firm leather. Also send one school geog- raphy.

March 31st. In the purchase of these articles, you will please have regard to our income and the climate in which we live.

Our late news from the Indian war is of a favorable char- acter and we hope the war will terminate in a few months at longest. Yet a few unfavorable occurrences may involve us in a general Indian warfare. Present prospects for an abundant wheat harvest are very flattering. I must close this, as the last opportunity to send it to the return party will be in a day or two and I have to answer several private letters.

Yours with esteem,

EZRA FISHER, Missionary in Clatsop Plains, Oregon.

Received August 14, 1848.

Clatsop Plains, Clatsop County, Oregon Ter.

Sept. the 20th, 1848. Rev. Benjamin M. Hill,

Cor. Sec. A. B. H. M. Soc. Very Dear Br. :

All the letters which you sent me on board the ship Ma- tilda were probably received on board the brig Mary Dane, 149 together with thirteen boxes of goods and books shipped on board the same ship. I suppose the other box was shipped

149 "Mary Dare," not "Mary Dane." She belonged to the Hudson Bay Com- pany and arrived from the Hawaiian Islands, where she had probably received these goods from the "Matilda," the latter part of August, 1848. Bancroft, Hist. of Ore. II: 43 . ​

CORRESPONDENCE 159

directly to Br. Johnson, as I find it was designed for him. I shall forward this by the Brig Henry to the Pacific squad- ron now on the coast of California, hoping it will reach you; yet I am in so much doubt that I shall not venture to for- ward my report from March 8th up to this date, which is now partially made out. We are expecting a government steamer in the mouth of the Columbia in a few weeks, by which I will forward you my report, together with an an- swer to all your inquiries. I will then write to all the socie- ties and individuals who have so kindly sympathized with us in these ends of the earth. The goods and books will afford us great relief and the donors will be held in grateful, lasting remembrance. May God reward them.

We organized an association on the 23rd and 24th of June last in Tualatin Plains by the name of the Willamette Bap- tist Association, consisting of five churches. I spent the last of June and the month of July in the Willamette Valley. Had the subject of an institution of learning under considera- tion with a few of the most judicious brethren. It strikes me that the central part of the Willamette Valley, near the head of what will be steam navigation, will be the place best adapted to meet the wants of the present population of Ore- gon, and will always be the center of heavy population. But we find no man who will secure a tract of land sufficient- ly large to meet all the wants of a literary instiution unless I go and buy or take a claim and donate the half of it to the denomination and enter upon the work of commencing and sustaining a school in connection with preaching. But in that event I must measurably abandon this point, which we feel is of vast importance prospectively. Probably $100 or $200 would purchase such a claim of 640 acres as would be desirable. But our laws in Oregon require actual residence within one year after recording such claim. I have been in great anxiety on this subject. One year more may probably put such an opportunity beyond our reach without a very considerable sum of money. Neither myself nor family have ​

160 REVEREND EZRA FISHER

any inclination to change our place, unless we see a strong probability of advancing the general interests of religion by it. I can secure a tolerably eligible situation in the vicinity of the mouth of the Columbia River, but at present it is re- mote from the great portion of the population, yet eventually I think it will become a commanding central point. But it will be difficult to induce our brethren to take this view on the subject. While this subject has been engrossing my anx- ious care, our whole community has been perfectly convulsed with the rumor of much gold in the valleys and hills of Cali- fornia. 150 The report has been often repeated and enlarged upon till more than half of the men of our Territory are either digging gold or on the way in quest of the treasure. The region in which it is found is variously represented as being from 120 to 200 miles in length and about 70 in breadth, and it is said that no limits have yet been found. Pure gold is found everywhere where the diggers break the earth and the amount a man procures per day varies from $10 worth to $240. The gold bears the appearance of having been fused and congealed in irregular forms and various sized pieces, from very small pieces (in form resembling wheat bran) to those of more than four pounds' weight. Sil- ver, quicksilver, platina, and even diamonds, are reported to have been found in this gold region; also iron ore, con- taining from 80 to 90 per cent of iron. I never saw so ex- cited a community. Gold is the rage, and it is to be feared that the farming interests in Oregon will suffer immensely; and all our manufacturing, commercial, social, civil, moral and religious interests must suffer for years. Indeed I think a greater calamity to our colony could hardly have been sent. California will fill up as by magic with a heterogeneous mass from every nation and tribe. Our congregations are fast

150 The news of the discovery of gold in California first reached Oregon early in August, 1848. Bancroft Hist, of Ore. 1:42,43. The account of the emi- gration of able-bodied men from Oregon to California is corroborated by contem- poraries. Ibid. 43. (James W. Marshall, an Oregon pioneer of 1844, who spent more than a year in Oregon prior to going to California, is credited with the dis- covery of gold there Jan. 24, 1848. News of the discovery of gold reached Yamhill county early in July, 1848, and William G. Buffum and wife left Amity, in that unty, early in August for the mines. Geo. H. Himes, Sec. Or. Pioneer Assn.) ​

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waning. But we suppose we shall receive accessions from the States to fill up in part the places vacated. Provisions on the Pacific coast must be scarce in less than eighteen months. Numbers of our brethren have gone to spend the winter at the gold mines and others will go in the spring, probably to make a home. You will see by this that no time should be lost by your Board in securing the labors of two or three efficient ministers for California. We feel that we, more than ever before, need grace to direct in these times of trial. God no doubt has a providnce in this. May we so im- prove under these trials that they shall eventuate in the promotion of the great interests of Zion, both here and in the ends of the world. Tomorrow morning I leave for the Wil- lamette Valley. Our brethren in Tualatin Plains have a protracted meeting appointed and I am strongly solicited to attend. But I must go with a heavy heart. Perhaps half the brethren there have gone for gold. I fear we shall labor in vain. Gold at this time is the people's god and how shall we be able to present the glories of the Redeemer's character in so attractive a light as to win the affections of those en- chanted with the immediate prospects of wealth? But God reigns and the hearts of all men are in His hands and He can use the feeblest instrumentality to show forth His praise. But I should not have chosen this time for special labor.

I remain your unworthy brother,

EZRA FISHER. Received June 11, 1849.

Clatsop Plains, Oregon Ter., Sept. 19, 1848. Rev. Benj. M. Hill,

Cor. Sec. A. B. H. M. Soc. Very dear Br. :

Your three letters under date of July 15, 1847, July 17, 1847, and October 15th, 1847, together with one bearing date Feb. 16th, 1847, with an envelope subscribed Sept. 25th, 1847, ​

162 REVEREND EZRA FISHER

were received on the 5th inst. by the Hudson Bay Company's brig Mary Dare, together with 13 boxes marked with a dia- mond and numbered 1 to 10 and A, B and D. I think the box marked "C" was shipped direct to Br. Johnson from Honolulu. Your letters cheered our spirits and the goods and books were most welcome messengers.

Beside the above named letters, I have received from you since I left Rock Island, April 12th, 1845, the following let- ters; one bearing dates Jan. 19th, and 24th, 1846, one com- mission No. 1081, April 1st, 1846, one letter Oct. 26th, 1846, and one 31st and November 13th, 1846, and one commission, No. 1170, April 1st, 1847.

I wrote you about the 15th of July, 1847, by the ship Bru- tus, to the care of Elder Gary, who assured me he would de- liver the letters in person; I next wrote you about the 1st of November, 1847, by the bark Whiton, Capt. Gelston, in both which I think I gave you a brief report of labors. I wrote again on the 8th of March, 1848, and reported labor from Nov. 1, 1847, to March 8th, 1848. These three sheets were forwarded by last spring's return party overland. I then reported nineteen weeks, preached twenty sermons, at- tended our prayer meetings, two religious conferences, pre- paratory to the constitution of a church, visited 40 families and individuals, two common schools, traveled 147 miles, one young married brother a licensed preacher in my field ; monthly concert of prayer is observed; $14 paid for my sal- ary; two Sabbath schools, 42 scholars, 10 teachers, one school, 100 volumes in the library ; the other 20 vols. I have one Bible class of eight members. We were then about to be constituted in a few days in Clatsop Plains. Had been en- gaged in building a hewed log school house 18 feet by 24 for "the purpose of school and public worship on the Sab. I had spent two weeks in that work.

I will now proceed to report from March 8th, 1848, to Sept. 19th, 1848. My field comprises Clatsop Plains and Astoria. I statedly supply two stations in these plains. My place of ​

CORRESPONDENCE 163

residence is Clatsop Plains, the community of Astoria as yet being too small to justify my fixing my location there. My post office is Astoria.

I have labored 28 weeks since my last report, preached 37 sermons, delivered two temperance lectures, attended 24 prayer meetings, visited religiously 96 families and individu- als, visited five common schools, obtained 22 signatures to the temperance pledge, baptized none, assisted in the con- stitution of the Clatsop church, no ordination, traveled, to and from my appointments 611 miles, seven persons were re- ceived by letter into the constitution of the church and one to the Santiam church. By experience none.

We know of no conversions since about the time of our last report. About that time three were hopefully converted. No young men preparing for the ministry. Monthly concert of prayer is observed at one of my stations. My people have paid during this period nothing for home missions, domestic missions, foreign missions, Bible or any other benevolent societies ; for my salary $12. Have so far advanced in our school house that we have a comfortable place for worship. Connected with my stations are two Sunday schools, ten teachers and 40 scholars, 125 volumes in each library. Bible class part of the time in the school ; six scholars. I wrote in my last informing you of an interesting state of religious feeling with several of our citizens. I sanguinely hoped dur- ing the months of March, April and May that we should have the satisfaction of administering the ordinance of bap- tism to three or four men, but soon the Cayuse war called off one young man, and in a few weeks two others who gave evidence of change being wrought in them removed to the Willamette Valley and the favorable omens passed off with- out any in-gatherings to the church. Our congregations, however, have generally been good for the amount of popu- lation. Our Sunday schools have been very uniform and our children appear unusually interested. ​

164 REVEREND EZRA FISHER

Feb. 2nd, 1849. 151 Dear Brother Hill : The want of direct conveyance to New York has occasioned this long delay and I will now make up my report from Sept. 19, 1848, up to this time, making 19 weeks.

Preached 24 sermons, delivered no lectures on moral and benevolent subjects, attended 18 prayer meetings, four cove- nant meetings, one temperance meeting, visited 49 families and individuals, three common schools; baptized none; ob- tained two signatures to the temperance pledge; organized no church, no ordination, traveled 412 miles to and from my appointments; received no persons by letter, none by experi- ence; no person preparing for the ministry. Monthly con- cert of prayer is observed at one station. My people have paid nothing for missionary or other benevolent societies. Paid $45 for my salary. We have one Sunday school, six teachers, 24 scholars, 125 volumes in the library. No Bible class. I attend our Sunday school and usually explain the lessons ; distribute tracts and pamphlets among the children. We have entirely separated from the Presbyterians in our S. S. and congregation, or rather they have separated from us. Our congregations have diminished during the winter from the fact that numbers of our citizens are in the mines in California. Yet the people at home are quite as attentive to the preaching of the Word as usual. Part of our church will soon move to California and all the rest will spend next summer at least in the mines, except my family, and this is somewhat a specimen of the gold excitement throughout Oregon. But a small portion of the men will remain at home during the summer, except as they return to harvest their crops in July, Aug. and Sept. Many families will prob- ably leave for California, among which will be found more than a fair proportion of business men. Immediately on the confirmation of the report of much gold in California our

151 The letter of Sept. 10, 1848, was inclosed with this of Feb. 2, 1849, and with those of Sept, 2oth and Oct. iQth, 1848, was not received until past the middle of June, 1849. ​

CORRESPONDENCE 165

Methodist brethren sent one preacher 158 overland to the mines, and I understand that he is now preaching part of the time in San Francisco.

Yours, EZRA FISHER, Received June 19, 1849. Missionary in Oregon.

Clatsop Plains on the Pacific Shore, near Astoria,

October 19, 1848. Beloved Br. Hill :

On opening the most valuable box, No. 9, shipped from New York to me on board the ship Matilda, Oct. 15th, 1847, I found an inventory without either name or place attached to it, but we infer that the letter was directed to you and not to either of us from the sentence appended to the invoice in the following words : "The difference of $2.34 between the invoice and the letter to Brother Hill is owing to articles having been brought in after the letter was sent." The box contained the only shawl, boys' cloth cap, and a piece of bed- ticking that was sent us. The box was valued at $66.34. We regret that we have neither name nor place attached to the invoice, because it would afford us great pleasure to have addressed a line of grateful acknowledgement to the donors. The box was thankfully received and contained a number of articles of woolen clothing which are especially valuable in our climate, so cool in summer and so wet in winter. Any second-hand woolen clothes, when but partially worn, are always very useful where sheep are scarce and looms none. We have not more than two or three looms in all our Terri- tory. Thanks to Br. and Dr. Allen for the Mothers' Journal, the forwarding of the paragraph Bible and Testament and

152 Who was sent to California, th editors have not been able to find; Rev. William Roberts and Rev. J. H. Wilbur stopped there several weeks in 1847, on their way from New York to Oregon, and organized a church in San Francisco the first Methodist church on the Pacific Coast south of Oregon. In 1849, Rv. William Taylor and Rev. Isaac Owen were the regular appointees of the Con- ference in California. H. K. Hines, Missionary History of the Pacific Northwest, p. 371, 386. (Rev. C. O. Hosford, a pioneer of 1845, who was licensed to preach in Oregon by the authorities of the Methodist Church, Rev. William Roberts, Superintendent, in the fall of 1847, was sent to California early in 1848. Hos- ford organized the first class-meeting in a short time, and that became the nucleus of the first Methodist church in California. Geo. H. Himes, Asst. Sec. Or. Hist. Society. ​

166 REVEREND EZRA FISHER

other favors. I shall answer this letter before long. We re- ceived a bundle of 100 volumes of new Sunday school books from the Juvenile Soc. of the Sunday school in the Stanton Street Baptist Church. I shall answer Br. Cowan's letter as soon as time will permit. We received a package of new- Sunday school books, containing 300 volumes, and we regret to say we found no name nor bill attached to them, as we should be pleased to respond to the donors direct. We know they were obtained through your influence in the City. We regard them a valuable acquisition, especially as we have been obliged to sustain our school in this place with so few volumes of the A. Tract Soc.'s publications and other books less adapted to the capacities of children. We have been waiting and praying a whole year for just such an auxiliary. May the blessings of these ends of the earth come on the donors in the great day of the Lord! The periodicals, espe- cially of 1846 and 1847, were most gratefully received and we are still feasting richly upon their contents, whenever we have an hour of leisure, and we feast not alone. All our neighbors, and especially our Christian friends, find much to entertain them. The annual reports are all valuable, and we only regret that we have no more, as we have frequent occasions to meet prejudices surly through these matters of fact. You speak of procuring and forwarding a box of school books. Next to sustaining the gospel, you will render us the most essential service in a work of this kind. It is very much to be desired that the present system of popular school books in the States be introduced into all our schools in Oregon. And while so much effort is being made in the old states in behalf of pouplar education in the Mississippi valley, I trust a voice will be lifted up in behalf of the Pacific borders. Would to God that we had a Slade 152 " 8 to plead our cause on this subject in our Atlantic cities and towns. The importance of this subject is daily increasing our responsibilities and the rage of the gold mania is diminishing public sympathy for

152-3 Gov. William L. Slade, of Vermont, President of the National Board of Popular Education. Geo. H. Himes, Asst. Sec. O. H. S. ​

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the general diffusion of knowledge. At present our old states must assume a part of this responsibility, or it is to be feared that Oregon and California will prove a curse to the Union. We want your books and, as far as practicable, the very same kind and date as those which are so richly blessing your whole Atlantic slope. But with books, we equally need teachers of moral worth and, if possible, of vital piety. Would to God we could make our feelings understood in the eastern and middle states, and we are sure we should see every ship from your ports to our coast crowded with men, and women too, who would become co-workers with us in this and every noble, philanthropic work. Could you but visit us and see and feel for yourself all we see and feel daily of our peculiar relations and temptations, you would strike a note that would not only call out a few boxes of goods to clothe the families of the missionaries already in the field, but would search out from their quiet, comfortable homes many a useful brother to share with us the toils and privations and, I will add too, the honors under God of trans- ferring to these western shores the blessings of general edu- cation and spiritual, practical religion. We are in perishing need of help. We need just such men as give efficiency to the churches at home. Then under God we can move for- ward in the cause of education and Christianity. But we will not despond ; we have counted the cost ; God is our helper and He has the hearts of His people in His hands. But I must close.

As ever yours,

EZRA FISHER.

On Margin. Help must be sent to California without de- lay if possible. I should certainly have spent part of this winter at San Francisco, Monterey, and perhaps have visited the mines, if I could have raised the funds to have paid my passage without digging at the mines.

Received June 18, 1849. ​

168 REVEREND EZRA FISHER

Clatsop Plains, Oregon Ter., Feb. 3d, 1849.

Rev. Benj. M. Hill. Dear Brother:

I closed my last yesterday on the subject of California and will continue to remark. I understand by Capt. of the Undine that Mr. Hunt, a Presbyterian minister, is preaching at San Francisco. 153 Besides these two, I think there is not a Protestant preacher in Upper California. In view of the extraordinary evolution of things in Oregon and the vast in- flux of population in California and the fact that a large por- tion of our Baptist brethren of Oregon will be at the mines throughout most of the summer, and in view of the strong solicitude of our members in Clatsop about to move to Cali- fornia that I should visit that territory at least next summer, and the advice of all the members of the church, and in view of the loss of the goods shipped on board the bark Undine the 21st of June, 1848, I have thought it might be my duty to visit the mines the coming spring and dig long enough to raise means to pay my passage and meet the present press- ing wants of my family, spend a few weeks in the American settlements and towns and return home perhaps in July or August. I do not know but this course may be regarded by your Board as outstepping the bounds of your instructions, but I feel a strong conviction that great and sudden and un- expected changes justify extraordinary action. I do not know that I have the first desire to dig in the mines one day and, if I could leave my family comfortable and go by water to San Francisco and other towns on the Bay and the mines, with no other care than that for God's glory on the Pacific Coast, my care would be greatly relieved. But I have not the means, and I cannot leave that interest without being able to make known the wants of that rapidly accumulating mass to your Board. I will keep an account of the amount of time lost in traveling and digging, if any, and report to

153 This was Thomas Dwight Hunt, of Honolulu, a Congregationalist. Ban- croft, Hist, of Calif. VII 1727. Several clergymen came in February, 1840. Ibid. ​

CORRESPONDENCE 169

your Board, or, should your Board disapprove of the enter- prise and think the cause of Christ better served by discon- tinuing my appointment the present year, I shall acquiesce, with the privilege of continuing a correspondence with you. I trust, however, that your Board will acquiesce in my views. I am quite sure, if you were here and knew all I know of the state of things in California, you would take the most prompt measures to acquaint yourselves with the wants of that territory and meet them. Oregon must be measurably stationary for a time, 154 while California will swarm with people and overflow with wealth, gambling and dissipation, and, unless our churches act with promptness and devotion and liberality, these inexhaustible treasures are given over into the hands of the Prince of Devils, California will be morally lost and will prove a capital scourge to our nation. It is only relatively that Oregon sinks in importance. No doubt she will become three-fold as valuable to the nation as she would have been, if gold had not been found in Cali- fornia. 155 Although all is in confusion in Oregon and our citizens and members are now going and coming so that it is difficult effecting anything permanent here just at this time, yet be assured that we need more laborers even here, that the efforts already made may be followed up, and under God we may expect a rich return. This, like all other ex- citements, will sooner or later settle and people and wealth Will flow back to Oregon with astonishing rapidity. We now need at least two efficient young men in Oregon who can be well sustained by your Board, and I know that an able young man now placed in San Francisco and liberally supported, another at Sacramento City (Sutter's Fort), another in the American settlements and a fourth at the mines would find

154 This was approximately true.

The immigration to Oregon in 1849 was about 400; in 1850, about 2000; in 1851, about 1500; in 1852, about 2500; while the increase in California during these years was about ten or twenty times this number. F. G. Young, The Oregon Trail, in Oregon Hist. Soc. Quar. 1:370. This estimate probably includes only those who came overland by the Oregon Trail.

155 The influx of gold-seekers to California gave Oregon a market for its lumber and farm products. Returning miners brought gold dust with them, and the author's prophecy of Oregon's share in the prosperity of California was ful- filled. Bancroft, Hist, of Ore. 11:48-59. ​

170 REVEREND EZRA FISHER

profitable work in promoting the interests of Zion under the Captain of our salvation. I wish you to remember that the formation of our civil and religious character is at hand and vice in all its forms must reign, unless Zion's sons are awake. Just think of the advantageous position of San Francisco in relation to the whole Pacific trade. Where is there another such point to be occupied in all North America? Now hold the map before you. Think of the mountains of gold behind her, the influx of population from Upper and Lower Cali- fornia bordering the coast, the Pacific islands, and even China, swarming hither for gold, and then let me ask our dear brethren, Are we prepared to leave this point unoccu- pied for the want of a few hundred dollars? This picture is no fiction. Already the principal men of the Sandwich Is- lands are said to be in the mines digging gold, and I am in- formed that there are some from China, too. And how long will it be before almost every nation in Europe will be repre- sented there? All who go to the mines and return say the gold is inexhaustible and yields from one ounce of pure gold to six or eight pounds per day to a single laborer. What a point then is San Francisco for the men of God to take with Bibles and devotional books and tracts, sending them as upon the wings of the wind! Will your Board censure me then for pursuing the plan laid down in this sheet the coming summer, in the midst of this unsettled state of things in Oregon ?

I received yours of Jan. 22, 1848, giving the sum total of three boxes of goods shipped on board the Bark Undine, Thos. S. Baker, Master, on the 21st of January, 1848. The three boxes with cartage and insurance amounted to $122.74. The Undine is now in the Columbia. I understand that she suffered a partial wreck in passing Cape Horn and her goods were part thrown overboard and part sold as damaged goods somewhere on the Pacific coast south of this. Thus you see, dear brother, that God has been pleased, graciously no doubt, to deprive me and family of our dependence in clothing for ​

I

CORRESPONDENCE 171

the ensuing year, and it must probably be ten months before you will be able to recover the insurance and place the goods within my reach. The letters enclosed in the boxes with the periodicals are of course lost. I shall be obliged to write an- other sheet and enclose in this. I therefore close this by subscribing myself your unworthy brother,

EZRA FISHER.

N. B. Want of time prevents my writing more by this opportunity to California to meet the first mail steamer. But I will give you extracts from my Journal soon, some brief geographical notices, etc.

Yours, E. F.

Received June 19, 1849.

Clatsop Plains, Feb. 5th, 1849. Rev. Benj. M. Hill. Dear Brother:

That there may be no mistake in relation to the boxes shipped on board the bark Undine on the 21st day of Jan., 1848, I will give you the copy of the inventory as forwarded by you.

It appears that Thos. S. Baker sailed as Master and that Capt. James Bishop & Co. were proprietors. The Undine has changed owners and masters. It is to be hoped you have learned of the disaster and secured the insurance and for- warded me the same articles in kind before this time. But if not, I trust on the receipt of this you will secure the in- surance and forward the same articles in kind and quality, excepting the children's shoes. You will please get them all one size larger at least, as they are growing fast. I wrote on board the bark Whiton in the fall of 1847 ordering the fol- lowing: One set of Fuller's works, one dozen of the Psalm- ist, one bolt of dark calico, ten Ibs. of saleratus, one hat, one tin reflector for baking bread, fifteen yds. of red flannel and twenty yds. of canton flannel. ​

172 REVEREND EZRA FISHER

On the 8th of March, 1848, accompanying a report of nine- teen weeks, I ordered the following articles: (This was sent overland and I fear has not reached you. If you have not forwarded it, please omit the bureau and in the place send me a good cooking stove and pipe, as we are not able to have both at present.) . . .

Please send me the following articles, if I have the amount due me. Bill ordered Feb. 5, 1849: Six large tin pans, one set candle moulds, 2 tin pails with lids, six and eight quarts, 10 pint tin cups, 2 quart do., 2 tin coffee pots, one-half box of glass, eight by ten, 1 keg of nails, 8's, 6's and 4's, equal parts, 15 Ibs. nails, 10 penny, 1 nail hatchet with handle, 1 ax, 1 spade, with steel blade, 1 hoe, 1 small, plain looking glass, 1 set of dining plates, 1 set butter do., 1 pitcher, 2 quarts, 1 bolt cotton sheeting, heavy, 2 bolts dark, firm calico, 16 yds. black alpaca, or something suitable for ladies' dresses and cloaks, 12 yds. black cambric, 12 sheet wadding, 14 yds. good bed ticking, half Ib. good black sewing silk, 1 good cooking stove and furniture with 7 or 8 joints of pipe, 6 ivory fine combs, 6 doz. spools white cotton thread, 1 ream good cap writing paper, 1 box vegetable shaving soap, I pen- knife, 1 pocket do., 1 traveler's inkstand and 6 common cheap ones, 156 1 pair heavy calfskin boots, No. 10, 1 do. shoes, No. 9.

N. B. Samuel N. Castle, agent A. B. C. F. M. for Sand- wich Islands Mission, forwarded the 13 boxes shipped by you on the Matilda, charging $20.73 to me and to Br. Johnson $1.22, stating that he should draw on you for the same. Br. Johnson requests that you should take his proportion of this freight from the Islands to Astoria from your account charged to me and charge the same to him, which will prob- ably be about ten dollars. I have not the separate bills of freight as charged to him and me from N. Y. to the Sand- wich Islands. You have on your books and will confer a favor on me by apportioning the amount, $21.95, between us.

156 These cheap inkstands were probably for school ue. ​

CORRESPONDENCE 173

Cut the lower part of this half sheet and you have my entire bill.

P. S. Send no more goods by the Sandwich Islands. Bill continued from the other page: 1 bolt Kentucky jean, 1 pair thick, men's shoes, No. 6, 2 pairs stout, ladies 5 morocco shoes, Nos. 4 and 4^2, 1 pair misses' shoes, calf skin, No. 2^2, 1 do No. 1.

Yours respectfully,

EZRA FISHER.

Clatsop Plains, Oregon Ter., Feb. 8th, 1849. Rev. Benj. M. Hill. Dear Brother:

Yours under date of October 15th, 1847, presented some of your views of the importance of making an early attempt to lay the foundation for a denominational school which should eventually mature into a college and theological seminary. I was greatly cheered to learn that some of our Eastern breth- ren were beginning to think on that subject. This is a cause which is far from being among the least of my cares. And, first, from selfish motives I am called upon to be awake to this work. My rising family and that of a respectable num- ber of our brethren imperiously demand that something be done, and that soon, or our children must be distressingly neglected. And, secondly, such is the character of a large portion of our Oregon Baptists that, as a denomination, we cannot be efficient and secure a great amount of public con- fidence till we can find some benevolent enterprise at home in which we can enlist their sympathies. This will be likely to be a work around which all will rally from personal in- terest more readily than any other benevolent enterprise now before the Christian public. Through this medium I would hope to call into our Territory more liberal-minded men from the older states. It is true that we have a respectable number of Baptists who appreciate the importance of an edu​

174 REVEREND EZRA FISHER

cated ministry and who pray for the universal spread of the gospel by the direct effort of the church, yet the larger por- tion of our brethren have never seen it so done in Israel.

Thirdly, we owe it to our rising territory to perform our part in the formation of our national character. I spent four or five weeks last summer in traveling through the Willam- ette Valley 157 preaching and privately laying this subject before our brethren, and I rejoiced much to find so many who responded cheerfully to the views that I presented. I then thought some central point in that valley on the banks of the Willamette, or near it, in view of the circumstances, would be the most desirable position. Afterward, when we heard a report of much gold in the vicinity of the Columbia River, 158 both Br. Johnson and myself thought we might as well make an effort on these Plains (Clatsop). We, how- ever, learned that the parties who went to Powder River to explore for gold brought home nothing but mica, or pyrates of iron, and the whole tide of immigration and commerce turned towards California. I, therefore, was compelled to yield to the popular opinion everywhere rife that Oregon must unavoidably be thrown back at least two or three years. Our lovely little church in Clatsop Plains will every one but my own family go to California, and all think it is my duty to go this summer, and some are very solicitous that I move my family there. In view of all these circumstances, nothing more can be done the present season than to fix on a loca- tion, and that is somewhat hazardous. Yet with the present development of the country, both here and in California, I think, if anything is done this season, I shall be strongly in- clined to favor the commencement of this work somewhere near the point on the Willamette where steam navigation will terminate, say about 70 or 80 miles above Oregon City. I am strengthened in these views from the facts that the Wil- lamette Valley is the largest body of rich farming land in Oregon, and the scenery remarkably picturesque; that the

157 There was as yet no uniformity in the spelling of this name. See note 71.

158 These discoveries were not largely utilized until the sixties. G. H. Himes. ​

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large bodies of farming land on the Umpqua, the Clamet 159 and Rogue rivers will be the next settled after the Willam- ette, and that there must be a great thoroughfare opened from the falls of the Willamette River to the gold mines on the Sacramento River in California before many years. Wagons already travel it with convenience.

You ask how a site may be secured? I know of but one way at present, and that is to find one, two or more brethren interested in the enterprise to take or purchase claims cov- ering the site wanted and then pledge themselves either to donate or sell the necessary amount of land to a board in trust for the denomination.

My feelings last summer were so much enlisted on this subject that I became half-inclined to make a claim in refer- ence to this specific object, change the field of my labor and pledge half of said claim to the demonination. I, however, thought of the time and money expended by your Board to sustain me at the mouth of the river and of the little feeble church here, and, by the advice of Br. Johnson and the absence of all counsel from your Board, I concluded to let matters rest for the present.

Now this complete confusion into which the entire com- munity, both in Oregon and in California, are thrown by means of much gold being found in the latter territory will probably compel me to take my family to the Willamette Valley and work toward this object, in connection with that greatest of all works, the preaching of the gospel, or comply with the wishes of some of the best members of this church and remove to the vicinity of San Francisco Bay; or it is possible, but hardly probable, some good brethren may move to this place. I leave this matter with the great Head of the Church and trust His providence may mark out plainly the path of duty. I need much the advice of your Board on this subject, and trust I shall have it in three or four months. From the present movement of things I think a

159 Ktamath. See note too. ​

176 REVEREND EZRA FISHER

large portion of the enterprise and business talent of Oregon will be thrown upon the Sacramento River and San Fran- cisco Bay. What proportion of our Oregon brethren and their families, I cannot now tell. But of one thing I am con- fident, ministerial help and educational help must be sent to Oregon and California from the States or little will be done. My lungs are beginning to fail me ; Br. Johnson has a numer- ous family and cannot do everything; the means necessary to sustain a family in Oregon the present year will be nearly twice as much as it was last year, and it is exceedingly doubt- ful whether the liberality of the people on the Pacific will keep pace with the increase of their wealth unless they have the gospel sanctified to them. Sin and iniquity are making fearful strides in California since the commencement of gold digging, if all reports are true. How exceedingly desirable that these unparalleled treasures be consecrated to the ser- vice of the Lord in the universal spread of the gospel. As ever I subscribe myself your unworthy brother,

EZRA FISHER. Received July 3, 1849.

ERRATUM.

On page 5, line 15, in the paper entitled "The Indian of the Northwest as Revealed by the Earliest Journals," published in the March number of this Quarterly, the word "graduations" should be "gratulations."