The Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society Part 18

It will be impossible for me to do more than mention a few of the more prominent incidents, and I can not be very accurate in regard to dates and other matters pertaining to that period, as my information has been gathered from many sources, some of which are not very authentic.

It may be of interest to know that on December 27, 1850, Congress pa.s.sed what is known as the donation land law, which gave to every American citizen over the age of eighteen years, if single, one half section of land; if married, one section of land, one half of which was the absolute property of the wife, the other half of the husband.

There were no settlers in the Rogue River Valley prior to New Year's day, 1851. In the spring of 1851 a man by the name of Evans constructed a ferry across Rogue River, just below the town of Woodville. During the same spring a man by the name of Perkins also established a ferry on that river. The first donation land claim was located by Judge A. A. Skinner, an Indian agent, in June, 1851. This claim is the Walker farm, near Central Point. Upon it he built the first settler's house ever built in the valley. Chesley Gray, his interpreter, also located a donation land claim in June, 1851. It is what is known as the "Constant Farm," near Central Point. The following named persons filed donation land claims prior to February, 1852: Moses Hopwood, on Christmas day, 1851; N. C. Dean, at Willow Springs, December, 1851; Stone and Poyntz, at Wagner Creek, December, 1851; L. J. C. Duncan, Major Barron, Thomas Smith, Pat Dunn, E. K.

Anderson, and Samuel Culver had made their locations prior to February, 1852. I do not pretend that these were all, but the entire number of claims taken up to that time did not exceed twenty-eight.

In December, 1851, James Clugage and J. R. Poole located the first mining claim in southern Oregon, at a point near the old brewery in Jacksonville. They had been informed by a couple of young men who were pa.s.sing through the country that they had found gold near that place.

Immediately after this discovery became known in California and by the incoming immigrants to Oregon, there was a rush made to the mines of Jacksonville. Old man s.h.i.+veley, the discoverer of s.h.i.+veley Gulch, above Jacksonville, inside of eighteen months had taken out over $50,000, and since that time, from the best statistics obtainable, the mines of southern Oregon have yielded about $35,000,000 in gold.

During the winter of 1852 flour was sold at $1 per pound, tobacco at $1 an ounce, and salt was priceless. Jacksonville was laid out as a town in the summer of 1852 by Henry Klippel and John R. Poole.

I will now speak of the Indian wars in which the people of southern Oregon were engaged. The first recorded fight between the Indians and whites in any portion of southern Oregon occurred in 1828, when Jedediah S. Smith and seven other trappers were attacked by the Indians on the Umpqua River, and fifteen of the whites were slain, only Smith and three of his companions escaping. The next fight of which we have any account was in June, 1836, at a point just below the Rock Point bridge, where the barn on the W. L. Colvig estate stands.

In this fight there were Dan Miller, Edward Barnes, Doctor Bailey, George Gay, Saunders, Woodworth, Irish Tom, and J. Turners and squaw.

Two trappers were killed, and nearly all were wounded. Within my recollection, Doctor Bailey visited the scene of this fight, and pointed out to my father its location. In September, 1837, at the mouth of Foots Creek, in Jackson County, a party of men who had been sent to California by the Methodist mission to procure cattle, while on their return were attacked by the Rogue River Indians and had a short, severe fight, in which several of the whites were badly wounded and some twelve or fourteen of the Indians killed. In May, 1845, J. C.

Fremont had a fight with the Indians in the Klamath country; it may have been a little over the line in California. Four of Fremont's men were killed and quite a large number of the Indians. Kit Carson was a prominent figure in this battle.

As before stated, a few bold adventurers had located in Rogue River Valley as early as December, 1851. During the spring, summer, and fall of that year there was a considerable amount of travel through the valley, by parties from northern Oregon going to and returning from the great mining excitement of California. Fights between these travelers and the Indians were of frequent occurrence. On the fifteenth day of May, 1851, a pack train was attacked at a point on Bear Creek, where the town of Phoenix is now situated, and a man by the name of Dilley was killed. On June 3, 1851, a party of Oregonians, under the leaders.h.i.+p of Dr. James McBride, had a severe fight near Willow Springs with Chief "Chucklehead" and his band. Chucklehead and six other Indians were killed; several of the whites were severely wounded.

About this time Maj. Phil Kearny, afterwards General Kearny, who was killed at the battle of Chantilly in the Civil war, happened to be pa.s.sing through the valley on his way from Vancouver to Benicia, California, with a detachment of two companies of United States regulars. He remained a short time and a.s.sisted in punis.h.i.+ng the Indians for the numerous depredations committed by them during the year. He had several fights while in the valley, in which about fifty Indians were killed. One of these fights was on Rogue River, near the mouth of b.u.t.te Creek, where Captain Stuart, of the United States army, received an arrow wound from an Indian, who was also wounded. The arrow penetrated the captain's body, and he died the next day at the camp on Bear Creek, near Phoenix. The camp thenceforth took the name of Camp Stuart, and Bear Creek in all government records is called Stuart's Creek. The captain's body was buried at a spot where the wagon road crosses the mill race in the town of Phoenix. Some years ago his remains were taken up and sent to Was.h.i.+ngton, D. C., to be buried by the side of his mother. Captain Stuart's last words were, "Boys, it is awful to have pa.s.sed through all the battles of the Mexican war, and then be killed by an Indian in this wild country."

At the ma.s.sacre of emigrants at b.l.o.o.d.y Point, Klamath County, in 1852, thirty-six men, women, and children were murdered. Capt. Ben Wright and twenty-seven men from Yreka and Col. J. E. Ross and some Oregonians went out to punish these Modocs. Old Schonchin, who was afterwards hung at Fort Klamath in 1873, at the close of the Modoc war, was the leader. Wright gave them no quarter. He and his men, infuriated at the sight of the mangled bodies of the emigrants, killed men, women, and children without any discrimination--about forty in all; and it is said that they asked for a "peace talk," whereupon a roast ox was prepared. Wright poisoned it, gave it to the Indians, and then rode away. [This story is now generally discredited.--EDITOR.]

I can not give you the names of all who were killed in Rogue River Valley during the years 1851, 1852, and 1853. I will mention some that were killed in 1853. In August of that year Edward Edwards was killed near Medford; Thomas Wills and Rhodes Nolan, in the edge of the town of Jacksonville; Pat Dunn and Carter, both wounded in a fight on Neil Creek above Ashland. In a fight with the Indians on Bear Creek, in August, 1853, Hugh Smith was killed, and Howell, Morris, Hodgins, Whitmore, and Gibbs wounded, the last named three dying from their wounds soon after.

These murders, and many more that could be mentioned, brought on the Indian war of 1853. Southern Oregon raised six companies of volunteers, who served under the following named captains, viz, R. L.

Williams, J. K. Lamerick, John F. Miller, Elias A. Owens, and W. W.

Fowler. Capt. B. F. Alden, of the Fourth U. S. Infantry, with twenty regulars, came over from Fort Jones, California, and with him a large number of volunteers under Capt. James P. Goodall and Capt. Jacob Rhoades, two Indian fighters of experience. Captain Alden was given the command of all the forces. The first battle of the war was fought on the twelfth day of August, 1853, and was an exciting little fight between about twenty volunteers under Lieut. Burrell Griffin, of Miller's company, and a band of Indians under Chief John. The volunteers were ambushed at a point near the mouth of Williams creek, on the Applegate. The whites were defeated with a loss of two killed and Lieutenant Griffin severely wounded. There were five Indians killed and wounded in the battle. On August 10, 1853, John R. Harding and Wm. R. Rose, of Captain Lamerick's company, were killed near Willow Springs. On the sixteenth of August, 1853, Gen. Joseph Lane, afterwards United States senator from Oregon, and a candidate for vice president in 1860, came out from his home in Douglas County and brought fifty men with him, to take part in the war. General Lane was a man of large experience in Indian warfare and in all military matters. He had commanded an Indiana regiment in the Mexican war and enjoyed a well earned reputation for bravery. On the day that General Lane arrived what is known as the battle of Little Meadows was fought.

Lieutenant Ely and twenty-two men met the Indians near Evans Creek, in the timber, and a short, but deadly conflict took place. Seven whites were killed inside of an hour; Lieutenant Ely and three men wounded.

They left the battlefield in charge of the Indians--at least, in the popular phraseology of that day, "they got up and got out." On August 24, 1853, the battle of Evans Creek was fought. In this fight the Indians did not fare so well, twelve of them being killed and wounded. One volunteer named Pleasant Armstrong was killed and Captain Alden and Gen. Joe Lane were each wounded. During the summer of 1853 several men were shot by Indians in Josephine County. In the fall General Lane patched up a temporary peace, which lasted till 1855.

The war of 1855-56 was preceded by a great many murders and depredations by the Indians in different parts of southern Oregon. I will mention a few: ----. Dyar and ----. McKew, killed while on the road from Jacksonville to Josephine County on June 1, 1855. About the same time a man by name of ----. Philpot was killed on Deer Creek, Josephine County, and James Mills was wounded at the same time and place. Granville Keene was killed at a point on Bear Creek, above Ashland, and J. Q. Faber was wounded. Two men, ----. Fielding and ----. Cunningham, were killed in September, 1855, on the road over the Siskiyou mountains.

On account of these various depredations Maj. J. A. Lupton raised a temporary force of volunteers, composed of miners and others, from the vicinity of Jacksonville, about thirty-five in number, and proceeded to a point on the north side of Rogue River, opposite the mouth of Little b.u.t.te Creek. There he attacked a camp of Indians at a time when they were not expecting trouble. It is said that about thirty men, women, and children were killed by Lupton's men. The major himself received a mortal wound in the fight. This fight has been much criticised by the people of southern Oregon, a great many of them believing that it was unjustifiable and cowardly. Two days after this affair a series of ma.s.sacres took place in the spa.r.s.ely settled country in and about where Grants Pa.s.s is now situated. On the ninth day of October, 1855, the Indians, having divided up into small parties, simultaneously attacked the homes of the defenseless families located in that vicinity. I will name a few of those tragic events. On the farm now owned by James Tuffs, Mr. Jones was killed, and his wife, after receiving a mortal wound, made her escape. She was found by the volunteers on the next day and died a few days afterwards. Their house was burned down. Mrs. Wagner was murdered by the Indians on the same day. Her husband was away from home at the time, but returned on the following day to find his wife murdered and his home a pile of ashes. The Harris family consisted of Harris and wife and their two children, Mary Harris, aged twelve, and David Harris, aged ten, and T. A. Reed, a young man who lived with the family. Mr. Harris was shot down while standing near his door, and at a moment when he little suspected treachery from the Indians with whom he was talking. His wife and daughter pulled his body within the door, and seizing a double-barreled shotgun and an old-fas.h.i.+oned Kentucky rifle, commenced firing through the cracks of the log cabin. They kept this up till late in the night, and by heroic bravery kept the Indians from either gaining an entrance into the house or succeeding in their attempts to fire it. Just back of the cabin was a dense thicket of brush, and during a lull in the attack the two brave women escaped through the back door and fled through the woods. They were found the next day by volunteers from Jacksonville, our late friend, Henry Klippel, being one of the number. Mrs. Harris lived to a good old age in this county. Mary, who was wounded in the fight, afterwards became the wife of Mr. G. M. Love, and was the mother of George Love of Jacksonville and Mrs. John A. Hanley of Medford. David Harris, the boy, was not in the house when the attack was made, but was at work on the place. His fate has never been ascertained, as his body was never found. The Indians stated, after peace was made, that they killed him at the time they attacked the Harris house. Reed, the young man spoken of, was killed out near the house.

On October 31, 1855, the battle of Hungry Hill was fought near the present railway station of Leland. Capt. A. J. Smith of the United States army was at that battle, and a large number of citizens soldiery. The result of the battle was very undecisive. There were thirty-one whites killed and wounded, nine of them being killed outright. It is not known how many of the Indians were killed, but after the treaty was made they confessed to fifteen. The Indians were in heavy timber and were scarcely seen during the two days' battle.

In April, 1856, after peace had been concluded between the whites and Indians, the Ledford ma.s.sacre took place in Rancherie Prairie, near Mount Pitt, in this county, in which five white men were killed. This event was the last of the "irrepressible conflict." Soon afterward the Indians were removed to the Siletz reservation, where their descendants now live and enjoy the favors of the government which their fathers so strongly resisted.

The war in Rogue River Valley had now virtually ended. "Old Sam's"

band, with an escort of one hundred United States troops, was taken to the coast reservation at Siletz. Chiefs "John" and "Limpy," with a large number of the most active warriors, who had followed their fortunes during all these struggles, still held out and continued their depredations in the lower Rogue River country and in connection with the Indians of Curry County.

Gen. John E. Wool, commander of the department of the Pacific, in November, 1855, had stopped at Crescent City while on his way to the Yakima country. He received full information while here of the military operations in southern Oregon. Skipping many details, it is sufficient to state that he ordered Capt. A. J. Smith to move down the river from Fort Lane and form a junction with the United States troops under Captains Jones and E. O. C. Ord (afterward a major-general in United States army), who were prosecuting an active campaign in the region about Chetco, Pistol River, and the Illinois River Valley. Captain Smith left Fort Lane with eighty men--fifty dragoons and thirty infantry. I can only take the time to mention a few of the fights in that region during the spring of 1856. On March 8th Captain Abbott had a skirmish with the Chetco Indians at Pistol River. He lost several men. The Indians had his small force completely surrounded when Captain Ord and Captain Jones with one hundred and twelve regular troops came to his relief. They charged and drove the Indians away with heavy loss. On March 20, 1855, Lieutenant-Colonel Buchanan, a.s.sisted by Captains Jones and Ord, attacked an Indian village ten miles above the mouth of Rogue River. The Indians were driven away, leaving several dead and only one white man wounded in the fight. A few days later Captain Angne's [Augur?] company (United States troops) fought John and "Limpy's" band at the mouth of the Illinois River. The Indians fought desperately, leaving five dead on the battlefield. On March 27, 1855, the regulars again met the Indians on Lower Rogue River. After a brisk fight at close quarters the Indians fled, leaving ten dead and two of the soldiers were severely wounded. On April 1, 1855, Captain Creighton, with a company of citizens, attacked an Indian village near the mouth of the Coquille River, killing nine men, wounding eleven and taking forty squaws and children prisoners. About this time some volunteers attacked a party of Indians who were moving in canoes at the mouth of Rogue River. They killed eleven men and one squaw. Only one man and two squaws of the party escaped. On April 29, 1855, a party of sixty regulars escorting a pack train were attacked near Chetco. In this fight three soldiers were killed and wounded. The Indians lost six killed and several wounded.

The volunteer forces of the coast war were three companies known by the names of "Gold Beach Guards," the "Coquille Guards," and the "Port Orford Minute Men." I have not the time to enter into the details of the battle that was fought on the twenty-seventh of May, 1855, near Big Meadows, on Rogue River. Captain Smith was in command of his eighty regulars. Old "John" lead the Indians. The operations covered a period of two days, John using all the tactics of military science in handling his four hundred braves during the battle. Just as everything was ready, according to "John's" plans for an attack upon the regulars, Captain Angne's [Augur?] company was seen approaching. The Indians were then soon dispersed. Captain Smith lost twenty-nine men killed and wounded in this battle, and had it not been for the timely arrival of Angne's [Augur?] company, his men would all have been killed.

While these operations were being carried on by the United States troops, the volunteer forces were not idle. They were kept busy with "Limpy" and "George's" warriors, at points in Josephine County. On January 28, 1856, Major Latshaw moved down the river with two hundred and thirteen men. He had several skirmishes and lost four or five men in killed and wounded. On May 29th "Limpy" and "George" surrendered at Big Meadows to Lieutenant-Colonel Buchanan. On May 31st Governor Curry ordered the volunteer forces to disband--nearly all the Indians had surrendered. About one thousand three hundred of the various tribes that had carried on the war were gathered in camp at Port Orford.

About July 1, 1856, "John" and thirty-five tough looking warriors, the last to surrender, "threw down the hatchet." I have now gone over, in chronological order, the princ.i.p.al events connected with the Indian wars of southern Oregon. I am fully aware that the narrative is very defective, and that many events of importance have not even been mentioned. You who took part in these early struggles can easily fill in the gaps, and correct the errors that I may have unconsciously made.

There were some men who took part in the Indian wars of southern Oregon who afterward became prominent in the history of the Nation. I will name a few, viz, Gen. U. S. Grant, Gen. J. B. Hood (late of Confederate army), Gen. Phil Kearny, Gen. Wool, Gen. A. J. Smith, Gen.

Geo. Crooks, Gen. A. V. Kautz, Gen. Phil Sheridan, Gen. J. C. Fremont, Gen. Joe Lane (candidate for vice president of the United States in 1860), Gen. Joe Hooker (who built the military road in the Canyon Mountains in 1852), and Kit Carson.

We all rejoice that the general government has at last acknowledged the value of your services to civilization; and has made some provision of recompense for the privations which you suffered.

I see before me old gray headed mothers who will also share with you this recognition of the Nation's grat.i.tude. It is well, and to my comrades of the Civil war, who are here, and who have been the promotors of this reunion of veterans, let me say that no women of any war, in which the American people have ever been engaged, are more deserving of the Nation's bounty than these old, feeble, pioneer mothers of southern Oregon. When their fathers, brothers, and husbands went out to meet their savage foes, these women were not left in well protected cities, villages, and homes, but often in rude cabins, situated in close proximity to the conflict; and unlike the chances of civilized warfare, no mercy could be expected from the enemy--surrender meant not only death, but torture and heartless cruelty. In every hour of those dark days these women proved themselves to be fit helpmates to a race of daring men--and worthy all honors that are accorded the brave.

MINTO Pa.s.s: ITS HISTORY, AND AN INDIAN TRADITION.

By JOHN MINTO.

There was a tradition among the Indians of the central portion of the Willamette Valley at the time when the missionaries of the Methodist Episcopal Church attempted christianization from 1834 to 1840, that a trail or thoroughfare through this natural pa.s.s had formerly been much used by their people and that its use was abandoned after, and as one of the results of, a b.l.o.o.d.y battle between the Mollalas (who claimed the western slopes of the Cascades from the Clackamas River south to the Calapooia Mountains,) and the Cayuses who were originally of the same tribe, but who had become alienated by family feuds, of which the battle or ma.s.sacre of their tradition was the end. The superst.i.tious belief of the Indians in the transmigration of the souls of dead warriors into the bodies of beasts of prey, like panthers, bears, and wolves, would of itself go far to cause the Indians to abandon the use of such a trail, but the formation of the gorge by which the river cuts its way through the roughest portion of the range is such as to give great numbers of opportunities for ambuscades--a common resort of Indian warfare. Certain is it that for some cause the Indians of Chemeketa, Chemawa, and Willamette spoke with dread of going up that river. They did, however, have trails on each side of this natural pa.s.s,--that to the south being first used by a pioneer settler named Wyley. It became known as the Wyley Trail, and subsequently was adopted as a general route over which the Willamette Valley and Cascade Mountain Military Wagon Road was located. The other to the north comes into the Willamette Valley via the Table Rock and down the Abiqua. Both these trails were used exclusively by the Indians of the east side of the range as means of coming into the Willamette Valley with the exception of the Mollalas, who were intermarried with the Warm Springs Indians and the Klamaths when the settlement by the whites began. The free trappers and the retired Canadians, who had settled as farmers and trading parties of the Hudson Bay Company, continued to use the trail up the North Santiam Valley until 1844-45, when, in addition to the country reached by it being "trapped out,"

furs fell in price in the general market so that it temporarily ceased to be used by the engagees of the Hudson Bay Company. In the summer of 1845 Dr. E. White, then a sub-agent of the United States for the Indians of Oregon, examined, or claimed to have examined, the route as a means of getting immigration into western Oregon more easily than by way of the Columbia River Pa.s.s. Either the doctor did not examine closely or was very easily discouraged; at all events no beneficial results followed. At this same time Stephen L. Meek was leading a party of the immigration of that year with the purpose of entering the Willamette Valley by that way. Meek had trapped on the head waters of the John Day River a few seasons previous, and had here met Canadians from the Willamette, who had come over the trail and doubtless thought he could easily find it; and there is little reason to doubt that he would have done so had it not been that by reason of their much wandering in searching the way from the mouth of the Malheur to the waters of the Des Chutes, the people he led were in such desperate straits that he had to flee for his life. There was another reason: a ridge makes out on the east side of the main range, but parallel with it, which completely shuts the pa.s.s from being seen in outline from the east.

The failure of Meek to get his party through raised the question in the settlements as to whether there was so easy a means of pa.s.sing the Cascade range at that point as the Hudson Bay Company trappers and traders represented, and in the spring of 1846 a public meeting was held at Salem and a committee of six citizens was selected to go and make an examination of the trail. Col. Cornelius Gilliam was the head of the committee of the American portion of the party, and Joseph Gervais, a Canadian trapper, preeminent for general intelligence among his cla.s.s, went along to show the way. The Hon. T. C. Shaw, nephew of Gilliam, was of the party (the youngest). He is at present (1887) county judge of Marion County, and recently went over part of the ground they then pa.s.sed. From him it is learned that the trail did not then pa.s.s through the narrow gorge which has been spoken of, but took over the tops of the most broken and rugged portion of the range. The party proceeded until they came to what they termed the "scaly rock mountain," which Colonel Gilliam p.r.o.nounced impa.s.sable for wagons. The party returned and reported accordingly, and from that date till late in 1873 that pa.s.s way was unused and to a great extent forgotten.

In October, 1873, two hunters in search of good game range penetrated up the north bank of the river through the gorge before mentioned, and found that about twelve miles from the then settlement on King's Prairie that the valley widened out and the mountains seemed lower; narrow belts of bottom land lay between the mountains and the river, and appeared to continue up to near the base of Mount Jefferson, which, in fact, they do. One of these hunters (Henry States) sent for John Minto, being unable, on account of a sprained ankle, to go to the latter, and told him of their findings. This rediscovery or new discovery revived recollections of statements made by Joseph Gervais and others, and Minto took sufficient interest in the subject to go before the board of county commissioners of Marion County and repeat the statements of the hunters, volunteering the suggestion that it was important if such a natural pa.s.s existed as was thus indicated the county had an interest in making the fact known. One of the commissioners, Hon. Wm. M. Case, had long lived near neighbor to the famous Hudson Bay Company's leader, Tom McKay, and had often heard him speak of that as the shortest and best way across the Cascades. A short consultation resulted in the "order" that Mr. Minto take two comrades and proceed up the valley of the North Santiam until he was satisfied whether it made such a natural cut into the range or not.

After an absence of twelve days the party returned and Minto reported a deep valley apparently almost dividing the range, and so sheltered that several varieties of wild flowers were found in bloom on the eighteenth of November. Upon this representation a pet.i.tion for the survey of a road was presented to the board of county commissioners early in 1874, and the viewing out and survey of such a road ordered, Porter Jack, Geo. S. Downing, and John Minto to act as viewers, and T.

W. Davenport as surveyor. The survey was made and the viewers' report in favor of an excellent roadway was made to the county commissioners of Marion County, August, 1874. The results were got by following up the north bank of the Santiam River, generally within sight or sound of its waters, from the point where it enters the Willamette Valley to its most eastern springs. Starting from the bank of the Willamette River at Salem, where its course is east of north parallel with the Cascade range, the survey leads up its Santiam branch eighty-three (83) miles, to the true summit of the Cascades, here found in a narrow cut or pa.s.s lying across the summit ridge, the general course of the survey being southeast by east. From the summit thus found it is an estimated distance of only five (5) miles down to the Matoles branch of the Des Chutes River, here running east of north parallel with the range, the same course as that of the Willamette on the west side; but taking down the eastern declivity with an easy grade for a wagon road, the plain of the Des Chutes would be reached in about seven miles and the Willamette Valley and Cascade Mountains Road, where it skirts the base of Black b.u.t.te, three miles into the Des Chutes plain, in about ten miles. In making this view and survey an old and deeply worn trail was frequently crossed, and such a trail, less deep, was found leading over the pa.s.s eastward. The first observed trail gives some support to the Indian tradition of a former native thoroughfare down the valley.

The trail out of the pa.s.s is not so much worn, neither is the Strong trail leading off towards the west from a point about seven miles eastward, used by Lieutenant Fremont as he pa.s.sed the locality in 1843. The trail so noted reaches first the immense springs of Matoles, where a full grown river rises from under the northeast base of Black b.u.t.te, into which the salmon ascend in July and August for sp.a.w.ning purposes, at that date and since making a valuable fishery for the Indians, and scarcely less valuable as fisheries where the numerous lakes to the westward, which, taken in connection with abundant game of the entire region, make it a hunter's paradise. At the date of Fremont's march, of which had Meek been informed in 1845, he would have almost certainly succeeded in getting the people he led into the Willamette Valley by that way easier than they reached The Dalles after he abandoned them.

After the viewing out and survey of the wagon road as before related, parties incorporated or filed articles of incorporation for a projected railroad through the pa.s.s to Winnemucca. It was a mere speculation on the part of persons who had neither money nor credit of any kind. It had the effect of weakening the public interest in having a common road constructed, so that after the lapse of the legal hold on the pa.s.s thus attained, there was little disposition to spend money on the opening of a common road which was liable to be destroyed at any time by a railroad interest. An a.s.sociation was formed, however, and a stock trail was opened at a cost of $1,800, in labor. As much more spent at that time would have enabled wagons to pa.s.s. For lack of this small sum the trail constructed did not attract the public use except in a small measure for horses. In 1880 Hon. John B. Waldo, while enjoying a summer recreation trip along the summit ridge, came to a point some seven or eight miles south of the point to which the survey had been made and over which a trail had been opened, which he felt confident was lower than it. He spoke of it to Mr. Minto, who, the next spring, had a small sum ($200) placed at his disposal by Marion County in order to remove obstructions which had fallen into the trail. After removing these obstructions that had fallen in during the previous four years, Mr. Minto had $111 of the money left which he asked permission of the board of commissioners to use in viewing out and surveying the most southern of the two main branches of the Upper North Santiam. The suggestion was made that this arm of the stream trended so far southward that it would probably be found to reach the summit by a greater meander and consequently afford a more gradual approach to this supposed lower point of the summit, and therefore be more favorable for railroad purposes. The order was made in accordance with the suggestion, and Capt. L. S. Scott, Geo. S. Downing, and John Minto were appointed viewers and T. W. Davenport surveyor. After some loss of time by efforts to locate a line of communication, Minto took one comrade and went eastward through the old pa.s.s, taking the alt.i.tude of it as he went and finding it, according to an ordinary barometer, such as is used by railroad surveyors, to be five thousand five hundred and thirty-six feet above the sea, and proceeding southward and then westward on the same day found the instrument to read at the point indicated by Judge Waldo, four thousand nine hundred and eleven feet above the sea. From this point a line was struck and surveyed, which by way of the southeast branch of the North Santiam, connects with the original survey by an easy grade for railroad purposes and of which the projectors of the Corvallis and Eastern railroad were immediately informed. An examination of the whole route from Gates to Summit via the last viewed section, was made by Colonel Eccleson, civil engineer, and Summit was reached by a fraction over a two per cent grade. Construction began at the Summit with the least possible delay and rails were hauled by wagon from Albany and laid in order to hold the pa.s.s. From the pa.s.s westward more than half of the right of way was cut and much of the grade made ready for the ties between this lowest pa.s.s and the junction with the original Marion County survey at what the party making it called Independence Valley, directly south of and as the bird flies about eight miles from the apex of Mount Jefferson. From Idanha, the terminal of railroad track laid, four miles east of Detroit, fully twelve miles of right of way and grade were constructed when work was suspended by the original railroad company. From Mill City eastward to the Summit, the company appropriated fully ninety per cent of the original surveys made at the cost of Marion County. This need not be objected to, but in addition to this these railroad promoters often exercised an a.s.sumed right to name points that will be of permanent interest which they did not discover. This seems hardly fair. From my point of view the Hon. John B. Waldo, who first observed the apparent lowness of the pa.s.s, and called my attention to it, is more ent.i.tled to have his name attached to it than Col. T. E. Hogg, whose name I understand was given to by J.

I. Blair, the railroad magnate of New York, who was one of the chief supporters of Colonel Hogg's enterprise.

As a matter of some historical interest I will close this paper by inserting some of the original names given places and things by the first white explorers of the valley.

The stream named Breitenbush was named by Henry States, Frank Cooper, and John Minto on the first legal examination for the pa.s.s for John Breitenbush a hunter who had cut his way to it ahead of them. Detroit was named by the man from Michigan who first opened a house for entertainment there. Boulder Creek was named by T. W. Davenport on his survey notes in 1874. It makes in from the north at Idanha which was a Muskrat Camp of first surveying party, but renamed by the proprietor of the first summer resort house. Minto Mountain was named by some one unknown to the writer, after he had led to the opening of a trail to Black b.u.t.te, in Crook County, in 1879. It was the gra.s.s covered mountains seen by Minto from the top of a fir tree into which he pulled himself to get a view of their surroundings when first seeking the pa.s.s in November, 1873, and which gra.s.s land his a.s.sociate, Frank Cooper, a.s.serted was in eastern Oregon, to his, Cooper's, personal knowledge, though he would not risk climbing the tree to see it, being a very heavy man. This mountain will for all time be an attractive object to summer recreationists and the most easily reached from the center of the Willamette Valley when the railroad is extended twelve miles farther east. The first stream making in from the northeast of Boulder Creek was called, by the surveying party of 1874, the White, a first fork from Jefferson. In August the snow melts from the southwest slopes of Jefferson and runs through volcanic ash as fine as bolted flour and it enters the main Santiam like thickened milk, coloring it down to Mehama sometimes. Custom has adopted the name "Whitewater." In 1879 I gave the name Pamelia Creek to the next stream which flows off the south face of Mount Jefferson and the same name now attaches to the lake at its south base. The name was given for Pamelia Ann Berry, because of her cheerfulness as one of the girl cooks of the working party, of which her father and sister were valued members.

Independence Valley was so named by the road viewing party in 1874.

Our party rested there on the fourth of July. The first waterfall on the east branch was named Gatch's Falls for Prof. T. M. Gatch, by election of the party, the young members all having been his students.

Marion Lake and Orla Falls at the head of it were named at the same time. The latter by the younger members of the company who had danced with Miss Orla Davenport, the oldest daughter of our surveyor. The most of the water of Marion Lake seems to come over these falls from the northern declivities, a rocky peak of many pinnacles, locally called "Three-fingered Jack," but to which the name of Mount Marion was given in the report of this survey. This peak rises from the summit ridge south of Mount Jefferson and north of Mount Was.h.i.+ngton about equal distance of seven miles from each and about fifteen miles from the most northern of the Three Sisters. There are inviting situations for delightful summer residences on or near the ridge, both north and south of Mount Marion, which will in the near future probably become sites of permanent homes. The climate, as indicated by plant life, is that of the Highlands of Scotland, as here the American congener of both purple and white heather is found on and near the summit ridge.

The writer, who was an active member of these first exploring, surveying, and road constructing parties, closes this with the statement that the rugged labor sometimes involved was the very best kind of summer recreation, where nature in all her varying phases was enjoyed and the sights of the day made themes of camp fire talks, intermingled with subjects connected with social, educational, business, and public interests. There was little difference in this respect between the camp fires of a party of professional men seeking rest and that of road makers constructing lines of development.

REMINISCENCES.

Secured by H. S. LYMAN.

ANSON STERLING CONE.

Anson Sterling Cone, who came to Oregon in 1846, and is now--February, 1900,--living upon his donation claim a mile and a half from b.u.t.teville, on one portion of French Prairie, is a native of Indiana, having been born in Shelby County of that State in 1827. At the age of seventy-three he is still in good health, and of good memory. He is carrying on a large farm, and, together with his wife, is supporting the family of his brother's daughter, as his own. He is a man of medium size, of rather sandy complexion, with hair and beard now white. He is plain and straightforward in manner, and remembers distinctly many details of his early experiences in Oregon. Some of the most interesting features of his narrative are his meeting with Whitman; his service as juror on the trial of the Indian murderers of Whitman; and his trip overland to California in the first wagon train to the mines. His story, however, will be given as he relates it, and the reader may then use his own judgment as to the relative importance of his recollections.

With his father's family, who removed for a short residence from Shelby to La Porte County, Indiana, he went as a mere lad to Iowa. The farm occupied by his father was alongside one of the main roads, and there, year after year, he saw the emigrants in their great wagons on the way to Oregon. In the course of time he took the fever to go with them to that enchanted country. The opportunity was not long withheld.