BINDING LIST MAY 1 1923

THE

QUARTERLY

OF THE

VOLUME XXI MARCH, 1920— DECEMBER, 1920

Edited by

i

FREDERIC GEORGE YOUNG ^

The Ivy Press \ Portland, Oregon

TABLE OF CONTENTS SUBJECTS OF PAPERS

Page CARVER, JONATHAN, THE STRANGE CASE OF, AND THE NAME

OREGON By T. C. Elliott 341-368

IDAHO, DAVID THOMPSON AND BEGINNINGS IN

By T. C. Elliott 49-61

METHODISTS IN OREGON, EDUCATIONAL PLANS AND EFFORTS BY,

IN OREGON, TO 1860 By Read Bain 63-94

NORMAL SCHOOLS, HISTORY OF OREGON

By John C. Almack 95-169

OREGON ITS MEANING, ORIGIN AND APPLICATION

By John E. Rees 317-331

OREGON COUNTRY, THE EARLY EXPLORATIONS AND THE ORIGIN OF

THE NAME OF THE By William H. Galvani 332-340

OREGON, THE STRANGE CASE OF JONATHAN CARVER AND THE

NAME By T. C. Elliott 341-368

PACIFIC UNIVERSITY

By Henry L. Bates 1-12

PRINCESA, THE LOG OF THE, BY ESTEVAN JOSEF MARTINEZ

By Herbert Ingram Priestley 21-31

SPAIN AND ENGLAND'S QUARREL OVER THE OREGON COUNTRY

By F. G. Young 13-20

THOMPSON, DAVID, AND BEGINNINGS IN IDAHO

By T. C. Elliott 49-61

YOUNG, EWING, AND His ESTATE

By F. G. Young 171-315

DOCUMENTS

ROBERTS, REVEREND WILLIAM, THIRD SUPERINTENDENT OF THE OREGON MISSION, THE LETTERS OF, Edited by Robert Moulton Gatke 33-48

YOUNG, EWING, DOCUMENTARY RECORD OF AND His ESTATE,

Edited by F. G. Young 197-315

[ill]

AUTHORS

Page Almack, John C, History of Oregon Normal Schools 95-169

Bain, Read, Educational Plans and Records by Methodists in

Oregon to 1860 63-94

Bates, Henry L., Pacific University 1-12

Elliott, T. C., David Thompson and Beginnings in Idaho 49-61

The Strange Case of Jonathan Carver and the Name

Oregon 341-368

Galvani, William H., The Early Explorations and the Origin of

the Name of the Oregon Country 332-340

Gatke, Robert Moulton, Editor The Letters of Reverend William

Roberts, third Superintendent of the Oregon Missions 33-48

Rees, John E., Oregon Its Meaning, Origin and Application. . .317-331

Priestley, Herbert Ingram, The Log of the Princesa by Estcvan

Josef Martinez 21-31

Young, F. G., Spain and England's Quarrel Over the Oregon

Country 13-20

fairing Young and His Estate 171-315

[iv]

THE QUARTERLY

of the

Oregon Historical Society

VOLUME XXI MARCH, 1920 NUMBER 1

Copyright, 1919, by the Oregon Historical Society The Quarterly disavows responsibility for the positions taken by contributors to its pages

PACIFIC UNIVERSITY

BY HENRY L. BATES

Time is a relative quantity and the age of an institution or a nation is a matter of comparison. The Rocky Mountain range seems hoary indeed as compared with the generations of men who have lived in the Willamette Valley ; and yet geolo- gists tell us that this mountain barrier belongs to the most recent geologic time as compared with the countless aeons since first the Appalachian range lifted its head.

We are all young here in Oregon. Contrast the brief exist- ence of our educational institutions with such a foundation as Harvard, nearly ready to celebrate her tercentenary; and yet Harvard is young compared with the University of Paris with its nearly 800 years of continuous history.

So, while it is my pleasing task to narrate some of the facts concerning one of the oldest educational institutions west of the Mississippi River preceded indeed, only by the splendid foundation laid by Rev. Jason Lee at Chemeketa, I realize that every work of man here is recent and immature by comparison.

Harvard was founded in 1636, Yale in 1701, and many a college in the East and Middle West has celebrated its hun- dredth anniversary. Oregon's Provisional Government was

2 HENRY L. BATES

established in 1845, proclaimed as a territory in 1849 and ad- mitted to the Union in 1859. Only in 1847 did the first steamer enter San Francisco bay. California was ceded to the United States in 1848 and admitted in 1850. Washington was or- ganized as a territory in 1853 and became a state as late as 1889. Vancouver Island was constituted a British colony only in 1849.

The high character and quality of the tide of immigration to this Northwest in the thirties and forties is evidenced by their early interest in education and religion.

The building of schools and churches seemed to them to be one of the first necessities for the establishment of a permanent and desirable social structure in this new land of promise.

Many of the leaders came from that part of the East which gave us our free public school system and where the Christian College was the dominant type of the higher schools of learn- ing.

They stopped not to question the necessity of such schools here. The first school teacher west of the Rockies was John Ball, who opened a school at Vancouver in 1832 with 25 half- breed children.

The first school south of the Columbia was the Mission school near old Champoeg, taught by Philip L. Edwards in 1835. Then comes that heroic pioneer Methodist missionary, Rev. Jason Lee, whose mission, as often has been the case, was to found schools as well as churches; and in 1842 the Oregon Institute at Chemeketa or North Salem, was begun— primarily as a school for Indian children though the school was not formally opened till 1844. Out of this grew in time Willamette University, which received its college charter from the Territorial Legislature in 1853, just one year before Pacific University received its charter.

Pacific University, too, like many of the best educational institutions of our land, had its origin in a missionary enter- prise. It was truly the child of missions in that its foundation

PACIFIC UNIVERSITY 3

was laid by men who were dedicated to missionary labor and to planting the seeds, in this far-away land, of a Christian civilization.

The first in order of time, at least, of these men of high ideals and a lofty vision was the Rev. Harvey Clark, a native of Vermont, who, with his young wife, a graduate of Oberlin, fired with zeal for missionary work among the native tribes, had come to Oregon in 1841 as independent, self-supporting missionaries.

He settled upon his land claim, on which the town of Forest Grove now stands, and built a log house in which he and his wife taught the children of the settlers, being thus the first school teachers in Washington County.

Mr. and Mrs. Clark had a vision of a school of higher rank that might in time be established and that should mean much for the highest enlightenment and culture of this new land.

Meanwhile they waited some time for the opportunity and the means to realize their ideal.

Their first helper came in the person of a woman, Mrs. Tabitha Moffet Brown one of that long list of most heroic forerunners of civilization, to whom all too little tribute has been paid, the pioneer wives and mothers of the Pacific North- west.

This is hardly the place to dwell very long upon her roman- tic story ; it is a familiar one in Washington County. She was the widow of an Episcopalian minister of Stonington, Conn., who was left without property and with three small children to support. After teaching school several years, at the age of nearly three-score years and ten, she came to Oregon to be with her sons and grandchildren who had preceded her.

She crossed the plains with an ox-team, coming into Oregon by that ill-fated Southern route and suffering untold dangers and hardships on the way.

This was in 1846 and almost immediately "Grandma Brown," as she came to be affectionately called far and wide in the

4 HENRY L. BATES

Willamette Valley, having no family cares, but with a warm love for God and humanity in her heart, looked around for something to do for somebody. Soon the opportunity pre- sented itself to take up the work of teaching again. She found some 15 or 20 orphaned children at West Tualatin or what is now Forest Grove, whom she gathered into an orphan school, co-operating with Mr. Clark and taking over the work which he and his wife had already begun. This school was held in the log church which stood on what is now the college campus, and the site of which is marked by a petrified stump. The next year, 1848, the number of homeless children dependent on Mrs. Brown was considerably increased through the exodus of men from Oregon to the newly discovered gold mines in California who left their families, in some instances, almost destitute.

Meanwhile Mr. Clark's larger purpose waited the oppor- tunity and the man. Not long, however, for in 1848 there arrived another of those missionary pioneers who had so much to do in laying the foundations of a Christian civilization on this side of the Great Divide. Dr. George H. Atkinson, the first missionary sent here by the American Home Missionary Society. With his young wife he sailed from Boston in October, 1847, by way of Cape Horn and the Sandwich Islands, reach- ing Oregon City eight months later in June, 1848. Among all the pioneers who came in that early day to Oregon, probably no one had a clearer vision of its possibilities and a more complete knowledge of its almost boundless resources. In process of time he came to be recognized as a foremost author- ity on matters of education in the territory.

He took a leading part in forming the public school system of the state. He taught in the first graded school in Portland. He prepared the educational part of the first message of the Governor to the first Territorial Legislature which gave the first impulse towards organizing the public school system. He was a pioneer in meteorological observations in the Pacific

PACIFIC UNIVERSITY 5

Northwest. In 1865 he was sent East by the state in the in- terest of prison reform. With Lt. Symonds of the U. S. Corps of Engineers, he wrote the article on Oregon for the Encyclo- pedia Britannica, ninth edition.

He dedicated the first Congregational Church building in the North-west at Oregon City, August 18, 1859, and later he organized the First Congregational Church of Portland. But Dr. Atkinson, like a true son of New England, brought with him to this new land an ambition and a well-defined purpose to plant schools as well as churches here.

It is on record that before leaving for his distant field of labor he made a visit to New York for final instructions and while there was introduced to Rev. Theron Baldwin, secre- tary of the American College and Education Society, then newly organized to establish and aid new colleges. He said to Dr. Atkinson:

"You are going to Oregon ; build an academy there that shall grow into a college, as we built Illinois College." Learn- ing soon after his arrival of the orphan school at West Tual- atin, he rode over from Oregon City and visited Mr. Clark in his log house. The men found they had a common purpose and ideal and at once combined their efforts to attain their purpose.

They called together an association of ministers at Oregon City on September 21? 1848, at which time it was resolved to establish an academy at Forest Grove. One year later, Sep- tember 29, 1849, Tualatin Academy was incorporated by the Territorial Legislature.

Mr. Clark was the first president of the board of trustees and continued to hold the position till the time of his death. Mrs. Brown's orphans were taken over by the new school, but for a1 number of years she kept a boarding house for the students, the price of board being $2.00 a week. In 1854, in a letter to a friend, Mrs. Brown, then in her 75th year, said :

6 HENRY L. BATES

"In 1851 I had 40 in my family at $2.50 a week and I mixed with my own hands 3423 Ibs. of flour in less than five months.

200 acres of Mr. Clark's donation land claim were given as a basis of the endowment for the new school and later 150 acres more were given to secure adequate instructors.

About one-half of the present beautiful campus of 30 acres was the gift of Mr. Clark. Others contributed generously of their scanty means and their labor none to so great an extent as Mr. and Mrs. Clark. His interest in education was broader than his denominational choice. He was a warm friend and supporter of the Methodist school organized in 1842 and he taught for a year in the Mission School at Champoeg.

For 40 years or until his death in 1889, Dr. Atkinson was secretary of the board of trustees of the Academy and College and was seldom absent from its meetings.

Doubtless the greatest single service which he performed for the struggling enterprise was the securing the man who was the first president. For several years after the founding of the Academy there were no permanent teachers and no established curriculum.

Faithful work was done in the log church by such men as dishing Eells and J. M. Keeler, but still the vision of Mr. Clark seemed far from fulfillment.

So Dr. Atkinson went East by way of the Isthmus no easy journey in those days. He gained the support of the American College and Education Society, which endorsed the college and pledged the interest on $10,000 for the support of its first president. Best of all, however, and more significant for the future development of the school, he persuaded Rev. Sidney Harper Marsh to leave his New England home and become the head of the school at Tualatin Plains and develop it into a college.

Mr. Marsh was a young man of 28, descended from a line of educators. His father was President James Marsh of the

PACIFIC UNIVERSITY 7

University of Vermont, and one of the foremost American edu- cators of his day. His grandfather was Eleazer Wheelock, the first president of Dartmouth College.

It is not strange that a young man with such an ancestry and such an inheritance should accept with enthusiasm the invitation to go to Oregon and give the best of his powers to build up in the new land a college similar to those with which he was familiar in New England.

He had no knowledge of pioneer conditions reared in a scholarly home and used to the refinement of the best society in a University town, he had to meet at once the hardships and privations of frontier life without any preparation.

He found here almost nothing to build a college upon no buildings, no permanent funds, no adequate teachers, and, most discouraging of all, no apparent need or desire for such a school.

President Marsh set himself steadfastly and courageously to supply all these needs.

Immediately upon his arrival steps were taken to add college grades of instruction to those in the Academy and in January, 1854, new articles of incorporation were granted by the Legis- lature, and under the corporate name of Tualatin Academy and Pacific University the present school was created.

We today can hardly realize the trials and hardships which the new president had to endure. But brighter days began to dawn. The country began to fill up. Families moved in and built homes around the young college. Students began to stay long enough to get into college and in process of time young men and women were graduated, many of whom have been among the foremost leaders in the public life and service of the state. The need of funds was ever pressing and Presi- dent Marsh made three different trips to the East to solicit aid. $70,000 in cash and many valuable books for the library were secured on these trips. Among these latter the most notable

8 HENRY L. BATES

gift was that of more than 400 volumes by Sidney E. Morse, the son of a famous geographer and brother of the renowned inventor, S. F. B. Morse. One of the most valuable books in the library is a copy of Ptolemy's Universal Geography printed at Basle in 1542 on the title page of which is inscribed, "Sidney E. Morse from his affectionate brother, S. F. B. Morse, Rome, June, 1830."

A more recent addition of great value was the gift of over 200 old and rare books from the library of D. W. Craig, a pioneer journalist of Oregon. One book printed in 1482 is one of the two or three oldest books west of the Rocky Moun- tains.

Another book of unique interest and value is a copy of a primer printed in the Spokane dialect, on the Lapwai press in 1842, said to be the only perfect copy in existence.

Today the library numbers about 20,000 volumes housed in a modern brick structure, the gift of Andrew Carnegie.

There was early organized as an important department of the University a Conservatory of Music which is today giving instruction in piano, pipe organ, violin, voice training and musi- cal history and theory of a character equal to any similar instruction given in the state.

Grandma Brown left to the college at her death, or rather gave before her death, a lot in the village and a log house which was afterwards sold for $506.60 this sum was invested and reinvested until today it has reached something like $5,000.

President Marsh was able thus to realize in some degree the dream of the founders. He found a "small and weak academy and left it well organized, fairly well equipped and with a character established for all time for sound learning and thor- ough instruction" and worthy ideals.

After 25 years of strenuous toil he laid down his task with his life in 1879.

Those who succeeded him in the presidential chair have been Rev. John R. Herrick, Rev. J. T. Ellis, Rev. Thomas McClel-

PACIFIC UNIVERSITY 9

land who left here after nine years of service in 1900 to take the presidency of Knox College, from which he has re- cently resigned. Following him came President Wm. N. Fer- rin, another teacher from Vermont, then President C. J. Bush- nell, and now the school seems to be entering upon a new era of enlargement and healthy growth under the enthusiastic and efficient leadership of President Robert Fry Clark, who was inaugurated last June.

Mention at least ought to be made of some of the men and women who so efficiently helped to make the instruction in academy and college of the high quality for which it has always been justly proud.

Rev. Cushing Eells was the first principal of Tualatin Academy.

E. D. Shattuck, a young Vermonter, was an early teacher and afterwards for more than 25 years was one of Oregon's ablest and most honored jurists.

Another early teacher in the Academy was Mrs. Elizabeth Miller Wilson, who died only a few years ago at The Dalles.

Rev. Horace Lyman came to assist President Marsh when the burden seemed to be heaviest and his labors and influence counted much for the success of the enterprise. For several years most of the college teaching was done by these two men. Dr. A. J. Anderson was a teacher in an early day going from here to the presidency of Whitman College.

Thomas Condon, one of the ablest thinkers the state ever had, went from the faculty of Pacific University to help start the State University at Eugene and with him went Professor Collier and Dr. Luella Clay Carson.

Coming rather early also to assist President Marsh in his great work, was Professor Joseph W. Marsh, his brother and another graduate of Vermont. For more than 40 years, as professor of Latin and Greek and college librarian, Prof. Marsh made an impress on the minds and hearts of generation after generation of students and left memories that multitudes

10 HENRY L. BATES

still cherish. He delighted in learning and he loved his fellow- men.

The first Bachelor's degree was granted in 1863 to a class of one, but that one was Harvey W. Scott, Oregon's greatest journalist and one of the keenest thinkers of his generation.

It has been said that he and the Honorable Thomas H. Tongue, who graduated five years after Mr. Scott, were two of the chief factors in carrying the state for sound money in the days when the free silver delusion seemed likely to carry everything before it.

The graduates of Pacific University number less than 400 its student body has never been large but among that small number have been some of the ablest and finest men and women who have helped to make Oregon, and that noblest thing in a state, a noble citizenship.

Out of all proportion to her numbers has been her influence for sound learning, true culture and righteous living in this great North-west.

Her alumni have not only wielded a worthy influence in Oregon but in foreign lands and on mission fields. Hastara Tamura, an important educator in Japan, and Kin Saito, Chief Justice of the Court of Hokkaido, Hakodate, Japan, Rev. J. Elkanah Walker, for many years a missionary to China, and more recently Dr. John X. Miller, a missionary in India and recognized by the British Government in India as doing work of unusual value in industrial education, the present city editor of the Oregonian lawyers, physicians, teachers and min- isters all over the Pacific North-west. These are some of the contributions of Pacific to the finest citizenship of the world at home and abroad.

She has always kept her standards high none are higher in the North-west. A few years ago when a Federal Commis- sion standardized the colleges and universities of the state, she was one of the first three to be recognized as a standardcollege.

Her graduates are admitted for graduate or professional

PACIFIC UNIVERSITY 11

study in all the leading colleges and universities in the land.

If Garfield's conception was a true one, that Mark Hopkins on one end of a log and himself as a student on the other end was all that was needed to make a college, then must it not be true that the value of a college must be measured at least as much by the devotion and learning and character of its instructors and the fine quality of the young men and women which it turns out, as by its costly equipment and size of its student body? Pacific University at least does not think she has lived altogether in vain.

Her growth has been slow partly because the population of Oregon has never been great. When Dr. Atkinson came to Oregon there were not more than 7,000 people in the state.

In 1870 Oregon, Washington and Idaho combined had only 130,000.

The rush for gold in '48- '49 drew one-half or two-thirds of the able-bodied men from Washington County. And yet in 1912 Oregon ranked third in having the highest percentage of students in college or one to every 150 of the population. Kansas stood first with one to 112, and Utah second, 1 to 121.

In 1915 Tualatin Academy graduated its last class and passed out of existence. The increasing number of standardized high schools seeming to make secondary schools of the academy type unnecessary.

Twenty-five years ago there were only three high schools in the state. Today there are 200 of the standard variety.

While being in some sense the child of the churches, Pacific University has never been sectarian or under denominational control. Her aim has always been "to make it possible for the young people of the Pacific Northwest to obtain a thorough education under Christian influences." The name "University" has always been somewhat of a misnomer. It reflects the high aims and worthy aspirations of its early founders rather than actual achievements in the shape of graduate courses and pro- fessional schools.

12 HENRY L. BATES

Pacific belongs indeed to that important class of "the small college" and she is not only proud of it but is inclined to believe that her special mission to humanity is best fulfilled in that capacity.

At present, at least, her endowment is inadequate and her equipment greatly in need of improvement but she and her sister independent Christian colleges in the state can do things for the youth of the land which great universities with larger faculties, more costly equipment and crowds of students cannot possibly do.

There never was a time when the peculiar influence and the dominating ideals of a distinctively Christian college were more needed in America to mold the character and clarify the motives of our youth in these days of unrest and uncertainty. . The peculiar needs of the time make it a matter of the high- est patriotism to the whole people to support such an institu- tion ; for it is laying the foundations of a Christian civilization, it is doing its part to make America safe for democracy.

Today the outlook for Pacific University seems bright with promise. A beautiful campus, second to none in the state ; five buildings, all modern but one; an endowment fund of about a quarter of a million ; a loyal and enthusiastic student body ; the prestige of an honorable past and an honor roll of worthy sons and daughters ; the confidence that her friends who believe in her and in her mission, will show their faith by their works and increase her funds and add to her buildings and her equip- ment ; a devoted and self-denying faculty ; the ideals of her founders still sacredly cherished ; these are what Pacific Uni- versity posseses today as the sure foundation of her belief in her mission and her future in the generations to come.

SPAIN AND ENGLAND'S QUARREL OVER THE OREGON COUNTRY.

An Introductory Statement to furnish a Setting for the Incidents in the Log of the Princesa used byf Professor Priestly to throw new Light on the Nootka Sound Affair of 1789

The culminating events in the first struggle for the posses- sion of the Oregon Country were staged in Nootka Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island. In our busy age, how- ever, the average reader of the Quarterly without a Bancroft's Northwest Coast at hand may not be sufficiently clear on the details of the incidents out of which the Nootka Con- troversy arose to get the benefit of the valuable source material in the paper by Professor Priestly on the Log of the Princesa or diary of her commander, Jose Martinez.

This Nootka Sound affair in which representatives of the Spanish and English sovereignties were rivals for the posses- sion of our Northwest Coast was in a way the first act in the drama; the second act of which with its more familiar complications was staged a quarter of a century later at Fort Astoria some two hundred and fifty miles to the south.

The joint arrangement closing the Nootka Sound dispute between Spain and England pertained primarily to rights of access to and trade with the natives of this coast region. In the next agreement, composing the second international con- tention for the Oregon Country as a whole, Spain had receded to the background and the United States had become a prin- cipal contender with England. The issue now affected the more substantial right of occupation. The arrangement again was on a joint basis. In the third and concluding settlement the situation had ripened to the exclusive "to have and to hold" phase with the establishment of the 49th parallel as the boundary line between the allotted portions of the claimants

14 F. G. YOUNG

who had been developing their respective rights for more than half a century through discovery, exploration, occupa- tion and settlement. The incidents recorded in the Log of the Princesa by one who had the master role introduces us directly to the first of the central series of dramatic situations in the early history of Oregon.

One additional special feature of progressive change in the developing drama on this Northwest Coast should be noted. In the first crisis of affairs affecting this region and staged at Nootka Sound, the participants had all arrived on the scene in ships. In the second crisis at Fort Astoria, contin- gents of both contestants had come overland. In the assem- bling for the final scene out of which came the terms of the treaty of 1846 it was those who had trailed across the con- tinent rather than those coming by the sea route who con- trolled the outcome.

To return to the situation in which our Pacific Northwest first came into the limelight of political history as a bone of contention between Spain and Great Britain. The van of the forces of Spanish adventure and missionary zeal pressing westward in the wake of the discoveries of Columbus had passed through the West Indies and along the southern border of what was to become the United States, had crossed Mexico and turned northward on the Pacific Coast. By 1769, it reached San Francisco Bay with a missionary establishment. Though there was a vast stretch of coast beyond to the north and northwest open to conquest and exploitation it had not the lure of rich kingdoms or legendary treasure cities and Spanish energy for less dazzling prizes seemed spent.

Spanish authorities were, however, concerned that the sub- jects of no other nation should get a foothold in menacing proximity, say within a sweep of 1000 or 1500 miles of their farthest outpost on San Francisco Bay. Furthermore, geog- raphers had for centuries mapped the Strait of Anian as affording a northwest passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific

SPAIN AND ENGLAND QUARREL OVER OREGON 15

in a latitude that would mean trouble for the Spanish posses- sions on the Pacific Coast, if the entrance to this supposed waterway was not found and commanded by suitable fortifica- tions. Russian explorers, too, had pushed across Siberia and Vitus Bering and others were coming down this Northwest Coast. To anticipate these possible menaces to an unmolested sway over this region a more energetic Spanish King and Mexican viceroy renewed explorations. Accordingly, one vessel was dispatched northward in 1774 and two in 1775. These traced the main outlines) of our coast from about 55° southward. In the latter year, on the afternoon of July 17th, Heceta, in command of one of the ships, the Santiago, dis- covered a bay with strong currents and eddies, indicating the mouth of a great river or strait in latitude 46° 9'. He named the point on the north, San Rbque, and the one on the south, Cabo Frondoso. He was looking at the mouth of the Columbia River between capes Disappointment and Adams. As he had not enough men to raise the anchor if it were once lowered, or to man his launch, he continued on to the south without consummating the discovery. Through these voyages in 1774-5, Spain had explored and taken possession of the whole extent of the Northwest Coast from 40° to 55°. But the results of these expeditions were not published. Mean- while English maritime enterprise had followe'd the lead of the Cabots. Through activities of exploration and colonization the eastern shore of the North American was occupied by the English with Spain holding only St. Augustine in Florida. During the latter half of the 18th century there was a great renewal of exploring activity by England's navigators. The most intrepid of all her mariners of this period was James Cook. On his third voyage of discoverey in the Pacific he found the Sandwich Islands and proceeding northward arrived off our Oregon Coast in March, 1778. His quest was the northwest passage that had been the objective of Verrazano, Cartier, Hudson, Frobisher, Drake, Franklin and a host of

16 F. G. YOUNG

others during the preceding three centuries. Parliament had just offered a prize of £20,000 for the discovery of it.

While Francis Drake had been off our Oregon Coast just two centuries before Cook's appearance his lead was not followed up by his countrymen as Cook's was destined to be to the discomfiture of Spanish operations on our Western shores. On Cook's cruise northward, at intervals along shore, he named capes Perpetua, Foulweather, and Flattery on the Oregon and Washington Coasts. He entered Nootka Sound anchoring in what he called Friendly Cove. He there repaired his vessels and "obtained full supplies of water, wood, fish grass and spruce beer." He happened also to purchase a supply of beaver skins from the natives, "holding no thoughts at that time of using them to any other advantage than converting them to purposes of clothing." He found a market for them in China at the rate of $100 for what cost him 6 pence sterling. Intelligence of the opportunity for profit demonstrated in that transaction was passed along, reaching first the English mer- chants operating in China and India, but arriving in due time at the centers of foreign trade of England and America. John Ledyard, an American, who had been a sailor with Cook's expedition was particularly active in canvassing the matter and was probably largely instrumental in getting the company of Boston merchants to dispatch so promptly the Columbia and Washington under Kendrick and Gray.

This economic lure of prodigious profit in fur trade with the natives on the Northwest Coast soon made Nootka Sound, with its inviting conditions for shelter and refreshments, a great rendezvous.

In 1785 came the first ship to trade for furs, an English vessel from China. The next year six additional English vessels arrived, two from Bengal, two from Bombay, and two direct from England. During the summers immediately fol- lowing, this volume of trafficking along the coast was main- tained. The individual participants would change. As a cargo

SPAIN AND ENGLAND QUARREL OVER OREGON 17

was accumulated the vessel would proceed to its market in China and possibly load there with tea for its homeward bound cargo. Meanwhile new recruits would be lured into the game.

In 1788 the American ships, Columbia and Lady Washing- ton, sent out by Boston merchants and commanded by John Kendrick and Robert Gray, arrived on the coast. They passed the following winter in Nootka Sound and were on the scene as interested spectators of the complications that were to follow, and possibly had no small part in inciting the Spanish commander, Martinez, to the suspicious attitude through which the trouble developed between him and Colnett and other Eng- lish captains as they arrived with their craft at the entrance of the harbor. At any rate, the factors in the situation were such as we shall see opened an opportunity which Yankee shrewdness with a little sharp practice could utilize toward putting difficulties in the way of a competitor in trade.

Looking at the situation as a whole as it was developing during these later eighties, of the 18th century at Nootka Sound through the profit-lure of the fur trade with the natives, we see the rights of Spain based on prior discovery of this coast completely ignored. In 1788, the Spanish authorities, having been through the reports of the returning French ex- plorer, La Perouse, apprised of the fact that the Russians were fast encroaching from the north, sent out Martinez and Haro in the Princesa and San Carlos to investigate. Martinez and Haro visited the Alaska regions and reported that the Russians intended to found a settlement at Nootka and also that English traders were active along the coast. Consequently, Martinez and Haro were sent back in 1789, equipped to es- tablish a post there and to assert Spanish sovereign jurisdic- tion over the region before it should be taken possession of by any foreign power.

In the Spring and early Summer of 1789, the time was ripe for a denouement at this rendezvous of traders of rival nations in Nootka Sound. Martinez as the representative of His

18 F. G. YOUNG

Catholic Majesty was there to take exclusive possession on the traditional basis of priority of discovery and he was fittingly equipped. English seamen representing different commercial enterprises plying their vocation as fur traders were arriving. Their undisputed freedom of ingress and egress enjoyed during the several years preceding was in their planning maturing into the right of permanent occupation. In the pre- ceding pages I have tried to indicate how the converging lines of tendency of Spanish and English expansion on this coast promised inevitable friction. It is now in place to show how the train was laid for the explosion at Nootka in the summer of 1789.

In 1788 a company of English merchants at Bengal, India, fitted out two ships, one of which was the Iphigenia. They were put under the command of John Meares and William Douglas. "In order to evade excessive port charges in China, and also to obviate the necessity of obtaining licenses from the East India and South Sea Companies," says Bancroft, "one Cavalho, a Portuguese, was made nominally a partner in the concern, and through this influence with the governor of Macao the vessels were furnished Portuguese flags, papers, and captains. All of these were to be used as occasion might demand, either in Chinese ports or in case of embarrassing meetings with British vessels, where the real commanders would appear in the Portuguese version of the ships' papers as super cargoes." Furthermore, it was provided that in case of real trouble with any Russian, English or Spanish vessels they should, as victors, take possession of the vessel and crew, bring both "to China that they might be condemned as legal prizes, and their crews punished as pirates." It was these Portuguese instructions that puzzled the Spanish commander when he had seized the Iphigenia as an English vessel. She was no longer flying the Portuguese colors, as a license to trade had been obtained from the India Company. Bancroft suggests that Kendrick with whom Martinez had

SPAIN AND ENGLAND QUARREL OVER OREGON 19

been spending a few days up the Sound had worked on Martinez's suspicions through the clause in the papers of the Iphigenia requiring the captain to take Spanish vessels and carry their men to Macao to be tried for piracy. To enter a Spanish port with such instructions, and uncertainly translated as they were for Martinez, led him to take the steps he did and to exhibit the subsequent vacillation with the Iphigenia. Though Martinez acted on the principle that discretion is the better part of valor with the Iphigenia, his attitude had be- come suspicious. He found it necessary, with Captain Hudson of the Princess Royal, to establish that the right of priority was with the Spanish through Perez's voyage in 1774 rather than with the English through Cook's discoveries of 1778.

The fact that the North West America, the first vessel ever built on the coast, was built on soil claimed by the Spanish may account for some of the insistence of Martinez that it should be delivered to him for a consideration.

When the Argonaut, under Captain Colnett, appeared at the mouth of the harbor it looks a little arbitrary for Martinez to order her towed into port and anchored between the two Spanish ships. But this English vessel belonged to the same concern that had been using the shores of Nootka Sound for a shipyard, that had erected structures there and her own papers actually contained instructions "to establish a permanent trading post or factory," the site of which would naturally have been Nootka. Colnett with such a commission from his superiors, and a weak mind, would have difficulty in not betraying his designs to the Spanish commander and lead him to demand Colnett's passport, instructions and invoice of cargo. Furthermore, Martinez waiting for Colnett to find these, "noted that the cargo of the Argonaut contained supplies of expected vessels and material for building others." Further, Colnett admitted "that he came as a governor of a colony." This meant complications that only tact and diplomacy could have straitened without an explosion, but Colnett flies off the handle.

20 F. G. YOUNG

The return of the Princess Royal, Captain Hudson, ten days later was in defiance of the warning Hudson had received, so seizure was the natural outcome.

THE LOG OF THE PRINCESA BY ESTEVAN MARTINEZ.

What does it contribute to our Knowledge of the Nootka Sound Controversy?

By HERBERT INGRAM PRIESTLEY

Hubert Howe Bancroft's History of the Northwest Coast was published 36 years ago in 1884. In volume I of that work he gives an account of the Nootka Sound Controversy. In 1904 Professor William Ray Manning published his ex- tensive inquiry into that affair, availing himself of manu- script materials in Spain and elsewhere which were inaccessi- ble to Bancroft. In one very important particular Manning was unable to add to the account by Bancroft. The latter says, (p. 212.) "I have not been able to obtain the original diaries of the Spanish expedition of 1789; nor has any previous writer in English seen them;" Manning quotes this, and says (p. 342 note) that Revilla-Gigedo, writing to Valdez, Mexico, Dec. 27, 1789, "states that a copy of Martinez' diary is in- closed, but a note on a small slip of paper inserted says that the diary is not being sent on account of Martinez not having sent a duplicate of it. The diary does not appear in the bundle, and probably never was sent."

This diary, or more properly log, of which a copy is now in the Bancroft Library of the Academy of Pacific Coast History, bears the caption, Diaro de la navegacion que yo el alferez de navi'o de Real Armada Don Estevan Josef Martinez, boy a executor al puerto de San Lorenzo de Nuca, mandando la fragata Princesa, y paquebot San Carlos, de orden de el Exmo Senor Don Manuel Antonio Florez, Virey, Governador, y Capitan-General de Nueva Espana, en el presente an de i?8p. The original log is a notebook of 144 pages, with 2 of in- troduction. The copy of it, which serves as the basis of this

22 HERBERT INGRAM PRIESTLEY

paper, was secured from the Depo'sito Hidrogra'fico de Madrid by the late Professor Henry Morse Stephens for the Academy of Pacific Coast History. An English translation of the copy has been made by William L. Schurz, sometime Travelling Fellow of the Native Sons of the Golden West. It is of in- terest to note what new light the log sheds upon the motives and actions of the Spanish commander, as compared with the published accounts.

The first discrepancy between the log and the account by Bancroft is seen in the statement from Haswell's Voyage, MS in the Bancroft Library, (Northwest Coast, Vol I, p. 213, note.} that Martinez told Capt. Gray, when he met the latter outside the entrance to Nootka Sound early in May, that he had fitted for his voyage at Cadiz, and then, reshipping with natives of California, had been to Behring Strait, where he had parted from his consort in a gale. The farthest north of the 1789 voyage was 50° 26', reached May 2; Haswell prob- ably misunderstood Martinez, who must have been describ- ing his voyage of 1788, to be speaking of his present under- taking. This explains the "strange account" which Bancroft says Martinez gave of himself to Gray and later to Douglas.

On the negative testimony which Dr. Manning adduces from Meares' failure to record whether he had left his house standing or not when he sailed in 1788 from Nootka for Hawaii, the log adds nothing positive, but some negative evidence, for Martinez makes no reference of any kind to any English establishment, or remnant of one, tho' he does make frequent reference to the houses of the natives, which he visited. If any foreign building had been there, he would have seen it, and would very probably have mentioned it.

The story of the log which narrates the controversy over the instructions under which the Iphigenia sailed, is, that these were submitted to Martinez on May 8, when requested, but being long, they were left with him to be copied. It was not until May 13 that Martinez seized the Iphigenia, and on

THE LOG OF THE PRINCESA 23

the 17th he obtained the bond of Viana and Douglas to sur- render the Iphigenia if the Viceroy should declare her a good prize. The reason for releasing the vessel Martinez gives: it is his lack of men and provisions to take the captured vessel to- San Bias and at the same time secure Nootka. By May 24, he says, "I have reflected thoroughly that a different con- struction could be placed upon the instructions which were presented to me on the 8th inst., by ... Viana, . . . they being written in Portuguese, of which no one in our ship is master." The Iphigenia was released on May 25, after its officers had been admonished to cease trading at Nootka. It is apparent from the above that Manning's criticism (p. 320) that Martinez was silent as to his real reason for releasing the Iphigenia will have to be modified by the log entry for May 24, above cited.

As to the moot question of the quantity of supplies restored to Douglas, the diary gives no information in detail, except to say that on May 31, just before she sailed, the vessel re- ceived "the artillery, balls, powder, and other stores with which she had been fitted," and that the provisions which he furnished her were intended to last for the voyage to the Sandwich Islands. They must have been ample for this, as the Iphigenia spent a month on the coast before departing for Hawaii, as Manning notes.

Concerning the plea recorded by Douglas, made to Martinez, that he had entered Nootka in distress, Martinez says not a word, tho' he does give a circumstantial account (May 8) of the reasons given by Kendrick for entering. Neither is there any hint in| the log that there was unusual objection by the English to the treatment which they received as prisoners. It is regrettable also that neither the first nor the second transla- tions of the instructions to Viana are in the log, as from them might be gathered some knowledge as to what frankness Martinez showed in his effort to understand the situation. We have on this point only the entry of May 24th, above men-

24 HERBERT INGRAM PRIESTLY

tioned. Attention may be called also to the fact that Martinez does not speak of any attempt to get an order from Douglas to Funter requiring him to sell the Northwest America to the Spaniard.

The log account of the reception accorded to the Northwest America, Capt. Funter, which put back into Nootka, after a northern cruise for pelts, on June 8th, is as follows: ". . . As soon as it was within a proper distance, I ordered two launches manned, and they towed it inside this port, where it cast anchor at 8 :30 at night. The captain and pilot, Robert Funter and Thomas Bennett, immediately came to greet me. I had them stay to supper, and they returned on board their vessel at 11 at night."

"Tuesday, June 9, 1789, at 7 a. m., I ordered my first pilot, Jose Tovar, the carpenter and the calker and the secretary, to examine that vessel and make an inventory of whatever she contained that was useful and that might be of service. When they had done so, they found that the whole bottom of the ship was rotten and eaten through by shipworms, and that in order to make her serviceable it would be necessary to re- build her almost entirely. In view of the report which they presented to me, I determined to receive whatever she con- tained that was serviceable beside the cargo that she carried. I kept ... of all this ... an inventory, .... made at once, and [have it] in my possession. . . . Every- thing must remain unsettled until we receive the decision . . . of ... the Viceroy, to whom I will render a proper account, to see if this vessel and her contents con- stitute a good prize. [This depends on] whether she is bound by the instructions which the captain of the Portuguese packet Iphigenia presented to me, and whether this ship as well as the other belongs to Don Juan Carvalho . . ." In this we find no pique at inability to buy the vessel, as Meares claimed (Manning, p. 325), which amply justifies his action as a partisan of his king. The accounts of Meares, Douglas,

THE LOG OF THE PRINCESA 25

and Funter were written at dates much later than the log, hence ought to be of less credibility.

With respect to the arrival of the Princess Royal, Capt. Hudson, at Nootka June 15, the log adds to Dr. Manning's account the fact that Martinez remained aboard of her out- side the Sound on the night of her arrival for the definite purpose of preventing her departure before he could learn particulars of her voyage and purpose his act thus being in keeping with the sense of his instructions to prevent trade with the natives, or surprise to himself. Manning's criticism that Martinez was inconsistent in releasing Hudson may be explained by the belief of Martinez that Hudson was warned that if he was found trading with the natives he would be taken prisoner as transpired upon the reappearance of the Princess Royal at a later date. Hudson stated that "he had acted in the belief that this port as well as the coast belonged to the English crown, as discoveries made by Captain James Cook. However, I convinced him . . . that I had an- ticipated Cook by three years and eight months; ... he could confirm this by ... Joseph Ingraham, who had noted it in his log from the knowledge which he had gained from the Indians of the region."

In the matter of the seizure of the Argonaut and the arrest of Capt. Colnett and his crew, it is to be observed that Manning used the report of Martinez to Florez, as well as the accounts by Colnett, Gray, Ingraham, and Duf fin ; of these latter, only the last named was a contemporary account. I shall set forth briefly how the log agrees in general with the letter to Florez, and what it adds, as well as how the spirit of the Dttffin account substantiates in many ways the Martinez point of view.

The log is, as was the letter to Florez, quite silent as to any pretense of distress on the Spanish vessels as a reason why Colnett should enter the port to succor them, tho' it does say that it was Martinez who ordered the Argonaut towed

26 HERBERT INGRAM PRIESTLEY

into port, where it was anchored, against Colnett's wishes, by chains between the two Spanish ships, and under the guns of the fort. Permission to anchor at Cook's old anchorage was refused to Colnett "seeing that this was merely a pretext to get away from us so that, secure from harm, he could leave with less risk to continue his way, or proceed to some place where he could act to better advantage."

Events of July 3rd, the day of the quarrel between Colnett and Martinez, not chronicled by Dr. Manning, and included in the log, state that the boatswain reported after daybreak that Colnett had "taken his boat before sunrise and had gone outside the port and around the hill on which the fort of San Miguel is situated. He was apparently reconnoitering the fortifications. . . . Soon after he came inside, he made to- ward the beach, along which he coasted . . . and ex- amined the cooper shop and the forge, . . . [Colnett's account of this investigation is that he did these things in company with Martinez.] Colnett failed to hoist his colors at sunrise, until ordered so to do by Martinez, when he displayed "a blue English flag at bow and stern, and at the mainmast, instead of a streamer, a broad pennant of the same color with a white square in the center. He thus gave me to understand . . . that he was an officer of high rank."

Shortly afterward, Martinez demanded Colnett's passport, instructions, and invoice of cargo. Colnett excused himself from producing them, on the plea that his chests were in great disorder. He was then allowed to drop his anchor, and take his time in finding his papers. Martinez accompanied him to his vessel. Here it was noted that the cargo of the Argonaut contained supplies for expected vessels and material for build- ing others. Colnett stated that he came as governor of a colony, and gave some account of his plans.

Having heard these, Martinez told him that he could not allow him to carry them out; then, refusing an invitation to supper, he returned to the Princesa. In the afternoon, Colnett

THE LOG OF THE PRINCESA 27

wrote a friendly note requesting the use of Martinez' launch in raising his anchor and setting sail the following morning. "I saw then that the reasons which he had given me in the morning for not presenting the papers which I had demanded were merely pretexts for not showing them, so that he could delay until he could find a favorable opportunity to get away." Martinez therefore refused assistance until Colnett should place the papers in his hands. Colnett then went on board the Princesa and showed his passport, but refused to show his instructions, which, he said, were addressed to himself alone. A moment later, he asserted that he had no instructions other than his passport, and demanded an instant reply to his re- quest for the Spaniard's launch, that he might set sail at once. Being again refused until he should show his instructions, he announced his determination to sail at once, "and if I did not like it, I might fire at him, for he was not afraid of us. He accompanied this talk by placing his hand two or three times on his sword, which he wore at his belt, as if to threaten me in my own cabin. He added in a loud voice the evil sounding and insulting words, *G d d d Spaniard.' ... I de- cided that if I let him go free from my deck, I would thereby suffer the arms of his Catholic Majesty to be dishonored. Many, too, would think that I had failed to act, through fear, though I had no reason to be afraid, since I was superior in force to Colnett." Then, to avoid a conflict with possible loss of life, and for fear Colnett would sail at once to London to report, Martinez says, he arrested the Englishman and his crew, and took over the ship.

Thus the log corrects Dr. Manning's statement (p. 334) that everything seems to have been harmonious on the morning of July 3, for at the outset Colnett began the day by suspicious actions and haughty disregard of Martinez' claim to the sovereignty of the land. He followed this by an ill-timed disclosure of his purposes in Nootka, resorting to patent mis- representation in saying that he could not find his papers to

28 HERBERT INGRAM PRIESTLY

show them. If it be objected that we are here taking Martinez' testimony in his own cause, it is yet plain that his account of the quarrel and arrest in the cabin written at the moment have quite as much air of verisimilitude as the accounts of the other participants, which were equally partisan, and were written later. Notice also Duf fin's letter of July 14 [13], in Meares' Voyage, cited by Dr. Manning (p. 336), wherein the writer calls attention to Colnett's refusal at Duffin's request, to "draw out every particular concerning our being captured. . . . His objection is that he has involved himself . . . in difficulties that he is not able to extricate himself from. . . ." Manning's conjecture is that this refusal was for shame of his (Colnett's) insanity; it is quite as reasonable to conjecture that it was due to the fact that he had been rash in putting himself in a situation where seizure was the normal outcome of his actions. It is noticeable that Duffin's account, the one written by the only sane English participant, exculpates Martinez from the charge of harshness, and puts the blame for the situation upon Colnett by implication, in his letter in Meares' Voyage, Appendix.

With regard to the capture of the Princess Royal, Capt. Hudson, which returned to Nootka July 13, the log adds to Bancroft's account, which merely states the event in a dozen words, and to the more detailed narrative of Manning, the assertion that when Hudson put off to the shore in his boat he was disguised as a common seaman. He was, as the English accounts have it also, taken from his boat onto the Spanish launch sent to meet him, and disarmed; but his boat succeeded in eluding the capturing launch, made off to an inlet too narrow for the latter, and attempted to speak to Colnett on the captured packet. This, Martinez refused to permit, unless the crew should surrender themselves, to be taken on board his frigate. (Log pp. 130-131.) "As soon as I had descended to my cabin and found Hudson there, I com- manded him to write an order directing his sloop to enter the

THE LOG OF THE PRINCESA 29

harbor. He begged off, saying that he could not give it unless he should first see his commander. . . He said furthermore that he had a good crew to defend it, with the guns loaded, and with orders that if they say any boats approaching, to fire on them without letting them draw close.

"I was cognizant of the order which he had given, and knew that there was no way to make him do as I had commanded, in spite of the fact that I had given him to understand that he was as much my prisoner as were those of the packet. I accordingly ordered the pilot Mondofia, in the presence of Hudson, to arm the launches and . . . bring the sloop in- side. I commanded him that [if the crew fired] he should . . . seize her by force, putting the crew to the sword without quarter. I also gave Hudson to understand . . . that if the crew offered resistance I would have him hanged at the yard arm. . . . He [then] wrote out an order to his men to surrender." ... He requested me that before the launches should leave, I should send his own boat with my men and one of his own, to give the countersign and warn them not to fire. When once on board, they would hand over the letter. Then, when the launches should arrive, his men would surrender without resistance." This was done, and the launches took the sloop on the 13th, without resistance.

The remainder of the log subsequent to the seizures, is con- cerned with the details of the Spanish occupation, and with contributions to the ethnography and topography of the region, gathered from the log of Ingraham and from observation. There is, so far as I know, no disagreement as to these features of the Nootka occupation. Nor does the log shed any light on further happenings in Mexico pursuant to the arrival of the seized vessels there. A discrepancy is found between the log and published account of Dr. Manning, taken from the report of Revilla-Gigedo to Valdez, Mexico, p. 212, to the effect that upon his departure for San Bias Martinez seized two American vessels and took them with him. The account of the log is

30 HERBERT INGRAM PRIESTLEY

that he took only one, the Fair America, commanded by the son of Captain Metcalf . Another vessel, . . . young Met- calf recognized as his father's, was given chase, but escaped.

Concerning the manifest favor with which Martinez treated Gray and Kendrick, the log says: (entry of Oct. 30) "The sloop Washington continued her voyage, not in making dis- coveries, as was said, but rather in the collection of furs, which is the principal object of the nations;" I might have taken [these American vessels] prisoners, but I had no orders to do so, and my situation did not permit it. I treated this enemy as a friend, I turned over to him 187 skins to be sold on my account in Canton, the proceeds to be turned over to the Spanish ambassador in Boston for the benefit of the Crown.

"Capt. John Kendrick informed me that he had not yet fulfilled his commission, and asked me if he might maintain himself on the coast the following year after going to Sand- wich and Canton. I told him he might if he carried a Spanish passport, as he said he expected to do, and that in that case he should buy for me in Macao two ornaments for the mass, and seven pairs of boots for the officers of the San Carlos and my vessel, but I believe nothing of that will come to pass."

Dr. Manning says (p. 360) that there is ground for dispute as to the justice or injustice of the seizures at Nootka. The double character of the Iphigenia he mentions as a "harmless trick, meant only to deceive the Celestials." It ought to be more difficult to harmonize this judgment with probability, seeing that the only Celestials whom it would be profitable to deceive were across the Pacific, than to harmonize the act of appearing under Portuguese colors with the fact that Spain and Portugal were, since the rapprochement during the War of American Independence, on more friendly terms with each other than was either with England ; hence a Portuguese vessel would run less risk on the Northwest Coast than would an Englishman. It is to be observed that the instructions to

THE LOG OF THE PRINCESA 31

Martinez by Florez did not mention the Portuguese at all, while they did particularize on the treatment to be accorded to English, Russian, and American vessels. The account of the quarrel with Colnett would seem to offer evidence that the acute situation was caused quite as much by the arrogance of Colnett as by misunderstanding on the part of Canizares the interpreter. We have not yet a perfectly unbiased account of what really did happen at Nootka, nor shall we, in all like- lihood, ever have. What we have is another statement of the case, by an active, competent, though naturally prejudiced participant. The fact that the Martinez diary was a daily entry, and that this fair copy of it was made at San Bias, before question of the events made by the viceroy could affect its purport, make it the best available source on affairs at Friendly Cove in the summer of 1789.

DOCUMENTARY

THE LETTERS OF THE REV. WILLIAM M. ROBERTS, THIRD SUPERINTENDENT OF THE OREGON MISSION.

Edited by ROBERT MOULTON GATKE, A. B., Graduate Fellow in Oregon History, Willamette University.

Letters hold no small place among our best historical sources. To read what a man says under conditions demand- ing accuracy in expression and yet free from the restraint of a self-consciousness resulting from the expectation of his writings being published, is indeed to get very near his real motives and opinions, especially as the passage of years have not allowed events to become unduly colored by later opinions and information. We get as close to history in the making as we are ever able to get. We do not secure information which has been brought forth by the suggestive question of the investigator but by the circumstances of the day which pro- duced the letter, hence their great value. Often the incidental reference to things of apparently slight importance opens for us a straight passage way into the very heart and spirit of the day we are seeking to understand.

The letters of Rev. William M. Roberts are splendid examples of what letters can show us of the period in which they were written. They were written by a man who was a keen observer, and usually directed to men whom he felt must be made to understand Oregon as he saw it. They are the product of a man who was himself one of the molding factors in the State's development as the leader of one of the great formitive forces of our State the Methodist Mission. Our regret upon reading the Roberts letters is that they are so few in number, and cover such a limited period, mainly 1847- '49. Most of his papers were destroyed by his surviving relatives

34 ROBERT MOULTON GATKE

who considered them to be merely personal papers which should not concern the public. The only reason the present group escaped a like fate was owing to the fact that the signed copies had been written in a large letter book, bound in heavy leather which Mr. Roberts kept with his library, and hence passed with his other books, into the possession of Willamette University.

Before letting the letters speak for themselves, it may be well to remind ourselves, in just a word or two, concerning the position of Roberts in Oregon history. As the third Super- intendent of the Oregon Mission between the years of 1847 and 1849, Mr. Roberts directed the newly founded church through the danger period of the Indian troubles and the mad rush for California at the time of the Gold Discovery. He organized the Oregon-California Mission Conference of the Methodist Church, and exercised a wise control over the newly established church in California as well as in Oregon. When the Mission Conference was formally organized into two Annual Conferences (1852) Roberts continued his work as an aggressive pioneer minister. His position, ability and interest gave him a marked influence in the civic and educa- tional life of the new country, as well as its religious life, so we find his influence touching many phases of Early Oregon History.

This leader of Early Oregon was born in Burlington, N. J., in 1812, was city reared and educated, and entered the Methodist Ministry in the Philadelphia Conference in 1834. His early pulpit work marked him as a man destined to become a leader in his church. In 1846 he was appointed to succeed Dr. George Gary as Superintendent of the Oregon Mission, and reached Oregon in June, 1847. The William Roberts best remembered was as he appeared in later years, but a description given of him by an associate of his earlier years will serve to bring to mind his appearance at the time he wrote the letters now before us: "He was thirty- four

LETTERS OF REV. WM. M. ROBERTS 35

years of age ; a very Chesterfield in appearance and manners, and yet as affable and approachable to the lowly as to the exalted. In the pulpit his elocution was nearly faultless, and his sermons were thoroughly evangelical and charmingly eloquent. He was energetic in execution. Though not a large man, and yet not a small one, physically, when he entered upon his work here, his figure and poise drew the instant attention of the passerby, and introduced him to the favorable regards of the people at once."

The long and useful career of the Rev. William M. Roberts closed August 22, 1888, at the home of his later years, in Dayton, Oregon.

Oregon City Deer 18th 1847 To Rev. Dr. Pitman Cor. Secy ) Miss'y Soc'y of the M. E. Church) Dear Bro.

Afo unexpected event has just transpired in this territory, which at once furnished the occasion and means of communi- cation with the United States. It is the melancholy fact that Dr. Whitman and wife and nine other persons have been cruelly murdered at Waiilatpu.

It is generally known that for several years past the Ameri- can Board has had three Mission Stations in the upper country. One at Tshimakains, where the Rev. Messrs Walker and Eells are located. Another at Clear Water under the care of Rev. Mr. Spaulding : And a third at Waiilatpu, under the Superintendence of Dr. Marcus Whitman, Physician and catechist. This last station is near Fort Walla Walla, and not far from the travelled route from the United States to this Country. In fact many of the Emigrants stop at this place for a time after their toilsome journey and some who are too late or feeble to get in the Walamet Valley, remain there all winter. The Indians in this vicinity, are chiefly, the Cayuses who since the Establishment of the Mission, have become wealthy in cattle and horses and have macle consider- able progress in the tillage of the soil. All the reports I have had from them by the Emigrants of the present season seem

36 ROBERT MOULTON GATKE

to represent them as much less troublesome than other Indians on the route, seldom condescending- to the petty thefts which are so characteristic of Indians everywhere. It has so happened that the Emigrants have brought the Measles with them into this country, the present season, and of course the Cayuse Indians among the rest have caught the Contagion: numbers of them have died and in labouring to minister to the sick and dying, Dr. Whitman has lost his life. The accompanying letters in the Oregon Spectator* will shew you the horrible suspicion which entered their minds that he was secretly attempting to poison them and they at once resolved upon his destruction. I refer you to the documents in question for the particulars of this horrid massacre. They contain all the information we have up to this moment.

My acquaintance with Dr. Whitman has been limited of course, but I have recognized in him a deeply pious and indefat- igable labourer in the missionary field with a heart over- flow- ing with sympathy for the perishing Indian race, he has been assiduously labouring for years to improve their condition: And now while standing manfully at his post, he has fallen by the hand of savage violence. I desire here for myself and my brethren members of our Mission to express our deepest Christian sympathies both to his friends in the States and the Board under whose auspices he was labouring, in view of this afflictive event. The heart of this whole community at this moment throbs with emotion at the intelligence.

Nor is this all that is to be feared. The Indians threatened to go to Clear Water and to the Dalls to murder the residents in those places. The most efficient measures in our power have been adopted to send relief. A company of more than 40 have volunteered and gone to the Dalls to hold that place until a larger force can be raised and sent to the upper Country to bring away the women and children who may yet be alive, and proceed to the residences of Messres Spalding, Walker, and Eells, whose situation if they are yet alive must be iminently perilous.

Perhaps I ought to have said before this time that with the exception of Mrs. Whitman the Indians decided to spare the women and children.

The Legislature of the territory is now in session in this

* Published at Oregon City— 1846-1855.

LETTERS OF REV. WM. M. ROBERTS 37

city and is a very respectable body : Greatly perplexed how- ever, with the present aspect of Indian affairs. If the cayuses have succeeded in drawing the Walla Walla and Nez Perce Indians into hostile measures against the whites, we are involved in a most serious and embarrasing war which this Country has no means to sustain. Application has been made by Commrs. (commissioners) appointed for the purpose, To the Hudson's Bay Com'y for a loan but the Chief Factor* replied that the instructions of the Company would not allow him to make such appropriation.

A public meeting of the Citizens was then called and such were the exigencies of the case that it was regarded as indis- pensable for me to furnish aid to the amount of $1000. I stedfastly resisted all applications until I became convinced that the circumstances would not only justify but really demanded compliance. How far I can make the funds here available for this purpose I cannot at this moment tell, but think it probable that nothing short of a Draft will answer the purpose. But the lives of my fellow labourers in the mission field are at stake and immediate relief must be furnished. The investment doubtless is perfectly secure, and amts. only to a temporary loan payable in silver in this country. I would not omit to mention that immediately on the receipt of the afflictive intelligence here derailed Mr. Ogden of Fort Vancouver with a party of 20 men proceeded to Fort Walla Walla to afford all the relief in his power and intelligence has just been rec'd by an Indian from the Dalls that all was well there up to Monday the 18th Inst.

The Cayuses came to the DeShutes river and put a "medican man" to death and then retired without doing further damage. You will by this time percieve that the failure of the American Gov. to send its laws for our control, and its troops for the protection of its own citizens as they approach our exposed border is a great calamity. The Mexican war may (explain) but cannot justify the failure. Many thousand dollars worth of property havce been stolen from the Emigrants this season along the route, and as you see several valuable lives lost simply for the want of from 20 to 100 men stationed at proper points along the road to prevent Indian aggressions. Had the Act of the twenty ninth Con-

* James Douglas

38 ROBERT MOULTON GATKE

gress "to provide for raising a regiment of mounted riflemen and for establishing Military stations on the route to Oregon" only been carried into effect, the Battle at the Dalls and the Massacre at Waiilatpu would not have happened : and many a toil worn emigrant who has come in sick and penniless, a little pilfered from him here and there until his all was gone might have had a competence : at least until he had recovered from the fatigues of the journey through that great and terrible wilderness.

The emigration of the present season is computed at from 4 to 5 thousand, the principal part of which crossed the Cascade mountains over Barlow's road:1 soon after the rains commenced, that road became impassable and those on the northern route, were compelled to come down the Columbia river. Several companies have come in the southern route with safety, and the hope is entertained that future emigra- tions will so divide themselves on the several routes as to have an abundance of grass for their cattle. We are recieving many valuable accessions to our Membership from the states the present season: and have been blest with quite a (number) of conversions, mainly on the West Side of the Walamet river. Two weeks later I could furnish you with statistics. But the special messenger2 to the States is expected to start in a few hours and my communication must be closed. In previous letters I have spoken of the transfer of the Dalls Station into the hands of Dr. Whitman according to Bro. Gary's3 arrange- ment, giving him all except the moveable property, the value of which is about $600. Bro. Waller is stationed at the Insti- tute4 and Bro. Brewer's connextion with the mission has ceased. You will of course expect me to say if the recent disaster will in any way affect the prosperity of our Mission or the safety of the Missionaries, I think not. It may prevent some of my excursions among the Indians another season and certainly does seem to darken the prospect of doing any good to them whatever. But I (plan) to enter every open- door, and occupy until the master shall come. Whether it (be) by natural neath, or Indian Massacre, or a chariot of fire. We are all well as usual My Indian Boy is just recovering

1 A toll-road across the Cascade Mts.; opened by Samuel K. Barlow about July, 1845.

2 Joseph L. Meek.

3 Rev. George Gary. Second Supt. Oregon Mission. 1844- June 1847

4 Oregon Institute Salem. Organized in 1844. (Became Willamette Uni- versity.;

LETTERS OF REV. WM. M. ROBERTS 39

from the measles. This is the first introduction of this disease into the Country and is at this time the cause of much suffering in our borders both among whites and Indians. The hour has come for this Com'n (communication) to be closed, and with the greatest confidence that this afflictive event will be over- ruled for good even in Oregon I subscribe

myself

Yours in Christ

Wm. Roberts.

PS. The rumours of this morning are greatly against the hope that Mr. Spalding is yet alive but nothing is certain.

(Copy) Oregon City Deer 20th 1847

To Rev. Dr. Pitman Cor Secy ) Miss Socy of the M. E. Church) Dear Bro.

In my communication of Saturday last with its accompany- ing documents, you have all the information we possess in regard to our Indian difficulties. I now desire (Sub rosa) to speak a little of some business matters if the special mes- senger Mr. J. Meek does not start too soon. And First, as to the payment of salaries. The course has been to pay the part regarded as salary, either in cash or goods at cash or invoice prices: The other part i. e. that regarded as table expenses to be paid in the currency of the country, which is now not worth more than 66 2/3 cts. to the dollar compared with cash. I called the Brethren together recently to compare notes on this subject and find that the salaries as estimated in N. Y. are a little above what the estimating (committee) made them here for 1847.

Now the query arises as the (committee) here estimated in view of the Pay aforesaid ought I to pay the present (or N. Y. estimate) in any other way. Bro. Wilbur1 is of opinion that when the Board made the present estimate of $600. for himself for example, it meant $600. in cash or if currency was used an amt. of it equal to $600. in cash. The other Brethren agree that if the present estimate is paid about as Bro. Gary paid it when he was here that it is sufficient and they have had experience. Do not understand me that there is any

i Rev. J. H. Wilbur. D. D.

40 ROBERT MOULTON GATKE

feeling on the subject on the part of Bro. Wilbur, but such are his convictions of right, and I think he will not be satisfied with the payments made as Bro. Gary made them ; until you shall have given instructions on the subject.

I am scarcely prepared to express an opinon on the subject but the course I had marked out for myself was to ascertain how nearly the present estimate, corresponded with those of former years and also with the actual demand and cost of living in the country. As to the former it is above (only a little) the estimate made here for the same time but below the esti- mates of some previous years, then I intended to have the pay according to the salary: following the example of my predecessor in all cases where I ascertained he was right. Provided that in all cases (I speak now of salaries) the members of the mission are satisfied and happy. It is likely that I may discount somewhat for Bro. Wilbur when I use the funds here at least until you shall have given some direc- tion (if you are prepared to give any) in regard to the question. If at any moment I find the Brethren are not entirely satisfied with payments as Bro. Gary made them, or am convinced from experience that the support is not full and liberal, I shall bring the currency part of the payments down to cash prices so as to made the entire amt. equal to cash as per estimate of the Board, until I recieve further advices : for in my opinion a liberal support and entire harmony of feeling are both essential to our prosperity in the mission.

One thing I ought perhaps to mention I am of opinion that the Board ought to send a good supply of goods to this place not only for the use of the mission families but to enable me to pay for somethings that have to be done in goods. Almost every article of clothing here is from 100 to 200 per ct. above the N. Y. prices. I am under the necessity of haveing some work done for which goods would be most available, and here I will say that my action in this case will be widely different from that of Bro. Gary. He did not travel about except as he was taken. I travel incessantly when angry swolen rivers will permit, hence not only are my personal expenses greatly increased, but I must have a barn and Fodder ; and a man or boy to work for me, and travel with me when

1 Rev. David Leslie.

2 Dr. Gary came to Oregon with instructions to close out all the "aecular" interests of the mission, instructions which he followed literally.

LETTERS OF REV. WM. M. ROBERTS 41

on long and perilous journeys. There is no Barn at the Insti- tute and the Brethren spend nearly one third of their working hours in hunting and catching their horses, and sometimes fail to get to their work because no horse can be found. This must not be and I have no alternative but to build. I have already built one in this place. Bro. Leslie1 now lives at this place in a house which I hold at present but which may be redeemed at any time until the 23d of February next. They have given me due notice that it will be redeemed and then he must vacate the premises; at that time there will be two of us to live with our families in one little one story house 18 by 22 or one of us must go to the Barn, for it is by no means certain that any house can be had for love or money. I refer to these things not to distress you much less to com- plain, for we are very happy a mid it all and would be in a dungeon. But for the purpose of saying it is necessary to build a house for the Superintendent to live in. Arid all this costs money, and is a different course pursued by my predecessor.2

In both the fact and manner of these expenditures, I shall pursue the most rigid economy : now if I had some tea, coffee, flannell, Crockery, Calico stuff for pants, coarse Box coats or Blanket Coats, made or unmade, some stout shoes or (Boots) (nothing is fit for this country that is not very durable), I could after supplying ourselves dispose of them to the greatest advantage, together with the funds we have in this country in paying workmen &C.

It may seem strange to you that I make these suggestions in regard to goods: but if you were to hear the constant enquiry Can't you furnish me with a pair of shoes ? I will do anything for you for a coat, there is no coffee that I can get &C. &C. you would feel as I do that for the present, the truest economy is to keep a moderate supply of these necessaries of life in the mission. We have had an abundant supply of stockings and shirts, and a little Calico they have been a blessing indeed. We want some small Books for presents for children : I find the Sunday School Books we brought were very appropriate, but I want to have some, more immediately intended as presents.

There are a few Local Preachers comeing in this season, and one (Rev. Asa White) to whom I was introduced on Saturday last, one (an Itenerant, who may help us to some

42 ROBERT MOULTON GATKE

extent, but I do not yet see any way at all, with our present means to supply the Tualatin Plains or Clatsop or the extreme upper part of the Valley, much less any hope of touching any point North of the Columbia River, so that if you have received my former letter calling for two young men to come next season either over the mountains or by way of Panama, my mind as to the necessity remains unchanged.

Campbellism is rampant in this country at present. I wish you would send me a few copies of Phillips Strictures on it, or any better work you know of, with 1 copy of Rice and Campbell's Debate.

The prices of a few articles in this country are as follows Flour $4. per hnd. Beef 5@6 Pork 8@10 Oil from $1.25 to $2. Sugar 12c Tea $1.50@$2. and poor at that Coffee 25c but none to be had. Fir wood $3. Oak & Ash $4. butter 25c per Ib. Wheat is very scarce and worth $1. Cash. Fodder impos- sible to get except a few bundles of oats in the sheaf at 75c per dozen &c. &C.

I ought not to forget Hardware Glass and paint for the said house. Nails cost 20c per lib. I think of building a house 32 by 24 Cottage form one and a half stories with Kitchen 14 by 16 the ground plan would be something of this form and I allude to it only to indicate to you the hardware &C necessary there are 5 inside and 2 outside doors on the Lower floor, and Carpenter would give directions in a moment as to the kind and No. of Locks fastenings hinges screws nails (4d are used for shingling here) glass (I want 8 by 10) Paint and a keg of oil. If by any means I can avoid building or have to do it before you can send these items or there should be a surplusage, they are worth here all they cost and 100 per ct. more. I name the above sized glass not because it is the best but because in any contingency it is sometimes possible to get it in this country.

A few remarks on the Oregon Institute and I have done, the claim on which the building is located is now held by Wm. H. Wilson1 in trust for a Board of Managers and excepting the Buildings and a reserve of 60 acres2 he is to have one third of all the claim for holding it &C. This arrangement

1 Made necessary by the failure of the Provisional Government to provide for property holding by corporations.

2 The Willamette University Campus and the Capitol grounds at Salem occupy part of this grant.

LETTERS OF REV. WM. M. ROBERTS 43

was concocted before I came and consummated in the pres- ence of Mr. Gary a day or two before he left. If Bro. Wilson were a thorough going business man it might be a tolerable plan but as it is I dislike it exceedingly, and am trying to persuade him to give it into other hands. It is possible I may succeed. Bro. Wilbur could hold it just as well and it would cost nothing and he would transact the business in due form and order.

A Bro. Joseph Smith is keeping a good school in the build- ing at present, and we are doing all we can to encourage and help, but in a country so new where the Love of gain has gained complete possession of allmost every heart, where the the most Enterprizing cannot work fast and the idle and vicious do nothing but mischief it is not easy to go a great deal in a little time.

I have consecrated all my feeble energies to the work before me, and think these energies both Physical and Spiritual (I say nothing of mental) are strengthened by the Exercise.

There is need here for all the aid you can send us, whether it be in prayers and sympathies, the goods or men I have indi- cated or any other good and perfect gift you may have to send us from the Father of lights. I omitted before leaving home to secure Temperance Publications. I find we are threatened with a Deluge of Rum, and that the most sturdy efforts imag- inable are requisite to stem the torrent.

Gambling abounds. Will you send me the most valuable Temperance publications together with the Permanent Temper- ance Documents. Dec 21st I have just ascertained that by loaning a man $300 in silver I can have a house suitable for Bro. Leslie to live in for eleven months this will give me time enough to build or to make some other shift.

Oregon City seems to be the proper place for me to reside, at least for the present and is the key to the whole territory. I shall be most happy to have such instructions and advice from time to time as will better prepare me for my respon- sible work in this country I am

Yours in Christ

William Roberts.

44 ROBERT MOULTON GATKE

(Copy) Oregon City Dec 22nd 1847

Dear Bro. Kidder

After haveing prepared such communications for the Miss'y Board as will give all the light we have on the recent afflictive event which has shrouded our territory in gloom, I desire to improve the remaining moments before the messenger starts in writing to such friends as are most frequently in my thoughts.

We are well as usual : my own health was never better, and I think Mrs. Roberts enjoys even better health in the general than in the States. Up to this time however, she has been too much confined at home, I trust that when the rainy season is over my business will allow of her taking some long horse back trips which I am quite confident would be very conducive to her comfort in many respects. I have quite a No. of Indian Ponies so that if you will bring Mrs. Kidder to see us we can take a tour, children and all.

In settling the Indian difficulties at the Dalls several horses fell into my hands, which I have not yet disposed of. The Sabbath School Cause is yet in its infancy in this country oweing to the scattered character of the population. The poverty of many of the people in not being able to clothe either themselves or their children so that they would be fit to appear in church or school, and to the ignorance of and carelessness of many others, the subject has never received that attention its importance demands: Every month however brightens the hopes in regard to this enterprize. The Box of S. S. Advocates which was sent to us was very opportune, it contained however, only the first half of the 4th Vol. from 1 to 12 inclusive. Can you send us as many of the last half of the same vol and so on of the next volume as they come out. There are many families among whom we distribute these papers very anxious to have the volume complete and we distribute them in our schools at regular intervals just as if we were recieving them from the publication office. I greatly desire to have a lot of books more immediately suitable for presents. In the name of the lambs of Christ's flocks let me ask you to select and send such as will be sufficient for the pockets and saddle bags of six or eight Itinerants who have but few opportunities of seeing the children except when we go from cabin to cabin in our regular appointments and pas- toral visits: After next New Years ensueing I can give you

LETTERS OF REV. WM. M. ROBERTS 45

Statistics, but I have only had one Quarterly Con. and then the Preachers in charge had not their S, S. reports as per disciplin, they will not be behind hand after this I am confident.

The glory of Oregon in Temperance has departed.1 There are three dram shops in this city and in spite of all our efforts tippling and gambling abound. We are just now making an effort to alter the organic law so that Prohibition may be the law of the land in regard to all that intoxicates. But I have some hope that we can by the blessing of God put forth some efforts to save the country.

Romanism is here and doing all it can. I give you an incident. The Legislature is in session and at its opening passed the customary resolution inviting the Clergymen of the place to open the morning sessions with prayer. The Com- mittee invited the Catholic Priest among the rest.

I opened the first morning by invitation. The Legislature sits you must know in the Methodist Church2 as there is no other suitable building in the place. The sec'd. morning the Speaker arose and said he would be pleased if the Clergyman would arrange among themselves as to who would officiate each morning without his making the selection. The Priest who was standing by the stove immediately said he had been invited to officate as their chaplain. That he was present for that purpose, but that he would allow no one else to dictate a prayer to any of his people. We have, he said, authority to preach from the Apostles. This is a political body and can do its business without prayer or each one who wishes it can pray silently but some of my people are members of the body and if any of these persons come here to dictate prayers to my people I will not permit it &C. The Speaker scarcely knew what to reply to all this intolerance, but in a few moments the House proceeded to elect a Chaplain and the Priest was excused.

I have regularly served them since that time and in a few days, the session will close. The Governor (Bro. Abemethy)3 brought up the School Questin in his message but I fear that

1 Dr. John McLoughlin and Jason Lee had united their influence to keep Oregon as free from liquor as possible. . ._ ,_

2 The first church building in the Pacific N. W.

3 George Abernethy, came to Oregon in 1840 as treasurer of the M. E'. Mission. He became first Governor of Oregon.

46 ROBERT MOULTON GATKE

war and rumours of war will crowd out any valuable action on the subject. But I hear that the special messenger to the States is to start shortly and with assurances of love and Christian affection,

I am yours as ever

Wm Roberts. Rev. D. P. Kidder

Oregon City 25 Deer 1847 Dear Bro.

I hereby advise you of a Draft I have made or rather of two drafts I have drawn on you. One for $100. the other for $400. in favour of Jos. L. Meek the Messenger to the United States from the provisional Government of Oregon. To Rev G. Lane ) I am

Treasurer of the Mis. Socy) Yours truly

of the M. E. Church ) Wm Roberts

Oregon City 25 Deer 1847 To Rev G. Lane &C Dear Bro Lane

I hereby advise you that I have this day drawn on you for $500. in favour of A. L. Lovejoy, H. Burns and Wm. H. Wilson, Commissioners of Oregon territory at ten days sight. I am

Yours truly

Wm. Roberts.

Oregon City Friday Deer 24th 1847 Rev. Dr. Pitman &C Dear Bro.

And yet the Messenger delays: the difficulty of raiseing the means, the necessary delay in preparing the memorial to congress, and the intense desire to hear from the upper country together with the necessary preparations for crossing the Shasta mountain between here and California in this winter season, will not allow him to start before next week. I therefore commence another sheet, which I purpose to fill with such events as may transpire in the interval. In the meantime the present weeks paper will be out containing the Governor's message and some of the proceedings of the Leg-

LETTERS OF REV. WM. M. ROBERTS 47

islature. I send you such parts of the paper as relate to this Country folded in the letter as the safest means of transporta- tion. In truth where an express can take with certainty only such things as may be belted around the man it will not do to burden it with newspapers. The present Editor of the paper is too fond of his cups to give it much interest or credit, and it is likely he will soon be excused from further service.

Monday Dec 27. Up to this moment we hear nothing that is positively certain from the Dalles, and I must close my letters to take a tour up the valley early tomorrow morning. The general opinion is that the property at the Dalles has fallen into the hand of the Cayuses, and that the Company of volunters sent there are encamped in an open bottom 3 miles below awaiting further orders.

The effort is (being made) to raise 500 men which I pre- sume will succeed and then all those who go to the upper Country will not return it is to feared that some will fall a prey to Savage violence there are various opinions entertained as to whether it would be best to do anything more now than rescue the remaining families and wait for the U. S. troops to chastise the offenders, or, to proceed at once to rescue and chastise them ourselves. The Governor inclines strongly to the former course but there are some restless persons in the territory who are determined to go and chastise the Indians at all hazards and it is thought best to place them under proper control. So that no mischief may be done at any rate, for if the disposition of some who desire to go and pay them- selves with what they could take from the Indians were grati- fied, the fields of Oregon could not be planted the comeing season.

The Legislature adjourns tomorrow after a session of three weeks more than half of which time has been occupied by the war. Since commencing these letters, my eldest boy has been taken down with fever it is of a low painless type Identical I suppose with the camp fever which operates so fatally among the Emigrants. While at home I could manage our ligffi afflictions tolerably well but when away from home it would be comfortable to leave one's sick family in the care of a good physician but at present the great physician above is our only reliance.

The present winter has been remarkable favourable the weather has been so mild that the cattle are doing finely,

48 ROBERT MOULTON GATKE

there has been very little rain during the present month. I am reminded by the pattering of the rain at this moment that my 50 miles ride tomorrow will be in the face of a South East storm. Hopeing that the Lord will take care of us and that we may hear from you soon. I subscribe

myself

Your Bro in Christ

W. Roberts.

P. S. I will sketch some more wants if you have no objection our church in this place has a Belfry, erected at the instance of Dr. Babcock1 who promised to furnish a bell which is really indispensable. Will you write to him and request him to consent that you may forthwith purchase a Bell suitable for a church 40 by 50 (I dont know its exact size) and send it here at his expense. Inform him also that I have some pros- pect of collecting some funds for him which were left in my hands for collection, they shall be forwarded when collected as per arrangement of Bro. Gary. Whether he pays for it or not we greatly need a Bell, but if the above mentioned promise was made and if I am to collect his debts I insist that he shall pay for the bell. The following articles would contribute to our comfort 2 or 3 pieces of Rag carpet, a piece of stuff for Horse Blanket 2 Riding Bridles a Spanish Bit, gross of the several kinds of Buckels.

W. R.

i Dr. Ira L. Babcock, M. D., member of the M. E. Mission group of 1840.

I

THE QUARTERLY

of the

Oregon Historical Society

VOLUME XXI JUNE, 1920 NUMBER 2

Copyright. 1919. by the Oregon Historical Society The Quarterly disavows responsibility for the positions taken by contributors to its pag-e s

DAVID THOMPSON AND BEGINNINGS IN IDAHO* By T. C. ELLIOTT

The statement has not infrequently been made that the mis- sionary of the cross has led the way in exploration and the acquisition of geographic knowledge among the wilderness lands of the earth. The name most often mentioned in this connection is that of David Livingstone and the claim is true as to a certain part of the continent of Africa. But it is not true as to the extensive region of North America once known as "Old Oregon/' of which the present State of Idaho is a part. Into "Old Oregon" it was the flag, the red, white and blue flag we delight to honor, in the hands of Lewis and Clark in 1805 which led the way. And the fur trader seeking for gain followed immediately behind, first the trader from Mon- treal across the mountain passes into what is now British Columbia, and next the trader from St. Louis from the head waters of the Missouri river, into Idaho.

Earlier than the acquisition of Louisiana by the United States the Northwest Company, fur traders of Canada, had been planning to cross the Rocky Mountains and had sent their partners into the foothills to spy out the road; but the activities of a rival company in the Canadian field delayed them.

* An informal address (amplified for publication) before the University Club, Boise, Idaho, on April 10th, 1920.

50 T. C. ELLIOTT

The "Northwesters" were, of course, not ignorant of the move- ments of the Lewis and Clark party in the United States and a trader named Francois Larocque was sent to follow them up the Missouri ; and that same year, 1805, Simon Fraser started toward the Pacific by way of Peace River, where Alexander Mackenzie had already explored the way. In 1806 Fraser was building trading posts along the waters of the river of his name, and David Thompson was receiving orders to cross the mountains further to the south, and in 1807 he did so from the head waters of the Saskatchewan to those of the Columbia. That year he remained at the source of the Columbia, but in 1808 extended his trade to the Indians along the Kootenai river, and in 1809 came still further south to the waters of the Pend Oreille and Clark Fork rivers. It is this really won- derful man, David Thompson, and his brief career in what is now the State of Idaho which furnishes the material for this address.

The City of Boise has been built upon one of the camping or resting places on an old Indian road passing east and west across the State of Idaho, which later became the route of travel for white families migrating to Oregon and known as the Oregon Trail. May it ever be held in honored memory as such! In northern Idaho connecting the waters of the Kootenai river at Bonners Ferry with those of Pend Oreille lake near Sand Point there was another established road or trail, known to the earliest explorers as the Lake Indian Road. This road is now, with variations, used by the swiftly moving automobile but more than one hundred years ago in September, 1809, such a use was not foreseen, and a slowly moving pack train fol- lowed it southward, in charge of David Thompson, an English- man and partner of the North West Company already men- tioned, assisted by Finan McDonald, a Scotchman ; the rest of the party consisting of French-Canadian voyageurs and half- breed hunters and servants, perhaps ten in all, and some In- dians. And it may be here noted with some emphasis that

DAVID THOMPSON AND BEGINNINGS IN IDAHO 51

these two men, David Thompson and Finan McDonald, were then the only white men in existence in the entire watershed of the Columbia river, from California to the Fraser river and from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific ocean. That seems an historic fact of sufficient importance to call for special mention.

These two men were not ignorant trappers or mere ad- venturers but intelligent observers of the country and its people and seriously engaged in organized exploration and trade. David Thompson was a trained astronomer and sur- veyor and carried with him both sextant and chronometer and made observations of the sun and moon. He also carried paper, ink (in powdered form) and pens and wrote regularly in a journal a brief account of the daily journey and events. It is this journal, preserved to us among the archives of the province of Ontario, Canada, which contains a record of some of the earliest incidents in the history of Idaho.

Before quoting some of the summarized writings in this journal it may be well to recall with you that Pend Oreille lake is the largest body of water in Idaho, more than thirty miles long and five in width and of extraordinary depth, a portion of the waters of which may soon be put to use to irrigate a million acres of land in an adjoining state. Its outlet is the river of the same name at its northwest corner where the city of Sand Point is located, and at its northeasterly corner it receives the waters of Clark Fork river coming from the glaciers of the Rocky mountains. The Northern Pacific rail- road follows the northern end of the lake between Sand Point and the mouth of the Clark Fork river and a large peninsula extends into the lake from the north, near the town of Hope. David Thompson assigned the name Kullyspell to this lake and to the river flowing from it, a name taken from the Indian tribe residing along the river to the westward, while a con- temporaneous writer1 (in 1810) applied the name Ear Bob

1 Alexander Henry.

52 T. C. ELLIOTT

(Pend d'Oreille, now officially spelled Pend Oreille) Indians to this same tribe.

The arrival of white men at this lake and their activities during the first few days thereafter were chronicled by Mr. Thompson as follows: Sepr. 8, 1809: Friday A fine day, but very cold night. Ice was formed, but the leaves are yet every- where very green, except a few on the Ground, which in places are a little faded. At 7% a.m. set off, Co. S. 20 E. % m. to a Brook, which we followed, S. 40 E. % M, then crossed it.2 It is 15 Yds wide, deep & very easy Current. Co. S. 20 E. 6 M. to a Rill of Water which we followed down S. 40 E. 1%M. to the Lake.3 I do not pretend to take any Courses farther as I hope for a better opportunity, we went abt. 1 M. then met Canoes who embarked abt. 20 Pieces of Lumber & Goods. We held on SEd. 4 or 5 M. & put up at 2% p.m., the wind blowing too hard for the Canoes to hold on. Killed 2 Geese. Mr. McDonald 1 do. & Bouche 1 do. Beaulieu 1 Crane & the Flatheads 3 Ducks.

Sepr. 9. Saturday. A fine day, the wind moderating, the Canoes got off & we followed, but the wind rising, the Canoes were obliged to lighten & reload part of the Horses. We all at length arrived in safety, thank God, at the mouth of the River4 at 2 p.m., where we camped for the night. They all smoked, say 54 Flat Heads, 23 Pointed Hearts5 & 4 Kootenaes, in all about 80 men. They there made us a handsome present of dried Salmon & other fish with Berries & a Chevruil &c.

Sepr. 10. Sunday. A very fine day. Early set off with 2 Flat Heads to look for a place to build a House, we at length found a place somewhat eligible but labours under the want of good earth. I returned & we got all the Goods embarked by the Flat Heads & landed the whole by 3 p.m., when we set up our Lodge & Tents &c.

Sepr. 11. Monday. A cloudy day with a little Rain we made a scaffold for our Provisions & got Birch for Helves, which is very scarce & helved our Tools &c. &c.

2 Pack river, flowing into the lake near Hope, Idaho. So named in mining days because loaded boats ascended the stream to this crossing of the trail.

3 Pend Oreille lake.

4 Clark Fork river.

5 Coeur d'Alen« Indians.

DAVID THOMPSON AND BEGINNINGS IN IDAHO 53

Sepr. 12. Tuesday. A rainy night but very fine day began our warehouse. The Ground is so very full of small stones that the Holes for the Posts &c. &c. is a long time making. Got the Posts and Needles ready & threw down a Red Fir of 2 fm. round to make a Canoe for fishing &c. 16 canoes of Pointed Hearts passed us & camped with the other Flat Heads. Sepr. 13. Wednesday. A fine morning, but abt. 10 a.m. a heavy Gale from S.W. which soon brought on moderate Rain, which lasted nearly all night. Bouche & the Chein Foux brought 2 Chevruil, cut & hauled wood, the Needles & arranged a Horse Collar6 which broke towards evening, we then got wood for another. Spent much of the day in trading7 with the Indians who brought abt. 120 or 130 skins. Put out a Fire the Indians kindled.

A transcript of the entire text8 would be monotonous read- ing and sufficient has been given to indicate the style and extent and accuracy of the journal. In it we find one of the earliest instances of contact between" the white man and the Indian in Idaho and unimpeachable proof of the friendliness and even cordiality of the relations then existing. In it is given the narrative of the building of the first houses in Idaho, for another year elapsed before Andrew Henry, the American trader from St. Louis, erected his temporary cabins at the headwaters of Snake River. In it are given some figures of the first commercial transaction known to have taken place in Idaho. These are historic facts not widely known as yet.

An interesting item of nomenclature also appears in one of the entries ; the name of the next largest lake in Idaho, Coeur d'Alene. Here appears the first written reference to that name, which literally translated means awl-hearted or stingy-hearted, referring to trade relations. But it is evident that some French- Canadian or half-breed trapper had already penetrated to Coeur d'Alene lake and brought back that name to David Thompson for his use in the corrupted form of Pointed Hearts, referring to the Indians from that region.

6 Used in moving logs with horses.

7 The first recorded commercial transaction in Idaho. Lewis and Clark had bartered for food and horses but not for gain.

8 See Washington Historical Quarterly, Vol. XI for complete text and annota- tions.

54 T. C. ELLIOTT

The site selected by David Thompson for this trading post has been quite positively identified as a rather rocky point of land projecting from the peninsula already mentioned, about two miles from the mouth of the main channel of Clark Fork river and a half mile from Memaloose Island, and locally known as Sheepherders Point. Kullyspell House was the name as- signed to it and it consisted of two log houses, one for the trading goods and furs and the other for the use of the men. At noon on September 23rd, 1809, Mr. Thompson took an observation of the sun and calculated that he was standing at latitude 48° 12' 14" (and near longitude 116) and so recorded. Comparison with the latest quadrangle maps of the U. S. Geological Survey shows that he was astonishingly correct in this calculation. Sheepherders Point is located very close to the northwest corner of Section fourteen in Township fifteen North, of Range one East of the Boise Meridian, according to maps of the U. S. Land Office.

Reasons for the selection of this location were its proximity to the canoe route from all parts of the lake and its freedom from the mosquitoes. Two years later Mr. Thompson had found that the trail by land was used as well as the canoe route and that the Indians going to the lake to fish and visit were neither numerous or industrious trappers for furs and so he ordered it abandoned in favor of the Spokane House, which was built in the summer of 1810. But the distinction of being the trading post first opened for commercial transactions in the whole Oregon Country south of the 49th parallel belongs to Kullyspell House. Finan McDonald, officially designated as clerk, was in charge during the winter of 1809-10, while Mr. Thompson in November built another trading post known as Saleesh House at Thompson's Prairie in Montana, and win- tered there in company with another clerk named James Mc- Millan, who had arrived from the Saskatchewan country with more trading goods.

From Kullyspell House David Thompson made two jour-

DAVID THOMPSON AND BEGINNINGS IN IDAHO 55

neys of exploration down the Pend Oreille river, going nearly as far as Metaline Falls, and being the first white man to survey that interesting river. He was endeavoring, without success, to find a nearer route for canoe travel to the Columbia river. From Kullyspell House also he was the first man to survey and leave a record of the route later adopted by en- gineers for use in the construction of the Northern Pacific railroad between Missoula, Montana, and Lake Pend Oreille. His last visit at this house was on June 6th, 1811, when pass- ing from the Saleesh or Flathead country to Spokane House and Kettle Falls on his remarkable journey down the Columbia river to its mouth that summer.9

In the spring of 1810 the furs collected at Saleesh House were brought down the river to Kiullyspell House and together with those bought locally were pressed and packed for trans- port to market, and on May 9th, 1810, Mr. Thompson and Mr. McMillan set out on that long and weary journey, Finan McDonald and Jaco Finlay being left in charge of the business in the field. The route to market was circuitous and hazard- ous, the greater distances by water but with long portages by land. From Kullyspell House the loaded canoes were pushed up the swollen waters of Pack river to the crossing of the Lake Indian Road to the Kootenai, and there pack horses were in waiting. At Bonners Ferry other canoes were made ready and from there partly in canoes and partly upon horses the packs were carried up the river to the portage at Columbia Lake in what is now British Columbia. From there by the water route the transport was one hundred miles northward down the Columbia river to the mouth of Blaeberry creek, where was the western end of the trail leading across the Rocky mountains by way of the Howse Pass. After climbing over the "height of land," as they termed it, the waters of the Saskatchewan were reached and canoes and bateaux again brought into service. Then came the long journey down the river and across Lake Winnipeg and through the chain of

9 Consult "Journal of David Thompson" in Oregon Historical Quarterly, Vol .X.

56 T. C. ELLIOTT

Rainy Lakes to the headquarters of the "Northwesters" at Fort William, and from there all furs were carried to Montreal and to London.

What was this first shipment of merchandise from the State of Idaho? The "Narrative" of David Thompson tells us when it says, as of date May 17th, 1810 (at Bonners Ferry) : "We got the canoes repaired and in the afternoon with forty- six packs of furs and eight bags of Pemmican we went off for the Rocky Mountain defiles. Mr. James McMillan, one man and myself and sixteen horses went by land." At ninety pounds to the pack there were a little more than two tons of pelts, and "A long, long way to Tipperary" to travel with them.

But the more human part of this story remains to be told, namely, in brief summary the career of its hero.10 The earliest mention of David Thompson is to be found in the records of The Parish of Saint John, The Evangelist, London, which contains the date of his birth, at Westminster, England, as April 30th, 1770. The same record shows the death of his father to have been on February 28th, 1772, when David was not quite two years old. The next mention of him appears at The Grey Coat School, Westminster (London), then a charity school for boys; its "principall designe to educate poor chil- dren in the principles of piety and virtue, and thereby lay a foundation for a sober and Christian life." The three following entries appear on the record books of this school : April 29th, 1777. "Abram Ackworth, Esq. was this day pleased to pre- sent David Thompson to be admitted into this Hospl on ye foundation, and ye Governors present being satisfy with ye child's settlement. Ordered that he be admitted on bringing in the usual necessities."

December 30th, 1783. "The Master also reports that ap- plication was made by the Secretary belonging to the Hudson's Bay Company, to know, if this Charity could furnish them 4 boys against the month of May next, for their settlements in America."

10 The only complete life of David Thompson was published by the Champlain Society, Toronto, Canada, in 1916, entitled "David Thompson's Narrative" and edited by J. B. Tyrrell, whose research and personal courtesies are hereby acknowl- edged. T. C. E.

DAVID THOMPSON AND BEGINNINGS IN IDAHO 57

June 29th, 1784. "On the 20th May David Thompson, a mathematical boy belonging to this Hosp-1 was bound to the Hudson's Bay Company & the Treas. then paid Mr. Thomas Hutchins, Corresponding Secretary to the said Company, the sum of five pounds for taking said boy apprentice for seven years."

These brief extracts sufficiently disclose a boyhood spent under conditions of poverty and with very little of personal attention by a loving mother, but under strict observation and schooling which plainly marked his future habits, and at the tender age of fourteen he is landed in September, 1784, on the bleak shores of Hudson's Bay at Fort Churchill to begin the life of a fur trader in a region where the presence of white women was unknown. His only companions are to be men and Indians.

When David Thompson began his seven years of apprentice- ship the Hudson's Bay Company had been in business for more than one hundred years, but their rivals in the field were just organizing into the well known North West Company, under the leadership of certain astute Scotchmen of Montreal. The practice had been that the Indian of the remote interior would carry his furs to the trading posts at or near Hudson's Bay but now the order had been reversed and the rival traders vied with each other in carrying their goods into the Indian country. So after two years of office and store duties at Churchill and York our hero found himself assigned to field service and in company with those who ascended the rivers and built trading posts and even lived in tents for a time near the Indian en- campments, although the winter season was usually spent at one of the established posts.

In this sort of life the next eleven years were passed, during which he very luckily found himself able to indulge his great fondness for mathematics. The trade was carried on with system and intelligence and an attempt made to map the country as the business expanded and among the officers were men

58 T. C. ELLIOTT

skilled in surveying. One Philip Turner was one of those, and during the winter of 1789-90 it happened that David Thompson, nineteen years of age and eager to learn, and Mr. Turner, a kind man and willing to teach, wintered together at Cumberland House near the Saskatchewan river, and it was then that David Thompson became skilled in the use of the sextant and chronometer and the fine art of astronomical observations. And from that time in particular began his habit of noting in his daily journals the scientific location of the prominent stopping places and trading posts, and courses of the streams.

The "gentlemen" of the Hudson's Bay Company in charge of affairs in North America were as a rule forceful and saga- cious and tactful men, but of necessity life at trading posts was monotonous and solitary and tended to make some men morose and overbearing, particularly because of the use of liquor in the trade. David Thompson had an abhorrence for liquor in every form and also was a devout man in his daily life and ambitious to do his work thoroughly, and when it happened that the chief factor at York, who was a surly man and gen- erally disliked, sent orders to do no more surveying, he decided to make a change,11 and so we find in his journal on May 23rd, 1797, this entry : "This day left the service of the Hudsons' Bay Company, and entered that of the Company of Merchants from Canada. May God Almighty prosper me." He walked seventy-five miles across country to a trading post of the rival company, and from there was sent to headquarters at Grand Portage on Lake Superior, where he was welcomed and set to work and soon after received into active partnership.

Life now became to David Thompson a continual joy in the sense of freedom to do the kind of work he loved to do well. His was the task of locating scientifically the various trading posts of the North West Company, and the energy with which he entered into the hardships and toil of such a task is an inspiration to contemplate. He was now in active

11 His term of service was about to expire.

DAVID THOMPSON AND BEGINNINGS IN IDAHO 59

association with such men as Alex. Mackenzie and Simon Fraser, the MacTavishes and McGillivrays and others. His movements took him to all the lakes and rivers between Lake Superior and the Rocky mountains, to the Mandan villages on the Missouri, to the source of the Mississippi and through the marshes and lakes between that source and Lake Superior, along the south shore of that lake to the straits of Mackinaw, to Peace river and the Athabasca and into the defiles of the Rocky mountains. And when in 1806 he was given the au- thority to cross the mountains and carry the trade to the regions not yet traversed by the foot of white men he was a happy man indeed.

Of David Thompson's career west of the Rocky mountains something has already been said. He was in charge of the business of his company in this district for five years and established trade relations with all the tribes of the extensive Saleesh family in the Columbia Basin. The observations he recorded as to the habits of these Indians and their future are of absorbing interest and have become true in their later history. His prediction as to the future development of the country has also been fulfilled. Because of his scientific ob- servations he became known to the Indians as Koo-Koo-Sint or the star man. In his journey down the Columbia to its mouth in 1811 he had with him a copy of the journal of Patrick Gass, the only journal then published covering the travels of the Lewis and Clark party. He not only was the discoverer of the source of the long looked for Columbia river, but was the first traveler upon the upper three-fourths of its entire length. His contributions to the ethnology and geographic knowledge of this district exceed that of any other one person. He left the Columbia in the spring of 1812 by way of the Athabasca pass and had then opened to use the first regular line of communication across the continent (Latin America excepted) over which mail and express were carried from Montreal (and from New York and Boston for that mat-

60 T. C. ELLIOTT

ter) to the trading and missionary stations in Oregon and Idaho for a period of thirty years. Mention has been made in published references12 of an attempt to anticipate the Pacific Fur Company (John Jacob Astor) in their settlement at the mouth of the Columbia river, but such was an erroneous con- clusion. No such attempt was made by the Northwesters, although unfortunate physical conditions in the fall of 1810 probably prevented David Thompson from proceeding down the Columbia then.

David Thompson was forty-two years of age when he re- turned to Fort William in 1812 and the following two years were devoted to recording the results of his surveys in Western Canada and the Rocky Mountain and Columbia River regions, and adding thereto surveys of other traders in districts he did not reach himself. The map he drew hung upon the wall of the directors room of the North West Company at Fort William for years and is still preserved in Toronto, Canada. It bears the legend : "Map of the North West Territory of the Province of Canada, 1792-1812, embracing region between Latitudes 45 and 56, and Longitudes 84 and 124. Made for the North West Company in 1813-1814." It was the only source of information about much of Western Canada for fifty years, and quite remarkably, still is as to certain parts. The surveys and observations of David Thompson in Canada and in Idaho are confirmed by those of the present day ; such was their accuracy.

In 1816 David Thompson was employed by the Dominion Government to take charge of surveying, in behalf of Great Britain, the international boundary line between the United States and Canada, work which required ten years to com- plete. He set the boundary marks from the St. Lawrence river as far west as the Lake of the Woods. For ten years longer he continued to do field work for the government and under private contract, but the later years of his life are not pleasant to refer to. His competence was quite ample for a

12 See Oregon Historical Quarterly Vol. XII, p. 195 et seq.; "David Thompson and the Columbia River," by T. C. Elliott, for such references, and other slight errors.

DAVID THOMPSON AND BEGINNINGS IN IDAHO 61

time, but, as has not been infrequent with children of mixed blood, his sons were not successful in life and in assisting them his property was dissipated. His last years were spent in con- ditions of poverty as abject as those of his childhood and much harder to bear. He died at the advanced age of eighty-seven, by the public unrecognized and forgotten.

The body of David Livingstone was buried in Westminster Abby in London with high honors and his tablet is visited by thousands, but the body of David Thompson lies in an un- marked grave in the Mount Royal cemetery at Montreal. Both were devout men and beloved by those in their employ or inti- mate association. David Livingstone was a missionary of the cross and died among the people he went to serve and we would not diminish in the least the honors due to his name. David Thompson lived the principles of his faith in God amid the debaucheries of liquor in the fur trade as practiced by a large number of those engaged in it. His scientific contributions to our knowledge of the unexplored lands of North America entitle him to honor as one of the greatest land geographers if not the greatest the English race has ever produced.

A conclusion appropriate to the title of this address is found in the brief journal entry of David Thompson when at Kullyspell House on Sunday, April 22nd, 1810: "A fine Easter13 Sunday, rested all day."

13 The first known observance of Easter in Idaho.

EDUCATIONAL PLANS AND EFFORTS BY METH- ODISTS IN OREGON TO 1860*

By READ BAIN I. INTRODUCTION

Whatever may be the verdict of history on the final cultural effect of the evangelical religious denominations, it is quite evi- dent all men will agree that they have made a very substantial contribution to the educational progress of every region in which they have established themselves. The fundamental idea, of course, always has been to save the souls of the heathen and raise up the sons and daughters of the faithful under the in- fluence of educational advantages. In order to do this, the minimum requirement is ability to read the Bible. Hence, schools are necessary. So every church, we find, has now, or, at sometime in its history had, an educational program. Indeed, there is a very apparent ratio between the success of the denomination as such, and the extensiveness of its educational activities.

Practically all of the American religious bodies have given up their work in elementary and secondary education (Cath- olics excepted) and devote their energies to supporting some more or less struggling institutions of higher learning. Their objective is usually duofold; first, to foster their denomina- tional program by training church and social workers ; secondly, to provide a place where Christian young men and women of whatever denomination may obtain an education in which the moral and religious values of life are emphasized ; and to fur- nish a favorable environment for the inculcation and develop- ment of these ideals.

Just how long these financially weak and all too often mori- bund schools will be able to stand out against the growing demand for a complete monopoly of education by the state, is a mooted question and one that time alone can settle. There

•Prepared for Seminar in Educational Historical Research conducted by Dean Henry D. Sheldon of School of Education, University of Oregon.

64 READ BAIN

is evidence, however, that most denominations ( Methodists and Catholics excepted) are coming to the conclusion that higher education may better be left to the care of the state as primary and secondary education have been,. The Methodists and Cath- olics may sooner or later come to the same conclusion. At least, there are some noticeable tendencies in this direction. II. ANALYSIS AND SCOPE

However, our subject deals with a topic far removed from the general question of religious educational statesmanship. In the pioneer period, the church was the theorem and the school the most apparent corollary. Where the church went, there the schools went also. While the very first teaching in the Oregon country was not under the direct influence of any religious body, it is safe to say that fully nine-tenths of all the educational activities in the Oregon country before 1860 was either directly or indirectly the result of religious in- fluence.

The period with which we are dealing divides itself into three logical phases : the period of Indian mission schools, from 1834 to 1844 approximately ; the period of pioneer elementary term schools, 1844 to 1854, roughly; and the period of or- ganized institutions, 1854 to 1860. Of course, it is understood that this is a rough approximation, that there is considerable overlapping in each division, but as a basis for discussion this analysis will do very well, as the later development will show.

The purpose of this paper is not to give a complete and final form to the educational history of this period, but to con- fine itself pretty strictly to Methodist education. Even this subject, limited as it is, cannot be treated exhaustively or with finality. It is hoped, however, to indicate the chief sources available for this work, and to sketch, at least, the principal landmarks along the way. Doubtless there are valuable docu- ments in existence of which we know nothing, old pioneer letters, diaries, and perhaps even books which were used in these primitive schools, and samples of the work done by the pupils. It is certain there is a wealth of reminiscent material

METHODIST EDUCATIONAL EFFORT IN OREGON TO 1860 65

which must be collected within a few years, if it ever is to be preserved. Every loyal Oregonian and friend of education and history ought to feel it his duty to put in permanent form all of this precious and fast disappearing material of which he may become cognizant.

Some mention will be made of the educational activities of other churches than the Methodist, partly by way of com- parison, and partly to supplement our knowledge of the Meth- odist activities. Although the Methodist Episcopal Church early took and held the lead in educational affairs, (and in all other affairs of the territory, as well, be it said in passing) it was by no means alone in educational and religious work. By 1850, the Catholics, Disciples in Christ, Congregationalists, Presbyterians and Baptists even the Pedo-Baptists1 and United Brethren, were in evidence.

III. INDIAN MISSIONS, 1834-44

The first school in the Oregon country was taught by one John Ball at Fort Vancouver, Washington. Ball had come out with Wyeth's expedition in 1832. Dr. McLoughlin put him to work teaching the Indians and half-breeds at the Fort, Nov. 19, 1832. Bancroft says2 this school was continued till March 1? when Solomon Howard Smith, who also had come out with Wyeth, was put in charge. He taught till he be- came infatuated with the baker's wife. He ran away with her to French Prairie and opened a school in the house of Joseph Gervais. Then Cyrus Shepard, took charge of the school. Ball, himself,3 says he taught at Vancouver 18 months, so it is likely Bancroft is in error since the Methodists did not come till September, 1834.

["The author is misled by the authority accepted here. Ball's diary states that he was asked by Dr. McLoughlin to take the school on Nov. 17, 1832, and that he taught until March, 1833.— Editor Quarterly.]

Ball says his two dozen pupils talked in all languages Klickitat, Nez Perce, Chinook, Cree, French, and that only one in the whole school could understand him ; that one took issue with him as to how the school should be run. Just then

1 Ezra Fisher Correspondence. Edited by Henderson-Latourette, p. 210. Oct. 20, 1847.

2 Bancroft. Oreg. Hist. vol. I, p. 75

3 Quoted by Homer. "Oregon History," p. 67.

66 READ BAIN

McLoughlin came in. Seeing at once how things stood, he had the young Indian taken outside and thrashed till he saw things from Ball's viewpoint. From then on the school flourished and discipline was easily maintained.

They all learned the English language ; some of them learned parts of "Murray's Grammar" by heart; some had gone clear thru the arithmetic and thereupon reviewed it thoroly. This "review" consisted of copying the book completely. These copies were used in subsequent instruction as texts.4

So if John Ball really taught there 18 months, and accom- plished all he says he did, the work of Solomon Smith and Cyrus Shepard was greatly simplified. The latter copiously mingled his pedagogical labors with ecclesiastical efforts. These latter exercises were attended quite generally by all inmates of the Fort, Catholics, Indians, scoffers, rough moun- tain men, all ages, sexes, and conditions.

As nearly as I can reason out the order of the instructors at the Vancouver Post from the data in hand, it is this : John Ball started the school on November 19, 1832. If he continued it 18 months as he says he did, that would mean July 1, 1834. Bancroft implies that Solomon Smith took the school March 1, 1833, but assuming that it was March 1, 1834, even then Ball would fall short of his 18 months' service, particularly since Ball engaged in farming in the Willamette Valley from spring to autumn according to Bancroft.

Then Smith served from March first long enough to fall in love with the baker's wife and went to French Prairie and established a school there. This was the first school in what is now Oregon. So it must have been in the summer of 1834, particularly since Bancroft says Cyrus Shepard continued the school at Vancouver which Smith deserted when he absconded with the baker's wife. Certainly Shepard could not have taught this school till late in September, 1834, since the Missionaries did not reach Vancouver till the middle of that month.

Sometime in the fall of 1834 or winter of 1835, Shepard

4 "North Pacific History," vol. 1, p. 123. The "author" (Elwood Evans?) says this was written to him by Solomon Smith. Horner says John Ball wrote it. Evans (?) says Ball's school lasted only from January 1, 1833 till March 1, 1833, when Smith took charge, agreeing to teach six months. It is not reported whether Smith fulfilled his contract or not. Seems quite conclusive that Ball did not teach eighteen months.

METHODIST EDUCATIONAL EFFORT IN OREGON TO 1860 67

went to the Mission where he assisted P. L. Edwards in the mission school Lee had established there. Horner gives Ed- wards the honor of being the first Oregon school teacher,5 but I think it is conclusive that Solomon Smith deserves that honor and the credit of long service thence forward as a representative citizen. Shepard was teaching at the mission school as early, at least, as was Edwards.6 Geo. H. Hines is the authority for the statement that Smith also assisted in this mission school.

Shepard was a frail, studious man, while Edwards was a large, strong Kentucky frontiersman. It really is more rea- sonable to assume that Shepard did the teaching while Ed- wards cleared and cultivated land.

There were some wild Indians in the school, but their main reason for being there seems to have been a desire for food and shelter rather than any great spiritual or educational yearning. There were three Calapooia orphans received in the mission house in the winter of 1834-5. One of them, John, helped with the work, but as soon as the warm spring came, he answered the call of the wild, leaving his sickly, scrofulous sister, Lucy Hedding} (named after the Bishop) to the mis- sionary influences of the Methodists. Some of the Umpquas brought a boy to the Mission in the spring of 1835. Shortly thereafter, he died of consumption. Hines7 says the Ump- quas came and menaced the lives of the Lees, as a result, but Daniel Lee denies this. A Tillamook Indian boy was brought to the mission and left there by his people. He would neither work nor study, but sat all day long, looking toward the coast, weeping. When his friends returned, he left with them.

A French-Indian, Louis Shangaratte, died and left three children and five Indian slaves. Dr. McLoughlin asked Lee to take them into the Mission. Lee agreed to this, but de- manded that the slaves be given their freedom. This was done. This crowded the small 18x32 building considerably but it was not long till three of them died of syphilis and two more ran away. During the first year, fourteen children were re-

5 Horner, "Oregon History," p. 70.

6 Hines, H. K., "Miss. Hist, of Pac. N. W '.," p. 99. Shepard taught at Van- couver in the winter of 1834; came to the Mission in March, 1835.

7 Hines, G., "Oregon History/' p. 14.

68 RteAD BAIN

ceived; five died before the winter was over; five ran away; two died within the next two years, leaving two of the original fourteen to have their souls saved and their lives civilized.

The missionaries themselves all had been sick. Daniel Lee nearly died. Dr. McLoughlin sent him to the Islands in the winter of 1835, where he remained till August, 1836. Poison oak, malaria or intermittent fever, a throat affection similar to diphtheria, syphilis, consumption and scrofula were some of the diseases with which they had to contend.

There is little wonder that the romantic ideas of the noble red man seeking the "White Man's Book of Life" which the missionaries had obtained back east in the fervor of the emo- tional revival meetings, began to fade away into a cold gray image of very unprepossessing reality. Jason Lee began to lose his hope of rapid evangelization of the Indians and to look toward the founding of an American state in Oregon.8

The methods of instruction were very crude. There were no text books and in most cases the Indians did not understand any English. The first thing was to teach them the language. This was done by the usual method of pointing to objects and calling their names, by saying words and phrases and having the learners repeat. Later, more formal methods were em- ployed. The best account I could find of the difficulties en- countered, is in the work of the American Board Missions at Lapwai, Waiilatpu, and Chemekane.

Gushing Eells, writing in the "Missionary Herald," Feb. 25, 1840, says, "I cannot learn that they have any realizing sense of the odiousness of sin." This corresponds very well with Lee's general attitude. Eells goes on to say that "they do not lack ability to learn, but rather the inclination." He says the apparent interest and pleasure in the school work is due largely to the novelty of it. He thinks the reports of their anxious reception of the gospel largely exaggerated, thinks the Indians were just deceiving the missionaries.

Eells opened his school in Nov., 1839, with about 30 in

8 On July 1, 1844, testifying before the Missionary Board, Jason Lee spoke the following words: "And indeed, the Indians have no life or energy and are a melancholy doomed race. I think this is in part true: the Indians on the Wil- lamette will become, as a distinct race, extinct. But I think there will be more Indian blood, thru amalgamation, running in the veins of white men 100 years hence, than would have been running in the veins of the Indians if they had been left to themselves." A good commentary on the social conditions in the Wil- lamette valley in 1840!

METHODIST EDUCATIONAL EFFORT IN OREGON TO 1860 69

attendance. By Feb., 1849, he had about 80, but they were very irregular in attendance, many leaving for good as soon as their curiosity was satisfied. He taught them reading, writing, spelling, arithmetic and music. They were very fond of the latter subject.

In 1839, the Whitmans received a printing press from Hawaii, and the next year succeeded in translating and print- ing some of the Bible and school books into the Indian lan- guage. This was the first printing done in the Oregon country. These printed leaflets replaced the pen printing which had been used formerly. Spalding, in writing of this, says, "Every verb seems to be almost endless in its conjugations and com- binations. I have carried an active, transitive verb through several thousand forms."

So we may suppose this account is not greatly different from the similar work of the Methodists. That Lee was not misled by. the apparent eagerness of the Indians for formal education is shown by the quotation above given, and by the fact that he always emphasized the material arts of civiliza- tion.9 He called his mission establishment the "Methodist Oregon Mission Indian Manual Labor School," and tried to teach the Indians to farm, build, cook, clothe themselves, culti- vate fruit and vegtables and worship God.

However, other viewpoints are not lacking. The Catholics10 found the Indians to be remarkably teachable; Samuel Parker11, in 1835, speaking of the Indians on the lower Co- lumbia, said that the "character of unabused and uncontam- inated Indians would not suffer in comparison with any other nation that could be named, the only difference being that produced by the practices of the Christian religion."

But, however much the enthusiasm of the Lees was damp- ened by their first winter as missionaries, they continued the work.

9 Eells— "Indian Missions," p. 20— "Capt. Slacum reported that the Indians were being taught the most useful of all arts agriculture and that without the slightest compulsion."

10 De Smet in the "Oregon Country," E. V. O'Hara, "Quarterly/' Sept., 1909. "He was astonished at the innocence of their lives and has left pages of writing in which he extols their virtues and their docility. It would be difficult to find a parallel in the history of Christian Missions for this rapid and permanent transformation of a savage tribe into a Christian community with morning and evening prayers in common." p. 224.

11 Parker's Journal, p. 155. Quoted by Bancroft, "Oregon History," Vol. I, p. 112.

70 READ BAIN

In March, 1838, Daniel Lee and H. Kl W. Perkins selected a site and established a Mission at The Dalles. Daniel Lee took fourteen head of cattle from the Willamette station over the Cascades, reaching The Dalles in October. He spent most the winter there, alone. The station prospered very badly but the next summer a combined church and home were added to the settlement. The Indians were very anxious to hear the gospel. They used to come in great numbers to the Sunday meeting. Soon the Mission school and Sabbath school wer'S in a flourishing condition. Doubtless the Indians had other reasons than a burning desire for knowledge as has been above intimated.

Bancroft (p. 168) analyzes Lee's motives at some length in regard to establishing these Mission posts ; makes him out a colonizer rather than a missionary; argues that Lee knew the Columbia river Indians, all of them west of the Cascades, —were a hopelessly diseased, depraved and degenerated race, not worth saving if indeed that were possible. But he knew the missionary-mad people back east would never support a colonizing policy, nor would the Hudson's Bay Company per- mit it, so he went ahead, setting these stakes of empire in the name of God and the salvation of the souls of these scrofulous Indians. He had too much help for missionary work, and not enough for his plans to bring more Americans to Oregon.

In March, 1838, he had visited the Umpqua region, intending to establish a station, but the hostility of the Indians and the inaccessibility of the region caused him to forego it.

In April, he started his famous trip to the east, returning in 1840 on the "Lausanne" with the needed reinforcements. It was on this trip that he memorialized Congress to the effect that it should extend its laws over Oregon.

The station at The Dalles was reinforced. Daniel Lee and J. H. Frost established another at Clatsop Plains, near the mouth of the Columbia, in the summer of 1840. It soon be- came a flourishing settlement. Very little benefit came to the degenerate Clatsop Indians, however.

METHODIST EDUCATIONAL EFFORT IN OREGON TO 1860 71

In the summer of 1840, Dr. J. P. Richmond and family, Dr. William H. Wilson and Miss Chloe A. Clark were sent to Puget Sound to establish a mission near Fort Nisqually. The location chosen was in sight of the fort. Another station was established at Oregon City, with the man in charge there making regular visits to Tualatin Plains.

Thus by the end of 1840, the missionary stage of Methodist education had practically come to an end in Oregon. Jason Lee had given up his original plan of converting, educating, and civilizing the Indians and had substituted a policy cal- culated to make Oregon, an American state. He had planted American colonies at the strategic points at Salem, Oregon City, The Dalles, Astoria, and Puget Sound ; he had memor- ialized Congress to put Oregon under the protection of its laws. He had truly foreseen the destiny of Oregon and laid the foundations for its accomplishment.

Early in 1844, after the provisional government had been organized. Lee resolved to return to the United States and again attempt to get Congress to assume sovereignty over the territory, confirm the title to all the property held by the Missions and furnish an endowment for Oregon Institute.

But the Methodist Board of Missions had not been kept in ignorance of the secularization of Lee's policy, and their vision was not great enough to see the value of his shift in plans. So when Lee reached Honolulu in 1844, he was informed that Rev. George Gary was on his way to Oregon as Lee's successor in the superintendency of the Oregon Missions, with instruc- tions to close them if he thought best.

This he proceeded to do, in a very high handed manner. The property of the Willamette Mission alone was sold for about $26,000, while its actual cost had been nearly $60,000. The only direct benefit to education that came from the Meth- odist Missionary schools was the transfer of the Oregon Mis- sion Indian Manual Labor School, valued at $10,000, to the Oregon Institute. The venture cost the Methodist church about

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a quarter of a million. The missionizing results were nil, but the indirect benefits to education and civilization, incalculable.12

IV. PIONEER ELEMENTARY TERM SCHOOLS,

1844-54

The only reason for dealing with this subject here is to show the soil from which the Methodist institutions grew. This type of education cannot be ascribed to any particular denom- ination, but it is safe to say that the majority of the commun- ities where such schools were found up to 1850 were pre- dominantly Methodist.

The first school, in Oregon proper, as well as the first non- mission school, was that taught by Solomon Smith in the house of Joseph Gervais on French Prairie, near Wheatland (Cham- poeg) as above set forth.

But it was not a "term" school. This type of educational institution is one for which the teacher receives so much a head for every pupil attending, the term being usually about three months. Of course, when the first formal institutions were organized, they followed this same plan, but they were doing academic as well as elementary work, and furthermore, the fees were paid to the institution, not to the teacher. The term schools must be distinguished from the Mission schools, which were "free and without price," and also from the later public schools supported by public taxation. The teacher of a term school very often "boarded around" for part of his pay.

Sidney W. Moss provided a school at Oregon City in 1843, for which he himself paid. J. P. Brooks was the teacher.

The first regular term school so far as I can find was or- ganized by J. E. Lyle, and held in the log house of Colonel Nathaniel Ford, near Rickreall, Polk County, beginning April 13, 1846, and was known as Jefferson Institute, with Col. Ford, Jas. Howard and Wm. Beagle named as trustees.13 This school served about twenty-five students, all white.

12 Bancroft, Vol. I, "Oregon History," p. 224.

13 Oregon Spectator, Mar. 1846.

METHODIST EDUCATIONAL EFFORT IN OREGON TO 1860 73

Dr. Ralph Wilcox conducted a school at the foot of Taylor or Morrison street in Portland in 1847; Aaron Hyde in 1848- 49. Miss Julia Carter, at Second and Stark, in 1848, was the first woman teacher in Portland.

After 1850, the term school was very common. The cost was $8.00 to $10.00 a term.

According to the territorial law of 1850, districts could be organized with power to levy taxes for school purposes. Such a school was organized in Portland in 1851. This was held in a frame building which Col. Wm. M. King had built in 1849 for "church, school and general purposes." This was the first free public school in Oregon. John T. Outhouse was the teacher, assisted by Miss Abigail M. Clark. They got $100.00 and $75.00 a month, respectively.

Finally, May 17, 1858, a school house was built and ready for use. This was the first school building erected by public taxation in Portland, and in Oregon, so far as I could find. L. L. Terwilliger was principal and Mrs. Mary Hensill as- sistant.

Rev. Geo. H. Atkinson, Congregational minister in Portland, wrote Gov. Lane's message in 1849 and framed the free public school law of 1850. The latter was bitterly opposed by the bachelors and the denominationalists.

The following is a description of one of these term schools attended by Geo. H. Himes near Olympia, Washington, from June to August, 1854.14

"The school was in a log cabin, 16x18 feet. The floor was made of puncheons, i. e., logs smoothed on one side with a broad ax. Sticks and moss were crowded into the spaces be- tween the logs and held in place by mortar made of clay. Light was provided by two panes of glass 8x10 inches set lengthwise in a space where a log was cut out. These panes were held in place by wooden pegs. The door was made of split cedar smoothed with a drawing knife and hung upon wooden hinges. These would emit a most doleful sound whenever the door

14 Geo. H. Himes Unpublished article.

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was opened or shut. The proverbial latch-string was made of Indian-tanned buck skin, which, like the latch-strings of all pioneer cabins of that time, hung on the outside as a constant reminder for folks to enter and make themselves at home.

"Desks and seats were made of split stuff, rude in con- struction. They were without backs, unless the walls of the cabin, around which they were arranged, could be called backs.

"Twenty-five pupils attended this school, some of them walking three miles or more, the distance my sister and I had to go twice a day. The road, or rather trail, ran through the dense timber the whole way. Indians and wild beasts passed across and along it daily.

"The text books used were "Webster's Elementary Spelling Book," "McGuffey's Readers," "Smith's Arithmetic," and "Grammar." Those composing the first spelling class had to go through the book without missing a word, a feat not often equaled in these days of graded schools and 'improved' methods."

The following interview with Peter R. Burnett also con- tains a pertinent criticism of modern educational methods.

Mr. Burnett came to Oregon in 1846 when he was four years old. His father settled near Monmouth where young Burnett grew to manhood.

Two years after coming to Oregon, he started to school (1848) in the little rough board school house at Bethel, now called Spring Valley, about fifteen miles south of Monmouth. This school was conducted by T. R. Harrison, "a remark- able man ; he used to make every scholar stand up and read aloud : and it would be a good thing if everyone had to do it yet. I hear some most abominable readers these days. Of course, I may be an old fogey on this subject."

Along about 1854, the people of Bethel began to get am- bitious for "higher education." So G. O. Burnett and Amos Harvey each gave 100 acres of fertile land as an endowment for Bethel Academy. This institution opened its doors, or

METHODIST EDUCATIONAL EFFORT IN OREGON TO 1860 75

rather its door, in 1855. It was a large frame building, two and a half stories high, the best building in Polk county at that time. It may still be seen near McCoy.

T. R. Harrison was the faculty. He taught everything from writing to algebra, though he was no "classical scholar." "Davie's Algebra," "Thompson's Complete Arithmetic" and "Sanders' Readers," first, second, third and fourth, were the text-books. Later "Parker and Watson's" readers were used, in a series of five. "Smith's and Bullion's Grammars" were the foundation of the English course. There was no diagram- ing and very little composition. The instruction consisted mainly of the exercises for "correcting faulty syntax and getting the ideas of the grammar of the language into our heads, though we did not have to memorize it." There also was a course in practical surveying. The spelling match every Friday night was one of the big incidents in the school career of the Bethel student. This was very important, since it was the training ground of the spellers who took part in the spell- ing matches which formed an important part of the frequent meetings of the literary society.

The school was equipped with manufactured desks and blackboards. It was in session from daylight till dark; the attendance, 30 or 40. Each pupil paid six or eight dollars for a term of three months, usually in the summer. "Why nobody ever heard of supporting a school by taxation in those days," said Mr. Burnett.

When Christian College was founded at Monmouth in 1860, Bethel closed its doors. The remarkable T. R. Harrison got pretty overbearing and self-sufficient in the latter days of the Academy, so Mr. G. O. Burnett got John Henry Smith, a "brilliant young man" (and Burnett's nephew) to "assist" Harrison. This caused more or less friction and hastened the decline of the Academy.

"The Bethel Academy endowment still brings in money for the Spring Valley school district, which has always been noted for its good schools," concluded Mr. Burnett.

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Of course, there were many term-fee academies of this period, most of them organized by the Methodists and other religious denominations, but many of them were private ven- tures. Nine such institutions were advertised in the Oregon Statesman in 1852, if we include the "Dancing Academy of Prof. Alexander Coggshall, late of Boston/' who "bearded the lions of the Methodist faith in their own den" and advertised that "he was prepared to teach the fashionable art of dancing to those in Salem who may desire, for a very nominable sum," the amount of which he did not state.

Perhaps the most pretentious of these advertisements is worthy of quotation.15 It is a good example of the "papal darkness" which Rev. Ezra Fisher so much feared. He finally succeeded in establishing a school at Oregon City, to combat the menace of the "Catholics and Methodists who were placing schools at every vantage point," and also to "vindicate the peculiarities of the Baptist faith." This Catholic institution was the "Young Ladies' Boarding and Day School of the Sisters of Notre Dame of Oregon City." It announced its particular brand of "papal darkness" and method of "uniting the influence of Romanism with heathenism to bring into disrespect the simplicity of the gospel," as Ezra Fisher wrote,16 in the following terms:

"The heart must be formed as well as the mind and adorned with all those qualities which beautify the manners and render virtue attractive and amiable. The moral advancement of the pupil shall be the object of the most assiduous care.

"The academy is built on the banks of the Willamette river remote from the business part of the city. The buildings are spacious and airy ; the pleasure grounds dry and extensive.

"In case of sickness, they shall experience the most con- stant and affectionate attention, and every incentive proper to inspire a laudable emulation will be employed. At the end of the term a solemn distribution of premiums will take place, followed by specimens of drawing, sewing, etc."

15 Oregon Statesman, Sept. 1851.

16 This quotation is from a letter Jan. 4, 1847. He was referring not to this particular school but to the general activities of the Catholics. Ezra Fisher Correspondence has a great deal of valuable information in it, particularly, refer- ence to economic conditions at that time, as well as a lot of amusing material.

METHODIST EDUCATIONAL EFFORT IN OREGON TO 1860 77

There were accommodations for 185 boarders ; fees, $4.50 a term for infants, $6.50 for elementary, and $9.50 for higher students. "Extra charges were made for piano, singing, draw- ing, painting, which same could be had upon application, all letters to be addressed, postage paid, to the Lady Superior."

The Baptists, Congregationalists, Christians, Presbyterians, United Brethren and Methodists all had similar schools in Oregon before 1860.

V. PERIOD OF ORGANIZED INSTITUTIONS, 1854-60 There were five Methodist schools in Oregon when the Conference met in 1860, Willamette University, valued at $25,000.00; Portland Academy and Female Seminary, valued at $8,500.00; Oregon City Seminary, $5,000.00; Santiam Academy, $6,500.00; Umpqua Academy, $6,000.00. There was no detailed account of attendance till 1864, when Willamette had 264; 163 male, 101 female; Expenses, $4,387.40; Receipts, $4,017.98. Portland Academy, 241 ; 170 in academic depart- ment; 71 primary. Santiam, 105; 65 males, 40 females. Ex- pense $1,218.00, Receipts $1,218.00. Umpqua, 112. Building in good repair and clear of debt.17

There were other Methodist institutions which had come into existence and died before 1860. I shall give the history of these schools in chronological order. Doubtless there, were some schools of which we have no record at all. Only those which were chartered before 1860 will be dealt with in these pages.

WILLAMETTE UNIVERSITY

Of course the first in order of time and importance is Willamette University. It has its origin in the Oregon Meth- odist Mission Indian Manual Labor Training School which Jason Lee started in the fall of 1834 with an enrollment of John, the lordly and lazy Calapooia boy, his scrofulous sister, Lucy Hedding, and another member of the tribe. In 1838, Jason Lee, somewhat disillusioned as to the destiny of the noble red man, returned to the United States for reinforce-

17 Taken from Minutes of Oregon Conference M. E. Church by John Parsons.

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merits. There is no doubt that he expressed to his missionaries on the "Lausanne" during the long trip around the Horn in 1839, the idea which was already taking root in his mind, viz., that the missionary period was to be merely a transition stage, that ultimately, Oregon was to be won for the United States that the Indians of the Willamette Valley were a "melancholy doomed race." At any event, somewhere on the east coast of South America, on board the good ship "Lausanne," October 25, 1839, the Methodist missionaries cele- brated the one hundredth anniversary of Methodism by taking up a collection to start a school for white children in the Willamette Valley. Gustavus Hines preached the sermon. The sum of six hundred and fifty dollars was collected and con- secrated to the task of starting education in the American state of Jason Lee's vision and Hall J. Kjelley's dream.

The next step in the genesis of Willamette has to do with the Mission school. In 1841, Lee had moved it from near pres- ent Wheatland to the present site of Salem. Here, he had under construction, a new building, three and a half stories high, which cost $10,000.00. Lee had moved his own house to Salem, or Chemeketa, as they called it, where a grist mill already had been built. It was this new Mission school at Salem which was to become the first home of that school for white children which had been proposed on board the "Lausanne" in 1839. This came about as follows :

On Jan. 17, 1842? there was a meeting at Lee's house in Salem to undertake the organization of the school. A com- mittee consisting of Dr. Ira L. Babcock, Gustavus Hines and David Leslie was selected. A meeting was held near the first of February at which a committee on location was selected. They decided to proceed at once. They chose "Oregon In- stitute" as a name and selected the first board of trustees : Jason Lee, chairman ; David Leslie, Gustavus Hines, J. L. Parrish, L. H. Judson, Alanson Beers, George Abernethy, Hamilton "Cow" Campbell,18 and Dr. Ira L. Babcock. Webly Hauxhurst was added in a short time.

18 Hamilton Campbell was known by no other name than "Cow" Campbell thruout the whole Willamette Valley. When Gary sold the Mission property, Camp- bell bought the cattle. His herds prospered and he became the cow king of Oregon. He almost literally had "cattle on a thousand hills." Hence, the name.

METHODIST EDUCATIONAL EFFORT IN OREGON TO 1860 79

They selected a location on French Prairie, then changed it to Wallace Prairie about three miles north of the mill at Chemeketa.

On March 9, they drew up a prospectus and on March 15, a constitution and by-laws. In order to get an idea of the purposes of these pioneer promoters of education, we shall examine the constitution and by-laws somewhat in detail.

In Article I, which is a preamble, we find, "Whereas the Oregon Institute is designed not only to promote science, but morality and piety, this Institution shall always be under the supervision of some evangelical branch of the Protestant Church, non-sectarian and liberal." This meant, of course, the Methodist Episcopal Church and no other. This body re- sponded to the call and took charge, or supervision, Oct. 26, 1842, before any school had been held in the building then being erected.

In Article III we find: "The primary object of this institu- tion is to educate the children of white men, but no person shall be excluded on account of color if he has good moral character, and can read, write and speak the English language intelligibly."

In Article VII : "In the literary department there shall be a male and female branch subject to the control of the male and female teachers, conducted as best to promote science, morality and piety."

There was a provision that the business should be conducted by those who had subscribed $50.00 or more until such time as some religious society should pledge itself to sustain the institute.

Section 5 of the by-laws states that any subscription or dona- tion of $500.00 or more entitles the donor and his heirs to free tuition forever. Anyone giving $100 might raise it to $500 to gain this privilege. Section 10 says "no person shall be eligible to the office of trustee or steward or visiting com- mittee, or receive employment as a teacher who denies the authenticity of the Sacred Scriptures."

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W. H. Gray was employed to construct the building. About $4,000.00 was pledged and before the year 1843 was over, Gray had spent about $3000 on the construction of the building.

Lee was very busy organizing the Provisional government and laying his plans to get the United States to confirm the titles of the several mission properties on which he had built stations, including the valuable Oregon City claim to which it seems McLoughlin had prior rights, moral, if not technical. So in pursuit of this object. Lee left for the States in Feb. 1844. In June of the same year George Gary arrived at Oregon City as the new Superintendent of Missions, with power to close them all if he thought that were best. This he proceeded to do, while Lee was laboring with Congress to get title to the lands on which he had built his missions. He succeeded in getting these confirmed, but in the meantime, Gary had sold them all19 for a song, and the Methodist Missions in Oregon were no more.

The Salem Mission Manual Labor School was sold to the Trustees of the Oregon Institute for $4,000.00, although the Catholics were in the market and offered $8,000.00 for the property. Later, the building on Wallace Prairie was sold for just about what it cost. So the Trustees of the Oregon Institute made a pretty good investment, even for those days, when real estate was very cheap, a $10,000.00 building and 640 acres of fine fertile land, all for $4,000.00. This old mis- sion land claim, of course passed to the Institute. At present, the State Capitol grounds, the campus of Willamette Uni- versity, and the best part of the business and residence section of Salem are on this old mission claim. The broad, regular, tree-lined streets and spacious lawns of Salem speak well for the city-planning foresight of these missionary pioneers.

So it was in this new building, 78x45 feet, three and a half stories high, that the Oregon Institute, the first organized school for white children west of the Mississippi, began its

19 The Dalles Station was kept in the hope of getting a clear title to the prop- erty. This was accomplished by J. Lee in 1844-5 before his death. The Dalles claim was sold to Dr. Whitman in 1847. The actual confirmation of the titles is found in the Enabling Act (1848) for the Oregon Territory. Ores. Ter. Laws, 1849 (U. of O. vault.) This is also called the "Organic Law."

METHODIST EDUCATIONAL EFFORT IN OREGON TO 1860 81

sessions, in the fall of 1844. Mrs. Chloe A. Clark Willson was the teacher.

The following advertisement appeared in the "Spectator"

August 10, 1846. " And as one ostensible object of

the Oregon Institute is to promote piety and morality as an essential in the forming of the character of the young for eminence and usefulness, every possible attention will be bestowed upon the manners, morals, and habits of all con- nected with the school. David Leslie, Chairman of Board of Trustees." It went on to say that this could be done for $24 a year.

Mrs. Willson continued to teach (except that Jas. H. Wilbur had charge 1847-48) the school till 1850 when Rev. F. S. Hoyt took control and remained principal and president till 1860. Nehemiah Doane taught the school in 1850 till the arrival of Hoyt. The Donation Land Law of Sept. 27, 1850 had a bad effect on the school attendance.20. Any married man could get 320 additional acres of land for his wife. The result was that there were numerous cases of love at first sight and few "young ladies" over 15 were left in school.

On Jan. 12, 1853, the Territorial Legislature passed an act incorporating Willamette University. This was not the first educational institution incorporated in Oregon, but it was the first one designed for higher education. Tualatin Academy and two Catholic schools were chartered before this. The preamble of the act is as follows :

"Whereas the happiness and prosperity of every community (under the direction and government of Divine Providence) depend in an eminent degree on the right education of the youth who must succeed the aged in the important offices of society; and the principles of virtue and elements of liberal knowledge fostered and imparted in the higher institutions of learning tend to develop a people in those qualifications most

20 There is more or less confusion in all the secondary sources as to the date of this law. There was provision for survey made in the Organic Law of 1848, and a Donation land law was discussed in Congress, but was not passed till 1850, according to the Territorial Laws of Oregon printed by Ashel Bush, Salem (now in U. of O. vaults). Of course, the tales of such a law in 1848, and the expected passage of it, had the same effect as if the law had actually passed, because the squatter" had priority rights on the claimj of his choice. So the schools were deserted and many short notice marriages occurred.

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essential to their present welfare and future advancement, and whereas, it appears that the establishment of a University in the town of Salem in the county of Marion, with a suitable preparatory department for the instruction of the youth in the arts and sciences is likely to subserve the intellectual develop- ment and enlightening of the youth of this Territory, there- fore"—etc.

The new university was put under the control of a self- perpetuating board of trustees composed of twenty-six mem- bers, and a visiting board of seven, selected by and responsible to the Methodist Episcopal Conference of Oregon. These visitors were to meet and confer with the Trustees. The faculty had power to suspend and expel, with the consent of the Trustees ; to grant degrees and honorary degrees. A report had to be made to the secretary of the Territory every year, giving the names and officers of the faculty, names of teachers and subjects taught, number of pupils and names and degrees of graduates.21

F. S. Hoyt was president of the new University and principal of the academic department. He was an optimistic, energetic, resourceful man, eminently fitted for his work. By the time he retired in 1860, he had raised a permanent endowment of $20,000, bearing interest at 10%. 22 His wife was a great help to him it is said.

The first graduate, and only one before 1860 was Miss Emily I. York, who finished 1859 with the degree of B. S. The next graduate was Mrs. A'ddie B. (Locey) Reasoner, 1862. In 1863 there were twelve.

The income of the University was limited by the Act to $25,000 yearly. The board of trustees made the following rule at their first meeting:

—Until the wants of the institution shall require further provisions the following shall be the faculty of the collegiate department :

1. A President whose title shall be the "President of Wil- lamette University," who shall act as Professor of Mathe- matics and Moral Philosophy. Salary $1,000.

21 Oreg. Ter. Special Laws, 1853.

22 Mines, H. K. "Miss. Hist, of N. W '.," p. 439. Gives A. F. Waller credit for this, also gives list of the teachers.

METHODIST EDUCATIONAL EFFORT IN OREGON TO 1860 83

2. A Professor of Ancient and Modern Languages. Salary, $900.

3. A Professor of Exact and Natural Sciences. Salary, $900.

4. The President shall be responsible for the discipline.

CLACKAMAS COUNTY FEMALE SEMINARY

This school grew out of a venture of the part of Mrs. J. Quinn Thornton who had established a "Female School for the Instruction of Young Ladies and Misses" at Oregon City in 1847.23 This instruction comprised "all branches of a thor- ough English education, including plain and fancy needlework, drawing and painting in water colors and mezzotint." Doubtless the good lady was doing her best to counteract the influence of the Baptists and Catholics who were founding schools in Oregon City at the same time.

In any event, the first Territorial Legislature gave a charter to the "Clackamas County Female Seminary" in Sept. 1849.24 This school was to be undenominational, the charter specifically stating that no one religious sect was ever to be in complete control, but, the Methodists and Congregationalists were back of it. Dr. McLoughlin gave three blocks of land, (the act of 1849 limited the real estate to ten acres and the total resources to $100,000.00). A $10,000.00 building was constructed and Mr. Harvey Clark installed as teacher. He was followed by Mrs. Thornton and Mr. and Mrs. H. K. Hines.

In 1852 according to an advertisement in the "Statesman," the president of the Clackamas County Female Seminary was G. H. Atkinson, but it was under the "direction of Mr. E. D. Shattuck, lady and competent assistants." These teachers were obtained by Atkinson from Vermont. There were three departments, primary, preparatory and regular course. The tuition was $8, $10, and $12 respectively for a term of eleven weeks. The "regular course" paraded the following curricu- lum : Geometry, Logic, Intellectual Philosophy, Moral Science,

23 Oregon Spectator. Feb. 1, 1847.

24 I mention this school for several reasons, although it was not, strictly speaking, a Methodist school. The Methodists were very influential in its affairs, however. Eva Emery Dye says the Clackamas County Female Seminary and the Oregon City Seminary were the same thing. I am inclined to doubt this. There is no question about the acts of incorporation being different. It may be the Oregon City Seminary was incorporated after the Female Seminary died out. Have been unable to determine this point.

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Chemistry, Drawing, Painting, Monochromatic Drawing, Music, French.

In 1851, we learn the school has several important advant- ages, viz. : "deserved celebrity for healthfulness, being free of intermittent fevers, being convenient to steam boats. The cost for the respective grades was then only 6} 8, and 10 dollars. Courses: Languages, Music and the "ornamental branches." Harvey Clark was secretary.

The Prof. Shattuck mentioned above had come out to teach in Ezra Fisher's "Oregon City College," later Oregon City University, later moved to McMinnville as the Baptist College. In 1852, then, Oregon City had this Baptist College, the "un- denominational"— Methodo-Congregational Clackamas County Female Seminary and two Catholic schools.

I am unable to get any information as to the work of the Clackamas County Female Seminary from 1852 to 1860.

PORTLAND ACADEMY AND FEMALE SEMINARY

In 1849, Jas. H. Wilbur left the Oregon Institute and went to Portland with the idea of founding a Methodist school. He prevailed upon the real estate firm of Chapman, Coffin and Lownsdale to donate a site. The deed stated that the three blocks therein conveyed were to be "held in trust to build a male and female seminary thereon and therewith." They were located at West Park and Jefferson streets. All three were covered with heavy fir timber.

Wilbur went to work clearing the land and seeking sub- scriptions. He was not very successful at the latter, so he borrowed $5,000 on his personal note and spent it on the build- ings. He begged money and material from door to door; was ox-driver, axe-wielder, architect, painter, blacksmith, preacher and financial agent. By November 17, 1851, it was ready for occupancy and Calvin S. Kingsley was installed as teacher, assisted by Nehemiah Doane.

It was incorporated June 25 1854,25 with Wilbur as presi-

25 Oreg. Ter. Special Laws, 1854, p. 49.

METHODIST EDUCATIONAL EFFORT IN OREGON TO 1860 85

dent of the Board of Trustees; T. J. Dryer, vice-president; Calvin S. Kingsley, secretary ; and W. S. Ladd, treasurer.

The school flourished as Portland developed. By 1864, it had 241 pupils in attendance as above noted, only 13 less than Willamette University itself. Up to the time of its extinction in 1878, Portland Academy was one of the most important educational institutions in Oregon.

SANTIAM ACADEMY

Jan. 18, 1854, the legislature passed an act making John McKinney, Aaron Hyde, Thomas H. Pearne, Wm. C. Gallager, Andrew Kees, Alvan F. Waller, Morgan Kees, Jeremiah Ral- ston, Luther T. Woodward, Delazon Smith, Luther Elkins, John Settle, and David Ballard, trustees of Santiam Academy at Lebanon. The yearly income was limited to $10,000; the trustees were to meet and divide themselves into three classes to retire in rotation.26

Later, on Jan. 25, 1856, the Euphronean Society was given a charter to exist in connection with the Academy. The Philo- mathean Society of Willamette University was incorporated Jan. 29 of the same year.

The M. E. Church was to have power to fill vacancies in the Board of Trustees and to visit the institution and confer with the Trustees.

Santiam Academy grew out of a term school conducted in a log cabin in 1852. Jeremiah Ralston and Morgan Kees each donated five acres, money was raised by subscription, and a two-story building containing four large school rooms was built, 1854-55. A smaller frame building had been constructed the year before. It was moved over to the new Academy building and served as the dwelling of the "professor" until the space was required for school purposes. Santiam Academy was never anything other than a primary and secondary school. It was co-educational, had no boarding school facilities, although it drew students from as far away as Jacksonville

26 Or eg, Ter. Special Laws, 1854, p. 37.

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and Corvallis. The average attendance was forty or fifty, although in 1864, one hundred and five were reported to the Methodist Conference. Rev. Luther T. Woodward and wife were the first teachers. They were followed by Rev. D. E Blain and wife and a Miss Farrell.

After the establishment of a public school in 1870, the Academy declined rapidly. It finally came into the hands of the school district (cf. Bethel Institute) and the buildings are now used for laboratories. The real title is still in the M. E. Church, a 99-year lease having been given the district in 1910. So there is a figure-head board of directors appointed by the M. E. Church. Present value is about $10.000.27

CORVALLIS SEMINARY

This institution was chartered' Jan. 28, 1854.28 Its yearly income was limited to $15,000. Three visitors were appointed by the M. E. Church. Complete records of state of finances, names of teachers and branches taught, number of pupils, male and female, and the number in each class were required. These records had to be open for inspection at all times and a yearly report had to be made to the secretary of the Territory. First Board of Trustees: John Stewart, Silas M. Stout, Wm. F. Dixon, John W. York, Robt. W. Biddle, Wesley Graves, Perry G. Earle, A. L. Humphrey, Silas Belknap, Samuel F. Starr, Thomas H. Pearne, Alvan F. Waller, Hiram Bond, B. F. Chapman, James Gingle.

There was another denominational institution in Corvallis before 1860. This was Corvallis College, a Baptist institution. The territorial legislature had appointed a committee to ex- amine into the advisability of establishing a state school at Marysville. Nothing was done. Finally, however, Corvallis College was taken over by the state and became the Agricul- tural College. I mention this, because the Methodist school, Corvallis Seminary, is sometimes given as the "ancestor" of O. A. C. The Methodist school evidently was extinct before 1860, since it is not mentioned in the Conference minutes.

27 I am indebted to Mr. Thos. D. Yarncs, M. E. Pastor at Lebanon, for these facts. The history of Santiam after 1860 is also being put in shape by him. Mr. Robt. H. Down of Portland has also written an article on Santiam Academy.

28 Oregon Ter. Laws, 1854, Special Laws, pp. 52-54.

METHODIST EDUCATIONAL EFFORT IN OREGON TO 1860 87

RAINIER SEMINARY

This school was located at Rainier, in Columbia County. It was chartered Jan. 30, 1855,29 with the following Board of Trustees: Alexander Abernethy, John S. Hawkins, James Dobbins, Geo. C. Roe, Ezekiel Harper, A. P. Minear, Chas. E. Fox, Wesley Jeans, Wm. Hutchins, John Campbell, Nelson Hoyt, F. M. Warren, A. F. Waller, Enoch Chapman, Seth Catlin. Other provisions are the same as usual except it took seven for a quorum of the board, and both sexes were desig- nated as having the privileges of the school.

I could find out nothing of the subsequent history of this school, but it evidently had gone out of existence by 1860, since it is not mentioned in the reports. Doubtless some rem- iniscent material could be collected from the pioneer residents in the vicinity of Rainier.

OREGON CITY SEMINARY

This institution was chartered Jan. 10, 1856, with the follow- ing list of trustees :30 Charles Pope. Jr., Thomas Pope, A. E. Wait, Jas. E. Kelley, W.P. Burns, Gustavus Hines, H.K. Hines, Geo. Abernethy, A. Holbrook, P. H. Hatch, C. F. Beattie, Wm. Roberts, Chas. Adams. Other provisions were the same as for the other Academies except no limit was set on income and only five members were required for a quorum.

No further facts up to 1860 are available. The property was valued at $5,000 in that year, but no attendance reports were made. The discussion of the Clackamas County Female Sem- inary above gives an outline of the educational situation at Oregon City.

UMPQUA ACADEMY

Umpqua Academy, like so many of the other schools dis- cussed, grew directly out of religious education, first a Sunday School at the house of Benjamin J. Grubbe at Bunton's Gap, afterward called Wilbur. The first school was taught by a Mr. Eason. This was conducted in a shed which had been made

29 Oreg. Ter. Special Laws, 1855, p. 156.

30 Oreg. Ter. Special Laws, 1856, pp. 62-3.

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by leaning long planks against a pole which was supported by pegs driven in two oak trees.31

Bishop E. R. Ames appointed Jas. H. Wilbur to go into the Umpqua Valley and organize a mission in March, 1853. Wilbur's general idea was that schools of the academic type should be established all over the conference as "feeders" for Willamette University. It was this idea which had governed him in the establishment of Portland Academy in 1851. Now his first plan in carrying out his work in the Umpqua Valley was to found a school.

When he arrived at Bunton's Gap, he immediately took up a land claim. This was in the fall of 1853. Sometime in the year 1854, the Umpqua Academy was a reality. It was on Wilbur's claim in a small log building built by his own hands, a repetition of the creation of Portland Academy. Rev. Jas. H. B. Royal and his sister were the teachers, the prin- cipal and preceptress Royals served two years. They were fol- lowed by Addison R. Flint.

Immediately, Wilbur set about the erection of a permanent building in a suitable location. This was accomplished by 1857. At this time the school was moved into the large white two-story building upon the side of Lincoln mountain over- looking the village of Wilbur. The town of Bunton's Gap had been renamed in honor of the preacher. In fact he was popularly known as "Father Wilbur," here as well as else- where in the state.

In the same year, the territorial legislature passed an act32 incorporating the Academy. The following men were named as Trustees: Jas. H. Wilbur, Jas. O. Raynor, Hon. M. P. Deady, Addison R. Flint, Benjamin J. Grubbe, Willis Jenkins, Fleming R. Hill, John Kuy Kendall (Kuykendall) and William Royal. The yearly income was limited to $10,000 and the in- stitution placed under the supervision of the Methodist Church. Five members were a legal quorum.

In the second annual catalogue or bulletin, we find that

31 "History of Umpqua Academy" R. A. Booth. Oregon Historical Quar- terly, March, 1918, pp. 1-25. Same number contains articles by Geo. B. Kuyken- dall, Austin Mires and J. H. Booth on the Academy.

32 In archives of Oregon Historical Society, Portland.

METHODIST EDUCATIONAL EFFORT IN OREGON TO 1860 89

the course of study was somewhat extensive. This was in 1856-9, during the principalship of Rev. Thomas Fletcher Royal. The preceptress was Mrs. Mary A. Royal, the pri- mary department was in charge of Miss Mary E. F. Royal. In 1864, the first class graduated. It was composed of Anina Tenna Royal, Stanley Olin Royal, Miller Gould Royal and one un-Royal member. But to return to the course of study. "Physiology, Drawing, Needlework, English Grammar, Geography, Arithmetic, Reading, Natural Philosophy, Algebra, Geometry, Mensuration, Navigation, Surveying, Composition, Declamation, Paley's "Evidences of Christianity," Moral Science, Mental Philosophy, Natural Philosophy, weekly exer- cises in Composition and Declamation through the entire course. Persons wishing to pursue a preparatory college course may take in connection with the above any or all of the following: McClintock's and Crook's "Latin and Greek Lessons;" Bul- lion's "Greek Reader ;" Fisk's "Classical Geography and Chron- ology ;" Davis' "Legendary Geometry." Fees $6, $7, and $8 for primary, preparatory and Academic courses respectively. Tuition in sketching, painting, Latin and Greek and Vocal music, each two dollars extra with contingent expenses of fifty cents. Payment of all bills is to be punctual."

From the same interesting document we gain the following information concerning the government of the institution. I quote it in full :

GOVERNMENT

"The laws of the Institution are few and simple, but are sufficient to secure quiet and order.33 The object of instruc- tion will be to form correct mental and moral habits, and to cultivate a taste for intellectual pursuits. Punctuality in at- titude at all exercises of the Institution, a careful observance of study hours, and a genteel deportment are required of every student. Visits of pleasure, gathering in groups, taking amuse- ments on the Sabbath Day, absence from rooms at improper hours, writing upon or defacing the furniture or rooms of

33 Compare this with the statements made by old students Mires, Kuyk«n- dall, etc., in March, 1918, Oregon Historical Quarterly.

90 READ BAIN-

the Institution, wearing firearms or other weapons, drinking intoxicating liquors, or keeping them, except by prescription of a physician, playing with cards, dice and all other chance games, such as are used for gambling purposes, contracting debts without the knowledge or consent of parents or guar- dians, using of profane language, refusing compliance with any requirements of the Board of Teachers, and all other breaches of morals and good order, or violations of gentlemanly de- meanor, are strictly forbidden. No student who occasions trouble in any of these particulars shall be suffered to remain and exert on others his corrupting influence."

On pages 14, 15, and 16 of Mr. Booth's article more of the "rules of 1858" are given. They are interesting reading for any one who enjoys that particular form of literature. I think it is safe to say that every rule they made was successfully broken before the week was out, and that they were broken without incurring the dire penalties threatened.

Professor Ebenezer Arnold was principal in 1858-9. He had five assistants. Some of them taught only one subject. There were forty-six students. The building was not yet en- tirely finished. The noise attendant upon this work caused a good deal of disturbance during the year. Rev. Isaac Dillon completed the year as principal. Mr. Arnold was compelled to resign on account of ill health.

The year 1859-60 was under the direction of Rev. T. F. Royal. The forty weeks was divided into three terms, fall and spring 12 weeks each; winter, 16. There were 93 stu- dents, 41 of which were female and 52 male. During the year the total receipts were $805.50. There were eight different teachers employed as assistants during Royal's principalship which lasted till 1867.

So this ends the sketch of Methodist education in Oregon up to 1860. From the tragic days of the Mission fiasco to state- hood in 1859, the educational work of the Methodist Church continued to develop. Some of the institutions flourished or

METHODIST EDUCATIONAL EFFORT IN OREGON TO 1860 91

languished for a few years, and disappeared, but there were five of them in a sound and prosperous condition in 1860, Willamette, Portland Academy, Santiam Academy, Oregon City Seminary and Umpqua Academy. Many more were to come into existence and die out before the Methodist Church finally reached its educational angle of repose.

Short sighted and mistaken as its educational policy often has been, no one can deny that the Methodist Church has been one of the very greatest contributing forces in the educational development of Oregon; no one ever will be able accurately to appraise or measure what that influence has been, but all fair minded people must recognize it as very great and en- during.

If a complete appreciation were to be attempted, the roll would be too long to call, but the names of four men stand out pre-eminently above all others in the Methodist educational history of Oregon, James H. Wilbur, Alvan F. Waller, Francis S. Hoyt, and greatest of all, that farseeing statesman, colonizer, missionary, and champion of education, Jason Lee.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The following bibliography does not purport to be a com- plete list of all the material which has a direct or indirect bearing on the subject under discussion in the article below. It comprises only such sources as were actually consulted in the preparation of this paper. It should be noted that there is thus far no satisfactory history of education in Oregon. There is not even a history of the educational activities of any single religious denomination. The purpose of this paper is a modest attempt to set forth the facts of the early educational efforts of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Oregon. There has been some effort to interpret the motives of the church and the leaders of its program, together with a little reference to the work of other denominations. However, the principal emphasis has been placed upon the facts as they actually oc-

92 READ BAIN

curred insofar as it has been possible to ascertain them.

Every religious denomination, particularly the Methodists and Catholics, ought to feel a great pride and a real duty in preserving the history of its early activities in the Oregon Country. Every local pastor might be instructed by his Con- ference to see that all the reminiscent material in his com- munity is reduced to writing, preserved, and placed in all of the larger public libraries where it will be available for research. This reminiscent material should not be collected in a hap- hazard way, but by a definitely worked-out schedule so as to get all the facts available on the educational, political, economic, religious, social and cultural history of the community. Rever- end Thomas D. Yarnes of Lebanon has made a start in this direction. It ought to be done thoroly and systematically before it is everlastingly too late.

ORIGINAL SOURCES CONSULTED

Burnett, Peter R. Reminiscent; interview by R. Bain, 4/6/20, Eugene, Oreg.

Somewhat rambling account of Bethel Institute; valuable material on text-books, methods of instruction and support of schools.

Fisher, Ezra. Correspondence of, pp. 492. Edited by Henderson- Latourette. Also published serially in Oregon Hist. Quar. Also in book form.

Fine account of early Baptist aspirations and achievements, particularly educational. (Oregon City College.) Also has vast amount of valuable economic data.

Himes, Geo. H. Reminiscent; interview by Bain. Also a paper on "Early Education in Oregon," not yet published.

Very interesting. Accurate in most cases. Great fund of facts.

Minutes of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Oregon about 1840- 1870.

In possession of John Parsons, Portland, Oregon. Some- what jealously guarded. Facts as to valuation of Methodist schools in 1864; also attendance. First class original source; ought to be in some library.

Missionary Herald, 1840»-54. Publication of American Board of Foreign Missions, New York. In Portland Public Library.

Some articles on progress and needs of missionary work in the northwest. Letters from missionaries.

Oregon Spectator, 1846-48. Newspaper published at Oregon City. In Portland Public Library.

Few advertisements of schools is all; no news of them. Full of politics.

METHODIST EDUCATIONAL EFFORT IN OREGON TO 1860 93

Oregon Statesman, 1851-60. Newspaper, Salem, Oregon. Early files in Portland Public Library.

Advertisements and politics.

Oregon Territorial Laws, 1849-59. Asahel Bush, Publisher, Salem, Oregon.

Legislative acts chartering institutions cited.

Umpqua Academy Bulletin, 1859, Second Annual. In files of Ore- gon Historical Society, Portland, Oregon.

Rare document; very valuable for curriculum and rules of government of this academy.

U. S. Census Schedules, 1850-60. Seventh and Eighth Census Schedules. The Original Copies are in the Oregon State Library.

Not much good for Methodist Education as such, but they are very valuable for general educational statistics of this period; gives number of schools, pupils, teachers, valuations, etc.

Yarnes, Thomas D. M. E. Pastor, Lebanon, Oregon. Reminiscent. Material collected around Lebanon on Santiam Academy.

SECONDARY SOURCES CONSULTED

Bancroft, Hubert Howe. History of Oregon, 2 vol., 789 and 843. The History Publishing Co., San Francisco, Calif., 1886.

By far the most exhaustive work and the most satisfactory. Contains most of the facts in order of occurrence. There are some errors of detail. There is no connected educational history and not even any attempt at any educational history after the missionary period. The missionary education is not stressed any.

Booth, R. A. History of Umpqua Academy. Oregon Hist. Quar- terly, March, 1918. pp. 1 to 25.

Very full account, giving names of many students and teach- ers connected with the academy. Fine appreciation of char- acter and influence of Wilbur. Is almost an original source, since Mr. Booth was a student there during much of the time of which he writes. Same issue of the Quarterly contains other reminiscent material on the academy, mostly after 1860, however.

Eells, Gushing. Indian Missions, pp. 270. Union Press, Phila- delphia, Pa., 1882.

First four chapters deal very fully with Indian Missions in general. Chapter five has a good account of founding of Willamette University. Eells had an active part in the events he relates.

Fenton, W. D. Father Wilbur and His Work. Oreg. Hist. Quar., June, 1909.

Best account of founding of Portland Academy.

Ferrin, W. N. Fifty Years of the College. Address at the Semi- Centennial Celebration Exercises at Forest Grove, 1898. 86 pp. Pam. in Oreg. Col. U. of O. Library. Account of founding of Pacific University.

Gaston, Joseph. History of Portland. S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.,

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Portland-Chicago, 1911. 3 vol. 681, 796, 830 pp. respectively.

Mostly biography. Doubt its accuracy.

Hines, Gustavus. Oregon and its Institutions. Comprising a Com- plete History of Willamette University.

Most complete story of Willamette University. Is accurate as to facts. Not so sure about motives. Hines had an active part in the story he is telling. He and Waller were too closely connected with the Oregon City Land Claim deal to speak frankly on it.

Hines, H. K. Missionary History of the Pacific Northwest. Pri- vately printed. Marsh Printing Co., Portland, Oregon, 1899. 510 pp.

Best story of Jason Lee and his work.

History of the Pacific Northwest. North Pacific History Co., Port- land, Oregon, 1889. 2 vol., 653 and 723 pp. respectively.

Chiefly biographical. Inaccurate. Elwood Evans, Editor (?). Homer, John B., Oregon. Gazette-Times Pub. Co., Corvallis, Ore- gon, 1919. 408 pp.

Outlines history of education briefly but concisely. A mod- est attempt, and a fairly successful, as a culture history. Not very accurate.

Leonard, E. A. History of the Baptists in Oregon. Baptist Min- isterial Conference, Portland, Oregon, Nov. 27, 1917. U. of O. Library, Oreg. Col.

Very little comparative value.

Odell, Mrs. Gen. William H. History of the University. Wil- lamette University catalogue, 1884.

Good brief account, chiefly taken from Gus. Hines' "Oregon Institutions" and "Ten Years in Oregon" by Lee (Daniel) and Frost.

O'Hara, Rev. Father Edwin V. DeSmet in the Oregon Country. Oregon Historical Quarterly, Sept., 1909. p. 244 et seq. Good account of early Catholic missionary work.

HISTORY OF OREGON NORMAL SCHOOLSf

BY JOHN C. ALMACK ANALYSIS OF CONDITIONS

A comparison of statistics of significance in normal school education reveals some interesting differences between Oregon and her sister states : namely, Washington, Idaho, and Cali- fornia. What these facts are is indicated in the following tables:1

1915

Number of Normal schools

Teachers

Enrollment

Graduates

Enrollment in train- ing schools

Oregon Idaho

1

19 787 132

135

2

52

497

81

400

Washing- ton

3

70

2130

300

580

Cali- fornia

6

253 4733 1834

3162

Value of equipment. .$205,000 $480,000 $ 925,000 $2,500,000

Support 38,000

Number of normal

schools . 1

105,000 195,000 491,300

19 434 146

2

52 489 73

3** 104 2412 595

6

293 5052 1960

131

432

902

3417

Teachers

Enrollment

Graduates

Enrollment in train- ing schools

Value of equipment.. $232,000 $490,000 $1,224,000 $2,500,000

Support 37,000 103,000 386,000 647,000

Population*** 1,000,000 500,000 1,750,000 3,000,000

An analysis of the data here given shows that Idaho with a population less than half that of Oregon spends three times as much for normal school education and employs over twice as many teachers in these schools. The value of her normal school equipment is approximately twice as great as, that of

t Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts at the University of Oregon. (An abstract.) 1 Report U. S. Commissioner of Education 1915-16. ** The Washington legislature established another at Centralia in 1919. *'* Estimated.

96 JOHN C. ALMACK

Oregon's. Washington, a much younger state, supports three normals, has an enrollment nearly six times as great, employs six times as many teachers, and devotes ten times as much to the maintenance of the teacher training schools. Yet the population of the northern state is only one and three-fourths times that of Oregon. So far as California is concerned it excels Oregon in normal school education to such an extent that there is really but little value in the comparison. The population of the former state is about two and one-half times that of Oregon; but its normal school enrollment is twelve times as great, it expends twenty times as much, and has ten times as much equipment. In 1916 Oregon had 146 graduates from its normal school ; California had 1960. These statistics show that the three western states considered lead Oregon in the preparation of teachers, though the development of the states themselves (in the case of Washington and Idaho) has been more recent than that of Oregon.2

What are the reasons for these differences? Does Oregon have an adequate supply of well-trained teachers? Is the experience of Oregon in relation to normal schools an unique one, or has it parallels in the history of other states? What light does the history of normal school education in the state throw upon the problems of education that must be solved in the present? These are some of the practical questions in- volved in a study of normal school history and present con- ditions.

Regarding the qualifications of teachers and the number required, the facts are these :3

Grade of certificate Male Female Total

Life 359 1269 6173

Five year 187 726 913

One year 525 2692 3217

Special Ill 140 251

County and City 4 5 9

Temporary 47 128 175**

2 Report of state superintendent 1917.

3 Report of state superintendent 1917.

** Many more temporary certificates are in force now on account of the pre- vailing teacher shortage.

OREGON NORMAL SCHOOLS 97

The census returns show the population of the four states mentioned to be as follows :

Oregon Idaho Washington California

1870 90,923 14,999 23,955 560,247

1880 174,768 32,610 75,116 864,694

1890 311,704 88,548 357,232 1,213,398

1900 413,536 161,772 518,103 1,485,053

1910 672,765 325,594 1,141,990 2,377,549

PREPARATION OF TEACHERS

Completed eighth grade only 180

One year high school 123

Two years high school 282

Four years high school . . f 1 122

Three years high school , . 213

One year college or university 176

Two years college or university 181

Three years college or university 118

Four years college or university 564

One year normal 340

Two years normal 737

The total number of teachers required for the schools of the state in 1916 was 6,503. The same year the enrollment in the teacher training classes in high school was 478. Of the 150,0004 pupils enrolled in the public schools, about 20% had teachers who had three years' high school training or less, 30% had teachers who were high school graduates, 30% had teach- ers with one to two years of normal training, and 20% had teachers with from one to four years' of college or university education. On account of a shortage of teachers, 133 schools are closed, and a greater number of temporary certificates has been issued than usual. Moreover, the general requirements have been lowered since the beginning of the war until it is estimated that over half of the pupils in the public schools have teachers who are below accepted standards in prepara-

4 The total number of census children in the state in 1918 was 205,684 (ages 4-20), and the enrollment was: male, 72,547; female, 73,344; total, 145,891. In 1917 there were 19,181 students enrolled in the high schools. (Report of the state superintendent.)

98 JOHN C. ALMACK

tion. At the same time there has been a falling off in the normal school enrollment (Monmouth reported 240 students, with 22 graduates the first quarter of 1919), and in the num- ber of students taking teacher training courses in high schools.

EARLY SCHOOL CONDITIONS IN OREGON AND THE DEMAND FOR NORMALS— 1870-1882

There is no more interesting chapter in the history of edu- cation in Oregon than that which centers around the normal schools. For nearly forty years they have furnished subjects for discussion and controversy; they have occupied the atten- tion of legislators, governors, and educators. They have risen and fallen at the whim of politicians, or at the word of the sovereign people ; they have had brief periods of opportunity and longer periods of despair. The normal school problem has been one of the most perplexing ones the state has been called upon to deal with, and it is still unsolved. Yet Oregon's experience is not unique ; it parallels very closely that of New York and like New York's much of it is valuable chiefly as a warning.

A wonderful development industrial, political, and educa- tional— has characterized the state since the origin of the normal school question two score years and more ago. The population was less than 175,000; Portland was but little larger than Astoria is now ; in 1890 there were only eight cities in the state with a population above 2,500: namely Albany, Astoria, Baker, La Grande, Oregon City, Pendleton, Portland, and The Dalles. By far the larger part of the population was con- centrated in the Willamette Valley. Means of transportation were decidedly meager; the state boasted but two lines of railroad ; the automobile with its accompaniment of good roads had not been dreamed of; electric railroads belonged to the remote future. Travel was, except on the railway lines, mainly by horseback, wagon, steamboat, and stage. A county super- intendent reported that he had during the year traveled two

OREGON NORMAL SCHOOLS 99

thousand miles "on the hurricane deck of a cayuse" visiting schools. Eastern Oregon is still called by the facetious "the country of magnificent distances." In those days this remark might truly have been made of the entire state.

Property values were low, and in few places, relatively considered, was property concentrated so as to furnish op- portunity for taxation for local school purposes. Neither county or state levies for school purposes were available, and district rates were invariably low; in some instances directors refused altogether to lay a school tax. Multnomah County now has an assessed valuation about eleven times as great as the entire state in 1870. Something of the growth of the state is shown by the table of assessed valuations herewith given :

1870 $ 29,587,846

1880 48,483,174

1890 114,077,788

1900 117,804,874

1910 844,887,708

1918 987,533,896

Economic conditions furnish a good index to school con- ditions. School buildings were for the most part poor struc- tures. The first state superintendent remarked that many were utterly unfit for use. More specific are some of the state- ments made by county superintendents in their reports to state superintendent Sylvester C. Simpson in 1874. In Josephine County it was stated: "The present condition of the school- houses is bad. Some of them were originally built of logs; others are 'box' houses. All are furnished with seats, from the strong and durable slab, with four stout two-inch legs, to the genuine sugar-pine bench with the slivers planed off." On the same subject the Marion County superintendent said: "The district clerks' reports are not full enough to enable me to state the exact condition of the school houses. Many of them are bad ; others are worse ; and many of them are a dis- grace to Marion County and an insult to nineteenth century civilization."

100 JOHN C. ALMACK

Similar reports from other counties provoked Superinten- dent Sylvester C. Simpson to make this summary in his an- nual report to the legislature in 1874 :

'The school-houses are inferior in construction and in pro- visions for the comfort of their inmates to the barns of some of the farmers who live near them, and it is no uncommon thing to find the school-house built upon the most barren and un- sightly spot in the neighborhood. Some of our school-houses are so dilapidated and befouled with obscene pictures and words that they are hardly fit for decent people to enter."

However, if the architectural type of the school buildings was not such as meets with popular approval today, at least there were fewer of them. In 1878 there were only 7505 organized school districts in the state, and there were but 26,000 pupils enrolled in the public schools. Indeed it was gravely questioned whether education should be fostered at public expense. Free high schools would not have been tol- erated, and college preparatory work devolved upon the acad- emies, of which there were 28. The university, established at Eugene in 1876, and the agricultural college at Corvallis both did work of a preparatory grade. About four thousand students were attending the academies at this time.

The reports of the state superintendents from 1873 to 1916 give the following statistics of school conditions:

Months

Dis- of Salaries School School

tricts School Male Female Fund Property

1873 642 4.5 $37.54 $43.70 $ 184,010 $ 322,440

1880 1007 4.5 44.19 33.38 339,080 567,863

1885 1336 4.7 48.22 36.96 578,340 1,160,433

1893 1915 5.3 51.11 41.74 1,449,614 2,649,081

1909 2243 6.4 69.25 51.97 3,392,162 7,696,444

1916 2519 7.5 87.14 63.61 9,313,502 10,258,313

5 In 1874 there were only 680 districts; the census showed 21,519 males and 19,379 females between the ages of four and twenty, with an enrollment of 11,138 males and 9,542 females. The average attendance was only 15,169, and there were 10,711 children not in school. The same year 579 county certificates were issued: 190 first grade, 355 second, and 34 third. The state fund contributed $33,367.28. Contrasted with this are the figures from 1918-19, with 205,684 census children, an enrollment of 145,891, aj state fund of 388,873, and a total amount of approxi- mately $8,000,000 spent for school purposes.

OREGON NORMAL SCHOOLS 101

That most of the schools were small is borne out by the fact that only 1314 teachers were reported actually in service. However, as schools were in session for little more than a third of the year on the average, and summer schools were required in some sections, many teachers taught more than one school each year. Over ten thousand pupils were reported as at- tending no schools, and it was a common remark of county superintendents in their reports that attendance was very irregular.

The qualifications for teachers were not high, nor was there too rigid insistence at all times upon the observance of the re- quirements specified by law. County certificates were granted by county superintendents, and even after the issuance of more than one county certificate to a teacher was prohibited "migratory" pedagogues evaded the law by going to another county where a certificate of the same grade would be given them. The public school system offered no facilities for the education of teachers above the common school. As in New York in 1826, the people of Oregon seemed to believe "our great reliance for nurseries of teachers must be placed in our colleges and academies." These institutions were unprepared to fill the demand for teachers for the public schools, and other states proved the chief sources of supply, drawn hither more by the prospect of taking lands than by the munificent salaries offered in the schools. These teachers were part of the new immigration seeking the west following the war.

Oregon had suffered somewhat as had other states from the panic of 1873, but with the general revival of industry in the late seventies economic conditions began to improve. The population more than doubled during this decade. New cities sprang up, old ones grew, land increased in value, lumbering, fishing, mining and agriculture were greatly stimulated. The era of railroad construction began. Eastern capital made its appearance, and a new spirit of progress seized upon the people.

This new spirit was reflected in the demand for better schools. It was evident that the old system was inadequate and un- satisfactory. School improvement was quite general in the

102 JOHN C. ALMACK

country. The volume of school business had grown to im- mense proportions, necessitating the separation of the office of superintendent of schools from that of the governor, who had formerly attended to the duties of both offices. The nor- mal school movement had gained great headway in other states. Leading educators pointed out that the way to better schools was through better teachers. These called for normal schools for their training.

The first expression of the need came from the county super- intendent of Yamhill, J. D. Robb, in his recommendations to the state superintendent, Sylvester C. Simpson, in 1874. Mr. Robb said :

"There is a want of thoroughly qualified and competent teachers. I deem it of vital importance that the state should establish a normal school and sustain it liberally ; that it should not be connected with any college but purely distinctive as a normal school."

Here was the wisdom of Horace Mann speaking, but he was not heard.

This statement indicated the tendency. Later on6 Rev. Geo. H. Atkinson, in his abstract of the history of education in Oregon, said:

"A state normal school should be established. This is one of the most pressing needs of our school system in order to render it properly effective."

Superintendent Rowland two years later again called the attention of the legislature to the need of normals :

"No want, it is confidently believed, is more keenly felt by the real friends of thorough, practical education than that of a state normal school."

The state university made an attempt to meet the demand for normal courses by the introduction of subjects attractive to teachers. Thomas Condon, writing in the report of the state superintendent 1877-79 says :

"One of the three courses of study (at the university) is

6 Report of State Superintendent L. L. Rowland, 1875-76.

OREGON NORMAL SCHOOLS 103

styled 'normal course,' and is especially designed to aid as rapidly as possible teachers who may be unable to take a full college course. This course aims to cover the ground ordi- narily occupied by state normal schools, and might easily and economically be made to do this normal work for our state." This is perhaps the first public pronouncement of one of the most consistent objections to normal schools, not only in Oregon but in other states, namely, that existing institutions, public and private, were prepared to train all the teachers necessary in the state. What the course "designed to aid teachers as rapidly as possible" was may be seen below :

NORMAL COURSE FIRST YEAR SECOND YEAR THIRD YEAR

I Term I Term I Term Arithmetic Elementary Algebra Chemistry English Grammar Modern History Psychology Mental Arithmetic Elementary Rhetoric Botany

II Term II Term Natural Philosophy English Grammar Geometry II Term Elementary Algebra Mineralogy Astronomy Physical Features Bookkeeping Natural Philosophy Physiology III Term Pedagogics Zoology Trigonometry III Term

III Term Ancient History Botany

English Grammar Bookkeeping English Literature

Elementary Algebra Constitution

Zoology

That opinion favorable to state normals was being created among the teachers is shown by a resolution passed by the western division of the state teachers' association, and pub- lished in the Oregonian September 1, 1879. Here three nor- mals were advocated instead of one as recommended by the state superintendent:

'Teachers trained by our sister states are coming among us ; and it is not doing justice to our sons and daughters in com- peting with these to give them no opportunities for qualify- ing themselves equally with those from abroad. All will agree that we have first class talent; but trained teachers, will, in

104 JOHN C. ALMACK

all our best schools take precedence over those not especially trained for that work. As early as possible, then, we ask that three normal schools be established at convenient centers in our state."

In 1879, Superintendent Rowland was superseded by L. J. Powell. Mr. Powell evidently had misgivings as to the ad- visability of building normals for in his first report to the legis- lature he suggests an alternative in the normal institute :

"The necessity for the special training of teachers is a mat- ter too self-evident to call for elaborate argument. ... I recommend that there be appropriated $2,000 or $3,000 for normal institutes. These would be far better for the state for many years to come than a normal school, principally from the fact that but a comparatively few of our teachers, even if tuition were given free, would ever be likely to attend a nor- mal school."

The agitation for normals continued into the years 1881 and 1882. Mr. Powell again called the notice of the legis- lature to the need of thoroughly trained and well qualified teachers, and said:

"If too much of a burden to establish normals, then let pro- visions be made for normal institutes."

In the recommendations made to the state office, two county superintendents7 and 8 took occasion to suggest that normal schools be created. At the meeting of the state association in Portland 1881, Superintendent Frank Rigler of Polk County read a paper on "The Necessity for Better Teachers and How to Secure Them," and put foremost as a means normal schools supported by the state. Normal institutes also met with his approval. The same year, Christian College, Monmouth, fol- lowing the example of the state university or with some de- sign for future use, announced that a normal department had been added. r^^-11Pf

Outside of educational circles, there was no apparent interest in regard to teacher training schools. The public was, so far as evidence is available, indifferent ; the newspapers were silent

7 I. Allen Macrum, Multnomah County: "An efficient normal school is the great need of the public schools of Oregon."

8 L. H. Baker, Yamhill: "A state normal should be established so better methods in teaching may be secured."

OREGON NORMAL SCHOOLS 105

on the question. Certainly their establishment was far from being a political issue. The Educational Monthly, published in Salem by W. P. Keady, in 1876 contained a brief editorial asking that normal institutes similar to those in eastern states be made compulsory in Oregon. Notwithstanding the popular apathy, the subject was introduced into state affairs in 1882, when a bill was brought into the state legislature designating Christian College at Monmouth, and Ashland Collegiate and Normal Institute at Ashland as state normals. Without ma- terial objection the bill became a law.

THE FIRST STATE NORMALS— PERIOD OF PRIVATE SUPPORT 1882-1893

The plans for a Christian college in Oregon Territory were formulated in 1849 at the home of Tyrus Himes9 in Lafay- ette, Stark County, Illinois. The occasion was a protracted meeting of the Disciples in Christ, and several members of the church from Monmouth, 111., were present. A map of the new country beyond the mountains was produced, and an approxi- mate location of the settlement and school indicated. In 1850, several who were present at the meeting in the Himes house crossed the plains and took up land near the present site of the town of Monmouth,10 Oregon. A portion of the lands11 filed upon were set aside as the nucleus of an endowment for a college,12 and the first school was opened in 1855. Among those who helped organize the institution were Thomas H. Lucas, Elijah Davidson, Albert W. Lucas, Squire Whitman, Ira F. M. Butler, and James H. Roundtree. J. W. Cowls of McMinn- ville was the first teacher.

Meanwhile a rival institution, Bethel Collegiate Institute, had been started at Bethel, Polk County. The date of its

9 A meeting to discuss the same topic was also held at the home of Ira F. M. Butler, in Monmouth, Illinois.

10 One of the founders wrote: "Our surroundings are new and cruel here. We must control them: not let them control us."

The aim of the founders was to establish an institution of learning "where men and women alike may become schooled in the science of living, and in the fundamental principles of religion."

11 The town of Monmouth was surveyed in 1855 by T. H. Hutchinson. Two names were proposed for the town: Dover and Monmouth. The vote resulted in a tie, and Ira F. M. Butler, chairman of the committee, cast the deciding vote for Monmouth, he having come from Monmouth, Illinois.

12 There was 500 acres in the tract given to found the school, and it was donated by T. H. Lucas, S. S. Whitman, Elijah Davidson, Ira F. M. Butler, T. B. Smith, and John Harris.

106 JOHN C. ALMACK

establishment was 1852, so it antedated the Monmouth school by nearly three years. It was soon discovered that there was not sufficient field to justify two schools in the same locality, and in 1865 Christian College was chartered, thereby merging Bethel Collegiate Institute and Monmouth University.. L. L. Rowland of Bethany College, Virginia, was the first president. Mr. Rowland was afterward elected state superin- tendent of schools and recommended the establishment of a state normal school. Christian College was controlled and sup- ported by the Christian Brotherhood of Oregon. Authority was granted to confer the degrees of A. B., B. S., and M. A.13 The buildings and grounds were appraised at $20,000, and an endowment of $25,000 was promised.

The college was quite successful14 even in those pioneer days. Sylvester Simpson, who was superintendent of schools in 1873, said the school had an enrollment of 300 students with a school term of ten months. Receipts for the year were given as $4,500, with expenses of only $3,500. However, there were lean years,15 and the presidents16 were alert to discover opportunities to advance the interests of the school. President Stanley is said to have conceived the idea of having Christian College made a state normal, and J. D. Lee of Dallas intro- duced a bill to this effect in the legislature of 1882.

But Christian College was not the only candidate for such advantages. The Methodists had founded the Collegiate and Normal Institute at Ashland in 1879, and it soon became a flourishing institution. By 1880 there were 54 students en- rolled in the academic department, and 33 in the primary. The first president was Rev. L. L. Rogers, who for the first year was paid the munificent salary of $1,500 much more than

13 The catalogue of Christian College 1872 said: "Any bachelor of arts may receive the degree of A. M. on paying a fee of ten dollars to the library fund, provided he shall have shown himself competent and worthy of such distinction. This degree may be conferred on eminent persons for distinguished merit."

14 In 1874 when_the question of the location of 'the state university was under consideration, Christian College was offered to the state. The committee ap- pointed by the legislature to decide on the site voted on Eugene and Monmouth. The latter lost by one vote, R. S. Crystal of Dallas voting against his own county.

15 In 1879 the attendance had fallen to 13 in the academic department, and the tuition brought in only $600.

16 President Campbell traveled about the country collecting donations for the support of the school, and at one time raised $15,000. Women raised money by doing washings, and by labor of other kinds to enable them to contribute to the cause of education. Mortgages were not uncommon, and many gifts made to Christian were the product of strict self-denial.

OREGON NORMAL SCHOOLS 107

was drawn by any other educator in the state. The building was valued at $5,000, and the five acres in the grounds were modestly held at $2,000. When it became known that Chris- tian College was asking the legislature to designate it as a state normal school, the Methodists put forward the same request for the Collegiate Institute.

There are two reasons why these schools were ambitious to become state normals : ( 1 ) they would thus be empowered to issue diplomas to their graduates entitling them to teach in the schools of the state without the formality of passing an examination, and (2) there was a certain amount of prestige and advertising value in securing state recognition which would attract students. Normal school opponents held that the pro- moters of the scheme were only waiting for a favorable op- portunity to apply for state aid, and were taking this first step of putting the state under obligation for their support. In- deed, it was not long until plans were made for securing ap- propriations. It seems quite certain that friends of the two schools promised they would never ask for state aid.

The act creating state normals at Monmouth and Ashland was passed by the legislature without serious opposition in 1882, being approved by the governor on October 26. No dis- tinction was made in the privileges accorded the schools. The law was as follows:

"The Christian College at Monmouth, Polk County, and the Ashland College and Normal School, Ashland, Jackson County, are hereby declared to be state normal schools of the state of Oregon. . . . Model training schools for professional prac- tice shall be maintained. . . . Control shall be vested in the present boards of trustees."

Mr. D. T. Stanley remained as president of Monmouth Normal, and Mr. M. G. Royal was the first president of the new normal at Ashland. In the spring of 1883, Monmouth graduated its first normal school class, Miss May Hawley re- ceiving a diploma. In 1884, nine students were graduated from Monmouth, among the number being Mr. J. B. V. Butler, now head of the history department of the Monmouth Normal,

108 JOHN C. ALMACK

and Miss Armilda Doughty, for several years a teacher in the same school. There were nine teachers in the faculty; two hundred sixteen students were enrolled ; and four students were doing work of college rank. The buildings that year were rea- sonably appraised at $14,000, while Ashland with four teach- ers and forty-two students claimed a building worth $8,000. The tuition in both schools was set at five dollars a term of twenty weeks. Two terms constituted the school year.

The entrance requirements could not be called excessively high. On this point, early catalogues contained this state- ment:

"All persons of good morals and sufficient scholarship17 are invited to enter the normal at any time."

The decision on both these points was left to the administra- tive authorities of the schools, no standards of uniformity being set. Conditions were not widely different in other states in this respect. There was a great variation among the several schools. In 1884, the National Council of Education reported:

"A uniform standard for admission to normal schools is impracticable."

Conditions in Oregon should be judged, not by the stand- ards of today, but by the standards of their own times.

The courses of study were prepared by the president of each school and his board of trustees. Ashland's course of study adopted in 1882 is given.

COURSE OF STUDY

Junior Year Intermediate Year Senior Year

(Orthography Orthography English Literature

Language (English Grammar English Grammar American Literature

Composition Rhetoric ( Word Analysis

(Mental Arithmetic Arithmetic Higher Algebra

Mathematics (Written Arithmetic Elementary Algebra Geometry

(Bookkeeping

(Geography Natural Philosophy Chemistry

(Map Drawing Zoology Geology

Science (Physiology Botany Map Drawing

(Physical Geography

17 Annual catalogue.

OREGON NORMAL SCHOOLS 109

(Reading (Penmanship (Drawing (Vocal Music

American Ideas U. S. History Ancient History School Law

Review Elocution Political Economy

(

Constitution of the

I iuQ

r

U. S.

* id. ni r> * : '

(

Reading

' ' ' « ,

c

i Vocal Music

ffilflifflOi j: . .;

Vocal Music Constitution of

Methods of Teaching

Oregon Map Drawing

Practice Teaching Mental Philosophy

Drawing

Miscellaneous

Professional

This work was carried on with only four teachers. Mon- mouth offered the same subjects, and in addition taught His- tory of Education, Trigonometry, Astronomy, Objective Teach- ing, School Organization, and School Hygiene. The work at Monmouth was divided into an elementary course of one year, and a regular course of two years above this.

There is not a great deal of difference between this course of study and the first normal school curriculum (Lexington, Massachusetts, 1839) in the United States. This, which was copied from the state teacher training schools of Germany, contained18 these subjects.

( 1 ) Orthography, reading, grammar, composition, rhetoric. (2) Arithmetic (mental and written), algebra, geometry,

bookkeeping, navigation, surveying. ( 3 ) Writing, drawing.

( 4 ) Geography with chronology, statistics and general his- tory.

( 5 ) Physiology. ( 6 ) Mental philosophy. ( 7 ) Music.

( 8 ) State constitution and history of the U. S. ( 9 ) Astronomy.

(10) Natural history.

(11) The principles of piety and morality.

(12) The science and art of teaching with reference to all these subjects.

In 188719 two years of Latin and one of Greek were of-

18 Dexter, History of Education in the U. S., page 376.

19 Catalogue, Drain Normal, 1887, 1891.

110 JOHN C. ALMACK

fered, and in 1891 Drain listed telegraphy, violin, art, elocu- tion, and shorthand, with eight courses: Elementary, normal, post graduate, higher post graduate, business, academic, music and painting, and kindergarten.

The law of 1882 which created state normals contained this clause :

"Model training schools for professional practice shall be maintained."

Pursuant to this requirement, training departments were early organized in each school. The catalogue of Ashland Normal in 1887 contained this statement :

"This department (training) is incidental to all first class normal schools, and has been one of the leading features of this school during the past year. Our student teachers are required to work in this department, teaching classes and criti- cising others. Students to graduate from normal school must show a fair amount of ability to teach and to govern."

Monmouth advertised the same year :

"By an arrangement with the board of directors of the Mon- mouth public school, the privilege of teaching in the school under the supervision of critic teachers is granted to members of the senior class. Each member of the senior class is re- quired to teach twenty weeks, three hours each day. Thor- ough preparation in both general and special method will occupy the twenty weeks preparatory to teaching. The plan is the one pursued by the best normals of this country and Europe. Especial attention is called to the opportunity of securing training in the work of the ninth grade, or first year of the state high school course."

The use of the public school as a training school depart- ment did away with the possibility of rivalry between the normal and the public school a condition too often found in cities maintaining the two separate systems. This scheme was not adopted without objection, as many held that the educational opportunities offered in the training school, with

OREGON NORMAL SCHOOLS 111

inexperienced teachers, was inferior to that of the public school. Discipline was as a rule considered more lax in the training department. On the other hand, some parents desired that their children attend the training school, and stoutly upheld the opinion that the quality of instruction there given was second to none. The Ashland Normal, being located two miles from the city, (after the construction of the new building) operated with considerably less relationship to the city schools than in the other schools. Ashland was confronted with the necessity, however, of finding pupils for its practice school, and that all was not harmony seems evident from the follow- ing quotation from the first catalogue announcing the estab- lishment of the training department:

"The pupils of this department are of the best element of the city. Pupils who use bad language and those who are apt to disregard the best rules of discipline are not given admis- sion. This is a select school where parents may feel perfectly safe in sending their children. Here is avoided the contami- nation of those vulgar influences which are so often tolerated in the public school/'

This idea of exclusiveness must have had an especially strong appeal to the ambitious parent.

By the close of the year 1885 the two normals at Monmouth and Ashland were in running order. That year State Super- intendent E. B. McElroy reported to the legislature :

"The requirements of the law in prescribing a course of study to be pursued by the students in the normal schools, as well as the rules and regulations for their government, have been complied with."

Looking upon this as so much accomplished, he turned his attention to a demand for a normal school which had arisen in Eastern Oregon. In the same report, Mr. McElroy said there were 300 teachers required for the districts east of the Cascades, that the population was rapidly increasing, and there- fore there would soon be many more needed. Private acad-

112 JOHN C. ALMACK

emies, he said, were unable to give the kind of instruction desirable and necessary for teachers, and the cost of travel was so great it was impossible for them to attend the schools in the western part of the state. He further advocated the creation of normal institute districts identical with the judicial districts. Summer schools were to be held annually therein for from four to six weeks, and the teachers should be com- pelled to attend. "We find," he said, "that there is a large number of teachers who cannot afford to attend normals and colleges." The normal institute has thus from the first been a rival of the normal school, and finally secured recognition in the law permitting county superintendents to conduct sum- mer schools in lieu of county institutes. Clackamas and Josephine have been about the only counties to take advantage of the act.

Legislators pushed the claim of Eastern Oregon for a school, and in 1885 the academy at Weston was made a state normal. This was done by adopting an amendment to the original normal school measure. No other change was made in this law. Control was continued under the same boards, and the right to grant degrees remained. The same session designated a new state normal at Drain,20 a small village in Douglas County. This had been the Drain Academy, founded by the Methodists. A separate law was passed for this school, but it differed in no essential particulars from the first. Authority was granted to issue a diploma good in any school in the state. This diploma might become a state life certificate after six years' experience. This was in no way a lowering of the standard as state certificates might be easily secured by exam- ination. These were quite numerous in Oregon, as one gov- ernor remarked in his inaugural address : "Thick as the autumn leaves that strow the brook of Vallambrosa." For many years there was no age requirement to gain a county or state certifi- cate : the normals could not graduate males until they were 21 years old ; females must be 18 at least.

20 Enemies of the normals charged that Drain was established in return for a vote given to John H. Mitchell, who was elected United States Senator. This was the basis of the assertion of Jay Bowerman that "the normals were conceived in iniquity."

OREGON NORMAL SCHOOLS 113

With the addition of one more institution, the normal school constellation is complete. The fifth and last was the Wasco Independent Academy, established in 1889. W. C. Ingalls was the president. Previous to becoming a normal the academy had offered a normal course leading to the degree of Licentiate of Instruction. There was also a short course for which a certifi- cate to teach was granted. The catalogue for 1899 had this announcement :

"We give four years' daily instruction in Latin, and thereby give students a strong mental grasp on all subjects. It has this great advantage over those normal schools which have no Latin in their courses."

Probably this argument influenced the legislature to estab- lish the school in the first place. There seemed to be no other reason. The Dalles Normal was not prosperous ; its existence was brief indeed. One graduate only, Frances Ettie Rowe, was reported. This was in 1892. In 1895 the report of the state superintendent, Mr. G. M. Irwin, contains one sentence in relation to The Dalles school. Like Grey's line, "The short and simple annals of the poor," it suggests volumes: "The Dalles Normal School has ceased to exist."

Tuition was very reasonable, being about $20 a year, or $5 a term. This brought in an income entirely insufficient for the needs of the schools. Indeed, increased enrollment merely served to aggravate financial difficulties, as it made necessary increased expenditures for teachers and equipment. The schools were reported as prosperous, when the term applied mainly to their prospects. Monmouth maintained an average enroll- ment of approximately 200 for the first nine years of its exist- ence, then experienced a decided growth. This was in part due to the fact that in 1893 state aid was granted Monmouth and Weston.

The sentiment for state assistance in a financial way had been growing for several years. It was said to have been in the minds of the supporters of Monmouth and Ashland at the

114 JOHN C. ALMACK

time of their establishment as state schools. However, the first evidence of this desire for financial aid from the public came from the expression of county and state superintendents ; though these were doubtless inspired by normal school officials and friends. In 1885 County Superintendent E. A. Milner of Benton County wrote to the state superintendent :

"Establishing a normal school at Monmouth is a great aid to the public schools. Although established less than two years, Benton County is already receiving benefit from it. From President Stanley I learn that it is the intention of the board of trustees to deed the entire school property to the state, and to allow the state to appoint the board of regents, upon con- dition that the state make appropriation to meet the running expenses."

Certainly if the supporters of the normal school at Mon- mouth had promised in 1883 that they would never ask for state aid that promise was soon forgotten.

Other county superintendents were happily struck with the desirability of the state lending aid to the normals. Frank Rigler of Polk County (in which Monmouth Normal is lo- cated) advised the state superintendent:

"Some provision should be made for the support of the state normal schools."

And L. H. Baker in the adjoining county of Yamhill be- lieved :

"We need a normal school supported by the state, and then require the teachers to attend."

The legislature of 1885, busily engaged in creating other normals, did not heed the suggestions here given. Two years later Superintendent Milner of Benton repeated his endorse- ment of Monmouth :

"I visited the school at Monmouth in February, and found over 200 young men and women in attendance. A more en- ergetic body of teachers and professors cannot be found. The teaching is thorough and practical as normal school work

OREGON NORMAL SCHOOLS 115

should be. This institution should receive financial aid from the state."21

These recommendations were not without effect. Two years after being authorized to grant diplomas, the Monmouth and Ashland schools went before the legislature and asked for appropriations. The legislature did not lend a willing ear, however. Lacking organization, and probably doubting the wisdom of pushing their claims, the normal exponents with- drew without causing more than a ripple on the financial sur- face. In 1887 another request was put forward for state aid. The normal institute here crops up in opposition, County Su- perintendent T. T. Vincent of Washington County saying :

"As there are no training schools for the cause of education within reach of a majority of our teachers, it would be better if the legislature instead of appropriating $20,000 or $30,000 for a state normal or the university would appropriate said amounts to the various counties for the purpose of having in- stitutes for from two to four weeks duration each year.

Monmouth Normal insisted on bringing the matter to an issue. In the annual catalogue of 1887 a comparison between Oregon and other states in regard to support was drawn :

"The large and increasing appropriations of money made for the support of normal schools in those states where they have had a thorough trial show the estimation in which they are held on their merits."

But Oregon normals were to get no help from the session of 1887. In the committee on ways and means to which the appropriation bills were referred it was brought out that to give state money to a denominational school was contrary to the constitution, and that Monmouth and Ashland were in fact denominational schools, as their properties were held by church organizations. As a consequence no appropriation was made, and the normal school authorities turned their efforts to the discovery of means by which the obstacle to state support could be rendered inapplicable. There seemed to be but one solution of the question: namely, that mentioned by Super-

21 "The enrollment at Monnmuth for seven years beginning in 1883 was, in order, 104, 216, 202 (this was during the hard times when the rust took the wheat crop), 227, 261, 197, 216.

116 JOHN C. ALMACK

intendent Milner in 1885. Article I, section 5, of the Bill of Rights is explicit :

"No money shall be drawn from the Treasury for the benefit of any religious or theological institution ; nor shall any money be appropriated for the payment of any religious services in either house of the Legislative Assembly."

Therefore, the schools proposed to become state institutions in fact. A formal offer of the property of the schools was made to the legislature, and accepted without debate. In fact, the legislators felt the state had the better of the bargain, and regarded the acquisition of the buildings, grounds and equip- ment of the schools as so much gain.

The acceptance of the property did not pledge the legis- lature to grant aid, but the obligation to do this was expressed by others. State Superintendent G. M. Irwin in his biennial report to the assembly in 1889 said :

"It is not good policy to authorize normal schools which the state does not control, and whose support it does not guar- antee. It should be seen to that they are de facto what they are in name. All that come away should show that they are 'apt to teach.' Much criticism on just this point may be found in various quarters, but the ground for such criticism should be removed. Laws governing the institutions should be made harmonious."

The criticism referred to was that other courses besides those needed for teachers were being given, and that the students did not become teachers. These criticisms were often repeated. Governor Sylvester Pennoyer also expressed himself on the question of normal schools. In his message to the legislature in 1893 he said :

"By accepting the gift of college property (at Monmouth) the state became morally and legally bound to extend aid to that institution."

Ashland, though an early applicant for an appropriation, was not to receive one. Weston had supplanted her in the favor of the law-makers. On February 21, 1893, a bill was passed authorizing the governor to appoint a board of nine members which with the state board of education should con-

OREGON NORMAL SCHOOLS 117

stitute the board of regents of the Monmouth Normal. "The board of regents," read the law, "shall receive a deed to the premises now used and held by the state normal at Monmouth, and shall have the same duly recorded." In return an appro- priation of $23,382.7622 was given the Polk County institution. Seven regents were given to Weston, and an appropriation of $24,000 "conditioned on the conveyance of the property of the school to the board, to be held for the state."

The same year, Portland University, which was then raising high hopes in the hearts of the educational promoters of the Northwest, made a proposition to Ashland to endow the normal school with $20,000 if the people of the city would furnish a suitable building and grounds. The offer was accepted, and a building commenced. It soon became evident that the Port- land institution would not be able to keep its part of the agree- ment, and work on the new building was temporarily sus- pended. In spite of the disappointment over the loss of the prospective endowment, it was agreed that the building should be finished. W. T. VanScoy, who had been president of the Drain Normal and a teacher in Portland University, was called to Ashland. Through his efforts the old normal school prop- erty was sold, and funds made available for the construction of the new building, which was rushed to completion. The year following, Drain dedicated a new building. These institu- tions were then ready to make an offer of their property in return for state support.

THE NORMALS AND THE LEGISLATURE— 1893-1909

There seemed to be no doubt in the minds of the politicians that the policy of granting assistance to the schools engaged in training teachers should not be discontinued. In 1895, Governor Lord in his inaugural address said:

"To obtain expert teachers it is necessary to have schools for their education. Upon this basis of need and strictest economy in management, I recommend whatever appropriation may be necessary for their support."

22 In 1891 the trustees of Monmouth had been forced to borrow $4,200 on a note. On receiving this appropriation the note was paid.

118 JOHN C. ALMACK

Upon this recommendation, Monmouth and Weston were granted their second appropriations.

Two years later Ashland and Drain23 pushed their claims for support. The latter school was particularly fortunate in having a supporter in the senate in the person of Senator Reed. The founder of the village was also a man of considerable political influence. The original appropriation bill gave Ash- land $12,500 and excluded Drain. Through the influence of Senator Reed24 a special committee of the house and the senate was appointed to visit the normals and report on their con- ditions and needs. A favorable report was rendered on all. On the final passage of the Ashland appropriation measure, an amendment was added giving Drain $5,000 and Ashland $7,500. In rather a whimsical manner, President Anderson, of Drain, put the needs of his school before the legislature :

"If the state expects the child of its own creation to be strong and healthy, it should supply it with the same kind and quantity of nourishment it has given to other offspring of like nature. We cannot keep pace with the others with- out state aid."

Separate boards of regents of nine members each were pro- vided, and the schools transferred the title to their holdings to the state. Oregon then had four state normals, drawing state aid.

The course of the normal schools was not even then a smooth one. Opposition and criticisms were springing to

23 Senator Reed of Drain introduced the bill giving Drain normal an appro- priation, and steered it through the senate. During the same time, E. V. Carter of Ashland had put the Ashland bill through the house. When the Ashland normal school bill appeared in the senate, Reed asked to have it referred to the com- mittee on fisheries, of which he was chairman. His colleagues jocosely concurred, thinking1 the senator from Drain wanted to kill the measure. With the Ashland bill in his pocket, Reed called upon Carter and said: "This bill will never see the light again unless you get the Drain normal school bill through the house." An agreement was thereupon concluded and both schools given aid.

24 The state superintendent in his report, 1898, makes the following recom- mendation: "The (normals) at Weston and Monmouth are organized under special legislation, the governor being authorized to appoint the boards of regents, and to these school appropriations have been made. The other two (Drain and Ashland) are simply permitted to prosecute their work under tuitional and private support, and to their graduates the state board of education is to issue diplomas of the same degree as those granted to graduates of normals controlled and owned by the state.

. It is therefore a fact that the normal schools without state aid must necessarily be crippled in their work. To maintain existence even they are com- pelled to resort to various means to increase attendance, and there is great tempta- tion to present a limited curriculum that the short and easy course may induce attendance, the main object of many being the obtaining of a state diploma, real merit and ability to teach being a secondary matter. This course cannot long continue without awakening criticism, and it is also detrimental to the teaching force. The logic of the situation is that there should be one taken under the care of the state."

OREGON NORMAL SCHOOLS 119

life. In his message to the assembly in 1899, Governor Lord said:

"Our normals are a useful and indispensable adjunct to our common school system. Let them be held strictly to the true object of their work, and aloof from educating in other branches: there their success is assured, and their expense will probably be greatly reduced."

There were other signs of opposition. When the legisla- ture convened in special session in 1898, the authority of the schools to grant certificates to teach was abrogated, and the only privilege left the normals was that of issuing statements of attendance to graduates, these statements being accepted in lieu of thirty months' experience, admitting the holders to the state examinations for life diplomas. This was the celebrated Daly25 bill.

The criticisms were various. It was said the admission re- quirements were too low, that they were not invariably fol- lowed, that commercial, college preparatory, and college courses were offered rather than normal courses; that the graduates did not teach ; that the schools were of local service only ; that they meddled in politics ; that buildings and equipment were inadequate ; that they did not have training school facilities ; that they were not in strategic geographical locations; there were occasional discussions in reference to the qualifications of instructors ; bad management ; extravagance ; and sectarian relationships ; Governor Theodore T. Geer in his inaugural address in 1889 hinted at some of these criticisms in a delight- fully indefinite way that would do credit to any one skilled in the art of successful politics :

"It is a source of much regret that so much turmoil exists in many of the institutions located away from the state capital, and governed by boards of trustees and regents. There are reasons for believing that much of this is caused by the preva- lent idea that the institution should be used as a means of

25 The Daly bill was passed to take away the certificating power from the denominational schools, but so strong were they that it was necessary to include the state institutions "in order that there should be no sign of favoritism," the plan being to return the privilege to the state schools in a few years. The students at Monmouth threatened to walk out in a body if the bill passed, but better counsel prevailed." In 1902, President P. L. Campbell of Monmouth recommends that the normal diploma constitute a legal license to teach.

120 JOHN C. ALMACK

permanently benefitting the town where it is situated. . . . In some instances, the interference of local interests cripples the institution, enters the social life of the town, and in some cases has been known to hamper the efficiency of the local public schools."

There is a slight allusion in the preceding paragraph to what later was often mentioned: namely, that state institutions located more than five miles from the state capital were thus located in defiance of the state constitution, and they therefore had no claim upon the state for support. Marion County, from which Governor Geer hailed, has oftenest voiced this sentiment, and the classical reply to the remark is for politicians to threaten to remove the capital to Portland or some other section of the state.

Though the demands for public education were growing in favor the normals were apparently losing the confidence of the people. About three thousand students were enrolled in the high schools, of which there were 16 doing four years' work, 12 three years, 38 two years, and 44 one year in 1903. Three years before there were but four year high schools of first rank in the state. In 1901 district and county high schools were authorized, and there seemed less reason for giving state support to schools doing work of high school grade. There was also competition in normal work from sectarian schools. The state board of education in 1898 adopted a rule to the effect that all persons who completed a required course of study and received a literary degree in any institutions of learning of college or university rank should, upon passing a satisfactory examination, be entitled to a state diploma, and after six years of teaching receive a state life diploma. Re- ferring to the state laws on certifications the state superinten- dent said :

"The law provides that colleges and universities chartered as such with authority to grant degrees, and candidates com- pleting a course in said institutions, may receive from the state board a state diploma. This law is so indefinite that possibly its spirit and purpose have not been fully regarded. Courses of study called normal have been adopted, and the require-

OREGON NORMAL SCHOOLS 121

ments have been so limited26 that persons have found this an easy road to receiving state diplomas. It is certainly very practical experience in teaching and school government. But evident that no persons should have a diploma who has had no it is a notorious fact that persons are sent forth from some institutions who have no practical knowledge of the science of teaching, and are equipped with nothing but knowledge of a certain limited course of study."

The schools referred to are unknown, but an examination of the report of the state superintendent for the year 1898 shows that the following private schools gave normal courses : Philo- math offered a normal course of three years leading to a degree; LaFayette Seminary; Mineral Springs College, at Sodaville, Linn County; Mt. Angel Academy and College; Portland University; Santiam Academy; Radical College of Philomath; St. Francis' Academy and College of Baker City; Pacific University. In 1891 Philomath, Pacific, and Willam- ette had taken advantage of the provision of the school law empowering private colleges to grant certificates of teaching, but the number of students they registered was small.

The appropriations given by the state were entirely inade- quate, and the normals had a fearful struggle for bare exist- ence. At last in 1901, the normals asked for greatly increased appropriations, the total being $116,229.53. This was granted, Monmouth receiving $30,800, Ashland $15,000, Weston $59,429.53, and Drain $11,000. Of Weston's allowance, $35,000 was for a new building. George E. Chamberlain, who was opposed to four normals, became governor, and in 1903 in his message to the legislature recommended :

"The number of normal schools be reduced to two on account of expense and inefficiency of management so situated geographically as to best accommodate the entire state."

Far from heeding the recommendation of the chief execu- tive, the legislature made an effort to create another school, and the bill actually passed both houses but was vetoed by the governor. The normal school forces were strong and well organized, and succeeded in getting an appropriation of $88,000,

26 It was only necessary to read a book on education to meet the requirement.

122 JOHN C. ALMACK

postponing thereby the real struggle which began two years later.

Governor Chamberlain continued his opposition to the nor- mals. In his second message he again advised the assembly to "abolish at least two normals." He favored requiring the schools to adopt a uniform course of study, and prohibiting them from teaching pupils in the common branches.

The normals evidently felt that their chances for getting an appropriation from the twenty-third legislature were in danger. Reports of the contest in the state legislature began to appear in the press. The Oregon Teachers' Monthly in February, 1905, in an editorial said the normal schools are in danger and "have implacable foes," and

"Friends of the normals in the legislature resort to log-roll- ing tactics. They tack their appropriation measures on general appropriation bills, where other interests will carry them through."

Later on in the session (March, 1905) the journal again says the normals will probably get no aid from the state be- cause "the people dislike the log-rolling process, and political wire-pulling by which the schools are maintained." The schools were forced to pool their interests, and the omnibus appropria- tion bill was the result. This bill appropriated money for the normals, the state penitentiary, the insane asylum, reform school, the school for the deaf, the school for the blind, the Oregon Agricultural College, and the State University. The bill passed the legislature, but with the referendum clause at- tached. The legislature had evaded its responsibility on the Normal School Issue, and shifted it to the people. The elec- tion was set for 1906.

The necessity of waiting for money until the decision on the referendum precipitated a crisis in normal school finances. While the proponents of the schools felt certain the outcome of the election would be favorable, there was a period of a year to be bridged over before the appropriation would be available. Relief was immediate. In ten hours' time the citizens of Ash- land pledged $11,000 to carry on the school pending the elec- tion. The people of Drain met and voted a seventy-five mill

OREGON NORMAL SCHOOLS 123

tax upon their property for the year 1905-1906. The town of Monmouth aided by loyal friends of the school raised over $7,000. This amount was insufficient to maintain the Mon- mouth Normal for a year, so the Polk County Bank advanced the teachers money monthly to the amount of seventy-five per cent of their vouchers. Weston alone closed its doors. The vote at the election was close, the omnibus bill carrying by only 6,730 votes. In Southern Oregon the majority was strongly in favor of the measure. Twenty-four twenty-fifths of all the ballots cast in Ashland, seven-eighths of all the votes of Jackson County, and four-fifths of the votes of Curry, Coos, and Klamath Counties were for the bill. Marion, Linn, Yam- hill, Clackamas, Washington, were strongly against the appro- priation.

The fight over the normals grew in intensity. Representa- tive Vawter of Jackson came forward with the proposal that one board of regents be appointed to direct the affairs of the four schools. The bill carried, and the Weston Leader notes that this act marked the beginning of the downfall of the normal schools. The new board consisted of six members appointed by the governor, and the state board of education.

All the schools asked for appropriations. The totals were larger than ever before, Monmouth alone asking for $115,000. The committee on ways and means acted favorably on each measure excepting Drain 27"to show the people what a big graft the normals were working." Finally one bill was drafted covering both Drain and Monmouth, hoping that the strong support belonging to the older school would carry both safely through. Ashland was accused of being a party to this bargain, but she stoutly denied the charge. The legislative struggle was bitter. In the end the bills carried, but Governor Chamberlain vetoed the joint bill making appropriations for Monmouth and Drain. His explanation28 of the veto was given at length, charging bad faith on the part of C. N. McArthur, president of the House, recalling his recommendation that two normals be abolished, and maintaining that the joint appropriation bill

27 Oregon Teachers' Monthly, March, 1907.

28 "The legislature in this instance combined Monmouth and Drain in one

124 JOHN C. ALMACK

was illegal. The supporters of the two schools could not rally enough strength to pass the bill over his veto. Accordingly Drain closed her doors and never opened them again. Mon- mouth turned again to private support. The new board of regents administered the affairs of the Central Oregon Nor- mal at Drain, leasing the buildings and equipment to school district number 22. A few years later the district was given full title to the property. Drain Normal had also ceased to exist.29

But the normal school issue was still very much alive. Mon- mouth had considerable prestige, a strong working alumni, many friends, a strategic location, and in all an ambition to continue to function as a state supported training school for teachers. It had already been suggested by educators that the question should be settled once and for all, and if the normals were needed they should be given adequate funds without the necessity of lobbying, or engaging in political deals. A millage tax bill was recommended, carrying per- manent support for the three schools. Before this could be brought to public notice the legislature met again, and the same bone of contention was before the assembly. Governors and school superintendents had by this time become discreetly silent on the normal school question.

The new board of regents30 had some suggestions to offer A committee of three city superintendents was selected by the board to visit the normals and to render a report on conditions and needs. This committee was composed of J. A. Churchill, Baker City, J. M. Powers, Salem, and R. R. Turner, Grants Pass. The committee faithfully performed its duty. On the basis of the information -furnished and their own knowledge of the normals, the board of regents made two recommenda-

appropriation bill after a prolonged siege of trading votes on other measures, and after other performances which have been thoroughly discreditable to those who have taken part therein. There is no question in the minds of any that there is a public demand for reducing the number of normal schools to two. It was the duty of the legislature to select two and abolish two, but it failed by slight majorities to do its duty. What was the purpose of the omnibus appropriation? It may have been brought about by cowardice which I regret to say, a majority of this body have shown in reference to the whole normal school question."

29 Drain voters met and voted a four-year high school as soon as word of the defeat in the normal reached them.

30 The regents were E. Hofer, Salem, E. E. Bragg, La Grande, W. B. Ayer, Portland, Henry J. Maier, The Dalles, Stephen Jewell, Grants Pass, and C. E. Spence, Canby.

OREGON NORMAL SCHOOLS 125

tions : ( 1 ) that a board of regents of five members be created to have complete control of the normals, agricultural college and university; and (2) that appropriations sufficient for the needs of Monmouth, Ashland, and Weston be allowed, the total aggregating $318,000. On these propositions, the vote stood five to four, and a minority report was submitted.

W. B. Ayer of Portland presented the minority report. Mr. Ayer said that the normal school question had arisen because there were too many schools. The poor buildings, inferior equipment, and poor teachers were in his opinion a positive reflection on the intelligence of the people of the state. Dr. H. D. Sheldon's study of normal schools of the United States was quoted as saying that the small school gives better train- ing, 300 to 1,000 students being the proper limits. Professor E. D. Ressler president of the Monmouth Normal was also quoted as saying in his report to the board of regents that 300 students can be taught as easily as 100, yet the total attendance of the three normals was in 1909 only 285. The minority report favored two normals, on account of the great distances to be traveled; the locations to be determined by the board of regents, but one to be in the western part of the state and one in the eastern.

Endorsed by a majority of the board31 of regents the nor- mals went before the legislature of 1909 asking for $318,000. Their adherents were fully aware of the difficulties before them. A favorable report from the house committee on ways and means32 was secured, and the bill was safely steered through the house. Monmouth had an alumnus33 from Clatsop County in the legislature on the house ways and means com- mittee and he did valiant service for the schools. But the bill made no progress when it reached the senate.

Jay Bowerman, an aspiring leader of Condon, Gilliam Coun- ty, was president of the senate. It was charged that Bower- man had an animus against the normal lobby that went back

31 Governor Chamberlain had modified his views on the normal question. In his message to the legislature, 1909, he said: "I hope the legislature will once and for all settle the normal school question, and probably the best way to do it is to act upon the recommendation of the board of regents and make provisions for main- taining three schools in fie state."

32 The normals had two avowed adherents on the ways and means committee in the house: John C. McCue of Clatsop and Mann of Umatilla.

33 John C. McCue.

126 JOHN C. ALMACK

to the days before the primary and direct election of United States senators existed. Others held that he wished to become governor, and opposed the normals as a means of gaining popularity. Whatever his motives, unquestionably he opposed the normal appropriations by every means in his power. Sen- ators Ben Selling and Nottingham,34 of Portland, and J. N. Smith of Marion were also looked upon as "arch-enemies" of the schools. There were others : some honestly believing the schools had interfered too much in political affairs ; some hold- ing three were unnecessary; some acting in good faith from other motives ; and a few bent upon their destruction to foster political ambitions, or to balance old scores. The Ashland Tidings hinted that Senator Merryman of Klamath was either the victim of a frame-up, or was in the combine against the normals. In the issue of February 22, 1909, this publication also stated that the senate was organized to kill the normals, and each member of the ways and means committee was put to the test before being given a place thereon. Newspaper publicity, for which Bowerman was said to have been re- sponsible, was commenced on normal activities in the legis- lature. The Portland Oregonian was the most powerful enemy of the schools. Its action can in part be explained by the fact that Harvey W. Scott,35 its brilliant editor, had consistently opposed public education above the elementary grades, believ- ing that "progress in education lies in the capacity of the learner, not in the teacher. Those desirous of learning can always secure an education, private opportunities being abundant."

The discussion in the press was bitter, not to say vitriolic. Accrimination and recrimination were hurled impartially from both sides. The language used was not always elegant and refined, and there is evidence that statements that would get results were more popular than those that attempted to get at the merits of the issue. On January 22, 1909, the Eugene Register, quoting from the Oregonian, said :

34 Oregonian, March 13, 1909.

35 Harvey W. Scott was the first graduate of Pacific University, a Congre- gational school at Forest Grove, Washington County.

OREGON NORMAL SCHOOLS 127

"Already the gaunt ghosts of Monmouth, Ashland, Weston and Drain are haunting the law-making body."

To this the Weston Leader, edited by Clark Wood, replied :

"The normals are not 'agitating' this year. They have no 'gaunt ghosts' at Salem as imagined by the esteemed Oreg- gonian. All the agitation, wire-pulling, and log-rolling are being done, if done at all, by their enemies and by enemies the Leader means the sectarian schools that have always been jealous of the normals, and have sought their undoing. They were back of the clause which makes a normal school diploma an honorary certificate only. . . . The same influence was responsible for the referendum movement against the appro- priation bill of 1906. It is also back of the Calkins bill of this session, which makes two years of high school work es- sential to entrance at any state school. . . . Superinten- dent Ackerman is doing some effective lobbying for the three schools."

In spite of the effective work of the state superintendent, the appropriations were making no progress. The Roseburg Review of February 4th evinced discouragement :

"It looks as if the legislature might kill all the normal schools and then perhaps resuscitate one36 of them. Like the Portland papers, most of the law-makers can never grasp the idea of what the normal schools are for. If they reduce the schools to one, they will doubtless spend as much, or more, on one as they did before on three or four, thus making it a second state university."

The following day the daily Oregonian made this contribu- tion:

"The normal school nuisance has arisen again. Normal county law-makers are 'standing in' to continue their ancient raid on the state treasure, and are awaiting their chance for log-rolling."

On February 10th the Eugene Register reported that a big normal school fight was in prospect, and said the committee on

36 Roseburg Review, February 4, 1909: "Members of the legislature in both houses who have not been sent there from normal counties have grown weary of the continual struggle of the normal schools for increased recognition and exist- ence. The inclination is to settle the question once and for all by the abolition of all but one institution, which shall be conducted and built up in the same manner as the University of Oregon and the Agricultural College."

128 JOHN C. ALMACK

ways and means in the house had recommended one normal to be located at Monmouth, and had approved an appropriation for it of $110,000. Three days later the same paper gave its readers the statement that:

"In the house old time trades with normal school forces have been resumed with even more boldness than at preced- ing sessions. When the normal schools had to have votes to pass their three bills carrying $318,000 they got them from Eastern Oregon. So strong do the normal members think themselves, that they are threatening senate bills unless the senate shall provide for their schools."

C. N. McArthur, speaker of the house, was for the normals. In the fight in the house he defended the small enrollment in the normals by saying that the attendance would be much larger but for the fact of the "rotten policies this state has assumed towards these schools, which have been made political footballs without any consideration for their usefulness from an educational viewpoint." On this point the Eugene Register said on February 12th :

"There were only 285 students enrolled in the normals last year, so the taxpayers are the chief sufferers, while normal school education under such a scattering regime cannot reach the high state of efficiency necessary to place it on a high plane."

Introducing a remedy for the normal school issue, the Regis- ter on February 19th says:

"The normals plunge the state into extravagance, lower the standards of our state schools, cause them to fight for the meager appropriations they do get, and it will continue as long as our educational institutions stay in politics up to their eyes. ... A certain per cent of state tax ought to be set aside for each school."

New plans for bringing the deadlock between the house and the senate to an end began to appear. Representative Buchanan of Douglas introduced a bill dividing the state into five districts with a normal school in each. Portland under

OREGON NORMAL SCHOOLS 129

this plan was to get a school, Corvallis was mentioned as the site of one normal, all others were to be abolished, and the agricultural college combined with the university at Eugene. This suggestion came from Eugene, and the friends of Cor- vallis retorted by offering to help move the university to their city, and to use the university buildings for a state normal. A' county normal system as in Wisconsin was also put for- ward.37 Once it seemed that Monmouth38 would get an ap- propriation, but Ashland and Weston withdrew their support and she went down to defeat. The legislature made short shift with Drain. The normal school there was formally abol- ished, and the property deeded to the public school district.

The one normal idea persisted. Probably in compliment to Salem, the Oregonian on February 19th said there should be but one normal, and it should be located at the state capital. Senator J. N. Smith of Marion introduced a bill establish- ing a normal at Portland. Normal defenders said this was done in order to retain the capital at Salem, the normal school politicians having threatened to remove it to Eugene, Cor- vallis, and Portland. In the last hours of the session the "one normal at Monmouth" bill was proposed by the house as a compromise. President Bowerman of the senate said after the legislature had adjourned that this bill was defeated be- cause "Monmouth was a very small town, and would require dormitories." Clark Wood of the Weston Leader had prophe- sied that "if the Eastern Oregon normal is abandoned it will be because it has been traded off for a branch asylum a plum for which Pendleton and Baker will later do battle." In a similar vein the Oregonian of February 18th goes on to say that:

"Eastern Oregon lawmakers have been consorting with the normal forces. Eastern Oregon wants an asylum, a scalp bounty, and a portage road appropriation. They have found the normals ready for their uses at every turn."

The Oregonian also gently stated that an asylum was what

37 Oregonian, March 16, 1909.

38 Ibid, February 11, 1909.

130 JOHN C. ALMACK

Eastern Oregon needed, not a normal school. To this charm- ing bit of humor the Weston Leader proposed to build a wall around and a roof over the whole of Marion County and de- vote the enclosure to asylum purposes for the benefit of the Willamette Valley. To leave these exchanges of journalistic pleasantries, it was generally reported that the one normal plan was defeated by the state board of education. The Ashland Tidings says in its issue of February llth:

"According to the Portland Telegram, which like the Ore- gonian, colors its news reports against the normals, both these men (Jones of Lincoln and Hawley of Polk) were safely in the one school column, and admit that their change of front is due to the pleas of Ackerman and other members of the state board of education."

On the same date, the Umpqua Valley News of Roseburg wrote : > ^

"With victory almost within their grasp, the proponents of one normal awoke this morning to find their forces scattered. The result is said to have been attained through the active lobbying of the state board of education, headed by State Super- intendent of Public Instruction J. H. Ackerman."

The vote in the house on the appropriation bills showed Monmouth to be the favored school. On final passage the negative ballots were as follows :

Monmouth : Brandon, Farrell, Hatteberg, Hines, Jackson, Jones (Clackamas), Jones (Douglas), Libby, Meek, Munkers,

Weston: Dimick, Farrell, Greer, Hatteberg, Hines, Jackson, Jones (Clackamas), Jones ( Douglas), Libby, Meek, Munkers, Orton, Smith. Total 13.

Ashland: Abbott, Brandon, Bryant, Clemens, Corregan, Couch, Dimick, Farrell, Greer, Hatteberg, Hines, Hawley, Hughes, Jackson, Jones (Clackamas), Jones (Douglas), Libby, Munkers, Orton, Reynolds, Smith. Total 21.

But the state senate stood firm, and rejected all efforts at compromise. On the last day, the normal leaders were offered

OREGON NORMAL SCHOOLS 131

an appropriation of $8,000 to carry the schools through to the end of the school year. This they scornfully refused. At this, Senator F. J. Miller introduced a bill in the senate repealing all normal school legislation. Bowerman and Selling led the attack, the president of the senate taking the floor. Shortly before adjournment the bill passed, and Oregon was without normal schools : they were killed as effectively as it was pos- sible for the legislature to do it.

For their defeat, the normals blamed chiefly Jay Bowerman and the Oregonian. In respect to the former the Ashland Tidings said on February 22d :

"Jay Bowerman was the most intemperate and irrational opponent of the normal schools. Rumor has it that he has a gubernatorial bee buzzing in his bonnet, or some other politi- cal ambition, and played his game in the senate for popularity. What a vote he would get in this section of Southern Oregon !"

At the next election Bowerman was a candidate for governor, and though the state is normally Republican by a big majority, he was defeated by Oswald West, Democrat.

The Oregonian gave the following as the real reason for the destruction of the normals :

"The real reason why the normal schools have been aband- oned lies in the belief that there is no real reason to educate and graduate school teachers at the expense of the state. It is believed teachers, as others preparing for professions, should educate themselves. The state does not educate plumbers, nor boilermakers, nor sheepherders. Yet all these and many more are essential to the state.

"Besides, it is believed that there is too much literary edu- cation these days, and not work enough to furnish a supply of milk, eggs, and butter, pork and beans. Again, members of the legislature, moved by the crowd of normal advocates, were trying to trade and to log-roll everything to get what they wanted."

The legislature drew much criticism after adjournment for

132 JOHN C. ALMACK

extravagance, the appropriations totaling about $2,000,000. Of this amount $100,000 was given to build an automobile highway to Crater Lake, which was characterized by the South- ern Oregon papers as for "the gratification of the idle rich," and for the use of "bug-buzzing tourists." On the normal question itself the papers outside of the interested centers were silent. The Blue Mountain Eagle of Canyon City said :

"No state-wide legislation of any importance has been ac- complished. The time has been spent mostly in raising salaries, and debating ten-inch hat pins and nine-foot sheets."

The Corvallis Gazette on February 26th said this on the normal fight :

"In wiping out the normal schools, the senate has succeeded in accomplishing something no other legislature has ever been able to do. The breaking up of the normal school combination was chiefly the work of President Jay Bowerman. For several years the normals have played a most important part in the deliberations of the legislature. They have defeated and made laws, and they have defeated and made United States sen- ators. At least one of the normals was created because of votes given to a candidate for United States senator."

"This is the first time the normals have ever been downed, and they have taken their defeat hard. The senate refused absolutely to even make the small appropriation of $10.000 to pay salaries to the end of the school term. This appropriation was designed as funeral expenses, but the senate was in a mood where it would not even spend money for flowers."

The schools were cut off in the middle of the year without means of support. Students who had been in attendance for three and one-half years lost their hopes of graduation. Many of the faculty had come from the East at the beginning of the school year to take positions and several teachers were left practically penniless with two months' salary unpaid. The feeling against the senators in the schools was bitter. Ashland with a perseverance that did her credit at once raised $1,500

OREGON NORMAL SCHOOLS 133

by popular subscription. Before checking on it the secretary of the board of regents required that a statement be filed that the money was given voluntarily, and did not constitute a claim against the state. The statement was not forthcoming, and Ashland and Weston closed their doors. Monmouth con- tinued until the end of the term in June.

The legislature which refused the normal schools aid had given the state agricultural college a much larger appropria- tion than ever before: $370,000. Within a short time after it was known the normals had lost, a petition to refer the col- lege appropriation to the people was put in circulation in Ash- land. There seemed no difficulty in getting signers in the southern Oregon city. Various reasons were given for this action. The real reason is said to be that the college partisans deserted the normals in order to get their own appropriation, and the referendum was invoked in revenge. The Oregonian was inclined to put the blame on both parties. On March 15th it said:

"Ashland and its partisans have been willing enough to make any sort of combination with Corvallis, any kind of concession to the college, provided they were permitted to smell out their own particular from the general treasury."

Weston at first seemed responsive, but at last came to the decision that no help would be lent in the fight against the agricultural college. A special session of the legislature was called in the spring, and the normal lobbies were on hand. However, they were not accorded a hearing. It was then advocated that the people should be permitted to vote on the normal school question: should there be one normal school, three, or none in Oregon?

The movement first gained headway in Monmouth which proposed to go it alone. Ashland on hearing of the plan com- municated at once with Weston. After deliberating on the proposition it was decided that separate initiative petitions should be circulated, and each school should stand or fall on

134 JOHN C. ALMACK

its own merits. These were accordingly drawn up, sufficient signers secured, and the fate of Ashland, Monmouth and Wes- ton was submitted in the year 1910 to that sovereign power from which there is no appeal.

The stormy period in the legislature had aroused discussion and dissension among the people. Summarized, the charges and counter-charges were essentially as follows :

The buildings and equipment were inferior and inadequate.

The faculty as a whole were not sufficiently trained.

Too many courses were attempted.

The schools were merely local.

The schools were usurping functions belonging to the public schools and to the commercial colleges.

The admission requirements were too low.

High. standards of scholarship were not maintained.

The graduates and students did not become teachers, or else remained in the profession only a short time.

There were more schools than were needed.

They were not well located.

The schools were lacking in adequate training school facili- ties, particularly in pupils for practice teaching.

The costs of education were excessive.

One central normal school was preferable.

The normals interfered in politics and this interference re- sulted in vicious legislation and prevented desirable legislation.

The normal legislators traded votes, and formed combines to the injury of other interests.

To these accusations the friends of the normals replied that they did not engage in politics from choice, but that the system was responsible for the fact that the schools were not better, and for their lobbying appropriations. They stated that the sectarian schools were to blame for the agitation against the normals, and that most of their criticisms were without basis in fact. In order to evaluate the work of the normals, and judge of the merits of the controversy, as well as to present a

OREGON NORMAL SCHOOLS 135

picture of the daily affairs of the schools, an inquiry into their organization, conditions, and life is necessary.

The presidents of the normal schools were also teachers. Pedagogy, ancient and modern languages, psychology, history, science, and mathematics represent some of the subjects taught. Generally the tenure of office was short Monmouth being a conspicuous exception. Many of the prominent men of Oregon have been in charge of the destinies of one of the state normals.

Monmouth has had but four presidents since 1882: D. T. Stanley, who was successful in having the normal established ; P. L. Campbell, who secured the first appropriation, now presi- dent of the state university; E. D. Ressler, president 1902- 1909 while the fight was on in the legislature, now dean of the school of education, Agricultural College; and J. H. Acker- man, incumbent, who held the office of state superintendent during the hottest part of the normal fight, and was elected president when the normal was reinstated in 1911. At Ash- land there were M. G. Royal, J. S. Sweet, W. M. Clayton, W. T. VanScoy, and B. F. Mulkey; at Drain, H. L. Benson, F. W. Benson, W. C. Hawley, W. T. VanScoy, Louis Barzee, E. H. Anderson, J H. Orcutt, W. H. Dempster, and A. L. Briggs; at Weston, C. A. Wooddy, F. J. Van Winkle, M. G. Royal, D. V. S. Reed, J. A. Beattie, J. M. Martindale, and Robert F. French. H. L. Benson is now a member of the state supreme court, and W. C. Hawley is United States Con- gressman from the first Oregon District.

College degrees were not required of the faculty members, though the board of regents finally went on record as being opposed to employing teachers unless they were at least grad- uates of a four-year normal school.39 W. B. Ayer in the minor- ity report of the board of regents quoted the visiting commit- tee appointed to visit the schools in 1908 as reporting that: "Out of fifty-one teachers reported upon only sixteen were good; the balance were fair only, or absolutely poor." As an example of the typical faculty roll the following list is given

39 1898.

136 JOHN C. ALMACK

from the catalogue of the Weston school 1906-07:

Robert C. French, B. S., President Methods of Teaching, History of Education, Psychology

Charles P. Dennison, A. B.

History, English Literature, Latin

Anna Z. Crayne, Preceptress

English, Domestic Science

Clara Graves French, A. B.

Chemistry, Biology, Physics

Clara G. Hall

Mathematics

C. Paul Schmausser

Bookkeeping, Stenography, German

Winifred E. Welch

Music and Drawing

Frank W. Litchfield

Principal Training School, Manual Training

Charles A. Webster Critic Teacher Training School, Physical Training

Ella R. Hayes Kindergartner, Critic Teacher in Training School

C. Paul Schmausser Secretary of Faculty, Librarian

Something of the work40 done by each teacher may be in- ferred from the above and from a program of the Drain school 1902-1903. Miss Easterday taught drawing to three normal school classes, music to one normal school class, and both drawing and music to all the grades. Miss Johnson taught civics, rhetoric, composition, Caesar, first year Latin, and first and second year law, and sociology, and was principal of the training school. Miss Crosno had daily recitations in sopho- more and junior English literature, American literature, Eng- lish history, grammar, and general history. At Weston, Mr. and Mrs. Wood taught all the subjects twenty-seven in the course and offered to organize classes in music, painting and

40 "In the past two years two teachers in succession who have had the work in music and drawing have broken down from overwork." Report of Monmouth Nor- mal 1902-1904, page 17.

OREGON NORMAL SCHOOLS 137

drawing. The faculty at Monmouth had from seven to nine- teen members ; Drain in its palmy days had twelve teachers ; the other two schools as a rule employed nine.

The salaries were low. State aid enabled the regents to increase salaries, but at the highest mark there could be no just criticism on the score of their being exorbitant. In 1901 Drain received an appropriation of $10,000, yet spent only $6,903.20. The positions were dignified by being called "chairs," and the salary schedule at Drain in 1901 was as follows :

President $1,500

Chair of Mathematics 800

Chair of History 750

Chair of Science 750

Chair of English 700

Principal of Training School 600

Assistant 400

Music Teacher (half time) 250

Janitor 200

Monmouth paid better salaries, as witness in 1898 :41

President $1,800

H. B. Buckham 1,200

Sarah Tuthill 1,200

J. M. Powers 1,000

A. F. Campbell 1,000

B. F. Mulkey 1,000

W. A. Warm 1,000

Ellen J. Chamberlain 800

Mrs. R. C. French 700

Louis P. Freytag 650

William Fellows 375

J. B. V. Butler 500

The sessions were uniformly forty weeks in length, and the year was divided into four terms of ten weeks each. School usually began the first week in September, and closed the following June. The first summer school was held at Mon-

41 Report of Board of Regents, 1889.

138 JOHN C. ALMACK

mouth in 1899. As late as 1906, G. W. Bishop quoted Presi- dent E. D. Ressler as saying that he would be delighted if the summer school enrollment reached fifty. Ashland held its first summer school in 1907. No special appropriation was set aside for the summer, and the teachers were but illy repaid for their services.

The courses offered were complex and varied. Commercial courses were strongly emphasized. Weston widely adver- tised her kindergarten and manual training courses. Mon- mouth had the following nine courses as late as 1905 : Educa- tion, Art of Teaching, English, Mathematics, Science, History, Arts, Civil Government, and Physical Education.

Graduates of the normals were admitted to the state uni- versity without examination, and degrees were granted. Mon- mouth conferred degrees of B.S., B.A., and M.A., and in 1904 gave the degree of Bachelor of the Science of Didactics. The other schools also granted these degrees with the exception of The Dalles, which was forced to content itself with the degree of Licentiate of Instruction.

In 1897 the entrance requirements were increased to the extent that in theory only students from schools accredited by the university were accepted. Ten years later only students who had completed the ninth grade were admitted. The schools were severely criticized for having low entrance re- quirements. Governor George Chamberlain in his message to the legislature in the year 1901 said :

"Many are admitted who are not well grounded in the rudi- ments of the common school branches."

Again, in 1905, he said the normals should not teach pupils in the common school subjects.

After state control was an established fact the tuition rates were set at six dollars a term, or twenty-four dollars a year. Reasonable as these charges were, they were not always col- lected. In October, 1907, in a letter to President A. L. Briggs of Drain, C. L. Starr, secretary of the board of regents, calls

OREGON NORMAL SCHOOLS 139

attention to the fact that 25 students had failed to pay their full tuition fees, and the records of the school do not show that the collections were made. On the recommendation of E. B. McElroy, state superintendent, a law was passed granting free scholarships to teachers with second grade certificates.

The costs of board and room were so low as to cause us to look backward with regret. The dining hall at Monmouth provided board at $1.50 a week if paid in advance, and at $1.75 a week if payments were deferred. A room might be had at from fifty cents to one dollar a week. In 1899, the estimated expenses for a year were from $110 to $200 a year.

The cost to the state of giving instruction in the normals is equally interesting. In a study42 of the state normal school systems of the United States made in 1905 by Dr. H. D. Sheldon, dean of the school of education, University of Ore- gon, a comparison is made of the costs of education in the small normals with the costs in the large central schools. Oregon with a population of 437,302 is shown to appropriate $56,458 a year for its four normal schools, or an average of $14,114 each. The total enrollment is given at 409. There- fore the cost of educating a student in one of the Oregon normals was $129 a year for each thousand inhabitants. The annual cost of training a single student was placed at $138. Contrasted with expenditure in Oregon are the costs in the following states:

Cost per 1,000 Cost of Training

Inhabitants One Student

Oregon $129 $138

Colorado 272 248

Oklahoma 181 141

Rhode Island 140 294

Washington 225 189

California 121 118

South Dakota 75 65

The average cost of graduating trained teachers from the

42 State Normal School Systems of the U. S.f H. D. Sheldon, 1912.

140 JOHN C. ALMACK

schools of the United States was given at $419.28. In Oregon the average cost per graduate was in 1907-1908, $420. The average cost per student had fallen by that time to $84, this being more than the actual cost to the state, as the expenses of Monmouth were paid from private funds. That year (1907- 1908) the costs per student were in Rhode Island $294, Colo- rado $248, Massachusetts $150, Oklahoma $141, South Da- kota $192, Washington $189, Wisconsin $140. More mod- erate expenses were incurred by New York $106, Michigan $98, Minnesota $115, Pennsylvania $84, Illinois $75, and West Virginia $98.

The income per school was lower in Oregon than in any other state in the Union with the exception of Arkansas, Ver- mont, Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky, and Maine. The cost of instruction for each student was exceeded by only seven states. In 1904 the board of regents rendered a report on each school, putting the costs on the basis of graduates. On this basis the figures are :

Number of

Graduates Cost

Drain 2 $3,478

Ashland 29 383

Monmouth 51 385

Weston 14 714

Computed on the same basis, the cost at Monmouth was in 1918 $219.62.

As to number of schools, Dr. Sheldon's study showed that seven states had one school only, thirty-seven had from two to nineteen, and two states had none. Thirty states had either two, three, four or five. New York had nineteen, Pennsyl- vania had fifteen, and Massachusetts ten. The small normal schools (of from 300 to 1,000 students) were preferred to the large central schools.

Salary schedules were included in Dr. Sheldon's report. He showed that $25,000 a year was the minimum that would be

OREGON NORMAL SCHOOLS 141

required to pay the expenses of conducting a small normal

school of 300 students. This was apportioned in the following

fashion :

Salaries :

President $3,000

Four men at $1,750 7,000

Four women at 1,200 4,800

Two women at 1,000 2,000

Four critic teachers at 800 3,200 $20,000

Supplies, Library, etc 5,000

Budget for year $25,000

A comparison of these figures with the expenditures of the Drain Normal should dispel the idea that the normals prac- ticed extravagance.

The attendance rose and fell as legislation, appropriations, and other circumstances of importance were favorable or un- favorable. When the Daly bill was passed taking the certifi- cating power away from the normals, there was a great fall- ing off in attendance, tuition decreased as a consequence, and a deficit was incurred at Monmouth. In 1889, there was such an influx of students at Monmouth that the practice school was discontinued in order to afford room for regular students. This condition was closely paralleled in 1901 when the attend- ance reached 399. In spite of higher entrance requirements, two years later the attendance was 419. Two years before the fate of the normals was submitted to the people there were 630 students enrolled at the four schools and 111 grad- uates.

There were fewer students as a rule at the other institutions, though occasionally the older school was excelled. Increased attendance at one school was usually accompanied by higher attendance at the others. A partial record of enrollment from 1891 to 1907 is given herewith:

142 JOHN C. ALMACK

Monmouth Ashland Drain Weston

1891 216 93

1893 376 332 141

1895 243 133 306 317

1899 202 203

1901 399 206 156 448

1903 419 283 247

1905 207

1907 311 379* 279 348

In 1905 the president of Drain said:

"The year has been a successful one, notwithstanding the financial troubles we have had. The public school of 180 pupils has been added as our training department."

In 1908 the board of regents made a report to the governor giving these statistics :

Monmouth Ashland Drain Weston

Receipts $13,996.27 $33,320.72 $4,159.06 $33,299.21

Expenditures 13,722.85 32,025.27 4,037.56 32,969.86 Donations . . . 7,000.00 100.00 2,950.00

Summer School 248 68

Graduates 48 28 14 22

Appropria- tions $100,000.00 $108,060.00 $107,600.00

Student government seems to have been reasonable and fair, and not a matter of great difficulty. Ashland announced :

"It is the aim of the teachers and of the government to lead the students to a willing co-operation in the right and the good. Students are urged to resist those impulses which oppose what reason teaches best. If students do not do well, a request will be made for their withdrawal."

That there were students who were not incapable of plan- ning mischief is shown by the minutes of the Zamzamian lit- erary society of Drain. The secretary recorded that members created a disturbance during a meeting, and the president in- structed the sergeant-at-arms to enforce the rules. Exemplify- ing the adage that prevention is better than a cure, Monmouth43 published a formidable set of rules for the guidance of the young men and young women of the school:

* Normal school and training school pupils combined.

43 The catalogue of 1870, Christian College, contained a long list of "laws"

OREGON NORMAL SCHOOLS 143

"The principles and motives of self-government are faith- fully presented. Students are taught to be ladies and gentle- men. . . . Each student will be expected to subordinate every other interest to his regular school duties. Profanity, gambling, the use of intoxicating liquors, visiting saloons, at- tending public balls at any time, or private dancing parties except at the end of terms, carrying concealed weapons, smoking cigarettes . . . are prohibited . . . Students will be expected to be in their rooms early in the evening, and not lounge about the stores or on the streets. Students of the opposite sex must on no account visit each others' rooms. Any forgetfulness will call for immediate criticism and warning/'

Literary societies were popular at all schools. "Rhetoricals were compulsory, or as the catalogues put it:

"The faculty encourages literary work in every way possible. A student has the choice of performing his rhetoricals before the school or before the society. We prefer that it be done in the society."

The Zamzamian society was active during the history of the Drain normal. Monmouth had five literaries: two for men and three for women. The Hesperians and the Vespertines date back to Christian College days. Other societies were named the Websterians, Orios, Normals, Invincibles, and the Delphians. Faculty members often appeared on the programs : Professor Orcutt at the meeting of the Zamzamians, April 4, 1902, giving a "brilliant talk on recent revelations of the mysteries of the North Pole, and the future developments to take place in that region." Mrs. O. C. Brown gave a "talk" on "What the Legislature Has Done." Songs, readings, recita- tions, debates and "talks" made up the programs.44

The students were usually given good grades. An analysis

among which were the following:

"That he be diligent in study, punctual in attendance at the calling of the morning roll, recitation, examination, and all other college exercises, and that he render a valid and satisfactory reason to the proper officers for any delinquency on his part.

"That he go not beyond the immediate precinct of the village without the permission of the president or faculty.

"That he neither keep in his possession nor use firearms, a dirk, a bowie knife, or any other kind of a deadly weapon.

"The bell shall be rung each evening at a stated hour, when all students will be required to retire to their respective rooms to study."

44 Two typical literary programs given by the Vespertines of Monmouth in 1911 follow.

144 JOHN C. ALMACK

of these would hardly serve as a basis for the origin of the Missouri grading system. Both percentages and letters were used. Failures were very few. One year the Drain records45 show two failures only, these being in "orthography " In a class of sixty-three students in general history two were marked as failures. Both were freshmen.

Athletics, lecture courses, student publications,46 plays and oratorical contests were slow about being admitted. Prior to the opening of the twentieth century, school activities were largely unorganized. There were games, of course, in which members of the faculty participated. W. C. Hawley and O. C. Brown, professors at Drain, often played marbles in front of the school building. Basket ball was introduced about 1902, and inter-scholastic contests in this sport, baseball, football, debate, and oratory were thereafter featured. In 1901, W, R. Rutherford, J. C. Pettyjohn, and Gertrude M. Vernon of Mon- mouth won the debate series against Albany, Pacific, and Mc- Minnville. Mr. Julien Hurley, now state senator from Mal- heur and Harney Counties, represented the school in the state oratorical contest at Newberg in 1905. The Y. W. C. A. and the Y. M. C. A. were represented in all schools. After 1900 "lecture courses, recitals, and musicals were given by the lead- ing speakers and artists of the state."

Various inducements were held out to draw students. The one reiterated most regularly in the catalogues was the need of teachers, the number being given as six hundred annually. Weston established an appointment bureau in 1901, saying that there were many demands for teachers at salaries ranging from $50 to $85 a month. In 1904 the catalogue of Mon- mouth says :

"There is a good demand for teachers to take positions pay- ing from $40 to $75 a month. Capable, well trained men are in demand as principals. The salaries range from $60 to $120 a month. Although in many instances women fill these posi-

45 Records Drain Normal 1902-1903.

46 The first normal school publication was the Pacific Christian Messenger designed for general circulation, founded by T. F. Campbell in 1870. The first student paper was issued at Monmouth in 1905. Miss Ruby E. Shearer was the first editor of the Courier, as the magazine was called. It was published quarterly until the close of the school in 1909. After the rejuvenation of Monmouth normal a new quarterly, "The Norm," was started, and this publication is still in existence.

OREGON NORMAL SCHOOLS 145

tions satisfactorily, the majority of school boards insist upon having men. Desirable positions in high schools, and super- intendencies, await those who will thoroughly prepare them- selves to occupy them. The salaries paid are from $800 to $2,000 a year."

The training departments are described as offering excel- lent opportunities for practice teaching. Weston made much of its kindergarten and manual training departments ; Ashland emphasized location, climate, and courses in agriculture and school gardening. Other things set forth to attract students are the high qualification of the faculties, social advantages, courses, accessibility, low living expenses, laboratories, gym- nasiums, modern buildings and equipment. Monmouth is described as

"a delightful little village of 500 people. It can be reached by the railway, or by boats plying the Willamette. One of its remarkable features is its healthfulness, fevers and agues being unknown. The sea breeze reaches it very gently, modi- fying the temperature, but producing no unfavorable effects. Saloons, gambling houses, and other dens of vice are strictly prohibited by town charter and ordinances."

On reading the flattering prospectus one is at a loss to under- stand the need for the prohibitory regulations mentioned on a preceding page.

Of Weston, the advertising matter circulated among pros- pective students said:

"Its elevation of 1800 feet above sea level, its proximity to the mountains, the pure water brought to the town from springs in the foothills, and its freedom from allurements and excitements of more populous cities, render this a most delightful, healthful, and desirable location for a school of this kind. . . . There has never been a single death at the East Oregon normal school but that of the late Presi- dent Martindale, and he came here a sick man. Students are seldom ill. No student has ever been hazed."

There are no complete reports showing the counties from

146 JOHN C. ALMACK

which the students came to the normals. In 1903 Monmouth made this statement:

Number of counties represented 22

Number enrolled from Polk County 63

Multnomah 20

Marion 17

Lane 16

Washington 14

Yamhill 12

Clackamas 18

Lake 8

Clatsop 7

Benton 6

All other counties 32

Other states 10

Total 213

Two hundred seventy-five students were enrolled in the Weston school during the biennium 1907-1908. Nineteen per cent of these were from Umatilla County, the remainder from seventeen other counties. Nineteen counties were represented at Ashland in 1903, with eleven students from California and Washington. The catalogue for 1905 contained this state- ment:

"A canvas of the enrollment of last year shows that eighty- five per cent of the students would not have attended any other institution of secondary learning had the normal at Ashland not existed, and that but fifty per cent of them would attend school elsewhere should this school cease to exist. The state normal at Ashland is not a local high school in any sense. . . . Some thirty students from Willamette Valley counties attended the school last year, but our chief reliance for patron- age is upon the southern counties of the state, and the teaching of the public schools of Southern Oregon is being largely done by graduates of this school."

Regarding the occupations taken up by her graduates, Mon-

OREGON NORMAL SCHOOLS 147

mouth submitted these statistics in 1904, dating from the year the school became a state normal :

Whole number of graduates 716

Number deceased 33

Number married ( females) 152

Number in educational work 445

Percentage for 22 years 65

Percentage for last five years 88.4

The general nature of the training school work has been described. The principal and critic teachers were instruc- tors in the training school and normal as well as supervisors. Lesson plans were worked out by the practice teachers and criticized by the critic teacher. After each practice recitation, the critic was required to go over the work with the student, correcting mistakes and offering suggestions and helps in the improvement of method. Weekly meetings were called by the principal, where instructions were given and where students and teachers engaged in a general discussion of school prob- lems. The training schools could usually accommodate no more than 16 teachers and comply with the law requiring three hours of practice teaching a day for each member of the senior class. The enrollment in the four schools for the year 1909 in the normal, training school, and senior class is given below : Monmouth Ashland Drain Weston

Training School 137 122 192 150

Normal 173 172 87 198

Senior Class 47 28 14 22

The legislative committee of three representatives and two senators appointed to investigate the training school condi- tions at Monmouth reported:

"Practice work facilities are decidedly limited. Only one city in Oregon is of sufficient size to warrant the state in en- deavoring to build up an ideal institution of this character. It is unwise for the state to spend further sums in the con- struction of buildings at the Monmouth Normal."

148 JOHN C. ALMACK

The buildings and equipment were generally inadequate. The board of regents of the Monmouth school stated that when the school was re-established in 1910 the main building was old and in immediate need of repairs. There was also an old gymnasium, which has since been removed from the campus. W. B. Ayer in his minority report to the legislature in 1909 said:

"The buildings and equipment are positively unfit. There is not one first class building at any of the schools, and many are a positive disgrace to the state."

Weston valued its plant at $75,000, while Ashland put a valuation of $60,000 on buildings and grounds. Descriptions of the buildings and apparatus at Monmouth in 1903 give these conditions :

"The normal building is a fine brick structure especially de- signed for the work of a normal school. It is well heated throughout. There are twenty-four good working rooms, and they are well equipped and convenient for school use. . . . Many new books and periodicals have been added to the library. . . . The school has a good supply of apparatus for illus- trating the physical and natural sciences."

Weston's description indicated a more pretentions plant:

"The buildings," said the catalogue, "are four in number, and include the school building, the boarding hall, the presi- dent's cottage, and a building containing the gymnasium, the young men's dormitory, sloyd rooms, and rooms for the de- partment of domestic science."

"The school building is a fine modern brick structure with sandstone trimmings. It has three stories and a basement. It is heated by steam. ... In the spacious parlors of the young ladies' hall are held many social functions participated in by the faculty, students, and people of the town. Good facilities for manual training have been provided, and full sets of tools for wood and cardboard sloyd have been secured. . . . Domestic science combines the practical and

OREGON NORMAL SCHOOLS 149

theoretical, and the thought is kept constantly before the stu- dent teacher that the work of the school is to equip the child for complete living."

At Ashland there were four buildings, two for school pur- poses and two dormitories. There were twenty-three rooms in the school buildings. A gymnasium was built in 1902, and is described as good sized and well equipped. The three labo- ratory rooms were said to be provided with abundant apparatus of the very best quality. The library consisted of 1,500 vol- umes outside of departmental reports.

These descriptions are really better than conditions war- ranted from the view of an impartial outsider. President E. H. Anderson of Drain, who was known to speak very frankly, when asking for an appropriation in 1897 says :

"We have not received a cent from the state, but we cannot keep pace with the others without state aid unless some rich Klondiker shall soon die and leave his find to the school. The school needs recitation rooms, a library, laboratories, piano, gymnasium, heating plant, some apparatus, and a chapel organ."

Yet this was after the new building was constructed. The secretary of the Zamzamian says that a meeting of the society broke up early (the month was December) because the room was too cold. In 1905, Drain announces:

"We have repaired the building, two good laboratories for the sciences have been equipped, and the library has been improved. A new heating plant has been installed, and the school has a fine water supply, from a large spring of excel- lent water, piped into the building, thus making the building healthful and pleasant."

Data has been presented that will enable one to judge of the justice of many of the criticisms brought against the normals. An important thing to keep in mind is that they should be judged by the standards and possibilities of their own times, not by the standards of today. On the subject of vote-trading and log-rolling tactics in the legislature, Repre-

150 JOHN C. ALMACK

sentative W. I. Vawter of Jackson County, author of the one- board of regents bill, writes :

"It is unquestionably true that there was trading for votes during these several sessions. I think, in fact, that 90% of the measures calling for appropriations were combined with matters that members from somewhere else in the state were interested in. The general rule was if a member from Eastern Oregon would vote for some appropriation wanted in Western Oregon the member from the west would reciprocate."

On the same subject, B. F. Mulkey, president of the Ashland normal 1902-1907, and long prominent in state politics, states:

"This school (Ashland) had not been maintained by politics, but by public needs and public sentiment. Politics had been necessary as a means of getting done what the people of that great section wanted done. Politics was not invoked in the interest of normal schools, as has been maintained, but rather they triumphed for a decade in spite of it."

The report of the special committee appointed in 1909 to study the normals covered such matters as equipment, build- ings, fitness and qualifications of teachers, character of work being done. The report set forth that at only one institu- tion, namely Monmouth, was creditable work being done. At Drain and Ashland the chief purpose of the instruction seemed to be to prepare for teachers' examinations. The course of study offered at Weston was very little different from what one might find offered in any good high school in the state. This high school work was very well done, however. The report conveyed the impression that three of the schools were noth- ing more than local high schools maintained at the expense of the state. Reference has already been made to the use made by W. B. Ayer of the report of the committee, quoting the members as saying that out of fifty-one teachers visited only sixteen were good, some were fair, and some absolutely poor; and further that "the buildings and equipment were a dis- grace to the people of the state."

OREGON NORMAL SCHOOLS 151

Many of the criticisms arose out of conditions over which the normals had no control. Buildings, equipment, qualifica- tions of faculty members, are dependent upon the amount of money furnished by the legislature. In view of the rules of the game then and now persisting in legislative bodies, the resources the assembly had available from which to draw appropriations, the growing demands from other quarters, the competition for funds among state institutions, and the objec- tion of the people to increased taxation, the projection of normal school affairs into politics was inevitable. The state institution that was not in politics could not long have con- tinued a state institution.

The management of the normals did not appeal to politics from choice : rather the schools were used by skillful politicians a valuable commodity in which exchanges could be made in accomplishing individual and local purposes. It was quite natural that those fighting for a common cause should com- bine. However, the forming of combinations, the practice of trading votes, legislative log-rolling, and the general type of dealing known to every one who knows politics, did not end when the normal schools were eliminated. New subjects have simply been substituted, though it is improbable that there will ever be found another that served so long and well as the normal schools. That was the heyday for sections holding the balance of power. The system was responsible for the normals being in politics ; they did not choose to be, nor was it for their benefit. The cause of education was hampered by the circumstances, and the experiences of the past should suggest a rational way of dealing with state institutions in the future.

The persistence and loyalty of the normal school supporters is conspicuous. This was due in no small part to the pride perhaps something of the feeling of sharing in the ownership of an institution felt by the people of the community, and this feeling would be acccentuated by having contributed direct-

152 JOHN C. ALMACK

ly to its financial support and by replying to charges against its efficiency. This feeling is likely to be deeper rooted when the institutions, as in Oregon, had their origin in denomina- tionalism. Some citizens at Monmouth, Drain, Ashland, and Weston undoubtedly prized the normals because they believed them to be of financial advantage; these, however, were few in number. More than money, they esteemed the educational opportunities, and the normals afforded what would otherwise have been available. The great need of secondary educational institutions is shown by the fact that the legislature subsidized the Lakeview high school by an appropriation of $5,000, and by the rapid rise of the high school after district and county high schools were authorized in 1901. With the growth of high schools, the demand for normals to perform so varied and complex a function disappeared, and they began to spe- cialize in the training of teachers the original design. Had high schools been as numerous as at present, it is doubtful if the normals would have given so much time to the teaching of high school subjects. Yet the normals and high schools have been in competition.

This condition was found identically the same in Pennsyl- vania. E. O. Holland writing on the Pennsylvania Normals47 in 1912 makes statements of conditions that applied with some force to Oregon :

"The Pennsylvania state normal schools and the public high schools are in direct conflict. In the past it was undoubtedly true that the high schools of the state were so few and so inadequate that it was absolutely necessary for the state nor- mal schools to give work of a secondary grade."

On the question of whether the normals were responsible for vicious legislation, opinions differ. There is a distinct absence of unprejudiced evidence on either side. Specific examples of vicious legislation for which the normals were responsible are not on record. The men favoring the normals in the legislature compared very favorably with those who

47 Pennsylvania State Normal Schools and Public School Systems. E. O. Hol- land. Columbia University Contributions to Education, 1912, page 80.

OREGON NORMAL SCHOOLS 153

represented the opposition, and one is entitled to the conclu- sion that without the normal school issue ill-advised legisla- tion would have been adopted and meritorious measures killed.

It is equally difficult to formulate conclusions as to the extent of the activities and influence of the sectarian interests against the normals. The Ashland Tidings of March 18, 1909, refers to a statement on this subject by Colonel E. Hofer in the Salem Journal. Colonel Hofer was a member of the board of regents.

"Colonel E. Hofer published an apparently well authenti- cated story that the campaign to kill off the normal schools in Oregon was started by the various sectarian schools of the Willamette Valley. The schools were alleged to be organized for this purpose, the accomplishment of which was to be followed by an appeal to the legislature for the support of normal departments to be conducted in connection with these sectarian schools."

No appeal of this nature has ever been made, and should it be made there is the insurmountable obstacle in the way which was early encountered by Christian College: Article I, Section 5, of the Bill of Rights.

Following the destruction of the normals, the sectarian schools waged a campaign for students for their normal de- partments. Fletcher Homan, president of Willamette Uni- versity, wrote letters to the principals of the Oregon high schools dwelling at length upon the merits of his institution as a training school for teachers. In reply to one of these letters, Winfield S. Smith, principal of the public school, Brownsville, wrote:

"I believe and am creditably informed that the influence of the denominational schools helped to kill the normal schools in the last legislature."

The strongest opposition the normals encountered in the legislature came, generally speaking, from legislators repre- senting Marion, Yamhill, Clackamas, Linn and Washington

154 JOHN C. ALMACK

Counties. A survey of the vote cast on the normals in the initiative election of November 5, 1918, shows these results :

For Against Percentage

Normals Normals Against

Coos 1081 1937 64

Benton 671 1730 72

Lane 2318 3578 61

Lincoln 288 647 69

Multnomah 18125 19333 50

Polk ..: 688 2277 77

Marion 1329 5939 81

Yamhill 1010 2554 71

Clackamas 1976 3966 67

Linn 1069 4277 80

Washington 1013 2685 72

Eastern Oregon counties in the same election voted as fol- lows:

For Against Percentage

Normals Normals Against

Crook 237 519 69

Grant 312 476 60

Morrow 323 425 57

Sherman 377 403 52

Wallowa 381 673 64

In Lane, Benton and Polk Counties are found the state uni- versity, agricultural college, and Monmouth normal respective- ly ; in Marion, Linn, Yamhill and Washington are located Wil- lamette university, Albany college, McMinnville college, and Pacific university respectively. The average percentages against the normals ran higher in those counties in which there are private higher institutions, and (notably in the cases of Polk and Benton) in those in which there are the higher state institutions.

We are now ready to summarize the reasons why the nor-

OREGON NORMAL SCHOOLS 155

mals were voted out of existence in 1909. The following seem to be the most significant causes of their failure :

1. The normals were established without a strong public demand for them and an interest in their function.

2. They secured their appropriations from the legislature without the backing of popular approval.

3. The increasing needs of the schools called for increased appropriations, culminating the request for about one-third of a million dollars in 1909. This seemed a stupendous sum to the taxpayers, who were inclined to listen to charges of graft and extravagance. People are conservative when called upon to levy taxes for which they do not see a special need con- nected with their own individual interests.

4. The schools, with the possible exception of Ashland,48 were not located in strategic positions. On account of poor means of communication, Ashland did not have the constitu- ency in Lake, Klamath, and Coos Counties that a casual exam- ination of the map would lead one to believe.

5. The equipment, buildings, and training school facilities were entirely inadequate to meet the higher normal school standards.

6. There was opposition from interests and individuals who were not in sympathy with higher education at public expense.

7. Those connected with the promotion of denominational schools were unfriendly to the normals.

8. There was jealousy and rivalry among towns and cities which hoped in the event of the destruction of the schools to be chosen as sites of new schools.

9. The appropriations granted were insufficient.

10. The growth of public high schools decreased the de- mand for secondary education in the normals.

11. Furthermore, a majority of the people did not accept the normal school idea. They believed that there was no reason for maintaining professional schools to prepare teachers. The experience of Oregon repeats that of Massachusetts, New York,

48 It would require all the children enrolled in the elementary grades in the Ashland public schools, together with all the children of kindergarten age in the district, to furnish enough pupils for a practice school in ai normal enrolling 300 seniors. . . ,_id,jd. -cLId!

156 JOHN C. ALMACK

Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, and parallels that of Oklahoma. There is scarcely a state where the normal schools have not had to struggle against obstacles similar to those they encountered in Oregon.

12. The activities of the normal adherents in politics made them implacable foes who resolved upon their elimination. Combined with these were those who from principle were against permitting state institutions to participate in legislative affairs.

13. The one-normal plan was favored in some quarters.

14. The opinion was held that there were sufficient oppor- tunities afforded by the state university, agricultural college, and the private schools, for the training of all the teachers necessary. This grew into the idea that the university and college should train all the teachers.

15. Poor certification laws, making it easy to get certifi- cates, and refusing to give normal graduates the right to teach without passing examinations under the state board.

16. Failure to adopt uniform and higher standards for admission, graduation and management.

17. Lack of the support of a strong organ of publicity. These were all contributing factors in the downfall of the

Oregon normals. The feeling against them in political circles had been gradually growing until it reached its climax in the senate action of 1909. Thereafter the issue was squarely be- fore the people.

THE NORMALS AND THE PEOPLE— 1909-1919 The initiative petitions were circulated during the year 1910 and there seemed no difficulty in getting signers. Weston found two who refused to sign the petitions : the local Baptist and Methodist ministers. Charges were made in the Weston paper49 that part of this opposition had its inspiration in Mc- Minnville, but the charges were hotly denied. A sufficient number of petitioners were soon secured, and the election was set for November, 1910.

49 "One man. gave as reason for refusing to sign the normal school petition that each normal is asking for the same amount while one may need more than another. His real reason is of sectarian origin, however, and is inspired from MicMinnville."— Weston Leader, May 13, 1910.

OREGON NORMAL SCHOOLS 157

Separate petitions were drawn up for each school. Each asked for a permanent levy of 1/25 of a mill, a rate that would bring in at that time about $25,000 a year. Estimates were made in the arguments for the schools filed with the secretary of state that the cost annually to the property owner paying taxes on $10,000 would be about forty cents for each school. Ashland in its arguments called attention to the obligation the state owed the students who had been forced to give up their school work before it was completed, and said the state was under moral obligation to complete the terms of its contract entered into when the students registered. It gave a history of the institution, enlarged upon the need of trained teachers, particularly in Southern Oregon, and listed an investment in the school plant at $60,000.

The claims of Monmouth were similar. The central loca- tion of the school was pointed out ; the need of trained teachers was dwelt upon. Monmouth was given as the proper place for their training because "it is free from the bad influences of a large city." The value of the plant was set at $100,000. Mon- mouth appointed a committee of her alumni,50 and her friends went actively to work in her interests.

Weston enumerated material which had appeared from year to year in the catalogues : climate, healthful location, good buildings, and equipment. It was emphasized that more than one school was needed, and Eastern Oregon, on account of long distances to other institutions, should be given one. The buildings, grounds and equipment were valued at $75,000. No arguments were filed against the petitions, and normalites felt confident of success.

Not much publicity was given to the campaign. The Ore- gonian continued anti-normal. On July 8, 1910, it reiterated the argument that the normals were nothing but local high schools and business colleges, remarking: "Very few teachers have been trained in these imbecile institutions." There was considerable controversy among the voters, and it was not

50 William D. Fenton, Judge George H. Burnett, John C. McCue, J. B. V. Butler, Ira C. Powell, and A. C. Hampton constituted the promotion committee.

158 JOHN C. ALMACK

unusual for heated discussions of the normal school issue to be heard on the trains, in hotels, and on the streets. At their annual institute in September, 1910, the Lincoln County teach- ers passed this resolution :

"Whereas, it is the universal opinion of educators that a system of professional training is necessary for teachers in the public schools, therefore be it Resolved, That we urge upon the people the necessity of establishing normal training at once. Be it further Resolved, That we sympathize with the alumni and friends of the Monmouth Normal school in their efforts through the initiative to provide for the permanent support of that institution, thus removing the question of maintenance from politics."

Monmouth seemed to be the favorite in educational circles. This was borne out in the returns. When the votes were counted it was found that Monmouth had won by approxi- mately 10,000 votes.51 Weston and Ashland were defeated. The thorough organization of the alumni of Monmouth was a strong factor in determining the success of the Polk County school. The voters of Polk County returned a majority against Weston and Ashland, while Jackson and Umatilla Counties voted strongly for Monmouth. Of the election, the Weston Leader on November 18 said:

"Wallowa County voted against the normals because she has a new county high school and is afraid some of her students would go to Weston. Salem and Marion were against the normals by a three to one vote as were Clackamas, Linn and old Yamhill. Portland gave a majority for Monmouth, had 93 votes to spare for Weston, and was against Ashland by a majority of 117."

Oregon was committed for the time being to the principle of one normal school.

On November 26, 1910, Monmouth celebrated her reopening. The doors had been closed since June, 1909, and the celebra- tion was in the nature of a grand occasion. The program of

51 The vote stood: For Monmouth 50,191, against 40,044; for Ashland 38 473 against 48,655; for Weston 40,898, against 46,201.

OREGON NORMAL SCHOOLS 159

feasting and speaking lasted two days. Breakfast was served by the ladies of Monmouth and there were over 500 present. Mayor Hawley of Monmouth, who was on the point of desert- ing the normal school combine in the session of 1909 for the one-normal plan, was introduced by J. B. V. Butler as "one of the oldest and greatest educators in the state," and the remark was loudly applauded. C. N. McArthur, speaker of the house in 1909, was called upon and repeated his endorse- ment of three normals. E. D. Ressler was loudly applauded when he appeared on the platform and complimented the alumni of Monmouth on their good work. J. H. Ackerman referred to the action of the board of education in 1909 in closing the schools :

"I believe the board exercised a good policy in completely closing the normal schools and boarding up their windows. It proved an object lesson to the people, and jarred them into voting right."

P. L. Campbell, at one time president of Monmouth, and son of T. F. Campbell who was president of Christian College in 1860, made the principal address of the day. After con- gratulating the people of Monmouth and the alumni on the victory at the polls, he said:

"The pioneers (who founded Monmouth University) believed strong, hoped large, and always fought fair. They instilled into the university the spiritual factors which have made it a success. Friends of the school have been compelled to fight against adversities from the first. Every appropriation has meant a battle. ... I would like to see three or four normals in this state, and when the demand comes, would like to see a strong six-year high school in every county, and in con- nection with these normal training preparatory to the higher training of the state normals."52

Plans were made to reopen the school to students in the fall of 1911. J. H. Ackerman, who had been state superin- tendent of schools, during the fight in the legislature was

52 Oregon Teachers' Monthly. December, 1910.

160 JOHN C. ALMACK

chosen president. The legislature convened in the winter of 1911 and appropriated $50,000 for the construction of a girls' dormitory. Needed repairs were also provided for. In March, 1911, the Oregon Teachers' Monthly stated that the normal was scheduled to open on September 18 and that President Ackerman was already in charge of affairs and engaged in working out a normal school policy.

In the same issue of the Teachers' Monthly Dr. Joseph Schafer, head of the history department of the University of Oregon, published an article on the "Responsibility of the Normal School." Dr. Schafer took occasion to say :

"(Oregon) is about to reopen on what is reputed to be a thoroughly sound financial basis the normal school at Mon- mouth. This institution, whose career was for so many years so creditable to its management, and so advantageous to the educational interests of the state, particularly the town schools, was put out of existence two years ago by the legislature, and is now revived by the people under the initiative. It is vir- tually a new creation in all except the buildings."

As Dr. Schafer said the school which opened at Monmouth in 1911 was virtually a new creation. A millage tax had been voted for maintenance, and it was believed it would no longer be necessary to lobby for support. The legislature had also provided for the standardization of the school by prescribing the method, and defining the term. According to this law a standard normal is defined as follows :

"For entrance, four years' work above the eighth grade in the secondary schools.

"For graduation, two years' additional work, including a thorough review of the common branches and training in a practice school.

"The maintenance of a well equipped training school, the course of study covering work in the elementary grades.

"An attendance of 216 weeks above the eighth grade re- quired for graduation; provided, that any normal school may

OREGON NORMAL SCHOOLS 161

accept satisfactory credits covering twenty weeks above the eighth grade."

A school accepted as standard by the United States Bureau of Education is accepted by the state board of education of Oregon. In the event that such a list is not prepared, a school wishing to be accredited may be passed upon by a committee comprising the presidents of the three higher public educa- tional institutions, the state superintendent, one person selected by the denominational colleges, the superintendent of the largest city in the state, and one person selected by the Cath- olic Educational Association.

The validation of certificates and diplomas issued by the normal was arranged for as well. Graduates are first given a certificate entitling them to teach in any grammar school or one, two, and three year high school in the state. After six months' successful experience a five-year certificate is issued, which at the end of thirty months' successful teaching may be exchanged for a life diploma. The holder of a normal school diploma may act as city superintendent in any city in the state.

The course of study was thoroughly revised and standard- ized. The year is divided into four terms, and the subjects are strictly prescribed. Greater emphasis is being placed on training teachers for rural schools, and three rural schools for practice teaching are operated. These are in the immediate vicinity of the normal.

The plan of providing for acquaintance with rural school methods and conditions resembles that in use in Rhode Island. A regular teacher, part of whose salary is paid by the state and part by the local district is appointed. Student teachers are sent to the school, first to observe, and second to teach While teaching, the students are required to live in the district, and their period of apprenticeship is about four weeks. This train- ing is supplemented by work in the practice school at Mon- mouth or Independence.

162 JOHN C. ALMACK

In 1917, a law was passed authorizing districts to use public schools for training school purposes. This measure was en- acted to make it possible for Monmouth to utilize the public school at Independence, two miles from the normal. About 180 pupils were added by this arrangement, making a total of about 400 pupils in the training school.

The report of a visiting committee of the legislature on the training school facilities at Monmouth has been referred to. Notwithstanding the adverse account, $50,000 was set aside for a new training school building. This building was con- structed in 1915. It is unique in that the designers had a specific purpose in mind: that of providing a model training school. It has valuable original features in arrangement of rooms and of equipment.

Two other improvements have been made in the way of buildings. One is a new assembly hall completed in 1917, capable of seating 1,000 people. The other is a new dormitory for women, built at a cost of $50,000. This accommodates 120 students, is beautifully and tastefully furnished, and well equipped. Adjacent to it has recently been built a small house known as the senior cottage. This building was paid for from surplus funds in the dormitory budget.

The year that the legislature made provision for the rejuve- enescence, of Monmouth, a law was approved that is of great significance to the development of normal schools. This was the elementary teachers' training act. By this law a normal training course may be given in any high school in the state, provided the enrollment in the class is not fewer than eight. On the completion of the two year course, a certificate good for two years entitling the holder to teach in any rural school or elementary grade in the state is issued. Nearly all the accredited or standard high schools of the state offer this course. The high school has thus become a competitor of the normal.

In 1913 Monmouth asked the legislature to make an appro-

OREGON NORMAL SCHOOLS 163

priation which could be drawn upon to pay the traveling ex- penses of students who came one hundred miles to attend the school, the motive clearly being" to answer some of the argu- ments in favor of restoring the schools at Weston and Ashland on account of the long distances to be covered between Eastern and Southern Oregon and Monmouth. The bill went through the legislature safely enough, but was vetoed by Governor Oswald West with the succinct comment : "I can see no good reason for signing it." The bill came up again in 1919, but met its Waterloo in the senate.

Having failed in the initiative, Ashland and Weston in 1913 tried a new tack. They persuaded the legislature to create the schools, on the understanding that the referendum clause would be attached. The scheme succeeded, and the proposi- tion was put to the test in 1914. A tax of 1/40 of a mill on the dollar was asked for values having increased considerably since 1909.53

Ashland put up pretentious arguments: the small cost to each taxpayer ; the need, since Monmouth graduated only 100 students a year while 800 were required ; the desirable location and favorable environment; and the fact that she had ever lent her aid to the agricultural college and the university. She closed with an appeal for the children in Southern Oregon who were without teachers.

Weston's arguments were less specious. She referred to the great need of teachers in Eastern Orgon, illustrated the small cost in a concrete fashion, and again referred to the value of the unused plant. No arguments were filed against the nor- mals, and the campaign was a quiet one. But the apparent apathy was no index to the results: the normals lost by a decisive vote: Ashland by a majority of 25,602; Weston by 17,895. The Willamette Valley cast the big proportion of the negative votes. ^113

One would have thought the results of the elections of 1910 and 1914 would have discouraged similar appeals to the people.

53 The assessed valuation of all Oregon property was in 1909 only $694,727,631.90; in 1914 it had increased to $932,413,080. 1/40 of a mill tax would have brought in approximately the same revenue as 1 /25 of a mill in 1909.

164 JOHN C. ALMACK

Not so. Two years after the failure of the referendum, the commercial club of Pendleton initiated a measure, shrewdly drawn, and backed up by excellent arguments and a strong organization. It asked for a levy of 1/25 of a mill for the support of each of two schools one at Pendleton, the other at Ashland and for a building appropriation of $125,000. But more interesting than these items were the clauses validating the locations of certain state institutions.

Under the state constitution, all state institutions shall be located within an area no more than five miles from the capital Salem in Marion County. The Pendleton Commercial Club claimed that the Monmouth Normal, the Agricultural College at Corvallis, and the State University at Eugene had been established in these places illegally. Technically speaking these were therefore not state institutions, and could not be given state aid. The initiative bill proposed to validate these locations by a vote of the people, make provisions for the Ash- land Normal, and for the new normal to be built on a suitable site donated by the city of Pendleton. The arguments said the institutions before mentioned had been established con- trary to the constitution, but admitted that the act of 1908 validated these by inference. The introduction of the refer- ence to other state institutions seems to have been for the purpose of drawing votes from people alarmed over the con- dition of invalidated and illegal institutions, particularly in places where these were located.

The arguments were well drawn and substantiated by facts and figures. In substance they were :

"A great need exists for trained teachers. Out of 6055 teaching in the state, only 791 are normal graduates. This is only 13% of the total ; therefore 87% are not properly trained.

"In 1903, 80% of the applicants for certificates had had no training above the eighth grade.

"1,000 new teachers are needed every year.

"Oregon students are now going to normals in Washington

OREGON NORMAL SCHOOLS 165

and California. The majority of these do not return to teach in Oregon.

"Pendleton has many advantages as a site for a normal school :

Excellent training school facilities ;

An abundant supply of pure water; a healthful location;

Excellent railroads affording access from any part of the state ;

Sufficient housing capacity to take care of the students ;

A good city library, a new natatorium, and a stadium." Weston offered the negative arguments. Mention was made that the state already had an adequate plant at Weston, and from the point of view of economy it was better to make use of it than to spend $125,000 for a new one. The senate was blamed for the failure to support Weston in 1909, and the statement made that Pendleton had one state institution the Eastern Oregon branch of the asylum for the insane. As a clincher, Weston said the establishment of a normal at Pendle- ton would mean a return to the old log-rolling practices of other days, thus using with good effect arguments which had been her own undoing. At all events, the Pendleton normal school proposition was voted down, the vote standing for the normal 96,820, and against 109,523.

Again in 1918 Ashland came back with a new plan. It was a referendum measure giving permanent support to the Ash- land school by a tax of 1/25 of a mill, and further appropriated $125,000 for buildings for a new school to be located in Eastern Oregon, the site to be selected by the board of regents, grounds being donated by the fortunate city. A 1/25 mill tax was included for the proposed new institution. Weston considered making a third attempt, but felt it was hopeless. Hermiston had ambitions to become a normal school town, and offered a site of twelve acres, which Hermiston citizens said was worth $1,000 an acre. Hood River also deliberated on asking for a normal, but wisely withdrew. Something of the attitude of

166 JOHN C. ALMACK

Eastern Oregon cities towards Weston may be gathered from an editorial in the East Oregonian, published at Pendleton, and quoted in the Weston Leader February llth, 1919:

"Should the Weston school ask for support under the initia- tive, but fail to receive favorable action by the people, then the field will become open to all towns of Eastern Oregon. Where the school should be located in the event Weston's proposed initiative measure loses out is a matter for future considera- tion."

But Weston refrained, and Ashland's plan was tried. The arguments for the bill were the usual ones and were advanced by the board of normal school regents. The regents an- nounced that in the event of the vote being favorable, building operations would not be commenced until the end of the war. This qualification was unnecessary as the proposition lost by a big majority : 49,935 for, 66,070 against. Willamette Valley again voted solidly against the normals.

One feature that accompanied the last two election contests a feature that dates back to 1880 was the proposal strongly advocated in some quarters that the University and Agricul- tural College should train elementary teachers. In recent years Mrs. Herbert Armstrong of North Bend has been the most persistent exponent of the idea. In a circular distributed in 1918 by the supporters of the plan it is said that "all over the country colleges and universities are educating grade teachers, while not a dozen normal schools have been estab- lished in 20 years." In contradiction to the last part of the assertion are the figures given by the state superintendent in a circular on certification published in 1919 showing that the increase in the number of normal schools has been from 131 to 234 in twenty-five years, a growth equal to 80%. Attend- ance in the same period has reached 221% and the number of graduates 365%. This matter will be considered in the dis- cussion of methods of solving the normal school problem in later pages.

Ashland will unquestionably make application for financial assistance either to the legislature or to the people in the im-

OREGON NORMAL SCHOOLS 167

mediate future.54 Plans are under way to open up the ques- tion, and the first appeal will be made beyond doubt to the as- sembly in 1921. Representatives of the Portland Chamber of Commerce made an excursion through Southern Oregon in October, 1919, and on the 16th stopped at Ashland. At a meeting with Ashland business men the matter of reviving the normal was brought up, and it was the unanimous pledge of the trade excursionists that the support of the Portland dele- gation would be given when next the school asks for support. The normal school issue is therefore still alive.

The educational outlook in Oregon is exceedingly promising. We stand on the threshold of a new era of economic develop- ment. The state has within its borders the fourth greatest city on the Pacific slope. Manufacturing and shipbuilding are rap- idly becoming great industries. Foreign trade has more than doubled in the last three years. The Columbia river and the great coast indentations and rivers are not only profitable fish- ing grounds, but afford unrivalled harbor facilities. The de- velopment of wagon roads, the use of motor vehicles, and the construction of electric railroads have removed the greatest obstacle to the growth of the state lack of means of trans- portation. Each year sees more and more of the abundant water power of the state utilized.

The timber resources are the greatest on the continent. Western and Southern Oregon are the leading forest sections of the state. There is over 60,000,000,000 feet of standing timber in Lane County alone a quantity that cannot be com- prehended. The lumbering industry is now the most pros- perous in the history of the state, and only the beginning has been made. Agriculture in the Willamette Valley and in Eastern Oregon is in its infancy. New lands are being put under cultivation, and irrigated areas extended. The most famous fruit growing lands in the world are within the state.

54 The Eugene Daily Guard of November 13, 1919, had this to say on the normal question in its editorial columns: "The state normal at Monmouth is about the only educational institution in the country which reports an abnormally small enrollment this year. The condition presented in Oregon should be a strong argu- ment against the founding of two more state normal schools, a proposition that will be on the ballot next fall. It would be better to add teacher training courses to the curriculum, of both the university and the agricultural college."

168 JOHN C. ALMACK 9

The mountains are rich in minerals, but these are almost wholly untouched. Within the vast areas of Oregon an area greater than Illinois and Indiana combined are valuable re- sources as yet practically undeveloped. The estimated popu- lation is one million over six times what it was when the first normals were established while there is over thirty times as much wealth.

The people are progressive, and thoroughly believe in public education. The broad valleys, the noble forests, the shining mountains, the rich resources are not Oregon, but, as Horace Mann said of Massachusetts, "her noble men, her pure and exalted women, the children in all her schools, whose daily lessons are the preludes and rehearsals of the great duties of life, and the prophecies of future eminence these are the State." The future destiny of the state and the nation rests with the public schools, which in turn depend upon the fidelity and efficiency of the teacher. To have good schools we must have trained and educated teachers, and for their training we must look to the normal schools. Oregon has the opportunity. Much has already been done. The great educational need of the state is properly qualified teachers. Certainly the people will provide agencies for their training. BIBLIOGRAPHY ORIGINAL SOURCES

1. Oregon School Laws, 1882, 1885, 1889, 1893, 1907, 1911, 1913-17.

2. Arguments on Initiative and Referendum Measures, 1905, 1909, 1913, 1915, 1917, 1919.

3. Reports of Boards of Regents, 1907-1918.

4. Reports of State Superintendent, 1872-1919.

5. Governors' Messages and Addresses, 1893, 1895, 1899, 1903, 1907.

6. Oregon Blue Book (statistics on elections, population and wealth) 1911-1919.

7. Catalogues, 1882-1919.

OREGON NORMAL SCHOOLS 169

8. Records of enrollment, grades, and income Drain Nor- mal, 1907-1909; Minutes of Zamzamian Literary Society, 1902- 1910.

9. Proceedings of State Teachers' Association, 1879, 1905- 1917.

10. Letters and Interviews.

SECONDARY MATERIAL

1. Oregon Teachers' Monthly, 1902, 1905, 1909, 1911, 1915.

2. The Educational Journal, 1870.

3. The Oregonian, 1870-1919. Especially January, Febru- ary and March, 1909.

4. The Oregon Journal, 1905-1919.

5. The Oregon Voter, 1914-1919.

6. The Eugene Register, 1909.

7. The Ashland Tidings, January, February, March, 1909.

8. The Blue Mountain Eagle, February 12, 1909.

9. Corvallis Gazette, February 26, 1909.

10. State Normal School Systems of the United States. H. D. Sheldon, 1905.

11. Rise and Growth of the Normal School Idea. J. P. Gordy, 1891.

12. The Oregon System.— Allen Eaton, 1912.

13. History of Education in the United States. E. G. Dexter, 1904.

14. Pennsylvania State Normal Schools and Public School Systems.— E. O. Holland, 1912.

15. The Weston Leader, January, February, 1909, May, 1910.

16. Roseburg Review, February, 1909.

17. The Umpqua Valley News, February, 1909.

18. The Portland Survey, page 184. Elwood P. Cubberley and others, 1913.

19. The Wisconsin Normal Schools, a Survey, A. N. Farmer, 1914.

20. An Educational Survey of Alabama. Federal Bureau of Education, 1919.

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THE QUARTERLY

of the

Oregon Historical Society

VOLUME XXI SEPTEMBER, 1920 NUMBER 3

Copyright, 1920, by the Oregon Historical Society The Quarterly disavows responsibility for the positions taken by contributors to its pages

EWING YOUNG AND HIS ESTATE

A CHAPTER IN THE ECONOMIC AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT OF OREGON

By F. G. Young

EWING YOUNG, LEADER OF THE FIRST OREGON COMMUNITY

ENTERPRISE

On the twenty-second of December, 1836, the American brig Loriot from Oahu, one of the Hawaiian Islands, approached Cape Disappointment at the mouth of the Columbia. The ves- sel bore William A. Slacum, commissioned by the President of the United States to "obtain information in relation to the settlements on the Oregon River." "The wind was high from the westward," he says, "and the bar presented a terrific ap- pearance, breaking entirely across the channel from the north to the south shoals."1 But the passage was attempted, the bar safely crossed and Slacum was within the confines of the Ore- gon country. After a stay of just a month and a day the Loriot was again descending the Columbia on her return voyage with the intention of going via California. Outward bound the ves- sel had on board, in addition to the people who had come in on her, Ewing Young with ten other Oregonians under his leadership who were setting out as representatives for the recently organized Willamette Cattle Company to secure an

i Slacum's Report on Oregon, 1836-7, reprinted in the Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society, v. XIII, p. i8a.

172 F. G. YOUNG

adequate supply of cattle from California for the young and growing settlement on the Willamette. These were to be driven north across deep rivers and through some five hun- dred miles of mountain fastnesses infested with savages, whose attacks had almost annihilated several parties attempting this route. This cattle expedition was the first community enter- prise backed by all the elements occupying the Oregon region and if successfully carried out as it was meant for this Pacific Coast settlement unity in associated effort, the means for a rapidly rising standard of living and fully assured suc- cess for the American settlers there in their venture as a far- removed colony of civilized humanity. Furthermore, the or- ganization of the Willamette Cattle Company with the leader- ship entrusted to Ewing Young signalized the secure ascendancy of democratic relationships where up to this time benevolent autocracy had ruled. The initiation of this project is to be credited to William A. Slacum. The management of it in the trying ordeals involved in the execution of it fell upon Ewing Young, aided by his company of hardy and stout-hearted mountaineers.

THE OREGON SETTLEMENT IN THE WINTER OF 1836-72

To appreciate fully the significance of this dramatic turn in the course of Oregon development it will be necessary to get a more intimate view of the situation on the Oregon stage when Slacum at the request of President Andrew Jackson made his visit of inspection. The authorities at Washington had probably been moved to this step by the then recently published reports of Captain Bonneville and Hall J. Kelley. The latter particularly had sounded a note of alarm for the American interests in Oregon. Under the arrangement of joint occupation, the British interests represented by the Hud- son's Bay Company had gained decided advantage which they were pressing to a limit that amounted to the oppression and certain discomfiture of such American traders and settlers

2 Ibid, pp. 183-198, for the facts used and the quotations made in th« interpre- tation of the situation on the Willamette in the winter of 1836-7.

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 173

as were attempting to gain a foothold there. Under these circumstances the experiences of Mr. Slacum as the agent of the American government in spying out the situation are nat- urally interesting. He had no sooner entered the Columbia before he found that the Hudson's Bay Company had matters well in hand. Two of the Company's ships outward bound laden with valuable cargoes were met as he approached Fort George, the guard post at the sea entrance to this domain.

The authorities were keenly alert when apprised of the arrival of an American vessel without a cargo. In a few days he had duplicate invitations to visit the center of operations, Fort Vancouver, and soon was embarked thither in a boat of one of the partners, Mr. Douglass. On his arrival he "met a hospitable reception" from the chief factors, Dr. John Mc- Loughlin and Mr. Duncan Finlayson. It was made agree- able for him to use nearly half of the period of his stay in Oregon in visiting the farm of the post and the Indian lodges about it. He estimated the whole number of persons there congregated as from 750 to 800. The farm of 3,000 acres in cultivation was producing some 20,000 bushels of grain, 9,000 bushels of peas and 14,000 bushels of potatoes. Its live stock consisted of 1,000 head of cattle, 700 hogs, 200 sheep, 450 to 500 horses, and 40 yoke of working oxen.

When ready to make a survey of the American establish- ments up the Willamette he was furnished with canoe, oarsmen and all necessaries for the trip. He ascended the river to Champoeg and the settlements in its vicinity. To Champoeg Jason Lee had come to meet him as Dr. McLoughlin had ar- ranged. They visited all the settlers of the lower settlement, and the next day the mission house and upper settlement some eigh- teen miles from Champoeg. On French Prairie, stretching on from Champoeg to the mission station, he lists thirteen retired servants of the Hudson's Bay Company, quite a proportion of whom had established themselves four or five years before.

174 F. G. YOUNG

They were, all told, cultivating some 550 acres and had raised over 7,000 bushels of wheat the preceding season and kept 154 horses and 400 hogs. These settlers, "although freemen in every sense of the word [were considered] still subject to the protection and authority, otherwise thraldom of the Hudson Bay Company it being only necessary for the authorities at Vancouver to say, 'if you disobey my orders, your supplies shall be cut off," Mr. Slacum goes on to say, "and the settler knows at once that his few comforts, nay, necessaries of life, are stopped, rendering him more miserable than the savage that lurks around his dwelling." At the mission station the four men had 150 acres enclosed and had during the preceding sea- son harvested some 600 bushels of grain, 200 bushels of peas and 320 of potatoes. These missionaries were as much be- holden to and dependent upon the graciousness of Dr. Mc- Loughlin as were the ex-servants. Scattered in different direc- tions in this general region were some 20 independent Ameri- cans, some half a dozen of whom had separated themselves from the Wyeth expeditions of 1832 and 1834, nine or ten had come up from California with Ewing Young in 1834. The farm establishments of these excepting Young's do not seem to have impressed Slacum if he saw them.

Although Slacum does not mention the wreckage of an establishment at what had been Fort William on Sauvie's Island at the mouth of the Willamette, the vestiges of Nath- aniel J. Wyeth's two efforts to get a foothold in Oregon, the forces operating in the Oregon country to produce such results, this inspector did detect. For he says "some steps must be taken by our Government to protect the settlers and the trader, not from the hostility of the Indians, but from a much more formidable enemy, that any American trading house establish- ing itself on the Wilhamet or the Columbia would have to en- counter, in the Hudson Bay Company." On the other hand he admits "Mr. Lee acknowledges the kindest assistance from Dr. McLoughlin, of Fort Vancouver, who gave him the use of horses, oxen, and milch cows and furnished him with all his

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 175

supplies." But just across the river from the mission lived Ewing Young who said to Slacum, "A cloud hung over him so long, through Dr. McLoughlin's influence, that he was almost maddened by the harsh treatment he had received from that gentleman." It should be noted that this was two years and a half after Ewing Young had arrived from California and the false charge lodged against him that he was at the head of a party of horse thieves. The exemplary conduct of himself and his associates had not sufficed to secure that at- titude toward him on the part of the Hudson's Bay Company authorities, or of those under their influence, including the mis- sion people, but that he felt that he was an outcast. Young had some 81 horses and mules, about half as many as all the rest of the settlement, and only twenty-nine acres in cultiva- tion on which to use them. Evidently the order given by Dr. McLoughlin on Young's arrival in the country that the Can- adian farmers should not trade with him continued to be in force. The hostile boycott was still effective. It meant, and was intended to mean, eventual exclusion from Oregon. Young had become desperate. If he could not get into relations of mutual advantage and co-operation with his fellowmen and neighbors through exchange of his surplus of beaver skins, horses or wheat for the vital necessities of a civilized life he proposed to erect a distillery and offer a commodity for which white man and Indian would risk the danger of the displeasure of the Hudson's Bay Company and their own destruction as well. Accordingly a caldron had been secured from the dis- mantled establishment at Fort William, a building completed, the arch raised and the boiler set for use as a still.3 Jason Lee with the missionaries now rightly became active in the organ- ization of a defense against this menace to the community. A temperance society was formed which sent a courteous plea to Young to desist and offered remuneration for the expenses already incurred. It was at this stage that Slacum appeared on the scene.

3 White, Ten Years in Oregon, p. 78.

176 F. G. YOUNG

SLACUM'S MEDIATION REMOVES THE Two IMPEDIMENTS TO PROGRESS IN THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY

The situation was decidedly feudal so far as the Canadian settlers and the missionaries were concerned and them it did not chafe. Ewing Young would have none of it. No con- descension or patronage for him. He had been accustomed to association on a democratic basis. In a fair free-for-all allotment of roles he had regularly been accorded leadership. He naturally could not brook authority although exercised in as kindly and just a spirit as was Dr. McLoughlin's that had its source in a charter from the hand of the divine-right Stew- art as king of England.

Slacum found two related and yet somewhat distinct diffi- culties that called for adjustment if peace, progress and hap- piness were to dwell on the Willamette. One of these has been pointed out. Ewing Young provoked by the mistaken indictment continued against him had challenged autocracy with its presumptions that involved personal and social in- justice. The other factor in the situation calling for adjust- ment was a repressive economic policy enforced against all alike. The significance of the refusal of the Hudson's Bay Company to sell a head of cattle to any settler on the Wil- lamette can probably be best illustrated through reference to the niggardliness of nature to the aboriginal human species on the western continent. She failed to develop among its fauna any species of animals comparable to the wild horse, or the wild ox that could on domestication be made the burden bearer, the source of power for the cultivation of the soil and the source of nourishing milk for the young. (The bison or buffalo had spread over the northern half of the continent in very recent centuries.) It was mainly because of this disparity in the provisions for man on the two continents that had enabled the white man to distance in his progress in civiliza- tion the red man by half a millenium at the time of their meet- ing through the discovery of America by Columbus.4

4 Payne, History of America, v. i, pp. 316-31.

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 177

Suppose we take Dr. McLoughlin's own statement of the policy pursued in this matter: "Every settler had as much wheat on loan as he wanted to begin with, and I lent them each two cows, as in 1825 we had only twenty-seven head, big and small, old and young.

"If I sold they would of course be entitled to the increase, and I would not have the means to assist the new settlers, and the settlement would be retarded, as those purchasers who offered me two hundred dollars for a cow would put such a price on the increase as would put it out of the power of poor settlers to buy. This would prevent industrious men settling. For these reasons I would not sell but loaned, as I say, two cows to each settler, and in case the increase of set- tlers might be greater than we could afford to supply with cattle, I reserved the right to take any cattle I required (above his two cows) from any settler to assist new settlers.

"To the Methodist Mission, as it was a public institution, I lent seven oxen, one bull and eight cows with their calves."5 In case the cattle died through some accident as poisoning, the persons holding them were not charged with their value.

Granting that this policy was fully justified in 1825, in 1837 it was still continued when the farm at Fort Vancouver had one thousand head of cattle and a proportional supply of other live stock. At the same time Slacum reports: "In the course of conversation with Mr. Lee, Young, and other settlers, I found that nothing was wanting to insure comfort, wealth, and every happiness to the people of this most beau- tiful country but the possession of neat cattle, all of those in the country being owned by the Hudson's Bay Company, who refuse to sell them under any circumstances whatever."6 With this sore need of cattle by the Oregon settler, with cattle galore in California, with the presence of a natural and experienced leader pining for just such responsibility as that of the enter- prise of bringing a supply to Oregon, the combination that

5 Dr. John McLoughlin, Document among his private papers, printed in Transactions of the Oregon Pioneer Association, 1880, pp. 51-3.

6 Slacum's Report, op. cit. p. 196.

178 F. G. YOUNG

made an epoch in Oregon history naturally flashed upon the mind of Slacum. A public meeting was called at "Camp Maud du Sable" [Champoeg] to consider the project. An organiza- tion was effected. Young was appointed "leader." Funds were provided. At this meeting too the "Canadians" were assured that their pre-emption rights to their farms would be respected and that "ere long some steps might be taken to open a trade and commerce with the country [Oregon]"7 so that their wheat might be marketed at $1.50 instead of at 50 cents per bushel, payable in goods at 50 per cent advance of London price. This meeting registers the shifting of the missionaries from allegiance to the Hudson's Bay Company's authority to alliance with the independent American settlers. It brought into evidence too the magnanimity of Dr. McLoughlin and his associate chief factor at Fort Vancouver for they subscribed liberally to the venture.8 Thus this meeting on the thirteenth of January, 1837, at Champoeg really made inevitable that of May 2, six years later. Here the spirit of independence and co- operation was born and steps taken to insure a more abundant and progressive life in the Oregon colony. So impressed were the missionaries with the changed conditions of life that issued from the undertaking here instituted that the natural expres- sion of their sentiment regarding it was : "Bless God for Brother Slacum's providential arrival among us."9 This com- munity enterprise did secure not merely the sources of a bounti- ful supply of milk and steaks for the table and of draft oxen for the cultivation of the fields, but it meant active cooperation on a democratic basis where hitherto there had been patronage and bitter estrangement. And yet Slacum's achievement lay not so much in the fact that he had brought to the support of the venture Jason Lee and Dr. McLoughlin, the leaders of the Missionaries and the Hudson's Bay Company respectively, but rather in that all had been constrained to support the natural leader for the undertaking, one whom they but recently had treated as an outcast and who in retaliation had been threaten-

7 Ibid, pp. 196-7.

8 Documentary Record of Ewing Young and His Estate, appendix to this paper, II, Treasurer's Statement, p. 208.

9 W. H. Gray, History of Oregon, p. 155.

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 179

ing the settlement and the region with a curse which, if per- sisted in, would have been worse than civil war. In place of division and imminent embroilment for the settlement Slacum had with discerning and diplomatic mediation during the few days around the middle of January, 1837, brought harmony and concert of effort in the direction of supplying the most vital needs of the settlement for advancement. The projected distillery of Ewing Young's across the Willamette from the mission was dismantled and he was in charge of the Oregon settlement's most important enterprise. Young, through Slacum's intervention, had exchanged the brand of an outcast and the contemplated role of a destroyer to that of commis- sioned leadership in the community's most vital means to progress. One would have supposed that between such right- minded and sagacious leaders as Lee, McLoughlin and Young such a situation as that from which the colony had just been rescued would have been forestalled in its incipient stages. But affairs were assuming an increasingly ugly and critical aspect until Slacum arrived and through a master stroke of service ensured sobriety, peace, prosperity and continued progress for this pioneer American occupation of the Pacific slope.

GETTING THE FIRST CATTLE FROM CALIFORNIA CALLED FOR DIPLOMACY AS WELL AS DARING AND SAGACITY

With the Oregon cattle party safely landed at Bodega, Cali- fornia, Slacum's role as benefactor of Oregon was ended. He had been sent to Oregon merely to inspect a situation from which a report had gone forth that trouble was brewing for American interests. He had intervened and initiated just the co-operative project that, carried out, opened the way to re- lease and peaceful expansion. The next phase in the realiza- tion of this definite prospect of independence and development for the American settlement in Oregon was that of securing possession of California cattle and getting them safely to Oregon. It was necessary first for Young to secure the re-

180 F. G. YOUNG

versal of the traditional policy that forbade such exportation. Young- won over Vallejo, the military authority, Governor Alvarado and the President of the Missions. These prevailed upon the council or "deputation" to change its vote after hav- ing once refused permission.10 Only with Herculean effort did the Oregon party succeed in swimming their droves across the San Joaquin and other large rivers on their way home. Then there was ahead of them a stretch of some five hundred miles of mountain barriers, "Alps on Alps" that mingled their summits with the clouds. As several members of the party were survivors of massacres suffered by the Jedediah S. Smith and other expeditions in passing through this region they could not be restrained from acts of retaliation, and thus soon the fastnesses around them were full of lurking savages intent on cutting off those engaged in this desperate undertaking.11 However, all arrived safely and in good spirits at the settle- ments about the middle of October with six hundred and thirty head, two hundred having been lost by the way.12 The pur- chase price and cost of bringing them to Oregon brought the cost to the settler up to seven dollars and sixty-seven cents a head.

THE PLAY OF THE ECONOMIC FORCES IN THE MAKING OF EARLY OREGON is REVEALED IN THE YOUNG DOCUMENTS

No sooner was this achievement for community advancement consummated than another of only less degree of importance for the welfare of the settlers was projected by Young and rapidly pushed to realization. As their newly acquired herds would make available for them the riches of the "finest graz- ing country in the world/'13 so a sawmill would make it pos- sible for them to command for their dwellings and other buildings lumber from the best forests. Such a mill was soon

10 Bancroft, History of California, v. IV, p. 86; History of Oregon, v. I, p. 144; Documentary Record, appendix, II Ewing Young's Petition to the Governor of California; Diary of Col. Philip L. Edwards, p. 20.

1 1 Edwards Diary, pp. 22-47.

12 Bancroft, History of Oregon, v. I, p. 149.

13 Slacum's op. cit., p. 202.

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 181

in operation "on the Chehalem creek near its confluence with the Willamette."14

For a wonder we are not at loss to know what Ewing Young as the natural, recognized but uncommissioned leader in con- structive enterprise in this early Oregon community did during the years 1838, '39 and '40, while his physical strength lasted. We have records also containing data for estimating the meas- ure and mode of influence upon the community that issued from the fact that his accumulations at his death intestate in Febru- ary, 1841, and without known heirs, became the common wealth of the Oregon community. This advantage of a unique degree of light on the doings of Ewing Young away back in the clos- ing years of the thirties of last century is due to the preserva- tion of his accounting records and those of the administrators of his estate that was required because the Territory pledged itself to reimburse any lawful heir or heirs should any appear. It might have, as it did have, occasion to consult these records to determine its liabilities on this score.15 This prime source material for illuminating an epochal turn in the course of events in Oregon has been available for three quarters of a century in the archives of the territory and later the state of Oregon. As a body of financial statistics without arrangement it has not invited deliberate examination. Through the gracious courtesy of the former Secretary of State, Ben W. Olcott, and the present Secretary, Sam A. Kozer, and their aids, encourage- ment was given to persevere in making it available to the stu- dents of western history. These documents shall be allowed to tell their own story with only a running line of suggestion to show the thread of sequence.

It seems timely too in the interest of a real understanding of the forces operating in the making of Oregon that this material should be utilized. The emphasis in the telling of the story of the life and the affairs of early Oregon has always been strongly on the religious and the political movements. The saving of the souls of the natives of the Pacific Northwest

14 Courtney M. Walter, Transactions of th* Oregon Pioneer Association, 1880, p. 58.

1 5 Documentary Record of Ewing Young and his Estate, Appendix, I, p. 197.

182

F. G. YOUNG

was an impelling motive that brought a goodly share of the leading spirits among the earliest settlers. The purpose to secure this desirable region to the United States so as to have a national domain four square and facing both oceans actuated spirits like Thomas Jefferson, Hall J. Kelley, Thomas H. Benton. But the projects instigated by these would all have been retarded, they would have languished and possibly have been defeated, had not provision been made to make life worth living in Oregon for the American settler. Ewing Young's leadership and activities prevented a partial relapse to the privations of barbarism in this isolated community and gave the impulse to an advancing standard of living in matters of food, shelter and power to utilize the natural resources.

The personality of Ewing Young expressed itself creatively in the field of economic progress rather than in religion and politics. But it should be noticed that the records show among his belongings a two-volume edition of Shakespeare that he had probably borne along with him through almost intermin- able wanderings as a trapper and trader, from his eastern Tennessee home along the Santa Fe Trail, on beaver hunting trips into the northern provinces of Mexico, back and forth between New Mexico and California, up and down and across the wide dimensions of California and then on that terrifying trip with nearly a hundred horses through the Rogue River Indian country to Oregon.16 His mental calibre was such that he found his real refreshment and recreation in having his thought move along with that of this mental giant of the ages. In taking the measure of Ewing Young as he was advanced so quickly to leadership in the Oregon community it should be noted that it was without the aid of a subsidy of missionary funds and organization, and also without the backing of the well-knit, privileged and strongly capitalized old-world fur company. He relied only on democratic influence. He was the original exponent of democratic procedure and organization in Oregon expansion.

1 6 Ibid, VIII, p. 266, a8o.

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 183

The body of documentary records pertaining to Ewing Young and his estate made accessible in this number of the Quarterly bring out not merely his work in Oregon develop-' ment but also indicate the play of economic motive in first bringing into existence an actual public mind of the com- munity so that it sought expression in political organization. In the interest of gaining a view of the early conditions true to reality it would seem advisable to review these hitherto overlooked economic forces. With the aid of the items of the accounts produced here it is easy to build up a mental picture of his home on the Chehalem as a center of distribution. First, there was the drove of nearly a hundred horses and mules brought by him in the fall of 1834. These of course moved slowly in exchange because of the general interdict of Dr. McLoughlin. Then in October of 1837 his corral held more than six hundred cattle, which with their increase were to become in due time the possessions of the settlers distributed in all directions. Then the very next year we see the first saw mill in all the valley arising there and soon through the years 1838, '39 and '40 a regular procession of loads of lumber is leaving that mill destined to the different homesteads. During these years the settlers were for the first time equipped to enlarge rapidly their cultivated fields and to provide ade- quate and fitting shelter for themselves and their animals. If we direct our attention more closely to the Ewing Young establishment the items of the accounts show a service of exchange. For the beaver, wheat and other productions of the settlers, articles of supplies were provided by his depot. More than that, in the almost money-less community the functioning of a clearing house is strongly in evidence in these records. In a word, because of his untiring activity Ewing Young's establishment during these years served for the community as virtually a market place, a store, a bank and a factory as well as the largest farm. W. H. Gray says he was "a stir-

184 F. G. YOUNG

ring, ambitious man";17 and Courtney M. Walker pays him the tribute of being "a very candid and scrupulously honest man; was thoroughgoing, brave and daring."18 Is it any wonder then that with his activities he was functioning as a unifying and community making center for this outlying set- tlement ?

UNITY IN ECONOMIC INTERESTS AND ACTIVITIES IMPEL TO POLITICAL ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION

Fort Vancouver necessarily continued to be the chief pri- mary source of the wide range of the manufactured supplies indispensable for civilized existence. It had the only effective line of communication with the outside world. But for an adequate supply of such fundamental needs as those of meat and milk for the table, and sawed lumber for capacious living quarters the early Oregon settler was beholden to the untiring efforts of Ewing Young. With his death in February, 1841, this personal influence towards unifying this settlement and transforming the conditions of its existence came to a close and the waning of his strength through the preceding year is painfully evident in his accounting records. The responsibility of administering the estate then devolved upon the settlers. The impulse to organization thus given was effective. Meet- ings of the nature of folkmoots were held on three successive days from the hour of his funeral. At the third, a full meet- ing of the inhabitants of the Willamette valley, at the Ameri- can Mission house "Dr. Ira L. Babcock was appointed to fill the office of Supreme Judge with probate powers."19 To him were added requisite administrative officials. Furthermore, a committee was chosen to frame a constitution and draft a code of laws. On April 15th Mr. Babcock as Judge of Probate appointed David Leslie "administrator of the affairs of the late Ewing Young, yeoman, deceased, intestate . . ."20 These political developments are facts familiar to all students

17 Op. cit., p. 154-

18 Op. cit., p.

10 v^p. cit., p. 50.

19 J. Henry Brown, Political History of Oregon, v. I, p. 83.

20 Ibid, p. 85.

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 185

of early Oregon history. However, the administration of his estate brought about three other meetings which the records here produced for the first time bring into general notice. In course of the disposal of the property comprising the estate three auctions were held by the administrator. The "minutes of sales" are evidence of a full attendance of the settlers. Then there were repeated participations of a considerable pro- portion of the community in collecting the cattle and horses for the sale days. Their association on these auction days and their general co-operation in holding them was a schooling in facility for unanimity in achieving their later political organ- ization.21 In a word, the public mind and spirit for the deliber- ation at the Champoeg meeting on May 2, 1843, had been prepared for through the meeting six years before at the same place for the organization of the California cattle expedi- tion, and more recently by the auctions participated in on the farm of Ewing Young across and up the river. Joseph L. Meek, who successfully evoked response and decision at the political meeting, had previously trained for this as auctioneer at Chehalem. And George Le Breton was naturally suggested as secretary, for he had served as clerk at the auctions.

Bancroft holds that "From the presence of Ewing Young in Oregon sprang two important events in the settlement of the country: the coming of an authorized agent of the United States, and the disinthralment of the settlers from what they felt to be the oppressive bondage of the fur company. By his death Ewing Young gave the colony a further and still more important impulse. . . ."22 (The reference is to the move- ment for complete political organization.) Using as the basis of my claims data referring to the vital every day interests of the settlers I have tried to show how he had even a more direct and far-reaching part in early Oregon development. It is now in place to turn to the background of his earlier preparatory experiences and career, so far as records available suffice to

21 Documentary Record, appendix, VIII, IX, X,

22 Bancroft, History of Oregon, v. I, p. 152,

186 F. G. YOUNG

reveal these, and from these get additional support for the interpretation given, as well as a more real and satisfactory view of one of the founders of Oregon.

THE WORLD OF ADVENTURE AND OPPORTUNITY TO WHICH EWING YOUNG WAS LURED IN THE TWENTIES

By the early twenties of the 19th century enough of the home-building pioneers had in their westward movement crossed the Mississippi river to qualify Missouri for state- hood. Up to this time the hunters, trappers and fur traders, serving as scouts for the on-coming settler, had regularly fol- lowed the courses of the water ways in penetrating the wilder- ness. Now as the vanguard reached the great bend of the Missouri river conditions counselled a change to an overland advance. Several efforts to stem the swift currents beyond this point through the long distance to the mountains had proven arduous and virtually futile. Two salients were thus at the beginning of the twenties being projected westward across the prairies to the mountains and beyond.

The line of the Oregon trail pointed to the northwest and served as the highway for traffic with the Indian tribes in that quarter and with the mountain men as they exploited the fur wealth of the mountain wildernesses. The other line of advance across the prairies to the southwest was the Santa Fe trail serving for similar traffic with the tribes of the southwest, but also made a new short cut, and therefore preferred, line of communication with an isolated outpost of civilization in that region. Soon over the Oregon trail pressed the caravans of settlers who were to save the Pacific Northwest and Upper California to our jurisdiction. Along the Santa Fe trail moved those who Americanized the vast region of the southwest so that its cession to us by Mexico was inevitable and in accord- ance with the principle of self-determination.

These two transcontinental highways had as a common start- ing point the turn made by the Missouri from its long south-

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 187

ward to its eastward course across the state, where now stands the metropolitan center, Kansas City. Then two outfitting stations marked its now widely extended site. They were known as Independence and Westport. The caravans setting out, whether destined for the northwest or southwest, held for a short stretch to a common course. Then those taking the Oregon trail branch penetrated a wilderness year by year to a more and more remote objective until early in the thirties Wyeth pressed on in a continuous journey to meet the tidal waves of the Pacific. The Oregon trail was thus fully opened and reached the Oregon shore of the Pacific. On the other hand the Santa Fe trail as its name indicates led to a long established community the inhabitants of which, however, were of a quite contrasted type of the white race to that of those who were opening this trade route to them.

The incoming traffic on the Oregon trail naturally was exclusively of furs secured in exchange for supplies for the mountain trappers and for Indian trading goods taken out. While the returning caravans on the Santa Fe trail also brought fur packs from the Colorado mountains and, from the streams in the then provinces of northern Mexico, specie extracted from the mines in the interior of Mexico, and mules secured from California soon became the more valuable imports. These cargoes were obtained mainly through funds from the sale of the dry goods of cotton and silk, and articles of hardware, taken out. With the isolated dwellers on the upper Rio Grande such staples were naturally in great demand. Along each route similar dangers of attack by fierce tribes were to be guarded against as they resented this invasion of their hunting grounds and more the highhanded ruthlessness of the unworthy of the white men.

Opportunities for profit and adventure were thus being opened in these two theatres for trade. A spirit having the audacity and resourcefulness of Ewing Young was naturally challenged by them. St. Louis papers would bring accounts

188 F. G. YOUNG

of expeditions undertaken to him, hemmed in as he was in his native region of east Tennessee. An inevitable attack of wanderlust in the years of early manhood must snatch him away into these new and alluring fields of enterprise. Into which regional wilderness would he be swayed? Into that of the northwest or of the southwest?

In all of his later and known career he never showed any disposition to seek parleyings with the red man. He cannot lie charged with any exploitation of him or any unprovoked ruthlessness toward him. The Indian nature was too slow. He wanted contact with those worthy of his mettle. Nor did he hanker for the unique satisfactions of wilderness solitudes as such. He was not an explorer. His persistent bent was for leadership in carrying out projects, directly of use, at the head of companies of men of his own race, and then too he con- stitutionally had the strongest aversion to dominating mon- opolies such as the American Fur Company in evidence on the Oregon trail In view of these traits exhibited when he was within the range of recording agencies we should search for traces of him on the route of the Santa Fe trail as he is making his way westward to California and Oregon where he was to emerge into the clear light of history. And sure enough ! Mexi- can documents of the nature of reports by the Governor of New Mexico and others, to those higher in authority, on a (rapping expedition to the Gila in 1826 under Ceran St. Vrain contain the name of a "Joaquin Joon" as the leader of one of the four divisions of the party.23 The basis for identifying this name as the one Ewing Young went by in that region have in an affidavit made by Kit Carson and two other resi- dents of Taos in 1852. This affidavit says Ewing Young "was railed by Mexican residents of this territory Joachin John. . . ." In the parish record of the baptism of his son it is "Joaquin John." In the California documents Bancroft says he was often called "Joaquin Joven."25

23 Thomas Maitland Marshall, "St. Vrain's Expedition to the Gila in 1826" m The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, v. XIX, p. 255.

24 Documentary Record, appendix, I, p. 200

25 Bancroft, History of California, v. Ill, p.

p. 174.

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 189

MEXICAN DOCUMENTS AND THOSE OF THE PARISH OF TAOS,

NEW MEXICO, THROW LIGHT ON THE WESTWARD

MOVEMENT OF EWING YOUNG

In all probability, then, it was Ewing Young that one morn- ing in May, 1826, left Fort Osage, Missouri, in an expedition gotten up by Ceran St. Vrain. It was destined for the Rocky Mountains. It arrived at Santa Fe probably late in June. On the 29th of August, 1826, Antonio Narbona, governor of New Mexico, issued at Santa Fe a passport to this company to "pass to the state of Sonora for private trade."26 Complaints were soon filed against them by Mexican beaver hunters and others that they were threatening the extinction "of a product so useful and so valuable;" that they were arrogant and "had talked in an insolent manner," and that they were "getting alarming quantities of peltries frequently without paying even an eighth of the customs to the treasury."27 By 1830 Young is clearly identified as an independent leader of trapping and mule trading parties entering California.28 In one of these expeditions he was a partner of David Waldo and David E. Jackson, formerly an associate of Sublette.29 From this point on in his career the California documents keep him clearly in view. Only one definitely established and interesting fact is known about him in that interim between his connection with the St. Vrain expedition to the Gila and his final departure from New Mexico to California in September, 1831. This fact is certified to in the affidavit of Kit Carson and two residents of Taos already referred to. Young seems for a time to have identified himself with that community. For the affidavit says he "left this territory about the year thirty-two or there-abouts and that said Young had lived as man and wife with Maria Josefa Tafoya and that said Maria Josefa Tafoya had issue by said Young as acknowledged by him, that said issue was a boy and called Jose Joaquin. . . ." The same who appeared to claim, and who in 1855 received, the proceeds of the Ewing Young estate from the Territory of Oregon.30

26 Marshall, op. cit., p. 253.

27 Quoted from Marshall, op. cit., 257-9-

28 Bancroft, History of California, v. II, p. 600; v. Ill, pp. 174-5.

29 Ibid, v. Ill, pp. 387-8; Documentary Record, appendix, I, p. 203.

30 Documentary Record, appendix, pp. 197-202.

190 F. G. YOUNG

EWING YOUNG IN CALIFORNIA31

By 1830 Ewing Young had secured recognition as one of the three or four leaders of trapping and trading expeditions westward out of Taos, New Mexico, down the Gila and across the Colorado into California. The annals of California of the early thirties exhibit him possessed of a passport signed by Henry Clay and vised by the Mexican minister at Wash- ington, March 30, 1828. This authorized the activities he was pursuing. In 1830 at the head of a group of a dozen trap- pers he passed north through the Tulares region, penetrating as far as San Jose. His band aided the mission authorities to recapture some runaway neophytes. He thus was in the good graces of the mission. But he had trouble with his own men. Three in the vicinity of San Jose deserted him and others when he was in the region east of Los Angeles quarreled among themselves with the result that one of their number was killed. In fact so insecure did he feel his hold on his party that instead of returning from the Colorado, where his trap- ping terminated in December, to southern California to ex- change his catch of fur for mules and thus obtain a larger margin of profit, he hastened directly home to Taos. Kit Carson was probably with Young in this 1830 expedition.

Young was not ready to start on his second expedition over this southeastern entrance to California before September, 1831. In the meantime he had become associated with David E. Jackson, formerly a partner of Sublette's and with David Waldo. Their plan of operations continued much the same as on Young's first expedition in 1830. They were to accumu- late a stock of beaver skins trapping the Gila and other streams on the way, trade for mules and horses in the region of Los Angeles and these were to be taken back for the Louisiana market. They were in demand too for the caravans plying between Santa Fe and St. Louis. Jackson with a detachment of nine hired men and a negro slave proceeded directly to

31 Bancroft, History of California, v. II, 600; v. Ill, pp. 174-5, 180, 317, 387-8, 393-4, 410, 630; v. IV, 85-7, 263-4.

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 191

California to locate the mules and horses whose purchase was contemplated. Young with a party of thirty men was to do the trapping on the way and thus secure the wherewithal to pay for the droves selected. Young did not reach Los Angeles until April, 1832, and as his traps had been defective his beaver catch had not been satisfactory. Consequently a major portion of his force of thirty men were sent back with the horses and mules purchased. Young himself and those re- tained set out to retrieve his fortunes in the varied trapping and hunting trips, his course in which will be traced. It is to be noted first that a part even of the horses and mules the partners were able to obtain with their small beaver catch were lost on their way to New Mexico in fording the Colorado.

Young seems first with a small party to have tried otter hunting. He built two canoes at San Pedro near Los Angeles with the aid of a ship carpenter. With these and a yawl he cruised in the vicinity of Point Conception and the Channel Islands. By October of this year 1832 with a larger party he had started inland to trap on the Kings river in the direc- tion of the San Joaquin from Los Angeles. Thence he worked his way north through the California valleys until Klamath lake was reached. He noted as he proceeded a dense Indian population in the valleys. But on his return in the "following summer the country was strewn with the remains of the dead wherever a village had stood." Hundreds were lying dead in a single rancheria. One of the party later reported that from the headwaters of the Sacramento to the Kings river only five living Indians were seen. Abundant and revolting signs of this pestilence, supposed to have been the small pox, were still in evidence to the members of the Willamette Cattle Company when they passed through this region with their drove in 1837.

THROUGH HALL J. KELLEY EWING YOUNG GETS A VISION OF

THE OREGON SITUATION Returning to the vicinity of Los Angeles in the fall of 1833

192 F. G. YOUNG

Young made a short trip to the Gila and Colorado. What he had netted through these last three trips the otter hunt, the long trip to Klamath lake and the short one to the southeast we do not know. At any rate Hall J. Kelley was to find him quite susceptible to the story of Oregon. Kelley had arrived at San Diego enroute for Oregon, having come across the Isthmus of Tehauntepec from Vera Cruz and up the west coast of Mexico. Young and Kelley met at Pueblo near San Diego. Kelley speaks of Young as "a native of Tennessee, a man remarkable for sagacity, enterprise, and courage."32 After listening to Kelley 's preaching Oregon we can picture him taking account of his prospects in California and his compari- son of them with what Oregon seemed to promise, if Kelley's story was to be credited. He had tried out about all possible trapping and trading enterprises, having traversed the length and breadth of the almost continental domain of California. \Yithal he had but meagre returns. He must too have become conscious of the fact that his powers could be better applied than in the roving life of the trader and trapper. For him to remain as a settler in California as it then was would be the doom of a foreigner buried in a foreign land. Its traditions, language and polity could never be congenial to a nature so intensely imbued with Americanism as was his. There was no possibility of a following for the "stirring, ambitious" Amer- ican among the languid natives of Spanish antecedents. On the other hand the Oregon country with its Columbia and abounding resources open and ready for American occupation must have answered quite fully to the vision of the goal he had always had in view. From this weighing of pros and cons he soon changed from the "almost persuaded" of the first meeting with Kelley to altogether persuaded and, hastening north, sought out Kelley who had proceeded as far as Monte- rey. "The last of June he arrived," says Kelley, "at my en- campment on the prairie, five miles eastward of Monterey, and

32 Powell's Hall Jackson Kelley, p. 80.

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 193

consented to go and settle in Oregon, with, however, this ex- press understanding that if I had deceived him, woe be to me.'

"33

AN IMPEDIMENT is INTERPOSED THAT NEARLY BRINGS TO

WRECK AND RUIN THE CAREER OF YOUNG AND THE

PROSPECTS OF THE AMERICAN SETTLEMENT

ON THE WILLAMETTE

On the 8th of July the party set out for Oregon. Young had fifty horses, each of his men one or more, Kelley had six with a mule. They bought more as they passed through the settlements, so that when leaving the last settlement Young had 77 horses and mules. Kelley and the other five men had twenty-one. Young was taking leave of California. He had during four years of almost continuous activity as trapper and trader consistently met all the requirements made by the authorities there of foreigners to carry on these operations within its borders. He had in fact gone out of his way to uphold the forces of law and order. He was in good stand- ing. When he returned three years later he was able to secure concessions in the way of permission to purchase and drive out a considerable drove of cattle, while a representative of the Hudson's Bay Company with a similar purpose failed.34 But on his arrival in Oregon in the fall of 1834 he was to pass under a cloud that was not fully lifted until this return. It was an ordeal so severe that not only was his own career dangerously near to being wrecked, but Samson-like he would in his blindness have pulled down to ruin the Oregon com- munity with him. A band of marauders with their booty of stolen animals attached themselves to the party of Young and Kelley as it moved northward. These horse thieves had been operating in the vicinity of San Francisco Bay. A vessel, the Cadboro, was at this time leaving San Francisco for Fort Vancouver. Through this means the governor of California despatched a careless and cruel charge against Young as the

33 Ibid.

34 Bane

34 Bancroft, History of California, v. IV, p. 86.

34 Bancroft, History of California, v. IV, p. 86. / Calif 01 ' "T "'

194 F. G. YOUNG

leader of a band of horse thieves on the way to Oregon. The details of the rest of this story are familiar in the annals of Oregon. Not one of the narrators, however, has let his thought linger a moment on the plight of the victim of this unintended calumny.

The charge made by Governor Figueroa of California in the letter to Dr. McLoughlin was by him accepted as evidence adequate for conviction and sentence. Thus it stood for over two years. He was to be frozen out. The tactics employed meant his eventual banishment from American soil by forces lodged in a foreign monopoly that was exploiting American resources. He himself duly accredited with passports had at the head of companies of Americans for eight years been freely conducting enterprises of trade and exploitation on foreign soil. Here on American soil he was to be denied the pursuit of the means of happiness. It was too at the natural goal of all of his adventures. He could go no farther. The Oregon country was the real ultima thule. He must renounce all his hopes. But he would not have been a valiant American if he had. He naturally felt that he represented Americanism in the middle thirties in Oregon. The missionaries did not as they knuckled to the Hudson's Bay Company authorities.

Suppose we enter into the intent and course of Ewing Young as in the autumn of 1834 he approaches the Willamette valley settlement with his band of some eighty horses and mules. He was bringing to the settlers an available horse power supply for the cultivation of their fields and the transportation of their produce. He establishes his farm across the river from the mission and French Prairie settlements. His animals should not trample their grain fields or consume their pasture. The mission, the Hudson's Bay Company and its retainers on French Prairie, had need of his goods or means for production and he had need of clothes, tools, and other goods which they could spare in exchange. Surely the mutual advantage would be

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 195

realized and the Oregon settlement would wax strong. His actual necessities were supplied, but on terms that would have made his acceptance of them a confession of mendicancy on his part. He was essentially an outcast.

By using Kelley as a competent witness for it was evident that he had no proportionate share of the booty if the horses were stolen, along with Young's straightforward story, for he is credited with being a candid man it is strange that Lee and McLoughlin could not have reassured themselves about this assertive new-comer. But for two long years and more Young had occasion to remain embittered. He tended his bands of horses on the Chehalem hills with no prospect that he with his powers and resources could ever join in a co-operative up-building of Oregon. Should he desert, as Kelley had de- serted, his interests in Oregon and take passage back to the states defeated and discomfited?

He was conscious of being an American on American soil. From his association with Kelley, Young could no doubt give account of this faith that was in him. Furthermore, he had done nothing to forfeit his right to be accorded standing and recognition as an American. Through nearly a decade of severest testing his power to lead in progressive enterprise had been proven. He was conscious of his ability. Why should he succumb supinely? Was not here in Oregon his golden op- portunity for constructive enterprise which he had visioned?

THE DOMESDAY BOOK OF RECORD FOR EARLY OREGON

Well, how all was most happily changed at the suggestion of Slacum and the magnanimous responses of the missionaries and Hudson's Bay Company has been told. How his first leadership in community achievement with the cattle expedi- tion was followed by the saw mill enterprise the appended accounts fully show. The influence of his accumulations upon the community is exhibited in the accounts of the administra- tion of his farm and of the auction sales. Altogether these

196 F. G. YOUNG

accounting records of Ewing Young and his estate are more than a domesday book for the Oregon of the later thirties and early forties. They show the people of early Oregon in action and dynamic.

They were in need of horse power and he brought it from the neighboring California region. They needed cattle to convert the unlimited pasturage of the valley into milk and meat and leather material for shoes and harnesses and he led in getting the first supply they could call their own.35 They needed the use of their abundant water power to drive the saw for lumber for their houses and barns and he built and operated the first saw mill and supplied the valley settlement.36 He was collecting" the machinery for a grist mill when his life was cut short.37

He had the vision, the enterprise, the discernment and the purpose that make the representative pioneer. Such a pioneer was desperately needed in his day. The same type is probably still more desperately needed now, and he will ever be needed if progress, and yea, if safety, are to be insured. The needed innovations he initiated were quite as difficult as those we need now. In a large sense the livestock and dairy and the lumber industries and the power development of Oregon today are his memorials.

Sentiment there still was in 1844 to have a paling put around his grave at a cost of $60.00.38 The desecrating use at the same time of the major portion of the proceeds of his estate by the Territorial Government for the erection of a territorial jail is to be condoned, for by that time the great majority of the settlers were recent comers so absorbed with their in- dividual problems of establishing themselves that they could little appreciate what Ewing Young had done towards build- ing up the morale of the Oregon community.

35 The larger later expedition for securing California live-stock in 1842-3, under Captain Joseph Gale, that started in the Star of Oregon, is described by Col. J. W. Nesmith, in The Transactions of the Oregon Pioneer Association, 1880, pp. 10-12.

36 See "Day Book," Documentary Record, appendix, III.

37 Walker, op. cit., p. 58; Documentary Record, appendix, IX, Financial Statements, p. 291.

38 Walker, op. cit.; Documentary Record, appendix, IV, p. 270.

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE

197

Legend has it that Miranda Bailey, then the sweetheart, later the wife of Sidney Smith, an employee of Ewing Young's, planted an acorn on his grave so that now a sturdy oak marks his resting place. Such a symbol of vigorous growth ever transforming the elements of natural wealth of Oregon into means ministering to a more abundant life here is a befitting token of Ewing Young. Would that it could become duly cele- brated as a historic attraction, so that in its shade there would well up in the hearts of multitudes a full stream of civic inspiration.

APPENDIX

Documentary Record of Ewing Young and His Estate.

I.

Papers refer to: (1) The young mother left behind by Ewing Young at Taos, New Mexico, in 1831. (2) The claim by his heir, Joaquin Young, of the proceeds of the estate and the collection of them by him from the Territory of Oregon in /#55. (3) The claim as creditor of David Waldo associated with Ewing Young while he had his headquarters at Taos in 1831-2.

To the Honorable, the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of

Oregon :

Your petitioner Joaquin Young a citizen of New Mexico but at present temporarily staying in California, represents that he is the legitimate and only son, as he is informed and believes, of Ewing Young who died without will, in Oregon, in the year 1843 [sic] ; that the said Ewing Young was pos- sessed of and owned, at the time of his death, a large amount of personal property and that the same was afterwards con- , verted into money and the said money appropriated by the

198 F. G. YOUNG

Provisional Government, for public uses ; and your Petitioner further represents that the faith of the said Provisional Gov- ernment was pledged, at the time of said appropriation, for the payment of all monies received from said estate whenever the same should be lawfully claimed and said claim established by the heirs &c of said Ewing Young (See "laws of Oregon" p. 94)-

And your Petitioner further represents that the said Ewing Young, his father, was intermarried and lived with Maria Josepha Tafoya, the mother of your Petitioner, previous to the year 1832 at Taos in New Mexico and that your Petitioner was the fruit of such marriage, as he is informed and believes, and begs in support of the same to present to your Honorable Body as well an authentic certificate establishing the same copied from the Parish Register of the town where said mar- riage and birth took place, as the sworn affidavit of three of its most respectable inhabitants, one of whom, the distinguished "Kit Carson," it is presumed is not unknown by fame and generally conceded merit to most of the members composing your Honorable Body. Your Petitioner also respectfully refers in support of the same to the annexed certificate of Joseph Gale a highly respectable citizen of California, formerly of Oregon, and known to most of its old inhabitants. Your Petitioner would further respectfully represent that his mother, the wife of said Ewing Young deceased, now is and has been for many years in destitute circumstances and entirely dependent upon the daily labor of your Petitioner and the charity of her rela- tions for her maintenance.

Your Petitioner therefore prays that, prompted by a sense of right to a helpless female and her son and of justice to the dead, whose substance and fruits of labor have been appro- priated to the public uses of this Territory in its days of weak- ness, as well as by its plighted faith, this Honorable Body will without delay, pass an act making restitution to the legal repre- sentatives of the late Ewing Young whereby on proof of your Petitioners identity and heirship the money and reasonable interest thereon, heretofore received from said estate, may be paid over, through the proper authorities, to your petitioner

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 199

or his duly authorized Attorney. And your Petitioner will ever pray &c.

JOAQUIN YOUNG. Dated this 1st day of Jan. A. D. 1855.

[Certification of Baptism of Joaquin Young]

Priest Don Antonio Jose Martinez, Priest at Taos in the Territory of New Mexico. I certify in the fullest form of law that in a record book of baptism of the parish bound in sheep skin which begins records in the month of January, 1833, and concludes in the month of June, 1837, said book consisting of 261 sheets on the sheet numbered 18, the front page, is recorded the following: parish "In this parish church of Taos on the 12th of April 1933 I, the priest Don Antonio Jose Martinez baptized solemnly, applied the holy oil and sacred baptism to a boy four days old and I gave him as name Jose Joaquin, the natural son of Maria Josefa Tafoya, a single lady inhabitant of the place of our Lady Guadalupe ; maternal grand parents Jose Antonio Tafoya and Maria Francisca Bernalt. God parents Richard Cambell and Maria Rosa Gripalba, who said that his natural father Joaquin John, a foreigner, dwelling in this place invited them.

And I informed the godparents of their obligation and spirit- ual parenthood. And in order that it might be known I signed "Antonio Jose Martinez."

Said record is the fifth and last on the front of said sheet. This agrees exactly with its original to which I refer. With this it was compared and made in duplication.

And in order that it may be known on the petition of Maria Josefa Tafoya, mother of said Jose Joaquin, I gave the above records certification in this place of our Lady Gaudalupe of the county of Taos, on the 27th June, A. D. 1852.

Signed Jose Antonio Martinez.

Certified by Justice of the Peace that priest has records of Baptism and burial

Taos, June 27th, 1852, Jose Ignacio Valdez, Taos depot.

200 F. G. YOUNG

[Affidavit of three citizens of Taos supporting representations

of Joaquin Young] Territory of New Mexico County of Toas

Charles Beaubien Christopher

Carson and Manuel Lefebre after being duly sworn declare that they were well acquainted with Ewing Young who was called by Mexican residents of this territory Joachin John and who left this territory about the year thirty-two or therebouts and that the Said Young had lived as man and wife with Maria Josepha Tafoya that Said Maria Josepha Tafoya had issue by him, that said issue was a boy and called Jose Joaquin and left this territory for California with Thomas Boggs and Juan Cristoval Tafoya in the year eighteen hundred and forty nine Said Boy is about nineteen years of age and is supposed to be at present with his uncle Juan Cristoval in California at or near Sonoma.

Witness James H Quinn

Charles Beaubien (Seal)

C. Carson (Seal)

Manuel Lefebre (Seal)

Sworn and subscribed before me this 27th June A D 1852

Jose Ignacio Valdez

Justice of Peace.

[Certification by Joseph Gale in support of claim of Joaquin

Young]

San Jose March 1st., 1854.

This is to Certify that the undersigned was in Oregon when Mr. Ewing Young Died, and he knows that the Said E. Young Died in the possession of a large property and the Said under- signed believes that Ewing Young owed but little in com-

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 201

parison to the property he left at his death the Said under- signed knew of the connection of E. Young with Maria Josepha Tafoya, and I believe that Joaquin is a son of his from the fact that he Resembles Mr. Young very much.

With many wishes that he may Recover the property that justly belongs to him

I Subscribe My Name

Joseph Gale

[Endorsed : Ewing Young Copy of Judgment of Supreme

Court]

At a Supreme Court begun and held at the Court Room in the village of Corvallis in and for the Territory of Oregon, on the 3rd Day of December in the year One thousand eight hundred and fifty four, before Hons Geo H. Williams Chief Justice, and M P Deady Associate Justice, the following pro- ceeding were had in Joaquin Young

Plaintiff

vs.

Claim for money

Territory of Oregon

Defendant

This cause came on for hearing upon the allegations and proofs of the parties and was argued by Campbell of Counsel for plaintiff, and by Shiel of Counsel for defendant, and there- upon it is considered that the plaintiff have and recover against the Said defendant the Sum of Four thousand, nine hundred and ninety four and 64/100 dollars, judgment and his cost in this cause expended to be taxed.

I J. G. Wilson, Clerk of the Supreme Court of Oregon do hereby Certify that the above is a true copy of the record and cost in Said cause now recorded in my office.

202 F. G. YOUNG

Witness my hand and Seal of said court at Corvallis affixed this 8th day of December 1855.

J. G. Wilson

Fee. Bill Clerk of the Supreme

Costs in S. C. 1230 Court of Oregon

Costs on Depositions 32.50

Total 44.80 (Seal)

Corvallis 8 Dec. 1855 Sir:

Enclosed I hand you a certified copy of a Judgment of the Supreme Court of Oregon Territory in the case of Joachin Young against the Territory of Oregon together with a certi- fied copy of the statute under which said suit was instituted.

I have therefore to urge you as auditor of this Territory, pursuant to the terms of said act to draw a warrant in favor of the Plaintiff for the amount of said Judgment being the sum of $4,994.64, bill and 44.80 costs in order that same may be paid in pursuance of said act. I have the honor to be

Yours truly

A. Campell

Ay for Joachin Young To A. I. Neya, Esq Auditor O T.

[Endorsed :

"Petition of Daniel Waldo In

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 203

Relation to the Estate of Ewing Young"] To the Honorable the Legislature of Oregon Territory now in session your petitioner the undersigned Daniel Waldo would represent unto your honorable body that himself and one Thomas Jeffreys are Lawfully appointed agents of one David Waldo who has sued for and obtained a Judgment against the Estate of one Ewing Young deceased late of Oregon Terri- tory to the amount of

Dollars and cents, in

the County Court of Clackamas County Oregon Territory And further that one A L. Lovejoy has been appointed administrator with authority to collect the demands due the said Estate but not with power to pay the demands or judgments against said Estate, and further that the said Territory of Oregon has used of the assets belonging to said estate a large amount, these we therefore to pray your honorable body to pass a [law] authorizing said administrator to pay said Judgment as well as to appropriate the amount of assets that have been used by the Territory as the faith of the Territory has been pledged to pay the sum to the heirs or creditors of said Estate. In duty bound will ever pray &c. Daniel Waldo.

Joseph Gale testify [sic.] that he saw Ewing Young in N. M. and also in Oregon and also Mr. Young informed him that he was in business with Mr. Waldo and Jackson also thinks he knows his hand writing.

E Burrough testify that he saw Mr. Young in N. M. also in Oregon and he further states that Mr. Young was con- serned in trade with Mr. Waldo and Mr. Jackson.

F. Hathaway testify under oath that Ewing Young told him that he had been in partnership with Jackson & Waldo at Taos N. M. their capital was about 20,000 dollars. Jackson ran off with some property.

204 F. G. YOUNG

S. W. Meek testify under oath that he has known Young at Taos but cannot tell if he is the same Young who died in this territory, he has seen him at Taos in '33 or '4.

Robt Newell testify under oath that he has known E. Young in this Terr, but never knew him before he came here. E. Y. said to N. that he had a son at Taos N. M. and said he (N. Young) was in partnership Jackson &. . . at Taos.

[Suggestions to the Committee on Claims to which was referred the claims preferred by Waldo & Jackson against the estate of Ewing Young.]

Dec. 16, 1845 Mr B. Lee:

Dear Sir As I shall start for the Rickreall this morning, I take this method to discharge the obligation which I am under to the "Committee on Claims" to assist them in investi- gating the validity of the claims preferred by Waldo & Jack- son against the estate of N [sic.] Young deceased. For them to establish their right to said estate it will be necessary for them to prove the following facts: 1st, They must establish the identify of the said Young; 2ndly. That said Young, Waldo & Jackson were in partnership, which may be done by the testimony of clerks, or other persons who knew that the al- leged partners have actually carried on business in partnership ; 3rdly. The amount of the stock invested, and also Young's liability to the other partners. And furthermore, one partner cannot bring an action against another while the partnership accounts remain unliquidated ; yet it is otherwise when the cause of action arises out of a transaction entirely distinct from their general dealings.

I will also say to you that the depositions which Mr. Waldo has procured and now brings forward to support the validity of his claims against the estate of said N. Young deceased,

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 205

are wholly inadmissible for they were taken without notify- ing the party (Oregon) against whom these claims are brought of the intention of the claimants to do the same, and conse- quently without affording an opportunity to Oregon to cross examine the witnesses. These are some of the rules of the law, all I think that will be necessary to your guidance in examin- ing the evidence and making up your opinions with respect to the justness and validity of Waldo & Jackson's claims against the estate of Young.

This is for the Committee only.

Respectfully yours,

M A Ford B. Lee

Ch. Com.

[Endorsed : Mr. Barton Lee]

[Endorsed: "Petition of Daniel Waldo & Thomas Jeffries on

Ewing Youngs Estate referd to com on Claims"] To the Honorable Legislator of Orregon territory

Having claimes against the Estate of Ewing Young de- ceased and the administrator of that estate haveing released of his Bondes by your Predissesors or others in office we think it the only legal corse that we pursue to lay the whole matter before your Honorable Body for adjustment the bookes and papers we have at hand when caled for by your body this 11 day of December 1845

By Thomas Jeffreys

Daniel Waldo Lawful agents of David Waldo

II.

Pertaining to the Willamette Cattle Company.

206 F. G. YOUNG

[Designation endorsed on back :

"Mr. Young's Petition to the Govr California"] To His Excellency Gov of the State of Up California.

Sir : Your Petitioner would beg leave to inform Your Ex- cellency that there is on the Wallamette River south of the Columbia a small settlement of Citizens of the United States. This community have from their origin laboured under many difficulties for want of horned Cattle of which they have none. But knowing that your Excellency is aware of the advantages they confer, your petitioner cannot think it necessary to ex- press in detail the reasons why Cattle are indispensable to the prosperity of an Agricultural People. Under these circum- stances a part of the Citizens of said Community on the 13 day of January A. D. 1837, formed themselves into a joint stock Company for the purpose of procuring Cattle from Upper California. The object of your petitioner as well as that of said company, are expressed in the following extract from their Articles of association viz "Whereas we the undersigned settlers upon the Wallamette River are fully convinced of the utility and necessity of having neat Cattle of our own in order successfully to carry on our farms and gain a comfortable live- lihood, and whereas we find it impossible to purchase them here as all Cattle in the country belong to the Hudson's Bay Company, and they refusing to sell them under any circum- stances, and as we believe that the possession of cattle will not only benefit us personally, but will materially benefit the whole settlement, we the undersigned do therefore agree &c. &c."

In pursuance of the object expressed in these articles, a party of Ten American Citizens and three Indian Boys of whom I was chosen Leader, took passage in the American Brig Loriot, Capt Bancroft, of which vessel Wm. A. Slacum Esq of the United [States] Navy was charterer.

In compliance with the wishes of said Association, your Petitioner would pray your Excellency's permission to pur- chase Cattle to the number of Five or six hundred head of the Citizens of California for the purposes expressed above.

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 207

And relying on the friendly relations in which the Citizens of the United States have always stood to those of your Gov- ernment and on your personal generosity, he waits determina- tion I am your Excellency's Humbl & Obdnt Servt San Francisco 10th March 1837 (Signed) Ewing Young

[Ewing Young's Expenses in California as Leader of the Willamette Cattle Company, 1837] Bill of Expenditures from the Treasury of the Willam- ette Cattle Co Viz

For guid from Bodago to Capt Cooper's Mill 1.00

And Travelling Expenses from San Francisco to

Monterey and returning 8.00

$9.00

12 March 1843 Ewing Young

Bill of Expenditures in going to Santa Barbara and return- ing to San Francisco, for the purpose of bying [sic] horses and getting permission to drive out cattle viz

Cooking Utensils 2.50

Translating Petition for permission to drive out Cattle 3.00

1 Saddle 2.25

5 Ropes and 1 Sinch 2.75

Horse and Voccaro hire and taking care

of horses 12.00

Traveling Expenses 11.00

1 Rope .25

$33.75 24 May 1837 Ewing Young

208 F. G. YOUNG

[Treasurer's Statement] Received of

19 Jan. 1837 Receipts of amounts to be invested according to articles of association of the William [sic] Cattle Co

P. L. Edwards

$371 the amount paid by Ewing Young for horses at South for Company

24 May 1837 Ewing Young

Paid for one beef $4 1st June 1837

$810 $810 for Govt of California for Cattle

Mr. Guadalupe Vallejo 1st June 1837 Yerba Buena

[List of Subscribers to Funds and Contributions of Services]39

[Cash and

Services] [Services]

Ewing Young $1119.274

P. L. Edwards 442.73

Jas A O'Neil 326.72J

C. Tibbetts 182.83

P. Depo [Depot] 210.25

E Equette [Amable Arquoit] 189.54

J Turner 176,27J

Geo Gay 165.00

L Carmichael 233. 12-|

Wm Bailey 121.624 12.00

J Edmunds 68.33J

Wm Peter 60.08J

Benj Williams 76.00

Saml Campbell 111.50

H Wood 130.00

CMaci[?] 61.00

Moore [?] 34.00

Mr Lee 624.00

39 The contribution of William A. Slacum to the funds of the Willamette Cattle Company is not mentioned in the Treasurer's statement. Wilkes United States Exploring Expedition, v. IV, p. 359, gives Slacum's share as twenty-three head, which in 1841 were counted as having increased to eighty-six. These were sold by Slacum's nephew to Dr. McLoughlin for $860.

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 209

Willamette Settler 3.10

Dr Me Loughlin 558.00

Messrs Douglass and Finlayson 300.00 Williams & Jim 20.00

III.

"Day Book" kept by Ewing Young as record of his saw mill business mainly

[On inside of cover page, written crosswise the book is without regular cover are the following entries :]

Fercies [Louis Forcier], Bill of plank

14 Boards f Inch 10 feet Long 9 Inches wi(de) [The edge 42 Plank 1^ Inch thick 10 feet Long of the page is torn off] 22 Plank Inch 12 feet Long 12 Inc wide

Atquet [Amable Arquoit] 14 Boards 12 feet Long 9 Inches

wide 400 feet of plank 1J Inches thick

[New page] Deer 1st 1838

Bill of Boards for W Johnson

8 feet of plank 12 feet Long 1J Inch thick

Felix Hathaways Bill of Lumber

4000 feet of J Inch 7 Inches wide 12 feet Long

2000 feet f thick 12 Inches w

1500 feet of Rough Edg

2000 Inch 1 foot Broad

13 Hundred feet of Floring 1J Inch thick

500 1J do Oak 12 Inches

200 feet of wide Inch & -J

[New page] January 1839

William Can [n] ing account

210 F. G. YOUNG

Brought forward from old Memorandum

Cr By fifty seven days work at $1 pr day $57.00

Including all time to the second day of December

Time worked from the second of December to the 26th January including the 26 40 Days $1 40.

By 1 days work 28 Jan 1.00 1

Total 98 days work $1.00 pr Day

28 Jan Balance Due Mr Canning $29 38 Contra

26 To Beaver $13

1 faling ax 2 20

To order to fort Vancouver

To Goods Brought from the Fort

$67.62

To paid wood [Henry Wood] 1 00 $1

[This was bottom line of page. Across where there was room on the next page is the following:]

$ C 98

68 62 68 62

29 38

[The main part of this page is taken up with material ap- propriate for a beginner's book in French. It starts with an English sentence: John gives you a pin. This is followed by the French translation : Jean donne vous une plume. The re- mainder of the page gives the grammar of the French articles]

[New page]

William Cannings Account Brought forward 9thFebra 1838 Amount 98 9800

Henry Wood Dr

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 211

To $120 Dollars paid him for Six Months work $120

[New page]

[The book was antecedently used for the beginning of an exposition of the French language, as on the pages partly rilled with this content in a neat copper plate style of writing, the unoccupied margins are encroached upon by the accounting records.]

William Canning Dr

To order to the Fort 29 38

Amount Brought forward 6862

$98.00

[This following entry is exactly opposite the preceding Wood account.]

By Six Month [repeated as "Mont"]

& five days work at $20 pr Month $123 85

120

385

W Johnson Dr

To 840 feet of plank 1J Inch thick 150 pr Hundred $12 60

[The pages containing above accounts seem to have been designed as fly leaves or introductory pages. The next page is designated "Page 1"]

[On it is written :] "Memorandum or day Book" [Page 2] Jan 23rd 1839

Saw Mill Dr

212 F. G. YOUNG

To 1 Crank weying 183 Ib at 20c 42 00

2 Bands 27 Ib 5 40

$ C Expences paid Indians for Trip 3 Shirts 60 each 1 80

3 Hkfs 18 C each 54 1 Bushel of Pees 60 C 60

Paid for Bread 75 75

40 Ib pounds pork 10 cents 4 00

Opeos wages 10 days My own time 10 days

1 Dozen Large files $2 10 400 Nails 80 200 Spikes —[no cost figures]

200 Spikes do By Smih [sic] 1

300 2 Inch Nails 50

10 pound Nails By Smith 1

2 files By Smith 80 2 do from Beers C 1 00 1 Bushel of pees for Car [ry] ing oats up Hill 60

[Written on margin : Carried forward to page. . . .] | Page 3 of "Day Book"] 15th Jan 1839

Babtiste Deguare Dr

To 1 Horse $35 [1?] $3500

21 Febra To 1 faling ax 200

6th March To paid Burress [William Burroughs] $10 00

Not paid. But asumed [sic]

4700

[Page 4 of "Day Book"] Febra 1st 1839

Babtisto Deguear Cr

By 42 Days work at Mill Including all time previous to this date marked at head of page

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 213

By error in ad [d] ing 4 Days

Febra 22 By Eighteen days work all time Credited to

the 22 Febra $49 29

By Whole Time two Months & 12 Days 47 09

229[sic]

[Page 5 "Day Book"]

6th March John Stephens Dr

To order to fort $5 10 $5 10

1 parr pantaloons [No cost figures]

1 Shirt 60

To 10 Bushels & a peck of wheat $6 00 $615

1 Board 25 25

20 May To Cash paid Johnson 2 87£

To Half of Six bushels of pees SOcts 2 40

To Sowing pees $6 3 00

27 June To order to the fort $20 $20 00

July To order John Quinine 20 00

To Baleys accounts [Dr W. J. Bailey] 1 70

[Page 6 "Day Book"] Febra 1st 1839

John Stephens Cr

Up to above Date 14J Days Work at $20 pr Month 14J By 36 days work

50[sic]

24 March 1839

Aug 3d By Babtiste Mullar [Moliere] 400

Wages up to the above date $20 pr Month

From the 25 of March 1839 wages twentifive dollars pr

Month

Time worked commencing the 25 March and continued to the 25 august 121 Days Including the present day 25 august 1839

214 F. G. YOUNG

[Written on margin : "Carried forward"]

[Page 7 "Day Book"] Febra

Solomon Smith Cr

By seven days work $1 00 $7 00

[The above item is crossed out] By 3 do Hailing 3 00

[Page 8 "Day Book"] Febr 8th 1839

Solomon Smith Dr

To 750 feet of weather Boarding at $11 per Thousand $8 25 To 40 feet of Boards 50 50

Brought from old Memorandum

To 22 Scantling 18 feet Long 396 $4 95

To 16 Rafters 176 feet 2 Boards 27 feet

2 do 36 Making 239 feet $3 00

To 22 Joist [ ?] 11 feet each making 242 feet

at $2 pr Hundred 484 $4 84

Jan To Six Hundred feet of weather Boards $1 $6 00

26 Dec To Lucees [Luciere] order 2000 feet of Inch 1-J

Plank $1.50 pr Hundred $3000

Febra 13th To 598 £ feet of floring 1J Inch thick $8 50

To 1 Staple & Ring for Yoke $1 50

$6754 [Written on margin : "Carried forward To Page 27"]

[Page 9 "Day Book"]

Febra 22nd 1839

Felix Hathaway Cr

By his part of Saw Mill $23700

By Settlement of prirea [ ?] [prairie ?] 225 54

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 215

to accounts $ 26

[Page 10 "Day Book"] Febra 6th 1839

Felix Hathaway Dr

Qct 26 To 1943 feet of Scantling $24 29

April 6 To 4769 feet of weather Boards 52 58

at eleven dollars pr thousand

2104 Of Inch Boards at $13 27 35

1808 Of Inch & J at $13 50 2440

2377 f Inch at 12 Thousd 28 52

510 feet of oak at $20 M 1020

1000 feet of Rough Edg Boar 12 00

not Cash Beaver order

June 1 To To Cash paid R Mcary [Richard McCrary] $25 00 To oak Boards 2 2 00

Nov 14th To 1344 feet of floring l&i at 14 M 18 20

To Hailing 1 00

Settled in full 22 May 1840 Balance Due Hathaway $26.45

[Page 11 "Day Book]

William Burress Dr

To 134 feet of plank at 1 25 pr Hundred $1 68

To 1 plank 25C 25

6 To 687 feet of Boards 8.34

$1027

30 Apr To Debt paid Ben 9 00

To 252 feet of Maple 2pr 5 04

Hundred 1 pair of Shoes ' > 1 40

216 F. G. YOUNG

1 Ib. Tea 1 00 1 00

1 Lofe Sugar 1 10

May 21 To 809 feet of Inch &J plank 11 32

210 feet of f 12$ 2 50

4133

To $15 24 Cents 1524

June 1 1839 To 181 feet of Inch Boards at 13 Dollars 2 35

This Charge Carried to Next Page

[Page 12 "Day Book"]

6th March William Burress

By $10 for Babtisto Deguear

By 1 Month & 6 days at 22 Dollars pr Month

By two yards Scarlet

By 3i yards of Blue Stroud

By 2 Days work 1

Sow & pigs

May 56 57 [57 57?]

21 Settled In full up To this date

E Young Continued In Next page

[Page 13 "Day Book"]

Saw Mill account Brought forward [Probably the accounts beginning with Jan. 23rd]

To paid Kysir $1-00 for Bringing Chain from Mission 1 00 paid Hubbard for Turning Crank $5 $5 00

To Cannings Work $98 98 00

To his Board $32 50 32 50

To woods wages 5 Months $20 100 00

To his Board 43 00

To Brandewines wages $21 21 00

His Board 3 weeks & \ 700

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE

Babtisto wages 42 days 32 34

To his Board seven weeks 1400

Stephens 14 Days work $20 10 77

14 Days Board 4 50

[Page 14 "Day Book"]

To 30 Bundles of oats By Bileek [Beleque]

30 do of parue [?]

76 do from Smith 9J Bushels

To Smiths work 23 days $1 23 00

To work do 10 days $1 10 00

To Board 5 weeks 3 days 10 75

To paid Indian 3 yards of Calico for Diging [sic] Bank 30 90 To paid Sam 1 Blanket 2 $2 00

By error In Bt acount 4 00

[Page 15 "Day Book"]

[An account was entered and the same was again charged on

page 22 so it was omitted here] [The following account was crossed out] Henry Wood

To Difference In swap of Horses $10 / June, 12th 1839 10

Nov 2nd 1839 E Burress [Burroughs] Cr

By Cash 20 20

By pantaloons 2

Pig 2 50

$2450

[The above account is inserted near bottom of page. It seems to be duplicated at bottom of opposite page]

[Page 16 "Day Book"] June 1st 1839

Edward Burress Dr

To 181 feet of Inch plank at 13 dollars pr Thousd 2 35 21 To 288 feet of Scantling at 1,50 pr Hundred 4 32

218

F. G. YOUNG

1 3 Inch plank 23 feet

1 3 Inch plank 16 feet

To paid Jirva [Gervais]

To paid Lucie [Lucier]

Nov 3 [?] T(o) order To.Ft Vancouver

67

40

500

300

1500

32 74 [30 74] 2450

824

[Through inserting this "Kyser" credit Young became con- fused and makes account stand as follows :]

Kyser 400

Contra Cr [Part of Edward Burress account]

By Cash $2000

By Batist Mullar [Moliere] 2 50

By Swap in pantaloons 2 00

2450 [Page 17 "Day Book"]

Cock De Lauge [?] [De Lard?] Dr $ $

To 233 feet of weather Boards at 12 pr Thousand 3 00

[This is the entry on page 17. Page 18 is blank. Pages 19 and 20 are also unused] [Page 21 "Day Book"]

Contra Cr

By fifty Bushels of wheat at 60 Cents $30.00

20 Feb By 10 Bushels of potatoes 400

April By 30 bundles oats

By 10 Bushels of potatoes [No sums of value for

these two items]

[The following list of items is written perpendicularly to page lines]

150 feet Paru [Pariseau]

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 219

150 do Arquet

150 Laderute [In adding, the 150s seem to have

150 furcie [Fucier] been multiplied, and the 200 over- 200 charlow[?] looked]

600

29th Aprile Delivered for the Church 1800 feet of Boards [No charge is made for the above item]

[Page 22 "Day Book"] 7th Febra

Parue Dr

To 1017 feet of plank Inch $1 p Hundred 15 25

17th To 700 feet of Inch & i .1.25 875

21 1671 feet of Inch &J floring 25 6

22 To 407 of Inch &J $150 6 12 April 28 To 1676 feet of Inch & i of white fur 14 pr Hd 23 46 To 688 feet of weather Boarding 7 46

To 150 feet of weather Boarding for Church [no charge]

8th May To 840 feet of weather Boards 9 75

To 140 feet of 12 feet Long 1 60

[Page 23 "Day Book"]

[The pages 23 & 24 have cancelling cross marks scrawled over them]

Billeek Dr

To 1300 feet of Inch &i plank 1.50 $1950

To 1100 feet of 4 Inch 1980

580 feet of Inch

To 210 feet of Joist [?] $725

at $1.50 $3 15c $3 15

366 feet of weather Boards at $12 pr Thousand 4 38£

To Hailing Lumber 400

To 160 feet Edg 225

16 feet Joist

$6033i

220 F. G. YOUNG

24

6Q56J 5980

[Page 24 "Day Book"]

Contra Cr

By 30 Bundles of oats 4 80

By 10 Bushels of Pees 60c $600

By Tibbets order 1000

2080 26 By order To fort Vancouver $39 Dollars 3900

5980

[Page 25 "Day Book"] Febra 23 1839

Aiken Lucie [Etienne Lucier] Dr

To two Thousand feet of Inch &J plank 1 50 $30 00 To 366 feet of weather boards at $12 pr Thousand 4 38J

Deem 5 to 250 feet of plank 3 25 March

8th To 210 feet of 4 Inch oak plank at 8 40

To 187£ feet of oak 2\ Inches thick 7 48

To 375 feet of 3&J Inch pine at 12 00

To 164 feet of 3 Inch pine 470

To 1300 feet of Inch & J Floring at 13 M 1685

To Hawling 4 4 00

9126J

[Page 26 "Day Book"] Contra Cr

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 221

By Order Solomon Smith 30 00

By 15 bushels of flour at 56Cents 840

By 20 bushels of wheat 60 12 00

By Thomas Me ay $53 53 58

10398 amount brought forward ( from preceding opposite

page) 91 26

To Inch plank 9 00

100 feet Inch 1 50

Hailing 2 Loads 1-00 1 00

10276

[Page 27 "Day Book"] Solomon Smith Dr

$

To Amount Brought forward [from page 8] 67 54

To 1 Role of Tobacco 1 46

$6900 Febra 25 Deduct one Staple & Ring 1 50

6750

Settled up all Cash acounts

To paid Dr white 50 00

To Order to Fort Vancouver 24 50

To five dollars 50 By order Ft 5 50

$14750

To Webs Order $2 2 00

To 1 Trap (No charge)

April 16 To 749 feet of Inch & J plank at $15 pr

thousand $12 98

To 468 feet of Inch & J at 14 M 6 55

222 F. G. YOUNG

To 140 feet of Inch Boards 1 82

17085

[Page 28 "Day Book"] [Beginning with page 25, excepting

page 27, pages are no longer numbered]

May 7th Solomon Smith Dr

128 feet of inch plank $1 66

124 do do 291

70 do do 91

To 2000 feet of weather Boards at $11 22

To two Hundred & 34 feet of 2 Inch plank 04 60

To 1017 feet of f at $12 13 30

To 251 feet of Inch $13 3 27

130 feet of Weather Boards 1 50 27

June 4 To 300 feet of Inch £ plank 4 80

To 2164 feet of Inch Boards at 13 dollars $28 26

8322[?]

[New page "Day Book"] 16 June 1839

John Turner Cr

By 9 days work Branding Cattle $1 dolar [sic] pr day $9 00 By 6 days Hailing Logs 1 6

16 June

Number of Cattle Branded 110 Calves this year 60 Females 50 Mails [A blank page "Day Book"]

[New page "Day Book"]

F Frederick Contr Cr

By 3 Gallon & £ Kegs of butter 12 lb each 720

1 do of 3 Gallon 480

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 223

By ten dollars asumed for Mr Canning $10 00

$2200 26 May By 16 pounds Butter 3 20

2520

[New page "Day Book"] 17 March

Frederick Despor Dr

To Three Hundred & 66 feet of Weather Boards for $

Church $4 38£ 438£

To 676 feet of Inch and \ plank at 1 50 $10 14

To Hailing 1 00 1 00

16th April To 1000 feet of weather boards $12 00

2752J

[New page "Day Book"]

April 4 Alonson [sic] Beers Dr

To 1000 feet of Inch Boards 12 50

To Hailing 00

[The "1 00" for hauling was written but very faintly. Has

appearance of having been erased]

[New page "Day Book"] June 20th

Alinson [sic] Beers Cr

By amount of his acount paid By Mission $12 50

[New page "Day Book"]

4th

April Doctor White Dr

1839

To 277 feet of Weather Boards $ Cts

224

F. G. YOUNG

To 1020 feet do 40 boards To 234 feet 2 Inch plank at $2 pr Hundred 320 feet of weather Boards

Weather Boards Total 1617 450 of Inch & J at 13 50 pr Thousand 225 of Inch & J at 16 Dollars thousand 175 of Inch Boards 13 thousd To 475 feet of Inch Boards at 12J M paid by Mission August 1839

468

1778 607 360

227 594

[New page "Day Book"]

April

8th Arquet

To 1152 feet of Inch £ Floring at $16 m 233 [with 180 written over these figures] Weather Boards

9th To Hailing 2 Loads 50

Acount paid August 1839

Dr

$1829

300 100

$2229

[New page "Day Book"]

Fersie Dr

To 20 Weather Boards 180 feet $2 00

April 16th

Batisto Molar Cr

By 38 Days work at 20 pr Month $20 00[ ?]

Including the 17th of April 30 may Babtisto Moro [Molar] Cr

By thirty three days work Including this 30 of may 1839 3 August By 36 days work up to this date Total Time

four Months & 3 days $82 10

[New page "Day Book"] Babtisto Moro Cts

To 3 Shirts 60 each

Dr

Cts

180

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 225

3 yards of Blue Stroud at 90 2 62J

To 1 3J point Blanket 3 70

21 may To order paid Dick Me ary $6 00 6 00

27 To 2 three point Blankets

To 1 pair of Fine Cloth pantaloons 3 yards of Second Blue Cloth 1 Black Silk Hkf

1 Flag pocket do

5 Ib Soap

6 Skanes of Silk

2 Fine shirts Gingham 1 fine Hat

['Written perpendicularly opposite these items: "Carried forward"]

[New page "Day Book"]

Mr. Reva [Rivet] Dr

To Boards for Church $03 5 [Words "for Church" have line drawn through them] 26 Babtisto Mullar Dr

may To amount Brought forward [None stated] [Prob- ably refers to sum of Items charged to Babtisto Molar on preceding page]

To 1 Vest 200

5 Ib of Tobacco 1 50

To Bringind [sic] his articles 75

2 Gingham Shirts 1 30 2 60

1 fur Hat 4[?]

1 Dear Skin 40 Cents 40

To difference in swap of Blankets 1 00 1 00

To Beaver order paid Johnson $22 $22 00

1 Cotton Hkf 50

[New page "Day Book"] Aprile 25 1839

226

F. G. YOUNG

Joseph Jervey [Gervais] To 150 feet of weather Boards 80 do of maple 3 24 feet of 1 J Inch Deem 1838 To plank for Church

To fifty feet of weather [boards] acount Paid august 1839

Dr

$180 240

35 350

75

[New page "Day Book"] 21 May

Hudson Bay Co To order Bt Deguar

Dr $141 75

[New page "Day Book"]

1839

25 Dr

may Furcie

To 2000 feet of Boards & plank $30 00

Deem 1839 Paid

In Six sums [?] $5 each 3000

17 Laderute Dr

may To 250 feet of weather Boards at 12 pr Thousand $3 00 June 4th To Boards 4 40 4 40

740 480

By 2 Beaver Cr by 3J pees

[New page "Day Book"]

John Edmunds

To 3 Beaver Traps $2 20C each 15th august I sac Kyser

260

240

$240

Dr

$660 Cr

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 227

By 12 Beaver Skins $2.20 [ ?] each $24 20 [sic]

[New page "Day Book"] June 1st

John Edmunds Cr

By 3 Beaver Skins 2.20 $6 60

15th aug

Isaac Kyser Dr

To 1 Cow & Calf 45 $45 00

[New page "Day Book"]

Babtisto Mullar acount brought forward Dr

To four Dollars paid John Stephens 4 00

paid Doct Baley 235

26 augst To order to fort $12 12

To amount paid Burres $2 50

To paid John Stephens 4 00

[New page "Day Book"]

28 August 1839'

Thomas Me ay $ Dr Cts

To 568 feet of Inch & £ plank at $15 pr Thousd 8 62 To 250 feet of weather Boarding at 11 pr Thousand 5 75

To Hawling 1 00

1 Sep David Leslie Dr To 804 feet of Inch Boards at $13 pr Thousd 9 45 274 of Inch & Half Damaged 3 00

Hawling $1-00 1 00

Thomas Me ay Dr

2 Oct To 1100 feet & 14 feet of 2 Inch plank at

$20 pr Thousand 22 28

To Hawling 4 Loads 50 2 00

14th Nov To 1873 feet of 2 Inch plank 20 M 37 46

to Hawling $3 3 00

[New page "Day Book"]

228 F. G. YOUNG

7 Sept 1839 Aiken Lucie Dr

To 400 feet of 2 Inch plank at $2 8 00

To Hawling 100

To 100 feet of Inch 1 00 Over looked

[New page "Day Book"] 28 October 1839

Mr Revay Dr $ Cts

To amount Brought forward 3 5

To 1268 feet of 1 J Inch plank at 16 pr Thousand 20 25

250 feet of Weather Boarding at 12 pr Thousand 3 00

160 feet of Inch at $12 1 77

Hawling 1.50 1 50

$29.57

Contra Cr

By order Fort Vancouver $20 00

[New page "Day Book"] 4 November 1839

Solomon Smith Dr

To Nine Hundred feet of

f Inch Boards 12 pr M 1080

| New page "Day Book"]

November 10th 1839

Isaac Kyser Dr

To Cash paid Burress $4 00

Edward Burress Dr

To order $15 fort Vancouver $15 00

[New page "Day Book"] Nov 24 1839

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 229

Thomas Me ay Dr

To 1680 feet of Inch &i plank at $16 M [No sum charged] December 7

Solomon Smith Dr

To 200 feet of Inch & £ Boards at 1.40 pr Hund $2 80

7 Sabastian Kyser Dr

To 1 Cow and Calf $40 00

Solomon Smith Dr

To 600 feet weather boards at $12 per Thousd 7 20

[New page "Day Book"] 12th January 1840

Solomon Smith Dr

To 500 feet of Inch plank at $13 M 6 50

Sabastian Kyser Cr

By 53 bushels wheat at 60 cts 31 80

820

[New page "Day Book"]

John Stephens Dr

March Order to the fort $5 10

4L 1 pair pantaloons 3 90

1 Shirt 60

paid Johnson 2 87-J

May 1 Board 25

#20 May To order to Fort 20 00

June order paid John quina 20 00

To paid Baley 1 70

Nov To order paid squire [ ?] 20 00

Janu To 10 Dollars balance on Rifle $10 00 8th 1840

# To order To the fort $25 00

109 42£

230 F. G. YOUNG

[New page "Day Book"]

December 5th 1839

John Stephens Cr

March 25 By 5 1 days work Cts

at $20 pr Month $39 23

By Six Months &Six teen days at $25 pr Month Including all time worked Including the 5th December 141 00

Cr By $5 In an order of Gervey 5 00

By balance on order by Tibbets 2 50

By babtisto Mullar 4 00

Oct By Babtisto— 4 00

Deem

4 By Wood 3 00

ft By 24 Days work $24 24

[New page "Day Book"]

Deem Henry Wood Dr

To paid John Stephens $3 00 12

13 To 1 Beav Skin ^ I 1 50

To paid C Tibbets 3 00

# To order To the Fort $20 00

Sebastion Kyser Dr

To two Shirts 1 20

Joseph Gale Dr

To 1 Shirt 50

ft order for 1 pair Bots [sic] 4 50

8 yds Cotton i 2 00 :# John Turner

1 pair Boots 4 5Q

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 231

[New page "Day Book"] January 1840

John Turner Dr To 1 3 point Blanket 2 90

^ Sebastion Kyser Dr

24 To 1 Pair Cord pantaloons 2 30 To two Shirts 60cts 1 20

$ John Turner Dr

25 To 4 Ib Tobacco 1 20

Sebastion Kyser Dr

Jt To Sib of Tobacco $2 40

[New page "Day Book"] 25 Ganu [sic] 1840

Jacob Green Dr

To 1 pair Boots 4 50 $4 50

# 1 Dest Elk Skin 1 50 1 50

Contra Credit By 1 otter 2 00

David Leslie Dr

25

To 1200 feet of Floring at $15 M $18 00

# To 500 feet of Cedar $1 50 [ ?] 7 50

To Hawling 3 Loads 50 pr 1 50

[Large dollar sign written across account] 28 Jacob Green Dr

To 1 three point &J point Blanket $3 90

21 Febra

John Turner Dr

to paid Henry Wood $27 40

232 F. G. YOUNG

[New page "Day Book"]

John Stephens Cr

By H Wood $10 00

22 Febra John Turner Dr

To amount paid Wood $27 40

March To amount paid George Gay 35 5

6 Joseph Gale Dr

To 1 Cow & Calf $40 $40 00

Fort Vancouver acount 10 70

5070 Cr by work 49 30

1.40

Solomon Smith Dr

10 To 356 feet of Inch plank 13 Dollars 4 78

[New page "Day Book"] 15th March

Jacob Green

$ Cts Dr

To 3 yards second Blue Cloth 2 30 6 90

2 Cotton Shirts 1 50

Blue vest 220

John Turner Dr

To amount paid George Gay $35 00

20 Aiken Lucie Dr

To 500 feet of Inch plank 6 50

To 3600 feet of Inch & J at $15 M 52 50

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 233

To 2570 feet of weather Boarding at $12 M 31 00

Sebastion Kyser Dr

M To paid John Stephens $5 5 00

26

[New page "Day Book"]

John Stephens Dr

To order to fort $8 00

26 March Settled with John Stephens

Due him one Hundred forty seven dollars

$14700

By hors[e] 30 By order 8

38

10910

[New page "Day Book"] April 1st 1840

Opeo Dr

To Cash 3 3 00

Sebastion Kyser D

To paid Laderute 4 50

To 1 Saddle 3 3 00

Jacob Green Dr

To 1 pair pantaloons 2 40

# 1 Hkf 40

Buttons 37$

thread & Silk 62$

John Turner > Dr

234

F. G. YOUNG

To 1 fine Cappo [sic] 1 pair pantaloons 5 Ib Tobacco George The Wihi to 1 Pair pantaloons Soap 4 Ib pounds

[New page "Day Book] John Turner To 4 pounds Soap

[no sum given] 230

[no sum given] Dr

[no sums given or charged]

Dr

40c

Apr

Opeo

1 pair pantaloons

Dr

240

George the Wihi To 1 pair stich [sic] Shoes

Jacob Green

to Difference in swap of Shirts 30 cts To 1 Blue Cloth vest

George Wihi 17 Febra

To 1 fine Shirt

[New page "Day Book] 17 Febra Opeo

To 1 fine Shirt June To 1 Course Shirt

[New page "Day Book] 22 may 1840

Felix Hathaway

on Settle

2 pair door Latches

Dr 200

Dr

30 [no sum charged]

Dr

[no sum charged]

Dr

[no sum charged] [no sum charged]

Cr

$2645 300

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 235

Chain Staple & Ring 6 50

Nails $5 5 00

pees 2 00

4295 Deduct 5 50

3745

Felix Hatheway Dr

By branding Six Calves $1 each $6 00

[New page "Day Book] June 1840

Thomas J Hubbard Dr

486 feet of Inch plank $6 29

1 plank do 2 Inch 15 feet 30

[The "2 Inch" is an insertion a correction probably of

first item]

306 feet of Inch Boards [Only one charge for two items)

1376 Weather boards 16 72

1098 feet of Scantling 16 50

1225 of Inch & J floring 17 10 To Charge from old Book to Iron [ ?]

To 1 Large Stel Tub 3 00

June to 1 quarter Beef 5 00

1 Half do 10

to Parues order 26

To iron 10

Opeos wages 1 Month & J 15

1 2 Inch plank 50

12641

[New page "Day Book]

Mission By Mr. Leslie Dr

236 F. G. YOUNG

To 513 feet of Inch &J plank at 15 7 69

To 400 feet of Inch 5 30

To 144 feet of Scantling 2 78

8 2 Inch plank 144 2 88

4 3&| Inch plank 3 00

Hawling 2 00

$2255

[On inside margin is written : "Settled by credit on Mission Book"]

Thomas ] Hubbard Dr

to amount Drought forward $12641

By 4 Mill saw Files 42 Cts 1 64 [sic]

By Hailing his Lumber 6 00

134 90 [sic] Plank sold Bileek 2 14

136 04 [sic]

[New page "Day Book]

Long Taw [ ?] ]>

To 1500 feet Inch & ^ plank 1 50 22 50

To 500 of Inch 1.30 "750

To Hailing 6 Loads 50 3

$3300

[ New page "Day Book]

George Gay Dr

To 350 feet of Inch Boar[d ]s at 13 dls M 5 50

To 400 feet of weather Boards 4 go

16 July Thomas Mcay j^r

to 339 lb of Beef at 6Cts 20 34

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 237

August 12 Mission Dr

To 704 of Inch & half plank 10 56

to 111 feet of 2 Inch 222

Hailing 1 00

1378

[In margin is written: "Settled by credit on Mission book"] [There are indicated corrections of items in same hand. For instance the first item has written over it in this hand : "400 feet of Inch." Evidently the Mission record differed.]

[New page "Day Book] Sunday 16th August

S Smith Had worked 9 Days 30th august Including all time 19

Napua Wihe Dr

1 pair pantaloons Cort [ ?]

flanel Shirt [only one charge ] 3 00

S Smith 1 Shirt 87^

To paid Web $4 00

Mission Dr

to plank delivered for Mr Waller $18 80

1200 feet of Inch £i 260

200 Inch do 30

Hailing 2 00 [Written across : "Settled on Mission Book"]

[New page "Day Book"] 30 august

Napua Dr Cts

30

J. II dl_/ ^ICI, J-

To J pound Tobacco [Dollar mark cancel]

238 F. G. YOUNG

Cowey Dr

To \ pound of Tobacco 30

To 1 3 point Blanket [No charge]

[Dollar mark cancel]

6th Sept 1840

S. Smith Cr

By 3 Days work this Includes all time to this date

Cowey Wihe Dr

to 13 point Blanket 4 75

[Dollar mark cancel]

[New page "Day Book]

Thomas J Hubbard Dr

To amount Brought forward $136 04

To Boarding Opeo two weeks & \ 1 50 3 75

[New page "Day Book]

Cr By 300 feet of Scantling $4 50

[New page "Day Book] 23 Sept

Solomon Smith j)r

By [sic] 40i Bushels wheat 60 By 13 Bushels of pees 70 By 1-J Bushels of potatoes to order on McKay for 33f bushels of wheat [No sums are charged or credited]

[New page "Day Book]

Sol Smith Bushels Q.

By balance Due 26

Joseph Whitcum [Whitcomb] Dr

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 239

To delivering 2 Beeves to George Gay 1 each $2 00

Sidney Smith Dr

To 1. pair of Boots 325

P Armstrong Dr

to 1 Shirt 70

[Dollar mark cancel]

Mission Dr

By Alison Beers To 484 foot of Inch & Half plank $150 [ ?]

[No sum charged. Written across is word "Settled."]

[New page "Day Book]

Cts

Oct 484 feet of Inch & [half?] plank at $15 M $7 26

1840

[Evidently a repetition of preceding entry]

323 do Inch 13 M 424

Hawling $1 50

$1300

[This is complete account of which first item was placed at bottom of preceding page]

Cook Wihe Dr

To 1 Shirt 1 50

1 3J point Blanket 7 00

[Dollar mark cancel]

Cowey Dr

To 1 Half pound Tobacco

[Dollar mark cancel] 25

24 Oct. Winslow commenced for a years work

240

F. G. YOUNG

| New page "Day Book] Oct 22nd 1840 Winslow & Baker By [sic] 1 Beef

By order fort Vancouver By two Shirts 1. each Bu [sic] 1 Bushel flower [sic] By pound powder Bv five Gallons Molasses

$1

S Smith

By Mollar pd Hatheway 1 pair drawers 1 Flannel Shirt 1 do Fine Stripe 7 yds Callico 1 Black Silk Hkf

| New page "Day Book]

S Smith

4 Cotton do do 4 pipes

Dr

Dr

2500

5000

200

75

40

500

100

5 Nov P Armstrong By 1 pair Boots 2 flannel Shirts & U yds Duffle 1 pair pantaloons 1 Black Silk Hkf Soap

| Dollar mark cancel]

5 Nov Cowey To 1 Shirt 1 3 point Blanket

Wihe

[No charge]

Dr

450

320 300

100

Dr

[No charge for any of these three items]

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 241

1 pair pantaloons [Dollar mark cancel]

Cook Wihe Dr

1 Shirt [No charge for either item]

1 pair shoes

[Dollar sign cancel]

[New page "Day Book]

% C Walker Cts Dr

To 10 Ib Tobacco 40 4 00

Felix Hatheway Dr

To 16 Ib Tobacco 40 6 40

Felix Hatheway

By Smith $1 00

5 Nov S Smith Cr

By order to the Fort 29 40

P Armstrong Dr

1 fine Shirt 1 00

1 Cotton Hkf 30 [Dollar sign cancel]

Nov 15th

C Walker Dr

10 Ib Tobacco 4 $4 00

1 3 point Blanket 3 00

1 young Cow 30 40

1 Beef 25 25 00

1 Coat 20 2000

18 Decem

242 F. G. YOUNG

S Smith Dr

1 3 point Blanket 3 00

1 Beef 12 12 00 pork 5 00

4J pounds lead [no charge]

2 white Shirts 1 50 20 To Cow & Calf $40 00 [This account has cross lines over it made by blue pencil]

[New page "Day Book]

Contra C M Wkr [Walker] Cr

By Dress Coat 20

By Jerveys Note $30

[This account stands exactly opposite the above Walker debit account.]

Winslow Anderson Dr

To 1 Cappo 4 4 00

1 Ib Tobacco 40 [Has written across it "transcribed"]

Cook Wihe Dr

By 1 White Shirt

1 pair skin pantaloons 3 00

1 Shirt

1 hair Cloth pant $600

[Dollar mark cancel]

[New page "Day Book"]

December 25

James Baker Dr

By 25 Bushels wheat Loaned until Harvest to Beef $5 00,

[Written across this account entry: transcribed to Smiths

book]

George Gay Dr

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 243

4 Ib Tobacco 40 1 60

[Dollar mark cancel] Jan 1841

Winslow Dr

2 Ib Tobacco 4 80

[Written across this entry: "transcribed"] [The remainder of the "Day Book," about two-thirds of it, is blank with the exception of the following entries widely separated from the above and from each other.] Brought by F Hathaway against the Estate of E. Young Ballence due pr assess labour $75 20

By sundry Articles loaned 31 20

By 4 days apprsing 8 00

By order pr G Gay 20 00

13440

Smiths Book not Settled T J Hubbard Bill

1100 Hundred feet of Inch & J floring 1500 feet weather Boards 600 feet of Rough Edg Boards 1200 ft of Inch Boards

550 of Joist Running Measure 3 By 4 12 feet long 16 Rafters 3 By 4 12 feet Long

[The remaining records in the book are scattered fragment- ary memoranda.]

IV.

From book, bound in undressed leather, designated "Regeaster"

244 F. G. YOUNG

["E. Young's," printed with pen in large letters on outside of cover.]

[The book contains accounts that were kept by three differ- ent persons: First section is in Ewing Young's own hand- writing and contains mainly a record of the transactions relat- ing to his live stock interests. Second section was kept by Sidney Smith, virtually in charge of the ranch after Ewing Young's death, until it was leased to C. M. Walker and George Le Breton on the 1st of November, 1841. Third section is composed of entries made by Judge I. L. Babcock.] 29 June 1838

E Young Dr

To Company Cattle two Stears & Two Bulls head 4

1 November To two Bull Calves six months old 2

To one Calf made a present to Smiths oldest daughter December To two Bull Calves Bartered with Hubbard

for 2 Stears 1 Stag three years old 3

Memorandum of Cows Bought and sold of Company

Stock

Bartered for two cows of Solomon Smith 2

Laderute one do 1

Two tame Cows Reserved which was not put Into Com- pany Stock 2

Four of the above Sold to henry wood

the balance of private Stock 1 Cow 1

Bartered with Hubbard one stear for a Cow 1

E Young Cr By two Calves from Joseph McLoughlin 2

[Remainder of page half torn away]

March 24th 1838

Memorandum of Cattle In Possession of E Young Belonging to Himself and others Viz

E Young ninety Head

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 245

Belonging To Himself two tame Cows not included 92

Belonging to William A Slacum Twenty Three Head 23

Belonging To P L Edwards forty Nine Head 49

Daniel Lee & Cyrus Shepard Twenty Head 20

This Number is over and above After Delivering all that

Has Been Sold By Young or Edwards The Sales Has been as follows of Cattle not yet Delivered

By E Young Sold To Solomon Smith Three Head 29th

June Paid *3

Deporty Mcay Three Head 30th Paid *3

W Johnson Two Head 29 June Paid *2

Broche [Brotchie?] 1

* [Crossed out on book.]

Sold By P L Edwards 29th June 1 Paid

To James Burney [Birnie] not yet delivered Three Head To Whitcum (October llth paid) one Do

(Sept 1st 1838 Paid) 4

[Dates were filled in with different ink.] June 29th paid S. Smith three Cows

PaidDeporty Me ay & Johnson

Paid for Burney one Cow. llth October 1838 Branded Sixty 5 Calvs

[New page]

2d August E Young Dr 18 39

To 1 Stear 1J year old kiled [sic] for Beef 1

25 August To 1 year old stear killed for Beef 1

To 1 Cow and Calf sold To Kyser

Sept 6th To 1 year & ^ old stear Sold To Long Taw 1

October To one 4 year old stag kiled [sic] for beef 1

November killed 1 Stear 1J years old 1

Sold one Cow & Calf J Gale December 20, Killed 1 Cow 1

1840 January 1 kiled 1 3 year old Stear 1840[So on Book]

246

F. G. YOUNG

1 Febra kiled 1 year old Stear 1 March 1st 1 3 year old stear 1 April 4 killed 1 2 year old Stear 1 20th 1 2 year old stear 1

2 May killed a two year old Stear 1 24 1 2 year old Stear 1 29 Swaped 1 Stear with Bolso [ ?] 1 June 15th kiled 1 Stear 1 June 25 1 Stear 1 August 10th killed 1 3 year old 1 august killed [sic] 27 killed 1

for Longtaw

2 September killed 2 year old Stear 16 kill 1 2 years old 21st kil 1 Stear for Winslow

[New page]

April 2d 1839 E Yound [sic] Cr

By Two Young Cows one year & a half old

1 from Hathaway & one from Wood 2

1 Cow from William A Slacums Number of Cattle sold To Dick

Me ary [sic] for building a house at the falls of the Wallamet

for Wm Slacum

E Young paid $30 and placed the cow and calf To his Credit 1 1 May 1839 By 1 Cow & Calf Bought of Kyzer

Sept 29th 1840

Sett[l]ed in full all accounts of Cattle With the Mission where in I sold Bartered or Bought Due the Mission fifteen Stears or Bulls & 2 tenhs [ ?] E Young

[New page]

June 18th 1838

Memorandum of Wages paid Hands for Work on Saw mill paid W Brandewine Thirty seven dollars $37 00

Paid Henry Wood forty two Dollars $42.00

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 247

Paid Mr Cannon forty one dollars $41 00

august To 1 Hog 6 00

4700 Furnished one Mill Saw

The first Cost fourteen dollars $14 00

Boarded Wood Turner Brandewine during the Time they

worked on Mill Also Campbell & John while Hubbard was Concerned in the

Mill E Young

July 1st Paid John Turner for Sawing five dollars &50 $5.50 The Total amount of Board forty tree [sic] Dollars 50

cents $43 50

the above account Settled

[New page] Sept 5th 1838

Solomon Smith Cr

By Beaver forty three dollars $43 00

Cents 29 By Beaver and otter $20 50 20 50

Solomon Smith Dr

October 6th To Order at Fort Vancouver 24 50

To 1 Blanket $2 20 2 20

To Cash Paid Hathaway $12 00

[New page]

June 18th 1838

Brought from Memorandum Book March 1838 Felix Hathaway To E Young Dr

To four Hogs 5 each $20 00

To five Bushels of wheat

By Johnson 50 25 [sic] 02 50

To one order Paid John Edmunds on Ft Vancouver

248 F. G. YOUNG

Beaver prices twenty five dollars $25 00

one order do paid wood [Wood] six dollars $6 00 [Following item in different ink]

August 23 Settled ac[c]ount Cr By $15.35 15 35

Balance Due $38 15

Credit By Doctors Whites order To balance of the above acount 15th Sept 1838 July 15 Henry Wood Dr

To 1 3J point Blanket $3.50

To Braking eight young Horses In payment forr 2 Mairs

& a Coalt $40-00

Carried forward next page the above Bargen Recorted

[New page] Sept 2d 1838

Henry Wood Dr

To two Tame Cows $30 each $60 00

To two mairs and 1 Colt $20 each 40

Colt not counted

To Balance on old acount 20 20 00

$12000

the above acount is to be paid by Six Months work comencing at this date Sept 3 1838

| New page] July 1st 1838

Expences paid for Branding Cattle To Beaver payment

Paid John Turner 4

Do paid Cheno 2

Do Wood $2 2

Paid Wood two Mairs £ one Colt at forty dollars for

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 249

Braking Horses To attend Cattle $40 00

Paid wood [sic] for working with Cattle ' 4 12£

Paid Brandewine $2-00 2-00

[New page]

Nov the 16th 1840

Tommis McKay Dr

To two hundred and fifty feet 3J inch plank $7.50

To hauling one dollar 1.00

[This second section of the book is not separated by any blank space from preceding accounts. Ewing Young died about January 15, 1841. Sidney Smith, an employee, had charge of the farm accounts until it was leased.]

[The following accounts are all separated by double lines. The "To E. Y. estate" following "Dr" is in different ink and possibly different handwriting.] Feb. llth 1841

James Baker Dr to Mr. E Y estate

To Seven J Bushels Wheat received of Luceay [Lucier]

Feb

12. Mr Hathaway Dr to E. Y. estate

To Trying Square $1 50

To 1. practical Navigator 1 50

To 1. Beef Hide 2.00

To 47 Ib. Beef at 6c 2.82

Feb 12th William Johnson Dr E. Y. Est.

To 1. pockette Knife " .50

To 2 Ib Tobacco. 40c " .80

Feb the 12 Comey— OWyhea Dr to E. Y. est To 1 Ib Tobacco 60c " .60

[Account has large Dollar sign written over it]

250 F. G. YOUNG

Feb the 12. Cook. OWyhea Dr to E. Y. est To 1 pr. Corse Boots 2.00

To 1 Monkey Jackette 2.50

To 1 Ib Tobacco 60c .60

[First item of account crossed out.]

[Dollar sign cancel]

Feb the 12. John Edmonds Dr to E. Y. est.

To 10. Ib Tobacco. 40c 4.00

[Dollar sign cancel]

Feb 12. Winslow Anderson Dr E. Y. est.

To J Bushel Wheat 60c " .30

Feb 12 William Johnson To E Young estate

To side of ribs and Shoulder of Beef 3.00

[New page]

Feb the 12th Coweye OWyhee E. Y. est. Dr $ cts

To 1 pr. Course Boots 2.00

[Dollar Sign cancel] 16 Feb S. Smith Dr to E. Y estate

To two & half Ib. Tobacco 40c 1.00

18 Do To two Ib Tobacco 40c " 80

[Dollar sign cancel]

18 Feb Mission Store. Cr.

By 1 Ib Tea 1.25 1.25

By 4 Ib Nails 20c " 80

[Dollar sign cancel]

22 Feb Cook OWyhee Dr to E. Y. est

To 1. fine Vest $5.00 5.00

[Dollar sign cancel]

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 251

22 Feb. Winslow Anderson Cr.

By 1. fine Vest $5.00 5.00

1 1 Feb one Stear killed for the use of the farm E. Y. Estate to E. Y. Estate Dr

25 Feb E. Y. Estate to E. Y. Dr.

To one Beef Hide $2.00 2.00

27 Feb Winslow Anderson to E Y est Dr

To 1. pr. fine boots, Old 2.00

24 Feb

[paid by Note at sight] Geo. Gay to E. Y. Estate Dr. To 7\ Ib. fine powder [no amount given]

[Dollar sign cancel)

March Winslow Anderson Dr to E. Y. est. 1.2&3. To three days Lost to Look for wheet Coc. De. [ ?] Laws per Self

3d March E. Young Est. Dr. to E. Young Estate to One Beef Killed fo[r] the use of the farm

[New page]

4 of March Delivered to Wilkins & Square for Hathaway his

big Black Cow & calf fron [sic] E Youngs Band per Verble

order to S Smith

24 Feb Delivered To Geo. Gay the Mules that the Said Gay Sold to E. Young for which he Gay was to receive one hun- dred and twenty five Bushels of wheat the Said Gay not

252 F. G. YOUNG

having a note or any other article to Show for the Said mules and I not being otherwise to give an article to that effect delivered the Said mules to the Said Gay

S SmITH40

4 March Winslow Anderson Dr to E. Y. Estate

Thursd. To 5 Ib Tobacco 40.c 2.00

4 March Paid Indian Sam for E Youngs one new white Shirt for bringing the Cleckerlatt [?] [Clecker tall Possibly?] Hors[e] Strayed

5 March. Delivered Mr. Newel, per order of Mr. Leslie one tame Cow to be charged to E. Y. Estate as pay-ment for two old horses that Said Young Perchased of the Said Newel.

5 March. Mr. Lieusee [Lucier] Cr. by five Bush of Oats to Sam per E. Y. Estate 3.00

[Dollar sign cancel]

March. Bill of Goods Reed, from Fort Vancouver for E Young Estate by Wm Johnson

1 Com. Capeau 18 s 6d ea 3.73^

2 pr. Com. Cloth pants 11s 2d ea 4.434 1. 3 point Blanket. 11s 6d 2.30

Amount Carried over $10.46$

[New page]

Amount Brot. forward— $10.46f

1. Do 3| point. 13s. 6d 2.70

6. pipes, 6d " .10

12 Ib. Coco. 9d 1.80

1 Tin Kittle 5s. 9d 1.15

20 Ib. Sugar 8d 2.70

40 Sidney Smith when signing his name regularly wrote from right to left. As invariably he capitalized the first three letters of his name beginning at that end. His surname thus stood: "SmITH." He seemed to think that if the left hand end was entitled to two capitals the right hand end should have three.

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 253

Neat [sic] Amount Reed 18.91 §

6 March Not being able to find the Hathaway cow and calf, exchanged for a wild Cow & calf out E Youngs band

6 March. Cook OWyhee Dr. to E. Y. Est

To 1 pr. pants. $3.00 3.00

[Dollar sign cancel]

13 March E. Young Estate Dr to E Young Est. To 1 White Cotton Shirt 1.25

[Dollar sign cancel]

13 March E Young Estate Dr to E Young Est. To 1 Beef hide per use of farm.

13 March George Gay to E Young Estate Dr. To 2J Ib Tobacco 40c 1.00

[Dollar sign cancel]

13th March

Delivered to Geo. Gay for Hathaway one Rone Colt Said colt was bought of Young at the Delivering of the Mission Cattle, per Order of Hathaway word of Mouth

S SmITH

13th March Delivered to John Cornan his three year Old Sor- rall Colt from the Band of E Young Said Colt was Sold by E Young to Geo. Gay and from Gay to Cornan.

20 March Geo. Abernathy Dr. to E Young est.

to 15 Ib Tobacco 40c 6.00

[Cancel : "Paid credited on Mission Book page 209"]

254 F. G. YOUNG

20 March Anderson Winslow41 Dr to E Y est

5 Ib Tobacco 40c 2.00

20 March Geo. Davice Dr to E. Y. Est

To 2J Ib Tobacco 40c 1.00

[Dollar sign cancel]

22d March Wm Johnson Dr., to E. Y. Est

To one Stear with a big horn $25.00

23d March Killed one Stear for the use of the farm E. Y. Est Dr to E. Y. Estate

26 March Anderson Winslow Dr to E Y est

To 40 Ib Beef 6c 2.40

To 40 Ib Neck 5c 2.00

27th March Cowey OWyhee Dr to E. Y. Est

To 62 Ib Beef 7%c 4.65

[Dollar sign cancel]

27 March Anderson Winslow Dr. to E. Y. est. To one day to Sow wheat per Self

1st April Cowey OWyhee Dr. to E Y est To 1 Bed Spread 5.50cts $5.50

[Dollar sign cancel]

3d April John Turner, to E Yong est

paid To 6J Ib Tobacco 40c $2.60

Delivered to John Turner one Smoothing plane that E

Young borrowed of Turner 5th April S. Smith Dr. to E Young Estate

41 Winslow Anderson. The parts of this name seemed to be reversible when handled by Smith.

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 255

To 1. Ib Tobacco 40c "40

[Dollar sign cancel]

6 April Anderson Winslow Dr to E Y est To 27. Ib Beef 6c 1.62

6th April Cook OWyhee Dr E. Y. est

To 1 fine Shirt 1.50

[Dollar sign cancel]

8th April Cowey OWyhee Dr to E. Y. Est

To 1 fine Shirt 1.50

[Dollar sign cancel]

8th April Anderson Winslow Dr to E. Y. est

To 1. fine Shirt 1.00

To 1. Do Damaged " 75

8th April Cook OWyhee Dr. to E. Y. Est

To 1. fine Shirt Damaged 1.00

[Dollar sign cancel]

8th April Anderson Winslow Dr to E. Y. est

To 1. Vest [No sum given]

10th April E Young Dr to E Young Est To 1. Cotton Shirt paid Indian

9.10.12.13J Anderson Winslow Dr to E Y estate To 3J Days lost going to Turners for his cows.

16th April

Geo. Gay Dr to E. Young Est

To 2\ Ib Tobacco 40c Delivered Mr Leslie 1 00

[Dollar sign cancel]

256 F. G. YOUNG

[New page]

19th April Plesant Armstrong Dr. to E. Y estate

To 5 Bever Traps 2.50 $12.50

To 16 Ib Lead lOc 1.60

To 1 Bear Skin 1.00

19 April Anderson Winslow Dr to E. Y. Est To 1 Ib Tobacco 40c " 40

19th April To three Tin pans and one chair Delivered to Anderson Winslow for J Turner that E Yong Borrowed of Said Turner

20th April. E Young to E Young estate Dr To 1 Beef for the use of farm

24 April Winslow & Baker Dr to E Y estate

To 12 Bushels wheat [no figures for wheat]

To 42 Ib Beef 6c 2.52

25 April Cowey OWyhee Dr to E Y estate

To 1. pr. Pants Old 1.50

[Dollar sign cancel] 25th April Cowey O Wyhee Dr to E Y estate

To 1 Coat $5.00 5.00

[Dollar sign cancel] 25th April E Young estate Dr to 5 Smith

To 1. Coat $5.00 $5.00

28th April Cook OWyhee Dr to E Y Est.

To 1 Ib Tobacco 60c " 60

[Dollar sign cancel]

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 257

28th April Winslow Anderson Dr to E Y est To 1 day Lost to Sow Wheat per Self [Above entry cancelled]

1st May Mr Plassee Dr To E. Y. estate To 1 Bb of Salt for which he is to pay 4.40

[Above item or entry crossed out]

[New page]

1st May E Young estate Dr. to E. Y. estate

To 30. Bushels Wheat Sowed

" " To 6J " used received of Lieusee [Lucier] Paid

6 May E Young Estate Dr. to Mission Store

To 3 Ib Nails 20c " 60

To 1 Ib Tea $1.00c 1.00

To 1 Ib pepper 40c " 40

To 1 Sithe Blade [No cost price given]

[Dollar sign cancel]

8th May Cook OWyhee Dr. to E Young Estate

To 1 Cappo $6.00 6.00

8th May Coweye OWyhee Dr. to E Young estate

To 2 Ib Tobacco 60.c 1.20

[Dollar sign cancel]

llth May E Young Est. Dr. to E. Y. estate To 1 Shirt paid Indian To 1 Ib Tobacco

15th May E Youngs Estate Dr to E Young Estate To 1 Beef use of the farm

258 F. G. YOUNG

17th May H Web Dr to E. Young estate To 1 Beef Hide 2.00

17th May Cook OWyhee Dr to E Y estate To 60 Ib Beef 7Jc 4.50

[Dollar sign cancel]

20th May Winslow & Baker Dr. to E. Y. estate

To 50 Ib Beef 60c 3.00

21st May Cook OWyhee Dr to E Y Estate

To 2 Ib Tobacco 60c 1.20

[New page]

21st May E Young Estate Dr to E Y Estate

to one White Horse paid Indian by order of Mr Leslie Administrator for splitting two thousand rails & two thous- and pickets Said hors was purchased of Newel

S SmITH

24th May John Turner E. Y. Estate

Paid To 1 Ib Tobacco 40c " 40

26 May Joel Walker Dr. to E Y Estate

To 1. Beef-Hide $2.00 2.00

[Dollar sign cancel]

29 May John Turner Dr to E. Y. Estate

Paid To 1 pr Iron Sturips $1.00 1.00

26 May Baptiste Malez Dr to E. Y. Estate

To 1 Bb. $1.00 1.00

28 May Joseph Meek Dr to E Y Estate

To 2\ Ib Tobacco 40c 1.00

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 259

[Dollar sign cancel]

28 May David Leslie Dr to E. Y. Estate

To 1 Lass $3.00 3.00

[Written across item : "Paid"]

28 May Robert Newel. Dr to E. Y. Estate

To 1 Lass 2.00 2.00

[Written across item : "Settled"]

29 May Anderson Winslow Dr to E Y Estate To 1 Day Lost in driving his Cattle

29 May S. Smith Dr. to E. Y. Estate

To 3 yearling heffers $40.00 40.00

[Dollar sign cancel]

29 May Cowey & Cook OWyhees Dr to E. Y. Estate

To 1 Bay Horse $30.00 30.00

[Dollar sign cancel]

[New page] May

[Day of month uncertain.] Coweye OWyhee Dr to E. Y. Estate

To 1. Vest. Old 1.50

29 May By order of Mr Leslie paid to John Turner 4 Ib Tobacco for which said Turner paid in lass [o] ing but made no charge against the Estate. [Dollar sign cancel]

29 May Mr Baker Dr to E Y Estate

To 1 Sucking Calf Bot of Mr. Leslie $8.00 8.00

260

F. G. YOUNG

1st June Anderson Winslow Dr to E. Y. est. To 4 Ib Tobacco 40c

1st June S. Smith to E Young Estate To 3 Ib Tobacco 40c [Dollar sign cancel]

3d June H. Web Dr to E Young Estate To 50 6c Beef Delivered to J. Gale

Mond.

7 June Cook OWyhee Dr to E. Y Estate To 1 Raisor Strop [Dollar Sign cancel]

7 June E. Young Estate Dr to E Young Estate To 1 Shoat killed for being always in mischief

10 June James ONeal Dr to E Young Estate

To I. Lass. 2.00 June 28 Mr Leslie Dr to E Y Estate

To 1. Lass Rope [written across: "Settled"]

[New page]

June 28 Mr. Shortess Dr to E Young estate To 1. Lass Rope 250

1.60

1.20

3.00

" 50

2.00 1.40

2.50

June 28 Robt. Shortess Cr by order on the Misheon 2.50 2.50 [Written across above two items : Dollar sign cancel]

28 June Louis Le Bontie Dr to E. Y. Estate To 284 Ib Beef 5c [Dollar sign cancel]

14.20

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 261

28th June Battiece Molair Dr to E Young Estate To 100 Ib Beef 5c 5.00

To 1. Days work with Hors 2.00

28 June Battiece Molair Dr to E. Young estate

To 1 Beef Hide 2.00 2.00

28 June E Youngs Estate Dr t E Y Estate To 1 Beef use of the farm

2d July Anderson Winslow Dr. to E Y Estate To 1 Day lost Raising barn

26 May E Young Dr to E Young Estate To 1 Cow killed at the marking of the Cattle her leg being broke

9 July E Youngs Estate Dr to E Young Estate To 1. Beef use of farm

10 July Baker & Winslow Dr. to E Youngs Est.

To 125 Ib Beef 5c 6.25

5 July E. Young Estate Dr. to Mission Store

To 1 Ib Ginger [No figures given]

[New page]

13th July Anderson Winslow Dr to E Young Estate 11.00 To 1. Sow and Pigs $11.00

14th July Battiece Molair Cr.

By 3 days with Horse Marking Colts 6.00

22d July David Leslie Dr. to E Youngs Estate

To 3000 ft Inch \ plank Sixteen dollars & fifty cts per thousand 16.50 ["Settled" written across] 49.50

262 F. G. YOUNG

Do to howling 1J day with team

23d July Craig Dr to E Young Estate To 1 Lass Rope 2.00 [Dollar sign cancel]

24th July Robbert Newel Dr to E. Youngs Est To 3 Sows & 4 pigs $26.00 To 10 Ib butter 15c

["Settled" written across]

24th July Robbert Newel Dr to E Youngs Est To Dried Beef

[Dollar sign cancel]

August 5th Robbert Newel Dr to E/. Y. Estate To 1. Stear $20.00

[Dollar mark cancel]

August 5th Craig Dr to E Youngs Estate To pease of Hide 50c

[Dollar mark cancel] 12th

August H. Campbell Dr. to E Young Estate To chickens $1.50

6.00

2.00

26.00 1.50

1.00

20.00

" 50

1.50

August 28 Phelix Hathaway Dr to E Youngs Est

To 926 feet inch Lumber [No cost Figures given]

To 611 Do 1J inch Do To 100 Do Scantling [Dollar Mark cancel]

[New page]

28 August E Young Estate to S. Smith

To delivery Lumber to P Hathaway two dollar & fifty cts 2.50

[Dollar mark cancel]

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 263

1st of August [Sept?] Anderson & S. Smith quit Work for the Estate of E Youngs Des

S Smith Dr to E Young Estate [No To two White com. Shirts at appraisal [ ?]

date] [Dollar mark cancel]

Sept 16th Winslow Anderson Dr to E Young Estate To 1 Washbole 1.00

To 1 Grindstone [No cost given]

Sept 23d Mr. Frost Dr to E. Young Estate To 1 Keg powder. 25 Ib .30c 7.50

Keg 25c " 25

To 45 Ib. Lead lOc 4.50

[In different ink: "Lead settled for"]

27th Sept. Winslow Anderson Dr to E Y. Est

To 3 Ib powder 30c .90

27th Sept S. Smith Dr. to E Y Estate

To 3 Ib powder 30c "90

To 74 Ib Lead lOc 75

[Dollar mark cancel]

27th Sept. Winslow Anderson Dr to E Y. Est To 6 3/4 Ib Lead lOc " 67

28th Sept S Smith Dr to E Young Estate

To 1 otter $2.00 2.00

To 1 Raisor Strop .25

[Dollar mark cancel]

Feb 12 John Edmonds Cr by one days work after Cattle 2.00

264 F. G. YOUNG

[Dollar mark cancel]

[New page]

Oct 16 & 18 John P Edmonds Cr

To Repairing Cart

3J days Do

[Dollar mark cancel]

Oct 25th Winslow Anderson Cr

To ?^ days work repairing Cart $1.50 each

5.00 8.00

11.25

25 Oct. S Smith Cr by 7J Days repairing Cart 1.50 each 11.25

[Dollar mark cancel] 2 Nov. Edmonds Dr to E Young Estate

To 60 Ib Beef 5c 3.00

2 Nov. J Baker Dr. to E Youngs Estate

To 60 Ib Beef 5c 5 Nov. John Edmonds Dr to E Youngs Est.

To Beef

[Dollar mark cancel]

5th Nov J Baker Dr to E Youngs estate To Beef

3.00 5.00

3.00

Sept. 28. Winslow Anderson Cr.

To 1 days work. 2.00

Nov The to. 1. Day work mendem Cart. 1.50

[The entries after August 1st entry that "Anderson & S. Smith quit Work for the Estate of E Youngs Des [Sic]" are in the same handwriting as those made prior to that entry]42 The following entries are in quite different handwriting, and

separate from the preceding by a blank page. They constitute

third section of book and were kept by I. L. Babcock, probate

judge.

42 As the farm was not leased until Nov. ist, 1841, Sidney Smith evidently retained charge of the accounts until that date, although his engagement as em- ployee had expired some time before this.

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE

265

Sidney Smith and Winslow Anderson

To E. Young Estate Dr

To the crops on the estate in 1841 to be paid in wheat.

Amt. 350 bus. "Use of horse in delivering grain

210.00 6.00

216.00

[This entry has two and a half cross marks

scratched over it.J Cr

By 318 bus. wheat deld to H B C 190.80

" 20 do do do to Ebberts 12.00

" 20 do do do Newell 12.00 214.80

[In Diff. ink:]

8i " " " toHBCo 5.10

Sidney Smith To Estate of E Y. &c

To Amt of Your order given in favor of Estate on G Abernethy dated Nov. 28, 1841, for $43.89 which order was pro- tested 43.89 [The. above entry likewise has two ink marks scrawled across it]

Winslow Anderson

To E Youngs Estate Dr For 2 hides for which two ropes were to have been made 4.00

Cr

A demand of sixty dollars has been allowed to Anderson against the Estate for services rendered and other items of ac/ in the Rocky Mountains which was acknowledged by Mr Young 60.00

May 26 1841

Winslow Anderson to E Youngs estate [Bot at sale] 3 Yearling heifers @ $17. ea 51.00

1 two year old Steer 15.50

266 F. G. YOUNG

[New page]

Winslow Anderson to E Young Sstate Dr

3 bus salt and 1 Barrell fr do 3.75 375

To sundry articles bot at sale as pr bill Sept. / 41 33.27

do do " " " " [an erased

entry of figures]

James Baker

To E Youngs Estate Dr Bot at sale May 26. 1841

1 wild cow and calf $25.00

1 2 Year old heifer 17.00

Articles Bt at sale in Sept as p- bill 10.15 52.15

Wm Johnson

To E Youngs Estate Dr

3 Barrels of salt say 9 bushels

Bot at sale in May 26, 184 [1] 10.50

13 Files .45

Articles bot at sale in Sept as per bill 2.81 13.76

Jas Despot

To E Youngs Estate Dr Sundries bot at sale in Sept 1841 8.75

X Laderoute to E Young Estate Dr

Bal for sundries bot at sale in Sept./41 10.00

M. Plisse (M. Laferte)

To E Youngs Estate Dr

Sunds bot at sale in Sep. 1841 as pr bill 7.45

C. M. Walker to E Young Estate Dr 2 vols. Shakespeare Bot at sale 3.50

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 267

Charles Cahete [?] (Charlo) Dr Articles bot at sale in Sept. 1841 170

J Horrigan (Alias Paddy Rowland) To E Youngs Estate Dr

One Frying pan bot at sale in Sept 1841 .60

Dubride to E Young's Estate Dr .30

La Chapel to E Young's Estate Dr

one Flat Iron bot at sale in Sept 1841 .50

Winslow Anderson to E Yo. Estate Dr To one house near the saw mill 14.00

Winslow and Baker

1840 To account transcribed from Mr. Youngs old book Oct 22 1 Beef 25.00

" Order on Vancouver for 50.00

" 2 Shirts 2.00

" flour 75

Powder 40

five Galls Molasses

5.00 83. 10 [sic]

Dec 1840 Winslow Anderson to account

brought from Mr Youngs old book Dr 1 cappo 4.00

1 Ib Tobacco .40 4.40

Jan 1841 2 " Do .80

Jas Baker Dr to account brot from Mr Youngs Old book To 25 bushels of wheat loaned till harvest 5.00

268

F. G. YOUNG

[New page]

[The word " Settled" is written across each of the following entries in this book] 1843 Oct 8th Felix Hathaway Cr By an order Against Laddy Route and Jervey returned $31, $31

[Notice spelling of Laderoute and Gervais] Oct 8 Felix Hathaway Dr

To order paid By G Abernethy

thirty Eight dollars and seventy five cts 38.75

Oct 8 Solomon Smith Cr

By order Returned by O Neal 5.00

Oregon Mission Dr

To E Youngs Estate

thirty one dollars on an order Returned from Laddy Route & Jervey ["Settled" written across] 31.00

Oct 15 John Edmonds Dr 1840

To paid order two dollars & ninety two cts Lafortee 2.92 Oct 1842 I have this day settled with Placee [?] Lafortee

and reed his notes for what is due on the Land contract

formerly made between himself and Mr Young. Oct 18th 1842

$10 Sold one Stud horse to Robert Shortess and Reed

an order on Mr. Abernethy amount of which was $10

Oct 8 Sold Mr Rogers three Beeves by the Hundred

amounting to 77 dollars $77.

Nov 4th 1842 James Oneal Dr

to an order in favor of Calvin Tibets twenty three

Dollars fifty cts 23 50

to be endorsed on Smiths contract

[New page]

Jany 25th 1843

James Oneal Dr to Est Young

To an order on Fort Vancouver given by Joseph Mc-

Loughlin twenty three Dollars and seventy nine cts 23 79

1842 I L Babcock Cr

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 269

Dec 14 By cash paid to Fletcher & Cook for thirty Bushels of seed wheat delivd at the farm of E Young Price agreed on thirty Dollars $30.00

1843 Cr By five dollars paid to G LeBriton for

Feby 9th services at sale 5.00

March 15 Oregon Mission Dr To an order given by Dr White

To James O'Neal forty five Dollars $45.

I L Babcock Cr

1843 By horse services at different times 5.00

Apil 24

April 24 I L Babcock Dr

To and order reed from Mr Gray and endorsed on James Oneals note of forty two Dollars and fifty cts 42.50

May 14th 1843 Oregon Mission Cr

By order given to Solomon Smith for five Dollars

and Eighty cts 5.80

July Oregon Mission Dr

To order from H Clark about $74.

July To J L Parrishs note $101 and interest

George LeBreton Dr To order on Mr Abernethy for services rendered at sale &c 27.00

[New page]

July 27th 1843

Judmumnt [?] rendered in favour of L Carmichael prosecuted by James Oneal Esqu amounting to two hundred and five Dollars and forty cts 205.40

against the estate of E Young

Also found due S. Smith on contract seventy two Dollars and ninety one cts

James Oneal Dr

to notes and orders against sundry Individuals amount- ing without interest to six Hundred and twenty three Dollars and four cts 623 04

270 F. G. YOUNG

The above are put in his hands for collection and to be ap- plied as stated in the receipt or returned if not collected

I L Babcock 1844

Oct 8th To paid L H Judson four dollars & four ^ in an order on F Ermatinger 4 04

Rec about three hundred and fifty dollars for which a change of obligations has been rend [ ?] [or reed] [ ?] to accommodate the parties:

One note against D Leslie has been left with Mr. Abernethy to pay the expens of enclosing the grave of E Young and to pay probate expense

Price agreed on for the above $60 for expense of probate $15 [This item completes contents of "Reagester"]

V.

EWING YOUNG'S TRANSACTIONS WITH THE FORT VANCOUVER SALE

SHOP AND AS CONTINUED BY THOSE IN CHARGE OF HIS ESTATE Ewing Young Dr

To Fort Vancouver Sale Shop for the following, vitz

£ s d £ B d For'd per E. Lucier 1839 To

Novr 28 2 plain Blankets 3 pts Red Bar 11/8 1 3 4

6 Ib Ball 6d " 3 "

1 Stock Lock 12 in "79

10 Yds Com. blue flannel pr 1/9 " 17 6

1 Ib 6thd Ratline " " 8

4 Com. Stripd Cott Shirts 3/ "12 "

5 Yds Blue List Cloth 5/ 1 7 11 For'd per Joe Gale

Deer 5 4 Plain Blankets 3 pts BB 13/2 12 "

2 " " 3V2 " 14/6 1 9 "

1 Com Cloth Capot 4 Ells " 19 6 4 " Stripd Cott; Shirts 3/ "12 "

2 Iron Spades No. 3 4/6 " 9 "

6 E. W. Cups & Saucers wh handles 1/6 " 9 " 6 " " Deep Plates 10d " 5 "

3 Yds Indigo blue Duffle 10/2 1 10 6 18^ Ib Cocoa 'g "13 11

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 271

3 Yds Red Baize 2/9 " 8 3

ft Ib cold Thread 2/8 " 1 4

6 skeina Cold Silk Do Id " " 6

6 flat bastd files 14 in 1/9 " 10 6

2 prs Sea Boots 22/6 2 5 2

1 Quire Uncut pot paper " 11

1 pr Olive Cord Trousers 9 11

2 doz Bone Jacket Buttons 5d " " 10 6 Com Cott: Handkerchiefs 1/5 86

Deer 14 Paid your note 11 Deer '39 in favor Bte Deguire for

1840 at beaver prices 6 5 '

Jan 17 2 prs Sea Boots 22/6 2 5 "

2 " Drab Cord Trousers 9/11 19 10

Forwarded 27 7 8 [New page of statement]

Amt Brot Forward £ 27 7 8 Per H Wood

3 Ib Hyson Tea 3/9 " 11 3

2 " Congo " 2/3 "46 6 " Twist Tobacco 1/6 9 " 20 " Cavendish " 1/61 10 " 28 Yds fine printed Cotton 1/2 1 12 8 10 Ib 20d Sharp Nails 10 " 84 8 Yds Com Striped Cotton 1/11 15 4 Paid your Note 10 Jany 40 in favor

Jno Stephens for 25$ at

beaver prices 6 5 Paid your note 10 Jany 40 in favor Henry Wood for $20.

at beaver prices 5 " " Per J Gervais

Febr 26 2 prs Cord trousers 9/11 "' 19 10

3 Yds seed Blue Cloth 11/3 1 13 9 2 fine Cotton Shirts 4/5 " 8 10 2 Com: " " 3/ " 6 " 1 Tin Kettle No. 1 "59 1 " " No. 2 "52 1 " " No. 6 "26

1 Seed Blue Cloth Vest "99

2 Gns Lamp Oil 5/3 " 10 6 March 13 To Your Note in favor A

Blythe $1.50. date 11 Jany 7 6

April 3 6 prs drab Cord Trousers 9/11 2 19 6

6 fine Cotton Shirts 11/5 1 6 6

30 Ib Yellow Soap 81""

10 " Twist Tobacco 1/6 " 15 "

1 Seed Cloth Capot 4% Ells 223

£ s d £ s d

1 pr Seed Cloth Trousers " 19 6 4Pullecut(?) Cott: Hdkfs 1/8 " 6 8

2 Com " " 1/5 " 2 10 1 Seed Blue Cloth Vest "99 6 prs Long Worstd Hose 3/2 "19 '

Forwarded 60 14 4 [New page Statement]

Amt brot Forward 60 14 4

April 3 1 pr Shoes "83

4 Ib Hyson Tea 3/9 " 15 " 12 Yds fine Stripd Cotton 2/2 1 6 " 12 " 9 /8 Bleached " 9 " 9 "

1 pr Womans Shoes " 6 " 6 Tin Milk Turreens 2/10 " 17 "

2 Dressing Combs 11 " 1 10 1 Tin Kittle No. 1 "59

272

F. G. YOUNG

1 " " No. 3 . 1 " " No. 6 1 doz Gilt Coat Buttons 6 Skeins Blk Silk Thread % Blk " No. 25

1 plain Blanket 3& pte BB 42 Ibs Loaf Sugar

2 Quires ruled foolscap paper 8 Yds purple Merino

1 Cott: Shawl

1 Mill Saw 6 ft

6 flat bastd files 14 in

By Etienne Luciers Note 31 March

'40 for L15 at Beaver Prices Paid your Note 1 April '40 in

favor Ed: Burroughs for $5.

at beaver price May 4 Pr Henry Wood

1 pr fine Cassimere Trousers 6 Scalping Knives 6 Indian Awls

1 fine blue Cloth Jacket 10 Ib Gunpowder

6 Cakes Windsor Soap

2 Band Silk Hdkfs

Forwarded

[New page Statement] Amt brot Forward May 4 1 Com Cott Hdkf

Paid Your Note 26 April '40 for $41 in favor S Kyzer at beaver prices

11 Paid your note 26 March '40

in favor Jno : Stephens for $12. at beaver price 15 Paid your note 8 May '40 in

favor Jno : Stephens for $109.10, at Beaver price Amounting to 18 1 Gall Madeira Wine P Kizer Paid your note llth May in favor S Kyzar for $83.67 at Beaver price

Paid your note llth May in favor Jacob Green for $28 at Beaver price

Passage Money of 2 Men Barque Vancouver from Woahoo to Ft Vancouver

June 10 1 Cross Cut Saw 5 feet 6 " " " Files 4 Com: Cotton Shirts 4 " Handkfs

12V2 Yds fine printed Cotton 2 Ibs Congo Tea 13% Ibs Loaf Sugar

2 drachms Strychnine wh. Phial

12 To Balance on Handkfs from Cash Bk Augst 27 The following forwarded p

E Burry [sic]

3 Cotton Com Shirt

2 " Fine "

3 Blkts 3 pts B.B.

12 Com Cotton Handkfs

4 Ibs Hyson Tea

2/11

1/9 " 3 1/11 1 11 5/9 " 5

i/9 1/9

3 6 4

5 9 1 16 9 " 10 6

15

1 5

1 9 3

8 " 4 "

doz 6 " " 3

1 16 "

1/3 12 6

6 " 3 "

4/6 " 9 "

78 2 3 15

78 2 3 15

1 5

10 5 "

27 5 1 "

20 18 4

7 ea5 10 "

1/2

2/l 138 /

14 7

4 6

8 10

17 3

1 "

13 / 1 19 1/5 " 17 3/9 " 15

10

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 273

£ s d £ B d 166 8 2 15 " " [New page and sheet of Statement]

Amount Brought forda [sic] L 166 8 2 15 " "

Augat 27 1 Keg Loaf Sugar Wght 80 Ibs & Keg 8 2 19 "

5 Ibs Plug Tobacco 1/6 " 7 6

5 " Twist 1/6 " 9 7

3 Yds 2d Claret Brown Cloth 8/6 1 5 6

6 Yds blue Strouds Com. 4/11 1 9 6 12 " Regatta Cotton I/ "12 "

1 Waterproof Hat 19 6 Paid your note this date in favor

E Burrice for 17.60 at Beaver price 48"

30 Harrow Teeth 29 Ibs 1/19" L La Bonte

Sept 23 2 plain Blankets 3% pts BB 14/6 1 9 "

12 Yds Com Striped Cotton 1/11 9 3 " By William McCarty's note for $14

at Beaver Price and amounting to 3 10 "

By Joseph Dicksons Note " " " 1 10 "

Oct 29 To 12 flat bastard files 14 in 1/911"

20 Ibs Soap 8 " 13 4

% " Cotton Wick Ib 3/3 "26

2 Com. Cotton Shirts 3/ " 6 " 2 fine " " 4/5 " 8 10

4 Ibs Twankey Tea 2/5 " 9 8 79 " Loaf Sugar 8 2 12 8 & " Ounce Thread No. 26 8/ " 2 "

6 Rowing Shirts 3/9 1 2 6

6 plain blankets 3 pts BB 13 /- 3 18 "

2 E Ware Washhand Basins 2/3 " 4 6

1 pair Boys Shoes "49 6 " Long Worsted Hose Men 3/2 " 19 "

2 Com cloth Trowsers 11 /- 1 2 " 6 " Cotton Handkfs 1/5 " 8 6

10 Ibs Coffee 8 " 6 8

2 Ivory Combs 1/5 ' 2 10

Carried for'd £ 197 4 6 20 " " [New page Statement]

1840 To Amount Brought for'd £ 197 4 6 20 " " Octr 29

1 Coffee Pot s " " 11

1 Eware jug 1 Qt Damd d " 1 4

6 balls Cotton Thread 316

1 Clasp Knife with Driver "22

6 Gunflints doz 3 " " 2

1 DK Valentia Vest "86

1% Yd Com blue Strouds 4/4 " 7 5 By Revd Jason Lee's note date 29 Sept '40 for $250 at Beaver

price amounting to " " " 62 10 By Revd Jason Lee's note 24 Sept '40 in favor Sidney Smith for

$29.40cts at Beaver price amounting to " " " 7 7 To For Armstrong

1 pair Sea Boots 126

2 Com wh flannel Shirts 8/3 " 16 6 1 Blk Silk Handkf 38 in 55 1 pair com cloth Trowsers d " 11 " 6 Ibs Soap 8d " 4 "

1% Yd Blue Duffle 7/3 " 10 11

For S Smith

1 pair Seamens drawers " 4 11

1 Com wh flannel Shirt "83

4 pipes " " 4

4 Cotton Handkfs 1/5 " 5 8

274

F. G. YOUNG

7 Yds Com printed Cotton 1 Blk Silk Handkf 38 in

1 Com Cotton Shirt 31 12 Yds Trace Chain 1 pair Sea boots 1 fruit dish

1 Stand Lamp

2 Galls Lamp Oil

Carried for'd £ [New page Statement] Amount brought for'd £ Oct 31 1 Tray Japd Mid d [ ?] 1840 d

1 Gall Port Wine

1 Small Tin Tureen 6 B M Tea Spoons

2 boxes Muscatel Raisins

8 Ibs Currants

1 Dble Rein bridle

1 Tin funnel

Paid your note 29 Inst in favor

James Baker for $50 at Beaver price To advances at Woahoo (Paid Engages) Novr 30 Paid your note 25 Inst in favor

Caleb Wilkins for $6 at beaver price Paid your note in favor G Ebberts

for $37 at beaver price Irons for three Swinglle trees " 2 prs traces 15Ms Ibs

3 Bridle Bits

To " " Cowie To transfer Cr Napoua By Balance 1st June 1840

Add Error on Coffee Pot

11 6

"5

d " 3

8d "

"12

"2

" 1

5/3 " 10

205 16

89 17

205

16 " 89 17 "

"

11 8

««

16 "

"

6 3

doz 1 /5 4/1 '••

" 9 8 2

9 "

6 "

"

18 "

"

" 6

12

10

5

12 6

1

10 "

9

5 "

I/-

15 6

5

6 4

4

9 7

1 14 2

7.

2 10

248

5 3 91 11 2

Less Credits

91 11

Less by the following credits in the Indian

Shop Book May 18 By 4 Sm Beaver

156 16 11

Augst 27 Octr 31

1 Large 1 Pup 1 Large 17 Large 1 Large

5/6

11 /-

1 2 " 11 " 2 " 11 9 7 5

6 11 144

Carried Forward

(Additional entries on this sheet in pencil are blurred They include a note of Dr Babcock 65"

and make a total of £155 14 11

[New Sheet and new page]

Dr Estate of E Young (deceased) in account with The Hudsons Bay Co Cr

£ d a £

To Amount of Account last rendered 155

Deduct Amount overcharged this 1

19 ' 17 11

d s

14 H 10,, 5

By 429% bushels wheat received from Revd Mr Leslie

Add Interest on this Amount from June

154,, 3/ 64,,

4,, 6 8,, 6

16,, 0

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE

275

1841 to 31 May 1842 @ 5 p cent

To Amount due Cowie vizt

wages fm 14 Feby 1840, date of Engagement

at Woahoo to 30 June 1841—10% mo <g> 50 / p mo 41 5 00

Less the following Vt Amount of Sundry Supplies p Amts

handed in by Mr Leslie, $79, 26% 19 16 5

Advances at Woahoo 1840 paid by Mr.

Young 2 16 3

do do 5,, 6,, 4

4,, 9 ,,10 94 5 10

27 ,,19,, 0

[New page]

Carried forward £ Brought Forward To Amount due Napoua Vz

Wages as Cowie Adv. at Woahoo 1840 paid by Mr Young

atVanr 1840 Do Amt of Sundry Supplies as

p Acct handed in by Mr Leslie $54%

Less Amount of Mr Blanchets Note

E E

Vancouver

15 April 1842

13,, 6,, 0

107 11 10 107- 11- 10

2-16-3 4- 9-7

13-11-3

41,, 5

,,17,, 1

127 ,,19,, 9 8 10 0

119,, 9,, 9

Dr

1842 June

[New page and new sheet] Estate of E Young (deceased)

In account with the Hudsons Bay Company

DR

To Amount of Account rendered £

To Interest on above balance for one year, 5 p cent By Amount put to credit of Estate

by Catholic Mission of Wallamette Augt 12 By Transfer Dr Sundries for orders

in favor of Individuals, transferred

to credit of Estate vizt J Holman p his Note favor of Ja ONeil

or bearer p 10% dolls beaver R Newell do J Turner dated

27 May 1841 p 5 dolls beaver Jason Lee do p G Abernethys Note

dated 9 Augt 1842, p $108,36 Beaver Jason Lee p his order dated 8 Augt

1842 P $ 19% beaver Louis Ossin p his note dated 10

Inst favor of D Leslie P $4.70 Robert Newell p Amount due by him to

the Estate p Mr Leslie's Au $34.50 David Leslie p his order By Orders for wheat from Sundries Vizt

Jo A Rivet 86 2/3 bus

T Fletcher & Ja ONeli 153 1/3 bus

J McLoughlin 71

E Lucier 26

Hubbard & BelHque 31 5/12

Carried Forward £

127 6

19 9

CR

8 10

I

2

12

6

1

R

««

27

1

10

4

17

6

1

3

6

8

12

8

21

M

8

13

00

•;

•;

fO

10

13

••

3

18

««

4

14

3

134 7 9 130 8 9

276 F. G. YOUNG

DR OR

1842 Brought Forward £ 134 1 9 130 8 9

Aug 12 By 13% bu wheat deld Laframboise p Barnabe 3/ 2 " "

By 13 do do p Bellique 3/ 1 19 '

134 7 9 134 7 9 E E

Fort Vancouver 12 August 1842

p H B Co

Dugald Martavtah

VI.

An Ewing Young note

We or either of us promise to pay Solomon H Smith as follows. In the year 1841 one Hun [dred] bushels of wheat and twentifive dollars and als[o] in the year 1842 the sum [of] 100 bushels of wheat and twentifive dollars In the Year 1843 the same amount of wheat and twentifive dollars which is to be paid to the Said Solomon Smith for an Im- provement he sold to E You[ng] at the place Caled the Yellow Banks

Wallammet, July 1840 Ewing Young

Endorsed as follows:

Rec twenty five Dollars on the within 9th of October 1841

S. H. Smith

Reed on the within forty Dollars fr S H Smith by D Leslie Administrator fr E Youngs Est

Jas A ONeil

I Heirby Certify that Sh Smith informed me by letter that he reed thirty three bushels of wheat from plassee [Michel Laferty] whitch I think is to be Credited on this note

Jas A ONeil

August 15th 1842

This is to certify that I have reed an order on Joseph Mc- Loughlin for seventy three Dollars twenty nine cents of I L Babcock Adr of E young estat as a credit on this obligation if said order is accepted at Fort Vancouver this 26th of January 1843

Jas A ONeil

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 277

1841

VII.

Appraisal and Inventory of Property The Estate of Mr Ewing Young Deed Dr in A/ct

with Robt Moore 1841 Feby 12th & 13th to 2 days appraising property at

$2 00 per diem $4.00

March 15 to 1 day measuring and apraising plank at

$2.00 2.00

" to copying appraisement and Inventory of

property $2.00 2.00

$8.00

Mr E Young Debt W Johnson for Going to forte George and bring up Goods for him 10 Dollars

for Making of shirts and Washing 5 Do

five Days employed in the praisment of his property 10 Dollars for his womans board eleven Weeks 14 Dol

To auctionering property amounting to $1333i/3 at 1J

per cent $20 00

$59.00 May 27th 1840 [sic]

[The last item in the above is in a different handwriting. The date and summing up is in this different hand. As the first sale or auction was on May 26, 1841, the year given was an error]

(A document nearly of the same date) $30.

On or before the first day of October next we promise to pay David Leslie as administrator for the estate of Ewing Young deceased, thirty dollars in merchantable wheat at Champoic at sixty cents per Bushel or in Bills receivable at

278

F. G. YOUNG

the office of Fort Vancouver for value received witness our hands & Seals this 25th May 1841.

W Bailey Seal Attest

W Johnson Seal C. M. Walker [The above is the handwriting of C. M. Walker)

VIII.

First Auction

Account of Auction Sale of Property belonging to the Estate of Ewing Young by direction of David Leslie Esq Ad- ministrator May 26 1841 Viz

1 Tame Brindld Cow & Suckg Calf

1 Heifer ' without calf

1 Speckled " & Calf

1 Tame Black " 1 " Speckled & dun Calf 1 " Spotted Brindld Cow & no Calf 1 Brindled Steer First choice yearling Heifer Chd3 next in choice " " a $17. each Pair of yearling Steers 1 white Heifer yearling 1 Light Brindld Heifer yearling 1 Red & White Heifer " 1 Cream 1 Black Bull

S Smith S Smith S Smith J ONeil Squires La Roque S Smith MacCarty J Kernan G Winslow T. J. Hubbard S Smith S Smith T. J. Hubbard T. J. Hubbard S Smith

45.00 32.00 17.50 25.00 38.00 28.00 28.50 13.40 17.00 51.00 17.50 12.00 12.00 15.50 17.50 11.50

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 279

1 Cow & Calf at Quantiles house L Fourcia 30.00 [Forcier] 1 yoke Oxen & yoke J ONeil 63.00 5 first choice yearling Heifer a $13 S Smith 65.00 2 Cows & calves take as come 2 a $24. S Smith 48.00

Chdl Cow

James Baker 25.00

4 " "

" " " $23 J ONeil 92.00

2 two year old Steers " " $15 Wm Bailey 30.00

Chdl

$15.5U (j. Winslow 15.50

1 "

" " " Baptiste De Guerre 14.00

Chdl " " "

: Heifer" " James Baker 17.00

^ U (t t(

" " " $16 Joseph Gale 32.00

I [sic]"' "

" " " 15.50 Joseph Gale 31.00

10 "

" " " $15 S Smith 150.00

Amnt carried over 994.00

[New page]

Amount brot

up $994.00

1 Cow without Calf first choice S Smith 23.00

i « «

" 2nd John Howard 23.00

1 "

" 3rd "FA Reavy [Rivet] 22.00

2 « «

" 4th " S Smith 44.00

Chd3 Bushels of

Salt & 1 Barrel G Winslow 3.75

3

" " L Fourcia 3.75

3

" " J Howard 3.75

3 " "

" " Paddy [Rowland] 3.50

9 « «

3 " a $3 McCarty 9.00

3

1 " Squires 3.75

3

" " Turner 3.75

Chd9

3 " a $3.50 Johnson 10.50

36 "

" 12 " a $3.50 G Le Breton 42.00

3

1 " J Gale 3.75

3

"1 T J Hubbard 3.75

3

1 " S Smith 3.50

3 " "

1 " Baptiste De Guerre 3.75

280 F. G. YOUNG

3 " " " 1 " Wm Craig 3.75

3 " " 1 " S Smith 3.50

1 File T J Hubbard 30cts 1 File J Connor 33 cts .63

1 " Wm Craig 31 " 1 " J Connor 31 " .62

1 " T J Hubbard 32 " 1 " J Connor 33 .65

1 " TJ Hubbard 35 1 " T J Hubbard 40 75

1 " Newel 50 1 " Wm Craig 42 .92

1 Cross Cut Saw (Large) J Baptiste Perault 14.00

1 Dbl Barrel Fowls piece & Equipmt Joseph Reavet 52.00

1 Cross Cut Saw (small) Francis Reavet 9.50

1 Pair Match Planes La Roque 6.00

1 " Planes La Roque 3.25

2 Planes $1 J Howard 2 Planes J Connor $2.88 3.88 2 plane Smith 25cts 1 Plane L Fourcia 40c .65

(Auction Sales of May 26, 1842)

Chd 13 Files Wm Johnson 3J cts ea .45£

1 Double Bridle Charles Paid 6.00

2 volumes Shakespaeare # C Walker 3.50 1 Spanish Bridle George Gay 4.50 1 Saddle John Turner .50 1 Spanish Saddle & riging Barnaby 8.00

Amount Total $1339. 15 J

[In different ink there is the following indorsement: "Such items as are not marked chd in this bill are all settled"]

[The "chd" opposite some the items is made with the same ink as this indorsement.] [Accounts of Expenditures in connection with the sale of

May 26, 1841] Dr Estate of Ewing Young to John Turner

To 3 days work self & Horse $6.00

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 281

Reed Payment of David Leslie Administrator

his Willammet May 27 1841 John X Turner

mark Attest G Le Briton

Dr Estate of Ewing Young to Geo Gay

To 4 days work self & Horse $8.00

Willammet

May 27 1841 Received Payment of David Leslie Admr

George Gay

Dr Estate of Ewing Young to John Kornan

To 3 days work self & horse $6.00

Willammet

May 27 1841 Received Payment of David Leslie Admr

John Kornan

Dr Estate of Ewing Young to Joseph Gale

To 1 days work $1.00

Willammet

May 27 1841 Reed Payment of David Leslie Administrator

Joseph Gale

Dr Estate of Ewing Young George Ebbert

To 3 days work self & Horse $6.00

Willammet

May 27 1841 Reed Payment of David Leslie Adminisr

George Ebbert

282

F. G. YOUNG

[Another sheet] Dr Estate of Ewing Young- to Wm Craig

To 4 days work Self & Horse

Willammet May 27 1841

Reed Payment of David Leslie Admstr

Wm. Craig

Dr Estate of Ewing Young to Joseph Meek To 3 days work Self & Horse

27 00

$8.00

$6.00

Willammet May 27 1841 Reed Payment of David Leslie Adminstr J L Meek

Dr Estate of Ewing Young to Joel Walker

To 4 days work Self & Horse $8.00

Willammet May 27 Reed Payment of David Leslie Adm [Not signed, but "Paid" in different ink written across entry]

Dr Estate of Ewing Young to Baptiste Moliere

To days work Self & Horse

$7.00

Willammet May 27 1841 Reed Payment of David Leslia Admst (Not signed]

Dr Estate of Ewing Young to Antoine Revet

To 3 days work Self & Horse $6.00

Reed Payment of David Leslie Admnt

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 283

Willammet May 27 1841 [Not signed]

IX.

Second Auction

[Records of a sale on the Estate of Ewing Young, mainly of household goods and tools and represented in indorsement on one of the record sheets as having taken place "in Sept

Minits of E youngs Sail cts

Joseph Despaw Dr to two hogs $8.50

to sundreys 22

["Charged"] $8.72 cts

[Each one of the accounts has written over perpendicularly as "Charged" "Charged in Book" or "Settled" "Reed pay- ment"] &c.

[The double comma used in separating dollars and cents betray accustomed use of English money.]

Marshall Dr to one hog 4,,00

to one Shirt " ,,70

[Settled] $4, 70cts

Mr Laddaroot Dr to one tabel 5,,75

do to one wash boll 1,,75

to Steel yards 10, 20 to one pound tea 1,,20

to J doz knivs & falks 3, 25

do do do 1,,30

to one hone ,,,15

284

F, G. YOUNG

to one hone

to one hammer

to one stand of Castings

to one bead sted

[Bal. Charged in Book]

George Gay Dr to one horse to one ox yoak to five Chisels to one hand Saw to seven Books to one tea ketel

[Settled]

[New page]

Minuts of E youngs Sail [Rivet]

Riva Dr to Sive to five files to one froe [?]

to sundiarey to one augur to one kettle to one hamer

[Settled]

Jas Baker to one funnel to one Augur to two pilowes to one trunk

2,,20

,,,80

12,,00

7,00

$4S,,60

$45,,00 2,,50 1,,50 2,,25 1,,00 1,,25

$53,,50

$2.00 cts

1,,00

1,,00

,80

U6

70

16

$6,,82cts

$, ,,45 cts

90

2,,00

,,40

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE

285

to one hog to one barrel to one iron pot

[Charged on Book]

Winslowe Anderson Dr

To tea pot

to one candel mould

to one trunk

to one blanket

to two hankerchiefes

to one shirt

to two

to two pillowe slips

to two pillowes

to four barrels

to ^ doz plats

to whippletree irons

to two iron wedges

to six sickels

to one bead sted

to one ketel

to one hog & strichnine

[Charged in Book]

Wm Johnson Dr one pitcher

to one chalk line

to ball moles

to one hammer &gimlet

to one Dimejohn

3,,00

,,40

3 00

$10,,15cts

0, ,,6cts

,,25

,,50

4,,25

75

40

20 1,75 2 25 2 10 2,,80 3,,50 3,;70 2 25

40 7,,00

$33;,27

$0,,50 ,,,25 ,,,11 1,,05 ,,,90

[Charged in Book]

$2,81 cts

286 F. G. YOUNG

Jas ONeil Dr one sasspan $,,075cts

to one tea pot 0 20

to one draw shave 1, 00

to sand paper ,,20

to two lamp ,,20

to rings - 70

to two axes 1, 25

to one Cupbord 12, 50

to two f ether beds 15. 50

to one tabel 4,75

$37,,05cts [Reed pament]

Peter Bileek Dr two brushes $1. 50cts

to one brush ,,40

$l,,90cts

[New page : Minets of Ewing Youngs Sail]

E Lucier two hogs $10,,00cts

do one keg [Settled] .40

Sidney Smith Dr one hog 7,,25

do one yoak of oxen 70,,00

do do 55,.,00

to two & half yds Cloth 6,.25

to one blanket 2,,70

to one pice of Cloth j?25

to one a* ,,35

to one log Chain 4,,00

[Settled] $145,,80cts

Mr. Plesse Dr one hog 4 QQ

to one pitcher ? 49

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 287

to £ doz pans ,,,60

to one sive , ,,60

to two pair drawers , ,,80

to one kettle , f,45

to one box glass , ,,60

$7,,45cts [Charged in Book]

David Leslie Dr to one paper tacks ,,25cts

to three Raisors 1,,95

to one pair of trousers 3,,00

to books ,,,50

to one Saus pan \2\

to one water bucket 6

to one keg 6

to sundiareys 6

[Charged in his a/c] 5,,98J

Jeremiah Horrigan Dr to one dish ,,35cts

to one f ring pan 25

(Charged) 60

John Turner Dr to one log chain $2,,90cts

to one kettle 2,,30

to one fether bead 7,,00

to one bead sted 2,,25

to one Saw 1,,00

to tabel legs ,,50

(Settled) $15,,95cts

Sharlo Dr to three Sheets $1,,00

To one bread trough ,,70

288 F. G. YOUNG

1,70

Dubride Dr ,,30

Shappell Dr to one flat iron ,,50

X.

Farm and Live Stock of the Estate Leased Articles of an agreement made and entered into this first day of November in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty one, between David Leslie (as administrator for the estate of Ewing Young deceased) on the first part; and C. M. Walker and George La Britton of the second part, Witnesseth; That the said David Leslie on his part, doith by these

presents Let unto the second party, the farm and premises, the Horned Cattle & Horses belonging to the estate of the de- ceased Ewing Youngs for the term of One year from the date above written ; on the following conditions, viz 1st The said Leslie, furnishes upon the farm, the necessary agricultural tools, with sufficient teams of Horses or mules for the ploughing or carting ; for the consideration of one third the net products of said farm.

2d He, delivers into the safe Keeping of the 2d party all the horned Cattle and Horses, for the three fourth part of their increase, paying to the second party for their trouble in the care of Said stock, One fourth their yearly increase ; 3rdly He also agrees to furnish all the tame Horses belonging to the estate at this time for the guarding of Cattle and Horses and also to give one third of all the wild Horses that may be broken in

4thly He also agrees to allow the 2nd party the privilege of killing twelve head of beef on condition of returning an equal quantity of our share of the increase say one half Bull and half Heifer Calves.

Sthly He also agrees to allow to the 2nd party one half of the increase of all Cows that are tamed by them.

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 289

6thly He also allows the 2nd parties the use of as much land as they may wish to make use of for the purposeof gardening free of rent

The 2nd party also agree to cultivate as much of the land as may be in their power and for the consideration of two thirds of the net proceeds.

2nd The 2nd party also agree to take care of the Cattle and Horses guarding them and Karraling them and branding the the increase of the Estate with their brand & their proportion with their own brands in or about the Month of September.

David Leslie C. M. Walker George Le Breton Witness

James A. ONeil

XL

Third Auction Account Sale

Property belonging to Estate Ewing Young

at Public Auction June 13 1843 Terms Sale Money to be paid one year from Sept 1843 with

Interest at 6 pr ct. Note with an endorser 1st choice 2 wild Horses Sneckel a$12J 24.50

2nd " 1 " " J Kelsey $10 10.00

1 " " CJoquar[?] $6| 6.50

1 " " WmMcCarty $6J 6.25

1 " " Wm Dougherty $15 15.00

1 Partly Tame " J B DeGuerre $15 15.00

1 Wild Horse Ring $5J 5.50

1 " Horse B DuCharm $10J 10.50

1 Tame Stud Horse John Howard $35 J $35.50 1 small Band Wild Mares & Colts about

20 head C W Walker $46 46.00

1 small Band Wild Mares & Colts Messrs

290

F. G. YOUNG

Buxton Griffin & other $90

1 small Band Wild Mares & Colts about

8 or 10 head Charles McRay $32J

1 Large Band Wild Mares & Colts about 50 head

J Howard McCarty & others 1 very old Tame work Horse John Saunders 1 " " " " " J Baker 1 " " 1 " "

1 " " Cartwheels

2 " ." Ploughs

1 Wild Horse •i a st

1 a a

1 Tame work Horse 1 "

•I (t (( ((

M Placide J Turner J Turner J Turner a$6 J Turner Eustace Raymean Johnson Sidney Smith George Gay John Howard

90.00 32.50

216.00 18.50 11.00 16.00 30.00 10.50 12.00 13.50 13.00 21.00 30.00 4050 3150

Amount Carried over $753.25 [New page]

Amount brot up $753.25 All the wild Horses belonging to the Estate not otherwise dis- posed off & not present at sale with the brand G Gay Cook & Fletcher & others 86 00 1 Yellow pied Tame Cow Joel Turnham 39 00 1 White Tame Cow C Walker 40 00 1 Yellow pied Tame Cow Horns Tips sawed off

R Williams 3400

1 2 & Calf J Turner 44 50

30 small Iron Harrow Teeth Cook & Fletcher 4 50 Claim to Farm & all Improvement's not otherwise

disposed off S Smith 205 00 One Half of the Wheat now growing upon Farm

J B DaGuerre 33 00

Lot of Harness Hames &c 50cts to Johnson 50

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE

291

1 Iron Chain C Walker $5.00

1 Iron bar L H Judson $1.

2 Mill stones & Gear to C Walker $14.00 1 Plough Iron J Holman $7.

1 Hide McKay 1.35

1 Hatchet Cook &Fletcher 50cts

500

100

1400

700

1.35

50

$1268.60

272 Head Wild Cattle at $9. pr Head sold at Private Sale to Mess T J Hubbard J ONeal & W H Gray 2448.00

Whole amnt Sales $3716.60

Expense of Sale Collecting Cattle & Horse's & Branding & Vending &c &c

Paid J Meek Auctioneer for his Services $5.00

" W Doughty Thompson & Black for collecting Horses J day $1.50 ea 4.50

" J Turner 7J days collecting & Branding Cattle &

Horses at $3 22.50

" J Turner Services at last Sale not heretofore paid 10.00 " Cook & Fletcher each 7 days work & Horse hire $29.

For Flour & Bread $2.55 31.50

Paid W Johnson for Cooking 1 day &c $2 $2.00

" J. B DeGuerre 8 days with Horses & Cattle &c 7.00

" George Gay 7-J day's work himself & boy & Horses

at $5 3 extra Horses 1 day at $1 40.50

" C W LeBreton for 12£ day's Services a $2 Horse

hire Collecting & Karaling Horses & Cattle 2 days 27.00 " T J Hubbard for 2 days hunting Cattle & horse $4 4.00 " Smith for \ day hunting Horses (after he gave up

all claim) 1.50

Amount paid by Smith for collecting Cattle & Horses [Not filled in]

XII. A Bibliographical Record

292 F. G. YOUNG

Estate of Ewing Young Dr

To J. E. Long- To Making full record of entire estate

And Attesting the Same 2.25

" Filing 90 Papers belonging to estate 6j 5.62J

$7.874

Received this first day of October 1845, of J. E. Long. All the papers and documents in his possession relative to the un- finished business of the Estates of Joel Turnham and Ewing Young deceased.

W. H. Willson

Judge of Probate XIII.

Financial Statements

[Arranged in the order in which the bills were incurred. As most of them are receipted they reveal the administrative affairs of the Ewing Young estate during the period covered by them.]

Mr Ewin Young

To W J Bailey Dr 1838 Nov 7th Suph Quinine

for Kanacca $-50ct

Do for slave boy -" 50

llth Cathartic for 1 girl - 10

Dec 13th Astringent Mixt Do ~ 25

Visit & Medicine for slave boy 1- 25

1839 July 26th Three Anthelmintic [?] powders for

Mr Young " 60

Aug 13th Emetic 10

Sulph Quinine -- 25

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 293

Sept 2d do do 75

5th Visit & Medicine !„ 20

19th Visit & Medicine for Ind Woman 1,, 50

Nov 7th Stomachic pdr for Mr Y "40

Decb 29th Epsom Salts 20

1840

April 13th Visit Medicine &c for Peggy 2- 00

May 2d Do Do Do 1- 90

" Rhubarb for Mr Y 25

" 28th Powdered Rhubarb 50

Sulph Quinine & Cathartic 50

Stomach Mixture $1,, 00

Aug 19th Balsam Capaiva 1,, 00 13.75

Sulph Quinine Do 1,, 00 10

24th Emetic for Kanacca 10 23.75

" Sulph Quinine Do 1,, 00

Sept 2d Balsam Capaiva 1,, 00

" Injection 30

[Endorsed on back : "Doct Bailey Account"

"Mr Young"]

(The items following the summing up with the $13.75 total are crossed out. The "10" added to 13.75 seems to be an arbitrary charge in lieu of these items eliminated.)

Mr Ewing Young Dr in a/c with William Canning

1839 to ox ring and staple $2,,13|

"August 1839 Ewing Young Dr

To Louis Fercier for one hog $12.00cts to be paid in sawed lumber at his mill."

[Endorsed : "Acknowledged. D. Leslie Adm

"Paid per Order on G Abernethy]

294 F. G. YOUNG

March 25 to three Bui flour at $1.00 3,,

July 10 to 1 Bui Do " 1 00 1,,00

August 15 to H Do Do " 1 00 1 50

$763J

Reed Payment William Canning Mr. E Young

1840 To C M Walker

Novr 26th For Servises up to 17. Deer on your Busi- ness to Fort Vancouver for Supplies for Horse Trade at $1. pr. diem $23.00

Pd Portage at Falls & Indian assistance. 1.20

$2430

Wallamette March 1st 1841 Ewing Young Dr

To Ettienne Lucier August 1840 2 To 1 Large Beaver to be paid in Salt, price

agreed as five Bushel October 1840 To making two cloth Dresses

" Bteaver Price $4.00

March 2, 1841 To 5, Bushels Oats 3 shillings pr. Bushel

Beaver price $3.00

the oats delivered to Smith who works on

the Estate

There are Nine thousand and four hundred feet of Lum- ber measured pad and piled up for me, which Mr. Young promised to draw to the Bank of the River without further cost

Witness his

S. H. Smith Ettiene X Lucier

mark

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 295

L s d

1841 also a Small Beaver price 056

March 23 to hauling Load wheat to mill 5 00

May 8 to 10 Bui wheat at 5 shillings Stirling 2 10 00

to Delivering at mill 5 shilling Do 0 5 00

Mr Ewing Young Dr in a/c with Joel Walker 1840

Sept to 18 days services of Myself at $1.00 18,,00

to 10 days Do of son John

withmymuls at $1.00 10"00

Do to 9 days at 75 cts 6,,,75

to 2 pishamovs [?] & Beaverskin at $1,00 3,,00

1841 May to 4 days assisting to Collect Cattle

for sale $2.00 8,,00

45,75 Cr By Beefhides $2.00 2 00

43 75 Reed pay Henry Wood pr Joel Walker

Ewing Young to Joseph Gervais Dr

To 1 Mill Chain (del S Smith) $14.50

Willamet Settlement Sept 1840

Mr Young had in his hands at his death Sixteen and one half Bushels of Salt belonging to me Joseph Gervais

Wallamette Oct 1/40 Messrs Smith & Anderson Please deliver to

Geo H. Ebberts twenty bushels white wheat and place to my acct

296

F. G. YOUNG

David Leslie

Also Permit him to take the small stones and oblige

Yours &c

David Leslie

Endorsed on back: I do hereby certify that the within order was drawn on Smith and Anderson for wheat due from them to the Estate of E. Young and was paid by Sidney Smith and applied to the benefit of Sd Estate

Willamette July 2 45 David Leslie

November the 25 1840

Ewing Young Dr to George W Ebbert on shop book

to making six hooks and repairing chains $4 50

to one cittle [ ?] bail 37

Dec the 19 1840 tow fourges [ ?] 2 50

three sets of saddle rings 1 50

one cittle bail 25

$9 12J

Reed payment of David Leslie Ams Willamet May 27 1841 George W Ebberts

Estate of Ewing Young

To C. M. Walker 1841 For

May Services 6 days @ $2 pr diem Octr " 3 " " 2$ " Do

Do Charges for recovery of Horse lost by S Smith

By 2 Bbl Salt - $ 8-

add pr agreement 1.70

Dr

$12.00 6.00

$24.00 9.70

$14.30

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 297

Willammet May 27 1841

Due Two Dollars on demand from the Estate of E Young

$2.-- David Leslie Adm

[Endorsed on the back : "The within was to C Coniah"]

Chalam June 16th 1841

Reed of David Leslie AD. of E Young Estate forty Nine dol- lars in full of all Demands

Pleasant Armstrong

Mr Ewing Young

To Martha Young Dr

To Making a dress for Peggy $1.00

Making Shirt for Mr Young 50

To one days washing 50

$2,,00 Wallamutte July 24th /41

Reed pay Henry Wood pr Martha Young Endorsed : "Paid the within pr order on G Abernethy"

Dr Estate of Ewing Young to George Le Breton

To 3 days services at the public Sale of Cattle a $2 $6.00

" Recording the appointment of D Leslie as Administrator of said Estate 1.00

" Writing Notifications 1.00

$8.00

Reed of D. Leslie $8.00 in full of all demands for services ren- dered the Estate of E Young Decsed

Geo Le Breton Willammete August 16 1841

298 F. G. YOUNG

Mr Leslie Sir

Please pay Joel Walker Sixty dollars, & charge the Same to my Account

Chahalum July 16th 1841

Winslow Anderson

Mr Walker has made arrangements with Anderson to take wheat notes or a Note for the above ammount which is to be Indorsed on the note that Roe holds against Anderson & Whit comb

S SmITH

Reed of David Leslie pay in full for one Gallon of powder loaned to E Young

Willamette August 24 1841 John Kernan

$2.00

Reed of David Leslie Administrator on the Estate of E Young $5.33 in full for my claim for a canoe on Sd Estate

his

Edward X Boaveds [ ?] Willamitte Sept 4 1841 mark

Reed of Sidney Smith $12,00

to be accounted for on Settlement David Leslie

Willamette Sept 14, 1841

Wallamette Oct 1/41 Messrs Smith & Anderson

Please deliver to Robert Newell twenty bushels white wheat and place to my Acct

David Leslie Endorsed :

I do hereby certify the within order was drawn on Smith and Anderson for wheat du to the Estate E Young and paid by Mr. Smith and Applied to the benefit of Sd Estate Willamette July 2 -45

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 299

Willamette Oct 8 1841

Reed of David Leslie Adm on the estate of E Yong .Deced Seven dollars & thirty cents in full on settlement of Book accounts S. H. Smith

Reed of D. Leslie twenty five dollars in full for the money installment due from the Estate of E Young on the farm con- tract

Willamette Oct 9 1841

S. H. Smith

Champoeick 20th Oct 1841

Mr Leslie Sir Please pay the Bearer five Dollars and eighty cents and this shall be your discharge from me

S. H. Smith Endorsed : Received the within amount in full

W J Bailey Nov 28, 1841

Nov 28 1841

Reed of David Leslie A. D. of E Young Estate Twenty five Dollars in full all Demands up to this Date

S Smith

This day Reed of David Leslie Administrator

on the Estate of E. Young deed $100.00 one hundred & ten

dollars in full for eleven month labor of Opeo

Willamette March 9 1842 Felix Hathaway

The Estate of Ewing Young 1842

To Jas A ONeil Dr for Services six Dollars

Reed pament Jas A O'Neil

300 F. G. YOUNG

Dr Babcock

Sir pleas pay Calvin Tibetts twenty three Dollars and fifty cents at the Mission Store and the sam I will credit on the twenty five Dollars on E Youngs Estat that I hold and oblige your humbel Servant Jas A ONeil

Nov 4th 1842 Endorsed : accepted Nov 4th 1842

I hereby certify that I was present when Sidney Smith called on Judge Babcock to close his Unsettled Accts with the Estate of E. Young it was then agreed that the within enclosed Orders should be placed to the Credit of Sidney Smith, it was ascer- tained that he Sd Smith was owing the Estate twenty three and a half bushels of wheat on account, which would leave a bal- lance of Sixteen an a half bushels which was due Mr Smith at ninety cents per bushel

Mr Smiths Book Account was also allowed by Judge Bab- cock as correct David Leslie Willamette July 2 1845 Addressed : To Judge Nesmith Willamitte Falls

1840 D Leslie in a/c with Estate of Ewing Young

Dr Cr

Jan 25 To Lumber and hauling 27.00

1841

May 28 " one Cabres (Lasso) 3.00

June 28 " one do 1.40

July 22 " Lumber and hauling 55.50

By paid Hathaways note for 14.00

Lumber 3.75

do 3

" One Lasso 3.00

" 22 days use of horse 22.00

" Paid at Vancouver 85.60

I '" EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 301

" in exchange of orders with O'Neil 3.20 By 13 bus. wheat deld by Billique

on a/c of estate 7.80

To Articles bot at sale in Sept

1841 as per bill 5.98

By 12 bus. flour deld to Mr Young

by Mr. Canning in 1839 @

$1,00 12.00

Paid expenses in settling accts

at Vancouver 13.00

To amt received of J. L. Whitcomb

on a/c of Sunds bot at sale 67.00 " Balance of a/c due from J. L.

Whitcomb 3.50

To the Estate $163.38 $164.35

Balance Dr 97

Amounts paid out by D Leslie for the Estate of Ewing Young deceased.

Paid to T J Hubbard amt due from Estate $28 78

1 Wm Canning as pr recpt 7 63J

Aug. 16 1841 Paid to Geo Le Breton (for service)

amt due him as pr receipt 8 00

July 1840 Paid to Martha Young as pr recpt 2 00

Sept 1840 Paid to Joel Walker do 43 75

March 1842 Paid to F. Hathaway do in full 11000

Oct 1841 Paid to S. H. Smith Do Do 730

May 27 1841 Paid to J. L. Meek for services Do 6 00

May 27 1841 Paid to Wm Craig Do Do 8 00

Paid to Baptiste Molaire services as pr rect 7 00 Aug 1841 Paid to John Kernan for powder as per rect 2 00 Sept 1841 Paid to Jos Gervais as pr a/c 14 00

Sept 1841 Paid to Sidney Smith for damage done by

Cattle 1200

302 F. G. YOUNG

Paid to Wm Bailey for medicines and

services 23 75

Sept 1841 Paid to Ed Borrows as pr receipt 5 33

Paid to E. Lucia as pr a/c 28 20

Aug 1839 Paid to L Fourcir Do 12 00

Paid to Joel Walker W Andersons order 60 00

May 27 1841 Paid to John Turner for services 6 00

Paid to Geo Gay Do 8 00

Paid to John Kernan Do 6 00

Paid to Jos Gale Do 1 00

Paid to Geo Ebberts Do 6 00

Paid to Jas O'Neil Do 6 00

Nov 1840 Paid to C M Walker as per a/c 24 20

Aug 27/41 Paid to G W Ebbert as pr a/c 9 \2\

May 27 1840 Paid to W Johnson services &c 59 00

Paid to Robt Moore as pr a/c 8 00

Paid D Leslies Note on demand to

C. Conia 2 00

Paid to F Hathaway as pr a/c 39 20

Amt card forward 460 27

[New page]

Amt Brot forward 460 27

Oct 1841 Paid to S. H. Smith as pr recpt 25 00

June 1841 Paid to P. Armstrong Do 4900

Aug. 1842 Paid for trip to Vancouver 13 00

Due to the Oregon Mission Amt chgd

by D Leslie for services 82 00

Paid H B Go's Bills in full as pr a/c

rendered by them 195 16 10— $783.26 783 26 May 27 1841 Paid Rivet for services as pr bill 6 00

(Endorsed : a/c of payment made from the Estate of Ewing Young Dcd

By

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 303

D. Leslie Ad—

(A statement of account with Fort Vancouver) Ewing Young Dr

To Fort Vancouver Sale Shop for the fol- lowing vitz 1839 Nov 28 pr E Lucier & Joe Gale, H Wood. J Gervais

L s d

Cr 91 11 2

to Novr 30 1840 Dr 248 8 1

L s d 156 16 11 11 19

144 17 11

Estate of Ewing Yound Deed

To L. H. Judson Dr.

To one days attendance at sale and travelling fees $4.50

To assisting in taking minutes of testimony in case of

of Jose Rownaldo Young .50

$5.00 Cr by on small iron bar purchased at the day of sale 1.00

Ballance due L H Judson 4.00

Received payment

L. H. Judson

[No date but purchase of "iron bar" reveals date as that of June 13, 1843.]

Reed of James Oneal forty four Dollars in an order on the Mission given by Dr White to apply on a note given in favour of E Youngs Est I L Babcock

Willamette Feby [July?] 22 1843

also an order given by Mr Gray of forty two Dollars and fifty cts ILB

304 F. G. YOUNG

15 June 1843

I L Babcock Sir

You will please pay S Smith one dollar and fifty cts for my Services after mishd Colts

P F Thompson

Received of S. Smith four dollars and fifty cts for Services in Branding E Young Cattle & Horses.

Wallamette Sept 4th 1843 J B Deguire

XIV

Miscellaneous Accounts [A salt account with the Ewing Estate]

Dr Babcock you have here The Bill of Sale of the Salt Be- longing to the Estate, E Young. I have delivered on Mr Leslies order, one hundred and eight six Bush, of Salt by measure and with this fifty two empty Blls. and fifty cts on the price of two large Bll. 186. Bush,, 52. Blls. empt 50 cts on 2 large Blls.— -Since Mr Leslie left last fall.

At my own Instance I. have sold

To Cook & Fletcher 2 Bll at $3.50 pr Bll. $7.00

Mr Leslie 6. Large Blls $4.50 pr Bll 27.00

li Bush & 1 emty Bll 2,25

(This is an Book account) Total $29,25 Reed note of, D Leslie [This receipt in different

writing from a/c] I have taken in payment for care & delivery

2. Empty Blls. & 1. nine Gall Keg $3,00

3. Bush Salt & 1. Beaver 5.00 3 Blls Salt at $4.00 per Bll. 12,00

$,20,00

P/S. Mr. Trask has given credit to the Estate on Mr. Aber nethys Book, for part of Bll Salt with Bll

$3.00

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 305

[on the back :] Yours A. F. Waller

P. S. I hope you & yours are well. As usual here please write and inform me what to do if anything with The a/c I have made with Cook & Fletcher & Br Leslie

Yours A F W—

Peace be with, you

[Endorsed : Reed pay of D Leslie on the within acct] [Separately endorsed : Dr. I. L. Babcock Passenger on Board the Diamond

Chinook

[Any accumulating claim against the Estate]

Fort George, 30th June, 1842 Mr Leslie Dear Sir

When I was at Vancouver Mr Joseph McLoughlin in- formed me that he had received only Five wild cattle from you on my account and that would be all he should receive it is now five years since the late Mr. Young received on my account a Tame Cow and Calf from Capt Cooper of which Mr McLoughlin has shown you his certificate which I think is proof enough for my claim/several persons have told me that my share ought to be thirteen head.

I wish very much to have the tame Cow delivered to Mr McLoughlin, also a committee appointed on my account and I will abide by there [sic] decision by doing so you will oblige

Yours Ot St

W. Brotchie.

P. S. There are several people in the Wallamet that knows my tame Cow.

[Endorsed on back: "Capt Brotchie YJ letter respeterting cattle.]

Fality Plains July th3. 1843

Mr I L Babcock will you have the goodness to pa Mr Meek

306

F. G. YOUNG

$1.50 It being for survises that I Rendered At Mr Youngs sail Henry Black

Endorsed: "I certify that H Black rendered services to E Youngs Estate to the Amt of One dolls fifty cts

G W Le Breton Clk

[Statement unsigned, but evidently by Sidney Smith]

October 15 1843

20 To 8 days branding cattle 3 24

June To 3 at 2 6

To 1 day after colts 2.50

To 1 Green Hide 2 00

To paid Placeed 5 00

To 3 calves 27.00

To 1 colt 6.00

To 3 days driving cattle 3.00

To paid C Roe 3 3.00

To paid Kanaka 5.00

To 1 day in favor of Thompson 1.50

To 1 order on Deguerre 4.50

20

To Balance on Contract

$89.50 14.85

104.35

[Final settlement of Sidney Smith's claims against the estate] October 15th 1843 Dr

Estate of E Young to Sidney Smith To Book act as allowed by Judge Babcock Balence clam on wheat act Roes Receipt Duguers do Thompson do Leslies Bill of Goods

$8800 1485 300 450 150 770

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 307

$119.53

I doe solemnly swear that the above act is substancealy correct and Remaines unpaid

So help me God

S SmITH

Sworn and subscribed to before me this llday of July A. D 1845

J. W. Nesmith Judge of probate

Received of J W Nesmith one hundred and nineteen dollars and 55/100 in full of all demands against the Estate of Ewing Young

July llth A. D. 1845 S. SmITH

[Claim of Lawrence Carmichael]

This is to certify that Lawrence Carmichael appeared before me and declared upon oath that Ewing Young deceased late of Wallamett O. T. and himself never had any settlement of their business.

And said Lawrence Carmichael further declares that his de- mands on the estate of Ewing Young (deceased) are as fol- lows viz. The one half of 120 bushels white wheat 48 bus. red ditto. 60 bus. Peas. 2 acres corn (the number of bushels not recollected) 1J acres Potatoes (the number of bushels not recollected) 4 acres Oats in the straw, said to be 10 acres Barley, the number of bushels not recollected. Together with one half of the Farm, and all improvements.

Given under my hand this 27 day of March in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty three.

Lawrence Carmichael

I hereby certify that the aforesaid Lawrence Carmichael tes- tified to the truth of the contents of the above and did in my presence also affix his name to the same.

Mds A. Doenen

U. S. Ship Dale Commander

308

F. G. YOUNG

Monterey March 27th 1843

Know, all men by these presents, that I Lawrence Carmichael now of Monterey Upper California, do by these writtings [sic] give to William Bailey now of the Wallammett Settlement, full power to Ask, demand, and recover in my name, and for my use, from the Heirs, Assigns, Administrators, or Executors of the Estate of the late Ewing Young, who died in the said Wal- lammett Settlement, All and every part of one half of the Farm (commonly called Youngs place,) together with all improve- ments, grain etc., etc., that was on the aforesaid Farm in the month of January, 1837. And furthermore, I give said William Baily full power to act in these premises, in my name, and my behalf, in every way, and manner he may see proper. And in my name, to give receipts and sign off in full for all money or property he may recover for me, from said Estate.

In witness to hereof I hereby set my hand and Seal this 21st day of Augt one thousand eight Hundred and forty one.

Witnesses Lawrence Carmichael.

Thomas Larkin (Seal)

W. T. Faxon

This is to Certify that I appoint James O'Neil on account of W. J. Bailey being in the U. S. States

Witness Lawrence Carmichael

John Rainsford George Kinlock

Monterey March 27th 1843

Judement [sic] rendered in favor of Carmichael for the above claim $205.40 two hundred and five Dollars and forty cts. J. L. Babcock.

XV

Records of A L Love joy's Administration of the Ewing Young

Estate

Executive Committee : O Russell and P G Stewart notify J E Long of his appointment on 25th day of December, 1844.

[His "Bond as Administrator of E Youngs Estate]

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 309

Know all men by these presents that we A. L. Lovejoy John McLoughlin Frs Ermatinger Esquirs all of Oregon City and County of Clackamas in Oregon are held and stand firmly bound unto the people of Oregon in the penal sum of eight thousand dollars which payment well and truly to be made and performed we and each of us do bend [sic] ourselves our heirs executors administrators and assigns jointly severally and firmly by these presents as witness our hands and seals this 26 day of Dec. A. D. 1844

The condition of the above obligation is such that if the above bounden Lovejoy well and honestly discharges the duties appertaining to his appointment as administrator to collect the estate of Ewing Young late of Oregon deceased and shall make or cause to be made a perfect inventory of all such goods chattels debts and credits of the said deceased as shall come to his possession or knowledge And the same in due time return to the Treasurer of Oregon and shall in general perform such other duties as shall be required of him by law then the above obligation be void otherwise to remain in full force and virtut

John McLoughlin A. L. Lovejoy Frs Ermatinger Attest

J. E. Long

Lovejoy took oath of office as administrator on December 28th, 1844

[Report of Lovejoy as Administrator unsigned— Identified

through handwriting]

The whole amt deposited in the Admr hands for collection $3734.26

Receipts to the amt Notes in the hands of Admr $1412.54

310 F. G. YOUNG

$3906.74 appropriated to the Admr own use 50.00

$3956.74 Said Estat indebted to Geo. Abernathy 93.00

$3863.74

The original deducted 3734.26

Overruns $129.48

["Communication from A. L. Lovejoy Administrator Ewing. Youngs Estate, refered to B. Lee

H. Straight J. N. Garrison

Committee

Laid upon the table 6th Deer"] [The above is the endorsement on the back of the following

document] To the Hon

The Legislative Committee of the Territory of Oregon

The administrator on the Estate of Ewing Young late of Yamhill, deceased : appointed under an act of your body in A. D. 1844 entitled an Act "to build and erect a public Jail and close up said estate as soon as the circumstances would admit would respectfully represent

That there has been collected on the said Estate some nearly $2.500 which has been paid into the Treasury as directed under said act

The administrator would most respectfully ask to be dis- charged from further duties and services under said act And suggest to your Hon. Body the propriety of appointing a com- mittee to settle with him and report to the House the doings and transaction of the said administrator and to take into consideration the propriety of handing over the residue of

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 311

said estat uncollected to the Treasurer and rel [relieve?] the Government from further extra expense on same Estate

A. L. Lovejoy Admr

[Report of Committee appointed at the suggestion of Lovejoy]

Your Committee to whom was referred the Communication of the Administrator of the Estate of Ewing Young Deceased Have had the same under consideration and beg leave to report

That said Administrator Received for Collection the sum of Three thousand seven Hundred and thirty four dollars twenty six cents in liabilities on persons in Oregon Territory

That said administrator was required by law to pay the monies by him collected on said liabilities into the Territorial Treasury and take the treasurers receipt for the same

And it appears to the satisfaction of your committee that said administrator has paid to the Treasurer the sum of ftvo Thousand four hundred and ninety four dollars twenty cents, leaving in the hands of Said administrator the sum of One thousand four hundred and sixty two dollars fifty four cents, fifty dollars of which your committee finds has been appro- priated by said administrator to his own use

Said administrator informs your Committee that said Estate is indebted to Geo Abernethy the sum of ninety three dollars all which will appear by reference to the report of said admin- istrator herewith submitted with this report and your Committee further report that some sutable [sic] per- son be appointed to take charge of said Estate, and procede to collect and pay over to the treasurer, and that said administer [sic] so appointed shall be instructed to proceede as spedially as practabl and that said administrator be allowed the sum of cents pr Dollar for collecting the same

and your Committee beg to be discharged [No signatures to the report]

312 F. G. YOUNG

XVI.

Jail Built With Proceeds of Ewing Young Estate Site

Offered

Oregon City 20th Dec 1844 To Mess A L Lovejoy

M Gilmore Esqres R Newell

Gentlemen

I beg to Acknowledge the Receipt

of yours of this Date and I have great pleasure in Acceeding to your Request and give all that point laying between fourth and fifth Cross street between Water Street and the River for the purpose you Request reserving all Rights to former and to Rtevert to me when not used as a Goal I am

Gentlemen your Obedient humble Servant

Jno McLoughlin

P. S. in the mean [time] will you please select a suitable place [plan], for a place more suitted hereafter for a Goal so I may make it over to you JML

[Receipts given by Contractor constructing jail out of pro- ceeds of estate of Ewing Young]

Received this day of O Russell & P G Stewart Executive Com- mittee of Oreon an order on the Treasurer of Oregon for two hundred & Ninety one dollars 66 2/3 cts payable at the store of John McLoughlin in Oregon City it being the full amount of the first instalment as per contract for services rendered in con- structing a publick jail

In acknowledgement whereof I have hereunto set my signa- ture in Oregon City this eighth day of March A. D.

1845 P W Dawson Contractor

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 313

Received this day of O Russell and P G Stewart Executive Committee of Oregon an order upon the Treasurer of Oregon for two hundred & ninety one dollars 66 2/3 cts. payable at the stores of John Couch & George Abernathy in Oregon City; it being the full amount of the second instalment as per con- tract for servises rendered in constructing a publick Jail Witness my hand this 17th day of April A. D. 1845

At Oregon City P. W. Dawson Contractor

Oregon City 28th April 184 [5]

Received of O Russell and P G Stewart Executive Committee of Oregon and on the Treasurer of Oregon two hundred ninety one dollars 66 2/3 cts to be paid at the store of John Mc- Loughlin in Oregon City it being the third instalment due from constructing the Oregon Jail

P. W. Dawson

[Endorsed : P W Dawsons Receipt for money had on the Jail Contract Apl 28th 1845]

Received this 29 July 1845 from Geo. Abernethy Governor of Oregon an order for One hundred & fifty Dollrs on the Treas- urer of Oregon payable out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated being in full of all demands for services rendered in constructing and weatherboarding a public Jail as per contract

P W Dawson Contractor Witness my hand 29 July 1845 at Oregon City

XVI.

A petition praying that the estate of Ewing Young should not be used as the people of Oregon would become too deeply involved thereby.

A Petition

To the hon. Legislative Committee of Oregon Gentlemen :

314

F. G. YOUNG

Your Petitioners believe that have reason to fear that this Gov.t will become too much involved by using the Estate of Ewing Young deed. It has already been involved to some extent in the use of the principle of said Estate.

We are unaware at what moment a demand may be made upon this Gov.t for said Estate. If at an early day (as is very likely) we are certain, that in our present condition we shall be entirely unable to meet such demand. We have no doubt but that these demands when paid must be discharged in specie a sufficient quantity of which is not in the country. A sacrifise of our property must ensue. We therefore petition your hon- orable body to repeal that Act allowing this Gov.t to make use of this Estate. And as in duty bound your Petitioners will ever pray

June 27th 1845 Petitioners Names

Philip Foster

Saml McSween

Wm C Remick

R McCrary

Wm P. Dougherty

Nathan Smith

Wm Holmes

George P. Beale

USB Johnson

A. L. McKay

John P. Brooks

Jno F. Couch

Wm C. Dement

Lon Climon

Patrick Cormor

Campbell Stewart

George Heman

Noyes Smith

Theo Magruder

Petitioners Names

A. L. Lovejoy Collector Benjamin Nichols

B. F. Nichols

R Mcmahan Nathan P Mack David Arthur W H Vaughan Henry Evans M. R. Alderman Wm Arthur Joseph M. Wyatt Hugh Burns M. K. Pen-in James B. Stephens Robt Moore P Armstrong J W Nesmith

EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 315

A R Stoughton Louis Springer Endorsed :

Petition relating to Ewing Youngs Esatate Referd to com. of 5

THE QUARTERLY

of the

Oregon Historical Society

VOLUME XXI DECEMBER, 1920 NUMBER 4

Copyright, 1920, by the Oregon Historical Society The Quarterly disavows responsibility for the positions taken by contributors to its pages

OREGON— ITS MEANING, ORIGIN AND APPLICATION*

By JOHN E. REES.

It may appear presumptuous for me to imagine that I can elucidate the above caption. Ever since the word "Oregon" came into use people have endeavored to ascertain its meaning and origin and notwithstanding that considerable study and research have been devoted to this subject, the history of the word is still a mystery and bids fair, perhaps, to remain so. For years the solution of this question has baffled many inves- tigators and especially those who had a splendid opportunity to know the facts by reason of their having lived nearer the time when this event occurred. Therefore, the seeming audacity of myself, without such opportunities, to now attempt to explain the derivation of this word. I would not make such endeavor were it not for the fact that so many remarkable efforts, written by previous authors, to interpret the genesis of this word, have invariably ended with the expression or its equivalent, "I don't know."1

My presentation of this subject is suggestive and not to be considered exact history. It is the result of almost a half a century's acquaintance with the history, manners and customs

•Delivered before the annual meeting of the Oregon Historical Society, Oct. 23, 1920. 1 Bancroft's History of Oregon, I, 17.

318 JOHN E. REES

of Western Indian Tribes, especially the Shoshonis. While suggestive and not entirely correct, perhaps, yet the theory pre- sented herein appears quite plausible, at least, more so than any previous contribution to this intricate investigation and is possessed with sufficient reasonableness to take the inquiry out of the realm of conjecture and place it in the field of probable historical data.

This word is of Indian origin and therefore its history is regarded as miraculous by many investigators. The meaning of many Indian names now current in American history and geography is grossly perverted because of the shallowness of sentimental inquirers. The inability of many writers to solve the meaning and fully understand the application of Indian words is due to their ignorance of the language and especially the nature of the American Indian. If so disposed we could take the poetical thunder out of many American names, the visionary meanings of which are so ancient that "the memory of man runneth not to the contrary". But "truth is always stranger than fiction". For example, the word "Mississippi" is of Indian origin and is said to mean Father of Waters, an eloquent thought that conveys a certain knowledge which the red man did not possess. The Indian had no fixed names for natural objects; when speaking of them he used descriptive terms, only. Eight-tenths of Indian geographical names were coined on the spot from some particular attribute which was most striking to his mind at the time he bestowed it. There- fore, when asked by the white man, the red man's name of a certain stream or mountain, he designated it by some peculiar characteristic which came to his mind when asked. When the early trapper inquired his name for the Boise river he called it "Wihinast", meaning boiling rapidly, from the chief peculiarity in view at that moment which was an eddy or whirlpool in the river; or while near a mountain peak during a storm as the thunder was making itself manifest, he called it "Tome-up Yaggi", meaning the clouds are crying; in other words "Thunder," giving us the geographical "Thunder Mountain".

OREGON— MEANING, ORIGIN AND APPLICATION 319

The Canadian Indians knew that Fathers Allouez, Hennepin, La Salle and Marquette had made tremendous efforts to find and did find and traveled with boats upon the Mississippi river, so when the Chippewas were asked by the French their name for this river replied, as corrupted into French, "Mee- shee See-pee", meaning "Mee-shee", Father, and "See-pee", water, or Father's Water, referring to the Jesuit Fathers and not to the then unknown fact of its being the largest river in the world.2

The word "Oregon" is derived from a Shoshoni Indian ex- pression meaning, The River of the West, originating from the two Shoshoni words "Ogwa," River and "Pe-on," West, or "Ogwa Pe-on." The Sioux pronounced this word in the more euphonious manner in which we now hear it, a characteristic in which their tongue excels and the Shoshoni "Gwa" under- went, etymologically, a variation in the new language and became changed to "r," thus giving the sonorous word which Jonathan Carver, who first published the name to the English world, heard spoken by them during his visit with the Sioux nation.3

In the word "Ogwa" the syllable "Og" means undulations and is the basis of such words as "river," "snake," "salmon," or anything having a wavy motion. The sound "Pah" means water. Therefore, a river is undulating water. "Pe-on" is contracted from the two syllables, "Pe-ah," big and "Pah," water or Big Water meaning the Pacific Ocean. Some strik- ing natural phenomenon determined the cardinal points for the Shoshonis. Thus, "Coona-nah," derived from "Coona," fire and "Nah," in the direction of, means North, referring to the Northern Lights; or "To-yah-nah" from "To-yah," mountain the East as the sun, in rising, comes from over the mountains ; or "You-aw-nah" from "You-ant" meaning warm, the South the direction of warmth especially of warm winds ; and "Pe-on-nah," West, the direction of the big water or ocean. Captain Clark stated that the Shoshonis of the Salmon River country when asked about their river said it flowed into

2 Upham's Minnesota Geographic Names, 4.

3 Boaz, Handbook of American Indian Languages, 875.

320 JOHN E. REES

a great lake of water and pointed toward the setting sun.4 That direction was their West, and if any of the tribe are asked to-day about "Oregon" they point to the west and say, "Pe-on-nah." This is undoubtedly the etymology of the word "Oregon" and its Shoshoni origin and meaning, The River of the West.

The Snake River valley, in Idaho, was the principal habitat of the Shoshonis at the time the white man came in contact with them. However, they ranged from the Colorado to the Columbia rivers and their language was understood by all the tribes from the Rocky Mountains to California and by a few in other tribes outside of these limits. While at no time, is it known, that any of this tribe inhabited the Columbia River section, yet they dwelt upon the Snake and Salmon rivers, streams which are tributary to that river. They were well acquainted with the physiography of that stream, yet if either they or any other tribe had a name for the Columbia River, I have been unable, so far, to ascertain what it was. However, it is said that the Chinooks, who inhabited the coast near the mouth of the river, had a descriptive term which they applied to it.5

The oldest tradition among the Shoshonis is to the effect that their original home was just east of the Rocky Mountains in Montana, Wyoming and Colorado and that the Plains Tribes drove them into the mountains. They were great weavers of grass and twigs, making their lodges of such products, and called themselves "Shawnt", meaning plenty, and "Shaw-nip", grass, or the more euphonious name "Shoshoni", which, broadly speaking, means Weavers of Grass Lodges, and they always aimed to live near plenty of grass. Occasionally, they re-crossed the mountains and hunted buffalo on the Yellowstone and Platte rivers and often drifted down the Missouri River, where they came in contact with other tribes, sometimes in a friendly and at other times in a hostile manner. That they came in contact with the Plains Tribes is evident from the fact that the Arapahos, Blackfeet, Cheyennes, Crows,

4 Thwaites, Lewis and Clark, II, 380.

5 Bancroft's History of Oregon, I, 18.

OREGON— MEANING, ORIGIN AND APPLICATION 321

Hidatsa and Sioux possessed, in their vocabularies, names for the Shoshonis which mean Grass Lodge People.6

When visiting- with the Plains Tribes the Shoshonis talked about their own country. This is a natural supposition. No tribe could explain better, or as well as they, the great Rocky Mountain system, extending from Mexico northward for hun- dreds of miles, dividing the waters flowing east from those flowing west. They and their kinsmen occupied this region and lived all their lives in those mountains and could describe their rocky and crystalline natures better than any one. They knew better than others that the highest land west of the Mis- sissippi River was in those mountains and that there was a place within them that was the source of three very large streams, the Missouri, Columbia and Colorado, all taking their rise within a few miles of each other, and within the Yellow- stone National Park region where no Indian tribe ever dwelt, except the Tukurikas, a family of the Shoshonis.7 That one of these rivers was aOgwa pe-on", or the River of the West, undoubtedly meaning the "Columbia", the one flowing into the ocean, toward the setting sun. The other rivers were men- tioned, perhaps, but the "Columbia" appealed to the Shoshonis as it furnished him "Og-gi", or salmon, his principal food. They talked of the stream as the river out west or toward the west, at no time intending to give it a distinctive appellation. Had they wished to give it a name, the descriptive part of the word would have been placed first, as in the case of Snake River which, after immigration had formed the Oregon Trail, the Indian called "Po-ogwa" or Road River. As their rela- tives, the Moquis, lived adjacent to the Spaniards, the Sho- shonis had greater opportunities to know the Mexicans and became the first western tribe to possess horses which they procured from the Spaniard. They knew that the Mexican tribes possessed ornaments and utensils of gold, but such did not appeal to the Shoshoni as did bear claws and elk teeth. He knew where in these mountains this gold could be obtained, proven by the fact that he guided the white man to some of

6 Hodge's Handbook of American Indians, II, 556.

7 Ibid., 835.

322 JOHN E. REES

the greatest finds in the mountains. No tribe had the oppor- tunity to know these things as did the Shoshonis, which knowl- edge they imparted to other tribes with which they came in contact.

Bancroft, the historian, wrote, "Although living lives of easy poverty, the wild tribes of America everywhere possessed dor- mant wealth enough to tempt the cupidity alike of the fierce Spaniard, the blithe Frenchman and the sombre Englishman. Under a burning tropical sun, where neither animal food nor clothing was essential to comfort, the land yielded gold, while in hyperborean forests where no precious metals were discov- ered, the richest peltries abounded ; so that no savage in all this northern continent was found so poor that grasping civilization could find nothing of which to rob him."8

In the settlement of North America the French occupied the northern, the Spanish the southern and the English the central parts. In 1754, the contest between England and France for supremacy on this continent began, the bone of contention being the Indian fur trade along the Ohio River, which struggle was designated the "French and Indian War". This war ended by the Treaty of Paris in 1763, which divested France of all her possessions in America, the English thenceforth assuming con- trol.9 Jonathan Carver, a captain in the conquering English army, made an exploring expedition toward the interior of this newly acquired territory during the years 1766-7-8, for the purpose of securing some information and knowledge for the English people. He traveled by the way of the Great Lakes toward the head waters of the Mississippi and ascended the Minnesota River two hundred miles above its mouth, his object being to study the character of the country, the customs of the inhabitants and to endeavor to ascertain the size of the continent by traversing it. The information which he gained was published in a book entitled, "Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America"

Some extracts from Carver's writings say, "That range of mountains, of which the Shining Mountains are a part, begins

8 Bancroft's History of Central America, I, 63,

9 Ridpath's History of the World, VI, 669.

OREGON— MEANING, ORIGIN AND APPLICATION 323

at Mexico, and continuing northward, on the back or to the east of California, separate the waters of those numerous rivers that fall either into the Gulf of Mexico, or the Gulf of

California Some of the nations who inhabit those

parts that lie to the west of the Shining Mountains have gold so plenty among them that they make their most common

utensils of it Among these mountains, those that

lie to the west .... are called the Shining Mountains, from an infinite number of chrystal stones, of an amazing size, with which they are covered, and which, when the sun shines full upon them, sparkle so as to be seen at a very great dis- tance. This extraordinary range of mountains is calculated to be more than three thousand miles in length, without any very considerable intervals, which I believe surpasses anything of the kind in the other quarters of the globe. Probably in future ages they may be found to contain more riches in their bowels, than those of Indostan and Malabar, or that are pro- duced on the golden coast of Guinea ; nor will I except even the Peruvian mines. To the west of these mountains, when ex- plored .... may be found other lakes, rivers, and countries, full fraught with all the necessaries or luxuries of life; and where future generations may find an asylum . . . . there is little doubt but their expectations will be fully gratified in these rich and unexhausted climes".10

Extracting further he says, "From the intelligence I gained from the Naudowessie11 Indians, among whom I arrived on the 7th of December, and whose language I perfectly acquired during a residence of five months ; and also from the accounts I afterwards obtained from the Assinipoils,12 who speak the same tongue, being a revolted band of the Naudowessie ; and from the Killistinoes,13 neighbors of the Assinipoils, who speak the Chipeway language, and inhabit the head of the River Bourbon;14 I say from these nations, together with my own observations, I have learned that the four most capital rivers on the continent of North America, viz., the St. Lawrence, the Mississippi, the River of Bourbon, and the Oregon or the

10 Carver's Travels, 76-7-8. Walpole, N. H. 1813 edition.

11 Sioux.

12 Assiniboines.

14 Named in honor of the Royal Bourbon family of France. Now known as the Saskatchewan-Nelson River System.

324 JOHN E. REES

River of the West (as I hinted in my introduction) have their sources in the same neighborhood. The waters of the three former are within thirty miles of each other; the latter, how- ever, is rather further west." Bancroft says, "Substitute for the St. Lawrence the Colorado, which makes the observation all the more striking, and the statement is essentially correct."15 "This shews that these parts are the highest lands in North America; and it is an instance not to be paralleled on the other three quarters of the globe, that four rivers of such magnitude should take their rise together, and each, after run- ning separate courses, discharge their waters into different oceans at the distance of two thousand miles from their sources".16

Such was some of the information which Captain Carver obtained concerning the West which we find is so manifest as to be substantially correct. It was given to him by the Sioux who, no doubt, acquired it from the Shoshonis. Some authors have endeavored to discredit the captain's writings while others have designated them a paraphrase upon the efforts of others17 but the information which he imparts concerning this western country indicates that it came from some one who knew from experience of which he spoke. It may be that others helped to put his manuscript into readable book form as his papers were prepared for the press by a bookseller,18 but the captain un- questionably furnished the historical data which the Indians had imparted to him. After returning from his travels he proceeded to London where he proposed to the parliament of the British government the plan of ascending the Missouri and descending the Columbia and building posts along the route to facilitate the Indian fur trade and colonial settlements,19 but England, in neglecting support of Captain Carver's scheme, overlooked her supreme opportunity to entirely dominate the North American continent as did France, a century before, lose her undoubted future prestige by her shameful treatment of Pierre Radisson.

Captain Carver was the first white person known to use the

*-*:,!,•: jny*

15 Bancroft's Northwest Coast, I, 608.

16 Carver's Travels, 54-5.

17 Eleventh Edition, Encyclopaedia Britannica, V. 437.

18 Carver's Travels, 22.

19 Ibid., 18 and 280.

OREGON— MEANING, ORIGIN AND APPLICATION 325

word "Oregon", which he did in his book published in 1778, using it four different times and each time he said, "Oregon or the river of West," showing that he understood the word to mean, The River of the West. While Captain Carver was the first white person to use the word "Oregon", others before him spoke of a western river. In 1673, when Father Mar- quette and Joliet passed down the Mississippi, which they called the "Conception River",20 they supposed that they would float into the South Sea, later known as the Pacific Ocean; but when they reached the Missouri it was evident to themi from so vast a stream, that it must have come a long distance and drained a large section of country. The Indians informed them that such was the case and that beyond the source of the Missouri was another "large river that flowed westward".21 In 1683, when Baron Lahontan was exploring the Des Moines River he was told, by the Indians, "of a great western river running to the ocean",22 and Charlevoix, in 1721, while along the upper Mississippi, "learned of the Indians of a western river leading to the ocean",23 all of which indicated that the Indians of the Mississippi Valley knew of a western river which flowed into the Pacific ocean; in fact, one of their number, Moncacht-Ape, of the Yazoo tribe, told the French that he had, in 1700, traveled up the Missouri, crossed the mountains and descended a stream, which he called the "Beau- tiful River", to the ocean, making the first known transcon- tinental expedition.24 Such reports of a western river became a tradition among the Spanish navigators who first explored the Northwest Coast so that in 1543, Ferrelo and his crew, "imagined they saw signs of the inevitable great river"25 and in 1603, Aguilar sailing along the coast north of Cape Blanco "and near it found a very copious and soundable river, on the banks of which were very large ashes, willows, brambles and other trees of Castile; and wishing to enter it the current would not permit",26 from which incident the stream was called Rio de Aguilar, which was supposed to be and denoted on some maps as the Columbia River.

20 American Historical Review, XXV No. 4, 676.

21 Bancroft's Northwest Coast, I, 587.

22 U S Geol. Sur. Memoirs of Explorations, Surveys, Voyages and Dtscovertes, 491.

23 Ibid., 492.

24 Davis, Journey of Mon'cacht-A^e.

25 Bancroft's History of California, I, 79.

26 Bancroft's Northwest Coast, I, 146.

326 JOHN E. REES

In fact the reports by the Indians of a large river flowing from the continental divide of the Rocky Mountains into the Pacific Ocean caused some cartographers to represent on their maps, by dotted lines, a River of the West, after which it became the primary object and the goal of navigators of all nations to seek for and find this Indian stream to whose tra- ditional account were added many by the white man until 1792, when Captain Robert Gray solved the aboriginal legend and entered, for the first time, the channel of this river of many names, notwithstanding which he gave it another, "Columbia", after his vessel, and by which name the river has usually been known since.27

The next notable use of the word "Oregon", in literature, after its first application by Captain Carver in 1778, was by William Cullen Bryant in his poem, Thanatopsis, in 1812. "Thanatopsis" is a Greek word meaning a contemplation of death. It was said of the poet Bryant that if he was ever a child and thought as a child no one knew when it was. The widespread beauty of nature, her silent movements, her cease- less changes, the endless mass of humanity drifting ever toward the chasm of death, these were familiar themes over which he contemplated in his boyhood days and it was as a boy of eighteen years he wrote Thanatopsis. The splendid thought expressed in this poem comes as "a voice out of the wilder- ness" lifting one above the weary avocations of life to a purer faith in a life beyond. The warm human sympathy of the master poet is here overpowering. As proofs of his stately thoughts on the gravity and universality of death he appeals to the solemnity of the forest and the wilderness, for the dark forests of the western coast of America were quite as familiar to the average reader then, as was the wilderness in the Libyan Desert on the African Coast and it was that idea rather than for "meter" that the word "Oregon" was used by him. He said, "Take the wings of the morning, pierce the Barcan wilderness, or lose thyself in the continuous woods where rolls the Oregon, and hears no sound save his own dashings, yet

27 Lyman's Columbia River, Chap. 3.

OREGON— MEANING, ORIGIN AND APPLICATION 327

the dead are there! And millions in those solitudes, since first the flight of years began, have laid them down in their last sleep— the dead reign there alone!" This poem was published first, in 1817, and at once the boyhood effort, portraying the boundless majesty of nature, was stamped upon the minds and emotions of others and the word "Oregon" thereby became fixed and perpetual in the English language.28

President Jefferson, in his efforts to develop the resources of the nation west of the Missisippi, adopted the plan outlined by Captain Carver of carrying on a trade up the Missouri across the Rockies and down the Columbia to the Pacific, and in 1803, sent Captains Lewis and Clark on an exploring expe- dition across the continent with instructions, among which were, "The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri River, and such principal streams of it, as by its course and communication with the waters of the Pacific Ocean, may offer the most direct and practicable water communication across the continent, for the purpose of commerce". And "Should you reach the Pacific Ocean, inform yourself of the circum- stances which may decide whether the furs of those parts may not be collected as advantageously at the head of the Missouri (convenient as is supposed to be the waters of the Colorado and Oregon or Columbia) as at Nootka sound, or any other point of that coast; and that trade may be consequently con- ducted through the Missouri and the United States more beneficially than by the circumnavigation now practiced."29

Lewis and Clark completed their mission in 1806 and when nearing home on their return journey met many parties ascend- ing the Missouri on their way to the wilderness to participate in the fur trade with the aborigines,3° for as above quoted, no native tribe was so poor, even if it inhabited hyperborean forests, that it did not excite the cupidity of the white man. John Jacob Astor, a practical person, conceived the idea of putting into operation Captain Carver's plan and after form- ing the Pacific Fur Company, in 1810, laid a scheme to erect trading posts across the continent, the first one established

28 Bryant's Poetical Works.

29 Thwaites, Lewis and Clark, VII, 248, 251.

30 Chittenden's American Fur Trade.

328 JOHN E. REES

being Fort Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia in 1811, which proved to be the first permanent settlement on the Northwest Coast, after which subordinate posts were estab- lished on the Okanogan, Spokane and Willamette rivers. During the war with England, the British, in 1813, took Fort Astoria and the subordinate posts.31 But the United States was vic- torious in this war and was able to stipulate in the Treaty of Ghent, which ended this war in 1814, that "All territory, places; and possessions whatsoever, taken by either party from the other during the war .... shall be restored without delay",32 but England was loath to surrender back this fur trading post just as she refused, for years after the Revolu- tionary War, to give possession, to the United States, of the frontier fur posts to which America was entitled by treaty rights. From England's refusal to restore Fort Astoria to the United States arose the Northwest Boundary dispute which agitated both nations henceforth until 1846, when it was ad- justed by placing the boundary at the 49th parallel.33

Lewis and Clark's Journal was published in 1814, giving a glowing description of the country over which they had tra- versed, including the "Great Columbia Valley", which report made a deep and lasting impression upon all who read it. But this country, while legally belonging to the United States, under the Treaty of Ghent, was still in the hands of the British. As the British had failed to give up Astoria, Secretary Monroe, in 1815, six months after the treaty had been signed, made a demand on the English Minister to restore, to the United States, this post, to which request the English gave no heed. From this date began the agitation for the American posses- sion and occupation of the Northwest Coast, Hall J. Kelley, of Boston, being the first party to call popular attention to this subject. Until this time, this region was called the "Columbia River Country"; the "Shores of the Pacific"; the "Country Across the Rocky Mountains" ; the Northwest Coast" ; the "Western Coast of America"; or the "Country Westward of the Stony Mountains", but Kelley, being a school teacher and

31 Irving's Astoria.

32 Malloy's Treaties, Conventions, Etc., I. 613.

33 Von Hoist's Constitutional History, III, Chap 2.

OREGON— MEANING, ORIGIN AND APPLICATION 329

familiar with Carver's Travels and Bryant's Thanatopsis, des- ignated the district the "Oregon Country", it being the first instance in which is found the name "Oregon" applied to the Columbia River Valley. Kelley became an enthusiast over the subject, making it the principal topic of his private con- versations as well as in public lectures, writing many newspaper articles and later, pamphlets on the obsessed theme and, in 1817, began to memorialize Congress on the American claim and occupation of the Oregon Country, calling the nation's attention to this desired object.34

In 1817, Secretary Adams made a second request for the surrender of Fort Astoria, which the British had re-named Fort George, and in doing so displayed sufficient force, by dispatch- ing the U. S. sloop of war, Ontario, to the Columbia, to re-take the place if necessary. England gave up this post in 1818; however, she still maintained a string to the prize in the way of the "Joint Occupancy Treaty", whereby all lands west of the Rocky Mountains were to be "free and open" for ten years to the subjects of both nations'35 which practically left the country still in the hands of the British subjects.

In the Sixteenth Congress, which met in December, 1820, was a member from Virginia, Dr. John Floyd, whose ancestors had been pioneer settlers, he having been born on the frontier of Kentucky. He knew well both Lewis and Clark, his cousin, Charles Floyd, having been a member of their expedition. At the same hotel in which he took quarters for the winter were Crooks and Farnham, men who had worked for Astor in estab- lishing Astoria. All being western men naturally became well acquainted and often exchanged ideas on the upbuilding of the West and with Senator Thomas H. Benton, of Missouri, often proposed and discussed the virtues of the Columbia River Country. As the result of such knowledge, Dr. Floyd was able to get a bill before Congress, "To authorize the occupa- tion of the Columbia river, and to regulate trade and inter- course with the Indian Tribes thereon", which bill, however, failed to become a law. In 1822, he introduced another bill

34 Oregon Historical Quarterly, XVIII.

35 Malloy's Treaties, Conventions, etc., I, 632.

330 JOHN E. REES

to the effect "That all that portion of the territory of the United States north of the forty-second degree of latitude, and west of the Rocky Mountains, shall constitute the Terri- tory of Oregon", which was the first time in history in which the words "Territory of Oregon" were used.36 By reason of these various agitations public attention was, at least, directed to our western coast, and in his Annual Message to Congress, in 1824, President Monroe submitted to the consideration of Congress "the propriety of establishing a military post at the mouth of the Columbia River."37

The occupation of the Oregon Country, by the English, was by the Hudson's Bay Company, a single "trading association whose sole aim was the pursuit of material interests of a hand- ful of capitalists. England had not founded a colony in Oregon, but a few Englishmen had constructed there a machine for producing wealth, which was kept going by its employees and in which Indians and Sandwich Islanders were the main wheels. The Company did not aim at the development of the country, but its exploitation. In promoting civilization, it labored only so far as the preservation of its pecuniary inter- ests made this unavoidable. If the interests of civilization actually or apparently came in conflict with these interests, they were trodden under foot."38

In 1834, an American settlement sprang up in the Willamette valley which built homes for their families, cleared lands, cul- tivated crops and hewed out a place for civilization to exist. This settlement changed conditions of affairs, for American citizens as well as the interests of the country, demanded pro- tection of the government. In 1838, Senator Linn of Mis- souri, introduced a bill in the U. S. Senate to organize Oregon as a territory and establish on the Columbia a fort and custom house. However, from and after 1840, the people began to solve this question by immigration to this new country and "Not only had they brought with them the republican spirit of independence, sucked in with their mother's milk, the habits of self-reliance and self-rule-habits which from infancy were

36Benton's Thirty Years View, I, 13.

37 Richardson's Messages and Papers of the Presidents.

38 Von Hoist's Constitutional History, III, 44.

OREGON— MEANING, ORIGIN AND APPLICATION 331

part of their very being— and their American patriotism, but they were convinced— without much inquiry about Drake's voyages of discovery and England's old treaties with Spain— that their feet stood, not on the soil of a stranger, but on that of home."39

So, in 1843, at Champoeg, Oregon, was organized the first American civil government west of the Rocky Mountains which provisional government soon sought to extend its juris- diction north of the Columbia River, which attempt resulted in the democratic campaign slogan of 1844, of "fifty-four forty or fight". However, pending difficulties with England over this matter, the organization of the territory was deferred until the boundary line was settled.

In 1848, during the Thirteenth Congress, Oregon was finally organized into a territory from the anomalous "Territory of Oregon", with boundaries defined as, "All that part of the territory of the United States which lies west of the summit of the Rocky Mountains, north of the forty-second degree of north latitude, known as the Territory of Oregon, shall be or- ganized into and constitute a temporary government by the name of the Territory of Oregon",40 which territory was reduced, in 1853, by the formation of Washington Territory.

The political destiny of Oregon became entangled, for awhile, with the slavery question and its original fundamental law prohibited slavery by putting into force the provisions of the Ordinance of 1787. When a convention met, in 1857, to draft a constitution for statehood, three parties existed in the State ; one in favor of slavery, a second opposed to it and a third opposed to negro immigration, which division of opinion re- sulted in an "anti-negro clause" in the constitution and pre- vented, for some time, its adoption and the admission of the State which, however, was accomplished in 1859, with her present boundaries and making the thirty-third State of the American Union.41

39~Ibid., 45.

40 Gannett's Boundaries, 137.

41 Lalor's Ency. Political Science, III, 34.

THE EARLY EXPLORATIONS AND THE ORIGIN OF THE NAME OF THE OREGON COUNTRY

BY WILLIAM H. GALVANI

I. THE EARLY EXPLORATIONS

It is certain that long before the voyages of Captains Gray and Vancouver they (the Spaniards) knew at least a part of the course of that (the Columbia) River which was designated in their maps under the name of Oregon. Gabriel Franchere's Narrative of the Voyage to the Northwest Coast of America in the years 1811-14, Page II3, note.*

It is an undisputed historic fact that our earliest explorers and settlers, long before the keen contest for supremacy began between England and Spain, were Spaniards. It is likewise a fact that for some strange and unaccountable reasons the Spanish government, until the middle of the Eighteenth cen- tury, carefully avoided the use of the name America in their histories and official documents in not one of which can the word be found. It is furthermore as certain and historically fully accepted that the declining power of Spain directed its active colonizing efforts towards the West Coast of North America; and, whether anyone is inclined to ques- tion the early voyages of the Portuguese navigator, Ca- brillo, in the Spanish service, who discovered Cape Men- docino in 1542,1 or those of the Greek pilot Apostolos Valerianus of Cephalonia, commonly known as Juan de Fuca, who, in 1592, is supposed to have approached the straits now bearing his name2, the voyages of Sebastian Vizcaino up to the 43rd parallel as early as 1603 are certainly unquestionable ; that based largely on the result of his explorations and actual surveys, as recorded in his journals, he recommended certain places for settlement and naval stations; that for some rea- sons the Spanish Government deliberately concealed the

* French Edition published in Montreal in 1819, English translation in 1854.

1 Professor Geo. Davidson in his "An Examination of Some of the Early Voyages on the Northwest Coast of America from 1539 to 1603," identified with practical certainty some seventy points mentioned by the diary of Juan Rodriquez Cabrillo along the Coast, and placing the limit of the voyage at Rogue River, Oregon, though Ferrelo, Chief pilot to Cabrillo, gives the latitude 44 degrees. See his Introduction to Spanish Explorations in the Southwest 1542-1706, Edited by H. E. Bolton, New York, Charles Scribners' Sons, 1916.

2 Though no record of Juan de Fuca's voyage has been found in the Mexican archives, the unsupported testimony of Michael Lock (an English Merchant who published the story in 1619, "the narrative was accepted by Raleigh and Purchas, and the latitude of the supposed channel and de Fuca's description of it corre- spond with surprising accuracy to the Strait that now bears his romantic name." K. Coman in Economic Beginnings of the Far West. Vol. I p. 8. New York, The MacMillan Co., 1912.

NAME OF THE OREGON COUNTRY 333

accounts of that expedition; that the first party of Spanish

i^f ^ undCr RiV6ra reached San DieS° on May 14th, 1769; and that before 1775 the Spanish colonies in upper Cali- fornia enjoyed an abundance of means of subsistence, such

MA' <?ttle' and aSricultural Products; and that between 1774 and 1779 three exploring voyages of the west coast were made by order of the Spanish Government and under the direction of the Marine Department of San Bias, at the entrance of the California Gulf, established for the purpose of promoting active exploration of the Northwest Coast.3

The Russians, having in 1711 subjugated the whole of North Asia, were looking for more— something beyond their recently fixed ocean boundaries— further east in the direction of the Spanish, French and British settlement in America. To this end were directed the efforts of Bering and Tchirikoff during the years 1728-1729, and of Lieutenant Synd, Captains Kremnitz and Levascheff between 1766-1774. But, like the Spanish Government, the wise men who governed Holy Russia for some reasons systematically suppressed all accounts of these voyages until 1774, when J. L. Staehlin, Councillor of State to Empress Catherine, prepared a circumstantial account of the principal voyages between 1741 and 1770 from the orig- inal records in possession of the Russian government.4

While Spain and Russia were thus actively engaged in secur- ing by right of discovery and possession the extension of their sovereign claims on the Northwesterly coast of America, Great Britain, it seems, directed every possible effort towards consolidating her interests on the Eastern or Atlantic coast. In 1771 Samuel Hearne, an agent of the Hudson's Bay Com- pany, acting under its instructions to investigate the North- west Country, made three journeys between 1769 and 1772;

3 The First Voyage, under Ensign Juan Perez, reached the 54th parallel on July 18, 1774; the Second voyage under Captain Bruno Heceta sailed March IS, 1775, discovered the entrance of the Columbia on August 15th, reached the 58th parallel, found it very difficult to proceed further and turned southward on November 20th (Heceta's Discoveries are unquestionable) ; and the Third voyage, under Captain Ignacio Artega and Lieutenant Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra, sailed on February 7th, 1779, returning on November 2ist without, how- ever, adding to what was accomplished by Perez and Heceta.

4 The records are curious and interesting, but they throw very little light on the great geographical questions relative to the part of the world which then remained unsolved, and the accompanying chart only serves, at present, to show more conspicuously the value of the discoveries effected by other nations- Robert Greenhow, The History of Oregon and California and the Other Terri- tories on the Northwest Coast of America, Chap. V, p. 138, D. Appleton, N. Y.,

334

WILLIAM H. GALVANI

he discovered in 1771 a river in the northwest section of America not emptying in the Atlantic or Hudson Bay, but somewhere to the west. This changed considerably the pre- vailing notions regarding the Northwest country. Likewise the publication in 1778 of Captain Jonathan Carver's "Travels Throughout the Interior Parts of North America in 1766,"5 in which the Great River of the. West was for the first time mentioned under the name of Oregon, contributed somewhat to the general awakening of Britain in Northwestern projects for settlement, etc. Accordingly Captain James Cook, on his return to England from his second voyage of circumnaviga- tion, in obedience to instructions from the British Government, sailed from Plymouth on July 12th, 1776, on the Ship Reso- lution, accompanied by Captain Charles Clarke, on the Ship Discovery, and a number of other officers and crews. He was not to touch upon any part of the Spanish dominions, and, if he should do so by some unavoidable accident, to give no offence to any of the inhabitants or subjects of his Catholic majesty. He was "with the consent of the natives to take possession in the name of the King of Great Britain of con- venient situations .... but, if he should find countries so discovered to be uninhabited, he was to take possession for his sovereign by setting up proper marks and inscriptions as first discoverers and possessors." In obedience to these instructions he proceeded by way of the Cape of Good Hope, New Zealand and Otaheite to the Coast of New Albion which he was to reach in the latitude of 45 degrees. He discovered the Sandwich Islands, was near the 44th degree of latitude on March 7, 1778, and a little beyond the 48th parallel on March 22, he was opposite the projecting point of the Continent which he named Cape Flattery.

Captain Cook's voyage proved an epoch-making achievement, both from a geographical viewpoint and also from his discovery among the natives at Friendly Cove of a number of articles of

5 Carver's account, in a general way, was made up from existing journals and histories— his descriptions of the habits, customs, religion and language of the Indians of the Upper Mississippi are vague and contradictory, and for the most part repetitions from existing accounts. If it were not for his using the name Oregon for the Great River of the West his book of travels might have been for- gotten long ago. As it is, it gave rise to the debatable question as to origin of the name first used by him.

NAME OF THE OREGON COUNTRY 335

Spanish manufacture.* By determining accurately the princi- pal points on the Coasts of Asia and America he made it pos- sible for the first time to ascertain the actual extent of these continents and the degree of their proximity to each other All subsequent voyages, as far at least as the subject that is before us, need not concern us ; and, whether we recognize or reject the validity of the Papal concession of May 4th, 1493, as a legitimate basis for Spanish claims to sovereignty7, we can not deny that the Spaniards were the first discoverers' and settlers of the West Coasts of America, at least as far North as the 56th parallel of latitude. It nevertheless led to the first controversy and to subsequent contests between Great Britain and Spain respecting the Northwest Coasts of America in 1790, and in which contests British perseverance finally won over Spanish clericalized rule.

In addition to the above documentary evidence of the voy- ages of discovery and settlement, the following recorded inci- dents of later travelers are of unusual interest and impor- tance and show the unmistakable presence of Spaniards in the Oregon Country. Under date of January 1st, 1806, there is recorded in the journal of Lewis and Clark's Expedition8 a visit from the Clatsops; and that "Among this nation (the Clatsops) we have observed a man about twenty-five years old, of much lighter complexion than the Indians generally; his face was even freckled, and his hair long and of a color inclined to red. He was in habits and manners perfectly Indian; but, though he did not speak a word of English, he seemed to understand more than the others of his party; and, as we could obtain no account of his origin, we concluded that

6 Captain Cook's Explorations extended as far as Icy Cape in latitude 70 degrees 29 minutes; thence, repassing Bering Strait, he left on October 27, for the Sandwich Islands, where this gallant English voyager was murdered by the natives on February 14, 1779. Captain Charles Clarke succeeded him, but he died near Petropaylovsk on August 22; John Gore next assumed command of the expedition, sailed around the Cape of Good Hope, returning to England in Octo- ber, 1780.

7 "From the time of the emperor Constantine various grants, endowments, and donations of extensive territories were conferred by different princes on the bishops of Rome . . . That many of these are supposititious is generally ac- knowledged, whilst the validity of others, which are admitted to have existed, frequently rests merely on the temporary right of some intruder whose title was his sword, and who in many instances, gave the pontiff what he could no longer retain himself." Wm. Roscoe, the Life and Pontificate of Lea the Tenth (in 2 Vols.) Vol. I, p. 5, London, Henry G. Bohn, 1846.

& History of the Expedition of Captains Lewis and Clark in 1804-5-6. Re- printed from the Edition of 1814, with an Introduction and Index by James K. Hosmer, LLD., in two volumes,— (Vol. II, p. 110, A. C. McClurg, Chicago, 1903.

336 WILLIAM H. GALVANI

one of his parents at least must have been completely white."9 A similar incident is recorded by Franchere under date of May 8th, 1812, when in the vicinity of Point Vancouver the party met a kindly old blind man and they were told by their guide that "he was a white man and that his name was Soto . . . . he was the son of a Spaniard who had been wrecked at the mouth of the river ; that a part of the crew on this occa- sion got safe ashore, but were all massacred by the Clatsops, with the exception of four who were spared and who married native women ; these four Spaniards, disgusted with the savage life, attempted to reach a settlement of their own nation toward the South, but had never been heard of since; and that when his father and his companions had left the country he himself was yet quite young."10

Such in brief is the interesting story of the early efforts of the Spaniards to explore the Western slope of the New World, to establish permanent settlements on the 'Pacific Coast, and to insure the sovereignty of His Catholic Majesty the King of Spain all of which, like her whole world empire, vanished from the face of the earth and apparently forever. Sic transit gloria mundi.

II. ORIGIN OF THE NAME OF OREGON

The beginning of things or the rise of symbols for things has always been an item of great interest to the mind of man. Hence, it is that history, dealing in matters pertaining to this world, and also theology, dealing with speculations relating to all other worlds, are so prolific. And, indeed, it is but quite natural that it should be so for it is only in the light of the past of the race that the mind of man can suggest an explana- tion for the present state of things ; and, again, from the union of the two, the past and the present, we may have a glimpse into "the never ending flight of future days."

That is why history and theology are so prolific; it is our deep concern in the future for in life, as Byron so well

9 This is corroborated by the late John Minto (b. Oct 10, 1822, d. Feb. 25, 1915, a pioneer of 1844, who in. 1846 met at Morrison's (now Columbia beach about 8 miles South of Astoria), the Indian Cullaby whom he found to be a son of the red haired and freckled faced Indian mentioned in the Journal of Lewis and Clark under date of Jan. 1, 1806.

10 Franchere, Gabriel, Narrative of the Voyage to the Northwest Coast of America in the years 1811-1814, page 113.

NAME OF THE OREGON COUNTRY 337

observed, "there is no present"— that makes it so. That is why every subject had been handled, time and again, by everyone who thought of having a thought, or a capacity of transcribing and interpreting facts or fancies, into words and phrases. Hence, it is that history, or the romance of history, includes not only persons, events and places that had an actual exist- ence, but also detailed accounts of events that never happened, wonderful biographies of persons that never existed, and graphic descriptions of places that no geographer ever located, nor mortal eye had ever seen. We thus seem to know more of what we suppose had happened thousands of years ago than we do of what actually transpired but a few years ago, or, indeed, of what is going on right now, before our very eyes, so to speak.

It is my purpose to deal here with the derivation of a symbol or word a matter, it is true, not so important as that of an actual or tangible thing. That word is O R E G O N, and the fact that the subject, every now and then, receives some atten- tion from editors, statesmen, historians and even poets must be my apology for submitting the following observations :

Without going much into detail, I beg to remark here that the various explanations for the derivation of the name of Oregon have absolutely no foundation. Chief among these explanations are the "wild thyme" myth, an herb of unusual abundance found here by early explorers, but which herb has, with the advent of civilization, so mysteriously disappeared. Then comes the story of Jonathan Carver,11 who, while among the Indians on the waters of the Upper Mississippi, in 1766-68, was informed by them that they heard of far-away tribes to the Westward, in a territory by the name of Oregon, which according to them meant the "great River of the West,"12 as if that, even assuming this to be absolutely correct, is sufficient of an explanation for the actual origin of that name.

Another solution is that offered by Junius Henri Brown,

11 Winsor, in his "Narrative and Critical History of America," Vol. 7, p. 555, gives credit to Carver for first using the name of Oregon.

12 "As to the name of Oregon, or the authority for its use, the traveller (Carver) is silent; and nothing has been learned from any other source, though

p. 145, New York, D. Appleton & Co., 1845.

338

WILLIAM H. GALVANI

who, in 1842, in Hunt's Magazine, solves the great mystery by attributing the whole matter to a supposed tradition, said to have prevailed among the Indians near Lake Superior, of a mighty river of the name of Oregon, emptying its waters into the Pacific. Then, too, Bryant's celebrated "Thanatopsis," written in 1812, refers to the Columbia River as the Oregon "where rolls the O'regon, and hears no sound save his own dashings," Nor should we overlook Professor Josiah D. Whitney's theory of the derivation of the name of Oregon from Ore-jon, or Big-ear, a name supposed to have been applied to the Indians of the Northwest Coast by the early Spanish explorers.13

Finally, we have more recently been treated to the latest effort of a most fertile imagination, and by not less a person than Joaquin Miller, the poet of the Sierras ; who, after thirty long years of contemplation and inquiry, made the startling discovery that the name of Oregon is derived from the Spanish Oye-el-agua ; hear the waters.14 Wonderful, most wonderful!

Herein is practically a complete list of the explanations for the derivation of the name of Oregon, explanations which to anyone of a historical or linguistic turn of mind explain noth- ing of its meaning, nor of its actual derivation.

In the absence of documentary evidence, there is but one way to get at the heart of this mystery. We must turn to the early settlers and to the homes they left behind them. Just as the Dutch, the English and the French on the Atlantic, or east coast of the New Continent, applied to their new homes the names of their former cities and districts, so, indeed, the settlers on the shores of the Pacific must have done likewise. Hence, since we have shown and indeed it is admitted on all sides that the first settlers on the Pacific were Spaniards, they, and they only, must have named the new territory, and after some spot most dear to their hearts. Undoubtedly among those Spaniards, who first settled in what has become known as the Oregon country, there were many who fled from Spain because of the political tyranny and ecclesiastical persecution of those

13 Whitney, Josiah D., Names and Places, pag€ 28. Cambridge, 1888.

14 See, Morning Oregonian, October 21st, 1907.

NAME OF THE OREGON COUNTRY 339

days, so famous in Spanish history. It was a period when the number of those who fled from religious persecutions must have been enormous. The Kingdom of Aragon suffered and resisted those horrors possibly more than any other territory under Spanish rule. Religious refugees usually are more loyal to the old homeland and its traditions than any wandering adventurers, and when those refugees or even if some of them were but ordinary adventurers in search of fame or for- tune—landed in the Oregon country, they could not help find- ing here a picture so strongly resembling old Aragon. For be it remembered that the Kingdom of Aragon, which included Catalonia and Valencia, was noted for its long coast line, aus- picious climate, beautiful valleys, rivers dashing with exulting song into the glittering sunshine, forest covered hillsides, and the majestic mountains of the Pyrenees with their snow-clad sentinels all of which familiar scenes of beauty and grandeur they found here in their new abode. Under such circumstances it is but natural that they should have transferred the old name to the new home. Likewise, it is quite possible, as it had been suggested by my good friend, John Gill, who is one of the few well informed men on the subject of early Oregon history, that some bold hidalgos might have named the Oregon country after some Spanish ship by that name. In either case, if the Indians used this name in later years, it is not because of having invented it, but because they got this pure Spanish name from the Spanish settlers, and they retained it even though those Spaniards and Spanish names were doomed in the course of human events to disappear from the New World, because of the marvelous rise of New Albion at a time when rapidly decaying Spain was altogether too busy with burning heretics according to the policies of Torquemada and the Holy Inquisition. That is all there is to it.

Should anyone insist upon an explanation for the transform- ation of Aragon into Oregon, here it is, and it is simple enough. The chief, or primitive, vowels in the different Aryan languages are represented by "a," "i," and "u" (pronounced as

340 WILLIAM H. GALVANI

in the Italian). To these primitive vowels all other vowels are traced as to a common source. This is recognized by the physiologist no less than by the linguist. The modifications, or gradations, of each were brought about under the influence of other vowels or consonants. In tracing these gradations we find that "e" and "o" philologically owe their derivation to "a" just as "ei" and "ai" to "i" and "iu" and "au" are traced to "u".

Hence, the first and the second "a" in Aragon, by the nat- ural process and according to phonetic laws, have imperceptibly become transformed into "o" and "e". Examples of this are as numerous in modern languages as they are in Sanskrit, the mother tongue of all.

In the light of these few observations even the plea of "the poet of the Sierras/' based upon "an orchestra of angels away up in yonder clouds, crying : Oye-el-agua Hear the water" must give way to an explanation based upon human sentiment and reason which somehow ever persists in perpetuating old familiar names, and to the fact that the name O r e g o n is certainly of most Spanish formation and sound, and espe- cially so when it is supported by the principles upon which rests all linguistic development ancient and modern.

THE STRANGE CASE OF JONATHAN CARVER AND THE NAME OREGON*

By T. C. ELLIOTT

The name of the mother state of all those west of the Rocky Mountains and north of California first came to public notice through the pages of literature. About the year 1812 William Cullen Bryant, then only eighteen years of age, fitted the name (hitherto obscure) into the philosophy and meter of his famous poem "Thanatopsis" which, as first published, contained these lines r1

"Take the wings

Of morning and the Borean desert pierce Or lose thyself in the continuous woods That veil Oregon, where he hears no sound Save his own dashings yet the dead are there;" Earlier than this President Thomas Jefferson, in written in- structions to Captain Meriwether Lewis in 1803, included the following :

"The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri River, and such principal streams of it, as, by its course and communication with the waters of the Pacific Ocean, whether the Columbia, Oregan, Colorado, or any other river" etc.

But both statesman and poet took the name from a book published in London in 1778 entitled: Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America, by J. Carver, Esq., and that book and its author have inspired both the title and subject matter of this discussion.2

The winter season of 1920-21 marks the tercentenary of the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers on the coast of Massachu- setts, an event widely celebrated in both England and the United States. Under the leadership of Governor John Carver, that little band of colonists at Plymouth spent the early months

* A paper prepared to be read before The State Historical Society of Wash- ington at the annual meeting in January, 1921, at Tacoma.

1 In later years the lines of the poem were twice revised by its author, the more common rendering being:

"Take the wings

Of morning, pierce the Barcan wilderness, Or lose thyself in the continuous woods Where rolls the Oregon, and hears no sound," etc.

2 Some familiarity with the contents of the book and the opinions, pro and con, as to its author will add to the interest of the reader.

342 T. C. ELLIOTT

of 1621 in such log huts as could be hurriedly erected for their protection. About one hundred and fifty years after that event, one, Jonathan Carver, a collateral descendant of Governor Carver, wintered in a log hut not far distant from where the cities Saint Paul and Minneapolis now stand, with only an Iroquois Indian and French-Canadian voyageur as companions. He established friendly relations with the Sioux Indians then residing in that vicinity, and, eleven years later, in London in 1778, published a book in which are recorded his observations and experiences that winter and during the months immediately preceding and following, when he was traveling on the Missis- sippi River and its tributaries and on Lake Superior. In that book appears the first known record of the word Oregon,3 as a name then applied to the river already called "River of the West" but afterwards officially designated Columbia. Thus, before the maritime discoveries of Perez, Heceta or Cuadra, of Cook or Vancouver and of Kendrick or Gray, and before the overland explorations of Mackenzie, David Thompson or Lewis and Clark, the name Oregon was spoken.

One important but undetermined item in the history of the Pacific Northwest relates to the origin of this name Oregon, as communicated by Jonathan Carver in his book, and pre- sumably as set down by him in a journal in that winter of 1766-67. Did he hear this word while among the Indians of Minnesota? Did he see the name or something like it on some map or in the writings of some other person? Did he invent or coin it in his own mind when writing the book? These questions may never be positively answered, but a knowl- edge of the career of Jonathan Carver and of the conditions existing when he made his journey and was writing his book will assist in the forming of an individual opinion and a final answer may be in sight.

The history of the "Oregon Country" connects itself with that of the state of Missouri by the meanderings of the Oregon Trail, over which so many of the pioneer families of Oregon traveled with patience, fortitude and endurance. But in search- ing for the name Oregon, the path leads to the states of

3 This statement applies only to the word as now spelled.

JONATHAN CARVER AND THE NAME OREGON 343

Minnesota and Wisconsin and the scenes of Carver's travels There an answer to the first question must be sought- for if the name Oregon or something similar to it, was a spoken word among the Indians or the traders with whom Carver mingled, there is where he heard and made note of it, this whether its ultimate source may have been in the Spanish, the French, the English or the Native-American tongue. And the path then continues on to the famous trading post of Mackinac in Michigan and to London in England, where the other answers will more naturally be looked for. '

This discussion is not intended to include the last word upon the subject, but rather to bring within the reach of Oregon readers some of the results of modern research regarding Jonathan Carver and his book, and to place some interpreta- tions thereon; also to suggest some possible sources for his name Oregon. Source words other than through Carver do not concern us.

Strangely enough, until very recently, the date, place of birth and family line of Jonathan Carver have been quite as much a mystery as is his source for the name Oregon. Among other statements about him appear those of his biographer in London, Dr. John Coakley Lettsom, as follows: "Our author died on the 31st of January, 1780, at the age of forty-eight years, and lies interred in the Holy well- Mount burying ground," (Lon- don) ; and the place of birth is given as at Still water, Con- neticut. However, in March, 1920, in volume three and num- ber three of the Wisconsin Magazine of History, Dr. William Browning, of Brooklyn, New York, has quite conclusively shown from the "Vital Records of Weymouth" that Jonathan Carver was born at Weymouth, Massachusetts, on the 13th of April, 1710, and, at the age of about eight years, removed with his parents to Canterbury, Connecticut. Thus it appears that, while in the wilds of Minnesota in 1767, our traveler could have celebrated his fifty-eighth birthday, and at the time of death had nearly reached the allotted limit of three score years and ten. Later in this discussion some explanation will

344 T. C. ELLIOTT

be offered for this apparent ignorance by his friends in Eng- land.

The scholarly research by Dr. Browning has brought to light other genealogical facts of interest. The great grandfather of Jonathan Carver was Robert Carver, a brother of Governor John Carver, of Plymouth, and a settler at Marsh field, Massa- chusetts, about 1638. And it may be remarked by way of digression that at Marshfield in later years lived Daniel Webster, who had so much influence in the diplomatic settle- ment of sovereignty over the Oregon Country. The father of our traveler was Ensign David Carver, who was a man of prominence and of property both at Weymouth and at Canter- bury. Ensign Carver held various offices in the town govern- ments, and, at the time of his death in Canterbury in 1727, left no small amount of personal and real property to his widow and children. An uncle of the traveler, on his mother's side, was Colonel John Dyer, "prominent in the affairs of Connecticut." A cousin was "Hon. Eliphalet Dyer, LL. D., a member of the continental congress, and later chief justice of the state of Connecticut." Another maternal uncle was Solomon Pain, "widely known as a leader and organizer of the Separatist Church movement in Connecticut, perhaps the greatest religious schism that has ever stirred the old state." Dr. Browning sums up his findings as follows : "Carver came of able stock on both sides. His family had means. He enjoyed the best advantages the time and place afforded. His nearest older relatives were men of influence and standing, large factors in the life and activities of a wide region."

In this same connection Dr. Browning- mentions some of the opportunities open to Jonathan Carver to acquire skill as an artisan in the making of shoes or some knowledge of the prac- tice of medicine, but offers no evidence that he ever hammered a last or prescribed a powder. This remark is injected because the late Edward Gaylord Bourne, of Yale University, char- acterized Carver as "an unlettered shoemaker," incapable of producing such a book as his Travels, etc. ; and Dr. Lettsom

ession. was

JONATHAN CARVER AND THE NAME OREGON 345

alluded to Carver having studied for the medical prof As to the charge of illiteracy Profession Bourne evidently .„ partly mistaken. If anything is to be said against the ability of Carver to write, it is that he could and did write "not wisely but too well." There is a bit of evidence as to his having been a shoemaker, but nothing as to his having practiced medicine, and his education seems to have been more along the line of surveying and draughting; for Mr. John Thomas Lee4 of Madison, Wisconsin, has found instances of actual work of that kind by Carver. As a matter of fact, nothing is positively known of Carver's education, employment, occupation, trade or profession up to the time of his enlistment as a soldier. Ap- parently he was not a man of sufficient prominence to have acquired property or been noticed in any public manner. There appears the record of his marriage at Canterbury in the year 1746, and of the birth of children there and also at Montague, in Northern Massachusetts, from which place he enlisted for military duty at about the age of forty-four years.

While Professor Bourne5 was a trifle hasty in his estimate of the literary inability of Jonathan Carver, he was unanswer- able in proving the main contention of his argument, namely, that the second and greater part of Carver's book was copied from the writings of earlier explorers, Hennepin, LaHontan and Charlevoir, and other books. This extensive plagiarism had been known to scholars many years, but had never been so authoritatively emphasized. There has been a disposition to condone this as being more or less a reflection of the stand- ards of writing at the time, but the fact is admitted. Professor Bourne also denied that the first part of the book is a source of original information.

The marital relations of Jonathan Carver were not honorable. He appears to have deserted his first wife and family when, if not before, he started upon his journey to the West, as is indicated by a petition for relief by Mrs. Carver to the general

Mr. Lee may be called the apologist for Jonathan Carver. s (See Proceedings of State Historical Society of Wisconsin,

His two contri-

are exceedingly accurate, fair and complete. But he has failed to take Major Rogers' influence sufficiently into account, and evidently was not aware of the limited acquaintance of Dr. Lettsom with Carver. Much data herein referred to will be found in his two papers.

5 Professor Bourne was regarded as the leader of modern criticisms of Carver a Travels- see vol. XI., pp. 287-302 of American Historical Review. But the late Dr. Reuben Gold Thwaites of the Wisconsin Historical Society took the same view; see vol. 1 8, of the Collections of said society, pp. 280-81.

346 T. C. ELLIOTT

court in 1768. In February, 1769, Carver sailed for England, never to return, and, while there, married (whether legally or not is uncertain) another woman by whom children were born. Both wives survived him and were left in need and distress.

Jonathan Carver's military career covered the entire period of what is known as the French and Indian War and in that he was more successful, being early advanced to the rank of lieutenant, and later to a captaincy. General Jeffrey Amherst (from whom Amherst College in Massachusetts is named) after the capture of Montreal and the close of hostilities, mad« honorable mention of his conduct. While at home recovering from camp fever in 1756 he petitioned the general court foi relief, and, again in December, 1763, presented a similar peti- tion, both of which were favorably received and acted upon. During this period the name "Lieutenant Carver" appears as one of the selectmen of Montague, and probably this refers to him. Upon his return from the West in August, 1768, Gen- eral Gage, then in command of the British forces in America, furnished him a letter of commendation, but to this reference will be made later.

The title page of Captain Carver's book (first three edi- tions)6 reads, as follows: Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America in the years 1766, 1767 and 1768. Of these years, about six months were consumed in the going and coming between Boston and Mackinac, in Michigan, twelve months in the journey to the westward and northward of Mackinac, and about nine months in residence at Mackinac; in all, two years and two months absence from Boston. His own narrative states that, starting from Mackinac on Septem- ber 3rd, 1766, he traveled in the boats and company of some traders who were going to the Mississippi River by way of the Green Bay and the Fox- Wisconsin river route; that late in October, when in the neighborhood of Prairie du Chien, on the Mississippi, he purchased a canoe, and, with two servants, ascended that river to a point about forty miles above the

6 The title page in many of the later editions reads Three Years' Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America, and some thirty editions are said to have been issued. The writer of this discussion has used what is known as "the best American edition", that of Harper and Brother, 1838, which is a reprint from the third London edition with additional data in the addenda.

JONATHAN CARVER AND THE NAME OREGON 347

falls of St. Anthony before returning to ascend the Saint Peter River two hundred miles to winter with the Sioux Indians there. Saint Peter River has been called the Minnesota River since 1852, and at its mouth the United States military post, known as Fort Snelling, is now located, between Saint Paul and Minneapolis. The narrative goes on to state that, in the spring of 1767, after returning to Prairie du Chien for awhile he again ascended the Mississippi River to the Chippe- way, and followed one of the regular routes of Indian travel north to Lake Superior, then skirted the western, northern and eastern shores of that lake, around to the Sault Sainte Marie and Mackinac, where he arrived the first of November, 1767.7 It states that he rested for some time at a Chippeway town; also, at the Grand Portage on the northwest shore of the Lake, where the traders going to Lake Winnipeg and the regions beyond foregathered, and Indians from those distant districts visited. Thus it appears that not more than eight months were spent in the regions of the Mississippi River and of Lake Superior where he could have obtained information from the Indians or traders as to the River Oregon, and the geog- raphy of the continent and habitats and customs of the various tribes of Indians, and learned to speak the language of the Sioux. One is tempted to inquire whether the title of his book was not disingenuously worded.

It is hardly necessary to enlarge upon the facts of the ex- ploration and trade and missionary effort, during the French regime in the Mississippi Valley and around the Great Lakes for more than one hundred years prior to the time of Captain Carver's journey through those regions. Suffice it to say that a French officer, Nicholas Perrot, in 1689 at the Post Saint Anthony in the presence of witnesses publicly proclaimed the sovereignty of the King of France over all lands and waters and peoples of that entire region. One of the witnesses to that ceremonial was Pierre Charles Le Sueur, who was already quite well acquainted with the country, and who later, in 1700-1702, ascended the Mississippi River from New

7 The dates given by Carver in his Travels cannot be relied up; manifestly wilful alterations appear.

348

T. C. ELLIOTT

Orleans with a large party and wintered on the Saint Peter River, about where Captain Carver claims to have wintered in 1766-7. Each year intervening, when Indian hostilities did not prevent, Frenchmen were in this field gathering peltries. From Lake Superior also the traders to the West had been going from the Grand Portage to Lake Winnipeg and beyond for many years. Captain Carver then did not travel through any unknown country or mingle with Indians who had not met with white people.

We interpolate here a few items of contemporaneous his- tory. In 1762-3, France parted title to her possessions in America, ceding to Britain, as a result of the war just closed, all those parts lying east and southeast of the Mississippi River, and to Spain, by gift, all lying to the westward then known as Louisiana, including the city of New Orleans. Saint Louis was founded in 1764 by Pierre Laclede, a French merchant from New Orleans. Both cities were French in their people, customs and speech, and remained so in spite of the Spanish governmental control. Laclede's licenses gave him at least partial rights to the Indian trade on the Mississippi, the Saint Peter and the Missouri rivers. The western military and trading post of the British was at Mackinac, but from there the trade in the Mississippi Valley was almost entirely carried on by French licensees. In the time of Captain Carver, then, the Indians of the Upper Mississippi, in their relations with traders and priests, still heard only the French language spoken by white people. All commerce then was carried on by use of the water routes and portages, and the place of rendez- vous was at Prairie du Chien, which was about equally dis- tant between Mackinac and Saint Louis by the trade route.

The language used by Captain Carver in his Travels, in referring to the name Oregon, has been quoted too often to require repetition. He speaks of having learned "from the Indians" and by his "own observations" of the close proximity of the sources of the four principal rivers of the continent of North America among some high lands just south of the Lake

JONATHAN CARVER AND THE NAME OREGON 349

of the Woods, one of which rivers was the Oregon; and it is apparent that he did not personally visit those sources. Such a statement seems on the face of it ridiculous, but at the period of the Revolutionary War, very few people in England knew about that part of our continent, and such a proposition ap- peared as a great discovery and helped the sale of his book wonderfully. A map in the book shows this river as emptying into the Pacific Ocean at an opening in the coast marked "discovered by Aguilar" and along the lower course of the stream appears the name "River of the West." It may be re- marked that he does not say in direct words that the Indians told him the name for this river.

In arguing that the name Oregon was an Indian place name, several fundamental facts are to be taken into account.

First, to the Columbia River proper it is not known that the Indians applied any particular name. Probably no ex- plorer more intelligent as to Indian life was ever on the Co- lumber River than David Thompson, who discovered its source in 1807, and traversed its entire length in 1811 ; and nowhere does he mention any Indian place name as applied to it.

Second, it was not the custom among the Indians to use the same name with reference to the entire length of any river; often on a short stream one name was used near its mouth and another nearer its source. The Walla Walla River is a case in point : where it emerges from the foothills it bore the name Tum-a-lum. Captain Carver, on the plains of Minne- sota, would have heard only a name of one of the tributaries to the Columbia; the Snake, Salmon, Missouletka (Clark Fork) or the Saleesh (Flathead). And Green River may be added to the list as then being considered a possible tributary to the Columbia.

Third, the English letter "R" is not common to Indian dialects of the tribes of the Rocky Mountains or the plains. Captain Carver set down in his book a vocabulary of Sioux and Chippeway words directly obtained from those tribes, and in but one of his words does the letter "R" appear.

350

T. C. ELLIOTT

Fourth, it was the custom of the Indians to use place names descriptive of some physical feature of a stream or of the region through which it flowed.

As coming from the Indians a Shoshone word Ogwa, mean- ing "water," has been most often mentioned as being relevant. This word appears in the notes of the early explorer La Verendrye (1742-44), in the form Karoskiou, which the late Granville Stuart8 of Montana interpreted as a rendering of Kanarogwa, the Shoshone name for Green River. John E. Rees,9 of Idaho, has recently urged the combination of Ogwa with Peon, meaning "West" as an exact Shoshone designa- tion meaning "River of the West," which name had been written in French upon maps for thirty years before Carver's time. Mrs. Frances Fuller Victor, in Bancroft's History of Oregon, also mentioned some ramifications of this word Ogwa.

Reasoning from analogy, it does not seem probable that Captain Carver heard any such name when among the Sioux that winter near the Saint Peter River. Charlevoix, nearly fifty years earlier, had closely questioned these Sioux as to any river flowing into the South Sea (the Pacific Ocean), but noted no name for the same,10 and not one of the many other records left by the French makes any mention of it, as far as now known. Nearly thirty-five years later, Lewis and Clark spent the winter with the Mandan Sioux on the Missouri River four hundred and fifty miles further west, and were keen for any information of this sort, but their journals record nothing as to such a name being current, or even mentioned by Sacajawea, who had been born west of the Rocky Mountains. It is more likely that the name would have been communicated by Assiniboine and Cree Indians at Grand Portage on Lake Superior, but the same reasoning applies there. When, prior to the Lewis and Clark expedition, so little had become really known about the streams and mountains and valleys, between the Mandan Villages and the sources of the Missouri, does it seem probable that the Indian name of a river, beyond the Rocky Mountains, seeped through to the ears of Jonathan

8 See Vol. I, Contributions of Historical Society of Montana.

Q Printed in this issue of Quarterly of Oregon Historical Society.

10 See Collections of State Historical Society of Wisconsin, vol. 16, pp. 417-18.

JONATHAN CARVER AND THE NAME OREGON 351

Carver alone among all who explored, traveled, traded or baptised along the Mississippi River prior to and later than his time?

Very little attempt has been made to trace the name Oregon to a French source, but it is possible that, through continuous contact with French traders, the Indians could have said some- thing about the river which was passed along or interpreted in the tongue of a Frenchman or French-Canadian.

This theory is not new on the Pacific Coast, but was men- tioned by one of the editorial writings of the late Harvey Scott of Portland, Oregon, thus : "We believe it probable that the name Oregon arose out of some circumstances connected with the Western explorations of the French. Earlier than the English the French had pressed on westward from the Great Lakes to the Red River, to the Saskatchewan and to the foot of the Rocky Mountains. They were ranging the country of the Upper Mississippi in search of furs and for trade with the natives ; they were full of curiosity and active in inquiry about the great distant West and the unknown Western sea. Of this sea they possessed Spanish charts, and probably used among the natives the word Aragon as a homonym (synonym) for Spain."11 This would really apply to either French or Spanish origin for the name.

One of the picturesque features of the fur trade, in Old Oregon, was the annual rendezvous of the trappers and traders and Indians in the valley of Green River in western Wyoming. During the period under discussion, similar scenes were an- nually enacted at Prairie du Chien in Wisconsin, where Captain Carver visited in May, 1767. He thus describes the place: "This town is the great mart, where all the adjacent tribes, and even those who inhabit the most remote branches of the Mississippi, annually assemble, about the latter end of May, bringing with them their furs to dispose of to the traders. But it is not always that they conclude their sale here; this is determined by a general council of the chiefs, who consult whether it would be more conducive to their interest to sell

ii The Oregonian, Portland, Oregon, May 19, 1892.

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T. C. ELLIOTT

their goods at this place, or carry them on to Louisiana, or Michillimackinac. According to the decision of this council, they either proceed further or return to their different homes." But a more literal and less elegant account is given by Peter Pond, another Yankee, who wrote when there in May, 1774, seven years later: "We imbarkt and drifted down with the Currant till we Came to the Plane Whare we Saw a Large Colection from Eavery Part of the Misseppey who had arived Before us Even from Orleans Eight Hundred Leages Belowe us. The Indans Camp Exeaded a Mile & a half in Length. Hear was Sport of All Sorts. We went to Collecting furs and Skins - - By the Different tribes with Sucksess. The french ware Verey Numeres. Thare was Not Les than One Hundred and Thirty Canoes, which Came from Mackinaw Caring from Sixtey to Eightey Hundred Wate Apease all made of Birch Bark and white Seder for the Ribs. Those Boates from Orleans and Illenoa and other Parts ware Numeres. - - After all the Bisness was Dun and People Began to Groe tirde of Sport thay Began to Draw of for thare Differant Departments and Prepare for the Insewing winter."12

Commenting upon the above we may say that Peter Pond (whose extensive travels into the Athabasca country are so well known in the history of the Canadian fur trade) was nearly cotemporaneous with Captain Carver on the Mississippi River, and he has left a summarized journal or narrative (quoted above) which is intensely human both in its orthog- raphy and story. WThen going to his winter trading place on the Saint Peter River in the fall of 1773, he wrote thus: "As we past up Saint Peters River about fourteen miles, We stopt to Sea Carvers Hut whare he Past his Winter when in that Countrey. It was a Log House about Sixteen feet long Covered with Bark With a fireplace But one Room and no flore. This was the Extent of his travels. His Hole Toure I with One Canoe Well maned Could make in Six weeks."

Peter Pond just before this had been engaged in the Indian trade for six years in districts tributary to Detroit, and had

12 See Collections of State Historical Society of Wisconsin, vol. 18, p. 341-

JONATHAN CARVER AND THE NAME OREGON 353

been at Mackinac during Carver's residence there, if we in- terpret his dates correctly; at any rate he had heard about Carver's journey five years before the publication of the manuscript, and he reflects an opinion which probably was current around Mackinac in those days. It may be remarked that the same opinion about Captain Carver's not having ascended the Saint Peter River at all was given independently by William H. Keating, the trained naturalist and historian of Long's expedition in 1823 to the sources of that river.13

Returning now to the theory that the Indians used a corrup- tion of some Spanish name in speaking of the River of the West, it may be said that Captain Carver's statement, about the Indians at Rendezvous declining to trade there and unitedly carrying their furs on to Mackinac or to distant Louisiana, is not confirmed by other accounts of the fur trade at that time, and is an example of the inaccuracies to be found in the first or journal portion of his book. But all accounts agree as to this opportunity for contact between the Indians and the French from the lower-river trading points, where Spanish influences prevailed, where the licenses to traders were issued by Spanish officials, and where the trading goods may have been given some Spanish markings, The name of Spain was at the time very generally associated with a mythical river flowing into the Pacific Ocean for several reasons, particularly these: Spanish explorations northward from Mexico into California and the acquisition of horses by the Indians by way of the great interior basin between the Rocky and Sierra Nevada ranges of mountains ; rumors of Spanish knowledge of the sources of Colorado River; the discoveries by the Spanish navigator Martin d'Aguilar on the Northwest Coast. In fact a corruption from the Spanish, through French and Indian tongues, of the name of that navigator is not an entire im- possibility. A case in point appears in the narrative of Alex- ander Mackenzie, who reached the Pacific Ocean at Bentict Arm in the summer of 1792. The natives there told him of the recent visit of boats containing white men, one com-

iTsee vol. i, pp. 323-4 of Narrative of Expedition to Source of St. Peter's River, (Philadelphia, if- ^

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manded by Macubah, meaning Captain Vancouver, and the other by Bensins, meaning Lieutenant Broughton. We are presuming that Captain Carver heard the name spoken by the Indians, improbable though that presumption seems to be.

A French word that does not vary much from Oregon in either spelling or sound is Ouragan, meaning "wind storm," "blizzard" or "tornado" and very literally descriptive of climatic conditions in the region where Captain Carver heard from the Indians that the River of the West tooks its rise. There is nothing in Carver's Travels to indicate that he himself could speak French ; some things in fact indicate the contrary. His getting the word from the Indians could have been in- directly through his own French-Canadian voyageur or in- terpreter, or some of the traders who expressed in their own tongue Ouragan (a descriptive name) given by the Indians to the upper reaches of the mythical River of the West. A Spanish word of similar sound and meaning, Huracan, offers room for further speculation along the same line. These suggestions carry Mr. Scott's theory further than he intended perhaps, but meet the conditions of Indian nomenclature ex- pressed in the French instead of the Indian tongue; and also offer a word quite within philological requirements.

The Spanish name Aragon fills the same requirements along with the prevailing association of Spanish discoveries with the mythical river. But the glory of Aragon as a kingdom had long since departed, and as a province of Spain was not then in special prominence, and if that is our source name it was more likely an instance of Carver's ingenuity in writing than of any spoken word he listened to when in the West.

The four principal rivers of the continent of North America were, according to Jonathan Carver, the Mississippi, the Saint Lawrence, the Bourbon and the Oregon or "River of the West ;" all rising very near together in the highlands west of Lake Superior. All the names above mentioned appeared upon maps then known and available except the name Oregon. The river Bourbon was the Nelson River of a few years later and

JONATHAN CARVER AND THE NAME OREGON 355

today, flowing from Lake Winnipeg into Hudson's Bay; and was given the name by La Verendrye about 1741. The upper end of Lake Winnipeg, above the narrows, was Verendrye's and Carver's "Lake Bourbon." The Red River of the North, flowing into Lake Winnipeg from the south was never named "Bourbon," not even on Carver's maps. There was only an appearance of truth about this scheme of four such rivers and that had been made known by map makers nearly forty years before Carver claims to have heard about it, as is evi- denced in the following letter written by the French governor of Canada to the ministere des colonies at Paris :14

Monseigneur I have the honor to send you a copy of a map of the course of the river of the west, made by the savage Ochagac and others.

If the account of these savages is accurate, that river must discharge above California. The Sieur Chaussegros has traced, from the Sieur de ITsle's map on a flying sheet, the course of the river reduced according to the map. He finds that the river discharges toward the entrance discovered by Martin Daguilar. He has also reduced the savages' map, on which there are three scales, while his is drawn to only one and shows the whole course of the river, from the height of land beyond Lake Superior to above California. The savages have traced on the map the upper portion of the Mississippi River, which takes its rise to the south of Lake Ouinipigou, and, according to the Sieur de ITsle's map, the river Rio Colorado would take its rise about the same spot.

I observed with the Sieur Chaussegros that this country is traversed by two great rivers, which take their rise about the middle ; one flows toward the east which is the Saint Lawrence, the other to the south and is the Mississipy. There remain to the west an extent of territory from seven to eight hundred leagues in width, without any large river in it. This would be contrary to all the knowledge we have of countries that are known in the world ; where in so vast an area there is always some great river that traverses it ; which leads me to think that

14 From manuscript in archives in Pans; see pp. 103-4 of Wisconsin His- torical Society Collections, vol. 17. In this connection read L. P. Burpee's chapter on Carver in his book entitled The Search for the Western Sea.

356

T. C. ELLIOTT

the savages may tell the truth, for it is not natural that, in sc vast an extent, there should not be a great river ; and it seems that the river, of which the savages speak, discharges into the Southern sea. We know the rivers indicated on the Sieur d Tlsle's map and according to the course that the savages give to the river of the West, it flows to the entrance recently discovered by Martin Daguilar, where we know of no other river above or to the north.

I have the honor to be with very profound respect, Monseigj neur, Your very humble and very obedient Servant,

Beauharnois. Quebec, October 15th, 1730.

The map makers, prior to and during Captain Carver's time, had not progressed farther than mere speculation as to streams in the region westward, from the Red River of the North to the Rocky mountains. The name Riviere or Fleuve d'Ouest appears marked against any stream that was traced through or in that region, even upon some we now at once recognize as parts of the Missouri River. Their guesses were based upon Indian tales and the brief and difficult notes of Verendrye's (1742-44) and the reports of priests who mingled with the Indians on the Assiniboine and tributaries of the Mississippi rivers. There was no regular habit of land travel across the plains between the Mississippi and Missouri rivers then, and the courses of the Saskatchewan to the north were known much earlier than those of the Missouri. There were half a dozen maps available before 1766, showing tracings of a River of the West, and others showing the Bourbon River, and it is within reason to suppose that Captain Carver saw some of those maps even before starting for the West, particularly so if going upon any such enterprise as he outlined in the introduc- tion to his book of Travels. The two maps appearing in that book were not prepared until 1776-77 in London, and on only one of them does the name Oregon appear, written "Heads of

JONATHAN CARVER AND THE NAME OREGON 357

Origan". On no other map published before that time, has the name Origan or Oregon yet been found.15

The preface or introduction to a book is presumed to reveal the true motives and intent of its author. Captain Carver's introduction tells of his bitter disappointment because of hav- ing been compelled to return to Mackinac from the West, with- out carrying out a plan he had independently conceived soon after the close of the war to make his way across the con- tinent to the Pacific Ocean and locate there a port for the use of British commerce. And for this far look into the future, he has been lauded by some writers as a forerunner of President Jefferson in plans for transcontinental exploration. Captain Carver attributed the failure of his plan to the in- ability of Commandant Rogers to supply him on the Mississippi River with goods to use as presents to the Indians and also his own inability to purchase such goods from the traders at Grand Portage. To anyone familiar with the progress of the organized fur traders to the Rocky Mountains, such an in- dependent enterprise is at once recognized as absurd. Had Captain Carver set out in the manner he describes he would simply have disappeared, and with him perhaps any chance for the evolution of the name Oregon. Such an enterprise not only required higher official sanction than the mere per- mit and assistance of the commandant at Mackinac, but also called for personal experience in the Western field, outfitting and financial backing, little or none of which Captain Carver

had.

The following excerpt from an official letter written at Quebec on March 2, 1768, while Carver was still at Mackinac, shows conditions at the time as well as what was already in the minds of British officials. The letter was sent by Sir Guy Carleton, then governor general of Canada, in reply to inquiry from Lord Shelbourne, of the British ministry in London,16 and we quote as follows:

"I shall easily find in the troops here many officers and men very ready to undertake to explore any part of this continent,

^"These maps have been cited t? the writer by librarians in the Library of

- " "-

358 T. C. ELLIOTT

who require no other encouragement than to be told such service will be acceptable to the king, and if properly executed will commend them to his favour; but, as they are unac- quainted with the country, the Indian language and manners, 'tis necessary to join with them some Canadians, to serve as guides and interpreters.

Should his majesty think proper to allow the traders to go

"Should his majesty think proper to allow the traders to go winter in one of those posts, set out early in the spring for the Pacific Ocean, find out a good port, take its latitude, longitude, and describe it so accurately as to enable our ships from the East Indies to find it out with ease, and then return the year following; Your Lordship will readily perceive the advantage of such discoveries, and how difficult attempts to explore unknown Parts must prove to the English, unless we avail ourselves of the knowledge of the Canadians, who are well acquainted with the country, the language and manners of the natives."

As far as Jonathan Carver is concerned, there is strong reason to believe that he had no such original design, and that this journey to West or Northwest was merely preliminary to more extensive plans of the Commandant, as will appear in the continuation of this discussion.

The discussion thus far has served to indicate Captain Carver's journey to the Mississippi Valley and the opportuni- ties afforded to hear the name Oregon mentioned there or at the Grand Portage. We will now consider his environment at Mackinac during nine months' residence.

He returned there the last of August, 1767, and in the fol- lowing month wrote a letter to his wife at Montague, Massa- chusetts, which was promptly published in a Boston paper the following February. This letter,17 together with a prospectus published in the same paper in August, 1768, clearly discloses that his journal and observations were being prepared at Mackinac for publication, and that the manuscript must have been partly completed there. The statements in the letter

17 Both letter and prospectus are printed in full by Mr. Lee in Proceedings for 1909, State Historical Society of Wisconsin.

JONATHAN CARVER AND THE NAME OREGON 359

and also in the book itself indicate that he had access at Mackinac to the writings of Hennepin and others, from which he plagiarized. Major Rogers, the commandant, had books relating to that region, and Carver mentions having carried books with which he mystified the Sioux Indians. But The History of the American Indians, by James Adair, from which he plagiarized, was not published until 1775 in London, and therefore the text of his Travels must have been added to and revised at later dates.

The Mackinac we are speaking of was located on the sandy shore of the south side of the strait, between Lakes Huron and Michigan, near what is now Mackinaw City, in the state of Michigan. There had been an original Mackinac on the north side of the strait, and later there was another and more permanent Mackinac on the island four or five miles away. Mackinac was the final starting point in the traffic from Canada and New York for peltries from the Northwest, years before and after the time of Jonathan Carver. Here all licensed traders registered and hired many of their voyageurs. Here were the homes of both active and retired French-Cana- dians and half-breeds, who were employed by the traders, some of whom quite possibly had been with La Verendrye during his years of exploration and trade to the westward. In the office of the commandant, records must have been kept and maps showing the trade routes and Indian tribes. Macki- nac just then afforded abundant opportunities to anyone seek- ing information about the regions toward the Rocky Mountains or preparing to write a book such as Carver's Travels.

Mackinac was also the place where adventurers gathered; men with or without resources seeking exploits or riches in the field of exploration or the fur trade. There was a mythical Northwest Passage to be located and Mackinac was on the way toward it. There were visions of the extension of British trade on the Pacific Ocean, and of an overland route to con- nect with it. Not as a real explorer but rather as one among such adventurers seeking to live at government expense we

360 T. C. ELLIOTT

find our Captain Carver at Mackinac, his plans well known if not inspired by the resident commandant. In the letter already referred to, he said: "I have two hundred pounds due me from the crown, which I shall have in the spring; also, the governor commandant * * has promised he will take spe- cial care to acquaint the government at home of my services." The claims he filed for the expense of travel to the Westward bore the "O. K." of the commandant, but were not paid at Headquarters because no authority had been given for such employment and these claims became the basis for much im- portunity in London later. The inquiry arises as to who furnished money for this Western adventure by a retired army officer who had been obliged to petition for relief in 1764. The prompt publication in Boston of Carver's letter and his announcement of a forthcoming book leads to the presumption that some one in Massachusetts had advanced funds for this enterprise.

Although he had written to Massachusetts from Mackinac in September, 1767, and his letter had been published there, Captain Carver did not hesitate to write in his Travels that he did not return from the West until November, just as nav- igation had closed on Lake Erie, and too late to return to Boston before the following June. But of his own life at Mackinac during those nine months he says little or nothing. He passes without mention events which might have added to the interest of his narrative, for about the 6th of December the officer in command of the military forces, under orders from Headquarters, placed Commandant Rogers under arrest, later put him in irons because of attempted escape, and, in the spring, sent him under guard to Montreal for trial by court martial. The charge against him was conspiracy ; an attempt to organize the French and the Indians of the Mississippi Val- ley in revolt, in conjunction with another officer named Hop- kins at New Orleans. The charge was changed to one of mutiny and at the trial Rogers was, for lack of evidence it is said, acquitted, but was not returned to Mackinac.

JONATHAN CARVER AND THE NAME OREGON 361

During the French and Indian War, Captain Carver must of necessity have had acquaintance if not comradeship with Major Robert Rogers," from New Hampshire, who was the daring leader of a partisan command known as the "Rogers Rangers", as well known then as the Roosevelt Rough Riders in our own times. Both officers were present at the massacre at Fort William Henry and again at the capture of Montreal. After the latter event, Major Rogers was sent by General Jeffrey Amherst to capture the French outpost at Detroit, and thus had opportunity personally to view the Western country and observe its chances for personal adventure and exploit. He afterwards retired from active service and spent a few months in London, where his previous record gave him pres- tige, and his boisterous conduct some notoriety. In October, 1765, he was appointed to the position of governor-command- ant at Mackinac and returned to America, and evidently had in mind activities outside of the usual official duties and which were attractive to his former army acquaintance, Captain Carver. At any rate both are recorded as arriving at Mackinac in August, 1766, and probably had traveled together from Niagara, and very soon Captain Carver set out for the Mis- sissippi Valley under arrangements made by Commandant Rogers. It is quite clear then why Carver said nothing about the unusual events at Mackinac during the winter of 1767-8, and makes the least possible mention of Major Rogers any- where in his book.

A belief that Captain Carver was one of the emissaries of Rogers to the Indians is based upon more than mere sus- picion. Not only does his name appear with other names in the papers in the case but his own narrative indirectly reveals the fact. Mention of particular instances is deferred. Then there is the curious incident of the deed which Carver obtained from two Sioux chiefs in May, 1767, conveying to him a tract of land more than one hundred miles square lying east and southeast from the Falls of Saint Anthony and afterwards prominently known in Wisconsin as the "Carver Grant." This

1 8 For sketches of Major Rogers, see Parkman's Conspiracy of Ponteac, vol. 2; also Collections of Historical Society of Wisconsin, vol. 18, p. 22*; also Pon- teach; or the Savages of America, by Robert Rogers (Allan Nevins, editor, Caxlon Club edition, Chicago, 1914). This contains the best biography of Major Rogers. Through the courtesy of Mr. Nevins, the present writer has received valuable references just as this manuscript is going to the printer.

362 T. C. ELLIOTT

deed was found among Captain Carver's papers after his death. It had not been exhibited by him for the very evident reason of fear to prejudice his standing in London, for by proclamation in October, 1763, the king had especially forbid- den any British subjects to acquire land from the Indians in America.

But another of Major Rogers' accomplishments interests us more directly because it casts suspicions upon the originality of other parts of Carver's Travels. It appears that Rogers was himself possessed of literary ability. One of the objects of his going to London was to publish three books, one the Journals he kept during the French and Indian War, another a brief descriptive narrative entitled A Concise Account of North America, and the third a drama or tragedy called Ponteach, or the Savages of America. These were brought out in 1765-6, and the first two in particular attracted very favor- able attention, and it is easy to see where Captain Carver took his cue for book writing. There appear in his Travels instances of very positive plagiarism from "A Concise Account", and from Major Rogers it is reasonably certain that Captain Carver drew his idea of transcontinental exploration.19

From Mackinac in the summer of 1768, Captain Carver traveled to Boston by way of Fort Pitt, Philadelphia and New York. At British headquarters in the latter city, he endeavored to secure payment of his expense bill, but General Gage re- fused and gave him a letter of character in the service instead. Arriving in Massachusetts, he visited his family, secured other letters of recommendation from willing citizens and also under- took to get subscriptions for the publication of his book in America. Failing in that he sailed for London in February, 1769.

Of his eleven years in London, few details are really known. During the first five at least, he was not unlike many an indi- vidual who inhabits our own capital city of Washington, nurs- ing a claim against the government. His first memorial was promptly filed and was promptly examined by "the lords of the

19 See Ponteach, Caxton Club edition, at footnote on page 120.

JONATHAN CARVER AND THE NAME OREGON 363

committee of his majesty's most honorable privy council for plantation affairs", who, in July, 1769, found that his discov- eries were of no value and that he was entitled to nothing except by way of compassion or relief. Later this relief, to the extent of the expenditures of his journey, was granted on the condition that he deposit with the government all his charts and journals, and still later he was given permission to publish these privately, which after more long waiting he was able to do. Meantime there appears another petition by Carver to the Crown for appointment as agent among the Indians of the Upper Mississippi, upon which no action seems to have been taken.20 This no doubt gave rise to the story that in 1775 the king had decided to equip an expedition to the Mississippi River under the command of Captain Carver, but was pre- vented by the outbreak of the War of the Revolution. That tale came from the Reverend Samuel Peters, D. D., during his many years (1804-1824) of remarkable activity and colossal lying as chief promoter of the claimants for the "Carver Grant".21 The said Peters, during an exceedingly long life, injected spice into the annals of Connecticut, Vermont and Wisconsin. But the vicissitudes of a poor author in London, also with a new family connection which could not have been inspiring, brought Carver to a pitiful death by starvation. It must be remembered that he was nearly sixty years of age when arriving in London.

When nearing the end of his life, Captain Carver fell into the hands of kindly men whose names were well known in London, Dr. John Fothergill and Dr. John Coakley Lettsom, the latter of whom bought the rights of a publisher in the third edition of the Travels, which Carver had himself arranged for, and placed the books on the market for the benefit of the London widow and child of Captain Carver. To that edition Dr. Lettsom contributed a brief biographical sketch of the author and added the deed from the Sioux chiefs as an appen- dix. Dr. Lettsom was a gentleman and a scholar and a gener- ous man, but all he knew of the career of Captain Carver was

20 This memorial is printed in full by Mr. Lee in Proceedings of the Historical Society of Wisconsin for 1012.

21 See Collections of Historical Society of Wisconsin, vol. 6, p. 238; also see the Review of Mississippi Valley Historical Society, vol. 7, No. i.

364 T. C. ELLIOTT

obtained indirectly from the widow and the personal papers of the deceased and possibly from such an acquaintance as the Reverend Samuel Peters, D. D., and, therefore, his sketch was both incomplete and incorrect. Doctors Fothergill and Lettsom knew Captain Carver only as the recognized author of a book of travel which had been only recently published but had gone through two editions and which was written in good style and language and described a part of the empire that was just then very much in the eye and mind of the British people. Carver's Travels contains the names Ponteac, Mackinac, Niagara, Detroit, Grand Portage and Mississippi, of the Sioux and Assinniboiles, and many others just then of almost magic interest in London. That the author of such a book should have died from want and starvation seemed very sad to Doctors Fothergill and Lettsom.22 And so it was, for Captain Carver was not really a bad man, and neither was he a good man ; and that is all the epitaph we can write under his name.

The fact that Carver's Travels was dedicated to Joseph Banks, Esq., the president of the Royal Society and a man of scientific knowledge, added to the dignity of the book, but meant little as to its real accuracy or reliability, for a great many other books were, according to custom, dedicated to the president of that society, whoever he might be. But such dedication did cause the manuscript and other papers of this author to be deposited in the British Museum and did make it obligatory that the author have assistance in the final prep- aration for publication. Speaking of the Carver papers in the British Museum, Mr. John Thomas Lee says : "The jour- nals and the Indian vocabulary are in the handwriting of the author, and have numerous alterations and additions. They do not appear to have been written from day to day,23 but rather to be copies of original notes, with additions from memory. * * * * Evidently Carver's manuscript was not considered suitable for publication in its original form, for a reviser seems to have been employed to prepare it for the

22 See documents printed in this number of Oregon Historical Quarterly.

23 Henry R. Schoolcraft was of the opinion that Carver did not "keep diurnal notes". See page 168 of his Personal Memoirs (Philadelphia, i8sO-

JONATHAN CARVER AND THE NAME OREGON 365

press. Among the papers bequeathed -by Sir Joseph Banks, there is a note "to the Reviser", in which Carver asks that nameless gentleman, in case he finds any accounts which are unconnected, to be so good as to let him "know by Mr. Pain ancUvery information shall be given that the author is capable of ". In London, of course, Carver had access to all known material in the way of books (including the recently pub- lished History, by James Adair) and maps and no doubt gave his writings a final revision. If he then added the name Oregon we now know of no other source for it than his own mind or that of Major Robert Rogers, who had been in London and had received assistance from Carver in pre- senting claims against the government. But it is not at all likely that the name was written into the final revision there in London.24

There are those who prefer to condone the moral lapses of Carver as a writer, and, for their consideration, another name of Indian origin will be mentioned, as we conclude this dis- cussion. It will be noted that, in the original rendering of the lines of "Thanatopsis", the construction of the verse placed the accent upon the second syllable of the name Oregon. There can be no connection between William Cullen Bryant and Jonathan Carver, except by mere coincidence, but this serves to introduce a word taken from the dialect of the Pequot Indians of New England spelled w-a-u-r-e-g-a-n and uttered with the accent on the second vowel. Had Carver been a man of real vision in writing and capable of evolving a etiphoneous name for the fourth river of his scheme, he might have reverted in thought to the days of his youth when hunting or fishing among the wooded hills of Connecticut or listening to Indian tales by the fireside, and recalled this beautiful Wauregan, which means " good" , and altered that to Oregon, for surely the Columbia is a goodly river. But that was beyond the literary or mental ability of Jonathan Carver. Instead he appears to have merely pilfered the name Onragon25 from Major Robert Rogers, with slight variation.

24 It is impossible to say how much the style of Carver's published book owes to the reviser of the manuscript; possibly enough to justify Professor Bourne's criticism. The name Oregon as printed may have taken final form by the hand of the reviser.

25 See page 122 of Ponteach, Caxton Club edition. (It is purposed to con- tinue this discussion and show the relationship between Robert Rogers and the name Oregon as indicated by documentary material now being transcribed. T. C. E.)

366 T. C. ELLIOTT

Of course there is still the realm of conjecture open to those who will prefer to believe in the authenticity of this book Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America, which has had such a remarkable vogue in literature; and Jonathan Carver, like Marley in the famous and familiar Christmas classic of Dickens', is "dead as a door nail" and cannot be called to testify.

DOCUMENTS

Editor's Note The two documents which follow throw some light on the pitiful conditions surrounding the death of Jonathan Carver in London in the year 1780. Both are from the pen of Dr. John Coakley Lettsom, the benefactor of Carver on his death bed and of his family afterwards.

The first speaks for itself. The transcript has been made from the copy of the Memoirs in The Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.

The second is a letter written fifteen years after Carver's death in response to inquiry connected with the search for the original of a deed from two Indian chiefs, conveying a large tract of land in the present states of Wisconsin and Minnesota. The inquiry came to Dr. Lettsom from persons interested in obtaining, from the Congress of the United States, the confirmation of this reputed conveyance. The tract is known in Wisconsin history as the "Carver Grant", and committees from both the Senate and House of Representatives, after much investigation, refused to confirm the Indian deed. The transcript of the original letter is on file with the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, and this copy is certified to by the superintendent of that Society.

T. C. ELLIOTT. Extract from :

MEMOIRS

of John Fothergill, M. D. £c.

by

John Coakley Lettsom The Fourth Edition

London Printed for C. Dilly

1786

(Read before the Medical Society of London, July 17 & Oct. 23, 1782)

JONATHAN CARVER AND THE NAME OREGON 367 Page 82:—

"One instance, among numbers, I am urged to communicate here, as death now equally precludes the power of bestowing, and the gratitude of acknowledging, future bounties : Captain Carver is a name known in the annals of misery, to which he was reduced by long-continued want ; disease, its natural con- sequence, gave him access to Dr. Fothergill ; and I am informed by his widow, that as often as he applied for medical relief, the doctor as often accompanied his prescription with a liberal donation. But Captain Carver was not an importunate solic- itor; the mind not hardened by familiarity of refusal, or that hath not acquired, by frequent struggles, the art of suppressing its emotions, possesses that diffidence which is the inseparable associate of worth. Between diffidence and want, many were the struggles of Captain Carver, but, overcome at length by repeated acts of the doctor's generosity, a jealous suspicion of becoming troublesome, to his benefactor, determined him to prefer that want, from the deprivation of the necessaries of life, which put it out of the power of his choice ; for death soon triumphs over famine. What a conflict of sullen greatness does this tragedy exhibit! When his fate was communicated to the doctor, how tender was his expression ! "If I had known his distress, he should not thus have died" !*

* The king has since graciously condescended to allow the widow Carver an annuity. The unfortunate husband was only known to me on his deathbed. In the early stages of his disease he was able to wait upon Dr. Fothergill; but in the progress of it, being confined to his bed, the doctor requested me to visit the captain at his lodgings; and my first interview was within three days of his decease. It was after his funeral that I felt myself more immediately interested in the succorr of the widow and orphans. As the captain died pennyless, he was buried, to avoid expense, in the poor's ground, a part of the churchyard usually appropriated to the abject poor. When I reflected upon the utility of his Travels, I confided him as a public loss, and his offspring as the children of the public; and I presented the widow with a few pounds, to clothe and feed herself and children; but the money, thus designed to satisfy her hunger, she employed otherwise; she had the corpse of her husband taken out of the poor's ground, and buried in ground containing the ashes of higher company, arid over it she raised a decent monument to his memory. His Travels, however, will prove a more durable monument than stone; and, though the dust with which we are mixed avails not to the living or to the dead, yet I was sensibly touched with this instance of posthumous affection, and have since endeavored to mitigate the miseries of a mind endowed with such tender sensibilities.

368 T. C. ELLIOTT

A LETTER BY DR. LETTSOM. Mr. Gravener:

During Mrs. Carver's life, I saw a paper of half a sheet, with two marks said to be those of Indian chiefs at the foot, of a grant of land, and, after Mrs. Carver's death, I searched every lodging where she had been and the place where she died, without being able to find the least vestige of paper or cloaths, not even any certificate of her having been married to Captain Carver. Unfortunately I rarely saw her out of a state of intoxication. All these facts Mrs. Pope knows very well. Mr. Knox, the late American secretary, wrote me a letter with one from Dr. Belknap, the late historian of America, that no such grant of land existed by tradition or otherwise among the Indians. Captain Carver, by his first wife, left several sons and daughters who have made the same application to me for any documents. So that, if any property could be dis- covered, these children who are legitimate would precede any title that could be claimed by Mrs. Pope. I once advertised to find out whether Captain Carver was married to Mrs. Pope's mother, but without success. I presume that Mrs. Pope pos- sesses certificate of marriage. I never saw Captain Carver but on his deathbed, nor did I know of any real or supposed conveyance until after his death, when the widow showed me the paper I mentioned above. Mr. Fisher, the secretary of the American board here, told me that no such document ever could be traced in his office. Mrs. Pope has given me a good deal of trouble and knows how anxious I always was to serve her could I have done it. But I am of opinion that no legal instrument, intimated in your letter, exists, and that if it did Captain Carver's issue, by his first wife, would alone be entitled to possession, but your professional knowledge must enable you to determine upon these matters superior to that of

J. C. Lettsom. London Jany 15 1805 [Copy of transcript of letter in State Historical Society of

Wisconsin.]

Joseph Schafer, Sttpt.

INDEX

[369]

INDEX TO VOLUME XXI

Atkinson, Dr. George H., sent to Ore- gon by the American Home Mission- ary Society, 4; becomes authority on matters of education in the territory, 4-5; with Harvey Clark founds Tual- atin Academy, 5; for forty years is secretary of the board of trustees of Tualatin Academy and Pacific Uni- versity, 6; secures an endowment for Pacific University and persuades Sidney Harper Marsh to come from Vermont to be its president, 6-7.

B

Brown, Mrs. Tabitha, career of, in Con- necticut, arduous trip to Oregon when nearly seventy, 3; her school at West Tualatin, now Forest Grove, 1846-8, 4; her school of orphans taken over by Tualatin Academy, 5; when 72 years old has 40 in her family of pupils and mixes with her own hands 3423 pounds of flour in five months, 6; her home is bequeathed to the Uni- versity, 8.

CARVER, JONATHAN, THE STRANGE CASE

OF, AND THE NAME OREGON, 341-68;

William Cullen Bryant and Thomas Jefferson give vogue to the word Oregon, originated by Carver, 341; genealogy of Carver, 341-2; the dif- ferent possible sources of the name Oregon, 342; the region to which in- quiry into the origin of the name leads, 342-3; early life, accomplish- ments and marital relations, 343-6; military career, 346; route of travels traced, 346-7; the regions described had long been visited by white men and his suggestions as to locality of sources of four principal rivers of continent ridiculous, 348-9; Indians could hardly have given him word used as name of the Columbia, 349-50; white men among the Sioux earlier and later than Carver did not report such name as current among them, 350-1 ; facilities for a French or Spanish origin of Oregon, 350-4; a river of the west proiected and mapped long before Carver's time, 355-7; Carver's projected enterprise to cross the continent absurd for his resources, 357-8; his environment at Mackinac, 358-60; his connection with Major Robert Rogers, 361-2; life in London befriended by Dr. John Fothergill and Dr. John Coakley Lettsom, 363: the Carver MS., 364-5; the Pequot Wau-

regon and Major Robert Rogers' Ouragon as possible sources of Ore- gon, 365.

Clark, Reverend Harvey, espouses pur- pose to found Pacific University, 3; with Dr. George H. Atkinson organ- izes Tualatin Academy, 5 ; teaches in Mission School at Champoeg, 6; most generous in endowing Pacific University, 6.

EDUCATIONAL PLANS AND EFFORTS BY METHODISTS IN OREGON TO 1860, 63-94-

F

Fothergill, Dr. John, as benefactor of Jonathan Carver, 366-7

G

H

IDAHO, DAVID THOMPSON AND BEGIN- NINGS IN, 49-61 ; first trader located in, 54-55; first shipment of furs from,

K

Lettsom, Dr. John Coakley, publisher of 3rd edition of Carver's Travels and writer of biographical sketch of au- thor, 363-4; letter by, bearing on search for certificate of Carver grant, 368.

M

McLoughlin, Dr. John, statement of. relative to policy of refusal to sell cattle to settlers, 177.

Marsh, Sidney Harper, comes to Ore- gon to become head of school at Tualatin Plains, 6-7; develops it into Tualatin Academy and Pacific Uni- versity, 7; secures endowment and library, 7-8.

Martinez, Estevan Joseph, account by, of seizures of British vessels at Noot- ka Sound in 1789, 21-30.

METHODISTS, EDUCATIONAL PLANS AND EFFORTS BY IN OREGON TO 1860, 63-94; essential educational program of every religious denomination, 63-4; educa- tional before 1860 under religious auspices, 64-5; the work of the mis- sion schools, 65-71; elementary term

[370]

INDEX.

schools, 72-7; Oregon Institute and Willamette University, 77-83; Clacka- mas County Female Seminary, 83-4; Portland Academy and Female Semi- nary, 84-5; Santiam Academy, 85-6; Corvallis Academy, 86; Rainier Semi- nary, 87; Oregon City Seminary, 87; Umpqua Academy, 87-91; bibliogra- phy, 92-4.

N

OREGON ITS MEANING, ORIGIN AND APPLICATION, 317-331; Indian origin and meaning of the word, 318-20; conveyed east to the Sioux by the Shoshonis, 321-2; Jonathan Carver gets it from the Sioux and uses it in his book of "Travels," 322-5; the tradition of a western river, 325-6; William Cullen Bryant, Thomas Jef- ferson use the name Oregon, 326-7; Lewis and Clark and John Jacob Astor through exploration and occupa- tion and Dr. John Floyd through agi- tation bring the region into public no- tice so that settlement and jurisdic- tion are extended to include it, 327-31.

OREGON COUNTRY, THE EARLY EX- PLORATIONS AND THE ORIGIN OF THE NAME OF THE, 332-346; progress of Spanish, Russian and English dis- covery and exploration in the Pacific Northwest, 332-5; evidence of the presence of Spaniards in the Oregon Country, 335-6; divers modes for ac- counting for the word Oregon, 336-8; early settlers as Spaniards would nat- urally transfer name of ancestral home to region, 338-9; transforma- tion of Aragon into Oregon, 339-40.

P

PACIFIC UNIVERSITY, 1-12; had its origin in a missionary enterprise, 3; schools of Reverend Harvey Clark and wife and of Mrs. Tabitha Brown its nu- cleus, 3; Harvey Clark and George H. Atkinson organize it as an academy, 5; through labors of President Sid- ney Harper Marsh developed into university, 6-8; its successive presi- dents, 8-9; teachers that served the Academy and University, 9-10; its alumni, 10; standards, 10; its aspira- tions and outlook, 11-12.

PRINCESA, THE LOG OF THE, by ESTEVAN MARTINEZ, 21-31; corrects Bancroft's account of this voyage, 22; fails to refer to Meares' house, 22; gives rea- son for releasing the Iphigenia, 23; the reception accorded to the North- west America, 24; comparison of Log account with letter to Florez, 24; seizures of English vessels, 25-9; rea- sons for favoring Gray and Kendrick, 30; adequacy of the diary for deter- mining what really did happen at Nootka Sound in 1789, 31.

R

ROBERTS, WILLIAM M., LETTERS OF, AS THIRD SUPERINTENDENT OP OREGON MISSION, 33-48; description of per- sonality and characterization of work m Oregon, 34-5; account of Whit- man massacre and of the conditions before and after, 34-8; the immigra- tion of 1847, 38; the salary and sun- dry needs ot the mission, 39-43; glory of Oregon in temperance departed, 45; the war and the legislature of the winter of 1847-8, 47; wants of the church, 48.

s

Schools, Pioneer elementary term, 72-7; organized institutions, 1854-60, 77-91. SCHOOLS, HISTORY OF OREGON NORMAL, 95-169; Oregon Normal School sys- tem less developed than those of neighboring states, 95-7; preparation of Oregoh teachers, 97-8; the early school conditions and the demand for Normals, 98-103; first state normals evolved from denominational institu- tions, 105-13; beginning of financial aid from state, 113-7; their troubles begin and criticism becomes fierce, 117-19; vicissitudes suffered at hands of governors, legislatures, the press and at the polls, 120-32; the normal schools cut off, 132-4; the work of the normal schools evaluated, 134-55; summary of causes of failure, 155-6; their appeals to the people and result, 156-68; bibliography, 168-9. Slacum, William A., mission of, in Ore- gon, 1836-7, and what he accom- plished, 171-9.

SPAIN AND ENGLAND'S QUARREL OVER THE OREGON COUNTRY, 13-20; the Nootka Sound affair, the first of three dramatic crises in the clash of international interests in the Oregon Country, 13-4; the progress of Span- ish and English discovery and trade expansion toward a point of collision in the Pacific Northwest, 14-6; the preparation from 1785 to 1789 in Nootka Sound for the explosion, 16-20.

THOMPSON, DAVID, AND BEGINNINGS IN IDAHO, 49-61; fur traders of Canada early plan to cross the Rocky Moun- tains, 49-50; David Thompson and Fin an McDonald first penetrate to tributaries of the Upper Columbia in present Idaho, 50-1; accuracy of ob- servations taken by Thompson, 52-3; site of first trading post selected, Kullyspell House, 54-6;, David Thompson's birth, education and career, 56-61.

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YOUNG, EWING, AND His ESTATE, 171- 315; the formation of the Willamette Cattle Company at the suggestion of William A. Slacum, 171-2; the Ore- gon settlement in the winter, 1836-7, 172-5; Slacum's mediation removes the two impediments to progress, 176- 9; diplomacy, daring and sagacity in getting first cattle from California, 179-80; play of economic forces in the making of early Oregon revealed in the Ewing documents, 180-4; unity in economic interests and activities im- pel to political organization, i84:6; the western world of adventure in the twenties that lured Ewing Young, 186- 8; his movements in the Southwest,

189-90; in California, 190-3; the ac- cusation made against him by the governor of California threatens ruin to Young and to the American settle- ment on the Willamette, 193-5; the domesday book of record of early Oregon, 195-7; documentary records relating to Young at Taos, New Mexico, and the claimants to his es- tate, 197-205; records of the Willam- ette Cattle Company, 205-9; "day- book" record of saw mill operations and employees' supply account, 209-43 ; record of live stock interests and farm accounts during summer following his decease, 243-70; account with Fort Vancouver sale shop, 270-6; inventory and auction accounts, 276-92; separate personal accounts, 292-308; adminis- trator's accounts, 308-11; jail built with part of proceeds of estate, 312- 3; petition praying that proceeds of estate should not be used as the peo- ple of the territory would thereby be- come too deeply involved in debt, 3I3-S.

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871

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