Chapter III: Part 3

It is staunch and rough-hewn, and the ceiling
Of the fragrant red cedar is made,
With an edging of silver revealing
A picture of sunlight and shade.
And the Word has its place, not a trifle
Obscured in a pageant of books,
And above the broad mantle your rifle
Is hung on accessible hooks.
Oh, the freshness of hope and of fancy
That illumines the home and the heart,
With the grace of a bright necromancy
That excels the adorning of art!
And you rise and look forth and the glory
Of Hood is before you again,
And the sun weaves a gold-threaded story
In the purple of mountain and glen.

· · · · ·

Stand up, and look out from the mansion
That adorns the old scene of the past
On the fruitage of hope—the expansion
Of the fruits of your vigils forecast!
While the shadows of Hood have been wheeling
Away from the face of the sun,
What a glamour of change has been stealing
On the fields that you painfully won!
Like the castles that fade at cock-crowing
The enchantments arise and advance
Where the cities of commerce are glowing
Like pearls in the braids of romance;
For a state, in the shimmering armor
Of the Pallas Athena has come,
And her ægis is fringed with the warmer
Refulgence that circles our home.

As for you, you are gray, and the thunder
Of the battle has smitten each brow
Where the freshness of youth was turned under
By Time’s immemorial plow;
But the pictures of memory linger,
Like the shadows that turn to the East,
And will point with a tremulous finger
To the things that are perished and ceased;
For the trail and the foot-log have vanished,
The canoe is a song and a tale,
And flickering church spire has banished
The uncanny red man from the vale;
The cayuse is no longer in fashion—
He is gone—with a flutter of heels,
And the old wars are dead, and their passions
In the crystal of culture congeals;
And the wavering flare of the pitch light
That illumines your banquets no more,
Will return like a wandering witch-light
And uncrimson the fancies of yore—
When you dance the “Old Arkansaw” gaily
In brogans that had followed the bear,
And quaffed the delight of Castaly
From the fiddle that wailed like despair;
And so lightly you wrought with the hammer,
And so truly with ax and with plow—
And you blazed your own trails through the grammar,
As the record must fairly allow;
But you builded a state in whose arches
Shall be carven the deed and the name,
And posterity lengthens its marches
In the golden starlight of your fame!

PILGRIMS OF THE PLAINS.

By JOAQUIN MILLER.

A tale half told and hardly understood;
The talk of bearded men that chanced to meet,
That lean’d on long quaint rifles in the wood,
That look’d in fellow faces, spoke discreet
And low, as half in doubt and in defeat
Of hope; a tale it was of lands of gold
That lay toward the sun. Wild wing’d and fleet
It spread among the swift Missouri’s bold
Unbridled men, and reach’d to where Ohio roll’d.

Then long chain’d lines of yoked and patient steers;
Then long white trains that pointed to the west;
Beyond the savage west; the hopes and fears
Of blunt, untutor’d men, who hardly guess’d
Their course; the brave and silent women, dress’d
In homely spun attire, the boys in bands,
The cheery babes that laughed at all and bless’d
The doubting hearts with laughing lifted hands—
What exodus for far untraversed lands!

The Plains! The shouting drivers at the wheel;
The crash of leather whips; the crush and roll
Of wheels; the groan of yokes and grinding steel
And iron chain, and lo! at last the whole
Vast line, that reached as if to touch the goal,
Began to stretch and stream away and wind
Toward the west, as if with one control:
Then hope loom’d fair, and home lay far behind;
Before, the boundless plain, and fiercest of their kind.

At first the way lay green and fresh as seas,
And far away as any reach of wave;
The sunny streams went by in belt of trees;
And here and there the tassell’d tawny brave
Swept by on horse, looked back, stretched forth and gave
A yell of hell, and then did wheel and rein
Awhile and point away, dark-brow’d and grave,
Into the far and dim and distant plain
With signs and prophecies, and then plunged on again.

Some hills at last began to lift and break;
Some streams began to fail of wood and tide,
The somber plain began betime to take
A hue of weary brown, and wild and wide
It stretch’d its naked breast on every side.
A babe was heard at last to cry for bread
Amid the deserts; cattle low’d and died,
And dying men went by with broken tread,
And left a long black serpent line of wreck and dead.

Strange hunger’d birds, black-wing’d and still as death,
And crown’d of red and hooked beaks, flew low
And close about till we could touch their breath—
Strange unnamed birds, that seem’d to come and go
In circles now, and now direct and slow,
Continual, yet never touch the earth;
Slim foxes shied and shuttled to and fro
At times across the dusty weary dearth
Of life, looked back, then sank like crickets in a hearth.

Then dust arose, a long dim line like smoke
From out of riven earth. The wheels went groaning by,
The thousand feet in harness, and in yoke,
They tore the ways of ashen alkali,
And desert winds blew sudden, swift, and dry.
The dust! It sat upon and fill’d the train.
It seem’d to fret and fill the very sky.
Lo! dust upon the beasts, the tent, the plain,
And dust, alas! on breasts that rose not up again.

They sat in desolation and in dust
By dried-up desert streams; the mother’s hands
Hid all her bended face; the cattle thrust
Their tongues and faintly called across the lands.
The babes that knew not what the way through sands
Could mean, did ask if it would end today.
The panting wolves slid by, red-eyed, in bands
To pools beyond. The men look’d far away,
And silent deemed that all a boundless desert lay.

They rose by night, they struggl’d on and on
As thin and still as ghosts; then here and there
Beside the dusty way before the dawn,
Men silent laid them down in their despair,
And died. But woman! Woman, frail as fair!
May man have strength to give to you your due;
You falter’d not nor murmur’d anywhere,
You held your babes, held to your course, and you
Bore on through burning hell your double burdens through.

Men stood at last, the decimated few,
Above a land of running streams, and they?
They pushed aside the boughs, and peering through
Beheld afar the cool refreshing bay;
Then some did curse, and some bend hands to pray;
But some looked back upon the desert wide
And desolate with death, then all the day
They mourned. But one, with nothing left beside
His dog to love, crept down among the ferns and died.

PIONEERS OF THE PACIFIC

BY JOAQUIN MILLER.

· · · · ·

The wild man’s yell, the groaning wheel,
The train moved like drifting barge;
The dust rose up like a cloud,
Like smoke of distant battle loud! Loud
The great whips rang like shot, and steel
Flashed back as in some battle charge.

They sought, yea, they did find their rest
Along that long and lonesome way,
Those brave men buffeting the West
With lifted faces. Full they were
Of great endeavor.

· · · · ·

When
Adown the shining iron track
We sweep, and fields of corn flash back,
And herds of lowing steers move by,
I turn to other days, to men
Who made a pathway with their dust.

DOCUMENT.

The following is one of a set of documents giving contemporary evidence on a most important epoch of Oregon history. It was secured by Principal J. R. Wilson.

(From the New Orleans Picayune, November 21, 1848.)

PRAIRIE AND MOUNTAIN LIFE—THE OREGON EMIGRANTS.

During our detention among the upper settlements, before starting out, a constant source of interest to us was the gathering of people bound to Oregon. One Sunday morning, about the usual church hour in a larger place, five or six wagons passed through the town of Westport, and one old man with silver hair was with the party. Women and children were walking, fathers and brothers were driving loose cattle or managing the heavy teams, and keen-eyed youngsters, with their chins yet smooth and rifles on their shoulders, kept in advance of the wagons with long strides, looking as if they were already watching around the corners of the streets for game. There was one striking feature about the party which leads us to name it more particularly. Though traveling on the Sabbath and through the little town that was all quiet and resting from business in reverence of the day, there was that in the appearance of the people that banished at once even the remotest idea of profanation. They were all clean, and evidently appareled in their best Sunday gear. Their countenances were sedate, and the women wore that mild composure of visage—so pleasantly resigned, so eloquent of a calm spirit, so ready to kindle up into smiles—that is seen more often among churchgoers, perhaps, than in ballroom or boudoir. Some of the women carried books, and the prettiest girl carried hers open before her as she stepped a little coquettishly through the dust of the road. Whether she was reading, or trying, or pretending to read, was hard to tell, but the action had a naive effect, and as she passed she was, no doubt, much astonished at a strange young gentleman who audibly addressed her with, “Nymph, in thy orisons, be all my sins remembered.”

Many other small bodies of these adventurous travelers crossed our notice at Independence, Westport, and at encampments made in the vicinity of these and other towns, but in their largest force we saw them just after crossing the Kansas River about the first of June. The Oregonians were assembled here to the number of six or eight hundred, and when we passed their encampment they were engaged in the business of electing officers to regulate and conduct their proceedings. It was a curious and unaccountable spectacle to us as we approached. We saw a large body of men wheeling and marching about the prairie, describing evolutions neither recognizable as savage, civic or military. We soon knew they were not Indians, and were not long in setting them down for the emigrants, but what in the name of mystery they were about our best guessing could not reduce to anything in the shape of a mathematical probability.

On arriving among them, however, we found they were only going on with their elections in a manner perhaps old enough, but very new and quizzical to us. The candidates stood up in a row behind the constituents, and at a given signal they wheeled about and marched off, while the general mass broke after them “lick-a-ty-split”, each man forming in behind his favorite so that every candidate flourished a sort of a tail of his own, and the man with the longest tail was elected! These proceedings were continued until a captain and a council of ten were elected; and, indeed, if the scene can be conceived, it must appear as a curious mingling of the whimsical with the wild. Here was a congregation of rough, bold, and adventurous men, gathered from distant and opposite points of the Union, just forming an acquaintance with each other, to last, in all probability, through good or ill fortune, through the rest of their days. Few of them expected, or thought, of ever returning to the states again. They had with them their wives and children, and aged, depending relatives. They were going with stout and determined hearts to traverse a wild and desolate region, and take possession of a far corner of their country destined to prove a new and strong arm of a mighty nation. These men were running about the prairie, in long strings; the leaders,—in sport and for the purpose of puzzling the judges, doubling and winding in the drollest fashion; so that, the all-important business of forming a government seemed very much like the merry schoolboy game of “snapping the whip.” It was really very funny to see the candidates for the solemn council of ten, run several hundred yards away, to show off the length of their tails, and then cut a half circle, so as to turn and admire their longitudinal popularity _in extenso_ themselves. “Running for office” is certainly performed in more literal fashion on the prairie than we see the same sort of business performed in town. To change the order of a town election, though for once, it might prove an edifying exhibition to see a mayor and aldermen start from the town pump and run around the court house square, the voters falling in behind and the rival ticket running the other way, while a band in the middle might tune up for both parties, playing “O, What a Long Tail Our Cat’s Got;” which we surmise some popular composer may have arranged for such an occasion.

After passing them here, we never saw the Oregonians again. They elected a young lawyer of some eminence as we were told, named Burnett, as their captain, and engaged an old mountaineer, known as Captain Gant, as their guide through the mountains to Fort Hall. Several enactments were made and agreed to, one of which was called up to be rescinded, and something of an excitement arose in regard to it. The law made was that no family should drive along more than three head of loose stock for each member composing it, and this bore hard on families that had brought with them cattle in large numbers. The dispute resulted in a split of the large body into two or three divisions; and so they moved on, making distinct encampments all the way. Captain Gant was to receive $1.00 a head from the company, numbering about a thousand souls, for his services as guide. But a few more such expeditions following in the same trail will soon imprint such a highway through the wilderness to Oregon that emigrants may hereafter travel without such assistance.

We left them here about the last of May and encountered no sign of them again until returning in September, when we struck their trail on the Sweetwater, near the south pass of the mountains. They had followed in our own trail as far as this point and had here turned off, our course lying in another direction. From here, all the way to Fort Laramie, we found the now deeply worn road strewn with indications of their recent presence. Scaffolds for drying meat, broken utensils thrown away, chips showing where wagons had been repaired, and remnants of children’s shoes, frocks, etc., met our notice at every deserted encampment.

But one death seemed to have occurred among them, and this was far out under the mountains. Here the loose riders of our moving camp gathered one morning to examine a rude pyramid of stones by the roadside. The stones had been planted firmly in the earth, and those on top were substantially placed, so that the wolves, whose marks were evident about the pile, had not been able to disinter the dead. On one stone, larger than the rest, and with a flat side, was rudely engraved:

J. HEMBREE.

And we place it here as perhaps the only memento those who knew him in the States may ever receive of him. How he died, we of course cannot surmise, but there he sleeps among the rocks of the West as soundly as if chiseled marble was built above his bones.

On returning to Rock Independence, a point about nine hundred miles from the settlements, we were astonished at finding that the Oregonians had reached and passed it only four days behind us. We had confidently supposed them four weeks in our rear, and their rapid progress augurs well for the success of their enterprise. On the rock we found printed:

“THE OREGON CO.
arrived
July 26, 1843.”

At Fort Laramie we were told that they were still well provisioned when passing there, and could even afford to trade away flour, coffee, etc., for necessaries of other kinds. But it was droll to hear how the Sioux stared at the great caravans. Some of them on seeing the great number of wagons, and particularly white women and children, for the first time, began to think of coming down here, having seen, as they supposed, “the whole white village” move up the mountains.

INDEX.

TOPICAL INDEX.

ADAMS—
Proposals on the Oregon Question, 220

ASTORIA—
Settlement of, 10
Restitution of, to U. S., 214

BAYLIES—
Speeches of, on Oregon, 21

BENTON—
Oregon policy of, 13, 16, 50, 52

CALHOUN—
Opposition of, to Oregon bill, 235

CALIFORNIA—
Contract labor in mines of, 281

CARVER—
Use of word Oregon by, 112, 166

CHAMPOEG—
Origin of name, 88
Early life in, 88, 89
Early settlement near, 173
Early manners of, 172, 176

CHOLERA—
Ravages of, among immigrants to Oregon, 363

CLAY—
On the Oregon Question, 221

COLUMBIA RIVER—
Discovery of, 113
Proposed as boundary, 215

DOUGLAS—
Interest in Oregon Question, 40

ENGLAND—
Rivalry of, in Oregon Country, 6

EDUCATION—
Appropriation of public land for in Oregon, 148

FLOYD—
Oregon policy of, 13–17, 218

FREMONT—
Work of, in Oregon, 330

GOVERNMENT—
Lack of in early Oregon, 9, 10
First exercise of, 10, 11

GOLD—
Effect of early discoveries of, 103

GRAY—
Explorations of, 113

INDIANS—
Customs of, 77
Behavior toward white women, 82
Matthieu’s recollections of, 99
Religious customs of, 179
Legends of the, 183
Request of, for missionaries, 225, 346
First estimate of, in Oregon Country, 296
Position of women among the Oregon, 296
Funeral customs of, 300
Poor food supply of, 302
Estimate and census of Oregon Indians, 314
Language, peculiarities of, 317

JACKSON—
Effort of, to acquire San Francisco Bay, 228

KELLEY, HALL J.—
Visit to Oregon in 1834, 195
Work in Oregon, 224
Work of, 349

LEE—
Petition of, to Congress, 28, 29

LINN—
Oregon policy of, 26, 230, 235

LANDS—
Cession of state claims to western, 136

LANE—
Arrival in Oregon, 52

LEDYARD—
Plan of, for exploring Oregon, 115

LEWIS AND CLARK—
Plan for the expedition of, 120
Grant of land to, 144

LOUISIANA—
Purchase of, by U. S., 147

McLOUGHLIN—
Influence of, 11, 12
Notes on, 95, 96
Treatment of American settlers, 105
Domestic life of, 158
Trouble with American immigrants, 201
Hospital work of, 308

MISSIONARIES—
Early settlements of, in Oregon, 194, 196, 225

MONEY IN EARLY OREGON, 102

NOOTKA—
Convention of, 125

OREGON—
Original extent of, 4, 111
Primitive isolation of, 6
Territorial admission of, 52
Motives for statehood in, 53
Opposition to statehood in, 54
Constitutional Convention of, 55
Admission of, as a state, 58
Dangers of pioneer travel to, 61, 62
Characters of pioneers in, 63, 64
First use of the name, 112, 166
Spanish claims to, 122
Southern boundary of, fixed, 127
Russian claims to, 128
Northern boundary of, fixed, 127
School lands of, 154
Early American visitors to, 193
Early immigration to, 198
Dispute over northern boundary of, 215
Discussion over occupation of, 218
Character of early settlement in, 224
Fifty-four deg. 40 min. boundary of, 243
Settlement of northern boundary of, 251
Estimate and census of Indians in, 314
Condition of, in 1842, 327
Fur trade in, 329, 335
Motives for movement to, 352
Summary of negotiations for, 349
Difficulties of route to, 359
Estimate of immigrations to, 370
Character of immigrants to, 398

PARKMAN—
Estimate of work of, on Oregon Trail, 342

POLK—
Inaugural address on Oregon, 46
Message of, 1845 on Oregon, 47
Message of, 1847, 49

POPULATION MOVEMENT—
Effect on Oregon, 8

PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT—
Notices for, 32, 33
First steps toward, 33
Objections to, 34, 35
Plan of, 36
Changes in, 37, 38
Effectiveness of, 39
Indian attitude toward, 40
Lane’s verdict on, 52
Notes on organization of, 91

SAUVIE’S ISLAND—
Indian population of, 310

SLACUM—
Visit of, to Oregon Country, 228

SLAVERY—
Influence of, on admission of Oregon Territory, 48, 50, 51, 147
In Constitutional Convention, 56
In early Oregon, 101

SOVEREIGNTY—
Occupation the test of, 123

TEXAS—
Influence of, on Oregon Question, 288

TYLER—
Message of, 1842 on Oregon, 41, 234
Message of, 1843, 44
Message of, 1844, 45

WASHINGTON—
Territorial formation of, 53

WEBSTER—
Opinion of, on Oregon Question, 239

WHITE—
Appointment of, as sub-Indian agent, 31
Settlement of, in Oregon, 241

WHITMAN—
Character and aims of, 41, 42
Work of, 42, 241
Character of, 61
Matthieu’s estimate of, 85
Views of, on Oregon’s needs, 351
Influence of, 381

WILKES—
Work of, in Oregon, 333

WYETH—
Visits of, to Oregon, 194
Settlement in Oregon, 223

PUBLICATIONS
OF THE
OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY

SOURCES OF THE HISTORY OF OREGON

VOLUME I

NUMBER 1.—JOURNAL OF MEDOREM CRAWFORD—AN ACCOUNT OF HIS TRIP ACROSS THE PLAINS IN 1842. PRICE, 25 CENTS.

NUMBER 2.—THE INDIAN COUNCIL AT WALLA WALLA, MAY AND JUNE, 1855, BY COL. LAWRENCE KIP—A JOURNAL. PRICE, 25 CENTS.

NUMBERS 3 TO 6 INCLUSIVE.—THE CORRESPONDENCE AND JOURNALS OF CAPTAIN NATHANIEL J. WYETH, 1831–6.—A RECORD OF TWO EXPEDITIONS, FOR THE OCCUPATION OF THE OREGON COUNTRY, WITH MAPS, INTRODUCTION AND INDEX. PRICE, $1.10.

THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY FOR 1898–9, INCLUDING PAPER BY SILAS B. SMITH, ON “BEGINNINGS IN OREGON,” 97 PAGES. PRICE, 25 CENTS.

THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY FOR 1899–1900. INCLUDING TWO HISTORICAL PAPERS, 120 PAGES. PRICE, 25 CENTS.

QUARTERLY OF THE OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

NO. 2, VOL. I, JUNE, 1900. _Joseph R. Wilson_—THE OREGON QUESTION 111 _Frances F. Victor_—OUR PUBLIC LAND SYSTEM AND ITS RELATION TO EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES 132 _Mrs. William Markland Molson_—GLIMPSES OF LIFE IN EARLY OREGON 158 _H. W. Scott_—NOT MARJORAM.—THE SPANISH WORD “OREGANO” NOT THE ORIGINAL OF OREGON 165 _H. S. Lyman_—REMINISCENCES OF LOUIS LABONTE 169 _Frances F. Victor_—DR. ELLIOTT COUES 189 DOCUMENT.—A Narrative of Events In Early Oregon ascribed to Dr. John McLoughlin 193 REVIEWS OF BOOKS.—_Eva Emery Dye’s_ “McLoughlin and Old Oregon” 207 _H. K. Hines’_ “Missionary History of the Pacific Northwest” 210 NOTE.—A Correction 212 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── NO. 3, VOL. I, SEPTEMBER, 1900. _Joseph R. Wilson_—THE OREGON QUESTION II. 213 _H. S. Lyman_—REMINISCENCES OF HUGH COSGROVE 253 _H. S. Lyman_—REMINISCENCES OF WM. M. CASE 269 _John Minto_—THE NUMBER AND CONDITION OF THE NATIVE RACE IN OREGON WHEN FIRST SEEN BY WHITE MEN 296 _H. S. Lyman_—INDIAN NAMES 316 DOCUMENTS—Oregon articles reprinted from a file of the N. Y. _Tribune_, 1842. 327 Letter by William Plumer, Senator from N. H. 336

PRICE: THIRTY-FIVE CENTS PER NUMBER, ONE DOLLAR PER YEAR.

UNIVERSITY OF OREGON.

_THE GRADUATE SCHOOL confers the degrees of Master of Arts, (and in prospect, of Doctor of Philosophy,) Civil and Sanitary Engineer (C. E.), Electrical Engineer (E. E.), Chemical Engineer (Ch.E.), and Mining Engineer (Min. E.)_

_THE COLLEGE OF LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND THE ARTS confers the degree of Bachelor of Arts on graduates from the following groups: (1) General Classical; (2) General Literary; (3) General Scientific; (4) Civic-Historical. It offers Collegiate Courses not leading to a degree as follows: (1) Preparatory to Law or Journalism; (2) Course for Teachers._

_THE COLLEGE OF SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING._—

_A.—The School of Applied Science confers the degree of Bachelor of
Science on graduates from the following groups; (1) General
Science; (2) Chemistry; (3) Physics; (4) Biology; (5) Geology and
Mineralogy. It offers a Course Preparatory to Medicine._

_B.—The School of Engineering: (1) Civil and Sanitary; (2) Electrical;
(3) Chemical._

_THE SCHOOL OF MINES AND MINING._
_THE SCHOOL OF MEDICINE at Portland._
_THE SCHOOL OF LAW at Portland._
_THE SCHOOL OF MUSIC._
_THE UNIVERSITY ACADEMY._

_Address_
THE PRESIDENT,
EUGENE, OREGON.

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