By GEO. O. GOODALL.
The early history of the white man in the Upper Calapooia was a quiet
and uneventful one. The travelers coming in from their long trip
across the Plains, pushed up the Willamette Valley, and, attracted by
the beautiful and fertile Calapooia Valley, with its abundance of
grass on its surrounding hills, and plentiful supply of water, settled
there to live the peaceful life of farmers or stock raisers, with very
little trouble of any kind to disturb them in their occupation of
home-making. In those early days the hills, most of which are now
heavily wooded, were free from timber and covered with beautiful
grass. One old settler said: "You can not imagine the beauty of this
country when we first came here." The Indians had kept the brush
burned down, burning over the hills each year. The white man neglected
to do this, and now in many places the grass has given way to moss and
timber.
According to the best information I could get, the first settlers came
to the Calapooia in 1846. T. A. Riggs, who came in 1847, and whose
statement is appended below, says that when he came there were three
or four settlers near where Brownsville now stands, and one, R. C.
Finley, six miles up stream. This man Finley was the settler farthest
up the stream till Riggs and his partner, Asa Moore, took up donation
claims two or three miles above Finley on Brush Creek, a tributary of
the Calapooia. From this time on more settlers came every year and
settled all along the Calapooia Valley and on streams tributary. The
settlement here preceded that in the upper Willamette to some extent,
because out in the valley there was less timber, water was less
plentiful, and the soil was not considered as good as in the
Calapooia.
Most of the settlers who came were farmers. R. C. Finley, however, was
a millwright, and in 1849[35] built a flouring mill, which still
stands, six miles above Brownsville. In 1850 Templeton built a
sawmill; in 1852 Finley built one, and in 1854 P. V. Crawford built
one near the present site of Holley. The first settlers had gone to
Oregon City for flour, and later to Salem. After Finley's mill was
built people came from as far away as the Umpqua Valley to get flour
there.
Schools were founded at an early date, the first being taught by Rev.
H. H. Spalding in a log house one mile above where Brownsville now
stands, in the summer of 1849. This was a subscription school. The
first district was organized on the Calapooia in 1853, being the third
district in Linn County. The first school after the district was
organized was taught by Robert Moore in the summer of 1853. The
churches commenced work very soon and several denominations were
represented. Joab Powell, the celebrated Baptist evangelist, used to
preach there, and gave it as his opinion that "Thar was some mighty
big sinners on the head of the Calapooia." Dr. J. N. Perkins preached
for the Christians, and Rev. H. H. Spalding for the Presbyterians.
P. V. Crawford, for whom Crawfordsville is named, was the first
regularly appointed postmaster on the Calapooia. Previous to his
appointment in 1870 there had been a supplied post office at William
Heisler's store, where Crawfordsville now is. There was never any
great number of manufacturing enterprises in the Calapooia country. A
flouring mill, a sawmill or two, and the woolen mill at Brownsville,
built about 1862, constitute the sum of such enterprises. The chief
production is still from the farm--live stock and farm produce. The
range is now greatly curtailed through growth of brush, close
pasturage, and taking up of land.
There were in this region several men who were public spirited and
prominent in Oregon affairs in early times. Foremost of all was
Delazon Smith, who lived down toward Albany, on the Albany prairie,
but was well known and claimed by all the Linn County section. Smith
was a preacher when he first lived in Oregon. On one occasion he was
heard to say, when preaching at Brownsville, that he had been urged to
give up preaching and go into law, but that he would not give up what
religion he had for all the wealth of the world. Strange to say,
however, that was really the last sermon he ever preached. Soon after
he is said to have been offered a fee of $1,000 to defend a man in a
criminal case, and from that time on he followed law and politics. He
was a member of the constitutional convention, was in the legislature,
and stumped the state with Col. E. D. Baker in the race for United
States senator. Hugh Brown, founder of Brownsville, was also prominent
in politics and was a member of the constitutional convention. J. N.
Rice and Robert Glass were in the legislature in early times, and R.
C. Finley, though not so prominent politically, was a wealthy,
liberal, public spirited man, who wielded considerable influence.
No serious Indian troubles ever came upon the settlers on the
Calapooia. T. A. Riggs tells how the Indians used to steal from the
whites, and describes a little difficulty he and a neighbor had with
them over the stealing of an ox, but the Indians of this section never
attempted to make war on the whites. At a later time, 1856, there was
a fear that the Indians on the other side of the Cascades, who were
then on the warpath, might come over and fall upon the settlers along
the Calapooia. At Fern Ridge a fort was built in anticipation of such
a contingency, but results proved their fears groundless, and that
they had perhaps given the eastern Indians credit for more energy than
they possessed.
During war times there was considerable feeling in this region. The
people were many of them from Missouri, and many were Douglas
democrats. When the war commenced a considerable number of Douglas
democrats turned Republicans. A party composed of Union men and
Douglas democrats put out a county ticket in 1862 in Linn County. It
was called the Cayuse ticket. Both Union and non-Union men formed
secret societies. The democrats organized a secret society known as
the Knights of the Golden Circle, one of its objects being to prevent
a draft. George Helm was the leading democrat at this time in this
section, and was called the "Lion of Linn." The Union men formed the
Union League, the chief object of which was to watch the democrats. It
was thought at one time that the Knights of the Golden Circle would
attempt to capture the fort at Vancouver, but no such attempt was ever
made.
As I have before stated, the course of settlement and development in
the Calapooia country was quiet and uneventful. The settlers were at
first all poor, all subject to the hardships incident to living in a
new country, shut off from many conveniences of an older community,
and obliged to ascertain by experiment what crops paid best and how
they were best handled. Currency was scarce in the settlement and
wheat served to a large extent as a medium of exchange. When the men
who had been drawn to the gold mines to seek their fortunes began to
return with their gold dust there was a rapid advance in business and
prosperity.
The first newspaper of this locality was printed by George Dyson; the
name and date I can not now give. The second was the _Informant_,
printed, like the first, at Brownsville, and by a man named Stein.
This was in 1886. In 1887 the _Express-Advance_ was started with the
_Informant's_ plant and continued two years. The _Brownsville Times_
was started June 15, 1889, by McDonald & Cavendish. With several
changes of editors this paper is still printed, the present
proprietors being F. M. Brown and A. B. Cavender.
The question as to why the first settlers came to Oregon is difficult
to determine. It seems, however, from the very limited amount of
direct testimony I have been able to get, that there were two forces
which at least had a powerful influence, and these were, first,
curiosity to see this great western country; and, secondly, the desire
to pick out a good piece of land from the thousands of acres open to
settlement here.
ALBANY, Oregon, September 21, 1901.
_Mr. Geo. O. Goodall, Eugene, Oregon_--
DEAR SIR: In compliance with your request I will write a
short account of the early settlement of the upper Calapooia
Valley and some of the annoyances with which the first
settlers had to contend, and as I have to depend entirely on
memory, I am aware that my account will be very imperfect
and the more so as I am almost alone as one of the first
settlers, and I believe the only one above Brownsville.
I crossed the plains in 1846, stopping near Oregon City till
the next fall, when I settled in Brush Creek Valley, Brush
Creek being the south fork of the Calapooia. When I came
here I found Alexander Kirk, W. R. Kirk, James Blakely, Hugh
L. Brown, and Jonathan Keeney, all living in the vicinity of
where Brownsville now is, they all having crossed the plains
in 1846 and come on up the valley to the Calapooia. I also
found R. C. Finley some six miles farther up the stream, who
also crossed the plains the same year, but settled on the
Calapooia in the spring of 1847. Mrs. Agnes B. Courtnay, who
came to Oregon in 1845, and whose husband had been killed
near Oregon City by a falling tree, made up the settlers on
the Calapooia at that time. I will state here that Mr.
Finley had settled at the falls of the Calapooia where he
contemplated building, and did in 1848 build a flouring
mill, being the first mill south of Salem. In the fall of
1847, as before stated, I and Asa Moore settled in Brush
Creek Valley above Mr. Finley, he being the upper settler up
to that time, and at the same time James McHargue and Robert
Montgomery, who crossed the plains that season, settled
below Mr. Finley and Thomas Fields several miles farther up
the stream. Wm. T. Templeton, William Robnett, William
McCaw, John Findlay, John A. Dunlap, and Thomas S. Woodfin
all crossed the plains in 1847 and subsequently settled on
the Calapooia, but after the annoyance with the Indians had
ceased.
The Indians in these early days were in the habit of
stealing horses and cattle from the settlers and butchering
them, and the settlers would trail them up and if able to
catch them would flog them severely, but the Indians seemed
to care about as much as a cur for such treatment and would
laugh about it as if it was all a huge joke. Some time
during the summer of 1847 Isaac B. Courtnay was hunting in
Brush Creek Valley, being above the settlement at that time,
when he met with a few Indians, who took his gun and
ammunition and allowed him to go home. During the fall and
winter of 1847 the Indians annoyed Mr. Fields so much that
he finally moved down to my place on Brush Creek and stayed
until the spring of 1848.
In the fall of 1847 when I and Mr. Moore came into Brush
Creek Valley we were not aware that there were any Indians
near there and selected a place to build a cabin in which to
spend the winter, we being single men, were going to batch
through the winter, when I intended to bring my mother to
live with me, my father having died soon after starting for
Oregon. When we commenced cutting logs for our cabin two or
three Indians appeared on the scene and inquired what we
were doing there, and on being told we were going to settle
there they demanded pay for the land, and we finally made a
bargain with them agreeing to pay them in wheat and pease
after the next harvest, this being the way in which many of
the early settlers bargained with them.
During the fall and early winter when an Indian happened to
be present at mealtime we gave him something to eat, but it
soon became apparent that if we kept this up we would run
out of provisions before spring, as there were one or more
Indians there nearly every meal, so we were obliged to quit
feeding them, when they demanded pay for their land again we
told them, however, that we would pay them according to
contract. Soon after this they moved away, and we saw no
more of them on Brush Creek.
As Mr. Finley was contemplating the building of a mill the
next summer he traded for a fat ox which I had brought with
me, intending to butcher him when he commenced work, but
soon after the Indians left the ox disappeared also. When we
missed him from the other cattle Mr. Finley and I took a
circuit around the range of the cattle and struck his trail
going toward the Santiam, and after tracking him a mile or
two we came across the same Indians, where they were camped
and were drying the beef, having killed the ox. When we
turned toward the camp Mr. Finley said if that Indian runs
I'll shoot him. When they saw us coming they broke for the
brush and Mr. Finley fired at one of them, they in their
hurry leaving everything in camp, including the only gun
they had.
After selecting such things as we could carry that would be
of any value we made a bonfire of the rest, burning
everything they had. When we started away I saw an Indian
head come up by the side of a log in the timber and took a
shot at him, it was a long shot, and I think the ball struck
the log, but the head disappeared very suddenly. Another
Indian started to run from behind a tree when Mr. Finley
fired, aiming, as he said, to break a leg, wounding the
Indian above the knee, but not disabling him. This caused
quite an excitement in the settlement, the Indians and many
of the settlers fearing it would cause an outbreak among the
Indians, arguing that we ought not have shot at them, but
should have treated them as others had done. However, Mr.
Finley and I told them that if they didn't want to be shot
at they must not steal from us, as we would shoot every time
and that to kill. This put a stop to their stealing in this
part of the country and we were not annoyed after that by
the natives, and they never called for the pay for their
land.
The Rev. H. H. Spalding taught a neighborhood school in a
log schoolhouse one mile above where Brownsville now stands
in the summer of 1849, there being no public schools in the
country at that time. The first school district on the
Calapooia, being the third in Linn County, was organized, I
think, in the spring of 1853; but many of the early records
of the county were burned in the courthouse, and I am unable
to give the precise date. The first school was taught in the
district in the summer of 1853 by Robert Moore.
As to the motive for coming to the Willamette Valley at that
early date I hardly know how to answer, unless it was love
of adventure, as the question of sovereignty had not been
settled between the United States and England when I came
here. True, the United States senate had been discussing the
matter of giving each settler in Oregon six hundred and
forty acres of land, and we rather expected that would be
done, but we had no real assurance that such would be the
case.
Among the early county officers of Linn County, after its
organization under the Territorial Government, quite a
number were living on the Calapooia, Alexander Kirk being
elected county judge, N. D. Jack assessor, John A. Dunlap
representative, and William McCaw clerk in 1849, and in 1850
several men who were elected to county officers went to the
mines and failed to qualify, among them the county
treasurer, and at a special election I was elected to that
office and received and disbursed the first taxes ever
collected in Linn County.
In 1851 I was elected assessor and was the second man to
assess the county. In 1856 I served as second lieutenant in
the Rogue-river war. In 1862 was elected sheriff for two
years.
Yours truly,