OREGON THEN, AND OREGON, WASHINGTON AND IDAHO NOW.
The beginning of a People, a State or a Nation is always an
interesting study, and when the beginning has resulted in a grand
success, the interest increases. It is seldom that in the lifetime of
the multitudes of living actors, so great a transformation can be seen
as that to-day illustrated in the Pacific States. Fifty years ago, the
immigrant, after his long journey over arid plains, after swimming
rivers and climbing three ranges of mountains, stood upon the last
slope, and beheld primeval beauty spread out before him. The millions
of acres of green meadows had never been disturbed by a furrow, and in
the great forest the sound of the woodman's ax had never been heard.
Coming by way of the great river, as it meets the incoming waves of
the Pacific, the scene is still more one of grandeur. Astoria, at that
time, had a few straggling huts, and Portland was a village, with its
streets so full of stumps as to require a good driver to get through
with safety, and was referred to as a town twelve miles below Oregon
City.
To the writer nothing has left such an impression of wilderness and
solitude as a journey up the Willamette, forty-five years ago, in a
birch-bark canoe, paddled by two Indian guides. The wild ducks were
scarcely disturbed, and dropped to the water a hundred yards away, and
the three-pronged buck, browsing among the lily pads, stopped to look
at the unusual invasion of his domain, and went on feeding.
The population of Oregon in that year, 1850, as shown by census, was
13,294, and that included all of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, with a
part of Wyoming and Montana.
After years of importunity, Congress had given Oregon a Territorial
Government in 1849. Prior to that--from 1843 to 1849--it was an
independent American government, for the people and by the people.
Notwithstanding the neglect of Oregon by the General Government, and
its entire failure to foster or protect, the old pioneers were true
and loyal American citizens, and for six years took such care of
themselves as they were able, and performed the task so well as to
merit the best words of commendation.
[Illustration: REV. STEPHEN B. L. PENROSE,
President of Whitman College.]
The commerce of the country, aside from its furs, was scarcely worth
mentioning. The author, in 1851, bought what few salted salmon
there were in the market, and shipped them to San Francisco, but wise
and prudent advisers regarded it as a risky venture. He would have
been considered a wild visionary, indeed, had he even hinted of the
shipments of fish now annually made to all parts of the civilized
world.
It was then known that the rivers were filled with fish. In the spring
of the year, the smaller streams, leading away from the Columbia, were
literally blocked with almost solid masses of fish on their way to
their spawning grounds. The bears along the Columbia, as well as the
Indians, had an unlimited supply of the finest fish in the world, with
scarcely an effort to take them. An Indian on the Willamette, at the
foot of the falls, could fill his boat in an hour with salmon weighing
from twenty to forty pounds.
In the spring of the year, when the salmon are running up the
Willamette, they begin to jump from the water a quarter of a mile
before reaching the falls. One could sit in a boat and see hundreds of
the great fish in the air constantly. Multitudes of them maimed and
killed themselves jumping against the rocks at the falls.
The Indian did not wait for "a rise" or "a bite." He had a hook with
an eye socket, and a pole ten feet or more long. The hook he fastened
to a deer thong, about two feet long, attached to the lower end of
the pole. When ready for fishing the pole was inserted into the socket
of the hook, and he felt for his fish, and by a sudden jerk caught it
in the belly. The hook was pulled from the pole, and the fish had a
play of the two feet of deer thong. But the Indian never stops to
experiment; he hauled in his prize.
The great forests and prairies were a very paradise for the hunters of
large game. Up to the date of 1842-3, of Dr. Whitman's ride, but a
single hundred Americans had settled in Oregon, and they seemed to be
almost accidental guests. The immigration in 1842 swelled the list,
and the caravan of 1843 started the tide, so that in 1850, as we have
seen, the first census showed an American population of 13,294.
In 1890, in contrast, the population of Washington was 349,390;
Oregon, 313,707; Idaho, 84,385, and five counties in Southwestern
Montana and one in Wyoming, originally Oregon territory, had a
population of 65,862, making a total of 813,404. Considering the
difficulties of reaching these distant States for many years, this
change, in less than half a century, is a wonderful transformation.
The Indians had held undisputed possession of the land for
generations, and yet, as careful a census as could be made, placed
their number at below 75,000. In 1892 the Indian Commissioner marks
the number at 21,057.
The great changes are seen in the fact that in 1838 there were but
thirteen settlements by white men in Oregon, viz.: That at Waiilatpui,
at Lapwai, at the Dalles and near Salem, and the Hudson Bay Forts at
Walla Walla, Colville, Fort Hall, Boise, Vancouver, Nisqually, Umpqua,
Okanogan and the settlement at Astoria. The old missionaries felt
thankful when letters reached them within two years after they were
written.
Mrs. Whitman's first letter from home was two years and six months
reaching the mission. The most sure and safe route was by way of New
York or Montreal to London, around the Horn to the Sandwich Islands,
from which place a vessel sailed every year for Columbia. The wildest
visionaries at that time had not dreamed of being bound to the East by
bands of steel, as Senator McDuffie said: "The wealth of the Indies
would be insufficient to connect by steam the Columbia River to the
States of the East." Uncle Sam seems to have been taking a very sound
and peaceful nap. He did not own California, and was even desirous of
trading Oregon for the cod fisheries of Newfoundland.
The debt of gratitude the Americans owe to the men and women who
endured the privations of that early day, and educated the Nation into
the knowledge of its future glory and greatness, has not been fully
appreciated. The settlers of no other States of the frontier
encountered such severe tests of courage and loyalty. The Middle
States of the Great West, while they had their hardships and trials,
were always within reach of the strong arm of the Government, and felt
its fostering care, and had many comforts which were wholly beyond the
reach of the Oregon pioneers.
Their window glass for years and years was dressed deer skin; their
parlor chairs were square blocks of wood; their center tables were
made by driving down four sticks and sawing boards by hand for top,
the nearest saw mill being four hundred miles off. A ten-penny nail
was prized as a jewel, and until Dr. Whitman built his mill, a barrel
of flour cost him twenty-four dollars, and in those days that amount
of money was equal to a hundred in our times of to-day.
The plows were all wood, and deer thongs took the place of iron in
binding the parts together. It was ten years after they began to raise
wheat before they had any other implement than the sickle, and for
threshing, the wooden flail. It was in the year 1839 the first
printing press reached Oregon. It may be marked as among the pioneer
civilizers of this now great and prosperous Christian land.
That press has a notable history and is to-day preserved at the State
Capital of Oregon as a relic of by-gone days in printing. Long before
the civilization of Oregon had begun in 1819, the Congregational
Missionaries to the Sandwich Islands had imported this press around
the Horn from New England, and from that time up to 1839 it had served
an excellent purpose in furnishing Christian literature to the
Kanakas. But the Sandwich Islanders had grown beyond it; and being
presented with a finer outfit, the First Native Church at Honolulu
made a present of the press, ink and paper to the Missions of
Waiilatpui, Lapwai and Walker's Plains.
The whole was valued at $450 at that time. The press was located at
Lapwai, and used to print portions of Scripture and hymn books in the
Nez Perces language, which books were used in all the missions of the
American Board. Visitors to these tribes of Indians twenty-five years
after the missions had been broken up, and the Indians had been
dispersed, found copies of those books still in use and prized as
great treasures.
Another interesting event was the building of the first steamer, the
Lot Whitcomb, in the Columbia River waters. This steamer was built of
Oregon fir and spruce, and was launched December 26th, 1850, at
Milwaukee, then a rival of Portland. It was a staunch, well-equipped
vessel, one hundred and sixty feet in length; beam, twenty-four feet;
depth of hold, six feet ten inches; breadth over all, forty-two feet
seven inches; diameter of wheel, nineteen feet; length of bucket,
seven feet; dip one foot eight inches, and draft three feet two
inches. It was a staunch and elegantly-equipped little vessel; did
good service in the early days, making three round trips each week,
from Milwaukee to Astoria, touching at Portland and Vancouver, then
the only stopping places. The Whitcomb was finally sent to California,
made over, named Annie Abernethy, and was used upon the Sacramento
River as a pleasure and passenger boat.
These two beginnings, of the printer's art and the steamer, are all
the more interesting when compared with the richness and show in the
same fields to-day. The palatial ocean traveling steamers and the
power presses and papers, scarcely second to any in editorial and
news-gathering ability, best tell the wonderful advance from
comparatively nothing at that time.
The taxable property of Oregon in 1893 was $168,088,095; in Washington
it was $283,110,032; in Idaho, $34,276,000. The manufactories of
Oregon in 1893 turned out products to the value of $245,100,267, and
Washington, on fisheries alone, yielded a product valued at $915,500.
There has been a great falling off, both in Oregon and Washington, in
this source of wealth, and the eager desire to make money will cause
the annihilation of this great traffic, unless there is better legal
protection. Washington, in 1893, reported 227 saw mills and 300
shingle mills and 73 sash and door mills, and a capital invested in
the lumber trade of $25,000,000. A wonderful change since Dr. Whitman
sawed his boards by hand as late as 1840.
The acres of forest yet undisturbed in Washington are put down at
23,588,512. During President Harrison's term a wooded tract in the
Cascade Mountains, thirty-five by forty miles, including Mount
Rainier, was withdrawn from entry, and it is expected that Congress
will reserve it for a National Park. The statistics relating to wheat,
wool and fruits of all kinds fully justify the claim made by Dr.
Whitman to President Tyler and Secretary Webster--that "The United
States had better by far give all New England for the cod fisheries of
Newfoundland than to sacrifice Oregon."
Reading the statistics of wealth of the States comprising the original
territory of Oregon, their fisheries, their farm products, their
lumber, their mines, yet scarcely begun to be developed, one wonders
at the blindness and ignorance of our statesmen fifty or more years
ago, who came so near losing the whole great territory. If Secretary
Daniel Webster could have stepped into the buildings of Washington,
Oregon and Idaho that contained the wonderful exhibit at the World's
Fair, he would doubtless have lifted his thoughts with profound
gratitude that Dr. Whitman made his winter ride and saved him from
making the blunder of all the century.
If old Senator McDuffie who averred that "The wealth of the Indies
could not pay for connecting by steam the Columbia River with the
States," could now take his place in a palace car of some one of the
four great transcontinental lines, and be whirled over "the
inaccessible mountains, and the intervening desert wastes," he, too,
might be willing to give more than "A pinch of snuff" for our Pacific
possessions.
The original boundaries of Oregon contained over 300,000 square miles,
which included all the country above latitude 42 degrees and west of
the Rocky Mountains. Its climate is mild and delightful, and in great
variety, owing to the natural divisions of great ranges of mountains,
and the warm ocean currents which impinge upon its shores, with a
rapid current from the hot seas of Asia. This causes about seventy per
cent of the winds to blow from the southwest, bringing the warmth of
the tropics to a land many hundreds of miles north of New York and
Boston. It is felt even at Sitka, nearly 2,000 miles further north
than Boston, where ice cannot be gathered for summer use, and whose
harbor has never yet been obstructed by ice.
[Illustration: DR. DANIEL K. PEARSONS.]
The typical features of the climate of Western Oregon are the rains
of Winter and a protracted rainless season in Summer. In other words,
there are two distinct seasons in Oregon--wet and dry. Snows in Winter
and rains in Summer are exceptional. In Eastern Oregon the climate
more nearly approaches conditions in Eastern States. There are not the
same extremes, but there are the same features of Winter snow, and, in
places, of Summer heat. Southern Oregon is more like Eastern than
Western Oregon.
In Eastern Oregon the temperature is lower in Winter and higher in
Summer than in Western. The annual rainfall varies from seven to
twenty inches.
The Springs in Oregon are delightful; the Summers very pleasant. They
are practically rainless, and almost always without great extremes of
heat.
Fall rains usually begin in October. It is a noteworthy feature of
Oregon Summers, that nights are always cool and refreshing.
The common valley soil of the State is a rich loam, with a subsoil of
clay. Along the streams it is alluvial. The "beaverdam lands" of this
class are wonderfully fertile. This soil is made through the work of
the beavers who dammed up streams and created lakes. When the water
was drained away, the detritus covered the ground. The soil of the
uplands is less fertile than that of the bottoms and valleys, and is a
red, brown and black loam. It produces an excellent quality of
natural grass, and under careful cultivation, produces good crops of
grain, fruits and vegetables. East of the Cascade Mountains the soil
is a dark loam of great depth, composed of alluvial deposits and
decomposed lava, overlying a clay subsoil. The constituents of this
soil adapt the land peculiarly to the production of wheat.
All the mineral salts which are necessary to the perfect development
of this cereal are abundant, reproducing themselves constantly as the
gradual processes of decomposition in this soil of volcanic origin
proceeds. The clods are easily broken by the plow, and the ground
quickly crumbles on exposure to the atmosphere.
In Northwestern Oregon, adjacent to the Columbia River, although the
dry season continues for months, this light porous land retains and
absorbs enough moisture from the atmosphere, after the particles have
been partly disintegrated, to insure perfect development and full
harvests.
In Southeastern Oregon, especially in the vast areas of fertile lands
in Malheur and Snake River Valleys, the soils are much like those of
the Northeastern Oregon region, but there is less moisture. Except in
a very small portion of this region, irrigation is necessary to
successful agriculture. The water supply is abundant and easily
applied.
We have made no attempt to write a complete history of this great
section or its wealth, but only to outline such facts as will make
more impressive the value to the whole people of the distinguished
services of the pioneers who saved this garden spot of the world to
the people of the United States. "The Flag of Beauty and Glory" waves
over no fairer land, or over no more intelligent, prosperous and happy
people. All this too has been reached within the memory of multitudes
of living actors; in fact it can be said the glow of youth is yet upon
the brow of the young States.
The lover of romance in reality will scarcely repress a sigh of
regret, that with Oregon and Washington, the western limit of
pioneering has been reached, after the strides of six thousand years.
The circuit of the globe has been completed and the curtain dropped
upon the farther shores of Oregon and Washington, with a history as
profoundly interesting and dramatic as that written on any section of
the world. "The Stars and Stripes" now wave from ocean to ocean, and
from the Great Lakes to the Gulf. It is a nation of grand
possibilities, whose history would have been marred for all time to
come, had any foreign power, however good or great, held possession of
the Pacific States. With China open to the world's commerce; with the
young giant Japan inciting all the Far East to a new life and energy,
the Pacific States of the Republic stand in the very gateway of the
world's footsteps, and commerce and wealth. Only when measured in and
by the light of such facts, can we fully estimate the value to the
whole people of the Nation of the midwinter ride of our hero, and to
the brave pioneers of Oregon.