Copyright 2000 - 2003 - Janine M. Bork
This page is part of the
Union County, OR AGHP
CHAPTER XXXVI.
(1849 - 1851.)
Census - Superintendent Lane Visits Columbia River Tribes - Attack by Snoqualmies on Fort Nisqually - Murder of Leander C. Wallace - Hostile Attitude of Snoqualmies - White Settlers Build Blockhouses - Governor Lane Arrives at Tumwater - Judicial Districts Declared, and Judges Assigned - Sub Indian Agents Thornton and Newell - Election of Samuel R. Thurston, Delegate to Congress - Meeting of Legislature - Names of Counties Changed - Towns in Oregon - Sub-Agent Thornton Visits Puget Sound - Reward for Wallace's Murderers - Action Disapproved by Governor Lane - Thornton Resigns - Trial and Execution of the Murderers - Arrival of Mounted Rifle Regiment - Deserters to California Gold Fields - Surrender, Trial and Execution of Murderers of the Whitmans - Major John P. Gaines Appointed Governor - Governor Lane Resigns, to Take Effect June 18th, and Leaves for California Mines - Arrival of the United States Steamer Massachusetts - General Adair, Collector of Customs, Astoria - Seizure of the British Ship Albion at New Dungeness - Survey of Columbia River - Lieutenant McArthur - The Ship Albion Condemned as a Forfeiture - Seizure and Release of the Schooner Cadboro - Progress of Settlements on Puget Sound - Oysters Discovered at Shoalwater Bay - United States Census, 1850.
AMONG the earliest acts of Governor Lane's administration was that directing a census to be taken. The population numbered 9,083, of whom 8,785 were citizens, and 298 foreigners. There were 5,410 males and 3,673 females. In the counties of Vancouver and Lewis, embracing all of Oregon north of the Columbia river, the total population was 304, of whom 189 were citizens, and 115 foreigners; the males numbered 231, females, 73.
The Organic Act constituted the governor ex-officio superintendent of Indian affairs. In the latter capacity, Governor Lane immediately inaugurated an efficient Indian policy. He made an official visit to The Dalles, on his way interviewing and counseling with the chiefs and head-men of tribes and bands on both sides of the Columbia. The abandonment of his designed journey further eastward was occasioned by advices received at The Dalles, from Puget Sound, of the murder, on the 1st of May, of Leander C. Wallace, an American settler, by Snoqualmie Indians, in the attack made by them upon Fort Nisqually. "About noon, a large armed party of Snoqualmies and Skewhamish arrived and took up their position before the water-gate, where they had an affray with our people, in which an American, Wallace, was killed, and Lewis slightly wounded. One of the enemy was killed, and another wounded. The cause and commencement of the difficulty are as follows: As the horn blew for dinner, a large party of Skewhamish and Snoqualmies were reported to have arrived. Our working and other Indians immediately commenced running into the fort, bringing with them their movables. When dinner was over, a large party of Snoqualmies, to the number of about one hundred, were observed advancing
across the plain on the northwest side of the fort; part went to Lahalet's (the Squally chief) lodge, and the others gathered around the water-gate, where they were soon after rejoined by the others. On being asked the reason for making such a warlike demonstration, they replied that young Lahalet, married to a daughter of one of their petty chiefs, was treating his wife brutally, and they had come to see about it, and did not come with the intention of harming any Whites. The chief, Patkanim, was then invited into the fort; to the others was given tobacco to smoke the pipe of peace, for which they retired to one of the deserted lodges. We took the precaution of placing two armed men (Thibeault and Gohome) at the gate, with orders to let none of them in. I also took my gun and went about among our Indians, who were sweeping out the fort. I had just taken a turn around them when I heard a shot. I repaired to the gate, and found that it had been fired by Gohome in jest. I reproved him for so doing. Soon after I arrived at the gate, four or five of the worst Snoqualmies came rushing to the gate. One of their number, Cussass, rudely pushed Gohome into the fort. I demanded why he did that, and told him to keep quiet. He answered only in insolence. I them put him out, upon which he cocked his gun and drew his dagger, making two or three thrusts at me. Wren, standing a piece off, was called in. I then directed that the gate be closed; but, finding Wren shut out, it was again opened. Wren, upon entering, seized one of their guns; whereupon a scuffle ensued, and the gun falling between the door and post, prevented closing it. I observed Cussass pointing his gun at me. I presented mine, and, as I thought, fired first; but it is maintained by friendly Indians outside that one of the Snoqualmies (Quallawowt), provoked by a blow given by Wren, with the butt end of a gun, to one of their chiefs, fired at him (Wren), but missing him, my shot followed. A good many shots followed, and the gate closed. We then took to the bastions; but our people taking time to get armed, by the time they were at their stations the enemy were out of shot, running across the plains to their canoes. Patkanim, who was in the fort at the commencement of the row, escaped after the closing of the gate, unperceived by our people, young Lahalet (Wyamoch) showing him the way. Wallace and Lewis were outside when the affray commenced, and did not respond to the call of 'all hands come in and shut the gate.' They perhaps thought themselves secure from harm, as they were Americans, and did not belong to the fort. Cussass is said to have shot poor Wallace, Lewis had a wonderfully narrow escape; one ball went through his vest and trousers, and another grazed his left arm. S'Geass, an Indian, was wounded in the neck, and a medicine-man (a Skewhamish) was killed; also, a Snoqualmie was wounded in the shoulder. We do not suppose that the war party came here with the intent of attacking us, but think they had some other object in view besides the affair with Lahalet. One circumstance proves that they thought lightly of quarreling with the Whites. When tobacco was handed to them, Quallawowt asked if it was not poisoned; and none of the Indians would touch it until some one had previously smoked and chewed it. The Snoqualmies and Skewhamish are the terror of all tribes south of the Snoquamish" (1).
There was but little doubt that the intention of the Snoqualmies was to capture Fort Nisqually. If that scheme had succeeded, it was to have been followed by a massacre of the Whites upon the Sound. Patkanim believed that the prestige which such an exploit would have secured to him would unite all the Sound Indians in an effort to exterminate the settlers. Although the attack failed, the Indians believed that they had provoked the enmity of the Whites. Committed therefore to war, and too far advanced to recede from
(1). Journal
of Fort Nisqually, kept by Walter Ross, Clerk.
their assumed hostile attitude, they notified the American settlers to leave the country, consenting that they could do this peaceably, provided they left their property. The settlers, construing these messages as declarations of savage hostility, prepared for defense. Blockhouses were built at Tumwater and Cowlitz, into which the settlers and their families sought refuge; then they notified Governor Lane of the situation.
With an escort of five soldiers, commanded by Lieutenant Hawkins, Mounted rifle Regiment, the governor immediately visited Tumwater, bringing a supply of arms and ammunition. Before going farther, he learned of the arrival of the U.S. transport Massachusetts, with two companies of artillery, under Major Hathaway, U.S. Army. That officer offered to move a company immediately to Puget Sound. Governor Lane returned to the Columbia river. He addressed a communication to Dr. W.F. Tolmie, in charge of Fort Nisqually, requesting his co-operation. That gentleman was requested to notify the Snoqualmies of the arrival of troops in sufficient numbers to punish the hostiles for their past misdeeds, and also to warn them that, upon the commission of further outrages, they would be severely chastised. The officers of the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Nisqually were also requested not to sell to Indians arms or ammunition. In July, Company M, First Artillery Regiment, U.S. Army, Captain Bennett H. Hill, was stationed at Fort Steilacoom.
On the 15th of May, the territory was divided by Governor Lane into three judicial districts; and the Judges of the Supreme court of the territory were respectively assigned. The first district embraced Vancouver county and adjacent counties south of the Columbia river, to which Hon. Wm. P. Bryant, Chief Justice was assigned. The second district, all other counties south of the columbia river; and to it was assigned Hon. Orville C. Pratt, Associate Justice. All of Oregon, north of the Columbia river, except Vancouver county, that is to say, Lewis county as then defined, formed the third judicial district. As Hon. Peter H. Burnett appointed Associate Justice, had never qualified, and no successor had been appointed, there was no assignment of a judge to hold the district courts in the third district.
In the meantime, the commissions of Robert Newell, George C. Preston and J. Quinn Thornton, appointed United States Sub Indian Agents for Oregon Territory, had been received by the Superintendent of Indian affairs. Mr. Preston did not accept. As there remained but two sub-agents, Superintendent Lane divided the territory by the Columbia river into a northern and southern district, assigning charge of the northern district to J. Quinn Thornton.
The election for delegate to
Congress, and for the first Legislative Assembly, took place on the 6th
of June. Of 943 votes polled for delegate, Samuel r. Thurston received
470, and was elected. On the 16th of July, the first territorial Legislative
Assembly convened at Oregon City. Governor Lane's message was a practical
document abounding in valuable suggestions, summing up the needs of the
territory as proper subjects for memorials to Congress. Referring to those
Cayuse Indians who were yet unpunished for the Whitman massacre and the
murderers still at large, protected by tribes, he assured the assembly
that chastisement should speedily follow their refusal to surrender the
murderers, upon the arrival of the Mounted Rifle Regiment then en route
to Oregon. Reference was also made to the murder of Wallace at Fort Nisqually;
and to the demand upon the Snoqualmies to deliver the murderers for trial,
assuring the Assembly that the tribe should be held responsible upon their
refusal to surrender the guilty savages.
The legislature changed the names of several counties. Vancouver county became Clark, in honor of one of the leaders of the first overland exploration to the mouth of the Columbia river; Champoeg became Marion; the name Washington was substituted for Tualitan. An election law was passed, under which necessary county officers could be secured. The legislature fixed an early election day; and then and there the counties became thoroughly organized. The consummation and completion of territorial organization was effected.
The towns of Oregon were all within the Willamette valley; at the time that the territorial government entered upon its career, there were a number of aspiring little communities rejoicing in a name, more or less endeared by associations to the early settlers. Prominent among them were Astoria, St. Helens, Milton, Portland, Milwaukee, Oregon City, Champoeg, lafayette, Albany, Corvallis (then called Marysville), Hillsboro and Salem. Milwaukee was the rival of Portland, the latter of which has since become the metropolis of that whole region, - the historic Oregon, - in fact, of Northwest America. How full of interest would prove the tracing of the trials and struggles of each community for prestige and precedence, so illustrative of the aspirations, the ambitions, the vicissitudes of pioneer life.
On the last of July, Sub-Agent Thornton visited Puget Sound, and was occupied several weeks in collecting data as to the Sound tribes, which he embodied in a report to Superintendent Lane. Some Indians were visited and some presents made; but most of the information acquired was contributed by Dr. Tolmie, Agent of the Hudson's Bay Company, in charge at Nisqually. Thornton's acts in regard to the surrender of the murderers he thus detailed in a report to Superintendent Lane: "on the 7th ult., I arrived at Fort Nisqually. I immediately proceeded to investigate the facts connected with the killing of Mr. Wallace. I sent messengers to patkanim, head chief of the Snoqualmie tribe. I advised him to arrest the offenders and deliver them over to Captain B.H. Hill, and as an inducement offered him eighty blankets as a reward, if this were done in three weeks. I authorized Captain Hill, of the First Artillery, to double the reward, and to offer it in my name, as sub-agent, if the murderers were not delivered up in the three weeks."
That action of Sub-agent Thornton
was most distasteful to Governor Lane. It was not only an unauthorized
assumption of authority, but an interference, at direct variance with the
plan Governor Lane had resolved to pursue. That official thus commented
in his report to the Indian Bureau: "In my instructions to Mr. Thornton,
I said nothing about the murder of Wallace, nor did I intend that he should
interfere in the premises, as it was my intention, on the arrival of the
troops at Nisqually, to visit the Sound and demand the murderers, and make
the Indians know that they should give them up for punishment, and that
hereafter all outrages should be promptly punished, being well satisfied
that there is no mode of treatment so appropriate as prompt and severe
punishment for wrong-doing. It is bad policy, under any consideration,
to hire them to make reparation, for the reasons, to wit: First. It holds
out inducements to the Indians for the commission of murder, by way of
speculation; for instance, they would murder some American, await the offering
of a large reward for the apprehension of the murderers; this done, they
would deliver up some of their slaves as the guilty, for whom they would
receive ten times the amount that they would otherwise get for them. Second.
It has a tendency to make them underrate our ability and inclination to
chastise by force, or make war upon them for such conduct, which, in my
opinion, is the only proper method for treating them for such offenses."
The disagreement between superintendent and sub-agent led to the resignation
of the latter.
Dr. Robert Newell went to California gold mines; and Governor Lane was left to manage alone the Indian affairs of Oregon. Sub-Agent Thornton's reward had accomplished the surrender by the tribes to Captain Hill at Steilacoom of six Snoqualmie Indians. He held them as prisoners for trial.
As before stated, there was no judge to hold courts in Lewis county, within which was Nisqually, where the murder of Wallace had been committed, and the district in which the murderers must be tried. To obviate this difficulty, the legislature, then in session, at the request of Governor Lane, passed a special act providing for a term of court at Fort Steilacoom, in Lewis county. That county was attached to the first district for such purpose; and Chief Justice Bryant was empowered to hold a term of court at Fort Steilacoom on the first Monday of October. The report of that first trial at the first court held upon Puget Sound was furnished by Bryant, Chief Justice, to Governor Lane:
"In pursuance of the provisions of an act of the Legislative Assembly for the territory of Oregon, attaching the county of Lewis to the first judicial district in said territory, and appointing the first Monday in October at Steilacoom as the place of holding the District Court of the United States for said county, I opened and held said court at the time and place appointed. Captain B.H. Hill, of the First Artillery, U.S. Army, delivered to the marshal of the territory six Indians of the Snoqualmie tribe, given up by said tribe as the murderers of Wallace, namely, Cussass, Quallawowt, Stulharrier, Tatam, Whyerk and Qualthlinkyne, all of whom were indicted for murder. The two first named, Cussass and Quallawowt, were convicted and executed. The other four were found not guilty by the jury. Those who were found guilty were clearly so. As to three of the others who were acquitted, I was satisfied with the findings of the jury. It was quite evident that they were guilty in a less degree (if guilty at all). As to the fourth, there was no evidence against him; all the witnesses swore they did not see him during the affray or attack on Fort Nisqually.
"It is not improbable that he was a slave whom the guilty chiefs expected to place in their stead, as a satisfaction for the American murdered. Two others, Americans, were badly wounded by shots, and an Indian child, who afterwards died. The effect produced by this trial was salutary, and I have no doubt will long be remembered by the tribe. The whole tribe, I would judge, were present at the execution, besides a vast gathering of Indians from other tribes on the Sound. They were made to understand that our laws would punish them promptly for every murder committed, and that we would accept no satisfaction short of all who acted in the murder of our citizens.
"I appointed Judge Alonzo A. Skinner District Attorney for the time, and order that he be allowed for his services $250. And I also appointed, to defend them, David Stone, Esq., and made an allowance of record to him for $250. This compensation I deemed reasonable. they have to travel two hundred miles from their respective homes, camp in the woods, as well as all the rest of us, and endure a great deal of fatigue in the manner of traveling in bateaux and canoes by water. Many of the grand and petit jurors were summoned at a distance of two hundred miles from their homes; and although the transportation may have cost some more to the department than bringing the Indians into the more settled district, and with them the witnesses, with a sufficient escort for protection (which I doubt very much), yet I have no hesitation in believing that the policy pursued more than repaid any additional expense that may have been incurred."
The total expense of holding
court to try those Indians was $1,899.54, to which should be added the
reward of eighty blankets, making a total of $2,379.54.
An Act of Congress was passed may 19, 1846, to raise a mounted rifle regiment, for the purpose of establishing posts on the emigrant road to Oregon. The regiment was not raised until the spring of 1847, and then was ordered to Mexico. Greatly reduced in numbers while in that country, it was recruited in the spring of 1849, and ordered to Oregon. On the route, Fort Laramie had been established and garrisoned by two companies. At Cantonment Loring, located on Snake river about three miles above Fort Hall, one company had been stationed. The remaining companies, upon reaching Fort Vancouver, not finding sufficient quarters, marched to Oregon City, making that place their headquarters until the summer of 1850, when barracks at Fort Vancouver had been provided. Colonel W.W. Loring was in command. Troops were also stationed at Astoria, Fort Vancouver, and Fort Steilacoom.
In the spring of 1850, desertions for the California gold mines greatly reduced the number of the regiment. So great had this evil become, that Colonel Loring was powerless to detail necessary parties to overtake and bring back deserters. He appealed to Governor Lane, who raised a party of volunteers, and with them followed and overtook a large number of deserters at the Rogue river and brought them back to Oregon City. Colonel Loring with a party captured others. the remainder escaped into California.
Since the governor's assumption of the duties of superintendent of Indian affairs, negotiations had been continuously carried on with tribes in the interior for peaceable surrender to the Oregon authorities for trial of the Cayuse murderers of Dr. Whitman and others at Waiilatpu. Early in May, news was received by Governor Lane that those savages would be surrendered at The Dalles. Telau-ka-ikt, Tamahos, Giaashetucteas, Clokomas and Kiamasumkin were delivered and brought to Oregon City for trial. The May term of the District Court for Clackamas county was in session. Hon. Orville C. Pratt was presiding Judge. Amory Holbrook (1), United States Attorney for Oregon Territory, conducted the prosecution. Indictments charging them with murder were found against the prisoners, and filed May 21st. F.W. Pettygrove was foreman of the Grand Jury. The Indians were ably represented and zealously defended by Secretary Pritchett, U.S. Paymaster R.B. Reynolds, and Captain Claiborne of the Mounted Rifles. On the 22d, the defendants filed a plea to the jurisdiction of the court, contending that, at the time of the alleged commission of the crime, the laws of the United States had not been extended over the territory; and that consequently the court had no jurisdiction of the crime charged. The plea was overruled. The trial proceeded on the 23d. It was with great difficulty that a jury was impaneled. The testimony of the inmates of Waiilatpu who had survived the horrid butchery conclusively fixed the guilt upon each of the accused. Sticcas, a witness for the defense, told how he had warned Dr. Whitman, and also Mr. Spalding, of the growing hostility of the Cayuse Indians. The Rev. Mr. Spalding was called by the defense to corroborate Sticcas; he admitted that he had himself received such warning. Dr. John McLoughlin and Osborn (one of the sojourners at Dr. Whitman's, who had testified for the prosecution) each gave testimony tending to show that Dr. Whitman had been fully advised of the temper of the savages, and was well aware of the danger which surrounded him and his household. Presumably such evidence must have been intended to show that he did not avoid the impending storm,
(1) Amory
Holbrook had been appointed in the fall of 1849 as United States Attorney
for Oregon Territory. In the month of December of that year he left his
former home in Massachusetts for the territory, via the Isthmus
of Panama. He reached Oregon City early in May, 1850. This distinguished
jurist, brilliant orator, able writer and ripe scholar was born in Rowley,
Mass., August 15, 1820. He graduated at Bowdoin College in the class of
1841; studied law with Rufus Choate, to whom he was related; commenced
the practice of law in 1845, at Salem, Mass., in partnership with Judge
Perkins, and soon took a prominent position at the bar of his native state.
In Oregon his many admirers will hold him in memory as a lawyer, editor,
politician, the zealous Masonic writer and ritualist, and the fearless
and independent expounder of his convictions. He died in the city of Portland,
after a brief illness, on the 26th of September, 1866.
which he might have done, or that he defiantly invited his doom; that measurably such failure on the Doctor's part to abandon his home and desert his post excused the perfidious wretches who slayed those innocents. It would seem, however, that the intention to kill must have been formed and talked of by those conspirators before the knowledge of danger could have been inferred, so as to justify its communication to Dr. Whitman or Mr. Spalding. Hence, the execution of those threats which had made the warning necessary was but the damning proof of long-continued and brooding malice and hostility to the presence of Americans at that station. Testimony was also offered to show the Indian theory as to medicine-men, - a sort of irresistible mania that inspires its possessor to murder one of that class who has lost a patient; but Judge Prat denied its admissibility or relevancy. As to acts at Waiilatpu mission station during that memorable massacre, the defense offered but little testimony. The jury returned a verdict of guilty; the prisoners were sentenced to be hanged on the 3d of June. All except Kiamasumkin confessed actual participancy in the murder. He too admitted his presence, but denied striking a blow, or the actual commission of any deed which could result in killing.
The signing by Governor Joseph Lane of the death-warrant of the Cayuse murderers of the inmates of Whitman mission was practically the closing executive act, at the seat of government, of his patriotic administration. The news had reached Oregon in April, that Major John P. Gaines of Kentucky had been appointed in October, 1849, as successor of Governor Lane. The arrival of Governor Gaines was daily expected. On the 27th of May, Governor Lane advised the Secretary of War, by letter of resignation, that he had made arrangements for concluding a treaty with the Indians of the Rogue river valley, which would occupy till the 18th of June, which date he had fixed in such letter as the termination of his official duties. The treaty with the Rogue river tribes, having been signed, Governor Lane left Oregon and went to the California mines (1).
By orders of the War and Navy Departments of the United States (November 30, 1848), Brevet Colonel J.L. Smith, Major Cornelius A. Ogden, and Lieutenant Danville Leadbetter, Engineer Corps, U.S. Army, and Commanders Louis M. Goldsborough, G.J. Van Brunt and Lieutenant Simon F. Blunt, U.S Navy, had been constitued a commission "to examine to coast of the United States lying upon the Pacific Ocean, with reference to points of occupation for the security of trade and commerce, and for military and naval purposes."
In the spring of 1850, the U.S. steamer Massachusetts arrived in Puget Sound, remaining several months engaged in its thorough examination. The commission then examined the coast from Capt Flattery to the Columbia river. A party was employed in Shoalwater Bay; and the name Leadbetter's Point, the south cape of entrance, will continue a memorial of that thorough reconnaissance.
General John Adair, Collector of Customs, had arrived at Astoria by sea in April 1849. By the Organic Act, the President had been authorized to locate two ports of delivery. This was done by proclamation, January 10, 1850, designating Nisqually and Portland. Information was lodged at the custom-house at Astoria, in April, 1850, that the British ship Albion was at Dungeness, on the Strait of Fuca, taking a cargo of spars, which were being felled on the neighboring shore by her crew and native Indians. In addition to this trespass on government lands, it was charged that a trade was being carried
(1) It must
doubtless have been observed, that in previous pages, as will also mark
the remainder of the labor assigned to me, I have studiously avoided crossing
the Catapooia Mountains and entering Southern Oregon. The company projecting
this historic enterprise wisely committed that field exclusively to my
learned friend, Judge L.F. Mosher. To the seeker after knowledge of the
history of Southern Oregon, the part of the work dedicated to that field
contributed by Hon. LF. Mosher is heartily commended.
E.E.
on between the ship and natives. Eben May Dorr was appointed United States Inspector, and sent to the Sound. Finding matters as reported, and that they had continued since January 5, 1850, he, with the assistance of a detachment of United States troops from Fort Stailacoom, commanded by Lieutenant John B. Gibon, Jr., seized the Albion and her cargo on the 22nd of April, and took her to Steilacoom. This seizure became a subject of negotiation between the governments of Great Britain and the United States. The owner of the Albion, a London merchant, had contratcted with the British government to supply a cargo of spars, to be obtained on the northwest coast of America. The master, Captain Henderwell, stated that his vessel proceeded direct from Sydney to the Strait of Fuca, anchoring at New Dungeness, January 5, 1850, after having "previously traversed the coast and into every place between said New Dungeness and the top of Port Townsend." The master made no attempt to enter his vessel, nor to obtain consent to cut timber. In his protest, he avowed ignorance that a port of entry existed in the territory. The following is quoted from the instructions to themaster, dated March 23, 1849:
"We have got permission from the Hudson's Bay Company to cut timber on any part of Vancouver Island. On the south side of the strait is Port Discovery, a very goodharbor, and I believe plenty of sparts, that now belong to the Americans; and, if they are the best spars, I have authorized Captain Brotchie to arrange and purchase forest suitable for your purpose, provided he can purchase it very cheap. I mean on the American side of the strait."
Lieutenant W.P. McArthur, U.S. Navy, in command of the United States surveying schooner Ewing, during the spring and summer made a survey and chart of the Columbia river bar and harbor, extending his survey as far inland as Cathlamet. At the request of General Adair, collector at Astoria, Lieutenant McArthur accompanied that officer to Puget Sound to take charge of the seized ship Albion and bring her to the Columbia river (1). Insufficient crew and heavy winds caused Lieutenant mcArthur (having brought her from Steilacoom to the strait), to return with her to Steilacoom, where she remained in charge of the garrison until adjudged a forfeiture by the District Court of the Third Judicial District of Oregon (2).
About the same time that the Albion had arrived at Steilacoom (May, 1850), Mr. Door seized the Hudson's Bay Company's schooner Cadboro, together with a quantity of goods imported from Fort Victoria direct to Nisqually. Governor Peter Skeen Ogden, in charge of Fort Vancouver, having given notice that an arrangement was desirable by which that vessel could go direct from Victoria to Nisqually instead of entering at the Columbia river, General Adair permitted entry to be made by the original invoices.
During this year, settlements on Puget Sound and north of the Columbia river were considerably extended; and there was a large increase of population in northern Oregon. Edmund Sylvester laid off and dedicated the Smithfield claim as a town, nominating it Olympia. The beautiful snowcapped mountains of the Olympic or Coast Range, which constitute the background of glorious scenery, enjoyed upon every clear day, looking northward from Olympia, prompted that classic name to Charles Hart Smith (a partner of Colonel Simmons), by whom it was suggested.
In July, the Bradfords, Bishop, Johnsons, and F.A. Chenoweth located at the upper and lower cascades of the Columbia, establishing a town at the latter place, where a store was early opened by Messrs. George L. and George W. Johnson, T.B. Pierce and F.A. Chenoweth.
(1) Letter of General John Adair to Captain Jas. S. Lawson, U.S. Coast Survey, May 20, 1880.
(2) At the October term of the
United States District Court, 1850, held at Vancouver, in Clark county,
Hon. William Strong presiding the ship and cargo were condemned as forfeitures
to the United States, and sold at Steilacoom, November 23d. The Secretary
of the Treasury, January 11, 1851, remitted the forfeitures.
On July 19th, Edward D. Warbass settled at the old Cowlitz landing, laid off a town called Warbassport, opened a store and engaged in the forwarding and commission business. On October 13th, Colonel Isaac N. Ebey took a claim on Whidby Island, from which Thomas W. Glasgow had been driven in the summer of 1848.
Oysters were this year discovered at Shoalwater Bay by Captain Feldstead, who shipped a quantity on his vessel to San Francisco, but failed to secure their arrival in good order. Anthony Ludlum then fitted out the schooner Sea Sperpent and dispatched her to Shoalwater bay for a cargo of oysters, which were safely delivered in San Francisco. Upon the arrival of the Sea Serpent, a company was formed who purchased the schooner Robert Bruce, and sent her to Shoalwater Bay, in command of Captain Terry. She arrived at the bay safely, commenced to load, but on the third day was burned to the water's edge. It is reported that the cook took all the laudanum from the medicine chest, drugged the food, thus stupefying the crew, and then set fire to the schooner. An old man named McCarthy, then the only inhabitant upon the bay, aroused and rescued the stupefied crew. They, being without means to leave the bay, erected cabins on the beach, continued to reside there, and were long known as the Bruce Company. The town Bruceport occupies the site of their settlement (1).
The United States census of 1850 exhibits a total population in Oregon of 13,294. Of this number, the total wite population north of the Columbia river was 1,049, thus apportioned to the two North Oregon counties, viz.: Lewis county 457, Clark county 592. These figures indicate the return of Oregon gold-seekers from California, - a reaction in favor of Oregon settlement, a growing attention to the importance of the Puget Sound region and the territory north of the Columbia river.
(1) See a lengthy article on the "Oyster Trade of the Pacific Coast" in San Francisco Bulletin.