Two Years in Oregon

Front matter

Anchorage in Yaquina Bay, TWO YEARS II OREGON. r.v WALLIS NASH, AUTHOR OT *4 OREGON, THERE AND BACK IN 1877." Straight mine eye hath caught new pleasures, "While the landscape round it measures, Russet lawns, and fallows gray, "Where the nibbling flocks do stray ; Mountains on whose barren breast The lab'ring clouds do often rest; Meadows trim with daisies pied ; Shallow brooks, and rivers wide. L' Allegro, Turn, Fortune, turn thy wheel with smile or frown; With that wild wheel we go not up or down ; Our hoard is little, but our hearts are great ; Smile and we smile, the lords of many lands ; Frown and we smile, the lords of our own hands; For man is man and master of his fate. Tennyson. NEW YORK: D. APPLETON" AND COMPANY, 1, 8, and 5 BOND STREET. 1882. COPYRIGHT BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY I DEDICATE THIS BOOK TO MY FATHER, WHO, THOUGH SEVERED FEOM US BY LAND AND OCEAN, TET LIVES WITH US IN SPIRIT.

PEEFACE. I send forth this book, as sequel to the sketch published three years ago, with many misgivings — rather as if one who, as a lover, had written poems in praise of his mistress, should, as a two years' husband, give to the world his experience of the fireside charms and household excellences of his wife. Per haps the latter might more faithfully picture her than when she was seen through the glamour of a first love. Be that as it may, it is true that the questions put from many lands, as to how we fare in this West ern country, demand fuller answers than mere letter writing can convey. I trust that those correspond ents who are yet unanswered personally will find herein the knowledge they are seeking, and will accept the assurance that they are themselves to blame for some of the more solid and tedious chap ters; as, if I had not known that such information

Preface

. 6 were needed, I would not have ventured to put in print again that which previous and better authors have given to the world. While I have striven to write what is really a guide-book to Oregon for the intending emigrant, others may be interested in the picture of a young community shaping the details of their common life, and claiming and taking possession of a heritage in the wilderness. No one can go farther West than we have done : it is fair, then, to suppose that the purposes of the Western movement will be seen here in their fullest operation. Since 1877 a vast change has taken place in this, that Oregon now shares with older States the benefits of becoming the theatre for large railroad operations. No apology to American readers is needed for the endeavor to show things in a fairer light and differ ent color from those chosen by persons interested in causing all men to see with their eyes.

Transatlantic readers may not have the same concern; but even from them I bespeak a hearing in matters which may indirectly, if not directly, touch their interests. But I do not wish to suggest that I write as having only a general feeling that certain things would be the better for a more open discussion than they have hitherto received. My own affairs, and those of

PREFACE.

. 7 many friends, both in Oregon and elsewhere, and, indeed, the successful development of this great Wil lamette Yalley, largely depend on our convincing an unprejudiced public that Nature is on our side in the effort we are making to secure a direct and near out let to the great world. I only claim in these particulars to be an advocate, but I add to this a fud and honest conviction of the justice of the views for which I contend. To turn again to more general matters, I have the pleasant duty of thanking several friends who have contributed to the information here collected. To our shame be it said that there was not, among our English immigrants, one naturalist who could rightly name the birds, beasts, fishes, and insects in our Western home. But I was fortunate in finding an American friend, Mr. O. B. Johnson, of Salem, whose complete and accurate knowledge of these subjects only rendered more easy his kindly endeavors to give me the benefit of all his stores.

I wish to acknowledge also the care with which, ever since our visit in 1877, the professors at the CorvaUis Agricultural College have kept the records of climate and rainfall, the results of which are now published. I trust that, if any sketches in these pages are recognized as portraits, not one grain of offense will

PREFACE.

. 8 be taken by those who have unwittingly served as models in the life-studio. Or that, if any effect is produced, it may be as good and lasting as that which followed on a fancy picture in the former book, in which many stray touches were collected. Whether the cap fitted, or was pressed on his head by too officious neighbors, I know not ; but this I know, that cleared fields, neat fences, new barn, clean house, and fitting furniture, rendered it impossible for me to recognize a tumble down place which then served to point a warning. These improvements, I am told, the owner lays at my unconscious door. Wallis Nash. Corvallis, Oregon, April 14, PAGE 26 CONTENTS. CHAPTEE I. Personal reasons for coming to Oregon — Plans of colonizing — Who came — Who have returned — Who remain — Bowie-knives and revolvers — A sheriff in danger — No tragedy — Our landing at Corvallis — Frail houses — Pleasant welcome— The barber's 6hop — Its customers — Given names — New acquaintances — Bright dresses — Religious denominations 17 CHAPTEE II.

Where we livj — Snow-peaks and distant prospects — Forest-fires — The Coast Mountains and Mary's Peak — Sunset in Oregon- Farmhouses : the log-cabin, the box-house, the frame-house — Dinner at the farm — Slay and eat — A rash chicken— -Bread-making by amateurs — Thrift and unthrift — Butter and cheese — Products of the "range," farm, and garden — Wheat-growing. . . CHAPTEE III. The land-office ; its object and functionaries — How to find your land — Section 33 — The great conflagration— The survivors of the fire — The burnt timber and the brush — The cleariDg-party — Chopping by beginners — Cooking, amateur and professional — The wild-cat — Deer and hunting — Piling brush — Dear and cheap clearing — The skillful axeman — Clearing by Chinamen — Dragging out stumps — What profits the fanner may expect on a valley farm — On a foot-hills farm CONTENTS. 10 CHAPTEE IV.

PAGE A spring ride in Oregon— The start — The equipment — Horses and saddlery—Packs — The roadside — Bird fellow-travelers — Snakes— The nearest farm — Bees— The great pasture — The poisonous larkspur — Market-gardening — The Cardwell Hill — The hill-top — The water-shed — Mary River — Crain's — The Yaquina Valley — Brush, grass, and fern — The young Englishmen's new home — A rustic bridge — "Chuck-holes" — The road supervisor — Trapp's — The mill-dam— Salmon-pass law — Minnows and crawfish — The Pacific at rest — Yaquina— Newport 48

CHAPTER V.

Hay-harvest — Timothy-grass — Permanent pasture — Hay-making by express — The mower and reaper — Hay-stacks as novelties — Wheat-harvest — Thrashing — The " thrashing crowd " — " Headers" and "self-binders" — Twine-binders and home-grown flax — Green food for cows — Indian corn, vetches — Wild-oats in wheat — Tar-weed the new enemy — Cost of harvesting — By hired machines — By purchased machines — Cost of wheat-growing in the Willamette Valley 62 CHAPTEE VI. The farmer's sports and pastimes — Deer-hunting tales — A roadside yarn — Still-hunting — Hunting with hounds — An early morning's sport— Elk — The pursuit — The kill— Camp on Beaver Creek — Flounder-spearing by torchlight — Flounder-fishing by day — In the bay — Eock oysters — The evening view — The general store — Skins — Sea-otters — Their habits — The sea-otter hunters — Common otter — The mink and his prey 72 CHAPTER Vn.

Birds in Oregon— Lark— Quail— Grouse — Ruffed grouse — Wild-geese — Manœuvres in the air— Wild-ducks — Mallard — Teal— Pintail — Wheat-duck — Black duck — Wood-duck— Snipe — Flight-shooting— Stewart's Slough— Bitterns— Eagles— Hawks— Horned owls —Woodpeckers— Blue-jays— Canaries— The canary that had seen the world — Blue-birds — Bullfinches — Snow-bunting — Humming-birds at home CONTENTS. 11 CHAPTEE VIII. PAGE Up to the Cascades — Fanning by happy-go-lucky — The foot-hills — Sweet Home Valley — Its name, and how deserved and proved — The road by the Santiam — Eastward and upward — Timber — Lower Soda Springs — Different vegetation — Upper Soda Springs — Mr. Keith — Our reception — His home and surroundings — Emigrants on the road — The emigrant's dog — Off to the Spokane — Whence they came — Where they were bound — Still eastward — Fish Lake — Clear Lake — Fly-fishing in still water — The down slope east — Lava-beds — Bunch-grass — The valleys in Eastern Oregon — Their products — Wheat-growing there — Cattle-ranchers — Their home— Their life — In the saddle and away — Brand ing-time — Hay for the winter — The Malheur reservation — The Indians' outbreak— The building of the road — When, how, and by whom built — The opening of the pass— The history of the road — Squatters— The special agent from Washington — A sham survey 100 CHAPTEE IX.

Indian fair at Brownsville — Ponies — The lasso — Breaking-in — The purchase — " Bucking" extraordinary — Sheep-farming in Eastern Oregon — Merinos — The sheep-herder — Muttons for company — A good offer refused — Exports of wool from Oregon — Price and value of Oregon wool — Grading wool— Price of sheep — Their food — Coyotes — The wolf-hunt — Shearing— Increase of flocks— " Conaling " the sheep — Sheep as brush-clearers 118 CHAPTEE X. The trail to the Siletz Eeserve— Eock Creek— Isolation— Getting a road — The surveying-party — Entrance at last — Eoad-making — Hut-building in the wilds— What will he do with it '—Choice of homestead — Fencing wild land— Its method and cost — Splitting cedar boards and shingles— House-building— The China boy and the mules— Picnicking in earnest — Log-burning — Berrying-parties — Salting cattle— An active cow— A year's work— Mesquit-grass on the hills 127 CHAPTEE XI.

The Indians at home— The reservation— The Upper Farm— Log-cabins — Women must work while men will play — The agency — CONTENTS. PAGE 164 The boarding-house — Sunday on the reservation — Indian Sun day-school— Galeese Creek Jem — The store — Indian farmers- As to the settlement of the Indians — Suggestions — A crime — Its origin — Its history — The criminals — What became of them — Indian teamsters — Numbers on the reservation — The powers and duties of the agent — Special application 136 CHAPTEE XII. The Legislative Assembly— The Governor — His duties — Payment of the members — Aspect of the city ; the Legislature in session — The lobbyist — How bills pass — How bills do not pass — Questions of the day — Common carriers — Woman's suffrage — Some of the acts of 1878 — Judicial system of the State — Taxes — Assessments — County officers — The justice of the peace — Quick work 145 CHAPTER XHI.

Land laws — Homesteads and preemption — How to choose and obtain Government land— University land— School land— Swamp land — Railroad and wagon-road grants — Lieu lands — Acreages owned by the various companies 157 CHAPTEE XIV. The "WeVfoot State "— Average rainfall in various parts — The ra.ny days in 1879 and 1880-Temperature-Seasons-Accounts and figures from three points— Afternoon sea-breezes— A " cold snap "-Winter-Floods— Damage to the river-side country— Bare thunder— Earer wind-storms— The storm of January, 1880

CHAPTER XV.

The State Fair of 1880-Salem-The ladies' pavilion-Knock-'em-downs a V Americaine — Self-binders — Thrashing-machines - Rates of speed-Cost— Workmanship-Prize sheep— Fleeces- Pure versus graded sheep - California short-horns — Horses — American breed or Pereheron-Comparative measurements- The races — Runners -Trotters -Cricket in public — Unruly spectators ,*, CONTENTS. 13 CHAPTEE XVI. PAGE History of Oregon — First discoverers — Changes of government — Recognition as a Territory — Entrance as a State — Individual histories — "Jottings" — "Sitting around" — A pioneer in Benton County— How to serve Indian thieves — The white squaw and the chief— Immigration in company — Easting on the Columbia — The first winter — Early settlement — Indian friends — Indian houses and customs — The Presbyterian colony — The start — Across the plains — Arrival in Oregon — The "whaler" settler — A rough journey — " Ho for the Umpqua!

" — A backwoodsman — Compliments — School-teacher provided for — Uncle Lazarus — Rogue River Canon — Valley of Death — Pleasant homes — Changed circumstances 183 CHAPTEE XVH. State and county elections — The Chinese question — Chinese house-servants — Washermen — Laborers — A large camp — Supper — Chinese trading — The scissors — Cost of Chinese labor — Its results — Chinese treaties — Household servants — Chee and his mistress — "Heap debble-y in there" — The photo album — Temptation — A sin and its reward — Good advice on whipping — Chung and the crockery — Chinese New Year — Gifts — " Hoodlums " — Town police — Opium 201 CHAPTEE XVIII. Life in the town — Sociables — Eeligious sects — Sabbath-schools — Christmas festivities — Education, how far compulsory — Colleges — Student-life and education — Common schools — Teachers' institutes — Newspapers — Patent outsides — " The Oregonian " — Other journals — Charities — Paupers — Secret societies 209 CHAPTEE XIX.

Industries other than farming — Iron-ores — Coal — Coos Bay mines — Seattle mines — Other deposits — Lead and copper — Limestone — Marbles — Gold, where found and worked — Silver, where found and worked — Gold in Bea-sand — Timber — Its area and distribution — Spars — Lumber — Size of trees — Hard woods — Cost of pro- CONTENTS. PAGE duction and sale of lumber — Tanneries — Woolen-mills — Flax works — Invitation to Irish — Salmon — Statistics of the trade — Methods — Varieties of salmon — When and where caught — Salm on-poisoning of dogs — Indians fishing — Traps — Salmon-smoking 219

CHAPTER XX.

Eastern Oregon — Going " east of the mountains " — Its attractions — Encroaching sheep — First experiments in agriculture and planting — General description of Eastern Oregon — Boundaries — Alkaline plains — Their productions — The valleys — Powder River Valley— Description— The Snake River and its tributaries— Tho Malheur Valley— Harney Lake Valley — Its size — Productions — Wild grasses— Hay-making— The winters in Eastern Oregon— Wagon-roads — Prineville— Silver Creek — Grindstone Creek Valley — Crooked River — Settlers' descriptions and experiences — Ascent of the Cascades going west — Eastern Oregon towns — Baker City — Prineville — Warnings to settlers — Growing wheat for the railroads to carry 231

CHAPTER XXI.

Southern Oregon — Its boundaries — The western counties— Popular tion — Ports — Rogue River — Coos Bay — Coal — Lumber — Practicable railroad routes — The harbor — Shifting and blowing sands — A quoted description — Cost of transportation — Harbor improvements — Their progress and results — The Umpqua— Douglas County— Jackson County— The lake-country— Linkville— Water-powers — Indian reservations — The great mountains — Southeastern Oregon— General description— Industries 243 CHAPTEE XXII.

The towns — Approach to Oregon — The steamers— The Columbia entrance — Astoria — Its situation, industries, development — Salmon — Shipping — Loading and discharging cargo — Up the Columbia and Willamette to Portland — Portland, West and East — Population — Public buildings — United States District Court — The judge — Public Library — The Bishop schools — Hospital — Churches — Stores — Chinese quarter— Banks — Industries — Tho CONTENTS. 15 PAGE city's prosperity — Its causes — Its probable future — The Oregon Railway and Navigation Company — Shipping abuses and ex actions — Railroad termini — Up the Columbia — Tho Dalles — Up the Willamette — Oregon City, its history — Tho falls — Salem — Its position and development — Capitol buildings — Flour-mills — Oil-mills — Buena Vista potteries — Albany — Its water-power — Flour-mills — Values of land — Corvallis— The line of the Oregon Pacific Railroad— Eugene, its university and professors — Rose burg — The West-side Railroad to Portland — Development of the country — Prosperity — Counties of Oregon — Their population — Taxable property — Average possessions — In the Willamette Val ley — In Eastern Oregon — In Eastern Oregon tributary to Columbia and Snake Rivers 252 CHAPTEE XX1U. The transportation question — Its importance — Present legal position — Oregon Eailway and Navigation Committee's general report — That company — Its ocean-going steamers — Their traffic and earnings — Its river-boats — Their traffic and earnings — Its railroads in existence — Their traffic and earnings — Its new railroads in construction and in prospect — Their probable influence — The Northern Pacific — Terminus on Puget Sound — Its prospects — The East and West Side Eailroads — "Bearing" traffic and earnings — How to get "control" — Lands owned by the Oregon Eailway and Navigation Company — Monopoly — How threatened — The narrow-gauge railroads — Their terminus and working — Efforts to consolidate monopoly — The "blind pool" — Resistance — The Oregon Pacific — Its causes, possessions, and prospects — Land grant and its enemies — The traffic of the valley — Yaquina Bay — Its improvement — The farmers take it in hand — Contrast and comparisons — The two presidents — Probable effects of competition — Tactics in opposition — The Yaquina improvements — Description of works — The prospects for competition and the farmers' gains 271

CHAPTER XXIV.

Emigration to Oregon — Who should not come — Free advice and no fees — English emigrants — Farmers — Haste to bo rich — Quoted CONTENTS. PAGE experiences — Cost and ways of coming — Sea-routes — Railroads — Baggage — What not to bring — What not to forget — Heavy property— The Custom-house — San Francisco hotels — Conclusion 293 Appendix

Chapter I

Personal reasons for coming to Oregon — Plans of colonizing — Who came — Who have returned — Who remain — Bowie-knives and revolvers — A sheriff in danger — No tragedy — Our landing at Corvallis — Frail houses — Pleasant welcome — The barber's shop — Its customers — Given names — New acquaintances — Blight dresses — Religious denominations. After visiting Oregon in the year 1877, and travel ing with three or four companions through its length and breadth, I ventured to publish in England on my return a short account of our seeings and doings. While the reception of this book by the reviews generally was only too kind and flattering, one paper, the "Athenæum," distinguished me by a long notice, the whole point of which lay in the observation that it would be interesting to know if I, who had been rec ommending Oregon to others, were prepared to take my own prescription, and emigrate there myself.

Now, although it would not perhaps be fair to make all physicians swallow their own medicines, regardless whether or not they were sick, and although I certainly was not in any position rendering emigration necessary, or in the opinion of any of my friends and acquaintances even desirable, yet I did not like it to be possible to be accused rightly of recommending a course so serious as a change of dwelling-place and even of nationality, without being willing to prove by my own acts the genuineness of the advice I had given. And this, among other motives and inducements, had a strong influence in overcoming the crowd of hesitations and difficulties which spring up when so great a change begins to be contemplated as possible. And it is no more than natural that now, having had two years' experience in Oregon, I should desire to have it known if it be necessary to recall the general advice given in the former book, advocating, as un doubtedly I then did advocate, Oregon as a desirable residence.

But, as this involves my putting into some kind of literary shape our experiences for the past two years in this far Western land, it is better to begin by some general relation of our plans. When I undertook to come out with my wife and children and see to the settlement and disposal of the tract of land we bad purchased, as one result of my visit in 1877, I was applied to by a good many fathers to take some superintendence of their sons, who desired to emigrate to Oregon. Next, one or two married couples expressed a wish to join us. Then several ac quaintances, who were practical mechanics, had heard a good report of Oregon, and desired to accompany us. And I was busy in answering letters about the place and people to the very moment of sailing. I was not at all willing to have the company indefi nitely numerous, not having graduated in Mr. Cook's PLANS OF COLONIZING. 19 school for tourists, and knowing something of the em barrassments likely to attend a crowd of travelers.

We found our party of twenty-six fully large enough for comfort. We were kindly and liberally treated by the Allan Steamship Company, the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada, and the Chicago and Northwestern Rail way ; but our lines did not fall to us in pleasant places when we experienced the tender mercies of the Union and Central Pacific. Our party was broken up into different cars, and our strongest portmanteaus were shattered by the most atrocious handling. It was a serious question if we should try to found an English colony here, in the usual sense of the word. That would have involved a separate life from the American residents ; it would have fostered jealousy here, and we should have committed numberless mis takes and absurdities. We should have had to buy all our experience, amid the covert ridicule of our neighbors.

And I was confident that many members of our party would have played at emigrating, and treated the whole business as picnicking on a large scale. Moreover, I was not sure that, even if we succeeded in transplant ing English manners, customs, and institutions, they would take hold in this new soil. The fact was always before my eyes that the country was only thirty years old, in a civilized sense, and I doubted the wisdom of trying to transport thither a little piece of the old country. I believed the wiser course to be to plant ourselves quietly among the Oregonians with as little parade and fuss as possible, and to let our own experience dictate to others whether to join us or not. It has been our practice throughout to answer freely. and as fully as possible, tbe many letters of inquiry as to place and people that we have had, but to offer no advice ; leaving those who were thinking of coming out to take the responsibility on themselves of deciding to come or to stay away.

Under this system our numbers have grown to up ward of a hundred, and now rarely a month passes with out additions. Of course, a process of natural selection goes on all the time. Not every one who comes remains ; but we have every reason to be satisfied with the representatives of the mother-country who are making Ore gon their permanent home, and the same feeling is shared, as I am confident, by the original residents. Shall I try to describe what sort of people we live among here, a hundred miles from Portland, the chief city in the State ? What the notions of some of our party were you will understand when I mention that all I could say could not prevent the young men of the party from arming themselves, as for a campaign in the hostile Indian country, so that each man stepped ashore from the boat that brought us up tbe Willamette with a revolver in each pocket, and the hugest and most uncompromis ing knives that either London, New York, or San Fran cisco could furnish.

As ill luck would have it, just as we arrived, the sheriff had returned to town with an escaped prisoner, and had been set upon by the brother, and a pistol had been actually presented at him. I should say in a whisper that the sheriff, worthy man, had proposed to return the assault in kind, but had failed to get his six shooter out in time from the depths of a capacious pocket, where the deadly weapon lay in harmless nei<di- Gorvallis, 1880. OUR LANDING AT CORVALLIS. 21 borhood, with a long piece of string, a handful or so of seed-wheat, a large chunk of tobacco, a leather strap and buckle, and a big red pocket-handkerchief. So I fancy he had not much idea of shooting when he started out. But the incident was enough to give a blood-color to all our first letters home, and I dare say caused a good many shiverings and shudders at the thought of the wild men of the woods we had come to neighbor with.

The worst of it was, that it was the only approach to a tragedy, and that we have had no adventures worth speaking of. " Story, God bless you ! I have none to tell, sir." Still we did know ourselves to be in a new world when we stepped ashore from the large, white-painted, three-storied structure on the water that they called a stern-wheel river-boat, and in which we had spent two days coming up the great river from Portland. It was the 17th of May, just a month from leaving Liverpool, that we landed. The white houses of the little city of Corvallis were nestled cozily in the bright spring green of the alders and willows and oaks that fringed the river, and the morning sun flashed on tbe metal cupola of the court-house, and lighted up the deep-blue clear cut mountains that rose on the right of us but a few miles off.

When we got into the main street the long, low, broken line of booth-like, wooden, one-storied stores and houses, all looking as if one strong man could push them down, and one strong team carry them off, grated a little, I could see, on the feelings of some of the party. The redeeming feature was the trees, lining the street at long intervals, darkening the houses a little, but clothing the town, and giving it an air of age and respectability that was lacking in many of the bare rows of shanties, dignified with the title of town, that we had passed in coming here across the continent. The New England Hotel invited us in. A pretty plane-tree in front overshadowed the door; and a bright cheery hostess stood in the doorway to welcome us, shaking hands, and greeting our large party of twenty-six in a fashion of freedom to which we had not been used, but which sounded pleasantly in our travel worn ears.

The house was tumble-down and shabby, and needed the new coat of paint it received soon after —but in the corner of the sitting-room stood a good parlor-organ. The dining-room adjoining had red cloths on the tables, and gave a full view into the kitch en ; but the "beefsteak, mutton-chop, pork-chop, and hash " were good and well cooked, and contrasted with, rather than reminded us of, the fare described by Charles Dickens as offered him in the Eastern States when he visited America thirty-nine years ago. The bedrooms, opening all on to the long passage up stairs, with meager furniture and patchwork quilts, the whole wooden house shaking as we trotted from room to room, were not so interesting, and tempted no long delay in bed after the early breakfast-gong had been sounded soon after six. Breakfast at half-past six, dinner at noon, and supper at half-past five, only set the clock of our lives a couple of hours faster than we had been used to ; and bed at nine was soon no novelty to us.

The street in front was a wide sea of slushy mud when we arrived, with an occasional planked crossing, needing a sober head and a good conscience to navigate safely after dark ; for, when evening had closed in, the THE BARBER'S SHOP. 23 only street-lighting came from the open doors, and through the filled and dressed windows of the stores. Saloons were forbidden by solemn agreement to all of us, but the barber's shop was the very pleasant substi tute. Two or three big easy-chairs in a row, with a stool in front of each. Generally filled they were by the grave and reverend seigniors of the city — each man re posing calmly, draped in white, while he enjoyed the luxury, under the skillful hands of the barber or his man, of a clean shave. At the far end of the shop stood the round iron stove, with a circle of wooden chairs and an old sofa.