Narrative of a tour from the state of Indiana to the Oregon territory in the years 1841-2

Introduction

The book here published for the first time is the narrative of a traveler who accompanied the first emigrants from the United States to the Pacific Coast in 1 84 1. It was printed for the author in 1843 and is practically unknown to scholars or the collectors of books relating to the history of western America. Its importance to any who are interested in this phase of the development of the United States will be evident, if for a moment we consider certain aspects of the times in which the writer lived.

It is a truism to say that most Americans enjoy travel, and indulge themselves in this form of amusement to an extreme degree. The glamor of a journey, the thought of seeing new places, rather than the discomfort and not infrequent hardships, fill the minds of all would-be travelers; nor will the experience of others often deter those who have set their hearts upon visiting far places about which rumor has been weaving bright illusions. The desire for travel, mere travel for its own sake, without other aim than that of satisfying our curiosity, is general among all classes of the American people, as one may prove by glancing at the faces upon the sightseeing buses of any city street. What is, perhaps, not so generally realized is the fact that this longing to visit new and distant places, is a very old one in America; one frequently gratified by all sorts of people in an earlier day when travel was neither luxurious nor safe.

The book before us is the account of a traveler to the Pacific Coast long before railway and automobile made travel convenient for the tourist. It was the day when goods were moved by canal boat or raft, and passengers journeyed, either by "elegant" river steamers, or in stage coaches, which had difficulty in moving through muddy roads, that were described by Charles Dickens as "having no variety but in depth." A few railways had been constructed between nearby cities, and the building of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, the first conceived for the purpose of connecting two important districts of the United States, had been undertaken. It was the day when people thought of transportation in terms of canals, rather than railways, while the idea of paved highways was a matter for future concern.

It was also the day before the country became thickly populated; settlement in the Mississippi Valley in i8/|0 was confined almost exclusively to the neighborhood of navigable streams; the frontier was the Missouri River. New Englanders were settling on the rich lUinois prairies, farmers from the north European countries were just beginning to cultivate the rolling hills of Iowa and Wisconsin, which had been recently surveyed by the government and thrown open to settlement. Beyond the frontier lay the open prairie and the Rocky Mountains, west of which was the little known region called "the great American desert." Many warlike tribes inhabited this vast stretch of country, whose only contact with civiHzation came through the occasional missionary and the fearless trapper.

The trappers searched every mountain stream for the beaver skins which were used in the manufacture of gentlemen's hats; but they rarely ventured into the great desert beyond the Rocky Mountains as the game upon which man lived did not exist in the sage brush country. No other furbearing animal was so much sought as the beaver, for the possession of a fur coat was not thought a mark of wealth and distinction among occidental peoples of that day.

The tourist attractions of the United States about 1840 were rather limited for a resident of Napoleon, Ripley County, Indiana; a summer traveler might take the monotonous and sultry boat trip down the Ohio to St. Louis, or go by stage to Niagara Falls. At this latter spot of scenic grandeur, the tourist's soul would be stirred by the roaring of the waters, but there were no intermediate points of interest to relieve the tedium of the journey. Aside from this, there was little to do except stay home and raise more grain than a farmer could profitably sell.

There was, however, another alternative for a man of sixty-four years who desired to preach to others and see the country as well. He might go to the Pacific Coast by a route which was literally teeming with the varied and fantastic wonders of nature. Oregon was occasionally visited by fur traders and missionaries, while the peaceful ranch life of the Mexicans in California was sometimes disturbed by trappers and horse thieves from Missouri. It mattered little that almost two thousand miles of prairie, mountain and desert separated the border towns of Independence and Westport, Missouri, from the settlements of Oregon and California.

In the Willamette Valley of Oregon, near its junction with the lower Columbia River, were a few farms cultivated by New England missionaries and French Canadians, old servants of the Hudson's Bay Company. From San Diego to the Bay of San Francisco were the scattered missions of Spanish Franciscans, who were the first to carry European civilization to California. Near the Pacific Coast were vast stretches of rich agricultural lands inviting cultivation. In Oregon the coast natives were rapidly disappearing; while in California the Indians supplied labor under the economic system controlled by the Mexicans. Such was the population and prospects of the habitable region along the western edge of this continent which has since become part of the United States.

Undoubtedly it would be a pleasure to make the overland trip on horseback, if all the travelers of a season would stick together so as to afiford each other mutual protection from the plains' Indians. Money, after the purchase of horses and equipment, was of little use, though of relatively high value. Food could be secured by the use of the rifle, water was free and plentiful, even on the desert, while the stars made an excellent covering beneath which to sleep soundly. Thus were the physical wants of man easily satisfied; — the really necessary qualities for such a journey were a mind strongly set upon going and perfect ''trust in the God of heaven." Both of these spiritual qualities were the possession of old Joseph Williams in very large measure, as the reader will presently learn.

An eager interest in the western- facing shore beyond the Stoney Mountains, as the great chain of the Rockies was at first called, had long been characteristic of the residents of the Mississippi Valley. Before, and during the Revolution, French and Spanish merchants of old St. Louis conducted a trade with the Missouri River Indians and heard from them about the mountain region. Thomas Jefferson dreamt of the exploration and the possible future acquisition of territory in that direction, years before the population of his country had reached the Mississippi River, which was the new Republic's western boundary.

In 1803 President Jefferson found the opportunity to fulfill his dreams. By the purchase of Louisiana he accomplished the large expansion of the United States; just how large was a matter of conjecture, but at the time of little importance. General William Clark, leader of the most important of the several expeditions sent by the President to explore the new territory, was directed to proceed up the Missouri, cross the mountains to Oregon, and seek a water communication with the Pacific. The Lewis and Clark expedition could not find any route practicable for such communication, nor did the Indians know of any. It was Ramsay Crooks, director of the private enterprise supported by John Jacob Astor, who discovered in

1813 a practicable route of communication across the mountains, but it was not a water route. Washington Irving, in his book "Astoria," has placed the history of that brave attempt to found a base for American trade upon the Pacific, among our literary and scholarly classics for all time. Whether or not the overland Astorians were the actual discoverers of the famed South Pass, through the continental divide, is an academic question. Their important contribution to knowledge of the far west was the fact that the route they followed presented no obstruction to wagon travel and was the shortest as well.* When regular communication overland became an accomplished fact, wagons drawn by horses or oxen were the means of travel. The route used by the emigrant was almost the same as that of the Astorians, which is now approximately paralleled by the Union Pacific-Oregon Short Line Railway systems. It was with one of the earliest of the wagon parties that our friend Joseph Williams traveled through mountains, which a companion described as so high and rugged that "no person could ever believe that wagons ever passed these huge eminences of nature, did he not witness it with his own eyes."t

The fur traders developed the highway and made safe the passage for the missionaries and occasional adventure-seeking persons who crossed the Rocky Mountains in the decade before 1840. The people of St. Louis, where General Clark and

tBidwell, John. Trip to California 1841, (n. p. n. d.) p. 9.

Ramsay Crooks lived, maintained a lively interest in the Pacific Coast and its development from the time of the early explorations through all the period of the mountain fur trade. They saw in the Overland highway that led from their door-steps a route by which the trade and wealth of India, China and all the storied Orient might some day be brought to their city. Reliable information about Oregon was, therefore, of importance to the Missourians, and the manner in which they obtained it will be evident to the reader of this narrative.

Those who consider the cost and difficulty of modern transportation may smile at the marvelous unconcern of these people regarding the distance or the means of communication. But the smile will quickly fade when we realize that Joseph Williams in his sixty-fourth year started out alone to cross the prairies with not much else than his faith in God. vStrange! yet he fulfilled the prediction of a missionary of just five years before that "the time may not be far distant, when trips will be made across the continent, as they have been made to Niagara Falls, to see nature's wonders."*

A word must be said about the "Oregon territory," to which our elderly friend journeyed. In 1 84 1 it was not a territory of the United States in the legal sense of the term. Rather it was a geographical expression covering a vast extent of country west of the Rocky Mountains, north from the California border to the Russian possessions in

*Parker, Rev. Samuel. Journal of an Exploring Tour beyond the Eocky Mountains, (Ithaca, 1838), p. 73.

Alaska, — a region now embraced in the political subdivisions of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and parts of Wyoming, Montana and British Columbia. Its discovery, even now, after the patient researches of many historical scholars, is largely a matter of conjecture. Its full exploration was the work of private individuals, the fur traders of many nationalities who exploited its natural resources before civilized governments laid any claim to sovereignty over the rich and varied region.

Under the firm and far-seeing guidance of John Quincy Adams, when that gentleman was Secretary of State, Spain and Russia were eliminated as claimants to the Oregon territory, and the issue of political sovereignty squarely joined with Great Britain, whose real interests in that part of the world were nearly equal to those of the United States. As it was found impossible to agree upon a compromise whereby the territory could be equally divided, a convention permitting the joint occupancy and commercial use of the whole, by the nationals of both countries was entered into in 1818. This allowed the fur traders to carry on their business pending a time when agricultural development, requiring the definition of real property rights, should compel the settlement of the questions of sovereignty and boundary west of the Rocky Mountains.

Under the joint occupancy convention between 1 818 and 1846 the Hudson's Bay Company, one of the old British companies chartered for the purpose of exploiting the wealth of distant lands, became so firmly established in Oregon that American traders were never able to offer successful rivalry. The company did an extensive business in all the region which is now the Dominion of Canada; and, by using the navigable Columbia River, maintained as regular communication with Montreal and their posts on Hudson's Bay as they did with London by the sea. At their principal Oregon post, Fort Vancouver, a hundred miles from the mo^th of the Columbia, Dr. John McLoughlin, chief factor for the country west of the Rockies, entertained occasional American traders who came on horseback from St. Louis, but he never permitted them to gain a foothold in the Oregon territory. Here also he supplied American missionaries, who came to Christianize the Indians, with whatever was necessary for founding missions.

The mission stations of the great desert hinterland, east of the Cascade Mountains, were supported by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. The much larger enterprise of the Missionary Board of the Methodist Episcopal Church was located in the rich agricultural lands to the west of these mountains. This latter mission, organized in 1834 by the Rev. Jason Lee, and considerably reinforced from time tu time, is the object of many comments by our traveler who had himself been an itinerant preacher of the Church. It is not known whether or not these observations of Joseph Williams came to the notice of the Mission Board, which in 1844 recalled Jason Lee as superintendent; but under the Rev. George Gary who superseded him in 1844 **all that was secular, and not essential to the prosecution of the mission, was promptly divorced from the spiritual," as the historian of the missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church has said.* Williams visited this mission at an important crisis in its development, namely, when it was changing from an Indian mission to one adapted to the spiritual leadership of a mixed international settlement, which shortly became wholly American in character. Therefore his views relative to the activities of his spiritual brethren should be of serious interest to those recent historians of the mission who have found very little first hand information covering this period.

Father Pierre Jean de Smet, S. J., one of the party which crossed the plains in 1841, was at the threshold of a long life of devoted service to the Rocky Mountain Indians which has made his name notable among missionaries. From his letters we gain a description of Joseph Williams, which throws a strong light upon the zeal that drove our traveler into the furthermost part of America. *'His zeal frequently induced him to dispute with us," writes the Jesuit. "It was not difficult to show him that his ideas, with the exception of one, were vague and fluctuating. He acknowledged it himself; but after having wandered from point to point, he always returned to his favorite tenet, which, according to him, was the fundamental principle of all true belief: 'that the love of God is the first of duties, and to inculcate it we must be tolerant.' This was his strongest point of support,

*Strickland, Rev, W. P. History of the Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church, (Cincinnati, 1850), p. 14i5.

the foundation of all his reasoning, and the stimulus of his zeal."* This zeal, which compelled the author of this narrative to preach as well as travel, is precisely the characteristic which lifts his personality from the commonplace and colors with interesting and vivid light all that he sees and tells us of the country and its inhabitants. However, this is not the only merit of his pamphlet.

Joseph Williams entered upon this long journey at the very outset of the great emigrant movement, which peopled California and Oregon with agricultural settlers from the Mississippi Valley. Later the discovery of gold drew a horde of the picturesque characters of Bret Harte into the far west; but the pioneers were of a different quality.

In 1 84 1 the first band of emigrants set out from the Missouri border for California and Oregon. It was a small emigration, which has been overshadowed in written history by the much larger party of two years later (1843). This latter emigration was the first to enlarge the trail from Fort Hall to the Columbia River into a wagon road, and it has often been considered as the opening of the emigrant movement. In reality, however, it was but the full flowering of that spirit which the pioneers of 1841 first translated into action, — the desire to plant a colony of American farmers on the Pacific Coast.

The pioneers were the men who sought, not adventure, but homes across the mountains; the men

*De Smet, p. 1 — Letters and Sketches: with a narrative of a year's residence among- the Indian tribes of the Rocky Mountains, (Philadelphia, 1843), p. 97.

who traveled with wife and children, household goods and household gods in the white-topped wagons. These men were essaying the great adventure of treading out the long overland highway. These were the men and women who were to found the American commonwealths on the Pacific, and the first of them were the companions of Joseph Williams.

The intense beauty of the country through which they traveled attracted these pioneers as strongly as it has their children of the present generation. They wrote of their emotions in the same exalted phrases. There was more than one high divide to be traversed, while occasionally great bluffs which shut in the valleys must be crossed. "But the pleasing view we had from their top, just as the sun was going to sleep behind the western mountains, paid us for all our trouble. A most beautiful landscape presented itself to view, the rugged summits of almost every shape were fantastically pictured upon the sky, bounding the western horizon, a beautiful lake was seen to the south, whose surface was fancifully mottled with numerous islands, while the river meandered proudly through the valley among willows and scattering cotton-woods, till it disappeared among the hills in the shades of evening."* These words which describe a tributary of the Great Salt Lake, the Bear River valley, show that the beauty of the western mountains and deserts was as strong an attraction to the restless pioneers, as the much talked of wonders of nature

*Bidwell, J. Op. cit. p. &.

which were to be seen along the route. Most of the wonders are still to be found described in the railway guide book, but usually the limited passes at night, or they lie too far from the line to be seen to advantage.

There is but a single copy of John Bidwell's record entitled, "Trip to California, 1841," known at this time. It is part of the famous Bancroft collection in the Library of the University of California. Bidwell became a well-known person in the state he helped to found, and wrote in later years several engaging reminiscences of pioneer days which appeared in the Century Magazine for 1890-1891 (Vol. XIX, N. S.). Father De Smet, the only other traveler with the emigration of 1841, whose impressions are known to scholars, published a volume of "Letters and Sketches" (Philadelphia, 1843). Oddly enough, these three writers, — De Smet, Bidwell, and Williams, separated before they had traversed two-thirds of the journey, to pursue their routes toward different goals. De Smet turned north at Fort Hall to join the Flathead Indians on the upper waters of the Columbia ; Bidwell left the party on Bear River to traverse the deserts west of Salt Lake and find his way across the Sierra Nevada to the open Sacramento valley; while Williams, with about twenty-five others, made his way over the Snake River desert and Blue Mountains to the Oregon settlements near the mouth of the Willamette River. Thus our record of this most important emigration is complete.

Joseph Williams' narrative of his trip to Oregon was privately printed in Cincinnati in 1843 — that is a year before the cry of "54° 40' or fight," became a poHtical catchword, and the movement for the expansion of the United States, which was directed by James K. Polk when he became president, had taken shape. In fact it appeared just at the time when discussion of the long slumbering question of sovereignty over Oregon was renewed between the United States and Great Britain. From its extreme rarity it is just to say that the book is now published for the first time. Only two copies of the book are known today : — one is in the private collection of Mr. Henry R. Wagner of Berkeley, California, while the other is in the Library of the New York Historical Society, to which the writer of this preface is indebted for permission to make a photostat copy.

The book is important, not only because it is practically unknown even to collectors, but because of the light it throws upon some mooted points of historical interest, which are not purely academic. Writers of Oregon history have sought light upon the degree of difficulty experienced by those earliest pioneers who enlarged the overland pack-horse trail into the long wagon road of the emigrants; here is one who assisted in that task and who tells us just how much their travel was delayed thereby. The question of the obstacles thrown in the way of emigrants from the States by the agents of the great English fur monopoly, the Hudson's Bay Company, in this, the opening years of the movement, is another of those mooted points, upon which this narrator throws a clear light. In this connection, however, it is necessary to say that his opinion of the company's chief factor, Dr. John McLoughlin, is not generally shared by others who knew him at the time. Of the various missions, especially the Methodist, their personnel and their work in behalf of the Indians, our elderly friend has much to say. It must be remembered that until the coming of the great migration of 1843, these missionaries were the principal representatives of American citizenship in the Oregon Territory. To the usually high character of that citizenship, in the relations of individuals one to another in this land beyond the territorial jurisdiction of their government, Joseph Williams gives eloquent testimony, for he was sensitive to all that related to the spiritual side of life. Moreover, he points out the diversity of interest among the four classes of whites who then inhabited the far Northwest, and who gave to its society that "happy" tone, which still makes Oregon so desirable a place wherein to live.

Willia^ms did not overlook some of the distinctive features of primitive society among the natives, though his remarks are somewhat colored by his sense of the "depravity of the heathen." Especially does he praise the wealth and progress of those Indians who inhabited the great interior basin of the Columbia, which he visited in the autumn and again in the spring season. He saw its possibilities for future development by men of 'his own kind; — "we traveled through rich plains, and the mountains lay on our right hand, covered with pine trees. All through this country good mill sites abound." One of these spots, the great plain on the east of Salt Lake, which Williams thought well adapted for settlement was selected only three years after by the Mormons, when they were compelled to leave Missouri and Illinois to seek a new and lonely home across the distant mountains. Surely, this man, whose attention was so earnestly fixed upon the dominant interests of life — the propagation of the faith and the cultivation of the soil, may be called the Prophet of the Inland Empire. He possessed also a certain journalistic instinct, as appears from the number of rather sordid happenings, which he recounts in great detail.

Sportsmen and all lovers of nature's beauty who have traveled the high passes of the Rocky Mountains in the present state of Colorado may find an interest in the account of how the old preacher, with three or four companions, negotiated these rough and dangerous mountain trails. Many difficulties he surmounted and not a few were such as would hinder hardier men; yet he complains very little of his discomforts, and is more discouraged by the "wickedness" of his companions than all the hardship to which he was subjected. Those were days of good hunting — bear and bufifalo, antelope and elk.

Through turning from the main Oregon route by which he had traveled west, our friend on his return journey saw nearly all the posts or forts of the fur traders in this wide mountain district. Most interesting of all is his visit to the Indian Pueblo of Taos, where the hunters often wintered.

The Mexicans never succeeded in greatly altering its people's way of living, and it remains today a quaint and lovely mecca of a society of artists, who seek there that earthy inspiration which is so nearly the font of artistic life. Joseph Williams describes its life in considerable and sympathetic detail, especially in such things as touched the productivity of the soil and the means of its cultivation.

It will not surprise the reader to know that once back in St. Louis our friend was hospitably entertained by William Sublette, the most important partner of the old Rocky Mountain Fur Company, whose business and social relations reached westward to Oregon and eastward to England. Here, too, he met Col. Thomas Hart Benton, Missouri's foremost Senator, who represented western interests in the federal government during thirty years. It was well that they met, for the one had information of value to impart, while the other took a leading part in the political and international question which soon developed over the status of the Oregon territory.

Nor will the reader be surprised to learn that our hardy friend, now sixty-six years of age, left the party with which he returned across the plains, to conclude his journey as it had begun — alone, with the God in whom he had put his trust. It would be difficult for one to bear stronger witness to his faith, or the power of the Lord.

James C. Bell, Jr.

NARRATIVE

OF A TOUR

FROM THE STATE OF INDIANA

OREGON TERRITORY

IN THE YEARS 1841-2

BY JOSEPH AYILLIAMS

CIN C IN N ATI :

PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR

J. B. Wilson, Printer 1843

Preface

At the earnest request of my friends, I have consented to publish an account of my journey, from my residence in the state of Indiana, to the Oregon Territory. The information contained in my Narrative may be of great interest to those who may contemplate emigrating to that region, or such as may wish to explore the vast west to the Pacific Ocean.

I have given my own views of the country beyond the Rocky Mountains; and, although they may not agree in every particular with the opinions set forth by other travelers, yet I have tried to follow the best convictions of my own mind, produced by personal observation, and the best information I could obtain from the inhabitants on the ground. As to the correctness of my opinions, I leave that for others to judge. It will be easily perceived that I am not practiced in the art of book-making; but as I have stated facts, in my own plain way, without any attempt to embellish my style, I hope the reader will be satisfied. It is probable that errors will be discovered in the orthography of proper names; having no standard authorities at hand, by which to correct my spelling of them. In most cases, I have given those names according to the usual pronunciation of them by the inhabitants of that region.

I am a native of Cumberland county, Pennsylvania ; was raised in Virginia ; am now in my sixtysixth year; and that I should be conducted in safety, and be sustained through all dangers and fatigues of so long a journey, at my advanced age, is matter of unfeigned gratitude to that God who "preserveth man and beast."

Joseph Williams.

April 26th, 1841. This morning" I started from my residence, near Napoleon, Ripley county, Indiana, for the Oregon Territory, on the Columbia River, west of the Rocky Mountains ; though many of my friends tried to dissuade me from going, telling me of the many dangers and difficulties I should have to go through, exposed to hostile Indians and the wild beasts, and also on account of my advanced age, being at this time in my 64th year. But my mind leads me strongly to go; I want to preach to the people there, and also to the Indians, as well as to see the country. I try to put my trust in the God of heaven, who rules the earth, and seas, and mountains, and the savage tribes, and all the wild beasts of the forest, and the storms, and all the poisonous vapors of the earth and air ; who preserves all who put their trust in him. My soul seems wholly resigned to his will in all things, whether to live or die, to prosper or suffer. All is right that the Lord doeth; why then should we fear? So I bade my children and friends farewell, not knowing that I should ever see them again in this world. Lord, keep us near thee!

That night I reached the neighborhood of St.

Omer, on the Flat Rock Creek. The next night I staid at brother Rector's; and the next day, soon after I started, the rain began to fall in torrents — the coldness of the wind and rain rendered me very uncomfortable. This day I passed through Indianapolis, and that night staid at Bridgeport. Next morning I started very early, the cold west wind blowing in my face, and at night reached brother Messer's, in Putnam county. Next day attended to some temporal business, and rested my horse. On Sunday, went to hear brother Belotte preach, at the brick meeting-house; and in the afternoon, tried to preach myself from Ephesians v, 14: "Awake, thou that sleepest." Staid that night at brother Clearwater's, and enjoyed myself very well. Next day traveled twenty-eight miles, and staid at brother Daniel Dickenson's, a Methodist preacher. That same day, had a short controversy with a Campbellite preacher on baptism. Next day, passed through Terrehaute, staid at a classleader's, having traveled thirty-three miles that day. Next day, passed several small towns. Preached at Woodbury that night, on the waters of Embarrass River, in Illinois. Staid with Mr. Needham, where I slept comfortably, and rose happy in the morning. This dear people want religion ; O that the Tord would breathe on them his Spirit's influence, and make them Christians ! Next day rode thirty-three miles, and staid at Mr. Guy's. He seems much of a gentleman, and his wife a kind-hearted Methodist. Next morning, started out in the rain, and rode to Jacob Tinker's, where I dined and fed my horse, and felt very comfortably.