The struggles for life and home in the North-west

Front matter

Class _JiH;i: Bode ' F gi Gflfyrig]itE°_

COPWRIGHT DETOSIT.

3^

Chapter I

Striking out from home when a boy. — My object. — Ho ! For the Oil Regions in Pennsylvania. — My Chum. — Great Excitement. — Oil City flooded. — "Coal Oil Johnny." — Tools, etc., used in boring for oil. — All about finding oil. — And what the oil is. — My experience for about a year.

Chapter II

Leaving the Oil Regions for a good time " Out West." — A period of travel, etc., of four-and-a-half months to the Missouri River — Then crossing the plains to Salt Lake with wagon train in 60 days. — Our train, etc.; my team, etc.; first camp in a storm. — Fording the Platte river with its quicksand bottom ; big teams, etc. My first drink ; delusion in distance ; game, etc. — Freighting; life and government on the plains. — A comprehensive account of the region from the Missouri River to Salt Lake Valley.

Chapter III

Salt Lake City and Valley. — Salt Lake ; climate and bathing. — Remained a month. — Then made a trip of a month on the plains. Caught in a blizzard. — Sixty-two frozen mules for breakfast, Oct. 14th. — A rough tramp in the snow, 180 miles back to Salt Lake. — Dreaming of home. — As to the hardships of trains snow-bound in the mountains. - Work for a Mormon dignitary. — The ''Mighty Host of Zion." — How they whipped Johnson's U. S. Army in 1861, etc., etc. — Mountain Meadow massacre, etc., etc. — Leave Salt Lake on horse-back for St. George, 350 miles south; takes a month. — Mormon farms and villages ; their system of settlement, etc. — Climate, soil, mountains, etc. — A month in St. George as "Dodge's Clerk." — On an Indian raid. — Made a trip to the extreme southern settlements. — What for f— Cotton country.— Mountain of rock salt.— A true, comprehensive description of the Mormons; how they live and deal with each other and with Gentiles; their religion and government; as they really are in practice; their virtues, crimes and danger.

(IK

Chapter IV

Travelers I met in Utah.— Leave Utah for the Los Angeles, Cal., country.— The company I travel with. — Danites.— The Indians on the road. — A Mormon "miracle," — Indian dialect. — Sand storm. A mine in the desert. — The region from St. George to California. — Arizona. — San Bernardino, Los Angeles, and that country. — Climate, soil, people and business in 1867 and 1884. — Land, titles, etc.

Chapter V

Leave Los Angeles for a new mining camp in Nevada. — The stock of a train eaptui'ed by Indians. — ''Death Valley." — Eighty-seven families, stock, etc., perish. — The surrounding region and its products. — How teamsters are revenged. — Comprehensive description of the mining camp, etc. — HuiTah ! Huri'ah ! ! We have struck it. Hurrah ! 1 ! — A big Indian. — How Mining Co's. officials steal.— Indian and white man hung, etc. — The mode of government and trial; wages, living, business, etc. — The geological formation of mineral lodes, veins, fissures, etc., and placer mines. Prospecting for and locating claims.— The right time to seU, etc. — Why mines are guarded with rifles. — How stock companies operate. — Why newspaper accounts of mines are not reliable. — The real prices paid for mines. - How stock, etc., is made to sell. — One-and-a-half year's experience.

Chapter VI

The mines, continued. — Exciting reports from a distant mountain. — I outfit one of a party to go.— What he wrote me. — "Ho ! for White Pine ! "—The richest silver mine ever discovered. — The pure stuff. — I go, too. — Visit another camp on the way.— My horse and saddle "borrowed."- A big camp ablaze with excitement. — Belief that the stuff could be found anj^where by digging. — The many thousand "mines." — "Brilliant schemes." Blubbering investors from the States. — Life : gambling, drinking, business and damnation. — Making big sales, etc.; the outcome. — Another year and a half of lively practical experience in the mines. — The many smaller camps in the surrounding region. — Virginia City and Gold Hill. — The great Comstock lode. — The Bonanza and other great stock gambling mines that we read of.

Chapter VII

Building the U. P. and Central railroads. — A general rugged prospecting tour of seven mouths in Nevada, Idaho and Montana. — On to Washington Territory. — The country, climate, soil, scenery, fishing, hunting, incidents, etc., etc. — Finding the true source of the fine gold in the Snake and Columbia rivers. — The more famous of the Idaho Placer mines.

CHAPTER VIIL

A comprehensive description of the Walla Walla country; soil, climate and productions and the lay of the land. — Hire out on a farm for two months.— The secret of success and failure in government and coi-poration contracts. — Secret intrigue at military posts, etc. — Experience in work in the mountains.— Locate a land claim and get married — A year's experience.

Chapter IX

Brief description of Eastern and Western Washington and of the various sections in each ; their industries and inducements, advantages and disadvantages.

Chapter X

History of the settling of the Walla Walla country. — Report of government experts as to the soil. — Packing to the mines of Idaho, etc. — The market and opportunities. — The outlook in 1870 when I landed there. — The country grasped by its throat; the government prostituted. — 1000 miles of river navigation to the sea strangled, and the tribute that was levied. — The result. — The promised railroad, etc. — First land claim I located. — Life in the beginning of a home ; dangers and draw-backs. — My first outfit. — Sell my claim ; hunt for and locate another in a new wild section; description of it and the locality. — My Indian neighbors; how they treated the first white men they ever saw. — A homebuildei*'s land rights and what he must necessarily endure in carving a home in a wilderness.— Warned of the perplexities, conspiracies and treason to be planted in the way. — How we started out to build a good and spacious home; our first house, etc. — Travelling, moving and camping in the west.— 25 miles to blacksmith's shop, etc. — The " Egypt " for supplies. — Land claims located about us and abandoned, are re-located by others time and again. — My first crop; big, black, hungry crickets, one hundred bushels to the acre. — So that we are left alone in the '' France Settlement." — The section surveyed and I " file my claim."— Raise hogs; the result; also get a band of cattle; experience on the range. -Getting roads opened, etc. — First railroad in Eastern Washington. - Struggling for a livelihood and home ; how I managed. — Other new settlements and people; how they done. — ''Land hunters." — "Prove up "; pay for and get patent for pre-emption claim and take a homestead claim adjoining. — Copy of United States patent. — How we just loped along and ahead of the country. — It settles up. — New county; towns, etc., built; settlers swindled; build school house, etc., etc.

CHAPTER XL

An Indian war. — Neighboring Indians go on the warpath ; the reason. -Description of their domain; their horses and cattle. — A job on Uncle Sam. — How they plead for their country. —"Earth governed by the sun," etc. — Whom they killed. — How they marched and fought. — Settlers either stampede or gather in fortresses. — Efforts made by men to have other tribes break out. — For plunder. — What an Indian must do to become a citizen. — How Indian claims are jumped. — What the Indian was before the advent of the Whites. — Their government, pui'suits, etc.^-What fire-arms and whiskey done for them. — How they started fire, lived and died ; their religion. — How to improve the Indian. — "A cry of the soul."

Chapter XII

Indians, continued. — Joseph. — White Bird. — Looking glass and Indians generally. — The White Bird fight. — These Indians in early days ; their flocks, herds and fine farms. — The result of the war to the Indians. — "Cold-blooded treachery." — How Chief Joseph treated white prisoners. — " The glory of the West." — Col. Steptoe's defeat. — " For God's sake, give me something to kiU myself with." — The others saved by other Indians. — An Ingrate. — Col. Wright's victory ; G20 horses butchered. — How Wright treated Indian prisoners. — "The Chief Moses outrage." — "Mystery." —$70,000,000 squandered by the gang.

CHAPTER XIIL

Indians, concluded. — " The Waiilatpu massacre. — The thrilling story of one who, as a girl, was an eye witness, and then taken away as a prisoner. — Forebodings of the murderous outbreak. — Friendly warnings given. — The dying hours of Dr. and Mrs. "Whitman." — Mission life among the Indians. — As the Indians were in 1852 ; and then in 1856. — Death of Chief Kanaskat. — How Indians are preserved. — How "civilization" was introduced to the natives of South and Central America.

Chapter XIV

Home building narrative resumed. — Improve homestead claim as I had the other. — The market, etc.— My herds of cattle, horses, hogs, etc. — Great prosperity. — Railroads built from tide water ; freights, etc. — Immigration. — Further enlargement of my home and business by leasing, fencing and breaking a quarter section of school land. — Copy of the lease and receipt for second year's payment on the same. — The law and custom as to it. — Confirmed by Congress. — Serve as county road viewer and on first grand jury of Columbia County, and learn something. —Road supervisor of a twenty-mile district.— A review, and what I have learned about farming, etc.— The best economy while " serpents are at the udder."

Chapter XV

Land jumping.— First serious case in the " France settlement." — Our graveyard started. — The " poor man's friend." — Street fight with a jumper. -''Hurrah for Whetstone Hollow." Public sentiment as to such cases. —When the courts and press stand in with the people, and when against them.— Land sharks. — How petty thieves are shot down with impunity. — Home wreckers ; how mv prosperity made me an object of envy and ravage.— A murderous conspiracy by gentlemen with great influence at court to jump my pre-emption and school land portions of my well-earned, improved and stocked home.— The lying pretexts that were invented and used as a blind ; jump all the water, etc., on my place. — ''If you want any water, dig for it ! "—Wanted to get me into their courts. — How I repossessed my own. — " Will fix you by helping H. . jump your school land ! "—How I had befriended them.— "Damned be he who first cries hold : enough ! " — Tries to drive me off with a gun, etc. — How we get better acquainted; get friendly and he agrees to quit. — How I was performing my homage against a lui'king foe. — His object. — Is set to resume the conflict. — " An outrage for one man to own all the land, and the water too." — "Will settle it with an ounce of lead," etc. — Boasts of his backing and influence. — "We will make it hot as hell for you now." — " I have taken your school land, E — , your pre-emption, and by G — d ! we will soon have a man on your homestead ! " — A man loans me his pistol for defense, and then eggs on the jumper. — The lying gang. — " But truth shall conquer at the last." — Jumper's many -wicked threats. — Try to have him bound over to keep the peace. — My instructions from the peace ofiicer. — " Be prepared to defend yourself and sow the ground." — He loans me seed for the pui'pose. — " There comes [Jumper] now with a gun!

" — "Let us go out and see what he is going to do with it." — " I don't care a damn what he does with it." — How he followed me around the field with a cocked carbine in both hands. — Quits and has a secret conference with the man who did not care a damn what he done with his gun. — " I ask you as a friend and neighbor to quit sowing wheat and leave the field, for there is going to be trouble ! " — " Look out for him, now!" — Belches out at the end of a stream of profanity, "turnback! leave the field ! and don't come back nary time ! " — "I will fix you!" crack, bang/ — "I will kill you!" crack, bang/ — I return the fire in rapid succession, thus saving my life. — Positice, certain, incontrovertible proof as to the same. — How he missed me by a scratch! — "There, France is shot!" — The lying gang. — "Where logic is invented and wi'ong is called right." — Am charged with murder! — The would-be assassin, home ravager and ravisher is shielded, venerated and revenged by his gang. — " If by this means we further our cause, the private assassin deserves our applause." — Am thrown into jail without a hearing. — Held in jail near ten months begging and demanding a trial; can never get either a trial or hearing. — " Virtue distressed " could get no protection here. — Am betrayed, sold and given away. — " His glories lost, his cause Betrayed ! " — Shanghaied to the gang's Bastile in double irons. — "Oh ! 'twas too much, too dreadful to endure P^ — "He jests at scars that never felt a wound ! " — " Is this then," thought the youth, "is this the way to free man's spirit from the deadening sway of worldly sloth ; to teach him while he hves to know no bliss but that which virtue gives ? " — Examples of other cases, and what the law is. — My case as established, and the law, etc., as to the same.

Chapter XVI

A pilgrimage thrpugli hell ! — Seven years' experience in the Seateo contract bastile ; the kind of a hell and swindle this was ; how I was taken there ; a thi-ee or four days journey by wagon, boat and rail. — How I was judged by people on the road. — Sympathy. — " Either innocent of crime or a very bad man." — The set questions asked by those who had suffered likewise. — Des(!ription of the bastile. — How I was impressed. — The kind of people I found the prisoners to be, and the officials. — How they were employed. — What they had done and what they had not done; their complaints, etc. — Jumping away. — The crooked and rocky road to liberty. — Who got there and how. — The inquisition of the mind. — How prisoners are driven to the frenzy of despair and death. — What they earned and were worth to the gang. — What it cost the people. — What they got to eat and wear. — How they were treated when well and when sick. — The punishments. — How I was engaged while in the midst of flaming desolation. — Crazy prisoners. — The good and bad qualities and conduct of the officials. — The redeeming feature of the institution. — The different nationalities and occupations represented and their experiences. — One of the Polaris' crew; six months on an ice floe. — The good, bad and mixed; the innocent, guilty and the victims of circumstances, whiskey and accidents. — Inequality of sentences and treatment. — Ro1)bing the cradle and the grave for seventy cents a day. — How they lived and died. — The censorship on correspondence and the real object of the same. — A secret prison. — Shanghaied prisoners trj^ to make theii' cases known to the public. — How the Governor stood in ^^th the gang. — Letters smuggled by ministers, members of the Legislature, humane guards, etc. — Squelching letters of vital importance. — "Damn you, you can't prove it." — Like abuses in the insane asylum. — The remedy. — A j^lf^a that any prisonei f^Jtall ai least he accorded a public hearing, and let the People judge. — The worst criminals not in prison, but in office ; their victims crushed. — A pet prisoner turned in with a bottle of whiskey and a pistol in his pockets. — The visiting preachers ; what they thought of the prisoners and of the officials. — One that was a thorough-bred; would fight the devil in any guise; what he done for reform and how he was bounced. — Can ^vl'ite to him yourself. — Cruel deception. — False and cheating hopes. — ''There is France, if he had not been so anxious about getting home, he would have been out long ago." — '' Must keep still and not bore anybody." —

18 CONI ENTS.

Holo the still and mrek languished and di<d! — How other prisoners ■were shanghaied. — "Bad conduct." — ]My conduct; strikes, etc. — How officials are interested against a prisoner's justice. — How ''heaven is sometimes just and pays ns back in measures that we mete." — How prisoners are robbed.— Women prisoners and how they were treated. — Visits of the legislature, etc. — A prisoner makes a great speech and his teeth are pulled out for the trouble it makes the officials. — What the legislature said and what they did. — The pardoning power and how it was exercised. — The lie. — That "to hear prisoners talk they are all innocent." — Reading matter, etc. — How to control prisoners. — How they get revenge. — How prisoners should be treated. — Where they should be kept. — How a prison should be conducted to be seK-supporting and to reform those who need reforming. — How to enforce the sacred right of petition and the sober second thought of the people.

Chapter XVII

Prison experience, continued. — My personal efforts and that of my friends for my release from the Bastile, for some kind of a trial, and for only a respectful hearing. — The result, etc. — "Truth wears no mask, bows at no human shrine, seeks neither place nor applause, she only asks a hearing." — Letters of my wife; governors, judges, and various other persons, and correspondence. — Petitions, recommendations, etc., etc., and how they were treated, etc., etc.

Chapter XVIII

Prison experience, continued — An epitome of my life, case and trouble addressed to Governor and people.— The only argument and summing up of my case that was ever made. — The frank but fruitless wail for justice and humanity by a victim ; shanghaied, ravaged and languishing in prison. — " Let thy keen glance his life search through, and bring his actions in review, for actions speak the man." — "While love and peace and social joy were there. Oh, peace! oh, social joy ! Oh, heaven-born love ! Were these your haunts, where murderous demons rove? Distinction neat and nice, which lie between the poison'd chalice and the stab unseen."

Chapter XIX

Prison experience, concludnl. — Efforts to get my case before the Supreme Court. — Copious extracts from my diary kept in prison. — ''Considering my case." — ''Seeing about it," etc., etc. — My appeals to Legislatures, the President, Congress, etc. — How changes in Governors, etc., are disscussed by prisoners. — Prisoners that were shanghaied and never convictid. — How I established my good conduct against the lying gang. — The " good Judiciary." — Efforts of and for other prisoners, and results. — Removal to "Walla Walla. — My release, etc.

Chapter XX

Tragedies. — Land jumping, etc. — Experience of other men. — More of real life and death in the Northwest. — What was transpii*- ing with other people while and since I was languishing in prison for defending my life and home against the gang. — All of these were either acquitted of any crime, or not even indicted or troubled. — The glaring contrast. — ''Uneasy settlers." — "A protective association ;" "land jumping;" "put-up jobs;" "homes imperilled;" "shooting affair;" "Vigilantes;" "murderous assault by a band of midnight assassins;" "high handed." — "With pride in their port, defiance in their eye, we see the secret lurking lords of human kind pass by." — "Lynching;" "people arming;" "a dangerous man ;" "land troubles;" " a tramp boom ;" "killed for robbing sluice boxes;" "laying in wait to kill;" filled with shot; killing three men for a few dollars.

CHAPTER XXL

Land troubles, etc., continued. — "The Riparian fight." — On Puget Sound. — Shooting for the tide lands. — A woman defending her claim.— Dynamite. — Vigilantes by the thousand. — Big money for the Court gang. — Lawyers instigating a fight. — Land jumping.

— Coroner's inquests.— " Defective" land titles. — A trick of the Court gang. — "I tell you again to stop plowing." — Crack! Bang!

— Why government lands are classified when they are all good for homes if good for anything. — The Court "bar" (gang) organizes

troul)le. " Be ready."— " Parasites."—" Citizens arming."— Who

gets 90 per cent, of all plunder.

Chapter XXII

Sample tragedy cases in the Northwest, in brief, concluded. — What members of the gang can do to others with impunity. Victims that were not venerated or sanctified by the gang. — About land. — " Shot him dead." — Stabbed him to the heart. — Stabbed him in the head. — Shot down in cold blood. — The Court burnt in effigy, and why. — "A dark scheme." — "This is not the first time I have had to face lead to protect my rights." — "Served the fiend right." — Shooting a man down in cold blood for a few dollars. — Killing a man for alleged threats to burn his house. — " The hero of the hour." Etc., etc.

Chapter XXVII

Big land steals in Oregon, California, etc. — How it is done there. — "In a valley, 30 miles long, ditches were dug from the stream, dams built, the land flooded, and then taken up by the gang as ' swamp land,' " etc. — This is why land is classified. — Brazen perjury, and nobody punished. — The reason. — Wagon road swindles, etc. — Sink artesian wells to irrigate " swamp land," etc. — "Three-fourths of the land titles fraudulent." — Murdering homebuilders.

Chapter XXVIII

Railroads, big grants, etc., in the Northwest, etc. — How they are worked. What they cost the gangs. — What they control. — A servile and purchased press. — Advice to settlers. — What a " territorial pioneer" says. — WJiai the people saxj. — ''Awake! arise! or be forever fallen I "

Chapter XXIX

As to the martial law trouble in protecting highbinder Chinamen and white criminals on Puget Sound,when American citizens were pillaged, murdered and driven out with no troops to protect them. — Vigilance committee. — " Justice blinded with a vengeance." Judge Lynch, and how he judged. — Death from poverty, etc. etc.

Captain of the Queen's story as to the Seattle Exodus. — Xinety-seven Chinamen in court. — " The Government is strong and will protect" [secret highbinders with influence at court, J etc.

Chapter XXXIV

" Home Guards " fire into the crowd ; five men wounded ; one dies. — " Shot down in cold blood." — Charged with murder, etc. —

The City of Seattle under martial law. — Drive out white citizens and protect Chinese highbinders. — '' Military headquarters/' etc. — Unmeasured gall. — Blackstone on martial law. — '' Treason doth never prosper, what's the reason ? Wh}^ if it prosper, none dare call it treason," — "Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne."

Chapter XXXV

Court Martial and a Military Commission mth a Judge-Advocate and Recorder now under eight indictments for forgery and robbery. — Crime made respectable, and to tell the truth is made a crime. — "An authentic account." — It is the weakest, not the worst, that goes to the wall. — United States troops, etc., etc.

Chapter XXXVI

The judgment of the people and of the Supreme Court. — The martial law "mere lawless violence" ; but "the trail of the serpent is over them all."

Chapter XXXVII

A brief, comprehensive and practical history of Masonry, Knight Templars of Malta, St. John, Hospitalers, etc. — The Crusades to possess the Holy Land; Egypt, etc. — How Jerusalem and Acre were taken and re-taken. — Why the Holy Land was made a desert. — The practical workings of the Masonry and kindred Orders of to-day.

— Mostly the testimony of others, as taken from books and the press.

Chapter I

striking out from Lome wlien a boy. — My object. — Ho ! For the Oil Regions in Pennsylvania. — My Chum. — Great Excitement. — Oil City flooded. — "Coal Oil Johnny." — Tools, etc., used in boring for oil. — All about finding oil. — And what the oil is. — My experience for about a year.

1 N the winter of 1864-65 I concluded to leave my home in New York lor an indefinite time ; not exactly to hunt buffalo and kill Indians on the plains, for killing was never sport to me, and I was not 'wild,' nor to seek my fortune ; for at that time this did not appear necessary, though I expected to earn by work my living and travelling expenses, and more, if I run on to any great opportunity to do so. My object was to see and know more of the living, bustling, wild and wide world, than what transpired in the drowsy orthodox range in which I was confined.

My parents tried to dissuade and divert me from my purpose, but, as I had Set my heart on it, they neither strenuously opposed me nor did they give any formal consent ; but left the field clear for my return as the prodigal son of old, which they prophesied I would soon do, for them to say "did I not tell you so, my boy," and to lessen the sting of adieu.

Little did I then think I was never to see them any more in this world, or know the terrible pangs of grief I would suffer when we really kissed each other good bye, and that the thought of that sad event would haunt me, and make me sick at times, for many years to come.

A young friend was to ramble with me, and we started March 13th, 1865. The oil regions in Pennsylvania was our first destination, as there were many fabulous stories afloat, and much excitement about oil at that time, to such an extent, that poor men at a distance were mortgaging their homes to buy stock in oil companies (or confidence games) then being worked and played to catch the unwary ; and wages and employment there were reputed as high and abundant.

At the end of the third da}' we arrived by rail at the end of the track — then about a mile from Oil City. We jumped off

24 Steiking Out From Home.

into the mud aud oil a foot or two deep, and waded through it in the dark to town and to a hotel (could have ridden for two dolla,rs).

The next day it was raining; teams were stuck in the street, loaded with but a few hundred pounds.

Teaming (hauling oil, coal, lumber, machinery, etc.,) was a great business in the oil regions at that time. The price of single teams and wagon with driver was twenty dollars per day or more, and they made forty dollars per day in handling flat boats in and up Oil Creek. Drivers were rated at fifty dollars per month, and no one envied their pay or position. The vast amount of dead horses lying about or floating down the Creek, the number of broken wagons in sight, together with the high price of stable room, feed, etc., showed that it was not all profit. Yet there was big money in the business to those whom such drawbacks were not discouraging, but were taken as a matter of course.

A scene on the road : — A team loaded with oil stuck in a mud hole full of big boulders and blocking the way for twenty teams behind ; the driver asks the nearest "what will j-ou take to pull me out?" "Nothing for that, but two dollars and fifty cents for hitching on in the mud."

In time roads were made, feed, stable room, etc., got cheap and handy, when, as there was nothing frightful in the business, everybody was willing to engage in it, and nobody made much in the business any more.

Next came railroads, and then, in time, pipe-lines were added for conveying oil.

Crowds of disgusted and home-sick men having failed to find employment, and short of money, told discouraging stories to us — they were discouraging to us then, to be sure, because of our inexperience in the world, otherwise we would have critically gathered useful and encouraging information instead.

However, my chum concluded during the day that he had rambled far enough from his good old home and that we were p,bout lost, too, and having now been absent for several whole days and nights, and remembering that his pet mare was liable to have a colt Avitli none to caress them, and corn planting time would soon be- on hand with his vacant place to fill, he reluct-