CHAPTER VIII (cont. 4)

His reception by the Board was by no means cordial; but in a forceful way he showed the serious consequences that would follow the abandonment of the Missions. Finally convinced by his logic, the Board rescinded the order, which action was the object for which the ride was undertaken. After that he visited his old home in New York State.

Westbound during May of the following year, Whitman overtook the 1843 emigrants somewhere along the Platte River and traveled with them as far as Fort Boise on the Snake River. Worried about affairs at Waiilatpu after so long absence, he then went on ahead.

From that time on the affairs of the Mission were still more unsatisfactory; and the Indians gradually became alarmed at the number of immigrants arriving in the country, bringing the measles and other diseases generally fatal to the natives. Whitman was very successful in treating his own people, but the great majority of affected Indians succumbed to the diseases contracted from the whites.

The more superstitious ones began to imagine that the Doctor was using "bad medicine" to kill them off so that his white brothers could have their lands, an idea which became an obsession with them. It did not bear fruit for awhile; but as time went on and conditions showed no {277} signs of change, the foolish natives determined to destroy the station and kill the missionaries. The latter had been forewarned more than once by friendly Indians to be on their guard, as something desperate might happen; but they did not take it seriously.

On Monday, November 29th, the first of the fatal blows fell. Whitman was in the sitting room talking with Mrs. Osborne who lived in an adjoining room. An Indian came to the door, knocked and asked to see the Doctor about some medicine; he stepped into the outer room where several were assembled, and talked with them about their sick. While thus engaged one of them suddenly drew a tomahawk from beneath his blanket and delivered a crushing blow upon Whitman's head.

Then pandemonium broke loose, and with frightful yells the savages began the slaughter of the defenseless inmates. In only one instance was any resistance offered; when attacked by an Indian with a knife, the school-teacher grappled with his assailant and struggled for his life until dispatched by another of the natives.

Mrs. Whitman was shot through the breast by a renegade half-breed, Joe Lewis, and afterwards beaten over the head and face with clubs until life was extinct. She was the only woman slain, the others being made captive and confined in one of the Mission houses. The reign of terror continued through Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, with several other murders of the white people. Two seriously ill men were dragged out of their beds and clubbed in a most barbarous manner until they expired.

It is surprising that, wrought up to such a high state of frenzy against the Mission and its inmates, the Indians did not also massacre the fifty or more women and children who fell into their hands. Through the untiring efforts of Peter Skene Ogden, Chief Factor of the Hudson's Bay Company, the latter were ransomed after a few weeks' captivity.

The Whitman Massacre was one of the saddest and most revolting episodes in the annals of missionary effort in North America. It cast a shadow over the land, and {278} caused those who were active in the movement for the regeneration of the red men to almost abandon it in despair.

No doubt you think it strange that in telling you about the Oregon Country, its exploration and early settlement, I should have devoted so much time to the expeditions, labors and sufferings of the missionaries. But it was owing primarily to the initiative from those sources that the Pacific Northwest, with all of its wonderful resources and possibilities, became known to the people of "the States"; large numbers were thus encouraged to emigrate to it, aiding materially in bringing all of that vast region under the flag and within the dominion of our beloved country.

Otherwise the choicest portion of that territory would in all probability have passed into the possession of a foreign power. Is not that a good reason for occupying so much time in recounting their efforts and exploits? I will now give briefly a few of the outstanding incidents since the migration to the Oregon Country began in the wake of the missionaries.

THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT

In the spring of 1843, a kind of Provisional Government for the Oregon Country was organized at a meeting of settlers held at Champoeg in the Willamette Valley. Previous attempts had been made for that purpose, but owing to divergent views, they had ended in failure.

Now, however, at a gathering in March, 1843, called ostensibly for the purpose of taking steps to protect the settlement from predatory animals and known as the "Wolf Organization," a resolution was introduced and carried to appoint a committee of twelve to formulate a plan. At the meeting held on May 2nd attended by both British and American partisans, the vote was very close, the advocates of a Provisional Government winning by a slight margin.

It was so close that there was difficulty in determining {279} which side had the majority; so after one or two unsuccessful attempts to decide by a _viva voce_ vote, an agreement was reached to have a division and count--those in favor of the proposal going to the right, while those opposed went to the left. Joseph L. Meek, a man of splendid physique and the hero of many adventures in the Rockies, clad in the garb of the mountaineers, with sparkling eyes, a voice of command and the air of a Major General, stepped to a niche in history as he strode to his position crying out, "Who's for a divide! All in favor of the report and organization follow me."

The hunters and trappers who were present followed his lead, and so carried the day for the proponents of the measure. More than half the Americans present voted against it, because they (wrongfully) believed it a scheme of the Mission party to secure control of the organization. Were it not that quite a number of French-Canadians favorable to self-government voted in the affirmative, it would have lost.

On the following day, May 3rd, the Provisional Government was duly organized--a date and event long to be remembered. That government was ably and wisely carried on for a term of six years, until the United States assumed jurisdiction in 1849.

Dr. John McLoughlin recognized it, as he never would have done were it not worthy of respect. It demonstrated that the Oregon pioneers were capable, resourceful and not mere imitators of other men. Their deeds should be admired and their names venerated.

I might add that the entire white population of the Oregon Country at that time was only a little more than two hundred. But the tide had set in, and nearly five times that number were already assembled at different points on the Missouri River preparing to start overland.

THE 1843 MIGRATION

This was in many respects the most remarkable and important migration that ever left the Missouri River {280} for the far Northwest. Although numerically far below those of the following years, it was the first company regularly organized to go out to that territory with the sole object of making permanent settlements, and growing up with it.

The people composing it were not influenced to any considerable extent by the evangelical movement, but mostly farmers, tradesmen and mechanics determined to find and make the best of opportunities for improving their material condition. It was the first migration to succeed in taking wagons beyond Fort Hall to the banks of the Columbia and down along the south side of that river to The Dalles, thence by batteaux or rafts to Fort Vancouver and the Willamette Valley, thus blazing a trail for future thousands to follow.

Among those emigrants were several men of unusual ability and forceful character, who were subsequently very successful and attracted wide attention. Peter H. Burnett--keen, alert and ambitious, the possessor of an almost inexhaustible fund of information and anecdote--became the first Governor of California, 1849-51.

Another one was J. W. Nesmith, witty and brilliant, later United States Senator from Oregon. Jesse Applegate, one of the men who came over the Oregon Trail in 1843, was a versatile writer, forceful speaker and a leading worker in the ranks of every progressive movement in the Pacific Northwest during his long and useful life there.

These men had the hardihood to attempt a feat considered utterly impracticable by those who had passed and repassed over that route on horseback for many years. When asked for his opinion as to the feasibility of taking the wagons to the Columbia, Richard Grant, the Chief Factor of the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Hall, made this characteristic and undoubtedly honest reply, "I will not say that Americans cannot do it, but for myself I cannot see how it would be possible."

The news that a large company of home seekers had succeeded in driving their teams and four-wheeled vehicles {281} all the way through by that route caused widespread rejoicing throughout "the States," and virtually settled the question as to which nation the region should belong.

THE UNFORTUNATE SAGER FAMILY

Of the many tragic and pathetic incidents along the Trail during the early migration to Oregon, none surpasses that of this most bereaved and sorely afflicted family. Mr. Sager, a blacksmith, went in 1838 from Ohio to Missouri; in the fall of 1843 he moved to St. Joseph in that State, and in the spring of 1844 joined the Gillman party bound for the Oregon Country. He was accompanied by his wife and six children, the eldest a boy of fourteen (a seventh was born on the road), making five girls and two boys.

While crossing the Platte River one of his wagons in which Mrs. Sager was riding, overturned and so seriously injured her that she never entirely recovered from it. Near Fort Laramie the oldest girl fell under the wheels of the wagon and was rendered helpless during the remainder of the journey. At Green River, Mr. Sager died leaving an invalid wife, a crippled daughter and six children, the youngest a baby only a few weeks old.

In the party was an unmarried German doctor of a benevolent disposition who, seeing the straits to which the family was reduced, volunteered to drive and care for the oxen and assist the unfortunates to their destination. Mrs. Shaw, a kind hearted woman of the train, took the infant in charge. At Fort Bridger the greater part of the property brought that far by the emigrants, among them the Sagers, had to be abandoned, making their lot still harder, for henceforth they must travel in a cart.

Notwithstanding all that could be done to alleviate the sufferings of the ill and weak mother, she could no longer endure the hardships of the journey; and gave up her spirit in the wild and forbidding region of the Snake River. Delirious at the time, she called upon her dead husband to take good care of their little ones.

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Mr. Shaw went to the Whitman Mission to see if Dr. and Mrs. Whitman could be prevailed upon to assume the care and custody of the orphans. Though prompted by their natural inclinations to do so, the Whitmans hesitated to assume the additional responsibility.

While in this uncertain frame of mind, the two-wheeled vehicle with its cargo of six ragged and travel-stained children appeared upon the scene. It was utterly impossible for those kind-hearted people to resist that appeal. When the question of the infant came up, the Doctor could not see how it could be managed; but Mrs. Whitman turned to him and said, "I would like to have the baby most of all."

The arrival of the cart load of orphans at Waiilatpu presented a sight worthy of the brush of some great artist to transfer it to canvas, for such a combination of circumstances seldom occurs in real life. All that then remained of their once complete outfit was in the foreground; and the emaciated, nearly exhausted oxen dropped down to rest as soon as they were unyoked. John, the oldest boy, was seated in the front end of the cart, his ragged garments covered with a heavy coating of grey dust from the sagebrush plains, while his woe-begone countenance and tear-stained cheeks clearly indicated his supreme anguish.

Francis, the younger boy, was leaning on one wheel of the cart, his head resting on his arm and sobbing audibly. On the near side, the three little girls were huddled together bareheaded and barefooted, looking at the boys and then at the house, dreading whatever might happen. Close to the oxen stood the German doctor with his whip in hand and kindly eyes viewing the scene with suppressed emotion.

The baby member of the family was in the care and custody of Mrs. Shaw, whose husband somewhat thoughtlessly asked Mrs. Whitman if she had any children of her own. Stopping at the threshold, the good woman pointed to the little grave on the side of a small mound easily seen from that point, and replied, "The only child {283} I ever had sleeps yonder." In the tone of her voice and the expression of her face there was unspeakable sadness. Only a few years later John and Francis were brutally murdered at the same Mission House by infuriated Indians, and all the girls taken into captivity. That family certainly was tried in the crucible; and never in my experience have I found a parallel to it.

* * *

Up to the present time fully nine-tenths of the emigrants going to the Oregon Country have settled in the Willamette Valley--a very large and fertile valley, probably seventy or eighty miles long by some ten or twelve in width. It is flanked on either side by ranges of heavily timbered hills, and traversed by the large Willamette River, which is fed by numerous streams issuing from the adjacent mountains on its course northward to join the mighty Columbia. The climate is remarkably mild and entirely free from extremes of temperature; and its very fertile soil produces small grains such as wheat, oats and barley, in great abundance. Vegetables of every kind grown in the temperate zone do remarkably well, while fruits such as apples, pears, plums and cherries are not only raised in great quantities, but are generally superior to the same varieties in the Atlantic States. Fish and game are also quite plentiful. Since the discovery of gold in California, that region has been an excellent market for everything raised at fancy prices; if this condition continues, the Oregon farmers will soon be more prosperous than the California gold miners.

There is also a vast region north of the Columbia, heavily timbered but interspersed here and there with numerous fertile valleys, which in recent years have been receiving many immigrants who claim to see a great future ahead. Even in the eastern portion of the territory, which is still occupied almost exclusively by Indians, shrewd men see possibilities of large settlements springing up within the next few years.

It is a wonderful country to which you are going, and you will probably never have cause to regret the decision.

[1] As this narrative was told in the early 1850s, "half a century ago" refers to the period shortly after 1800.--E.M.

[2] Companion of Capt. Meriwether Lewis on the Lewis & Clark Expedition of 1804-6; 1st Lieut. U.S.A., Jan. 31, 1806 (resigned Feb. 27, 1807); appointed Brig.-Gen. of Militia by Thomas Jefferson, March 13, 1807; Governor of Missouri Territory 1813-21, and afterward, including the time of the visit of these Indians, Superintendent of Indian Affairs at St. Louis until his death in 1838. Brother of Gen. George Rogers Clark.

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THE WORK BEGUN AND CARRIED ON FOR TWO DECADES BY EZRA MEEKER TO BE CONTINUED ON A LARGER SCALE BY THE OREGON TRAIL MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION, INC. OBJECTS: PLAN: MEMBERSHIPS:

More than twenty years have elapsed since the author started, January 29, 1906, on a return trip over the Oregon Trail, which he had traversed with an ox-team when just past 21 years of age, accompanied by a brave young wife and a babe, nearly fifty-four years before. The first journey was in search of a home in the Oregon Country, of which he has now been a resident for over seventy-three years; and the second one to rescue from impending oblivion the memories of the Pioneers by rediscovering the Trail they followed, and erecting permanent monuments to honor their heroic achievements.

A third trip was made with the ox-team in 1910 to continue and enlarge the effort; a fourth one with an automobile in 1915 to enlist the co-operation of the motoring public in the great work, and finally a fifth by aeroplane in October, 1924, when he looked down from the air at a speed of 100 miles per hour upon the route previously followed at an average of about two miles an hour by a migration of at least three hundred thousand, of whom not less than twenty thousand gave up their lives on the way. Although a total of nearly two hundred monuments and markers have been {285} placed along or nearby the old tracks, the plan as a whole is still incomplete; and the desirability of carrying it forward beyond the limitations of a single life, unquestionable.

On January 9, 1926, the OREGON TRAIL MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION, INC. was organized under the laws of the State of New York, for the following specific purposes:

1. To search out, identify, suitably and permanently mark the line of the Oregon Trail, in so far as possible at this time, with or without visible marks of the old tracks.

2. To erect suitable monuments or memorials on or nearby the sites of historical forts, trading posts or other important landmarks along the Trail, such as Fort Kearney, Fort Laramie, Fort Hall, Fort Bridger and others of distinct historical interest.

3. To restore the Whitman Mission in the County of Walla Walla, State of Washington, as the same existed at the date of the Massacre, November 29, 1847; to establish, or promote the establishment of, a park or other memorial to appropriately commemorate the sacrifice of Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, and the other victims of that historic tragedy; also to identify other localities where massacres are known to have taken place, and to suitably mark them.

4. To promote, encourage or portray in moving pictures, vividly recording the historic scenes on the great emigration over the Oregon Trail, with a reproduction of the characteristic scenery along the route, for use in the schools of the Nation, teaching exact and truthful history by such methods.

5. To collect and preserve written accounts, objects of interest and other things pertaining to the history of the winning of the Pacific Northwest; to deposit same with the historical societies, preferably in the States where found, or to designate a Museum or {286} museums to preserve such records, relics or objects of interest as may be donated or otherwise acquired; and erect a suitable memorial to the Pioneers, most appropriately in the City of Washington.

Membership consists of two classes--Annual and Life. Any citizen of the United States, of adult age, shall be eligible for membership by the payment, annually, of two dollars ($2); or for a Life Membership by one payment of fifty dollars ($50). No assessment of members shall be made; nor shall membership involve any financial obligations beyond the stated fees or dues to the Corporation.

The considerable number of men and women who have already become identified with the organization are devoting their time and money to perpetuate the memory of the Pioneers, all but a few of whom have gone to their reward, and to preserve the history of the great overland migration which was the principal factor in advancing the northwestern boundary of the United States to the Pacific Coast. Work will be started in the field as soon as sufficient funds are secured to enable it to be carried forward on the high standard outlined. Success in accomplishing these objects depends upon public confidence and support; and the reader of this volume is invited to become a member.

OREGON TRAIL MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION, INC. Ezra Meeker, Rev. David G. Wylie, D.D., LL.D. President Secretary 18 Old Slip, New York City

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WORKS BY EZRA MEEKER

LOVED BEFORE SEEN (1874), a Story of Pioneer Life.

WASHINGTON TERRITORY WEST OF THE CASCADE MOUNTAINS (1870), a descriptive pamphlet, out of print and rare; as high as $100 has been paid for single copies.

FARM AND HOME, an editorial series of 52 numbers, 1884-6; newspaper publication only.

HOP CULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES (1883); rare and out of print.

PIONEER REMINISCENCES OF PUGET SOUND, AND THE TRAGEDY OF LESCHI (1905); 550 pages in two volumes under one cover, silk cloth binding, $15.00.

SHORT STORIES FOR CHILDREN, each with a moral.

THE LOST TRAIL (1911-12-15), a booklet of 32 pages, of which several editions totaling a hundred thousand copies, have been issued.

THE OREGON TRAIL, VENTURES AND ADVENTURES, revised and republished under title of THE BUSY LIFE OF EIGHTY-FIVE YEARS (1916); 400 pages, $1.65, postpaid.

FIFTY YEARS OF PROGRESS IN WASHINGTON (1915); 400 pages, $5.00 postpaid.

KATE MULHALL, a Romance of the Oregon Trail (1926); this volume, $2 postpaid, with the usual discounts to the trade.

In active preparation (1926): A CENTURY OF BUSY LIFE--the biography, varied experiences as pioneer, farmer, author and traveler, including four years in Europe, and the "homespun" philosophy of Ezra Meeker, 1830-1930 (borrowing a few years from the future, through which the author confidently expects to live, and thus justify the title chosen for this work), amplifying and carrying forward THE BUSY LIFE OF EIGHTY-FIVE YEARS in more definite historical retrospect.