It will be remembered that the Rev. Mr. Whitman, together with his lady and family, were massacred by the Indians at the Mission above the Cascade, in the Cayuse country, Oregon, sometime in the year 1847. There were some eight or ten other families temporarily stopping in the place at the time, the male members of whom were also murdered. The women and children were taken prisoners by the Indians, and the young women compelled to become the wives of some of the chiefs. Soon afterwards, Maj. Ogden, commander at Vancouver Island, assisted by Gen. Gilman, started with a file of soldiers into the Indian country, to rescue the unfortunate prisoners and punish the Indians for the outrage. They found the Indians, gave them battle, in which many of those engaged in the murder at the Mission were killed, and finally succeeded in recovering the women and children, some fifty in number, by hiring the savages to deliver them up. Thus the matter ended for the time. But we learn by a Mr. Field, now in this place, who left Oregon City fifteen days ago, that Gen. Lane has taken decided steps to have a more satisfactory settlement. In March last he formally demanded of the Indians the remainder of the murderers, and nine of them, including two Catholic priests, have been delivered into the possession of the government of Oregon. By proclamation of the Governor, the Legislature of the Territory was convened on the 13th of May inst., at Oregon City, to give the prisoners a trial, and our informant thinks that ere this they have been convicted and put to death.
    The chiefs of the Klickitats and Calapooias have tendered the services of their tribes to Gov. Lane. When our informant left, they were encamped at Linn City, opposite Oregon City, awaiting the sentence of the murderers on trial before the Legislature. They are to join the forces of the Territory and march under Gov. Lane over the land route towards California till they reach the neighborhood of Rogue River. It is known that there are hostile tribes of Indians in this country. It was infested by them last season, and several helpless companies of Oregonians were murdered while on their way to California. Lately, some friendly Indians have given information in Oregon that the wives and children of some families who journeyed over this route last season are now prisoners among the Digger Indians--the men having been murdered. The Oregonians are highly incensed at these outrages, and it is thought they will not be satisfied until the offensive Indians are exterminated. The energetic steps taken by the Governor will doubtless be the means of opening a safe overland communication between California and Oregon.
Sacramento Transcript, May 28, 1850, page 2

JUSTICE.

The Removal of Gen. Lane.

Communication.

For the Spectator.

----

JO. LANE

OUR CANDIDATE FOR CONGRESS.

GENERAL LANE.

Headquarters, Pacific Division,
    Benicia, July 9, 1851.

(signed)    J. HOOKER,
                       Asst. Adj. General

    Gen. Lane has introduced a resolution in Congress, calling upon the government for the return of the Rifle Regiment, U.S.A., which were ordered out of Oregon at the earnest solicitation of the late delegate. This caused considerable debate, which we shall endeavor to publish next week.

General Lane's Letter.

GEN. LANE.

Speech of Hon. Joseph Lane.

Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, October 11, 1862, page 3


    The great "konkerin' hero," Jo Lane, at a Copperhead meeting lately held in Roseburg, officiated as bottle-holder to the "Pygmy Chief of Oregon Copperheads," James O'Meara, while the latter spread himself through three mortal hours of space in denunciation of Abolitionists, etc. The "Democracy of Douglas County" (twenty persons) were there, in mass meeting assembled. By resolutions adopted and endorsed by "Josef," it is evident that he thinks the "rights" of the South have been "invaded," her "citizens oppressed," and, in conformity with the promise made in his North Carolina banquet speech, probably designs to "fly to their relief from his far-off Pacific home, to lend all the power of his arm and head (oh!) in their defense--in defense of the rights of the South." The breezes from the north are too bracing to be pleasant to foul birds inured to the foetid atmosphere of slavery. They should migrate.
Oregon Sentinel, November 28, 1863, page 2


Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, March 12, 1864, page 2




    Col. T'Vault and General Joseph Lane have both professed religion and joined the Catholic Church. The old sinners have deceived the people and been obedient servants of the devil all their lives, but now in their dotage they are both trying to cheat the devil out of his just rights. Gen. Lane has been so strongly impressed with Catholicism that he has been remarried to his wife. Col. T'Vault ought to follow suit. It is meet for such worthies to float together, and there should be no bastards in the royal families.
Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, October 3, 1868, page 2


    September 11, 1869, we the undersigned have baptized at Mount Lane, Douglas Co., Oregon, Simon R. B. Lane, born on the 24th of November, 1866, a son of Simon Robert and Catherine A. Lane. Godfather, Hon. Paul. Laf. Lane.
   
    September 11, 1869, we the undersigned have baptized at Mount Lane, Douglas Co., Oregon, Joseph Chs. Lane, born on the 14th day of September, 1868, a son of Simon Robert and Catherine A. Lane. Godfather, Hon. Paul. Lane.
   
    September 11, 1869, we the undersigned have administered private baptism, under condition, in danger of death, on account of an apoplexy, at Mount Lane, Douglas Co., Oregon, Mrs. Mary Lane, aged 67 years, wife of Hon. General Joseph Lane, in presence of her husband and her son, Hon. Paul Laf. Lane, and some others.
   
    September 12, 1869, we the undersigned have baptized in Roseburg, Douglas Co., Oregon, Paul Albert Mosher, aged 2 months, a son of Hon. Laf. Mosher. Sponsors, Mr. and Mrs. Adolphe Champagne.
Register of St. Stephen's Church, Roseburg, from Catholic Church Records of the Pacific Northwest:Roseburg Register and Missions, Binford & Mort 1986, pages 21-22


    Last Sunday I had the pleasure of visiting General Lane at his country home; age has laid his finger on the old man's brow, and silvered his head with gray. He has retired to his country seat and private life among the hills of Umpqua.

    Mary, wife of Gen. Joseph Lane, died at Roseburg on the night of the 16th inst. She was about 70 years of age.
"State News," State Rights Democrat, Albany, Oregon, August 26, 1870, page 2


        DEAD.--The Herald learns that the wife of Gen. Lane died at her residence in Douglas County, a few days since.
Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, August 27, 1870, page 2


    October 5, 1870, we the undersigned have baptized in St. Stephen's Church, Peter Waldo, born on the 1st of July, 1862, of a Negro mother. Sponsor: General J. Lane.
   
    October 5, 1870, we the undersigned have received the Profession of Faith and baptized under condition Mary E. Floed, a daughter of John C. Floed and Sarah Lane. She was born on the 28th of August, 1854. Godmother, Mrs. L. F. Lane.
    
    October 5, 1870, we the undersigned have received the Profession of Faith and baptized under condition Mary Floed, a daughter of John C. Floed and Sarah Lane. She was born on the [blank]. Godfather, Hon. L. F. Lane, Godmother Mrs. Ad. Champagne.
   
    October 5, 1870, we the undersigned have baptized Henry Young, a son of [blank] Young and Nancy Bradley. He was born on the 26th of May, 1852. Godfather, Hon. L. F. Lane.
Register of St. Stephen's Church, Roseburg, from Catholic Church Records of the Pacific Northwest:Roseburg Register and Missions, Binford & Mort 1986, pages 25-26.


    August 29, 1871, we the undersigned have baptized Agnes Lavinia Floed, a daughter of John Floed and Sarah Emily Lane; she was born on the 12th of December, 1861. Godfather, Mr. Paul Lafayette Lane; Godmother, Mrs. Paul L. Lane.
   
    September 2, 1871, we the undersigned have baptized Creed Philip, a son of Simon Lane and Catherine Drain; he was born on the 30th of July, 1871. Godfather, Hon. Paul Lafayette Lane; Godmother, Emily Floed.
   
    September 2, 1871, we the undersigned have baptized John Thomas, a son of John Lang and Maratha Gray. He was born on the 15th of May, 1871. Godfather, Thomas Sheridan; Godmother, Emma Floed.
Register of St. Stephen's Church, Roseburg, from Catholic Church Records of the Pacific Northwest:Roseburg Register and Missions, Binford & Mort 1986, page 26.



    October 11, 1872, we the undersigned have baptized Clement Arthur, born on the 9th of August, 1872, of the lawful marriage of Hon. L. F. Lane and Margaret Amanda Mann. Godfather, Thomas Sheridan, son; Godmother, Miss Emma Floed.
Register of St. Stephen's Church, Roseburg, from Catholic Church Records of the Pacific Northwest:Roseburg Register and Missions, Binford & Mort 1986, page 32.


    Roseburg is the home of the Lanes--once the political power of the state--and up this creek, that comes pitching down between the great oak-topped hills, three miles in an easterly direction, and four miles perpendicular, as his son has it, lives General Joseph Lane--soldier, Governor, Senator, and at last candidate for the Vice Presidency. Very old is the General now, and quite retired, but the same as of old. His quiet, unpretending fireside and frugal meal are shared by the hermit the same now as when he was not poor, but strong and well-to-do, a great politician, and a power in the land.
Joaquin Miller, "A Ride Through Oregon," Overland Monthly, April 1872, page 305


    Any old Salemite who attended the statehouse ball in 1872 will tell you what a hit General Joseph Lane made when he came down from Roseburg dressed in his best bib and tucker, including buckskin gloves with gauntlets, and how he kissed all the pretty girls who were presented to him.
Al B. Crosman, quoted by Fred Lockley, "Impressions and Observations of the Journal Man," Oregon Journal, Portland, August 16, 1935, page 10


    GENERAL JO. LANE.--A correspondent of the Salem Statesman says old Jo Lane is now living very quietly in a beautiful little valley about fifteen miles from Roseburg, in Oregon. He is keeping "bachelor's hall," his sons and daughters being all well married, and notwithstanding he is seventy-odd years old he can still use his favorite weapon of exercise--the ax--and and force daylight through a log in as lively style as ever. The correspondent of the above-named paper remarks that the old man's indomitable soul and stalwart form refuse to bow under the heavy burden of years, and he strides about the foothills of the Cascades like a gigantic and imperishable Genius of the Border. He is probably the only man of his renown and station in the world who cooks dinner for his friendly visitors.
Democratic Times, Jacksonville, May 21, 1875, page 1


    It had been our intention to stop at Roseburg for a day or two for the purpose of paying a visit to Gen. Joseph Lane, having been urgently requested to do so by some of his old associates from whom, of course, we bore letters and various messages. To our disappointment, however, we found that the General had wintered in the mountains, not having visited Roseburg since November, and not expecting to do so in June. To reach him was impossible, for though only fifteen miles away, not even an Oregon horse could wallow through the intervening mud, and the swollen state of the waters allowed no thought of making the trip on foot. "How much time can you spare with the General if you could get to him," asked our landlord. "One day," we replied. "Do not attempt to go then, for it takes him just four days to tell his story, and you can't get away till that is finished."
    It seems strange that in his old age Gen. Lane should prefer to live among the mountains with only a grandson and a negro for his companions, rather than where the comforts and refinements of civilization would be within reach.
Erastus Test, "Letter from Oregon," Richmond Telegram, Richmond, Indiana, June 9, 1876, page 1





    On Tuesday, April 19th, at 9 o'clock, General Joseph Lane quietly breathed his last, and the spirit of one of Oregon's greatest men took its flight. For nearly half a century, General Lane has been closely identified with the interest of our state, and his name and public acts were familiar to all its inhabitants. Probably no man has done more for the welfare of the state or more enjoyed the respect and esteem of its people than he, and the news of his death was received with universal sorrow. Ever forward in his country's service, General Lane distinguished himself in the Mexican War and in the many Indian wars on the frontier, and carried to his grave the scars received in many a hard-fought battle. He was Oregon's first Governor and first Representative in Congress before it became a state, and was first chosen to represent it in the U.S. Senate after the state was admitted into the Union. General Lane was born in Buncombe County, North Carolina, Dec. 14, 1801, and at the time of his death nearly eighty years of age. He came to Oregon in the spring of 1849, and has been a resident of the state ever since. His funeral took place at Roseburg yesterday and was largely attended. He had shortly before his death renounced the Catholic faith and was buried by the Masonic fraternity, General J. W. Nesmith delivering the funeral oration.
Oregon State Journal, Eugene, April 23, 1881, page 5




    GEN. JOSEPH LANE died at his home in Roseburg, Oregon, last week, in the 80th year of his age. He was a native of North Carolina, and when only fifteen years old went to Indiana when that state was comparatively a wilderness. He participated in the Mexican War and was appointed a brigadier general by President Polk. In 1849 he was appointed Governor of Oregon Territory, and when she became a state in [1859] he was elected to the United States Senate and served until 1861. In 1860 he was a candidate for Vice President on the ticket with John C. Breckinridge. He was not a great man, but he bore himself honestly and without reproach in all the public stations he filled, and was regarded as a fine type of the rough and hardy pioneers who grow up amidst the difficulties and trials of life on the western frontier.
The Cambrian Freeman, Ebensburg, Pennsylvania, April 29, 1881, page 2


    Upon the conclusion of the reading, Hon. John S. Hopkins moved that the papers presented, together with the letter of General Lane, be preserved amongst the records of the society; which motion was adopted.
    On motion of Hon. John S. Hopkins, a committee, consisting of Messrs. John S. Hopkins, Floyd Stinson, Samuel Orr and A. T. Whittlesey, was appointed to draft resolutions expressive of the sense of the society upon the death of General Joseph Lane. The committee retired, and in a few minutes presented the following memorial and resolution for the consideration of the society:
    The people of Vanderburgh County have learned with deep and sincere sorrow of the decease of Gen. Joseph Lane, who died at his home at Roseburg, Oregon, on Tuesday the 19th day of April, at the advanced age of 79 years, 4 months and 5 days, and while the expression of regret has been universal over the departure of a noble and good man, who was for more than half the years of his life an honored citizen of Indiana, and who had been repeatedly made the recipient of high and important trusts by the suffrages of the voters of Vanderburgh and the adjoining counties, the members of this society who knew him personally, and many of whom were actively engaged in the public affairs wherein Gen. Lane bore a conspicuous part, feel that in his death they have lost a friend and companion identified with them in the struggles of life by ties never to be forgotten until the shadows of death usher in upon us that last long "sleep that knows no waking."
    Gen. Joseph Lane was a citizen of Vanderburgh County from the time of its organization, in 1818, until his appointment to the office of governor of Oregon Territory in 1848, while his family maintained their residence here until 1853. During those years he was five times elected a member of the lower house of the general assembly of Indiana, and twice elected a member of the state senate. He acted a conspicuous part in shaping the legislation of our state, and in 1846, as chairman of the joint committee of the two houses of the Indiana legislature, he contributed largely, by his voice and influence, to the passage of the well-known Butler bill, whereby the indebtedness of the state was gradually liquidated and the great commonwealth of Indiana saved from the dark stigma of repudiation.
    When war was declared with Mexico, the following summer, he at once entered the ranks. In rapid succession he was made colonel of the second regiment of Indiana volunteers, by the choice of the company officers, and brigadier general, by the appointment of President Polk. His military career is part of the history of the country. It is without spot or blemish. His gallant defense of the Indiana volunteers from unjust aspersions cast upon their action at the battle of Buena Vista makes the heart of the veteran of the Mexican War swell with gratitude, whenever the theme is mentioned.
    At the close of that war the people of Vanderburgh County, without regard to political or other divisions of sentiment, gave Gen. Lane a right royal welcome home on his return to the bosom of his family and the companionship of his friends. The cordial speech of congratulation delivered at the banquet of "Welcome Home to the Marion of the Mexican War," delivered by the lamented James F. Blythe, and the tearful response by Gen. Lane, constitute a part of the history of Vanderburgh County, forever to be treasured in the minds and hearts of the people who witnessed the proceedings.
    Soon after his return home from Mexico Gen. Lane received his appointment in Oregon, and renewed his connection with civil life. A few years later he again enjoyed the public congratulations of his old friends and neighbors when he returned to our midst as the delegate in Congress from Oregon Territory. His civil record in the representative branch of Congress, and in the Senate of the United States, belongs to Oregon and the whole nation alike.
    Knowing the worth and the virtues of Gen. Joseph Lane, the members of this society, of which he was an honorary member, and had contributed thereto very valuable papers and memoranda, and in the success whereof he manifested the deepest interest, feel that in his death we have lost a sincere and ardent friend, and we have a melancholy satisfaction in this sad hour of paying a tribute to the memory of the gallant and heroic dead.
    Resolved, That this memorial be entered upon the records of the society; that the secretary communicate a copy to the family of Gen. Lane; that the newspapers of the city of Evansville be requested to publish the same, and that the press of the state be invited to copy.
    The memorial having been read, Dr. Geo. B. Walker retired from the chair and addressed the society briefly upon the character and achievements of Gen. Lane. The speaker said he had known Gen. Lane intimately in former years, and was proud to class him as a friend. He was a self-made man, and though a historian and a scholar, his acquirements were the result of observation and manhood study, the advantages of an early education having been denied him. In 1852 Dr. Walker was a delegate to the national Democratic convention at Baltimore from the First District. For thirty-five consecutive ballots the delegation voted for General Lane's nomination to the Presidency. At length combinations were made which resulted in the nomination of Franklin Pierce. Gen. Lane then said to Dr. Walker that Gen. Pierce was his personal friend, and if elected, he could secure Dr. Walker a valuable appointment in Oregon. Circumstances made it impolitic for the doctor to seek an office, but he had suggested that Gen. Lane secure a place for Mr. Robert W. Dunbar, and it was quickly accorded. Gen. Lane had never forgotten a pledge nor forsaken a friend. In later years when Gen. Lane became a candidate for Vice President on the ticket with Mr. Breckinridge, he regretted that he was unable to cast a vote for him.
    Colonel Whittlesey said the opposition to Gen. Lane as a candidate for the Vice Presidency was not because Democrats had abated their regard for Gen. Lane, but because they regarded Judge Douglas as the exponent of a principle that commanded their approbation, and they voted for Douglas while holding Gen. Lane in high regard and esteem. In fact Gen. Lane commanded, at that time, the respect alike, in Vanderburgh County, of men who supported every ticket, whether they were Republicans or Democrats.
    Dr. Floyd Stinson made a few feeling remarks, in which he recited some of the experiences of the soldiers of the Mexican War who served under Gen. Lane and their love and reverence for the man as a commander, a companion and a friend. He said there was no man, living or dead, for whom he entertained a higher regard. He had come from Henderson today to be present at this meeting, and to unite his voice with those who honored the "Marion of the Mexican War." He had not coincided with General Lane in political opinion, but he honored him above politics, and entertained for him a friendship almost sacred.
    Hon. John S. Hopkins spoke of having met General Lane once in New Orleans, where he was friendless, alone and without funds. The General had not only opened his heart, but his purse. Such was the character of the man. "My father," said the speaker, "while always a Whig, and General Lane a Democrat, never failed to vote for Joe Lane, whom he always looked upon as a superior man and a born leader." The first time Gen. Lane was elected to the legislature, some men supported him because they thought the election of "a boy" would humiliate his opponent, whom they did not like. When Lane was elected they found he was something else than a boy; he made his mark at the time, and maintained his prestige ever afterwards.
    Dr. Walker said Amos Clark, an eminent lawyer of his time, had once made an engagement to meet Gen. Lane, who was then a young man, in political debate, and had boasted of the easy victory in prospect. When the discussion was over, Clarke regretted that he had not made preparation for the encounter. He acknowledged that he was a badly used-up man.
    The resolutions were adopted, with evidence of deep feeling and sincere sorrow.
"Historical Society," Evansville Courier, Evansville, Indiana, May 1, 1881, page 2




    NOT ILLITERATE.--According to Joaquin Miller, General Joseph Lane, years ago a United States Senator from Oregon, so far from being the illiterate person his political enemies described, was one of the best-read men he ever met. He taught him to read Plutarch and Marcus Aurelius and a dozen other classics. General Lane knew them so well, adds Joaquin, "that if I misread a single word as we lay under the oaks--he looking up at the birds--he would correct me. He wrote in the old-fashioned, full, round style, every letter like print, not even a comma missing in letters of the greatest length. Using the simplest Saxon, he always said much in little--a duty of every writer of everything." The only specification of Lane's illiteracy was that he \"spelled god with a little 'g.' "
The Carolina Mountaineer, Morganton, North Carolina, August 18, 1883, page 3


    ROSS-LANE WEDDING.--Lewis G. Ross, of Jacksonville, son of Col. John E. Ross, was married on the 18th to Miss Ida Lane, daughter of Joseph Lane, of Lakeview, and granddaughter of Gen. Joseph Lane. The bride has many friends in this county, where she formerly lived, who extend to her and her husband their best wishes for a long life full of unalloyed happiness.
Roseburg Review, May 29, 1885, page 3


    . . . Lane was one of the most popular men, if not the most popular, who ever inhabited Oregon. The people were impressible, and Lane knew them all and could tell a lot of good stories. Some of his narratives were cunning fabrications made to fit the occasion. In the art of flattery for political effect he could have had no peer. In short, he was exactly adapted to achieve office among a rude frontier people. This tells how he captured the good will of two ladies:
    Traveling through Douglas County, while stumping the state in 1855, he sought accommodation for the night at a house inhabited by a simple but hospitable woman, who placed before the gallant gentleman a dish of baked beans as the piece de resistance of the supper. After partaking of them, the visitors said insinuatingly: "My very dear friend and madam, would you be so very obliging as to give me, if you please, a cupful of your uncooked beans? I have never, never seen or tasted any so good, and I shall take it as a very great favor if you will so oblige me, for I am very desirous that my wife shall next year be able to cook beans as good as yours." He got his beans, and at the next halting-place regaled another and equally impressible female with this delicious flattery: "My dear madam, it does my heart good to see you! I have been in Washington City representing the good people of this Territory in the halls of Congress. But although I was kept exceedingly busy in attending to the welfare of my people and in making laws for them, I did not, my dear madam, forget you! To show you that I remembered you when in the midst of the gay capital, I will tell you that I dined, just before leaving Washington, with the President of the nation. We had a grand dinner at the White House, and among other things we had beans. I said to the President's wife: 'Dear madam, I have a friend in Oregon who is a notable cook. I would like to beg for her a few of your beans, for I know she loves beans.' She said yes, and she gave me these beans, madam, which I hope you will plant and raise a crop, and give me a few when I come this way again." And hereupon the gay old deceiver pulls out and presents the identical package of beans he had sponged from the other lady!
    Such tactics, such play upon the credence of inexperienced people, had their reward. The hero of Huamantla was elected in June by a vote of 6178 to 8943. Lane had majorities in all the counties save two, Columbia and Washington, where the Know-Nothing element was strongest. Such was the elation of the Democracy that their papers immediately began to speak of Lane as a likely candidate for the Presidency, to succeed Pierce.
"Early Oregon" Notes of the Days of Pioneer Webfoot Journalism," Oregonian, Portland, November 22, 1885, page 3

Editor of the Evansville Journal:
    The St. Louis Globe of a late date has an article quoted from that most variable and unreliable journal, the New York Graphic, which does gross injustice to the memory of one of the purest, noblest and most useful men whom the state of Indiana in her semi-infancy, nay the nation in the palmiest days of the Republic, produced. He was a man among the giants in intellect of that early day who seemed sprung from the land off whose bosom, by the hardy strokes of their sun-browned hands, the mighty forests which sheltered the native wild beast, and amid which the prowling savage awaited and crept upon his victim, were made to fall and give place to happy homes and bountiful harvests, the very incense of which seems to burden the air to heaven. Over the obscure and unmarked graves of these early settlers the wildflowers bloom and spread their fragrance year by year and mingled their dust with those who first adorned the earth from which they sprung.
    To us it now would seem that the mold in which these men were made had long been broken, and that "justice hath fled to brutish beasts and men have lost their reason." The article in question is entitled "The last of the men who in 1860 were candidates on the national ticket," and speaks of General Joe Lane in these terms:
    "Joseph Lane, of Oregon, who in the fighting days of the Mexican War was the idol of the Northwest, and Governor, member of Congress, and Senator from the new state, saw his political future forever clouded when he and Breckinridge met their great defeat. He died in obscurity and poverty about two years after Breckinridge had been carried to the grave."
    The name and deeds of Gen. Lane are especially sacred to the older portion of your county and Warrick, and to such the above article is indeed painful, knowing as they do that among them he dwelt from his earliest manhood, in positions of honor and trust, until he saw about him a large family of married and single children, for whom his strongest desire was to provide well.
    Fresh from the bloody war of Mexico, where on many fields he led the bravest of the brave, born on your soil, and few if any now live to speak his valor, or recite the story which gave to our nation an empire grander than all earthly abodes or adorned by the career of man. Battle-scarred, yet full of hope and buoyed by the fires of patriotism, when beyond the borders of your state, all nature was undisturbed, and across the boundless prairies, now a network of railways and mighty cities, with farms and fields producing enough to feed the world; across this and far beyond, nearly in sound of the Pacific Ocean, his vision beheld for himself and his a home of peace and prosperity, and there he resolved to live and die.
    His will was indomitable; to think was to act, and calling about him his hardy sons and sons-in-law, preparing his wife and young children, collecting his stock and his work cattle, as did Joseph's brethren of old, when moving into the land of plenty, in early spring, 1854, did this dauntless man set about his journey of 3,200 miles. Not in palace coach or gilded rail car, but by land and on wagons at a journey of not more than twenty miles each day. How appalling at this time of steam power on land and water this picture is here presented. With no marked line or roads, but guided by the stars and the genius of his nature, through countless herds of buffalo, deer and elk, surrounded on every turn by hostile tribes of savages, with whom he often fought, penetrating forests, and crossing streams where the foot of the white man had never stood, with his eagle eye guiding and directing every movement of his people sustained by his confidence in God and the rectitude of his judgment, this patriarch of this land slowly took his solitary way. After near six months' journey he and his arrived at the point of destination, Umpqua Valley, Oregon, distant from Portland 200 miles, and the very center of an almost illimitable wilderness. Here, after many weary days of toil, he rested; no, he did not rest, but at once set about carving out and laying the foundation of those elegant homes, wide-spreading pastures and beautiful fields now owned and enjoyed by his children and his children's children.
    Appointed Governor of the then Territory by President Pierce, he left his sons to carry out his plans of improvement, and called about a band of hardy frontiersmen for the suppression of the hostile Indians. Here again was a wide field for the exercise of a native military ability with which few men are endowed, and which he so wonderfully displayed when he and his brave followers dashed after the foe, through forests dark and dangerous, and across rivers rapid and deep, over mountains of snow, in winter or summer, he knew no halt until the fleeing savage called out for peace, and the settler with his wife and children lived and slept in security. His campaign against the Rogue River Indians has no parallel in border warfare, but they were conquered, and as an earnest of peace the chief presented General Lane with a mute Indian boy then about twelve years of age, the only mute Indian ever known. How well the General appreciated the gift is shown in the accompanying letter, and the fact that he named him John, in token of his love for the late Hon. John H. Stanley, my father-in-law, of this county. General Lane was brave to a fault, and several times wounded, yet, to show his courage and knowledge of Indian character, this truthful incident is told of a "pow-wow" or council with the Rogue River Indians, called the "bad Indians," and known as the most powerful and bloody on the Pacific Coast.
    A short time before the powwow one of Lane's scouts had been killed by these Indiana, and one the General's Colt pistols, which he used in Mexico, was taken from his body. At the council the General had but few men, some fifty, whilst the Indians numbered near 300. Lane knew their treacherous designs, and posted his men in ambush so as not to disclose weakness, on one bank of a deep stream whilst the Indians formed in small numbers on the opposite side, requiring their main force to take position some distance in the rear. The chief, with a few braves, stood close to the brink on one side of the stream, and Lane with a few men and an interpreter occupied the other. "Much talk" had passed when Lane noticed his revolver on the chief, one of the most dangerous of his tribe. He spoke to his men and said he would go and get it. They warned him that this would be death, but their words were idle. Breasting the stream, armpit deep, he approached the chief, who started to retreat, at the same time keeping his hand on his tomahawk; but Lane held out his hand in token of peace, when the chief withdrew his hand from the weapon and extended it to Lane, who, as if in the act of shaking hands, snatched his pistol from the belt of the Indian and instantly had it pointed at his head and at the same moment Lane's men leveled their guns at the now motionless bodyguard. Without a word Lane backed to the stream, holding his weapon straight on the chief, who had not moved, and quickly joined his men. He then told them they should make peace within the week else he would drive them into the ocean. Wildly gesticulating, the chief told Lane he would meet him at the next moon, giving a war whoop, and with his band quickly disappeared in the shadows of the forest. Lane knew this meant war, bloody war, and in a few days he had collected a large force of settlers and set out to find the foe, aided by the boy, John, as scout against the tribe of his captivity. The result was a bloody battle and the near annihilation of the Indians, and their final subjugation. [Most of this paragraph is fiction.]
    Today the Rogue River Valley possesses the the richest, well-cultivated farms and stock ranches, and from its soil, over which in these wars was sprinkled the blood of the native brave red man, and here many of Lane's brave mountaineers gave up their lives for their homes, now among the best and richest fruits of the Pacific Coast, and smile the sweetest grasses and flowers the year round. Through this valley runs the Grand Oregon Central
Railroad from Portland to San Francisco, bearing as the winds of morning upon its wings the sweet messenger of "Peace on earth, good will to man.''
    No, Joseph Lane did not die in "poverty and obscurity,'' but his was the glorious decline of a well-spent life, shedding its halo over future generations of men who read of his trials and sacrifices and enjoy the peace and fatness of that land, to reclaim which from the red man he gave his blood. He was surrounded as he died by his large family of children and grandchildren and hosts of mourning friends, and over his grave was mingled the tears of the people of Oregon, who one and all crowned the deeds of his life with flowers and hung their garlands upon his own--
(For the letter mentioned refer to your files of 1882-3 and find the same addressed "to my wife, dated August 19, 1880.")
Henderson, Ky., March, 1888.
Evansville Daily Journal, Evansville, Indiana, September 9, 1887, page 4


    A JUST TRIBUTE.--Ashland Tidings: Deputy Internal Revenue Collector Barlow, of Gold Hill, and his daughter Miss Nellie left for Spokane the first of last week to visit Mr. Barlow's aged mother, who is seriously ill at the home of her daughter at that place. Mrs. Barlow is the oldest daughter of the late Gen. Joseph Lane. She came with her husband to Oregon in 1852, at the time Gen. Lane removed his family to this state. The Barlow family settled in Siuslaw Valley in Lane County, where they raised a large family. At the death of Mr. Barlow, which occurred several years ago, Mrs. Barlow gave up housekeeping and since resided with her children, who are all married and living at various points on the Pacific Coast. Mrs. Barlow will be remembered by Oregon pioneers as a most estimable and exemplary woman, and the many all over the state who often shared the hospitality of her pioneer home will extend their deepest sympathy in her sickness, trusting that it "may not be unto death," and that she may be numbered a few years longer with the fast-passing Oregon pioneers.
Daily Eugene Guard, April 10, 1895, page 1


    He had a remarkable ability for recalling faces, and was rarely unable to call a man by name; however, he is remembered to have extended his hand to a Mr. Vineyard and addressed him as "Mr. Grapevine." The man, who was somewhat humorous, replied: "You belittle me, General, I am a whole Vineyard."
Hanna Wollenberg, "General Joseph Lane," Oregon Teachers Monthly, June 1902, page 24


    It is a matter for regret that the landmarks of early Oregon history have not been better preserved. Features whose interest would increase with the years have been suffered to be destroyed through ignorance or indifference. In 1853 there was some trouble with the Rogue River Indians, though the war did not occur until two years later. In 1853 General "Joe" Lane, whose name is inseparably connected with the history of Oregon, made a treaty with the Rogue River Indians on a spot which is now included within the present city limits of Grants Pass. He met the Indians under a black oak tree on Rogue River, just above the "White Rocks." Oldtimers are still able to point out the stump of this tree, but the tree itself has been cut down and sawed into stove wood in these latter years, probably by some man who never heard of Joe Lane.
Democratic Times, Jacksonville, July 15, 1903, page 1


    During the year 1904 I was the editor of the Daily Statesman, and each Sunday morning I would reprint extracts from the Statesman just fifty years before. It proved a very interesting department, not only to the old-timers, but to the newer residents, who marveled at the nature of the political contests of long ago. To "dig up" this stuff for the Sunday paper proved a very fascinating pastime each Saturday afternoon. One day I ran across an article which roasted General Joseph Lane to a finish, the latter distinguished gentleman and Mr. Bush, though both were Democrats, having broken their political friendship because of their difference of opinion on the slavery question [That is not at all clear.], the bad feeling being accentuated, to be sure, by the natural action of local strifes and ambitions through a period of ten years' scrapping. Lane had written a letter which had greatly displeased Mr. Bush, and as the old General had a confirmed habit of showing his utter indifference to the rules laid down by the man who had invented spelling [Lane's spelling was excellent], the brilliant and ebullient editor not only applied his battery of ridicule to the subject matter of the Lane letter, but printed it with its original arrangement of the alphabet unchanged. It made "mighty interestin' reading," and I reprinted an extract from it of such liberal dimensions that its encroachment upon "valuable space" was entirely ignored.
    The next day I met Mr. Bush in front of his bank and he accosted me with a frown which seldom accompanies an inward feeling of hilarity.
    "Say," he remarked, "why do you reprint those extracts from the Statesman so long ago that most people have forgotten the matters they tell about?"
    "Why not?" I inquired. "Important history was being made in those days, and people living now are glad to know how it was made and who the chief actors were."
    "Yes," he replied, "but that extract you published yesterday about Jo. Lane should not have been reproduced. Lane was a pretty good man, after all, and we were living in exciting times and many things were said that it would have been just as well to have [been] left unuttered."
    "No doubt," I said, "but the same may be said of most men who have figured in the history of most countries. It is likely that Blaine, in after years, would have been glad to suppress the ebullition of satire he fired at Conkling while they were both members of the lower House of Congress, but the history of the United States would be crippled in one of its most important chapters if it failed to give the fullest details of that red-hot verbal engagement between two of the most renowned forensic gladiators America has ever known."
    But this didn't satisfy Mr. Bush--he never surrenders an opinion nor has he ever been known to acknowledge a conversion. His reply was:
    "Yes, but Lane has many descendants living now in all parts of Oregon, and the publication of these things will make them mad--they won't like it."
    "That may be," I insisted, "but there is a bare possibility that General Lane and his relatives didn't approve of the articles at the time you first printed them, and certainly they cared more about the matter and were entitled to more consideration at that time than his descendants are now."
    To this Mr. Bush replied that they all, perhaps, went too far in the excitement of the campaign, when everybody was striving for the ascendancy in the new territory, and that he was "younger then than now." The fact was that in after years, when they were both old men and had permanently retired from the activities of public life, Bush and Lane renewed their earlier friendship and often laughed at the bitterness which characterized the contests in which they had engaged.
    General Lane, of whom more will be said in this volume later, was twenty-two years older than Mr. Bush and died in 1881, aged eighty years. But the veteran editor and banker still lives in Salem at the advanced age of eighty-eight years, attends to his office business every day, maintains his cheerful disposition, takes a deep interest in current events, has but little use for many of the modern innovations in the forms of government, and quite recently remarked that, after all, in his opinion, the people of Oregon were fully as well governed when the "Salem Clique" was in the saddle as now. Mr. Bush is a very cultured gentleman of the old school. He still wears the tall standing collar of the old-time gentlemen of antebellum days, and has worn precisely the same style of hat for forty years without change--always new and becoming, totally unlike that ever worn by any other man, since no other man has been able to discover where it is obtained. He has the respect of all the people of this region, and his name will remain among the first on the remarkable list of brave and ambitious men who managed the public affairs of Oregon during the formative period of its existence, in the decade immediately preceding the Civil War. He was a Douglas Democrat, upheld the cause of the Union during the Rebellion, and was seriously considered by President Cleveland, at the time of his second inauguration, as a proper man to appoint Secretary of the Treasury.
Theodore Thurston Geer, Fifty Years in Oregon, 1912, pages 82-84


    At the Oregon Historical Society among the books relating to our early history as a state are the original records of all the orders issued to and by General Joseph Lane, grandfather of Senator Harry Lane, during the Mexican War. In looking over the faded writing of the court martial records one secures an excellent idea of the strictness of military discipline in those days. Here, for example, is what happen to Nelson Hart of General Lane's Indiana regiment for selling his boots to a Mexican:
    "It is the order of this court that he be fined $6 and made to carry a 40-pound sack of sand from relief to retreat for six days."
    It was also ordered that George Munson for being drunk on duty should forfeit his pay for three months and wear an iron collar weighing 14 pounds for three months. For certain minor offenses some of the soldiers were sentenced to ride a wooden horse for three days and to be paraded each day on the wooden horse before the regiment. William Donovan, a Texas ranger, was sentenced to wear a placard marked "Shirking Duty" for ten days and to carry a 40-pound bag of sand for the same period. At considerable length the case of William Lucas is set forth as follows:
    "Specifications: In this, that the said Private William Lucas on or about October 16, 1847, did say to Lieutenant Fitzgerald, officer of the day, in the presence of the guard and the prisoners: 'All the officers of this command are cowards, for when an attack from the Mexican lancers was expected they hid behind the bushes and told the soldiers to go ahead.' The charge against William Lucas is utter worthlessness, and the additional specifications are: The said William Lucas, by his conduct and failure to discharge the duties of a soldier of the United States army, is utterly worthless, and the court does therefore sentence Private William Lucas to be transported to the Castle of San Juan de Ulloa, there to be kept at hard labor with a chain and ball weighing 24 pounds attached to his legs during the period of his enlistment and at the expiration of his enlistment he is to have his head shaved and be drummed out of the service and forfeit all right to bounty and pension."
    An order dated "Headquarters of the army, City of Mexico, September 21, 1847, general orders No. 294," reads as follows:
    "Before this court was tried Sergeant James Bannan, Company G, Fifth Infantry, charged with mutinous conduct and drunkenness on guard. Plea: Not guilty. Sentence: The court finds the prisoner guilty as charged and sentences him to be shot to death, two-thirds of the court concurring therein."
    Here is another:
        "General orders No. 283. Headquarters of the Army, Tacubaya, September 10, 1847.--Proceedings of general court martial, of which Brevet Colonel Garland, Fourth Infantry, is president. Before the said court were severally tried and convicted in due form upon charges of desertion the following named 36 prisoners. The court sentences each to be hung by the neck till he be dead."
    Before the same court Martin Miles of Company A, Eighth Infantry, and Abraham Fitzpatrick of the same company and regiment were duly tried and convicted of desertion, and the court sentences them to be shot to death. Before the same court were duly tried and convicted of desertion the following prisoners: James Kelly, Company C, Third Infantry; John Murphy, Company C, Eighth Infantry; John Little, Company C, Second Dragoons. The court sentences each of the above "to receive 50 lashes well laid on with a rawhide on his bare back, to forfeit all pay and allowances, to be indelibly marked (with hot iron) on right hip with the letter 'D' two inches in length, to wear an iron yoke weighing eight pounds with three prongs each one foot long around his neck while the army remains in Mexico, to be confined at hard labor, and when the army leaves Mexico to have his head shaved and be drummed out of the service."
    On account of extraordinary circumstances the sentences of some of the men were changed from "being hung till dead' to "being shot to death." John Daly also received mercy as the following order shows: "On account of mitigating circumstances in the case of John Daly of the rifle regiment, sentence of death is commuted to the following: To receive 50 lashes well laid on with a rawhide whip, to be branded on the cheek with the letter 'D' and to be drummed out of the service. By command of Major General Scott. H. L. Scott, A.A.A. General [Acting Assistant Adjutant General]."
    It is quite evident that in the days of our first Mexican War they didn't believe in moral suasion.
Oregon Journal, Portland, May 24, 1914, page B4


    General Joseph Lane, Oregon's first territorial governor, succeeded Governor George Abernethy, the provisional governor. President Polk, knowing that Oregon was to be admitted as a territory shortly, used every effort to have it admitted as a territory before his term as President expired. He picked out Joseph Lane of Indiana for governor, Kintzing Pritchett of Pennsylvania for secretary, William T. Bryant of Indiana as chief justice, Peter H. Burnett of Oregon and James Turney of Illinois as associate justices, I. W. B. Bromley of New York as federal attorney, Joseph L. Meek of Oregon as marshal, T. Adair of Kentucky as collector of customs. Peter Burnett was more interested in California gold fields than in being associate justice, so he declined the appointment, and William Strong of Ohio was given the place. Isaac Bromley also declined and Amory Holbrook of New York was given his place.
    General Lane was born in North Carolina on December 14, 1801. He was brought up in Kentucky, and when 19 years old he was married, moving to Indiana the same year. At the breaking out of the Mexican War, he helped raise a company of volunteers in Indiana. He was chosen captain, later promoted to colonel; was wounded in one of the battles, and for his gallantry and ability was made brigadier general.
    He received his commission as governor of Oregon on August 18, 1848. With Joseph L. Meek he at once started for Oregon, and after many hardships and the desertion of practically all of his military escort, who went to the gold fields of California, he reached Oregon on March 3, 1849, one day before the expiration of President Polk's term of office.
    The census which he took shortly after arriving in Oregon showed that he was governor over 8785 Americans and 290 foreigners. Learning that President Zachary Taylor had appointed Major John P. Gaines as governor of Oregon, General Lane resigned, his resignation taking effect on June 18, 1850. He at once went to the California gold fields. On June 2, 1851, General Lane was elected Oregon's delegate to Congress. On May 16, 1853, he was appointed governor of Oregon by President Franklin Pierce. He qualified as governor and served three days, being asked by the Democratic Party in Oregon to run as candidate for delegate to Congress. He resigned his governorship after three days and was elected to Congress on June 6, 1853. Before going to Washington to assume the duties of delegate to Congress, he went as brigadier general of Oregon's volunteer forces to Southern Oregon to settle the Indian troubles. General Lane was reelected to Congress in 1855 and 1857. On July 8, 1858, General Lane was elected as one of Oregon's first United States Senators. He took his seat in the United States Senate on February 14, 1859. In 1860, while still United States Senator from Oregon, he was nominated for Vice President of the United States on the Democratic ticket, John C. Breckinridge being the Democratic nominee for President. He died in April 1881, at the age of 80 years, having served Oregon faithfully and well in many capacities.
Oregon Journal, Portland, November 19, 1914, page 8


    Mrs. L. F. Mosher of 314 Sherman Street is one of two surviving children of General Joseph Lane, Oregon's first territorial governor. "My father, Joseph Lane, was born on December 14, 1801 in Buncombe County, North Carolina," said Mrs. Mosher. "He learned his letters from the old family Bible. His grandmother, Winifred Aycock, who was an educated English woman, gave him his first knowledge of letters. He never had but four months' schooling. He had to walk four miles to school through the cane brake. It was a private subscription school. As Father had to build the fire and sweep the schoolhouse, he had to start for school at daybreak. He swept with a broom made of split splints.
    "By the time he was 17 years of age, he was deputy clerk of the court under Nathaniel Hart. Nathaniel Hart had married a Lane, and so was a relative of my father's. When my father was 19 years old, he married a young widow, who was also 19. Her maiden name was Polly Pier, and she had married one of the Hart boys, who had died within a year of their marriage. My mother was born in Kentucky.
    "Before my father was 21 years of age he was elected to the Indiana legislature, and he served continuously in the legislature for the next 22 years. My father and mother had 10 children. All of us grew up, all have married and all of us have had children. Their first child was born when my father and mother were 20 years old. They named her Melissa. She afterward married Mr. Barlow. Their next child was Nathaniel Hart Lane. He was well known by all old pioneers in Oregon. My nephew, Dr. Harry Lane, now United States Senator, is his son. Ratcliff Boon Lane was their next child. Then came Joseph Samuel Lane. Their next child was a girl, who was named Mary Virginia. The next child was named Simon Robert, and he and I are the only two children still alive. My brother John, or to give him his proper title, Colonel John Lane, died last Christmas near Lapwai, Idaho. He was colonel of artillery in the Confederate service, going from Oregon to serve under General Robert E. Lee. Sarah Emily Lane was the next child, and then came John. I was the next child. They named me Winifred, which is an old family name. Their last child was named Lafayette. As you know, he was a member of Congress from Oregon. I was born on January 21, 1840.
    "My father moved from Kentucky to Indiana when he was 4 years old. All of us children were born in Indiana, just across the Ohio River from Kentucky. Living on the Ohio River, my father became an expert riverman. He and two of his boys eventually became river pilots. All of our produce was taken by flatboat to New Orleans by Father or the older boys. They marketed their live hogs, live cattle, corn and dressed hogs in New Orleans. New Orleans always seems like home to me, for we spent many of our winters there. Father also ran a woodyard on the river, supplying river steamers with wood. The wood was stacked on a flatboat, and the up-river steamers would hitch onto the flatboat, tow it along, and load from the flatboat to the steamer to prevent delay. The flatboat would then be released and it would float down to the woodyard. Seeing the profit there was in the business, Father and another man put $50,000 in a steamboat. The boat made two trips and blew up. In those days people didn't insure things as they do today, so Father lost all the money he put in.
    "The first thing I remember distinctly was the election of President Polk. Father was a good public speaker, and often spoke. Everyone was talking then of "54-40 or fight." The first speech of my father's that I remember was the one he made at the opening of the Evansville & Terre Haute railroad. They had a big barbecue and we went to the celebration in a hack. There were only a few miles of railroad built. The coaches were small, the roadbed was rough and the engine was a little old-fashioned engine with a very large smokestack. We took a ride of a few miles on the railroad. That was my first ride on a railroad. In Father's speech, I remember he talked about the wonderful country beyond the Rockies, Oregon.
    "As a girl, I went to a subscription school near our home. Later I went to Washington City, where I attended school. I remember distinctly when my father came home from the Mexican War. He had been wounded by a musket ball through his shoulder. All of the time he was home there was a constant succession of serenades and receptions given to him. My father enlisted as a private for the Mexican War in Captain Walker's company. The men in the regiment elected him colonel without his having solicited the honor. He was soon appointed brigadier general. Two weeks later he had his brigade ready for service on the Brazos. My father had charge of the left wing of the battle of Buena Vista on February 23, 1847. The Mexican General Ampudia, with over 4000 Mexican infantry and lancers, attacked the left wing. With my father there were less that 400 men, but they stood off the Mexicans until Jefferson Davis, with his Mississippi regiment, came to their help. Not long thereafter the brigade was ordered to New Orleans to be mustered out."
Oregon Journal, Portland, February 15, 1915, page 6


    "My father was wounded at the battle of Buena Vista," said Mrs. L. F. Mosher of Portland, the daughter of General Joseph Lane, Oregon's first territorial governor. "He came home on a brief furlough. He was soon transferred to General Scott's army. He went to Vera Cruz, and two days later, on September 19, 1847, with a small command he started on a trip through the interior. Within the next two months he had fought seven battles. Towards the middle of November he fought a battle with General Torrejon and General Rea. The Mexicans had been on a raid and had captured a wagon train of 36 wagonloads of goods. My father's command recaptured these and restored them to the merchants at Pueblo and Mexico City. Most of the merchants were British citizens, and in appreciation of my father's action they presented him with a beautiful gold-mounted sword. For the next few months my father operated against the guerrilla bands in Mexico, breaking up or capturing most of the robber bands.
    "He came home to Indiana on August 1, 1848. A few weeks later he was notified he had been appointed governor of Oregon. He received his commission on August 28, and three days later he reported at St. Louis. From there he went to Fort Leavenworth to secure a military escort. He left Fort Leavenworth on September 10, which was very late in the season for crossing the plains. Joe Meek, the newly appointed marshal of Oregon, accompanied him. When they reached the Rio Grande they ran into a snow storm which lasted eight days. From there they traveled south for nearly three weeks, until they reached Santa Cruz, in Sonora. When they reached the Gila seven of the men deserted. They sent two of the men back to capture the deserters, but the deserters waylaid them, killing both of them. A little later five more men, with a corporal, deserted. Eventually what was left of the party reached San Diego. From San Diego they came to San Francisco, where all but one or two of the escort deserted for the mines.
    "At San Francisco they took a small brig, the Jannett, which had been in the East India service. At Astoria my father hired a canoe and hurried on to Oregon City. He reached Oregon City on March 2, 1848. The same day he wrote out his proclamation, took the oath of office and became Oregon's first territorial governor. Two days later President Polk's term expired. President Taylor soon removed my father because Father was a Democrat. My father had not been here but a short time until he started out with Dr. Newell and an interpreter to get the murderers of Dr. Marcus Whitman. He visited the Walla Wallas, the Yakimas, the Columbias, as well as the Indians at The Dalles, and secured the promise of the Indians that they turn over the murderers. The Whitman murderers were soon arrested by the Indians, and word was brought to my father to come and get them. Major Tucker, who was to furnish the troops to go after the Indian murderers, reported that most of his troops had deserted to go to the mines. Enlisting the services of a few citizens, Father pursued the deserters, captured some of them and brought them back. Then with an escort of 10 men he went to the Indian country and brought back the murderers of Dr. Whitman.
    "My father received the notification in 1850 that he had been removed and Major Gaines had been appointed governor in his place. He notified the government at Washington he would turn over the office on June 18 and meanwhile went into Southern Oregon to make a treaty with the warlike Rogue River Indians. Major Gaines did not reach Oregon until late in August, although he drew his pay from the day of his commission, which was dated October 2, 1849. The legislature of the territory of Oregon, through its speaker, A. L. Lovejoy, and the president, Samuel Parker, pasted a resolution of thanks to my father for his services. Part of this resolution read: 'Resolved, That we regret sincerely that the President of the United States had deprived the territory of Oregon of the services of one so eminently useful and whose usefulness was enhanced by the unbounded confidence of the people over whom he was placed.'
    "To show the confidence of the people of Oregon in my father, he was elected a delegate to Congress from Oregon by an almost unanimous vote. The election took place on June 30, 1851. A few days later Father left Oregon City for the mines for a brief trip. Before he had gotten to the mines he was told the Rogue River Indians were murdering the miners and settlers. He at once raised a party of volunteers, joined his forces with that of the regulars in Major Kearny's company, who happened to be coming north from California to Fort Vancouver [Kearny was going south from Vancouver], and together they fought a battle with the Indians, killing some and taking many prisoners. Major Kearny asked my father to take charge of the Indian prisoners and take them to the Willamette Valley. [In Northern California Lane convinced Kearny to release the prisoners to him; Lane escorted them back to the Rogue Valley.]
    "My father reached Oregon City on July 22, where he was given a reception before leaving for Washington, D.C. At Oregon City he took a boat named Willamette to Astoria, where be sailed for Panama on a ship called the Oregon. From Panama he went to Havana, thence to New Orleans, then up the river to our home on the Ohio River. From there we went to Washington, D.C., and in the spring of 1853 we started for Oregon. Most of the traveling was done in those days by steam, so we took a train over the Alleghenies. In those days there was no tunnel through the Alleghenies, and the track wound back and forth in a horseshoe curve to get over the mountain. We left Washington City on March 19, 1853, and we reached New Orleans on April 1. We stayed there for a week. We crossed the Isthmus on May 2 and reached Oregon City on May 14, 1853."
Oregon Journal, Portland, February 16, 1915, page 6


    "We started from Washington, D.C., for Oregon, March 19, 1853," said Mrs. L. F. Mosher of Portland a day or two ago in telling of the trip of her father, General Joseph Lane, Oregon's first territorial governor, and his family. "After Father had served as governor in 1849 and 1850, he was elected delegate to Congress from Oregon. There were 22 in our party, my father and mother with 10 children and 10 other relatives. Off Graytown, on the Isthmus of Panama, the captain of the man-of-war there invited us all to take dinner on board his warship. I remember it yet as a very enjoyable dinner. On the Pacific side of the Isthmus there was a dispute between the natives and the white men, and it looked for a while as if there was going to be trouble. Our party was left to the last and the natives refused to take us out and would not let the white men take us. Father signaled to the man-of-war out in the offing and they sent in a longboat manned by bluejackets and took us out to our vessel. With our party there was Captain Lafayette Mosher, who had been a lieutenant with my father in the Mexican War, and who was afterwards promoted to be captain. I was only 13 at that time, but a few years later I became Mrs. Mosher. My husband, Lieutenant Mosher, had worked in the law office of Pugh & Pendleton, in Indiana. Pugh was captain in the company of which my future husband was a lieutenant, so that when Captain Pugh resigned Lieutenant Mosher became captain.
    "We came from Panama to San Francisco on the Sierra Nevada, and from San Francisco to Portland on the Fremont. We reached Portland on May 14, 1853. Victor Trevitt, whose monument is now a prominent landmark on Memaloose Island in the Columbia, with some other well-known citizens, met my father at Portland as we got off the boat, and asked him to run for delegate to Congress. Immediately upon landing at Oregon City my father started his campaign and two weeks later was elected. While my father was campaigning my mother and we children stayed in Oregon City. Supreme Judge O. C. Pratt lived in Linn City, just across from Oregon City. He was leaving Oregon and suggested to my mother that she buy his furniture. She bought his upholstered furniture and a long pier-glass.
    "As soon as Father returned from the campaign he arranged to have us go to our ranch in the Umpqua Valley. My brother had built a house for us there. The roads in those days were nothing to brag of, and as we were passing along a cut on the side of a hill the wagon fell over the bluff and broke our furniture into bits, and of course the pier-glass broke into fragments. My mother picked up some of the largest of these to take along. I can remember yet how the squaws who came to see us were delighted when Mother gave them a piece of looking glass about the size of your hand. They would look in the glass, see their faces and with their other hand would feel back of the glass to see what was there. They never could understand how a flat piece of glass would show the whole face and head. They thought there must be something back of the glass.
    "We had only been in our house in the Umpqua Valley a short time when John Fullerton and I. B. Nichols came up from the Cow Creek country to get my father to raise some volunteers to go out against the Rogue River Indians. My father at once enlisted a party of volunteers and started south. They had several skirmishes with the Indians in the latter part of August, and at the battle of Evans Creek my father was shot in his shoulder, almost in the same place that he was wounded in during the Mexican War. The Indians asked for a peace talk and Chief Joe, the Indian chief, said he would get the chiefs together and meet my father at Table Rock. My father, with a small party of white men, met the Indians on September 10 at Battle Rock. There were 600 or 700 Indians at the conference, while my father had with him Captain A. J. Smith, Captain L. F. Mosher, Colonel John Ross, Joel Palmer, Captain J. W. Nesmith, afterwards United States Senator, Samuel Culver, Lieutenant A. V. Kautz, J. D. Mason, T. T. Tierney and R. B. Metcalfe. A treaty was arranged at this conference and peace was restored.
    "My father went to Washington as delegate, and Captain Mosher went to Jacksonville to the mines. Through the influence of my father and of Pugh & Pendleton, his old law partners, Captain Mosher was appointed register of the land office at Winchester. Later the land office was moved to Roseburg. He held this office until the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860. At Winchester he moved next door to us. We saw a good deal of each other, and on July 1, 1856, we were married. We were married by Father Wilbur, one of the old-time missionary preachers that everyone loved. We had a big wedding and everyone at Winchester and in the Umpqua Valley attended. We had a banquet consisting of chicken, ham, deer meat, salads and champagne for everyone. My husband did not belong to any church. Neither did I. Two of my sisters belonged to the Presbyterian Church. My oldest sister belonged to the Baptist Church. The rest of the family were sort of free and easy, attending any church that was handy. One of my sisters later became an Episcopalian. My husband knew very little of churches, but while living in Mexico had seen a good deal of the Catholic Church. While in Roseburg attending court in 1859, he met Archbishop Blanchet and his assistant. Archbishop Blanchet talked with my husband and said that now he was married and had children he should belong to some church. The particular church did not matter much to my husband, so he consented. He wrote me a note asking me to have our two children ready to be baptized next morning. I had never seen a Catholic priest that I knew of. My little boy, Charles Lane Mosher, was 20 months old, and his sister, Margaret, two months old. Next morning Archbishop Blanchet and his assistant came to Winchester and baptized my two children. About a year later my husband and myself were baptized and were married according to the rites of the Catholic Church. We were married on our place, White Oak Farm, in West Roseburg. I have had eight children, four boys and four girls. My daughter Winifred, who is a teacher in the Shattuck school, is named after me. My husband practiced law from 1861 to his death on March 22, 1890. My father died on the evening of April 19, 1881, at Roseburg."
Oregon Journal, Portland, February 17, 1915, page 4


    "When my father, General Joseph Lane, Oregon's first territorial governor, came back from Washington, where he had been a delegate from Oregon in 1853, we came with him," said Mrs. L. F. Mosher [Winifred M. Lane Mosher] of this city. "We arrived at Oregon City on May 14, 1853. I was a little over 13 years old at the time. I was married three years later to Captain L. F. Mosher, who had been my father's aide in the Mexican War and who had also served with him in the Rogue River war, being wounded not far from Jacksonville. Yes, 16 years seems young to be married, but it was not considered so in those days. I received my first proposal when I was 13 years and two months old. I was in New Orleans and Mr. Dean proposed to me. I had been in Oregon but a few months when a young man who had known me in Indiana came clear out to Oregon to marry me. He was a mighty nice young fellow and my father and mother liked him, but I was only 13½ years old and they told him I was too young. He came to our home in the Umpqua Valley and went away disconsolate. We put him up a nice lunch of fried chicken and other things for his stage ride to Portland, wrapping the lunch in a freshly ironed handkerchief. After he got home he wrote me he would always save this handkerchief on account of his love for its original owner. My sisters always thought that was a good joke, for it was my sister's handkerchief, not mine.
    "Possibly because my father was so prominent in politics, or possibly because girls were scarce, or it is barely possible it was because I was considered rather an attractive young girl, or it may have been for all three of these reasons, in any event before I was married I had had more than a dozen proposals. When I was nearly 16 years old, I became engaged to a wonderfully attractive young man from Southern Oregon. Captain L. F. Mosher, who had come from our home in Indiana and who had recently been appointed register of the land office at Winchester, moved next door to us. He suddenly discovered that the little girl he had known had grown up to be a young woman and laid siege to my heart like the very impetuous soldier he was. I found that I cared for him more than the young man I was engaged to [Robert B. Metcalfe], so I broke the engagement. My former lover blamed Captain Mosher for my action for breaking the engagement and challenged him to a duel. They met at the foot of a butte near Winchester, but their seconds were able to adjust the matter, so the duel did not take place. The young man to whom I had been engaged left Oregon and I saw a notice of his death recently in a Kentucky paper. He died worth more than a million dollars. [See Mosher's letters of June 11 and August 4, 1856, and Metcalfe's letter of August 8.]
    "My father was the last of the generals of the Mexican War to die. Scott and Taylor, Worth and Wool, Butler and Kearny, Patterson, Pillow and Pierce, Cushing and Cadwalader, Shields and Whitman, all of whom were generals in the Mexican War, answered the summons before my father.
    "The breaking out of the Civil War broke many lifelong friendships in Oregon. My brother left Oregon, went South and became a colonel in the Confederate army. My father's sympathies were with the South, which alienated many of his friends. After the war many of his old friendships were resumed. He and Colonel J. W. Nesmith had long been friends, but they were estranged during the war. Before my father died he wrote to Colonel Nesmith asking him to say a few words at his funeral when it came time for him to pass over to the other side. Judge Mathew P. Deady, another of his lifelong friends, in writing of the meeting of General Scott and my father in San Francisco in 1859, at the time that General Scott was on his way to Oregon to settle a controversy over San Juan Island, which threatened war between Great Britain and the United States, and while my father was on his way to Washington, D.C., as a Senator from Oregon, said: 'As General Lane stepped towards General Scott, Scott arose and said, "How are you, my old friend and fellow soldier?" Lane responded, "General, my career as a soldier was a brief one, but I had the honor of serving under one of the greatest generals of the age."'"
    "After he had served as the first territorial governor of Oregon, my father went to Northern California, where he worked in the mines. In 1851 he was elected a delegate to Congress. In 1853, while leading a charge against the Rogue River Indians, he was shot through the shoulder.
    "Some years ago a relative of mine ran across, in a curio shop in Salt Lake City, one of the old Breckinridge and Lane medals. On one side of the medal is a portrait of Breckinridge, while on the other side in a most excellent portrait of my father. It was gotten out at the time Breckinridge and Lane were running for President and Vice President of the United States in 1860. The Democratic Party was divided and Lincoln was elected. My father never again ran for public office. He lived on our farm near Roseburg until his death on April 19, 1881. He was always very active, both physically and mentally. He directed the operations of the farm and spent much of his time in reading history and keeping abreast of the questions of the day after his retirement from political life."
Oregon Journal, Portland, February 18, 1915, page 6


    Dr. Harry Lane, United States Senator from Oregon, comes by his political aspirations honestly. If you will trace the records of the Lane family you will find that wherever they have been they are serving as governors, generals, senators or at the head of affairs. Senator Lane's grandfather was Oregon's first territorial governor. He was also Oregon's delegate to Congress and United States Senator from Oregon and was the Democratic candidate for Vice President when Breckinridge and Lane ran against Lincoln in 1860. General Lane's daughter, Mrs. L. F. Mosher, of this city, talks very entertainingly of Oregon's early days and of the part taken by her father in Oregon history.
    General Lane had a wide acquaintance with the prominent men, not only of Oregon but of the whole country. Among his personal friends were Calhoun, Clay, Webster, Marcy, Douglas, Seward, Chase and Buchanan. Harriet Lane, the mistress of the White House during Buchanan's administration, was General Lane's cousin. As a boy he knew General Jackson and greatly admired him. In talking to the pioneers or in reading reminiscences of many of Oregon's great men one is struck by the fact that General Lane was universally admired. United States Senator Nesmith, who met General Lane in San Francisco in February, 1849, and who was his fellow passenger on board the former East India brig Jannett, in speaking of General Lane, says: "I served under his command in the Rogue River campaign in 1853. In 1849 we explored together the Siletz and Yaquina Bay country. I believe we were the first white men to cross out over the bar at Yaquina. We made the trip in an Indian canoe and sounded the channel to the sea. In all the exalted positions that General Lane occupied he never forgot his origin as one of the toiling people. The humblest farmer or mechanic always found in him a sympathetic friend. He led a life of remarkable abstemiousness and frugality, coupled with incessant industry. He was generous to a fault.
    "When the government sent out a paymaster with funds to pay us for our services in the Rogue River and [Yakima] Indian wars he signed the payroll and directed that his pay should be turned over to the destitute orphan children whose parents had been killed in the Boise massacre. He was gallant, chivalrous and modest. These were his inherent qualities which the rough garb of the farmer, miner, hunter, Indian fighter or the gold epaulets and uniform of the general or the habiliments of the governor or senator could never change. In danger or in battle he was cool and alert. I do not think he knew what fear was. I speak of his dauntless courage by the light of the experience I had in standing by his side under the shadow of Table Rock in September, 1853, when our little party of 11 men, unarmed, and General Lane, badly wounded, were surrounded by 700 hostile and well-armed Indians, who threatened our lives in retaliation for the death of one of their tribe. But for the coolness and defiant courage of our commander, General Lane, I believe our little party would have furnished another illustration of the barbaric instinct of the Indians for the treacherous shedding of blood."
    Judge Matthew P. Deady, in speaking of his friend General Lane, says: "On Sunday, September 10, 1853, I was present when the white chief General Joseph Lane and the Indian chief Joseph, the former with his arm in a sling and the latter in a blanket or toga that would have done honor to a Roman senator, met on the side of the mountain near Table Rock, in the presence of hundreds of Indians and of a few white men and agreed on terms of a treaty of peace. General Lane lived honestly and died poor. He was a man of more than ordinary ability. Generous, affable, brave, gallant and [a] lover of women, a friend of the helpless, we shall not soon look upon his like again."
Oregon Journal, Portland, February 20, 1915, page 4




    The following message from Governor Patterson was read by Mrs. J. H. Cochran, past regent of the local chapter, D.A.R., at the unveiling of a marker near Table Rock last Thursday:
    "Since I cannot be among those who assemble to observe the 75th anniversary of the signing [of the] pact at Table Rock on September 10, 1853, I want to take this means of paying a brief tribute to the fearless warrior and able statesman whose portrait hangs on the wall of my office in the state capitol.
    "To General Lane belongs great credit for the successful council, which brought about a peace between the white men and the Indians which the Rogue River tribes, proper, faithfully observed. His bravery in walking, unarmed, unto the midst of seven hundred warriors in full regalia won a savage admiration from the Indians, who knew from experience that his word could be trusted. When, during the council, rumor came that white men had broken faith by murdering an Indian, it was General Lane's coolheaded courage which saved the day and averted a massacre. In his own words he summarized the policy which made him so successful in his dealings with the Indians: 'We had been at all times ready to fight them, and to faithfully keep and maintain our good faith with them. We never once on any occasion lied to them.'
    "General Lane possessed an iron will, absolute courage, fearless honesty, a keen intelligence and tireless energy. These were the qualities, together with soldierly ability of a high order, which won him renown in the Mexican War, where he enlisted in the ranks and attained the position of brevet major general. As Territorial Governor, delegate to Congress and United States Senator he made an invaluable contribution to the welfare and upbuilding of Oregon, and by his exceptional ability and integrity won for himself a national reputation as a statesman. With all the honors he achieved, he retained a genial, warmhearted sympathy which made him the good friend of the humblest citizen. He was generous at the cost of his own interests. Every cent of his pay for service in the Rogue River was sent to destitute orphans who had lost their parents in Indian massacres. He worked zealously, loyally and effectively for Oregon, and his descendants have carried on his high tradition of service to the state.
    "Senator James W. Nesmith, who delivered the funeral oration following General Lane's death in 1881, pronounced this tribute: 'In his association with the world he was always the gallant, chivalrous, polite and modest gentleman. Those were inherent qualities which the rough garb of the farmer, miner, hunter and frontier Indian fighter, or the gold-bedizened epaulets and uniform of the general, or the habiliments of the governor or the senator, could never change.'
    "For his indomitable courage, his tireless devotion to the public good, his integrity and generosity, and his outstanding services as a statesman, Oregon owes the highest honor to the memory of her first Territorial Governor, General Joseph Lane."
Medford Mail Tribune, September 30, 1928, page 5


    She used to sit on Joseph Lane's lap many years ago when she was a little girl living in Lane County. She often tried to pick the brown mole, one of his best-known identification marks, off the ear of the state's first governor, because she thought it was a tick--Mrs. S. E. Inlow, Oregon pioneer, who celebrated her 78th birthday in Medford Sunday, told a group of local friends in the Mail Tribune office yesterday, as she fingered the yellowed pages of an Oregon history, published in 1884.
"Mrs. Inlow, Local Pioneer," Medford Mail Tribune, August 28, 1930, page 10


    The hero of the Mexican war and the idol of Oregon in her territorial days (General Joseph Lane) was, from the time he left the seclusion of his farm home above Roseburg to spend his last days with his children in that city, a conspicuous figure on the streets of Douglas County's shire town.
    The writer remembers meeting him often around the store of J. C. Floed & Co., then the leading merchants of Roseburg. Mrs. Floed was a daughter of General Lane, and Fred Floed, known well in Salem in the eighties, was a grandson. The general's son, Lafayette Lane, who represented Oregon in the lower house of Congress from '75 to '77, was then living with his family in Roseburg. Father Lane, leading Catholic priest of Oregon, is a grandson of the general, son of Lafayette.
    In those days of the late seventies and first eighties, the hatreds of Civil War times had softened or disappeared, and Roseburg residents were proud of their most distinguished citizen. The principal address at the funeral of General Lane was made by James W. Nesmith, his great friend of his first years in Oregon, and his bitter enemy in the closing period of political strife. It was a sincere tribute of rekindled love and respect.
    John Lane, son of General Lane, left West Point to become a colonel in the Confederate army. The place at West Point left vacant by John Lane was filled by Volney Smith, son of Delazon Smith, Democratic war horse of Oregon's territorial days, leader in the state constitutional convention, and Oregon's first U.S. Senator, along with Joseph Lane. Volney Smith failed in his examination, and served as a lieutenant with the Union forces in a New York cavalry regiment.
    In 1860, and in the years preceding, back to 1855, the rumors concerning the great conspiracy for a Pacific Republic received a good deal of attention in the Douglas-Democratic and Republican press of Oregon.
    It was shown by the Statesman that the Senators and Representatives from California, the Senator (Lane) and Representatives from Oregon and the delegate from Washington Territory, representing altogether a little more than a million people, according to a writer in the Oregon Historical Society Quarterly for June, 1916, had held a caucus and resolved to favor disunion and the formation of three separate republics, and that the formation of a Pacific Coast republic was broached and advocated in case of a dissolution of the Union by Senator Latham of California.
    In its issue of December 10, 1860, the Statesman gave fairly complete details of the plan. The Pacific Republic was to be an aristocracy after the model of the ancient republic of Venice, all the power being vested in an hereditary nobility, the chief executive being elected on a very limited suffrage. Slaves were to be procured by inviting coolies, South Sea Islanders and negroes to immigrate to California, and then reducing them to slavery. [The Statesman article of December 10, 1860 repeats the story in the San Francisco Times of an organizational meeting of the Pacific Republic. An article in the Daily Alta California of December 15, 1860 points out that the reported organizers were in different cities at the time. Lane's private correspondence reveals his fatigue, eagerness to retire, and active planning to do so.]
R. J. Hendricks, "Bits for Breakfast," Statesman Journal, Salem, December 3, 1931, page 4


    A story is told of Asahel Bush, who, as an old man, walked grandly about the streets of the city he helped to build, Salem, Oregon. One day he met a brash young reporter from the Salem Statesman, the newspaper Mr. Bush had founded.
    "Were you responsible for that column they call Twenty-five Years Ago Today?" he demanded gruffly.
    The reporter admitted it. "I thought folks here might want to know what was being said back in the beginning of the Civil War."
    Bush thrust out his lower lip, glaring. "You put in a lot of old lies about General Lane. Didn't you remember that he has sons and daughters living who might be hurt by what you printed?"
    "But, Mr. Bush." the reporter answered, "1 only reprinted what you wrote yourself while General Lane was still alive. Didn't it hurt him then more than it hurts his sons and daughters now?"
    Bush was taken aback. "Hum. Ha," he said. "Harrumph. Well, our minds were heated. Maybe we all said more than we meant."
    But the old newspapers have been used as factual records too many times. Lane's sons and daughters protested whenever they could be heard; his grandchildren protested in their turn; and his great-grandchildren have done their best to get the old records set straight. Finally one Nina Lane Faubion, one of the high-spirited Lane women (daughter of Dr. Harry Lane, granddaughter of Nathaniel Lane, great-
granddaughter of General Joseph Lane), determined to write a book and "clear General Lane."
    She searched the public records and went over the thousands of letters on file in the Oregon Historical Society library. She sought out old family letters and gathered all she could from Lane's living descendants. When she had a Gladstone bag full of notes, and her head stuffed with family anecdotes, she began her book.
    Unfortunately, death interrupted her before she had finished the introductory chapters on the Lane ancestry.
"Acknowledgment," Victoria Case, The Quiet Life of Mrs. General Lane, Country Life Press, 1952. See the original telling of this story in Fifty Years in Oregon, above.


    REUNION OF FOUR SISTERS.--Portland Oregonian: On Tuesday last a reunion of the four daughters of General Joseph Lane took place in this city. Mrs. Melissa Barlow, one of the ladies, happened to be in the city on her way from Spokane to visit her son at Gold Hill. It was the anniversary of her birthday, and also the 42nd anniversary of the arrival of General Lane in this state with his five sons and four daughters. At the residence of her sister, Mrs. Winifred Mosher, Mrs. Barlow met her two other sisters, Mrs. Shelby and Mrs. S. E. Floed. One of General Lane's sons, Nat, is dead; the others, Joseph, Simon, John and Lafayette, are living in Southern Oregon.
Eugene Guard, May 21, 1895, page 4


    GOLD HILL, Or., July 16.--Mrs. M. M. Barlow, the eldest daughter of General Joseph Lane, died at the residence of her son, A. J. Barlow, at Gold Hill, at 2:50 o'clock this morning. Mrs. Barlow was born in Vanderburg County, Ind., May 14, 1821. She possessed many of the noble traits that characterized her illustrious father. News of her death will be received with profound sorrow by many pioneers, as well as friends of a later date.
    For a number of years the lady resided in Lane County.
Eugene Guard, July 17, 1895, page 1






Last revised October 28, 2024