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Samuel
Stillman Mann
S. S. Mann
Port
Orford and Coos Bay
San
Francisco
1883
Statement of the
Hon. S. S. Mann, at H. H. Bancroft's library, San Francisco, July 23rd,
1883.
I think that Captain Tichenor was
Collector of the post there at one
time, at Port Orford. Dunbar was Collector. I know he was Collector
quite a time. As to date and details, I find that my memory is failing
me a good deal. I never was very good in remembering dates, details or
anything that you want in that respect unless I had some particular
reason for remembering them. So far as the Indian war was concerned, it
was in a country perhaps 50 or 60 miles away from where I was. I did
not mingle in with it and don't know all the incidents. I did have
connections with it, because I was appointed Quartermaster over the
Oregon volunteers and was at Coos Bay during all this time. I sent on
the supplies and I had assistants at Port Orford. I sent them supplies.
They had a volunteer company at Port Orford and at Coos Bay. General
Kautz, then Lieut., was then at
the time at Port Orford. I think he became a General afterwards, and
Smith was there also. Of course you know that. Ord and Augur were also
there. They commanded the three companies there as Captains. They
became Major Generals. I have met Kautz there and had some little
interest in him. I am quite sure he was promoted during the war and was
called General Kautz some time. James Saunders was the Assistant
Quartermaster at Port Orford. Bledsoe was commander at Rogue River or
Port Orford. He was Captain of a company raised in that region. I don't
remember his first name. Poland is not mentioned in my
pamphlet, and in it I made no allusion to the Indian war at all. In my
letter to you I did. I remember some things very indefinitely. I said
there was some killed in an engagement, I did not know how many. For
that matter, I never went out. The parties who were killed had been out
gathering potatoes, and were surrounded by Indians. Some were killed
and some wounded, and some
reached the fort again. Of course, I could not tell you the details. I
had but very little acquaintance with Ben Wright and knew but very
little of him. I knew nothing of him until after the massacre took
place. I merely heard and knew such a man was there. I have no
knowledge of his personal character. At the time of the massacre at
Modoc Lake Rogue River it was
said--people were very much astonished at
the massacre--It was believed he was on very good terms with the
Indians and had confidence in them. The people were very much surprised
that the Indians should have massacred them, but then this Indian
hostility had commenced with Indian John, Chief John, up in the
interior valleys of the Rogue River, even commenced down at the mouth
of Rogue River. I believe now that they commenced at the mouth of Rogue
River and were extended down up the
valley. I don't know whether John was a Rogue River or Shasta Indian. I
remember Chief John after he
was taken prisoner and being escorted by a company of soldiers. I
remember seeing him at the time. I don't know much about matters down
at Port Orford, but at Coos Bay I do. I know more about that. The
prospects are very flattering just at present. A company has formed
with the expectation of building a [rail]road from Coos Bay to
Roseburg, and
with the further intention of extending it farther east to connect [to
the]
Union Pacific near Boise City. The capital is being raised and property
being purchased by the parties who contemplate building the road. They
have not yet concluded to buy up coal there. They are talking of
purchasing whole properties there. They only made one purchase there of
a town site, and lumber and timber land amounting to about $135,000.00.
That was only a part of their projects and they intend, as I
understand, to buy coal property, in fact, they did negotiate
with a party for the
purchase of coal property that I owned; whether they will do so or not
is yet undecided. They do intend to do something of importance as is
shown by their purchase or expending money in the purchase of property,
and they intend to build the road. That is one part of their scheme,
and their other schemes are only a part of the scheme to build a road.
Our connections have always been with San Francisco, not with Oregon.
We ship lumber and coal to San Francisco, but then a railroad coming
out at Roseburg would make us a part of Oregon; now our connections are
entirely with California. We have depended upon California for food.
Our flour comes from California. They raise some flour in some parts of
the county, but the greater portion comes from California. The farmers
there raise some things, some things we get from here. They raise some
grain, not much. We have fruit there, that is the
ordinary kind of fruit, early fruit comes from here. We have a
great many kinds
of berries and apples, pears and plums. I was a member of the Umpqua
Company. I think Colonel Winchester who was editor of one of the San
Francisco papers was up there. He was not up there much himself.
Winchester, Payne & Co. I think was the company he was
connected
with. Winchester, Payne & Co. were the originators of the
scheme.
Payne was one of the originators, and he went there to live, two or
three years, at Umpqua. I went up there in 1850, on the first vessel
that went there. In the first place, there was an exploring schooner,
the Samuel Roberts,
which went up first and came back and reported the
results of the discoveries, and those who had belonged to the company
went on the next vessel. Governor Gibbs and quite a number of other
parties, I would not volunteer to say how many, probably 30 or more,
went up there as immigrants. I was among them. I could not
tell you what year the light house was destroyed, and there is where I
am at fault. The facts I remember, but the dates I do not. I
resided on the Umpqua until 1856 and then removed to Coos Bay. The
government is making improvements at Coos Bay, building a sea
wall, also one at Coquille, and at Coos Bay they have been working for
two or three seasons and there is still a large amount of work to do.
They have made great improvements in the Bar at both places. It is a
part of Coos County. I am not in charge or I would give you some idea
of it. The name of the engineer in charge of work is Littlefield, and
he resides at Coos Bay. He is at work now on the improvements at Coos
Bay, and employing quite a number of men. They have built a wall now
about 7 or 800 feet from the Point, extending out towards the sea, for
the purpose of directing the force of the current on the Bar, to give
it a greater scouring force. It has already produced a good effect. The
Bar
has been more permanent in one position, and more water on it. There
has
been more water of an average, though the wall is not more than half
completed now. They are watching it very carefully to see the effect of
it because it is an experiment on this coast for harbors of that kind,
where there are sand bars. There are two papers published up at Coos
Bay. I don't know that there is much difference in them for items and
other things; of course I take the Coast
Mail. About the time of the
publication of my pamphlet there, there was, and shortly after, there
was
a long series of articles about the Indian war, written by the editor
and Williams in the Coast
Mail.
It contained items of a great many other things that occurred on the
Coast at the time about this matter. Mrs. Victor wrote to me for some
information and I sent this information. Webster declined to send you
copies of the Coast
Mail. I want to preserve these papers. I think I may write
a little history
of it myself someday. I don't care to part with them. Webster wrote
quite a series of articles and took particular pains to get
information, and he since sold out the paper and now lives at Santa
Cruz down here. If it would be any great advantage, I think you could
get those papers. I wrote about the mining beds in my
pamphlet,
about all I knew about it. When we are in full operation, we generally
put out about a hundred tons a day out of our mine, but it varies at
different times. That is out of one mine. There are only two in
operation now. The coal in my mine is called lignite. The Seattle coal
is lignite. The
Carbonado Mine is not lignite in the Cascades, but this lignite or
brown coal is a superior kind. It makes good fuel; it has all the
qualities of coal. They call all coal formed in sandstone lignite. It
is found up and down the coast, only here and there. It
pinches out and then appears somewhere else. There is
some on the Columbia River. At Coos Bay, the veins are about five feet
thick. North of Coos Bay they never have been found, only with small
veins. I have seen them on the Umpqua. I do not exactly know the
population of my county now. I can approximate it. At the last Census
it was about five thousand, I don't remember the exact amount. There is
a great deal of increase, natural increase and then an emigrating
increase. There has been quite an accession to our population from
Russian Finns. They are coming in there. Quite a number came there at
first and their friends are coming one after another. Some of them are
ship builders and workers. They work more generally as loggers and work
in the woods getting out logs and other timber, such as staves and
match wood. About two or three years ago there were
are two or three
ships building all the time at Coos Bay. A. M. Simpson & Co.
build
vessels there, and have always been building at their mill on the
Bay. At Dean's & Co.'s mill
there is always one or two building by different parties. They build
for San Francisco parties generally, and Simpson generally builds for
himself. He is engaged largely in shipping and owns a great deal of
shipping on the Coast. He owns 7 or 8 mills on the Coast, owns one at
Coos Bay and two at Umpqua and different places on the Coast (then a
house here in San Francisco for the sale of lumber), one at Crescent
City, one on the Columbia, and one at McCray's Harbor, and one at
Shoalwater Bay. They are building these vessels for their own use under
the
firm name of Simpson Brothers & Co., these the same as here,
Simpson, Brother & Co. I believe. There is a wagon road from
Coos
Bay to Roseburg, a military road. They got a subsidy from Congress to
build a road from a point on Coos Bay up to Roseburg through the
mountains. It is used now. It was not usable for a year or two and has
been injured badly, but a mail contractor took hold of it and
repaired it,
and now it is in good condition, and he runs a daily stage over
it. I was born in Randolph, Massachusetts, June 27th 1819. I spent my
boyhood there principally in attending school. Finally, I went to Brown
University and graduated there in 1841 at Providence, Rhode Island, and
graduated in a class of 41. I was 29 years old when I came out on the
Coast. I left Boston in the ship Leonore,
February 4th 1849 and arrived here on the 5th of July, in San
Francisco. I went to Oregon in 1850. I went up to the mines here a
while and stayed, and then came down and went in some different
employment here, worked at different kinds of business. Before I came
here I was engaged in manufacturing in Massachusetts. I resided in
Oregon since 1850. I went there in the fall of 1850 and resided there
since. I resided on the Umpqua River for six years, from 1850 to 1856,
principally with a
speculative view as a town site holder there and also engaged in
merchandising. The speculation did not amount to anything. In 1856 I
became interested in a coal mine at Coos Bay and removed there. I still
retain my interest in the coal mine at Coos Bay; that is my principal
business now. They put out about a hundred tons a day, sometimes not so
much. We employ about 50 men. The partnership is known as Flannagan
& Mann. I held some inferior office there not worth mentioning.
I
served as County Judge of Coos County for two different terms. I have a
wife and two children. I went East and married in Massachusetts, in
1863. My children are all living. They are with me, both of them. The
oldest is 19 years of age, still living with me. The course of my life
has been checkered with no events of great public importance. I
made no allusion to the mines in my pamphlet. I have been
interested in the
coal business ever since I have been a resident of Coos Bay. I have
taken some part in the official and political affairs of the county. We
developed the Newport mine and opened it. There was another mine opened
simultaneously, the same season. The other mine is not in operation
now;
it hasn't been for a while. Quite a number of mines were opened on Coos
Bay; two of them proved profitable, most of them have been abandoned. I
have been comparatively successful.
P.S. Major Reynolds was with the battalion of U.S. soldiers who took
part in the Indian war at Rogue River, and commanded a corps of the
army at the battle of Gettysburg, where he lost his life.
Bancroft Library P-A 80
MANN--In this city, April 13, Hon. S. S. Mann, a native of Randolph, Mass., aged 68 years, 9 months and 13 days.
The funeral will take place this day (Sunday), at 2 o'clock from the
First Baptist Church, Eddy Street, between Jones and Leavenworth.
Friends and acquaintances are respectfully invited to attend. Interment
private.
"Deaths," San Francisco Chronicle, April 15, 1888, page 13
Last
revised May 18, 2022
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