The disasters attending the immigrations of 1843, 1844, and 1845 stimulated exploration, as we have seen. The United States government was not indifferent to the need of a better route to Oregon, as the attempts for the third time of one of its officers attest, even if he was always floating away toward California. There were other reasons, besides the sufferings of the immigrants, which influenced both the government and the colonists to desire a route into the Willamette Valley which led away from the chain of the fur company's posts. As the British officers Park and Peel had been anxious to know whether troops could be brought from Canada overland to Fort Vancouver, so thoughtful men among the colonists were desirous to make sure, in the event of their being needed, that troops from the United States could be brought without interruption into Oregon,¹ knowing that in case of war nothing would be easier than for a small force of the enemy to prevent the passage of the Columbia from the Dalles to and beyond the Cascades.
    It was still doubtful whether the road that Barlow had undertaken to open would prove practicable; in any case it must be difficult, from the nature of the mountains near the Columbia. The passes looked for at the headwaters of the Santiam and Willamette rivers had not yet been found, and there was the prospect that if war should be declared neither immigrants nor troops could force their way to the settlements.
    In order to settle the question of a pass to the south through the Cascade Mountains, the colonists offered to raise money for the purpose of paying the expense of an expedition, and the cost of opening a road in that direction, and early in May 1846 a company was formed in Polk County to undertake this enterprise; but being insufficient in numbers, after traveling seventy miles south of the Calapooya Range, which forms the southern boundary of the Willamette Valley, and being deserted by four of their number on the border of the hostile Indian country, which left them not men enough to stand guard, they returned for reinforcements.
    The head of the first company had been Levi Scott, a native of Illinois, who came to Oregon in 1844 from near Burlington, Iowa, a man of character and determination. He appealed to the patriotism of the Polk County settlers, and secured the cooperation of Jesse and Lindsay Applegate, who had privately promoted the expedition from the first, but who now left their homes and families with the fixed resolve never to retrace their steps, never to abandon the enterprise, until a good wagon road should be found, if such existed, as they did not doubt, from what they knew of Frémont's expeditions, and the accounts given by the lost emigrants of 1845, of the level appearance of the country to the south of their route in the lake basin.² The company as finally organized consisted of fifteen men, well supplied for a protracted expedition, who set out from La Créole settlement June 22nd.³
    The exploring company proceeded south by the California trail. On arriving at the cañon of the Umpqua River, where trappers and travelers had formerly taken to those high, wooded ridges, where drought, chaparral, and savages had so vexed the soul of P. L. Edwards, and tried the firmness of Ewing Young in 1837, finding that no wagon road could be made over them, they returned to explore the cañon, which they found to be a practicable pass, though rocky and filled with a thick growth of scrubby trees and underbrush requiring much labor to cut away. The greatest vigilance being used in guarding against natives in the Rogue River Valley, the company encountered no hostilities, although they discovered the evidences of trouble to a California party of about eighty persons who had left the rendezvous on La Créole two weeks before. This party had been detained in camp in the Rogue River Valley by the loss of some of their horses, which they had endeavored in vain to recover.⁴ Signal fires were seen burning on the mountains nightly, but finding the road hunters watchful, the natives finally left the explorers, and followed the California company to ambush them in the Siskiyou Mountains.
    On arriving in the Rogue River Valley the course followed was along the river to a branch coming from the southeast, which led them to the foot of the Siskiyou Range, where the California trail crossed it, from which they turned eastward toward the Cascade Mountains through a region hitherto unexplored, and from a point now ascertained to be only six miles north of the 42nd parallel, or southern boundary of Oregon. A few miles brought them to slopes of gradual ascent, where wagons could pass without great difficulty, to a fine stream of water, Keene Creek, which they followed to a small valley, later known as Round Prairie. On the following day, however, they found themselves confronted by a rocky ridge, which it was impossible for wagons to pass, and three days were consumed in searching for a route over or through it. On the third day, Long Prairie was discovered, and near it the desired pass, from which they followed a ridge trending northward to the summit of the Cascade Range, which they reached on the 4th of July; coming soon after to the Klamath River, and traveling through a magnificent forest of yellow pine for six miles farther, where they had a first view of the Klamath Valley.
    "It was an exciting moment," says Lindsay Applegate, "after the many days spent in dense forests and among the mountains, and the whole party broke forth in cheer after cheer. An Indian, who had not been observed until the shouting began, started away from the river bank near us, and ran to the hills, a quarter of a mile distant. An antelope could scarcely have outstripped him, for we continued shouting as he ran, and his speed seemed to increase until he was lost from our view, moving among the pines."
    Following up the river about six miles to where it leaves the lower Klamath Lake, a ford was discovered, which, though the water was deep, was passed in safety, and the west shore of the lake followed down for two miles. By this time columns of smoke were seen rising in all directions, the natives who had discovered the party telegraphing to others the presence of strangers. Keeping down the shore of the lake, they encamped on Hot Creek, at the identical spot where Frémont's party had been a couple of months previous, and where the Hot Creek Modocs murdered his three faithful Delawares.
    The explorers were made aware of the fact that white men had been there, by fragments of newspapers lying about; doubtless those that Gillespie brought from the States with him, on his mission to Frémont, who turned back just before the real pathfinders struck his trail. Observing that the turf had been removed as well as the willows, and the ground trampled on the bank of the creek, and remarking also that there were many places where horses could get to the water without this trouble, the company were convinced that some persons had been buried there, and this method adopted of concealing their bodies from the savages, the marks of digging being obliterated by driving the animals of the party many times over the spot. This opinion was confirmed by the excitement evident among the Modocs who naturally judged that these white men had come to avenge the murder of the three members of Frémont's party whom they were conscious of having killed,⁵ and which were the first of a long list of murders committed by this tribe, extending from 1846 to 1873.
    With every precaution not to expose themselves to attack, they pursued their way along the shore and passing around the southern end of the lower Klamath Lake, arrived on the evening of the 5th opposite the camp on Hot Creek, with the lake to the west, and a high rocky ridge to the east of them. This ridge they ascended next morning, and discovered at its eastern base the since famous Tule or Modoc Lake, and apparently about thirty miles to the east of that a timbered butte, near which appeared to be a pass through the rocky range encircling the basin of the lakes. The route seemed to lie around the north end of Tule Lake. In attempting to descend the ridge, however, they found themselves entangled among short lava ridges, and yawning crevices and caves in the rocks, which compelled a retreat to smoother ground. Some difficulty was experienced in conducting a retreat, as the party had become separated and hidden from each other by the numerous jutting rocks.
    When all, with the exception of Scott, were reassembled, a northern course was taken toward the meadow country which was observed from the bluff, surrounding Modoc Lake on that side. The lake being in full view, great numbers of canoes were seen putting off from the shelter of the bluff and tules, and making for what seemed to be an island several miles distant; this was in reality a rocky promontory, now known as Scorpion Point, projecting into the lake from the southeast side. The wild men were apparently alarmed at seeing Scott riding along the margin of the lake, and believing that the whole company that they had seen in the lava beds were close at hand, were fleeing from a single horseman. Still under the impression that the explorers were vengeful foemen, they remained out of their reach, and gave them no trouble.
    On coming to Lost River where it enters Modoc Lake, and where the water is deep, a native was discovered crouching under the shelter of the bank, who on being made to understand by signs that the party wished to cross, was induced to point out an excellent fording place, where a ledge of stone runs quite across the stream.⁶ He was compensated by some trifling presents; his new friends shook hands with him at parting, and he returned, apparently pleased, to join his tribe, while they kept on eastward, finding a good spring of water at the foot of a ridge to the north, where they encamped.
    Still making for their former landmark, they passed eastward over the rocky juniper ridge, between Langell Valley and Clear Lake, then to Goose Lake, round the southern end of which they continued, encamping the 8th on a small stream coming in from the southeast, and where game was found in abundance.
    Ascending a spur of the mountains bordering Goose Lake Valley, a view was obtained of another beautiful valley, with trees and streams, beyond which was a mountain ridge supposed to be a part of the California sierras. This was Surprise Valley, into which a good pass was found, with grass and water plenty, in the gap.⁷
    The party had now come to the dividing ridge between the waters of the lake basin of the Pacific Coast and that other great basin which contains the Humboldt River and the great inland sea of Salt Lake. Their horses had worn out their shoes on the rocks of Klamath land; the sandy desert that lay before them beyond the borders of Surprise Valley seemed to stretch interminably, with no indication or water or grass as far as the eye could see, and unbroken except by rocky ridges; and the prospect for the future looked gloomy. But pressing on to the close of the day over sand, gravel, and rock, at evening a little spring was most unexpectedly found. Proceeding in an eastward course over a sage plain, by the middle of the afternoon of the 10th the weary travelers found themselves confronted by a sheer wall of solid granite, varying in height from twenty or thirty to several hundred feet, and entirely impassable. Separating into two divisions, the country was explored to the north and south, where was found a gap varying from two hundred feet to the width of little more than a single wagon. It was about twenty miles in length. A stream ran through it in places under overhanging cliffs. After examining this strange defile for some distance, it was determined to follow it on the 11th; and on arriving at the eastern end, it was found to terminate in a lake basin containing little water but much mud, to which the name of Mud Springs was given. On the farther side of the basin was another ridge extending parallel to the Granite Mountains, which appeared to terminate about fifteen miles to the south of the gorge. Traveling toward the end of this ridge along its base, grass and water were found, but not in abundance; and at the extremity, hot springs, with immense piles of volcanic rock and scoriæ of a dark color, from which the place received the name of Black Rock. At this point the company divided, half going east and the rest south.
    Finding nothing encouraging in the outlook eastward from the Rabbithole Mountains, this party also turned southward along their base, and at the termination found a large spring, but too strongly alkaline to be used except in making coffee. From this spring looking east, nothing could be seen but a vast plain glittering with an alkaline efflorescence, which greatly aggravated the heat of a July sun. In traveling over it the party suffered not only from heat and thirst, but from those atmospheric illusions so tormenting to those who traverse deserts. All that day and night, and until four o'clock in the afternoon of the following day, they were without water, and one of the men had succumbed, and was left lying in the shadow of some rocks, while his companions in suffering directed their course toward a small green spot several miles distant. While on this errand they fell in with the southern division, which had also been without water about as long, and was traveling toward the bit of green in the distance. That night all encamped together again, the sick man having been brought to camp. But so warm, alkaline, and disagreeable was the little water found, that few of the company could retain it. The horses drank it eagerly, and this small relief, with a night of rest, sufficed to raise the sinking courage of these determined men. On the morning of the 18th they proceeded southward over a level plain, passing burning peat beds, and coming at noon to the Humboldt River, near the present site of Humboldt City.
    Although rejoiced to reach this river, which had been from the first an objective point, the explorers found the route from here too southerly for their purpose, and began a course up the valley in a northeasterly direction, looking for a pass more directly westward from a point east of Black Rock. The march continued for two and a half days, until they came to a dry branch of the Humboldt coming in from the north, where there was an extensive meadow, and where they encamped with the intention of exploring back toward what seemed to be a gap through the ridge round which they had traveled to the south.
    At a distance of fifteen miles up the dry creek they came to a fine spring; and fifteen miles west, up a gradual rise, to a tableland covered with good grass, from which Black Rock was plainly visible. Satisfied that they had now discovered a direct route from the Humboldt westward to Black Point, with grass and water, and making assurance doubly sure by rediscovering Rabbithole Springs, after remaining in the Humboldt Meadow to recruit their horses three days, they turned their faces once more toward the east, knowing that the source of the Humboldt was in the vicinity of their destined point, and that there could be no lack of water or grass for the remainder of the way.
    On the 25th of July the march was resumed. The intention of the explorers was to locate their road directly to Bear River, fifty or sixty miles south of Fort Hall, where, in case of hostilities with England, the American traveller would not wish to go. But provisions running short, only two thirds of the company proceeded to Bear River, while Jesse Applegate, Harris, Goff, Owens, and Bogus turned off from Thousand Springs Valley to Fort Hall for supplies,⁸ and, if possible, to induce a portion of the immigration, which would probably be in that vicinity, to travel the new route and open the road. Before arriving at Fort Hall, Henry Bogus, learning that a son of Mr. Grant of the fort had started for St. Louis, and wishing to return there, left the party, and took a cut-off, in the hope of overtaking the St. Louis company, but was never again heard from.⁹
    The immigration of 1846 was not so large as that of the previous year, and many were destined for California, whither efforts were made to direct the wavering.¹⁰ From the best evidence I can gather, about twenty-five hundred persons left the Missouri frontier this year for the Pacific Coast. Of these, from fifteen to seventeen hundred went to Oregon; the remainder to California.¹¹
    As usual with the migrations, there was a lack of adhesiveness, and large companies split into half a dozen smaller ones, and there were many quarrels arising from trifling causes. In 1846 these feuds were intensified by a scarcity of grass, the season being dry.¹²
    The character of these pilgrims was in general good; they were intelligent, and in comfortable circumstances. That this was true, many well-written letters that appeared in the public prints give evidence, both as regards their authors and their traveling companions. I find in a book by a writer always successful in making a readable narrative, as well as in recording useful information, and who occasionally gives proof of powers of observation put to good use, that there was the usual substratum of the hardy pioneer element; and also, that though the companies scattered along the road for two hundred miles were all well fitted out at the start, some of them, through carelessness, or strife amongst themselves, became much distressed before the conclusion of even the first half of their journey.¹³
    J. Quinn Thornton¹⁴ dealt with the opening of the southern route to the Willamette Valley in a particular and detailed manner, which makes him the principal authority upon the incidents attending it. It is there stated that Thornton and his wife left Quincy, Illinois, on the 18th of April, and went to Independence to join the Oregon and California emigrants. He left that place May 12th, and soon overtook the California company under W. H. Russell. The train with which Thornton traveled together with Russell's made a caravan of 72 wagons, 130 men, 65 women, and 125 children. The ill-fated Donner party subsequently joined them, and all traveled together, or not far apart, to Fort Bridger, where about 80 persons were persuaded to take the newly discovered route to the Humboldt Valley by the way of Weber Cañon and Salt Lake, which Hastings, who had come to Fort Bridger to meet the immigrants, recommended to them¹⁵ with so much urgency. The remainder of the California company kept to the old route, turning off west of Fort Hall.
    When Applegate's party were at that post, they met and conversed with many persons on the subject of routes, among whom was a company led by William Kirquendall, to which belonged Thornton and Boggs, and which determined to take the southern route, piloted by the explorers. Without question Applegate represented, as he believed, that the southern route was superior in many respects to that along the Snake and Columbia rivers. The grass, except on the alkali desert, which he expected in returning to avoid for the most part, was better than in the Snake country; there were no mountains to cross before coming to the Cascade Range, and the pass through it was greatly superior to the Mount Hood pass; while in the Klamath, Rogue River, and Umpqua valleys grass and water were of the greatest excellence and abundance. The distance he judged to be shorter than by the old route, though in this he was mistaken. Influenced by the misrepresentation of Hastings as to the northern route, and hoping to escape its eight hundred miles of mountains, ravines, and precipices by taking the southern one, a caravan of ninety or a hundred wagons, including Kirquendall's company, left Fort Hall on the 9th of August, arriving at the rendezvous of the exploring party at Thousand Springs on the 12th, where David Goff and Levi Scott assumed the duty of guiding them to the Willamette, while the Applegates and the remainder of the company pushed forward to mark out or cut out the road, as the case might demand, accompanied by a volunteer party of young men from the immigration.¹⁶
    On arriving at the tributary of the Humboldt, they proceeded up the stream to the spring before discovered, which they called Diamond, but which is now known as Antelope Spring, and which they enlarged by digging. Thence they took a northwest course to Rabbithole Mountains, where they enlarged the Rabbithole Spring. They found no way of avoiding the Black Rock desert of alkali and mud lakes between there and the Granite Mountains, the same course being followed in locating the road west of Black Cañon that was pursued on the first exploration. The real labor of road-making began when the company reached the Cascade Mountains, and was repeated in the chain to the north of the Rogue River Valley, and in the Umpqua Cañon. On arriving in the Umpqua Valley, at the north end of the cañon, feeling that they had removed the greatest obstacles to travel with wagons, and being reduced to the necessity of hunting to supply themselves with provisions, the passage through the Calapooya Mountains was left to be opened by the immigrants themselves, and the company hastened to their homes, from which they had been absent fifteen weeks.
    Before the Applegates left the caravan at Thousand Springs to smooth as far as possible the road which the wagons were to follow, they instructed the immigrants to be careful in passing through the country occupied by savages, no companies of less than twenty wagons being considered safe; that diligence should be used in traveling, and that in making the long drives over the desert portions of the road certain precautions should be observed. With these explicit directions, and two reliable men as guides, they apprehended no difficulty for those who were to follow.¹⁷
    The first companies to take the road after the explorers were those led by Harrison Linville and a Mr. Vanderpool; and although upon them fell the severer toil of breaking the track, and reopening the road over the Cascade Mountains made by Applegate's company, which a fire had filled in places with fallen timber, they arrived in the Rogue River Valley on the 9th of October;¹⁸ while the rear companies, disregarding the instructions of the guides, loitered by the way, some, indeed, from circumstances over which they had no control,¹⁹ but many from dilatoriness and a desire to evade sharing in the labor of road-making. These detained the main companies, some of whom were compelled to wait for them at the parting of the California and Oregon roads on the Humboldt, because Goff, their guide, was compelled to do so, lest they should mistake the turning-off point.²⁰
    According to Thornton's journal, the scarcity of grass, water, and fuel was no greater than it had been from the South Pass to Fort Hall, nor indeed so great; and the travelers by this route were relieved of the clouds of dust which accompanied the caravans on the Snake River route. But of the sufferings of those who traveled that route he could not then be aware, and was intent only on his own supreme wretchedness. Every ox that died upon the way was spoken of as a sacrifice to the misrepresentations of the explorers of the road, though oxen had died before reaching Fort Bridger; and every caravan that crossed the plains had its course marked out by the whitening bones of cattle that had fallen exhausted by the way.²¹
    There is no question as to the hardship endured both by explorers and emigrants. The natives along the Humboldt annoyed the small straggling companies, of which Thornton's was one. They concealed themselves behind rocks and shot their poisoned arrows at men and animals, and often stole cattle from the herds while grazing. In return for these depredations, a Humboldt Indian was shot in the camp of the emigrants.²² One of the foremost companies had a skirmish with a band of Indians who were lying in ambush among some willows, in which two white men were wounded, one of whom died,²³ and a number of the attacking party were killed. A greater degree of caution might have avoided these encounters, but it was not possible for the guides to be with every train, or to compel the wagons to keep together in numbers sufficient to intimidate the savages.
    Notwithstanding the length of the road, which should have warned the travelers not to lose time, a week was wasted in unnecessary delay before commencing the crossing of the Cascade Mountains. The spur of this chain up which the road was first located is steep,²⁴ and teams had to be doubled until eighteen or twenty yokes²⁵ were put to a wagon to drag it up the sharp acclivity. But even this was better than having to carry the loads up steep hills while the oxen drew the empty wagons, as sometimes occurred on the north road.
    Two months from the time the southern immigration left Thousand Springs, the last companies entered the Rogue River Valley, where according to Thornton they were met by Jones of the exploring party with some fat cattle for the relief of those whose provisions were consumed.²⁶ Being extremely weary, and their teams well nigh exhausted, the last of the families unfortunately lingered too long in this beautiful country, at a season of the year when one day of rain might be productive of disaster by raising the streams, and chilling fatally the thin blood of the worn-out oxen.²⁷ And alas! they tarried in the valley until the rains began,²⁸ and were subjected to a thousand discomforts before they came to the pass through the Cañon Mountains, which in its best condition would have been bad, the road party not having a force sufficient to make a smooth road, but which was now, in its narrowest part, filled with water for a distance of three miles, the stream being cold and swift, and from one to four feet in depth.²⁹
    While the miserable men, women, and children were making their way through this defile, their condition was pitiable in the extreme, a number having abandoned their wagons, and some, like Thornton and his wife, being compelled to wade the stream, not only through the three-mile gorge, but over and over again at its numerous crossings. A great loss of cattle and destruction of property followed, unattended, however, by any loss of life which could be traced directly to these causes.³⁰ The famine which so far had attacked the rear of every immigration since the wagon roads were opened assailed these unfortunate travelers in the Umpqua Valley, and although everything possible was done for their relief by the men who explored the new route,³¹ and other citizens, who on learning of their situation hastened to send them horses, cattle, and flour, nothing availed to supply the utter destitution of some families who had thrown away or abandoned their property in the Umpqua Cañon and Calapooya Mountains, or to avert their sufferings from the cold rains and colder snows of November and December.
    About a dozen families were detained until January in the Umpqua Valley, a part of whom were unable to get out before February, when their cattle having recruited on the excellent grass of that region, they were able to resume travel with their wagons and stock. These last found refuge at Fort Umpqua on Elk River through the few cold weeks of midwinter, except three or four men who guarded the property left in camp on that stream by those who escaped to the settlements.
    The discussion of the events connected with the opening of the northern and southern roads into the Willamette Valley bade fair to overshadow the political questions which had led, among other causes, to the establishment of the southern route. Two parties were formed over the discussions of the latter: one which favored the Barlow road, because it brought travelers directly to Oregon City, and promoted the improvement of the lands in the lower end of the valley. To this party belonged the Methodist interests; and Thornton, who was a Methodist, and who soon made the acquaintance of Abernethy and other leading persons among the missionaries, gained the friendship of that society greatly by his abuse of the explorers of the southern road, who, besides having been guilty of this crime, were also of that dominating western element that opposed itself to the Methodist influence in colonial affairs.
    Thornton was also a lawyer, and a Methodist lawyer was an acceptable addition to the Methodist influence, supposing that he should be controlled by it; and to gain him over to that position, on the resignation of the office of supreme judge by Mr. Burnett, Abernethy appointed Thornton in his place, February 9th, or a little more than six weeks after his arrival in the territory.³²
    Article after article on the merits and demerits of the southern route, as contrasted with the Barlow road,³³ came to the Spectator from various sources, the true effect of which was to call attention to the Rogue River and Umpqua valleys, their desirability for settlement, and the need of a road to them leading directly from forts Hall and Bridger; and also to the fact that a road now really existed by which wagons could go all the way to California, by passing through the Umpqua Cañon, and over the Applegate pass of the Cascade Range to the California road in the Humboldt Valley, this happy discovery following immediately upon the news of the conquest and Americanization of that country.
    In May 1847 Levi Scott led a company of twenty men destined for the States over the southern route, and also guided a portion of the immigration of the following autumn into the Willamette Valley by this road, arriving in good season and in good condition, while the main immigration, by the Dalles route, partly on account of its number, suffered severely. This established the reputation of the Klamath Lake road; and the legislature of this year passed an act for its improvement, making Levi Scott commissioner, and allowing him to collect a small toll as compensation for his services. The troubles with the Cayuses, which broke out in the winter of 1847, and which but for the Oregon volunteers would have closed the Snake route, demonstrated the wisdom of its explorers in providing the mountain-walled valleys of Western Oregon with another means of ingress or egress than the Columbia River;³⁴ their road today being incorporated for nearly its whole length with some of the most important highways of the country.
    In June 1847 a company headed by Cornelius Gilliam set out with the intention of exploring the Rogue River and Klamath valleys, which from this time forward continued to be mentioned favorably on account of their climate, soil, and other advantages.³⁵ In 1849 Jesse Applegate removed to the Umpqua Valley, at the foot of a grassy butte called by the natives Yonc-calla, or "eagle-bird," which use has shortened to Yoncalla, on the headwaters of Elk Creek, near which a railroad now passes. His brother Charles settled near him; and Lindsay Applegate somewhat later made himself a home on Ashland Creek, where the town of Ashland now stands, and directly on the line of the road he assisted in opening. Their children are many of them living in the grass valleys of the Klamath Basin which they were the first of the American frontiersmen to explore. Levi Scott was the founder of Scottsburg, on the Umpqua River. He died in 1878, in Lane County, at the age of eighty, respected for his many virtues and his generous character.

    1. "One of the Road-Hunters," in Or. Spectator, April 15, 1847; Lindsay Applegate, in Portland West Shore, June 1877; Tuthill's Hist. Cal., 162.
    2. Nathaniel Ford, in Or. Spectator, July 9, 1846.
    3. They were Levi Scott, Jesse Applegate, Lindsay Applegate, John Scott, Moses Harris, Henry Bogus, John Owens, John Jones, Robert Smith, Samuel Goodhue, Bennett Osborne, William Sportsman, William Parker, Benjamin Burch, and David Goff. From notes and reminiscences by Lindsay Applegate, in Portland West Shore from June to September 1877, the following biographical facts are taken:
    John Scott accompanied his father, Capt. Scott, to Oregon in 1843. He resided at Dallas in Polk County.
    Benjamin F. Burch emigrated from Missouri, his native state, in 1845. He has long occupied positions of trust in Oregon, and resides at Salem.
    David Goff was an immigrant of 1844. He settled in the neighborhood of the Fords, and one of his daughters was the wife of J. W. Nesmith. He belonged to that class of pioneers whose patriotism extended beyond a desire to secure a grant of land. He died in Polk County in 1875, aged 80 years.
    William G. Parker was a native of Missouri, and an immigrant of 1843. He left Oregon for California, where he resided many years; but returned finally to Lake County, Oregon, and long resided in the country he assisted to explore in 1846. He was a brother of Mrs. Jesse Applegate.
    Robert Smith was born in Virginia, and came to Oregon in 1843. He married a daughter of Charles Applegate, and was brother-in-law of S. F. Chadwick.
    Samuel Goodhue was a native of New York, and an immigrant of 1844. He married a daughter of Albert T. Davidson of the immigration of 1845, and resided for several years at Salem, but finally removed to Ohio.
    William Sportsman came from Missouri in 1845, and left Oregon in 1847.
    John Owens was a native of Missouri, and an immigrant of 1843.
    Moses Harris, the "Black Squire," a famous scout and trapper, came to the Willamette Valley in 1844. He was well versed in the Shoshone dialect, and was in this and other ways of much service to the expedition. Harris returned to the States in 1847, and died at Independence, Mo.
    4. Applegate says the party consisted of Canadians, half-breeds, and Columbia River natives, with a few Americans. These natives were probably some of the Walla Wallas, who were going down to claim the indemnity which White had promised them for the losses sustained in their cattle expedition of 1844, and who arrived just in time to join Frémont's battalion against the Californians.
    5. Martin's Nar., MS., 19-21; Shasta Courier, July 7, 1876.
    6. A gradual rise in the waters of Modoc Lake has overflowed the meadows where the exploring party grazed their horses, and backed up the water in Lost River, so named from sinking in the ground in places, until the ford, or Stone Bridge as it was called by the early immigrants, has become impassable.
    7. The small stream spoken of as coming into Goose Lake, and the pass into Surprise Valley, have taken the name of Lassen, from Peter Lassen, who two years after the discovery by the Oregon company led a party of California immigrants through it on to the waters of the Pit and Sacramento rivers.
    8. Bryant's What I Saw in California, 196-7.
    9. Lindsay Applegate of the Bear River party, who kept a journal, relates that in traveling slowly up the monotonous Humboldt Valley, where game was scarce, and the natives seemed to live on crickets and grasshoppers, Scott and he turned aside one day to pursue a band of antelope, and came to wagon tracks leading away from the river toward a rocky gulch two or three miles distant. There seemed to have been several wagons, and the prints of bare feet were numerous beside the track. In the gulch were found the ashes and irons of the wagons, which had been burned. No human remains were seen. The emigrants had probably been murdered. They were one of the small parties which from 1843 to 1846 sought to enter California by the Humboldt route.
    10. I find that this effort was understood and resisted by the people of Oregon. The 15th of June a public meeting was held at Oregon City, to provide for sending an express to Soda Springs to meet the emigration, "to prevent their being deceived and led astray by the misrepresentations of L. W. Hastings, who is now on his way from California for that object." The committee selected to compose the express was W. Finley, J. S. Rinearson, and W. G. T'Vault. The committee took the depositions of Truman Bonney, Jarius Bonney, Abner Frazer, John Chamberlain, Robert C. Keyes, and Allen Sanders, recently from California, concerning the intention of Hastings, and the general condition of affairs in California. The first three affiants deposed that by the representations of Mr. Grant at Fort Hall the year previous, they were induced to go to California, but on arriving in the Sacramento Valley found the whole country burned by the sun, and no food either for man or beast. Flour was $10 or $12 per cwt., and vegetables there were none. Five to eight bushels of wheat was an average crop. No rain fell from March to January; there was no timber except on the mountains. Society did not exist, and it was difficult for a man to keep his own. The Catholic missions were destroyed; no land could be obtained without purchase, and titles were not good; duties were so high that no shipping came in, and clothing was almost impossible to obtain. And above all, Mr. Hastings and Captain Sutter were intending to revolutionize the country as soon as people enough had come to fight the Spaniards. Similar depositions were made by the other three, to be used in undeceiving the immigrants whom Hastings would endeavor to mislead! Or. Spectator, June 25, 1846.
    11. The authorities differ. The Spectator of Dec. 10, 1846 gives the number of immigrants for the year at 1,000. (Message of Governor Abernethy.) But at that time several hundred had not yet arrived. In Hyde's Statement, 6, the Oregon immigration is spoken of as "large." Saxton, in his Or. Ter., says that at St. Joseph, Elizabethtown, Iowa Point, and Council Bluffs were collected 271 wagons, and at Independence 174 wagons; and estimates the emigrants at 1,841. The best authority is probably Joel Palmer, who says that his party of 16 continued to meet for 200 miles companies of from 6 to 40 wagons, and that in all he passed 541 wagons, averaging 5 persons to each; and that 212 wagons were bound for California. Journal, 137; McGlashan's Hist. Donner Party, 17. I find corroborative evidence in Niles' Reg., lxx. 211, 272, 281, 341, 343, 416. An extract from the St. Louis Republican, in the Register, says "The Oregon emigrants have gone on in advance of the Californians, to their great encampment on the Kansas River, about 100 miles west of this. We have not yet received a census of their company, but will in a few days." A letter to the Register, from someone in Weston, Mo., says the emigration must be strung along the road for 300 miles; 40 wagons were yet to start on the 18th of May; 216 wagons exclusive of these had left the Iowa agency; each of these 356 wagons had 4 yokes of oxen, which added to the loose stock would make 2,000 head of cattle on the road. The number of persons he estimated at 2,000, 800 of them being "able-bodied men of resolute spirit." This same writer says: "On yesterday, I for the first time heard the news from Mexico. It did not surprise me in the least, but I wish an express could be sent to overtake the emigrants, after Congress has acted, and authorize them to make the conquest of California. They could and would do it and I take it for granted our government will declare war; all they want is a chance." A correspondent of the St. Louis Republican, quoted in the Register, says the Oregon emigration was a fine-looking body of people, and well fitted out for their expedition. Some wagons were carpeted, and had chairs and other conveniences for families. One old man of more than 70 years was going to accompany his children and grandchildren; and this family all together had 10 wagons. Some of the wagon covers bore "Oregon, 54° 40'; all or none!" Josiah Gregg, writing to the Register, thinks the emigration numbers 2,000, but that the larger part of it is for California. I learn also that the Pawnees fired upon 2 emigrants, killing one, named Edward Trimble, from Iowa. See also Home Missionary, xviii. 89; and Rabbison's Growth of Towns, MS.,1-5.
    12. In volume lxxi. 146, of Niles' Reg., is an extract from a letter written by one of the California emigrants, dated July 23rd at Fort Bridger, near Black Fork of Green River, not far from Bear River Mountains, which was "brought by Capt. Walker, who was returning from California with Lieut. Frémont." The letter runs as follows: "At Fort Laramie Colonel Russel, and many other of the emigrants, sold off their wagons, and with a pack containing a few articles pursued their journey on horseback. The grass on the route from Fort Laramie was deficient, and the animals fared badly.… The parties were in the South Pass of the Rocky Mountains on the 13th of July, and had then seen no Indians after leaving Fort Laramie, and considered themselves beyond their dangerous vicinity, and only a few of the emigrants kept a night guard. From Fort Laramie they had pleasant weather, with cool nights and warm days, though very dusty roads until they reached Fort Bridger, and during the whole route they had not seen more than a dozen buffalo. Col. Russel and his party, by hard traveling, reached Fort Bridger 2 or 3 days before the others; but his horses had their backs badly worn, and he remained 3 or 4 days to recruit. At that place they were met by Mr. Hastings, from California, who came out to conduct them in by the new route, by the foot of Salt Lake, discovered by Captain Frémont, which is said to be 200 miles nearer than the old one, by Fort Hall. The distance to California was said to be 650 miles, through a fine farming country, with plenty of grass for the cattle. Companies of from one to a dozen wagons are continually arriving, and several have already started on, with Hastings at their head, who would conduct them to near where the new road joins the old route, and there leave them, and push on with his party. Russel had also started, guided by a man who came through with Hastings. He is said to be very sick of the journey, and anxious to complete it. Instead of entering California as the commander of a half-military caravan, he had been forsaken by his most cherished companions, and even his understrappers had treated him with indignity. Grayson had quarreled with all his companions, and everyone who could raise a horse had left him. Boggs and many others had determined to go to Oregon, and were expected to arrive at Fort Bridger in a day or two. Curry had also been persuaded to go to Oregon, and from thence he would go to California and the Sandwich Islands.… The Oregon route may be considerably shortened by avoiding Fort Bridger and passing a stretch of 45 miles without without water, but most of the companies go that way. The emigrants were heartily tired of their journey, and nine tenths of them wished themselves back in the States. The whole company has been broken up into squads by dissatisfaction and bickerings, and it is pretty much every man for himself. The accounts they had received of Oregon and California, by the parties they met returning to the States, had greatly disheartened them, and they had horrible anticipations of the future in the country which they believed to be, when they set out, as beautiful as the Elysian fields."
    13. "Far off on the other side of the Platte was a green meadow, where we could see the white tents and wagons of an emigrant camp; and just opposite to us we could discern a group of men and animals at the water's edge. Four or 5 horsemen soon entered the river, and in 10 minutes had waded across and clambered up the loose sand bank. They were ill-looking fellows, thin and swarthy, with care-worn, anxious faces, and lips rigidly compressed. They had good cause for anxiety; it was 3 days since they first encamped here, and on the night of their arrival they had lost 123 of their best cattle, driven off by the wolves, through the neglect of the man on guard. This discouraging and alarming calamity was not the first that had overtaken them. Since leaving the settlements they had met with nothing but misfortune. Some of their party had died; one man had been killed by the Pawnees; and about a week before they had been plundered by the Dakotahs of all their best horses.… The emigrants recrossed the river, and we prepared to follow. First the heavy ox-wagons plunged down the bank, and dragged slowly over the sand beds; sometimes the hoofs of the oxen were scarcely wetted by the thin sheet of water; and the next moment the river would be boiling against their sides, and eddying fiercely around the wheels. Inch by inch they receded from the shore, dwindling every moment until at length they seemed to be floating far out in the very middle of the river.… As we gained the other bank, a rough group of men surrounded us. They were not robust nor large of frame, yet they had an aspect of hardy endurance. Finding at home no scope for their fiery energies, they had betaken themselves to the prairie; and in them seemed to be revived, with redoubled force, that fierce spirit which impelled their ancestors, scarce more lawless than themselves, from the German forests, to inundate Europe, and break to pieces the Roman empire. A fortnight afterwards this unfortunate party passed Fort Laramie while we were there. Not one of their missing oxen had been recovered, though they had encamped a week in search of them; and they had been compelled to abandon a great part of their baggage and provisions, and yoke cows and heifers to their wagons to carry them forward upon their journey, the most toilsome and hazardous part of which lay still before them.
    It is worth noticing that on the Platte one may sometimes see the shattered wrecks of ancient claw-footed tables, well waxed and rubbed, or massive bureaus of carved oak. These, many of them no doubt the relics of ancestral prosperity in the colonial time, must have encountered strange vicissitudes. Imported, perhaps, originally from England; then with the declining fortunes of their owners borne across the Alleghenies to the remote wilderness of Ohio or Kentucky; then to Illinois or Missouri; and now at last fondly stowed away in the family wagon for the interminable journey to Oregon. But the stern privations of the way are little anticipated. The cherished relic is soon flung to scorch and crack upon the hot prairie. Parkman's Cal. and Or. Trail, 105-8.
    14. Oregon and California in 1848, by J. Quinn Thornton, etc., in two volumes, with illustrations and a map, New York, 1849. Mr. Thornton's book, written after one year's residence in Oregon, his account of its political history and the description of California being drawn from the writings of Hall J. Kelley, whose acquaintance he formed in 1848. To this is added a sketch of the early settlement of the country by missionaries and others; a sketch of the establishment of the provisional government, with an account of his late participation in its affairs; an account of the general features, geology, mineralogy, forests, rivers, farming lands, and institutions of Oregon; all of which, considering the date of publication, is useful and in the main correctly given, establishing the author's ability to produce literary matter of rather unusual merit. But these two volumes could well have been contained in one by the omission of the author's narrative of the incidents of the immigration, which reveal a narrowness of judgment and bitterness of spirit seldom associated with those mental endowments of which Mr. Thornton gives evidence in his writings.
    J. Quinn Thornton was born August 24, 1810, near Point Pleasant, Mason County, West Virginia. From his manuscript Autobiography, it appears his ancestors arrived in eastern Virginia in 1633 from England, and that the Thornton family are now widely scattered over the southern and western states. In his infancy Thornton removed with his parents to Champaign County, Ohio, and grew up a studious boy, reading all the books that came in his way, among others Sully's Memoirs, from which he drew his favorite nom de plume of "Achilles De Harley," used in later years as a signature to certain political articles in the New York Tribune. His mother desired him to study for the ministry; but he chose law as a profession, and went to England to study, remaining nearly three years in London, living in retirement and learning little of the great world about him. At the end of that time he returned to Virginia, and studied law under John Howe Peyton, of Staunton in that state, being admitted to the bar in May 1833. Thornton says that during the period of his studies he became interested in trying to discover the nature of gravitation; being of the belief that the word "attraction," as applied to gravitation, is a misnomer, and that the force is external to rather than inherent in matter; and claims that the identity of that force was discovered by him in August 1832. The results of his investigations on this subject, being committed to manuscript, were twice destroyed by fire, since which no further effort has been made to place his discovery before the world. After being admitted to the bar, Thornton attended law lectures at the University of Virginia under Prof. John A. G. Davis. Having had all this preparation, he opened a law office in Palmyra, Missouri, in 1835, and in 1836 edited a political paper in that place in the interest of Martin Van Buren during the presidential campaign. On the 8th of Feb., 1838, he married Mrs. Nancy M. Logue of Hannibal in that state; and in 1841 removed to Quincy, Illinois. The Oregon Question, being popularly discussed by all ranks of society about this time, led him, as it did thousands of others, to think of adding his individual weight to the American claim, and in 1846 he resolved to emigrate. I am indebted to Mr. Thornton for many favors. When in Salem, in 1878, he not only gave me a valuable dictation, but placed me in possession of many important documents collected by him during an eventful life.
    15. The narration of the misfortunes which attended the emigrants on Hastings' cut-off does not belong to this division of this history, but will be found in Hist. Cal., this series; also in McGlashan's Hist. of the Donner Party, and in Thornton's Or. and Cal., ii. 95-246. Thornton became well acquainted with Boggs of Missouri, and several of the most prominent persons in the California emigration, including the Donner party, and has recorded many facts concerning them. Hastings undoubtedly exaggerated in persuading the Donner company to take his route, and in trying to influence the Oregon immigrants to go to California, thereby producing the effect spoken of in the letter already quoted from Niles' Register. On the other hand, the Oregon committee sent out to counteract his influence, by showing the depositions of the last year's emigrants to California, added to the feeling of uncertainty. The travelers knew not which statement to believe, and chose at random which route to take. According to Hastings, the 800 miles between Fort Hall and the Pacific was a "succession of high mountains, cliffs, deep cañons, and small valleys," with a scarcity of fuel along the Snake and Columbia rivers. McGlashan in the Hist. Donner Party, 22, says that Bridger and Vazquez, who had charge of Fort Bridger, earnestly advised the California emigration to take Hastings' cut-off, because they wanted to sell supplies to the trains which would otherwise refit at Fort Hall. He also says that Hastings was a famous hunter and trapper, and employed to pilot the emigration; which departure from facts clouds the credibility of the previous assertion. Time confirmed the merits of the Hastings cut-off as a road to California; and it is certain that to dissensions among themselves, and unwise delays, was to be attributed the tragedy of Donner Lake.
    16. These were Thomas Powers, Alfred Stewart, Charles Putnam, who married a daughter of Jesse Applegate, Burgess, Shaw, Carnahan, and others. William Kirquendall and J. M. Wair also joined the road company.
    17. Or. Spectator, April 15, 1847; L. Applegate's Klamath Lake Road, in Ashland Tidings, Oct. 1877 to July 1878; Zabriske, in U.S. Surveyor General's Report, 1868, 1042; Burnett's Recollections, 229-30.
    18. D. Goff, in Or. Spectator, April 29, 1847.
    19. On the 13th of August a young man named Roby who had long lingered in a consumption died. On the 21st a Mr. Burns died, leaving a wife and three children; a few others were ill.
    20. Thornton says that Applegate affirmed that the distance from Fort Hall to the Willamette Valley by way of the Dalles was from 800 to 850 miles; that the distance by the southern route was 200 miles less; that the whole distance was better supplied with grass and water than the old road; and that the road was generally smooth, and the dry drive only 30 miles long. "If the total absence of all truth in each of these affirmations affords any means by which to judge of the principles of the man making them, he may unhesitatingly be said to be parthis mendacior." He also says that he all the time held the opinion that Applegate was attempting to deceive him from motives purely selfish, and that he intended to profit by the misfortunes of the emigrants. He excuses himself for following such a man by saying that he was influenced by Gov. Boggs, who confided in the statements of Applegate. In considering Thornton's statements, I have taken into account, first, the unpractical mind of the man as set forth in his autobiography, where we discover that with opportunities seldom enjoyed by American young men for acquiring a profession, and with admitted talents of a certain kind, he achieved less than thousands who studied the law in the office of a country attorney; secondly, that he was at the time in question in bad health; and thirdly, that he was unused to physical labor. Add to those that he possessed an irritable temper and suspicious disposition, and we have the man who could pen such a record as that contained in the first volume of his Or. and Cal. Rabbison, in his Growth of Towns, MS., 3, mentions that Thornton had a quarrel with a man named Good, who furnished him a part of his outfit, and that on the Platte Good undertook to reclaim his property, but the Oregon emigrants decided as Thornton had a family he was not to be entirely dispossessed, but took the wagon out of the California train and cut it in two to make carts, also dividing the oxen--in which manner they proceeded; but Thornton gives a different version, and says that he conquered in the quarrel by an exhibition of spirit and firearms. Or. and Cal., i. 123-5. I do not know which account is correct, nor is it of any consequence. At Green River, Thornton began to take care of his own team for the first time, and experiencing much difficulty from not knowing how to yoke or drive oxen, only succeeded by the assistance of the charitable Mr. Kirquendall and others, who pitied his infirmities. From information obtained from his own journal, it is evident that he loitered by the way; and from comparing his estimates of distances with others, that he has nearly doubled the length of the worst portions of the road. See R. B. Marcy's Hand-book of Overland Expeditions, published in 1859, in which this route is described; or any railroad guide of the present day giving distances in the Humboldt Valley. The whole distance to Oregon City was really 950 miles from Fort Hall, whereas Thornton makes it 1,280. Or. and Cal., i. 175; Frémont's Cal. Guide Book, 124; Bancroft's Guide, 87-8; Hastings' Or. and Cal., 137.
    21. An emigrant who traveled the Dalles route in 1848, and who wields a pen not less trenchant than Thornton's, treats these incidents of early emigration in a different spirit. "Our cattle stampeded when they were yoked up and were being watched by herdsmen. Many ran off in the yoke that we never saw again. They often stampeded in the night, and once over 400 head were overtaken the next day nearly 40 miles from camp, having traveled this whole distance through an alkali plain, without grass or water. We lost so many cattle this way that many wagons were left in the wilderness. We cut other wagon boxes down to 8 feet in length, and threw away such articles as we could spare in order to lighten our loads, now too heavy for the weak and jaded cattle we had left. Some men's hearts died within them and some of our women sat down by the roadside, a thousand miles from settlements, and cried, saying they had abandoned all hopes of ever reaching the promised land. I saw women with babes but a week old, toiling up mountains in the burning sun, on foot, because our jaded teams were not able to haul them. We went down mountains so steep that we had to let our wagons down with ropes. My wife and I carried our children up muddy mountains in the Cascades, half a mile high, and then carried the loading of our wagons upon our backs by piecemeal, as our cattle were so reduced that they were hardly able to haul up the empty wagon." Adams' Or. and Pac. Coast, 33-4.
    22. The Indian was killed by Jesse Boone, a great-grandson of Daniel Boone of Kentucky, and a Mr. Lovelin, both of whom shot at him. Thornton's Or. and Cal., i. 171.
    23. Whately and Sallee were shot with arrows, and Sallee died. Daniel Tanner of Iowa also died from wounds received in the skirmish, and a Mr. Lippincott of New York City was seriously wounded. Or. Spectator, Nov. 26, 1846.
    24. The road was subsequently changed so as to avoid going round the south end of Lower Klamath Lake, and proceeded by the eastern shore of the lake to Link River a little below the present town of Linkville, from which point the ascent of the mountains is gradual.
    25. Such is Thornton's statement.
    26. The Spectator of the 29th of October speaks of relief parties already sent out to assist the southern immigration; but they were behind that sent by the exploring party.
    27. There is a great effort apparent in this portion of Thornton's narrative to make it appear that his misfortunes, and the sufferings of other belated travelers, were owing to the misrepresentations of the explorers whom he classes with the "outlaws and banditti who during many years infested the Florida reefs, where they often contrived so to mislead vessels as to wreck them, when without scruple or ceremony, they under various pretenses would commence their work of pillage." As this was written after he had been a year in Oregon, and learned the high character of the men who composed the expedition, besides seeing a considerable immigration arrive in the Willamette Valley by the southern route the year following his passage over it, in the month of September, in good health and condition, the vituperative censure indulged in by Mr. Thornton is, to say the least, in bad taste. Certain inaccuracies also in his statement, into which he is led by his desire to cast opprobrium upon the men who opened the road, are calculated to bring him into discredit. For instance, he professes to account for not giving the itinerary of the journey after leaving the California road, by saying that the third volume of his journal was stolen by a person who took charge of some of his property left in the Umpqua Mountains, to prevent the true character of the road being made known. Page 170, vol. i. On page 190 he says: "A very bad Umpqua Indian having, upon a subsequent part of the road, relieved me of my third volume of journal notes of this part of the road, I write from memory only." It may be asked, what interest had the Umpqua Indian in suppressing the journal? and why was one of this untamed tribe sent to take charge of his property?
    28. They were on the western flank of the mountains, a day's drive from the open country, on the 11th of October, the distance thence to the south end of the Umpqua Cañon being about 60 miles, yet they did not arrive at this pass until the 4th of November, the rains having begun on the 21st, when they should have been in the Umpqua Valley.
    29. Thornton's Or. and Cal., i. 222.
    30. Thornton mentions a man suddenly falling dead near the entrance to the cañon; also that a Mr. Brisbane and a child had died at this place; but does not attribute their deaths to their hardships, though he might have said something of the kind without being doubted. A Miss Leland Crowley, who had long been ill, also died, and was buried on Grave Creek--whence the name. Jacksonville Sentinel, May 25, 1867; Dowell's Nar., MS., 9.
    31. On page 235. vol. i., Or. and Cal., Thornton admits that Applegate sent out horses, one of which he had to use, but asserts that the agent who brought them demanded a fine suit of clothes in payment. He admits, too, that the first flour and beef which reached him in the Umpqua Valley, on Nov. 14th, were sent by Applegate; but that he was purposely starved by him, in order that a market might be found for such articles. From the journal of Thomas Holt, who with a French Canadian and five half-breeds went to the assistance of the belated immigrants, it appears that on learning from Thornton and others who arrived in the settlements the condition of those still in the Umpqua Valley, he left the French settlement on the 3rd of December with a band of horses and all the provisions he could gather, Father Bolduc of the mission of St. Paul freely contributing a portion to be given to the needy. On the 5th he met Mr. Goff coming in with a company who had brought their wagons through, and particularly in charge of a Mrs. Newton, whose husband had been murdered by the Umpqua Indians while sleeping at the door of his tent. Minto's Early Days, MS., 39. On the 8th he overtook Moses Harris and three others with horses and provisions, going to the relief of the immigrants. On this day they met three families on horseback and one wagon coming in, whom they supplied with flour. On the 9th they met eight wagons and families, and supplied them with provisions. On the 10th they came to a camp of several families whose teams were exhausted, and on the same day another relief party came up with horses. Next day the Frenchmen and three half-breeds turned back, being afraid if they crossed the Calapooya Mountains they would not be able to return that winter, while Holt and the other two continued. Near the head of the Willamette Valley they found five families unable to go farther, who were assisted to resume their journey by three men from the other relief parties. At the foot of the mountains were three families without food, whose oxen could travel no farther. "It is hard for me to pass them," says the Journal, "but when I know there are helpless families among hostile Indians, I am bound to go and assist them." They received some flour and were left to the mercy of others who might follow with horses. On the summit of the Calapooyas a single family was met on horses, and many dead cattle by the way. At the foot of the mountains on the south side were two families with their wagons, but doubting if their oxen would be able to cross. They were furnished with flour. On the 14th, having come to the north folk of Elk River, five families were found who had neither flour, meat, nor salt, and who were depending upon game, which was scarce. One of the half-breeds killed a deer for them, and they received some flour. (These families were those of Ezekiel Kennedy, Croizen, R. B. Hall, Lovelin, and another.) On the 15th, crossing the forks of Elk River by swimming their horses, and ferrying the packs on rafts of logs, they came to the camp of the families of James Campbell, Rice Dunbar, and Rev J. A. Cornwall. Mr. Campbell, having been to the settlements and returned in company with Harris and his party, brought horses to carry his family and some of his goods back with him. Harris and a Mr. Jenkins remained with these persons to assist them; but there were not enough horses to take Cornwall's family out, and he was left in charge of a considerable property belonging to Campbell. On the 17th Holt met the last company of five families on the south folk of the Umpqua. "They rejoiced very much when they saw us," says the Journal. There had been no flour among them for eight weeks. While busy making pack saddles, four of the precious horses were stolen by Indians. The families relieved at this last point were those of Crump, Butterfield, James Townsend, David Townsend, J. Baker, and Mrs. Butterfield, widow. Those who rescued them were Holt, Owens, Duskins, and Patten--the last three being a part of the company which overtook Holt on the 10th--and the two half-breeds, Baptiste Gardapie and Q. Delore. The 20th all started once more for the Willamette, the natives refusing to grant the use of a canoe to cross the families over the north fork of the Umpqua which was too high to be forded, except they were paid with a gun belonging to Delore. The 22nd it snowed all day; the 24th the empty wagons which were brought to the south branch of Elk River were there left, the water being above the banks. Two oxen were drowned in swimming across. Christmas Day the snow was a foot deep, and no progress was made. Next day they traveled one and a half miles to the north fork of Elk River, where the families of Kennedy, Hall, and others were encamped. These two families had been without food for four days, except a little tallow boiled in water, and Holt proposed to Baker, who had purchased some oxen driven from the settlements, to let the starving people have these, telling him the people of the Willamette would make good his loss. They were accordingly slaughtered and divided between Kennedy, Hall, Croizen, and Cornwall, who had joined this camp; Lovelin having been taken to the Willamette by Barrows of Owens' party. This, the 26th of December, was the first clear day since the 3rd of the month. So many horses having died or been stolen, the lean oxen in Holt's company had to be packed. The first of January the snow was three feet deep in places on the Calapooya Mountains and the weather very cold. The 5th, Holt arrived at the house of Eugene Skinner, the most southern settlement in the Willamette Valley, presumably where the town of Eugene now stands. So frosty was it on the 8th, that the women and children who became wet in crossing streams were almost frozen. The streams, being high from the recent rains, were too deep to ford, and were crossed by swimming the horses and oxen. On the 12th the house of Williams on the Luckiamute River in Polk County was reached, where the company was compelled to remain four days on account of cold and storms. Not until the 21st of January, 1847, did these storm-beaten pilgrims reach the friendly shelter of the settlers' homes in the central portion of the Willamette Valley. Holt and the others who went to their rescue were absent fifty days, and endured great hardships in their service, besides expending some $400 at their own risk, over and above the assistance rendered by other companies. Holt's Journal in Or. Spectator, March 4, 1847.
    32. If this collusion were not sufficiently obvious, we have Thornton's own word for it, who says, in his Hist. Or., MS., 11: "When I came to the country one of the early missionaries said to me, 'You must under no circumstances become counsel for Dr. McLoughlin. Give him no professional advice or assistance; if you do you will be denounced as a Hudson's Bay man, and you will lose caste among our citizens.'"
    33. Or. Spectator, Oct. 29, 1846.
    34. Applegate says: "It is a well-known fact that when it was necessary to meet the Oregon rifle regiment in 1849, then on its march to Oregon, beef cattle could not be driven to Fort Hall by the Snake River route with any beef on their bones; yet the regiment slaughtered at Fort Hall fat bullocks from the Willamette, kept fat by the abundant pasturage of the southern route." Views of History, MS., 49. See Ross' Rept., in Or. Jour. Council, 1857-8, App. 19; Overland Monthly, v. 581.
    35. I find in McKay's Recollections, MS., 2, a reference to the ubiquity of the Americans. He says: "Shortly after my arrival (1844) I was ordered into Oregon to join Mr. Paul Frazer, who had established a station for the Hudson's Bay Company near the mouth of the Umpqua River. Mr. Frazer was alarmed at the influx of American immigrants into his immediate neighborhood from different parts of the United States. Several trains arrived overland during the autumn. On account of this many of the Indians had shifted their location, hunting was neglected, and our business very poor." Herewith I give the names of those belonging to the immigration of 1846, so far as I have been able to gather them:
    Levi Anderson, J. C. Allen, John B. Albright, Elijah Bristow, Elijah Bunton, David Butterfield, John Baker, Hugh L. Brown, Jesse Boone, W. P. Breeding, George William Burnett, J. H. Bosworth, Alvin C. Brown, Orus Brown, D. D. Bailey, G. W. Bell, M. Brock, Sutton Burns, William Burns, Elisha Byrd, William Byrd, sen., William Byrd, jun., L. A. Byrd, Brisbane, Rev. J. B. Baldrauch, Jairus Bonney, Truman Bonney, A. Boon, William P. Bryant, J. H. Bridges, Heman C. Buckingham, Alphonso Boone, Tolbert Carter, George H. Carter, J. S. Church, Jones Cutting, Charles Cutting, Thomas M. Chambers, John W. Chambers, J. L. Collins, John Chamberlain, Samuel Y. Coop, M. Chambers, B. F. Cooper, A. S. Cone, J. M. Currier, Dr. W. M. Carpenter, Stephen C. Cummings, C. W. Cooke, George Law Curry, Henry Croiyers, Crowley, Crabtree, Richard S. Caldwell, Smith Collins, Henry Cooper, William Connel, James Campbell, E. B. Comfort, John W. Champ, Rev. J. A. Cornwall, Crump, Croizen, Conduit, W. Champ, Clopzore, James Cluse, T. Canlo, G. S. Cox, John Coats, Davidson, Dodd, Samuel Davis, William Dodson, Rice W. Dunbar, John N. Durham, Dickinson, Duskins, John Edgar, William Elliott, N. A. Eberman, Milton Elliott, J. Elliott, Gardiner Elliott, Espy, Eastburn, Everest, Abner Frazer, Isaac A. Flint, Jesse Fleming, Nathan Fry, E. C. Fitzhugh, Frederick W. Geer, Rev. A. E. Garrison, Waterman Gale, Laurence Gale, David M. Guthrie, Geddes, Reason B. Hall, John B. Hall, Washington Hall, Rev. Helm, Robert Henderson, Capt. Richard Hoyt, William Hibbert, John Hammond, J. D. S. Hardison, H. H. Hunt, James Howard, J. J. Heath, Mark Hattan, Thomas F. Howard, Joseph L. Hunsaker, Andrus Harper, Calvin W. Ish, William Kirkquendall, Ezekiel Kennedy, Thomas Knight, Henry Knowland, F. Ketchum, Andrew Layson, Harrison Linville, Vanderpool Linville, Wilson Lee, Thomas Linklater, Robert Logan, Geo. C. Lawton, Thomas Leggett, Lovelin, J. W. Ladd, D. H. Lownsdale, A. R. T. Locey, Lord, Long, Luce, A. R. Lancefield, F. Martin, W. Mulkey, S. C. Morris, Joel McKee, Josiah Milorn, H. McDonald, G. C. Motley, Henry Marlin, Richard Miller, W. R. Munkers, McKissick, J. McCormick, Josiah Morin, Laban Morin, John McCord, McGunigale, William C. McClay, T. G. Naylor, Chauncey Nye, Newton, Nealy, Franklin Nicoll, John M. Pugh, William Pringle, Virgil K. Pringle, Truman P. Powers, George C. Preston, William Porter, James Parkinson, James Porter, Piper, Eli Perkins, Charles Putnam, James Nathan Putnam, Thomas Powell, A. Phillips, H. B. Polley, Thomas Purvis, J. W. Pugh, A. Pugh, William Parker, L. C. Rainey, A. B. Rabbison, Thomas M. Read, John Robinson, William Riley, Robey, J. T. Rainey, Walter Ross, Lewis Rogers, F. R. Smith, Henry M. Smith, Towner Savage, James Savage, Charles Stewart, Sallee, William Stokes, Allen Sanders, Levi L. Smith, Thomas Stevens, Felix Scott, Morgan R. Savage, D. E. Savage, William Sheldon, D. C. Smith, H. N. Stephens, G. W. Smith, James Smith, J. S. Scoggin, D. Shumake, A. Stewart, Daniel Stewart, William M. Smith, John Striethoff, Reuben Striethoff, John W. Shrum, N. Shrum, Asa Stone, William Sherley, Carlos W. Shane, R. Slocum, St. Clair, Rev. Wm. Simpson, Benjamin Simpson, Sappington, Sturgiss, Joseph S. Smith, John Savage, Henry Smith, James Stanley, Shelton, R. R. Thompson, J. Quinn Thornton, A. H. Thompson, David Townsend, W. P. Tyrrell, Towler, Thomas Townsend, James Townsend, Lazarus Van Bibber, Martin Vaughn, Vanderpool, William Webb, William Wheeler, C. Wheeler, J. T. Wingfield, R. White, Whately, Joseph Waldo, Charles Wren, A. E. Wait, J. M. Wair, John Williamson, J. B. Walling, Henry Worden, E. Wask, A. C. West, Watkins, Rev. Andrew Zumwalt.
    Robert Henderson was born in Green County, Tennessee, on February 14, 1809, and at the age of 8 years moved with his father to Fleming Co., Ky. In 1830 he immigrated to Mo., where in 1834 he married Rhoda C. Holman, the daughter of John Holman of the immigration of 1843. Here he lived until 1846, engaged in farming and trading in stock, when, in consequence of losses sustained by going security for friends, he determined to remove to Oregon. Well provided with teams and supplies of food and clothing, the first part of the journey was comparatively a pleasant one. But later in the season, in the journey over what is known as the southern or Applegate route, the family suffered great hardship. Mr. Henderson gave away his flour and bacon to those in the train who were in want, until, when he entered the Umpqua Cañon on Oct. 28th, he was reduced to two pieces of the latter and ten pounds of the former. They were five days struggling through this then almost impassable gorge. Much of the way they toiled over and along the bed of the cold, rocky stream with the rain pouring down on them steadily. The two eldest children were lying sick and helpless in the jolting wagon, with a babe that came on the journey only a few weeks before. Soon after they got through the cañon they met some of the Applegate party, with supplies, from whom Mr. Henderson and Mr. Collins bought a beef weighing about 700 pounds for $60 in cash. This left Mr. Henderson with $2 and one ox team and wagon to begin life with anew. He settled on the South Yamhill, where in due time he obtained a grant of a section of land under the donation act, which he still owns, and where he and his three sons have made the handsomest farm in Oregon. Mr. and Mrs. Henderson are still living, surrounded by their descendants to the third generation, and honored and beloved by all who know them. They have eight surviving children, who are all married, and among the most respectable people of the country. Their oldest child, Lucy Henderson, was married to Matthew P. Deady, since United States district judge, on June 24, 1852.
    Elijah Bristow migrated from Ky. to Ill. after the war of 1811-12, in which he was a soldier, fighting under Johnson at Talladega, and afterward in Tenn. He came to Cal. in 1845, wintering at Sutter's Fort. In 1846 he removed to Oregon, and took a land claim at Pleasant Hill, in Lane Co., being the first settler in that co. He was a liberal and just man, respected by all. He died Sept. 1872, aged 73. P.C. Advocate, Oct. 3, 1872.
    Reason B. Hall, born in Ga., 1794, removed to Ky., 1802, to Ind., 1811, and to Oregon in 1846, settling where Buena Vista now stands, of which town he was proprietor. He died Dec. 13, 1869, Salem Statesman, Jan. 29, 1870.
    John Williamson settled in West Chehalem, Yamhill County. Mrs. Williamson was a daughter of Nathaniel M. and Mary Martin, and was born in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, Aug. 29, 1825. She removed with her parents to Indiana, and from there to Missouri while still a child. She was married April 30, 1846, and started soon after for Oregon. She died May 18, 1872. Id., May 30, 1872.
    F. R. Smith, born in Rochester, New York, in 1819, went to Oregon in 1846, and settled near Salem. He was a vigorous man physically and mentally; and was a member of the state legislature in 1876. Salem Statesman, Oct. 14, 1876.
    Smith Collins settled near the Luckiamute River, in Polk County, and died in 1870. Mrs. Collins, who was a daughter of Douglas Wyatt, an early settler in Missouri, was born near Mount Sterling, Kentucky, January 12, 1812, and removed to Missouri at the age of 12. She married Dec. 24, 1830, and with her husband went to Oregon in 1846. Excessive grief over his loss hastened her death, which occurred April 29, 1872. She was the mother of 12 children, 10 surviving her, 8 of whom were sons. It is mentioned as an instance of filial affection that all these children agreed in not opening their father's will during the lifetime of their mother, lest they should deprive her of the use of a part of the estate. The eldest son was J. L. Collins of Polk County. Portland Advocate, May 16, 1872; Dalles Republican, May 11, 1872. Smith Collins was born in Virginia in December 1804, emigrated to Missouri in 1828, and to Oregon in 1846. Dalles Republican, March 26, 1870. J. L. Collins, eldest son of Smith Collins, was 15 years of age when he came to Oregon. In 1855 he was employed as reporter in the legislature of the state. He belonged to the regiment of Colonel Cornelius in the Yakima war of 1856. In 1859 he was admitted to the practice of law at the Dalles. He was chief clerk of the house of representatives in 1864. Salem Statesman, May 7, 1866.
    John Coats, one of the earliest settlers of Douglas County, and whose home was about 10 miles from Roseburg, died suddenly while walking, in the summer of 1876. S.F. Call, June 19, 1876.
    Samuel Davis died at his home in Yamhill County, Feb. 28, 1875. Monmouth Christian Messenger, March 6, 1875.
    D. H. Good was born in Pennsylvania, June 19, 1818. On arriving in Oregon in 1846, he settled near Oregon City, where he resided till his death, September 18, 1871. Oregon City Enterprise, Sept. 22, 1871.
    John Robinson settled in Benton County in 1846. Mrs. Robinson was born in South Carolina, Feb. 14, 1792, married in 1815, and died Aug. 27, 1878. Corvallis Gazette, Sept. 6, 1878.
    John Baker settled in Benton County. Mrs. Baker was born in East Tennessee, in 1801; married in 1821, and removed to Missouri in 1843, whence she emigrated with her husband in 1846. Mrs. Baker died Nov. 27, 1877, at Corvallis, where her son William R. Baker resided. Id., Dec. 7, 1877.
    Rev. J. A. Cornwall was born in Georgia in 1798. He lived in the southern and western states till 1846, when he joined the Oregon emigration, taking the southern route, and wintering in the Umpqua Valley. In 1865 he removed to Ventura County, California. He was a Cumberland Presbyterian, and a minister for 53 years. He died January 2, 1879. His son, Rev. J. H. Cornwall, is a resident of Eugene City, Oregon. Eugene State Journal, Jan. 18, 1879.
    J. T. Rainey, in 1851, with his brother, L. C. Rainey, purchased of Wm. Mosgrove, for a horse, a squatter's right to the land on which the town of Roseburg was afterward laid out. The only improvement on the land was a pile of newly cut logs for a cabin. The brothers erected a frame house, and sold the land to Aaron Rose, who laid it off in lots and blocks, long residing there. J. T. Rainey removed to the Rogue River country, where he settled on a farm in Sams Valley. Roseburg Western Star, Nov. 14, 1879.
    James Campbell was born in Greenville, Kentucky, April 6, 1807. He emigrated with his parents to Missouri at an early age, and to Oregon in 1846, spending the early part of the winter of 1846-7 in the Umpqua Valley with the belated immigrants of that season. He settled near Salem, but in 1859 removed to Puget Sound, where he resided 7 years, when he returned to Salem. He died on the 31st of July, 1873, leaving the memory of a good man. Salem Statesman, Aug. 5, 1873.
    Virgil K. Pringle and Pherne T. Pringle emigrated from Warren County, Missouri, to Oregon in 1846, and settled in Marion County. A son, Albra Moffett Pringle, born in Missouri in 1834, died at Seattle, Washington, June 21, 1876. Virgilia E. Pringle Smith, born in Missouri, June 7, 1828, married Fabritus R. Smith of Salem, September 1, 1847, and died December 3, 1875. Portland Advocate, Dec. 23, 1875; Id., Sept. 21, 1876; Salem Farmer, Dec. 16, 1875.
    Andrew Zumwalt and Elisabeth Zumwalt, his wife, settled in Polk County in 1846, where their son Isaac continued to reside. Andrew Zumwalt was a deacon in the Methodist church. Mrs. Zumwalt's maiden name was Fraser. She was born July 17, 1792, in Kentucky, and died September 10, 1878, at her son's home, near Lewisville, Polk County; her husband preceded her. Portland P.C. Advocate, Sept. 26, 1878.
    Hugh L. Brown emigrated from Tennessee, and settled in Linn County. The town of Brownsville on Calapooya Creek is named after him, and owes much of its prosperity as an agricultural and manufacturing place to Mr. Brown's ability and example. Portland Weekly Standard, Feb. 20, 1880.
    Alphonso Boone, a great-grandson of Daniel Boone of Kentucky, with his family, was a member of this emigration. His daughter, Chloe Donnely Boone, married George L. Curry, afterward governor of Oregon Territory. Curry's Biography, MS., 4.
    W. P. Breeding settled at Salem, and put up the first blacksmith's forge there. He served in the Cayuse war under Colonel Waters. In 1850 he returned to Missouri to bring to Oregon his father and in the following year was married, and removed to a farm in Lane County, near the present town of Junction City. In 1875 he removed to Whitman County in Washington, where he erected a flouring mill and made other improvements, at the same time laying off the town of Palouse City on his land, at the falls of Palouse River. Mr. Breeding was a genial man, his head as white as snow, with "keen, kindly blue eyes and rugged features on which the glow of health" was stamped. Nichol's Indian Affairs, MS., 17, 18.
    George William Burnett was born in Nashville, Tennessee, October 18, 1811. At 6 years of age he removed with his parents to Missouri, and was married in that state to Miss Sidney A. Younger in 1831. He settled in the autumn of 1847 on a land claim in Yamhill County, where he resided till his death in December 1877. He was a brother of Peter H. Burnett, a religious-minded, exemplary man, and useful citizen. In 1868 he was elected to the state legislature. Or. Pioneer Assoc., Trans., 1877, p. 74; Burnett's Rec., 182.
    Ezekiel Kennedy was born in Kentucky in December 1789, but removed to Frankfort at an early age. He built the statehouse in that city in 1817. His wife was Fanny Thurston of Shelbyville, Ky., whom he married about this time. In 1834 he removed to Missouri, and in 1846 to Oregon in the southern branch of the immigration, being one of those who were detained in the Umpqua Valley. In the spring of 1847 he settled in Yamhill County, where for a number of years he remained and occupied offices of public trust and honor. He finally settled at Dallas where he died June 11, 1869, leaving a widow and 4 children. Dallas Times, June 26, 1869.
    Frederick W. Geer, with his wife Mary Ann and 2 children, settled on the west bank of the Willamette, opposite the present town of Butteville. The family was increased after arriving in Oregon to 10 children. Like others of this name in Oregon, Mr. Geer achieved success in his undertakings. Portland Oregonian, May 20, 1876.
    Towner Savage was born in the state of New York in 1801. He removed to Kalamazoo Co., Mich., and thence to Oregon, and settled in Marion County. He died at Salem, March 3, 1871. Salem Statesman, March 4, 1871.
    David Colver settled 14 miles east of Salem, where he continued to reside until his death, December 31, 1874, at the age of 80 years. Salem Statesman, Jan. 9, 1875.
    James Smith, born in Virginia in 1802, settled in Polk County, Oregon, in 1846, where he died March 25, 1872. Dalles Republican, March 30, 1872.
    James D. Fay came to Oregon, an orphan, in 1846. He possessed good talents, and studied law under A. A. Skinner and Judge Thayer of Corvallis. He married a daughter of Jesse Applegate; but his politics and conduct being obnoxious to her family, there was unhappiness. She died, and he married Miss Rosa Young of Jacksonville. He had a son by his first and a daughter by his second wife. He committed suicide at Empire City in Coos County, June 4, 1879. Portland Oregonian, June 7, 1879.
    James T. Crump, whose father opened the first store in Salem, and died about 1864, was born in Missouri and emigrated with his parents in 1846. He was a young man of promise, but committed suicide in February 1870, a few months after his marriage, on account of disappointment in not securing a business situation. He had two brothers, one of whom is William R. Crump, and two sisters, living in Salem. Or. Statesman, Feb. 25, 1870.
    Wilson Lee settled on the Little Luckiamute in Polk County. "Mrs. Lee was married while en route to Oregon in June 1846. She died July 14, 1872, at Dallas, aged 47 years. Dalles Republican, July 20, 1872.
    Rev. A. E. Garrison settled in Yamhill County. His wife, Margaret Garrison, died at Salem, August 29, 1870. She was born in Pennsylvania, March 26, 1813, emigrated with her parents to Indiana, was married at the age of 17 to Mr. Garrison, and in 1846 accompanied him to Oregon. She was the mother of 14 children, only 9 of whom outlived her. Portland Advocate, Oct. 1, 1870.
    Rice Dunbar was born in Ohio, February 6, 1802. While a young man he removed to Illinois, where he married Jane Miller Bisbin, January 22, 1830. Together they emigrated, and settled in the Waldo Hills. His wife died in 1868. He died in September 1870. Id.
    Martin Vaughn emigrated from Indiana. He lived on the Naches River, Washington; one of his daughters married a Gibbs. Id., March 27, 1873.
    Andrus Harper and his wife, Eliza, settled in the Tualatin plains. A daughter married L. P. Pratt in 1854, removed to Wasco County in 1871, where she died April 17, 1873. Id., May 1, 1873.
    Mrs. Cynthia Howard was born in Kentucky, October 19, 1810; removed early in life to Illinois, was married in 1828 to R. R. Howard, and with him crossed the plains and settled in Oregon City, where she resided the remainder of her life. She was the mother of 10 children, two of whom were Methodist ministers. She died August 20, 1877. Id., Aug. 30, 1877.
    Rev. John Howard, son of R. R. and Cynthia Howard, married Miss Jane E. Wingfield, daughter of J. T. Wingfield, in November 1854. She was born in Missouri, July 19, 1840, and died January 1, 1876, leaving 4 children. Id., Jan. 13, 1876.
    J. W. and A. Pugh lived for several years in Yamhill County, but afterward settled in Linn, where they married. Mrs. John Pugh, their mother, was born in Virginia, October 1, 1791; removed with her parents to Kentucky, and was there married to John Pugh, about 1818, who was killed by lightning 2 or 3 years afterward, leaving her with 2 boys. After the death of her husband Mrs. Pugh removed with her children first to Illinois and then to Iowa, and finally they brought her with them to Oregon. She died January 23, 1872. Id., March 21, 1872.
    Joseph Waldo was born March 19, 1805, in Harrison County, West Virginia. Thence he first emigrated to St. Clair County, Missouri, and from the latter place to Oregon in 1846. He was a brother of Daniel Waldo, but unlike him he was of a religious turn of mind, and a generous supporter of the Willamette University, of which he was a trustee, and other Methodist institutions. He died while on a visit to Clarksburg, West Va., Nov. 24, 1871. Id., Feb. 8, 1872.
History of Oregon, Vol. 1, Hubert Howe Bancroft, ed., San Francisco 1886, pages 542-572

Last revised March 4, 2024