Tag Archives: John McLoughlin

EWING YOUNG – WHISKEY, CATTLE EQUAL A NEW STATE

Posted on by
Reply
Oregon White Oak marks the grave of Ewing Young in the Chehalem Valley.
Oregon White Oak marks the grave of Ewing Young in the Chehalem Valley.

Ewing Young lived a life of adventure. A major figure in the fur trade in the Far Southwest both as a trapper, but mainly as a leader. He migrated to the Oregon Country in 1834, where Young amassed a land claim of some 50 square miles. In his life, he figured big, but it was his early death at the age of 41 in the winter of 1841 for which he is best remembered. Dying without known heirs, local settlers came together to figure out how to settle his estate. That process is considered a germinal moment in the eventual founding of a local government in the divided Oregon.

Continue reading →

HUDSON’S BAY COMPANY – HBC – DISAPPEARS IN THE OREGON MISTS

Posted on by
Reply
Kristi Cameron, of Metis ancestry, presents George Simpson in his canoe - Gathering Hall Exhibit of the Ontario Legislative Hall, Toronto.
Kristi Cameron, of Metis ancestry, presents George Simpson in his canoe – Gathering Hall Exhibit of the Ontario Legislative Hall, Toronto.

One of the cool things a king – or queen – in an absolute monarchy can do is to give away land. So popular, democracies have tried similar editions of their own. One of the largest giveaways happened in British North America where King Charles II gave away lands within the drainage system of Hudson’s Bay. That included lands within the James Bay drainage since James is simply a bay off the main Hudson’s. He gave them to a group headed by his cousin Prince Rupert in 1670. The HBC many exclaimed as an “empire within an empire.” 

Continue reading →

CHAMPOEG – MYTHOLOGY LIVES STRONG WITH A SELF-GOVERNMENT PREMIERE

Posted on by
Reply
The 1901 memorial stone with the 1918 Pioneer Memorial Building behind at Champoeg State Park.
The 1901 memorial stone with the 1918 Pioneer Memorial Building behind at Champoeg State Park.

Mythology – a popular belief or assumption that has grown up around someone or something; one of the definitions of the word.  Synonyms include “legend”, “tradition”, “lore”, “legend”, “knowledge”, “wisdom”, “folktale” and “anecdote” among other words. These words go a long way in describing the events at Champoeg, Oregon on 2 May 1843 and how those events lie remembered in our minds today.

Continue reading →

THE GREAT REINFORCEMENT – AMERICAN PUSH TO GAIN THE OREGON TERRITORY

Posted on by
Reply
The Lausanne which carried members of the Great Reinforcement to the Oregon Country.
The Lausanne which carried members of the Great Reinforcement to the Oregon Country.

With a non-Native American population numbering in the low hundreds in the 1830s, the long-simmering struggle for control over the vast Oregon Country began its inexorable swing towards the United States.  Methodist missionaries doubled down on their numbers at their Willamette Mission sited a few miles north from today’s city of Salem along the Willamette River.  The Great Reinforcement brought fifty-one men, women and children from New York City all the way to the Hudson’s Bay Company fort at Vancouver. 

Continue reading →

SECRET AGENTS TO THE OREGON TERRITORY – TOO LATE IN THE GREAT GAME

Posted on by
Reply
Canoe voyageurs passing a waterfall - painting by Frances Ann Hopkins 1869.
Canoe voyageurs passing a waterfall – painting by Frances Ann Hopkins 1869.

The United States and United Kingdom came to an agreement in 1818 in which they would share sovereign rule over the Oregon Country.  Oregon’s borders came into reasonable shape in the next couple of years with an agreement between Russia and the US followed by one between Russia and England demarcating the northern border to be at the point of 54°40’ latitude.

Continue reading →

CHARLES WILKES – AMERICA TAKES AN INTEREST IN THE OREGON COUNTRY

Posted on by
Reply
Tomb of Clatsop Chief Concomoly known to Lewis & Clark - drawn by Alfred T. Agate.
Tomb of Clatsop Chief Concomoly known to Lewis & Clark – drawn by Alfred T. Agate.

A long time in planning, preparing and recruiting, the United States Exploratory Expedition finally sailed out from Hampton Roads, Virginia, 18 August 1838, under the command of Navy Lieutenant Charles Wilkes en route for Madeira.  The six-ship squadron would spend the next four years at sea moving around the world, exploring, charting and discovering.  During their voyages which took them to six of the seven continents – they only missed Europe.  In 1841, the ships visited the Oregon Country.  An adjunct to their scientific missions was to visit Oregon to report on specific conditions there as American interest in those lands were on the upswing. Only one official American probe ventured into the Oregon Country previously.

Continue reading →

MAGIC OF CHRISTIANITY – THE METHODIST MISSION TO OREGON

Posted on by
2
Scene from Henry Eld Jr.'s Encampment on the banks of the Willamette with the Methodist Mission on the opposite side of the River - 1841 Oregon Territory - Yale Collection.
Scene from Henry Eld Jr.’s Encampment on the banks of the Willamette with the Methodist Mission on the opposite side of the River – 1841 Oregon Territory – Yale Collection.

Most stories – articles or books – discussing the Methodist Mission of Jason Lee to Oregon which lasted from 1834 until 1843, start with the same story.  The story of four Native Americans who came to St. Louis to ask Missouri governor William Clark – yes, the same “Clark” of the Lewis & Clark fame – for teachers to provide them with the power of white man’s religion. Of the Native Americans, three were of the Nez Percé tribe and one was a Flathead elder.  The two tribes were both neighbors and friends.  They reached St. Louis early in October 1831, soon after meeting with Governor Clark, also the superintendent of Indian Affairs.

Continue reading →

WILLIAM SLACUM – AN AMERICAN “SPY” CHECKS OUT THE OREGON COUNTRY

Posted on by
Reply
USS Potomac at anchor in Valparaiso harbor, Chile.

William Slacum joined the US Navy in the summer of 1829 at the age of 30. Two years later, he served as the purser aboard the USS Potomac. A naval purser served as a supply and financial officer aboard ships. He acted both as the maintainer of ship’s pay and muster roles but also ran a ship’s store from which a sailor’s pay would be deducted for articles of clothing or luxury items like tobacco, sugar, tea or coffee. Purser positions were highly sought after. The title of purser in the American navy would change in 1860 to paymaster. Today, they men and women officers belong to the Pay Corps of the navy.

Aboard the Potomac, he spent four years circumnavigating the world. In December 1833, Slacum found himself posted as Special Agent of the Pacific Squadron in Valapraiso, Chile. This gave him time to recover from a bout of trigeminal neuralgia – tic douloureux. His posting was subject to confirmation from Washington, which he failed to obtain when the Navy appointed someone else to fill the post.

Continue reading →

FRENCH PRAIRIE – CATHOLICISM COUNTER TO THE METHODISTS

Posted on by
Reply
Graves of Etienne and Maurgerite Gregoire in the St. Louis Cemetery.
Graves of Etienne and Maurgerite Gregoire in the St. Louis Cemetery.

Canadian trappers were among the first non-Native Americans to spend extended periods of time in the nascent Oregon Country during the early years of the 19th century. Most were French speakers from rural Lower Quebec. Many took on Native American women as their wives. Common law marriages and the resultant children failed to receive recognition from either British law. Catholic priests ventured out slowly behind the trappers to bring a modicum of religious stability to those living beyond the pale of society. Most of the retired trappers settled on what is today the French Prairie.

Continue reading →

ARTISTIC ESPIONAGE IN THE NORTHWEST – HENRY JAMES WARRE

Posted on by
Reply
Falls of the Peloos River Henry J. Warre - note the Natives dressed in Plains Indian garb.
Falls of the Peloos River Henry J. Warre – note the Natives dressed in Plains Indian garb.

The Royal Army in 1845 sent out Lieutenants Henry James Ware and Mervin Vavasour to evaluate American presence in the Pacific Northwest and British ability to militarily respond. The political crisis brewing since the late 1830s responsible for Warre’s mission across the North American continent, however, dissipated by the time Warre returned to Britain. 

Continue reading →