Arrivals, Incidents and Anecdotes
Joseph Kinnison came to Powder River valley in July and took up a ranch where he
has ever since resided. To him belongs the honor of plowing the first furrow
ever turned in Baker County. In the spring of 1863 he had about forty acres in
cultivation. About the first of June there was a severe frost and all growing
vegetables seemed to be thoroughly frozen. Mr. Kinnison offered to take fifty
dollars for his crop but found no buyer. He was most agreeably surprised to
find, when the frost was gone, that no serious damage had been done, and that
season he sold nearly four thousand dollars worth of produce from the forty acre
lot.
Mr. Hibbard and family from Umpqua valley settled
at the foot of the mountains on a claim adjoining Mr. Morrison's and Messrs.
Worley, Spillman, Creighbaum and others took claims in the vicinity. Strother
Ison took up a claim on Pine creek where he continued to reside until his death
which occurred in the year 1889. Jerry Shea took up a claim south of Ison's
which he afterwards sold to Hardin Perkins who has lived upon it ever since.
About the same time James Akers located the claim upon which he still resides.
George Ebell settled near the foot of the mountains where he has made one of the
best farms in the valley. Mr. Campbell settled on Powder River, near where.
Baker City now stands, and resided there until his death in 1889.
Thomas McCurren took up a claim near Pocahontas, and
other claims were located in different parts of the valley. Express ranch and
Miller's ranch on Burnt river were taken up in the fall of 1862.
With the arrival of immigrants from the Western States in the later part of
August and first of September, Auburn began to grow rapidly and in a short time
it was estimated to have a population of four to five thousand. Every available
spot was claimed and buildings were rapidly put up until the town extended down
Blue canon nearly a mile. Several new stores, blacksmith shops, a livery stable
and a number of saloons were opened for business. All the houses were built of
logs, as there was no lumber to be had except what was sawed with whip-saws, and
as it cost one hundred dollars per thousand feet, was too expensive to be used
except for floors and finishing.
Mr. Leveredge came to Auburn about the first of
October, bringing the machinery for a sawmill with him from Portland. I. Bowen,
sen. bought an interest and they set it up in lower town and began sawing lumber
about the middle of November, reducing the price of lumber to sixty dollars per
thousand feet. The next spring they removed their mill to the Boise mines, and
Carter and Davidson started a small waterpower mill on the hill east of Auburn.
Leveredge and Bowen's mill was the first saw mill built in Baker County.
About the first of September there was a meeting or
election of some kind at which O. H. Kirkpatrick was appointed a member of the
legislature from the proposed new county of Baker, to gain admission as a member
if possible, and failing in that, to do what he could for the people of this
part of the state. Mr. Kirkpatrick was not admitted to a seat in the house, but
got an act passed to incorporate the city of Auburn. On his return to Auburn he
found there was considerable opposition to the measure, and at a public meeting
he made a speech in defense of his acts. He was listened to with respectful
attention and at the close of his speech, a resolution, offered by Mr. Packwood,
approving of what he had done, was adopted. Thereupon a man took the speakers
place and stated that he was opposed to incorporating the city, but if it had to
be done he wanted the office of marshal, and was proceeding to state his
qualifications, when interruptions began, the noise subsiding only when he
ceased trying to speak, and being renewed again when he made another attempt;
but he was persevering and continued at each opportunity to utter a word or two
until some one extinguished the lights and the crowd dispersed and what the
man's qualifications for the office of city marshal were, remained unknown to
all but himself.
Nevertheless, a city government was established. James Materson was elected
marshal, his official bond in the sum of two hundred and fifty dollar, given,
with J. H. Williams and E. B. Moore, sureties.
O. M. Rowe was recorder, official bond five hundred dollars. S. McFadden and E
B. Moore, sureties.
Isaac Hascal, city attorney, official bond five hundred dollars. S. A. Clarke
and A. Heed, sureties.
Jeremiah Dooley, treasurer, official bond one thousand dollars. Geo. W. Hall, J.
R Totman, and J H. Williams, sureties.
Mr. Norcross was elected mayor and Daid Johnson, A. C.
Loring, John H. Williams and two other councilmen.
The business of the country, the style of living and
the manners of the people, were in a great measure, strange to newcomers and
many amusing anecdotes are told about their mistakes and misapprehensions. Of
course, they had never lived in a county where timber was free for anyone who
wished to make use of it, and it is related that Tom Law got some hundreds of
cords of wood cut by letting contracts to men for one half of what they cut. Mr.
Dooley, who arrived with Mr. Bowen the 8th of September, tells his experience
and first lesson in timber cutting, with evident enjoyment now, although at the
time it happened there was no fun in it, for him at least. Soon after his
arrival he set about building a house as others were doing, and providing
himself with an ax, went to the nearest timber and felled a tree with great
labor, he not being accustomed to the use of an ax. About that time a man came
to him and forbade him cutting any more, stating that the timber was his own.
Mr. Dooley politely apologized and assured the gentleman that he had not
intended to trespass, etc., and left for home thinking he would be more careful
another time and not cut a tree down without getting the owner's consent. At
camp that evening he learned that he had as good right to all the timber he
needed as anybody else, and no man in the country had authority to forbid him
cutting any trees he might desire to use. The next morning he went back to his
fallen tree determined to make house logs of it. The same man who had called
upon him the day before, came again and ordered him to quit cutting timber,
whereupon Mr. Dooley promptly and emphatically directed the aforesaid man to a
country which is reported to have a climate hotter than that at Aupleburn, and
went with his work without further interruption.
The experience of a certain young lady on her first
arrival in the country afforded much amusement to her friends, herself enjoying
the joke as well as any of them. Her brother-in-law, her sister and herself had
come from Omaha, and arrived at Washington ranch one evening, the encamped for
the night intending to go over the hill to Auburn eight miles distant, the next
day. The young lady had heard that Auburn was a city containing five thousand
inhabitants, a more populous city than Omaha was at that time, and she naturally
felt somewhat anxious about her appearance when she should come into the city.
Accordingly she overhauled her trunk and attired herself in the Omaha fashion as
it was when she left town. Her sister and herself walked up the hill to spare
their jaded team, and after arriving at the top the young lady continued on
ahead of the team and came to a house back from the road a little way. Quite a
number of men came out of the house, no doubt surprised at seeing her traveling
alone, and looked at her with what she considered an impudent stare. The
building was the storehouse of Ira Ward, and she noticed the sign over the door
which was simply I. Ward. Coming to a cabin a few rods further on she stopped
and asked for a drink of water. This was soon offered to her by a tall fine
looking man who apologized for offering it in a tin cup stating that they had no
other kind of drinking vessels. The young lady assured him there was no need of
an apology, as she had used no other kind herself for the past six months. After
drinking the water and passing the cup back again, she inquired how far it was
to the Second Ward of Auburn. Glancing at the sign over the store door, the man
burst into a laugh and told her it was about four miles to the second Ward. Ira
Ward had a son, Samuel, living at Auburn, remembered by old residents as a
spruce young beau of the period, and some time afterwards, at a party he was
introduced to the young lady as the second Ward of Auburn.
In July 1862, several families came to Auburn. Mrs.
Love being the first woman in the town, although a number of others came
immediately afterwards. Mrs. Lovell and Mrs. Rackerby and daughter being of the
number. Dr. Rackerby built the Pioneer hotel, the first hotel in Auburn, a log
building of two stories. Mrs. Love kept a boarding house for two or three years
when the family removed to Goose creek in Lower Powder river valley where she
died.
C. M. Foster came to Auburn in June and during the
summer, fall and winter was engaged in mining and exploring the Country. R. A.
Pierce and family came in September from Wisconsin, and J. H. Slater and family
from Southern Oregon. Mr. Slater bought an interest in the claims of the Jones
Brothers on Blue canon believing that a few months of hard work would restore
his failing health, and for some years he worked in the mines when not
professionally engaged.
Another of Baker County's substantial citizens is
Thomas Smith. Born in Yorkshire, England, in 1817, he came to the United States
in 1842 and settled in Wisconsin where he was married to Tamer F. Hartley, a
native of Pennsylvania; moved to Missouri in 1863 crossed the plains, arrived at
Auburn in October, where he established himself in the boot and shoe business to
which he added a stock of general merchandise in 1886. In 1870 he quit the
mercantile business and engaged in stock raising which has been his principal
occupation ever since. Mr. Smith succeeded Mr. Able as Justice of the Peace in
1863, and held the office during eighteen of the twenty-four years of his
residence at Auburn; he was also postmaster and clerk of the Auburn school
district for the same length of time. In 1866 he removed to Baker City where he
still resides. He has been a member of the city council and Justice of the Peace
in the latter city, making forty Years service in the last named office in
Oregon and Wisconsin. In 1891 he went to England on a visit, but says he felt he
was an American when there. He is now seventy-five years of age, and, excepting
occasional attacks of rheumatism, enjoys good health and could doubtless
complete a half century of service as Justice of the Peace. Quiet and
unobtrusive in manner, he has never been a office seeker, but when called upon
to assume official responsibility, has always attended to the duties of his
position to the satisfaction of concerned. Mr. Smith has a wooden safe made of
whipsawed lumber in 1862, which he says he will donate to the Pioneer Society of
Baker County.
D. B. Schofield came to Auburn in 1862 with a small
stock of goods with Mr. Thompson as a partner. In 1864 they dissolved
partnership, Mr. Thompson withdrawing from the firm and Mr. Schofield continuing
the business for several years finally closed out and removed to Baker City. He
served as county commissioner four years and subsequently was county judge for
four years. Recently he removed to Josephine County.
In September 1862, the citizens of Auburn were
shocked at the announcement that two men had been poisoned with strychnine. They
lived together in a tent, having lately arrived from Colorado, and one morning
when eating breakfast, one of them was suddenly seized with violent pains. The
other one hastened to summon Dr. Rackerby, and on his way back, halted at a
spring to take a drink of water, whilst the doctor went on to the tent, and
immediately announced that the man had all the symptoms of being poisoned with
strychnine and asked Mr. Littlefield and two or three others who had been
attracted to the spot by the cries of the sick man, to hasten to the spring and
look after the other man. Hurrying forward, they found him in convulsions lying
in the spring where he had fallen. They carried him to the tent where the doctor
administered anecdotes to the two men, but was too late to save the life of the
one who was first attacked. The other one recovered.
Some one took a piece of bread from the table and threw
it to a dog standing before the tend door, and soon after eating it he was taken
with convulsions and died in a few minutes.
The doctor examined the contents of a sack from which
the flour of which the bread was made and evidently been taken, and found
therein some small crystals of strychnia. It was plain that the men had been
poisoned with strychnine, and that the poison had been put into the flour with
murderous intent, and suspicion immediately fell upon a Frenchman with whom they
had quarreled. The Frenchman threatening them with vengeance at some future
time. He was arrested, and public opinion demanded that he be tried in Auburn.
The only legally organized seat of justice east of the Cascade mountains at that
time was The Dalles, two hundred and fifty miles distant and it was apparent to
all that the purpose of the law could not be served by sending him there for
trial. The best citizens of the town took the matter in hand and in a few days
organized a court by appointing Mr. Able, judge, James McBride and W. H.
Packwood associates justices, Shaw and Kelley attorneys for the people, and
George Hall, sheriff, Pierce and Grey appeared for the prisoner. A jury was
empanelled and the trail conducted in accordance with the forms of law. The jury
returned a verdict of murder in the first degree and he was condemned and
executed.
The ability and integrity of the court and officers
could not be questioned. The whole business from first to last, was conducted
with a deliberation dignity and fairness worth of any tribunal organized in a
strictly legal form. Had the same men been selected for their several positions
by the same constituency at a regular election and all the formalities of the
law been observed throughout, their action in the matter could not have been
different, and had there been a legally constituted government with officers at
hand to enforce the law, they would have been the last men in the community to
attempt to assume charge of the affair in any manner in the least infringing
upon the prerogative of the proper officers.
The conduct of Matt Bledsoe on the occasion, is worthy
of notice as showing how little hope there was of the law being enforced if the
prisoner were sent to The Dalles for trial. Bledsoe was a kind of leader of a
gang of roughs that infested Auburn at that time, at least he was the most
prominent as far as bluster and noise could make him so. He aspired to be a
desperado, but was deficient in the essential quality of courage, both animal
and moral, and knowing that he was liable to be arraigned at any time before a
citizen's court or a court of law, he would naturally prefer the one which would
afford the best chance of escaping the penalty of any crime he might commit.
Hence he denounced the court and all who had anything to do with the Frenchman's
trial, becoming all at once greatly concerned for the sanctity of the law. After
the execution of the Frenchman, Bledsoe was called upon by two different men,
each one challenging him to repeat to his face something he had said elsewhere,
but in neither case would he do so, even getting down on his knees at the demand
of one of the men, and recanting what he had said. His favorite way of
blustering was to ride his horse into a saloon and call for liquor, and then
ride rapidly up and down the street, making people run out of his way. That same
day he received the lessons alluded to above, he rode down upon an Irishman in
the street who did not run, but tapped the horse with his cane and stopped him.
Bledsoe muttered some threats and turned his horse and rode back some fifty
yards, when he wheeled about and rode at the Irishman again and met with the
same kind of reception the second time. Bledsoe threatened the Irishman again,
with his hand on his pistol as if about to draw it and shoot, but seeing the man
was not in the least intimidated and was daring him to make a hostile movement,
he turned and rode away to domineer over some one who would not resent it.
From the spring of 1862 until the middle of the summer
of 1863 letters and newspapers were brought from Walla Walla by express men.
Letters were delivered for one dollar each, and newspapers sold for one dollar
per copy. Mr. Mossman was probably the first one on the line, though Rockfellow
and Burnett were both in the business soon afterwards, yet competition did not
reduce the charges.
J. M. Shepherd came to Auburn about the first of July,
and engaged in mining for a few weeks without obtaining enough to pay expenses.
Late in July he received two letters for which he paid the usual price, and
after reading them and reflecting for a few minutes on what they had cost him,
he went into the street and mounting upon a stump, announced that on the next
Wednesday, the first of August, he would engage in the express business, and
carry letters to or from Walla Walla for fifty cents apiece.
He left Auburn on his first trip at 1 o'clock a.m. with five hundred letters,
and arrived at Walla Walla at 9 p.m., being twenty hours on the road, getting
ahead of Burnett twelve hours. The latter crossed the Blue Mountains by the
Meacham route whilst the former crossed on a trail from the lower end of Grande
Ronde valley where Linkton and Woodward road was afterwards built. Shepherd
returned with five hundred letters and a number of newspapers which he sold for
fifty cents apiece. Burnett drew off soon after that, leaving it all to Mossman
and Shepherd between whom there was a lively competition. It happened one
evening that Shepherd and Kinney, who was carrying express matter for Mossman,
stopped at Morrison's ten miles from Auburn, and put up for the night. Before
daylight the next morning Shepherd quietly departed and was in Auburn selling
papers by the time Kinney had started from Morrison's.
In 1863 Shepherd had extended his operations until he had a through line to the
Boise mines stocked with twenty-six horses. On one of his return trips from
Boise he was approached on the Payette River by a man whom he took to be a
robber, and held his shotgun in position for immediate use if it should be
necessary to shoot. "What are you going to do with your gun?" asked the
stranger. "Shoot, if its necessary." Shepherd answered. "Oh, well there's no
necessity for that, I don't mean to trouble you," the man replied still coming
nearer, and Shepherd recognized him as the notorious robber, French Charley or
California Charley as he was sometimes called. Shepherd had known him years
before when Charley was a drayman in Sacramento, Cal., and in answer to a
question of Charley's, told him that he had seventy pounds of gold dust in his
pack. Charley then informed Mr. Shepherd that he did not rob men who were
working for a living, but only rich men or rich companies like Wells, Fargo &
Co.'s express, and told him that if he fell in with any of the boys just tell
them that French Charley said they must not molest him. Shepherd proceeded on
his way, and when near the Weiser River saw the light of a campfire in the dusk
of evening. Riding up to the camp some half dozen guns were presented at him and
he was ordered to halt. Realizing his situation in a moment he told them of
French Charley's order, when the guns were withdrawn, and he was welcomed to the
camp. He spent the night with the outlaws and the next morning went on his way
with his seventy pounds of gold dust. In the fall of 1863 Wells, Fargo & Co. had
their arrangements made to carry letters and packages to all the principal
points in the upper country and Mr. Shepherd sold out to them for three thousand
dollars.
The road in those days was beset with robbers who plied
their vocation unmolested by officers and travelers were also in constant danger
of being attacked by roving bands of Indians. Such were the perils express men
and others had to encounter thirty years ago.
Thirty-one Years in Baker County, Isaac Hiatt
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