Happenings
On
Wednesday, May 11, 1870, the first number of the Bedrock Democrat was issued-the
first newspaper published in Baker County Abbott & McArthur, proprietors. The
editor in his address to the public promises devotion to the interests of the
people of Eastern Oregon in all things pertaining to the material interests of
the people, and fidelity to the Democratic Party in political matters.
In the editorial columns the public debt and other political questions of the
time are discussed. In the local columns the different mining camps of the
county all receive a notice.
The miners at Auburn were jubilant over their
prospects, and in the Shasta district it was announced that the waters of Camp
Creek had just been turned into the Burnt River ditch to be conveyed to the
Eldorado diggings. From Rye Valley it was reported that Webber & Co. made a
clean up the week before which averaged two hundred dollars per day, and Green
and Archambeau cleaned up an average of ninety dollars per day. At Mormon Basin
Mr. Copeland had picked-up two nuggets the week before worth fifty and sixty
dollars respectively. The quartz ledges in the Granite Mountains are spoken of
as having attracted much attention the previous fall.
Mention is made of the Baker City post office having
lately been made and designated a money order office by the postmaster general.
On the 20th of April the democratic central committee had filled the vacancy on
the ticket caused by Hon. L. L. McArthur resigning the office of county judge to
accept the nomination for circuit judge. J. D. McFarland, of Auburn, was chosen
for the position.
The return of S. Ottenheimer from a visit to Europe is mentioned as also his
intention of engaging in the mercantile business in Baker City, having a stock
of goods then on the day from the east.
B. Whitten had been appointed circuit judge for the unexpired term of Judge
Wilson, resigned.
It was also announced that H. Bamberger would shortly open an extensive
mercantile establishment in the city.
Under the heading, Treasure Shipment, it was stated
that the total shipments of gold for the month of April amounted to fifty
thousand seven hundred and eighty dollars.
In the advertising columns of the first number appears
the names of the following persons who are here, or were until recently, J. W.
Virtue, broker; R. A. Pierce, L. O. Sterns, I. D. Haines, attorneys; Dr. T. N.
Snow, physician and surgeon; Reid of the Western hotel; Reynolds and Ferguson,
of the express store; McCord Bros., blacksmiths; McCrary and Tracy, variety
store; J. W. Wisdom, druggist; Dr. Snow, City drug store.
Dr. J. M. Boyd gives notice that he has positively
withdrawn from the practice of medicine, and A. H. Brown announces that he has
sold his stock of goods to Messrs, Bowen & Cranston.
In the second number issued the 18th of May, is a notice of a week of wintry
weather, winding up with a snow storm on the 16th' it is also announced that J.
L. Armstrong had established a brickyard a quarter of a mile north of the city.
The pioneer stage line had reduced the time from
Umatilla to Boise to three days. L. O. Sterns was appointed county judge, by
Governor Woods, for the remainder of the term of L. L. McArthur who had resigned
his office to accept the nomination for circuit judge. June 1st, mention is made
of the large nugget of gold taken from the claim of S. A. Caldwell & Co., at
Gimletville, weight 247 oz. 18 pwts., 8 grs., value $3966.64. On the 29th of May
there was a snow storm all over the valley whereupon the editor was much
disgusted with the poets' who sing genial spring, its balmy breezes and budding
trees,' &c.
In July 1870 Abbott & McArthur dissolved partnership
the latter retiring from the business and Abbott continuing the publication of
the Democrat as sole proprietor.
With No. 12, Vol. 3, August 1, 1872, M. H. Abbott
retired from the management of the paper and J. M. Shepherd assumed control as
editor and proprietor, and the commencement of Vol. XI, May 5, 1875, announces
that his son, H. C. Shepherd is associated with him as partner, and December
15th, 1880, announced that his connection with the paper ceased, having sold out
after eight years and four and one half months of editorial labor, and
thereafter it was issued by the Bedrock Publishing Company, I. B. Bowen, Jr.,
and J. T. Donnelly, local editors, until April 1, 1882, when there was a partial
change of ownership and thereafter it was published by J. T. Donnelly & Co.,
until the 9th of May, 1887, when it was purchased by Bowen & Small, who have
continued the weekly Democrat and in addition have published the morning
Democrat a daily paper for the past six years. The office of the daily and
weekly Democrat is supplied with an improved steam Cottrell press, job press and
everything complete for a news and job printing establishment, the plant valued
at about ten thousand dollars. A day and night force, altogether twelve persons,
are employed in the mechanical department, whilst the proprietors attend to the
editorial and business affairs personally. The weekly has a circulation of about
twenty-five hundred copies and the daily about twelve hundred, both being
liberally patronized in the way of advertisements. The yearly business of the
establishment amounts to fourteen or fifteen thousand dollars.
From 1872 to 1876 the Herald was published by R. B.
Boyd & Co., when it was discontinued, and for four years the Democrat was the
only paper published in the county.
In 1882 the Tribune was established, G. W. Plumley,
editor and publisher and in 1888 was sold to the
Oregon Blade Publishing company and the Oregon Blade, daily and weekly, was
published by that company until the latter part of 1892 when the daily was
discontinued.
In April 1892 the publication of the daily and weekly
Enquirer was begun by the Peoples Publishing Company, and in the following July
the daily was suspended, and in August the plant was partially destroyed by fire
necessitating the suspension of the weekly.
In October 1880, the first number of the Baker Reveille
was issued by M. H. Abbott & Sons. In 1882 M. D. Abbott became sole proprietor,
and began the publication of a daily edition which was continued until 1890. The
paper was published regularly for a period of twelve years under one management,
as an independent democrat. A strong independent movement being organized in
1892, with the determination of starting a paper, Mr. Abbott disposed of the
plant to the Peoples Publishing company in April of that year, retaining the
books and name of the Reveille himself. M. H. Abbott the senior partner died in
Tacoma, July 4th, 1885, after a short illness. M. D. Abbott is still in Baker
City, conducting an exclusive job printing business with Mr. J. G. Foster, under
the name of Abbott & Foster.
In the spring of 1863, the Indians began to commit
depredations, their first act being an attack upon a packer of the name of Mr.
Porter at the crossing of Powder River on the trail leading to Clark's creek. He
was shot through the neck but escaped into the willows and finally reached
Auburn and recovered. All his animals were driven off.
In June of the same year John Thompson was herding
horses for the citizens of Auburn, having a corral on Poker flat in which he
kept them at night. During the term of circuit court he had charge of the horses
which Judge Wilson and several attorneys and others from below had ridden to
Auburn, and one night the Indians raided the corral and drove the entire band of
horses away.
During the summers of '63 and '64 horse stealing by
Indians was very common throughout the country from Snake River to the
headwaters of Burnt and Powder Rivers. There were good reasons for believing
that there were white men in the business also, operating with the Indians,
besides the white men who stole animals without any such co-operation. At that
time no efforts were made by citizens in different places to pursue and
recapture stolen animals. It was such a common thing to hear of horses being
stolen, that a report of loss of the kind created no excitement.
In the summer of 1864 Mr. Conant and another man left
Clarks creek to go to Auburn. When about two miles from Burnt river on Auburn
gulch they were fired upon by Indians and Conant's companion fell from his horse
badly wounded. Conant dismounted and placed the wounded man on his own horse
and, leading the other horse, escaped the Indians shooting at him all the time.
Very few men would have had the nerve to remain with a disabled comrade under
such circumstances.
When J. W. Virtue was sheriff he was returning from a
tax collecting tour at Clarks creek and Mormon Basin, with about fifteen hundred
dollars worth of dust, when he encountered a party of Indians on the summit of
the mountains between Burnt and Powder rivers. He was going around the point of
a bluff and came close upon the Indians, and taking his revolver in his hand he
waved it at them, indicating that he wanted them to turn out of the trail. This
they did quickly, no doubt thinking there were more white men near. They were
driving some stolen horses and seemed anxious to get away as fast as possible.
After Mr. Virtue had passed the place some three hundred yards he thought he
would turn about and stampede the Indians and recover the horses. He rode after
the Indians with that intention, and when near enough to start stampeding the
process, it seemed to react upon himself, as he did the stampeding act with the
Indians in hot pursuit for about three miles sending bullets whistling through
the air about him. When he relates the incident now, he laughs at the notion he
entertained of frightening Indians away from stolen horses.
In the spring of 1867, a Mr. Richardson was crossing the mountains in a wagon
from Rye Valley to Burnt River. About two miles from the river an Indian was
concealed on a rocky point near the road, and shot at Richardson when he came
opposite the point. The wagon was just on the brink of a steep decent in the
road, and at the instant the Indian fired, Richardson leaned forward quickly to
seize the brake lever, and by that act his life was saved, the bullet passing
very close to his back. He sprang from the wagon and fled down the gulch to
Burnt river leaving his team to take chances with the Indians, but the horses
made their way safely to the river.
In the month of February 1868, B. F. Koontz, started
from Auburn to his home on Burnt River. Mr. Bowen who was then living at Auburn
advised him not to make the attempt during such stormy weather as it then was,
but Mr. Koontz was confident he could cross the mountains between Powder river
and Burnt river safely on snowshoes as he was well acquainted with the route. He
was out all that day and the night following, and at dawn of day the next
morning became completely exhausted when near enough to his home for his calls
for help to be heard by his wife. Some persons went in search of him, and found
him lying on the snow, his hands and feet badly frozen. He was taken to the
house and some hours afterwards died from the effects of the exposure. It
appeared from such account of the trip as he was able to give, that he lost or
broke one of his snowshoes, just after he crossed the summit of the mountain,
and that he tried to travel with only the one shoe for a while, and then
abandoned it, and tried wading through the snow for some distance, but finding
it too wearying, he turned back to recover the abandoned snowshoe, but failed to
find it. Turning towards home again he managed, by wading through the snow part
of the time, and crawling on his hands and knees on top of it part of the time,
to get near enough to his home to make himself heard. Mr. Koontz was an
enterprising and honorable business man, highly respected by all who knew him.
It was he who first proposed to build a toll road
across the mountains from Baker City to Burnt river at Bridgeport.
The road was afterward built by a company of which Dr.
Boyd was a member and principal stockholder. The road was known as the Boyd toll
road until June 1871, when John Dooley bought Boyd's interest, and the name was
changed to the Dooley road. Mr. Dooley remained in possession until 1889, and
then sold it to the county and it became a public road.
Thirty-one Years in Baker County, Isaac Hiatt
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