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One
of Baker County's early pioneers and daring Indian scouts was C. C. Davis,
better known, perhaps, as Lum Davis.
Mr. Davis was born in Greencastle, Putman County, Ind.,
February 20, 1836. When quite young he moved with his parents to Iowa and in
1862 came to Baker County, Oregon. Went to Portland in the winter and returned
in '63 and spent part of the summer on Burnt river; and back to Snake river in
the fall.
For some years Mr. Davis spent most of his time at Rye
Valley and Mormon Basin, mining part of the time and part of the time scouting
after Indians and recovering stolen stock. He used to work at mining in exposed
situations with a Henry rifle swung on his shoulder. In 1865 he was engaged as a
scout with Captain Stanford's command.
On one of his excursions after stolen horses, being
separated from his two companions, he suddenly came upon two Indians and was
within a few feet of them when they saw each other at the same moment. The
nearest Indians asked if there were any more white men, intending of course if
there were to play the game of 'me good Indian.' Davis swung his revolver up to
a level with his face, seemingly in a careless manner, and pointing beyond the
Indians, said: 'Don't you see them?' Both Indians turned, and a moment after
they were what the people of Idaho used to call 'good Indians' His encounter
with the two Indians on Dixie creek is narrated elsewhere. He was very
successful in recovering stolen stock, and during the time that Indians were so
troublesome, he was an acknowledged character. In the Indian war of 1878, he was
employed as a scout under Miles and Howard.
Mr. Davis was married in 1881, and lives near Snake river in Connor Creek
precinct, where he has a fruit orchard, and some mining interests, and is also
engaged in the stock raising business.
Another citizen of the county who has occupied a
prominent place in affairs is Wm. H. Packwood, Sr. He was born in Jefferson
County, Illinois, October 23, 1832. His father came from Virginia to Kentucky,
thence to Illinois where he was married in 1831. When William was quite young
the family moved to Sparta, Randolph County, where he attended school until he
was twelve years old. His mother died that years (1844) and for six years he was
occupied working on a farm in the summer and clerking in a store in the winter.
In 1848 he enlisted in a rifle regiment and the next year was sent, with
twenty-four others under Captain Morris, to California, as an escort for General
Wilson who had been appointed superintendent of Indian affairs on the Pacific
coast. M. P. Deady came with the same company, and on Goose Creek General Joel
Palmer joined them and returned home, he having been with the escort going east.
The company crossed the Sierra Nevada Mountains the 24th day of October, and
arrived at Hangtown with 19 men. At Hangtown gold had recently been discovered.
The company went on to Sacramento, at that time a city of tents, and Mr.
Packwood had a severe spell of sickness. The soldiers nearly all deserted, and
those who remained wintered at Sonoma, where General Joe Haoker, then a Colonel,
was tried by a court martial. Mr. Packwood was appointed orderly sergeant at the
trial. Of the army officers present who afterwards won distinction in the civil
war, were Gen. Halleck, Gen. Pleasanton, Gen. Hooker, Gen. Lyon, Gen. Wessels,
Gen. Casey, Gen. Percifer Smith and Gen. Page. What reflections that array of
names awakens.
In April 1850, Packwood came with his company to the
Columbia River in a vessel commanded by Captain McArthur, the father of Judge L.
L. McArthur. The company was at Vancouver till the next year when they were
ordered to Benicia, Cal., where they arrived in May and remained till August.
Packwood was then sent with an escort for an Indian agent who was visiting the
coast and Northern California Indians. Returned to Benicia and in December 1851,
the company was ordered to Port Orford, Oregon, and were shipwrecked near Coos
Bay, January 3, 1852. The company made their way to Port Orford, cutting what
was called the seven devils trail through the timber, reaching their destination
in May. Packwood was then transferred to the 1st. Dragoons, and served as
quartermaster sergeant. He received his discharge in 1853, and engaged in mining
on the beach and packing goods, until the Indian war of 1855-56, when he entered
the service again, serving as captain of a company fifty-three days, and as
orderly sergeant during the remainder of the war. In 1857 he was sent as
delegate to the constitutional convention from Curry County. He was afterwards
clerk for a while at Stiletz Indian agency, and then went into partnership with
Abbott in stock raising.
In 1861 Abbott undertook to drive their cattle to
Salmon River but failed to cross Snake River, as related elsewhere, and that led
Packwood finally to the Powder River mines. He was one of the founders of the
town of Auburn in 1862, where he was engaged in selling goods for some time, and
was one of the foremost men in the ditch enterprise of the Auburn Water company
and also the Clarks creek ditch in 1863. From 1865 to 1867 he was a member of
the Burnt River Toll Road, Bridge and Ferry Company, and then began construction
of the Eldorado ditch in which he was engaged until 1870. Disposing of his
interest in that ditch he began building the Eagle creek ditch in Union county.
Mr. Goodrich attempted to survey a route for a ditch in 1863, but pronounced it
impracticable to build on account of the perpendicular cliffs which he
encountered. Mr. Packwood employed Foster as surveyor and succeeded in locating
a practical route, and the work of building was begun. In 1872 he sold the
uncompleted ditch to Bowen & Cranston by whom it was finished at a total cost of
$90,000.
He had an interest in the quartz mine at Sanger which
he sold in 1874, and from that time until 1887 he was in charge of the Eldorado
ditch, and was elected recorder of Baker City in 1888, which office he has held
ever since.
A. H. Brown, another pioneer of 1862, was born in East
Feliciana Parish Louisiana, January 25, 1823. Served in the Mexican war under
Gen. Taylor, and came to California in 1849 and to Auburn, Baker County, July 4,
1862. After a short stay in Auburn he went to Walla Walla and returned in the
fall with a stock of goods to sell on commission. He opened the first store in
Baker City in 1865, in charge of a clerk and the next year closed out at Auburn
and moved to Baker where he continued in the goods business until he sold to
Bowen & Cranston in 1870. Mr. Brown was one of the directors of the Baker City
Academy started in 1869 and in 1870 was elected state senator, and in 1874 was
elected state treasurer. At the expiration of his term in 1878, he returned to
his farm in Powder River Valley, where he resided engaged in stockraising until
1890, when he moved to Baker.
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