Volume IV.]
DECEMBER, 1903
[Number 4
By William Alfred Morris.
The true student of history, when confronted for the
first time with a statement of what purports to be an
historical fact, weighs at the outset, as all-important, the
evidence of its accuracy. If there be at hand no means
of verifying the statement, the only ground of assurance
is a knowledge of who is speaking, how likely he is to
know the truth, and how well fitted he is to tell it; for
to be a writer of accurate history one must not only know
facts, but must also be truthful, and so far above bias
upon his subject as to be able to treat it fairly, openly,
and without false coloring of any part. It is therefore
the first canon of historical criticism to accept as authority
no statement unless it be known who is making that
statement.
The greater our interest in a given subject, the more
important to us becomes the question of the authority for
all statements concerning that subject. As the field of
history is narrowed down to a single state or to a single
locality, where every man may to a certain extent be an
historian, an anonymous written account, though excellent
in itself, will still be viewed with suspicion. The
fact that there is a good local knowledge of the subject by no
means removes the necessity of determining authorship.
Fortunate it is for the Pacific States and Territories of
the United States that data concerning their history from
its beginning were collected during the lifetime of men
who laid the foundations of these commonwealths. It is
then a matter of the highest importance to the people of
this vast empire to know who wove this material together,
and wrote the only attempt at a full and connected history
of the Pacific Coast which has ever been published.
The completion of the Bancroft series of Pacific Slope
histories, to which reference is here made, marks an
event unique in the annals of history writing. At no
other time and in no other land has there been carried to
completion a work of like character and magnitude. There
had previously been written a few histories of Oregon
and California covering a certain period, and designed
chiefly to give a treatment of a certain institution or political
subject, but so far as the thorough working up of
the whole ground was concerned, a virgin field presented
itself.
Moreover, the undertaking was an unusually inspiring
one. It was none other than that of tracing from the days
when Europeans first trod the Pacific shores of America the
sequence of events by which these lands were acquired
and occupied by their present holders, political governments
organized, and the development of resources entered
upon; in short, it was the following up of the successive
steps by which the institutions and industries of
a nineteenth century civilization were established in a
western wilderness. When we remember that the greater
part of this record could at the time of writing be made
from information furnished directly by the men who
made this history, and that the lack of material which
so often embarrasses the writer could not here be a cause
of complaint, we may well conclude that such an opportunity
had never before fallen to the lot of the historian.
Again, in the vast collection of historical sources into
one place, as well as in the newness of the field and inspiring
nature of the work, the undertaking presents a
most remarkable feature. The projector of this enterprise
was the first on the coast to undertake such a collection
on a large scale. This fact, together with the recency
of many of the events, which both rendered an
unending number of eye-witnesses easily accessible for
procuring personal narratives, and likewise caused those
who possessed papers and books throwing light upon
history, to set slight value upon them, enabled Mr. Bancroft
to collect a library of material such as on the beginning
and early chapters of Pacific Coast history in all
probability can never again be equalled.
Finally, in the amount of material which it presents,
and in the extent of ground which it covers, the Bancroft
series has attained epoch-making proportions. So closely
related is the history of the Pacific states and territories
of the United States to that of the regions north and south,
that to insure a complete understanding of it required the
writing also of the History of Mexico, Texas, and Central
America, as well as that of British Columbia and Alaska.
When we learn that two thousand different authorities
were consulted in writing the History of Central America,
and ten thousand in arranging the material for the History
of Mexico; that in taking out material for the History
of California eight men were employed for six years;
and that in merely indexing the material for the History
of Mexico five men worked ten years, we are inclined to
quote approvingly these words of Mr. Bancroft:
"I say, then, without unpardonable boasting, that in
my opinion there never in the history of literature was
performed so consummate a feat as the gathering, abstracting,
and arranging of the material for this History
of the Pacific States": (Bancroft's Literary Industries,
581).
The history of no American locality would be considered
without some account of its aborigines. The result,
then, of this Bancroft plan has been the writing of the
History of the Pacific slope of the continent from Bering
Sea to Darien, with a History of the Native Races in five
volumes as an introduction, and a half dozen volumes of
sketches and essays by way of conclusion, in all thirty-nine
octavo volumes.
But this work, the greatest of the kind, few if any of
whose separate divisions have been superseded by later
works has suffered greatly in the estimation of historians
because they do not know who is authority for the statements
contained in them. Justice to the people of any
state or territory whose history appears in this series demands
that they should know in whose words it is related.
A compliance with the reasonable expectations of the pioneers
who contributed books, narrations, and documents
to aid in the preparation of a standard history of their respective
states calls for a public knowledge of the identity
of the writer to the end that the volume in which their
chief interest centers be not stigmatized as anonymous.
And above all, a conformity with usage, not to mention
an observance of the principles of right, requires that the
author of finished work published in this series, or any
other, should receive public acknowledgment of his labors
and whatever of praise or blame is his due.
Ten years ago it was shown in the California press
that the Bancroft histories are not the works of the man
who claims to be their author. But to say that "The
Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft" were written by any
person other than Hubert Howe Bancroft is such a contradiction
as to startle today the great majority both
East and West whose attention have never been directed
to the question. To determine the authorship of a work
we are wont to consult its title page, and the title pages
of these volumes all declare that they are "By Hubert
Howe Bancroft." The advertising matter sent out by
the Bancroft publishing establishment refers to them as
"the writings of Mr. Bancroft," with never a suggestion
that any other person wrote a line. The same course was
followed in the reviews of these volumes, which at the
time of their publication were scattered by the press
throughout the length and breadth of the leading countries
of Europe, as well as in our land, although here
we must remember that book reviews may be but another
name for advertising matter prepared by the publisher
and inserted at advertising rates. In his Literary Industries,
the volume giving an account of his literary activities,
Mr. Bancroft refers to himself as the author (Lit. Ind.,
361, 661), and speaks of his own writing without a clear
reference to that of others (Lit. Ind., 288, 568, 571, 653)
in such terms as to give the impression that he was the
only writer who prepared the manuscript as it went to
the printer. True, he mentions assistants, and we can
easily see, as he tells us, that he must have had fifteen
or twenty note takers, cataloguers, and other library aids
(Lit. Ind., 582) in order to arrange so vast an amount of
material. When assistants are mentioned it is usually in
words which justify the reader in the inference that these
aids are meant (see Central America I, preface, viii; Literary
Industries, 584), and that, therefore, the assistants
are in no sense authors.
By a careful reading of the Literary Industries, however,
we find that there was a class of assistants who are
differentiated from ordinary library aids, by the statement
that they were "more experienced and able," and
whose work Mr. Bancroft describes as "the study and
reduction of certain minor sections of the history which
I employed in my writing after more or less condensation
and change": (Lit. Ind., 568). But even this passage
seems to indicate that the material prepared by these
writers was rewritten by Mr. Bancroft.
As a result, therefore, of the indication of the title
page of these works, of the recognition of the public
press, of the statements of the Literary Industries, and of
Mr. Bancroft's connection with the work widely known
through personal means, it happens that today he is
called the "Historian of the Pacific Coast." Furthermore,
he is the only person to whom such a title is given,
being so recognized by newspapers, encyclopedias, and
the people at large. In the minds of the great number,
Hubert Howe Bancroft is the historian of the Pacific
states for just the same reason that George Bancroft is
the historian of the United States. Speaking in accord
with this popular estimate of Mr. Bancroft's work, Wendell
Phillips once called him "The Macaulay of the
West."
Nowhere, however, can there be found a statement by
this historian in which he lays an unequivocal claim to
the authorship of the works which have been published
under his name. By his own words quoted above he admits
that the work was, at least in part, coöperative, and
that he was a compiler of the work of his assistants. And
for any one man to assert authorship of the Bancroft
series of histories would be preposterous. According to
actual computation, the mere work of arranging the material
and writing the History of the Pacific States, after
a small army of note-takers had concluded their operations,
represents an equivalent to the labors of one man
for a hundred years: (Frances Fuller Victor in Salt Lake
Tribune, April 14, 1893.) Moreover, the use of quotations
from foreign languages, of which Mr. Bancroft had
no knowledge, proves that parts of the work are not from
his pen, while the different literary styles (see for example,
the review of Oregon I in the New York Tribune,
Nov. 26, 1886; in the S. F. Argonaut, Oct. 23, 1886; in
the Sacramento D. Record-Union, Oct. 27, 1886; and in the
Portland Oregonian, Oct. 28, 1886), and varying degrees
of historical workmanship (Compare reviews of Oregon
II in N. Y. Tribune, January, 1887; and in S. F. Chronicle,
Jan. 13, 1887, with reviews of other Bancroft works)
clearly reveal the work of a number of writers.
A little knowledge on this point has proved a dangerous
thing for the reputation of the histories. Some of
the newspapers of the coast have learned that Mr. Bancroft
did not do all the writing and have even published
the names of other authors of the series with statements
more or less conjectural as to the writing done by
them. In some cases, wild speculations as to the authorship
of the works have been published. Many are under
the impression that those who went about taking statements
of pioneers and in other ways collecting material
were themselves writing the manuscript which was published,
and that consequently much of the history is no
more critically written than an ordinary newspaper article,
and as little known about its authorship. Furthermore,
it is believed in some quarters that those who prepared
narrations for Mr. Bancroft were writing history
for him to publish, and that persons not connected with
the Bancroft library were authors of parts of the work.
In accordance with this idea, it has been claimed that a
certain tone favorable to the Mormons which runs
through the History of Utah is to be accounted for by
the theory that the volume was written by some one connected
with the Mormon church, whereas the truth is
that, although the historian of that church prepared some
data for Mr. Bancroft's use, the work was prepared in
the library by Mr. Bancroft and one of his assistants
from the annals in his possession (Frances Fuller Victor
in Salt Lake Tribune, April 14, 1893).
In some instances, the histories have lost standing because
of the assumption that Mr. Bancroft was their
author. Thus statements in the History of California
supposed to be, but now known not to be from his pen,
have been singled out as reckless, and argument has been
made upon the principle "false in one thing, false in
all," that the seven whole volumes of California history
are unworthy of credence (pamphlet proceedings of the
Society of California Pioneers in reference to the histories
of Hubert Howe Bancroft, page 10). Following this
lead an attempt has been made to discredit Bancroft's
Oregon on the ground that his California is said to be
unreliable.
Had Mr. Bancroft made public the fact that three persons
besides himself wrote the History of California, that
he was in reality the author of but sixty pages in the entire
seven volumes of that set, that he had not the least
claim to the authorship of the History of Oregon, and
that the histories of the two states were in the main
written by different persons, the fallacy of this argument
would have been clear, estimates of the collections of
matter in these volumes would have been made on their
own intrinsic merit, and their value would not have been
impaired by false assumptions concerning their authorship.
A third result of this neglect of Mr. Bancroft to make
public acknowledgment of the extent of the writings of
his assistants has been the accusation "that he is a purloiner
of other peoples' brains," (Salt Lake Tribune, Feb.
16, 1893) and that he has made a reputation as an author
at the expense of his assistants. Concerning this charge,
the most remarkable ever made in the annals of American
historical writing, the reader must be the judge after
weighing all the facts.
The writer's apology for this article is his desire to
give such facts as he has in the hope that they will do
something to clear up mistaken ideas concerning the
authorship of these histories, that they may aid somewhat
in forming a correct estimate of the series, and that they
may secure for the other authors as well as for Mr. Bancroft
whatever credit is rightfully theirs. To these ends
it is to be hoped that those who have any additional facts
will make them public. The late Frances Fuller Victor,
one of the Bancroft corps of writers, had long collected
material on the authorship of the histories. In preparing
this paper, the writer has depended largely upon information
furnished by her correspondence and papers,
and by explanations given by her in conversation.
The statement of Mr. Bancroft in the Literary Industries
to the effect that his "assistants" merely wrote up
minor topics which he then used in his own writing, must
be taken as applying to the work as projected rather than
as actually carried out. In a letter written in 1878 before
the final division of labor was made, Mr. Bancroft
said, "When all the material I have is gone over and
notes taken according to the general plan, I shall give
one person one thing or one part to write, and another
person another part": (Letter to Mrs. Victor of August
1, 1878.) Here, it will be observed, the plan is for the
"assistants" to do the actual work of writing history and
not to prepare material for their chief to use in his writing.
And it will shortly appear that it was the "assistants"
who wrote the work and Mr. Bancroft who wrote
the minor parts. To understand why the intended order
was thus reversed, it is necessary to study the growth of
the history project and to enter into the steps through
which it was evolved.
Hubert Howe Bancroft, with whose name these works
are linked, and who has been widely credited as their
author, is a native of Granville, Ohio, where he was born
May 5, 1832, a descendent of old New England families
through both the paternal and maternal lines. In his
own account of his life (Literary Industries, 47-244),
he tells us that when but three years old he could read
the New Testament without having to spell many of the
words. At the school age, however, he found it difficult
to learn, and after a winter at the brick schoolhouse under
the tutelage of a brother of his mother, the latter became
satisfied that he was not treated judiciously and fairly
took him out of school.
A sister had married George H. Derby, a bookseller of
Geneva, New York, subsequently of Buffalo, and at about
the age of fifteen, the boy was offered the choice of preparing
for college or entering the Buffalo bookstore. He
at first chose the former course and spent a year in the
academy of his town, but becoming discouraged in his
study, entered the employ of Derby in August, 1848.
Discharged from the store in six months, he returned to
Ohio and acted as a sales agent for his brother-in-law's
goods with such success that he was invited back to the
store and became a clerk with the beginning of the year
1850. His father, influenced by the gold excitement,
decided to go to California in February of that year, and
with George L. Kenny, his closest friend, he was sent by
Derby to handle books in the land of gold, setting out in
December, 1851.
After their arrival in San Francisco, Sacramento was
determined upon as a place of business, and young Bancroft
worked in the mines until arrangements could be
made with his brother-in-law. But Derby's death in the
meantime ended the plan, and in 1853, he set out to try
his fortune at the newly-boomed mining town of Crescent
City. Here he was employed as bookkeeper and bookseller,
and made six or eight thousand dollars, most of
which he subsequently lost through investing in Crescent
City property. In 1855, Mr. Bancroft made a visit to his
old home in the East, and his sister, in return for his
assistance in recovering the amount of Derby's California
investment, let him have the sum, amounting to $5,500,
with which to begin business. Obtaining credit in New
York he shipped a ten thousand dollar stock of goods for
San Francisco, and with Kenny organized the firm of
H. H. Bancroft and Company about December 1, 1856.
From the first, Mr. Bancroft tells us, he had a taste for
publishing, and it was but three years until the inception
of what grew into the historical project. In 1859, Wm. H.
Knight, manager of the Bancroft publishing department,
while employed in preparing the Hand Book Almanac
for the next year, asked for the books necessary to carry
on the work. It occurred to the head of the firm that he
would again have occasion to refer to books on the coast
states, and he accordingly transferred to Mr. Knight a
copy of each of the fifty or seventy-five books in stock
that had reference to the country. Later he added to the
number by purchases in second-hand stores, and when in
the East secured from the bookstores of New York, Boston,
and Philadelphia, volumes which fell under his observation.
By 1862, he had a thousand volumes, and
upon a visit to London and Paris in that year, learned
that much more remained to be done. In 1866, he started
on a search throughout Europe, which resulted in increasing
his collection to ten thousand volumes. As to the
field covered by these works, he says:
"Gradually and almost imperceptibly had the area of
my efforts enlarged. From Oregon it was but a step to
British Columbia and Alaska; and as I was obliged from
California to go to Mexico and Spain, it finally became
settled in my mind to make the western half of North
America my field": (Lit. Ind. 180). He now began the
collection of Mexican works and the purchase of private
libraries in the United States. In 1869, after ten years'
collecting, the library numbered sixteen thousand volumes,
about half of which were pamphlets. In May of
the next year, these were placed on one floor of the Bancroft
building on Market Street, and a young New Englander
named Henry L. Oak, lately editor of a religious
journal published by the firm, was installed as librarian.
(The main facts of Oak's life, as learned by Mrs. Victor,
are as follows: Henry Labbeus Oak was born at Garland,
Maine, in 1844. His ancestry—including the
family names of Oak, Merriam, Hastings, Hill, and
Smith—was entirely American from a period preceding
the Revolutionary War, being originally English and
Welsh. He was educated at the public and private
schools of his native town until, in 1861, he entered
Bowdoin College, and was graduated at Dartmouth in
the class of 1865. During his college course, he taught
in the public and high schools of different towns in
Maine; and after graduation, for a year in an academy
at Morristown, New Jersey.
Mr. Oak came to California by steamer in 1866, and,
after some attempts at commercial life, broken by a long
illness, again became a teacher. A year was spent as
principal of the public school at Haywards, and as instructor
in the collegiate institute at Napa, and in the
spring of 1868, he became office editor of the Occident, a
Presbyterian paper which the Bancroft house was then
publishing for an association. According to Mr. Bancroft
(Lit. Ind. 219), "the whole burden of the journal
gradually fell on him." But when, owing to a disagreement
with the religious association, the firm declined to
publish the paper any longer, the young editor was left
without employment. In the meantime a somewhat
erratic Englishman named Bosquetti had succeeded
Knight as custodian of the Bancroft library, and Oak
was appointed to assist him. Upon his decamping a few
months later, at the end of 1868, Mr. Oak was appointed
to the position.)
The beginning of a classification of the material in the
library had been made by Mr. Knight, who saved clippings
and arranged them in scrap-books and boxes. It
now became Oak's duty to superintend the extraction of
material from the volumes in his custody and to catalogue
new books as they came in. In May, 1871, he prepared
for publication by the firm, two guide-books for tourists.
It was at the same time that Mr. Bancroft took another
step toward the history plan.
The plan of publishing a Pacific Coast encyclopedia
had been under consideration for a year or two, and was
now adopted. Mr. Bancroft began to look for contributors.
John S. Hittell, publisher of the Commerce and
Industries of the Pacific Coast, prepared a list of the
principal subjects to be treated, and Oak began to gather
statements from pioneers and contributors of every sort
by issuing circulars and writing letters. For about a
year the preparations continued. During the first half
of 1872 Ora Oak, a younger brother of the librarian,
together with others, extracted material on Pacific Coast
voyages and travels. Walter M. Fisher, an educated
young Englishman who came to the library early in the
year, wrote out such travels as those of Bryant, Bayard
Taylor, and Humboldt. The librarian, finding inadequate
the system of indexing the library then in use, set
to work to devise a more practical one, and spent three
months in bringing it to perfection. This was apparently
the only part of the year's work which proved
abiding.
That the material in the Bancroft library was better
adapted to the preparation of a history than of an encyclopedia
gradually appeared to those who came in contact
with it. (Walter M. Fisher was born in Ulster in 1849,
and was the son of a Presbyterian clergyman, a member
of an English and Scotch colony. He was educated at
Queen's College, Belfast. Nemos remembered him as
"a handsome fellow, a great eater, and a hard worker."
Together with Harcourt, he left Bancroft's employ in
1874 to accept the editorship of the Overland Monthly.
Returning to London in 1875, he published a clever work
entitled the Californians. Subsequently he became a
physician). After several years of suggestion, discussion,
and change, Mr. Bancroft decided to reshape the
entire plan of work accordingly. The history of the Pacific
slope of the continent was to be written, beginning
at the Isthmus of Panama with the first appearance of
the Spaniards, and then taking up the successive regions
to the north as their history had its beginning. This
work, embracing an account of all the various republics,
provinces, states, and territories along the Pacific, it was
decided to designate as The History of the Pacific States.
Heretofore, Mr. Bancroft had been known only as
bookseller and publisher, and manager of one of San
Francisco's large business houses. His experience in
writing had been limited to the preparation of some material
for the proposed encyclopedia. But now, when he
had reached the age of forty years, practically all of
them except the first sixteen, spent in the world of business,
the head of the firm of H. H. Bancroft and Company
made his first venture as a literary man, writing
himself and rewriting the work of others. He began by
preparing what he considered a suitable introduction to
the history. The task was not easy, especially for one
unaccustomed to write. In fourteen weeks he had taken
out material from which he wrote three hundred pages
of introduction to the History of Central America which
he subsequently reduced to seventy-five pages. This
seems to have been the only part of the work that he considered
as exclusively his own theme: (Lit. Ind., 291).
But this matter subsequently had to be rewritten.
While writing on this volume, Mr. Bancroft became
convinced that the history could not be complete without
an account of the original inhabitants of the coast. To
quote his own words, "I did not fancy them, I would
gladly have avoided them. I was no archæologist, ethnologist,
or antiquary, and I had no desire to become
such. My tastes in the matter, however, did not dispose
of the subject. The savages were there, and there was
no help for me; I must write them up to get rid of them."
To compile information concerning the manners and customs,
the mythology, the language, and the antiquities
of these aborigines, Mr. Bancroft estimated that two
volumes would be required: (Lit. Ind., 301). The Native
Races as completed is a work of five volumes. So much
of an expansion in all of the early historical plan was
necessary.
Mr. Bancroft, wrote but two hundred and seventy out
of the four thousand pages of the Native Races, devoting
his time while that series was in preparation largely to a
rewriting of the first volume of Central America, to a
continuation of a summary of early voyages for other
volumes, and to a perfection of the plan and a collecting
of material for the histories. His relation to this work
may be likened to that of a managing editor. He decided
upon the division of labor as suggested by Oak or
others, and required changes in the manuscript as completed
if he considered them necessary, either for the
sake of treatment or style, but the extent of his writing
as printed in this work certainly falls far short of that
necessary to substantiate the claim which he has made
to its authorship. The chapter which he wrote was that
on the Hyperboreans. As to this work, he tells us in the
Literary Industries that during the first half of the year
1873 he "was writing on northern Indian matter, giving
out the notes on the southern division to go over the
field again and take out additional notes": (Lit. Ind. 571).
As to his further connection with the work, he says
that in December of the same year he became convinced
that the plan of treating Indian languages adopted
by Goldschmidt was not the proper one, and that the
latter was "obliged to go over the entire field again
and re-arrange and add to the subject matter before I
would attempt the writing of it." (Lit. Ind., 573.) This
passage ascribes the actual preparation of the volume to
Goldschmidt, and the writing referred to here must have
been largely in the nature of editorial work. It is hardly
to be presumed that a man of Mr. Bancroft's education
and slight literary experience would have attempted at
this time anything so ambitious as the complete preparation
of a treatise on Indian languages.
We see, then, that although the influence of Mr. Bancroft
was felt in arrangement and even in style, the Native
Races was written almost entirely by other persons.
But one would hardly suppose that such was the case
from reading the words: "During the progress of this
work I succeeded in utilizing the labors of my assistants
to the full extent of my anticipations": (Lit. Ind., 304).
When speaking in the Literary Industries of work done
for him by others, Mr. Bancroft shows a habit which is
derived from his long experience as manager of a business
concern. His constant tendency is to speak of work
done by those in his employ as his work, neglecting a
distinction between a publisher and an author, which is
a vital one. The reputation of a publishing house depends
upon the workmanship of its employés, but that
of an author depends solely upon his own talents and the
work of his own hands. While a publisher may with all
propriety speak of work done by agents as his printing,
for him to say that writing done for him by others is his
writing is a positive misstatement. When Mr. Bancroft
paid his writers for their manuscript, he became its owner
with full rights of publication, but no one will say for a
moment that he thereby became the author. In speaking
of the Native Races, as well as the History of the
Pacific States, Mr. Bancroft often does so in such terms
as to indicate that writing was done by him when it was
his only by purchase. (Compare statements in Literary
Industries, 303, 568, 571, and in Native Races I, preface
xiii, with the facts as shown by the statements of different
members of Bancroft's literary corps as to the work
actually done by each writer and as given later in this
article.)
The division of responsibility for collating and arranging
facts for the various divisions of the Native Races
was made apparently toward the latter part of the year
1872. We are told that routine work was laid aside for
three or four weeks in the middle of the summer, and
this time devoted to placing the library in order and
cataloguing the new books which had been added. This
was obviously done preparatory to entering upon the
new work. To a young Englishman who called himself
T. Arundel-Harcourt, and who entered the library in
November, was assigned the preparation of that portion
of the work devoted to the manners and customs of the
civilized nations. (This man's true name he did not
reveal. His collaborator Nemos says that he attended a
boarding school, and then continued his studies in Germany,
at Heidelberg, according to his own account. He
claimed to have come to America with $5,000 in pocket
money, and found his way first to Montana. On his arrival
at San Francisco he entered the library. Leaving
in 1874 to assume editorship of the Overland Monthly with
Fisher, he was soon back in Bancroft's employ. Naturally
he was the most able of the library corps. But while
he was brilliant, handsome, and witty, he was at the
same time erratic and unreliable. He died in 1884.)
Mr. Fisher's part was mythology, while the division
of the work relating to language was given to Albert
Goldschmidt, a German, who had been employed in the
library since the end of 1871. (According to Nemos,
Goldschmidt was said to have been the son of a Jewish
clothing dealer at Hamburg. In early life he ran off to
sea, and claimed to have become master of a vessel. He
had acquired much general knowledge, and was musically
inclined, often singing in church choirs. Before
coming to the library Nemos says that he led a "vagarious
life" in Nevada. As a linguist he had great ability,
and was able to translate almost any language which he
encountered, but was inclined to fritter away his time.
Nemos declared him "the most systematic idler in the
library." This failing brought about his discharge.
Later he became a mining superintendent in Chihuahua.)
Mr. Oak took the subject of Antiquities and Aboriginal
History (preface to Native Races I, p. 13).
The undertaking was an enormous one, because of the
vast quantities of material to be handled, as well as the
inexperience of the workers, which made it necessary for
them to devise their own system as they proceeded. It
is said that by an actual calculation the sum total of all
the labor expended upon each of the five volumes of the
series represents an equivalent to the work of one man
for ten years. (Literary Industries, 305). Indeed, Mr.
Bancroft's own reason for entrusting this work to others
is that it would have taken him a half century, leaving
his main work untouched. Mr. Oak's indexing system
proved a great labor saver, as by it the indexers went
through all the material, classifying and making references.
They were followed immediately by note-takers,
who copied the facts indicated in these references. The
writers then had the data placed before them for arrangement.
When Mr. Bancroft's chapter on the Hyperboreans
was completed he went over it with them, all making
criticisms and suggestions to be adopted in the arrangement
of the other divisions as well as that one. By this
means was the library system perfected, a common
method developed, and a corps of library workers trained:
(Lit. Ind., 304).
The Native Races was very much in the nature of a
compilation, and our knowledge concerning the authorship
of its various parts is necessarily less exact than is
true of any of the other Bancroft works. Such facts as
are at hand come from two schedules—one of his own
works, the other of that of the corps generally—prepared
by William Nemos, a gifted Swedish writer who entered
the library in 1873, subsequently becoming Oak's chief
assistant, and ultimately his successor in the librarian's
office; from separate information gained by Frances
Fuller Victor as to the part of the work done by Oak.
(This consists of three different statements, one in a letter
to a friend, another in an autobiographical sketch,
and a third in a statement copied by Mrs. Victor. Mr.
Oak himself refuses to give testimony, doubtless on account
of his former intimate personal connection with
Mr. Bancroft and his acquiescence in the plan followed,
as well as his poor health, which renders him unwilling
to enter into a discussion of the question, and from statements
in an autobiography of Thomas Savage, chief
Spanish interpreter in the library after August, 1873.)
The facts as deduced from these sources show that Oak
wrote more of the Native Races than any one else, two
fifths of the entire work, or to be exact, fifteen hundred
and ninety-seven pages out of four thousand. While
engaged in this writing, it must be remembered that he
also acted as "chief assistant to Mr. Bancroft, manager
of all details of this work, as well as that on the History,
overseer of the corps of workers, and chief proof reader,"
duties which so engrossed his time that he wrote principally
between eight o'clock in the evening and midnight.
The fourth volume on Antiquities is his work
entire, as is also the fifth on Primitive History, except
the introductory chapter on the Origin of the Americans,
in the preparation of which it would appear that Bancroft
had a hand (Lit. Ind., 570), and the last three chapters
dealing with the tribes of Central America, the authorship
of which the writer has no means of determining.
Nemos says, however, that he prepared "a good deal of
clean manuscript" for this volume as well as for some
others.
To Harcourt the division of the field as already given
points as the author of the second volume. Oak wrote
the introductory chapter entitled General View of the
Civilized Nations, and also the chapter on the Aztec Picture
Writing and Maya Arts Calendar and Hieroglyphics.
Bancroft is the author of the chapter on Savagism and
Civilization, and Nemos is to be credited with the writing
of some parts. As Harcourt wrote six hundred and thirty-six
pages of the Native Races, and there appears but one
reference to his writing in connection with another volume,
and that a chapter of a hundred and fifty pages, we
may conclude that the remainder of Volume II is from
his pen.
With Fisher rests the credit for the authorship in the
main of the Mythology portion of the third volume.
Nemos relates that Fisher sought his aid for this work
soon after he came to the library, believing that his previous
training in philosophy fitted him for mythology,
and that Fisher obtained for him the continuation of the
volume, when in October, 1874, he left it "half finished"
to accept the editorship of the Overland Monthly. Nemos
then being new to the work, Harcourt revised his manuscript.
To Goldschmidt had been assigned the task of writing
the treatise on Indian languages for the third volume.
The evidence of Nemos shows that Goldschmidt prepared
this part of the work, although the quotation from the
Literary Industries already given seems to show that it
was revised throughout once, and afterward rewritten,
in part, at least, by Bancroft. Goldschmidt also prepared
the ethnographical map of the coast.
Of the first volume, Oak wrote about half of the preface,
and the chapter on the Columbians, Harcourt the
chapter on the Californians, and Nemos and Savage the
remainder, with the exception of a few slight parts prepared
by others.
In a compilation like the Native Races, there was of
necessity much matter printed in such a form that those
who prepared it could not claim the authorship. Of this
character were the contributions of Mr. Savage, the Spanish
expert. Nemos also claimed to be the author of parts
of every volume except the fourth, but from his own statements
we learn that much of his work, like Savage's,
consisted in making translations.
The public acknowledgment made in the introduction
of this work concerning the part done by the several
writers would be fair, if we overlook the fact that its
wording tends to give an exaggerated idea of Mr. Bancroft's
part in it—were the name of the latter but printed
on the title page as editor or compiler. But by omitting
either word he has announced himself to the world as
author. His own explanation for this seems to be that
he considers himself responsible for the work in treatment
and style (Native Races I, Preface XIII), but the
real reason is no doubt to be found in a desire to give the
work standing in the literary world by ascribing it to one
name already quite widely known among book dealers
and publishers.
As regards scientific merit these volumes can not make
great claims. No serious attempt was made to collect
facts concerning the American Indians of the West at
first hand. Mr. Bancroft made no pretensions as an
antiquarian or ethnologist, content with compiling what
others had written and thus discharging his duty toward
the introductory part of his work that he might the
sooner take up the more serious task of writing the histories.
Different parts of the Native Races differ greatly
in value. Oak was habitually scholarly and always made
an effort at honest research. Nemos was likewise thoroughly
reliable. Goldschmidt was noted for his shiftlessness,
and Fisher and Harcourt are charged with such
uncritical methods as the incorporation in their writings
of statements found in magazine articles which were
nowhere verified. (Mrs. Victor had learned of this.) The
last three must, therefore, be considered clever and brilliant
writers rather than critical historians.
The chief value of the Native Races consisted in the
fact that it presented in accessible form a classified collection
of all the facts known concerning the Indians of
the Pacific slope. Philosophers who made use of these
facts in their generalizations, while prizing the work
highly, were not, however, especially concerned as to
how it was written. In the East and in Europe the discovery
was not made that it is merely a compilation.
The Native Races was regarded as a work of great learning
(see Literary Industries, 335, 356) and its authorship
ascribed to Hubert Howe Bancroft in accordance with a
literal reading of its title page. The five volumes were
published at three-month intervals between October 1,
1874, and Christmas, 1875. Just before the first volume
appeared, Mr. Bancroft made what he called a literary
pilgrimage to the Eastern States to bring himself and the
work to the notice of the great literary men there. He
also made arrangements for publication in France and
Germany simultaneously with the issuing of the volumes
in New York. This was the result as told in his own
words: "Never probably was a book so generally and so
favorably reviewed by the best journals in Europe and
America. Never was an author more suddenly or more
thoroughly brought to the attention of literary men
everywhere": (Lit. Ind., 361.)
As director and manager of the Native Races, Mr.
Bancroft performed a literary service of great importance
and in such a capacity richly deserved the unsparing
praise which was showered upon him. But the commendation
and honor bestowed upon him as author of
the work we must in all fairness regard as quite a different
matter. According to his own statement (Lit. Ind.,
361), this must be considered as the status generally assigned
him and the basis upon which he was presented
with a number of complimentary certificates and honorary
diplomas, among them being honorary membership
in the Massachusetts Historical Society, the American
Antiquarian Society, and the Buffalo Historical Society,
and the honorary degree of Master of Arts at Yale.
So far as the question of authorship was concerned, all
reviews and general press mention of subsequent Bancroft
publications followed along the same line as the reviews
of the Native Races, recognizing Mr. Bancroft alone
as the author. We may, therefore, conclude as does he
himself (Lit. Ind., 361, 661) that it was his being accredited
with the authorship of the Native Races which made
for him his literary reputation. It has been shown that
this credit depended in turn upon the fact that his own
name was on the title page as author instead of managing
editor. The facts show, therefore, that Mr. Bancroft
was assisted largely by his corps of writers even in the
revision of manuscripts, that due credit has never been
given Oak, Fisher, Harcourt, Goldschmidt, and Nemos,
who, aided by a number of compilers and writers of fragmentary
bits, are the true authors of the work, and that
the rise of the fame of Hubert Howe Bancroft as an historical
writer was founded upon a popular misconception,
both as to the nature of his first work and his connection
with that work.
Just as fast as the members of the library force ended
their respective labors on the Native Races, they were set
to work taking notes for the history, Mr. Oak continuing
to act as manager of detail as heretofore. The system of
note-taking was perfected by Mr. Nemos and now included
a boiling down process by which new members
could so prepare rough material as to permit writers to
turn out manuscript more quickly.
Laying aside for the time being the work on Central
America and Mexico, Bancroft and Oak decided to direct
the activities of a library force now thoroughly trained to
the material on California, since California history is the
starting point for that of a number of other states, including
Northern Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and Utah,
and more especially because the mass of original material
collected for this state was greater than for any other, a
fact necessitating the reduction to a minimum of the possibility
of its accidental destruction while yet unused:
(Lit. Ind., 583.) The actual organization of the material
on the Southwest, including the writing of the history of
the Northern Mexican states and Texas down to 1800, together
with the Spanish and Mexican annals of Arizona,
New Mexico, California, and the Northwest Coast, was
entrusted to Oak as his special field.
The story of the collection of this California material
as told by Mr. Bancroft (Lit. Ind., 365 and sq.) is one of
the most interesting connected with the history enterprise.
In October, 1873, there had entered his service one
Enrique Cerruti, an erratic individual, born in Italy, but
intimately acquainted with the ways of Spanish-Americans
through a long residence in Bolivia, under the government
of which state he had served in a diplomatic
capacity. Cerruti's diplomacy was turned toward the
securing of historical facts in the possession of the old
Spanish residents of California, and the first task set for
his craft was to gain the coöperation of General Vallejo,
a native Californian, early alcalde at San Francisco, and
colonizer of Sonoma. After several months' negotiations,
his efforts were rewarded by a personal narrative from
Vallejo, by the gift of his papers, and by his enthusiastic
support in gaining the aid of other Californians of his
own race. Among those who furnished dictations at his
instance were two of his brothers, and his nephew Alvarado,
Governor of California under Mexican rule. For
two years Cerruti and Vallejo worked together collecting,
their time being divided between Sonoma, San Francisco,
and Monterey, from which centers they made divers excursions.
It seems that the wily Italian, together with
other representatives of Mr. Bancroft, sometimes gained
possession of valuable manuscripts by such indirection as
to cause much dissatisfaction on the part of the original
owners.
The official Spanish records of the country which had
been turned over to the United States Surveyor General at
San Francisco consisted of four or five hundred volumes.
To copy these, twelve Spaniards worked for a year under
the direction of Mr. Savage,[40] "the greatest single effort"
ever made in connection with the Bancroft enterprise.
The mission records in possession of the archbishop of
San Francisco were copied by Mr. Savage and three assistants
in a month. In quest of data on Southern California,
Bancroft and Oak took a trip to San Diego early
in 1874, returning overland and visiting depositories of
records. On this tour, Judge Benjamin Hays of San
Diego turned over to Mr. Bancroft his historical collections,
and subsequently directed the collecting in the
south. The most efficient of the assistants employed by
him was Edward F. Murray who, among other services,
copied the records of the Santa Barbara missions. In
March, 1877, Mr. Savage began work on the civil and
ecclesiastical archives at Salinas, continuing the work at
San José, Santa Cruz, and Sacramento. With others,
he obtained dictations of the highest importance from
native Californians and others, and in 1877 and 1878
spent eight months in that work, visiting all the missions
from San Diego to San Juan Bautista with the exception
of San Fernando and Purisima.
While his aids were thus gathering the material upon
which the History of California is founded, Mr. Bancroft,
as he tells us (Lit. Ind., 657-663), was devoting his attention
more especially to the gaining of information concerning
the proceedings of the two vigilance committees
that held sway in San Francisco in the "fifties," by no
means an easy task, since the acts of both of these organizations
were illegal and their surviving members could
not be expected to talk very freely, even after a lapse of
twenty years. After considerable urging, however, those
who had custody of the records were induced in the interest
of history to turn them over for Mr. Bancroft's inspection.
This material was made use of in the supplemental
volumes on Popular Tribunals; in the first writing of
which Mr. Bancroft was himself engaged from 1875 to
1877. Like his manuscript for Central America, however,
this work had to be revised before its publication
ten years later.
At an early date, Mr. Bancroft tells us (Lit. Ind., 623-628),
he had corresponded with the heads of governments
lying within his territory. The presidents of the Mexican
and Central American republics and the governors of all
the states had accorded him every facility. In 1874, especially
favorable letters were received from the presidents
of Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua, the latter
appointing a special commissioner to secure and ship
documents.
The great mass of California matter, at first so voluminous
as to be appalling, was now in hand, and in 1878
Mr. Bancroft turned his attention to the Northwest. Upon
a visit to British Columbia in that year, he obtained access
to the official records of the province, took the reminiscences
of many old fur traders, secured the papers of
others, and had help from several who had undertaken
to write a history of the country: (Lit. Ind., 534; Hist.
N. W. Coast, preface, viii). It was from this data that
Mr. Bancroft in the years immediately following wrote,
with the aid of some other writers, the History of the
Northwest Coast, and the History of British Columbia,
volumes constituting the great part of the work of which
he can claim the actual authorship: (See Lit. Ind., 549.)
The history seeker had already secured the writings of
Gov. Elwood Evans of Washington Territory. Crossing
the straits from Victoria, he made some collections about
Puget Sound, and then went to Portland and Salem,
accompanied by Amos Bowman, a stenographer who
subsequently became one of the writers in the library and
prepared some manuscript for the History of British Columbia.
(Bowman was a Canadian with some experience
in government surveys and mining explorations. Before
joining Mr. Bancroft on this expedition, he was located
at Anacortes, Washington.) The Oregon Pioneer Association
was then in session at Salem, and a number of its
members furnished dictations. The secretary, J. Henry
Brown, was engaged to copy documents in the state
archives (Lit. Ind., 540-546). He subsequently made
this matter the basis of a book which he himself published
on Oregon history.
After dictations had been secured in passing through
Southern Oregon, the Oregon material at Mr. Bancroft's
disposal was further increased on his return to San Francisco
by the employment of Frances Fuller Victor, a
writer of experience and author of several books on Oregon,
who, during a residence of more than ten years in
the state, had collected data with the intention of herself
writing and publishing its history. As by her researches
she had become familiar with the history of the entire
northwestern part of the United States, the working up
of this field was assigned her just as the southwest had
been assigned to Oak.
(Frances Fuller was born in the township of Rome,
New York, May 23, 1826. She was a near relation of
Judge Reuben H. Walworth, Chancellor of the State of
New York, and through her ancestor, Lucy Walworth,
wife of Veach Williams, who lived at Lebanon, Connecticut,
in the early part of the eighteenth century, claimed
descent from Egbert, the first king of England. Veach
Williams himself was descended from Robert Williams,
who came over from England in 1637, and settled at
Roxbury, Massachusetts.
When Mrs. Victor was thirteen years of age, her parents
moved to Wooster, Ohio, and her education was
received at a young ladies' seminary at that place. From
an early age she took an interest in literature, and when
but fourteen years old, wrote both prose and verse for
the county papers. A little later the Cleveland Herald
paid for her poems, some of which were copied in English
journals.
Mrs. Victor's younger sister, Metta, who subsequently
married a Victor, a brother of Frances' husband, was
also a writer of marked ability. Between the two a devoted
attachment existed, and in those days they were
ranked with Alice and Phœbe Carey, the four being referred
to as Ohio's boasted quartet of sister poets. The
Fuller sisters contributed verse to the Home Journal of
New York City, of which N. P. Willis and George P.
Morris were then the editors. Metta was known as the
"Singing Sybil." Both sisters were highly eulogized by
Willis, who regarded them as destined for a great future
as writers.
In her young womanhood Frances spent a year in New
York City, amid helpful literary associations. Being
urged by their friends, the two sisters published together
a volume of their girlhood poems in 1851. In the more
rigorous self-criticism of later years, Mrs. Victor often
called it a mistaken kindness which induced her friends
to advise the publication of these youthful productions.
But in these verses is to be seen the true poetic principle,
and their earnestness is especially conspicuous.
Metta Fuller Victor, after her marriage, took up her
residence in New York City, and continued her literary
work both in prose and in verse. Frances' husband,
Henry C. Victor, a naval engineer, was ordered to California
in 1863. She accompanied him, and for nearly
two years wrote for the San Francisco papers, her principal
contributions consisting of city editorials to the
Bulletin, and a series of society articles under the nom de
plume of Florence Fane, which, we are told, by their
humorous hits, elicited much favorable comment.
About the close of the war, Mr. Victor resigned his
position and came to Oregon, where his wife followed
him in 1865. She has often told how, upon her first arrival
in this state, she recognized in the type both of the
sturdy pioneers and of their institutions something entirely
new to her experience, and at once determined to
make a close study of Oregon. As she became acquainted
with many of the leading men of the state, and learned
more and more about it, she determined to write its history,
and began to collect material for that purpose.
Her first book on the history of Oregon was The River
of the West, a biography of Joseph L. Meek, which was
published in 1870. Many middle-aged Oregonians tell
what a delight came to them when in boyhood and girlhood
days they read the stories of Rocky Mountain adventures
of the old trapper Meek as recited by this woman
of culture and literary training, who herself had taken so
great an interest in them. The book was thumbed and
passed from hand to hand as long as it would hold together,
and today scarcely a copy is to be obtained in the
Northwest. Intensely interesting as The River of the
West is, the chief value of the work does not lie in this
fact, but rather in its value to the historian. Meek belonged
to the age before the pioneers. It was the trapper
and trader who explored the wilds of the West and
opened up the way for the immigrant. Later writers
freely confess their indebtedness to Mrs. Victor's River
of the West for much of their material. The stories of
the Rocky Mountain bear killer, Meek, romantic though
many of them are, check with the stories given by other
trappers and traders, and furnish data for an important
period in the history of the Northwest.
In 1872 was published Mrs. Victor's second book
touching the Northwest, All Over Oregon and Washington.
This work, she tells us in the preface, was written
to supply a need existing because of the dearth of printed
information concerning these countries. It contained
observations on the scenery, soil, climate and resources
of the Northwestern part of the Union, together with an
outline of its early history, remarks on its geology, botany,
and mineralogy, and hints to immigrants and travelers.
Her interest in the subject led her at a later date
to revise this book and to publish it again, this time
under the title Atlantis Arisen.
In 1874 was published Woman's War With Whiskey,
a pamphlet which she wrote in aid of the temperance
movement in Portland. Her husband was lost at sea in
November, 1875, and from this time, she devoted herself
exclusively to literary pursuits. During her residence
in Oregon she had frequently written letters for the San
Francisco Bulletin and sketches for the Overland Monthly.
These stories, together with some poems, were published
in 1877 in a volume entitled The New Penelope.
This last volume was printed by the Bancroft publishing
establishment in San Francisco. The Bancrofts were
an Ohio family of Mrs. Victor's early acquaintance.
Hubert Howe Bancroft now laid before her his plan for
writing the history of the Pacific slope, and asked her to
work on the part concerning Oregon. In 1878 she entered
the Bancroft library. Leaving the library at the
completion of the work, in 1890 she returned to Oregon
and was employed by the state in 1893 to compile her
History of the Early Indian Wars of Oregon, a volume
which was published by the State Printer the following
year. She continued to write for the Oregon Historical
Quarterly up to the time of her death. Her last published
work was a small volume of poems printed in 1900,
and selected from the many metrical compositions which
she had written for newspapers and magazines through
a period of sixty years. She was an able writer of essay,
and possessed an insight into the evolution of civilization
and government rare, not only for an author of her
sex, but for any author. Combining the qualities of
poet, essayist and historian, she occupied a position without
a peer in the annals of Western literature. She died
at Portland, Oregon, November 14, 1902).
Data on Alaska and the Russian Colony at Fort Ross,
California, were being collected and translated during
these years by Ivan Petroff, a highly educated Russian
some time resident at Cook's Inlet. Material from Russia
was furnished by the savant M. Pinart who had made
a special study of Alaska, and Petroff prepared translations.
In 1878 he visited Alaska in search of more material,
and spent the year 1879 and part of 1880 in
Washington extracting matter from papers, the existence
of which he had discovered on the northern trip; (Lit.
Ind., 551-561.) Petroff had begun the writing of this
material and had done part of the Alaska volume when
he left the library to become supervisor of the census of
1880 in the Northern Territory, leaving Mr. Bancroft and
others to bring this part of the work to completion.
(The main facts of Petroff's life which had been a very
eventful one are here taken from Bancroft's Literary Industries,
270-272. He was born at St. Petersburg in
1842, his father being a soldier. His mother died in his
infancy, and at the age of five, he was placed in the
military academy of the first corps of cadets at St. Petersburg.
Left an orphan when but a boy by the death of
his father at the battle of Inkerman, a remarkable talent
for languages secured his transfer to the imperial academy
of sciences for training as military interpreter.
A serious illness caused an impediment in his speech
which ended such prospects, but he was nevertheless
permitted to continue his studies and became amanuensis
for Professor Bohttink while engaged in the preparation
of a Sanscrit dictionary. Attached subsequently to M.
Brosset, who was making a study of Armenian antiquities
and literature, he became so proficient in the language
that he was chosen to accompany his superior on a two-year
scientific expedition through Georgia and Armenia.
He was then sent to Paris to St. Hilaire with part of the
material obtained, thence sailing for New York in 1861.
After working a short time on the Courier des Etats Unis,
he enlisted in the seventh New Hampshire regiment.
By hard study he mastered the language, after writing
letters for the soldiers as a means of practice, and acquired
a proficiency in the use of English such as one
seldom meets with in a foreigner. From private he became
corporal, then sergeant and color bearer, a rank
which he held in 1864, when his company was sent to
Florida. He took part in all the battles fought by Butler's
army and was twice wounded. After the battle of
Fort Fisher, he was promoted to a lieutenancy. Mustered
out in July, 1865, he returned to New York, and accepted
a position for five years with the Russian American
Company at Sitka, believing that this region was sooner
or later to pass to the United States. On the way to Alaska
he was delayed and improved the time by making a horseback
tour of Northern California, Idaho, Washington,
and Oregon. Finding his position filled when he arrived
at Sitka, he was given charge of a trading post on Cook's
Inlet until the transfer of the territory to the United
States in 1867. Subsequently Petroff was appointed acting
custom officer on Kodiak Island and was put in charge
of the seized barkentine Constitution, with which he arrived
in San Francisco in October, 1870. Mr. Bancroft at
once sought his services as Russian interpreter for the
library. After his return to the government service in the
north, he distinguished himself both in 1880 and 1890 by
his zeal in securing information concerning Alaska desired
by the census bureau, and several times risked his
life in this service. Returning to Washington he was
subsequently employed both by the census bureau and
the state department. With one exception, the Utah volume,
this was the last of the series of history proper to
the actual authorship of any considerable part of which
Mr. Bancroft can lay claim.)
So great was the opposition created among Gentiles in
Utah by a turn in the Bancroft history more favorable to
the Mormons than they considered fair, and so many and
so fierce the charges against Mr. Bancroft in consequence,
that he has apparently been very careful to give, in the
Literary Industries (pp. 631-640), an extended account
of the manner of collecting the material for the History
of Utah. Here he tells us that, at an early date in the
development of the history project, he realized the difficulty
of gaining data on Mormon history, an obstacle
apparently so great as to be insuperable. For though
the Mormon church have a regular historian, whose duty
it is to preserve their archives, the director of the Bancroft
project at once perceived the objections which would
be made to the turning of this material over to be written
up by one not in sympathy with their faith. But he
must have seen very clearly that a Gentile history of Utah
not unfavorable to the Mormons was the one thing they
desired above all else. Accordingly, in 1880, he tells us
that he succeeded in showing to their satisfaction that he
was not prejudiced against them, and asked Orson B.
Pratt, official historian of the Mormon church, for the
desired information. John Taylor, president of the
church, called a council of its twelve apostles, with the
result that it was agreed to comply with the request, and
Franklin D. Richards was sent to San Francisco as Professor
Pratt's representative, to furnish the Bancroft
library with such material as was desired from the official
church records.
The year 1880 is an important one for the history project
in another and more important respect also. The
end of that year found definite plans made for the publication
of the History of the Pacific States. Mr. Bancroft
had long since decided that, unlike the Native Races,
this work should be handled exclusively by his own house,
and Mr. Nathan J. Stone was placed in charge of the
publication department of the firm, now A. L. Bancroft
and Company, to attend especially to this matter. The
date of commencement of work by the printers Oak sought
to have deferred that there might be no haste in searching
out and digesting facts, but against his advice Bancroft
determined to begin the publication of the series in
1882, impatient doubtless at the prospect of a deferred
return from his large financial investment in the work,
and somewhat fearful, as he tells us, lest through some
calamity it might never come to publication.
This decision for an early beginning of publication
with the general change in plan which it brought, rendered
Mr. Oak's complicated tasks too severe, as he was
now in failing health. The work of taking notes on the
vast amount of material on California and the Spanish
Southwest generally had been finished some time before,
and, as Oak had now completed his preliminary researches,
he determined to give up part of his duties that
he might have time to write the volume covering his field.
To Mr. Nemos, who up to this time had been employed
chiefly on the Mexican volumes, was accordingly turned
over the general direction of the half-dozen younger
writers, together with the plans of writing, and the management
of the note-takers, a change which gave him all
interior supervision except over special departments attended
to by Mr. Bancroft—such as the work of Oak and
Mrs. Victor. Nemos had wonderful ability for drilling
men into a common method and served as director of library
detail "with remarkable ability and success."
(This was Oak's expression. All who speak of Nemos
have much commendation for his ability. He was born
in Finland, February 23, 1848, the son of a nobleman.
German and piano lessons were first given him by his
mother, who belonged to a wealthy family of good stock.
After a year's study in a private school at St. Petersburg,
he returned home to attend school, and later took a course
at the gymnasium, or classic high school, at Stockholm
preparatory to entering Upsala university, where a
brother was at the time in attendance.
This ambition was not to be attained, however, for in
his seventeenth year, family matters compelled him to
give up his studies, and a place for him was found in a
London commission and ship-broker's office by a family
friend who believed that the acquisition of English and a
business experience would be of the greatest advantage
to the young man. Rather than drag the family title
into the by-ways of trade, he laid it aside and assumed
the name of Nemos.
Evening and leisure hours were now devoted to the
study of philosophy and kindred higher branches under
an Upsala graduate. After a business training of eighteen
months, he was transferred to a responsible position in a
house trading with India. When five years had been
spent in this capacity, the fear of consumption induced
him to take a long sea voyage, and in the spring of 1870
he left Liverpool by sailing vessel for Australia, arriving
at Melbourne in the third month out. A venture at mining
resulted disastrously through the dishonesty of his
partners, and after a stop at Sydney, he came to San
Francisco, where he landed in the summer of 1871. He
had completed an engagement as assistant civil engineer
on a proposed railroad in Oregon when he returned to
California and accepted a position in the library. Nemos
is described as retiring in all his tastes and enthusiastic
as a student. He was especially fond of philosophy and
languages, and had a knowledge of all the principal
tongues of Europe.)
Oak, although he now considered himself chief only in
name, still acted as librarian, business agent for most of
the intercourse with the printing house, and reviser of the
final proofs of all the volumes.
For protection against fire, the library was in October,
1881, moved to a building constructed for its reception
on Valencia Street. At the same time, the printers began
work on the first volume to be published, Central America
I, which was immediately followed by Mexico I. After
that time Mr. Bancroft (Lit. Ind., 585,) gave out for the
press whatever was most convenient, so that frequently
parts of several volumes were in type at one time. When
the printing began, material aggregating fifteen volumes
was ready. These included manuscript for Mexico and
Central America, the field assigned Savage and Nemos,
matter prepared by Oak for California, by Mrs. Victor
for Oregon, by Bancroft for Popular Tribunals, Literary
Industries, and The Northwest Coast, and by Petroff for
Alaska. Bancroft estimated at this time that the notes
were also taken for three fourths of the works which
were yet to be written.
Material upon which to base the remaining fourth was
collected in the same way as previously, Mr. Bancroft
visiting the country to be written up, ascertaining the
nature and location of the materials, collecting what could
be had conveniently, and then leaving the further ingathering
in the hands of agents. A visit to Mexico in
1883 furnished him with some material on social conditions
in that country which he tells us was utilized in
the last volume of the Mexican history: (Lit. Ind., 701).
More extensive collections remained to be made in the
regions farther north.
After the completion of the two volumes on Oregon,
Mrs. Victor's attention was next directed to the volume
on Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming. In the carrying on
of this work, a greater number of suggestions as to manner
of treatment were made by Mr. Bancroft, we may
believe, than was usual in the preparation of a volume,
for the reasons that it was hurried more for publication
than earlier works, that it was written under his immediate
direction, and that he himself collected and forwarded
material from the field as required. The record
of the progress of the work, as it occurs in Mr. Bancroft's
letters to the writer of the volume, is of unusual interest
in that the methods followed, though in some ways exceptional,
may perhaps be taken as fairly typical of those
employed by Mr. Bancroft in the preparation of the later
volumes of the series which he immediately supervised.
In August, 1884, shortly before the completion of the
second volume of the History of Oregon, Mr. Bancroft
went to Salt Lake City, where he left with Franklin D.
Richards a memorandum to guide him in extracting material
on the Mormons in Nevada which, he said, would
be about the first material needed. Pending the arrival
of this, on September 11th, he advised Mrs. Victor to
familiarize herself with the history of Wyoming and
Colorado, he himself having done the same for Nevada.
A letter written a few days later presents the idea of
making a plan of the volume "as the men do on Mexico,
etc.," and says, "By so doing you can give each section
its due proportion and by working to the plan save unnecessary
labor." As to the method of treating early
expeditions to Colorado and Wyoming, he says to consult
the History of Utah, and the two opening chapters
which he himself had already written on Nevada. When
these chapters were prepared, it was the intention to devote
an entire volume to this state. In planning the
work as recommended in this letter, Mrs. Victor ascertained
that these chapters were out of proportion for the
volume as now planned, and wrote to Mr. Bancroft to
this effect. On September 21st, however, he advised her
that he recognized the fact, but that they would "have
to do." On the same date he forwarded the dictations
of three of the first Mormons in Nevada, requesting that
when the material had been used for this volume, they be
turned over to Mr. Bates, then at work on the History of
Utah. He also suggested a perusal of Benton's City
Saints and other Utah books for light on Nevada, and
directed that Mr. Newkirk search the library thoroughly
for Nevada material.
From Colorado Springs on October 7th he wrote announcing
that a package of material on Colorado had been
sent, though evidently with more thought of pleasing those
who furnished the dictations than of affording material
for the history of their state. Said he, "Some of the
dictations don't amount to much, but I would like them
used for all they are worth, and more too, putting them in
list of authorities, quoting them freely, and giving biographical
notice, etc." On October 11th, he wrote that
he would go to Denver in a few days to finish gathering
what material for Colorado he could procure. With
reference to this he says, "I am told that there is no file
of the Rocky Mountain News, or any other early paper I
can get. Possibly I may obtain access to one. Still I
think we will have stuff enough, all there will be room
for. I will then go to Cheyenne to get what I can on
Wyoming, and that will finish up the business of gathering
for that volume, or any other volume except what
the canvassers bring in."
He calls attention to the fact that in the Colorado dictations
there is frequently material on Montana, and in the
Utah dictations, material on Idaho and Nevada. The
reason for this he gives in the typical Bancroft sentence:
"If I strike a man here, as I frequently do, who has
been to these other places in early times I follow him up
there for all it is worth of course, the same as here."
At Colorado Springs Mrs. Helen Hunt Jackson, author
of a Century of Dishonor, asked Mr. Bancroft to adopt
her views on the Colorado Indian wars. With reference
to this matter, he wrote on October 13th, the day of his
departure for Denver, as follows:
"She wishing a thing done would be the very reason
I would not do it if I could help it. I speak of it that
you may get the work and use the information. I do not
care about mentioning her name one way or another in
the whole work. She has been polite enough here,
although she has a broken leg, but I don't care for her
politeness. I should have had fair recognition for the
service I did her in the matter of her California articles
in the Century which I never got."
Writing subsequently from Denver on November 2d, he
says: "Everybody in Colorado, nearly, is against Mrs.
Jackson on what some call the Chevington massacre.
That side don't call it a massacre, but a fight. I should
give their side in full, then say some few took exception
to this action, and there let it stand on its merits—that
is, I think so now."
In the same letter Mr. Bancroft announced that he was
going over the Rocky Mountain News with Mr. Byers, the
founder and former editor, "a man of remarkable ability
and memory," whose dictation to a shorthand reporter
was given, he said, in such a way that it was almost
pure history and could be taken from his manuscript as
fast as one could write. This he advised Mrs. Victor to
take as a basis for Colorado history, building upon it and
giving it the preference in regard to discrepancy of statement.
He also called attention to the fact that "a lot of
people" had in one way and another wandered over the
region before white men settled there, and said he supposed
that what Coronado did should first be considered.
As to the wanderings of Spaniards in Colorado, a schedule
sent about this time refers Mrs. Victor to all Oak had
written on the subject, to the first few pages of the History
of Utah, and to the original authorities upon which
the latter was based. After calling attention to some
works of travel, such as Fremont's writings and Renton's
Adventures in Mexico and the Rocky Mountains, he asked
Mr. Nemos to see that the material for Mrs. Victor's use
in preparing the volume be taken out more thoroughly
than had heretofore been the case, and upon this point
directed him to consult the early volumes of the series
and make this correspond. Mrs. Victor subsequently
asked that she be permitted to take out her own notes,
and the request was granted as Mr. Bancroft had now
decided to reduce the number of his force as fast as possible
and bring the work to a conclusion. Already on
October 25th, he had given as his opinion that Colorado
should make about half of the volume, at the same time
inquiring what laws of Colorado and Wyoming were desired,
and recommending a study of "Hepworth Dixon's
work on the Great West, Bonneville's Adventures, and
Bayard Taylor's Travels."
Writing from Cheyenne on November 8th, Mr. Bancroft
announced the shipment of a small package of Wyoming
stuff, all that he had been able to secure, and also his intention
to have some one take matter from the office files
of the newspapers of that place, the Sun and Leader, the
latter of which was very complete. Though returning
himself to Denver, that day, he promised to have more
Wyoming dictations taken.
In a letter dated the next day, he expressed the opinion
that a proper division of the work would be made by devoting
three hundred and fifty pages to Colorado, two
hundred and twenty-five to Nevada, and one hundred
and seventy-five to Wyoming, and requested that the
writing be done on that basis until some change should
be found necessary. In closing, he suggests another line
of research to be carried through the volume in the words:
"And all the way from the Gulf of Mexico to British
Columbia, I want to pay special attention to the cattle
interest and cattle men, the origin and development of
the industry, one of the most marvelous and important
of modern times."
The last letter dealing with the manner of treatment
of material dated October 9, 1885, asks Mrs. Victor to do
the best she can with Mackey and the silver question in
order to satisfy Mr. Stone, the publishing agent, whose
work, Mr. Bancroft said, was hard enough at best.
It thus appears that three leading objects were kept
constantly in mind at this time: one, the handling of
the various subjects in such a way as not to displease the
people in the district written up, that the work might be
popular and the work of the canvassers easy as they went
about soliciting subscriptions for it; another, the writing
of the various chapters in such a way that the first
draft would constitute finished history and take up no
more space than that assigned in the volume; and finally,
and really at the bottom of the preceding, a desire to have
the history written as soon as possible. Evidence that
Mr. Bancroft wished to have the work done in the least
possible time and with the least possible cost is abundant
in these letters.
In October Nemos had been set to counting the pages
which Mrs. Victor had written since entering the library,
a proceeding which she resented, believing that it afforded
no just basis for judging her historical work. The next
letter from Mr. Bancroft, on October 20th, brought the
request that she bring the work "at first writing within
the requisite compass so as not to make it so terribly
costly." An intimation that greater haste would be pleasing
was again conveyed on November 1st, when Mr. Bancroft
expressed the confidence that if Mrs. Victor were to
write three volumes more, they would be done in three
years instead of six, a view of the case most contrary to
hers, since before entering the library she had already
worked out many of the problems in Oregon history, and
now that she was entering upon another field, found more
time necessary. That Mr. Bancroft did not make allowance
for this, however, is shown by a letter written on
November 17th. Here he begins the subject by stating
that it would be a great mistake to suppose that he was
dissatisfied with Mrs. Victor's work, or that any one had
in the faintest degree criticised it, and says that all he
wants is to practice such economy of time and money as
will enable him to complete the work before he is dead
or has failed in business. Then he proceeds to reckon up
results thus:
"I do not know when the present volume will be finished
ready for the printer. But six years have already
passed, and, calling this volume done, it would be two
years to a volume. About fifteen hundred of your pages
make a volume, I believe, and counting three hundred
days to the year, would be two and a half pages a day.
When you first came, you started off with ten pages,
which we all thought rapid, but the outcome makes it
exceedingly small. This, with what other work has been
done on your volumes, would make every page of your
manuscript ready for the printer cost me considerably
over two dollars a page."
After a denial that this is intended as a complaint about
the past, he says:
"Go on and do the best you can. I have written equivalent
to six volumes during the last six years besides
devoting my time to revising and outside matters. But I
don't expect any one to work as I do. I am not satisfied
with old hands now, however, who do not give me say,
four or five pages a day all ready for the printer."
According to the printed rules of the library, the hours
were from 7.15 sharp to 6 o'clock in the evening, with
half an hour for lunch. When we recall the complexity
and minuteness of research and thought necessary in historical
writing, we must consider three hundred such
days a year heavy work. The requirement of an average
of a certain number of pages a day was therefore one
which would naturally tend to increase the worry of the
writer. This requirement was also exacted of Mr. Oak,
and we may well conclude that if such pressure were
brought to bear on the two most experienced writers in
the library, upon the junior writers it must have been
intense indeed.
The writing of the volume on Colorado, Nevada, and
Wyoming, so far as the material at hand permitted, was
completed at the end of the year 1885. With all of the
precautions taken, however, the pages on Colorado had
to be condensed nearly a third to bring them within the
space allowed. This was done, as was frequently the
case, by throwing matter into fine type and printing as
footnotes, instead of making many changes in the manuscript.
The system of biographical footnotes as it appears in
the history, Mrs. Victor claimed as her contribution to
the general plan of the work. The idea was followed
with excellent results in her own volumes as well as those
written by others, the object being to make biographical
mention for the benefit of posterity of every man who
took a prominent part in the building of a Pacific state
or territory. For carrying out such a purpose, the time
of writing during the lives of at least part of the same
generation that founded these commonwealths, offered
unusually good advantages.
The original intention, Mrs. Victor has told us, was for
her to prepare the volume on Utah, since before coming
to the coast, she had had occasion to make a study of
early Mormon history through coming in contact with
some refugees from Nauvoo. But so much work had
already been assigned her that when the time came to do
the writing, this was impossible. Mr. Bancroft had already
made a study of the early Spanish history of the
territory, and had written this part when he assigned the
work on the bulk of the remainder to Mr. Alfred Bates,
a writer of polished English and a man of scholarly attainments
who had previously assisted Mr. John S. Hittell
in his work on The Commerce and Industries of the
Pacific Coast. (From Literary Industries, 267-68, we
learn that Bates was a native of Leeds, England, born
May 4, 1840. His father was a wool stapler who lost his
fortune in the panic of 1847. Compelled at an early age
to earn his own livelihood, he began teaching at the age
of fifteen, and later taught at Marlborough College of
which the dean of Westminster was then head. To him
young Bates became private secretary in 1862. While
preparing for Cambridge the following year, he accepted
a lucrative position in New South Wales, where he suffered
much from ill health, at one time being given up
by three doctors. An offer of a position as teacher in
California took him thither and he continued at this work
for a year. During the two years spent with Mr. Hittell,
he was the most valued of his assistants.) Those acquainted
with the circumstances and the men have
accordingly held that certain incidents in Utah history
unfavorable to the Mormons could not have been toned
down by Bates as they are in the printed volume, and
that the Mormon turn to the work was therefore given by
Bancroft in the pages which he wrote and in his revision
of Bates' work. (See article by Frances Fuller Victor in
Salt Lake Tribune of April 14, 1893.) This seems probable
from what Mr. Bancroft tells us of his efforts to secure
material for the volume from the Mormon church,
as well as his natural desire to please subscribers to the
work.
Mr. Nemos, who was a foreigner, had no preference as
to the field in which his writing was done, and it was
consequently scattered through different volumes. Besides
collaborating with Mr. Savage and others on the
Mexican and Central American volumes, he wrote part
of the material on British Columbia and Alaska. By the
time Mrs. Victor's third volume was completed at the
end of the year 1885, Oak had completed his work on the
North Mexican States and the five volumes on California
under Spanish and Mexican rule. The writing of the
two volumes containing the American portion of California
history was thereupon assigned to Mrs. Victor and
Nemos, the former assuming responsibility for the preparation
of the political chapters, a field in which her work
had been pronounced especially good, and the latter taking
up the institutional chapters, a part which he had
largely fulfilled toward all the Spanish volumes of the
history.
The introduction of the institutional feature is to be accredited
to Nemos. The writing done by Oak was in the
form of annals, a form in general suited admirably to the
provincial records which he worked up; but against such
a style throughout the series, Nemos tells us that he presented
suggestions and arguments to Mr. Bancroft for introducing
material which should tell the history of the
people, and that in this he prevailed.
In April, 1886, the burning of the Bancroft business
house threatened temporarily to bring the history project
to an abrupt termination at a time when only the first
volumes had been published, but the enterprise soon recovered
from the blow. Under the leadership of Mr. Bancroft,
both business and history writing went on as before,
the firm of Bancroft and Company being organized for the
conduct of the former, while the publication of the history
previously carried on as a department of the general book
concern was now turned over to The History Company,
a corporation organized by Mr. Bancroft for the purpose
of handling the work.
At the completion by Oak of his volume on New Mexico
and Arizona in May, 1887, he retired from the library
with health very much shattered, leaving Mr. Nemos at
the head of affairs. After spending some time on a new
work now undertaken by Mr. Bancroft, the latter also
severed his connection with library matters in August,
1888.
At the time of Oak's departure, Bancroft was planning
a biographical work to be issued at the conclusion of the
task which was then engaging the attention of the library
force. This work, at first called Chronicles of the Kings,
but published under the title Chronicles of the Builders
of the Commonwealths, was to present in detail the lives
of wealthy and influential men who had borne a prominent
part in the affairs of the various Pacific Coast states.
For such notice they were charged from a thousand to ten
thousand dollars according to the length of the published
sketch. (This is according to the printed schedule, the
minimum price being paid for three pages print, the
maximum for thirty. This included also the printing of
a portrait engraved on steel.) The attempt to burden
the prestige gained by the histories and their projector
with such a load could result only in crippling both.
The volumes printed subsequent to the inauguration of
this scheme could not be received with the same open-mindedness
as former works. The information subsequently
made public that money was accepted for notice
in the Chronicles lost for Mr. Bancroft the regard of the
press of the coast, caused grave doubts to be expressed
concerning his disinterestedness as an historian, called
out an expression of many bitter—in some cases utterly
false—statements concerning his work, and sadly damaged
the literary reputation he had been for nearly twenty
years building on the work done under his direction.
While it was inevitable that the publication of the
Chronicles as a parasite upon the history should result
thus disastrously and deplorably for the fame of the latter
work, we must not fail to recognize the fact that the
labors of the writers upon both works were not a whit
less conscientious and painstaking than they had always
been. After the sixth and seventh volumes of the California
history were completed in 1888, the volume on
Washington, Idaho, and Montana was written. In 1890,
the final volume on California was published, followed
in the next year by the supplementary volumes, Essays
and Literary Industries, which ended twenty years of library
work for Hubert Howe Bancroft and his assistants.
The History of the Pacific States, we have seen, was
an evolution, passing through the stages of handbook and
encyclopædia before it became a history. But when the
last idea had been reached, the development of the project
was by no means complete, but rather just begun.
The necessity of the Native Races was demonstrated before
work had proceeded for a twelve-month. As late as
1878, Mr. Bancroft estimated that the history proper
would comprise but fourteen volumes at the outside.
In his letter to Mrs. Victor, dated August 1st of that
year, we get an interesting glimpse of the plan in an earlier
stage. The work is to be divided, he says, somewhat
in the following manner: Conquest of Darien, one volume;
Conquest of Mexico, one volume; Mexico under
the Viceroys, two volumes; Mexican Revolution and Modern
History, one or two; Explorations Northward and
the History of California, three or four; the Northwest
Coast, Oregon and British Columbia together, two or
three; Alaska, one. Under the head of California history
was to be included somewhere the histories of Arizona,
New Mexico, Utah, and Nevada, and the history of
Oregon was likewise to include Washington, Idaho, and
Montana. Oregon and British Columbia he thought
could be written in a year. Not until six more years had
passed was it finally recognized that natural expansion
as the work proceeded would necessitate devoting to the
series of history proper a number of volumes exactly
double that which was then contemplated. To this series
were added as a supplement an even half dozen volumes.
If we find that the outline grew from that of a few volumes
in 1872 to one of almost forty in 1884, and that the
work expanded fourteen volumes after it had been definitely
laid out, we are not at all surprised that the part
of the whole which Mr. Bancroft intended to write grew
relatively less as time went on, and the part assigned to
others became correspondingly greater. There is some
evidence to show that when writing began on the first
volume of the Central American History in 1873, the director
of the project actually had in mind the plan which
he gives in the Literary Industries, that of writing with
the aid of assistants who were to be responsible for "the
study and reduction of certain minor sections" which he
was to "employ" in his own writing. Thus we find, according
to the information left by Nemos, that Bancroft
actually wrote half of the volume, that Oak at first took
out notes, and that Nemos prepared his work in the rough,
leaving a considerable part of it to be rewritten. For
the next volume undertaken, the first of the six on Mexico,
we see that the chief was unable to prepare so much material
in its final form, and rested with but two chapters
completely to his credit, together with the rewriting of
part of Nemos' work on the remainder. In four or five
years, he expresses the determination of writing what he
can himself and leaving the rest to his aids. This as we
shall see amounted in the end to his doing about one
seventh of the history, slightly revising the work of the
other authors, often by the aid of critics in his employ,
and preparing most of the material for the supplementary
volumes.
Thus it came about that the original plan, the plan as
published, was exactly reversed, and instead of Mr. Bancroft's
doing all the work in final form, except some minor
sections assigned to those whom he called his assistants,
it was the so-called assistants who really wrote the History
of the Pacific States, and Mr. Bancroft who did a
few minor, or at any rate less difficult parts. Nor is it at
all true, as one authority has said (Appleton's Encyclopædia
of American Biography, I, 156), that Mr. Bancroft
wrote the most important chapters. Of course, the surprising
thing about this is that Mr. Bancroft should have
stated in the Literary Industries that he had followed a
plan for the division of labor originally intended, but not
followed at all. Especially unfortunate is this, in view
of repeated charges of absorbing the literary reputation
of his collaborators and aids, and appropriating the credit
for their work.
It has long since been recognized that the name of
Hubert Howe Bancroft can not be placed in the ranks of
great American historical writers. In the first place, he
wrote only parts of volumes. It will be observed, too,
that as a rule he wrote simpler parts, consisting of synopses
of early voyages, or annals easy to handle, such as
the rovings of Spaniards in Utah, or the rise of a provincial
government among the fur-traders of British Columbia.
But Mr. Bancroft, as founder of the library and
organizer of the history, has rendered a real and lasting
service to historical literature.
The first great end subserved by his undertaking was
the preservation of a great mass of invaluable historical
material, which would otherwise have been lost. In 1880,
he wrote:
"There are men yet living who helped to make our history,
and who can tell us what it is better than their sons,
or than any who shall come after them. A score of years
hence few of them will remain. Twenty years ago, many
parts of our territory were not old enough to have a history;
twenty years hence, much will be lost that may
now be secured": (Lit. Ind., 635).
It is thus for the timeliness of his labors in collecting
his library that the Pacific Coast, and the whole world as
well, is indebted to Mr. Bancroft. For this work his
qualifications as a successful business man experienced
in handling books were exactly those required.
A second great end which Mr. Bancroft attained was
the founding of a history of Western North America on
the original sources which he had collected in order that
it might constitute a foundation upon which future histories
would be built.
"He who shall come after me," says he in the letter
quoted above, "will scarcely be able to undermine my
work by laying another and deeper foundation. He must
build upon mine or not at all, for he can not go beyond
my authorities for facts. He may add to or alter my
work, for I shall not know or be able to tell everything,
but he can never make a complete structure of his own."
That the volumes supervised by Mr. Bancroft should
contain imperfections is in the nature of the case inevitable.
Perfect historical estimates of contemporaries can
not as a rule be made, and history based largely on personal
reminiscence must contain errors of refraction
which can be corrected only in the clearer light of later
years. The handling of material by a writer who did not
collect it, and who is likely to find the places and conditions
dealt with strange to his experience, inevitable
though it be in so large an undertaking, results in the
writing of faulty history. The hastening of the work
and the editorial revision of manuscripts by a manager
desirous of pleasing subscribers, and impelled by various
other motives of his own, are not circumstances likely to
increase the accuracy of the work. But after allowance
has been made for all inaccuracies which have crept in
through these various avenues, we still have the fact that
the histories are based upon sources which may be supplemented
but can never be displaced. No greater mistake
could be made, therefore, than to say that because
they contain errors they are worthless. All must agree
with the practical argument made by a thoughtful old
pioneer of the writer's acquaintance that, in spite of all
criticisms which may be passed upon the Bancroft histories,
they contain a great fund of information which is
nowhere else to be found in print.
A third result of the history plan, and one which is of
importance to historical writers everywhere who have
large fields to cover, was the devising of a coöperative
method for organizing the vast collections in the library.
Mr. Bancroft makes the claim of having been the first to
resort to such a division of labor; and points out (Literary
Industries, 767) that his method avoids the repetition of
details and insures a more thorough working up of the
field than does the coöperative method as the term is
usually understood, under which the writers work independently
of each other after the field is divided. Such
a claim might indeed be granted had Mr. Bancroft announced
himself as editor and reviser instead of author,
and had he designated the part of the work written by
each of his collaborators in accordance with the usual
custom in coöperative works. The printing of his name
as author on the title page, and his general recognition
as such in accordance with press notices following those
of the Native Races, have, of course, largely lost for him
the credit of originating a coöperative method for the
organizing of large quantities of material.
Concerning the understanding Mr. Bancroft had with
his corps of writers generally as to the public acknowledgment
of their work which he would make, information
is not at hand. Only one had ever before written
and published a book, and perhaps the majority gave no
thought to the rights which would be theirs as authors.
Certain it is that when the greater number of the more
prominent writers entered the library, the work was
planned on a much smaller scale than that upon which
it was carried out, and, as they did not know that they
were to become the authors of entire or consecutive volumes,
the question was not then of the importance which
it assumed with the later growth of the series. What
the understanding was with those who first entered the
library we can not say definitely, but his ideas on that
subject seems to have been a survival of the encyclopædia
project. To Mrs. Victor, just prior to her entering his
service, he wrote on August 1, 1878:
"The work is wholly mine. I do what I can myself,
and pay for what I have done over that; but I father the
whole of it and it goes out only under my name. All
who work in the library do so simply as my assistants.
Their work is mine to print, scratch, or throw in the fire.
I have no secrets; yet I do not tell everybody just what
each does. I do not pretend to do all the work myself,
that is, to prepare for the printer all that goes out under
my name. I have three or four now who can write for
the printer after a fashion; none of them can suit me as
well as I can suit myself. One or two only will write
with very little change from me. All the rest require
sometimes almost rewriting."
He further adds that it gives him pleasure to acknowledge
his obligations to his assistants, but that this acknowledgment
is always voluntary on his part and not
claimed as a right by them, and says that while he is not
sure of mentioning certain persons in connection with
certain parts as he had done in the introduction to the
Native Races, he will certainly not do more than that.
The only mention which he promises definitely to his
writers is a biographical notice in the Literary Industries.
"The work in the library," says he, "good or bad, is
mine; were it not so, I would simply do what I could
with my own fingers, or do nothing."
It is easy enough to see why Mr. Bancroft should wish
to have absolute control of manuscripts to insure good
work, and a complete covering of the field, but it is difficult
to see how he could justly make the claim before
the world that manuscripts turned out by other persons
were his writing.
Not only was the myth of Mr. Bancroft's authorship
repeated on the title page of each volume of the history,
and in the reviews which built upon the prestige gained
by him as supposed author of the Native Races, but not
a word was printed to show that any one else wrote the
least part of the work. When asked to indicate in the
preface the part done by each person, according to the
evidence of a number of his writers, he always declared
that this was just the one thing he wished to avoid. The
only approach to an acknowledgment is the statement
in the preface in words which apparently refer only to
indexers and note-takers, that he has been "able to utilize
the labors of others," among whom as the most faithful
and efficient he mentions Oak, Nemos, Savage, Petroff,
and Mrs. Victor. (History of Central America, I, preface
viii). The promise is made that he will speak of these
and others at length elsewhere, and this promise is redeemed
by the printing of their biographies in the Literary
Industries without indicating who was engaged in
writing and who in purely routine work connected with
the library, much less designating what parts of the work
each had done. From a popular edition of this volume
subsequently issued for wider circulation, even these
were stricken out.
While the real authors of the history never agreed to
keep silence concerning their right to recognition, it was
very well understood that they would remain in Mr.
Bancroft's employ only so long as they acquiesced in his
claiming the work as solely his own and made no individual
claims for themselves. This bread and butter
argument for silence proved effective in all cases. An
example of the method in meeting claims made for any
of the library writers occurs in connection with the publication
of the History of Oregon. A notice of the work
just before it was issued was sent to the Oregon press
and the statement made that Mrs. Victor was the author.
(Emma H. Adams in Portland Oregonian, October 5,
1886, under the title, "Mrs. Victor and Her Latest Literary
Work.") This was met by Mr. Bancroft with a
letter for publication in the paper printing the notice, in
which he asserted that no entire volume of the series had
been written by Mrs. Victor. Of course the significance
of this statement is in the word "entire," which simply
meant that he had interpolated a line here and there
as he went over the manuscript. A note to Mrs. Victor
under date of October 16th explains this apparent denial
of her authorship thus:
"I do not want for myself the credit due to my assistants.
At the same time, I do not deem it necessary to
explain to the public just what part of the work was done
by each. Everybody knows that you have been at work
on Oregon, and that is all right, although I have done
considerable work on your manuscript for better or worse,
or at all events to make it conform to the general plan."
In view of Mr. Bancroft's persistent refusal to give
"assistants" anything like credit for their work in accord
with general custom and literary ethics as well, and in
view of the fact that this refusal meant that the public
would credit him solely as the author, it must have been
a difficult matter for him to convince his corps of writers
that he did not want the credit due them.
The process of making Mrs. Victor's manuscripts conform
to the general plan, which is here regarded as the
principal source of alteration, according to Oak, meant
nothing except the condensation of her work, mainly by
the omission of considerable portions, in order to bring
it within the space assigned. That such revision did not
affect her claims to authorship, is of course apparent.
It is sufficiently clear, from what appears above, that
Mr. Bancroft's public justification of himself for publishing
under his own name all the work done in the
library is the fact that he reserved the right to alter all
manuscripts and make what changes he saw fit. This
made him managing editor, however, not author. The
comparatively few additions he made to the manuscripts
can not justify such a claim. That the revision of Mrs.
Victor's work consisted in the main of nothing more
than leaving out parts appears from two cases already
cited, one in connection with the History of Colorado,
Nevada, and Wyoming, the other with the History of
Oregon, as well as from the direct statements of those
who supervised library work. As we have seen he demanded
that his writers turn out a certain number of
pages a day "all ready for the printer," so he could have
had little occasion to revise their work. The writers
who Mr. Bancroft said in 1878 wrote with very little
change from him were of course Oak and Nemos. Now
Oak wrote seven and a half volumes of the history, and
Nemos and Mrs. Victor five each, while Bancroft wrote
four—a total of at least twenty-two volumes out of the
twenty-eight to the authorship of which no serious claim
could be made on the ground of altered manuscripts.
Moreover, Savage says in his autobiography that, while
Bancroft made additions and amendments to the three
volumes which he wrote, in some of his pages only a
word or two was changed and that others remained intact.
What rewriting was occasionally done on the
remaining volumes, was apparently done as often by
other persons as by Mr. Bancroft. His relation toward
the work was therefore exactly the same as that of a
managing editor toward the matter printed in a newspaper.
The latter could never claim the authorship of the articles
written by his staff, although altered to a considerable
extent by him or by his direction.
It should be stated here that Mr. Bancroft justified
his course to those in the library by insisting that they furnished
him merely with rough notes, and that it would be
necessary for him to rewrite the work, or at any rate,
considerable portions of it. This, had it been done,
would have been strictly in accord with the account of
his connection with the work as printed in the Literary
Industries. But it was not done, and the account as
printed is incorrect.
Since the completion of the history, but one of the
writers has publicly claimed the authorship of the volumes
written in the library. Ill health, only too common
with those who labored through the work, has in most
cases been a sufficient barrier to such action. Savage
and Bates remained in Mr. Bancroft's employ for a
number of years engaged in other work, and of course
under such circumstances could not make any claims.
Nemos as a foreigner could not be expected to take much
interest in such matters, and his early return to Europe
and subsequent residence there have rendered it difficult
for him to make such a statement did he so desire. Mrs.
Victor alone has printed a general statement of the portions
of the history written by her, a course in which she
was influenced by years of absolute independence in directing
her literary energies before entering Mr. Bancroft's
employ, and a consequent appreciation of the
rights and honors of authorship. Four volumes of the
Bancroft histories were exhibited as her work at the Mechanics
Pavilion in San Francisco during the fair in
January, 1893, and also among a collection of the works
of New York women authors made the same year (Utica
Morning Herald, May 4, 1893). A special preface over
her name inserted in the first volume of the Oregon history
in the exhibit claimed the authorship of the volumes.
(These are the words of the preface: "It seems not
only just, but necessary to affix my name to at least four
volumes of the History of the Pacific States, although
that does not cover all the work done on the history by
myself. The four volumes referred to comprise the states
of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Wyoming,
and Nevada. My name is therefore placed on the
backs of these volumes without displacing that of Mr.
Bancroft.")
As to the shares of the various writers in the history
proper, we have the sources of information which have
already been mentioned in speaking of the Native Races,
supplemented by very full data left by Mrs. Victor concerning
her part in the work. It is thus possible to give
in a general way the authorship of each volume, barring
fragmentary writing.
From these sources it is found that during the progress
of the work on the Native Races, Mr. Bancroft had after
hard labor and much revision completed his introduction
to the History of Central America, and had written a half
of the first volume. Oak wrote half of the preface and
the fine print summary of explorations, and Nemos was
responsible for a third of the volume from page 460 on,
although he prepared material in the rough, leaving it to
be rewritten by a German aid whose name is not given,
but who may have been a man by the name of Kuhn
mentioned as having done work on the second volume.
Of this latter volume, Mr. Bancroft wrote one chapter,
apparently the first, which deals with Pizarro and Peru.
Nemos and a writer named Peatfield (J. J. Peatfield, described
by Bancroft [Lit. Ind., 265-267,] as a "strong
man and one of talent," was born in Nottinghamshire,
England, August 26, 1833. His father, a clergyman, educated
him for the church and he took his degree at Cambridge
in 1857, being graduated in the classical tripos.
The church, however, was distasteful to him, and he obtained
a tutorship, subsequently in 1862 going to Nicaragua
to engage in cacao cultivating. This enterprise
proved a failure. After attempting cotton, cacao again,
and finally coffee all in vain, in 1865 he became a bookkeeper
at San José, the capital of Costa Rica. In January,
1868, he was made a clerk and translator to the legation
at Guatemala, and two years later, British Consul General
for Central America. While holding the consulship of
Guatemala a third time, he resigned on account of ill
health and went to San Francisco, where he arrived in
November, 1871. Becoming bookkeeper and cashier for a
Nevada mine at White Pine, and battling much with ill
health, he returned to San Francisco, where he acted as
teacher and bookkeeper until February, 1881, when he
entered the library), labored together on the volume and
prepared half of it, and Bates a fourth. Kuhn wrote a
fifth which was partly rewritten by Nemos. The latter
claimed about a fourth of a volume as the actual material
written by him for the first and second volumes together.
The third volume, including the history of Central
America in the nineteenth century, was written by Savage,
who, nearly all his life had been engaged in the
consular service of the United States in Cuba and Central
America.
(Thomas Savage, according to a biography written by
himself, was born at Havana, Cuba, August 27, 1823, a
short time after his parents had removed thither from
Philadelphia. His father, a descendant of the earliest
settlers of Massachusetts and a brother of Savage, the
famous genealogist of New England, was from Boston,
and his mother, a native of Charleston, South Carolina,
was the daughter of a French planter who had escaped the
great massacre in San Domingo and a Maryland woman
of Jewish extraction).
In childhood, Savage was several times taken to the
United States and back as the necessities of his father's
business demanded. At the age of fifteen, he had studied
the Latin classics, advanced mathematics and languages,
nearly breaking forever his health, which had always
been feeble. Abandoning his studies and taking a long
rest in the country, he regained sufficient strength to
enable him to support himself, for his parents had now
lost their fortune. He entered a commercial house at
Havana, and after working a few years as bookkeeper,
in the summer of 1846 joined the United States consulate
as clerk and translator. From that time until the end of
the year 1867, he was attached to the consulate, rising
successively to the positions of secretary to the consul
general, deputy consul general, and vice consul general.
From 1854 on, there was not a single year during which
the consulate general was not in his charge for several
months. During the War of the Rebellion he was several
times in charge, once for twenty months, and during this
trying period won the confidence of his government by
laboring hard to do his whole duty.
He spent the greater part of the year 1868 in the United
States, and then went to Panama, where he was engaged
as assistant editor of the Star and Herald, having charge
of the Spanish portion of the paper. Savage had lost a
wife in Cuba, and in January, 1870, married a second time.
Shortly afterward, he embarked for Salvador, where he
taught English in the University, became consul-general,
and finally started a newspaper. Just as this last enterprise
was beginning to pay, his wife's precarious health
necessitated his removal to a better climate, and he settled
in Guatemala. Here he established a fine printing
office, and began the publication of a newspaper. Though
aided by the government, the business nevertheless proved
unprofitable, and after selling out at a heavy loss, he
came to San Francisco in 1873. Throughout life, Savage
was a constant reader, with a special fondness for history.
He once said that he believed he had read the histories
of all the world.
From a perusal of what Nemos says concerning the
History of Mexico, we are led to infer that Bancroft again
wrote the introduction, as the former librarian credits his
chief with two chapters of the first volume. Nemos wrote
the remainder, but Bancroft rewrote some of his work,
he said only a fifth, much of the revision consisting in a
mere change of words. Oak differed with him on this
point, holding that Bancroft did more rewriting, but
Nemos persists that this is an exaggeration.
The second volume was done by Nemos, Savage, and
Peatfield, Nemos writing the first half and some later
chapters, two thirds of the volume in all, Savage one
fourth, and Peatfield a little.
Of the third volume, Nemos wrote between a third and
a half, including, as he tells us, the leading institutional
and political parts, Savage a third, a writer named Griffin
(George Butler Griffin was a native of New York
state, and a graduate of Yale. He was a linguist, and
had been an engineer in South America. Apparently
early in the eighties, his connection with the library had
ceased. He died by his own hand.) two or three chapters,
and Peatfield a part.
Of volume four, Bancroft did one chapter, Peatfield a
fourth of the whole, and Savage a third. Nemos "assisted
on parts," his work aggregating a fourth of the
volume.
The fifth volume of the Mexican History, embracing
the period from 1804 to 1861, was known as Savage's
volume. Of the manuscript, he actually wrote about
two thirds. Nemos did about a fourth, including the fall
of Mexico and the leading war episodes. Some of the
writing was done by Peatfield. (In conversation he
claimed to have written a large part of the Mexican War
chapters.)
The last volume of the Mexican History was prepared
chiefly by Nemos and Savage, the latter writing the first
and last chapters, the former about two thirds of the volume,
including the history of Maximilian and the institutional
chapters. Peatfield did a little work on this
volume. Oak's contribution to the History of Mexico,
according to his own statement, consisted of a "few slight
parts."
The history of the northern part of Mexico, and the
Southwest of the United States was Oak's special field,
designated by him as The Spanish Northwest. The entire
first volume of the History of the North Mexican
States is his work. The history of Lower California in
this volume, as well as that in the next, was based on a
manuscript on Lower California written several years
before by Harcourt. But this work was so altered by
both Oak and Nemos in their respective volumes through
condensation, the changing of conclusions, and the adding
of new material, as to amount to a rewriting.
The History of Texas in North Mexican States, second
volume, is the work of Peatfield; the remainder of the
volume, between a third and a half, that of Nemos. (The
Texas part was subsequently extended by Peatfield for
the edition now in circulation, that it might find a better
sale in that state.)
The volume on Arizona and New Mexico is the work
of Oak alone.
Spanish and Mexican California likewise belonged to
Oak's field and the first five volumes of the History of
California are from his pen. (Nemos adds, "though he
neglected to put in institutions, leaving them for W. N.
[himself] and Savage." In view of Oak's oft-repeated
assertion that he was sole author of these five volumes,
this must mean that they were supplied in other volumes.
Moreover, there are no institutional parts properly speaking
in these five volumes, and if such parts as "Mission
Progress," "Commercial Affairs," and the like are to
be regarded, they make up half the work.)
The early American history of California was a topic
in which Mr. Bancroft was naturally interested because
of his own mining experience during the early gold days.
Nemos' schedule shows that he wrote sixty pages for the
sixth volume of California, a circumstance which taken
with our knowledge of fields of research into which he
entered in the preparation of California Pastoral and
Popular Tribunals makes us reasonably sure that he
wrote the first, second, and twenty-fifth chapters. Mrs.
Victor, who in her work on Oregon had been found especially
strong as a writer on political subjects, was assigned
the task of working up the political history of
California, and, according to her own statement, wrote
two hundred and thirty-four pages for this volume. We
can positively identify chapters twelve, thirteen, twenty-three,
and twenty-four as her work. From the similarity
of their subject-matter to some already treated by her in
the Oregon history, and from the fact that their addition
to the work just indicated brings the total almost exactly
to the figures given, we may conclude that she also wrote
the third, fourth, and fifth chapters. The chapter entitled
Mexican Land Titles is Oak's work, and the remainder
of the volume, almost two thirds, is that of
Nemos.
Information given by Mrs. Victor shows that she wrote
for the final volume of the History of California four
hundred and eighty-nine pages on politics and railroads.
We are thus enabled to designate as her work chapters
nine to twenty-one inclusive, and chapter twenty-five.
This still leaves to her credit eighteen pages to be located
in some other chapter. The rest of the volume, embracing
the portions dealing with commerce, manufactures,
agriculture, and mining, was written, Nemos says, by
himself. Before publication, the sheets on California
judiciary were submitted to Justice Stephen J. Field
for his approval. The estimate of certain pioneer characters
in the California history, together with the adopting
of the Mexican view of the conquest of that state by
Americans, brought down upon Mr. Bancroft the condemnation
of the California Society of Pioneers, who, in
1894, expelled him from honorary membership in their
body. (See pamphlet proceedings of the Society of California
Pioneers in reference to the History of Hubert
Howe Bancroft.) It is a curious fact, however, that the
passages which were made the basis of the society's indictment
are almost entirely in the first five volumes of
the California history, which were written by Oak. He
has declared that even the revisions were his own and not
Bancroft's.
The History of Utah, another storm-center among the
histories, was written by Bates and Bancroft, the former,
according to Nemos, preparing twice as much manuscript
as the latter. The earlier chapters are by Bancroft, but
no more certain assignment of their respective shares in
the work can be made from the information at hand.
The History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, as
already noticed, was written by Mrs. Victor, with the exception
of the first two chapters on Nevada, which were
by Bancroft. Mrs. Victor's statement of her work includes
these also, perhaps by inadvertence. It is possible
that she rewrote them, however, as Mr. Bancroft had
admitted that they were out of proportion.
In the work on the Northwest Coast, we again see
Bancroft's predilection for early voyages. The first half
of Volume I, including the Spanish explorations of the
coast, belonged to Oak's field, and was written by him.
Bancroft wrote most of the remainder of the two volumes,
which included the maritime fur trade, the Lewis and
Clark expedition, the Astor enterprise, the Northwest
and Hudson Bay companies, and the later American fur
trade.
A hundred pages on the "Oregon Question" written by
Mrs. Victor for Oregon were incorporated in the second
volume of the History of the Northwest Coast. She had
taken the American side of the case, a view with which
Mr. Bancroft was not in sympathy. By his order, Mr.
Oak rewrote the subject from an English standpoint.
He added chapter fifteen, but to some extent made use
of her work in preparing chapter sixteen. Mrs. Victor
always claimed that he merely altered it, Oak himself
that he rewrote it. The remainder of her manuscript
was retained and printed as chapter eighteen.
The volume on Washington, Idaho, and Montana, was
written wholly by Mrs. Victor, a task for which she was
fitted by her work on early Oregon history.
The History of Oregon was also her work, a fact which
has been known and fully recognized by prominent Oregonians
since the day of its publication. She had contemplated
writing such a work even before the beginning
of Mr. Bancroft's project, and it was only a realization
of her inability to compete single handed with the capital
and other resources at his disposal which caused her
to enter his employ. In collecting material within the
state, she had the assistance of such pioneer families as
her friends the Applegates and McBrides, and among
others, of Judge Deady and Elwood Evans. Valuable
data concerning Hudson Bay rule in Oregon were furnished
her in a correspondence with Mr. A. B. Roberts
and Mr. Allen, formerly of the Hudson Bay Company.
(This correspondence is now in the possession of Mr.
E. H. Kilham, of Portland, Or.) The work as written
made more than two volumes, and condensation was necessary.
A chapter on geology and mining was omitted
by Mr. Bancroft; the disposal of the manuscript on the
"Oregon Question" has already been noticed, and matter
on the San Juan boundary dispute and the Modoc war
was also incorporated in other volumes. Mrs. Victor
considered the first volume of the History of Oregon as
perfect as it could be made at the time. With certain
features of the second she was not so well satisfied, the
most prominent being the omission of the history of the
Oregon Steam Navigation Company, necessitated by Mr.
Bancroft's failure to secure material, and certain changes
made by him in her manuscript on Indian Wars in Southern
Oregon in such a way as to throw blame upon the settlers
(Mrs. Victor in [Salem] Oregon Statesman February
24, 1895). It is worthy of note that her history is the
first to pass over the political results attributed to Whitman's
ride by previous writers. The sheets of the Oregon
history before they were issued were submitted to
Judge Deady for his approval.
In the half of the History of British Columbia which
he wrote, Mr. Bancroft utilized some of the material that
he had collected in person. Bates prepared a fourth of
the manuscript, and Nemos and Bowman together the remainder,
Nemos writing some of the chapters and revising
others.
The History of Alaska afforded Mr. Bancroft an opportunity
for further research in the field of early voyages.
He is credited with half of the volume, Bates with a third,
Nemos a little, and Petroff about a fourth. Nemos places
all of his own writing on this work and British Columbia
together at a third of a volume.
A review of the facts shows that if we exclude the comparatively
few interpolations and changes made by Mr.
Bancroft, we can with assurance declare the authorship
of all portions of the third volume of Central America, of
the volumes on California, and of those on the North
Mexican States, Arizona and New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado,
and Wyoming, the Northwest Coast, Oregon and
Washington, Idaho and Montana, and that we can give
in general terms, though without being able to locate the
exact parts done by individuals, the names of the authors
of two volumes of Central America, and all of Mexico,
Utah, British Columbia, and Alaska. In these works
Oak and Nemos were agreed that there were scattered
fragmentary bits aggregating several volumes so worked
over by different writers in different ways as to render it
impossible to determine the exact authorship.
Turning to a consideration of the individual field of
writing, we find that of the twenty-eight volumes of history
proper, Bancroft is to be credited with four, no one
entire, Oak with seven and a half, Nemos five, no one
entire, Mrs. Victor a little less than five, Savage over
three, Peatfield one and a half, principally in small parts,
and Bates one and a fourth. (This is a computation
based exactly upon the facts as given, except in Bancroft's
case.) Nemos upon the same basis makes the
shares, except Savage's and Bancroft's, all slightly
greater. He assigns to Oak between seven and a half
and seven and two thirds volumes, to himself and Mrs.
Victor over five each, to Peatfield about two, and to
Bates one and a half. An actual count of the parts of
volumes written by Bancroft gives a total of three and a
half, but Nemos said that he took four as the number
upon the authority of Oak. This would allow him a half
volume of interpolations in the twenty-four and a half
volumes done by others. Griffin, Petroff, Kuhn, and a
man named Rasmus were the authors of fragments. Oak
thought that the name was Erasmus, but said that Nemos
who gave Rasmus was the better authority.
Concerning these facts in their main features, there is
a complete agreement between Oak and Nemos, who
together knew all the details which were to be known,
and the evidence of the other writers fits exactly with
their statements. The popular estimate of Hubert Howe
Bancroft as the historian of the Pacific Coast, is founded
upon the vague references and indefinite assertions of the
Literary Industries within the pages of which there is
nowhere to be found a straightforward statement that
this man wrote more than a part of the works to which
his name is attached. On the other hand, his own statements
over his own signature admit that he did not pretend
to be the author of what went out under his name.
The ranking of Mr. Bancroft among historians of the
United States is, therefore, an error, and what has appeared
in the public press concerning an "Historian of
the Pacific Coast," and a "Macaulay of the West," is
legend pure and simple. Instead of one Pacific Coast
historian who wrote the Bancroft volumes, there were
eight.
As to the six supplementary volumes of the "Works
of Hubert Howe Bancroft," which ended the series, Mrs.
Victor had some means of determining the authorship.
According to her notes, Savage and Nemos did a great
deal of writing and revising. The Modoc War in inter pocula,
a part of the chapter entitled Some Indian Episodes,
was written by Mrs. Victor from notes obtained
by herself on the ground. She also wrote some other
matter for this volume. The remainder was done by
Bancroft and his family, who also aided him much on
Popular Tribunals.
Pastorals was produced chiefly by Bancroft. Of the
Literary Industries, Nemos wrote several chapters or
parts, Savage a little, and Oak three or four bits of a few
paragraphs each. It must be remembered that Bancroft's
writing in these private volumes was subjected to
criticism, revision, and retouching by the best literary
talent which the library afforded.
Concerning the Chronicles of the Builders, the biographical
series which followed the histories, with such
unfortunate results, some notes in Mrs. Victor's handwriting
taken in 1888, about a year before work finally
ended, give us the following facts: The introductory
essay is by Nemos, as are also the reflective chapters and
reviews, together with most of the historical text. Peatfield
wrote Oregon, Washington, and Texas, though some
of the latter was rewritten by Nemos. Mrs. Victor wrote
"Routes and Transportation," and a number of the leading
biographies, making nearly a volume. Savage wrote
about a third of a volume.
Mr. Bancroft as a writer of history was subject to certain
influences likely to be felt in his treatment of facts,
which did not affect his coworkers. One great object was
of course to make the work popular. It was with this
end in view that much attention was given to literary
finish and typographical features. It was his practice
to have a writer employed for the purpose go over his
own manuscripts and sometimes those of his assistants
to add "classical allusions," as he termed them, for rhetorical
effect. He himself was given to the reading of
English classics—Carlyle's works are especially mentioned
by his friends—as a means of acquiring a good
literary style. To stimulate the reader's attention, he
occasionally made a side remark of such a ludicrous character
as to be startling when one comes upon it in a perfectly
serious paragraph. Mrs. Victor often laughed over
the interlineation in a paragraph written by her on the
Oregon boundary question of the words:
"Man is a preposterous pig; probably the greediest
animal that crawls upon this planet": (Oregon, I, 592.)
In passing upon the work of his corps of writers, one
who combined the duties of financier as well as editor of
the work either consciously or unconsciously must have
been influenced by the question whether the treatment
of the subject before him was such as would please the
people in the locality whose history was being written.
The Mormon turn given the History of Utah by the toning
down of certain incidents which other historians have
"shrunk from contemplating" occurs to us as a case in
point: (Frances Fuller Victor in Salt Lake Tribune, April
14, 1893; New York Mail and Express, November 23d).
The publication of the Chronicles before all of the volumes
of history were out could hardly have lessened this
tendency, as a favorable mention of a man in the history
would naturally tend to make him more approachable
upon the subject of contributing to that work. Upon the
back of the letter to Mrs. Victor instructing her to give
prominence to certain dictations, which he admits are
practically worthless, is written in her hand the legend,
"Ways that are dark and tricks that are vain." As a result
of complaint, changes were sometimes made in the
text, even after the first edition was out: (Pamphlet,
Proceedings of the Society of California Pioneers in Reference
to the Histories of Hubert Howe Bancroft).
In the History of Montana occurs an example of a
change made directly for business reasons. Several pioneers
justly entitled to a place in the history of their territory
disagreed with the agent of the Bancroft house concerning
the number of volumes of the history which their
contract required them to take. As a punishment for
their refusal to comply with the demands of the publisher,
their biographies were stricken from their place
in the footnotes after the volume was set up, and other
matter was substituted. (The original sheets with marginal
annotations as to amounts paid and biographies to
be omitted are in the possession of Mr. E. H. Kilham of
Portland, Oregon.) In view of these facts, we are forced
to conclude that the business man in Mr. Bancroft, developed
by the experiences and associations of a lifetime,
sometimes got the better of the historical editor of scarcely
fifteen years' standing.
A second factor to be considered in Mr. Bancroft's
writing was sometimes expressed by his acquaintances as
a mistaking of contrariness for originality. As already
indicated, his tendency is toward a form of writing such
as will attract the reader's attention. This tendency
frequently asserts itself in sweeping statements and striking
characterizations, many of them apparently impelled
by a desire to give a turn to an incident or an estimate
of a character different from that given by any previous
writer. Thus Bancroft wrote an estimate of General
Grant, which was startling because of the general hostility
of its tone, and was considered so unjust by Mrs.
Victor and Oak that they persuaded him to leave it out.
(Letter of Mrs. Victor of July 25, 1892. The paragraph
which was originally intended as a footnote in the History
of Oregon, II, 246, is printed on page 18 of the
Pamphlet of the Society of California Pioneers, which
gives their proceedings with reference to Bancroft's histories.)
Again, in making an effort to avoid following Washington
Irving, he has given in the part of the Northwest
Coast which he wrote a treatment of the Astor enterprise,
and an estimate of the character of Captain Bonneville,
which later historians have shown to be prejudiced
and in error. (See Chittenden's History of the American
Fur Trade in the Far West, I, 432-33.)
A third influence affecting the treatment of facts of history
which passed under Mr. Bancroft's editorship, as
well as those which he presented in the scattered portions
of volumes of which he could claim real authorship, is
that of personal bias. The manager of the Bancroft enterprise
was a man, who in the course of a thirty years'
business career had many business rivalries and personal
enmities. His strong dislikes frequently assert themselves
in his writings, if we are to take his own statements.
(Lit. Ind., 374.)
Again, the personal equation must be accounted for in
the value which he sets on the work of historians who
wrote before him. He not infrequently disparages their
writings in the strongest terms, his depreciation of Washington
Irving being one of the most palpable cases.
(Chittenden's History of American Fur Trade in the Far
West, I, 244-46), has forcibly revealed the extent of the
injustice done by Bancroft in this one case. That there
are others like it will readily appear. For the effort to
demonstrate the superiority of the Bancroft histories over
others, we must accordingly make due allowance when
attempting a critical estimate.
Furthermore, the editor-manager began the work with
certain theories and notions of history that have found
their way into the pages which he has published. From
the beginning, he adopted the British side in dealing
with the dispute over the Oregon boundary. In his
treatment of Indian wars, the same tendency to adopt
ready-made theories asserted itself. In the manuscript
of Mrs. Victor's History of Oregon, treating of Indian
Wars in Southern Oregon which "gave great credit to the
veterans of that struggle and the settlers generally for
their forbearance," the editor interlined some expressions,
throwing the blame upon the settlers. When it
was pointed out to him that this was not true, he replied
that he had begun his History of Central America with
this theory of Indian wars, and must be consistent
throughout the entire series (Communication of Frances
Fuller Victor to the [Salem] Oregon Statesman, February
24, 1895).
To such errors as those just enumerated the work of
Mr. Bancroft's collaborators was not subject. The dislike
inspired by some of the measures of their chief has
sometimes resulted in their disparagement as historians
by a public press, absolutely ignorant of the parts of the
work for which they were responsible. (In the Salt Lake
Tribune, February 16, 1893, is a very striking example.
Occasional utterances of the San Francisco papers of
about the same time follow along the same line.) It
must be remembered that they were not only able and
educated, but that the competitive wage system under
which they worked offered every inducement to search
for the truth and to make it known as they found it in
the best collection of books, pamphlets, and newspapers
on Pacific Coast history that was ever made. The only
characteristics which were common to the library corps,
as shown by a study of their biographies, were good
education, ill health, and liberal religious views.
In general, these writers had special qualifications
which adapted them for work in their respective fields.
To Oak there was a fascination in the study of documents
from which the usually uninteresting and sometimes
tedious details of events in Spanish and Mexican provincial
localities were derived. His contributions to history
he could honestly claim were better than other writings
on the same subject because of the exhaustiveness of his
research through the great amount of material at his disposal.
While he admired the finer qualities of style in
the writings of others, they were not required in his work.
He frankly declared that he had little natural ability in
this line, and in the writing of provincial annals found
no opportunity for the cultivation of what he had. Oak
once asserted in a joking mood that he had found of great
service a thorough knowledge of Spanish and French,
together with a useful smattering of other languages, including
English. None of his chapters were rewritten
or even reread with a view to polish, for the reason that
he believed his works had their chief value merely as
records, and that an attempt to make them fascinating to
general readers could but result in impairing their value
for reference. The fact that the superintendent of literary
activities in the Bancroft library was an enthusiast
in original research who cared vastly more what was said
than how it was said is a circumstance favoring the accuracy
of the histories which must not be overlooked.
Oak could say that from the first he had exercised an
important influence in the direction of honest research
and against superficial work, and that he opposed undue
haste in bringing the work to a conclusion.
Nemos, unlike Oak, was a writer of smooth, flowing
English. On account of his foreign birth he had no
preference in the selection of a field, and wrote for more
different volumes than any other member of the library
force. His great ability, and his consequent position of
all-round man, are to be accounted for by great natural
endowment supplemented by a thorough training in
youth in his own country, a schooling during his London
residence in the philosophy of his own country as well as
that of the German universities, and a wide acquaintance
with European languages. With a remarkable faculty
for systematizing work, he was useful, honorable, and
trustworthy.
To Mrs. Victor was assigned the agreeable task of working
up the field in which she had long taken special interest.
She was the only member of the staff who had
a literary reputation before entering the library. Noted
as a poetess of unusual promise in her earlier days, she
had also written excellent prose for different journals,
among them a magazine history of the United States published
in serial form by the Harpers, until the beginning
of the Civil War compelled the discontinuance of the
publication in which it appeared. As a contributor to
the San Francisco papers in the early "sixties," she had
met with pronounced success, while her work on her projected
History of Oregon and her publication of two works
on the Northwest fitted her for her special field. She
had the enviable faculty of putting life into her writings,
and it was partially on account of her graceful style that
Mr. Bancroft sought her services, for his eye was always
attracted by good literary work. But the volumes written
by Mrs. Victor were of a far different stamp from the
popular literary history. The late Mary Sheldon Barnes,
professor of history in Stanford University, declared that
she had done her work well. All who were acquainted
with her personally recognized the fact that she placed
the truth as she conceived it before all else. The leading
opponents of the stand she took on disputed questions
freely recognized the fact that she had striven to do conscientious,
painstaking work. Given to speaking what
she believed was the whole truth, even when it was contrary
to her immediate interest to do so, she was the last
of all persons whom a regard for literary effect would
swerve from the path of historical accuracy.
A better man for chief Spanish authority than Thomas
Savage could scarcely have been found. Thoroughly
acquainted with the language by a life-long residence in
Spanish America, he had a natural fondness for history,
to which his long continuance in the consular service had
added a habit of accuracy, and a capacity for hard work.
The fifth volume of the History of Mexico, embracing the
history of that country from 1824 to 1861, and the third
volume of the Central American history which threads
out the tangled skein of the history of the five little republics
in the nineteenth century, serve as examples of
the vast amount of detail which his writing covered, to
say nothing of his labors in collecting and extracting an
overwhelming mass of material on Spanish American
history. All agree that he was a polished and sound
man.
In the writers of smaller parts of the history, we find
that the qualifications and fitness for the individual field
of writing were no less than in those who prepared more
manuscript. Peatfield's connection with the British
consular service bespeaks his reliability and capability;
Bates' occupancy of a responsible position under a prominent
English educator, and the high regard in which his
work was held by Hittell bear witness that he was competent
to write history; and Petroff's standing as a scholar
in his own country, together with his thorough acquaintance
with Alaska, vouch for the character of his work.
While the Bancroft corps of writers were not infallible,
they were a class of persons in whose integrity and accuracy
we may have as great confidence as in the average
historian. We can only regret that we can not point out
all parts of the work done by each, and that we can not
show in detail the extent of Mr. Bancroft's editorial
alterations of their work. This latter feature, inherent
in the Bancroft plan of writing history, is its greatest
weakness, since it of necessity involves some uncertainty
as to whether the words we are reading are those of the
author who wrote the volume, or the interpretation of
Mr. Bancroft. A comparative study of the style of what
we know to be the work of the respective writers may
suffice to settle a given case. We may state as a fact
that the majority of alterations in the manuscripts of the
chief assistants were due to the necessity of condensation;
and that, aside from this, the revision of their
work usually consisted merely in the suppression of
radical utterances and the interlineation of a few lines
occasionally for literary effect. The somewhat rough
estimate given of the number of volumes written by the respective
writers indicates that Mr. Bancroft's revisions
constitute about one page in fifty of the work in fields
assigned to his assistants, although the average may be
lower. In view of these facts, the knowledge that those
who wrote the Bancroft histories were capable, honest
persons, must tend decidedly toward the increasing of
our general confidence in the series.
By Clarence B. Bagley.
The trapper, the trader, the missionary, and the printer
were the pioneers of "Old Oregon," as the original territory
lying between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific
Ocean, and extending northward from California to the
British possessions may be properly called. A mere
handful of patriotic Americans founded a provisional
government for this vast wilderness in 1843, and the
American Government enclosed it safely in the national
fold in 1846 by treaty with Great Britain, and organized
it into a territory August 14, 1848.
Those who are the leading spirits in the several historical
societies of the Northwest, and the writers of its
history, realize the true value to be placed upon the labors
of the pioneer printers and newspaper men of "Old Oregon."
This expression is tautological. There were no
newspaper men who were not printers in the pioneer
days.
It has been my good fortune, as child, boy, and man,
to know nearly all the old newspaper men of Oregon and
Washington of that period by sight, and to be on terms of
friendship with most of them, as well as most intimate
with the majority. Among them were:
Ashael Bush, W. L. Adams, Thomas H. Pearne, T. J.
Dryer, Harvey W. Scott, H. L. Pittock, Beriah Brown,
James O'Meara, W. Lair Hill, Wm. G. T'Vault, Samuel
A. Clarke, Mrs. Duniway, D. W. Craig, John Atkinson,
E. M. Waite, L. Samuels, John Burnett, J. M. Baltimore,
William Newell, P. B. Johnson, R. R. Rees, E. T. Gunn,
Charles Besserer, Eugene Semple, A. M. Poe, John Miller
Murphy, Randall H. Hewitt, L. G. Abbott, Thornton F.
McElroy, James N. Gale, J. R. Watson, David Higgins,
Charles and Thomas W. Prosch, John F. Damon, D. C.
Ireland, Francis H. Cook, S. L. Maxwell, H. C. Patrick,
R. F. Radebaugh, and many of their contemporaries, as
well as a host of their successors.
Nearly all these were practical printers, and most of
them skillful at the case, capable of taking entire charge
of the mechanical department of the early day printing
offices.
This training made them accurate in their literary
work. While some of them might not have been on intimate
terms with the rules of grammar, they made up for
any such deficiency by untiring and conscientious efforts
to give their readers good newspapers, in the face of the
gravest difficulties. In the matter of politics full allowance
had ever to be made for the personal bias of the
writer, but in the matter of news, especially that of a
local character, the most absolute fidelity to the truth
was ever maintained. No efforts were made for a "good
story" at the expense of truth. The head of the paper
always had a personal knowledge of the facts and usually
prepared the account of them. If he found he had made a
mistake he usually corrected it in the next issue, if it was
of sufficient importance. For this reason the writer of the
present day who delves among the old newspaper files of
pioneer days, and even down to within twenty or twenty-five
years ago, can rely upon the fairness and truthfulness
of their local columns. They were all writing history but
few of them realized it.
Life was too strenuous with the pioneers of the "forties"
and "fifties" for them to spend much time in keeping
diaries or other records of passing events. If they
had done so, the unsettled conditions under which they
lived, the lack of substantial buildings, the migration to
new countries, and the rush to new mines, would have
resulted in the loss or destruction of most of such manuscripts.
Of the early Oregon papers, I doubt if more than two
or three perfect files exist. Of the early papers of Washington,
not more than three or four complete files remain
of any of them. Of the first Seattle papers, there is but
one file. It I began collecting more than forty years ago.
How much care, then, should be exercised in gathering
these old papers from the garrets and the closets where
they have lain fifty years or more, perhaps—as well as to
observe the most painstaking care for their preservation.
When the missions among the Indians of Oregon were
established by Messrs. Whitman and Spalding in 1836,
the First Native Church of Honolulu decided to send
to it a small printing press and some type and material
that had been in use for some time there in printing
spelling books and religious matter, thinking the work of
the mission in Oregon would be advanced by its aid.
Edwin O. Hall had been one of the printers of the
Honolulu mission and he was engaged to accompany the
printing outfit to Oregon. With the press, type, fixtures,
a stock of paper and binding apparatus in his charge he,
accompanied by his wife, arrived at Vancouver, on the
Columbia River, early in the month of April, 1839. In
a few days the press and party started up the Columbia
River in a canoe and reached Wallula on the 30th. From
there the press was sent on pack animals to Lapwai, on
the Clearwater River, not far from the present City of
Lewiston, Idaho, while the rest of the outfit and the
party went on up the river by canoe.
May 18, 1839, the first proof sheet in the original Oregon
Territory was struck off amid great rejoicing among
the missionary party. A large number of publications
in the Flathead, Spokane, Cayuse, and Nez Percé language
was printed by the mission people. In fact, the
press was in use a great deal until in 1846, when Doctor
Whitman sent it to The Dalles, where it remained until
after the Whitman massacre, November 29-30, 1847.
In 1848 it was in use near Hillsboro, on Tualatin Plains,
for several months, where eight numbers of the Oregon
American and Evangelical Unionist appeared, which was
the third paper in chronological order.
By this time more modern presses, apparatus and types
had reached Oregon and the pioneer outfit was laid
aside. Years later it came into the possession of the
Oregon Historical Society at Portland.
The Oregon Spectator was the first newspaper in Old
Oregon, and the initial number appeared at Oregon City
on Thursday, February 5, 1846. A new plant had been
procured for it in New York, whence it was sent around
"The Horn." Col. William G. T'Vault was its editor
and John Flemming the printer. This paper passed
through many vicissitudes in the ensuing years—numerous
changes of editors and publishers with frequent alterations
in size, now larger and again smaller, until it
finally suspended in 1855.
The second paper was the Oregon Free Press, which appeared
in March, 1848, under the control of George L.
Curry, who later became Governor of Oregon.
The fourth in order was the Western Star, first issued
at Milwaukie November 21, 1850, by Lot Whitcomb. At
that time Milwaukie, on the east side of the Willamette,
a few miles above Portland, was a rival of the latter place
for commercial supremacy, but in May, 1851, Milwaukie
had fallen behind in the race, and the Star was moved to
Portland, and its name changed to the Oregon Weekly
Times. It lived much longer than most of the early
newspaper ventures of the Northwest. Among its numerous
editors were A. C. Gibbs, Governor of Oregon
during the Civil War period, and also W. Lair Hill, with
whom all lawyers of Oregon and Washington are familiar
personally or by reputation. He was the author of the
well-known code of this state bearing his name, and for
a considerable period a resident of Seattle.
The fifth was the Weekly Oregonian and the only one of
all the newspapers of Oregon and Washington appearing
prior to 1860 to survive with its original name and without
periodical suspensions.
The Oregonian had to struggle for existence during all
its early years. Rivals unnumbered went to the newspaper
graveyard during the succeeding quarter century.
It is a conservative estimate to place the aggregate at a
$1,000,000 sunk during that period by ambitious printers,
dissatisfied politicians, and by corporations who could
not control its editorials, in the various attempts to break
the Oregonian down. The most notable contest was between
the Oregonian and the Bulletin, when Ben. Holladay
was the great magnate in railroad and steamship
affairs of the Northwest. He established, about 1872, a
first-class newspaper and job printing office that cost not
less than $50,000. He employed the best newspaper
talent he could secure, and the Bulletin at once became a
dangerous rival for the Oregonian, which had to depend
solely on its own resources for its support, while the
weekly deficit in the Bulletin office was made good by a
check from Ben. Holladay.
The Oregonian had at that time about seven thousand
subscribers at $3 per year to its weekly paper, while the
Bulletin had only a few hundred. The Weekly Oregonian
saved the day, and the Bulletin died the death. Its backer
is reputed to have sunk not less than $100,000. This left
the Oregonian master of the field, and it became the overshadowing
journalistic power of the Northwest until the
great dailies of Seattle forced it to the rear in the State
of Washington.
Thomas J. Dryer was its first editor and A. M. Berry
the first printer. Henry L. Pittock became a printer in
its office in November, 1853, and was admitted to partnership
in 1856, and only four years later became its sole
owner. Mr. Harvey W. Scott went on its editorial staff
in May, 1865. In 1877 he bought an interest in the paper
and became editor-in-chief. He and Mr. Pittock still own
the paper, and it need not be added that it has made them
immensely wealthy.
The Daily Oregonian made its first appearance February
4, 1861. It consisted of four pages, each page about
11½x18 inches, four columns to the page.
March 26, 1851, the Oregon Statesman was launched on
the newspaper sea at Salem, the state capital, with Joseph
S. Smith at the helm. In later years Smith went to Congress
from that state and was always a conspicuous figure
in Democratic circles. In September, 1852, when we arrived
in Salem from across "the plains," Asahel Bush
had become owner and editor. He soon became public
printer, then an exceedingly profitable billet, and in six
or eight years was quite wealthy. The Statesman was the
leading Democratic journal for a long period and wielded
a powerful influence until Joseph Lane and the Democratic
party under him lost the state, when Abraham
Lincoln was elected President. After that its influence
gradually declined. It underwent the usual changes of
ownership and temporary suspensions.
It will be difficult for the younger men in the newspaper
offices of today, with their many departments and
special work, to realize the many cares and duties devolving
upon the pioneer newspaper men. The successful
one was a capable printer who could "set type," run a
press, make up the forms, make a roller, and wash it if
need be. He was editorial writer, local reporter, business
manager, and mailing clerk. A "job office" was
usually a part of the printing establishment and he, perforce,
must be his own job printer and pressman as well.
During all the earlier years there were no telegraphic
dispatches, the "news" being selected from the weekly
issues of the Tribune or Herald of New York City, which
came by mail steamer to the Isthmus of Panama, thence
across and by steamer to San Francisco, and thence with
the utmost irregularity by steamer to Portland, from
there down the Columbia and up the Cowlitz River and
by pack animal or mud wagon to Olympia.
Under all these adverse circumstances it is remarkable
what good newspapers were issued. They were usually
on paper 24x36 inches in size, which was about the limit
for hand presses then in use. The editorial matter was
vigorous and able, the typography and presswork equal
to that of the present day, the selection of news and
literary matter unexceptionable. It is not a matter of
surprise that men capable of accomplishing such good
work in the face of such difficulties should have wielded
a powerful influence in the pioneer work of the territory.
Of the pioneer newspaper men of Oregon and Washington
there are many in Seattle. First in age and experience
is Charles Prosch, with over forty years to his
credit. Rev. John F. Damon comes next in seniority of
service. Judge Orange Jacobs had much editorial experience
in Oregon before coming here. Henry G. Struve,
Esq., was an editorial writer for years prior to 1873, in
Vancouver, Clarke County, and in Olympia. Ex-Governor
Semple spent many years in all kinds of newspaper
work in Oregon and Washington, beginning about 1870.
Thomas W. Prosch learned to be a printer as he learned
to read on the Herald at Steilacoom and the Tribune in
Olympia. C. B. Bagley began newspaper work in 1868
and continued it with little intermission for twenty years.
Samuel C. Crawford began as printer's devil for John
Miller Murphy on the Olympia Standard thirty years or
more ago. Beriah Brown, the senior of them all, recently
died here, and his son Berry began "at the case"
and other newspaper work as early as 1868.
The Columbian was the "pioneer newspaper west of the
mountains, between the father of Oregon waters and
Kamstkatka," as an editorial paragraph in the first number
puts it. Messrs. Wiley & McElroy established it in
Olympia September 11, 1852. Later its name was
changed to the Pioneer, and not long afterward it was
merged with the Democrat, a rival paper, under the name
of Pioneer and Democrat. From the above date Olympia
has never been without one or more weekly papers, and
at times has enjoyed two daily papers at the same time.
The Puget Sound Courier was the pioneer paper at Steilacoom,
which was started by Affleck & Gunn, May 19,
1854. It was Whig in politics, and as the population
was overwhelmingly Democratic it soon died for lack of
sustenance.
Mr. Charles Prosch, the dean of newspaperdom on
Puget Sound, whose erect form and snow-white hair are
familiar on the streets of Seattle, published the Puget
Sound Herald at Steilacoom, beginning March 12, 1858,
for about six years, and later other papers at Olympia.
The Northern Light appeared at Whatcom in 1858, under
the management of W. Bausman & Co., during a few
weeks of the height of the Fraser River gold rush, but
its light was soon snuffed out.
The Port Townsend Register was started January 4, 1860,
by a young man named Travers Daniels, but the field
was not an encouraging one, and at the end of ten weeks
he sold out to William T. Whitacre, who kept it alive
until August, when it suspended.
July 5 of the same year the Northwest was started in
Port Townsend by E. S. Dyer, publisher, and John F.
Damon, editor. Mr. Damon continued with the paper
until it suspended, before the second volume was completed.
Rev. John F. Damon, the Congregational clergyman
of Seattle, is too widely known to require extended mention
here.
The Register was resuscitated late in 1860 and run a
violent career for several months, and later was followed
by the Message, which ran several years under different
management.
In 1874 C. W. Philbrick purchased the press on which
the last-named paper was printed, changed the name to
Puget Sound Argus, and succeeded in placing it on a paying
basis, a hitherto impossible achievement in Port
Townsend. In 1877 Philbrick, after accumulating considerable
property, sold the Argus to Mr. Allen Weir.
July 29, 1861, the Overland Press was started in Olympia.
A short time before the pony express had been put on the
route between the Missouri River and Sacramento, carrying
the news and a few letters, thus placing San Francisco
and New York in communication with each other
in from ten to twelve days. This suggested the name of
the paper. It was enabled to give a brief summary of
Eastern news only three weeks old. Prior to this it had
been from six weeks to three months old when it reached
Olympia.
The great Civil War had broken out only a few weeks
earlier and the manager of the Press of Victoria, British
Columbia, with commendable business sagacity, determined
to establish a paper in Olympia containing the
latest war news, and have it ready to distribute at all
Puget Sound ports and have a supply to distribute to its
own readers in Victoria and other parts of British Columbia
on the arrival of the weekly mail. The Eliza Anderson,
then the crack steamer of Puget Sound waters, made
weekly trips, leaving Olympia early on Monday morning,
arriving at Seattle about 4 P. M., and at Victoria early
Tuesday morning. The paper at once became very popular
and gained an immense circulation for those days.
Early in the fourth volume its name was changed to
the Pacific Tribune. Randall H. Hewitt, now living in
Los Angeles, owned and published it for a time, when
Charles Prosch acquired it and continued its publication
at Olympia until 1873. By this time his son, Thomas
W. Prosch, had manifested much newspaper ability and
had become the owner of the paper. He moved it to
Tacoma, the new railroad town, that year and continued
there until the almost total death of the place forced another
move and he came to Seattle with it. In 1878
Thaddeus Hanford bought it and merged it with the Post-Intelligencer.
With but one change of name it had lived
about seventeen years, or longer than any other of the
early Washington papers, with one exception.
This exception was and is the Washington Standard of
Olympia, the most notable instance of newspaper longevity,
with the exception of the Oregonian, in old Oregon.
Its first number was largely written, set up and
printed by its founder, John Miller Murphy, and now,
almost forty-three years later, it is his proud boast that
it has never missed an issue, has never changed its name
and that not a single one of its weekly issues has failed
to have more or less editorial matter from his pen. It
was "Union" in sentiment during the war of the rebellion,
but espoused the cause of Andrew Johnson in his
contest with a Republican Congress, and since then has
always been consistently Democratic. Mr. Murphy has
always been too proud of his independence to subordinate
his will or the expressions of his journal to the control
of his party leaders, and has often refused preferment at
their hands on that account. He still superintends the
mechanical department of his office, as well as attending
to his editorial duties. He had achieved a competence
but the panic of 1893 and the ensuing period of financial
depression made great inroads upon his fortune, so that
necessity compels him to remain in the harness, though
nearly a half century of continuous work has certainly
earned him rest.
The Seattle Gazette was the name under which the first
paper published in Seattle appeared, dated December 11,
1863, nearly forty years ago. It was edited, set up, published,
and with the assistance of an Indian for roller boy,
printed by J. R. Watson. The office was in the second
story of one of Yesler's buildings, then standing near the
present north line of the Scandinavian Bank Building.
The paper consisted of four pages, the printed matter
on each page measuring 9½x14½ inches. The type and
other material were destroyed many years ago, but the
old Ramage[41] printing press is a relic highly prized at the
State University. The Seattle Gazette, Puget Sound Gazette,
and Puget Sound Weekly continued nearly four years with
frequent changes in form and ownership.
Pioneer printers have taken a great deal of interest in
regard to the antecedents of this old press. Mr. George
H. Himes was an Olympia boy, who served his apprenticeship
in the office of the Washington Standard under
John Miller Murphy. From there he went to Portland
and in time "Himes the Printer" became a household
word in Oregon and Washington. He has of late years
been prominent in the pioneer and historical societies of
Oregon. He has given much time to research regarding
this old press, and as a result gives it as his opinion that
it was first sent from New York to Mexico, thence to Monterey,
California, in 1834, where it was used by the Spanish
governor for a number of years in printing proclamations,
etc., and on August 15, 1846, the Californian, the
pioneer paper of California, was printed on it. Late in
1846 it was sent from Monterey to San Francisco and
used in printing the Star, the first paper of that city, issued
in January, 1847. These two papers were combined at
a later date, and in the fall of 1848 the first number of
the Alta California was issued from it. From San Francisco
it went to Portland and the first number of the Oregonian
was taken off it. In 1852 it and the old plant
of the Oregonian was bought by Thornton F. McElroy
and J. W. Wiley, who brought it around on the schooner
Mary Taylor to Olympia, where the first number of the
Columbian was printed on it. In 1863 J. R. Watson
brought it to Seattle, and December 10th the first paper,
the Seattle Gazette, was printed on it. Again in 1865
S. L. Maxwell used it to print the earlier numbers of the
Intelligencer.
There seems to be no doubt that it was used to print
the first newspapers on the Pacific Coast, the first in Monterey,
San Francisco, Portland, Olympia, Seattle.
Although Seattle's first paper was of much more modest
proportions than any of its predecessors or contemporaries,
it had the honor of starting the first daily paper
in the territory, which appeared April 23, 1866, and continued
to August 11th of the same year.
The Western Union Telegraph line was completed to
Seattle October 26, 1864, and at 4 P. M. of that date the
Gazette issued its "Citizen's Dispatch," giving the first
published dispatch coming by wire to this place. It gave
the Eastern war news to October 24th, from Kansas
City and from Chattanooga of the operations of Sherman
against Hood in the Atlanta campaign.
Occasionally telegraphic dispatches appeared in succeeding
papers, but not until about July 1, 1872, when the
Puget Sound Dispatch was established by Larrabee & Co.,
Beriah Brown, editor, was any regular publication of the
press dispatches undertaken here.
In June, 1867, a suspension took place, and August 5th
next S. L. Maxwell sent to press the first number of the
Weekly Intelligencer. The plant had come into the ownership
of Messrs. Daniel and C. B. Bagley, and Mr. Maxwell
was permitted to use the same and pay for it as he
could out of the earnings of the paper. The type, rules,
press, and much of the advertising matter of the older
paper, still standing in the forms, was used in the makeup
of the new paper, so that it may properly be considered
a lineal successor of the Seattle Gazette. Mr. Maxwell
proved to be a good newspaper and business man, and as
the town and surrounding country was having a vigorous
growth, it did not take him long to pay off the small debt
and to add much needed material to the office, which was
moved across Yesler Way to a small wooden building,
and, later, up Yesler Way to near the southwest corner of
Second Avenue South. It gained influence as it grew,
made money for its owner almost from the start, and had
the local field to itself until the Dispatch was started.
In the latter part of 1878 some of the prominent local
office-holders and business men organized a company to
start another paper, and November 21, 1878, the Seattle
Weekly Post made its first appearance, being made up
from the Daily Post, which started on the 15th of the
month. Its first quarters were in the two-story wooden
building owned by Hillory Butler that stood on the ground
now occupied by the southwest corner of the Hotel Butler.
In passing it may be added that this building was, from
time to time, the home of more early papers than any
other in town—Dispatch, North Pacific Rural, Chronicle,
Post, Times, Press, and others with single and hyphenated
titles long since forgotten.
In the meantime the Intelligencer had been installed in
a larger two-story building then standing on the west
side of First Avenue where it deflects into First Avenue
South, and remained there several years.
About 1879 Thomas W. Prosch and Samuel L. Crawford
had acquired ownership of it. Both had been printers
from boyhood, and Mr. Prosch had gained much experience
as a newspaper man in Olympia and Tacoma, and
under their management it continued to grow in value
and influence.
In 1881 the Post Publishing Company began the erection
of a substantial brick building, two stories and basement
on the northeast corner of Yesler Way and Post
Street. As it was nearing completion negotiations were
opened for a consolidation of the Post and Intelligencer,
and this was effected October 1, 1881, with Thomas W.
Prosch owner of one half and John Leary and George
W. Harris each one quarter. The basement and lower
story of the new building were used by the company and
the upper story rented for offices.
This building continued to be the home of the paper
under several managements, until the great fire of June
6, 1889, destroyed it and most of its plant.
Early in 1886 a joint stock company, consisting of Frederick
J. Grant, C. B. Bagley, Griffith Davies, Jacob Furth,
John H. McGraw, E. S. Ingraham, W. H. Hughes,
Thomas Burke, and Dr. Thomas T. Miner, bought the Post-Intelligencer
from T. W. Prosch. Grant continued editor-in-chief,
Bagley was business manager, S. L. Crawford
city editor and reporter, and E. S. Meany had charge of
the carrier service.
Near the close of the same year L. S. J. Hunt purchased
the controlling interest in the paper and assumed management
at once. He had come to Seattle with large
financial backing, determined to go into the newspaper
field, and the majority of the stockholders, fearing he
might establish another paper and make it a powerful
rival, sold him their interests. He proceeded to spend
money most lavishly upon it and soon built it up into a
great paper.
In May, 1871, a small printing outfit that had been in
use at Sitka, Alaska, was brought to Seattle, and for a
few months the Seattle Times and Alaska Herald was printed
from it.
Later this material became the nucleus of the office of
the Puget Sound Dispatch, which was established by Beriah
Brown and Charles H. Larrabee. The latter was then a
prominent attorney in Seattle. He was among the killed
at the time of an appalling tragedy at Tehachipe Pass,
on the line of the Southern Pacific, between Los Angeles
and San Francisco. He soon retired from the paper,
leaving Beriah Brown in sole control, which he retained
with an occasional intermission until about 1878, when
it was merged with the Intelligencer.
Mr. Brown was one of the old school newspapermen,
who were writers of editorials worthy of the greatest
papers of the United States. He was a friend of Horace
Greeley, the elder Bennett and others of the noted editors
of a half century ago. He rarely wrote anything for his
own paper. His custom was to go to the case and put
his articles in type as he composed them. Few can realize
the difficulties occasioned by the dual processes of
thought thus brought into play. Local news is the life
of all newspapers in young communities. This he could
not purvey, nor was his business management a success.
Thaddeus Hanford, the eldest of the brothers of that
name, in his early boyhood showed ability as a writer
and after he had passed through college with honor he
returned to Seattle and engaged in newspaper work. For
a year or more he was the owner of the Intelligencer, but
sold it about 1879 as is noted elsewhere.
One of the most widely known as well as popular of
the old-time newspaper men was E. T. Gunn. He worked
in the Oregonian office as early as 1851 and was one of
its owners for a time. In 1855 he was engaged in newspaper
work at Steilacoom. November 30, 1867, he started
the Olympia Transcript and its publication was continued
regularly until his death in 1883. The Transcript was
the neatest and best-printed of all the early papers and
for many years exerted much influence in political affairs
of the territory. A split in the Republican party occurred
in 1867 and was the cause of the Transcript being started,
and for about six years while this schism continued it
championed the cause of the "bolting wing" of the party.
In 1872 an alliance between the bolters and the Democrats
resulted in the overwhelming triumph of the fusion
party, Judge O. B. McFadden being elected to Congress
over Selucius Garfield, the Republican candidate. All
the newspapers in Olympia were in sympathy with the
fusionists, and this led to the organization of a company
which established the Puget Sound Courier.
This company was under the leadership of Elisha P.
Ferry, then Surveyor-General, who became Territorial
Governor in 1873, and the first Governor of the State of
Washington in 1889.
The Daily Courier made its first appearance January 2,
1872, and the weekly later in the week. During that
year H. G. Struve, then practicing his profession in
Olympia, did much editorial work, while the late Fred
Prosch had charge of the mechanical department. In
December C. B. Bagley became business manager and
city editor, and in June, 1873, he bought the office and
newspaper. The daily was discontinued at the close of
1874. Mr. Bagley was appointed Territorial Printer in
1873, and held that position for ten years. He continued
the Weekly Courier until late in 1884, when he sold out
to Thomas H. Cavanaugh, who changed the name of the
paper to the Partisan.
During the period between 1873 and 1883 Olympia had
four weekly newspapers most of the time, while several
small dailies appeared from time to time, but never for
more than a few months. Until the Seattle papers began
to take telegraphic dispatches the Olympia papers had
most of their circulation at Seattle and points further
down Sound, but this gradually ceased, and long before
the admission of the state their patronage had become
almost wholly local in character.
Steilacoom, until about 1880, when Tacoma began its
second growth, was a favorite field for newspaper ventures.
Mr. Charles Prosch held the field there nearly six
years, much longer than anyone else, and while some of
his early contemporaries manifested more vigor and belligerency
in their editorial columns, none of them gave
so much local news or possessed one half the literary merit
of the Herald.
Francis H. Cook also moved from Olympia to Tacoma,
with a newspaper plant, on which he had for a time published
the Echo. This paper was started in 1868 by Randall
H. Hewitt, and that year in its office the writer began
work as a printer. James E. Whitworth, now of Seattle,
Nathan S. Porter, of Olympia, and Ike M. Hall worked
together in that office. Hundreds of the older residents
of Seattle remember Judge Hall, who died here about ten
years ago. Early in 1869 C. B. Bagley became the owner
and publisher of the Echo for about a year. Like most
of its fellows, it underwent all manner of changes of ownership,
of form and place of publication during an erratic
career of about eight years.
During the eight or ten years following the founding of
Tacoma in 1873, many attempts were made to establish
newspapers there, but most of them were far from profitable
to their backers. In fact, it has been frequently reported
that their more pretentious successors have not
been far from financial stress.
The Beacon was brought from Kalama by Mr. and Mrs.
Mooney, which had been the organ of the Northern Pacific
Railroad. This soon died. In 1880 there started
the North Pacific Coast, but its life was brief.
R. F. Radebaugh, of San Francisco, and H. C. Patrick,
of Sacramento, came to Tacoma and started the Weekly
Ledger April 23, 1880. April 7, 1883, the Daily Ledger
was started, and both the weekly and daily are still appearing
regularly, having long passed the usual period
that has been fatal to so many papers on Puget Sound.
Mr. Patrick left the Ledger in 1882 and bought the Pierce
County News, which had been started August 10, 1881,
by George W. Mattice. Mr. Patrick changed the name
to Tacoma News, and it appeared as a weekly paper until
September 15, 1883, when he started the Daily News. It
continues to occupy the evening field, while the Ledger retains
the morning field.
The limits of this article do not permit mention of
many papers which have appeared from time to time in
every town and almost every village. In the writer's
collection there are not less than one hundred publications,
daily, weekly, or monthly, that have sprung into
life since 1852. Most of them are forgotten in the communities
where they appeared. Success has come to but
here and there one.
Kirk C. Ward was a fluent writer and a promoter of no
small sagacity. Having lost control of the Post, he soon
induced some friends to back him and started the Chronicle.
It had a variegated career and finally became the
property of one of the leading law firms of the city, McNaught,
Ferry, McNaught & Mitchell. They employed
a Bohemian from Kansas, named Frank C. Montgomery,
as editor, who conducted it until May 1, 1886, when
Homer M. Hill, who is now engaged in other business
in Seattle, bought it.
The Hall brothers were conducting the Call and the
two papers were consolidated, and on Monday, May 3,
1886, the paper came out with Vol. 1, No. 1 of the Seattle
Daily Press. A weekly paper was also run in connection
with the daily. Mr. Hill ere long acquired the entire
ownership of the paper. He was a shrewd, capable business
man of untiring industry, and under his management
the paper became a valuable property. Interests
in it had been sold and bought back from time to time,
and at the time Mr. Hill closed out his ownership Harry
White held some of its shares. At that time the paper
was absolutely free from debt and had a good bank account
and was making money for its owners.
Mr. W. E. Bailey, a wealthy young man from Philadelphia,
had large interests here, and he became the victim
to an ambition to conduct a big newspaper. Under
these circumstances Mr. Hill had no difficulty in getting
his price for the Press. Mr. L. S. J. Hunt of the Post-Intelligencer
conducted the negotiations and made the purchase
and at once transferred the property to Mr. Bailey.
He made important additions to the mechanical department
and engaged a large news and editorial force, whose
chief instructions were to make a clean, live newspaper.
At the time Mr. Hill bought the Chronicle it owned the
Associated Press evening franchise, which was its most
valuable asset.
In passing, it is proper to note the fact that the present
Times is the lineal successor of the Chronicle, and while
for a brief period there was a break in the legal succession,
it may be truthfully said that the historical succession
to the Associated Press franchise is derived from the
Chronicle down through the Press and the Press-Times to
The Times of to-day.
The consolidation of the Chronicle and Call threw a lot
of printers and newspaper men out of employment, including
Thomas H. Dempsey, the foreman of the Chronicle
office. The latter was a keen business man and a
competent printer. He and the late Col. George G. Lyon
and James P. Ferry at once organized a new company,
and secured a printing outfit that served their purpose
temporarily. The same day, May 3, 1886, that the Press
was issued, No. 1, Vol. 1 of the Daily Times also appeared.
Seattle, then a little city of about 10,000 population,
was thus the proud possessor of three daily
papers.
The starting of these two papers just preceded the
"boom" in Seattle real estate, when the volume of advertising
was vastly increased as well as population of
the city, and both papers made money rapidly.
February 10, 1891, Mr. Bailey bought the Times from
Lyon and Dempsey, paying for it $48,000. He had paid
somewhere from $20,000 to $25,000 for the Press. He
consolidated the two under the name of the Press-Times.
The period of financial depression which followed a
couple of years later bore heavily upon Mr. Bailey and
and he was finally compelled to give up the paper to his
creditors, having lost not less than $200,000 during his
journalistic career.
The history of its subsequent vicissitudes and difficulties
would fill a volume, but can be touched upon but
briefly here. The paper was on the market for a long
time. John Collins had it for a time and sunk a lot of
money in it, having acquired it through a mortgage of
$15,000. John W. Pratt, whose recent lamented death
is fresh in the memories of a host of friends, secured control
of it for a time. At times it was published by a receiver.
Hughes and Davies came into possession of it
through ex-Sheriff James Woolery, who had taken it over
under the mortgage given to John Collins.
During this troubled period among other happenings
the name was changed back to The Times, and also the
Associated Press franchise was surrendered and that of
the United Service taken over. Later, and subsequent
to the mortgage of $15,000 given to John Collins, the
Associated Press franchise was again secured, and this
was a vital point in the legal contest that arose, The Times
Printing Company, headed by Col. A. J. Blethen on one
side, and Hughes & Davies on the other.
Colonel Blethen bought The Times August 7, 1897, and
his first editorial appeared in it three days later. He
came well equipped for newspaper work and management
by reason of wide experience in other fields, and
month by month he and his sons, Joseph and Clarence B.,
have made it better and better, and to-day is one of the
most valuable newspaper properties on the Pacific Coast
and one of the great dailies of the United States.
It is a labor of love to say that when the writer first
met W. H. Rees in 1844, the latter was, for a man in his
twenty-fifth year, in advance of his general surroundings.
His intelligence and manner of telling what he knew on
any subject drew men near his own age to him strongly.
There were, I found on riper acquaintance, family reasons
for part of this. His father (then a citizen of Hamilton
County, Ohio), had been a member of the legislature of
his native state of Delaware, and his mother had a place
in the literati of her day. The father was of Welsh stock,
and judging by the son, an active, ardent member of the
Whig party at the time. Willard and I were thrown
together in the tide of emigration setting out from Saint
Louis towards the rendezvous of proposed emigrants to
Oregon. The boat we were on landed at Weston, and
from thence we hired a team belonging to other emigrants to
haul our effects, and we walked to Saint Joseph. From
thence Rees and I footed it ten miles higher up the Missouri
to the camp of the emigrants under Gilliam's leadership.
Learning there that a man living but three miles
off needed two assistants to get his family and effects to
Oregon, we were at his residence next morning as he rose
from breakfast, and within five minutes were engaged
to come to Oregon with him as his assistants. Within
twenty-five minutes, mounted on a good horse, with gold
coin to purchase breadstuffs for ten persons for three
months' journey, Rees was on his way back to Saint
Joe. He and I then began a year of such intimate relations
to each other as leads me to say Capt. R. W. Morrison,
our employer, made no mistake in trusting Mr.
Rees with the most important acts in conducting his
preparations for the journey to Oregon. When we effected
a military organization for the trip, no mistake was made
in the election of Rees as first sergeant, with the duties
of adjutant. And when, after arrival in Oregon, fifteen
of us near the same age were employed logging and running
Hunt's saw mill, on the Lower Columbia, Rees was
easily our leader. Leaving that in June, 1845, and coming
to Oregon City to vote, he still, without effort on his
part, was by common consent in the first place. There
were at Oregon City two young men I might claim as his
peers at that date—Charles E. Pickett and J. W. Nesmith.
It was the former and Rees, I believe, who led to
the formation of the first literary association. Mr.
Pickett was at that time reader from the public news box.
The contents were volunteer contributions, each writer
choosing his subject, and of course extending from harmless
fun to the most serious questions. This suggested
the formation of the literary society, naturally.
J. W. Nesmith stood among the young men of 1843
immigration to Oregon as W. H. Rees stood among those
of 1844. Both observers and helpers in the history being
made, the former watching and participating personally
in almost every forward movement, the latter wielding
perhaps a greater personal influence, but manifesting no
ambition for personal advancement. Mr. Rees worked
as a carpenter at Oregon City from June, 1845, to June,
1846 (the exact dates are not remembered), but between
these dates had purchased a claim in the northern portion
of Champoeg, [Marion] County. At the finishing
of Doctor McLoughlin's flouring mill he with other American
mechanics celebrated the occasion with a ball, which
was attended by most of the leading people of parties
having interest in the Oregon Boundary Question. Lieut.
Wm. Peel was there using his tongue, eyes and ears, we
may suppose, to give reliable information in regard to
Americans in Oregon to his father, then premier of the
British Government. Lieutenant Peel was of the British
navy, but not of the Modeste whose officers generally
were in company with him when mingling with Americans
as on this occasion. There was no dancing going
on. It was a time of social relaxation. Doctor Newell,
a Rocky Mountain doctor, and a man of sterling good
sense, had been giving his opinion of some of Peel's social
behavior as not such as was beyond criticism among
Americans. Peel replied, "Well, Doctor, Americans believe
in the rule of majorities, and I think the British
are in a majority here." Mr. Newell thought not. A
Britisher will settle any question by a bet, and Mr. Peel
offered the bet of a bottle of wine that a majority of those
then present were for the British side of the Oregon
Boundary Question. Doctor Newell took the bet. A
count was made and Mr. Newell won. Peel on this,
looking at a man across the mill floor, offered another
bottle on that particular man fighting for the British
side in the contingency of war over Oregon. William
Penland, an Englishman, put the question: "Sir, which
flag would you support in the event of war over Oregon?"
Rees replied, "I fight under the Stars and Stripes, sir."
Mr. Rees, no matter what his garb, was always comparatively
neat, and might well be taken for a middle class
Welshman.
Newell and he already neighbors, from this time forward
had a potent influence among the French-Canadian
farmers. Both were admirers of Doctor McLoughlin, and
Rees' influence was greatly enhanced by his taking the
finishing of the Catholic Church at Saint Louis, and by
writing brief tributes to their lives as they passed to the
other side. From his genial social nature it was easy for
Mr. Rees to give these retired engagees of the Hudson
Bay Company information as to what these newly formed
relations to the United States Government required of
them, in which he was aided by neighbors and friends—Doctor
Newell and F. X. Mathieu. It was his pleasure
and pastime to learn of the later life, death and burial in
the French settlement of two of the gallant band, Philip
Degrett and Francis Rivet, [The authoritative lists of the
Lewis and Clark Company does not contain these two
names.—Ed.] who followed the lead of Lewis and Clark
from the sources of the Columbia to the ocean in 1805,
and to give to the historian a transcript of the first Catholic
parish registry, including the names and ages of Gervais,
Lucier, Cannon, Labonte, and Dubruil, who came with
Hunt in 1811.
In 1847 Mr. Rees was elected as a colleague of his friend
Dr. Newell. Wm. H. Rector, A. Chamberlain and Anderson
Cox being the other members representing Champoeg
County in the lower house of the Oregon legislature.
From the foregoing causes and his steady patriotism Mr.
Rees became a potent influence in sending young men
from the French settlement to the fighting field in the
Cayuse country on the Whitman massacre, himself going
as regimental commissary agent.
As the troops were retiring from the Cayuse country,
gold was discovered in California and many of the soldiers
were amongst the first to go to the mines, Willard
H. Rees of the number. A larger proportion of the
French half-breeds never returned than of the Americans,
and from 1849 the Canadian settlement began to disintegrate.
As the pioneer settlement died, Rees's ready pen
gave them kindly notice. In the period between 1850
and 1860 he was watchful and active, but never for himself;
being of Whig antecedents it was natural for him
to help in the formation of the Union party, and that he
did; also, being a leader in the formation of the Pioneer
Association, the pages of its annual publications will furnish
the future historical gleaner many valuable points
there inserted by the pen of Willard H. Rees.
The death of his body at 83 years is not reasonable
cause of mourning; his nearest friends have had cause
for sadness in the slow and gradual mental decay which
was perceptible to them for many years before the final
end. A change, slight and unperceived by ordinary observers,
was noted by his intimate friends as far back as
1879, when a few lines in the annual address to the pioneers
prepared by him but which he was unable to attend
and deliver, and were well read by F. M. Bewley, seemed
unlike the Rees of 1859. Yet in that address he characteristically
goes to the very beginning of social free
and easy interchange of personal views on the life of the
times of 1845-6. This early social life expressed itself
through an organization called the Pioneer Lyceum and
Literary Club, and he thus speaks of it: "The following
are the names Charlie Pickett had on the membership roll.
They were at times widely scattered and are designated
upon the roll as regular and visiting members:
"John H. Couch, F. W. Pettygrove, J. M. Woir, A. L.
Lovejoy, J. Applegate, S. W. Moss, Robert Newell, J. W.
Nesmith, Ed Otie, H. A. G. Lee, F. Prigg, C. E. Pickett,
Wm. C. Dement, Medorum Crawford, Hiram Strait,
J. Wambaugh, Wm. Cushing, Philip Foster, Ransom
Clark, H. H. Hide (Hyde?), John G. Campbell, Top
McGruder, W. H. Rees, Mark Ford, Henry Saffren,
Noyes Smith, Daniel Waldo, P. G. Stewart, Isaac W.
Smith, Joseph Watt, Frank Ematinger, A. E. Wilson,
Jacob Hoover, S. M. Holderness, John Minto, Barton
Lee, General Husted, and John P. Brooks.
"Perhaps a more congenial, easy-going, self-satisfying
club has never since congregated in the old capital city
and under changed condition of affairs, especially in
fashions so strikingly different from the unique and
richly colored costumes of that day, never will the good
people of our spray-bedewed old city rest upon the like
again." The names are given as history, the last quotation
as a sample of Mr. Rees's quiet humor.
Now an end of life by natural law is not a proper
subject of mourning. Willard H. Rees did not so regard
it, when his generous kindness led him to collect the
most praiseworthy incidents of very earliest and most
unlettered of the pioneers from those coming with Lewis
and Clark and Astor's enterprise to those better informed
who came after he himself was here. The contributions
of Willard H. Rees, J. W. Nesmith, and M. P. Deady to
the Oregon Pioneer Association publication would alone
constitute no mean volume of the history of Oregon, beginning
with retired Canadian hunters and trappers who
by cultivating the soil of Oregon and creating a magazine
of supplies to the American homebuilders unawares were
cultivating the seeds of civilization aided and foreseen by
the Applegates, Burnetts, Waldos, Nesmiths, Rees, and
others who managed a bloodless victory over the pro-British
occupation of Oregon.
Joseph Holman was born at Little Torrington, Devonshire,
England, August 20, 1815. His parents were
John and Elizabeth Holman. His father was a mechanic,
and manufacturer of agricultural implements,
and died when Joseph was quite young, leaving two
older sons. The eldest son carried on his father's business,
the younger brothers living with him to learn the
trade.
When Joseph was sixteen years of age, the second
brother emigrated to Canada and sent such good reports
of large wages for mechanics that when Joseph was eighteen
his elder brother allowed him to follow, though bound
to him until twenty-one. In 1833 Joseph took passage on
the ship "Eliza" for Canada and landed at Prince Edward's
Island where the ship was seized for debt, which
detained the passengers some weeks, the creditors furnishing
codfish and potatoes only, for food. The ship
finally sailed for Quebec and to London, in Canada, where
Joseph found his brother, and worked in that place for
several years, but disliked the rough ways of that early
time. He went alone to New Lisbon, Ohio, where he
worked at wagon making for a year. Hearing much of
the so-called West at that time, he went to Peoria, Illinois,
found work and lived two years there. During that
time, Jason Lee, on his way from Oregon to the East,
stopped at Peoria and lectured on Oregon. In the spring
of 1839 eighteen persons agreed to go to Oregon and
settle there. Joseph Holman had ideas of a large city
at the mouth of the Columbia River, and he wanted to be
one to help take the claim. The party started west with
horses and wagons. At Independence, Missouri, they
sold the wagons and bought mules to carry packs. Mr.
Farnham was chosen captain. They traveled to Bent's
Fort on the Arkansas River without mishap, and to
Bent's Fort on the Platte River [generally called St.
Vrain's] became demoralized. Some went back, Mr.
Farnham went to Santa Fé, others went through the
next year, but Joseph Holman, with Cook, Fletcher and
Kilbourn, determined to go to Oregon. While away from
the fort to get dry buffalo meat for food the Indians stole
their horses. They worked at the fort until they earned
more horses, and late in the fall the four started alone
and reached Green River, in the Rocky Mountains, and
camped in a sheltered place called "Brown's Hole," also
Joe Meek, Doctor Newell, Cary and others. Joseph Holman's
mechanical knowledge helped him here, for he
stocked guns, made saddles for Indians, and received an
extra horse and beaver skins (as good as money) in return.
Doctor Newell decided to start early in the spring,
with the beaver skins to Fort Hall, in Idaho, to avoid
Indian war parties who would be out later on. They
were caught in the snow and nearly perished. Where
Doctor Newell expected to see buffalo they did not see
one. They were four days without any food, until they
met a Digger Indian woman who sold them her two dogs.
After that they now and then killed an antelope until
they reached Fort Hall where they remained three weeks
to recuperate themselves and horses. Doctor Newell
remained here. The four young men left with a Hudson
Bay agent for Fort Boise, but went alone from there to
Walla Walla, arriving there May 1, 1840; from there down
the Columbia River to Fort Vancouver, was the hardest
part of the trip, especially from The Dalles to Fort Vancouver,
on the north side of the Columbia. The water was
high at that season of the year, had covered the Indian
trail on the bank of the river, and they were obliged to
lead their ponies over the bluffs to Fort Vancouver, a
fact Doctor McLaughlin could hardly believe when they
arrived, at 11 o'clock June 1, 1840. In the afternoon of
the same day a ship arrived at Fort Vancouver from New
York, with forty Methodist missionaries to teach and convert
the Indians. A Miss Almira Phelps, from Springfield,
Massachusetts, was one, to whom Joseph was married
in less than a year. He was twenty-six years of age,
and even then showed a progressive spirit. The four, Mr.
Cooke, Mr. Fletcher, Mr. Kilbourn, and Joseph Holman,
rode around looking for places to settle. They took up
land and built a cabin. The Methodist mission employed
them for a time and paid them in stock.
Joseph Holman cut the first stick of timber on the
present town site of Salem, and just back of the asylum
for the insane he took up his claim of land, which was
a mile square. He rode a horse to the east, to the north,
to the west, to the south, and staked it. Years afterward
surveyors said he surveyed it correctly on his horse, a
mile square. Mrs. John H. Albert, now living, was born
on this land, Joseph Holman's eldest daughter. His only
son, George Phelps Holman, was the first white child
born in Salem, or the county.
Joseph Holman's heart and soul were for Oregon, for its
building up, its prosperity. His loyalty was unbounded.
He was honest, affectionate, and true.
This short statement was dictated by Mr Joseph Holman
to his wife during his last illness in 1880. He was
on a lounge, and told these facts, and she penciled them
down and copied them June 27, 1902, in the present
form.
Letter of fur traders Jedediah S. Smith, David E.
Jackson, and Wm. L. Sublette—1830.
Gives an account of the taking of the first wagons to
the Rocky Mountains and of the Hudson's Bay Company
post, Fort Vancouver, and its operations in the Oregon
Country. An argument for the termination of the convention
of 1818.
The letter of Smith, Jackson, and Sublette forms part of Senate Executive
Documents 39, 21st Congress, 2d session, pp. 21-23. The whole document is taken
up with a consideration of "the state of the British establishments in the valley
of the Columbia, and the state of the fur trade, as carried on by the citizens of
the United States and the Hudson's Bay Company," as shown in the communications
of Gen. W. H. Ashley, Joshua Pilcher, J. D. Smith, David E. Jackson,
and W. L. Sublette, and William Clark and Lewis Cass.
St. Louis, October 29, 1830.
Sir: The business commenced by General Ashley some years ago,
of taking furs from the United States territory beyond the Rocky
Mountains has since been continued by Jedediah S. Smith, David
E. Jackson, and William L. Sublette, under the firm of Smith,
Jackson, and Sublette. They commenced business in 1826, and have
since continued it, and have made observations and gained information
which they think it important to communicate to the government.
The number of men they have employed has usually been from eighty
to one hundred and eighty; and with these, divided into parties, they
have traversed every part of the country west of the Rocky Mountains,
from the peninsula of California to the mouth of the Columbia River.
Pack horses, or rather mules, were at first used, but in the beginning
of the present year, it was determined to try wagons, and in the month
of April last, on the 10th day of the month, a caravan of ten wagons,
drawn by five mules each, and two dearborns, drawn by one mule
each, set out from St. Louis. We have eighty-one men in company,
all mounted on mules, and these were exclusive of a party left in the
mountains. Our route from St. Louis was nearly due west to the
western limits of the state and thence along the Santa Fé trail about
forty miles, from which the course was some degrees north of west,
across the waters of the Kanzas, and up the Great Platte River, to the
Rocky Mountains, and to the head of Wind River, where it issues from
the mountains. This took us until the 16th of July, and was as far as we
wished the wagons to go, as the furs to be brought in were to be collected
at this place, which is, or was this year, the great rendezvous of
the persons engaged in that business. Here the wagons could easily
have crossed the Rocky Mountains, it being what is called the Southern
[South] Pass, had it been desirable for them to do so, which it was not
for the reason stated. For our support, at leaving the Missouri settlements,
until we should get into the buffalo country, we drove twelve
head of cattle, beside a milk cow. Eight of these only being required
for use before we got to the buffaloes, the others went on to the head
of Wind River. We began to fall in with the buffaloes on the Platte,
about three hundred and fifty miles from the white settlements, and
from that time lived on buffaloes, the quantity being infinitely beyond
what we needed. On the fourth of August, the wagons being in the
meantime loaded with furs which had been previously taken, we set
out on the return to St. Louis. All the high points of the mountains
then in view were white with snow, but the passes and valleys, and all
the level country, were green with grass. Our route back was over
the same ground nearly as in going out, and we arrived at St. Louis
on the 10th of October, bringing back the ten wagons, the dearborns
being left behind; four of the oxen and the milk cow were also
brought back to the settlements in Missouri, as we did not need them
for provision. Our men were all healthy during the whole time, we
suffered nothing by the Indians, and had no accident but the death of
one man, being buried under a bank of earth that fell in upon him, and
another being crippled at the same time. Of the mules, we lost but
one by fatigue, and two horses stolen by the Kanzas Indians; the grass
being, along the whole route going and coming, sufficient for the support
of the horses and mules. The usual weight in the wagons was
about one thousand eight hundred pounds. The usual progress of the
wagons was from fifteen to twenty-five miles per day. The country
being almost all open, level, and prairie, the chief obstructions were
ravines and creeks, the banks of which required cutting down, and for
this purpose a few pioneers were generally kept ahead of the caravan.
This is the first time that wagons ever went to the Rocky Mountains,
and the ease and safety with which it was done prove the facility of
communicating overland with the Pacific Ocean. The route from the
Southern Pass, where the wagons stopped, to the Great Falls of the
Columbia, being easier and better than on this side of the mountains,
with grass enough for horses and mules, but a scarcity of game for the
support of men. One of the undersigned, to wit, Jedediah S. Smith,
in his excursion west of the mountains, arrived at the post of the Hudson's
Bay Company, called Fort Vancouver, near the mouth of Multnomah
River. He arrived there in August, 1828, and left the 12th of
March, 1829, and made observations which he deems it material to
communicate to the government. Fort Vancouver is situated on the
north side of the Columbia, five miles above the mouth of the Multnomah,
in a handsome prairie, and on a second bank about three quarters
of a mile from the river. This is the fort as it stood when he arrived
there; but a large one, three hundred feet square about three quarters
of a mile lower down, and within two hundred yards of the river, was
commenced the spring he came away. Twelve pounders were the
heaviest cannon which he saw. The crop of 1828 was seven hundred
bushels of wheat, the grain full and plump, and making good flour,
fourteen acres of corn, the same number of acres in peas, eight acres
of oats, four or five acres of barley, a fine garden, some small apple
trees, and grape vines. The ensuing spring eighty bushels of seed
wheat were sown. About two hundred head of cattle, fifty horses and
breeding mares, three hundred head of hogs, fourteen goats, the usual
domestic fowls. They have mechanics of various kinds, to wit, blacksmiths,
gunsmiths, carpenters, coopers, tinner, and baker. A good
saw mill on the bank of the river five miles above, a grist mill worked
by hand, but intended to work by water. They had built two coasting
vessels, one of which was then on a voyage to the Sandwich Islands.
No English or white woman was at the fort, but a great number of
mixed blood Indian extraction, such as belong to the British fur trading
establishments, who were treated as wives, and the families of
children taken care of accordingly. So that everything seemed to
combine to prove that this fort was to be a permanent establishment.
At Fort Vancouver the goods for the Indian trade are imported from
London, and enter the territories of the United States paying no
duties, and from the same point the furs taken on the other side of the
mountains are shipped. The annual quantity of these furs could not
be exactly ascertained, but Mr. Smith was informed indirectly that
they amounted to about thirty thousand beaver skins, besides otter
skins and small furs. The beaver skins alone, at New York prices,
would be worth above two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. To
obtain these furs, both trapping and trading are resorted to. Various
parties, provided with traps, spread over the country south of the Columbia
to the neighborhood of the Mexican territory, and in 1824 and
1825 they crossed the Rocky Mountains and trapped on the waters of
the Missouri River. They do not trap north of latitude 49 degrees,
but confine that business to the territory of the United States. Thus
this territory, being trapped by both parties, is nearly exhausted of
beavers, and unless the British can be stopped, will soon be entirely
exhausted, and no place left within the United States where beaver
fur in any quantity can be obtained.
The inequality of the convention with Great Britain in 1818 is most
glaring and apparent, and its continuance is a great and manifest injury
to the United States. The privileges granted by it have enabled
the British to take possession of the Columbia River, and spread over
the country south of it; while no Americans have ever gone, or can
venture to go on the British side. The interest of the United States
and her citizens engaged in the fur trade requires that the convention
of 1818 should be terminated, and each nation confined to its own territories.
By this commercial interest there are other considerations
requiring the same result. These are, the influence which the British
have already acquired over the Indians in that quarter, and the
prospect of a British colony, and a military and naval station on the
Columbia. Their influence over the Indians is now decisive. Of this
the Americans have constant and striking proofs, in the preference
which they give to the British in every particular.
In saying this, it is an act of justice to say, also, that the treatment
received by Mr. Smith at Fort Vancouver was kind and hospitable;
that, personally, he owes thanks to Governor Simpson and the gentlemen
of the Hudson's Bay Company, for the hospitable entertainment
which he received from them, and for the efficient and successful aid
which they gave him in recovering from the Umquah Indians a quantity
of fur and many horses, of which these Indians had robbed him
in 1828.
As to the injury which must happen to the United States from the
British getting the control of all the Indians beyond the mountains,
building and repairing ships in the tide water region of the Columbia,
and having a station there for their privateers and vessels of war, is
too obvious to need a recapitulation. The object of this communication
being to state facts to the Government, and to show the facility
of crossing the continent to the Great Falls of the Columbia with
wagons, the ease of supporting any number of men by driving cattle
to supply them where there was no buffalo, and also to show the true
nature of the British establishments on the Columbia, and the unequal
operation of the convention of 1818.
These facts being communicated to the Government, they consider
that they have complied with their duty, and rendered an acceptable
service to the administration; and respectfully request you, sir, to lay
it before President Jackson.
We have the honor to be sir, yours, respectfully,
Jedediah S. Smith,
David E. Jackson,
W. L. Sublette.
To the Hon. John H. Eaton, Secretary of War.
Excerpts from St. Louis papers, 1832-1848, on the
migration to and settlement of Oregon.
The Missouri Republican, July 5, 1831.
The American Society for encouraging the settlement of Oregon
Territory, propose to enlist 1000 men for the purpose, to rendezvous
in this city January next. Each man will receive gratuitously a lot of
land. There is said to be "an immense water power up the Wallamott
or Mulnomah."
Republican, November 8, 1831.
An unlucky little paragraph of ours in relation to the prosperous
colony at the mouth of the Columbia River has been the source of
much trouble to us. We have been frequently addressed both by letter
and in person for information upon the subject, without having the
means of replying satisfactorily to querists. * * * We cannot now
state whether the plan has been abandoned, but time has passed by
when the adventurers were to have assembled here. The project
originated in Boston, where, we believe, the principal officers of the
society reside.
Republican, April 24, 1832.
OREGON COLONY.
Thirty-six persons attached to this colony arrived in this city Friday
last. They have since proceeded on their way.
St. Louis New Era, February 14, 1843.
OREGON, THE NEW ELDORADO.
We derive from a long letter in the National Intelligencer the following
sketch of the Territory beyond the Rocky Mts., which is now
the theme of debate in the U. S. Senate.
Newark Advertiser.
"Within a few years several Americans, of whom the writer is one,
have crossed the Rocky Mts., to the mouth of the Columbia, with objects
entirely unconnected with trade or commerce. Mine was a desire
to see a new country, a love of adventure for its own sake, and an
enthusiastic fondness for natural history. The party with which I
traveled left Independence, Mo., about the latter part of April, 1834,
and arrived at the British Fort, Vancouver, in September, having
performed the whole journey on horseback. From this time until October,
1836, with the exception of the first winter which I passed at
the Sandwich Islands, my residence was in the Territory of Oregon.
Dr. McLoughlin, chief factor, treated me with uniform and singular
kindness, supplying all my wants and furnishing me with every facility
in the prosecution of my plans. This is, I believe, the uniform
character of the Superintendents of British forts in that country.
Travelers, naturalists, and all who are not traders are kindly and hospitably
treated, but the moment a visitor is known to trade a beaver
skin from an Indian, that moment he is ejected from the community.
The company has a sum of money amounting to several thousand
pounds sterling, laid aside at Vancouver for the sole purpose of opposing
all who may come to interfere with its monopoly, by purchasing
at exhorbitant prices all the furs in possession of the Indians, and thus
forcing the settler to come to terms or driving him from the country.
If it be an individual who is thus starved into submission he then
usually clears a piece of land on the Willamette River, takes an Indian
wife, and purchases furs of the natives, which, by previous contract,
he is bound to sell to the company at an advance which is fixed
by the governor.
Ft. Vancouver, the principal trading post of the Oregon, stands on
the north bank of the river, about 90 miles from the mouth. The fort
consists of several dwellings, storehouses, workshops, etc., all of frame
arranged together in quadrilateral form, and surrounded by a stockade
of pine logs about 20 ft. high. The Ft. has no bastions, and contains
no armament. There are, to be sure, 4 great guns frowning in
front of the governor's mansion, 2 long 18s and 2 9-pounders, but two
of them have long been spiked and the others are unfit for service.
The rainy season begins here about the middle of October and continues
until the first of April. During this period the weather is almost
uniformly dull, foggy, or rainy. Sometimes rain falls incessantly
for the space of 2 or 3 weeks. Occasionally, during the winter months,
there will be a light fall of snow, and in the winter of 1835-6 the river
was frozen over. The intensity of cold, however, continued but a few
days and was said to be very unusual. The general range of the thermometer,
(Fahr.) during that season was from 36-48 degrees, but for
3 or 4 days was as low as 25 degrees.
In the vicinity of Ft. Vancouver, the cattle graze during the whole
winter; no stabling or stall feeding is ever requisite, as the extensive
plains produce the finest and most abundant crops of excellent prairie
grass. In choosing a site for settlement on the main river, it is always
necessary to bear in mind the periodical inundations. Ft. Vancouver
itself, though built on a high piece of land at a distance of 600 yards
from the common rise of the tides, is sometimes almost reached by the
freshets of early spring. The soil here, on both sides of the river is
a rich black loam, the base being basaltic rock.
The face of the country from Ft. George, (Astoria,) to Vancouver,
a distance of 80 miles, is very much of a uniform character, consisting
of alluvial meadows, along the river-side, alternating with forests of
oak, pine, etc., while behind are extensive plains, some of which receive
estuaries of the river, while others are watered by lakes or
ponds. The pine forests are very extensive, the trees being of great
size, and the timber extraordinarily beautiful. All the timber of the
genus pinus is gigantic. I measured with Dr. Gairdner, surgeon of
the fort, a pine of the species Douglass, which had been prostrated by
the wind. Its height was above 200 ft., and its circumference 45 feet.
Large as was this specimen, its dimensions are much exceeded by one
measured by the late David Douglas. The height of this tree was
nearly 300 ft., and the circumference 56 ft. Cones of this pine, according
to Mr. D., were 12 to 15 inches long, resembling in size and
form sugar loaves. Oak timber of various kinds is abundant along
the river, as well as button wood, balsam, poplar, ash, sweet gum,
beech, and many other useful kinds, but no hickory or walnut. The
governor of Ft. Vancouver, who is an active agriculturist, has exerted
himself for several years in raising whatever appears adapted to the
soil. Wheat, rye, barley, pease, and culinary vegetables of all kinds
are raised in ample quantity. Fruits of various kinds, apples, peaches,
plums, etc., do remarkably well. I remember being particularly
struck, upon my arrival at Vancouver in the autumn, with the display
of apples in the garden of the fort. Trees were crowded with fruit,
so that every limb had to be sustained with a prop. Apples were literally
packed along the branches, and so closely that I could compare
them to nothing more aptly than ropes of onions. In the vicinity of
Walla Walla or the Ney [z] Perce's Fort, the country in every condition
for many miles exhibits an arid and cheerless prospect. The soil is
deep sand, and the plain upon which the fort stands produces nothing
but bushes of aromatic wormwood. Along the borders of the small
streams, however, the soil is exceedingly rich and productive, and on
these strips of land the superintendent raises his corn and the vegetables
necessary for the consumption of his people. The prong-horned
antelope occasionally ranged these plains; black-tailed or mule deer
is found in the vicinity; grouse of several species are very abundant,
and large prairie hare is common. In autumn and winter, in the vicinity
of Ft. Vancouver, ducks, geese, and swans swarm in immense
numbers. These are killed by the Indians and taken to the Ft. as articles
of trade. For a single duck, one load of powder and shot is
given; for a goose, 2; and for a swan, 4 loads. For deer 10 loads of ammunition,
or a bottle of rum is the usual price. Early in May salmon
are first seen entering the river, and the Columbia and all its tributaries
teem with these delicious fish. The Indians take great numbers
by various modes, subsisting almost wholly on them during their stay,
and drying and packing them away in thatched huts to be used for
their winter store. Salmon also forms a chief article of food for the
inmates of the fort, and hundreds of casks are salted down every
season.
About 20 miles above this, in the Wallamet Valley, is the spot
chosen by the Methodist missionaries for their settlement, and here
also, a considerable number of retired servants of the company had
established themselves. The soil of this delightful valley is rich beyond
comparison, and the climate considerably milder than that of
Vancouver. Rain rarely falls, even in the winter season, but dews are
sufficiently heavy to compensate for its absence. The epidemic of the
country, ague, is rarely known here. In short, the Wallamet Valley
is a terrestrial paradise, to which I have known some to exhibit so
strong an attachment as to declare that notwithstanding the few privations
which must necessarily be experienced by settlers of a new
country, no consideration would ever induce them to return to their
former homes."
J. K. T. [Townsend].
Washington, Jan. 26, 1843.
St. Louis New Era, Tuesday, February 28, 1843.
OREGON.
The following is an extract from a letter dated Honolulu, Oct. 30,
1842. "The town is now full of strangers, the Chenamus having
brought some 19 passengers from the Oregon, who are returning home,
disgusted with the people and the country. Then again, the Victoria
brings a few families here on their way to the river to settle. They
must be encouraged by meeting so many here, returning."
New Era, Thursday, March 9, 1843.
(Contains notice of "Travels in the Great Prairie Wilderness, the
Anahuac and Rocky Mts., and in Oregon Territory," by T. J. Farnham;
said to contain full account of a journey overland and the Methodist
missions in the Territory. Notice copied into "Era" from N. Y.
Tribune, from which office it is issued.)
Republican, July 22, 1843.
We learn from Maj. Albert Wilson who has just returned from the
Mountains, that he met the Oregon emigrants on the big Arkansas
[Platte], one month after they had left the settlements, and that they
were cheerfully wending their way onwards. There were 1150 emigrants,
175 wagons, and a great number of cattle, horses, mules, etc.,
etc. Lord Stewart and his party of pleasure, consisting of 100 persons,
were three days in advance of the Oregon emigrants.
Copied into Rep. from "Liberty Banner."
Republican, August 7, 1843.
A letter received from the emigrants, at Iowa City, some days
since:
OREGON EMIGRATING CO.
June 10, 1843.
The return of a company of mountain traders to the settlements
presents an opportunity for writing which I feel much inclined to embrace.
We are now between 2 and 300 miles west of Independence, on
the Blue river, a tributary of the Kansas, in good health and spirits.
I regret to say that a division has taken place in the company, in consequence
of the number of cattle driven by some, those having no
cattle refusing to stand guard over stock belonging to others. The
result of all this was that Capt. Burnett resigned command of the
company, and the commander, in accordance with our regulations,
ordered a new election, and so altered the by-laws that the commander
should be called colonel, and also authorized the election of 4 captains,
and 4 orderly sergeants. The cattle party selected myself as their candidate,
those opposed selected Mr. Wm. Martin, an experienced mountaineer.
There being a majority in opposition to the cattle party, Mr.
Martin was elected, and a division of the company ensued. About 50
wagons, with those who had large droves of loose cattle, now left, with
a general request that all in favor of traveling with them should fall
back. I was particularly solicited to leave Martin's party, but as it
would travel much the fastest, and Col. Martin was a very clever
fellow, I declined. The new company, it is expected, will be commanded
by Capt. Applegate. Our roads, since leaving the settlements
have been very fine, except within the last few days, during which
period they have been almost impassable in consequence of the tremendous
rains, but they are again improving. We have had no trouble
with the Indians, with the exception of horse and cattle stealing, and
this business they have carried on pretty lively. I had a very fine
mule and an ox stolen from me on the Kansas river, and we lost in all
some 8 or 10 head of horses and mules. I believe there is not a case of
sickness in camp, though old Mr. Stout, from Iowa, has a violent
swelling in his eyes. Tell the boys from Iowa to come on with all the
cattle and sheep they can get, and a company large enough to drive
them.
Truly yours, etc.,
M. M. M. [McCarver].
P. S.—My friend, Mr. Henry Lee, from Iowa, has just been elected
Capt. of one of the divisions. While writing, news has been brought
in of the discovery of a dead Indian about one mile from this place,
and freshly scalped, and nearly all the company have gone to see him.
He was shot with arrows and is supposed to be a Pawnee, killed by a
party of the Kansas Indians whom we met the other day, consisting of
200, with fresh scalps and fingers, which they said had been taken the
day before.
Republican, Friday, September 6, 1843.
We have been favored with the perusal of a private letter from
Bent's Fort, dated July 26. The writer is one of Mr. Fitzpatrick's
party, and says that thus far their trip has been a severe one. The
party has been delayed since the 14th inst., waiting for the arrival of
Mr. Fremont, who left them on the 17th of June with 18 men. After
progressing ahead some distance, he despatched an express back, requesting
the rear party with Fitzpatrick not to move until he joined
them, alleging as a reason that there were hostile Mexicans on their
route. On the morning of the date of the letter, the writer says, they
were dividing into two parties again, with the intention of meeting at
Ft. Hall, Oregon, in about 4 days [weeks]. Fitzpatrick's party intended
crossing the Platte that morning, and would take up its line of march
over the mountains. He speaks of a slight difficulty with the Indians,
but furnishes no particulars.
Republican, Friday, September 29, 1843.
We have received from Mr. Edward Hutwa a very handsome, and,
as far as we have any means of judging, a correct lithograph map of
the Oregon Territory, as claimed by the U. S., with a portion of the
adjacent territory. The principal rivers, mountains, routes, trading
depots, and the trading depots and forts of the Hudson's Bay Co., are
laid down with accuracy. To those migrating to the Columbia, or to
those wishing to study the topography of the country, this map will be
of importance.
Republican, Wednesday, December 13, 1843.
A postscript to a letter from a gentleman in the Indian country,
dated October 19, received by a gentleman of this city, says: "Ft. Hall,
on the Oregon has been delivered up to Lt. Fremont, and it is believed
that Ft. Vancouver soon will be." How far the report is reliable, we
have no means of knowing, except that he and his party are in Oregon
by the authority and direction of the United States Government.
Republican, Thursday, December 14, 1843.
We yesterday noticed a postscript of a letter from the Oregon country.
We have since seen letters from Lt. Fremont and other men of
his party, written at Ft. Hall, and bearing date of 20th September,
which do not confirm the report alluded to. The silence of these letters
as to the surrender of Ft. Hall is full assurance to us that the report
is not correct. The letter before us, the statements of which are
corroborated by Lt. Fremont, himself, says:—
"I arrived at this place (Ft. Hall) on the 13th inst., with my part of
the caravan all safe and in tolerable order. * * * (Unimportant part
skipped). Lt. Fremont, whom I parted with on the South fork of the
Platte, and expected to meet at this place, joined us yesterday after
making a survey of the Salt Lake, which he has done much to his satisfaction.
The exploration and new routes which we have taken have
made our trip tedious and very laborious, but, I hope it will be satisfactory
to the Department. We leave tomorrow for the lower country,
and find it necessary to let some of our men off on account of the
scarcity of provisions, which are not to be had at this place. The full
objects of the expedition, will, I hope, be completed ere we return.
I shall leave the party in a few days for Walla Walla, or perhaps
lower down, to provide necessary supplies for the completion of the
business in that quarter. I can not say what time we will return to
St. Louis; it is to be hoped before the adjournment of Congress. The
emigrants passed this place some short time since, pretty well worn
down and scarce of food. The Indians on the Columbia are expected
to become troublesome to these newcomers. It is supposed they are
induced to acts of violence by some persons as yet unknown. They
have already burned Dr. Whitman's mill, and I fear it is not the last
spark which will be kindled in the settlement and occupation of this
country. The Hudson's Bay Company are improving and pushing
their business, perhaps with greater energy than usual, Dr. McLoughlin
is laying off towns on the Willamette, selling lots, etc. This is the
report, and you can see that the Dr. is in advance of Dr. Linn's bill."
The foregoing is the latest news from Oregon, and may be relied
upon as correct. Not the least interesting part of it is that which relates
to the disposition of the Indians towards the emigrants. We
have always believed that the Indians, backed and incited as they will
be by agents and emissaries of the Hudson's Bay Co., and furnished
as they doubtless will be, with arms and means of warfare from some
source, would oppose the emigrants in making their settlements. That
the country must be conquered before it is attained, we hardly
entertain a doubt, and if we did, the supineness of our Government
would only strengthen the belief. Why is it that our Government is
so indifferent to the claims of the nation upon this territory, its wealth
and possessions?
St. Louis Reveille, Oct. 21, 1844.
The Platte Argus contains a letter from "Multnomah City," Oregon,
from which we make the following extracts. The killing of the Indian
has been briefly mentioned heretofore.
"When I first came here, 19 months ago, there were but 4 or 5
houses, now there is upwards of 80 good buildings, nearly all of two
stories, and 4 or 5 of three stories high. If there had been plenty of
nails we should have had a number more up. If a supply of nails
reaches us this spring, we shall have 200 houses before this reaches
you, and some of these of brick, for a company from Baltimore are now
building a brickyard. A tanyard is also being established. The fact
is, we have mechanics of all kinds here, though not a tenth of the
number of each kind required. The winter is past, but it was no
winter. It was rather a blooming spring, for we had but little rain
and no snow, and grass green all the time. We have had but two
days' rain in the last 45. I saw cattle yesterday which had run all
winter, in finer condition than I ever saw any in your state. Uncle
Sam had better be doing something for this country, for if not, within
three years it will be too late. You laugh, but if you live you will see
it. Therefore stir them up, Mac, for we do not want trouble here, and
would all rejoice if the star-spangled banner embraced us within its
ample folds. Our flag flying by authority would make a vast difference
here.
An Indian committed some outrages lately, and our sheriff endeavored
in vain to arrest him; then offered $100 reward for the Indian,
and went to his own house, 30 miles from this place. On Monday the
Indian came into Oregon City, close to Dr. McLoughlin's mill, where
some 25 or 30 men were at work. Winslow and some white men went
to take him, and got close to him. He saw Winslow, fired his gun,
which missed its mark, the ball lodging in a tree on this side of the
river within 2 feet of me, for I was at work at my garden at the time. The
Indian then fired his pistol, 2 balls from which lodged in the shoulder
of G. W. LeBreton, clerk of the court, tearing his arm dreadfully.
Mr. LeB. seized the Indian with the other hand, and then threw him
down. Winslow then ran up and knocked out his brains. In the
meantime, 5 other Indians fired their guns, and then their arrows,
and wounded two men."
Reveille, November 4, 1844.
NEWS FROM OREGON.
The Western Expositor of Saturday last announces the arrival of
Mr. Wm. Gilpin, formerly of this place, from Oregon. Mr. Gilpin
passed the winter among the American settlements of the Willamette
and the adjacent sea coast, and he describes them as enjoying prosperity
when he left them in April last. The emigrant party of '43,
which he accompanied, arrived at their destination in November last,
"after having braved and overcome unparalleled dangers and difficulties
from savages, from hunger, from thirst, crossing parched treeless
plains, fierce angry rivers, and forcing their wagons through 1000
miles of mountains, declared impassable by the most experienced
guides and voyageurs."
This accession swelled the population of Oregon to upwards of 2000,
and they had formed a government, elected officers, established courts,
and a record of land titles. "Farms," he says, "freckle the magnificent
plains, towns are springing up at convenient points upon the
rivers, a dozen of excellent mills supply lumber and flour for home use
and export; the fisheries are not neglected, and lands are surveyed.
A college, numerous schools, and several churches are scattering education
amongst the young. Money has been sent from New York for
a printing press and steam engine, cattle and stock of all kinds are
accumulating and rapidly increasing under a mild climate and unfailing
pastures. Provisions of all kinds are abundant, of most excellent
quality and moderate prices."
Mr. Gilpin passed the trading fort of Bridger and Vasquez on the
19th of August. This fort is 100 miles west of Green River, and exactly
half way from Independence to the Willamette. The American
trappers scattered among the mountains had there collected to meet
the emigrants of last spring; an advanced party of 30 of whom, with
their wagons and cattle, passed on the 17th, two days later than the
emigrants of the preceding year. Two larger companies behind,
under the command of Gen. Gilliam and Col. Ford, passed subsequently,
and all in good time reached the settlements before the setting
in of winter.
Reveille, January 20, 1845.
OREGON.
We learn from a letter published in the Weston Journal, dated at
the Sandwich Islands, that the Oregon emigrants who went out during
the past season, have made great changes in business, money now
circulating, and everything begins to assume the appearance of the
civilization, business, trade, and refinements this side of the mountains.
Republican, February 8, 1848.
OREGON.
We see it stated in up-country papers that the late arrivals from
Oregon furnished information that two parties of emigrants, dissatisfied
with their prospects in that country, attempted to return home
last winter, but were prevented by the difficulties of road and weather.
We have never entertained a doubt that this disposition was uppermost
with all the best portions of the emigration to that region; but
obstacles are presented of such a character as to deter many persons
from attempting to return. Emigrants from the states find the greatest
difficulty in descending the mountain declivities into the valley of
the Columbia River, but then their wagons have been relieved of a
great part of the provisions and surplus weight, and they do get along.
If they should attempt to return to the United States, however, a different
prospect is presented. They must start amply provided with
provisions and everything necessary for the journey, and thus loaded
it has been deemed impossible to get wagons along over the mountains
which they necessarily have to ascend in their progress. This cause
alone has deterred many persons from making the attempt, and they
have been compelled to accommodate themselves to a country and a
condition of things in no respect better than they originally left. No
man, in our opinion, who has a comfortable home in any of the states
can be justified in giving it up in the expectation of bettering himself
in Oregon. If he has a family, he does a gross injustice to them in
exposing them to the hardships of so long and perilous a journey with
no prospect of returning to their friends, should they become discontented;
and even if an emigrant has nobody to care for but himself,
he had better stay at home and earn an honest living, than go to Oregon
and run the risk of working out a precarious one. For this reason
we have never countenanced any one for whom we had the least respect
in a journey to Oregon or California with a view to a fixed residence
there. Neither country presents half the inducements to be
found in any one of the Western states, and an adventure of this kind
is prima facie evidence of a restless and discontented spirit, not likely
to be pleased anywhere.
Republican, May 19, 1848.
On the 20th of November the Governor appointed Columbia Lancaster
to be Supreme Judge of Oregon Territory, in place of J. Quinn
Thornton, resigned. From some proceedings of the legislature of a
subsequent period, we infer that Judge Thornton had left Oregon on
a visit to Washington City, as a sort of general agent, to attend to the
distribution of offices in the new territory. Of his arrival we have not
heard, and it is probable that Mr. Meek may reach Washington before
him.
[Then follows proceedings of legislature, resolutions, etc., intended
to keep J. Q. T. from leaving the territory, quoted in full. Also Governor's
message, expressing the disappointment at the failure of Congress
to extend jurisdiction over that country, etc.]
Republican, July 26, 1848.
ARRIVAL OF MR. KIT CARSON FROM CALIFORNIA.
Information has been received by Gov. Mason in California of the
difficulties between the Oregon settlers and Indians, but it does not
appear to come down to a later date than that which we have received
from Oregon direct.
Republican, August 2, 1848.
LATE FROM OREGON.
[General account of defense of Oregon regiment against Indians;
death of Col. Gilliam, etc.]
NOTE—A CORRECTION.
The name "L. H. Ponjade" occurring on pages 268 and 269 of the September
number of The Quarterly should be L. H. Poujade.
INDEX TO VOL. IV.
- Abbott, Captain, 237.
- Abbott, L. G., 365.
- Abrams, W. P., 60.
- Abrams, C., 63.
- Academy, Bishop Scott's, opened, 66.
- Academy, St. Mary's, opened, 66.
- Adair, Col. John, first collector customs at Astoria, 134, 135.
- Adams, Henry, wrote history of United States, 7.
- Adams, Emma H., 342.
- Adams, W. L., 365.
- Affleck & Gunn, publishers of Puget Sound Courier, 372.
- Agriculture in United States, table of, 118.
- Agriculture, 118-122;
values, table of, 121.
- Aiken, ——, 139.
- Albert, Mrs. John H., 394.
- Allen, Capt. B. F., wounded, 234.
- Allen and Lewis, 197.
- Allen, ——, 353.
- Allen, George T., 265.
- "All Over Oregon and Washington";
purpose of, 317.
- Alta California, The, 376.
- Alvarez, ——, consul at Santa Fé, 272.
- Alvarado, Governor of California under Mexican rule, 311.
- Alvord, General, 105.
- Anderson, E. K., 229.
- Angne [Augur?], Captain, 237.
- Ankeny, Captain, 196.
- American Antiquarian Society, 309.
- Applegate, Jesse, 106, 390.
- Argonaut, The San Francisco, 292.
- Argus, The Puget Sound, 373.
- Armstrong, Pleasant, 234.
- Arundel, Harcourt T., employed by Bancroft, 303.
- Astoria and Columbia River Railroad Company, 146.
- Astoria and Willamette Barge Company, 136.
- Astoria, Social and Economic History of, by Alfred A. Cleveland, 130.
- Astor, John Jacob, 8, 9, 131.
- Astorian, The, 28, 29, 30, 138;
quotation from, 141, 142, 143.
- Atkinson, John, 365.
- "Atlantis Arisen," revision of "All Over Oregon and Washington," 317.
- Augur, General, 105.
- Babcock, Doctor, supreme judge of Oregon Territory, 285.
- Badollet, and Company, 140.
- Bagley, Clarence B., pioneer papers of Puget Sound, 365, 371, 377, 378, 379;
business manager Courier, 381;
owner and publisher Echo, 382.
- Ball, John, teacher, 265.
- Bailey, Doctor, 230;
governor Oregon Territory, 1845, 285.
- Bailey, W. E., purchased the Press, 383;
purchased the Times, 384.
- Baker, Colonel E. D., candidate for United States senator, 72, 93;
elected United States senator, 94, 99;
mustered into service, 101;
reply to Breckinridge, 102;
death of, 103.
- Baker, Florence E., 84.
- Baker and Boyer, 195.
- Baker, D. S. & Company, 195.
- Baker, Dr. D. S., the pioneer railroad builder, sketch of life, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199, 200.
- Baker Mills, The, 217.
- Baltimore, J. M., 365.
- Bancroft Pacific States Publications: The origin and authorship of, A History of A History, by William Alfred Morris, 289.
- Bancroft, Hubert Howe, "The Macaulay of the West," 292;
a sketch of early life and of growth of history project, 296;
first venture as a literary man, 301;
fame as historical writer, 310;
method of collecting material, 324;
three leading objects kept in mind in preparation of histories, 328;
plan for works, 335;
not a great American historical writer, 337;
errors in works, 358.
- Bancroft, H. H. & Company, firm of, organized, 297.
- Bancroft's histories, vastness of the enterprise, 289;
not all his own work, 291;
parts written by assistants, 330.
- Barclay, Mrs. Dr., 264.
- Barclay, Doctor, 265.
- Barnes, Mary Sheldon, 362.
- Barnes, Edward, 230.
- Barron, Major, 229.
- Bates, Alfred, employed by Bancroft, 325, 363;
sketch of life, 331.
- Bausman, W., and Company, printers, of Northern Light, 372.
- Beacon, The, 382.
- Berry, A. M., first printer on the Oregonian, 370.
- Berry, Pamelia Ann, 249.
- Bent, Charles, 272.
- Benton, Senator, 91, 157.
- Bewley, F. M., 390.
- Black, Capt. H. M., 99.
- Blair, J. I., 248.
- Besserer, Charles, 365.
- Bidwell, Major, 222, 223.
- "Blue Book, The Big," name for Iowa code of laws, 188.
- "Blue Book, The Little," 188.
- Bigelow, Daniel R., elected commissioner to draft code of laws for Oregon, 190, 191, 192.
- Bernie, James, 132, 265.
- Blakeley, James, 74.
- Blanchet, Archbishop, 66, 269.
- Blethen, Col. A. J., purchased The Times, 385.
- Boelling, V., 22, 32.
- Boardman, John, letter from, 276.
- Boise, Reuben P., 167;
elected commissioner to draft code of laws for Oregon, 190;
elected state representative, 192, 194.
- Bonneville, Captain, 359.
- Boon, John L., 104.
- Booth, A., & Company, 140.
- Bohttink, Professor, 319.
- Bowman, Amos, employed by Bancroft, 314.
- Border Ruffians, 42.
- Bosquetti, librarian for Bancroft, 299.
- Boyer, John F., 195, 196.
- Boyle, ——, 145.
- Breckinridge, John C., nominated for president, 94, 101.
- Breitenbush, John, 248.
- Bridger, Jim, 113.
- Brotchie, Captain, 265.
- Brooks, John P., 390.
- Brosset, M., 319.
- Brown, ——, 26.
- Brown, Miss, teacher, 29.
- Brown, John, 42.
- Brown, Hugh, founder of Brownsville, 74.
- Brown, F. M., 74.
- Brown, Beriah, 365, 372;
editor Puget Sound Dispatch, 377;
publisher Puget Sound Dispatch, 379.
- Brown, J. Henry, employed by Bancroft, 314.
- Buchanan, Lieutenant Colonel, 99, 237, 238.
- Buchanan, President, 126.
- Buffalo Historical Society, 309.
- Bulletin, The, 317, 369.
- Burnett, Peter H., 11, 78, 256, 271;
letters of taken from Ohio Statesman and St. Louis Reporter, 180.
- Burnett, John, 365.
- Bush, Asahel, territorial printer, 192, 193, 365;
editor Oregon Statesman, 370.
- Burke, Thomas, 379.
- Butler, Hillory, 378.
- Butler, Henry, 104.
- Butterfield, John, 126.
- Byers, ——, founder Rocky Mountain News, 327.
- Calapooia, The Upper, by George O. Goodall, 70.
- Call and Daily Press consolidated, 383.
- California Pioneers, Society of, 294, 351.
- California material, how collected by Bancroft, 311.
- Californian, The, pioneer paper of California, 376.
- Campbell, John G., 390.
- Carey, Alice and Phœbe, 315.
- Carson, Kit, 230, 239.
- Carter, Miss Julia, 64.
- Carter, ——, 232.
- Cartwright, Charlotte Moffett, Glimpses of Early Days in Oregon, 69.
- Carey, ——, 393.
- Case, Hon. Wm. M., 244.
- Casey, General, 105.
- Cavalry, The First Oregon, recruited, 100, 103.
- Cavender, A. B., 74.
- Cavendish, McDonald and, 74.
- Cavanaugh, Thomas H., purchased Courier, 381.
- Cerruti, Enrique, employed by Bancroft, 311.
- Chamberlain, Governor George E., 12.
- Chamberlain, A., state representative, 389.
- Chapman Code, The, 186, 188, 190.
- Chapman, Hon. W. W., 186.
- Chittenden, Captain, the American Fur Trade in the Far West (quoted), 6, 9.
- Chronicle, The San Francisco, 293.
- Chronicles of the Builders of the Commonwealth, plan of, 334.
- Clark, George Rogers, proposed expedition of, 5.
- Clark, Harvey, 59.
- Clark, ——, 167.
- Clark, Ransom, 390.
- Clarke, S. A., The Montures on French Prairie, 265, 268, 365.
- Clay, Henry, 273.
- Cleveland, Alfred A., The Educational History of Astoria, Oregon, 21.
- Cleveland, Alfred A., The Social and Economic History of Astoria, 130.
- Clugage, James and Poole, located first mining claim in Southern Oregon, 229.
- Coffin, Stephen, 65.
- Columbia River, discovery of, 5.
- Columbian, The, pioneer newspaper north of the Columbia River, 372, 376.
- Colvig, Hon. Wm. H., Indian Wars of Southern Oregon, 227.
- Colvig, Dr. Wm. L., 227, 228, 230.
- Collins, John, 385.
- Commerce, 123.
- Cone, Aaron, 252.
- Cone, Anson Sterling, 251.
- Cone, Philander J., 259.
- Connelly, Dr., 272.
- Connelly, Owen, 66.
- Cook, Captain, off the Oregon coast, 4.
- Cook, Francis H., 366; publisher The Echo, 381.
- Cooper, Frank, 248.
- Coquille Guards, 238.
- Corbett, H. W., 63, 64;
senator, 196.
- Cornelius, Thomas R., appointed colonel, 99, 101, 135.
- Corvallis and Eastern Railroad, 247.
- Couch, John H., 390.
- Courier, The Puget Sound, 372, 380;
the daily, first appearance, 380.
- Courtnay, Mrs. Agnes B., 74.
- Courtnay, Isaac B., 75.
- Coues, Dr. Elliott, 6.
- Cowles, Captain R., 100.
- Cox, Anderson, state representative, 389.
- Craig, D. W., 365.
- Crawford, Medorum, 390.
- Crawford, P. V., 71, 167.
- Crawford, Samuel C., 372.
- Crawford, Samuel L., 378;
city editor Post Intelligencer, 379.
- Creighton, Captain, 237.
- Crooks, General George, 239.
- Crosby, Captain, 59.
- Culver, Samuel, 229.
- Cunningham, ——, 234.
- Currey, Captain George B., 100.
- Curry, Governor George L., 238, 368.
- Cushing, William, 390.
- Cushing, ——, minister to China, 274.
- Dall, Captain W. L., appointed lieutenant in navy, 104.
- Damon, John F., 365, 371;
editor The Northwest, 373.
- Daniels, Travers, publisher Port Townsend Register, 372.
- Daniel, ——., 377.
- Davenport, T. W., An Object Lesson in Paternalism, 33, 244, 247, 248.
- Davenport, Miss Orla, 249.
- Davis, ——, secretary of war, 157.
- Davis, H. W., appointed captain volunteer company, 61.
- Davis, A. L., 63.
- Davies, Griffith, 378.
- Deady, Judge M. P., 352, 353;
contributions to Oregon Pioneer Association, 391.
- Deakins, William, 280.
- Dean, N. C., 229.
- Deardorff, J. D., and wife, 26, 27.
- Degrett, Phillip, 389.
- Dement, William C., 390.
- Dempsey, Thomas H., publisher Times, 384.
- Dennison, A. P., 99.
- Denny, Mrs. O. P., 261.
- Dent, Captain F. T., 99.
- Depot, Peter, 269.
- Derby, George H., 296.
- Devlin and Nygant, 140.
- Dilley, ——, 231.
- Dispatch, The Puget Sound, 377, 379.
- Dixon, Hepworth, 327.
- Doane, Rev. N., 65.
- Documents, 78;
Oregon material taken from a file of an Independence, Mo., and Weston, Mo., paper for 1844 and 1845, 270, 395.
- Dodge, Hon. A. C., 78.
- Douglas House Bill of 1846, 90.
- Douglas, Stephen A., candidate for president of United States, 94.
- Douglass, ——, 265.
- Downing, George S., 244, 247.
- Draper, Doctor, 34.
- Draper, Mrs. Sarah, 264.
- Drew, C. S., Major First Oregon Cavalry, 100.
- Dryer, Thomas J., 64, 93, 365;
first editor of Oregonian, 370.
- Duncan, L. J. C., 229.
- Duncan, Alexander, 266.
- Dunlap, John A., 75;
representative, 76.
- Duniway, Mrs., 365.
- Dunn, Pat, 229, 232.
- Dyar, ——., 234.
- Dyer, E. S., publisher Northwest, 373.
- Dyson, George, 74.
- Eberman, N., 132.
- Eccleson, Col. E., 247.
- Edison, Thomas A., 39.
- Edwards, Edward, 232.
- Ely, Lieutenant, 232.
- Ematinger, Frank, 390.
- Emigration of 1843, experiences of, 177.
- Evans Creek, battle of, 233.
- Evans, Mr., constructed a ferry on Rogue River, 229.
- Evans, General Elwood, 314, 352.
- Everett, ——., 43.
- Expositor, The Western, 74.
- Express Advance, The, 74.
- Faber, J. G., 234.
- Failing, Josiah, 63.
- Fairweather, H. W., 199.
- Fessenden, Mr., 102.
- Ferguson, Mr., 272.
- Ferry, Elisha P., first governor of Washington, 380.
- Ferry, James P., published Times, 384.
- Field, Justice Stephen J., 351.
- Fielding, ——., 234.
- Fields, Thomas, 75.
- Fillmore, President, 187.
- Finance, 126.
- Findlay, John, 75.
- Finlayson, Mr., and wife, 28.
- Finley, R. C., 70, 71, 72, 74.
- Fisher, Walter M., 299;
sketch of life, 300.
- Flavel, Captain George, 32.
- Flemming, John, printer Oregon Spectator, 368.
- Foard and Stokes Company, 143.
- Ford, Mark, 390.
- Foster, Phillip, 390.
- Fowler, W. W., 232.
- Frazer, Thomas, 63.
- Fremont, Captain, 11, 78;
colonel, 157, 158, 230;
general, 239, 245.
- Fur and Trading Company, 80.
- Fur Company, The American, 274;
The Northwest, 130, 137;
The Missouri, organized, 8;
The Pacific, 8.
- Furth, Jacob, 378.
- Gale, James N., 366.
- Garfield, Selucius, defeated for congress, 380.
- Gary, Rev. Mr., 276.
- Gatch, Prof. T. M., 249.
- Gay, George, 230.
- Gazette, The Marine, 31, 138.
- Gazette, The, published first dispatch coming by wire to Seattle, 377;
first paper in Seattle, 375.
- Gervais, Joseph, 243, 244.
- Gibbs, Addison C., was governor of Oregon, 108, 214, 217.
- Gibbs, A. C., editor Oregon Weekly Times, 368.
- Gibbs, ——., 232.
- Gibson, George R., 273.
- Gilliam, Colonel Cornelius, 243.
- Gilmore, S. M., letter from, 284.
- Gilpin, Mr., 271.
- Glass, Robert, 72.
- Gold, discovery of, in California, prices of products in Oregon, 49, 60.
- "Gold Beach Guards," 238.
- Goldschmidt, Albert, employed by Bancroft, 304.
- Goodall, George O., the Upper Calapooia, 70.
- Goodall, Captain James P., 233.
- Grace Church Parish School started, 23, 27.
- Grant, General, 105, 109, 239.
- Grant, Frederick J., 378.
- Gray, Captain, sent to North Pacific Coast, 5, 9, 131, 205.
- Gray, Chesley, 229.
- Green, Wm. O., 196.
- Greenwood, Mary, 161.
- Griffin, Lieutenant Burrell, 233.
- Griffin, George Butler, sketch of life, 348.
- Gunn, E. T., newspaper man, 380.
- Gunn, Affleck &, 372.
- Gwin, Senator, plan for slave-holding republic on Pacific Coast, 105, 106.
- Hall, Peter D., 259.
- Hall, Edwin O., 367.
- Hall, Ike M., 381.
- Hally, C. F., 280.
- Hamilton, S. M., 67.
- Hamilton, Louis, reference to, 190.
- Hand Book Almanac, 297.
- Hanford, Thaddeus, 374, 380.
- Hanley, Mrs. John A., 235.
- Hanthorn & Company, cannerymen, 141.
- Harding, Captain E. J., 100.
- Harding, Benjamin F., quartermaster First Oregon Cavalry, 100.
- Harding, Senator, 214, 217.
- Harding, John R., killed by Indians, 233.
- Harger, Mrs. Harriet, 264.
- Harker, Charles, 104.
- Harris, Captain T. S., 100.
- Harris, David, 235.
- Harris, Mary, 235.
- Harris, ——, 252.
- Harris, George W., 378.
- Hathaway, Major J. S., 135.
- Hawthorne, Doctor, 61.
- Hays, Judge Benjamin, 312.
- Hazen, Captain, 105.
- Helm, George, "Lion of Linn," 73.
- Hensill, Mrs. Mary J., 66.
- Herald, Puget Sound, 372, 381.
- Herald, The Cleveland, 315.
- Hewitt, Miss, teacher, 24, 29.
- Hewitt, Randall H., 365;
publisher Pacific Tribune, 374;
published Echo, 381.
- High School, The Astoria, 31.
- Higgins, David, 366.
- Hill, Mrs., 26.
- Hill, W. Lair, 365;
editor Oregon Weekly Times, 369.
- Hill, Homer M., purchased Chronicle, 383.
- Himes, Geo. H., 375.
- History of the Preparation of the First Code of Oregon, by James K. Kelly, 185.
- History of the Early Indian Wars of Oregon, 318.
- History Company, The, 333.
- Hittell, John S., 299, 331.
- Hobson, John, 32.
- Hobson, Mr., and family, 132.
- Hodgins, ——, 232.
- Hogg, Col. T. E., 248.
- Holderness, S. M., 390.
- Holman, Joseph, Short Biography of, 392.
- Holman, George Phelps, first white child born in Marion County, 394.
- Holladay, Ben, published The Bulletin, 369.
- Home Journal, of New York, 315.
- Hood, Gen. J. B., 239.
- Hooker, Colonel Joseph, 104;
builder of military wagon road, 239.
- Hoover, Jacob, 390.
- Hopkins, Mrs. Rebeka, 259.
- Hopwood, Moses, 229.
- Hosford, Rev. C. O., opened first school in Astoria, 21.
- Houston, Sam, 151.
- Howell, ——., 232.
- Hudson Bay Company, possession of the Northwest, 9, 78, 81, 82, 83, 89;
and Northwest Fur Company consolidated, ——, ——, 132, 153, 154, 156, 242, 261.
- Hughes, W. H., 378.
- Hughes and Davies, purchased The Times, 385.
- Humason, Judge, 217.
- Hume, R. D., and Company, 140.
- Hungry Hill, battle of, 236.
- Hunt, L. S. J., 383.
- Hunter, Col. George, "Reminiscences of an Old Timer," quotation from, 97.
- Hunt's Astor party, route of, 10.
- Heisler, William, 71.
- Husted, General, 390.
- Hustler, Captain, 134, 139.
- Huston, H. Clay, 267.
- Hyde, Aaron J., 65.
- Hyde, H. H., 390.
- Hyland, Rev. T. H., 23.
- Hyland, Mrs. T. H., 23.
- Indian Wars of Southern Oregon, an address by William H. Colvig, 227.
- Indians: Umpquas, 228;
Klamaths, 228;
Rogue Rivers, 228;
Modoc, 228;
Shasta, 228;
Mollalas, 241;
Cayuses, 241, 255;
Klamaths, 242;
Warm Spring, 242;
Pawnees, 252.
- Infantry, The First Oregon, 108.
- Informant, The, 74.
- Ingalls, Rufus, 105.
- Ingalls, David, 133, 136.
- Ingraham, E. S., 378.
- Intelligencer, The Weekly, 377.
- Iowa Gazette, 78.
- Iowa Code, 188.
- Ireland, D. C., 366.
- Irish, Tom, 230.
- Irving, Washington, 358.
- Jack, D. N., elected assessor of Linn County, 76.
- Jack, Porter, 244.
- Jackson, Stonewall, 42.
- Jackson, Mrs. Helen Hunt, 326.
- Jackson, P. B., 365.
- Jackson, David E., letter of, 395.
- Jacobs, Judge Orange, 371.
- Jefferson, President, trading posts with Indians, 5, 12, 110.
- Jefferson, Delos, 65.
- Johns, James, 79.
- Johnson, Miss, 24.
- Johnson, Doctor, 38.
- Johnson, Mr., 63.
- Johnson, P. B., 365.
- Jones, Mr., killed by Indians, 235.
- Jones, Captain, 237.
- Journal, The Independence, 270, 277.
- Kautz, General A. V., 239.
- Kearny, Major Phil, 231, 239.
- Keene, Granville, 234.
- Keeney, Johnathan, 74.
- Kelley, Hall J., agitating colonization of Oregon, 9.
- Kelly, Captain William, 100.
- Kelly, James K., History of the Preparation of the "First Code of Oregon," 185;
elected commissioner to draft code of laws for Oregon, 189;
nominated and elected member of council, 192.
- Kendrick, Captain, sent to North Pacific coast, 5.
- Kenny, George L., 296.
- Kirchoff, Louis, 137.
- Kilham, E. H., 353, 358.
- Killin, Hon. Benton, 188
- Kincaid, Mr., night school taught by, 24.
- King, Colonel William, 60, 65.
- King, Wm. H., 66.
- Kingsley, C. S., 67.
- Kinney's cannery, 140.
- Kinney, R. C., & Sons, 139.
- Kinney, M. J., 141.
- Kirk, Alexander, 74;
elected county judge of Linn County, 76.
- Kirk, W. R., 74.
- Klippel, Henry, laid out Jacksonville as a town, 230, 235.
- Knights of the Golden Circle, 73, 106, 108.
- Knight, Wm. H., Manager Bancroft Publishing Department, 297.
- Kuro-shiwo of Japan (Japan current), 39.
- La Bonte, Louis, Recollections of Men, 264.
- Ladd, W. S., 61, 63.
- Lamerick, Captain J. K., 232.
- Lampson, Roswell C., 104.
- Land Law, The Donation, 37, 38, 229.
- Lane, General Joseph, appointed governor of Oregon, 91;
nominated for vice president, 94, 95, 101, 105, 106, 233, 234, 239, 370
- Larkin, T. N., 63.
- Larrabee, Charles H., publisher Puget Sound Dispatch, 380.
- Larrabee & Company, publishers Puget Sound Dispatch, 377.
- Latshaw, Major, 238.
- Latty, Alexander, 265.
- Lawrence, Miss, 28.
- Lawson, Peter, 257.
- Leary, John, 378.
- Ledford Massacre, 236.
- Ledger, The Philadelphia, 277.
- Ledger, The Weekly, 382.
- Lee, Jason, 265, 393.
- Lee, Barton, 390.
- Lee, H. A. G., 390.
- Leinweber, Christian, 137.
- Lewis and Clark Centennial, The, by F. G. Young, 1.
- Lewis and Clark Expedition—Relation to the Northwest, 1;
primary inception of, 6.
- Lewis and Clark, exploring expedition, 5;
the trail, 10, 12, 13, 115.
- Lewis and Clark Centennial, mission of, 2;
possibilities of, 16;
duties of its authorities, 16-18.
- Lewis, Mr., 9, 130.
- Lewis and Clark, 8.
- Lewis, Stephen (Etienne Lucier), 264.
- Limerick, L., 63;
appointed county school superintendent, 64.
- Lincoln, Miss Liza, 26.
- Lincoln, Abraham, 74, 97, 99, 101, 108, 370.
- Lindgren, Waldemar, 124.
- Lingenfelter, James W., 104.
- Linn, Senator Lewis F., 151.
- Literary Club, The Pioneer Lyceum, 390.
- Little Meadows, Battle of, 233.
- Lorraine, Lieutenant, 105.
- Lorrea, Doctor, 61.
- Louisiana Purchase Exposition, purpose of, 14.
- Love, George, 235.
- Love, G. M., 235.
- Lovejoy, Hon. A. L., appointed postal agent for Oregon, 192, 256, 390.
- Lownesdale, D. H., 59.
- Lucier, Etienne, 261, 264.
- Luelling, H., 59.
- Lugenbeel, Major, 99.
- Lumber Industry, The, 124.
- Lupton, Major J. A., 234.
- Lyman, Rev. Horace, 65.
- Lyman, H. S., Some Corrections, 86.
- Lyman, H. S., Reminiscences, 251, 268.
- Lyon, Colonel George G., published Times, 384.
- Madison, President, 9.
- Mail and Express, The New York, 357.
- Manufacturing, 122.
- Marshall, J. W., discoverer of gold in California, 11.
- Massachusetts Historical Society, 309.
- Massacre at Bloody Point, 232.
- Mason, Robert, & Company, 141.
- Masters, ——, 254.
- Mathieu, F. X., 167, 389.
- Matthews, Captain Wm., 100.
- Mattice, George W., purchased Pierce County News, 382.
- Maulsby, G. T., 26.
- Manson, Donald, 261, 265.
- Manson, James, 262.
- Manson, Jr., Donald, 262.
- Manson, Wm., 261, 262.
- Manson, Stephen, 262.
- Maury, R. F., Lieutenant Colonel First Oregon Cavalry, 100.
- Maxwell, Mr., 26.
- Maxwell, S. L., 366;
publisher Weekly Intelligencer, 377.
- Mead, Elwood, chief of Division of Irrigation, 17.
- Meany, E. S., 379.
- Medary, Col. Samuel, 174.
- Meek, Joseph, 85, 90;
United States Marshal, 91, 160, 316, 393.
- Meek, Stephen L., 242, 245.
- "Message, The," 373.
- McBride, Dr. James, 231.
- McCarver, M. M., 78;
letter of, 403.
- McClure, Colonel John, 132, 137.
- McDonald & Cavendish, 74.
- McElroy, Thornton F., 365, 376.
- McFadden, Judge O. B., elected to congress, 380.
- McCaw, William, elected clerk of Linn County, 76.
- McGraw, John H., 378.
- McGregor, Miss, teacher, 29.
- McGruder, Top, 390.
- McHargue, James, 75.
- McKay, Tom, 244, 256, 266.
- McKay, Alexander, 257.
- McKean, S. T., 32;
and family, 133.
- McKew, ——, 234.
- McKinley, Archibald, 264, 265.
- McLoughlin, Dr. John, in charge of Fort George, 131, 154, 257, 264, 281;
flouring mill completed, 387.
- McNaught, Ferry, McNaught & Mitchell, law firm of, 383.
- McNemee, Mr., 64.
- McNemee, Job, 258.
- Miller, Dan, 230.
- Miller, Captain John F., 232.
- Mills, James, 234.
- Mineral Productions, 123, 124.
- Miner, Dr. Thomas T., 379.
- Minto Pass: Its History and an Indian Tradition, by John Minto, 241.
- Minto, John, 167: Minto Pass: Its History and an Indian Tradition, 241, 243, 244, 247, 390.
- Missouri Historical Society, 270.
- Mofras' description of Astoria in 1841, 131.
- Monnastes, David, 61.
- Money, Beaver, coined at Oregon City, 62.
- Montgomery, Robert, 75.
- Montgomery, Frank C., editor Chronicle, 382.
- Monture, George and Robert, 269.
- Montures on French Prairie, The, by S. A. Clarke, 268.
- Mooney, Mr. and Mrs., publishers The Beacon, 382.
- Moore, Mr., 26.
- Moore, Asa, 70, 74.
- Moore, Robert, 71, 76.
- Moore, Miles C., on A Pioneer Railroad Builder, 195.
- Moore, Charles, 196.
- Moore, Paine Brothers &, 196.
- Morrison, Captain R. W., 386.
- Morris, ——, 232.
- Morris, William Alfred, The Origin and Authorship of the Bancroft Pacific States Publications: A History of a History, 287.
- Morris, George P., editor New York Home Journal, 315.
- Morse, Mrs. H. B., 22.
- Moss, S. W., 390.
- "Mountain Men," 9.
- Mullan, Captain John, From Walla Walla to San Francisco, 202.
- Municipal Exposition, Dresden, Germany, 18.
- Murphy, John Miller, 365;
publisher Standard, 372, 374, 376.
- Murray, Edward F., assistant to Bancroft, 312.
- Muscovite, the advance of in the Pacific Northwest, 4.
- Nash, Isaac M., 84.
- Native Races, The, preparation of material, 308.
- Naylor, T. G., 254.
- Neale, Miss, teacher, 29.
- Nelson, Thomas chief justice supreme court, 187, 188;
relieved of office of supreme judge, 189.
- Nemos, William, employed by Bancroft, 305;
sketch of life, 322;
severed connections with Bancroft library, 333.
- Nesmith, Senator Jas. W., 47, 167, 387;
contributions to Oregon Pioneer Association, 390, 391.
- New Era, The, 277;
extract from, 399.
- Newell, ——, 205.
- Newell, Robert, 265, 388, 390, 393.
- Newell, Wm., 365.
- Newkirk, Mr., employed by Bancroft, 325.
- New Penelope, The, 317.
- News, The Pierce County, 382.
- Nolan, Rhodes, 232.
- North Pacific Coast, 382.
- Northern Light, 372.
- Northwest Coast, 81.
- Northwest, The, 378.
- Oak, Ora, employed by Bancroft, 299.
- Oak, Henry L., Bancroft's librarian, 298;
main facts of his life, 298, 305;
retired from Bancroft's library, 333.
- O'Bryant, Hugh D., first mayor of Portland, 61.
- Occident, The, Presbyterian paper, 298.
- Officer, James, 280.
- Ogden, Isaac, 262.
- Ogden, William, 264.
- Ogden, Emma, 264.
- Ogden, Peter Skeen, 262, 264, 265.
- Ohio Statesman, 78.
- Olney, Judge Cyrus, the Olney lottery, 137.
- O'Meara, James, 365.
- Oregon, Glimpses of Early Days in, by Charlotte Moffett Cartwright, 55.
- Oregon Spectator, The, 81;
first newspaper in old Oregon, 368.
- Oregon and Its Share in the Civil War, by Robert Treat Platt, 89.
- Oregon, a territory of United States, 91;
became a state, 93;
voted for Lincoln, 94;
railroad to, 277;
printing press, 286.
- "Oregon Country, The," 111.
- Oregon—Pittsburgh meeting and Dr. White's report, 170.
- Oregon Historical Society, 167;
old mission press, 368.
- Oregon Territory, confused condition of statutory laws, 185.
- Oregon Bar Association, 185.
- Oregon Emigration Movement, documents relating to, 170.
- Oregon Steam Navigation Company, 196, 197, 198;
bought six sevenths stock Walla Walla and Columbia River Railroad Company, 199, 204, 206, 353.
- Oregon, Provisional Government of, adoption of Iowa laws, 185.
- Oregon Reports, 187.
- Oregon Country and Its Earlier Conditions, Letters descriptive of, 178.
- Oregon Code, 194.
- Oregon Emigrating Company, 177.
- Oregon Emigrants, extract from Independence Journal, 271.
- Oregon Pioneer Association, 314.
- Oregon Weekly Times, 368.
- Oregon American and Evangelical Unionist, The, 368.
- Oregon Emigrating Company, 403.
- Oregon Railway and Navigation Company, 139, 143, 199, 200.
- Oregon Free Press, 368.
- Oregonian, first published, 64, 293, 369;
Daily, 370, 376.
- Ord, General, 105.
- Ord, Captain E. O. C., 237.
- Osborne, ——, 260.
- Otie, Ed, 390.
- Overland Monthly, The, 300, 304, 317.
- Overland Press, The, 373.
- Owens, Adair, Mrs. Dr., 26.
- Owens, Captain Elias A., 232.
- Owens, Colonel, 272.
- Paine Brothers & Moore, 196.
- Pambrun, ——., 264, 265.
- Parker, Mrs. H. B., 32.
- Parker, Mrs. W. W., 29.
- Parker, W. W., 32, 133, 135.
- Parker, James M., 267.
- Parrish, Rev. J. L., 132.
- Partisan, 381.
- Paternalism, An Object Lesson In, by T. W. Davenport, 33.
- Patrick, H. C., 366;
started Weekly Ledger, 382.
- Pearne, Thomas H., 365.
- Peatfield, J. J., employed by Bancroft, 345;
sketch of life, 346, 363.
- Peel, Lieut. William, 387.
- Perry, ——, 132.
- Pettygrove, F. W., 390.
- Perkins, Dr. J. N., 71.
- Perkins, T., constructed a ferry on Rogue River, 229.
- Petroff, Ivan, sketch of life, 318;
employed by Bancroft, 318, 363.
- Phelps, Almira, 394.
- Philpot, ——., 234.
- Philbrick, C. W., published Puget Sound Argus, 373.
- Phillips, Wendell, 292.
- Pickett, Charles E., 387, 390.
- Pierce, President, 192.
- Pinart, M., furnished Bancroft's Alaska material, 318.
- Pioneer and Historical Society, 138.
- Pioneer Captain of Industry in Oregon, A, by James R. Robertson, 150.
- Pioneer Railroad Builder, A, by Miles C. Moore, 195.
- Pioneer Papers of Puget Sound, by Clarence B. Bagley, 365.
- Pittock, H. L., 365;
printer of the Oregonian, 370.
- Poe, A. M., 365.
- Polk, President James K., 90, 91, 187.
- Polk, Colonel, 272.
- Pomeroy, Mrs., 253.
- Poujade, L. H., 268.
- Poole, J. R. and Clugage, located first mining claim in Southern Oregon, 229.
- Poole, John R., laid out Jacksonville as a town, 230.
- Pope, Miss, teacher, 22.
- Population, increase of, in West, 114;
table of, for United States, 116.
- Porter, Nathan S., 381.
- Portland founded, 59.
- Port Orford Minute Men, 238.
- Post Intelligencer, The, 374.
- Post, The Seattle Weekly, 377;
The Daily, 378.
- Post and Intelligencer consolidated, 378.
- Powell, Joab, 71.
- Powers, T. P., 22, 29, 136.
- Poyntz, Stone &, 229.
- Pratt, O. C., justice supreme court, 187, 188.
- Pratt, Orson B., appointed historian Mormon Church, 321.
- Pratt, Mrs. William, 264.
- Pratt, John W., 385.
- Press, The, 373;
Daily, 383.
- Prigg, F., 390;
publisher of Pacific Tribune, 374.
- Prosch, Thomas W., 366, 371, 378;
published Puget Sound Herald, 372.
- Prosch, Charles, 366, 371, 374, 381.
- Prosch, Fred, in charge mechanical work of Courier, 381.
- Provisional Government of Oregon, 89.
- Public School, The, of Astoria, 25.
- Public buildings, transferred from Oregon City to Salem, trouble caused, 186.
- Radebaugh, R. F., 366;
started Weekly Ledger, 382.
- Railroad, Astoria and Willamette Valley, 135.
- Railroad, Astoria and Columbia River, 136.
- Railroad, Astoria and South Coast, 116.
- Railroad Transportation, 125, 126.
- Railroad Bill, The Pacific, 219.
- Railroad, Corvallis and Eastern, 247.
- Raleigh, P., 63.
- Rasmus, employed by Bancroft, 355.
- Record-Union, Sacramento, 292.
- Rector, William H., state representative, 389;
head of Salem Woolen Mill, 215.
- Reed, C. A., 60, 65.
- Reed, Henry E., The Great West and The Two Easts, 129.
- Reed, T. A., 235.
- Rees, Willard H., In Memoriam of, 386.
- Rees, Willard H., elected state representative, 389, 390;
contribution to Oregon Pioneer Association, 391.
- Rees, R. R., 365.
- Register, The Port Townsend, 372.
- Reminiscences secured by H. S. Lyman, 251.
- Reporter, Saint Louis, 78.
- Republican, The Missouri, extracts from, 399, 402.
- Reynolds, General, 105.
- Rhoades, Captain Jacob, 233.
- Rice, J. N., 72.
- Richards, Franklin D., 321, 324.
- Riggs, T. A., 70, 72;
copy letter of, 74.
- Riley and Ginder, 144.
- Rinearson, J. S., junior major First Oregon Cavalry, 100.
- River of the West, The, 316.
- Rivet, Francis, 389.
- Robb, Professor, 28.
- Robertson, James R., on A Pioneer Captain of Industry, 150.
- Roberts, A. B., 353.
- Robnett, Wm., 75.
- Rocky Mountain News, The, 327.
- Roosevelt, Theodore, "Winning of the West," (quoted), 7.
- Rose, Wm. R., death of, 233.
- Ross, Colonel J. E., 232.
- Ruckle, Colonel, 207.
- Russell, General, 105.
- Russell, Uncle Bill, 228.
- Russian-American Company, 319.
- Saffren, Henry, 390.
- Samuels, L., 365.
- Saunders, Mr., 230.
- Savage, Thomas, employed by Bancroft, 306;
sketch of life, 346, 362.
- Savannah Oregon Emigrating Company, report of committee, 278.
- Sawmill, first in Oregon, 60.
- Scarborough, Captain, 265.
- School History of Astoria, what it reveals, 32.
- School, The Wilcox, first in Portland, 64.
- Schools in Lane County, Early, letter by Joseph H. Sharp, 267.
- Scott, Harvey W., 365;
editor Oregonian, 370.
- Scott, General, 101.
- Scott, Captain L. S., 246.
- Semple, Eugene, 365, 371.
- Sutter's Ranch, 224.
- Seattle Times and Alaska Herald, 379.
- Seward, William H., 110.
- Sharpstein, B. L., 196.
- Sharp, Joseph H., Early Schools in Lane County, 268.
- Shelby, A. D., 63.
- Sheridan, General, 68, 105, 109, 164, 239.
- Sherman, General, 109, 200.
- Shaw, Hon. T. C., 243.
- Shively, Mr., 84, 229.
- Shively, J. M., 132;
first postmaster west of Rocky Mountains, 133, 136.
- Shortess, Robert, 132.
- Skinner, Mrs. Judge A. A., 26.
- Skinner, Judge A. A., 26;
located first donation land claim, 229.
- Small, D. W., 197.
- Smart, Robert G., editor Western Expositor, 283.
- Smith, Gerritt, 36.
- Smith, Delazon, 72, 94, 104.
- Smith, Volney, 104.
- Smith, Solomon, 132.
- Smith, Jedediah, attacked by Indians, 230;
letter of, 395.
- Smith, Thomas, 229.
- Smith, Hugh, 232.
- Smith, Gen. A. J., 105;
Captain, 236, 238, 239.
- Smith, Joseph S., editor of the Oregon Statesman, 370.
- Smith, Noyes, 390.
- Smith, Isaac W., 390.
- Snooks, Major, 104.
- South Pass, The, discovery of, 10.
- Spalding, Rev. H. H., 71, 76, 367.
- Spanish, Advance of, in Pacific Northwest, 4.
- Speyers, ——., 272.
- Stanbough, Joe, 256.
- Standard, The Washington, 374.
- Star, The, first paper in San Francisco, 376.
- States, Henry, 243, 248.
- Statesman, The Washington, article of Captain John Mullan, 202.
- Statesman, The Oregon, 353, 360, 370.
- Steen, Major, 99.
- Stein, Mr., 74.
- Stephens, J. B., 59.
- Stephens, Wm., 195, 196.
- Steptoe, Colonel, 69.
- Stewart, C., 64.
- Stewart, P. G., 390.
- Stevens, General, 105.
- Stone, B. F., 196.
- Stone & Poyntz, 229.
- Stone, Nathan J., charge of publication department, A. L. Bancroft & Company, 321.
- Strait, Hiram, 390.
- Strong, Judge, 134, 187, 188.
- Struve, Henry G., 371, 381.
- Stuart, Captain, death of, 231.
- St. Vrain, Mr., 372.
- Sublette, William L., letter of, 395.
- Supreme Court, decisions of, 187.
- Summers, Doctor, 132.
- Sumner, Brigadier General E. V., 99.
- Tarbox, a Wisconsin lumberman, 197.
- Taylor, Colonel James, 32.
- Taylor, Judge F. J., 135.
- Taylor, President, 187.
- Taylor, John, 321.
- Templeton, ——., 71.
- Templeton, William T., 75.
- Terwilliger, L. L., 66.
- Tibbetts, Mr., 132.
- Tilden, of Washington, 106.
- Times Printing Company, 385.
- Times, Daily, 384.
- Thompson, Frank W., 104.
- Thompson, Captain D. P., 100.
- Thornton, Judge, 91, 96.
- Thurston, Samuel R., first delegate Oregon territorial government, 47.
- Transcript, The Olympia, 380.
- Trask, Mr., 132.
- Tremewan, Mrs. Anna, 261.
- Tribune, The New York, 293.
- Tribune, Salt Lake, 293, 294.
- Tribune, The Pacific, 374.
- Trimble, Edward, 251.
- Truax, Captain S., 100.
- Tuffs, James, 225.
- Turner, Professor F. J., 8.
- Turners, J., 230.
- T'Vault, Colonel William G., 365;
editor Oregon Spectator, 368.
- Union League, The, 73.
- Unionist, The, 360.
- Vallejo, General, 311.
- Vancouver, Fort, 83.
- VanDusen, Miss Cora, 24.
- Van Voast, Captain, 99.
- Victor, Frances Fuller, 293, 294, 295, 305;
employed by Bancroft, 314;
sketch of life, 314, 324;
volume on Nevada, Colorado, Wyoming, 324.
- Victor, Meta Fuller, 315.
- Victor, Henry C., 316.
- Vigilante committee, 107.
- Villard, Henry, bought Walla Walla and Columbia River Railroad, 199, 200.
- Wagner, Mrs., murdered by Indians, 235.
- Wait, Hon. A. E., 188.
- Waite, E. M., 365.
- Waldo, Hon. John B., 246, 247, 248.
- Waldo, Daniel, 390.
- Waller, Rev. Alvan F., letter of, 178.
- Wallace, General Lew, 104.
- Walla Walla and Columbia River Railroad Company, 196.
- Walla Walla to San Francisco, From, by Capt. John Mullan, U. S. A., 202.
- Walworth, Lucy, 314.
- Walworth, Judge Reuben, 314.
- Wambaugh, J., 390.
- Ward, Kirk, a fluent writer, 383.
- Warren, Miss Emma C., conducted private school in Astoria, 24.
- Warren, Mr. R. K., 27.
- Warren, F. M., 66.
- Washington, Territory of, organized, 192.
- Watt, John, 150.
- Watt, Miss, 28.
- Watt, Joseph, Sr., 150;
early life, 150, 159, 166, 390.
- Watson, J. R., 366, 375, 376.
- Wayne, J. W., 26.
- Weaver, ——, 228.
- Webster, Daniel, 43.
- Weir, Allen, bought Puget Sound Argus, 373.
- Welch, James, 26, 133.
- Wells, J., Letter to, 274.
- West, The Great and The Two Easts, by Henry E. Heed, 110.
- West, future of, 127;
The Great, table of comparisons, 114.
- Weston Journal, 368.
- Western Star, 368.
- Western Union Telegraph, 140;
completed to Seattle, 377.
- Whitacre, William T., 372.
- Whiteaker, Governor John, 99.
- White, Captain, 134.
- White, Dr. E., Indian sub-agent, 242.
- White, Harry, 383.
- Whitcomb, Lot, published Western Star, 368.
- Whitman, Doctor, 78, 79, 84, 254, 260, 367.
- Two Whitman Sources, 168.
- Whitmore, ——., 232.
- Whitney, ——., 277.
- Whitworth, James E., 381.
- Wilbur, J. H., 59, 64.
- Wilcox, Dr. Ralph, 64.
- Wiley & McElroy, publishers Columbian, 372.
- Wiley, J. W., 376.
- Willamette Valley and Cascade Mountain Military Wagon Road, 242.
- Williams, Geo., 104.
- Williams, Hon. George H., appointed chief Justice of Oregon Territory, 189.
- Williams, Captain R. L., 232.
- Williams, Robert, 315.
- Williams, Veach, 314.
- Williamson, ——., 26.
- Willis, N. P., editor New York Home Journal, 315.
- Wills, Thomas, 232.
- Wilson, A. E., 132.
- Wilson, Joseph G., 191.
- Woman's War With Whiskey, one of Mrs. Victor's books, 317.
- Woir, J. M., 390.
- Wood, Tallmadge B., copy of letters from, 80, 84, 132.
- Woodfin, Thomas S., 75.
- Woodworth, Mr., 230
- Wool, General John E., 236, 239.
- Woolery, James, 385.
- Worthington, Professor, 24, 28, 29.
- Wright, Colonel, 99, 105.
- Wright, Captain Ben, 232.
- Wyeth, Nathaniel J., expedition to the Columbia, 9.
- Wyley, ——., pioneer settler, 241.
- Yellowstone Expedition, failure of, 7.
- Young, F. G., The Lewis and Clark Centennial, 1.
- Young, Mrs. Maxwell, 24.
