E. Ruth Rockwood

“ I know of no reason why a man cannot live as easy in Oregon as he can in Illinois, there is business enough. A man can farm it, and not lift his finger to work if he chooses. A man can make money and just rais stock, for the market, make butter cheese and furnish the market with eggs and chickens. A Saw Mill will keep a man very well, Shipping lumber or timber, Fishing is as good business as any in the country, Steam Boating. ”

“ It is thought there is no native grapes here, but there is a kind of fruit that grows here that they call the Oregon Grape, but it grows on a bush instead of a vine, are of a plesant tast, and make excelent preserves. Crab Apples grow here in some places. There is no nuts here but Hazle Nuts, or filberts, they are of an excellent kind and grow all about in the timber. I know of no fruit that grows in Illinois but will grow equally well here, especially the Peach Apples Grapes, Plumbs Quinces etc. in fact they say that they excell the states by a long ways. ”

“ But of all the poor mean miserable good for nothing country, that ever lay out of doors is the country that lies betwene the American Falls on Snake River and Burnt River, just east of the Blue Mountains. You ask if Oregon is anything near as good as Illinois or Iowa, but dont ask in what particular. ”

“ There was I suppose thousands of cattle left at the Dalles to be kept through the winter, and word has come here that nearly all are dead. One Colonal More, from Danville in Illinois, in the east part of the state, left about one hundred head of cattle and a dozen or twenty horses, at the Dalles, and every one of them are dead, and another that I knew on the road has lost every one that he has, or had. Those that get their cattle into the vally have lost but few, some not any. ”

“ Tomatoes, Mellons, Pumpkins Squashes Cucumbers, &c all grow first rate here, better, a great deal better than they do in Illinois. But what you have heard about the timber is about correct, so far as the fir, pine & ceder is concerned, but the oak is miserable stuf, and but a very little of it. There is not enough of it to last the inhabitants ten years, but the fir, it grows just as straight as anything you ever see, tapering gradually to the very top, seldom less than two hundred feet, with small limbs from about half way to the top, and alwais topt out with the main stem. ”

“ We found no places on the river that was vacant that we felt like taking up, and but very few below this river that are occupied, that we would be obliged to live upon. The land is all covered with heavy timber, and thick bushes, so that it is with the greatest dificulty that any person is able to go more than two or three rods among them, or from the shore. ”

“ On the north side of the river is a range of high hill, or mountains which runs paralell with the river, gradually declining, as we run up the stream. All the mountains or hills are much higher near the bay than they are up the rivers. There is one place at the mouth of this stream, or jus below the mouth, that it appears to me might be sufficiently large for a town, or for a good number of claims, and has the best landing that I know of on the bay. ”

“ Those emegrants that got their cattle this side of the Mountains saved a most of them. People are looking up their claims now, and moving on them. Three or four families left town to day for the Chehaly River, day after tomorrow there will a number leave for Shole Water Bay, and was it not for my Doctors bill and the balance I owe for our stoves, I would start with them. It is a most time to put in garden seeds and we are anxious to get ours in, tho we intend haveing a garding here. I want to go to a part of the country where I can make the nurcery business pay. ”

“ Geese, & Ducks are plenty especially of the latter there being more kinds here than in the states. There is no Wild Turkies here, only such as have run wild since they have begun to settle the country. Prairia Chickens live the east side of the Cascades, on to the Rockey Mountains, east of the last, and along the Sweet Water you will find the Sage Hen, which I think is a little larger than your tame Hens. We have the phesant, or patridge and many other kind of birds, some of the same species, yet with a diferent plumage. ”

“ One man raised onions that were larger than a Tea Saucer, or so large that a man could not get them in his pockets and he had a number of hundred bushels, and they are worth from $4 to 5 dollars pr bushel. All that he did to them was to plough the ground, sow the seed, and scratch it in. They sow wheat here once in two or three years only, and it is alltogether beyond any that I ever saw in the States, in quality. They rais the white wheat. Oats grow first rate here, and sel for about $2.50 pr bushel. ”

“ A man that lived in town last winter, came down from Champoeg a little town about 30 miles up the river, yesterday and wanted frances to go with him and live with a gentleman & lady of his acquaintance and go to school, he would not be satisfied without her, so she packed up an put out, with about 15 minutes notice, she had hardly got home from Portland. ”

“ It is the best business in the country. There is a nursery here [6] & one at Oregon Citty," [7] and they sell trees for from one to two dollars each, I visited one today. They have had three or four grafting all winter, they will probably set eighty or one hundred thousand grafts this winter. This man brought his trees from the states, acrost the plains, about 3 years ago, and he has made a fortune at it. Chehale River, or Shole Water, I think will be a first rate places for that business. Garden sauce pays as well as amost anything. ”

“ This case was of a man that had tended six acres of land for the last three years, and he has cleared two thousand dollars from the six acres, each year, and then cleared nearly as much more in trading in diferent parts of the country, for it only took him a small part of his time to attend to his place. The country as a general thing is hilly like N. England, but the soil is far better. There is prairias in diferent parts of the country and some of them I am told are as handsom as any in Illinois, and especially upon the Chehales River. But you wish to know how far the Bay is from the sound. ”

“ Hellen, as it appears way down in the mouth of the Columbia River, it is not correct, but it will let you see how these mountains look. Where I drew the sketch, is about two hundred miles from the mountains, and I suppose it might be seen one hundred miles out at sea.
The little black spot near the top is a hole, where the fire and smoke comes out. It runs way up above the clouds, as you will see the spots near the bottom looks like black lava. Mount Hoods shape is nearly the shape of this. The river in the picture is the Columbia. ”

“ The wind has never blown so as to bother us at any time for I do believe that if you could put all the wind that we have had since we have been here together and sent it a whizzing off in one gust, it would not compare with one of your N. W. blows. ”

“ I was just getting into good employment, such as stubshoting lumber, for shipping, for which I could get my $4.00 pr day. The support of the family has mostly come from Anns labour, since we have been here, in consequence of my not being able to get employment one fourth of the time. She has earned over ten dollars this week and has now gone to Portland with Irving & Frances in a Skiff. This though has been an extry week with her, for she seldom earns more than half that much.
Times are very dull now, the water in the Willamette is very high and is still rising very fast. ”

“ I see it stated in a paper yesterday that there is twenty thousand people intending to cross the plains for Oregon next season. I wish you would let me know the truth of it. Ann wants me to tell Emma that she washes for seven men now. The Steamer Flint [9] was wrecked last fall going to the Cascades, by running on to a ledge of rocks, she has been got off this winter and is now at Portland, and is expected to commence runing on the river in a few days. ”

“ Any one that intends coming next spring ought to have his wagons made this summer, and run them six months before they start, and then have them well repaired, just as they start, and by all means get mules, unless you wish to bring cattle along, if so then get cattle, not over six years old, my best ones wer only 4. ”

“ Mercantile business is as good here as anything else, but loaning money at fifty pr cent I think would not shine very well. ...
It is said that the Indians in the country of the Blue mountains are intending to stop the emegrants this year, and have commenced blocking up the road. [17]
While I was at Vancouver the other day there was about 75 of Uncle Sams men went up to the Cascades on the steamer Multnomah, to go with the soldiers from that place, and the soldiers at the Dalles, to assis the emegrants. We fear there will be trouble, and suffering, on the road. ”

“ We saw many places that appeared very pleasant from the river & in fact were, or would make very handsom situations, but on going back a few rods we found the ground very low & wet, and in some places we found ponds and deep marshes. In a most every instance, or with but one on two exceptions there bottoms were very narrow, few of them fernishing more than from ten to twenty or thirty acres at most for cultivation. ”

“ They never bite a hook, though they have the bigest kind of a mouth, and I never have been able to learn what they live upon, for there is nothing to be found in them. They have more meet according to their size than any other fish that I ever saw. ”

“ This land is covered with good grass and would keep stock very well through the winter but it is badly cut up by ditches of every size runing through it, or them, in every direction varying from one to eight feet deep. ”

“ Lane arived in Portland this morning in the steamer, they have been haveing a jollyfication there to night I should think, for they were fireing guns all the evening...
Strawberries have been ripe for some time, and if you will come out here in the summer after some blackberries, I will treat you to the best mess of Oisters and Salmon you ever eat-you need not be concerned about the quantity of fruit, for there will be a plenty of it,-I have said in another part of this letter that there is no grass here, but there is some, enough so that stock gets enough to make them look well— .. ”