Jesse A. Applegate

“ This was sixty-seven years ago, and yet the words of that frantic appeal by the women, which saved our boat and two families from speedy and certain destruction, are fresh in my memory. They were, "Men, don't quit the oars. If you do we will all be lost." The men returned to the oars just in time to avoid, by great exertion, a rock against which the current dashed with such fury that the foam and froth upon its apex was as white as milk. I sat on the right hand side of the boat and the rock was so near that I thought if we had not passed so quickly I might have put my hand upon it. ”

“ The moon was shining and as soon as we looked out we saw a skunk, nosing around in the yard. Our cannon was already loaded with a maximum charge of powder, a wad, a buckshot, a wad, another buckshot and a wad on top of it; the long bullet, for reasons before stated, had been condemned. It was our plan to shoot at very short range and kill the animal so suddenly that it would not be able to retaliate; for the weapon a skunk fights with was as much dreaded by us as by the dogs. ”

“ But as the morning came, probably some new adventure diverted my thoughts from the things of the day before, for I have no further recollection of the matter of the beads.
Our family had a very strong wagon we called the meat wagon. It was heavily laden with provisions, the bulk being flour and bacon. It was drawn by a team of two yoke of oxen, driven at the time I now speak of by a man by the name of George Beale, a dark-skinned, black-eyed young man, the son of a slave owner in Missouri. ”

“ Many Indians visited our camp, bringing fish, both fresh and dried, which they exchanged for old clothes, and a number of them strutted around dressed in their newly acquired garments, seeming to enjoy their often absurd appearance as much as we did, for when we would laugh, they would laugh and jabber among themselves. They were almost naked, some of them quite so. When one would get a garment he would put it on at once. A naked Indian would put on a shirt and step around as though he thought himself in full dress ”

“ A jaded immigrant, however, might gaze upon the face of a precipice a thousand feet high, with a crack in it extending from top to bottom, without being struck dumb with awe and admiration, or pass by a lousy Indian and never realize that he had met one of Fennimore Cooper's noble red men.
Now of nights we encamped on the bank of the river, sometimes on the north, and sometimes on the south side. I remember especially a camp we made on the south shore. There was a very narrow strip of sand and rock almost level, between the river and a high bluff, with a high mountain rising above it. ”

“ One evening after dark we heard loud screaming or yelling a mile and a half away across the prairie, and presently a fire was seen to start up like a flash. Some one said it must be a band of Indians on the war path, whooping, and firing the grass, for it was autumn and the grass was dry. The facts were, as we learned next day, that Uncle Charlie's truck heavily loaded and drawn by three yoke of oxen was enroute across the valley and one of the spindles took fire and burned off before the teamster, who was busy with the cattle, noticed that anything unusual had happened. ”

“ As I walked behind a wagon I would often look into the gorge on the left and then down to the river on the right, and as I remember it now, at many places there was not a foot to spare for the wagon wheels between the bottomless gorge on the left and the precipice down to the river on the right. It is said in the Bible, "Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life." "But wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat." ”

“ It has often been said that "Truth is stranger than fiction," and it is true, for an author manufacturing a story will avoid what would appear to be absurd, but in telling a true story, facts must be stated regardless of appearances. This is a case in point, for it is a fact that just as our boat touched the shore, father grabbed his gun from its place in the boat to shoot our Indian pilot, but he had disappeared, a fact which under the excitement of landing the boat I presume, he had not noticed. ”

“ It had been the distinct understanding that the road should be free, and the consciousness of having opened up better means of access to the country than was afforded by the expensive and dangerous route down the Columbia which we had tried to our sorrow, would be ample compensation for all our labors and hardships in opening the south road. Of course our enterprise was opposed by that mighty monopoly, the Hudson Bay Company, whose line of forts and trading posts on the Columbia afforded them rare opportunities for trade with the immigrants. ”

“ When the frightened people came near they saw the broken and shattered tree and all around were the scorched and blackened bodies of the half score of assassins who had sought shelter under the branches and had been punished for their sin by a bolt of fire from the heavens. We children were frequently at this place where a broken and shattered stump still stood. I finally found the grave of the murdered man, doctor or missionary, he must have been. ”

“ I first heard this tradition from the lips of a venerable Chemomochot priest or doctor, sixty or more years ago, and I have never found an Indian who was able to add a word to it. All the priests or "medicine men," and I believe, all the people knew this much of their origin. This is the tradition: "In the beginning was a mountain, and on the mountain top was a table of stone. On this table was a deposit of some kind of matter jelly-like in consistence—we would call it protoplasm—and out of this protoplastic mass grew a living being in the form of, and was, a woman. ”

“ The problem of clothing had become a very serious one. Tents and wagon covers that had seen service from the Mississippi to the Columbia would shed rain when made into coats. Lined with the remnants of some old woolen garment, and with a broad collar and cuffs faced with the fur of beaver or otter, these garments would pass without criticism even though their ancestry might be known to every one by indelible marks that had been on the tent or wagon cover. ”

“ Looking from where we were a person could get but a very imperfect knowledge of the tragic scene on the other side of the river, but those who escaped said that as their boat was being swept along down the rapids it was caught by one of those currents which, whirling in its course like a cyclone in the air, increased in velocity as the radius of the circle diminishes, until, with a roaring noise, it seems to sink, forming an open funnel-schaped vacuum in the water to the bottom of the river, often called a whirlpool. ”

“ Supposing the natives were in the habit of roaming through these mountains, father wished to have one go with us as a guide. But no Indian wanted to go. Numerous as they were, no consideration would induce one to go with us into this vast wilderness. We went without a guide. Traveling west four or five miles, through open woods of white oak timber, we began the ascent of a spur of the Coast range. Following a winding foot path made by wild beasts, the ascent was not difficult. Traveling through an unbroken forest all day, we made camp near the summit of the range just as the sun went down. ”

“ One crossing where we forded, the river seemed to he very wide and quite rapid; the water was so deep in places that it ran into the wagon boxes and a single team and wagon would have been swept away, so they formed the entire train in single file, and attached the teams and wagons to a chain extending through the entire length of the train. The crossing here severely tried the courage and endurance of the men, for they waded the river alongside their oxen, at times clinging to the ox yokes, and swimming ”

“ The Applegate families, with the Straits and Naylors started across the river from the camp at Vancouver intending to go direct to the mouth of the Willamette River. But there came on such a storm of wind and rain it was thought best to land the boats at Sovey's Island, where two or three deserted houses acorded shelter. Our departure from Vancouver had been emphasized by an unpleasant circumstance. When the big family boat was passing under the bow of the schooner, the sailor boys tossed big red apples to the oldest of the young ladies. ”

“ One afternoon, when the sun seemed to be about three hours high, and we were traveling along at an ox-team gait, over a level prairie, John East, a good, honest man, also from Missouri, who was walking and driving his team, was told that we were then crossing the Missouri line, whereupon, he turned about facing the east, pulled off his slouched hat, and waving it above his head said, "Farewell to America!" ”

“ The native population in our neighborhood was a tribe of the Kalapooya and near and far, even to the sea, were the Tillamook, Tawalatin, Chemeketa, and Luckyuke [4] tilikum, all seeming to be one tribe and speaking the same language. They were a degenerate and priest-ridden people, but their language was remarkably smooth and musical. It was a custom of these Indians, late in the autumn, after the wild wheat, [5] Lamoro sappolil, was fairly ripe, to burn off the whole country. The grass would burn away and leave the sappolil standing, with the pods well dried and bursting. ”

“ The Indians continued to burn the grass every season, until the country was somewhat settled up and the whites prevented them; hut every fall, for a number of years, we were treated to the same grand display of fireworks. On dark nights the sheets of flame and tongues of fire and lurid clouds of smoke made a picture both awful and sublime.
In the summer of 1844, the cattle, horses and wagons left at old Fort Walla Walla were sent for and the remnants arrived at the settlement late in the fall. A part of the cattle were not found. A few it was supposed, had been appropriated by the Indians. ”

“ The only battle we were in, where our cannon was taken onto the field, was an engagement with a skunk. Our dogs were very courageous and watchful, for they would not permit an Indian to approach the house even in the daytime to within less than thirty or forty yards. Many times I have heard an Indian calling for protection against the dogs and would find him standing on the fence holding to a stake for support, or on top of a hog-house on a bench of the hill, about forty yards from our dwelling. The dogs would fight a bear on panther, and two of them would kill a prairie wolf ”

“ When our families started west again, we crossed the river in the ferry boat which father built during the winter. Taking a southerly course between the hills and the river to Salt Creek Valley, then west through a low gap in the range of hills six miles north of The Mill, now the city of Salem, we traveled west about nine miles and kindled our last camp fire on the bank of a branch of Salt Creek under the brow of the Coast Mountain range. In order to make this move, a team had been hired or borrowed. There may have been more than one team, although I can recall but one. ”

“ They were therefore skilled manufacturers on a small scale in this line, but for some years after settling in Oregon there was neither cotton nor wool to be had, and the hair of the wolf was resorted to as a substitute for wool. It was a poor substitute, for the yarn spun of it was coarse and not strong. Another drawback was that wolves could not be fleeced so long as they were alive, and a man could not kill a sufficient number of the kind that were common, the prairie wolf or coyote, in a month, to make a sweater. ”

“ These Indians were Snakes and Shoshone, and our visit with them had been pleasant and entertaining. But in getting away from this place we had a narrow escape. We had to follow the "Devil's Backbone," and it may have been a mile or more; it is a very narrow ridge with a gorge a thousand feet deep on the left hand and a sheer preciipce on the right down to Snake River, which looked as though it might he a mile or more away. Indeed, it was so far away that it looked like a ribbon not more than four inches wide. The danger was so great that no one rode in the wagons. ”

“ The reader must not infer from the foregoing that we were always idle and bent on amusing ourselves. We were each required to do our share of work of whatever kind we were capable of doing. Every boy had to put his hands to the plow as soon as he was old enough to guide a yoke of oxen or plow a straight furrow. ”

“ After a while there were a half dozen or more of them about the camp fires and each one had his blanket over his shoulders and it completely enveloped his body. I don't know that this alarmed the whites or caused them to suspect danger, but the big bucks were sometimes standing and squatting in the way of people about the fires, and were indifferent to the fact.
One of our young men, who did not like Indians, gave a buck a push to get him out of his way, and when the Indian resisted, seized a brand from the fire and struck him a severe blow with it on the shoulders. ”

“ A strong two wheeled truck, with a large strong plow attached to it, drawn by four yoke of oxen, was an outfit often seen breaking prairie. To the largest plow supported by a wheel attachment, which was necessarily very strong and heavy, I think they used a team of six yoke of cattle; and with this outfit broke three and four acres of prairie land in a day. Horses were seldom used to work in harness. In crossing the plains I remember seeing only one team in which a horse was used. ”