Wyeth

“ The two scientists joined Wyeth at Boonville, Missouri, after a pedestrian journey from St. Louis to that point. The adventurers left Independence on April 28, 1834, in company with the annual fur-trading caravan for the Far West, and late in June arrived at the famous Green River rendezvous. Thence the Wyeth party proceeded to the Columbia, where a hearty welcome from Hudson's Bay officials awaited them both at Walla Walla and Vancouver. ”

“ Among those who hearkened to him was the young Cambridgian, Wyeth, whose mind, more practical than Kelley's, but as yet uninformed as to the real difficulties of the enterprise, conceived the project of a great commercial enterprise to the Northwest. ”

“ Down at the drug store, Wyeth has had the nerve—I guess that is how you can place it, since the bunch, including Bard and Randall—especially Randall, don't appear to appreciate that any one knows anything but themselves. At least, they have been this way in regard to that fellow Wyeth. So an argument came about that Wyeth got into. He quoted an editorial in regard to the prosperity of California, and mentioned that California had more automobiles, in proportion to population, than any state in the union. ”

“ Wyeth, having an interest in the enterprise, collected a party of men to cross the continent to the Pacific, with the purpose chiefly of establishing trading posts beyond the Rocky Mountains and on the coast.
The idea of making one of Capt. Wyeth's party was suggested to the author by the eminent botanist, Mr. Nuttall, who had himself determined to join the expedition across the North American wilderness. Being fond of Natural History, particularly the science of Ornithology, the temptation to visit a country hitherto unexplored by naturalists was irresistible ”

“ Wyeth came across by land from Boston with eleven men, with the intention of establishing a salmon fishery and expected to have met a vessel which he had sent from Boston, but he learned afterwards she had been wrecked on an island in the Pacific, and the nonarrival of his vessel obliged Mr. Wyeth to return to the United States, but his men remained in the Wallamette. ”

“ Mr. Wyeth, or as we shall hereafter call him, Captain Wyeth, as being leader of the Band of the Oregon adventurers, after having inspired twenty-one persons with his own high hopes and expectations (among whom was his own brother, Dr. Jacob Wyeth, [12] and a gun-smith, a blacksmith, two carpenters, and two fishermen, the rest being [31] farmers and laborers, brought up to no particular trade) was ready, with his companions, to start off to the Pacific Ocean, the first of March, 1832, to go from Boston to the mouth of Columbia river by land. ”

“ In this expedition he gathered his associates, and at the same time made arrangements for future supplies to arrive by sea, coming around Cape Horn. Captain Wyeth was in Boston, getting up a trading expedition, and chartering a vessel for the mouth of the Columbia River, the May Dacre. On board Captain Lambert’s brig Captain Wyeth and the Methodist Board shipped their goods for the two expeditions. The goods on the way, it became necessary for the future objects of the mission to have a few horses to carry on the improvements necessary to a civilized life. ”

“ More than a hundred churches never encouraged the people to read anything but the Bible: apparently, the obtaining of a library had not worried any but Sidney Wyeth; it has been seen how they [Pg 314] worried over the securing of a park. Is it a wonder, with all this under his observation, that Sidney Wyeth, who came from a land where people read and thought, and had some perspective, eventually came to be regarded as a chronic critic? He had witnessed more murders than he had in all the days of his life. ”

“ Wyeth's Second Visit to Oregon. In the fall of 1833 Wyeth sent the Boston ship "May Dacre" with supplies for the Columbia River. In 1834, he made his second overland journey, reaching Vancouver in September. The "May Dacre," having arrived too late for the salmon fishing season, was sent with a cargo of timber to the Hawaiian Islands. His trading expedition failed, and Wyeth returned to Boston.
Annual Indian Fairs. While Wyeth and other fur traders were putting forth strenuous efforts to traffic with the Indians, the natives were bartering extensively among themselves. ”

“ Wyeth and his men found themselves completely at a loss when they reached Independence, the then frontier post. None of them except the leader had ever seen an Indian or handled a rifle. They had neither guide nor interpreter, and were totally ignorant of the way to deal with the savages, or provide food for themselves during long marches over barren plains and wild mountains. In this predicament Captain Sublette found them, and in the bigness of his heart kindly took them in tow. Both parties travelled amicably together, and they arrived without accident on the upper branches of the Platte. ”

“ Mr. Wyeth brought with him a small party of men, all inexperienced in frontier or mountain life, and destined for a salmon fishery on the Columbia. He had reached Independence, Missouri, the last station before plunging into the wilderness, and found himself somewhat at a loss how to proceed, until, at this juncture, he was by the party of William Sublette, from St. Louis to the Rocky Mountains, with whom he travelled in company to the rendezvous at Pierre's Hole. ”

“ And to Wyeth 's energy, money and sacrifices, more than to all others is due the opening of the Oregon trail. The large force of men he brought out in 1834 did thorough work not only in exploring for the best route, but in smoothing down some of the worst places. Wyeth was never a fur trader. ”

“ So potent were his arguments, that Milton yielded to them, in spite of his engagement with Wyeth. Thus during the autumn of 1833, while Bonneville was being wronged and robbed, as he afterwards became convinced, by his men under Walker, and anticipated in the huntingground selected for himself, in the Crow country, by Fitzpatrick, as he had previously been in the Snake country by Milton Sublette, Wyeth was proceeding to Boston in good faith, to execute what proved to be a fool's errand. ”

“ Wyeth travelled for a considerable distance to the southwest, in company with Milton Sublette, when they separated; and the former, with eleven men, the remnant of his band, pushed on for Snake River; kept down the course of that eventful stream; traversed the Blue Mountains, trapping beaver occasionally by the way, and finally, after hardships of all kinds, arrived, on the 29th of October, at Vancouver, on the Columbia, the main factory of the Hudson's Bay Company. ”

“ Wyeth returned with a large number of men whom he left in the Snake Country to trap beaver, where he built the present Fort Hall, and brought about twenty men with him to prosecute the object of his first voyage in 1832, for which purpose he had despatched the May Dacre, Captain Lambert, from Boston in 1833, and which entered the river a few days after Mr. Wyeth arrived at Vancouver, who built on Wapatoo Island. ”

“ On his way across the continent, Wyeth stopped and erected Fort Hall, in which he stored his trading goods for the interior. He and his party reached Fort Vancouver about the same time his ship came into the Columbia and proceeding down to the lower end of the Wappatoo island (now called Sauvies island) , Wyeth established a salmon fishery and built a trading house which he named Fort William. The salmon fishery was not much of a suc- cess, but it was the commencement of salmon packing on the Columbia, an in- dustry that now brings in many million dollars yearly. ”

“ Our pen has not before had occasion to relate that the change in the life of Sidney Wyeth, from the prairies to the present, was due, in a great measure, to the evil genius of an overly busy person. And yet, such was the fact. Therefore, being an observing character, and realizing these qualities, but not appreciating them in the creature whom he would always despise, he did, above all else, wish to avoid a person thus richly endowed. He had declared many a time, that he trusted the diamond back rattlers that infested the prairies, more than he did an unduly pretentious, ostentatious person. ”

“ Evidently there must have been some winning; but Wyeth never happened to find the winner. They were all losers. If he had their orders and expected to deliver the book, he had to plan to deliver the same on Saturday night, and before they found the enticing game. And for telling the truth, they drew the line on that—refused to have anything to do whatever with keeping their word. When he ran into a man who was as good as his word, and which he did occasionally, he was so surprised that he became nervous. ”

“ But he looked beyond the fur [Pg 163] and salmon business to American possession and settlement, at least south of the River to the California line. He therefore embraced in his view the building of enterprises which should lead up to and then profit by American immigration. Wyeth spent five years in Oregon, having many interesting adventures, and as many business reverses. As was the case with Astor, the British fur-traders proved too powerful for the Yankee. Among other undertakings, he built a fort on Sauvie’s Island at the mouth of the Willamette, which he called Fort William. ”

“ His name was Sidney Wyeth, and his home was away off in the great northwest, in a strip of territory known as the Rosebud Country. As we meet him now, however, he is located on the fifth floor of an office building, slightly toward the outskirts of the business district of one of our great American cities. He is by profession an author, which might explain his presence at a desk. It happens, however, that he is not there this time as a weaver of dreams, but attending to matter in connection with the circulation of his work, for he is his own publisher. ”

“ It is in his house, too, that she lives—Crudge's Folly, that was his name for it, and the name clings. But, none the less, she is the wife of John;" and with little more persuasion Mr. Wyeth told me the story.
"It is the story of a sacrifice," he began, "mad or great, as you please; but, mark you, it achieved its end. As a boy, I witnessed it from its beginnings. For it was at this very door that Robert Lovyes rapped when he first landed on Tresco on the night of the seventh of May twenty-two years ago, and I was here on my holidays at the time. ”

“ Wyeth's after school, found a letter awaiting her. She glanced at the postmark, which was South Harniss, and the handwriting, which was Isaiah's, and then laid it aside to be read later on at her leisure. After many postponements and with considerable reluctance she had accepted an invitation to dine with Barbara Howe at the latter's home in Brookline and this evening was the time appointed. It would be her first plunge into society—the home life of society, that is. ”

“ Lautier, who in turn told it to Wyeth.
"Mr. Coleman had me write to Ames today, in regard to some song books, which he says he used to sell lots of," she said, when it was convenient.
Wyeth grunted.
"He is very much provoked at the way you treat him. He says, if you would go in with him, you and he could both make lots of money; but that you only laugh in your sleeve at everything he proposes," she went on, replete with gossip.
"He proposes many things," said Wyeth.
She giggled.
"He's going out to Liberty Street Baptist Church to sing and sell them Sunday, providing he gets them in time." ”

“ He appeared to take a deep interest in the objects of the mission, confirming, from his own observation, the information already received, cautioning the party not to do any thing with the Indians that would interfere with the Hudson’s [Pg 143] Bay Company’s trade. Repeating almost verbatim Captain Wyeth’s words, “The company will be glad to have you in the country, and your influence to improve their servants, and their native wives and children. As to the Indians you have come to teach, they do not want them to be any more enlightened. ”

“ Captain Wyeth found his powder flask at Fort Union upon his return in the summer of 1833. Burdett went on to Oregon, where he resided for some years.—Ed.
[44] Pierre's Hole, known more recently as Teton Basin, is a grassy valley trending northwest and southeast, thirty miles long, and from five to fifteen wide, in eastern Idaho, just across the Wyoming border. Pierre (or Teton) River flows through it gathering affluents on the way. The valley was a well-known rendezvous, taking its name from Pierre, an Iroquois employé of the Hudson's Bay Company, who was here murdered by the Blackfeet. ”

“ Dr. Jacob Wyeth, eldest brother of Nathaniel, was born February 10, 1779, at Cambridge, Massachusetts. After being graduated from Harvard (1820) , he studied medicine both in Boston and Baltimore, and settled in New Jersey, whence he set out to join his brother's expedition. After returning from Pierre's Hole—as narrated post—Dr. Wyeth settled in the lead-mine region of northwest Illinois, and married into a prominent family. He died in his adopted state.—Ed.
[13] For the origin of the word Oregon, see Ross's Oregon Settlers, in our volume vii, p. ”

“ They are, and the best of them, in a measure, still incapable of accepting criticism as it is meant. Our story will go to prove this more conclusively later on; but for the present, Sidney Wyeth had made friends.... [Pg 67]
CHAPTER EIGHT Henry Hugh Hodder
Weeks had passed, and a touch of spring time was in the Dixie air. Sidney Wyeth's canvass was now assisted by another, while from over the country he had secured, here and there, an agent to sell the book. He found desk space in an office on the second floor, hired a stenographer, and filled the country with circular letters. ”