Treaty Reduces Nez Perce Indian Reservation

For this particular date, my regular "On This Day" article does double duty, being also relevant for the Sesquicentennial.

Lewiston Still Optimistic about Its Role, Plans a Road South

On June 8, 1863, The Oregonian published a report that began, “The Lewiston people were greatly rejoiced last Tuesday, at the arrival of a party from Boise, bringing $50,000 worth of gold dust, who came through from the mines in forty-six hours travelling time.”

Lewistonians considered the amount of gold fairly impressive, but they “greatly rejoiced” because the shipment suggested the town was still “relevant” in terms of the mines. The article went on, “They reported good roads, free from Indians, and that there was no necessity for keeping guard at night over packs or animals. Miners are doing very well and every prospect is favorable.”

While this provided accurate news about the mines, probably only “dumb luck” allowed them to leave their goods and stock unguarded at night. Other travelers found the Indians as troublesome as ever.

Showing their optimism, “The citizens at Lewiston held a meeting, raising $2,000 immediately, and appointed a committee to employ a company of men and carry out the intent and wishes of the people of Lewiston in constructing a good road to Boise at the earliest practicable moment. The committee have selected H. D. Sanborn, Esq., to superintend the expedition.”

Homer D. Sanborn, a native of New Hampshire, had emigrated to Oregon in 1857, when he was in his early twenties. He then followed the rush into Idaho and, by 1862, had established himself as a Lewiston merchant. The article noted that his team “will remove all rocks and obstructions found, will build such bridges as may [be] necessary on small streams or over deep gulches, and place ferries or rafts on such places as are necessary. … It is now a settled point that there will be a good road in and out from Lewiston to the Boise country.”

Yet the project provided only a temporary illusion. Once the roads in southern Idaho improved, Lewiston lost any role for the mines there. Sanborn himself eventually gave up on Lewiston and returned to Portland.

Reference: [Illust-State]
Joseph Gaston, Portland, Oregon: It’s History and Builders, The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago (1911).
“Gold Harvest,” The Oregonian, Portland (June 8, 1863).

Boise Basin Mines Hard to Reach, Rough When You Get there.

On June 7, 1863, a miner who identified himself as “Hal” wrote a letter to The Oregonian from Placerville, Idaho Territory. He had started from Walla Walla “in company with three others.” A good part of his letter described the route they took to reach the Boise Basin, heading first south to the Umatilla River in Oregon. He gave estimated distances as they then turned east over the Blue Mountains. (His guesses do not appear to be particularly accurate, however.)

As they neared Idaho, the group passed through some extremely rough country. One of Hal’s companions said, “My God! what a desert place. I could not wish my worst enemy buried in such a place as this.”

Hal agreed: “No nor would I, and I will say that I am a pretty good hater as times go.”

He described one stretch, located 25-35 miles northwest of today’s Weiser, as a “rattlesnake district.” He wrote, ”The rattles of these hideous reptiles are heard every few minutes; the air appears to be scented with rattlesnake venom, and the water tastes like a weak decoction of rattlesnake broth.”

Rattlesnake Lunge. National Park Service

They hurried on, and crossed the Snake River at the Washoe Ferry, near the mouth of the Payette River. The party then took the well-traveled route up the Payette and over a final ridge into Placerville. Hal promised to give a full account of the mine later, “but at present content myself with remarking that there were no disappointed, returning miners on the road; no growling miners in the mines; no doubt expressed right on the ground that the Boise mines are the best now being worked.”

But clearly the Basin was no place for the weak. In the few days Hal had been there, two men had been killed. He described one killing in considerable detail. An irascible “old gentleman” known as “Uncle Andy” McKay was well known for “speaking his mind pretty freely.” He had apparently remarked that one Jerry Hickey had been known around Lewiston as a “road agent,” that is, a thief.

So Hickey began following Uncle Andy around, hurling “approbious [sic] epithets” at the old fellow. Finally, McKay “picked up a pick-handle and struck his pursuer once on the cranium, killing him as dead as the most remote of his Celtic progenitors is at this moment.”

The dead man’s reputation was fairly well known, it seems. Hal said, “Uncle Andy is generally, I may say unanimously, acquitted by the community.”

References: [Hawley]
“Letter from Boise Mines,”The Oregonian, Portland (June 24, 1863).

Steamboat Competition Squelched on the Columbia and Snake Rivers

The San Francisco Evening Bulletin received a story, dated June 6, 1863, from “Our Own Correspondent” in Portland for publication in the newspaper. He began, “All the world knows that during this summer there has been a very lively steamboat opposition between here and Lewiston, and the points intermediate.”

The correspondent did not sign himself as “Rover,” the one who had submitted items from Lewiston to the Bulletin on April 12 and May 24. But Rover had, indeed, made a point of mentioning the steamboat competition, which significantly lowered shipping costs on the river. The current writer went on, “I have to make known that it has come to a close. … The People’s line have sold their boats above the Cascades, the Cayuse and Iris, to the Oregon Steam Navigation Company for three boats that now ply between here and Oregon City, and $10,000 in money.”

While the writer had most of the deal correct, he failed to give the People’s investors full credit: The OSNC had agreed to continue the $10 thousand cash payout for ten years. Still, as the correspondent said, “Like Lot and Abraham of old, these rival companies have concluded that it was not profitable to dwell together, and so they have separated, dividing the water of the country between them.”

Steamboat on the Columbia. National Archives

The writer provided further details, saying, “The Oregon Navigation (the old company) keep all the running water between here and Lewiston, and as much further east as they can get, while the People’s (the new company) occupy the Wallamett [sic] river from here southwards.”

The OSNC would remained unchallenged on the Columbia and Snake rivers until the late 1870s, when railways arrived to offer an alternate means of transportation. But as the correspondent said, “Of course, this is the end of carrying freight and passengers at nominal rates, though the high prices of last summer are not likely to rule again.”

The writer was apparently correct in his last observation. Although shipping rates did return to high, monopolistic levels, they did not revert to the scandalous rates of the previous season. In the short term, it certainly helped that, “The up-country is full of goods, gone up this summer on cheap freight, and the holders will consider themselves in luck.”

References: [Illust-North]
“Letter from Oregon,” Evening Bulletin, San Francisco, California (July 10, 1863).

U. S. Army Shifts More Troops into Idaho Territory

On June 5, 1863, The Oregonian reported on activities in Walla Walla, Washington: “Major Truax has been ordered to Lapwai – probably to take command of the post there. It is thought that Col. Steinberger will be returned to the command of Fort Walla Walla.”

Sewall Truax was born in 1830, in southern Quebec, Canada to parents who were U. S. citizens. He grew up near Saint Albans, Vermont, perhaps 20-30 miles south of where he was born. Educated as an engineer at Norwich University in Vermont, he emigrated to Oregon in 1853. He saw action in the Rogue River War, and became a Captain of Oregon Volunteer Cavalry in 1861. He was promoted to major within a year.

Councilman Sewall Truax. Washington Archives

Before the transfer noted in the news report, Major Truax had been in command at Fort Walla Walla. He remained in charge at Fort Lapwai through 1864. He apparently served at Fort Boise for a time before returning north. There, in 1866-1867, he directed work parties sent to improve the Lolo Trail cutting across the Bitterroot Mountains into Montana.

Around 1870, Sewall returned to Walla Walla as a civilian engineer. He later served a term in the legislative Council of Washington Territory. Sewall died in 1894.

The Oregonian article went on, “Capt. Mason’s company of W. T. Infantry has been ordered out on the old emigrant road across the Blue mountains to repair the road for the Government teams bound for the new post at Boise.”

At this point, of course, the Army did not know exactly where they might establish a fort. Still, the assumption was that it would be along the Boise River, to offer protection to emigrants on the Oregon Trail as well as the mining camps higher in the mountains.

The newspaper said, “Two companies, under command of Major Lugenbeel, have left the Dalles to accompany the expedition to Boise. The first of the teams left the Dalles on Monday last.”

Major Pinckney Lugenbeel, a Regular Army officer, had been assigned the responsibility to survey the country and select a location for the new Fort.

References: “From Walla Walla,” The Oregonian, Portland (June 5, 1863).
Frank T. Gilbert, Historic Sketches of Walla Walla, Whitman, Columbia and Garfield counties, Washington Territory, and Umatilla County, Oregon, A. G. Walling Printing, Portland, Oregon (1882).
“Indian Post Office,” Reference Series No. 926, Idaho State Historical Society (Revised July 1992)

General Connor, Soda Springs, and Franklin, Idaho

On June 3, 1863, a correspondent for the Evening Bulletin in San Francisco wrote an article after arriving in Salt Lake City. He had traveled with General Patrick Connor’s Army column into Idaho Territory and back. As noted for April 29, Connor had established a military post near Soda Springs, as well as a Morrisite settlement there.

Leaving a company of California Volunteer infantry as garrison, Connor had then marched south along the Bear River. The correspondent said, “Proceeding southward through the valley and over the intervening range of mountains, in two days [we] came to Franklin, the most northerly Mormon settlement of Cache Valley.”

Mormon colonists had established Franklin in April of 1860 led, among others, by Thomas S. Smart. For over a decade, leaders there and Idaho officials thought that Franklin was in Utah Territory. Only after 1872, when locals accepted a formal survey of the line, did everyone agree that the town was in Idaho.

The correspondent said, “The town of Franklin is pleasantly located near the easterly range of mountains – Cub River, a fine large stream, tributary of Bear River, coursing its northern and western boundaries. … In consequence of Indians who have heretofore been very troublesome in this section, this, as indeed all other towns in the valley, is laid out with a view to protection against attack.”

Thomas S. Smart. Pioneers ... Utah.

By that, he meant that 80 or 90 cabins had been arranged to form a large square. These structures were located “within a few steps of each other” so they could serve as a defensive perimeter. He estimated the population to be over five hundred people.

He went on, “It is a peculiarity of this, as of all Utah valleys, that notwithstanding the richness of the soil, irrigation is absolutely essential to the raising of crops.”

In this, the reporter did not overstate the case. Southern Idaho typically receives only 10-12 inches of precipitation, generally less than a third of what a farmer from the Midwest might expect. Thus, except for so-called “dry farming” of specific grains, crop agriculture in southern Idaho is totally dependent upon irrigation. Cattle and sheep raising required substantial grazing land because of the sparse vegetation.

In fact, crop agriculture would not be major factor in the economy until the advent of large-scale water projects.

References: [Illust-State]
Frank Esshom, Pioneers and Prominent Men of Utah, Utah Pioneers Book Publishing Company, Salt Lake City, Utah (1913).
“Military Movements on the Plains,” Evening Bulletin, San Francisco (June 27, 1863.

High Wages in the Mines of Idaho

The June 1, 1863 issue of the New York Post published a brief item: “Laborers’ wages in Idaho territory are eight dollars per day.”

At that time, non-farm laborers in the East earned less than $1.50 a day. Farm laborers did well to make 50¢ a day, although they usually got meals as part of the deal. One can easily see why men might be tempted to head for the gold fields. Of course, those wages seemed much less generous when common food items, like bacon and bread, might cost four to ten times what they did in the East.

The Post went on, “Eight thousand men are working in the Boise River Mines, which extend over a district of thirty miles long. Supplies reach them from Salt Lake City.”

References: Stanley Lebergott, “Wage Trends, 1800-1900,” Trends in the American Economy in the Nineteenth Century, Princeton University Press, New Jersey (1960).
“Miscellanea,” New York Post, New York City (June 1, 1863).