In their Own Words

Advertising Oregon

Compiled by Prof. Jim Tompkins

Disclaimer:  Prof. Jim Tompkins has compiled the following information for classes he has taught.  He has kindly contributed them for general use.  This information has been gathered from a variety of sources and, while it is free to use, copyright infringements may make it unsuitable for commercial purposes.

Gabriel Brown, 1842, probably read in the newspaper about, or heard a speech by Dr. Elijah White about his wagon train to Oregon. White gave several speeches back east about Oregon about organizing an expedition of religious character. White’s activities were well covered in local newspapers.

Medorem Crawford, 1842 - Former neighbor Elijah White returned east in 1841 after three years in Oregon and a misunderstanding with Jason Lee. He recruited Crawford to assist him in bringing Thomas McKay’s sons Alexander and John to Oregon after their schooling in the east. White’s glowing descriptions of Oregon’s “rich soil, mild climate, and beautiful scenery” made Crawford a willing participant.

Allen Jones Davie, 1842, had been west before, with the Hudson Bay Company.

Dr. Elijah White, 1842, spent much of 1841 and 1842 traveling to eastern churches, giving speeches about Oregon, organizing religious groups to go to Oregon with him. His organizing activity was covered well by local newspapers. Regulations were created to filter out possible trouble-makers.

During the severe winter of 1843 Charles Applegate, 1843, received letters from Robert Shortess, 1842 emigrant to Oregon, describing mild climate and perpetual green.

Peter Hardeman Burnett, 1843, read about a bill in Congress that proposed to donate land to anyone emigrating to Oregon. By his interpretation of the bill he could 640 acres for himself and 160 acres for each of his children totaling 1600 acres. The land would be worth enough to pay off his debts. An agreement with his creditors said, “Take what may be necessary for the trip, leave us what you can spare, and pay us the balance when you can do so.”

“My attention was directed to Oregon by reading Lewis and Clark’s journal. The scenery described in that took my fancy; and a desire to see that and to explore the country and return home to North Carolina in 3 years induced me to start. From information from traders and trappers I was confirmed in my intentions.” Peter Burnett was forming party in spring of 1843 in

Platte Co, MO. One grand objection was to obtain a donation of land in the country, “if it was worth staying in.” Burnett was to colonize Oregon and take possession for the US. “I never heard that the government desired to colonize. It was all a private movement and we came of our own responsibility. We had not any assurance that the Government would assist or protect us in

any manner. Fremont Company which fell in after us I understood was employed by the Government.” - Nineveh Ford, 1843

Henry Hewitt, 1843 -His brother Adam, having wanderlust, organized a party to emigrate to Oregon in 1842. Henry and his wife’s family, the Matheny’s were to accompany them along with 32 other men. Only six, including Adam, went in 1842. Adam wrote back and told of Oregon and his voting at Champoeg.

A frontier newspaper wrote, “The Oregon fever is raging in almost every part of the Union. Companies are forming in the East, and in several parts of Ohio, which, added to those of Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri, will make a pretty formidable army. ... It would be reasonable to suppose that there will be at least five thousand Americans west of the Rocky Mountains by next

autumn.” - Rev. David Thomas Lenox, 1843

An adventurous traveler, organizer and orator, Peter Burnett visited surrounding counties making speeches encouraging people to join him. In encouraging others to join him he said, “Gentlemen, they do say, that out in Oregon the pigs are running about under the great acorn trees, round and fat, and already cooked, with knives and forks sticking in them so that you can cut off a slice

whenever you are hungry.... Now gentlemen, as many of you as would like to go, walk right into my store and put down your names in the book which I have there.” - Edward Lenox, 1843

William Hatchette Vaughan, 1843 - Before his 21st birthday Billy became obsessed with talk of Oregon. He heard of good land, plentiful game, and a healthy climate, but he was most interested in helping America secure the United States’ claim on Oregon. When Sen Lewis Linn’s annual Oregon Territorial Bill passed the Senate in 1842, it looked like the opportunity was too

good to pass up. (The bill failed the House.) He came to Oregon alone.

Daniel Waldo, 1843, first got the idea of going to Oregon when he learned it was a healthy country from missionaries and adventurers. He heard one tall tale of an emigrant to California who carried ague to the promised land and came down with the chills. Having never seen anything like it people came for miles around to watch him shake. It was a real curiosity. Daniel was

suffering from ague.

Joel Palmer, 1845, was going to Oregon alone to find proper land for his family, then return for them. He had read Thomas Farnham’s Travels in the Great Western Prairies, published in 1843.

An advertisement in the Springfield, Ill, Sangamo Journal read, “Westward, HO! For Oregon and California!” Placed by “G. Donner and others” it called for young men who might want to “go to California without costing them anything.” The cost would be the work provided to the Donner-Reed wagon train. “We go to California, to the bay of San Francisco. It is a four months trip. I am willing to go & have no doubt it will be an advantage to our children & to us.” - Tamsen Eustis Donner, 1846 [She died in the Sierras 11 months later.]

Hearing glowing descriptions of the Oregon country, Elam and Irene Young, 1847, decided to go there.

“The exciting news coming back from California of the delightful climate and abundance of gold, caused us to resolve, about December, 1849, that we would commence preparing to cross the plains by the spring of 1850.” - Margaret Ann Frink, 1850

Harriett Talcott Buckingham, 1851 - Her Uncle Hiram Smith came to Oregon in 1846, then returned east to recruit new settlers.

Eugenia Zieber, 1851, learned of her trip to Oregon while attending the Moravian Seminary for Young Ladies in Bethlehem, PA, in a letter from her father in Peoria dated December 1849.

Cecelia Emily McMillen Adams and Parthenia McMillen Blank, 1852 - James McMillen, older brother of the twins had emigrated to Oregon in 1845. The 1852 party went to Oregon to attend the wedding of brother James and Tirzah Barton.

“There was much talk and excitement over the great gold discoveries in California. And equally there was much talk concerning the wonderful fertile valleys of Oregon Territory, an act of Congress giving to settlers 640 acres of land. My father, Tucker Scott, with much of the pioneer spirit in his blood, became so interested that he decided to ‘Go West’.” - Harriet Scott, 1852

Tucker Scott, 1852, was first infected with Oregon Fever in 1838 when Jason Lee gave an inspiring talk at Main Street Presbyterian Church in Peoria. The Peoria Party of 1839 left as soon as possible. Their leader, Thomas Jefferson Farnham was Scott’s neighbor and friend. Also in 1838, the Oregon Provisional Emigration Society of Lynn, Mass, published The Oregonian

magazine. Peter and Tucker Scott were the magazine’s Illinois agents. Peter emigrated in 1847. Tucker was delayed when his brother was murdered by “road agents” and being responsible for half of his debts went into bankruptcy in 1842. By selling portable lumber mills, Tucker was able to be out of debt by 1852.

To assist his brother, William, who expected to follow in 1853, Lafayette Spencer, 1852, kept a diary of his trip to Oregon, which he transmitted with a letter after the journey ended.

“My brother Abraham decided to go West after having heard stories of praise for the new country from a friend the year before. Father and Mother in turn received such glowing accounts from Abraham that they decided to go to Oregon in the spring.” - Sarah Bird Sprenger, 1852

Celinda Hines, 1853 - This emigration was a family affair. Brothers Gustavus, Jedediah and Harvey Hines were traveling together with their families. Another brother, Joseph, took the Panama Route. Celinda was the daughter of the oldest brother, Jedediah. Gustavus had first arrived in Oregon in 1840 on the ship Lausanne as part of the Great Reinforcement of the Lee Mission. He was a secretary of the Champoeg meetings. He was returning to the Oregon Methodist mission with Lucy Ann Lee, the 11 year old orphaned daughter of Jason Lee. Her mother Lucy died in Oregon shortly after her birth and Jason Lee died in 1845. Gustavus and

Lydia had lost their own daughter and had adopted Lucy Ann. Gustavus Hines would write a first-hand history of Oregon.

“Stories of the ‘Far West’ had reached the people of Kansas. Howard Parrish, who had married Cynthia Hodson, an aunt of Lavina, had taken his family to Oregon five years before and had returned for his mother, Aunt Polly Parrish. He had left his wife and six children at Roseburg, in the state of Oregon. The children were Mary, Lucy, Rachel, Emma, Alice and Jonathan. Upon

hearing of the wonderful new country in the West, where the people were free from the dreaded malaria, a party of people decided to make up an immigrant train and travel to the ‘Land of Promise.’ All of these people were related to one another.”

- William McCormick, 1859

“Then came a letter from Uncle Alfred in far off Oregon. It was a wonderful letter. Over and over we read it. Oregon must be the most wonderful spot in the world. Father and Mother must have thought so, too. They talked about it so much, the wonderful climate, the warm winters, the beautiful harbor, the thousands of orchard trees, the great forests of valuable timber, the coal

mines, and always again, the climate.” - Philura Vanderburgh, 1864

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