THE TIME 1830–1860

THE TIME1830–1860

� PEOPLE TO KNOWFather BlanchetGeorge Washington

BushIsabelle BushMother JosephDaniel LeeJason LeeJohn McLoughlinJohn MullanPresident James PolkSager ChildrenFather de SmetEliza SpaldingHenry SpaldingIsaac StevensElijah WhiteMarcus WhitmanNarcissa Whitman

� PLACES TO LOCATEVancouverWalla WallaWillamette ValleyBush PrairieEast CoastPacific OceanPacific CoastVancouver IslandPuget SoundSan Juan Islands

� WORDS TOUNDERSTANDabolitionistbountycompromiseentrepreneurgrade (roads)immunitynegotiateransomvengeanceveteran

Caught by Snow, a painting by Glen Hopkinsen, shows the trials of families wholeft too late in the year and got caught by an early snowstorm.

74 Washington I N T H E P A C I F I C N O R T H W E S T

TIMELINE 1780 1830�

�

1780s–1840sThe fur tradeera begins andlasts sixtyyears.

1836 Marcus and NarcissaWhitman leave New YorkState to start a mission in

the Oregon Country.

1831 FourIndian men

travel to St. Louisand ask Clark tosend Christianmissionaries to

Oregon.

1834 Jason and Daniel Lee start thefirst mission in the Oregon Country.

�

�

�

��

55Looking WestLooking West

1840 1850 1860

1844 The GeorgeWashington Bushfamily goes to theOregon Country.

1843 First Wolf Meeting is held.

1848 OregonTerritory is created.

Gold is found inCalifornia.

1846 The U.S. gains fullcontrol of the Oregon Country.

�

�

�

�

�

�

��

1856 MotherJoseph comesto Vancouver.

�

� 1853 WashingtonTerritory is created.Isaac Stevens is thefirst governor.

The Mullan Roadis completed.

C h a p t e rC h a p t e r

�

1842 ElijahWhite and 100people travel theOregon Trail.

�

1838 FatherBlanchet buildsthe first Catholicmission in theOregon Country.

� �

1847 The Whitmans aremurdered by Cayuse Indians.

�

Looking West

Christian Missionaries

In the early 1800s, people in NewEngland were excited about religion.The church was the center of village life,

and crowds of enthusiastic worshippersattended prayer meetings and revivals.Preachers shouted out sermons of heavenand hell, and congregations enthusiasticallysang religious songs. Many people, espe-cially women, supported a worldwide mis-sionary effort. Protestant missionaries andteachers were sent to Africa, China, and theAmerican West. Missionaries tried to teachthe people how to read the Bible and dress,speak, and live like Christian Americans.

A Request for ChristianityIn 1831, three Nez Perce and a Flathead

Indian went to St. Louis to visit WilliamClark, who, along with Lewis, had visitedthem during the famous exploration trip.The Indian men asked Clark to send some-one to teach the Christian religion to theirpeople. They thought Christianity wouldhelp them understand the white people’sways and their powerful God. A religiousnewspaper printed the story.

Methodist MissionariesJason Lee and his nephew Daniel Lee,

both Methodist ministers from the East, werethe first to answer the request of the NezPerce. Instead of staying with the Nez Perce,however, they stopped at Fort Vancouver,where John McLoughlin advised them tosettle in the Willamette Valley. The Lees con-verted few Indians. The Indian people theredid not take to the white people’s religion orlifestyle, and their children did not like thestrict rules of the mission school.

Jason Lee returned to the states andbrought fifty more settlers to Oregon. Theyopened new missions and started settle-ments. Lee was active in setting a new gov-ernment for the settlements, and heeducated the children in his mission schools.Accused of neglecting his commitment to

the Indians, Lee was later recalled by themission board and his mission was closed.

Catholic MissionariesSome members of the Hudson’s Bay

Company were Catholic and wanted priests.Father Francis Blanchet answered the call.He spent most of his time with the FrenchCanadian Catholics and not with Indians.Later, a Jesuit priest, Peter John de Smet, andother priests came and worked with theCoeur d’Alenes and Flatheads. Many of theCoeur d’Alenes were baptized Christians,mixing in their own religious customs withthat of their new religion.

Presbyterian MissionariesNarcissa Prentiss was a kindergarten

teacher in rural New York State whodreamed of being a Presbyterian missionary.A minister put her in touch with MarcusWhitman, a young doctor who was planninga mission in the West. Only married peoplewere sent to missions, so the two agreed tomarry. They set out to build a mission in theRocky Mountains. They were joined byReverend Henry Spalding and his wife Eliza,who were also on their way to an Indianmission.

The Whitmans and Spaldings traveled tothe Oregon Country with a party of furtraders. Eliza and Narcissa rode horsebackon sidesaddles most of the way because thesmall wagon Eliza’s parents had given hercould not make it up the rugged trails. Elizaand Narcissa were the first white women totravel across the entire continent.

The Whitmans and Spaldings finallyarrived at Fort Vancouver, where Dr.McLoughlin sold them supplies and advisedthem about locating a mission. During thelong trip, which had taken 207 days, theWhitmans and Spaldings had a hard timegetting along with each other. As a result,they decided to build two missions. TheSpaldings went to live with the Nez PerceIndians along the Clearwater River. TheWhitmans built a mission among the CayuseIndians on the Walla Walla River.


“W e haveplenty of

dry buffalo meatwhich we pur-chased from theIndians and dry itfor meat. I canscarcely eat it, itappears so filthy,but it will keep usalive and weought to be thank-ful for it. . . .”— Narcissa Whitman

More MissionariesTwo years later, Congregationalist mis-

sionary couples joined the Whitmans andSpaldings. Mary and Elkanah Walker, alongwith Myra and Cushing Eells, built a mis-sion among the Spokane Indians nearpresent-day Spokane.

Missionaries built log houses and school-rooms and taught the American Indian menand women how to raise animals, grow andharvest crops, grind wheat to make flour, andweave wool into cloth. Missionaries trans-lated the Bible into the Indian languages sothey could teach the Indians to read.

The missionaries wrote many letters totheir friends and families in far-off NewEngland. It took two years for a letter toreceive a reply because everything had tobe sent by ship around the tip of SouthAmerica. The letters were published innewspapers back east and read aloud inchurch meetings.

Missionary ChildrenSeveral children were born at the mis-

sions—the first white Americans to be bornin the region. The children learned how toread and write from their parents. Therewere few supplies. Mary Walker once drewon a bird’s egg to show the children wherethe earth’s continents and oceans were.

Sometimes tragedy struck the children.The Whitman’s only child, two-year-oldAlice, drowned in the river near their home.The Whitmans eventually adopted sixteenmore children.

Disease and Death

Something terrible and unexpectedhappened to the Indian men, women,and especially children when explor-

ers, missionaries, and pioneersettlers arrived. Indians had noimmunity to European diseases.Ship’s crews brought smallpox,measles, cholera, influenza (flu),and malaria. Entire villages alongthe coast were wiped away bysickness.

In 1847 nearly 5,000American pioneers passed

L O O K I N G W E S T 77

Narcissa PrentissWhitman

The Whitman Mission along the Walla Walla River was built to bringChristianity to the native Indian people. Called the Waiilatpu Mission, italso served as a rest stop for pioneers. This drawing was made in 1847.

EARLY MISSIONS

Both Catholics and Protestants opened missions in theOregon Country.

Marcus Whitman

Lapwai Mission(Spaldings)

Waiilatpu Mission(Whitmans)

Fort Nisqually(Demers)

Mission Bottom(Lee)

St. Pauls(Blanchet)

The Dalles Mission(Lee)

Willam

ette

R

Columbia R•ASTORIA

Do you think people should sharetheir religious beliefs with others? Doyou think people should try to changethe lifestyle of other people? Why orwhy not?

W H A T D O Y O U T H I N K ?

through the Whitman’s mission. The lastwagon train of the season brought manysick travelers infected with measles. TheWalker children got sick, and at theWhitman mission there were bothchildren and adults in sickbeds. Severalpeople died from the infection.

At the same time, there was a measlesepidemic among Coastal Indians. TheCayuse Indians near the Whitman missionhad no immunity to the disease. When theycame down with measles, over half the tribedied. It was horrible and frightening foreveryone. Dr. Whitman with his simplemedicines could do nothing to save thepeople he had tried so hard to help. SomeCayuse, in fact, accused Dr. Whitman ofstarting the disease and trying to kill theIndians. They thought that since he was a

doctor, or a shaman, he had special powersover disease.

The angry Cayuse attacked theAmericans, killing Marcus and NarcissaWhitman and eleven others. They tookforty-seven women and children hostage.After bargaining with the Hudson’s BayCompany officials, the angry Indian menransomed the prisoners for blankets,shirts, tobacco, and muskets.

The Whitman Massacre caused Americansettlers in Oregon to clamor for vengeanceand protection. Five hundred volunteersassembled a militia. The first war betweenIndians and whites erupted across theregion. The Cayuse War lasted for two years,until the Cayuse people turned over fivemen involved in the killings. The men weretried and hanged.


W hitmanCollege and

Whitman Countyare named afterthe Whitmans.

Eight Sager children were orphaned when theirparents died while traveling west on the Oregon

Trail. One was only an infant. Another child was oncrutches, having broken her leg when she was runover by a wagon.

Members of the wagon traincared for the children for therest of the journey. Like mostother pioneers, the group stayedfor a while at the Whitman mis-sion. The Whitmans, whose owndaughter had drowned,adopted all of the children.

The Sagers later experiencedthe tragic murder of theWhitmans. Two of the Sager boyswere killed during the assault.Years later, the Sager girls wroteabout their experiences in theirnew land. A movie called SevenAlone was made about them.

This homemade doll once belonged to oneof the Sager girls while they lived with theWhitmans. It is on display in the museumat the Whitman Mission National HistoricSite at Walla Walla.

Seven Alone

Esther Pariseau,a young

Catholic girl,joined a convent,was sent toVancouver. Duringher forty-six yearsin the Northwest,she was known as MotherJoseph. She built hospitals,Indian schools, academies, andorphanages. She did men’swork—unusual in those days—drawing plans, checkingconstruction, laying bricks, andcarving beautiful woodwork.

Mother Joseph raisedmoney for her projects bytraveling around the country onhorseback with other nuns. Intowns and mining camps, thewoman in the black robe askedfor donations to her causes.

There is a statue of MotherJoseph in the Capitol Buildingin Washington, D.C.

Mother Joseph

A fter the explorers, traders, trap-pers, and missionaries came tothe Pacific Northwest, pioneer

families in wagon trains rode orwalked to the rich new land. The firstpioneers settled near Fort Vancouveror Oregon City, but later groupsspread out over the fertile land.

Traveling across the flat plainswas relatively easy. The main prob-lems were crossing the wide riversand dealing with the weather onthe six-month journey. It wasoften hot and dusty or wet andmuddy.

Crossing the high RockyMountains was difficult, how-ever. Weary families who didnot make it through before thesnows fell had to wait untilspring. Finding passagethrough steep mountain rangeswas not easy. A government

explorer found South Pass inWyoming in 1832, and two menmade it through the Blue Mountainsof Oregon in 1840. This opened upthe way for more pioneers to follow.

Elijah White, a former missionaryto Oregon, brought a group of 100settlers from Independence, Missouri,to Oregon’s Willamette Valley in 1842.Their route became known as theOregon Trail. For the next thirty-five

years, the trail was used by over300,000 men, women, and children.

Reasons for Going WestWhy did people go west?

• There was a chance to see newcountry and to be part of anadventure.

• Good farmland was available for alow cost. In the eastern states,land was crowded, and the over-

worked soil had lost itsfertility.• Merchants, doctors, andlawyers came to start busi-nesses.• Many people wanted toescape the problems of slav-ery, including disagreementsbetween slaveholders andabolitionists.• People wanted to live in amild, healthful climate.


Most of the earliest pioneers settled near FortVancouver or in Oregon City. This is Oregon Cityin 1846.

G O W E S T !

Lucia Loraine Williams wrote in her 1851diary:

Some . . . were going for wealthand honors. Others, who had suf-fered from ill health for years, andto whom life had become a burden,expected to regain health . . . Forsome, life was too prosy and tamein their old environments. Theywanted more action, more diversity,more thrilling experiences withman and beast.

Many young people went west becausetheir families did. Sixteen-year-old EugeniaZieber learned that she would be going on

the Oregon Trailwhen she was a stu-dent at a seminaryfor young ladies inPennsylvania. A lettercame from her fatherjust two days beforeChristmas, tellingher about the plan.He wanted to movethe family to ahealthier climate.

How would a trip to a new placechange a person’s life? What changeswould a person have to make tomove to a place that was wild andunsettled?

Getting ReadyDespite rumors of Indian attacks and

other hardships on such a long trip, hun-dreds of settlers took the gamble. A familyneeded a strong wagon and a team of eitherfour oxen or six mules. People had to prepareenough food for the trip and some to live ononce they reached the new land. Familieswho planned to farm (and most planned todo that) also had to take tools and seed.

During the winter before the trip, familiesspent the evenings drying apples and grapes,making jerky, baking crackers, and sewingcloth sacks and quilts. Even the wagon cover,made of canvas, had to be stitched by hand.Flour, sugar, tea, salt, and other items werepacked in cloth sacks or barrels.

People purchased almanacs or guide-books and took them along on the trail for

LINKING THE PAST TO THE PRESENT

THE OREGON TRAIL

Follow the trail fromIndependence,Missouri, to Oregon.What rivers did thetrail follow? Whatkinds of land didpeople travel over?What landmarks didthey see along theway? At what forts didthey stop to rest andget supplies?

RO

CK

YM

OU

NT

AI

NS


• Independence

M I S S O U R I

•Oregon City

�

South Pass

�IndependenceRock

Fort Laramie

Fort Hall

FortVancouver

Whitman’sMission

guidance. Some books were reliable, whileothers were written by authors who hadnever left New York City. After making the tripwestward, travelers joked that they hadtossed their guidebooks away when the goinggot rough and the book proved to be useless.

Overland TravelTraveling by wagon was both difficult

and exciting. Many people took diaries withthem and wrote about what they saw andexperienced. Later, diaries were copied andsent back to relatives, encouraging others tomake the trip.

Most people came as family units. Sometraveled with neighbors with whom theywould settle when they reached the OregonCountry. Other wagon groups were madeup of people who belonged to the samechurch.

People traveled west in groups for sev-eral reasons. One was the safety of travelingwith others. Bandits, who were sometimesdressed as Indians, robbed wagon trains.Another reason was for help with emergen-cies. When animals sickened and died,when wagon axles or wheels broke, orwhen someone got sick, there were otherpeople to rely on.

Pioneers had to wait for spring and thegrass to grow up before making the jour-ney. With oxen and horses to pull theirwagons, they needed to be sure therewould be grass along the way. The firstweeks of travel were usually pleasant. Thespring weather was mild and there weregrassy plains and wild flowers along theway. Rain and mud were sometimes aproblem, however.

As the trip went on, the trail dried todust. The thousands of oxen and muleskicked up so much dust that it was nearlyimpossible to breathe if your wagon was inthe rear of the train. Other times, the rainmade the road so muddy the animals could-n’t pull the wagons through it. The peoplegot wet and cold. It was hard to prepareand cook food.

Roles of Men and WomenMen did the heaviest work and probably

had the most fun. They hunted, bartered withIndians, drove wagons, and herded cattle.They also raced around on horseback, firedguns, and went swimming.

Women also worked hard drivingwagons, setting up camp, cooking over afire, tending the sick, and caring for bored,tired, and hungry children.


“Sometimes thedust is so

great that thedrivers cannot seetheir teams at allthough the sun isshining brightly.”— Elizabeth Wood,

1851

T he trip wentquickly from

awe to boredom.“If we were onlyin WillametteValley, for I am sotired of this.”— Elizabeth Wood

Oxen were the best choice forpulling wagons. They ate

prairie grass, could pull heavyloads, and were not as likely tobe stolen by Indians as horseswere. Those who could afford ittook an extra team in case any-thing happened to the animalson the trip.

Cows were taken along to pro-vide milk. One traveler wrote:“The milk can stood nearby andalways yielded up its lump of but-ter at night, churned by themovement of the wagon from thesurplus morning’s milk.”

Families took horses for ridingand exploring and to have in thenew home. Chickens, goats, anddogs also walked the thousandsof miles to Oregon.

Animals of Choice

Children were expected to gather buffalo chips, care for younger children,and not get lost. Painting by Glen Hopkinson

Effect on the Land andNative People

Thousands of oxen, mules, and horsesgrazed their way west. They often spread outfor a mile or more beside the wagons. Somany animals passed through each summerthat watering holes were drained by heavy use.Natural grasslands were depleted, so wildanimals had trouble finding food.

Always looking for fresh meat, the travel-ers hunted along the way. This meant thatthe supply of deer, elk, and buffalo thatIndians relied on for food dwindled.

Pioneers observed Indians and wroteabout them in diaries. One woman observed:

Indians ketch crickets and dry them,pound to powder, mix with berries,and bake it for bread.— Catherine Washburn, 1853

At first the Indians had been friendly andhelpful to the travelers, but after a whilethey grew angry. Sometimes Indians tried toget the pioneers to leave the area by burn-ing the prairie grass. When this happened,the pioneers’ animals had nothing to eat.

The Indians had set all on fire excepthere and there a spot. The blacknessof praire under our circumstancespresented a dismal sight. We foundthe grass mostly burned ahead. . . .we had to stop because of the fireand smoke.— Levi Jackman

• Why were the American Indiansangry at the pioneers for killingbuffalo?• How are wild animals protectedtoday? Why?

BarteringIn the Oregon Country, trading between

Indians and pioneers was common. Indianmen offered large pieces of dried salmon in

LINKING THE PAST TO THE PRESENT

exchange for needles, thread, tools, shirts,and socks. Blankets were also in highdemand. Indians also made moccasins fortrade. “Swap, swap” was a common term.

End of the TrailAs settlers arrived in the Oregon

Country, Hudson’s Bay Company officialsdirected them to settle south of theColumbia River. The British companywanted to keep Americans out of the areanorth of the river, hoping that the regionwould one day be under British rule.

Americans thought differently. Theywanted the excellent harbors of Puget Soundfor American ships. Some people settledaround Puget Sound and in the Cowlitz RiverValley. Places such as Tumwater, Tacoma,Olympia, Centralia, Alki Point (Seattle), andPort Townsend were founded. At first, how-ever, most people settled south of theColumbia River in Oregon.


The wagonroads were so

heavily traveledthat they lookedlike highways.Father de Smet, aCatholic mission-ary, wrote that thetrail was “assmooth as a barnfloor swept by thewinds, and not ablade of grass canshoot up on it onaccount of thecontinualpassing.”

GEORGE WASHINGTON BUSHwas a war veteran and success-ful cattleman in Missouri. ThenMissouri passed a law making itillegal for free Negroes to livethere. Afraid his property would

be taken because he was black, Bush soldhis home and business and outfitted sixlarge wagons full of supplies.

George, his wife Isabelle (a whitewoman who had been a nurse), and theirsons left for the Oregon Country. One ofthe Bush children later remembered hisfather hiding $2,000 in silver underneaththe floorboards of a wagon. The moneymade the trip safely.

A few other families joined the Bushfamily, and the group joined a wagontrain. When the Bushes arrived inthe Willamette Valley, they discoveredthey could not stay. A law had beenpassed that said no Negroes couldlive in Oregon.

So the Bush party headed northof the Columbia River. They figuredthere would be few Americans thereto challenge them. They were right.Bush and about thirty others spentanother month walking beside theirwagons to their new home.

The little group built loghomes, plowed the ground, andfarmed. Nisqually Indians taughtthe new settlers to gather oysters,dig clams, and fish for trout andsalmon. The farms prospered, butwithin a few years the Bush familyonce again faced the loss of theirland.

A law said that only white Americansand mixed-blood Indians could own land.New settlers wanted the Bush farmbecause it was so valuable. Fifty-threeneighbors signed a petition asking thatBush be allowed to keep his 640 acres of

land. Congress responded, giving Bushlegal right to his original homestead.

A few years later, the Bush farm was

one of the most productive in the area.George Washington Bush was alwaysinterested in improving his farm andspent his last years studying new tech-niques. Bush’s son was elected to the leg-islature in 1889.

George Washington Bush brought hisfamily and neighbors to settle in theWest. Painting by Leandro Della Piana.

Bush Prairie

•

The town of Bush Prairieis named after GeorgeWashington Bush.

G E O R G EW A S H I N G T O N

B U S H�


He provided the settlerswith food for their

first winter and with seedfor the first sowing. If theyhad no money, he stillsupplied them with whatthey needed.— Bush’s neighbor

The people whomoved to the

Pacific Northwestbrought one big prob-lem with them—whatto do about slavery.To keep the questionof slavery from creat-ing problems, Oregonresidents passed lawsto keep all blacks—free or slave—out ofthe territory.

Slavery, or Not?

P O R T R A I TP O R T R A I TWashingtonWashing ton

The First LocalGovernment

The first rules were made by the BritishHudson’s Bay Company. As the num-ber of people grew, and the people

spread out away from Fort Vancouver, thesettlers wanted an American government,with a sheriff and courts.

Wolf Meetings“Wolf Meetings” were the earliest forms

of local government in the region. Settlersheld meetings to decide how to handle themany wolves that were killing cattle andsheep. Panthers, bears, and bobcats werealso a problem. Settlers agreed to pay a taxthat would be used to pay hunters boun-

ties for dead wolves. The meetings ledto the first real government in the

Oregon Country.

After the Wolf Meetings, about a hundredAmericans and French Canadians gathered inthe Willamette Valley store to start a localgovernment. There was much discussionabout whether or not the group shouldmake laws at all. A popular story says that JoeMeek, a fur trapper, finally suggested that thenoisy group go outside. He directed the menin favor of government to stand in one placeand those against to stand in another place.The vote was close, but several officials wereelected and laws were written. The first lawsbanned alcoholic drinks.

The Oregon Territory

Thousands of American settlers hadlocated in the Willamette Valley. Theyorganized a temporary government

in 1843 and asked the U.S. Congress for thecreation of the Oregon Territory. But thearea was still claimed by both Britain andthe United States. Both countries wantedthe rich farmland in a mild climate and thenatural harbors of Puget Sound.

In the East, James Polk used as his presi-dential campaign slogan the phrase “Fifty-four Forty or Fight.” This meant that theU.S. wanted land north of today’s presentboundary, all the way to the 54th latitudeline, the southern border of Alaska. Polkwon the election and became president.

Britain and the United States negoti-ated a compromise. They agreed thatBritain would give up its claims to the landbelow the 49th parallel—the area that formsthe border between the United States andCanada today. Finally, the land belonged tothe United States.

In Washington, D.C., there was a lot ofdiscussion about the Oregon Territory.Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois hadalready proposed that Oregon be admittedas a free territory—free of slavery. Southernsenators opposed this because it wouldupset the even balance of free and slavestates and territories. The arguments wenton and on.

Finally, on the last day that Congress wasin session, President Polk created theOregon Territory. It was August 1848. Salem,Oregon, became the capital. A young manfrom Illinois, Abraham Lincoln, was offeredthe job as governor of the territory, but heturned down the job.

What Is a Territory?Territories were different than states.

The people in a territory could vote forleaders to send to Washington, D.C., butthe representatives could not vote there.They could only try to persuade Congressto make laws that were favorable to thepeople in their territory. Back home, mostofficials and judges were appointed byWashington instead of being voted in bythe local people.


As [there] is nolaws in this

country we do thebest we can.— Early trapper

BOUNTIES

A bounty was afee paid forkilling an animal:

$5.00 panther$3.00 large

wolf$2.00 bear

Dividing up the LandBecause so many Americans wanted to

come to Oregon, Congress passed theDonation Land Claim Act of 1850. It was ahomestead law that allowed each whitemale citizen over eighteen years of age toclaim 320 acres of land for free. If he had awife, they could claim another 320 acres. Allthey had to do was live on the land andgrow crops for four years. Because the lawgave land only to white people, few minori-ties came to the region.

Washington Becomesa Territory

Soon, settlers living north of theColumbia River wanted to separatefrom the Oregon Territory and form

their own government. They thought thegovernment leaders in Oregon were too faraway and that the territory was too big.After several requests, Washington Territorywas created in 1853.

The people wanted the territory to benamed Columbia, but Congress changedthe name so there would be no confusionwith the District of Columbia. It was a hugepiece of country but had only 4,000American residents and 17,000 AmericanIndians.

The agreement between Britain and the UnitedStates left one thing unclear: who owned the San

Juan Islands? Citizens from both countries had settledthere and each thought the other was trespassing.

Tempers were short when a British neighbor’s piggot into an American farmer’s garden and ruined thepotato patch. The farmer shot the pig. This set off afight between the Americans and British on the island.Sixty-six American soldiers took a position near thewharf.

The British were furious and sent three British war-ships to remove the men without firing on them. Theyrefused to budge. Eventually five British warships andover 2,000 soldiers came. Americans, with 155 menstationed behind earthen walls, waited it out.

When news reached Washington, D.C., PresidentJames Buchanan sent a commander of the army tosolve the situation. The British retreated to one end ofthe island and the Americans to the other. It stayedthat way for twelve years, until a German leader wasasked to study the situation. He declared that theislands belonged to the United States.

The “Pig War” was settled. The only casualty?One pig.

Pig War


• Convention of 1818—Great Britain and the UnitedStates agree to joint occupation of the OregonCountry.

• Adams-Onis Treaty, 1819—Spain gives its claims tothe Oregon Country to the United States.

• Oregon Treaty, 1846—Great Britain retreats north-ward. International boundary is drawn at the 49thparallel. The Oregon Country is finally owned by theUnited States.

Who Owns Oregon?

The new territory included both present-dayWashington, Oregon, Idaho, and parts ofMontana and Wyoming. Two of its borders werethe Pacific Ocean and the Continental Divide.Slavery was not allowed in the territory.

THE OREGON TERRITORY

Unorganized

Oregon

Territory

1848–1853

Continen

talD

i v i d e

The First GovernorThe first governor of Washington

Territory was Isaac Stevens. He was alsoappointed as Secretary of Indian Affairs.Stevens had been born and raised inMassachusetts. He was smart, with lots ofenergy and ambition. He dreamed that arailroad would cross the continent, bringingpeople to Washington Territory.

Stevens traveled west with a group ofmen who helped survey the route. InOlympia, the territorial capital, he workedto organize the first legislature and createlaws and schools.

The Mullan Road

Lt. John Mullan was given the job ofbuilding a road between Fort WallaWalla and Fort Benton, Montana. The

road was needed to move supplies and menbetween the two distant forts.

Mullan hired ninety men to do the work.They took fifty pack mules, a herd of cattlefor fresh meat, and teamsters to drive forty-five freight wagons. A hundred soldiers wentalong to protect workers from Indianattacks.

The work was hard. The men had tochop down huge trees. Then they clearedthe brush and graded the roads, usingmules to drag logs over the ground.

Workers had accidents with axes andfalling trees. One hunter was lost for days.His legs had to be amputated because offrostbite. Finally the workers made it to FortBenton.

Settlers, traders, and gold seekers usedthe road more than the soldiers did. Oneentrepreneur used a pack train of sevencamels loaded with merchandise. The odd-looking camels frightened horses andcaused them to run off.

Indians and Settlers

When sea traders and fur trappersfirst came to the PacificNorthwest, Indians were willing to

trade with them and most got along well.Indians worked for the fur companies andhelped missionaries build homes andchurches.

As thousands of settlers came west onthe Oregon Trail, relations between Indiansand whites changed. After 1848, so manygold seekers used the trail that wild gamecould hardly be found. Disease wiped outwhole Indian villages. An era of warfarelasted thirty years.

You will read more about the conflictbetween settlers and Native Americans inthe next chapter.


“Below us, ina deep

mud, were a fewlow woodenhouses at thehead of PugetSound. My heartsank. . . .”— Mrs. Stevens,

after arriving byship

Isaac Stevens was appointed the first governor of Washington Territory.

WASHINGTON TERRITORY

The new territory, created in 1853, includedparts of present-day Idaho and Montana. Sixyears later, Oregon became a state.

Unorganized

WashingtonTerritory

OregonState

Continen

talD

i v i d e

1. Why did Christian missionaries come to the Oregon Country?

2. Who were some of the early missionaries to Oregon Country?

3. How did disease affect Native Americans? Why did the Cayusemurder the Whitmans?

4. Why did the Hudson’s Bay Company want Americans to settlesouth of the Columbia River?

5. What were the main reasons people wanted to move to the West?

6. What preparations did people make before heading west on theOregon Trail?

7. What laws did the early Oregon settlers make to handle theproblem of slavery?

8. Why did George Washington Bush settle north of theColumbia River?

9. What were some of George Washington Bush’sadmirable personality traits?

10. Why did Britain and the United States both want thePacific Northwest?

11. How was the question of ownership of the OregonCountry and its boundary an example of negotia-tion and compromise?

12. After the Pig War, which country finally gotownership of the San Juan Islands?

13. What year was the Washington Territory sepa-rated from the Oregon Territory? What was thecapital city of Washington Territory?

14. Who was the first governor of the WashingtonTerritory? What was his other title?

15. What road was built to connect army fortsin Washington and Montana? Who usedthe road?

CHAPTER 5 REVIEW

1. What landforms along the coast wereimportant to both the British and theAmericans? Why is shipping important

to the economy of a place?2. People choose natural landforms suchas rivers, oceans, and mountainranges as boundaries. What naturalfeatures formed boundaries of theOregon Country? Of WashingtonTerritory?

3. Today, the largest population ofWashington lives near water. Why isliving near water important to people?

How do people who don’t live nearwater get the water they need?

GEOGRAPHY TIE-IN


THE TIME 1830–1860

Documents

Transcript of THE TIME 1830–1860