Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 17.djvu/381



LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF JOHN DAY

Editorial Notes by T. C. ELLIOTT.

John Day was a member of the Wilson Price Hunt or Over- land party of the Pacific Fur Company (Astorians) which as- sembled at the mouth of the "Nadowa" (near where the city of Saint Joseph, Mo., now stands) in the fall of 1810, crossed the plains and Rocky Mountains during 1811 and arrived at Astoria during the winter and spring of 1812. The itinerary and experiences of those "Earliest Travelers on the Oregon Trail" have been clearly told on pages 227-239 of Vol. 13 of this Quarterly. John Day was a "Kentucky hunter" engaged to act as one of the hunters of the party, and is thus described by Washington Irving at page 146 of Vol. 1 of his "Astoria" :

"John Day, a hunter from the backwoods of Virginia, but who had been several years on the Missouri in the service of Mr. Crooks, and of other traders. He was about forty years of age, six feet two inches high, straight as an Indian; with an elastic step as if he trod on springs, and a handsome, open, manly countenance. It was his boast that, in his younger days, nothing could hurt or daunt him; but he had 'lived too fast* and injured his constitution by his excesses. Still he was strong of hand, bold of heart, a prime woodman, and an almost unerring shot."

John Day's early excesses evidently incapacitated him for extreme hardship, for in the final crisis of that journey, in December, 1811, along the banks of Snake river, he gave out and his life was saved only by the fact that Ramsay Crooks remained behind with him at some Indian camp near Weiser, Idaho. The following spring these two made their way across the Blue Mountains to the Columbia river, only to be at- tacked, robbed and left practically naked near the mouth of what has ever since been called the John Day river about thirty miles east of The Dalles. They were found by others of the fur traders and reached Astoria early in May.