Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/772



The first military organization of the city of Portland was the "Jefferson Guards" organized at a meeting of the citizens held "in the council room corner of Washington and First streets, May 24, 1858."

At this meeting Charles S. Mills was elected captain, and J. D. Cremen, secretary. This organization was founded on a muster roll signed by the following persons : John Donovan, William Grooms, Joseph Meagher, John Tomlinson, Rufus W. Henry, William Best, Joseph D. Cremen, Thomas Farley, Aaron Bush- wiler, E. C. Smith, John Castle, J. F. Farley, Steuben Commins, T. Thompson, Frederick Paine, Charles Mulholland, Samuel R. Holcomb, Walter H. Manley, John Williams, James L. Sims, Isaac Waggoner, Charles S. Mills, Joseph A. Jemison, Arthur Gray, Lansing Stout, Samuel Andrews, Patrick Maher, James Wilson, John Hornbrow and T. Goldin.

To this list various other persons were added from time to time by election until the guards attained a membership of about 60. The minutes of the proceedings of the guards, kept in good shape by the secretary, Joseph D. Cremen, and kindly loaned to the editor by his daughter, Miss Annie Cremen, are still in perfect condition, and show from what modest beginning every institution of the city has grown.

But prior to the organization of this first military company, Portland had to the full extent of its ability and population taken an active part in the expedition to punish the Indian murderers — the Cayuses — in the Whitman massacre, and in the Indian war of 1855. The expedition against the Cayuses in 1848 was organized mainly at Oregon City, and in pursuance of a special message of Governor Abernethy to the provisional legislature on December 8, 1847. Action was promptly taken on the governor's message, J. W. Nesmith moving that a company of fifty riflemen be organized by the government; and on the evening of the same day at a citizens' meeting in Oregon City forty-five volunteers were enrolled on the spot ; and the next day started up the Columbia to the Dalles to be in position to protect the settlers with a total muster roll of forty-eight men.

It is not intended, as it is not the province of this history to enter into any detail of the Indian wars ; but only to note that in that as in all other matters affecting the interests of all this region the citizens of Portland have always taken an active part. Col. W. W. Chapman, one of the Portland townsite proprietors took an active part in the Rogue river Indian war; while Stephen Coffin, another of the Portland townsite proprietors, had, as brigadier general of the militia, the command of the state forces during the war to suppress the southern rebellion.

Of the Portlanders who took an active part in the early Indian wars of Oregon, there are only two now alive, that can be remembered — Col. John McCraken of Portland, who was quartermaster general of the expedition against the Cayuses in 1848, and J. H. McMillan, who was captain of a company in the same