Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/946

662 in January, 1848, a courier arrived at the falls with a dispatch to Governor Abernethy, that was delivered to him in church. The sermon stopped as the governor, rising in his seat, read a letter from Douglas, that Ogden had arrived at Vancouver with three boats, containing all the women and children, and several missionaries from other stations in the upper country. All was excitement as the next day the boats bringing the captives were reported at Oregon City. Afar off, as soon as they were sighted at Clackamas rapids, the river banks were lined with people, and as the grizzly old fur trader drew up to the landing at the tail-race of the present woolen mill, the jubilant cannon rang again and again in gratitude and honor for their deliverance. Governor Abernethy indited a letter of thanks to Mr. Ogden in behalf of the colony. Peter Skeen Ogden afterward came to live at Oregon City, and died there, and is buried in the cemetery, but no name marks his grave. Unless something is done soon, it may become lost and forgotten. One of the rescued children, now an old and grayhaired man, recently made a pilgrimage to the spot, and with tears in his eyes exclaimed, "There should be a monument there. Maybe I will be the one to build it, maybe I will." The captives were delivered to Governor Abernethy, and soon found homes among the sympathetic people of the colony. In June matters quieted down and the volunteers came home, leaving a few in temporary forts to guard the line of march of incoming immigrants.

With the Cayuse war closed, and the provisional government of Oregon established, then occurred an event that startled the world and changed the face of history. Gold was discovered in California. Barely had those trains of self-governing immigrants established title to that Pacific shore, when James Marshall, of 1844 to Oregon, and 1846 to California, uncovered the treasure store of ages. General McCarver mounted his horse and with a few friends and pack-animals started for the land of gold in August, 1848. Peter H. Burnett followed in September, with a hundred and fifty men and fifty wagons, laden with provisions and mining implements. Peter W. Crawford, with a hundred young apple trees, would not wait to go to his claim, but stuck them into a garden near the Robin's Nest, where they grew into an orchard. Soldiers just home from the Indian war remounted their wild cayuses and galloped away. Oregon City was deserted. The Spectator suspended for want of printers, the legislature adjourned for lack of a quorum. Women began to gather the crops and attend the stores. A call came for 20,000 barrels of flour, several thousand bushel? of wheat, meat, butter and potatoes to feed California. A schooner built at Oregon City, loaded with farm produce, ran directly to McCarver's new town, Sacramento, where several tons of eggs sold at a dollar apiece. Apples brought their weight in gold, flour $16 a barrel. Sawmills at Oregon City were kept running day and night to supply the ever-increasing demand for lumber at $60 a thousand feet. Oregon's two greatest needs had been money and a market; both had come.

When Joe Meek and Judge Thornton presented their dispatches to President Polk and to congress, there was a stir in Washington. Indian massacre, war — an infant state out there was crying in its cradle. President Polk appointed Joseph L. Meek United States marshal for Oregon, and delegated him to carry a territorial governor's commission to Gen. Joseph Lane in Indiana. Lane had no previous intimation, but accepted on the spot, and in three days closed up his affairs and set out with Joe Meek on horseback for Oregon. After months of travel over the long and dusty Santa Fe trail, they came into California—to hear an astounding story that had not yet reached the east when they left. At San Francisco Oregonians with bags full of gold dust were waiting for a ship, and together all sailed to the Columbia river. Impatiently chartering a canoe, Joe Meek and the governor arrived at Oregon City March 2, 1849. George L. Curry, living in the largest house in town save McLoughlin's and the Moss Hotel, saw the approaching boat, and with T'Vault hastened to welcome the new executive. "Don't you know me?" inquired the postmaster.