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h'ORT llEOBGE (.iSTORl.i) ISll. ( I- ROM .\N OLD IlR.iWINU.

The Romance of Astoria
By T. T. Geer
Ex-Governor of Oregon

?HE interesting exposi
tion at Astoria, this
summer, which cele
brates the founding of
this charming town one-
hundred years ago,
__   opens up a wide field
for speculation to the student of the his
tory of the Northwest as to what agency
or what medium was most potent in
¦'saving Oregon" from ultimate British
domination and ownership. It would not
be indulging very much of an extrava
ganza to say that barrels of ink have
been used, not to say wasted, in the chs-
cussion of this question. No doubt it
would be sufficiently near the fact to as
sume that no one per.son ever saved Ore
gon, and that, perhaps, Oregon was
never really "saved," anyway. The man
who diligently searches the records and
commentaries for his information on the

subject will discover that, according as
the historian may have his per.sonal con
clusions in the foreground, John Jacob
Astor saved Oregon in 1810-11, Jason
Lee saved it again in 1834, and Marcus
Whitman performed the same gracious
act again in 1842, when he made his
heroic and extremely perilous journey
"to the United States," in the winter
months, for the purpose of inducing a
further and immediate immigration to
the Oregon Country.
It is likely that in the course of human
events Oregon was destined to become a
part of the United States, and this fact
would necessitate the participation of
some "first" individuals in schemes of ex
ploring the vast region about which so
little was known, and every such effort
contributed its share toward the final ac-
qiusition of the coveted section by the
enterprising and adventurous x\mericans.

308

THE ROMANCE OF ASTORIA,

ASTORI.^ AS IT WAS IN 1813,

Captain Gray made a first step, perhaps
the first step, toward final American
ownership of Oregon when he crossed
the Columbia River bar in 1792. Lewis
and Clark yielded liberally of their time
and exertions in the chain of events
which ultimately gave us Oregon, seven
years before Astor sent his expeditions
here in the interest of financial gain, — so,
it is perhaps wiser to say that the great
drift of the human race westward from
the beginning of history is compositively
responsible for the "saving" of Oregon.
The priceless value of the country se
cured will supply enough glory to go
around and there is no occasion for en
vious appeals for preference.
If it had not happened that Or.-gon
was admitted into the Union in 1859, be
fore open hostihties had been commenced
by the South, its statehood would have
perhaps been postponed until after the
close of the war. In that event, Horace
Greeley would not have been a delegate
from this State in the Chicago conven
tion which nominated Abraham Lincoln
for President in 1860, for it would have
had no representation there, and it is

well known that Greeley's influence in
that contest alone nominated the great
Illinois Commoner, since the distin
guished editor was bitterly opposed to
the further political advancement of
Seward. And if Lincoln had not been nomi
nated for President in 1860, where would
we be today? Some people shudder at
the thought, and yet it is possible and
quite likely that, someliow, Providence
would have supplied a way for the tri
umph of the Union cause.
And if Lincoln had accepted the ap
pointment of Governor of Oregon which
President Taylor tendered him in 1849,
and which was declined because Mrs.
Lincoln refused to go to so forbidding a
wilderness, he might have been a prac
ticing attorney in Salem or Corvallis
when the campaign of 1860 opened — and
where would the country have been in
1865 in that event ? But,—
Oregon was admitted in 1859, Lincoln
did not accept the Governorship of Ore
gon to succeed Joseph Lane, and neither
did John Jacob Astor fail to send his
expeditions to the mouth of the Colum-

T. T. GEER.

309

bia River in 1811 and,
by starting his trading
post, begin the first
white settlement on the
Pacific Coast or in the
vast region which after
ward became a part of
the United States. He
was not a pioneer in the
sense that were Lewis
and Clark, or Hall
Kelley, or Jason Lee, or
Whitman, all of whom
severed their connection
with even the forms of
civilization and plunged
into the heart of the
country they proposed to
assist in subduing ; Iiis
sole motive, as has been
said already, being the
promotion of a vast fur-
trading enterprise, the
result of which promised
a remuneration running
into the millions of dol
lars. But, no matter
what his prime purpose,
the exploitation of his
enterprise necessitated
the investment of hun
dreds of thousands of
dollars and resulted not
only in many disclosures
relating to the real value
of the region outside of
its wealth in furs, but in
the planting of a colony
which, though showing
little growth in the next
ensuing thirty years, was
never abandoned and af
terward developed into
the finecity which Astoria
is today, being the third
largest in Oregon, in
point of population and
business. John Jacob Astor was
born in the town of Wal
dorf, Germany, July 17,
1763, and came to Amer
ica in 1790. He was one
of four brothers and ar
rived in New York with
a .sole capital of twenty-
five dollars. In conver-

VIEW OF ASTORIA IN 1836, AFTER A PAINTING BY DR, O, 1;, ESTES,

OREOON'S FIRST fn.STOM HOUSE, F.RF.lTEIl ^^<r,2. A.STORIA, OREGO.V

310

THE ROMANCE OF ASTORIA.

From tbe bust in the Astor library. From a contemporary drawing of the Drawn from a portrait painted iu
old fur dealer and real-estate middle life.
Investor.
JOHN JACOB ASTOR, WHO SENT TO THE NORTHWEST PACIFIC COAST AN EXPEDITION WHICH
FOUNDED THE CITY OF ASTORIA ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO.

sation with a fellow passenger on the
ship while crossing the Atlantic, the
man having been in this country
previously, he learned that there was
a great profit to be made in buying
furs from the Indians. FaUing in with
the idea, he sought employment in a fur
rier establishment and began the per
formance of his duties by beating furs to

preserve them from the ravages of the
moths. He won the confidence of his
employer and was sent to Montreal as
the accredited agent of his house. After
ward he began the business on his own
account, actually carried a pack of arti
cles to be exchanged for furs and went
into the Canadian wilderness, where he
could meet the Indians at first hand and

ASTORIA FROM THIS KIVBR.

T. T. GEER.

311

learn their methods as well as the condi
tion of the country.
In the year 1800 Astor dispatched a
ship to China, netting a large sum from
the venture, and within a few years was
regarded as a millionaire. He at that
time invested heavily in real estate on
Manhattan Island and thereby laid the
foundation for the immense Astor for
tune which wields so wide an influence
in New York City today. At that time
he seems to have first conceived the idea

which could be used for raising gardens
and fruits. Thus equipped, the Tonquin
sailed from New York on September 9,
1810, arriving off the mouth of the Co
lumbia on March 22, 1811, with the
entire crew enjoying good health. The
waves at the bar were running very high
and after waiting several days Captain
Thorn sent five men out in a small boat
to find the channel, the men protesting,
but the Captain was inexorable in his de
termination, and the crew obeyed orders.

"«o,

Lewis & CLARK ROUTS.

OREGON TRAIL

h + +-»- + + + + V + + + +

From Franchere's Narrative, 1811-1814,
THE ROUTE FOLLOWED BY LEWIS AND CLARK IN 1804-6 (BLACK DOTTED LINES) AND THE
FAMOUS "OREGON TRAIL" (LINE OP CROSSES) FOLLOWED BY THE PIONEER
EMIGRANTS TO THE NORTHWEST.

of establishing a line of trading posts
from the Missouri frontier to the Colum
bia River and, after meeting and subdu
ing many obstacles, succeeded in secur
ing a charter from the New York Legis
lature for the organization of the Ameri
can Fur Company. The capital stock was
$1,000,000, with the right to increase it
to $2,000,000.
The history of the two Astor expedi
tions, with the mouth of the Columbia
River as their objective point, is familiar
to most American readers. The one by
sea consisted of the ship Tonquin, 290
tons capacity, manned by twenty men
and mounting ten guns. It was loaded
with articles which would be valu
able to trade to the Indians for furs.
and a good supply of seeds was carried

They were never heard of afterward.
It was not until April fifth that the
Tonquin was able to enter the river, and
on the twelfth a site was selected for es
tablishing a post, on a promontory which
had been previously named "Point
George," but which was at once chris
tened "Astoria," in honor of the pro
moter of the great expedition they had
so successfully conducted. Astoria, there
fore, was just one hundred years old on
April 12 of this year.
The Tonquin with its crew was soon
afterward taken up the coast off Van
couver Island in search of further op
portunities to trade, where, after invit
ing many Indians aboard and supplying
them principally with knives in barter
for furs, the crew was suddenly attacked

312

THE ROMANCE OF ASTORIA.

and nearly all on board massacred, in
cluding Captain Thorn. The next day
the Indians appeared again, were asked
to come aboard and, according to the
plan of the few survivors who saw there
was no escape from a similar death which
had overtaken their comrades, the ship
was blown up, killing fully one hundred
savages. The interpreter alone escaped
and carried the news of the awful affair
to Astoria.
The fate of the Tonquin and its crew
in the endeavor to make an American
footing in the Oregon Country consti
tutes one of the most pathetic tragedies
connected with the acquisition of the
Northwest, hardly second to the Whit
man massacre in November, 1847.
Astor's land expedition left Montreal
in July, 1810, started from St. Louis on
the 21st of October and after a most
perilous journey, the details of which,
scarcely possible of exaggeration, cannot
be given here, arrived at the post of As
toria on February 15, 1812. On the ninth
of the following May the Astor ship
Beaver arrived at Astoria with supplies
for the colony, and in July, Wilson P.
Hunt, who had been in command of the
land expedition, sailed on the Beaver for
the Alaska country to trade with the na
tives, leaving Duncan McDougal in
charge of the fort. At this time the war
with England was declared and through
its various ramifications, assisted by what
was generally believed to be the treason
of McDougal in selling out the Astor in
terest to a rival fur company, Astoria
fell into the hands of the British, the
Stars and Stripes were supplanted by the
English flag and the name was changed
to "Fort George," in honor of the King
of England.
By the terms of the treaty of peace at
the close of the war, Astoria was restored
to the United States, the entire country
was given over to "joint occupancy" un
til further arrangements could be agreed
upon, and Astoria drifted into a peace
ful era which it had not hitherto known.
Few of those most deeply and directly
interested in the success of the Astor ex
pedition were so indignant at the seeming
treachery of McDougal in his transfer of
the fort to rival interests as was Con-
comly, the chief of the Chinooks, who.

soon after the arrival of the Tonquin,
had become very much attached to the
Americans and had sworn his fidelity to
their cause. McDougal had married Con-
comly's daughter, who was said to be a
beautiful maiden of the bronze type, with
dreamy eyes — a princess whose acquisi
tion by the white man had cast dismay
among the aspiring male members of the
tribe, but Concomly was much pleased
with the arrangement.
When the English ship approached the
fort, however, the old chief was aston
ished and angered. He saw at once that
the situation did not look good from the
standpoint of the Astor men, and sum
moned his braves for the purpose of as
sisting his son-in-law in the defense of
the fort. They were garbed principally
in warpaint, and armed not only with
their usual weapons of war, but with a
determination to refuse to surrender to
the British and thus become slaves to the
foe, for Concomly knew there was going
to be a fight, since Americans, he
thought, never surrender without a
struggle, but his disgust was boundless
when he discovered that the affair had
been arranged satisfactorily, that there
were to be no hostilities and that the Eng
lish were to be in possession of the fort
as the result of a bargain and sale. He
returned to his quarters, loudly express
ing his indignation that his beautiful
daughter had "married a squaw." It is
said that he never entered the walls of
che fort while it was under the control of
the English, but felt at home again when,
in 1818, the American flag was hoisted
over it and former conditions renewed.
The history of Astoria is worth read
ing, since it is wholly unlike that of every
other American city. It was founded by
John Jacob Astor at a time when its site
was so far from any other city or town
that a parallel cannot be found in Ameri
can annals since the landing of the ear
liest immigrants on the shores of the
Atlantic. It has come up through a sea
of tragedies, was born in disaster and for
seven years was the constant scene of
murder, treachery, ingratitude, war, fam
ine, failure and disappointment. Com
pared with the experience of Astoria dur
ing the first decade of its existence, that
of Portland, for instance, reads like the

T. T. GEER.

313

pastime of reclining in a hammock on a
sunny afternoon in June and reading the
last contribution of George Ade to the
delectation of mankind. Astoria was
born amid the solitudes of an almost im
penetrable wilderness, at a point so far
from the last evidences of civilization
that the nearest approach to it, further
on, was almost half-way around the
globe. It was christened in blood, and
the stormy nature of the next seven years
of its existence reads like fiction, whose
details are so unlike those found in the
ordinary experience of American or
other cities that one marvels that it was
not abandoned at the time and the effort
to maintain a settlement there given over

whose home was in Canada, to Astoria
to take charge of its affairs in the North
west, but after an experience of one year
his business perception enabled him to
see that it was not the proper place for
the headquarters of the vast trade it was
prosecuting, mostly inland, and he soon
afterward chose the site where the city
of Vancouver now stands as that most
convenient for the purposes of his com
pany. He decided that some point not
far from the confluence of the Columbia
and Willamette rivers would be most
suitable, and located on the north side of
the Columbia for the reason that, in his
judgment, when the international bound
ary should be finally established, that

CLATSOP COUNTY COURT HOUSE, ASTORIA.

until the final coming of the thousands
who later began to people the North
west. Among the other disadvantages which
Astoria was compelled to encounter in
its earlier years was the active opposition
of the all-powerful Hudson's Bay Com
pany, which, in fact, had a complete
monopoly of the fur business in all the
Northwestern territory, extending prac
tically from the Atlantic to the Pacific,
and as far north as anybody cared to or
could go. The public is not generally
aware, perhaps, that that company had
been in business fully 140 years at the
time of Astor's settlement at the mouth
of the Columbia, having received its
charter from Charles II, in 1670, and no
rival organization ever succeeded in re
maining in business for any considerable
length of time. In 1824 its management
in London sent Dr. John McLoughlin,

stream would be the dividing line.
So, in 1825, Astoria was abandoned as
the headquarters of the Hudson's Bay
Company in the Northwest, and, in the
phrase of a great statesman of two de
cades ago, fell into "innocuous desue
tude" and had practically no growth in
either population or business during the
next twenty years. Indeed, little is known
of its history during that period, princi
pally for the reason that it had none —
other than to remain on the map and re
tain its name. Singularly enough, how
ever, when immigrants to the Oregon
Country began to arrive in considerable
numbers, in the early '40's, many ef the
first settlers located on the Clatsop Plains
between Astoria and the sea, though the
larger region to the south was more easy
of access and attracted the greater share.
Among the eariier pioneers who went to
what is now Clatsop County was Cap-

314

THE ROMANCE OF ASTORIA.

tain R. W. Morrison, who crossed the
great plains in 1844 and at once settled
in that section. Many of his descend
ants, among whom is his grandson, John
W. Minto, ex-Postmaster of Portland,
are living in various parts of Oregon.
One of Captain Morrison's daughters,
Mrs. M. E. Carnahan, now owns and
hves on her father's original homestead.
She is seventy-eight years old, bright
and chatty, with a clear memory of the
events of her long lifetime in Clatsop
County. A recent visit to Mrs. Car
nahan at her home proved vei-y in
teresting, as she delights to recall the
early experiences of herself and associ
ates when the entire region was yet in
the clutch of that solitude which had
dominated it since the dawn of creation.
Both the whites and Indians hunted elk
and deer, which with salmon, supplied
their main diet with the exception that
occasionally a variety was indulged by
digging and drying clams before the fires.
Cranberries (wild) were found in the
bogs, but a little later the whites were
enabled to begin the raising of potatoes.
In those days Skipanon was the main
town on the lower Columbia, Astoria
boasting of but a few inferior shanties.
The former had a small schoolhouse and
among its attendants in 1851 were James
W. Welch, at present one of the promi
nent citizens of Astoria, Robert Caruth-
ers and Charles Shively, both afterward
closely allied with Astoria's growth. Cap
tain Morrison built the first schoolhouse
and Colonel Taylor afterward erected an
other and larger one.
It was at that time that a public bene
factor, John Mercer, gathered what has
been described as "a shipload of young
women" in the Eastern States and
brought them to "The Oregon Country."
A contemporaneous account says : "The
opportunities here appealed to the young
women in those pioneer days and they
helped to make Oregon, as they scattered
far and wide. Three of them located at
Astoria and Skipanon."
During the last thirty years, however,
the importance of Astoria as a commer
cial and industrial center has been gen
erally recognized, and many millions of
dollars have been invested there, prin
cipally in the lumber and fishing busi

nesses. Clatsop County contains one of
the finest bodies of timber to be found
anywhere in the world, and Astoria's
position at the mouth of the Columbia
River makes it an exceptionally fine loca
tion for sawmills, one of the largest in
the Northwest, running day and night,
being the chief single industrial pride of
the city.
The famous Chinook salmon is at its
best at Astoria, not only as to its quali
ties as a choice food, but in a commer
cial way. That city, with its millions in
vested in boats, fishing paraphernalia
and canneries, constitutes the largest
fish-catching and distributing point in
the world, for this piscatorial king, and
the Columbia River salmon bears as high
a reputation in all parts of the world as
does the Hood River apple — and that "is
going some."
Astoria occupies a most beautiful loca
tion for an attractive city and few pret
tier sights can be seen in America, which
is equivalent to saying in the world, than
bursts upon one's vision as the train
sweeps through the cut at Tongue Point
and the entire panorama of the historic
hills, among which Lewis and Clark
roamed during the winter of 1804-5, pre
sents its splendid fullness in varied color
ing. For four miles the river front is
busy with mills, canneries, docks and
wharves. The river itself, at this point
from five to eight miles wide, sparkles
and gleams in beauty as its immense vol
ume from the far slopes the vast In
land Empire flows onward to be lost in
the great sea, its bosom dotted with all
manner of craft, from the gasoline
launch, directed by pleasure seekers, to
the more profitable fishing boat, the use
ful tugs, the coastwise schooners, the
"square-riggers" and the powerful and
massive ocean liners bound for all parts
of the world.
In short, Astoria is interesting, not
only because of the chapter of tragedies
which attended the first ten years of its
struggles, but for its importance as one
of the active Northwest cities that are
up and doing and that have a magnifi
cent future. It has its share of pubHc-
spirited citizens who have shown their
loyalty to their home town under circum
stances which have proven their pluck.

T. T. GEER.

315

and though their fond dreams of secur
ing common-point privileges in transpor
tation have not been realized, they have
not lost hope and have added to their
bright prospects by turning their atten
tion to the development of the agricul
tural resources of the couhty and region
for which it is the principal commercial
center. There is no better section in the
United States for the successful prosecu
tion of the dairying business than that
tributary to Astoria, nor an industry any
where which is certain to yield more
profitable results. And there is room for
thousands of settlers to locate and bring
these rich lands into such a high state of
cultivation as to afford desirable homes
and handsome incomes.
The Centennial Exposition commem
orative of the founding of the city by
John Jacob Astor, during August of this
year, is a most fitting recognition of
a most important event in the history of
the Oregon Country. From a mere
stockade built of logs that city has fully
kept pace with modern development, and
with its population today of some 15,000

people, it presents all the up-to-date con
veniences to be found in a city of similar
size in New York or Ohio, and many not
to be found there. It has had at its dis
posal a fund of more than $150,000 with
which to finance its exposition, derived
from various sources, State, county, mu
nicipal and individual subscriptions,
among the later of which is a $10,000
donation from John Jacob Astor, of New
York, a grandson of the great merchant
and fur-trader.
In his last speech, at Buffalo in 1901,
President McKinley said, among his
many apt epigrams, that "expositions are
the timekeepers of progress," and it is
fair to say that few of all the similar
exhibitions held in the United States
heretofore has shown such a marvelous
development, together with an equally in
teresting and romantic experience, as
that which has attended the inception and
history of Astoria. During the month
of August it was the Mecca of thousands
of tourists from all -parts of the United
States, who were charmed with its beauty
and exhilarating breezes.

TOMB OF CHIEF

CONCOMLY AT ASTORIA
TIME SKETCH.)

(FROM AN OLp

YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

3 9002 08937 3865

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