Philander C. Davis Memoir
Located in the Manuscript Department
Oregon
Historical Society Library,
Portland,
OR
(Submitted to Genealogy Trails by Don Rivara)
Philander Davis was eighty-six years
old when he wrote this memoir on 16 October 1916.
As a boy of sixteen in 1846, he had accompanied the Cooper family in the
trip across the plains to Oregon.
His memory had failed him somewhat by the time he wrote the memoir.
He remembered old Isaiah Cooper, William and John Cooper and their
families, and Daniel B. and Isaiah Matheny, who came from the Willamette Valley
to meet the immigration on the east side of the Cascades, but he did not
remember the families of Enoch and Isaiah Cooper Junior, who were also with
their father and siblings. It had
been seventy years since the journey across the plains when
Davis
wrote the following:
.....I traveled with my Brother In law James Brown and MY sister his wife who
was the eldest of my fathers family of ten, four daughters and six sons also my
brother in law Wm. Parker and his wife my sister who was about 8 years my
senior. Also my brother Leander
Sylvanus 4 years my senior and my brother Albert Gallatin 2 years my senior also
Nicholas Schrum and his good wife and three grown sons and a nephew whose
christian name I have forgotten his surname was Wimberlie I believe also Wm
Elliot and wife and 3 children I forgot to mention Mr Schrums three daughters,
two full grown one between girlhood and womanhood
Jack Schrum youngest of family lived near Mitchell in 1894
There was also another notable family or two
Mr Wingfield who settled on the Molalla near where good old Harrison
Wright lived and died Also the Coopers Wm and John and their families
They were brothers of the wives of Daniel and Henry Matheny who came to
Oregon in 1843 Isaiah and Daniel
Junior came out to meet the Coopers and met the train in Tygh Valley
[on the east side of the Cascade Mountains in
the present state of Oregon] I have
seen the hill often that we climbed out of Tyghe and could hardly believe that
we had don the job with worn oxen but our loads were light having been nearly
all been eaten on the long journey.
There was one more family in our company, Mr. Ish and wife and one child also
two or three single men. Mr.
Williams was one of them. From the
Blue mountains we traveled down the Umatilla river to some point and from there
to Willow creek and from there to some point on the Columbia below Willow creek
camped on the river nearly every night until we reached Deschutes river being
compelled to climb the bluff in the morning and descend in the evening in order
to get water and grass for the stock A few years later there was a better route
found and traveled further south back from the breaks and gorges next to the
river We did not see a bridge or a ferry after we left the Missouri state line
near the town of Independence on 10th of May 1846.
We forded every stream that we crossed beginning with the Kansas called
the Kaw at that time (2nd) South Platte nearly two miles wide shallow
but swift and boiling full of moving sand Woe to the team that did not keep
moving at a good pace. (3rd) The Laramie near Fort Laramie narrow clear but
swift and deep (4th) North Platte swift clear and narrow.
On the deep fords the wagon beds were raised on the bolsters by blocks to
keep the force of water from striking them and forcing them downstream and
wetting the loads. (5th) Green River broad clear shallow and
beautiful (6th) Portneuf near Fort Hall the most beautiful broad
green lovely valley and stream that I saw on the long trip (7th)
Snake River crossing at Three Islands so called there was three channel but two
islands. They were deep and swift
and frightfully dangerous. (8th) second crossing of the Snake at old
Fort Boise three quarters of a mile wide deep but a gentle
slow moving current (9) the Deschutes.
I think we crossed near where what was called the Miller bridge or below
for I know I had fearful feelings of being swept into the
Columbia
not more that 2 or three hundred yards below.
I drove a team across both crossings of Snake But cannot remember whether
I drove at Deschutes or not.
From Deschutes we went to where the town of Dufur is now remaining
there two or three days resting the teams giving the women a chance to wash
clothes &c. From there we went to
Tygh and from there to Barlow’s gate [the toll gate for the Barlow Road
over the Cascade Mountains that had just recently opened]
Before starting into and over
the Cascade range I must mention some others of the Co whom I haad forgotten
old Grandfather Cooper father of the Coopers and two before mentioned Mrs
Matheneys The Matheneys having come
over in 1843. Also Frank McClintic
[Frank McClintock]
brother of Mrs. John Cooper thre
may have been one or more others whom I have forgotten
Isaiah Matheney Frank McClintic and I were detailed at the entrance of
the mountain to go ahead with the loose cattle so as to hurry them through the
laurel thickets and prevent their becoming poisoned thereby.
We drove them to the home of Daniel Matheney Senior ten miles below Salem
on west side of the Willamette forded the river just below his ferry his place
was on west side of river opposite Jason Lees old first misssion where his
Indians died faster than he could convert them through keeping them confined, I
am led to believe more than from any other cause or causes.
I will now return to the Barlow Gate on the east side of the Cascades but
what I know of the trains crossing is limited gotten from those who were with it
in passing I was too busy keeping
the cattle out of the dense thickets and especially one plump little yearling
heifer belonging to Grand Father Cooper which had a habit of dropping out and
hiding
I did not have time
to note the conformation of the country streams &c I remember Zig Zag and Huckle
berry camp at foot of Mt Hood. Also
Laurel Hill where Mr. Winfields family wagon ended over on top of the team
frightened Mrs Wingfield almost into fits I knew the wagon had driven it often
on the way over front weels too low for rear wheels.
Yes I knew the Barlows [the family
of the man who constructed the Barlow Road through
the Cascades].
The elder I only knew by sight
know that he was the most unpopular man in all Oregon so far as the immigrants
of 1846 were concerned who crossed over his road I saw Joel Palmer once
[one of the planners of the Barlow Road and Superintendent of Indian
Affairs in Oregon] he was pointed out
to me on the street I think in 1847 in Oregon City.
I knew Wm James and Doc Barlow
The latters real name I never knew I also saw a married daughter of the
elder Barlow a few times have forgotten her husbands name have got it mixed with
Gov Gainses name. The last time I
saw them was a 4th of July celebration on Clatsop Plains in 1851 I
though they were as fine looking or appearing middle aged couple as I had ever
met I let Wm Barlow wheedle me out
of a large Walker Dictionary in the fall of 1847 that I had brought across the
plains with me from Illinois and Missouri
he paid me what he said he thought it was worth but I realized many times
after that the book was worth many times what he paid me for it.
Dictionaries were few and far between at that time in fact all kinds of
books were scarce. James or Jim
Barlow was a genial pleasant good pleasant man I was told that he had inherited
his mothers good disposition and qualities I heard sometime or place that strong
drink got the upper hand on him and carried him to an early grave.
Docks strong suit was white clay pipes day by day I think I saw Harvey
Scott [longtime editor of the Portland
Oregonian newspaper and brother
to acclaimed feminist Abagail Scott Dunaway]
in Albany in 1853 or 1854 in
McConnells store and post office He was a large blond and whether he was PM
[postmaster] I dont know he had
a very positive style and manner of expression and I was told that his name was
Scott. From what I learned of him
in after years through the Oregonian and other ways I have always believed him
to tbe the same man I know nothing of Leslie Scott more than what I have seen in
the public prints. I am a reader
and have been ever since my 10th year.
The road was wholly or near the base of Mt Hood and it seems to me almost
incredible that it is so obliterated that it cannot be traced When I was living
in Sherman county from 1894 to 1903 I frequently met men who said they had just
crossed on the Barlow Road on horseback
I remember that we traveled in the bed of a stream in one or two places
for several hundred yards one of them was called Zig Zag I think another White
River owing to the bed being white volcanic sand that might make gaps or breaks
that would be hard to connect
Flocks of sheep obliterate roads and trails more thoroughly than any thing else.
I have a very vivid recollection of Wm H. Rectors account of his and
Barlows being lost several days in the fall of 1845 trying to look out a wagon
way [to find a good place for a wagon trail].
They had no compass and the
dense high timber clouds rain and fogs so dense that they could not get a
glimpse of sun moon or stars.
Fortunately they wandered near the trail on the north side of Mt Hood
[called the Lolo Trail]
and heard people driving stock Rector
being robust and strong attracted them by loud halooing but poor Barlow could
only groan and shed tears. When I
got out of the Cascades I believe 6th of Oct on Sunday to the place
afterwards occupied by a mr Foster called Fosters for years All I had to eat for
two days and nights was two table spoonsful of Hudson’s Bay cracker dust but
there was quarters of beef hanging on a tree near the house and we soon relieved
our hunger on beef cooked on
green sticks held over a fire without salt and were very happy...
P C Davis
The members of the Cooper family who accompanied Mr. Davis to
Oregon over the Oregon Trail and
the Barlow Road
were
Isaiah Cooper, Senior family:
Isaiah Cooper, age 67, ancestor of all members of the
Hewitt-Matheny-
Cooper family
Charlotte Johnson, age 11, foster daughter of Isaiah Cooper
Enoch Cooper family:
Enoch Cooper, 41, eldest son of Isaiah Cooper
Esther Cowan Cooper, 42, wife of Enoch Cooper and foster
daughter of
Isaiah Cooper, Senior
Mary Elizabeth “Lizzy” Cooper,
turned 14 on the trail July 12
Minerva Jane “Jane” Cooper, 10
John Shepherd Cooper, age 8
Rosannah Margaret Cooper, age 6
James Patrick Cooper, age 4
Emeline Cooper, turned 2 on the trail 20 September
William Shepherd “Bill” Cooper family
Bill Cooper, age
32, second eldest son of Isaiah Cooper, Senior
Mary Ann Crozier Cooper, 26, second wife of Bill Cooper
Rachel Cooper, turned 13 on the trail August 31
Charlotte Elizabeth Cooper, age 4
Enoch S. Cooper, turned 3 on the trail September
Jane Ann Cooper, born 1 Sept. on the trail in the Grande
Ronde Valley, Oregon
Isaiah Cooper, Junior, family
Isaiah Cooper, Junior, turned 29 on the trail 18 June,
third son of Isaiah Cooper
Elizabeth Sigsworth Cooper, age 24, wife of Isaiah Cooper,
Junior
John Milton Cooper, age 4 ½
Joseph Henry Cooper, turned 3 on the trail September 5
Ann Elizabeth Cooper, 3 months old when the trip commenced,
8 months at end
John Milton Cooper family
John Milton Cooper, age 26, youngest son of Isaiah Cooper,
Senior
Minerva Jane “Jane” McClintock Cooper, wife of John M.
Cooper
Anjanette Cooper, 3
Frank McClintock, brother of Jane McClintock Cooper
There were 25 family members on the trail if you include Charlotte Johnson and
Frank McClintock.
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Submitted by Don Rivara
