APPENDIX C. The Lost Letter

APPENDIX C

The Lost Letter

Tolbert Carter's granddaughter, Mattie Tomlinson, saved many of the photographs and moments that have been used to illustrate this oral histoiy. At the time of Mrs. Tomlinson 's death, her niece, Velma Rawie, inherited many of these items and has subsequently made them available to OSU Research Forests. Copies of 'Aunt Mattie's" scrapbook and several of her family photographs have been filed with the Oregon State Univeiity Archives. One of the most valuable of these items is a copy of the following manuscript (probably as typed by Tolbert Carter), upon which Mattie had written 'This is the last chapter, which was lost from the original--"

It must be remembered in making me last described journey that after we entered Columbia river, to where we made the stop on the Cowalitz river, no sign of civilization was apparent; nothing but Indian villages and numerous Indians.

The monotony of the trip was relieved by the sight of a canoe containing the body of an Indian. These canoes that made graves for their owners invariably had holes in the bottom in order to prevent them from being used. Many of them were to all appearances new, and were valuable property to their owners as Mr. Snow in his history of the northwest makes the statement, "Before the introduction of tools by the Hudson Bay Company it took one Indian six months to construct his canoe." The mode of construction was by burning. After the country commenced setting up many an Indian has been rolled out of his canoe, the hole in the bottom repaired and it appropriated to the man who committed the sacrilege, which would prove to the ignorant savage the high state of out civilization.

Another characteristic of all the northwest Indians is a practice they have of mutilating whatever articles the dead might have possessed, such as buckets, kettles, baskets, steel traps or utensils of any description so that they can never be used. I have many times inquired of them their object in this spoiling the articles belonging to the dead of their tribe, and their answer would always be that they were also dead, and consequently not fit to be used. Cases are known of these tribes who bury in canoes to confine the favorite slave alive in the canoe to perish by starvation. I have known tribes to vary their dead in the ground and then deposit food in the grave sufficiently to last a certain number of days. Yet all those ignorant savages with whom I have been acquainted have had a distinct knowledge of a "Swahili Tvie," the meaning of which is a grand chief over all, and who abides above the clouds.

To resume my narrative, we start down the river and find it much easier and faster traveling down stream than up, as we made the trip down in six hours that occupied six days going up. Nothing worthy of note occurred till where Portland now is was reached. Here my boss left us to proceed on foot to the Tualitan plains, which means a place of no timber, for the purpose of looking at the country. We went to

Oregon City to await the report of the boss. On his return he made known that he had purchased a ranch, with the intention of my assisting him in improving it.

We brought the team from Salem and returned to the ranch sixteen miles away. This was in the vicinity of the oldest settlement in Oregon, outside of the mission station. here were many old mountaineers and many discharged from the Hudson Bay Company, consisting of French, Scotch and English, who all had Indian women for wives. Prominent among these was the celebrated mountaineer joseph L. Meek, a man calculated for a leader of men - a man of fine appearance with herculean strength, but judging from his actions generally it would seem he was destitute of moral restraint. He had two sons, both respectable business men. One of them was supposed to have been murdered in Portland, and the other stifi resides on the old homestead.

We are now at what is to be our future home, for a time at least, a beautiful situation indeed. My boss was a lean, raw-boned Ohioan, raised in that timbered country in an early day, consequently knew but little about anything, except work, and I soon found that he knew all about that. As I had never studied that art but very little, he was just the teacher I needed. It may be truly said that the summer following was the first sllmmer's work I had ever performed. He had a fine team of four pair of large oxen, the same that I drove on the plains for three months. He could not manage as to fence the farm; and it consequently fell to my lot to plow the prairie land for sowing in the fall. A large plow was rigged in wheels with a lever attachment so that one hand attended the plow and the other guided the team.

We had a very pleasant home on the main traveled to and to Oregon City, where all the trade was done to supply the entire community. The situation gave us the chance to learning all the news to be obtained at the time, but little news was to be had then. Nothing was obtainable from our homes and loved ones in the State, only as the emigrants arrived each year - there being no mail route established then.

I was now the 20th April, and, to show whether we had worked or not, by harvest there were one-hundred acres fenced and forty acres ready for the seed in the fall. My wages was one dollar a day, with board and washing to be paid with a forty-dollar horse which had been procured from The Snake Indians, a beautiful bay, pretty as a picture; in word I had the fancy horse of the community, a perfect pet and a race horse in those days, but that quality was no advantage to me as I never indulged in that sport further than riding ahead of all the boys, which in those days of fast riding was a valuable quality indeed. All stock in those times were fat and sleek, consequently Salem, (that was my horse's name) was ready for the saddle each Sunday.

Notwithstanding my pleasant home surroundings I was laboring under great disadvantages so far as social conditions were concerned, as I had brought no clothes suitable for high association. In the middle of June I made the journey to where my folks were living and I found them all pleasantly situated to what I expected. The widow and my brother were keeping house together; for the use of her team and wagon other parties were furnishing necessaries. The person I was most anxious to see was the little stranger who came to our camp at Long Tom. I was asleep but I roused it from its

slumber and treated it beyond the common courtesy that is due to strangers. I remained a short time and returned with clothing that proved superior to that belonging to anyone in the community, which in these pioneer times was a valuable recommendation for a stranger.

We are now supplied with all the paraphernalis necessary to appear in any which the appearance of the people, both in their health and the hearty social greetings extended from one to another. Having but few acquaintances, I was introduced to all the young men present, and introductions then were not the cold formal kind of today. Equality existed everywhere; no butting off the bridge; no big fish striving to devour the little fish. Strange as it may seem, it is my candid opinion that from the first settlement of this country tifi 1850, the time when gold commenced flooding the country from California, was the happiest days the country has ever seen. The unexpected acquisition of wealth caused the people to discard, to a large degree, the essential elements of true happiness. All thought and effort was now turned to the gaining of more wealth, paying little regard to the manner which it was acquired.

On the road to church there lived one of the prettiest girls on the plains, or anywhere for that matter. I soon made her acquaintance which budded and bloomed into affection, as much so that I sometimes thought arrangements could be made to travel with her in double harness through life, but a sad difficulty presented itself. I was not able purchase the necessary harness in which to travel, so all such notions had to be abandoned. When fall came I assisted in seeding the crop, with the understandings that I was to have a third when threshed. I than went in partnership with a brother of my boss who lived four miles above Oregon City, in the timber. I had to go in debt for part of the team, so we ran a logging camp during winter. The enterprise was eminently successful, as I paid for the team, had money to rattle, the first I had had in Oregon.

I came back in the spring to take care of my crop, harvested it and had five hundred bushels for my share which sold for fifty cents per bushel on the threshing floor. And to sum up the earnings of my first experience in making a living, I had a team, two horses and three hundred dollars in money. I doubt very much whether any young man in Washington county could have made a better showing.

Now, Mr. Editor, these letters will come to a close leaving my trip to California, as I went soon after harvest. I was in the first party from Oregon to the mines, remained there two years, and returned to occupy my former selected home. One year afterwards I married. I stated in commencement of these letters that, considering my limited knowledge, I had been successful, but now comes the cap sheaf of my success, which was in my marriage. On a limited acquaintance of two months the risk was made a will here remark that for all the essential characteristics of wife and mother, with all the necessary qualifications thereto, she is as near right as it has ever fell to the lot of manhood to be. We have been married forty-seven years, raised a family of eight children, all grown, and am proud to say there is not a stain on the character of any of them, but are all married and prosperous. Wife and I are alone on the old, old homestead, rearing the end of life's race.

If these letters prove interesting to any young man starting in the world under adverse circumstances, or to your many readers so as to assist in the circulation of your valuable paper. I will feel amply rewarded for writing "Pioneer Days", as it has been a labor of love instead of a burden. So, Mr. Editor, I bid you and your readers an affectionate farewell, still remaining as ever,

Yours truly

Tolbert Carter

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