History of Early Days in Oregon

by George W. Riddle

George Washington Riddle was an early Oregon pioneer who became a lumberman and rancher and later won election in 1890 as county judge and served two terms in the Oregon Legislature.

Riddle writes:

"For many years I have been solicited by friends and some members of my family to write my recollections of incidents relating to crossing the plains and the early settlement of Southern Oregon."

Riddle wrote of his adventures in “History of Early Days in Oregon.” As an 11-year-old boy in 1851 he set out from Illinois with his family and a wagon train for a homestead in Oregon.

The journey took the wagon train 6 months from Illinois to the Cow Creek Valley in Oregon. He relates many amusing and interesting anecdotes that occurred along the way:

"We came to a small creek or slough where trains ahead of us constructed a passage way by spreading willows over soft ground. Here a lot of Indians demanded two head of cattle for crossing. Our train was halted and a parley ensued. There seemed to be no way to evade crossing at this place and some of our party were in favor of acceding to the demands of the Indians, as some time must be spent in repairing the road and more Indians were arriving, one of whom made a great show of what would become of us if we did not pay, and to show us what a great Indian he was, exhibited a paper that had been given, him by a white man. It read something like this: "The bearer says he is an Omaha chief. He is an old rascal and a bluffer. Don't give him anything—go ahead." So, after a delay of several hours, our train was lined up, loose cattle brought close up, and with a display of arms the drive was made through the Indians, who made little effort to prevent our passage,"

"One day during our delay in building the boat, a band of buffalo was reported feeding a few miles from our camp. At once all were excited; horses were mounted and the hunt was soon on. None of our crowd seemed to have any knowledge of how to approach a herd of buffalo. Captain Hussey was mounted on the fleetest horse and armed with a shot gun. From accounts, there was a promiscuous charge on the herd. Captain Hussy succeeded in overtaking an old bull and proceeded to fill his hide with bird shot. It is needless to say that there was no buffalo steak in our camp that night."

"Some one of the men went down the valley to look at some wagons that had been abandoned and ... on closer examination he discovered two barrels which the Indians had chopped into which he found contained whiskey. There was soon great excitement in camp. The mountain climbers came racing down; the card players dropped their cards, and soon most of the camp was around the cache. When further excavation was made, two more fifty gallon barrels were found to be intact—one of whiskey and one of brandy."

"After passing through this band of warriors and reaching the level of the lake our road laid between a tule marsh that surrounded the lake at this point, and an over-hanging bluff of rocks, for almost a half mile. At places there was barely room for the wagons to pass between the marsh and the rocks. At one of these points a lot of squaws were sitting in a row across the road. The squaws were motioned to move, which they refused to do, and the whole train was halted until Jack stepped to the front with his ox whip and commenced rapidly cracking it close to their faces. The explosions must have sounded to the squaws like artillery fire and they soon scattered into the tules."

Regarding staking a homestead claim in Oregon Riddle writes:

"My father returned the following day, felled some small pine trees and formed the foundation of a house exactly where the Glenbrook farm house now

118 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1920