The Collectors

For the early pioneers who made their way overland across the Rocky Mountains, the valley of Oregon's Willamette River was the promised land at the end of the Oregon Trail. They'd heard stories about its gentle weather that could make their lives easier all year round, about the rich black soil perfect for farming, about its sparkling rivers, and about its forests of timber for building new homes. This was what they believed in. This was what kept them going when everything else made them want to stop or turn back.The Willamette Valley was going to be more than just another home. It was going to be the perfect place for a fresh new start. [film leader countdown] [silence]

[film leader countdown] [Jane Ferguson] We followed the Indians, the explorers, the traders, and the trappers to the old Oregon country. [Mark Sparks] And we've taken a look at some of the challenges facing the first missionaries and pioneer families who braved the Oregon Trail. [Jane] Now we're ready to take a closer look at the history of a part of the

Oregon country that became home to more of the state's pioneers settlers than any other place. [Mark] The Willamette Valley. [film leader countdown] [Jane] Hi, again! I'm Jane Ferguson. [Mark] And I'm Mark Sparks. We're standing very near where the Willamette Post once stood. [Jane] It was probably Willamette Valley's first building constructed by white men and it is believed that its builders may have been traders from John Jacob Astor's Astoria company. [Mark] The Willamette Post was probably built in 1811, just a few years after the Lewis and Clark expedition. [Jane] It was intended as a wintering place for trappers and became the property of the English when Astoria was purchased. [Mark] Still later, the Post became home to a family of early settlers. But the building was completely washed away in the Willamette River flood of 1861.

[Jane] This historic marker is a reminder of what was very possibly the beginning of this valley's settlement. [Mark] The post was located in a part of the Willamette Valley that became known as French Prairie. Here, at the northern end of the valley, with the Cascade Mountains on the east and the coast range on the west, are some of the richest farmlands in the Pacific Northwest. If the Americans started Astoria and the English started Fort Vancouver, why do they call this part of Oregon French Prairie? [Jane] Because the very first settlers here were French! French people from Canada, that is. The valley's earliest settlers were French Canadian traders and trappers who had worked for English and American trading companies. When they grew tired of the dangers and hardships of the trapper's life, some of these French Canadians decided to try their hand at farming. At Fort Vancouver, Dr. John McLoughlin agreed to help them settle in the Willamette Valley. He provided them with cattle and seed for planting their first crops. By helping these French Canadian settlers, Dr.

McLoughlin felt he was also helping the Hudson's Bay Company. Fort Vancouver needed their crops and, at the same time, the Willamette Valley was being settled by Canadians McLoughlin hoped would stay loyal to England. A retired French Canadian fur trader by the name of Étienne Lucier was one of the first permanent settlers on French Prairie. By 1832, he had built his log house and barn on a ridge just west of the Willamette Post. Soon, other trappers and their families were setting up farms in this area. And, by 1840, French Canadian farms here were raising wheat, vegetables, and fruits, and selling them to the Hudson's Bay Company. To help these new settlers, The Hudson's Bay Company had set up a ferry across the Willamette River, and built a flour mill and sawmill in the area. [film leader countdown] [silence] [film leader countdown] [Jane] Most of French Prairie's first settlers were Catholic. Here, about three miles south of the

Willamette Post site, they started the St. Paul Catholic Mission. In 1846, St. Paul's Church was built. 60,000 bricks were used for the two-foot-thick walls of the building. It's one of the oldest churches in the Pacific Northwest and is still in use today. Like Jason Lee's Methodist Mission near Salem, St. Paul became a gathering place for traders and farmers and their families. [film leader countdown] [Mark] Just a couple of blocks from St. Paul's Church is another French Prairie landmark: the Matthew Murphy House. Moved to this site and preserved by the St. Paul Mission Historical Society, the Murphy House is really two houses in one. The rear of the house was once a cabin built on the Willamette River as a trapper's home and one of the

chimney's original bricks bears the date 1832, making this one of the oldest houses still standing in the state. To avoid the dangers of river flood waters, the house was moved by the Murphy family and enlarged to become a home for their 14 children. [film leader countdown] The story of the Murphys of St. Paul brings together two other important parts of this valley's settlement. Like many other pioneers, the Murphys had heard about the United States government's offer of free land claims for American settlers in the Oregon Country. Matthew Murphy had been a prospector in the California gold rush before he sailed to Oregon in 1851. His wife, Mary, came to this area with her family over the Oregon Trail

from Indiana. Matthew and Mary Ellen met and were married here in St. Paul. Like most other settlements in the Willamette Valley, St. Paul's settlers came from many different places and from all directions. [Jane] And even with the help of Dr. McLoughlin, it took a lot of hard work to start a farm with only a small supply of seed grain and a plot of land. [film leader countdown] [Mark] For most of the early settlers, it took all the money they had just to get to Oregon. Choosing a site and building a house was next. Hopefully, before the cold winter rain set in and, even then, it might be another year before their first crops could be harvested. [Jane] The first wheat raised in Oregon was grown in French Prairie and for nearly 50 years, the

Willamette Valley was known as wheat country, shipping its grain and flour by boat downriver to the Columbia and on to California, Hawaii, and beyond. [film leader countdown] [silence] [film leader countdown] [Mark] Another interesting thing about the wheat grown here by those first settlers:

for a while, they used it just like money. [Jane] That's right. Before Oregon had coins and currency, the settlers used wheat and signed wheat orders to buy their supplies. [Mark] Of course, it did make it a little hard to make change. [Jane] Getting a good price for their crops was very important to the valley's first settlers, and one of the keys to being able to get by without the help and control of the Hudson's Bay Company was the cattle drive of 1837. An American by the name of Ewing Young, a former mountain man who'd settled in the valley, had a plan. He wanted to travel by ship to California, buy a herd of cattle, and drive them north over the Siskiyou Mountains. Some people didn't believe he could do it but, in the fall of 1837, he and his company arrived back in the Willamette Valley with 600 cattle. No longer would settlers have to borrow livestock from the Hudson's Bay Company. They were one step closer to surviving on their own. [Mark] Strange as it may sound, Ewing Young's cattle also played a part in the story of Oregon's first provisional government.

[Jane] But more about that later on, when we learn about how Oregon became a state. Right now, I have something very important in my pocket and I want you to guess what it is. [Mark] All right. [Jane] It's something you probably won't find here in the Willamette Valley but it was almost as important as cattle and wheat to the success of these settlers. You could even say it has magic powers-- [Mark] Magic powers- Jane, we're supposed to be talking about history. [Jane] Well then tell me if you don't think this sounds magical. One year, in St. Paul, and in most of the other settlements, what I'm holding made nearly all the young men disappear. Here's another clue: the year was 1849. [Mark] All right, I give up. What is it? [Jane] Gold! [Mark] The California Gold Rush! [film leader countdown] [silence] [film leader countdown] [Jane] Hundreds of Oregon settlers headed south in 1848 and 1849

in the hopes of striking it rich in the California gold fields. Thousands more were coming from the east. Many Oregon settlements were almost deserted. But for those who stayed behind, the gold rush created an instant demand for beef, flour, and lumber. [film leader countdown] They called it "gold fever." For some it meant a fortune, for others disappointment. [Mark] But here, in the Willamette Valley, it meant being able to get six dollars a bushel for wheat, that a year before had been worth only one dollar. [Jane] Where to now? [Mark] North to Oregon City, to learn how two Willamette Valley settlements became cities and to pay a visit to the house of Dr. John

McLoughlin. [film leader countdown] Oregon City was originally called Willamette Falls because of the river falls, nearby. In 1828, Dr. McLoughlin chose the falls as the site for a Hudson's Bay Company sawmill. The city gradually grew up around it. Before the gold rush, Oregon City was the only large town in the Oregon Country. But during the Gold Rush, other Willamette Valley towns began to grow, as well. When Dr. McLoughlin resigned as Chief Factor at Fort Vancouver in 1845, he wasn't very happy with the way he'd been treated by the Hudson's Bay Company. That same year, he began work on this house, which originally stood down by the river near the falls.

Dr. McLaughlin was eager to settle down here in Oregon City with his family and become a part of the new community. [film leader countdown] [silence] [film leader countdown] Dr. McLaughlin had one more major goal: to become a citizen of the United States.

[Jane] He felt he'd done his best to be fair to everyone he dealt with. He had made many loans to both Canadian and American settlers, loans that could never be repaid. [Mark] And, yet, during his later years here in Oregon City, he couldn't help feeling as if he was caught in the middle. His English supervisors hadn't treated him fairly and now it seemed many of his new American neighbors mistrusted him. [Jane] It would be years before some of his new countrymen realize just how much Dr. John McLoughlin did for Oregon and, especially, for those first settlers of the Willamette Valley. [Mark] Settlers like Étienne Lucier, that early French Prairie farmer who, we'll find out, played an important role in the story of Oregon's first government. Much like Fort Vancouver, the McLoughlin house is a national historic site honoring McLoughlin, the man known as the father of Oregon, and who some even call the father of all the Oregon Country. The house is operated by the McLoughlin Memorial Association and is open Tuesdays through Sundays, and admission is charged. [film leader countdown] [Jane] Most of Oregon's

pioneer settlers chose the Willamette Valley for their homes and, today, nearly three quarters of all Oregonians live here, in this valley. [Mark] And now I've got a riddle for you. [Jane] All right... [Mark] Thanks to the Gold Rush, one Willamette Valley town, just a little north of here, got a head start on its way to becoming this state's largest and busiest port. And I've got something in my pocket that helped that town get its name. Can you guess what it is? [Jane] No. [Mark] It's a penny. [Jane] A penny? [Mark] It was a penny like this that helped name Portland. Portland started out as a single log cabin in 1844. The cabin and the land around it were claimed by two people, Asa Lovejoy from Massachusetts and Francis Pettygrove from Maine. Lovejoy wanted to call their future city Boston. Pettygrove wanted to name it Portland after Portland Maine.

So how did they decide? They flipped a penny. Heads for Boston, tails for Portland. And that's how the City of Roses got its name: Boston, Oregon.