| Oregon Rangers | |
|---|---|
| Active | 1844-1846 |
| Country | Provisional Government of Oregon  |
| Type | militia |
| Engagements | Battle Creek, Oregon |
| Commanders | |
| Notable commanders | Thomas Dove Keizur, Captain Charles Bennett, First Lieutenant A.A. Robinson |
The Oregon Rangers were two 19th century settler militia in the Willamette Valley of the contested Oregon Country. The first was established in response to the Cockstock incident and quickly dissolved. The second was formed in 1846 but only lasted few months.
The Cockstock Incident was climax of a dispute between a Molala named Cockstock and two black settlers, Winslow Anderson and James D. Saules over a horse. On 4 March 1844, Cockstock arrived at Oregon City, where anxious settlers soon attempted to capture him. In the ensuing skirmish, Anderson killed Cockstock by smashing his rifle into the native's skull. [1] Two white settlers, LeBreton and Sterling Rogers, were killed from injuries sustained in the fight. [2] [3] The event has been called "the most significant occurrence of violence" [4] in the Oregon Country between indigenous peoples and settlers prior to the Cayuse War.
The Oregon Rangers was organised on 23 March 1844 in response to the Cockstock incident. The militia members were given orders to meet at the Oregon Institute. [5] A total of 25 men enlisted in the group. The militia was initially led by Captain Thomas D. Keizur, who resigned shortly after its creation, with Charles H. Bennett taking command. Among the members included Webley John Hauxhurst, Lindsay Applegate, William H. Gray, and Daniel Waldo. [6] [7]
Members of the Oregon Rangers were expected to provide their own weapons and supplies. The Provisional Government promised $2 daily for active service. Despite being "aimed as much at the Hudson's Bay Company as at the Indians", [5] the company never entered combat and was quickly disestablished. [7] Frances Fuller Victor gave a negative assessment of the initial militia, stating there was a lack "any deeds of prowess performed by the rangers..." [5]
The organization was revived in May 1846 at Daniel Waldo's farm in the Waldo Hills. Many of the 45 members who agreed to create a mounted rifle company were a part of the previous militia. [8] The agreement read in part:
Among those selected as officers of the company included: Captain Charles Bennett, First Lieutenant A. A. Robinson, Second Lieutenant Isaac Hutchins, Third Lieutenant Hiram English, and orderly sergeant Thomas Holt. [10] Many in the group had some military experience, including Bennett and Holt, who had been in the Seminole War as dragoons. [11]
In June 1846 a band of Wascos arrived in the Willamette Valley and camped on the Santiam River. The band was probably on a seasonal berry gathering excursion, a traditional movement that "almost certainly dates back hundreds of years." [12] Rumors began to spread among the pioneer settlements accusing these Wascos of thefts, including livestock formerly owned by the Methodist Mission. [10] [8]
An estimated forty Rangers rode about 14 miles to location occupied by the band, under the command of Robinson, near what became known as Battle Creek in Marion County, Oregon. [8] A short skirmish ensued with one Ranger collapsing from heat exhaustion and one Wasco injured by David Daily. [10] [12] The Rangers soon retreated a short distance and then opened fire with their longer range rifles.
A parley ensued, with the Wascos upset and angered by the unprovoked attack, and they denied the accusations of their supposed thefts. As there was no evidence to support the settlers' claims, the Rangers offered a horse and some blankets as reparations to the injured native. The poor judgment and action by the Rangers led to ridicule by fellow settlers and the company was disbanded. [10] [8]
Oregon Country was a large region of the Pacific Northwest of North America that was subject to a long dispute between the United Kingdom and the United States in the early 19th century. The boundaries of the area, which had been created by the Treaty of 1818 without recognizing indigenous claims to the area, consisted of the land north of 42° N latitude, south of 54°40′ N latitude, and west of the Rocky Mountains down to the Pacific Ocean and east to the Continental Divide. Article III of the 1818 treaty gave joint control to both nations for ten years, allowed land to be claimed, and guaranteed free navigation to all mercantile trade. However, both countries disputed the terms of the international treaty. Oregon Country was the American name, while the British used Columbia District for the region. Meanwhile, Indigenous nations had lived in the area since time immemorial, though with little legal recognition in the American and British legal systems. Evidence along the Salmon River shows people lived there at least 16,000 years ago and may have populated the continent after migrating along the Pacific Coast, then following up the Columbia River into the interior.
The Molala are a Native American people of Oregon that originally resided in the Western Cascades. There are few recorded sources about the Molala, the majority being unpublished manuscripts. This assortment includes the works of Albert S. Gatschet, Franz Boas, Leo J. Frachtenberg, Philip Drucker, Melville Jacobs, and Leslie Spier.
The Champoeg Meetings were the first attempts at formal governance by European-American and French Canadian pioneers in the Oregon Country on the Pacific Northwest coast of North America. Between 1841 and 1843, a series of public councils was held at Champoeg, a settlement on the French Prairie of the Willamette River valley in present-day Marion County, Oregon, and at surrounding settlements. The meetings were organized by newly arrived settlers as well as Protestant missionaries from the Methodist Mission and Catholic Jesuit priests from Canada.
The Provisional Government of Oregon was a popularly elected settler government created in the Oregon Country, in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. Its formation had been advanced at the Champoeg Meetings since February 17, 1841, and it existed from May 2, 1843 until March 3, 1849, and provided a legal system and a common defense amongst the mostly American pioneers settling an area then inhabited by the many Indigenous Nations. Much of the region's geography and many of the Natives were not known by people of European descent until several exploratory tours were authorized at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. The Organic Laws of Oregon were adopted in 1843 with its preamble stating that settlers only agreed to the laws "until such time as the United States of America extend their jurisdiction over us". According to a message from the government in 1844, the rising settler population was beginning to flourish among the "savages", who were "the chief obstruction to the entrance of civilization" in a land of "ignorance and idolatry".
Webley John Hauxhurst Jr. was a pioneer in Oregon Country. He helped build the first grist mill in Oregon, participated in the Willamette Cattle Company, and was a participant at the Champoeg meeting where he voted for the creation of a provisional government.
Daniel Waldo was an American legislator in the Provisional Government of Oregon, the namesake for the Waldo Hills near Salem, Oregon, and the father of two prominent Oregon politicians. He was also a member of the Oregon Rangers militia and fought in the Cayuse War.
George W. LeBreton was a pioneer politician in the Oregon Country and served as the official recorder in the Provisional Government of Oregon. He was born in Massachusetts.
William Holden Willson was a pioneer of the U.S. state of Oregon and the founder of its capital city, Salem. A native of New Hampshire, he immigrated to the Oregon Country in 1837 to work at the Methodist Mission, and there would participate in the Champoeg Meetings. Willson served as the first treasurer of the Provisional Government of Oregon.
The Organic Laws of Oregon were two sets of legislation passed in the 1840s by a group of primarily American settlers based in the Willamette Valley. These laws were drafted after the Champoeg Meetings and created the structure of a government in the Oregon Country. At the last Champoeg Meeting in May 1843, the majority voted to create what became the Provisional Government of Oregon. Laws were drafted by the committee and accepted by a popular vote in July. These laws were reformed by a second version in 1845.
William Williams Chapman was an American politician and lawyer in Oregon and Iowa. He was born and raised in Virginia. He served as a United States Attorney in Iowa when it was part of the Michigan and Wisconsin territories, and then represented the Iowa Territory in the United States House of Representatives. He later immigrated to the Oregon Country, where he served in the Oregon Territorial Legislature.
The Waldo Hills are a range of hills in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, United States. Encompassing an area of around 50 square miles (130 km2), the hills are located east of Salem. The hills are named after pioneer Daniel Waldo.
Henry A. G. Lee was a soldier and politician in Oregon Country in the 1840s. A member of Virginia's Lee family, he was part of the Fremont Expedition and commanded troops during the Cayuse War in what became the Oregon Territory. He also was a member of the Oregon Provisional Government and the second editor of the Oregon Spectator.
Dr. Elijah White (1806–1879) was a missionary and agent for the United States government in Oregon Country during the mid-19th century. A trained physician from New York State, he first traveled to Oregon as part of the Methodist Mission in the Willamette Valley. He returned to the region after a falling-out with mission leader Jason Lee as the leader of one of the first large wagon trains across the Oregon Trail and as a sub-Indian agent of the federal government. In Oregon he used his authority to regulate affairs between the Natives and settlers, and even between settlers. White left the region in 1845 as a messenger for the Provisional Government of Oregon to the United States Congress, returning in 1850 before leaving again for California in the early 1860s.
The Wascopam Mission or Dalles Mission was a branch of the Methodist Mission opened at Celilo Falls in 1838. Among the tribes proselytized were members of the Cayuse, Klickitat, Nez Perce, Shasta, Tenino, Walla Wallas, and Wasco-Wishram. In 1847 the mission was closed and later became the site of Fort Dalles.
Felix Hathaway was an American carpenter and pioneer in what became the state of Oregon. A native of New England, he settled in the Oregon Country where he helped construct the first American-built ship in what became the state of Oregon. His home was used for the first meeting of the Provisional Legislature of Oregon in 1844.
Robert Crouch Kinney was an American businessman and politician in what became the state of Oregon. A native of Illinois, he helped found Muscatine, Iowa, before crossing the Oregon Trail and settling in what became Oregon. In Oregon he was a prominent businessman in the milling business and served in the Oregon Territorial Legislature before being a member of the Oregon Constitutional Convention.
The Cockstock incident was an altercation between indigenous peoples and settlers in the Willamette Valley. It originated as a dispute between Cockstock, a native, and James D. Saules, a free black settler. On 4 March 1844, conflict erupted between Cockstock's party and settlers; with Cockstock and two white settlers dying. The event has been called "the most significant occurrence of violence" in the Oregon Country between indigenous peoples and settlers prior to the Cayuse War.
Thomas Dove Keizur was one of the earliest American pioneers to settle in the Oregon Country. In 1843, he led his large family from Missouri to Oregon over the Oregon Trail. He homesteaded in Oregon's Willamette Valley in an area north of modern-day Salem, Oregon. Keizur was one of eight citizens elected to serve on Oregon's third pre-provisional legislative committee which helped lay the foundation for the establishment of the Oregon Territory. He was also the first captain of the Oregon Rangers, the first militia unit organized in Oregon. Today, the city of Keizer, Oregon, is named in his honor.
James D. Saules was a sailor of the United States Exploring Expedition. In 1841 he survived the sinking of the USS Peacock at the Columbia Bar. Saules subsequently was among the first black settlers of the Oregon Country. While residing in the Willamette Valley he became involved in the Cockstock incident.
Nathaniel Holly Gates, also known as Colonel Gates for most of his life, (1811–1889) was an American pioneer lawyer and Oregon state legislator. He was an active Democrat throughout his life. He served four terms in Oregon's territorial legislature. This included one term as Speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives during the 1858 legislative session. After Oregon became a state in 1859, he served one two-year term in the Oregon House of Representatives and one four-year term in the Oregon State Senate. Before immigrating to Oregon, Gates lived and worked as a lawyer in Ohio and Iowa. After moving to Oregon, he settled in The Dalles and opened a law practice there. He helped develop that community and served as the city's mayor five times in non-consecutive terms.
