CLATSOP COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY QUARTERLY Vol. 22, No. 1 - Winter 2002 CCHS Acc. # 86.57 Two proposed railroad lines appear in this map of Clatsop County in 1891. The Astoria and South Coast Railway was never finished. It was seven years more before the Astoria and Columbia River Railroad was completed. See the article beginning on page 32. Introduction Two of the authors in this issue are well known to long time Cumtux readers. Bruce Bemey and E. W. Giesecke have written numerous articles for us in the past. Both are experts in their fields. We are very fortunate that they are sharing their experience and knowledge with us. This issue introduces two new writers, Bryan Penttila and Bradley Green. They show much promise and we are pleased to present their articles, both written while they attended college. CLATSOP COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY 714 Exchange Astoria, Oregon 97103 325-2203 Heritage Museum 16th and Exchange Flavel House CLATSOP COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY 8th and Duane QUARTERLY Uppertown Firefighters Vol. 22, No. 1 - Winter 2002 Museum Copyright © 2002 Clatsop County Historical Society 30th and Marine Drive (ISSN 1083-9216) BOARD of DIRECTORS Contents: Randy Stemper, Astoria President Marsha Ettro, Svensen 1 INTRODUCTION Vice-President Kent Easom, Astoria 2 HISTORIC ASTORIA: FORT, Secretary Greg Panichello, Astoria FACTORY, ESTABLISHMENT, Treasurer POST...? Steve Emmons, Astoria By E.W. Giesecke Jean Harrison, Astoria Jan Mitchell, Astoria 11 “SO MUCH FOR ASTORIA”: The Kitty O’Keefe, Astoria Cathy Peterson, Astoria Frontier Reality of Astor’s Western Patricia Roberts, Gearhart Dream Yvonne Starr, Astoria By Bryan A. Penttila STAFF 24 CENTERFOLD: Scott Reuter Executive Director Newsletter Editor 27 GEORGE WASHINGTON SLEPT HERE Liisa Penner Curator of Collections By Bruce Berney Cumtux Editor 32 ASTORIA’S RAILROAD HISTORY: Lisa Studts The Decline of the A-Line Curator of Interpretation By Bradley W. Green Martha Dahl Business Manager 43 THEIR FIRST HAIRCUTS: Photographs Chuck Bean from John Vermeul’s Barber Shop Museums Maintenance 46 EDITOR’S NOTES Charlotte Hallaux Jackie Thackery FH Volunteer Coordinators 48 CORPORATE & BUSINESS SPONSORS Alma Jackson Volunteer Membership/ Memorials Clerk Front Cover: Early locomotive hauling logs to dump. CCHS # 8996-605, a J F. Ford Photo Carolyn Ayres Carol Lambert Printer: Anchor Graphics Annabell Miller Astoria, Oregon Jim Reichert Marlene Taylor Waverlie Warila CUMTUX: Chinook jargon: Ethel Wilson "To know, acknowledge to inform " Volunteer Archives Clerks CCHS Acc. # 01.149.001 John Jacob Astor 1763-1848 2 Clatsop County Historical Society The Nam ins of Astoria HISTORIC ASTORIA: FORT, FACTORY, ESTABLISHMENT, POST...? By E. W. Giesecke Is Fort Astoria the proper name for The first Astorians faced a gigantic Astor’s post in its first years (1811- task in clearing some ground on the 1813) or should it simply be Astoria? south shore and felling the towering Perhaps another term would be more evergreens. Gabriel Franchere, the 24- accurate. A search through the writings year-old able clerk and fluent writer, of members of Astor ’ s party suggests an reported one fir tree with a forty-two answer. foot circumference. Nevertheless, the The crossing of the stormy Colum¬ forest titans fell one by one from mid- bia River bar in March 1811 cost the April to mid-May 1811. With great lives of eight men. Captain Jonathan labor, the traders and clerks laid the Thom was barely able to sail the three- foundation of the first building, a ware¬ master Tonquin in over the breakers. house to hold supplies and trade goods From Baker Bay, the ship’s passengers: from the Tonquin. Lt. Jonathan Thom, partners, clerks, voyageurs and trades¬ from his captain’s cabin on board the men, and also twelve Hawaiians, finally ship at Baker Bay, was pressing the rowed to shore on the south side of the shore party to speed up so that he could Columbia. There, in April, they began land the supplies and then sail to the erecting the log houses, the first Euro- north. He was to carry out Astor’s in¬ American settlement on the Pacific structions and meet with A. Baranov, coast north of California’s Spanish mis¬ Chief Manager of the Russian-American sions and south of Russia’s cold fur Company at Sitka. Astor wanted a con¬ trade posts. tract that would give him exclusive trade John Jacob Astor’s new fur trade rights with the Russians, to the detri¬ settlement was strictly his own commer¬ ment of other American fur trade vessels cial venture. He called his enterprise the cruising the coast in search of sea otter Pacific Fur Company. This 1811 venture skins. was given no aid by the United States At the new settlement on the Co¬ government. While Astor directed this lumbia, the warehouse was finally com¬ and his other business out of New York pleted in late May 1811. It was the larg¬ City, his partners and employees worked est building. It measured some sixty-two hard at felling trees, constructing shel¬ by twenty feet. At this time, the young ters and storing the supplies from the fur traders decided among themselves ship. They made friends with the native to name the new establishment. They Americans. obviously felt some pride in their work- Cumtux - Vol. 22, No. 1 - Winter 2002 3 manship with the timber, though they Franchere began submitting with good were inexperienced with such mammoth grace to their preference of the name trees and rugged buildings. “fort,” and he used it several times, but Hard working and reliable Alexan¬ only after the sale. On December 12, der Ross, shipmate of Franchere from 1813, Captain Black of the British cor¬ the Tonquin, picks up the account of the vette Racoon “took possession of the naming of Astoria: establishment and the country in the “On the eighteenth [of May 1811], name of His Britannic Majesty and as soon as the foundation was com¬ named it Fort George. The Indian chiefs pleted, the establishment was named had been assembled to witness the cere¬ Astoria, in honor of Astor, the projector mony...” (Franchere, Journal..., Decem¬ of the enterprise.” ber 12). Young Franchere also recorded this The practice of the Hudson’s Bay naming of the settlement by writing: Company and their later rival Canadi¬ “...Astoria (the name we had given our ans, the Nor’westers, naming their fur post)...” He made this entry in his field trade posts as “forts” may well be traced journal on March 30, 1812. back to the long British government So the name “Astoria” took hold involvement in such commercial enter¬ early and then stood fast for as long as prises. Well over 300 years ago, King the Americans owned the post. The Charles II gathered a group of British journals of the first Astorians show that investors for pursuit of the fur trade in there was no attempt then or later to add North America. The Hudson’s Bay “fort” or any other such prefix to Company was formed by a legal charter. Astoria. The Great Seal of England was fastened But it is interesting to read in their to the charter on May 2, 1670. The Hud¬ published narratives the descriptive son’s Bay Company then, close to two names they did use in place of “Astoria” centuries later, for example, appointed from time to time. “factors” over area posts and forts in the For example, young Franchere, northwest. One of these, appointed by when he did not pen “Astoria,” wrote HBC’s Governor and Committee was “post” most frequently. But when he felt Dr. John McLoughlin. This “White- the need to be more specific, he wrote headed Eagle,” his Native American “Establishment.” As examples, in April name, was in the long term to be known 1811, he jotted down the words “...suit¬ as the Father of Oregon. Managing his able site for the Establishment.” On June Pacific Northwest empire out of Fort 5th, he recorded that “The natives began Vancouver from 1824 to 1845, to visit us more often and a fairly large McLoughlin was both Chief Factor and camp grew up near the Establishment...” principal superintendent of HBC’s Co¬ In his journal, Franchere only men¬ lumbia District. These British, and later tions “Fort” (to mean Astoria) beginning Canadian, traditions of organization can in November 1813 after the rival North best account for the terminology used West Company took possession of the by their fur trade organizations, e. g., settlement. This Canadian group of naming their fur collection posts “forts.” Nor’westers, as well as the British Hud¬ But John Jacob Astor and his plans for son’s Bay Company, typically called the Columbia River received no active their fur trade posts “forts.” Thus support and only nominal sanction from 4 Clatsop County Historical Society n o g e r O f o y r o st Hi s ’ y a r G H. m a Willi m o r F l. « CQL. C *uc/i > o o> c ©«D CL * ^ C/5 o £ Z o» u O « 3 a Cumtux - Vol. 22, No. 1 - Winter 2002 5 Courtesy of the Editor The cannon (technically a “gunnade”) standing guard inside the south entrance to the Heritage Museum deserves a second look on your next visit. It is one of the oldest man-made objects in the museum, dating to the late 1700s or early 1800s. It was dug out of the mud on the bank of the Columbia River below the site of Ft. George (Astoria), 15th and Exchange streets, many years ago. It is believed that it was placed at the fort towards the end of the War of 1812, during the British occupation. The crown symbol shown in the photo on the opposite page indicates that it was British. The “6” indicates that it used six pound cannon balls. The round projections at the side are trunions which allow the cannon to be swiveled up and down easily. President Thomas Jefferson. The post at In April 1811, he wrote in his the river’s mouth was to be entirely notes: “At last it was settled that the new Astor’s. It therefore followed that he or establishment should be erected on the his partners could name it whatever they south side, on a small rising ground wished. And so they did in 1811. They situated between Point George on the christened it “Astoria.” west and Tongue Point on the east, dis¬ Alexander Ross, the 27 year old tant twelve miles from the mouth of the shipmate of Franchere (both came on inlet or bar... From the site of the estab¬ the Tonquin) preferred the name “new lishment the eye could wander over a establishment” for the fledgling settle¬ varied and interesting scene.” (Ross, ment on the south bank of the Columbia. chapter “Founding of Astoria.”) Else- 6 Clatsop County Historical Society Cumtux - Vol. 22, No. 1 - Winter 2002 7 where, he again used the name On July 29th, rumors reached them “Astoria.” But Ross did not add “fort.” of hostile intentions of some of their He wrote of the post’s sale in December native neighbors. Indian friends reported 1813 as: “The name of Astoria was now that the Chehalis were planning to attack changed to that of Fort George; and this the post. Another rumor was that tribes done, the Racoon prepared to leave the from both north and south would wage Columbia.” war upon each other in the vicinity. The Names Used by the Partners and Astorians reacted to the rumors. On July by John Jacob Astor 30th: “...all hands commenced raising Duncan McDougall, one of Astor’s the Pickets and making other necessary several partners, had the difficult job of preparations for our defence.” The day managing the affairs at the new estab¬ before, McDougall wrote that “ our lishment. He kept a day-to-day journal [safety] rests in immediately throwing at Astoria (recently published as Annals up a temporary Fort & Bastions.” The of Astoria). word “fort” thus enters the settlement’s It was some days after the fur trad¬ record at the end of July. The buildings ers debarked from the Tonquin that they had not yet been enclosed. But the pick¬ could locate a suitable location for the ets were sought out, cut and set into new settlement. McDougall wrote on place. It is interesting that Chief April 11, 1811: “...proceeding up to Comcomly and his son “set off in the Point George, near which Messrs. afternoon promising to return in two McDougall [himself] & Stuart have days with 50 large Pickets.” This per¬ pitched upon, as the fittest place for the haps gave hope to the worried Astorians establishment that they had any knowl¬ that the hostile threat was not from the edge of.” local Chinooks. After referring to Astoria as “the At this point, four months after establishment,” he then (for several landing from the Tonquin, McDougall months) writes only of the individual (and likely some of his co-workers) structures the young fur traders are putt¬ began calling the settlement a “fort.” ing together; May 8th: “...clearing a But McDougall never wrote “Fort foundation for the store, digging & Astoria.” And because he was obviously clearing a cellar, etc.”; June 17 and 18: referring to the physical form of the “Finished covering one half of the post, and not to its purpose there on the Store... The hewers & squarers em¬ south bank of the Columbia, his writing ployed making a Magazine of half of the of “fort” seems to be merely descriptive Cellar. The others setting up the Raf¬ of the layout. Astoria’s mission was not ters...” changing. McDougall and his traders and The rumors of hostility gradually tradesmen — at times up to thirty men faded. The men began to work freely employed at clearing the massive ever¬ outside of the palisade. However, they greens and finding and felling smaller continued for the next year to build diameter trees - worked hard on the bastions along the palisades. Astoria new settlement. On July 13, 1811, one took on the appearance of a fort. But its group was “filling up the frame of the mission of gathering fur skins, dressing dwelling house.” and baling them did not change. Trading parties were sent out from the settlement 8 Clatsop County Historical Society