On returning home Mrs. Cosgrove was very much dispirited, and exclaimed, “To think that I have brought my family here to raise them in such a place as this!” However, taking up the difficulty in a truly womanly way, she soon had the women of the neighborhood making sun-bonnets, and then instructed them how to weave wheat straw and make chip hats; and in course of time they even put on bonnets. Not so, however, with Mr. Cosgrove’s swallowtail coat and silk hat. These were such a mark for ridicule that he never tried them again, at least in that circle; but found his blue frock good enough. Indeed, even to this day, swell dress is much despised among Oregon men.
However, the placid life of the Oregon farmer was not to be long continued. The California mines broke out, and Mr. Cosgrove was constrained to go along with the rest of the settlers. He made two trips, returning the first time after a month’s mining to spend the winter. The second time, which was prolonged to a stay of about twenty months in the mines, he made very successful, but occasion arising to sell his store in the mines for $15,000, he finally decided to do so, and taking his dust, went down to San Francisco to look for a ship for the Columbia.
While at the bustling town he was induced to invest $15,000 in a stock of goods, which he brought to Oregon, and set up a store at Saint Paul. Here he continued in business for a number of years, but says that he discovered he was not cut out for a merchant, and so in course of time fell back upon the farm.
The place upon which he is now living, which is part prairie and part wood land, of fine quality, is immediately adjoining his original square mile, which he sold, as under the donation act, but one square mile could be claimed.
REMINISCENCES OF WM. M. CASE.
By H. S. Lyman.
William M. Case, a pioneer of 1844, who is still living on the donation claim taken by him in 1845 on French Prairie, was born in Wayne County, Indiana, not far from the Ohio line, in 1820. He is consequently now eighty years of age, but is still vigorous, of unimpaired memory, firm voice, and still master of affairs on his large farm of over one thousand acres. He is six feet tall, of wiry build, and rather nervous temperament, and very distinctively an American. In mind he is intensely positive of the most definite views and opinions, and has the peculiarly American qualities of fondness for concrete affairs. His hair and beard are now nearly snow white, and worn long; and his face is almost as venerable as that of the poet Bryant, which it somewhat resembles.
His life covers almost numberless interesting experiences, but is perhaps most intimately connected with the part played by the Oregonians in the California mines. This sketch will be confined more particularly to the peculiar facts of his life not common to all the pioneers. Mr. Case is particularly the man who can tell of the effects of the gold mining and California life upon Oregon and Oregonians, and he can explain a number of facts, quite apparent in their effects, but seldom or never given in their causes, of the feeling that has arisen between Californians and Oregonians.
It was an interesting incident that first directed his attention to Oregon. By William Henry Harrison, while serving as delegate to congress from the then territory of Indiana, public documents were forwarded freely to his constituents. To William M.’s father, who was an acquaintance of Harrison’s, there came, among other volumes, a journal of the Lewis and Clark Expedition to the Columbia River. Over this the boy used to pore, even while still young, and out of the crabbed volume, whose matter (certainly not the literary style) interested the whole nation, a most vivid picture was constructed of Oregon scenery, with the big trees, and the mild climate, and grass green all the winter. He made up his mind to come to Oregon when he was old enough. Before he was twenty he told his father of his intention, and was met with no opposition, the father being both considerate and intelligent; but with his consent, was given this advice: “Don’t go, William, before you are married; take a wife with you.” This wise and not at all unpleasant counsel young Case put into execution; hating, like all born men of action, to keep an idea long which he did not carry out in performance. By his young wife, who was from New Jersey, he was encouraged, rather than otherwise, to make the journey. She said, “My father used to dip me in the surf of the Atlantic on the New Jersey shore, and I would like to go and dip in the surf of the Pacific Ocean.”