Our first camp was at the ranch of old man Monture, that at that time looked like an old farm, as it was well improved. Peter Depot then owned the claim where Gervais is now situated, and I understood that he got it from Monture some time previous to that, but do not know the particulars.
Monture had two sons, named George and Robert. Whether they were both sons of the wife he then lived with I do not know, as morals were rather loose previous to arrival of the missionaries. There was a custom among ex-servants of the Hudson Bay Company to claim a wife wherever they might be among the Indians. After the arrival of Father Blanchet they were allowed to have but one wife.
I remember that George Monture was a very large man and very powerful; must have weighed 350 pounds. I have seen him lasso wild cattle and hold them to be branded without any cinch or other thing to hold the saddle on the horse. He did it by mere weight and bodily strength. He would do this for half a day together at a time.
Bob—as he was called—was not so large, but was stout and active. He was a fine shot with his rifle.
When I saw this mention of "Montour," I wrote to my old friend, L. H. Ponjade, to ask if his mention of Monture meant the same that Lyman thus referred to, and he confirms it as the same, and adds: "The old place where they lived was about one quarter of a mile west of Parkersville. Every man with any knowledge of old settlers knows of the Montures."
S. A. CLARKE.
DOCUMENTS.
Oregon Material Taken from a File of an Independence (Mo.) and Weston (Mo.) Paper for 1844 and 1845; Also Some Minor Extracts from Other Papers in That Vicinity.
During this time these towns were important outfitting points for Oregon pioneers. The Oregon fever was raging throughout the surrounding country, the frontier counties of Missouri. The newspapers, Democratic and Whig, in this vicinity appreciated the interest in the Oregon Country and in the movement of emigration thither. Their columns were open to reports of travelers returning from the Columbia. Letters sent back by pioneers in the Willamette Valley seemed to be in great demand. The documents printed below contain two noteworthy letters from persons who were in the great migration of 1843. Contemporary sources of the history of that epochal event are especially valuable.