Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 37/Letters of John R. Tice
LETTERS OF JOHN R. TICE[1]
EDITED by J. F. SANTEE
Now and then comes a reminder that, not only are the men and women of the covered-wagon days almost gone, but their sons and daughters, also, are rapidly passing. A news-item in the Seattle Times of May 5, 1935, constitutes such a reminder:
Medford, Ore., Saturday, May 4.–Fred Tice, one of the last of the old-time stage coach drivers, died here at 79.
When he was 20, Tice was piloting the passenger stage from Yreka, Calif., to Oregon. He set a speed record by driving his coach forty-five miles in four and a half hours, an average of ten miles an hour, which was fast time.
His perilous job led him through many adventures, one of which was seeing his six-horse team swept away from him and drowned in flood waters that caught them.
The Fred Tice mentioned was the eldest son of John Repleyea Tice, an Oregon pioneer, whose existing letters make an interesting commentary on life in the far west in the early 1850's.
John R. Tice, a son of Jacob and Elisa Elder Tice, left his home at Covington, Indiana, in the spring of 1851, to make the overland trip to Oregon. Only nine years previously the first considerable body of immigrants set out for the Pacific northwest over the Oregon trail.
In 1851 John R. Tice was nineteen years old. Besides his parents, he left behind at Covington a married sister, Kate, and the younger children of the family, Ann, Fred and Lizzy. To these younger children he had a strong attachment, mentioning them frequently in his correspondence.
In September, 1851, Tice completed his journey. While in Milwaukie he wrote this letter to his sister Ann:
Dear Sister,
I received your letter the 2d of the month which pleased me very much. ... I am very glad to hear you took Fred to La Fayette for he always wanted to go.
We came over the plains very well. When I wrote you at Laramie, there were 24 wagons in company. We traveled up the Platte till we overtook the Whites from Sullivan Co., Uncle Anderson's relations. There we divided and we went with them and traveled with them ever since. We called the oldest Uncle Jo and the company went by that name. I am at his house now. ... I am not settled yet but will be by the time the next mail goes out and then I will write what I am doing. I have not been here long enough to see what is going on. I like the country very well and I think I can do very well here. . . . We got to The Dalles on the 16th of last month. There I took a Steam Boat which runs to the Cascade Falls. There they have a road around the Falls for conveying goods to the lower end of the Falls, and there are other Boats that run to Portland. Portland is a thriving town of about one thousand inhabitants. It has sprung up in two years.
Davison and Partlow are talking about going to the mines this Fall. I can tell you in my next whether they go or not. I think I will go next Summer with Uncle Jo, but I can't tell till my next. The company is scattered all over the country. Smith is in Portland keeping Boarding House. Lucetta Redding is with them yet but there is a fair chance of her getting married to a Mr. Armstrong of Vincennes who travelled with us from the Umatilla. He is a fine man and well off and she will do well. Smith has done very wrong. He sold a wagon at The Dalles and brought it down to Portland and sold it again which will do him a great injury here....
I called on Mr. T'Vault but he was not at home. He has a very fine wife. ...I am going up tomorrow to see Mr. T'Vault. I heard that he had come home....
There are not many women in this country yet. Women can do better here than men. People who are holding claims want to get married. 'Tis the candid fact that if a man has a Family of girls he can get any accommodation he wants.
I suppose you have heard of a great many Indian depredations this year on the Plains among the Snakes. We were not troubled any but there were some before and behind us that were killed. There was Clark's Co. from Illinois that was attacked. They killed his Mother and Brother, wounded his Sister and stole twenty horses.
The health on the plains was good this year. There were some deaths of course but it was a healthy Season. ...
Give my love to all. Tell Fred when I come back I will bring him to Oregon. Tell Liz I will send her a letter some day. Tell Mother I am looking for her letters and will answer them regularly. ...
Your Brother
A week later Tice wrote hopefully to his parents regarding his prospects at Port Orford. A voyage to China, even, seemed within the realm of probability. Yet, Tice was not to visit the Orient, nor was Lucetta Redding to marry Mr. Armstrong.
Dear Father and Mother,
I wrote to Ann last Sunday just as soon as I received her letter. . . . Mr. T'Vault[2] has returned since I wrote to Ann. I have been to see him and have been employed by him till the first of March, or for one year if I wish, at Seventy-five Dollars per Month. I am to go to Port Orford three hundred miles south of here. He is going to move his family there this winter. It is a new place and he says it will make a business place. It is right in the mining Region. He says there will be an opening for making money there in the Spring. He is a very fine man. His wife is very much of a Lady, one of those plain women just the kind that I like. They have three children. Two girls, young Ladies, and one Boy about the size of Fred. We will leave tomorrow. We are going through by land and I will get to see a good deal of the Country. The Will-am-ette Valley, Umpaqua ditto, and the Country about the Port which is a good Country. There has been coal found there. ... There is no coal here but that which is shipped from England. Davison and Partlow are going to the Chastie (Shasta) mines so they will be with us for some distance. Davison received a letter from his wife which had some stories in about the Indians running us, which is not so and I don't want you to pay any attention to any of these stories at all. If we get run by them I will write you. They are raised to make you uneasy. ... Old Mr. Churchman has raised stories about Davison not coming back, which is done through malice. Davison thinks a great deal of his family. ...
Uncle Jo White is going to stay in Milwaukie, a small town between Oregon City and Portland, for the purpose of schooling his girls. ... Portland is going to make the City here. It is at the head of ship navigation and it is improving fast. Oregon City is finished for it has no more room to grow. It is built in a canyon at the falls. It will always be a good pious town. . . . [Here follows an uncomplimentary reference to Dr. McLoughlin.] Jo Lane's son Nat is here, one of the proprietors of the Island mill which is good property. ...
Tell Fred and Lizzy they must be good children and when I get down to Port Orford I will send them a lump of gold. I may not receive your letters regularly but still direct to Oregon City. I will write you from the Port as often as I can. The steamship Sea Gull puts in there every trip but I do not think there is an office there yet. ....
The boys are fools for living in Covington all their life-time and see nothing. I am going to see China if I live and have luck. No one knows what he can stand till he crosses the plains. When we came to Salmon Falls we traded for some fish with the Indians which were the best fish I ever ate. The flesh is of a reddish color. ...
Give my Respects to all my friends.
Your affectionate Son
Tice did not remain at Port Orford long. March of the following year found him a miner in northern California.
One year ago today I left Home, Sweet Home. I have seen a great deal and learned more of human nature than I ever knew before. As to money, I have made none yet. But I am still in hope. I would have written you three weeks ago, but I was taken with a bilious attack which kept me in bed two weeks. Now I am better and will be able to work Monday. My hand trembles so I don't know whether you can read my letter or not. I am still with Doc Partlow. He has gone over on Trinity River to prospect, and I hope he will bring back good news. I have not received any letters from you since I last wrote, but the mail comes in today and I look for letters strongly. We wrote to Jo Crain in Oregon to send our letters to us, and it is about time they were here. I have got hold of a few papers which say that you have had a cold winter in all the States. This is a splendid climate. A man can go without a coat all winter when he can work. The weather now is delightful, not a cloud to be seen, and a cool breeze from the mountains which are on all sides of us. Sacramento City has been all overflowed, but the river has fallen and the city is on dry land again. Charley Hansicken is in Sacramento City, editor of a paper.
If I had known as much a year ago as I do now, I would not have left the States. As it is I am here and I am going to make some money before I come back. That is what I came for. I do hope and pray that you are all well and doing well. If I made three Hundred Dollars or over between this and the first of August, I am going to Oregon. All I want is a little capital there and I can make money. If I should make that much, I should go to The Dalles and buy broken-down cattle of emigrants and recruit them up and drive them into the [Willamette] Valley and winter them and in the spring I can treble my money. ... I had the prettiest kind of a specimen to send to you, but when I was sick I gave my purse to one of the Boys to buy me a pair of blankets and they let it go. I was too sick to mention anything about it. I am very sorry I have none at present, but the next time I write I will send one.
There was a great time in town Saturday, an election for Senator. ... It was an old-fashioned one like they used to have in Covington, drinking and quarreling and gambling. There is a great amount of gambling going on in California. The mail is in, but nothing for us which I am very sorry indeed for. I want to hear from you very much. I will have to wait another week and trust to Providence. I do not know what part of the country I will —....
The remaining part of this letter is missing.
Dear Father and Mother,
... It is time I had [a letter from you directed to Shasta which I hope will be there soon. I have my name on the express list to Shasta which comes here once a week. I have been doing tolerably well since I last wrote you making six or seven dollars per day which is moderate wages. Boarding is very high. It costs us one dollar a day each and cook it ourselves.
I am mining with Andrew Davison, Mrs. John Crain's son. He is a good fellow to be with. He knows all about mining which I do not yet but I am learning. The Doc [Partlow] has gone off in the mountains prospecting. He may do well and he may not. I am going to stay here as long as I can make five dollars a day. ...
This place has improved very fast since I came here. It was composed of a few log cabins when I came here but now it is quite a city. There have several large frame buildings gone up and several more going up. ...
I will now give you our bill of fare and the cost of the same. We have good bread which I make myself. The flour costs us at present eighteen cents per pound. Of meats we have ham, the cost forty cts. Beef thirty to thirty-five cts. We had a mess of sausages at fifty cts a pound which was rather steep. Beans twenty-five cts per pound. Sugar and coffee thirtyseven cts. Molasses one dollar a qt. O yes, we have something extra, a keg of pickles which cost us three dollars per gallon but they are extra. We have some butter at times which is from one dollar to one dollar twenty-five cts per pound. There are about three Dairys. Milk is worth fifty cents a quart. ...
There is beautiful weather here now, the rains are all over. There are snow-capped mountains all around us which makes a cool breeze all the time. The nights are cool, not like the summer nights in the States warm and sultry. ...
They are sinking deep shafts here for gold. If they prove to be rich this will be one of the greatest cities in California. If they turn out rich I think we will sink one. ...
As soon as I get a few hundred dollars ahead, I will send you some money to school the Children. ...
Direct to Shasta City, Cal.
Your Son
The next letter brings to our attention the high postage rates then prevailing, as well as the fact that the receiver, not the sender, was responsible for the cost of transmittal. Postage stamps had not as yet come into use. The Tice letters were not enclosed in envelopes, but were neatly folded with the blank side outward. Each letter was sealed with wax and across the front was usually written, "Jacob Tice, Esq., Covington, Fountain Co., Indiana."
This has been a lucky day for me. I have reecived three letters, two from you dated Dec. 14th and Jan. 25th and one from Charley Holman. Although they cost me two dollars each, that is nothing for a letter from you when I have had none for so long. ... Don't let the dollars keep you from writing for the next will only cost me fifty cts. ...
Home, how sweet the word but God only knows when I will be there, but I hope some day may bring me back to see you all again. We have opened a Claim this week. I think it will pay us a ½ ounce a day for some little time. There have been rich diggings struck in town this week and the whole town is laid off in claims—streets and houses. If they prove rich the whole town will be dug up. I should think Covington was very dull at present all the men and boys leaving for California.
Your Son
Tice was beginning to feel the pangs of home-sickness. He worked industriously, however, and, from time to time, wrote rather explicitly of his experiences.
Dear Father and Mother,
I received your letter dated May 10th which I was very glad to receive. I am mining here on this Creek which is in the upper end of California about thirty miles from the line between Oregon and California. Andy Davison and myself are partners in mining. We have a Claim in the Creek which is paying six or seven dollars per day, which he is working and I have hopes it will get better for most all the Creek Claims are paying large wages. I have a good bank Claim which has paid us about ten dollars per day since we have been drifting. It took us about two weeks to get it open and ready to work. I am working with a man from Pennsylvania. He is much of a gentleman. Drifting I suppose is work which you never saw much of. The Bank we are working in is twelve feet to the bed rock. We commence on the bed rock and drift out three feet and leave the other nine feet over our heads. It is very pretty work in the summer time and no danger if we keep it well timbered which we do. ... I think old Covington must be pretty well deserted by this time, all the boys coming to Oregon and California. Well, I should advise all young men that will work to come, for good hands can get one hundred per month and board, and if they will be satis- fied at that, they can make money, but those that have families .... had better stay at home or at least leave their families there. ... Oregon is a very good country but it . .. won't hold the States. . . . Good Claims there sell very high and I would rather have a good farm in Illinois than in Oregon. There were two Companies left Oregon for the States. They were all families. ... A great Fourth (of July] we had here in the mountains. There was a liberty pole raised and a great deal of liquor drunk ..., but very little I drank for I have other use for my money. If I have any luck I want to be home by next July or before. Wesley McGonigal is on the Creek and has got a good Claim. He gave a good price but he will make some money out of it. All three of us want to come home next Spring if it is God's will.
... I am in good spirits and expect to make my pile this summer and winter. Andy sends his love to all his folks.
John
Write soon, if they do cost two Dollars and fifty cents they are always welcome. And all I send out cost fifty cts.
Tice did not make his "pile," and his hope of anything like an immediate return went glimmering. January, 1853, found him in Portland. He was having his difficulties in getting adjusted to conditions in the new country, as were "Old Man" Lawson, "Uncle" Joe White, and others.
Portland, Oregon Ter., Jan. 18/53
Dear Father and Mother,
I suppose you will be surprised to hear of me here. This has been a very hard winter in the mines. It commenced snowing about the first of December in the mines and Raining in Oregon the first of November, so it made the roads impossible for pack trains to travel and the consequences was they were out of provisions in the mines and will be for two months to come. We came down to get provisions and got caught in the storm and can't get out now but I think we will start back in about three weeks. ...
I wrote last fall I thought I would be home in the spring, but I will have to try it a little longer. There is no use of me going back to Old Covington without some money for I would not stay there if I did. I came to this Country to make money and I am going to have some. ... Andy and I are working partners. We are going to put all our money in mules and one of us go to packing this summer.
Now for the Covington folks I have seen since I have come down. First, Mrs. Johnson. I am at her house writing. She has a Milliner shop here. She is very well satisfied. Lucett Redding was married a few weeks ago to a Mr. Dergen (?) a very fine man....
I saw old Mr. Lawson last Sunday in Oregon City on his way up to George. He lives on a Claim on Yamhill river. He looked very well. He has been selling goods here but is moving his stock up to where George is. Avery Babcock is living near them on a farm. ... George Lawson and the Old Man bought their Claim. They gave one thousand dollars for it for a speculation, but the Old Man doesn't like it. Avery Babcock has taken his up but it is not much account.
Emigrants have a hard time of it this winter here as well as in the mines—those that have families I mean. . . . There are a great many families suffering here for something to eat. They make up subscriptions for them every few days here. ...
Uncle Jo White and Milton have moved over to the Sound. I don't think Uncle Jo is satisfied with the country. Tell Uncle Anderson if he wants to come Oregon to live he had better come and see the country and see it first.
Give my love to Kate and family. Tell Ann, Fred and Lizzy to be good Children, and I hope we may all meet again. ... Give my love to all.
Your Son
During the summer of 1853 the Rogue River Indian war was in progress, and there was excitement in southern Oregon. Then, as now, business was "picking up," with prosperity not far away. And, to Tice, prosperity meant an opportunity to return home.
Dear Father and Mother,
I received Mother's and Fred's letters last week which pleased me very much. I write this in great haste. Everything and everybody is in great excitement about Indian war. The Indians of this Valley have turned against the whites. They have killed two men and have wounded five or six since last Friday evening. The whites turned out yesterday and killed some six or seven Indians besides hanging three here in town. They have raised a company this morning and gone out but have not returned yet but will this evening. Andy and Frank went. ... Old Man Lawson is here in the room at present. He thinks of going to California as soon as the Indian difficulty is settled. He is well and looks hearty. We are doing as well as we can expect. Business is picking up a little and we think we will get good profit on what provisions we have got, and our mules are in good order and will sell well so I think we will be home this winter. ... We can't do much at packing till this Indian affair is settled for it is dangerous to be on the road in small companies. Tell Ann I will bring her a guitar with the greatest of pleasure when I come home and also Fred and Lizzy some presents. Tell Fred he must wait till I come and I will get him a gun and he must learn all he can till I come home. ... I want him to go in some business. ... Show all my letters to Kate and tell her they are as much for her as anyone, that she must not think hard of me for not writing to her for I am hard at work six days in seven and the seventh is washing and cleaning up day so it takes pretty much all the time....
Your Son
Evidently Tice found operating a pack-train to be more profitable than mining. In the following letter he writes of his work and of conditions in the new country.
Dear Father and Mother,
I wrote to you some four or five weeks ago which I hope you will receive for I have not written many letters for some time. I wrote the reason and will also [explain) in this. We are packing and are on the road all the time and have not an opportunity to write only when we stop and lay over a day and then some times we are out from houses and have no place to write). We have to live out doors all the time packing. Packing is dirty, disagreeable work but it pays us good wages. We have brought in wheat to this valley from Umpqua for seed. There is a great deal of wheat going to be sowed in this valley this season and (that) makes wheat in good demand. We bought ours for $4.00 pr Bu—and have sold the most of it for $10.00 pr Bu which is a good profit. Andy has gone today to engage another load if he can. He is well and says to mention his name to his folks. We have twelve mules, which is enough for us to pack in the winter. We have been pretty hard run for money to buy mules or I would have sent some money home, but will have plenty the next trip if we do as well as this, and I will send some home. Mules are very high now, from $100 to $200 a head. We have a good lot of mules, and I think they will bring us a good price in the Spring when we want to sell, for we are going to sell out and come home in the Spring certain, for I have been long enough from home I think, and I know you think so. There is but one thing that keeps me here this winter and that is we are fixed to make one thousand dollars apiece this winter if we have no bad luck and I think that is worth staying for, and if mules are as high in the Spring as they are now we have that much now, and I think they will be.
I saw Frank Wilcox and the Old Man Lawson yesterday. They are well, both mining. Frank told me that Mr. Hoffman and family had arrived in this valley and are living for the present some five miles from town. I intended to go and see them today but our mules strayed off and I did not find them till afternoon and then it was too late. But I am going to see them the next time I come into this valley. I would like to see them very much.
There are some four companies of soldiers stationed in this valley now. I was through their camp today. The Indians are all quiet at present and think they will be for some time but they may break out again next summer.
I received a letter from Jim Hollister two weeks ago. He is living in Portland. . . . Tell the children to be good and patient for I will be home next spring and bring them all some presents. Tell Fred I have a gun here. I wish he had it but he must wait to get it till I come. Send this to Kate and let her read it and it will answer for all, and write to me direct Jacksonville, Rouje River, Oregon.[3] Give my love to all. I have seen no one that I know that has come to this country this season. No more at present. Write soon.
Your affectionate son
Four Miles South of Jacksonville,
Dear Father and Mother,
... We are camped on Mr. Hoffman'[4] farm at present resting our animals a few days. Mr. Hoffman's folks are all well and tolerably well satisfied. They have bought one of the best claims in this valley with a very good one story frame house on it. I have been to the house several times. They have received several People's Friends and I could not stop till I had read them all, and May has Ann's likeness [daguerreotype?], which does me so much good to look at it once a day.
Mines are not doing much here or at Yreka on account of water. It has been a very open winter with the exception of last week which was very cold. We were on the road to Yreka with provisions, freight from Jacksonville, but the weather is pleasant again. The roads are muddy. There is a great deal of wheat being sowed in this valley this season. Farmers are going to do well next summer. There are two grist mills going up in this valley this summer.
Doctor McKinnell is practicing and doing well. He says he has twenty-five cases at present and is successful with all cases as yet.... I saw the Old Man Lawson ten days ago. He was well and had received the miniatures of his children which pleased him very much. His gold claim had not turned out as much as he expected and [he] said he would not return to the States in the Spring. Frank Wilcox is mining near Mr. Lawson. He had received news of the death of his Father, which makes him homesick.
I have to write you something that I don't know how to get around to tell you. I wrote that I was coming home in the Spring which I think I will. We have been speculating in wheat which may keep us till fall but if we can sell out at a good price in the Spring I will come home. I will give you an account of our stock in trade, the way we stand today. We have eleven mules, one horse, and rigging ready to pack worth $1500.00, and seventy acres of wheat sowed of which we get half delivered in the sack. Allowing that to average twenty Bu to the acre (which is the lowest estimation for this country) it will bring us seven hundred Bu of wheat, which will not be worth less than four dollars pr Bu. . . . It has taken all the ready cash to get the wheat, but we have debts standing out to the amount of two hundred dollars, and we owe no debts to any one. It is a time of year that we can get freight and we need not stop our train any longer than we want to. If we stay till next fall with our train we can make one hundred and twenty-five Dollars pr month apiece.... Wheat is worth here at present from ten to twelve Dollars pr Bu.
Jan. 12th.
I received two letters from you last evening . . . one from Father of Nov. 6th and one from Mother Nov. 12th. . . . I don't want you to think hard of me for putting off coming till fall for I don't want to come back to Covington without some money to start me in some business for it is very hard for one to get a start with nothing at all. If I stay in this country till next fall I think I can come home in September with at least twenty-five Hundred Dollars and maybe three thousand and that will give me a good start. I will send some money home as soon as we make another trip or two which will make us an overplus. ... I expect Kate thinks I am a neglectful Brother.
Tice, now a stalwart young man of 22, was becoming involved in various enterprises. He did not regard himself as established in the west, however, but thought of Covington, Indiana, as home. Like many another on the frontier, he dreamed of securing a competence and then returning to the old familiar scenes. The "wages" so frequently mentioned were dividends, or profits. The gold-miner speaks of his claim as paying, or not paying, him "wages."
In the following letter, Tice mentions seeing salt water for the first time at Crescent City, California. This being the case, it is evident that he was not previously at Port Orford, as he had once expected to be.
The pack trail from Jacksonville (near Medford) to Crescent City led generally southwest through a wild and rugged country.
Dear Father and Mother,
... I have just got in from the Coast—Crescent City—with a load of goods for a Merchant of this place, and expect to start back tomorrow. I have seen the salt water for the first time. We have fifteen mules now and are making good wages. Clear about twenty-five dollars on a mule. It is a little over one hundred miles from here to Crescent City. We make the trip in from two weeks to three weeks. Crescent City is about two days run for steamers north of San Francisco. We have a good deal of wheat sowed on the shares in this valley which looks well and will pay us good interest on our money. The Indians are all quiet and I expect them to be all summer.
I am very sorry that I will disappoint you by not coming home this spring but we are fixed for making money now and will stay till fall. As soon as we dispose of our wheat I will be ready to start home. Old Man Lawson started for the States this Spring. Frank Wilcox left here for new diggings and I have not heard from him since he left. . . . I am writing in a store where it is all business and I can't write much and I have no other place to write. When I come in again we are going to lay over two or three weeks and I will write you a long letter and give you full particulars. Give my love to all.
Your affectionate Son
Dear Father and Mother,
... The mails in this country are very irregular. Like every new country, it has its inconvenienves. We arrived from the Coast about one week ago, and expect to start back soon. ... Business has been very good this spring and freights have been a good price but the rainy season is over and freights a[re] going down. But we can make good wages this summer. We are packing from a place called Crescent City on the Coast. ... It takes us about two weeks to made a (round-] trip, but it is a very mountainous road and nothing but a narrow trail most of the way. I will tell you all about our business affairs here. In the first place we have our train of mules which consists of fifteen at present. Then we have one half of the crop of about seventy acres of wheat and barley together, about two hundred dollars in debts standing out, with five hundred dollars in cash. If our wheat turns out a good average crop we will be able to start home with a good little sum. Besides we will run our train till we dispose of our wheat and we can clear between us about three hundred dollars a month. . . . Just as soon as we can dispose of our wheat I am going to start home whether Andy does or not. I would have come this spring but he was in favor of staying till fall and our business was so arranged that we could not separate without sacrificing our property and I concluded to stay till fall. I don't want you to think hard of me for not coming this spring for I think, and thought then, that I was doing for the best, but I am not going to put off (returning] later than the first of October sure, for I want to come home as bad as you want me. After a dull winter things have opened brisk here this Spring. Miners are doing better here than ever before. There are some three Grist Mills in progress and two will be ready to run by harvest and a great many are speculating on the price of wheat. Some put it as low as three dollars and some as high as six do[llars], but I think wheat will be worth five Dollars pr Bu.... Flour is worth in Crescent City from 6 to 9 cts just owing to the market, and it can't be packed here (for) less than six cts pr Pd., which will bring it from 12 to 15 cts. ...
I have not been at Hoffman's for two months but am going up tomorrow or next day. I heard from there a few days ago. They were all well. Hoffman and McKinnell are interested in a grist mill in course of erection. Last winter was a very cold winter and they were dissatisfied with the country, but now the weather is beautiful and I suppose they are better satisfied. The last time I was there May talked of taking up a school but do not know whether she has or not.
Old Man Lawson started for the states last Winter. I had not seen him for some time before he started, that is to speak to him. We were on a trip to the Willamette, and he passed by our camp the evening of the 23d of Febʼy, so I found out afterwards. I was to a Ball on the 22d (?), the first one and the last one in this country. Frank Wilcox left here this spring to hunt new diggings and I have not heard from him since. I have not received any letters from Jim Hollister lately and I do not know any news of any one about Portland.
Write to Uncle Anderson and find out what part of Oregon or Washington Jerry's Joseph A. White lives. Uncle Jo we used to call him on the plains. My Bible and some other things are there and I would like to have them, and give them my love. ... I am going to write to Kate. Tell the children they shall all have presents. I am coming home in the fall if no preventing Providence. Good bye.
Your Son
Dear Father and Mother,
... We have some very warm weather at present. Thermometer 104 yesterday. The spring ... has been very cool ... which has made the crops backward for the season. Harvest will come off in about ten days. Crops look well, and would have turned out excellent but for one thing, that is the grasshoppers. ... All the wheat we have sowed on the shares will turn out an average crop for the valley, say twenty bu to the acre. We have been at work steady this spring and have made some money. We are laying up at the present, resting. ... But I will start again with the train soon, and Andy will stay and take care of our grain.
We are boarding with a family by the name of Wright, with Mr. Hoffman within one mile of us. Mr. Wright has three girls, and a host of them at Hoffman's which makes us good company. ... May[5] has had one school and is going to take another in one week from today.... I think Julia is a pretty girl. Wes McGonigal is carrying Express from this place to Yreka and is doing well. ...
I suppose you think when am I coming home. Well, just as soon as our grain is cut and we get a market for it. The rest of our business we can close in a short time. ... I am getting homesick. ... I see openings every day ... but I am not going into any spec[ulation] now for I am coming home this fall.
Your affectionate Son
I received your letters of Sept. 21st which were the first for four months. You say you have not received any letters from me since May. Well, it is not my fault for I have written several since that time. I expect you think I am an undutiful son. Well, maybe I am, but I could not come this fall without sacrificing very much on what property we had so as to make what little I had considerably less. I did not like to do it for I have worked very hard to get it. We have bought a farm and gone to farming. Joseph Crain has gone into partnership with us. ... Wheat is worth from four to five dollars pr Bu at present and will be higher soon.
There have been considerable fever and ague in the valley this season but it is healthy now. All of us have had our turns of it but are well at present. I do not know what more to write and I will not promise when I will be in the states but I am coming some of these days.
from your affectionate son
N. B.
Charley Miller, Isaac the drayman's Bro is here working for us.
... He wishes you would let Isaac know where he is.
Dear Father and Mother,
... I received a letter from Mother some time ago which was the first this winter. The mails to this place are very irregular for I know you have written more letters and you were upbraiding me for not writing more. I think I have written [letters] pretty often but you don't get them.
We are farming now, that is Andrew Davison, J. Crain and myself are partners. We have got about seventy acres of wheat in the ground and expect to put in twenty-five more besides oats and barley. You give it to me pretty hard for not coming home in the fall. The reasons I did not come are these that I could not sell out my interests here for what they were worth and I have worked hard, too hard for what I have got to sacrifice, and I saw a good opening to make more by staying a while longer, and again I do not think I would be satisfied to live in Fountain County, if I did come back, and to go back there and not be satisfied I would not stay there. I have got out of the way of dealing in five cent pieces. But I intend to come back on a visit anyhow before many years. Times have been very hard this winter. It has been a very open winter, no rain of any account which has prevented the mines from working.
I was at a Party last Thursday, the best that [has] been got up in the valley. The Miss Hoffmans were in attendance. It is the first dancing party they have had to in this valley. Miss May has been teaching school away from home all winter. She says she likes the country very much but Mrs. Hoffman and Julia are not satisfied. Mr. Hoffman is farming about two miles from where we live.
Charles Miller is here working for us. We have hired him for one year. He is Isaac Miller the drayman's Brother. We are going to get a thrashing machine and reaper here this summer which we think will pay us first rate. I do not want you to think too hard of me for not coming home. I know it is my duty to do it, but to go back and be a hireling at thirty dollars per month, I won't do it. When I do go I will be as independent as any of them. You may call this pride but I can't help it. Give my love to Kate and children and all enquiring friends. ...
My love to Annie and Lizzy. Tell Fred to be a good boy.
Your Affectionate Son
Dear Father and Mother,
... I will begin with Mother's lines to answer. You say that George Lawson says that I will never come home. He doesn't know nor any one else, not even myself. But it has always been in my mind to come and is still and always will be till I do come. But I won't promise to come till I am ready to start. When I promised to come before I expected to come or I would not have said so. Father says in his lines that my last letter was short. . .. I may have written several short letters, but I have never been fixed to write until the present. I will try to explain all my business now. Last fall when I thought I was coming back to the states we had a train of mules and wheat sowed on the shares. Mules were low. The cause of that was that there was not much freight and we could not sell our mules or wheat at their value. ... Then we bought 160 acres of land where we could take up 160 acres more and gave one thousand Dollars for it. We bought it for speculation but with the intention of improving it first and it will sell to a better advantage. There was nothing done on the place but a small cabin built on it. We came on the place the first of September, 1854. We have fenced 150 acres and have got one hundred acres of wheat, some few acres of Barley, and twenty-five acres of oats and are going to put in ten acres of corn in two weeks. We are hauling rails to fence one hundred acres more, and have built us a hewed log house in the meantime one and a half stories high, sixteen by twenty-four inside. ... We have one of the best claims in the valley, three miles from town. ... One of us is going to the Willamette in a few days to buy a reaper to cut our grain this harvest. Joseph (Crain) and myself have had the ague off and on all winter, and we have hired considerably, and our improvements have made us short of money, and my partners were not willing for me to draw out money till after harvest when I will send money. I ought to have done it before ... but I will do it this fall. You say you would like to know if I am going to live in this country or whether I liked it well enough to live here. Well, I will be candid with (you). I do and I would give everything I have [if] you were here with me. It is a hard journey to get here, but if Fred were here I could give him a good start in the world if he is industrious. ...
Mr. Hoffman is living in about ten miles of us and has got a fine farm but is in debt for it and paying large interest ... For society we have singing school at our house every Saturday evening, church every Sunday in the neighborhood. Last Saturday evening we had something like seventy-five persons with fifteen young ladies amongst them. . . . Joseph has been away in the mines for a few weeks but returned last night in good health. I have had no ague for two months and am in hopes that I will have no more. Don't scold me for writing short letters for I have written all the news I know. Give my love to the children. Write one letter without asking me to come back.
from Your affectionate Son
Notwithstanding his oft expressed intention, Tice did not return to visit his relatives in Indiana until about the year 1880. It was as a man in late middle age that he walked the streets of Covington once more.
In this final letter of the series, he explains in detail why he cannot return. Shortly after writing this letter he married Margaret Wright. Tice died at Medford in 1889, while his wife survived until 1926.
- ↑ These letters were made available through the courtesy of Mrs. Ira (Effie Frances) Phelps and her granddaughter, Miss Margaret Phelps, both of Lebanon, Oregon. Mrs. Phelps is one of John R. Tice's four surviving children, the others being Mrs. Nettie Clark, Mrs. Margaret Culver and Mrs. Hazel Robinson. With commendable pride Mrs. Phelps exhibits the powder horn which her father carried across the plains, and which is an heirloom from John Tice of New Jersey, a soldier of the American Revolution. Acknowledgments are also made to Mrs. Phelps for supplying certain information used in this paper.
- ↑ William G. T'Vault, pioneer of 1845, first editor of the Oregon Spectator, established an express line between Winchester and Yreka in 1851, and in August of the same year an attempt to explore a trail from Port Orford to the interior settlements was frustrated by an Indian attack in which half of his men were killed.
- ↑ Tice's spelling, "Rouje River," suggests that the original French name of the river was "Rouge," (Red) as has been claimed, but according to Father Blanchet, who came to Oregon in 1838, the French called the Indians of this region Les Coquins (the Rogues) and the river La Riviere aux Coquins (Rogue River); see McArthur, [[portal:Oregon Geographic Names|]].
- ↑ William Hoffman was one of the prominent pioneers of Jacksonville. He settled there in 1853.
- ↑ May Hoffman was afterwards Mrs. Vining, and Julia married C. C. Beekman.