found a settlement on the southern coast which would enable them to avoid the bar of the Umpqua.
The place selected was on a small bay about eight miles south of Cape Blanco, and a little south of Point Orford. Orders were issued to Captain Tichenor[1] of the Seagull, which was running to Portland, to put in at this place, previously visited by him,[2] and there leave a small colony of settlers, who were to examine the country for a road into the interior. Accordingly in June 1851 the Seagull stopped at Port Orford, as it was named, and left there nine men, commanded by J. M. Kirkpatrick, with the necessary stores and arms. A four-pounder was placed in position on the top of a high rock with one side sloping to the sea, and which at high tide became an island by the united waters of the ocean and a small creek which flowed by its base.
While the steamer remained in port, the Indians, of whom there were many in the neighborhood, appeared friendly. But on the second day after her departure, about forty of them held a war-dance, during which their numbers were constantly augmented by arrivals from the heavily wooded and hilly country back from the shore. When a considerable force was gathered the chief ordered an advance on the fortified
- ↑ William Tichenor was born in Newark, N. J., June 13, 1813, his ancestor Daniel Tichenor being one of the original proprietors of that town. He followed the sea, making his first voyage in 1825. In 1833 he married and went to Indiana, but could not remain in the interior. After again making a sea voyage he tried living in Edgar county, Illinois, where he represented the ninth senatorial district. In 1846 he recruited two companies for the regiment commanded by Col. E. D. Baker, whom he afterward helped to elect to the U. S. senate from Oregon. Tichenor came to the Pacific coast in 1849, and having mined for a short time on the American River, purchased the schooner J. M. Ryerson, and sailed for the gulf of California, exploring the coast to San Francisco and northward, discovering the bay spoken of above. He finally settled at Port Orford, and was three times elected to the lower house of the Oregon legislature, and once to the senate. He took up the study of law and practised for 16 years, and was at one time county judge of Curry county. Yet during all this time he never quite gave up seafaring. Letter of Tichenor, in Historical Correspondence, MS.
- ↑ Port Orford was established and owned by Capt. Tichenor, T. Butler King, collector of the port of San Francisco, James Gamble, Fred M. Smith, M. Hubbard, and W. G. T'Vault. Or. Statesman, Aug. 19, 1851.
