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Show IACIIE AMERICAN. LOGAN. UTAH ASTORIA: The Westernmost Outpost of a By ELMO SCOTT WATSON NE hundred and twenty-fiv- e years ago this month, an event of historic importance occurred in what is now the state of Oregon On April 12, 1811, the little ship, Tonquin, dropped anchor in one of the hays which form the mouth of the Columbia river. Seven months earlier she had set sail in New York harbor and pointed her prow toward Cape Horn. Now, after a voyage filled with danger and dissension, she had reached her objective. On board her was a strangelv-assortecompany of men who had come on an important mission. Here on the distant shores of the Pacific they were about to establish the westernmost outg post in the empire of fur which John Jacob Astor, mer chant-princ- e of New York, was building throughout North America. A party of 16 men had already gone ashore and when the Ton-qui- n was delayed by Ice In Chesnpeakp came to anchor, she was liny fur several weeks and young saluted with three volleys of Astor Improved the time Ly Miking with a eounlrymun, who wus In the musketry and three cheers. She fur business, and learning h1) about returned the salute with three tlmt Important Industry. cheers and three guns." Thus Arriving In New York Aster a clerk for a fur dealer. After writes Washington Irving, the earliest chronicler of this inci- a while lie was sent Into the Iroto buy from the Indent in American history. He quois country dians, n nd soon he was in business continues: for himself, first handling musical All hands now set to work instruments, then musical Instruments and furs, and finally furs cutting down trees, clearing alone. At first he went on foot, thickets and out away marking with a heavy pack on his hack, the place for the residence, camping out or living In the lodges storehouse and powder maga- of the Indians. lie went to Monzine, which were to be built of treal and from Montreal followed the fur traders westward, pushing logs and covered with bark. beyond I.nke Into the praiOthers landed the timbers in- rie country. Superior tended for the frame of the In the year that Astor galled from coasting vessel and proceeded England several of the principal to put them together, while merchants of Montreal had organized (he Northwest company to comothers prepared a garden spot pete with the powerful Hudson's and sowed the seeds of various Hay compnny, and goon had a virtual monopoly over the fur busivegetables. The next thought was to ness In the Great Lakes region. Their success encouraged the foundgive a name to the embryo ing of other companies and resultnatur-ally metropolis; the one that ed In the organization of a new suggested itself was that of association of British merchants lo d far-fiun- 11 e r - tK . I - I 1 A , S'l &&$ tv uJ" A ASTORIA AS IT WAS IN 1813 the projector and supporter of exploit the region south of the Great the whole enterprise. It was Lakes, an almost untapped reservoir of wealth in peltries. The prinaccordingly called ASTORIA. cipal post or factory of this com- They little dreamed how shortlived this "embryo metropolis was to be nor that history would write down the Astor project as a magnificent failure." If It had been a success, the course of American his- tory might have been profoundly affected by their labors. For, In the Arwords of a recent historian thur D. Hoivden Smith, author of John Jacob Astor Landlord of New York (LIppincolt) the significance of Astoria was this: "There is a tinge of epic quality In the affair, all the more human, and therefore the more interesting, for the failure which dogged it. The stake was the coastlands of North America, from the borders of the Spanish Crown to the fiords of Alaska, where Court Baronhoff ruled for the czar. Had Astor won, Canada would have been barred from the Pacific, and who can say what might have been the resulting effect upon the relations tween the United States and their northern neighbor? "Canada, denied a western seaport, must have been urged to closer ties with American industrialism: all the wealth of timber, minerals and agriculture that flow to Vancouver contributing to American prosperity; a railroad linking Puget Sound with Alaska the possibilities are limitFor less and fruitless to discuss. Astor didn't win. "But even in failing, and despite the errors of his course, he established the American title to Oregon and its hinterland, and so helped secure an empire sufficiently ample to satisfy most Americans, except the rabid breed who presently com Manifest Desmenced to shout: tiny! By which cryptic utterance they implied a conviction that Divine Providence favored the extension of the Eagle's sway the length and breadth of the continent. We have them with us yet. pany was historic Micliillimacklnac, from w hich place the new company took its name of the Mackinaw company. In the meantime young Jacob As lor had been industriously building up his own fur business. At first he shipped his furs to London, but ns soon us he discovered Hint China was a good market for fine peltries he embarked upon a venture into the Orient he first chartered, then bought or built ships to carry furs to China and bring back tea until, as lie said, he had a million dollurs afloat which represented a dozen vessels. When Ihe treaty of 1795 between Great Britain and America opened up a chance for direct commercial intercourse between Canada and the United States, Astor embarked upon tills trade but soon found himself balked by the power and Influence of the Mackinaw company. So John Jacob Astor, fur trader, gave place to the American Fur company, Incorporated lu New York writes his biogApril 6, 1S08, rapher, Arthur D. Howden Smith. The capital of $1,060,000 was entirely subscribed by himself, which gives an Inkling of the wealth he had acquired It Is obvious, too, tlmt he still Intended to make his business a affair. He had a very definite plan In view, hed stretch out his chain of posts along the Great Lakes to the Mississippi as far as St. Louis, running a second string along the Missouri westward to the Itockies. Intermediate posts in the mountains would link tiie Missouri chain with a third chain down the Columbia to the ... one-ma- n Baciflc. The main distributing and collecting center for the trade would be at St. Louis. A fort at the mouth of the Columbia would afford a haven for his China ships, wliieh would load there direct for Canton. A post in the Sandwich The story of John Jacob Astor is Islands would be a stopping place both on tiie voyage to Canton and a familiar one to most Americans son of a from New York to tiie Columbia. bow the This was a grandiose scheme, butcher in Waldorf, Germany, left inti sound. Developed logically, it home in 1770, and worked in Lon don for four years before he had must assure him control of the enough money to buy a steerage to entire region. His brigades would Baltimore; how he Invested the ne so situated that they could re rest of his money, after paying his pel any invaders, while the com passage, lu seven flutes, from the plementary arrangements for marsale of which he expected to lay keting the catch would give him the foundation of his fortune In an east and west dispersion, guarthe new country; how the vessel anteeing a maximum of economy. sixteen-year-ol- east-boun- Distinctive Dress With Scalloped Collar for the Charming Little Girl Empire of Fur Far-Flun- g he'd lie aide to buy fur cheaper, and sell them at a lower price. But be wasn't contented with Die arrangements already outlined. Tiie liussiun Fur company, In praelteully a government worked under several dlihcultlca. It lacked transportation facilities ut sen, and wus opposed hy the Northwester. Astor conceived tiie Idea of Joining forces with the llusslaus, SO that their furs, too, should puss through his bunds. "He contemplated eventual dom. loanee of the fur trade of the conAla-L- a, tinent "He carried the idea to Washington. considered it a great public acquisition, President Jefferson stated later, the commencement of a settlement on that point of the western coast of America . . . American free trappers and traders west of the Mississippi weie quite as jealous of Astor's company as they were of the Northwest men. In lStiti, Manuel I.lsa. one of the ablest of the Missouri trailers, orFur ganized the SL company, known historically as the Missouri Fur company. "It la difficult to understand why Astor didn't elTect a combination with Manuel Lisa aud bis men. Instead, be turned to tiie Northwest company, to men who were Canadians, active trade enemies, who very readily might become national enemies, in the troubled state of public opinion, For at this time relation between America and Kngland were strained and It was apparent to every one except Astor, who seems to have been strangely blind to tiie dangers threatening his enterprise that war between the two nations was Inevitable. heedless of this fact, Astor went aiiead with Ids plans, and on June 23, 1810, organized Die Pacific Fur company. Die first subsidiary of tiie American Fur company, with a capital stock of $200, OuO, all Personal of which he furnished. risks, however, were to lie home by ten partners, five of whom were former Northwest company factors Alexander McKay, Donald McKenDavid zie. Duncan McDotigal, Stuart, and his nephew, Itoliert Stuart. Another was Wilson Price hunt, a native of New Jersey, wlu was to he Astor's chief agent. Astors plan was to send two expeditions west, one by land and one by sea, with the expectation that they would arrive on the Columbia the following year at about the same time. Hunt was to lead the expedition overland and for the ocean voyage he secured the ship, the Tonquin, and placed in command of it Jonathan Thorn, a lieutenant in the United States navy, then on leave of absence. As it turned out both choices were unfortunate. Hunt had no western experience to qualify him for such a perilous overland journey and Thorn was a "petty tyrant and a martinet." Almost from the beginning of the voyage of the Tonquin there was friction between Thorn aud Astor's Canadian partners. By the time they readied the Columbia they were on tiie verge of mutiny. Thorn hurried the Astor men in their selection of a site for their fort and In unloading tiie tools to build it and a purt of their supplies. Then accompanied by McKay, tiie most experienced of the Northwest men, he sailed away north to get ahead of the British rivals in trading with the Alaska Indians. Despite McKays warnings about letting too many Indians aboard at one time. Thorn persisted In this One day the dangerous practice. irascible captain became angered at tiie Indians and struck one of their chiefs. The next day the red men came swarming on the ship again, ostensibly to trade, but In reality to avenge tiie Insult to their leader. There was a sudden attack greater purt of Die trading supplies and ammunition Intended for Hie new trading post was an almost Irreparable hiss. When news of the tragedy came back to Astoria, the men there knew that the only tiling for Diem to do was to hang on and await Die coming of tiie overland expedition. Autumn passed, and still no sign of hunt and hi men. Iiespite the assistance of exper.eneed men. such as Donald McKenzie and Batnsey Crooks, formerly associated with Lisa's Missouri Fur company, hunt's poor leadership had resulted lit Innumerable debit and a narrow from total failure. It was not until .January, 1812, that the first Contingent of tiie overland expedition, footsore and weary from the privations they had Louls-Mlssou- 8 years. Size 4 requires IS yards of 85 Inch fabric, plus H yard of undergone, arrived at Astoria. During tiie next month some more straggled In. Tlmt summer the United Stutes and Greut Britain went to war, hut it was not until tiie following December that news of the conflict reached Astoria, and it was brought by representatives of tiie Northwest company. In the meantime Aster had been pleading with President Madison to send a warship to protect ills outpost on tiie banks of the Columbia and help hold that region for the Americans. But Madison was too harassed with more pressing problems near at hand, and Astor's plea went unheeded. Eventually ills partners lu the Pacific enterprise sold the property to the Northwest company at a heavy sacrifice to tiie firm, although they made good terms for themselves with the Canadian company, to which they lmd once belonged. "Tiie Astor enterprise was nt an end . . . The ultimate responsibility for tiie failure of the enterprise rests on Astor himself, who entrusted Die carrying out of Die undertaking to a group of men almost all of whom were British subjects and who abandoned him when confronted with the crisis of war. The Astoria experiment had cost him dearly. He lost $800,000 in the venture, but as his biographer says, "he lost without whimpering, a sum in excess of the fortunes of all except perhaps a score of individual Americans in 1815; nobody else saw the vision he glimpsed, however imperfectly, and nobody else was wilting to undertake the job after he failed at it. But for his blind stumbling effort, our frontier north of California might conceivably have terminated at the line of the Rockies. The Astoria venture might have furnished material for a splendid national saga. As matters fell out, the best we can say for it is that it dramatized Oregon for our people, fixing in the memories of a busy generation the fact that our flag had flown on the Pacific coast. After the War of 1812 ended, the ownership of the Pacific Northwest Itudyard Kipling owed Ms name to the fact that hla father and mother first met on the banks of lovely I.nke Itudyard, near the borders of Staffordshire and Cheshire. It was here, too, that a gypy woman prophesied that they should have a child, horn far over the great copy. waters, who would be a wanderer In Semi your order to The Sewing Cirele pattern Dept., 119 New Mont- strange lands and across wide seas, but whose heart would always turn gomery Ave., San Francisco, Calif. to England. So when a child wan Hell P n ' n WNU PTVt . born to Mr. and Mrs. Lockwood KipBe Kind ling In Bombay, he was christened P.e kind to stranger If yon have Uud.vnrd, after the distant Midland no occasion to he otherwise. beauty spot contrasting. Tiie Barbara Bell Pattern Book featuring Spring designs is ready. Send fifteen cents today for your In Which th a "Friendship Oak" Talk About Its Past the past twelve DURING devoted almost ! wholly to roaming about the hither and world, willy-nillwith no yon, particular objective other than the next town or the next state, or one might sav y, the next country. It has been my lot to Intorvlew several thousand people, many of whom very kindly and patiently told me something worth priming in tills column. From kings to kibitzer, genius to gunman, Intellectuals to Imbeciles, and so on down the whole line of mortals, I have drifted seeking a line, a phrase, a column that might tiring some of the glamour Dial exists In Die far places. And, In a sense, I have talked with birds and beasts and fishes. Yes, and mountains and rivers, and at tiie same time set down the secrets that have come to me from Islands scattered throughout tiie seven sens. Itecenllyin Gulfport, Miss., on the campus of the Gulf Bark College for Giris, I paused and sat down in the simile of a tree so magnificent In all of Its aspects, so vast in Its proportions, so Inviting tlmt I sought an interview, assuming of course, that tiie object of my concern, having for centuries resided on tiie Gulf of Mexico, would not lie averse to disclosing some of Die details of a prosperous and well-spe- JOHN JACOB ASTOR Kipling Named for Laka Where Parents First Met life. Was Sapling in Columbus Day. It lias not been my privilege to look upon so massive yet so symmetrical a live oak as yourelf, I remarked, with no desire to concenl my admiration. Due to protection from the surrounding forest and tiie mild climate prevailing along the north shore of tiie Gulf, which is safely outside the zone of hurricanes, replied the tree. how long have you lived here?1 "About four and a half centuries. I was a sapling when Christopher sailed into tiie Caribbean and began to bear acorns when Ponce de Leon reached Florida In quest of tiie fountain of youth. In 15S7, the year Virginia Dare, tiie first white child born at Itoanoke Island, appeared, I had turned a hundred years and was a pretty well developed oak. With tiie settlement of James town and tiie coming of tiie Span lards, I saw many a pirate ship on tills coast where they put in for water and supplies, with headquarters at tiie mouth of tiie MissisLaiitte and Blackboard sippi. dropped anchor hereabouts durinj my time. When Captain Kidd wus hanged in London, 1701, for bis American buccaneering, I hud been right here where you see me now, for more tlinn two hundred years. How time flies ! When did you reach the full state of your development; attain your growth, so to speak? In Napoleons Reign. "During Napoleons reign, I should say. You can see from tiie bark on the trunk that I am quite old and that no' new branches are putting forth. For the past century I have been producing from six to seven thousand pounds of acorns each year, enough to fatten many hogs. In 1935 my output was eight thousand pounds, or two hundred and fifty bushels. My height at the crown is 70 feet; diameter of trunk 5 feet plus; circumference of trunk, 10 feet; spread of foliage, 120 feet, the diameter of my almost perfectly circular shadow when the sun is on the meridian late In June. The average length of my main lateral limbs Is 55 to 60 feet from the trunk, the terminals curvmg symmetrically toward the earth; average circumference of limbs at trunk, 5 feet; nearly 12,000 square feet of shelter; length of lateral roots, 85 feet; depth of tap roots, 35 feet I decline to tell my weight. "What are these platforms and staircases built Into the lower limbs 4v4ye V 4, around the trunk? '"x , Branches Now a Classroom. The outdoor lecture room where Vachel Lindsay held his classes In I English literature and poetry. There Is space here for 50 students to seat themselves comfortably. Extended, these platforms could easily accommodate 150 students without disturbing my leafage. There is room under my extended branches for BOULDER MARKING THE SITE OF ASTORIA all of tiie 300 girls attending Gulf The inscription reads: Site of Original Settlement of Astoria. ErecPark to find shelter without crowdtion of a fort was begun April 12, 1811, by the thirty-thremembers of one another, and with space to the Astor party who sailed around Cape Horn in the ship Tonquin and ing spare. You will observe that I have established here the famous American was which the first post and characteristics settlement west of the Rocky Mountains. Placed by Astoria chapter. the a proportions vast umbrella. of D. A. R., October 6, 1924. You should have a title. "1 am called the Friendship Oak. and Thorn and McKay wpre killed was a subject for heated controThose who enter my shadow are at the first onslaught. A few sm versy between England and Amersupposed to remain friends through A treaty signed In 1818 vivnrs managed to beat off tiie sav ica. prolifetime no matter where ages and took refuge below decks vided for Joint occupation for a all their fate may take them In after years. The next morning the Indians came period of ten years. In 181(1, ns I can tell you, without betraying back to plunder the ship. Suddenly a result of the cry of ,"4 40 or that there is not an alumna there wus a loud explosion and the Fight!" another treaty was made secrets, Park college, regardless of sea was covered with fragments of which established Die claim of the of Gulf was graduated, who does she when and the ship parts of human bodies United Stales to Die Columbia river not possess, tucked away someboth red and white. The crew of region and the American flag once and where her among keepsakes the Tonquin had sold their lives more floated over Astoria, never to treasures, a twig, a leaf or an be mi ered again dearly. acorns that came out of my hearL Tiie loss of Die Tonquin with the Western Newrapr Imoo C WNU Service. . Dou r Item aa Sgdatgii No need to endure the irritation of externnlly caused skin eruptions. Cuticura Ointment applied to irritated surfaces cuts Buffering short helps soothe, heal and bring astonishing comfort Use together with pure, mildly medicated Cuticura Soap that soothes as well as cleanses. Never be withworldout these products. Over a wide success. Be sure you get Cuticura today. Sold everywhere. Ointment 25c. Soap 25c. half-centur- y PIMPLES RASHES IRRITATIONS ECZEMA TIIE IEWH1UE I1ITEE A I; Distinctive Residence 1333 B Any little girl from two to six will look simply charming In this distinctive tiny frock which hag a high waist finished off with a dainty scalloped collar, and three little buttons. The shape of the collar gives the dress a fetchlngly demure look that Is adorable on all little girls. Notice the soft flare of the skirt and the loose short sleeves simplicity Is the This design requires a keynote. minimum of time and effort to make. Try It In gingham, wool chnllls, mils lln or a silk with a wee little flower design. You can also make this version In a simple crepe which is used In party frocks. Barbara Bell Pattern No. 1833 B Is available for siz.es: 2, 3, 4, 5 and A TURNS An Abode. ..renowned Throughout the West Salt Lakes Most Hospitable HOTEL Invites You RATES SINGLE $2.00 to $4.00 DOUBLE THE Hotel Newliotise $2.50to$4.50 400 Rooms 400 Batbs BROKEN WINDOW W. E. SUTTON, General Manager CIIAUNCEY W. WEST Assist. Gen. Manager INTO COOR LUdK '? St e WEV, KIDSl 1 CLUbY T qet swELL FRESl I PRIZES 1 Flakes package Grape-Nut- s Send the top from one raPe'ut Flakes, Battle Creek, Mich., and get the swell membership pin shown here. Also manual telling how to work up to higher ranks and how to get 36 dandy prizes free I So start eating Grape-Nut- s Flakes and saving the taps. Grape-NuFlakes is mighty good eating and mighty nourishing, too. A dishful, served with whole milk or cream and fruit, contains more varied nourishment than many a hearty meal. (Offer expires December 31, 1936. Good only in U. S. 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