976 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



OREGON AND WASHINGTON. 



The first domesticated slieep were brought to Oregon from California 

 in 1843 by the Oregon settlers, who went there to purchase cattle. The 

 event is known in the early history of Oregon as "the second cattle 

 drive" from California. * The Oregonians, on arrival in California, inl 

 1842, found there Jacob P. Lease owning sheep, and pursuaded him he 

 would find a market for them at good prices if he would drive them to j 

 Oregon. This he did by joining the party and driving with them. 



There has been some doubt, until within a few years, whether Mr.] 

 Lease brought his slieep to Oregon with the first cattle drive in 1837, i 

 or with the second in 1842-'43. It has also been in question as to the 

 number brought. There seems no longer reason to question that the? 

 only time Mr. Lease was in Oregon was in 1843. The late J. W. Nes- 

 mith, who filled many positions of honor, among them that of United- 

 States Senator, came to Oregon in 1843 and passed the succeeding 

 winter of 1843-'44 with Capt. Gale, the leader of the second cattle drive, j 

 In the course of an address to the Oregon Pioneer Association, he said : j 



In the spring of 1843 they started to Oregon with a party of forty-two men who i 

 brought with them an aggregate of 1,250 head of cattle, 600 head of mares, colts, I 

 horses, and mules, and 3,000 sheep. They were seventy-five days in reaching the 

 Willamette Valley. On their arrival with their herds the monopoly in stock cattle i 

 came to an end in the Willamette Valley. 



As this last sentence is not likely to be understood by any but the 

 oldest of the pioneers of Oregon, I think it proper here to explain that 

 the first domestic cattle in Oregon were owned by the Hudson Bay 

 Company. When Dr. John McLoughlin took charge of that company's i 

 affairs as chief factor in the Columbia Valley, and moved its chief post 

 from Astoria up to Vancouver, on the north bank of the Columbia, in ] 

 1825, the cattle numbered 27 head of all sorts and ages. In 1829 he 

 began the policy of loaning two cows each, and steers for teams, to the 

 retiring Canadian servants of the company, whom he advised to settle 

 in the country. He did the same with the American settlers and mis- 

 sionaries. He advanced one-third of the money used to buy cattle when 

 the first company of American settlers and missionaries was formed to 

 go to California for cattle in 1837, yet he continued to lend cattle to 

 needy settlers until 1843. Except the killing of a calf or two annually 

 to get rennet for cheese making, he permitted no cattle to be killed for 

 the use of himself, his officers, or employe's until 1838, when the first 

 beef was killed for use at Vancouver, and in 1839 he refused to supply 

 the British squadron under Capt. Edward Belcher with beef, for which 

 the captain complained of him on his return to England. It is proba- 

 ble Dr. McLoughlin could not sell cattle without disobeying the London 

 directory of the Hudson Bay Company, but by this system of loans, in 

 addition to the loans of seed and bread grain, and giving out imple- 

 ments, tools, and clothing on credit, he nourished the first settlements 

 of Oregon into existence, during years when the pro-British portion of 



