Tidbits of Oregon

"Henrietta is my baby! You can't have her. Mother gave her to me! We're supposed to stay together."

In the dead of night, John Sager, 14, slipped out of the Fort with his five younger siblings and continued on to Oregon. Their parents had died of cholera and now their Aunt wanted to take the baby and separate the family. John, a rebellious child while his parents were alive, was determined now they were dead to live out his father's dream of a new life in Oregon.

It was easy at first, the oxen were healthy and the road not too bumpy. They had plenty of food too, that is, they did. One of the oxen fell sick after crossing a raging river. Then, they were forced to camp with Indians who stole their food, and worse, most of the gunpowder too. At fourteen, John could do nothing except to roughly rally his siblings into going on. Catharine, the second oldest, broke her leg. With no immediate medical help, it healed crooked. She was a cripple for the rest of her life. Starving, with the baby on the verge of death, they stumbled into the Willamette Valley on their last legs. They had reached their goal, but they had nothing left.

Narcissa Whitman found them a short distance from the Whitman Mission. She took them in and saved the baby. The Whitmans were the first to bring a woman to the Oregon Territory. Their work there paved the way for future caravans and settlers.

Several years after the Sagers came to the Whitmans, the local Indians, those the Whitmans had particularly ministered to, rose up and massacred them. Catharine was one of the only survivors. The Whitmans however, left a lasting legacy. They, and others like the Sagers, were what had changed Oregon from a dream to a reality.

Today, the Willamette Valley is the most agriculturally productive region in the state and Crater Lake National Park is one of the most beautiful. Oregon acquired statehood in 1859. Founded as a refuge for slaves, Oregon was the only state admitted into the Union with a "whites only" clause. Oregon, said by the officials in Oregon to be pronounced Or-uh-gun, is home to the largest single organism in the world: the Armillaria ostoyae fungus, and the Oregon Ducks.

The woman recognized as the "Mother of Oregon" is Tabitha Brown. At age 66, she financed her own covered wagon trip to Oregon. The wife of a Congregationalist and Episcopalian minister, she arrived in Oregon with her remaining family on Christmas, 1846.

(This has been: Tidbits of Oregon. Look in next time to read: Foutain of Thoughts)