Historical Brief - Did you know
that by 1844, Oregon had declared both slaver and the
residence of African-Americans within
the territory to be illegal?
Historical Brief - Among those who arrived in Oregon
Territory in 1844 via the Oregon Trail was a Black man named
George Washington Bush
whose son William Owen Bush was elected
to the first Washington legislature in 1899, and also credited
with spearheading legislation which resulted in the found of
Washington State University
Historical Brief - On August 20, 1851, a Black
man named
Jacob Vanderpool, who
owned a saloon, restaurant and boarding
house, became the first and only Black person of record
to be expelled from Oregon because of his race.
Historical Brief - The 1860
census shows 128 Blacks living in Oregon,
with the highest number in Jackson County.
George Fletcher was a bronco rider of singular talent. He rose
to fame along with the Pendleton Roundup and was heralded as
one of the greatest rodeo stars in history. He had a
reputation as “the people’s champion” and roped and reined
until his death in 1973. Born in 1890 in St. Marys Kansas, his
family came to Oregon at the turn of the century and settled
in Pendleton, Oregon. George built friendships with Indians
from the Umatilla Indian Reservation and was adopted as one of
their own. He learned the Umatilla customs, language and
horsemanship.
At 12-years-old, learned to ride broncs by practicing on a
barrel and in 1910 entered his first rodeo at the 4th of July
event which became the Pendleton Roundup, where he placed
second. In 1911 George made the Saddle Bronc finals, which
became known as “the controversial finals,” the first time
Jackson Sundown, a Native American, John Spain, a European
American, and George Fletcher, an African American, competed
for a world title in rodeo. At the “controversial finals”
Fletcher made an outstanding ride and brought the cheering
crowd to their feet, but was placed 2nd to John Spain, so
Sheriff Til Taylor took up a collection from the assembled
crowd and awarded it to Fletcher, proclaiming him “The
People’s Champion.”
Fletcher served in World War I where he was wounded, which
ended his career in rodeo. He was a ranch cowboy in the
Pendleton area until his death in 1973 and was inducted with
the first group in the Pendleton Roundup Hall of Fame in 1969,
and later
was a 2006 Inductee into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in
Oklahoma.
Historical Brief -
Salem's "Colored
School" opened in 1867, and was called
"Little Central" located behind the regular
Central School on
the corner of High and Marion Streets.
Historical Brief -
In 1844, James Clyman wrote a mock epitaph for his
friend Moses Harris, a wagon train guide on the Oregon Trail
in the 1830's:
Here lies the bones of old Black Harris
who often traveled beyond the far west
and for the freedom of Equal rights
he crossed the snowy mountain heights.
He was a free and easy kind of soul
especially with a Belly full.
Moses Harris is said to have been
born around 1800 and believed to have first come
west in 1823 to help build forts and participate
in fur trading he was a friend and companion to
Jedediah Smith, Jim Bridger, and Jim Beckwourth.
Harris spent years exploring and fur trapping in
the Rocky Mountains and Oregon Territory, and in
1836 helped guide the Whitman-Spalding Party to
Oregon. In 1844 he piloted one of the largest
immigrant wagon trains to Oregon and is credited
with helping build Fort Laramie. In 1845 he
rescued the Stephen Meek party after they became
lost in the high desert, and led them to The
Dalles.
Harris was considered an expert in
winter travel who helped with the exploration of
the Applegate Trail, and later rescued a party
stranded on the Applegate Trail in southern
Oregon. He explored Cascade Mountains to find a
better route than the Barlow Trail. Harris
returned to Independence Missouri where he is
believed to have died of cholera in 1849. There
is long-standing controversy about Harris’s
race, though artist Alfred Jacob Miller, who new
Harris well, once wrote: “He was of wiry form...
with a face apparently composed of tan leather
and ship cord, finished off with a peculiar
blue-black tint, as if gunpowder had been burnt
into his face.”
Historical Brief -
There are 43 Black pioneers buried in Salem's Pioneer Cemetery
dating from the
1800's.
2009 Black Pioneer Dedication
Louis A. Southworth
(1830-1917), born a slave in Tennessee traveled
the Oregon Trail and later played the
fiddle at gold camps to earn money
for his freedom. He survived a wound in the Rogue
River Wars and became a respected homesteader and
later donated land for a schoolhouse, learned to
read and write and became a blacksmith. More on Louis A. Southworth
William (John) Livingston
was born in
Missouri and was a childhood friend of Samuel
Clemens (better known as Mark Twain). He was later
sold to Judge Ringo, who freed him during the
Civil War in 1863. The following year, Livingston
came to Oregon with Ringo's son. The Judge himself
came west in 1865. Livingston continued to work
for the Ringos in Oregon and was eventually given
40 acres of land by the Judge and a team of horses
by the younger Ringo in recognition of his long
service.
As an early settler in Oregon he worked at many
different jobs through the years, and maintained a
friendship with the Ringo family and the respect
of the communities in which he lived and worked
until he'd saved enough money to start his own
business.
He married Alice Irene Cooper in 1876, and the
couple had a son, Charles, the following year.
When Livingston died in 1912, he owned 180 acres
of land in eastern Oregon and his estate was
valued at over $15,000. Hundreds of friends and
family members attended his funeral. OBITUARY
Click to read
complete
obituary of John Livingstone
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We would also treasure any donation
of artifacts or relics with a particular connection to
Oregon Black pioneers and Oregon History. Perhaps your
family has handed down special relics or items that would
be perfect to display in the Oregon African American
Museum.
Photographs, historical documents as well as other
tangible items from the last 150 years that are relevant
to Oregon are all to be considered a valuable part of the
OAAM collection.
