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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (July 4, 2018)
2 Wednesday, July 4, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon O P I N I O N Washington’s bad day By Jim Cornelius Editor in Chief HAPPY 4th of JULY! Letters to the Editor… The Nugget welcomes contributions from its readers, which must include the writerʼs name, address and phone number. Letters to the Editor is an open forum for the community and contains unsolicited opinions not necessarily shared by the Editor. The Nugget reserves the right to edit, omit, respond or ask for a response to letters submitted to the Editor. Letters should be no longer than 300 words. Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned. The deadline for all letters is noon Monday. To the Editor: Nice article about the store in Camp Sherman ("One hundred years of a country store," The Nugget, June 27, page 1). Interesting to note that Katherine and Clarence Smith were left out of the article. They owned the store from late 1940s until Mary Lou and Larry Loar purchased the store from them. Both of their children, Tom and Sandy Smith, grew up at the store. Tom went to first grade in the old log school-house. They both went to school in Camp Sherman until com- ing into Sisters to go to high school. Tom is still alive and lives in Sisters. Would be nice to see that someone who grew up and continues to live locally be included. At least contacted to review some of his 20-plus years of history. Jennie Smith Sisters Weather Forecast Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Partly Cloudy Sunny Partly Cloudy Sunny Sunny Sunny 86/55 90/52 83/46 84/50 89/50 87/52 The Nugget Newspaper, LLC Website: www.nuggetnews.com 442 E. Main Ave., P.O. Box 698, Sisters, Oregon 97759 541-549-9941 | Fax: 541-549-9940 | editor@nuggetnews.com Postmaster: Send address changes to The Nugget Newspaper, P.O. Box 698, Sisters, OR 97759. Third Class Postage Paid at Sisters, Oregon. Editor in Chief: Jim Cornelius Production Manager: Leith Easterling Classifieds & Circulation: Teresa Mahnken Graphic Design: Jess Draper Community Marketing Partners: Patti Jo Beal & Vicki Curlett Accounting: Erin Bordonaro Proofreader: Pete Rathbun Owner: J. Louis Mullen The Nugget is mailed to residents within the Sisters School District; subscriptions are available outside delivery area. Third-class postage: one year, $45; six months (or less), $25. First-class postage: one year, $85; six months, $55. Published Weekly. ©2018 The Nugget Newspaper, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. All advertising which appears in The Nugget is the property of The Nugget and may not be used without explicit permission. The Nugget Newspaper, Inc. assumes no liability or responsibility for information contained in advertisements, articles, stories, lists, calendar etc. within this publication. All submissions to The Nugget Newspaper will be treated as unconditionally assigned for publication and copyrighting purposes and subject to The Nugget Newspaper’s unrestricted right to edit and comment editorially, that all rights are currently available, and that the material in no way infringes upon the rights of any person. The publisher assumes no responsibility for return or safety of artwork, photos, or manuscripts. The Fourth of July is America’s Independence Day, but it is also the anniversary of a signal event that set the stage for the American Revolution. On July 4, 1754, Lt. Colonel George Washington of the Virginia Militia surrendered Fort Necessity in the frontier land of southwestern Pennsylvania to an overwhelmingly superior force of French regulars and their Indian allies. It was the culmination of a series of cha- otic events in which a young and green George Washington almost single-handedly touched off a world war. In the early 1750s, the British and the French were sparring over their respective claims to the western Pennsylvania area — the Forks of the Ohio that marked the route into the vast, rich interior of North America. Virginia’s Colonial Lt. Governor Robert Dinwiddie had already sent the youthful Washington to Fort LeBouf in the Ohio Country to tell the French that they were trespassing on Virginia terri- tory and must leave. The French were polite and hospitable, but not inclined to acquiesce to the Virginians’ request. Dinwiddie sent out a construction party to build a fort at the Forks of the Ohio, but they were sent pack- ing and the French began con- struction of Fort Duquesne (now Pittsburg). Washington was ordered back to the frontier with orders to act on the defensive but to restrain anyone who attempted to obstruct colonial settlement activities. Dinwiddie was acting on his own authority, without any authorization from London, and putting such orders in the hands of an ambitious, aggres- sive young militia colonel was a good way to start a war. That’s just what happened. Getting wind of an apparently belligerent scouting party com- posed of French Marines (their elite forest fighting force), Canadiens and Indians in the area, Washington determined to attack their camp, with the aid of some Indian auxiliaries led by the western Seneca sachem Tanacharison. Tanacharison’s presence was another handful of dry tinder to toss on the fire: he had been insulted by the French and was seething for revenge. Washington and about 40 of his troops struck the camp, killing several of the French soldiers. Most significantly, Tanacharison tomahawked t h e F r e n c h c o m m a n d e r, Joseph Coulon de Villiers de Jumonville, who had in his pos- session a summons ordering the British trespassers to leave the territory. The French considered de Jumonville to be on a diplo- matic mission. His killing was what you call an international incident. Washington knew the French would likely counterattack him, so he retreated to Great Meadows and built a log pali- sade, which was completed on June 3. A month later, a force of about 700 French regulars, militia and Indians came down on him and his 400 men, which included a hundred British reg- ulars under a Captain James McKay, whose regular commis- sion put him on an equal footing with the Virginia militia colonel. Fort Necessity, as it was called, was poorly situated, with the French holding ground high enough to fire into the fort and the surrounding earthworks. When rain drenched the meadow and dampened the soldiers’ pow- der, Washington had little choice but to surrender the hapless fort. The British departed the fort on July 4. The commander of the French force was the brother of the slain de Jumonville, and he was in a chippy frame of mind. One of the surrender docu- ments contained an admission from Washington that he had “assassinated” the emissary de Jumonville. Washington later insisted that the translation he was given acknowledged responsibility for “the death of” or “the killing of” the French officer, not “assassination.” It was all a terrible mess. These skirmishes in the for- est of western Pennsylvania would have world-shaking con- sequences. Within a year, the British and the French would be at war in earnest, in a con- flict that spanned the globe. The British victory in the Seven Years War left the Empire ascen- dant, especially in India, but it had profound unintended con- sequences in North America. The colonists learned to assert themselves, and by July 4, 1776, that self-assertion included a Declaration of Independence. And it would be Washington who would make that declara- tion good. One imagines that Washington was well satisfied to have something to remember July 4 by other than the humili- ating episode of his youth. The fallout from defeat in the French and Indian War would fundamentally damage the Bourbon monarchy in France, which would ultimately fall in the French Revolution of 1789. And so the hinge of fate swung at the impetus of a young militia officer, an angry Iroquois diplomat and a handful of fron- tier partisans in the deep back- woods of North America.
