Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Illinois Valley news. (Cave City, Oregon) 1937-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 8, 2018)
Page A-8 Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, Ore. Wednesday, August 8, 2018 Alonzo P. Turner’s record of activity in the Oregon Gold Rush: by Greg Walter Part 2 of 7 Kanesville (Council Bluffs), May 23, 1852 I again attempt to write which is very difficult as we are travelling every day untill night. Night comes which is very Short, consequently you may think or imagine I have but little time to write. We arrived here at Counsil Bluffs yesterday noon. We have got our supplies & are to cross the Missouri this afternoon. We have 3 or 4 men in our company that has been through before and we have one that has a location in Oregon that has with a rich gold mine on it. He and I are warm friends. His name is Dan [Don?] Parrish. He has his family with him and he says that if I will go home with him that is in Oregon that he will show me a good situation. I am going through with him. The company numbers about 40. There are about 100 a day ahead of us and thousands immediately behind us. There is a tremendous rush to cross the River now. We have to cross today or wait 2 or 3. This being Sunday it is not quite as much crowded. The Boys are hurrying me now. We think of going out about 8 miles and let our horses rest a day or so then I will write all the particulars. I will give you a light sketch of my travels across the planes [plains]. We started from the Missouri River with high Spirits. Everything went on well for 2 or 3 hundred miles when we were startled by one of our company being attacked with the cholera and died. Suddenly we all prepared Ourselves for the preventitive of the horrible disease which by a little inquiry we found was cutting of any quantity of men all about us and continued and continued so all the way through, growing worse and worse until we reached Burnt River [a tributary of the Snake River]. Then it began to subside and when we got to Grand Round it changed to a Mountain fever that wound up the figure with thousands. When I got to Fort Boys [Boise] I was attacked with the horrible disease Cholera but with strict attention of Captain Mercer & Professor Bagley I was relieved. When I got over that barely I was attacked very severely with the Mountain Fever that struck me for about 4 weeks so that I was not able to write but the Capt. and the professor stuck by until I recovered. I attended them in previous sickness very strictly and they truly returned the compliment. I saw scarcely a man but that suffered more or less on the road. My sickness was occasioned by extreme exposure which was unavoidable. Upon his arrival in the Oregon Country after traveling across the Plains with the Bethel Company, Taylor wrote from Her life in the Valley of Riches by Laura Mancuso, editor Beware of email and phone scams! Just last week I got an email from a friend who asked if I could do her a favor. She requested that I buy her niece an iTunes gift card and mail it to her since she was out of town and then she would pay me back when she got home. My first thought when I read the email was, “Sure I could do that for my friend.” So I emailed her back asking how much she needed the gift card to be. In about an hour later the same email address sent me a message asking for three $100 gift cards. Then the light went on and I figured out that someone was trying to scam me for $300. These scammers are so tricky; they hack into your email addresses. I also have customers call me frequently and tell me their stories about scam artists calling them on the phone asking for money. By popular demand here is a list of scam avoidance tips from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC): 1. Spot imposters. Scammers often pretend to be Milwaukie, Oregon to his wife and stated, “I have labored five days since I landed and I am going to send the avails to you according to the agreement, which is $50.00 This may look like a big sum to make in five days but I landed here the 12th of September with bare enough for 1 night’s stay at the tavern. I went to buying Hogs and shall continue about ten days more and I shall try my luck in the mines. What I have seen of this country I like very well. A man can make more money in one month than he can in a year with his bare hands. I am bound to make the dimes. If I have luck that others do that stick close to business and not spend their effect in gambling ,drinking and what is worse Whoreing running about digging here and there anxious to make a pile in a minute and work for months without making their board. Then they get desperate and murder someone for their pile. No man will know how much I will make while in the mines. I shall pretend to make but little, wear my clothes as long as they will hang on me and shield me from the weather.” He goes on to explain how he will soon send money home for both her and the people he borrowed money from to come out west. The next letter is sent from Salem on October 15, 1852 and stated, “I am to start for the mines tomorrow which is about 200 miles distant with a pack train loaded with flour someone you trust, like a government official, a family member, a charity, or a company you do business with. Don’t send money or give out personal information in response to an unexpected request — whether it comes as a text, a phone call or an email. 2. Do online searches. Type a company or product name into your favorite search engine with words like “review,” “complaint” or “scam.” Or search for a phrase that describes your situation, like “IRS call.” You can even search for phone numbers to see if other people have reported them as scams. 3. Don’t believe your caller ID. Technology makes it easy for scammers to fake caller ID information, so the name and number you see aren’t always real. If someone calls asking for money or personal information, hang up. If you think the caller might be telling the truth, call back to a number you know is genuine. 4. Don’t pay upfront for a promise. Someone might ask you to pay in advance for things like debt relief, credit and loan offers, mortgage assistance, or a job. They might even say you’ve won a prize, but first you have to pay taxes or fees. If you do, they will probably take the money and disappear. 5. Consider how you pay. Credit cards have significant fraud protection built in, but some payment methods don’t. Wiring money through services like Western Union or MoneyGram is risky because it’s nearly impossible to get your money back. That’s also true for reloadable cards like MoneyPak, Reloadit or Vanilla. Government offices and honest companies won’t require you to use these payment methods. Excavation Cat Rental Backhoe Rental Dump Trucks Road Construction Demolition Work coffee, cheese beans and sugar.” Taylor would go south, eventually establishing himself in the Illinois Valley as the first donation land claim holder in that part of the country in December, 1852. He describes in detail his arriving and setting up his cabin. Also detailed here in the letters is the mention of the establishment of Crescent City Harbor and his desire to pay back the lenders that he had to mortgage the farm in Wisconsin for him to afford to come out west. Fort Atkinson at Council Bluffs aka Kanesville, Iowa 6. Talk to someone. Before you give up your money or personal information, talk to someone you trust. Con artists want you to make decisions in a hurry. They might even threaten you. Slow down, check out the story, do an online search, consult an expert — or just tell a friend. 7. Hang up on robocalls. If you answer the phone and hear a recorded sales pitch, hang up and report it to the FTC. These calls are illegal, and often the products are bogus. Don’t press 1 to speak to a person or to be taken off the list. That could lead to more calls. 8. Be skeptical about free trial offers. Some companies use free trials to sign you up for products and bill you every month until you cancel. Before you agree to a free trial, research the company and read the cancellation policy. And always review your monthly statements for charges you don’t recognize. 9. Don’t deposit a check and wire money back. By law, banks must make funds from deposited checks available within days, but uncovering a fake check can take weeks. If a check you deposit turns out to be a fake, you’re responsible for repaying the bank. 10. Sign up for free scam alerts from the FTC at ftc. gov/scams. Get the latest tips and advice about scams sent right to your inbox. If you spot a scam, report it at ftc.gov/complaint. Your reports help the FTC and other law enforcement investigate scams and bring crooks to justice. Fill Dirt CALL Rock Deliveries Crushed Shale 541-479-2424 Greenhouse Pads Building Sites Utility Work NOW! CCB#33187
