Image provided by: Crook County Historical Society/Bowman Museum; Prineville, OR
About Crook County journal. (Prineville, Or.) 189?-1921 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 15, 1903)
Crook County Journa VOL. VII. PBINEVILLE, CROOK COUNTY, OREGON, JANUARY 15, W.. NO. 5 A. OUR OIL FIELDS. To Bo Opened Up In The Near Future, Machinery Purchased. The Bout Part of ths Oil Fluids In The County Have Been Re-located, Last spring mid summer there was considerable talk about nil in thin wet ion ill till) State, lillt aside from ii In rn' mmihrr of locations being made, tlioru was little dune towards tluv'topinciit. There were several reasons for this state of affairs, 4ut the principal one was the discovery of oil i ' 'bo Malheur country, which attracted llii' Imlk uf the oil imnH'ctrfl uml investors ut tluit time. However those interested in tliv oil hnds in tit irt vicinity were not idle, if lliry were silent. They organized u company and wild flock, and did u number of tiling necessary Id kt fect their organization mid by the first of (In- year wcru in a fair con dition for work. A large itmoti nt of tliu good ground wan located ly mtkdiim who wcru desirous of selling out to some one with n little money and who were in no shape to go ahead and develop anything thoiiiKolve, and no they were a detriniunl to those who had put money into the enter prise. A uriod of patient wailing was rewarded when the flint of the year cnine around, and they diiU not do the necessary work to hold their elaiiiM, thin forfeiting their right and leaving the claims open to location hy any who no desired. Interest had died down and no rush wan made to tho oil regions when themt claims became vacant. Ahout the HrHt of January a rep resentative of the Enterprise Crude Oil Company apieared in Prine villa and without any ostentation proceeded to relocate all the licit claim that had heretofore liecn taken. A large numlier of these claims lie adjacent to l'rineville and are said to show up iuj well as any in the oil U ltn of the state. A ledge of carboniferous rock erojis out a mile north of town, which hint been tested and found to con tain a large percentage of fixed carbon and the (urination closely resembles that of the now famous coul licit near Ileppner, so that if there is no oil struck, there in every likelihood of a good body of ooal being uncovered which would bo of immense value to the town anil would make this a manufacturing center in the immediate future. The Enterprise people have money on hand to go ahead with the necessary work and will begin bor ing for oil in the near future and with (air prospectB of success. This means much for our fair city and i( the prospecting is suc cessful it meana that l'rineville will jump from & village to a city within a short period of time and that many of our citizens who have faith enough in tho future of the oil business in this county to in vest their money in it will become wealthy. Hut whether coal or oil is struak we may expect l'rineville to become the center of an active community teeming with indus tries of many kinds, for the natural wealth is here and all that iB neces sary is to have the matter brought before the riglit class of people who have money to invest, and are not afraid to do so, and the rest will be a mere matter of future history. llualneae Uualr managed. Either the Interior Department is over-particular about Oregon 'base" lands, or else the public iiimi inisiucsH in tins state has been wretchedly mismanaged by the HI ale Laud Agent and some local land officers. Largo q'utiiti- lies of lieu lauds, based on alleged mineral hinds, have been sold hy the slate, hut many of these min eral land selections are being hold u)i hy the Interior Department, ami proiiaiiiy will lie disallowed as mineral land "base" in which case the purchasers of Iho lieu lands will lose them, and will como hack on the state for their money, which it will bo morally bound to ropay, o: else to supply tho purchasers with other lauds, in many ciibch worth several times the amount re ceived by the state for the lands sold. The whole business seems to have been very loosely man aged, to uso no stronger expres sion, and it will nol be surprising if eventually the stale is "out and injured" to tho tune of anywhere from $10O,(XX) to 'IMW). It may be that Secretary Hitchcock, through his long-staudiiig grudge against Commissioner Hermann, is prejudiced against the Oregon officials, and is inclined to disal low claims that should lie allowed; hut the practice of giving title to lands before the state has obtain ed title, and even before it knows whether il ever will jet title, is certainly a very poor way of do ing business not to mention the strong suspicion of improicr col lusion between certain ollieials and lamlgnibbcrs. Telegram. M WMhlHf Ian. Washington, Jan. 7. The House committee on general pub lie land" today directed Represent ative Moody, of Oregon, who was authorized some time ago to favor ably report the bill providing for an exchange of railroad grant lands for lands of the p'thlio do main, to amend tho bill before re porting It to the House, so as to make it apply to wagon grant lands aa well as to railroad grant lands. Representative Mondell, of Wy oming, informed the committee that he would prepare and intro duce a hill embodying recommen dations of the Secretary of the In terior relative to selling timber of the public lands. The committee will meet tho Secretary of tho In terior at the Interior at tho In terior Department tonight, when a conference will be held on tho Ne braska land grazing bill. A Groat Forward movement ,Rov. Francis E. Clark, the founder of the Christian Endeavor movement, is sending circulars to tho suite ollicers asking them to take part in a great forward move ment (or 1903. An effort is to be made to increase the number of so cieties in the state by ten per cent., and to add ten per cent to the roll o(each society. The state making the required increase will lie pres ented with a banner at the Inter national Convention in Denver, land tho successful societies will be placed on the roll of honor. There are no restrictions: Mem bers may bo active, associate or honorary; and the societies, senior, intermediate or junior. Each dis trict will he assigned its share of tho work. The plan, as announced, is to make the last week of January "Increase Week," when the strongest effort is to be made. The first Sunday in February. "Endeavor's llirthday," will be "Decision Day," a day for adding new members. With a definite object, a ten per cent increase, and a definite time, from January first to the Denver Convention in June, Oregon will doubtless claim a banner for slate work, and many societies be on the roll of honor. ONE HUNDRED YEARS Wliat Jefferson Did for Posterity. Better Than He Knew. He Was An Expansionist of the Most Rabid Kind And Bought Land. Just 100 years ago this month President Jefferson and the Con gress ol the United States were tilled with anxiety regarding the ultimate fate of the Spanish Prov ince of Louisiana, then about to be transferred to France. Withdraw al by Spain of the privilege which it formerly granted to the United States of desisiting goods on Span ish territory at tho mouth of the Mississippi had brought home to tho Government at Washington a sharp realization of the necessity for American control of an outlet to the liulf. The desire "to obtain tho territory on the left bank of tho Mississippi, and eastward of that, if practicable," as Jefferson expressed it in his message to Con gress on January 11,1X03, led to the dispatch of envoys to Paris and Madrid to conduct negotiations looking to that cud. Napoleon, then First Consul, forseeing war with England, surprised and de lighted the Americans by selling not only the pri'sent State of Louisiana, embracing tho mouths of the Mississippi, but also all the French possessions west of that river, now embracing many great and prosperous states, for the baga telle of $15,000,000. This was for two reasons; the minor one was, Najioleon needed money; the major one was, lie desired to cripple England on tliis continent. It wus not that he loved the Ameri cans he loved nobody but that he hated England, always his foe, and his only invincible foe. This magnificent purchase relieved Jef ferson of another anxiety which in that message of 100 years ago he had confided to Congress. He felt the need o( pos sessing a "respectable breadth of country" along the east bank of the Mississippi, "so that we may present as firm a front there as on our eastern border. We possess what is below the Yazoo, and can probably acquire a certain breadth from the Jllinois and Wabash to the Ohio; but between the Ohio aiid the Yazoo all the country be longs to the Chickasaws." With all his prescience, and in spite of tho range of his vision to Ore gon, Jefferson did not forsee the expansion and development of a century. Yet he buildcd wisely and well, even better than he knew. He was the original great expansionist. He expected that on reasonable terms this great territory east of the Mississippi be tween the Ohio and the Yazoo could bo acquired from the Chick asaws, as it was, thus making a solid territorial possession from the Atlantic to and beyond tbV Mississippy. In his annual mess- ago in October, 1803, President Jefferson announced the ac quisition of territory of magnifi cent proportions, including the cession by the Kaskaskia Indians of much of the present slate of Illinois., Then, 100 years ago, we were having an easy war with Tripoli. The annual revenues had risen to tho then vast sum of $12,000,000. The young nation had a popula tion of 5,300,000. The wars of Kurojiean nations had redounded in various ways to the henehe of the young republic. By these pur- hases it liecame secure in its po sition and rounded out and squared up its territory "in good shape." And, as we know, Jefferson did not stop theie. He senl Lewis and Clark to Oregon. He did not foresee the War with Mexico and the acquisition of a great area of Pacific Coast territory in conse quence, but he had his eve on the vast country "where rolls the Ore gon." Jefferson was an insatiable landgrabber, of contiguous conti nental territory, (or the benefit of the republic and its future gener ations, Telegram. Would weaken Fulton. A Roseburg view of the Oregon Senatorial contest is that the re turn oi lormer innu commissioner Binger Hermann to become a can didate for that office will prove a severe blow to the ambitions and aspirations of C. W. Fulton. This pointer on the situation was brought to Portland by Charles H. Fisher, editor of the Capital News, an afternoon newspaper of Boise, Idaho. Mr. Fisher makes his home in Roscburg and has lieen tqicndiiig the holidays there. It is the lielief of Mr. Fisher that the support that has thus far been given Fulton came for the most part from Southern Oregon. Hermann is bound to cut into this if he comes back to Oregon, and takes off his coat to fight. While Mr. Hermann might not have enough votes in the Legislature to even stand a remote chance of winning, those ballots that he did get would be subtracted from the Fulton following. , It is claimed there are many in Roreburg who believe it would he a wise move on the part of Her maim to come out boldly for Sen ator, thus declaring himself free from the stain that has been im plied through his dismissal. Port land Journal. Rostand Items. B. J. Pengra, we are sorry to hear, has been under the weather for some time past. Dick Vandervert has moved his family from Prineville to his home stead at Riverside. D. Wilhelm returned from the county Beat Monday, with winter supplies. ' Mrs. J, S. Bogue has been quite low with lagrippe, be is now able to be around again. Geo. Beatty went to Prineville last Saturday (or a load o( sup plies. There seems to be plenty o( tim ber left in this section, judging (rom the number ol locators that are here. ilham Hollinshead went to Bend Saturday to visit his son,wlio is attending school there this win ter From appearances one would think spring had come. The snow has nearly all left us, but the icy roads are still here, and look like they had come to stay. Frank and Georgo Bogue have gone to town. Frank to move his happy family back to Rosland and George, well we will let him tell that when he returns. John Sizemore, of Bend, has been spending a few days with us. He tells us he is building a new hotel at his place and when it is finished he will give a dance. Mac. Notice. If the party who found a brown fur cat e at the rabbit drive, nt Willow creek basin Sunday, Jan. -1th, will return the same to Cul ver Ktoflice they will be reward ed bv the ow ner. Mrs. M. E. Snooh NEWS BRIEFLY TOLD Items of Interest Gath ered Here and There Same Stolen, Others Not Oulllngs From Our Exchanges News Notes of the Week Timely Topics. The population 6f Siberia has doubled during the past twenty years, but not of its own accord. 99.58 of the children of Oregon between 10 and 14 can read and write. Only two states exceed it by a very small fraction.. Booker T. Washington is now on the Pacific coast. At Ontario, Cal., Sunday he addressed the largest meeting ever held in the city. Sealed bids for 300 cavalry horses for the ninth regiment (colored) at Fort Walla Walla, are now being received by the officers in charge. Another Frenchman has been scratched in a duel. The French duel may yet become deadly. There is always the possibility of blood poisoning. Noah, Columbus and J. Pier pont Morgan have been referred to as three great masters of the sea. Why should Noah and Columbus be mentioned? The Baker City Democrat is in formed that there is an abundance ai -now in the Bine mountains which insures sufficient water to operate the placer mines next sea son. North Yakima ia'suffering from a coal famine. A wreck on the Northern Pacific delayed a small shipment, from Roslyn, but when it arrives it will not meet one fourth the demand. There is something about the name of that boy burglar Paw pawlicki recently taken in charge by the Chicago police, which sug gests a paternal duty that may have been neglected at home. There are times, after all, when divorces are justifiable. A man has secured one because his wife smoked cigarettes. How mai.y women are there entitled to di vorce (or bad habits o( man? "And do you understand?" ask ed the Sunday School teacher, "why you pray (or your 'daily bread?' " "Oh, yes," replied little Elsie, "that's so we'll be sure to have it (resh." The Oregon Mining Journal, published at Grant's Pass, and the American Mining Journal, of San Francisco, have been consolidated, and will hereafter lie issued from Grant's Pass under the name of the Oregon Mining Journal. Idaho sheepmen are shipping corn from eastern states to feed to their flocks. Ranges are said to lie badly crowded, owing partly to the presence of Montana and Utah herds, A good snowfall this Win ter promises well for range and crop conditions this year. The State of Idaho has, through its State Engineer, completed a de tailed statement of all the arid lands within that state, of both public and private ownership. The information has been forwarded to the General Government and is to he acted upon in the near future. The Oregon Railroad & Naviga tion Company will take an active part in the irrigation schemes now under way in Eastern Oregon. The Harrinian svstem proposes this season to put more people in to Oregon and Washington than have ever come here nt any one time in the history of the states. Sumpter has nearly doubled in building accommodations since the boom of 1899-1900, and yet it is difficult for those now arriving to secure business and dwelling rooms. Rents are more reason able to tenants than in the boom times, and there are a large num ber of buildings as well as tenants to fill them. Reporter. It is currently reported that a hill will be introduced in the leg islature to increase the salary of County Clerk Fields, of Multno mah, from 12,500 to $4,000 per an num, and also to increase the pay o( the chie( deputies (rom $100 to $150 per month, and the wages o( the unuer-deputies, who now re ceive $75 per month, says the Ore gon inn. The present volume o( immigra tion mostly from the countries of eastern Europe, should receive the consideration of Congress at the coming sh6rt session. It is not what a man eats but what he di gests that makes him strong.- So it is with nations.' Can the United States assimilate into its political svstem the trilies that are now con tributing three-quarters of a mil lion a year to the population. Money of untimate redemption is based upon gold and silver. Were it not for a steady flow of these metals from the mines o( the west to the commercial centers o( the east, the whole country would be swamped in a ' panic. Theorists . who de preciate mining and attack the legitimacy o( the industry, do not stop to consider this (net; bat, good financiers do, and they are alive to the (act that disaster would (ollow the suspension of mining, and more, they know that mining would not be carried on with greater activity and energy year after year i( it were not profit able, and a good thoroughfare for lucrative investments. Salt Lake City Mining Review. Ulan le a Great Thing. Here is what one of our ex changes says of man: "Man that is born of his parents iB of few days and full of bacili. As a bald headed infant he lieth in his cradle and kicketh up his heels witn colic and much squawk. He goeth to school when a youngster and getteth the seat of his pants hammered (or something he did not do, until lie is sick at heart and unable to sit down. He groweth up like a weed in the (ront yard and soon reaches the age when he is composed largely o( (eet, (reckles and an appetite (or pie. About the time he gets too long (or short pants and not long enough (or long ones, he goeth away to college and learneth to monkey with a three dollar man dolin and tear off big words. He maryeth a sweet young thing whose papa'is supposed to be pres ident of the first national bank, but whom he after ascertained couldn't buy a prize rooster at a country fair. He worrieth along from year to year, gradually ac quiring off-spring until his family begins to resemble a Sunday school class the week before Christ mas. About the time he has ac quired enough collateral to make life seem sweet he is hurried away with rheumatism; his children have a knock down and carry out over the terms of bis will. His sons blow in his estate on bad whiskey and plug hats; his wife puts on the finishing touches to his career by marrying the hired man." i .