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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 23, 1978)
Page 4 Portland Observer Section II Thursday, February 23, 1978 the trail. Harris left the Willamette Val ley on May 5. 1847, travelling to South Pass in the Rocky Moun tains where he met a party of Morman pioneers. William Clay ton. a journalist with the party, wrote: "He appears to be a man of intelligence and well acquaint ed with the Western Country..." Harris then met Commodore Ro bert Stockton and accompanied him to St. Joseph. Accolades from the .iress Picture: Library of Congress rendezvous was held in 1840. traveller. The statements of Harris left the fur trade but put Farnham are well calculated to his great knowledge of the west fling a discouraging influence to work guiding immigrants. over the adventurous throngs of He acted as guide to the immigrants now preparing to Gilliam wagon train of 1844, one start for that country in the of the largest, with approximate spring; and, though we by no ly 500 persons. This train travel means wish either to encourage led along the Oregon Trail, over or discourage these people, yet, South Pass, to Fort Hall and over knowing the contradiction of Mr. the Blue Mountains to reach the Harris be correct, we are bound Willamette Valley in October. On to second him in advancing the this wagon train were George truth...Let the immigrants se Washington Bush, a Black and cure a good guide and they are the first American to settle north safe enough.” of the Columbia; Nathaniel Ford Harris lived for three years in and his slaves; and many others Oregon, staking a claim in the who became the developers and Willamette Valley. When Dr. the law makers of the new Elijah White was selected to go Territory and eventually the to Washington, D.C. to seek State of Oregon. territorial status, he asked Har The Picayune carried the fol ris to guide him. Harris took lowing item on January 7, 1844. horses to The Dalles to wait for “Major Harris, the same White, but decided not to go 'Black. Harris', who has been East. mentioned among our mountain While in The Dalles, he met sketches, and a famous old tra Steven Meek. Meek had attem pt veller, is now at Independence, ed to lead the "Blue Bucket" preparing for a great expedition wagon train south from Fort Hall to Oregon next spring. He is to the Willamette but had be connected with Major Adams, come lost in the desserts of who gives some excellent advice Eastern Oregon. Leaving the to immigrants wishing to join train behind he rode to The them. Major Adams says that Dalles for help. Fred Lockley, notwithstanding 'large bodies whose parents were members of move slow,’ he can easily move the lost train, later wrote, "The his expedition even to the shores Missionaries were either unwill of the Pacific, in four months." ing or unable to do anything, so And on March 13th: Moses Harris, or the ‘Black "A communication has appear Squire' as he was usually called, ed in a paper published in Inde an old mountain man and com pendence. Missouri, from Moses panion of Joe Meek, secured Harris, contradicting certain supplies from the Indians and set statements made by the traveller out to rescue the lost immi Farnham in relation to Oregon grants.” and the road to that important Several attempts had been and. at this crisis, very interest ing region. Farnham had pro made to find a southern route to mulgated some just and very the Willamette, to avoid terri tory controlled by the Hudson's valuable information in regard to Bay Company. In 1846, Harris the extrem e W est, but as far as his representations refer to the and fourteen others including nature of roads from the States, Jesse Applegate, were able to and in some other particulars, he find a route up the Umpqua has most assuredly fallen into River to the Rogue River Valley error, and Mr. Harris has seized (roughly following the present upon just the point, with which 15 freeway). After exploring the he is himself thoroughly ac Klamath, Tule Lake, Goose Lake quainted by long years of exper area they made their way to Fort ience, to set the public right. He Hall, mapping out the ' Apple has travelled the route over and gate Trail." Later that year it over again, and knows every was up to Harris to rescue the tree, creek, spring, hill and hoi Thornton wagon train which be low that lies in the way of the came lost attempting to follow An article appeared in the St. Joseph Gazette of December 3, 1847; “We believe that Mr. Har ris intends returning to Oregon next spring, and if so, his ser vices as pilot should by all means be engaged by the immigrants. “We will remark that we know Mr. Harris, and know him to be not only intelligent in regard to those far off regions, but very polite and accommodating, and we sincerely recommend all who are in search of reliable informa tion to call upon and converse with him.” Whether or not Harris led a train is unknown, but he did go to the mountains in 1848, because he returned to St. Joseph in the spring of 1849 and the Gazette says, “Major Harris, better known as Black Harris, arrived in St. Joseph on Wednesday last from Fort John (Laramie). He reports that the traders have been very successful in trapping this winter, and have procured a large number of robes, skins, etc. The Indians had several fights this winter, which resulted in the loss of a few lives. The snow at Fort John is deeper than it has been for many years. The Major will leave for California in a few weeks." Harris contracted to guide a company to the West, but in Independence, he suddenly got cholera and died. The story appeared in the Independence Daily I'aioo of May 14, 1849: "Within the last 24 hours I have seen the eyes close in death of three individuals at the hotel where I stop - all victims of cholera, after but a few hours warning. The first was ‘Black Harris', the well known moun tain guide. He had been chosen to lead us across the Rocky Mountains, but poor fellow, he goes before us on another jour ney. He seemed to everyone who knew him to be a ‘bird alone' in the wild world, without ‘kith or kin’ to care for or leave behind, no lament his death. But in past moments he whispered to a by stander that away in the moun tain vastnesses, far from the haunts of any other white man, among some unknown tribe of Indians, he had a wife and two children, the only objects on earth for which he could desire to live. He would communicate nothing further on the subject, only the request to spread the news as we passed on, that Black Harris was dead and his family would soon learn his fate. This it appears the life of this simple mountaineer like that of other men if it were but known was chequred by its share of unchro nicled romance." Harris was described as “me diuni height, black hair, black whiskers, dark brown eyes and very dark complexion" by W.H. Gray (1870:125) Alfred Jacob Miller, an artist who made the only known drawing of Harris, described him. “This Black Har ris always created a sensation at the camp fire, being a capital raconteur, and having had as many perilous adventures as any man probably in the mountains. He was of wiry form, made up of bone and muscle, with a face apparently composed of tan lea ther and whip cord, finished off with a peculiar blue black tint, as if gunpowder had been burst into his face.'* Harris was known as a great story-teller, as were many moun tain men, as they amused them selves with stories around the campfires during the long winter nights. Harris is believed to be the model for the character “Black George" in George F. Ruxton's "Prairie Flower”. Oregon's first novel. Charles Clyman wrote on a leaf in one of his journals: “Here lies the bones of old Black Harris who often travelled beyond the far west and for the freedom of equal rights He crossed the snowy mountain heights was free and easy kind of soul Especially with a Belly full." Black History W eek Praise to the Black Family the cornerstone of past & future Black achievement CENTER FOR C O M M U N IT Y M E N T A L HEALTH A PLACE WHERE PEOPLE HELP.