Blue Mountain Eagle
POLICE FORCED TO
RESCUE CORPSE
AFTER FUNERAL
DESCENDS INTO RIOT
‘The greatest liar this
country has ever produced’
By Rylan Boggs
Blue Mountain Eagle
Though Joaquin Miller’s
life is well documented, it is
largely documented by Miller
himself.
An incorrigible exagger-
ator, Miller was known for
frequently stretching, if not
entirely fabricating, the truth.
As such it is necessary to take
any information about Miller
with a grain of salt. The writ-
er Ambrose Bierce called him
“the greatest liar this country
has ever produced,” accord-
ing to Literary Traveler, an
online compendium of fa-
mous writers.
The self-styled Indian
fi ghter, horse thief and gun-
slinger is known to have set-
tled in Canyon City for a time
and worked as a lawyer as
well as a judge from 1866 to
1870. His cabin and many of
his belongings have been pre-
served by the Grant County
Historical Museum in Canyon
City.
Born Cincinnatus Hiner
Miller in 1839, he later took
the name Joaquin Miller for
theatrical purposes, according
to museum documents. His
Quaker family lived in Lib-
erty, Indiana. His mother was
a homemaker and his father
a school teacher. He had two
brothers, George and James.
When Miller was about 15, his
family headed west in a wagon
train to the Willamette Valley in
Oregon.
Soon after arriving in Ore-
gon, Miller and a friend left to
mine gold in Northern Califor-
nia. While there, Miller found
working as the camp cook more
to his liking than mining. How-
ever, he contracted scurvy from
eating only what he cooked. In
response to criticisms he wrote,
C1
Wednesday, September 28, 2016
Contributed photo/Grant County
Historical Museum
“I cooked all winter for 27 men,
and every man was alive in the
spring,” according to Literary
Traveler.
Miller is said to have turned
down an invitation to take part
in an unauthorized military
expedition to Nicaragua but
claims that he had fought in the
country. He was forced to leave
the mining camp after writing
less than fl attering poetry about
another miner who did not take
kindly to Miller’s words.
Upon leaving the camp,
Miller lived with Native
Americans in California. He
is known to have fathered a
daughter named Cali-Shasta,
meaning lily of Shasta, with a
native woman named Paquita.
However, he grew tired of life
with the natives and abandoned
his daughter and Paquita to re-
turn to Oregon.
Miller attended Columbia
College and is said to have
graduated as valedictorian in a
record three months. However,
the school burned down short-
ly after, destroying all records
and making it impossible to say
what he studied.
He then returned to Cali-
fornia to live with Paquita and
Cali-Shasta. His time in Cal-
Contributed photo/Grant County Historical Museum
ifornia is thought to have in-
spired his book “Life Among
the Modocs.” During this pe-
riod, Miller ran into trouble
with the law on two occasions.
The fi rst time he was alleged
to be fi ghting alongside Native
Americans against settlers, and
the second he was arrested for
stealing horses after not being
paid for work as a cowhand. As
hanging was typically punished
by death, Miller made it a point
to escape quickly, according to
Literary Traveler.
How he actually facilitated
this escape is not known. Some
records show that a cell mate
was responsible for triggering
a breakout, while Miller writes
it was Paquita who slipped him
a fi le, allowing him to earn his
own freedom.
From here, Miller returned
again to Oregon. Despite being
a fugitive and a complete lack
of legal education, he took up
work as a lawyer and then a
teacher. After failing at these
occupations, he answered an
advertisement to work as a
Pony Express rider between
Idaho and Washington, accord-
ing to Literary Traveler and
museum documents.
In 1862, museum docu-
ments show he purchased
a pro-southern newspaper
called the Democratic Regis-
ter in Eugene. His infl amma-
tory editorials quickly turned
the public against him and
ended his publishing days.
It was at the paper that
Miller fi rst read the poetry
of “Minnie Myrtle,” the pen
name of Theresa Dyer. The
two began exchanging letters,
and Miller eventually went to
visit her in Cape Blanco. They
were married three days after
his arrival. For their honey-
moon, they rode on horseback
to Eugene through the Sierras,
which gave both of them am-
ple material for their poetry.
The couple gave birth to
their fi rst child, a girl named
Maud, in the summer of 1863.
It was after the birth of
their child that the couple
moved to Canyon City, where
Miller worked as a lawyer.
His most notable case was his
defense of William Kane, who
was the second man hung in
Grant County for the murder
of a man named Sullivan.
Miller ran for county judge
in 1866, was elected and served
until 1870. The family’s life in
Canyon City was less than ide-
al, Miller was said to have been
neglectful of his wife, prefer-
ring to spend his time writing,
working or drinking. However,
he was present enough to con-
ceive two more children with
Theresa, George and Harry.
Theresa was liked by the peo-
ple of Canyon City, who saw
her as a patient woman with
whom they sympathized with
for putting up with Miller.
Theresa eventually left Mill-
er, taking the children with her.
She fi led for divorce, destroy-
ing Miller’s ambitions of gain-
ing a seat on the state supreme
court. The children were placed
in school at Miller’s expense.
He sent regular child support
payments as well as additional
money to his ex-wife, accord-
ing to museum documents and
Literary Traveler.
He abandoned his pursuit
of law and left Canyon City
in 1870 for California to pur-
sue poetry. It was during this
time that he wrote some of his
best known works, including
“Songs of the Sierras.” Unable
to fi nd a publisher for the book
in the United States, Miller
headed to London.
In Europe, Miller took to
wearing such eccentric items
as sombreros, bright red shirts
See MILLER, Page C6
Drinkwater recalls feeding cattle by
sleigh in wintertime 1940s cattle
drives from Prairie City to Logan
Valley and from there to Seneca
By Angel Carpenter
Blue Mountain Eagle
Billy Drinkwater of John
Day, who will celebrate his
100th birthday in May next
year, remembers the days
of no electricity or indoor
plumbing.
When his parents had a
phone installed, their number
was “fi ve rings.”
Ranching was a big part of
life for Drinkwater, who was
born in Burns in 1917 and
grew up on a ranch 20 miles
north of Burns on the Silvies
River.
His pioneer ancestors
helped settle the area in Har-
ney County.
Drinkwater said in the
winter months a person, in
this day and age, can drive
down the highway and see a
tractor in a fi eld.
“The tractor is pulling
square bales, probably with
the heater on,” he said.
He recalls feeding cattle by
sleigh in wintertime.
“The hay was loose,
stacked hay,” he said. “It had
to be pitched by hand with a
pitchfork.”
All the work was complet-
ed with horses in those early
years, and he still remembers
his team of horses used to
feed the cattle.
“When we would come
to the gate, I would holler,
‘Whoa,’ at the them, and they
would stop at the gate and
wait until I opened it,” Drink-
water said. “Then I would
speak to them, and they pulled
the hay wagon through the
gate. They would stop until I
got on the wagon and spoke to
them.”
There were 20-24 work
horses needed to help during
haying season, and in the af-
ternoon, a new set of horses
would take over the work of
bucking the hay.
His family’s fi rst tractor,
a John Deere, was purchased
when he was in high school.
After graduating from
Burns High School, Drink-
water attended Oregon State
University’s
agriculture
school, graduating with a two-
year degree.
It was there he fell in love
with Francis French, and they
married in 1941.
They lived on the ranch
near Burns, then, about a
year later, moved to Prairie
City where they eventually
became owners of the French
Ranch, previously owned by
Francis’ parents, Frank and
Elsie.
The Drinkwaters ran cat-
tle at the home ranch in win-
ter and spring, and the cattle
summered in Logan Valley.
Back in the ’40s, they had
a cattle drive to Logan Valley,
overnighting near the Trout
Farm at Turman corrals.
“In those days, we sold
cattle by contract,” he said.
The Eagle/Angel Carpenter
Billy Drinkwater, nearing the century mark, has a story
or two to tell about how life was in the good old days.
“We’d drive cattle from Lo-
gan Valley to Seneca where
the Oliver scales were,” and
Despite being
a fugitive and
a complete
lack of legal
education,
Joaquin Miller
took up work
as a lawyer
and then a
teacher.
After failing
at these
occupations,
he answered
an
advertisement
to work as a
Pony Express
rider between
Idaho and
Washington,
according
to Literary
Traveler and
museum
documents.
this would determine the
price.
From there, the cattle were
loaded on the train that trav-
eled from Seneca to Crane
and Vale. The livestock then
traveled from Ontario to Port-
land.
In Portland, buyers would
bid on cattle in different
stockyards, purchasing a “lot”
of cattle, he said.
Billy and Francis raised
their four children, Ronny,
Jay, Jean and Jerry, in Prairie
City.
The children attended Riv-
erside School, a two-room
schoolhouse managed by
teacher Betty Stanbro, who
owned a Prairie City ranch
with her husband, Irving.
Francis died of cancer in
1960, and Billy married Betty
Bogue in 1963.
Also widowed, Betty and
her two children, John and
Judy, combined with Billy
and his children.
The family was self-sus-
tained, growing a garden,
slaughtering pigs and cows
and selling cream at the local
creamery.
“I’ve always thought that
the ranch was a good place
to raise a family because they
learned how to work, and
play,” Drinkwater said. “Ev-
erything we did was done as
a family.”