|
|
|
"May Live and Die a Miner"
The 1864 Clarksville Diary of James W. Virtue
Gary Dielman, editor
|
For decades, the Oregon Trail led explorers, mountain men,
and emigrants through eastern Oregon until finally, in 1861, the
discovery of gold provided the catalyst for whites to settle in
Baker Valley. In the history of Baker County, the Oregon Trail and
gold mining are linked dramatically on Flagstaff Hill at the eastern
edge of Baker Valley, where visitors to the National Oregon Trail
Interpretive Center discover that the hilltop is also occupied by
the historic Flagstaff Mine.
1
Beginning with Wilson Price Hunt's trail-breaking journey across
the western landscape as part of the Astor expedition of 1811, nineteenth-century
travelers on the Oregon Trail wound down the ridge five miles southeast
of the present-day interpretive center; crossed the arid, sagebrush-covered
Virtue Flat; passed under Flagstaff Hill; and descended into the
valley without being aware of the economic potential held in the
surrounding landscape. During the winter of 1861–1862, however,
that was about to change.
|
1
|
|
It was a cut-off from the Oregon
Trail that led to the first discovery of gold in eastern Oregon.
In 1845, an ill-fated emigrant wagon train guided by Stephen Meek
unwisely departed from the Oregon Trail near present-day Vale, Oregon,
and headed west in an attempt to take an unproven shortcut to the
Willamette Valley. The immigrants collected some "pretty stones"
— later identified as gold — in a blue bucket somewhere
not too far into their journey, giving rise to the story of the
Lost Blue Bucket Mine. Sixteen years later, in October 1861, as
Henry Griffin and others were on their way back to Portland from
an unsuccessful expedition in search of the lost mine, Griffin struck
gold just a few miles south of Baker City.
|
2
|
|
As word of Griffin's discovery spread,
miners and others flocked to eastern Oregon by the thousands. In
summer 1862, a tent city called Auburn, with a population of over
four thousand, sprang up south of Griffin's gold strike. On September
22, 1862, responding quickly to the needs of the new settlers, the
Oregon legislature carved off a sizable piece of eastern Oregon
and called it Baker County, with Auburn as its seat. Miners responded
to the promise of riches by staking countless claims in what would
become Baker, Grant, and northern Malheur counties. Over the next
forty years, as mining shifted from primarily placer operations
to hardrock mining, towns sprouted and then quickly withered as
gold played out or became too difficult to mine, leaving the area
dotted with ghost towns such as Amelia, Bourne, Clarksville, Copperfield,
Cornucopia, Eagleton, Eldorado, Geiser, Granite, Greenhorn, Hanover,
Homestead, Lawton, Malheur City, Parkersville, Robinsonville, Sanger,
Sparta, and Susanville. The gold had been discovered in a belt 120
miles long and 50 miles wide, stretching from the Snake River in
the northeast to John Day in the southwest. Baker County mines would
eventually yield "more than 3.4 million ounces of gold and about
the same amount of silver, which is about 60 percent of the total
amount of these precious metals produced by all the mines in Oregon."
2
Hundreds of miles of tunnels would be bored through rock —
36 miles in the Cornucopia Mine alone — and hundreds of miles
of ditches would be dug to divert water to dry placer mines, including
the Auburn Ditch in the Elkhorn Mountains, Sparta Ditch in the Wallowa
Mountains, and the 125-mile-long Eldorado Ditch in southern Baker
and northern Malheur counties.
|
3
|
|
|
| |
 |
James W. Virtue in 1869, while he was sheriff of Baker
County
Courtesy Baker County Library
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
 |
Clarksville was located in southern Baker County about
three miles above the confluence of Clarks Creek and
Burnt River. The creek and town derived their names
from a miner named Clark who, in 1862, accidentally
shot himself near the creek. A member of Clark's party
discovered gold while camped there waiting for his
recovery.
Courtesy Baker County Library
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
After the boom of the California
gold rush of 1848–1849 faded, fickle miners jumped from one
boom-and-bust gold center to another. In the early 1850s, the forty-niners
moved on to greener pastures in northern California and southwestern
Oregon; in 1857 to Colorado ("Pike's Peak or Bust!"); in 1859 to
the Frazer River country of British Columbia; in 1860 to northern
Idaho and Leadville, Colorado; in 1862 to Boise Basin in central
Idaho; and the following year to Silver City in southwestern Idaho,
Virginia City in western Montana, and the Reese River Mines of central
Nevada.
|
4
|
|
What was it like to be a part of
this frenetic life of prospecting, staking claims, digging ditches,
and living in primitive camps in the West in the early 1860s? In
the summer of 1863, twenty-six-year-old James W. Virtue, a native
of Ireland, was about to find out. Little did the novice miner then
realize that in the last year of his life the governor and legislature
of Oregon would honor him as one of the preeminent mining experts
in the Northwest. Nor could he have known that 140 years later the
diary in which he recorded his thoughts and activities of daily
life in a remote Clarksville mining camp would be an object of historical
interest.
|
5
|
|
The diary must have been Virtue's
constant companion at Clarksville and on his many trips during the
year, for he failed to make an entry on only eleven dates. Covered
in dark brown leather, three inches long, six inches high, and a
half-inch thick, the diary could have neatly fit into his shirt
pocket. Virtue kept the scope of his diary narrow. Except for reference
to the national presidential election of 1864, he did not write
about affairs outside his immediate experiences in Oregon and Idaho.
Reading his diary, one would never know the United States was in
its fourth year of a civil war, but it does afford readers an intimate
glimpse into the hard-scrabble life of a miner during eastern Oregon's
early gold-fever days.
|
6
|
|
|
|
|
James William Virtue was born on June 24, 1837, near Enniskillen,
County Fermanagh, Ireland, the second of three children of William
and Rebecca Virtue. All that is known of his childhood is that sometime,
probably in the early 1840s, Virtue's paternal grandparents, Robert
and Philina Virtue, and most of their children and grandchildren,
including young James, immigrated to Canada. There the families
took up farming about forty miles east of Toronto, near the towns
of Enniskillen and Tyrone in Ontario.
3
|
7
|
|
Apparently, Virtue decided a farmer's
life was not for him, for in late 1855 at age eighteen he was living
on the banks of the Missouri River in northeastern Nebraska as one
of the founding fathers of Dakota City.
4
In August 1856, he was elected secretary of the Dakota City Corporation,
owner of the town site. In May 1858, he was a judge of the town's
first election. That August he was appointed to the office of Dakota
County clerk, an office to which he was twice elected and which
he held until he left for Oregon. He was elected Dakota City recorder
in 1959 and was appointed the town's first postmaster. For a time
he was editor of the town's newspaper. Virtue's main livelihood,
however, was earned as a real-estate agent and as cashier of Dakota
City's first bank. In addition to his professional and political
duties, he found time to read law, and in April 1861 the district
court admitted him to the bar as attorney and counselor of law.
Two months later, the Supreme Court of the Territory of Nebraska
appointed him United States commissioner.
|
8
|
|
Virtue also attempted to start a
family. In the fall of 1856 he returned to Canada to marry Fanny
McCrea of Bowmanville, a town just a few miles south of Tyrone.
5
The next year, Fanny gave birth to a child, but both mother and
child soon died, possibly during or shortly after childbirth. Four
years later, Virtue may have been preparing to marry again. On March
16, 1861, the Democrat newspaper reported that he had had
an "elegant two story dwelling" moved to Dakota City from nearby
Omadi. "What's in the wind, Jim," asked the newspaper, "that you
want a house of that size?"
6
|
9
|
|
For whatever reason, Dakota City
lost its appeal for Virtue — perhaps because of a decline in
the town's economy — and by April 4, 1863, he had resigned
his office as Dakota County clerk and headed west. By January 1,
1864, he was living in Clarksville, one of several small mining
camps satellite to Auburn, the county's main boom town.
7
In many ways, his life in Clarksville was typical of that of many
miners who prospected and mined hard but who also drank and gambled
hard, suffered from illness, frostbite, loneliness, and homesickness,
and struggled to keep often-scarce water flowing through their sluice
boxes. In other ways, however, Virtue's life was very different.
|
10
|
|
Virtue continued his strong interest
in politics and was involved in political organizing and elections,
including the 1864 presidential election contest between Abraham
Lincoln and George B. McClellan. In later years, he would become
one of eastern Oregon's most powerful behind-the-scenes political
figures. He also maintained his interest in banking by lending money
and collecting on past-due debts. Six years later, he would establish
the first bank in Baker City. He read Shakespeare, studied mathematics
and U.S. history, and attended lectures at lyceums in Auburn, the
area's only cultural center. He developed close associations with
some of the most influential men in the area, such as William H.
Packwood, member of the 1857 Oregon constitutional convention and
a founder of Auburn; William F. McCrary, first treasurer of Baker
County and first postmaster of Baker City; and Royal A. Pierce,
an attorney who in 1864 platted the town site of what became Baker
City. Virtue's involvement in politics and his association with
men in high places bore fruit in 1866 with his election as county
sheriff, an office to which he was re-elected two years later.
|
11
|
|
|
| |
 |
The Clarksville-Auburn area in 2002, from the ridge
separating Clarks Creek and Burnt River. Hereford
Valley to the left and Burnt River Canyon in the center
and right are a sea of fog. On the far horizon in
the upper right are the peaks of the Elkhorn Mountains
that lie west of Baker City. Over intervening Dooley
Mountain, about twenty miles from Clarksville, was
the mining town of Auburn, Baker County's first town
and county seat.
Courtesy of the author
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The diary of this novice miner —
who would soon be sheriff, banker, and political power broker —
begins with the celebration of New Year's Day 1864.
8
|
12
|
|
|
| |
 |
Courtesy Baker County Library
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Diary of James W. Virtue
Friday, January
1, 1864. Had a Bachelors New Year dinner, several of Basin
boys here. Duff, whiskey & corn beef. What a change from last
N. Y. [New Year] I wonder if the [they] miss me ? or the D [dear]
one who I then was with will sigh for my absence. Dance in town.
Saturday 2. Dance still goes
on & whiskey down. Pleasant & warm. No work today, the N. Y. must
be celebrated in the good old style.
Sunday 3. Still the dance
goes on. I am terrible blue & wish the time to pass more rapidly
so I could see dear ones once again....
Monday, January
4, 1864. Cold frosty day. No work. Spent the day up t [town]
and evening with Mrs. D. at Mr. Kometzes. 18 below zero....
Friday 8.
Still snowing. Started on my collecting time. Went to Cottonwood.
Stopped with friend Wood. Good whiskey & plenty to eat. Hospitality
you will find among the miners in highest degree. Their cabin
is always a home to the traveler. Collcd. [Collected] $5....
Sunday, January
10, 1864. Left Cottonwood 10 a. m. Snow 3 feet deep & still
snowing. Crossed mountain to Mormon Basin. Got a good rum punch
and dinner all right. Practice with snow shoes.... Slept with
Ed.
Monday
11. Pleasant warm day. Dinner with Inghram. Snow shoe exercises.
Evening spent as usual.... Fine cookies and beef.
Tuesday 12. Snowing. Pleasant
& warm. Collected $7. Dance at Kelleys saloon. Rain tonight....
Thursday 14. Cold chills
last night. Laid up. Weather warm.
Friday 15. Some better today.
Able to move around. Opium my principal medicine....
Saturday, January 16, 1864.
Weather warm & pleasant. Collected $43. Feel good deal better.
Took another dose of opium.... It is getting on a dm [damn] hot
[poker] game. Now you win & now you lose.
|
|
|
Virtue's poker playing caused him much grief. On May 28, referring
to it as "my old vice," Virtue's frustration with his gambling losses
prompted him to swear off poker playing, but in October he was back
at the poker table. Virtue did not consistently record his winnings
and losses either in the daily diary entries or in the "Cash Account"
ledger at the back of the diary, so it is impossible to determine
whether he came out a winner or loser for the year.
|
13
|
|
The two vices of drinking and
gambling went together. On February 28, for example, Virtue drank
all day and played poker all night. He did not appear to need much
of an occasion to do some drinking, and reported having rum for
breakfast followed by snowshoeing on January 20 and, on August 2,
drinking in the morning with William Packwood and George Brattain
at several stops on their way to the gold fields in Idaho.
|
14
|
Sunday 17. Pleasant warm
weather. Spent day on snow shoes & P [Played] Wh [whist]....
Tuesday, January 19, 1864.
Warm & pleasant as usual. Collected $41. Got a pair of snow shoes
from Joe Colt.... Went to Dance....
Wednesday 20. 7 a. m. Drink
of rum breakfast. Another D. [drink] Got snow shoes fixed. Another
drink. Far as store. Drink of brandy. Now Jack for a start. Top
of Hill. Down we went. Finally made Juvels cabin. Dinner. Then
for Clarkes Creek. Arrived 4 p. m. All okay and sober as an Irish
Judge.
Thursday 21. Went up town.
Got boot mended. Raining. Getting ready for Auburn. Got the B
[blues] a little....Plum pie for dinner.
Friday, January 22, 1864.
In bed all day with attack of cold. Also the B. Not able for the
Auburn trip. Pleasant warm weather.
Saturday
23. Feeling better. 7 a. m. started for Auburn on snow shoes.
What a trip & what a time climbing mountains. Snow is 4 feet deep.
If you get of SS [snowshoes] down you go. After one of the hardest
days trips I ever exp [experienced] & falls without number, reached
Auburn 7 p. m. [unintelligible] & hungry. Cocktails & oysters
for supper....
Sunday
24. When will winter cease? Went to church with Mrs. P [Packwood]
first time in 9 months. Took dinner with Mrs. P also supper. Had
a very pleasant day talking of old by gone times, and old friends.
What a pleasure to think of the past and talk them over with ones
you have once been in very contented times....
Tuesday 26. Dull; Dull; Dull.
Appearance of snow....L [Lost] $1.50....
Thursday, January 28, 1864.
Same as yestarday. Reading "Kenneath." Took supper [with] Mrs.
P. Went to Lyc [lyceum] and reading of Tempest. Bought hose &
pipe $140 payable 15th March. Eastman note given Pat. Paid on
note $15. Note given jointly P. & J. Pack [Packwood is] security....
Saturday
30. Wrote to S. R. Drew draft on K[oontz]. Bros. $110 favor
of J. H. Atkinson. Nothing [unintelligible] than usual going on
in town. Wrote K. Bros. Oyster supper with Mrs. P.
Sunday,
January 31, 1864. Snowing perfect hurricane. Went to church.
Preacher Johnston. Text, men that got talent. Spent evening with
Mrs. P. Oyster & peach supper. Good time. Russell and others left
for Clarks Creek.
Monday, February 1.... Spent
day as usial. Took tea with Mrs. P. Went to Ly [lyceum]. Subject
love of muney or women decided in favor of women. How the subject
was butchered... .Spent balance of evening with P.
Tuesday 2. Express got in.
Got late papers [newspapers]. Took tea with Mrs. P. Got pair snow
shoes....
Wednesday, February 3, 1864.
Union caucus. Ch [chairman?] [unintelligible] to draft programme
of election....
|
|
|
Virtue's political affiliation is not made clear in the diary.
In advance of Baker County's first election in June 1864, Virtue,
along with William H. Packwood, Dr. R.B. Ironsides, and Baker County
Judge James M. Pyle, organized a convention of the Union Republican
Party in Auburn.
9
The diary entries for February 3 and 27 seem to confirm this,
but other entries and later political activities indicate that Virtue
was a Democrat. On March 26, for example, he attended a Democratic
committee meeting and in the fall national election voted for the
Democratic candidate for president.
|
15
|
|
|
| |
 |
Virtue's bank and assay office business card
Courtesy Baker County Library
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
In 1866, Virtue successfully ran
as the Democratic candidate for sheriff of Baker County and was
re-elected in 1868. Two years later, he declined to run for a third
term, apparently preferring to give his full attention to establishing
Baker City's first bank and assay office and constructing the city's
first stone building to house his new businesses.
10
Virtue stayed involved in politics behind the scenes but did
not run for office again until after moving to Jackson County, Oregon,
where in 1896 he was elected to the Oregon legislature.
|
16
|
Friday
5.... Evening went to hear Tempest read, after which took
Mrs. P. to dance. What old and pleasant remembrance this evening
has brought up. So sad yet sweet. How I wish I could forever erase
the past from my memory as though it had never been, so I could
never recall the treasure I lost.
Saturday, February 6, 1864.
Getting tired of Auburn. Must certainly go home. Weather becoming
warm & every appearance of spring. No mail yet. I must have some
letters before leaving Auburn.
Sunday 7. Went to church.
Mr. Johnston: righteousness of scribes & Pharisees.... Evening
went to temperance lecture. Spent part of day with Mrs. P.
Monday 8.... No mail yet.
Went to Ly [lyceum]. Subject: "Shall mining claims be taxed" Decided
in neg. Took dinner with Mrs. P.... Some excitement prevails in
town.
Tuesday, February 9, 1864.
PPG [Played poker game] all day....
Wednesday
10. Game still goes on. {} $30....
Thursday 11. Play all last
night. {} $10. Weather pleasant. No mail yet. John Arnold owes
me $13.25 on PG [poker game].
Friday, February 12, 1864.
Went to Ly [lyceum]. Mr. P made a bully speech on the rights of
miners....
Monday, February 15, 1864.
Left with Jack for home. 2 Bots [bottles] of cocktail top of mt.
2 p. m. Hard road to home. Went down mt. like lightning. Got home
tired & hungry. Billy got us up a good supper.
Tuesday 16. Went up town.
Staid all day. Drank a good deal of old rye. Paid Kountz $35.
Brought home B. Wh. [bottle of whiskey?]....
Wednesday 17. Started for
Basin. Went by way of Cottonwood....Got upon snow shoes to Basin.
Got in 7 p. m....
Thursday, February 18, 1864.
Spent part of my day with Mrs. D. Took dinner with [her]. Played
Whit [whist] at night & got beatten.
Friday 19. Started for home
10 a. m. on snow shoes....
Sunday, February 21, 1864.
Spent day alone in my cabin reading over old dear letters from
home. What a lonely life and so much different from this time
last year. Was in Chicago with H. K. on my way to the [unintelligible]
with a light heart & bright prospects....
Monday
22. Mat & Doug stayed with me last night. Went up town. Boys
on a bender. Got pick steeled. [Unintelligible] from K [Kountz]
$171.65. Lent Alderson $20. Collected note from McCrery on Kametz
$70.60 & sent sum to him by R. Kidd....
Tuesday
23. Commenced work "coming down on the bolder like 1000 bricks."
Set [sluice] boxes for ground sluicing, about 60 inches of water
in all. Got new set of boxes and riffles from Smith $226....
Wednesday, February 24, 1864.
Worked in claim. Eckelson & Caststeel arrived from Cannon [Canyon]
City. Staying with me. Miners coming in every day.
Thursday 25. Work in claim.
Water cold & boots leaks....
Saturday,
February 27, 1864. Work forenoon. Convention evening. Chair.
P P [Played poker] till morg [morning]. W [Won]. $35.
Sunday 28. Drinking whiskey
all day. Good time. PP till 2 a. m. L [Lost] $17....
Wednesday 2. Cold, cloudy
& snowing. Work forenoon. Sore hand. Broke my pick & things going
wrong generally. Mining is a hard way to serve the Lord.
Thursday 3. Laid up. Sore
hand....
Friday,
March 4, 1864. Work afternoon. Cleaned up last weeks work
$69.75.... Feel more like work than I have for months all on account
of my letters.
Saturday 5. About 75 inches
of water in ditch. At work. Ground looks good.
Sunday 6.
Sold interest in Vinton & Co. claim to Caststeel & Ecckels in
[for?] $250. $40 & balance as it comes out over water & grub muney.
But in any event to be paid in full before 1st of June '64. This
sale is clear profit. So much made I know of. Spent all day in
cabin reading letters and thinking of the good advice recd from
dear mother....
Tuesday 8. Another cold snap.
No work forenoon. Bed rock frozen. Cleaned up 7 days work $80.
= to $10.66 2/3 per day. Such is the life of a miner: one day
making his pile, next running in debt.
Wednesday
9. Setting [sluice] boxes. Got good fall. Will make it pay.
"Star of W" [West] claim running. Reservoir broke last night.
Nicest day of season. Water increasing.
Thursday, March 10, 1864.
Work goes on. All ok. Weather fine. 70 inches of water. Letter
from Pack. Ground sluice looks good. My hands are getting very
sore. Bacon coffee bread goes. Gold 160 [$16.0 per ounce]. Bully
for the gold.
Sunday, March 13, 1864. Went
up town. Got some bacon. Hired man John Arnold. Indian tracks
on creek. Look out for scalps.
Monday 14. Work in claim.
Indians round cabin last night. Got not got [sic] a shot.
Tuesday 15.
Indians stamped [stampeded]a lot of horses. Started out in a co.
of 9 others after them. Struck for Willow Creek by way of Basin.
Got on WC [Willow Creek] 5 miles below mouth of canyon & camped.
Built no fire. Crackers and raw bacon for supper. Stood guard
till 12 [a.] m. Steel & I had a bottle of gin to keep us warm
& eys open.
Wednesday March
16, 1864. Started 7 p. m. [a. m.?] down Willow Creek to ranch.
Fed our horses. Found Indians. Had [unintelligible] counsal. Started
for Birch Creek. Arrived at sun down. Captured a horse & sold
him to Henry for 2 gals of whiskey....
Thursday
17. Got to Granite Creek 5 p. m. Camped for night 10 p. m.
Got up a bogus stampede. Dutchman on guard. Run like the Dl [devil]
to camp. Best steamheat of the season.
Friday 18. Got home. P all
night. I O [owe] D $6. I O [owe] Suza $2.75 [Lost] 6.75.
|
|
|
Following the discovery of gold in 1861, Indians provided little
organized resistance to white settlers in eastern Oregon until the
uprising of the Bannocks in the summer of 1878. The conflict was
quickly put down by Gen. O.O. Howard, fresh from pursuing Chief
Joseph and the Nez Perces almost to Canada the preceding year. Horse-stealing
incidents such as the one described above, however, were not uncommon.
In the late 1860s, Virtue had at least one other problem with Indians.
While he was sheriff of Baker County, he narrowly escaped with his
life when he encountered a party of Indians driving stolen horses
over Dooley Mountain south of Baker City. Although alone, he tried
to scare the party away from the horses and recover them, only to
end up "with the Indians in hot pursuit for about three miles sending
bullets whistling through the air about him."
11
|
17
|
Saturday, March
19, 1864. Town all day. P all nite. O [Owe] Wood 7.50. John
O [owes] M [me] $21 and Charley $10. I ow Royal $8. {} $12.25.
Sent Caststeel $20....
Sunday 20. Cleaned up $238.
30 3/4 days work. Letter from Packwood.
Monday 21. Work in claim.
John B[roke] his pick.
Tuesday, March 22, 1864.
Work in claim part of day. Broke my new pick. $8 gone to Hl [hell]....
Tuesday 23.
On the trail for Granite Creek. Arrived 3 p. m. Camped. Good indications
of gold. Moderate supply of water. Desirable location for ditch.
Wednesday
24. Got horse. Went to Auburn. Had to swim Burnt River. Arrived
about 3 p. m. Dinner at Packwoods. Supper [unintelligible] oysters
with Brattain. Slept with him.
Friday, March 25, 1864. Getting
ready for home. Shopping with Mrs. Packwood. Oysters and custard
for supper. Eggs and ham for dinner. Snowing. Bought pick from
Gilbert. Owe him for sum $8.
|
|
|
|
| |
 |
Virtue's diary, showing the entries for November 5–10
Courtesy Baker County Library
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Saturday 26. Snowing & blowing.
Democratic Com [committee] met. 1 [unintelligible] & nom [nomination?]
made & very obnox [obnoxious] resolution adopted. Spent evening
with Mrs. Can. Home again tomorrow. Got pick made at Gilberts.
Little snow.
Sunday 27. 8 a. m. started
for home. Packed my horse and took it foot. Got home 4 p. m. All
ok. Cold & windy. Cleaned up for the week. $119 ? 18 days work.
Monday, March 28, 1864. Cold
& sunny. Went up town. PPP. till 1 a. m. Tuesday morning. Even.
Tuesday 29. Again at work.
Worked till 11 p. m. Lamp works A No. 1. Ground sluiced 320 feet.
Wednesday 30. Showers of
snow all day. Work from 11 a. m. till 10 p. m. Night work very
cold.
Thursday,
March 31, 1864. Water low. Work till 10 p. m. Snowing a little.
Brainard with me tonight. Will not at work. On a tight.
Friday, April 1. Ready to
clean up. Kountz borrowed quick silver.... Sent Clark $10 by Ingrahm
for Shakespeare and United States history.
Saturday 2. Clean up head
box. Got $34.50. Went up town. PP all night. Out $25. Also Sunday
part of day. What will the end be? What a change from one year
ago....
Monday 4. Went up town. No
work. Kountz, Hank & Bill PP. Out $25. Luck is running [against?]
me for the last 2 [days].
Tuesday 5. Went up [town]
again. At the old game. 11 p. m. $85 {}, which ends my PP for
the time being.
Wednesday, April
6, 1864. Started for Auburn with Perkins, he on his way to
[The] Dalles on prospt [prospecting] trip. Snow very deep on summit.
Got in town 5 p. m. Took oysters with Mrs. P. Meeting of C. C.
D. & M. Co. Elected same officers as before. Appt. as ditch agent....
Thursday 7. Bought P. [pair]
pants $11. Supper with Packwood, party at Brainard. Went got acquainted
with Miss McCrery.
Friday 8.
Rain. Rain. Bully for the rain. More the better for the mines.
Went to Mrs. Drews with Mrs. P. Spent evening. Oyster supper with
B. & I.
Saturday, April 9, 1864.
Left Auburn 8 a. m. Home 4 p. m. Boys at work. Got nugget $18
50/100. No clean up.
Sunday 10.
Moved up town. Commd [commenced] boarding at Kountzs. Cleaned
up in Hy claim $49. Expenses $75. 15 days work... .
Monday 11.
Commenced attending to ditch. Pat got water. Got money from Kitchen
[Claim] $36.00.
Tuesday, April 12, 1864.
Work on ditch and attending to water. Wrote Koontz Bros.
Wednesday 13. Sluice. About
130 inches water. PP all n [night]....
Saturday 16. Hy [Hydraulic]
at work in "Star of the West." Water increasing. Comd [commenced]
boarding with Mrs. D... .
Monday, April 18, 1864. Cleaning
out ditch. 20 men. Hard old job.
Tuesday 19. Sluice. Repairing
sluice dam. Finished up. Cost $200.
Wednesday
20. Again the water runs. Ditch all ok. 2000 inches. Warm
weather pleasant. Strangers arriving daily. Kitchen [Claim] sold
to Packwood....
Saturday
23....Sluice dam raising Hell. Cleaned up S of W $493, Neb
[Nebraska] Flat $40.
Sunday, April 24, 1864. Got
the blues. Mail in & no letter from "Stuts." ... PP a short time.
Lost $6. Gold worth 171 [$17.10 per ounce], so says today papers.
Expense must be curtailed. Money is money. Light showers.
Monday 25. Wind, rain, snow,
hail. Cold. Overcoats in demand. Let it rain & the miners will
rejoice & be exceding glad & praise the Lord for his kindness.
Water, water, water not to cool parched tonges but to make the
diggings [unintelligible].
Tuesday 26. Ice on reservoir
this morning. Very cold. Water on decrease. Miners ware long faces,
leaving every day.
|
|
|
The "long faces" were for lack of water, the lifeblood of placer
mines. Placer mining was the method preferred by early gold miners
until after the railroad arrived in eastern Oregon in 1884, which
facilitated the transport of the heavy machinery required to make
hardrock mining economical. In the arid region, miners could usually
depend on an abundance of water in the spring as the snowpack in
the mountains began to melt. But the spring of 1864 was different.
Entries for late April and May make constant reference to the scarcity
of water and the lack of work for miners, who would have to wait
until June 8 for the ditches and dams to fill.
|
18
|
|
Except during spring runoff, eastern
Oregon's small tributary creeks carry little water for much of the
year and even dry up completely. For that reason, miners dug hundreds
of miles of ditches to divert water from relatively water-rich streams
to dry placer diggings. Virtue was appointed ditch agent for the
Clark's Creek Ditch and Mining Co. in April and kept busy that spring
with as many as twenty men working under his direction cleaning
out the ditch and repairing dams.
|
19
|
Wednesday, April 27, 1864.
Cold, cold. Another young winter is upon us. Hard times and a
dry camp. Water in ditch failed to 80 inches afternoon. Oh for
rain, rain to decend in torrents, thats what the matter.
Thursday
28. Little warmer. Water very low. Afternoon 70 inches. This
will never do to live in this severity for one or two thousand
per year.
Friday 29. Still warmer.
Water passing beautifully less. Every appearance of drying up
completely. Any quantity of surplus miners. Indications are that
very little money will be taken out this summer. PP all night....
Monday 2. Miners coming &
leaving every day. Not work for half....
Sunday 8. Setting up water
and claim accounts. Very busy. "S of W" $408. N F $52. Hy $408.
Jim Holmes moved dam to N F. Beautiful spring day. Warm & sunshine.
Monday, May 9, 1864. Blowing
and weighing dust. Cleaning in Hy. Then Hat of Royal Foret $5.50.
Afternoon went to Basin. Stuck up election notices & [unintelligible]
served [unintelligible] judge of elections. Rode Kountz racer....
Wednesday 11.... Water failing.
Miners cussing.
Thursday, May 12, 1864....
Sluice dam broke & hell to pay generally....
Friday 13. Warm and thundershowers.
Rain is the cry from every miner. Sluice dam working like a charm.
Saturday 14. Water failing.
No clean up in any of claims. Omaha paps [newspapers] & paper
from Sue. PP till 2 a. m. Lost $30.
Sunday, May 15, 1864....
Very poor clean up in N F. Expenses exceeds profits. Disappointment
awaits me at every turn. Fickle fortune plays in a strange & wonderful
manner.
Monday 16. Commenced work
Hy C [claim]. No go. Impossible to work in claim & attend water.
Like trying to bore auger hole with gimlet... . Commenced building
reservoir on lower claims....
Thursday 19. Letters from
Winew, James, Dide, Mrs. V., and photag [photograph] & letter
from Susie. Home, friends, and dear ones, how I wish to see you.
Such letters carries me back to years gone by & there pleasant
associations.
Friday 20. Still at P [poker].
What a C [curse] is Cds [cards]. Why cannt I at once [quit]. I
will. I must....
Saturday, May 21, 1864. Judge
Highly arrived [on] elect [election] trip. Miner meeting. [unintelligible]
Amended law....
Sunday 22. Blowing gold dust....
Monday 23. Water failing.
No work [in] H C [hydraulic claim]. PP all N [night]. [Lost] $34.
Ward came to town. Heavy showers through night. How refreshing
to hear rain patter on the roof of my cabin.
Tuesday, May 24, 1864. Water
still failing. Montie & Co. had to nock off today. Lo $15... .
Town going to Hl and the men on a big drunk. Balance on the gamble.
Wednesday 25. Let this day
be buried as one that never had been. To me it will bring up sad
reflections. A life spent in such a way must eventully end in
ruin both of body & soul.
Thursday 26. Lost. Lost.
Lost....
Saturday 28. This day I have
made an O [oath] not to P [play] any G [games] of Ch [chance]
for one Y [year]. My old vice must be abandoned. My event [eventual]
sal [salvation], pride, friends and respect calls on me to Stop!
Stop! Stop! The half is in sight. "Expunged."
Sunday 29. Cleaned up S of
W $559. Hy claim 35. How I wish S [Sue] was here. I am getting
sick and tired of this dull slow life, growing worse & worse every
day. Must go prospecting.
Monday, May 30, 1864. Very
warm. Water still failing. Only 2 heads in 7 hours. Disappts [disappointments]
will come when we least expect them. Hopes fondly cherished must
be abandoned.
Wednesday, June 1. Brought
with a refreshing rain, artillery of heavenly bombardment through
these mountains. Clouds dark & [unintelligible]. Every indication
of a days rain. It is what we need, want, and pray for, rain,
rain... .
Monday 6. Election. Worked
hard at the polls for Pack. Run him head of ticket. 16 votes.
Hot time, votes challenged, men drunk, and Hl to pay generally.
|
|
|
|
| |
 |
The Virtue Mine, the first large-scale quartz mine
in eastern Oregon, was located five miles east of
Baker City and is estimated to have produced $2.2
million in gold between 1862 and 1924. Virtue and
partner A.H. Brown bought the mine in 1868 while Virtue
was sheriff, only to sell it about four years later.
It is not known how much profit Virtue realized from
this venture, but it may have been the source of capital
he used to start Baker City's first bank.
Courtesy Baker County Library
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tuesday 7. Horse racing
inaugurated in creek today... .Lighting [Lightning] won 3 1 heats....Sent
Mrs. P $40 & Mr. P $150. Borrowed $100 from Royal [Pierce]. Bor'd
[Borrowed] $100 from Henry Kruse to pay Koontz.
Wednesday, June 8, 1864.
Paid Koontz $190. Great cricket emigration, hills, gulches & bottoms
covered on every inch of ground, to the left & right & all around.
Ditch and dams full. Peaches & cream for supper....
Thursday 9. Rocked a few
pans.... Union ticket. Elected 101 [unintelligible]. All but my
man Pack who is ahead 50 vote. ?Contradicted... . Cricket emigration
going north....
Saturday,
June 11, 1864. Got Holmes horse. Went to Auburn. Parke along.
Many improvements since last visit. Miss [Missed] Mrs. P. Supper
at Georges, roomed with Brattain. Game of whist....
Sunday 12.
Went to grave yard on hill. Spent a short time meditating on life
& death. What remourse the grave will bring up. Thoughts of home
and dear ones came all back. Went to large reservoir with B [Brattain?].
Splendid piece of work. Saw mill as I used to see it in my boyhood
age.
Monday 13. Left Auburn 9
a. m. Home 3 p.m. Found big preparations for a dance at Doughertys....
Tuesday, June 14, 1864. Attending
[unintelligible] & cleaning [up gold] dust. Hy. clean up $303.50.
1 week. Water on increase. Selling Pat a small head [of water]....
Saturday 18....Gambling &
gambling rules the camp. Dance tonight. Men danced in womens clothing
to represent the sex.
Sunday 19. Rather warmer.
Signs of summer. Excitement. Horse racing gambling & drinking.
Whiskey is in full blast. Rene won by 10 feet. Shooting and foot
races next in order.
Monday, June 20,1864. "Winter
winds are past and summer comes at last." Yes, bright, clear &
sunshiny, which has the effect of getting the town on a big drunk.
2 fights and near a man killed. Tangle Foot [whiskey] is accomplishing
his job in that line. Great pros [prospecting] party fizzled out.
3 a. m. rain. Hail storm....
Tuesday 21....
Rain, hail & snow. Very cold, very favorable for water. No work
in Hy. Getting ready for drifting. Puglistic encounter between
Ireland and John [unintelligible]. Old sod won. Horse race on
river bottom.
Wednesday 22. Sunshine, heat,
cold, rain, snow & hail. Weather changeable as a fickle woman.
Visited with all kinds of weather inside of 3 hours....
Thursday, June 23, 1864.
Very warm with light showers. Quiet prevails in town. No fight,
race or drunk....
Friday 24. Forenoon exceedingly
warm. Afternoon rain & thunder, cold & cloudy. The Lord has a
tender eye for Clarks Creek miners. Getting more & more home sick.
I often wish myself with dear S.
Saturday 25. Another shower.
Dark & lowering clouds overhang the highest mt. tops. A hurricane
is brewing. How my mind wanders on sweet home. S have you forgotten
me. Mail in & no letters. Hope is about exhausted....
Sunday, June
26, 1864.... Packwood & Knight arrived. Stayed with me. Writing
to Sue. How I wish I could be with her this evening. When, when
shall I have that pleasure. God only knows.
Monday, 27.
Packwood left for Owyhee. Water in decline. Very slight shower....
Money coming very slow....
Tuesday 28. Very warm, no
rain. Water about same. Selling 2 heads. Writing to Sue. Time
hangs heavy on my hands. Surly this is hot ambition, such as will
& must conquer all difficulties. Drifting in S of W. Not paying....
Friday, July 1. Started for
Auburn. Arrived 6 p. m. Spent evening with Mrs. P. Stayed with
Brattain. Bl [Bill] Col [collected] $22.
Saturday, July 2, 1864. Dinner
with Mrs. P. Supper cup stew.... Wrote long letter to Sue under
supervision of Mrs. P. Talk of old times and our selves. How sweet
to remember such hours now past.
Sunday 3.
Spent day with J ? ? to me is dea [dear] as such and will always
be. Too much for one to bear. Better be buried than live & lo
[love], when you would not ask or desire a return. Rain.
Monday 4. 88th national Independence
ushered by the boom of the cannon. A select party of us went to
the reservoir. Had a grand pick nick & [unintelligible] on US.
Dance in evening at Br [Brattain's]. Had a good time. How much
better it would be if I & one other could be to each other as
in times past. With how much lighter heart I could battle against
the vicissitudes of life.
Tuesday, July
5, 1864. Getting ready to leave. Took my last meal with one
I would fain forget, could I do so. If again I never should see
her near of H, how hard indeed to forget a love so deep, when
especially you allow yourself [unintelligible] & always so good
so kind & noble genuine just and forgiving but few if any h [her]
equal.
Wednesday 6. Again in the
godforsaken place [Clarksville], blue as a man who had no friend
in the world. Water failing. Very little doing, & dull dull generally.
Will I ever be your friend? Will [I] ever again be what I once
was? Sue ? letters went out today.
Thursday 7. Hydraulic again
at work . Run again about 6 hours. S of W running in debt from
drifting....Spirit very low. Cannot reconcile myself to this life....
Saturday 9. Warm. Went to
[Burnt] river. Had a swim. Packwood finally arrived. Dance at
night. Pat sold [his share of] "Star of West" $600. Settled up
affairs. Co. in debt for drifting $92.
Sunday 10.
Went to Basin. Duff & oysters for dinner with Alderson. Billiard
table running. Home 5 p. m. Sitting in a rocky point about 2000
feet above town. Suns last golden rays are slipping behind the
mts. Burnt River to the west with its vally & grove....
Monday, July 11, 1864. Last
day attending to water. Perk [Perkins] got home. Struck nothing.
Going again. Says he knows where the Blue Bucket diggings [are].
|
|
|
Prospecting was a passion that Virtue retained throughout his
life. After some financial reversals that led to his moving from
Baker City to Portland in October 1891, he worked as a mining expert
representing a company with interests in Idaho and Washington. In
late November 1891, for example, the fifty-four-year-old Virtue
took a rough journey alone on horseback and stayed overnight in
an unheated shanty — getting up several times during the night
with dysentery — to reach a prospective placer mine near Salmon
Falls on the Snake River in south-central Idaho. In spite of the
hardships he endured during the trip, he wrote home as enthusiastic
as ever about gold mining: "Here I am among the glittering Golden
Sands of Snake River which remind me very much of the days of old
the days of gold & the days of 64.... Today will give the Gravel
a good test with the Pan...."
12
|
20
|
|
A few days later, Virtue wrote
home from Starbuck, Washington Territory, a remote location on the
Snake River in southeastern Washington: "I trust may find a promising
prospect at the Mines for if so it means much for us."
13
Five months later, he wrote his infant grandson, Edwin Robert
Hardy, from a mine at Mount Chapaka in north-central Washington
Territory: "I dearly wish could send your slippers [moccasins] full
of bright Gold Nuggets, so you can buy pretty things for Mamma,
Grandma & Bob [Virtue's son Robert]. Some day will fill them with
Gold & Nuggets, then we can be very happy & build us a Fairy Castle
in some fairy woods, with tiny sparkling streams filled with golden
trout, & you & Uncle Bob will have beautiful little Poneys to ride
hunting in the green woods, like Robin Hood & his Merry Men in the
days of old."
14
|
21
|
Wednesday
13. Perk ? Williams ? Milner & myself started on pros trip.
Foot, horse to pack grub. Crossed Burnt River. Went up Auburn
trail 2 miles. Dinner. East & north 3 miles. Camped on Pine Creek.
No life compared with that in the mountains.
Thursday,
July 14, 1864. Left the camp 8 a. m. NE Crossed H. Creek.
Trail up steep mt. Camped in little grove east of trail near top
of mt. Some pros done. Several quartz leads. Done some pros. No
color. Milner cut his foot. Traveled east 1. Creek deep canyon.
Service berries. Falls & followed down to Burnt River. Camped
6 p. m....
|
|
|
|
| |
 |
This bank note from the 1880s shows Virtue's interest
in mining with the picture of a young boy — perhaps
inspired by the recent birth of his grandson —
standing beside a "giant" nozzle used to wash dirt
through sluice boxes in placer mining.
Courtesy Baker County Library
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Friday 15.
Breakfast 7 a. m. Killed 6 rattlesnakes in less than 15 minutes.
Traveled up [Burnt River] canyon 3 miles. Hl of a time. Cut horses
limb. Shirt and boots give in. P [Perkins] left for home. Camped
2 p. m. Sunk hole on point. No prospect. Had bonfire & good supper.
Very tired.
Saturday
16. Left camp 6 a. m. Homeward bound. South course. Travelled
traverse over some good looking gold country. No water. Home 2
p. m. Well satisfied with the trip & not sorry it is over. Pack
& Knight arrived. Stayed with me. Spent pleasant evening.
Sunday, July 17 1864. Work
in S of W day. 2 pas [newspapers] from Omaha. Paid Pack $200,
Harris $15. Evening = just such a one I would like to be with
dear ones at home. Bright moonlyte night. Me thinks some dear
one is wishing me there. Memory, memory.
Monday 18. Work in S of W.
Wheeled out 120 bars [barrels] full. All day warm and pleasant.
Hands sore & tired generally. Perk at work Neb Flat. Cleaned up
Hy claim $169.50.
Tuesday 19. Work in drift.
Very warm. This work is sufficient to take off the romance of
mining and mines. Different indeed from what we imagine before
we came.
Wednesday, July 20, 1864.
Drifting goes and dd [damned] hard. Hands skinned and bruised
up generally. Hottest of summer weather.
Thursday 21. Run 10 feet.
Prospects very well. Dance at night & drinking [unintelligible].
Friday 22. Feeling rather
like a man who had been on a drunk or something else paramount.
Yet I managed to wheel out several loads of pay dirt....
Sunday 24. Went to horse
races. Won $12. "Studs" arrived. No news from Ly [?]. He says
is engaged and going to be married. This is certainly a fulu world.
Monday 25.
Went to Express Ranch. Got Stuts carpet, [unintelligible]. Letter
& needles came from Mr. [unintelligible].
Tuesday,
July 26, 1864. Lost. Extremely warm.
Wednesday 27. "Stuts" and
I went to Auburn. Trouble with Vinton & Co settling wate [water]
account.
Thursday 28. Still in Auburn.
Made arrangements to go to Owyhee.
Friday, July 29, 1864. Started
for C. C. [Clarks Creek] Home 1 p. m. Fixing up to leave.
Sunday 31. Left for Auburn
on way to Boise [Basin]. Took Pack bay horse. Got to Auburn 9
p. m. Supper at P's. Slept with Brainard.
|
|
|
Virtue was anything but sedentary during 1864. He and two traveling
companions were about to set off on a trip to Boise Basin, northeast
of Boise, and Ruby City and Silver City, southwest of Boise, two
areas of Idaho that boomed with gold strikes. The trip lasted 43
days and covered approximately five hundred miles. That year, Virtue
also made eight trips from Clarksville to Auburn over fifty-five-hundred-foot
Dooley Mountain Pass, a distance of about twenty-one miles. Sometimes
he was on horseback, at other times on foot, and at least once on
snowshoes in very cold weather that resulted in frostbitten toes.
Virtue pushed himself hard on his travels, sometimes covering distances
of over fifty-five miles in a single day. On the first day of his
2-day trip from Boise Basin to Ruby City, August 10, he traveled
seventy-five miles, arriving in the mountains south of Snake River
feeling "very tired and sick [and a]bout used up." All told, Virtue
traveled almost a thousand miles in 1864 and was away from Clarksville
a total of 113 days.
|
22
|
Tuesday 2.
Pack, Brattain and myself left for Boise. Took drink at Sutton
Ranch. Drinks with Mrs. Cambell. 5 miles and another [unintelligible]
at Straw Ranch. Thence 5 miles to Express Ranch. Another drink.
Stoped at Central House. 56 miles from Auburn.
Wednesday 3. Left 5 a. m.
Breakfast at Wilson Ranch. Met several emigrants teams [unintelligible]
"gals." Monroes [?] Ranch stopped over night. Very warm & dusty
travilling.
Thursday,
August 4, 1864. Left 6 a. m. Payatte ferry for dinner. Stopped
at way side with [unintelligible]. Went to foot of mountain with
Gills.
Friday 5.
Beautiful mt. trail [unintelligible] canyon. Got into Placerville
for supper... . Stopped at Empire. Hurdy gurdy dance.
Saturday 6.
Left Placerville 7 a. m. Centerville 10 a. m.... Went to theater
"Ireland as it was." Bannock is a live town in fact more so then
any I have seen since I came to this country.
Monday 8. Making arrangements
to leave. Gilbert and I went to circus at night. About 1500 [spectators].
Took tea with McLaughlin. Bannock is clearly the first town of
the mountains.
Tuesday 9. Left 5 a. m. Breakfast
at Minerichs [?] Ranch. Dinner at [unintelligible] Ranch 6 p.
m. for dinner & horses. Went to Snake, got lunch, crossed & traveled
15 miles to Carters. Very tired and sick. About used up.
Wednesday
August 10, 1864. Left 6 a. m. Arrived at Ruby City 11 a. m.
What a change from 1 year since. Then I campted in a grove of
timber where Ruby City now stands. Silver City is quite a place....
Thursday 11. Got into Ruby
City.
Friday 12. Went up mt. with
K [Kik]. Stayed with [him] all night. Very sick with [diarrhea?].
Got the blues like Hl. I shall leave this dm country.
Saturday August 13, 1864.
Went to town. D [damn] dull. 2 conventions. Stayed all night.
B [Blue]. B [Blue]....
Monday 15. Visited Deffet
Ledges. Found some of them good. Look upon most of this as a d
[damn] wild cat speculation.
Tuesday, August 16, 1864.
Went down to Ruby. Found nothing to pay. Feeling very unwell and
d [damn] blue. My prospects are anything but flattery....
Thursday 18. Prosp. Found
nothing. Took dinner with Crane at Orifino [Orofino]. Stopping
in the mts. Life is but a change. How often I wish I never had
come to this [unintelligible]. Very low spirits. D. S. [Dear Sue?]
I will have to abandon you.
Friday, August 19, 1864.
Prospecting in mountains for quartz lodes. Found nothing to pay.
Never felt so low spirit in my life. Not one streak of the sunshine
can I see in the future. Everything looks dark and gloomy.
Saturday 20. Great excitement
about new lode struck by Mexican. "Nehope" [New Hope?] lode. Went
early. Got claim of 200 feet. The whole mountain covered with
men crazy after new lode. It seems to me the whole community has
gone & is going crazy on quartz.
Sunday 21. The buisness day
in Ruby. Everybody in town. 2/3 on a big drunk. How I wish for
a few hours of home comfort with friends and loved ones. It is
impossible to describe my lonely feelings. Gloomy, gloomy, gloomy.
Monday, August 22, 1864.
In our dreams sweet visions come. Last night I dreamed I was again
at home among old associates and friends and that again I held
communion with my Sy [Sue?]. I was so content and happy as we
strolled along arm in arm. Bitter, bitter was my thoughts when
I awoke and found it all a vision. Climbing mt. all day. I try
& dispel bitter reflections.
Tuesday 23.
Went down to Ruby. Found that P. had got a good start in the drift.
The longer I live, the more I find that man is D [damn] deceitful.
In my opion [opinion] I am out in the arangments [arrangements],
perhaps not. We will see.
Wednesday 24. Went to mtn.
Pros part of day. Visit Roxbery Ledge. Taken up to Hl & sore,
tired & dispirited. Nothing found. Still presevere is the watchword.
Keep trying....
Sunday, August 28, 1864.
Town full of miners rough and ready. How then the thoughts of
my dear home does come on the Sabbath day. Where will this life
of hardship & trouble end?
Monday 29. Again on the mountain.
Took up some claims. Men count themselves with millions one day
and [unintelligible]. The bubble bursts & leaves nothing. Heavy
rain. Feeling quite unwell.
Tuesday 30.... Everyday new
lode struck & big excitement which runs its turn and settles down
as usual....
Wednesday, August 31, 1864.
Hardest hail storm ever I saw. Fell about size of hen eggs. In
mountains pros. Took up a lead. Found good croppings. Still felt
low spirited, longing for home. The last five weeks have been
the saddest of my life as far as financial maters are concerned.
Thursday, September 1. Working
all day trying to find a lead. Dug deep ditch on mountainside.
Failed to find it. Politicking high. Very tired. Quite depd [depressed?].
Friday 2. Doing nothing.
Concluded to take it easy until the convention is over. How long,
oh God, am I to live in such [unintelligible]. It is almost [unintelligible].
Dear S. I must [unintelligible] you forever. I cannot longer [unintelligible].
Saturday, September 3, 1864....
Conclude to go to Auburn. Enough of the mountains for this trip.
Tuesday September 6, 1864.
8 a. m. left with $22 on H [hand]. Dmd near bk [broke?]. Crossed
Snake river about 2 ok [o'clock]. Fed horse at Slough Ranch. Got
to Stern [?] Ranch about dark. 45 miles.
Wednesday 7. Got into Boise
City about 10 a. m. Put up at Idaho House. Saw H. Johnson. Left
at 2 p. m. Willow Creek 7 p. m. 45 miles today. [Unintelligible]
what a place to stop. Big fat webfoot woman and man. Slept in
hay yard. Wind blew perfect hurricane. What will a man go through
for gold.
Thursday 8. Left at sunrise.
Got to Payette river 9 a. m. Traveled 12 miles & put up for breakfast
? good break [breakfast]. Took a nap till 3 ok [o'clock] & again
on the road. Forded River & got to Snake about 6 p. m. Central
Ferry?good supper... Thinking of old times reminds me of early
days on the "old Missouri." Snake is as calm as can be....
Friday September
9, 1864. Crossed Snake [on] Central Ferry. Traveled 28 miles.
Dinner at Millers. Traveled 15 miles after dark to [up] the Burnt
River Canyon. Wilsons supper & whiskey. Very tired indeed but
feel that yet I'll win....
Saturday 10. Left Wilson's
5 a. m. 8 miles to Express Ranch [present-day Durkee, Oregon].
Breakfast. Passed about 100 Emg. [emigrant] Wags. [wagons] Men
& women looking hard, ragged & dirty. Some of the "gals" had the
app [appearance?] of strong alkili. Stopped at Mrs. Cambels for
dinner. Auburn 8 p. m. weather ok. And things looking alive....
Monday, September 12, 1864.
Again on my road for Clarks Creek. Like the "prodical son" we
read about. Pleasant trip over mountain. Came in sight of "Old
Standby" about 4 p. m. Found "Stuts" in good spirits. Rags & health.
Claim paid well in my absence.
Tuesday 13. Got up with the
idea that the pick and shovel would be good co [company] for the
time being. So at work I went in "Star of West" claim at noon.
Found working rather hard on hands forcibly reminding me of what
I might [have] been....
Saturday 17. Cleaned up $36.
Went to lower claim, then to [Burnt] river. Had a bath. Took supper
with "Stuts." Feel very much like ague. When I think of sickness
& no Mrs. Lockwood to take care of me....
Tuesday 20. Again at work.
Feeling better. "Will" must conquer everything. Muny I must and
will make. Hereafter I reap the benefits of all my suffering.
What a life to lead. 2 poor blankets for a bed.
Wednesday,
September 21, 1864. Cloudy, cold weather. Put up Hy. Bought
hose & pipe from Koontz $50. Works very well. Wet from head to
foot. Cold and chilly when I got to camp. Stuts in town.
Thursday 22....Gold on bedrock.
Gravel looking better. Wet and no change. How long will a man
live in such a way. Stuts fixed up in an old pair pants. Wagon
came over mountain with [unintelligible] of goods.
Friday 23. Work in claim.
Getting course gold. Boys rocked out $14.75. Hy all ok. Getting
to be very chilly evenings.
Saturday,
September 24, 1864. Partly cleaned up. Got $76. Neb Flat $215
a 3/4 days wo [work]. Got nice leaf specimen. Very dull in town
for Saturday night. Oh for a live camp once more.
|
|
|
The specimen of leaf gold may have found its way into the mineral
display Virtue put together over years of collecting specimens,
first as a miner and then as a banker, gold buyer, and operator
of an assay office and laboratory in Baker City. In 1885, having
been unanimously recommended by the Oregon legislature and appointed
by Governor Zenas Ferry Moody as commissioner of mines to represent
Oregon, Virtue attended the World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial
Exposition in New Orleans. In newspaper interviews in Omaha, Chicago,
and New Orleans, Virtue praised Oregon as an investor's paradise,
and there were reports that he had with him fifteen-hundred pounds
of mineral specimens. The reporter from the Times of Chicago was
especially impressed: "White quartz, ribboned and banded with the
precious metal, and nuggets of pure gold of four and five ounces
in weight were shown in profusion, while buckskin bags of finer
dust washed out of the placers were lying carelessly around as if
of no especial value." As early as 1871 Virtue's knowledge of mining
had been recognized by President Ulysses S. Grant, who appointed
him to a commission that would help plan "an international exhibition
of arts, manufactures, and products of the soil and mine" to be
held in Philadelphia in 1876 as part of the centennial celebration
of American independence.
|
23
|
Sunday 25. "Stuts" brought
up horse. Went pros for quartz. Head of Shasly [?] Creek found
sinue lode. Only one wherein pure metal can be seen. I wonder
what they would think at home if they knew how I spent my Sunday....
Saturday, October 1. Went
to Auburn. Got in 8 a. m. [p. m.?] Pack all well. How cheering
to meet an old & true a friend....
Monday, October 3, 1864.
Started for home on foot. Got to cabin 4 p. m. Extremely tired
& weary. "Stuts" got me a good supper. Cleaned up S of W $241
weeks run....
Sunday, October 9, 1864.
Work in claim. Got $34. Played a little P. Even... . Nothing going
of any importance....
Sunday 16.
Work in claim. Cleaning up. Play P part of night. Won 5.00. Ahead
on week $43.
Monday 17. Fixing up to move
sluices in new place. Nights very cold. Bed rock frozen. Cannot
work on it.
Tuesday, October 18, 1864.
Hard frost. No work till 10 a. m. Cont work in new place. Cleaned
up from last weeks run $225. Paid Tracy 47. Lent Hank $30. Play
P part of night....
Sunday 23.
PP part of day. Wn $42. Political meeting. Mr. Goodrich speaker.
Monday, October 24, 1864.
Work in claim. Hands getting very sore.
Tuesday 25. Cold and cloudy.
Water very low. First snow on mountains. Commenced work on reservoir.
Wednesday 26. Feeling blue
as Hl. Lost last night $52....
|
|
|
|
| |
 |
Virtue was one of eastern Oregon's most enthusiastic
promoters, and he put special emphasis on gold-mining
opportunities.
Courtesy Baker County Library
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Thursday, October 27, 1864.
Ground covered with snow and still snowing. Work in claim. Rocked
out 36 buckets. $42. Bed rock and ground sluice looks well. Mining
is not such a bad thing after all. May live & die a miner....
Sunday October
30, 1864. Commenced boarding with Jake. Raised my cabin....
Wednesday, November 2, 1864.
Let contract. Building res [reservoir] to Jim['s] R [reservoir]
for $125....
Sunday 6.
Heavy snow & rain last night. Work in claim part of day balance
working building chimney. Stuts getting ready to leave. Paid bord
at [unintelligible] $40.
Monday 7.
Weather mild. Water rather low. Koontz came down to election.
My guest. Wrote out a no. of McClellan tickets.
Tuesday , November
8, 1864. [I was] Clerk of El [election]. Every vote sworn
in. Only 12 votes for Mac, 29 for Abe. Voted for Mac. My first
vote cast for President. Men drunk & a fight every ten minutes.
Wednesday 9. Work in claim.
Rather cold. Every thing quiet. Men getting sober & feeling (I
should think) blue.
Thursday 10.... My last evening
with "Stuts." How lonesome I feel as the time draws so near for
his leaving.
Friday, November 11, 1864.
Bid goodbye to "Stuts" at 8 a. m. I wonder if I ever shall see
him again. How sad I go to work today. Alone, alone.
Saturday 12. Cleaned up $112.75.
Expenses $146. Miner's luck. Will pay better next time. Weather
mild & warm.
Sunday 13. Work on cabin.
Dug cellar, laid floor. Banked side & put on 2 row shakes. Very
tired for Sunday work. What a way to live. When shall I again
live among those I love. Lonesome since Stuts left.
Monday, November 14, 1864.
Pleasant. Work in claim afternoon. Shooks [Shakes] most on house.
Bought Kitchen dich $225. $100 down, note for balance 1st of May
1865.
Tuesday 15. Put in big days
work on claim. Snow storm & very cold. Such weather makes a man
curse his luck for being poor. It is now a dreary looking prospect
for April in the winter....
Sunday November 20, 1864.
Warm & mild. Work on cabin building chimney. Atckinson helping
me. Jim & Henry returned. Pet & W. took up some claims. I own
. McClannahan moved into town with family. Clarksville can boast
of one lady. Bully.
Monday 21. Work on claim.
Ground frozen rather hard. Cold, cold mining. Steel and Billy
quit work on lower claim.
Tuesday 22. Warmer. Mining
goes better. Bed rock looks good. Water on increase. Hank got
back [with] provisions.
Wednesday, November
23, 1864. Froze but very little last night. Done good days
work. Borrowed $100 from Wilson till 15th April. 20 per cent interest.
|
|
|
Virtue's diary entries are replete with his financial dealings,
but these transactions correspond poorly with the "Cash Account"
section at the back of the diary, where Virtue recorded amounts
"Received" and "Paid." For example, Virtue did not consistently
record in the ledger poker winnings and losses and amounts cleaned
up from his sluice boxes, as reported in the diary. Although the
cash "on hand" entries of $25.00 on January 1 and $17.49 on December
31 give the impression that Virtue began and ended the year broke,
neither diary nor ledger gives a comprehensive account of his outstanding
debts or the money owed to him. Nevertheless, the ledger provides
a detailed, if not complete, account of his daily financial transactions,
which range from oysters bought for $2.50 and $1.50 for whiskey
to $70.60 collected from Benjamin F. Kountz and sent on to William
F. McCreary.
|
24
|
|
Information about Virtue's financial
affairs preceding and following 1864 — mostly documents and
newspaper clippings held in the Baker County Library — is also
spotty. Reputed at one time to have been the richest man in eastern
Oregon, Virtue suffered several severe financial reversals. In 1875,
an apparent cash-flow problem led to all his property being assigned
to creditors. In 1888, his bank in Baker City — the town's
first stone and supposedly "fireproof" building — burned to
the ground. And Virtue's closure of his bank and departure from
Baker City in 1891 were, according to Viola Hardy (the wife of Virtue's
grandson), the result of losses in his banking business during that
year's nation-wide depression. Nothing in the record indicates that
Virtue died a wealthy man, but it was not for lack of determination
and hard work.
|
25
|
Thursday 24. Good day for
mining. Thanksgiving dinner. Honey, butter, coffee, hot biscuit
& some custard. Hard at work all day.
Friday 25. Glorious weather
for mining. Commenced raining last night. Rained most of day &
now 8 p. m. & still raining. Struck good pay dirt. Lots of water
all right yet for winter grub....
Sunday 27. Work on cabin
forenoon. Went to Koontz afternoon. Heavy rain. Filed [filled]
bill of lumber for S. of W.
Monday 28. At Koontz last
night. Started at daylight for home. Arrived 8 a. m. Breakfast
and work in claim. Moved in to cabin this evening. Now at home
getting things comfortable more so than I have been since coming
to this country.
Tuesday, November 29, 1864....
Eat 1st meal in my own cabin. Getting things fixed up like living.
No place like home & by my own fire side.
Wednesday 30. 7 a. m. still
snowing. Forenoon getting water through ditch. Comd [commenced]
cleaning up. Afternoon got water about sundown and cold as Hl.
Got bedrock shoveled into ground sluice. Let it freeze and be
dd [damned]. Such is miner's luck.
Thursday, December 1. Cold
clear winter morning. Everything frozen up in claims. Started
for Auburn on foot. Snow 2 feet deep on mt. Arrd [Arrived] 7 p.
m. with my toes of right foot frozen.
Friday, December 2, 1864.
Suffered very much with feet last night. Swollen. Can not get
my boots on. Very sore. Fear I should be laid up for some time.
Dined with Mrs. P. Spending night with Brainard.
Saturday 3. Snow & blowing
all day. Feet some better. Able to get around. Bought some traps.
Wrote "Stuts."
Sunday 4. Spent day with
Mrs. P. Raining a little. No chance for getting home. Bought some
books. Auburn as dull as Blanksville.
Monday, December 5, 1864.
Morning snowing heavy. Noon same. Night still snowing mixed with
rain. Feet getting better. Will soon be able to cross mountain.
Tuesday 6. Clear and cold.
Snow 12 inches deep, on mt. about 3 ft. Commenced boarding with
Mrs. P also Brattain. Very unwell. Jim and Joe got in from [Clarks]
Creek with [pack] train.
Wednesday
7. Getting things fixed for going home. Jim to pack stuff.
Got a nice table. First on [Clarks] Creek.
Thursday, December 8, 1864.
Jim left for [Clarks] Creek. Cold and clear, sparkle of snow.
Night went to party to Brainards. Good supper and lots of fun.
Friday 9. Perfect snow storm.
Warm. Started for home 9 a. m. Snow very deep on mts. yet got
along finely. Home at 5 p. m. Once here in my cabin home feeling
a little homesick after leaving old friends. How pleasant to enjoy
the society of those we once loved....
Sunday, December 11, 1864.
Warmer & snowing heavy in afternoon. Still working on cabin. Got
things in good shape, looking cozy and comfortable. Got winters
supply of grub. Also [unintelligible] lots of books to study.
Spent evening reading over old letters from the dear ones at home.
Monday 12. Commenced drifting.
Hank gave up Hyd [Hydraulic Claim] interest. No work on lower
claims. Weather mild & slight snow. Studying fractions and grammar.
Tuesday 13.... Drifting goes
all ok. Wheeled out 80 buggies. This I find a much pleasanter
(as well as profitable) way of spending the winter than sitting
in the cabin or saloon play cad [cards] and drinking whiskey in
W. [unintelligible] as I did last winter. Live, learn and [unintelligible]
in the great law of nature. Happens here and hereafter.
Wednesday, December 14, 1864....
Getting out Hi-Y [yielding] dirt. Very hard work. Too tired to
night to make much progress in my studies. Life is such a mixture
of sunshine and clouds....
Thursday
15. Mild, warm morning. Light snow 10 a. m. coming down thick
& fast. A real down Easter. Yet inside of tunnel it is as comfortable
as sitting in cabin. Cleaned up in afternoon. Cold and clear at
7 p. m. Studying geography and history. Boys having a regular
hoe down in the Reid house....
Saturday, December 17, 1864.
Last night very cold. Today clear and cutting wind from WNW. Got
in abut [about] 30 feet. Very [unintelligible]. Only a few colors
to pure. Baked a pound cake.
Sunday 18. Last night coldest
of the season.... Our city quiet. No excitement & no tangle foot
around. Called on Mrs. Mc[Clannahan] first time. Evening pouring
over fractions....
Wednesday 21. Little warmer,
yet cold enough for an Icelander. I find the drift the warmest
place.
Thursday 22. Cloudy and warmer.
Struck rich ground. Can pick the gold out of the dirt. This does
our soul good....
Friday, December 23, 1864.
Cloudy & warm. Work in drift. No more work until after Christmas.
Saturday 24. Covered Cabin
with dirt. Fixing up for Christmas. Evening writing letter home.
Christ-Eve and so far away from loved ones. How the mind will
go back to such at homes long gone never more to be recalled.
This time next year I trust I will make one of that family circle.
Will I enjoy it! Took long look at Sus [Sue's] P [picture] & wondering
if S is thinking of me tonight.
Sunday 25. 11 p. m. Have
just finished a long letter home. Also wrote today to Henderson,
Daly, Koenig [?], Stuts & Ironsides & sent petitions for officers.
Had about 3 inches snow last night. Took dinner with Mrs. Wilson.
Had an old fashion Irish time. Have took many a look at dear S
[Sue's] likeness. My thoughts are with her often. Having a warm
rain all afternoon.
Monday, December 26, 1864.
Splendid warm snow, cutting wind. Great preparations for a dance
and supper. Reading & writing in evening. Wrote & visited. Dance
goes on. Everybody getting on a big drunk. I fried some supper
meat by my fire at home and this I could with all this whiskey.
Home Sweet Home & loved ones has my thoughts with S. I have been
reading over your letter tonight. Oh, S how I long to see you.
Tuesday 27. Work in drift.
Caved in this morning for 10 feet & full of water. Enough to
discourage an old miner. Went to work and finally got [unintelligible]
in very good shape. Very tired tonight. Weather warm and appearance
of snow.
|
|
|
|
| |
 |
Margaret Ameila Bowen Virtue (1849–1911), the
wife of James Virtue, was from a prominent Baker City
family. Her father, I.B. Bowen, Sr., was a Baker County
pioneer who arrived in 1862 and later owned and operated
a hotel. Her brother, I.B. Bowen, Jr., was the editor
of the Democrat, a local newspaper.
Courtesy Baker County Library
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Wednesday 28. Very warm
with sprinkling of rain. Snow disappearing rapidly. Getting 70
cents to pan & bed rock ok. This makes a poor Dl [devil] of a
man feel good. "You bet!" Barrow runs light with such dirt & we
sing working for "Nellie." ...
Saturday 31. Snowing, blowing
all day. Work in drift. 11 3/4 p. m. Goodbye old 64. I will not
part from you in anger, rather in sorrow. From your hands I have
recd [received] but few favours, but many hard knocks. My spiritual
and tempemporal welfare have incrsd [increased] but little in
your administrations. "I have done these things which I ought
not have done, left undone those I ought to have done. Reckless
and careless life." The past forgotten, not a done [damn?] regard
for the present & no thoughts for the future. I thank you, however,
for your practical lessons of experiences, which will be to me
of [seven words unitelligible].
[Unintelligible] old diary, my [unintelligible]
companion [unintelligible] so many months, I will lay you aside,
not as one forgotten but to be referred to in after years, for
this is a moment of life & lesson for the future. "We live to
learn." Already the cold damp sweat of death is on his brow.
|
|
Notes to Diary Entries |
|
Jan. 1: Mormon Basin
was a mining camp located about seven miles southeast of Clarksville.
Virtue usually writes just "Basin." Throughout the diary,
Virtue pines for "Sue," without ever identifying her further.
She was probably a woman he knew in Dakota City, Nebraska,
where he had celebrated the previous New Year.
Jan. 4: "Mr. Kometzes"
is possibly John Comisky, who was one of numerous contractors
who built the Auburn Ditch. Isaac Hiatt, Thirty-one Years
in Baker County: A History of the County from 1861 to 1893
(Baker City, Ore.: Baker County Historical Society, 1997),
29. After this entry, the diary jumps to January 8. While
trying not to exclude anything readers might find important
for understanding the life and times of a miner in a small
mining camp or Virtue's personal triumphs and travails, I
have excluded many entries that are of minor interest, such
as frequent weather reports. Approximately three-quarters
of the daily entries are included in this article.
Jan. 8: As he had been
in Dakota City, Virtue was a moneylender and debt-collector,
thus the comment about "my collecting time." Cottonwood was
a small mining camp located at the confluence of Cottonwood
Creek and Clarks Creek about halfway between Clarksville and
Mormon Basin.
Jan. 10: In Virtue's
time, "snow shoes" usually referred to heavy, wooden skis
with leather foot straps that afforded the skier little control
going downhill; therefore, Virtue's need for "practice."
Jan. 11: Inghram is,
no doubt, John H. Ingraham, who was one of the first miners
at Mormon Basin in 1863. For a short time in 1865 he was sheriff
of Baker County. He was also part owner of Place's Toll Road.
Hiatt, Thirty-one Years, 35, 43, 73.
Jan. 23: Auburn was
a twenty-one-mile trip northwest of Clarksville with a two-thousand-foot
climb over Dooley Mountain Pass, which lay between the two.
Jan. 24: Johanna O'Brien
Packwood started the first school in Baker County at Auburn.
A few weeks later, she left teaching to marry William H. Packwood.
Both are mentioned throughout this diary. Next to Virtue himself,
arguably no man made a bigger impact on the early development
of Baker County than Packwood. Among other projects, he was
involved in building the Auburn, Eldorado, and Sparta ditches
and operated a ferry on Snake River. Both Packwoods remained
in Baker County the rest of their lives and are the great-grandparents
of Oregon's former senator Robert Packwood. Several entries
in the diary seem to indicate that Virtue and the Packwoods,
or at least Johanna Packwood, knew each other before arriving
in Oregon. Other entries indicate that Virtue had known other
Baker County residents before coming to Oregon. In all likelihood
they influenced Virtue's decision to seek his fortune in Baker
County.
Jan. 30: Benjamin F.
Koontz — Virtue usually writes Kountz— had
a sawmill on Mill Creek at its confluence with Burnt River
in Hereford Valley and with a brother owned a general store
in Clarksville. In February 1868, he broke a snowshoe or ski
in crossing Dooley Mountain from Auburn to his home in Hereford
Valley. He made it home but died of exposure. Hiatt, Thirty-one
Years, 67.
Jan. 31: Russell is
possibly J.T. Russell, developer of a ditch to serve Rye Valley
placer mines. Hiatt, Thirty-one Years, 40, 72.
Feb. 5: Perhaps Virtue
is referring to financial troubles in Nebraska that led to
his coming to Oregon. After "could" Virtue struck out the
words "blot the past out."
Feb. 10: Braces {} are
used to represent a similar symbol Virtue used in his diary
as a code for poker losses.
Feb. 22: McCrery is
probably William F. McCrary, first treasurer of Baker County
(1862) and first postmaster of Baker City (1866). Hiatt, Thirty-one
Years, 43; Lewis A. McArthur and Lewis L. McArthur, Oregon
Geographic Names, 7th ed. (Portland: Oregon
Historical Society Press, 2003), 45.
Feb. 23: A sluice box
is a long, narrow, sloping box with riffles placed at intervals
to catch gold while the lighter sand and gravel are washed
through by water. A miner's inch of water varies in usage
but typically refers to water flow at the rate of 1.5 cubic
feet per minute.
Feb. 27: "Chair" probably
means that Virtue chaired the meeting.
Mar. 4: "Cleaned up"
refers to cleaning gold out of a sluice box. Virtue then weighed
the gold to come up with an approximate monetary value.
Mar. 6: Vinton & Co.
is possibly related to John Vinton, who is listed as a miner
living in the Powder River district in the federal census
of 1870. Virtue's mention of his mother is the only definite
reference in the diary to someone back in Canada where he
grew up.
Mar. 9: "Fall" refers
to the slope of the sluice boxes allowing proper velocity
of water through the boxes. The Star of West claim was a typical
surface placer mine. Associated with this claim was a drift
into the hillside following a streak of pay dirt on bedrock.
December finds Virtue mining in the relative warmth of the
drift.
Mar. 15: Willow Creek,
in Malheur County a few miles south of Mormon Basin, empties
into Malheur River at Vale. In 1868, Indians killed two miners
on a similar expedition to the Willow Creek area to recover
stolen horses. Hiatt, Thirty-one Years, 74.
Mar. 16: Birch Creek
has its headwaters a few miles east of Mormon Basin. It flows
into the Snake River southeast of Farewell Bend.
Mar. 17: The location
of Granite Creek is unknown. Given the rest of the route the
group followed, it may be another name for Dixie Creek, which
is located east of Clarksville.
Mar. 19: Royal is probably
Royal A. Pierce, an attorney who came to Auburn in September
1862. He unsuccessfully defended a Frenchman who was hanged
after trial in a kangaroo court. In October 1864, he platted
what became the downtown business district of Baker City.
Hiatt, Thirty-one years, 65.
Mar. 23: If Granite
Creek is another name for Dixie Creek (note for Thursday [March]
17 entry), Virtue was prospecting about ten miles east of
Clarksville in the Rye Valley area, which in later years was
extensively placer-mined.
Mar. 24: Brattain is
probably George Brattain, who is listed as a dry-goods and
grocery store owner living in Auburn in the federal census
of 1870.
Mar. 31: C.E. Brainard
was deputy sheriff in 1864. E.C. Brainard was first recorder
of Baker County. These two were probably the same person.
Hiatt, Thirty-one Years, 16, 43.
Apr. 6: Perkins is probably
Rufus Perkins, who is listed as a miner living in Clarksville
in the federal census of 1870. C.C.D. & M. Co. is Clark's
Creek Ditch and Mining Co.
Apr. 8: Mrs. Drews was
probably the wife of a Mr. Drews who owned a livery stable
in Auburn. Hiatt, Thirty-one Years, 40. B. & I. is
probably Brattain and Ingraham.
Apr. 10: Virtue's residence
changed several times during the year. In December, he built
his own cabin. "Hy" is short for Hydraulic Claim. The mine
is named after a very large nozzle called a hydraulic, or
giant, through which water under great pressure washes dirt
from the landscape at placer mines for processing in sluice
boxes.
Apr. 11: Virtue's Kitchen
Claim no doubt took its name from Robert Kitchen. In 1864,
Kitchen, William H. Packwood, and others formed the Burnt
River Ditch Company, which began construction of the famous
125-mile Eldorado Ditch. Hiatt, Thirty-one Years, 81.
Apr. 20: Virtue's frustration
with his poker losses is evident in the dramatically large,
broad pen strokes he used when he wrote this entry.
Apr. 23: Ward probably
refers to Ira Ward, one of the organizers of the Auburn Water
Company (later Auburn Canal Company), who was reputed to have
first suggested construction of a ditch to supply water to
Auburn placer mines. Hiatt, Thirty-one Years, 24, 28–9.
May 28: The last word
was written vertically in the margin. Virtue does not mention
playing poker again until October 9. See the entry dated July
26, however.
June 11: Parke is possibly
William R. Park, Baker County sheriff from 1863 to 1864. Hiatt,
Thirty-one Years, 43. Georges probably refers to R.C.
George, who is listed as a miner living in Auburn in the federal
census of 1870.
June 12: Although no
Auburn buildings remain, the cemetery on the hill to the west
still has three gravestones, including that of Henry Griffin
(1824–1883), the first to discover gold in eastern Oregon
(see introduction). The Auburn Reservoir, fed by the Auburn
Ditch, still exists about two miles northwest of the ghost
town of Auburn.
June 21: "Drifting"
is digging a drift, an approximately horizontal tunnel, into
a mountainside. In the Clark's Creek area, the drift probably
followed placer gold deposited by erosion rather than veins
of gold found in hardrock mines.
June 26: Knight is probably
I.W. Knight, general agent for the Auburn Water Company. Hiatt,
Thirty-one Years, 28.
June 27: Owyhee River
country in southwestern Idaho Territory was where the mining
camps of Silver City and Ruby City were located.
July 3: Virtue, who
seems to have been smitten by "J," never identifies her further.
July 5: The unnamed
woman is probably "J" of July 3.
July 10: On the way
back to Clarksville, Virtue climbed the ridge separating Clarks
Creek from Burnt River. He was looking down on the southern
end of what today is called Hereford Valley.
July 13: This prospecting
trip took place on the north side of Burnt River Canyon north
of Clarksville. Virtue refers to Pine Creek and H. Creek,
names not used today for any creeks in that area.
July 14: "Leads," also
called "croppings," are rock, usually quartz, exposed at ground
level, which may contain gold.
July 15: Burnt River
Canyon is still known for its rattlesnakes.
July 16: Virtue climbed
the south side of Burnt River Canyon, then went over and down
the ridge to Clarksville.
July 25: Express Ranch
is present-day Durkee, Oregon, located fifteen miles down
Burnt River east of Clarksville. For many years, Express Ranch
was a stage stop on the Oregon Trail.
July 26: Virtue must
be back to playing poker.
Aug. 2: Much of their
route to Idaho followed the Oregon Trail (present-day I-84).
Aug. 4: Payatte Ferry
may be Washoe Ferry, which was located on the Snake River
near the mouth of the Payette River.
Aug. 5: Today, Placerville,
Empire, and Centerville are ghost towns located in the heart
of mountainous Boise Basin, where gold was first found on
August 2, 1862, by a party of prospectors from Auburn and
Florence, Oregon. Arthur A. Hart, Basin of Gold: Life in
Boise Basin, 1862–1890 (Boise: Idaho City Historical
Foundation/Historic Idaho, 1993), 2.
Aug. 6: Today Bannock
is called Idaho City. It is located on the southeast edge
of Boise Basin thirty-one miles northeast of Boise. In 1863,
Idaho City was for a brief time the largest city in the Northwest,
with a population of 6,275, but it declined to 889 by 1870.
Hart, Basin of Gold, 5.
Aug. 10: Virtue had
visited Ruby City — and possibly Boise Basin as well
— on his way west from Nebraska in the summer of 1863.
Ruby City was in its infancy, having sprung up that summer
after gold was discovered nearby. A year later, Silver City
was founded a mile upstream from Ruby City, which it supplanted
as county seat by 1866. Mildretta Adams, Historic Silver
City: The Story of the Owyhees (Homedale, Idaho: Owyhee
Publishing, 1999), 10.
Aug. 23: Apparently
a mining deal has gone sour. Virtue makes no further mention
of what is bothering him.
Sept. 9: Miller's Ranch
became Huntington, Oregon, located five miles northwest of
Farewell Bend of the Snake River. Wilson's was probably at
present-day Weatherby rest area on I-84, about eight miles
southeast of Durkee.
Sept. 21: "Put up Hy"
refers to setting up a "giant" hydraulic nozzle and water
line.
Sept. 24: Leaf specimen
refers to gold that is thin and flat.
Oct. 16: From October
10 through October 15, Virtue made no entries, although some
pages are marked up with broad, angry-looking strokes of red
ink. Perhaps his gambling had again gotten out of hand.
Oct. 23: Mr. Goodrich
is possibly A.C. Goodrich, surveyor and investor in the Auburn
Ditch. Hiatt, Thirty-one Years, 24, 28–9.
Oct. 30: Since Virtue
has been boarding with others, perhaps his cabin was not habitable.
Nov. 6: Virtue is building
a new cabin to replace the one he razed on October 30.
Nov. 7: George Brinton
McClellan, a Union Army general in the Civil War, ran as the
Democratic candidate for president against Abraham Lincoln
in the election of 1864.
Nov. 8: Virtue must
have become a naturalized citizen since the last election.
Nov. 23: Wilson is possibly
John Q. Wilson, the first county judge of Baker County. Hiatt,
Thirty-one Years, 38, 43.
Dec. 7: The "nice table"
likely refers to a billiard table. Virtue may have had a stake
in a Clarksville saloon. In the late 1890s, Virtue was part
owner with his nephew, Robert Virtue, of the Dew Drop Saloon
in Leland, Jackson County, Oregon. Larry McLane, First
There Was Twogood: A Pictorial History of Northern Josephine
County (Sunny Valley, Ore.: Sexton Enterprises, 1995),
108.
Dec. 15: The Reid house
was probably a hotel. Jack A. Reid built the Western Hotel
in Baker City in 1865. When Baker City incorporated in 1874,
he was on the first board of trustees. Hiatt, Thirty-one
Years, 50, 54.
|
|
|
|
Epilogue
|
|
|
There is no record of when Virtue left Clarksville or where
he was living in 1866 when he was elected sheriff of Baker County.
He was probably living in Auburn, the county seat, during the first
of his two consecutive terms and then in Baker City after it became
county seat in 1868. While serving as sheriff, Virtue and his partner
A.H. Brown bought the Virtue Mine.
15
While it is not known how much profit Virtue realized from this
business venture, it may have been the source of capital he used
to start Baker City's first bank.
|
26
|
|
In 1867, Virtue married eighteen-year-old
Margaret Amelia Bowen, the daughter of Baker County pioneer businessman
I.B. Bowen and the sister of I.B. Bowen, Jr., who would later become
editor of Baker City's Morning Democrat. Four children issued
from Virtue's second marriage. Daughter Lilah was born in 1868,
followed by Robert in 1869, Maude in 1872, and James William, Jr.,
in 1876. In early 1879, tragedy struck Virtue's family when both
Maude and James died of diphtheria within three weeks of each other.
Robert remained a bachelor his whole life. Lilah married a Baker
City businessman and had two children: a daughter, Eleanor, who
died in 1889 within four months of birth, and a son, Edwin, who
died childless in 1964. With Edwin's death, Virtue's line of descendants
ended.
|
27
|
|
In 1883, Virtue helped found the
town of Ontario, Oregon. Speculating that construction of the railroad
from Omaha to Portland, scheduled for completion in the summer of
1884, would require a terminal on the Oregon side of the Snake River,
Virtue and three other Baker City residents obtained land and platted
a town, naming it in honor of the Canadian province where Virtue
had grown up.
16
|
28
|
|
In 1891, the Virtues moved to Portland,
which served as home base while Virtue traveled the Northwest assessing
prospective mines for investors. In 1895, they moved to Josephine
County, where Virtue purchased the Harris Mine on Lower Grave Creek
west of the town of Leland, now a ghost town. His nephew Robert
Virtue, who had migrated from Canada to Oregon, became one of Leland's
leading businessmen and for several years owned the town site. Together,
Virtue and Robert owned a saloon in Leland. Virtue sold the Harris
Mine in 1902 and moved back to Portland, where he died on November
27, 1903. He was sixty-six years old.
|
29
|
|
Earlier that year, Governor George
Chamberlain and other Oregon state officials had signed a statement
praising Virtue as a former legislator and recognizing him "as one
of the most competent and experienced mining men of the Pacific
Coast."
17
As James W. Virtue had correctly predicted in his Clarksville diary,
he would "live & die a miner."
|
30
|
| |
|
Notes
The author is thankful to the late Viola Hardy, James Virtue's
grandson's widow, who donated the diary to the Baker County Library
fifteen years ago, for her thoughtfulness and appreciation of
Virtue's ties and contributions to Baker County. The diary is
reprinted with the permission of the Baker County Library.
1. Two books offer
very readable overviews of the history of the Oregon Trail and
mining in Eastern Oregon. The story of the Oregon Trail through
eastern Oregon is recounted by means of excerpts from emigrant
diaries in John W. Evans's Powerful Rockey: The Blue Mountains
and the Oregon Trail, 1811–1883 (La Grande: Eastern Oregon
State College, 1990). Miles F. Potter's Oregon's Golden Years
(Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton Printers, 1982), richly illustrated by
dozens of old photographs, is a general history of mining in Oregon
with two-thirds of the book devoted to gold mining in eastern
Oregon.
2. Howard Brooks,
"Mining in Baker County," in Baker County: Links to the Past,
ed. Eloise Dielman (Baker City, Ore.: Baker County Historical
Society, 2001), 74–5.
3. Virtue's grandfather,
Robert Virtue, is credited with naming the town of Enniskillen,
Ontario, Canada. Virtue's parents' farm was near the neighboring
town of Tyrone. The author is indebted to Virtue's relative Carol
Milne of Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada, for information about the
Canadian Virtues.
4. The author is indebted
to Gary Sides, president of the Dakota County Historical Society,
for information about Virtue's life in Dakota City, Nebraska.
5. Marriage certificate
signed by Minister Thomas Crompton of the Primitive Church of
Canada dated December 18, 1856, in the archives of Baker County
Library, Baker City, Oregon (hereafter Baker Library).
6. The inspiration
for the house purchase may have been the woman identified only
as "Sue" in Virtue's diary.
7. The creek and town
derived their names from Clark, a miner who in 1862 accidentally
shot himself near the creek. A member of Clark's party discovered
gold while camped there waiting for Clark's recovery. Isaac Hiatt,
Thirty-one Years in Baker County: A History of the County from
1861 to 1893 (Baker City, Ore.: Baker County Historical Society,
1997), 16.
8. Virtue's 1864 Clarksville
diary is located at the Baker County Library, Baker City, Oregon.
In 1998, the library received the diary as a gift from Maybelle
Lacy on behalf of her ill sister, Viola Ely Hardy, the widow of
Virtue's only grandchild, Edwin "Ted" Robert Hardy. Viola Hardy
died at age ninety-one shortly after the gift was made.
9. Hiatt, Thirty-one
Years, 45.
10. Ibid., 50.
11. Ibid., 66.
12. Letter from
Salmon Falls, Idaho, to his family in Portland, Oregon, November
24, 1891, Baker Library.
13. Letter from
Starbuck, Washington Territory, to his family in Portland, Oregon,
November 27, 1891, Baker Library.
14. Letter from
Mount Chapaka, Washington Territory, to his grandson, Edwin Robert
Hardy, in Portland, Oregon, April 22, 1892, Baker Library.
15. The Virtue Mine,
located just five miles east of Baker City and the first large-scale
quartz mine in Eastern Oregon, is estimated to have produced $2.2
million in gold between 1862 and 1924. Potter, Oregon's Golden
Years, 104.
16. Lewis A. McArthur
and Lewis L. McArthur, Oregon Geographic Names, 7th
ed. (Portland: Oregon Historical Society Press, 2003), 723.
17. Newspaper clipping
dated January 31, 1903, Baker Library.
|
Content in the History Cooperative database is intended for personal, noncommercial use only. You may not reproduce, publish, distribute, transmit, participate in the transfer or sale of, modify, create derivative works from, display, or in any way exploit the History Cooperative database in whole or in part without the written permission of the copyright holder.
|