Back: Mr. Poe (handyman), Susan Furlong Howell, Mamie Furlong
Denny. Front: Damien Crispen, Mary Thomason Furlong, John Denny, Rena Denny Cox, Ellen
Furlong Crispen, Sue Crispen Shaffer Thomason Family Photo Courtesy Of Cow Creek Band Of Umpqua
Tribe Of Indians Historic Nellie Crispen House Photo Courtesy Of Julie Hendricks
Thomason Cemetery Photo Works Courtesy of Evan and Julie Hendricks
Diary Of William P. Thomason By Sue Crispen Shaffer, Chairman Cow Creek Band Of Umpqua Tribe Of Indians
William Prior Thomason, direct descendant of the
"First Families of Virginia" was born June 28, 1818 at Lexington, Fayette
County, Kentucky. His lineage dated back to the ancient Scottish Highlanders.
After being educated in private schools, he enlisted
in the Mexican War in July 1847 and served under General Price with the Santa
Fe Battalion, US Army, until October 1848. He then returned to the family
plantation at Kearney, Missouri where he remained for a short period before
his footsteps again turned West.
During much of his lifetime, Captain Thomason kept
a daily diary, the volumes of which are treasured by his descendants. Following
is a direct quotation from his diary of this time:
"Fort Leavenworth, April 10, 1849. I am at the
fort again. There is an army preparing to start enroute across the Great
American desert to Oregon Territory. This army is commanded by an officer
by the name of Loering. Colonel Loering and also Major or Colonel Curtis
and Major Sanderson were the head officers of the above named army, Captain
Frost, the chief quarter master of Colonel Loering's army employed my service
as guide across the great desert for which he agreed or promised to give
me for my service one hundred and twenty five dollars equal to gold or silver
coin per month. I was placed in the advance guard with three companies under
Major Sanderson. When we arrived at Fort Laramie my service was not needed
any longer. Major Sanderson gave me a discharge with a voucher certifying
that there was one hundred and seventy five dollars due me for my service
as guide and for the use of my horse from the quarter master department of
Colonel Loering's army--for the above named service I have never received
a dollar."
For a period of the next eight years, he was engaged
in guiding troops and emigrants across the Rockies to the Oregon Territory.
While at Old Fort Colville, he met Susan Notah, who
was an interpreter for the Catholic Mission. They were married there on July
20, 1857 by Father Joseph. During the next few years he was employed transporting
mules for the government. And here is a direct quote from the writings of
Ellen (Nellie) Crispen, granddaughter of W. P. Thomason relating to his coming
to Southern Oregon:
"William P. Thomason and his wife, Susan, with
their two small daughters Mary and Matilda settled in the beautiful Elk Creek
Valley, so named by W. P. Thomason in 1865. They at that time thought the
stop was temporary as they were on their way to a mining camp in California,
but an epidemic of cholera halted them, so they concluded to wait until it
subsided.
The following October their son, Robert Wesley, was
born. He was later well known for his mining activities having discovered
the Rainbow Copper Mine on Drew Creek in 1898, and with his brother, Lewis,
developed the "Red Cloud" cinnabar mine located on the head waters of Cow
Creek in 1904. Later, William, Madeline, Maude, Dolly and Lewis were born,
also Elizabeth who died in infancy."
With his own holdings and the open range, Thomason
ranged cattle and sheep over several thousand acres of land from the Callahan
Range to what is now known as the summit. As a result a long standing range
war and the grudge that resulted from it, Thomason was shot while sitting
on the main street of Canyonville visiting with a friend, by a man by the
name of Eddings on July 27, 1883. He was buried somewhere near to what is
the present Canyonville Cemetery. Although what is known as the Thomason Cemetery
at Drew was consecrated by the Catholic Church in about 1866 on property
that was part of the original ranch, due to lack of transportation, it was
necessary to bury him in Canyonville.
Several of his children lived their entire lives
in the South Umpqua Valley. One daughter, Dolly, his only living child, aged
91 lives in Rose Haven Nursing Home in Roseburg. Direct descendants still
living in this area are the Charles and Roy Jackson families at Drew and
Sue Crispen Shaffer, who are great grandchildren of William P. Thomason and
also several great-great grandchildren. (Pioneer Days In Canyonville,
Canyonville Lyons Club 1968, pp. 31-36)
Historic Canyonville
Canyonville, an historic community of Oregon,
is situated at the north end of Canyon Creek Canyon, where this defile opens
into the valley of the South Umpqua, about six miles east of Riddle. Hudson's
Bay Company trappers used this route to California in 1828. (Oregon Geographic
Names 1992)
The first known non-indians to visit the site of
present day Canyonville was Alexander Roderick McCloud in 1828. He was on
his way from Fort Vancouver to California to hunt and trap. The second known
group of travelers was headed by Ewing Young in 1837. His party drove 600
cattle from California to Oregon's Willamette Valley. The Reverend Jason
Lee visited the Umpqua in 1838 and again in 1840.
In 1846, Jesse and Lindsey Applegate left Fort Hall
on a trip south to search for a new route to Oregon from the East. In his
diary Lindsey wrote they spent the night of June 24, 1846, camping at the
entrance to "historic Umpqua Canyon," now Canyonville. It took the brothers
a full day to travel up the small stream and cross over the summit near Azalea.
They re-explored the trail the next day.
The trail they blazed became a road as both north
and south bound travelers increased in numbers. Wagon trains sometimes required
two and three weeks to travel the 11 miles from Azalea to Canyonville. The
Canyon was a rough passage. In many places the immigrants had to take their
wagons apart and move them downstream by hand. The little settlement at the
north end of the passage was a welcome sight to many a weary traveler. Both
the Canyon and the flat at the north end were sometimes littered with abandoned
equipment.
The first recorded passage of wagons through the
Umpqua Canyon was in 1843, when Stephen Meek, a brother of the noted mountain
man, Joseph Meek, guided the Lansford W. Wastings party of emigrants from
the Willamette Valley to California. Another small group of wagons came north
from California in the same year, passing through the canyon on their way
to the Willamette Valley.
Meek followed the old trail used by the Hudson's
Bay Company fur brigades. This route had also been used by the detachment
of the Wilkes' US Exploring Expedition, commanded by Lt. George F. Emmons
en route from Oregon to California in 1841.
In 1846 the canyon route was used by the wagon train
led over the "Southern Route," the Scott-Applegate Trail. This party, led
by Cpt. Levi Scott, consisted of about 150 persons and 42 wagons. Their stock
was so exhausted from desert travel that they suffered greatly in coming
down the canyon. The oxen were so weak that much of the party's equipment
was abandoned. The family of Rev. J. A. Cornwall was in the 1846 immigration;
unable to proceed further, Cornwall stopped on a small stream which enters
Calapooia Creek near present day Oakland. Here he built a crude cabin, and
the family wintered there, obtaining a few supplies from the Hudson's Bay
Company post, Fort Umpqua. The Cornwall dwelling gave the creek its present
name, Cabin Creek. A relief party from the settlements in the Willamette
helped some of the hapless members of the 1846 train to reach the Willamette
Valley just as winter closed in.
In 1851 Joseph Knott and Joel Perkins operated
a ferry across the South Umpqua calling the settlement Kenyonville. Knott
built the first store, a small log cabin with a dirt floor. His stock consisted
of the staple merchandise available, overalls and tobacco--and whiskey. Later
on he sold his store to Jackson Reynolds and Joseph Roberts. Roberts had
taken a Donation Land Claim of 160 acres north of the settlement. The two
partners later sold the store to Jesse Roberts, brother of Joseph. It was
Jesse who, in 1856, built the Roberts Hotel and the grist mill. In 1858 he
platted the town site and named it Canyonville. Jesse Roberts died at the
age of 47 and is buried along side his wife, Mary Jane, in the old Canyonville
Cemetery on the hill overlooking the town he founded.
When gold-bearing quartz was found nearby, a rush
began, and in 1852, Congress appropriated $120,000 to build a military road
from California to Oregon. The road through the canyon, however, was not
completed until 1858. It was built under the supervision of General Joseph
"Fighting Joe" Hooker of Civil War fame.
The Hooker Survey became the overland road used
by freighters and the California-Oregon Stage Company, organized in
1860, and by other north-south bound travelers until 1920. This became the
main road to California until the arrival of the railroad.
The strikes brought an influx of miners and settlers
to Southern Oregon, anxious to share in the gold bonanza. By 1852 pack trains
were making regular trips from Scottsburg at the head of tidewater on the
Lower Umpqua to the mines in Southern Oregon. Canyonville became an important
way station. Rough Canyon Passage made rest stops mandatory. Supplying miners,
packers, and early immigrants became good business. (Pioneer Days In Canyonville
1968, p. 7)
"Historic Canyonville" Courtesy of Julie Hendricks
In the early days Canyonville was known as North
Canyonville. The post office was established July 6, 1852, with John T. Boyle
first postmaster of this early pioneer office. The name was originally applied
in contradistinction to South Canyonville, a community located a few miles
to the south. The latter never obtained a post office, and eventually the
two communities merged. Canyonville post office is located on Canyon Creek
about a mile from its junction with South Umpqua River, and about six miles
east of Riddle. Thomas Wilson served as first postmaster of this office which
is still in operation. (Oregon Post Offices 1842-1982, pp. 21,
72)
Canyon Creek is erroneously supposed by many to
be Cow Creek although it does traverse that stream through a wide valley east
of Glendale. The pass at the head of Canyon Creek is 2,015 feet in elevation.
Canyonville has an elevation of 747 feet. Those who have visited this part
of the state will realize that Canyon Creek and Canyonville are appropriate
names.
The canyon was known in pioneer days as Umpqua Canyon.
The railroad finally selected ascended Cow Creek from Riddle and joined the
old stage road not far from Glendale. The stage route for many years continued
up Canyon Creek and today travelers over I-5 may see where there have been
earlier routes through the canyon. The total descent from the pass at the
head of Canyon Creek to Canyonville is nearly 1,300 feet, most of which occurs
in the south part of the canyon.
Difficulties have continued here in modern times,
for on January 16, 1974 nine men working in a Pacific Northwest Bell Company
relay station about a mile south of Canyonville were killed when a massive
earth slide swept away the building. (Oregon Geographic Names 1992,
p. 137, 138)
It is not known when the first non-indians may have traversed the valley in
which Days Creek, Milo, Tiller and Drew now lie, but indications are that
it may have been not long after the beginning of the 19th century. Isaac
Boyle, who was among the earlier settlers in the area taking up a Donation
Land Claim in 1850, is credited with discovering the potential of the South
Umpqua Valley east of Canyonville. Boyle, who was from Virginia, served as
a scout for the government and, with settler Alexander Dumont,
was reported to have watched the Rogue Rivers and Umpquas wage their last
great battle on the flats west of the bridge near Days Creek.
(1) Days Creek Church (2) Historic Oakland (3) Calapooia
Community Church
George T. Day, who was a Justice of the Peace,
was also an early settler in South Umpqua Valley. From him Days Creek takes
its name. The sites of the stores post office and school were part of Day's
Donation Land Claim.
A fort was established on the Andrew Thomas Donation
Land Claim. It was located on the north side of the creek close to a spring,
and while it was never under attack, women and children were taken there
when an Indian uprising was feared. From it the settlers saw livestock run
off and fields burned, but did not suffer casualties. Later when the Indian
uprisings became more prevalent, many tribal members were gathered at the
confluence of Days Creek and the South Umpqua where they were held captive
until they could be transported to a reservation.
In addition to settlers who had come across the
Plains or around the Horn, many were former employees of the fur companies,
predominantly French-Canadian in descent and for the most part married to
indigenous women of many western tribes. These latter people tended to move
further and further into the upriver country as more and more people migrated
to the valley.
In this era before roads, trails were established
with river crossings numerous because of the bluffs on alternating sides of
the Umpqua. Early cattle drives also came through when herd owners in the
Roseburg area began to see the need of summer pasture, so brought their stock
to Elk Creek country where feed was abundant. Gradually crude roads developed,
and traces of the old wagon tracks many still be found at some of these fords
where the bedrock was deeply cut and scored.
Saddle horses and pack strings were the best means
of travel, although many people could put many a mile behind them on "shanks
mares." this was the way the first post offices were served, the mail being
carried in a leather saddlebag.
The first Days Creek post office was officially established
on January 22, 1878. It was located about six miles northeast of Canyonville
on the South Umpqua at the mouth of Days Creek. Samuel Taylor served as first
postmaster of that office, which was named for George and Patrick Day. (Oregon
Post Offices 1847-1982, p. 30) Charles Bellman was one of the first men
to carry the mail and later on his son, Edward, took over the task. (Pioneer
Days In Canyonville 1968, p. 14)
Tiller was named for local pioneer settler, Aaron
Tiller. The post office is located on South Umpqua River, seven miles east
of Milo. Alfred B. Marquam was first postmaster of this rural post office,
which was established October 15, 1902. (Oregon Post Offices 1847-1982,
p. 100)
Elk Creek post office was established December 18,
1877. It was located on the South Umpqua at the mouth of Elk Creek, about
three miles west of Tiller. S. C. Cramer served as first postmaster of this
early office, and later Rachel Tiller was commissioned postmaster. This office
was discontinued on August 22, 1884, and one was re-established at Purdue,
now Milo. (Oregon Post Offices 1847-1982, p. 35)
(1) View Of Yoncalla (2) Elk Creek (3) Wigwam Burner Near
Drain Photos Courtesy of Evan and Julie Hendricks
The Purdue office, established August 22, 1884,
was closed on August 31, 1920, because no one could be found to accept the
position of postmaster after Bunker had been removed from office for acting
as a census enumerator when he was postmaster of Purdue, contrary to the
rules of the postal authorities. (Oregon Post Offices 1847-1982, pp.
66, 78)
Milo is located on South Umpqua River, nine miles
southeast of Days Creek. The post office was established March 13, 1923,
with Cora E. Bunker first postmaster. The name was transferred from Milo,
Maine, birth place of the postmaster's husband, Amos O. Bunker. The New England
City was in turn, named for the Grecian island. Milo post office was discontinued
February 28, 1971, and it became a rural branch of Canyonville on July 21,
1975. Post offices at Elk Creek and Purdue operated in this vicinity at earlier
dates. (Oregon Geographic Names 1992, p. 568)
(1) Milo Bridge (2) Canyonville Christian Academy (3)
Umpqua at Milo (4) Milo Academy
Near Milo Academy, Oregon's only steel bridge
capped with a wooden superstructure spans the South Umpqua near Milo. The
covered span replaces a venerable bridge that existed at the site since 1920.
When the old bridge was replaced with a new steel structure in 1962, area
residents felt they had lost part of their heritage, so the 100-foot span
was domified and a new white cover emerged. Leading to Milo Academy, a private
school operated by the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, the bridge features
steel trussing with a covering of white plank siding and metal roofing. Square
portals and windows dominate the structure, giving it a symmetrical appearance.
(Visitors Guide, News-Review 1998, p. 49)
Entrance Thomason Cemetery
David O. Crispen (1882-1963)
Chuck Jackson
Lester R. Jackson (1921-1969) 
Reatha C. Scott (1902-1995)
Lewis Thomason (1882-1950)
Robert W. Thomason (1866-1942) 
Susan N. Thomason (1840-1909)
Dolly C. Larson (1877-1969)
Wild Women West
