OREGON FOLKLORE - WORK PROJECT ADMINISTRATION
Title: Thomas Cox, A pioneer of 1847 - merchant, manufacturer and farmer

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MAY 9 1939

THOMAS COX.
A Pioneer of 1847 - Merchant, Manufacturer and Farmer.

Author: Joseph Henry Brown, grandson of Thomas Cox first merchant of Salem.
Joseph Henry crossed the plains to Oregon with Thomas Cox in 1847 when a
boy of nine years.

The Pioneers-

     "They travel the prairie as of old,
     Their fathers sailed the sea,
     And made the West, "as they had the East
     The homestead of the Free."

THOMAS COX was born in the State of Virginia, October 22, 1790. His early
life was spent upon a farm, and when in his teens, his father and family
moved to Ross county, Ohio, where he attended school during the winter when
he could be spared from farm work, in the then sparsely settled country.
During summer he worked on the farm until he became of age, when he married
Miss Martha Cox, with whom he lived for thirty-eight years, as she died in
Oregon in 1849. Although of the same family name they were not relatives.

Mr. C. resided in that State four years after his marriage. The outfit to
commence married life in those days was not very elaborate, as it consisted
of a small iron bake oven, three tin plates and cups, some iron spoons, a
pair of flax hackles, which fastened to his saddle, and with his young wife
mounted behind on the only mare they had, started for his place in the
timber to make a farm. He raised flax, broke and retted it and his wife
made all of their wearing apparel. Corn bread, wild game for meat and wild
honey was the staple article of food, with corn hominy in the winter, and
they were happy and healthy - the two greatest boons on earth - but the
natural inclination was to "Go West" and seek new homes and better their
condition.

In 1825 he sold his farm and moved with his family of three children to
Indiana and settled on Flatrock river, Bartholemew county, where he built a
grist and carding mill, the first in that country. Being naturally an
ingenious mechanic, he built this establishment almost wholly himself. He
remained at that place a few years, then selling out to good advantage,
moved to the Wabash river country, in the same state, and erected a fine
grist mill and carding factory at the mouth of the Shawnee river. During
the winter of 1833 he sold out his property at an enhanced value, narrowly
escaping being broken up as the new owner had the misfortune to have the
entire mills swept away by ice and flood within a fornight after receiving
the same.

While he resided in Indiana he manufactured guns, gunpowder and done
general blacksmithing. The two former occupations were essential to the
citizens of the surrounding country in protecting themselves and herds from
the Indians and wild beasts.

During the spring of 1834 he moved with his family and settled on the
Kankakee river, Will county, Illinois, and laid out a town which he named
Winchester, but afterwards changed to Wilmington. Wilmington is now a
thriving little city of several thousand inhabitants, through which several
railroads lead and the river is spanned by a splendid iron bridge. Shortly
after his settlement and laying out of the town he commenced the erection
of saw, grist and carding mills, which proved of great benefit to the
surrounding country and financially successful to the projector. He also
established a store, thus increasing his business very much. During the
early years of his settlement in Illinois there was great excitement in
regard to land speculation and the establishing of banks, issuing great
amount of paper money, of which a large amount was worthless and known
afterwards as "wildcat banks:" the direct cause of a great many of the
early settlers' financial ruin, but Mr. Cox resisted their pernicious
influence and saved his hard-earned property, while he saw many of his
neighbors engulphed in the financial maelstorm. The country was slow in
recovering from this disaster, but the wonderful natural resources of the
broad prairies gradually repaired the disaster.

In the fall of 1846, Mr. C., my father, Elias Brown, and Peter Polley,
sons-in-law, and Jos. Cox, a married son, determined to emigrate to Oregon
the following year. (Mr. Pooley and Jos. Cox then resided in Missouri). Mr.
C. sold his property and in the spring started with ox-teams for the then
almost unknown and distant Oregon, whose shores were laved by the mighty
Pacific. It was then a six-months' trip- traveling sandy
plains, the fatigue augmented by the almost tropical heat of the sun, while
the alkali dust rose in clouds creating thirst, parching the skin and
cracking the lips until they would bleed - rugged mountains were to be
surmounted, dangerous streams to be crossed before the journey was ended.
The trip in those days was not like it is now, a holiday excursion, but
beset with unknown dangers, both through the topography of the country, the
elements and the hostile, wily Indian does - implacable, unrelenting and
treacherous. It took men of nerve to attempt the trip; they took their
lives in their hands; their destiny, Oregon; and the accomplishment
exceedingly uncertain. Mr. C. had made up his mind to go to Oregon, and
when that was once settled, no common event could deter him. But the
attempt to do so was made by the men who purchased his property by throwing
obstacles in his way in compelling him to take part payment in goods and
refusing to purchase his store. But they did not know the man; he simply
took the goods, purchased wagons in Chicago, oxen of his old neighbors,
loaded up and on the day he had designated started the teams, leaving them
discomfited and astonished at the energy displayed on the occasion. With
these same goods he established the first store in Salem, Oregon, and south
of Champoeg, during the following fall.

In due time the train arrived at the rendezvous near St. Joseph, Missouri,
where the final preparations were made for the great undertaking, and with
his usual punctuality, started on the day appointed, traveling steadily,
amid toil and hardships, until the journey was completed. I will here
mention one role that was inevitably carried out while on the plains, and
that was to camp on the opposite side of the stream, if towards night, as a
stream is liable to become swollen and impassable during the night, thereby
losing valuable time. It became evident that the teams would not be able to
haul all of the wagons through the Cascade mountains, and Mr. C. directed
that the wagons that contained the goods should be parked at Summit
Prairie, and those containing the families should proceed while he went
ahead on horseback to obtain pack animals to pack out the goods. We were
sixteen days in the mountains, consequently, when in the valley a short
distance, we met a large train of Indian ponies accompanied by Indians and
some whites, on their way to bring in the merchandise left behind.

Oregon City was then the capital of the Provisional Government of Oregon
and the emporium of the western slope of this continent - Salem, only an
educational mission, although the town had been laid out - Portland,
unknown, still in the womb of time. Mr. C. determined to establish himself
in Salem, and within a week after his arrival was selling goods to the
people; goods hauled from Illinois, over 3,000 miles distance, and taking
for pay wheat, the only currency, at $1.00 per bushel.

Within a few days, after becoming settled, he went to Oregon City to
purchase the necessary groceries, such as then could be procured, Sandwich
Island sugar in mats of 50 to 100 lbs. each and black as maple sugar, while
the molasses would ooze out through the matting, salt in similiar mats, fit
only for stock, and in lumps as large as walnuts. When Mr. C. called upon
Dr. McLaughlin and informed that good old gentleman that he wished to
purchase groceries for his store in Salem, the doctor asked him where he
had obtained his present stock and being informed that he had hauled them
across the plains, the doctor held up his hands and exclaimed, in his brisk
manner, "Well I believe you Yankees could drive an ox-team over Mt. Hood!"
Mr. Cox replied, "That if it had been necessary to do so, in reaching the
Willamette valley, he would have atempted it." Dr. McLaughlin then replied,
"Mr. Cox, you can have anything you wish." Thus commenced an acquaintance
that lasted for several years, and, afterwards, when the Doctor was being
persecuted by the Hudson's Bay Company - whom he had so faithfully served
and given the best years of his life - and maligned and swindled by those
whom he had proved an unselfish friend in time of need, he had a firm
defender in Thomas Cox, a man who had never received anything at his hands
aside from business courtesies, who always paid for all articles purchased,
but could appreciate worth, and dared to say that a good man was being
wronged, although at the time to do so was unpopular with a large class.

In the fall of 1847, the massacre of Dr. Marcus Whitman and family
occurred, and the Cayuse war vigorously prosecuted, but there was a great
scarcity of powder, lead and gun caps, of which Mr. Cox had a considerable
quantity; this he freely donated to the volunteers, making no charge to the
infant Territory in its struggle for existence.

During the winter of 1847, and the next spring, he erected a two-story,
frame building on the corner of Commercial and Ferry streets, for a
dwelling house and store. He, also, this winter, purchased a land claim of
Mr. Walter Helm, and employed Mr. Peter Pulley to move on the same and make
improvements, plowing, fencing, etc.

In 1848, gold was discovered in California, and, as a consequence,
everything arose to fabulous prices, and the country was nearly depleted of
its male population, and among those who was seized with the gold fever,
was William Cox, * who want to the mines and was quite successful, and on
his return home in 1849, through San Francisco, purchased a large stock of
goods at quite reasonable prices, as the market at that time was quite
overstocked. He, also, assumed entire control of the mercantile business in
conjunction with Mr. Turner Crump. Mr. Thos. Cox now spent most of his time
upon his farm and set energetically to work improving the same, but one of
his first acts was to set out an orchard of apples and peaches from his own
nursery, as he had brought the seeds with him to this country. He
propagated and successfully cultivated what is now known as "Cox's Golden
Cling." the finest yellow peach upon this coast. This orchard proved to be
very remunerative, as apples readily sold at $6.00 and peaches at $10.00 to
$12.00 per bushel.

In 1851, he became connected with Joseph Watt, Wm. H. Rector, John Monto,
Joseph G. Wilson, John D. Boon, and others, in erecting the Willamette
Woolen Hills, the pioneer establishment of the coast, and was appointed to
superintend the erection of the dam across Mill creek in North Salem, and
so well was it performed, that it successfully, resisted the floods over
twenty years. In 1860, he sold his shares to Hon. Joseph

* William Cox was the youngest son of Thomas Cox and crossed the plains
with his father in 1847.

Smith. In the spring, he removed to Salem, and resided with Hon. P. F.
Harding, his son-in-law, with whom he resided the remainder of his life.
During the summer, he met with an accident, caused by his horse backing off
of the Pudding river bridge, in which the buggy and horse fell fifteen
feet, entirely destroying the buggy, but in the fall Mr. Cox fell to one
side, thus escaping instant death, although greatly jarred, and,
undoubtedly, never fully recovered from the shock.

Mr. Cox died in Salem, October 3, 1862, lacking only sixteen days of being
seventy-two years of age. In physical development, he was small, and
probably, never weighed over 150 pounds, but wiry and energetic, possessing
good, preceptive faculties, and successful in all business enterprises. He
was a man of considerable ingenuity and could make most anything he wished.
Strictly honest in all his dealings, he exacted the same from others. He
possessed very rare musical talent, and the writer has listened on many a
winter's evening to the tones of the violin in his hands, en accomplishment
that he had acquired in his younger days. Although his educational
opportunities had been limited, he had acquired considerable information as
he was a great reader. Always a frontiersman, he was of that class, who
with rifle on the shoulder and axe in hand, was capable of defending
himself and family, at the same time making a home in a new country and
establish civilization - a fit representative of an Oregon pioneer. He
belonged to a class that is rapidly disappearing. They have fulfilled their
mission and are being gathered from the earth.

Penned in ink on the back of first page of manuscript.

>From Salem Directory for 1871.

By J. Henry Brown

"In the summer of 1848, Thomas Cox, an immigrant of 1847, who came by the
Barlow route, brought in a small stock of drygoods, and engaged in
merchandizing the first in Salem, Oregon during the winter of (1847-8). He
selected the northeast corner of Commercial and Ferry streets in Salem and
built a two story house upon it, which was used by him as a store and a
dwelling during the time of his residence in Salem. His was the first
building put up in Salem after the town was surveyed. Afterward a two story
house built by Thomas Powell, blacksmith, about one block west from
Commercial street was removed and placed in the rear of the one built by
Thomas Cox. These two were united and formed the Union Hotel which was
burned with nearly all the buildings in that block. A few years since J. B.
McClane had goods brought from Cal. gold mines in May 1849, goods from San
Francisco costing about $2,500 which in a few months sold for $6000 cash in
hand still leaving a considerable portion of them on hand. This was the
second stock of goods opened in Salem.

The third stock (1849) David Carter brought from California. He went for a
second stock, vessel ran on a sand spit, was detained some weeks; he heard
his family was sick, he went insane and after some time hung himself. The
fourth stock was bought by Philaster Lee 1850."