Walla Walla County WA Archives Biographies.....Miller, Thomas M. October 10, 1839 - 
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Ila Wakley iwakley@msn.com October 26, 2009, 12:58 pm

Source: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. III, Published 1928, Pages 129-133
Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company

     A pioneer of 1850 and a veteran court officer related the events of his 
career to Fred Lockley, one of the able writers for the Oregon Journal, in 
which the sketch was published in four installments beginning with January 25, 
1926. The following is a copy of the article:

     "Thomas M. Miller has been bailiff of the court of Oregon City for fifty-
five years. I doubt if another bailiff in the west has such a record of 
continuous service. When I visited him recently he said: 'I have lived in 
Oregon City seventy-five years. I was born in Union County, Indiana, October 
10, 1839. My father, Samuel Miller, was a native of New Jersey and my mother, 
whose maiden name was Rachel Hart, was born in Maryland. They were married in 
Delaware.

     " 'My father and his brother decided to go west when the discovery of 
gold in California became known. They started in the spring of 1849. We 
traveled by ox team to St. Joseph, Missouri. There were five children of us 
and while we were waiting at St. Joe several of the children got sick. My 
uncle started on with other emigrants but father decided to wait till the 
children were well. It was then too late to start, so we stayed in Savannah, 
Missouri, not far from St. Joe, till the spring of 1850.

     " 'It wasn't the discovery of gold that principally decided my father to 
go west, but disgust with conditions in Indiana. He had a water power sawmill, 
which was washed away by high water. Everybody said such high water was 
unusual and probably would not occur again in twenty years, so father spent 
most of his money in fixing up a better mill than he had lost, when along came 
the high water the next spring and washed this mill away, leaving him broke 
and disgusted. He had just enough money left to buy our outfit to go to Oregon.

     " ‘My father's favorite brother reached Oregon City in the fall of 1849 
and took up a place two miles west. Willamette valley farmers came back late 
that fall from California with glowing reports, so he decided to try the gold 
fields, and went to California with his two boys, Jim and Jeff. They struck a 
rich claim and cleaned up a good bunch of money. The next spring they sold 
their claim, but just as they were about to start home my uncle took sick and 
died. His sons buried him near their claim and returned to Oregon City.

     " 'My cousin, James D. Miller, his brother, Thomas Jefferson Miller, and 
another brother, C. S. Miller, were all early steamboat men on the Willamette. 
J. D. Miller, or "Captain Jim," as they called him, was nineteen when he 
arrived at Oregon City. In 1850 he began running a flatboat between Canemah 
and Dayton, afterward landing a job on the Hoosier, which he bought a few 
years later. In 1857 he built a steamer, which he called Hoosier No. 3. E. M. 
White and my cousin, with one or two others, bought the James Clinton. It was 
burned in the spring of 1861, while lying at the wharf at Linn City, where the 
paper mill now is. In 1860 he took the machinery from the Hoosier and put it 
into a scow called the Yamhill, which he sold to Captain J. T. Apperson. J. D. 
Miller went up to the Snake river mines in Idaho but stayed only a little 
while. He came back not long before Christmas in 1861 and bought the Unio from 
Captain Apperson, renaming her the Union. For a while he was captain of the 
Mountain Buck and next was in command of the Julia. Later he served as pilot 
for Captain George Jerome aboard the Fanny Patterson, afterward becoming pilot 
on the Enterprise, of which Sebastian Miller was captain, and subsequently was 
pilot on the steamer Albany. He quit the river awhile and was in the milling 
business here in Oregon City. After Dave and Asa McCully started the People's 
Transportation Company to compete with the Oregon Steam Navigation Company, 
Captain Jim served as pilot on the Onward and later on the Senator and the E. 
N. Cooke. In the spring of 1875 he happened to be a passenger on board the 
Senator, which was running between Portland and Oregon City. While the Senator 
was at the dock taking on freight the boiler exploded and Captain Dan McGill, 
who was at the wheel, was instantly killed. Felix Evans, an engineer, was in 
the pilot house with him and had his leg torn off. One passenger, the fireman, 
three deckhands and J. D. Locey, the purser, were killed. The mate, Jim Leary, 
and the steward and several others were badly injured. The explosion resulted 
from lack of water in the boiler. Captain Jim was aft of the kingpost and was 
not hurt. The following day he was given command of the E. N. Cooke.
     
     " 'In 1878 he bought out the interest of C. P. Church in the flour mills 
and also purchased the steamer of A. A. McCully, which he operated between 
Oregon City and Eugene. In 1881 he became captain of the City of Salem and for 
the next year or two was busy carrying railroad material to Dayton and Ray's 
Landing. In the early '80s he bought the flour mill at Walla Walla, 
Washington. Later he ran the Henry Villard on Lake Pend Oreille and afterward 
operated a vessel on Clark's Fork. In 1882 he sold the mill in Walla Walla and 
engaged in ranching for a time, returning to the river in 1889 as captain of 
the City of Salem. Early in the '90s he had charge of the building of the 
steamer Norma and was her captain on her first trip on the Snake. Later he was 
captain of the Governor Newell, also of the Three Sisters, the Toledo and the 
Joseph Kellogg. About 1893 he went up to Montana to run the steamer Annerly on 
the Kootenai between Jennings and Fort Steel. Afterward he bought the steamer 
Halys and put her on the Kootenai run, operating her out of Bonner's Ferry. 
After working on the river for several years my cousin, Thomas Jefferson 
Miller, settled in eastern Oregon and my cousin, C. S. Miller, went to 
California following his retirement from navigation affairs.

     " 'I was eleven when we left St. Joseph, Missouri There were fifteen 
wagons in our train. In 1850 there was so much travel that we had no trouble 
from Indians. Most of those who visited our camp carried papers which they 
carefully treasured, to prove that they were good Indians. Some of 
the "recommendations" were very curious. An Indian would gravely hand out 
a "recommendation" reading, "This is a bad Indian; look out for him. He will 
steal your eye teeth if you don't watch him." We started out with plenty of 
provisions but a good many that year ran short, so we shared ours till we also 
were out of food. From Fort Hall on we lived pretty much on corn bread, sage 
hens and jack rabbits. My cousins, who had come back from California that 
spring, had an idea that we might be out of supplies, so they packed some 
horses with bacon, flour, potatoes and other provisions. They met us in the 
Grand Ronde valley and I needn't tell you we were mighty glad to see them. One 
reason why we were so late was that the travel was so heavy in 1850 that the 
grass on both sides of the old Oregon trail was pretty well eaten off, so we 
had to drive our cattle a mile or two back from the trail to get any grass. We 
laid over a day each week to let them feed up and rest up. In coming across 
the plains I ran across a blue ox that somebody had abandoned. I called 
him "Old Bull" and brought him along. In the Blue mountains, near Lee's 
encampment, not far from where Meacham now is, the timber wolves killed my old 
blue ox, to my great sorrow. I heard him bawling and the bells of the other 
cattle jingling as they ran, but before we could get there the wolves had 
dragged Old Bull down and torn his throat so badly that he bled to death. We 
reached Laurel Hill about October 20, having the twelve cattle which we had 
brought from St. Joseph, and encountered a storm similar to the "silver thaws" 
which at intervals visit Portland. After descending the hill we camped near 
Mount Hood and during the night six head of our cattle died from exposure. Dr. 
R. M. Allen and his family, who were just behind us, were prevented from 
descending the hill owing to the severity of the storm and the intense cold 
during the night killed all of their cattle.

     " 'My father settled near his brother, J. D. Miller, purchasing a tract 
of six hundred and forty acres, for which he paid two hundred and fifty 
dollars, and I spent my boyhood working on this farm. There are not many 
people now living in Oregon City who were here at the time of our arrival. Dr. 
Forbes Barclay built his house on the river bank near the new bridge the year 
we came here. His two daughters, Mrs. Harriet Barclay Pratt and Miss Barclay, 
live in the old house and are among the oldest settlers here now. Dr. Barclay 
was a former employe of the Hudson's Bay Company and a fine man.

     " 'I used to be a crack shot with a rifle and kept our table supplied 
with grouse and pheasants. I never shot them in the body, for that ruins the 
meat. I usually shot them through the head or neck. It is a rather curious 
thing that while I was so successful in bagging grouse and pheasants I never 
was much good in hunting deer. I could find them alright but they usually got 
away before I could shoot them, for I invariably got the "buck ague" and by 
the time I had the end of my gun barrel steady the deer had left for parts 
unknown.

     " 'I did my first steamboating under Captain Jim Miller on board the 
Union. I started as fireman but before long he made me mate. For a while we 
ran from Canemah up the Yamhill river to Dayton. The other boats would take no 
freight this side of the Yamhill, so that we controlled the business on that 
river. Later we went into the "long trade," as the haul from Canemah to 
Corvallis was called. One of the incidents I remember most distinctly on the 
river was the explosion of the steamer Gazelle. I was fifteen at that time. 
The Gazelle was a side-wheeler, built by Page, Bacon & Company. There seemed 
to be a sort of hoodoo on that company. The first boat they built was burned 
before she could be launched at Oregon City. The manager of the firm — or 
rather, the superintendent of the Willamette Falls Company, which owned the 
Gazelle — was killed when the boat exploded. The Gazelle made her trial trip 
March 18, 1854. A few weeks later — to be exact, on April 8 — while lying at 
the wharf at Canemah, her boiler burst and twenty-two of the fifty people on 
board were instantly killed and many others badly injured. Some of the best 
known people in Oregon lost their lives in that accident and among them was 
Daniel Page, one of the builders of the Gazelle. About a year previously his 
wife and little girl had been killed by the explosion of the Jenny Lind at San 
Francisco. My brother-in-law, Ezra Post, had a blacksmith shop at Canemah and 
the killed and wounded from the Gazelle were carried to his place, which was 
not large enough to accommodate all of them. I hurried to Canemah as soon as I 
heard of the explosion and I shall never forget the sight of those dead bodies 
on the floor of the shop, nor shall I ever forget the groans of the wounded. 
Among the dead were the Rev. J. P. Miller, of Albany, Oregon; Judge Burch, of 
Polk county ; James White, of Salem ; David Fuller, of Portland, and a number 
of others.

     " 'A lot of history has been made at Canemah. It was there that the 
steamer Canemah was built in 1851. Captain A. F. Hedges, Alanson Beers, 
Hamilton Campbell, John McCloskey and Charles Bennett were the owners and 
builders of the Canemah. Alanson Beers came to Oregon in 1836 with Jason Lee. 
Captain Charles Bennett was killed while charging the Indians at the head of 
his company up near Walla Walla in 1855. Hamilton Campbell, or "Cow" Campbell, 
as he was called, was also one of the early-day Methodist missionary party. 
John McCloskey used to be a pilot on the Mississippi. The old Canemah was used 
by Nathaniel Coe, Oregon's first postal agent, as a traveling post office. The 
steamer was his headquarters and mail for all communities up the river was 
sorted aboard the Canemah. Its boiler exploded in the summer of 1853 and 
Marian Holcroft, a passenger, was killed. Some of the best known steamboat men 
in Oregon served aboard the Canemah, among them Ainsworth, Cole, Pease and 
Wygant. Captain Theodore Wygant ran her during 1852 and 1853 and was succeeded 
by Captain George E. Cole.

     " 'Among the early-day Oregonians I used to meet at Canemah or Oregon 
City were Dave and Asa McCully, who founded the People's Transportation line; 
Joe Meek, the well known sheriff, trapper and mountaineer; John G. Campbell, 
Colonel A. L. Lovejoy, Sidney Moss, Captain Apperson and scores of others 
whose names are recorded on the pages of Oregon's pioneer history. In the fall 
of 1850 I met an Indian, who played an important part in events that shaped 
the early history of the state. His name was Peu Peu Mox Mox. At that time we 
were in the Grand Ronde valley. Father had a wall tent that this Indian chief 
was very anxious to get and traded it to him for a fine American mare. Father 
was an expert millwright and was hired by Dr. McLoughlin to rebuild his mill. 
In those days the mills were provided with a long spout and the bran was 
emptied into the river. Later the bran was run into a big bin and sold at a 
low price. My brother and I went down to the mill shortly after my father 
began working there, taking along several sacks in which to carry some bran. I 
was not yet twelve. Dr. McLoughlin watched us a moment and then said, "You 
boys hold the sack open and I'll shovel the bran in." So he filled the sacks 
for us. I never yet have met a man who knew Dr. McLoughlin who did not speak 
well of him. He was kind, just and generous. I have always felt sorry he was 
treated so unjustly and his property taken from him through legal 
technicalities.

     " 'In 1858 I organized a band at Oregon City. In those days there were 
bands at Portland, Salem and Aurora, Oregon, and a military band at Vancouver, 
Washington. I played the E-flat cornet. One year we went up to the state fair 
and played against the Salem band. There were eight men in my organization and 
the Salem band had seventeen. We played just after the ball game. The judge 
tied the blue ribbon to my horn. It made the leader of the Salem Band very 
angry and he said, "I'll bet you're afraid to show up here next year. If you 
do, I'll warn you right now that you won't take first prize." The next year I 
went up with twelve men in my band and the Salem Band refused to compete. I 
added five more men, split it in two, and we competed against each other and 
of course took the blue ribbon. This was in the '60s. About 1879 the residents 
of Oregon City presented me with a silver cornet. For over thirty years I 
served as leader of the band. Among those who played in it during the early 
years were Sidney, Walter, Volney and Johnny Moss, and their stepbrothers, 
Gallatin and Linn Richardson.

     " 'From 1861 until 1863 I was employed on the river, abandoning that work 
after my marriage. During the spring of 1851 I met Miss Marion W. Allen, who 
became my wife on December 31, 1863. She was a daughter of Dr. R. M. Allen, 
who came to Oregon in 1850. His widow married William Barlow, who was the 
founder of the town which bears his name.

     " 'I worked at whatever I could make the most money at, doing 
carpentering for some time, and aided in building the locks at Oregon City. As 
a young man I was employed in the flour mill owned by Daniel Harvey, Dr. John 
McLoughlin's son-in-law, and used to pile sacks of wheat from seven to nine 
bags high, being pretty husky in those days."

     On October 24, 1870, Mr. Miller was appointed bailiff of the court at 
Oregon City, which at that time was in session only during the spring and fall 
terms, thus affording him leisure for other activities. He was deputy sheriff 
of Clackamas county under Captain Apperson, who was later a member of the 
state senate, and completed his unexpired term as sheriff, an office to which 
his brother-in-law, J. G. Pillsbury, was then elected. He chose Mr. Miller as 
a deputy and at the same time the latter performed his work as court bailiff, 
serving under Judges Upton, Shattuck, McBride, Ballinger, Scott, Taylor and 
Campbell. Before the office became an all year job Mr. Miller did important 
work as a building contractor between the terms of court and aided in 
completing the breakwater from Oregon City to Canemah. As superintendent he 
was in charge of the construction of the first sewer in Oregon City and acted 
in the same capacity when the first brick paving was laid here. Under 
Superintendent Sullivan of the paper mill he assisted in building nine cribs 
thirty feet long and ten feet deep. He continued as bailiff until May 30, 
1927, and had he remained in office until October 24, 1927, would have 
completed fifty-seven years of continuous service. As a public official he 
displayed rare qualities, establishing a record of faithfulness and efficiency 
which has seldom been equaled. Mr. Miller has witnessed much of the 
actual "winning of the west" and his conversation is enriched with interesting 
reminiscences of the past.

     Mrs. Miller was born December 1, 1847, in Palmyra, Missouri, and on 
January 19, 1917, was called to her final rest. Her father responded to 
death's summons in 1851, and her mother, whose maiden name was Martha Partlow, 
has passed away. Mr. and Mrs. Miller have a son and daughter. Ralph D. was 
born April 18, 1871, and is engaged in ranching near Willamette. By his first 
wife, who was Miss Edna Tabor, he had one child, Marion D. and his second 
union was with Miss Anna Fisher. The daughter, Lura Ellen, married C. G. 
Huntley, who is collector of internal revenue at Portland. Their only child is 
now Mrs. Mildred S. Lovett and also makes her home in the Rose city.

     The exercise of effort has kept Mr. Miller alert and at the advanced age 
of eighty-eight years he is remarkably well preserved. He has found life well 
worth living, making the most of it day by day and discharging every duty and 
obligation to the best of his ability. Time has strengthened his position in 
public regard and no resident of Clackamas county is better known or more 
highly esteemed.

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