Page 6 & 7
Visits Washington City

Dr. Hermann, that he might more fully equip himself with preliminary information for his projected journey, and provide himself with letters of introduction to reliable people on the Pacific Coast, and more particularly in Oregon now proceeded to the capital of our Nation and there met General Lane, then the delegate of the Oregon Territory, and also the United States Senator elect for the United States Senator elect for the new state when it should become admitted। The writer –then a boy of about fifteen years of age- accompanied his father, the doctor, and chiefly in Oregon, acquainting them with the doctor’s purpose in visiting the country, and requesting their good offices in his behalf. The writer having just completed the course of the Home Academy, was greatly elated in the opportunity of visiting for the first time the great city of Washington. Having from childhood a fondness for the hearing of political discussion and as a boy, having read the historic and newspaper accounts of our public men, was eager whenever possible to gaze upon their faces. They seemed to him as personages from another and more favored world. Through General Lane’s courtesy, facilities were afforded us for audiences with such as we should desire to meet, from James Buchanan, the President, to Senators and Representatives in Congress.

Page 7

The Start

Soon after the visit to Washington, there was a continuous buzz in our city home in preparation for father’s departure. To some of the family, it seemed like that of the start of Columbus from Palos in quest for the route to India, from which mystic voyage he was never expected to return. At last, the hour arrived for the word “Good-bye”. But farther was not alone, as a number of his old friends determined to accompany him all the way through.

They embarked from New York City on one of the Pacific Mail steamships and were conveyed to Aspinwal the Atlantic port at the Isthmus of Panama; and thence by rail across the intervening land to the old Spanish City of Panama, where the steamship lay at anchor for the voyage across the Pacific Ocean to San Francisco, then but a small tow within the Golden Gate. Arriving there, a short stop was made and then separating from his companions, who desired visiting all friends on the Coast for a brief time, the Doctor after promising to report to them his further and later findings, proceeded in a northward course to the Sacramento Valley, which after careful observation, he still proceeded further on by horseback, as there was then no stage coach nor other public land transportation to Oregon.

He came now into mining region and there at the mountain base and along the streams, were the remains of the fierce search for gold in ’48 and ’49, and with diminishing effort in the rears following. Places that contained cities of tent life were now without the sound of human voice and grass growing in the deserted streets. At other points in once prosperous mining towns, solid stone and brick edifices still stood, but given up and tenantless, with great iron shutters swinging idly in the breeze. The precious ore had all been extracted, the mad search had ended, and the once buoyant and hopeful population had gone hence, leaving the abandoned city to the owl and bat. At other places, camps of Chinese were passed washing over the tailings left and not considered profitable to work by the former proprietors. Occasionally by the road side, white miners were still working the placer ground with hydraulic works, and with paying results; and near-by were found small towns and villages all dependent upon the returns from the remaining placer gold yield. Then there were seen vast prairie openings with great herds of cattle, sheep and horses upon them. It was apparent from all around that these new industries were soon to take the place of the miner’s search, and that only with large capital and gigantic machinery could the rich leads be follower into the mountain depths.

Page 5& 6

General Joseph Lane

The people had elected as one of its prospective U.S. Senators, General Joseph Lane, who was then the Delegate from that Territory and had been for eight years previous in Congress. He had also been Oregon’s first Governor and as such he there unfurled to the breeze for the first time by authority of the Nation, the flag of our country over all that vast domain west of the Spanish-Mexican line.

In the Mexican war he was one of our great generals and achieved lasting fame on its battlefield’s. Upon the admission of Oregon as a state he became a candidate for vice-president with John C. Breckenridge as President on the Democratic ticket. He belonged to the old school style of gentlemen, with all that courtliness, dignity, and benevolence in his bearing, which so much become those of the olden time. His name among the early settlers of Oregon was a talisman. Whether laboring in the mines with pick and shovel or at the head of the Volunteer Soldiers in meeting the Indian foe, or in his office as Governor, or as Senator, he was at the all times the obliging, courteous and approachable man.

Upon his retirement from public life he sought the quiet pastoral scenes of the mountains and engaged in the care and supervision of his flocks. As the years come on, he returned to his original Donation Land Claim near Roseburg, and then toward the close of life, resided in the town in the midst of his children, then all grown to manhood and womanhood. There he peacefully and painlessly passed away to the Great Beyond. Upon the threshold of the open grave to receive him, there was unfolded the Stars and Stripes, the same flag he had borne to the battlefield, and there, too, stood about many of the old gray heads who were his companions in his public life and pioneer days, and some his comrades in the wars; and there, too, one of the most honored men of the state, also venerable in years, delivered over the casket an eloquent oration in eulogy of the distinguished dead. He had reached the age of eighty years. On his tomb I the Masonic Cemetery near Roseburg there is engraved these words; “In memory of General Joseph Lane, Born December 14, 1801. Died April 9, 1881.” This brevity was at his own suggestion.

Page 3,4 & 5

The Baltimore Colony

It was then in the early days of the spring of 1858 that a little band of old time friends and business associates met together in the city of Baltimore, Maryland, and the subject arose as to the wonderful domain on our country westward of the Rocky Mountains on the Pacific, its history of trappers and miners and gold discoverers, with it international disputes as to national sovereignty and almost of war. Its varied and boundless resources, it climate and soil, its mineral resources and its tempting future possibilities on land and sea; all these were gone over in those talks among the old neighbors on those days. Then came up the personal interest of each as it might be aided in that prospective vista. Might a change of habitation ---- of home ---- warrant a serious thought? Then came expressions of doubt and fear as some would weigh the heavier matters of concern. There was a long reach of three thousand miles to consider. It must be overcome by the slow plodding ox team for two thousand miles without military escort over a trackless region infested with prowling savages to waylay and rob, and perhaps to murder. And then when this trial of toilsome six months should be ended, to begin in a new and wild country beset with all the inconveniences and often dangers in the home making - all these seemed insurmountable and not worth the price to be paid.

To go by sea over two oceans, to cross the sickly and miasmatic Isthmus of Panama and embark on the other side and still continue to suffer the mal de mer with which so many are afflicted in the small rolling steamships of those days; and then after the arrival in California again to trans-ship on vessels of still smaller capacity and convenience, upon that roughest part of the Pacific, to the shores of Oregon, with all the costs, time and torture to them, and the worse fate for delicate wives, mothers and children before the long journey way ended – to many of the little group seemed absolutely unbearable. To go still another way by water in the slow sailing vessels around Cape Horn with storms and rough sea for six months all the way, was not even considered.

Then came the other side in the musings and debate. This was the year following the panicky 1857, when depression, business failures and bankruptcies prevailed throughout the country. The outcome was not sure, should they, as professional and business toilers, rest content as home with such an unpromising future before them? Was not the outlook on the shores of the Pacific far more promising even though the long journey thither was fraught with so many inconveniences and with so much cost? How glorious, it was argues, was the commercial prospect so near at hand
For such a country! There was Asia fronting on the same seas and containing one half the population of the earth. What a market and what consumption there for so many of the products of American hands in the fertile valleys of Oregon! And what a rich part of the earth in China and Japan for their products in exchange for our own! The reciprocal commerce world, in brief time, employ a large and profitable shipping between the two coasts.

Then again, Congress was at that time considering a measure for the homesteading of the public lands making practically a donation of one hundred and sixty acres upon compliance with conditions of residence and cultivation, and payment of a small fee. A law already existed, known as the Preemption Act which gave Patent title to the same quantity of land upon settlement and cultivation and payment of $1.25 per acre. Under various grants of land by the General Government to the several public land states, lands could be purchased from them not requiring settlement and cultivation. Such liberal provision would enable those of the prescribed age of the little party to acquire the most desirable homes upon the public domain. Still another inducement for emigration to the Pacific, it was argued, was the hopeful prospect of a trans-continental railroad. The Government had already made elaborate surveys and there was a popular sentiment throughout the nation in approval of Federal aid toward such a desirable mode of communication between the Atlantic and Pacific Coast States and Territories. The danger of conflict with the Indian tribes in the Oregon country so much dreaded and suffered by the pioneers, until within two years previous to this Baltimore meeting, was no longer to be feared, since the various tribes had entered into treaties with our government and had all been removed and were then residing upon special Reservations with troops near at hand to preserve the peace.

These considerations had much to do in convincing those present that it was to their interest to think favorably of a migration to the great West. It was not because of any ill considerate feeling toward that great old city of the South, which in the siege of Fort McHenry gave forth that song dear the heart of every American;

”The Star spangled banner,
Oh, long may it wave,
O’er the land of the free
And the home of the brave.”

It was not for lack of beauty or fault of people, for Baltimore was then famous throughout the world for especially trees things: For it monuments, its hospitality, and its beautiful women. Most of these friends were native born to the city and all were united to social clubs, singing societies or fraternal and business associations.

They were leaving behind them many devoted kindred and fellow in society, commerce and trade. These were all ties hard to relinquish. But the individual conditions already mentioned with unfavorable health to some, while to many others with growing boys to rear, came the thought that in the new and promising West, with fewer restrictions more elbow room and more opportunities, there was an incentive and a better field for the development of the young. This reflection came more pronounced as there was known many successes of Baltimore boys who had gone to the Pacific in previous years. The advice of old Horace Greeley to the youth of the nation was still ringing in the ears of many; “Go West, young man, go West.”

Before they separated on that May day they had all agreed to become home seekers in the far away Oregon, if further information would warrant. The first requirement for so important a change was an accurate knowledge of conditions. This they did not possess. To obtain it in the most economic and reliable source they decided to commission Dr. Henry Hermann, one of their number present, to proceed to the Pacific Coast and there by personal observation and examination to acquire such details of facts of the country and of Oregon in particular, as would be convincing to those at home. The doctor was a learned man and of wide experience in life. He had been a professor in one of the oldest universities of Europe and was then a prominent physician and surgeon in Baltimore City and family physician of most, if not all, of those assembled in the little concourse mentioned. Above all he had for years been a close student of the growth and development of the Western states and territories and of their resources and possibilities. At one time he was on the point of joining in the rush for the gold mines when those discoveries were made in California. At the outbreak of the Mexican was he was chosen regimental surgeon in the troops raised in his county, then in Western Maryland, and would have gone thither so great was his desire to investigate the county intermediated, but family consideration prevented. He was therefore considered a most valued and fitted person to undertake this mission for the exploitation of the Pacific West. Oregon had only recently voted for admission as a state into the union, and a bill for its membership was then pending in the American Congress.

I am going add a few pages every now and then of the book.

It is the story of these families Coming to Oregon and their descendants.

John Henry Schroeder, Sr. and Dorothea Dietz

John Henry Schroeder, Jr. and Emily Perry

J. Fred Schroeder and Mary Perry

August Henry Schroeder and Dorathea Perry

Charles Edward Schroeder and Lucinda Perry

Charles Albert Schroeder and Rachael Simmons

Frank Elmore Schroeder and Laura Christianson

Clara Schroeder and Levi Snyder

Eva Schroeder and James Watson

James Finley Schroeder and Birdetta Hidagarde Burgess

Louisa A. Schroeder and Orvil Ovando Dodge

Dr. Henry Hermann and Elizabeth Hopkins

William Conrad Volkmar and Wilhelmia Dieffenback

August Bender and Anna Trust

George Stauff and wife Henrietta

David Holland and Sarah Skidmore

Alexander Stauff and wife Mary Elizabeth

The Baltimore Colony and Pioneer Recollections

Published August 1959

Taken From the Original Notes of The Honorable Binger Hermann

Forward

In the following pages is a story that could have happened only in America and only at the actual point in history when it did occur.

The gold fever of 1849 had abated, to be replaced by an even greater hunger for new lands, new homes, and new opportunities. How this hunger grew in faraway Baltimore, the people it affected, and what they did about it comprises a saga in the growth and development of the West.

Today the descendants of these pioneer look back upon a century of progress made possible by the courage and fortitude of their forebears. The names of those who came in the journey of the Baltimore Colony are still names familiar to all the Valley of the Coquille.

It is our hope that on the occasion of the Oregon Centennial this history of the Baltimore Colony will help to enshrine the deeds of our pioneer father forever in the annals of Western growth.

We extend our sincere thanks to the Hermann family for the right to publish this history and to the staff of the University of Oregon for their assistance in preparing the material.

Signed,

BALTIMORE COLONY

CENTENNIAL COMMITTEE

Elton A. Schroeder

Verlin Hermann

Austin Dodge

Kenneth Dietz

Raleigh Greene

Page 1 & 2

THE BALTIMORE COLONY And PIONEER RECOLLECTIONS

History is the more valuable as it is written by actors themselves or by their contemporaries who are the witnesses to the events recited. Too much of our so-called history is but a mingling of tradition and fiction with real and now happenings. The difference between Herodotus, and the father of historians, and Tacitus, is that the former deals too much in tradition and mythology, while the latter confines himself more too record events transmitted form authentic sources. As we approach the modern, such as Bancroft in his history of the United States, he gives us still more assurance of the real facts narrated; and so also of another Bancroft still later in his history of Oregon. Such a history gives a true picture of the people and the circumstances in their lives, and of the countries in which they live, their resources, customs and laws with their beginnings. We feel that we can rely upon them.

It is interesting as the study of development and progress from the beginning of all things. We best now what we are by knowing what we have been wherever that is possible. How much there is in the old saying; “Big oaks from little acorns grow.” It involves the struggle for existence, and as Herbert Spencer called it, “the survival of the fittest.” It is the great process known as evolution, and the scientific study of nature, of man and his works unfolds that is us. Such narration is history.

The purpose of this introduction is to lead us in the reading of the most important narrative of the foundation and up building of a very interesting community in the Empire of the Pacific Northwest. It relates more especially to a part of the great Oregon country where history is presented with narrative of more pioneer energy, patience, endurance, sacrifice and triumph over difficulties than in most other sections of the United States. We linger by the hour in the recital of the perils and the hardships and failures endured by the Puritan Fathers of the New England Colonies, and by the English settlers around Jamestown, and the colonization of the further wilds of Virginia and in their long years of development. There in many respects are surpassed in the thrilling stories of adventure and daring of sacrifice and suffering of the early pioneers of Southwestern Oregon after their long, arduous and perilous ox team journeys of two thousand miles with no military for protection through an Indian country across a vast continent.

Such a picture is afforded in the story of the Coquille and Rogue River Valley from the mountains to the sea. Particularly is this true of the Coquille and to it will be confined much of what follows.

As the settlement which first gave notable history to the country described was that of the Baltimore Colony, we begin with it and associate with it as we proceed those hardy adventurers who preceded it and paved the way.

Look what the stork brought us

A baby boy

No name yet

this is the 5th one he has left us

With all the blessings we also has some Tragedies this month
My cat cactus whom I have had for 17 years had to be put down, his hips gave out.
And
Our first Yorkie Lizzy died of unknown causes hours after the stork came.

A bit of flooding here

water in many rooms

not mine hope it stops soon

A look out the door

and inside

This is sunny California

Paul took the kids fishing and ended up with a begger.

See it

Here

Some family reunion photos I did not get many I hope others did.

Here

We went to see the BODY WORLDS at the San Diego Natural History Museum

It was so interesting I think any one in the medical profession should see it.

It was very well done and not gross at all.

Since they were real people.

Although Willona thought they should have had under ware on.

It makes you understand when they say you pulled a muscle.

It is amazing how we are put together.

We spent several hours looking around and watched a movie about the brain.

I was so tired I came home and went to bed and woke up at 8:30 the next night.

But I would do it again no telling how much I missed.

Well we finally made it to San Diego.

The kids wasted no time getting out in the ocean.

It was hard packing & traveling in the heat.

We have a nice house big enough for us all and the dogs.

Every morning between 7 and 8 a flock of green parrot's lands on the power lines out side my window and make a lot of bird racket.
I love birds

I had to find homes for my birds and all the cats but my buddy Cactus so I enjoy the visit every morning.

Living in a very small town with only a few thousand people, maybe 3, sure is exciting.
We rarely lock our doors and often leave them open in the summer.
The other night about 10:30 our big mean dog Maria came charging down from Jonah's room and hit the door with her front feet. Since it is glass and she never does that it got everyone to looking around.
There was bad guy trying to break in. He had been standing in our flower bed looking in the open window.
After Maria scared the pants of him Willona called the police and they caught him down the street.
He was a man from Texas with a violent criminal rap sheet. He looked like a man with a violent rap sheet.

The next night Willona and the kids were out for their daily walk just after dark when a baby deer started following them. Of course Willona just knew the mother was some place around and going to get them for messing with the baby, so they did not touch it. Once they got home they made him a bottle and feed it to him, he seemed to be hungry. Along came a neighbor and she wanted to take him home. That was good because we are in the middle of moving and can't take care of a deer.

On top of it all Willona's mother-in-law who had about 47 dogs she was breeding became unable to take care of them or her self and so Willona, Jonah, Sister-in-law and niece all went up there to see what they could do for her and bring her back. They sold many of the dogs very inexpensively with in 3 days and then Willona got the remainder dogs about 10, some were newborns. The Sister-in-law took the mother-in-law. They still have to go back and clean and sell the house and pack her things.

Sorry I have been gone so long.

I am not back yet but thought I should explain what is happening.

We were told Paul got a job in San Diego so we are moving.

We need to get rid of a lot of stuff so many yard sales.

Because I am learning to spin someone gave me an old dirty greasy fleece that was in her barn for 4 years. So I needed to clean it of all the dirt and wash it.

This was exciting as I really want to learn this process.

My Doctor decided to try a new blood pressure medication on me and I had a very bad reaction from it and I swelled up and my legs were so bad it was hard to walk.

During my time to watch the yard sale I worked on my fleece getting no telling what kind of germs on my hands from it and the boxes and things I went through to put out in the yard sale.

I scratched my legs with these dirty hands not thinking any thing of it. Well I got a really bad infection in my legs from my ankles to knees. I went to the doctor several time with no improvement finally Willona took me to the hospital, they took real good care of me and got the infection down a lot. At home I have to spend most of my time in bed with my feet up to keep the swelling down.

So I am not much help in cleaning and packing or much else.

What lengths I go to, to get out of work.

I am on a good blood pressure medication now so hopefully the swelling will go down soon and the infection will clear up.

We found a foster mom for Miss Piggy's kitten.

Bottle feeding her was not as bad as bottle feeding 5 puppies.

But the puppies had their mom to go back to.

Everyone needs a mom.

A man came by today to get a key made and said

"Did you know there are a herd of deer in your yard"?

I told him they come here every day and he said

"Well I never seen such a thing I am from the city".

He just stood and stared for a long time probably thinking of hunting season and where he can fill his tag real easy.

I made some Herbal oils and tinctures.

I used small jelly jars, some people use quart jars but for my use Jelly jars are good.

I made Cramp Bark oil, and a combination of Comprey, Calendula, Plantain and St Johnswort.

They will be made into salves in six weeks.

The tinctures are Cramp Bark, Raspberry leaf, And St Johnswort.

You start with the herb 1/2 jar for dry full jar for fresh.

Then for oils you pour olive oil over the herb and make sure it is all in the oil and cover it with cheese cloth.
For several weeks you check and poke down any herbs that come out of the oil.
After six weeks you strain the herb out and make a salve.
For the tinctures I pour vodka over it and close the jar and shake it, then sake it daily for several weeks.
At the end of six weeks you strain the herb out and bottle it.

It has been a bad week around here.

Our beautiful Miss Piggy had one kitten and it seemed like there were more but she did not deliver any.

We could not get a Vet because they were all out with the farm animals.

Willona called every Vet for miles around.

She died. We are feeding the kitten and looking for a foster mom.

Then I got a tick I pulled it off but the spot got a big red bulge and I had to go to the Dr today and have the head removed and now on antibiotics.

I have been looking around in our yard for herbs. I have found many.

I found this one but I do not have any idea what it is.

It is fern like but very small.

Any idea's?