Table Rock Sentinel April, 1985

TilE TAn L E HOC K "E\l. SLE1TER OF THE SOUTHEr;:" OREGO!'>. HISTORICAL SOCIETl' PUBL J S"ED r" O�:T>1LY FO" r-'.="BERS OF THE SOC I ETY :�::!� � Joseph who w m . T' t b either of them came �:to the west , served with: distinction in the Mexican War . Preside:nt Polk appointed :::him first: Governor of the Oregon Terr::e.itory , and he arrived in Oregon City in 1849::. He served in this position for a year when he was elected to Congress . In 1859 when Oregon became a state, he was elected first state senator (1859-61) and in 1860 he was the Democratic candidate for United States Vice-President , running with Breckenridge . He became a hero in the Rogue River Indian Wars (1851-1853) and was greatly respected by the Indians . His brilliant career ended shortly after his unsuccessful vice-presidential campaign because of his pro slavery attitude and his strong Southern sympathy . He never again held pub lic office. He settled with his family on a claim in the Umpqua valley in 1853 and Lane county is named for him . He died in 1881. �I======THE:::::::::::: SOUT=:::::::=::::::'HERN OREGON� HIST:::::==:::ORICAL:=:::=:=:::::===== SOCIETY =!= � OfficerRichs ardof the Orr Board .......... of ...................... Tr ustees ..................... President Librarian/Archivist ........................................... Kathleen Leary Robert Butler ................................... First Vice President Oral Historian ................................................ Marjorie Edens Vicki Bryden ................. ....... ....... Second Vice President Newletter Editor/Writer ................................. Raymond Lewis Laurel Prairie-Kuntz ......................................... Secretary Curator of Collections ........................................ Marc Pence Mark Merriman ................................................ Treasurer Membership Recorder/Bookkeeper ............... Maureen Smith Curator of Exhibits .......................................... Jime Matoush Curator of Photography .................................. Douglas Smith StaffExecutive Director .........................................Te lephone: Ni 899-1ck Clark847 Curator of Preservation and Director of Operations ................................ Sam Wegner Maintenance .............................................. Byron Ferrell Controller .......................................... Dottie Ellen Bailey Volunteer Coordinator .................................... Marge Herman Curator of Interpretation ...................... ...... Dawna Curler Curator of the Sweden burg House .................... Nan Hannon 2 THE TA BLE ROCK SENTINEL I LI III The Opp rtunist owards the end of 1868 the first to communicate with the town . A.G.Walling , case of smallpox broke out in the in his history of southern Oregon , wrote : poorer section of Jacksonville. [Protestant ] ministers fled in af The doctor , who was summoned to attend a fright from paths of duty , but in smaTll child suffering from high fever , the darkest hours the Catholic priest violent aching and eruptions , diagnosed who himself had experienced the dis the disease as chicken pox . Before the ease, together with the Catholic sis mistake was discovered , the dreaded plague terhood [two nuns who had either had swept through the town . In terror of been vaccinated or had had small pox] , contagion , few citizens could be found to rendered valuable assistance. The tend those stricken with the pestilence. contagion was not confined to any Even family memb ers moved away from home particular class . The widow of John and , for the most part , only the sis ters Love (Table Rock Sentinel� Vol .I, No .9), from the convent dared approach the sick a lady of refinement and culture, was bed and offer what care and comfort they attacked , and with her youngest child could . Too late , the schools , churches was carried away . Her mother and the and public gatherings were suspended and rest of the children were in the urgent pleas for all available vaccine country and dared not approach her , were sent to neighb oring towns . For two and , when all was over , the unsightly mo nths business activity came to a virtual corpse--all that remained of human standstill . Jacksonville was quarantined beauty--was borne to the cemetery in and people from the county were forb idden APRIL 1985 3 a rough lumber-wagon , without a single follower. Citizens feared smallpox germs contami nated those who breathed the same air as the victims . It was generally believed that smoke would kill the germs and purify the at mo sphere, and accordingly great pitch pine fires were built in the streets. People , reluctant to go home , clustered day and night around the smoky pyres wh ich cast a dismal glow through the dense smoke . Only Sargent Dunlap , the sexton, and Father Blanchet , the priest at St . Joseph 's, dared remove the corpses from deathbeds to coffins and transport them to the wagon and up the winding road to the cemetery . Their daily trip was usually made after midnight . Apparently people thought the dead were not so contagious in the dark or else it was less alarming to carry the grisly freight through town after the idlers had dispersed and gone to their beds. At the cemetery , in the somb er light of torches , the two men , and an occasional brave helper , buried the dead and the priest charitably said a few words over the new mounds. Among the victims was Wiliam Green Harrison T'Vault . He had been the first Attorney General and first Postmaster General of the old Oregon Territory , a repres entative in the Oregon State Legislature, and Speaker of the House, a lawyer, an editor, a trail blazer and a frontiersman , but when he died only Father Blanchet attended him, gave him Rhoda Boone T'Vault the last rites and helped shovel the he was born in mid�Atlantic , but one dirt into the grave over the wooden box ob ituary gives Arkansas as his first home which contained his last remains . and another source claims he was born in The editor of the Oregon Sentinel Kentucky . His death notice in a Jackson wrote, on February 6, 1969 : ville paper called him "a native of The last victim of small-pox among us Missouri. " It 's safer to say that he was Col. W. T'Vault , who died at llpm came from the south . on Thursday . Although [he was ] in A family descendant gives the original the fullness of old age , being 62 spelling of the name as Tevault, but he years old , [he was still energetic seems to have preferred the more awkward T'Vault. and ] it is painful to reflect that , But the spelling of the name after a busy life and prominent ser was not the only unusual feature connected vice , he should be struck down by so with William Green T'Vault. "From the dreadful a malady that not a single records it could be said the family was , mourner dared follow him to the grave . at the very least, unconventional. There was a continuing stream of marriages with ILLIAM GREEN T'VAULT was born in no divorces or deaths found to date , 1809. As is usual historians give assault and battery charges , and a proven several conflicting birth dates charge of adultery ." The more recent and birth places . It is reported that generations , however , were hard working 4 THE TABLE ROCK SENTINEL land owners , respected and fairly well ditions . to do ." William Green was probably a William T'Vault 's training in law had representative of the 'recent generation ." made him highly vocal , he had a way 'pith At any rate he was born and he lived words, and was obviously well educated . sixty-two years . His life before he came The leaders of the wagon train named him to Oregon is indistinct and little is chairman of the committee to draft and recorded . He practiced law in Boones report laws for governing the comp any ville, Illinois , and served in the legis during their march , and his interest in and lature of that state , and developed a knowledge of the west soon made him a strong leaning towards the Democratic well-known memb er of the party. His party . In 1820 he and Rhoda Boone Burns apparent qualities of leadership and his were joined together in the bans of mat easy manner were responsible for his rimony in Warrick county , Indiana . Her spontaneous election as wagonmaster of family was considerab ly more illustrious the train . Mr . Clark was made the pilot. than his ; she was a great granddaughter T'Vault, as leader , was called the of Daniel Boone , Kentucky 's famous pio Colonel , and he maintained the title for neer , and she found the family connection the rest of his life although his post significant enough to emphasize it in as wagonmaster was not a position he held her records . Mrs. Jane McCully , Mrs . W. throughout the trip nor was it planned J. Plymale and Mrs . R.M. McDonough , mem to be. The early colonizers wisely made bers of the committee who concocted her provisions for human nature by limiting obituary for the records of 'the Southern the tenure of their leaders and reserving Oregon Pioneer Association, did not fail the right to elect new ones from time to to mention that she was a direct descend time . The company soon became too large ant of the famous Dan'l. William Green to be managed by one person ; eventually and Rhoda T'Vault had five children , two there were one thousand people, one hun of whom died in infancy . There is oc dred wagons and two thousand head of casional mention in Oregon papers of his cattle. The train divided into four surviving offsprings : Elizabeth (Kenny) smaller groups before it left the Missouri who died in Jacksonville in 1911 , river in early spring on the long trek St .Marion, who died in Portland in 1870 across the plains . and George, who died at the age of seven They started with a great show of reso teen in Jacksonville . lution , hope and cheerfulness, but these We are not concerned with William G. emigrants were strong willed , independent T'Vault before 1845 ; we are interested minded folk , not slow to criticize those far more in his influence on Oregon his in positions of leadership .

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