Manuscripts Record
Metadata
Catalog Number |
719.001 |
Title |
JUDGE JAMES LAYTON COLLINS COLLECTION |
Date |
1895 |
Scope & Content |
JUDGE JAMES LAYTON COLLINS COLLECTION Reminiscences, 1846-1895 Autobiographical reminiscence of Judge James Layton Collins, written in 1895 and dedicated to fellow travelers on the Oregon Trail in 1846. They were Judge Deady's widow, Mrs. Emma Hughes (wife of Hon. John Hughes of Salem) and her two brothers Clark and Otis Pringle. The photocopy (incomplete) of Judge Collins' story tells of the hardships he experienced at age 13, when his family arrived at Skinner Butte on December 10, 1846, with exhausted oxen and almost no provisions. A passing French trader agreed to take his mother, older sister and the five smaller children on to "the settlements" on his pack mules, leaving Jim and his father behind in the empty Skinner cabin with Mr. Harrison Turnedge (another traveler). The arrival of a crippled man named Samuel Roth forced Jim's father to also leave to find additional food. When Mr. Turnedge fell sick, Jim was suddenly responsible for hunting for meat for the three left behind. Unfortunately, the photocopy is incomplete, leaving Jim trying to cross Coyote Creek (now called the Amazon Creek) where it widened into a lake, in order to hunt deer on Spencer's Butte. A complete version of this story was published in "Book of Remembrance of Marion County, Oregon Pioneers (1840 - 1860)" by Sarah Hunt Steeves, published by Berncliff Press. |