MT HOOD PERSONALITY
Mt Hood’s Earliest Settlers
Sam Barlow, Joel Palmer and Ohers of the Oregon Trail
When people think about the Oregon Trail, often the first name that comes to mind is Samuel K. Barlow, the namesake of the famous Barlow Route section of the Oregon Trail. Many others also gave their strength, efforts, and names to this last leg of the Oregon Trail, but Sam Barlow was the leader of the pack. Read on for some interesting facts about the people who first settled some well-known places in the Villages of Mt Hood.
Even as a youth in Kentucky, Sam Barlow (1792-1867) acted on strong convictions. He’d had a strong difference of opinion with his slave-owning father; though they were estranged for a while, but in the end they grew to respect one another. Later as a grown man in Indiana he physically defended a woman and her children against her violent husband. When the man died as a result, the community spoke up to keep Barlow from imprisonment.
These were hard events, but his firm character and will got him through. It’s not surprising that when his Oregon-bound wagon train got to The Dalles, Oregon, on the Columbia River, he determined to scout a way round Mt. Hood rather than pay the high fees of riverboat transport as well as the treacherous ride down the Columbia. He and Harrison Lock, who also led a wagon train, headed south from The Dalles to find their way to Oregon City. It was already September; Joel Palmer and his train joined shortly afterward in early October. After many weeks of cold, struggle and hunger, Barlow and a fellow traveler named William Rector made one last try for Oregon City to bring back food and help. They did, but not until they were found lost and soaked, by locals who took them to town. The entire party made it safely to journey’s end shortly thereafter.
On December 17th Oregon’s Provisional Government granted Barlow the right to build a toll road along his new route, which he began to do the next spring with the help of his partner, local entrepreneur Philip Foster. By late 1848 Barlow terminated that partnership and others ran the toll road, but the name stuck. In 1850 Barlow was appointed Justice of the Peace for Clackamas County, and later that year bought the land claim upon which his son William would eventually establish the town of Barlow, Oregon. Sam Barlow died in 1867 in Canemah, now a neighborhood of Oregon City.
Philip Foster (1805-1884), Barlow’s toll road partner, was one of the earliest area settlers. He and his family, originally from Maine, arrived in the Northwest in 1843, and shortly afterward he established a general store in Oregon City. In 1844 Foster became the second Treasurer of the provincial government in the Oregon Territory. He had a knack for partnerships, but he’s best known for the one he formed with Barlow. By the time Barlow dissolved the partnership, the farm Foster had established in 1847 along the toll road at Eagle Creek had become a thriving compound. For many years thereafter weary pioneers could get supplies and some rest at this early service stop and attraction. Even today, a stop at the Philip Foster farm can provide an afternoon of fun.
Sam Barlow also “partnered” for a short while with another great figure of the Oregon Territory – Joel Palmer (1810-1881). By the time they met on the Oregon Trail in 1845, Palmer had already served in the Indiana House of Representatives. It was Palmer who climbed up Mt. Hood that October, wearing worn-out moccasins, to spot possible routes for the Barlow/Palmer trains off the mountain. Palmer Glacier, a couple thousand feet above Timberline Lodge, and best know for the permanent snowfield that is home to summer skiing and snowboarding, is named for that cold climb. Palmer reached Oregon City safely on that trip, then headed right back to his family in Indiana in 1846 to bring them out on the next year’s wagon train.
Palmer had many adventures later in life. They include co-founding Dayton, Oregon in 1849, where his house is the town’s oldest standing structure; serving as the Oregon Territory’s Superintendent of Indian Affairs from 1853 to 1857; and taking part in the gold rushes of California and British Columbia. He served in the Oregon State Senate from 1864 to 1866, and ran for governor in 1870. All this he did with only three months of formal education during his childhood.
Many other worthy folks of the Oregon Trail deserve mention. There’s William Berry, left behind for the winter at the cabin called “Fort Deposit,” guarding the wagons and living off successful squirrel hunts. It’s said he was in good shape when his traveling fellows came for him, but very glad to see flour and sugar again! Another William, Sam Barlow’s son, did his fair share of tough scouting on the 1845 trip and later gave his name to the town of Barlow.
Last but not least, Susannah Lee Barlow (1791-1852), wife of Samuel, accompanied her husband and grown children through the rigors of the trail and homesteading. Born in South Carolina, daughter of Revolutionary War hero William Lee, her adventures must have given her quite a pause at times, but her family’s tributes record not one word of protest.
May/june 2008
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