Margaret Bannard collection of Oregon pioneer letters

The Bannard letters consists of four, long letters written to Margaret Bannard between January and December 1903. Bannard herself had written to these individuals soliciting pioneer stories and information on the social life of Oregon during the period when eastern Americans settled in the region. Bannard received letters from Mrs. J.A. Newell, J.W. Miller, an unidentified person, and George Himes. Together these letters offer unique insights into how residents of Oregon remembered events and people from the 1840s and 1850s.

Each of the letter writers emphasized how significant community was to the first U.S. residents to settle in Oregon. They mention some of the obstacles associated with overland travel and homesteading – such as destitution, epidemics, and attacks from local, Indian residents. They also noted how diverse Oregon communities were – they encompassed migrants from every state in the Union. Descriptions like these remind modern readers that nineteenth-century Americans saw themselves as quite distinct from Americans who lived in other states. And overland migration broke down some of these parochial barriers. The communities they established were generous and supportive according to the letter writers. Himes lauded the social leveling that migration brought about. Miller surmised that overland travel made these migrants generous, noble, and grand not just immediately after their journey but for the rest of their lives.

While the letters have much in common, each offers its own unique memories of life in Oregon. Newell described many hardships. When discussing the variety of migrants to Oregon, she also mentioned the presence of freed slaves (who entered before the migration of African Americans to the territory was outlawed). Miller (who migrated in 1851) commented on the changes he lived through, in particular, the transformation of the Oregon wilderness into fruit fields. Finally, Himes was acutely concerned with class in his letter to Bannard. He noted that the social equality shared by early residents quickly broke down and class difference emerged through access to consumer products and property.

Intriguing, individual details such as these are fleeting; perhaps, they are most useful to researchers when compared to other pioneer reminiscences and early American documents produced in Oregon. Researchers might consult some of the following collections also housed at the University of Oregon: the Laura Judy Biography of Carole Buffum (CB B864), the Arvazena A. Cooper Collection (CB C784), or the Jackson County Papers (Bx 067).