Joseph Kellogg - Emigration To Oregon

Emigration To Oregon

In May a company of thirty wagons started on journey across the plains. They had covered wagons and were provided with tin stoves and all the arms and provisions needed for such a journey. The emigrant party later exchanged their horses for oxen. They were able to travel nearly twenty-five miles a day, and arrived at Milwaukie, Oregon on September 8, 1848.

On arrival in Oregon, the heads of the families took up adjoining donation land claims of 640 acres (2.6 km2) each, on which they erected cabins. Kellogg built the first commercial flour mill in Oregon. He also built several of the first sawmills. Kellogg's land claim was next to that of Lot Whitcomb, at Milwaukie. Kellogg, Whitcomb and William Torrence laid out the town site of what they hoped would be the principal city in Oregon.

In Milwaukie, Kellogg built a sawmill and a schooner. Kellogg, Whitcomb and Torrence loaded the schooner with provisions from the adjoining farms, took it to California, and there sold both vessel and cargo, and with the proceeds they bought the brig Forest, which they used in the lumber trade between Oregon and California.Lumber in Sacramento was at that time worth $200 for 1,000 board feet. The firm soon made money enough to purchase the bark Louisiana, which was fitted with engines and boilers and the complete outfit of a steamship.