It’s Thursday POU! It’s almost the weekend. Continuing on with our theme, two African-Americans and their lives in the Old West will be highlighted tody.
America Waldo Bogle (1844–1903) was a pioneer in the Pacific Northwest. She and her husband, Richard Arthur Bogle, were among the first black settlers in Walla, Walla, Washington.
America Waldo was born in Missouri on June 2, 1844. She is believed to have been the daughter of Joseph Waldo: her mother is thought to have been one of the Waldo family’s slaves. She moved to Oregon as a child, possibly in 1846. Daniel Waldo, Joseph’s brother, “took responsibility for raising her and thus acted as a father figure.”
Waldo grew up on Daniel Waldo’s farm, east of Salem, Oregon. On January 1, 1863, she married Richard Arthur Bogle, who was running a barbershop in Salem at the time. Daniel Waldo attended the wedding and gave them “several gifts of great value with which to start their home.” The presence of white guests created controversy, with newspaper editor Asahel Bush calling it “shameful”.The Oregonian retorted that “the heart of a man who could be guilty of making light even of a poor mulatto girl’s feelings is blacker than the skin of any African.”
The Bogles moved to Walla Walla, Washington, where they started a 200-acre ranch. America Waldo Bogle was known as “a lady of estimable character, noted for her deeds of charity to the poor and suffering.” Her three older children appear to have died between 1876 and 1878. Her five surviving children were Arthur, Belle, Waldo, Katherine, and Warren Bogle. Her great-grandson, Richard “Dick” Bogle, was the second African-American city commissioner in Portland, Oregon.
Letitia Carson was an Oregon pioneer and the only black woman to successfully make a land claim in Oregon under the Homestead Act of 1862. She was the inspiration for Jane Kirkpatrick’s 2014 novel A Light In The Wilderness.
Carson was born into slavery in Kentucky between 1814 and 1818. Sometime before 1845, she arrived in Missouri. In May 1845, she set out for Oregon with David Carson, an Irish immigrant who owned land in Platte County. It is not clear whether Letitia was ever enslaved by David. On June 9, 1845, Carson gave birth to their daughter, Martha Jane.
Upon their arrival, the Carsons staked a 640-acre land claim in the Soap Creek Valley, located in modern-day Benton County, Oregon. Government officials reduced the Carsons’ land claim by half in 1850, possibly because David and Letitia could not legally marry. Letitia Carson gave birth to a son, Adam, in 1849.
In September 1852, David Carson died from an illness. Neighbor Greenberry Smith was named executor of his estate. Smith claimed that Carson and the children were slaves who “were themselves property and therefore could not be heirs to the estate.” Carson took Smith to court, stating that David Carson had promised “he would make me his sole heir or that he would give me his entire property” in the event of his death.
She asked that the court award her $7,450 as compensation for her seven years of work on the Soap Creek Valley claim, “plus the value of livestock and other property to which she claimed she was entitled.” On May 12, 1855, Carson was awarded $300 by a Benton County Jury, plus $229.50 to pay her court costs. On October 25, 1856, a federal court awarded her $1399.75 for the loss of her cattle. During or after the federal trial, Carson moved with her children to the upper Cow Creek Valley of Douglas County, Oregon, where she worked as a midwife.
On June 17, 1863, Carson filed a 160-acre claim under the Homestead Act of 1862. Her claim was certified on October 1, 1869. She was the only black woman to successfully file an Oregon claim under the act. Carson spent the rest of her life on her claim, which was located along South Myrtle Creek in Douglas County, Oregon. She built “a two-story house, a barn, [and] smokehouse” on the property, which also included a fruit orchard. Carson died on February 2, 1888, and was buried at Stephens Cemetery in Myrtle Creek, Oregon.
Carson’s daughter, Martha Jane, moved to the Umatilla Indian Reservation in 1886. She had one child before her marriage, and ten children after her marriage to Narcisse Lavadour, a former Hudson’s Bay Company employee.
Carson is the heroine of Jane Kirkpatrick’s 2014 historical fiction novel, A Light In The Wilderness. The novel chronicles her relationship with David Carson, the journey to Oregon, and legal battle with Greenberry Smith.