It is common in Portland cemeteries to find people who came across the
infamous Oregon Trail. People endured struggles through hardships to
get to the “promised land”. Some people
even know that the Oregon Territory was once owned by the British before it
became a part of the United
States.
Little is mentioned about the people who were promised land by the
British to populate the Oregon
Territory, only to have
their promise broken.
Resting in Block D Lot 60 is a small and simple complimentary marker for Mrs.
Charlotte Hood. She was born in Chicago, Illinois
in 1840 according to her death certificate, but her baptismal record says she
was baptized on 14-April-1838. Either
way her parents were James Flett and Chloe (Bird) Flett. Her grandfather was a Chief Factor for the
Hudson’s Bay Company and Governor in what is now Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The family had numerous prominent ties with
the history of early Canada. At this time the Red River colony (now Winnipeg) was becoming
over populated. The British were aware
of the pending threat the Americans posed in taking over the Oregon Territory. They wanted to populate and secure their
stakes in the area. They offered people
the opportunity to come to Oregon where the Hudson’s Bay Company would grant them
“houses, barns, and fenced fields along with fifteen cows, one bull, fifty
ewes, one ram, and oxen or horses, with farming implements and seed”, to
establish themselves with the agreement that they would offer some of their
initial crops to the company. The
company would use the crops to fill the demands for grain, hides, meat and
tallow for their posts in Alaska, Hawaii, and California. So good of an offer, that 80 families signed
up leading a group that spread out over a mile on 1841 led by Charlotte’s uncle
James Sinclair. They came with all of
their possessions pulled in two wheeled carts called Red
River carts. They were
forced to ditch their carts and continue their journey on horseback when they
reached the Rocky Mountains. The journey led them through hostile native
lands and through other hardships similar to those of the Oregon
Trail Immigrants.
After their 2000 mile
journey they arrived at Ft Vancouver with everyone who left for the journey,
and 3 children that were born on the way.
Unfortunately, upon their arrival at Ft. Vancouver, they were told that the company could not honor the offer made to them in Canada. However, if they wanted to go to California they would be
fitted with the gear they offered their usual trappers. If they wanted to go to the American side of
the river, they would receive nothing.
That if they would go up to Nisqually that they would give them seed and
some farming implements, but no houses, barns, of livestock. Some of the immigrants tried going to
Nisqually, but found the grounds difficult to farm, forcing the remaining
immigrants to abandon Nisqually for the fertile plains in the Tualatin
valley. After such hardships it made
their decision easier to join the American side. So much that her father and four of her
uncles were a part of the men who cast their votes at Champoeg, declaring
Oregon as a part of the United States creating a provisional government on the
2nd of May, 1842. Charlotte’s mother died
in childbirth on the Tualatin Plains on the 22nd of January, 1843,
and her father died there on the 10th of November, 1843, leaving her
and her siblings to be raised by family members. Charlotte
married twice in her life. First was to
Aurora Shumway then second to Thomas Benton Hood.
Having divorced both, Charlotte
had 5 children from these two marriages.
Charlotte died from an infection caused
from a sliver in her hand on the 16th of December, 1919, and was
buried at Multnomah
Park Cemetery
were she rests by herself with a simple complimentary headstone.
