Charlotte Hood, Independent Pioneer Lady

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 2^nd of  May, 1842. Charlotte’s mother died in childbirth on the Tualatin Plains on the 22^nd of January, 1843, and her father died there on the 10^th 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 16^th of December, 1919, and was buried at Multnomah Park Cemetery were she rests by herself with a simple complimentary headstone.