Pioneer Roses Of The Oregon Trail -- Women Settlers Brought Some 20 Varieties West

Oregon fever! The men who contracted it and came West were filled with dreams of prosperity while the women had a vision of creating civilization - homes filled with knowledge and beauty. While men packed practical provender - tools and provisions - women packed Bibles, quilts and their precious roses.

With her rose she shared water while crossing the alkali plains. In the chill Blue Mountains, curled in a common blanket, she kept her rose from freezing and finally, on that great day of arrival at her donation land claim, she would plant her rose in triumph that both had survived.

Some 20 roses traveled across the Oregon Trail or around Cape Horn to be planted, watered, cherished and shared. Now members of the Oregon Trail Foundation are collecting these old roses to plant at the new End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center in Oregon City. They are not the first to attempt this project.

In the late 1920s a pioneer descendant, Mary Drain Albro, set out to find and rescue the surviving Oregon Trail roses. Born in 1876, Albro's preservation work was particularly important since she had firsthand accounts from pioneer families.

On one expedition, Albro had just retrieved a root of an old rose when she heard a pile of piglets squealing under the rose arbor. Then she heard the grunts of a very angry sow who by now was running toward her. Never letting go of rose, or mattock, Albro cleared the stone wall in a leap, quite a feat for a 50-something lady.

After collecting roses and their legends, she established gardens in the Champoeg area south of Portland, at Pacific University at Forest Grove and in Portland's Lone Fir Cemetery. Sadly, only the Lone Fir collection remains. By the time Albro died in 1962, much of her work was already vanishing.

But here is one of her favorite stories, written in the poignant and slightly maudlin style of the time, plus information on two other pioneer roses.

`God's' Rose

By a nameless riverside, a young mother gently cradles her dying daughter. The year is 1852 on the Oregon Trail, and cholera is claiming another victim. Softly smoothing her child's hair with water, the mother baptizes her girl before burial. A boy, age 4 or so, looks on and finally asks, "Mother, why are you putting water on little sister?" Quietly, the young woman replies, "We're getting ready to give her to God for an angel." In the morning, the wagons roll on, leaving another small grave in their wake.

Months later, having finally arrived in the new land, the same mother plants a slip of a rose brought from home. Her little piece of beauty and hope. As she's watering the small start, her son stops and asks, "Mama, are you giving that rose to God for an angel, too?" That rose was Rosa Mundi, white with pink stripes (and misnamed York & Lancaster by the pioneers).

The Sweetbrier

Elizabeth Matheny Hewitt, of Yamhill County, Ore., brought West a simple pink rose (the Sweetbrier, also spelled Sweetbriar) very much like our native wild rose. It did so well that one of the family men quietly complained, as he grubbed it out of a field, "I wish Elizabeth hadn't done that." Ironically, when the family located this gentleman's grave many years later, it was covered with Elizabeth's rose.

Roses and cemeteries go together. The early settlers felt that the "very best we have must be for our dead." Many old roses have survived through benign neglect in pioneer cemeteries.

Josephine's Rose

The Hunsaker family had been one of the earliest families to emigrate. They had done so well they wrote home to encourage the rest of the clan to come West. In 1852, the rest of the Hunsakers, including their daughter Josephine, arrived in Oregon City. Being Catholic, they sent Josephine to a boarding school run by nuns near Fort Vancouver, just north of Portland.

When she returned home in early winter, Josephine and the entire family contracted mountain fever or typhoid. Dr. John McLoughlin, chief factor (supervisor) of all the forts in the Northwest, came to render his personal assistance. He brought with him a special gift for Josephine - a cutting of a rose from his Fort Vancouver garden.

He hoped it would cheer her, but she and her brother Horton died in the spring. Their grieving mother planted the rose behind their graves where it blooms still.

Unfortunately, the story of this rose was lost for years. Mowed over year after year, it was nearly gone when Nancy Wilson, the curator for the McLoughlin House, discovered the story and saved the rose in Portland's Lone Fir Cemetery. Josephine's rose is a bright pink autumn damask, which means it blooms twice a year.

Preserving living history

Remembering is a very powerful and positive force. It offers hope, courage and strength. That is the attraction of preserving living history. It isn't wagons or costumes but a way of interacting with the past, and what could be more alive than roses? If you see an old rose, remember she's got a story to tell. Make a little room for her in your garden, and you can be a part of "planting the pioneer spirit."

If you have any information on, or actually have pioneer roses contact: Erica Calkins, Niggletytwist Historic Gardening, (503) 656-6892, 15301 S. Loder Road, Oregon City, OR 97045.

If you have a special interest in heirloom roses, here are some sources of information:

-- "The Historical Gardener," 1910 N. 35th Place, Mount Vernon WA 98273-8981, Kathleen McClelland, newsletter editor

-- "In Search of Lost Roses," Thomas Christopher, 1989

-- "Landscaping With Antique Roses," Druitt & Shoup, 1992

Erica L. Calkins, a member of the Oregon Trail Foundation, is a writer, speaker and garden design consultant.