Development of Discovery Story, Part 2

Between 1879 and 1919, two sets of clues hinted at the identity of the men who discovered gold on the beach at Whiskey Run: The Groslouis brothers.

First Set of Clues: Ethnic Identity

Please note that I cite the term “half-breed” below only because it appeared in the early histories, reflecting the thinking of early storytellers. The brother’s ancestry will be more accurately described in future posts.

As previously mentioned, the local history published in The Coast Mail did not name the men who discovered the gold, describing instead their presumed ethnicity: “a few half-breed Indians.” Later historical accounts repeated this information with minor variations:

• Walling (1884, p. 492): “some half-breed Indians”
• Victor (1888, p. 331) “some half-breeds”
• Evans (1889, p. 425): “two half-breeds”
• Packwood (per Lockley, 1919): “three half-breeds”

The chaotic gold rush and, quite possibly, the brother’s Indian ancestry, led to their names being forgotten or ignored in the first published histories. However, the historians do agree that there were at least two men in the discovery party.

Second Set of Clues: Names

In The History of Southern Oregon, publisher Albert Walling presented the dominant discovery narrative with this addition: “Joe Crowley, one of the original discoverers of the Randolph mines made his fortune in them and departed, taking away a mule load of gold…[but] he died a pauper.”

35 years later, Fred Lockley published a series of personal accounts told by William Packwood in his a newspaper column published in The Oregon Daily Journal.

Packwood lived in Coos and Curry County in the early 1850s and interacted with miners on the Oregon beaches. Packwood named “Peter, Andrew, and Joe” as the men who discovered gold at Whiskey Run.

Discussion

Packwood specified three members of the exploration party and identified them by their first names. That information, though, is too broad for identifying specific individuals. Walling, however, provided a clue that could be investigated: the surname “Crowley.”

No other historians named “Crowley” or “Cowley” in their accounts (see note in Bennett citation below). Still, I searched histories, genealogies, and archival newspapers for a mention of Joe Crowley/Cowley in southern Oregon. No individual with either surname appeared in newspaper or government records between 1850-1860.

Confounded by the lack of evidence, it dawned on me that whoever collected the first-person account of what happened at Whiskey Run probably didn’t speak or read French. Because the French pronunciation of Groslouis sounds like “Gro-lu-wee” in English, the surname could have easily been heard as “Crowl-ee.” Thus, I believe that Walling’s “Joe Crowley” actually refers to Joseph “Joe” Groslouis.

With the advantage of hindsight, it appears that the Groslouis surname was almost connected to the discovery of gold in Walling’s history of Randolph. In the next part of this series, I’ll examine how the brothers were finally written into the discovery story.

If you have other knowledge about individuals interviewed for Walling’s history of Randolph or any further information about what’s shared above, please contact me.

Works Cited

Bennett, George. “A History of Bandon and the Coquille River.” Oregon Historical Quarterly 28, no. 4 (Dec.) (1927): 311–57. Note: Bennett’s handwritten manuscript was found 25 years after his death. In his history, he names “Joe Cowley.” Bennett almost certainly relied on Walling’s account for this information. It is highly likely that he had written—or intended to write–“Crowley”; however, a transcription or typographical error resulted the different spelling.

Evans, Elwood, and Or North Pacific history company of Portland. History of the Pacific Northwest: Oregon and Washington … Portland, Or.: North Pacific history company, 1889. https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001875215.

Lockley, Fred (and Packwood, William). The Oregon Daily Journal. (Portland, Or.) 1902-1972, September 11, 1919, Page 12, Image 12, “Historic Oregon Newspapers.” Education. University of Oregon Libraries, September 11, 1919. https://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn85042444/1919-09-11/ed-1/seq-12/.

Victor, Frances Fuller. “History of Oregon, Volume II.” In History of Oregon, edited by Bancroft, Hubert Howe, 1888. Available at https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/History_of_Oregon_(Bancroft)/Volume_2/Chapter_13.

Walling, A. G. History of Southern Oregon: Comprising Jackson, Josephine, Douglas, Curry and Coos Countries, Comp. from the Most Authentic Sources … Portland, Or: A. G. Walling, 1884. Available online at The Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/item/a14001444/