Peter French
Encyclopedia
Peter French was a rancher in the western United States
in the late 19th century. The community of Frenchglen, Oregon
was partially named for him.
on April 30, 1849. In 1850, his father moved the family to Colusa County, California
to begin a small ranch. Finding there wasn't enough room for small ranch operations due to Spanish
land grants, French's father uprooted his family once again and traveled north to the Sacramento Valley
. French's father began a sheep
ranch there, which became very successful; however, as French grew older, he found that the work was not exciting or challenging enough for him.
French moved southward to Jacinto, California
where he met and accepted employment as a horse breaker with Dr. Hugh James Glenn
, a wealthy stockman
and wheat
baron. French was a quick learner and good worker, and in a few months he was promoted to foreman. The Spanish-speaking
vaquero
s liked and respected French, as he learned their language. At some point in his employment with Dr. Glenn, French assumed the name "Peter".
Dr. Glenn had expanded his assets as widely as possible in the area, and began to scout new areas for his profitable markets. In 1872, he sent French to Oregon with 1,200 head of Shorthorn
cattle, a handful of vaqueros, and a Chinese
cook. He ended up in southeastern Oregon to find vast grasslands amid the arid high desert
.
Upon his arrival in the Catlow Valley, French and his men came upon a poor prospector
named Porter. Porter sold his small herd of cattle to French, and with the sale of his cattle went his squatter's rights
to the west side of the Steens Mountain
and his "P" brand. As French ventured further, he found the Blitzen Valley, where the Donner und Blitzen River
snaked northward 40 miles to Malheur Lake
. This became his favorite spot, where he set up his base camp. He built shelters for his herd, line cabins, and bunkhouses for his men. Thus, the P Ranch
was born.
s, and cut and stacked native hay. French's empire expanded to include the Diamond Valley, the Blitzen Valley, and the Catlow Valley. The land encompasses approximately 160,000 to 200,000 acres (650 to 800 km²). A shrewd businessman, French took advantage of the Swamp and Overflow Act, which allowed marshland to be purchased at $1.25 an acre. He would build dams to flood areas, buy the land under the Swamp Act at the reduced price, then remove the dams to return the land to its original state. French would also direct his employees and others to file homestead claims
that he would then purchase. His attempts at seizing more and more land even included fencing lands in the public domain
.
In 1883, French married Glenn’s daughter Ella. Glenn was murdered three weeks later by a former employee. French continued to manage the Oregon operation for the Glenn family, selling more cattle to help pay the family’s debts. In 1894, Glenn’s heirs decided to incorporate the French-Glenn partnership into the French-Glenn Livestock Company, making French the company president. French was divorced in 1891.
and Bannock
(both closely associated with the Shoshone
tribes) population at the base of the Steens Mountain swooped down upon the P Ranch, but not before a messenger could warn French of the impending attack. French and all but one of his men were able to escape. The attacks continued throughout the summer. The Paiutes burned buildings and homes, ran off cattle and horses, and at least once shot French's horse out from under him. At one point, it is unclear when, French even accompanied the U.S. 1st Cavalry Regiment
to guide the Army through the area.
In the 1880s and 1890s, stockmen and smaller farmers fought over land and water right
s. Aggression over such rights and French's large spread of land drew a certain loathing toward him.
French arrived back home from a business trip on Christmas Day in 1897 bearing gifts he had purchased for his wife, children and cowhands. His crew chief fell ill in the night, and French was to take the on the responsibilities of trail boss the next morning.
On December 26, 1897, French opened the gate to a sagebrush
field to let his cattle through. As he remounted his horse, Ed Oliver, a man with whom French had had a previous boundary spat, rode his horse at full speed straight at French. Oliver's horse collided with French's, and as Oliver charged again, French struck him over the head with a willow whip. Oliver produced a revolver from his waistband and fired one shot. The bullet struck French in the head and killed him instantly. Oliver, fearing retribution from French's men, sped off.
Sheriff Andrew John McKinnon arrested Oliver the next day, Oliver still wearing the weapon that had taken French's life. French's brother, Burt, filed an indictment for murder; however, the charge was dropped the day before Oliver's trial was to begin. Harney County District Attorney Charles W. Parfish wouldn't let it drop so easily, though, and filed a new indictment for manslaughter
, acting on the belief that he would stand a better chance of pinning down the lesser charge.
The trial began on May 19, 1898, with members of French's crew testifying that Oliver had shot French from behind as he rode away from Oliver. Lionel R. Webster, attorney for Oliver, maintained that Oliver had shot French in self-defense, having feared for his life. Grasping at straws, Webster put his client on the stand. Oliver testified that French beat him with the willow whip, and screamed "I'll kill you!" as he reached for a gun. French's men had earlier testified, however, that French was not armed.
Jurors only took three hours in deliberation before returning the verdict: Not Guilty. French had finally lost his last battle with the homesteaders in Harney County.
John William "Peter" French was buried in Red Bluff, California
next to the graves of his father and mother at the Oak Hill Cemetery.
Western United States
.The Western United States, commonly referred to as the American West or simply "the West," traditionally refers to the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. Because the U.S. expanded westward after its founding, the meaning of the West has evolved over time...
in the late 19th century. The community of Frenchglen, Oregon
Frenchglen, Oregon
Frenchglen is an unincorporated community in Harney County, Oregon, United States. It is south of Burns on Oregon Route 205 and its population is approximately 12....
was partially named for him.
Early life
Peter French was born John William French in MissouriMissouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
on April 30, 1849. In 1850, his father moved the family to Colusa County, California
Colusa County, California
Colusa County is a county located in the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California, northwest of state capital Sacramento. As of the 2010 census, its population was 21,419. The county seat is Colusa.-History:...
to begin a small ranch. Finding there wasn't enough room for small ranch operations due to Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
land grants, French's father uprooted his family once again and traveled north to the Sacramento Valley
Sacramento Valley
The Sacramento Valley is the portion of the California Central Valley that lies to the north of the San Joaquin-Sacramento Delta in the U.S. state of California. It encompasses all or parts of ten counties.-Geography:...
. French's father began a sheep
Domestic sheep
Sheep are quadrupedal, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Like all ruminants, sheep are members of the order Artiodactyla, the even-toed ungulates. Although the name "sheep" applies to many species in the genus Ovis, in everyday usage it almost always refers to Ovis aries...
ranch there, which became very successful; however, as French grew older, he found that the work was not exciting or challenging enough for him.
French moved southward to Jacinto, California
Jacinto, California
Jacinto is a small unincorporated community in Glenn County, California. Named for Jacinto Rodriques, who received a Mexican land grant in the area in 1844, it is located on the Sacramento River east-northeast of Willows, at an elevation of 112 feet ....
where he met and accepted employment as a horse breaker with Dr. Hugh James Glenn
Hugh J. Glenn
Hugh James Glenn was a prominent businessman and politician in California. Glenn was born near Staunton, Virginia, and grew up in Monroe County, Missouri. He was educated as a physician at McDowell's Medical College in St. Louis, Missouri. Glenn served with Colonel Alexander William Doniphan's...
, a wealthy stockman
Livestock
Livestock refers to one or more domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to produce commodities such as food, fiber and labor. The term "livestock" as used in this article does not include poultry or farmed fish; however the inclusion of these, especially poultry, within the meaning...
and wheat
Wheat
Wheat is a cereal grain, originally from the Levant region of the Near East, but now cultivated worldwide. In 2007 world production of wheat was 607 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize and rice...
baron. French was a quick learner and good worker, and in a few months he was promoted to foreman. The Spanish-speaking
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
vaquero
Cowboy
A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the vaquero traditions of northern Mexico and became a figure of...
s liked and respected French, as he learned their language. At some point in his employment with Dr. Glenn, French assumed the name "Peter".
Dr. Glenn had expanded his assets as widely as possible in the area, and began to scout new areas for his profitable markets. In 1872, he sent French to Oregon with 1,200 head of Shorthorn
Shorthorn
The Shorthorn breed of cattle originated in the North East of England in the late 18th century. The breed was developed as dual purpose, suitable for both dairy and beef production; however there were always certain blood lines within the breed which emphasised one quality or the other...
cattle, a handful of vaqueros, and a Chinese
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
cook. He ended up in southeastern Oregon to find vast grasslands amid the arid high desert
Great Basin Desert
The Great Basin Desert is an area of nearctic high deserts across parts of Nevada, California, and Utah that extends into the Colorado River watershed , but which is mostly a portion of the central Nevada desert basins of the Great Basin.It along with the Escalante Desert, Mohave Desert, the...
.
Upon his arrival in the Catlow Valley, French and his men came upon a poor prospector
Prospecting
Prospecting is the physical search for minerals, fossils, precious metals or mineral specimens, and is also known as fossicking.Prospecting is a small-scale form of mineral exploration which is an organised, large scale effort undertaken by mineral resource companies to find commercially viable ore...
named Porter. Porter sold his small herd of cattle to French, and with the sale of his cattle went his squatter's rights
Adverse possession
Adverse possession is a process by which premises can change ownership. It is a common law concept concerning the title to real property . By adverse possession, title to another's real property can be acquired without compensation, by holding the property in a manner that conflicts with the true...
to the west side of the Steens Mountain
Steens Mountain
Steens Mountain is a large fault-block mountain in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Oregon. Located in Harney County, it stretches some and rises from an elevation of about above the Alvord Desert to its peak at...
and his "P" brand. As French ventured further, he found the Blitzen Valley, where the Donner und Blitzen River
Donner und Blitzen River
The Donner und Blitzen River is a river on the eastern Oregon high desert which drains a relatively arid basin, the southern portion of Harney Basin, from roughly 20 to 80 miles south-southeast of Burns including Malheur National Wildlife Refuge...
snaked northward 40 miles to Malheur Lake
Malheur Lake
Malheur Lake is a lake in an arid region of eastern Oregon, United States near Burns, Oregon. The lake is fed by Donner und Blitzen River from the south and the Silvies River from the north. Malheur Lake has no outlet, though water escapes through ground seepage and by evaporation; widespread...
. This became his favorite spot, where he set up his base camp. He built shelters for his herd, line cabins, and bunkhouses for his men. Thus, the P Ranch
P Ranch
The P Ranch is a historic ranch in Harney County in southeastern Oregon, United States. The remaining ranch structures are located on the west bank of the Donner und Blitzen River in the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. The ranch was built by Peter French, a well known 19th-century cattle baron...
was born.
The Cattle King
After several years, French's small cattle operation had expanded, helped in large part by Dr. Glenn as his financier. The P Ranch became the headquarters for his growing cattle empire. He and his men built fences, drained marshlands and irrigated large areas of land, broke hundreds of horses and muleMule
A mule is the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse. Horses and donkeys are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes. Of the two F1 hybrids between these two species, a mule is easier to obtain than a hinny...
s, and cut and stacked native hay. French's empire expanded to include the Diamond Valley, the Blitzen Valley, and the Catlow Valley. The land encompasses approximately 160,000 to 200,000 acres (650 to 800 km²). A shrewd businessman, French took advantage of the Swamp and Overflow Act, which allowed marshland to be purchased at $1.25 an acre. He would build dams to flood areas, buy the land under the Swamp Act at the reduced price, then remove the dams to return the land to its original state. French would also direct his employees and others to file homestead claims
Homestead Act
A homestead act is one of three United States federal laws that gave an applicant freehold title to an area called a "homestead" – typically 160 acres of undeveloped federal land west of the Mississippi River....
that he would then purchase. His attempts at seizing more and more land even included fencing lands in the public domain
Public domain
Works are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...
.
In 1883, French married Glenn’s daughter Ella. Glenn was murdered three weeks later by a former employee. French continued to manage the Oregon operation for the Glenn family, selling more cattle to help pay the family’s debts. In 1894, Glenn’s heirs decided to incorporate the French-Glenn partnership into the French-Glenn Livestock Company, making French the company president. French was divorced in 1891.
Fall of the King
The year 1878 became the most violent for French, as in June of that year the native PaiutePaiute
Paiute refers to three closely related groups of Native Americans — the Northern Paiute of California, Idaho, Nevada and Oregon; the Owens Valley Paiute of California and Nevada; and the Southern Paiute of Arizona, southeastern California and Nevada, and Utah.-Origin of name:The origin of...
and Bannock
Bannock (tribe)
The Bannock tribe of the Northern Paiute are an indigenous people of the Great Basin. Their traditional lands include southeastern Oregon, southeastern Idaho, western Wyoming, and southwestern Montana...
(both closely associated with the Shoshone
Shoshone
The Shoshone or Shoshoni are a Native American tribe in the United States with three large divisions: the Northern, the Western and the Eastern....
tribes) population at the base of the Steens Mountain swooped down upon the P Ranch, but not before a messenger could warn French of the impending attack. French and all but one of his men were able to escape. The attacks continued throughout the summer. The Paiutes burned buildings and homes, ran off cattle and horses, and at least once shot French's horse out from under him. At one point, it is unclear when, French even accompanied the U.S. 1st Cavalry Regiment
U.S. 1st Cavalry Regiment
The 1st Cavalry Regiment is a unit in the United States Army which has its antecedents in the early 19th Century in the formation of the United States Regiment of Dragoons. To this day, the unit's Special Designation is "First Regiment of Dragoons".-Origins:The "United States Regiment of Dragoons"...
to guide the Army through the area.
In the 1880s and 1890s, stockmen and smaller farmers fought over land and water right
Water right
Water right in water law refers to the right of a user to use water from a water source, e.g., a river, stream, pond or source of groundwater. In areas with plentiful water and few users, such systems are generally not complicated or contentious...
s. Aggression over such rights and French's large spread of land drew a certain loathing toward him.
French arrived back home from a business trip on Christmas Day in 1897 bearing gifts he had purchased for his wife, children and cowhands. His crew chief fell ill in the night, and French was to take the on the responsibilities of trail boss the next morning.
On December 26, 1897, French opened the gate to a sagebrush
Artemisia tridentata
Artemisia tridentata is a shrub or small tree from the family Asteraceae. Some botanists treat it in the segregate genus Seriphidium, as S. tridentatum W. A. Weber, but this is not widely followed...
field to let his cattle through. As he remounted his horse, Ed Oliver, a man with whom French had had a previous boundary spat, rode his horse at full speed straight at French. Oliver's horse collided with French's, and as Oliver charged again, French struck him over the head with a willow whip. Oliver produced a revolver from his waistband and fired one shot. The bullet struck French in the head and killed him instantly. Oliver, fearing retribution from French's men, sped off.
Another lost battle
Harney CountyHarney County, Oregon
-National protected areas:*Malheur National Forest *Malheur National Wildlife Refuge*Ochoco National Forest -Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 7,609 people, 3,036 households, and 2,094 families residing in the county. The population density was 1 people per square mile...
Sheriff Andrew John McKinnon arrested Oliver the next day, Oliver still wearing the weapon that had taken French's life. French's brother, Burt, filed an indictment for murder; however, the charge was dropped the day before Oliver's trial was to begin. Harney County District Attorney Charles W. Parfish wouldn't let it drop so easily, though, and filed a new indictment for manslaughter
Manslaughter
Manslaughter is a legal term for the killing of a human being, in a manner considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is said to have first been made by the Ancient Athenian lawmaker Dracon in the 7th century BC.The law generally differentiates...
, acting on the belief that he would stand a better chance of pinning down the lesser charge.
The trial began on May 19, 1898, with members of French's crew testifying that Oliver had shot French from behind as he rode away from Oliver. Lionel R. Webster, attorney for Oliver, maintained that Oliver had shot French in self-defense, having feared for his life. Grasping at straws, Webster put his client on the stand. Oliver testified that French beat him with the willow whip, and screamed "I'll kill you!" as he reached for a gun. French's men had earlier testified, however, that French was not armed.
Jurors only took three hours in deliberation before returning the verdict: Not Guilty. French had finally lost his last battle with the homesteaders in Harney County.
John William "Peter" French was buried in Red Bluff, California
Red Bluff, California
Red Bluff is a city in and the county seat of Tehama County, California, United States. The population was 14,076 at the 2010 census, up from 13,147 at the 2000 census....
next to the graves of his father and mother at the Oak Hill Cemetery.
Further reading
- French, Giles. "Cattle Country of Peter French." Binfords & Mort, 1972.
- Gibson, Elizabeth. "Pete French, Cattle Baron."
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/old_west/97092/1 - Harney County Sherriff. "The Death of Peter French."
External links
- Peter French biography from the Oregon Historical SocietyOregon Historical SocietyThe Oregon Historical Society is an organization that encourages and promotes the study and understanding of the history of the Oregon Country, within the broader context of U.S. history. Incorporated in 1898, the Society collects, preserves, and makes available materials of historical character...