My great great grandparents, John and Ann Kaye Briggs, emigrated from Yorkshire, England in 1839 with their five children. At the age of 10 Thomas was the eldest of the five with the youngest being only one year old. With that many young children the trip from Liverpool to New York on the Shakespeare could not have been very pleasant, nevertheless they all arrived in one piece and went over land to St. Louis. They had a difficult time settling into their new home, a situation made nearly impossible when John died in 1841 during a typhoid epidemic. Ann then moved her children to Illinois where she had relatives. She remarried and she and family settled as much as possible into a rural life in still rough country.
The three oldest children, Tom, Swain, and Joseph were curious lads (who referred to themselves as the “wandering boys”) went exploring on their own. Swain and a cousin traveled by steam boat from western Illinois into the Nebraska territory. In 1851 Joseph and Thomas joined a wagon train in St. Joseph, Missouri heading to Oregon along the Oregon Trail. Only Tom survived the trip as Joseph died along the Trail west of today’s Rock Springs, Wyoming. He was 20 years old. The cause of his death is unknown but it was almost certainly either accident or cholera (which killed thousands of travelers along the Trail).
Although Thomas died before my Dad was born, he heard a lot about him from his mother and grandmother (Tom’s sister). In 1959 we made a family trip from St Louis to Salem, Oregon via Los Angeles and San Francisco. Late one afternoon our route took us through Newport, Oregon and Dad made a snap decision to stop at the tourist information office to see if anyone knew anything about Thomas. To his amazement, the clerk went to a file cabinet and handed him a copy of the Newport News paper which contained the story of Thomas’s death as well as his obituary. (I’ve done very little editing of the run-on sentences, leaving spelling and grammar as in the original article. The few alterations I made are bracketed.)
The following is a description of the drowning of Thomas Briggs as given by the Rev. C. R. Ellsworth, who was an eyewitness to the accident.
“For thirty years or more traveling up and down the beach between Newport and Cape Foulweather and in an unguarded moment, Thomas Briggs, an old settler living on his farm near Cape Foulweather, came to his death by getting drowned in the ocean opposite the Monterey Hotel on Big Creek, February 1, 1896, at 1:16 pm at high tide, accompanied by a very heavy sea. About one o’clock Mr. Briggs came walking down the hill leading his horse and as he struck the beach got on his horse. Mr. Ellsworth asked him if he was going to try to pass, his reply was – pooh, I can make it alright. Mr. Ellsworth assisted him on his horse, he was very weak, not being well. [A]s he landed in his saddle, he said there was no time to waste and started. When he got about midway across Big Creek, a heavy swell struck his horse, knocking it down and both man and horse was out of sight for a few moments. First Mr. Briggs was seen climbing on a log, when he got upright on the log it was making its way seaward at no slow rate and facing another swell much larger than the former one. This swell was about 8 or 10 feet perpendicular [and] at this time Mr. Briggs was about fifty feet from the large swell, seeing the danger before him and perhaps realizing that in his feeble condition he could never pass through and get back to shore alive, he coolly and calmly as one starting on a voyage looked back where a dozen or so anxious men and women were watching every move he would make. He waved his hand good bye [and] he began to pull off his oil coat but before he could get it off, the heavy swell passed over him and Mr. Briggs was seen no more. After the tide went down the kind friends succeeded in getting the horse out but it died that same night. Even the saddle and bridle was torn from the animal by some means and has not yet been found. Up to the hour of going to press, the body of Mr. Briggs has not been recovered.”
The obituary reads:
“Thomas Briggs was born in Yorkshire, England on the 16th of February 1828. He came to Jacksonville, Illinois when he was 14 years old, he came to Oregon in 1848 [his first trip to Oregon], was in the Indian War of 1855-6, ran a pack train from Crescent to Yreka [Eureka?} and later was in the Fraser River Carriboo and Kootenai mines. In fact he was a pioneer and participated in all the early settlements on this coast. He lived for many years at Cape Foulweather where he owned a large tract of land; his familiarity with the treacherous waves on the beach had made him [the] authority for persons making a trip to the Cape. Hundreds of people he has told not to risk the tides at high water, and yet in an unguarded moment he took the chance that cost him his life. Tom Briggs, as we called him, was a early settler on the Bay and his death marks another pioneer departed. In all dealings he was an honest upright man, no one ever accused him of anything discreditable, he was generous to those he believed needed assistance, he purse was open for all deserving charity. He was industrious and saving and had laid up a comfortable living for the few years yet remaining to him. Mr. Briggs will be mourned by his son and two daughters for he was a kind indulgent father, a warm hearted neighbor and a respected citizen. The community sympathizes with the bereaved family and all feel the loss of one who for many years has been one of us in counsel and everyday associations.”
We have only one of Thomas’s letters, one in which he describes his time as an Indian agent. If he wrote anything of all his other adventures they likely went into the care of his children – of whom we know nothing. I have no doubt he would be an amazing storyteller.