Mac headed for the telegraph office after Jenny left. He had two troubling reasons to leave Oregon City, though Jenny’s pregnancy was reason to stay home.
One reason to leave was his father. He’d had no update from his brother about his father’s condition, so he assumed the older McDougall still lived. It would take weeks to get to Boston. If he had any intention of seeing his father before the old man died, he needed to leave immediately, and it might already be too late. His relationship with his father had been stormy at best, but now he wondered whether to rush back to Boston hoping to make amends.
The other reason to leave was to find Will. Still, despite Jenny’s worry, Will should be safe enough with the militia. Mac had feared the boys had run away to serve in the War in the East. By comparison, the Indian skirmishes in Oregon and California were tame. A man could get hurt, even killed, but these battles weren’t wholesale slaughter like the Eastern campaigns.
But Jenny wanted her oldest son home. Mac did, too, truth be told. Will’s departure left a hole in their household. Despite the boy’s moodiness over the last year, he was part of their family.
Jacob Johnson’s interference had only accelerated a rift between Will and his parents that would have happened anyway. Much like Mac’s rift with his own parents, though Mac liked to think he’d been a better father to his children than his father had been to him.
Now Mac wrestled with whether to focus on his father’s generation or his son’s. He was trapped between them. Which relationship was it more important to repair?
And then there was Jenny.
Mac’s first telegram went to Fort Boise, because Will’s letter indicated the expedition was headed there.
DATE: 31 AUGUST 1864
TO: COMMANDER FORT BOISE
FROM: CALEB MCDOUGALL OREGON CITY
MY SON WITH DREWS EXPEDITION WHEN DREW EXPECTED BOISE
He asked the telegraph operator to have any responses delivered to his office. An hour later, a boy knocked on the door. Mac paid the lad a penny and took the telegram.
DATE: 31 AUGUST 1864
TO: CALEB MCDOUGALL OREGON CITY
FROM: MAJOR LUGENBEEL COMMANDER FORT BOISE
DREWS ARRIVAL UNKNOWN KLAMATH REPORTS THEM EN ROUTE
Mac swore. Will’s letter had informed them of that much. So he returned to the telegraph office to send a telegram to Fort Klamath.
DATE: 31 AUGUST 1864
TO: COMMANDER FORT KLAMATH
FROM: CALEB MCDOUGALL OREGON CITY
WHEN DREW EXPECTED AT KLAMATH MY SON WITH HIS EXPEDITION
Again, he waited for a response. It was late in the day before he received the following:
DATE: 31 AUGUST 1864
TO: CALEB MCDOUGALL OREGON CITY
FROM: COMMANDER FORT KLAMATH
DREWS WHEREABOUTS AND ARRIVAL UNKNOWN NO WORD SINCE 26 JULY
July 26 was the date of Will’s letter. The expedition was wandering in the mountains of southern Oregon. Mac remembered passing through the Snake River basin in the weeks before Will was born. The entire region was barren desert, covered with little other than sage, sand, and lava rocks.
There was no help for it—retrieving Will was impossible at the moment. He and Jenny would have to wait for Drew’s expedition to reach one of the forts. At least the commandants knew Will had parents waiting for him at home.
His competing options were returning to Boston or staying home. And there was no guarantee he could reach his father in time.
