Henry Ernst Dosch was born in Kastel-Mainz in 1841. In 1860 he emigrated to St Louis Missouri in the United States. Soon after that he enlisted in the Union army. The very young man on the right is a photo of Henry Dosch. On the back of this photo is an inscription written by Henry Dosch which we show on the next page. Here, Henry Dosch writes that he served in the American Civil War first as a private inJohn C. Fremont's Bodyguard and then in the5th Regiment Missouri State Militia Calvary as a Sergeant-Major. After his enlistment was up in 1863, he moved west by stages to Salt Lake City, San Francisco and the Dalles Oregon, arriving in Canyon City Oregon in 1865. The picture below is Canyon City today. In 1861 there were no permanent settlements in the Blue Mountains. In 1862 gold was discovered here and by 1865 this site was home to somewhere around ten thousand people. This is Canyon Mountain which the Roadside Geology of Oregon describes as \"One of the finest slabs of oceanic crust exposed on a continent anywhere.\" One hundred and fifty million years ago this area was the west coast of North America and while most of the deep sea floor slid under the continental plate, this bit became wedged in the surface crust and stayed behind. This is Canyon Creek today as it flows through Whiskey Gulch at the foot of Canyon Mountain. Something like twenty-six million dollars worth of gold in 1860's dollars came out of this creek. Most of this was in placer deposits accessible to any adventurer with a pick and a shovel. Henry Dosch never was a miner. Instead, he became a partner with some Dalles freighters in a dry goods store in Canyon City. He boarded in a hotel owned by Pierre-August Fleurot from Beaune, Cote-D'Or, France. A little while later he wooed and married Pierre's daughter Marie-Louise. He decided to try cattle ranching and built a dwelling in a settlement named Marysville a few miles east of Canyon City. Marysville was located somewhere around here but as you can see, no trace remains today. In 1870 most of Canyon City burned. Henry lost the store and rustlers made off with the Cattle so the family moved to Portland where he actively participated in the development of the city of Portland and the state of Oregon until his death in 1925. If you want to know more, here is alink a short biography in his own words. Although he was not a rancher very long, he was one of the very first in eastern Oregon and his \"plus\" brand is the second oldest registered brand in Grant County The Grant County Gazette in cooperation with the Ranch and Rodeo Museum in John Day Oregon may be offering some select items carrying this historic brand and perhaps the brand itself. If you are interested in purchasing any of these items, please click through to the next page and let us know.

The German Cowboy

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