History of Oregon (Bancroft)/Volume 2/Chapter 23
CHAPTER XXIII.
POLITICAL. INDUSTRIAL, AND INSTITUTIONAL.
1862–1887.
On the 9th of April, 1862, the republicans of Oregon met in convention, and adopting union principles as the test of fitness for office, nominated John R. McBride for representative to congress; Addison C. Gibbs for governor; Samuel E. May for secretary of state; E. N. Cooke, treasurer; Harvey Gordon, state printer;[1] E. D. Shattuck,[2] S. C. judge from 4th judicial district; W. Carey Johnson, prosecuting attorney of the same; Joseph G. Wilson, prosecuting attorney for the 3d judicial district, Andrew J. Thayer for the 2d, and J. F. Gazley for the 4th.
The nominees of the anti-administration party were A. E. Wait, who resigned his place upon the bench to run for congressman; John F. Miller for governor; George T. Vining for secretary of state; J. B. Greer, state treasurer; A. Noltner, state printer; W. W. Page, judge from the 4th judicial district; prosecuting attorney of that district, W. L. McEwan.
The majority for all the principal union candidates was over 3,000, with a corresponding majority for the lesser ones.[3] Gibbs was installed September 10th at the methodist church in Salem, in the presence of the legislative assembly.[4] By act of June 2, 1859, the official term of the governor began on the second Monday of September 1863, and every four years thereafter. This, being the day fixed for the meeting of the legislature, did not allow time for the graceful
retirement of one executive before the other came into office. Whiteaker took notice of this fault in legislation, by reminding the representatives, in his biennial message, that should it ever happen that there should not be present a quorum, or from any cause the organization of both branches of the legislature should fail to be perfected on the day fixed by law, the legislature could not count the vote for governor and declare the election, and that consequently the new governor could not be inaugurated. This, he said, would open the question as to whether the governor elect could qualify at some future day. This palpable hint was disregarded. The second Monday in September fell on the 8th, the organization was not completed until the 9th, and the inauguration followed on the 10th, no one raising a doubt of the legality of the proceedings. On the llth, nominations were made in joint convention to elect a successor to Stark, whose senatorial term would soon expire, and Benjamin F. Harding of Marion county was chosen.[5]
Strong union sentiments prevailing, disloyalty to the federal government in any form was out of fashion. None but the loyal could draw money from the state treasury. But the most stringent test was the passage of an act compelling the acceptance of United States notes in payment of debts and taxes, as well as an act providing for the payment of the direct tax levied by act of congress in August 1861,[6] amounting to over $35,000, seven eighths of the annual revenue of the state.[7]
The legal-tender question was one that occasioned
much discussion, some important suits at law, and considerable disturbance of the business of the Pacific
coast. The first impulse of a loyal man was to declare
his willingness to take the notes of the government at
par, and in Oregon many so declared themselves. The
citizens of The Dalles held a meeting and pledged
themselves to trade only with persons "patriotic
enough to take the faith of the government at par." The treasurer of Marion county refused to receive
legal-tenders at all for taxes; while Linn received them
for county but rejected them for state tax; Clackamas
received them for both state and county tax; and Columbia at first received and then rejected them.[8] The
state treasurer refused to receipt for legal-tenders,
which subjected the counties to a forfeiture of twenty
per cent if the coin was not paid within a certain time.
In 1863, when greenbacks were worth forty cents on
a dollar, Jackson, Josephine, Douglas, Lane, Benton, and Clatsop tendered their state tax in this currency,
which the state treasurer refused to receive. These
counties did not pay their taxes.
It was contended by some that the constitution of Oregon prohibited the circulation of paper money. It did, in fact, declare that the legislative assembly should not have power to establish or incorporate any bank; and forbade any bank or company to exist in the state with the privilege of making, issuing, or putting into circulation any notes or papers to circulate as money. Such a conflict of opinions could not but disturb business.[9]
In an action between Lane county and the state of Oregon, the court, Judge Boise presiding, held that the act of congress authorizing the issue of treasury notes did not make them a legal tender for state taxes, and did not affect the law of the state requiring state taxes to be paid in coin. In another action between private parties, the question being on the power of congress to make paper a legal tender, the court ruled in favor of congress. On the other hand, it was decided by Judge Stratton that the law of congress of February 25, 1862, was unconstitutional. This law made treasury notes a legal tender for all debts, dues, and demands, which included the salaries of judges, which were paid from the state treasury. Hence, it was said, came the decision of a supreme judge of Oregon against the power of congress.
Turn and twist the subject as they would, the currency question never could be made to adjust itself to the convenience and profit of all; because it was a war measure, and to many meant present self-sacrifice and loss. For instance, when greenbacks were worth no more than thirty or forty cents on the dollar in the dark days of the spring of 1863, federal officers in California and Oregon were compelled to accept them at par from the government, and to pay for everything bought on the Pacific coast at gold prices, greatly advanced by the eastern inflation. The merchants, however, profited largely by the exchange and the advanced prices; selling for gold and buying with greenbacks, having to some extent and for a time the benefit of the difference between gold and legal tenders. To prevent those who contended for the constitutionality of the act of congress from contesting cases in court, California passed a specific contract law providing for the payment of debts in the kind of money or property specified in the contract, thus practically repudiating paper currency. But it quieted the consciences of really loyal people, who were unwilling to seein to be arrayed against the government, and yet were opposed to the introduction of paper currency of a fluctuating value.[10]
The Oregon legislature of 1864 followed the example of California, and passed a specific-contract law. No money should be received in satisfaction of a judgment other than the kind specified in such judgment; and gold and silver coins of the United States, to the respective amounts for which they were legal tenders, should be received at their nominal values in payment of every judgment, decree, or execution. A law was enacted at a special session of the legislature in 1865, called to consider the thirteenth amendment to the constitution of the United States, making all state, county, school, and military taxes payable in the current gold and silver coin of the government, except where county orders were offered for county taxes. This law removed every impediment to the exclusive use of coin which could be removed under the laws of congress, and was in accordance with the popular will, which adhered to a metallic currency.
By the constitution of Oregon, requiring that at
the first regular session of the legislature after its adoption a law should be enacted submitting the
question of the location of the seat of government to
the vote of the people, the assembly of 1860 had
passed an act calling for this vote at the election of
1862.[11] The constitution declared that there must
be a majority of all the votes cast, and owing to the
fact that almost every town in the state received
some votes, there was no majority at this election;
but at the election of 1864 Salem received seventy-nine over all the votes cast upon the location of the
capital, and was officially declared the seat of government. As the constitution declared that no tax
should be levied, or money of the state expended, or debt contracted, for the erection of a state-house prior to the year 1865, this decision of the long-vexed question of the location of the capital was timely. Ten entire sections of land had been granted to the
state on its admission to the union, the proceeds of
which were to be devoted to the completion of the
public buildings, or the erection of others at the seat
of government; said lands to be selected by the governor, and the proceeds expended under the direction
of the legislature. Owing to the obstacles in the
way of locating the public lands, the public-buildings
fund, intended to be derived therefrom, had not yet
begun to accumulate in 1864, nor was it until 1872
that the legislature appropriated the sum of $100,000
for the erection of a capitol. It will be remembered
that the penitentiary building at Portland had from
the first been unnecessarily expensive, and ill-adapted
to its purpose, and that the state had leased the
institution for five years from the 4th of June, 1859,
to Robert Newell and L. N. English.[12]
Governor Gibbs, in a special message to the legislature of 1862, proposed a radical change in the management of the penitentiary.[13] He suggested that the working of convicts away from the prison grounds should be prohibited, and a system of manufactures introduced, beginning with the making of brick for the public buildings; and advised the selection of several acres of ground at the capital, and the erection of temporary buildings for the accommodation of the convicts. The legislature passed an act making the governor superintendent of the penitentiary, with authority to manage the institution according to his best judgment. Under the new system the expenses of the state prison for two years, from November 1, 1862, to September 1, 1864, amounted to $25,000, about $16,000 of which was earned by the convicts.[14] As soon as the seat of government was fixed, the legislature created a board of commissioners for the location of lands for the penitentiary and insane asylum, of which board the governor was chairman; and who proceeded to select 147 acres near the eastern limits of the town, having a good water-power, and being in all respects highly eligible.[15] At this place were constructed temporary buildings, as suggested by Governor Gibbs, and during his administration the prisoners were removed from Portland to Salem. Under his successor still further improvements were made in the condition and for the security of the prisoners, but it was not until 1871 that the erection of the present fine structure was begun. It was finished in 1872, at a cost of $160,000.[16]
Previous to 1862 no proper provision had been made for the care of the insane. The legislature invested Governor Gibbs with authority to select land for the erection of an asylum at Salem, and to contract for the safe-keeping and care of the patients; but the state not yet being able to appropriate money for suit able buildings, the contract was let to J. C. Hawthorne and A. M. Loryea, who established a private asylum at East Portland, where, until a recent date, all of these unfortunates were treated for their mental ailments.[17] It was not until about 1883 that the state asylum, a fine structure, was completed.
The legislature of 1862 passed an act for the location of the lands donated to the state, amounting in all to nearly 700,000 acres, besides the swamp-lands
donated by congress March 12, 1860, and Governor
Gibbs was appointed commissioner for the state to lo
cate all lands to which the state was entitled, and to
designate for what purposes they should be applied.[18]
A similar act had been passed in 1860, empowering Governor Whiteaker to select the lands and salt springs granted by act of admission, by the donation act of 1850 for university purposes, and by the act of March 12, 1860, donating swamp and overflowed lands to the state, which the failure of the commissioner of the general land-office to send instructions had rendered inoperative. The legislature of 1860 had also provided for the possessory and preemptory rights of the 500,000 acres donated to the state, by which any person, being a citizen, or having declared his intention of becoming such, might be entitled to, with the right to preempt, any portion of this grant, in tracts not less than 40 nor more than 320 acres, by having it surveyed by a county surveyor; the claimants to pay interest at the rate of ten per cent per annum upon the purchase money, at the rate of $1.25 an acre, the fund accruing to be used for school purposes. Whenever the government survey should be made, the claimant might preempt at the general land-office, through the agency of a state locating agent. By this act the state was relieved of all expense in selecting these lands; but Governor Whiteaker gave it as his opinion that the act was in conflict with the laws of the United States, in so far as the state taxed the public lands, which opinion was sustained by the general land-office, as well as that the state could have no control over the lands intended to be granted until after their selection and approval at that office.[19] The act was accordingly repealed, after the selection of about 22,000 acres, and another passed, as above stated.
Much difficulty was experienced in finding enough good land subject to location to make up the amount to which the state was entitled for the benefit of common schools and the endowment of an agricultural college,[20] on account of the neglect of the government to have the lands surveyed, the surveys having been much impeded by Indian hostilities, and the high prices of labor consequent on gold discoveries. Upon the petition of the Oregon legislature, congress had extended the surveying laws to the country east of the Cascades, and preparations were making to extend the base line across the mountains east from the Willamette meridian, with a view to operations in the county of Wasco and the settlements of Umatilla, Walla Walla, John Day, and Des Chutes valleys.[21] But congress failed to make an appropriation for the purpose, contracts already taken were annulled, and little progress was made for two years, during which the squatter kept in advance of the surveys upon the most valuable lands. During the year ending June 30, 1860, the service was prosecuted along the Columbia River in the neighborhood of The Dalles, in the Umatilla Valley, and also in the Klamath country, near the California boundary, which was not yet established.
An act was passed by congress June 25, 1860, for the survey of the forty-sixth parallel so far as it constituted a boundary between Oregon and Washington, which work was not accomplished until 1864, although the length of the line was only about 100 miles, from the bend of the Columbia near Fort Walla Walla to Snake River near the mouth of the Grand Rond River.[22] There was much delay in procuring the services of an astronomer and surveyor who would undertake this survey for the small amount appropriated, the country being exceedingly rough, and including the crossing of the Blue Mountains.[23] The contract was finally taken by Daniel G. Major late in 1834. 24
By the time the northern boundary was completed, the mining settlements of eastern Oregon demanded the survey of the eastern boundary from that point near the mouth of the Owyhee where it leaves Snake River and continues directly south. The same necessity had long existed for the survey of the 42d parallel between California and Oregon, which was not begun till 1867, when congress made an appropriation for surveying the Oregon and Idaho boundaries as well, Major again taking the contract.[24] Owing to the continuous Indian wars in eastern Oregon, as late as 1867 it was necessary to have a military escort to protect the surveying parties and their supply trains; and it often happened that the forces could not be spared from the scouting and fighting which kept them actively employed. But in spite of these obstacles, in 1869 there had been surveyed of the public lands in Oregon 8,368,564 out of the 60,975,360 acres which the state contained; the surveyed portions covering the largest areas of good lands in the most accessible portions of the state; leaving at the same time many considerable bodies of equally
good land, which would at a later period be required for settlement.[25]
The first sale of public lands in Oregon by proclamation of the president took place in 1857. Only ten or eleven thousand acres were sold, netting the government little more than the expenses of surveying its lands in Oregon.[26] The homestead law of 1862 conferred benefits on actual settlers nearly equal to those of the donation law, though less in amount. The later arrivals in Oregon had only begun to avail themselves of its privileges, when the president again offered for sale, in October 1862, 400,000 acres, by which act the public lands were temporarily withdrawn from preemption and homestead privileges, and preemptors were forced to establish their claims and pay the price of their lands immediately in order to secure them against the danger of being sold at auction by the government. This was felt to be a hardship by many who had before the passage of the homestead law been glad to preempt, but who now were desirous of recalling their preemption and claiming under the homestead act; especially as the more honest and industrious had put all their money into improvements, and could only meet the new demand by borrowing money at a high rate of interest. But as only about 13,500 acres were sold when offered, few claims could have lapsed to the government, even if their preemptions were not paid up.
It is not surprising that during the public surveys
certain individuals should seize the opportunity to se
cure to themselves large bodies of land by appearing
to assume necessary enterprises which should only be
undertaken by the government; and it might be questioned whether the legislature had a proper regard to
the interests of the state in encouraging such enterprises. By an act of congress, approved July 2, 1864,
there were granted to the state, to aid in the construction of a military wagon-road from Eugene City across
the Cascade Mountains by the way of the middle
fork of the Willamette, near Diamond peak, to the
eastern boundary of the state, alternate sections of
the public lands designated by odd numbers, for three
sections in width, on each side of said road. When
the legislature met, two months after the passage of
this act, it granted to what called itself the Oregon
Central Military Road Company all the lands and
right of way already granted by congress, or that
might be granted for that purpose; with no other provision than that the lands should be applied exclusively to the construction of the road, and that it
should be and remain free to the U. S. government as
a military and post road. It was, however, enacted
that the land should be sold in quantities not exceeding thirty sections at one time, on the completion of
ten continuous miles of road, the same to be accepted
by the governor, the sales to be made from time to
time until the road should be completed, which must
be within five years, or, failing, the land unsold to revert to the United States.[27]
What first called up the idea was the report of Drew on his Owyhee reconnaissance in 1864, showing that a road might be made from Fort Klamath to the Owyhee mining country at no great expense, and pass ing through a region rich in grass, timber, minerals, and agricultural lands. The grant amounted to 1,920 acres for each mile of road built, less the lands already settled on. The distance was about 420 miles. Of this enormous grant, exceeding all granted to the state on its admission to the union by 150,000 acres, excepting the swamp-lands, whose extent was un known, about one half, it was expected, would be available. At the minimum price of $1.25 an acre, the one half would amount to $1,008,000. Along the first twenty miles of the road, from Eugene City to the Cascade Mountains, the best lands were taken up; upon representing which to congress, other lands were granted in lieu of those already claimed, to be selected from the public lands. The law allowed a primary sale of thirty sections, or 19,200 acres, with which to begin the survey, which land was offered for sale in March 1865. With its own and the capital accruing from sales of land and stock, the company--consisting at first of seventeen incorporators[28]--pushed the road to the summit of the Cascade Mountains in the autumn of 1867. This was the most difficult and ex pensive portion of the work, and though by no means what a military road should be, was accepted by the governor. It was never much used, and was almost entirely superseded in 1868 by a wagon-road from Ashland to the Klamath Basin, by the old Scott and Applegate pass of the Cascades, discovered in 1846.
A few months after the act authorizing a road through their country, Huntington, superintendent of Indian affairs, succeeded in treating with the Klamath and Modoc tribes, and a portion of the Shoshones, by which a reservation was set off, of a considerable extent of country between the point where any road crossing the mountains near Diamond peak must strike the plains at their eastern base and Warner's Mountain. The right of the government to lay out roads through the reservation was conceded by the Indians, but it was not in contemplation that the government should have the power to grant any of the reservation lands to any company constructing such a road; the treaty having been made before the company was formed. Nevertheless, as the survey of the reservation lands proceeded, which was urged forward to enable the company to secure its lands, the odd sections along the line of the military road where it crossed the reservation were approved to the state to the extent of over 93,000 acres. The Indians, or their agents, held, very properly, that their lands, secured to them by treaty previous to the survey of the military road, were not public lands from which the state or the company could select; and also that the state would have no right to violate the conditions of the treaty by bringing settlers within the limits of the reservation. By an act amendatory of the first act granting the lands to the state, congress indemnified the state, and through the state the company, by allowing the deficit to be made up from other odd sections not reserved or appropriated within six miles on each side of the road.[29] The Oregon Central Military Road Company, after doing what was necessary to secure their grant, and finding it inconvenient to be taxed as a private corporation on so large an amount of property that had never been made greatly productive, sold its lands to the Pacific Land Company of San Francisco, in 1873, and thus this magnificent gift to the state passed with no adequate return into the hands of a foreign private corporation.
In the matter of the swamp-lands, nothing was done to secure them during a period of ten years,[30] it
being held that the right to them had lapsed through
neglect, and Gibbs having had enough to do to secure
the other state lands. George L. Woods, who in 1866
succeeded Gibbs as governor, made some further selections for school purposes. Not all of his selections
had been approved when, in 1870, L. F. Grover was
elected governor. The agricultural-college lands which
had been selected in the Klamath Lake basin had
been declared not subject to private entry by the land-office at Roseburg, within which district the lands lay,
and that office had refused to approve the selection.
The Oregon delegation in congress procured the pas
sage of an act confirming the selections already made
by the state where the lists had been filed in the proper
land-office, in all cases where they did not conflict
with existing legal rights, and declaring that the remainder might be selected from any lands in the state
subject to preemption or entry under the laws of the
United States; with the qualification that where the
lands were of a price fixed by law at the double minimum of $2.50, such land should be counted as double
the quantity towards satisfying the grant. This was
followed by the establishment of another land-office,
called the Linkton district, in the Klamath country,
and the approval of the agricultural-college selections.[31] The internal improvement grant[32]
was also fully secured to the state during the administration of Governor Grover.
From the time when the swamp-land grant was supposed to have lapsed through neglect, as decided by Whiteaker, and apparently coincided in by his successors, up to August 1871, no attention was given to the subject. Grover, however, gave the matter close scrutiny, and discovered that the same act which required the state to select the swamp-lands then surveyed within two years from the adjournment of the legislature next following the date of the act, and which requirement had been neglected, also declared that the land thereafter to be surveyed should be chosen within two years from the adjournment of the legislature next following a notice by the secretary of the interior to the governor that the surveys had been completed and confirmed. No such notice having been given, the title of the state to the swamp-lands was held to be intact, and a complete grant and indefeasible title were vested in the state by the previous acts of congress, which could not be defeated by any failure on the part of the United States to perform an official duty. The small amount of swamp-lands surveyed in 1860, and which were lost by neglect, could not much affect the grant should it never be recovered.
In pursuance of these views, the legislature of 1870 passed an act providing for the selection and sale of the swamp and overflowed lands of the state.[33] This act made it the duty of the land commissioner for Oregon, to wit, the governor, to appoint persons to make the selections of swamp and overflowed lands, and make returns to him, when they would be mapped, described, and offered for sale at not less than one dollar per acre; twenty per cent of the purchase money to be paid within ninety days after the publication of a notice of sale, and the remainder when the land had been reclaimed. Reclamation was defined to consist in cultivating on the land in question for three consecutive years either grass, cereals, or vegetables, on proof of which the remainder of the purchase money could be paid, and a patent to the land obtained, provided the reclamation should be made within ten years. No actual survey was required, but only that the tract so purchased should be described by metes and bounds; therefore, the twenty per cent which constituted the first payment was a conjectural amount. The law had other defects, which operated against the disposal of the lands to non-speculative purchasers who desired to obtain patents and have their titles settled at once. It was discovered, also, in the course of a few years, that draining the land, which the law required, destroyed its value. The law simply gave the opportunity to a certain class and number of men to possess themselves of large cattle-ranges without anything like adequate payment.
The intention of the original swamp-land act of congress, passed September 28, 1850, was to enable a state subject to overflow from the Mississippi River to construct levees and drain swamp-lands. The benefits of this grant were afterwards extended to other states, including Oregon. But Oregon had no rivers requiring levees, and, strictly speaking, no swamp-lands. It had, indeed, some small tracts of beaver-dam land, and some more extensive tracts subject to annual overflow, on which the best of wild grasses grew spontaneously. To secure these over flowed lands, together with others that were not subject to inundation, but could be embraced in metes and bounds, was the purpose of the framers and friends of the swamp-land act of 1870 in the Oregon legislature.[34] It was a flagrant abuse of the trust of the people conferred upon the legislative body, and of the powers conferred upon the officers of the state by the constitution.[35] It was a temptation to speculators, who rapidly possessed themselves of extensive tracts, and enriched themselves at the expense of the state, besides retarding settlement.
One effect of the swamp-land act was to bring in conflict with the speculators actual settlers who had squatted upon some unsurveyed portions of these lands, and cultivated them under the homestead law. If it could be proved that the land settled on belonged to the state under the swamp-land act, the settler was liable to eviction. Wherever such a conflict existed, appeal was had to the general land-office, the case was decided upon the evidence, and sometimes worked a hardship, which was contrary to the spirit and intention of the government in granting lands to the state.
The legislature of 1872 urged the Oregon delegation to secure an early confirmation of title, no patent, however, being required to give the state a title to what it absolutely owned by law of congress. It also passed an act to provide for the sale of another class of overflowed lands on the sea-shore; and another act appropriating ten per cent of all moneys received from the sale of swamp, overflowed, and tide lands to the school fund.
The swamp-lands which offered the greatest inducement to speculators were found in the Klamath Lake basin, which was partially surveyed in 1858. A resurvey in 1872 gave a greatly increased amount of swamp-land, and changed the character of the surveys materially.[36] This was owing to a decision of the supreme court of the United States, that the shores of navigable waters, and the soils under them, were not granted by the constitution to the United States, but were reserved to the states respectively.[37] The amount selected and surveyed as swamp-land in 1874 was nearly 1G7,000 acres. In 1876 it was over 300,000, with a large amount remaining unsurveyed. A considerable proportion of these selections were made in the Linkton district, about Lower Klamath, Tule Goose, and Clear lakes, and about the other numerous lakes in south-eastern Oregon, and they led finally to the settling-up of that whole region with stock-raisers, who, when they have exhausted the natural grasses, will dispose of their immense possessions to small farmers who will cultivate the soil after purchasing the lands at a considerable advance on the price paid by the present owners.
As late as 1884, swindling schemes on a vast scale were still being attempted.[38] The history of the land grants shows that the intention of congress was to benefit the state, and encourage immigration, but these benefits were all diverted, bringing incalculable injury to the community. Seldom was a demand of the legislature refused.[39] In 1864 congress passed an act amending the act of September 27, 1850, commonly called the donation law, so as to protect settlers who had failed to file the required notice, and allowing them to make up their deficiencies in former grants. A large amount of land was taken up under this act.[40] In the same manner the state was indemnified for the school lands settled upon previous to the passage of the act donating the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections for the support of schools. In 1876 congress passed an act for the relief of those persons whose donation claims had been taken without compensation for military reservations, which reservations were afterward abandoned as useless. The settlers who had continued to reside on such lands were granted patents the same as if no interruption to their title had occurred.
According to the act of admission, five per cent of the net proceeds of sales of all public lands lying within the state which should be sold after the admission of the state, after deducting the expenses incident to the sales, was granted to the state for the construction of public roads and improvements. The first and only public improvement made with this fund was the construction of a canal and locks at the falls of the Willamette River opposite Oregon City, begun in 1870 and completed in 1872. After this use of a portion of the public-improvement fund, the five-per-cent fund was diverted from the uses indicated by law, and by consent of congress converted to the common-school fund, to prevent its being appropriated to local schemes of less importance to the state.[41]
The same disposition was made of the fund arising from the sale of the 500,000 acres to which the state was entitled on admission, by the act of September 4, 1841. When the state was organized, the framers of the constitution offered to take this grant in addition to the common-school lands, instead of for public improvements ; but on accepting the Oregon constitution, congress said nothing concerning this method of appropriating the lands, from which it was doubtful whether the law of congress or the law of the state should govern in this case. But as the lands belonged absolutely to the state, it was finally decided to devote them to school purposes.
By 1885 half of the 500,000-acre grant was sold, and the remainder, most of which was in eastern Oregon, was, some time previous, offered at two dollars an acre. From this, and the sale of the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections, the five-per-cent fund, money accruing from escheats, forfeitures, and all other sources provided by law, the school fund amounted in 1881 to about $600,000, which was loaned on real estate security at ten per cent per annum. The number of acres actually appropriated by congress for common schools amounted to 3, 250, 000, of which about 500,000 had been sold, the minimum price being $1.25 an acre.[42]
The legislature of 1868 passed an act creating a
board of commissioners for the location of the 90,000
acres appropriated by congress for agricultural colleges, and to establish such a college. By this act a
school already existing at the town of Corvallis was
adopted as the Agricultural College, in which students
sent under the provision of the act should receive a collegiate education in connection with an agricultural one. Each state senator was authorized to select one student, not less than sixteen years of age, who
should be entitled to two years tuition in this college;
and the president of the college was permitted to draw
upon the state treasurer for eleven dollars and twenty-five cents per quarter for each student so attending; the money to be refunded out of the proceeds of the
agricultural lands when selected.
This was done because the act of congress making grants for the establishment of state colleges of agriculture required these schools to be in operation in 1867. The time was subsequently extended five years. Meanwhile the board of commissioners, John F. Miller, I. H. Douthit, and J. C. Avery, proceeded[43] to locate the agricultural-college lands, chiefly in Lake county. In 1881, 23,000 acres had been sold at $2.50 an acre, giving a fund of $60,000 for the support of the agricultural department of this school.
Of the state-university lands, about 16,000 acres remained unsold in 1885 of the 46,000 acres belonging to this institution. This remainder, located in the Willamette Valley, was held at two dollars an acre. An act locating the state university at Eugene City was passed by the legislature of 1872. The people of Lane county, in consideration of the location being made in their midst, made a gift to the state of the grounds necessary, and the building erected upon it, amounting in value to $52,000. The university school was opened in 1876, when the fund arising from the sale of its lands reached $75,000, nearly $10,000 of which sum arose from sales of the Oregon City claim, previous to the legislative act which restored that property to the heirs of John McLoughlin.[44]
The land appropriated to the erection of public buildings having been all sold arid the funds applied to these purposes, there remained, in 1885, unsold of the state lands of the above classes some three million acres, then held at from $1.25 to $2.50 an acre, besides such of the swamp-lands as might revert to the state, the tide and overflowed lands of the sea-shore, and the salt-springs land. Owing to the greater ease with which the level lands were cultivated, the prairies were first selected, both by private claimants and government agents.[45] The principal amount of the state lands still unsold in 1885 were the brush lands of the foot-hills and ridges of western Oregon, the timbered lands of the mountains, and the high table-lands of eastern Oregon, which, compared with the fertile and level valley lands of the state, were once esteemed comparatively valueless. This, however, was a hasty conclusion. The brush lands, when cleared, proved to be superior fruit lands; the high plateaus of eastern Oregon, owing to a clayey soil not found in the valleys, produced excellent wheat crops, and the timbered lands were prospectively valuable for lumber. In fact, it became necessary for the government, in 1878, to impose a fine of from $100 to $1,000 for trespassing on the forest lands, for their protection from milling companies with no right to the timber. At the same time the government offered to sell its timber, in tracts of 160 acres, at $2.50 an acre; and lands containing stone quarries at the same price. The total number of acres of timber in the state is estimated at 761,000, or a little over thirty-one per cent of the whole area.
As it became a known fact that the cultivation of timber tended to produce a moisture which was lacking in the climate and soil of the high central plains, congress passed an act by the provisions of which a quarter-section of land might be taken up, and on a certain portion of it being planted with timber, a patent might be obtained to the whole. Under this act, passed in 1873 and amended in 1874, between 18,000 and 19,000 acres were claimed in the year ending July 1, 1878, chiefly in eastern Oregon; while in the same year, under the homestead act, nearly 86,000 acres were taken up,[46] the whole amount of government land taken in Oregon in 1878 being 139,597 acres. The rapid settlement of the country at this period, together with the absorption of the public lands by railroad grants, seems likely soon to terminate the possessory rights of the government in Oregon, the claims of settlers still keeping in advance of the United States surveys.
To the legislature of 1862 was submitted a Code of Civil Procedure, with some general laws concerning
corporations, partnerships, public roads, and other matters, prepared by a commission consisting of
Deady, Gibbs, and Kelly, which was accepted with
some slight amendments; and an act was then passed authorizing Deady to complete the code and report at the next session. This was done, and the code completed was accepted in 1864, but four members voting against it on the final ballot, and they upon the ground of the absence of a provision prohibiting persons other than white men from giving evidence
in the courts.
The subject of the equality of the races had not lost its importance. The legislature of 1862, according to the spirit of the constitution of Oregon, which declared that the legislative assembly should provide by penal codes for the removal of negroes and mulattoes from the state, and for their effectual exclusion, enacted that each and every negro, Chinaman, Hawaiian, and mulatto residing within the limits of the state should pay an annual poll-tax of five dollars, or failing to do so should be arrested and put to work upon the public highway at fifty cents a day until the tax and the expenses of the arrest and collection were discharged.[47]
By the constitution of Oregon, Chinamen not residents of the state at the time of its adoption were forever prohibited from holding real estate or mining claims therein. By several previous acts they had been "taxed and protected " in mining as a means of revenue, the tax growing more oppressive with each enactment, and as the question of Chinese immigration[48] was more discussed, the law of 1862 being intended to put a check upon it. All former laws relating to mining by the Chinese having been repealed by a general act in 1864, the legislature of 1866 passed another, the general features of which were that no Chinamen not born in the United States should mine in Oregon, except by paying four dollars per quarter, upon receiving a license from the sheriff; failing in the payment of which the sheriff might seize and sell his property. Any person employing Chinamen to work in the mines was liable for this tax on all so employed. Chinamen complying with the law should be protected the same as citizens of the United States; and twenty per cent of such revenue should go to the state.[49]
With the laws against negroes the hand of the general government was destined to interfere, first by the abolition of slavery in all United States territory, and finally when citizenship and the right of suffrage were extended to the colored race. The resolution of congress providing for the amendment to the constitution of the United States abolishing slavery was passed February 1, 1865. By the 23d of September seven teen states had adopted the amendment. Secretary Seward wrote to Governor Gibbs asking for a decision, to obtain which the legislature was convened at Salem on the 5th of December[50] by a call of the executive. The message of Governor Gibbs was dignified and argumentative in favor of the abolition of slavery. It was impossible to get a unanimous vote in favor of the measure, on account of the democratic members who had been elected by the disunion element. The amendment was, however, adopted, with only seven dissenting votes in both houses,[51] by a joint resolution, on the 11th of December, and the decision telegraphed to Washington.
When the fourteenth amendment was presented to another Oregon legislature in the following year, it was adopted with even less debate, and the clauses of the constitution of Oregon which discriminated against the negro as a citizen of the state were thereby made nugatory.[52]
The remainder of the political history of Oregon
will be brief, and chiefly biographical. The republican party of the United States in 1864 again elected
Abraham Lincoln to be president. Oregon s majority
was over fourteen hundred. At the state election of
this year J. H. D. Henderson[53] was elected representative to congress; J. F. Gazley, George L. Woods, and H. N. George, presidential electors. The senate chose George H. Williams for the six years term in the United States senate, beginning in March 1865.
With the close of the war for the union the political elements began gradually to reshape themselves, many of the union party who had been Douglas democrats before the war resuming their place in the democratic ranks when the danger of disunion was past. To the returning ascendency of the democratic party the republicans contributed by contests for place among themselves. In 1866 A. C. Gibbs and J. H. Mitchell were both aspirants for the senatorship, but Gibbs received the nomination in the caucus of the republican members of the legislature. Opposed to him was Joseph S. Smith, democratic nominee. The balloting was long continued without an election, owing to the defection of three members whose votes had been pledged. When it became apparent that no election could be had, the name of H. W. Corbett was substitued for that of Gibbs, and Corbett was elected on the sixteenth ballot. Corbett was not much known in politics except as an unconditional union man. Personally he was not objectionable. He labored for the credit of his state, and endeavored to sustain republican measures by introducing and laboring for bills that promoted public improvements.[54]
In 1868 the legislature had returned to something like its pre-rebellion status,[55] passing a resolution in both houses requesting senators Williams and Corbett to resign for having supported the reconstruction acts.[56] The senate of the United States returned the resolution to both houses of the Oregon legislature by a vote of 126 to 35.[57] Williams and his colleague secured a grant of land for the construction of a railroad from Portland to the Central Pacific railroad in California, for which they received the plaudits of the people, and especially of southern Oregon. When the senatorial term of the former expired he was appointed attorney-general of the United States, and afterward chief justice, but withdrew his name, and retired to private life in Portland.
In 1866 George L. Woods was elected governor in opposition to James K. Kelly. To avenge this injury to an old-line democrat, the legislature of 1868[58] conspired to pass a bill redistricting the state so as to increase the democratic representation in certain sections and decrease the republican representation in others, having for its object the election of a democratic United States senator in 1870; and further, to recount the gubernatorial vote of 1866, to count out Woods and place Kelly in the office of governor. This return to the practices of the 'political zouaves' of the days of the Salem clique, amounting in this case to revolution, was thwarted by the republican minority under the direction of Woods. In order to carry their points, the democrats endeavored to pro long the session beyond the constitutional forty days, by deferring the general appropriation bill, and did so prolong it to the forty-third day, when fifteen republicans resigned in a body, leaving the house without a quorum, and unable to pass even a bill to pay their per diem. In this dilemma, they demanded that the governor should issue writs of election to make a quorum; but this was refused as unconstitutional after the forty days were passed, and the house, without the power even to adjourn, fell in pieces.[59]
The representative to congress elected in 1866 was Rufus Mallory, republican, who defeated his opponent, James D. Fay, by a majority of six hundred.[60]
In 1868 the republican candidate, David Logan, was beaten by Joseph S. Smith, whose majority was nearly twelve hundred,[61] owing partly to the unpopular standing of Logan even with his own party,[62] as was shown by the presidential vote in the following November, which gave a democratic majority of only 160 for presidential electors out of 22,000 votes cast by the state.
In 1870 L. F. Grover, who ever since 1864 had been president of the democratic organization of the state, was elected governor of Oregon, with S. F. Chadwick as secretary.[63]
The legislature of 1870, following the example of its immediate predecessor, rejected the fifteenth amendment to the constitution of the United States, which extended the elective franchise to negroes. The manner of the rejection was similar to that of the rescinding resolutions of 1868, and like them, a mere impotent expression of the rebellious sentiments of the ultra-democratic party in Oregon.[64] It had no effect to prevent negroes in Oregon from voting, of whom there were at this time less than 350. It also, in obedience to party government, provided for the appointment of three commissioners to investigate the official conduct of the state officers of the previous administration, succeeding in discovering a defalcation by Secretary May of several thousand dollars,[65]
through embezzlement of the five-per-cent fund before mentioned.
When Governor Grover came into office he found the treasury containing sufficient funds, less some $6,000, to defray the expenses of the state's affairs for the next two years. The legislature at once made an appropriation to build the penitentiary in a permanent form, and appropriated money from the five-per-cent fund for the construction of a steamboat canal with locks, at the falls of the Willamette. A small amount was also devoted to the organization of the agricultural college, thereby securing the land grant belonging to it. The legislature of 1872 passed an act providing for the construction of a state capitol, and appropriated $100,000 to be set apart by the treasurer, to be designated as the state-house building fund; but for the purpose of providing funds for immediate use, the treasurer was authorized to transfer $50,000 from the soldiers'-bounty fund to the building fund, that the work might be begun without delay. The same legislature passed an act organizing and locating the state university at Eugene City, on condition that a site and building were furnished by the Union Uni-
versity Association ; and setting apart the interest on the fund arising from the sale of seventy-two sections of land donated to the state for the support of the university for the payment of the salaries of teachers and officers.
These were all measures important to the welfare and dignity of the state, and gave to Grover s administration the credit of having the interests of the people at heart. An agricultural college was established by simply paying for the tuition of twenty-three pupils at an ordinary academy, at ordinary academy charges.[66] A university was established, by requiring the town where it was located to furnish a site and a building, and paying the faculty out of the university fund. The Modoc war, also, which occurred during Grover s term of office, added some consequence to his administration, which, excepting that of Governor Gibbs, was the most busy, for good or evil, of any which had occurred in the history of the state. In 1874 Grover was reelected, over J. C. Tolman, republican, and T. F. Campbell, independent.[67]
In 1872 the republicans in the legislature elected John H. Mitchell to succeed Corbett in the U. S. senate. He served the state ably.[68] On the meeting of the legislature of 1876, there being a United States senator to be elected, the choice lay between Jesse Applegate and Grover. The first ballot in the senate gave Applegate seven and Grover twenty votes, with two votes scattering. The first ballot in the house gave twenty-seven for Applegate and twenty-five for Grover, with seven for J. W. Nesmith. In joint convention Nesmith received on some ballots as many as fourteen votes. But the democrats were chiefly united on Grover and the republicans on Applegate; and at length the friends of Nesmith gave way, that the candidate of their party might succeed, and Grover's vote rose from forty-two to forty-eight, by which he was elected. In February 1877 he resigned the office of governor, and took his place in the U. S. senate,[69] S. F. Chadwick succeeding to the gubernatorial office.
In the mean time there was a growing uneasiness
in the public mind, arising from the conviction that there was either mismanagement or fraud, or both, in the state, land, and other departments, and the legislature of 1878 appointed a joint committee to examine into the transactions of the various offices and departments of the state government. The commission published its report, and the impression got abroad that a system of peculation had been carried on for some time past, in which serious charges were made; but notwithstanding the numerous accusations against the several state officials, there was not sufficient evidence to prove that moneys had been illegally drawn from the public funds. Nevertheless, the administration suffered in reputation in consequence of the report. The scandal created was doubtless tinged by
partisan spirit, more or less. The improvement in
the affairs of the government was substantial and
noteworthy, and at a later date credit was not unwillingly conceded to the administration, the course of which had been temporarily clouded by hurtful though unsubstantiated complaints.[70]
The elevation of Grover to the U. S. senate left Stephen F. Chadwick in the gubernatorial chair, which he filled without cause for dissatisfaction during the remainder of the term. During Chadwick's administration eastern Oregon was visited by an Indian war. During this interval the depredations caused were very severe, and the loss to the white settlers of property was immense, a full history of which will be included in those described in my History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana.
One by one the former democratic aspirants for
place reached the goal of their desires. Joseph S.
Smith was succeeded in congress by James H. Slater, who during the period of the rebellion was editor of the Corvallis Union, a paper that, notwithstanding its name, advocated disunion so as to bring itself under the notice of the government, by whose authority it was suppressed.[71]
The successor of Slater was Joseph G. Wilson,[72] who died at the summer recess of congress in 1873. A special election chose J. W. Nesmith to fill the vacancy, who, though a democratic leader, had eschewed some of the practices of his party, if not the love of office. His majority was nearly 2,000 over his opponent, Hiram Smith. He was in turn succeeded by George La Dow,[73] a man little known in the state, and who would not have received the nomination but for the course of the Oregonian in making a division in the republican ranks and running Richard Williams, while the regular party ran T. W. Davenport. The vacancy caused by the death of La Dow was filled by La Fayette Lane, specially elected October 25, 1875. At the next regular election, in 1876, Richard Williams[74] received a majority of votes for representative to congress, serving from March 1877 to March 1879. He was succeeded by ex-Governor John Whiteaker, democrat, and he by M. C. George, republican, who has been returned the second time.
In 1878 the republicans again lost their choice for governor by division, and C. C. Beekman was defeated by W. W. Thayer,[75] who was followed by Z. F. Moody[76] in 1882. The U. S. senator elected in 1882, after a severe and prolonged contest between the friends of J. H. Mitchell and the democracy, uniting with the independents, was Joseph N. Dolph,[77] Mitchell's former partner and friend.
The time has not yet come, though it is close at hand, when Oregon-born men shall fill the offices of state, and represent their country in the halls of the national legislature. Then the product of the civilization founded by their sires in the remotest section of the national territory will become apparent. Sectionalism, which troubled their fathers, will have disappeared with hostility to British influences. Homogeneity and harmony will have replaced the feuds of the formative period of the state's existence. A higher degree of education will have led to a purer conception of public duty. Home-bred men will repel adventurers from other states, who have at heart no interests but their individual benefits.
When that period of progress shall have been reached, if Oregon shall be found able to withstand the temptations of too great wealth in her morals, arid the oppressiveness of large foreign monopolies in her business, she will be able fully to realize the most sanguine expectations of those men of destiny, the Oregon Pioneers.
CHURCHES AND CHURCH SCHOOLS.
The early history of the Methodist Church is the history of the first American colonization, and has been fully given in a former volume; but a sketch of the Oregon methodist episcopal church proper must begin at a later date. From 1844 to 1853 the principal business transactions of the church were at the yearly meetings, without any particular authority from any conference.
On the 5th of September, 1849, the Oregon and California Mission Conference was organized in the chapel of the Oregon Institute, Salem, by authority of the general conference of 1848, by instructions from Bishop Waugh, and under the superintendence of William Roberts. The superintendents of the Oregon Mission were, first, Jason Lee, 1834–1844; George Gary, 1844–1847; William Roberts, 1847–1849, when the Mission Conference succeeded the Oregon Mission, under Roberts. The mission conference included New Mexico, and possessed all the rights and privileges of other similar bodies, except those of sending delegates to the general conference and drawing annual dividends from the avails of the book-concerns and chartered funds. Four sessions were held, the first three in Salem, and the fourth at Portland. Under the mission conference the following ministers were appointed to preach in Oregon: in 1849–50, W. Roberts, David Leslie, A. F. Waller. J. H. Wilbur, J. L. Parrish, William Helm, J. O. Raynor, J. McKinney, C. O. Hosford, and J. E. Parrott; in 1850–1, I. McElroy, F. S. Hoyt, and N. Doane were added; in 1851–2, L. T. Woodward, J. S. Smith, J. Flinn, and J. W. Miller; in 1852–3, Isaac Dillon, C. S. Kingsley, P. G. Buchanan, and T. H. Pearue--never more than fourteen being in the field at the same time.
In March 1853 Bishop E. R. Ames arrived in Oregon, and on the 17th the Oregon Annual Conference was organized, including all of Oregon and Washington, which held its first session at Salem, and gave appointments to twenty-two ministers, including all of the above-named except Leslie, Parrish, Helm, McElroy, McKinney, and Parrott, and adding G. Hines, H. K. Hines, T. F. Royal, G. M. Berry, E. Garrison, B. Close, and W. B. Morse. Since 1853 there have been from thirty-three to seventy-four preachers annually furnished appointments by the conference. In 1873 the conference was divided, and Washington and eastern Oregon set off, several of the pioneer ministers being transferred to the new conference. According to a sketch of church history by Roberts, there were, in 1876, 3,249 church members, and 683 on probation; 74 local preachers; 60 churches, valued at $167,750; parsonages valued at $29,850; Sunday-schools, 78; pupils, 4,469; teachers, 627; books in Sunday-school libraries, 7,678, besides periodicals taken for the use of children. The first protestant church edifice erected on the Pacific coast, from Cape Horn to Bering Strait, was the methodist church at Oregon City, begun in 1842 by Waller, and completed in 1844 by Hines. Abernethy added a bell in 1851, weighing over 500 pounds, the largest then in the territory. He also purchased two smaller ones for the churches in Salem and Portland, and one for the Clackamas academy at Oregon City. Or. Statesman, July 4, 1851. These were not the first bells in Oregon, the catholics having one at Champoeg, if not others. Religious services were held in Salem as early as 1841, at the Oregon Institute chapel, which served until the erection of a church, which was dedicated. January 23, 1853, and was at this time the best protestant house in Oregon. Home Missionary, xxvi. 115–6. About 1871 a brick edifice, costing 35,000, was completed to take the place of this one. A methodist church was also erected at South Salem.
The methodist church of Portland was organized in 1848, a church building was begun by Wilbur in 1850, and the first methodist episcopal church of Portland incorporated January 26, 1853. The original edifice was a plain but roomy frame building, with its gable fronting on Taylor Street, near Third. A reincorporation took place in 1867, and in 1869 a brick church, costing $35,000, was completed on the corner of Third and Taylor streets, fronting on Third. A second edifice was erected on Hall Street. During the year 1884, a new society, an offshoot from the Taylor-Street church, was organized under the name of the Grace Methodist Episcopal Church, taking with it $40,000 worth of the property of the former. The methodist church at The Dalles was built in 1862 by J. F. Devore, at a time when mining enterprises were beginning to develop the eastern portion of the state.
The methodists have been foremost in propagating their principles by means of schools, as the history of the Willamette University illustrates. In new communities these means seem to be necessary to give coherence to effort, and have proved beneficial. Willamette University, which absorbed the Oregon Institute, was incorporated January 12, 1853. It opened with two departments, a preparatory, or academic, and a collegiate course, and but few pupils took more than the academic course for many years. It had later six departments, thirteen professors and tutors, and four academies which fed the university. The departments were college of liberal arts, medical college, woman's college, conservatory of music, university academy, and correlated academies. College Journal, June 1882. The correlated academies were those of Wilbur, Sheridan, Santiam, and Dallas. The medical college, one of the six departments of the university, was by the unanimous vote of the faculty removed to Portland in 1877.
The Clackamas seminary for young ladies, established at Oregon City in 1851, was the combined effort of the methodists and congregationalists, and prospered for a time, but as a seminary has long been extinct; $11,000 were raised to found it, and John McLoughlin gave a block of land. Harvey Clark was the first teacher, after which Mrs Thornton and Mr and Mrs H. K. Hines taught in it. Or. Spectator, June 6, 1851; Or. Argus, Nov. 10, 1855. Santiam and Umpqua academies were established about 1854. La Creole Academic Institute, at Dallas, was incorporated in 1856. The incorporators were Frederick Waymire, William P. Lewis, John El Lyle, Horace Lyman, Reuben P. Boise, Thomas J. Lovelady, Nicholas Lee, James Frederick, and A. W. Swaney. Or. Laws, 1860, 93. The act provided that at no time should a majority of the trustees be of one religious denomination. The academy is nevertheless at present one of the branches of the Willamette University. Philomath college, a few miles from Corvallis, is also controlled by a board of trustees elected by the annual conference. This college has an endowment of over $16,000 and a small general fund. The buildings are chiefly of brick, and cost $15,000.
The Portland academy was opened in 1852 by C. S. Kingsley and wife, who managed it for several years, and after them others. The property was worth, in 1876, $20,000, but the usefulness of the school, which had no endowment, had passed, and it has since suspended. Hines' Or., 105–6; Olympia Columbian, Sept. 18, 1852; Pub. Instruc. Rept, in Or. Mess. and Doc., 1876, 146. Corvallis college was founded by the methodist church south, in 1865, and incorporated August 22, 1868, since which time it has had control of the state agricultural college, as stated in another place; 150 students were enrolled in 1878. The Ashland college and normal school, organized in 1878 from the Ashland academy, is also under the management of the conference.
The Catholic Church, next in point of time, had a rude church at Champoeg on their first entrance into the Willamette valley in the winter of 1839-40. In February 1846 a plain wooden church was dedicated at Oregon City, and in November St Paul's brick church was consecrated at Champoeg. In the autumn of 1851 a church was begun in Portland, which was dedicated in February 1852 by Archbishop Blanchet. In 1854 this building was removed to Stark Street, near Third, and ten years later had wings added for library and other uses, being reconsecrated in 1864. In 1871 the building was again enlarged, and used until 1878, when it was removed to make room for St Mary's cathedral, a fine brick structure costing $60.000, the corner-stone of which was laid in August of that year. Portland Daily Bee, May 16, 1878; Portland Oregonian, Aug. 24, 1878; Portland Herald, Feb. 9, 1873.
There is also in Portland the chapel of St Mary attached to the convent of the sisters of the most holy names of Jesus and Mary, between Mill and Market streets. The sisters have a day and boarding school, ordinarily attended by 150 pupils. St Joseph's day-school for boys, near the church, had an aver age attendance in 1868 of 75. St Michael's college, for the higher education of young men, is a later institution, and well supported. The church of St John the Evangelist, at the corner of Chamekata and College streets, Salem, was dedicated April 10, 1864. Forty or fifty families attend services here, and a large number of children receive instruction in the Sunday-school. The academy of the Sacred Heart, under the care of the sisters, a substantial brick structure, is a boarding and day school where eighty girls are taught the useful and ornamental branches. This institution was dedicated in 1863, but the present edifice was not occupied till 1873. There is also a catholic church, and the academy of Mary Immaculate at The Dalles, located on Third Street; St Mary's academy at Jacksonville, Notre Dame academy at Baker City, Mater Dolorosa mission at Grande Ronde reservation, and St Joseph's hall, a female orphan asylum, at Portland.
The oldest Congregational Church in Oregon is that of Oregon City, organized in 1844 by Harvey Clark, independent missionary, who also set on foot educational matters, and organized a church at Forest Grove. See Atkinson's Cong. Church, 1-3, a centennial review of Congregationalism in Oregon. The American home missionary society about this time projected a mission to Oregon, and in 1847 sent George H. Atkinson and wife to labor in this field. They settled in Oregon City in June 1848, at the time the discovery of gold in California nearly depopulated that place. Atkinson, Eells, and Clark proceeded to form, with other congregationalists, the Oregon Association, which held its first meeting at Oregon City September 20th, and appointed, together with the presbyterian ministers, trustees for the Tualatin academy. Home Missionary, xxii. 43, 63. In November 1849 arrived Horace Lyman and wife, also sent out by the home missionary society in 1847, but who had lingered and taught for one year in San Jose, California. Lyman settled at Portland, where he began to build up a church. There were at Oregon City in 1840 but eight members, but they undertook to build a plain meeting-house, 24 by 40 feet, ceiled, and without belfry or steeple, the cost of which was $3,550.
Atkinson preached at Portland first in June 1849, in a log-house used as a shingle-factory. The congregation was attentive, and the citizens subscribed 2,000 to erect a school-house, which was to be at the service of all denominations for religious services. It was arranged that the congregational ministers should preach there once in two weeks. At the second meeting, in July, Captain Wood of the U. S. steamer Massachusetts was present, to the delight of the minister as well as the people. When Lyman arrived he began teaching and preaching in the school-house. Portland Oregonian, May 24, 1864; Lyman, in Pac. Christian Advocate, 1865. As there was then no church to organize in Portland, and as his salary was only $500--the rent of a dwelling being quite all of that--he was compelled to solicit aid. The town proprietors offered a lot. In the forest, on the rising ground at the south end of Second Street, Lyman made his selection, and $5,000 were subscribed, and the building, 32 by 48 feet, was begun. Lyman worked with his own hands in clearing the ground for his house and the church, and making shingles for the former, falling ill from his unwonted exertions and the malaria of the newly exposed earth. But the citizens of Portland came kindly to his assistance; he was nursed back to health; the house and church were completed, chiefly by their aid, and on the 15th of June, 1851, the First Congregational Church of Portland was organized, with ten members, and the church edifice dedicated. This building had a belfry and small spire, and cost $6,400, seating some 400 persons. See Lyman, in Cong. Asso. Or. Annual Meeting, 1876, 35, a quarter-centennial review, containing a complete history of the First Congregational Church of Portland; also Home Missionary, xxiv. 137-8.
The membership of the other churches amounted to 50 at this time; 25 at Tualatin plains, 14 at Oregon City, three at Milwaukee, and eight at Calapooya, where a church was organized by H. H. Spalding; but congregations and Sunday-schools were sustained at a few other points.
In January 1852 the Oregon Association held its third annual meeting, five ministers being present. It was resolved that Atkinson should visit the eastern states to solicit aid for the educational work of the church, particularly of the Tualatin academy and Pacific university, and also that other parts of Oregon should be pointed out to the home missionary society as fields for missionaries. The result, in addition to the money raised, was the appointment of Thomas J. Condon and Obed Dickinson missionaries to Oregon, the former to St Helen, and the latter to Salem, where a church of four members had been organized. They arrived in March 1853, by the bark Trade Wind, from New York. Their advent led to the organization of two more of what may properly be styled pioneer churches.
Soon after the arrival of Dickinson, W. H. Willson of Salem offered two town lots. About half the sum required for a building was raised, while the church held its meetings in a school-house; but this being too small for the congregation, a building was purchased and fitted up for church services, in September 1854. It was not till 1863 that the present edifice, a modest frame structure, was completed and dedicated. Dickinson continued in the pastor ate till 1867, when he resigned, and was succeeded by P. S. Knight. Condon went first to St Helen, where the town proprietor had erected a school-house and church in one, surmounted by a belfry with a good bell, and a small spire. This building, which is still standing, was not consecrated to the use of any denomination, but was free to all, and so remained. In 1854 Condon was appointed to Forest Grove. They were not able to build here till August 1859, when a church was erected, costing some $9,000. Or. Statesman, Aug. 30, 1859. Near the close of 1853 Milton B. Starr, who had preached for several years in the western states, came to Albany, Oregon, and organized a church. The following spring Lyman waft sent to Dallas to preach, and Portland was left without a pastor. In 1859 Condon organized a church at The Dalles, building in 1862. He remained at The Dalles for many years, leaving there finally to go to Forest Grove, where his attainments in natural science were in demand. On the opening of the state university he accepted a professor ship in that institution. Atkinson was settled as pastor of the church in Portland in 1863, where he continued-some ten years, when, his health failing, he went north to establish congregations. During his pastorate a new church edifice was erected on the ground selected in 1850; and more recently Ply mouth church on Fourteenth and E streets. The organized congregational churches reported down to 1878 were nine: Albany, Astoria, Dalles, Forest Grove, Hillsboro, Oregon City, Portland, East Portland, and Salem. Cong. Abgo. Minutes, 1878, 51. Plymouth church was a later organization.
Pacific university, founded by congregationalists, was non-sectarian. It had $50,000 in grounds and buildings, $4,000 in cabinet and apparatus, $83,000 in productive funds, and a library containing 5,000 volumes.
The first minister of the Presbyterian denomination in Oregon was Lewis Thompson, a native of Kentucky, and an alumnus of Princeton theological seminary, who came to the Pacific coast in 1846 and settled on the Clatsop plains. Wood's Pioneer Work, 27. There is a centennial history of the presbytery of Oregon, by Edward R. Geary, in Portland Pac. Christian Advocate, July 27, 1876. On the 19th of September, 1846, Thompson preached a sermon at the house of W. H. Gray, albeit there were none to hear him except a ruling elder from Missouri, Alva Condit, his wife Ruth Condit, and Gray and his wife. Truman P. Powers of Astoria was the first ordained elder of the presbyterian church on the Pacific coast. He came to Oregon in 1846. In October Thompson was joined by a young minister from Ohio, Robert Robe, and on the 19th of November they, together with E. R. Geary of Lafayette, at the residence of the latter, formed the presbytery of Oregon, as directed by the General Assembly at its session in that year.
In 1853 there were five presbyterian ministers in Oregon, the three above-mentioned, J. L. Yantis, and J. A. Hanna. The latter had settled at Marysville (now Corvallis) in 1852 and organized a church, while Yantis had but recently arrived. A meeting of the presbytery being called at Portland in October, Hanna and Yantis became members, and it was determined to organize a church in that place, of which Yantis was to have charge, together with one he had already formed at Calapooya. This was accordingly done; and through the stormy winter the resolute preacher held service twice a month in Portland, riding eighty miles through mud and rain to keep his appointments, until an attack of ophthalmia rendered it impracticable, and George F. Whitworth, recently arrived with the design of settling on Puget Sound, was placed temporarily in charge of the church in Portland. On his removal to Washington the society became disorganized, and finally extinct.
Meantime Thompson had built a small church at Clatsop, and was pursuing his not very smooth way in that foggy, sandy region, where he labored faith fully for twenty-two years before he finally removed to California. Robe organized a church at Eugene City in 1855, remaining there in the ministry till 1863, during which time a building was erected. Geary, who had undertaken a boarding-school, became involved in pecuniary embarrassment, and was compelled to take a clerkship under Palmer in the Indian department; but being discharged for seeming to covet the office of his employer, he took charge of the Calapooya church, and organized that of Brownsville, where he fixed his residence, and where a church building was erected by the members. A charter was procured from the legislature of 1857-8 for the Corvallis college, which would have been under the patronage of the presbyterians had it reached a point where such patronage could be claimed. There is nothing to show that it was ever organized.
An effort was made about the beginning of 1860 to revive the presbyterian church in Portland. McGill of the Princeton seminary, being appealed to, procured the cooperation of the Board of Domestic Missions, and P. S. Caffrey was commissioned to the work. He preached his first sermon in the courthouse June 15, 1860. On the 3d of August the first presbyterian church of Portland was reorganized by Lewis Thompson of Clatsop, with seventeen members, and regular services held in a room on the corner of Third and Madison streets. Caffrey's ministrations were successful; and in 1863 the corner-stone of a church edifice was laid on Third and Washington streets, which was finished the following year, at a cost of $20,000. Geary's Or, Presbytery, 2; Portland Herald, Jan. 26, 1873; Deady's Scrap- Book, 43, 85. When in 1869 Caffrey resigned his charge to Lindsley, there was a membership of 103, and the finances of the church were in good condition. In 1882 the church divided, arid a new edifice was erected, costing $25,000, at the north-east corner of Clay and Ninth streets, called Calvary Presbyterian Church, with E. Trumrell Lee first pastor. The church edifice at Corvallis was begun in 1860 and completed in 1864, at a cost of $6,000, Hanna contributing freely of his own means. Richard Wylie, assigned by the board of missions to this place in the latter year, was the first pastor regularly installed in this church. Richard Wylie was one of three sons of James Wylie, who graduated together at Princeton. In 1865 the father and James and John, Richard s brothers, came to the Pacific coast, James accepting a pastorate in San Jose, California, and John being assigned to the church in Eugene City. James Wylie, sen., was examined for the ministry by the Oregon presbytery, licensed to preach, and finally ordained for the full ministry. Geary's Or. Presbytery, 2.
In 1866 the presbytery consisted of the ministers above named, with the addition of W- J. Monteith, Anthony Simpson, and J. S. Reasouer, the former assigned to Albany, and Simpson to Olympia, which by the lapse of the Puget Sound presbytery, erected in 1858, came again under the care of Oregon. A church was organized at Albany by Monteith, and a private classical school opened, which grew into the Albany collegiate institute under the care of the presbytery, a tract of live acres being donated by Thomas Monteith, one of the town owners, and brother of W. J. Monteith. The citizens erected a substantial building, and in spite of some drawbacks, the institution grew in reputation and means. Reasoner was not called upon to labor for the church, being advanced in years and a farmer. In 1868 H. H. Spalding, whom the congregational association had advised to accept an Indian agency, became a member of the presbytery, but he was not given charge of a church, being broken in mind and body by the tragedy of Waiilatpu. His death occurred at Lapwai, where he was again acting as missionary to the Nez Perces, August 3, 1874, at the age of 73 years. The first presbyterian church of Salem was organized May 20, 1869, with sixteen members. Their church edifice was erected in 1871, at a cost of $6,000. Within the last ten years churches have been organized and houses of worship erected in Roseburg, Jacksonville, and Marshfield in southern Oregon.
All that has been said above of presbyterians relates to the old-school division of that church. There were in Oregon, however, others, under the names of Cumberland presbyterians, associate presbyterians, and associate reformed. In 1851 James P. Millar, of Albany, N. Y. , arrived in Oregon as a missionary of one of these latter societies; but finding here 200 members and half a dozen ministers of the two societies, he entered into a scheme to unite them in one, to be known as the United Presbyterian church of Oregon, constituting one presbytery, and being independent of any allegiance to any ecclesiastical control out of Oregon. The men who formed this church were James P. Millar, Thomas S. Kendall, Samuel G. Irvine, Wilson Blain, James Worth, J. M. Dick, and Stephen D. Gager. Or. Statesman, Dec. 18, 1852. In 1858 they founded the Albany academy, with Thomas Kendall, Delazon Smith, Dennis Beach, Edward Geary, Walter Monteith, J. P. Tate, John Smith, James H. Foster, and R. H. Crawford trustees. This school was superseded by the Albany institute in 1867. Or. Laws, Special, 1857-8, 9-10; Mess. and Docs, Pub. Instruction, 1878, 81-2. A college, known as the Sublimity, was created by legislative act in January 1858, to be controlled by the United Brethren in Christ; but whether this was a school of the united presbyterians I am unable to determine.
The pioneer of the Cumberland presbyterians was J. A. Cornwall of Arkansas, who came to Oregon in 1846 by the southern route, as the reader may remember. Cornwall was the only ordained minister until 1851, when two others, Neill Johnson of Illinois, and Joseph Robertson of Tennessee, arrived. By order of the Missouri synod, these ministers met in 1847, at the house of Samuel Allen in Marion county, and formed the Oregon presbytery of the Cumberland presbyterian church, W. A. Sweeney, another minister, being present. Five ruling elders, who had partially organized congregations, were admitted to seats in the presbytery, as follows: John Purvine from Abiqua, Joseph Carmack from La Creole, Jesse C. Henderson from Yamhill, David Allen from Tualatin, and D. M. Keen from Santiam. There were at this time four licentiates in the territory; namely, B. F. Music, John Dillard, William Jolly, and Luther White. The whole number of members in communion was 103.
There was no missionary society to aid them, the ministers being supported by voluntary offerings. But in the spring of 1853 an effort was made to raise funds to found a college under their patronage, and in the following year a building was erected at Eugene City, costing 4,000, with an endowment fund amounting to $20,000. The school was opened in November 1856, under the presidency of E. P. Henderson, a graduate of Waynesville college, Pennsylvania, with fifty-two students. Four days after this auspicious inauguration the college building was destroyed by an incendiary fire. Not to be defeated, however, another house was procured and the school continued, while a second building was erected at a cost of $3,000, the second session doubling the number of students. The attendance increased to 150 in 1857, but again, on the night of the 26th of February, 1858, the college was burned. A stone building was then begun, and the walls soon raised. Before it was completed a division took place on the issue of bible-reading and prayer in the school, and those opposed to these observances withdrew their aid, and the unfinished building was sold by the sheriff to satisfy the mechanics. I find among the Oregon Special Laws of 1857-8 an act incorporating the Union University Association, section 4 of which provides that the utmost care shall be taken to avoid every species of preference for any sect or party, either religious or political. This was probably the form of protest against sectarian teaching which destroyed the prospects of the Cumberland school. Henderson, after a couple of sessions in a rented house, seeing no hope for the future, closed his connection with the school, which was suspended soon after, and never revived.
About 1875 W. R. Bishop of Brownsville completed a commodious school building as an individual enterprise, and established a school under the name of Principia Academy, with a chapel attached. In 1861 the Oregon Cumberland presbytery was divided, by order of the Sacramento synod to which it belonged, and all of Oregon south of Calapooya Creek on the east side of the Willamette River, and all south of La Creole River on the west side of the Willamette, was detached and made to form the Willamette presbytery, while all north of that retained its former name. In 1874 the Oregon presbytery was again divided, that part east of the Cascade Mountains and all of Washington being set off and called the Cascade presbytery, with four ordained ministers, the Oregon presbytery having begun its operations in the Walla Walla Valley in 1871, when A. W. Sweeney organized a church at Waitsburg with eighteen members, since which time several others have been formed, and churches erected. By order of the general assembly of the Cumberland in May 1375, the Oregon synod was constituted, composed of these three presbyteries, which have in communion 700 members, and own thirteen houses of worship, worth $19,000. See centennial sketch by Neill Johnson, in Portland Pac. Christian Advocate, May 4, 1876.
Among the early immigrants to Oregon were many Baptists, this denomination being numerous in the western and south-western states. As early as 1848 a society was organized and a church building erected at Oregon City. Other churches soon followed, Portland having an organized society in 1855, although not in a flourishing state financially. It was not until June 1860 that a missionary, Samuel Cornelius of Indianapolis, arrived, appointed by the American Baptist Home Mission, to labor in Portland. His introductory sermon was preached in the methodist church on the first Sunday in July, but a public hall was soon secured, and the organization of the Frst Baptist Church of Portland took place on the 12th of August, with twelve members; namely, Samuel Cornelius and wife, Josiah Failing and wife, Douglas W. Williams, Elizabeth Failing, Joshua Shaw and wife, R. Weston and wife, and George Shriver and wife. First Baptist Church Manual, 1. This small body made a call on Cornelius to become their pastor, which was accepted, and on him and the two deacons, Williams and Failing, devolved the task of building a house of worship. A half-block of land on the corner of Fourth and Alder streets had been donated for the site of a baptist church by Stephen Coffin several years before, and on this was begun a building, which was so far completed by January 5, 1862, that its basement was occupied for religious services. In September 1864 Cornelius returned to the east, leaving a membership of 49 persons, and the church was without a pastor for two years, during which the deacons sustained as best they could the burden of the society to prevent it from falling to pieces. Then came E. C. Anderson of Kalamazoo, Michigan, sent by the Home Mission Society to act as pastor, in December 1866. The church was incorporated in March 1867. Anderson continued in the pastorate five years, and increased the membership to seventy, the church edifice costing $12,500, being dedicated in January 1870. The incorporators were Josiah Failing, Joseph N. Dolph, W. S. Caldwell, John S. White, George C. Chandler, and W. Lair Hill. Again no one was found to supply the place of pastor for a year and a half, when A. R. Medbury of San Francisco accepted a call, and remained with this church three years, during which forty new members were added, and a parsonage was presented to the society by Henry Failing, since which time the church has been fairly prosperous. In 1861 the number of baptists in Oregon was 484, of churches 13, and ordained ministers 10.
The first baptist school attempted was Corvallis Institute, which seems not to have had any history beyond the act of incorporation in 1856-7. An act was also passed the following year establishing a baptist school under the name of West Union Institute, in Washington county, with David T. Lennox, Ed H. Lennox, Henry Sewell, William Mauzey, John S. White, and George C. Chandler as trustees. At the same session a charter was granted to the baptist college at McMinnville, a school already founded by the Disci ple or Christian church, and turned over to the baptists with the belongings, six acres of ground and a school building, as a free gift, upon condition that they should keep up a collegiate school. The origin of McMinnville and its college was as follows: In 1852-3, W. T. Newby cut a ditch from Baker Creek, a branch of the Yamhill River, to Cozine Creek, upon his land, where he erected a grist-mill. In 1854 S. C. Adams, who lived on his donation claim 4 miles north, took a grist to mill, and in the course of conversation with Newby remarked upon the favorable location for a town which his land presented, upon which Newby replied that if he, Adarrn, would start a town, he should have half a block of lots, and select his own location, from which point the survey should commence. In the spring of 1855 Adams deposited the lumber for his house on the spot selected, about 200 yards from the mill, and proceeded to erect his house, where, as soon as it was completed, he went to reside. Immediately after he began to agitate the subject of a high school as a nucleus for a settlement, and as he and most of the leading men in Yamhill were of the Christian church, it naturally became a Christian school. James McBride, William Dawson, W. T. Newby, and Adams worked up the matter, bearing the larger part of the expense. Newby gave six acres of land. The building erected for the school was large and commodious for those times. Adams, who was a teacher by profession, was urged to take charge of the school, and taught it for a year and a half. Among his pupils were John R. McBride, L. L. Rowland, J. C. Shelton, George L. Woods, and Wm D. Baker. But there had not been any organization, or any charter asked for, and Adams, who found it hard and unprofitable work to keep up the school alone, wished to resign, and proposed to the men interested to place it in the hands of the baptists, who were about founding the West Union Institute. To this they made no objection, as they only wished to have a school, and were not secta rian in feeling. Accordingly, Adams proposed the gift to the baptists, and it was accepted, only one condition being imposed, and agreed to in writing, to employ at least one professor in the college department continuously. It was incorporated in January 1858 as the baptist college at McMinnville, by Henry Warren, James M. Fulkerson, Ephriam Ford, Reuben C. Hill, J. S. Holman, Alexius N. Miller, Richard Miller, and Willis Gaines, trustees. The Washington county school was allowed to drop, and the McMinnville college was taken in charge by G. C. Chandler in the collegiate department, and Mrs N. Morse in the preparatory school. The incorporated institution received the gift of twenty acres of land for a college campus from Samuel and Mahala Cozine and Mrs P. W. Chandler. It owned in 1882 three thou sand dollars in outside lands, a building fund of twenty-one thousand dollars, and an endowment fund of over seventeen thousand, besides the apparatus and library. From addresses by J. N. Dolph and W. C. Johnson in McMinville College and Catalogue, 1882. A new and handsome edifice has been erected, whose corner-stone was laid in 1882. The Beacon, a monthly denominational journal, was published at Salem as the organ of the baptists.
Several attempts were made to have colleges free from sectarian influence, which rarely succeeded. The Jefferson institute, incorporated in January 1857, and located at Jefferson, is an exception. This school is independent, and has been running since its founding in 1856-7. Any person may become a member by paying $50 into the endowment fund, which amounts to about $4,000. The board consists of fifteen trustees, five of whom are annually elected by the members. Three directors are elected by the board from their own number, who have the general management of school affairs. The first board of trustees were Geo. H. Williams, J. H. Harrison. Jacob Conser, E. E. Parrish, W. F. West. T. Small, H. A. Johnson, C. A. Reed, N. R. Doty, J. B. Terhune, J. S. Miller, James Johnson, L. Pettyjohn, Manuel Gonzalez, and Andrew Cox. Mrs Conser gave a tract of land in eight town lots. The building cost $3,000. C. H. Mattoon was the first teacher, in 1857. Portland Pac. Advocate, Feb. 24 and March 2, 1876; Rept of Supt Pub. Instruc., 1878, 91-2. The number of pupils in 1884 was about one hundred. The curriculum does not embrace a college course, but only the preparatory studies. The Butteville Institute, established by legislative act in January 1859, was an independent school, which, if ever successful, is now out of existence.
The pioneer of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Oregon was St M. Fackler, who crossed the plains with the immigration of 1847 in search of health, of whom I have spoken in another place. He found a few members of this church in Oregon City, and held occasional services in 1848 at the house of A. McKinlay, but without attempting to organize a church. The first missionary of the episcopal church in the east was William Richmond of the diocese of New York, appointed by the Board of Domestic Missions in April 1851 to labor in Oregon, and who organized congregations at Portland, Oregon City, Milwaukee, Salem, Lafayette, and other places before the close of that year, adding Champoeg, Chehalem, and Tualatin plains the following year. In the fall of 1852 he was joined by James A. Woodward of the diocese of Pennsylvania, who like Fackler had made the overland journey to better his physical condition, and had succeeded, which Fackler did not. After the arrival of Woodward, services were held in the congregational church at Oregon City until a room was fitted up for the purpose.
In January 1853 John McCarty of New York diocese arrived as army chaplain at Vancouver. At this time there were about twenty members in Port land who formed Trinity Church organization. At the meeting of the general convention held in New York in October 1853, Thomas Fielding Scott of the diocese of Georgia was elected missionary bishop of Oregon and Washington, but before his arrival Richmond and Woodward had returned to the east, leaving only Fackler and McCarty as aids to the bishop. Two church edifices had already been erected, the first, St John's at Milwaukee, the second, Trinity at Portland. The latter was consecrated September 24th, about three months after the arrival of Scott. In 1855 the church at Milwaukee and another at Salem were consecrated, but without any increase of the clerical force until late in this year, when Johnston McCormack, a deacon, arrived, who was stationed temporarily at Portland. In 1856 arrived John Sellwood and his brother, James R. W. Sellwood; but having been wounded in the Panama riot of that year, John was not able for some months to enter upon his duties. His brother, however, took charge of the church at Salem. The first episcopal school for boys was opened this year at Oswego, under the management of Bernard Cornelius, who had recently taught in Olympia, and was a graduate of Dublin university. Seventy acres of land, and a large dwelling-house, pleasantly situated, were purchased for this purpose. James I. Daly was ordained deacon in May, giving a slight increase to the few workers in the field. St Mary's church at Eugene City was consecrated in January 1859 by Bishop Scott; and there arrived, also, this year five clergymen, Carlton P. Maples, T. A. Hyland, D. E. Willes, W. T. B. Jackson and P. E. Hyland. Two of them returned east, and one, P. E. Hyland, went to Olympia. T. A. Hyland married a daughter of Stearns of Douglas county. He was for many years a pastor and teacher at Astoria, but returned to Canada afterward. St Paul's chapel at Oregon City was dedicated in the spring of 1861; and in the autumn Scott opened a girls school at Milwaukee, which was successful from the first. The Oregon Churchman, a small monthly publication in the interests of the church, was first issued this year.
The episcopal church was making steady advances when in 1867 Bishop Scott died, universally lamented. Over 200 persons had been confirmed, not all of whom remained steadfast during an interval of two years when the diocese was without a head. A fresh impetus was imparted to the life of the church when a new missionary bisliop, B. Wistar Morris, arrived in Oregon, in June 1869. A block of land was purchased in Portland, on Fourth Street, between Madison and Jefferson, and St Helen Hall built. By the 6th of September it had fifty pupils. In the following year it was enlarged, and began its second year with 125 pupils. The Scott grammar and divinity school for boys was erected in 1870, on a tract of land in the western part of Couch s addition, commanding a fine view of Portland and the Willamette River. Both of these institutions were successful, the grammar school having to be enlarged in 1872. The building was burned in November 1877, but rebuilt larger than before, at a cost of 25,000. In the same year the congregation of trinity church erected a new edifice on the block occupied by the former one between Oak and Pine, but facing on Sixth Street, and costing over $30,000, the bishop being assisted by several clergymen. A church had been organized in Walla Walla by Wells, who extended his labors to several of the towns of eastern Oregon in 1873. In 1874 the bishop laid the corner-stones of five churches, and purchased four acres of land in the north-western quarter of Portland, on which was erected a hospital and orphanage, under the name of Good Samaritan, the energy of Morris and the liberality of the people of Portland placing the episcopal society in the foremost rank in point of educational and charitable institutions. When Scott entered upon his diocese, it included all of the original territory of Oregon, but occupied later only Oregon and Washington. In the latter, in 1876, there "were seven churches, one boarding-school for girls at Walla Walla one parish school, one rectory, and 157 communicants. Episcopal Church in Or., a history prepared for the centennial commissioners, 1876, Vancouver, 1876; Seattle Intelligence, Aug. 24, 1879.
Among the other religious denominations of Oregon were the Campbellites. Like the other churches, they knew the value of sectarian schools, and according to one of their elders, would have had one in every county had it been practicable. As I have before said, they founded the school at McMinnville, which became a baptist college, James McBride, William Dawson, and S. C. Adams erecting the first college building. Adams taught the school just previous to its transfer. A little later than the McMinnville school was the founding of the Bethel Academy in 1856. The promoters of this enterprise were Elder G. O. Burnett, Amos Harvey, Nathaniel Hudson, and others. In 1855 it was chartered by the legislature as the Bethel Institute. In October they advertised that they were ready to receive pupils, and also that students will be free to attend upon such religious services on each Lord s day as they may choose. The institute opened in November with fifty or sixty pupils in attendance, and we learn that Judge Williams addressed the people at a meeting of the trustees in February following. L. L. Rowland and N. Hudson were teaching in 1859, and in 1860 the act of incorporation was amended to read Bethel College. Or. Laws, 1860, 102-3. At this time the Bethel school was prosperous. It had a well-selected library, and choice apparatus in the scientific departments.
But Bethel had a rival in the same county. In 1855 measures were taken to found another institution of learning, the trustees chosen being Ira F. Butler, J. E. Murphy, R. P. Boise, J. B. Smith, S. Simmons, William Mason, T. H. Hutchison, H. Burford, T. H. Lucas, p. R. Lewis, and S. S. Whitman. This board organized with Butler for president, Hutchison secretary, and Lucas treasurer. A charter was granted them the same year, incorporating Monmouth University; 460 acres of land were donated, Whitman giving 200, T. H. Lucas 80, A. W. Lucas 20, and J. B. Smith and Elijah Davidson each 80. This land was laid out in a town site called Monmouth, and the lots sold to persons desiring to reside near the university. In the abundant charity of their hearts, and perhaps with a motive to popularize their institution, the trustees passed a resolution to establish a school for orphans in connection with the university; but this scheme being found to be impracticable, it was abandoned, and the money subscribed to the orphan school refunded.
Notwithstanding its ambitious title, the Monmouth school only served to divide the patronage which would have been a support for one only, and after ten years of unprofitable effort, it was resolved in convention by the Christian church to unite Bethel and Monmouth, under the name of Monmouth Christian College, which was done. The first session of this college is reckoned from October 1860 to June 1867. The necessity for an endowment led, in 1808, to the sale of forty scholarships at five hundred dollars each, by which assistance the institution became fairly prosperous. On the organization of the college, L. L. Rowland of Bethany college, Virginia, was made principal, with N. Hudson assistant. In 1869 a more complete organization took place, and T. F. Campbell, a native of Mississippi and graduate of Bethany college, Was placed at the head of the college as principal, being selected president the following year, a situation which he held for thirteen years with profit to the management. A substantial brick building was erected, a newspaper, the Monmouth Christian Messenger, published, and the catalogue showed 250 students. In 1882 Campbell resigned and returned to the east, leaving the college on as good a basis as any in the state, having graduated twenty-three students in the classical and forty-one in the scientific course. The college property is valued at twenty thousand dollars, and the endowment twenty-five thousand. The census of 1870 gives the number of Christian churches at twenty-six, and church edifices at sixteen. At a Christian cooperation convention held at Dallas in 1877, thirty-one societies were represented. Later a church was organized in Portland, and a building erected for religious services.
Baker City Academy, an incorporated institution, was opened in 1868, with F. H. Grubbe principal, assisted by his wife, Jason Lee s daughter. Grubbe subsequently took charge of The Dalles high school, his wife dying at that place in 1881. He "was succeeded in the Baker City academy by S. P. Barrett, and later by William Harrison. As the pioneer academy of eastern Oregon, it did a good work. The corner-stone of the Blue Mountain University at La Grande was laid in 1874. In 1878 it was in successful operation, with colleges of medicine, law, and theology promised at an early day. In addition to the preparatory and classical departments, there were two scientific courses of four years. The school was non-sectarian. G. E. Ackerman was first president. A good school was also established at Union, and the Independent Academy at The Dalles. The latter institution acquired possession of the stone building partially erected for a mint in 1869-70, but presented to the slate when the mint was abandoned, and by the state transferred to this school.
The First Unitarian Church of Portland, incorporated in 1865 by Thomas Frazier, E. D. Shattuck, and R. R. Thompson, was the first of that denomination in the state. Its first house of worship was located on the corner of Yamhill and Seventh streets, a plain building of wood, the lot costing 7,000, with free seats for 300 people. Its pastor, T. L. Eliot, drew to this modest temple goodly congregations; the society grew, and in 1878 was laid the corner-stone of the present church of Our Father, one of the most attractive edifices in the city, which was dedicated in 1879. Olympia Unitarian Advocate, Aug. 1878; Portland Oregonian, July 27, 1878, June 14, 1879. There is a small number of universalists in the state. They had a church at Coquille City, organized by Zenas Cook, missionary of this denomination. They erected a place of worship in 1878.
The Evangelical Lutherans organized a church at Portland in 1867, A. Myres, of the general synod, acting. A house of worship was erected in 1869, being the first lutheran church in Oregon. Through some mismanagement of the building committee, the church became involved in debt, and after several years of struggle against adverse circumstances, the building was sold by the sheriff in May 1875. Another lutheran church was organized in 1871, by A. E. Fridrichsen, from the Danes, Swedes, and Norwegians of Portland, and incorporated June 9, 1871, under the name of the Scandinavian Evangelical Lutheran Church of Portland. Being offered building ground in East Portland by James B. Stephens and wife, they built there, but services were also held in the basement of the first presbyterian church, where a discourse in the Swedish tongue was preached Sunday evenings. As there was considerable immigration from the Scandinavian and German countries, the lutheran church rapidly increased in Oregon and Washington. From centennial report by A. Emil Fridrichsen, in Portland Christian Advocate, May 11, 1876.
Portland had also a German church, an African Methodist Episcopal Zion church, two Jewish societies, Beth Israel with a synagogue at the corner of Fifth and Oak, and Ahavai Sholom with a synagogue on Sixth street, between Oak and Pine, and a Chinese temple on Second street, between Morrison and Adler streets.
The Seventh-Day Adventists had a church incorporated in September 1878, at Milton, Umatilla county, by J. C. Burch, W. Eussell, and W. J. Goodwin.
The First Society of Humanitarians of Astoria was incorporated in Janu ary 1878, by James Taylor, L. O. Fruit, and John A. Goss.
The Methodist G. Church South was organized at Wingville, Baker county, in 1878, Hiram Osborne, C. G. Chandler, and E. C. Perkins, trustees.
The Emanuel Church of the Evangelical Association of North America, of Albany, was incorporated July 22, 1878, by E. B. Purdom, F. Martin, and L. G. Allen.
There were Hebrew Congregations at Astoria and Albany. Or. Sec. State Rept, 1878, 112–20.
The latest available statistics, those of 1875, gave the number of religious organizations in Oregon, of all denominations, at 351, with 242 churches. 320 clergymen, 14,324 communicants, and 71,630 adherents. The assessed value of the church property was $654,000. During the years following there was a large increase in numbers and property. With respect to numbers, the different denominations rank as follows: Methodists, baptists, catholics, episcopalians, congregationalists, and other minor sects.
PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS.
That section of the organic act which conferred 1,280 acres of land upon every township for the support of public schools made a system of free edu cation obligator}^ upon the people, and one of the first acts of the legislature of 1849 was a law in consonance with this gift, providing for the appropriation of the interest of the money arising from the sale of school lands to the purposes of public insruction. The law, in a revised form, exists still. But the income of the school fund arising from sales of school land was not sufficient for the support of the common schools, and in 1853-4 the revised law provided for levying a tax in every county, of two mills on the dollar, and also that the county treasurer should set apart all moneys collected from fines for breach of any of the penal laws of the territory, in order to give immediate effect to the educational system. The legislature of 1854-5 made every school district a body corporate to assess and collect taxes for the support of the public schools for a certain portion of the year.
When Oregon became a state it was even more richly endowed with lands for educational purposes, and in its constitution generously set apart much of its dower for the same purpose. In 1876 the common-school fund amounted to over half a million dollars. For the school year of 1877-8 the interest on the school fund amounted to over $48,000. As the fund increases with the gradual sale of the school lands, it is expected that an amount will eventually be realized from the three million acres remaining which will meet the larger part of the expense of the public schools. In Portland, where the schools are more perfectly graded than elsewhere, the cost per year for each pupil has been about twenty-one dollars. The total value of public school property in the state in 1877–8 was nearly half a million dollars, comprising 752 schoolhouses and their furniture. The lowest average monthly salary in any county was thirty-five dollars, and the highest seventy-one. Biennial Rept Supt Pub. Instruc. Or., 1878, 26. The course of study in the common schools, which is divided into seven grades, preparatory to the high-school course, is more fully exemplified in Portland than elsewhere. The whole city is comprised in one district, with buildings at convenient distances and of ample size. The Central school was first opened in May 1858. It was built on a block of laud between Morrison and Yamhill and Sixth and Seventh streets, for which in 1856 f 1,000 was paid, and a wing of the main building erected, costing $3,000, the money being raised by taxation, according to the school law. The following year another $4,000 was raised and applied to the completion of the building; 111 pupils were present at the opening, the principal being L. L. Terwilliger, assisted by O. Connelly and Mrs Hensill. In 1872–3 the original structure was moved and added to, making a new and commodious house at a cost of over $30,000. In 1883, the block on which it stood being needed for a hotel, the building was moved to a temporary resting-place on the next block north. The second school building was erected in 1865, at the corner of Sixth and Harrison streets, eleven blocks south of the Central, at a cost of about ten thousand dollars. It was twice enlarged, in 1871 and 1877, at a total cost of nearly $21,000. The Harrison-Street school was opened in January 1866 by R. K. Warren, principal, assisted by Misses Tower, Stephens, and Kelly. In May 1879 it was nearly all destroyed by fire, but was rebuilt the same year at a cost of $18,000, and reopened in February 1880. The third school building erected in the district was called the North School, and was located between Tenth and Eleventh and C and D streets, in Couch's Addition. It was built in 1867, the block and house costing over seventeen thousand dollars. Two wings were added in 1877, with an additional expenditure of over four thousand. The first principal was G. S. Pershin, assisted by Misses May, Northrup, and Polk. The fourth, or Park School, was erected in 1878–9, on Park Street, at a cost of 42,000. The high school occupied the upper floor, and some grammar classes the lower. Each of these four schools had in 1883 a sealing capacity of some 650, while the attendance was about four hundred and seventy-live for each. Two fine school buildings have been added since 1G80, one in the north end of the city, called the Couch School, and one in the south end, named the Failing School, after two prominent pioneers of Portland. There was a high school, three stories and basement, of the most modern design, which cost $150,000.
The State University, which received an endowment from the general government of over 46,000 acres of land, has realized therefrom over $70,000, the interest on which furnishes a small part of the means required for its support, the remainder being derived from tuition fees. The institution passed through the same struggles that crippled private institutions.
After expending the money appropriated by congress in political squabbles, it was for a long time doubtful if a university would be founded within the generation tor whom it was intended, when Lane county came to the rescue in the following manner: The citizens of Eugene City resolved in 1872 to have an institution of learning of a higher grade than the common schools. An association was incorporated in August of that year, consisting of J. M. Thompson, J. J. Walton, Jr, W. J. J. Scott, B. F. Dorris, J. B. Underwood, J. J. Comstock, A. S. Patterson, S. H. Spencer, E. L. Bristow, E. L. Applegate, and A. W. Patterson, of Lane county, which was called the Union University Association, with a capital stock of $50,000, in shares of $100 each. During the discussions consequent upon the organization, a proposition was made and acted upon, to endeavor to have the state university located at Eugene. When half the stock was subscribed and directors elected, the matter was brought before the legislature, of which A. W. Patterson was a member. An act was passed establishing the state university in September 1872, upon the condition that the Union University Association should procure a suitable building site, and erect thereon a building which with the furniture and grounds should be worth not less than $50,000, the property to be deeded to the board of directors of the state university free of all incumbrances, which was done. The law provided that the boai d of state university directors should consist of six appointed by the governor, and three elected by the Union University Association. The governor appointed Matthew P. Deady, L. L. McArthur, K. S. Strahan, T. G. Hendricks, George Humphrey, and J. M. Thompson, the three elected being B. F. Dorris, W. J. J. Scott, and J. J. Walton, Jr. At the first meeting of the board, in April 1873, Deady was elected president.
The legislature gave substantial aid by appropriating $10,000 a year for 1877-8. Eighteen acres of land were secured in a good situation, and a building erected of brick, 80 by 57 feet, three stories in height, with porticoes, mansard roof, and a good modern arrangement of the interior; cost, $80,000.
It was necessary to provide for a preparatory department. The institution opened October 16, 1876, with 80 pupils in the collegiate and 75 in the preparatory departments; 43 in the collegiate department were non-paying, the university law allowing one free scholarship to each county, and one to each member of the legislature. Owing to the want of money, there was not a full board of professors; those who were first to organize a class for graduation had many difficulties to contend with. The first faculty consisted only of J. W, Johnson, president and professor of ancient classics, Mark Bailey, professor of mathematics, and Thomas Condon, professor of geology and natural history. The preparatory school was in charge of Mrs Mary P. Spiller, assisted by Miss Mary E. Stone. From these small beginnings was yet to grow the future university of the state of Oregon. In 1884 there were 7 regular professors, 2 tutors, 215 students, and 19 graduates. Regents' Rept, 1878, State University; Or, Mess. and Docs, 1876, 148–53; Deady's Hist. Or., MS., 55; Univer. Or. Catalogue, 1878, 18.
State institutions for the education of deaf, dumb, and blind persons remained backward. The deaf-and-dumb school at Salem was organized in 1870, with thirty-six pupils in attendance, in the building formerly occupied by the academy of the Sacred Heart, which was removed into a new one. The legislature provided by act of 1870 that not more than $2,000 per annum of public money should be expended on the instruction of deaf-mutes. The legislature of 1874 appropriated $10,000 for their maintenance, and the legislature of 1876, $12,000. The first appropriation for the blind was made in 1872, amounting to $2,000; in 1874, $10,000 was appropriated; in 1876, $8,000; and in 1878 a general appropriation of $10,000 was made, with no directions for its use, except that it was to pay for teachers and expenses of the deaf, dumb, and blind schools. In 1878 the institute for the blind was closed, and the few under instruction returned to their homes; it was reopened and closed again in 1884, waiting the action of the legislature. These institutions have no fund for their support, but depend upon biennial appropriations. Like all the other public schools, they were for a time under the management of the state board of education, but the legislature of 1880 organized the school for deaf-mutes by placing it under a board of directors. Or. Mess. and Docs, 1882, 32.
A protégé of the general government was the Indian school at Forest Grove, where a hundred picked pupils of Indian blood were educated at the nation s expense. The scheme was conceived by Captain C. M. Wilkinson of the 3d U. S. infantry, who procured several appropriations for the founding and conduct of the school, of which he was made first superintendent. The experiment began in 1880, and promised well, although the result can only be known when the pupils have entered actual life for themselves.
Of special schools, there were a few located at Portland, The homeopathic medical college, H. McKinnell, president, was a society rather than a school.
The Oregon school and college association of natural history, under the presidency of Thomas Condon, was more truly a branch at large of the state university. P. S. Knight, secretary, did much in Salem to develop a taste for studies in natural history, by example, lecturing, and teaching; while Condon, whose name was synonymous with a love of geological studies and other branches of natural science, did no less for The Dalles, Portland, Forest Grove, and Eugene. These with other friends of science formed an association for the cultivation and spread of the natural science branches of education, the seat of which was Portland.
The Oregon Medical College of Portland was formed by the union of the Multnomah County Medical Society and the medical department of the Willamette University. The former society was founded about the beginning of 1865, and the latter organized in 1867. Eighty-three doctors of medicine were graduated from the university in ten years. In 1877 it was determined to remove this branch of the university to Portland, where superior advantages might be enjoyed by the students, and in February 1873 the incorporation of the Oregon Medical College took place, the incorporators being R. Glisan, Philip Harvey, W. B. Cardwell, W. H. Watkins, R. G. Rex, O. P. S. Plummer, Matthew P. Deady, and W. H. Saylor.
LITERATURE.
It cannot be said that Oregon has a literature of its own. Few states have ever claimed this distinction, and none can properly do so before the men and women born on its soil and nurtured in its institutions have begun to send forth to the world the ideas evolved from the culture and observation obtained there. That there was rather more than a usual tendency to authorship among the early settlers and visitors to this portion of the Pacific coast is true only because of the great number of unusual circumstances attending the immigration, the length of the journey, the variety of scenery, and the political situation of the country, which gave them so much to write about that almost without intention they appeared as authors, writers of newspaper letters, pamphleteers, publishers of journals, petitioners to congress, and recorders of current events. It is to their industry in this respect that I am indebted for a large portion of my material. Besides these authors, all of whom have been mentioned, there remain a few sources of information to notice.
The Oregon Spectator has preserved some of the earliest poetry of the country, often without signature. Undoubtedly some of the best was written by transient persons, English officers and others, who, to while away the tedium of a frontier life, dallied with the muses, and wrote verses alternately to Mount Hood, to Mary, or to a Columbia River salmon. Mrs M. J. Bailey, George L. Curry, J. H. P. , and many noms de plume appear in the Spectator. Mount Hood was apostrophized frequently, and there appear verses addressed to the different immigrations of 1843, 1845, and 1846, all laudatory of Oregon, and encouraging to the new-comers. Lieutenant Drake of the Modeste wrote frequent effusions for the Spectator, most often addressed To Mary; and Henry N. Peers, another English officer, wrote The Adventures of a Columbia River Salmon, a production worth preserving on account of its descriptive as well as literary merit. It is found in Or. Spectator, Sept. 2, 1847; Clyman's Note-Book, MS., 9-10, refers to early Oregon poets.
In point of time, the first work of fiction written in Oregon was The Prairie Flower, by S. W. Moss of Oregon City. It was sent east to be published, and appeared with some slight alterations as one of a series of western stories by Emmerson Bennett of Cincinnati. One of its foremost characters was modelled after George W. Ebberts of Tualatin plains, or the Black Squire, as he was called among mountain men. Two of the women in the story were meant to resemble the wife and mother-in-law of Medorum Crawford. Moss's Pictures Or. City, MS., 18. The second novel was Captain Gray's Company, by Mrs A. S. Duniway, the incidents of which showed little imagination and a too literal observation of camp life in crossing the plains. Mrs Duniway did better work later, although her abilities lie rather with solid prose than fiction. Charles Applegate wrote and published some tales of western life, which he carefully concealed from those who might recognize them. The list of this class of authors is short. I do not know where to turn for another among the founders of Oregon literature. Every college and academy had its literary society, and often they published some small monthly or bi-monthly journal, the contributions to which may be classed with school exercises rather than with deliberate authorship.
Mrs Belle W. Cooke of Salem wrote some graceful poems, and published a small volume under the title of Tears and Victory. Mrs Cooke was mother of one of Oregon's native artists, Clyde Cooke, who studied in Europe, and inherited his talent from her. Samuel A. Clarke of Salem, author of Sounds by the Western Sea, and other poems, wrote out many local legends in verse, with a good deal of poetical feeling. See legend of the Cascades, in Harper's Magazine, xlviii., Feb. 1874, 313–19. H. C. Miller, better known as Joaquin Miller, became the most widely famous of all Oregon writers, and has said some good things in verse of the mountains and woods of his state. It is a pity lie had not evolved from his inner conscious ness some loftier human ideals than his fictitious characters. Of all his pictures of life, none is so fine as his tribute to the Oregon pioneers, under the title of Pioneers of the Pacific, which fits California as well.
Miller married a woman who as a lyrical poet was fully his equal; but while he went forth free from their brief wedded life to challenge the plaudits of the world, she sank beneath the blight of poverty, and the weight of woman's inability to grapple with the human throng which surges over and treads down those that faint by the way; therefore Minnie Myrtle Miller, still in the prime of her powers, passed to the silent land. Among the poets of the Willamette Valley, Samuel L. Simpson deserves a high rank, having written some of the finest lyrics contributed to local literature, though his style is uneven. A few local poems of merit have been written by Mrs F. F. Victor, who came to Oregon by way of San Francisco in 1865, and published several prose books relating to the country. It seems most natural that all authorship should be confined to topics concerning the country, its remoteness from literary centres and paucity of population making it unlikely that any thing of a general interest would succeed. This consideration also cramps all intellectual efforts except such as can be applied directly to the paying professions, such as teaching, medicine, and law, and restricts publication so that it does not fairly represent the culture of the people, which crops out only incidentally in public addresses, newspaper articles, occasionally a pamphlet and at long intervals a special book. I allude here to such publications as Mullan's Overland Guide, Drew's Owyhee Reconnaissance, Condon's Report on State Geology, Small's Oregon and her Resources, Dufur's Statistics of Oregon, Deady's Wallamet vs. Willamette, and numerous public addresses in pamphlet form, to contributions to the Oregon pioneer association's archives, Victor's All Over Oregon and Washington, Murphy's State Directory, Gilisan's Journal of Army Life, and a large number of descriptive publications in paper covers, besides monographs arid morceaux of every descripton.
The number of newspapers and periodicals published in Oregon in 1880, according to the tenth census, was 74, against 2 in 1850, 16 in 1860, and 35 in 1870. Of these, 7 were dailies, 59 weeklies, 6 monthlies, 1 semi-monthly, and 1 quarterly. A few only of these had any particular significance. The Astorian, founded in 1872 by D. C. Ireland, on account of its excellence as a commercial and marine journal, should be excepted. The Inland Empire of The Dalles is also deserving of mention for its excellence in disseminating useful information on all topics connected with the development of the country. The West Shore, a Portland monthly publication, founded in August 1875 by L. Samuels, grew from an eight-page journal to a magazine of from twenty to thirty quarto pages, chiefly local in character, and profusely illustrated with cuts representing the scenery and the architectural improvements of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, and British Columbia. The locality longest without a newspaper was Coos Bay, which, although settled early isolated by a lack of roads from the interior, and having considerable business, had no printing-press until October 1870, when the Monthly Guide was started at Empire City, a sheet of 4 pages about 6 by 4 inches in size. It ran until changed into the Coos Bay News in March 1873, when it was enlarged to 12 by 18 inches. In September of the same year it was removed to Marshfield and again enlarged.
PIONEER ASSOCIATION.
The Oregon Pioneer Society was organized October 8 and 9, 1867, at Salem, in the hall of the house of representatives, W. H. Gray being prime mover. The officers elected were J. W. Nesmith president, Matthew P. Deady vice-president, I. N. Gilbert treasurer, and Medorum Crawford secretary. Resolutions were offered to form committees to obtain facts concerning the immigration of 1843, and in reference to the civil and political condition of the country from its earliest settlement.
In the mean time W. H. Gray had founded the Oregon Pioneer and Historical Society, with its office at Astoria, which society made less of the social reunions and more of the collection of historical documents, and which held its first meeting in 1872. I have not been able to find a schedule of its first proceedings. Truman P. Powers, one of Oregon's most venerable pioneers, was its president in 1875. He has only recently died. It strikes one, in looking over the proceedings of that year, that less sectarianism would be conducive to a better quality of history material.
On the 18th of October, 1873, the original society reorganized as the Oregon Pioneer Association, with F. X. Mathieu president, J. W. Grim vice-president, W. H. Rees secretary, and Eli Cooley treasurer. It held its anniversaries and reunions on the 10th of June, this being the day on which the treaty of boundary between Great Britain and the United States was concluded. Addresses were annually delivered by men acquainted with pioneer life and history. Ex-governor Curry delivered the first annual address November 11, 1873, since which time, Deady, Nesmith, Strong, Rees, Holman, Boisé, Minto, Geer, Atkinson, Thornton, Evans, Applegate, Staats, ChadWick, Grover, and others have contributed to the archives of the society valuable addresses. A roll of the members is kept, with place of nativity and year of immigration, and all are eligible as members who came to Oregon while the territory was under the joint occupancy of the United States and Great Britain, or who were born or settled in the territory prior to January 1, 1854. Biographies form a feature of the archives. The association offered to join with the historical society in 1874, but the latter decided that any material change in its organic existence would defeat the prime object of the society, and they remained apart. The association is a popular institution, its reunions being occasions of social intercourse as well as historical reminiscences, and occasions for the display of the best talent in the state. The transactions of each annual meeting are published in a neat pamphlet for preservation. In 1877 the men and women who settled the Rogue River and other southern valleys, and whose isolation, Mining adventures, and Indian wars gave them a history of their own, hardly identical with but no less interesting than that of the settlers of the Willamette Valley, met at the picturesque village of Ashland and founded the Pioneer Society of Southern Oregon on the 13th of September of that year, about 800 persons being present. Its first officers were L. C. Duncan president, William Hoffman secretary, N. S. Hayden treasurer. E. L. Applegate delivered an address, in which he set forth the motives which animated, and the exploits which were performed by, the pioneers. Other addresses were made by Thomas Smith, E. K. Anderson, and John E.
Ross. The society in 1885 was in a prosperous condition. Portland Oregonian, Nov. 18, 1867; Portland Advocate, Sept. 14, 1867; Astoria Astorian, April 3, 1875; Sac. Record-Union, April 3, 1875; Portland Bulletin, Dec. 6, 1871; Portland Oregonian, March 9, 1872; Ashland Tidings, Sept. 28, 1877; Jacksonville Times, April 12, 1878. LIBRARIES.
The original State Library of Oregon, as the reader knows, was destroyed by fire in 1855. The later collection numbered in 1885 some 11,000 volumes, and was simply a law library, as there were few miscellaneous books. It contained no state historical documents or writings of local authors to speak of. The annual appropriation of 8750 was expended by the chief justice in purchasing books for the supreme court.
The Library Association of Portland had the largest miscellaneous collection in the state. It was founded in February 1864 by subscriptions from a few prominent men, amounting in all to a little over 2,500. At the end of the first year it had 500 volumes, and increased annually till in 1885 there were some 12,000 volumes. Although not large, this library was selected with more than ordinary care, the choice of books having been made principally by Judge Deady, to whose fostering care its continued growth may be principally ascribed, although the institution is scarcely less indebted to W. S. Ladd, for the free use of the elegant rooms over his bank for many years. The first board of directors was W. S. Ladd, B. Goldsmith, L. H. Wakefield, H. W. Corbett, E. D. Shattuck, C. H. Lewis, William Strong, W. S. Caldwell, P. C. Schuyler, Jr, and Charles Calef. The directors were divided into five classes by lot, the first class going out at the expiration of two years, the second in four years, and so on to the end, two new directors being elected biennially. The first officers of the association were W. S. Ladd, president; William Strong, vice-president; Bernard Goldsmith, treasurer; Henry Failing, corresponding secretary: W. S. Caldwell, recording secretary; H. W. Scott, W. B. Cardwell, and C. C. Strong, librarians. In 1872 the association employed Henry A. Oxer as librarian and recording secretary, whose qualifications for the duties materially assisted to popularize the institution. Judge Deady has been presiding officer for many years.
The Pacific University, State University, Willamette University, Monmouth University, McMinnville and other colleges and schools, and the catholic church of Portland, maintained libraries for the use of those under tuition, and there were many private collections in the state.
IMMIGRATION SOCIETY.
The first society for the promotion of immigration was formed in 1856, in New York, under the title of New York Committee of Pacific Emigration. S. P. Dewey and W, T. Coleman of San Francisco, and Amory Holbrook and and A. McKinlay of Oregon City, were present at the preliminary meeting at the Tontine House. An appeal was made to the people of Oregon to interest themselves in sustaining a board of immigration, and keeping an agent in New York in common with the California Emigration Society. Or. Statesman, Feb. 3, 1857. The matter, however, seems to have been neglected, nothing further being heard about immigration schemes until after the close of the civil war, and after the settlement of Idaho and Montana had intercepted the westward flow of population, reducing it to a minimum in the Willamette Valley and everywhere west of the Cascades. About 1868 the State Agricultural Society appointed A. J. Dufur, its former president, to compile and publish facts concerning the physical, geographical, and mineral resources of the state, and a description of its agricultural development, which he accordingly did in a pamphlet of over a hundred pages, which was distributed broad cast and placed in the way of travellers. Dufur's Or. Statistics, Salem, 1869.
In August 1869 a Board of Statistics, Immigration, and Labor Exchange was formed at Portland, with the object of promoting the increased settlement of the country, and furnishing immigrants with employment. The board consisted of ten men, who managed the business and employed such agents as they thought best, but the revenues were derived from private subscriptions. Ten thousand copies of pamphlets prepared by the society were distributed the first year of its existence, and the legislature was appealed to for help in furnishing funds to continue these operations, which were assisted by a subordinate society at Salem. Or. Legisl. Docs, 1870, 11, app. 1–11. In 1872 E. L. Applegate was appointed a commissioner of immigration by the legislature, with power to equip himself with maps, charts, and statistics in a manner properly to represent Oregon in the United States and Europe, and to counteract interested misrepresentations. Or. Laws, 1872, 38. The compensation for this service was left blank in the law, from which circumstance, and from the additional one that Applegate returned to Oregon in the spring of 1872 as a peace commissioner to the Modocs under pay, it is just to conclude that his salary as a commissioner of immigration was insufficient to the service, or that his services were inadequate to the needs of the country, or both.
At the following session in 1874 the State Board of Immigration was created, October 28th, the members of which were to be appointed by the governor to the number of five, who were to act without salary or other compensation, under rules of their own making. This act also authorized the governor to appoint honorary members in foreign countries, none of whom were to receive payment. Or. Laws, 1874, 113. The failure of the legislature to make an appropriation compelled the commissioners appointed by the governor to solicit subscriptions in Portland. Considerable money was collected from business firms, and an agent was sent to San Francisco. Upon recommendation of the state board, consisting of W. S. Ladd, H. W. Corbett, B. Goldsmith, A. Lienenweber and William Reid, the governor appointed twenty-four special agents, ten in the United States, ten in Europe, two in New Zealand, and two in Canada. The results were soon apparent. Nearly 6,000 letters of inquiry were received in the eighteen months ending in September 1876, and a perceptible movement to the north-west was begun. The eastern branch of the state board at Boston expended $24,000 in the period just mentioned for immigration purposes; half-rates were secured by passenger vessels and railway lines from European ports to Portland, by which means about 4,000 immigrants came out in 1875, and over 2,000 in 1876, while the immigration of the following year was nearly twelve thousand. Or. Mess, and Docs, 1876, 14, 10; Portland Board of Trade, 1877, 17.
On the 24th of January, 1877, the Oregon State Immigration Society organized under the private-corporations act of 1862, with a capital stock of $500,000, in shares of $5 each, the object being to promote immigration, collect and diffuse information, buy and sell real estate, and do a general agency business. The president of the incorporated society was A. J. Dufur, vice-president D. H. Stearns, secretary T. J. Matlock, treasurer L. P. W. Quimby. By-Laws Or. Emig. Soc., 16. An office was opened in Portland, and the society, chiefly through its president, performed considerable labor without any satisfactory pecuniary returns. But there was by this time a wide-spread interest wakened, which led to statisical and descriptive pamphlets, maps, and circulars by numerous authors, whose works were purchased and made use of by the Oregon and California and Northern Pacific railroad companies to settle their lands, and by other transportation companies to swell their passenger lists. The result of these efforts was to fill up the eastern portion of Oregon and Washington with an active population in a few years, and to materially increase the wealth of the state, both by addition to its producing capacity, and by a consequent rise in the value of lands in every part of it. The travel over the Northern Pacific, chiefly immigration, was large from the moment of its extension to the Rocky Mountains, and was in 1885 still on the increase.
RAILROADS.
In February 1853 the Oregon legislative assembly, stirred by the discussion in congress of a transcontinental railroad, passed a memorial in relation, to such a road from the Mississippi River to some point on the Pacific coast, this being the first legislative action with regard to railroads in Oregon after the organization of the territory, although there had been a project spoken of, and even advertised, to build a railroad from St Helen on the Columbia to Lafayette in Yamhill county as early as 1850. Or. Spectator, Jan. 30, 1850. Knighton, Tappan, Smith, and Crosby were the projectors of this road.
In the latter part of 1853 came I. I. Stevens to Puget Sound, full of the enthusiasm of an explorer, and sanguine with regard to a road which should unite the Atlantic and Pacific states. Under the excitement of this confident hope, the legislature of 1853–4 granted charters to no less than four railway companies in Oregon, and passed resolutions asking for aid from congress. Or. Jour. Council, 1853–4, 125. The Willamette Valley Railroad Company, the Oregon and California Railroad Company, the Cincinnati Railroad Company, and the Clackamas Railroad Company were the four mentioned. The Cincinnati company proposed to build a road from the town of that name in Polk county to some coal lands in the same county. Id., 125; Or. Statesman, April 18, 1854. The act concerning the Clackamas company is lacking among the laws of that session, although the proceedings of the council show that it passed. It related to the portage around the falls at Oregon City. Or. Jour. Council, 94, 95, 107, 116, 126. One of these companies went so far as to hold meetings and open books for subscriptions, but nothing further came of it. The commissioners were Frederick Waymire, Martin L. Barker, John Thorp, Solomon Tetherow, James S. Holman, Harrison Linnville, Fielder M. Thorp, J. C. Avery, and James O Neil. Or. Statesman, April 11 and 25, 1854. This was called the Willamette Valley Railroad Company.
A charter was granted to a company styling itself the Oregon and California Railroad Company, who proposed to build a road from Eugene City to some point on the east side of the Willamette River below Oregon City, or possibly to the Columbia River. The commissioners for the Oregon and California road were Lot Whitcomb, N. P. Doland, W. Meek, James B. Stephens, William Holmes, Charles Walker, Samuel Officer, William Barlow, John Gribble, Harrison Wright, J. D. Boon, J. L. Parrish, Joseph Holman, William H. Rector, Daniel Waldo, Benj. F. Harding, Samuel Simmons, Ralph C. Geer, William Parker, Augustus R. Dimick, Hugh Cosgrove, Robert Newell, W. H. Willson, Green McDonald, James Curl, E. H. Randall, Luther Elkins, John Crabtree, David Claypole, Elmore Keyes, James H. Foster, George Cline, John Smith, Anderson Cox, John H. Lines, Jeremiah Duggs, John N. Donnell, Asa McCully, Hugh L. Brown, James N. Smith, William Earle, W. W. Bristow, Milton S. Riggs, James C. Robinson, P. Wilkins, William Stevens, Jacob Spores, Benjamin Richardson, E. F. Skinner, James Hetherly. Felix Scott, Henry Owen, Benjamin Davis, Joseph Bailey, J. W. Nesmith, and Samuel Brown. Id., April 4, 1854. Of this likewise nothing came except the name, which descended to a successor. Another corporation received a charter in 1857 to build a road to Newport on Yaquina Bay, which was not built by the company chartered at that date. The only railroads in Oregon previous to the organization of the Oregon Central Railroad Company, of which I am about to give the history, were the portages about the cascades and dalles of the Columbia and the falls at Oregon City.
In 1863 S. G. Eliot, civil engineer, made a survey of a railroad line from Marysville in California to Jacksonville in Oregon, where his labors ended and his party was disbanded. This survey was made for the California and Columbia River Railroad Company, incorporated October 13, 1863, at Marysville, California. Eliot endeavored to raise money in Oregon to complete his survey, but was opposed by the people, partly from prejudice against Californian enterprises. Marysville Appeal, June 27, 1863; Portland Oregonian, Jan. 4, 1864; Deady's Scrap-Book, 37, 56; Portland Oregonian, Dec. 17, 1863. Joseph Gaston, the railroad pioneer of the Willamette, then residing in Jackson county, being deeply interested in the completion of the survey to the Columbia River, took it upon himself to raise a company, which he placed under the control of A. C. Barry, who after serving in the civil war had come to the Pacific coast to regain his health. Barry was ably assisted by George H. Belden of the U. S. land survey. As the enterprise was wholly a volunteer undertaking, the means to conduct it had to be raised by contribution, and to this most difficult part of the work Gaston applied himself. A circular was prepared, addressed to the leading farmers and business men of the country through which the surveying party would pass, inviting their support, while Barry was instructed to subsist his men on the people along the line and trust to the favor of the public for his own pay.
The novelty and boldness of these proceedings, while eliciting comments, did not operate unfavorably upon the prosecution of the survey, which proceeded without interruption, the party in the field living sumptuously, and often being accompanied and assisted by their entertainers for days at a time. It was not always that the people applied to were so enthusiastic. One prominent man declared that so far from the country being able to support a railroad, if one should be built the first train would carry all the freight in the country, the second all the passengers, and the third would pull up the track behind it and carry off the road itself. This same man, remarks Mr Gaston, managed to get into office in the first railroad company, and has enjoyed a good salary therein for 13 years. Gaston's Railroad Development in Oregon, MS., 8–9. Gaston continued to write and print circulars, which were distributed to railroad men, county officers, government land-offices, and all persons likely to be interested in or able to assist in the organization of a railroad company, both on the Pacific coast and in the eastern states. These open letters contained statistical and other information about the country, and its agricultural, mineral, commercial, and manufacturing resources. Hundreds of petitions were at the same time put in circulation, asking congress to grant a subsidy in bonds and lands to aid in constructing a branch railroad from the Central Pacific to Oregon.
By the time the legislature met in September, Gaston had Barry's report completed and printed, giving a favorable view of the entire practicability of a road from Jacksonville to the Columbia at St Helen, to which point it was Barry s opinion any road through the length of the Willamette River ought to go, although the survey was extended to Portland. To this report was appended a chapter on the resources of Oregon, highly flattering to the feelings of the assembly. The document was referred to the committee on corporations, and James M. Pyle, senator from Douglas county, chairman, made an able report, supporting the policy of granting state aid. Cyrus Olney, of Clatsop county, drew up the first state subsidy bill, proposing to grant $250,000 to the company that should first construct 100 miles of railroad in the Willamette Valley. The bill became a law, but no company ever accepted this trifling subsidy. Portland Oregorian, Sept. 7 and 13, 1864; Barry's Cal. & Or. R. R. Survey, 34; Or. Journal Senate, 1864, ap. 36–7; Portland Oregonian, Nov. 5, 1864; Or. Jour. House, 18G4, ap. 185-9; Or. Statesman, July 23, 1864; Portland Oregonian, June 20, July 27, Aug. 11, Sept. 13, Oct. 29, 1864. In November, however, after the adjournment of the legislature, an organization was formed under the name of the Willamette Valley Railroad Company, which opened books for subscription, and filed articles of incorporation in December. Id., Nov. 12 and 17, and Dec. 2, 1864; Deady's Scrap-Book, 107. The incorporators were J. C. Ainsworth, H. W. Corbett, W. S. Ladd, A. C. Gibbs, C. N. Carter, I. R. Moores, and E. N. Cooke. Ainsworth was president, and George H, Belden secretary. Belden was a civil engineer, and had been chief in the surveyor-general s office, but resigned to enter upon the survey of the Oregon and California railroad. Or. Argus, May 25, 1863. Barry meantime proceeded with his reports and petitions to Washington, where he expected the cooperation of Senators Williams and Nesmith. The latter did indeed exert his influence in behalf of congressional aid for the Oregon branch of the Central Pacific, but Barry became weary of the uncertainty and delay attendant upon passing bills through congress, and giving up the project as hopeless, went to Warsaw, Missouri, where he entered upon the practice of law.
Before Barry quitted Washington he succeeded in having a bill introduced in the lower house by Cole of California, the terms of which granted to the California and Oregon Railroad Company of California, and to such company organized under the laws of Oregon as the legislature of the state should designate, twenty alternate sections of land per mile, ten on each side of the road, to aid in the construction of a line of railroad and telegraph from some point on the Central Pacific railroad in the Sacramento Valley to Portland, Oregon, through the Rogue River, Umpqua, and Willamette valleys, the California company to build north to the Oregon boundary, and the Oregon company to build south to a junction with the California road. Cong. Globe, 1865–6, ap. 388-9; Zabriskie's Land Laws, 637; Veatce's Or., 12–21. This bill, which was introduced in December 1804, did not become a law until July 25, 1866, and was of comparatively little value, as the line of the road passed through a country where the best lands were already settled upon. The bill failed in congress in 1865 because Senator Conness of California refused to work with Cole. It passed the house late, and the senate not at all. S. F. Bulletin, March 8, 1865; Eugene Review, in Portland Oregonian, April 1 and 26, 1865. The California and Oregon railroad had already filed articles of incorporation at Sacramento, its capital stock being divided into 150,000 shares at $100 a share. When the subsidy bill became a law the Oregon Central Railroad Company was organized, and the legislature, according to the act of congress, designated this company as the one to receive the Oregon portion of the land grant, at the same time passing an act pledging the state to pay interest at seven per cent on one million dollars of the bonds of the company, to be issued as the work progressed on the first hundred miles of road. This act was repealed as unconstitutional in 1868. Or. Laws, 1866, 1868, 44–5; Deady's Scrap-Book, 176; S. F. Bulletin, Oct. 25 and Nov. 2, 1866. See special message of Gov. Woods, in Sac. Union, Oct, 22, 1866. Articles of incorporation were filed November 21, 1866. The incorporators were R. R. Thompson, E. D. Shattuck, J. C. Ainsworth, John McCracken, S. G. Reed, W. S. Ladd, H. W. Corbett, C. H. Lewis of Portland, M. M. Mclvin, Jesse Applegate, E. R. Geary, S. Ellsworth, F. A. Chenoweth, Joel Palmer, T. H. Cox, I. R. Moores, George L. Woods, J. S. Smith, B. F. Brown, and Joseph Gaston. Gaston's Railroad Development of Or., MS., 15–16.
The incorporators elected Gaston secretary and general agent, authorizing him to open the stock-books of the company, and canvass for subscriptions, which was done with energy and success, the funds to construct the first twenty-live miles being promised, when Eliot, before mentioned, suddenly appeared in Oregon with a proposition signed A. J. Cook & Co., whereby the Oregon company was asked to turn over the whole of its road to the people of California to build. The compensation offered for this transfer was the sum of $50,000 to each of the incorporators, to be paid in unassessable preferred stock in the road. To this scheme Gaston, as the company's agent, offered an earnest opposition, which was sustained by the majority of the incorporators; but to the Salem men the bait looked glittering, and a division ensued. A new company was projected by these, in the corporate name of the first, the Oregon Central Railroad Company, with the evident intention of driving from the field the original company, and securing under its name the land grant and state aid. A struggle for control now set in, which was extremely damaging to the enterprise. Seeing that litigation and delay must ensue, the capitalists who had contracted to furnish funds for the first twenty-five miles of road at once cancelled their agreement, refusing to sup port either party to the contest. Gaston, who determined to carry out the original object of his company, in order to avoid still further trouble with the Salem party, located the line of the Oregon Central on the west side of the Willamette River, and proceeded again with the labor of securing financial support. The Salem company naturally desiring to build on the east side of the river, and assuming the name of the original corporation, gave rise to the custom, long prevalent, of calling the two companies by the distinctive titles of East-Side and West-Side companies.
While Gaston was going among the people delivering addresses and taking subscriptions to the west-side road, the east-side company, which organized April 22, 1867, proceeded in an entirely different manner to accomplish their end. Seven men subscribed each one share of stock, at $100, and electing one of their number president, passed a resolution authorizing that officer to subscribe seven million dollars for the company. This manoeuvre was contrary to the incorporation law of the state, which required one half of the capital stock of a corporation to be subscribed before the election of a board of directors. The board of directors elected by subscribing $100 each were J. H. Moores, I. R. Moores, George L. Woods, E. N. Cooke, Samuel A. Clarke. Woods was elected president, and Clark secretary. To these were subsequently added J. H. Douthitt. F. A. Chenoweth, Green B. Smith, S. Ellsworth, J. H. D. Henderson, S. F. Chadwick, John E. Ross, A. L. Lovejoy, A. F. Hedges, S. B. Parrish, Jacob Conser, T. McF. Patton, and John F. Miller. Gaston's Railroad Development in Or., MS., 22-3. Before the meeting of the next legislature, thirteen other directors were added to the board, being prominent citizens of different counties, who it was hoped would have influence with that body, and to each of these was presented a share of the stock subscribed by the president. So far there had not been a bona fide subscription by any of the east-side company. In order to hold his own against this specious financiering, Gaston, after raising considerable money among the farmers, subscribed in his own name half the capital stock, amounting to $2,500,000. As a matter of fact, he had no money, but as a matter of law, it w r as necessary to have this amount subscribed before organizing a board of directors for his company. This board was elected May 25, 1867, at a meeting held at Amity. The first board of directors of the Oregon Central (west-side) were W. C. Whitson, James M. Belcher, W. T. Newby, Thomas R. Cornelius, and Joseph Gaston. Gaston was elected president, and Whitson secretary. Both companies, being now organized, proceeded to carry out their plans as best they could. Elliot, as agent of the east-side party, went east to find purchasers for the bonds of the company, while Gaston continued to canvass among the people, and also began a suit in equity in Marion county to restrain the Salem company from using the name of the Oregon Central company, Gaston appearing as attorney for plaintiffs, and J. H. Mitchell for the defendants. On trial, the circuit judge avoided a decision by holding that no actual damage had been sustained. Mitchell then became the leading spirit of the east-side company, and the two parties contended hotly for the ascendency by circulating printed documents, and holding correspondence with bankers and brokers to the injury of each other. A suit was also commenced to annul the east-side company, on the ground of illegal organization. Meanwhile Elliot was in Boston, and was on the point of closing a contract for a large amount of material, when Gaston's circulars reached that city, causing the failure of the transaction, and compelling Elliot to return to Oregon, having secured only two locomotives and some shop material, which he had already purchased with the bonds of his company. A compromise would now have been accepted by the east-side party, but the west-side would not agree to it, and in point of fact could not, because the people on that side of the valley, who were actual subscribers, would not consent to have their road run on the east side, and the people on that side would not subscribe to a road on the other.
By the first of April, 1868, both parties had their surveyors in the field locating their lines of road. Portland Oregonian, March 11, 1868. The west-side company had secured $25,000 in cash subscriptions in Portland, and as much more in cash and lands in the counties of Washington and Yamhill. The city of Portland had also pledged interest for twenty years on $250,000 of the company s bonds. Washington county had likewise pledged the interest on $50,000, and Yamhill on $75,000. Thus $375,000 was made available to begin the construction of the Oregon Central. The east-side company had also raised some money, and advertised that they would formally break ground near East Portland on the 16th of April, 1868, for which purpose bands of music and the presence of the militia were engaged to give eclat to the occasion. An address by W. W. Upton was announced.
The west-side company refrained from advertising, but made preparations to break ground on the 14th, and issued posters on the day previous only. At ten o clock of the day appointed a large concourse of people were gathered in Caruther's addition to celebrate the turning of the first sod on the Oregon Central. Gaston read a report of the condition of the company, and speeches were made by A. C. Gibbs and W. W. Chapman. This ended, Mrs David C. Lewis, wife of the chief engineer of the company, lifted a shovelful of earth and cast it upon the grade-stake, which was the signal for loud, long, and enthusiastic cheering, which so excited the throng that each contributed a few minutes labor to the actual grading of the road-bed. Thus on the 14th of April, 1868, was begun the first railroad in Oregon other than the portages above mentioned. On the 16th the grander celebration of the east-side company was carried out according to programme, at the farm of Gideon Tibbets, south of East Portland, and on this occasion was used the first shovel made of Oregon iron. Portland Oregonian, April 18, 1868; McCormick's Portland Dir., 1869, 8-9. The shovel was ordered by Samuel M. Smith, of Oswego iron, and made at the Willamette Iron Works by William Buchanan. It was shaped under the hammer, the handle being of maple, oiled with oil from the Salem mills. It was formally presented to the officers of the company on the loth of April. Portland Oregonian, April 14, 16, and 17, 1868.
Actual railroad building was now begun on both sides of the Willamette River; but the companies soon found themselves in financial straits. The east-side management was compelled in a short time to sell its two locomotives to the Central Pacific of California, although they bore the names of George L. Woods and I. R. Moores, the first and second presidents of the organization. A vigorous effort was made to induce the city council of Portland to pledge the interest for twenty years on $600,000 of the east-side bonds, in which the company was not successful. It is related that, being in a strait, Elliot proposed to inform the men employed, appealing to them to work another month on the promise of payment in the future. But to this proposition his superintendent of construction replied that a better way would be to keep the men in ignorance. He went among them, carelessly suggesting that as they did not need their money to use, it would be a wise plan to draw only their tobacco-money, and leave the remainder in the safe for security against loss or theft. The hint was adopted, the money was left in the safe, and served to make the same show on another pay-day, or until Holladay came to the company s relief. Gaston's Railroad Development in Or., MS., 34–5. Nor was the west-side company more at ease. Times were hard with the farmers, who could not pay up their subscriptions. The lands of the company could not be sold or pledged to Portland bankers, and affairs often looked desperate.
The financial distresses of both parties deterred neither from aggressive warfare upon the other. The west-side company continually pressed proceedings in the courts to have its rival declared no corporation, but no decision was arrived at. Gaston declares that the judges in the third and fourth judicial districts evaded a decision, their constituents being equally divided in supporting the rival companies. Id., 38. Failing of coming to the point in this way, a land-owner on the east side was prompted to refuse the right of way, and when the case came into court, the answer was set up that the company was not a lawful corporation, and therefore not authorized to condemn lands for its purposes. The attorneys for the company withdrew from court rather than meet the question, and made a re-location of the road, thus foiling again the design of the west-side company.
Portland being upon the west side of the river, and the emporium of capital in Oregon, it was apparently only a question of time when the west-side road should drive the usurper from the field, and so it must have done had there been no foreign interference. But the east-side company had been seeking aid in California, and not without success. In August 1868, Ben Holladay, of the overland stage company and the steamship line to San Francisco, arrived in Oregon. He represented himself, and was believed to be, the possessor of millions. A transfer of all the stock, bonds, contracts, and all property, real and personal, of the east-side company was made to him. The struggle, which had before been nearly equal, now became one between a corporation without money and a corporation with millions, and with the support of those who wished to enjoy the benefits to be conferred by this wealth, both in building railroads and in furnishing salaried situations to its friends. The first thing to be done was to get rid of the legislative enactments of 1860, designating the original Oregon Central company as the proper recipient of the land grant and state aid.
On the convening of the legislature, Holladay established himself at Salem, where he kept open house to the members, whom he entertained royally as to expenditure, and vulgarly as to all things else. The display and the hospitality were not without effect. The result was that the legislature of 1868 revoked the rights granted to the Oregon Central of 1866, and vested these rights in the later organization under the same name. The cause assigned was that at the time of the adoption of the said joint resolution as aforesaid no such company as the Oregon Central Railroad Company was organized or in existence, and the said joint resolution was adopted under a misapprehension of facts as to the organization and existence of such a company. Or. Laws, 1868, 109–10. It was alleged that the original company, in their haste to secure the land grant by the designation of the legislature, which meets only once in two years, had neglected to file their incorporation papers with the secretary of state previous to their application for the favor of the legislature, the actual date of incorporation being November 21st, whereas the resolution of the legislature designating them to receive the land grant was passed on the 20th of October, a month and a day before the company had a legal existence. In his Railroad Development in Or., MS., 15, Gaston says that the Oregon Central filed its incorporation papers according to law before the legislative action, but withdrew them temporarily to procure other incorporations, and it was this act that the other company turned to account. By the terms of the act of congress making the grant of land, the company taking the franchise must file its assent to the grant within one year from the passage of the act, and complete the first twenty miles of road within two years. The west-side company had filed its assent within the prescribed time, which the other had not, an illegality which balanced that alleged against the west-side, even had both been in all other respects legal.
And now happened one of those fortuitous circumstances which defeat, occasionally, the shrewdest men. The west-side management had sent, in May, half a million of its bonds to London to be sold by Edwin Russell, manager of the Portland branch of the bank of British Columbia. Just at the moment when money was most needed, a cablegram from Russell to Gaston informed him that the bonds could be disposed of so as to furnish the funds and iron necessary to construct the first twenty miles of road, by selling them at a low price. Gaston had the power to accept the offer, but instead of doing so promptly, and placing himself on an equality with Holladay pecuniarily, he referred the matter to Ainsworth, to whom he felt under obligations for past favors, and whom he regarded as a more experienced financier than him self, and the latter, after deliberating two days on the subject, cabled a refusal of the proposition.
Ainsworth had not intended, however, to reject all opportunities, but a contract was taken by S. G. Reed & Co., of which firm Ainsworth was a member, to complete the twenty miles called for by the act of congress, of which five of the most expensive portion had been built, and Reed became involved with Gaston in the contest for supremacy between the two companies, while at the same time pushing ahead the construction of the road from Portland to Hillsboro, by which would be earned the Portland subsidy of a quarter of a million.
To prevent this, Holladay's attorneys caused suits to be brought declaring the west-side company's acts void, and to prevent the issuance to it of the bonds of the city of Portland and Washington county, in which suits they were successful, thus cutting off the aid expected in this quarter. At the same time the quarrel was being prosecuted in the national capital, the newly elected senator, Corbett, befriending the original company, and George H. Williams, whose term was about to expire, giving his aid to Holladay. See correspondence in Sen. Rept, 3, 1869, 41st cong. 1st sess.
An appeal was made to the secretary of the Interior, whose decision was, that according to the evidence before him neither company had a legal right to the land grant in Oregon, which had lapsed through the failure of any properly organized and authorized company to file acceptance, and could only be revived by further legislation. This decision was in consonance with Williams views, who had a bill already prepared extending the time for filing assent so as to allow any railroad company heretofore designated by the legislature of Oregon to file its assent in the department of the interior within one year from the date of the passage of the act; provided, that the rights already acquired under the original act were not to be impaired by the amendment, nor more than one company be entitled to a grant of land. Cong. Globe, 1869, app. 51, 41st cong. 1st sess. This legislation placed the companies upon an equal footing, and left the question of legality to be decided in the Oregon courts, while it prevented the state of Oregon from losing the franchise should either company complete twenty miles of road which should be accepted by commissioners appointed by the president of the United States. The act of April 10, 1869, does not mention any extension of time for the completion of the first twenty miles, but by implication it might be extended beyond the year allowed for filing assent.
While the east-side company was thus successful in carrying out its endeavor to dislodge the older organization, suit was brought in the United States district court, Deady, justice, to enjoin the usurper from using the name of the original company, Deady deciding that although no actual dam age followed, as the defence attempted to show, no subsequently organized corporation could lawfully use the name of another corporation. This put an end to the east-side Oregon Central company, which took steps to transfer its rights, property, and franchises to a new corporation, styled the Oregon and California Railroad Company. The action of congress in practically deciding in favor of the Holladay interest caused S. G. Reed & Co. to abandon the construction contract, from which this firm withdrew in May 1869, leaving the whole hopeless undertaking in the hands of Gaston. Without resources, and in debt, he resolved to persevere. In the treasury of Washington county were several thousand dollars, paid in as interest on the bonds pledged. He applied for this money, which the county officers allowed him to use in grading the road-bed during the summer of 1869 as far as the town of Hillsboro. This done, he resolved to go to Washington, and before leaving Oregon made a tour of the west-side counties, reminding the people of the injustice they had suffered at the hands of the courts and legislature, and urging them to unite in electing men who would give them redress.
Gaston reached the national capital in December 1869, Holladay having completed in that month twenty miles of the Oregon and California road, and become entitled to the grant of land which Gaston had been the means of securing to the builder of the first railroad. His business at the capital was to obtain a new grant for the Oregon Central, and in this he was successful, being warmly supported by Corbett and Williams, the latter, however, refusing to let the road be extended farther than McMinnville, lest it should interfere with the designs of Holladay, but consenting to a branch road to Astoria, with the accompanying land grant. A bill to this effect became a law May 1, 1870. Cong. Globe, 1869–70., app. 644–5. While the bill was pending, Gaston negotiated a contract in Philadelphia for the construction of 150 miles of railroad, which would carry the line to the neighborhood of Eugene City, to which point another bill then before congress proposed to give a grant of land. The Oregon legislature passed a joint resolution, instructing their senators in Washington to give their support to the construction of a railroad from Salt Lake to the Columbia River, Portland, and Puget Sound; and to a railroad from the big bend of Humboldt River to Klamath Lake, and thence through the Rogue, Umpqua, and Willamette valleys to the Columbia river. Or. Laws, 1868, 124–5; U. S. Sen. Misc. Doc., 14, 41st cong. 3d sess.; Or. Laws, 1870, 179–82, 194.
Anticipating its success, Gaston ventured to believe that he could secure, as it was needed, an extension of his grant, which should enable him to complete the line from Winnemucca on the Humboldt to the Columbia. This also was the agreement between B. J. Pengra, who represented the Winnemucca scheme, Gaston, and the senators. But Holladay, who was in Washington, fearing that Pengra would bring the resources of the Central Pacific into Oregon to overpower him, demanded of Williams that Pengra s bill should be amended so as to compel the Winnemucca company to form a junction with the Oregon and California at some point in southern Oregon. The amendment had the effect to drive the Central Pacific capitalists away from the Winnemucca enterprise, and the Philadelphia capitalists away from the Oregon Central, leaving it, as before, merely a local line from Portland to McMinnville. Thus Holladay became master of the situation, to build up or to destroy the railroad interests of Oregon. He had, through Latham of California, sold his railroad bonds in Germany, and had for the time being plenty of funds with which to hold this position. In order to embarrass still further the Oregon Central, he bought in the outstanding indebtedness, and threatened the concern with the bankruptcy court and consequent annihilation. To avert this disastrous termination of a noble undertaking, Gaston was compelled to consent to sell out to his enemy, upon his agreement to assume all the obligations of the road, and complete it as designed by him.
Having now obtained full control, and being more ardent than prudent in his pursuit of business and pleasure alike, Holladay pushed his two roads forward rapidly, the Oregon and California being completed to Albany in 1871, to Eugene in 1872, and to Roseburg in 1873. The Oregon Central was opened to Cornelius in 1871, and to St Joe in 1872. These roads, although still merely local, had a great influence in developing the country, inducing immigration, and promoting the export of wheat from Willamette direct to the markets of Europe.
But the lack of prudence, before referred to, and reckless extravagance in private expenditures, shortened a career which promised to be useful as it was conspicuous; and when the Oregon and California road had reached Roseburg, the German bondholders began to perceive some difficulty about the payment of the interest, which difficulty increased until 1876, when, after an examination of the condition of the road, it was taken out of Holladay's hands, and placed under the management of Henry Villard, whose brief career ended in financial failure.
Joseph Gaston, a descendant of the Huguenots of North Carolina, was born in Belmont county, Ohio. His father dying, Joseph worked on a farm until 16 years of age, when he set up in life for himself, having but a common-school education, and taking hold of any employment which offered until by study he had prepared himself to practice law in the supreme court of Ohio. His grand-uncle, William Gaston, was chief justice of the supreme court of North Carolina, and for many years member of congress from that state, as also founder of the town of Gaston, N. C. His cousin, William Gaston, of Boston, was elected governor of Massachusetts in 1874, being the only democratic governor of that state within 50 years. Joseph Gaston came to Jackson county, Oregon, in 1862, but on becoming involved in railroad projects, removed to Salem, and afterward to Portland. Although handling large sums of money and property, he was not benefited by it. When Holladay took the Oregon Central off his hands, he accepted a position as freight and passenger agent on that road, which he held until 1875, when he retired to his farm at Gaston, in Washington county, where he remained until 1878, when he built and put in operation the narrow-gauge railroad from Dayton to Sheridan, with a branch to Dallas. This enterprise was managed solely by himself, with the support of the farmers of that section. In 1880 the road was sold to a Scotch company of Dundee, represented by William Reid of Portland, who extended it twenty miles farther, and built another narrow-gauge from Ray landing, below the Yamhill, to Brownsville, all of which may be properly said to have resulted from Gaston's enterprises. Then he went to live in Portland, where he did not rank among capitalists—in these days of sharp practice, not always a dishonorable distinction.
No sooner did railroad enterprises begin to assume a tangible shape in Oregon, than several companies rushed into the field to secure land grants and other franchises, notably the Portland, Dalles, and Salt Lake company, the Winnemucca company, the Corvallis and Yaquiua Bay company, and the Columbia River and Hillsboro company. Vancouver Register, Aug. 21, 1869; Or. Laws, 1868, 127-8, 140-1, 143; Id., 1870; H. Ex. Doc., 1, pt iv. vol. vi., pt 1, p. xvii., 41st cong. 3d sess.; Zabriskie's Land Laws, supp. 1877, 6; Portland Board of Trade Rept, 1875, 6-7, 28: Id., 1876, 4-6; Id., 1877, 14-15.
Owing to a conflict of railroad interests, and fluctuations in the money market, neither of these roads was begun, nor any outlet furnished Oregon toward the east until Villard, in 1879, formed the idea of a syndicate of American and European capitalists to facilitate the construction of the Northern Pacific, and combining its interests with those of the Oregon roads by a joint management, which he was successful in obtaining for himself. E. V. Smalley, in his History of the Northern Pacific Railroad, published in 1883, has given a minute narrative of the means used by Villard to accomplish his object, pp. 262-76. Under his vigorous measures railroad progress in Oregon and Washington was marvellous. Not only the Northern Pacific was completed to Portland, and the Columbia River, opposite the Pacific division at Kalama, in 1883-4, but the Oregon system, under the names of the Oregon Railway and Navigation and Oregon and Transcontinental lines, was extended rapidly. The Oregon Railway and Navigation Company owned all the property of the former Oregon Steam Navigation and Oregon Steamship companies. It was incorporated June 13, 1879, Villard president, and Dolph vice-president. Its first board of directors consisted of Artemus H. Holmes, William H. Starbuck, James B. Fry, and Villard of New York, and George W. Weidler, J. C. Ainsworth, S. G. Reed, Paul Schulze, H. W. Corbett, C. H. Lewis, and J. N. Dolph of Portland. The Oregon and Transcontinental company was formed June 1881, its object being to bring under one control the Northern Pacific and Oregon Railway and Navigation companies, which was done by the wholesale purchase of Northern Pacific stock by Villard, the president of the other company. Its first board of directors, chosen September 15, 1881, consisted of Frederick Billings, Ashbel H. Barney, John W. Ellis, Rose well G. Rolston, Robert Harris, Thomas F. Oakes, Artemus H. Holmes, and Henry Villard of New York, J. L. Stackpole, Elijah Smith, and Benjamin P. Cheney of Boston, John C. Bullitt of Philadelphia, and Henry E. Johnston of Baltimore. Villard was elected president, Oakes vice-president, Anthony J. Thomas second vice-president, Samuel Wilkinson secretary, and Robert L. Belknap treasurer. Smalley's Hist. N. P. Railroad, 270-1.
Seven years after Holladay was forced out of Oregon, the Oregon Central was completed to Eugene, the Oregon and California to the southern boundary of Douglas county, the Dayton and Sheridan narrow-gauge road constructed to Airley, twenty miles south of Sheridan, and another narrow-gauge on the east side of the Willamette making connection with this one, and running south to Coburg in Lane county, giving four parallel lines through the heart of the valley. A wide-gauge road was constructed from Portland, by the way of the Columbia, to The Dalles, and eastward to Umatilla, Pendleton, and Baker City, on its way to Snake River to meet the Oregon short line on the route of the Portland, Dalles, and Salt Lake road of 1868-9. North-eastward from Umatilla a line of road extended to Wallula, Walla Walla, Dayton, Grange City in Washington, and Lewiston in Idaho; while the Northern Pacific sent out a branch eastward to gather in the crops of the Palouse region at Colfax, Farmington, and Moscow; and by the completion of the Oregon short line and the Oregon and California branch of the Central Pacific, there were three transcontinental routes opened from the Atlantic to the Columbia River. In 1885 a railroad was in process of construction from the Willamette to Yaquina Bay, destined to be extended east to connect with an overland road, and another projected. The projectors of the Winnemucca and Salt Lake roads deserve mention. Both had been surveyor-generals of Oregon. W. W. Chapman, who was appointed in territorial times, and was thoroughly acquainted with the topography of the country, selected the route via the Columbia and Snake, rivers to Salt Lake, both as one that would be free from snow and that would develop eastern Oregon and Washington and the mining regions of Idaho. He made extensive surveys, attended several sessions of congress, and sent an agent to London at his own expense, making himself poor in the effort to secure his aims. The state legislature granted the proceeds of its swamp-lands in aid of his enterprise, and the city council of Portland granted to his company the franchise of building a bridge across the Willamette at Portland. But he failed, because the power of the Central Pacific railroad of California was exerted to oppose the construction of any road connecting Oregon with the east which would not be tributary to it.
Chapman died in 1884, after living to see another company constructing a road over the line of his survey. He had been the first surveyor-general of Iowa, its first delegate in congress, and one of its first presidential electors. On coming to Oregon he became one of the owners in Portland town site, and with his partner, Stephen Coffin, built the Gold Hunter, the first ocean steamer owned in Oregon, which, through the bad faith of her officers, ruined her owners. Gaston's Railroad Development in Or., 73-8. B. J. Pengra, appointed by President Lincoln, was, as I have already said, the founder of the Winnemucca scheme. While in office he explored this route, and secured from congress the grant to aid in the construction of a military wagon-road to Owyhee, of which the history has been given. His railroad survey passed over a considerable portion of the route of the military road, the opening of which promoted the settlement of the country. But for the opposition of Holladay to his land-grant bill, it would have passed as desired, and the Central Pacific would have constructed this branch; but owing to this opposition it failed. Pengra resided at Springfield, where he had some lumber-mills.
A man who has had much to do with Oregon railroads is James Boyce Montgomery, who was born in Perry co., Penn., in 1832, and sent to school in Pittsburgh. He learned printing in Philadelphia, in the office of the Bulletin newspaper, and took an editorial position on the Register, published at Sandusky, Ohio, owned by Henry D. Cooke, afterwards first governor of the District of Columbia. From Sandusky he returned to Pittsburgh in 1853, and purchased an interest in the Daily Morning Post. About 1857 he was acting as the Harrisburg correspondent of the Philadelphia Press for a year or more. Following this, he took a contract to build a bridge over the Susquehanna River for the Philadelphia and Erie railroad, 6 miles above Williamsport, Penn., his first railroad contract. Subsequently he took several contracts on eastern roads, building portions of the Lehi and Susquehanna, the Susquehanna Valley, and other railroads, and was an original owner in the Baltimore and Potomac railroad with Joseph D. Potts, besides having a con tract to build 150 miles of the Kansas Pacific, and also a portion of the Oil Creek and Alleghany railroad in Penn. In 1870 Montgomery came to the Pacific coast, residing for one year on Puget Sound, since which time he has resided in Portland, where he has a pleasant home. His wife is a daughter of Gov. Phelps of Mo. The first railroad contract taken in the north-west was the first 25-mile division of the Northern Pacific, beginning at Kalama, on the Columbia River, and extending towards Tacoma. Since that he has completed the road from Kalama to Tacoma, and from Kalama south to Port land. Montgomery started the subscription on which the first actual money was raised to build the Northern Pacific, in Dec. 1869. Jay Cooke had agreed to furnish $5,600,000 to float the bonds of the company by April 1, 1870, and Montgomery, at his request, undertook to raise a part of it, in which he was successful, J. G. Morehead, H. J. Morehead, William Phillips, William M. Lyon, Henry Loyd, Joseph Dilworth, James Watts, and others subscribing $800,000. This money was expended in constructing the first division of the road. Montgomery at the same time took a contract to build a drawbridge across the Willamette at Harrisburg, the first drawbridge in Oregon, 800 feet long, with a span of 240 feet. Subsequently he went to Scotland to organize the Oregon Narrow-Gauge Company, Limited, which obtained control of the Dayton, Sheridan, and Corvallis narrow-gauge road built by Gaston, in which he was interested, as well as some Scotch capitalists. It was Villard's idea to get a lease of this and the narrow-guage road on the east side of the valley, to prevent the Central or Union Pacific railroads from controlling them, as it was thought they would endeavor to. They were accordingly leased to the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company, but to the detriment of the roads, which are not kept in repair. AD one time the directors of the O. R. & N. Co. refused to pay rent, and the matter was in the courts. Montgomery erected a saw-mill at Skamockawa, on the north side of the Columbia, which will cut 15,000,000 feet of lumber annually. He is also in the shipping business, and ships a large quantity of wheat yearly. This, with a history of the N. P. R. R., I have obtained from Montgomery's Statement, MS., 1-30.
COUNTIES OF OREGON.
The condition of counties and towns which I shall briefly give in this place will fitly supplement what I have already said. They are arranged in alphabetical order. I have taken the tenth census as a basis, in order to put all the counties on the same footing.
Baker county, named after E. D. Baker, who fell at the battle of Edwards ferry in October 1861, was organized September 22, 1862, with Auburn as the county seat. An enabling act was passed and approved in 1866, to change the county seat to Baker City by a vote of the county, which was done. In 1872 a part of Grant county was added to Baker. The county contains 15.912 square miles, about 50,000 acres of which is improved among 453 farmers, the principal productions being barley, oats, wheat, potatoes, and fruit. The whole value of farm products for 1879, with buildings and fences, was $799,468. The value of live-stock was $1,122,765, a difference which shows stock-raising rather than grain-growing to be the business of the farmers. About 50,000 pounds of wool was produced. The total value of real estate and personal property for this year was set down at a little over $931,000. The population for the same period was 4,616, a considerable portion of whom were engaged in mining in the mountain districts. Comp. X. Census, xl. 48, 723, 806-7. Baker City, the county seat, was first laid out under the United States town-site law by R. A. Pierce in 1868. It is prettily located in the Powder River Valley, and is sustained by a flourishing agricultural and mining region on either hand. It has railroad communication with the Columbia. It was incorporated in 1874, and has a population of 1,258. Pacific North-west, 41; McKinney's Pac. Dir., 255; Or. Laws, 1874, 145-55. The famous Virtue mine is near Baker City. The owner, who does a banking business in the town, had a celebrated cabinet of minerals, in which might be seen the ores of gold, silver, copper, lead, cinnabar, iron, tin, cobalt, tellurium, and coal, found in eastern Oregon, besides which were curios in minerals from every part of the world. Auburn, the former county seat, was organized by the mining population June 17, 1862, and incorporated on the following 25th of September, to preserve order. Ebey's Journal, MS., viii. 81-2, 84, 87, 94; Or. Jour. House, 1862, 113, 128. The other towns and post-offices of Baker county are Wingville, Sparta, Powderville, Pocahontas, Express Ranch, El Dorado, Clarksville, Mormon Basin, Amelia City, Rye Valley, Humboldt Basin, Stone, Dell, Weatherby, Conner Creek, Glenn, Malheur, Jordan Valley, and North Powder.
Benton county, named after Thomas H. Benton of Missouri, was created and organized December 23, 1847, including at that time all the country on the west side of the Willamette River, south of Polk county and north of the northern boundary line of California. On the loth of January, 1851, the present southern boundary was fixed. It contains 1,870 square miles, extending to the Pacific ocean, and including the harbor of Yaquina Bay. Population in 1879, 6,403. The amount of land under improvement in this year was 138,654 acres, valued at $3,188,251. The value of farm products was $716,096; of live-stock, $423,682; of orchard products, $16,404. Assessed valuation of real and personal property in the county, $1,726,387. Grain-raising is the chief feature of Benton county farming, but dairying, sheep-raising, and fruit-culture are successfully carried on. Coal was discovered in 1869, but has not been worked.
Corvallis, called Marysville for five or six years by its founder, J. C. Avery, is Benton's county seat, and was incorporated January 28, 1857. It is beautifully situated in the heart of the valley, as its name indicates, and has a population of about 1,200. It is the seat of the state agricultural college, and has connection with the Columbia, and the Pacific ocean at Yaquina Bay, and also with the southern part of the state by railroad. It is more favorably located in all respects than any other inland town. Philomath, a collegiate town, is distant about eleven miles from Corvallis, on the Yaquina road. It was incorporated in October 1882. Monroe, named after a president, on the Oregon Central railroad, Alseya on the head-waters of Alseya River, Newport on Yaquina Bay near the ocean, Elk City at the head of the bay, Oysterville on the south side of the bay, Toledo, Yaquina, Pioneer, Summit, Newton, Tidewater, Waldoport, and Wells are all small settlements, those that are situated on Yaquina Bay having, it is believed, some prospects in the future.
Clackamas county, named from the tribe of Indians inhabiting the shores of a small tributary to the Willamette coming in below the falls, was one of the four districts into which Oregon was divided by the first legislative committee of the provisional government, in July 1843, and comprehended all the territory not included in the other three districts, the other three taking in all south of the Columbia except that portion of Clackamas lying north of the 'Anchiyoke River.' Pudding River is the stream here meant. Its boundaries were more particularly described in an act approved December 19. 1845, and still further altered by acts dated January 30, 1856, October 17, 1860, and October 17, 1862, when its present limits were established. Or. Archives, 26; Or. Gen. Laws, 537-8. It contains 1,434 square miles, about 71,000 acres of which is under improvement. The surface being hilly, and much of it covered with heavy forest, this county is less advanced in agricultural wealth than might be expected of the older settled districts; yet the soil when cleared is excellent, and only time is required to bring it up to its proper rank. The value of its farms and buildings is considerably over three millions, of live-stock a little over four hundred thousand, and of farm products something over six hundred thousand dollars. In manufactures it has been perhaps the third county in the state, but should, on account of its facilities, exceed its rivals in the future. It is difficult to say whether it is the second or third, Multnomah county being first, and Marion probably second. But the difference in the amount of capital expended and results produced leave it almost a tie between the latter county and Clackamas. Marion has $608,330 invested in manufactures, pays out for labor $147,945 annually, uses $1,095,920 in materials, and produces $1,424, 979; while Clackamas has invested $787,475, pays out for labor $156,927, uses $816,625 in materials, and produces $1,251,691. Marion has a little the most capital invested, and produces a little the most, but uses $278,295 more capital in materials, while paying only $8,982 less for labor. Comp. X. Census, ii. 1007-8. The principal factories are of woollen goods. Assessed valuation considerably over six millions. Population, 9,260. Oregon City, founded by John McLoughlin in 1842, is the county seat, whose history for a number of years was an important part of the territorial history, being the first, and for several years the only, town in the Willamette Valley. It was incorporated September 25, 1849. Its principal feature was its enormous water-power, estimated at a million horse-power. It had early a woollen-mill, a grist-mill, a lumber-mill, a paper-mill, a fruit-preserving factory, and other minor manufactures. The population of Oregon City is, according to the tenth census, 1,263, although it is given ten years earlier at 1,382. It is on the line of the Oregon and California railroad, and has river communication with Salem and Portland. A few miles north of the county seat is Milwaukee, founded by Lot Whitcomb as a rival to Oregon City, in March 1850. It is the seat of one of the finest flouring mills in the state, and is celebrated for its nurseries, which have furnished trees to fruit-growers all over the Pacific coast. Its population is insignificant. A rnile or two south of Oregon City is Canemah, founded by F. A. Hedges about 1845, it being the lowest landing above the falls, and where all river craft unloaded for the portage previous to the construction of the basin and breakwater, by which boats were enabled to reach a landing at the town. It afterward became a suburb of Oregon City, boats passing through locks on the west side of the river without unloading. About half-way between the falls and Portland was established Oswego, another small town, but important as the location of the smelting- works, erected in 1867 at a cost of $100,000, to test the practicability of making pig-iron from the ore found in that vicinity, which experiment was entirely successful. Other towns and post-offices in Clackamas county are Clackamas, Butte Creek, Damascus, Eagle Creek, Glad Tidings, Highland, Molalla, Needy, New Era, Sandy, Spring water, Union Mills, Viola, Wilsonville, Zion.
Clatsop county, named after the tribe which inhabited the sandy plains west of Young Bay, at the mouth of the Columbia, was established June 22, 1844, on the petition of Josiah L. Parrish. The present boundaries were fixed January 15, 1855, giving the county 862 square miles, most of which is heavily timbered land. The value of farms, buildings, and live-stock is a little over $307,000; but the assessed valuation of real and personal property is a trifle over $1,136,000, and the gross value nearly double that amount.
The principal industries of the county are lumbering, fishing, and dairying. The population is about 5,500, except in the fishing season, when it is temporarily at least two thousand more. Resources Or. and Wash., 1882, 213; Comp. X. Census, 367. Astoria, the county seat, was founded in 1811 by the Pacific Fur Company, and named after John Jacob Astor, the head of that company. It passed through various changes before being incorporated by the Oregon legislature January 18, 1856. Its situation, just within the estuary of the Columbia, has been held to be sufficient reason for regarding this as the natural and proper place for the chief commercial town of Oregon. But the application of steam to sea-going vessels has so modified the conditions upon which commerce had formerly sought to establish centres of trade that the custom house only, for many years, compelled vessels to call at Astoria. It has now, however, a population of about 3,000, and is an important shipping point, the numerous fisheries furnishing and requiring a large amount of freight, and in the season of low water in the Willamette, compelling deep-water vessels to load in the Columbia, receiving and handling the immense grain and other ex ports from the Willamette Valley and eastern Oregon. Its harbor is sheltered by the point of the ridge on the east side of Young Bay from the storm-winds of winter, which come from the south-west. There is but little level land for building purposes, but the hills have been graded down into terraces, one street rising above another parallel to the river, affording fine views of the Columbia and its entrance, which is a dozen miles to the west, a little north. Connected by rail with the Willamette Valley and eastern Oregon, the locks at the cascades of the Columbia at the same time giving uninterrupted navigation from The Dalles to the mouth of the river, Astoria is destined to assume yet greater commercial importance. There are no other towns of consequence in this county. Clatsop, incorporated in 1870, Skippanon, Clifton, Jewell, Knappa, Olney, Mishawaka, Seaside House, Fort Stevens, and Westport are either fishing and lumbering establishments, or small agricultural settlements. Westport is the most thriving of these settlements, half agricultural and half commercial.
Columbia county, lying east of Clatsop in the great bend of the lower Columbia, was cut off from Washington county January 23, 1854. It contains 575 square miles, and has a water line of over fifty miles in extent. It has between fourteen and fifteen thousand acres of land under improvement, valued, with the buildings, at $406,000, with live-stock worth over $77,000, and farm products worth $73,000, consisting of the cereals, hay, potatoes, butter, and cheese. It has several lumbering establishments and a few smaller manufactories. The natural resources of the county are timber, coal, building-stone, iron, fish, and grass. The assessed valuation upon real and personal property in 1879 was $305,283. The population was little over 2,000, but rapidly increasing. St Helen, situated at the junction of the lower Willamette with the Columbia, is the county seat. It was founded in 1848 by H. M. Knighton, the place being first known as Plymouth Rock, but having its name changed on being surveyed for a town site. It is finely situated for a ship ping business, and has a good trade with the surrounding country, although the population is not above four hundred. There are coal and iron mines in the immediate vicinity. Columbia City, founded in 1867 by Jacob and Joseph Caples, two miles below St Helen, is a rival town of about half the population of the latter. It has a good site, and its interests are identical with those of St Helen. The Pacific branch of the Northern Pacific railway passes across both town-plats, coming near the river at Columbia City. Rainier, twenty miles below Columbia City, was laid off in a town by Charles E. Fox about 1852. Previous to 1865, by which time a steamboat line to Mouticello on the Cowlitz was established, Rainier was the way-station between Olympia and Portland, and enjoyed considerable trade. Later it became a lumbering and fishing establishment. The other settlements in Columbia county are Clatskanie, Marshland, Pittsburg, Quinn, Riverside, Scappoose, Vernonia, Neer City, Bryantville, and Vesper.
Coos county was organized December 22, 1853, out of portions of Umpqua and Jackson counties. The name is that of the natives of the bay county. It contained about the same area as Clatsop, and had over 25,000 acres of improved land, valued, with the improvements, at $1,188,349. The legislature enlarged Coos county by taking off from Douglas on the north and east enough to straighten the north boundary and to add two rows of townships on the east. Or. Jour. House, 1882, 290. It is now considerably larger than Clatsop. The live-stock of the county is valued at over $161,000, and of farm products for 1879 over $209,000. Total of real and personal assessed valuation was between $800,000 and $900,000. The gross valuation in 1881–2 was over $1,191,000, the population being a little over 4,800, the wealth of the county per capita being $329. This county is the only one in Oregon where coal-mining has been carried on to any extent. A line of steamers has for many years been carrying Coos Bay coal to S. F. market. The second industry of the county is lumbering, and the third ship-building, the largest ship-yard in the state being here. Farming has not been much followed, most of the provisions consumed at Coos Bay being brought from California. Fruit is increasing in production, and is of excellent quality. Beach-mining for gold has been carried on for thirty years. Iron and lead ores are known to exist, but have not been worked. There are also extensive quarries of a fine quality of slate. The valleys of Coos and Coquille rivers are exceedingly fertile, and the latter produces the best white cedar timber in the state, while several of the choice woods used in furniture factories abound in this county. Empire City, situated four miles from the entrance to Coos Bay, on the south shore, is the county seat, with a population of less than two hundred. It was founded in the spring of 1853 by a company of adventurers, of which an account has been given in a previous chapter, and for some years was the leading town. Marshfield, founded only a little later by J. C. Tolman and A. J. Davis, soon outstripped all the towns in the county, having about 900 inhabitants and a thriving trade. It is situated four miles farther from the ocean than Empire City, on the same shore. Between the two is the lumbering establishment of North Bend. The place is beautifully situated, and would be rapidly settled did not the proprietors refuse to sell lots, preferring to keep their employés away from the temptations of miscellaneous associations. Still farther up the bay and river, beyond Marshfield, are the settlements of Coos City, Utter City, Coaledo, Sumner, and Fairview. Coquille City is prettily situated near the mouth of Coquille River, and has about two hundred inhabitants. It is hoped by improving the channel of the river, which is navigable for 40 miles, to make it a rival of Coos Bay as a port for small sea-going vessels, the government having appropriated $130,000 for jetties at this place, which have been constructed for half a mile on the south side of the entrance. Myrtle Point, at the head of tide-water, is situated on a high bluff on the right bank of the Coquille, in the midst of a fine lumber and coal region. It was settled in 1858 by one Myers, who sold out to C. Lehnhere, and in 1877 Binger Herman, elected in 1884 to congress, bought the land on which the town stands, and has built up a thriving settlement. Other settlements in the Coquille district are Dora, Enchanted Prairie, Freedom, Gravel Ford, Norway, Randolph, Boland, and Cunningham. Gale's Coos Co. Dir., 1875, 35–61; Official P. O. List, Jan. 1885, 499; Roseburg Plaindealer, Aug. 15, 1874.
Crook county, named after General George Crook, for services performed in Indian campaigns in eastern Oregon, was cut off from the south end of Wasco county, by legislative act, October 9, 1882. The north line is drawn west from the lend of the John Day River, and east up the centre of the Wasco channel of said river to the west boundary of Grant county, thence on the line between Grant and Wasco counties to the south-east corner of Wasco, thence west to the summits of the Cascade Mountains, and thence along them to the intersection of the north line. It lies in the hilly region where the Blue Mountains intersect the foot-hills of the Cascade Range, and for years has been the grazing-ground of immense herds of cattle. There are also many valleys fit for agriculture. Prineville is the county seat. It is situated on Ochoco River, near its junction with Crooked River, a fork of Des Chutes, and has a population of several hundred. It was incorporated in 1880. Ochoco, Willoughby, Bridge Creek, and Scissorsville are the subordinate towns.
Curry county, named after Governor George L. Curry, organized December 18, 1855, is comparatively an unsettled country, having only a little more than 1,200 inhabitants. Its area is greater than that of Coos, the two counties comprising 3,331 square miles, not much of which belonging to Curry has been surveyed. The value of farm property is estimated at between five and six hundred thousand dollars. The assessed valuation for 1879 was about $220,000. The territorial act establishing the county provided for the selection of a county seat by votes at the next general election, which was prevented by the Rogue River Indian war. At the election of 1858 Ellensburg, a mining town, was chosen, and the choice confirmed by state legislative enactment in October 1860. Port Orford is the principal port in Curry county. Chetcoe is the only other town on the coast. There is no reason for the unsettled condition of Curry except its inaccessibility, which will be overcome in time, when its valuable forests and minerals will be made a source of wealth by a numerous population. Salmon-fishing is the principal industry aside from lumbering and farming.
Douglas county, named after Stephen A. Douglas, was created January 7, 1852, out of that part of Umpqua county which lay west of the Coast Range. In 1864 this remainder of Umpqua was joined to Douglas, and Umpqua ceased to be. Its boundaries have been several times altered, the last time in 1882, when a small strip of country was taken off its western border to give to Coos. Its area previous to thus partition was 5,796 square miles. The valuation of its farms, buildings, and live-stock is nearly five million dollars. A large portion of its wealth comes from sheep-raising and wool-growing. In 1880 Douglas county shipped a million pounds of wool, worth three to four cents more per pound than Willamette Valley wool, and sold 27,000 head of sheep to Nevada farmers. The valuation of assessable real and personal property is between two and three millions. In that part of the county which touches the sea-coast lumbering and fishing are important industries. Gold-mining is still followed in some localities with moderate profits. The population is between nine and ten thousand. Roseburg, named after its founder, Aaron Rose, was made the county seat in 1853. It was often called Deer creek until about 1856-7. It is beautifully situated at the junction of Deer creek with the south fork of the Umpqua, in the heart of the Umpqua Valley, has about 900 inhabitants, and is the principal town in the valley. It was incorporated in 1868. Oakland is a pretty town of 400 inhabitants, so named by its founder, D. S. Baker, from its situation in an oak grove. Deady's Hist. Or., MS., 79. It is on Calapooya creek, a branch of the Umpqua River, and the Oregon and California railroad passes through it to Roseburg. Wilbur is another picturesque place on the line of this road, named after J. H. Wilbur, founder of the academy at that place. It is only an academic town, with two hundred population. Canonville, at the north end of the Umpqua canon, has a population of two or three hundred. Winchester, named for Colonel Winchester of the Umpqua Company, the first county seat of Douglas county, Galesville, named from a family of that name, Myrtle Creek, Camas Valley, Looking Glass, Ten Mile, Cleveland, Umpqua Ferry, Cole's Valley, Rice Hill, Yoncalla, Drain, Comstock, Elkton, Sulphur Springs, Fair Oaks, Civil Bend, Day Creek, Elk Head, Kellogg, Mount Scott, Patterson s Mills, Round Prairie, are the various smaller towns and post-offices in the valley. Scottsburg, situated at the head of tide-water on the lower river, named for Levi Scott, its founder in 1850, and by him destined to be the commercial entrepot of southern Oregon, is now a decayed mountain hamlet. The lower town was all washed away in the great flood of 1861–2, and a whole street of the upper town, with the military road connecting it with the interior country, was made impassable. Another road has been constructed over the mountains, and an attempt made to render the Umpqua navigable to Roseburg, a steamer of small dimensions and light draught being built, which made one trip and abandoned the enterprise, condemning Scottsburg to isolation and retrogression. Gardiner, situated on the north bank of the Umpqua, eighteen miles lower down named by A. C. Gibbs after Captain Gardiner of the Bostonian, a vessel wrecked at the entrance to the river in 1850 laid out in 1851, was the seat of customs collection for several years, during which it was presumed there was a foreign trade. At present it is the seat of two or more lumbering establishments, a salmon-cannery, and a good local trade.
Gilliam county was set off mostly from Wasco, partly from Umatilla, in the spring of 1885. First county officers: commissioners, A. H. Wetherford, W. W. Steiver; judge, J. W. Smith; clerk,—Lucas; sheriff, J. A. Blakely; treasurer, Harvey Condon; assessor, J. C. Cartwright. The town site of Alkali, the present county seat, was laid off in 1882 by James W. Smith, a native of Mississippi. First house built in the latter part of 1881, by E. W. Rhea.
J. H. Parsons, born in Randolph co., Va, came to Cal. in 1857, overland, with a train of 30 wagons led by Capt. L. Mugett, and located in San José Valley, where for twelve years he was a lumber dealer. In 1869 he went to British Columbia and was for 8 years engaged in stock-raising on Thompson's River, after which he settled on John Day River, Oregon, in what is now Gilliam co. He married, in 1877, Josephine Writsman, and has 4 children. He owns 320 acres of bottom-land, has 5 square miles of pasture under fence, has 2,000 head of cattle, and 200 horses. His grain land produces 30 bushels of wheat or 60 bushels of barley to the acre.
Grant county, called after U. S. Grant, occupying a central position in eastern Oregon, contains over fifteen square miles, of which only about one-ninth has been surveyed, less than 200,000 acres settled upon, and less than forty thousand improved. It was organized out of Wasco and Umatilla counties, October 14, 1864, during the rush of mining population to its placers on the head waters of the John Day. Spec. Laws, in Or. Jour. Sen., 1864, 4. 3-4. \n
Its boundaries were defined by act in 1870. Or. Laws, 1870, 167-8. In 1872 a part was taken from Grant and added to Baker county. Or. Laws, 1872, 34-5. These placers no longer yield profitable returns, and are aban doned to the Chinese. There are good quartz mines in the county, which will be ultimately developed. The principal business of the inhabitants is horse- breeding and cattle-raising; but there is an abundance of good agricultural land in the lower portions. The population is about 5,000. The gross valu ation of all property in 1881 was over $1,838,000, the chief part of which was in live-stock.
Canon City, the county seat, was founded in 1862, and incorporated in 1864. It is situated in a canon of the head-waters of John Day River, in the centre of a rich mining district now about worked out. It had 2,500 inhabi tants in 1865. A fire in August 1870 destroyed property worth a quarter of a million, which has never been replaced. The present population is less than 600 for the whole precinct in which Canon City is situated, which comprises some of the oldest mining camps. Prairie City, a few miles distant, Robin- sonville, Mount Vernon, Monument, Long Creek, John Day, Granite, Carnp Harney, and Soda Spring are the minor settlements.
Jackson county, from Andrew Jackson, president, was created January 12, 1852, out of the territory lying south of Douglas, comprising the Rogue River Valley and the territory west of it to the Pacific ocean. Its boundaries have been several times changed, by adding to it a portion of Wasco and tak ing from it the county of Josephine, with other recent modifications. Ita present area is 4,689 square miles, one third of which is good agricultural land, about 91,000 acres of which is improved. Corn and grapes are success fully cultivated in Jackson county in addition to the other cereals and fruits. The valuation of its farms and buildings is over $1,600,000, of live-stock half a million, and of farm products over half a million annually. The valuation of taxable property is nearly two millions. The population is between eight and nine thousand. Mining is the most important industry, the placers still yielding well to a process of hydraulic mining. Jacksonville, founded in 1852, was established as the county seat January 8, 1853, and incorporated in 1864. It owed its location, on Jackson creek, a tributary of Rogue River, to the existence of rich placers in the immediate vicinity, yet unlike most mining towns, it occupies a beautiful site in the centre of a fertile valley, where it must continue to grow and prosper. It is now, as it always has been, an active business place. The population has not increased in twenty years, but has remained stationary at between eight and nine hundred. This is owing to the isolation of the Rogue River Valley, the ownership of the mines by companies, and the competition of the neighboring town of Ashland. Bowies New West, 449; ffines Or., 78-9; Bancroft (A. L.), Journey to Or., 1862, MS., 44. The town of Ashland, founded in 1852 by J. and E. Emry, David Hurley, and J. A. Cardwell, and named after the home of Henry Clay, has a population about equal to Jacksonville. It is the prettiest of the many pretty towns in southern Oregon, being situated on Stuart creek, where it tumbles down from the foot-hills of the Cascade Range with a velocity that makes it a valuable power in operating machinery, and overlooking one of the most beautiful reaches of cultivable country on the Pacific coast. It has the oldest mills in the county, a woollen factory, marble factory, and other manufactories, and is the seat of the state normal school. GardweWs Emigrant, Company, MS., 14; Ashland Tidings, May 3, 1878. The minor towns in this county are Barren, Phoenix, Central Point, Willow Springs, Rock Point, Eagle Point, Big Butte, Brownsborough, Pioneer, Sam s Valley, Sterlingville, Thomas Mill, Union town, Woodville, and Wright.
A pioneer of Jackson county is Thomas Fletcher Beall, who was born in Montgomery co. , Md, in 1703, his mother, whose maiden name was Doras Ann Bedow, being born in the same state when it was a colony, and dying in it. In 1836 his father, Thomas Beall, removed to Illinois, and his son ac companied him, remaining there until 1852, when he emigrated to Oregon, settling in Rogue River Valley. In 1859 he married Ann Hall of Champaign \n
CO., Ohio, then living in Douglas co., Or. They have 12 children 8 boys and 4 girls. Beall was elected to the legislature, and served at the regular session of 1864, and at the called session of 1865 for the purpose of ratifying the 15th amendment of the U. S. constitution. He was again elected in 1884. He has served as school director in his district for 25 years, less one term.
John Lafayette Rowe was born in Jackson co., Or., in 1859, his parents being pioneers. He married Martha Ann Smith, Jan. 1, 1883.
Mrs John A. Cardwell, widow first of William Steadman, was born in Ireland in 1832, removed to Australia in 1849, married Steadman in 1850, removed to San Francisco in 1851, and was left a widow in 1855. She mar ried Cardwell, an Englishman, the following year, and they removed to Sania Valley in Jackson co., Or., where Cardwell died in May 1882. Mrs Card- well has had 5 sons and 6 daughters, one of whom died in 1 868. Cardwell wrote the Emigrant Company , MS., from which I have quoted.
Andrew S. Moore, born in Susquehanna co., Ohio, in 1830, emigrated to Oregon in 1859, settling in Sanis Valley, Jackson co., where he has since re sided, engaged in farming. In 1864 he married Melissa Jane Cox, of Linn co., Iowa. They have 7 sons and 4 daughters.
Arad Comstock Stanley, born in Missouri in 1835, was bred a physician, and emigrated to California in 1864, settling near Woodland. He removed to Jackson co., Or., in 1875, settling in Sanis Valley where he has a farm, but practices his profession. He married Susan Martin in 1862. Their only child is Mrs Sedotha L. Hannah, of Jackson co.
John B. Wrisley, born in Middlebury, Vt, in 1819, removed to New York, Michigan, and Wisconsin, where he married Eliza Jane Jacobs of Iowa co., in 1843. He came to California in 1849, and to Rogue River Valley in 1852. His daughter Alice was the first white girl born in the valley. She married C. Goddard of Medford, Jackson co. Wrisley voted for the state constitu tions of Wisconsin, California, and Oregon; has been active in politics, but always rejected office.
Joshua Patterson was born in Michigan in 1857, immigrated to Oregon in 1862, and settled in Rogue River Valley. He married, in 1880, Ella Jane Fewel, and resides at Ashland. Has 2 children.
Thomas Curry, born near Louisville, Ky, in 1833, removed with his parents to 111., and came to Or. in 1853, settling in the Rogue River Valley, where he has since resided. In 1863 he married Mary E. Button, who came with her parents to Or. in 1854. Of 5 children born to them, 2 are now living.
Jacob Wagner, an immigrant of 1851, was born in Ohio in 1820, and re moved with his parents first to Ind. and afterwards to Iowa. Settling in Ashland, he has been engaged in farming and milling during a generation. He married Ellen Hendricks of Iowa, in 1860, by whom he has had 7 children, 2 of whom are dead.
Franklin Wertz, born in Pa in 1836, married Martha E. V. Beirly of his state, and the couple settled at Medford, where 5 children have been born to them.
Josephine county, cut off from Jackson January 22, 1856, was named after Josephine Rollins, daughter of the discoverer of gold on the creek that also bears her name. Its area is something less than that of Curry or Jackson, between which it lies, and but a small portion of it is surveyed. The amount of land cultivated is not over 20,000 acres, nor the value of farms and improve ments over $400,000, while another $300,000 would cover the value of live stock and farm products. The valuation of taxable property is under 400,- 000. Yet this county has a good proportion of fertile land, and an admirable climate with picturesque scenery to make it fit for settlement, and only its exclusion from lines of travel and facilities for modern advantages of educa tion and society has prevented its becoming more populous. Mining is the chief vocation of its 2,500 inhabitants. When its mines of gold, silver, and copper come to be worked by capitalists, it will be found to be possessed of immense resources. Kirbyville, founded in 1852, is the county seat. The \n
people of this small town have attempted to change its name, but without success. An act was passed by the legislature in 1858 to change it to Napo leon a questionable improvement. Or. Laws, 1858-9, 91. It was changed back by the legislature of 1860. Or. Jour. Sen., 1860, 68. The question of whether the county seat should be at Wilderville or Kirby ville was put to vote by the people in 1876, and resulted in a majority for Kirby ville. Or. Jour. House. It retains not only its original appellation, but the honor of being the capital of the county. The towns of Althouse, Applegate, Waldo, Slate Creek, Murphy, Galice, and Lelaud are contemporaries of the county seat, having all been mining camps from 1852 to the present. Lucky Queen is more modern.
Klamath county, the name being of aboriginal origin, was established October 7, 1882, out of the western part of Lake county, which was made out of that part of Jackson county which was taken from the south end of Wasco county. It contains 5,544 square miles, including the military reservation and the Klamath Indian reservation. The recent date of the division of ter ritory leaves out statistical information. The altitude of the country on the east slope of the Cascade Mountains makes this a grazing rather than an agri cultural county, although the soil is good and the cereals do well, excepting Indian corn. Link ville, situated on Link River, between the Klamath lakes, was founded by George Nourse, a sutler from Fort Klamath, about 1871, who built a bridge over the stream and a hotel on the east side, and so fixed the nucleus of the first town in the country. It is the county seat and a thriving business centre. Nourse planted the first fruit-trees in the Klamath country, which in 1873 were doing well. It contains the minor settlements of Fort Klamath, Klamath Agency, Langell, Bonanza, Mergauser, Yainax, Tule Lake, and Sprague River.
Simpson Wilson, born in Yamhill co. in 1849, is a son of Thomas A. Wil son, who migrated to Oregon in 1847. Father and son removed to Langell Valley, in what is now Klamath co. , in 1870, to engage in stock-raising. Simp son Wilson married, on the 16th of July, 1871, at Linkville, Nancy Ellen Hall, who came across the plains with her parents from Iowa, in 1858. This was the first marriage celebrated in Klamath co. They have 2 sons and 3 daugh ters,
John T. Fulkerson was born in Williams co., Ohio, in 1840, his parents having migrated from N. Y. in their youth. In 1860 John T. joined a train of Arkansas emigi-ants under Captain Joseph Lane, migrating to Cal. and set tling in the San Joaquin Valley, where he remained until 1865, when he re moved to Jackson co., Oregon, and in 1867 to Laugell Valley, being one of the earliest settlers of this region, then still a part of Jackson co. He mar ried, in 1866, Ellen E. Hyatt, formerly of Iowa, who in crossing the plains a few years previous lost her mother and grandmother. They have 4 sons and 3 daughters.
Jonathan Howell, born in Guilford co., N. C., in 1828, and brought up in 111. He came to Cal. in 1850, overland, and located in Mariposa co., residing there and in Merced and Tulare 9 years, after w Inch he returned to the east and remained until 1876, living in several states during that time. When he returned to the Pacific coast it was to Rogue River Valley that he came, re moving soon after to the Klamath basin, and settling near the town of Bo nanza. He married, in 1860, Susanna Statsman, born in Schuyler co., 111. They have living, 2 sons and 1 daughter.
Thomas Jefferson Goodwyn, born in Suffolk co., England, in 1846, went to Australia in 1864, and from there migrated to Oregon ten years later, settling at Bonanza. He married Genevieve Roberts of Jackson co., in 1881, and has 2 sons and 2 daughters.
John McCurdy, born in Pugh co., Va, in 1836, and reared in 111. ; migrated to Portland, Oregon, in 1864, where he chiefly resided until 1880, when he settled in Alkali Valley, Klamath co. He married Frances M. Thomas of McDonough co., 111., in 1857. They had 2 sons and 1 daughter, when in im migrating hia wife died, and was buried in the Bitter Root Mounta ins. \n
McCurdy has a brother, Martin V., in Lassen co., Cal., and another brother, Joseph, in Nevada.
Lake county, organized October 23, 1874, took its name from the number of lakes occupying a considerable portion of its surface. It formerly embraced Klamath county, and its first county seat was at Linkville. But by a vote of the people, authorized by the legislature, the county seat was removed to Lakeview, on the border of Goose Lake, in 1876, previous to the setting-off of Klamath county. It contains 6,768 square miles, less than 44,000 acres being improved. Its farms and buildings are valued at $451,000, the assessed valuation of real and personal property being about $700,000, and the total gross valuation over $1,039,000. This valuation is for the county of Lake before its division, there being nothing later to refer to. The population is less than 3,000 for the two counties of Lake and Klamath. The settlements are Drew Valley, Antler, Hot Springs, Chewaucan, White Hill, SumDer, and Silver Lake.
Among the settlers of this comparatively new county are Thomas O. Blair, born in Ohio, who emigrated in 1859 by ox-team. Before starting he married Lovisa Anderson. They reside on Crooked Creek, near Lakeview. Charles A. Rehart, born in Perry co. , Ohio, came to Oregon overland in 1865. He follows farming and sheep-raising in the Chewaucan Valley. He married Martha Ann Brooks in Dec. 1876.
Michael Suit, born in Marion co. Ohio, emigrated overland to Oregon in 1859, in company with his sister, Mary Cruzan. He farms and raises stock at Summer Lake. He married, in 1880, Laura Bell Conrad.
George Clayton Duncan, who was born in 111. in 1827, emigrated to Oregon in 1854, and resides at Paisley, in Lake co. He married Eliza Binehart in 1848. They have 3 sons and 3 daughters.
Thomas J. Brattaiu, born in 111. in 1829, came to Oregon in 1850, over land, and resides at Paisley. He married Permetiu J. Gillespie in 1859. They have 3 sons and 1 daughter. There came with them to Oregon John, Alfred, William C., Francis M., and James C. Brattain, brothers; and Eliza beth Ebbert, Mary Brattain, Millie A. Smith, and Martha J. Hadley, sisters.
Lane county, named after Joseph Lane, was organized January 24, 1851, out of Linn and Benton. Its southern boundary was defined December 22, 1853. Its area is 4,492 miles, of which about 229,000 acres are improved. The value of farms and buildings is $4,600,000; of live-stock, $700,000; of farm products, $900,000; and of all taxable property, about $3,400,000. The population is between nine and ten thousand. Extending from the Cascade Mountains to the ocean, Lane county comprises a variety of topographical features, including the foot-hills of Calapooya Range, and the rougher hill land of the Coast Range, with the level surfaces of the Willamette plains. Its productions partake of this variety. Besides grains, vegetables, fruits, and dairy produce, it is the largest hop-producing county in Oregon, the crop of 1882 selling for a million dollars. Eugene City, the principal town, was founded in 1847 by Eugene Skinner. It was chosen for the county seat by a vote of the people in 1853, and incorporated in 1864. It is well located, near the junction of the coast and McKenzie fork of the Willamette, at the head of navigation, surrounded by the picturesque scenery of the mountains which close in the valley a few miles farther south. It is the seat of the state university, with a population of about 1,200. Junction City, at the junction of the Oregon Central and Oregon and California railroads, was built up by the business of these roads. It was incorporated in 1872, and has between three and four hundred inhabitants. The lesser settlements are Cottage Grove, Divide, Latham, Cress well, Rattlesnake, Goshen, Springfield, Leaburg, Willamette Forks, Irving, Cartwright, Chesher, Linslaw, Spencer Creek, Camp Creek, Cannon, Crow .Dexter, Florence, Franklin, Ida, Isabel, Long Tom, McKenzie Bridge, Mohawk, Pleasant Hill, Tay, Trent, and Walterville.
Linn county, named in honor of Lewis F. Linn of Missouri, was organized December 28, 1847, out of all that territory lying south of Champoeg and east of Benton. Its southern boundary was established January 4, 185 L, \n
giving an area of about 2,000 square miles, of which 256,000 acres are im proved. The valuation of farms and buildings for 1879 was over seven millions, of live-stock nearly a million, and of farm products almost a million and a half. The total valuation of assessable property reached to considerably over four million dollars. The population is between twelve and thirteen thou sand. This county has three natural divisions, the first lying between the north and south Santiam rivers; the second between Santiam River and Cala- pooya creek, and the third between Calapooya creek and the south boundary line, each of which has a business centre of its own. Albany, the county seat, founded in 1848 by Walter and Thomas Monti eth, named after Albany, N. Y., by request of James P. Millar, and incorporated in 1864, is the prin cipal town in the county, and the centre of trade for the country between the Santiam and Calapooya rivers. It has a fine water-power, and several manu factories, and is the seat of the presbyterian college. The population is 2,000. Brownsville, incorporated in 1874, Lebanon, and Waterloo, each with a few hundred inhabitants, are thriving towns in this section. Scio, in the forks of the Santiam, incorporated in 1866, is the commercial centre of this district, with a population of about 500. Harrisburg, situated on the Willamette River and the Oregon and California railroad, is the shipping point for a rich agri cultural region. It was incorporated in 1866. The present population is 500. Halsey, named after an officer of the railroad company, was founded about 1872, and incorporated in 1876. The lesser towns in this county are Pine, Shedd, Sodaville, Tangent, Oakville, Fox Valley, Jordan, Mabel, Miller, Mount Pleasant, and Crawford sville.
Marion county, one of the original four districts of 1843, called Champoeg, had its name changed to Marion by an act of the legislature of September 3, 1849, in honor of General Francis Marion. Champoeg, or Champooick, dis trict comprised all the Oregon territory on the east side of the Willamette, north of a line drawn due east from the mouth of Pudding or Anchiyoke River to the Rocky Mountains. Or. Archives, 26. Its southern limit was fixed when Linn county was created, and the eastern boundary when the county of \Vasco was established in 1854. Its northern line was readjusted in Jan uary 1856, according to the natural boundary of Pudding River and Butte Creek, which adjustment gives it an irregular wedge shape. It contains about 1,200 square miles, of which 200,000 acres are under improvement. Its farms and buildings are valued at nearly eight million dollars, its live-stock eight hundred thousand, and its annual farm products at more than a million and a half. The assessed valuation of real and personal property is four million dollars, of all taxable property over six millions. The population is between fourteen and fifteen thousand. Salem, the county seat and the capital of the state, was founded in 1841 by the Methodist Mission, and its history has been given at length. It was named by David Leslie, after Salem, Mass., in prefer ence to Chemeketa, the native name, which should have been retained. It was incorporated January 29, 1858, and has a population of about 5,000. The Willamette university, the state-house, county court-house, penitentiary, churches, and other public and private buildings, situated within large squares bordered by avenues of unusual width and surrounded by trees, make an im pression upon the observer favorable to the founders, who builded better than they knew. Salem has also a fine water-power, and mills and factories, and is in every sense the second city in the state. Gervais, named after Joseph Gervais of French Prairie, incorporated in 1874, is a modern town built up by the railroad. Butteville, which takes its name from a round mountain in the vicinity butte, the French term for isolated elevations, has been adopted into the nomenclature of Oregon, where it appears in Spencer butte, Beaty butte, Pueblo butte, etc. is an old French town on the Willamette at the north end of French prairie, but not so old as Champoeg in its vicinity. They both date back to the first settlement of the Willamette Valley, and neither have more than from four to six hundred in their precincts. Jeffer son, the seat of Jefferson Institute, was founded early in the history of the county, although not incorporated until 1870. It is situated on the north \n
bank of the Santiam River, ten miles from its confluence with the Willamette, and has fine flouring mills. The population is small. Silverton is another of the early farming settlements, which takes its name from Silver creek, a branch of Pudding River, on which it is situated, and both from the supposed discovery of silver mines at the head of this and other streams in Marion county, about 1857. It was not incorporated until 1874. Aurora was founded by a community of Germans, under the leadership of William Keil, in 1855. The colony was an offshoot of Bethel colony in Missouri, also founded by Keil in 1835. On the death of Keil, about 1879, the community system was broken up. Three hundred of these colonists own 16,000 acres of land at Aurora. Moss Pictures Or. City, MS., 82; Decides Hist. Or., MS., 78; S. F. Post, July 28, 1881. Other towns and post-offices in the county are Hubbard, named after Thomas J. Hubbard, who came to Oregon with Wyeth and settled in the Willamette Valley, Sublimity, Mohama, Fairfield, Aumsviile, Turner, Wliiteaker, Stayton, Woodburn, Bellpasie, Stipp, Brooks, Saint Paul, and Daly s Mill.
Multnomah county, which has taken a local Indian name, was organized December 23, 1854, out of Washington and Clackamas counties. Its boun daries were finally changed October 24, 1864. It is about fifty miles long by ten in width, and comprises a small proportion of agricultural land, being mountainous and heavily timbered. Less than 27,000 acres are tinder im provement, the value of farms, including buildings and fences, being $2, 283,- 000, of live-stock less than $200,000, and of farm produce not quite $400, 000. The gross value of all property in the county is over nineteen millions, and the valuation of taxable property about fourteen millions. The population is 26,000. The capital invested in manufactures is nearly two millions, and the value of productions approaches three millions. Portland, founded in 1845 by A. L. Lovejoy and F. W. Pettygrove, and named after Portland, Maine, by the latter, is the county seat of Multnomah, and the principal commercial city of Oregon. It was first incorporated in January 1851, at which time its dimensions were two miles in length, along the river, and extending one mile west from it. Portland Orer/onian, April 15, 1871. The city government was organized April 15, 1851. There is no copy of the incor poration act of 1851 in my library, but the act is mentioned by its title in the Oregon Statesman for March 28, 1851, and the date is also given in an article by Judge Deady in the Overland Monthly, i. 37. The first mayor chosen was Hugh D. O Bryant. The ground being thickly covered with a fir forest, there was a long battle with this impediment to improvement, and for twenty years a portion of the town site was disfigured with the blackened shafts of immense trees denuded of their branches by fire. The population increased slowly, by a healthy growth, stimulated occasionally by military operations and mining excitements. In 1850 shipping began to arrive from S. F. for lumber and farm products, and Couch & Co. despatched the first brig to China the Emma Preston. On the 4th of December of that year the first Portland newspaper, the Weekly Orefjonian, was started by Thomas J. Dryer. In March 1851 the steamship Columbia began running regularly between S. F. and Portland, with the monthly mails. The Columbia, after running on this line for ten years, was burned in the China seas. In 1853 the first brick building was erected by William S. Ladd. In 18G5 there were four churches, one public school, one academy, four printing-ofiices, four steam saw-mills, a steam flouring mill, and about forty dry-goods and grocery stores, the cash value of the real and personal property of the town being not much short of two and a half millions.
In 1856 the city government took the volunteer fire-companies in charge and purchased an engine. Pioneer Engine Company No. 1 of Portland, the first organized fire-company in Oregon, was formed in May 1851. Its foreman was Thomas J. Dryer of the Ore<jonian, assistant foreman D. C. Coleman, secretary J. B. Meer, treasurer William Seton Ogden. Among the members were some of Portland s most honored citizens, but they had no engine. Vigilance Hook and Ladder Company No. 1 was the next organization, iu \n
July 1853; foreman J. B. Smith, assistant foreman H. W. Davis, secretary Charles A. Poore, treasurer S. J. McCormick. In August of the same year Willamette Engine Company No. 1 was organized, and secured a small engine owned by G. W. Vaughn. The company was officered by foreman N. Ham, assistant foreman David Monastes, second assistant A. Strong, secretary A. M. Berry, treasurer Charles E. Williams. It was admitted to the depart ment in July 1854, and furnished with an engine worked by hand, provided by the city council in 1856, since replaced by a steam apparatus. Multno- inah Engine Company No. 2 was admitted to the department in November 1856, using Vaughn s small engine for a year, when they were supplied M r ith a Hunneman engine, the money being raised by subscription. Its first officers were James A. Smith president, B. L. Norden secretary, W. J. Van Schuy ver treasurer, William Cummings foreman. These three companies composed the fire department of Portland down to June 1859, when Columbia Engine Com pany No. 3 was organized. In October 1862 Protection Engine Company No. 4 was added; and in 1873 Tiger Engine Company No. 5. - A company of exempt firemen also exists, having a fund from which benefits are drawn for the relief of firemen disabled in the discharge of their duty. Portland has suffered several heavy losses by fire, the greatest being in August 1873, when 250 houses were burned, worth $1,000,000. This conflagration followed close upon a previous one in December 1872, destroying property worth $250,000. The Portland fire department in 1879 numbered 375 members, composed of respect able mechanics, tradesmen, merchants, and professional men. Each of the six companies had a handsome brick engine-house and hall. A dozen alarm-sta tions were connected by telegraph with the great bell in a tower seventy feet in height. In 1881 steps were taken to secure a paid fire department, which was established soon after. Water-works for supplying the town with water for domestic purposes were begun in this year by Stephen Coffin and Robert Penland, under a city ordinance permitting pipes to be put down in the streets. The right was sold to Henry D. Green in 1860. In 1868 there were eight miles of mains laid, and two reservoirs constructed. The price of water at this date was $2.50 a month for the use of an ordinary family. A charter was granted to Green to manufacture gas for illuminating Portland, by the legislature of 1858-9, the manufactory being completed about the spring of 1860. Laws Or., 1858-9, 55; Or. Argus, Sept. 24, 1859; Oregonian, Jan. 21, 1860. Price of gas in 1868, $6 per 1,000 feet.
The first theatre erected in Oregon was built by C. P. Stewart at Portland in 1858. It was 100 feet long by 36 wide, and seated 600 persons. It opened November 23d with a good company, but was never permanently occupied. Or. Statesman, Nov. 30, 1858. In 1864 theatricals were again attempted, the Keene company and Julia Deane Hayne playing here for a short season. In 1868 a theatre was opened, called the Newmarket, and used for any musical or theatrical performance; but down to 1884 no special theatre building was erected, or theatrical representations kept going for more than a few weeks in the year. Portland, besides lacking the population, was domestic and home- loving in its habits, and also somewhat religious in the middle classes, pre ferring to build churches rather than theatres. The population at this time was but 1,750, there being but 927 voters in Multnomah county. In 1860 the population had increased to nearly 3,000; in 1862 to a little over 4,000; in 1864 to 5,819, and in 1877 to 6,717. In 1870 the census returns gave 8,300 ; Since that time the increase has been little more marked, the census of 1880 giving the population at 17,600, to which the five years following added at least 5,000. The original limits were increased, by the addition of Couch s claim on the north and Caruthers claim on the south, to about three square miles, most of which is laid out, with graded, planked, or paved streets. One line of street-cars, put in operation in 1868, traversed First Street, parallel with the river-front, and one, incorporated in 1881, ran back to and on Eleventh Street. The general style of domestic architecture had improved rapidly with the increase of wealth and population, and Portland business houses became costly and elegant. The gross cash value of property in Portland in 1868 was about \n
ten millions, and in 1884 was not far from eighteen millions. Deady, in Over land Monthly, i. 38; Reid s Progress of Portland, 23. The principal public building in Portland in 1868 was the county court-house on Fourth S^eet, which cost about $100,000, built of brick and stone in 1866. The United States erected the post-office and custom-house building on Firth Street, of Bellingham Bay freestone, in 1869-70, at a cost, with the furniture, of $450,- 000. The methodist church on Taylor Street was finished in 1869 the first brick church in the city costing $40,000. The Masonic Hall and Odd Fel lows Temple were erected about this time, and the market and theatre on First Street. From this period the improvement in architecture, both do mestic and for business purposes, was rapid, and the laying-out and paving or planking of streets proceeded at the rate of several miles annually. A million dollars was expended in enlarging the gas and water works between 1868 and 1878. A mile and a quarter of substantial wharves were added to the city front, and a number of private residences, costing from $20,000 to $30,000, were erected. Since 1877 these fine houses have multiplied, that of United States Senator Dolph and ex-United States Attorney-general Williams being of great elegance, though built of wood. The squares in Portland be ing small, several of the rich men took whole blocks to themselves, which, being laid out in lawns, greatly beautified the appearance of the town.
Among the prominent business men of Portland, who have not been hith erto named, I may mention Donald Macleay, who was born in Scotland in 1834, and when a young man went to Canada, where he engaged in business at Richmond, in the province of Quebec. From there he came to Portland in 1866, going into a wholesale grocery trade with William Corbitt of San Fran cisco, and carrying on an importing and exporting business. In 1869 his brother, Kenneth Macleay, was admitted to the firm, which does a large ex port trade, and has correspondents in all the great commercial cities. This firm made the first direct shipment of salmon to Liverpool, and is interested at present in salmon -canning on the Columbia. It has exported wheat since 1869-70, and more recently flour also, being the first firm to engage in the regular shipment of wheat and flour to London and Liverpool. In 1872-4 it purchased several ships, which were placed in the trade with China, Aus tralia, and the Sandwich Islands. One of these, the Mattie, Macleay, was named after a daughter of D. Macleay. Since his ad vent in Portland, Macleay has been identified with all enterprises tending to develop the country. He is one of the directors of the Cal. & Or. R. R., and has been vice-president; and has been vice-president of the N. W. Trading Co. of Alaska, in which he is a stockholder, a director in the Southern Or. Development Co. ; local presi dent of the Or. & Wash. Mortgage Savings Bank of Scotland, which brought much foreign capital to the country; and trustee of the Dundee Trust Invest ment Co. of Scotland, representing a large amount of capital in Oregon and Washington. For several terms he has been president of the board of trade, and at the same time has not been excused from the presidency of the Arling ton Club, or the British Benevolent and St Andrews societies. Few men, have discharged so many and onerous official duties.
Richard B. Knapp was born in Ohio in 1839, where he resided until 1858, when he went to Wisconsin, from which state he came to Oregon the follow ing year. In 1860 his brother, J. B. Knapp, together with M. S. Burrell, founded the house of Knapp & Burrell, dealers in hardware and agricultural implements, to which he was admitted in 1862, and from which his brother retired in 1870. This house was the first to engage in the trade in agricultu ral machinery, for a long time the only one, and is still the most important in the north-west. It has done much to develop the farming interest of eastern Oregon and Washington, and recently of British Columbia.
Although Portland is 112 miles from the sea, and twelve above the junc tion of the Willamette with the Columbia, it was made a port of entry for the district of the Willamette. In 1848, when the territory was established, congress declared a collection district, with a port of entry at Astoria, the president to name two ports of delivery in the territory, one to be on Puget \n
Sound. Nisqually and Portland were made ports of delivery by proclamation January 10, 1850, and surveyors of customs appointed at $1,000 per year. About the time when there had begun to be some use for the office it was discontinued, 1861, and foreign goods were landed at Portland in charge of an officer from Astoria. But in July 1864 an act was approved again making Portland a port of delivery, U. S. Acts, 1863-4, 353, in answer to numerous petitions for a port of entry, a great deal of circumlocution being required to deliver goods to the importer, whether in foreign or American bottoms. Deady, in 8. F. Bulletin, July 6, 1864. The legislature of 1864, by resolution, still insisted on having a port of entry at Portland; and again, by resolution, in 1866 declared the necessity of a bonded warehouse, suggesting that the gov ernment erect a building for the storage of goods in bond, and for the use of the federal courts and post-office. Such an appropriation was made in 1868, and the bonded warehouse erected in 1869-70, in which latter year Portland was the port of entry of Willamette collection district. Cong. Globe, 1869-70, ap. 664-5. Later steam-vessels for Portland entered at Astoria (Oregon dis trict) and cleared from there to Portland (Willamette district). Outward bound they cleared at Portland, entering and clearing again at Astoria, some sailing vessels doing the same. The harbor is safe though small, the channel requiring the constant use of a dredger. Pilotage to Portland and insurance were high, drawbacks which it was believed would be overcome by the application to river improvements of a hoped-for congressional appropria tion. A comparison of the exports and imports of the two districts are thus given in Fai-risKs Commercial and Financial Review for 1877, 20-4. Foreign exports cleared from Portland to the value of $3,990,387; from Astoria, $2,451,357. Foreign imports entered at Portland, $461,248; entered at As toria, $27,544. The number of coastwise vessels entered at Portland in this year was 177, with an aggregate tonnage of 188,984. The clearances coast wise were 114, with a tonnage of 125,190. The number of foreign vessels entering was 37, with a total tonnage of 12,139. Most if not all, of these vessels loaded with wheat and salmon for English ports. About an equal number of American vessels for foreign ports loaded with wheat and fish. The wheat was taken on at Portland and the salmon at Astoria. At the close of 1878 the wholesale trade of three firms alone exceeded nine million dollars. Eight ocean steamers, sixty river steamers, three railroads, and a hundred foreign vessels were employed in the commerce of the state which centred at Portland, together with that of eastern Washington and Idaho. The year s exports from the city amounted to $13,983,650. The value of real estate sales in the city were nearly a million and a half, with a population of less than eighteen thousand.
There were in 1878 twenty schools, public and private, sixteen churches, thirty-five lodges or secret organizations, fifteen newspaper publications, three public and private hospitals, a public library, a gymnasium, a theatre, market, and four public school buildings. I have spoken fully of the Portland schools in another place. Of societies and orders for benevolent and other purposes, Portland in particular and all the chief towns in general have a large number. Of different Masonic lodges, there are the Multnomah Council of Kadosh, 30th Degree, No. 1; Ainsworth Chapter of RoseCroix, 18th degree, No. 1; Oregon Lodge of Perfection, 14th degree, No. 1; Oregon Commandery No. 1; Grand Chapter; Portland Royal Arch Chapter, No. 3; Grand Lodge; Willamette Lodge No. 2, Harmony Lodge No. 12; Portland Lodge No. 55; Masonic Board of Relief; Washington Lodge No. 46, East Portland. The Masons have a fine building on Third Street. The Grand Lodge of Odd Fellows meets annually at Portland in the Odd Fellows Temple, a handsome edifice on First Street. Ellison Encampment No. 1, Samaritan Lodge No. 2, Hassalo Lodge No. 15, Minerva Lodge No. 19, Orient Lodge No. 17, all have their home in Portland. The Improved Order of Red Men have three tribes, Multnomah No. 3, Oneonta No. 4, Willamette No. 6. The Great Council meets where it is appointed. The Good Templars have three lodges, Multnomah No. 12, Nonpareil No. 86, Portland Lodge No. 102, and a Grand Lodge of Deputies. \n
The Knights of Pythias have two lodges, Excelsior No. 1 and Mystic No. 2. The First Hebr?w Benevolent Association of Portland and Independent Order of B nai B rith represent the benevolence of the Jewish citizens; the Hibernian Benevolent Association and United Irishmen s Benevolent Association, the Irish population; St Andrews Society, the Scotch; the Scandinavian Society, the north of Europe people; the British Benevolent Society, the English resi dents; the German Benevolent Society, the immigrants from Germany each for the relief of its own sick and destitute.
St Vincent de Paul Society relieves the needy of the catholic church. The Ladies Relief Society sustains a home or temporary shelter for destitute women and children; the ladies of the protestant Episcopal church support the orphanage and Good Samaritan Hospital; and a General Relief Society gives assistance to whoever is found otherwise unprovided for. Of military organizations, there were the City Rifles, Washington Guard, and Emmet Guard. Of miscellaneous organizations, there were the Grand Army of the Re public, the Multnomah Coimty Medical Society, the Ladies Guild of the Epis copal Church, German-American Rifle Club, Portland Turn Verein, Father Matthew Society, Olympic Club, Oregon Bible Society, Workingmen s Club, Young Men s Catholic Association, Alpha Literary Society, and Althean Lit erary Society.
Between 1878 and 1882 two public schools were added, a mariners home, a new presbyterian church, a pavilion for the exhibition of the industrial arts and state products, beside many semi-public buildings and private edifices. Nearly three million dollars were expended in 1882 in the erection of resi dence and business houses; and about four millions in 1883 upon city improve ments of every kind. The wholesale trade of Portland for 1882 reached forty millions, inceasing in 1883 to about fifty millions. Much of this busi ness was the result of railroad construction and the sudden development of eastern Oregon and Washington, all the supplies for which were handled at Portland. The opening of the Northern Pacific in the autumn of 1883 began to tell upon the rather phenomenal prosperity of Portland from 1873 to 1883, much of the wholesale trade of the upper country being transferred to the east. The improvements made by the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company have, however, been of much permanent benefit to Portland, one of the most important being the dry-dock, over 400 feet long, over 100 feet wide, and 50 feet deep, for the construction and repair of sea-going vessels. It was found after completion that the bottom rested upon quicksand, which necessitated expensive alterations and repairs. The filling up of low ground and covering it with substantial machine-shops, warehouses, car manufactories, and depot buildings added not only to the appearance but the healthfuliiess of the environs of the city.
The suburbs of Portland are pleasant, the drives north and south of the city affording charming glimpses of the silvery Willamette with its woody islands and marginal groups of graceful oaks. Back of the city, lying on a hillside, with a magnificent view of the town, the river, and five snowy peaks, is the reat park of the city, long remaining for the most part in a state of nature, and all the more intenesting for that. A few miles south on the river road was placed the cemetery, a beautiful situation overlooking the river, with a handsome chapel and receiving-vault. The ground was purchased and laid off about 1880. Previous to this, the burial-ground of Portland had been on the east side of the river, and inconvenient of access.
East Portland, built upon the land claim of James Stevens, who settled there in 1844, had in 1884 a population of about 1,800. It was incorporated in 1870. East Portland was connected with Portland by a steam-ferry in 1868. A drawbridge completed the union of the two towns, which were made practically one. Several additions were made to Ea^t Portland. About the time of its incorporation, Ben Holladay bought a claim belonging to Wheeler on the north end, and laid it out in lots. McMillan also laid off his claim north of Holladay. Sullivan and Tibbets laid out a town, called Brooklyn, on the south. Albina is a manufacturing town north of McMillan s addition, and HIST. OB., VOL. II. tf \n
was founded about 1869 by Edwin Russell, proprietor of the iron-works at that place, who failed, and left it just in time for other men to make fortunes out of it.
Sellwood, named after the episcopalian ministers of that name, was laid off in 1882, during the land speculation consequent upon railroad building. St John, six miles below East Portland, is an old settlement, with a few man ufactories. Troutdale, six miles east of Portland, Mount Tabor, Powell Valley, Arthur, Leader, Pleasant Home, Rooster Rock, and Willamette Slough are the lesser settlements of Multnomah county.
Polk county, named after James K. Polk, was organized as a district De cember 22, 1845, and comprised the whole of the territory lying south of Yamhill district and west of a supposed line drawn from the mouth of Yam- hill River to the 42d parallel. Its southern boundary was established in 1847, and its western in 1853, when the counties of Benton and Tillamook were created. Its present area is about 650 square miles, of which over 167,000 acres are improved. The valuation put upon its farms and improvements is over four and a half millions, its live-stock in 1884 was valued at $600,000, and its farm products at $1,200,000. The real and personal property of the county was assessed at a little short of two millions. Population, 7,000. Dallas, on the La Creole River, was named after the vice-president. It was made the county seat in 1850-1, and incorporated in 1874. An act was passed for the relocation of the county c-eat in 1876, but Dallas was again chosen by the popular vote of the county. It is a prettily located town of 700 inhabitants, with a good water-power, several manufactories, and a private academy. Independence, situated on the Willamette River, was incorporated in 1874, has a population of 700, and is a thriving place. Monmouth, the seat of the Christian college, is a flourishing town of 300 inhabitants in a populous precinct. It was founded by S. S. Whitman, T. H. Lucas, A. W. Lucas, J. B. Smith, and Elijah Davidson, for a university town. It was incorporated in 1859. Buena Vista, on the Willamette, had a population of two or three hundred. In it was the chief pottery in Oregon. It was incorporated in 1876. Bethel, Luckiamute, Eola, founded in 1851 by William Durand, Grand Rond, Elk Horn, Brooks, Lincoln, Lewisville, Ballston, Crowley, McCoy, Parker, Perrydale, Zena, and Dixie, are the lesser towns and settle ments of Polk county. The culture of hops in this county assumed consider able importance.
Tillamook county, the Indian appellation given to the bay and river by Lewis and Clarke, was created out of Clatsop, Yamhill, and Polk counties, December 15, 1853. It contains nearly 1,600 square miles. Lumbering and dairying are the chief industries, and little farming is carried on. The value of improvements of this kind is between four and five hundred thousand dol lars. The valuation of real and personal property in the county amounts to less than $100,000.. The county seat is Tillamook, at the head of the bay. The whole white population of the county is less than a thousand, including the towns of Nestockton, Kilchis, Garabaldi, and Nehalem. The Siletz Indian reservation is in the southern end of the county.
Umatilla county, the aboriginal name, was organized September 27, 1862, out of that portion of Wasco county lying between Willow Creek on the west and the summit of the Blue Mountains on the east, and between the Columbia on the north and the ridge dividing the John Day country from the great basin south of it. Its boundaries have since been made more regular, and its present area is 6,500 square miles. There are over 144,000 acres of improved land in the county, valued, with the buildings and fences, at over two and a half million dollars, the farm products a little less than a million, and the live-stock at $1,800,000. The assessed valuation of real and personal property in the county is $2,094,000. Population in 1884, 10,000. Pendleton, the county seat, named after George H. Pendleton, was founded in 1868 by com missioners appointed for the purpose, and incorporated October 23, 1880. It is situated on the Umatilla River, in the midst of a beautiful country, and pn the edge of the reservation of the Umatillas, with whom, as well aa \n UMATILLA AND UNION". 723
with the country about, it enjoys a good trade. The population is about 1,000. Umatilla City, settled in 1862, was first called Cain s landing, then Columbia, and finally incorporated as Umatilla in 1864. It was the place of transfer for a large amount of merchandise and travel destined to the Boise 1 and Owyhee mines, as well as the most eastern mining districts of Oregon, and carried on an active business for a number of years. It became the county seat in 1865, by special election. The establishment of Pendleton in a more central location, and the withdrawal of trade consequent on the failure of the mines, deprived Umatilla of its population, which was re duced to 150, and caused the county seat to be removed to Pendleton. Weston, on Pine Creek, a branch of the Walla Walla River, was named after Weston, Missouri, and incorporated in 1878. It is purely an agricultural town, with three or four hundred inhabitants, beautifully situated, and pros perous. The minor towns and settlements are Meadowville, Milton, Heppner, Pilot Rock, Centreville, Midway, Lena, Butter Creek, Agency, Cayuse, Cold Spring, Echo, Hardmann, Hawthorne, Helix, Moorhouse, Pettysville, Purdy, and Snipe.
Union county, so named by unionists in politics, was created October 14, 1804, to meet the requirements of a rapidly accumulating mining population, La Grande, upon the petition of 500 citizens, being named in the act as the county seat until an election could be had. It occupies the extreme north east corner of the state, touching Washington and Idaho. Its area embraces 5,400 square miles, of which aboiit 95,000 acres are improved, the farms and buildings being valued atone and a half millions; the live-stock of the county at $1,029,000, and the farm products at $432, 000. The valuation of real and personal property for the tenth census was given at considerably over a million and a quarter. The population was about 7,000. The chief industries are stock-raising, sheep-farming, and dairying. Union City was founded in the autumn of 1862, by the immigration of that year, at the east end of Grand Ilond Valley, in a rich agricultural region. It w r as chosen for the county seat in 1873, by a vote of the people, and incorporated in 1878. Its popula tion is eight hundred, and rapidly increasing. D. S. Baker and A. H. Rey nolds of Walla Walla erected a flouring mill at Union in 1864, the first in Grand Rond Valley. La Grande was founded in October of 1861 by Daniel Chaplin, the first settler in the valley. It took its name from reminiscences of the French voyageurs, la grande valle e, a term often applied to the Grand Rond Valley. The town w r as made the temporary seat of Union county by act of the legislature in 1864, and incorporated in 1865. A land-office was established here in 1867, for the sale of state lands, Chaplin being appointed receiver. In 1872 this district was made identical with theU. S. land district of La Grande. La Grande is also the seat of the Blue Mountain University. The population is 600. Sparta, Oro Dell, Island City, Cove, and Summer- ville are the lesser towns of Grand Rond Valley; and Lostine, Joseph, and Alder of Wallowa Valley. Elk Flat, Keating, New Bridge, Pine Valley, Prairie creek, and Slater are the other settlements.
Among the residents of Union county who have furnished me a dictation is James Quincy Shirley, who was born in Hillborough, N. H., in 1829, and edu cated in New London. He came to California in 184-9, by sea, and mined at Beal s Bar on American River. He was in the neighborhood of Downieville 2 years, trading in cattle, which he bought cheap at the old missions, and sold high to the miners. He remained in the business in different parts of the state until 1862, when he started with a pack-train of goods for Idaho, but had everything taken from him by Indians, near Warner Lake, from which point he escaped on foot to Powder River with his party, and went to the Florence mines. From Idaho he went to Portland, and by the aid of a friend secured employment under the government, but left the place and cut and sold hay in Nevada the following year, getting $25 and $30 per ton at Aurora. In 1864 he again purchased cattle, at $2.50 per head, driving them to Montana, where they sold for 814. Horses for which he paid $14 sold for from $30 to $80. This being a good profit, he repeated the trade the following year, driving his \n
stock through Nevada, and purchasing old Fort Hall, which he resold to the government 3 years afterward. In 1869 he settled in Raft River Valley, Idaho, where he had a horse and cattle rancho. In the autumn he shipped the first cattle ever carried on the Central Pacific railroad from Humboldt House to Niles, Cal. He continued in this trade for several years longer, and in 1883 sold out his stock and land at Raft River for $100,000, bought 10,000 sheep and placed them on a range in Utah. After looking over new and old Mexico for land, he finally settled in Union co., Oregon, where he raises grain, and buys and sells cattle, an example of what can be done if the man knows how to do it. His real property lies in 4 different states and ter ritories, and he has $100,000 in live-stock.
Wasco county, named after an Indian tribe inhabiting about the dalles of the Columbia, was organized January 11, 1854, comprising under the act creating it the whole of eastern Oregon, these boundaries being reduced from time to time by its division into other counties. Its area is 6,250 square miles, of which about 80,000 acres are improved, valued at $1,700,000. The products of farms were valued at a little less than half a million for 1879, while the live-stock of the county was assessed at not quite two millions. The gross valuation of all property in 1881-2 was set down at about four and a half millions, and of taxable property $3,220,000. The population of the county at the tenth census was not much over 11,000. Wasco county pos sesses a great diversity of soil, climate, and topography. There is a large extent of excellent wheat land, and an equal or greater amount of superior grazing land. More sheep and horses were raised in Wasco than in any other county, while only Baker exceeded it in the number of horned cattle. The Dalles is the county seat of Wasco. Its name was first given it by the Hudson s Bay Company, whose French servants used a nearly obsolete word of their language dalle, trough or gutter to describe the channel of the Columbia at this place. By common usage it became the permanent appella tive for the town which grew up there, which for a time attempted to add
- city to Dalles, but relinquished it, since which time The Dalles only is
used. To the dalles, which rendered a portage necessary, the town owes its location. It was founded by the methodist missionaries Lee and Perkins, in March 1838, abandoned in 1847, taken possession of by the U. S. military authorities, partially abandoned in 1853, and settled upon as a donation claim in that year by Winsor D. Bigelow. During the mining rush of 1858- 65 it became a place of importance, which position it has continued to hold, although for many years under a cloud as to titles, as related in another place. It was incorporated January 2G, 1857. It was once contemplated establishing a branch mint at The Dalles for the coinage of the products of the mines of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana. Such a bill was passed by congress, and approved July 4, 1864. An edifice of stone was par tially erected for this purpose, but before its completion the opening of the Central Pacific railroad rendered a mint in Oregon superfluous, and the build ing was devoted to other uses. Down to 1882 The Dalles w r as the transfer point for passengers and freight moving up and down the river, but on the completion of the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company s line from various parts of the upper country to Portland, a large portion of the traffic which formerly centred here was removed. Yet, geographically, The Dalles remains a natural centre of trade and transportation, which, on the comple tion of the locks now being constructed at the Cascades, must confirm it as the commercial city of eastern Oregon. The Dalles has several times suffered from extensive conflagrations. The last great fire, in 1879, destroyed a million dollars worth of property. A land-office for the district of The Dalles was established here in 1875. The lesser towns and settlements in Wasco county are Cascade Locks, Hood River, Celilo, Spanish Hollow, Bake Oven, Lang s Landing, Tyghe Valley, Des Chutes, Mount Hood, Warm Spring Agency, Antelope, and Scott. There are a number of other post-offices in Wasco county as it was previous to the division into Crook and Wasco in 1882, which I have not put down here because it is doubtful to which county they belong. \n
They are Alkali, Blalock, Cluk, Cross Hollows, Cross Keys, Crown Rock, Dufur, Fleetville, Fossil, Grade, Hay Creek, Kingsley. Lone Rock, Lone Valley, Mitchell, Nansene, Olex, Rockville, Villard, and \Valdron.
Samuel E. Brooks, from whom I have a dictation, and who is a native of Ohio, came to Oregon overland, via Platte and Snake rivers, in 1850, in com pany with C. H. Haines, Samuel Ritchie, Washington Ritchie, S. B. Roberts, J. H. Williams, his father Linn Brooks, his mother E. Brooks, his brothers B. S. and H. J. Brooks. Samuel settled at The Dalles, and married Annie Pentland, daughter of Robert Pentland, in 1872. He is among the prominent men of Wasco county.
Washington county was established under the name of Twality district, the first of the four original political divisions of Oregon, on the 5th of July, 1843, and comprised at that time all of the territory west of Willamette and north of Yainhill rivers, extending to the Pacific ocean on the west, and aa far north as the northern boundary line of the United States, then not deter mined. Its limits have several times been altered by the creation of other counties, and its name was changed from Twality to Washington September 4, 1849. Its area is 682 square miles, 62,000 acres of which is improved land, valued with the improvements at about three and a half million dollars. The live-stock of this county is all upon farms, and is assessed at a little less than four hundred thousand. The farm products of 1879 were valued at over 700,000. The state returns for 1881-2 make the gross valuation of all prop erty $3,717,000, and the total of taxable property over two and a half millions. The population is between seven and eight thousand. A considerable portion of the northern part of Washington county is heavily timbered and moun tainous, but its plains are famed for their productiveness, and the face of the country is beautifully diversified. Hillsboro, founded by David Hill, one of the executive committee of Oregon in 1843, is the county seat. It was incor porated in 1876. The population is about five hundred. Forest Grove, the seat of Pacific University, has 600 inhabitants. It was founded by Harvey Clark in 1849, and incorporated in 1872. The U. S. Indian school, founded in 1879, is located at Forest Grove. The location of the university town at the edge of the foot-hills of the Coast Range, in the midst of natural groves of oak-trees, gives an academic air to the place, and certain propriety to the name, which will be lost sight of in the future should not the forest beauties of the place be preserved. The lesser towns are Cornelius, Gaston, Dilley, Gale s Creek, Cedar Mill, Bethany, Beaverton, Glencoe, Greenville, Ingles, Laurel, Middleton, Mountain Dale, Sch oil s Ferry, Tualatin, and West Union.
Harley McDonald, born in Foster, R. I., in 1825; came to Cal. in 1849 by sea, and to Oregon the following year, locating at Portland. His occupation was that of architect and draughtsman. He built the steamer Hoosier, one of the first on the upper Willamette, in 1851; the first theatre in San Francisco; the first wharf and first church in Portland; the first railroad station at Salem; and is engaged by the government to erect school-houses on the Indian reser vations. He married, in 1848, Betsy M. Sansom, and has 8 children, one son being a banker. He resides at Forest Grove.
Yamhill county was first organized as one of the first four districts, July 5, 1843, and embraced all of the Oregon territory south of Yamhill River, and west of a supposed north and south line extending from the mouth of the Yamhill to the 42d parallel. Its boundaries were subsequently altered and abridged until it contained a little more than 750 square miles. The amount of improved land is 119,000 acres, valued, with the improvements, at 5,518,- 000. The value of live-stock is over half a million, and the yearly product of the farms is about a million and a half. The valuation of real and personal estate is in excess of two and a half millions, and the population is 8,000. This county is famed for its wheat-producing capacity, as well as for its many beau- ful features. Lafayette, once county seat, is situated on the Yamhill River, which is navigable to this point. It was founded by Joel Perkins about 1851, and named by him after Lafayette, Indiana. Perkins was murdered, while returning from California in July 1856, by John Malone, who hanged himself \n
in jail after confessing the act. Or. Statesman, Aug. 12, 1856; Deady\<* Ffit. Or., MS., 78. It was chosen for the seat of the county in August 1858. It3 court-house, erected in 1859 at a cost of $14,000, was the pride of the county at that time, but its age is now against it, and it does not do credit to so rich a county. The population of Lafayette is 600. The town was incorporated in 1878. McMinnville, founded by William T. Newby in 1854, was named after his native town in Tennessee. It is the seat of the baptist college, is on the line of the Oregon Central railroad, and has a population of 800. Its incorporation was in 1872. Dayton, founded by Joel Palmer on land pur chased of Andrew Smith, and named after Dayton, Ohio, is a pretty town, on the Yamhill River, of 300 inhabitants, and the initial point of the Dayton, Sheridan, and Grand Rond narrow-gauge railroad. It is a shipping point for the wheat grown in the county, which is here transferred from the railroads to steamboats, and carried down the Yamhill arid Willamette Rivers to Port land or Astoria. Dayton has a grain elevator and mills. It was incorporated in 1880. Sheridan, at the present western terminus of the narrow-gauge railroad, is a picturesque town of less than 200 inhabitants, named after General P. Sheridan, who as a lieutenant was stationed at Fort Yamhill, near here. It was settled in 1847 by Absolem B. Faulconer, and incorporated in 1880. Amity, founded in 1850, is another pretty village, in a fine agricul tural region, incorporated in 1880. The minor settlements are Bellevue, Carlton, Ekins, Ncwburg, North Yamhill, West Chehalem, and Willamina.
There was a proposition before the legislature of 1882 to create one or more counties out of Umatilla. By a comparison of the wealth of the several counties of Oregon, it is found that the amount per capita is largest in Mult- noraah, which is a commercial county. The agricultural counties of the Willamette Valley rank, Linn first, Yamhill second, Lane third, and Marion fourth, Clackamas ranking least. The coast and Columbia-River counties fall below the interior ones. In the southern part of western Oregon there is also much less wealth than in the W 7 illamette Valley, Douglas county, how ever, leading Jackson. In eastern Oregon, Umatilla leads the other counties in per capita wealth, Grant, Union, W r asco, Lake, and Baker following in the order named. This may be different since the cutting-off of Crook county, which took much of the best portion of Wasco. The comparative amount of wheat raised in 1880 was greatest in Marion county, which raised 1,000,000 bushels, Yamhill, Umatilla, Linn, and Polk following with nearly 1,000,000 each. Clackamas county raised less than 500 bushels. But Clackarnas pro duced $80,000 worth of fruit, being the second fruit county, Linn leading the state. Lake raised almost none, Curry, Clatsop, and Tillamook very little, and all the other counties from $4,000 to $^77,000 worth, all but three, Baker, Grant, and Columbia, producing over $10,000 worth, and nine of them from $30,- 000 to $57,000 worth. The gross value of the fruit crop was over $581,000. From this general and comparative review of the counties and towns of the state, as taken from the assessors statistics, to which a large amount in values may safely be added, the condition of the population at large may be gathered, especially as refers to agriculture. Manufactures are considered under a separate head.
MANUFACTURES.
The earliest manufactured product of Oregon was lumber. From the building of the first mills for commercial purposes, in 1844, to 1885, this has continued to be a grand staple of the country. At the last date mentioned there were over 228 saw-mills in the state, costing over a million and a half of dollars, and producing annually lumber valued at over two millions. It i difficult to give even apppoximately the percentage of acres of timbered land that would produce lumber. Both sides of the Coast Range, the west side of the Cascade Range, the highlands of the Columbia, and the north end of the Willamette, as well as the bottom-lands along that river for sixty miles, are heavily timbered; while the east side of the Cascades, the west side of the Blue Mountains, and the flanks of the cross ranges between the Willamette, \n LUMBER AND SHIP-BUILDING. 727
Umpqua, and Rogue River valleys are scarcely less densely covered with forest. See Review Board of Trade, 1877, 33; Overland Monthly, xiii. 247--9; Sept Com. Ayric., 1875, 330-1; Moseltfs Or., 30; Or. Legis. Docs, 1876, doc. ii., 15.
The merchantable woods of Oregon are yellow fir, cedar, pine, spruce, cottonwood, hemlock, oak, maple, ash, alder, arbutus, and myrtle. Fir is the staple used in ship-building, house-building, fencing, furniture, and fuel. Cedar is used for finishing, and withstands moisture. Hemlock is used in tanning. Oak is utilized for farming implements and wagons; cot tonwood for staves; ash, maple, and myrtle for furniture. Veneering from the knots of Oregon maple received a diploma from the centennial exposition of 1876, for its beauty, fineness of grain, toughness of fibre, and susceptibility to polish. Noah s Or., 128. Combined with myrtle, which is also beautifully marked and susceptible of a high polish, but of a dark color, the result is one of great elegance in cabinet-work. A few vessels built at Coos Bay have been finished inside with these woods, presenting a remarkably pleasing effect. Half of all the wood used in the manufacture of furniture in San Francisco is exported from Oregon. As early as 1862 a set of furniture made of Oregon maple was sold in San Francisco for $800. Or. Statesman, May 12, 1G62. The furniture trade cf the state reached 750,000 annually, two thirds of which was for home-made articles. The Oregon Manufacturing Company of Portland in 1875 began to make first-class fashionable furniture from native woods, a building being erected by J. A. Strobridge on the corner of First and Yamhill streets, at a cost of $75,000, for the company s use. Portland West S/n,re, Aug. 1875; Hillsboro Wash. Independent, Dec. 2, 1875. The finest cabinet articles were made in Portland. Other smaller factories were scattered throughout the state, but Portland furnished a large proportion of the furniture sold by country merchants. According to a prominent Pacific coast statistician, John S. Hittell, Resources, 584-5, there were 150,000,000 feet of lumber sawed in Oregon in 1880-1. The greater part of this was cut at the mills on the Columbia, and the southern coast, several of which turn put 75,000 feet per day. The mill at St Helen cut from 40,000 to 75,000 in 24 hours. At Coos Bay and Port Orford there were mills that produce 21,000,000 to 37,000,000 feet annually. G dfry s Or. Resources, MS., 45; 8. S. Mann, in Historical Correspondence, MS. The Coquille mills saw 12,000,000 feet for San Francisco market annually. In eastern Oregon the Blue Moun tains furnished the principal part of the lumber made. The Thielsen flume, for carrying lumber from the mountains, is the largest, carrying 50,000 feet of lumber and 300 cords of fire-wood daily from the mills to the town of Milton, near the Oregon line. It was the property cf the Oregon Improve ment Company, and, including its branch, was thirty miles long. The Little White Salmon flume, built by the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company to bring lumber to The Dalles, was ten miles in length. HittelVs Resources, 584-5.
At St Johns, near the mouth of the Willamette, was the location of the Or egon Barrel Company, where barrels, pails, fruit-packing boxes, and cases for holding packages of canned salmon were manufactured; 0. B. Severance founder. The products of this factory were- worth about $15,000 annually. There was a similar factory at Oregon City in 18G3, and there was, in 1884, a large box factory at Portland, owned by John Harlowe & Co. Wood was used for fuel throughout Oregon, except in a few public and private houses, where coal was preferred. It was abundant and cheap everywhere west of the Cascade Mountains, the highest prices obtaining in Portland, where fir wood brought six dollars per cord, and oak eight. Most of the river steamers used wood for making steam as a matter of economy.
Ship-building, which depends upon the quality of timber produced by the country, is carried on to a considerable extent, the principal ship-yard being at Coos Bay. The oldest yard on the bay is at North Bend, where the brig Araijo was built by A. M. and R. W. Simpson in 1856, since which time twenty-two other vessels have been launched from this yard, with tonnage \n
aggregating 12,500. They were launched in the following order: brigs Arago and Blanco, 1856-8; schooners Mendocino and Florence J4. Walton, 1859-60; brig Advance, 1861; schooners Enterprise, Isabella, Hannah Louise, and Ju- venta, 1863-5; barkentines Occident and Melancthon, 1866-7; schooner Bunk- alation, 1868; burkentine Webfoot, 1869; schooners Botama and Gregorian, 1871-2; barkentine Portland, 1873; ship Western Shore, 1874; barkentine Tarn O\Shanter, 1875; barkentines North Bend and Klikitat, and schooners Trustee, James A. Garjield, and one unnamed, 1876-81. The ship Western Shore was the largest and strongest ship ever built on the Pacific coast, and the second in number, the Wildwood, built at Port Madison in 1871-2, being the tirst. The Western Shore was designed by A. M. Simpson, and built by John Kruse. The joiner- work was done by Frank Gibson, the polishing of the wood- work by Frederick Mark, and the painting by Peter Gibson. She was 2,000 tons burden, and her spars the finest ever seen in Liverpool. R. W. Simpson designed the rigging and canvas. The cabin was finished with myrtle wood, relieved by door-posts of Sandwich Island tamanaina handsome manner; but the Tarn O Shanler was finished still more handsomely by the same German workman, F. Mark. The first voyage of the Western ^hore was to San Francisco, thence to Liverpool, loaded with 1,940 tons of wheat, com manded by Wesley McAllep. She beat the favorite San Francisco ship Tiiree Brothers 8 days, and the British King, a fast sailer, 14 days a triumph for her builders. She cost $86,000, less than such a ship could be built for at Bath, Maine. Thos B. Merry, in Portland West Shore, May 1876 and Feb. 1882; S. F. Bulletin, Nov. 20, 1876.
From the ship-yard of H. H. Luse, at Empire City, Coos Bay, eight vessels were launched between 1861 and 1881, with an aggregate burden of 900 tons. The class of vessels built at Empire City was smaller than the North Bend vessels, several being small steamers for use on the bay. They were the schooners Rebecca, Kate Piper, and Cashman, brig Jfobert Emmett, and uteam- tug Alpha, and the steamers Satellite, Coo*, and Bertha. The Alpha was the first vessel built at this place, and the only one before 1869. Portland Vt r e*t Shore, Feb. 1882, 26. At Marshfield, Coos Bay, E. B. Dean & Co. have a ship-yard. Here were built twenty vessels between 1866 and 1881, of an ag gregate capacity of 9,070 tons, and at other points on the bay and river. The first vessel built at Marshfield was the steam-tug Escort. Then followed the schooners Slaghound, Louisa, Morrison, Ivanhoe, Annie Stauffer, Panama, Sunshine, Frithioff, Laura May, Jennie Stella, C. If. Merchant, Santa Rosa, George 0. Perkins, J. G. North, Dakota, and one unknown, the barkentine Amelia, the steamers Messenger and Wasp, and the tug Escort No. 2. The steamer Juno was built in Coos River, and also a schooner, name unknown, at Aaronville. Merry makes mention of the North Bend tug Fearless, which is not down in the list.
The reputation of Coos Bay vessels for durability and safety is good, few of them having been lost. The Florence WaUon was wrecked on the coast between Coos Bay and Rogue River. The Bunkalation, while discharging a cargo of lime at cape Blanco for the light-house, was set on fire by the sea washing down the hatchway, and entirely destroyed. The Sunshine was wrecked off Cape Disappointment bj capsizing in a sudden squall, from her masts being too tall and the hoops too small to allow the sails to be lowered quickly. Portland West Shore, June 1876, 6. Several of them have been in the Columbia River trade ever since they \vere completed.
Ship-building in a small way has been carried on in the Umpqua River ever since 1856. Two schooners, the Palestine and Umpqua, were built about a mile and a half below Scottsburg, by Clark and Baker, in 1855-6, for the San Francisco trade. Or. Statesman, May 6, 1856. In 1857 the steamer Satellite was built to run on the river. In 1860 John Kruse, Bauer, and Maury built the schooner Mary Cleveland, at Lower Scottsburg, for the CJi- fornia trade. Id., May 13, 1861. Kruse also built the schooners Pacific and W. F. Brown in 1864-5; Hopkins Ship-building Pacific Coast; Davidson s Coast Pilot, 139. A few vessels have been built in Tillamook Bay, of light \n
draught and tonnage. Ever since the Star of Oregon was launched from Oak Island in the Willamette in 1841, ship-building has been carried on in a desul tory fashion along on the Columbia and Willamette, no record of which has been kept. An examination of the U. S. Commerce and Navigation Statistics from 1850 to 1856 shows that no figures are given for more than half the years, consequently the information gained is comparatively worthless. In the years given, 1850, 1857, 1865, 1868-1877, there were 109 vessels of all classes, from a barge to a brig, built in Oregon, 31 of which were sailing ves sels. According to the same authority, there were 60 steam-vessels in Oregon waters in 1874; but these returns are evidently imperfect.
The cost of ship-building as compared with Bath, Maine, is in favor of Oregon ship-yards, as shippers have been at some pains in the last ten or fifteen years to demonstrate, as well as to show that American wooden ships must soon displace English iron vessels, and American shipping, which has been permitted to decline, be restored. The report of the Pacific Social Science Association on the Restoration of American Shipping in the Foreign Trade, by a committee consisting of C. T. Hopkins, A. S. Hallidie, I. E. Thayer, A. Crawford, and C. A. Washburn, is an instructive pamphlet of some 30 pages, showing the causes of decline and the means of restoring the American shipping interest. In 1875-6, $1.513,508 was paid away in Oregon to foreign ship-owners for grain charters to Europe, which money should have been saved to the state and reinvested in ship-building. Board of T)\idellept, 1870, 10. I have quoted the opinions of competent writers in the history of Puget Sound ship-building, and will only refer here to the following pam phlets. Farrisli s iteview* of the Commercial, Financial, and Industrial Intercuts of Oreym, 1877, 31-2; Gilfnfs Ilesoitrces Or., MS., 45-50; Review of Portland Board of Trade, 1877; and Hopkins Ship-building, 1807. In view of the re quirements cf commerce in the future, the Oregon Railway and Navigation Co;::pany have provided a magniiicent dry-dock at Albina, opposite Portland, which was completed about 1883.
Flour takes the second place, in point of time if not of value, in the list of Oregon manufactures. Since the time when wheat was currency in Oregon, it has played an important part in the iinanccs of the country. Taking a compar atively recent view of its importance, the fact that the wheat crop increased from 2.340,000 bushels in 1870 to 7,486,000 in 1880, establishes its relative value to any and all other products. A very large proportion of the wheat raised in Oregon was exported in bulk, but there was also a large export of manufactured Hour. The first to export a full cargo of wheat direct to Europe was Joseph Watt, who sent one to Liverpool by the tiallie Brown in 1868. It cost Watt 4,000 to make the experiment. The English millers, unacquainted with tho plump Willamette grain, condemned it as swollen, but bought it at a reduced price, and ground it up with English wheat to give whiteness to the flour, sines which time they have understood its value. Grover s Pub. Life in Or., MS., 69; Watt, in Camp-fire Orations, MS., 1-2. Another cargo went the same year in the II den Angier. The year previous to Watt s shipment a cargo of wheat and flour was sent direct to Australia by the bark Whistler. As early as 1861 H. E. Hayes and C. B. Hawley of Yamhill had 10,000 bushels ground up at the Linn City Mills (swept away in the flood of the following win ter) for shipment to Liverpool, taking it to S. F. to put it on board a clipper ship. Or. Argun, Jan. 12, 1861. In 1868-9, 30,305 bushels of wheat and 200 barrels of flour, worth 36,447, were shipped direct to Europe. The trade increased rapidly, and in 1874 there were 74,715 bushels of wheat and 28,811 barrels of flour sent to foreign ports, worth $1,026,302. S. F. Bulletin, Jan. 20, 1875.
The number of flouring and grist mills in the state was over a hundred, in which more than a million and a quarter of capital was invested, producing annually three and a half millions worth of flour. Some of the most famous mills were the following: Standard Mills at Milwaukee, completed in I860 by Eddy, Kellogg, and Bradbury, which could make 250 barrels daily. The Oregon City Mills, owned by J. D. Miller, capable of turning out 300 barrels \n\n daily. This mill was originally erected in 1866 to make paper, but converted in 1868 in to a flour ing- mill. The Imperial Mill at Oregon City, tirst owned by Savier and Burnside, was capable of grinding 500 barrels daily. The Salem Flouring Mills, owned by a company organized in 1870, with a capital of 50,000 since increased to $200,000, and which had A. Bush, the former editor of the Or. Statesman, and later a banker in Salem, for president, manu factured 15,000 to 16,000 barrels of flour monthly. Their flour took the lead in the markets of Europe. The Jefferson City Mills, owned by Corbitt and Macleay of Portland, ground 10,000 barrels monthly. J. H. Foster s mill at Albany had a capacity of 300 barrels daily. HittelVs Resources, 555-8.
In tiie great flood of 1861-2 the Island mill at Oregon City, built by the methodist company, and John McLoughlin s mill were both carried away. McLoughlin s mill was in charge of Daniel Harvey, who married MrsRae, the doctor s daughter. Harvey was born in the parish of Shefibrd, county Essex, England, in 1804, He died at Portland, Dec. 5, 1868. Portland Advocate, Dec. 19, 1808.
Salmon, by the process of canning, becomes a kind of manufactured goods, and was one of the three great staples of the state. The salmon of the Colum bia were introduced to the markets of Honolulu, Valparaiso, and London, in a measure, by the Hudson s Bay Company, before any citizen of the United States had e^ered into the business of salmon-fishing in Oregon. Robert s Recollections, MS., 20; Wilkes Nor. U. S. Ex. Exptd., iv. 3(39-70; //. Com. Kept, 31, i. 57, 27th cong. 3d sess. ; Van Tramp s Adventures, 145-6. The first attempts to compete with this company were made by Wyeth and the methodist missionaries, which was successful only in securing enough for home consumption, the Indians being the fishermen, and the company able to pay more for the fish than the missionaries. The first merchants at Oregon City tra ded a few barrels to the Honolulu merchants for unrefined sugar and mo lasses. Henry Roder went to Oregon City in 1852, with the design of estab lishing a fishery at the falls of the Willamette, but changed his mind and went to Bellingliam Bay to erect a saw-mill. About 1857 John West began putting up salt salmon in barrels, at Westport, on the Lower Columbia. In 1859 Strong, Baldwin & Co. established a similar business at the mouth of Rogue River. Or. Statesman, Oct. 25, 1859. But nothing like a modern fishery was established on the Columbia until 1866, when William Hurne, George Hume, and A. S. Hapgood erected the first fish-preserving factory at Eagle Cliff, on the north bank of the river, in Wahkiakum county, Washington. In 1876 there were seventeen similar establishments on the river, and in ItSO there were thirty-five. The average cost of these fisheries, with their appa ratus for canning salmon, and of the boats and nets used in catching fish, was in the neighborhood of forty thousand dollars each, making a sum total in vested in the Columbia River fisheries of nearly a million and a half. The number of persons employed in the fishing season, which Listed about four months, was six thousand, the greater number of whom were foreign. The boatmen "ere usually Scandinavians, and the men employed in the canneries principally Chinese. A few women were hired to put on labels, at which they were very expert. The mechanics were usually Americans. The following shows the increase of the salmon catch for ten years, by the number of cases put up: loG 9, 20,709; 1870,29,730; 1871,34,805; 1872, 43,696; 1873, 102,733; Io74, 291,021; 1875, 231,500; 1876, 438,730; 1877, 395,288; 1878, 440,917; 1879, 438,004. New Tacoma N. P. Count, June 15, 1880. The production varied with different years, the salmon in some years appearing to avoid the Columbia and all the principal fishing-grounds. There was a falling-off in 1879, for the whole Pacific coast, amounting to nearly 100,000 cases from the catch of the previous year. After the fishing season w r as over some of the canneries put up beef and mutton, to utilize their facilities and round out the year s business.
Tne export of canned salmon did not commence until 1871, when 30,000 cases were exported, which realized $150,000. In 1875, 330,000 cases were sold abroad, which realized $1,650,000, and the following year 479,000 cases, \n
bringing over two and a half millions of dollars, which is about the maximum of the trade, a few thousand more packages being sold in 1878, and consider ably less in 1879. Review of board of trade, 1879, in Portland Standard, Feb. 4, 1879. The production of 1881 was 550,000 cases of 48 pounds each, bringing five dollars a case.
The partial failure of several years alarmed capitalists and legislators; and in April 1875 the Oregon and Washington Fish Propagating Company, with a. capital of $30,000, was incorporated. The officers of this company were John Adair, Jr, president, J. W. Cook vice-president, J. G. Megler secretary, Henry Failing treasurer, with J. Adair, J. G. Megler, John West, C. M. Lewis, and J. W. Cook directors. Livingston Stone of Charlestown, Massa chusetts, was chosen to conduct the experiment. A location for a hatching establishment was selected at the junction of Clear creek with the Clackamaa Paver, a few miles from Oregon City, where the necessary buildings were erected and a million eggs put to hatch, of which seventy-five per cent became fish and were placed in the river to follow their ordinary habits of migration and return. In this manner the salmon product was rendered secure. In March 1881, 2,150,000fish were turned out of the hatching-house in a healthy condition. Olympia Courier, April 22, 1881; Portland West Shore, August, 1878; Portland Oreijonian, May 26, 1877.
Besides the Columbia River fisheries, there were others on the Umpqua, Coquille, and Rogue rivers, where salmon are put up in barrels. The Coquille fishery put up 37,000 barrels in 1881. JS. F. Chronicle, Aug. 13, 1881. Im mense quantities of salmon-trout of excellent flavor have been found in the Umpqua, Klamath, Link, aoid other southern streams. In the Klamath, at the ford on the Linkville road, they have been seen in shoals so dense that horses refused to pass over them. In Lost River, in Lake county, the sucker fidi abounded in the same shoals during April and May. Sturgeon, torn cod, flounder, and other edible fish were plentiful along the coast. Since 1862, oysters in considerable quantities have been shipped from Tillamook Bay; and other shell-fish, namely, crabs, shrimps, and mussels, were abundant, and marketable. Or. Statesman, Nov. 3, 1862; Or. Leyid. Docs, 1876, ii. 15; SmaW* Or. 62-5.
Laws have been enacted for the preservation of both salmon and oysters. These acts regulate the size of the meshes, which are 8vr inches long, to permit the young salmon to escape through them; and prohibit fishing from Saturday evening to Sunday evening of every week in the season, for the protection of ail salmon; and forbid the use of the dredge where the water is less than twen ty-four feet in depth at low tide on oyster-beds, or the waste of young oysters. Or. Laws, 1876, 7. With regard to the preservation and propagation of ral- mon, ib has been recently discovered that th e spawn thrown into the Coquille from the fisheries is not wasted, but hatches in that stream, and that there fore that river is a natural piscicultural ground. Coquille City Herald, in 5. F. Bulletin, Nov. 15, 18S3. The same does not appear to be true of the northern rivers. Another difference is in the time of entering the rivers, which is April in the Columbia, and August in the Umpqua and Coquille.
The manufacture of Oregon wool into goods was neglected until April 1856, when a joint-stock association was formed at Salem for the purpose of erecting a woollen-mill. Joseph Watt was the prime mover. William H. Rector was superintendent of construction, and went east to purchase ma chinery. George H. Williams was president of the company, Alfred Stanton vice-president, Joseph G. Wilson secretary, and J. D. Boon treasurer. Watt, Rector, Joseph Holman, L. F. Grover, Daniel Waldo, and E. M. Barnum were directors. Brown?* Salem Dir., 1871. Watt & Barber had a carding- machine in Polk county in 1856, and there appears to have been another in Linn county, which was destroyed by lire in 1862. The company purchased the right of way to bring the water of the Santiam River to Salem, building a canal and taking it across Chemeketa Creek, making it one of the best water- powers on the Pacific coast. Its completion in December was celebrated by the firing of camion. The incorporation of the company as a manufacturing \n
and water company followed, and in the fall of 1857 two sets of woollen ma chinery were put in motion. The goods manufactured, blankets, flannels, and cassimeres, were exhibited at the lirst state fair of California, in 1858, being the first cloth made on the Pacific coast of the United States by modern ma chinery. In I860 the capacity of the mill was doubled, the company pros pered, and in 1863 built a large flouring mill to utilize its water-power. The canal which brought the Saniiain into Salem was less than a mile in length and had a fall of 40 feet. The water was exhaustless, and there was laid the foundations of unlimited facilities for manufactures at Salem.
The building of the Willamette woollen-mill at Salem was a great incentive to wool-growing. The amount of wool produced in Oregon in I860 was 220,000 pounds, not as much as the Salern mill required after it was enlarged, which was 400,000. But in 1870 the wool crop of the state was 1,500,000, and in 1880 over eight million of pounds were exported. Board of Trade Re view, 1877, 15; Pasijic North-west, 4. The Salem mill burned to the ground in May 1876, but in the mean time a number of others had been erected. In 18GO \\ T . J. Linnviilc and others petitioned the senate for a charter for a woollen manufacturing company, which was refused, on the ground that the constitution of the state forbade creating corporations by special laws except fur municipal purposes. Or. Jour. Senate, 1860, 68, 73. In 1864 a woollen-mill was erected at Ellendale, which was running in 1866, and turning out flannels by tho thousand yards, but which has since been suspended. Or. Statesman, May 7, 186o; Deadfs Scrap- Book, 149. The Oregon City Woollen Mill was projected as early as 18G2, although not built until 1864-5. The incorpora tion papers were filed Dec. 31, 1862, in the office of the secretary of state. The iucorporators were A. L. Lovejoy, L. D. C. Latourette, Arthur Warner, \Y. W. Buck, William Whitlock, F. Barclay, Daniel Harvey, G. H. Atkin son, J. L. Barlow, John D. Dement, W. C. Dement, D. P. Thompson, Wil liam Barlow, W. C. Johnson, and A. H. Sceele. Capital stock, $60,000. Or. Arym, Jan. 31, 1862. Five lots were purchased of Harvey for $12,000, and water-power guaranteed. The building was of brick and stone, 188 by 52 feet, anvi tw- storiea high. Joel Palmer was elected president of the company. It was designed, as we are told, to concentrate capital at Oregon City, tfuck s Enterprises, M^., 6-8. Buck relates how when they had built the mill the directors could go no further, having no money to buy the wool to start with, until he succeeded in borrowing it from the bank of British Columbia. A few men bougat up all the stock, and some of the original holders realized nothing, among whom was Buck, whose place among the projectors of enterprises is conspicuous if not remunerative. The enterprise was successful from the stare. The mill began by making flannels, but soon manufactured all kinds of woollen goods. It was destroyed by fire in 1868, and rebuilt in the follow ing year. In point of capacity and means of every sort, the Oregon City mill was the first in the state. Its annual consumption of wool was not much short of a million pounds, and the value of the goods manufactured from forty to for ty -iivo thousand dollars a month. A wholesale clothing manufactory in con nection with the mill employs from fifty to sixty cutters and tailors in work ing up tweeds and cassimeres into goods for the market. This branch of the business was represented in S. F. by a firm which manufactures Oregon City cloths into goods to the value of 400,000 annually. The mill employed 150 operatives, to whom it paid $90,000 a year in wages. HittelVs Resources, 445 -6. A fire in February 1881 destroyed a portion of the mill, which sustained a loss of $20,000. The wool-growers of Wasco county at one time contem plated fitting up the abandoned mint building at The Dalles for a -woollen factory, but later, with Portland capitalists, making arrangements to erect a large mill at the fall of Des Chutes River.
Another woollen- mill was established at Brownsville in 1875, with four sets of machinery, which could manufacture tweeds, doeskins, cassimeres, satinets, flannels, and blankets. Its sales were about 150,000 annually, on a paid-up capital of $36,000. Linn county had a hosiery factory also. At Albany, also, there was a hosiery-mill, called The Pioneer, owned by A. L. \n IRON-WORKS. 733
Stinson. It had the only knitting-machines in the state, and did its own carding and spinning. A woollen-mill at Ashland manufactured goods to the value of from forty to fifty thousand dollars annually, and was the property of two or three men. Its goods were in great demand, being of excellent quality.
The woollen manufactures of the Pacific coast excel in general excellence any in the United States, which is due to the superior quality of the wool used. The blankets made at the Oregon mills, for fineness, softness, and beauty of finish, are unequalled except by those made in California from the same kind of wool. The total amount invested in these manufactures in 1885 w r as about half a million; $400,000 worth of material was used, and $840,000 worth of fabric manufactured annually.
The first iron-founding done in Oregon was about 1858. Davis & Mo- nastes of Portland, and the Willamette Iron-Works of Oregon City, were the pioneers in this industry. At the latter were built, in 1859, the engines and machinery for the first two steam saw-mills in the eastern portion of Washing ton and Oregon. These two mills were for Ruble & Co. at Walla Walla and Noble & Co. at The Dalles. According to Hittell, boiler-making was begun in Portland as early as 1852. Resources, 658. A. Rossi, F. Bartels, R. Hur ley, and D. Smith were the owners of the Willamette Iron Foundry. Or. Arijus, July 3, 1868. The Salem iron-works were erected in 1860, and turned out a variety of machinery, engines, and castings. They were owned by B. F. Drake, who came to California in 1851, and after mining for a short time settled at Oregon City, where he remained until he built hia foundery at Salem. His foreman, John Holman, had charge of the works for fifteen years, and employed 12 men. HittelUs Resources, 663-4. John Nation, a well-known iron-worker, was at first associated with Drake. In 1862 this foundery built a portable engine of eight horse-power, to be used on farms as the motive power of thrashing-machines, the first of its kind in Ore gon. Since that period founderies have been planted in different parts of the state as required by local business, Portland and The Dalles being the chief centres for the trade on account of the demands of steamboat and railroad traffic.
The presence of iron ore in many parts of Oregon has been frequently re marked upon. It is known to exist in the counties of Columbia, Tillamook, Marion, Clackamas, and in the southern counties of Jackson and Coos. Its presence in connection with fire-clay is considered one of the best proofs of the value of the coal-fields of Oregon, the juxtaposition of coal, iron, and fire clay being the same here as in the coal-bearing regions of other parts of the world. The most important or best known of the iron beds of the state are in the vicinity of Oswego, a small town on the Willamette, six miles south of Portland, and extending to the Chehalem valley, fifteen miles from that city.
Equally rich beds of the ore are found near St Helen, and from the out- croppings between these two points the deposit seems to curve around to the west of Portland, and to extend for twenty-five miles, with the richest beds at either end. At St Helen the ore has never been worked, except in a black smith-shop, where it has been converted into horse-shoes. Several varieties of iron ore exist in the state, including the chromites of Josephine county.
The Oswego iron was tested in 1862, and found to be excellent. Or. States man, Jan. 19 and Feb. 9, 1863; Or. Argus, Jan. 24, 1863. It yields about fifty per cent of pure metal; and it is estimated that there are sixty thousand tons in the immediate vicinity of this place, while less than three miles away is another extensive deposit, from twelve to fifteen feet in depth. A company was formed at Portland February 24, 1865, under the name of the Oregon Iron Company, to manufacture iron from the ore at Oswego, which proceeded to erect works at this place, Sucker Creek, the outlet of a small lake, furnish ing the water-power. President, W. S. Ladd, vice-president, H. C. Leonard; capital stock, $500,000, divided among 20 stockholders, most of whom resided in Oregon, the remainder in S. F. The incorporators were Louis McLane, Charles Dimon, W. S. Ladd, Henry Failing, A. M. Starr, H. D. Gre en, aud \n
H. C. Leonard. The stack was modelled after the Barnum stack at Lime Hock, Connecticut, and was put up by G. D. Wilbur of that state. Its foun dations were laid on the bed-rock at a depth of 16 feet, and it was constructed of solid, dry stone- work, covering a space of thirty-six square feet. The stack itself was built of hewn stone, obtained on the ground; was thirty-four foet square at the base, thirty-two feet high, and twenty-six feet square at the top. On top of the stack was a chimney, built of brick, forty feet high, and containing the oven for heating the air for the blast. The diameter of the top of the lower pyramid in which the smelting takes place was ten feet. The blow-house was built on the ground near the stack. The machinery for driving the air was propelled by water. The blast was furnished by two blowing cylinders of wood, five feet in diameter and six feet stroke. Char coal was used for fuel. The capacity of the works was designed to be ten tons in twenty-four hours. The ore to be tested was the variety known as brown hematite, and it was found to yield from forty-six to seventy per cent of pure iron. The timber for making charcoal was in the immediate vicinity, and every circumstance seemed to promise success. The works reached com pletion in June 1867, having cost $126,000. The first run was made on the 24th of August, six tons of good metal being produced, which, on being sent to the S. F. founderies, was pronounced a superior article. By the first of October the Oregon Iron Co. had. made 225 tons of pig-iron, costing to make twenty-nine dollars per ton, exclusive of interest on capital and taxes. The experiment, for experiment it was, proving that iron could be produced more cheaply in Oregon than in other parts of the U. S., though not so cheaply by half as in England, was satisfactory to those who had no capital in the enterprise, if not to those who had. The cost was distributed as follows:
166 bushels of charcoal, costing at the furnace 8 cents $13 28
88 pounds lime, costing at furnace 4 cents 3 52
4,970 pounds of ore, costing at the furnace $2.50 a ton 5 50
Labor reducing ore, per ton 6 67 \n $28 97
Broivne s Resources, 219-22; Or. City Enterprise, June 8, 1867; Clackamas County Resources, 1. J. Ross Browne, in his very readable work, the Resources of the Pacific States and Territories, 220-1, published at S. F. in 1869, gives the relative cost of producing iron in England and the United States. An establishment, he says, capable of making 10,000 tons annually in this coun try would cost altogether, with the capital to carry it on, $2,000,000, while in England the same establishment, with the means to carry it on, would cost $800,000. At the same time the interest on the American capital would exceed that on the English capital by $120,000. In the U. S. a fair average cost of producing pig-iron was not less than $35 per ton, while in England and Wales it was $14, to which should be added the difference caused by the greater rate of interest in the U. S. See also Langley^s Trade Pac., i. 9-10; Portland Orerjonian, July 28, 1866.
Owing to an error in building the stack, which limited the production of metal to eight tons per diem, the works were closed in 1869, after turning out 2,400 tons. Some of the iron manufactured was made up into stoves in Port land, and some of it in the construction of Ladd & Tilton s bank. It sold readily in S. F. at the highest market price, where, owing to being rather soft, it was mixed with Scotch pig. In 1874 the works were reopened, and ran for two years, producing 5,000 tons. In 1877 they were sold to the Oswego Iron Company, under whose management it was thought the production could be made to reach 500 tons a month. The sales for 1881 exceeded $150,000.
One serious disadvantage in smelting iron in Oregon was the lack of lime rock in the vicinity of the iron beds, and the cost of lime obtained formerly from San Juan Island or from Santa Cruz in California, and recently from New Tacoma. Limestone has often been reported discovered in various parts of the state, but no lime-quarries of any extent have yet been opened with kilns \n
for "burning lime for market; and the want was greatly felt in house building, as well as in manufactures. The only mineral of this character which has been worked in Oregon, or rather in Washington (for the works were on the north bank of the Columbia, though the rocks were found on both sides of the river), is a native cement, or gypsum, obtained from the bowlders in the neighborhood of Astoria. It was probably the same rock so often pronounced limestone by the discoverers in different parts of the state. As early as 1850 some military officers at Astoria burned some of the rock, and pronounced it limestone. A year or two later a kiln of it was burned and shipped to Port land, to be sold for lime. But the barge on which the barrels were loaded was sunk in the river with the cargo, which remained under water until 1864, when the barge being raised, it was found the barrels had gone to pieces, but their contents were solid rock. On these facts coming to the notice of the Ore gon Steam Navigation Company, the officers contracted with Joseph Jeffers of Portland to furnish 500 barrels in a given time for the foundations of their warehouse in Portland. Mr Jeffers proceeded to build a kiln and burn the rock on the premises of John Adair, at upper Astoria, without consulting the owner. When the first kiln had turned out 100 barrels of cement the work was inter fered with by Mr Adair and others, who claimed an interest in the profits a3 owners of the rocks and ground. A company was then formed, which filled the contract with the navigation company, and had 100 barrels more to sell. The masons found on slaking it that it contained lumps which remained hard, and gave them annoyance in the use. The plan was then conceived of grind ing the cement to make it uniform in consistency, and works were erected for this purpose on the north side of the Columbia, by J. B. Knapp, at a place which received the name of the manufacturer. This article became known in the market as Oregon cement. Of quarrying stone, few varieties have been dis covered in Oregon. This is greatly due to the overflow of basalt, which haa capped and concealed the other formations. On Milton Creek, near St Helen, was found a bed of sandstone, which was quarried for the Portland market; and sandstone is reported at various localities, but before the Milton creek discovery stone was brought from Bellingham Bay in Washington to build the custom -house and post-office at Portland; and the custom-house at Astoria was built of rock taken out of the surrounding hills.
In Marion county, and in other parts of the state, as well as in Clarke county, Washington, near Lewis River, a yellowish and a bluish gray marl is found, which when first quarried is easily cut into any shape, but on exposure to the air, hardens and forms stone suitable for many purposes, though always rather friable. Mantels, door-sills, ovens, and many other things are cut out of this stone and sold to the farmers in the Willamette Valley, who use it in place of brick in building chimneys. Black marble has been found on the north side of the Columbia, in the Lewis River highlands. A beautiful and very hard white marble has been quarried in Jackson county, where it became an article of commerce, limited to that portion of the state. No other com mon minerals have been applied to the uses of mankind, with the exception of salt. In 1861 the manufacture of salt from brine obtained from wells .dug at the foot of a high range of hills six miles south-east of Oakland, in Douglas county, was attempted, and was so far successful that about 1,000 pounds were obtained daily from the evaporation of two furnaces. The pro jectors of this enterprise were Dillard, Ward, and Moore. The works were run for a period, and then closed.
On the farm of Enoch Meeker, about the north line of Multnomah county, was a salt-spring, similar to those in Douglas county, and situated similarly, .at the foot of a range of high, timbered mountains. Meeker deepened the well about twenty-seven feet, and made a little salt by boiling, as an experi ment. In this well, at the depth mentioned, the workmen came upon the charred wood of a camp-fire, the sticks arranged, without doubt, by the hands of men. The salt appeared good, but had a bitter taste. In 1867 Henry C. Victor leased the salt-spring and land adjoining, with a view to establishing the manufacture of salt. Works were erected, which made about two tons per \n
day for several months, but the returns not being satisfactory, they were closed, and the manufacture was never resumed. The salt made at these works granulated in about the fineness used in salting butter, for which pur pose, and for curing meats, it was superior to any in the market, being abso lutely pure, as was proved by chemical tests. A sample of it was taken to the Paris exposition by Blake, one of the California commissioners. Henry C. Victor was born Oct. 11, 1828, in Pennsylvania. His parents removed to Sandusky, Ohio, in his boyhood, and he was educated at an academy in Norwalk. He studied naval engineering, and entered the service of the U. S. about the time Perry s expedition was fitting for Japan, and sailed in the San Jacinto. He was in Chinese waters at the time of the opium war with the English, and distinguished himself at the taking of the Barriere forts, be coming a favorite with Sir John Bowering, with whom he afterward corre sponded. After three years in Asiatic ports, he returned to the U. S. and was soon after sent to the coast of Africa. The locality and the time suggested controversies on the slavery question and slave-trade. Victor was in opposi tion to some of the officers from the southern states, and in a controversy in which a southerner was very insulting, gave his superior officer a blow. For this offense he was suspended, and sent home. Shortly after being restored to service came the war for the union, and he was assigned to duty in the blockading squadron before Charleston. In February 1863 he brought the splendid prize, Princess Royal, to Philadelphia; shortly after which he was ordered to the Pacific. While cruising along the Mexican coast, fever pros trated a large portion of the crew, Victor among the rest, who, having had the dangerous African fever, was tmfitted by it for duty, and resigned. While at Manzanillo he made a survey of the lake extending from this port toward the city of Colima, which becomes dry at some seasons and breeds pestilence, with a view to cutting a canal to the sea and letting in the salt water. Selim E. Woodworth of S. F. joined with him and several others in forming a company for this work. An agent was employed to visit the city of Mexico, and get the consent of the government to the scheme. Permission was obtained, but the vessel being soon after brought to S. F. with a disabled crew, and Victor s resignation following, put an end to the canal scheme, so far as its projectors were concerned. The year following, 1864, Victor went to Oregon and engaged in several enterprises, chiefly concerning coal and salt. Like many others, they were premature. Mr Victor perished with the foundering of the steamer Pacific, in November 1875, in company with about 300 others. His wife was Frances Fuller, whose writings are quoted in my work.
Paper, of a coarse quality, was first made at Oregon City in 1867, but the building erected proved to be not adapted to the business, and was sold for a flouring mill after running one year. Buck s Enterprises, MS., 4-5. The originator of the enterprise, W. W. Buck, then built another mill, Math capital furnished by the publisher of the Oreyonian, and was successful, manufacturing printing and wrapping paper, which was all consumed in and about Portland. Wash s Or., 225; Adams Or., 31; Hittell s Resources, 636.
The production of turpentine was commenced at Portland in 1863, by T. A. Wood. The factory was destroyed by fire in 1864, after which this article was wholly imported, although the fir timber of Oregon afforded immense quantities of the raw material, many old trees having deposits an inch or more in thickness extending for twenty feet between layers of growth. But the high price of labor on the Pacific coast at the period mentioned was adverse to its manufacture, and the close of the civil war, allowing North Carolina to resume trade with the other states, brought down the price below the cost of production in Oregon.
Pottery began to be manufactured at Buena Vista about 1865, from clay found at that place. For several years the business languished, the proprietor, A. N. Smith, being unable to introduce his goods into general use. Subse quently, however, the Buena Vista works employed over fifty men, and fur nished all descriptions of stonewaie, fire-brick, sewer-pipes, and garden pota \n
equal to the best. Resources Or. and Wash., 1881, 70-1. Soap, for all pur poses, was long imported into Oregon, the first factory being established in Portland in 1862, by W. B. Mead. Or. Aryus, June 7, 1862. In 18Cb R. Irving commenced the manufacture of this article, and being joined by G. A. Webb, the Oregon Standard Soap Company was formed, which turned out fifteen varieties of soap, and was the second manufactory of this kind on the Pacific coast. Review Board of Trade, 1877, 12; HittetVs Resources, 719. Vinegar was made for market at Portland and Butteville, to the amount of four hundred thousand gallons annually.
Fruit-drying was carried on at Oregon City and other points to a consider able extent, but no reliable figures are to be found concerning this industry, which is divided up among individual fruit-raisers. Patented movable dryers were used, which could be set up in any orchard. Plums, prunes, pears, and apples were the fruits commonly dried, and their excellence was unsur passed, the fruit being fine, and the method of preserving leaving the flavor unexhausted, and each separate slice clean and whole.
A flax-mill was established at Albany in 1877, which manufactured 5,000 pounds of linen twines and threads per month. The flax was grown in Linn county, by tenant farmers, who worked on shares for one third of the crop at twelve cents a pound for the fibre, and the market price for the seed. The mill company, having two thirds of the crop for rental, only paid for one third of the flax used, which left them a profit of about $0,000 a year in the fac tory. The seed produced was worth $45 an acre. It had long been known that flax was a native product of Oregon. It was discovered by experiment that the cultivation of it was favored by the soil and climate. Linseed oil was first manufactured at Salem. The company was incorporated in November 1866. Their machinery, having a capacity for crushing 30,000 bushels of seed per annum, was shipped around Cape Horn, and since 1867 the Pioneer Oil Mill has been running, its capacity being increased to GO, 000 bushels. Brown s Salem Direc., 1871, 1874; Gilfry s Or., MS., 86; U. S. Agric. Kept, 1872, 451. Tow for upholstering was made at this establishment. The nore of Oregon flax is very fine and strong, with a peculiar silkiness which makes it equal to the best used in the manufacture of Irish linens.
The first tannery in Oregon, other than household ones, was that of Daniel H. Lownsdale, on Banner s Creek, just back of the original Portland land claim. Here was made the leather, valued at 5,000, which purchased Petty- grove s interest in the town. The manufacture of this article has not been what the natural resources of the country warranted until recently. Small tanneries existed at several places, including Portland, Salem, Eugene City, Brownsville, Coquille City, Parkersburg, and Milwaukee. Leinenweber & Co. of upper Astoria first connected the manufacture of leather "with the making of boots and shoes. The Oregon Leather Manufacturing Company was incorporated in 1878, A. W. Waters, president. The company employed convict labor, and turned out 30,000 sides annually, at a good profit. Hitteli s Resources, 495. Roots and shoes were made extensively by several firms. Aikin, who began the manufacture in a small way at Portland, in 1859, \vas later associated with Selling & Co., and had a profitable trade with Idaho and Montana. The Oregon Boot, Shoe, and Leather Manufacturing Com pany of Portland is the successor to Hibbard & Brazee who begun manu facturing in 1873, and projected the new company in 1881, which employed fifty workmen. The factory of B. Leinenweber & Co. at Astoria cost 40,000, employed 35 workmen, and manufactured $78,000 worth of goods annually. Gloves of the coarser sort were made at two places in Portland, and one place in Eugene City. Saddle and harness making was carried on in every town of any importance, but only to supply the local demand. Wagons and carriages were also manufactured to a limited extent. Brooms and brushes were made at Portland. Malt liquors were produced at thirty-four different breweries in the state, to the amount of 24,000 barrels per annum. Portland early enjoyed a spice and coffee mill, candy factory, and various other minor industries.
Manufactures which are secondary to trade are slow in development, the HIST. OB., VOL. II. 47 \n
country lacking population and excess of capital. But the requirements for becoming a manufacturing state are present in abundance in water-power, tim ber, minerals, and the means of rapid transportation, and out of the small beginnings here referred to as proof of what our generation of men have ac complished in the face of unusual obstacles, another generation of their descendants will be able to evoke grand results.
MINES AND MINING.
I have not yet particularized the mineral resources of Oregon, except as to iron mentioned incidentally along with manufactures. Gold, as a precious metal, has exercised a great influence in the progress of the country. It gave the people a currency which emancipated them from the thraldom of wheat-raising and fur-hunting, by which alone any trade could be car ried on previously. It improved their farms, built mills and steamboats, chartered ships, and loaded them with goods necessary for their comfort. It enlarged their mental and social horizon, and increased their self-respect. It was California gold which first revolutionized pioneer Oregon. But there was gold in Oregon sufficient for her needs, had it been known. James D. Dana, of Wilkes exploring expedition, remarked upon the appearance of southern Oregon, and its resemblance to other gold-bearing regions, as early as 1841. Ten years later John Evans was appointed U. S. geologist to insti tute researches on the main line of the public land surveys about to be com menced in Oregon, and was, through the petitions of the Oregon legislature, continued in the service for several years. Evans was thoroughly identified with the study of Oregon geology. He was born in Portsmouth, N. H., Feb. 14, 1812; educated at Andover, studied medicine, and married a daugh ter of Robert Miles of Charleston, S. C. He was appointed assistant to David Dale Owen to prosecute some geological surveys in the west, and soon after completing this work was sent to Oregon. He died of pneumonia at Washington city, April 20, 1861. Silliman* Journal, xxxii. 311-18; Or. Statesman, May 20, 1861. But aside from satisfying the government of the value of its territories in a general way, these scientific surveys had little bearing upon the actual development of mineral resources. Gold deposits were always discovered by accident or the patient search of the practical miner.
Following the discovery of the placer mines of Rogue River Valley in 1851 was the discovery of the beach mines in 1852, on the southern coast of Oregon. Late in 1853 more than a thousand men were mining south of Coos Bay. Then came other discoveries, and finally the current of gold-seeking was turned into eastern Oregon, not altogether ignoring the western slopes of the Cascades, where mining districts were marked out, prospected, a pocket or two of great richness found and exhausted, and the district abandoned. These things have been spoken of as they occurred in the settlement of the country.
The actual yield of the mines could not be determined. About Jackson ville and on the head waters of the Illinois River they were very rich in spots. While five dollars a day only rewarded the majority of miners, it was not uncommon to find nuggets on the Illinois weighing forty-six, fifty-eight, or seventy-three ounces. Sac. Union, April 23, July 28, and Sept. 10, 1858; Dana s Great West, 284. The Jacksonville mines also yielded frequent lumps of gold from six to ten ounces in weight. The introduction of hydraulics in mining about 1857 redoubled the profits of mining. As much as $100,000 was taken from a single beach mine a few miles north of the Coquille River. About the spring of 1859 quartz mines were discovered in Jackson county, which yielded at the croppings and on top of the vein fabulous sums, but which soon pinched out or was lost.
About 1857 a discovery was made of gold in the bed of the Santiam and its branches in Marion county, but not in quantities to warrant mining, although a limited extent of ground .worked the following two yea rs paid \n
from four to six dollars a day. Or. Statesman, Aug. 11, 1857, Sept. 28, 1858; Or. Argus, Aug. 20, 1859. In 1860 reputed silver quartz was found on both the Santiam and Moballa rivers, and many claims were located. But it was not until 1863 that undoubted quartz lodes were discovered in the Cascade Mountains on the north fork of the Santiam. A camp called Quartzville was established at a distance of about fifty miles from Salem and Albany in the autumn of that year, and in the following season some of the leads were slightly worked to show their character, and yielded twenty-one dollars to the ton, a little more than half in silver. Portland Oregonian, July 29, 1864. The most noted of the veins in the Santiam district was the White Bull lode, situated on Gold Mountain, where a majority of the leads were found. It was eight feet wide and very rich. The Union company of Salem removed a bowlder from one of their claims, under which they found first a bed of gravel and earth several feet in depth, then bastard granite, and beneath that a bluish gray rock with silver in it. Beneath the latter was a layer of decom posed quartz overlying the true gold-bearing quartz. Out of this mine some remarkable specimens were taken. The hard white rock sparkled with points of gold all over the surface. In some cavities where the quartz was rotten, or at least disintegrated and yellowed, were what were called eagle s-nests; namely, skeins of twisted gold fibres of great fineness and beauty attached to and suspended from the sides of the opening, crossing each other like straws in a nest, whence the name. This variety of gold, which is known as thread gold, was also found in the mountains of Douglas county.
The Salem company took out about $20, 000 worth of these specimens, and then proceeded to put up a quartz-mill. But the mine was soon exhausted, and the treasure taken out went to pay the expenses incurred. This out come of the most famous mine discouraged the further prosecution of so costly an industry, and the Santiam district was soon known as a thing of the past. It was the opinion of experts that the gold was only superficial, and that the true veins were argentiferous. A company as late as 1877 was at work on the Little North fork of the Santiam, which heads up near Mount Jefferson, tunnelling for silver ore. At different places and times both gold and silver have been found in Marion and Clackamas counties, but no regular mining has ever been carried on, and the development of quartz-mining by an agricultual community is hardly to be expected. Surveyor-general s rept, 1868, in Zabrix- kie, 1046-7, MS., Sec. Int. Rept, 1857, 321-0, 40th cong. 3d sess. ; Albany Regis ter, July 28, 1871; Corvallis Gazette, Sept. 1, 1876. I have already spoken of the discovery of the mines of eastern Oregon, and its effect upon the settle ment and development of the country. No absolutely correct account has ever been kept, or could be given, of the annual product of the Oregon mines, the gold going out of the state in the hands of the private persons, and in all directions. In 1864 the yield of southern and eastern Oregon together was $1.900,000. The estimate for 1867 was $2,000,000; for 1869, $1,200,000; for 1887-8, over $1,280,000; and for 1881, $1,140,000. Review Board of Trade, 1877, 34; Ried s Progress of Portland, 42; Pacific North-west, 32-3; HittelV Resources, 290. The annual yield of silver has been put down at $150,000, this metal being produced from the quartz veins of Grant and Baker counties, the only counties where quartz-mining may be said to have been earned on successfully.
The Virtue mine near Baker City deserves special mention as the first quartz mine developed in eastern Oregon, or the first successful quartz opera tion in the state. It was discovered in 1863 by two men on their way to Boise", who carried a bit of the rock to that place and left it at the office of Mr Rockfellow, who at once saw the value of the quartz, and paid one of the men to return and point out the place where it had been found. Upon tracing up other fragments of the quartz, the ledge from which they came was discovered and Rockfellow s name given to it. Walla Walla Statesman, Sept. 5, 1863; Idaho Silver City Avalanche, Nov. 11, 1876; Portland Oregonian t Sept. 16 and Oct. 7, 1863. The Pioneer mine and two other lodes were dis covered at the same time. An arastra was at once put up, a nd the Rock- \n
fellow mine tested. The first specimens assayed by Tracy and King of Port land showed $1,3CO in gold and $20 in silver to the ton. /(/., May 17, 1864. In the spring of 1864 Rockfellow took J. S. Ruckel of the 0. S. N. Co. into partnership, and two arastras were put at work on the ore from this mine. A little village sprang up near by, of miners and artisans, dependent upon the employment afforded by it. In July $1,250 was obtained out of 1,500 pounds of rock. The gold was of unusual fineness, and worth $19.50 per ounce. Id., July 21, 1864. A tunnel was run into the hill, intended to tap the several ledges at a depth of 300 to 500 feet, and a mill was erected on Powder River, seven miles from the mine, on the travelled road to Boise". It had a capacity of 20 stamps, but ran only 12. It began crushing in October, and shut down in November, the trial being entirely satisfactory. In May 1865 it started up again, crushing rock, the poorest of which yielded $30 to $40 to the ton, and the best $10,000. Up to this time about $75,000 had been expended on the mine and mill. A large but unknown quantity of gold was taken out of the mine. Rockfellow & Ruckel sold out, and about 1871-2 a company, of which Hill Beachy was one and James W. Virtue another, owned and worked the mine. It took the name of the Virtue Gold Mining Company. In the mean time Baker City grew up in the immediate vicinity of the mill, where Virtue followed assaying and banking, dependent largely upon the mine, and which became the county seat. In 1872 the new company erected a steam mill with 20 stamps, and other buildings, and employed a much larger force, extending tunnels and shafts. In 1876 a shaft was down 600 feet, connecting with the various levels, and the vein had been worked along the line of the lead 1,200 feet. The quartz is of a milky whiteness, hard, but not difficult to crush. It yields from $20 to $25 per ton, with a cost of $5 for mining and milling. All the expenses of improvements have been paid out of the pro ceeds of the mine, which is making money for its owners. A foundery was es tablished at Baker City in connection with the mine, which besides keeping it in repair has plenty of custom-work.
The Emmet mine, 500 feet above the Virtue, had its rock crushed in the Virtue mill, and yielded $22. 50 per ton. Baker City B^d Rock Democrat, Feb. 14, 1872; Silver City Avalanche, Jan. 8 and Nov. 11, 1876.
Among the many veins of gold-bearing quartz discovered simultaneously in the early part of 1860, that found by the Hicks brothers returned thirty ounces of gold to a common mortarful of the rock. On the 13th of January George Ish discovered a vein in an isolated butte lying twelve miles from Jacksonville, in a bend of Rogue River, which yielded on the first tests twelve dollars to every pound of rock. Two bowlders taken from the surface, weigh ing forty and sixty pounds respectively, contained one pound of gold to every five pounds of rock. No part of the rock near the surface contained less than ten dollars to the pound, and from a portion of the quartz fifteen dollars to the pound was obtained. The first four hundred pounds contained 404 ounces of gold. From a piece weighing four pounds, twelve and a half ounces of gold were obtained; 800 pounds of rock produced 60 pounds of amalgam. John E. Ross, who had a claim on this butte called Gold Hill, realized an average of $10 to the pound of rock. One piece weighing 14 pounds gave up 36 ounces of gold. Sac. Union, Feb. 16 and 27, 1860; North ern Yreka Journal, Feb. 9, 1860; Siskiyou County A/airs, MS., 24. The rock in the Ish vein was very hard and white, with fine veins of gold cours ing through it, filling and wedging every crevice. It appeared to be a mine of almost solid gold. Thomas Cavanaugh, one of the owners, refused $80,- 000 for a fifth interest. Ish and his partners went east to purchase machinery to crush the quartz. In the mean time the casing rock was being crushed in an arastra, and yielded $700 a week, while the miners were taking out quartz preparatory to setting up the steam mill which had been purchased. When less than 600 tons of quartz had been mined it was found that the vein was detached, and to this day the main body of the ore has not been found. The expenses incurred ruined the company, and Gold Hill was abandoned after $130,000 had been taken out and expended. Surveyor-general s rept, in \n GRAVEL-MINING. 741
Zdbriskie t 1041. Nor was the Ish mine the only instance of rich quartz. When veins began to be looked for they were found in all directions. A mine on Jackson Creek yielded forty ounces of gold in one week, the rock being pounded in a common mortar. In May a discovery was made on the head of Applegate Creek which rivalled the Ish mine in richness, producing 97 ounces of gold from 22 pounds of rock. Ten tons of this quartz yielded at the rate of $2,352 to the ton. Sac. Union, Aug. 30, 1860, and March 15, 1861; Or. Statesman, March 18, 1861.
Notwithstanding that a number of these flattering discoveries were made, quartz-mining never was carried on in Jackson county to any extent, owing to the expense it involved, and the feeling of insecurity engendered by the experiments of 1860. In 1866 the Occidental Quartz Mill Company was or ganized, and a mill with an engine of 24 horse-power was placed on the Daven port lead on Jackson Creek. Arastras were generally used, by which means much of the gold and all of the silver was lost. Within the last dozen years several mills have been introduced in different parts of southern Oregon. The placers have been worked continuously, first by Americans and after wards by Chinamen, who, under certain taxes and restrictions, have been permitted to occupy mining ground in all the gold districts of Oregon, al though the constitution of the state forbids any of that race not residing in Oregon at the time of its adoption to hold real estate or work a mining claim therein. The first law enacted on this subject was in December 1860, when it was declared that thereafter no Chinaman shall mine gold in this State un less licensed to do so as provided, etc. The tax was $2 per month, to be paid every three months in advance, and to be collected by the county clerk of each county where gold was mined on certain days of certain months. Any Chinaman found mining without a license was liable to have any property be longing to him sold at an hour s notice to satisfy the law. Ten per cent of this tax went into the state treasury. If Chinamen engaged in any kind of trade, even among themselves, they were liable to pay $50 per month, to be collected in the same manner as their mining licenses. Or. Laws, 1869, 49- 52. The law was several times amended, but never to the advantage of the Chinese, who were made to contribute to the revenues of the state in a liberal manner.
The product of the mines of Jackson county from 1851 to 1866 has been estimated at a million dollars annually, which, from the evidence, is not an over-estimate. Hine* Or., 288; Gilfry s Or., MS., 51-3.
The first to engage in deep gravel-mining was a company of English capi talists, who built a ditch five miles long in Josephine county, on Gaiice Creek, in 1875, and found it pay. A California company next made a ditch for bringing water to the Althouse creek mines in the same county. The third and longer ditch constructed was in Jackson county, and belonged to D. P. Thompson, A. P. Ankeny & Co., of Portland, and is considered the best min ing property in the state. It conducted the water a distance of twenty- three miles to the Sterling mines in the neighborhood of Jacksonville. Another ditch, built in 1878, eleven miles long, was owned by Klipfel, Hannah & Co., Jacksonville, and by Bellinger, Thayer, Hawthorne, and Kelly of Portland. It brought water from two small lakes in the Siskiyou Mountains to Applegate Creek, and cost $30,000. Ashland Tidings, Sept. 27, 1878. The results were entirely satisfactory. A company was formed by W. R. Willis, at Roseburg, in 1878, with a capital of half a million for carrying on hydraulic mining on the west bank of Applegate Creek. They purchased the water rights and improvements of all the small miners, and took the water out of the creek above them for their purposes. J. C. Tolman of Ashland in the same year brought water from the mountains to the Cow Creek mines. The Chinamen of Rogue River Valley also expended $25,000, about this time, in a ditch to bring water to their mining ground, and with good results. Duncan s South ern Or., MS., 10. Thus, instead of the wild excitement of a few years in which luck entered largely into the miner s estimate of his coming fortune, there grew up a permanent mining industry in Jackson county, requiri ng the \n
investment of capital and making sure returns. In a less degree the same nay be said of Douglas county, and also of Coos when the hydraulic process is applied to the old sea-beaches about four miles from the ocean, which are rich and extensive.
It was not until 1866 that silver ledges received any attention in southern Oregon. The first location was made one mile west of Willow Springs, in Rogue River Valley, on the crest of a range of hills running parallel with the Oregon and California road. This was called the Silver Mountain ledge, waa eight feet in width at the croppings, and was one of three in the same vicinity. Jacksonville Reporter, Jan. 13, 1866; Jacksonville Reveille, Jan. 11, 1866; Portland Oregonian, Jan. 27, 1866. In the following year silver quartz was discovered in the mountains east of Roseburg. Some of the mines located by incorporated companies in Douglas county were the Monte Rico, Gray Eagle, Excelsior, and Last Chance, these ledges being also gold-bearing. This group of mines received the name of the Bohemia district. E. W. Gale and P. Peters were among the first discoverers of quartz in Douglas county. Roseburg Ensign, Sept. 14 and 21, 1867; Salem Willamette Farmer, July 9, 1870. On Steamboat Creek, a branch of the Umpqua, James Johnson, a California miner, discovered a gold mine in quartz which assayed from $500 to $1,000 to the ton. Owing to its distance from the settlements and the difficulty of making a trail, it was neglected. The Monte Rico silver mine, in the Bohemia dis trict, yielded nearly two hundred dollars per ton of pure silver. In 1868 the Seymour City and Oakland mines were located, all being branches of the same great vein. John A. Veatch describes the Bohemia district as pertaining as much to Lane as Douglas county, and lying on both sides of the ridge sepa rating the waters of the Umpqua and Willamette. He called it a gold-bearing district, with a little silver in connection with lead and antimony. Specimens of copper were also found in the district. Id., July 12, 1869. John M. Foley, ia the Roseburg Ensign of August 29, 1868, describes the Bohemia district as resembling in its general features the silver-bearing districts of Nevada and Idaho. There is no doubt that gold and silver will at some period of the fu ture be reckoned among the chief resources of Douglas county, but the rough and densely timbered mountains in which lie the quartz veins present obsta cles so serious, that until the population is much increased, and until it is less easy to create wealth in other pursuits, the mineral riches of this part of the country will remain undeveloped.
The other metals which have been mined, experimentally at least, in southern Oregon, are copper and cinnabar. Copper was discovered in Jose phine county on the Illinois River in 1856, near where a vein called Fall Creek was opened and worked in 1863. The first indications of a true vein of copper ore were found in 1859, by a miner named Hawes, on a hill two miles west of Waldo, in the immediate vicinity of the famous Queen of Bronze mine, and led to the discovery of the latter. The Queen of Bronze was pur chased by De Hierry of San Rafael, California, who expended considerable money in attempts to reduce the ore, which he was unable to do profitably. The Fall Creek mine was also a failure financially. Its owners Crandall, Moore, Jordan, Chiles, and others made a trail through the mountains to the coast near the mouth of Chetcoe River, a distance of forty miles, where there was an anchorage, superior to that of Crescent City, from which to ship their ore, but the expenditure was a loss. In this mine, as welt as in the Queen of Bronze, the ore became too tough with pure metal to be mined by any means known to the owners.
The first knowledge of cinnabar in the country was in 1860, when R. S. Jewett of Jackson county, on showing a red rock in his mineral collection to a traveller, was told that it was cinnabar. The Indians from whom he had obtained it could not be induced to reveal the locality, so that it was not until fifteen years later that a deposit of the ore was found in Douglas county, six miles east of Oakland. The reason given for concealing the location of the cinnabar mine was that the Indians had, by accident, and by burning a large fire on the rock, salivated themselves and their horses, after which they had \n COAL-FIELDS. 743
a superstitious fear of it. Rogue River John, on seeing Jewett throw a piece of the rock upon the tire, left his house, and could not be induced to return. Portland West Shore, Nov. 1878, 73. The owners erected a furnace capable of retorting six hundred pounds per day to test the mine, and obtained an average of forty dollars worth of quicksilver from this amount of ore. The mine was then purchased by the New Idria company, which put up two fur naces, capable of retorting three tons daily. The assay of the ore yielded from sixty to eighty pounds of pure quicksilver per ton. Fuel being plenty and cheap made this a profitable yield. The mine was owned entirely in Ore gon. The officers were A. L. Todd president, A. C. Todd secretary, J. P. Gill treasurer, J. W. Jackson superintendent, T. S. Rodabaugh agent. Gill, Ilodabaugh, and Jackson composed the board of directors. The cost of open ing up the Nonpareil mine was $40,000. Roseburg Plain-dealer, Sept. 20, 1879. Partial discoveries of tin have been made in Douglas county, but no mine has yet been found. Among the known mineral productions of the southern counties are marble, salt, limestone, platina, borax, and coal. The latter mineral was discovered about the same time near the Columbia and at Coos Bay.
The first coal discoveries at Coos Bay were made in 1853 near Empire City and North Bend. The first to be worked was the Marple and Foley mine, about one mile from the bay, which was opened in 1854. It was tried on the steamer Crescent City in May of that year, and also in S. F. , and pronounced good. S. F. Alta, May 6, 12, 1854. The first cargo taken out was carried in wagons to the bay, and transferred to flat-boats, which conveyed it to Empire, where it was placed on board the Chansey for S. F. The vessel was lost on the bar in going out, but soon after another cargo was shipped, which reached its destination, where it was sold at a good profit. This mine was abandoned 011 further exploration, the next opened being at Newport and Eastport, in 1858. James Aiken discovered these veins. The Eastport mine was opened by Northrup and Symonds, and the Newport mine by Rogers and Flannagan. The early operations in coal at Coos Bay were expensive, owing to the crudi ties of the means employed. The Eastport mine Avas sold in 1868 to Charles and John Pershbaker, and subsequently to another company. According to the S. F. Times of March 6, 18(39, the purchasing company were J. L. Pool, Howard, Levi Stevens, I. W. Raymond, J. S. Dean, Oliver Eldridge, Claus Spreckels, and W. H. Sharp. Rogers sold his interest in the Newport mine to S. S. Mann. These two mines have been steadily worked for sixteen years, and are now in a better condition than ever before. Several others have been opened, with varying success, the Southport mine, opened in 1875, being the only successful rival to Newport and Eastport.
The coal-fields at Coos Bay appear to extend from near the bay to a dis tance of five miles or more inland, through a range of hills cropping out in gulches or ravines running toward the bay, and on the opposite side of the ridge. The strata lie in horizontal planes, having in some places a slight in clination, but generally level, and have a thickness of from eight to ten feet. They are easily reached by from three to five miles of road, which brings them to navigable water. The same body of coal underlies the spurs of the Coast Range for hundreds of miles. It has been discovered in almost every county on the west side of the Willamette, and along the coast at Port Orford, Yaquina and Tillamook bays, on the Nehalem River, and in the highlands of the Columbia. A large body of it exists within from one to seven miles of the river in Columbia county. Discoveries of coal have also been made in eastern Oregon, near Canon City, and on Snake River, three miles from Farewell bend. Roseburg Independent, Nov. 1, 1879; Oregon Facts, 15-16; Corvaliis Gazette, April 13, 1867; Portland West tihore, Feb. 1876, and Jan. and March 1877; S. F. Mining and Scientific Press, Dec. 14, 1872; Gale s Resources of Coos Count;/, 45-56; Browne s Resources, 237; Resources of Southern Or., 10-12.
With regard to the quality of the coals in Oregon, they were at first classed by geologists with the brown lignites. This name, says the Astortan of Aug. 29, 18/9, is an unfortunate one, as it is now proved that the coals cal led \n
lignites are not formed of wood to any greater extent than are the coals of the carboniferous period. It gives the impression of an inferior coal, which in the main is a mistaken idea, for coals of every quality, and fit for all uses, can be found in the so-called lignites of the Pacific coast. An analysis of Coos Bay coal, made in 1877, gave water 9.87, sulphur 3.73, ash 10.80, coke 50.00, vola tile gases 26.40. S. F. Call, June 23, 1867. Another analysis by Evans gave carbon in coke 60.30, volatile gases 25.50, moisture 9.00, ash 4.70; specific gravity 1.384. Or. Statesman, Aug. 18, 1857. It varies in appearance and character in different localities. At Coos Bay it is described as a clean, black coal, of lustrous chonchoidal fracture, free from iron pyrites, with no trace of sulphur, burning without any disagreeable odor and comparatively little ash. It cakes somewhat in burning and gives off considerable gas. This descrip tion applies equally well to the coal on the Columbia River, where it is has been tested, and to the mines on Puget Sound. In certain localities it is harder and heavier, and the same mine in different veins may contain two or more varieties. Later scientists speak of them as brown coals, and admit that they are of more remote origin, and have been subjected to greater heat and pressure than the lignites, but say that they occupy an intermediate position between them and the true coals. U. S. H. Ex. Doc., x. 206, 42d cong. 2d sess. It would be more intelligent to admit that nature may produce a true coal different from those in England, Pennsylvania, or Australia.
The cost of producing coals at Coos Bay is one dollar a ton, and fifteen cents for transportation to deep water. Transportation to S. F. is two dol lars a ton in the companies own steamers of seven and eight hundred tons. In 1856 it was $13 per ton, and coal $40. The price varies with the market. Relatively, Coos Bay coal holds its own with the others in market. The prices for 1873 were as follows: Sidney, $17; Naniamo (V. I.), $10; Bellingham Bay, $15; Seattle, $16; Rocky Mountain, $16; Coos Bay, $15; Monte Diablo (Cal. ), $12. S. F. Bulletin, Jan. 14, 1873. Prices have been lowered several dollars by competition with Puget Sound mines. The value of the coals exported from Coos Bay in 1876-7 was $317,475; in 1877-8 it was $218,410; and in 1878-9 it was $150,255. This falling-off was owing to competition with other coals, foreign and domestic, and the ruling of lower prices for fuel. Still, as the cost of Coos Bay coals laid down in S. F. is less than four dollars, there is a good margin of profit.
IMPORTS AND EXPORTS,
I will now givea few statistics concerning imports and exports. In 1857 Oregon had 60,000 inhabitants, and shipped 60,000 barrels of flour, 3,000,000 pounds of bacon and pork, 250,000 pounds of butter, 25,000 bushels of apples, $40,000 worth of chickens and eggs, $200,000 worth of lumber, $75,- 000 worth of fruit-trees, $20,000 worth of garden-stuff, and 52,000 head of cattle, the total value of which was $3,200,000. The foreign trade, if any, was very small. In 1861 the trade with California amounted to less than two millions, which can only be accounted for by the greater home consump tion caused by mining immigration, and the lessened production consequent upon mining excitement. This year the imports from foreign countries amounted only to $1,300, and the exports to about $77,000. During the next decade the imports had reached about $700,000, and the exports over $800,000. In 1881 the imports were a little more than $859,000, and the direct exports $9,828,905, exclusive of the salmon export, which amounted to $2,750,000, and the coastwise trade, which was something over six millions, making an aggregate of more than eighteen and a half millions for 1881. or an increase of almost a million annually for the twenty years following 1860. Reid s Progress of Portland, 42; HitteU s Resources Pacific North-wext, 57-8; Smalleifa Hi*t. N. P. R. /?., 374. The increase, however, was gradual until 1874, when the exports suddenly jumped from less than $700,000 to nearly a million and a half, after which they advanced rapidly, nearly doubling in 1881 the value of 1880. \n The imports to Oregon have consisted of liquors, glass, railway iron, tin, and a few minor articles which come from England; coal comes from Australia as ballast of wheat vessels; general merchandise from China; rice, sugar, and molasses from the Hawaiian Islands; and wool, ore, and hides from British Columbia. The exports from Oregon consist of wheat, oats, flour, lumber, coal, wool, salmon, canned meats, gold, silver, iron, live-stock, hops, potatoes, hides, fruit, green and dried, and to some extent the products of the dairy. A comparative statement of the principal exports is given for the year ending August 1878, in Reid's Progress of Portland, a pamphlet published in 1879 by the secretary of the Portland board of trade.
| 1877-8. | 1876-7. | |
|---|---|---|
| Salmon to S. F., in cases, value | $980,956 | $1,750,350 |
| Wheat, flour, oats, hops, potatoes, lumber, hides, pickled salmon, treasure, and all domestic products from the Columbia to S. F., except wool and coal | 3,765,687 | 2,332,000 |
| Wool exports via San Francisco | 998,305 | 756,000 |
| Coal from Coos Bay 21,410 317,475 | ||
| Lumber from Coos Bay and the coast 151,234 173,367 | ||
| Total to San Francisco | $6,124,492 $5,329,192 |
Wheat and flour direct to the United Kingdom,
value 4,872,027 3,552,000
Canned salmon direct to Great Britain, value 1,326,056 737,830
Beef arid mutton, canned and uncanned, value 133,895 365,733
Wheat, flour, and other products to the Sandwich
Islands and elsewhere, value 637,636 386,600
Gold and silver from Oregon mines, value 1,280,867 1,200,000
Cattle to the eastern states, etc ..... 270,000 \n $14,644,973 $11,571,355
Increase in one year 3,073,618
The number of vessels clearing at the custom-house of Portland and Astoria for 1880 was 141, aggregating 213,143 tons measurement; 93 of these vessels were in the coastwise trade, the remaining 48, measuring 40,600 tons, were employed in the foreign trade. In 1881 the clearances for foreign ports from Portland alone were 140, measuring 130,000 tons, and the clearances for domestic ports, including steamships, were not less than 100, making an increase in the number of sea-going vessels of ninety-nine.
- ↑ Harvey Gordon was a native of Ohio, and a surveyor. He first engaged in politics in 1800, when lie associated himself with the Statesman, to which he gave, though a democrat, a decidedly loyal tone. He died of consumption, at Yoncalla, a few months after his election, much regretted. Sac. Union, July 1863.
- ↑ I have mentioned Shattuck in connection with the Pacific University. He was born in Bakersfield, Dec. 31, 1824, and received a classical education at Burlington. After graduating in 1848, he taught in various seminaries until 1851, when he began to read law, and was admitted to the bar in New York city in Nov. 1852. Thence he proceeded to Oregon in Feb. 1853, teaching 2 years in the Pacific University. In 185G he was elected probate judge in Washington co., in 1857 was a member of the constitutional convention, and soon after formed a law partnership with David Logan; was a member of the legislature in 1858, and held numerous positions of honor and trust from time to time. He was elected judge in 1862, and held the office five years; was again elected judge in 1874, and held until 1878. He received a flattering vote for supreme judge and U. S. senator. In every position Shattuck has been a modest, earnest, and pure man. His home was in Portland. Representative Men of Or., 158.
W. Carey Johnson was born in Ross co., Ohio, Oct. 27, 1833, and came to Oregon with his father, Hezekiah, in 1845. After learning printing he studied law, and was admitted to practice in 1855. He was elected prosecuting attorney of Oregon City in 1858, city recorder in 1858, and prosecuting attorney for the 4th district in 1802. In 1865-6 he held the position of special attorney under Caleb Gushing to investigate and settle the Hudson s Bay Co. s claims. In 1866 he was elected state senator, and in 1882 ran for U. S. senator. He resided in Oregon City, where he practised law. His wife was Josephine, daughter of J. F. Devore.
- ↑ Gibbs Notes on Or. Hist., MS., 19; Tribune Almanac, 1863, 57; Or. Argus, June 14, 1862; Or. Statesman, June 23, 1863.
- ↑ House: Jackson, Lindsey Applegate, S. D. Van Dyke; Josephine, J. D. Fay; Douglas, R. Mallory, James Watson; Umpqua, W. H. Wilson; Coos and Curry, Archibald Stevenson; Lane, V. S. McClure, A. A. Hemenway, M. Wilkins; Benton, A. M. Witharn, C. P. Blair; Linn, H. M. Brown, John Smith, Wm M. McCoy, A. A. McCally; Marion, I. R. Moores, Joseph Engle, C. A. Reed, John Minto; Polk, B. Simpson, G. W. Richardson; Yamhill, Joel Palmer, John Cummins; Washington, Ralph Wilcox; Washington and Columbia, E. W. Conyers; Clackamas, F. A. Collard, M. Ramsby, T. Kearns; Multnomah, A. J. Dufur, P. Wasserman; Clatsop and Tillamook, P. W. Gillette; Wasco, O. Humason; speaker, Joel Palmer; clerks, S. T. Church,
Henry Cummins, PaulCraudell; sergeant-at-arms, H. B. Parker; door-keeper,
Joseph Myers.
Senate: Jackson, J. Wagner; Josephine, D. S. Holton; Douglas, S. Fitzhugh; Umpqua, Coos, and Curry, J. W. Drew; Lane, James Munroe, C. E. Chrisman; Benton, A. G. Hovey; Linn, B. Curl, D. W. Ballard; Marion, John W. Grim, William Greenwood; Polk, William Taylor; Yamhill, John R. McBride; Clackamas and Wasco, J. K. Kelly; Multnomah, J. H. Mitchell; Washington, Columbia, Clatsop, and Tillamook, W. Bowlby; president, W. Bowlby; clerks, S. A. Clarke, W. B. Daniels, Wiley Chapman; sergeant-at- arms, R. A. Barker; door-keeper, D. M. Fields.
- ↑ The nominations made were B. F. Harding, George H. Williams, E. L. Applegate, O. Jacobs, Thos H. Pearne, R. F. Maury, J. H. Wilbur, A. Holbrook, H. L. Preston, W. T. Mattock, H. W. Corbett, and John Whiteaker. Says Deady: Benjamin F. Harding, or, as we commonly call him, Ben. Harding, is about 40 years of age, and a lawyer by profession. He was born in eastern Pennsylvania, where he grew up to man s estate, when he drifted out west, and after a brief sojourn in those parts, came to Oregon in the summer of 1850, and settled near Salem, where he has ever since resided. He was secretary of the territory some years, and has been a member of both state and territorial legislatures. He was in the assembly that elected Nesmith and Baker, and was principal operator in the manipulations that produced that result. He is descended from good old federal ancestors, and of course is down on this rebellion and the next one on general principles. Following the example of his household, he grew up a whig, but entering the political field first in Oregon, where at that time democracy was much in vogue, he took that side, and stuck to it moderately until the general dissolution in 1860. He left the state just before the presidential election, and did not vote. If he had, although rated as a Douglas democrat, the probability is he would have voted for Lincoln. He is devoid of all ostentation or special accomplishment, but has a big head, full of hard common sense, and much of the rare gift of keeping cool and holding his tongue. He is of excellent habits, is thrifty, industrious, and never forgets No. 1. In allusion to his reputed power of underground scheming and management among his cronies, he has long been known as "Subterranean Ben." Thomas H. Pearne, one of the aspirants for the senatorial position, preacher, and editor of the Pacific Christian Advocate, had, as could be expected, a large following of the methodist church, which was a power, and the friendship of Governor Gibbs, who was himself a methodist. But he had no peculiar fitness for the place, and received much ridicule from friends of Harding.
- ↑ The internal revenue law took effect in August 1862. Lawrence W. Coe of The Dalles was appointed collector, and Thomas Frazier assessor. W. S. Matlock was appointed U. S. depositary for Oregon to procure U. S. revenue stamps. Or. Statesman, Aug. 11 and Nov. 3, 1862.
- ↑ According to the message of Gov. Whiteaker, there were $40,314.66 in the treasury on the 7th of Sept., 1862. To draw the entire amount due the U. S. on the levy would leave a sum insufficient to carry on the state govt, therefore $10,000 was ordered to be paid at any time when called for, and the remaining $25,000 any time after the 1st of March, 1863; and the treasurer should pay the whole amount appropriated in coin. Or. Statesman, Oct. 27, 1862.
- ↑ S. F. Bulletin, Dec. 18, 1862; S. F. Alta, Nov. 18, 1862; Or. Argus, Dec, 6, 1862; Or. Statesman, Dec. 22, 1862; Or. Gen. Laws, 92.
- ↑ Place avarice and patriotism in opposition among the masses, and the latter is sure in time to give way. Throughout all, California held steadily, and loyally withal, to a metallic currency. Business was done upon honor; but there were those both in California and Oregon who, if patriotic on no other occasions, took advantage of the law to pay debts contracted at gold prices with greenbacks purchased for 40 or 90 cents on a dollar with coin. After much discussing and experimenting, Oregon finally followed the exam ple of California. In California and Oregon no public banks had ever existed, all being owned by private individuals, being simply banks of deposit, where the proprietors loaned their own capital, and, to a certain extent, that of their depositors. They issued no bills, and banked alone upon gold or its equivalent. They therefore refused to receive greenbacks on general deposit; and these notes were thrown upon the market to be bought and sold at their value estimated in gold, exactly reversing the money operations of the east. In New York gold was purchased at a premium with greenbacks; in California and Oregon greenbacks were purchased at a discount with gold; in New York paper money was bankable, and gold was not offered, being withdrawn from circulation; in San Francisco and Portland gold only was bankable, and paper money was offered in trade at current rates, and not de sired except by those who had bills to pay in New York. In Jan. 1803 the bankers and business men of Portland met and agreed to receive legal-ten ders at the rates current in San Francisco, as published from time to time in the daily papers of Portland by Ladd and Tilton, bankers. The merchants of Salem soon followed; then those of The Dalles. Finally the merchants published a black-list containing the names of those who paid debts in legal tenders, to be circulated among business men for their information. Or. Statesman, Jan. 5, 1863; Portland Oregonian, Aug. 30, 1864; and bills of goods were headed Payable in U. S. gold coin. These methods protected merchants in general, but did not keep the subject out of the courts. Able arguments were advanced by leading lawyers to prove that the treasury notes were not money, as the constitution gave no authority for the issuance of any but gold and silver coin. To these arguments were opposed others, equally able, that the government had express power to coin money, and that money might be of any material which might be deemed most fit, as the word money did not necessarily mean gold, silver, or any metal. James Lick vs William Faulkner and others, in Or. Statesman, Dec. 29, 1862. The supreme court of California held that legal-tenders were lawful money, but that it did not follow that every kind of lawful money could be tendered in the payment of every obligation. Portland Oregonian, Aug. 30, 1864.
- ↑ See opinion of the supreme court of Cal. on the specific-contract act, in Portland Oregonian, Aug. 20 and Sept. 2, 1864; Or. Statesman, July 22, 1864; S. F. Alta, Jan. 29, 1868.
- ↑ Or. Gen. Laws, 94; Or. Laws, 1860, 68-9.
- ↑ Leven N. English, born near Baltimore, in March 1792, removed when a child to Ky. He was a volunteer in the war of 1812, taking part in several battles. On the restoration of peace he removed to 111., then a wilder ness, where the Black Hawk war again called upon him to volunteer, this time as capt. of a company. In 1836 he went to Iowa, where he erected a flouring mill; and in 1845 he came to Oregon, settling near Salem. English's Mills of that place were erected in 1846. On the breaking-out of the Cay use war, English and two of his sons volunteered. He had 12 children by his first wife, who died in 1851. By a second wife he had 7. He died March 5, 1875. San Jose Pioneer, Sept. 2, 1877; Trans. Or. Pioneer Asso., 1875-6.
- ↑ As it was the practice of the lessees of the penitentiary to work the convicts outside of the enclosure, the most desperate and deserving of punishment often found means of escape. Twenty-five prisoners had escaped, twelve had been pardoned in the last two years of Whiteaker's administration, and five had finished the terms for which they were sentenced, leaving twenty-five still in confinement. The crimes of which men had been convicted and incarcerated in the penitentiary since 1853 were, arson 1, assault with intent to kill 15, assault with intent to commit rape 1, rape 1, assisting prisoners to escape 3, burglary 8, forgery 3, larceny 58, murder 1, murder in the second degree 12, manslaughter 6, perjury 1, receiving stolen goods 1, riot 1, robbery 3, threat to extort money 1, not certified 7 123, making an average of 13 commitments annually during a period of 9 years. For the period from Sept. 1862 to Sept. 1864 there was a marked increase of crime, consequent upon the immigration from the southern states of many of the criminal classes, who thus avoided the draft. In these 2 years 33 convicts were sent to the penitentiary, 12 for larceny, 5 intent to kill, 4 burglary, 3 murder in the 1st degree, 2 manslaughter, 1 rape, 1 seduction, 1 arson, 1 receiving stolen goods. The county of Wasco furnished just ⅓ of these criminals, showing the direction of the drift. Or. Journal House, 1864, ap. 35-53.
- ↑ The warden who, directed by the governor, produced these satisfactory results was A. C. K. Shaw, who, by the consent of the legislature, was subsequently appointed superintendent by the governor.
- ↑ The land was purchased of Morgan L. Savage, at $45 per acre, and the water-power of the Willamette Woolen Manufacturing Company for $2,000. George H. Atkinson was employed to visit some of the western states, and to visit the prisons for the purpose of observing the best methods of building, and laying out the grounds, with the arrangement of industries, and all matters pertaining to the most approved modern penitentiaries. Or. Jour. House, 1865, ap. 7–12.
- ↑ Gibbs' Notes on Or. Hist., MS., 20-22; Or. Code, 1862, ap. 71-3; Or. Laws, 1866, 95–8; Or. Legis. Docs, 1868, 7-10, 14; U. S. Educ. Rept., 548-57, 41st cong. 3d sess. See description in Murphy's Oregon Directory, 1873, 197–8.
- ↑ In 1860 the insane in Oregon were twenty-three in number, or a per cent of 0.438; in 1864 there were fifty-one patients in the asylum from a population of 80,000, giving a per cent of 0.638. The percentage of cures was 32.50. Or. Jour. House, 1862, ap. 49; Or. Jour. Home, 1864, ap. 7-8. In Sept. 1870 the asylum contained 122 persons, 87 males and 35 females. Of the whole number admitted in 1870-2, over 42 per cent recovered, and 7 per cent died. The building and grounds there were not of a character or extent to meet the requirements of the continually increasing number of patients. Governor's message, in Portland Oregonian, Sept. 13, 1866; Nash's Or., 149; Or. Insane Asylum Rept, 1872; Portland West Shore, March 1880. The number of patients in 1878 was 233, of whom 166 were males. Rept of C. C. Strong, Visiting Physician, 1878, 6.
- ↑ Or. Code, 1862, 105-7; Zabriskie's Land Law, 659-63.
- ↑ Or. Jour. House, 1862. ap. 27; Or. Statesman, Sept. 15, 1862.
- ↑ Or. Code, 1862, ap. 109-10. The U. S. law making grants to agricultural colleges apportioned the land in quantities equal to 30,000 acres fur each senator and representative in congress to which the states were respectively entitled by the apportionment of 1860. By this rule Oregon was granted 90,000 acres. Id., 60-4. The selections made previous to Gibbs administration were taken in the Willamette and Umpqua valleys. To secure the full amount of desirable lands required much careful examination of the country. The agricultural-college grant was taken between 1862 and 1864 in the Klamath Valley, and a considerable portion of the common-school lands also. Eastern Oregon, in the valley of the Columbia, was also searched for good locations for the state. D. P. Thompson and George H. Belden were the principal surveyors engaged in making selections. Belden made a complete map of Oregon from the best authorities. Previous to this the maps were very imperfect, the best being one made by Preston, and the earliest by J. W. Trutch in 1855.
- ↑ Land Off. Rept, 1858, 29-30.
- ↑ While this matter was under consideration in congress, it was proposed in the senate that a committee should inquire into the expediency of reuniting Washington to Oregon. Sen. Misc. Doc., 11, 36th cong. 2d sess., a proposition which, so far as the Walla Walla Valley was concerned, would have been received with great favor by the state, the natural boundary of which is indicated by the Columbia and Snake rivers. This was the boundary fixed in the constitution of Oregon, from which congress had departed. A motion was made in the legislature to annex at several different times. See Or. Jour. House, 1865, 50-73; Memorial of Or. leg. in 1870. in U. S. H. Misc. Doc., 23, i., 41st cong. 3d sess.; Or. Laws, 1870, 212-13; Or. Jour. Sen., 1868; U. S. Sen. Misc. Doc., 27, 42d cong. 3d sess.; Salem Statesman, Feb. 14, 1871; Salem Mercury, March 18, 1871. As late as 1873 Senator Kelly introduced a bill to annex Walla Walla county to Oregon, so as to conform the boundary to that named in the constitutional convention. On the other hand, the people of Washington would have been unwilling to resign this choice region. The matter was revived in 1875-6, when a committee of the U. S. house rep. reported favorably to the rectification of the Oregon boundary, but the change was not made. H. Misc. Doc., 23, 44th cong. 2d sess.; Cong. Globe, 1875-6, 300, 4710; H. Com. Rept, 764, 44th cong. 1st sess.
- ↑ The amount provided was $4,500. Sur.-gen. Pengra recommended J. W. Perrit Huntington, a Connecticut man, an immigrant of 1849. After a brief residence in Oregon City he settled in Polk county, farming and teaching school, but removing to Yoncalla subsequently, where he married Mary, a daughter of Charles Applegate, and where he followed farming and surveying. He was a man of ability, with some eccentricities of character. He was elected to the legislature in 1860, and was one of the most earnest of the republicans. In 1862 he was appointed superintendent of Indian affairs, and again by Andrew Johnson in 1867. He died at his home in Salem June 3, 18G9. Salem Unionist, in Roseburg Ensign, June 12, 1869; Deady's Scrap-Book, 29.
- ↑ Or. Jour. House, 1864, 42; Or. Argus, June 22, 1863; Land Off. Rept, 1867, 113-14.
- ↑ Land Off. Rept, 1869, 225. There were surveyed, tip to June 1878, 21,127,862; there remaining of unsurveyed public lands and Indian reservations 39,849,498 acres. In the remainder was included the state swamp-lands, of which only a portion had been selected. U. S. H. Ex. Doc., ix. 18, 45th cong. 3d sess. Of the surveyed lands, 139,597 acres were either sold or taken under the homestead or timber-culture acts from June 30, 1877, to July 1, 1878. Ibid., 146-160. Dept Agric. Rept, 1874-5, 67; see also Zabriskie's Public Land Laws of the United States, containing instructions for obtaining lands, and laws and decisions concerning lands, where are to be found many descriptions of the country, with the resources of the Pacific states, collected from official reports. San Francisco, 1870. Compare U. S. H. Ex. Doc., i. pt 4, vol. iv., pt i., 32-6, 156-60, 290-319, 452-8, 504-8, 41st cong. 3d sess.; U. S. Sec. Int. Rept, pt i., 44, 58, 268-76, 42d cong. 2d sess.; U. S. H. Ex. Doc., 170, x., 42d cong. 2d sess.; U. S. Sec. Int. Rept, pt i. 11, 16-17, 226-37, 280-99, 313-14; Salem Willamette Farmer, Aug. 2, 1873; Salem Unionist, Dec. 17, 1866.
- ↑ The expenses of the year 1857, for surveying the public lands, were $11,746.66, and the returns from their sale, $13,233.82. Land Off. Rept, 1858, 43-9.
- ↑ Or. Jour. Sen., 1864; Special Laws, 36-7; Jacksonville Sentinel, May 3, 1864; Zabriskie's Land Laws, 636-7.
- ↑ W. H. Hanchett, Martin Blanding, A. W. Patterson, J. G. Gray, E. F. Skinner, Joel Ware, D. M. Risdon, S. Ellsworth, J. B. Underwood, A. S. Patterson, T. Mulhollan, Harvey Small, A. S. Powers, J. L. Bromley, J. H. McClung, Henry Parsons, and B. J. Pengra. Their capital stock was first $30,000, but subsequently raised to $100,000; shares $250 each. For particulars, see Pengra's Rept Or. Cent. Military Road, a pamphlet of 63 pages, advertising the enterprise and giving a description of the country. Eugene City Journal, July 14, 21, 28, and Aug. 4, 11, 1866; S. F. Bulletin, Sept. 20, 1865.
- ↑ Ind. Aff. Rept, 1874, 75; Cong. Globe, 1866-67, pt iii., app. 179, 39th cong. 2d sess. It would seem from the fact that in 1878-9 a bill was before congress asking for a float on public lands in exchange for those embraced within the reservation and claimed by the O. C. M. R. Co., that the bill of 1866 was not intended to indemnify for these lands, though the language is such as to lead to that understanding. The bill of 1878-9 did not pass; and if the first is not an indemnity bill, then the Indian lands are in jeopardy. S. F. Chadwick, in Historical Correspondence, MS.; Ashland Tidings, Feb. 14, 1879; S. F. Bulletin, July 11, 1872.
- ↑ The legislature in 1870 memorialized congress for an extension of time for locating the salt-lands grant. Or. Jour. Sen., 1870, 211; U. S. Misc. Doc., 20, i., 41st cong. 3d sess.; but it was permitted to lapse. Message of Gov. Thayer, 1882, 19.
- ↑ Grover's Message, 1872, p. 12–13; Cong. Globe, 1871–2, app. 702; Zabriskie's Land Laws, sup. 1877, 27, 73.
- ↑ See Appendix to Governor's Message for 1872, which contains the official correspondence on the confirmation of the state lands, and is an interesting document; also Jackonsville Sentinel from Oct. 14 to Dec. 9, 1871.
- ↑ The first clause of this sentence is a quotation from a letter of Governor Grover to the secretary of the interior, dated Nov. 9, 1871, a year after the passage of the act, but only three months after ascertaining from W. H. Odell, then surveyor-general and successor to E. L. Applegate, that no correspondence whatever was on file in the surveyor-general's office concerning the swamp-lands. Therefore the legislature must have passed an act in pursuance of information received nine months after its passage. See Or. Governor's Message, app., 1872, 21–32; Or. Laws, 1870, 54–7.
- ↑ It was said that some of the members who took an active part in the passage of the bill had prepared their notices and maps to seize the valuable portions of the swamp-lands before voting on it. Two members made out their maps covering the same ground, and it depended on precedence in filing notices who should secure it. One of them called on the secretary after night fall to file his notice and maps, but was told that the governor had not yet signed the bill, on which he retired, satisfied that on the morning he could repeat his application successfully. The bill was signed by the governor that evening, and his rival, who was more persistent, immediately presented his notice and maps, which being filed at once, secured the coveted land to him. Jacksonville Sentinel, Dec. 16, 1871; Sacramento Union, Jan. 15, 1872. See remarks on swamp-lands, in Gov. Chadwick's Message, 1878, 35–40.
- ↑ The board of swamp-land commissioners consisted of L. F. Grover, governor, S. F. Chadwick, secretary, L. Fleischner, treasurer, and T. H. Cann, clerk of the state land department. Section 6 of the swamp-land law declares that, as the state is likely to suffer loss by further delay in taking possession of the swamp-lands within its limits, this act shall take effect and be in force from and after its approval by the governor; provided, that in case the office of commissioner of lands is not created by law, the provisions of this act shall be executed by the board of commissioners for the sale of school and university lands that is, the above-named officers of the state. Or. Laws, 1870, 56–7.
- ↑ Or. Laws, 1872, 129-33, 220-21, 128-9; U. S. Sen. Misc. Doc., 22, 42nd cong. 3d sess; Portland Oregonian, Jan. 27, 1873; Rept Sec. Int., 1873, 223-35, 257-93.
- ↑ See Or. Legisl. Docs, 1874, p. 17-18; S. F. Examiner, Oct. 18, 1874; Salem Mercury, Feb. 5, 1875; Albany State Rights Democrat, Jan. 22, 1875.
- ↑ See S. F. Chronicle, Feb. 29, 1884.
- ↑ In 1864 the U. S. senate com. on land grants refused a grant of land to construct a road from Portland to The Dalles. Sen. Com. Rept, 34, 38th cong. 1st sess.
- ↑ Zabriskie's Land Laws, 636-7; Portland Or. Herald, Feb. 28, 1871; Sec. Int. Rept, 77-86, 44th cong. 1st sess.
- ↑ Or. Laws, 1870, 14; Governor's Message, app., 1872, 73-4; Deady's Hist. Or., MS., 52; Portland Standard, Jan. 7, 1881. The first embezzlement of public money in Oregon was from the five-per-cent fund, amounting to $5,424.25. The drafts were stolen by Sam. E. May, secretary of state, and applied to his own use. Or. Governor's Message, app., 79-113; Woods' Recollections, MS., 7-9. It was this crime that brought ruin on Jesse Applegate, one of the bondsmen, whose home was sold at forced sale in 1883, after long litigation. S. E. May was a young man of good talents and fine personal appearance, though with a skin as dark as his character, and which might easily have belonged to a mulatto or mestizo.
- ↑ Portland Standard, Jan. 7, 1881. The fund does not seem proportioned to the amount of land. At the lowest price fixed by law, the lands sold must have aggregated 925,000 up to the date just mentioned. Out of this, after taking the cost of the canal and locks at Oregon City, $200,000, there would be a considerable amount to be accounted for more than should be credited to the account of expenses. But the figures are drawn from the best authority obtainable.
- ↑ No building was erected, nor was the location of the college secured to Corvallis. By simply adopting the Corvallis institution as it stood, a great difficulty was removed, and expense saved, while the land grant was secured. Twenty-two students were entered in 1868. In 1871 the people of Benton co. presented 35 acres of land to the college to make a farm, on which the agricultural students labored a short time each day of the school-week, receiving compensation therefor. Wheat and fruit were cultivated on the farm; fertilizers are tested, and soils analyzed. Lectures are given on meteorology, botany, fruit-culture, chemistry, and assaying. The building was enlarged, and the apparatus increased from time to time, with collections of minerals. The farm was valued at $5,000, the buildings at $6,000. In 1876 about 100 students took the agricultural course, all of whom were required to perform a small amount of labor on the farm, and to practise a military drill. The state makes an annual appropriation of $5,000 toward the current expenses of the college. Dept Agric. Rept, 1871-2, 325; 1875, 397, 492; Or. Laws, 1868, 40-41; Or. Legisl. Docs, 1870, app. 12-16; Or. Laws, 1872, 133-5; Governor's Message, 1872, 12-13; Portland West Shore, Oct. 1880.
- ↑ Or. Laws, 1872, 47-53, 96-7; Nash's Or., 162; Victor's Or., 178. Much information may be gleaned concerning the status of schools and the condition of the public funds from Or. School Land Sales Rept, 1872; Or. Legisl. Docs, 1868, doc. 4, 41-3.
- ↑ I find the principal statements here set down collected by the clerk of the board of land commissioners, M. E. P. McCormac, for the Portland Standard, Jan. 7, 1881; Ashland Tidings, Jan. 29, 1877; Sac. Union, Jan. 15, 1872; S. F. Post, Sept. 9, 1873.
- ↑ H. Ex. Doc., i., pt 5, 146-60, 45th cong. 3d sess.; Victor's Or., 98; Nash's Or., 163; Nordhoff, N. Cal., 211; Dept Agric. Rept, 1875, 331; Ashland Tidings, Nov. 16, 1877; Cong. Globe, 1876-7, 137; 1877-8, 32.
- ↑ Or. Gen. Laws, 1845, 64; Or. Code, 1862, app. 76-7.
- ↑ Since the Chinese question is presented at length in another portion of this work, it will not be considered in this place. In Oregon, as in California, there was much discussion of the problem of the probable effect of Chinese immigration and labor on the affairs of the western side of the continent; and occasionally an outbreak against them occurred, though no riots of importance have taken place in this state. During the period of railway building they were imported in larger numbers than ever before. The Oregon newspapers have never earnestly entered into the arguments for and against Chinese immigration, as the California papers have done. The Or. Deutsche Zeitung has published some articles in favor of it, and an occasional article in opposition has appeared in various journals; but there had not been any violent agitation on the subject up to the year 1881. See Boise Statesman, April 20, 1807; Or. Legisl. Docs, 1870, doc. 11, 5-9; Or. Laws, 1870, 103-5; Eugene City Journal, March 14, 1868; S. F. Call, Oct. 21, 1868; McMinnville Courieer Sept. 18, 1868; S. F. Times, Sept. 2, 1868, Jan. 18, 1809; Or. Deutsche Zeitung, July 17, 1869.
- ↑ Or. Laws, 1866, 41-6. In 1861 the revenue to the state from the tax on Chinamen was $539.25, collected in the counties of Jackson and Josephine; or a total of 10,785, which shows a mining population in those two counties of about 900. Or. Jour. House, 1862, ap. 65-6.
- ↑ This was the same elected in 1864, and had held their regular session in
September and October of that year. It consisted of the following members
Senate: Baker and Umatilla counties, James M. Pyle; Benton, A. G. Hovey;
Coos, Curry, and Douglas, G. S. Hinsdale; Clatsop, Columbia, Washington, and Tillamook, Thos R. Cornelius; Clackamas, H. W. Eddy; Douglas, James Watson; Jackson, Jacob Wagner; Josephine, C. M. Caldwell; Lane, C. E. Chrisman and S. B. Cranston; Linn, Bartlett Curl and D. W. Bollard; Marion, John W. Grim and William Greenwood; Multnomah, J. H. Mitchell; Polk, John A. Frazer; Wasco, L. Donnel; Yamhill, Joel Palmer.
House: Baker county, Samuel Colt and Daniel Chaplin; Benton, J. Quinn Thornton and James Gingles; Coos and Curry, Isaac Hacker; Clatsop, Columbia, and Tillamook. P. W. Gillette; Clackamas, E. S. S. Fisher, H. W. Shipley, and Owen Wade; Douglas, E. W. Otey, P. C. Parker, and A. Ireland; Jackson, James D. Fay, T. F. Beall, and W. F. Songer; Josephine, Isaac Cox; Lane. G. Callison, J. B. Underwood, and A. McCornack; Linn, Robert Glass, J. N. Perkins, J. P. Tate, and H. A. McCartney; Marion, I. R. Moores, J. C. Cartwright, J. J. Murphy, and H. L. Turner; Moltnomah, P. Wasserman, L. H. Wakefield, and John Powell; Polk, James S. Holman, C. Lafollet; Umatilla, L. F. Lane; Wasco, A. J. Borland; Washington, W. Bowlby and D. O. Quick; Yarnhill, Geo. W. Lawson and H. Warren. The place of Wade was filled in 1865 by Arthur Warner; the place of Lafollet by Isaac Smith; the place of Henry Warren by J. M. Pierce. Borland was absent, and had no substitute. Or. Jour. House, 1864 and 1865; Or. Jour, Senate, 1864; National Almanac, 1864.
- ↑ Gibbs says, in his Notes on Or. Hist., MS., 25, that 'every republican except one voted for it, and every democrat against it.'
- ↑ See Or. Jour. Senate, 18GG, 23, 20, 27, 31, 34, 33, 56, 58, 61. The state senate in 1806, in addition to Cranston, Cornelius, Donnell, Hinsdale, Palmer, Pyle, and Watson, who held over, consisted of the following newly elected members : Benton county, J. R. Bay ley; Baker, S. Ison; Clackamas, W. C. Johnson; Grant, L. O. Sterns; Linn, R. H. Crawford, William Cyrus; Lane, H. C. Huston; Marion, Samuel Brown, J. C. Cart Wright; Multnomah, J. N. Dolph, David Powell; Polk, W. D. Jeffries; Umatilla, N. Ford. House: Baker, A. C. Loring; Baker and Union, W. C. Hindman; Benton, F. A. Chenoweth, James Gingles; Clackamas, J. D. Locey, J. D. Garrett, W. A. Starkweather; Clatsop, Columbia, and Tillamook, Cyrus Olney; Coos and Curry, F. G. Lockhart; Douglas, B. Herman, James Cole, M. M. Melvin; Jackson, E. D. Foudray, Giles Welles, John E. Ross; Josephine, Isaac Cox; Multnomah, W. W. Upton, A. Rosenheim, J. P. Garlick, John S. White; Marion, J. I. O. Nicklin, W. E. Parris, C. B. Roland, B. A. Witzel, L. S. Davis; Polk, J. Stouffer, J. J. Dempsey, William Hall; Grant, Thos H. Brents, M. M. McKean; Union, James Hendershott; Umatilla, T. W. Avery, H. A. Gehr; Wasco, O. Humason, F. T. Dodge; Yamhill, J. Lamson, R. B. Laughlin; Lane, John Whiteaker, J. E. P. Withers, R. B. Cochran; Linn, E. B. Moore, G. R. Helm, J. Q. A. Worth, J. R. South, W. C. Baird; Washington, G. C, Day, A. Hinman. Or. Jour. Senate, 1860.
- ↑ Henderson was a Virginian and a Cumberland presbyterian minister, a modest and sensible man of brains. He came to Oregon in 1851 or 1852, and resided at Eugene, where he was principal of an academy and clerk in the surveyor-general's office. Deady's Scrap-Book, 77.
- ↑ Henry W. Corbett was born at Westboro, Mass., Feb. 18, 1827; received an academic education, and engaged in mercantile pursuits, first in New York, and then in Portland in 1849, where he acquired a handsome fortune. He was an ardent unionist from the first. Cong. Directory, 31, 40th cong. 2d sess.
- ↑ There were 13 democrats and 9 republicans in the senate, and 17 republicans and 30 democrats in the house. Camp s Year-Book, 1869, 758.
- ↑ See Williams' speech of Feb. 4, 1868; Or. Jour. House, 1868, 123-5; Or. Laws, 1868, 97-8.
- ↑ The resolution of censure just mentioned originated in the house. The senate at the same session passed a resolution rescinding the action of the legislature of 1800 assenting to the fourteenth amendment, which resolution was adopted by the house. Or. Jour. Senate, 1868, 32–6. The act was one of political enmity merely, as the legislature of 1868 had no power to annul a compact entered into for the state by any previous legislative body. The senate of Oregon assumed, however, than any state had a right to withdraw up to the moment of ratification by three fourths of all the states; and that the states of Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Alabama, South Carolina, and Georgia were created by a military despotism against the will of the legal voters of those states, and consequently that the acts of their legislatures were not legal, and did not ratify the fourteenth amendment. The secretary of state for Oregon was directed to forward certified copies of the resolution to the president and secretary, and both houses of congress. But nothing appears in the proceedings of either to show that the document ever reached its destination.
- ↑ Senate: Baker county, S. Ison; Washington, Columbia, Clatsop, and Tillamook, T. R. Cornelius; Benton, J. R. Bay Icy; Umatilla, N. Ford; Clackamas, D. P. Thompson; Union, James Hendershott; Douglas, Coos, and Curry, B. Herman, C. M. Pershbaker; Josephine, B. F. Holtzclaw; Yamhill, S. C. Adams; Jackson, J. N. T. Miller; Lane, H. C. Huston, R. B. Cochran; Linn, Win Cyrus, R. H. Crawford; Marion, Samuel Miller, Samuel Brown; Multnomah, Lansing Stout; Polk, B. F. Burch, president.
House: Baker, R. Beers; Benton, J. C. Alexander, R. A. Bensal; Baker and Union, D. R. Benson; Clackamas, J. W. Garrett, D. P. Trullinger; Coos and Curry, Richard Pendergast; Columbia, Clatsop, and Tillamook, W. D. Hoxter; Douglas, John G. Flook, James F. Gazley, James Applegate; Grant, R. W. Neal, Thomas E. Gray; Jackson, J. B. White, Thomas Smith, J. L. Louden; Josephine, Isaac Cox; Lane, John Whiteaker, H. H. Gilfrey, E. N. Tandy; Linn, John T. Crooks, John Bryant, B. B. Johnson, W. F. Alexander, T. J. Stites; Marion, John F. Denny, J. B. Lichtenthaler, T. W. Davenport, John Minto, David Simpson; Multnomah, W. W. Chapman, T. A. Davis, James Powell, J. S. Scoggins; Polk, R. J. Grant, F. Waymire, Ira S. Townsend; Umatilla, A. L. Kirk; Union, H. Rhinehart; Wasco, D. W. Butler, George J. Ryan; Washington, John A. Taylor, Edward Jackson; Yamhill, W. W. Brown, G. W. Burnett; speaker, John Whiteaker. Or. Jour. Senate, 1868, 4–5; Or. Jour. House, 1868, 4–5.
- ↑ Or. Jour. House, 1868, 527–54; Wood's Recollections, MS., 35–8.
- ↑ Rufus Mallory was a native of Coventry, N. Y., born January 10, 1831. He received an academic education, and studied and practised law. He was dist atty in the 1st jud. dist in Oregon in 1800, and in the 3d jud. dist from 1862 to 1866; and was a member of the state leg. in 1862. Congress. Directory, 49th cong. 2d sess., p. 31. James D. Fay married a daughter of Jesse Applegate. His habits were bad, and he committed suicide at Coos Bay. He was talented, erratic, and unprincipled.
- ↑ Smith came to Oregon in 1847, and preached as a minister of the methodist church. After the gold discoveries and the change in the condition of the country, he abandoned preaching and engaged in the practice of law in 1852. He was in 1864 agent for the Salem Manufacturing Company, in which he was a large stockholder. He is described as a reserved man, not much read in elementary law, but an acute reasoner and subtle disputant. Deady's Scrap-Book, 81.
- ↑ The federal officers in Oregon in 1868 were: district judge, Matthew P. Deady; marshal, Albert Zeiber; clerk, Ralph Wilcox; collector of the port of Astoria, Alanson Hinman; surveyor-general, Elisha Applegate; register of laud-office, Roseburg, John Kelly (A. R. Flint, receiver); register, Oregon City, Owen Wade (Henry Warren, receiver); supt Ind. aff., J. W. P. Huntington; chief clerk Ind. dept, C. S. Woodworth; assessor int. rev., Thomas Frazar; collector int. rev., Medorum Crawford; deputy assessor, William Grooms; deputy col., Edwin Backenstos.
The district judges of the supreme court of Oregon at this time, beginning with the northern districts, were: 4th dist, W. W. Upton; 5th dist, J. G. Wilson (east of the Cascade mts); 3d dist, R. P. Boise; 2d dist, A. A. Skinner; 1st dist, P. P. Prim; The dist attys in the same order were M. F. Mulkey, James H. Slater, P. C. Sullivan, J. F. Watson, J. B. Neil. McCormick's Portland Dir., 1808, 109; Camp's Year-Book, 1869, 434.
- ↑ L. Fleischner was elected treasurer, K. P. Boise was reflected judge, and A. J. Thayer and L. L. McArthur to succeed Skinner and Wilson. Id., app. 11.
- ↑ Or. Laws, 1870, 190–1; Sen. Misc. Docs, 56, 41st cong. 3d sess.; Gov. Message, in Or. Legis. Docs, 1870, doc. 11, p. 9.
- ↑ The investigation lasted a year, at $5 per day each to the commissioners for the time necessarily employed in making the investigation. They brought
in a report against May, and also some absurd charges that the governor had
made more visits to the penitentiary than his duty required, at the expense of the state, with other insignificant matters. They discovered that C. A. Reed, the adjutant-general of the militia organization, had purchased two gold pens, not needed, his office being abolished by the same body which commissioned them, at an expense of 15 a day, to discover these two pens.
Legislative assembly of 1870 Senate; Baker county, A. H. Brown;
Douglas, L. F. Mosher; Coos and Curry, C. M. Pershbaker; Jackson
James D. Fay; Josephine, B. F. Holtzclaw; Lane, A. W. Patterson, R. B. Cochran; Linn, Enoch Hoult, R. H. Crawford; Marion, Samuel Brown, John H. Moores; MuLtnomah, Lansing Stout, David Powell; Clackamas, D. P. Thompson; Polk, B. F. Burch; Grant, J. W. Baldwin; Umatilla, T. T. Lieuallen; Union, J. Hendershott; Wasco, Victor Trevitt; Washington, Columbia, Clatsop, and Tillamook, T. R. Cornelius; Yamhill, W. T. Newby; Benton, R. S. Strahan. President, James D. Fay; clerks, Syl. C. Simpson and Orlando M. Packard.
House: Baker, H. Porter; Baker and Union, J. R. McLain; Benton, D. Carlisle, W. R. Calloway; Clackamas, Peter Paquet, W. A. Starkweather, J. T. Apperson; Clatsop, Columbia, and Tillamook, Cyrus Olney; Coos and Curry, F. G. Lockhart; Douglas, Jamas C. Hutchinson, C. M. Caldwell, J. C. Drain; Grant, J. M. McCoy, W. H. Clark; Jackson, Jackson Rader, James Wells, A. J. Burnett; Lane, John Whiteaker, G. B. Dorris, James F. Amis; Linn, W. F. Alexander, G. R. Helm, Thomas Munkers, John Ostrander, W. S. Elkins; Marion, T. W. Davenport, R. P. Earhart, J. M. Harrison, G. P. Holman, W. R. Dunbar; Multnomah, J. W. Whailey, Dan. O Regan, L. P. W. Quimby, John C. Carson; Polk, B. Hayden, R. J. Grant, W. Comegys; Union, J. T. Hunter; Umatilla, Johnson Thompson, F. A. Da Sheill; Washington, W. D. Hare, W. A. Mills; Wasco, James Fulton, O. S. Savage; Yamhill, Al. Hussey, Lee Loughlin. Speaker, Ben Hayden; clerks, E. S. McComas, John Costello, W. L. White, and John T. Crooks. Or. Jour. Senate, 1870, 4–6, 13; Directory Pac. Coast, 1871–3, 111.
- ↑ Or. Governor's Message, 1872, 3-10; Or. Laws, 1872, 47-53; Grover's Pub. Life in Or., MS., 72.
- ↑ Grover's opponent in 1870 was Joel Palmer, who was not fitted for the position, being past his prime. In 1874 Grover s majority over Tolman was 550. Campbell simply divided the vote, and was beaten by 3,181. He was a preacher of the Christian church, and president of Monmouth college, of which he was also the founder, and which became a prosperous school.
- ↑ Mitchell was born in Penn. June 22, 1835, receiving a fair education, and studying law, which he practised in his native state. Appearing in Oregon in 1860, at the moment when his talents and active loyalty could be made available, he rapidly rose in favor with his party, and was appointed prosecuting attorney for the 4th jud. dist, in place of W. W. Page, resigned, but declined, and in 1864 was elected state senator. From this time he was a leader in politics, and a favorite among men, having many pleasing personal qualities. After having been chosen senator, a scandal was discovered which dismayed the republicans and gave the independents that which they desired, a strong leverage against the old party, which was split in consequence, the breach made being so violent that at the next senatorial election they lost the battle to the democrats. Mitchell was not unseated, however, as had been hoped. At the expiration of his term he resumed the practice of the law, first in Washington city, and later in Portland, where he achieved his first political honors, and where the field is open to talent to distinguish itself.
- ↑ See Sen. Com. Rept, 536, 548, 561, 627, 678, 44th cong. 2d sess.; also, Proceedings of the Electoral Commission, and Cong. Globe. 1876-7, 74-5, 209-10, app. 132, 188, 192; Portland Oregonian, Jan. 27, 1877.
- ↑ For a report of the proceedings of the investigating committee, see Or. Legisl. Docs, 1878; Portland Oregonian, Dec. 30, 1878.
- ↑ James H. Slater was a native of Ill., born in 1827. He came to Cal. in 1849, and thence to Oregon in 1850, residing near Corvallis, where he taught school and studied law, the practice of which he commenced in 1858. He was elected to the legislature several times. He removed to eastern Oregon in 1862, engaging in mining for a time, but finally settled at La Grande. Ashland Tidings, Sept. 20, 1878.
- ↑ Wilson was born in New Hampshire Dec. 13, 1826, the son of a dissenting Scotch presbyterian, who settled in Londonderry in 1716. His parents removed to Cincinnati in 1826, settling afterward near Reading, Joseph receiving his education at Marietta college, from which he graduated with the degree of LL. D. He entered the Cincinnati law school, from which he graduated in 1852 and went to Oregon. He rose step by step to be congress man. His wife was Elizabeth Millar, daughter of Rev. James P. Millar of Albany, a talented and cultivated lady, who, after her husband's untimely death, received a commission as postmaster at The Dalles, which she held for many years.
- ↑ George A. La Dow was born in Cayuga-co., N. Y., March 18, 1826. His father emigrated to 111. 1839, where George was educated for the practice of law. Subsequently settling in Wisconsin, he was elected dist atty for Waupaca co. In 1869 he came to Oregon and settled in Umatilla co., being elected representative in 1872. S. F. Examiner, in Salem Statesman, June 13, 1874.
- ↑ Richard Williams was a son of Elijah Williams, a pioneer. He was a young man of irreproachable character arid good talents, a lawyer by profession, who had been appointed dist atty in 1867. S. F. Call, March 24, 1867.
- ↑ W. W. Thayer, a brother of A. J. Thayer, was born at Lima, N. Y., July 15, 1827. He received a common-school education, and studied law, being admitted to the bar by the sup. ct at Rochester, in March 1851. He subsequently practised at Tonawanda and Buffalo, until 1862, when he came to Oregon, intending to settle at Corvallis. The mining excitement of 1863 drew him to Idaho; he remained at Lewiston till 1867, when he returned to Oregon and settled in East Portland, forming a law partnership with Richard Williams. He was a member of the Idaho legislature in 1866, and was also dist atty of the 3d jud. dist. During his administration as governor, the state debt, which had accumulated under the previous administration, was paid, and the financial condition of the state rendered sound and healthy. The insane asylum was commenced with Thayer as one of a board of commissioners, and was about completed when his term expired. It is an imposing brick structure, capable of accommodating 400 or 500.
- ↑ Zenas Ferry Moody was a republican of New England and revolutionary stock, and has not been without pioneer experiences, coming to Oregon in 1851. He was one of the first U. S. surveying party which established the initial point of the Willamette meridian, and continued two years in the service. In 1853 he settled in Brownsville, and married Miss Mary Stephenson, their children being four sons and one daughter. In 1856 he was appointed inspector of U. S. surveys in Cal., afterward residing for some time in Ill., but returning to The Dalles in 1862. The country being in a state of rapid development on account of the mining discoveries in the eastern part of the state and in Idaho, he established himself at Umatilla, where he remained in business for three years. In the spring of 1866 he built the steamer Mary Moody on Pend d'Oreille Lake, and afterward aided in organizing the Oregon and Montana Transportation Company, which built two other steamboats, and improved the portages. In 1867 he was merchandising in Boisé City, returning to The Dalles in 1869, where he took charge of the business of Wells, Fargo & Co. At a later period he was a mail contractor, and ever a busy and earnest man. He was elected in 1872 to the state senate, and in 1880 to the lower house, being chosen speaker. In 1882 he was nominated for governor, and elected over Joseph H. Smith by a majority of 1,452 votes. Representative Men of Or., 1-111.
- ↑ Dolph was born in 1835, in N". Y., and educated at Genessee college, after which he studied law. He came to Oregon in 1862, where his talents soon made him prominent in his profession, and secured him a lucrative practice. He married, in 1864, a daughter of Johnson Mulkey, a pioneer of 1847, by whom he had 6 children. At the time of his election he was attorney for and vice-president of the Northern Pacific railroad.