Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 13/Notes number 2

NOTES

The sixty-ninth anniversary of the organization of the first American civil government west of the Rocky Mountains was celebrated at Champoeg, thirty-three miles south of Portland, on May 2, 1912, for the twelfth time. Ex-Governor T. T. Geer, a native son of Oregon, whose father came across the plains in 1847, was president of the day. The principal address was made by Mr. Frederick V. Holman, President of the Oregon Historical Society, and a well known lawyer of Portland. His subject was "A Brief History of the Oregon Provisional Government and What Caused Its Formation." Mr. Holman is also a native son of Oregon of the year 1852. His grandfather came to Oregon in 1843 and his father and mother in 1846. The sole survivor of the one hundred and two persons who were present on May 2, 1842 Mr. Francois Xavier Matthieu was on the platform. He passed his ninety- fourth birthday on April 2nd. With the exception of his eyesight, he is an unusually vigorous man, both mentally and physically. Following Mr. Holman, short addresses in the nature of greetings to the assembled pioneers, their descendants and friends, were made by Mrs. La Reine Helen Baker and Mr. Samuel Hill. Upwards of one thousand persons were in attendance.

Through the initiative of Mr. Joseph Buchtel, a pioneer of 1852, and a number of other pioneers, fifteen acres of land adjacent to the site of Champoeg where the historic meeting of May 2, 1843, was held, and the spot now marked by a small monument, has been secured, and an effort will be made to secure state aid in the near future and convert it into a state park, one feature of which will be a suitable auditorium in which to hold annual celebrations.

The fortieth annual reunion of the Oregon Pioneer Association was held in Portland at the Masonic Temple on June 20th. Robert A. Miller, President, presided. The annual address was delivered by Hon. Robert G. Smith, Mayor of Grants Pass, Josephine County. The annual banquet, provided by the Pioneer Woman's Auxiliary, was laid in the Multnomah County Armory. Twelve hundred sat at the tables. No one can be a member of the Oregon Pioneer Association except those who came to, or was born in, some part of the original "Oregon Country" prior to January; 1, 1860. Only one exception is made, and that is in connection with California. Any one who came to, or were born in, that State prior to January 1, 1860, now residing in Oregon, are eligible to membership upon the same terms as if they had always been residents of Oregon. The average age of the twelve hundred pioneers present at the reunion was sixty-nine years. It was not an uncommon experience for persons attending this reunion to meet old acquaintances whom they had not seen for periods of twenty to fifty years, and in one case sixty-four years.