Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 9/Notes and news (Number 1)

NOTES AND NEWS.

The address before the ninth annual meeting of the members of the Society, held on December 21, 1907, was given by Professor H. Morse Stephens of the University of California. Professor Stephens has charge of the Hubert Howe Bancroft collection of Pacific Coast history material. It will be remembered that the Bancroft Library was acquired by purchase by the University of California. The address was devoted to giving an account of the wide range and the richness of the collection and of the methods being used in the organization and calendaring of the manuscripts it contains.

An Academy of Pacific Coast History has been organized to secure support for the publication of the most valuable of its documents and to supervise the editing of them. Professor Stephens' statement of his aims to make available to historical students the rare sources of history contained in the collection elicited great interest among the members of the Society, as much prime Oregon material was taken out of the State by Mr. Bancroft. The Society responded heartily to Professor Stephens' request for co-operation. Professor Joseph Schafer of the University of Oregon was named by the Society as the Oregon representative on the board of editors to direct the publication of the documents.

The archives both of the State and of the National governments are beginning to receive the attention that their value as historical sources warrants. The whole of volume two of the Annual Report of the American Historical Association for 1906 is devoted to the report of the Public Archives Commission. It presents a summary of the present state of legislation of States and Territories relative to the custody and supervision of public records; inventories and bibliographies of the public archives of many of the States are also given. The main activities of the Department of Historical Research of the Carnegie Institution at Washington are directed to the preparation of guides to the materials for American history in European archives and in those of Cuba and Mexico. Dr. Jameson, the director of this work, suggests that now, with an inventory completed of the archives of the government of the United States, a scientific plan should be formed for the publication by the National Government of its volumes of documentary historical material.

Professor Schafer has been at work all winter in the different depositaries in London containing documents throwing light on the Oregon Question. He has been accorded the largest courtesies and will no doubt be able to clear up much of the mystery that has enveloped many of the stages of the progress of negotiations pertaining to the disposition of Oregon Country.

Professor Benjamin F. Shambaugh's "Second Report on the Public Archives of Iowa" furnishes a fine model for other States as to the care, classification and calendaring of the archives. Iowa is supporting a wise and intelligent work on her public documents which will conserve them for the largest future use as the materials of history. In them she will have a basis for an enlightened development of her institutions.

The Board of Directors of the Oregon Historical Society at its March meeting resolved upon the commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the admission of Oregon as a State. The program for the occasion will be planned so as to be of especial service to the people of Oregon in their wrestling with constitutional problems.

At the same meeting the first number of the series of history leaflets for the public schools was adopted and succeeding numbers projected. The first leaflet will give "a glimpse into prehistoric Oregon" and is prepared by Mrs. Ellen Condon McCornack, the oldest child of Oregon's geologist, Professor Thomas Condon.

In the death of Edward Gaylord Bourne at New Haven on February 24, America lost one of her most brilliant and scholarly historians. Born in 1860, he was graduated from Yale in 1883, and received its degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 1892. He was an instructor in that institution from 1886 to 1888. Going to Adelbert College, Western Reserve University, he was promoted to a professorship in 1890 and in 1895 was called to Yale as professor of history. He had most liberal and accurate scholarship but his genius expressed itself in his rare power and keenness in historical criticism. The editor of the American Historical Review says of him that ' ' it is not too much to say that he was the chief master in America of that specific portion of the historian's art and in this specialty the profession has suffered in his death an irreparable loss."

We have from his pen many most valuable contributions to the pages of the American Historical Review.. In 1885 he published a History of the Surplus Revenue of 1837, in 1901 a volume of Essays in Historical Criticism, in 1904 a valuable volume on Spain in America, and more recently edited largely or wholly The Philippine Islands, Voyages of Champlain and the volume on Columbus of the Original Narratives of Early American History.

It was in his teaching of historical criticism that he had occasion to look into the account, then credited, of the acquisition of Oregon. His historical acumen soon detected fictitious elements and he pursued his investigations, the results of which were embodied in "The Whitman Legend," the leading paper of his volume on historical criticism.

Many will remember his delightful paper read at the Congress of History held in connection with the Lewis and Clark Exposition. All who met him felt the charm of a most genial and kindly personality.

It is always most gratifying to all Oregonians to have an Oregon achievement celebrated through the nation at large. Frederick V. Holman's monograph on Dr. John McLoughlin has received many very favorable reviews from papers, magazines, and periodicals in different parts of the United States. Many of these reviews are quite long. It would take up too much space to go into details of the different favorable reviews. Excerpts follow from some of these reviews;

The review in the Washington Historical Quarterly was by William A. Morris. He said:

"In writing this work the author has produced what has long been needed, namely, a narrative of the life of the benefactor and great overtowering figure of the Pacific Northwest. * * * The despotic power which he [McLoughlin] exercised within this whole region forms an interesting part of the work which the author has ably treated. * * * As proofs of Mr. Holman's thesis that the rule of McLoughlin was 'beneficent' despotism, his suppression of the liquor traffic among whites as well as Indians, and his stern reproof of the redmen when they uttered threats against those whose prosperity meant his ruin, are convincing. * * * It constitutes a valuable historical biography."

The Catholic University Bulletin is published at Washington, D. C. It is the official magazine of the Catholic University. A very long review of this book is given by Rev. Edwin V. O'Hara. He said:

"This excellent monograph is the only complete and critical study of the life of McLoughlin which has appeared. It is supplemented by a number of documents of great historical interest, some of which have not been published before. Those interested in knowing more of McLoughlin, of the details of his career in Oregon, and of the unfair treatment of him, should read this monograph."

The San Francisco Argonaut:

"The personal as well as the severely historic elements of Doctor McLoughlin's story are completely developed in a narrative of absorbing interest to all who have given any attention to the beginnings of organized life in our Pacific Northwest, and the book is well worth reading by all to whom picturesque and heroic periods of history make appeal. It should have a place in every collection which assumes to gather together the essential historical records of the Pacific Coast States." Boston Transcript:

"The whole [monograph] forms an admirable interpretation of the life and character of one of the most interesting of the worthy men who have been connected with the settlement of the far Western States. * * * This book is a monument to a man worthy of all the praise he here received."

Chicago Tribune:

"Frederick V. Holman, a grandson of one of the pioneers, has told the story of Dr. McLoughlin's life remarkably well. The book will remain as one of the authentic historical documents in the history of the Pacific Coast."

Seattle Post Intelligencer:

"Anything that sheds light on the life of Dr. John McLoughlin, the great factor of the Hudson's Bay Company, whom Frederick V. Holman justly calls 'the Father of Oregon,' is welcome to the people of the Pacific Northwest. * * * The author of this latest work on Dr. McLoughlin, has presented in very readable form the salient points in the life of this grand old man, and has gathered together much new material, which appears for the first time in the present volume."

New York Sun:

"His [Holman's] subdivisions show admirable method in his research and under each he finds some answer for each inquiry."

Walla Walla Evening Bulletin:

"One of the latest as well as most valuable additions to the shelves of the Walla Walla Public Library is the recently published book entitled 'Dr. John McLoughlin,' by Frederick V. Holman of Portland, Oregon. * * * He has not permitted himself to be unduly biased by personal adulation or to enter the field of mere romance. * * * The book is more than a biography of one man; it is a most carefully prepared and verified contribution to the history of Oregon (then the whole Oregon Country) during the years of joint convention or occupancy. As such it is of permanent value to the student (as well as of genuine interest to the more casual reader. * * * The younger generation will now have better opportunity to know why this memory [McLoughlin's] is held so generously."

The Literary Digest gives a long review mostly made up of a biography of Dr. McLoughlin. Mr. Holman's portrait is printed with those of other authors on the same page. The Literary Digest speaks of Mr. Holman's monograph as "This tribute to the memory of one of the chief upbuilders of the Northwest."

The Portland papers are especially complimentary of Mr. Holman's monograph. The Oregonian said: "Almost reverently we ought to take up this modest, accurate and well-written biography of 'The Father of Oregon.' * * * On the whole, a kindly and appreciative estimate of Dr. McLoughlin is given and much tact is used in treating of certain matters in the chieftain's life over which dispute still lingers. * * * Mr. Holman has not wasted his time speculating on what Dr. McLoughlin should have done when facing specified problems in his career, but has written facts as he found them. * * * Mr. Holman's biography—to sum up—is an important and scholarly contribution to American literature. It will enable young Americans— the fathers and mothers of the great tomorrow—to form a safe and agreeable opinion of a great Oregon patriot and statesman. The book should especially be in every Oregon household."

Portland Sunday Journal:

"In his biography of Dr. John McLoughlin, Frederick V. Holman has given to letters a distinct contribution— a tribute long delayed and now adequately presented of this great, good man. * * * the bitter story of how this land claim at Oregon City was taken from him, how the savings of an honorable lifetime were depreciated, how in darkness, suspicion and defeat his unselfish life closed and the white spirit of the Great White Chief went out to find vindication— this also is told, graphically, unhesitatingly and with keen sympathy."

And referring to the illustrative documents in the monograph, the Journal said:

"A large part of Mr. Holman's valuable work consists of these documents touching every phase of the question and carrying their own conviction. These have never been set before the public in their entirety and in this accomplishment Mr. Holman has performed a valuable and memorable work. * * * It was fitting that an Oregon man should write the history of this great unselfish life, spent in whole-hearted devotion to Oregon's good; and we who read the result of the labor, may congratulate posterity that the task was undertaken by such an able hand and that it has been brought forth in so dignified and beautiful a setting.

Portland Evening Telegram:

"In writing this book he [Holman] has rendered a service to loyal Americans everywhere, and they will be interested to know something of him and the motives that inspired this work. * * * The new, the true patriotism teaches us that to conceal wrongdoings because the evil doers are citizens of our own country, is more treason than patriotism. * * * Mr. Holman has written his work with this purer and higher patriotism in view. * * * Mr. Holman has written this life of Dr. McLoughlin in a way to hold the interest of the reader as many a work of fiction never can. Although he has carefully refrained from resorting to tricks of clever writing to win sympathy for his cause, the very simplicity of the story, his close adherence to well-substantiated facts, and his purely non-partisan and non-sectarian attitude give the work a very decided historical and literary value. * * * Mr. Holman's charming history gives one a fine idea of the surroundings Dr. McLoughlin, as chief factor of the Hudson's Bay Company, made for himself, his family and dependents."

Chamber of Commerce Bulletin:

"The author is well known to our readers. He has in this exquisite volume narrated the simple story of the 'Father of Oregon's' life, and his career in the early history of Oregon. Mr. Holman asserts, and rightly, so that Dr. McLoughlin is known in Oregon by tradition as well as by history; that his deeds are a part of Oregon's folk-lore, and that his life is an essential part of the heroic days of Oregon's history. Every Oregonian should have this volume in his library, as it is incomplete without it. In fact, every one in the Pacific Northwest should read this book, which is of especial interest to all the inhabitants of this section."