In 1851 the first Congregational church was erected at the corner of Second and Jefferson streets, the Rev. Horace Lyman, first pastor, clearing the ground of trees himself.
In 1849 Colonel Win. King built a sawmill to run by water power, but it burned down before it could be made to do anything.
In 1850, W. P. Abrams and Cyrus A. Reed erected a steam saw mill near the foot of Jefferson street. The main building was forty feet wide and eighty feet long; the timbers being hewed out of the giant firs growing alongside the mill site, and being sixteen inches square were so heavy that all the men in town were unable to put the timbers in place or "raise" the building, and General Coffin had to go up to Oregon City to get men to help. But even with this assistance, they could not handle the timbers, and Reed was forced to rig a derrick, and with block and tackle, and all the men to pull on the ropes, they hoisted the timbers to place and erected the first saw' mill at Portland, Oregon, a mill that would cut about ten thousand feet a day. Quite a change since 1850 to the town of sixty years later, that cuts and ships more lumber than any other city in the world.
In those days everybody worked and labored hard in building houses. In describing the work of J. H. Wilbur (Father Wilbur), of the first Methodist church, a contemporary said of him: "Stalwart and strong, the great forest that stood where Taylor street church now stands (southeast corner Third and Taylor streets), fell before his axe. The walls of the old church rose by his saw and hammer, and grew white and beautiful under his paint brush; tired bodies rested and listened to his powerful preaching on Sunday, poverty was fed at his table, and sickness cured by his medicines."
And now we reach the first business excitement at the new town. On the first of August, 1848, a little schooner from San Francisco pulled into the wharf at the little town of Portland, Oregon, and after unloading a lot of Mexican produce and goods, began to load up not only with Oregon produce but with all the shovels, picks and pans that could be secured at the two stores in town. And after making a clean-up of all these necessary tools to mine placer gold, the captain made known the discovery of gold in California by J. W. Marshall. Marshall had come to Oregon as an immigrant, across the plains in 1844. And not getting anything to do here at Portland, went down to California in 1846 and was employed by General Sutter at his mill near where the city of Sacramento now stands. Marshall was followed in 1847 by Charles Bennett and Stephen Staats, and they were there at the mill when Marshall found the first gold. And thus, we see, that it was an Oregonian going from Portland and Oregon City to California that made the discovery that gave to the world four hundred million dollars in gold, and which revolutionized the currents and conditions of trade, commerce and living expense in every civilized land.
The rush to the gold discoveries nearly depopulated the town. And while it carried off many good workers, there were compensations for their absence. Lumber, wheat, potatoes and everything fit to eat, ran up to enormous prices and the Oregon farmers were soon digging as much gold out of their land as the miners were getting in California. The gold discoveries helped in another way. Very soon gold dust and states money was rolling back into Oregon for the produce sent down and surplus dust sent back to families and friends; so that wheat was no longer the circulating legal tender medium, but gold dust, and finally
