condition that she would turn over her collections to Mr. Bancroft—who wrote history by proxy. Mrs. Victor accepted this proposition because she had not the money to bring out her own book. Prances Fuller was born in Rome, New York, in 1826, and thirteen years later was carried to Wooster, Ohio, with her family, and commenced writing verses at the age of fourteen. In 1885 she was married to Henry C. Victor, a naval engineer, who was ordered to the Pacific coast in 1863. Mrs. Victor followed her husband in 1865, and they settled on land in Columbia county and tried to develop a salt spring, and did make some salt. Mr. Victor was drowned in the sinking of an ocean steamship — The Pacific, November 4, 1875, south bound from Victoria, B. C.—and his widow commenced then to write Oregon history.
William H. Gray, the author of Gray's History of Oregon, will forever hold a unique place in the history and early literature of the state. Always in the forefront of the battle for what he conceived to be cause of truth and justice to the pioneers of Oregon, he will be recognized and remembered as one of Homer's heroes:
"Oh friends, be men, and let your hearts be strong.
And let no warrior in the heat of fight
Do what may bring him shame in others' eyes."
Gray will not be remembered so much for his History of Oregon as for the facts and experiences which made the book. While he may not have planned the battle at Old Champoeg on May 2, 1843, he was undoubtedly one of the most active partisans of the American cause at that history-making contest. Mr. Gray was imbued with the idea that the Hudson's Bay Company was scheming to beat the United States out of Oregon Territory, and that the Catholic church was partner in the scheme. And so impressed, he was big with an irrepressible disposition to give battle to these recognized opponents of American occupation of the country, whenever an opportunity offered.
Samuel A. Clarke's "Pioneer Days of Oregon History" is one of the first and best contributions to Oregon history, because Mr. Clarke writes of matters "all of which he saw and much of which he was a part." Mr. Clarke was essentially a literary man with versatile tastes and talents. He could write history, poetry and magazine articles, and edit a political newspaper or a farmer's journal equally well. He was editor of the Daily Oregonian for a time, editor of the Oregon Statesman for years, and editor and proprietor of the Willamette Farmer when that journal had a larger circulation than any other agricultural paper ever published in Oregon.
Brown's Political History. The documentary and political history of Oregon, from the treaty between Great Britain and Spain signed in October 1790, down to the organization of Oregon Territory in 1848, prepared by J. Henry Brown, is one of the most valuable additions to the history of Oregon. Brown was a printer, and conceived the idea of compiling all the official documents, treaties, laws and letters relating to the protracted negotiations between the United States, England and other nations for the possession of the old Oregon territory. With the help of a friend he succeeded in publishing one volume covering the period above named, but ill health and want of means prevented him from completing his long cherished purpose.
