less creative than the pioneers in almost every other cultural field? Was there, for instance, no urge towards original composition on the part of the popular Mr. Newell, who was an important person in his day, according to an old letter in the collection of the Oregon Historical Society.
Oregon City
April 27 1856
Dear Friend Samuel
……I must tell you something about our singing School which I have attended over a year, we sung out of Florias Festival and on the Fourth of July we had a great time, we had a nice dinner and sung the Festival at two o clock p. m . the house was crowded to hear it. there were eighty singers, the boys wore white pantaloons and black coats, the girls were dressed in white with a wreath of Flowers on their heads, a month afterwards we went to the city of portland and had a Festival there, we went down on the Steamer Jenny Clark, they fired the Cannon as we landed, we sung the Festival in the evening in the methodist church, the Queen wore a Crown of Roses, the house was nicely deckorated with Flowers, we stayed there over night and came back the next morning to Oregon City distance 14 miles, and we had a great Concert last winter, our singing masters name is Mr. Newell
From your Affectionate Friend
ALBION L. FRANCIS.
The very earliest folk songs of Oregon, if indeed we had any, would have been those of the voyageurs, but the great Columbia, like the great trail, seems not to have produced a song peculiarly its own. In The Voyageur by Grace Lee Nute there is a chapter entitled "Voyageur Songs", and songs are scattered through the other chapters, but not a single one of them refers specifically to the Columbia River.
