at Fort Laramie many families were already without flour, and compelled to purchase it at thirty and forty dollars a barrel. Sugar could be procured only at a dollar and a half a pint.
The route from Green River to Fort Hall was the same opened the year before by way of Fort Bridger. Many were bitterly disappointed on reaching this point to be told that they were then only half-way to their destination; and a small company of men without families abandoned their wagons two days west of this post, and prepared to travel with horses only.[1] They reached Fort Hall on the 10th of September, finding flour at this place too high for their means. Gilliam's wagons arrived here the 16th, where a letter awaited them from Burnett, advising them, if they were likely to need assistance before reaching the Columbia, to send word to the settlers. As it was manifest that assistance would be needed, a party of young men were sent forward on horses, who reached Oregon City on the 18th of October. These were John Minto,[2]
- ↑ Of this company was James Clyman, who kept a daily journal or notebook, which has fortunately been preserved through many vicissitudes, and which I have found very useful. Besides the incidents of the journey, it contains many instructive remarks on the country traversed; and an account of affairs in the Oregon colony during the winter of 1844-5. Clyman was a Virginian by birth, but emigrated from Stark County, Ohio.
- ↑ John Minto became well known and highly esteemed in Oregon. He was of English birth and education, a native of Wylam on the Tyne, in Northumberland, born Oct. 10, 1822. He came to the United States in 1840, and settled at Pittsburgh, Pa., as a coal-miner. From Pennsylvania he went to St Louis in the spring of 1844, on his way to the frontier of Iowa, and learned at this place of the emigration to Oregon, which he determined to join. Having no means to procure an outfit, he engaged with R. W. Morrison to drive team and make himself useful, for his passage and board. It is to Minto's Early Days, a manuscript by his own hand, that I am chiefly indebted for the account of Gilliam's company. It contains, besides, valuable remarks on the political situation of 1844-6, on the industries of the country and stock-raising, and on the social condition of the colonists, with other miscellaneous matter, Minto married Miss Martha A. Morrison when they had been about three years in Oregon, and they went to reside near Salem. Minto has been a useful, intelligent, and every way an exemplary builder on the edifice of a new state; a farmer, stock-raiser, and editor; public -spirited in every position he has been called upon to fill. Mrs Minto is known throughout the state for her fearless vindication of what she esteems the right; and has been called the 'musket-member' of the Woman's Suffrage Association of Oregon. According to Minto, her mother carried, or at least was furnished with, a rifle, on her journey to Oregon, which she was competent to use had it been necessary. Mrs Minto has, as well as her husband, furnished a manuscript to my collec-
