slow, very often taking as much as six months for people here to hear from their friends or relatives in the East. When the first post office was established at Pleasant Hill, in 1850, the mail was carried from Oregon City on horseback. The first mail carrier was Smiley Carter, and the second was Hart Crosby.
The first couple married in the county was the widow Wright and a man by the name of Luce. The second wedding was a double one, in which George Coryell and Charles Sweet married the McBee girls.
The first sawmill erected in the county was the one erected by E. P. Castleman, on Blair's farm, but was moved to Cloverdale in 1851. There it was used to saw the timbers for a flour mill, which was erected the next year by William R. Jones.
In 1854 Jones and Gilfrey started a store, and in 1855 Gilfrey laid out a townsite. Cloverdale was named by Jones from a town in California, and was a prosperous village till the coming of the railroad in 1871, when it was moved to the present site of Creswell.
To the men who made these settlements we owe a debt of gratitude that never can be paid. By their thrift, industry, and endurance, they made possible the rapid growth and development of Lane County. Then may not we? who are reaping the fruits of their labors, say: "All hail the pioneers of Lane County."
The foregoing was carefully compiled from notes set down more than 30 years ago by Mrs. S. Rigdon, and corrected by L. Coryell, a pioneer of '47. I have set down all that is not already a matter of record.
