than ten times the number of publications of the same character in the Eastern seaboard States or the eastern portion of the then West,
East of the Alleghanies Irving's "Astoria" was read as literature mostly. On the frontiers of Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana, Lewis and Clark's journal was read and passed from hand to hand for information till worn out,
The influence of this was indicated by the fact we had mature members in our company bearing the Christian names of Lewis and of Clark, Crockett and Boone. One of the youngest and favorite boys of the family I served on the way was named for Senator Benton of Missouri, another for Jefferson. These were not accidental facts. They prove a kinship of spirit often of blood to my mind.
On the way from St. Louis to Gilliam's camp the writer received a very correct outline of Irving 's "Astoria" from Willard H. Rees, who was born and schooled in Hamilton County, Ohio. After starting, the only books I could find in Gilliam's train, except the Bible, were Lewis and Clark's journal and the "Prairie," by J. Fennimore Cooper. This, while the influences of social gatherings of the young on the rough, stony clearings of the west slopes of the Alleghanies after the labors of raising house or barn, a log rolling or corn husking was ended, would still introduce a parlor play with:
"We'll march In procession to a far distant land,
We'll march in procession to a far distant land,
Where the boys will reap and mow,
And the girls will knit and sew,
And we'll settle on the banks of the pleasant Ohio."
The writer participated in such plays in Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, in 1842.
The actual historical frontier had reached Western Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, Texas, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, and the tide of frontier homebuilding enterprise had set definitely without much regard to prospects of personal gain, to Oregon. As one fired with the desire to participate in this movement, it shall be my aim in a succeeding chapter to give my estimate of the most intelligent men in Oregon in advance of the immigration
