Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 11.djvu/18

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
12
Frederick V. Holman

flows into the west side of the Willamette River, about two miles above its falls at Oregon City. Indian names are few, as are all words in the languages of the different Indian tribes. The word apparently means sluggish and also restful, and, what is one meaning of the English word peaceful, as applied to a beautiful plain or scene. The Tualatin River is a very sluggish stream. Tualatin Plains, now in Washington County, is a beautiful country, in many places almost level, in other places slightly rolling, with many beautiful oak and other trees.

The name Twality, is spelled also Twalaty and Tuality in the laws and journals of the Provisional Legislature. In the Act of September 3, 1849, passed by the Territorial Legislature changing the name to Washington County, the name of the County is referred to as "'Faulitz' or 'Palatine' ". (Local Laws of 1850-1, page 54).

Nathaniel J. Wyeth, who came overland to Oregon in 1832 and in 1834, kept a Journal of his two expeditions. These were published by the Oregon Historical Society in 1899. In the "Journal" of his second expedition, page 25, under date of April 13, 1835, ne spells the name Fallatten. Commodore Charles Wilkes, U. S. N., who was in the Willamette Valley in 1841, on page 357 of Volume 4 of his "Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition," published in 1849, spells the name Faulitz. In other books on early Oregon the name is spelled in several ways: Fualitine, by L. W. Hastings, an immigrant of 1842, on page 40 of his book, "A New Description of Oregon and California," published in 1849; Fallatry, by Peter H. Burnett, an immigrant of 1843, m his letters to the New York Herald, written in 1844. A part of these letters is in an appendix of the "History of Oregon," by George Wilkes, published in 1845. (See page 101); Tualatin, on the map in "Ten Years in Oregon", written by Rev. Daniel Lee, a Methodist missionary of 1834, and Rev. J. H. Frost, a Methodist missionary of 1840, published in 1844; Fallatine, by Dr. Elijah White, a Methodist missionary of 1837, on page 240 of