the middle channel of the Willamette river, one mile below the Bute [Butteville]; thence a direct course due west to the Pacific Ocean; thence south along the coast of the Pacific ocean to a point due west of George Gray's house; thence due east to the middle channel of the Willamette river, leaving said George Gray's house in Yamhill district; thence down said channel to the place of beginning". (General and Special Laws of 1843-9, Pgee 36).
Although in this Act of December 19, 1845, as printed in the compilation of the laws of 1843-9, the name of the owner of the house as therein specified is George Gray, this is undoubtedly an error and the name should be George Gay. The latter was a notable character in the history of early Oregon. George Gay was born in England in 18 10. He became a sailor. He left his ship at Monterey, California, in 1833, and became a trapper, with Ewing Young. He came to the Willamette Valley from California with Dr. W. J. Bailey, in 1835, and settled near Wheatland in the southeastern part of Yamhill County, as it now is, and near the present southern line of Yamhill County. In 1843 ne built the first brick house in Oregon. He became a wealthy man, for those early days, having herds of cattle and horses roaming over the southern part of Yamhill County and the northern part of Polk County. These facts I have obtained from a short biography of Gay written by Col. J. W. Nesmith, a noted Oregon Pioneer of 1843, an d who was, from 1861 to 1867, an United States Senator from Oregon. This biography is published at pages 88-90 of "Transactions of the Oregon Pioneer Association" for the year 1882. In this biography Col. Nesmith says of Gay: "His house was a general resort for travellers and immigrants in early days. He dispensed a rude but unbounded hospitality, to which all comers were welcome. I have known him to slaughter a bullock for the breakfast of his guests, the remnants of which were eaten for supper." Commodore Wilkes, in his "Narrative," Vol. 4, pages 357363, writes of George Gay. The latter entertained Wilkes, on
