EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 181
in operation "on the Chehalem creek near its confluence with the Willamette." 14
For a wonder we are not at loss to know what Ewing Young as the natural, recognized but uncommissioned leader in con- structive enterprise in this early Oregon community did during the years 1838, '39 and '40, while his physical strength lasted. We have records also containing data for estimating the meas- ure and mode of influence upon the community that issued from the fact that his accumulations at his death intestate in Febru- ary, 1841, and without known heirs, became the common wealth of the Oregon community. This advantage of a unique degree of light on the doings of Ewing Young away back in the clos- ing years of the thirties of last century is due to the preserva- tion of his accounting records and those of the administrators of his estate that was required because the Territory pledged itself to reimburse any lawful heir or heirs should any appear. It might have, as it did have, occasion to consult these records to determine its liabilities on this score. 15 This prime source material for illuminating an epochal turn in the course of events in Oregon has been available for three quarters of a century in the archives of the territory and later the state of Oregon. As a body of financial statistics without arrangement it has not invited deliberate examination. Through the gracious courtesy of the former Secretary of State, Ben W. Olcott, and the present Secretary, Sam A. Kozer, and their aids, encourage- ment was given to persevere in making it available to the stu- dents of western history. These documents shall be allowed to tell their own story with only a running line of suggestion to show the thread of sequence.
It seems timely too in the interest of a real understanding of the forces operating in the making of Oregon that this material should be utilized. The emphasis in the telling of the story of the life and the affairs of early Oregon has always been strongly on the religious and the political movements. The saving of the souls of the natives of the Pacific Northwest
14 Courtney M. Walter, Transactions of th* Oregon Pioneer Association, 1880, p. 58.
1 5 Documentary Record of Ewing Young and his Estate, Appendix, I, p. 197.
