to build and occupy one of the first two American homes in the entire intermountain region of the Oregon country. A similar celebration at Lewiston, Idaho, in May, had honored the Reverend Henry H. Spalding and Mrs. Spalding, associates of the Whitmans. In scope both occasions covered recognition of the entire pioneer movement to the Pacific northwest.
At Walla Walla business houses and streets were profusely deorated, the citizens donned gala attire and the city presented a galaxy of color seldom witnessed. On four successive evenings a colorful pageant depicted under electric light episodes bearing historic titles before audiences of from five to seven thousand people. In the afternoons a long street parade portrayed and recalled scenes of pioneer days. At Whitman College a museum of history displayed many valuable relics and documents and the merchants rivaled each other in similar displays in the show windows.
A series of public addresses each day emphasized in detail the careers of the Whitmans and lauded the pioneers of Oregon. They were for the most part merely eulogistic and, with a few exceptions, added nothing to our historical knowledge. Speakers from a distance included the Reverend Rockwell H. Potter, of Hartford, Connecticut, president of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, Dr. Frederick C. Waite of Cleveland, Ohio, and Dr. Harold Behneman of San Francisco. The site of the Waiiltapu mission six miles from the city was a mecca for many visitors. The celebration was sponsored by the Walla Walla chamber of commerce. The local newspaper (the Union-Bulletin) published an unusually well edited centennial edition on August 12.—T. C. E.
BEEKMAN ESSAY CONTEST
The Beekman essay contest for 1936 closed March 16, with 125 entries. After consideration of the manuscripts the judges, Nancy Drain Singleton, Harvey G. Starkweather and Richard G. Montgomery, awarded first prize to Thor Miller, Milwaukie Union High School; second prize to La Vern Littleton, The Dalles High School; third prize to Sally McLellan, Sacred Heart Academy, Salem; fourth prize to Margaret O. Berg, Eugene High School. Honorable mention was given to Robert L. Grimm, Lincoln High School, Portland, Donald Sayre, Beaverton High School, Geraldine Rinker, McLoughlin Union High School, Milton, Cavell Abbott, Saint Helens Hall, Portland. The prizes were sixty, fifty, forty and thirty dollars. Those awarded honorable mention received a copy of Carey's General History of Oregon. The contest is sponsored annually by the Oregon Historical Society, and is open to pupils in the schools of Oregon between the ages of fifteen and eighteen years of age. The subject of the essay for this year was “The Discovery of the Columbia River."
MARKERS AND MEMORIALS
Descendants of pioneers of the Waldo Hills district met at the old Geer home, three miles south of Silverton, July 12, 1936, to dedicate a marker at the "riding whip tree,” in memory of Mrs. Timothy Davenport. The ceremony was sponsored by the Chemeketa Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution. Mrs. C. C. Geer, regent, told the story of the tree, which grew from a branch of a cottonwood tree used by Florinda Geer, and planted by her in 1853. Florinda Geer afterwards married Mr. Davenport and became the mother of Homer Davenport, the famous cartoonist. She died at the age of thirty-one, and was buried on the Davenport farm. The fence that marked her grave has disappeared, and the “riding whip tree" now stands as the only monument to her.
