land. This sentiment being conveyed down to San Francisco, the side wheel steamer Gold Hunter took in a cargo for Portland, Oregon, and came up to see how the town looked. This was the first ocean going steamship that ever tied up at Portland wharf. It was in fact a gold hunter, and was for sale. Immediately every friend of Portland got busy. Hope and enthusiasm took the place of anxiety and fear in the faces of the townspeople, and courage once more filled up the shrinking purse. The price and terms for the ship were ascertained. Sixty thousand dollars would purchase a controlling interest in the ship, and run her between Portland, Oregon, and San Francisco. Twenty-one thousand dollars of this was raised and paid in an hour, of which sum Coffin, Chapman and Lownsdale put up eighteen thousand, six hundred dollars.
And while this transaction revived the hopes and confidence of many, and strengthened the courage of all, it did not end the contest. The Mail Steamship Company with ample capital, set to work to undermine the bulwarks, put up by the Portlanders, and bought out some of the interests of Portland stockholders in the Gold Hunter, again giving San Francisco the whip-hand. And after a few trips to Portland, the Gold Hunter was treacherously sent down to South America, mortgaged and sold for a trifle of her value to get rid of all the Portland stockholders. It was a bitter lesson to Portland, and withal most dishonorable on the part of pretended friends and open enemies. But it had proved one thing, and that was that Portland would fight for the rights of the town; and that the town was a force that was not to be despised for weakness or want of courage. In the meantime, Portland had been making allies on the land side. A fairly passable wagon road had been opened out to Tualitin Plains and on up the valley to Yamhill and Polk counties, by. which the farmers of all that region could haul their products to Portland.
Although the money was gone, the investment in the steamship had not been wholly lost. It had been proved that an ocean going steamship could safely and successfully come to Portland with full cargoes, and could get full cargoes of produce and safely go out to sea again. The steamships were not getting cargoes at St. Helens as Whitcomb's steamboat carried the produce to them, and it did not get enough to load them. Whitcomb could get nothing at Milwaukee but lumber, and that could not be shipped on the steamer. The farmers could not, and would not haul produce to St. Helens, and the Whitcomb would not stop at Portland to get it, and so the St. Helens ships were sailing away with little or nothing of freight. And so it was soon made plain to the steamship owners that they were gnawing a file ; and that sooner or later some other steamship would sail into Portland harbor and appropriate a profitable trade that they never could get by staying at St. Helens. And thus forced, in March, 1851, the Pacific Mail Steamship Company abandoned its opposition, ran up the Portland flag and sent all its ships to the docks and wharves of this city. And from that day on, the supremacy of Portland, as against all other points on the Columbia and Willamette rivers, was acknowledged everywhere.
Of the three men who made good the project of Amos Lawrence Lovejoy, in the establishment of a city, at this location, Daniel H. Lownsdale comes first in order for notice. Mr. Lownsdale was born in Mason county, Kentucky, in 1803. At the age of twenty-three, he married Ruth, youngest daughter of Paul Overfield, Esq., and moved to Gibson county, Indiana. In 1830, his wife died, leaving three children, two daughters and a son. That son was J. P. O. Lownsdale, who for many years was an active and influential citizen of this city, passing away in July, 1910, at the age of 80 years. After losing his wife, Mr. Lownsdale moved to the state of Georgia, and engaged in mercantile pursuits. And there, losing his health, he took a trip to Europe, and traveled through many countries. Returning to the United States in 1844, he found the southwest agitated over the "Oregon Question," and immediately made up his mind to come out to this unsettled region and grow up with the country. Joining an emigrant train in the spring of 1845, he crossed the plains with the
