d what it has
accomplished; whether its influence has been good or bad; whether, on the whole, it has been or is likely to be detrimental to the true interests of our people, are questions that are not to be discussed here. Time will only permit me to give a brief sketch of the prominent points in its history. It is an Oregon institution, established by Oregon men who made their start in Oregon. Its beginnings were small, but it has grown to great importance under the control of the men who originated it.
In April, 1859, the owners of the steamboats Carrie Ladd, Senorita and Belle, which had been plying between Portland and Cascades, represented by Captain J. C. Ainsworth, agent, the Mountain Buck by Col. J. C. Ruckel, its agent, the Bradford horse railroad, between the middle and upper Cascades, by its owners, Bradford & Co., who also had a small steamboat plying between the Cascades and The Dalles and Portland, under the name and style of Union Transportation Company. There were some other boats running on that route, the Independence and Wasco, in the control of Alexander Ankeny and George W. Vaughn; also the Flint and Fashion, owned by Capt. J. O. Van Bergen. As soon as practicable, these interests were harmonized or purchased.
At this time freights were not large between Portland and the upper Co- lumbia, and the charges were high. There was no uniform rule; the practice was to charge according to the exigency of the case. Freights had been carried in sail boats from Portland to the Cascades at twenty dollars per ton. I have before me an advertisement in an early number of the Weekly Oregonian, that the schooner Henry, owned by F. A. Chenoweth and George L. Johnson would carry at that rate.
On the 29th of December, i860, there being then no law under which a corporation could be established in Oregon — the proprietors of the Union Trans- portation Line procured from the Washington territory legislature an act in- corporating J. C. Ainsworth, D. F. Bradford, S. G. Reed, R. R. Thompson, and their associates under the name and style of the Oregon Steam Navigation Com- pany. R. R. Thompson and Lawrence Coe, who then first became interested with the other parties, had built a small steamboat called the Col. Wright, above The Dalles, which went into the line and made up their shares of the capital stock. This was the second boat they had built at that point. The first, when partially completed, was carried over the falls and down the river in high water. There the hull was sold, fitted up and taken to Frazer river on the breaking out of the gold mine excitement in British Columbia, and much to the credit of its builders, made the highest point ever reached by a steamboat on that river.
The Oregon Steam Navigation Company or O. S. N. Co., as it has been more generally called and known since organized under the act, J. C. Ainsworth was the first president, and with the exception of a single year, when J. C. Ruckel held the position, has been its president ever since. Its principal office was located at Vancouver, and its property formed no inconsiderable addition to the taxable property of Washington territory. It might have remained there until this time, had it received fair treatment. But the citizens thought they had the goose that laid the golden egg, and they killed it. By unfriendly legis- lation and unjust taxation, the company was driven from the territory, and in October, 1862, it incorporated under the general act of Oregon. Its railroads, steamboats, warehouses, wharf boats and wharves were all built and established by the company without public aid, except the patronage by the public after they were completed.
All its founders started poor. They accomplished nothing that has not been equally within the power of others by the exercise of equal foresight, labor and perseverance. They had no exclusive rights. The rivers were wide enough for all the steamers which can be built, and the passes at the Cascades and The Dalles were broad enough for all the railroads that may be found desirable."
Aside from the O. R. & N. Co. and its predecessors, there have always been a few independent steamers on the river, making their headquarters at Port-
