The first contract let was to Hugh Burns in the spring of 1846, who was to carry the mail once to Weston, in Missouri, for fifty cents a single sheet. After a six months trial the postmaster-general had become assured that the office was not remunerative, the expense of sending a semi-monthly mail to each county south of the Columbia having been borne chiefly by private subscription; and advertised that the mail to the different points would be discontinued, but that should any important news arrive at Oregon City, it would be despatched to the several offices. The post-office law, however, remained in force as far as practicable but no regular mail service was inaugurated until the autumn of 1847, when the United States department gave Oregon a deputy-postmaster in John M. Shively, and a special agent in Cornelius Gilliam. The latter immediately advertised for proposals for carrying the mail from Oregon City to Astoria and back, from the same to Mary River[1] and back, including intermediate offices, and from the same to Fort Vancouver, Nisqually, and Admiralty Inlet. From this time the history of the mail service belongs to another period.
The social and educational affairs of the colony had by 1848 begun to assume shape, after the fashion of older communities. The first issue of the Spectator contained a notice for a meeting of masons to be held the 21st of February 1846, to adopt measures for obtaining a charter for a lodge. The notice was issued by Joseph Hull, P. G. Stewart, and William P. Dougherty. A charter was issued by the grand lodge of Missouri on the 19th of October 1846, to Multnomah lodge, No. 84, in Oregon City. This charter
- ↑ Mary River signified to where Corvallis now stands. When that town was first laid off it was called Marysville.
per cent of all moneys by him received and paid out. The act was made conformable to the United States laws regulating the post-office department, so far as they were applicable to the condition of Oregon. Or. Spectator, Feb. 5, 1846. See T'Vault's instructions to postmasters, in Id., March 5, 1846.
