'Ill 7494 IMS^; s*ti JOHH McLOUGHLIH. THE STORY OF OREGON. fflHiti) portraits anlr l^iograpi^ies BY JULIAN HAWTHORNE. IN TWO VOLUMES. TOLUME I. AMERICAN HISTORICAL PUBLISHING CO., N. Y. 1892. PREFACE. A NETWORK of human traditions, interests, and sym pathies overspreads this planet as nerves interweave and radiate over the body of the human being ; so that no region is so remote but that its organic relation with all other regions may be recognized and traced. Emerson, the American poet whose spiritual vision is purest and best sustained, says : " There is no sequestered grot. Lone mountain tarn, or isle forgot, But Justice, journeying in tlie sphere, DaUy stoops to harbor there." What is true of the moral principle is true also of the principle of human solidarity. The humblest plebeian, n,ot less than the most fastidious patrician, may trace his genealogy back to Adam ; and every country inhabited by man, following the trail of its origin into " the dark backward and abysm of time," will be led through suc cessive historic eras until it is landed at length in the mystic Oriental cradle of the race. This truth is conspicuously and picturesquely exem plified by the new State of Oregon, with the leading fea tures of whose discovery and development the ensuing pages are concerned. It is not too much to say that the westward movement which ended on the banks of the Columbia and Willamette began on the banks of the Euphrates. It was a world movement, and a full history of its various contributing causes and incidental episodes would constitute a history of the world. After the ad- IV PREFACE. vance-guard of the great emigration had reached the British Isles, and had paused there for a thousand years or more, a Genoese sailor braved the problematical hori zons of the Atlantic, and, by chance, led the way to that point of the Western Continent across which is the short est and most direct transit to the Pacific. The f aqt that this discovery was made under the auspices of a certain power ful and warlike European nation, which thereby became, according to unwritten law, the owner of the pass, led the other nations of Europe to seek for a similar pass far to the north. The theory upon which they acted was proved, after the lapse of some centuries, to be baseless ; but the mistake, like many other human errors, resulted in a great good. Had Spain not aroused the rivalry of the rest of Europe by laying her hand on the Isthmus and Mexico, no effort would have been made to find a northwest passage ; and the discovery of Oregon would have been indefinitely belated. When Charles IL granted a charter to the Hudson's Bay Company, his object was to establish a permanent exploring station in the immediate vicinity of the sup posed passage ; the agents of the company were to push their investigations systematically year after year, until the northwest outlet was found, and were to support themselves meanwhile upon whatever products the coun try afforded. The company were not long in recognizing the fact that prosperity, for them, lay not in opening a way to the Pacific, but in concealing it, if it existed, and developing the immense wealth to be derived from the sale of furs. This policy, manifestly hostile to the interests of civilization, was successfully pursued until the issue of our Revolutionary War left the citizens of the United States at leisure to look into the true nature and value of the northwest territory. Prom that date civilization, as represented by ourselves, was' engaged in a struggle with barbarism, personified by Great Britain. The conflict, of course, represented no essential difference in the standards of morality and degrees of enlighten- PREFACE. V ment of the two peoples ; but it so happened that the interests of the United States were, in this instance, iden tified with the irresistible tide of human progress ; and the power of England, mighty as it was, must needs give way before it. Oregon was the field of battle, owing to its geographical position ; but neither party to the strug gle had any conception of its incalculable value as a source of natural wealth and a home for happy and pros perous men and women. It is only of recent years, in short, that Oregon has ceased to be an object of desire merely as a means to something else, and has become recognized and prized for its intrinsic worth and beauty. The difficulties and obstacles which attended our efforts to possess and occupy Oregon are typical of those which render arduous the attainment of anything vitally worth having. The Happy Valley was withheld from us not only by man, in the persons of savage aborigines and the agents of the company, but was girdled about by nature herself with barriers that seemed all but impass able. Fifteen thousand miles of pathless ocean separated New York from Astoria by one route ; by the other, the pioneer must cross deserts yet more perilous than the sea, and scale mountains whose awful heights were terri fying even to contemplate. The fairy tales of old, of bowers of delight guarded by dreadful enchantments,. but faintly symbolize the realities of peril and effort which were confronted and overcome by the Oregon pio neers ; and as the fairy prince who finally reached the shrine was supposed to personify the highest mortal at tribute, so the bulk of the men and women who finally fought their way into the Willamette Valley and built their log-cabins there, represented inevitably the very best bone and blood and character that the Western Con tinent had produced ; and they were therefore worthy to become the progenitors of a people destined to the enjoy ment of so magnificent a habitation. Had Oregon been easily accessible, the character of its early occupants would naturally have fallen to a much lower level of VI PREFACE. manhood and womanhood ; but the pioneers of the Willamette were made of true metal, tested and tempered by a sevenfold heated furnace, and their descendants may be trusted to do them honor. The law of the sur vival of the fittest has seldom been better illustrated than in the settlement of Oregon. Even California has not so pure a record to show, because, in her case, the passion for sudden wealth was the predominating goad that drove the early emigrants thither. They went not to found homes, but to find nuggets ; and, legitimate though the ob ject was, it nevertheless attracted many of the baser sort, who would otherwise (as the annals of Oregon show) never have been at the pains to cross the Rocky Mountains. The story of Oregon is stirring and romantic ; it is also, and pre-eminently, the story of the triumph of the American idea. The strong and fine qualities which are at the base of the American character were forced into activity by the circumstances attending the settlement of this corner of our continent. Here the nation may be said to culminate ; the goal of the long pilgrimage round the earth is also the spot where the spirit of the princi ples imjDorted by the Puritans in 1624 finds its fullest incarnation. The successful establishment of the Pro vincial Government in the teeth of hostility at home, as well as abroad, proves the sturdy fealty to law and order of men immured in the wilderness, and separated by thousands of miles and months of time from the nearest civilized outposts. They vindicated their right to the support of our Government long before it was conceded to them ; they helped themselves so promptly and ably that the formal act of official recognition was not consum mated until after the crisis of affairs was safely passed. A candid record of these events can never be out of place, though doubtless the time has not yet arrived to write a final history of Oregon. As a social and political creation, its date is still too recent to admit of a broadly philosophical treatment. Statistics are, indeed, not wanting ; but something remains to be done in the way PREFACE. Vll of grouping them and giving them symmetrical propor tion. What is termed historical perspective is difficult to attain in writing of a country whose birth men yet living have seen. History is to-day at least as much a fine art as is the writing of imaginative fiction ; it is no less rich in the interest arising from the manifestations of human nature ; and it is fertile in the problems of social and political science. Little has been or can be done now to forestall the analysis and the verdict of a wiser and more enlightened posterity. Moreover, any contemporary effort in this direction must be subject to a peculiarly embarrassing form of criticism. The critics in this case are persons who have themselves witnessed some part of the events that are described. They are prone to attach disproportionate weight to matters in which they "were, in one way or another, directly concerned ; and they will not readily surrender their own prepossessions for the interpretations of strangers. Again, there is a natural disposition, now that the conflicts of the past are over, to extend over both parties to it a common mantle of char ity and reconciliation ; and the historian who attempts to attach blame where it seems to him to belong is sub jected to the charge of wantonly opening old wounds and reviving memories of acrimonies which were better left to oblivion. But history and oblivion are irreconcilably antagonistic to each other ; and the writer who tries to form and to express an accurate and conscientious judgment on the subjects that come before him must be prepared for a lack of contemporary sympathy in some quarters, and must appeal to the future for impartial recognition of his own attempts at impartiality. He may fall into errors— he cannot expect to avoid doing so ; but if his intention ^has been candid and his examination of the materials at his command conscientious, he may accept whatever verdict is passed upon him with equanimity. The slender volumes which are here submitted to the pub lic make no pretence of competing with the monumental vm PREFACE. work of Mr. Hubert Howe Bancroft, which must remain a permanent storehouse of information on the subject in hand. Nor can they take the place of the excellent and spirited digest published a few years ago by Mr. H. L. Wells, under the title " A Popular History of Oregon." The aim of the writer has been to tell his story rapidly and succinctly, omitting nothing essential in the way of . «events or of human character, but eschewing anything :;approaching exhaustive statistical data. An effort has been made to maintain a due proportion between the component parts of the chronicle, and to deduce from many isources a residuum of continuous and organic his- 'torical truth which shall enable the mind of the reader easily to ^rasp the narrative as a whole. In addition to valuable aid from the sources above mentioned, the writer is indebted to the annual publications of the Oregon Pioneer Association, and to numberless fugitive articles in newspapers and reviews ; also to much interesting autobiographi<:a.l memoranda, published and unpub lished ; and, finally, to not a few books published dur ing the early decades of this century. It is believed that no essential element in the story has been left untouched in. the present composition. On the other hand, much may be wanting to the proper ex planation or to a revelation of the hidden causes of events. Such deficiencies can be made good only by ¦ time ; for it is the paradox of history that (within cer tain large limits) the more remote the occurrences of which it treats, the more fuU and accurate are the data . on which its judgments are based. Perhaps the most valuable feature of these volumes is the autobiographical portion, kindly contributed by a number of representative living Oregonians. Here will be found information at first hand not otherwise or else where obtainable. Por these personal sketches, and for all other helps and courtesies, the writer begs to tender his sincere acknowledgments. Julian Hawthorne. TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAET I.— THE ERA OF DISCOVERY. CHAPTER I. THE PHANTOM STRAITS. Mental attitude of the Old World 400 years ago— Pessimists and opti mists then as now — Columbus the pivot of history in 1493— A new Columbus looked for to-day— The revelation of the Pacific — Conse quent activity and excitement in Europe — Grcographical absurdities and insane anticipations — Yet the present reality surpasses the dreams of Eldorado — Wholesale pretensions of Spain — The Isthmus of Pan ama and the Straits of Magellan — Eighty years of a golden monopoly — Spain's sagacious methods in colonization — Avarice and reUgion — Francis Drake of England gives Spain her first check in 1577 — The Straits of Anian — Cortoreal's search for the Northwest passage — Ma gellan sails round the world — Did Drake reach north latitude 48° ? — If not, Ferrelo anticipated him, and our claim to 54° 40' was valid — Subsequent feigned discoveries of the mythical straits — Maldonado and Juan de Puca-De Fonte — Aguilar sails to latitude 43° — Scurvy — Captain John Davis and Henry Hudson investigate the northeast coast — Van Schouton discovers Cape Horn, and Spain's supremacy in the Pacific is at an end— Charles II. of England, in 1699, grants a charter to the Hudson's Bay Company — The company checks, instead of promoting discovery — Peter the Great of Russia, and the explora tions of Behring — Polish refugees, escaping from Kamtchatka, stum ble upon Hong Kong — Consequent stimulation of fur trade— Oregon the point of coUision of the nations of Europe 17 CHAPTER II. BY SEA AND LAND. Fur-hunting interests now supersede those of discovery — Juan Perez reaches Queen Charlotte's Islands — Heceta blunders upon the mouth of the Columbia, 1775 — Bodega attains latitude 58° — Practical worth lessness of Spanish exploration— Captain Cook's commission — His X TABLE OF CONTENTS. character — His thorough examination of the Northwest coast — He dis co vers Cape Prince of Wales and Cape North, iu Siberia — Reaches 70° on the Alaskan shore — His death at Hawaii — He estabUshed the impossibility of a Northwest passage — Creation of the Russian- Ameri can Trading Company, 1781— La Perouse's futile voyage— England charters the South Sea Company — Hostilities between the latter and the East India Company— Bursting of the South Sea Bubble in 1787 —Gray and Kehdrioks, of New England, enter Nootka Sound, 1788 — Spanish and Russian emissaries confer at Oonalaska — Treaty be tween Spain and England, represented by Bodega and Vancouver respectively — Puget Sound discovered— Captain Gray enters and christens the Columbia, May, 1792 — Land expeditions dating back to 1540 — The fabled Quivira — Journeys of De Alarcon and Coronado — Jesuits plant missions along the coast to San Francisco — Treaty of Ryswick, 1697, divides North America between Spain, France, and England — Unsettled boundaries — Jesuits on the Mississippi — The Verendryes ascend the Rockies in Wyoming, 1742 — Jonathan Carver of Connecticut— History tempered by imagination — The sources of the Mississippi and beyond — He invents the name "Oregon" — Its problematical significance — He dies in London, 1780 — Hearne, an agent of the Hudson's Bay Company, foUows the Coppermine River to the Arctic Ocean — Rise of the Northwest Company — Its rivalry with the Hudson's Bay Company — McKenzie reaches the Pacific Coast opposite Vancouver's Island— The Province of Louisiana — Its purchase by Jefferson — Lewis and Clarke 89 CHAPTER III. ASTOEIA. Lewis and Clarke set out for Oregon — Halt on the Upper Missouri, au tumn of 1804 — Winter among the Mandans — The foUowing spring . they cross the Divide of the Rocky Mountains— Reach Bitter Root Range in September— Struggle on amid hardships to the Clearwater —Friendly reception by the Nez Perces — Indigestion — Onward by canoe to Snake River and the Columbia— Reach the Cascades in Octo ber — Tlie mouth of the Columbia — Begin return trip following spring —The Willamette— Received by Yellept at Walla Walla— They re- cross the Bitter Root in June — The party now divides, to reunite at the Missouri— They re-enter St. Louis, September, 1806— English opposition to American enterprise— Simon Eraser's error— Americans create the Missouri Fur Company— .John Jacob Astor— He incorpo rates the American Fur Company— His plans— His offer to co-operate with the English companies declined— His unwise choice of subordi nates-Sailing of the " Tonquin"— Anchors in Columbia, AprU, 1811 — Vancouver Indians massacre the crew — Lewis blows up the vessel TABLE OF CONTENTS. XI — Hunt's overland trip to Astoria — John Day's fate— Astor sends the " Beaver" round Cape Horn to meet Hunt— Outbreak of War of 1813 — Aster's difficulties — Hunt, in ignorance of the war, goes to Hawaii —A British frigate enters the Columbia— Hunt returns too late to Astoria— Treachery of McDougal— Absurd compromise with England regarding Astoria— Rechristened "Fort George" by tbe English— Astor, unsupported by our Government, perforce gives up the struggle 64 PART IL— THE ERA OF DISPUTE. CHAPTER IV. FIGHTS AND FORTUNES OF THE FUR COMPANIES. The growth of an idea — Jefferson and Ledyard — Failure of their scheme — Thomas Benton's championship of Oregon — John C. Fremont — Hostile competition between the Northwest Company and the Hud son's Bay Company — Congress fails to improve our opportunity — . Ethical depravity of the English companies — Their consolidation — Establishment of Fort Vancouver — John McLoughlin — Life at the fort — Policy of the company — Its disregard of treaties — American operations — The trappers and frontiersmen — Feebleness of tbe Ameri can Fur Company — Supineness of our Government — Ashley's expedi tion — He discovers Great Salt Lake, 1834 — Jedediah S. Smith's dis astrous journeys — Indian massacre on the Umpqua — Pilcher's mis fortunes — .Ewing Young and Captain Bonneville — Nathaniel J. Wyeth's vain persistency— Patriotic advocacy of Oregon by Benton, Rush, Gallatin, and Linn — " The Road to India"— The Monroe Doc trine, 1823 — Rights of the United States — Renewal of the Treaty of Joint Occupation, 1837 — Chance -oerstts Diplomacy CHAPTER v.- THE MISSIONARIES. British prospects favorable — The ways of Providence — Indian curiosity about the white man's God — Flathead deputation to St. Louis- Action of the American Board of Missions — Jason Lee and others go to Oregon, 1834 — Friendly reception by McLoughlin— Missionary prejudices in favor of matrimony — Its effects on the situation — Fail ure of attempts to Christianize the Indians — Its cause — Better success of the Roman Catholics— Importance to civilization, nevertheless, of XU TABLE OF CONTENTS. j the Protestant missions — Lee's settlement in the Willamette Valley — Hisreverses— Indian logic— Arrival of Marcus Whitman — Whitman's character — His return to RushviUe, N. Y. — Marries Narcissa Prentiss — Whitman aud his party bring the flrst wagons across the mountains, 1836 — Missions at Walla Walla — Further arrivals from the East — A " cattle deal" — Missionary labors among the Spokane Indians — The Dalles— Roman Catholic priests compete with the Protestants — They are favored by McLoughlin— Symbolic pictures and historical pano ramas — Success of the Catholics — Dissensions among the Protestants — Secession to Rome of the Cascade Indians 118 CHAPTER VI. whitman's ride. Events preceding 1843 — Causes of Indian hostility to Americans — The English company's hand forced — It circulates reports that Oregon is a desert— Southern senators take up the cry — Meanwhile, British colonists imported from Red River — McLoughlin's difficult task — His temporizing policy — Ingratitude of his employers — Hall J. Kelly's fixed idea — Ewing Young settles in the Willamette, 1834 — Gradual increas'e of American population — Young's death suggests the formation of a provincial government — Opposition of Commo dore Wilkes and McLoughlin — A mixed community — The "Wolf Meetings" — Americans outvote the company's representatives — A triune governorship, 1843 — Elijah White's emigration, 1843 — Inde pendence Rock — Ransom — Hard travelling down the Columbia Val ley —McLoughlin's clothes — Arrival of Red River immigrants- -Whit man perceives the trend of events — The ownership ot Oregon trem bling in the balance — Prompt action indispensable to American suc cess — He is stimulated by decision of Board of Missions to withdraw from Oregon — On learning that the Ashburton Treaty was under consideration he resolves to return East at once — Starts October 5th, 1843, accompanied by Lovejoy— A desperate undertaking — Whit man's outfit— He reaches Fort Hall, October 13th, via Ports Winter and Uncumpagra to Taos — Snowed up — Whitman procures a new guide— He swims a river— Turns the flank of the Rockies at Taos, and sets forth northeastward for Bent's Fort — Breaking the Sabbath — Whitman goes astray— He joins a party of mountaineers bound for St, Louis— Arrives February, 1843— The treaty signed, but Oregon not lost— Confers with Tyler and Webster in Washington— Persuades them of the importance of Oregon—Goes on to Boston and meets the Board— Visits his mother and returns to St. Louis— Attempts to be little his achievement — His magnanimity and far. sigh tedness Mt. Hood, Marcus Whitman, and the historian of the future 144 BIOGEAPHIOAL SKETCHES. PAGE Atwood, James P 403 Barin, L. T 403 Blackman, Henry 413 Bronaugh, Eari C 340 Buchtel, Joseph 311 Burnett, John , 315 Caples, John F 418 Case, Isaac W 338 Catlin, John 817 Chapman, WiUiam W 178 Charman, Thomas 331 Coulter, Samuel 436 Davidson, Thomas L 324 Deady, Matthew P 192 De Lashmutt, Van B 430 Dolph, Joseph N 380 Eldriedge, F, E 333 Peldenheimer, A 440 Giesy, Andrew J 444 Gilbert, W, B 457 Glisan, Rodney. 357 Goldsmith, Bernard 338 Grandy, Benjamin W 459 Gray, John H. D 246 Gray, William P . , 353 Gregg, J, T , 445 Griffin, Rev. J, S 343 Hall, John H 449 Hansen, H 339 Himes, George H 435 Holmes, Thomas J 348 Honeyman, John 353 Hovey, A. G 859 XIV BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. PAGE Kellogg, Joseph 363 Kelly, James K 319 Kelly, Richmond 450 Kent, Levi 369 Kenworthy, John : 370 Knapp, Richard B 361 Krumbein, Justus 454 Ladd, WUliam S 301 Lord, William P 285 Lotan, James 432 McArthur, Lewis L 407 McGowan, Patrick J 244 McLoughUn, John 173 Mallory, Rufus 394 Marquam, Philip A 267 Martin, Richard 457 Masiker, Carson C 416 Minto, John, 222 Mitchell, John H 273 Moreland, J. C 880 Moreland, Samuel A 374 Morrow, Jackson L 384 Myers, John 345 Pratt, L. E 401 Rose, Aaron 355 Scott, Harvey W 433 Shaw, T. C 297 Smith, Hiram 303 Smith, Thomas 305 Strahan, Reuben S ¦ 292 Strowbridge, Joseph A 300 Thayer, William W 387 Thornbury, Caleb N 387 Tolman, James C 889 Webb, George W 398 Wiberg, Charles M 335 Williams, George H 209 ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Atwood, James P 371 Atwood, Mrs, F 377 Barin, L. T 381 Blackman, Henry 391 Bronaugh, Earl C 365 Buchtel, Joseph 199 Burnett, John 205 Caples, John F 399 Case, Isaac W 67 Catlin, John 317 Chapman, William W 35 Charman, Thomas 333 Coulter, Samuel '. 409 Davidson, Thomas L ' 339 Deady, Matthew P 31 De Lashmutt, Van B 413 Dolph, Joseph N 133 Eldriedge, F. E 353 Feldenheimer, A 437 Giesy, Andrew J 433 Glisan, Rodney 97 Goldsmith, Bernard 335 Gray, John H. D 79 Gray, WUliam P 85 Gregg, J. T 437 Griffin, Rev. J. S 377 HaU, John H 441 Hansen, H 341 Himes, George H 423 Holmes, Thomas J 383 Honeyman, John 389 Hovey, A, G 395 Kellogg, Joseph 301 Kellogg, Mrs. Joseph 307 XVI ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Kelly, James K 55 Kelly, Richmond -447 Kent, Levi 313 Kenworthy, John 335 Knapp, Richard B 108 Krumbein, Justus 451 Ladd, WiUiam S 37 Lord, William P 139 Lotan, James 405 McArthur, Lewis L 385 McGowan, Patrick J 73 McLoughUn, John Frontispiece Mallory, Rufus 157 Marquam, Philip A 115 Martin, Richard, Jr 455 Masiker, Carson C 395 Minto, John 61 Mitchell, John H 137 Moreland, J, C 337 Moreland, Samuel A 331 Morrow, Jackson L 343 Myers, .lohn 271 Pratt, L. E 367 Rose, Aaron 91 Scott, Harvey W 419 Shaw, T. C 163 Smith, Hiram 181 Smith, Hannah M 187 Smith, Thomas 193. Strahan, Reuben S 151 Strowbridge, Joseph A 175 Thayer, WUliam W 145 Thornbury, Caleb N 853 Tolman, James C 357 Webb, George W 863 Wiberg, Charles M 359 Williams, George H 49 Residence of R. B. Knapp, Portland, Ore 109 Residence of W, S, Ladd, Portland, Ore 43 Portland Savings Bank Building Igg Portland's new Opera House, " The Marquam,'' 121 Cathedral Spires, Union Pacific R.R 211 Oneonta Bluff, Union Pacific R.R 247 Rooster Rock, Union Pacific R.R gig Multnomah FaUs, Union Pacific R.R 349 THE STORY OF OREGON. A HISTORY. By JuLiAiNi Hawthorne. PART I. The Era of Discovery. CHAPTER I. THE PHANTOM STRAITS. If, in this last decade of the nineteenth century, news were to reach us that a route had been established be tween this earth and the planet Mars, and that precious stones and precious metals had been found there in Limit less profusion, we might comprehend the sensations of civilized Europe when, in 1493, it learned that Christo pher Columbus had crossed the unknown ocean and discov ered a strange land of golden promise on the other side of it.' The mental attitude of the inhabitants of the Old World fo.ur centuries ago bears a certain likeness to that of ourselves to-day. They had arrived at the end of a stage in their development. Literature, science, and art had run their course and come to a standstill. Shake- 3 18 THE STORY OF OREGON. speare, Descartes, Bacon, Rafael, were still remote and unsuspected in the womb of time. No fresh social, re ligious, or political gospel had been preached for a thou sand years. Geographers had mapped out the earth by such light as they had, and had generally come to the conclusion that it was a diversified plain of limited ex tent surrounded by boundless and inhospitable seas. The possibilities of existence seemed exhausted, and yet human energy was as restless and unsatisfied as ever. For many generations history had been but a record of wars, waged now for conquest, now for religion, accord ing to the whim of the contending monarchs, as if man kind, finding no other outlet for the instinctive craving for change and action, had been constrained to fly at one another's throats. The Moorish invasions and the Turk ish conquests were godsends to the people of Europe, in providing them with something to do and to discuss. The age of chivalric romance had deserved gratitude for its effort to impart sentiment and fancy into the sordid level of life, but its enthusiasm was already beginning to weaken a trifle, as if it, had caught a distant echo of Cer vantes' laugh a century in the future. Cynics and pes simists were declaring then, as they are declaring now, and have always declared, that the world had seen its best days, and that nothing new or good was to be ex pected. But the men of deeper and stronger mind, who, then as now, had faith in the boundlessness of human progress, were whispering to one another that the time was ripe for a great change, and they were looking this way and that for signs of its approach. One man, at least, of these believers had the energy and dourage to go forth to meet the change, or to make it, instead of waiting for it to come to him. Columbus was the pivot upon which the world turned in 1492. The world needs, and it will doubtless find, such another pivot now. Columbuses are rare, but they never fail to appear at the critical moment. And to-day, when re- THE STORY OP OREGON. 19 ligion seems rich in forms but poor in spirit ; when sci ence is knocking at the door of the unseen, and can gain no admittance ; when literature refines upon itself and ceases to create ; when social life is as the glittering crust suspended over a dark abyss — at this hour mankind is conscious of an undefined unrest, a suspense, an anticipa tion of some new avatar waiting to be born. It may be that the hope is premature ; or it may be the four hun dredth anniversary of Columbus's great discovery may introduce to us another Columbus destined to reveal to us regions of the intellect or of the spirit, answering, as soul to body, to the revelation of his predecessor. Be that as it may, it is with the past and not with the future that we are now to deal. By dint of a steadfast ness of faith and purpose that were all but superhuman, Columbus gained his goal, and on October 12th, 1492, he planted on the shores of the island named San Salva dor the royal banner of Spain. Fourteen years afterward he died at Valladolid in poverty and neglect, and without even knowing the true magnitude of his own achieve ment. But he had unlocked the gates of the future ; and coming generations yielded him the honor that, dur ing his lifetime, had been denied him. Balboa, Cortez, and Mendoza carried on the work that he had begun ; and, as the broad Pacific unrolled itself before their eyes, they realized with awe and triumph that this new world was not (as had at first been supposed) the eastern shores of the old, but a veritable unknown continent between two oceans. It would be difficult to overestimate the excitement which this event aroused in Europe. The news seemed almost too great to be true. The pent-up imagination, the misdirected activity of a thousand years, burst forth in a great flame of purpose and accomplishment. Here was an untrodden stage on which to enact a fresh drama of existence. Here was wealth beyond computation, wonders outvying the inventions of poets, sources of 20 THE STORY OF OREGON. power unlimited and incalculable. The kings and peo ples of weary and mephitic Europe lifted up their heads, snuffed up this strange, life-giving air from the West, and sprang to their feet recreated. From the dull iner tia of scepticism they passed in an hour to the wildest extremes of credulity : they believed the impossible ; their dazzled eyes heeded not the most naked inconsisten cies and absurdities. Observing this, an army of im postors arose to profit by it. Stories of preposterous voyages and discoveries were circulated, and found everywhere eager and grave acceptance. Maps were made and remade ; rivers, cities, treasures that had no existence, became household words. The northwest pas sage was found and lost again and again, each time in a different place. Latitudes were hopelessly confused ; longitude was altogether ignored ; an error of three thousand miles more or less was a trifle. For a hundred years and more the din of assertion, contradiction, ques tion, and asseveration continued. At last, with the sheer exhaustion of inventiveness, a new scepticism set in, and the few facts that emerged from the chaos were looked at askance. The world had become surfeited with mar vels, and could digest no more. Then began a more scientific and less sensational order of procedure, produc tive of solid and rational results. Meanwhile, the nations fell to wrangling over their spoils, and the golden glory in the western heavens grew dimmer, and its lower edges were tinged blood-red. And yet the wildest and most baseless fancies of those early explorers and improvisators were errors in kind rather than in degree. The resources and the wealth of this continent are even greater than they had imagined, though they are not derived from gold and precious stones. The transformation which the discovgry of America has wrought in the condition and destinies of the world is mightier and profounder than its discoverers had conceived. They believed not wisely, but not too THE STORY OF OREGON. 21 well. The ways of Providence are not laid out in accord ance with human forecasts, yet they reach farther and higher than our anticipation. Mankind is never disap pointed, though the fulfilment of its hopes arrives by unexpected channels. We have already passed beyond the limits of the glowing prophecies of the men of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and yet we are but at the outset of our career. Under Charles V. and PMlip II. , Spain, in the first half of the sixteenth century, reached its zenith of power and renown. It was her fiag that was first unfurled to the winds of the western world, and she arrogated to herself the ownership of the new territory. By the cus tom of nations, discovery involved possession ; and the Spanish kings were not disposed to abate a tittle of their rights. They claimed nothing less than the whole conti nent, from the Arctic to the Antarctic, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. But it is one thing to claim ; to hold is another. Nevertheless, chance had led them to the point most convenient for the maintenance of their assumptions. They had first set foot upon, or near, the narrowest part of the continent. It was not until twenty-seven years later, in 1519, that Magellan found a passage through the straits that bear his name. The existence of Cape Horn and of the Antarctic Ocean was not then suspected ; it was supposed that Terra del Fuego was the northern extremity of another continent. Thus, by fortifying the isthmus and the straits, Spain could control the entire Pacific coast of America and the trade with China and the Indies. On the Atlantic, of course, her channels of commu nication were exposed to attack ; but she possessed the most powerful navy of the world, and had little to fear even then. Such sources of revenue as were thus suddenly opened to her had never before been con ceived of ; and for years they supplied her treasury with 22 THE STORY OF OREGON. the means of fighting down all rivalry. But the very greatness of her prosperity became the measure of the enterprise and determination of her enemies ; and by slow but sure degrees the latter gained upon her. For full eighty years, however, she remained practically unmolested. Her policy during this long period was vigorous and sagacious. Her kings encouraged private enterprise, hesitating not to grant possession of any given region to whomsoever should first gain access to it, together with all revenues thence accruing after the portion due the Crown had been paid. The Spaniards were persistent and. successful colonists ; they lost no time in planting their roots in the soil, and so deeply that even now they flourish. What avarice neglected to grasp was seized by religion ; the priesthood overspread the land ; the bells of the missions answered one another for a thousand miles along the coast, and the helpless heathen were con verted wholesale. Indeed, it was to the cross and the confessional more than to the sword that Spain owed her ascendancy in the New World. Greed and the passion for adventure might tire or falter, but not so the zeal for the Catholic faith that unlocked heaven with St. Peter's keys. It was not until 1577 that Spain received her first serious check. It came from her traditional enemy, Eng land ; and its instrument was a Devonshire mariner, one Francis Drake. Drake nowadays would be called a pirate ; but in the age of Elizabeth he was but making war on his own account, with the unexpressed connivance of the British, Crown. He had heard of the Straits of Magellan, and, in spite of the reputed terrors of the pas sage, he resolved to try his fortune by that route. He set sail, accordingly, with three vessels, one of which was wrecked, while anotlier put back to England ; but the third, with Drake himself at the helm, entered the Pacific, and thenceforth he had the defenceless Spanish THE STORY OF OREGON. 23 ports and galleons at his mercy. He improved his op portunity to the utmost, and his plunder was limited only by the capacity of his vessel. With hatches burst ing with treasure, he then steered northward along the coast ; for he feared to fall in with the Spanish men-of- war should he return the way he came, and he hoped to get back to the Atlantic and to England by way of the Straits of Anian. What were the Straits of Anian 1 That is a question which the principal nations of Europe tried to answer for more than two hundred and fifty years. And since their efforts in that direction had much to do with the discov ery .of Oregon, it is proper that we should devote a few minutes' attention to the matter. It was in the last year of the fifteenth century that an adventurous Portuguese sailor by the name of Cortereal, bethought himself that possibly there might be a way across or through the new continent at its northern end. It had been, by this time, generally conceded that the earth was a sphere ; but what its circumference might be was still a matter of conjecture. Longitude, as we have already observed, was still imperfectly comprehended ; mariners knew how to estimate their distance frotn the equator, but the problem of easting and westing was be yond them. Most of them underestimated the girth of the globe by from five to ten thousand miles. Cortereal was aware of the existence of the Indian Ocean ; but Balboa had not yet discovered the Pacific, and Cortereal imagined that either America was India, or else that it was a comparatively narrow strip of land running north and south, separated from India by a long, river-like sea of moderate breadth. Northward he steered accordingly, and coasting along Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, rounded Cape Race, and sailed up the northeast coast of Labrador. Passing be tween Cape CMdley and Cape Best, he entered Hudson's Straits, and so found his way into the mighty waters of 24 THE STORY OP OREGON. Hudson's Bay. Most of these names, of course, were bestowed long after Cortereal' s time. The navigator now took it for granted that he had proved his theory. He never doubted that he had made the northwest passage, and that Hudson's Bay communi cated directly with the Indian Ocean. Since, however, India was not his present destination, he put his ship about, and returned to Portugal the way he had come. There he reported that there was an easy route round the northern end of the continent, and he christened it the Straits of Anian — a name which has given philologists food for no little futile speculation. Here the matter was allowed to rest for twenty-one years. Then Magellan made his southern voyage into the Pacific, crossed it, doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and thus circumnavigated the globe. Europe began to learn by that voyage what a gigantic expanse of water the Pacific was, and, reverting to Cortereal' s discovery, came to the conviction that it was into the Pacific and not into the Indian Ocean that his " Straits of Anian" led. During the seventy-seven years that elapsed between Cortereal' s voyage and Francis Drake's buccaneering ex pedition, many navigators, French, Dutch, and English, had tried to follow in Cortereal' s wake ; but none of them had been successful. Others, however, pretended to have made the passage ; and probably no one actually disbelieved that such an avenue of transit existed. In deed, few things in the history of geography are more remarkable than is the pertinacity with which this con viction was held. It is to be observed, moreover, that the conviction was justified by the fact ; the northwest passage does exist, only, instead o£ water, there is ever lasting ice. To Drake, at all events, the idea of such a passage was familiar, and he now designed to avail him self of it for his return trip. The issues of this voyage were more important than S* ?4'' i THE STORY OF OREGON. 27 Drake imagined ; otherwise he would have taken pains to keep an accurate log-book. When, in 1846, the Eng lish and American Commission met to discuss the divi sion of the Oregon country, the dispute turned in great measure upon the question, how far up the Oregon coast Drake had sailed his ship. If he had gone as far as latitude 48°, then England had a colorable claim to the coast as far down as the mouth of the Columbia River. If, on the other hand, he had stopped at latitude 43°, as the Americans contended, then we were entitled to draw our boundary as high as 54° 40'. The grounds of the dispute may be briefly stated as follows : Drake was not the first explorer of Oregon ; but he was the first and last Englishman to sail along that coast until 1778, when Captain Cook investigated and mapped out the region. During this interval of two hundred years several Spanish expeditions had penetrated as far as Alaska — fully ten degrees beyond Drake's highest claim. More to the point, however, was the fact that some five-and-thirty years before Drake's time, Ferrelo, a Spanish captain, acting under instructions from the Spanish viceroy, De Mendoza, had effected a landing at about the forty-third parallel. If, therefore, the true limit of Drake's voyage was latitude 43°, he had been anticipated by Ferrelo, and England's plea fell to the ground. If, on the contrary, his limit was 48°, then he superseded Ferrelo, and anticipated the subsequent Span ish expeditions. Obviously, then, the question turns upon whether 43° or 48° be the correct figure. Reasonable probability favors the former. Drake, not being a person of literary tastes, wrote no account of his adventures himself ; but an eminent geographer of the period, Richard Hakluyt, published an account of them, purporting to have emanated from one Francis Pretty, who was an officer in Drake's ship. This Francis Pretty is authority for the 43" version of the story. The claim for 48°, on the 28 THE STORY OF OREGON. other hand, is based upon nothing better than a narra tive published by Drake's nephew, seventy years after the date of the voyage, and full of many gross misstate ments. Now, assuming 43° to be correct, it follows that Spain's cession "to this country, in 1819, of her posses sions in the northwest, extending to 54° 40', was valid. But if we accept 48°, then England's right to the coast line as far down as the Columbia River may be allowed. As a matter of fact, the Commission compromised on the forty-ninth parallel, which is the present northern boundary of the United States as far east as the Lake of the Woods. We shall touch upon this discussion again in its proper chronological place. We now return to Drake. Having convinced himself that the Straits of Anian, if they existed at all, were not worth the trouble it took to find them, the Englishman turned back, with the idea of getting home by the long route round the Cape of Good Hope. Adverse gales drove him back upon the Calif or- nian coast, in latitude 38° ; he anchored in what is now known as Drake's Bay, and remained there five weeks. San Pablo Bay is in the same latitude, on the eastern side of the promontory ; and it has been believed that Drake passed, through the Golden Gate, and was thus the discoverer of San Francisco harbor. But this hypothesis is untenable ; for Drake, with the notion of the Straits of Anian in his head, would inevitably have imagined that this great inlet was the beginning of them, and would have sailed up either the Sacramento or the San Joaquin. It is sufficiently surprising that he did not stumble upon this inland sea, as it was ; a tramp of ten or fifteen miles due eastward would have brought him to its shores. It is not known when the existence of San Francisco Bay was first made known ; for though, in 1769, a Spanish expedition sailed into it and gave it its name, there is reason to believe that it was discovered many years before. THE STORY OF OREGON. 29 Leaving the coast, Drake steered southwest, and in due time arrived in England with his treasure. Queen Elizabeth knighted him ; and other Englishmen, imitat ing his example, likewise entered the Pacific and made prizes of Spanish galleons. Spain's luftk had turned ; and when, in 1588, the Armada was destroyed by the combination of bad weather, bad seamanship, and the English fleet, her prestige declined. The Straits of Anian continued to be the will-o'-the- wisp of navigation — those of England and Holland espe cially — for years afterward ; but they eluded all pur suers. Two ingeniously constructed romances were, however, put forth in 1609 and in 1625, assuming to be de scriptions of voyages in quest of the northwest passage. The former of these was the production of Captain Mal donado, who wrote that he had, in 1588, found Corte real' s straits in latitude 75°, followed them to the North Sea, and thence southward to the Pacific. This story was credited until more accurate geographical knowledge proved its impossibility— not to mention the fact that no records of such a voyage existed among the Spanish archives. The other invention was given to the world by Samuel Purchas, and detailed the adventures of a Greek sailor, Juan de Fuca, who was represented as hav ing voyaged up the west coast to latitude 47° or 48°, when he entered a broad inlet, which he followed for twenty days, until he emerged in the North Sea. This tale is manifestly more plausible than the other, inasmuch as the southern extremity of Vancouver's Island lies in lati tude 48i° ; and a man ignorant of geography, sailing between the island and the mainland, and coming out at last by way of Queen Charlotte's Sound, might conceiv ably imagine that he had passed across the northern limits of the continent. But the negative presumptions against the reality of ' the voyage are too strong to be argued away ; and although the straits east of Vancou ver's Island bear the name of Juan de Fuca, it is not 30 THE STORY OF OREGON. likely that any such person existed. Still another mar vellous yarn, which need not detain us, was that of the voyage of Admiral de Fonte, of the Spanish marine. He, it was pretended, entered the mouth of a great river on the western coast in latitude 53°, and, following a chain of rivers and lakes, arrived at length at the Atlan tic. The date assigned to this trip was 1640. Meanwhile, between 1596 and 1603, efforts— though not very energetic ones — were made by Spain to survey the coast above Cape Mendocino. Philip II. had inherited from his father, Charles V., a recommendation 'to estab lish refitting stations at such points as were available north of that stormy cape ; and orders were accordingly issued to the Mexican viceroy to discharge this duty. It was specified, however, that the expenses of the voy age were to be paid by the viceroy. The latter, having no stomach for such an outlay, evificed small alacrity to undertake the enterprise ; but since it was necessary to do something, he at length put Sebastian Viscaino in command of three ships, and sent him forth. Viscaino made two futile attempts to colonize Lower California ; but at the death of the king, in 1598, he was recalled, and the viceroy hoped he had heard the last of these costly undertakings. Philip III. destroyed these hopes by reaffirming his predecessor's mandate ; and in 1602 Viscaino sailed once more with two vessels and 2ifragata — a craft of smaUer size, commanded by Martin de Aguilar. By the time the fleet had reached Monterey Bay, just south of 37°, the scurvy had killed sixteen men. Span ish sailors seem to have been particularly subject to this disease ; we hear much less of it among the English and Dutch. From Monterey one of the ships was sent back to Acapulco with the invalids, and arrived there with a handful of survivors, after a trip of unimaginable hor rors. At the opening of the new year, 1603, Viscaino and Aguilar proceeded northward. Not far from the i^^7^-^^-^^-d?- -'' : — nKWiZ—-^' ,"'i-^' RESIDENCE OF R. B. KNAPP PORTLAND, ORE. THE STORY OF OREGON. Ill Smith by name, had come into prominence by an expe dition to Humboldt River, in Nevada, which he was the first to discover, and which led him toward the Sierra Nevada range. This he crossed below latitude 40°, and found himself in the valley of the Sacramento. Leaving most of his company there, to trap and hunt during the winter, he went back to Green River ; when, owing to the retirement of Ashley, as aforesaid. Smith, Sublette, and Jackson became chiefs of the company. On his way back, in the spring of 1826, to rejoin his party in the Sac ramento, he foUowed Green River down to its junction with the Colorado, and there he and his followers were attacked by Indians. Smith, with two companions, es caped southward, only to be captured and imprisoned for several months by the Mexicans. On being released, he started north to rejoin his party of the year before, and found them on the American River. In June, 1827, they made their way to the coast, and p]*oceeded north ward to the Umpqua, in crossing which they were at tacked by Indians under the control of Governor Mc Loughlin of Fort Vancouver, though he was obviously not in any waj' privy to this massacre. Smith and one Daniel Prior escaped, and got to the fort in a deplorable condition, and with the loss of all their furs. McLough lin received them hospitably, and promised to recover the furs and punish the Indians. The furs were recov ered, and then appropriated by McLoughlin at a fraction of their value ; but no punishment was inflicted on the Indians. The whole affair looks like a solemn farce from the company's point of view, though it was a suffi ciently tragic drama to the unhappy Smith. The following year another American party, under Major Pilcher, started from the base at Green River and ventured into Oregon, by way of Clarke's Fork and the Upper Columbia. This party also was cut to pieces by the Indians, and their furs were soon afterward delivered at Fort Vancouver. Major PUcher escaped the toma- 6 112 THE STORY OF OREGON. hawk, but did not, like Smith, fly to Fort Vancouver for protection. He had no stomach for that sinister hos pitality. So far, the experiences of American traders in Oregon had not been encouraging. But in 1832, Ewing Young, an experienced trapper and frontiersman, and afterward one of the early and prominent settlers of Oregon, came up the Pacific coast from California as far as the Ump qua ; at that point he turned eastward, and left the boundaries of the State by the southeast with a whole skin. In the Sacramento Valley, however, he encoun tered a body of the Hudson's Bay Company's trappers, who were on their way to establish a sta,tion at San Fran cisco, then known as Yerba Buena, which they retained until 1845. Captain B. L. E. Bonneville, in 1834, was less fortunate than Mr. Young, though he succeeded in procuring a "permit" from Congress to attempt the es tablishment of a fort on the Lower Columbia. He entered Oregon from the northeast, and for three weeks was lost among the Blue Mountains, near latitude 45°. It was winter, and he and his party narrowly escaped freezing and starvation. They were found and rescued by the Nez Perces, and brought to the Hudson' s Bay Company's station at Walla Walla. The agent in charge there, Mr. Pambrun, refused to give th« captain any assistance, feeling bound, as he expressed it, to " do noth ing which should facilitate or encourage the visits of other traders among the Indians in that part of the coun try." Bonneville, guided by a Nez Perces chief, re turned to his starting-point at Portneuf River. In July of the same year he set forth once more, with a large party and a supply of goods for Indian traffic. He fol lowed the course of the Umatilla to its junction with the Columbia ; but the Indians, intimidated by the Hudson's Bay Company, refused to have any transactions with them, or even to sell them food. Bonneville had the choice of either starving or retiring, and he chose the latter. THE STORY OF OREGON. 118 Nathaniel J. Wyeth, of Boston, was meanwhile making efforts quite as futile in another part of the country. With eleven men, he proceeded from the Humboldt to the Snake River, and thence down the Columbia to Fort Vancouver. McLoughlin received him with great cor diality, but sent him back the following spring a bank rupt. Wyeth still had some fight left in him, however, and returned in 1834, with the preposterous expectation of carrying out Astor s plans of twenty- three years before, with the addition of salmon-fishing. He built Fort Hall, near the sources of Snake Ri^er, garrisoned it, descended the Columbia to Sauvie' s Island, just below Vancouver, and buUt another fort there. He had sent a ship, the Mary Dacres, round Cape Horn, w^hich arrived with tools and supplies. In all this he was but playing into the hands of McLoughlin, who welcomed him with his accus tomed heartiness, and proceeded to destroy him. He built Fort Boise on Snake River, and drew the Indian trade away from Fort Hall ; he forbade the Indians of the lower Columbia to have any dealings with the Amer icans ; and having thus bound his rival hand and foot, he smilingly awaited the result. It came in two years.. Wyeth abandoned all his possessions to the Hudson' s Bay Company, including Fort Hall, and disappeared from Oregon and from history, having enriched his enemies to the extent of his own possessions, and rather more.. This was in 1836. For more than five-and-twenty years the struggle between Americans and the Hudson's Bay Company had been going on, and the former had not only gained nothing, 'but had lost something of the little they originally had. Before entering upon the next stage in the game, let us briefly review the negotiations between our Govern ment and that of Great Britain as to the Oregon question.. The subject had been kept alive in Congress by the patriotic and far-sighted exertions of Rush, Gallatin, Benton, Linn, and a few others. Benton had devoted 114 THE STORY OF OREGON.' his life to the task of securing to the United States the ports of San Francisco and of the Columbia, with an ex tension of our ownership to the 49th parallel. His famous saying, pointing across the Western plains toward the Pacific, .' ' There lies the East — there is the road to India !' ' formulated his conception of the advantages of this occu pancy. Commanding the coast, we could trade overland with Asia, and draw from it our share of the wealth now monopolized by England. It was this prospect especially which kindled his imagination. Of the intrinsic value of the Western country he could form only a conjecture, and, of course, an inadequate one. The gold discoveries were still far in the future, and the agricultural resources were but a possibility. But the rewards of the East Ind ian overland trade appeared to him imtaense and imme diate ; and herein he was at one with both Jefferson and General Clarke, the original explorer of 1805, who was still living in St. Louis, as commissioner for the Indian ' tribes of the Pacific coast. In 1820, a proposition to construct a chain of forts overland, to protect and supply emigrants, and to station an adequate body of troops on the coast, was rejected by Congress, which expressed the opinion that before colo nizing the transmontane region, it would be expedient to see the intervening territory thoroughly settled. In 1821, Russia, by asserting exclusive title to the coast as far south as 51°, and forbidding aU foreign vessels to trade in Behring Sea, strengthened the position -of those who advocated the abandonment of the struggle ; but this effect was in some measure counteracted by the enunciation, in 1823, of Monroe's historic doctrine, that American continents were henceforth " not to be consid ered as subjects for colonization by any European power." During the next three years, EngUsh and American commissioners were appointed to decide what -should be done when the ten-years' treaty of Joint Occu pation should expire. Rush and Gallatin acted for us. ^^iL,^^'^^ THE STORY OF OREGON. 117 and on grounds with which the reader is already famil iar, togethe]' with the additional argument of the " con tiguity" of the Mississippi and Missouri settlements, laid claim to the coast up to latitude 49°. But in argu ments based upon grounds of prior discovery and treaties, the case put forward by the EngUsh commis sioners was nearly as good as ours ; both ours and theirs being, in truth, valueless and beside the mark. The only proper and dignified course for the United States to follow was to assert our ownership in the Western re gions because they were a homogeneous part of the con tinent of which we were the actual and the chief inhab itants. On the same principle, Canada and Mexico belong to us whenever it shall suit our purpo,ses to take possession of them. The claims of mere colonists of foreign nations are not worthy of serious consideration ; they are sporadic and accidental, and exist only by our sufferance. As regards the x^resent dispute over Behring Sea, if there be no precedent for the validity of the rights we bought from Russia, there is at any rate an ex cellent opportunity for such a precedent to be made. Behring Sea is already a mare cla.;iisu/m by virtue of its geographical position ; no one can pretend that it is a thoroughfare. Its conditions are analogous to those of no other body of water on the surface of the globe ; and until we maintain our exclusive right to it, there will be no assurance of peace. The negotiations which were brought to a close in 1827 had no satisfactory result ; the treaty of Joint Occupa tion was continued, with the tacit hope that some deus ex macJiina would erelong remove the question from the sphere of argument, and decide it by the incalculable logic of events. Chance was invoked to remedy the fail ure of diplomacy. 118 THE STORY OF OREGON. CHAPTER V. THE missionaries. The incompetency of either iirivate American traders or organizations of them to maintain any rivalry with the British company had now been abundantly demon strated. The American Government had repeatedly and definitively refused to aid or countenance such efforts in any manner. On the other hand, the British Colonial Government gave its whole weight to the support of the Hudson's Bay Company's aggrandizements, for the excel lent reason that the former and the latter were practically the same thing. The company owned the government, and constituted it. Such being the situation, it is ob vious that the deus ex macMaa most likely to intervene, and the one looked for by the British, was nothing more nor less than the moral right conveyed by continuous and undisturbed possession and administration. When Americans found that they could not live in Oregon or California, they would cease attempting to do so ; boun daries would be established accordingly, and aU trouble, so far as England was concerned, would be at an end. The uncertainty of events and the seemingly trivial causes on which the largest results depend have not often been more strikingly illustrated than at this juncture. Doubtless, all things at all times are controlled and moulded by Providence ; but that guiding Hand is sel dom so clearly manifested as at this moment, when the efforts of human self-interest — generally regarded as the most powerful of earthly influences — had utterly failed to bring that to pass which Providence had foreordained ; and, on the other side, the most conspicuous obstacle in the path of the coming change had become so firmly rooted in its place, that no available earthly power seemed adequate to cope with it. But as the chemical THE STORY OF OREGON. 119 disintegration of a drop of water liberates an immeasur able force, so a chance word, accidentally overheard, put in action a power which gave to a race its inheritance, and out of a small nation developed the mightiest that the world has known. When, in 1805, Lewis and Clarke descended the moun tain pass to the valley of the Clearwater, they no doubt thanked God for their deliverance from the perils of cold and famine. Be that as it may, they found occasion to mention to the Indians the name of the white men's God, and further informed them that God had made the white race the strongest and richest on the globe. The Nez Perces were an ambitious and intelligent people ; and what they saw of the accoutrements and appurtenances of their visitors, especiaUy their weapons, together with what they had learned concerning the white race from other tribes, led them to think that it would be expedient for them to come into closer relations with so powerful a Deity. Subsequent arrivals from the East confirmed these earliest reports, and a certain Book was spoken' of, which was said to contain the secret of the incantations whereby the white God might be propitiated. These rumors were disseminated and canvassed among the tribes during more than twenty years ; and at length, in 1832, a deputation of four or five Flathead chiefs was despatched to St. Louis to procure the magic volume. This is a pathetic circumstance — the savages evidently supposing that the mere physical possession of the Book would enable thepa to rival the power of the whites, and dominate their own brethren. As to read ing it, they had no conception of such a thing. The idea of leading a virtuous and Christian life entered not into their calculations ; they expected immediate magical results ; out of the Book were to proceed rifles, knives, beads, and calico without limit, and victory over enemies. The deputation reached St. Louis, but among the variegated throng of desperadoes and adventurers that 120 THE STORY OF OREGON. they encountered there, no one seemed to have a copy of the precious Book ; and the plaintive inquiries of the Indians met only with ridicule. Two of the deputation died in St. Louis, others on the way back to the tribe, and one only reached his native boundaries. But some individual, whose name has not come down to us, chanced to overhear this savage express his longing for the Book of the white God, and he sent w^ord to the Board of American Missions that there was a spiritual harvest in Oregon waiting for the reaper to come and gather it in. The American Board of Missions neither knew nor cared anything about politics, right of discovery, the ethics of treaties, or about the value of the fur industry and the East India trade ; but they understood that there were heathen to be converted, and they lost no time in making their preparations. The Methodist Board was the first in the field ; it appointed the Rev. Jason Lee, with Rev. Daniel Lee, and Cyrus Shepard and P. L. Edwards as his associates. They took advantage of the departure of the second Wyeth expedition in 1834, and passing through Walla Walla, reached Fort Van couver on September 15th. McLoughlin was there to meet them, and this time the warmth of his welcome is not so open to misinterpretation as it had been on other occasions. In truth, he seems to have quite failed to detect anything menacing to the well-being of the Com pany in this Methodist invasion. The missionaries were intent not upon material gains, but upon human souls — a commodity with which the company had never con cerned itself. At the same time, it was possible that converted Indians might become more efficient in the company's service than could be expected of them in their present unregenerate condition. The sagacious fac totum, therefore, was disposed to look with favor upon the arrival of Mr. Lee and his associates, and not only put no obstacle in the way of their settlement in the -i '''it' '~'in(;;.i PORTLANDS NEW OPERA HOUSE, "THE MARQUAM.' THE STORY OF OREGON. 123 country, but persuaded them to build their ark in his immediate neighborhood — in the upper Willamette Val ley — where he could keep a close watch upon their pro ceedings, and could avaU himself of their services for the education of his own children. There were two aspects of the situation which the fac totum, with all his shrewdness, did not happen to con sider. The first was, the notorious fondness of Protes tant missionaries for the society of their wives and chil dren. Whenever circumstances made it practicable, the frontier preacher had his family to live with him ; and the wife was frequently quite as active and efficient as her husband in softening the hearts and improving the manners of the savage parishioners. Up to this time no white woman had set her foot on the soil of Oregon ; but nothing was mote probable than that other mission aries would follow these pioneers, and that women-folk would come with them. And when that ha^Dpened, the arrival of the lay white population was not far off. They would learn that the far Northwest was, a land to be lived in as well as hunted in ; that it was capable of fur nishing homes as well as forts and posts ; and when the first canvas-topped wagon from the Eastern plains had toiled through the pass and descended into the Oregon valleys, the beginning of the end of the reign of the Hon orable Hudson' s Bay Company was in sight. The second consideration was of a different character. McLoughlin, in common with the missionaries them selves, was mistaken in hoping that any vital change of heart was to be wrought in the Indian tribes. The event proved this ; and the record of missionary labors in all parts of this continent is additional evidence. Out of the millions of American savages, a handful have, in deed, become true Christians, and a larger number have been trained to till the soil and otherwise manifest the qualities of inoffensive and not unuseful citizens. But the great mass of the redmen have not been touched. 124 THE STORY OF OREGON. The Jesuit and other Catholic missions in Mexico and California have greatly subdued them, and they have died off quietly, as good Indians should do ; while inter course with a dei)raved class of frontier desperadoes has been the occasion of a vast and less peaceful mortaUty among the remainder of our aboriginal population. But earnestly and heroicaUy though it has been preached and promulgated among them, the Protestant faith hag had only the most moderate success among the tribes. And the reasons for this are not far to seek. To begin- with, the Indians (as we have already hinted) expected something totally different from the thing they were to receive. They were doubtless ready to make large sacrifices in order to " experience religion;" but this was due to their deeply seated conviction that the religion, when they got it, would bring them material power and wealth. They were much in the condition of the Jews in the time of Christ, who expected a temporal kingdom, and were mortally offended when they were offered only the dominion over those very passions and appetites which they had hoped most freely to indulge. Jew and Indian were alike unable to comprehend what power could exist in a creed that enjoined meekness, for giveness, charity, and continence ; that forbade war, pU- lage, revenge, cu^nning, and nearly everything else that they had been brought up, from time immemorial, to regard as the chief virtues. They saw plainly that if they followed the injunctions of the clergymen, they were liable to be massacred or enslaved by the first unregenerate tribe that happened to come across them ; and it was not in a year, nor even in several generations, that they could learn such a lesson as that. Again, there was nothing in the forms of Protestant worship to attract them ; and in this respect our mission aries were at a fatal disadvantage compared with those of Rome. Savages are affected through the eye, through action, through the imagination. To sit and listen by the THE STORY OF OREGON. 125 hour to doctrinal discourses of which they understood nothing, delivered hy one who, perhaps, had not been endowed liy his Creator with the gift of magnetic elo quence, and to find this trial result in no visible and tangible benefit, was not conciliating to their hopes. How, they asked themselves, was it possible for the white race to have attained its supremacy by such practices as these i For a while they waited for the secret to be de clared ; but when months and years passed by, and no sign was given to them, and when they saw that the majority of the white men with whom they came in con tact were far from observing the precepts which their own Book inculcated, they naturaUy began to suspect that they were being unfairly dealt with. Perhaps, they thought, the whites were playing a deep game ; they were enjoining inoffensiveness and forgiveness of injuries, in order to destroy them the more easily when their training should have borne its fruit. Such a notion could not but awaken their active resentment. In any case, it is difficult to overestimate the magni tude of the disappointment that the labors of the mis sionaries finally brought upon the Indians. After all their enthusiastic visions of splendor and authority, they were required to become patient drudges, to give up the use of their red, blue, and white paint, and to look with indifference upon dyed porcupine quills and colored beads. The white God was not to appear to them during their lifetime, nor to help them in the only ways in which they desired help ; but after death, if they had been deaf to every impulse of nature, they were to be permitted to glorify Him with harps and song. Nothing could have been devised more distasteful to them. They were baptized by hundreds ; but still nothing happened. It is a marvel not that the great majority finally rebelled against this doctrine, but that any individuals were found to intelligently accept it. It is no marvel that, when the Catholics came, with their picturesque ritual, 126 THE STORY OF OREGON. their crosses, rosaries, and statuettes, their embroidered vestments, the swinging censers and glimmering candles, their dramatic gestures, posturings and genuflexions, their sacred pictures, their mystic elevation of the Host, their strange chants and processions — it is no marvel that the savages, thirsting for something that could awe, entertain, and stimulate them, eagerly welcomed the priests' claim that this was the paraphernalia of the .true God, and that the colorless Protestants defrauded them in the present and deceived them as to the hereafter. But although the missionaries did not see the realiz ation of their hopes, and although the noblest and strong est of them all, as we shall presently behold, suffered martyrdom as the recompense for his devotion, yet they served an end even greater than they imagined. The Indians, converted or unconverted, may safely be left to the infinite mercy of that Father whose ignorant children they were. But to the missionaries and their wives be longs the glory, denied to the powerful, of opening half a continent to' a waiting people. The far-reaching extent of such a benefit can never be estimated. It is a signal illustration of the truth that no good effort, made in singleness and sincerity of heart, is ever wasted, though its fruit may be widely different from that which the agent had anticipated. Jason Lee and his companions hastened to 6rect their little log dwelling at a point on the Willamette a few miles nearer the Columbia than the present site of Salem. In such haste were they to begin the good Avork, that they were already instructing theii- i)upils before they fitted their house with a roof ; and thiee AA-eeks later they baptized twenty-one persons, most of them children. It was to the latter that they Avisely devoted their most assiduous energies, believing it easier to mould an in herited disposition than to influence one in Avhich the inheritance has been confirmed by the life. In order to be assured of the speediest results, they kept the chil- THE STORY OF OREGON. 129 dren Avith them ; the parents, supposing the little ones would presently develop into mighty medicine-men, be ing nothing loath. To support this large family, a garden was set out, and the aborigines were encouraged to try their untamed hands at the plough and the hoe. The imagination finds a pleasure in dwelling on this scene : the beautiful valley, Avith the broad river winding through it ; the wooded range of mountains toward the east, with the white summits of Mount Hood and Mount Jefferson rising above the rest, barely visible in the blue distance ; the fringe of maple and ash along the margins of the stream, and the levels of rich bottom-land, with its black loam. The cabin of rough-hewn logs seems as yet hardly at home amid its wild surroundings ; the white chips and shavings still lie around it, and beams and rafters that have not yet been fitted in their places are piled together at hand, or lean against the walls; The ground in the immediate vicinity has been turned up by the primitive wooden plough, and the dark fur rows lie glistening in the sunshine. Hither and thither move briskly the busy, earnest, strenuous men of God, distracted between their carpentering, their agriculture, and their pupils ; while the latter, who alone appear nor mal in the landscape, stare in silence at the strange doings of the dominies, or squat in circles, exchanging guttural comments and speculations, or half laughingly, half shyly try to perform some of the unfamiliar duties that have been assigned to them. Near by stands a group of the older Indians, in their blankets and feathers, with red Streaks and chevrons diversifying their dark coun tenances, gazing, wondering, criticising, partly awed, partly curious, and perhaps a little contemptuous. But these bustling, semi-ridiculous white medicine-men, in their cotton shirt-sleeves and black vests and trousers, are the vanguard of a civilization before which the blanketed savages will vanish, the tall trees fall, the green meadows teem Avith various crops, the wild river 130 THE STORY OF OREGON. be tamed with boats, and noisy cities arise along its banks. Only the crags and rocky cnhons of the hills shall remain as they are forever, and the au.'^tere peaks of Hood and Jefferson lift skyward their eternal snows. Unfortunately for Jason Lee, the Ioav, moist land in the.vicinity of his dwelling bred a fever, of which several of the Indian children died. To the tribe, this calamity was incomprehensible ; death was an evil ; if the white God could not keep death from these strangers, He must either be less powerful than they had asserted, or He had withdrawn His favor from them. They Avere angry, and wanted satisfaction ; one of them armed himself with the design of making a martyr of Mr. Lee Avithout more ado ; but being dissuaded from this, yet feeling it necessary to express his feelings somehoAV, he hastened to slay the family of his own mother-in-law. For it was evident to Indian logic that if the AAdiite God Avas justi fied in kiUing the children, then the mothers who brought them forth must be guilty of producing oft'- spring who were fit only to be killed. Consequently, the mothers merited jjunishment ; and how can one more fitly punish his wife than by immolating his mother-in- law >. It AA^as in this year, 1835, that Marcus ^Vllitman, Avhose name will be remembered and honored as long as Oregon is an American State, made his first appearance there. He was accompanied by a certain Samuel Parker, of whom we need only say that he preached seA^eral times to the Indians, enjoyed the hospitalities of Vancouver, and returned home by Avay of the SandAAlch Islands and Cape Hom ; afterward publishing an account of his ex periences. Whitman Avas escorted to Green RiA-er by agents of the American Fur Company. A band of Nez Perces Indians happened tc^be at this rendezvous, and a conference was held with them. It was decided, with the cordial approval of the Indians, to establish two missions in the neighborhood of their tribe. Parker, THE STORY OF OREGON. 131 guided by one of the chiefs, went on to Walla Walla to look over the ground, Avhile AVhitman, accompanied by two youthful members of the tribe, returned to the East to provide means for erecting the two missions. Marcus Whitman was a physician as well as a clergy man ; he was born in RushviUe, N. Y., and Avas at .this time thirty-three years old. He Avas a man of great vitality and energy, clear and swift in judgment and in stantaneous in action. His character was straightfor ward, vigorous, and unconventional, and he had the faculty of rendering his enthusiasm and purpose conta gious. His views had a statesmanlike breadth ; he com prehended the nature and relations of events, and he understood men, and could control and lead them. He penetrated unerringly to the heart of a subject, estimated its significance, and assigned to it its proper relative place. His individuality was dominant and even aggres sive ; but it was tempered by warm Christian charity and manly good humor. On a Sunday morning in the early winter of 1835 the congregation had assembled in the little church in Rush- Aille, N. Y.; among the rest was an elderly lady, some sixty years of age, and a young woman of twenty-seven. The serAdces were about to begin : and mingled Avith their religious thoughts, these two Avoraen were pictur ing in their hearts the strong, active figure and impres sive face of a man whom they both loved, and who was, as they supposed, at that moment separated from them by more than two thousand miles of prairie and moun tain, surrounded by savages, perhaps in deadly peril. Suddenly, steps were heard in the aisle ; some belated worshippers were entering the church— a stalwart man in the prime of youth, his countenance tanned by sun and wind ; and closely following him, two strange figures, wrapped in blankets, with fringed leggings of buckskin, and with bright-hued feathers in their black hair. " Marcus !'' cried his mother, foi-getting, in her 132 THE STORY OF OREGON. passion of joyful amazement, the sanctity of the church, and starting up from her seat with outstretched arms. The younger woman said nothing, but her heart bounded in her bosom, and joy sent the blood to her cheeks. For she was Narcissa Prentiss, the affianced wife of the Chris tian pioneer, and not less devoted and heroic than him self. When the commotion had subsided, the services went on ; but after the benediction had been pronounced, the pastor extended the invitation for which the congre gation had been eagerly waiting, and Marcus Whitman ascended the pulpit, and in a narrative of vivid inter est told what had been seen and done beyond the West ern mountains and what remained to do. Everything gave way before the strong current of Whitman's hope and resolution. Before the Avinter Avas over all the preparations had been completed. A party had been assembled ; horses, wagons, cattle, tools for farming and for carpentry, seeds to plant and clothes to wear^ — everything was provided. And in February, 1836, Narcissa Prentiss gave her hand to Marcus Whit man at the altar of the little church, and, for the love of God and of her husband, went Avith him from the friends and associations, of her girlhood, to share his labor and martyrdom in the remote wUderness. It is a beautiful story, and Ulustrates the lofty, self -abnegating spirit of the best American character. With the Whitmans in this journey were associated the Rev. H. H. Spalding and his wife, W. H. Gray, and the Major Pilcher who had escaped the tomahaAvk some years before. Leaving the Missouri at its junction with the Platte, they followed that stream toward Fort Lara mie, just west of the Nebraska border. The scenery of the journey was savage and beautiful. Sometimes, when the river ran broad and shallow, its bed Avould be crowded with countless thousands of the brown, shaggy bodies of the buffalo, floundering, grunting, drinking, thronging together in struggling masses. Sometimes ^^^A^dn^^, THE STORY OF OREOON. 135 the trail lay through arid and barren. lands, when the Halved hills and buttes of clay and sandstone assumed strange shapes, castellated and pyramidal. Again, the nionntains would sweep together, forming awfnl canons, from AA'hose bed staggering precipices climbed upAvard to the sky. Through tln'.se grand and perilous regions, I)iloted liy trappers of the American Fur Company, the AVhitman j)arty pressed on to Fort Ijiiraniie. Here they Avere assui-ed that the A\'agons must be abandoned, and the rest of the journey made in the saddle. No wagons hard ever passed the ^Mnd RiAer Mountains or traversed the tortuous trails of Idaho. But Whitman Avas not a man to be governed by prece dent. If no wagons had y(^t been taken tlirough to Oregon, the attempt to take them should at all eAents be made, and he Avould make it. In tliis deternii nation he Avas actuated not only hy the natural A\ish to x:)rovide comfortable accommodation for tJie two women, but he desired to demonstrate that a wagon route across the mountains was practicable. A report to that effect dis seminated in the East would do more to stimulate emi gration on the part of a desirable clu.ss of married emigrants than any other' aigument. Men Avill not attempt to make homes unless they can bring Avomen with them ; and in order to bring «omen, Avagons Avere indispensable. Too much importance can hardly be ascribed to the wise foresight and sturd_v avUI that prompted Whitman, at this particular liistorical mo ment, to stick to his four wheels. Had the feat been achieved a few years later, it Avould have been too late. One wagon, then, left Fort Laramie, and made its Avay to Fort Hall, across the Idaho border. Prom this point, along the banks of the Snake to Fort Boise, near the western boundary, progress had to be made on two wheels ; and at Boise the lum))ering structure had to be abandoned altogether. But enough had been done to show that no impossibility was involved ; and more was 7 136 THE STORY OF OREGON. not needed. Leaving the fort, two white women, for the first time in history, entered the much-disputed ter ritory of Oregon ; and from that moment, little as com panies and governments may have imagined it, its Amer ican ownership was secured. The party was greeted by the Nez Perces and by Mr. Pambrun at Walla Walla, and by McLoughlin at Van couver. Leaving the women there. Whitman, Spalding, and Gray returned to Walla Walla, to determine the sites for the two missions. One was established among the Nez Perces, and Mr. and Mrs. Spalding were put in charge of it. It was called the Lapwai Mission. The other, knoAvn as the Whitman Mission, was erected Avithin a few miles of the present town of Walla Walla. Gray made himself useful in the building of both sta tions, and was also helpful in the missionary work. The next five years were f uU of labor and vicissitudes, and of alternating hope and disappointment. By the spring of 1837 Whitman and Spalding had decided, that an extension of the missions was desirable, and Gray was sent East to make the necessary arrangements. He took with him four Nez Perces Indians, who convoyed a drove of mustangs, which they intended to sell, and to give the proceeds to the mission. But on the banks of the Platte they were attacked by a band of Sioux, who captured the horses and scalped the Nez Perces, Gray alone es caping. He continued on his journey, and in 1838 he reappeared in Oregon, accompanied by the Rev. E. Walker and Cashing Eels, with their wives ; the Rev. A. B. Smith, Cornelius Rogers, John A. Sutter, and Mrs. Gray; All the way from New York to Fort Hall, in Idaho, they had been at much pains to bring with them fourteen thoroughbred cows, with the progeny of which they hoped to stock Oregon. But the British governor of the fort had a fancy for fine cows himself, and he persuaded the guileless missionaries to leave them with him, assuring them that the cattle, which had come two THE STORY OF OREGON. 137 thousand miles in safety, would perish on the trip of four hundred miles that lay before them. In exchange for the animals, he gave them not money, nor money' s worth, but an order on Fort Vancouver for an equal number of wild heifers ! It was not until the party reached their destination that a sight of their wiry and athletic cattle reminded them of the old saying that the Children of this World are Aviser in their generation than the Children of Light. Early in 1839 a new mission was opened among the Spokane Indians, near the eastern boundary of AA-hat is now the State of Washington ; and another at Kamai, in the Nez Perces section. The Rev. A. B. Smith Avas as signed to the latter station, and Walker and Eels to the former. For a time they succeeded in interesting the Indians, and many hundreds of them attended the schools, and received instruction, both ' religious and secular. At one time more than two thousand of these painted savages made " a pubUc confession of sin ;" though it is hardly to be supposed that a single one of them had any conception of the meaning of the trans action. But, for that matter, the same may be said of the many thousands of civilized persons who to-day at tend revivalist meetings, and mistake the nervous excite ment of hysteria for the gift of the Spirit. Of more solid encouragement was the action of those of the abo rigines who provided themselves with spades and hoes, and set themselves deliberately to work to cultivate the earth, and to subsist upon their crops. Other missionaries were meanwhile arriving from the East, and not only helped in the missions already estab lished, but founded new ones. Nearly a dozen men and Avomen came to the assistance of Jason Lee, who Avas still bravely struggling against fever and the hostile sus picion of the Indians in his station on the Willamette. In 1838 Daniel Lee and H. K. W. Perkins opened a mis sion on The Dalles. This .singular region .was not at- 138 THE STORY OF OREGON. tractive as a residence. It was a stern and rugged valley, floored with plates of basaltic rock, deposited ages ago by the volcanic action of the Cascade Moun tains. The channel of the Columbia, Avhich a short distance higher up is nearly a mile in Avidth, here rushes furiously through narrow crevices but a few hundred feet across. It is surmised that the region toAvard the east may formerly have been an inland sea, AA^hich found its Avay through the rifts opened by the internal fires. The scene was harsh and desolate, treeless, and diversi fied only by racked and battered crags, and other chaotic debris of terrestrial convulsion. Dalles is a French term for the prevaiUng rock formation, and Avas probably be- stoAved upon this spot by the early Canadian voyayeiirs of the Hudson's Bay Company. In the autumn of 1839 Jason Lee went to the East to raise money for the carry ing on of his AVork, returning the next year with a com pany of forty eight persons, of whom more than one- third were women. In the interval Mrs. Lee and Cyrus Shepard had died ; but the Avork still Avent on. By this time, however, McLoughlin had become en lightened as to the possible result of all this missionary activity, and had been asking himself hoA\' he might most effectually counteract the groAving evil. The relig ion of the Canadian seivants of the company Avas Roman Catholic ; and tho.ugh the light-hearted fellows cared Uttle for any form of Avorship, yet, if worship they were to have, they would be likely to prefer that of their OAvn faith to the Protestant forms. Be that as it might, it so happened that two Roman Catholic priests came over land from the headquarters of the Hudson' s Bay Company in Montreal, .baptizing as they came, and at once applied themselves to the task of undoing the work which the Protestants had so painfully been building up. Whether these two men came at the suggestion of the . company, or of their own initiative, it is needless to inquire ; but there is no question that they played admirably into the THE STORY OF OREGON. ]41 compaii.A'' s hands. For it was inevitable that there would be a conflict between them and the Protestants ; that each side would endeavor to discredit the other in the minds of the Indians, and that the latter would be apt finally to lose confidence in both. Thus the missionary agitation Avould Ije the agent of its own destruction, and the wilderness Avould once more be abandoned to the company. If this Avere McLoughlin's calculation, he came meas urably near the truth as to the first part of it. The Catholics attacked their enemy both in their own strong holds and in outlying districts where their influence had not yet penetrated. They were trained and skilful ser vants of the Roman Propaganda. They kneAV how to cater to the savage taste, to arrest their attention, startle, awe, excite, and gratify them. They inculcated no ascetic moral precepts, but merely pointed out the ad vantages of confession and absolution ; gave a picturesque and sensational flavor to their religious exhortations and narratives, and failed not to paint in the sternest colors the fate of those who should hearken to the voice of the heretics. Withal, there was a charming mystery about them ; they Avore the long black gowns of their order, and dealt in religious knick-knacks of magical potency. They resembled the Indians' own medicine-men much more than did the simple and conscientious workers in the Protestant vineyard. There is a comico-pathetic story about a picture that the Catholics painted, show ing allegorically the doom of the Protestants. A large tree Avas represented, with many branches, each occupied by a sect of the heretics ; while beloAv A\as an undying- fire, into Avhich, one after another, the heretics dropped, and were stoked down by one of the true faith, who, moreover, fed the flames Avith the accursed volumes which contained the false doctrine. This language Avas adapted to the savage inteUigence ; they crowded to its perusal, and Avere solemnly impressed by its lesson. 142 THE STORY OF OREGON. Perceiving this, Mr. Spalding designed a sort of colored panorama, representing a series of scenes from Biblical hi story. The waning allegiance of the tribe was somewhat restored by the new diversion, and the panorama show in its turn became popular. If this were not religion, it was, after all, at least amusing. Little real advantage can be gained by methods like these ; but if the Devil may quote Scripture for his purpose, perhaps the faith ful may resort to secular devices to arrest backsliders. Upon the whole, however, the Catholics gained ground. The Indians became insolent and insubordinate in their demeanor to the Protestants. In 1841 the Rev. A. B. Smith, discouraged by the outlook and by the state of his Avife's health, gave up the fight and went home. In 1842 the Board of Missions were on the point of recalling their agents. But Whitman, who foresaw the political discomfiture which must follow the withdrawal of the missionaries, was in no mood to be checked in his career ; and for this and for other good and sufficient reasons, presently to be set forth, he formed the decision whose nature and effects will be detailed in the ensuing chap ter. It must be admitted, meanwhile, that the Catholic op position was not the only element of weakness which in after times the Protestant missionaries had to face. 'Their strength was sapped by internal dissensions. "Various sects were represented among them, and then, as now, sectarian feeling ran high. It would be unjust to say that forms of Divine worship and special interpre tations of debatable texts in Scripture Avere of more importance to them than the simple groundwork of faith in God and dependence on Christ that underlay them all. But it would seem as if the perception of some one aspect of a truth were productive of a more uneasy and jealous state of mind than is rejection of any spiritual view whatever. The glimpse obtained is so rich in in terior delights and satisfactions that he who has enjoyed THE STORY OF OREGON. 143 it cannot believe that it is to be had from any standpoint other than his own, and he vehemently resents any criticism thereof. As the quarrels of members of the same family with one another are said to be the bitterest of quarrels, so the animosities of sects toward their fel low-sects in the same general organization appear to be even more remorseless and violent than their war against the common enemy. These same worthy and devoted clergymen, who experienced such jealousy and unkind- ness toward one another, were full of love and service for the Indians, who were confessedly destitute of the vir tues which characterized the least immaculate among themselves. We may perhaps A^enture to surmise that Providence permits these sectarian disputes for the wise purpose of keeping the essentials of religion free, and thus open to further enlightenment and development when the season for deeper insight shall arrive. Were any one mode of belief — no matter how good in itself — to crystallize into a dogma of universal acceptance, it would fail to respond to the gradual expansion and elevation of human knowledge and sentiment ; and what should be the most vital and sensitive region of our thought and feeling would become lifeless, anachronistic, and cold. The last notable event of the fight as between Catho lics and Protestants was the secession of the Cascade Indians, in 1841, from the ministrations of^Mr. Walker, then in charge of The Dalles Mission, to the Church of Rome. But such reverses were much less serious than they appeared at the moment. The Indians would do after their kind, and whether they wore the badge of one party or of another made little difference, inasmuch as both were alike unmeaning to them in any deep spir itual sense. But a great Protestant American population was standing with its hands on the gates of the moun tains ; and its passage through them would overwhelm Catholic and Indian aUke, and institute an order of life 144 THE STORY OF OREGON. far larger, broader, and more wholesome than it lay within the scope of any indiA iduals to either promote or prevent. CHAPTER VL W H I T M A N ' .S K I D E . We have now to consider the stirring incidents preced ing and leading up to the great and decisive emigration ot 1843. The Methodist missionaries, with their AviAes and their wagon, had, as has been shctwn, proved that family emi gration was po.ssihle. This avus the successful aspect of their enterprise, though feAv of them save \Miitnian had borne it in mind or recognized its controlling impor tance. On the technical side — as efforts to Christianize and subdue the aborigines — their efforts had borne little fruit. The Catholics, fortified by the countenance of the Hudson's Bay Comjiany, had outmanoeuvred them ; and they also suffered in Indian estimation from the fact that they Avere Ameiicans, and in. sympathy Avith the American element in the country. For the Americans, unlike the servants of the Hudson's Baj'' Company, Avei-e appropriating the Indians' lands ; and the more intelli gent among the latter perceived that, were this appro priation to continue, they, the original possessors, Avould be forced out of their own dominions. The interests of the company, on the other hand, were identical AAitli the Indians' — to perpetuate the primeval AAdlderness. Tlie company had heretofore been careful to forbid any set tlements being made even by its own retired servants ; being thereto actuated partly hy the desire to (conciliate the savages, who Avere their most efficient auxiliaries in trade ; and partly to prolong the existence of those fur- bearing animals on which their revenue depended. M ^/^M^> THE STORY OF OREGON. 147 But (ircumstances must modify the most sagacious policies. It Avas beconiing obvious that Oregon Avas going to be occupied hy settlers of some kind, and the only remaining question Avas, Avhich nationality should be the predominant one ? The company' s hand Avas forced ; it must act Avithout delay. Two measures Avei;^ to be taken ; all practicable means, legitimate or illegiti mate, A\ere to he em])loyed to keep Americans out ; and all possible energy to be used to bring British settlers in. In x)ursuance of the former branch of the programme, reports Aveie industriously circulated throughout the Eastern States that Oregon Avas a quite uninhabitable region— a desert, savage and irreclaimable. This view Avas adopted and promulgated in Congress with much eloquence and pertinacity, and had some effect in the country. ^Vs for the British colonizatioii scheme, it was carried out by the importation of settlers from the Red River lands owned by the company, to Avhom Avas im parted a description of Oregon very different from that disseminated for the benefit of the general public. McLoughlin Avas, of course, the local agent of these proceedings. But he was a long-headed man, not in capable of seeing in the present the germs of AAliat was to be. He saw that if it came to an open competition hetwei.'U a nation and a private organization, even so powerful us tlie Hudson's Bay Company, the latter must inevitably go to the Avail. The number of settlers at the company's command could make no shoAV against the thousanils of AVestward looking Americans, surging on- Avard like the bison under the mysterious impulse of the "migratory fever." Barring improbable accidents, therefore, the British factotum realized that America must win, and Oregon become an American province. There was but one promising way to prevent it, and that Avas to incite tlie Indians to massacre. If, at a given signal, the savages Avere to arise and put to death all Americans in the countij', no doubt intending emigrants 148 THE STORY OF OREGON. would be deterred from taking the journey. And nothing Avas easier than to give that signal. But McLoughlin was not the man to adopt a measure so desperate and tragic as this. It might lead, apart from its inhumanity, to serious complications. The American Congress, though sluggish and obtuse enough, Avas hardly likely to receive with equanimity the news of such a horror as this. Inquiries would be instituted, and might have an awkward issue. Besides, McLough lin was very far from being a human monster. Though subtle and unrelenting within certain limits, he was no. Bonaparte ; he liked peace and comfort, and the amen ities of social intercourse ; he had no wish to swim in blood ; he was now some way past the prime of life, and desired to end his days pacifically. It was hard to decide Avhat was most expedient to be done ; he ended by adopting a temporizing policy, by which he hoped to secure the good-will of both parties. It so happened, however, that he fell under the suspicion of both ; he was censured by the American settlers and by his own employers ; he was forced to resign his position, and the close of his life was passed in circumstances not alto gether satisfactory to him. Yet he retained many warm friends to the last, and has been ably defended as a man of unblemished virtue and honor. He was certainly the best servant that the Hudson's Bay Company ever pos sessed. They ought to have procured him an English peerage, and made allowance for the difficulties of his position. Although the missionaries had been the pioneers (with a few individual exceptions) in actually living in Oregon, the idea of colonization did not, as we have seen, belong- to them by right of discovery. Hall J. Kelley spent a fortune of $30,000 in futile endeavors to carry out this design, his efforts covering the period from 1817 to 1834. Ewing Young settled in the Willamette Valley in that year ; John Turner, Bailey, Woodworth, and Gay arrived THE S'l'ORY OF OREGON. 149 there in 1835, after much suffering from Indians and ex posure. In 1837 there were, including the missionaries, forty-nine Americans in the country. In 1840 there were two hundred. One hundred and eleven persons arrived in 1841, and nearly as many in the year follow ing. Meanwhile, Senator Linn had introduced a bill in Congress to donate lands to settlers ; and the publica tion of Irving's "Astoria" and "Bonneville," and of tho narratives of Samuel Parker and John Dunn ; the favorable reports of the soil and climate gathered from the trappers of the Rocky Mountains — these things, aided by a temporary financial depression in the Missis- sijipi States, encouraged the Oregonian idea ; while the fact that California was stUl under Spanish control pre vented the bulk of emigration from being diverted in that direction. It has been said that if half a dozen Americans find themselves upon a desert island, they will forthAvith organize a provisional government. The American set tlers in the Willamette Valley began, in 1841, to ask one another Avhether some form of government were not de sirable ; and Congress had been memorialized (unavail- ingly) on the subject. The sudden death of Ewing Young, intestate, but possessed of some property, clinched their purpose. With Jason Lee in the chair, a Mr. Babcock was appointed Judge, AAith power to ad minister upon the estate ; and George Le Breton, a young Catholic, was made Recorder. The proceeds of Young' s estate were devoted to the building of a jail ; but tAventy years afterward Joaquin Young proved himself the son of the deceased, born in Mexico, and the Oregon Legislature paid him the value of the estate. There seems to be a romance here which some Oregonian novelist might profitably develop. Commodore Wilkes, who visited the Columbia in his vessel, in the course of his trip round the world, advised the settlers against forming a proAisional government ; 150 THE STORY OF OREGON. but the commodore had been entertained by McLough lin, who, as a representative of the company, was of course strongly opposed to any law save Avhat the com pany decreed, and persuaded Wilkes to adopt his point of vieAV. There Avere at this juncture three political parties in the valley— the iVfissionaries, the Independent American Settlers, and the Company, which was at one Avith the Catholic element. The Independents generally, though not iuAariably, took .sides Avith the Missionaries, Under these ciicumstances, the combined American ele ment decided to call a meeting, in order, if possible, to choose a committee to elect a temporary governor and officers. But hy way of guarding against the contin gency of the meeting's being influenced beforehand by the agents of the company, the promoters announced that it Avas to he held for the purpose of devising mec^s- ures tf) x)iotect the cattle from the depredations of wolves and bears ; and that question having been disposed of , the>' Avei'e then to spring uj)on the audience the true objects of the gathering. Two " AA^olf-meetings" (as they were afterward c'alled) Avere held. At the first, a nega tive resolution Ava-s adojited. At the second, upon a division, the Americans Aveie found to outnumber the supiiorters of the company by two \-otes ; and the com mittee Avas apjiointed. It held its meetings in a granary l)elonging to the mission — which thus became the first legislative chamber of the State of Oregon. Owing to the difficulty of conciliating the opposing political inter ests, the comnuttee advised the election of an Executive Committee of Three, instead of a single Governor. Theii' recommendation av:Is followed, and on July 5tli, 184;5, Alanson Beers, David HiU, and Joseph Gale became, collectively, liist GoA^ernor of Oregon Teriitory, their rule extending over the region south of the Columbia Rivei'. The company hud suffered its. (irst political re verse. Before entering upon the important occurrences which ^^itxC>»^^ THE STORY OF OIMCGO.Y. 153 are next to engage our attenti(m, Ave may pause a mo ment to glance at some of the entertaining imidents of the emigration of 1842, of A\hi(ii Dr. Elijah White was the most conspicuous figure. At one i)aif of the I'oute there is a natural phenomenon knoAvn us Indeiiendence Rock. It is one of those objects upon Avliich travellers are moved to inscribe their names, in obedience to that occult impulse of the human heart w hicli no one has at tempted to explain or defend, though all have felt its potency. Two young men of the party, A. L. Lovejoy and L. W. Hastings, ai:)pear to have been overcome by this appetite, and set earnestly to A\'ork, with such tools as they had, to immortalize them,s(iAes. Fate accorded them success, though in a manner alien to their anticipa tions. Preoccupied hy their toil, they failed to perceive the stealthy apjiroach of a hand of Indians ; the savages pounced upon them, and had the'm captive^ eie they AAere aware. Dramatic" completeness requires that these two young men should have been then and there tomahawked and scalped ; hut their captors weie insensible to these proprieties. They preferred ransom, and estimated the value of Messis. Lovejoy and Hastings at a jilug of tobacco. The (conti'ast hetAveen this moderate aiijjraise- meiit and the lofty aspiration Avhich had, a moment be fore, promi^ted the young men to Avrite their names upon the everlasting rock, is one of the incongiiiities of history. Arriving at WaUa Walla avithout further mishap, the party were not a little incommoded 1j,a- the drifting sands, rocky cliffs, and rapid streams of the Columbia River, and the gorges, torrents, and thickets of the Cas cade Mountains. From the rapids to Vancouver a\ as a trackless wilderness, tempered only by small boats and canoes. Money there Avas none in the country ; com mercial transactions were effected by barter. Wagon there was none, though one had been introduced by Newell in 1840, and had been described by the Nez Perces who saw it as a "horse-canoe." Ploughing AAas done 154 THE STORY OF OREGON. with wooden mould boards, grain was threshed by horses' hoofs and winnowed by the wind. As to cloth ing, most of it, according to Medorum Crawford, the annalist of the party, ' ' came from the Hudson' s Bay Com pany, was all of one size, and said to have been made to fit Dr. McLoughlin, who was a very large man." This item is full of succulence to those who care to detect the spiritual significance of material symbols. But we must yevert to our main theme. The consign ment of settlers from the company's lands on Red River, pushed onward with all despatch, reached Ore gon just before the opening of the Avinter of 1841-42. There were twenty -three families ; some of them were disposed in the northern parts of the State, but the ma jority Avere conducted to the Willamette Valley. They were the first instalment of what was intended by the company to be an unintermittent series of invasions, resulting in the creation of such a preponderance in the territory of the British element, that, when the question of final ownership should come up for discussion by the British and American commissioners, the former would be enabled to urge the weighty argument of controlling occupation, in addition to whatever other pleas might be put forward. No one was more awake to the portent of this proceed ing than Marcus Whitman. He had taken no part in the political movements of the Willamette settlers partly because of his remote situation and the pressure of his missionary duties, and partly, perhaps, because he thought the- time for such matters had not yet come. But he now felt that the question of English or American. proprietorship of Oregon was trembling in the balance ; and that unless something were done to correct the ig norance, supineness, and pusillanimity of our Govern ment, the English side would undoubtedly prevail. Everything depended upon promptness and decisiveness of action. But who was to act ? There was no man in THE STORY OF OREGON. 155 Oregon with the qualities, the knowledge, and the en thusiasm to undertake an embassy to the East, except Whitman himself ; and he Avas already almost overtaxed with tlie duties of his mission. He had come to the wil derness under the banner of the Church and for the con version of the heathen ; what right had he to abandon this field for the sake of shaping the temporal and political destinies of the country ? For several months Whitman discussed this matter with his conscience, and his final determination would perhaps have been different had not the intimation been received from the Board of Missions in the East that the Oregon mission would probably be withdrawn. Whit man dissented from the grounds on which the Board had reached this conclusion ; but, apart from its bearing upon the spiritual welfare of the Indians, he believed that to yield to it would be putting a final nail into the coffin of an American Oregon. During the spring and summer of 1842 he watched the signs of the times, and was confirmed in his persuasion that nothing but his per sonal intervention could save the day. When he learned that Lord Ashburton had come to Washington to treat for the settlement of the boundary- line between the United States and Canada, he summoned his associates to a con ference, and laid his views before them. They opposed him at first, but in the end yielded to him, as did every one with whom he came in contact. He had made up his mind that his duty to his country was his highest duty in the premises ; and nothing could now turn him. Messrs. Spalding, Gray, Eels, and Walker signed a paper delegating him to proceed to Boston to transact business pertaining to the missions^ — the true object of his journey being of course withheld in the official report of the meeting. Were the Hudson' s Bay Company to get an ink ling of what he meant to do, it is improbable that Whit-' man would have been suffered to reach Washington alive. The fifth day of October, 1842, was the date on Avhichhe 156 THE STORY OF OREGON. was to set forth. To cross the mountains at that time of year was a hazardous and even desperate undertaking; but, on the other hand, the Ashburton treaty wus soon to be signed, and upion its provisions everything might de])end. A few days before the appointed day he called at the fort of ^VaUa Walla, and there Avas surprised A\itli the information that Governor Simpson of the Hudson's Bay Company Avas proceeding to Washington to give evidence thtit the EngUsh Avere the more numerous and firmly rooted in the Oregon region. Whitman returned to his house, resolved to start for the East at once ; and, in fact, he left Walla Walla on the third in.stead of on the fifth of October. Lawrence Lovejoy went A\ith him. This winter's ride across the plains and mountains of the American continent has become classic, and is Avorthy to be sung by an ejiic poet. The masculine und heroic traits of Whitman come grandly out in the story of his grim death struggle Avitli the forces of nature. Again and again he Avas Avorsted in the encounter, but never defeated ; the accumulation of difficulties and dangers seemed only to stimulate his courage and determination, until one might almost say that the suoavs melted before the fire of his purpose, and the passes of the mountains opened at the summons of his undaunted will. History has preserved a description of the garb in which Whitman made the journey — a coat of Ituffalo hide, fitted Avith a hood that could be druAvii OAer the head as a protection against the sleet and Avind. Under neath this, his garments weie of fur, Avitli leggings of buckskin and boot moccasins. He used a Mexican saddle, with covered stirrups. Shaggy and burly though his aspect was, the (costume Avas none too Avarm for the winter temperature of the Rocky Mountains ; before he had passed their barrier, his hands, feet, and face Avere 'frozen, and more than once he all but succumbed. But his stout heart brought him through. Leaving Waiilatpu (Whitman's mission), near the junc- ^ ^'V-V/ife/wK w« <'f ^(-^^-i^ 'T^a-^^ THE STORY OF OREGON. 159 tion point of the three States of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, the two men turned their horses' heads south eastward, their first objective point being Fort Hall, distant some four hundred miles. Urging their horses to the utmost, they advanced at the rate of forty miles a day, and were at the fort on October 13th. Forty-eight hours were spent here to rest the horses and procure some necessaries for their outfit. A guide was engaged, and they set out for Fort Winter, their plan being to avoid the worst of the weather by taking the southerly route, passing round the lower extremity of the Rocky Mountains at Santa Fe. But in the neighborhood of the Uintah Mountains they encountered a snow-storm, which obscured the trail ; thej^ went astray and suffered severely from the cold. To Fort Winter they at last came, however ; and here their first guide left them, and Whitman engaged another to pilot them to Fort Uncum pagra, some three hundred miles southwest of Salt Lake, on a branch of the Grand River in Western Colorado. Halting long enough to hire a third guide, they pushed on for Taos. But, travelling at a height of more than a mile above sea level, they were overtaken by another terrific snow-storm ; and in order to escape being over whelmed, they turned aside from the trail and sought shelter in a (ieep ravine of the mountains. Thence it seemed as if they were destined never to emerge. During four days and nights the men and horses lay huddled together in the dark, icy canon, while the snow still fell. On the fifth day they attempted to take the trail once more ; but after floundering helplessly for hours in gi gantic drifts, their bodies pierced by the intolerable winds, they were forced to return to their comfortless refuge. Thus several more days passed ; and when at length the storm Avas over, and they endeavored to con tinue on their way over the rolling deserts of glar ing whiteness, their guide, after four or five days' wandering, confessed that the obliteration of land- 3 60 THE STORY OF OREGON. marks Avas such that he was incapable of conducting them farther. This was enough to sicken the strongest heart ; and considering the value of time on this journey, it was especially trying to Whitman. After taking counsel, it was decided that Lovejoy should remain in camp with the pack animals, while Whitman and the guide retraced the weary road to Uncumpagra, in the hope of finding another guide who kneAv his business. They jiarted. Whitman and his companion disappearing in the snoAvy wastes toward the north, while Lovejoy settled himself with Avhat fortitude he might to the prospect of ten or fifteen days of solitude. To his agreeable surprise, how ever. Whitman accomplished the journey to the fort and back in a week — a Avonderful achievement, after the fatigues and exposure he had undergone. Their neAv conductor now took the lead, and after many days of toilsome ploughing through drifting snow, they came to the banks of a broad and rapid river, which it was neces sary to cross. So swift was the current, that in spite of the intense cold, the river was frozen only at the sides ; a third part of its Avidth, in the centre, was clear of ice. At this the guide recoiled ; hardened mountaineer though he Avas, he declared it would be fatal to attempt the passage. But Whitman had but ¦ one idea, and that was to advance ; and so long as he had life to move Avithal, no danger daunted him. He rode his horse on to the ice, and when he came to the verge, forced him into the headlong rush of waters. Down plunged horse and man, and disap peared from sight beneath the surface. But as the guide and Lovejoy anxiously watched, horse and man rose , again, and began a desperate struggle toward the farther side. The current forced them far down, but still they made headway, and at last — though it seems half a mir acle — the spectators had the gratification of seeing Whit man attain the opposite margin of ice, and scramble out THE STORY OF OREGON. 161 upon it, buffalo coat and all. He had his horse by the bridle, and succeeded in dragging him also out of the stream. There was now nothing for it but that Lovejoy and the guide should follow Avith the animals ; and so indeed they did, while Whitman busied himself in build ing a roaring bonfire on the river bank ; standing around the grateful warmth of which, they thawed the ice out of their stiffened garments. All this was done for the sake of a sentiment — that a remote corner of the con tinent might be under a democratic instead of a monar chical form of government, and that it might afford happy and prosperous homes to millions of yet unborn human beings, instead of being given up. to fur-bearing animals and French Canadians. Bearing southeastward, they came after thirty days to Fernandez de Taos, some thirty miles south of the Colorado and New Mexico border, on the western spurs of the Rocky Mountains. It Avas time they had succor ; for their provisions had given out, and hunger had been added to the coldness of the thin, bleak, upland air. But Whitman was ever straining at the leash, and could not be prevailed upon to rest longer than a breathing spell ; then, at last, they turned the flank of the long mountain barrier, and set off northward for Bent's Fort, in Southeastern Colorado, on the head-waters of the Arkansas River. There were still two thousand wintry miles between them and the city of Washington ; and the Ashburton treaty might any day be signed. Every hour gained might mean the gaining of Oregon. After two or three weeks' unresting travel, they met a party going southward ; it was George Bent, brother of the Governor, on his way to Taos with some companions. On learning Avhither they Avere bound. Bent informed them that a caravan was to leave Bent's Fort in a few days for St. Louis ; it consisted of experienced men, and it would greatly expedite Whitman's journey were he to join it ; but on making a calculation of the distance to 162 THE STORY OF OREGON. Bent's, and the rate at which they were traveling, it was discovered that Whitman's party could not arrive in time. The caravan would have started. Now occurred an incident which throws a flue side light on Whitman' s character. It seems that all through this terrific race across a snow-bound and primeval wil derness. Whitman had never once omitted to perform his morning and evening devotions, nor, in spite of his pas sionate haste, had he ever travelled a step on the Sab bath Day. But here he was confronted by a temptation too subtle and powerful to be resisted. After all, he was, as he heartily believed, doing the Lord' s work ; it would be but a barren piety that should risk the failure of the whole undertaking for the sake of a literal adher ence to a law which the Lord Himself had in a measure disregarded. Were Whitman to leave the slow-moAing pack animals, and push on alone, Sunday and week-day alike, he could reach Bent's Fort in season to attach himself to the party of mountaineers. These arguments prevailed, and Whitman, mounted upon his best horse, with blankets and provisions strap ped to his crupper, bade farewell to Lovejoy, and gal loped off. There was no expectation of their seeing each other again until they met in the East. Lovejoy pro ceeded slowly on his way, and arrived at the fort in four days. To his astonishment, he learned that Whitman had not been seen, nor was anything known of him. The party of mountaineers had started on their journey, but were in camp at the Big Cottonwood, some forty miles distant. A messenger was sent to them, bidding them remain until Whitman was found. Mr. Savery, the agent at the fort, gave Lovejoy a guide, and they rode up the river for a hundred miles ; but Whitman was nowhere to be seen. At length, however, they met some Indians, who replied to their questions that they had recently come across a man who was lost, and who was trying to find ^ ''ir^li' -w*<' THE STORY OF OREGON. 165 Bent's Fort. The description they gave of his appear ance convinced Lovejoy that the lost man was Whitman. The best course seemed to be to return as quickly as pos sible to the fort ; but on arriving there, no news of him had yet been received. They began to fear that some grave calamity had happened ; and their relief was great Avhen, late in the afternoon, and much exhausted. Whit man rode in. He was in a mood of unexampled despon dency. God, he declared, had bewUdered him, as a pun ishment for having presumed to doubt His providence, and travel on the Sabbath. For so firm was AVhitman's faith in the immediate and personal guidance of the Deity, that he doubted not his lapse of conduct had brought about this swift and pointed retribution. It was now about December 1st ; but the delays and wanderings were at an end. Lovejoy, having faithfully accompanied his friend through the more perilous part of the route, remained at Fort Bent for the rest of the winter, leaAing Whitman in safe hands. The latter, travelling with the mountaineers at the rate of thirty or forty miles a day, got to St. Louis in February, 1843. He had been nearly five months in constant motion. The same ground could be covered now in less than that num ber of days. But even had the railway been made, and a limited express train at his command, he would have been too late, so far as the treaty was concerned. One can imagine the shaggy, storm-beaten, frost-bitten man riding into the motley throng in the streets of the frontier town, and stopping the first men he met with the eager inquiry— " What news of the Ashburton treaty ? Is it signed V ' " The Ashburton treaty ! Yes. It was signed last August !" Yes ; nearly two months before he set out the high contracting powers had put their hands and seals to the document ; and the President had issued his proclama tion on the tenth of the ensuing November, when Whit- 166 THE STORY OF OREGON. man was fretting, snow-bound, in the ravine of the Western mountains. But after the first shock of the revelation was over, he learned that all was not yet lost. Nothing about the boundary of Oregon had been included in the treaty ; no discussion as to that matter had been held. Whitman breathed again ; he would stUl have an opportunity to enlighten the ignorance and arouse the interest of Congress. Meanwhile, he found preparations going on for a large emigration across the plains ; but the intending emigrants were hampered by the notion that wagons could not be taken through the passes. To counteract this impression was his first act. He sat down and indicted a pamphlet describing his own ex perience with wagons, and affirming that no difficulties worth naming need be anticipated. He added a glowing description of the value and resources of the country, and promised that, when he had attended to his duties at Washington, he would return to St. Louis in season to put himself at the head of their caravan. This pamphlet and his personal statements and harangues had the effect of greatly stimulating the hopes of the emigrants and of increasing their numbers. There was now every prospect that the expedition which was to set out in the summer would be a large and influential one. Having proved his ability as courier and scribe, it now remained for Whitman to try his skill at diplomacy. Without pausing to make a change of raiment, he has tened on by forced marches to Washington, arriving on March 3d. He soon found reason to congratulate him self on having made his journey. No one knew any thing about Oregon ; it seemed as if the latest news they had received had been from the pioneer trip of Lewis and Clarke, in 1805, and Wilson Hunt's calamitous expedi tion, a few years later. In their imagination it was an irreclaimable waste, comparable only to the Desert of Sahara. It was cursed with a deadly climate, which THE STORY OF OREGON. 167 decimated even the aboriginal inhabitants— in a word, it was the home of an incorrigible desolation, for a par allel to which the globe might be searched in vain. Such was the picture of Oregon as painted by the statesmen of Washington and the Eastern public in general. With a mind and a heart full of his subject, Whitman set himself to eradicate these impressions and to substitute the facts. To President Tyler, to Daniel Webster, and to all whose interest and co-operation were worth secur ing he told such vivid tales of the potential wealth and salubrious climate of Oregon as opened their eyes and enlisted their sympathies. Such words, enforced by the voice, the aspect, the magnetic enthusiasm of such a man, could not but be effective. President Tyler was deeply impressed ; and Whitman had the satisfaction of knowing that his representations would modify the en tire drift of opinion on the subject and carry invaluable weight in the coming debates concerning the final dispo sition of the country and its northern boundary. Much relieved by the success of his mission, Whitman now proceeded to Boston to confer with the Board of Missions regarding their policy in the West. This, as has been already observed, had been the ostensible object of his journey ; but the matters to be treated of turned out to be so unimportant, that the Board waxed indignant, and desired to know how Whitman could justify himself for absence from his professional labors on so slight a pretext. The stout-hearted man treated their remonstrances with small ceremony ; he transacted his business, and left them to reconcile his con duct Avith their ideal of missionary duty as best they might. After paying a visit to his mother in RushviUe, and bidding her farewell for the last time, he turned his back upon the East, and made his way to St. Louis. Attempts have been made to belittle this achievement of Marcus Whitman, and it has been insinuated that affairs would have taken much the same course had he 168 THE STORY OF OREGON. remained quietly in his mission house at Walla Walla. But after examining all the grounds upon which such criticisms are based, the only result is to expose the deficient intelligence of the critics. "Never yetj" as a great poet truly says, " was noble man but made ignoble talk. He makes no friend who never made a foe." Whitman's character was too positive and imperious not to excite petty opposition and detraction from petty minds. He was animated only by high and unselfish motives ; and he had the clear eyes that discerned the future through the obscurities of the present. He could not stay to argue and gossip with men who failed to com prehend as he did what the occasion demanded. There was work to be done, and there was no one but himself to do it. Not for his oavu pleasure or glory did he face the wrath of winter and unravel the bewilderments of the desert. His eyes were fixed upon the thousands of happy homes in the years to come ; upon the race of prosperous and energetic men and women who were to make a garden and a granary of those plains and valleys on the shores of the Pacific, and to tunnel the hills for coal. and iron and gold. Such men as Whitman, desig nated by Providence to be the instruments of its designs, can be justly viewed only after a lapse of time. A sort of divine rage possesses them ; forgetting themselves, they forget to be conventional ; they stand in their buf falo coats before the chief magistrate, and answer not again Avhen pert officials cross-question and reprove them. Their dealings are not with individuals, but with the race ; and their lineaments are too large to be recognized save at a distance, like those of mountains. Near the banks of the Columbia River, among the Cas cade Mountains, rises a snowy peak, from whose summit, uplifted nearly two miles above the level of the sea, can be seen all the habitable region of the State of Oregon. It is the highest point of land in the State, and in the eyes of all the inhabitants it stands as an immortal sym- PORTLAND SAVINGS BANK BUILDING. THE STORY OF OREGON. 171 bol of power and grandeur ; the fires that once throbbed in its deep heart are still ; it towers serene and sublime above the busy cities and fruitful fields outspread before it ; it sees the freighted vessels cross the harbor bar ; and the whistle of the railway engine on its way to the Atlantic ascends in thin vibrations to its remote seclu sion ; it looks toward the eastern uplands of Walla Walla, where, nearly half a century ago, an Indian tomahaAvk was buried in the Avisest and strongest brain west of the Rocky Mountains. This summit bears the title of Mount Hood. But, per haps, the historians of some future age, passing in re view the list of those men who did the most to redeem Oregon from the wilderness, and to give it to America, AAill pause upon the name of Marcus Whitman. And when, searching through the region where he met his death, in quest of an adequate memorial of his. greatness and his sacrifice, they discover none, they will gaze up at that transcendent peak, and agree that the early geog raphers must have fallen into an error ; and that only one name could rightly be bestowed upon a height so noble. But, whether soon or late, a day will come when Oregon will do justice to the best and purest of its heroes ; and that will be the day of the christening of Mount Whitman. CONTINUED IN VOLUME II. BIOGRAPHICAL. McLoughlin, Dr. John, sometimes called the first real Governor of Oregon, because of his prominent connection with the Hudson's Bay Company's fur transactions, Avas a leader in h^s day. He had a martial bearing and a commanding presence, which, added to his great depth of thought and generous nature, made him a man among men. The Indians knew him as the " White-Headed Eagle," and in their peculiar, picturesque way of nam ing characters, they applied the best appeUation to him which could be made. In all his deeds, his words, and thoughts he rose above meanness and vice, and soared in the cloudless blue of truth and honor, like the proud bird of freedom that bathes his plumage in the skies. A Canadian by birth, he received the thorough training which his Scotch parents were so capable of giving. In 1800, when he reached his sixteenth year, he secured empjfljynent with the Northwest Fur Company. Years of hard work opened up before him, but he began his duties unflinchingly, and through those trying hours maintained a ruggedness of strength and endurance which gave way to nothing. Long forest tramps and water trips were his daily portion. Frequently, when the elements raged their fiercest and blinding storms swept the country, he was forced to brave his way through thicket and swamp. At other times his work led him to the far north, where, amid the Arctic snows and icy winds, he trapped his game. At intervals inter nal disturbances would disrupt the scattered settlements THE STORT OF OREGON. 173 and involve great numbers in bloody warfare. On one of these occasions, when the NortliAvestern people resist ed the advances o"f the fur company into the Selkirk set tlement, young McLoughlin wielded as strong un arm as any in the hostile demonstration. With all these re sponsibilities resting on him, he still found an oppor tunity to study, and, strange as it seems, he managed to acquire a knowledge of medicine which was almost com plete. When, in 1824, the fur company assigned him to the post at Astoria, with full powers to control the busi ness in the vaUey of the Columbia and along the north ern coast, McLoughlin' s great life work began. A thou sand Canadians and half-breeds were under his care ; their labors required his constant watchfulness. Where a guilty culprit was caught in a criminal act, the duty devolved upon him to sentence the aggressor to punish ment, and, sometimes, in the case of a grave offence, condemn him to death. One hundred thousand Indians inhabiting the region were also . under his control, and whatever terms of peace or instrument of war he saw fit to make with them, he was at liberty to do so. It is needless to state that he discharged all of these onerous duties faithfully and conscientiously. While practically occupying the position of a supreme sovereign, he never overstepped the bounds of reason, and treated those under him with the utmost fairness and impartiality. The task which had been outlined for him included the accumulation of enough furs every year to load a ship for England and the destruction of all competition from French, Spanish, or Russian sources. The success with which he accomplished these results is too well known to need repetition. Having his army of workers under thorough control, and paying the Indians a standard price for their furs, he was bound to succeed. The vast machinery of that great enterprise moved absolutely through his sole control. His hand was constantly upon the throttle, and the fortunes of the company rested 174 THE STORY OF OREGON. secure in his keeping. An incident occurring at the time of the wreck of the William Ann at the mouth of the Co lumbia serves to show the iron will which Dr. McLough lin exercised over the community. The Clatsop Indians had amassed a heap of plunder from the Avreckage of the boat, and refused to deliver the furs, claiming that they came from the Avater and belonged to them. Discipline and authority had to be preserved at all hazards, and the doctor at once fired the huts and wigwams of the Indians, finally reducing them to subjection. He Ukewise pun ished the Shasta tribe, which pillaged Americans in the valley of the Umpqua. Spaniards and Frenchmen held aloof, while the Russians displayed no dangerous com petition. But in the United States a feeling began to grow that the Astor idea of founding a grand fur em porium on the Columbia would be a most profitable enterprise. Several Americans made the attempt, but were forced to relinquish their efforts when they found McLoughlin master of the field. After a brief residence at Astoria, he made his home at Vancouver, where farm ing and stock raising occupied him, in conjunction with his official duties. The benefits of a thickly populated community appealed to him strongly, and he encouraged and fathered every movement to induce settlers to locate about him. The advantages of agricultural progress were known to him also, and grain and vegetable culture was fostered enthusiastically by him. The first apple- trees in the region sprang from seeds planted by McLoughlin, who had secured them from a gentleman whose lady friends playfully placed them in his pocket at a dinner party in London. American missionaries always received the kindest treatment at the hands of the doctor. Jason Lee, the first man to carry on the mission school, was heartily Avelcomed by McLoughlin, who secured a subscription of over $100 for him as an aid in his work. Whitman and Spalding Avere favored by the same consideration. In short. Dr. McLoughlin THE STORY OF OREGON. 177 spared no effort to make Fort Vancouver a thriving set tlement. New-comers were hailed with the heartiest greeting, every assistance was rendered them in the building of their homes, and the doctor's purse was always open to any project vfhich meant the advancement of the colony' s interests. His loans of cattle Avere quite frequent, and great numbers of the first settlers availed themselves of his generosity. John Bull has accused him of working in combination with the Americans ; others have branded his colonial work as a gigantic scheme to found an independent State ; but aside from all these speculations it is undeniably true that he labored for the elevation of the Vancouver community ; that he did wonders for the district in the way of advancing set tlements and iDromoting the general welfare, and that the impress of his character will remain forever on the annals of the colony. When, after the organization of the Pro visional Government, the control of the district gradually fell into other hands, and Oregon became a part of the Union, Dr. McLoughlin ceased to rule, and in 1857 died under the American fiag in Oregon City. The closing hours of his eventful career were unhappily clouded by misfortune. When the strong-willed Ameiicans, with their principles of self-government, dethroned him from his citadel in Vancouver, and later his generous loans to the settlers were unpaid, he was plunged into bitter dis appointment and despair. To add to the burden of grief, his claim at Oregon City was contested through a long, tedious period, ending, however, in the full and complete establishment of the rights of his demands in Oregon. Buoyed up temporarily by his unbounded faith in the Catholic religion, he was finally bowed low beneath the crushing load of sorrow and ingratitude. His grave is pointed out to-day in a cemetery on the bank of the river, and the epitaph on the memorial stone tells what he was, simply and truthfully— a friend of Ore gon. 178 THE STORY OF OREGON. Chapman, Colonel William W., holds a place in the public esteem Avhich, earned in the struggling pioneer days of Oregon, has been solidified and strengthened Avith the lapse of time. His works form a conspicuous support in the arch of progress Avhich spans the great Northwest. Against trial, against adversity, against dis aster, he fought his way steadily and persistently Avith those prime settlers who broke down the barriers that euAironed early Oregon and implanted the staff of civilization in her soil. From first to last he has been found with his shoulder to the wheel, always striving for improvement, ever on the alert to advance the interests of the community and never slow to seize a good oppor tunity. To him is due the credit which attends a worthy success founded on well-spent labor and habitual indus try. His is a deserving record of political and commer cial achievements ; in business his actions have merited high commendation ; in politics his performances reflect credit on his character. Sincere, plain-spoken, and free from all disguise, his every word and deed stand out in the light of truth like the leaves of an open book. The career of Colonel Chapman is an unbroken thread in the fabric of Oregonian history. From the beginning of his services in the State, the chain of his personal experi ences is seen to run through a course of events intimately associated with the interests of the commonwealth at large. Added to this is the important part which he played in the affairs of Iowa in the opening days of his public career. In all, the recital of his life is a narrative as full of general interest as it is of individual impor tance. He was born August llth, 1808, in the Virginia toAvn of Clarksburg. When he Avas fourteen years old, the serene days of his boyhood were clouded by his father's death. From that time on he learned Avhat it was to make his own way in the world. A mother' s love and a brother's kindness Ughtened the burden which the young shoulders were forced to carry. In time the boy THE STORY OF OREGON. 179 rose to a place in the office of the clerk of the court. He applied himself diligently to reading law books, and before many years passed had familiarized himself to such an ex tent with the principles of justice as expounded by Black stone et al. that he was able to become a member of the Bar, 1831. This reward was a tribute not only to his own efforts, but a satisfactory testimonial of his appreciation of the favors shown him by many friends who encouraged and aided him in the prosecution of his studies, among them the wife of the noted Methodist clergyman. Rev. Sehon. In the early party of the following year he mar ried Margaret F. Ingraham, daughter of a well-known Virginian legislator Avho passed his closing days in Iowa. One year later Mr. Chapman left Middlebourne, where he had first located, and moved to McComb, in McDon ough County, 111. In 1835 he made his residence in AAiiat was then a section of Michigan, but which is now Burlington, la. The doors of the prosecuting attorney' s office were thrown open to him by Acting Governor Hor ner, of Michigan, and in 1836 President Jackson appoint ed him United States Attorney for the Territory of Wis consin. The demands made upon him were peculiarly stressing at this juncture. It was the day of " claim jumping," and the litigations over disputed lands were numerous. Mr. Chapman advocated the cause of the settlers, ycleped "squatters," and for his staunch de fence of their conduct in summarily ejecting " jumpers" he was not forgotten by the people when it lay in their power to honor him. Settling at Dubuque for a time, he returned to Burlington one year prior to the time when Iowa became an independent territory. Then his name came up for delegate to Congress, and in the election that ensued he distanced a trio of competitors. His work at the National Capitol was both active and aggressive, resulting in the passage of a bill providing for the con struction of a military road running from Dubuque to Iowa City and thence to the southern boundary, and for 180 THE STORY OF OREGON, another highway extending Avestward from Burlington, besides a third to traverse an easterly direction to Illinois. An event of special significance, illustrating Mr. Chap man's steadfastness of purpose and fidelity to duty, oc curred in the year of the passage of the act fixing the boundary line between Missouri and Iowa. The division hinged largely on the location of a point designated as the Des Moines Rapids. By affirming that the Des Moines Rapids referred to were in the Des Moines River, Missouri expected to acquire a much larger territory. Iowa, on the other hand, asserted that the rapids in question were those located in the Mississippi River, Avhich would enlarge the lowan territory. The matter came up in Congress for settlement. Missouri felt con fident as to the result, knowing that the famous Benton and Linn were on hand to guard her interests in the Senate, while three representatives stood ready to defend her claim in the House. Iowa, on the contrary, had but one territorial delegate to tell her side of the story at Washington, but he proved sufficient. When the strug gle for supremacy came. Chapman unfolded a roll of facts in the way of French missionary writings, etc., con clusively establishing the location of the Des Moines Rapids in the Father of Waters and strengthening the position of Iowa before the House in a manner that presaged victory. Alarmed at the strong heaclAvay made by the intrepid delegate, anxious Missourians made ap proaches to Chapman, and Benton pledged his services in securing an early admission into the Union for Iowa if Missouri's claim would be allowed to go without fur ther protest. But Chapman, true to Iowa, held out firmly to the end for the boundary line claimed by his constituents, and the final decision was in his favor. Among his other achievements in Congress was his proposition to enact a standing pre-emption law provid ing for prospective and actual settlers, a measure which was sadly needed in those times when no legal forms ^^(^tcooc. -&^-^-^c: THE STORY OF OREGON. 183 were as yet in use whereby a settler could acquire public land wherever he might choose. One more service ren dered for Iowa by Mr. Chapman, and then the history of his connection with Oregon will be touched on. A few years previous to the exciting period of 1849, he was called upon to serve as a member of the State Convention which prepared a constitution for Iowa. In the drafting of that instrument he had inserted the clause to transfer in the face of the act of Congress the grant of five hun dred thousand acres of land to the State for internal im provements for the use of schools. Furthermore, he pro posed the measure providing for the popular election of judges, a system which, while it envelops the l^ench in the atmosphere of politics, precludes the possibility of pernicious patronage. With State and national emolu ments crowning his career, Colonel Chapman's rise to the zenith of popularity in Iowa was not far distant, yet his inclinations led him to other fields. Spurred, on by a spirit of enterprise, quickened by a desire for greater conquests, he turned his face toward the land of the set ting sun and crossed the plains for Oregon. On Novem ber 13th, 1847, six months after leaving Oskaloosa, la., he, with his family, reached the banks of Mary River, Avhere the train of one hundred emigrants halted in sight of Marysville, now Corvallis, Benton County. After a horseback ride to Oregon City, resulting in his 'forming an acquaintance with Governor Abernethy, Judge S. S. White, and Colonel B. Jennings, Mr. Chapman decided to locate at Salem. Here his household occupied the first floor of the old Methodist mission building. Fully equipped in every way for the work before him, the lusty pioneer threw off his coat at once and started in on fence-building and garden-making, not failing, however, to pay strict attention to the court proceedings which took place at intervals. At one of these terms, on Knox's Butte, Linn County, the wheels of justice were stopped with a suddenness that Avill be remembered by those 9 184 THE STORY OF OREGON. present to their dying day. The message came to the court-room that a party of prospectors had found gold in California. Figuratively, carried off their feet by the news, judge, jurors, counsel, and witnesses unanimously agreed to adjourn, and adjourn they did. Mr. Chapman took the situation coolly and made prompt provision for his wife and children for the six months' period during which he expected to absent himself from home on his gold-hunting tour in the California mines. Then he started on his march to the valley of the Sacramento, in company with J. B. McLane, of Salem, A. Hininan, of Forest Grove, and Mr. Parrish, of Linn County. The little squad rapidly increased in size as it progressed on ward, continually receiving additions along the route, and within a short time it attained the proportions of a formidable band. But a parting soon came. When the gulches were reached, the company separated into small groups, each bent on seeking a fortune in a different direction, and of all those who left Oregon together only a part returned afterward, the others travelling none know whither. After a successful period spent in the gold region. Colonel Chapman deliberated on the possi bilities- of founding a city at Sacramento, only to discover that Judge Burnett had preceded him. Going to San Francisco, he debated on the advisability of establishing some commercial enterprise or returning to the mines, when Governor Lane met him and induced him to return to Oregon. Shortly after going back to his Salem home, Mr. Chapman was chosen to represent his district in the territorial legislature. His usual activity asserted itself while In this office, and the interests of his constituency found in him an able champion. Toward the end of 1849 he went to Oregon City, and from there removed to Port land, impressed with the belief that this point was the perfect link connecting the land traffic with the maritime commerce of that section of the country. Two men. General Coffin and Mr. Lownsdale, owned the site of THE STORY OF OREGON. 185 Portland, and of them Mr. Chapman purchased a sec tion, on which he erected his homestead, where the county court-house now stands. All this occurred in the initial growth of the city, and from the first day of Chap man's advent into the place the influence of his personal ity was felt in the improvement of the local conditions. Institutions of public good were fostered through his instrumentality ; new streets and highways sprang into existence by his aid ; while other movements of impor tance resulted through his energy. As the autumn of 1853 approached, he became interested in the profitable features of the live-stock business. Without relinquish ing his hold on his important interests in Portland, he located at Fort Umpqua and engaged in tending his cat tle droves. Matters ran smoothly until the ominous intelligence of the Rogue River uprising reached the colonel, and then, in response to the summons of duty, he went out to face the perils of Indian fighting. At the head of a company he marched to the centre of the dis turbance at Little Meadows. He had labored zealously to equip his troops, appropriating his own horses and wagons for the use of the soldiers, and when the moment arrived for the adoption of a line of attack his opinions were received with due consideration. He counselled a pursuit of the red foe and the erection of a strong fort at the Meadows, to withstand any onslaught which the Indians might make in the event of the withdrawal of the troops. The other officers, however, did not favor the construction of a garrison, and withdrew the troops. The frightful massacre and the awful sacrifice of human lives which foUowed showed all too plainly the truth of Colonel Chapman's prediction. His advice in future campaigns merited better attention. A decisive stroke was decided upon several months later, and the colonel' s sagacity was put to the test. He felt convinced that the enemy could be thoroughly subdued by hemming them in on all sides and forcing them to concentrate at one 186 THE STORY OF OREGON. point where they Avould be forced to surrender in a body. The rocky bluff overlooking the south side of the Rogue River, known as the Meadows, was the stronghold of the Indians, and here it was decided to surround them. Realizing the fool hardiness of crossing the river in the teeth of a deadly fire from a concealed enemy, Colonel Chapman suggested that a detachment circle around to the rear of the foe and another march on them from the north, where they would be prepared to meet the Indians if they attempted to escape across the river. In this way, placing the enemy between two fires, they were certain to crush them. General Lamerick requested Colonel Chapman to make the attack on the rear of the Indian stronghold, and the colonel immediately advanced to Slate Creek with three hundred daring men, chiefly from the mines. They trailed the redskins to the Meadows, and prepared to make an attack, when Colonel Chapman received a message from General Lamerick ordering him to cross the river and join him, because he had been informed that Colonel Chapman's forces could not reach the Indians from the south side. The order occasioned much displeasure, but military ethics required its obedience, and Colonel Chapman's command rejoined General Lamerick. The Indians then broke up camp, and General Lamerick crossed the river only to find the bluff deserted. He was on the point of ordering the sol diers to separate into different detachments, some to go to the Illinois River, some to Jacksonville, and the rest to other parts, but Colonel Chapman, not hesitating to protest against what he believed would expose the set tlers to merciless attacks of the savages, mentioned to General Lamerick the urgent necessity of erecting a fort to hold the Indians at bay. The general resented what he regarded as the presumption of a subordinate, but the matter was referred to a council of war, and Colonel Chapman's views were unanimously adopted. Fort Lamerick was constructed, and energetic Major Latshaw 'dXyy]/}^^ THE STORY OF OREGON.. 189 placed in command. Shortly after, this officer, under orders from Chapman, attacked the Indians on John Mule Creek, and signally aided the United States troops in capturing the enemy. The hostilities ended. Colonel Chapman returned to his home, and in 1856 located at Corvallis. Oregon was then on the threshold of acquir ing a position in the Union, and the framing of her State constitution occupied the public attention. The ques tion of slavery proved to be the rock on which many of the Democratic party leaders split. Through this mat ter Colonel Chapman did not, as generaUy expected, serve on the Constitutional Committee. After a meet ing at Salem, while returning to Corvallis, the question came up for discussion and the colonel freely stated his position in the matter, asserting that he opposed slavery and its establishment in Oregon. His utterance met with the immediate opposition of the others, and instantly his name was eliminated from the list of available candi dates. He next resided at Eugene City, and was ten dered the nomination to a seat as territorial representa tive. His opposition to slavery stood in the way of several honors, compelling him to relinquish a position in a senatorial race and the appointment as Judge to the United States District bench. Shortly after, however, the colonel was appointed Surveyor-General of Oregon, a position which, at the strong solibitation of General Lane, he was prevailed upon to accept. When a Repub lican administration took up the reins of government. Colonel Chapman resigned, disliking to hold office under a president against whom he had cast his vote. In the autumn of the same year, 1861, he went back to Port land, and six months later built the residence at Twelfth and Jefferson streets, which still serves as the family homestead. Legal interests of considerable magnitude henceforth occupied the attention of the colonel. Con temporaneous with these affairs, he devoted his available time and money to the advancement of Oregon's railway 190 ' THE STORY OF OREGON. interests, and the final connection of the State with the lines of the East, with all the attendant advantages and power, was accomplished through his untiring efforts. Incorporated in the history of the colonel's railroad ex periences is an incident of much interest, which illus trates his striking originality and forethought. At the time when Oregon first felt the railroad agitation, it was proposed to run a road from the Central Pacific line in California to Portland, and such was the interest mani fested by the people of Oregon in the construction of the railway that the company's request for land subsidies was met A^ith hearty endorsement. At a meeting in Eugene City, the people decided to send their approval of the scheme to Congress, where a bill relating to the matter was under discussion. Shrewd Colonel Chapman, happening in on the meeting, perceived at once that, as the bill then read, the building of the road would begin in California and, during the progress of the work north ward, all the incidental commerce would move to Sacra mento and thereabouts, instead of benefiting Oregon. He saw the remedy for this, and embodied it in the following resolutions, which were adopted without a dissenting vote, and which were made a part of the law passed by Congress : Whereas, We learn that the surveying party on the contemplated route for the Oregon and California Railroad has arrived in the Willamette VaUey, and that the chief engineer, Mr. Elliott, is now on a tour in the lower coun ties for the purpose of learning facts respecting the route and the means to be obtained in aid of the survey find improvement ; therefore Resolmd, That ' all grants of land and other aids by the Government of the United States, and means to be appropriated, should be expended in equal i)roportions in Oregon and California, and commencing the work in Portland, Ore., and progressing southwardly, and at Sacramento, Cal., progressing northwardly, so that each THE STORY OF OREGON. 191 State and section may derive equal advantages therefrom, while the road shall be in process of completion. Resolved, That we do hereby recommend that several organizations be effected in Oregon for the purpose of receiving the aid of the Government and executing the work within the State. Thus it was that, through Colonel Chapman's thought ful provision, the first rails of the road were laid at Port land as well as at Sacramento. The development of that section of Oregon penetrated by the railroad was a natu ral result, and, growing and expanding with the com pletion of the line, the influence of the newly established enterprises spread throughout the State, touching the valleys and the hiUsides AAith the hand of industry. Co incident with his. labors in railway matters, the colonel devoted careful attention to the maritime commerce of the State. While a member of the Legislature in 1868 he secured the passage of a measure which worked most advantageously to the agricultural and shipping interests of the commonwealth. Owing to the great expense en tailed in towing vessels across the bar at the mouth of the Columbia River, shippers were compelled to raise the prices of their goods, which acted disastrously to the commerce of Oregon. Moreover, the farmers of the State, in exporting wheat, were compelled to make lib eral allowance for the costly towing, necessitating a reduction in the price of their grain, all of which had a discouraging effect on business. So Colonel (Jhapman devised a law providing for a government subsidy of $30,000, payable in five consecutive years, for a heavy steam tug, which, shortly afterward, was secured and put into operation on the bar. With this improved facility in towing vessels and the exaction of less ex orbitant fees from shippers, the maritime commerce of Oregon with foreign and domestic ports received a new impetus which swept on unchecked from that time for ward. Colonel Chapman rendered a distinguished ser- 192 THE STORY OF OREGON. vice to Portland when he checkmated the Northern Pacific in its endeavor to obtain the right of way on the south side of the Columbia and hold the land grant with out building upon it. Throughout his vigorous life the colonel received the helpful comfort and true devotion of a loving wife, whose presence inspired him in weathering the storms of his pioneer days and made his conquests seem all the brighter. After a residence of more than a score of years in her Portland home, she died, 1889. Of Colonel Chapman's eleven children, six are stiU here to gladden their honored father' s sight and crown his days with peaceful happiness and content. He lives in his old Portland homestead, still full of his accustomed vigor and scarcely showing his fourscore years. Deady, Matthew Paul, was born near Easton, Tal bot County, Md., May 12th, 1824. His father, who was a man of fine education, came originally from Kanturk, County Cork, Ireland, and followed the profession of teacher with great success for many years. Matthew attended his father's school until his twelfth year. The family moved to Wheeling, W. Va., where the elder Mr. Deady had secured the position of principal of the Lancasterian Academy. A fcAv years afterward they went still farther west and resided for brief periods in Cincinnati, Covington, Ky., and Rodney, Miss. In the fall of 1833 Mr. Deady took charge of a school twelve miles west of Fredericktown. There he had the great misfortune to lose his wife, who died of consumption in the thirty-third year of her age. The result of the mel ancholy CA'ent Avas that the family was broken up for the time being. Young Deady spent a portion of the next two years with his grandfather and uncle, in a store in Baltimore. He then returned to Wheeling, and occupied himself partly at school and partly as clerk in a music store. In the early part of 1837 his father bought a farm in Belmont, O., and the family settled there. Matthew .f is 'r^% e/^0^ , J^o^i^^^C^ the STORY OF OREGON. 195 worked hard as an agriculturist until his seventeenth year, but his leisure hours were profitably engaged all the time. Possessing a natural taste for learning, he read all the books he could obtain, and, in the course of three or four years, acquired a very fair amount of in formation regarding American and English literature. In those days libraries existed only in the big cities, and country people were obliged to content themselves with such books as chance placed in their way. In February, 1841, Matthew left his home and went to Barnesville Avith the intention of becoming a practical blacksmith. He had got tired of the monotonous though peaceable Ufe of a farmer boy, and he determined on seeing for him self the outside world as it is. He worked at the anvil for four years. During the winters of 1843 and 1844 he attended the Barnesville Academy, pay ing his way as he went. Naturally bright and intelli gent, he made great progress, and, at the close of the term, he was chosen as orator or decl aimer, and he ac quitted himself in a very creditable manner. He gradu ated in 1845, and obtained a certificate authorizing him to teach. St. Clairsville was the scene of his earUest efforts as an instructor, and though barely twenty-one, he gave universal satisfaction. But he determined on qualifying himself for admission to the Bar. Judge William Kennon, of St. Clairsville, a friend and contem porary of the famous Philip Dodridge, of West Virginia, helped along the young aspirant for legal distinction to the best of his ability. Matthew began the study of law under Judge Kennon' s directions, and it was soon evi dent to all who knew the young man that he possessed abilities of a very high order. On October 26th, 1847, he passed an examination, and was admitted to the Bar of the Supreme Court of the State. For a year and a half he remained in the law office of Mr. Henry Ken non, of St. ClairsviUe, and, during that period, was elect- . ed clerk of the township for one year. On April 27th, 196 THE STORY OF OREGON. 1849, the young lawyer started across the plains with the object of reaching the Pacific Coast. After the usual rough experience which men were compelled to submit to in those days, he stepped from his canoe on Novem ber 14th, and found himself on the banks of the Willa mette River, at the place where Portland now stands. Later the same day he reached Oregon City, and there rested for a few days. He then journeyed on foot to Lafayette, and obtained a position as teacher without much difficulty. During one term he was assistant to Mr. John E. Lyle, and subsequently went into partnership with that gentleman. In March, 1850, Mr. Deady " put out his shingle' ' and soon acquired a good practice. The first hundred dollars he earned he sent to a friend to dis charge a debt which he had contracted in order to pre pare for the journey to the farthest West. This fact is mentioned here for the purpose of illustrating the ster ling integrity which has always formed a conspicuous feature in the man's character. On June 1st, 1850, he was elected a member of the House of Representatives from YamhiU County. This distinction was conferred upon him directly hf his felloAv-citizens and without the interposition of caucus or convention. In due course he attended the session of the Legislature, and did valuable service on committees and in shaping bills, writing re ports and generaUy participating in legislative work. At the request of General Hamilton, the Secretary of the Teriitory, Mr. Deady, at the close of the session, prepared for publication the laws enacted in 1849 and 1850. It was the first volume of the kind published in the terri tory, and is known as the Hamilton code. In the sum mer of 1851 he was elected by a large majority as mem ber of the Council from Yamhill County, and acted as president of that body during the sessions of 1852 and 1853. In the spring of 1853 Mr. Deady was appointed bj" the President of the United States one of the three judges of the territorial Supreme Court. He chose the THE, STORY OF OREGON. 197 southern district, which embraced that portion of the territory south of the Wallamet Valley. During the next year he purchased three hundred and twenty acres of land in the Umpquetta Valley, where he established his residence. He was a very busy man then, as he has been all his life. He organized the courts in five coun ties of Southern Oregon, opened the records, and fre quently AA^rote them up with his own hand. He was never known to miss a session of his court or to be absent at the time designated for the commencement of business. In fact he was a model judge in every respect, and did his entire duty fearlessly and impartially. Judge Deady was elected a member of the Constitutional Convention in 1857, and was subsequently chosen president of that body. In shaping legislation for the new State, no one rendered more conspicuous service than he. On Febru ary 14th, 1859, after the admission of Oregon, he was ap pointed United States District Judge. This honorable position was literally forced upon him, though, at the same time, he fully appreciated the great distinction con ferred. In the fall of the same year he opened court in Salem, but afterward went to Washington and procured the passage of an act locating the court at Portland, To that city he removed, and has since lived there, one of the most respected citizens of the entire State, In the sjiring of 1862 Judge Deady was appointed Code Com missioner for Oregon, and prepared the code of civil pro cedure, which was enacted by the Legislature substan tially as he had drafted it. He prepared a general incorporation act, which passed the Legislature and be came a law virtually without change. This act was the first in the United States that placed all business cor porations on the same level, by declaring that any three or more persons may incorporate for the purpose of engaging in any lawful enterprise, business, pursuit, or occupation in the manner provided in the act. He also, at the request of the Legislature, prepared a code of 198 THE STORY OF OREGON. criminal procedure, a penal code, and a justices' code, with forms of proceedings and acts taken and done be fore justices of the peace. These acts are still in force, as are also the statutes prepared by Judge Deady, relat ing to the election and qualifications of district attor neys, sheriffs, county clerks, treasurers, assessors, sur veyors, commissioners of county courts, justices of the peace, and constables. The laws of Oregon as then in force were compiled by the judge, and were published under his personal supervision at the expense of the State, In 1874, aided by Mr. Lafayette Lane, he made a similar compilation. Both were compiled at the special request of the Legislature. Judge Deady' s income hav ing become somewhat impaired, owing to the deprecia tion of greenbacks, he accepted the position of cor respondent of the San Francisco Bulletin. Previously he was compelled to sell his farm in order to make the necessary payments on the home which he had purchased in Portland. In 1867 he was assigned by Mr. Justice Field to hold the United States Circuit Court in San Francisco. This duty engaged his attention three months in each of the years 1867, 1868, and 1869. Among the well-known cases tried by him were those of Martinetti vs. Maguire, and McCall vs. McDowell. In 1883 he sat in the Circuit Court of California during the hearing of the Debris case, and wrote a concurring opin ion denying the right of the hydraulic miners to deposit the debris of the mines in the streams of the State. In 1885 he sat in the same courts in the famous case of Sharon vs. Hill, and wrote the decision of the Bench. The judge is a member of Trinity Episcopal Church, has belonged to the vestry of that parish for twenty-five years, and has been its secretary since 1871. In 1876 he was appointed a regent of the University of Oregon, and has been president of the board many years. He assist ed in organizing the Library Association of Portland, and has acted as its president since 1872. He takes a "^ ^/t5 THE STORY OF OREGON. 201 great interest in charitable work connected with the Epis copal Church, especially such institutions as the Good Samaritan Hospital, the Bishop Scott Academy, and St. Helen's HaU. In national politics. Judge Deady has been a Republican since 1861, but in local matters he manifests much independence, and is not bound by party ties. On June 24th, 1852, he was married to Miss Lucy A. Henderson, eldest child of Robert Henderson, a prosperous farmer of Yamhill County. Mrs. Deady was born in Clinton County, Mo, , February 26th, 1835. She is a most estimable lady, worthy in all respects of her excellent husband. They have three children living — Edward Nesmith and Paul Robert, who are prominent young lawyers, and Henderson Brooke, who is studying medicine at Columbia College, New York. Too much commendation cannot be bestowed on the subject of this sketch. A self-made man who has risen from the ranks to a position of prominence and honor, Judge Deady possesses not only the esteem, but the affection of "every one Avho knows him. His name is a synonym for truth, uprightness, and patriotism. He has a brilliant intellect, a noble bearing, the suavity, kindness, and benignity of a true gentleman. He is one of the most popular men in Oregon. His services to his adopted State are universally recognized, and when ¦ he is finally called to receive his just reward, his loss will be severely felt throughout the Pacific States. Ladd, William Sargent, the subject of this sketch, whose portrait is found in these pages, comes of that sturdy New England stock which has done so much to shape and infiuence the growth and destinies of this republic. He Avas born October 10th, 1826, at Holland, Vt. His paternal ancestors came to America in 1628, among the descendants of whom' Avas Nathaniel Gould Ladd, the father of W. S. Ladd, a physician, who studiously inculcated those lessons of industry, thrift. 202 the STORY OF OREGON. and other manly virtues in his son, which have done so much in making him the prominent and useful citizen that he is. His mother, Abigail Kelly Mead, was ad mirably fitted by native and acquired gifts to aid in the formative period of Mr. Ladd's young life. Both parents being Methodists, they were assiduous in laying the foundation of strong religious principles and convictions in Mr. Ladd's life, the lasting infiuences of which have been abundantly illustrated in his later years. The "emigrating principle" of the American race, which has been the most potent factor in the development of our free institutions, was illustrated in the removal of his parents from V^ermont to New Hampshire, where they purchased a small farm of fifteen acres, sterile, rough, rocky, and wooded, which the subject of this sketch reduced to productive land largely by his own exertions. In the mean time he sedulously availed him self of such educational facilities as were at his disposal, and at nineteen years of age took charge of a public school at Loudon, N. H., where, as was frequently the case in those days, he was compelled to assert his mastery as teacher by little less than a pitched battle with his rebellious pupils, easUy achieving a victory, which he turned into a triumph by the use of pleasant methods, which awoke both their interest and ambition. His duties as school-teacher terminating, he became an attach^ of the Boston, Concord and Montreal Railway, and in the freight and other departments connected with the road had an excellent opportunity to familiarize himself with practical business ideas, which he turned to excellent account in later years. Like countless thou sands of young men in the East, his curiosity and inter est and money-making proclivities Avere aroused by the reports of the discovery of gold in California ; but his studies upon the subject led him to the conclusion that the true source of permanent wealth would be found in the region where the soil could be relied upon to furnish THE STORY 'OF OREGON. 203 supplies of food, lumber, etc. With the information he had gained, he fixed upon the Willamette Valley as by far the most attractive spot. Conversations and inter views held with parties returning to his early home from California and Oregon confirmed his convictions in this regard. Mr. Ladd, again illustrating the "emigrating spirit" of his race, decided to make Oregon his future home, and on February 27th, 1851, left New York in a steamer, via the isthmus, to the Far West. He reached San Francisco safely, and met there an old school friend, Charles E. Tilton, afterward his partner in the banking business and prominent in the annals of Oregon. An effort to induce Mr. Tilton to join him in business ventures in California proving unavailing, Mr. Ladd came on to Oregon, and at once commenced his remarkably prosperous and successful business career. The Portland of 1851 was essentially a frontier town. The time was the day of small things. The business ventures of the hour were emphatically small beginnings. Mr. Ladd's " stock in trade" consisted of a few things he had brought with him, and, as another biographer has stated, money was so much of an object to him that ' ' he preferred to pay his road tax of $6 by digging out and burning up the stumi)s of two immense fir-trees which stood in front of his store to paying that amount in cash." A fortunate opportunity to close out a consignment of goods from the East, brought in a vessel to Portland by W. D. Gookin, a friend of his father's, presenting itself, he cleared $1000 by the transaction, and with the business foresight which has ever been his characteristic, he reinvested the money in merchantable goods, and virtually laid the foundation of his present immense fortune. It would be very easy to single out numerous examples of his shrewdness as a trader and his judgment as to the precise moment when to seize an opportunity and make the most of it. But it is not isolated instances of sagacity which show the man as he is, but the general results, which have easily placed 204 THE STORY OF OREGON. him at the very head and front of the financial system of the State of Oregon. From his first venture in Portland, Mr. Ladd has been noted for his strict and prompt atten tion to business. His habit in his early mercantile career of rising as early as four o' clock in the morning, to assist in loading the wagons of his customers, that they might get "an early start," exemplifies fully the mainsprings of his rule of action. The following brief sketch of the transitory period of his active business life, when he left commercial pursuits for banking, is full of interest : "In 1852 his business was strengthened by a partnership with Tilton, and in 1853 by the arrival of his brother Wesley. In 1854 he was united in marriage to Miss Caroline A. Elliott, of New Hampshire, a young lady of excellent mental endowments and acquirements, and of a noble char acter, with Avhom he had been acquainted since school days. In 1858 steps were taken with Tilton for the formation of a bank ; and in 1859 the institution was ready for operations. It was started on a limited scale ; but in 1861 its capital was increased from $50,000 to $150,000. The earnings, however, Avhich were returned to the business, brought the capital up to $1,000,000. Thereafter dividends were ordered ; and when the part nership was dissolved in 1880, bills receivable amounted to upward of $2,500,000. It has always done a sound and select business, and has followed the policy of keep ing below current interest, as rates have become less and less. So secure has this bank been that Oregonians have depended upon it as certainly as upon the sunrise or the rainfall. When it made its statement in 1888, there was less than $1300 outstanding,- although over $100,000, which had been previously charged to profit and loss, had been collected since 1880. It is still operating Avith the same success as formerly." Mr. Ladd has supple mented his prosperous commercial and banking life by almost- phenomenal activity in other and widely varied pursuits. As a direct outgrowth, beyond a doubt, of his ^^-^X^-^^^.-tL -•^^^^ THE STORY OF OREGON. 207 early life " on a farm," he has taken and holds a fore most position among the agriculturists and stock-growers of his adopted State, owning three farms himself and five others in partnership with S. G. Reed. These farms are constantly the scene of important and extensive ex periments in testing machinery as applied to farming purposes, and the improvement in breeds of horses, cat tle, sheep, swine, and other farm animals. As to horses, he confines his attention to draught and carriage stock, ignoring the race-track. At the State fairs and indus trial expositions of the Northwest his fat stock take ' ' the blue ribbon' ' with marked regularity. He is heavily interested financially in the fiouring-mill busi ness of the Northwest, it being generally believed that he controls three fourths of that important and indis pensable industry. He has large interests in the Oregon Iron and Steel Company, at Oswego, and has been one of the prime movers in that great factor of Northwestern progress and development, the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company. His real estate holdings in city and country are large, and many of Portland's most noticeable structures are the outgrowth of his judiciously expended wealth. The owner of many buildings, he in sists strenuously that his tenants shall be reputable per sons. His home and appurtenances, occupying two full blocks in the heart of the city, are surrounded by the best work of skiUed landscape and flower gardeners. The homestead, which was built in 1859, is a replica of a house which pleased his fancy and that of his wife while visiting Bangor, Me. Here, surrounded by a devoted and affectionate family, he enjoys the fruits of his labors. Mr. Ladd never tires of ascribing the success of his long and varied career to the help and wise counsel of his wife. Referring to this subject on one occasion, he said : " I owe everything to her. Through all she has been to me most emphatically a helpmeet, in the best and highest sense a noble wife, a saintly mother to our 10 208 THE STORY OF OREGON. children. I can place no adequate estimate upon her help to me in building up our fortunes in this State. Always patient, thoughtful, and courageous, she has cheerfully assumed her part of Avhatever load I have had to carry. AVe both started together at bed-rock ; and from then until now we have taken every step in har mony." He has been extremely fortunate in his chil dren. A writer says: "The eldest son, William M. Ladd, inherits much the same vigor of body and inteUect and Avill as have lived in his father. He has been fur nished the best of educational advantages, having trav elled in Europe, and being an alumnus of Amherst Col lege. He Avas married in 1885, to Miss Mary Andrews, of Oakland, Cal. He is at present a partner in the bank. The second son, Charles Elliott, is also a man of fine tastes and scholarly instincts, an alumnus of Amherst College, and is now at the head of the large flouring busi ness. He Avas married in 1881, to Miss Sarah Hall, of Somerville, Mass, The eldest daughter was married in 1880, to Henry J. Corbett, son of Senator Corbett. The second daughter Avas married in 1880 to Charles Pratt, of Brooklyn, N. Y., a gentleman well known in the busi ness world as being largely interested in the Standard Oil Comp)any, as well as other large manufacturing interests located in the Eastern States." Few men, if any, have contributed more to the upbuilding and upholding of the public- school SA^stem of the Northwest than William S. Ladd, and as for his benefactions to the cause of religion and charity, they have been, in the true sense of the word, m-unificent. His employes at holiday seasons, notably Christmas, have occasion to remember him gratefully. This sketch of Mr. Ladd cannot be more appropriately brought to a close than by quoting the foUowing from one of his biographers : " No one ever can read the his tory of W. S. Ladd without being impressed thereby. During his mercantile career, he never misrepresented in order to sell an article. On the street his woi:d was as THE STORY OF OREGON. 209 good as another's bond. His gifts and donations have been munificent. He endowed the chair of practical theology in the Presbyterian Theological Seminary in San Francisco, in 1886, with $50,000, and gave several scholarships to the Willamette University. Throughout a wide extent of country, feAv churches have been built without aid from him. The bank is a liberal institu tion, as well as an aid to progress. The Library Asso ciation of Portland has always felt his fostering care, having for twenty years occupied, rent free, the second floor of his bank building. It has been his custom from the first to set aside one tenth of his net income for charitable purposes. It is a principle of his business never to go to law except as a last resort." A life lived upon so high an aim as the above has been of A^ast ser vice in our State hitherto, and Avill still be of use in stemming the tides of social, business, and political toils that are so fast coming upon us. Williams, George H. — This eminent jurist, patriot, and statesman has had many signal honors conferred upon him not only by the people of Oregon, but by the Chief Executive of the United States. To his credit be it said that, under the most trying circumstances, he has performed his manifold public functions with extraordi nary ability, distinction, and success. By unswerving devotion to principle he has gained and retained the esteem of thousands of the most prominent men, irrespec tive of party, in the republic, while in his own State of Oregon, among those who have known him intimately for years, his popularity is unbounded. A rapidly drawn sketch of the career of this remarkable man will be found instructive, as well as interesting. George H. Williams was born at New Lebanon, Columbia County, N. Y., on March 2Gth, 1823. WhUe still a mere chUd his family removed to Onondaga County. Young Will iams, who was always bright and studious, received the 210 THE STORY OF OREGON. greater portion of his early education at Pompey Acad emy, where he acquitted himself in a very creditable manner, taking high honors on graduation. On the com pletion of his collegiate course he studied law with Hon. Daniel Gott, and was admitted to the New York Bar in 1844. Believing that the great West offered to him op portunities which Avould be vainly sought elsewhere, he turned his eyes toward the setting sun, bade farewell to his native State, and departed for Iowa Territory. He commenced the practice of his profession, and achieved such marked success that in 1847,' when the State of Iowa was barely a year old, he was elected Judge of the First Judicial District, the duties of which office he dis charged with honor to himself and advantage to the State for a period of five years. In 1852 he took a prominent part in the Presidential campaign, and was one of the electors at large on the Pierce ticket. In 1853 he was appointed Chief Justice of Oregon Territory, and was re appointed in 1857. Desiring, for A'arious reasons, to resume the practice of the law, he retired from the Bench, and speedily became one of the leading lawyers on the Pacific coast. As Chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the cohvention called to draft a constitu tion for Oregon, Judge Williams displayed marked abil ity, and his suggestions were listened to with attention and respect. He stoutly opposed the introduction of slavery into the new State, and eloquently presented his views on that important subject at scores of public meet ings. Always a staunch Unionist, Judge Williams gave unqualified support to the administration of President Lincoln, and devoted all his powers to the cause of the North. Being recognized by the Legislature of Oregon as the very best man that could be sent to represent the State in the upper branch of the National Legislature, he was elected United States Senator in 1864, and took his seat just as the last embers of rebellion were dying out. He was placed on the Finance Committee, the Committee CATHEDRAL SPIRES, UNION PAC. R. R. THE STORY OF OREGON. 213 on Public Lands, and the Reconstruction Committee. During Judge Williams' s Senatorial career he introduced the following measures, every one of which became a law : The Tenure of Office Act ; the Reconstruction Act ; an act creating a new land district in the State of Ore gon ; an act amending the act granting lands to the State of Oregon, for the purpose' of establishing a military road connecting Eugene City with the eastern boundary of the State ; acts establishing post-roads in various sec tions ; a uniform act providing for the election of United States Senators ; an act amendatory of an act of 1861, providing compensation for property lost by citizens of Oregon during the suppression of the Indian uprising ; a resolution against the importation of coolies ; an act amending the Judiciary Act of 1789 ; an act amending the act granting lands for the construction of a railroad from the Central Pacific, in California, to Portland, Ore. ; an act providing for the holding of elections in Idaho and Washington Territories on the same day as the election in Oregon ; an act providing for the pay ment of two companies of Oregon volunteers, commanded by Captains Olney and Walker ; an act to strengthen the public credit ; an amendatory act preventing the rever sion to the Government of lands already granted by law for the construction of a railroad from the Central Pacific to Portland ; an act granting lands to help construct a railroad and telegraph line from Portland to Astoria and McMinnville ; a resolution authorizing the erection of light-houses at Yaquina Bay and at other points on the coast of Oregon ; an act granting certain lands to Bless- ington Rutledge, of Lane County ; a resolution provid ing for increased compensation for United States mar shals engaged in taking the census of 1870 ; an act extending the benefits of the Donation Law of 1850 to certain persons ; an act creating a new land district in Washington Territory ; various acts appropriating pub lic funds for the benefit of the State of Oregon. It may 214 THE STORY OF OREGON. be said without exaggeration that the laws enacted through the instrumentality of Judge Williams were invariably of a beneficent or patriotic character. The local measures which he got through Congress have proved of immense value in developing the resources of Oregon, in improving the conditions of life among its citizens, and in increasing its commerce not only with sister States,' but with foreign countries. At the same time, the attitude of Mr. Williams on national questions clearly demonstrated the fact that, above and beyond all other considerations, he had at heart the interests of the entire people of the United States. Never since the be ginning of the Federal Government Avas the country in such a condition of excitement and disturbance as it was Avhen Judge Williams entered the Senate. The great Civil AVar had just terminated, and the States lately in rebellion were a prey to anarchy. It required clear fore sight, profound wisdom, and consummate statesmanship to bring order out of the chaos existing in the South at that dismal period, and it was feared by many that Con gress would prove unequal to the difficult task set before it. But when the trial of strength came ; when the Con gressional forces, respectively representing the old and the new civilization, were arrayed against each other ; when the weak-kneed though obstinate advocates of a dead-and-gone cause desperately struggled to reproduce in the South a social and political system little less abhorrent to freemen than the system which preceded the war— then the old adage that the occasion produces the man was exemplified. Not only one man, but several, stepped to the front, and by eloquence, force of char acter, and persistence crushed all opposition from the Bourbon ranks, and established law and order at the South. Among the most prominent of the intellectual giants Avho figured in that momentous struggle was George H. Williams, the father of the Reconstruction Act. He opened the memorable fight, participated in THE STORY OF OREGON. 215 the conflict— always in the front rank among the com batants — witnessed the triumphant progress of his bill through the Senate and the House of Representatives, and finally had it passed into a law over the A^eto of the President. Judge Williams prepared and brought be fore the Senate the Tenure of Offi'ce Bill, a measure de signed to protect office holders from the tyranny of the administration. The President expressed a firm purpose to remove such officials as were independent enough to take sides with Congress in the great struggle pending between Executive and Legislature. The majority in Congress naturally objected to such a course as this, and the results was the WUliams Bill, which ultimately be came a law, notwithstanding Executive disapproval. In 1871 there were several grave matters of dispute between the United States and Great Britain. Among these Avere the Alabama Claims and the question as to the North western boundary. Judge AVilliams was appointed one of the joint high commissioners to draft a treaty having for its object the settlement of the international difficulties referred to ; and it may be justly said here that in the discharge of his onerous duties he displayed his usual statesmanship and patriotism. As a citizen of the Pacific coast he possessed abundant and accurate information on the boundary question, and the satisfactory solution of that vexed problem was mainly due to his thorough knowledge of the subject under discussion. Great Brit ain persistently claimed that the boundary line passed through the Rosario Strait, while the contention of the United States was that it ran through the centre of the Canal de Haro. Each nation insisted on its own inter pretation of the original treaty, which Avas drafted in am biguous language, owing to want of precise knoAvledge of the channel at the time the treaty was drawn up. When it was proposed to submit the matter in dispute to the decision of the German Emperor, Judge Williams refused to acquiesce except on the distinct understanding that 216 THE STORY OF OREGON. the arbitrator should base his decision altogether on the treaty of 1846. He presented his arguments in such forcible and convincing language that the commissioners accepted his views, and the result was that the Emperor finally determined that the boundary line ran through the Canal de Haro. The importance of the judge's ser vices to the United States in this important matter cannot be overestimated. For three years from December, 1871, Judge AAMUiams occupied the exalted position of Attor ney-General of the United States. He performed his delicate and difficult duties with dignity and success. At that period the Federal laws were set at defiance and trampled underfoot in several of the Southern States. Crime was rampant, and the Ku Klux Klan was at the height of its power. Rival governments were set up in various commonwealths, and the President was called upon to decide what particular governments were legal and constitutional. General Grant very wisely left the determination of the matter in the hands of Judge Will iams, and the War Department, then kept pretty busy at the South, was directed to regulate its action in regard to the questions under dispute in accordance with the instructions of the Attorney-General. Comparative peace, resulting from this judicious policy, soon reigned in the disturbed States, and the functions of legitimate civil government were fully restored all over the South. The tour of Judge Williams through the Southern States in 1872 had a beneficial effect. He plainly announced to his audiences in Richmond, Savannah, Charleston, and other cities, that the laAvs of the United States relating to federal elections would be impartially enforced ; that all voters would be protected in their just rights, and that violence and coercion would not be permitted to triumph over law and order at the ballot-box. The result was that, at the election following, a full vote was cast, and many Republicans who, under other circumstances, would have had no chance of success, were sent to Con- mm pp Fip < rr I' 'I' ' ' I r 1 1 I IIiIm.Ii'.I II'. M II ill II i« m iiiii' hi, .Uli.'ll.il I II I I -.-"^ Vlll 1,1 '¦''¦'¦I ¦ '¦'¦™i||i||i 1111.11 III, r 111* l||1||l|iV L.I, 1. Ilhli li llllllJl f|iii': 1 • r^ nil 1 1 'i,, I I'^m ,A^''' I I ''i.'i I iM. ^W^^ THE STORY OF OREGON. 219 gress from the South. - In 1874, on the death of Salmon P. Chase, President Grant nominated to the Senate George H. Williams as Chief Justice of the United States. A bitter controversy at once arose not only among the news papers, but even in the ranks of the Senators themselves, as to the expediency of raising Judge Williams to the highest judicial position in the republic. No one doubt ed the abiUty, character, or qualifications of the nomi nee ; no one questioned the sound judgment of General Grant in making the nomination ; but there were jeal ousies and heart-burnings here, there, and everywhere. This prominent leader aud lawyer expected the place for himself, and that other prominent leader and lawyer ex pected it for his brother. Massachusetts and Vermont, New York and Ohio, were at variance on the question, but they were unanimous in their determination that the Pacific coast should not have the prize. Fully satisfied with his well-earned laurels, and declining to enter on a canvass for the exalted place in person or by proxy, Judge Williams requested the President to withdraw the nomination. With great reluctance General Grant finally adopted this course. Judge Williams has made his home at Portland, where he practises his profession, and gives as much attention to public and political matters as is consistent witli increasing years and numerous engage ments. He retains unimpaired his felicity of speech, his happy disposition, and, what is better than all, his im mense popularity. Great services has this patriot and statesman rendered his country, great services has he rendered Oregon, great credit has he bestowed on his native New York. His work in every field in which he has labored has been well performed, and he certainly deserves the reward which is promised in 'Holy Writ to the good and faithful servant. Kelly, James K., ranks high in the legal and political records of Oregon. His eminent skill in the discharge of 220 THE STORY OF OREGON. his multifarious duties has won him the unstinted praise of the people. They recognize in him a man of sterling ability and sound quality. He earned his posi tion in society through hard, persistent application to business. In the year 1819 he was born, in Centre County, Pa., and passed his boyhood on a farm until his sixteenth year. Then he entered the Milton and Lewis- burg academies, and studied diligently until he was able to pass through the portals of Princeton. Graduating in 1839, he applied himself to the study of law at Car lisle, Pa. In a short time he was ready to begin practice at Lewistown. His iparked success as a rising young laAv- yer drew public attention to him, and before long he received the office of Deputy Attorney-General for Juniata County. His Lewistown practice was continued until 1849, when the gold fever swept the country. Among those who left the East for California was Mr. Kelly. Beginning work in the Calaveras County mines, he amassed the sum of $2000 before the winter had fairly set in. With this nucleus he established a law ]Dractice at San Francisco, In 1851 he started for Oregon. Pacific City was a place near the present site of Il\A'aco, and here Mr. Kelly settled during the summer. Toward the fall he located in Oregon City, where he established a profit able legal business in partnership with A. L. Lovejoy. When the question of preparing a code of laws for Ore gon came up before the people, the choice fell upon Mr. Kelly as one of the committee to draft the first laws. At the election for a member of the territorial council from Clackamas County, Mr. Kelly was chosen twice for the position. One year afterward the Indian War occurred, and Kelly, at the head of an Oregon City company, marched over the Cascade Mountains, joining other forces at The Dalles. At this point he was elected lieu tenant-colonel of a regiment which was detailed to march to Port Henrietta. Arriving on the shores of the Umatilla River in the beginning of the winter of 1855, he THE STORY OF OREGON. 221 received word that the Indians were prep)aring for battle near Fort Walla WaUa. Without a moment's hesitation he decided to march upon the enemy, and, starting at night, he moved across the hills toward Wallula. At the mouth of the Touchet, on the sixth day ou.t, the troops encountered the Indians. The hostile Walla Wallas, Cay uses, Umatillas, Palouses, and Snake Indians at tempted to make a stand, but Colonel Kelly's command forced them to fiee up the Walla Walla River for a dis tance of seA^en miles, when, at Dry Creek, the savages tried again to withstand the deadly attack, but they speedily Aveakened and started once more on the run. Suddenly seized with a dogged determination to pause or die, they stopped in their retreat and fought the sol diers with a desperation that was born of despair. Their efforts were useless. Colonel Kelly and his brave troops, after a four days' contest, thoroughly whipped the enemy, driving the few that survived the fearful battle across the country north of the Snake River. Legislative business called Colonel Kelly to Salem about this time. After concluding his duties in the House, he returned to his troops at Camp Curry and pursued hostile tribes through the Palouse country. At the close of the cam paign he located again in Oregon City and resumed the practice of his profession. In 1857 he was elected a member of the State Constitutional Convention, and a feAV years afterward the counties of Wasco and Clackamas elected him State Senator. Simultaneous with this, President Buchanan tendered him the appointment of United States District Attorney, but he declined to aban don the office of Senator for Attorney. He invested largely in warehouses on the Willamette Falls, but the destructive freshet of 1861 swept everything away. The loss left him as poor as when he first set foot in Oregon ; but, undismayed, he began, with reneAved vigor, to make up for what the elements had deprived him of. In 1862 he located at The Dalles, and practised law for seven 222 THE STORY OF OREGON. years. The Democratic Party in 1864 selected him as its standard-bearer in the Congressional campaign. Two years later he was nominated for Governor, and in the remarkable campaign which followed, the Rej)ublican candidate was elected by the narrowest kind of a major ity. In 1870 Colonel Kelly was elected United States Senator. After an able term he returned to Portland, where he has resided ever since. When a separate Supreme Court was formed in Oregon, in 1878, he was appointed Chief Justice for two years. Following this date, he devoted himself exclusively to the interests of his law practice. A power in his profession and an influ ential citizen of Oregon, the colonel 'enjoys a prestige in the State which is unlimited in its scope. He is a man of the people, and as such holds the esteem and respect of all. He was married in 1863 to Miss 'Mary Millar, daughter of Rev. James P. Millar. They have one son and one daughter. Minto, John, was born at the village of Wycombe, near Newcastle-on-Tyne, England, October 10th, 1822, and emigrated to the United States as a member of his father's family in 1840. Being by occupation a coal- miner, the father settled at Pittsburg, Pa., and from thence the younger Minto started to reach the frontiers of Iowa in February, 1844. At St. Louis, hearing of the gathering of people on the Upper Missouri intending to emigrate to Oregon, he changed his destination, and as soon as the then means of travel would permit, arrived at the rendezvous of Gilliam's companies. There learning of a proposed member of the company, living some three miles from the camps, who was in need of two young men to assist him in getting his family, stock, and effects to Oregon, Minto, in coinpany with AA^illard H. Rees (then a youth also, who had fallen into the tide of the Oregon emigration at St. Louis), lost no time in seeing the party, and in a few minutes they were engaged as assist- C-tA^^r-n.^ ^^'"i? TIIE STORY OF OREGON. 225 ants to R. W. Morrison to give their services as team sters or cattle-drivers, in consideration of Morrison fur nishing their bed and board and hauling their clothing. The bargain was a verbal one, made in a few minutes, but lived up to in letter and spirit, though it required more than a year of time. At the military organization of the companies of which Gilliam was elected general and M. T. Simmon colonel, Morrison was elected the first of four captains, Rees, orderly sergeant, with the duties of adjutant, and Minto, fourth corporal. He was in his twenty-second year, inured to the severe labor of coal-mining, and spoke one of the worst dialects of North Britain ; but beginning with Fenimore Cooper's novel " The Pioneers," which he read over the shoulder of an Irish emigrant on the passage from Liverpool to New York, he had read everything which came in his way descriptive of life on the frontier, and of the then distant Oregon beyond the Rocky Mountains. From thus reading he had learned of British traders being located in Oregon under treaty stipulations ; and in the hope of (in some way) getting there, had as a means of self-defence against British power, if he should thus come within its reach, in November, 1843, made his dec laration of intentions of citizenship in the Prothonotary Court of Washington County, Pa. And here he was, to his own surprise and delight, about to start to Oregon with Americans and as an American. Before the trains were two hundred miles from the Missouri River Rees was stricken with camp fever, and his duties devolved upon and were performed by Minto. When the military organization fell into disuse, and the trains had passed the buffalo range, and danger from Indians was supposed to be passed, Minto, S. B. Crockett, and Daniel Clark, with the consent (and indeed desire) of Captains Morri son and Shaw, went forward on horseback, in order to let it be known in the Willamette Valley settlements that there would probably be some suffering for lack of food 226 THE STORY OF OREGON. before all the trains would arrive. With a boat furnished by the great and good Dr. McLoughlin, chief factor of the Hu(ison's Bay Company, these three young men re turned up the Columbia, and assisted all the people they could from The Dalles down the river, and landed them on the west bank of the Willamette ; after which Minto assisted Captain Morrison to move his family and house them at Clatsop Plains, west of Astoria. In March he returned to The Dalles and drove the cattle to Western Oregon via. the Columbia River trail, swimming the stock to the north side of the river to make the trip. He then turned his attention to learning farming and the location of his future home. His first effort in the latter direction was to become owner, by purchase on credit, of the original Methodist Episcopal mission site, eight miles north of Salem ; but becoming afraid the locality would be unhealthy from miasm, he sold it, and located four miles south of Salem. In July, 1847, he Avas married to Mar tha Ann, oldest daughter of Captain Morrison. In No- A'ember, 1847, the Whitman massacre occurred, and Minto held back from the war awhile, thinking himself too poor to afford the luxury of going ; but in midwinter he placed his young wife to board at a neighbor's, and vol unteered, and was one of sixteen detailed to act as escort to Hon. Jesse Applegate in an attempt to convey a mes sage from Governor Abernethy to the commander of United States troops then in California, in order to pro cure, if possible, arms and ammunition, but especially the latter, Avherewith to fight the murderous Cayuses. The party left Salem in January, but found the snows of the Sierras too deep to pass, and on their return to the Willamette Valley they found the war ended. In this year (1848) gold Avas discovered in California, foUowed by a wild rush of the adult male population of Oregon to the gold fields. Minto did not go, but took care of the fanning and stock interests of others, making as much as the average gold-hunter the first year. He iuAested a THE STORY OF OREGON. 227 small amount of gold dust in. sheep, and seems in that to have found his special line of business, as he has been from the beginning notable for success as a practical shep herd, and his pen has given the history of the first intro duction of sheep into Oregon, and of the various im proved breeds since brought into the State, both in national and State publications. In this line of labor Mr. Minto, in 1860, received into his care specimens of three families of the famous fine- wool ed breed of sheep of AA hich Spain held a monopoly in the middle of last century, namely, American improved Spanish, French, and Australian merinos. These descendants of stock drawn from Spanish flocks as royal favors by the kings of France and England, and Colonel David Humphiey, American Minister to Spain, respectively, had made the circuit of the globe by travelling in opposite directions, to meet and reraingle their blood on the hills of Oregon, under direction of American enterprise. His sympathy with and participation in all such enterprises made Mr. Minto the elective editor of the Willamette Farmer as a condition of the Board of Directors of the Oregon State Agricultural Society giving a liberal bonus to start the paper. In other lines of development of the material interests of Oregon, Mr. Minto has not been idle. It is to him mainly that is due the discovery, or re-discovery, of the natural pass southeastward from Salem across the Cascade range of mountains, known as the Minto Pass, over which the line of the Oregon Pacific Railroad is laid. It was an Indian passway, abandoned on account of the superstitious dread of the dead slain there in tribal war. United States Agent E. White sought it in 1843-45, and General Gilliam in 1846— both failing. Mr. Minto led a survey for a road over it in 1874, crossing and re- crossing the old deep-worn trail of the old-time Indian thoroughfare. To the course of public affairs he was not indifferent. While ¦ taking little- part in making public office-holders up to the time of the outbreak of the Civil THE STORY OF OREGON. War for secession, his loyalty ,to the Union and anti- slavery sentiments were well known, and he was called by the unanimous voice of the first Union Convention in his county to serve in the Legislature of 1862 as a repre sentative of adopted citizenship ; returned again in 1868, and again in 1880. During the last Indian troubles, known as "the Piute raid," Minto, so far as known, was the only private citizen who went from Western Ore gon to the aid of settlers threatened by the raiders, by going personally with twenty stand of needle-guns and ammunition to the settlement on Rock Creek, on the north side of the John Day River, a district over which General Howard's " order" — published in the Daily Ore gonian of July 4 th — indicated the raiders would pass to cross the Columbia, between the mouth of the John Day and AA'^alla Walla. Later, when the Board of United States Engineers made a report virtually recommending against any national expenditure for the improvement of the channel across the bar of the Columbia River, Mr. Minto ridiculed the report in a paper written and pub lished in the Willamette Farmer, and called attention to the great Avaste of current force then being lost by the wide spread of waters which the jetties, now partially con structed, are compelling to scour a deep and permanent channel. Taking this brief view of his course in several lines of action, we may allow Mr. Minto spoke the simple truth of himself when, in a short address, presenting a fine pair of elk antlers to a volunteer fire company of Salem, for ornamentation of a new engine house, he said he ' ' looked at them as soldiers of safety from the standpoint of a citizen looking at all interests of Oregon from the tops of her highest mountains to three leagues out at sea." Case, Isaac W., the pioneer banker of the seaport city of Astoria, Ore., was born September 12th, 1831, at the family residence on the banks of a beautiful stream known as Green's Fork of the Whitewater River, ten ^ <:^- ^ ^^^^ r ^ I, ^/ cA THE STORY OF OREGON. 261 by American students of works written in Great Britain and Continental Europe. To supply the deficiency, he wrote and published, in 1881, a book on midwifery, which immediately took its place as a standard authority on both sides of the Atlantic. He was also the author of a very entertaining journal of army life, as well as a description of his experiences during a two years' tour in Europe. He was President of the Medical Society of the State of Oregon in 1875 and 1876, and was for many years a conspicuous member of the American Medical Association. In the Seventh International Medical Con gress, held in London, England, in 1881, he took an active part, and he was a member of the council of the Ninth International Congress that convened in Washington, D. C, in 1887. By iuAitation of the latter body, he read before them 'a learned paper, which received favorable notice from all the chief medical journal's of America and Europe. As a surgeon. Dr. Glisan had a great reputa tion. Among his noted achievements were the first ampu tation of the shoulder and thigh, and the second success ful operation for strangulated hernia ever performed on the Pacific coast. He was throughout his life remark able for his industry, as well as for persisting in what ever object he undertook. In his personal relations he was known as a man of probity and honor, always to be depended upon, and incapable of committing an ignoble act. Dr. Glisan married Miss Elizabeth Couch, a native of MassachusettSj and youngest daughter of Captain John H. Couch, one of the founders of Portland. His death, which occurred in 1890, was very sudden, and produced a great shock throughout the community. Knapp, Richard Baxter, is a native of GeneA^a, O., where he was born, July 28th, 1839. His father, Auren Knapp, was a Connecticut man, who moved west to Ohio in 1817, and settled down as a farmer. Sarah M. Bur- rell, his mother, belonged to an old and highly respected 262 THE STORY OF OREGON. Massachusetts family. The elder Mr. Knapp Avas a man of vigor and determination, so he went to work on his homestead, a,nd soon brought his little tract of wilderness under cultivation. Eventually he married, reared a fine family, and performed the arduous labors of an agricul turist for fifty years. Money was exceedingly scarce in those early times, and most business transactions among farmers were carried on by means of barter or exchange. Auren Knapp, however, accumulated wealth rapidly. He worked hard all the time, and was a man of strong religious convictions. His children were brought up carefully, and he spared no pains to make them honest, good, and true. By precept and example he impressed those dependent on him with the firm belief that real happiness can only be attained by rigorous devotion to duty. Richard was brought up on the farm under the constant supervision of parents, who were determined on making a man of him. His mother, a strong-minded yet kind and charitable woman, had much influence in the formation of his character. He was naturally bright, and did well at his early studies, which, after the rigor ous ideas of the times, were alternated with hard work on the farm. From the beginning the young fellow dis played considerable self-reliance, and was eager to see with his own eyes what the outside world really is. His parents desired him to qualify himself for a profession by entering college ; but, though he did not despise knowledge, he was not a lover of books, and preferred to take an active part ih the battle of life, away from schools and teachers. Perhaps in after days he may have regretted his youthful indifference to learning ; yet, without possessing a large amount of book knowledge, he ultimately acquired wealth and distinction— a fact that goes to show that worldly success does not always depend on erudition. Books are excellent teachers, but the experience of every-day life is the greatest teacher of all. Young Knapp went to Wisconsin in the fall of THE STORY OF OREGON. 263 1858, spent the winter there, and started for Oregon the spring afterward, by the way of New York and Panama. At that time Portland had a population of about three thousand. There were no railroads or telegraph, and those who desired to communicate with the outside world were obliged to depend on the fortnightly steamer from San Francisco. Jabez B. Knapp, the eldest son of Anren, had gone to Oregon in 1S52, and, recognizing the magnificent possibilities associated Avith the climate and natural resources of the country, arrived at the conclu sion that if his brother Richard did not care to continue his studies, it would be best for him to take his chances in Oregon. He accordingly wrote home, and the result was his youngest brother's arrival at Portland. Jabez had done well in business. On Richard Knapp' s arrival in Portland, he got employment in his brother's store at $25 a month. He owed considerable money — mainly the expenses of his trip — but by assiduous attention to busi ness and by strict economy he was enabled to discharge all his obligations in a few years. Starting out with less than nothing, from a financial point of view, he set him self sternly to work, conquered all his difficulties, and ultimately attained a commanding position among the leading commercial men of Oregon. The great firm of Knapp, Burrell & Co. started on modest foundations. After 1870, however, their business advanced rapidly. During that year Jabez retired from the concern and withdrew to his dairy farm on the Columbia River, about twenty miles below Portland. Mr. Burrell, a man of sterling character, continued as partner until his decease, in 1885. The business was . then reorganized under the corporate title of Knapp, Burrell & Co. Such of the employes as had been a long time with the house, and had filled important positions, were afforded an oppor tunity of becoming stockholders, and Mr. Knapp, in several instances, gave pecuniary assistance to those who were temporarily unable to take advantage of the offers 264 THE STORY OF OREGON. made to them. Mr. Knapp has had more influence on the prosperity of the farmers of Oregon for the last thirty years than any other man in the State. This may seem a paradoxical remark, nevertheless it is true. The wonderful change that has come over Oregon in a quarter of a, century is mainly due to three agencies, namely, the farmers themselves, the manufacturers, and the intermediate agents, the dealers or traders. In this direction Mr. Knapp has had close connection with agricultural interests. Through his firm, he has been a powerful aid to farmers and farming. He has always had the confidence of the agricultural commu nity, and the implements sold to the farmers have not only been well made and of excellent material, but they have vastly contributed to the increase of agricul tural products. By co-operating Avitn the cultivators of the soil, and by studying their interests and wishes, Mr. Knapp has been enabled to do solid and enduring work. The farmers of Oregon and Washington appreciate highly the merits of this excellent man of business, and rejoice with him in the wonderful success that has crowned his efforts. A man of great information, obtained in his contact with the world, Mr. Knapp is a most agreeable companion. He has travelled extensively in both hemi spheres, and has availed himself of every opportunity to add to his stock of practical knowledge. His residence in Portland is an ornament to the city, an,d furnishes in disputable proof that its owner is a man of architectural taste, for it was built under his personal directions. In politics Mr. Knaj)p is a Republican of decided views, though he does not actively participate in partisan matters. He does not desire j)ublic office, his sole am bition being to attend to his private concerns. At the same time, he is a generous contributor to local charities and enterprises. Mr. Knapp married, in 1867, Miss Minnie A. Knapp, the adopted daughter of his brother's second Avif e, though, of course, no blood relation. This . i ¦¦: ft.^ *„-^ : '¦'^W^ 'v/-/ >r /' /y^r^/// Cp (d "^^^^-z-^-^^,-^-^^^ THE STORY OF OREGON. 267 good lady is highly educated and refined. She reads much, and is well versed in literature. They have one child, Lawrence H. Knapp, born in 1869. The young man devotes himself to business, and is a true son of his father. In the affairs of Oregon, and particularly Port land, Mr. Knapp - has always taken great interest. He is a public-spirited man, who delights in seeing the people around and about him doing well. In private life he is kind and courteous, considerate of the feeUngs of others, and never forgetful of the duties of true manhood. Of a fine personal appearance, he moves about among his fellow-men, ever received with welcome wherever he goes, and universally honored. His splendid business qualities, his fine private character, his unexampled suc cess — these form a portion of the history of Portland, and wiU permanently endure in the annals of the city. Marquam, Philip A. — Among Portland's best-known and most respected citizens. Judge P. A. Marquam, the subject of this notice, occupies a distinguished position. His popularity is based upon his kindly, genial tempera ment, his fine business qualities, his public spirit, and his lifelong . record as an upright, honorable, and con scientious man. Possessing refined literary tastes and a love of natural beauty, he is a delightful conversation alist, whom cultured people are always happy to meet. He has had a complete training in the school of experi ence, and very few members of the community are better fitted to instruct and delight the social circle by illustra tions drawn from actual life. The judge's father, Philip W. Marquam, came from England at the age of twenty, and settled in Maryland. He was by occupation a cabinet-maker. Miss Charlotte Mercer Poole, daughter of a wealthy planter, became his wife, and. Providence blessed them with ten children, of whom the future judge was the eighth. The latter was born near Baltimore, February 28th, 1823. Reverses of more than one descrip- 268 THE STORY OF OREGON. tion compelled the family to seek a new home, and they naturally decided on settling in the West. Locating first in Ohio, they soon afterward moved to Tipipecanoe County, Ind., where Mr. Marquam entered an eighty- acre tract of Government land. It Avas virgin forest, and numerous obstacles presented themselves on all sides ; but, with stout hearts and vigorous muscles, the father, mother, and ten children went to work Avith a firm deter mination of conquering all difficulties. By liberal use of axe, spade, and shovel, they soon were enabled to bring one half of their farm into a state of cultivation. It was a wonderful achievement, considering the imperfect facilities for performing such work that existed in those early days. There were six daughters in the family, and they all received the benefits of an excellent educa tion. When of suitable age, they married and settled near their old home and in adjoining States. Of the four boys, AVilliam went to Missouri and engaged in agricul ture ; Alfred worked westward, and eventually made a home in Clackamas County, Ore., at the place now known as Marquams, where he died in 1887 ; Henry P. became a physician, and Philip, the youngest of the boys, was kept at home to run the farm and superintend things generally. Though he performed his numerous home duties faithfully and well, all his time was not spent at farming. He was naturally thoughtful, and, moreover, he possessed a strong desire to improve his mind by acquiring as much knowledge as possible. With this laudable object in view, he devoted alternate hours to labor and study. It was an excellent plan, inasmuch as it enabled Philip to accomplish two results at one and the same time. He not only did all the farm work that was necessary, but he read books, laid in a stock of valu able information, and cultivated his mind to a very creditable degree. It did not take him long to master the usual English branches, and he made such progress in Latin as to enable him to translate easily the simpler THE STORY OF OREGON. 269 forms and specimens of that language. He also studied general literature, and gained a wide reputation as a young man of more than ordinary culture. The legal profession had many attractions for Philip Marquam, and he resolved on becoming a lawyer. He devoted his spare money to the purchase of elementary works, Avhich he studied assiduously while guiding the plough. He soon attracted attention, and much encouragement was ex tended to him by professional men, who recognized in the young farmer the makings of an excellent lawyer. Under the direction of the late Hon. Godlove S. Orth, for many years a member of Congress, and ut one time United States Minister to Russia, Mr. Marquam Avent through a regular three-years' course of legal study at home, and afterward ' attended the law school at Bloom ington, Ind., paying the usual expenses out of his sav ings while on the farm. He passed a creditable exam ination in due time, and was admitted to practice at the Bar. AVabashtown was the scene of his first profes sional efforts, but after a few months he removed to the county seat of, Jasper County, and there remained, work ing hard and successfully as a lawyer, until the spring of 1849. The rush for the California gold fields occurred during that year, and, notwithstanding his love for his profession, young Lawyer Marquam made up his mind to try his luck on the shores of the Pacific. With three comrades, he started on the most tedious journey of his life. They had an ox-team with them, and progress was necessarily slow. However, they finally reached the western slope of the Sierra, and were amply com pensated by the softness and luxuriousness of the climate and the splendor of the scenery, for the toils, troubles, ¦and privations which they had experienced. Early in the spring of 1850 Mr. Marquam settled at I'remont, then the county seat of Yolo County, and resumed the practice of 'his profession. At the first election under the new State constitution he was nominated for Judge, 270 THE STORY OF OREGON. and was chosen to that office. The organization of the counties caused much labor to fall on. county officers, and the new judge rendered important services to the community. In August, 1851, he began to entertain the idea of returning to his old home in the East ; but before taking any steps in that direction, visited Portland, in order to see his brother. Much impressed by the fresh ness, beauty, and verdure of Oregonian climate and scenery, he determined on making Portland his perma nent residence. Having settled up his affairs in Califor nia, he returned to Portland, and A^^ent into the active practice of his profession as lawyer. He soon acquired a large business, made money rapidly, and invested his savings in real estate. Being a shrewd and sensible man, with clear foresight, he readily perceived that the future had great things in store for Portland, and that investments in real property would bring profitable re sults. He purchased a block in the city, bounded by Morrison, Alder, Sixth, and Seventh Streets. The Mar quam Grand Opera House covers almost the entire space of this block, and is one of the finest specimens of archi tecture in Oregon —in fact, it would be an ornament to any city in the Union. Judge Marquam acquired a donation claim on the east side of the Willamette, some four miles distant, and in 1858 he purchased three hun dred and ninety acres of land on the hill south of Port land. This property bears his name, and he is gradually improving it as his permanent home. Judge Marquam has always taken a deep interest in matters relating to the welfare of the community. Fully estimating the advantages of education, he is an earnest supporter of the public school system. He is known to be a man of progressive ideas, wonderful energy, and great tenacity of purpose. When these qualities are combined with purity of life, strict integrity, and a high order of intelli gence—as they certainly are in the case of the judge — the possessor naturally assumes a conspicuous position in TIIE STORY OF OREGON. 273 the community in which he lives. Self-educated men who, by pure force of will, dauntless courage, and steady perseverance, raise themselves from poverty to affluence, and from obscurity to prominence, must have within them, in a greater or lesser degree, the germs of great ness. Such a man is Judge Marquam, as the events of his career fully prove. He is remarkable for the deter mination with which he pursues his objects. Fortunately these objects are always laudable. Yet he has not sought office, for whenever honors of a public character have been bestowed upon him, they have come to him through the good- will of his fellow-citizens, and not as the result of any special effort on his own part. In 1862 he was elected Judge of Multnomah County, and having served a term of four years, was chosen for a second term. At the expiration of the second period of service he refused a third nomination. AVhUe on the bench he was noted for strict justice and impartiality. He devoted himself with assiduity to the onerous duties of judge, and the celerity with which he despatched court business gained him the approval of the entire community. Judge Mar quam was originally a Whig in politics, and has earnest ly supported the Republican Party since its organization. In 1883 he represented his district in the popular branch of the State Legislature, and proved himself active, intel ligent, and patriotic in the performance of his functions as laAV-maker. Judge Marquam was married, in 1853, to Miss Emma Kern, a daughter of William Kern, a Avell- known pioneer, formerly of Peoria, 111. She is a lady of education and refinement, and the judge attributes to her industry, economy, and foresight a large measure of his prosperity. They have eleven children, several of whom already hold responsible positions in the com munity. Mitchell, John H.— The subject of this sketch was born June 22d, 1835, in Washington County, Pa.. His 274 THE STORY OF OREGON. educational advantages were limited to the grammar school of his native county until he was seventeen years of age, AA-iien, being ambitious to receive a more extensive education, he taught in a country school for several win ters, working on his father's farm during the summer months ; and in this way he realized sufficient means to enable him to enter Butler Academy, in Butler County, Pa., where he completed the prescribed course of study ; and from there entered Witherspoon University, and upon graduation from this school immediately entered upon the study of law, having decided upon this profes sion. He studied for two years with Hon. Samuel A. Purviance, formerly member of Congress from that dis trict, and later attorney-general of the State under Governor Curtin ; and under this competent lawyer's guidance and instruction young Mitchell was enabled to pass a most satisfactory examination, ajid Avas admitted to the Bar of Butler County by Hon. Daniel Agnew, then presiding judge of that district. This was in the spring of 1857., He immediately entered upon the practice of his profession in Butler, in partnership with Hon. John M. Thompson, and for the next two years had a moderately good practice ; but his mind was filled Avith the loA^e of adventure, and the Pacific coast at that time offering the most promising field for his young and ener getic spirit, in Ajsril, 1860, he left his native State and started for California. Por a short time he practiced his profession at San Francisco, and later, for a few months, at San liuis Obispo. At that time the fame of Oregon as a young and growing commonAvealth was attracting the attention of many, and he determined to link his fortune with the new State. On July 4th, 1860, having taken passage at San Francisco for Portland, he arrived safely in that city, in which he has since resided. Energy and indomitable perseverance were characteristics of Senator Mitchell then as well as now, and upon reach ing Portland, and seeing a good field for laAv, he imme- THE STORY OF OREGON. 275 diately entered upon the practice of his profession, and succeeded in building up a large practice. He also be came greatly interested in jDolitics, and in one year his influence was realized to such an extent that he was elected Corporation Attorney of Portland. The succeed ing year he was nominated and elected on the Republi can ticket, to the Oregon State Senate for the term ending 1866, being but twenty- six years of age. At this time he was one of the youngest members of that bodj'. He was Chairman of the Judiciary Committee during the first two years of his term, and the next two years he held the honorary position of President of the Senate. Dur ing this time he acted with the Republicans on impor tant party questions, and at the close of his term he was received with approval by his constituents, and in 1866 his political friends used their influence in the endeavor to secure him a seat in the United States Senate. The position was lost, however, by his competitor for the nomination receiving one vote more than Mr. Mitchell. He had during these years succeeded in building u]d a large laAv practice, his success being due to a quick per ception, a sound judgment and business tact, united with the natural characteristics of remarkable ambition, energy, and perseverance. In 1865 he was commissioned Lieutenant-Colonel of the State Militia by Governor Gibbs. In 1867 he was chosen Professor of Medical Jurisprudence in Willamette University, Salem, Ore. This honorary seat he held for four years. In Octo ber, 1862, he formed a law partnership with Hon. J. N. Dolph, now his colleague in the United States Senate. This partnership lasted eleven years, during Avliich time the firm acquired a legal reputation second to none in the State of Oregon. Mr. Mitchell was for several years the attorney for the Oregon and California Rail- roa,d Company and the North Pacific Steamship Trans portation Company of San Francisco, and in 1873, when called on to assume the duties of United States Sena- 276 THE STORY OF OREGON. tor, his law practice extended to the courts — I'ederal, Territorial, and State — of not only Oregon, but also of AVashington and Idaho. During all this period he continued to take an active interest in politics, and in 1872 he was elected to the United States Senate. In this body he at once took a leading position. He was placed on various committees, and took an active part in the debates. He served as a member of the Committee on Privileges and Elections, Commerce, and Claims ; was also made Chairman of the select Committee on Trans portation Routes, and it was in this position that Sen ator Mitchell was enabled to do the greatest service for his adopted State, as during the summer of 1873 he visited the Pacific coast and personally investigated the naviga tion facilities of the Columbia River, and at the next ses sion of Congress submitted a carefully arranged report to the Committee on Transportation Routes, in which he recommended a large appropriation for the mouth of the Columbia River, and also an appropriation for a survey at the Cascades, with a view of ascertaining the cost and advisability of constructing canal and jlocks. This report was incorporated into the Committee report without alteration ; and, based on this report, the appropriations were made at the next session of Congress. Senator Mit chell's term of office expired March 4th, 1879, and the next Oregon Legislature being Democratic, he resumed his law jDractice in Portland. In the fall of 1882, when the Oregon Legislative Assembly convened, by the ear nest solicitation of party friends, he allowed his name to be submitted as a candidate for re election to the United States Senate. A caucus was held, composed of thirty- six members, being exactly two thirds of the Republican majority on joint ballot, which resulted in his unanimous nomination, A most exciting contest followed, which lasted until the last day and hour of the forty days' ses sion. Forty-six ballots were the number required to elect, and Mr. Mitchell, " never falling below thirty -nine, and rv>2^, jf /J ^ f THE STORY OF OREGON. 279 occasionally reaching forty -two, held his strength during seventy-seven consecutive ballots, and until the last minutes of the expiring session." It was at this critical juncture that Mr. Mitchell manifested magnanimity and nobleness of character, which still further endeared hiih to the hearts of his friends. Realizing that he could not be elected, he AAithdrew from the contest, and besought his friends, Avho had so earnestly stood by him during the forty days, to support his friend and former law partner, Hon. J. N. Dolph, who was elected. Thus ended the long and bitter contest, without parallel in the political history of the State, for the personal character of the fight. On Mr. Mitchell's return to Portland, after the adjournment of the Legislature, he had appar ently lost none of his personal popularity. He was re ceived by the citizens with every show of affection, and ' ' was tendered a reception, which in warmth and cordial ity partook more of an ovation to a successful than to a defeated candidate." Mr. Mitchell again resumed the practice of his profession, with his usual success. At the session of the Legislature of January, 1885, his friends urged him to permit the use of his name for re-election to the United States Senate, but he positively declined. No election was made during that session, and the Gov ernor of the State caUed a, special session to meet in the following November. Senator Mitchell still refused the use of his name until within four or five days before the election, when he reluctantly yielded, and was, on No vember 19th, 1885, again elected to the United States Senate, receiving on the second ballot in joint conven tion the vote of three fourths of all the Republicans and one half of all the Democrats in the Legislature. He took his seat December 17th, 1885 ; his term of service expired March 3d, 1891. He was a,n active and important member of the Committees on Railroads, Transportation Routes to the Seaboard, Claims, Mines and Mining, Post Offices and Post Roads, and special committee to superin- 13 280 THE STORY OF OREGON. tend the construction of a national library. After a year' s service he was made Chairman of the Committee on Transportation Routes to the Seaboard, and in March, 1889, was made Chairman of the Committee on Railroads. No greater compliment can be bestowed upon Senator Mitchell than to carefully prepare a sketch of his life. It is in this that the people can trace the nobleness of his character, the quick perceptive ability, coupled with the training and experience of the lawyer ; and the careful, considerate, personal attention he bestows upon the humblest as Avell as the highest of his constituents has endeared him to the hearts of the people of Oregon and his friends at large. On January 13th, 1891, in a Re publican caucus of members of the Legislature of the State of Oregon, aU the Republican members being pres ent, Mr. Mitchell was renominated by acclamation as the candidate of the Republican Party of the State for re election, and on January 20th, 1891, he was elected the third time a Senator from the State of Oregon for the term commencing March 4th, 1891, receiving on first ballot in each House the vote of every Republican mem ber — all of the Republican members elected to the Legis lature being present and voting. His term of serAice will expire March 4th, 1897. Dolph, Joseph N., United States Senator, was born in what was then called Dolphsburg, Tompkins County, N. Y., on the 19th day of October, 1835. After ar riving at the age of eighteen years, he taught school a portion of each year, while acquiring an education and his profession. He studied law with Hon. Jeremiah McGuire, at Havana, N. Y., and was admitted to the Bar at the General Term of the Supreme Court of that State, held at Binghamton in November, 1861. He practiced his profession in Schuyler County, N. Y., during the winter of 1861-62, anci in May, 1862, en listed in Captain Crawford's company, known as the THE STORY OF OREGON. 281 Oregon Escort, raised under an act of Congress for the purpose of protecting the immigration of that year to this coast against hostile Indians, crossing the plains as orderly sergeant of this company. On this trip he lost all his clothing except the suit Avorn by him, together with every dollar of money with which he set out. He arrived in Portland on the 31st day of October, 1862, with only the six months' pay he had received from the Government upon being mustered out of service at Walla Walla, Wash. Terr. Upon his arrival in Oregon, Mr. Dolph at once began the practice of his profession.^ At the beginning of the year 1863, he formed a copartnership with Hon. J. H. Mitchell, which continued for more than ten years, and terminated upon Mr. Mitchell's election to the United States Senate. He was appointed City Attorney for the city of Portland in October, 1864, and held that position about one and a half years, during which time he prepared and proposed important amend ments to the city charter — which were afterward adopt ed — and also revised for publication the ordinances of the city. In January, 1865, Mr. Dolph was appointed by President Lincoln United States District Attorney for the District of Oregon, which position he held until Sep tember, 1866, when he resigned it to take his seat in the Oregon Legislature as State Senator from Multnomah County, in which capacity he served his county during the session of 1866, and took his seat at the beginning of the session of 1868 ; but his seat was contested upon the pretence that no allotment had been made at the previous ; sessions of the Legislature, as required by the constitu tion, and Mr. Dolph was deposed by a strict party vote. He was, however, returned at the general election of 1872 by an increased majority of the votes of his constituents, and sat in the two succeeding sessions of the Oregon Legislature as a Senator for Multnomah County. Mr. Dolph has been an active participant in the politics of the State. He was Chairman of the Republican State 282 THE STORY OF OREGON. Central Committee from 1866 to 1868. He has been an able and eloquent advocate of the principles of the -Re publican Party. He was present at Salem at the meeting of the Electoral College in 1876, and after Governor Grover had given the certificate of election to Cronin, he advised the course adopted by the Republican electors, and on the spot drafted the papers which Avere, by the Electoral Commission, adjudged sufficient to establish the election of Messrs. Odell, Cartwright, and Watts. To his promptness, discretion, and firmness the fortunate result of the matter is largely attributable. In 1876 Mr. Dolph was elected by the Most Worthy Grand Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows of the State of 'Oregon, Most AVorthy Grand Master, and he held that position with great satisfaction to the order for one year. At the annual communication of the Grand Lodge A. P. & A. Masons, in 1882, he was elected Most Worshipful Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Oregon. In Octo ber, 1882, Mr. Dolph was elected to the United States Senate. At that time he was the confidential legal adviser in Oregon of Henry Villard, Esq., the able and brilliant financier who has done so much toward the development of the northwest coast. He was also the consulting at torney of the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company, the Oregon and California Railroad Company, the Oregon Improvement Company, the Oregon and Trans-Conti nental Company, and the adviser of the officers of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company at Portland, and the attorney of other minor corporations. He was also the President of the Oregon Improvement Company, the Vice-President of the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company, and of the Oregon and Trans-Continental Com pany. In 1889 he was elected without opposition by the two Legislative Houses to succeed himself in the United .States Senate, in which he now occupies a position of great influence. He is Chairman of Committee of .Coast Defences, and is an influential member of the THE STORY OF OREGON. 285 Committees of Foreign Relations, Commerce, Public Lands, and Select Committee on Relations with Canada. In October, 1864, he was married to Miss Augusta Mul- key, a beautiful and accomplished woman, who still graces his elegant home. They have six children living. As a lawyer. Senator Dolph is prompt, ready, reliable, and successful. He is devoted to his profession, and has for many years enjoyed a large practice. In personal appearance he is large in figure and of good presence, grave in demeanor, and earnest in expression. He is possessed of all the necessary qualifications to entitle him to offices of honor and distinction, viz., energy, am bition, and unsullied honor. He has had much to con tend with, and may well be called a self-made man ; and the success that has attended his past life is due only to his personal exertions. Slowly and steadily he has advanced in the estimation of the people of Oregon, until to-day he occup)ies the proudest position that a grateful people can bestow upon him. Lord, AA^illiam P. — Residents of Dover, Del., recall a certain young man whose purity of thought and nobil ity of aim distinguished his every action ; whose energy of will and self-originating force were the soul of his char acter — a young man who steadily and conscientiously applied himself from day to day to the duties of Ufe, until now, at this writing, he has gained honorable dis tinction in his adopted State, and a host of admirers salute him as Judge Lord. When he left his native heath for the wilds of the Northwest, it was Delaware's loss and Oregon's gain. He was born in the year 1838. The opening pages in the judge's book of life teem with stir ring scenes and thrilling incidents. From the time that he graduated from Fairfield CoUege, New York, with hio-h honor, and proceeded to read laAv, he became asso ciated AAith movements of prominence. When the dark cloud of the Rebellion wrapped the nation in its awful 286 THE STORY OF OREGON. gloom, young Lord was aniong the first to volunteer. He enlisted in a battalion of Delaware cavalry in the spring of 1862, and rapidly advanced to the position of captain of his company. His fine soldierly ability and natural executive power soon won higher promotions. The rank of major was conferred upon him. Shortly after he plunged into the famous campaigns of the Army of the Potomac. His conduct on the field and in the camp is spoken of by his associates in terms of high praise. The end of that terrible struggle came at last, and the young- patriot returned home to resume his legal studies at the Albany Law College. A leader in war, he was likewise to the front in peace, and before long he graduated from the law school with an honorable record, prepared to enter at once on the practice of his profession. But his services were in demand elsewhere. His old army com rades offered him a permanent lieutenancy in the Regu lar Army. He accepted, and found himself assigned to the Pacific slope. From this point, shortly after the United States purchased Alaska from Russia, he Avas despatched to the newly acquired territory, where his command took formal possession of the immense tract. These duties completed, William Lord determined upon carrying out his original design of practising law. While canvassing the merits of Salem, Ore., as a locality for his business, he met Colonel N. B. Knight, a legal friend and a companion in war. The two joined fortunes, and the firm became noted as a leading light in the legal world. When Mr. Lord was chosen for the bench the partnership expired. The period of Judge Lord' s acces sion to magisterial office marks an important epoch in his career. He stood upon the threshold of a fine polit ical future. He enjoyed the confidence of the people, and laurels were his. In 1878 the Republican Party of Marion County elected him to the State Senate. After serving one session he resigned to accept the nomination of his party for Judge of the Supreme Court. He was THE STORY OF OREGON. 287 elected to this office in 1880, and became Chief Justice. An interesting diversion occurred at this stage. The judge made an important journey to Baltimore. Shortly after he returned to Salem, but not alone. He was ac companied by Miss Juliette Montague, one of the beau tiful daughters of the Monumental City, who now came back with the popular Oregonian to reign as the queen of his home; Three bright children now assist her in mak ing the judge's life an endless round of pleasure. The year 1882 witnessed the re-election of Judge Lord to his seat in court. At his next and third election, 1888, he polled the highest vote ever cast for any candidate in the State of Oregon. " The strong man and the waterfall," says the proverb, " channel their own path." The ener getic spirit of Judge Lord won a way for himself. Born in 1838, his prime of life has arrived, fraught with the good measure of prosperity, which is the rightful meed for his industry and patience. In passing upon his char acter, particular mention must be made of his disposition on the bench. His largeness of mind, depth of thought, appreciation of the lofty, experience of the world, deli cacy of manner, tact and energy in action, love of truth, honesty, and amiability — all combine to make him an honored magistrate. The memory of man will credit him with great services rendered in various fields, and with a character formed by a union of the best qualities — industry, perseverance, truthfulness, and courage. Thayer, William Wallace, is the grandson of a hero of the Revolution, and his father fought with honor in the War of 1812. The latter settled on a farm near Lima, Livingston County, N. Y., where he was a man of prom inence, and where he reared a large family, his sons all becoming prominent and successful lawyers. Three of these sons, E. Thayer, A. J. Thayer, and the subject of this sketch, were in partnership for a time in the prac tice of their profession at Buffalo, N. Y. WUUam Wal- 288 THE STORY OF OREGON. lace Thayer was born at Lima on the 15th- day of July, 1827, and laid the foundation for his long life of labor by spending his boyhood upon his father's farm, developing his muscles, and thoroughly enjoying the out-door life of a farmer's boy, and as he grew' older, attending the neighborhood school in winter. His education was largely self -acquired, but he had a taste for books, and read deep wherever opportunity offered. Like his older brothers, he was ambitious to shine as a lawyer, and he early directed his studies to that end. He did not con fine himself to the usual course of elementary laAv books, however, but familiarized himself with the reports of cases in his native State, and took a collateral course of reading in history and biography, and finally attended lectures at Rochester, N. Y. Here he was admitted to practice by the Supreme Court of the State in March, 1851. Ih November, 1852, he married Miss Samantha C. Vincent, of Tonawanda, N. Y. He practised his pro fession at Tonawanda and Buffalo until the spiring of 1862, when he emigrated overland to Oregon, following his brother, Judge Andrew J. Thayer, to Corvallis, where the latter had been living since 1853. In the summer of 1863 he removed to Lewiston, Idaho, where he was elected a member of the Legislature and afterward Dis trict Attorney. Resigning the latter office in 1867, he returned to Oregon, and located at Portland. Tavo or three years after the firm of Hill, Thayer & AA-'illiams was organized, and on the retirement of Mr. Hill, the firm continued under the name Thayer & Williams until 1884. On going to Portland, in 1867, Judge Thayer found little difficulty in building up a large clientage. He was then in the full maturity of his powers, and his wide experience and studious habits had well prepared him to take rank with the best lawyers at the Portland Bar. His integrity and earnestness of character, com bined with his geniality and kindliness, won for him friends on every side. While he was always an able ad- ^i^^r^y THE STORY OF OREGON. 291 vocate, his chief advantage at the Bar was in his pro found and yet ready knowledge of the principles of law. He had no love for technicalities or nice discriminations, but he loved justice and the right, and applied the same principles of honor to his professional practice that marked his private life. In 1878 he was elected by a strong personal vote Governor of Oregon. During the four years he filled that office, important reforms were instituted in all branches of the State Government. The judicial system was reconstructed, and the Circuit and Supreme Courts were separated, so that it became Gov ernor Thayer's duty to appoint the judges of the latter tribunal. This he did by selecting men for their qualifi cations, irrespective of political affiliations — a course he also pursued when, through his efforts, the penitentiary, insane asylum, and other public institutions were reor ganized and put upon a substantial basis. In the man agement of the State lands and the school funds reforms were instituted, and, generally, in the a,ffairs of the State true business sagacity and concern for the public Avelfare were manifested. He retired from office in 1882 with the commendation of the citizens, without regard to party, and at once set about the work of rebuilding his neg lected law practice. He had declined re-election as Governor, giving as a reason his preference for private life and the necessity for his attending to his private affairs ; but in 1884, again by force of his personal pop ularity, he was chosen to fill the office of Judge of the Supreme Court, made vacant by the expiration of the term of Judge Watson. As a judge, the training he had at the Bar has had ample opportunity to justify the ex pectations of those who elected him. He is especially marked for his unvarying desire to "do equity." His ripe knowledge and wide experience supplement an intu itive perception of underlying legal principles. He has that native common-sense, or well-balanced judgment, that is often called a legal mind, so that in the maze of 292 THE STORY OF OREGON. reasons pro and con, he sees as by instinct the law applicable to the case. In writing his opinions, he is especiaUy careful to state the case fully and fairly, and to the laborious duties of his office he gives patient and ccmscientious study and earnest effort to do what is right. By force of the Constitution, Judge Thayer became Chief Justice of the Court in 1888, his term expiring July 1st, 1890. His wife is still living, and is a congenial and companionable helpmeet. They have one son, Claude Thayer, Esq., a lawyer and banker at Tillamook, Ore. Stuahan, R. S. — June, 1886, marks a memorable period in the political annals of Oregon. The election of State officers held the attention of the people. Republicans and Democrats by the thousand ignored partisan sentiment and voted for the man of their choice. The result was enveloped in mystery. Hitherto the State had been re garded as safely Republican, but the present campaign was remarkably close. AVhen the story of the ballot- box was known, the news flashed to the four cardinal points of the compass that Reuben S. Strahan, a Demo crat, of Albany, Ore., had been elected Supreme Judge by a good majority. Judge Strahan had come to Oregon in 1864, locating at Corvallis. He was esteemed as a shrewd, sagacious lawyer, and rose rapidly in his profes sion. When, in 1868, the office of District Attorney re quired an incumbent, public attention was directed toAvard the Corvallis counsellor, and the result was that Mr. Strahan received the honor. He filled the position with high ability and probity, and in 1870 Avas elected State Senator from Benton County. Following this came his celebrated victory in the campaign of 1886, which placed him on the Supreme Bench. Throughout his illustrious career, the judge has evinced an indomitable spirit and mental power, which, founded in the pure atmosphere of his early life on the farm, have strengthened and in creased in force until now they overcome everything. He THE STORY OF OREGON. 293 was born in the Blue Grass State in 1835. His boyhood days were spent on the Platte Reserve, Mo., and for years he was on intimate terms with the plough and other agricultural implements, which have been the ac quaintances of so many prominent men in their early days. The country school supplied young Reuben with an elementary education, and the polish of an academic course followed later. This prepared him for his cher ished ambition — the study of law — and in 1856 he began his attack on legal knots. The quickness and readiness with which he seized upon CA^ery point, his natural apti tude for clever argumentation, and his abiUty to reason clearly and concisely brought about a speedy result. Within one year he was admitted to the Bar, and the courts of Milan, Mo., immediately had an opportunity to judge what manner of man he was. The nature of the judgment was favorable, for soon after the bright young advocate made a stir which reached from one end of Sullivan County to the other. Popular interest in his welfare was aroused. The citizens of the district stood ready to promote him in life. He was appointed Probate Judge, and for four years discharged the duties of that office in a way which won the everlasting esteem and good-will of the jjeople. The next chapter in Judge Strahan' s life begins with his migration to Oregon. In this commonwealth he pursued a straight course of honor and dignity, which eventually crystallized in his accession to a seat on the bench of the Supreme Court. Always a man of incorruptible integrity and unshaken firmness, he is the friend of justice and virtue. His appearance is strongly indicative of his character. It exhibits - the most striking representation of dignity and high motives. Vigorous and broad-shouldered, he attracts favorable notice from all. In his range in life he has acted his part honestly and honorably and to the best of his abil ity. His gifts are employed in the furtherance of truth and justice. His abiding sense of duty prevails at all 294 THE STORY OF OREGON. times. It upholds him in his highest attitudes, and sus tains him equally in the transaction of the ordinary affairs of every-day existence. His written opinions are remarkable for elegance of diction, purity of taste, and beauty of sentiment. All in all, the type of true man hood is shoAvn to perfection in the person of Judge Reuben Strahan. Mallory, RuFus. — Mr. Mallory was born in Chenango County, N. Y., June 10th, 1831. In the fall of the same year the family moved to Allegany County, and re mained there and in the adjoining county of Steuben until 1865. At the age of twenty-four Rufus went West and settled at New London, Henry County, la. In the fall of 1858 he made up his mind to visit the Pacific coast, and started for Oregon, arriving in the Territory on New Year's Day, 1859. He settled at Roseburg, Douglas County. Having studied law and been admitted to the Bar, Mr. Mallory was elected, in 1860, Prosecuting Attorney for the First Judicial District of Oregon, and served a term of two years. He did his work ably and conscientiously. In 1862 he was elected to the Legisla ture from Douglas County. Toward the close of that year he left Roseburg and settled at Salem. Mr. Mal lory was appointed by Governor Gibbs Prosecuting At torney for the Third Judicial District, and in 1864 was elected to the same office. Two years afterward he was chosen Representative in Congress from Oregon, and served one term. He was Speaker of the House in the State Legislature of 1872, and was an efficient and im partial presiding officer. President Grant appointed Mr. Mallory to the responsible position of United States Dis trict Attorney for Oregon, in 1874, and he was reap pointed by President Hayes, holding the office for eight years altogether. In 1882 he was sent on special public business by the Treasury Department to Singapore, and fulfilled his mission satisfactorily. After completing his THE STORY OF OREGON. 297 business in that distant city, instead of returning by the way he went, he determined on circumnavigating the globe. He pushed forward, crossed the Indian and Atlantic oceans, reached New York, and continued his journey homeward. The entire trip lasted five months, sev enty-eight days having been actually spent in travelling. Mr. Mallory commenced the practice of his profession at Portland in 1883. He is justly regarded as one of the ablest advocates in the State, and occupies a high place in the estimation not only of his professional brethren, but of the public generally. The many trusts which during a busy lifetime have been placed in his hands have been discharged honorably and faithfuUy. In the Oregon Legislature ; in the National Capital ; as prosecut ing officer of the State, as well as of the United States ; as representatiA'e of his country abroad — in all these capacities he has been true to his record as an able, up right, honorable man and public official. Shaav, T. C. — Page after page of Oregonian history blazes with the brilliant achievements of the early set tlers. Among those whose enUghtened deeds shed a lustre on the fair name of the State is the Hon. T. C. Shaw. His eventful life began with the date of Febru ary 23d, 1823. Clay County, Mo., was his birthplace. His father was Captain Williain Shaw, who came from Eastern Tennessee, and his mother was Sarah Gilliam, a sister to the noted General Gilliam. In his tenth year the original of this sketch accompanied his father to Northern Missouri, where the family located in the valley of Grindstone Creek, Clinton County. Between tilling the soil and taking care of live stock, young Shaw had his hands full. He was never a stranger to work, and the habit of doing things readily and quickly clings to him still. When he was fifteen years of age his parents migrated to the picturesque country threaded by the west fork of the Platte River. At this point the boy 298 THE STORY OF OREGON. was forced to combat a serious obstruction. In the primitive stage of civilization reached by that section the school-house had not yet begun to cut any great figure. There were no means at hand for young Shaw to acquire even the rudiments of education. Notwithstanding this disadvantage, he worked over such books as fell in his way in the course of his labors, and succeeded in learning much in after years, demonstrating what an iron Avill he possessed, and the great results which he could attain alone and unaided. Intelligence began to arrive in Missouri of the unparalleled wealth hidden in the rich, ncAv soil of the grand Willamette Valley ih Oregon. All eyes were turned to the Pacific coast. In a brief space Mr. Shaw had decided what to do. He would go West and cast his lot in the Garden of Oregon. The next long train of emigrant wagons which set out to cross the plains saw the Shaw family one of the party. General Gilliam was in command at the start, but later the company separated into smaller sections, all arriving safely at The Dalles in the middle of November. The hand of sick ness suddenly fell upon young Shaw. He was afflicted with typhoid fever. Through Aveeks of suffering he lay between life and death, compelling his parents to delay their AVestern trip. The winter dreariness was bright ened by the rare kindness and favors shown by Rev. A. P. Waller to the family. In the spring health again re turned to young Shaw, and the Westward journey was resumed. The family drifted in boats down the Colum bia, and drove the stock along the half- obliterated path made by the redmen. The trip through this section was superb, but practical considerations interfered with a full enjoyment of the sublime scenery. The provisions rap idly disappeared. Something had to be done. At the mouth of tbe Washougal River, the Hudson's Bay Com pany required workers to turn out shingles and saw logs. Mr. Shaw and his son were engaged, and here they toiled through the summer. The autumn season arrived, and THE STORY OF OREGON. 299 the time of departure came with it. The Shaw party moved to the Willamette Valley, and occupied the mis sion farm near Salem. Mr. T. C. Shaw rented a part of the estate from Alanson Beers, who, in the following winter, with the assistance of his tenants, erected a great barn, which is still in existence. Widespread interest was manifested about this time in the proposed construc tion of a wagon road over the Cascade Mountains. Two companies prepared to begin operations on the impor tant highAvay. Mr. T. C. Shaw joined one, headed by General Gilliam and Colonel Waters. The party started with the expectation of building the road through a pass which they believed penetrated the Cascades along -the dividing ridge betAveen the north and south branches of the Santiam ; but when the investigators had explored the mountains for a week, they were confronted by the impassable walls of Shell Mountain. Only a narrow hunting trail skirted the side of the mountain, and it was impossible with the materials then at hand to widen the path into a Avagon road, so the project Avas abandoned. On his return, Mr. Shaw moved to Polk County, residing with his uncle, Mitchel Gilliam, near The Dalles. The frightful massacre of Dr. AVhitman and wife, with some fourteen other white men, was the cause of a Govern ment call for troops, and Mr. ShaAv enlisted at once at Portland. 1848, serving as second lieutenant of Captain J. C. Owen's company. He achieved a name for brav ery and fearlessness in the war which Avill stand as an indelible record in the chronicles of military perform ances. At the end of the war he returned to his plough, but a stirring event occurring just then induced him to travel again. The gold fever of ' 49 broke out OA^er the country. Mr. Shaw went to California, spent a year in the "diggings," and then took up his residence at his father's home on Howell Prairie. Shortly after he Avas united in marriage with Miss Josephine Headrick by Elder G. 0. Burnett, of the Christian Church. Years of wed- 300 THE STORY OF OREGON. ded happiness now brightened the life of the hardy pioneer. In his pleasant home, on a claim near Salem, Ore. , he with his beloved wife saw their children grow ing up around them — Mary Jane, now the wife of Dr. S. C. Stone, of Milton ; Elizabeth E., married to J. C. Lewis, of near Salem ; Thurston T., who is wedded to Miss Lulu Lowe, of Salem ; Minnie N., who recently suffered an affliction in the death of her husband, Leon W. Smith. Death entered the household, and took one son, Grandi- son B. The honors of office have frequently been ex tended to Mr. Shaw by his fellow-citizens. They recog nize in him a man of sound sense and keen penetration ; of great prudence and practical wisdom ; of patient inves tigation and singular perseverance, and of distinguished moderation and equanimity. In 1864 he. was elected Commissioner of Marion County ; two years later he was re-elected to the office ; in 1870 he was chosen Assessor, and was again honored with a second term ; then he be came Sheriff, and after a brief interim of private life was called upon to act as County Judge, in 1882, and in 1886 he was again placed in the same position— his re peated success in political Ufe attesting fully his popu larity with the people. Strowbridge, Joseph Alfred, is another example of the farm-boy in commerce. Trained at the handle of the plough, he afterward rose to a high position in the mercantile interests of Oregon. He was born in Mon tour County, Pa., in 1835, and shortly after lived in Marion County, O., where he spent his boyhood farming. The district school furnished him the slight means of education which boys of those days received ; but with the assistance of an aunt's tutelage, Joseph acquired several scholarly attainments which improved his studies greatly. At the age of only fourteen he success fully passed an examination for teachers, and was en gaged to take charge of a school. The young man C^-^^ny THE STORy OF OREGON. 303 planned to take a higher course, and prepared to enter the Ohio AVesleyan University, when his whole career was changed by the determination of his father to emigrate to Oregon. In the fall of 1851 they started across the several States, stopped over the winter at St. Joseph, Mo., and in the following spring renewed their long journey. On October 3d, 1852, the emigrant train entered Portland, twelve months after leaving their home in Ohio. A few days after his arrival in Oregon Mr. Strowbridge was afflicted with the mountain fever, and died at Portland. The first AAiiolesale boot and shoe business in Portland was established by the firm of Wiberg & Strowbridge. It proved a highly profitable venture. In 1869 the sub ject of this sketch retired from the partnership and established a boot and shoe supply dej)ot, an enterprise which prospered from the start. He was married, July 4th, 1864, to Miss Mary H. Bodman, of Oxford, O. They have been favored with five children — Joseph A., Jr., who assists his father ; Alfred B., who manages a Clacka mas County farm ; George H., Avho OAvns a pharmaceu tical establishment in Portland, and Harry H. and Mary H., Avho are at home, attending school. Smith, Hiram. — Captain Hiram Smith was one of those who first advanced with the march of civilization to that great land of the West^ — the country which was then the grazing ground of wild beasts, but which now is the home of the reaper. He was among that number of bold, brave-hearted pioneers who faced difficulties and dangers to build habitations in-the wilderness. The story of his deeds is one of hardshijD, but triumph, and in the coronet of Oregonians whose memory is deathless his name Avill remain imperishable. Hiram Smith was born in Danville, N. Y., in 1810. The vast territory west of the Mississippi was then the uppermost topic in the minds of the people, and in his childhood Hiram heard .the .wonders of that far-off region discussed over ' 14 ' 304 THE STORY OF OREGON. and over again. He was filled with a desire to see and explore the new fields. When he grew older his friends were suddenly apprised of his intention to go West. One day he left his New York home and started for Cleveland. His career there was crowned by his marriage with Miss Hannah M. Stone, a girl pioneer from Rut land, Vt., whose mother was connected with the cele brated financier. Jay Cooke. Mr. Smith's movements were confined for a time to Ohio. From Findlay, the city of natural gas, he and his wife moved to Waterville, where he manufactured the first fanning mills in Ohio. Then he left the Buckeye State and started on the great journey to the Northwest in company with Colonel Ris- lay and Colonel Taylor. A survey of the Puget Sound region and other portions of Oregon convinced Mr. Smith of the vast resources . of the new State, and he returned to Ohio filled with information of the beauty and fertility of Oregon. His friends heard his accounts with keen interest, and in 1850 they organized a party, headed by Captain Smith, to set out for the new region. Mrs. Smith accompanied her husband. They located at Port land. Within a few days Mr. Smith started a mercan tile establishment, which he conducted ably, but which failed woefully to produce any great financial results. He drove out on the plains with provisions to meet in coming emigrant trains, and disposed of whatever goods he could at reasonable prices, but cash was sadly lacking in many instances, and his occupation became unprofit able. Another year, and he with his wife crossed the plains once more. They travelled on horseback, and their eyes were turned toward the East. It was the eighteenth anniA'ersary of their marriage, and they were celebrating it by a trip to Ohio. Exclusive of a three weeks' stop at Salt Lake the two were sixty days in the saddle. On their return to Oregon they completed the circle by a voyage to the Pacific via Panama. Mr. Smith resumed his mercantile business at Portland, and while THE STORY OF OREGON. 305 thus engaged encountered a perilous experience with Indians. During a trip to the Southern Oregon mines with two loads of goods, a band of savages suddenly bore down upon the teams and murdered one of the drivers. The others escaped, and the Indians raided the stock, butchered the oxen, and burned the wagons. Mr. Smith, accompanied by his wife, was riding on horseback, two days behind, and through this fortunate circum stance was not subjected to immediate danger. In 1859 Mr. Smith and hi^ wife returned again to Findlay, O., and three years later they crossed the plains once more for Oregon, where they continued their Portland career with renewed interest. The year 1865 saw Captain Smith start on his sixth trip over the prairies. He went to Hancock County, O., sold out his property there and returned to his prosperous business in Oregon. Before leaving Ohio he gave $1000 to the trustees of Findlay to be devoted to the purchase of coal for the widows or children of soldiers. This fund has since greatly in creased, and is now partly employed in buying fuel for poor seamstresses. His benevolence extended to many other deeds of kindness, and wherever he could lend assistance without discovery he felt the most happy. Upon his death, in 1870, charity lost in him a bountiful giver. Mrs. Smith still resides in Portland, where she continues the generous work of benevolence, which was her husband' s chief source of pleasure. Smith, Thojuas. — The subject of this sketch, one of the earliest pioneers of Southern Oregon, Avas born in the year 1824, in the town of Henley, Oxfordshire, Eng land. His parents left England May 10th, 1830, for New York with their family, and arrived in that city July 7th of the same year. The party remained in that city but four days, when they pushed on for Rochester, N. Y., which at that time was a small town. Intending to locate there permanently, the family were led by the ill- 306 the story of OREGON. health of Mrs. Smith to seek another locality, and push ing on to the westward, they found a home for a few years at Euclid, 0. Another removal brought them to a permanent home at Michigan City, Ind., and since that time Mr. Thomas Smith has, to use his own language, lived practically a pioneer life. An incident of the early settlement of the family in Indiana was mentioned by Mr. Smith. It was three months after ' ' driving their stakes" in that State before his mother saw the face of a white woman. Up to April, 1847, Mr. Smith, being twenty -three years of age, had never travelled except in company with his family. Finding Northwest Indiana unhealthy, and being imx)elled by the migratory spirit of his race, he and a younger brother made preparations for a trip with an ox-team across the continent, their objective point being Oregon. Mr. Smith's story of his trip "the plains across," here reproduced in nearly his own language, is interesting as illustrating the nothing less than heroic spirit of the men who conquered the West for civilization. It is an oft-told tale, but none the less fascinating to those Avho took part in the work and their descendants to the third and fourth generation. Mr. Smith and his brother took leave of their relations and friends on the afternoon of April 9th, 1847, and started with "the world before them where to choose." They crossed Illinois and a corner of Iowa all right, but on reaching Missouri, wet weather, mud, s-woUen streams without bridges or ferries made it "rough travelling." However, the young adventurers finally succeeded in reaching St. Joseph, Mo., on May 21st, and after a rest of two days struck out, and making a march of fifteen miles halted to commence the serious work of their expedition. A company was formed, seventy-two wagons making up the cavalcade. The party thus organized travelled to gether one day, when disagreements arose, and they divided into two nearly equal parts. Mr. Smith's divi sion as it passed along admitted stragglers from time to MRS. JOSEPH KELLOGG. THE STORY OF OREGON. 309 time, until forty-seven Avagons were packed in the night camps. Matters Avent along smoothly until the captain, not heeding warnings given him, ordered camp pitched Avhere neither grass nor water was to be had, an act which led to revolt. Twelve of the party did not wait for orders the next morning, and they, including Mr. Smith and brother, started with " the peep o' day" and made grass and water. By the time the remaining thirty-five wagons came up the seceding twelve were ready to take up the line of march, and did so, and did not see their companions again until ten days after their arrival in Oregon. This incident well illustrates the self-reliant, independent spirit of the pioneers of the great West. Mr. Smith's party of twelve (wagons) pursued the even tenor of their way until they were pretty well up the Sweetwater River, when another division left only eight wagons in his party ; they reached the mouth of Raft Creek where it empties into Snake River, when some went one way and some another ; reinforcements, how ever, swelling the Smith train to eleven Avagons with sev eral families, their route being up Raft Creek, until they reached the extreme head of the Humboldt River, Avhere for a couple of days they knew what it was to be short of these indispensable commodities after leaving that stream. Among those in this train of eleven there were fifteen men and boys capable of standing guard. What little annoyance the party had with Indians com menced here. Two oxen were stolen by the redskins, which, however, they recovered, discharging the culprits after keeping them under guard all night. A week after ward, in spite of redoubled vigilance, the party had one ox killed within one hundred and fifty yards of camp and six driven off the trail, which they failed to find after a day's search. Two more oxen were stolen in the Little Pass and were never found, and here it was found neces sary to kill an Indian who persisted in prowling around the camp. Two days afterward the camp was aroused 310 THE STORY OF OREGON. by cries of " Indians ! Indians ! Save me, save me, for God's sake ! They have got me 1" and it was supposed that one of the guard had been captured, but they found them all right, but a large body of Indians were executing an impromptu war dance on the side of a neighboring hill. On the same day the party passed over a divide to the waters of Goose Lake. The soil was light and dry to dustiness and the wind blow ing a gale, raised clouds of dust, so that the drivers could not see the length of their teams. Here the In dians began shooting arrows at the party, but no one Avas hurt. From this time the Indians ran away at their approach until Rocky Point, on Rogue River, was reached, when they began visiting the camp, but refrain ing from wrongdoing until they came to AA'olf Creek, where an ox and an American mare were stolen. The party arrived at the head of the coast fork of the Willa mette River on October 24th, in the evening, and two days afterward camped on the site of what is now the pleasant, prosperous, and beautiful city of Eugene. There they met the first white people they had seen in all the broad domain which was then the Territory of Oregon, they being Eugene F. Skinner, wife, and child, and a few persons who were their guests. Here the party disbanded and went their several ways. Mr. Smith kept on down the AVillamette River until he reached Butteville, in Champrez (now Marion) County, and after remaining a few days, returned to the neighborhood of Eugene City. Here the gold fever claimed him as a victim, and in company with John Aiken he started to California, and, retracing his steps, pushed on until he reached the present site of Roseburg, where he bought the ferry on the North Umpqua, and after running the ferry until the following spring, moved up the river to a place now called Winchester, and located his donation claim cm the north side of the river, twenty- five miles in advance of all other settlements. Mr. Aiken THE STORY OF OREGON. 311 returned from California and located his claim on the south side of the river. Here Mr. Smith has made his home ever since. In June, 1852, he was elected County Commissioner. In October of the same year he was mar ried to Miss Arethusa E. Lynn, his present wife, who has borne him twelve children, ten of whom are still living. In 1854 he was appointed Postmaster of Win chester, and held the position six years. In 1874 he was elected County Judge as an Independent, over a fusion candidate, the Republicans and Democrats uniting on the opposition candidate. Since then he has been chosen a number of times as County Stock Inspector, School Director, and Road Supervisor. Here at his home of forty years Mr. Smith, at an advanced age, takes his ease, surrounded by family and friends, as becomes a State builder who has done his duty as a citizen. Buchtel, Joseph. — The typical Western man is popu larly conceived as a man of liberal ideas, of generous and hospitable instincts, imbued with a spirit of adventurous enterprise, and withal hardy and courageous. He is a friend to his friends, a man of sterling integrity and of firmness of character develojied by habits of self-reli ance ; this character is aptly illustrated in Joseph Buch tel. He was born in Uniontown, Stark County, O., November 22d, 1830. When but four years old he was sent with his brothers and sisters to the district school, where for seven years young Buchtel struggled with mathematics, geography, and the other early branches of study. His school course was interrupted by his f amUy removing to Urbana, 111. ; he, however, continued his studies in the little log School-house at Urbana for two years, when the death of his father necessitated his leaving school and aiding in the support of his family ; he was accordingly apprenticed to the tailor's trade, which, however, became so distasteful to him that he soon gave it up. We next find him engaged in farming. 312 THE STORY OF OREGON. This he continued for a little while ; he then took a position as clerk in a store, which he relinquished to be his own master. He had purchased a daguerreotype outfit and for a while he made daguerreotypes, meeting with moderate success. He was then appointed Deputy Sheriff of Champaign County, and acted in this capacity until the spring of 1852, when he joined the overland train of I. R. Moores, for Portland. After nearly six months of travel, amid perUs and privations, at times reduced to the verge of starvation, again at the mercy of outlaws and Indians, Mr. Buchtel, with a scant number of survivors, reached Portland utterly penniless, but with good, honest hearts filled with thankfulness for their safe arrival, and with hope for the future. He soon ob tained employment at cutting five acres of oats, for which he was paid $25. This enabled him to remain unem ployed for a time while he looked around. Meeting an old friend in Oregon City, he obtained through him an introduction to Captain L. AA'hite, of the steamer Shoal water, who gave him a permanent position which he held for five years. During his life on the river he had many thrilling adventures, and had we the space to re count the hair-breadth escapes and daring ventures made by him to save his vessel or lives of the men in peril, it would fill a volume. Thirty-five years ago he established a photograph gallery in Portland ; he continued it many years, and during his management " The San Francisco Gallery" could compete wit,h any in the Northwest. In 1865 he was elected Chief Engineer of the Fire Depart ment, and was re-elected in 1866. In 1874 he Avas made Grand Representative of the I. O. O. P., and went with that order to Atlanta, Ga. In 1880 he was elected Sheriff of Multnomah County, and filled the requirements of this office 'for two years in an efficient manner. Mr. Buchtel has also distinguished himself in the inventive line, having invented several improvements in the photo graphic art, also miscellaneous articles, such as the ' ' tele- iu^ y^^^ct^p/— THE STORY' OF OREGON. 315 graph fire hose," which was patented in 1872, a coupling for the same, patented the next year, a hand fire-extin guisher, and a wire fence-post. Mr. Buchtel' s domestic life has been a singularly happy one. He married Miss Josephine Labourette, of Oregon City, in 1855 ; they have had seven children, five of whom are living. Such is a brief history of one of Oregon's representative busi ness men. Lively, energetic, and ambitious, he is still climbing the ladder of success. He has hosts of friends, a kind word for all, and is a popular and widely esteemed citizen of Oregon. Burnett, John. — Prominent among the self-made men of Oregon is Mr. John Burnett, who was born in Pike Couiity, Mo. , July 4th, 1831. He had the misfortune of losing his father while yet a boy, and he found him self beginning the battle of life at the age of fifteen. His first experience was as an errand boy in a store, but the confinement did not suit his temperament, so in a year he hired out to work on a Mississippi fiatboat. When ever an opportunity presented itself he went to school, and finally obtained as much knowledge as is usually dispensed by country teachers. . The practical education obtained through his intercourse with the world stood him in better need, however, than the instruction he received at school. The California gold fields attracted thousands of people from all parts of the world in the spring of 1849, and the subject of our sketch, though only eighteen years old, caught the fever, and, obtaining an outfit from a relative, started across the plains to make a speedy fortune. On September 10th of that year he arrived at Sacramento, and immediately threw him self with energy into the mining business. As a sort of relief to the monotony of gold-digging he dealt in cattle, and between both occupations ma(le some money, though not nearly so much as he had anticipated. Still he pros pered from the beginning, giving close attention to busi- 316 the STORY OF OREGON. ness all the time. In the spring of 1858 he moved to Oregon and settled in Benton County, where he has resided since. Mr. Burnett took an active interest in politics from the time of his arrival in Oregon. He was candidate for State Senator in 1862, and came within twenty-five votes of election. He was much interested in military matters, and aided in raising the first com pany of the regiment called for at the opening of the RebeUion. In 1868 he was Presidential Elector on the Democratic ticket, and in 1870 he was chosen County Judge of Benton County, a position which he held for four years, and in which he discharged his duties in such a manner as to command universal approval. In 1874 Judge Burnett was elected Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the State, and remained in office until 1876. Two years subsequently he was sent to the Legis lature as Senator from Benton County. As Chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the Senate his labors were unceasing and were fully appreciated by his colleagues. Governor Thayer appointed him Judge of the Second Judicial District, 1882, to fill a vacancy. Since the ex piration of that term of office he has devoted his time to the practice of the law, and has been very successful. He is an advocate of consummate ability. In trial cases he is ' especially forceful. His eloquence is manly, straightforward, and convincing. He has acted for the defence in some of the most noted criminal trials in the history of Oregon, and he has seldom come out . second best. Judge Burnett is held in high regard by his fellow- citizens. Liberal and public-spirited, he has contributed generously to every popular enterprise. The State Agri cultural College owes much to his open -handedness. An upright, honorable man, Avithout piride or ostentation, he has ever sympathized with those in distress, and no ap peal to him for help has ever been denied.^ The career of Judge Burnett is a valuable lesson to those desirous of improving their condition in life by the exercise of THE STORY OF OREGON. 317 honest, straightf orAvard methods. A stranger in a strange land, without money or influence, he first arrived in Corvallis, and had manliness enough to go to work as a day-laborer. Being resolved on achieving success he kept steadily on, watched his opportunities, cultivated his mind, put by a little money for a rainy day, and ultimately prospered. Throughout his whole life he has retained his simple manhood. There is no doubt about the metal of AAdiich the judge is composed. In 1859 Mr. Burnett was married to Miss Martha Hinton, daughter of Hon. R. B. Hinton, of Monroe. The union has re sulted in great happiness. In all there have been seven children, of whom five — three daughters and two sons — are now living. -'o- Catlin, John, has led an actiA-e life, both as a public man and as a private individual ; he has been for many years a prominent figure in the legal, political, and finan cial history of Oregon. From the earliest days of strug gling territorial existence to the present marvellous ad vancement which has been attained in this portion of the Pacific Northwest, he has been a moulding force in the progress of affairs, and a recast of his life very prop erly belongs to the history of the State, where the most important years of his life have been passed. He was born February 6th, 1832, in St. Clair County, III. His early life Avas spent on his father's farm, where he be came acquainted with toil and acquired the rugged physi cal training so essential to pioneer life. His early edu cation was received in the (Ustrict schools of his native State. When sixteen years of age he, with his father' s family, left what civilization Illinois afforded at that early date, and started to cross the great inland desert with the historic emigrant wagon and ox- team. After bearing the hardships of travel and dangers from the ever-watchful Indian foe, they arrived in Oregon and settled in Yamhill County ; but becoming dissatisfied 318 THE STORY OF OREGON. they moved, in 1850, to Cowlitz County, Wash. Terr., Avhere they resided for several years. Here young Catlin resumed his studies at sucjh intervals as he could spare from his labor on the farm, and with a course at both the Salem and Willamette Universities, he was able, at the age of twenty- one, to boast of a very fair education. Being naturally of an ambitious nature, he could not content himself with the life of a farmer, or yet with a mercantile life ; he wisely realized the opportunities afforded in the legal profession, and showing a decided bent in that direction, he resolved to take up the law. He accordingly returned to Illinois, his native State, and under the capable tutorship of Governor A. C. French, he assiduously applied himself to the study of law. In 1863 he was admitted to the Illinois Bar, but thinking that his adopted home in the Northwest afforded greater scope to an actiA^e, energetic young man to attain fame and fortune, he returned to Oregon and began the prac tice of his profession, in which he has continued, with slight interruptions, until the present time. In the be ginning of his professional career he took a somewhat active interest in politics. During the term 1868-69 he represented his county in the Territorial Legislature, and though he has never been an office-seeker, he has been urged to accept the candidacy to many important offices on the Democratic ticket. In 1886 he was elected County Judge of Multnomah Countj' for a term of four years. On October 3d, 1866, Judge Catlin was married to Miss Frances A. Henderson, an accomplished young lady of Yamhill County. They have a family of eight children, and no husband or father was ever more devoted to the domestic hearth than the judge. He is pleasant and agreeable, kind hearted and just in all his dealings, and as a citizen, none is looked up to with more respect than he. As a judge he is conscientious and impartial and gifted with a thorough knowledge of the laAv ; his decisions are listened to with admiration and respect by ROOSTER ROCK, UNION PAC. R. R. THE STOKY OF OREGON. 321 his fellow-lawyers. From the time of his admission to the Bar up to to-day he has had a large and varied practice, and for many years he has been recognized as one of the leading lawyers of the Teriitory and State. His professional career has been distinguished by untiring industry, strict integrity of purpose, and unsAverving fidelity to his clients. He has, moreover, a judicial cast of mind, as has been shown since early manhood. We predict for him many more years of usefulness. Charman, Thomas, has led an active business life in Oregon City for almost forty years. Coming to Oregon when the country was young and there was no settled business, social or political order, he has exerted a con tinually increasing influence in the various lines of de velopment which have added to the wealth and greatness of the State, It is needless to say that he has been a tireless worker, for such results as have crowned his life come to no " idle dreamer of dreams," but instead to the man who has begun far down the hill, and who has patiently and AAith untiring persistence toiled upward, until in time, step by step, he gains the summit toward which he has pushed for years. Thomas Charman was born September 8th, 1829, in the parish of Woking, County of Surrey, England, and was the third of fifteen chUdren. At the early age of eleven young Charman was apprenticed to the bakery and confectionery trade ; he served his apprenticeship of five years, so it can scarcely be said that he had a boyhood, as his life has been full of work since his eleventh birthday. In 1847 he, in company with another lad named Arthur Warner, resolved to seek their fortunes in the New World. They accordingly sailed for America, and shortly after their arrival in New York went to Buffalo, N. Y., where they started in business for themselves under the firm name of " Charman & AA^'arner, caterers and speculators." The business Avith its youthful proprietors flourished and 322 THE STORY OF OREGON. proved a successful undertaking, but about that time the Western fever vvas at its height, and young Charman, not able to resist the temptations offered by the tales of easily made fortunes in the new country, started with hundreds of others to the new land of promise. Upon reaching Indiana he found his stock of funds so ex hausted as to oblige him to discontinue his journeying for a while and seek employment, which he soon found in Centreville, Wayne County, with I. & D. B. Abra hams, merchants, in whose employ he remained until the fall of 1852. The following spring he' continued his western journeying ; he, reached San Francisco and remained in that city a . short time, and then came to Oregon. Upon arriving in Oregon City he decided at once that this place should be his future home. With his old friend Warner he opened a general merchandise store, feeling that this business would prove the most profitable in a country where, after the long and tedious trip across the plains, the settlers had arrived with but the neces saries of life. His success proved the wisdom of this venture, and when the "Hudson's Bay Company" left, so rapidly was his business increasing that he bought out the entire business, at the same time opening up a large outside trade in the natural products of that section, and also dealt largely with San Francisco in flour, butter, and eggs. His enterprise was wonderful, barely starting one project before another was planned ; his business abilities necessarily being of the highest order to have enabled him to attain the success which followed his most unpromising venture. In the opening up of the Willamette Valley products, Mr. Charman Avas one of the prime movers, his evident confidence in the success of the work giving stimulus to his less sanguine co-labor ers. To Mr. Charman is due the leadership in exporting flour from Oregon to England, he having shipped the first cargo to that country from the " sunny slope of the Pacific." The firm of Charman, Warner & Co. con- THE STOliY OF OREGON. 323 tinned until the retirement of Mr. Warner, in 1865. Mr. Charman then continued business with his brother Frederick until the latter's death, when, in 1880, his son Frederick entered the house ; since then the firm name has been " Charman & Son." This business is now in the fortieth year of a prosperous existence. Mr. Charman is also largely interested in several outside in corporations ; he is Vice-President of the " Willamette Transportation and Locks Co.," which has control of the water power about Oregon City. He is President of the Oregon City Bank, which position he has held for the last ten years. He is one of the founders of the Oregon City woollen mills, and was the instigator and one of the founders of the first paper mill in Oregon. Numerous other business enterprises have and are still receiving substantial encouragement from Mr. Charman, who is ever ready to help a deserving object ; his early struggles, discouragements, and hopes having given him a strong sympathy Avith the young man who is trying to win his way by his own energies. Mr. Charman is a stanch Republican in politics and a strong adherent to his party, and as would be the natural consequence of possessing the resptect and confidence of his fellow-men, he has been largely sought after to fill positions of public trust, which, however, he has declined invariably to accept ; other than those involving usefulness without regard to public honors. Mr. Charman has held for seven years the honorable and highly responsible office of Mayor of Oregon City, and has served two terms as County Treas urer. His party have repeatedly urged high public stations on him, which Avould undoubtedly have given renown to his name had he accepted them, but greatly to the regret of the people, he in turn declined the nomi nation for governor and even the use of his name for United States senator, the welfare of his private business and quiet of private life holding forth more attractions for him than the excitement which is the lot of those 324 THE STORY OF OREGON. who enter the arena of political strife. Mr. Charman was one of the few who met in the first Republican Con vention of Oregon, and since the birth of his party at that time he has been most zealous in promoting its wel fare. His influence has always been cast for whatever will add to the city' s prosperity or improve the moral or physical good of his fellows ; and even those who radi cally differ from him on political questions admire his integrity of character and the sincerity of purpose which has ever actuated him. On September 27th, 1854, Mr. Charman was united in marriage to Miss Sophie Diller, the daughter of Joseph and Magdalena Diller, who emigrated from Baden Baden in 1849, and came from Illinois to Oregon in 1852. This union has been blessed with five children, three of whom are now Uving and re siding in Oregon City — Frederick Ross, now in partner ship with his father, Nellie (Mrs. J. H. Walker), and Mary J. Such in brief is the record of one Avhose life has been throughout that of an active, useful, and far- seeing man. He is keen and sagacious in business, and possesses the highest order of financial ability united to the power of apparently unlimited application of mind and body upon any object he undertakes. With a kind ly smile for all and an open and generous heart, he has passed the meridian of life ; he is still hale and hearty, and is likely to be spared to his family and friends for many years to come. Davidson, Thomas L. — But few, if any, stand higher in the estimation of his neighbors and friends in this commonwealth than the subject of this sketch. He is one of the solid men of Oregon, and one of those to whom the early settlers ¦ of the State owe much. Coming to Oregon in the pioneer days, he has made his home here, invested his money in Oregon land, and ever since has had his interests identified with that of the State. He is literally a self-made man, and what success he has met fynyt- THE STORY OF OREGON. 327 with in life has been the result of his own efforts. Al though now nearly sixty years of age, he is in excellent physical and mental condition, and bids fair to live for many years to come. Mr. Davidson was born November 14th, 1833, in Green County, III., where his early boy hood was passed on his father's farm, and attending school during the Avinter months. AVhen thirteen years of age he came with his parents to Oregon. The trip across the plains was the usual one of tedious travel, occupying nearly six months. The little party reached Salem in October of the year 1847, where Mr. Davidson' has since resided. He entered the Willamette University at Salem when quite young, and received a thorough col legiate .education. His tastes, however, inclining more to agricultural pursuits rather than a mercantile or pro fessional life, he yielded to this preference and located on a farm a few miles from Salem, which under his care ful guidance has steadily improved and increased in value, until to-day it ranks among the foremost of the prosperous farms of the State. He has held various official positions in connection with the State Farm As sociation, in the organization of which he was an active worker and is now a valuable member of its Executive Committee. In September, 1889, he was elected Presi dent of the Agricultural Society of Oregon, which im portant position he still holds to the satisfaction of all the members, by reason of his own experience and love for the vocation coupled with distinguished ability, fair ness, and justice. He is now County Judge of Marion County. Judge Davidson was married, July 6th, 1869, to Miss M. S. Melson, a most estimable young lady, who has since proved herself a loving wife and devoted mother to their two sons, Thomas Leon and Lester Mel son, bright and intellectual boys. He is quite a domestic man, being fond of everything pertaining to "home," and seldom is one found of a more congenial nature than he. He is a good and trusty citizen of the olden time in 15 328 THE STORY OF OREGON. Oregon ; as a friend he is true as steel, as a neighbor he is much respected, and as a man his character is above reproach. Goldsmith, Bernard, was one of that hardy band of industrious Germans who emigrated from the Fatherland twoscore years ago to make a home in America. He was only sixteen when he made the trip — 1848 — a momentous period in his hitherto prosaic existence in Bavaria. I'rom the school-room and the associations of boyhood, he made an abrupt plunge for fortune. After weeks of the slow ocean travelling which distinguished that period, the young foreigner found himself set down at Castle Garden. What his feelings were when he set foot for the first time on the soil of the New World, only those who have experienced a Uke sensation can tell. Parading the streets of New York, he soon found means to employ his energies. Industriously applying himself to work, he remained in the metropolis until 1850. At this stage in his progress the country was thrown into wild excite ment by the news which came from the far West that gold lay buried in vast quantities in California, and could be had for only the digging. Young Goldsmith set out at once for the Pacific slope. AVhile the fascinations of mining were most alluring, the shrewd young man saw that there were other golden opportunities offered him in the newly settled region, and when he finally halted in San Francisco he carried out a plan which he had formulated on his way. Leaving his fellow-travellers to pick the shining treasure from the hills and gulches, he engaged in mercantile pursuits. The sure, steady profits of a substantial business satisfied him, and he served many years as a factor in the commercial affairs of early California and Oregon. His headquarters were situated at Crescent City, Klamath County, Cal., and a branch store was established in Jackson County, Ore. His time was divided between these two points, but eventually, THE STORY OF OREGON. 329 1858, he located permanently in Oregon. After a two years' residence in Jackson County, he moved to Port land, the city which now numbers him among her honored citizens. His career from 1861 became marked by a diver sification of industries. From cattle-raising he went to the Willamette and engaged in navigation. This was foUowed by extensive real estate investments, and in 1890 banking claimed his attention. The marked ver satility of the man was not long in being found out. His capabilities were not confined to a narrow field, but em braced a number of qualifications which attracted such attention that in 1872 the citizens of Portland elected him Mayor. His political services did not end here, but found a stiU larger scope in his election to the Chairman ship of the Democratic State Central Committee in the exciting Blaine-Cleveland campaign of 1884. He was re-elected to the same office six years later. Mr. Gold smith has won the esteem of the people through his earnest, steadfast advocacy of aU that tends to enrich the prosperity of his State. He began at the lowest round of the ladder and has climbed to the top, standing on a solid basis of success. Always imbued with the spirit of enterprise, he was the first to accelerate the transporta tion of wheat and other cereals in Oregon by running barges on the Columbia River. Some of the first cargoes of grain ever shipped from Portland direct to England were sent by him. He is not a stranger to military duty, passing through untold danger and hardship in his par ticipation in the Indian War of 1855, all of which reveals the prowess of his nature, the intrepidity of his char acter, and the stanch firmness of his patriotism. Hansen, H., was born in Thorsinge, Denmark, March 1st, 1827. His youth was spent under foreign skies, until, in obedience to the adventurous spirit within him, he became a seafaring man. He shipped to Iceland, a voyage beset with great danger. At the end of a three 330 THE STORY OF OREGON. years' cruise the sailor-boy became possessed of a higher ambition. He entered the Naval College, and at the age of nineteen graduated with high honors. He then shipped on a merchant vessel until the commencement of the Schlesvig-Holstein War, when he served on board two men-of-war for three years. In the fall of 1850, after the close of the war, Mr. Hansen became first mate on board a government sloop plying between Russia and Den mark. He served in that capacity until 1851, when he accepted the more lucrative position of second mate on an American vessel sailing between Liverpool and Boston and New York City and Havana. In May, 1852, Mr. Hansen took an extended trip, by way of Cape Horn, to San Francisco, landing in that city the following Novem ber, after a six months' voyage. Filled with a desire to explore the Pacific slope, he started by vessel for Oregon, but a severe storm wrecked the vessel at the mouth of the Columbia River. After a desperate struggle for their lives, the creAv almost despaired until they were rescued by a life-boat from Astoria. Mr. Hansen reached Astoria, Ore., January 12th, 1853 ; here he engaged in a boating enterprise embracing freight and passenger traffic. In December, 1853, he went to the Rogue River mining district for the purpose of establishing a claim. He was not successful in this venture, but the breaking out of the Indian AVar caused him to return to the Willamette Valley, where he became connected with Leweling & Meek, of Milwaukee, Ore. Three years the nursery and fruit-growing business of this firm occupied his attention. On March 6th, 1856, he was married to Miss Nancy Akin, who emigrated from Iowa with her parents in 1852. Mr. and Mrs. Hansen were blessed with four children. Three children are now living — Fred W. , Charles E. , and Ida E. After his marriage Mr. Hansen removed to Portland, Avhere he embarked extensively in fruit-growing, seeding, and raising a variety of ornamental trees and shrubbery, in which business he is still actively engaged. In 1860 ^¦np^lPGIi^-mxn.TT- T- '^>^^^:^-^^2^-*^,^^ THE STORY OF OREGON. 333 he was elected Commissioner of Multnomah County, and for two years he devoted his entire attention to the duties of this office. In 1873 Mr. Hansen visited his aged mother in Denmark, and while there he spoke in such enthusiastic terms of his adopted country that upon his return to Oregon he was accompanied by fifteen young men and women, emigrants from Denmark. Mr. Hansen is an active worker in city affairs, and was elected Councilman of consolidated Portland in 1891 ; he is ener getic and public-spirited, and has always been found ready to take his stand with every progressive movement of his fellow- townsmen. Whether in business or social circles, he is ahvays the same obliging, liberal gentleman. He is a member of the Methodist Ejjiscopal Church of Portland, and in 1884 he was a lay representative to the General Conference held in Philadelphia, Pa. He takes an active interest in educational matters and is a prominent Odd Fellow. Eldriedge, F. E. — Though his earthly labors are over, and but the memory of one whose " aims Avere noble and methods just" remains, yet that memory is so replete with all that is good that a brief sketch of his life wiU not be out of place in this volume. Mr. Eldriedge was born January 26th, 1826, in Pennsylvania, where he re mained until. 1849, when, lured by the gold excitement of California, he joined the hundreds of fortune- seekers and emigrated to that State, Avhere he toiled in the mines at Feather River, but not meeting with success, he soon gave up the miner's pick and shovel and made his way to Oregon ; his theory being that not the region out of which the gold was dug, but that from Avhich supplies and products were had /or the miners, would obtain the greatest permanent wealth. This consideration, together with what he had heard of the country, led him to the determination of making Oregon his home. He located in Falls City, now Oregon City, and for a short while 334 THE STORY OF OREGON. worked at the carpenter trade, which he had learned in his former home. In 1851 he met and married Miss Anna Cosgrove. Shortly after his marriage he removed to Parkersburg, Ore., where one year later he purchased an interest in the old saw-mill, which he and Mr. Parker rebuilt, also erecting a grist-mill there. This last-named mill has been in constant use for the past thirty-eight years. In the early pioneer days it was the only mill in this section of the country, and was a precious boon to many of the old settlers. In 1857 he purchased the beautiful tract, which by careful cultiva tion proved a most delightful home for himself and family during the remainder of his days. It consists of twenty-three hundred acres, the orchard on the Eldriedge farm bearing the distinction of being the first orchard planted in the State of Oregon. The farm is rich with historical association, the owners often point ing with pride to a point called "the bottom," where the first Legislature met to enact colonial laws. Mr. Eldriedge read law at one time and had a good practice for a few years, but advancing age forced him to give it up and retire to his farm. He never aspired to political honors, but numerous offices of public trust were offered him, which he invariably declined, among them being the honorable seat of County Judge of Marion County. He was finally persuaded by his many friends to run for State Senator on the Democratic ticket, but the county being largely Republican, he was defeated. Mr. Eldriedge was a public-spirited man and always ready to give when occasion required, it for the benefit of his county or State. He erected some years ago a handsome block of build ings at Salem, bearing the name of the "Eldriedge Block. " He was an extensive landowner and realized quite a com petence from different land transactions. He was a nat urally quiet man, preferring to a busy, political life, his home, where his later years were spent surrounded by a large family of devoted sons and daughters. As a citizen THE STORY OF OREGON. 335 and neighbor he had the respect of all classes. He was the poor man' s friend, as weU as of those more fortunate in worldly goods. He was generous and charitable, and gave for the love of giving and not for praise. He was gentle in disposition, seeming anxious at all times to " add to the sum of human joy." He had a kind word for all, and was best pleased when making others happy. He was in full sympathy with the men who labor and toil. He began life in poverty himself and knew what it was to succeed in spite of obstacles. He was a lover of liberty, a friend to the oppressed, and an advocate of universal freedom. His life on earth is now ended ; his friends are left to mourn his loss, and though death has deprived them of his service, it has not taken away the fruits of his labor. Fruits fall to the earth and decay, but never a fruit that did not leave its seed, and never a Ufe that did not leave its example. The sun of man's life goes down, but the star of his example remains fixed in the firmament. Mr. Eldriedge' s career is ended, but his friends take comfort in the record he has left behind — that of a scholar, philanthropist, and patriot. Wiberg, Charles M. — The subject of this sketch was born in Norrkoping, Sweden, March 3d, 1820. At a very tender age he developed qualities which indicated that his career would be successful. His youth and early manhood were spent in various parts of his native land, and he was always industrious, now working at one occu pation, now at another. Finally he made up his mind to learn the shoemaker's trade, and with this object in view became an apprentice. In due course he mastered his business and determined on seeking his fortune beyond the seas. He reached London in 1841, and worked at his trade for nearly three years. A thorough and pains taking artisan, he soon gained the confidence of his em ployers, and was at the same time a great favorite among his toiling brethren. In 1843 young Wiberg sailed for 836 the story of Oregon. the United States. He ascertained that much more money could be earned for the same amount of work in America than in any other country under the sun, so he crossed the Atlantic, fuUy determined on acquiring pecuniary independence. A rriving in New York, he at once turned his attention to business. Until he was thirty years of age he steadily worked at shoemaking. He travelled mucn and sought employment in various States, including New York, Connecticut, Louisiana, and AVisconsin. In 1850 he had accumulated quite a snug sum of money and went into business on his own account ; but his laudable enterprise was soon nipped in the bud by an unlooked-for disaster. A great fire con sumed the block in which he had established his boot and shoe industry, and the savings of years disappeared in less than an hour. His stock in trade was utterly destroyed, and, moreover, he was in debt to the amount of several hundred dollars ; yet this indomitable young man, with the spirit of true heroism, resolved on build ing himself up again and achieving a new independence. The task was extremely difficult, yet he went to work with a stout heart. In 1852 Mr. Wiberg set out on a long journey to Oregon, a territory where he believed he would do well. He went by the way of the Isthmus and reached his destination on July 6th. It is quite needless to say that such an industrious and enterprising man could not remain long idle. He at once took his place on the shoemaker's bench, and, by the practice of strict economy, saved enough money to enable him to open a boot and shoe store within six months after his arrival in the Territory. Mr. Wiberg established the first busi ness of this kind in Portland, and being shrewd, sensible, and industrious, he speedily became prosperous. Like the honest man that he always has been, the use to which he first applied his spare money was the payment of the debts that he had incurred in Milwaukee. He not only paid the principal, but he insisted on paying the interest ^^f-!^ = GK-ir-nmf C'Vy the story of OREGON. 339 in full. He might easily have effected a compromise with his creditors and settled at forty or fifty cents on the dollar, but Mr. Wiberg is not that kind of a man. He has always acted on the principle that the sacred trusts involved in business transactions should be dis charged to the last cent, even if it took a whole lifetime to straighten things out. In 1860 Mr. Wiberg went into partnership with J. A. Strowbridge, the firm name being Wiberg & Strow^bridge. Four years afterAvard they em barked in the wholesale trade, and leather and findings were added to their stock. They did a large business and made money rapidly, but in 1869 they sold out the boot and shoe concern, at the same time continuing to deal in leather and findings. Mr. Wiberg after a while retired to private life and allowed himself a much-needed rest. Subsequently he associated himself with John Kiernan, Avho, in 1882, sold his interest to A. M. HoUa- baugh. The firm has since been known as Wiberg & HoUabaugh. Mr. Wiberg has always taken a great in terest in enterprises outside his regular line of business. He is one of the directors of the Merchants' National Bank of Portland, and holds a similar position in the Pacific Insurance Company. He was one of the original promoters of the Willamette Iron Bridge Company, and is an extensive stockholder in the same enterprise. He has invested much money in real estate and owns valu able property in a,nd around Portland. Mr. Wiberg has been so long associated with the commercial interests of Portland, that no one is better known among business men. His unexampled success, mainly the result of intelligent perseverance combined with strict integrity, has gained for him the confidence of the business world to such an extent that along the Pacific Coast he is uni versally recognized as one of the most honorable and reliable men west of the Rocky Mountains. Even in the famous " Swamp" of New York City, the centre of the leather industries of the United States, the name of 340 THE STORY OP OREGON. Wiberg is held in the highest respect. In 1858 Mr. Wiberg was married to Miss J. Ingram, of Portland. Nine children, eight of whom are living, have blessed their union. Bronaugh, Earl C. — Whatever of praise may be due the man who has, with the advantages of a collegiate education and abundant leisure for study, risen to a position of honor and trust, we must record still greater meed of praise to the youth who, without these advan tages, struggles with adversity and by sheer force of ambition and native integrity attains an education and elevates himself to a place of honor and responsibility. Mr. Bronaugh was born March 4th, 1831, in Abingdon, Va., where his boyhood was passed. When twelve years of age he removed Avith his parents to Shelby County, Tenn. Beset by privations attending pioneer life at that early day, they founded their new home in the woods. Here young Bronaugh spent several years of his life, and though meagre were the facilities, he succeeded in obtaining a fair education. In 1849, when eighteen years of age, he became imbued with the desire to study laAv ; he accordingly entered the office of Hon. J. W. Clapp, who at that time was one of the brightest men of Mississipjji and a well-known lawyer. Here young Bronaugh studied hard for three years, and in this office as student he had an excellent opportunity of gaining a most valuable preliminary legal training. In 1851 he was admitted to the Bar. Like many another young lawyer, finding himself without means he turned his talents to good account by teaching school for two years in Tennessee and Arkansas. In 1854 he married Miss Araminta Payne, of Jacksonport, Ark. He removed with his wife to Brownsville, Prairie County, Ark., Avhere he located and commenced the practice of his profession, doing business then in a little log cabin, both designed and built by himself with the aid of a colored boy, and THE STORY OF OREGON. 341 it was in this humble office that young Bronaugh, by his ambition and native energy and determination, began to achieve success and notoriety, and to lay the foundation of what has proven a most successful legal career. AVhen a boy he was early imbued with the principles of the South. He was never in sympathy with slavery, but was a firm believer in the rights of States sovereignty, and when his native State seceded he went with her heart and soul enlisted in the hopes of the new Confed eracy of States. In 1860 he was elected Judge of the First Judicial Circuit in Arkansas, which office he effi ciently filled until the close of the war. The health of his famUy becoming impaired, he was compelled to leave Arkansas, and as at this time the star of Oregon was just arising in the West, Mr. Bronaugh noticed it, and believing it to be predictive of a glorious future, he decided to cast his fortunes with the new State. The change proved beneficial in all respects, and he has since made it his permanent residence. He soon established a good law practice in Portland, which has steadily grown. For a time he was associated as partner with Hon. .John Catlin, and was two years later invited to become a part ner in the well-known and leading law firm of Dolph, Bronaugh, Dolph & Simon. It has been said that ' ' as a pleader Mr. Bronaugh has very few superiors," and he is thoroughly at home in all branches of his profession ; as a lawyer he holds a conspicuous place, standing among the ablest in the Northwest. With a broad and com prehensive knowledge of the law, united to power of im parting the results of his close investigations with great facility and readiness, he is perhaps more often consulted where clear analysis of the principles of law, applicable to important cases, is required than any other lawyer in Portland. Mr. Bronaugh remained with the last-named firm twelve years, and in 1882 he dissolved partnership, going to California. He located in the Santa Clara Val ley, where the next two years were passed upon a fruit 342 THE STORY OF OREGON. farm. Returning to Portland, he entered the firm of AVhalley, Bronaugh & Northrup, now Bronaugh, Mc Arthur, Fenton & Bronaugh, and has continued in the active practice of his profession ever since. Mr. Bro naugh ranks with the first lawyers of the Northwest, and the firm have a large and laborious practice. As a citizen Mr. Bronaugh is esteemed by all Avho know him. He has a genial smile for all, and is a friend in need to those who are or have been friends to him. Griffin, Rev. J. S., one of the chief actors in the pioneer history of Oregon, is a man of marked versatility. From the pulpit to the political rostrum is a long step, but, like President Garfield, Rev. Griffin has successfully made it. His opportunities for obtaining an education were very meagre. He worked for his father until he was twenty-one, then borrowed a dollar and started out to secure an education. He worked and attended school alternately for several years. One fine quality of his own served in his favor. He was ambitious and anxious to make something of himself ; the even, unbroken travel in a rut did not appear to him ; the future held out grand prospects which he was ready to attain through hard work and tireless industry. He took a three years' theological course at Oberlin, O., and came to Oregon soon after graduating. His career in life began in the field of church work. As a minister of broad ideas and expert oratorical qualities, he expounded the Gospel in a telling manner that endeared him to the hearts of many and brought encomiums of praise from all sides. His powerful, clear-minded utterances on the eternal truths of the Bible fell upon the ears of his congregation for many years. The doctor was mindful of the precept to practice what he preached, and the countless deeds of kindness which gem his life testify to the true Christian spirit of the man. In later years he became prominent as a strong political speaker and writer. In the discus- Q^2^ c^ .Yh^rr^-^^-^-^ THE STORY OF OREGON. 345 sion of the living issues of the hour he brought all his forceful art of argument and irresistible eloquence to bear upon the questions before the people. His convincing style, his graceful expression and his truthful methods won his audiences. He has entered life's twilight now and is enjoying repose in a favored locality, away from the turmoil of the world and the dust of political strife. On his farm, two miles from Hillsborough, Ore., he is experiencing the quiet and peace that belong to the clos ing years of a life well spent. Myers, John. — The subject of this sketch was born September 15th, 1830, in Howard County, Mo. He was educated at the public schools of his native town, and although the common schools afforded him little chance of a first-class education, yet he soon acquired what knowledge was to be obtained. In the year 1847, when but seventeen years of age, Mr. Myers, seeing so many active preparations for the Mexican War going on around him, all ordinary avocations of life lost their charms and a military spirit kindled in his nature, and he deter mined to join the great cause which demanded the ser vices of every patriotic citizen ; he therefore enlisted as private in Captain Simon's company. He spent one year in the service of his country, and although his duties as a soldier were not of the most severe, still he took a genuine pride and interest in all duties imposed on him, acting as scout, guide, and oftentimes employed in ob taining suitable fodder for cattle. His record as a soldier during the period he was in the war was excellent, never failing to be ready for duty. At the end of the year he returned home, where he engaged in farming and other enterprises, all of which he personally conducted with almost unvarying success until 1852, when the gold ex citement, caused by the discovery of gold in California, attracted his attention, causing him to leave the prosaic life of a farmer and join the hundreds of gold-hunters 346 THE STORY OF OREGON. who were wending their way to the gold-fields. His experience as a miner was extended, and finally becoming convinced that wealth, however great, gained at the ex pense of all domestic ties or social life, would be acquired at too great a sacrifice, he, in 1855, abandoned this pur suit. Previously during his stay in California he had been appointed Deputy Sheriff of Stanislaus County, and so rapid was the growth of his experience during his term of office, that, in September, 1857, he was elected Sheriff of the same county, which position he creditably held untU October llth, 1859. On December 18th, 1858, he was married to Miss Sarah J. Hood, of Oregon City, Ore. This happy union has since been blessed with eleven children, ten of whom are now living — four boys and six girls — and nowhere is there to be found a more congenial family. In August of 1860 Mr. Myers removed with his family to Oregon and entered into the mercan tile business. Being industrious and having ample means at his command, he was in a fair way to become one of the leading men of the country. Within a short time he gained a large business, and at the same time acquired a reputation among his fellow-men for honesty and integrity of character. Such good judgment and business sagacity did he exercise in all his enterprises that to-day he is one of Portland's wealthy men. In 1868, as another proof of the confidence and esteem reposed in him, he was elected to the office of Sheriff of Clackamas County. He has always taken an active interest in politics, and in 1872 he was elected to the State Senate, and was re elected in 1876 and 1882, serving in all twelve years, which was extraordinary considering the large Republi can majority in that district. He has always been a conscientious Democrat, but while a firm believer in all the cardinal principles of his party, he is without partisan bigotry or intolerance. In 1880 he was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention. In 1884 he was urged by party friends to submit his name as a candidate for THE STORY OF OREGON. 347 Congress, was nominated, and was defeated by a greatly reduced majority. In 1887 he was appointed Marshal of the District of Oregon by telegram from the Presi dent and confirmed by the Senate, March 22d, 1888. Mr. Myers has always been an actiA^e factor in a finan cial way, and takes a lively interest in everything calcu lated to advance the public good. On October 1st, 1890, he was appointed President of the Commercial Savings Bank, Portland. He is a large stockholder in the organ ization, and upon the expiration of his term was re elected. This position he now retains. Here his natural talent for financiering finds ample scope, and during the years of his association with this institution he has gained the appreciation of his co-laborers as an able, careful, and successful business man. Mr. Myers is prominently identified with the City Council, being President of that body, and it is but little to say that Portland has been benefited in many ways by his ready willingness 'to promote by his labor and means every public enterprise, and, according to his ability to do and to give, the city has had no more helpful and sincere friend. He has been a prominent Mason since 1854, and has held nearly every office within the gift of the fra ternity. Mr. Myers has for years been almost con stantly in the service of the public in some capacity, and in every place he has been called to fill he has increased his hold upon the good opinion of the people ; indeed, it would be difficult to find one better fitted by nature lor public affairs. He is a careful, thorough business man, punctual in the discharge of every duty, and in all circumstances can be trusted. He is accustomed to look upon the bright side of life, and at all times is genial and good-natured. He has always been a hard worker, and has the constitution and physical vigor which per mits of continual exertion with little apparent fatigue. The foregoing is but an outline of Mr. Myers's career, and gives but a limited view of the many directions in which 348 THE STORY OF OREGON. his active energies have found an outlet. It is, perhaps, unnecessary to add that of the men prominently identi fied with the forces which have made the Northwest what it is to-day, Mr. Myers holds no mean place ; what ever he undertakes he goes at it with a determined energy, which seemingly has not stopped for a moment to think of defeat. The hard features of commercial life are left behind when he emerges from business, and all that makes a man welcome wherever he goes takes its place. Holmes, Thomas J., occupies a permanent place in the affections of the older inhabitants of Portland. Promi nently identified with the early political and commercial history of the city, he has left a name behind him which will ever be regarded with respect and veneration. The events of his life, here briefly related, will be found highly complimentary to him as a man and citizen. Thomas J. Holmes was born in Norfolk, England, March 3d, 1819. His father, William, was a mechanic, and for the purpose of bettering his condition, emigrated to New York City in 1830, taking his family with him. Young Holmes possessed native vigor and resolution which in duced him to begin life's battle on his own account ; so he secured a position with a physician on Staten Island, and not only supjported himself by his labors, but ac quired valuable information from his kind employer. Though he might have become, under such favorable auspices, a physician, he preferred a more practical line of effort, and began an apprenticeship at the shoemaker's trade. Having mastered the business he started a small place at Jersey City, and though he had not much money at the outset, his native shrewdness and intelligence stood him in good need, a,nd prosperity soon attended his efforts. About this time he married, but his wife died after some years, and he was left with a numerous family of small children on his hands. It was a great MULTNOMAH FALLS, UNION PAC. R. R. THE STORY OF OREGON. 351 bloAv, to which a man of less stern mould would have succumbed. Mr. Holmes was, however, of heroic char acter, and he stood up with characteristic bravery in face of the dread calamity which overtook him. He sailed for South America some time after his bereave ment, and subsequently followed the seas. The dis covery of gold in California attracted his attention to the Pacific Coast, and he embarked on board a sailing-vessel at Jersey City bound for San Francisco. He reached his destination in December, 1849. The climate did not agree with him and he became dangerously ill. On his recovery he sailed for Portland, and arrived there in the scaring of 1850. Being Avithout means Mr. Holmes at once went to work at his trade. His success was imme diate, and he soon acquired a large business. His honest, square dealing made him very popular, and he speedily became one of the most noted of Portland's citizens. As his trade extended he engaged in various enterprises, all of which proved successful. AVith wise forethought he purchased real estate, and before long was one of the most wealthy men in the city. While a young man, Mr. Holmes took a deep interest in public affairs. He Avas one of the first to advocate the establishment of a free school system. In politics he displayed much ac tivity, and was frequently elected to responsible public positions. Upjon the resignation of Mr. Henry Failing as Mayor in 1866, Mr. Holmes was chosen by the Council to fill the unexpired term. So well did he perform his duties, that he was nominated by his party as its candi date for Mayor at the next election. The contest was spirited, but the popularity of Mr. Holmes was so great that he carried all before him. On the evening of the day of election, June 17th, 1867, Mr. Holmes addressed his fellow-citizens in a vigorous speech. Next day he was on the streets, attending to his business as usual, and receiving the congratulations of numerous friends ;. but on June 19th, while apparently in good health, he 16 3.52 THE STORY OF OREGON. was stricken with apoplexy and died in a few hours. The event, totally unexpected, shocked the entire com munity, irrespective of party. The splendid qualities of the man were remembered by all. His worth, his per sonal integrity, the kindness and suavity which he always manifested to his fellow-citizens, were kept in mind, and political differences were for the time being forgotten. The City Council unanimously passed reso lutions honoring his memory and deploring his death " as a public calamity involving the loss of an able, just, and efficient ihagistrate, an enterprising and public- spirited citizen, a charitable neighbor, and an honest man." Mr. Holmes was a Democrat in politics and sus tained the principles of his party, but never manifested partisan rancor or forgot that the amenities of private intercourse should not be disturbed or set aside for political reasons. He was a friend of every public enter prise, a generous contributor to every scheme having for its object the growth and improvement of the city. His record as a public official is without blemish. He dis charged his duties as became a man of conscience and honor. The record which he has left behind him will endure while Portland exists. By his first marriage Mr. Holmes had six children, four of whom, three daughters and a son, are still living. He married a sec ond time before his arrival in Portland, but his Avidow survived him only a few years. Honeyman, John. — Among the men of public spirit, capable of formulating and carrying to successful ends large financial operations, Mr. Honeyman has been fore most. He has been the originator of many projects which have not only demonstrated his excellent business qualities, but greatly contributed to Oregon's advance ment. Mr. Honeyman is a Scotchman by birth ; he was born in Glasgow, August 12th, 1815, being the second of six sons of William and Margaret Honeyman. At an THE STORY OF OREGON. 355 early age he was sent to the primary school of his native place, where he obtained the first rudiments of an educa tion. At the age of ten his mother died, her death re sulting from typhoid fever, which at that time was a terrible scourge throughout Glasgow. In 1825 the family removed to Carron, Scotland, where the subject of our sketch attended the public schools for the next four years, becoming proficient in matters pertaining to mechanical construction. In 1829 he apprenticed him self to the foundry and machinist trade, at Avhich he served for three years. At the end of that time, owing to the ill-usage which he received from the superinten dent of the foundry, he gave up his work and ran away. On March 26th, 1831, young Honeyman decided to cast his destiny in the " Land of the Free." Being possessed with but a small share of this world's Avealth he was not able to invest in a passage ticket ; however, he managed to embark as stowaway on the brig Cherub, Captain John Miller being in command. The captain found the lad in hiding, and he at once befriended him, admiring the pluck young Honeyman displayed in cutting loose from tyranny such as had been experienced from his last master. After a voyage of thirty days he landed in Montreal, Canada, and obtained employment with Ben nett & Henderson. After serving two and one half out of the five years' apprenticeship the firm failed. This occurred in 1832. Mr. Honeyman by this time had ac quired a full knowledge of his trade, and undertook the responsibilities of conducting a business on his own ac count, and for a time did very well. He then went to Kingston, Canada, working at his trade. He started the foundry which is now the locomotive works there. His practical mechanical knowledge made his services in this connection highly remunerative, and he con tinued his business successfully in Kingston for sixteen years. In 1861 Mr. Honeyman, hearing of the great wealth which lay in Colorado, owing to the discovery 356 THE STORY OF OREGON. of gold, decided to link his fortune with those seeking Avealth there, and forthwith started for that Territory. He remained in Denver for two years, busily engaged in mining. During this time Mr.' Honeyman experi enced many hardships, but he was not easily discour aged, and at the end of the two years was possessed of a moderate capital. He visited Portland, Ore., in the fall of 1862, and in December of the same year, the fascination for mining being still strong within him, he Aveiit to Idaho. His mining venture there was re- Avarded Avith good success. After leaving Idaho, Mr. Honeyman gave up mining for all time, and returned to Portland in 1868, with the purpose of taking up his per manent residence there. With" his three sons he organ-' ized the City Foundry in Portland, but they were burned out in the large fire of that year. Having invested all his capital in this business, it was very discouraging to see the result of so much hard labor lost ; however, with the usual energy which has been a strong characteristic Avith him all through life, and with the assistance of W. ST Ladd, he Avas able to rebuild the foundry. Within twenty- one days after the fire Mr. Honeyman had his business in Avorking order. From that time up to the present for tune has favored him, and on December 23d, 1873, the firm were enabled to pay off their indebtedness in full, since which time the business has more than doubled itself, and the firm is kept busy constantly. Mr. Honey man has a great taste for mechanical and engineering Avork, and improves every opportunity to advance his knowledge of both. He built the dredger for the city, which is recognized as being one of* the best in the country. He has been successful in all his inven tions, and his work is highly commended. In the fall of 1881, during Portland's Mechanical Fair, Mr. Honey man secured the first prize for the best-made boiler and piston packer made in Oregon ; also in the year of 1887 he received the diploma for the best Oregon-made steam- f. ,,0 ,f „ .. THE STORY OF OREGON. 359 engine, and again in the following yeai-, 1888, was awarded first prize for the best oil kettle. He is among the first founders of engineering industry in Oregon. Mr. Honeyman has invested considerably within the past few years in Portland real estate, his operations in this respect being largely successful. He has had unlimited faith in the city' s advance, and has backed his judgment with money and reaped a rich harvest. Mr. Honeyman takes a great interest in all matters pertaining to Port land. The enterprises named, with which he is so jjrom- inently connected, by no means comprise all the direc tions in which his energies are found. All projects which have been started with the purpose of advancing the welfare of the city, or to build up and develop its various industries, find in Mr. Honeyman an energetic supporter. He is a man of pleasing address and affable manner, and is highly esteemed by a large circle of friends. He ha,s been for many years a consistent mem ber of the Calvary Presbyterian Church, and takes an active interest in all church movements. On May 6th, 1837, Mr. Honeyman was married to Eliza Levitt, of Montreal, Canada. Ten children were born to them, seven of whom are living. His second wife was Mary A . Collier, of Portland, Ore. Hovey, A. G. — That the pioneers of Oregon Avere a sturdy, intrepid, and self-reliant class of men, no one Avho shall study their character and history AviU ever dispute. There is scarcely a citizen of Oregon who has not known or heard of Hon. A. G. Hovey, the subject of this sketch. Ever since his settlement in Oregon he has borne an active part in the public interests of the Terri tory and State. His aggressive, pushing disposition indicate the stern qualities of courage and purpose, moral and mental, which form the basis of his character and displace the more ephemeral qualities of a purely senti mental hopefulness or ambition. He is an example of 360 THE STORY OF OREGON. the adage that " God helps those who help themselves," and his whole life has bristled with instances of such belief. He was born in the country town of London derry, N. H., forty miles from Boston, Mass., July llth, 1830. When quite a lad his parents removed to the his toric town of Marietta, O., and he was there educated in its schools. In 1849 he was a member of a company of twenty men ' ' crossing the plains with ox- teams' ' to the "gold mines of California." Leaving St. Joseph, Mo., in April, four of their number died of cholera, which raged among the large emigration the first half of their journey. Their route was taken by the North Platte, South Pass, Bear River, Humboldt and Carson Valleys to Sacramento City, where the remaining sixteen arrived in October. Fitting out there for the mines, they located at "Rhode's Bar" on the Cossumnie River. After a year, not being one of the luckiest, he developed a taste for an agricultural community rather than a mining one, and induced by the passage by Congress of the ' ' Oregon Donation Land Law," secured by Oregon's delegate, Hon. Samuel R. Thurston, he embarked at San Francisco by steamer, and arrived at Portland, Ore., in October, 1850. Passing up the Willamette Valley, stopping at Oregon City, Salem, Albany, and Brownsville, he located at Corvallis (then Marysville), where he taught its first school, commencing in December. The families of Dixon, Stewart, Avery, Stout, Alexander, Baker, Knotts, Trapp, Mulkey, and Newton furnished his pupils at that early day, most of whom still live and have held honorable positions in various communities of the State. Mr. Hovey points with some pride to this early service in his career. His first labor was performed for Hon. Wayman St. Clair, then pioneer merchant. Early in 1851, he was appointed Clerk of the United States District Court for Benton County by Hon. O. C. Pratt, then one of the judges of the Territory, and in the same year was elected by the people the first County Clerk of that county. THE STORY OF OREGON. 361 While serving in these courts Mr. Hovey read law, and in 1853 was admitted to practice by Hon. George H. Williams, then United States District Judge, and later Avas admitted in the Supreme Court of the State ; but he never practically entered the profession, preferring busi ness pursuits, in which he has always been a busy man. In the same year Mr. Hovey married Miss Mary Ellen Mulkey, eldest daughter of Hon. Luke Mulkey, a pioneer of Benton County. She died in 1861. Politically Mr. Hovey 's feelings and sentiments placed him in line with the Republican Party, and he was among the earliest jvho assisted in its organization in Oregon, and at its first Territorial Convention was chosen one of three dele gates to the Republican National Convention at Chicago in 1860, and instructed for Mr. Seward. Neither Mr. Hovey, Mr. Holmes, nor Dr. Warren going that year, their proxies Avere finally given to Horace Greeley, of New York, without instructions, who cast their votes for Abraham Lincoln, thereby securing his first nomina tion. In 1884 Mr. Hovey was again chosen a delegate with five others to the National Republican Convention at Chicago, and heartily supported James G. Blaine and John A. Logan in their nomination and candidacy. In 1862 Mr. Hovey was chosen to the State Senate, serving three sessions until 1866. In 1864 he married Miss Emily Humphrey, eldest daughter of Hon. George Humphrey, of Lane County. They have one daughter and two sons. In 1866 he moved to Portland, Ore., remaining one year, and in 1867 removed to Springfield, Lane County, en gaging in milling and merchandising until 1879, when he became a resi(ient of Eugene, and in 1881 was one of the organizers of the Lane County Bank, and from the first has served as its President. Mr. Hovey has long been a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and has held its highest positions in the jurisdiction of the State. Continuing, as he always has been, an earnest friend to the educational, moral, and political interests 362 THE STORY OF OREGON. of the people, he has frequently accepted positions in their behalf, but has often declined them. Against his wishes he was chosen, by a large majority. Mayor of Eugene, and in 1891 declined to serve longer. A man of strong convictions and honest opinions, positive in his nature, he is justly held among the intelligent, useful, and truest type of Oregon's leading men. Kellogg, Joseph, one of the founders of the People's Transportation Company of the Willamette, and one of the most venerated citizens of Oregon, was born June 24th, 1812, of American parents, in Canada. The Kel; loggs are of old Revolutionary stock, Orrin, the father, having been born in Vermont in 1790. He married Miss Margaret Miller in the British possessions in 1811, and took her back with him to Vermont. Next year they visited Canada, and were compeUed to remain there owing to the breaking out of hostilities between Great Britain and the United States. Thus it happened that Joseph, the subject of our sketch, first saAV the light on foreign soil, but in the eye of the law is a native-born citizen. When the war was over the family crossed the border and settled near Lockport, N. Y., but soon afterward moved to Ohio and established a home on the Maumee River. Here Joseph grew up and, in 1844, married Miss Estella Bushnell, an estimable young lad3^ In 1847 they started for Oregon, and after spending the winter at St. Joseph, Mo. , moved across the plains and moun tains, considerably disturbed by the rumors that pre vailed concerning the Indian troubles of that period. They arrived at their destination safely, however, and commenced a new career in a new country. The elder Mr. Kellogg and his family accompanied Joseph to Oregon. Having thoroughly looked over the ground, Joseph Kellogg located a claim at Milwaukee, and by untiring industry soon found himself on the road to inde pendence. He helped to lay out the town of Milwaukee. TIIE STORY OF OREGON. dbo William Torrence and Lot Whitcomb co-operated Avith him in this work as well as in the erection of a saw-mill. They then determined on building a schooner, which, when completed, was loaded with produce from adjacent farms for the San Francisco market. On its arrival at its destination the vessel, together with its cargo, was sold, and the proceeds were invested in the purchase of the brig Forest. This craft was employed in the lumber trade, and in a short time money enough was earned to enable the owners to secure, at a great bargain, the bark Lausanne, and also a pair of engines and boilers, and a complete outfit for a steamer. In the spring of 1850 they began the construction of the Lot Whitcomb, the first steam-vessel of any size, ever built in Oregon. The launching of this steamer on Christmas Day of the same year was the cause of general rejoicing, though the occa sion was accompanied by an unexpected and unfortunate calamity, the explosion of a ca,nnon and the killing of a human being. The business of the firm rapidly in creased. A flour-mill was built and successfully oper ated, and two brigs ran regularly, laden Avith lumber, to Sacramento. At that period the lumber trade was ex ceedingly profitable and offered big inducements to men of capital. Withdrawing from the old firm, Mr. Kellogg formed a partnership with Bradbury & Eddy, and erected the Standard Flour Mills, for years the most extensive in Oregon. In 1863 he built the steamer Senator, which was subsequently sold to the People's Transportation Company. Not confining himself to private interests, he has always been willing to devote his energies to the betterment of the young State of which he is a Citizen. He helped along the establishment of the telegraph line between San Francisco and Portland as far back as 1858, and ever since he has manifested deep concern for all enterprises tending to benefit the community. The People's Transportation Company Avas formed in 1861, for the purpose of navigating the Columbia and WUla- 366 THE STORY OF OREGON. mette Rivers, but they decided on devoting their ener gies to the Willamette, leaving to the Oregon Company the navigation of the Columbia. Captain Kellogg joined the People's Company in 1864, and was selected to super intend the building of the basin above the faUs. The Avork was splendidly done and remains to this day, a fine specimen of engineering skill. With the steamer Onward the captain began the navigation of the Tualitin, and he constructed the canal between that river and Sucker Lake, a great advantage to those desiring to ship freight to Oswego and .thence to the Willamette. He bought and laid out the town of Oswego, and made arrange ments Avitli the Iron Works Company, enabling them to continue in business. Selling out all his interests on the AA^illamette and the Tualitin, Captain Kellogg took his two sons and his brother into partnership, and formed a new company to navigate the Columbia on the line to Washougal and the Cowlitz. He superintended the building of two fine steamers, the Joseph Kellogg and the Toledo, placing his two sons in command of these vessels, which are still on the Cowlitz route and navigate that river into the heart of Washington. This corpora tion, known as the Joseph Kellogg Transportation Com pany, is one of the most popular in Oregon. The cap tain can recall many pleasant recollections of his past life. He Avas one of the thousands who shook the hand of General Harrison during the memorable Presidential campaign of 1840. He stood guard, night after night, over his family during the Indian disturbances, and he well remembers the excitement consequent on the rumor that the savages surrounding the Willamette Valley Avere ready to fall on the settlements and massacre the inhab itants. He can look back to the period when he became a pilot on the lower Willamette, and performed the difficult and unprecedented feat of taking ships of deep draught past Ross Island to their docks. He at one time advo cated the selection of Milwaukee as the capital of Oregon, ^