USA > Oregon > History of Oregon, Vol. II, 1848-1888 > Part 65
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69 Mitchell was born in Penn. June 22, 1835, receiving a fair education, and studying law, which he practised in his native state. Appearing in Ore- gon in 1860, at the moment when his talents and active loyalty could be made available, he rapidly rose in favor with his party, and was appointed prose- cuting attorney for the 4th jud. dist, in place of W. W. Page, resigned, but declined, and in 1864 was elected state senator. From this time he was a leader in politics, and a favorite among men, having many pleasing personal qualities. After having been chosen senator, a scandal was discovered which dismayed the republicans and gave the independents that which they desired, a strong leverage against the old party, which was split in consequence, the breach made being so violent that at the next senatorial election they lost the battle to the democrats. Mitchell was not unseated, however, as had been hoped. At the expiration of his term he resumed the practice of the law, first in Washington city, and later iu Portland, where he achieved his first political honors, and where the field is open to talent to distinguish itself.
673
PECULATIONS.
On the meeting of the legislature of 1876, there being a United States senator to be elected, the choice lay between Jesse Applegate and Grover. The first ballot in the senate gave Applegate seven and Grover twenty votes, with two votes scattering. The first ballot in the house gave twenty-seven for Applegate and twenty-five for Grover, with seven for J. W. Nesmith. In joint convention Nesmith received on some ballots as many as fourteen votes. But the democrats were chiefly united on Grover and the re- publicans on Applegate; and at length the friends of Nesmith gave way, that the candidate of their party might suceced, and Grover's vote rose from forty-two to forty-eight, by which he was elected. In Febru- ary 1877 he resigned the office of governor, and took his place in the U. S. senate,7º S. F. Chadwick suc- ceeding to the gubernatorial office.
In the mean time there was a growing uneasiness in the public mind, arising from the conviction that there was either mismanagement or fraud, or both, in the state, land, and other departments, and the legis- lature of 1878 appointed a joint committee to examine into the transactions of the various offices and de- partments of the state government. The commission published its report, and the impression got abroad that a system of peculation had been carried on for some time past, in which serious charges were made; but notwithstanding the numerous accusations against the several state officials, there was not sufficient evi- dence to prove that moneys had been illegally drawn from the public funds. Nevertheless, the administra- tion suffered in reputation in consequence of the re- port. The scandal created was doubtless tinged by partisan spirit, more or less. The improvement in the affairs of the government was substantial and noteworthy, and at a later date credit was not un-
7º See Sen. Com. Rept, 536, 548, 561, 627, 678, 44th cong. 2d sess .; also, Proceedings of the Electoral Commission, and Cong. Globe, 1876-7, 74-5, 209-10, app. 132, 188, 192; Portland Oregonian, Jan. 27, 1877.
HIST. OR., VOL. II. 43
674
POLITICAL, INDUSTRIAL, AND INSTITUTIONAL.
willingly conceded to the administration, the course of which had been temporarily clouded by hurtful though unsubstantiated complaints.71
The elevation of Grover to the U. S. senate left Stephen F. Chadwick in the gubernatorial chair, which he filled without cause for dissatisfaction during the remainder of the term. During Chadwick's adminis- tration eastern Oregon was visited by an Indian war. During this interval the depredations caused were very severe, and the loss to the white settlers of prop- erty was immense, a full history of which will be in- cluded in those described in my History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana.
One by one the former democratic aspirants for place reached the goal of their desires. Joseph S. Smith was succeeded in congress by James H. Slater, who during the period of the rebellion was editor of the Corvallis Union, a paper that, notwithstanding its name, advocated disunion so as to bring itself under the notice of the government, by whose author- ity it was suppressed.72
The successor of Slater was Joseph G. Wilson,73 who died at the summer recess of congress in 1873. A special election chose J. W. Nesmith to fill the vacancy, who, though a democratic leader, had es- chewed some of the practices of his party, if not the
71 For a report of the proceedings of the investigating committee, see Or. Legisl. Docs, 1878; Portland Oregonian, Dec. 30, 1878.
12 James H. Slater was a native of Ill., born in 1827. He came to Cal. in 1849, and thence to Oregon in 1850, residing near Corvallis, where he taught school and studied law, the practice of which he commenced in 1858. He was elected to the legislature several times. He removed to eastern Oregon in 1862, engaging in mining for a time, but finally settled at La Grande. Ash- land Tidings, Sept. 20, 1878.
73 Wilson was born in New Hampshire Dec. 13, 1826, the son of a dissent- ing Scotch presbyterian, who settled in Londonderry in 1716. His parents removed to Cincinnati in 1826, settling afterward near Reading, Joseph receiving his education at Marietta college, from which he graduated with the degree of LL. D. He entered the Cincinnati law school, from which he graduated in 1852 and went to Oregon. He rose step by step to be congress- man. His wife was Elizabeth Millar, daughter of Rev. James P. Millar of Albany, a talented and cultivated lady, who, after her husband's untimely death, received a commission as postmaster at The Dalles, which she held for many years.
675
CONGRESSMAN AND GOVERNOR.
love of office. His majority was nearly 2,000 over his opponent, Hiram Smith. He was in turn suc- ceeded by George La Dow,74 a man little known in the state, and who would not have received the nom- ination but for the course of the Oregonian in making a division in the republican ranks and running Rich- ard Williams, while the regular party ran T. W. Davenport. The vacancy caused by the death of La Dow was filled by La Fayette Lane, specially elected October 25, 1875. At the next regular election, in 1876, Richard Williams 73 received a majority of votes for representative to congress, serving from March 1877 to March 1879. He was succeeded by ex-Gov- ernor John Whiteaker, democrat, and he by M. C. George, republican, who has been returned the sec- ond time.
In 1878 the republicans again lost their choice for governor by division, and C. C. Beekman was defeated by W. W. Thayer,76 who was followed by Z. F. Moody 7 in 1882. The U. S. senator elected in 1882,
74 George A. La Dow was born in Cayuga-co., N. Y., March 18, 1826. His father emigrated to III. 1839, where George was educated for the practice of law. Subsequently settling in Wisconsin, he was elected dist atty for Wau- paca co. In 1869 he came to Oregon and settled in Umatilla co., being elected representative in 1872. S. F. Examiner, in Sa'em Statesman, June 13, 1874.
75 Richard Williams was a son of Elijah Williams, a pioneer. He was a young man of irreproachable character and good talents, a lawyer by profes- sion, who had been appointed dist atty in IS67. S. F. Call, March 24, 1867. 76 \V. W. Thayer, a brother of A. J. Thayer, was horn at Lima, N. Y., July 15, 1827. He received a common-school education, and studied law, being admitted to the bar by the sup. ct at Rochester, in March 1851. He subsequently practised at Tonawanda and Buffalo, until 1862, when he came to Oregon, intending to settle at Corvallis. The mining excitement of 1863 drew him to Idaho; he remained at Lewiston till 1867, when he returned to Oregon and settled in East Portland, forming a law partnership with Richard Williams. He was a member of the Idaho legislature in 1866, and was also dist atty of the 3d jud. dist. During his administration as governor, the state debt, which had accumulated under the previous administration, was paid, and the financial condition of the state rendered sound and healthy. The insane asylum was commenced with Thayer as one of a board of com- missioners, and was about completed when his term expired. It is an impos- ing brick structure, capable of accommodating 400 or 500.
77 Zenas Ferry Moody was a republican of New England and revolutionary stock, and has not been without pioneer experiences, coming to Oregon in 1851. He was one of the first U. S. surveying party which established the initial point of the Willamette meridian, and continued two years in the ser- vice. In 1853 he settled in Brownsville, and married Miss Mary Stephenson, their children being four sons and one daughter. In 1856 he was appointed
676
POLITICAL, INDUSTRIAL, AND INSTITUTIONAL.
after a severe and prolonged contest between the friends of J. H. Mitchell and the democracy, uniting with the independents, was Joseph N. Dolph,78 Mitchell's former partner and friend.
The time has not yet come, though it is close at hand, when Oregon-born men shall fill the offices of state, and represent their country in the halls of the national legislature. Then the product of the civili- zation founded by their sires in the remotest section of the national territory will become apparent. Sec- tionalism, which troubled their fathers, will have dis- appeared with hostility to British influences. Homo- geneity and harmony will have replaced the feuds of the formative period of the state's existence. A higher degree of education will have led to a purer conception of public duty. Home-bred men will repel adventurers from other states, who have at heart no interests but their individual benefits.
When that period of progress shall have been reached, if Oregon shall be found able to withstand the temptations of too great wealth in her morals, and the oppressiveness of large foreign monopolies in her business, she will be able fully to realize the most sanguine expectations of those men of destiny, the Oregon Pioneers.
inspector of U. S. surveys in Cal., afterward residing for some time in Ill., but returning to The Dalles in 1862. The country being in a state of rapid development on account of the mining discoveries in the eastern part of the state and in Idaho, he established himself at Umatilla, where he remained in business for three years. In the spring of 1866 he built the steamer Mary Moody on Pend d'Oreille Lake, and afterward aided in organizing the Oregon and Montana Transportation Company, which huilt two other steamboats, and improved the portages. In 1867 he was merchandising in Boisé City, re- turning to The Dalles in 1869, where he took charge of the business of Wells, Fargo & Co. At a later period he was a mail contractor, and ever a busy and carnest man. He was elected in 1872 to the state senate, and in 1880 to the lower house, being chosen speaker. In 1882 he was nominated for governor, and elected over Joseph H. Smith by a majority of 1,452 votes. Representa- tive Men of Or., 1-111.
78 Dolph was born in 1835, in N. Y., and educated at Genessee college, after which he studied law. He came to Oregon in 1862, where his talents soon made him prominent in his profession, and secured him a lucrative prac- tice. He married, in 1864, a daughter of Johnson Mulkey, a pioneer of 1847, by whom he had 6 children. At the time of his election he was attorney for and vice-president of the Northern Pacific railroad.
CHURCHES AND CHURCH SCHOOLS.
THE early history of the Methodist Church is the history of the first American colonization, and has been fully given in a former volume; but a sketch of the Oregon methodist episcopal church proper must begin at a later date. From 1844 to 1853 the principal business transactions of the church were at the yearly meetings, without any particular authority from any con- ference.
On the 5th of September, 1849, the Oregon and California Mission Confer- ence was organized in the chapel of the Oregon Institute, Salem, by author- i.y of the general conference of 1848, by instructions from Bishop Waugh, and under the superintendence of William Roberts. The superintendents of the Oregon Mission were, first, Jason Lee, 1834-1844; George Gary, 1844- 1847; William Robe.ts, 1847-1849, when the Mission Conference succeeded the Oregon Mission, under Roberts. The mission conference included New Mexico, and possessed all the rights and privileges of othersimilar bodies, except those of sending delegates to the general conference and drawing annual divi- dends from the avails of the book-concerns and chartered funds. Four sessions were held, the first three in Salem, and the fourth at Portland. Under the mission conference the following ministers were appointed to preach in Ore- gon: i .: 1849-50, W. Roberts, David Leslie, A. F. Waller. J. II. Wilbur, J. L. Parrish, William llelm, J. O. Raynor, J. McKinney, C. O. Hosford, and J. E. Parrott; in 1850-1, I. McElroy, F. S. Hoyt, and N. Doane were added; in 1851-2, L. T. Woodward, J. S. Smith, J. Flinn, and J. W. Miller; in 1852 -3, Isaac Dillon, C. S. Kingsley, P. G. Buchanan, and T. H. Pearue-never more than fourteen being in the field at the same time.
In March 1853 Bishop E. R. Ames arrived in Oregon, and on the 17th the Oregon Annual Conference was organized, including all of Oregon and Wash- ington, which held its first session at Salem, and gave appointments to twenty- two ministers, including all of the above-named except Leslie, Parrish, Helm, McElroy, Mckinney, and Parrott, and adding G. Hines, H. K. Hines, T. F. Royal, G. M. Berry, E. Garrison, B. Close, and W. B. Morse. Since 1833 there have been from thirty-three to seventy-four preachers annually furnished appointments by the conference. In 1873 the conference was divided, and Washington and eastern Oregon set off, several of the pioneer ministers being transferred to the new conference. According to a sketch of church history by Roberts, there were, in 1876, 3,249 church members, and 683 on probation; 74 local preachers; 60 churches, valued at $167,750; parsonages valued at $29,850; Sunday-schools, 78; pupils, 4,469; teachers, 627; books in Sunday- school libraries, 7,678, besides periodicals taken for the use of children. The first protestant church edifice erected on the Pacific coast, from Cape Horn to Bering Strait, was the methodist church at Oregon City, begun in 1842 by Waller, and completed in 1844 by Hines. Abernethy added a bell in 1851, weighing over 500 pounds, the largest then in the territory. He also pur- chased two smaller ones for the churches in Salem and Portland, and one for the Clackamas academy at Oregon City. Or. Statesman, July 4, 1851. These were not the first bells in Oregon, the catholics having one at Cham- poeg, if not others. Religious services were held in Salem as early as 1841, at the Oregon Institute chapel, which served until the erection of a church, which was dedicated January 23, 1853, and was at this time the best protestant
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678
CHURCHES AND CHURCH SCHOOLS.
house in Oregon. Home Missionary, xxvi. 115-6. About 1871 a brick edifice, costing $35,000, was completed to take the place of this one. A methodist church was also erected at South Salem.
The methodist church of Portland was organized in 1848, a church build- ing was begun by Wilbur in 1850, and the first methodist episcopal church of Portland incorporated January 26, 1853. The original edifice was a plain but roomy frame building, with its gable fronting on Taylor Street, near Third. A reincorporation took place in 1867, and in 1869 a brick church, costing $35,000, was completed on the corner of Third and Taylor streets, fronting on Third. A second edifice was erected on Hall Street. During the year 1884, a new society, an offshoot from the Taylor-Street church, was organized under the name of the Grace Methodist Episcopal Church, taking with it $40,000 worth of the property of the former. The methodist church at The Dalles was built in 1862 hy J. F. Devore, at a time when mining enterprises were beginning to develop the castern portion of the state.
The methodists have been foremost in propagating their principles by means of schools, as the history of the Willamette University illustrates. In new communities these means seem to be necessary to give coherence to effort, and have proved beneficial. Willamette University, which absorbed the Oregon Institute, was incorporated January 12, 1853. It opened with two departments, a preparatory, or academic, and a collegiate course, and hut few pupils took more than the academic course for many years. It had later six departments, thirteen professors and tutors, and four academies which fed the university. The departments were college of liberal arts, medical college, woman's college, conservatory of music, university academy, and correlated academies. College Journal, June 1882. The correlated academies were those of Wilbur, Sheridan, Santiam, and Dallas. The medical college, one of the six departments of the university, was by the unanimous vote of the faculty removed to Portland in 1877.
The Clackamas seminary for young ladies, established at Oregon City in 1851, was the combined effort of the methodists and congregationalists, and prospered for a time, but as a seminary has long been extinct; $11,000 were raisedl to found it, and John McLoughlin gave a block of land, Harvey Clark was the first teacher, after which Mrs Thornton and Mr and Mrs H. K. Hines taught in it. Or. Spectator, June 6, 1851; Or. Argus, Nov. 10, 1853. Santiam and Umpqua academies were established about 1854. La Creole Academic Institute, at Dallas, was incorporated in 1856. The incorporators were Frederick Waymire, William P. Lewis, John E. Lyle, Horace Lyman, Reuben P. Boise, Thomas J. Lovelady, Nicholas Lee, James Frederick, and A. W. Swaney. Or. Laws, 1860, 93. The act provided that at no time should a majority of the trustees be of one religious denomination. The academy is nevertheless at present one of the branches of the Willamette University. Philomath college, a few miles from Corvallis, is also controlled by a board of trustees elected by the annual conference. This college has an endowment of over $16,000 and a small general fund. The buildings are chicfly of brick, and cost $15,000.
The Portland academy was opened iu 1852 by C. S. Kingsley and wife, who managed it for several years, and after them others. The property was worth, in 1876, 820,000, but the usefulness of the school, which had no endowment, had passed, and it has since suspended. Hines' Or., 105-6; Olympia Columbian, Sept. 18, 1832; Pub. Instruc, Rept, in Or. Mess. and Doc., 1876, 146. Corvallis college was founded by the methodist church south, in 1865, and incorporated August 22, 1868, since which time it has had control of the state agricultural college, as stated in another place; 130 students were enrolled in 1878. The Ashland college and normal school, organized in 1878 from the Ashland academy, is also under the management of the conference.
The Catholic Church, next in point of time, had a rude church at Cham- poeg on their first entrance into the Willamette valley in the winter of 1839- 40. In February 1846 a plain wooden church was dedicated at Oregon City, and in November St Paul's brick church was consecrated at Champoeg. In
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CATHOLICS AND CONGREGATIONALISTS.
the autumn of 1851 a church was begun in Portland, which was dedicated in February 1852 by Archbishop Blanchet. In 1854 this building was removed to Stark Street, near Third, and ten years later had wings added for library and other uses, being reconsecrated in 1864. In 1871 the building was again enlarged, and used until 1878, when it was removed to make room for St Mary's cathedral, a fine brick structure costing 860,000, the corner-stone of which was laid in August of that year. Portland Daily Bee, May 16, 1878; Portland Oregonian, Aug. 24, 1878; Portland Herald, Feb. 9, 1873.
There is also in Portland the chapel of St Mary attached to the convent of the sisters of the most holy names of Jesus and Mary, between Mill and Mar- ket streets. The sisters have a day and boarding school, ordinarily attended by 150 pupils. St Joseph's day-school for boys, near the church, had an aver- age attendance in 1868 of 75. St Michacl's college, for the higher education ot young men, is a later institution, and well supported. The church of St John the Evangelist, at the corner of Chamekata and College streets, Salem, was dedicated April 10, 1864. Forty or fifty families attend services here, and a large number of children receive instruction in the Sunday-school. The academy of the Sacred Heart, under the care of the sisters, a substantial brick structure, is a boarding and day school where eighty girls are taught the useful and ornamental branches. This institution was dedicated in 1863, but the present edifice was not occupied till 1873. There is also a catholic church, and the academy of Mary Immaculate at The Dalles, located on Third Street; St Mary's academy at Jacksonville, Notre Dame academy at Baker City, Mater Dolorosa mission at Grande Ronde reservation, and St Joseph's hall, a female orphan asylum, at Portland.
The oldest Congregational Church in Oregon is that of Oregon City, organ- ized in 1844 by Harvey Clark, independent missionary, who also set on foot educational matters, and organized a church at Forest Grove. See Atkinson's Cong. Church, 1-3, a centennial review of congregationalism in Oregon. The American home missionary society about this time projected a mission to Oregon, and in 1847 sent George H. Atkinson and wife to labor in this field. They settled in Oregon City in June 1848, at the time the discovery of gold in California nearly depopulated that place. Atkinson, Eells, and Clark pro- ceeded to form, with other congregationalists, the Oregon Association, which held its first meeting at Oregon City September 20th, and appointed, together with the presbyterian ministers, trustees for the Tualatin academy. Home Missionary, xxii. 43, 63. In November 1849 arrived IIorace Lyman and wife, also sent out by the home missionary society in 1847, but who had lingered and taught for one year in San Jose, California. Lyman settled at Portland, where he began to build up a church. There were at Oregon City in 1849 but eight members, but they undertook to build a plain meeting-house, 24 by 40 feet, ceiled, and without belfry or steeple, the cost of which was $3,550.
Atkinson preached at Portland first in June 1849, in a log-house used as a shingle-factory. The congregation was attentive, and the citizens subscribed $2,000 to erect a school-house, which was to be at the service of all denomi- nations for religious services. It was arranged that the congregational min- isters should preach there once in two weeks. At the second meeting, in July, Captain Wood of the U. S. steamer Massachusetts was present, to the delight of the minister as well as the people. When Lyman arrived he began teaching and preaching in the school-house. Portland Oregonian, May 24, 1864; Lyman, in Pac. Christian Advocate, 1865. As there was then no church to organize in Portland, and as his salary was only $500-the rent of a dwell- ing being quite all of that-he was compelled to solicit aid. The town pro- prietors offered a lot. In the forest, on the rising ground at the south end of Second Street, Lyman made his selection, and $5,000 were subscribed, and the building, 32 by 48 feet, was begun. Lyman worked with his own hands in clearing the ground for his house and the church, and making shingles for the former, falling ill from his unwonted exertions and the malaria of the newly exposed earth. But the citizens of Portland came kindly to his assist- ance; he was nursed back to health; the house and churchi were completed,
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CHURCHES AND CHURCH SCHOOLS.
chiefly by their aid, and on the 15th of June, 1851, the First Congregational Church of Portland was organized, with ten members, and the church edifice dedicated. This building had a belfry and small spire, and cost $6,400, seat- ing some 400 persons. See Lyman, iu Cong. Asso. Or. Annual Meeting, 1876, 35, a quarter-centennial review, containing a complete history of the First Congregational Church of Portland; also Home Missionary, xxiv. 137-8.
The membership of the other churches amounted to 50 at this time; 25 at Tualatin plains, 14 at Oregon City, three at Milwaukee, and eight at Cala- pooya, where a church was organized by H. H. Spalding; but congregations and Sunday-schools were sustained at a few other points.
In January 1832 the Oregon Association held its third annual meeting, five ministers being present. It was resolved that Atkinson should visit the eastern states to solicit aid for the educational work of the church, particu- larly of the Tualatin academy and Pacific university, and also that other parts of Oregon should be pointed out to the home missionary society as fields for missionaries. The result, in addition to the money raised, was the appoint- ment of Thomas J. Condon and Obed Dickinson missionaries to Oregon, the former to St IIelen, and the latter to Salem, where a church of four members had been organized. They arrived in March 1853, by the bark Trade Wind, from New York. Their advent led to the organization of two more of what may properly be styled pioneer churches.
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