USA > Oregon > History of Oregon, Vol. II, 1848-1888 > Part 68
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In point of time, the first work of fiction written in Oregon was The Prairie Flower, by S. W. Moss of Oregon City. It was sent east to be published, and appeared with some slight alterations as one of a series of western stories by Emmerson Bennett of Cincinnati. One of its foremost characters was modelled after George W. Ebberts of Tualatin plains, or the Black Squire, as he was called among mountain men. Two of the women in the story were meant to resemble the wife and mother-in-law of Medorum Crawford. Moss's Pictures Or. City, MS., 18. The second novel was Captain Gray's Company, by Mrs A. S. Duniway, the incidents of which showed little imagination and a too literal observation of camp life in crossing the plains. Mrs Duniway did better work later, although her abilities lie rather with solid prose than
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fiction. Charles Applegate wrote and published some tales of western life, which he carefully concealed from those who might recognize them. The list of this class of authors is short. I do not know where to turn for another among the founders of Oregon literature. Every college and academy had its literary society, and often they published some small monthly or bi-monthly journal, the contributions to which may be classed with school exercises rather than with deliberate anthorship.
Mrs Belle W. Cooke of Salem wrote some graceful poems, and pub- lished a small volume under the title of Tears and Victory. Mrs Cooke was mother of one of Oregon's native artists, Clyde Cooke, who studied in Europe, and inherited his talent from her. Samnel A. Clarke of Salem, au- thor of Sounds by the Western Sen, and other poems, wrote out many local legends in verse, with a good deal of poetical feeling. See legend of the Cas- cades, in Harper's Magazine, xlviii., Feb. 1874, 313-19. H. C. Miller, better known as Joaquin Miller, became the most widely famous of all Oregon writers, and has said some good things in verse of the mountains and woods of his state. It is a pity he had not evolved from his inner conscious- ness some loftier human ideals than his fictitious characters. Of all his pic- tures of life, none is so fine as his tribute to the Oregon pioneers, under the title of Pioneers of the Pacific, which fits California as well.
Miller married a woman who as a lyrical poet was fully his equal; but while he went forth free from their brief wedded life to challenge the plaudits of the world, she sank beneath the blight of poverty, and the weight of woman's inability to grapple with the human throng which surges over and treads down those that faint by the way; therefore Minnie Myrtle Miller, still in the prime of her powers, passed to the silent land. Among the poets of the Wil- lamette Valley, Samuel L. Simpson deserves a high rank, having written some of the finest lyrics contributed to local literature, though his style is uu- even. A few local poems of merit have been written by Mrs F. F. Victor, who came to Oregon by way of San Francisco in 1863, and published sev- eral prose books relating to the country. It seems most natural that all authorship should be contined to topics concerning the country, its remoteness from literary centres and paucity of population making it unlikely that any- thing of a general interest would succeed. This consideration also cramps all intellectual efforts except such as can be applied directly to the paying pro- fessions, such as teaching, medicine, and law, and restricts publication so that it does not fairly represent the culture of the people, which crops out only inci- dentally in public addresses, newspaper articles, occasionally a pamphlet and at long intervals a special book. I al.ude here to such publications as Mullan's Overland Guide, Drew's Owyhee Reconnaissance, Condon's Report on Sinte Geology, Small's Oregon and her Resources, Dufur's Statistics of Oregon, Deady's Wallamet vs. Willamette, and numerous public addresses in pamphlet form, to contributions to the Oregon pioneer association's archives, Victor's All Over Oregon and Washington, Murphy's State Directory, Gilisan's Journal of Army Life, and a large number of descriptive publications in paper covers, besides monographs and morceaux of every descripton.
The number of newspapers and periodicals published in Oregon in 1880, according to the tenth census, was 74, against 2 in 1850, 16 in 1800, and 35 in 1870. Of these, 7 were dailies, 59 weeklies, 6 monthlies, 1 semi-monthly, and 1 quarterly. A few only of these had any particular significance. The Astorinn, founded in 1872 by D. C. Ireland, on account of its excellence as a commercial and marine journal, should be excepted. The Inland Empire of The Dalles is also deserving of mention for its excellence in disseminating useful information on all topics connected with the development of the coun- try. The West Shore, a Portland monthly publication, founded in August 1875 by L. Samuels, grew from an eight-page journal to a magazine of from twenty to thirty quarto pages, chiefly local in character, and profusely illus- trated with cuts representing the scenery and the architectural improvements of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, and British Columbia. The locality longest without a newspaper was Coos Bay, which, although settled early,
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isolated by a lack of roads from the interior, and having considerable husi- ness, had no printing-press until October 1870, when the Monthly Guile was started at Empire City, a sheet of 4 pages about 6 by 4 inches in size. It ran until changed into the Coos Bay News in March 1873, when it was en- larged to 12 by 18 inches. In September of the same year it was removed to Marshfield and again enlarged.
PIONEER ASSOCIATION.
The Oregon Pioneer Society was organized October 8 and 9, 1867, at Salem, in the hall of the house of representatives, W. H. Gray being prime mover. The officers elected were J. W. Nesmith president, Matthew P. Deady vice-president, I. N. Gilbert treasurer, and Medorum Crawford secre- tary. Resolutions were offered to form committees to obtain facts concerning the immigration of 1843, and in reference to the civil and political condition of the country from its earliest settlement.
In the mean time W. H. Gray had founded the Oregon Pioneer and His- torical Society, with its office at Astoria, which society made less of the social rennions and more of the collection of historical documents, and which held its first meeting in 1872. I have not been able to find a schedule of its first proceedings. Truman P. Powers, one of Oregon's inost venerable pioneers, was its president in 1875. He has only recently died. It strikes one, in looking over the proceedings of that year, that less sectarianism would be conducive to a better quality of history material.
On the 18th of October, 1873, the original society reorganized as the Ore- gon Pioneer Association, with F. X. Mathieu president, J. W. Grim vice- president, W. H. Rees secretary, and Eli Cooley treasurer. It held its anni- versaries and reunions on the 15th of June, this being the day on which the treaty of boundary between Great Britain and the United States was con- eluded. Addresses were annually delivered by men acquainted with pioneer life and history. Ex-governor Curry delivered the first annual address No- vember 11, 1873, since which time, Deady, Nesmith, Strong, Rees, Holman, Boisé, Minto, Geer, Atkinson, Thornton, Evans, Applegate, Staats, Chadwick, Grover, and others have contributed to the archives of the society valuable adresses. A roll of the members is kept, with place of nativity and year of immigration, and all are eligible as members who came to Oregon while the territory was under the joint ocenpaney of the United States and Great Brit- ain, or who were born or settled in the territory prior to January 1, 1854. Biographies form a feature of the archives. The association offered to join with the historical society in 1874, but the latter decided that 'any material change in its organic existence would defeat the prime object of the society,' and they remained apart. The association is a popular institution, its reunions being occasions of social intercourse as well as historical reminiscences, and occasions for the display of the best talent in the state. The transactions of each annual meeting are published in a neat pamphlet for preservation. In 1877 the men and women who settled the Rogue River and other southern valleys, and whose isolation, naning adventures, and Indian wars gave them a history of their own, hardly identical with but no less interesting than that of the settlers of the Willamette Valley, met at the picturesque village of Ashland and founded the Pioneer Society of Southern Oregon on the 13th of September of that year, about 800 persons being present. Its first officers were L. C. Duncan president, William Hoffman secretary, N. S. Hayden treas- urer. E. L. Applegate delivered an address, in which he set forth the motives which animated, and the exploits which were performed by, the pioneers. Other addresses were made by Thomas Smith, E. K. Anderson, and John E. Ross. The society in 1885 was in a prosperous condition. Portland Orego- nian, Nov. 18, 1867; Portland Advocate, Sept. 14, 1867; Astoria Astorian, April 3, 1875; Sac. Record-Union, April 3, 1875; Portland Bulletin, Dec. 6, 1871; Portland Oregonian, March 9, 1872; Ashland Tidings, Sept. 28, 1877; Jacksonville Times, April 12, 1878.
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LIBRARIES.
The original State Library of Oregon, as the reader knows, was destroyed by fire in 1855. The later collection numbered in 1885 some 11,000 volumes, and was simply a law library, as there were few miscellaneous books. It contained no state historical documents or writings of local authors to speak of. The annual appropriation of $750 was expended by the chief justice in purchasing books for the supreme court.
The Library Association of Portland had the largest miscellaneous collec- tion in the state. It was founded in February 1864 by subscriptions from a few prominent men, amounting in all to a little over $2,500. At the end of the first year it had 500 volumes, and increased annually till in 1885 there were some 12,000 volumes. Although not large, this library was selected with more than ordinary care, the choice of hooks having been made princi- pally by Judge Deady, to whose fostering care its continued growth may be principally ascribed, although the institution is scarcely less indebted to W. S. Ladd, for the free use of the elegant rooms over his bank for many years. The first board of directors was W. S. Ladd, B. Goldsmith, L. H. Wakefield, HI. W. Corbett, E. D. Shattuck, C. H. Lewis, William Strong, W. S. Cald- well, P. C. Schuyler, Jr, and Charles Calef. The directors were divided into five classes by lot, the first class going out at the expiration of two years, the second in four years, and so on to the end, two new directors being elected biennially. The first officers of the association were W. S. Ladd, president; William Strong, vice-president; Bernard Goldsmith, treasurer; Henry Failing, corresponding secretary: W. S. Caldwell, recording secretary; II. W. Scott, W. B. Cardwell, and C. C. Strong, librarians. In 1872 the association em- ployed Henry A. Oxer as librarian and recording secretary, whose qualifica- tions for the duties materially assisted to popularize the institution. Judge Deady has been presiding officer for many years.
The Pacific University, State University, Willamette University, Mon- mouth University, McMinnville and other colleges and schools, and the catholic church of Portland, maintained libraries for the use of those under tuition, and there were many private collections in the state.
IMMIGRATION SOCIETY.
The first society for the promotion of immigration was formed in 1856. in New York, under the title of New York Committee of Pacific Emigration. S. P. Dewey and W. T. Coleman of San Francisco, and Amory Holbrook and and A. Mckinlay of Oregon City, were present at the preliminary meeting at the Tontine House. An appeal was made to the people of Oregon to interest themselves in sustaining a board of immigration, and keeping an agent in New York in common with the California Emigration Society. Or. Statesman, Feb. 3, 1857. The matter, however, seems to have been neglected, nothing further being heard about immigration schemes until after the close of the civil war, and after the settlement of Idaho and Montana had intercepted the westward flow of population, reducing it to a minimum in the Willamette Valley and everywhere west of the Cascades. About 1868 the State Agricnl- tural Society appointed A. J. Dufur, its former president, to compile and pub- lish facts concerning the 'physical, geographical, and mineral' resources of the state, and a 'description of its agricultural development,' which he accord- ingly did in a pamphlet of over a hundred pages, which was distributed broad- cast and placed in the way of travellers. Dufur's Or. Statistics, Salem, 1869.
In August 1869 a Board of Statistics. Immigration, and Labor Exchange was formed at Portland, with the object of promoting the increased settlement of the country, and furnishing immigrants with employment. The board con- sisted of ten men, who managed the business and employed such agents as they thought best, but the revenues were derived from private subscriptions. Ten thousand copies of pamphlets prepared by the society were distributed the
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first year of its existence, and the legislature was appealed to for help in fur- nishing funds to continue these operations, which were assisted by a subordi- nate society at Salem. Or. Legisl. Docs, 1870, 11, app. 1-11. In 1872 E. L. Applegate was appointed a commissioner of immigration by the legislature, with power to equip himself with maps, charts, and statistics in a manner prop- erly to represent Oregon in the United States and Europe, and to 'counteract interested misrepresentations.' Or. Laws, 1872, 38. The compensation for this service was left blank in the law, from which circumstance, and from the additional one that Applegate returned to Oregon in the spring of 1872 as a peace commissioner to the Modocs under pay, it is just to conclude that his salary as a commissioner of immigration was insufficient to the service, or that his services were inadequate to the needs of the country, or both.
At the following session in 1874 the State Board of Immigration was created, October 28th, the members of which were to be appointed by the governor to the number of five, who were to act without salary or other com- pensation, under rules of their own making. This act also authorized the governor to appoint honorary members in foreign countries, none of whom were to receive payment. Or. Laws, 1874, 113. The failure of the legislature to make an appropriation compelled the commissioners appointed by the gov- ernor to solicit subscriptions iu Portland. Considerable money was collected from business firms, and an agent was sent to San Francisco, Upon recom- mendation of the state board, consisting of W. S. Ladd, H. W. Corbett, B. Goldsmith, A. Lienenweber and William Reid, the governor appointed twenty- four special agents, ten in the United States, ten in Europe, two in New Zealand, and two in Canada. The results were soon apparent. Nearly 6,000 letters of inquiry were received in the eighteen months ending in September 1876, and a perceptible movement to the north-west was begun. The eastern branch of the state board at Boston expended $24,000 in the period just mentioned for immigration purposes; half-rates were secured by passenger vessels and railway lines from European ports to l'ortland, by which means about 4,000 immigrants came out in 1875, and over 2,000 in 1876, while the immigration of the following year was nearly twelve thousand. Or. Mess. and Dors, 1876, 14, 10; Portland Board of Trade, 1877, 17.
On the 24th of January, 1877, the Oregon State Immigration Society organized under the private-corporations act of 1862, with a capital stock of $500,000, in shares of $5 each, the object being to promote immigration, col- lect and diffuse information, buy and sell real estate, and do a general agency business. The president of the incorporated society was A. J. Dufur, vice- president D. H. Stearns, secretary T. J. Matlock, treasurer L. P. W. Quimby. By-Laws Or. Emig. Soc., 16. An office was opened in Portland, and the society, chiefly through its president, performed considerable labor without any satisfactory pecuniary returns. But there was by this time a wide-spread interest wakened, which led to statisical and descriptive pamphlets, maps, and circulars by numerous authors, whose works were purchased and made use of by the Oregon and California and Northern Pacific railroad companies to settle their lands, and by other transportation companies to swell their passenger lists. The result of these efforts was to fill up the castern portion of Oregon and Washington with an active population in a few years, and to materially increase the wealth of the state, both by addition to its producing capacity, and hy a consequent rise in the value of lands in every part of it. The travel over the Northern Pacific, chiefly immigration, was large from the moment of its extension to the Rocky Mountains, and was in 1885 still on the increase.
RAILROADS.
In February 1853 the Oregon legislative assembly, stirred by the discus- sion in congress of a transcontinental railroad, passed a memorial in relation to such a road from the Mississippi River to some point on the Pacific coast, this being the first legislative action with regard to railroads in Oregon after the organization of the territory, although there had been a project spoken of,
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and even advertised, to build a railroad from St Helen on the Columbia to Lafayette in Yamhill county as early as 1850. Or. Spectator, Jan. 30, 1850. Knighton, Tappan, Smith, and Crosby were the projectors of this road.
In the latter part of 1853 came I. I. Stevens to Puget Sound, full of the enthusiasm of an explorer, and sanguine with regard to a road which should unite the Atlantic and Pacific states. Under the excitement of this confident hope, the legislature of 1853-4 granted charters to no less than four railway companies in Oregon, and passed resolutions asking for aid from congress. Or. Jour. Council, 1853-4, 125. The Willamette Valley Railroad Company, the Oregon and California Railroad Company, the Cincinnati Railroad C'om- pany, and the Clackamas Railroad Company were the four mentioned. The Cincinnati company proposed to build a road from the town of that name in Polk county to some coal lands in the same county. Id., 125; Or. Statesman, April IS, 1854. The act concerning the Clackamas company is lacking among the laws of that session, although the proceedings of the council show that it passed. It related to the portage around the falls at Oregon City. Or. Jour. Council, 94, 95, 107, 116, 126. One of these companies went so far as to hold meetings and open books for subscriptions, but nothing further came of it. The commissioners were Frederick Waymire, Martin L. Barker, John Thorp, Solomon Tetherow, James S. Holmnan, Harrison Linnville, Fielder M. Thorp, J. C. Avery, and James O'Neil. Or. Statesman, April 11 and 25, 1854. This was called the Willamette Valley Railroad Company.
A charter was granted to a company styling itself the Oregon and Cali- fornia Railroad Company, who proposed to build a road from Eugene City to some point on the cast side of the Willamette River below Oregon City, or possibly to the Columbia River. The commissioners for the Oregon and Cal- ifornia road were Lot Whitcomb, N. P. Doland, W. Meek, James B. Stephens, William Holmes, Charles Walker, Samuel Officer, William Barlow, John Gribble, Harrison Wright, J. D. Boon, J. L. Parrish, Joseph Holman, Wil- liam H. Rector, Daniel Waldo, Benj. F. Harding, Samuel Simmons, Ralph C. Geer, William Parker, Augustus R. Dimick, Hugh Cosgrove, Robert Newell. W. H. Willson, Green McDonald, James Curl, E. H. Randall, Luther Elkins, John Crabtree. David Claypole, Elmore Keyes, James H. Foster, George Cline, John Smith, Anderson Cox, John H. Lines, Jeremiah Duggs, John N. Donnell, Asa McCully, Hugh L. Brown, James N. Smith, Wilham Earle, W. W. Bristow, Milton S. Riggs, James C. Robinson, P. Wilkins, William Stevens, Jacob Spores, Benjamin Richardson, E. F. Skinner, James Hetherly, Felix Scott, Henry Owen, Benjamin Davis, Joseph Bailey, J. W. Nesmith, and Samuel Brown. Id., April 4, 1854. Of this likewise nothing came except the name, which descended to a successor. Another corporation received a charter in 1857 to build a road to Newport on Yaquina Lay, which was not built by the company chartered at that date. The only railroads in Oregon previous to the organization of the Oregon C'entral Rail- road Company, of which I am about to give the history, were the portages about the cascades and dalles of the Columbia and the falls at Oregon City.
In 1863 S. G. Eliot, civil engineer, made a survey of a railroad line from Marysville in California to Jacksonville in Oregon, where his labors ended and his party was disbanded. This survey was made for the California and Columbia River Railroad Company, incorporated October 13, 1863, at Marys- ville, California. Eliot endeavored to raise money in Oregon to complete his survey, but was opposed by the people, partly from prejudice against Califor- nian enterprises. Marysville Appeal, June 27, 1863; Portland Oregonian, Jan. 4, 1864; Deady's Scrap-Book, 37, 56; Portland Oregonian, Dec. 17. 1863. Joseph Gaston, the railroad pioneer of the Willamette, then residing in Jack- son county, being deeply interested in the completion of the survey to the Columbia River, took it upon himself to raise a company, which he placed under the control of A. C. Barry, who after serving in the civil war had come to the Pacific coast to regain his health. Barry was ably assisted by George H. Belden of the U. S. land survey. As the enterprise was wholly a volun- teer undertaking, the means to conduct it had to be raised by contribution,
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and to this most difficult part of the work Gaston applied himself. A circular was prepared, addressed to the leading farmers and business men of the coun- try through which the surveying party would pass, inviting their support, while Barry was instructed to subsist his men on the people along the line and trust to the favor of the public for his own pay.
The novelty and boldness of these proceedings, while eliciting comments, did not operate unfavorably upon the prosecution of the survey, which pro- ceeded without interruption, the party in the field living sumptuously, and often being accompanied and assisted by their entertainers for days at a time. It was not always that the people app'ied to were so enthusiastic. One promi- ment man declared that so far from the country being able to support a rail- road, if one should be built the first train wouldI carry all the freight in the country, the second all the passengers, and the third would pull up the track behind it and carry off the road itself. 'This same man,' remarks Mr Gaston, 'managed to get into office in the first railroad company, and has en- joyed a good salary therein for 13 years.' Gast m's Railroad Development in Oregon, MS., 8-9. Gaston continued to write and print circulars, which were distributed to railroad men, county officers, government land-offices, and all persons likely to be interested in or able to assist in the organization of a railroad company, both on the Pacific coast and in the eastern states. These open letters contained statistical and other information about the country, and its agricultural, mineral, commercial, and manufacturing resources. Hundreds of petitions were at the same time put in circulation, asking congress to grant a subsidy in bonds and lands to aid in constructing a branch railroad from the Central Pacific to Oregon.
By the time the legislature met in September, Gaston had Barry's report completed and printed, giving a favorable view of the entire practicability of a road from Jacksonville to the Columbia at St Helen, to which point it was Barry's opinion any road through the length of the Willamette River ought to go, although the survey was extended to Portland. To this report was appended a chapter on the resources of Oregon, highly flattering to the feelings of the assembly. The document was referred to the committee on corporations, and James M. Pyle, senator from Douglas county, chairman, made an able report, supporting the policy of granting state aid. Cyrus OI- ney, of Clatsop county, drew up the first state subsidy bi.l, proposing to grant $250,000 to the company that should first construct 100 miles of railroad in the Willamette Valley. The bill became a law, but no company ever accepted this trifling subsidy. Portland Oregonian, Sept. 7 and 13, 1864; Barry's Cal. & Or. R. R. Surrey, 34; Or. Journal Senate, 1864, ap. 36-7: Portland Ore jo- nian, Nov. 5, 1864; Or. Jour. House, 1864, ap. 185-9; Or. Statesman, July 23, 1864; Portland Oregonian, June 20, July 27, Aug. 11, Sept. 13, Oct. 29, 1864. In November, however, after the adjournment of the legisla- ture, an organization was formed under the name of the Willamette Valley Railroad Company, which opened books for subscription, and filed arti- cles of incorporation in December. Id., Nov. 12 and 17, and Dec. 2, 1864; Deady's Scrap- Book, 107. The incorporators were J. C. Ainsworth, H. W. Corbett, W. S. Ladd, A. C. Gibbs, C. N. Carter, I. R. Moores, and E. N. Cooke. Ainsworth was president, and George H Belden secretary. Belden was a civil engineer, and had been chief in the surveyor-general's office, but resigned to enter upon the survey of the Oregon and California railroad. Or. Argus, May 25, 1863. Barry meantime proceeded with his reports and peti- tions to Washington, where he expected the cooperation of Senators Williams aud Nesmith. The latter did indeed exert his influence in behalf of con- gressional aid for the Oregon branch of the Central Pacific, but Barry became weary of the uncertainty and delay attendant upon passing bills through con- gress. and giving up the project as hopeless, went to Warsaw, Missouri, where lic entered upon the practice of law.
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