USA > Oregon > History of Oregon, Vol. II, 1848-1888 > Part 78
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755
GOVERNMENT IMPROVEMENTS.
fact remains that but one quarry is known to produce good building material, and that one is at East Port- land, from which was taken the stone used in erecting the lighthouse at Tillamook. The difficulty of obtain- ing suitable material for the jetty being constructed at the mouth of the Columbia has delayed the work, and occasioned loss to contractors. As much as $20,000 was expended in exploring for good rock for this purpose in vain, a limited supply being found at one place only on the river. Yet there is known to be an abundance of good stone in the mountains of Lewis and Clarke river, near the mouth of the Columbia; but a railroad of fifteen miles is required to bring it to the coast, and $150,000 will have to be expended out of the appropriation for the work of improving the mouth of the Columbia.
The plan of this work is to construct a low-tide jetty from near Fort Stevens, four and a half miles in a slightly convex course to a point three miles south of Cape Disappointment. It is intended both as a protection to Fort Stevens, and as the means of securing deep water in the channel. The cost is com- puted at $3,710,000, and of this only $287,500 had been appropriated in 1887. The work was begun under the appropriation act of July 5, 1884. So far as it has progressed its effect on the entrance to the river has proven satisfactory. The lack of depth in the channel, which it is the intention to keep at thirty feet, prevents American vessels with deep bottoms from entering the river, while the light-draught British iron-bottomed vessels secure the trade.
in lodes and placers, quicksilver, iron, graphite, mineral waters, coal, lime- stone, infusorial earth, building stone. Josephine: gold in Iodes and placers, copper ores, limestone and marble. Klamath: mineral waters. Lake: mineral waters. Lane: gold in quartz and placers, zinc ores. Linn: gold in quartz and placers, copper, galena, zinc blende. Malheur: nitrate beds, alkaline salts. Marion: gold and silver in quartz, limestone, bog iron ore. Morrow: -. MutInomab: iron ore, building stone. Polk: building stone, salt springs, limestone, mineral waters, iron pyrites. Tillamook: gold in beach sands, coal, rock salt, iron pyrites, building stone. Umatilla: gold in lodes and placers, coal, iron. Union: gold in lodes and placers, silver in lodes, hersite, ochre. Wallowa: gold in lodes, silver, copper, building stones. Wasco: mineral waters. Yamhill: mineral springs, iron pyrites. Id., Jan. 2, 1888. This in part only.
756
LATER EVENTS.
The state of Oregon is much indebted to the efforts of United States Senator J. N. Dolph for the govern- ment aid granted in improving the Columbia, as well as some lesser waterways. The drainage area of the Columbia is estimated by him to be greater than the aggregate area of all New England, the middle states, and Maryland and Virginia; and the far larger portion lies east of the Cascade range, which has no other water-level pass from the northern boundary of Washington to the southern line of Oregon. This pass is monopolized by the Oregon Railway and Navi- gation Company's track on the south side, and by a railway portage of the same corporation on the north side. The government has undertaken to facilitate free navigation by constructing locks at the upper Cascades and improving the rapids, but the work is costly and proceeds with the proverbial tardiness of government undertakings, where appropriations are held out year after year with apparent reluctance, while the treasury is overflowing with its surplus. The work has been going on for eight or ten years, during which time only about half the $2,205,000 required has been appropriated. The river and harbor line passed by congress in 1888, and warmly advocated by the Oregon senators, was shaped by them to carry forward these important improvements. Another improvement advocated by Dolph is a local railway at the Dalles, which will cost $1,373,000. Besides this, the rapids of the Columbia above the mouth of Snake river will require to overcome them, the expenditure of $3,005,000; that is, the sum of $5,440,500 will, it is believed, open to competition a distance of 750 miles. This will have the effect to cheapen freights, which now are entirely in the hands of the railroad combination, except on the lower Columbia. There can be no doubt that these improve- ments will be made at no very distant day, when the Columbia will be a continuous waterway reaching 1,000 miles into the interior of the continent. The Oregon
757
COAST COUNTIES.
delegation in Washington was very persistent at this period in claiming appropriations for public works.1 Senator Mitchell obtained $80,000 for the erection of a first-class lighthouse near the mouth of the Umpqua river ; $15,000 for a site and wharf at Astoria for the use of the lighthouse department, and asked for money to construct the revetment of the Willamette at Corvallis.
The coast counties developed very gradually, although they received a part of the immigration, and were finally prosperous. Scottsburg projected a railway which, if it can be extended to Coos bay, should be a good investment. At Sinslaw a settlement was made,16 with three fish-canning establishments, and a saw-mill. There being a good entrance to the river, the bottom lands rich, the water excellent, and the climate healthful, this section offered attractions to settlers, and a railroad might be made to connect with one from Scottsburg.
Yaquina, from the opening given it by the Oregon Pacific, and a line of steamers to San Francisco, made considerable growth, assumed pretensions of a fashion- able resort, and planned to erect a large hotel a few miles south of the bay, where hunting, fishing, and beach driving were guaranteed the tourist. Little change had been effected in the more northern coast counties.
In eastern Oregon two new counties were organized -Morrow county, named after Governor Morrow, with the county seat at Heppuer, and formned out of the south-west portion of Umatilla; and Wallowa
15 Dolph has been at some pains to prepare a bill for expending $126,000, - 000 in coast defences, according to the recommendation of a commission appointed to report upon the subject. It appropriates $27,000,000 for the defence of San Francisco harbor; 82,519,000 for the defence of the mouth of the Columbia: and 8504,000 to the harbor of San Diego.
16 George M. Miller, of Eugene, is the founder of Florence, although David Morse Jr, of Empire City, made an 'addition' to the town. Lots are worth from 825 to 850 and $100. The Florence Canning co. employs 80 men with 40 boats, besides 45 Chinese. The Lone Star Packing co. employ 32 men, 16 boats, and 35 Chinese. The Elmore Packing co. employs SO men, 40 boats, and 65 Chinese. The three establishments put up 1,700 cases daily.
758
LATER EVENTS.
county, formed out of a portion of Union, with the county seat at Joseph.17 Railroads were being rapidly constructed from all directions toward the main lines to carry out the crops, wool, and stock of this division of the state. The wool clip of 1887, which was shipped to Portland, was 12,534,485 pounds, the greater portion of which was from eastern Oregon. The movement at Portland of wheat and flour for 1887 equalled the bulk of the wheat production of Oregon and eastern Washington combined.18 Lump- ing the receipts of Willamette valley and eastern Oregon and Washington wheat, there were received at Portland 3,927,458 centals, against 5,531,995 re- ceived in 1886; and 302,299 barrels of flour against 354,277 for the latter year. Of this amount, 553,920 centals of wheat, and 165,786 barrels of flour, were from the Willamette valley. A fleet of 73 vessels, registering 93,320 tons, was loaded with grain at Oregon wharves.
There has been a steady decline in salmon canning on the Columbia since 1883, falling from 630,000 cases to 400,000 in 1887. This may reasonably be attributed to the over-fishing practised for several years consecutively. Nature does not provide against such greed, and it is doubtful if art can do it. The government, either state or general, should assume control of this industry by licensing a certain number of canneries, of given capacity, for a limited period, and improving the hatcheries. Otherwise there is a prospect that the salmon, like the buffalo, may become extinct.
Although Oregon built the first saw-mills on the Pacific coast, and enjoyed for a few years the monop- oly of the lumber trade with California and the Ha-
17 The name of Joseph is given in remembrance of the Nez Perce chief of that name, who formerly made his home in this valley, and young Joseph, his son, who led his band in the war of 1877. The first commissioners of Wallowa co. were James McMasterton and J. A. Runhed. The first com- missioners of Morrow were William Douglas and A. Rood.
18 A portion of the wheat crop of Washington was carried to Tacoma via the C'ascade branch in 1887.
759
LUMBER.
waiian islands, since the establishment of the immense lumbering and milling properties on Puget sound, chiefly controlled by capital in San Francisco, it has been difficult to market Oregon lumber, except on sufferance from the great lumber firms. In 1885, however, the experiment was made of sending cargoes of lumber to the eastern states direct by rail, which has resulted in a trade of constantly increasing im- portance, having grown from 1,000,000 feet to 10,000,- 000 feet monthly. The market is found everywhere along the line from Salt Lake to Chicago. The lease to the Union Pacific of the Oregon Railway and Nav- igation Company's lines will facilitate this traffic. This trade belongs at present solely to Oregon, and is inde- pendent of the 100,000,000 feet exported annually to Pacific coast markets."'
19 In many ways the improvement in local institutions might be noted. A fruit grower's association was formed, Dr J. R. Cardwell, president, which held its first annual meeting January 5, 1887. On the 11th of the same month the Portland Produce Exchange was organized. The state board of immigration transferred its office to the Portland hoard of trade in Sept. 1887. A Gatling battery was added to the military organizations of Portland. On April 7, 1886, the Native Sons of Oregon organized. On the 17th of August, 1887, the corner stone of the new Agricultural college was laid at Corvallis. The state has done nothing to withdraw the Agricultural college from the influences of sectarianism. The Southern Methodist State Agricultural college, as a local newspaper calls it, will not rise to the stand- ing which the people have a right to demand for it until it becomes, as con- gress intended, a part of the state university. A free kindergarten system was inaugurated in Portland; and a Woman's Exchange opened, which gave cheap homes to homeless women, with assistance in finding employment. The Teachers' National convention of 1888 at San Francisco showed the work of the Portland schools to be very nearly equal to the best in the United States, and superior to many of the eastern cities. Albany, since the incep- tion of the Oregon Pacific R. R., has gained several new business institutions. The railroad round-house and shops were located there. Among its manu- factories were extensive flouring mills, furniture factories, wire works, iron foundries, and a fruit packing establishment. An opera house was erected by a joint stock company, and a public school building costing $20,000. The aggregate cost of new buildings in 1887 was 8160,000, with a popula- tion of 3,500. The electric light system has been introduced. The water power furnished by the Albany and Santiam Water, ditch, or canal com- pany, with a capacity of 20,000 running feet per minute, invites industries of every kind depending upon geared machinery.
Roseburg in Douglas county took a fresh impetus from the completion of the Oregon and California R. R. The county of Douglas, with a popu- lation of 11,000 and a large area, shipped in the year ending August, 1887, 269 tons of wool, 5,073 tons of wheat, 436 tons of oats and other grains, 288 tons of flour, 8 tons of green fruit, 61 tons of dried fruit. This being done with no other outlet than via Portland, was an indication of what might be looked for on the opening of the country south of Roseburg.
760
LATER EVENTS.
The administration of Governor Moody was a fair and careful one, marked by no original abuses, although it failed to correct, as it was hoped it would have done, the swamp-land policy, by which the state had been robbed of a handsome dower. The legisla- ture of 1878 had endeavored to correct the evil grow- ing out of the legislation of 1870, but Governor Thayer had so construed the new law as to render it of no effect in amending the abuses complained of ;20 and Governor Moody had not interfered with the existing practices of the swamp-land board. Here, then, was a real point of attack upon a past adminis- tration, when a democratic governor was elected in 1886.21 Governor Sylvester Pennoyer was quite will- ing, and also quite right to make it, and doubtless enjoyed the electrifying effect of his message to con- gress, in which he presented a list of swamp-land certificates aggregating 564,969 acres, on which $142,846 had been unlawfully paid, and suggested that while settlers should be protected in possession of a legal amount legally purchased, the money, which under a " misapprehension " had come into the treasury from other persons, should be returned to them ; and "the state domain parcelled out, as was the intent and letter of the law, to actual settlers in small quantities." Further, the new board of school- land commissioners 22 prepared a bill, which embodied
20 I have already given an account of the manner in which the law of 1870 was passed, and with what motive. The legislature of 1878 had en- acted that all applications for the purchase of these lands from the state which had not been regularly made, or being regularly made the 20 per cent required by law had not been paid before Jan. 17, 1879, should be void and of no effect. But it appeared that the board, consisting of the governor, secretary and treasurer, had issued deeds and certificates to lands which had not been formally approved to the state by the secretary of the interior, and to which, consequently, it had no show of title. It had issued deeds and certificates for amounts in excess of 320 acres-all that by law could be sold to oue purchaser-selling unsurveyed and unmapped lands in bodies as large as 50,000, 60,000, or 133,000 acres, and otherwise encouraging land-grabbing.
21 The secretary of state under Gov. Moody was R. P. Earhart; and the treasurer Edward Hirsch. They constituted with the governor the board land commissioners.
"The new board consisted of Governor Pennoyer, secretary of state, George W. McBride, and Edward Hirsch, who had been treasurer through
761
LAND MATTERS.
the views of the governor, and presented it to the legislature with a recommendation that it, or something very like it, should be enacted into a law. It declared void all certificates of sale made in defiance of the law of 1878, but provided that actual settlers on 320 acres or less should be allowed to perfect title without reclaiming the land, upon payment of the remaining 80 per cent before January 1, 1879. Upon the sur- render of void certificates the amount paid thereon should be refunded ; and a special tax of one mill on a dollar of all taxable property in the state should be levied, and the proceeds applied to the payment of outstanding warrants made payable by the act. Suit should be brought to set aside any deed issued by the board upon fraudulent representation. The reclama- tion requirement of the law of 1870 was dispensed with, and any legal applicant who had complied with the provisions of that act, including the 20 per cent of the purchase price, prior to January 1879, should be entitled to a deed to not more than 640 acres, if paid for before 1889. All swamp and overflowed lands reverting to the state under the provisions of the act should be sold as provided by the act of 1878; but only to actual settlers, and not exceeding 320 acres to one person. Any settler who had purchased from the holder of a void certificate should be en- titled to receive the amount of money paid by him to the original holder, which should be deducted from the amount repaid on the surrender of the illegal cer- tificate. Such an example of justice had not sur- prised the people of Oregon since the days of its founders. According to the report of the board for 1887 the school fund will save nearly, if not quite, a million dollars by the rescue of these lands from fraud- ulent claimants.
several previous terms. McBride was a republican and had been speaker of the house in 1885. He was the younger son of James McBride the pioneer, and brother of James McBride of Wis., John R. McBride of Utah, and Thom t; McBride, attorney of the 4th judicial district of Or. An up- right and talented young man.
762
LATER EVENTS.
The legislature of 1887 proposed these amendments to the people, to be voted upon at a special election : First, a prohibitory liquor law ; second, to allow the legislature to fix the salaries of state officers; third, to change the time of holding the general elections from June to November. All failed of adoption. J. H. Mitchell was again chosen United States senator.
The free trade issue in 1888 caused the state to return a large republican majority,23 and again gave to that party the choice of a United States senator to suc- ceed Dolph. Herman was elected congressman for a third term. The financial condition of the state was ex- cellent, the total bonded debt being less than $2,000, and outstanding warrants not exceeding $54,000.
Thus was built up, within the memory of living men, a state complete in all its parts, where, when they entered the wilderness, the savage and the fur- hunter alone disturbed the awful solitudes. Whom the savage then spared, king death remembered, beck- oning more and more frequently as time went on to the busy toilers, who in silence crossed over Jordan in answer to the undeniable command, and rested from their labors. 24
23 The democrats elected only 25 out of the 90 members of the legislature. The republican majority was about 7,000.
24 I find in the archives of the Pioneer association for 1887 mention of the death of the following persons, most of whose names are recorded in the immi- grant lists of the first vol. of my History of Oregon: Capt. William Shaw (immigrant of 1844) died at Howell prairie, 20th January, 1887. Capt. Charles Holman (arrived 1852) died at Portland 3d July, 1886; Prof. L. J. Powell (1847) died at Seattle 17th Angust, 1887; David Powell (1847) died near East Portland 8th April, 1887; Peter Scholl (1847) died near Hillsboro' in November, 1872; Mrs Lucinda Spencer, (1847) daughter of Thomas and Martha Cox, died 30th of March, ISSS; Mrs Sarah Fairbanks King, (1852) who was Mrs George Olds when she came to Oregon, died 19th January, 1887; Solomon Howard Smith, of the Wyeth party of 1832, died on Clatsop plains in 1874, at the age of 65 years; he was born December 26, 1809 at Lebanon, N. H .; Alvin T. Smith (1840) died in 1887 at Forest Grove; he was one of the independent missionaries, and was born in Branford, Conn., Nov. 17, 1802, his first wife being Abigail Raymond, who died in 1855, when he returned to Conn., and married Miss Jane Averill of Branford, who survived him; Mrs Mary E. Frazer, nee Evans, born in Newburyport, Mass., Dec. 13, 1816, who married Thomas Frazer, and came to Oregon in 1853, died in Portland 21st April, 1884.
In 1886 there died of Oregon's pioneers the following: Jan. 21st, Mrs Clara B. Duniway Stearns, born in Oregon, wife of D. H. Stearns, and only
763
BIOGRAPHICAL.
It is a pleasure to the historian, who, by closely following the stream of events, has identified himself with the characters in his work, to observe with what unfailing justice time makes all things even. At the annual meeting of the Oregon Pioneer association at Portland, in 1887, Matthew P. Deady, acting as speaker for the city, presented to the association a life-size portrait of John McLoughlin, which was afterward hung in the state capitol, " where," said the speaker, "you may look at it and show it to your children, and they to their chileren, and say : ‘This
daughter of Mrs Abigail Scott Duniway, at Portland; George F. Treban Jau. 2Ist at Portland; Mrs M. J. Saylor Jan 24th at MeMinnville; Simeon Alber (1853) at McMinnville Jan. 24; Frank Hedges at Oregon city Feb. 22d; Samuel A. Moreland at Portland March 19th; W. McMillan at East Portland April 26th; Mrs J. A. Cornwall (1846) at Eugene May 2d; Elijah Williams at East Portland May 16th; James Johns, founder of the town of St Johns, May 28th; Gen. John E. Ross at East Portland June 14th; W. W. Buek (1844) at Oregon city June 19; Mrs James M. Stott at East Portland June 26th; Mrs Susan A. Tartar in Polk co. June 28th; Mrs Sarah Van- denyn in Lane co. June 28th; Captain Seth Pope in Columnbia co. July 23d; Mrs Mary Stevens Ellsworth (1852) at Cove, in Union co., July 24th; Rev. E. R. Geary at Eugene city Sept. 2d; W. H. Bennett (1845) at Rockford, W. T., Sept. 12th; Robert E. Pittock at Canonsburg, Pa .. Sept 16th; Samuel M. Smith at Portland Oct. 25th; L. J. C. Duncan, Jackson co. Nov. 7th; Whiting G. West (1846) Nov. 8th; James Thompson at Salem Nov. 8th ; Prof. Newell at Philometh college, Nov. 10th; Mrs Mary Olney Brown, at Olympia Nov. 17th; A. Walts at Portland Dec. 17th; Jacob Hoover (1844) at his home near Hillsboro', Dec. 19th.
In 1887: Ex .- Gov. Addison C. Gibbs died in London, Eng., early in Jan .; his funeral occurred July 9th at Portland; Mrs D. M. Moss of Oregon city a pioneer of 1843, d. Jan. 23d; George W. Elmer, Portland, Jan. 26th; Mrs W. T. Newby (1844), Jan. 28th; Mrs A. N. King (1845), an. 30th; James Brown (1843), Feb. 8th, at Woodburn; H. M. Humphrey (1852), near Port- land, Feb. 3d; Mrs Ellen Daley, at East Portland, Feb. 3d; Mrs Col W. L. White (1850), at Portland, Feb. 20th; Mrs William Mason of Monmouth, an l Mrs Wallace of Linn co., Feb. 21st; John G. Baker at MeMinnville, March 4th; Judge William Strong (1849), at Portland, April 16th; Mrs James B. Stephens (1844), at East Portland, April 27th; Benjamin Strang, at Astoria, May 7th; N. D. Gilliam (1844), at Mount Tabor, May 15th; M. Tidd, in Yamhill co., May 22d; Levi Knott, at Denver, Col., May 29th; E. Norton and J. Schenerer, Portland, June 7th; Mrs Frances O. Adams (185), wife of W. L. Adams, June 23d; Robert Pentland, at Scio, June 5th; Dr Cahannis, of Modoc war fame, at Astoria, July 22d; Dr R. B. Wilson, at Portland, August 6th; Prof. L. J. Powell, long a teacher in Or., at Seattle, Ang. 17th; Rev. E. R. Geary, Sept. 2, 1886; Mrs J. H. Wilbur, at Walla Walla, Oct. 2d; Mrs Joseph Imbire, at The Dalles, Oct. 23d; Rev. J. H. Wilbur, at Walla Walla, Oct. 28th.
On the 10th of Feb., 1888, Dr W. H. Watkins, at Portland; on the 23d of April died Hon. Jesse Applegate. Both these men were members of the convention which formed the state constitution. Thus the makers pass away, but their work remains. Rev. William Roberts died July 2, 1888, at Dayton.
764
BIOGRAPHICAL.
is the old doctor ; the good doctor; Dr John Mc- Loughlin.'" And this sentiment was applauded by the very men who had given the "good old doctor " many a heart-ache along in the forties. "But," con- cluded Judge Deady, " the political strife and religious bigotry which cast a cloud over his latter days have passed away, and his memory and figure have risen from the mist and smoke of controversy, and he stands out to-day in bold relief, as the first man in the history of this country- the pioneer of pioneers !"
I cannot close this volume without brief biographies of the following men: Heury Winslow Corbett, a native of Westborough, Massachusetts, where he was born on the 18th of February, 1527, is of English descent, his ances- try being traced back to the days of William the Conqueror, when the name of Roger Corbett is found among the list of those who won fame and posses- sions as a military leader. The youngest of eight children, after receiving a public school and academy education, he began life in the dry goods business in New York city, proceeding thence in 1851 to Portland, where he was ex- tremely successful in his ventures, being now the oldest merchant in Port- land, and perhaps in Oregon. He is, moreover, largely interested in banking, being connected with the First National bank almost from its inception, and now its vice-president. He was also appointed president of the board of trade, of the boys' and girls' aid society, and other charitable associations, and of a company organized to complete a grand hotel, to be second only in size to the Palace hotel in San Francisco. On the formation of the republi- can party in Oregon, Corbett became one of its leaders. He was chosen delegate to the Chicago convention of 1860, and in 1866 was elected to the United States senate, where he won repute by his practical knowledge of financial affairs, his able arguments on the resumption of specie payments, and the funding of the national debt, and his resolute opposition to all meas- ures that savored of bad faith or repudiation. As a statesman he is noted for his boldness, eloquence, and integrity of purpose; as a business man for his ability and enterprise; and as a citizen for his many deeds of charity. In 1853 he was married to Miss Caroline E. Jagger, who died twelve years later, leaving two sons, of whom only the elder, Henry J. Corbett, survives. The latter has already made his mark in life, following in the footsteps of his father, to whom he will prove a most worthy successor.
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