The west shore., July 01, 1886, Page 221, Image 23

THE WEST SHORE.
221
PIONEERS OP OREGON.
TueBday, June 15, the Oregon Pioneer Association
held its fourteenth annual reunion at Oregon City.
There were present viwtnrs from widely diffoioiil
1 ML! 1. l ! t . ii
lucuuueB, wuo nau come io renew oiu .riotulsinps
and greet again those who had eudured with them the
privations, and braved the dangors, of pioneer dsya.
At eleven o'clock the members formed iu procession,
arranged in the order of the year of their arrival, and
marohed through the city to tho park just abovo, where
the ceremonies and festivities were to be held. About
two thousand people assembled at the park and listened
to a programme of entertainment, which consisted of
music, prayer by Rov. J. W. Sell wood, address of wel
come by the president, J. T. Apperson, tho annual ad
dreBS by Col. John KeWy, occasional address by Hon.
M. C. George, and an address to the Indian War Veter
ans by Col. L. F. MoBher. Ollioors for tho following year
were chosen, as follows: M. Wilkins, president; J. W.
Grimes, vice presidont; George II. HimeB, secretary; J.
M. Bacon, F. X. Mathiou, Joseph Watt and Clark Hay,
directors. When the exorcises woro concluded, tho plo
neers adjoumod to the spot whore an immense Imrbocun
was in progress and partook of the broiled meats and
the contents of thoir baskets. Minu aim social cu
joyment were the ordor of the day. In the evening tho
pioneers gathered about tho camp firo, while tho young
er generations enjoyed themselves at tho pavilion. Tho
reunion was a thoroughly pleasant ono in every respect
A series of sketches depicting incidents of tho reunion
are given on pages two hundrod and twenty-three and
two hundred and twenty-four.
A brief resume of the history of tho pioneer will
show by what undoniablo right they thus annually
gather to celebrate thoir advent into this country ami
commemorate the deeds and events which wrested Ore
i ,;m .l..minntifin and added her to tho evor-
increasing circle of the Union. Such results are worthy
of commemoration, and tho hardy men and women who
' achieved them are deserving of honor from those multi
tudes who now enjoy the blessings won for them through
privations, toil and dangers, by the perseverance, pain
otism and moral and physical courage displayed by these
pionoers in a thousand different ways.
In 1840, all that portion of the United State, lying
west of the Rocky mountain, and north of th. lino of
woui . i...-:n Orninm. Wash-
California, Nevada ana tun, ,
iZ Idaho and a po Montana, wa. . known , m
Tegon." Title to this vast region wa. n dispute be
tween the United State, and Great Britain, and, under
a Zporary compromise, it had been open to joint occu
mUrbyXaubjecU of both nation, for twenty-two
y Joint occupati- was, however more
years, ovi r domiiiaUyl by a
greai x-ngu y h.hpiart-rs t
covering the entire country. So firm a grasp did this
great organisation hold upon Oregon, and o great was
its influence with tho natives, that all efforts at joint oc
cupation by Americans for the puroso of trade had met
witli disastrous failuro. Several efforts to Induce oini
gration of settlers had resulted iu nothing, except to lay
a foundation for future settlement.
Tho opening wedge for American settlement of Ore
gon was tho Protestant missionaries. In 1M4 tne iuoiif
odist Board of Missions dispatched Rov. Jason I.eo,
Rev. Daniel Ijoo, Cyrus Shepard and P. I Kdwerd
overland to Oregon, and these aealous men, traveling
first with one brigade of trapiors and then with another,
finally reached tho Willamette valley, and founded a
mission ten miles ImIow the present site of Salem. Iu
lrtllll Dr. Marcus Whitman and wife, Rev. 11. II. Spald
ing and wife, and W. II. Gray, representative of tho
ltonnl of Commissioner for Foreign Missions,
reached Oregon in a similar manner, and established a
mission at Waiilatpu, a few mile from the site upon
which Walla Walla was stiloo,uoutly built These mis
sionaries received accessions to their nuntlcrs from year
to year, and annually a few American trapper ostalw
lished themselves in the Willamette valley, as did, also,
many former half breed ami Canadian employees of tho
Hudson's Bay Company. Tho Catholics, too, established
missions in 18.M. This gave, in 110, a population sum
mamed as follows: American settlers, thirty-six: Amr
ican women, thirty-three; childreji, thirty-two; Motho
dist ministers, thirteen; Congregational ministers, six;
ir..t..t..iit iiiiKKioimries. not ministers, thirteen; Catliolio
priests three; American physicians, three; Fnglish
physician, one; Canadian-French, sixty. This gave a
imputation of one hundred and thirty-six Americans
and sixty-four subject of Great Britain, exclusive of
the officer and employee of the Hudson's Bay Coin
pany, who outnumlierod them largely.
The first ngular immigration from tho Fast arrived
in 1H41, iH'ginning that steady stream of young and vig
oroii life which has annually llowd Into Oregon for
i i.Jf . nnntiirv: and tho end will not Ihi soon for
II. Hill J - P 111'
many year to come. There were deep and lasting
cause for this resistless' stream to force it wsy across
the truckles plains, through rugged mounUin range
and across barren alkali desert and flow on unceasingly
in iU deeply-cut channel to Oregon, Trapper who had
visited the Paeifto coast sang the praise of the lovely
and fertile valley of the Willamette, where winter was
unknown and the gras remained green the year round,
where destructive torm wore unheard of, where the
. ,U wr not excessively warm and the sum
mer nlghU were delioiously cool, nnd where there was no
rain In harvest time to destroy the lals.r of a year.
The western frontiersman caught up the refrain as it
passed from cabin to cabin, and In few years the tale
was an old one with the hardy settlors of the Mississipp
valley. The publication of Irving's " Bonneville" and
' Astoria." of J"b" w,,rk tir"n' ,)r ,,,,r'
ker's travels, and a letter writWu by Robert bliort.,