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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (June 9, 1901)
10 THE SU.NBAY OKEGONIAN, PORTLAND, JUNE 9, 1801. I Early Days in Address Delivered at .Anivual Re-union of Pioneers by Hon. C. B Moores. DAYTOX, Or., June S. Following la a narrative of the early history of Yam hill. County and 'character sketches of some of he moat prominent pioneer set tlers, as given by Hon. C. B. Moores, of Oregon City, Is an address to the annual reunion of Yamhill County pioneers at this place "Wednesday: One day In March, 1852, nearly 50 years ago, an expedition comprising about 70 wagons started out from the little village of Danville, III., now a railroad center of 25.OJ0 people, upon what was a hazardous trip of six or eight months, across the plains to the Oregon Eldorado. The com pany had been fully made up. The equip ments of stock and wagons and provisions had been gathered. The date was fixed for the initial step in the long and trying Journey. ' "When every preliminary had been arranged, and everything was In readiness, as the final good-byes were said and the order to start was given, a youngster but a few sizes larger than the proverbial pint of soap, was picked up and thrown Into the straw In the back end cf one of the covered wagons, 'among other Impediments that could not well be dlapcoad of otherwise. The patient oxen that lurnished the motive power for that pioneer caravan were among the most important members o'f the expedition. The plebian yellow dog that during the eights of that long journey was to keep laithful vigil while the worn travelers blept was an indispensable adjunct, while on many critical occasions even the glory at the Inanimate tar bucket on the hind axle shone resplendent. The ox the dog and the tar bucket, all playtd a. part in contributing tb the safety and the comfort of the expedition. But the p'.onee'r boy baby was properly classed in the same category with Indians and cholera and short rations and alkali water as o.:e of the trials and hardships of the trip. Normally, he was ravenous as a wolf and as omnipresent as the elusive and pestiferous flea. His pastimes were sitting in a pan of undone and plastic biscuit, upsetting the milk pans, tumbling hoad-ilrst Into a full churn, lighting un derneath a feather bed in the bottom of a creek and occasionally varying the monotony of a day's journey by sitting down upon a well-matured cactus plant, while at night, loaded with colic and other Infantile complaints, he so con tributed to the gayety and festivities of the camp as to make his presence felt as a continuous benediction. How can you define his relation to this great pioneer movement? "What were pioneer experiences to him? What lessons was he learning? What cared he for Indians, or cholera, or wrecked wagons, or starving stock, or bad water or short grass? What to him were the headaches or the heart, aches of his toll-worn and discouraged cldors who were the buffers and shields protecting him from the dangers and dis comforts of the journey? What to him were all these trials and hardships that have been the topics of all the pioneer epics cf later years? To Mm. as to all Oregonians of a later era, this journey aciosrs the plains le recalled only as a fascinating romance, the reality of which he can neither comprehend or appreciate. In no essential sense has he ever had any pioneer txperience. He has indeed passed through the experience, but without a taste of Its real flavor. He bore no bur den. He faced no conscious perils. None of the hardships or responsibilities were his, and without the inspiration born of actual experience he cannot enter upon the contemplation of these scenes, and recount them with the eloquence and en thusiasm of one who was a participant. His eloquence is the hollow and metallic eloquence of the graphophone, lifeless and artificial, and therefore not eloquence. Filtered through an intervening medium, the zest and the snap and the flavor arc wanting. It Is not the earnest and the homely eloquence of the mature and seasoned pioneer, warm with a realization of the full import of all the trials which he and his companions endured. These are the men who should still be forced to the front at your pioneer gatherings. It cannot be truly said yet that the old veterans who remain are lagging super fluous on the stage for many of them are tnlll acllve and capable factors, meas uring fully up to the responsibilities of life. The gaps, however, that are con stantly appearing In their depleting ranks offer the opportunity aid the excuse for forcing to the front and exploiting the reminiscent talent of those who were kids in the old pioneer days. This may explain the action of the executive committee of your association and account for the ap pearance upon this occasion of the young ster who was dumped into the straw of the covered wagon at Danville, 111., nearly GO years ago. With less impetuosity and less hair with more experience, If not more discretion with the ecars of the cactus plants obliterated, but bearing other scars, which, while marring some what his pristine beauty, are badges of experience, if not of wisdom, he greets you with a full reallzatzlon of his want of power to rouse you to transports of en thusiasm with any eloquent or graphic ac count of pioneer experiences In which he had no real part and of which he knows only by tradition. When I received the courteous note of your secretary conveying to me the Invi tation to appear upon this occasion, I asked what fitness for the designated task has this particular pioneer boy baby, whose feet never pressed the sod of "old Yamhill" until long after he had reached years of manhood, and a train of reflec tions brought to mind Yamhill names and Yamhill traditions that had been familiar to me from my earliest boyhood. I recalled that my uncle, I. R. Moore, had here, begun his career In Oregon, and with his associate. Captain William Logan, who, with his wife, perished In the wreck of the Brother Jonathan, had, as a surveyor, run the original lines of many of the old donation claims of Yam hill County. I recalled my first sight of General Phil Sheridan, a Yamhill pioneer, who narrowly escaped marrying a Yamhill maiden and possibly missing his great military career, when, as a small boy, I saw him on the porch of the old Union Hotel in Salem as he was starting East to take part In the Civil War, boasting that he would earn a Colonel's commis sion or die on the field of battle. I re called that even prior to my glimpse of Sheridan I had seen young Raswell Lam son just before he left Oregon for An napolis, little dreaming of the magnifi cent record he was to make as an officer of the Navy in the battles of the coming Civil War. I saw again the imposing figure of George L. Woods and heard again the campaign eloquence for which he was famous as I first heard It in the old Court House In Salem when. In 1866, he was canvassing with Colonel James K. Kelly for the Governorship. I saw again the wiry frame of David Logan, the great criminal lawyer of our pioneer days, as he appeared with Hon. J. S. Smith, his competitor for Congress In 1S63. In the old Republican wigwam in Salem. I again saw the rather stern but at tractive face of General Joel Palmer as he appeared In joint debate In Rcea's Opera-House In 1S70. with Hon. L. F. Glover, his competitor, lor the Governor ship of the state. Another figure familiar to me for years was that of the erratic George W. Lawson, who settled In La Fayette In 1830 and was prominent In the early hlstcry of this county, and who was one of the most unique and picturesque characters in the pioneer politics of the state. In 1854 he essayed to run against General Joseph Lane for Congress, draft ing his own platform covering prohibition, abolition and non-sectarian schools, abol ishing Sunday laws and extolling Tom Paine as the author of the Declaration of Independence and founder of American liberty. A fluent, but erratic and unbal anced man, for many years he practiced law In Salem with but Indifferent success. "Yamhill. After leading a rather long precarious existence. He drifted to Portland, where the last two years of his life were spent and where about 20 years ago he died. It was the sad end of a checkered and pathetic career when his body was brought back to Salem and carried to the cemetery In a hearse followed by a single carriage containing but . three or four members of his alienated and scattered family. Other long familiar figures of Yamhill pioneers were Medorem Crawford, W. T. Newby, Robert Kinney, A. R. Burbank and Uncle Andy Shuck, Yamhill's first Sheriff, and six times her representative in the Legislative Assembly. Still an- I other last, but by no means least was Dr. J. W. Watts, the dulcet-voiced Boanerges of Yamhill Republicanism, whose refusal to desert his postofflce at La Fayette made him a National char acter and the most conspicuous Presiden tial elector of the exciting campaign of 1S7G. He is one of the most sturdy and Interesting of all the characters whose names figure upon the pioneer roll of this county. But these recollections are almost wholly political. I have been fortunate enough to run counter to old Yamhill often In a social way. Considerably more than 30 years ago, when Just emerging from the bluo apron period of my existence, I first met Mrs. W. F. Gilkey, and in 1S66, when she appeared upon the stage as one of the graduates for that year of Willamette University, looked upon her as the In carnation of all worldly wisdom. In later years Mrs. J. B. Stilwell crossed my path. As schoolmates we often swung upon the same gate, not at the same, but at distinctly different times. Another classmate was Judge Henry H. Hewitt, J and among the big boys of old Willamette 1 in those days was Judge William Gallo- , way, who, as Receiver of the United States Land Office, has been my official . associate for several years. His incum bency of that office prdbably had a begin ning. It appears to have no end. Re ceivers come and Receivers go, but Gal loway runs on forever. Another old Yamhill associate is Judge Georgo H. Burnett. Years ago, in the adolescent period of our existence, as timid and complaisant and susceptible suitors, we exchanged confidences, more eacred than that of attorney and client, in a court entirely different from that over which he now presides as the stern and unyielding autocrat of the bench of the Third Judicial District. Later still. In the Salem primaries and eleawhere, it has been my fortune to run counter to Hon. George G. Bingham, and with him as my associate to make my first political campaign In this county, with results so disastrous to those whose cauce we advocated that our services have never since been considered absolutely- indispensable. These reflections and the fact that the green hills of this county, looming up In the northwest like a vision of fairyland, have been familiar sights since my earliest boyhood, and that from time immemorial the State Fair has made me familiar within Yamhill calvec and Yamhill pumpkins and Yamhill pioneers, and that nearly 20 years ago I had the good sense to choose as the head of my household and the chief engineer of all my domestic concern.-, one who, though not a native daughter, got her start In Oregon, In Yamhill County, on the old Nehemiah donation land claim, have given me reas surance and place me en rapport, in my own mind at least, with the members of your association. The pedigree of every New England blue blood runs back to Plymouth Rock and the Mayflower. In coming generations the coat of arms of everyr blooded Oregonlan must bear the insignia of old Yamhill. My descendants are, happily, already within the charmed circle. Your local history Is an Important part of the history of the State of Oregon, and your pioneer traditions are of the richest and most romantic interest. The old. old story of these pioneers whose names with you are household words. Is ever, ever new and does not stale with repetition. It Is a story of the good old times when all of this local world was new. Of the days of barley, coffee and hominy and boiled wheat, of moccasins and buckskin suits and bluejeans, of bare floors and swinging cranes and an abundance of good cheer. Then a Bible and Shakes peare and Plutarch's Lives and Baxter's Call to the Unconverted constituted a library, and then the old blue-backed speller was the leading textbook In our public schools, and our most exhilarating sports were shinny and townball and hot pepper and three-cornered cat. There was a wholesome simplicity in our man ners, in our labors and in our sports. Those were days of rude plenty, of open methods and of wholesouled hospitality, when our Intercourse was marked by fewer of the requirements and amenities of life, but by a more active display of the sturdier virtues and generous quali ties -which honor our race in its best estate. As "upon Independence day we recall, year after year, the names and the achievements of those who were con spicuous in tho revolutionary era, it Is proper that upon these annually recurring occasions we should repeat the life story of those around whose careers eddied the pivotal events that saved Oregon for the Stars and Stripes and contributed so much to the earlier development of the Pacific Northwest. Medorem Crawford, one of the earliest and most conspicuous of your pioneers, for many years a leading and influential factor in the state, who came to Oregon in 1S42, tells us that the only citizens he can remember as then residing within the limits of Yamhill County were Sidney Smith, Amos Cook, Francis Fletcher, James O'Neill. Joseph McLaughlin, Will iams, Louis La Bonte and George Gay. Of these, Sidney Smith was long consplcu. ous as a forceful, energetic and pro gressive citizen. He came to Oregon in 1839, helped raise the first house built In The Dalles; for many months worked barefoot In the winter rains of Oregon at six bits a day, living meanwhile princi pally on hope and boiled wheat. Later, as his financial condition improved, he succeeded to the dignity of moccasins and buckskin breeches, and ultimately be came a leading landed proprietor. His marriage in 1846 -was one of the first cele brated in this county, and his daughter, Mrs. Calbreath, wife of the Superintend ent of our State Hospital for the Insane, if not the first. Is one of the first white women born in the county. It la believed that the flrst marriage celebrated In this county was that of B. M. Robinson and Elizabeth Chrisman, the parents of Mrs. Mary A. Gilkey and Mrs. Eliza Stilwell. This marriage was solemnized hy Rev. Enoch Garrison on tho 14th day of April, 1845. Mrs. Gilkey, now the wife of Hon. W. F. Gilkey, one of the leading agrostologlsts of the state, was their oldest child, and her birth ante dates that of Mrs. Calbreath by about one year. It is worthy of note that Mr. Rob inson, who located here his donation claim In 1S44, has ever since continued to live on the same claim, and today, although S7 years of age, he Is In the enjoyment of excellent health. Let us hope that he may yet be spared many years to enjoy the fruits of his labors as one of the builders of this community. George Gay. another strong character heretofore referred to, is given the credit of erecting the flrst brick building in Oregon, which is saldto stand as one of the monuments marking the boundary line between Polk and Yamhill Counties. To Hon. George H. HInes. secretary of the State Pioneer Association, I am In debted for the story that J. C. Nelson, an honored pioneer still living among you, who came here in 1844. made, and here used, the flrst grain cradle ever used in Oregon. The story runs that he con structed it from a scythe found on his overland journey beyond The Dalles, .wictc i nua Deen thrown away, with other articles, by some immigrant who anticipated no use for them in the Wil lamette Valley. We are told that the flrst full cargo of Yamhill wheat, and the flrst ever ship ped from Oregon to Llverpoool, was ship ped by Joseph Witt, for more than a gen eration a resident of this county. Jesse Applegate, one of the really great men of our pioneer era, though there after most closely identified with Southern Oregon, began in this county his Oregon career. He, with Abljah Hendrix. was a member from Yamhill County of the first Legislature under the Provisional Gov ernment, and he is awarded the credit of being the author of the first law pissed In. that body an emergency law, pushed through in 30 minutes against duelling, to prevent Messrs. Campbell and Hold erness, two irate and impetuous pioneers, from meeting on the field of honor. The flrst nominee of any Republican convention in the State of Oregon was S. C. Adams, long a resident of Salem, where he recently died. He was nomi nated at a convention held In Yamhill County November 22. 1S56, to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of A. P. An keny of his seat in the lower house of the Legislature, and was defeated by the redoubtable Andy Shuck. The first Re publican in the state elected to fill any office was John R. McBrlde, a brother of ex-Senator George W. McBrlde, and a brother-in-law of S. c idsmi or, now a practicing attorney in Spokane. He i ...,. . ,n;u, LV iciJicaciiL lainniu SCORES MODERN CHURCH. During the absence of her husband from his pulpit recently, Mrs. Mary E. Frey. wife of the Rev. P. I. Frey, pastor of the East End Baptist Church, of Wllllamsport, Pa., took his place in the pulpit, and not only delivered an eloquent sermon, but created an enormous sen r --;" "k7 ,.y MRS. MART FREY. festivals, bazaars, private theatricals, anything, anyway, nowadays to get money. Imagine Paul saying to Peter: 'Peter, we had better get up an Ice cream festival to pay the expenses of the church In Corinth.' "No. thank Cod, they owed, no man anything. They had no elegant churches, with costly stained glass windows and steeples piercing the heavens and a $12,000 mortgage on it. "Again, another cause for lack of power Is the whole word of God Is not preached from the pulpit. When pastors step aside from It to preach politics or on the leading topic of the day there will be a lack of rower In their lives and sinners will not be saved." , MntMMHHMMHMMUMM( ---- County in the state constitutional con vention and was the only Republican in that body. He was afterwards, In 1858, the first Republican nominee for Con gress, but withdrew before the canvass was over. In favor of David Logan, who was defeated at the polls. In 1S62 he was i again nominated and was the first Re publican Congressman elected from this state. The most conspicuous character, how ever, in the earliest history of this county, and one ot the central figures In the history of the state, was Ewing Young, a speculator and cattle baron, whose range at one time extended from Wapato Lake to the river east of New berg and from the top of Chehalem Mountains on the north to the Handley hills on the south. A native of Tennessee, and later a resident of New Mexico, he came here from California in 1S34 with a herd of California mares and horses. There soon followed an unsolicited letter of introduction from Figuero, Govornor General of California,, to Dr McLough lln, denouncing him as a horsethief. Later, however, this letter was recalled with expressions of regret. Young has been described by one writer as "an adventurer of great force of character;" by another as "a man of mark, fond of adven ture, and endowed with force of character," by another as "a very candid and scrupulously honest man, thorough going, brave and daring." He erected the first dwelling built west of the Willamette River, and started here, with a man named Carmlchael, the building of the first distillery In Oregon. This was appropriately located near the present site of the Quaker and prohi bition town of Newberg. His distillery project, however, was abandoned out of respect for the earnest protests of Dr. McLoughlln, the Methodist missionaries and others, and Instead he erected the flrst sawmill In the county. In 183G he was at the head of a great cattle com pany, and as such went to California apd purchased about 800 head. The story of the drive of this drove of cattle from California into the Willamette Valley, which he reached with 630 head in Oc tober, 1837, after being harassed by the Indians for many weeks, well Illustrates the determined character of the man, and reads like a veritable romance. These catttle were the progenitors of the herds that In later years swarmed-in the Wil lamette Valley. His turbulent career ended In the Winter of 1840-41. when he died attended by his friend. Sidney Smith, and his body found its last resting place on the Sidney Smith Donation Claim in this county. His prominence and his wealth made his death a matter of more than passing importance. It has been said that the early Pro visional Government in Oregon grew out of the death of Ewing Young and that Its treasury was flrst filled from the funds of his estate. Who can estimated what was the effect of his death at that particular time, or how the current of affairs might have changed if It had been postponed 10 years? He left a large estate, but no then known relatives, and, dying Intestate, the disposition of his property became an important question and emphasized the chaotic condition of affairs and led to the flrst attempt to form a Provisional Government. At his funeral was gathered a large proportion of the people of Oregon, and Immediately after consigning his body to the grave,, those in attendance selected a commit tee to call a mass meeting of the inhabi tants of Oregon south of the Columbia River, to be held at the Methodist mis sion in the Willamette Valley on the 17th and 18th of February, 1S41, "to take steps for the government of the community and to provide for the disposition of the estate of Ewing Young." "The meeting which followed comprised nearly all-the white male adults south of the Columbia River and was designated as the 'primary meeting of the people of Oregon.' This primary meeting seems to have lapsed, but it was revived and consummmated in the famous meeting of May 2, 1843, at Champoeg, where the Pro visional Government had its actual in ception. Thereafter the provisional au thorities took possession of Young's es tate, settled It, loaned the proceeds to various individuals and later, December 24, 1844, directed the collection of the out standing funds and their payment into the treasury of the Provisional Govern ment, pledging the faith of the Govern ment that they should be refunded Jo any heirs of the estate who might appear and establish their claim. This same act appropilated $1500 of the funds for the erection of a jail at Oregon City, the first erected west of the Missouri River. A slnguar chain of circumstances is linked about the history of this unique character. He was among the first of the settlers of the Willamette Valley. H-a brought here the flrst herd of cattle. He was the first white man to build a house on the west side of the Willamette River, the projector of the first distillery In Oregon, the builder of the first sawmill in this county. He lies buried on the Donation Claim of one of the men to lo cate Yamhill. He furnished the first es tate of the Northwest for probate, and his death gave impetus to that move ment for a Provisional Government which snatched this great Northwestern Empire from Great Britain and placed it for ever under the dominion of the Stars and Stripes. "No sketch of the pioneer era of this county Is complete vl'hout a reference to 'Parson Billy Ad? -s,' preacher, law yer journalist' and ail around literary athlete. He was famous In our early journalistic annals under the noms-de-plume of Junius and Brakspear, and as the Whig editor of the Oregon City Ar gus. A descendant of Ethan Allen, and collaterally related to John Adams, his acute mind and independent character was manifest in .boyhood. At Bethany College. Virginia, under the famous Alexander Campbell, he took high honors as a scholar and was rated the best writer in college. Leaving college, he sation by her arraignment of the mod ern church. She declared that "men stumble over the church Into hell." and "the world Is farther away from Cod today than ever In Us history." "Friends, what the Church of Jcsua Christ needs today Is another Pente cost." raid Mrs. Frey. "Souls are perishing, men and women are rush ing onward into perdition, and tho church Is not able to stem the awful tide of Iniquity, for the church, which should be a mighty llfe-!avlng station, has lost Its power to a large extent and Is drifting Into worldllness and formality. "Some people declare the world U getting better, and many fine sermons and essays have been written In an attempt to prove this. But It Is not so. The old world Is a wreck and men are a failure. "Ths world by degrees has crept Into the church until It Is difficult to tell a church member from a non-professor. Many church members run to theaters, operas, play cards, dance, drink wine, follow the fashions of the world, cheat and lie. Another reason for tho church's lack of power Is that It caters to the world In Its efforts to raise money for God's cause. Fairs, married and started in life in the Missis sippi Valley with a threadbare suit of blue Jeans and a purse of $32,of which $15 was furnished by his wife. After a check ered experience he decided to set out for Oregon. President Campbell, hearing of his plans, wrote him, sayhng: " 'Is there not land enough In Illinois for your talent and enterprise without burying yourself and family in a wilder ness among savages?" "He replied: 'Illinois is not big enough or good enough for me. My soul hun gers for something Illinois cannot 'give. In Oregon I expect to find what I de sire.' , "To Oregon he came, reaching-it only after many hardships. His money was exhausted when he had reached Oregon City, and he borrowed $2 and paid all of It for ferriage across the river, except 10 cents, which he lost through a hole In his pocket. Thereafter his career re opened in Yamhill. Here he traded his wagon for 10 Spanish cows, whose in crease kept him in meat for years. In 1848-9 he opened one of the flrst schools in this county, his boy scholars coming to school In buckskin suits and mocca sins and his girl scholars dressed in shirt ing, colored In tea grounds. These girls in after years had a creditable share In building up the pioneer commonwealth and among the moccasin-footed boys were Dr. L. L. Rowland, afterwards State Su perintendent of Public Instruction, John R. McBrlde, afterwards a member of Congress from Oregon, and later Chief Justice of the State of Idaho, and George L. Wopds, famous as a campaigner and as Governor of both Oregon and Utah. "Although still living, Adams has for almost a generation lived in comparative retirement. During the 10 years closing with the Civil War he was as a Jour nalist and campaigner the veritable storm center of the bitter political strife then raging in this state. He, as editor of the Argus, Dryer, as editor of The Oregonlan, and Bush, as editor of the Salem Statesman, were a famous Jour nalistic trio, whose trenchant and vigor ous editorials gave us what was long known as 'the Oregon style of Journal ism. In cne of the Initial numbers, of the Argus George L. Woods, the future Gov ernor, Is advertised as 'our traveling agent in tho counties of Yamhill Wash ington and Polk. In one of his early editorials Adams denounced the Donation land law as one cause 'why schools were so few and so poor, as the land was held in such immense tracts a mile square usually that a school district could not support a decent teacher, nor could the legs of the children support the strain of carrying their owners so far to school.' "The most prominent figure in pioneer history, who was Identified with this im mediate locality, was General Joel Pal mer; a pioneer of 1845, and the founder of Dayton, who made the trip across the plains three times. Twice a member of the Indiana Legislature before .coming to Oregon, he was in 1858 appointed Su perintendent of Indian Affairs for this state, and in' that capacity gathered and centered on the Slletz and Indian Reser vation all the Indian tribes of Southern and Western Oregon. Later he represent ed this county In the State Senate. In 1870 he was the unsuccessful Republican candidate for the Governorship of Ore ogn. After flrst casting his fortunes with the pioneers of this state, he went to California and narrowly escaped becoming a citizen of California, but his love 'for the pastoral beauty of this locality brought him back to Dayton, where he erected our first mill, and later erected a second on the ruins. Here he spent his middle age and closing years, hon ored and respected as one of the most sturdy types of pioneer American man hood. "Another of the well known pioneers of Dayton was A. L. Alderman, who, in 1848, here bought of a French half-breed, for 100 head of cattle, a tract of land whose boundary lines were somewhat in accurately described as follows: "Begin in the morning on a cayuse horse; go west till, the sun Is very high; then go south till it is around towards the west, and then back to the river." Here for a Ibng time he went barefooted, sowing his wheat and planting his orchard and at one time selling the former at $5 per bushel and the apples from the litter at $16 per bushel. It Is recorded that on this land he paid his first taxes in 1848 to Sheriff Hembrec in cattle hides. "No roll .of the pioneers of this county f would be complete that did not Include the names of Burch, Holman, Snelling, Lam'on, Burbank. Robinson, Hunsaker, Sltton, Loughary. Eckman, Hewitt, Gar rison. Hcmbree, Chris-nan. Watts, Laugh lln. Merchant, Collard, Graves. Durham. Stout, Olds, Kendrlx. an 1 scores of others living and dead. Thcs who have been referred to at leng h are recalled bcirs-" They present to our viw rro-'our.cd types of the men who conquered this land for civilization and made it a constituent part of the great American Union. These men were not out.aws. They were not roaming adventurers. They were not mere speculators. They were, as a rule, home builders of the best pioneer Amer ican type, and as a result, our early history Is singularly free from those tur bulent scenes of riot and personal vio lence which marked the early history of California. Nevada. Idaho and Montana. "The motives that prompted our earliest Immigration were various, but the dom inant motive was legitimate and patriotic. Senator Nesmith once declared that he was not quite certain that any rational answer could be given to the question why, in those days, any man should take his family and brave the terrors of mas sacre and starvation to reach a land of vague and unknown possibilities such as Oregon then was. No journey within the confines of the civilized world, at this day, presents, in hardships and perils, a parallel to the six months' Journey in the 40's and 50's across what was known as (he Great American Desert. Governor Peter H. Burnett has told us that the motive which inspired him was "more room, better and broader acres, better health, better returns for labor, and a land a little nearer Heaven than Missouri then was In which to die." Another has declared that he came "because the thing wasn't fenced in and nobody dared to keep him out." "Hon. W. Lair Hill illustrated another motive In his story of a Western orator who was flying the American eagle In the presence of a stranger who was paying such attention to his eloquence as indi cated lively appreciation. Said the ora tor: 'My foreign friend who sits before me would testify that even across the Atlantic the people are looking to the Stars and Stripes as the source of their ultimate deliverance from kingly tyr anny. You left the fatherland and braved the storms of the surging seas that you might enjoy the blessings of liberty un der the aegis of this very glorious old flag, did you not, my foreign friend?' 'Veil, no, meln freund, he answered, 'I can nicht dell no lies; and to dell the drood, Ich came to dis coundry to sell cheap ready made clodlngs.' But whatever the motive or lack of motive, whether or not it was mere Instinct, or naked impulse, or well matured judgment. It brought us to a land whose resources and whose possibility yet almost totally updevel oped. will ultimately make It the seat of a commercial empire that has yet had no parallel In history. It is not state pride or the exuberance of an evanescent enthusiasm that prompts this remark. America has but Just begun the making of history. The century whose portals we are now entering will see, on this con tinent, more In practical development and commercial achievement than has been seen In all the days since the landing of Columbus. "Only two generations ago our ablest statesmen were standing on the floor of the United States Senate thanking God that he had Interposed the impassable barrier of the Rocky Mountains between the National capital and the Oregon Ter ritory; giving pledges that none of their boys should ever people this country un less they were fit subjects for Botany Bay; giving elaborate figures to show that no representative from this state could go and return from the National capital In less than 531 days and at an expense of less than $3728, proving be yond a doubt the Impossibility of build ing a transcontinental railroad without tunneling through mountains five or six hundred miles in extent and at a cost that would absorb all the wealth of the Indies. The brilliant Senator McDuffle, of South Carolina, publicly jiroclaimed that for agricultural purposes the whole territory was not worth a pinch of snuff, and Daniel Webtster denounced It as a vast and worthless area,- a region of savages and wild beasts, of deserts and shifting sands, whirlwinds of dust, of cactus and of prairie dogs. "In two more generations this North west Territory will equal a dozen such states as South Carolina and Massachu setts. While these political theorists were spouting eloquent nonsense in the National halls of legislation, thousands of men, with less reputation, but more patriotism and common sense, were in vading these shores, and Lieutenant William Peel, son of the English Pre mier, Sir Robert Peel, leading a caval cade from the English sloop of war Modeste, and standing upon the soil of Yamhill County, within gunshot of where we are ne-w assembled, was declaring 'This Is certainly the most beautiful country In Its natural state my eyes ever beheld. I only regret to say I am afraid we are not going to be the Iwners of it. This was the cool and deliberate utter ance of an alien wnose disappointment at the prospective loss of the country would rather lead him to depreciate than to unduly praise. Surfeited, for half a century, with the fruits of her rich soil, and lulled to lethargy by the Influences of her soporific climate, your content ment Is mute, but convincing, attestation of the fact that Oregon In her surpassing wealth of natural endowments stands second to no other In" the great sister hood of states. "The natural habitat of the old story of the evangelist and the pioneer Is Yam hill County. After a lurid exposition of the torments of the Infernal regions, the preacher said to his congregation: "All of those present who wish to go to Heaven will please arlve." All rose except an old pioneer. "All of those who wish to go to hell will please rise." Nobody rose. The evangelist, adreiing the old man, said: "My friend, I see that you do not respond to either proposition." "Well, stranger," was the response, "the fact of the business Is I don't care to go anywhere. Old Yamhill Is good enough for me." "That Is the spirit of absolute content, but to make this land pre-eminent as the world's paradise, we need the steam and enthusiasm of California, the land of brag and 'sand and sunshine and Jack rabbits. California is man-made. Oregon is God made, and many of us hesitate to attempt to improve upon the handiwork of the Almighty, and we suffer In the esti mation of the world thereby. Southern California, sweltering season after season In the vapors qf her own far-famed and Incomparable ozone, boasts of her glor ious climate, projects endless schemes of irrigation, deprecates with a patronizing air an annual rainfall of 40 inches in Ore gon, and periodically sends up petitions for remission of taxes on account of drouths, and begs the Governor to set apart a day of fasting and prayer for a copious downfall of rain. Nerve like that, coupled with money, will overthrow em pires and establish, kingdoms. "It has required enormous sums to give to California what God has given in mani fold measure to the State of Oregon. Here Is the happy mean, where we escape alike the discomforts of the heat of the tropics and the cold of the North. Indeed, our genial climate and our fertile soil would tend to enervate a man of even the su perior type of a Bradford, and temper the snap of a Miles Standlsh. The harsh climate of the sterile soil of New Eng land has given strength and fiber to her citizenship, as the sunny skies of Italy have had largely to do with making her a third-rate power. In a measure, we are here handicapped with the disadvantage of superior advantages. For three -quarters of the year ours is the best climate on the face of the globe. For the remain ing three months It is better than that on three-quarters of the globe. Handi capped as we are, like a pampered fa vorite of fortune, the great outside world will yet force our development, for we He directly In the line of the future great highway of nations. If we do not choose to lead, the current will eddy and circle about, and sweep over and encompass us THIS SIMPLE, TRU FURNITURE Should be of decided interest to every one in need of good, reliable, stylish furniture. Every piece of furniture we sell is just as represented, and every value is just as figures show them. Mattresses Special hair mattress, full 30-pound weight, good ticking, $8.50 Pure white cotton mattress, 35 pounds, only $5.00 Soft wool-top mattress, $2.50 Couches, made in any color of velours jjf 50 Bedroom suits, 3 pieces, golden oak finish $11 .0 Extension table, 6 feet long when extended . . $3.50 High-back cane-seat chairs, 75c and upward. Solid golden oak tables, 24x24-inch top " TL Solid golden oak table, 16x1 6-inch top 85 C ' No. 8 Charter Oak stove, first-class $9.00 Steel range, high warming closet, 6 holes. . . $30.00 Carpets Our prices are lower at all timss tnan you'll find else where. Mail orders given our prompt attention. Your credit is good. Taubenheimer & Schmeer Carpet & Furniture Co. No. 166 and 168 First Street. with Its surging waters. General Cass could boast that he had talked with those who had conversed with the children of the Pilgrims. Three centuries hence, he who can boast that he has talked with those who had conversed with the chil dren of Oregon's pioneers will stand in the light of three centuries that have seen greater achievements than all the precd lng ages of the world. "The march of the pioneer along the lines of geographical exploration and de velopment Is nearlng Its end, but the march will still continue along the ave nues of commerce and Invention. Morgan and Carnegie are but the forerunners of a new era of development, and Edison and Tesla and Marconi are merely children playing at the threshold of the temple of Invention. The Almighty has placed no limitation upon the genius of man, and coming achieve ments will outrun the dreams of our wild est visionaries. In coming days, how piti ful "will seem the prescience and prophe cies of the statesmen who 60 years ago attempted to block the way of the men who were then blazing the trails and opening up this great highway for the armies that were and are to follow, for here, over the graves of those who con quered this land, will resound the tread of millions, and over their head will sweep the current of the world's traffic. "The day Is coming when this remote corner will be no longer a remote corner, but a teeming center with millions of souls and billions of wealth. What was once the wilderness Is to assume the power and the proportions of a mighty empire. That day will see these towns as cities, these villages as towns, these farms as throbbing hamlets, and these hills and fields of beauty, smiling in their heavenly garniture of green, blooming anew at the touch of genius and of edu cated industry. Thomas H. Benton, fight ing the cause of the Northwest, and pointing his prophetic finger Oregonwanl. exclaimed: "There Is the East; there is India!" His keen vision was even then penetrating a future ripe with greater pos sibilities than those that have ever yet confronted any age or any people, and a destiny in the face of which language Is mute and eloquence is dumb. When ut tering these prophetic words he pointed over the trackless wastes of a continent, divided by great rivers, and by mountain barriers cut by trails known only to the Indian and the trapper, while still beyond rolled the restless waters of a great ocean. That undeveloped continent has been re claimed. Those mighty rivers have been bridged. Those mountain trails have given way to a half dozen transcontinental lines, and across the wastes of the ocean beyond our commerce has made Its way by well-defined paths Into the citadels of the Orient. "Our real history and our real devel opment is all In the future. Here "Will soon throb the loudest pulsations of the world's great heart and along these lines will course back and forth the commer cial currents ,of National and Interna tional life. In the coming days some fut ure Benton from his seat In the National capital may paraphrase the words of his great predecessor, and, looking hither ward, say that here is the brightest jewel In the American crown, and, pointing along the line of Hawaii and the Philip pines and over an ocean white with the sails of American merchant marine, ex claim: "There Is the East; there Is Amer ica." Then will have ripened Into full fruition all of the hopes and all of the labors of those whose lives and whose work we commemorate upon this occa sion." Aluminum Wire. There are . three separate transmission 90 DAYS' TREATMENT DAYS' TREATMENT DAYS' TREATMENT 3 MONTHS' HUDYAN REMEDI0 TREATMENT $1.00. The Discovery of the Age. Ttie Great California Remedy Hudyan Remedlo Treatment 1 ur wea man. Huclyan cures curious WMKnesses a n falling of man. Purely vegeiaoie. Guaran teed. Hudyan uemedio treat- meet cures tobacco great Hudyan treatment 3 '. oarriaire Dald. Ellin Street, i BS3 h t tA-fya riflWWfl . W. 4x3mPr jeiJHia1Wilwm. . m v"fc,T,-- a jm-M&aL mtihMtfSr mruAtimmKL m&v tf-.K-wtTr ti itWr i jjIKBr afcE s ".5 Jx&xSr 4T && m. 3s5& m&Miir i vvia " m k'fi vk&wr ut F 45 STORY Remarkable value This ladies' reed rocker, made with full roll edge, and finely shellacked. The best value ever offered. Regular price, S4.50. This week only $2.75 A Dentist Tells Us: "I have been TJrcscribinr Soznnnv-r .n my practise for 13 years, and believe it tc ue me mo3c aciujntiui as well as the most efficient dentifrice Sc. oa tno market, sampit for Be 7WFTIt.ioe-r.r By mall: 25 and 75c. HAtj.fc RnrKrr-N. Y. Citv. circuits from the Niagara povvechouso ip Buffalo, two of which are coppef, and 'in stalled on the same pole line. The third circuit Is strung upon a separate pole line throughout Its entire length, and is of aluminum Instead of copper. This alum inum line has the same resistance as each of the other two, and is composed of three cables of 500,000 circular miles each, made up of 37 strands. At the present mar ket price of copper wire, it Is cheaper to use aluminum for overhead lines where the conductors do not have to be Insulat ed. The conductivity of aluminum Is less than copper, and the price per pound is greater, but the volume per pound or aluminum is much greater than that of copper, on account of the lower specific gravity of the motal. When, therefore, resistance per pound is taken as the basis for comparison, aluminum Is found to be cheaper. . BUSINESS ITEMS. If Dnby la Cuttlnjr Teeth, B sure ana use that old and well-tried remedy Mrs. Wlnslow's Soothing Syrup, for children teething. It aoothea the child, softens the sums allays all pain, cures wind colic and diarrhoea. YOU CANNOT CURE PILES By Internal Ucn-.cdlen. The only sure way to cure every form of piles Is to use a remedy like the Pyra mid Pile Cure which is applied directly to the parts affected and its wonderful heal ing effects are apparent? from the first I application because the medicinal proper- i ties are rapluly absorbed by tissues and 1 sensitive membranes of the rectum, and i the cure Is made speedily and almost I before the patient is aware of It every , trace of piles has left him. This is one of the reasons why the Py . ramld Pile Cure has been so uniformly 1 successful. It Is applied directly Just where It Is needed and where It will do I the most good. Not by the roundabout way of the stomach nor the harsh bar barous methods of various surgical opera ; rlons and so-called systems. Direct application to the seat of the dls i ease is the only rational way, and this ' Is fully accomplished by the Pyramid Pile i Cure. ' If the voluntary testimony of thousands who have tried this remedy is worth i anything then no sufferer has any excuse ' for longer delaying in giving It a fair trial, knowing that when you do so the Pyramid Pile Cure will have made one more friend, the best possible advertisement we can have. The chief advantages cf the remedy are: It cures without pain, the cure is ' lasting. It contains no poison, and lastly. It is the cheapest and quickest cure yet , found. Your druggist csjn tell you what It has done for others. Testlmonalls of cures from all parts i of the United States will be sent on ap I plication to the Pyramid Drug Co., Mar shall. Mich. O D T X x REMEDtn TREATMENT cure lmootencv. nl?h losses, drains, bluest ml. Jcholls. seminal emission prostatitis. QUICKNESS OP SPERMATORRHOEA. tiwnpvui' Kjrtuu i-AKit). tniomnia. constipation lfcht sweats, f.irttl tiviMn.. ii,.i.i.' I - &r $1.00 .sttSSf k t& U7W&&- p&r,.Y3$r Jti of lower lip. I033 of sleep, pa'ns over eyes.a'as back, rialns ovpp livpr ItMpt. .t. m ... and llrmnr hnMrs find i.M. t j r . .. Rimedlo Treatmoni n& .i.. u..j. ' months' ronpriipn rin k .mt 5 Runrf ti ttnv.iv r-nvm.xT-i, " San Franclscp, Cal,