Dr. John McLoughlin, the Father of Oregon Part 4

_The Resignation of Dr. John McLoughlin._

In 1845 Dr. McLoughlin sent in his resignation to the Hudson's Bay Company. Its rules required one year's notice before an officer could resign. His resignation took effect before the immigration of 1846 arrived. As this address relates to Dr. McLoughlin, and only incidentally to the Oregon Pioneers, I shall not go into details about the immigrations succeeding that of 1845. Dr. McLoughlin kept a store and lived at Oregon City after his resignation. To the immigrants of 1846 and after, and to others, as long as he was in business there, he continued, as far as he was able, the same hospitality and the same good and humane treatment he had exercised when Chief Factor at Fort Vancouver. The Barlow road was built in 1846 and the immigrants of that year and succeeding years could bring their wagons by that road from The Dalles, over the Cascade Mountains, to Oregon City. By common consent of all good, honest pioneers, he had been named "The Good Doctor," and "The Good Old Doctor," and he was known by these names to the time of his death. They also came to call him the "Father of Oregon." Dr.

McLoughlin's resignation from the Hudson's Bay Company became necessary to maintain his self-respect.

I have spoken of Capt. Park and Lieut. Peel, British officers, who brought the letters of Admiral Seymour and Captain Gordon to Dr.

McLoughlin in 1845. They were also sent as spies. They were succeeded by two more spies, Capt. Warre and Lieut. Vavasour, both of the British army. The two latter stayed at Fort Vancouver and elsewhere in Oregon for some time. In their report Warre and Vavasour charged, mainly, that the policy pursued by Dr. McLoughlin and the Hudson's Bay Company, at the different forts in the Oregon Country, had tended to the introduction of American settlers into the country until they outnumbered the British. To prove this position, they instanced the a.s.sistance rendered the different immigrations, one of which (1845) was arriving while they were at Vancouver. They charged that goods had been sold to the American settlers at cheaper rates than to British subjects; that Dr. McLoughlin and the Company had suffered themselves to join the Provisional Government "without any reserve except the mere form of the oath;" that their lands had been invaded, and themselves insulted, until they required the protection of the British government "against the very people to the introduction of whom they had been more than accessory."

There was more in this report of like import.

As was to be expected Dr. McLoughlin's answer was dignified, forceful, and sufficient. I give only a few of his points.[26] In his answer Dr.

McLoughlin said, concerning his treatment of the missionaries: "What would you have? Would you have me turn the cold shoulder to the men of G.o.d, who came to do that for the Indians which this Company has neglected to do?" He said he had tried to prevent the American settlers remaining idle, becoming dest.i.tute, and dangerous to the Company's servants. Drive them away he could not, having neither the right nor the power. That these settlers had not come expecting a cordial reception from him, but quite the contrary; that while he had done some things for humanity's sake, he had intended to, and had averted evil to the Company by using kindness and courtesy towards the American immigrants.

As to joining the Provisional Government he showed the necessity and wisdom of his actions under the circ.u.mstances. To the accusation that the Company had submitted to insult, he said: "They were not to consider themselves insulted because an ignorant man thought he had a better right than they had." As to the British government, it had not afforded protection in time, and that it was not the duty of the Hudson's Bay Company to defend Great Britain's right to territory. The obligation of the Company's officers, whatever their feelings might be, was to do their duty to the Company. He admitted helping the immigrants of 1843, 1844, and 1845, and saving the lives and property of the dest.i.tute and sick. He also admitted to a.s.sisting the immigrants of 1843 to raise a crop for their own support and of saving the Company from the necessity of feeding the next immigration. And he said: "If we had not done this, Vancouver would have been destroyed and the world would have judged us treated as our inhuman conduct deserved; every officer of the Company, from the Governor down, would have been covered with obloquy, the Company's business in this department would have been ruined, and the trouble which would have arisen in consequence would have probably involved the British and American nations in war. If I have been the means, by my measures, of arresting any of these evils, I shall be amply repaid by the approbation of my conscience. It is true that I have heard some say they would have done differently; and, if my memory does not deceive me, I think I heard Mr. Vavasour say this; but as explanation might give publicity to my apprehension and object, and destroy my measures, I was silent, in the full reliance that some day justice would be done me."[27]

The Governor and the directors of the Hudson's Bay Company apparently neither understood nor appreciated the conditions in Oregon in 1843, and in the immediate succeeding years, or Dr. McLoughlin's motives and humanity in a.s.sisting the immigrants. While the Governor in Chief and these directors were probably men of high character, and, individually, men of humanity, as representatives of this great trading company, they seemed to have considered Dr. McLoughlin's actions in a.s.sisting the American immigrants to settle in parts of the disputed Oregon Country by relieving their distresses, and saving them from suffering and starvation, as amounting almost to treason to his Country and as being untrue and false to the Hudson's Bay Company and its interests. They believed that he had failed to carry out its policies, if not its express instructions, which they felt he should have followed, as the chief of its enterprises west of the Rocky Mountains, no matter what the circ.u.mstances were or what the consequences might be. They did not seem to understand that, if the early immigrants had not been a.s.sisted, helped, and rescued, as they were, by Dr. McLoughlin, it might have been fatal to Fort Vancouver and precipitated a war between the United States and Great Britain. As has been already said the Hudson's Bay Company, under royal grant, had an absolute monopoly in trading with the Indians in what was called British America, that is, northward and westward of the United States, excepting the British Provinces and also excepting the Oregon Country. In the latter the Company had the exclusive right, under said grant, to trade with the Indians, but on the condition that it should not be to the prejudice nor exclusion of citizens of the United States, who had the right to be in the Oregon Country under the convention of joint-occupancy.[28] Undoubtedly the Governor in Chief and directors of the Hudson's Bay Company had a feeling that the Company and its trade should not be interfered with in the Oregon Country. For more than thirty years it and the Northwest Company, with which it had coalesced in 1821, had had almost absolute control of trade with the Indians in nearly all of the Oregon Country.

Its practical monopoly there had been almost as complete as its actual monopoly in British America. The exercise of absolute power usually begets a feeling of a right to continue the exercise of such power. The head-officers of the Company resented the actions of Dr. McLoughlin which tended to weaken the power of the Hudson's Bay Company and to interfere with its control of the fur trade in the Oregon Country.

An Indian trading company is much more likely to be mercenary than humane. The headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Company were at London.

Oregon was a long distance from London. Under the conditions it may not be surprising that greed of gain and selfish interests outweighed humanity in the minds of these officers in charge of the Hudson's Bay Company. It is true none of them were in Oregon when these immigrants came. None of these officers had ever been in the Oregon Country, excepting Sir George Simpson, the Governor in Chief. These officers did not see the distresses, the sufferings, or the perils of these immigrants. Their information came largely from others, who were not friends of Dr. McLoughlin, and who did not approve his actions. Dr.

McLoughlin had been for so long a time a Chief Factor of the Company; he had been, up to the arrival of the immigration of 1843, so faithful to its policies and interests; he had so increased its trade, and added so largely to its revenues, that he could not be summarily dismissed. But he was a man of pride and of high quality, and he could be forced to resign. This the Governor in Chief and the directors of the Hudson's Bay Company accomplished. In thus acting unjustly to Dr. McLoughlin, they were unconsciously a.s.sisting to make him the eternal hero of Oregon. In resigning Dr. McLoughlin gave up a salary of twelve thousand dollars a year. He made his home at Oregon City, where he expected to pa.s.s the rest of his life, with the intention of becoming an American citizen as soon as possible. He invested his wealth at Oregon City in various enterprises in an attempt to a.s.sist in upbuilding Oregon. His resignation marks the beginning of his tribulations which ended only with his death. The details I shall presently set forth. In a.s.sisting the immigrants Dr. McLoughlin did not count the cost nor fear the consequences. His humanity was greater than his liking for wealth or position. He had no greed for gain, no selfishness. Had he antic.i.p.ated the consequences I believe that he would not have hesitated nor acted otherwise than he did. Frances Fuller Victor wrote of Dr. McLoughlin and his tribulations:[29] "Aristocrat, as he was considered by the colonists [American settlers] and autocrat as he really was, for twenty years throughout the country west of the Rocky Mountains, he still bravely returned the a.s.saults of his enemies in the language of a republican. He defended the American character from the slurs of government spies, saying, 'they have the same right to come that I have to be here,'

touching lightly upon the ingrat.i.tude of those who forgot to pay him their just debts, and the rudeness of those, whom White mentions as making him blush for American honor. But whether he favored the Company's interests against the British, or British interests against the Company's, or maintained both against the American interests, or favored the American interests against either, or labored to preserve harmony between all, the suspicions of both conflicting parties fell upon him, and being forced to maintain silence he had the bad fortune to be pulled to pieces between them."

_Dr. McLoughlin's Religion._

When an infant, Dr. McLoughlin was baptized in the Roman Catholic Church. His father and mother were of that church. While living with the family of his maternal grandfather, he probably was brought up in the English Established Church, of which he became a member. Prior to 1841 or 1842, it was his custom, at Fort Vancouver, to read the service of that church on Sundays to the congregation of officers and employees who attended. Dr. McLoughlin was a broad man in every way. He recognized the good in all Christian sects and denominations. He a.s.sisted the Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregational missionaries. Had he been a member of those churches, he could hardly have done more for them than he did. While still a Protestant, he also a.s.sisted the Roman Catholic missionaries, from their first coming to Oregon, in 1838, as he had the Protestant. He never tried to change the forms of religion of his employees and servants of the Company. He encouraged them in their devotion to the religions of their choice.

Archbishop Francis Norbert Blanchet in his "Historical Sketches of the Catholic Church in Oregon," says (page 68): "It is but just to make special mention of the important services which Dr. John McLoughlin--though not a Catholic--has rendered to the French Canadians and their families, during the fourteen years he was governor of Fort Vancouver. He it was who read to them the prayers on Sunday. Besides the English school kept for the children of the Bourgeois, he had a separate one maintained at his own expense, in which prayers and the catechism were taught in French to the Catholic women and children on Sundays and week days, by his orders. He also encouraged the chant of the canticles, in which he was a.s.sisted by his wife and daughter, who took much pleasure in this exercise. He visited and examined his school once a week.... He it was who saved the Catholics of the Fort and their children from the dangers of perversion, and who, finding the log church the Canadians had built, a few miles below Fairfield, in 1836, not properly located, ordered it to be removed, and rebuilt on a large prairie, its present beautiful site."

Dr. McLoughlin was given charge of a girl by her dying father, who was a Protestant. Dr. McLoughlin would not send her to a Roman Catholic school. He respected the religious faith of the girl's father.[30] There is some question as to whether Dr. McLoughlin became a Roman Catholic in the year 1841 or 1842. In one of those years, Dr. McLoughlin read "The End of Controversy," written by Dr. Milner, and was converted by this book to the Roman Catholic faith and joined that church. He made his abjuration and profession of faith and took his first communion at Fort Vancouver in 1841 or 1842. Joining the Roman Catholic Church by Dr.

McLoughlin was most impolitic, at this time, particularly on account of his land claim. But he was not a man to consider policy when there was something to be done, which he thought right, just, or proper.

Otherwise, he would not have a.s.sisted the missionaries nor helped the immigrants. Joining the Roman Catholic Church only added to the opposition to Dr. McLoughlin. He was then a British subject. At that time there was great prejudice by many Americans against Great Britain as the supposed hereditary enemy of the United States. The long discussion of the Oregon Question; the election of Polk as President in 1844, largely on the popular cry of "54-40 or fight," greatly intensified this feeling. There was also great popular prejudice among many of the Protestants of the United States against the Roman Catholic Church, which had been handed down from the time of the settlement of New England and the Cromwellian revolution in England. Locally, in Oregon, a partial success of the Roman Catholic missionaries with the Indians, where the Protestants had failed, probably intensified this feeling.

In these early immigrations were many women, most of whom were wives and mothers. There were also numerous children of all ages. There were a few births on the way. When these mothers saw their children, along the Columbia River, in peril, many sick and almost famis.h.i.+ng; when they heard their children cry for food and clothing, which these mothers could not supply; and when these perils were removed, and these necessaries were furnished by Dr. McLoughlin, and their sick children were restored to health under his orders and directions; do you think these Protestant American mothers considered it important that Dr. John McLoughlin was a Roman Catholic and a British subject? Or that they were not grateful?

_Dr. McLoughlin's Land Claim._

I shall now take up the matter of Dr. McLoughlin's land claim at Oregon City. Many writers and speakers have spoken of his land claim being taken from him, in a loose way, as "unjust treatment," or as "robbery."

I shall briefly state the facts, as I have found them. The early pioneers know these facts. They should be known by everyone in justice to Dr. McLoughlin and to his memory.

Prior to the Donation Land Law, there were no lawful t.i.tles to lands in Oregon, except lands given to Missions by the law establis.h.i.+ng the Territory of Oregon. The Donation Land Law was pa.s.sed by Congress, and was approved by the President September 27, 1850. Prior to the organization, in 1843, of the Oregon Provisional Government, the only law, or rule of law, in Oregon was the Golden Rule, or rather a consensus of public opinion among the few settlers in Oregon. When a person settled on a piece of land and improved it, or declared his intention to claim it, all other settlers respected his possessory rights. Each settler thought that on the settlement of the boundary line between the United States and Great Britain, his land claim would be recognized and protected, which he had thus claimed while there was joint-occupancy under the Conventions of 1818 and 1827.

It was in 1829 that Etienne Lucier, one of the Hudson's Bay Company's servants, of whom I have spoken, settled in the Willamette Valley at French Prairie, now in Marion County. Other servants of the Hudson's Bay Company, as their terms of service expired, and a few Americans, had settled at or near French Prairie prior to 1834, so that when the first missionaries came, there was a thriving, although small, settlement near where Jason and Daniel Lee established their first mission in 1834. This mission had no t.i.tle to the land where the Mission was established, yet its rights were recognized and respected.

In 1829 Dr. McLoughlin for himself took possession of the land and water power at the falls of the Willamette River on the east side of the river at and near what is now Oregon City. In his land claim was the valuable, but small, island containing about four or five acres of available area in low water, and two or three acres in ordinary high water. It was separated from the east bank by a part of the river, in summer not more than forty feet wide; it was situated near the crest of the falls. Its location made it valuable for convenient use of water power. This island was afterwards known as "Governor's Island," but was called "Abernethy Island" in the Donation Land Law, and is now known by the latter name.

This island is now owned by the Portland General Electric Company. It lies partly in the "Basin" at Oregon City. On it is now erected a large wooden building called, by that Company, "Station A." As I have said, in 1825 the Hudson's Bay Company knew that England did not intend to claim any part of the Oregon Country south of the Columbia River, so it did not want for itself any permanent or valuable improvements in the Willamette Valley.

In 1829 Dr. McLoughlin began the erection of a sawmill at the falls. He caused three houses to be erected and some timbers to be squared for a mill. This work continued until May, 1830. In 1829 the Indians there burned these squared timbers. In 1832 he had a mill-race blasted out of the rocks from the head of the island. It has been a.s.serted that these improvements were made for the Hudson's Bay Company, but were discontinued by it because it did not wish to erect valuable improvements there. But in the McLoughlin Doc.u.ment he says: "I had selected for a claim, Oregon City, in 1829, made improvements on it, and had a large quant.i.ty of timber squared." Who ever knew or heard of Dr.

McLoughlin telling a lie? That he was a man of the highest honor and truthfulness is established beyond all doubt. This claim was taken by him in the same year that Lucier settled in the Willamette Valley. It is evident that Dr. McLoughlin took this claim, for his old age and for the benefit of himself and children.[31] From about 1838 until the pa.s.sage of the Donation Land Law in 1850, he openly and continuously a.s.serted his right to his land claim, including Abernethy Island. No adverse claim was made until about July, 1840, less than sixty days after the arrival of the s.h.i.+p Lausanne, when certain members of the Methodist Mission began to plan to take these lands and rights from Dr.

McLoughlin, and in the end succeeded, but only partially for themselves.

Dr. McLoughlin's right to his land claim was as good as that of any other person in Oregon to his own land claim. April 1, 1843, Dr. Elijah White, who came to Oregon in 1837, as a Methodist missionary, but was then United States Sub-Agent of Indian Affairs, in an official report to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, at Was.h.i.+ngton, D. C., said of the Shortess pet.i.tion, to which I shall presently refer: "A pet.i.tion started from this country today, making bitter complaints against the Hudson's Bay Company and Governor McLoughlin. On reference to it (a copy was denied) I shall only say, had any gentleman disconnected with the Hudson's Bay Company been at half the pains and expense to establish a claim on the Wallamet Falls, very few would have raised any opposition."[32] Under the joint-occupancy every British subject had the same or equal rights in the Oregon Country that a citizen of the United States had.

December 18, 1839, Senator Linn introduced a series of resolutions in the United States Senate, which were referred to a select Committee.

March 31, 1840, this Committee reported a subst.i.tute. The chief feature was a provision for granting _to each male inhabitant_ of Oregon, over eighteen years of age, one thousand acres of land. December 16, 1841, Senator Linn introduced his famous bill thereafter known as the "Linn Bill," which granted six hundred and forty acres of land to every _white male inhabitant_ of Oregon, of eighteen years or over, who should cultivate the same for five years. This bill was favorably reported back to the Senate and subsequently pa.s.sed the Senate, but failed in the House. The Oregon Donation Land Law was largely based on this bill. In neither the Linn resolution nor in the Linn bill was any difference made between American citizens and British subjects, or other aliens as to the right to take land. The Oregon Donation Land Law of September 27, 1850, applied to every white settler (including aliens) over eighteen years of age then a resident of Oregon, or who should become such a resident prior to December 1, 1850, except Dr. McLoughlin. In case of an alien he must either have made his declaration, according to law, to become a citizen of the United States prior to the pa.s.sage of the Donation Land Law or do so prior to December 1, 1851. The Linn bill was largely instrumental in causing the early immigrations to Oregon. It was felt by these immigrants that it, or a similar law, was bound to pa.s.s Congress. The Oregon Donation Land Law was such a law. Dr. McLoughlin believed that such a bill was bound to become a law.

The Methodist Mission, as a mission, did not, officially, attempt to deprive Dr. McLoughlin of any of his land. There were some of the missionaries who opposed any such action. But others of them saw that if the Mission obtained any of Dr. McLoughlin's land claim, it would belong to the Mission or to the Church, so they readily proceeded, as individuals, for their own private gain. In 1840, shortly after the arrival of the Lausanne, Rev. Jason Lee, as Superintendent of the Methodist Mission, appointed Rev. A. F. Waller to labor for the Indians at Willamette Falls and vicinity. The Mission took up a claim of six hundred and forty acres north of Dr. McLoughlin's claim. The Mission's religious work was done by Waller on this claim, where Gladstone Park is now situated, and also at a point on the west bank of the Willamette River opposite Oregon City. At both of these places there were a number of Indians.[33] In the summer of 1840 Waller was sent to establish this Mission. Dr. McLoughlin generously a.s.sisted the undertaking. He gave the Mission a piece of land in his claim on which to erect a mission-house; and, at the request of Rev. Jason Lee, the Superintendent of the Mission, Dr. McLoughlin loaned it some of the timbers, which he had caused to be squared, to build the mission-house. Timbers to take the place of those so loaned were never furnished to Dr. McLoughlin, nor were the timbers ever paid for.[34] It was soon reported to Dr.

McLoughlin that the Methodist Mission would try to take or to jump his claim. He at once (July 21, 1840) notified Jason Lee, Superintendent of the Mission, of the facts: That Dr. McLoughlin had taken possession of this land claim in 1829, and also of his intention to hold this land as a private claim. He gave Lee the general description of the land so claimed by Dr. McLoughlin, viz: "From the upper end of the falls across to the Clackamas river, and down where the Clackamas falls into the Willamette, including the whole point of land, and the small island in the falls on which the portage was made." This is the island later known as "Governor's" or "Abernethy" Island. After giving the notice mentioned, Dr. McLoughlin concluded his letter with these words: "This is not to prevent your building the store, as my object is merely to establish my claim." A satisfactory answer was returned and Waller proceeded in the erection of the mission-house, which was divided into two apartments, one of which served as a dwelling, and the other as a storeroom for the goods of the Mission.[35]

In 1841 Felix Hathaway, in the employment of the Mission, began to build a house on the island, at which Dr. McLoughlin remonstrated with Waller, but the latter a.s.sured Dr. McLoughlin that no wrong was intended and Hathaway stopped his building operations. Matters ran smoothly until the autumn of 1842. By this time Dr. McLoughlin had again made improvements on his claim, having it surveyed and part of it laid off in town lots and blocks, which he named Oregon City. Some of these lots and blocks he gave away, some he sold. I cannot go into all the evasive actions of Waller and the false statements and claims made by him, and by John Ricord, his attorney, in relation to Waller's supposed rights to Dr.

McLoughlin's land claim. Waller employed Ricord as an attorney and a.s.serted his owners.h.i.+p of all the McLoughlin land claim, except Abernethy Island, to which the Oregon Milling Company laid claim. A public proclamation signed by Ricord as attorney for Waller, although dated December 20, 1843, was publicly posted at Oregon City early in 1844. It set forth the alleged illegality of Dr. McLoughlin's claim and the imaginary rights of Waller.[36] Whatever possession Waller had of any part of this land was due to the kind permission of Dr. McLoughlin.

Waller attempted to turn this kindness into a question of right to the whole land claim, excepting Abernethy Island. An agreement or settlement, dated April 4, 1844, was executed by Rev. A. F. Waller, Rev.

David Leslie, acting Superintendent of the Methodist Mission, and by Dr.

McLoughlin. Under this agreement Dr. McLoughlin was compelled to pay Waller five hundred dollars and to convey to Waller eight lots and three blocks in Oregon City, and also to convey to the Methodist Mission six lots and one block in Oregon City. What right the Mission had to insist on the conveyance to it of this land has never been explained--Waller, in said agreement or settlement, surrendering and forever abandoning to Dr. McLoughlin "all claims, rights, and pretensions whatsoever" which Waller had to the land claim of Dr. McLoughlin, which is described in said agreement as "a tract of land situated at the falls of the Wallamette River on the east side of said River, containing six hundred and forty acres, and surveyed by Jesse Applegate in the month of December, A. D. 1843." This survey included Abernethy Island. There were not then any courts in Oregon to which Dr. McLoughlin could apply for relief, as he had not then joined the Provisional Government. It was probably better and cheaper for him to submit to this unfair agreement, otherwise he would have been compelled to allow Waller to take the land or to have ousted him by force.[37]

July 15, 1844, about three months after this settlement, Rev. George Gary, who was then closing the Methodist Mission in Oregon and disposing of its property, in a letter to Dr. McLoughlin offered to sell back these lots and block given to the Mission by Dr. McLoughlin, with the improvements thereon, excluding the two lots given by Dr. McLoughlin in 1840 on which the Methodist Church was built. Gary valued the lots to be sold at two thousand, two hundred dollars, and the improvements thereon at three thousand, eight hundred dollars. Gary made the conditions that the possession of a warehouse should be reserved until June, 1845, and the house occupied by George Abernethy until August, 1845. Gary made some other reservations and wrote that there must be an answer in a day or two. Dr. McLoughlin considered this offer extortionate. He wrote an answer to Gary calling attention to the fact that he had so recently given the lots to the Mission, that it would be the fairest way for Gary to give Dr. McLoughlin back the lots, since the Mission had no longer any use for them, and let him pay for the improvements; that one of the houses was built with lumber borrowed from him and had not been paid for. He suggested that the matter be referred to the Missionary Board.

But Gary rejected every proposal. Dr. McLoughlin was compelled to yield and agreed to pay the six thousand dollars demanded by Gary.[38]

Notwithstanding the fact that this agreement executed by Waller and Leslie, dated April 4, 1844, was made as a final settlement of the matter, the conspirators determined to deprive Dr. McLoughlin of his land claim, even if they did not profit by it. They succeeded by means of the Oregon Donation Law, as I shall presently show. These conspirators had previously arranged to take or "jump" Abernethy Island.

Rev. Dr. H. K. Hines was too honorable a man to justify these proceedings. As he came to Oregon in 1853, it appears that he did not know all the facts, but such as he knew, even from Methodist missionary sources, did not commend Waller's actions to Hines in regard to Dr.

McLoughlin and his land claim. In his _Missionary History_, pages 353-355, Dr. Hines says: "At Oregon City the Mission as such deemed it wisest not to file any claim as against that of Dr. McLoughlin, Chief Factor of the Hudson's Bay Company at Vancouver, who had made some movements toward the occupation of that valuable property before the Mission was established. Perhaps all in the country at that time, Mr.

Lee included, did not consider the claim of Dr. McLoughlin as a British subject and the head of a great British corporation, such a claim as would be recognized in law when the government of the United States should extend its jurisdiction over the country, which they believed it was sure to do in a short time.... The mission work at this general point was mostly done on the _west side_ of the river at The Falls, and at the villages on the Clackamas where 'Gladstone Park' is now situated, and where the Mission had a farm, and a claim of a square mile of land.

This stood in exactly the same relation to the Board as did the claim at The Dalles and at Salem.

"It is proper that we say here that much controversy arose at Oregon City through the fact that Rev. A. F. Waller filed a claim in his own behalf on the land to which Dr. McLoughlin was also laying claim, on the ground that the latter, being a British subject, could not obtain t.i.tle under the land laws of the United States. With this the Mission, as such, had no connection whatever, and hence this history does not deal with the question." Nevertheless, joint-occupancy, Senator Linn's resolution and bill, the Donation Land Law, subsequently pa.s.sed, natural justice and right, and common decency should have been recognized as giving Dr. McLoughlin full right to his land claim from the beginning.

At least three of the Methodist missionaries and those connected with the Methodist Mission were not citizens of the United States at any time prior to the pa.s.sage of the Donation Land Law in 1850. Rev. Jason Lee was a native of Canada and died in Canada. He did not become a citizen of the United States. His allegiance was always that of a British subject. Jason Lee was of English descent. His parents were born in the United States but settled at Stanstead, Canada, and made it their home several years prior to his birth. He was born at Stanstead in 1803 and that was his home until 1834, when he came to Oregon. For a number of years he worked in the pineries in the north of Canada. In 1826 he was "converted" and joined the Wesleyan Church of Canada. In 1827 he entered the Wesleyan Academy at Wilbraham, Ma.s.sachusetts. After attending that Academy for a time, he returned to his home at Stanstead, where he stayed for several years, first teaching school and afterwards becoming a preacher of the Wesleyan Church of Canada. For several years he had desired to be a missionary among the Indians and in 1832 or 1833 offered his services as a missionary to the Indians of Canada to the Wesleyan Missionary Society of London. In 1833, while waiting a reply to his application, he was offered the appointment by the New England Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church of "Missionary to the Flathead Indians," and was admitted as a member of the latter Conference. In the spring of 1834 he started for Oregon, which, during the rest of his life, was jointly occupied by citizens of the United States and subjects of Great Britain under the Conventions between these countries. The political status of a resident of Oregon then remained as it was when he arrived in Oregon. It could not be changed there during joint-occupancy. He died at Lake Memphremagog in Canada, March 2, 1845.

His body was buried at Stanstead. These facts I have obtained mostly from Dr. Hines' _Missionary History of the Pacific Northwest_, and I have verified them from other reliable sources.

Rev. Daniel Lee was also born in Canada. Up to the time of his return to the Eastern States in 1843, he had not become a citizen of the United States. As the rest of his life was spent as a Methodist minister in the United States, he probably became a citizen of the latter country. Rev.

Daniel Lee, I believe, took no part in, nor did he encourage, or sympathize with any action against Dr. McLoughlin.

Joseph Holman (not a relative of mine) was born in England, August 20, 1815. In 1833 he went to Canada where he lived for several years. About 1836 or 1837 he went to Ohio and later went to Illinois. In 1839 he started for Oregon. He arrived at Fort Vancouver June 1, 1840, the same day the Lausanne arrived there. In 1840 or 1841 he became connected with the Methodist Mission. Shortly after his arrival he took up a land claim a mile square near the present city of Salem. A person could not become a citizen of the United States until he had resided therein for at least five years. So he could not become such a citizen in the East for he had not resided in the United States more than three years when he started for Oregon in 1839. It was in Oregon, after the United States Courts were established in 1849, that Joseph Holman first made application to become a citizen of the United States and became one. As Jason Lee and Daniel Lee took up the land on which the Methodist Mission was situated and they were British subjects, their rights as land claimants were the same as those of Dr. McLoughlin. The Mission, as such, had no legal status to acquire land prior to the Act of 1848 organizing Oregon Territory. The land claim of Joseph Holman had the same status as that of Dr. McLoughlin--just as good, but no better.

_Abernethy Island._

I have spoken of this settlement with Waller, in 1844, in order to treat separately of the taking of Abernethy Island from Dr. McLoughlin. The land controlling the water-power on the west side of the falls of the Willamette River was not taken nor claimed by any one until after the year 1841. It is on the west side where the water-power of the falls is now mostly used. It could have been had for the taking at the time Abernethy Island was "jumped." Dr. McLoughlin's land claim was on the east side of the river. As I have said, Felix Hathaway, in the employment of the Mission, in 1841 began to build a house on Abernethy Island, but after Dr. McLoughlin's remonstrance to Waller, the building operations on the island ceased at that time. Dr. McLoughlin erected a small house on the island. In 1841 the Oregon Milling Company was formed. Almost all of its members belonged to the Methodist Mission.