# Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 18/News and Comment No. 3

NEWS AND COMMENT
Oregon Trail Monuments.
These have been erected in many places in Oregon and Washington by Daughters of the American Revolution and will be objects of sentimental interest for all time. The patriotic women deserve the thanks of all lovers of pioneer history and the gratitude of pioneer descendants.
The fourth and latest monument of this kind in Oregon was dedicated October 13, 1917, at Oregon City, where the old road crossed Abernethy Creek. Willamette Chapter, through its acting regent, Mrs. W. H. T. Green, presented the monument to the state regent, Mrs. Isaac Lee Patterson. The monument bears a bronze tablet, inscribed, "Old Oregon Trail, 1846," to memorialize the journey of the first wagons of the Barlow party across Cascade Mountains, in 1845-46.
At Rhododendron, on Barlow Road, thirteen miles below the summit of Cascade Mountains, stands a monument erected by Multnomah Chapter, in October, 1917, on ground given by Mrs. Emil Franzetti. The tablet inscribed, "The Oregon Trail, 1845," was placed by Mrs. Ormsby M. Ash, Mrs. Mary Barlow Wilkins, regent, Mrs. Walter F. Burrell and Mrs. R. S. Steams. This monument will be dedicated next summer. The site is on Zig Zag River near its junction with Sandy River.
The first of these pioneer monuments of the Daughters of the American Revolution, placed at Multnomah Falls, on the Columbia River, is inscribed "To the Oregon Pioneers, 18361859." The dedication took place August 24, 1916, directed by Multnomah Chapter, Mrs. James N. Davis, regent. The tablet is secured to a large stone, which serves as a drinking fountain. No one pioneer year could be designated on the tablet because the Columbia River was a highway for explorers, traders and missionaries many years before the advent of the ox-team pioneers.
​Near Eugene, three and one-half miles southeast, at Coryell Point, the confluence of the Coast Fork and Middle Fork of Willamette River, the Old Oregon Trail is marked by a monument erected by Lewis and Clark Chapter, of Eugene, Mrs. Edna Prescott Datson, regent, and dedicated March 10, 1917. The tablet reads: "Coryell Pass, Oregon Trail, 1846." In that year the Southern Oregon trail, from Old Fort Boise, in Snake River, to Rogue River and Polk County, was opened by Levi Scott, Jesse and Lindsay Applegate. . The fotmder of the city of Eugene, Eugene Skinner, took his land claim there in 1846. That year is especially significant of the ox-team pioneers, because they then drove their first wagons into Southern Oregon and Willamette Valley.
Twelve monuments have been placed in Western Washington by the Daughters and the Sons of the American Revolution, as follows: Tumwater, near Olympia; Olympia in the public square; Tenino, Bush Prairie, Grand Mound, Centralia, Jackson Prairie, Toledo, Kelso, Kalama, and Woodland, all these designating Cowlitz Trail; and at Vancouver. The latter, at the approach of the Interstate bridge, was erected in January, 1917. Pioneers placed a stone marker on the Naches Trail, September 20, 1917, near the town of Selah, Washington. This trail was opened in 1853, as a direct route across Cascade Mountains to Puget Sound.
The work in Oregon and Washington has been under way for two years, and has received national attention. The Oregon Trail monument at Caldwell, Idaho, was unveiled April 28, 1916. The Oregon committee on old trails, for the current year, appointed by Mrs. Isaac Lee Patterson, state regent, is composed of the following: Mrs. J. M. Knight, Mrs. C. S. Jackson, Mrs. F. M. Wilkins, Mrs. Willard L. Marks, Mrs. Norris H. Looney, Mrs. D. O. Bronson, Miss Anna M. Lang.
The writer is indebted for most of the material of this article to the state historian of the Oregon Daughters of the American Revolution, Mrs. J. Thorbum Ross, but any omissions should ​be ascribed to the writer. He feels justified in bespeaking the appreciations of the Oregon Historical Society and of the sons and daughters of pioneers. These monuments will make memorable the generosity and enterprise of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Examination of the Barlow Road.
The Old Oregon Trail across Cascades Mountains, commonly called the Barlow Road, has been studied and mapped by Leslie M. Scott, who will soon present a description of the route according to present-day topography. The route was opened for wagons, south of Mount Hood, in 1845-46, by Samuel Kimbrough Barlow and his party. Preliminary examination of the route was made in the fall of 1845 by Joel Palmer. An Indian trail, north of Mount Hood, was used by the pioneers in 1845 and previously, for driving cattk and horses from The Dalles to the Willamette.
The Letters of Joseph Lane
Letters of Joseph Lane, collected by the Oregon Historical Society, were calendared by a representative of the State Library of New York last spring and summer. The letters, to the total number of approximately 2,000, cover the active period of Lane's career up to his retirement from the United States Senate. The letters, therefore, have national interest.
History Workers at Spokane.
The Spokane County Historical Society, of Spokane, Wash., is doing active work. A museum has been started and a regular appropriation obtained from the city towards its support; relics are being gathered concerning the history of the Spokane country. A deed has been obtained to a small tract of land on Coulee Creek, at the crossing place of the old Colville Trail, and it is proposed to remove to that place the granite monument marking the location of Camp Washington, where Governor Stevens and Lieutenant (afterwards General) McClellan met in 1853. The monument was erected on Four Mound Prairie, five or six miles from the proper location. The ​society contains many active members, a number of whom are members of the Oregon Historical Society. Mr. William S. Lewis is the corresponding secretary of the society, and the Spokane Public Library is its depositary.
Professor Trimble's New Researches.
Professor Will J. Trimble, of the North Dakota Agricultural College, Fargo, visited the cities of the Pacific Northwest in September, gathering data for an article he is preparing concerning the influence of the topography of this region upon its history. Mr. Trimble is an enthusiastic student of our early history, and in earlier years was engaged in teaching at Pullman and at Spokane. He is the author of a valuable thesis which was published by the University of Wisconsin, entitled "The Mining Advance Into the Inland Empire," which is authoritative upon that subject.
David Thompson, Reviewed by T. C. Elliott.
A series of articles is running in the Washington Historical Quarterly treating of the travels of David Thompson, the North-West Company geographer, in the Spokane country during 1811–12–13. David Thompson was the pathfinder in that part of the Oregon country, and left a journal which is the basis for these articles. Mr. T. C. Elliott is the contributor of the series.
Acquisitions of the Oregon Historical Society: Relics of Captain Robert Gray.
Five pieces of china ware belonging to the table service of Captain Robert Gray, discoverer of the Columbia River, and the door plate from his residence in Boston, are on exhibition at the rooms of the Society. These personal relics of the navigator were presented to the Society by his great granddaughter, Mrs. Gertrude Peabody, of Boston, Massachusetts. The dishes were in use on board the ship Columbia when Captain Gray entered the "Oregon, or the River of the West," on May 11, 1792, which he named "Columbia River" on May 19th of that year. ​
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Manuscript Collections,
Important additions to the manuscript collections of the Society have been received from Mrs. Eva Emery Dye, of Oregon City, the widely known writer upon historical subjects relating to Oregon. These include her personal notes and numerous letters from pioneers and many others used in the preparation of McLoughlin and Old Oregon, The Conquest, McDonald of Oregon; also the autobiography of Ranald Mc- Donald, and a nimiber of letters from John Work to Edward Ermatinger, between 1829 and 1846, and from Sir George Simpson, Archibald Barclay, Sir J. H. Pelly, and Andrew Col- vile to James Douglas, between March 26, 1850, and Oct. 12, 1854.
Old-Time Weapons.
A brace of old-time derringers, of very beautiful design, suggestive of the pioneer period, has been presented to the Society by Mr. Joseph M. Teal. These pistols were the prop- erty of his father, Joseph Teal, an Oregon pioneer of 1850, and a widely known citizen of the commonwealth. Miss Helen Teal, sister of Mr. Joseph N. Teal, has presented a pair of hunting pistols which also belonged to her father. These four weapons are single-shot breech-loaders.
Annual Reunion of Pioneer Association.
The forty-fifth annual reunion of the Oregon Pioneer Asso- ciation occurred on July 22, 1917, more than one month after the proper date, for the reason that the Armory in which the reunion has been held for many years was not available this year on account of military necessity, and the Public Audi- torium, where the pioneers met was not ready for occupation until the date mentioned. The nimiber present was 935 and the average age of that number was seventy years. No one who came to, or was born in, any part of the original "Oregon country" later than 1859 is eligible to membership in the Association, according to the constitutional provision made by the founders of the organization. The year 1859 was chosen as ​
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the pioneer limit because in 1873 the territory then became a state, thus making a definite period in its political history. The president of the Association for the year ending July 22d was C)rrus Hamlin Walker, whose parents started from Maine to Oregon early in 1838, bearing commissions of the American Board as missionaries to the Oregon Indians. Mr. Walker was bom at Wai-il-at-pu, the Whitman mission station, six miles west of the present city of Walla Walla, Washington, December 7, 1838, and is the oldest male child bom of Ameri- can parents in the original "Oregon Country" now living. Mr. W. H. H. Dufur, a native of Vermont, but a pioneer of 1859, was elected president, and George H. Himes, a native of Pennsylvania and a pioneer of 1853, was re-elected secretary