The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1891-12-25
"REMINISCENCES OF A PIONEER.
PAPER NUMBER ONE.

In PURSUANCE OI an ac1 OF congress, stp-
proved August ID, lS4S Ito establish the
territorial government of Oregon) Joseph
Lane. governor of the territory of Oregon,
issued a proclamation which declared and
made known that the territory for that time
was divided into three judicial districts !;
the county of Benton was included in the
second district. In pursuance of said proc.
lamation, ON the third day of September,
lS49, at the house of ]. g. Avery, on Mary's
river, in Benton county, was held the first
court in the county. presided over by o. c.
Pratt, judge, supported by United States
marshal. This was the beginning of Benton
county, as such. The courts were held on
the first Mondays of May and October of
each year, and was the only tribunal where
the people conld settle their difficulties or
redress their wrongs, either real or imagin-
ary. For number of year., Mr.. Avery's
house, as is well known to the residents of
the county today, was located on the dona-
tion claim, the north half of which is occu-
pied by our city Of Corvallis formerly the
town of Marysvil!eI which has ever since
been the county seat. Our county's first
immigration was largely composed of men
of marked ability, superior attalnments as
to education, largely endowed with good,
hard, practical sense, who had come across
the American continent, some III quest of
the gold fields of California, Others seeking
new homes where their families would have
the advantages of land in.quantities not to
be obtained in the districts which they had
left in the eastern states.
Most marked among the sentiments so
freely expressed at that time was the unani.
nous intention of having schools, and to
the present day, which covers period of
over forty years, the same feeling has ex-
listed throughout our county, which is essen
TALLY peopled by citizens whose one object
in life appears to be to obtain the best and
most general education for the generations
following which their resources could COM
mand. In many instances the heads of fam
lilies, living lives of hardship and frugality,
carrying large loads of Indebtedness in many
instances, and devoting all of their surplus
to the furtherance of the education and fit
ting of their offspring for the battle of life,
which they could foresee without a spy
glass would be the lot of these, their chill
dren. Living largely pastoral lives, engaged
in stock raising and agricultural pursuits
generally, they had plenty of time to runi-
nate on the swift advance of civilization in
III, J. H. o,l L., ioo
experience during the last twenty years that
new methods and inventions, of which the
last half century has produced more than the
thousand years preceding, have arrived in
this, our country nearly as quickly as in
other parts of the civilized globe and it did
not take much of philosopher to realize
that unless the rising generation were
abreast Of the times in diversified knowl.
that would enable them to hold their own
with the superior immigration which was
certain to food this section of the country
at no very late date. Also the majority of
the early settlers were people with religious
views, born and reared under the shadow of
some one of the many sectarian churches or
fully realizing that especially |
placed as they were, on the frontier, their
best protection for homes and fanlilies-not
from Indians, but from the ordinary ras-
sions and appetltes of mankind-would be
The same influences which had been brought |
to bear on themselves i'll their younger days. |
The land in the valleys being SO fertile, |
The market for many years so far away, and
the needs of the people SO simple, it required
but a small amount of labor to furnish the
necessary means of living, both for food and
which were simple. Their focks
and herds grew up around them, and great |
many are now reaping the reward of pa |
tience in having in their own names, free of
Ill membranes, an independent living, for
which they are beholden to no man or class
Of men in which they cannot very well be |
lied, furnishing revenue enough to provide
Ill the comforts and many of the Injuries of i
this life during their old age. In the earlier |
periods it was not the custom to till great |
settlers have not availed themselves Of all |
that could be made from their properties,
probably for the very reason that they did |
lot have to- Our climate-speaking from |
not conducive of energy, in |
act, it is nearly lazy man paradise, and |
t really is hard physical exertion for an |
oregonian, pure and simple, to work over I
fifty per cent. of his time, it requiring about !
1alf a year to rest from the other half-year's |
abors The seasons here make this climatic |
very convenient, as man can
york generally six or seven months during |
,he year with his his coat off and suffer from
neither cold nor damp. The balance of the |
7ear, if he is good rustler, he can afford to
ie in the house and watch his truck grow |
While it rains.
Our lands have advanced steadily but not |
apidly in price during this later period of i
twenty five years, farms in many instances
laving been sold twenty years since at
prices which could not be increased today to
xceed twenty-five per cent; still; there
las been steady growth. Great attention
$ paid, especially by new. comers, as much
o location as to quality Of land. The fact
# the western part of Benton county, COM
rising at least three fourths of the county,
wing in the coast range of mountains,
auses us to appear to a stranger as being
/