Chapter M: M. McCARVER (5)

[Omitting a portion of the letter describing the timber of
Oregon.] I will not persuade you, nor will I any of my
friends, to come to this country; but were I in the States
again, I should come myself. For $300 you could purchase one
hundred young heifers; and in driving them here you might
lose from five to ten. When you reached here they would be
worth $4,000, and in ten years, without labor or expense,
would make you a splendid fortune. You can move here with
less expense than you could to Tennessee or Kentucky. Your
provisions, teams, etc., you have; your oxen and horses,
especially your fine American mares, would be worth double
as much as they would cost you there. There are very few
good American horses here. The Indian horses are not so
gentle as the American, nor so fine blooded. The American
cattle are greatly superior to the Spanish for milk, as they
give more milk and are more gentle; but the Spanish cattle
are larger. Cows have calves here from fifteen to twenty
months old, and sheep have lambs twice a year in some parts
of territory. The reason is they are always fat and get
their growth much sooner. It is my deliberate opinion that
no country in the world affords so fair an opportunity to
acquire a living as this. I can see no objection to it,
except it be by a man who loves liquor, for he can get none
here.

PETER H. BURNETT.

* * * * *

From the _Ohio Statesman_, October 23, 1844. Quoted by the
_Statesman_ from the _St. Louis Reporter_.

We make the following extracts from two letters which were published in the _Western Pioneer_ of the 6th instant, written by William L. Smith and John Holman, two emigrants to Oregon. The information from that territory, received this year, is of the most interesting character:

The prospect is quite good for a young man to make a fortune
in this country, as all kinds of produce are high, and
likely to remain so from the extensive demand. The Russian
settlements in Asia; the Sandwich Islands; a great portion
of California, and the whaling vessels of the Northwest
coast, procure their supplies from this place.

There is as yet but little money in the country, and the
whole trade is carried on by orders on an agent or factor.
For instance, when I sell my crop of wheat, the purchaser
asks me where I wish to receive the pay. Vancouver is as yet
the principal point, and an order on that point enables the
seller to procure goods, or cattle, or anything else for it.

The population of this country consists of French, sailors,
mountain traders, missionaries, and emigrants from the
States. The French population consists of old worn-out
servants of the Hudson Bay Company; they universally have
Indian wives, and many children, some of whom are very
handsome; this part of the population are Catholics. The
sailors are those who deserted from vessels while lying on
the coast, and have also intermarried with the Indians, and
but few of them have embraced any religion--they are,
however, generally good citizens. The mountain traders are
similar to the sailors, except that they have nearly all
embraced the Methodist or Catholic religion.

The citizens held a meeting some time since and unanimously
adopted the statutes of Iowa Territory for their code of
laws until the government of the United States should make
laws for them. There is little or no crime in Oregon as yet,
which is attributed to the absence of spirituous
liquors--and so sensible are the citizens of this fact that
they are unanimous in favor of excluding it. In fact, Doctor
McLoughlin has several cargoes in his warehouse now, which
he bought in preference to allowing it to be sold in the
country. I can not speak too highly of this excellent man
for his kindness to us all. He sent several boats loaded
with provisions to meet the emigrants last fall, and
continued to distribute little luxuries among us as long as
we remained in reach of him--he is always on the lookout for
an opportunity to bestow his charity, and bestows with no
sparing hand. His intention is to quit the Hudson Bay
Company and become an American citizen.

Our prairies are beautiful, soil good, and the best stock
range I ever saw. I have located and recorded six sections
of land, which I can hold for one year by making certain
improvements thereon, which I intend doing. I can stand in
my door and see over all of them. Everything is plenty, but
sells high. The prospects for industrious young men are
truly flattering. I do think the six sections we have now in
possession are intrinsically worth $20,000; that would be $5
per acre, and that is not near the value, taking everything
into consideration. The situation for trade and commerce is
certainly better than any other country. The climate, soil,
timber, water, health, products of the country, and the
prospects for good society combine to make it delightful. It
would astonish you to see the state of society here--more
hospitality and friendship, more morality, industry, and I
do believe religion, than you will see anywhere. There are a
good many scattering Indians, but nothing to be feared from
them.

* * * * *

From the _National Intelligencer_, October 28, 1843.

EMIGRATION--THE FAR WEST.

We presume most persons thought that when the tide of
emigration reached Oregon it would go no farther, for it did
not seem that the "Far West" could get beyond the Pacific.
We find, however, that some of the emigrants who have
reached Oregon are "dissatisfied with the country, and
contemplate going to California this spring." So says a
letter in the _Iowa Herald_ from one of the settlers, who
for his own part likes the country very well, and expects to
end his days there. He describes the Oregon region as rough
and broken, generally heavy timbered, principally with fir,
yellow pine, cedar, hemlock, oak, ash, and maple--well
watered, with about one tenth prairie of excellent quality.
In the streams is an abundance of fish, among which are the
finest salmon in the world. Oregon City is a thriving little
place, and from its advantageous position it is likely to
become a thriving great one. It is situated at the head of
navigation on the Oregon or Columbia River, and at the foot
of Walhammat Falls, one of the greatest water powers in the
world.

Of the foregoing documents, the editorial from the _Daily
Tribune_, New York, of March 29, 1843, the second in the
order of the excerpts, was found and copied by Dr. J. R.
Wilson; for all the others the editor is indebted to Prof.
Joseph Schafer.

THE QUARTERLY
OF THE
OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

VOLUME IV. SEPTEMBER, 1903 NUMBER 3

[Entered at Portland, Oregon, Post Office as second-class matter.]

HISTORY OF THE PREPARATION OF THE FIRST CODE OF OREGON.

I am requested by the Oregon Bar Association to write a paper on "The Preparation and Adoption of the First Code."

Before writing about the actual preparation of the first code, I desire to say something about the confused and uncertain condition of statutory law in Oregon Territory, prior to 1853, and the reasons which induced the territorial legislature of 1852-53 to elect three commissioners to prepare a code of laws for Oregon Territory.

On June 27, 1844, the Provisional Government of Oregon, declared that "All the statute laws of Iowa Territory, passed at the first session of the legislative assembly of said territory, and not of a local character, and not incompatible with the conditions and circumstances of this country, shall be the law of this government, unless otherwise modified": Laws, 1843-49, p. 100.

The fourteenth section of the act of Congress of August 14, 1848, organizing the Territory of Oregon, continued these laws of the Provisional Government in force until they should be altered or repealed.

At the first session of the legislative assembly, held at Oregon City, two acts were passed by that body, which, owing to the construction placed upon them by the supreme court of the Territory, had a tendency to produce dissension and discord among the people of Oregon, which lasted for two or three years. One of these was "An act to provide for the selection of places for location and erection of the public buildings of the Territory of Oregon," passed February 1, 1851.

The other act was one which declared to be adopted, and in force, certain acts of the revised statutes of Iowa Territory published in 1843. The legislative assembly of Oregon by a single act adopted these acts of Iowa, designating them by their several titles, and the dates of their passage. This law was generally known as the "Chapman Code," owing to the fact that the bill was introduced by and its passage secured through the influence of Hon. W. W. Chapman, then a member of the legislative assembly.

Soon after these two acts were passed, their validity was questioned, especially that of the one which located the public buildings, and transferred the seat of government from Oregon City to Salem. Those who denied their validity did so on the ground that they contravened that clause of the organic act of August 14, 1848, section 6, which provides that "To avoid improper influences which may result from intermixing in one act such things as have no proper relation to each other; every act shall embrace but one object, and that shall be expressed in the title."

Legal proceedings were soon taken by persons interested in retaining the capital at Oregon City to declare the act of removal invalid. A suit brought for that purpose came on for hearing before the supreme court at Oregon City, in December, 1851. By law the judges of the district courts composed the supreme court of the territory. They were Thomas Nelson, Chief Justice, O. C. Pratt, and William Strong. Of these Nelson and Strong had been appointed by Presidents Fillmore and Taylor, respectively, while Pratt was holding over under an appointment of President Polk. The former were Whigs politically, while the latter was a Democrat. Judges Nelson and Strong convened at Oregon City, and opened the supreme court there. Judge Pratt went to Salem under the act which changed the seat of government, but without a quorum could not hold a session of the court. Judges Nelson and Strong then decided that the act of the legislative assembly providing for the selection of places for the location and erection of the public buildings, passed February 1, 1851, was void, because it contravened the organic law of August 14, 1848, as before stated. The opinions of the judges were never published in the Oregon Reports, for what reason I do not know. Possibly they were not filed with the supreme court. Judge Pratt claimed that this decision amounted to nothing because it was not made at the seat of government, as established by act of the legislative assembly, and in this opinion that body then assembled at Salem, readily concurred. This heated controversy about the location of the capital was, however, settled by a joint resolution of Congress, adopted May 4, 1852 (10 U. S. Statutes, 146). The first section legalized the act of the territorial legislature which located the public buildings, and the second section declared that the late session of the legislative assembly was held in conformity with the provisions of law. This, of course, ended all dispute about the location of the capital, but unhappily another controversy grew out of the construction placed by Judges Nelson and Strong upon the sixth section of the organic law of August 14, 1848. For the same reasons which they held the act for the location of the public buildings void, they also held the act of the legislative assembly, which adopted the revised statutes of Iowa, to be also invalid. In other words, these judges held that by adopting several distinct statutes of Iowa in one act, it necessarily embraced more than one object. Judge Pratt took a different view and held that the act of the legislative assembly embraced but one object, to wit, the adoption of a code of laws of the territory.

The result of these conflicting views of the judges was that in Judge Nelson's judicial district, composed of Clackamas, Marion, and Linn counties, and in Judge Strong's district, composed of Clatsop County and the counties north of the Columbia River, the Iowa Code of 1838, adopted by the Provisional Government, was held to be in force. Judge Pratt's district, composed of all the territory west of the Willamette River, included the counties of Washington, Yamhill, Polk, and Benton, and in this district the "Chapman Code" of the Revised Code of Iowa Statutes of 1843, was recognized as the law in force. In the district of Nelson and Strong, the lawyers would cite the law from the "Little Blue Book," as the volume of Statutes of Iowa of 1838 was called. In Judge Pratt's district the same lawyers would quote from the "Big Blue Book," as the Iowa Code of 1843 was called. There were but three or four copies of the _little blue book_ in the territory, one of which was owned by Hon. A. E. Wait. The last time I saw it it was in the possession of Hon. Benton Killin. There were only two copies of the _big blue book_ in Oregon and the statutes adopted by the Chapman Code were not published until the latter part of 1853, when they were printed by the territorial printer and bound in paper covers. A number of these printed copies were distributed among the several counties in the territory, but the uncertainty and doubt as to their validity made them of little value.

As I said before, Judge Pratt's views of this legal controversy coincided with those of the legislative assembly, then in session at Salem, and that body passed an act detaching the counties of Marion and Linn from the judicial district of Judge Nelson, leaving him only Clackamas County, in which he resided. In this act it was provided that the terms of court in Marion and Linn counties should commence one week earlier than they did under the old law. So Judge Pratt held court at Salem and Albany under the new law, and a week later in each county Judge Nelson went to Salem and Albany to hold the district court under the old law. He found, however, that Judge Pratt had preceded him, held the courts, and adjourned for the term. Judge Nelson finding that no business was prepared for hearing before him by the lawyers, and no jury summoned to try cases, returned somewhat disgusted to Oregon City, and was soon after relieved by the appointment of Hon. George H. Williams, as chief justice of the territory. He went back to his home in New York, where I believe he still lives [1894.]

I have referred to this almost forgotten history of the early days of the territorial government of Oregon to show the necessity that existed for a revision of the statutory laws of the territory. The uncertainty as to what laws were then in force, and the desire to be relieved from this condition of affairs was the principal reason which induced the legislative assembly to pass the act of January, 1853, providing for the election by that body of three commissioners to prepare a draft for a code of laws, to be submitted to the next legislature. In pursuance of this act, the legislative assembly elected the following commissioners in the order named: James K. Kelly, of Clackamas County, Reuben P. Boise, of Polk County, and Daniel R. Bigelow, of Thurston County.

Being first elected, I acted as chairman of the board, and notified the other commissioners of the time of our first meeting, which took place some time in March, 1853. We met in the council chamber of the legislative building, where all our subsequent meetings were held.

The first two or three days were occupied in discussing the general outline of our duties and the kind of code to be prepared. By common consent we agreed to accept the New York code of practice as the basis of our own, but with a notable exception in regard to proceedings in equity. Mr. Bigelow strongly insisted upon having no separate court of equity or of equity proceedings, but urged that we should follow the example of California in this respect. Mr. Boise and I differed from Mr. Bigelow. We contended that in the organic act of August 14, 1848, a separate system of equity proceedings was contemplated, wherein it is provided that "each district court or judge thereof shall appoint its clerk, _who shall be the register in chancery_": Act, August 14, 1848, § 9.

That it was so understood by the members of the first legislative assembly appears by the act of September 14, 1849, directing the mode of proceedings in chancery: See Hamilton Laws.

The system of equity jurisprudence and proceedings in equity adopted by the first code commissioners has now prevailed in Oregon for forty years, and during all that time I think has met the approbation of both bench and the bar.

Another thing agreed upon by the commissioners was that the code should be prepared so that it might be adopted by the legislative assembly in several acts instead of one, as was done in the Chapman Code in 1850. This was done in order to comply with the provisions of the organic law, which required that every act should embrace but one object.

These preliminaries being settled it was agreed that each commissioner should take one subject and prepare the draft for an act upon that particular branch of the law. During the preparation of these drafts the commissioners held frequent consultations, as often as once or twice a week, to discuss and agree upon the proper phraseology to be adopted, or arrangement of subject-matter in the proposed act.

It was agreed among us that Mr. Boise should prepare the act relating to executors and administrators, and also proceedings in the probate courts.

To Mr. Bigelow was assigned the duty of preparing the act relating to crimes and misdemeanors, and to regulate criminal proceedings. I undertook to prepare the code of civil procedure in actions at law and suits in equity.

These three subjects embraced the greater part of the laws which we undertook to prepare, and, after their completion, the remaining portion of our work was comparatively easy and brief. According to my recollection it was completed in the latter part of the summer or early fall of 1853. We prepared the draft for an entirely new code of statutory laws, with the single exception of the law relating to wills. This had been enacted by the legislative assembly in 1849, at its first session, the main features of it being a transcript from the Missouri statute on the same subject. As this was one of the first acts passed by our own legislation we adopted it in our draft with only a few verbal changes.

In the spring of 1853 Joseph G. Wilson, afterwards Judge Wilson of the supreme court, came to Oregon, and about May we employed him as our clerk to transcribe the drafts prepared by us, in order that they could be printed for the use of the legislative assembly at its next session in December. We caused about two hundred copies to be printed by Mr. Asahel Bush, the territorial printer, for that purpose. These were published in an unbound octavo volume, so that they could be readily separated into different bills for legislative use.

Soon after we entered upon the discharge of our duties as commissioners many of our political friends suggested the propriety of electing one or all of us members of the next legislative assembly, so that we could explain to the members or give any desired information to them concerning our work. We soon, however, learned that Congress had passed the act to organize the Territory of Washington, and this would necessarily prevent Mr. Bigelow from becoming a member of the Oregon legislative assembly.

Mr. Boise was nominated by the Democratic party as a candidate for member of the House of Representatives from Polk County. I was nominated by the same party as member of the Council, to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of Hon. A. L. Lovejoy, who had recently been appointed Postal Agent for Oregon by President Pierce. Both Mr. Boise and myself were elected on the first Monday in June, 1853.

The legislative assembly met on the first Monday in December, and after the respective houses were organized Mr. Boise was appointed chairman of the Judiciary Committee in the lower house, while I was appointed chairman of the same committee in the upper branch of the legislature. Of course, the burden of seeing the code properly passed rested with him and myself. We divided the draft which the code commissioners had prepared into proper bills, according to the subject-matter of each. Some of these bills were introduced into the House of Representatives by Mr. Boise, and others of them into the Council by myself. All we had to do was simply to preface an enacting clause to the bill as it had been printed by order of the commissioners, and to insert a section at the end of each bill declaring that the act should be in force from and after the first of May next. The reason these acts were made to take effect on May 1, 1854, was that there was no possibility of having them printed before that time. Indeed, there were no facilities then existing in Oregon for either printing or binding the volume containing the statutes comprised in the first code. Mr. Bush, the territorial printer, made arrangements to have them printed and bound in New York. I do not now remember how many copies of the code were ordered to be printed, but certainly several hundred. About two hundred of these were sent to Oregon by way of Panama and arrived safely some time in the summer of 1854. The remaining copies of that edition were sent around Cape Horn by a sailing vessel. These never reached Oregon. They were either shipwrecked or so injured that they were worthless. At the next session of the legislative assembly, commencing in December, 1854, that body ordered a new edition to be printed to supply the place of the copies which were lost at sea, and that edition was printed in New York in 1855. It included the acts which were passed at that session with those of the code adopted at the preceding session of the legislature. This accounts for the printing of two editions--one in 1854 and another in 1855.

Between May 1, 1854, when the code took effect and the arrival of the first copies of the printed volume from New York, we were somewhat troubled for want of evidence of existing statutes, and the judges and lawyers used in the courts copies of the printed draft reported by the code commissioners. A few of these unbound volumes still remained and such changes as had been made by the legislature were noted in them. Some of the lawyers even went to the trouble of having them indexed so as to be more convenient for reference and citation. When, however, the first copies of the code arrived from New York these unbound copies of the code commissioners' draft were thrown aside. One of them I kept as a time-honored curiosity for many years.

Although the _Oregon Code_, as it was then termed, has since been revised two or three times to adapt it to a state, instead of a territorial government, yet in its main features it has remained substantially the same as when prepared by the first code commissioners and adopted by the legislative assembly of 1853-54.

The commissioners who prepared the first code of Oregon are all still living [1894], but nearly all the members of the legislature that adopted it are gone. Besides Judge Boise and myself I can think of no one of them who is now living.

JAMES K. KELLY.

_September 25, 1894._

A PIONEER RAILROAD BUILDER.

Responding to a request for an account of the operations of Dr. D. S. Baker as a promoter and financier of transportation enterprises, and particularly of the Walla Walla and Columbia River Railway, I herewith submit some scraps of history.

Dr. Dorsey S. Baker was born in Wabash County, Illinois, October 18, 1823. He studied the profession of medicine at the Philadelphia Medical College. Crossed the Plains to Oregon with the emigration of 1848, and went to California in 1849. The practice of his profession was remunerative, but his strong predilection for business led him to abandon a profession always distasteful.

He engaged in the hardware business in Portland in the early fifties, and subsequently built a flouring mill at Oakland, in Southern Oregon, and it was his boast that he brought to Oregon the first pair of mill stones ever used in the State. In 1861 he removed to Walla Walla, then a trading post adjacent to the army garrison established some years previously. He engaged in the mercantile business, being associated with William Stephens. The firm name was D. S. Baker & Co., afterward changed to Baker & Boyer, when his brother-in-law, John F. Boyer, was taken into the firm. The firm did a large business with the stockmen and settlers, and in outfitting miners and packers flocking by thousands to the Oro Fino and Florence mines, and later to Boisé, Idaho, and Montana. Sales were large and profits good, and the firm of Baker & Boyer flourished.

Doctor Baker was a man of keen business judgment and great foresight. It is probably not an over statement to say that the State of Washington has not numbered among her citizens any that approached him in financial ability. In 1862 he became associated with the late Senator Corbett and Captain Ankeny in the steamboat business. They built the steamer Spray, which plied between Celilo and Lewiston. The company had boats on what was known as the Middle River, between The Dalles and the Cascades, and also on the Lower River between the Cascades and Portland. They built a wooden tramway portage on the Washington side at the cascades, using mules as motive power. The remains of this tramway could be seen from the opposite shore within recent years. This company's line was run in opposition to that of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company, to which it finally sold.

The portage of the cascades, being the key to the situation, was the bone of contention. The Oregon Steam Navigation Company had procured the passage of a bill through Congress giving them what they claimed to be an exclusive right of way over the cascade portage, and this question not having been at that time adjudicated, Doctor Baker's company sold out as above recited.

Doctor Baker's next transportation enterprise was the building of a narrow gauge railroad from Walla Walla to Wallula. He organized a company under the corporate name of the Walla Walla and Columbia River Railroad Company in 1871. Among the original stockholders were Doctor Baker, John F. Boyer, Paine Brothers & Moore, B. L. Sharpstein, Charles Moore, B. F. Stone, William Stephens, William O. Green--all residents of Walla Walla. Doctor Baker was, however, the capitalist, and it was his money, his energy and unflagging perseverance that carried the enterprise to a successful consummation. To build thirty miles of railroad under conditions then existing was a great undertaking. Ties and timber for bridges had to be obtained from the head waters of the Yakima River, an untried stream.

A logging camp was established in the winter of 1872--a Wisconsin lumberman named Tarbox being placed in charge. An attempt was made to drive logs to the mouth of the Yakima the following spring, but the water proved insufficient and the log drive was hung up. Another expedition was sent to the woods the following winter, in charge of D. W. Small, afterward a well known resident and business man of Walla Walla. He succeeded, by incredible effort, in bringing out the logs. A mill was erected on the banks or east bank of the Columbia above the old town of Wallula, where the ties were sawed, and it was at this point that the first railroad construction in Washington, other than the portage road of the cascades, was begun. Two small dummy or camel-back engines were bought in Pennsylvania and shipped out via San Francisco and Portland. Freight on them from Portland to Wallula was about $450 each. The first ten miles of the road was built with wooden stringers six by six, laid on cross ties. It was Doctor Baker's belief that these ties would last for a few years, and it was his intention to then replace them with T rails, but in this he was doomed to disappointment. When construction had reached the ten-mile post, the wooden rails at the river end were worn out. He then bought ten miles of strap iron and continued construction. This also proved a failure. Finally, convinced in the rough school of actual experience that T rail only would serve his purpose, he ordered, through Allen & Lewis of Portland, twenty miles of 26-pound rail. This was purchased in Wales and was brought around the Horn in a clipper ship coming to the Columbia River for a cargo of wheat. From Portland the rail was shipped by the Oregon Steam Navigation Company line to Wallula. This involved five handlings--two at the cascade portage, two at The Dalles, and one at Wallula. The cost of the rails and the freight were both very great. When the road reached a point ten miles out from the Columbia it began to haul wheat, the teamsters being glad to avoid the long, hard pull over the sandy roads.

When the road had reached Whitman Station, six miles west of Walla Walla, Doctor Baker's available funds were exhausted, and he would not borrow. He thereupon announced that its terminus would remain there until the earnings sufficed to complete it to Walla Walla. The citizens, fearing a rival town would spring up at Whitman, promptly raised and donated $25,000 to secure the continuance of the road to Walla Walla.

In the inception of the enterprise, Doctor Baker had asked Walla Walla County, through the board of county commissioners, to guarantee the interest on a proposed issue of bonds, to be sold to provide funds for the construction of the road, offering in return to permit the commissioners to fix the rate for carrying grain to the Columbia, provided only the rate should not be less than $3 per ton. The question was submitted to a vote, and rejected by a decided majority. Doctor Baker then said: "I will build the road without your assistance, and you must allow me to fix the rate." The rate was $5 per ton from Walla Walla to the river. There was an additional charge of fifty cents for transfer to the steamboat. The Oregon Steam Navigation Company's charge was $6 per ton, and there was a wharfage charge at Portland of 50 cents, making a total of $12 per ton, or thirty-six cents per bushel from Walla Walla to Portland. The charge of $5 per ton seems now a pretty stiff rate, but teamsters in those days sometimes charged $12 per ton for the same haul, although the usual charge was $6. They could not always handle the crop, and the price fluctuated.

During the discouraging period of construction few people believed Doctor Baker would ever complete the road. His friends thought he would fail utterly, and predicted that his fortune would be lost, but the Doctor knew better than most the wealth of the country's undeveloped resources, and with a faith that nothing could shake, and with a determination that grew stronger as each obstacle presented itself, continued the work of construction, staking his last dollar on the success of his enterprise. No mortgage was ever placed on the property during his ownership, and no lien or debt encumbered it. It paid unheard of dividends, and was sold at a price greatly exceeding its cost. The Oregon Steam Navigation Company bought six-sevenths of the stock in 1877, Doctor Baker remaining as president. During this ownership a branch line was built from Whitman to a point known as Blue Mountain Station, in Umatilla County, Oregon, to tap the wheat fields of that county.

Still later, on the first day of July, 1879, the road was included in a sale made by the Oregon Steam Navigation Company to Henry Villard. The track was changed to a standard gauge, and became a part of the present Oregon Railway and Navigation system.

Many amusing stories are told of experiences in traveling over this line, known as Doctor Baker's "rawhide road." Wheat was hauled on flat cars. A box car, with seats along the sides, originally did duty as a passenger coach. To the traveling public this was known as "the hearse," but no serious accident ever occurred on the line. It was strictly a daylight road, Doctor Baker persistently refusing to allow trains to be run at night.

H. W. Fairweather, who took charge of the road after its purchase by the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company, still tells of some of his early experiences. At that time the law required a printed schedule of freight rates to be posted in each car. Looking about in vain, he finally found the required notice posted in the roof of the car in such a position that to read it the reader must lie on his back. The newspapers have another story regarding General Sherman's ride over this road. In 1877 the General had ridden through Montana and Idaho, examining the country with reference to the proper location of military posts, and had reached Walla Walla on his way to the coast. He is said to have made application for a special train to take him to Wallula, which Doctor Baker refused to furnish, remarking that there was a train load of wheat going out during the afternoon, upon which the General could take passage, and that availing himself of the opportunity, this aggregation of military glory bestrode a sack of wheat, and thus mounted, was dispatched on his journey. The fact was that he rode in a passenger coach attached to the freight train, but perhaps it is hardly worth while to spoil so good a story.

Some years after the sale of the Walla Walla and Columbia River line, Doctor Baker built another narrow gauge to connect with a timber flume bringing lumber and wood to Walla Walla. This line was fifteen miles in length and extended to the town of Dixie in the foot hills of the Blue Mountains. It did a considerable business in transporting wheat. This was also sold to the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company, which company still operates it as a narrow gauge.

This was Doctor Baker's last undertaking, his health having failed soon after the completion of this road.

When Henry Villiard first met Doctor Baker, he said to him: "You were a bold man to build into the lion's jaws," refering to the fact that the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company controlled the outlet down the Columbia, but Doctor Baker had formulated a maxim, "He who owns the approaches to the river owns the river," by which he meant that the business of the boats originated on the railroad and the boats were dependent on the railroad.

One of Doctor Baker's biographers has said of him, "He was the self-reliant architect of his own fortune." Perhaps no man in the Northwest has left his name more completely entwined into the history of his chosen country and city than has Dorsey S. Baker, who cast his lot with Walla Walla forty years ago, whose fortunes were the fortunes of the town and whose successes were the successes of the place he called his "home."

He died at Walla Walla July 5, 1888. An imposing granite monument, in the City Cemetery, emblematic of his rugged virtues and strength of character, marks his last resting place.

MILES C. MOORE.
_Walla Walla, Wash., August 7, 1903._

FROM WALLA WALLA TO SAN FRANCISCO.

By CAPT. JOHN MULLAN, U. S. A.

From the Washington _Statesman_ (Walla Walla) of November 29 and December 6, 1862.

For those who have not made the journey direct from Walla Walla, through the agricultural heart of Oregon, and across the mountains through the mining region of northern California, there is much of interest and pleasure; and though the trip should be fraught with much personal discomfort, there is much to repay the traveler in the collection of statistics, and in seeing a region where the wilderness of yesterday has to-day given place to homes, where material prosperity, at least, arrest the attention of the traveler at every mile of the journey. The mode of conveyance from Walla Walla to Wallula is by stages that run daily between these points, and where the journey is of six hours and a cost of $5 brings you to the banks of the Columbia, whence you take steamers for the Des Chutes Landing. The improvements along the banks of the Walla Walla, in the shape of new and additional enclosures for farming purposes, during the last two years, have been many, and mark with unerring certainty the future of the Walla Walla country, as the distributing center for a radius of three hundred miles of country, now fast developing in all the elements of material, social, and political prosperity. It has more than once occurred to me that the Walla Walla River, by a system of locks, could be advantageously used as a line of connection between Wallula and Walla Walla, and one needs but see the long line of wagons and pack trains, heavily freighted for the interior, to become convinced that either this or some more rapid and economical means is positively demanded, in order to connect the heart of the valley with the Columbia River. Economy at the present would argue in favor of converting the river into a canal, but the prospective wants of the country are much more in favor of a railroad connection. For a distance of eighteen miles below Walla Walla the nature of the face of the country is eminently suited in its present condition for laying a railroad track; and thence to Wallula the character of work being either excavation in sand, clay, or soft rock, will enable a road to be built at economical figures. The Touchet and the crossings of the Walla Walla River will require heavy bridges but good abutment sites are to be had, and the streams not being subject to overflow, no impediment will ever be had from this cause. It could be safely stated that a capital of $600,000 would construct and equip this road, and when it is known that not less than one hundred thousand tons of freight, at $20 per ton, and ten thousand passengers, at $5 each, pass over this line annually, it does seem strange that capitalists are not disposed to move in the matter in a practical shape. It is a project in which every citizen could become interested. The farmers could supply all the ties needed; the mills are fully capacitated to supply all the lumber demanded, and the surplus population from the mines and those out of employment could advantageously supply all the labor needed in its construction; and with the valley of Walla Walla to supply every necessary of life, to me it is anything but an Utopian idea, and I feel warranted in believing that another twelve months will not roll around before the matter is taken up with a view to its practical execution. The teams now freighting on the road will not necessarily be thrown out of employment, but the increasing development of the interior will cause them simply to seek new lines upon which to transport this same freight after the railroad shall have deposited it at the city of Walla Walla, which nature has constituted a commercial center, and from which will be distributed to every point of the compass the merchandise which their wants demand.

Reaching the Columbia at Wallula one is pleased with the commercial character which this point is fast assuming. Freight strewn along the levee for half a mile--stores erected, commission houses plying their vocations, and everything giving an earnest of a prosperous future. This site has doubtless many advantages as a commercial point; but so long as men shall desire pleasant homes,--where the eye is as desirous of drinking in draughts of pleasure and beauty as the pocket is of accumulating wealth,--where mills, farms, gardens, and pleasant enclosures can be had,--where the products of the fields are garnered with a short transportation to a ready market--just so long will Walla Walla and not Wallula be the chief emporium and point of business for the interior, and for supplying the more immediate demands of the Walla Walla Valley. That Wallula will always be a point where commission houses, a few stores, and one or more hotels will always be supported, no one can doubt; but looking toward a large and growing city with all the pleasant appurtenances that make life happy, I can not but conceive that its growth must become circumscribed within the above limits.

We took passage on the pleasant steamer Tenino, and in eight hours were landed at Celilo, a point some two miles below the Des Chutes Landing, where the Oregon Steam Navigation Company have already formed the nucleus of a thriving village. The freshet of the past season has strewn the banks of the Columbia with cord wood in abundance--which commands $10 per cord. The John Day's wood yard, however, is the chief depot for fuel. Here, too, one notices the marked progress that is daily making its onward march to the interior. Here we saw two steamers building, one already launched, owned by Captain Gray, and still another at Celilo, of large dimensions. There is no doubt we are far in advance, in point of boldness and daring, in the question of river navigation on the Columbia, of those similarly engaged on the eastern waters; and the success which has thus far attended the efforts of those who dared to move in the navigation of the Upper Columbia, has only emboldened them to greater efforts, and it is no dream to feel that the day is not far distant when the Snake to the American Falls, and the stretches of the Columbia from Wallula to Fort Colville, and the Clark's Fork, from Park's Crossing to Horse Plain, will all be tested by steam and thus made tributary to the growing wants of trade and travel.

The fare from Wallula to Celilo is $10. A ride of three hours brings us to The Dalles--which point, too, is showing visible signs of a healthy improvement; and the increasing trade to the mines of John Day's and Powder rivers is destined to make it a point of great commercial import. Whether the idea entertained by Mr. Newell, and other men at The Dalles, of a direct trade from San Francisco to The Dalles, shall ever be realized, is not so easy to be determined. It certainly has a favorable location for the full consummation of such an idea--and we all know what magic results gold can be made to produce, and without desire of detriment to Portland, I should heartily desire to see such a happy result attained. The will to do it, and the means with which to do it, are the only two essentials needed; and if these are had, it will be done--and the sooner the two former are ascertained the sooner will the commercial idea (grand in its conception and pregnant with so many grand results) become a matter of past history. The railroad company have resumed the work of grading and ballasting, and it is the desire of the company to have the cars running by the first of next May. The roadbed is prepared for some five or six miles out from the city, and the iron track laid for half a mile. My own convictions are that the railroad, eventually, is to be more beneficial to Walla Walla than The Dalles, but that the latter is also to derive much benefit no one will doubt.

We found the line of opposition steamers running, which, having the tendency to reduce the rates of freight and travel, was a thing that the commercial and traveling public were but too glad to see. The passage from The Dalles to Portland was only one dollar. That competition on this immense line will be fraught with healthy results no one will doubt. The Oregon Steam Navigation Company, as the pioneers on an untested river, do certainly merit much credit for the bold hazard they so successfully made, and merit reward as such; and though many complaints (founded in justice, doubtless,) have been urged, still the history of all monopolies has shown a greater degree of extortion than I have heard urged against this company. But so long as the Columbia River shall remain an open sea I do heartily desire to see competition seek here a channel of investment--and which it will always do so long as it is found to pay. All philanthropic ideas of "parties desiring to serve the public, without being remunerated," will find no believers among the merchants and travelers of the Upper Columbia. The merchant and traveler will take that line where the rates are the lowest and accommodation the best, irrespective of the owners of the line or those who pioneered them through to a success. At least this is the history of the commercial past, and I see no reason why it should not be the history of the commercial future. Just so soon as capitalists find that putting steamers on the upper Columbia is a paying investment, steamers will be put on; and, unless the capitalist is so convinced, it will be a difficult task to cause him to turn his capital into such a channel.

This age is, preëminently, an _utilitarian_ one; in which facts and figures are, particularly, the weapons with which the capitalist wages his financial war. Armed with these, his victory is in his own hands; not so armed, it is in those of some one else. The portage of the Cascades, heretofore so great a bugbear in the trip from The Dalles to Portland, is now made in a brief hour on the cars, without detriment or danger. An extra dollar for riding on the cars is charged, though, if you prefer it, you can walk on the road in nearly the same time, free of cost. No traveler passes over this portage without awarding to Colonel Ruckle every praise for the bold prosecution of his bold project, and no one begrudges him the ample reward which he is to-day deriving in token of his past labors. This portage is on the Oregon side; but it is to be hoped that the difficulties on the Washington side, between Bradford and Bush, will be speedily adjusted, so that the steam cars, now running on a portion of the track already completed, shall connect the two termini of the portage, and thus reduce the time of travel within the minimum limits. The post at Fort Cascades is now abandoned, nor does it seem at present necessary to hold it under garrison, so far as the Indians are concerned. The question of a foreign war, however, would render it a key-point of marked importance.

A run of seven hours brings us to Portland. I fear, from the present appearance of Vancouver, that all chances of commercial rivalry with Portland have been banished. Capital is certainly not seeking it at present as a point of investment. The freshet has left its marks of devastation along the levee and lower portions of the city, and it will require much capital and energy to reinstate Vancouver in the position it occupied two years since; and if the idea of making The Dalles a large commercial emporium be ever consumated, I can not conceive that Vancouver will ever occupy a position of more than secondary importance, unless the western slopes of the Cascades should open up a gold-bearing region. In such an event Vancouver would necessarily become a point of fixed commercial importance; but so long as the permanency which now marks Portland shall continue to be maintained, and the question on the part of the citizens of The Dalles to make it a commercial depot shall continue to be agitated, so long will Vancouver stand the chance of being kept in the background. On the Lower River we traveled to Portland in company with quite a a number of emigrants destined to Puget Sound, and they all regretted that they could not have gone from Walla Walla to the Sound by land. This is a matter in which every citizen of Washington Territory is more or less interested. The road opened in 1853, by the Natchess Pass, has fallen into such a state, that, unless repaired and kept so, it will be useless for all practical purposes of emigrants for the Sound from the States. I understand that the Packwood trail is deemed by many preferable to the Natchess route; but whether we shall have a route via the Natchess, Snoqualmie, Packwood, or any other pass, is a matter about which those truly interested in seeing the Sound section brought directly in communication with the interior, will not fall out. The citizens of the Sound need a good road across the Cascades, direct from Wallula. The valley of the Yakima will doubtless give us a good line, and then across to the Wenatchee, via Packwood's Pass, either into Olympia or Steilacoom. The long interval which has elapsed since the Natchess Pass was traveled has naturally caused the line to fall out of repair. The emigrants who desire to locate on the Sound need a line by which they can carry their wagons, and over which drive their stock, and not be driven to take the steamers down to Monticello, thus increasing costs so heavy that it seems impracticable. This is a matter of great importance, not only for emigrants, but in order to bring the citizens of the Sound, by the most direct trade and associations, with those resident on the eastern slopes of the Cascades,--and is one of such importance that it is to be hoped that the attention of Congress will be duly called to it. Military necessity calls for such a line, and a military road should be so located and constructed.