Page:Centennial History of Oregon 1811-1912, Volume 1.djvu/271



CHAPTER VIII 183-t-18-16

THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT — A COUNTRY WITHOUT LAWS OR CIVIL GOVERNORS —

THE SCHEMING OF RIVAL SECTS AND INTERESTS THE GREAT WORK PERFORMED

BY THE PIONEERS — THE HEROIC AGE OP OREGON.

The organization of the Provisional Government at Champoeg on May 2nd, 18i3, has come to be regarded in Oregon very much as the Declaration of Inde- pendence adopted on July 4th, 1776, is regarded throughout the Nation. For fifty years this remarkable event received no public recognition although its or- ganization was a part of the records of the State ; and was known only to the oldest pioneers as a veritable fact, and to others as a matter of history.

By the passage of a resolution at a meeting of its board of directors on December 16, 1899, the Oregon Historical Society authorized its Committee on Memorials to identifj' and mark with a stone monument the site of the organiza- tion of the Provisional Government at Champoeg. Gov. T. T. Geer, at the request of Lewis B. Cox, Chairman of the Committee on Memorials of this Society, secured an appropriation of three hundred dollars at the session of the legislature in 1900, with which to defray the expense of a small stone monument. On May 3d, 1900, accompanied by Francois Xavier Matthieu, the only survivor of the notable meeting of fifty-seven years before. Gov. Geer, with the aid of I\Ir. Matthieu and George H. Ilimes, Secretary of the Oregon Pioneer Association, identified the site and marked it. Afterwards the owners of the premises deeded a small piece of ground to the Oregon Historical Society in trust for the State, a contract for the monument was made, and on May 2, 1901, it was unveiled in the presence of several thousand people. Judge Charles B. Bellinger, vice- president of the Oregon Historical Society, presided. Gov. Geer made an intro- ductory address, Harvey W. Scott delivered an historical address. Rev. Harvey K. nines, D. D., made an address on the "Missionary Element in the Making of Oregon," and Hon. John Minto, a pioneer of 1844, gave an address on "The Relation of the American Settlers and Mountain Men to the Provisional Govern- ment. ' '

Since 1901 there has been an annual celeliration at Champoeg, and with each recurrence of the event a number of persons became deeply impressed with its historical importance and imbued with the determination to secure sufficient ground adjoining the monument for a state park. Through the personal efforts of Mr. Joseph Buchtel, beginning six years ago, aided by Mr. Matthieu and others, tliis has finally^ eventuated in the purchase of the land to be held in perpetuity by the state as a memorial of the founding of American principles