Page:Centennial History of Oregon 1811-1912, Volume 1.djvu/312

190 district which resulted in the choice of P. G. Stewart for district judge for three years; Fred Prigg for two years, and F. W. Pettygrove for one year; and William Holmes was elected sheriff for Clackamas county.

"The house then proceeded to the election of district judges for Clatsop district, which resulted in the choice of W. T. Perry for three years; Robert Shortess for two years and Calvin Tibbetts for one year; and Thomas Owens was duly elected sheriff for Clatsop county.

"The house proceeded to the election of district judges for the district of Vancouver, which resulted in the choice of James Douglas for three years; M. T. Simmons for two years, and Charles Forrest for one year. John R. Jackson was elected sheriff for Vancouver district. The house adjourned to 9 o'clock tomorrow morning."

Governor Abernethy sent in his annual message but it has been lost, as well as his first message. So far in this history of the legislature bills on all sorts of subjects had been proposed, but very few of them adopted; and very few of these old provisional laws can now be found. To determine the character of the legislation, we have to depend on the journal of the legislature printed in the "Archives."

It is to the honor of W. H. Gray, whose daughter, Mrs. Jacob Kamm, resides in Portland, and other descendants at Astoria, that he prepared and introduced, December 13, 1845, into the first legislative body west of the Rocky mountains, the first law to provide for the education of all children by common public schools.

On December 16th, Mr. McClure introduced a bill to provide for postoffices and post roads. On the same day the committee of the whole reported a bill to authorize Samuel K. Barlow to construct the wagon road over the mountains south of Mt. Hood, and which is the same road the Portland automobilists are now using for "joy rides" to the mountains. A large part of the immigration to Oregon passed over the road to reach Portland and Oregon City.

On Friday, December 19, W. G. T'Vault was elected postmaster-general of Oregon. T'Vault, "Old T" as everybody called him, was a rare gem. Being a native of Kentucky, and coming from Arkansas, he had all the vernacular of the colored population, with an odd cargo of miscellaneous information and a limited amount of book education. Dryden might have had "Old T" in mind when he wrote:

He had an ambition to be an editor, and did conduct several newspaper enterprises, which were more entertaining to his fellow craftsmen even than to his patrons. Punctuation of his editorials was one of his strong points. And in a brilliant description of a gorgeous sunset in Rogue river valley, he attempted to tell his readers that he was seated on the hill back of the old town of Jacksonville, and made the opening sentence read: "Seated on the eminence of an evening, etc." All his exchanges copied the line with ribald remarks about the "Eminence of that evening," but fortunate for the comfort of Ore-