Page:Centennial History of Oregon 1811-1912, Volume 1.djvu/473



THE CENTKXNIAI. IllSTOKV OF OKKOON ;ji;3

pla)i.s. They .snceeedod tlirougli false anil iiialiciuus represciitaliou.s by 'I'hiirstou to Cougress, in having a clause inserted in the Oregon donation land law of Sep- tember 27, 1850, giving Abernetliy Island to Ahcrnethy as assignee of the Ore- gon Milling company, but under another name, and giving to the territory of Oregon the rest of Dr. IMcLougiilin's land claim, the proceeds from its disposal to be used for the establishment and endowment of a university. Almost all of Dr. :McLoughlin 's wealth was iu this claim and in the mills and other buildings situated on it. Dr. McLoughlin sought redress from CongTess, but he was un- successful. While he was not actually ousted, he could not move nor sell his mills and other improvements. It resulted in his practical bankruptcy. He died at Oregon City, September 3, 1S57, a broken-hearted man, the victim of malice, mendacity and ingratitude. He was buried in the churchyard of St. John's (Catholic) church at Oregon City, where his body has lain ever since. In 1862, the legislature of the state of Oregon restored to Dr. McLoughlin 's heirs all of the part of his land claim given to it by the donation land law.

In 1S4G, Pope Gregory XVI., in appreciation of Dr. ::\If-Loughliirs liigh <-iiar- acter and his humanity, made him a knight of St. Gregory the Great, of civil grade.

It is one test of Dr. McLoughlin "s high character and of his true worth that now, fifty-three years after his death his name is venei-ated in Oregon and his memory kept alive, not only by Oregon pioneers and their descendants, but by the people of Oregon as a whole. His full length portrait is hung in the place of honor in the senate chamber of the state capitol among the portraits of former governors of Oregon. His reputation is that of Oregon's greatest citizen, its first ruler whose autocracy was necessaiy, but kindly, beneficent and efficient, a friend of the poor and distressed, and the savior of the early Oregon pioneers. By common consent, without dispute and without jealousy, he is known as "The Father of Oregon."

FREDERICK V.