Page:Centennial History of Oregon 1811-1912, Volume 1.djvu/477

 visions of these ordinances, shall be entitled to the same recourse against trespass as in other cases by law provided.

Art. 3. No person shall be entitled to hold such a claim upon city or town sites, extensive water privileges, or other situations, necessary for the transaction of mercantile or manufacturing operations, and to the detriment of the community—provided that nothing in these laws shall be so constructed as to affect any claim of any mission of a religious character, made previous to this lime 1o extent of not more than six miles square.

Approved by the people, July 5, 1843.

Under this law was taken the titles to the land on which Oregon City, and the City of Portland were taken, and the titles thus initiated were afterwards by Chief Justice Williams of Oregon Territory, U. S. District Justice Deady, and the Supreme Court of the United States affirmed to be good and sufficient titles to the land. As there were no public land or other surveys provided for at that early day, the settlers had to take and describe their lands just as the early settlers in Western Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Kentucky, took up their lands ; that is by "Tomahawk" claim surveys. When a man went out and selected his land he took a light axe, or the Indian "tomahawk" and blazed on the trees a line of marks, or "blazes," around his land claim. In the prairie lands'be must plant posts at the corners and properly mark them. And these descriptions were recorded in the Provisional Government land records. Some of them are indescribably non-descriptive. Here follows a description of one of these original claims in Washington county twelve miles from the City of Portland, which includes a tract of land now owned by the author of this history.

"Beginning at a point near Reasoner's old blacksmith shop near the mouth of a small kanyon, thence up that kanyon to the head, thence to an oak tree blaized on both sides with a T cut in the north side blaize, thence on a strate line with the head of said kanyon an oak tree to a point intersecting the east line of George Richardson or William Grahams land claim thence south to a point due west of a line that divides the land claim of James Hicklin and Darius Taylor, thence east to where it intersects the meridian line and thence to mouth of said kanyon to place of beginning, being the land claim of Darius Taylor."

Settling the land question was the first and greatest work of the Provisional Government. Then everybody went to work upon their lands, and to a great extent forgot or forgave their disputes about a government. The land law pioved to be the great peace-maker of the colony, and showed that the state buikl- ers had wi-ought even ^nser than thej' knew. For, as soon as this law M'as adopted, every Canadian that had voted against any kind of a government rushed to the Provisional land office to record his claim, or to stake out a new claim; and by so doing he recognized the Provisional Government and from this interest in the land became a supporter of the government.

The land law having practically, for the present at least, settled and quieted political discussion, there was nothing left to do but go to work, and this the im-