Page:Centennial History of Oregon 1811-1912, Volume 1.djvu/483



PHE NEW YORK

Tliis was the bugiimiiig oi' the great sahiioii industry of tlie (Joluiiibia river, antedating Hume, Kinney, Cook and others, thirty-five or forty years — but it was the last of AVyeth's city — the ship got about half a eargo of fish under great diftieulties; MeLoughlin discouraged trading with Wyeth, as he was com- l>elled to do by his company, and the whole scheme proved a failure. After the island was abandoned by Wyeth, the Hudson's Bay Company established a dairy down there under the care of a French Canadian named Jean Baptist Sauvie, which gave the modern name to the island, and started the dairy indus- try where it has flourished ever since.

Another city was platted opposite Oregon City in 1843, by Robert Moore who came to Oregon from Pennsylvania. J\Ioore named his city "Linn," in lionor of Senator Linn of Missouri, the friend of Oregon. A few substantial buildings were erected ou that side of the river and maintained a precarious existence until December, 1861. when they were all washed away by the great tiood in the Willamette.

But Moore was not to enjoy a monopoly of townsite advantages opposite the original Falls City, for one. Hugh Burns, proceeded to lay out another city below that of Moore's which he named Multnomah City, and commenced to build it up by starting a blacksmith shop and operating it himself.

Four years after Moore's venture. Lot Whitcomb, a man of push and enter- prise, from the state of Illinois, who built the first steamboat in Oregon, uniting with Henderson Luelling, a founder of the fruit industry in Oregon, and Captain Joseph Kellogg, a prominent steamboat man of later days, united their capital and enterprise to build a city that should eclipse all others, and founded the town of ]\lilwaukie — which is still prospering.

And as we float down the Willamette in our townsite canoe, we come to the town of St. Johns, laid out in about 1850 by James John, where he erected and operated in a very quiet way a country store for many years. But the tide of prosperity finally swung around to St. Johns but not until after its founder had passed on to the city beyond this life, and now St. Johns is the most pros- perous suburb of Portland.

And across the river, a little below St. Johns, we find the towns of Linnton and Springville ; Linnton being planned and platted in 1843 by M. M. McCarver and Peter H. Burnett. JlcCarver was a city builder, somewhat of the air castle style. He was so sure that Linnton would be the great city of the Pacific Coast, that he declared the only thing in the way of that result would be the difficulty in getting enough nails to the townsite in good season. McCarver made nothing of Linnton ; and then went over to Puget Sound, and along with Pettygrove, one of the founders of Portland, laid out the city of Port Townsend, and early pulling up his stakes there, went to old Tacoma and made his final effort in city building.

Continuing on down the Willamette slough, our townsite canoe pulls up to the south bank of the river near the mouth of Milton creek, where we find the re- mains of a city started there in the year 1846, by Captain Nathaniel Crosby, and named Milton. But whether the creek gave the name to the town or the town named the creek. Captain Crosby left no clue. It had a saw mill and a small population, and a convenient boat landing, but was finally over-