Page:Centennial History of Oregon 1811-1912, Volume 1.djvu/487

 ars ago.

Portland gave its support to the road that vviis to run west into Washington county, and gave notliing to the road that was to run south along- the Willamette river. And years ago Portland built superb nuieadam wagon roads out to the Washington eounty line, and would have gone further west with them if the county line could have been pushed back.

now THE FARMEltS ST.VRTED

The settlers at the little river cities got comfortably started sooner than the farmers in the interior, for there was a sawmill at Oregon City, another at Mil- waukie, and still another at Vancouver before the country people could get any building materials, except what they hewed and sawed out by hand labor. The following description of the home of Joseph Gervais which was near where the town of Gervais is located, gives a good idea of the shifts and contrivances of the early settlers.

Gervais had substantial buildings, and LaBonte's description of his house and bam is very interesting. The house was about 18 by 24, on the ground, and was constructed of square hewed logs, of rather large size. There were two floors, one below, and one above, both of which were laid with long planks or puncheons of white fir, and probably adzed otf to a proper level. The roof was made of poles as rafters, and the shingling was of carefully laid strips or sheets of ash bark, imbricated. Upon these were cross planks to hold them in place. There were three windows on the lower floor of about 30 by 36 inches in dimen- sion, and for lights were covered with fine thinly dressed deer skins. There was also a large fireplace, built of sticks tied together with buckskin thongs, and covered with a stiff plaster made of clay and grass. The barn was of good size, being about 40 by 50 feet on the ground, and was of the peculiar construction of a number of buildings on early French Prairie. There were posts set up at the corners and at the requisite intervals between in which tenon grooves had been run by use of an augur and chisel, and into these were let white fir split planks about three inches thick to compose the walls. The roof was shingled in the same manner as the house, with pieces of ash bark. There was a young orchard upon the place of small apple trees obtained from Fort Vancouver.

The orchard mentioned here was the first in Oregon; but the trees were seedlings, and from seedlings at Vancouver where trees had been grown from apple seed brought out by Hudson's Bay Company clerks from London. The Gervais farm was the first in the Willamette valley proper. Prior to the Ger- vais location, Ettienne Lucier had cultivated a tract of land where East Port- land is built; and prior to that, Nathan Winship of Boston had attempted a location at Oak Point on the south side of the Columbia river about forty miles above Astoria in 1810, and had cleared and spaded up a tract of land for a garden and planted the seeds; and this was the very first attempt to cultivate the soil for any purpose in all the territory of Old Oregon. The next year, 1811, Gabrielle Franchere in the month of May planted twelve shriveled up potatoes that had come out to Oregon from New York in a ship around Cape Horn, and from which he raised 119 good potatoes, and from this start fifty bushels of potatoes were produced in 1813, thus giving Old Astoria the honor of starting the potato business in Oregon. In the year 1826, John McLoughlin planted at