Page:Centennial History of Oregon 1811-1912, Volume 1.djvu/523



FOUNDING OF PORTLAND—TOWNSITE PROPRIETORS—FIRST TEACHERS, PREACHERS, DOCTORS AND LAWYERS—FIRST STEAMBOATS AND THEIR BUILDERS.

After the native red man, according to all reliable evidence, the first white man to come upon the Portland townsite and say, ' ' This is my land, here will I build my hut, here will I make my home, ' ' was William Overton, a young man from the state of Tennessee, who landed there from an Indian canoe in 1843, and claimed the land for his own. He had not cleared a rod square of land; he had not even a cedar bark shed to protect him from the "Oregon mist," when one day on the return trip from Vancouver to Oregon City, he invited his fellow passenger, A. L. Lovejoy, to step ashore with him and see his land claim, which he did. The two men landed at the bank of the river as near as could be located afterwards, about where the foot of Washington street strikes the river, and scrambled up the bank as best they could, to find themselves in an unbroken forest—literally "the continuous woods, where rolls the Oregon." The only evidence of pre-occupation by any human being, was a camping place used by the Indians along the bank of the river ranging from where Alder street strikes the water, up to Salmon street. This was a convenient spot for the Indian canoes to tie up on their trips between Vancouver and Oregon City, and the brush had been cut away and burned up, leaving an open space of an acre or so.

On this occasion, Lovejoy and Overton made some examinations of the land back from the river, finding the soil good and the tract suitable for settlement and cultivation if the dense growth of timber was removed. Overton was penniless and unable to pay even the trifling fees exacted by the Provisional Government for filing claims for land, or getting it surveyed, and then and there proposed to Lovejoy if he would advance the money to pay these expenses, he should have a half interest in the land claim—a mile square of land. Mr. Lovejoy had not exercised his right to take land, and the proposition appealed to him. Overton had not thought of a townsite use for the laud and did not present that view of the subject. But the quick eye of Lovejoy took notice of the fact, that there was deep water in front of the land, and that ships had tied up at that shore, and so he accepted Overton's proposition at once, and became a half owner in the Overton land claim; and the Portland townsite proposition was born right then and there in the brain of Amos Lawrence Lovejoy; and making him in reality and fact the

Following up this bargain and joint tenancy in this piece of wild land, Lovejoy and Overton made preparations for surveying the tract, some clearing and