Page:Centennial History of Oregon 1811-1912, Volume 1.djvu/528

358 known or effective at the time, and their failure to do so gave rise to much trouble, contention and litigation thereafter.

But it must strike every reader that it was a most singular proceeding, counting very largely on the lax ideas held by those pioneers on the subjects of land titles, that these two men could take up a tract of land in the wilderness without a shadow of a title from either the United States or Great Britain — the governments claiming title to the land—and proceed to sell and make deeds to the purchasers for gold dust, beaver money or beaver skins, as came in handy, and everything going "merry as a marriage bell." No abstract of title can be found that covers or explains these anomalies in the dealings of the pioneer town lot settlers; but it is proper to add that in assuming control of the country, Congress approved of the land titles initiated by the Provisional Government.

However, the real estate dealers in Portland in 1845 were giving a better deal to their customers in some things than their successors are in 1912. Nowadays the first thing in the history of the city is a grand map and a grander name. In 1845 Portland was started, and lots sold before it had any name. This proving somewhat awkward and embarrassing, the matter came up for discussion and decision at a family dinner party of the Lovejoys and Pettygroves at Oregon City, Mr. Pettygrove hailing from Maine, wished to name the to-HTi for his favorite old home town of Portland, while General Lovejoy coming from Massachusetts, desired to honor Boston with the name. And not being able to settle the matter with any good reason, it was proposed to decide the difference by tossing a copper; and so, on the production of and old fashioned copper cent, an engraving of which is given on another page, the cent was tossed up three times and came down "tails up" twice for Portland, and once ' ' heads up ' ' for dear old Boston. And that is the way Portland got its appropriate name.

The town started slowly, and its rate of growth for the first three years was scarcely noticeable. Oregon City was the head center of all the Americans; the seat of government, the saw and the grist mill; and Vancouver did not invite and encourage settlers at that point. Men came and looked, and then passed on up the valley, or out into Tualatin plains, and took land for farms. The people coming into the country were mostly farmers, had always been farmers, as had their forefathers, and had but little confidence in townsite opportunities. And beside all this, the lots offered for sale were so heavily covered with timber that it would cost more to clear a lot than the o^vner could sell it for after it was cleared; and so the town stood still, or nearly so. One of the first to start anything -that looked like business at a cross roads or a tovmsite, was James Terwilliger, who erected a blacksmith shop and rang an anvil chorus for customers from the vast woods all around. Terwilliger was born in New York in 1809; went west, following up the Indians, and came out to Oregon with the immigration of 1845. His shop at Portland was evidently only a side issue with him, running it only five years, for he at the same time took up a land claim a mile south of Lovejoy and Pettygrove, improved it, and there passed the remainder of his life, passing away in 1892, at the advanced age of 82 years. James Terwilliger was always an active man of affairs, stoutly