Page:Centennial History of Oregon 1811-1912, Volume 1.djvu/558

374 steps throughout life. He put a price on some mining stock in Nevada once, and then went off hunting sage hens in Umatilla county. A great body of rich ore was uncovered in the mine, and before the San Francisco "mining sharps" could locate Reed with telegrams, that stock advanced a hundred thousand dollars in value, and Reed got back to the old town of Umatilla in time to cancel his oft'er before it could to taken up by the pursuers. S. G. Reed never lost any sleep or worried about matters he could not prevent. He was always ready to help any man that deserved his help if they did not ask too much. He finally came to regard his great fortune as a trust in his hands for the benefit of his fellow-men. And having no children, and but few relatives when he passed away, he requested his life-long help-meet, Mrs. Amanda Reed, to devote their wealth to the benefit of the people of the city of Portland. In pursuance of that wish, Mrs. Reed, in her last will and testament, provided that after paying some legacies to relatives, the Reed millions should be devoted to founding a great institution for the teaching of practical and scientific knowledge to the youth of this city. And that great bequest is now being administered to carry out the wishes of the large-hearted donors.

Of other notable men who have made their impress on the city and aided largely in establishing the useful institutions of the pioneer town, Judge P. A. Marquam is entitled to a high position. While he never made a million dollars, he did make enough, and made it honestly, to attract the wolves of finance and banking to rend him to pieces and rob him of what he had. The "Marquam case," wherein the supreme court of Oregon held that a trust deed was not a trust but a mortgage, will go down to future courts and judges as an anomaly in jurisprudence that is a disgrace to any state. But Judge Marquam 's claim to honorable recognition in the history of Oregon does not depend on either property or business. While in California, he served with distinction in the wars to subdue the Indians and protect the gold miners. He was elected county judge twice before coming to Oregon. On reaching Portland he engaged in law practice and soon secured a large business. Soon after he was elected county judge and re-elected, serving in all eight years. Under his administration nearly all the roads in the country were located and opened to travel.

There were, of course, many other men in the town hard at work at the date when these more prominent leaders located here who are entitled to recognition, and would not be overlooked here if the facts of their lives were now accessible. To produce the daily life of the little town now, after the passing of sixty years has carried away forever the lives and incidents of that day, is a difScult if not impossible task, and if enough is furnished to enable the discriminating reader to guess at what has been lost by time, it is the best that can be done.