Page:Centennial History of Oregon 1811-1912, Volume 1.djvu/706

462 command in Oregon in 1858, he opened the Harney valley to settlement after it had been closed against white settlers by General Wool. A good likeness of the distinguished soldier appears on another page.

Harney is now the scene of great activity, in taking up the long neglected rich lands of that region. Burns, the principal town and county seat, contains the U. S. Land office, with two banks and many prosperous mercantile houses; and it has tributary territory of rich land large enough to make a greater State than many of the New England States. The census reports the gi'owth of population as follows:

For the year 1890—2,559; 1900—2,598; 1910—4,059.

Sherman county was organized by the legislature on February 25, 1889, having been once the northeastern portion of Wasco County. It is named in honor of Major General Wm. T. Sherman, the hero of the march through Georgia to the sea which cut the Southern Confederacy in twain and broke the backbone of the Southern Rebellion. This is one of the great wheat producing counties of the State, and upon which many farmers have grown rich. The county seat is Moro.

The growth of population is shown by the census reports as follows:

For the year 1890—1,792; 1900—3,477; 1910—4,242.

Lincoln county created by legislative act on February 20, 1893, is located on the Pacific ocean west of Benton county, embracing the Siletz Indian reservation, the Siletz valley, vast bodies of the finest timber in the world, the health resorts of Yaquina and Newport, and is named in honor of the martyr President, Abraham Lincoln.

The census reports the white population as follows:

For the year 1900—3,575; 1910—5,587, and the Indian population for 1900 —465; and for 1910— 392.

The county seat is at the town of Toledo.

Wheeler county was organized February 17, 1899, out of portions of Crook, Gilliam and Grant Counties. It is named for Henry H. Wheeler, an old settler in that part of the State. Its county seat is at the town of Fossil, which is so named for the great varietj' of fossil remains of the ancient animal life of that region.

The census shows its population as follows: For the year 1900—2,443; 1910—2,484.

Hood River is the last county organization of the legislature, and the Act for which was passed by an initiative petition at an election held June 1, 1908. Its territory Avas taken off of Wasco county. The county gets its name from the great mountain at the head of its river; and the mountain was named bj' Lieut. Broughton, for Lord Hood, an English nobleman. The county seat is the town of Hood River; so the English lord dominates the whole aggregation of mountains, county and town. Its population according to the census of 1910 is 8,016.

The settlement of the Klamath country had its commencement or inception in the desire of some young Oregon volunteers who, serving on the frontier, noticed its varied beauties of lake, valley and mountain, and having been reared