Page:Centennial History of Oregon 1811-1912, Volume 1.djvu/955

Rh and political questions, by her active pen and platform addresses. Mrs. Hidden is one of the many thousands of good women given the United States by fair Canada, being a native of Trenholm in the Province of Quebec.

Another Miller in addition to Joaquin, and his talented girl bride, entitled to notice here as a poet and writer of unusual ability, is Mrs. Lischen Miller, wife of Joaquin Miller's brother. Mrs. Miller was Miss Lischen Cogswell, the daughter of a Lane county farmer, and one of the founders of Oregon's first and only great magazine, the Pacific Monthly.

Another representative of Oregon's native poetical talent is June McMillen Ordway, daughter of Captain J. H. McMillen, a veteran in the Indian wars of Oregon. Mrs. Ordway 's writings have been mainly devoted to the Oregon pioneers and their services to the state; and in this she has written much that will remain the permanent literary wealth of the state. Captain McMillen was president of the North Pacific History Company which published in 1889 a valuable history entitled "History of the Pacific Northwest," edited by Hon. Elwood Evans of Olympia, "Washington.

And last, but not least, to be recorded here as an Oregon poet, is the veteran pioneer, farmer, stock-breeder, herdsman, legislator, mountain explorer, road builder, magazine writer and model citizen—Hon. John Minto. From an intimate acquaintance for half a century it is a pleasure to record here that no other citizen of Oregon has done as much for the general welfare of all classes of its people as this worthy man, now passed on beyond his four-score and ten years filled to the overflowing with useful labor, and still in the harness to help along every good work. His "Farmer's Songs" and "Rhymes of Life" have the genuine Ben Franklin flavor of 1776.

. Francis Fuller Victor fills a large page in Oregon history, not only as an historian but also as a poet of great merit. The late Harvey W. Scott being once asked who was the most reliable historian in Oregon, replied: "Oregon has but one historian—Mrs. F. F. Victor." This was high praise from a competent judge. Mrs. Victor's work as a writer of Oregon history is greater than that of all others combined; and as a collector of Oregon history her work is second only to that of George H. Himes. Mrs. Victor died at Portland, Oregon, November 14, 1902, and after her death Mr. Wm. A. Morris prepared with great care a sketch of her literary work as follows:

A book of poems in 1851. Florence Fane Sketches, 1863-5. The River of the West, 1870. All Over Oregon and Washington, 1872. Woman's War Against Whiskey, 1874. The New Penelope, 1877. Bancroft's History of Oregon, 2 Vols., 1886. Bancroft's History of Idaho, Washington and Montana. Bancroft's History of Nevada, Colorado and Wyoming. Bancroft's History of California. History of Oregon Indian Wars, 1893. Atlantis Arisen, 1896. A second volume of Poems. 1900.

Mrs. Victor had collected all the material for the Oregon history when the Bancroft Publishing House offered her ten years' work on their histories on