Page:Frederick V. Holman An Appriciation.djvu/2

226 Thirst for knowledge came in early childhood, and it in creased constantly with the growth of years. He learned thoroughly the principles of sound thinking during his four year course at the University of California when it was richly equipped with a staff of men eminent as character builders as well as scholars. He cultivated sound thinking systematically under their daily leadership. This was at a time when the University of Oregon had scarcely developed into a good high school. When he attained middle age he was appointed a regent of Oregon's leading institution of higher learning. Well qualified, he discharged his high duties with signal ability. In him were combined high character, high education and high public spirit which was ever active.

Law was his vocation; Oregon history his avocation. In both he won marked success. He practiced the one for material gain; he indulged in the other out of pure love. Additional to general knowledge of the beginnings of civilization in the "Oregon Country," he devoted himself to painstaking study of points in dispute which cover the period between John Jacob Astor's fur trading post in 1811 and the launch ing of the provisional government at Champoeg in 1843. Mr. Holman was not by nature a controversialist. His mind was honest. He kept it open. He wanted facts, and he searched for them wherever they could be found. He bumped into controversies—many of them. This was inevitable. He was not able to take and maintain a neutral stand. His intellectual training compelled him to form positive opinions. These disputed points are still in dispute. Prejudice is not absent from either side. I venture to say that Mr. Holman's opinions are much more free from prejudice than the opinions of writers and readers of Oregon history who take the opposing view.

If, any time since the death of Harvey W. Scott, editor of the Oregonian for forty-five years, I had been asked to name the best informed man on Oregon history, I should unreservedly have said Mr. Holman. First, last and all the time he was a student. His mind was so constituted that it had to be fed with facts. This trait is shown with exceeding clarity in his biography of Dr. John McLoughlin, pioneer