Page:Frederick V. Holman An Appriciation.djvu/3

Rh of Oregon pioneers. It is a complete work. No one doubts its accuracy. It will stand up under the test of time. Surely I cannot be wrong if I say that future generations of young students will accept the biography as authoritative. In the research work and in the labor of writing the book, Fred erick Holman builded a living monument. It will endure.

Often I wonder what impelled my friend Holman to un dertake the task. My own notion is that he was inspired by mixed motives—love, gratitude and pride. Good Dr. McLoughlin, clothed by the Hudson's Bay Company with auto cratic power in the "Oregon Country," was the staunch friend and generous benefactor of the hardy men and women who carried Anglo-Saxon civilization—American civilization—in the covered wagon two thousand miles westward into the Hudson's Bay domain. Trespassing on implicit instructions from the home office, great-hearted McLoughlin despatched food from Vancouver post to Grand Ronde Valley to sustain the regiments of "invaders." Most of them were in desperate need of it. Fred Holman's par ents were a part of the emigrant train of 1843.



I have never known a man who had a higher sense of professional and personal honor. In dealing with clients, capitalist or worker, friend or stranger, corporation or individual, he must have felt that he was bound by moral obligation to guard a solemn trust. No lawyer could be more honest, more faithful, more punctilious. He never sought clients; he waited to be sought by them. There were other struggling young lawyers who would "bend the pregnant hinges of the knee, that thrift might follow fawning," but Holman was not that kind. He would not crook a fore finger to win the most profitable law business in Portland. His pride forbade him.

He advanced rapidly in his profession by reason of high character, and ingrained studious habit. From the very start he adopted high standards. Nothing could induce him to take divorce suits, criminal defenses and other inferior cases which would increase office revenue. He specialized in law that bears upon corporations, municipalities, real