Page:History of Oregon Literature.djvu/349

 ficulty experienced in collecting data for her early historical work, this was not always accurate, still it may be truly said that accuracy was Mrs. Victor's aim in her historical work, and if she had been able to revise her books, as she fondly desired to do, many errors that unavoidably crept into them would have been eliminated by her own hand. . ..

Her diligence in historical research, combined with her ability to present facts of history in an attractive way, secured for her employment for a number of years in San Francisco upon the Bancroft historical series. This work ended, she returned to this city, where for several years she has lived in quiet seclusion a life of gentle womanliness and patient endeavor, waiting for the end.

The life of Frances Fuller Victor is in itself a history. It touched at many vital points the life of a wide section still too new to civilization for its full and permanent his tory to be written. Those who knew her in the earlier as well as the later years know that she was always a struggler in the ranks of labor, though never an obtrusive one. Disap pointment rather than success followed many of her endeav ors, but she kept through all a gentle courage, admirable in the days of her effective strength, and became touched with, pathos in the weakness that attended her declining years. Among the wide circle of acquaintances formed by Mrs. Victor during the long years of her active literary labors she left many friends who recognized the value of her work and admired the sterling qualities of her character. The voices of her critics, never harsh, will take on gentler tones or cease to be heard, and Frances Fuller Victor will take her place among those who did what they could for those that are to come after them. A woman so utterly alone in the world as regards kindred as was Mrs. Victor is in her age a pathetic figure on the dial of time. Her passing is in the course of nature, and can only be viewed in the light of a gentle release from untoward conditions.

"By her death," said William A. Morris, "there was removed the most versatile figure in Pacific Coast