Page:History of Oregon Literature.djvu/446

 of miscellaneous articles, a school reader, three novels and a delightful potpourri of historical sketches.

The yellow frame house, with the chocolate-colored trimming, on the northeast corner of Ninth and Jefferson Streets, in Oregon City, is Mrs. Dye's home. In this and for a time in an earlier residence a few blocks further up the hill at about J. Q. Adams Street, she has lived during a period of 45 years, ever since she came to Oregon with her husband in 1890. To find this dwelling the pedestrian may make the first and steepest part of the climb in Oregon City's famous municipal elevator. The route then continues up the hill, through the grounds and by the old home of Dr. McLoughlin. It leads around another small hill, over a little freshet hurrying down to the Willamette, and across two of the streets of the presidents to a third. That is Jefferson Street. And there is her home. It is built on a slight slope and overlooks the town of Oregon City. On each side of the residence are cherry trees recurrently proclaiming spring with their bloom. In season two rows of daffodils nod in the front yard.

That house was the birthplace of the Gladstone Park Chautauqua, which for many years played an important part in the cultural life of Oregon. "A group of eager young people met there and formed the first Oregon City Chautauqua reading circle, which grew a year later into the summer assembly."

Mrs. Dye's accomplishments, in conjunction with household cares, are all the more impressive because her novels are not of a nature that could merely be imagined, lock, stock and barrel, out of her head. They are historical romances which required a vast amount