Page:History of Oregon Literature.djvu/641

 threats and the open defiance of the Indians toward the settlers grew the troubles that culminated in the Battle of the Abiqua, in which Samuel Allen took an active part.

Sam. L. Simpson

Samuel Leonidas Simpson was the most illustrious of the three families of that name that settled in the Silverton Country. His father, Benjamin Simpson, . . . arrived in Oregon in September, 1846. The Benjamin Simpson dona tion land claim was in sections nine and ten in township nine south and three west, on which the family settled Septem ber 27, 1853. . . . Benjamin Simpson was twice married. By his first wife he had two children, John and Elsira Jane. By his second marriage, Sylvester C, Samuel L., Louisa, Frances M. and Elnorah. . . . Sylvester C. Simpson. . . was the first superintendent of public instruction in Oregon. . . . W. T. Burney, who married a daughter of Benjamin Simpson, wrote the introduction to Simpson's poems, The Gold-Gated West. . . . He was at one time registrar of the United States Land Office at Oregon City.

Here in the Waldo Hills, Samuel L. Simpson spent some of the most interesting years of his youth, attending the district school, reveling in the natural beauties of the region, gazing long hours at majestic Hood and absorbing the lore of the country round, so much of which is reflected in his poetry. . . . He is peculiarly the poet of the Silverton Country, for many of his poems breathe out the very air of hill and vale and mountain and stream which make this pleasant land.

Homer Davenport

There was little social or collective thinking in pioneer times. Whatever success came to men was the result of the force of circumstances rather than as a reward for preconceived plans and directed energy. Such was the case of Homer Davenport, who broke through the pioneer environ ment to find success outside. He never doubted, however, what he owed to his Silverton home and ancestry and re