Page:History of Oregon Literature.djvu/654

 Oregon,

A. D. 1999, and Other Sketches—also published under the title Paradise on Earth—Portland, 1913; Autographs and Memoirs of the Telegraph, Adrian, Michigan, 1916; Pleiades Club: Life on Planet Mars, Portland, 1917.

Jeff W. Hayes was a blind telegrapher who took up literature after he lost his sight. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, on March 30, 1858, he began the study of telegraphy at the age of 14, after at- tending a Catholic academy. He came to Virginia City in 1877 as operator for the Western Union. Later he became one-third owner of a profitable mine, but afterwards lost his money through stock speculation in San Francisco. He then managed the military tele- graph in Arizona during the Apache War in 1881, coming to Port- land the following year and remaining as a telegrapher until 1894, when he lost his sight. After spending $30,000 in search of a cure, he became reconciled to his blindness and "was forced to admit the one defeat of his life." After learning the typewriter he was for several months a press operator for the Cleveland Plaindealer. He returned to Oregon to seek a similar position but was unable to find it. In 1901 he established in Portland the Hasty Messenger and Express Company, which had about 30 miles of private wire in the city. When his first book, Tales of the Sierras, was published in 1905, John W Mackay took an interest in its success, having copies "sent to every cable station and office in the world." He later became edi- tor of the American Telegrapher, established for a while in Los Angeles and moved in 1914 to Portland. After his blindness he was married and became the father of two children, was successful in his business enterprises and wrote five books.

Paul Hosmer. Now We're Loggin', Portland, 1930.

Paul Hosmer lives at Bend, where he is publicity man for a large lumber mill. The essays in his book first appeared in the Four L Lumber News of Portland, and the Deschutes Pine Echoes, which he edited at Bend. Stewart H. Holbrook says of him: "Mr. Hosmer is no academic gentleman writing in an amused and detached prose about strange freaks known as lumberjacks. Hardly. He knows his timber and the men who cut it'"

G. W. Kennedy. The Pioneer Camp fire, Portland, 1914.

"With the Emigrants on the Plains, With the Settlers in Log Cabin Homes, With the Hunters and Miners, With the Preachers on the Trails, at Campmeetings and in Log Cabins."

The Reverend G. W. Kennedy was a pioneer Methodist circuit rider who "rode over all the Eastern Oregon country in the early days." He crossed the plains to Oregon in 1853. He was a student at Pacific University at the same time Harvey W. Scott was there.