Page:Lewis A. McArthur, obituary in OHQ.djvu/5

 "An interesting subject is the study of Oregon's geographic nomenclatures. The subject is a large one and a volume would be required to exhaust it."

It is possible that the seed planted by the words of Scott germinated into reality. At any rate, in 1907 Governor George E. Chamberlain created the Oregon Geographic Board. According to ex-Governor Oswald West, who succeeded Chamberlain, the board "appears to have died but was given new life in 1914—no doubt," West says, "at the instance of Tam McArthur." Whether or not this surmise is correct, Tam McArthur's interest in the geographic names of Oregon must have been demonstrated, for Governor West named him a member of the resuscitated board.

The Oregon Geographic Board has no background in the statutes. It gained, however, official recognition of a listing in the Oregon Blue Book, biennial publication of the Secretary of State, and in its first appearance, in the 1915–1916 issue, McArthur is recorded as a member of the board. In 1916 he became its secretary and he continued in that office until 1949 when illness forced his retirement.

Proceeding thus from speculation to fact, we can record that McArthur's study of Oregon geographic names began some forty years ago. It is evident, too, that his undertaking to compile a record of the origin of those names began more than twenty-five years ago, for in December 1925, there appeared in the Oregon Historical Quarterly the first instalment of his collection of names and their background. There were instalments in the seven succeeding Quarterlies and then, all having been assembled, they were presented in February 1928, in book form under the title they had carried in the magazine, "Oregon Geographic Names."

In the preface to the first of the Quarterly sections, "the compiler" as McArthur called himself, interchangeably with "the writer," said that he had "for many years gathered notes on the origin of Oregon geographic names." David W. Hazen, reviewing the book, wrote that the collection was begun before McArthur "knew that he was going to write a book." "And when he became a member of the