Page:Oregon, her history, her great men, her literature.djvu/63

60 Western America, called Oregon; and they asked congress to aid them in carrying into operation the purposes of their institution; to grant them military assistance; to make it possible for settlers to get sufficient lands at the junction of the Multnomah (Willamette) with the Columbia and "to grant them such other rights and privileges as may contribute to the means of establishing a respectable and prosperous community."

The Multnomah Townsite Project. Congress having failed to encourage the scheme set forth by the society in 1831, the latter published an announcement which began as follows: "Oregon Settlement to be commenced in the Spring of 1832 on the delightful and fertile banks of the Columbia river." The expedition was to start in March 1832. Upon their arrival in Oregon a town was to be laid out at the juncture of the Columbia and Multnomah, and each emigrant was to receive a town lot and a farm in that locality; also a lot in a town at the mouth of the Columbia, these places being already platted on paper. But congress again failed to take action, and the plan failed. Kelley, in 1832, set out for Oregon by way of Mexico. "In California, he fell in with Ewing Young in 1834." They drove a band of horses to Oregon; but upon then arrival at Vancouver (October 15, 1834) they found themselves accused of horse stealing. Later they were exonerated by the Governor of California. But Mr. Kelley having lost his health and fortune in the effort to colonize Oregon returned to Massachusetts the following March.

Movement to Settle Oregon. At this time American right to Oregon consisted of a title without described boundary lines. Furthermore, there were not enough Americans in the Oregon Country to hold their territory. The situation, therefore, gave rise to much solicitude throughout the states. The Missouri Fur Company, in 1808, made St. Louis a center in fur trading. This trade gradually extended north and westward, in 1822 General William H. Ashley sent out