Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 19.djvu/146



Oregon City, Ore. Ten, Jan. 6, 1853. Rev. Benjamin M. Hill,

Cor. Sec. A. Bap. H. M. Soc., N. Y.

Dear Brother:

During the late high water I spent eight or ten days in Salem and vicinity and preached one Sabbath. As it was the time of the session of the legislature, I availed myself of the opportunity of making myself acquainted with the members from the different parts of the territory and collecting what facts I could relative to the extent of the farming country and the commercial, agricultural and mineral capabilities, the number of population, the prospects of rising towns and the number and character of Baptist members in their respective districts, the results of which I design to embody in a few days, or perhaps weeks, and forward to you. Salem contains ten drygoods stores, all of which seem to do a very fair business, a flouring mill, two saw-mills, some four or five lawyers, three or four physicians, mechanics of various descriptions and about five hundred 1 souls. The Episcopal Methodists are the prevailng denomination. Here is their Oregon institute in a flourishing condition. Here are five Methodist Episcopal preachers,, four of whom hold their land claims, on one of which the town is principally situated, and the others are all adjoining.

The Protestant Methodists sent out a missionary last year overland. He has fixed on this place as the place of