Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 19.djvu/182

170 started in 1850 and resulted next year in organization of the Portland and Valley Plank Road Company, whose directors were Thomas Carter (president), A. J. Hembree,, W. W. Chapman, George H. Flanders and J. W. Chambers. William M. King succeeded Carter as president, and afterwards D. H. Lownsdale was president. The first plank was laid amid ceremonies near the present Ladd School September 21, 1851. The improvement of this road was always inadequate and several revivals of the work took place in the ensuing twenty years. The road recently has been highly improved. A history of this road, written by George H. Himes, appears in The Oregonian, August 14, 1902, page 12.

A history of Methodism in the Pacific Northwest is to be written by the Rev. Dr. John Parsons, who will be assisted in compilation and publication by the Rev. C. E. Cline, J. K. Gill, C. B. Moores, of Portland; the Rev. E. S. Hammond of Salem, and L. M. Belknap. These men were delegated a committee on the work at the Oregon annual conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Springfield, Oregon, last year, except that Mr. Moores has since been named to succeed the late J. C. Moreland.

Ministers and laymen of the church in Portland conferred on the matter at a meeting held June 17 last, in First Methodist church, the Rev. Alexander McLean presiding. Many pioneer narratives of Methodism and its followers were recited at the meeting. Among the well known persons present were the Rev. Joseph Hoberg, of McMinnville, who was a pioneer circuit rider; the Rev. Henry Mays, a pioneer preacher; Dr. John Parsons, the Rev. C. E. Cline, T. T. Geer, ex-Governor of Oregon, Charles B. Moores and J. K. Gill. Historical retrospect gives Methodism a proud place in the settlement and progress of Oregon and the Quarterly hopes that this book may be made an authoritative and concise historical record. The patient work of research and verification has been very inadequate in the many books of Oregon history. This history of