Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 19.djvu/360



In the death of the Rev. Claiborne Alphonso Wooddy, No- vember 9, 1918, the Pacific Coast lost an active religious worker, and Oregon lost one of its conspicuous native sons. Mr. Wooddy served as general superintendent of the Ameri- can Baptist Home Mission Society from 1899 until his death. A special number of the Pacific Baptist, of which he was editor in 1890-1902, contains numerous tributes to his mem- ory. He was born near Brownsville, Oregon, February 8, 1856, attended the Baptist college at McMinnville, and grad- uated from University of Oregon at Eugene in 1881, and from Rochester Theological Seminary in 1884. He was pastor at Weston, Oregon, in 1886-87, and at Amity in 1888-90. In 1887-88 he served as principal of the Indian school at Che- mawa. He attained a ripe theological scholarship and was a foremost leader of the Baptist denomination on the Pacific Coast.

Reminder of many episodes of early Oregon occurred Oc- tober 4, 1918, at the death of Mianda Bailey Smith, widow of Sidney Smith, a member of the Peoria party of young men who started for Oregon in 1839. Mrs. Smith died in Chehalem Valley at the age of nearly 90 years. Her mar- riage took place in 1846. Sidney Smith was a friend and employe of Ewing Young, who headed the enterprise that brought Mexican cattle to Oregon from California in 1837. Young's death in February, 1841, started the movement for the provisional government, consummated in 1843, for pro- bating of his estate. The great oak tree on his grave was planted in an acorn by Mr. and Mrs. Smith before their mar- riage. The husband was a member of the American party at Champoeg. He died September 18, 1880. He spent most of his life on his farm in West Chehalem, purchased by him from the estate of Ewing Young. His wife was a daughter of Daniel Dodge Bailey, who brought his family to Oregon in 1845 by way of Meek's cut-off. The family arrived in Che-