Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 2.djvu/121

Rh through the venerable Mr. Matthieu that the spot is identified where the meeting was held, and where the monument is placed which we dedicate this day.

The Americans now proceeded rapidly with their work of organization. A matter of the first importance was the formation of a legislative committee, whose duty it was to report a form of organic law for the new commonwealth. The committee was constituted of these names, to wit: A. E. Wilson, G. W. Le Breton, J. L. Meek, W. H. Willson, D. Hill, Robert Shortess, Robert Newell, Alanson Beers, T. J. Hubbard, W. H. Gray, J. O'Neil, Robert Moore, and William Dougherty. After deliberation of several days and election of A. E. Wilson to the office of Supreme Judge, G. W. Le Breton, Clerk of the court, J. L. Meek, Sheriff, and W. H. Willson, Treasurer, the meeting adjourned to the fifth of July, by which time the legislative committee was to be ready with the organic law.

No instructions seem to have been given to this committee as to where it was to meet for its work, but records show that it had its sittings at Willamette Falls, in a building tendered by the Methodist mission for the purpose. The building was devoted to a variety of uses. It has long since disappeared. It is described as a building one and a half stories high, sixteen feet wide, and thirty feet long, the upper portion being used as a storage and sleeping apartment, while the lower part was so divided as to make one square room for a schoolhouse and place of worship, and the other was used for storing wheat. The committee continued its sittings until the twelfth day of May, and then adjourned, to meet the last Thursday in June. At this last meeting the final touches were given to its work.

Upon the appointed day, July 5, 1843, the convention reassembled on this spot. Some description of this first