Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 26.djvu/169

Rh court was vacant, proceeded to the appointment of J. E. Lyle, clerk pro tern of the circuit court for Polk County and the oath of office was administered to him. There being no prosecuting attorney present and the members of the bar present refusing to act pro tem the court proceeded to the business of the docket."

Lyl'e records are a clearly written and plain exposition of the court proceedings. He was clerk "pro tem" both of the provisional court and the later district court —"pro tem" for John Lyle was a Whig in a county of Democrats and voted the Whig ticket, it is said, when but one other man in the county voted it with him.

In June '46 Felix Scott and family came with pack and saddle horses through southern Oregon from Sutters Fort in California. They came saddened by the recent death of Harriet. They went to the Joseph Watt home near Amity. The June air was sweet with the fragrance of wild roses and of the wild orange blossoms and the strawberries reddened on sunny hills when John Lyle and Ellen Scott met again. Before the leaves had turned to gold their wedding day was set. They were married November 3rd, 1846, by Glen O. Burnett at the home of Joseph Watt where Felix Scott was then living. Ellen and John mounted their horses and rode through the bright November sunshine to the Ramage neighborhood where he taught a short term of school. During the winter they returned to Jefferson Institute where a cabin near the school had been built for them. Mrs. Scott had kept darkies busy at the looms for a year before she came to Oregon and brought bolts of linen cloth, tablecloths and sheets. So Ellen Lyle was well supplied with linen, had a dozen dresses and a feather bed and pillows for housekeeping. Each of her granddaughters has today a square of one of the first hand woven tablecloths. Ellen was not the only bride on the creek. Josephine Ford