Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 26.djvu/282

222 real daughter of the American Revolution and the Real Madonna of the Barlow Trail. Arrived in Oregon City December 25, 1845. Placed by Susannah Lee Barlow and Multnomah Chapters, D. A.R., 1923.

From the files of the old Oregonian is taken the following: "Quite a coincidence in name and purpose is evident from the fact that Dr. S. K. Barlow of Massachusetts was the first to conceive the idea of a trans-continental railroad across the rocky mountains and that S. K. Barlow, a generation later, proposed and executed the first wagon road over the Cascade mountains, thus completing the circuit of one-half of the land of the globe." The life action of the one realized the thought of the other.

A railroad over the Cascade mountains remains to be accomplished. To paraphrase the language of the pioneer road-builder—"It will be done, for God never made a mountain that some man cannot master, mechanically, some day."

Samuel K. Barlow was an investigator in religion, ethics and politics as well as in frontier movements. Up to within five years of his death, he made annual trips into the forests of Oregon, bringing back accounts of their future advantages to the state.

September 17, 1850, he bought the donation land claim of Thomas McKay, where now the small town of Barlow is located. Neither Mr. Barlow nor any of his sons ever took up any government land. Afterwards, .this place was sold to his son, William Barlow, and the old gentleman moved to Canemah, which he and his oldest son had previously laid out as a town.

Though he was not a wealthy man, he always had a competence for every necessity. He had no patience with dishonesty, especially with political dishonesty. He was an ardent advocate of prohibition and thought that if a man could not refrain from drinking, the best thing for