Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 3.djvu/244

234 from Joseph Beezley, a resident of The Dalles, about 1870, a homestead sheep ranch on a small mill stream there, called "Fifteen-Mile" (estimated that distance from The Dalles). They moved onto this farm and starting with a moderate flock began, by irrigation, to farm for the winter care of their sheep. Excepting a few acres under fence at Four-Mile and Eight-Mile, watering places, no fences existed between The Dalles and the Dufur farm at that date. They enlarged their crops as their flocks increased, and were the first to purchase swamp lands near the base of Mt. Hood for summer range for their flocks. From first a house of entertainment for settlers locating further south, and next a blacksmith shop, gristmill, and post office, the seeds of a rural town were planted and rapidly grew, until the lands around and beyond from The Dalles were occupied, first for grazing, then for wheat growing. Within about ten years a corporate town had grown, supported largely by stock-raising families, who builded for winter residence and winter school facilities. The district now produces about 1,000,000 bushels of wheat. Heppner was planted by a young unmarried Englishman, who brought capital to buy a flock of sheep and the small gristmill there, erected by a Frenchman; he took the cream of the beautiful grazing lands near and sold out to a grain-raising compatriot from North Britain, who made flour and mill feed his chief