Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 3.djvu/299

Rh greatly impressed with the beauty of the place, soon named Forest Grove. The location is striking, and in the early days, before there had been brought about the changes incident to settlement, it possessed a romantic charm that is now lacking. The slightly elevated site, which is divided by a small run, or swale, was ornamented with an exceptionally handsome grove of oak trees, amid which rose an occasional group of firs, the whole area being open and clean and well grassed. It was a natural park, and while bearing on the first glance the impress of nature only, had also that simulation to man's most artistic planning that startles one with the thought that surely some one must have made it. Through the vistas of oak trees appeared to the north and east broad level prairies, or plains, edged with evergreen forests, and the horizon, at a long distance, was delineated underneath by the line of the Blue Mountain ranges, surmounted by the snow peaks. A fine appreciation of natural beauty is very distinctly marked in all the early pioneers and their children, and is very different from the vulgar raptures of the real estate dealer, who "writes up" our lovely scenery from the purely speculative point of view. The deterioration is to be regretted.

Arriving shortly before noon, Jane and her father were invited first of all to dine. The house was a log cabin, underneath some fine oaks, and was at no great distance from another of the same pattern, occupied by Rev. H. H. Spaldiug. These were afterwards connected, Grandma Brown's school requiring additional room. Mrs. Smith remembers the meal as a substantial boiled dinner of beef and vegetables, and very abundant. Meat was furnished regularly to the school by one of the patrons, a pioneer named Black, whose three boys were in attendance. Large bands of cattle were already owned by the settlers. Grandma Brown also had a fine