Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 3.djvu/341

Rh library of the Oregon Historical Society during the past three years.

Tramp printers were not common in those early days, and but few found their way to this then comparatively unknown region. The earliest one that there is any record of was a man named Turner. One evening in 1839, soon after the press was set up at Lapwai, Mr. Spalding was standing on the banks of the Clearwater, and was surprised to hear a white man on the opposite shore call him. He paddled across the river in a canoe to the stranger and took him home. The man gave his name as above, that his home was in Canada, and that he had come from Saskatchewan on foot. Spalding, being somewhat incredulous, never learned his history. When Turner saw the printing office he said, "Now I am at home." He assisted in arranging the plant and in making pads. Mr. Spalding translated passages of the Bible and several hymns for the Sunday-school in the Nez Perce tongue, and Turner set them up. He was quite attentive to his work and remained all winter. Mr. Spalding had planned to have considerable printing done and had arranged to pay Turner wages, but he suddenly disappeared and was never heard of afterward.

The next printers to appear at Lapwai were Medare G. Foisy and Charles Saxton, both coming across the plains from Saint Louis in 1844. But little is known of Mr. Saxton, as he returned to "The States" the following year, and published a journal of his trip across the plains, giving a description of Oregon, and dwelling at length upon the importance of the country claimed by the United States upon the North Pacific coast.

Mr. Foisy was a French Canadian by birth, a son of an affluent leather merchant, and was born at Quebec in 1816. After receiving a practical education in the French schools