Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 3.djvu/357

Rh, the members of the legislature, lists of officers for each county, times and places of holding courts, a list of the officers of the United States in Oregon, and in addition the following interesting information: Public debt, October 1, 1847, $3,243.31; population, same date, about six thousand; vote for governor on the first Monday in June, 1847, one thousand and seventy-four; immigration now beginning to arrive, about three thousand; estimated annual value of imports and exports, about $130,000; estimated amount of wheat raised in the territory for the last two years, about one hundred and fifty thousand bushels each year. After the calendar pages the following appears: Summary of the Mexican war; Agricultural; Table of Important Scientific Discoveries and Inventions from 2224 to 1844 ; a few paragraphs upon the value of correct habits; a short poem in blank verse on "Charity;" and an eight-line rhyme entitled a "Receipt for a Wife."

Mr. Hudson went to the gold mines in the fall of 1848. He soon found a rich gulch from which he dug $21,000. He then returned to Oregon, but did not remain long. He took passage by sailing vessel for San Francisco in December, 1850, and died at sea while on the way thither.

While not strictly connected with the newspaper history of Oregon, it is not out of place to give a brief account of the spelling book above referred to.

It was an abridgment of the old Webster's Elementary Spelling Book, and was about two thirds the size of the original, the long words and quaint illustrations in the back being omitted. As this was practically a foreign country at that time, the printer was not particularly sensitive about violating the copyright law. After this book was printed the question of binding became a serious one, there being no binder in the settlement, so far