Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 3.djvu/93

Rh miles from land, causing a complete wreck. This happened after dark, but all stuck to the ship until daybreak, as the wind was blowing a gale. All were saved but two negroes, who would not leave the ship. The others were picked up by a vessel bound for Darien. At Darien he read law and taught school. After six months he gladly returned north and resumed his studies in Lansingburgh.

In the summer of 1824 he was examined by the supreme court in session at Utica, New York, and was admitted as an attorney at law. The celebrated Aaron Burr was present as court counsel. In 1827 he was elected justice of the peace of Rensselaer County, holding that office and practicing law until 1829, when the sudden death of his brother-in-law, Mr. Wm. Powers, June 24, 1829, who had just started in the floor oilcloth manufacturing business, obliged him to close his office in order to relieve his sister in trouble and settle Mr. Powers' estate. This he did in two and one half years, having paid up all the debts of nearly $10,000. Knowing that his sister was now well provided for, Mr. Ball left Lansingburgh January 1, 1832, to join Capt. N. J. Wyeth's expedition to Oregon, at Baltimore. A trip of this kind had been one of the dreams of his life.

One of the parties of the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1803-6 was John Ordway, a neighbor of his father, who filled his youthful imagination by the stories he told. He had been in correspondence with Captain Wyeth of Boston, whom he had learned was arranging to journey to Oregon by land. On his way to Baltimore he stopped in New York and met a young man named J. Sinclair, who went with him to Oregon. He called on Ramsey Crooks, one of the men in John Jacob Astor's fur enterprise. At Washington he met General Ashley, who carried on the first fur trade across the plains. General Ashley was then a member of congress from Missouri. Mr. Ball