Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 4.djvu/84

74 The first newspaper of this locality was printed by George Dyson; the name and date I can not now give. The second was the Informant, printed, like the first, at Brownsville, and by a man named Stein. This was in 1886. In 1887 the Express-Advance was started with the Informant's plant and continued two years. The Brownsville Times was started June 15, 1889, by McDonald & Cavendish. With several changes of editors this paper is still printed, the present proprietors being F. M. Brown and A. B. Cavender.

The question as to why the first settlers came to Oregon is difficult to determine. It seems, however, from the very limited amount of direct testimony I have been able to get, that there were two forces which at least had a powerful influence, and these were, first, curiosity to see this great western country; and, secondly, the desire to pick out a good piece of land from the thousands of acres open to settlement here.

Oregon, September 21, 1901.

''Mr. Geo. O. Goodall, Eugene, Oregon—''

In compliance with your request I will write a short account of the early settlement of the upper Calapooia Valley and some of the annoyances with which the first settlers had to contend, and as I have to depend entirely on memory, I am aware that my account will be very imperfect and the more so as I am almost alone as one of the first settlers, and I believe the only one above Brownsville.

I crossed the plains in 1846, stopping near Oregon City till the next fall, when I settled in Brush Creek Valley, Brush Creek being the south fork of the Calapooia. When I came here I found Alexander Kirk, W. R. Kirk, James Blakely, Hugh L. Brown, and Jonathan Keeney, all living in the vicinity of where Brownsville now is, they all having crossed the plains in 1846 and come on up the valley to the Calapooia. I also found R. C. Finley some six miles farther up the stream, who also crossed the plains the same year, but settled on the Calapooia in the spring of 1847. Mrs. Agnes B. Courtnay, who came to Oregon in 1845, and whose husband had been killed near Oregon City by a falling tree, made up the settlers on the Calapooia at that