Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 5.djvu/57

Rh instruction given out! the younger men of the company of sixteen by Mr. Applegate was amply worth the cost of facing the danger and enduring the toil. From my point of view the abilities of P. H. Burnett and Jesse Applegate supplemented each other.

Daniel Waldo was of a different mold than either of the foregoing. Self-reliant in mind and aims, brusk in speech to bluntness, a lover of truth and justice, he had the saving grace of common sense in such a degree as made his selection as justice of his district a happy choice for the time and place. His residence amid the hills bearing his name was more the seat of government in 1845-46 for the east side of the Willamette Valley than was Green Point below Oregon City the residence of Governor Abernethy. Industrial thrift, public spirit and hospitality, and a quick perception of justice often enabled Daniel Waldo to settle differences between men without forms of law. As justice of the peace under the Provisional Government of Oregon Mr. Waldo conducted his office much as his father had conducted that of judge of his county in Virginia. There were other heads of families who came in 1843 who were men above the average as leaders. Jesse Looney, James Waters, M. M. McCarver, and T. W. Keiser, and to these past middle life, may he added J. W. Nesmith and H. A. G. Lee, all except Nesmith frontiersmen from southwestern States. Looney and Reiser were general farmers. Waters seemed to give his attention mostly to defence against the Indians and assisting, as much as his time and means allowed, arriving immigrants.

General McCarver was a singular, if not an eccentric man. His chief aim as a pioneer seemed to be the location of towns, being concerned in locating Linnton on the Willamette, The Dalles on the Columbia, and Tacoma on Puget Sound. He was an almost incessant talker, and although I never heard a word against his integrity I never have been able to think of Mark Twain's "Colonel Sellers" without bringing to mind my impression of General M. M. McCarver.

As to Nesmith and Lee, they were both natural leaders. Of the former it is sufficient to say he made his own standing amongst men. though often rough and domineering. He filled