Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 6.djvu/156

150 150 THOMAS W. PROSCH. others to pack up and start for new homes on the Sound. The trip was a hard one, as they had to make the road as they went. They found John R. Jackson, an Englishman, then locating on the way, and they met Lieutenants Warre and Vavasour, of the Royal Engineers, spying out the land for the government of Great Britain. They were not to be deterred by anything, however, and soon had settled themselves at or near the head waters of Puget Sound. There Simmons began a town called then Newmarket but now Tumwater. Bush took a claim on a nearby prairie, which has since gone by his name. It will not be out of the way to here say that the provisional legislature of Ore- gon removed Bush's civil disability, and that Congress by special law gave him six hundred and forty acres of land. These men made the country known. It was no longer a closed book. Ford, Sylvester, Rabbeson, Chambers, Ebey, Lansdale, Collins, Maynard, and many more were soon on the ground. The Oregon legislature reached over and took them in. County after county was created north of the river, and the handful of men of 1845 increased to a thousand in number by 1851. With this increase came strength and confidence. The burden of sustaining a gov- ernment in a region where the distances were so great and the costs of travel in time and money so large became daily more apparent. Some jealousy and local feeling were also displayed. The river was a distinct line of demarka- tion. Northern Oregon was a term that came into use for that portion on one side of the river, on the other side being Oregon. On that side they were in the majority, and though there is no reason for supposing that they made improper use of their power, the fact that they might do so was a little galling, as also the knowledge that in territorial matters the northern section was not likely to get any substantial good that was wanted in the south-