Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 9.djvu/147

 From Youth to Age as an American. 129 Late in the same year, James Birnie, retiring from the Hudson's Bay Company's employ, a factor at Fort George (Astoria), bought an interest in the mill and located a claim on the north side of the Columbia nearly opposite, naming it ' ' Cathlamet. ' ' The native Cathlamet was on an island on the south side, about a mile from the present site of Clifton. Mr. Birnie had claims against the Hudson's Bay Company and could get goods of a better kind and quality than could be secured at Oregon City or of Mr. Petty grove at infant Port- land. The woolens Avere made for the Indian trade, coarse but honest, as was the clothing of United States soldiers at that time. This was because the Hudson's Bay Company had to meet the wants of their officers and families and occasional calls from the British Navy. It was through Mr. Birnie that the writer was enabled to get a decent suit to be married in, in 1847. I earned the price by squaring the first wooden tram-way rails used on the Columbia, and this date was near the close of the ''wooden age" of Oregon's industries; when wood was used wherever it was possible. During my first harvest in the Willamette Valley, I began to take practical lessons in the severest kind of field labor— that of binding wheat in its own straw. My teacher cut, and I bound after him, one hundred and eleven acres during the harvest, and under his advice I purchased from Mr. David Carter the claim to the original Methodist Episcopal Mission site, taking him in as my silent partner. It would have been a good business move if my knowledge of farming had been equal to Henry Williamson's, who himself was under promise to return to Indiana to meet in marriage a worthy helpmate, who, as the issue indicated, was wearing her life away in anxiety for his safety. I could not reconcile myself to assum- ing the responsibility of the care of his property, and making from the land the wheat I had promised to pay for it, and as an offer for 50 per cent advance and my obligation assumed was made before he began his preparations to return East, we sold and parted with mutual good will. Having fortunately gained the good will of Mr. Carter, I