Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 11.djvu/358

 328 W. C. Woodward instances the way to the Columbia was made from some eastern state in three advances, as from New York to Illinois to Iowa ; West Virginia to Ohio to Missouri; or North Carolina to Tennessee to Missouri — and thence to Oregon. The signifi- cance of these facts will be noted presently. The distinctly agricultural population of the new community was largely middle western — principally from that part of the Mississippi Valley region limited by the parallels of latitude thirty-five to forty-two. The business or mercantile element in the new population came largely from New York and New England, and by sea, 1 as did also a part of the missionary element. 2 From the facts so far set forth, what can be deduced as to the general or composite character of the population which founded the distant state? First, those conditions spoken of as distinctive in its settlement are worthy of notice. The facts of geographic isolation and a land emigration may be taken together. The well-nigh appalling distance, taken into con- sideration with the difficulties and privations to be met over desert and mountains and the dangers from hostile Indians, " formed a selecting test of the kind of people who alone could come to Oregon." 3 The timorous and the weak were in a large measure eliminated. They gave way to the aggressive, the resolute, the venturesome, the resourceful, the physically fit; to the younger and middle aged. The distance and the length of time on the road, necessitated careful preparation in secur- ing adequate equipment. A good outfit meant an investment of several hundred dollars. This fact eliminated for the most part the indigent and extremely poor. The rich excluded them- selves and as a result we have a population between the two extremes, but below rather than above the middle line — moder- ately well-to-do only. iM. P. Deady, "Oregon History," pp. 39, 40. 2Mr. Himes finds that of Oregon's pioneer population, 6 per cent, came from New England, 50 per cent, from the Middle West, 33 per cent, from South of Mason's and Dixon's Line and 11 per cent, from 22 foreign countries, the great majority of the latter from the British Isles, Canada and Germany. 3TI10S. Condon, "Selection in Pioneer Settlement" in Oregon Historical Soci- ety Quarterly for March, 1900, pp. 60-65.