Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 13.djvu/365

 COMMUNICATION IN EARLY OREGON 357 Gilliam, of Oregon, was appointed postal agent for the Oregon Country. He was clothed with plenary powers to appoint post- masters and manage the postal affairs of the then Pacific Northwest. John M. Shively* was appointed postmaster at Astoria, and William G. T'Vault at Oregon City. During the so-called Cayuse War that followed the Whitman massacre, Colonel Gilliam commanded the Oregon forces, and in March, 1848, was accidentally shot and killed at Well Springs, Uma- tilla. In the archives of this society are several very interest- ing official communications from the postal authorities at Washington to Mr. Gilliam. One of them did not reach Ore- gon until several months after his death. After the close of the Mexican war and the cession of California to the United States, a postal agent to reside at San Francisco was appointed by the United States mail authorities and clothed with the same power that had formerly been conferred upon Colonel Gilliam. He appointed postmasters at Portland, Oregon City, Salem and Corvallis, but not until June, 1850, did a mail steamer come up the Coast, but even then the visits of steamers were few and far between until in 1851. The steamer Columbia arrived from New York with mails and passengers in March of that year. Her schedule between San Francisco and Portland was once each month. The carrying of mails in the early days was a matter of great expense and exceeding difficulties and by land was at- tended with danger from storms, floods, wild animals and Indians. On the same steamers that brought the first mails were ex- press messengers. The Adams Company opened an office in Portland in 1852, but gave up the field to Wells, Fargo & Company in 1853. Until the formation of an express company by the managers of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company soon after the completion of that road in 1883, Wells, Fargo & Company had a practical monopoly of the express business of the Pacific Coast. If "safety and celerity" were desired it by Jacob Collgmer, Postmaster-General,
 * Mr. Shively, the first postmaster west of the. Rocky Mountains, wae appointed