Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 13.djvu/366

 358 CLARENCE B. BAGLEY was the rule among business men to transmit their letters under the care of this company. The company bought government stamped envelopes and put its own stamps on them and charged more than one hundred per cent profit for the service, the government mail service at the same time escaping the charge for carrying an immense amount of mail matter that it col- lected full postage upon. Individuals engaged in carrying letters and light packages overland from Oregon to California in the early '50s and as a reward for their arduous and dangerous task received 50 cents an ounce for the contents of their pouches. In January, 1852, the Oregon Legislature passed a resolution asking the delegate to secure the location of a postoffice in each county seat and that a mail route be established to each one of them ; also that he "request" the Pacific Mail Steamship Company to comply with the terms of its contract, obligating it to leave mail at Umpqua City on the upward and downward trips of its steamships between San Francisco and the Colum- bia River. For 40 years that company observed no law, regu- lation or contract that was not to its liking. In January, 1853, the Honorable Matthew P. Deady, mem- ber from Yamhill, introduced a resolution that "the regular transportation of the mails from all parts of the territory and the states is a matter of vital importance to the whole people, and six weeks having elapsed since the meeting of the Legis- lature during which time but one mail has arrived at the capital, our delegate be requested to obtain such instructions from the Postmaster-General as would compel the Postal Agent in the territory to see that the mails are faithfully and punctually conveyed." To this Stephen Waymire added an amendment, "or that the present Postal Agent be removed." On this there was only one negative vote. My father lived in and near Salem from 1852 to 1860, and I retain vivid recollec- tions of many similar long delays. One winter the Columbia River was frozen for many weeks, so that the wooden steamers of that period could not break their way through and we were without news from the states for three long months. I am of the opinion it was this winter of 1852-3.