Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 14.djvu/50



42 LIEUTENANT HOWISON REPORT ON OREGON, 1846

right to the principal part of this site is claimed by an American named Welch; the other portion, including Point George, is claimed in like manner by Colonel John Maclure. Leaving Astoria, we ascend the Columbia eighty miles, and there enter- ing the Wilhammette, find, three miles within its mouth, the city of Linton, on its left or western shore. This site was se- lected by a copartnership of gentlemen as the most natural de- pot for the produce of the well settled Twality plains, and a road was opened over the ridge of hills intervening between the plains a'nd the river. It contains only a few log-houses, which are overshadowed by huge fir trees that it has not yet been convenient to remove. Its few inhabitants are very poor, and severely persecuted by musquitos day and night. Not one of its proprietors resides on the spot, and its future increase is, to say the least, doubtful. Eight or nine miles above Linton, on the same side of the Wilhammette, we come to a more prom- ising appearance of a town. It has been named Portland by the individual under whose auspices it has come into existence, and mainly to whose efforts its growth and increase are to be ascribed. This is Mr. F. W. Pettygrove, from Maine, who came out here some years back as agent for the mercantile house of the Messrs. Benson, of New York. Having done a good business for his employers, he next set about doing some- thing for himself, and is now the principal commercial man in the country. He selected Portland as the site of a town ac- cessible to shipping, built houses, and established himself there ; invited others to settle around him, and appropriated his little capital to opening wagon roads (aided by neighboring farmers) into the Twality plains, and up the east side of the river to the falls where the city of Oregon stands. Twelve or fifteen new houses are already occupied, and others building; and, with a population of more than sixty souls, the heads of families gen- erally industrious mechanics, its prospects of increase are fa- vorable. A good wharf, at which vessels may lie and discharge or take in cargo most months in the year, is also among the improvements of Portland. Twelve miles above we come to