Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 16.djvu/220



200 JOSEPH N. TEAL

guests : Governor L. F. Grover, Ex-Governor John Whiteaker, Major Philip Wasserman, Henry Failing, George R. Helm, Col. B. B. Taylor, Harvey W. Scott, Jacob Kamm, Lloyd Brooke, Capt. Chas. Holman, Capt. Jos. Kellogg, Capt. Chas. Kellogg, J. H. Hayden, Geo. T. Myers, John Marshall, S. B. Parrish, Bernard Goldsmith, my father, and other officers of the company. My father acted as host, and from what I have been told the guests suffered neither hunger or thirst. On reaching Clackamas Rapids it seemed as though it would be impossible for the little boat to surmount them. Try as it would, there it hung, until as luck would have it a strong gust of wind added just the necessary aid to push it over and victory was in sight. Oregon City was soon reached. Mayor Walker, Charles E. Warner, F. O. McCown, and others were taken aboard. The river was crossed, the lock gates opened and closed, the Maria Wilkins passed safely through, and the deed was done ; and since that day, more than forty-two years ago, the gates of the locks have swung back and forth as the steamers moved to and from the upper and lower river.

With the opening of the locks freights dropped fifty per cent almost at once. Boats were built, and the hey-dey of steam- boating on the Willamette was in full swing 1. Wheal was taken for the first time direct from the Willamette Valley to Astoria and there loaded in ships for Europe. But here again we find the pioneer did not reap the practical reward of his work. We will not dwell on this side of the subject, for after all the real reward and satisfaction in our work cannot be measured in money. Nor should the lesson we draw from this story be anything of a sordid nature. It is the spirit of our forefathers that we should emulate, and in which we should glory. Fortunes come and fortunes go ; but real service for others, service for our state, brings a reward and satis- faction that money can neither purchase nor measure. Today there is as much to do, and in as many directions, as there was forty or fifty years ago. There are more to do it, there is more to do it with ; but I sometimes fear the old spirit of