Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 17.djvu/371



REMINISCENCES OF MARTHA E. GILLIAM COLLINS 363

the same time the Postmaster-GeneralJ was authorized to con- tract for a mail route to run from Charleston, South Carolina, to the mouth of the Columbia River. The boats were to come six times a year via the Isthmus of Panama. For bringing the mail to Oregon once every two months the contractor was to be paid $100,000 a year. So as to make the service as near self-sustaining as possible Congress fixed the rate of postage on letters at forty cents an ounce. Father was appointed superintendent of postal matters for Oregon. Two postoffices were allowed for Oregon, one at Oregon City and one at Astoria. David Hill was appointed postmaster at Oregon City and John M. Shively at Astoria. Post routes were established from Oregon City by way of Fort Vancouver and Fort Nis- qually to the mouth of Admiralty Inlet, and the other route ran from Oregon City up the Willamette Valley and thro' the Umpqua valley and on to Klamath river. The routes were to be in operation by July 1st, 1847. The mail bags came by ship around the Horn and were delivered at our house. The postal keys were sent in care of some people coming across the plains and they were delivered at our house also, as well as father's commission as Oregon's first postal agent. I still have his commission. I am a great hand to save things of that kind.

"Right after the Indians killed Doctor and Mrs. Whitman and the rest at Wai-il-at-pu the provisional legislature told Jesse Applegate, A. L. Lovejoy and George L. Curry to raise the money to buy arms and equipment for the settlers so they could go and punish the Indians for the massacre. The set- tlers enlisted as soldiers, but the committee couldn't raise the money to buy the guns and powder and lead and other things. Governor James Douglas, the Chief Factor at Fort Vancouver, who had recently succeeded Dr. John McLoughlin, who had moved to Oregon City, told Jesse Applegate that he would furnish all needed equipment and take the signatures of Gov-

t Cave Johnson.