Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 17.djvu/470



462 REVEREND EZRA FISHER

Oregon City, O. T., Sep. 6, 1852. Rev. Benjamin M. Hill,

Cor. Sec. A. Bap. H. M. Soc., N. Y. Dear Brother:

Having just returned from a tour of the Umpqua I hasten to give you a brief account of my tour. Leaving home on the 29th of Aug., I took a small steamer 267 for Champoeg, 268 a small village of some eight or ten houses, principally log built in French style, with two small stores. This town is situated on the east bank of the Willamette near the north extremity of French Prairie, 30 miles from Oregon City by water. I landed at 1 P. M. Being without a horse, I walked 18 miles. My way lay through the French Prairie in a south and southeast course, skirted first on the right and then on the left by beautiful glades of fir and branched oak, while the prairie is studded with fields of wheat standing in the shock, indicating a generous return to the labors of the husbandman. Spent the night with Br. Smith and was happy to learn from him that the church at French Prairie had secured the labors of Rev. John Rexford 269 one Sabbath each month. From this church my way lay through the up- per end of French Prairie six miles south across what is falsely called Lake La Bish, 270 a tract of rich marsh land about 200 or 300 yards in width and some 3 or 4 miles in length, forming the summit level between the Willamette and Pudding rivers, thence six miles through timber and

267 The first steamship traffic on the lower Willamette was in 1850, and from the summer of 1851 steamers became numerous. In 1852 a number were running on the upper river. Bancroft, Hist, of Ore., 11:256.

The first steam vessel entering the Columbia river was the Hudson's Bay Com- pany's steamer Beaver, in August, 1836; the U. S. steam transport Massachusetts arrived at Fort Vancouver May 13, 1849, for the purpose of landing United States troops the first in Oregon a company of artillery.

268 Champoeg was the oldest settlement in French Prairie, which was, in 'turn, the oldest settlement in the Willamette Valley. The derivation of the word is not certain, but is possibly "Sandy Encampment." Bancroft, Hist, of Ore., 1:72. F. V. Holman, Hist, of the Counties of Ore. in Ore. Hist. Soc. Quar. XIrai.

269 Rev. John Rexford was born in Canada, came from Illinois to Oregon in 1851, and died in Detroit, Mich., in 1880. Mattoon, Bap. An. of Ore. I:i6.

270 Lake La Bische has since been drained.