Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 25.djvu/117

 to depict, and that Mr. Booth is a native of Oregon, having been born in Yamhill county in May, 1858, which in itself makes him a pioneer. His father was a true type of the pioneer missionary, a type fast disappearing. His name was Robert Booth. He was born in England in 1820; came to America with his parents in 1830; lived in and about New York six years and then went by steamer to New Orleans, up the Mississippi to St. Louis, and thence crossed the plains to Oregon by ox team with his wife and four children in 1852. He joined the Oregon Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1855 and remained a member until his death, July, 1917, at the age of 97 years. His last charge was Grants Pass. To paraphrase concerning the woman in Proverbs, "Let his own work praise him in the gates."

I feel that this occasion should not be allowed to pass without this very simple biographical sketch of the father of the donor.

In the selection of the artist to put into everlasting bronze his conceptions of what he desired to express, in the way of honoring and representing the Circuit Rider of the early days, Mr. Booth made no mistake in selecting Mr. Proctor. Mr. Proctor breathes the spirit of the West. He is true to its life and to its traditions. A western man himself, fond of all that makes it glorious, of its traditions, of its history, he has put into this group the very best that is in him.,, Fettered by no instructions, limited by no set designs, controlled by no preconceived notions, there was committed to him the task of expressing in bronze the high ideals the donor desired to commemorate and to perpetuate. I feel sure that you and all to follow you will feel that this great group is truly representative of those great and good men whose lives were devoted to the service of God and their fellow men.

In what I have said here, I do not think I have misconceived the meaning or scope of my subject. It would be difficult to exaggerate the importance of religion in the lives of the American pioneers and quite impossible with