Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 25.djvu/400

 358 FRED LOCKLEY f father, Solomon Tetherow, was captain of one of the wagon trains that came to the Willamette valley in 1845. While in Dallas recently I decided to interview Mr. Tetherow. When I asked a fellow-townsman of Mr. Tetherow's at Dallas how to find Sam, he said: "Follow the road out toward the fair grounds till you come to a large house with a big walnut tree in front of it. That's Sam's place. Sam is apt to be there or thereabout. You will know Sam when you see him. You can tell a Tetherow as far as you can see him." I drove to the house with a wide- spreading black walnut tree in front of it, and found Sam piling his winter's wood in the woodshed. "I was just hoping some one would come and drag me away from the woodshed," said Sam. "Piling wood is too much like work on a day as pretty as this." We walked around to the front of his house and sat on the front porch. Sam's most visible and evident trait is good humor. "I have heard a lot from the old pioneers about your father, Sol Tetherow, and what a good man he was. Are you as good a man as your dad?" I asked. Sam gave a dry chuckle, and said, "That's a pretty hard question to start off with. Can't you lead off with a few easy ones and sort of work up to that one? It won't look well if I brag about what a good man I am, and, on the other hand, nobody likes to knock himself. As a matter of fact,, my dad was a pretty good man. He was capable as well as popular. They elected him captain of the wagon train when we came to Oregon in 1845. If you think it's any snap to run a wagon train of 66 wagons with every man in the train having a different idea of what is the best thing to do, all I can say is that some day you ought to try it and you'll change your opinion. Nearly 3,000 people came across the plains in 1845. Two wagon trains left from Independence. One of them was captained by Pres-