Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 37.djvu/96



A SURVEY of historical documents in Oregon, one of the projects of the WPA, was begun in February and will be conducted until May 15, 1936, under the supervision of Alfred Powers, dean of the extension division of the state system of higher education. The purpose and scope of the survey is set forth in the following announcement of the director:

"The purpose of the Historical Records Survey, which is being launched in Oregon and throughout the Union, under the Federal Writers Program of the WPA, is to discover, preserve and make accessible the basic materials for research in the history of our country. The survey will embrace, so far as possible, all things of historical value, including public records in the state capitol, county court houses, city halls and town houses, historical and pioneer societies, universities, libraries containing manuscripts of historical value and privately owned collections. It will be concerned with such things as old diaries, letters, maps, statuary, newspapers and published interviews with old-timers, photographs and paintings, furniture and farm implements. The variety of potentially valuable historical materials is virtually limitless. The survey in Oregon will also include material concerning the history of other states, as well as that pertaining exclusively to Oregon history.

"Field workers will be employed in all sections of Oregon and the success of the survey will depend to a great extent upon the cooperation of public officials and private citizens with these workers. Whoever wishes to report the existence of an historical manuscript, ledger, diary, etc., may either inform the field worker in his county, or communicate directly with the Historical Records Survey, Bedell Building, Portland.

"At the completion of the survey, the findings in Oregon will be published in a book by the state university press, according to present plan."

THE REPORT of the Oregon chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution on their work in historical research and the marking of historic sites shows a gratifying accomplishment. A marker was placed on the grave of Webley Hauxhurst, Trout cemetery, Tillamook. Yamhill Chapter, McMinnville, placed a tablet on a Kentucky coffee tree that was grown from a bean brought to Oregon from Mount Vernon in 1901. Champoeg Chapter, Newberg, marked the graves of two Oregon pioneers in the Goodrich cemetery, Dayton, and also secured a copy of the 1850 census of the county. David Hill Chapter, Hillsboro, dedicated a plaque on the Philip Harris bridge, honoring the builder of the first bridge across the Tualatin River at that point. Linn Chapter, Albany, is keeping a file of clippings on Oregon history. Many of the chapters are making records from gravestones in old cemeteries, and records from family Bibles.

Fort Stevens, at the mouth of the Columbia River, on the Oregon side, is to be restored as a historical monument by the federal government. The original fort was completed in 1864 and named for General Isaac I. Stevens, governor of Washington Territory, who had been killed in the Civil War, 1862.

The Sedgwick Woman's Relief Corps of Salem and Owen Summers Camp, Sons of Veterans, Portland, marked the graves of twenty-six