Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/259



With the establishment of the provisional government, the few scattered American settlers took heart and began to think that it was really safe to plant some permanent stakes with a view of remaining in Oregon as a permanent home. The Methodist missionaries had, it is true, prior to that time, made some settlement in the Willamette valley and at Oregon City. But such as it was, it could hardly have been at that time considered a permanent settlement, as the settlements at both places were subsequently moved to Salem.

The first settlement in the district covered by this history was made at Vancouver in 1825, by the Hudson's Bay Company. The next within this district was also by the Hudson's Bay Company at Oregon City, in 1829. In 1832, Dr. John McLoughlin, chief factor for the Hudson's Bay Company, blasted out and constructed a mill race to conduct the water from above the Willamette falls to a point below the waterfall, to be used in a mill to grind wheat into flour. This was the first work to start a business and manufacturing enterprise in this district. In 1838 McLoughlin had timbers cut and squared and hauled to the ground for the mill, and built a house at the "falls." Several families settled at the "falls" in 1841 and 1842, and in 1843 Dr. McLoughlin surveyed off a mile square of land, and platted the town of Oregon City. This was the first town in Oregon, and the original rival to Portland.

Another location for a city, made in some respects anterior to Oregon City, was that of Nathaniel J. Wyeth at the lower end of Sauvie's Island, known in 1835 as Wapato Island. Wyeth was an enterprising young business man of Boston with considerable capital, and had been induced to launch a great trading and colonizing scheme to Oregon by the writings of Hall J. Kelley. Wyeth arrived in Oregon in September, 1834, having left Fort Hall on August 6th with a party of thirty men, some Indian women and one hundred and sixteen horses. On reaching Fort Vancouver, with Jason Lee and others, the first Protestant religious services in Oregon or west of the Rocky mountains were celebrated. Wyeth took two of his scientific men in a small boat and started down the Columbia to find a good location to build a city. The party passed down and around Wapato Island, and finally decided to locate the future great city of the Pacific at the lower end of the island where his ship, the May Dacre, had tied up after reaching the Columbia and sailing up the river. This spot