Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/667

Rh Tramp printers were not common in those early days, and but few found their way to this then unknown region. The earhest one that there is any record of was a man named Turner. One evening in 1839, soon after the press was set up at Lapwai, Mr. Spalding was standing on the banks of the Clearwater, and was surprised to hear a white man on the opposite shore call him. He paddled across the river in a canoe to the stranger, and took him home. The man gave his name as above, that his home was in Canada, and that he had come from Saskatchewan on foot. Spalding, being somewhat incredulous, never learned his history. When Turner saw the printing office, he said, "Now I am at home." He assisted in arranging the plant and in making pads. Mr. Spalding translated passages of the Bible and several hymns for the Sunday school in the Nez Perce tongue, and Turner set them up. He was qviite attentive to his work and remained all winter. Mr. Spalding had planned to have con^idorable printing done, and had arranged to pay Turner wages, but he suddenly disappeared and was never heard of afterward.

The next printers to appear at Lapwai were Medare G. Foisy and Charles Saxton, both coming across the plains from Saint Louis in 1844. But little is known of Mr. Saxton, as he returned to "the states" the following year and published a journal of his trip across the plains, giving a description of Oregon, and dwelling at length upon the importance of the country claimed by the United States upon the north Pacific coast.

Mr. Foisy was a French Canadian by birth, a son of an affluent leather merchant, and was born at Quebec in 1816. After receiving a practical education in the French schools of his native city, at the age of sixteen he was sent to an English school in Vermont for a short time. His father desiring that he should learn the leather business, kept him about the tannery and store for eighteen months. This proving uncongenial, and having a desire to acquire a knowledge of printing, he learned the trade in a French office. Determining to acquire a knowledge of English, he left home early in 1837. and worked in a Cincinnati office a short time, then in the Louisville Journal office two months, and that fall went to St. Louis, where he obtained a situation on the Republican, remaining imtil the close of 1843, when he gave up his job to prepare for the overland trip to Oregon, and arrived at Spalding's mission at Lapwai as above stated. He worked in the mission printing office nearly a year, and in December, 1845, went to French Prairie. The following spring he was elected a member of the legislative committee from Champoeg county—changed to Marion county in 1850. Soon after, he concluded to visit Canada, and started thither by the way of California and the Nicaragua route. On reaching California, his homeward journey was temporarily given up. Here he met the northwestern limits of the Mexican war, and saw considerable active service under Fremont. For a time he was the alcalde of Monterey, and worked on the first newspaper printed in that place. When peace was declared in February, 1848, Mr. Foisy once more started for his home via Central America, but was blockaded in the port of San Bias, Mexico. Soon he was relieved by Captain Bailey of the United States navy, and taken back to Monterey. Here he remained until after the delegates to form a state constitution were elected. In that exciting event, he took an active part against the spread of slavery. The years 1849 and 1850 were, for the most part, spent in the mines, and in the fall of the latter year he gave up his contemplated trip to Canada, and returned to Oregon, bought a farm near the present site of Gervais, and became one of the principal farmers of that region, and was highly respected by all who knew him. He died in 1879.

The next that is known about this mission press is in June, 1846. A number of parties living at Salem, among them Dr. W. H. Willson, Joseph Holman, Mr. Robinson, Rev. David Leslie, J. B. McClane and Rev. L. H. Hudson, desiring to issue a paper, sent Mr. Alanson Hinman, then a teacher in Salem, on horseback to Whitman mission, to secure it for the purpose indicated. Dr. Whitman was willing that it should be used, but referred the matter to Mr. Spalding, at