Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/730

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much patient, persistent and hard work has been demanded and freely given on the questions of destroying the garbage, securing pure water and pure milk, eradicating tuberculosis from dairy herds, providing sanitary school buildings, ex- purging contagious diseases from the school children, destroying the fountain heads of typhoid, organizing a state board of health, providing for a city physician and board of health, and the insistance of proper drainage of all parts of the city. No class of citizens have persistently advocated and insisted upon these reforms with higher motives and less selfishness than the doctors of Portland ; and the consequence is that Portland, Oregon, is about the healthiest place to live in the United States ; and the doctors should have due credit for it.

And without making preferential notice the public services of some of these men may be mentioned. Dr. Andrew Smith has in addition to an extensive prac- tice so well discharged his duty as a state senator as to become the favorite of a large portion of the republican party for the office of governor; although in no way seeking such favor or desiring such office. Dr. Smith undoubtedly stands high in the estimation of the political party he is affiliated with, and if called to serve the public in high station would be found faithful to his trust and zealous for justice and good government.

DR. GEO. F. WILSON.

Another man in the profession not called to public office, has rendered dis- tinguished service in another field of great public interest. After faithfully serv- ing the United States as an army surgeon for nearly ten years. Dr. George F. Wilson was directed by the secretary of war to accompany Lieut. Schwatka, in his second expedition to the Arctic regions. This was a severe trial of physical strength and endurance on the part of every man in the expedition, and especially on the surgeon, as he had to look out for the welfare and health of all others in the party to make sure they would get safe back to civilization from the hyper- borean regions of Alaska. Secretary Seward had bought Alaska of the Rus- sians for the United States, and handed over seven million dollars in gold for an unknown region supposed to be eternal ice and snow, and absolutely worthless. To find out where it was, and what it was, the government organized a reconnois- ance into the depths of Alaska. Frederick Schwatka, an Oregon boy from Salem, a graduate of West Point with a lieutenant's shoulder straps, was given command of the party because he had gone up into and beyond the furthest limit of former explorations into the far north ; had found and recovered the remains of the long lost Sir John Franklin, and safely returned with all his men and the relics of Franklin's ill-fated expedition. Here then were two Oregon boys, native sons ; one from Salem, and one from Portland, that were entrusted with the per- ilous duty of finding out whether Alaska was worth anything, or whether the Muscovite had sold Uncle Sam a "gold brick."

The party, consisting of the commander, surgeon, and seven picked men from the infantry service left Fort Vancouver in April, 1889, and sailed for Chilcoot inlet on the west coast of Alaska. Here they left the ship and took to the snow fields and mountains with two Indians and dog sledges to transport provisions. From Chilcoot the party struck directly east, crossing over the extreme north- west extension of the Rocky mountain range on to the headwaters of the Yukon. From that inland point the party worked slowly down the Yukon valley until they reached St. Michaels at the mouth of the great river, from whence they sailed on their return trip safely home without the loss of a man, being absent five months. The party composed the first white men to penetrate that unknown region, make reliable maps of it, and describe its character, geography and resources, giving names to everything but the Yukon river, and Mt. St. Elias. And while they did not discover the great coal, copper and gold fields of that region, they