Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 2.djvu/514

508 of the republican leaders of Portland and has served as assistant chief clerk of the Oregon senate, to which position he was appointed in 1901, while in 1907 he was made chief clerk of the senate. Strong and forceful in his individuality, although one of the younger men of Portland he is leaving his impress upon the legal and political history of the city.

Ask any of Oregon's pioneers concerning Mrs. Charlotte Moffett Cartwright and they will tell you of one who from the period of Portland's early development has taken an active and helpful part in the promotion of the civilization of the northwest; ask any connected with benevolent work and they will tell you that Mrs. Cartwright has been a leading factor along many lines of charity, yet she modestly disclaims any recognition for what she has done in these directions. Her good deeds have been the outpouring of a generous spirit and the expression of a nature that in its interests reaches out to all humanity.

Mrs. Cartwright was born in Chicago, Illinois, only five years after the city had been incorporated, her natal day being December 21, 1842. Her parents were James and Sophronia (Kurd) Terwilliger, the former a native of Holland and the latter of Scotch descent. They continued their residence in Chicago until May, 1845, when they started with their four children on a long trip across the plains to Oregon, being members of the party that took the Stephen Meeks "Cut-Off," thinking thus to find a shorter and more speedy route through to the northwest. The company became lost in the mountain wilderness, however, and death and destruction threatened them before they found their way again to the beaten path. Like many others, Mrs. Terwilliger was prostrated by the perils and hardships of the westward journey and survived only a few days after they reached The Dalles. The father with his little family continued on his way down the Columbia and up the Willamette until he arrived at the present site of Portland in November, 1845, and erected the first dwelling—a log cabin—on the immediate site of the city, which was founded in 1847.

The name of Charlotte Terwilliger is found on the roll of the first pupils of the first school taught in Portland. Her girlhood was passed amid the wild scenes and environment of pioneer life here in the little city that was built along the river front and was extending, as the population increased, across the lower levels and on to the surrounding hills. The most farsighted would not have dreamed during the period of her girlhood that Portland Heights and other heavily timbered regions would one day become the most beautiful residence district of the little city. Even at the time of her marriage Portland gave little evidence of the growth to which it has since attained.

It was on the 12th of April, 1860, that Charlotte Terwilliger became the wife of Walter Moffett, a young Englishman, who had prepared a home for his bride on Seventh street, where he later erected the house since owned and occupied by his family. The home has ever been open to all who sought its portals, especially to young men and young women, by whom its kind mistress was affectionately called "Mother Moffett." Even children, too, found shelter here and at the same time the most loving care and attention was given to the rearing of her own children—a daughter and five sons—of whom but two are now living, James and William. In 1862 the Moffett family went abroad and traveled for two years in France and the British Isles, spending much of the time, however, at Mr. Moffett's childhood home on the merrie isle, where his mother still lived. Mr. Moffett was a shipmaster and much of his life was passed on the sea. While away from home on a long voyage in 1878, he embarked upon the longer voyage to "that undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveler returns." His remains were brought back to his Portland home for interment and now rest in Lone Fir cemetery beside his three sons and one daughter.