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&mdash;The name Oregon was long applied to all the territory claimed by the United States on the Pacific coast, extending from lat. 42° to 54° 40' N. Under the treaty of 1818, the provisions of which were continued in 1827, it was jointly occupied by Great Britain and the United States till 1846, when the latter, by the N. W. boundary treaty, abandoned all claim to the country N. of the 49th parallel, and the name Oregon was restricted to the region S. of that line, to which in turn Great Britain renounced all claim. Though the coast of Oregon had been previously seen by various navigators, its history as known to civilized man may be said to commence with the discovery of the Columbia river by Capt. Robert Gray, who entered its mouth in the American ship Columbia from Boston, May 7, 1792, and gave the name of his vessel to the river. By the Louisiana purchase in 1803 the United States acquired whatever title France may have had to this region. The report of Capt. Gray led the administration of Jefferson to send an exploring expedition under the command of Captains Lewis and Clarke across the continent in 1804-'6. The expedition was successful, and gave the Americans an additional title to the country. In 1811 the Pacific fur company, of which John Jacob Astor was the leading member, established a trading post at the mouth of the Columbia river, and called it Astoria; but it was very soon sold to the Northwest fur company to save it from being taken during the war. The Northwest and the Hudson Bay companies, both British associations, for a while separate and afterward united, engaged in trapping and trading, kept many trappers and traders in Oregon until a recent period, for it was only in 1860 that their trading post at Fort Vancouver on the Columbia, a little above the mouth of the Willamette, was abandoned. The Hudson Bay company employed many Canadians among its trappers, and these formed for a long time the main body of the white population. Most of them took Indian wives and were the fathers of numerous half-breed children. In 1833 the emigration of Americans commenced overland, and previous to 1850 several thousand reached

Oregon. In 1848, 1849, and 1850, many of the settlers were drawn away by the gold excitement in California; but in the last named year many arrived from California in consequence of the passage of the &ldquo;donation law&rdquo; by congress, giving without cost 320 acres of public land to every person settled on such land before Dec. 1 of that year, and 320 acres more to his wife; and to those persons who should settle between Dec. 1, 1850, and Dec. 1, 1853, 160 acres to each man and 160 to his wife. Under this law 8,000 claims were registered in Oregon. Subsequently the discoveries of gold attracted many settlers. The first attempt at organized government was made in 1841, and resulted in the establishment of an executive and a legislative committee in 1843. In 1845 the legislative committee framed an organic law, which was approved by the people, for the provisional government of the country till the United States authority should be extended over it. The territory of Oregon was organized by the act of Aug. 14, 1848, comprising all the United States territory W. of the summit of the Rocky mountains and N. of the 42d parallel. The territorial government went into operation on March 3, 1849, upon the arrival of Governor Joseph Lane. The act of March 2, 1853, created Washington territory, comprising all of Oregon N. of the Columbia river toward the west and of the 46th parallel toward the east. In 1857 a convention called by the territorial legislature framed a state constitution, which was ratified by the people on Nov. 9 of that year; and by the act of Feb. 14, 1859, congress admitted Oregon into the Union with its present limits. The E. part of the territory was by the same act annexed to Washington territory. Oregon has been troubled with many Indian wars, the last one being the Modoc war in 1872 and 1873. (See .)—See &ldquo;The Oregon Hand-Book and Emigrants' Guide,&rdquo; by J. M. Murphy (Portland, 1873).  OREGON, a S. county of Missouri, bordering on Arkansas, drained by Eleven Points and Spring rivers, tributaries of the Big Black; area, about 1,650 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 3,287, of whom 4 were colored. It has an undulating surface and a fertile soil. The chief productions in 1870 were 15,363 bushels of wheat, 127,001 of Indian corn, 16,114 of oats, and 35,376 lbs. of butter. There were 960 horses, 747 milch cows, 2,319 other cattle, 3,153 sheep, and 8,951 swine. Capital, Alton.  OREGON RIVER. See.  O'REILLY, Alexander, count, a Spanish soldier born in Ireland about 1725, died in Spain in 1794. He entered the Spanish service at an early age, and was wounded in Italy during the war of the Austrian succession. He afterward served in the Austrian and French armies, reëntered the Spanish service, and was made a brigadier. He introduced German tactics into the Spanish army, and was sent to Havana, where he restored the fortifications