Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/184

166 were already settled upon; to have the postal agent in Oregon instructed to locate post-offices and establish mail routes, so as to facilitate correspondence with different portions of the territory, instead of aiming to increase the revenue of the general government; to endeavor to have the mail steamship contract complied with in the matter of leaving a mail at the mouth of the Umpqua River, and to procure the change of the port of entry on that river from Scottsburg to Umpqua City. Last of all, the delegate was requested to advise congress of the fact that the territorial secretary, Hamilton, refused to pay the legislators their dues; and that it was feared the money had been expended in some other manner.

Several new counties were created at this session, raising the whole number to sixteen. An act to create and organize Simmons out of a part of Lewis county was amended to make it Thurston county, and the eastern limits of Lewis were altered and defined. Douglas was organized out of Umpqua county, leaving the latter on the coast, while the Umpqua Valley constituted Douglas. The county of Jackson was also created out of the southern portion of the former Umpqua county, comprising the valley of the Rogue River, and it was thought the Shasta Valley. These two new countries were attached to Umpqua for judicial purposes, by which arrangement the Second Judicial district was made to extend from the Columbia River to the California boundary.