Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/273

Rh legislators, nor did Lane lend himself to the scheme farther than to present the memorial to congress. On the contrary, he wrote to the Jacksonville malecontents that he could not approve of their action, which would, as he could easily discern, delay the admission of Oregon as a state, a consummation wished for by his supporters, to whom he essayed to add the democrats of southern Oregon. Nothing further was thenceforward heard of the projected new territory.

Nothing was more indicative of the change taking place with the introduction of gold than the improvement in the means of transportation on the Willamette and Columbia rivers, which was now performed by steamboats. The first steamboat built to run upon these waters was called the Columbia. She was an oddly shaped and clumsy craft, being a double-ender, like a ferry-boat. Her machinery was purchased in California by James Frost, one of the followers of the rifle regiment, who brought it to Astoria, where his boat was built. Frost was sutler to the regiment in which his brother was quartermaster. He returned to Missouri, and in the civil war held a command in the rebellious militia of that state. His home was afterward in St Louis. Deady, in McCracken's Portland, MS., 7. It was a slow boat, taking 26 hours from Astoria to Oregon City, to which point she made her first voyage July 4, 1850. ''S. F. Pac. News, May 11, July 24, and Aug. 1, 1850; S. F. Herald, July 24, 1850; Portland Standard'', July 8, 1879.

The second venture in steam navigation was the Lot Whitcomb of Oregon, named after her owner, built at Milwaukie, and launched with much ceremony on Christmas, 1850. She began running in March following. The name was selected by a committee nominated in a public meeting held for the purpose, W. K. Kilborn in the chair, and A. Bush secretary. The committee, A. L. Lovejoy, Hector Campbell, W. W. Buck, Capt. Kilborn, and Governor Gaines, decided to give her the name of her owner, who was presented with a handsome suit of colors by Kilborn, Lovejoy, and N. Ford for the meeting. ''Or. Spectator'', Dec. 12, 1850, and June 27, 1851. She was built by a regular ship-builder, named Hanscombe, her machinery being purchased in San Francisco. ''Deady's Hist. Or., MS., 21; McCracken's Portland, MS., 11; Brigg's Port Townsend, MS., 22; Sacramento Transcript, June 29, 1850; Overland Monthly'', i. 37. In the summer of 1853 the Whitcomb was sold to a California company for $50,000, just $42,000 more than she cost. The Lot Whitcomb was greatly superior to the first steamer. Both obtained large prices for carrying passengers and freight, and for towing sailing vessels on