Hazel Mills

“ Ever a journalist, preferably a traveling correspondent, Mrs. Victor seized eagerly upon the governor's suggestion. Since as a journalist she had come to believe that "it is always interesting to know even a little about the origin of things," [8] she began to read avidly all she could find on Oregon's early history. Judge Matthew P. Deady became a helpful friend and opened his library to her. Also available was the collection of the embryo Library Association of Portland where Harvey W. Scott was librarian that winter. ”

“ In his Essays in Historical Criticism Bourne stated, "The propagation of the legend of Marcus Whitman is simply amazing, in view of the almost concurrent publication of Bancroft's Oregon, in which the true history of Marcus Whitman is told and the legend dismissed with a contemptuous footnote." ”

“ In May 1883 Bancroft sent Judge Deady and a few other men in Oregon who knew the state's history the proofs of Oregon I for criticism. A month later Mrs. Victor wrote Deady that she was glad he was reading the proofs and hoped that he would get those of Oregon II also, for in that volume there would be more occasion for corrections. Then she added some comments on Bancroft's editing of her work.
I find that Mr. B is given to make disparaging remarks not really necessary to the truth of history, of some of the most prominent men of early times, such as Pratt and Lane. ”

“ After a profitable month in Victoria, he visited the chief towns of western Washington and obtained much valuable historical material including extensive collections from James G. Swan and Elwood Evans. In Oregon he acquired considerable additional material and at the meeting of the Oregon Pioneer Society in Salem was able to take dictation from many pioneers in a few days' time. He had hoped to see Mrs. Victor, whose writings on Oregon he admired above all others, but she was away on a trip to the coast. ”

“ The question of the authorship of Bancroft's Works has been ably considered by Dr. John Caughey in his Hubert Howe Bancroft, Historian of the West. [39] The question is a most complicated one, for though Bancroft's assistants did write all but about ten volumes of the Works, they owed so much to the Bancroft Library, the organization of its materials for their use, and to Bancroft's master plan for the enterprise and his editorial supervision that is is difficult to claim without qualification the authorship of individual volumes for the staff members. ”

“ Mrs. Victor then left for her first trip to the Puget Sound country, going overland by stage—a long, light, open wagon with three wide seats—from Monticello to Olympia. Here she finally was able to examine Elwood Evans' superlative collection of material relating to the Pacific Coast—all the published works on the region and carefully preserved files of manuscripts and newspaper clippings. From Olympia she traveled down the Sound on the steamer Olympia which stopped at Seattle, Port Madison, and Port Ludlow. ”

“ Mrs. Victor moved to Portland in May 1870, but soon took off on a trip to The Dalles, Wallula, Walla Walla, and Lewiston. She was making new observations for her manuscript All Over Oregon and Washington, and daily adding to her historical lore. Of special interest on this trip was her visit to the site of the Whitman Mission where she talked with Cushing Eells, and to the Indian Agency at Lapwai where she met Perrin Whitman and Lawyer, a Nez Perce chief. ”

“ Mrs. Victor resigned from the History Company in May 1889, and soon returned to Oregon. She published Atlantis Arisen in 1891, and in 1892 was commissioned by the Secretary of State or Oregon to write the history of the early Indian wars in Oregon, which had been authorized by the Legislative Assembly. [53] However, she found it increasingly difficult to earn a living as a free-lance writer, which may have been one reason why after her resignation she began to present her claim in newspaper articles to the authorship of the volumes of Bancroft's Works that she had written. ”

“ Victor was engaged in writing the political and railroad history of California. By 1888 she was growing restive because of Bancroft's promotion scheme of publishing The Chronicles of the Builders of the Commonwealth. She did not approve of a money-making project where men paid large fees to be included, especially since Bancroft did not increase her salary for writing the biographies. She complained to Deady that Bancroft had never paid her more than $100 a month yet sent all the most difficult work to her desk. ”

“ Victor on Bancroft's cutting down of her manuscript on the history of Washington occur in a letter to Elwood Evans labeled confidential:
It was my wish, and judgement, that Washington should have a volume to herself. Mr. B. however, finding that his work was going to be so extensive, decided to cut it down (after it was written) and put it into the vol with Idaho and Montana. Still as the earlier hist. of Wash. is contained in that of Or. it is pretty full as it is. ”

“ Bancroft-there is such a mass of matter here that it will take a long time to wade through it. A good deal, however, is comparatively useless and not to the point. There are two things that I particularly want done. 1st Somebody to take the Oregon archives from the beginning to the formation of the State Government, and go through them with comments on the acts of the legislature, that is where an act was of sufficient importance to deserve comment. ”

“ Victor continued until at least 1886, and they freely ex changed ideas and information, even historical documents.
In November 1865 Mrs. Victor, writing to Evans, commented:
I am convinced we have very nearly the same understanding of the interest, the mores, and the romance of that history which attaches to the Northwest Coast. Your synopsis of subjects sounds almost as if I had been giving an outline of my own sections of history. It is true, however, as you say, that "the theory underlying our respective works may be widely different ”

“ Mrs. Victor first became suspicious of the story in 1870, but is was not until she began sifting the evidence on Oregon history in the Bancroft Library that she fully realized her error. Gradually she convinced Elwood Evans of the legendary nature of the Spalding-Gray account, and together they later fought the opposition in the newspaper columns. In December I879 she wrote Evans that "Dr. Whitman and his wife should have a monument ... ”

“ Bancroft's assistants. Last year I wrote or worked fifty-one weeks every day except Sundays from 8 o'clock in the morning until 6 in the evening, with one hour at noon for exercise and luncheon. This year I am doing the same .... I often wish to do something for myself... but have not the strength left. But I find time to write letters that concern my work-I write a good many to find out things, and put a good deal of material into the history which would not otherwise be there: in short, work just as conscientiously as if I were doing it for my own glory, and put into Mr. ”

“ By this time she had completed much of volume I of the History of Oregon, and to Elwood Evans she wrote: "I should be glad if you could go over some of my Oregon chapters—and you would be delighted. I have entirely and completely unravelled the tangles that troubled you (and me) in 1870. The whole story is as plain as A. B. C. You would enjoy the unfolding." [45]
While Mrs. Victor enjoyed her work, she found onerous the labor of writing original history. To Elwood Evans she also described the condition of her work for Bancroft:
I doubt if you would have the patience to work as one of Mr. ”

“ If you really seek truth go to her. Perhaps she will give you the benefit of her investigations-what she derived from me is now hers. I cannot object if she now gives you my autobiography. The lady is Mrs. Frances Fuller Victor of St. Helens. [15] Jesse Applegate did contribute much to Mrs. Victor's knowledge and interpretation of Oregon history. She especially made use of three extremely interesting, detailed letters he wrote her in October and November 1865, in which he described Dr. ”

“ And nothing to show for it! "All work and no pay." Through the kindness of Professor Young she did receive a small compensation, however, for some of her articles published in the Oregon Historical Society Quarterly. In addition to her historical writing she also found time to encourage young William A. Morris in his interest in history, and provided Professor Young and the Society with ideas for basic planning of the Lewis and Clark Exposition besides writing prominent historians in the East to ask for aid for a history building.
Always living life as it came and looking to the future, Mrs. ”

“ As the avowed author of Bancroft's Oregon, working under his editorial supervision, every student of Oregon history is under obligations to her for her scholarly and honest presentations of the facts derived from the unparalleled collection of materials gathered by Mr. ”

“ Of course I can see the act, but I cannot know the motive or the circumstances that prompted it. Who could do this for me?
2d I want biographies of all the men of any mark, in early times and later. How am I to get them? ... ”