Eugene, Oregon

“ The leading events in the history of Eugene were humble and undramatic occurrences. Yet the fact that they appealed to the Native Daughters bespeaks for these a higher order of patriotism than would a similar re- sponse if there had been something more dramatic and con- spicuous to commemorate.
The conditions are simply these a community that is going to move onward and upward in its civic life must honor what was best in its past. It must build on that best. To ignore it is to make a failure. To gain in community strength and character it must live a consecutive life. ”

“ He was born in Illinois on December 14, 1897, the son of a country physician who was also well known in his day as a poet in the Middle West. After his father's death he came with his mother to Eugene and attended the Eugene High School three semesters between 1913 and 1916. In Chicago, in 1919 and 1920, after giving up his music, he attended high school for another year, then for two years worked as a clerk in that city. In 1922 he returned with his mother to Oregon, settling at Gardiner. ”

“ High honor it was in his own country, and does it not appear that it was Eugene City rather than Lon don that first discovered him—only the London dis covery had more weight and influence? After the lat ter city made him famous, the same paper that con tained all this praise and prophesy, the Eugene City Guard, reprinted on August 12, 1871, from the Al bany Democrat, an editorial of merciless attack, under the caption "Such is Fame ! " C. H . Miller, ex-editor of the Eugene Register, and ex- County Judge of Grant County, has published a book of poems and become a man of fame in London. ”

“ Eugene is one of the best advertising towns in the west. Practically every business man in the city is sold on newspaper advertising. The field is highly developed. The butchers and grocers, who a few years ago would not look at an advertising- man, now use space regularly. ”

“ No one pioneer year could be designated on the tablet because the Columbia River was a highway for explorers, traders and missionaries many years before the advent of the ox-team pioneers.
Near Eugene, three and one-half miles southeast, at Coryell Point, the confluence of the Coast Fork and Middle Fork of Willamette River, the Old Oregon Trail is marked by a monument erected by Lewis and Clark Chapter, of Eugene, Mrs. Edna Prescott Datson, regent, and dedicated March 10, 1917. The tablet reads: "Coryell Pass, Oregon Trail, 1846." ”

“ The people of Eugene must at this time see the importance of erecting a building suitable to the carrying on of a graded school and extending the facilities in such a manner that the people of Lane County may know that they have a perpetual school at their county seat, where they may arrange to send their pupils to a model school at home among relatives and friends at a much less expense than must follow their going off to attend boarding school to places of much less notoriety in everything else except the interests of education than Eugene. ”

“ The poet had been gone for some time—the light that had still shone at odd moments in his dreaming eyes was a gracious and lingering radiance from the past. His grave is in the Lone Fir Cemetery in Portland.
He had two sons, Eugene and Claude, both of whom are now dead, and he has no descendant living. Other men leave an affectionate and influential lineage to carry on propaganda for their fame but, with his family extinct, he has only the friends of his poetry to keep alive his memory ”

“ It is not surprising, therefore, to find in Eugene, during the first twenty years of her history, a great number and variety of private schools, ranging all .the way from a college to a kindergarten, or school for very young children, kept by a good woman in her own home. ”

“ It is interesting to note that the presence of the university in Eugene is used as an argument in favor of the building project. "We cannot go before the legislature with very good grace and ask for state aid for the university when we do not show enterprise enough to have a decent, respectable district schoolhouse." ↑ While the school was not yet wholly free, it was nearly so. In 1878 the directors asked the patrons to pay a rate of fifty cents per quarter for each pupil. ”

“ The population is between nine and ten thousand. Extending from the Cascade Mountains to the ocean, Lane county comprises a variety of topographical features, including the foot-hills of Calapooya Range, and the rougher hill land of the Coast Range, with the level surfaces of the Willamette plains. Its productions partake of this variety. Besides grains, vegetables, fruits, and dairy produce, it is the largest hop-producing county in Oregon, the crop of 1882 selling for a million dollars. Eugene City, the principal town, was founded in 1847 by Eugene Skinner. ”

“ In extending our circulation radius, as we do from time to time, we determine upon communities that ought to trade in Eugene, and then make an intensive campaign in thee communities. We believe implicitly that the most effective trade missionary in existence is the daily newspaper, and we go on the theory that people whose everyday reading is Eugene news and Eugene advertising will be quite certain to do most of their trading in Eugene. ”

“ Among the educators of the pioneer days of Oregon, Professor E. P. Henderson is entitled to honorable mention. He came to Oregon while it was still a territory, and was engaged in his vocation as an instructor of Oregon youths for many years.
His first engagement, in the line of his profession in Oregon, was as principal of Columbia college, an institution which flourished at Eugene in the late fifties and early sixties of the last century. ”

“ One of Thompson's memorable achievements with his Eugene Guard was his successful campaign for a better school house for Eugene. For five months [9] he kept up a continuous battle, bringing on a business men's boycott that threatened the paper's existence. A skunk (it appears) had come up through the floor of the old schoolhouse and driven teachers and pupils away from there. The business men didn't relish repeated references to the odoriferous conditions surrounding early education in Eugene, and the taxpayers recoiled from the prospect of putting up a new building. ”

“ As the result of changes ordained by the sterling men and women who had come on the serious business of home making. Oregon produced more standard literature in fifty years than the original Thirteen Colonies produced in the same length of time; and according to area and population there can scarce be found in the Union, more universities, colleges, academies, high schools, churches and other refining forces than there are withm the 1 30 miles lying between Eugene and Portland.
As Massachusetts is the mother of New England, so is Oregon the mother of the Pacific Northwest. ”

“ Oregon City, Salem, Corvallis, and Eugene. We have already learned that the capital was located at Oregon City and then at Salem; and now we are about to see how it happened that Corvallis and Eugene, each in its turn, came nearly being chosen as the permanent capital. January 13, 1855, a bill was passed by the legislature removing the seat of territorial government from Salem to Corvallis, [5] and the university from Corvallis to Jacksonville. Since work had already been commenced on the public buildings at Salem, opposition to the change was very strong. ”

“ He took another A.B. and another A.M. at the University of Oregon in 1910 and 1911, after an interlude of two years as editor of the Polk County Observer, where he began writing newspaper verse. At the University of Oregon he was editor of the Oregon Monthly, to which he contributed a college story, "The Revival of Learning", which is still remembered by many alumni. He left Eugene in 1911 to become a reporter on the Oregonian, and soon after wards began a column in that paper called "Gleams Through the Mist", in which Nescius Nitts of Punkindorf Station frequently appeared. ”

“ There will be many days on the road when such a respite will be very welcome, especially to the feminine members of the party. Excepting Portland, there is no large city in the territory covered by our tour; indeed, in California, north of San Francisco and Sacramento, there is no town larger than Eureka, with perhaps fifteen thousand people, while Eugene and Salem in Oregon and Reno in Nevada have approximately the same population. ”

“ Editor Morning Register, Eugene.
Eugene is often referred to as the best newspaper field in Oregon—excepting, of course, the city of Portland—and many have been kind enough to say that The Register has made an unusual success as a morning newspaper in a field of this size. Therefore, I am very glad to respond to Mr. Turnbull's request for a few words about how we "get away with it." ”

“ The bill to create and locate the State University passed both houses and was signed by the Governor; and also the bill authorizing the county court to levy a tax on the assessable property of the county for the aid of the people in raising the remaining $30,000 to secure the university, passed the legislature and was signed by the Governor. The question of the location of the site of the University in Eugene was a source of much contention. The people living in the west end of the town wanted it located near them, while those living in the east end wanted it there. ”

“ When he wanted anything he did not blow a trumpet or make a loud noise, but went around quietly and talked to senators privately, and usually got what he wanted.
In 1872 the Legislature of Oregon met in the summer or fall when Congress was not in session. I came home to Oregon and remained in Salem during the entire session, working for the election of John H. Mitchell for U. S. Sena- tor, the act to locate the University of Oregon at Eugene, and the act to build the locks at the falls of the Willamette at Oregon City. ”

“ His brother, however, took charge of the church at Salem. The first episcopal school for boys was opened this year at Oswego, under the management of Bernard Cornelius, who had recently taught in Olympia, and was a graduate of Dublin university. Seventy acres of land, and a large dwelling-house, pleasantly situated, were purchased for this purpose. James I. Daly was ordained deacon in May, giving a slight increase to the few workers in the field. St Mary's church at Eugene City was consecrated in January 1859 by Bishop Scott ”

“ By the constitution the membership was restricted to "such inhabit- ants of Lane County as shall sign this constitution, pay one dollar, and comply with the by-laws and regulations of the society." At a meeting a few weeks later it was voted to hold the first fair on October 11-12, at Eugene, and provision was made for awarding $80.75 in premiums, to competitors in twelve different classes, viz. : Stallions ; mares and colts, and colts ; matched and single horses; cattle; sheep; swine; HISTORY OF STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 325 butter ; cheese ; field crops ; garden productions ”

“ Having now obtained full control, and being more ardent than prudent in his pursuit of business and pleasure alike, Holladay pushed his two roads forward rapidly, the Oregon and California being completed to Albany in 1871, to Eugene in 1872, and to Roseburg in 1873. The Oregon Central was opened to Cornelius in 1871, and to St Joe in 1872. These roads, although still merely local, had a great influence in developing the country, inducing immigration, and promoting the export of wheat from Willamette direct to the markets of Europe. ”

“ Trials of the Trail—Pedestal the Pioneer Mother, Eugene
disponding believed we would never get out of that kenion. it was very coald and raining and without fire our chance to survive was truly bad. I got stride of a dry fallin tree with a dry lim began to rub violently called Barlow to help, we set fase to fase on the log with a blanket over our heads and both took hold of the stick and rubed with all our power until the place was very warm then laid matches on the place to dry. in this way we succeeded in drying the matches so we got fire. I worked all night getting wood and keeping fire. ”

“ Together with the Coast Region, it contains some of the finest stands of marketable timber now remaining in the United States, making lumbering an important industry. Manufacturing covers a wide variety of products, many of which have a national distribution. The region enjoys a mild climate and abundant rainfall, and has an excellent network of highways, railroads, waterways, and airways. Scenically, it is considered by many travelers to be one of the most beautiful in the West. Portland, Oregon City, Salem, Albany, Corvallis, and Eugene are the principal towns of the Willamette Valley. ”

“ The spot to be marked is the one where the first trial by jury was held. On this point, the old settlers have many and different opinions. For this reason, we beg your kindly indulgence while we review briefly the first three sessions of district court held in Eugene. The following facts are copied from the official court records now on file in the county clerk's office : The first session of "District Court of the United States in and for the county of Lane in the Second Judicial District of the Territory of Oregon, begun at Eugene City in said county, on the 15th day of March 1852. ”

“ We have seats and desks for one hundred or more pupils. We have a pair of excellent globes and some twenty-four nice charts for the use of the school in the different departments; we have also several fine maps which we shall soon place in the schoolrooms. Now it is for the citizens of Eugene and the surrounding country to determine whether they will patronize and build up a good permanent school, or whether they will continue to run after something new. 'I speak as unto wise men ”