Dr. John McLoughlin, the Father of OregonHolman, Frederick V.
History
Dr. John McLoughlin, the Father of Oregon
Holman, Frederick V.
McLoughlin, John, 1784-1857; Oregon Territory -- History
To this request I assented, and at the same time
sent Dr. F. W. Tolmie to point out to the Rev. Mr. Lee the spot upon
which he might build. Up to this time, it should be observed that no
effort had been made to interfere with my claim, and no one called in
question my perfect right to make it. It should be borne in mind, too,
that I commenced improving in 1829, and that the missionaries did not
come here till 1834. To prevent, however, any future misunderstanding,
growing out of any occupancy of sufferance, I handed Mr. Lee a letter,
dated Vancouver, 21st July, 1840, in which I described the extent of my
claim, as embracing 'the upper end of the Falls, across to the Clackamas
Falls, in the Willamette, including the whole point of land _and the
small Island in the falls, on which the portage is made and which I
intend to claim when the boundary line is drawn_.' The words italicised
are not so in the original. I now do this to call attention to them. Up
to this time no one but myself claimed the island. Mr. Lee promised to
return the timber he procured to erect the building, with the wood thus
loaned Mr. Waller and family, who were placed in it by Mr. Lee. I gave
Mr. Lee permission to occupy, as a mission store room, a house I had got
erected for myself. Up to 1841 my claim to the island had never been
interfered with; in this year Mr. Felix Hathaway put some logs on the
island. I gave him notice of my claim, and erected a small house upon
the island. Hathaway finally proceeded with his building. I did not
forcibly eject him because I wished to preserve the peace of the
country. In the autumn of 1842, I first heard that the Rev. Mr. Waller,
as I was informed, set up a claim in conflict with mine, (not for the
Mission, but in his own name.) I subsequently bought off Mr. Waller, in
the same anxious desire to preserve the peace.
"In conclusion of this part of the subject I will remark that when Mr.
Waller requested Capt. W. K. Kilbourn, who resides in this place, to
assist him in putting up the logs which I had loaned to Mr. Lee, Capt.
Kilbourn said to him: 'I will not assist to build the house, if you
intend to set up any claim here.' Mr. Waller disavowed any such
intention.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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