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
Governor L. F. Grover was elected Governor of Oregon for two consecutive
terms. He resigned during his last term to be an United States Senator,
to which latter office he was elected. He is now living in Portland, at
an advanced age. On the fourteenth of September, 1905, he gave me a
written statement of an incident which occurred in the last sickness of
Dr. McLoughlin. In this statement Governor Grover said that he was
riding on horseback through Oregon City on his way from Salem to
Portland, and passed down the street directly in front of Dr.
McLoughlin's home, a few days before his death. As Governor Grover was
giving directions for the care of his horse, a messenger came to him
from Dr. McLoughlin requesting Governor Grover to call at Dr.
McLoughlin's house. Governor Grover says: "I found him extremely ill....
He said that he was dying by inches. He said: 'I shall live but a little
while longer and this is the reason I sent for you. I am an old man and
just dying, and you are a young man and will live many years in this
country, and will have something to do with affairs here. As for me, I
might better have been shot'--and he brought it out harshly--'I might
better have been shot forty years ago.' After a silence, for I did not
say anything, he concluded: 'than to have lived here and tried to build
up a family and an estate in this government. I became a citizen of the
United States in good faith. I planted all I had here and the government
has confiscated my property. Now what I want to ask of you is that you
will give your influence after I am dead to have this property go to my
children. I have earned it as other settlers have earned theirs, and it
ought to be mine and my heirs.' I told him I would favor his request,
and did."
_Justice to Dr. McLoughlin's Memory._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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