In 1867 Judge Cyrus Olney, who had succeeded to the claim of John McClure, formulated a plan to dispose of a part of this property at a uniform price per lot. This plan was known, locally, as the Olney lottery. Tickets were sold for $50 each, entitling the holder to a lot in the city and a chance to draw the "grand prize," which consisted of two lots and a house, the property now owned and occupied by Louis Kirchoff and situated on Twelfth Street, between Exchange Street and Franklin Avenue. The other lots were situated in different parts of McClure's Astoria. The plan then amounted to this: each ticket entitled the holder to a lot, though the location was a matter of chance, and a chance to win two lots and a house. Many lots were disposed of by means of this lottery. By 1870 the population of the town had increased to six hundred and thirty-nine, and the population of Clatsop County had increased from four hundred and sixty-two in 1850 to one thousand two hundred and fifty-five in 1870. Small sailing vessels and steamboats were running between Astoria and lower river points, and a regular steamer service was maintained between Portland and Astoria and between Portland and San Francisco. At this time it was customary for the ocean steamers to make the trip from Portland to Astoria during the day, and to tie up at Astoria for the night, and to cross the bar the next morning. Steamer day was the event of the week and was a source of considerable revenue to the merchants of the town. The Pioneer and Historical Society was organized in this city in 1871, and, as the name implies, its membership is limited to the pioneers of Oregon, and its object is to prepare and keep a record of the events in which the pioneers figured during the founding and development of the State. Many records were collected by the society, but for the most part have been scattered and lost, as have the books of its once valuable library. For several years past the society has had merely a nominal existence, but recently a movement has been started to reorganize the society, and to carry out the purposes for which it was founded, especially in the way of collecting local history. The _Astorian_, the successor to Astoria's first newspaper, _The Marine Gazette_, published during the sixties, was first published in 1873, and has been issued continuously since that time. Its influence in the upbuilding of the town can not be estimated. The early files of the paper are filled with articles encouraging new enterprises, setting forth the advantages of the town, and recording every new step in its advancement.