As I have before stated, the course of settlement and development in the Calapooia country was quiet and uneventful. The settlers were at first all poor, all subject to the hardships incident to living in a new country, shut off from many conveniences of an older community, and obliged to ascertain by experiment what crops paid best and how they were best handled. Currency was scarce in the settlement and wheat served to a large extent as a medium of exchange. When the men who had been drawn to the gold mines to seek their fortunes began to return with their gold dust there was a rapid advance in business and prosperity. The first newspaper of this locality was printed by George Dyson; the name and date I can not now give. The second was the _Informant_, printed, like the first, at Brownsville, and by a man named Stein. This was in 1886. In 1887 the _Express-Advance_ was started with the _Informant's_ plant and continued two years. The _Brownsville Times_ was started June 15, 1889, by McDonald & Cavendish. With several changes of editors this paper is still printed, the present proprietors being F. M. Brown and A. B. Cavender. The question as to why the first settlers came to Oregon is difficult to determine. It seems, however, from the very limited amount of direct testimony I have been able to get, that there were two forces which at least had a powerful influence, and these were, first, curiosity to see this great western country; and, secondly, the desire to pick out a good piece of land from the thousands of acres open to settlement here. ALBANY, Oregon, September 21, 1901. _Mr. Geo. O. Goodall, Eugene, Oregon_-- DEAR SIR: In compliance with your request I will write a short account of the early settlement of the upper Calapooia Valley and some of the annoyances with which the first settlers had to contend, and as I have to depend entirely on memory, I am aware that my account will be very imperfect and the more so as I am almost alone as one of the first settlers, and I believe the only one above Brownsville.