meeting was called and a committee named to sell the grounds and improvements for the sum of the debt if it could. R. C. Geer was chairman, and I think Chas. Swegle and the writer served on this committee. I desired to avoid a sale if possible, and made a slight attempt at a second subscription, making a first essay with George H. Jones, of the Salem Sash and Door Factory. He said, "No, Mr. Minto, we gave liberally before, but I'll tell you what I would be willing to do. Make it a county interest to be held for fairs and militia musters, and we will willingly pay our share of the tax." I rode home nursing Mr. Jones' plan, almost sure Mr. Geer would make no written report. "I tried that night and wrote the following report: To the officers and members of the Marion County Agricultural Society: "Your committee finds parties willing to buy the grounds and improvements on which the last state fair was held for the sum of the present indebtedness on condition that fairs continue to be held there, and the owners of the grounds have control of the gate fees, but this, in the judgment of your committee, is not the best means of disposal. We would recommend an appeal to the county court for the simple business reason that if fifty farmers have to leave this county to attend the state fair in another county, at the cost of $10.00 each, $500 is taken out of circulation of this locality. If 500 farmers came to Salem and spend as much, $5,000 is left here." This is a low estimate of course. "The county court listened to reason and paid $3,000 of the debt, leaving $600 to be paid by friends of the proposition, $100 of which was paid by the Ladd & Bush Bank, and on the 3rd or 4th year the county court of Marion county presented the fair grounds to the State Agricultural Society on condition that a state fair be held on them consecutively for fifteen years. "Linn county had its full quota of public-spirited men; they bought and enclosed ground and held county fairs. They sent James H. Douthit and John Barrell as members of the Board of Directors; they found the condition of fifteen annual state fairs at Salem legally binding, and became steady friends of the State Agricultural Society. JOHN MINTO.” Secretary of the State Agricultural Society for the two most successful fairs of the first decade of its history. (Written from memory.) LEWIS AND CLARK EXPOSITION The following is the record: May 14, 1804, Lewis and Clark Expedition starts from St. Louis for Oregon. August 12, 1805, Lewis and Clark cross Louisiana Territory into Oregon Territory. November 7, 1805, the Expedition reaches mouth of Columbia river. March 23, 1806, Expedition leaves Fort Clatsop on return trip. April 3, 1806, reaches Linnton and camps on Portland suburb. April 7, 1806, reaches White Salmon river, and is seen by Indian boy, Tomitsk, yet alive, picture on another page. September 23, 1806, Expedition returns to St. Louis. Circular letter issued in May, 1891, by George H. Himes, secretary of the Executive Committee of the Columbia River Centennial Celebration Society, in which reference is made to the probable celebration of the Lewis and Clark Centennial in 1905. November 1, 1895, Daniel McAllen proposes Lewis and Clark Exposition to Henry L. Pittock. May 1, 1900, provisional committee of arrangements for Lewis and Clark fair, organized-J. M. Long-chairman. December 15, 1900, proposition for fair endorsed by Oregon Historical Society. February 21, 1901, endorsed by Oregon Legislature. October 15, 1901, Lewis and Clark Exposition Association incorporated. Capital, $300,000. January 21, 1901, stock all taken, H. W. Corbett elected president. February 14, 1902, capital stock of exposition company increased to $500,000. July 15, 1902, Guild's Lake chosen for site of Exposition. January 30, 1903, Oregon legislature appropriates $450,000 to Exposition. March 31, 1903, Henry W. Corbett dies. May 21, 1903, corner stone, Lewis and Clark monument in City Park laid by President Theodore Roosevelt. July 24, 1903, Harvey W. Scott elected president of Exposition company, and H. W. Goode, director general. February 8, 1904, U. S. Senate passed Senator Mitchell's bill appropriating $1,775,000 to the Exposition. April 8, 1904, congress passed bill providing $1,000,000 in souvenir Lewis and Clark gold dollar coins. May 3, 1904, ground-breaking ceremonies for construction of Exposition buildings. August 8, 1904, H. W. Scott resigns as President, and H. W. Goode elected his successor. May 1, 1905, Fair buildings completed on contract time. May 31, 1905, U. S. government building completed. June 1, 1905, Exposition opened to the world-all buildings completed: eclipsing all other Expositions on this point. THE SIZE OF IT The Lewis and Clark Exposition was shown in three United States government buildings-first class size. 13 Oregon state buildings-immense size. Seven other state buildings. Sixteen foreign nations participated in the Exposition, with large and wonderfully fine exhibits. Sixteen other American states participated in the Exposition with large exhibits. The total admissions to the fair were three million and forty thousand: of which 1,834,821 were paid admissions. The total income of the Exposition association was $1,517,222.61. Organization and construction accounts consumed $908,319.72; and operat ing expenses were $409,447.89; leaving a cash balance of $111,455; paying back to the stockholders 21 1-2 per cent on their stock; a financial result never attained by any other national Exposition. This exposition was the first financially successful National Exposition in the history of Expositions in the United States; and it put Oregon and its chief city on the map and before the world as no other, or any dozen other great events had; and gave the state, and the city of Portland, an impulse of prosperity which has never halted or slackened from the day its gates were closed down to the making of this record. The names whose loyalty, talent, genius and untiring industry contributed most to the success of the Great Fair are Henry W. Corbett, First President and Capitalist heading the promotion list with $30,000; Henry L. Pittock, proprietor of Oregonian advocating the cause and otherwise personally working day in and day out; Henry E. Dosch, Oregon commissioner to all other fairs and commissioned to solicit aid from other states and foreign countries; Henry E. Reed, secretary, general director of publicity and exploitation, who advertised the fair to the ends of the earth; and Daniel McAllen-the father of the Exposition-who roused and rallied everybody to action when the cause seemed to lag or halt for want of the spirit of progress or the sinews of war. CHAPTER XXI 1834-1912 THE MORAL AND EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES BUILDING THE STATE THE CHURCHES. AND CHURCH SCHOOLS-PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES-POETS, HISTORIANS AND PIONEER EDITORS-AUTOGRAPHIC HISTORY-THE GRANGE-DIVORCES, VICE AND CRIME. The settlement of Oregon by Americans was started by a wave of religious enthusiasm. Prior to the advent of Jason and Daniel Lee in 1834, Oregon had no place on the map of the world except that of a vast game preserve for the taking of the furry skins of wild animals. Its native Indian population of from fifty to eighty thousand had no standing or consideration whatever in the minds of civilized or Christian men prior to the mission of Jason Lee. To Spaniard, Englishman and American, all alike, the fur trade was the sole excuse for any action in relation to the vast territory known as Oregon. The historical incidents leading up to the planting of Christian missions in Oregon have already been related. But if the light and experience of the past seventy-eight years were reflected back on the religious missionary efforts to Christianize the heathen and establish churches and religions in Oregon, it might indicate that a vast amount of labor, effort and money had been expended without compensating results in the propagation of Christianity. At the time Jason Lee and Marcus Whitman voluntarily cast themselves out into the wilderness of Oregon two thousand miles from a Christian church and commenced their wonder making missions among the Pacific Coast Indians, the American people were practically nine-tenths professedly members of Christian churches. It is within the memory of the author of this book that the people of the western states in the year of the great gold discovery in California were fully nine-tenths members of the various churches. They are not so now. And in the states west of the Rocky mountains there is not one half of the people affiliated with the churches. It is not the purpose of this work to critically investigate the causes of this change. The accumulation of wealth, and from which came a provision for idle and luxurious habits in all directions, and the exploitation of secret societies-fraternal orders, so-called-has sapped the foundations of the Christian churches and broken down their ancient influences on the moral tone and unwavering fiber of human society and organized government. When the reader goes back to the decade between 1834 and 1844, and takes a look at the work of Lee and Whitman at short range, we see them confronted with trials, dangers and opposition that would have paralyzed all the college professor preachers of Oregon in 1912. To begin with, they found the Oregon |