CHAPTER XXXIV.
LAND AND LAND LAWS, RAILROADS, ROUTES, ETC.
To such persons as may be thinking of purchasing farming lands in Oregon and Washington, we address this chapter. It is useless to look for Government land in the Wallamet Valley. All that portion of the valley which is open prairie was taken up long ago, including the School land. All the good land in the foot-hills on each side of the valley is covered by railroad and other road-grants. Therefore, to get a farm in the Wallamet Valley, the purchaser must deal with the original claimants of the level prairie, or with the owner of the road-grants. Of the first class, land may be obtained at all prices, ranging from five to fifty dollars. Of the railroad companies, land may be purchased on favorable terms, where surveyed; and settled upon by pre-emption where unsurveyed—the companies standing in the place of Government toward the settler. Only one hundred and sixty acres can be taken by pre-emption, or sold to one person. At the offices of these companies are maps, and descriptions from the surveyor's notes, of every separate parcel of land, with its valuation, which ranges in general from two dollars and a half to twelve dollars per acre.
In the valleys of Umpqua and Rogue rivers, there is more land not yet taken up; still, not a great deal, except over toward the coast. But all along the coast are large tracts of Government land, principally timbered, with occasional small prairies and creek-bottoms, which can be purchased for one dollar and a quarter per acre.
In Western Washington, along the coast, and in the northern portion, as well as at some places near the Sound, there is plenty of public land. But the greatest bodies of public land are east of the Cascades, where millions of acres of excellent soil await settlement.
The Pre-emption and Homestead laws of the United States are as follows:
"Pre-emption.—Every person, being the head of a family, or widow, or single man over the age of twenty-one years, and being a citizen of the United States, or who shall have declared his intention to become a citizen, is allowed by law to make a settlement on any public land of the United States not appropriated or reserved. In the case of unsurveyed lands, legal inception by actual settlement will take place, but no proceeding toward completion of title can be had until after the land has been surveyed and the surveys returned to the District Land Office. The settler is obliged to erect a dwelling, occupy and improve the land, and make it his or her home. But no person can obtain the benefit of more than one pre-emption right, and no person who is the owner of 320 acres of land in any State or Territory, or who shall abandon his residence on his own land, to live on the public land, can acquire any right of pre-emption. Where the tract on which settlement is made has once been offered at public sale, a declaratory statement as to the fact of settlement must be made at the Land Office within thirty days from the date of settlement, and within one year from that date proof of residence and cultivation must be made, and the land paid for. Where the tract has been surveyed but not offered at public sale, the claimant must file his statement within three months from the date of settlement, and make proof and payment before the day designated by the President for the public sale of the lands.
The quantity of land allowed to one settler by pre-emption, is one quarter-section, or 160 acres, and the price to be paid, is $1.25 per acre, except in the case of alternate sections embraced in any railroad reservation, which is $2.50 per acre.
Should the settler die before establishing his claim within the period limited by law, the title may be perfected by the executor, administrator, or one of the heirs, by making the requisite proof of settlement and paying for the land.
'In the case of a settlement made on unsurveyed lands, the claimant must file notice of settlement within three months after the receipt of the township plat at the District Land Office, and make proof and payment as required in the case where surveys had been made previous to settlement.
Homesteads.—The Homestead Law gives to every citizen of the United States, or foreigner declaring his intention to become such, the right to a homestead on surveyed lands. This is conceded to the extent of one quarter-section, or 160 acres, of land not embraced within the limits of railroad or other reservation, or eighty acres, when the location is made on alternate sections embraced within such reserves. To obtain homesteads the party must make affidavit that he is the head of a family, or a single man over twenty-one years of age; that he is a citizen or has declared his intention to become one, and that the location is made for his exclusive use and benefit for actual settlement and cultivation. The fees and expenses connected with the location of a homestead in Oregon are twenty-two dollars when the full amount of land is taken, or eleven dollars if half the quantity allowed by law is located. On making the affidavit before the Register and payment of the fees, a duplicate receipt will be given, which vests an inceptive right in the settler, and upon faithful observance of the law, which requires continuous settlement and cultivation for the period of five years, and upon proper proof of that fact to the Land officers within two years after the time has expired, certificates will be issued as a basis of a complete title to the land.
Where a homestead settler dies before the consummation of his claim, the heirs may continue the settlement and obtain title upon requisite proof at the proper time.
A. homestead settler can not sell his claim until after his title is complete, but he can at any time relinquish his claim by surrendering his receipts, after which he is not allowed to make another settlement under the Homestead Law.
A settlement made under the Pre-emption Law may be changed to a homestead entry, if no adverse right intervenes.
If the homestead settler does not wish to remain five years on his tract, the law permits him to pay for it with cash, at the prescribed rates for claims taken by pre-emption, and upon proof of settlement and cultivation from date of entry to time of payment.
Lands obtained under the Homestead Law are exempt from liability for debts contracted prior to the issuing of a complete title by the Government.
Another method of obtaining Government lands is by 'private entry,' and applies only to such lands as have been offered at public sale and remain unsold. In this case payment in cash or land warrants can be made at once and a complete title obtained without delay, other than the time necessary to transmit the papers to the General Land Office and receive the patent in return. The price of land at 'private entry' is $1.25 per acre, except in the case of reserved sections: that is $2.50 per acre. At cash entry any quantity can be taken that is desired. In Eastern Oregon there is no land subject to 'private entry,' but in Western Oregon there is still a considerable amount.
There are three Land Offices in Oregon for the transaction of business connected with the disposal of Government lands: one at Oregon City, in the Wallamet Valley; one at Roseburg, in the Umpqua Valley; and one at La Grande, in Grand Ronde Valley, Eastern Oregon. The Surveyor-General's office is at Eugene City, in Lane County.
The Land Offices for Washington Territory are at Olympia, at Vancouver, and at Walla Walla."It is only in the List four or five years that Oregon has thoroughly realized the importance of railroads to progress. But since fully awakened, great strides have been made toward connecting this remotest State of the Union with California and the East. The first railroads built on the soil of Oregon and Washington were five miles of portage around the Cascades of the Columbia, about 1853, and fifteen miles around the portage at the Dalles, in 1862, by the Oregon Steam Navigation Company. The first was a rude tramway only, until the increasing business on the river made a locomotive railway justifiable and necessary.
In 1869 the Oregon and California Railroad, from Portland to Sacramento, was commenced; but so late in the season that but twenty miles of road were completed that year. The following year it reached Albany, seventy-eight miles from Portland, and in 1871 had been pushed as far south as Eugene City, at the head of the Wallamet Valley. By the time these pages are in print, it will have been completed to Oakland, in the Umpqua Valley, one hundred and eighty-two miles from the starting-point at East Portland. At the same time, it is advancing from the south, being now completed to Tehama, one hundred and twenty-three miles north of Sacramento. Thus the six hundred miles of staging between Portland and Sacramento are being rapidly reduced, so that in another year only a day of staging will remain to vary the monotony of railroad travel.
This road receives from the General Government a grant of land amounting to 12,800 acres per mile, and becomes proprietor of nearly all the unclaimed lands in the valleys through which it passes. By very just and equitable regulations, however, the owners of these lands, called "The European and Oregon Land Company," have placed it in the power of actual settlers to select and occupy homesteads on their lands, and pay for them on exceedingly easy terms.
The second great railway in Oregon is the Oregon Central Railroad, commencing at Portland, on the west side of the Wallamet, and running to Junction City, at a point between Corvallis and Eugene. This road will also control a large amount of land; and will have a branch to the Columbia River at Astoria, or at some point in Columbia County, or both, opening up a great extent of valuable timber, mineral, and farming lauds. Twenty miles of this road are completed, and the cars were running to Cornelius, between Hillsboro and Forest Grove, in January, 1872.
The third great road, which as yet is only projected, is from the Dalles to a point on the Union Pacific, near Salt Lake City. This road, when built, will command the trade of the rich mineral districts of Southern Idaho and Eastern Oregon. Another road is talked of, from the head of the Wallamet Valley, via Diamond Peak Pass, or thereabout, across the Klamath country and the Humboldt Valley, to a junction with the Union Pacific.
The railroads of Washington Territory are also making good progress. The Northern Pacific, traversing the continent, from Lake Superior to Puget Sound and the Columbia River, has already completed its first twenty-five mile section on that portion of the line between the Columbia and the Sound. This road has secured a grant from the General Government of land equivalent to 25,600 acres per mile through the Territories, and 12,800 per mile through the States. If by pre-emption, settlement under the Homestead Law, or other cause, the Company are not able to obtain the quantity of land per mile which its charter entitles it to, it may make up the deficiency outside the twenty-mile limit of its land-grant.
But this Company also, like "The European and Oregon Land Company," have so systematized and facilitated the business of land sales to actual settlers, as to make it even easier for a man to select land to his liking, than it would be without the Company's assistance. The terms offered are also easy and equitable.
The second railroad of importance in Washington Territory is that one now being built between Walla Walla and Wallula, on the Columbia River. This road will furnish an outlet for the Walla Walla Valley, adding greatly to its commercial importance and agricultural development. As the distance is only thirty miles, it is expected that this road will be completed during 1872.
These various railroads, together with the navigable waters of the Columbia and Wallamet rivers and Puget Sound, furnish, or soon will furnish, easy communication to and from almost every portion of Oregon and Washington. Only South-eastern Oregon, without navigable waters, is left to the slow locomotion of freight-wagons and stage-coaches. This, however, will not long remain so when the lines of road already commenced have drawn to themselves the population which they are sure to bring. As the circles ever widen on the water where a stone has been dropped, so the ever-widening waves of population will succeed where great railways penetrate a fertile country with a genial climate, and agreeable scenery.
Two routes are open connecting Portland with the Pacific Railroad and the East. The first via the Oregon and California Railroad, and the Oregon and California Stage Company's line to Sacramento. The second is via the Columbia River and the North-western Stage Company's line. Passengers can leave the river at Dalles, or at Umatilla, and find coaches in waiting which take them across the country to Kelton on the Central Pacific, via Le Grand and Baker City in Eastern Oregon, and Boise City in Idaho. To the tourist this route offers many attractions, from the peculiar scenery of the Blue Mountains and the Snake River Valley. The cost of the journey either way is about the same; but the longer stage-ride by the latter route would cause it to be avoided by families and invalids.
From New York to San Francisco, by railroad, there are three classes of fares, ranging from $136 to $100, and $60. Sleeping-berths and meals are extra, making a first-class fare, with all the extras, cost about $180. But if passengers are provided with lunch-baskets, and dispense with sleeping-cars, and with baggage exceeding one hundred pounds, they need not spend much money over and above their fares. There is generally room enough, in the second and third-class cars, for those who are provided with a board of the proper length, to bridge the space between two seats, thus improvising, with a pair of blankets, quite a comfortable bed.
Arrived at San Francisco, the traveler has choice between the steamers of the North Pacific Transportation Company—paying a fare of $30 for first-class accommodations; or of $15 for steerage passage, meals and baggage free; or the overland route, by railway and stage, at $45 fare to Portland, and meals extra.
Those who prefer the steamer route from New York to San Francisco will find first-class fares ranging from $125 to $170; and steerage fare, $60. This includes all expenses, except such as might be occasioned by detention on the Isthmus.
Travelers and immigrants not coming to San Francisco, but bound to Montana, Idaho, and Eastern Oregon, will find stages awaiting them at Corinne, for Montana; and at Kelton, for Idaho and Eastern Oregon. Corinne is eight hundred and fifty-seven miles east of San Francisco; and Kelton seven hundred and ninety miles. The reduction of fare to immigrants would amount to between $20 and $30; and to first and second-class passengers in proportion. The stage-fare from Kelton to Umatilla, on the Columbia River, is $60, coin; time, four days; fifty pounds of baggage allowed; meals extra. Except in cases where immigrants are furnished with wagons and teams of their own, it is quite as cheap, and decidedly easier, to go to San Francisco, and thence to Portland by steamer. Persons living in the interior, away from the principal lines of travel, will find it to their advantage to send to New York, Chicago, or Omaha, for through tickets. The particular route desired to travel should be carefully specified, and the money sent through some banking-house.
From Europe to San Francisco the following is the cost of travel, estimated in gold coin:
"The Liverpool and Great Western Steamship Company sell through tickets to Sau Francisco, from the several European sea-port towns, at rates as follows:
TO SAN FRANCISCO, FROM
| Cabin. | Steerage. | |||
|
$21000 | $8400 | ||
|
22400 | 9000 | ||
|
23000 | 9400 | ||
| Children under twelve, half-price; under one year, $350. | ||||
Passengers are forwarded from New York by the boats of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, via Panama. Steamers leave Liverpool and Queenstown once a week. Steerage passengers are supplied on the ocean passage with medical attendance and good, substantial food, free of cost. Owing to the fluctuations in gold in New York, the cost of forwarding passengers from that point to San Francisco is not always the same: hence the through rates from Europe are liable to some variation, though not more than a few dollars; and in any case, emigrants from Europe will find this much the cheaper route.
In case emigrants from Europe should prefer to cross the American continent by rail, the following rates of fare to the United States by the several steamship lines will enable them to estimate the cost; railroad fare from New York and other cities heretofore given.
By the North German Lloyd Steamship line (payable in gold):
| Adult. | Children 1 to 10. |
Children under 1 year. | |||
|
$10000 | $5000 | $200 | ||
|
4000 | 2000 | 200 |
By the "Anchor Line" of steamers from Glasgow to New York (Steerage, payable in gold):
TO NEW YORK.
From Glasgow, Londonderry, Liverpool, and Queenstown |
$3400 |
Children from 1 to 12 years, half-fare; under one year, |
$5. |
From Hamburg, Antwerp, Rotterdam, or Havre |
4000 |
From Denmark, Norway, Sweden, or Paris |
4500 |
From the figures given it is easy to compute the expense of travel and emigration, both from Europe and the Eastern States, to Portland as a central point.
From San Francisco to Puget Sound, semi-monthly steamers run via Victoria, British Columbia: time, four to five days; fare, $36, cabin; $20, steerage. From Portland to Puget Sound there are two routes: one by steamer every ten days, via the mouth of the Columbia River and Victoria; time, three days. Or from Portland to Monticello, in the Cowlitz Valley, by river steamers; fare, $1.50; and thence by stage to Olympia, eighty-five miles; fare, $10; time, two days.
The fare from Portland to Dalles, one hundred and twenty-four miles, by the Oregon Steam Navigation Company's steamers, is $5; to Umatilla, two hundred and twenty-one miles, $8; to Wallula, two hundred and forty-five miles, $10; to Walla Walla, thirty miles farther, by stage, $12; and to Lewiston, four hundred and eight miles, $20.
The distances from the mouth of the Wallamet to Jacksonville, in Southern Oregon, are as follows:
Portland |
12 |
Milwaukie |
18 |
Oregon City |
25 |
Salem |
63 |
Albany |
87 |
Corvallis |
97 |
Eugene |
137 |
Oakland |
194 |
Roseburg |
212 |
Canyonville |
239 |
Grave Creek |
265 |
Jacksonville |
307 |
The fare by railroad and stage averages six cents a mile. The river steamers carry passengers for much less; but, being slower, can not compete with the railway for passenger travel.
The pleasantest months for tourists in Oregon and Washington are June and July. The rivers are then high; vegetation in its glory; the temperature delightful; and the skies blue and clear, affording views of the snowy peaks, which, after the forest fires begin, are often obscured by smoke.
SCHOOLS.
We find the provisions made by the State of Oregon for public schools to be unusually liberal. First, the State donates the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections in each township, for the use of public schools; then, has the income of 500,000 acres donated by Congress, in 1841, for educational purposes. Seventy-two sections are reserved for a State University, and ninety thousand acres for an Agricultural College. The total amount of land reserved for school purposes is 4,475,966 acres. It is estimated that these lands will realize not less than $15,000,000. The School Fund is under the management of a Board of Commissioners, consisting of the Governor, Secretary of State, and State Treasurer, who loan it at the rate of ten per cent, per annum, secured by mortgage on real estate. The School lands are sold, on making application to the Clerk of the county in which they are situated, on the payment of one-third down, and the balance in two yearly payments, with interest, at ten per cent., on the notes, payable half yearly. They are valued at from $1.25 to $5.00 per acre, according to their quality and location. There will be other School lands coming into market when the surveys of now unsurveyed portions of the State are completed. The present School Fund amounts to $250,000, bringing in an annual interest of $25,000, to be divided among the several counties.
Besides the common schools supported out of this fund, and by taxation, there are eighteen other institutions of learning in Oregon, supported by tuition fees and endowments. Two of these are universities, several of them colleges, and the remainder academies and seminaries of various grades. St. Helen's Hall for young ladies, and the Bishop Scott Grammar-school for boys, are the two prominent seminaries in the city of Portland, after which the Portland Academy ranks next. All are well attended. St. Helen's Hall has an attendance of 179 young ladies, and the Bishop Scott Grammar-school numbers eighty-three pupils. The academy is not so flourishing as formerly, but still has a good many pupils of both sexes. Besides these, the three public -school buildings are well filled, and private schools find support.
Pacific University, at Forest Grove, with an endowment of $50,000, has in its academic and collegiate course about ninety pupils. Wallamet University, at Salem, also with $50,000 endowment, numbers a good many scholars, and has a medical department in a prosperous condition. Philomath College, near Corvallis, has an attendance of seventy scholars, and is favorably known. The Agricultural College is also established at Corvallis, and the Christian College at Monmouth. Nearly every county in Western Oregon has one or more of these institutions of learning, which, if not yet rich enough to furnish every help to instruction which Eastern academies and colleges have, make a very fair showing for a State so thinly populated.
For a State with no more than ninety-five thousand inhabitants, it may be said, with truth, that the institutions of Oregon compare favorably with those of older and more populous ones. But a mighty change is coming upon the whole of this North-west Coast within the next decade, which shall give to it a rank and importance that those not familiar with its advantages of climate and natural resources can very indifferently understand. A country that has the Rocky Mountains for its eastern wall, the Pacific Sea for its western barrier; whose interior mountains are teeming with treasure; whose soil is seldom hardened by frost; down whose coasts sail no icebergs; whose wharves front those of China and Japan, and whose people are full of the intellectuality of the nineteenth century, will not pause nor hesitate on the road to wealth, learning, literature, or art. Already Oregon has furnished the world a poet, whose mountain minstrelsy echoes from foreign shores. From his heights, he
Salutes his mountains—clouded Hood,
St. Helen's in her sea of wood—
Where sweeps the Oregon, and where
White storms are in the feathered fir,
And snowy sea-birds wheel and whir."
THE END.