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After being named, Portland changed owners again. Mr. Pettygrove bought out his partner, and afterwards sold the whole property to Mr. Daniel H. Lownsdale, receiving for it five thousand dollars in leather, tanned by Mr. Lownsdale in a tannery adjoining the town site. In 1848, or before the gold discoveries, money was almost unknown in Oregon: orders on the Hudson's Bay Company, the Methodist Mission, and wheat, being the currency of the country. Mr. Lownsdale, it seems, had the honor of introducing a new circulating medium, which was Oregon-tanned leather.
Still another change in the proprietorship occurred in 1849, Lownsdale selling an interest in the town to W. W. Chapman and Stejohen Coffin. During this year—there being now about one hundred inhabitants—the Portlanders organized an association and elected trustees for the purpose of erecting a building to be used as a meeting-house for religious services, and for a school-house. It was used also as a court-room, and continued to serve the public in its triple capacity for several years.
The gold excitement of 1848-49 for a time had a tendency to check improvements in Oregon; but finally the wandering gold-seekers began to return and cultivate their neglected farms. California demanded grain and lumber; and these things Oregon could furnish in abundance. 'Vessels now came frequently to Portland from San Francisco and the Sandwich Islands; and in 1850 Couch & Co., of Portland, despatched a vessel—the brig "Emma Preston"—to China, thus fulfilling in part the dream of Jefferson and Benton. Couch's Addition was also laid out this year, and the pioneer steamboat of Oregon, the Lot Whitcomb was launched on Christmas day, at Milwaukee, to run between Portland and Oregon City. The Weekly Oregonian was started at Portland the same year by Thomas J. Dryer.
In January, 1851, the city was incorporated, with 1000 inhabitants, Hugh D. O'Bryant being chosen mayor. In March began the regular monthly mail service between Portland and San Francisco, per the steamship Columbia, Captain Dali. Two years later the taxable property of the town was valued at $1,195,034, or about half the value of its real and personal property. From this time the growth of Portland was healthy and uniform. During the mining excitement of 1864, '5, '6,
