and Washington Territory Railroad, or of what is known as the “ Hunt System,” which connects it with the Northern Pacific System, giving it access by two trans-continental roads.
It has a population of four thousand, good public buildings, and the best hotel in Oregon out of Portland,—the Hotel Pendleton,—besides several others of less proportions. There are two flouring-mills, foundry and machine-shops, sash- and door- factory and planing-mill, city water-works, telephone connection with every part of East Oregon, three banks, seven churches, good common school, a Protestant and a Catholic academy, and numerous substantial and costly business houses, not the least imposing of which is the office of the East Oregonian newspaper.
The Umatilla Reservation will soon be open for settlement, and will add one hundred and thirty-five thousand acres of the best land in East Oregon to the area of Umatilla County cultivable lands, and will greatly increase the wealth of Pendleton, which lies just on the boundary.
This prosperous town was founded in 1868, and named after George H. Pendleton. Here resides a descendant of that Alexander McKay who was on board Astor’s vessel, the “ Tonquin,” which was destroyed by the Indians of the Washington coast, in 1812, and every soul with her murdered. His son Thomas, then about fourteen years of age, was left at Astoria when the “Tonquin” sailed on this expedition, and so escaped the fate of his father. Subsequently he came under the guardianship of Hr. McLoughlin, who married his mother, the widow of Alexander McKay. Thomas McKay was a noted man among the fur companies of the Northwest—a brave man, and a witty one. He married, first, a Chinook woman, and had three sons ; married again, and had a son and daughter. The eldest of these children was William C. McKay, who was educated in the East and studied medicine. He is the physician on the Umatilla Reservation. His half-brother, Donald McKay, distinguished himself as a leader of scouts in the Snake and Modoc Indian wars, and both men have rendered important service in the struggles of the early settlers of the country with savagery.
Weston, Centreville, Adams, Milton, and several other small but thriving towns are in Umatilla County. The old town of Umatilla Landing, on the Columbia, was in the days of mining
