Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 1.djvu/116

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REMINISCENCES OF F. X. MATTHIEU.

in manner and ways, and very light complexion.' He built the first brick store in Oregon City, with mud for mortar. In the great flood of '62 it collapsed. He kept a large stock of goods, trading by three vessels with San Francisco. He was in partnership with Clark, and for a time with Robb, who invested his gold mine profits in the store.

The mason who built the store was McAdam, who also built the brick Catholic church at Saint Paul.

Mr. Matthieu was also acquainted with Joseph Lane, the first Territorial Governor. He describes the old general as "a very nice man;' quick in his movements, military in manner and bearing; not tall, and "dry and thin," and all nerves.

AS TO TOWNS.

The flat at Oregon City was still, when he first saw it, thickly covered with tall timber. Waller's house stood near the present site of the woolen mills. The Hudson's Bay store was on the edge of the lowest bluff, over the water, about where the warehouse now stands.

Portland was nowhere a dense forest and a tangled shore; but there was a grassy place among the trees near the mouth of the big gulch at the south part of town, where the boating parties up the river sometimes stopped to lunch or camp.

Etienne Lucier's old place was on the bluff, on the east side, and Johnson's place on the hill at the south end, w^est side.

Salem was just starting, the people at the old mission moving up to start the institute, etc.


I have examined the above manuscript of Mr. Lyman's, and find it correct. Nobody can contradict that: it could not be written more correctly.

F. X. MATTHIEU.