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376
T. T. Geer.

paid for clerk hire during the last session was somewhat in excess of this sum.

The legislative committee, which was the direct successor of the one elected here on the second day of May, 1843, met in regular session at Oregon City on the sixteenth of December, 1844, at the house of J. E. Long. Two days later the report of the treasurer was presented, and is as follows:

"Received of collector of taxes, $313.31; for license, two ferries, $40; one fine, $5.00; total receipts, $358.21. Expended for stationery, $20.38; Mr. Hathaway's house, $15; Judge Babcock's salary, $60; services of secretary in house, $20; total, $115.38; balance remaining in treasury, $242.83."

Marion County was known as Champoeg County until the name was changed by the legislature on the third of September, 1849. On the twenty-eighth of August, 1849, it was "Resolved, that the county seat of Champoore County be and the same is hereby located at the Town of Salem, in said county." In the early printed records the name is spelled "Champoeg," "Champoore," and "Champooick." It is a matter to be regretted that the name of this county was ever changed. It is an Indian name, signifying "the place of the camp," is fully as euphonious as those other Indian names, Clatsop, Tillamook, Clackamas, and Multnomah, and should have been preserved along with them as a memento of the earliest patriotic efforts of our pioneer fathers.

But I must not trespass upon the material to be used by the distinguished speakers who are to follow me. The field for retrospective research is as unlimited as it is remarkably fascinating. It is not only fitting that these commemorative ceremonies should be held through the great respect we have for the fathers who builded here nearly sixty years ago, even better than they knew, but