Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 21.djvu/210

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198 F. G. YOUNG

Provisional Government, for public uses ; and your Petitioner further represents that the faith of the said Provisional Gov- ernment was pledged, at the time of said appropriation, for the payment of all monies received from said estate whenever the same should be lawfully claimed and said claim established by the heirs &c of said Ewing Young (See "laws of Oregon" p. 94)-

And your Petitioner further represents that the said Ewing Young, his father, was intermarried and lived with Maria Josepha Tafoya, the mother of your Petitioner, previous to the year 1832 at Taos in New Mexico and that your Petitioner was the fruit of such marriage, as he is informed and believes, and begs in support of the same to present to your Honorable Body as well an authentic certificate establishing the same copied from the Parish Register of the town where said mar- riage and birth took place, as the sworn affidavit of three of its most respectable inhabitants, one of whom, the distinguished "Kit Carson," it is presumed is not unknown by fame and generally conceded merit to most of the members composing your Honorable Body. Your Petitioner also respectfully refers in support of the same to the annexed certificate of Joseph Gale a highly respectable citizen of California, formerly of Oregon, and known to most of its old inhabitants. Your Petitioner would further respectfully represent that his mother, the wife of said Ewing Young deceased, now is and has been for many years in destitute circumstances and entirely dependent upon the daily labor of your Petitioner and the charity of her rela- tions for her maintenance.

Your Petitioner therefore prays that, prompted by a sense of right to a helpless female and her son and of justice to the dead, whose substance and fruits of labor have been appro- priated to the public uses of this Territory in its days of weak- ness, as well as by its plighted faith, this Honorable Body will without delay, pass an act making restitution to the legal repre- sentatives of the late Ewing Young whereby on proof of your Petitioners identity and heirship the money and reasonable interest thereon, heretofore received from said estate, may be paid over, through the proper authorities, to your petitioner