We remained in camp here while the cabin was being made habitable.
We had had no bread since we had lived at the Old Mission where mother did her baking on the skillet lid. Father loaded a horse with two or three sacks of wheat, and taking as a companion a young man by the name of Alby Shaw, started to a grist mill at the mission settlement on the other side of the Willamette River, about fifteen miles from where we lived. The weather was stormy and, having no tent, they camped under a fir tree on the bank of the river. Here they worked for two or three days making a canoe, as there was no way to cross the river. When the canoe was almost completed one of their axes struck a knot with such force as to make a hole in the bottom of the boat. They were made almost desperate by this misfortune, and knowing a new mission had been establish across the river, set up a loud cry for help. After hallowing themselves hoarse, a man came with a canoe and took them with their grain across the river; and when the grain was ground brought them back again. Father returned at the end of a week, getting home late at night. We had all retired and I had been fast asleep, but was awakened by the smell of baking bread. A sack of flour had been opened and mother was making pancakes. This was my second realization of perfect bliss; the first had been the smell of frying pork at Doctor White's. The flour was coarsely ground and there being seven in our family, and two men employed on the place, our supply did not last long. Various substitutes for bread were tried. Wheat scalded with lye made from wood ashes was used as hominy. Some tried to provide flour by grinding wheat on a coffee mill, while others resorted to the mill used by the Indians. This mill was a stone basin and a pestle, but was abandoned after a few trials, as the flour was very coarse and the quantity obetained in this way small.
The settlers now resolved to have a mill in the neighborhood, and it was through their influence that James O'Neil came to our house in the spring of 1845 to consult about the matter. Father went with him to show him the mill site on the Rickreol. The place is a mile above where the city of Dallas now is. The mill operated one run of stones. These
