Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/345

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APPROPRIATIONS.
327

gate in advocating them. The principal appropriations now obtained were the sum before mentioned for paying the expenses of the Rogue River war; $10,000 to continue the military road from Myrtle Creek to Scottsburg; and $10,000 in addition to a former appropriation of $15,000 to construct a light-house at the mouth of the Umpqua, with a proportionate part of a general appropriation of $59,000 to be used in the construction of light-houses on the coasts of California and Oregon.[1]

  1. Cong. Globe, 1853–4, 2249. This work, which had been commenced on the Oregon coast in 1853, was delayed by the loss of the bark Oriole of Baltimore, Captain Lentz, wrecked on the bar of the Columbia the 19th of Sept., just as she had arrived inside, with material and men to erect the light-house at Cape Disappointment. The wind failing, on the ebb of the tide the Oriole drifted among the breakers, and on account of the stone and other heavy cargo in her hold, was quickly broken up. The crew and twenty workman, with the contractor, F. X. Kelley, and the bar-pilot, Capt. Flavel, escaped into the boats, and after twelve hours' work to keep them from being carried out to sea, were picked up by the pilot-boat and taken to Astoria. Thus ended the first attempt to build the much needed light-house at the mouth of the Columbia. In 1854 Lieut George H. Derby was appointed superintendent of light-houses in Cal. and Or. Additional appropriations were asked for in 1854. In 1856 the light-house at Cape Disappointment was completed. Its first keeper was John Boyd, a native of Maine, who came to Or. in 1853, and was injured in the explosion of the Gazelle. He married Miss Olivia A. Johnson, also of Maine, in 1859. They had four children. Boyd died Sept. 10, 1865, at the Cape. Portland Oregonian, Sept. 18, 1865. The accounting officer of the treasury was authorized to adjust the expenses of the commissioners appointed by the ter. assembly to prepare a code of laws, and of collecting and printing the laws and archives of the prov. govt. U. S. House Jour., 725, 33d cong. 1st sess; Cong. Globe, 1853–4, app. 2322. The laws and archives of the provisional government, compiled by L. F. Grover, were printed at Salem by Asahel Bush. The code was sent to New York to be printed. The salaries of the ter. judges and the sec. were increased $500 each, and the services of Geo. L. Curry, while acting governor, were computed the same as if he had been governor. The legislative and other contingent expenses of the ter. amounted to $32,000, besides those of the surv.-gen. office, Ind. dep., mil. dep., and mail service. The expenses of the govt, not included in those paid by the U. S., amounted for the fiscal year ending Dec. 1853 to only $3,359.54; and the public debt to no more than $855.37. Or. Statesman, Dec. 20, 1853; Or. Journal Council, 1853–4, p. 143–5; Portland Oregonian, Jan. 27, 1854. Two new districts for the collection of customs were established at the 2d sess. of the 33d cong., viz., Cape Perpetua, and Port Orford, with collectors drawing salaries of $2,000 each, who might employ each a clerk at $1,500; and a deputy at each port of delivery at $1,000 a year; besides ganger, weigher, and measurer, at $6 a day, and an inspector at $4. Cong. Globe, vol. 31, app. 384, 33d cong. 2d sess. The port of entry for the district of Cape Perpetua was fixed at Gardiner, on the Umpqua River. More vessels entered the Columbia than all the other ports together. From Sept. 1, 1853, to July 13, 1854, inclusive, there were 179 arrivals at the port of Astoria, all from S. F. except one from Coos Bay, two from New York, and one from London. The London vessel brought goods for the Hudson's Bay Company, the only