after much investigation and delay was done, as we have seen. The last of the political divisions of western Oregon were made at this session, when Curry and Josephine counties were established.[1] The question of a state constitution was not discussed at length, an act being passed to take the vote of the people upon it again at a subsequent election. On the 21st of January the legislature adjourned.[2]
- ↑ It was proposed to name the former Tichenor, but that member declined, saying that his constitutents had instructed him to call the county after the governor. The second was named after Josephine Rollins, whose father first discovered gold on Josephine Creek. The county seat, Kirbysville, was named after Joel A. Kirby, who took a land claim on the site of that town. Deady's Hist. Or., MS., 77; Prim's Judicial Affairs, MS., 2–3; U. S. H. Ex. Doc., i. 348, 375, 419, 431, 34th cong. 1st sess.
- ↑ Several charters were granted to societies, towns, and schools. Astoria and Eola in Polk county were chartered. To-day Eola is a decayed hamlet and Astoria a thriving city by the sea. The Portland Insurance Company also took a start at this time. Masonic lodges, Warren No. 10, Temple No. 7, Jennings No. 9, Tuality No. 6, Harmony No. 12, received their charters at this session. There is a list of the officers of Harmony Lodge from 1856 to 1873 in By Laws, etc., Portland, 1873. Multnomah Lodge No. 1 was incorporated January 19, 1854; Willamette Lodge No. 2, February 1st; Lafayette Lodge No. 3, January 28; and Salem Lodge No. 4, in February 1854. It is said the General George B. McClellan received the first three degrees in masonry in Willamette Lodge No. 2, at Portland. O. F. Grand Lodge of Or., 1856–76. Acts incorporating the Willamette Falls Railroad Company, the Rockville Canal Company, the Tualatin River Transportation and Navigation Company, and no less than 14 road acts were passed. The assembly appointed A. Bush, printer; B. F. Bonham, auditor; J. D. Boon, treasurer; F. S. Hoyt, librarian; E. Ellsworth, university commissioner. Something should be here said of John Daniel Boon, who for many years was territorial treasurer. Deady calls him a good, plain, unlearned man, and a fervent
Oregon City claim; that the expenses of the Indian war be paid; that the Indian superintendent be stayed from locating Indians in the Willamette Valley; that the federal government assume the expenses of the provisional government; that congress provide for the issuance of a patent to land claims; that a mail-route be established from San Francisco to Olympia; mail service east of the Cascade mountains; a military road from Oregon City to The Dalles; that the expenses of the Snake River expedition be paid; that the right of pensions be extended to disabled volunteers; that the spoliation claims of 1853 be liquidated; that congress pay for the services and expenses of the Rogue River war of 1854; that a military road be established from Olympia via the mouth of the Cowlitz to intersect the military road leading from Scottsburg to Myrtle creek; a military road from Port Orford to Jacksonville; money for a territorial library; and that congress recognize the office of commissioner to audit the war claims. Indeed, Philo Callander of Clatsop county was so appointed, but congress did not recognize him. The Statesman complained in September that Lane had obtained $300,000 for the Indian department, and nothing more for any purpose except the regular appropriation for territorial expenses, which would have been made without him. A little later it was ascertained that $500 had been obtained for the territorial library, which money was expended by Gov. Curry when he went to Washington in 1856 to defend himself from the attacks of Wool.
