had to leave a month before graduation. He was later given an M. A. degree by Christian College, Monmouth. Brilliant work, like his melodrama, is usually not accidental or without preparation, and the following glimpse of his student days makes it less surprising that he should electrify pioneer Oregon with literature from his Yamhill cabin:
After his lessons were all mastered, he made it a rule to snatch up his pen at twelve o'clock at night and write some facetious article for a paper published at Bethany, for which he generally received a dollar. The money he received in this way served to bridge his way over many a financial chasm. His fame as a satirist rose high when it leaked out that he was the author of the articles which depicted well-known characters.
He came to Oregon in 1848 with his wife and two children. His wagon cover was decorated with an American eagle and the Latin words “Hic Transit.” In the early part of the trip his precious books got water-soaked from crossing the fords and he had to stop several days to dry them out. He was hospitably received at Oregon City, where he arrived without money. He borrowed two dollars to pay the ferry charges across the Willamette—probably the ferry of the author of Prairie Flower. When he arrived at Yamhill he had ten cents left, and he lost this through a leaky pocket during the winter. “They boiled peas for breakfast, dinner and supper, and browned them for coffee.”
He had been a school teacher before coming to Oregon and his services in that capacity were quickly in demand at the Yamhill settlement.
He and the neighbors soon rolled up a log hut for a school-house, with a fireplace that took in a common fence rail... His boy scholars generally dressed in buckskin, and wore moccasins. His girl pupils dressed in shirting colored with tea-grounds; and most of them went to school barefoot. Of his boy scholars, one afterwards became the editor of a medical journal, one became the superintendent of public instruction for Oregon, one went to Congress and was appointed by Lincoln as chief justice of Idaho, while another was elected governor of Oregon and was subsequently appointed governor of Utah.
He has been called “The Father of the Republican Party in Oregon.” Although he would not accept the offer of a
