Page:History of Oregon Literature.djvu/603

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HISTORIANS
555

imitation of the deer's movements, the stalker was able to approach closely enough to use the bow and arrow effectively. Since a deer's sharp hoofs were formidable weapons, it was rather dangerous to miss the mark. The success of the method depended on the tameness of the deer and its presence in the open spaces, and when the Indians found that the whites with their startling guns and wholesale slaughter were making the deer too shy to hunt, they prepared to drive out the intruders in 1814. By burning the prairies the Indians forced the deer to graze on convenient hunting grounds, and they by this method also made it easy to collect wild honey, grasshoppers and crickets. The insects were dried and made into a pemmican by means of a pestle and mortar. Even after great inroads had been made by the whites, game was still plentiful in the Willamette Valley in 1835.


4

J. NEILSON BARRY

J. Neilson Barry was born in Wilmington, North Carolina, on November 26, 1870, and was educated in private schools and academies, in the Virginia Seminary, in technical courses in New York City, and, since his retirement, in the Portland Extension Center and at Albany College.

Of himself he says: "I am a retired Episcopal clergyman, spending the evening of life in research. I am now retired in good standing but long since dropped 'Reverend', the flat hat and the long coat." He was ordained in 1895 by the Bishop of New York, and, volunteering for the mission field, spent about five years at each of three western parishes—at Palouse as a missionary, at Spokane in charge of Trinity, and at Baker as rector of St. Stephens, alternating these assignments with service as curate or rector in New York City, Maryland and Washington, D. C., "until", he says, "having got my breath, I would again return to the beloved Oregon Country." The death of his father left him with independent means. For several years in Spokane he devoted his time to prisoners at his own expense, and, during the war, went to France with the Y. M. C. A. He returned for a while to prisoner work at Spokane, then came to Portland, built Barrycrest at 3852 Greenleaf Drive, "and at last had full opportunity for research." What he likes best is the sleuthing of historical facts in their geographical setting—to ferret out every