spot, from which the vestige of buildings had long since disappeared, and the town by a cabin and a shed."
This condition was soon to be changed, for the trains of immigrants were beginning to arrive in the Willamette Valley, and some were to push on to the extreme western limit of the continent. In 1843 J. M. Shively came to Astoria and took up a claim in what is now the heart of the city, and known as Shively's Astoria. He was followed by Col. John McClure, who took the claim joining the Shively claim on the west, and now known as McClure's Astoria, and A. E. Wilson, who located on the claim to the east of Shively's claim, and now known as Adair's Astoria. These three men and James Birnie, the trader, in charge of the Hudson Bay Company's station, were the only white men in Astoria in 1844. Soon after this Robert Shortess located on the land now known as Alderbrook, and a Mr. Smith located at what is now known as Smith's Point. Mr. Birnie lived in the company's building, situated near the present site of Saint Mary's Hospital, Colonel McClure lived in a small cabin just to the south and east of where the Baptist Church now stands, and Mr. Shively, "who didn't believe in joint occupancy, which disturbed the social relations between Mr. Birnie and himself," lived at "Lime Kiln Hall," on the ridge near the eastern limit of his claim. Mr. Wilson lived in a cabin in Upper Astoria. There were several settlers on Clatsop Plains at this time, among the number being D. Summers, Mr. Hobson and family, Rev. J. L. Parrish, Messrs. Solomon Smith, Tibbets, Trask, and Perry. Ben Wood, N. Eberman, and other young men held claims on the plains, but lived elsewhere.
Astoria the fur-trading post now ceased to exist; Astoria, the town, was started. Astoria's real beginning, from which resulted a city, dates back, then, only to the early forties when the homeseekers first settled here. In
