Forest Grove is the seat of the Pacific University, with a population of about one thousand. The college is under the patronage of the Congregational Church, although it is nonsectarian in its teachings. It was founded in 1848 by Bev. Harvey Clark and Mrs. Tabitha Brown, both of whom gave almost all their worldly possessions and their personal efforts to the work. The names of Marsh, Lyman, Collier, and Condon are associated with its growth. Its grounds and buildings are estimated at fifty thousand dollars; cabinet and apparatus, four thousand dollars; productive funds, eighty-three thousand dollars, with a library of five thousand volumes. The town of Forest Grove is laid out, as its name implies, among the beautiful oak-groves at the base of a spur of the Coast Mountains, half a mile from the Southern Pacific (west-side) Bailroad. Cornelius, Lilly, and Gaston are stations along the line of the road in this county, and Greenville is a farming settlement in a superb agricultural district.
Yamhill, or Che-am-ill, the Indian word for "bald hills," is next south of Washington. It is one of the earliest-settled and most beautiful parts of Oregon. In fact, the early patent of nobility in this region was to hail from Yamhill. The county-seat is McMinnville, with a population of two thousand two hundred. It is situated on the Yamhill Biver, and has communication by rail with all the important points on the west side of the valley and with San Francisco.
Lafayette, a pretty place a few miles away, was formerly the county-seat, but lost this distinction through too much "conservatism." Dayton, at the mouth of the Yamhill River, is another pretty town, of five hundred inhabitants and a good trade. Sheridan, the most western point on the Oregonian Railway, is nestled up at the foot of the Coast Range near old Fort Hoskins, and has a population of four hundred. There are eight other small towns in this county, which is celebrated for its yield of grain.
Crossing the beautiful Che-am-ill Range, we have a charming view of the country, and see again the familiar peaks of the Cascade Mountains. South of Yamhill we find ourselves among the fertile rolling hills and alluvial valleys of Polk County. Although full of resources in soil, building-stone, timber, cabinet
