Page:Emergence of Frances Fuller Victor-Historian.djvu/28

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struggle to sustain herself in Portland during the last two and one-half years of her life. On February 18, I902 she wrote Professor Young:

At the moment there lies before me all this:

  1. Chittenden's book to be reviewed in extenso.
  2. Notes for the article on the Astoria, etc.
  3. References for the article on the Oregon Question (English).
  4. Material for a novel-half done
  5. A half written book on the Whitman Legend
  6. Material for an article on Oregon Literature
  7. Notes on books for Newberry Library-and many incidentals, correspondence, etc. And nothing to show for it! "All work and no pay."

Through the kindness of Professor Young she did receive a small compensation, however, for some of her articles published in the Oregon Historical Society Quarterly. In addition to her historical writing she also found time to encourage young William A. Morris in his interest in history, and provided Professor Young and the Society with ideas for basic planning of the Lewis and Clark Exposition besides writing prominent historians in the East to ask for aid for a history building.

Always living life as it came and looking to the future, Mrs. Victor in 1901 expressed the hope that she would be strong enough to take an active part in the Lewis and Clark Centennial, but this wish was not granted her. In September 1902 she moved her possessions for the last time in her long unsettled life from her quarters on Salmon Street to a pleasant comfortable room in the boarding house of Mrs. Emma M. Gilmore at 501 Yamhill Street.[1] During the moving she suffered two or three breakdowns, and on November 10 wrote Professor Young a brief last letter to tell him she could not send him that month a manuscript on steam transportation because she had been seriously ill again. At three o'clock on the morning of November 14 with Mrs. Gilmore at her bedside Frances Fuller Victor passed away peacefully from the effects of old age.

Since Mrs. Victor was a member of the Unitarian Church


  1. F. F. Victor to Mrs. Josephine H. Foster, September 21, 1902, in letter in possession of Hugh F. Scanlon, Torrance, California.

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