Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 19.djvu/92

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
80
News and Comment

recent history contribution of value. The text is a narrative, written in 1881 by Mr. McDonald during and after a journey made by him in that year from his home on the Flathead Indian reservation, in Montana, to Victoria, British Columbia. The narrative contains observations and reminiscences running back forty years. For more than thirty years he served the Hudson's Bay Company as clerk and chief trader. He was the last in charge of that company's post at Fort Colvile, on the Columbia River, in which capacity he annually exchanged furs for trading goods at Fort Vancouver, on the Columbia River, then at Fort Nisqually, at Puget Sound, and later, at Fort Hope and Victoria, in British Columbia. His service was contemporary with the placer gold activities of British Columbia and the Columbia River country, the beginning of territorial government in Washington, Idaho and Montana, and the construction of the Northern Pacific Railroad to the Coast. His participation in the events of his time and his many associations, together with a rather unexpected knowledge of classical literature and a lively imagination enabled him to write a very interesting narrative. The text is copiously annotated by three close readers of Northwest History. The manuscript is preserved in the State Historical Library at Helena, Montana. The editors are Judge F. W. Howay, William S. Lewis and Jacob A. Meyers. The title is, "Angus McDonald: A Few Items of the West."

THIS YEAR'S DEATHS IN THE SOCIETY

Death has claimed six members of the Oregon Historical Society so far this year: Charles W. Fulton, William W. Cotton, David C. Burns and Theodore B. Wilcox, of Portland, and Nathaniel Webb, of Walla Walla, and Charles W. Young, of Eugene.

Mr. Fulton passed away January 27, aged 65 years. He came to Oregon in 1876, and represented this state in the United States Senate in 1903-09. He was widely beloved and