The first companies were small and the difficulties and dangers were great. Later companies were larger and better organized, and were freed from many of the discomforts and dangers. The migration of 1843, because of the large number that came,[1] may be taken to mark the beginning of an agricultural stage in the industrial life of Oregon. The settlers located in the valley of the Willamette, which seemed most favorable to their purpose and was most free from interference from the native races.
Strangely in contrast with the democratic settlement to the south of the Columbia River was the English enterprise to the north. The organization of the "Puget Sound Agricultural Company" was an attempt to enter the race in the development of the agricultural resources as well as the fur. Modeled after the fur company, owned by the same persons, operated by the same methods, it aimed to secure the settlement of the region to the north of the river. In pursuance of the plan a settlement was started on the land about the Sound in 1842. A method of industrial life, however, that had been successful in the conduct of the fur business, was not equally so in the development of agricultural resources. The aristocratic methods of the English Fur Company were destined to fail in competition with the democratic methods of the American agricultural population. The Americans were better fitted to survive on account of the character of the people, the contiguity of the territory, and their industrial methods. If the English had been able to crowd the Americans out in the fur trade, they, in turn, were to be crowded out in the development of agricultural resources and both sides of the river were to be gained for the democratic system of agricultural life. The colonists of the company to the north appreciated the difference, and
- ↑ About nine hundred.
