Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 3.djvu/315

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Reminiscences.
305

lately completed; and finished the journey on the steamship Ariel, the same which was afterwards captured on this line by the privateer Alabama in 1863. After visiting the old home at Bath a few weeks he went on to Princeton, Ill., and remained in that state until 1863. This he speaks of as the most remarkable period of his life, as he here renewed an old acquaintance, and on February 24, of the year last named, was married to Sarah Elizabeth Eaton. This lady was the only daughter of John L. and Lovey B. Eaton, who were of the pioneer and revolutionary stock of New England, and who were among the pioneers of the then far west, having moved from Salisbury, N. H., to Illinois in 1845, when the subject of this sketch was but five years old. This was an event and experience, which Mr. Warren describes as "lifting him to a higher plane and a better life."

He looks back, however, with surprise upon the confidence with which Mrs. Warren, then but a girl in years, accompanied him on the return journey of 7,000 miles, and undertook life amid the privations of pioneer days in Oregon, for they decided to return to the little clearing on the Columbia. Pleasant visits with friends in New York were quickly followed by the sea voyage, upon which, off Cape Hatteras, a terrible storm was encountered, making the trip to the Isthmus double its usual length. The steamship on the return from Panama was the Constitution, to San Francisco, and from that city the Brother Jonathan, whose wreck subsequently is still remembered as thrilling all the scattered settlements of Oregon with sorrow and sympathy. They arrived at Astoria on May 2, and soon undertook pioneer life on the farm by the Columbia. They were not in affluent circumstances. Mr. Warren recalls that after buying such furniture as was necessary, and a small stock of provisions, he had but $4.00 cash left. How-