but failing he and his wife went to the Tualatin Plains in 1841 and began the first white settlement in what is now Washington County. On May 2, 1843, he was at Champoeg, and voted in favor of the first civil government in Oregon. He was pastor of the first church in Washington County for a time. He died in February, 1899.
Charles F. Putnam, printer, was born in Lexington, Kentucky, July 7, 1824. He learned the printing trade in New York City, and in 1846 came to Oregon, settling in Polk County. In 1847 he was married to Miss Rozelle, the eldest daughter of Jesse Applegate, who came to Oregon from Missouri in 1843. When he contracted with Mr. Griffin to print his paper, he taught his wife to set type, and thus she became the first woman typesetter on the Pacific Coast. Mr. Putnam left the Willamette Valley for Umpqua Valley in the fall of 1849, and settled near Mount Yoncalla. He is still living, though quite feeble, near the town of Drain.
Early in 1844 it became evident to the leading spirits of the infant settlement at Oregon City that its interests would be greatly promoted by a press, and accordingly, after much discussion as to methods of management, the Oregon Printing Association was organized, the officers of which were as follows: W. G. T'Vault, president; J. W. Nesmith, vice president; John P. Brooks, secretary; George Abernethy, treasurer; Robert Newell, John E. Long, and John R. Couch, directors. The press used was a Washington hand press, bed twenty-five by thirty-eight inches . The plant was procured in New York through the instrumentality of Governor George Abernethy, although he was reimbursed by the Printing Association in due time.
The constitution of the association was as follows:
In order to promote science, temperance, morality, and general intelligence; to establish a printing press; to publish a monthly, semi-
