198 JOSEPH N. TEAL
loaded the steamer "J ames Clinton," the first boat to ascend the Willamette that far. For one reason or another, however, it was not until about the year 1872 that work was actually begun on the locks and canal whose freeing from tolls we are celebrating today.
It was a long, long way to Washington in those days and the pioneers of Oregon were a very self-reliant, independent sort. They were a type of men fitted to found a common- wealth remote from civilization and surrounded by every danger. They endured every hardship and surmounted every obstacle borne or met by the pioneers of any land. Too often their reward has been that of the pioneer of every place and all times discomfort and hardships during life in order that the way might be the easier for those who were to follow them. Well may we be proud of the Oregon pioneer, for the time will come when the early history of Oregon will read like a romance. The time will come when the labor and trials of these men will be known and appreciated; and generations yet unborn will do homage to those who, far removed from friends and kindred, carried the flag they loved to the land of the setting sun and laid deep and broad the foundation of this commonwealth. The federal government, then as now, had control of the navigable waters of the country, and was aiding to a limited extent only in the improvement of rivers and harbors. But, though Oregon was far away from the seat of power, this fact did not deter the men of those days from acting. While a great undertaking for those times, it was resolved that the falls at Oregon City should not continue forever as an obstruction to the free movement of commerce. In 1868 the Willamette Falls & Lock Co. was incorporated for the purpose of constructing a canal around the falls. In 1871, supplemental articles were filed authorizing the company to operate steamboats. The control of this company passed to Bernard Goldsmith, Col. James K. Kelly, Capt. John F. Miller, David P. Thompson, Judge Orlando Humason and Joseph Teal, and this company with some state aid built the canal and
