210 HARRISON C. DALE
Muscatine) Iowa, and in Iowa City, 14 Savannah, Missouri, 15 Sangamon City, Illinois, 16 Jefferson City, Missouri, 17 and at a great many other points in Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, and Kentucky. 18 The people of Dubuque, Iowa, even advocated a railroad to Oregon to facilitate emigration. "What next?" exclaimed a newspaper of the day, and the Oregonian and Indians' Advocate adds, "What next, indeed? The idea of a railroad to Oregon very strongly reminds us of the mode of ascent to the moon advocated by a certain renowned character, viz., on a bean vine, and we have about as much hope of visit- ing the Lunarians by the same way as we have of going to Oregon in railroad cars." 1 '
At the meeting of these societies, books, speeches, and letters about Oregon were read and discussed and information regard- ing the country disseminated. 20 At the same time active steps were taken to induce families or individuals to pledge them- selves to emigrate under the society's auspices, 21 and preliminary funds were raised. 22 Traveling agents were even sent out to secure adherents. 23 Sometimes the establishment of these societies was the work of a single individual. Peter H. Burnett has himself described the manner in which he rallied the great Burnett-Applegate party of 1843. In debt, and viewing the
14 Oreg. Hist. Quart., Ill, 392 Iowa Journal of History and Politics, X, 424. Ibid., X, 416 ff.
15 Oreg. Hist. Quart., IV, 278.
1 6 E. P. D. Houghton, The Expedition of the Donner Party and Its Tragic Fate, Chicago, 1911, p. 4.
1 7 Jeffersonian Republican, Sept. 17, 1842, reprinted in Oreg. Hist. Quart., IV, 171.
18 Cf. J. W. Nesmith, Address, O. P. A. Transactions, 1875, p. 46.
19 Oregonian and Indians' Advocate, p. 221.
20 E. P. D. Houghton, Donner Party, p. 4. Cf. "Resolutions of the Bloom- ington (Iowa) Society, March 19, 1843, in lou'a Standard, III, No. 17 and re- printed in Iowa Journal of History and Politics, X, 424 f. "Resolved, That we now appoint a corresponding secretary, whose name shall be made public, whose duty it shall be to correspond with individuals in this country and with com- panies at a distance, receive, and communicate all the information that he may deem expedient."
21 Cf. a notice in the Jeffersonian Republican, dated Sept. 17, 1842, reprinted in Oreg. Hist. Quart., IV, 171, "We learn from the Oregon Correspondence Com- mittee of this place that already they are beginning to receive the names of gen- tlemen desirous of joining the expedition."
22 Constitution of the Savannah Oregon Emigration Company, 2, Oreg. Hist. Quart., IV, 278.
23 Oregonian and Indians' Advocate, p. 287. Hall J. Kelley's society is said to have employed no fewer than thirty-seven such agents in various parts of the country. W. C. Johnson, Annual Address 0. P. A. Transactions, 1881, p. 22,
