Dear Brother:
After a protracted journey of more than seven and a half months and a distance of more than 2500 miles,[1] we now find ourselves situated in the lower part of Oregon in the midst of an extremely interesting country, but in all the rudeness of nature. Consequently you will not be disappointed when you learn the true state of society as it exists in this place and the surrounding country. I arrived with my family at the Tuallity Plains[2] about the 6 of December last, after traveling in the rains about 15 days and having occasional rains for the preceding month. When you learn that I walked further than would cover the whole distance of the journey, bearing my full proportional part of the services of the company, and that neither myself nor family laid off our clothing more than four or five nights during the whole journey, always sleeping in our tent on the ground, you will not be surprised that we were worn down with protracted fatigue and care. But a merciful Providence has sustained us all the way through the wilderness and blessed us with more than a usual measure of health and strength. Yet the last month I found my strength
- ↑ A quotation from a letter of a fellow immigrant of the same train as the author throws sn interesting sidelight on the trip. "Another trial that one has often to meet on the way is disregard for the Sabbath. I suppose there was about as much contention arose on that subject in the company in which I came as any other. A good part of the company cared nothing about that, or any other religious question, and if it suited them they wished to travel on that day as well as any other. And even then when they did stop on that day it was only to mend their wagons or wash their clothes. I do not say that all did this, for there were some of our company that were devotedly pious. There were three ministers in the company; one a Seceder minister from about Burlington [this was T. J. Kendall, D. D.]. The other two were Baptist ministers, one from, Iowa, the other from Rock Island County, Illinois, whose name was Fisher. . . . He manifested more of the true spirit of Christ while on the road than any other man with whom I was acquainted. . . . The company in which I came traveled, maybe, half of the Sabbaths on the way. We had preaching most of the days on which we stopped."—Letter of Andrew Rodgers, Jr., April 22, 1846, quoted in "The United Presbyterian" (Vol. 46, No. 2), Jan. 13, 1898, p. 10.
- ↑ There is much obscurity surrounding the origin of the names Tualatin and Tuallaty. Geo. H. Himes, from his investigations, believes Tualatin probably to be an Indian name meining "a land without trees," describing the natural prairies of what is now Washington County; and Tuallaty (the accent on the penult) to be an Indian name meaning "a lazy man," describing the sluggish river. If this is true, Tualatin was the name applied to the plains, and Tuallaty to the river; but a confusion of the two early took place which ultimately resulted in applying Tualatin to both river and prairie. The plains had begun to be settled at least as early as 1840. Bancroft, Hist. of Ore. I:244. They had at this time about 150 families, Canadians, half-breeds and Americans. Warre and Vavasour, ed. by J. Schafer, Ore. Hist. Soc. Quar. X:75.
