position between the farming country above the falls and the deep-water navigation twelve miles below; and more capital and improvements are found here than at any other point. 10 It is the only incorporated town as yet in Oregon, the legislature of 1844 having granted it a charter; 11 unimproved lots are held at from $100 to $500. The canal round the falls which the same legislature authorized is in progress of con struction, a wing being thrown out across the east shoot of the river above the falls which form a basin, and is of great benefit to navigation by affording quiet water for the landing of boats, which without it were
in danger of being- carried over the cataract. 1 2 ^ .
Linn City and Multnomah City just across the river from the metropolis, languish from propinquity to a greatness in which they cannot share. Milwaukee, a few miles below, is still in embryo. Linnton, the city founded during the winter of 1843 by Burnett and McCarver, has had but two adult male inhabit ants, though it boasts a warehouse for wheat. Hills- boro and Lafayette aspire to the dignity of county- seats of Tualatin and Yamhill. Corvallis, Albany, and Eugene are settled by claimants of the land, but do not yet rejoice in the distinction of an urban appel-
10 Thornton counts in 1847 a Methodist and a Catholic church, St James, a day-school, a private boarding-school for young ladies, kept by Mrs Thornton, a printing-press, and a public library of 300 volumes. Or. and C aL, i. 329-30. Crawford says there were 5 stores of general merchandise, the Hudson s Bay Company s, Abernethy s, Couch s (Gushing & Co. ), Moss , and Robert Canfield s; and adds that there were 3 ferries across the Willamette at this place, one a horse ferry, and 2 pulled by hand, and that all were kept busy, Oregon City being the great rendezvous for all up and down the river to get flour, Narrative, MS., 154; ,V. /. Friend, Oct. 15, 1849. Palmer states in addition that McLoughlin s grist-mill ran 3 sets of buhr-stones, and would com pare favorably with most mills in the States; but that the Island Mill, then owned by Abernethy and Beers, was a smaller one, and that each had a saw-mill attached which cut a great deal of plank for the new arrivals. Jour nal, 85-6. There were 2 hotels, the Oregon House, which was built in 1844, costing $44,000, and which was torn down in June 1871. The other was called the City Hotel. McLoughlin s residence, built about 1845, was a large building for those times, and was later the Finnegas Hotel. Moss Pioii<>ci- Times, MS., 30; Portland Advocate, June 3, 1871; Bacoris Merc. Life Or. City, MS., 18; Harvey s Life of McLoucjhlin, MS., 34; Niles? Reg., Ixx. 341.
11 Abernethy was the first mayor, and Lovejoy the second; McLoughlin was also mayor.
12 files Bey., Ixviii. 84; Or. Spectator, Feb. 19, 1846.