Dr. John McLoughlin, the Father of Oregon

by Frederick V. Holman

"To The People of Oregon.

"Fellow Citizens,

"Having been Retained professionally to establish the Claim of Mr. Alvin F. Waller to the Tract of Land on the East Bank of the Wallammette River, sometimes called the Wallammette Falls Settlement and sometimes Oregon City, I consider it a duty to my Client and the public, to state briefly and concisely the several circumstances of his case, as they really exist, in order that his motives may not be impugned and his intentions misunderstood and misrepresented.

"The public are already aware that my client commenced the Occupancy of his Farm, in the spring of A. D. 1840, when no one resided at the falls; and that, in the course of that Summer, he built his Home, moved his family into it, and cleared and fenced a good portion of the Land, from which, in the ensuing years A. D. 1841 & 1842 he raised successive crops of corn, Potatoes and other vegetables usually cultivated by Farmers. That he remained thus occupying undisturbed, until the month of December A. D. 1842, about two years and six months, when Doctor McLoughlin caused his Farm to be surveyed, for the purpose of selling it in subdivisions to American Citizens. It has since been currently reported and quite generally believed, that my client had renounced his right in favor of Doctor McLoughlin. This I am authorized to contradict, having perused the letter written by Mr. Waller, which not only contains no renunciation, but on the contrary, is replete with modest and firm assertions of his rights in the premises: offering at the same time to relinquish his claim, if the Doctor would comply with certain very reasonable and just conditions. Upon this offer, the parties had come to no final conclusion, until my arrival in the Colony, when Doctor McLoughlin attempted to employ me to establish his claim, disregarding the rights of all other persons—which, I declined doing. Mr. Waller thereupon engaged me to submit the conditions a second time to the Doctor, for his acceptance or rejection; which I did in the following words:

"1st. That your preemptive line be so run as to exclude the Island upon which a private Company of Citizens have already erected a Grist Mill—conceding to them so much water as may be necessary for the use of said Mill.

"2d. That Mr. Waller be secured in the ultimate Title to the two city Lots now in his possession and other lots not exceeding in superficial area five Acres, to be chosen by him from among the unsold lots of your present Survey.

"3d. That the Rev. Mr. Lee on behalf of the Methodist Episcopal Mission, be in like manner secured in the lots claimed for the use of said Mission. They consist of Church and Parsonage lots and are well known to the public.

"I received a letter from Dr. McLoughlin dated 10th Novr. 1843, in answer to mine, in which he declines complying with the above Conditions, and thus puts an end to the offer of my Client to relinquish his right of Preemption. Under these circumstances Mr. Waller has now applied to the Supreme Court of the United States, which, under the Constitution has original jurisdiction of 'all cases in Law & Equity, arising under Treaties,' to grant him a Commission for perpetuating the testimony of the facts in his case, de bene esse, in order that, whenever Congress shall hereafter see fit to prescribe by law the conditions and Considerations, he may be enabled to demand of the United States, a Patent; also praying the Court to grant him such other relief in the premises as may be consonant with Equity and good conscience.

"The Legality of Mr. Waller's claim rests upon the following Grounds:—

"1st. He was a citizen of the United States of full age and possessed of a family when he first came to reside on the premises. 2d. He built a House upon them and moved his family into it; thus becoming in Fact and in Law a Householder on the land. 3d. He cleared, fenced and cultivated a portion of it during two years and six months, before he was disturbed in his actual possession. And 4th. That he is not at this moment continuing the cultivation of his Farm, is not his fault since it was wrested from him.