Nathaniel Ford was a native of Virginia (1795), but was reared in Kentucky, and after coming out to Oregon settled in Polk County, where he died in 1870.—Ed.
[147] George Gay was an English sailor. Born in Gloucestershire (1810), he served as ship's apprentice when eleven years of age. In 1832 he reached California on the "Kitty," and there joined Ewing Young's trapping party to the mountains of northern California, returning without entering Oregon. In 1835 he formed one of a party of eight men under the leadership of John Turner, who coming overland to Oregon were attacked by the Rogue River Indians, all being wounded and two killed. Gay reached the settlements after a trip filled with great hardships, and thenceforth made Oregon his home, taking an Indian wife and settling high up on the Willamette, near the southern boundary of Yamhill County. Here he built the first brick house in the territory, and with unbounded hospitality opened it to new emigrants. Wilkes (1841) describes him as a dashing, gay "vaquero," half-Indian in his characteristics, but very useful to the new community. At one time he had considerable wealth in horses and cattle, but died poor in 1882.
Daniel Matheny, of the emigration of 1843, was born in Virginia in 1793. Successive removals carried him to Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois, where he served in the War of 1812-15, and that of Black Hawk (1832). Having settled near Gay in 1844, he afterwards kept a public ferry, dying on his farm in 1872. Several of his family accompanied him to Oregon.—Ed.
[148] Luckiamute is the modern spelling of this name of Indian origin, derived from a branch of the Kalapuya tribe that formerly inhabited this valley. In 1851, federal commissioners made a treaty with this tribe whereby they ceded their lands, and retired soon afterwards to the Grande Ronde reservation. By Mouse River Palmer means the stream now known as Mary's River—a name given by J. C. Avery, the founder of Corvallis, in honor of his wife.—Ed.
[149] Mount Jefferson, Hayrick Mountain, Mount Washington, and the Three Sisters, with neighboring peaks.—Ed.
[150] Our author here intends the Coast (not the Cascade) range, of which Mary's Peak, between the two forks of Mary's (Mouse) River is the highest, rising about five thousand feet above sea level.—Ed.
[151] The Alsea, in Lincoln County, flows into a bay of that name, where small coasting steamers enter and ascend the stream some eighteen or twenty miles. The name is derived from an Indian tribe—one of the Kalapuya stock.—Ed.
[152] In the early days of Oregon settlement more frequently spelled Longtonguebuff (properly Lungtumler), from a branch of the Kalapuya tribe that inhabited its banks. The stream is now known simply as Long Tom River, rising in Lane County and flowing nearly north into Benton County, entering the Willamette not far above Peoria.—Ed.
[153] Palmer here refers to Molala River, a stream of southwestern Clackamas County, that took its name from a tribe of Indians once roaming upon its banks. Governor Lane in 1850 refers to this tribe as Mole Alley; and the liquid letters "m" and "p" being nearly interchangeable in the Indian dialect, Palmer gave it the form Pole Alley. The Molala tribe was an offshoot of the Cayuse, that had its home west of the Cascades. The early settlers testified to their superior physique and stronger qualities, compared with the degraded Chinook by whom they were surrounded. In 1851 their tribal lands were purchased, when their number was reported at 123. The remnant removed to Douglas County, and in 1888 a few calling themselves Molala were found on the Grande Ronde reservation.—Ed.
[154] The aboriginal name of this stream was Hanteuc. Two differing accounts are given of the origin of the present name. Elijah White (Ten Years in Oregon, p. 70) says a party of Hudson's Bay trappers lost their way upon this stream and were forced to kill their horses for sustenance, making pudding of the blood. Others give the derivation as "Put in"—the stream that puts in just below the early French settlement, thence degenerated to Pudding. The river rises in the foothills near the centre of Marion County, and flows nearly north, a sluggish, crooked stream from eighty to a hundred feet in width.—Ed.