A PIONEER IN BENTON COUNTY."So the old man came into Benton County in 1845, did he?"
"Yes, he and his wife and two young children, and took up a claim there three or four miles from town."
"Was there a town then?"
"Not much—just three log-cabins and a hut or so; they called it Marysville; it did not get the name of Corvallis till years after."
"How about the Indians?"
"Well, there were plenty in the valley, Klick-i-tats and Calapooyas—these last were a mean set at that. The valley was all over bunch-grass waist-high, and the hills were full of elk and deer."
"Had the old man any stock?"
"He had just brought a few with him from Missouri over the Plains, and fine store he set by them. You see the Indians used to come and beg for flour and sugar, and a beef now and then. Some of the neighbors would give them a beef at times, but the old man used to say he hadn't brought no cattle to give to them varmints."
"How did they manage to live at first?"
"Well, the old man used to go off for a week at a time to Oregon City to work on the boats there at his trade of a ship-carpenter. He had to foot it there and back, and pack flour and bacon on his back for his folks, and a tramp of sixty miles at that."