F. X. Matthieu - Willamette Valley

How Oregon's Provisional Government was formed.

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...Or wheat were used as money as there was very little money in the country.

I got work and was paid a bushel of wheat a day for my work,--wheat was worth 75 cents a bushel.

The Hudson's Bay Company paid the Russian government 15,000 bushels of wheat a year for the privilege of trading with the Indians in Alaska and for allowing the Hudson's Bay men to trap...

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...in southwestern Alaska. The Hudson's Bay Company brought the wheat from the French settlers, shipped it on batteaus to Vancouver, from whence they took it, by ship, to Fort Wrangel or Sitka.

One day I went to Oregon City to get some goods from the Hudson's Bay Company.

Mr. Douglas told me that my credit was exhausted--that I could not have more goods. I went to Dr. John McLoughlin. He said he would be personally responsible and sent me to his son, who was in the storeroom.

His son invited me into the trading room. This pleased me very much,--it was a great honor. Usually the customer must stay outside and things were handed over the counter, but I had met Dr. McLoughlin's son in Canada and I knew Dr. Fraser his uncle in Montreal, so he treated me with consideration.

Dr. McLoughlin understood trading much better than ...

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Excerpted from Oregon Folks by Fred Lockley (1927) Knickerbocker Press, New York

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