For the next three decades the history of Oregon is concerned mainly with the British fur traders and the American immigrants. The Hudson's Bay Company absorbed its rival, the North West Company, in 1821, and thus secured a practical monopoly of the trade of the Oregon region. Its policy was to discourage coloniza tion so as to maintain the territory in which it operated as a vast preserve. The company sent to the Columbia river as its governor west of the Rocky mountains Dr. John McLoughlin who ruled the vast empire firmly and wisely for 22 years and became affectionately known as the "Father of Oregon." His capital was at Ft. Vancouver which he built on the north bank of the Columbia opposite the mouth of the Willamette river. In 1829 he also built an establishment at the falls of the Willamette which determined the site of Oregon City. Though it was against the company's interests he generously aided the American colonists who later came to the region, and later in life, after American Government was extended over the country, became himself a citizen of the United States.
The elderly employes of the company were urged by McLough lin, when they wished to retire from active service, to settle with their families in the Willamette valley. There were a number of these first settlers, mostly Frenchmen, there by 1835. In Jason and Daniel Lee arrived from the United States and founded Methodist missions in the valley. In 1837 20 more missionaries arrived and a branch mission was opened at The Dalles. In 1838 Jason Lee started overland for the States, and his lecturing and preaching not only raised money for the mission but aroused great interest in Oregon, with the result that the American element was increased in 184o by 5o more arrivals by sea. It now numbered 151. In 1842 the first immigrant train over the Oregon trail, headed by Elijah White and piloted by Thomas Fitzpatrick, ar rived. The following was the year of the "Great Migration" when nearly goo men, women and children likewise followed the trail and settled in the Willamette valley. After this the flow of im migrants steadily increased, about 1,40o arriving in 1844 and 3,000 in The American settlers set in motion a movement for the im mediate and permanent settlement of the Oregon dispute. They had in 1843 established for themselves a provisional Government, but settlement and business undertakings were held back until their future rulers and the nature of their permanent Government were settled. The western States rallied to their support with the result that the Democratic National convention in 1844 declared the title of the United States to "the whole of the Territory of Oregon" to be "clear and unquestionable," and the party made "Fifty-four forty or fight" a campaign slogan. Upon the success
of the party, negotiations were entered into which resulted in a compromise treaty (1846) fixing the boundary between Oregon and British possessions at its present position, and giving the United States complete title to all land to the southward.
Territorial status and a Territorial Government were delayed until 1848 owing to opposition from the slavery element in Con gress. As then constituted the Territory included the present States of Oregon, Washington, Idaho and parts of Montana and Wyoming. Its area was reduced in 1853 by the creation of the Territory of Washington. The discovery of gold in California drew many Oregon settlers to that country in 1848-50, but this exodus was soon offset as a result of the enactment by Congress in 185° of the "Donation Land Act" by which settlers in Oregon were entitled to large tracts of land free of cost. The number of claims registered under this act was over 8,000.
In 1857 the people voted for Statehood; in the same year a Constitutional Convention drafted a Constitution which they adopted in November, and on Feb. 14, 1859, Oregon was ad mitted into the Union with its present boundaries. Gold had been discovered in paying quantities at Jacksonville in southern Oregon in 1815, and in 1861 was discovered in eastern Oregon along the John Day and Powder rivers. Each of these discoveries resulted in a stampede which settled a region which otherwise would have been settled very slowly. The increase of mining population in Oregon and Idaho encouraged agricultural development in that it provided markets. Permanent settlements were made in all the important valleys of eastern Oregon in the '6os. By 187o the population of the State was 91,000. In the next 20 years it nearly doubled. This increase was clue largely to the opening of railroad connections with the outside world. Two lines, one on each side of the Willamette river, to connect with a line in California, were begun in 1868, but progress was so slow that the connection was not made until 1884. Meanwhile a line had been built up the Columbia river to meet the northern transcontinental lines being built west through Idaho, and this junction was effected in 1883. Many local lines were also built. During this period grazing spread over eastern Oregon, and developments in other industries began which later decades were merely to expand and enlarge.