loneerkozi.et1ion; - ScholarsArchive at Oregon State University

ANNUAL ADDRESS.
ters into the duties of every day life; his benevolent work was confined to no
church, sect nor race of men, but was as broad as suffering humanity, never
refusing to feed the hungry, clothe the naked and provide for the sick and toilworn
immigrants and needy settlers who called for assistance at his old Vancouver
home. Many were the pioneer mothers and their little ones, whose hearts
were made glad through his timely assistance, while destitute strangers whom
chance or misfortune had thrown upon these then wild inhospitable shores, were
not permitted to suffer while he had power to relieve. Yet he was persecuted
by men claiming the knowledge of a christian experience, defamed by designing
politicians, knowingly misrepresented in Washington as a British intriguer,
until he was unjustly deprived of the greater part of his land claim.
Thus, after a sorrowful experience of man's ingratitude to man, he died an
honored American citizen, and now sleeps upon the east bank of the Willamette
at Oregon City, in the little yard which incloses the entrance to the Catholic
Cathdral, beneath the morning shadow of the old gray chiffs that overlook
the pioneer town of the Anglo-American upon the Pacific Coast; here resting
from his labors within the ever moaning sound of the mighty cataract of the
beautiful river, while the humble stone that marks his grave bears this simple
inscription
"DR JOHN McLAUGHLIN,
DIED,
Sept. 3d, 1857, aged 73 yearS.
THE PIONEER AND FRIEND OF OREGON.
ALSO
THE FOUNDER OF THIS CITY."
It is a duty which the Oregon Pioneers owe to the memory of Dr. McLaughlin,
to prepare a memorial wreath from the flowers which his benevolent hand
strewed along the pathway of life, flowers whose fragrance is imperishable, and
whose unwithering colors will ever remain bright as the dewy star of dawn.
Long ages will the name of Dr. John McLanglin be known in the land,
By the good deeds left behind him,
By the wrong he scorned to do,
Virtues sacred to his memory,
Unfading wreath anew.