loneerkozi.et1ion; - ScholarsArchive at Oregon State University

OCCASIONAL ADDRESS.
FOR TE YEAR 1847.
BY HON. RALPH C. GRER.
MR. PRESIDENT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN
OF THE PIONEIIR ASSOCIATION F OREGON:
Surrounded as I am to-day with old pioneers who crossed the plains long
before I did, and unaccustomed to public speaking as I am, it will not be expected
of me that I shall be able to instruct or interest to any great extent those
who may listen to me on this occasion.
I propose to occupy but little time, as there are others to speak who can edify
you better than I.
The emigration of 1847, like all former emigrations, was composed of mn
and women that were willing to brave all manner of hardships for the purpose
of finding a better country to live in; some, and not a few either, were willing
to undergo the toilsome and tedious trip for the sake of finding a healthy country.
For that reason alone I sold my little farm in Knox County, Illinois, bid
farewell to civilization, as everybody thought at that time, and started to cross
the "great American desert." Others were influenced by the inducements held
out by the general government in the shape of a large land grant to all actual
settlers, nd the accounts given by writers from here and elsewhere, and also
by the lectures of reliable men who had seen this beautiful, and to me, unequaled
country. Like all the preceding emigrations, the starting points were
on the Missouri river at all points and crossings from below Lexington to Councii
Bluffs, and all wended their way to the main road leading up the Platte
valley.
To describe the trip in all its details would he tedious and uninteresting to
an intelligent audience of Oregon pioneers such as I now have the honor of
addressing.
The emigration got a good start that year. We had considerable rain the