Early in the present century, the territory fronted by such coast, eastward to the Rocky Mountains, became known as Oregon. The sovereignty of this region long continued in dispute between three of the great powers of the earth, – the claim of each nation respectively resting upon the value, in a political point of view, to be ascribed to those voyages, expeditions and acts of settlement.

The region was frequently called “the territory westward of the Stony Mountains.” Within it were included the present States of Oregon, Washington and Montana, west of the Rocky Mountains, and the territory of Idaho, together with the province of British Columbia. The claim to the sovereignty of the territory so long and so notably waged occasioned what is historically and politically termed the Oregon Controversy.

Oregon, north and east of the Columbia river, for several years all embraced in Washington, that particular historic area which for a long period included the territory which was the real contention between the United States and Great Britain, will receive its due share of notice.

Nor could Washington, Idaho or Montana history be written, ignoring their Oregon antecedents and their true significance. Such a work would be analogous to tracing the biography of an illustrious personage without knowledge of his parentage, his youth, his manhood, of those circumstances which constituted his very being, his individuality, and gave to his life its characteristics.

The intercourse of immigrants or American settlers with and influence over the native population would serve to illustrate the situation of Oregon’s pioneers. A history of the region was regarded essential to exhibit the relation of the native population to the white races who migrated to Oregon to occupy and settle the territory. History was required to supply the picture of the surroundings of the Oregon pioneer. And now, after a full generation, in which these country-savers, these state-builders, have been under a cloud, denounced as barbarians and robbers of the national treasury, their single offense being that, in the hour of desolation and doubt, they prevented the American settlements of Oregon from being wiped out forever, the great fact still remains that that government, which ignored their presence in the territory, which profited by their services in the field, still repudiates the full payment of the debt so justly their due. These men, these veterans, now deem it a simple act of justice, to themselves and to their children, to publish a history which may serve also to illustrate the value and importance of the region they fought to save to the country, humanity and the American occupants. And they have also deemed it eminently proper to present a picture of the region now, which in the past was the scene of those historic details and their sacrifices.

How those resolves have been performed by the Oregon pioneer will, as we believe, truthfully appear in the following pages.

The following collection details 671 biographies of the Pacific Northwest: Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington.