266 John H. Mitchell—Oregon 
governor arrived and organized a territory with 8,785 inhabitants. 
This territory was not dismembered until 1853, when the terri- 
tory (now state) of Washington was carved out of it. It became 
one of the states of the union July 14, 1859, and in 1865 the terri- 
tory (now state) of Idaho was set apart from its area. 
Of all the public men of the country during the period of the 
early settlement of Oregon, no one seemed to grasp the real situ- 
ation or so fully comprehend the vastness of the prospective 
interests at stake as Lewis Field Linn, United States Senator 
from Missouri. To his memory more than to that of any other 
public man of the time do the pioneer immigrants and the people 
of Oregon generally owe a tribute of lasting veneration. 
The measure for which Senator Linn so vigorously and con- 
stantly labored prior to his death, in 1848, for making donations 
of the public lands in Oregon territory to citizens of the United 
States to induce immigration and settlement finally materialized 
in an act of Congress passed September 27,1850. This act very 
largely facilitated immigration to and settlement in that country. 
One unfortunate incident, however, attached to this otherwise 
beneficent and highly commendable piece of legislation. While 
it facilitated immigration it tended also to facilitate marriage, 
not only among the immigrants, but between male immigrants 
and Indian women. By the fourth section of the act a grant in 
presenti was made to any man who would reside on and culti- 
vate for four consecutive years a tract of 320 acres of land if a 
single man and 640 if married. While under this provision set- 
tlement of the country was rapidly developed, it is nevertheless 
a fact, fully borne out by the records of the courts in that country 
within the next few years thereafter, that the premium paid on 
marriage resulted in an unusual and abnormal crop of divorces, 
as Many marriages, especially those with Indian women, were 
based on no other or higher considerations than the mercenary 
ones offered by the act. 
The Name Oregon. 
There are various theories as to the origin and derivation of 
the name “ Oregon.” Some writers declare that it is derived 
from the Spanish, signifying “ wild thyme,” so called on account 
of the abundance of that herb found by early explorers. Others 
insist it is an Indian word, in use about the headwaters of the 
Columbia to designate the waters of that river and meaning the 
