Woodburn

For hundreds of years, French Prairie was the playground and home of the Kalapooya Indians, members of the Bannock Tribe. By the time pioneers started arriving on the Oregon Trail, the Indian population was diminishing due to exposure to diseases brought by earlier settlers. Jesse Settlemier had a vision of a nursery business and a town that could supply its workers, and he purchased property and began clearing it. Ultimately, the development of a railroad, along with fertile soil, hardy pioneers, an ideal climate, and a favorable location (between the large cities of Salem and Portland) produced the formula for a thriving city.

Reproduction of the original: Boy Woodburn by Alfred Ollivant

Reproduction of the original.

The circumstances related in our last chapter fearfully aggravated the state of things which had now continued two years: a year after the unfortunate visit of Miss Heritage to London, and nearly ten months after the embarkation of Dr. Leroy for India. The breach between Mr. Trant Drury and Mr. Leonard Woodburn, as well as that between different members of the community, had steadily grown wider and more irrevocable. The irritation of Mr. Woodburn against Mr. Drury had become thus more deeply intensified. As to Mr. Drury himself, he would never seem to recognise any cause of offence between them. He would always accost Mr. Woodburn, when they met, in a somewhat brusque manner, intended to be friendly, though he seldom obtained more than a “good day” from him, and a steady passing on. These occasions of cursory speech, in fact, generally added some fresh touch of irritation to Mr. Woodburn. He regarded this nonchalant and unabashed manner of Mr. Drury’s, when he knew the many offences he had given him, as fresh offence, and proof of a hard and impudent character of mind. Yet, in truth, they were only the result of Mr. Drury’s peculiar temperament, who meant no offence, but only the assertion of what, to him, were unimpeachable truths, that people ought to accept, and, sooner or later, must accept. To Mr. Woodburn, however, the position of Mr. Drury, as a man in much intercourse with the class of gentry round who were so antagonistic[Pg 3] to all the political views of himself and most highly esteemed friends, added a deeper feeling to his dislike...

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