Note 287 — OREGON MISSIONS AN OUTLINE SKETCH OF OREGON TERRITORY AND ITS MISSIONS (continued 3)

Peter H. Burnett was born in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1807. While still young he moved with his parents to Missouri, where he engaged in mercantile pursuits and began legal studies. Upon the introduction of Senator Linn’s bill in Congress providing land for bona fide Oregon settlers, Burnett determined to emigrate thither, and was chosen captain of a large company, which set forth in 1843. Arrived in Oregon, he settled first at Linnville, then at Tualatin Plains, where he took much interest in the provisional government and was a member of its first legislative committee (1844). The following year he was chosen judge of the supreme court, and upon the establishment of territorial government was appointed justice of the United States court. In 1848 he went to California, where in 1850 he was elected first governor of the new state, and later (1857-58) served as justice of the California supreme court. Embarking in the banking business in San Francisco, he won eminence as a financier, dying in his adopted home in 1894. He has related his experiences in Recollections and Opinions of an Old Pioneer (New York, 1880). He therein details his conversion to Catholicism, due chiefly to conviction following the reading of controversial works. Going to Oregon City, he was received into the church by Father Devos (June, 1846).

Dr. John E. Long was a native of England, being educated for a physician. Emigrating to the United States in 1833, and to Oregon ten years later, he acted as recorder of the first legislature of the provisional government, but in 1846 was killed by an accident.—Ed.