Manuscripts Record
Metadata
Catalog Number |
80.001 |
Title |
Bristow, William W., 1826-1874 |
Date |
1852-1962 |
Scope & Content |
WILLIAM W. BRISTOW, 1826-1874 Inventory and description. Papers, 1852-1874 William W. Bristow crossed the Plains to Oregon in 1848. Settling at Pleasant Hill, he became Postmaster, Justice of the Peace, a member of the State Constitutional Convention, State Senator from Lane County, and later, a partner in the firm of Bristow & Company, a mercantile business in Eugene City. The papers include one original and several typescripts of letters written while at the Salmon River mines with his brother, Lafayette, in 1864, miscellanious legal documents, and his appointment as Postmaster at Pleasant Hill, 1852. "At Camp on the Upper Umatilla. The reservation is certainly one of the prettiest and most romantic places that I have seen. All nature dressed up in her mantle of green, while others are still slumbering in winter and then in summer while all is so dry and hot, in the dark green foliage of these large trees standing so close together, look so refreshing and delightful, soon transporting one to the realms of romance and "dream land". Here in the tall cliffs back of the trees that shade our camp and in the deep shades by the river bank, is the haunt of Dryads, Gnomes and Sylphs and down in the crystal depths of the murmuring waters play innumerable Nerids and Water Nymphs and in the balmy zephyr and the low winds sigh echoes felt from bower to bower. This of all others is the loved and peculiar home of the Red Men, so mysterious in origen [sic] and destiny, is fast passing away before the face of civilization, like the mists before the face of the rising sun and leaving in a century hence no monument, to mark a place where they once existed. Here he has lived and sung his death song, and shouted his war cry in ages past, here his fathers sleep and here he wishes to break his arrows and snap his bow string, ere he passes away forever to the bright hunting grounds of Manitou, where the pale face cease from troubling and he is rested from all his toils." INVENTORY --Poem written by W.W. Bristow. 2 page original handwritten and 2 page typed copy. (L74-848) --Letter from W.W. Bristow to Children, July 9, 1864. 6 page handwritten original and 6 page typed copy (L74-848) --Letter from W.W. Bristow to Martha Ann McCall. June 8, 1864. Two typewritten copies, one typed copy. (L74-848) 5 pages --Bond for a deed for the purchase of portion of W.W. Bristow's land claim for $2000 by Robert Callison. Oct. 30, 1865. 1 page. (L74-136) --Land Grant Certificate. Grantees W.W. and Elizabeth Bristow. Mar. 19, 1866. 640 acres, claim #1476, Located sections 28, 29, 32, 33 in Township 18S, Range 2W. 1 oversized document. (L74-137) --Letter of appointment. Oct. 12, 1852. Appointing W.W. Bristow postmaster of Pleasant Hill. 1 page. (L74-134) --Transcription of letter to editor of Oregon Statesman, Salem, Oregon. Oct. 4, 1853. 1 typewritten page. (L74-135) --Copy of letter from W.W. Bristow to Oregon Statesman, Nov. 9, 1853. 1 typewritten page. --Sketch of floor plan. W.W. Bristow's house built in 1863 and sold to Robert and Polly (Bristow) Callison in c. 1865. The sketch is contemporary. No date. 1 page. (L74-133) --Calling card. Holograph with signature of Mrs. W.W. Bristow. 1 card. No date. (L74-132) --Funeral notice, imprint. W.W. Bristow's funeral and burial. Dec. 8, 1874. 1 page. (L74-138) --Letter from Sally Gjertson, secretary of House Representative, Edwin R. Durno, to Mary Evelyn Bristow. Nov. 14, 1962. About her grandfather's letter to the Oregon Statesman being retained by their office. 1 page. --Notebook belonging to W. W. Bristow, dating from the 1930s. Contains notations on a variety of topics including how to make French polish, types of guns, how to introduce a speaker, transforming one's attitude, etc. Three-ring binder; 8" x 5 1/2". Many loose pages have been removed and stored in an accompanying envelope. (L2016.033) |