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Title
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'Open letter to Harvey W. Scott,' on prohibition and Cyrus Walker's life story
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Description
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A long open letter to Harvey Scott, the editor of The Oregonian newspaper, by his former classmate Cyrus Walker. Walker is writing to persuade Scott to back the Oregon Local Option Liquor Law, which was Measure 3 in the June 1904 election. Scott generally opposed the prohibition of liquor, while Walker had supported it since boyhood.
In order to bolster his case Walker provides testimony from his own biography, highlighting details that intersected with Scott's life. Some details include: their shared history as students at Tualatin Academy in Forest Grove in the 1850s; Walker leaving school to become a farmer; Scott visiting Walker's homestead in Umatilla County; Scott becoming the first graduate of Pacific University; Walker's disappointment that Clark opposed prohibition; Walker's earliest memories relating to liquor in the 1840s at his family's mission in Tshimakain contrasted with Oregon City; Walker joining the "Temple of Honor" temperance society and the Good Templars; voting for Lincoln and his thoughts on Republicans vs. Democrats; Walker being the first from his county to enlist in the Union Army in 1864; joining the federal Indian Service and working at the Warm Springs reservation in the 1870s-1890s; voting for earlier prohibition measures in Oregon; joining the Patrons of Husbandry (also known as The Grange) in 1873; his hopes for Scott to have a change of heart.
Cyrus Walker was the oldest son of the early Oregon Territory missionaries Elkanah and Mary Richardson Walker. He grew up at Tshimakain in the 1830s-40s, where he learned the native Spokane language. After joining the U.S. army during the Civil War and then attempting to make a living as a farmer, he became a teacher at the Warm Springs Indian Agency. These letters, documents and clippings shed light on his experiences as a missionary, a soldier, a pioneer and a teacher at Warm Springs. This collection was donated to Pacific University by Betty Thorne, a descendant of the Walkers.
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Date
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1904
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Identifier
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PUA_MS102_undated_8.pdf
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Provenance
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Donated by Betty Thorn, Walker Family descendant.
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Rights
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http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/
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Type
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Text
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