NOTES FROM OREGON

BROWN

Posted By: Jim Atchison (email)
Date: 2/11/2003 at 00:54:15

From "The Red Oak Sun" Friday, November 1, 1901 Volume XXV No. 10.

NOTES FROM OREGON

Extracts From a Business Letter by Letter Carrier Wilber Brown.

A business letter received by The Sun a few days ago from Wilber Brown, formerly a letter carrier in Red Oak, son of Councilman George Brown, now and for several years past a resident of Portland, Ore., where he is a letter carrier, contains some interesting notes of Oregon and Portland, which The Sun takes the liberty to print. Mr. Brown writes:

"I like it very well here in Oregon. I lack only a little over a month of being a regular carrier a year. I see that you are to have another carrier in Red Oak, which has been greatly needed.

The cost of living here is greater, I think, than in Iowa. Fresh eggs are 35 cents a dozen, while the Eastern product is 25 cents; butter is 60 cents for a two pound roll, potatoes are $1.25 for a 100 pound sack. Apples are from $1 to $1.50 per box, holding about two-thirds of a bushel. Flour is cheaper here than in Iowa, as there is so much wheat raised in the territory tributary to the Columbia and Willamette rivers. Last week there were 1,600,000 bushels of wheat purchased at Walla Walla, Wash., by Portland exporters, besides large amounts at Colfax and other places. The bulk of wheat is raised in Washington, but it nearly all comes to Portland, on account of the water level road of the O.R. & N. railroad along the Columbia river, while the wheat loaded at Tacoma and Seattle is hauled over the Cascade mountains by the Northern Pacific railroad.

"Portland has 90,426 population by the census of 1900, but it is my opinion that about 105,000 is the proper figure now, as there have been at least 1,500 dwellings erected since Jan. 1. On one letter carrier's route there have been over 100 new houses built, while on my own route there have been 28, and still houses to rent are scarce.

Wilber F. Brown.