“Ransom Clark received his education in Vermont and remained there for a considerable period after reaching mature years. At length, however, he manifested the pioneer spirit that had characterized his ancestors and removed to the west, where he believed there were better opportunities. He first located in Wisconsin and then went to St. Louis and later to New Orleans. He was in St. Louis in 1843 at the time Lieutenant Fremont was fitting out his company for his trip to the Pacific coast and although the greater part of his men were French and Canadian frontiersmen, Mr. Clark and about a half dozen other Americans enlisted for the expedition. Mr. Clark remained with the Fremont party until The Dalles were reached and then, with two other Americans, left the command and joined the American emigrants just coming into the country. In the spring of 1844 he took up his residence upon a farm near Lafayette and was successful in adapting himself to the conditions of that frontier locality, growing good crops and also engaging in stock raising. The Oregon Spectator of July 4, 1846, contained the following advertisement: "Ransom Clark, at his home on Yamhill river, offers for sale wheat, oats, corn, white beans, peas and potatoes, also bacon, salt pork, hogs and breeding sows." At the time of the discovery of gold he went to the mines in California, where he spent two years, after which he conducted a hotel in Linn, Oregon, and still later became one of the proprietors of the Columbian Hotel in Portland. In 1855 he went to the Colville country, in which gold had been discovered, and returning by way of Walla Walla, took up a donation claim of six hundred and forty acres just south of the present site of Walla Walla. However, the country had not yet been formally opened for settlement and he was compelled to leave by Nathan Olney, Indian agent. In 1888, however, he learned that the country would soon be opened up and in that spring went to his claim with a full outfit of farming implements, fruit trees, nursery stock, etc. He took with him John Haley to fence and care for his place and, leaving him there, soon returned to Oregon. The following spring he again came to this region, and this time was accompanied by his son, Charles W., whom he left on the place. In May he returned to Portland to make final arrangements for removing to his land, but while there became ill and died on the 24th of May, 1859, at the early age of forty-nine years. He was a member of the famous Lyceum and Debating Society of Oregon City and, as he wrote to a friend, "always advocated those principles which are best calculated to promote the cause of education, to promote the greatest good to the greatest number." He was quite prominent in civic affairs, served as a member of one of the early legislatures and in 1844 was one of three commissioners to view out and survey a road from the Willamette falls to the falls of the Yamhill river. He realized that a great future was in store for this section and was among the men who laid broad and deep the foundation for its future development.”
A cook of roughly the same moment, setting down the same dish.
Shave off any brown rancid part from the bacon, and put it on to boil in plenty of cold water; when it is nearly done put in the peas with a good bunch of mint, and let all boil together until the peas are done soft; then dish up the peas round the bacon.
Sources: The passage is from William Denison Lyman, Lyman's History of old Walla Walla County, Vol. 2: Embracing Walla Wa, free to read in full at Project Gutenberg. The recipe is from Francatelli, A Plain Cookery Book for the Working Classes of 1852, also free in full. Both are in the public domain in the United States. The binding above is ours — slate cloth, boar stamp.