26 By 1862, his desire to better support the growing mining industry in eastern Oregon caused him to move his family from The Dalles and found the town of Umatilla. (The Oregon Daily Journal) During this time Moody undoubtedly crossed paths with The Oregon Surveyor’s October 2019 Lost Surveyor, T.W. Davenport, who filed the plat of Umatilla. It is unknown why Davenport filed the plat, while Moody claimed to start the town (The Oregon Daily Journal), since both of them were highly accomplished surveyors. Presumably, Moody may have been too busy with his other entrepreneurial interests to do his own surveying. The new town soon grew to 1200–1500 people with Moody serving as postmaster. [Photo 2] Not resting on his laurels, in 1865 Moody began the Oregon and Montana Transportation Company to build steamboats for Lake Pend d’Orielle in Idaho. He founded the town of Pend d’Orielle, but his business faltered and due to many challenges, the company was sold to the Oregon SteamNavigation company within a year of its founding. Leaving Idaho and, yet again, returning to The Dalles, Moody resumed surveying and built a grain business with his four sons. While most of us would have been exhausted by this point, Moody was ever industrious. In 1870, he was awarded a contract for the mail delivery between Portland and The Dalles via steamboat. Apparently, many had taken notice of Zenas Moody, and his political career was about to launch, bringing the end of his surveying in Oregon. He was nominated by the Oregon Republican party to run for State Senator in 1872. He lost in a close and contested race. By 1880, he continued Photo 2: Homestead located in eastern Oregon between The Dalles and Umatilla, surrounded by the changing landscape dominated by modern windmills. was elected to the lower house of the legislature and became speaker of the house. Moody’s surveying career and his mark on Oregon is extensive. In addition to any work he performed in the Brownsville area as a private surveyor, he held seven contracts in Oregon and one in Washingtonwhich included, in part, approximately 87 townships, 102 miles of standard parallels, and the boundary of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. Like many surveyors, past and present, Moody’s son Malcom was on the crew for the contracts he held around Umatilla, including the survey of the reservation boundary. Malcom, who was born in Brownsville, became a twoterm U.S. Congressman for Oregon in 1899 serving until 1903. (Olson) Malcom Moody also left his mark on The Dalles, serving two terms as mayor and working in his father’s shipping business and at The Dalles National Bank. [Photo 3] For the surveyors in Oregon, Moody holds a unique place in our legacy and in Oregon politics. Based on my research at the time of this writing, as the seventh governor of Oregon, he appears to be the only land surveyor ever to serve as the governor of our state. His passion for surveying is evident in his 1885 Biennial Message to the Legislative Assembly, where surveying issues are mentioned multiple times throughout his address. Those issues included swamp land titles with a detailed dissertation on the process of the patenting and review by the Surveyor General, a lengthy description related to the survey of the Willamette Valley and Coast Railroad Company holdings, and finally a brief discussion of the survey of Willamette Falls for the construction of a fish ladder. At the time of his election in 1882, Moody was the first republican governor in 16 years. The 16 years prior to his election Arriving in Oregon City on April 21, 1851, he found his money was nearly gone. After performing odd jobs for nearly six weeks, he asked for a job from James E. Freeman, with whom he had traveled on the various steamers along with John Preston. His inquiry was timely and thus began his surveying career at $50 per month. Only months later our Lost Surveyor, Zenas F. Moody, as a lineman for Freeman, participated in setting the “central point” of the Willamette Meridian (The Oregon Daily Journal) and by doing so, launched our surveying legacy in Oregon. The Oregon Surveyor | Vol. 45, No. 5 The Lost Surveyor
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