ad alluded he was
obliged unwillingly to disclaim. I learned from him that his name was
William Keil, and that he was born at Bleicherode in Prussian Saxony. He
now left the apple-gathering to his men, and offered to show us whatever
was interesting about the colony: as to the life-insurance project, he
said he would take some more convenient opportunity to speak with Mr.
Koerner about it.

The doctor, who after this showed himself somewhat loquacious, was a man
of agreeable appearance, perhaps of about sixty years of age, with white
hair, a broad high forehead and an intelligent countenance. Sound as a
nut, powerfully built, of vigorous constitution and with an air of
authority, he gave the idea of a man born to rule. He seemed to wish to
make a good impression on us, and I remarked several times in him a
searching side-glance, as though he were trying to read our thoughts. He
sustained the entire conversation himself, and it was somewhat difficult
to follow his meaning: he spoke in an unctuous, oratorical tone, with
extreme suavity, in very general terms, and evaded all direct questions.
When I had listened to him for ten minutes I was not one whit wiser than
before. His language was not remarkably choice, and he used liberally a
mixture of words half English, half German, as uneducated
German-Americans are apt to do.

While we wandered through the orchard, the beauty and practical utility
of which astonished me, the doctor, gave us a lecture on colonization,
agriculture, gardening, horticulture, etc., which he flavored here and
there with pious reflections. He pointed out with pride that all this
was his own work, and described how he had transformed the wilderness
into a garden. In the year 1856 he came with forty followers to Oregon,
as a delegate from the parent association of Bethel in Missouri, in
order to found in the far West, then so little known, a branch colony.
At present the doctor is president both of Aurora and of the original
settlement at Bethel: the latter consists of about four hundred members,
the former of four hundred and ten.

When he first came into this region he found the whole district now
owned by his flourishing colony covered with marsh and forest. Instead,
however, of establishing himself on the prairies lying farther south, in
the midst of foreign settlers, he preferred a home shared only with his
German brethren in the primitive woods; and here, having at that time
very small means,