Maria Barclay, who died April 2, 1890, in this city, was the wife of Dr. Forbes Barclay, one of the earliest pioneers of this Northwest territory. She was associated with and helped to make the history of the territory which was the adopted home of her parents when she was but a child. She was the daughter of Peter and Catharine Pambrun and was born in British Columbia in 1826. Her father was a lieutenant in the Canadian army in 1812 and was afterwards chief factor in the Hudson Bay Company's employ. In 1831, he, with his family, came to Oregon and directly afterwards proceeded to Fort Walla Walla, of which post he continued in charge till 1841, when he was killed by a fall, and the family moved to Vancouver. During her life at fort Walla Walla she was intimately acquainted with all the missionaries of every denomination that visited this coast, as they were all entertained by her father.

The following year his daughter, then not yet 16 years of age, was married to Doctor Forbes Barclay, who was afterward prominently identified with the history of Oregon City and the territory and state of Oregon. Mrs. Barclay resided at Vancouver with her husband till 1850, when they moved to Oregon City. This city has been her home ever since. In 1873 she was called to follow her husband to the grave, where beside him on Sunday next, her form too will be laid to rest by loving friends.

Mrs. Barclay was a woman of strong constitution and was in good health up to a few weeks previous to her death, when she was attacked with a severe cold from which she suffered greatly. A few days before her death she was seized with a mild attack of codema of the larynx, but no alarm was felt till a few hours prior to her death, when the symptoms grew rapidly alarming, and at 1 o'clock Tuesday morning she died from strangulation. She was the mother of seven children, five of whom are living to mourn her loss. They are Peter, of San Francisco, Alexander, Katie and Mrs. Hattie Pratt, at home; and Charles at sea. Two, John and Edward are deceased. She also leaves two sisters, Mrs. Colonel McCraken, of Portland, and Mrs. L. W. Herger, of Chehalem, Washington, and four brothers in Eastern Oregon and Montana.

Mrs. Barclay was a woman of strong will and sterling integrity, accompanied with a kind disposition and a loving heart. Associated intimately with the people who lived the history of Oregon as a territory and a young state, and possessed of a wonderful memory stored with the facts and associations of pioneer life, she could talk by the hour of those early times. Many facts of interest connected with the early pioneer history are now lost, because they were only chronicled on memory's wall by a few, and she the last of the few. Among the earliest pioneers, she labored zealously, doing so far as she was able the part allotted her in life. One by one she saw her companions pass to the great unknown, till of the associates of those early pioneer days, when pioneer life meant so much trouble and so little reward, not one remains to minister to her in death, as she had so often done for many who have preceded her. She leaves none but friends, who will long remember her many excellent qualities and kind acts.