Title: Oregon Historical Landmarks: Willamette Valley
Author: Various
Language: English
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                                _Oregon
                          Historic Landmarks_
                           WILLAMETTE VALLEY


    [Illustration: DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION]


                  Daughters of the American Revolution

    [Illustration: _The Blockhouse at Dayton, Oregon_]

This building was a military blockhouse built at the Grand Ronde Indian
Agency by Willamette Valley settlers in 1856. U. S. Troops were sent to
the station the same year and it was named “Fort Yamhill.” Among the
famous Army officers stationed at this fort were Phil Sheridan, Joseph
Wheeler, A. J. Smith, D. A. Russell, and W. B. Hazen.

By permission of the U. S. Government, Fort Yamhill was moved from Grand
Ronde Agency to Dayton in 1911, through efforts of John G. Lewis, a
patriotic citizen. The structure was rebuilt on this spot as a memorial
to General Joel Palmer, a pioneer of Oregon, Superintendent of Indian
Affairs, founder of Dayton, and donor of this park.


                          LANDMARKS COMMITTEE
                                  1963

  Mrs. J. Dean Butler, Chairman
  Mrs. W. D. Foster
  Mrs. Lester Horton
  Mrs. George R. Hyslop
  Mrs. Albert H. Powers
  Mrs. A. R. Quackenbush

   The State Society Daughters of the American Revolution assumes no
             responsibility for statements of contributors


                             Copyright 1963
                         by the Oregon Society
                  Daughters of the American Revolution

                Printed in the United States of America
                  by the Metropolitan Printing Company
                            Portland, Oregon



                                Contents


  Joe Meek Donation Land Claim—Harvey E. Tobie, Ph.D                   4
  The West Union Baptist Church—Ruth McBride Powers                    6
  Old College Hall—Irene S. Story                                      8
  General Joel Palmer Home—Carl H. Francis                            10
  George Fox College—Mercedes J. Paul                                 12
  Belleque House—Helen E. Austim                                      14
  Champoeg Farm House—Henry Zorn                                      16
  The Old Mission Hospital—Robert Moulton Gatke                       18
  The History of Wheatland Ferry—Mrs. Ross Rogers                     20
  George Kirby Gay—Lenna J. Wilson                                    22
  The Amity Church—Dr. James Matthew Alley                            24
  Bethel College—Dr. James Matthew Alley                              26
  La Creole Academy at Dallas—Joseph D. Lee                           28
  The David Stump House in Monmouth—David Campbell                    30
  Christian College—Oregon Normal School—Oregon College of
          Education—David Campbell                                    32
  Fort Hoskins—Preston E. Onstad                                      34
  Bishop Simpson’s Chapel—Madeleine L. Nichols                        36
  The Mitchell Wilkins Family Home—Lucia Moore                        38
  The University of Oregon—Nina McCornack                             40
  The Applegate House—Josephine Evans Harpham                         42
  The Cartwright House—Josephine Evans Harpham                        44
  The Condon House—Josephine Evans Harpham                            46
  The Christian House—Josephine Evans Harpham                         48
  The Montieth House—Henrietta Stewart Brown                          50
  Providence Baptist Church—Lenore Powell                             52
  White Spires United Presbyterian Church—Mrs. Wayne Dawson           54
  Boston Mills (Thompson Mills)—Lottie E. Morgan                      56
  The Chase Orchard—Fannie Chase                                      58
  History of Early Albany Schools—Mary Myrtle Worley                  60
  Linn County Courthouse—Florette Nutting, and Helen J. Horton        62



                      Joe Meek Donation Land Claim
         _Harvey E. Tobie, Ph.D., author of “No Man Like Joe”_


    [Illustration: (uncaptioned)]

Oregon’s first sheriff and marshal, Colonel Joseph LaFayette Meek,
should be remembered, not so much as a witty adventurer, a part much
overplayed by writers, but as one of the very most important—at times
the most important—political leaders in this northwest society. True,
distance and lack of formal education limited his contribution,
especially to national developments. The fact that his mother was a
member of the important Walker family, that his uncle Joseph married
Jane Buchanan and that his cousin Sarah Childress married James K. Polk
might otherwise have opened doors leading to distinction for a man of
great natural ability and winning personality.

There were twelve, or by one account, fifteen children in Meek’s
Virginia family, too many for one man to educate in a day when schooling
was neither universal nor free. Joseph L. Meek chose to go west. From
his brother Hiram’s home at Lexington, Missouri, he enlisted in the fur
trade in 1829 and continued that wild career for eleven years. Decline
of the fur trade forced him to move to Oregon in 1840, driving one of
the first wagons ever to reach the present Oregon-Washington area.

The record summarized in the most definitive Meek biography, _No Man
Like Joe_, reveals not only a man with important ancestral ties which he
proudly and affectionately maintained, but the fond, doting parent which
he always was. Unlike many less responsible trappers, he did not
unfeelingly desert his Indian wife and his children, but he took them
along with him into the far west.

Adjustment to family life in Oregon was somewhat difficult for mountain
people. It was 1842 before Joe had a field of wheat of his own. Besides,
his heavy involvement in public affairs interfered with successful
farming. Nevertheless, as shown by a letter written to brother Hiram and
republished so widely as to reach London, he was a prosperous farmer by
1845. His north Tualatin plains estate, consisting of 642.7 acres of
combined prairie and timber land of excellent quality, later became
Donation Land Claim no. 61, notification 122, Twp. 1 north, range 2
west. Here, in the autumn of 1845, Joe hauled lumber from Oregon City by
ox team and built the first frame house in Twality County. The old log
cabin was made available to Uncle Ben Cornelius, his wife and nine
children.

The boards used in the new house were probably one by twelves, sixteen
feet long, either set upright to form what was known as a box house, or
nailed lengthwise on a frame of hewn logs and poles and covered by a
shingled roof. This unpainted building was large enough for a
house-warming dance, but very inadequate according to present standards.
It was a one-story affair, with an attic, no doubt, that could
accommodate one or more sleepers. The effective size of the front room
was reduced by storage of saddles, pumpkins, apples, and other produce.
Thus, although the long kitchen was adequate, the large and maturing
family had little more than one-room sleeping quarters. Used to better
conditions in the east, daughter Olive, after her return in the fall of
1862, promoted improvements. Unbelievably, there was room for
over-winter visits of relatives.

The successive family houses on the original site no longer stand, and
the 1866 barn has been torn down. Fortunately, the home of Mrs. Emma
Ross Deardorff, in which she has lived since 1872, still exhibits what
are close similarities to the dwelling in which Colonel Meek lived
during his last years. Living on the original residential site, now the
Ernest Zurcher farm, are Mrs. Zurcher (Marjorie Meek), her husband, and
the grandchildren of Stephen A. D. Meek—the great grandchildren of
Joseph L. Meek.

There was a “lost generation” of Meeks. The Civil War and racial
discrimination in the years that followed were principally responsible
for the fact that marriages of all surviving Meek children were delayed
until later in life than is normal. The grandchildren of Joseph L. Meek,
who are now at the peak of their careers as average, respected, useful
citizens. Best known in Oregon is druggist J. Fred Meek who is now,
after another reelection, serving as representative in the state
legislature.



                     The West Union Baptist Church
                         _Ruth McBride Powers_


    [Illustration: Oregon Historical Society]

“We the undersigned agree to pay the sum annexed to our names severally
for the purpose of Erecting a house of worship; to be the property of
the West Union Baptist Church of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour; said
house to be built in Washington County O. T., upon a lot of land
furnished by David T. Lenox which the said Lenox and wife secures to the
church by lease as long as they shall use it for a house of Worship,
together with a burying ground, the lot of land is on the east side of
the Lenox land claim at a point of timber adjoining the prairie, the
house to be of good style frame 30 foot by 40 foot Square finished in
good Style, the payments to be made to the trustees, David T. Lenox,
Henry Sewell and Reubin W. Ford.”

                            * * * * * * * *

Thus reads a subscription paper dated April 20, 1853, which records
pledges of $749.70 toward the total cost of $1,512.43 of the West Union
Baptist Church. The average gift was $5.00 but David T. Lenox heads the
list with $200.00, his son, Edward, $60.00. Generous pioneers of other
faiths made contributions, including Dr. John McLoughlin, D. H.
Lounsdale, and James Failing.

On May 25, 1844, five Baptists met in the log house of David Lenox on
Tualatin Plains, about eight miles northwest of Hillsboro, and
constituted the first church of the Baptist denomination in Oregon.
Their Minute Book shows that they named their church the West Union
Baptist Church, decided to meet once each month at the homes of members,
and elected David T. Lenox temporary Moderator. Subsequent entries
clearly show that Lenox was the leading member of this pioneer church.

He was born in New York State in 1801, lived in Illinois and Missouri
before leading a company of the 1843 wagon train to Oregon. Lenox sent
out the call in 1848 that resulted in the formation of the Willamette
Baptist Association. Although he was elected Moderator and Deacon, Lenox
was voted out of his church in November, 1862, but was reunited with it
before his death in 1872. His grave may be seen in the burying ground
adjoining the white, turreted church situated on his Donation Land
Claim. The West Union Baptist Church is the oldest Baptist Church west
of the Rocky Mountains and one of the oldest Protestant buildings still
standing in Oregon.

The Minute Book records the appointment of three committees to locate a
site for a Meeting House, but it was not until David Lenox offered a
portion of his land on April 9, 1855, that any progress was made toward
the erection of the church. The Reverend Ezra Fisher, who was sent to
Oregon by the American Baptist Home Mission Board in 1845, delivered the
sermon of dedication on Christmas Day, 1853.

The West Union Baptist Church is the only pioneer church in Oregon,
measured, blueprinted, and photographed in the Historic American
Buildings survey in 1934. This project was carried out by the Civil
Works Administration in cooperation with the National Parks Service of
Plans and Designs within the Department of the Interior throughout the
United States. It was a depression measure that offered employment to
architects and secured records of great value pertinent to early
American architecture.

Thirty-nine districts for research were designated. Oregon and
Washington were “District 39.” The Oregon members of this district
committee were Walter Church, architect, Portland; Nellie B. Pipes,
librarian of the Oregon Historical Society, and W. R. B. Wilcox, Dean of
the Department of Architecture of the University of Oregon. They
employed twenty architects and two photographers. On the closing date of
the project, April 28, 1934, forty-seven structures in Oregon and seven
in Washington had been studied, delineated and photographed.

A list of these buildings may be found in the Oregon Historical
Quarterly for June, 1934. Photographs and facsimiles of the blueprints
may be inspected at the Oregon Historical Society Library in Portland or
purchased through the National Archives in Washington, D. C.



                            Old College Hall
                            _Irene S. Story_


    [Illustration: (uncaptioned)]

According to the caption on the bronze marker placed by the Multnomah
Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution on May 12, 1939,
“College Hall (is) the oldest building in continuous use for Educational
purposes west of the Rocky Mountains. Here were educated men and women
who have won recognition throughout the world in all the learned
profession.”

In this building Tualatin Academy developed into what is now Pacific
University. When the Academy was chartered in 1849, the classes met in
the log cabin erected for the Congregational Church in West Tualatin
Plains, now Forest Grove. But in 1850 the board of trustees authorized
the erection of a two-story frame building. Here are the words of one of
the students, Marcus W. Walker, concerning the “raising”:

“It was in 1850 but in the early summer and never did a brighter sun
shine through, a bluer sky or more brilliant green bedeck forest and
grove and plain than did those in which boys reveled during those days
in which the frame of the old Academy building was placed in position.

“All spring, men and teams had been hewing out and hauling timbers while
other men under the oversight of ‘Squire Tuttle,’ as he was familiarly
called, had been framing them and now they were ready to be put
together. It was yet in the days of log houses and ‘bee-raisings’ and
notices and invitations had been sent out naming the day when everything
would be ready. Men with families came from other neighborhoods in
white-covered ox wagons, camping out for the time, and the affair
greatly resembled the old-fashioned camp meeting. Tables were set in the
old log building, partly school house, partly church, which has passed
into history as the birthplace of Tualatin Academy and Pacific
University, where bountiful dinners were provided by the women for the
men at work. This department being under the energetic oversight of
‘Grandma Brown’ with her somewhat stern face and dignified bearing, but
we knew that behind them lay the kindest heart that ever befriended a
homeless orphan whose name is, if possible, more intimately associated
with the history of this institution than that of Rev. Harvey Clark, its
founder and patron.

“Squire Tuttle gave the signal, ‘He-oh-heave’ and up it went and settled
into place. Money was scarce in those days and houses were built in a
hurry so a winter and a summer passed away before even one room was
ready. It was a frosty morning in October 1851 when 25 or 30 of us
gathered in the lower north room and school began with J. M. Keeler on
the platform. The fresh ceiling on the walls and overhead, the large new
blackboard, the new double desks, homemade as they were, all combined to
make it a veritable palace, used as we were to the rough log walls of
the old building with its rough benches and long shelf running around
the sides for desks.”

The building cost about $7,000 and the trustees were $2,000 in debt. The
Rev. Harvey Clark gave 200 acres of land at first; this plot of ground
was divided into lots and many of them were sold to help pay for the
building. Later he gave more land for the same purpose. Tabitha Brown
mentions in a letter that she gave $100, a big sum in those days,
especially for a woman of 69 or 70 years of age earning her own money.
Mrs. Mary Walker, wife of Rev. Elkanah Walker, gave her watch which was
sold and the sale price added. Others gave generously also and the
Society for the Promotion of College and Theological Education in the
East contributed to the upkeep of the Academy.

In 1854, the Territorial Legislature granted a new charter with full
collegiate privileges to “Tualatin Academy and Pacific University.”



                        General Joel Palmer Home
                           _Carl H. Francis_


    [Illustration: (uncaptioned)]

The impressive home of General Joel Palmer, with its stately columns,
catches the eye and excites the curiosity. In Dayton’s City Park one of
the few authentic blockhouses remaining, compels attention, and each
year thousands of tourists read that it stands as a memorial to General
Palmer; out of the dusty past ride the well-known figures of Sheridan,
Grant, Russell (who died at the Battle of Winchester), Wheeler, (both of
the Confederacy in the War between the States and of the Union in the
Spanish-American War), all identified with the historic blockhouse. But
no note is made of the regal structure which views the passing parade
from its vantage point of the State Highway which traverses the small
town; and history has itself passed by one of the most colorful persons
who helped hammer out the destiny of Oregon.

Let us look first for a moment to this man—a man who shaped the future,
first of the Indians who occupied the land, and then of his fellow
countrymen. As Superintendent of Indian Affairs, he negotiated the
treaties whereby the red man ceded title to the Oregon Country; these
were ratified by the United States Senate and became the law of the
land. Because of his humanitarian attitude toward the Indians, Palmer
was the victim of unfair criticism. But when the Whitman massacre
resulted in the Cayuse Indian War, Palmer readily took the field against
the errant, and it was in this War that his title of “General” was
obtained. Yet all the while, he served his fellow countrymen in numerous
ways. In Indiana he had been a member of the legislature before his
first trip to Oregon in 1845.

As Faith Holdredge Watts says, he was then “on a journey of exploration,
to test the feasibility of taking his family out later and establishing
a permanent home there.” He was immediately elected captain of one
company and in the fall of that year with Sam Barlow established what is
now known as the “Barlow Trail”—a portent perhaps of how perverse
history would refuse to recognize this leader, and give its laurels to
another. Palmer then platted the Town of Dayton in 1850, setting aside
the City Park as a “Court House Square” and the Brookside Cemetery in
which he was later buried. His picture, in the Oregon State Capitol,
looks down upon each Speaker of the Oregon Legislature, for he was the
second Speaker of the Assembly—but again, perverse history dismisses him
with a reference to a “Joe” Palmer; he was a State Senator, refused to
run as a candidate for the United States Senate while in government
employment, but in 1870, was the candidate of the burgeoning Republican
Party for Governor, being defeated by less than 700 votes. He was
characterized as a “man of honesty and integrity.” This was the man who
built the house.

The house itself has been rebuilt, added to, and a part destroyed.
Gertrude Palmer, granddaughter of the General, lives today in Lafayette,
Oregon, and her mind leaps quickly back to the olden days; she recalls
as a small child holding her grandmother’s hand while the original
structure (one story and attic, with a double fireplace) was demolished.
In the 1860’s, Palmer built an additional part which was remodeled in
1911, giving the present structure a “southern plantation” look.
Palmer’s original Dayton home was Dutch Colonial. He was a “bound boy”
in his youth; with no formal education, he struggled to achieve the
recognition he received. The house would reflect his personality.

To this home, says his granddaughter, came orphans—and one sees here his
hope that they be spared the rigors of his own youth. One of these,
Christopher Taylor, drove the wagon train that brought Palmer’s wife to
Oregon. Christopher Taylor was from Dayton, Ohio; and so the Oregon
counterpart came to be named.

Palmer, although a distinguished leader in the pioneer community of
Oregon, was apparently not fully aware of Oregon’s rainfall when he
built his home. To the Civil-war period portion of his house (and
incidentally, as a Republican leader he was strongly pro-Union), he dug
a deep-bricked cellar, which filled with water during the winter months.
Gertrude Palmer reminisces that when it so filled, “We used to get our
shingle boats and play in the cellar.” This pastime became denied to
juveniles with the 1911 remodelling.



                           George Fox College
                           _Mercedes J. Paul_


    [Illustration: (uncaptioned)]

Ten years after William Hobson settled near the site of Newberg in 1875,
the Friends had opened an academy for their children, the first Quaker
school in Oregon and the forerunner of Pacific College, now George Fox.

In 1883 the pioneer Quaker parents, feeling the need of education for
their children beyond that offered in the Oregon public schools, brought
the subject of building an academy before the Monthly Meeting. Mary
Edwards, Dr. Elias Jessup, David Wood, and Ezra Woodward were appointed
to investigate.

By September, 1883, the committee reported $1,865 secured in good notes
and that the subscribers had met and decided to call the school, Friends
Pacific Academy.

C. J. Edwards recalled the establishment of the academy vividly. “One
evening in the spring of 1884, as I was returning from school, I noticed
that someone had cut a wide swath of wheat down along the west side of
our garden and that several loads of lumber had been hauled to the place
where the Friends Church now stands.... My father said he was very much
dissatisfied with having to sell some of the land in the center of his
farm for an academy building but that he was so anxious to have the
privileges of the school for his family that he had consented to its
erection near the center of the 80-acre field on the spot where the
Friends Church now stands.”

On September 28, 1885, Friends Pacific Academy, a school of high school
rank, opened its doors. Dr. Jessup had hauled the first load of lumber
with a mule team for the building, and Noah Heater and Charles Vaughn
had contracted for the carpenter work.

The first academy building was moved in 1892 to the present campus where
it became known as Hoover Hall in 1932 and was used as a men’s dormitory
for twenty years. The architects declared it was suffering from “extreme
fatigue,” and it was torn down in 1954, destroying a wall on which
tradition says Herbert Hoover signed his name “Bertie.” The senior rose
garden marks the site of the historic academy building.

Among the first to enroll on opening day was Bert Hoover, later
thirty-first president of the United States. Then eleven years old, he
was living with his uncle, Dr. Henry Minthorn, Pacific’s principal. On
the college’s fiftieth anniversary Mr. Hoover was granted Pacific’s
first honorary degree and his fiftieth.

When the academy opened, there were two of senior rank, eleven in the
first year, twelve in the second, and thirty-four in the first year of
the grammar department. There were two teachers besides Dr. Minthorn.

Six years later there were 125 students attending classes, and one had
graduated. The Quakers were now confronted with the problem of providing
further education for their children, and, since the nearest Quaker
college was in Iowa, they decided to start their own.

Pacific College opened its doors on September 9, 1891, with Dr. Thomas
Newlin as president. There were six other instructors. The college’s aim
was that of “offering to young men and women the benefits of a liberal
Christian education.” Two juniors, four sophomores, and seven deficient
in preparatory work were enrolled in the college; and 136, in the
academy.

Pacific’s first graduates were Clarence J. Edwards, son of Jessee
Edwards, in whose wheatfield the academy had been built; and Amon C.
Stanbrough, an early superintendent of Newberg schools.

In 1949-50, final action was taken to change the name of Pacific College
to George Fox. It was felt that the increasing confusion of Pacific
College with Pacific University at Forest Grove and the use of Pacific
in the names of other schools on the Pacific coast made such a change
imperative.

There are few colleges that send a larger proportion of their graduates
into the so-called sacrificial fields, as teachers, preachers, or
missionaries. George Fox, the fifth oldest Quaker college in the United
States, emphasizes constantly the ideal of service rather than
selfishness, and of character as well as scholarship.



                             Belleque House
                           _Helen E. Austin_


    [Illustration: (uncaptioned)]

George W. Eberhard, at the age of 22, arrived at San Francisco by way of
Panama from the State of Michigan. He remained in California for five
years and came to Oregon by boat in 1859. The following year he bought
320 acres of the Pierre Belleque farm above Champoeg. At that time only
60 acres were cleared. He paid $1,500 for this land which had been
farmed by the Belleque family over 25 years. Because of technical
regulations in the Land Grant laws, no clear title had been issued, and
it was 28 years before Mr. Eberhard was able to secure his official
title.

This farm belongs to the very earliest period of Oregon history, having
been the location of one of the first fur-trading posts in the entire
Northwest Country. It was established by members of the Astor expedition
in 1812, and when the Hudson’s Bay Company came to this Western Empire a
decade later, they took charge and maintained it as a supply depot and
relay farm for brigades going to the Umpqua and country to the south.

It is in the big bend of the Willamette River in Marion County, located
two miles west of Champoeg on the river road to Newberg. Highway 219 to
the new bridge is the west boundary of the original farm. A historical
marker has been erected near the bridge.

Pierre Belleque, who came with the Northwest Fur Company from Canada,
settled here in 1831 to develop a farm and home and raise a family,
along with other retired fur company men. His neighbor to the west was
Etienne Lucier. Here they became prominent in the early history and
development of the Northwest Country, long before the wagon trains began
to roll over the Oregon trail.

It was the house of Belleque which had been the chief trader’s house,
built in the French style, having lapped siding; and dressed lumber was
used for finishing. The house had been lined with flowered glazed
chintz, a piece of which is still preserved. An outstanding feature was
the glass in French-style windows, while the usual log cabins with
parchment windows and rough lumber comprised the homes of his neighbors.

Mr. Eberhard, a bachelor, was living here when the flood of 1861
destroyed so many homes and towns along the Willamette. He saved it from
going down to destruction in the swirling waters and anchored it on a
higher bench of land. Here he brought his bride, Louisa J. Jones in
1865. Soon he began hewing the timbers and building their new home,
moving into it in 1869. They used the handmade mantel from the chief
trader’s house, and many of the doors and windows. To them were born six
children—five boys and a girl, Barbara, who married Henry J. Austin, one
of the early merchants of Newberg. They had two children—Louise Austin
of the Friendsview Manor in Newberg and George Kenneth, who with his
wife still lives in this house in its park-like setting of stately old
black walnut and hickory trees. This grandson was among the first to
develop an extensive irrigation project. Today he operates a modern
dairy.

Although the house has been remodeled, much of the original handwork can
be seen. The broadaxe used to fashion the beams still stands by the
fireplace. The original hand-dressed flooring remains in one room nailed
with handwrought iron nails. One of the original shingles, hand-split
and gently tapered with plane or draw-knife, is preserved.

The family has collected shards of china, pottery, old pipe stems and
bowls, and various relics from the site of the old trading post, which
portion of the farm was sold many years ago.

To this farm belongs the honor of having reared enterprising citizens
from the time Pierre Belleque was appointed as one of the first
constables—before the formation of our provisional government—to the
present day, when the son of Mr. and Mrs. G. K. Austin aided in the
designing of portions of our modern-day missiles.



                          Champoeg Farm House
                              _Henry Zorn_


    [Illustration: (uncaptioned)]

The house on Champoeg Farm was built between 1867-70, by John Hoefer and
Casper Zorn. It is a combination of southern and western design, a
two-story frame building, consisting of fourteen rooms. The structure
has a brick pillar foundation and the pillars are covered with zinc
sheeting, to protect the sills from moisture. The fir lumber used in the
building was produced on the farm and wrought-iron square nails were
used in the construction. In the front part of the house the lumber was
planed, tongue and groove, by hand.

This building was enlarged in the 1880’s to its present size. In 1896, a
bell tower, on the roof at the rear of the house, was added. The bell
was to call the farm hands from the field at the noon hour. In the same
year, the windmill tower was built.

The house was completely furnished; carpeting with large floral designs,
heavy drapes, and such furniture as was in use at that period, along
with many pioneer articles.

The house is in the center of the Robert Newell Donation Land Claim,
surrounded by about 950 acres of fertile farm and timber land. The name
Champoeg Farm was registered June 9, 1913, in the Marion County Clerk’s
office, Salem, Oregon. The reason for naming the farm was to give it an
identity. The largest Indian village in the Willamette Valley was
located here. The French Prairie was known as Champoeg Country. Champoeg
District, which extended from the Willamette River to the summit of the
Rocky Mountains, was named by the Provisional Government. The first
flour mill of 1835, and all succeeding mills were known as the Champoeg
mills. The establishment of the first American government on the Pacific
Coast occurred here. The townsite of Champoeg was situated on the
northwest section of the farm.

There were a number of individuals who had a part in the development of
the farm by ownership or otherwise, who made history by their courage
and determination and who became useful members of a new state. I am
mentioning the names of the most prominent: Robert Newell, Donald
Manson, William Bailey, Thomas McKay, William Cannon, John Ball, William
Johnson, George Laroque, John Hoefer and Casper Zorn. Personally I have
owned the farm over fifty-two years.

John Hoefer sailed from Europe to New Orleans; the voyage took six weeks
before arriving. For two years he worked as a cabinet maker and then he
came by wagon train to California and thence to Oregon by steamer,
coming to the Champoeg district in 1852. After arrival, he worked as a
cabinet maker and carpenter, building houses for the settlers.

John Zorn, his two sons, and daughter came from Europe to New York and
then to Baraboo, Wisconsin; and after a time, decided the Pacific
Northwest was the place to establish their home. They went down the
Mississippi River by boat to New Orleans, then by steamer to Panama,
across the Isthmus, and then by steamer to California, and from there by
steamer to the Oregon country, settling in the Champoeg district in
1854.

John Hoefer married Anne, the daughter of John Zorn. Casper Zorn, the
older of the two sons, became a partner of John Hoefer. Adam, being a
boy, chored around until he became old enough to go on his own.

Hoefer and Zorn ran the old tavern, where the Hudson’s Bay Company
quarters had been. They also had a bowling alley, at the townsite of
Champoeg. All their property was lost during the flood of 1861.

On February 3, 1862, Hoefer and Zorn bought the flour and gristmill,
which had been damaged by recent flood, repaired it, and operated it for
fourteen and one-half years. Then on February 24, 1866, they purchased
146 acres from Robert Newell, and the Champoeg Farm house was built on
the present site.



                        The Old Mission Hospital
                         _Robert Moulton Gatke_


    [Illustration: (uncaptioned)]

In the late fall of 1834, under heavy rains, Jason Lee and his few
co-laborers built the log cabin which was to house the Oregon Indian
Mission of the Methodist Church. The crudely built cabin of
twenty-by-thirty feet was on the banks of the Willamette River, about
ten miles below the present city of Salem. As the mission became an
Indian orphanage and school, and its mission workers and their families
increased in numbers, the log cabin received additions; and a small
colony of cabins serving as homes, utility buildings, and work shops
grew. These buildings were swept away by the flood of 1861, almost
twenty years after the mission activities had been transferred to the
present site of Salem.

Only one building of the old mission structures survived the flood. This
was the first frame structure, built in 1838, to house the mission
doctor, Elijah White; and later added to, so it could serve as the
mission hospital. The site selected for the first frame structure was on
higher ground, about a mile east of the mission log buildings on the
river bank. The location today is on the Wheatland Ferry Road, about ten
miles from Salem, on what is now (1963) known as the Mission Blueberry
Farm. Oregon’s oldest frame house is privately owned and occupied, as it
has been during most of its century and a quarter of history. When the
Old Hospital was first known to the writer, about 1920, it was called
the Beers’ house because of its long ownership by the Alanson Beers
family. This mission family had originally acquired it from the Oregon
Mission, when it closed its Indian Mission in 1844. At the time I first
visited the house it was unoccupied and showed considerable neglect. In
the years since, it has passed through a succession of owners, most of
whom have appreciated its historic significance and kept it in fine
repair.

With the arrival of the first reinforcement of mission workers,
including the first physician, Dr. White, in 1837, and others in 1838,
the living conditions in the old mission quarters were impossibly
crowded. In a book published in 1848, based on Dr. Elijah White’s source
materials, the writer says: “There was some difficulty in accommodating
the new comers, but they were obliged to enter the house with the old
inmates, already numerous.... (This) made Mrs. White anxious to remove
to their own house, which they did in a few days although it was not fit
condition for inhabitants. There was no chimney in it, and but roof
enough to cover a bed; a few loose boards for a floor, and one side
entirely unenclosed.”

The house was completed as soon as possible. But as there was no
suitable stone at hand for the hearth, it was made of clay and ashes
“which after drying, became measurably though not perfectly hardened.
But one of Mrs. White’s greatest domestic privations was that she could
never wash her hearth.”

When the mission carpenters, under W. H. Willson, finished the house,
and Mrs. White was settled, she made it a home which won praise from the
wife of the Fort Vancouver chaplain, the Rev. Herbert Beaver, when she
and her husband visited the Whites. “They were much pleased with
everything around them, especially the indoor arrangements. ‘Why, Mrs.
White,’ said Mrs. Beaver ‘how nice this is; it looks as though a white
woman’s hands had been here. This is the first white woman’s house I
have been in since my arrival in this country.’”

Many visitors besides the Beavers stayed at the White home, including
Dr. Marcus Whitman, from the American Board Missions; Dr. McLoughlin,
and visiting missionaries from the Hawaiian Islands. From the size of
the retinue which accompanied Dr. and Mrs. McLoughlin, and the
description of their camping equipment, it must have been that they
camped near the house while they visited, as the party could never have
been housed under its roof.

We have a description of the Mission Hospital, as it was some years
after Dr. White’s occupancy, from Lt. Charles Wilkes, a United States
government exploring agent, who visited the Willamette Valley in June
1841. “We rode on to the log houses which the Messrs. Lee built when
they first settled here. In the neighborhood are the wheelwright’s and
blacksmith’s, together with their workshops, belonging to the mission,
and about a mile to the east, the hospital, built by Dr. White, who was
formerly attached to the mission.”



                     The History of Wheatland Ferry
                           _Mrs. Ross Rogers_


    [Illustration: (uncaptioned)]

Wheatland Ferry crossed the Willamette River at a very historical
pioneer spot. Jason Lee chose the location for the first Methodist
Mission of the valley, a short distance south of the village of
Wheatland on the east side of the river. There were no roads, so
traveling was by water or horse-back, and the first river crossings were
in Indian canoes, with often a horse swimming behind.

In 1837, David Leslie came to help at the Mission, bringing his wife and
three daughters. They lived in a log cabin on the west side of the river
and crossed to the Mission. By 1840 two more daughters were born. They
were the first white children born in Yamhill County. In 1843, Daniel
Matheny crossed the plains and took up a donation land claim reaching
the river at Wheatland. His family operated a ferry across the river for
many years, beginning in flat bottom skiffs, and later with a flat boat
for wagons.

Here is a story of pioneer days. Matheny’s oldest son was told by his
mother that he was too big to go to Camp Meeting without shoes, so he
would have to stay home. This was a sad situation as Camp Meeting was
the social event of the year. An Indian woman came to the river and
signaled for him to come over to take her across. When he reached her he
saw her moccasins and began to bargain for them. At first she shook her
head, and he began to empty his pockets. At last she consented and he
ran home waving his moccasins.

The land around Wheatland was settled rapidly in the 1840’s, and as
wheat was the main export, a warehouse and boat landing were built a
quarter of a mile south of the ferry by Miles Hendrick. Wheat was raised
on both sides of the river. There is no high ground on the east side of
the Willamette river for buildings or boat landings. The first warehouse
was built a mile south of Wheatland on a bluff near the west bank of the
Willamette river. It went out in the 1890 flood. The other one was built
about a quarter of a mile north of Wheatland. After harvest the ferry
was busy bringing wheat from across the river to the warehouse to be
shipped on river boats.

I remember the ferry in the late 1890’s. It was a thrill to cross the
river on it; but as the charge was twenty-five cents one way and forty
cents round trip, we didn’t cross often. As children, my cousin and I
used to go down and ride across free when the ferry man was taking a
wagon. He never refused us and no child drowned from the ferry at that
early day.

After the Matheny family moved away, the ferry was owned by John Isham,
Bill Isham, Dick Wood, and Lane Davidson. While Davidson ran it, a new
ferry boat was built. In the early 1930’s, Clyde Lafollette bought the
ferry and built a cabin on the ferry so that his son, Clarence, could
sleep there and be ready to take late travelers across. There were
current boards on the ferry that made the river current help push it
across. If the current wasn’t strong enough, the operator had to help
with his own strength. Later Mr. Lafollette put a gasoline engine on the
ferry to help while the river was low in the summer time.

In 1937, the communities on each side of the river, backed by Clyde
Lafollette, began pressing for a free ferry supported by the two
counties it connected. Yamhill and Marion counties took over the ferry
that year, hiring two men to run it and keeping it open from six a.m.
until five p.m. They installed a new gasoline ferry and, of course,
ferry travel increased.

Tom Bowden, who is still working on the ferry, began operating the
gasoline ferry in 1940. Other helpers have been Roy Lafollette, George
Frauendeiner, Frank Hersha, and Frank’s son, Erwin Hersha is the second
operator at the present time. There have been two drownings near the
ferry on the Wheatland side; Jackie Worthington in 1941 and Sonny
Lindsey in 1947. Both were in their early teens and could swim a little.
In 1947, a new electric ferry was built that could handle six cars at a
crossing, and in the summer time it was often kept busy. In 1959, the
present ferry was purchased. It is an all-steel electric one and handles
six large cars.

The Wheatland Ferry is one of the few remaining on the Willamette River.
In crossing it, you get a wonderful view both up and down the
Willamette. If you enjoy the romance of a ferry, do come and cross the
Beautiful Willamette on the Wheatland Ferry.



                            George Kirby Gay
                           _Lenna J. Wilson_


    [Illustration: Oregon Historical Society]

George Kirby Gay was born in Gloucestershire, England, in 1796. Gay went
to sea at a very early age as a messboy on a voyage to the South Sea
Islands and other foreign ports. He left London on the whaler “Kitty.”
Landing in New York, he made his way westward to Missouri, where he
joined the Pacific Fur Company as camp-tender. Soon he started the
overland trek through the wilderness, arriving at Astoria in 1812. The
following year, Gay left Astoria and for years sailed the seas to all
parts of the world.

After his seafaring life, he left ship at Monterey, California, and
joined a trapping expedition, soon starting overland to reach the
Willamette Valley and the Columbia River, knowing, however, white men
might be found. He was a survivor of the Rogue River Massacre, finally
arriving at Wyeth’s Trading Post on Sauvies Island in August, 1835.

The following year, Gay was one of twenty to make the attempt to stock
the country with cattle. A goodly number of Spanish cattle were brought
through and the Colony benefited by this first business venture. While
driving the herd through the Siskiyou Mountains, the company was
ambushed. Gay received a fearful wound from an Indian’s arrow. The
Spanish cattle brought from California, enabled Gay to build herds that
roamed Yamhill and Polk Counties.

Now, being settled somewhat, he thought of a home in the heart of the
green Willamette wilderness. He busied himself with the making of brick
from the local clay. Clay dug from a nearby pit was “tramped
bare-footed,” molded, and burned into brick on the place. With these
first Oregon-made red brick, the first brick house west of the “Rockies”
was constructed. As a site for the brick house, Gay selected an elevated
location, affording a view in all directions. A two-story home with
14-foot walls, built of brick three courses thick was built. At each end
of this home was an inside fireplace two feet deep. Hand-dressed
woodwork and particularly the woodwork around the fireplaces,
handcarved, bore mute evidence of the taste and patience of the one who
dreamed of a mansion on a hill. The south wall was designated in Oregon
records as a point in the southern boundary of Yamhill County. Here was
the scene of unbounded hospitality.

Gay entertained officers of the U. S. Navy and all officers of the
British men-of-war, who were visiting in the Columbia. This home was a
resort for any and all travelers and immigrants who sought its shelter.
He had many servants. During the 1840’s, this house resounded to
discussions about Oregon’s provisional government. Meetings were called
in March for the purpose of devising means of protection for the herds
and to protect the lives of the settlers. At the March 6, 1843 meeting,
Gay was chosen one of a committee of 12 to take into consideration the
propriety of taking measures for the civil and military protection of
the colony. It was this meeting which promoted the epochal meeting at
Champoeg of May 2, 1843.

For 40 years, Gay was esteemed by companions as a rollicking good
fellow, whose temperament and adventures were becoming to the sailor,
fur trapper, valiant Indian fighter, and frontiersman of the early 19th
century. He was not a man to be trifled or fooled with, but a useful
member in his community—in short, he undertook any and all irregular
sort of business, and few things with him were impossible—all had much
confidence in him. A handsome, athletic man of powerful physique, he was
kind and gentle in his behavior and always good-natured. He was a fine
horseman and an expert with the lasso.

For years he was the wealthiest man in the Willamette Valley, outside of
the Hudson’s Bay Company. Like many of the old, generous, and hospitable
pioneers, he died poor—in his own home—a remarkable career man. The
career of the intrepid George Kirby Gay ended, October 7, 1882.



                            The Amity Church
                       _Dr. James Matthew Alley_


    [Illustration: (uncaptioned)]

The Amity Church of Christ was born in a pioneer log cabin about two
miles north of present-day Amity in March of 1846. This makes it the
oldest Christian Church of the Disciples of Christ, west of the Rocky
Mountains.

Elder Amos Harvey, a pioneer of 1845, was the organizer of this
congregation of thirteen charter members. In a letter to an Eastern
religious journal, he tells of the humble beginning of this congregation
in these simple words: “We met, as the disciples anciently did, upon the
first day of the week, to break the loaf, to implore the assistance of
the Heavenly Father, and to encourage each other in the heavenly way.”

Amos Harvey was born of Pennsylvania Quaker stock. The Revolutionary
Battle of Brandywine was fought on his kinsman’s land. When a young man,
he married Miss Jane Ramage, a member of the Christian Church, and after
their marriage he became a member of the same church. He was the
organizer of Bethel College in Polk County, chartered in 1856. He had
one of the first fruit nurseries in the Oregon Territory and was one of
the first officers of the state horticulture society. He was one of the
founders of the Republican party in the state.

The second minister of the Amity Church of Christ was Glen O. Burnett, a
pioneer of 1846. Soon after his arrival in the Amity area, we find him
busy preaching, baptizing, marrying, and burying the citizens of this
area. He performed his first marriage, shortly after his arrival in
1846, in the cabin of Joseph Watt, another pioneer of the Amity
community. Elder Burnett was a hard-working circuit rider. He was a
close friend of Amos Harvey, and the two of them kept the Amity church
alive in its infancy. A great amount of credit goes to the laymen of the
Amity church of this period. They were the real leaders of the
community, and they in turn supported Harvey and Burnett with all that
they had to offer in a material way, which was very little. But what
they lacked in material help they made up in their faithfulness to this
pioneer church.

The congregation met in the homes of the members until 1849, when a log
school house was built in the north end of present-day Amity. A young
schoolmaster by the name of Ahio S. Watt named it Amity. And we find
that Elder Glen O. Burnett “delivered the principal address when the
first school in Amity was opened in the spring of 1849.” The California
gold rush took some of the members to the goldfields for a few years.
The Indian and Civil wars retarded the progress of the little church. It
was not until 1869 or 1870 that it had its first building.

The ground for this building was given by Enos Williams, who also gave
the village square in front of the church to the children of Amity in
perpetuity. The building was erected by a pioneer carpenter, Charles
Burch. This building served the congregation until 1912, when the
present church building was erected seventy-five feet west of the
original structure. The old building was moved to another part of town
and is still used for church purposes by another religious communion.

Enos Williams, William Buffum, and Robert Lancefield were charter
members of this church. They were leaders in the community, school, and
church life of this period. These laymen did not confine their good work
to the Amity area alone. When circuit riders Harvey and Burnett founded
Bethel College in Polk County, they sent their children to its high
school department and college classes, or supported it with financial
help. The pioneer Amity Church of Christ is not a story about a wooden
building as much as it is a story of great men, both its ministers and
its laymen—men who were willing to sacrifice for their faith.

The church at one time was in grave financial difficulty. There was a
possibility of losing its building. A member, Heber Martin, then past
seventy years of age, went to the bank and offered to mortgage his farm
to save the church building from a mortgage foreclosure. Happily, this
man’s faith aroused the community and the property was saved.



                             Bethel College
                       _Dr. James Matthew Alley_


    [Illustration: Oregon Historical Society]

In the figures of the 1850 census, there were no illiterate persons in
Polk County. This was due to the high quality of the pioneers who
settled in this area of present-day Yamhill and Polk Counties, which was
called “The Athens of the West.” Between the years of 1843 and 1860 some
of the best educated and most dedicated men ever to come over the Oregon
Trail gravitated to this section of the Oregon Territory. Wherever they
settled they started a school and a church. Many of them were members of
the Christian Church.

It was only natural that a circuit rider preacher, Elder Glen O.
Burnett, should call the people of this religious communion together in
a camp meeting in an oak grove near Bethel in 1852. At this meeting the
idea of Bethel College was conceived.

In 1851 a physician and surgeon, Dr. Nathaniel Hudson, took a land claim
in this “Athens of the West.” The first thing he did was to build a log
schoolhouse; and in the late spring and early summer of 1852, he held
the first public school in the area. Because of his superior education,
the Doctor was able to teach the higher branches of education which was
not possible in most of the pioneer schools.

In 1854, Dr. Hudson sold his squatters’ rights at Bethel and took a
claim two miles west of Dallas. The pioneer families about Bethel had
come to depend fully on Dr. Hudson’s school, and its loss was a severe
one to the whole community.

Two Christian preachers, Amos Harvey and Glen O. Burnett gave 261 acres
of their donation land claims for the financing of Bethel Institute,
later Bethel College. This was near the first of the year in 1855. A
two-story frame building, 36 × 44 feet in dimension, was proposed. From
March until July 4, 1855, materials were gathered on the grounds for the
college building “raising.”

On the “glorious Fourth of ’55,” men with their families in wagons began
arriving. Some came from great distances. Besides carpenter work, there
was a sermon, a patriotic address, and a basket dinner. At the close of
the day, the main framework of the building, with its roof in place, was
done. The building was finished and dedicated, October 22, 1855. Bethel
Institute was chartered by the Territorial Legislature on January 11,
1856. Four years later, on October 19, 1860, Governor John Whiteaker
signed the charter of Bethel College, which has never been revoked.

Although for many years Bethel College has ceased to function as far as
actual classes are concerned, it still exists. It has a board of
trustees, and owns the college property—the ground on which Bethel
Elementary Grade School is located. It elects a board of trustees each
year, and has the power to grant degrees.

Too little is known about this college which gave Oregon one governor;
the wife of a United States Senator; and many who later became lawyers,
school teachers, and clergymen. One of the founders of Bethel College,
Amos Harvey, gave to the United States Senate his great-granddaughter,
the Honorable Maurine Neuberger.

Each year in midsummer the alumni association and the descendants of the
pioneers of Bethel gather on the grounds for an all-day picnic and
annual meeting.



                      La Creole Academy at Dallas
                            _Joseph D. Lee_


    [Illustration: (uncaptioned)]

In Waverly, Ohio, Nicholas Lee and Sarah Hopper were married August 4,
1840. That same year they moved from Ohio to Iowa, while Iowa was still
a territory. In the spring of 1847, they left for Oregon, fully equipped
with a good team of oxen, two cows (Rose and Lilly) and necessary
household goods. Raids by Indians upon the cattle of the train and
losses by stampedes left them practically without a team. They threw
away much of the household goods and fortunately purchased a yoke of
oxen (Dave and George) from another train, enabling them to complete the
journey.

The Lees and quite a number of others took the Southern route via
Klamath Lake and Cow Creek Canyon. Of the train coming down the
Columbia, several stopped at Dr. Marcus Whitman’s station and were
ruthlessly murdered or captured in the Indian massacre of November 29
and 30, 1847.

It was late in the fall when the Lees reached the head of the Willamette
Valley, for the trip was a hard one, especially Cow Creek Canyon. The
cattle were weak and jaded. Elias Briggs, who had safely brought a hive
of bees that far, lost them when his wagon was overturned in the water.

The Lees and James Fredericks selected claims and built cabins not far
from Eugene Skinner’s, after whom the city of Eugene was named. In the
spring of 1848, Frederick and Lee with their families came to Polk
County, seeking work and supplies. Their intention was to return, but
hearing that the Indians had burned their cabins they decided to remain.
They had the use of a two-room cabin for a time.

The winter of 1848 and 1849 was spent by the Lees in Salem. The
California gold rush was on, and Mr. Lee, a cooper by trade, made pack
saddles that winter and sold them to men leaving for the mines.

In the summer of 1849, they returned to Polk County and bought a claim
two and one-half miles south of Dallas. The transition from the cabin to
the “new house” was an important event with the pioneer family in 1852.
The house is still in use but has been remodeled. Mr. Lee took an active
part in establishing church and schools in Dallas and its area. In 1854,
he was licensed as a preacher of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and is
credited with organizing the original Methodist Society.

In 1855, Mr. Lee took the lead in building a log school house on the
John Nicholas place. His two older children attended. Soon afterwards a
move started for an independent academy in Dallas. Lee was one of the
members of the first board of trustees, and served as treasurer. Land
and money were donated, and the town site was moved from the north side
of La Creole Creek to the south side.

In 1856-57 were built the new courthouse and jail. The La Creole
Academic Institute had two rooms ready for school opening, February 15,
1857. Professor Horace Lyman and Miss Lizzie Boise were the teachers.
The Lee children, as they grew large enough, walked three miles to
school. To give the children advantage of winter school, Mr. Lee built a
house in Dallas, which they occupied at times until the fall of 1862,
when Mr. Lee started a small store in Dallas and they moved to town.

The Academy served as a school for all age groups until the 1880’s. The
first public grade school building was erected about 1882.

In 1900, La Fayette Seminary, organized by a board of trustees of the
Educational Association of the Evangelical church, was incorporated with
La Creole Academic Institute in Dallas. It was known as Dallas College
and La Creole Academy. The combined schools were endowed by the church.
A dormitory was erected in 1900, costing $3000. The Woolen Mill property
was purchased for $1,500, and—for the expenditure of about $1,000 in
repairs and remodeling—the second floor was converted into a good
gymnasium.

The schools closed in 1914 for lack of funds to meet the requirements of
Oregon standardization laws.



                   The David Stump House in Monmouth
                            _David Campbell_


    [Illustration: (uncaptioned)]

David Stump, of Pennsylvania Dutch stock, was born in Ohio on October 20
(or 29) 1819. As guard, outriding scout and hunter, he came to Oregon
with the immigrant train of 1845. An experienced surveyor, his services
were in demand for surveying the virgin territory of what is now Benton,
Polk, and Yamhill counties. In 1851, he was married to Catherine
Elizabeth Chamberlin, who had come, a child of nine, with her family in
the wagon train of 1844.

David and Catherine Stump took up a donation claim on the Luckiamute
River, six miles south of what later became the village of Monmouth,
being among the very first settlers in that part of the Willamette
valley. Here they prospered. They became devoted and loyal members of
the Christian Church, which soon established a church-supported college
in Monmouth. There were two sons and two daughters. When these were
ready for higher education, David Stump acquired from the Lindsay family
a home in Monmouth adjacent to the college. It stood at the intersection
of Jackson and Monmouth streets on the southwest corner of a half-acre
tract of land, facing to the west the Victorian Wolverton place, with
the Orville Butler home to the north. This became—and continued for many
years as—the Stump family home. Here, after a long illness, David Stump
died on February 21, 1886.

In the mid-nineties the house was completely renovated and, to a great
extent, rebuilt. The roof was raised to give space for a large attic.
Rooms and porches were added. The position of the entrances and chimneys
was altered. In all, there were now seventeen rooms. Miss Ellen
Chamberlain, Mrs. Alice Applegate Peil, Miss Antoinette Bruce, Miss Rose
Bassett, Miss Lane, and other members of the Normal faculty lived there
around the turn of the century. It became quite a center of college
activities. Miss Cassie B. Stump had inherited the property from her
father.

There was a good-sized barn at the east end, occupied by a Jersey cow
and chickens and ornamented in Autumn with the glowing red of Virginia
Creeper. There were a berry patch, a large vegetable garden with morning
glories twining the corn stalks, and a row of huge sunflowers. Mrs.
Stump and her daughter were great lovers of flowers. They had a small
greenhouse for chrysanthemums, smilax, cacti, and various exotic plants.
A gnarled Gravenstein produced great, juicy apples. There was a big
white fig tree, which froze to the ground periodically, but somehow
managed to survive. Directly behind the house stood two exceptionally
tall Black Republican cherry trees, a rare sight when in bloom and by
July covering the ground inches deep with an over-abundance of ripe
fruit. There were madonna lilies, amaryllis, the spike of a yucca, and
roses in profusion. A sweet Mission rose, brought to the farm from
California, then transplanted to town, was by the front door. Inspired
by a visit to the poet, Longfellow, during her student days at Wellesley
college, Miss Stump had planted a hedge of lilacs modeled after his in
Cambridge.

Not long after Miss Cassie Stump’s death in 1941, the property was
acquired by the Oregon College of Education. The old house, by now in a
state of disrepair, and the once lovely garden, neglected and overgrown,
were removed to make way for the handsome, modernistic library building
and the appropriate landscaping with which it is surrounded. A Jack pine
and the great maples across the front are about the sole reminders of
the former occupancy of the land.

A collection of pictures, records, and mementos of early days at the
college is housed in the library. It seems eminently suitable that this
particular site should become a permanent part of the campus of the
school, in the founding and support of which the Stump family had had
such a large share and in which the members had maintained a vital
interest over so many years.



   Christian College—Oregon Normal School—Oregon College of Education
                            _David Campbell_


    [Illustration: (uncaptioned)]

The early settlers in the Willamette Valley were not only provident and
God-fearing, they were also deeply concerned with higher education for
their young people. Academies and colleges sprang up in many of the
valley communities. A group of prosperous farmers in Polk County,
consecrated members of the Christian Church, gave land and financial
support to found a church-affiliated school at Monmouth, to become known
as Christian College.

In 1869, Thomas Franklin Campbell was engaged to head this institution.
Originally from the deep South, he had come some years previously to
Helena, Montana, where he conducted a school for boys and served as
circuit judge. He was a man of wide interests and abilities, having
served in the Mexican war, and been active as lawyer, minister, and
promoter of various public projects. But he was before all else an
educator. As a student at Bethany College in Virginia he had lived in
the home of Alexander Campbell, founder of the Christian Church. There
he had acquired an excellent classical education, had been ordained to
the ministry, and had married a cousin of Alexander Campbell, only
recently arrived from Ireland.

Responding to the call from Monmouth, with his wife, Jane Eliza and
their three sons, he made the long, arduous trip from Helena to Oregon
in a stagecoach. The challenging task for the new administrator was to
raise funds for a suitable, permanent structure. He solicited earnestly
over the state and very soon a brick building, modelled as to general
type after the Gothic-inspired architecture of Bethany College, was
constructed. It was here that distinguished jurists and others prominent
in Oregon life received a thorough grounding in the classics. The
curriculum was mostly concerned with Greek, Latin, mathematics, logic,
and philosophy. Science was not at that time, as it is with us, a prime
consideration. The first graduating class was that of 1871.

By 1892, Christian College had been converted into a State Normal
School. There was imperative need in the state to train teachers to meet
the growing demands for their services. Prince Lucian Campbell, son of
Thomas Franklin Campbell, was now the president. A new wing on the south
was added to the original building. This included a science laboratory,
several large classrooms, and an assembly hall known as “the Chapel.”
The latter has undergone some changes and is at present called “Campbell
Hall,” where hang the portraits of the two early presidents.

This new wing was surmounted by a bell tower from which the strong-toned
bell peremptorily summoned students to their morning classes. Eventually
the enlarged building was balanced with another wing added on the north
to house a training school. The whole structure forms truly an historic
Oregon Landmark, which is held in fond affection by the many who have
studied there.

A sad mutilation occurred in the great wind of Columbus Day 1962. The
familiar belfry was toppled to hang precariously. The forlorn picture
was featured in newspapers and national magazines as evidence of the
violence and destructive power of the unprecedented storm. Many great
trees of the ancient fir grove and others on the campus were badly
damaged. Much is irreparable, but effort is being made to replace the
bell tower and to restore all possible.

The Oregon College of Education, with the other institutions in the
State System of Higher Education, is experiencing a record enrollment.
There are new and modern buildings to meet increasing demands. To foster
tradition and the realization of past accomplishment, and to stress the
foundation on which present achievement is based, the preservation and
history of this original building at the Oregon College of Education is
of signal importance.



                              Fort Hoskins
                          _Preston E. Onstad_


    [Illustration: (uncaptioned)]

The site of Fort Hoskins, Benton County’s first military post, was
chosen by second lieutenant P. H. Sheridan with the help of Oregon
Indian Superintendent, Joel Palmer. The name Hoskins was chosen by the
Fort’s first commander, Captain Christopher Colon Augur, as his first
official order, on July 26, 1856. For the next nine years Fort Hoskins
served as the home and training ground of regular U. S. Army troops as
well as volunteers from California, Washington, and Oregon. Although a
few troopers from Hoskins knew some anxious moments in the early days,
no shots were ever fired into or out of the fort in anger. In fact, the
biggest argument to affect the Fort at any time was whether or not there
was any excuse for its existence.

Fort Hoskins was located at the Middle Pass over the Coast Range of
mountains to keep the surviving Indian participants of the Rogue River
War on the reservation which General Palmer had prepared for them on the
Oregon coast, near the present towns of Newport and Siletz. However, the
post was so far—some thirty miles from the Indians—that a blockhouse had
to be established on the upper prairie of the Siletz River. Fort Hoskins
supplied men, munitions, and materiel for the blockhouse.

Of the later generals who served there, at least two became famous:
Philip Sheridan, who located the site of the Fort and served as its
first quartermaster and commissary of supplies; and C. C. Augur, who,
during his five years in command, learned how to deal with his superiors
the hard way—by letter. In the Civil War, Sheridan started his climb to
fame as a commissary officer; and Augur, who had developed into a
persuasive writer, not only won battles but served with distinction on
many military courts and committees, where his early training in mental
organization served him well.

Fort Hoskins also provided a training camp for western volunteers
between 1862 and the end of the Rebellion, although few of the men who
trained there ever heard the whir of Indian arrow or the whine of enemy
shot. They did, however, learn the rudiments of the military discipline
of living month in and month out with themselves and with crushing
boredom. At first only a sutler’s store catered to the wants of the
soldiers, but at length a Corvallis firm, hard on the trail of easy
money, opened an establishment near the post that dealt in a commodity
the sutler’s store was not allowed to sell: spirits.

No Indians ever tried to attack Fort Hoskins, but during the turbulent
days of the Civil War, threats were made against the undermanned Fort by
Secessionists, of which there were many in the immediate neighborhood.
The nearest town of any size, Corvallis, was notoriously sympathetic to
the cause of the South and was contemptuously known in other parts of
the state of Oregon as the only town that ever had a Copperhead mayor.
To make matters worse, this worthy was twice elected. Certain Southern
sympathizers were organized into a secret state-wide society called the
“Knights of the Golden Circle.”

Fort Hoskins was permanently evacuated on April 13, 1865, the last
company to leave being Captain Waters’ Company F of the First Oregon
Volunteer Infantry. A year later the buildings were auctioned off, and
the land, which had been rented, was returned to the owners. In the
accompanying photograph, the cluster of unpainted farm buildings, left
of center, stand on what was once the parade ground of Fort Hoskins. The
large farmhouse behind the trees, at the right, rests on the site of the
old hospital. On the light-colored field between the trees and the hill,
soldiers once drilled and learned how to shoot at distant targets. Time
and distance have lent enchantment, of a sort that never really existed,
to the history of a lonely little frontier Fort in an all-but-forgotten
corner of Oregon.



                        Bishop Simpson’s Chapel
                         _Madeleine L. Nichols_


    [Illustration: (uncaptioned)]

In 1858, the old Simpson’s Chapel was completed. It stood on a hill
about halfway between the present towns of Bellfountain and Alpine. The
church was built of hand-planed lumber and was a plain oblong with three
windows on each side and a porch in front. It was surrounded by oak
trees, many of which are still standing and which served as hitching
posts for horses.

The history of the Alpine community may be said to have had its
beginning at the time of the erection of two buildings, the Ebenezer
school house and Simpson’s Chapel, though it is true that quite a number
of settlers had come to the valley before that time. The school house
was built of logs and was situated on a promontory about two miles south
of the present town of Alpine and on part of the old Gilbert place. It
was probably built about 1849 and served both as a school and a “meeting
house.”

It was and always has been a Methodist Church and was called Simpson’s
Chapel because Bishop Simpson was the presiding officer of the first
annual conference, held while the group was still meeting in the old
Ebenezer school. In 1903, it was decided that a new church was needed,
so one was built at the present site of Alpine and was completed in
1904. At this time the congregation divided, part of its members going
to Bellfountain and part to Alpine.

The whole community was once known as the Belknap settlement because of
the preponderance of Belknaps among the first settlers who, in pioneer
days, had come by wagon train to the valley from Ohio, Missouri, and
Iowa. Other early families were the Starrs, Hawleys, Howards, Gilberts,
Catons, Woodcocks, Goodmans, and Nichols.

Another interesting part of the early history of the Chapel centered
around the campground which, in 1871, was bought from George Humphrey
and is known as the Bellfountain Park. People came from miles around,
primarily for the spring of clear cold water, held meetings, and
visited. The gatherings were religious but also social. People would
bring food, put up tents, and stay for a week or more. Sometimes someone
would bring part of a beef and hang it on a tree and those present were
free to help themselves. The pioneer days are gone but Simpsons Chapel
is still used as a house of worship by those who have taken the place of
the pioneers.



                    The Mitchell Wilkins Family Home
                         _Lucia Wilkins Moore_


    [Illustration: Painting by Lucia Moore.]

In 1847, Mitchell Wilkins and his young wife, Permelia Ann Allen, then
eighteen, arrived on foot at “The Falls.” He was twenty-nine. Their
wagon, plus goods and tools, were beside the Barlow Road with the
last-dying oxen. Permelia’s father Robert Allen, still driving wagon and
ox team, made their last miles easier. The three pushed on from Oregon
City toward Silverton and, on October 1, came to Butte Creek. There they
halted to build cabins, plow, and plant. Ten months later my father was
born. When the baby, Francis Marion, was two months old, Mitchell
Wilkins took a land claim in upper Willamette Valley, edging the Coburg
hills. During the sixty years he lived there, the 640 acres grew to
20,000.

The pioneer home which replaced the original cabin was of southern
origin for Grandfather was of North Carolinian stock. Built in 1854, it
was low and wide with a small gallery above and a wider one below facing
the west and overlooking Centennial Butte where, in 1876, Mitchell
Wilkins planted maple and fir trees. He carried water by sled to the
butte’s very top to make sure the trees would live. They stand, to the
present day, like a tuft of hair on an Indian’s skull.

Willamette Forks post office was housed in one of the small outer
buildings, bringing neighbors together when stage or pony rider dashed
past on East Side Territorial Road, dropping off mail. “Late news” was
at best a month old but worth discussion as the years brought disunion
and secession problems to be faced among southern democrats and members
of the newly organized Republican party. Indians had made the hillside
trails which were to become the Territorial Road, and Calapooias still
roamed the trails and dug camas roots in the blue-flowered fields.

When the Wilkinses built a cabin, there was not yet a Eugene village.
Mr. Skinner had only just brought his family to a sheep-herder’s cabin
on the butte called Ya-po-ah, and had hardly formed his dream for Eugene
City. That town would one day be ten miles south of the Wilkins home.

The land proved out Mitchell Wilkins’ plan for raising fine grain and
fine cattle. He took his prize grains to Philadelphia’s Centennial in
1876, New Orleans Exposition and Chicago’s Columbian Exposition in 1893,
returning with honors for Lane County and Oregon. He served in the State
Legislature, 1862-64, there presented Eugene’s petition for
incorporation, and was instrumental in its passage. He was one of the
men who organized Oregon’s Agricultural Society and Fair, which became
the State Fair. He served as an early president and on its board until
paralysis forced him to give up all activities. Inaction was hard for
the tall, eager-eyed Scotsman, but he endured it with a smile, though he
was unable to speak.

He had lived a full life. He had been a member of the “Union Club,” a
Civil-War-time club of Lincoln and Union enthusiasts as determined and
as secretive as the members of the secessionist “Knights of the Golden
Circle.” He saw the Union saved, saw Lincoln elected; and rode the
secret trail to the James Daniels house in the hills where a few men
swore allegiance by candlelight. My father, at 13, was allowed to go
there because he knew the words to _John Brown’s Body_. Oregon, a baby
state, was half inclined to secede and could not have supported Lincoln
except for a division among its Democrats—the loyalty of southerners
like Mitchell Wilkins who had come to settle in this Willamette Valley
and who did not want slavery for the West.



                        The University of Oregon
                        _Nina Wilkins McCornack_


    [Illustration: Oregon Historical Society]

Deady Hall, the first building of the University of Oregon, was the
realization of a great dream. In 1803, a Government policy was declared
for the purpose of establishing State universities, this to apply to any
state entering the Union after that date. Forty-seven years later, in
1850, by a donation land act, the Territory of Oregon was given this
grant.

At first, state politicians handed the Capitol to Salem, the
Penitentiary to Portland, and the University to Corvallis; then later it
was promised to Jacksonville. The controversy grew bitter, the arguments
so strong in every direction that the issue finally died of overdoing.

In 1857, Judge Matthew P. Deady, a southerner and President of the State
Constitutional Convention, was much in favor of the parochial school
system, though later he was one of the most loyal supporters of the
University. Mr. R. S. Boise of Salem, with a large group of northern
followers, felt the state should have one nondenominational school of
importance, with lower fees, so the political dickering continued. By
1872, the issue had built up in tension and was again a red-hot
argument.

On a July night of that year, a group of five men met to discuss again
the need of adequate schools. In the old McFarland home on Charnelton
street, kerosene lamps burned into the morning hours, and the young
be-whiskered gentlemen discussed the good of future generations. They
were B. F. Dorris, S. H. Speence, John M. Thompson, Judge J. J. Walton,
and John C. Arnold. Later, J. S. Scott, J. B. Underwood, S. S. Comstock,
A. S. Patterson, E. L. Bristow, E. L. Applegate, and Dr. A. W. Patterson
joined them to organize the Union University Association. John Thomas
was elected President, and T. G. Hendricks, Treasurer, while Walton,
Dorris, Scott, and Abrams formed the first board of directors. This
board appeared before the next meeting of the State Legislature to
present a bill permitting purchase of a site for the erection of the
first building on the new University campus. Fifty thousand dollars was
allowed for Deady Hall, to be completed and turned over to the State in
January, 1874. The bill also provided for a Board of Regents of nine—six
to be appointed by the governor and three by the association itself.
State scholarships were to be awarded by counties and forbade any
sectarian or religious tests for either students or instructors.

Again plans ran into trouble. Outside interests appeared declaring the
location bill unconstitutional because “_all state institutions were to
be located in Salem_.” Again the pioneers fought for their rights with
good arguments; increased population, high standards of living, value of
land, and so on. In spite of all the evidence, opposing elements
obtained a revocation of the bond issue, and only private subscriptions
saved the university.

Committees were appointed for selection of the best site, and ways of
raising money. The final choice was left to the State board of
commission, which meeting in Eugene “found the fine view from the
Henderson property most to their liking” so, in April of 1873, their
selection was made of this thirteen-and-three-fourths-acre tract.

The University was at last on its way, but it proved to be a very rough
road.

Plans were for a thirty-thousand-dollar bond issue by the courts, with
twenty thousand to be raised by private subscription. The financial
panic was on. Cash was scarce. Subscriptions came in slowly. There were
loud protests at tax time! But plans never stopped: of the two hundred
families making up the listed population, one hundred and forty names
were on the subscription list, many of them for labor and farm produce.
Thomas Judkins sold land at six dollars an acre, the proceeds to go to
the building. Churches helped out with suppers and strawberry festivals.

At last Deady Hall was completed—as far as the roof, when again money
ran out and again citizens dug deep in their pockets to complete the
tall stately building, the first of the new University.



                          The Applegate House
                       _Josephine Evans Harpham_


    [Illustration: Boychuk Studio]

Applegate, one of the most famous names in Oregon history, belongs to a
family whose origin was English. As early as 1635, there were Applegates
who came to New England, and from there they went to New Jersey, thence
to Maryland, and on to Kentucky in 1784.

In 1843, three Applegate brothers, Charles, Jesse and Lindsay, became
greatly interested in the far Oregon country and made their departure
from Missouri (Independence). Jesse’s experience had included school
teaching, sawmill operation, and an important position in the Surveyor
General’s office in St. Louis, Missouri. All this fitted him admirably
for the role of trail blazer, pioneer, and train leader, which he was to
assume.

Those with blooded stock elected Jesse Applegate as Captain of the now
famous “Cow Column.” He was ably assisted by his brothers Charles and
Lindsay. With the Looneys, Waldos, Nesmiths, Fords, Kaisers, and
Delaneys, they pressed on and in time, assisted by Dr. Whitman, arrived
at the mission in October, 1843. After leaving Fort Hall, they blazed
their own trail—and finally arrived safely in the Willamette Valley.
They discovered that the powers in the East refused to give aid to the
new settlements because England held the Columbia and there was no other
means of ingress to the country for soldiers. The Applegate brothers
decided they would provide one, and that from the south. They asked Levi
Scott, a brave and trusted man, to lead it. Before the party crossed the
Callapooya it fell out and began straggling back. The Applegate brothers
met and gathered them together as they returned.

Jesse was elected Captain, with Lindsay second in command. Charles
remained at the settlement to look out for several families of small
children and their mothers, as well as to watch the crops and to be
alert for Indian attack. The party left on June 22, 1846, to locate and
open a southern route to the Willamette Valley. They returned in late
October. Over one hundred wagons made this historic trip.

Jesse served in the Provisional Legislature from 1845 to 1849. Later he
became Indian agent and candidate for the U. S. Senate. In 1849, he
settled in the Umpqua Valley, where Charles also decided to make his
pioneer home. Lindsay settled in what is now the Ashland area. The
Charles Applegate house is one and one-half miles northeast of the town
of Yoncalla, and was completed in 1856. The home faces the south and is
surrounded by stately trees. Many shrubs still bloom in the garden which
were planted by Melinda.

The structure is two and a half stories, and the lumber for it was cut
by Washington Cannon of Scotts Valley. Many of the timbers were hand
hewn and the chimney brick were burned on the grounds. A long veranda,
with balcony above, was built under the overhanging roof. The first
floor contained two large rooms with sizeable fireplaces in the middle,
opening into each room, and a front door opening out onto the long
porch. The west room was formerly known as “Grandmamma’s room.” To the
east were the living room, sewing room, dining room, and kitchen. Each
of these had heavy beamed ceilings. There were, in those early days,
small winding staircases rising in the fireplace corners, and a landing
near the chimney in the center of the house above the staircase.
Upstairs the design was much the same. There were two large rooms, both
opening out onto the balcony. Alongside them and above the dining room
were four small bedrooms with attractive nine-paned windows.

Fifteen sons and daughters grew up in this historic house. Uncle
Charley’s home, being centrally located, was the gathering place of all
the Applegate clan. Today the home is owned by Miss Eva Applegate, a
direct descendant. The home has never been sold to others in over 105
years.



                          The Cartwright House
                       _Josephine Evans Harpham_


    [Illustration: Boychuk Studio]

One of Lane County’s most historic, most well preserved, and
architecturally charming houses is that known as the Cartwright place or
Mountain House hotel. It is located on the Old Territorial Road, three
miles south of Lorane, Oregon, and is now the property of Mr. and Mrs.
Eldon Thompson.

It was built in 1853 by Darius B. Cartwright. Dee, as he was familiarly
known, was born near Syracuse, New York, February, 1814. In 1832 he
served in the Black Hawk War. Some years later his family moved to
Illinois. Here a brother, Barton, became a Methodist circuit rider who
saw to it that his family had educational opportunities, one son
becoming an early-day judge.

Darius B. Cartwright with his wife and several children left Illinois
for the gold rush in California in 1849. Sometime later they pressed on
to Oregon, remaining for a time near what is now Medford. In 1853, the
family took up 530 acres near what is now Lorane and called the location
Cartwright. Upon this beautiful site was built the fine home which was
also to serve as a stagecoach inn, the official stop between Portland
and San Francisco, a telegraph station and a post office, with Mr.
Cartwright as postmaster. One of the first messages received over these
wires during the Civil War was that of the assassination of President
Lincoln.

William Russell had accepted an offer from the Cartwrights to be their
wagon-train driver, for which he was to be paid the considerable sum of
five dollars per month. He was born in Gallia County, Ohio, in 1827, but
later moved to Illinois. Upon reaching the Cartwright’s destination, he
went on and settled in Salem, Oregon, where he married and had three
children: Mary, Emma, and Charles. While the latter was still an infant,
his wife died so he and the family went back to the Cartwright place.

Here, on January 12, 1866, he married D. B. Cartwright’s daughter,
Katie. On May 3 of the same year, he purchased the property from Mr.
Cartwright, and the home became known as the Mountain House hotel. Here
two children were born to the Russell’s: Darius B. and Myrtle. Mr.
Russell’s father-in-law stayed on as postmaster until his death on July
29, 1875.

Through the years the property changed hands a number of times until
John and Nancy Addison purchased the house and land in 1902. Mr. Addison
built the first sawmill in the area, at which time lumber was selling
for six dollars a thousand. It was bought by Mr. and Mrs. Eldon Thompson
in 1952, who are the present occupants. The house has a lovely setting.
It is surrounded by softly rolling green hills, magnificent trees, and
rich bottom soil. The black walnut trees in front were planted over a
century ago, from nuts brought across the plains. Original flagstones
lead up to the old eight-paneled front door.

The house is of all-wood construction, has two stories, and classical
design. Hand-hewn timbers are used throughout. The walls consist of
irregular-width, hand-split cedar, put together with square, hand-forged
nails. Still visible are sizeable squared-off, round supporting timbers
with bark still attached, which accounts in part for the fine condition
of this 108-year-old structure. The floors are made of irregular, wide
boards throughout the house. Still remaining are the woodwork, the high
ceilings, the sixteen stairs with cedar balustrade, the nine original
twelve-paned windows, the original wood trim, and the old red-brick
fireplace with mantel, and small cupboards above, the gun closet, and
marks of bullet holes in the baseboards.



                            The Condon House
                       _Josephine Evans Harpham_


    [Illustration: Boychuk Studio]

The early-day house of Dr. and Mrs. Thomas Condon stands at 1268 Jackson
Street near 13th Avenue West. The home, built in the late seventies,
originally stood at the Southwest corner of 11th and High Streets and
was purchased by the Condons in 1882. It is a two-story house of wood
construction with approximately ten rooms, which include a parlor and a
charming living room with an old brick fireplace and plank walls, 2×10
and 2×12, set vertically. In earlier days a low white railing gracefully
decorated the top of the house, which had a mansard roof, the latter
also having been used in early University of Oregon buildings.

On its original site, the house stood on one half of what is now a city
block and was not surrounded by any other buildings. The Condons planted
many fine shrubs and trees, some of which are still standing at this
home’s former location. In 1907, Dr. Condon passed away, and after a
time the home was moved to its present location by Elwin McCornack of
Eugene, a grandson.

Thomas Condon, pioneer Geologist of Oregon, was born in Southern Ireland
in 1822 of Norman Irish stock, and the name is prominent in Ireland’s
history, especially from the eleventh through the seventeenth centuries.
When young Thomas was eleven years old, his family moved to America, and
their first home was in the wilderness which is now Central Park, near
the site of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.
Here as a boy he began the study of nature and the flora and fauna of
that region. After completing his education, he spent several years in
teaching and later completed a course in Auburn Theological Seminary in
1852. A few months later, he married Miss Cornelia Holt, a young teacher
of New England ancestry, whose home was near Buffalo, New York. The
young couple decided to go to the Oregon Country as missionaries, the
Home Missionary Board of the Congregational Church having accepted them
for this important endeavor.

After a long voyage around Cape Horn and up the West Coast, they arrived
in Portland, Oregon, and from there went to St. Helens and later to
Albany. After a time the Condons decided to move to The Dalles. Here
they established a church which was open to any denomination and to all
kinds of people in all walks of life. Many of the latter, inspired by
Dr. Condon’s avid interest in science, assisted him in collecting
geological data and specimens. Too, at times he accompanied the U. S.
Cavalry of old Fort Dalles, on field expeditions into the John Day
region. Here he collected “fossil” material and other data of the utmost
importance in the field of geology and palaeontology, and in turn
exchanged this valuable information with the Smithsonian Institute.

After about ten years, the Condons left The Dalles, going to Forest
Grove, where Dr. Condon taught at the college awhile. In 1876, he was
asked to become a member of the first faculty of the University of
Oregon and became head of the Natural Science Department, later the
Department of Geology. In the latter capacity, he opened up the John Day
“fossil beds” and adjacent regions to scientists from all over the
world; he also contributed much to the literature in his field, one of
his best-known works being his book, “Two Islands.” Condon Hall and
Condon Museum of Geology on the University of Oregon campus bear his
name, as does also the chapel in the First Congregational Church of
Eugene.

Dr. Condon, a scholarly man and a very fine teacher, possessed also a
fine sense of humor. In addition, he manifested a warm interest in, and
a kind of sympathetic understanding of, the people with whom he came in
contact. The Condons opened their home to faculty, students,
world-famous scientists, ministers, neighbors, and friends, with true
hospitality. Mrs. Condon always shared her husband’s activities.



                          The Christian House
                       _Josephine Evans Harpham_


    [Illustration: (uncaptioned)]

The historic house at 170 East 12th was built by Daniel Christian, III,
about 1855. In 1852, a year of great westward emigration, Daniel
Christian, III, his wife, and five children, joined a party of over 100
wagons headed by Samuel and John Alexander, whose destination was
Oregon. This well-managed train encountered few real difficulties. It
was well supplied with dried fruits, berries, corn, and flour, while the
cows provided milk, cream, and butter. They escaped the dread cholera
and had no trouble with Indians. However, a young chief, seeing Daniel’s
pretty daughter, tried to bargain for her. Fearing that the Indian might
steal her, she was hidden in another wagon until the young brave gave up
following them. Six months after beginning their trek westward, they
reached the Columbia River and proceeded down it by flat boat to The
Dalles. From there they proceeded by primitive railway—with wooden rails
and mules for power—and on by steamboat to Portland. After a short stay,
the Christians settled for the winter in East Tualatin.

The following fall, Daniel III acquired a donation land claim, 160 A, in
the Eugene area, later known as the Christian Addition. Here upon a
choice spot, a log cabin was built, being replaced two years later by
the frame house.

The eldest grandchild of the Christians, the late Irena Dunn Williams,
handed down to her children—Mrs. Howard Hall of Eugene and Mrs. Wallace
Hannah of Vancouver, Washington—many stories of the happy times spent
with her grandparents; memories of stirring apple butter in an old brass
kettle; of eating fresh-baked bread spread with delicious homemade
butter; of popping corn on winter evenings; and of Bible reading—for the
Christians were devout Methodists.

It was Daniel III who cut and hand-hewed the lumber for the First
Methodist Church of Eugene. Through the years this pioneer family has
contributed much to the religious, cultural, and educational life of the
community, since that far-off day when Daniel III came to the Oregon
country well over one hundred years ago. The two-story house rests on a
foundation of hand-hewn timbers and is of all-wood construction,
overlapping weather board, being used throughout. The house and barn
both were put together with wooden pegs.

The downstairs consists of an entry hall with a stairway leading to the
second floor. On the left is the living room, and off that the dining
room, which contains an attractive built-in china closet. Adjacent to
this is a bedroom. Just off the dining room are the kitchen, a small
hallway, and porch, back of which is an old-fashioned woodshed.
Originally, a hall, several bedrooms, and a bath comprised the upstairs.

In 1947, Mr. and Mrs. L. O. Meisel, the present owners, completely
renovated the pioneer home. The upstairs was converted into two
apartments and the downstairs was all remodeled. During this process the
walls were stripped back to the original eight-inch wood boards. Pasted
on these were old papers dated 1868, over which cheese cloth and quaint
wallpaper had been placed. Old flues became visible, another reminder of
the past.

The front porch still has its old-style weather-boarding and supporting
pillars, and the cornice extends far around the gable ends of the house.
Likewise many of the original small-pane windows remain. To the rear of
this historic home, one may still see Waxen and Bellflower apple trees,
which were on the 160-acre donation land claim of Daniel Christian, III.



                           The Montieth House
                       _Henrietta Stewart Brown_


    [Illustration: (uncaptioned)]

Although modern in appearance, this was the first house in Albany, built
by Thomas and Walter Montieth in 1849. The house was erected on the
corner of Second and Washington streets but since has been moved back
from the corner. The house was much smaller when first built but has
been remodeled and enlarged several times. The most extensive remodeling
work was done by Henry Wolz in 1925. Although remodeled, the original
Montieth house is still embodied in the structure.

In 1845, Abner Hackleman had made his way up the Willamette Valley and
staked out his claim in what is now the east end of the city of Albany.
He had been the captain of a large wagon train that had come over the
Oregon Trail from Iowa. As it was winter when the group arrived in the
Oregon country, most of the emigrants remained in the lower part of the
valley. Abner, however, continued on up the valley, probably on
horseback, with the idea of finding suitable land on which to found a
settlement.

With him on this trip, or joining him shortly afterwards, were Hiram
Smead, Tommy Summerville, and several others, none of whom settled in
the Albany area. Smead was the man who later sold what is now the
business district to the Montieths, when they arrived in 1847.

Abner erected a temporary shelter and stayed through the winter of 1845.
In the Spring, he arranged to have Hiram Smead “hold down” one of his
claims for him, and he himself returned to Iowa to bring the rest of the
Hackleman family to the Willamette Valley. The land-grant law at that
time permitted a man to be absent from his claim for two years while
bringing his family from the East.

Albany’s first settler, however, was destined never again to see the
area he had claimed, for he died in Iowa the following winter. Abner’s
youthful son, Abraham Hackleman, settled his father’s estate in Iowa and
brought the family to Albany, arriving in 1847 and taking up his
father’s donation land claim. In the meantime, Hiram Smead, precariously
holding down a claim to which he had no title, sold the land to the
Montieths for four hundred dollars and a horse, when he received news of
Abner’s death.

In the spring of 1848, Walter and Thomas Montieth, two energetic young
Scotsmen, came into the valley seeking a location. After viewing the
country, they concluded to buy out Mr. Smead. Judging from the lay of
the country—with its broad prairies reaching back to the picturesque
Cascade Mountains, which suggest unlimited resources for agriculture,
and with its great possibilities in water power for all kinds of
industries offered by the Willamette and Calapooia rivers—the young men
concluded that this spot was a very desirable site for a town and that
the surrounding country could soon be made to blossom as the rose. So
they at once decided to file on another claim. They had the land
surveyed and that part adjacent to the river they laid out in town lots.
Their first cabin, at a point now known as Second Avenue and Washington
street, soon was ready for occupancy. They named the new town Albany in
remembrance of their home town in New York.

Early in 1849, they began the erection of the first framehouse built in
Albany. It still stands and is often pointed out as a “relic of bygone
days.”

The gold excitement in California that summer put a sudden stop to all
building, as the Montieth brothers were among the first adventurers to
catch the gold fever. The building just begun was finished the next
year. It was a two-story structure, and although it has been remodeled
several times, the framework is still sound.

According to information given by Mrs. J. V. Pipe, daughter of Thomas
Montieth, “Thomas and Walter Montieth crossed the plains by wagon train
to the Willamette Valley, arriving in the spring of 1847. In 1849 the
Montieth brothers built the first frame house in Albany ... where both
families lived. The dividing line of the two Montieth claims ran through
the house, making it possible for the brothers to live under the same
roof, yet each on his own claim. The dining table was affixed to the
floor so each could eat on his own property.”

Mr. Thomas Montieth donated the ground upon which the first Albany
College was built.



                       Providence Baptist Church
                            _Lenore Powell_


    [Illustration: Helen Horton]

The Reverend Joab Powell was of Quaker descent, born on July 16, 1799,
in Claiborne County, Tennessee. He went to Missouri in 1832, crossed the
plains by covered wagon train with his large family in 1852, and took up
an Oregon Donation Land Claim south of Scio, Oregon. The next Spring he
had his farm underway, so that he, several members of his family, and
neighbors built a log church in a beautiful fir grove on a hilltop on
his farm. They named it Providence Baptist Church, and on that site a
larger Providence Community Church still stands today. He became its
pastor, with Reverend J. G. Berkley as assistant. The Reverend Powell
preferred to hold evangelistic meetings through the territory, while
Brother Berkley stayed at home taking care of Providence Church.

The Reverend Powell preached at Good Hope, Washington Butte, Scio, and
Sublimity churches, besides his many seasons of revivals. At first he
would not receive any compensation for his work except the hospitality
of its members, but later he did not refuse a small salary.

Joab’s wife, Ann Beeler Powell, was a small, quiet woman of German
ancestry. She and the older sons ran the farm, while Joab rode far and
near, holding church services in the widely scattered settlements. He
would return each fall to the home on the Santiam river, ragged and
dispirited. His home was a well of strength. Each night by the fireside,
throughout the winter, his wife would read chapters of the Bible to him.
Joab would listen and later repeat them word for word, by memory. She
would refer with pride to his summer’s achievements. Slowly his
confidence and courage would build up; and, in the Spring, he would be
ready for new conquests.

Elder Powell had friends in all walks of life. His adaptability, no
doubt, was one of the underlying reasons for his famed evangelical
success. He was a straight and honorable man, and his preaching far and
near was followed by spiritual awakenings of great power. His work stood
the test of time. He died in 1873 and lies buried in Providence
Churchyard beside his wife. Ann died as she had lived—gently—in the
early Spring of 1872. Joab never rode the circuit again. He died seven
months after his wife was gone.

Each third Sunday in June, an all-day service is held at the historic
Providence Church to commemorate the achievement of Elder Powell and his
faithful adherents, and the community’s tribute to a pioneer circuit
rider.

In tribute to the pioneer preacher, the late Professor J. B. Horner of
Oregon State University wrote: “During his ministry he baptized nearly
3,000 souls, a greater number than any other person baptized west of the
Rocky Mountains. The Reverend Powell was illiterate from an academic
standpoint, but he was so thoroughly versed in the Bible that he did not
require it for reference in the pulpit, although his sermons abounded in
Biblical quotations. He understood men and he communed with nature as
with a friend.”



                White Spires United Presbyterian Church
                          _Mrs. Wayne Dawson_


    [Illustration: Helen Horton]

In the late 1840’s, missionaries of two branches of the Presbyterian
faith—the Associate and the Associate Reformed—arrived in the Willamette
Valley. In July, 1850, Dr. T. S. Kendall organized the Associate
Presbyterian Church in the Oakville neighborhood, and this is still a
strong rural church. In 1851, Wilson Blain arrived in the valley. He had
lived in Oregon City and had been editor of the “Oregon Spectator.” He
organized a church at Union Point, near Brownsville, Oregon. Other
missionaries followed.

The difficulties of travel and the great distances from church centers
soon caused the question of union to come up, resulting in a compact
being drawn up uniting these bodies into the United Presbyterian Church
of Oregon. Taking part in the Union were Dr. Kendall, Dr. Irvine, and
Rev. J. P. Millar of the associate group. In the Associate Reformed
group were Rev. Blain, Rev. James Worth, and Rev. Jeremiah Dick. This
union took place at the home of Rev. Blain, October 20, 1852. These two
bodies united in Pittsburgh into the United Presbyterian Church of North
America in 1858.

In October, 1853, the Albany Church was organized, the first to be
organized as the United Presbyterian Church. The Rev. J. P. Millar was
pastor until his death in April, 1854. He was killed by an explosion of
the Steamship “Gazelle” near Oregon City.

Dr. Irvine, who was pastor at Oakville (Willamette), followed the Rev.
Millar, by giving part time to the Albany Congregation until 1873. He
severed his connection with the Willamette Church, moving to Albany,
where he was pastor until his death in 1895. He was Moderator of the
General Assembly in 1878.

The Albany congregation met in the Courthouse, an octagonal building
which burned in the 1860’s. A church was built in 1863 at Fifth and
Washington, on ground obtained from Thomas Montieth. This building
served many years, but on June 20, 1891, the cornerstone of the present
church was laid and the church formally dedicated, August 7, 1892.

The General Assembly met in Albany in 1894, and Dr. Irvine was able to
attend one meeting in a wheelchair. The next pastor to remain many years
was Dr. W. P. White. He came in the fall of 1901, and was pastor until
1920. In 1906, the Dr. S. G. Irvine Memorial pipe organ was installed at
a cost of over $2,800. It is still in use.

Again the General Assembly met in Albany in 1952, with commissioners
from all over the United States and the mission fields. In 1953, the
church observed the “100th Anniversary” of the organizing of the church.
The contractor for building the church was J. B. Cougill; it cost about
$16,500. The architect, who drew the plans for the present church, was
Walter Pugh, of the firm of McCauley and Wickersham of Salem. The name
“White Spires” was made official on January 8, 1958.

The spires are outstanding and are the highest points in Albany. The
supports are made of laminated wood. Though swaying badly during the
typhoon of October 12, 1962, it stood, although traffic was blocked off
for hours. The stained-glass windows were not broken. They are very
unusual both in design and coloring. The White Spires Church still
stands and the present pastor is the Rev. Ralph R. Hawthorne.



                              Boston Mills
                            (Thompson Mills)
                           _Lottie E. Morgan_


    [Illustration: Helen Horton]

“Boston Mills” was a familiar name to early Oregon pioneers. It was one
of the early gristmills. Men would take their wheat by horseback or in
wagons from miles around to this mill and take home the flour for their
families. Boston, like many other settlements, hoped to be a city and
perhaps the county seat.

Eliza Finley Brandon (Mrs. Thomas Brandon), 1850-1948, says: “My father,
Richard Chism Finley, built the original mill at the old town of Boston
in 1856-1858. He owned a half interest. Alexander Brandon and P. V.
Crawford each owned one-fourth interest. It was destroyed by fire. With
the flour-mill there was a carding factory. There a fire was kept
burning all the time to warm the wool as it was worked. The fire
probably started from this. Soon after the fire, the mill was rebuilt.
All the massive timbers for both mills were cut out and hewed by hand in
the woods near Crawfordsville, and hauled to Boston—an immense task.”

There used to be fairs at Boston in the early days—not really in Boston
but in the country to the east across the Calapooya, at the foot of a
small hill between Saddle Butte and the Calapooya River. This hill was
called Bunker Hill because it was near Boston, and one time two settlers
had a fight there over a land claim, “The Battle of Bunker Hill.”

Pioneers relate that Boston once had a post office, established
September 22, 1868, two stores, and a blacksmith shop, in addition to
the mills. When the railroad passed one and a half miles to the west,
Boston failed to develop as a town, and Shedd became the railroad
station.

Mr. E. D. Farwell, pioneer, says the ownership of the mill ran like
this: Finley, Crawford and Brandon; Finley & William (Billy) Simmons;
Simmons Brothers; Simmons and Knoll; Simmons & Thompson, then Thompson,
the present owner.

We are told that the old timbers, mentioned earlier, remain in the
present reconstructed structure, and that the old millstones lie under
the water of the millrace. The white walls of the present mill are
reflected in the clear waters of the millrace, the busy wheels continue
to hum, and flour is ground for descendants of the pioneers of early
days. The well-kept home of Mr. Otto Thompson, the present owner, stands
nearby, only a short distance from the home of “Billy” Simmons, the
miller of earlier days.



                           The Chase Orchard
                             _Fannie Chase_


    [Illustration: (uncaptioned)]

Oregon pioneers must have had a diverting time clearing the land,
planting orchards, tilling fields, and erecting homes. Doing all the
planning called for constructive creation and real achievement. However,
I wonder whether the one who moves into a ready-made house doesn’t have
even more thrills and flights of imagination. I consider myself a
fortunate mortal to dwell in a place with an interesting historical
background. I was fascinated by the Oregon farm that my father and
mother bought, near Albany.

My early childhood was spent in the sandhills of Nebraska, a land
characterized by tumbleweeds, prairie fires, and hot winds. Until I
arrived in the Willamette Valley, I had never seen a lilac or a rose in
full bloom. I shall always remember my first glimpse of the new Oregon
home. On that Spring morning, no sky had ever been so blue, no fields so
green, no fruit trees so pink and white.

The house with its high ceiling, grained woodwork, and flower
conservatory aroused my greatest curiosity. How excited I was after
several weeks’ sojourn to discover a tiny cellar that had escaped
unnoticed! It had been the special location of a barometer and other
instruments for official weather records.

The farm was a part of the Cline donation land claim of the 1860’s. In
1887, Mr. and Mrs. John Briggs bought ten acres of this tract, cleared
the land, erected buildings, planted trees, and established a rose and
shrub nursery. In 1902, fifteen years later, when Mr. Briggs began to
fail in health, the farm was sold to J. L. Howard; and, in 1906, it was
sold to Nels Savage.

My father purchased the farm in 1908. For fifty-four years it has been
called The Chase Orchards, but older residents still refer to it as the
Old Briggs Place. Old Mr. Briggs was a dyed-in-the-wool Britisher.
Everything he planted was English to the extreme: English box, English
laurel, English holly, English hedges—all fashioned in precise rows,
circles, and squares.

If Mr. Briggs could see his old home now, he would find many changes.
The little pines, firs, and cedars are giant in size, real patriarchs of
the forest. English ivy covers the farm buildings, and the box hedges
are broad and rambling. The nursery stock forms a rose-garden lawn with
panels of the same old-fashioned roses that were planted seventy-five
years ago. Filbert, walnut, and holly orchards have replaced some of the
original trees.

In those early days, there were two entrances: a large gate for the
carriage, and a small picket gate leading to a narrow walk between the
hedge and the driveway. At another corner, near the farm buildings, was
a secondary entrance designed for farm vehicles and delivery wagons. Woe
to the misguided laborer who, inadvertently blundered through the wrong
gateway!

Much of our knowledge of the early activities was gained from Mr.
Briggs’ widow, who lived only a short distance from us. From her we
acquired a floral language of technical titles for trees, shrubs, bulbs,
and flowers. We ourselves made a special contribution to the
time-honored Pacific Coast flora by adding a cutting from the rosebush
that our Great-grandfather Chase had brought to New York State, a
century and a half ago. We are not pioneers. We are not Webfoots. We are
not Oregon mossbacks. We cannot claim relationship to a native son or a
native daughter. We simply adopted a friendly Oregon community, which is
still animated by the courage and industry of former beauty-loving
Oregonians.



                    History of Early Albany Schools
                          _Mary Myrtle Worley_


    [Illustration: (uncaptioned)]

The account of perhaps the first instruction given in Albany, dates back
to the 1840’s. Since there were not enough children in the community for
organization of a school, it cannot be classed as one. Mrs. Abraham
Hackleman gathered a few small children into her home, a log house which
stood in Hackleman’s Grove, and taught them reading, writing and
numbers.

The following incident illustrates the very busy life of these pioneers:
When it came time for the geese to be picked, Mrs. Hackleman did not
want to neglect the children, so the geese were brought in, and the
picking went on with as little interference with spelling and writing as
possible.

The first school was situated in the west part of town, not far from the
cemetery, and was taught (1851) by Dr. Reuben Cohman Hill. Dr. Hill was
a practicing physician and a Baptist minister. In 1850, he crossed the
plains to California on the back of a mule and soon after came to
Albany, where he taught the first school before returning east for his
family. Soon after this, Andrew J. Babb conducted a subscription school
in one small room near the location of Takenah Park. During the Civil
War, feeling ran so high that the school was divided. One subscription
school, the Republican, stood where the Methodist Church was on Third
and Ellsworth streets; and the other, known as the Dixie School,
Democratic, was located on the southwest corner of Second and Montgomery
streets.

A daughter of Oregon pioneers, Miss Lottie E. Morgan has said: “In
Albany, Takenah Park has been officially marked as a part of the Pioneer
Oregon Trail, and it eventually became the site of Albany’s first
Central School. One who attended the first Central School, in 1866,
tells that it was a one-room building, some thirty by fifty feet in
size, standing in the block known as Takenah Park. Soon after this date,
two ells were added, forming a T-shaped building, where more teachers,
perhaps three, and more pupils were accommodated.”

Mrs. Zella M. Burkhart contributed the following, copied from a
manuscript by J. J. Davis, who came to Linn County with his parents in
1847, and attended the first school taught in Linn County in 1848: “Mr.
Anderson Cox, having several children, built a school house on his place
that summer and hired a teacher, Robert Huston, for a term of three
months. He was the first teacher in Linn County.”

By the 1880’s, Albany had three schools. The Central School at Takenah
Park has four rooms and four teachers and took care of pupils beginning
with the advanced section of the third grade. Dr. Oliver K. Beers was
one of the teachers at Madson, which was then a one-room building. There
were sixty pupils in five classes of the first, second, and lower level
of the third grades. The Maple School did the same grade of work. The
schools at this time were free, being supported by taxation. Albany
Collegiate Institute at this time had a preparatory department for those
in the upper grades. Because some people had not yet outgrown the idea
that free schools were for paupers only, there arose again two rival
groups among the young people, known as College “Bummers” and the
District “Scrubs.”



                         Linn County Courthouse
                 _Florette Nutting and Helen J. Horton_


    [Illustration: (uncaptioned)]

Linn County, Oregon, is a mountain and river-valley region, extending
from east to west from the summit of the Cascade Mountains to the
Willamette River. The Santiam River and the Calapooya River, tributaries
of the Willamette River, which have their sources in the Cascades,
traverse the valley at approximately the county’s northern and southern
boundaries.

In mounds south of Albany have been found human skeletons, and utensils
and weapons of possibly Indian manufacture, pointing to the custom of
burying with the dead, the weapons and implements used in life. This
indicates that Linn County was a happy hunting ground for a large tribe
of Indians known as the Calapooya tribe, which gave this name to the
river flowing into the Willamette River at Albany.

Earliest settlements were made in Linn County at Albany, Brownsville,
and Lebanon, in the Spring of 1846, by pioneers who had crossed the
plains the year before and had wintered near Oregon City. The first
cabin was erected in 1845 by William Packwood, where the old Indian
trail, between Scio and Lebanon, crossed Crabtree Creek. It was sold to
John Crabtree in the Summer of 1846. The Earl family were the first
permanent settlers. They built a cabin about two miles east of Knox
Butte in the Spring of 1846, and in the same year settlers located at
Brownsville and Lebanon.

Brownsville was the county seat then. The schoolhouse on the Spalding
donation land claim in South Brownsville was the first courthouse.
Organization of county government occurred December 11, 1849. Albany was
designated as the county seat of Linn County by legislature in January,
1851; and, in 1852, a courthouse was erected.

Linn county’s second courthouse, erected in 1852, was identical in plan
with the famed Octagon House. The Octagon courthouse cost nearly $5,000.
This wood-frame building, located on West Fourth Avenue, Albany, burned
to the ground September 1, 1861. The fire did not destroy the county
records in use at the time, as they were protected by a fireproof vault.
However, many records and historical documents from the early days of
Albany and Linn County were completely destroyed.

The Courthouse, pictured here, was completed between 1862 and 1865, at a
cost of $35,000. The architecture was similar to Southern Colonial. It
had a brick portico and four large Corinthian columns, two stories high.
In 1899, the third story and the clock tower were added to the original
building.

At the turn of the century, the town that didn’t possess a large town
clock, with chimes, was not a town worthy of mention. Accordingly, the
courthouse addition was designed around the clock tower. The clock
itself had four ten-foot faces and was kept in motion by 1,000-pound
weights. The bells, which rang Albany people to work in the morning and
sounded curfew at night, could be heard in Sodaville when the wind was
right. The clock was made by the Seth Thomas Company and kept nearly
perfect time throughout its lifetime.

Not only was this courthouse interesting from a material standpoint but
also for its outstanding usefulness to the whole community. In addition
to housing the courtroom and county offices, it often served as a town
hall, meetings of various kinds being held in the courtroom or in the
attic above the second floor. In these same rooms, many eminent
lecturers, evangelists, and other visiting speakers drew appreciative
audiences of town and country folks. Some of the county’s able lawyers
made their first speeches there. Directly to the north of the courthouse
lay a vacant block which, in those early days, was called the
“Courthouse Square.” Also, closely associated with the courthouse was
the square, two-storied brick jail which stood on the southeast corner
of the block. It was erected in 1871 at a cost of $9,550. When the
second courthouse was enlarged and remodeled, the addition of a third
story, two towers, a town clock, a statue of justice, and other
adornments changed the style and appearance of the building completely,
and the old courthouse became only a memory to those who had loved it.

    [Illustration: STATE of OREGON]

  Portland
    West Union Baptist Church
    Joe Meek Donation Land Claim
    Old College Hall, Pacific University
    George Gay House
    George Fox College
    Belleque House
    Champoeg Farmland
    Amity Church of Christ
    Wheatland Ferry
  Salem
    Monmouth Normal School
    Stump House
    Fort Hoskins
    Bishop Simpson Chapel
  Albany
    Octagonal House
    Lynn County Court House
    St. Charles Hotel
    Montieth House
    White Spire Presbyterian Church
  Eugene
    Villard Hall
    Wilkins House
    Christian House
    Condon House
    Walton House
    Cartwright House (Lorane)
    Applegate House (Yoncalla)



                          Transcriber’s Notes


—Silently corrected a few typos.

—Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook
  is public-domain in the country of publication.

—In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by
  _underscores_.





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