USA > Oregon > History of Oregon, Vol. II, 1848-1888 > Part 73
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721
CITY OF PORTLAND.
The Knights of Pythias have two lodges, Excelsior No. I and Mystic No. 2. The First Hebrew Benevolent Association of Portland and Independent Order of B'nai B'rith represent the benevolence of the Jewish citizens; the Hibernian Benevolent Association and United Irishmen's Benevolent Association, the Irish population; St Andrews Society, the Scotch; the Scandinavian Society, the north of Enrope people; the British Benevolent Society, the English resi- dents; the German Benevolent Society, the immigrants from Germany-each for the relief of its own sick and destitute.
St Vincent de Panl Society relieves the needy of the catholic church. The Ladies' Relief Society sustains a home or temporary shelter for destitute women and children; the ladies of the protestant Episcopal church support the orphanage and Good Samaritan Hospital; and a General Relief Society gives assistance to whoever is found otherwise unprovided for. Of military organizations, there were the City Rifles, Washington Guard, and Emmet Guard. Of miscellaneous organizations, there were the Grand Army of the Re- public, the Multnomah County Medical Society, the Ladies' Guild of the Epis- copal Church, German-American Rifle Club, Portland Turn Verein, Father Matthew Society, Olympic Club, Oregon Bible Society, Workingmen's Club, Young Men's Catholic Association, Alpha Literary Society, and Althean Lit- erary Society.
Between 1878 and 1882 two public schools were added, a mariners' home, a new presbyterian church, a pavilion for the exhibition of the industrial arts and state products, beside many semi-public buildings and private edifices. Nearly three million dollars were expended in 1882 in the erection of resi- dence and business houses; and about four millions in 1SS3 upon city improve- ments of every kind. The wholesale trade of Portland for 1882 reached forty millions, inceasing in 1883 to about fifty millions. Much of this busi- ness was the result of railroad construction and the sudden development of eastern Oregon and Washington, all the supplies for which were handled at Portland. The opening of the Northern Pacific in the autumn of 1883 began to tell upon the rather phenomenal prosperity of Portland from 1873 to 1883, much of the wholesale trade of the upper country being transferred to the east. The improvements made by the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company have, however, been of much permanent benefit to Portland, one of the most important being the dry-dock, over 400 feet long, over 100 feet wide, and 50 feet deep, for the construction and repair of sca-going vessels. It was found after completion that the bottom rested upon quicksand, which necessitated expensive alterations and repairs. The filling up of low ground and covering it with substantial machine-shops, warehouses, car manufactories, and depot buildings added not only to the appearance but the healthfulness of the environs of the city.
The suburbs of Portland are pleasant, the drives north and south of the city affording charming glimpses of the silvery Willamette with its woody islands and marginal groups of graceful oaks. Back of the city, lying on a hillside, with a magnificent view of the town, the river, and five snowy peaks, is the great park of the city, long remaining for the most part in a state of nature, and all the more interesting for that. A few miles south on the river road was placed the cemetery, a beautiful situation overlooking the river, with a handsome chapel and receiving-vault. The ground was purchased and laid off about 1880. Previous to this, the burial-ground of Portland had been on the east side of the river, and inconvenient of access.
East Portland, built upon the land claim of James Stevens, who settled there in 1844, had in 1884 a population of about 1,800. It was incorporated in 1870. East Portland was connected with Portland by a steam-ferry in 1868. A drawbridge completed the union of the two towns, which were made practically one. Several additions were made to East Portland. About the time of its incorporation, Ben Holladay bought a claim belonging to Wheeler on the north end, and laid it out in lots. McMillan also laid off his claim north of Holladay. Sullivan and Tibbets laid out a town, called Brooklyn, on the south. Albina is a manufacturing town north of McMillan's addition, and
HIST. OR., VOL. II. 46
722
COUNTIES OF OREGON.
was founded about 1869 by Edwin Russell, proprietor of the iron-works at that place, who failed, and left it just in time for other men to make fortunes out of it.
Sellwood, named after the episcopalian ministers of that name, was laid off in 1882, during the land speculation consequent upon railroad building. St John, six miles below East Portland, is an old settlement, with a few man- ufactories. Troutdale, six miles east of Portland, Mount Tabor, Powell Valley, Arthur, Leader, Pleasant Home, Rooster Rock, and Willamette Slough are the lesser settlements of Multnomah county.
Polk county, named after James K. Polk, was organized as a district De- cember 22, 1845, and comprised the whole of the territory lying south of Yamhill district and west of a supposed line drawn from the mouth of Yam- hill River to the 42d parallel. Its southern boundary was established in 1847, and its western in 1853, when the counties of Benton and Tillamook were created. Its present area is about 650 square miles, of which over 167,000 acres are improved. The valuatiou put upon its farms and improvements is over four and a half millions, its live-stock in 1884 was valued at $600,000, and its farm products at $1,200,000. The real and personal property of the county was assessed at a little short of two millions. Population, 7,000. Dallas, on the La Creole River, was named after the vice-president. It was made the county seat in 1850-1, and incorporated in 1874. An act was passed for the relocation of the county seat in 1876, but Dallas was again chosen by the popular vote of the county. It is a prettily located town of 700 inhabitants, with a good water-power, several manufactories, and a private academy. Independence, situated on the Willamette River, was incorporated in 1874, has a population of 700, and is a thriving place. Monmouth, the seat of the christian college, is a flourishing town of 300 inhabitants in a populous precinct. It was founded by S. S. Whitman, T. H. Lucas, A. W. Lucas, J. B. Smith, and Elijah Davidson, for a university town. It was incorporated in 1859. Buena Vista, on the Willamette, had a population of two or three hundred. In it was the chief pottery in Oregon. It was incorporated in 1876. Bethel, Luckiamute, Eola, founded in 1851 by William Durand, Grand Rond, Elk Horn, Brooks, Lincoln, Lewisville, Ballston, Crowley, McCoy, Parker, Perrydale, Zena, and Dixie, are the lesser towns and settle- ments of Polk county. The culture of hops in this county assumed consider- able importance.
Tillamook connty, the Indian appellation given to the bay and river by Lewis and Clarke, was created out of Clatsop, Yamhill, and Polk counties, December 15, 1853. It contains nearly 1,600 square miles. Lumbering and dairying are the chief industries, and little farming is carried on. The value of improvements of this kind is between four and five hundred thousand dol- lars. The valuation of real and personal property in the county amounts to less than $100,000. The county seat is Tillamook, at the head of the bay. The whole white population of the connty is less than a thousand, including the towns of Nestockton, Kilchis, Garabaldi, and Nehalem. The Siletz Indian reservation is in the southern end of the county.
Umatilla county, the aboriginal name, was organized September 27, 1862, out of that portion of Wasco county lying between Willow Creek on the west and the summit of the Blue Mountains on the east, and between the Columbia on the north and the ridge dividing the John Day country from the great basin south of it. Its boundaries have since been made more regular, and its present area is 6,500 square miles. There are over 144,000 acres of improved land in the county, valued, with the buildings and fences, at over two and a half million dollars, the farm products a little less than a million, and the live-stock at $1,800,000. The assessed valuation of real and personal property in the county is $2,094,000. Population in 1884, 10,000. Pendleton, the county seat, named after George H. Pendleton, was founded in 1868 by com- missioners appointed for the purpose, and incorporated October 23, 1880. It is situated on the Umatilla River, in the midst of a beautiful country, and on the edge of the reservation of the Umatillas, with whom, as well as
723
UMATILLA AND UNION.
with the country about, it enjoys a good trade. The population is about 1,000. Umatilla City, settled in 1862, was first called Cain's landing, then Columbia, and finally incorporated as Umatilla in 1864. It was the place of transfer for a large amount of merchandise and travel destined to the Boisé and Owyhee mines, as well as the most eastern mining districts of Oregon, and carried on an active business for a number of years. It became the county seat in 1865, by special election. The establishment of Pendleton in a more central location, and the withdrawal of trade consequent on the failure of the mines, deprived Umatilla of its population, which was re- duced to 150, and caused the county seat to be removed to Pendleton. Weston, on Pine Creek, a branch of the Walla Walla River, was named after Weston, Missouri, and incorporated in 1878. It is purely an agricultural town, with three or four hundred inhabitants, beautifully situated, and pros- perous. The minor towns and settlements are Meadowville, Milton, Heppner, Pilot Rock, Centreville, Midway, Lena, Butter Creek, Agency, Cayuse, Cold Spring, Echo, Hardmann, Hawthorne, Helix, Moorhouse, Pettysville, Purdy, and Snipe.
Union county, so named by unionists in politics, was created October 14, 1864, to meet the requirements of a rapidly accumulating mining population, La Grande, upon the petition of 500 citizens, being named in the act as the county seat until an election could be had. It occupies the extreme north- east corner of the state, touching Washington and Idaho. Its area embraces 5,400 square miles, of which about 95,000 acres are improved, the farms and buildings being valued at one and a half millions; the live-stock of the county at $1,029,000, and the farm products at $432,000. The valuation of real and personal property for the tenth census was given at considerably over a million and a quarter. The population was about 7,000. The chief industries are stock-raising, sheep-farming, and dairying. Union City was founded in the autumn of 1862, by the immigration of that year, at the east end of Grand Rond Valley, in a rich agricultural region. It was chosen for the county seat in 1873, by a vote of the people, and incorporated in 1878. Its popula- tion is eight hundred, and rapidly increasing. D. S. Baker and A. H. Rey- nolds of Walla Walla erected a flouring mill at Union in 1864, the first in Grand Rond Valley. La Grande was founded in October of 1861 by Daniel Chaplin, the first settler in the valley. It took its name from reminiscences of the French voyageurs, la grande vallée, a term often applied to the Grand Rond Valley. The town was made the temporary seat of Union county by act of the legislature in 1864, and incorporated in 1865. A land-office was established here in 1867, for the sale of state lands, Chaplin being appointed receiver. In 1872 this district was made identical with the U. S. land district of La Grande. La Grande is also the seat of the Blue Mountain University. The population is 600. Sparta, Oro Dell, Island City, Cove, and Summer- ville are the lesser towns of Grand Rond Valley; and Lostine, Joseph, and Alder of Wallowa Valley. Elk Flat, Keating, New Bridge, Pine Valley, Prairie creek, and Slater are the other settlements.
Among the residents of Union county who have furnished me a dictation is James Quincy Shirley, who was born in Hillborough, N. H., in 1829, and edu- cated in New London. He came to California in 1849, by sea, and mined at Beal's Bar on American River. He was in the neighborhood of Downieville 2 years, trading in cattle, which he bought cheap at the old missions, and sold high to the miners. He remained in the business in different parts of the state until 1862, when he started with a pack-train of goods for Idaho, but had everything taken from him by Indians, near Warner Lake, from which point he escaped on foot to Powder River with his party, and went to the Florence mines. From Idaho he went to Portland, and by the aid of a friend secured employment under the government, but left the place and cut and sold hay in Nevada the following year, getting $25 and $30 per ton at Aurora. In 1864 be again purchased cattle, at $2.50 per head, driving them to Montana, where they sold for $14. Horses for which he paid $14 sold for from $30 to $80. This being a good profit, he repeated the trade the following year, driving his
724
COUNTIES OF OREGON.
stock through Nevada, and purchasing old Fort Hall, which he resold to the government 3 years afterward. In 1869 he settled in Raft River Valley, Idaho, where he had a horse and cattle rancho. In the autumn he shipped the first cattle ever carried on the Central Pacific railroad from Humboldt House to Niles, Cal. He continued in this trade for several years longer, and in 1883 sold out his stock and land at Raft River for $100,000, bought 10,000 sheep and placed them on a range in Utah. After looking over new and old Mexico for land, he finally settled in Union co., Oregon, where lie raises grain, and buys and sells cattle, an example of what can be done if the man knows how to do it. His real property lies in 4 different states and ter- ritories, and he has $100,000 in live-stock.
Wasco county, named after an Indian tribe inhabiting about the dalles of the Columbia, was organized January 11, 1854, comprising under the act creating it the whole of eastern Oregon, these boundaries being reduced from time to time by its division into other counties. Its area is 6,250 square miles, of which about 80,000 acres are improved, valued at $1,700,000. The products of farms were valued at a little less than half a million for 1879, while the live-stock of the county was assessed at not quite two millions. The gross valuation of all property in 1881-2 was set down at about four and a half millions, and of taxable property $3,220,000. The population of the county at the tenth census was not much over 11,000. Wasco county pos- sesses a great diversity of soil, climate, and topography. There is a large extent of excellent wheat land, and an equal or greater amount of superior grazing land. More sheep and horses were raised in Wasco than in any other county, while only Baker exceeded it in the number of horned cattle. The Dalles is the county seat of Wasco. Its name was first given it by the Hudson's Bay Company, whose French servants used a nearly obsolete word of their language-dalle, trough or gutter-to describe the channel of the Columbia at this place. By common usage it became the permanent appella- tive for the town which grew up there, which for a time attempted to add ' city ' to Dalles, but relinquished it, since which time 'The Dalles' only is used. To the dalles, which rendered a portage necessary, the town owes its location. It was founded by the methodist missionaries Lee and Perkins, in March 1838, abandoned in 1847, taken possession of by the U. S. military authorities, partially abandoned in 1853, and settled upon as a donation claim in that year by Winsor D. Bigelow. During the mining rush of 1858- 65 it became a place of importance, which position it has continued to hold, although for many years under a cloud as to titles, as related in another place. It was incorporated January 26, 1857. It was once contemplated establishing a branch mint at The Dalles for the coinage of the products of the mines of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana. Such a bill was passed by congress, and approved July 4, 1864. An edifice of stone was par- tially erected for this purpose, but before its completion the opening of the Central Pacific railroad rendered a mint in Oregon superfluous, and the build- ing was devoted to other uses. Down to 1882 The Dalles was the transfer point for passengers and freight moving up and down the river, but on the completion of the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company's line from various parts of the upper country to Portland, a large portion of the traffic which formerly centred here was removed. Yet, geographically, The Dalles remains a natural centre of trade and transportation, which, on the comple- tion of the locks now being constructed at the Cascades, must confirm it as the commercial city of eastern Oregon. The Dalles has several times suffered from extensive conflagrations. The last great fire, in 1879, destroyed a million dollars' worth of property. A land-office for the district of The Dalles was established here in 1875. The lesser towns and settlements in Wasco county are Cascade Locks, Hood River, Celilo, Spanish Hollow, Bake Oven, Lang's Landing, Tyghe Valley, Des Chutes, Mount Hood, Warm Spring Agency, Antelope, and Scott. There are a number of other post-offices in Wasco county as it was previous to the division into Crook and Wasco in 1882, which I have not put down here because it is doubtful to which county they belong.
725
WASHINGTON AND YAMHILL.
They are Alkali, Blalock, Cluk, Cross Hollows, Cross Keys, Crown Rock, Dufur, Fleetville, Fossil, Grade, Hay Creek, Kingsley. Lone Rock, Lone Valley, Mitchell, Nansene, Olex, Rockville, Villard, and Waldron.
Samuel E. Brooks, from whom I have a dictation, and who is a native of Ohio, came to Oregon overland, via Platte and Snake rivers, in 1850, in com- pany with C. H. Haines, Samuel Ritchie, Washington Ritchie, S. B. Roberts, J. H. Williams, his father Linn Brooks, bis mother E. Brooks, his brothers E. S. and H. J. Brooks. Samuel settled at The Dalles, and married Annie Pentland, daughter of Robert Pentland, in 1872. He is among the prominent men of Wasco county.
Washington county was established under the name of Twality district, the first of the four original political divisions of Oregon, on the 5th of July, 1843, and comprised at that time all of the territory west of Willamette and north of Yamhill rivers, extending to the Pacific ocean on the west, and as far north as the northern boundary line of the United States, then not deter- mined. Its limits have several times been altered by the creation of other counties, and its name was changed from Twality to Washington September 4, 1849. Its area is 682 square miles, 62,000 acres of which is improved land, valued with the improvements at about three and a half million dollars. The live-stock of this county is all upon farms, and is assessed at a little less than four hundred thousand. The farm products of 1870 were valued at over $700,000. The state returns for 1881-2 make the gross valuation of all prop- erty $3,717,000, and the total of taxable property over two and a half millions. The population is between seven and eight thousand. A considerable por ion of the northern part of Washington county is heavily timbered and moun- tainous, but its plains are famed for their productiveness, and the face of the country is beautifully diversified. Hillsboro, founded by David Hill, one of the executive committee of Oregon in 1843, is the county seat. It was incor- porated in 1876. The population is about five hundred. Forest Grove, the seat of Pacific University, has 600 inhabitants. It was founded by Harvey Clark in 1849, and incorporated in 1872. The U. S. Indian school, founded in 1870, is located at Forest Grove. The location of the university town at the edge of the foot-hills of the Coast Range, in the midst of natural groves of oak-trees, gives an academic air to the place, and certain propriety to the name, which will be lost sight of in the future should not the forest beauties of the place be preserved. The lesser towns are Cornelius, Gaston, Dillcy, Gale's Creek, Cedar Mill, Bethany, Beaverton, Glencoe, Greenville, Ingles, Laurel, Middleton, Mountain Dale, Scholl's Ferry, Tualatin, and West Union.
Harley McDonald, born in Foster, R. I., in 1823; came to Cal. in 1840 by sea, and to Oregon the following year, locating at Portland. His occupation was that of architect and dranghtsman. He built the steamer /loosier, one of the first on the upper Willamette, in 1851; the first theatre in San Francisco; the first wharf and first church in Portland; the first railroad station at Salem; and is engaged by the government to erect school-houses on the Indian reser- vations. He married, in IS48, Betsy M. Sansom, and bas 8 children, one son being a banker. He resides at Forest Grove.
Yambill county was first organized as one of the first four districts, July 5, 1843, and embraced all of the Oregon territory south of Yamhill River, and west of a supposed north and south line extending from the mouth of the Yamhill to the 42d parallel. Its boundaries were subsequently altered and abridged until it contained a little more than 750 square miles. The amount of improved land is 119,000 acres, valued, with the improvements, at $5,518,- 000. The value of live-stock is over half a million, and the yearly product of the farms is about a million and a half. The valuation of real and personal estate is in excess of two and a half millions, and the population is 8,000. This county is famed for its wheat-producing capacity, as well as for its many beau- ful features. Lafayette, once county seat, is situated on the Yamhill River, which is navigable to this point. It was founded by Joel Perkins about 185], and named Ly bim after Lafayette, Indiana. Perkins was murdered, while returning from California in July 1856, by John Malone, who hanged himself
726
MANUFACTURES.
in jail after confessing the act. Or. Statesman, Ang. 12, 1856; Deady's Hist. Or., MS., 78. It was chosen for the seat of the county in August 1858. Its court-honse, erected in 1859 at a cost of $14,000, was the pride of the county at that time, but its age is now against it, and it does not do credit to so rich a county. The population of Lafayette is 600. The town was incorporated in 1878. MeMinnville, founded by William T. Newby iu 1854, was named after his native town in Tennessee. It is the seat of the baptist college, is on the line of the Oregon Central railroad, and has a population of 800. Its incorporation was in 1872. Dayton, founded by Joel Palmer on land pur- chased of Andrew Smith, and named after Dayton, Ohio, is a pretty town, on the Yamhill River, of 300 inhabitants, and the initial point of the Dayton, Sheridan, and Grand Rond narrow-gange railroad. It is a shipping point for the wheat grown in the county, which is here transferred from the railroads to steamboats, and carried down the Yamhill and Willamette Rivers to Port- land or Astoria. Dayton has a grain elevator and mills. It was incorporated in 1880. Sheridan, at the present western terminus of the narrow-gauge railroad, is a picturesque town of less than 200 inhabitants, named after General P. Sheridan, who as a lieutenant was stationed at Fort Yamhill, near here. It was settled in 1847 by Absolem B. Faulconer, and incorporated in 1880. Amity, founded in 1850, is another pretty village, in a fine agricul- tural region, incorporated in 1880. The minor settlements are Bellevue, Carlton, Ekins, Newburg, North Yamhill, West Chehalem, and Willamina.
There was a proposition before the legislature of 1882 to create one or more counties out of Umatilla. By a comparison of the wealth of the several counties of Oregon, it is found that the amount per capita is largest iu Mult- nomah, which is a commercial county. The agricultural counties of the Willamette Valley rank, Linn first, Yamhill second, Lane third, and Marion fourth, Clackamas ranking least. The coast and Columbia-River counties fall below the interior ones. In the southern part of western Oregon there is also much less wealth than in the Willamette Valley, Douglas county, how- ever, leading Jackson. In eastern Oregon, Umatilla leads the other counties in per capita wealth, Grant, Union, Wasco, Lake, and Baker following in the order nained. This may be different since the cutting-off of Crook county, which took much of the best portion of Wasco. The comparative amount of wheat raised in 1880 was greatest in Marion county, which raised 1,060,000 bushels, Yamhill, Umatilla, Linn, and Polk following with nearly 1,000,000 each. Clackamas county raised less than 500 bushels. Bnt Clackamas pro- duced $60,000 worth of fruit, being the second fruit county, Linn leading the state. Lake raised almost none, Curry, Clatsop, and Tillamook very little, and all the other counties from $4,000 to $37,000 worth, all but three, Baker, Grant, and Columbia, producing over $10,000 worth, and nine of them from $30, - 000 to $57,000 worth. The gross value of the fruit crop was over $581,000. From this general and comparative review of the counties and towns of the state, as taken from the assessors' statistics, to which a large amount in values may safely be added, the condition of the population at large may be gathered, especially as refers to agriculture. Manufactures are considered under a separate head.
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