Washington County, Oregon

“ 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 Yainhill rivers, extending to the Pacific ocean on the west, and aa far north as the northern boundary line of the United States, then not deter mined. ”

“ MOUTH OF THE WILLAMETTE, Multnomah County. This pioneer post office was established on Sauvie Island, close to the south end, June 30, 1851, with Ellis Walker postmaster. It was first put on the list for Clark County, Washington, but it never was actually in that county. The name of the office was changed to Souvies Island on March 5, 1852, and on May 19, 1853, it was moved to the Washington County, Oregon, list with Benjamin Howell postmaster. The locality is now in Multnomah County. See under Post OFFICE BAR. Mowich, Klamath County. ”

“ A considerable portion 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. ”

“ Grant County, embracing that central portion of Eastern Oregon where the Blue Mountains are highest, and extending southward to the southern boundary of the State, comprises altogether some of the most remarkable features of the whole country, including a portion of the wonderful "lake region." It was first settled in 1862, by a mining population; since which time it has contributed ten millions to the wealth of the world. The mining-camps are all on the head-waters and forks of the John Day River ”

“ As several new names appear among the appointees, it may be inferred that they were either newcomers to the county or that the legislators did not the year before know them. It is a fact that difficulty was experienced more than once in finding a sufficient number of suitable men to fill the offices in the newly created counties of Washington Territory. This was plainly the case in Spokane both in 1858 and 1859, as provision was not made in either year for treasurer, coroner, assessor, constable, and other officers. ”

“ Prior to 1860 the county of Walla Walla was of vast area, approaching 200.000 square miles. It included all of Eastern Washington except a little strip along the Columbia River known as Skamania County, in which were a few people dwelling at the Cascades. Eastern Washington then meant all that it does now. and, in addition, all of Idaho and parts of Montana and Wyoming, reaching to the summits of the Rocky Mountains. In Walla Walla County at that time were perhaps two hundred white people and one hundred times as many, or about twenty thousand, Indians. ”

“ Columbia County is now bounded: on the north and east by the Columbia River; on the south by Multnomah and 42 Frederick V. Holman Washington Counties ; and on the west by Clatsop County and a small portion of Tillamook County. Its county seat is St. Helens. Multnomah County. Multnomah County was created December 22, 1854, by the Territorial Legislature. (Special Laws of 1854-5, page 29) . It comprises a part of the eastern portion of Washington County and a part of the northern portion of Clackamas County. It is the smallest, but the most populous and wealthy County in Oregon. ”

“ Some of the most beautiful portions of "Western Oregon are under this curse of bad stewardship. We have occasion to wonder, when the annual returns are made of so many bushels of grain raised, and so many boxes of fruit shipped, and so many head of fat cattle exported, that they are so many. It is because the country is very hard to spoil, that it suffers so little by mismanagement. Not that Polk County, which originated reflections of this sort, is the only, or the chief, offender. There are just as bad farmers to the north of it, and to the south ”

“ The Blue Mountains constitute one of the largest uplifts in the state and the main range together with its spurs and offshoots, extends into several counties. The backbone of the Blue Mountains begins in Grant County and runs northerly through Baker, Union, Umatilla and Wallowa Counties in Oregon and into Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin Counties in Washington. ”

“ This condition of society encouraged the expression of public indignation pleasing to party prejudices and to the political aspirations of party leaders. At a meeting held in Portland April 1st, it was resolved that the president of the United States should be informed of the neglect of the judges of the first and second districts, no court having been held in Washington county since the previous spring; nor had any judge resided in the district to whom application could be made for the administration of the laws. ”

“ It occupies the extreme north east corner of the state, touching Washington and Idaho. Its area embraces 5,400 square miles, of which aboiit 95,000 acres are improved, the farms and buildings being valued atone 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. ”

“ The aids given by Washington and Yamhill counties were modeled on that made by the City of Portland. Washington County agreed to pay the interest upon $50,000 worth of bonds, while Yamhill county agreed to pay upon $75,000. When in addition to this the com- pany received aid from many public spirited people they would seem to have been, from a standpoint of aid, in a fair way to construct a road. Citizens of Portland bought and actually paid for $50,000 worth of stock, citizens of Washington county $20,000 and the citizens of Yamhill county $25,000. ”

“ The scattered farmers of the Tualatin Plains of Washington county, hauling in their produce and hauling out their supplies through the old Canyon road, was a mighty factor in locating Portland as the chief city. And it is a notable fact that for more than half a century the people of Portland and the people of Washington county have always stood shoulder to shoulder in all enterprises to promote each other's welfare. When it was pro- posed to build railroads up the Willamette valley more than forty ye ars ago. ”

“ Sno-qual-mi ( , or Sno-quam-ish, occupied the upper branches of the Sno- qualmie river. King county, Washington.
(6) Squax-an, lived on the peninsula between Hood's Canal and Case Inlet, Mason county, Washington.
G. Twan-a Group:
The Twana lived along both sides of Hood's Canal, Mason county, Wash- ington. H. Che-ha-lis Group:
(1) Quin-ault, lived in Clielialis county, Washington. ”

“ Mr. Condit ran the office, in conjunction with the railroad station West Stayton, until September 3, 1902, when Ale post office was closed due to the extension of rural free delivery from Aumsville. The later development of the locality brought new demands for a post office, and West Stayton office was established October 12, 1911, with D. M. McInnis first postmaster. This office was still in service in 1946.
WEST UNION, Washington County. The name West Union, applied to various places in Washington County, is of great historic interest and has been in use over a century. ”

“ He began the practice of law at Olympia in 1853. He served in the Indian war of 1855-56, was clerk of Thurston County in 1856, and was appointed secretary of the territory by President Lincoln, acting as governor much of the year from 1865 to 1866. He continued to be active in public affairs until the late 80's. His History of the Pacific Northwest: Oregon and Washington was published in Portland in 1889, in two large volumes bound in red leather and red cloth, and is the best illustrated of all the Oregon histories. ”

“ The wonderful resources of the Willamette Valley as an agricultural country attracted one of them to Washington County, where he purchased a farm, and stocked it with teams and farming implements, and started on his road to independence and wealth. ”

“ They are put upon reservations, where goods and rations are occasionally doled out to them, for the reason that it is cheaper to do that than to fight them. The agricul- ture and mechanics supposed to be taught on the agencies is all a pretense. Such things figure largely in the agency re- ports to the Indian Bureau at Washington, but they are in the main fanciful. The whites work and the Indians look on. The Umatilla Reservation is large enough for a county, and has in great part a fine rich soil, which should tempt any- body to agricultural pursuits. ”

“ When one views the great and growing cities of the northwest it seems hardly credible that any living man should have witnessed the entire development of this section of the country. Yet personal knowledge of the wonderful progress of the northwest enables R. C. McCaw to speak with authority concerning the events which have shaped its history. He was born in Linn county, Oregon, on the 11th of February, 1856, at which time Washington was still a part of the territory of Oregon and all of this vast region was practically undeveloped. ”

“ Yamhill County was in- cluded in the first named, which also embraced Washing- ton, Multnomah, Columbia, Clatsop, Tillamook, and Polk, as now described. Champoeg district embraced what is 358 W. D. FENTON. now Linn, Marion, Lane, Josephine, Coos, Curry, Benton, Douglas, and Jackson counties; the Clackamas district included what is now Clackamas County, eastern Oregon, a portion of Montana, and all of Idaho, and Washington. At this election 15 to 22 votes were cast in the entire Tualatin district, and 140 to '244 in the entire country for candidates. ”

“ He was educated in various schools in New England and Ohio, finishing his theological course in Oberlin, where he was ordained a minister of the Congregational Church. The church at Litchfield, Connecticut, secured an equipment and sent him to Oregon in 1839 as an independent missionary to the Indians. In 1840 he endeavored to start a mission among the Snakes, but failing he and his wife went to the Tualatin Plains in 1841 and began the first white settlement in what is now Washington County. On May 2, 1843, he was at Champoeg, and voted in favor of the first civil government in Oregon. ”

“ The average size of Multnomah's farms, which is the smallest county in the State, was 80.7 acres. Marion, Clack- amas, and Washington each averaged less than 150 acres to the farm. The counties averaging between 100 and 200 acres to the farm were Benton, Polk, Lane, Linn, Union, Baker, 96 LoN L. Swift Wallowa, and Jackson; those between 150 and 200 acres were Josephine, Coos, Lincoln, Tillamook, Clatsop, Columbia, and Yamhill. A study of the total and improved areas in farms will show the relative amount of land in actual cultivation and in waste or pasture in each county ”

“ C. Skits-wish, or Goeur d'Alenes, lived in Kootenai county, Idaho. They are known as the Coeur d'Alenes, the French word for "Awl Heart," an expression used by some chief to express the size of a trader's heart.
D. The Columbian Groups:
Pis-quow, or We-nat-chi, lived on the Wenatchee river, in Kittitas and Okinagan counties, Washington. Sin-ki-usc, livcil ou the east side of the Columbia river in Washington, from Fort Okinakane to Point Eaton. Me-thow, lived ou the Methow river in Okinagan county, and around Lake Chelan in Chelan county, Washington. ”

“ General Hazard Stevens, ex-President of the Thurston County Pioneer Association, Olympia; W. P. Bonney, Secretary of Washington State Historical Society, Tacoma; Prof. William D. Lyman, of Whitman College, Walla Walla; Miss Martha Wiley, a pioneer daughter of Yakima Valley; Rev. George Waters, from the Indian Reservation; George H. Himes, Curator of the Oregon Historical Society and Secretary of the Oregon Pioneer Association, Portland. ”

“ It was at one time known as T'Vault Creek for W. G. TÄVault, Oregon's pioneer editor, who lived at Dardanelles, near what is now Gold Hill.
KANSAS CITY, Washington County. Kansas City is the name of a crossroads community about six miles north-northwest of Forest Grove. It is said that the name was applied because some settlers from Kansas City, Missouri, established themselves there. The writer has not been able to find the name Kansas City on the Washington County post office list and apparently the locality never had a post office called Kansas City. ”

“ On Tuesday, December 5, 1848, the legislature again assembled at Oregon City, A. J. Hembree, L. A. Rice, and William J. Martin being the rep- resentatives from Yamhill County. Samuel R. Thurston, the first territorial delegate to Washington, was then a member from Tuality, and George L. Curry from Clacka- mas. There were twenty-one members elected to this body. Peter H. Burnett had been again elected as a member from Tuality, but he had resigned and gone to California be- fore the session. ”

“ Washington County D. J. Schnebley, James Johnson. Yamhill County E. B. Stone. Editor Walling declares himself to be greatly encouraged by the response thus made, and states that he has arranged for the attendance of a short-hand reporter at the convention. The convention was held as appointed, "The Fruit Growers' Association of Oregon ' ' organized, with Amos Harvey, of Polk County, president, and Chester N. Terry, of Salem, secretary. Altogether the meeting was a very successful one, as there were thirty-one exhibitors present, representing seven Willam- ette Valley counties. ”