Chapter II: Part 2

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_

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_

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_

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_

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_

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_

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_

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_

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_

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_

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_

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_

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_

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_

“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_

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.