Below: Sketch of Kalapuya man drawn by Alfred Agate, a member of the Wilkes Expedition in 1841.
Below: Joe Meek was a famous local fur trapper, mountain man and Oregon's first Sheriff.
Below: Tabitha Brown helped establish Tualatin Academy in the 1840s, which became Pacific University. 
Below: Logging was an important part of Washington County's economy in the early 20th Century.
Washington County in a Nutshell
New vocabulary links to Wikipedia and WCHS articles!
Lay of the Land
The Tualatin Valley, which includes most of Washington County, is about 25 miles wide, 40 miles long, and is rimmed by the Coastal Range to the west, the Tualatin Mountains to the north and east, and by the Chehalem Mountains to the south. Its geologic history can be reasonably documented back to the Wisconsin Period of the last ice age – 12-15,000 years ago. At that time ice dams on the upper Columbia River gave way and water traveling at up to 60 mph flooded into the Tualatin Valley in several locations near Lake Oswego and Sherwood. As the 400 food deep lake receded, elephants, camels, giant beaver and other megafauna roamed the resulting swamps and prairies. The bones of a 5-ton female mastodon, buried about 10,000 years ago, were unearthed in Tualatin in 1962. Eventually, wooded hills, grassy flatlands and lush swamps emerged from the last ice age and many familiar animals – deer, elk, bear, raccoons – roamed this land. Heavy winter rains, dense vegetation and the annual construction of beaver dams caused the creeks and Tualatin River to overflow their banks regularly, thereby continually enriching the land.
Native Americans
The Kalapuya Indians, including the local band called the Atfalati, hunted, fished and gathered native plants including camas root and wapato. They lived in the Willamette Valley and surrounding areas but traveled throughout the region to gather seasonal foods and trade. By the time white settlers arrived in the area, more than 90% of the native population had been died from epidemics of small pox and other diseases. Most of the survivors were forced to leave their ancestral lands and move to the Grand Ronde Reservation in the mid-1850s. Read More about the Kalapuya
Fur Trappers and Traders
The fur trade, originally along the Coast, brought the first Europeans to this area in the late 1700s. The intensive inland fur trade began shortly after Lewis & Clark returned to the east coast in 1806. Competing British, Canadian and American companies began trapping beaver in the Rocky Mountains and moving further west as areas were cleared of beaver. Several “Mountain Men” visited this area in 1834 on a hunting expedition. By 1840, George Ebbert, Joseph Gale, Joe Meek, Robert Newell, and Caleb Wilkins – companions during the adventurous days in the mountains – settled here to a relatively quiet pioneer farm life. Read More about Joe Meek
Euro-American Settlement
Word about the Oregon Territory quickly spread East. On May 22, 1843, the first significant wave of the largest overland migration left Independence, Missouri – almost 1000 persons with 1230 wagons pulled by oxen. For the next ten years ruts on the Oregon Trail deepened under heavily loaded wagons. The 1850 Donation Land Act, which was retroactive, gave each single male citizen a large chunk of land (up to 320 acres) in his own name, and if married, an equal amount in his wife's name. The wagon trains for the next few years were composed of families anxious to claim their free land, after living on it for four consecutive years.
This was a good place to settle! A Provisional Government for the territory had already been established in early 1843 to enforce law and order. This valley offered fertile farm land; heavy rains nurtured the crops; forests provided logs for fuel and shelter; streams provided power for the grist and saw mills. Cattle that were brought grazed in the meadows. Larger wood frame houses gradually replaced the original log cabins. Religious organizations with circuit-riding ministers were established quickly. In 1841, Desire Smith Griffin, wife of the Congregational minister John S. Griffin, became the first white woman settler in the Tualatin Valley. The Baptists established their church at West Union in 1844. Schools, albeit small, were created. Tabitha Brown, at age 68, helped set up the Tuality Academy, the precursor of Pacific University in Forest Grove in 1848. West Union School District, the first in Washington County, was created in 1851, and the first school was built in 1852. Read More about Tabitha Brown
Those who came ‘over the trail' were mostly farmers of English and German descent, eager to acquire new and better land here. Their names are attached to many localities, i.e. Hillsboro, Tigard, Patton Valley and Cornelius Pass. The timber industry, mills, railroads, fishing, commerce and a more diversified agriculture enticed other adventurous folks and brought greater diversity. The Dutch settled Verboort, the Scottish established Glencoe, the Swiss created Helvetia, the Hungarians populated Orenco, Scandinavians moved into Cherry Grove. The Japanese settled on farms scattered throughout Washington County. Hispanics moved into the southwestern part of the county following World War II.Schools
Long before Oregon became a state in 1859, school bells were ringing in Washington County. Its first school was established in 1842 by the Reverend and Mrs. Harvey Clark at Glencoe to serve Native American children. Reverend J.S. Griffin also opened a church and school near Hillsboro in 1842. In 1848, Tabitha Brown and the Clarks began a school for immigrant orphans. Established as Tualatin Academy in 1849, it later became Pacific University. Subscription schools sprouted up throughout the county. By 1851, the West Union, Jackson, Hillsboro, Cornelius and Greenville public school districts were established. The West Union School, built in 1852, holds title as the county's first public school, although public money was slow in coming. Others quickly followed, and the rush to educate the county's youth was on.
Oregon's earliest schools were built of logs, often in one day by the entire community. They were generally set in a central location on donated land. A small wood stove occupied the middle of the single room. Parents supplied firewood, and the teacher chopped kindling and hauled water from a nearby stream or well. Floors were sometimes earthen, and windows might be covered with a blanket or paper until glass could be purchased. Desks were simple tables made of split logs, with matching benches. Families shared the few books and supplies they had stowed in their covered wagons, and perhaps a spare lantern, bucket, dipper and basin. The outhouse was a short distance from the school, and the playground was often an obstacle course of fresh stumps. Students ranged in age from 4 to 20, all learning together in one room. Length of a term, enrollment and attendance varied, depending on weather and the need of families for children to assist with farm labor. Teachers were usually young and poorly paid, with no more than a high school education. Read More about early schools in Washington County
See a list of student rules that would have been enforced in a typical one-room schoolhouse…
Student Rules, 1860
- Boys and girls shall file into classroom in separate lines and be seated quietly on opposite sides of the room.
- Boys shall remove their caps when entering.
- Children must sit up straight at all times.
- Children must not squirm, fidget or whine.
- Children must be clean and tidy in clothing.
- There will be a daily inspection of neck, ears and fingernails prior to class to ensure cleanliness of person.
- Young ladies must never show a bare ankle; girls’ and boys’ clothing should cover arms and legs completely.
Economy
For a long time the economy was based upon shipping out natural resources and importing finished goods. Cattle, wheat, lumber and produce were shipped to market, first by wagon on dirt and later planked roads, then by boat, including small steamers that by 1865 plied the Tualatin River as far as Emerick's Landing (Cornelius), and then by rail. By the turn of the century, the intercontinental railroads carried Washington County nursery products, particularly evergreens and perennials, to eastern markets. The railroads also brought out logs from Banks, Timber and other logging towns in the foothills of the Coast Range. The Oregon Electric and the Red Electric interurban railroads took onions, berries, nuts, hops and other foodstuffs into Portland through the 1930s. Most manufactured products such as bricks, tiles, and shingles were consumed locally.
Vineyards are not a recent addition to the landscape of Washington County. The pinot noir and chardonnay produced by Forest Grove's Reuter Hill Winery won awards at the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904. During Prohibition and the Depression, the vineyards were abandoned, to be restarted in the 1960s, and Washington County is today the second largest wine producing county in Oregon.
Local hazelnut orchards, berry farms and nurseries are major producers within the state and the country. During the 1940s, frozen strawberries were shipped to Massachusetts from Ray Maling's food plant in Hillsboro. This operation, later purchased by Birdseye, no longer exists. Flavorland in Forest Grove is the county's major food processor now. The landscape changed just a bit in 1989 when alpacas began grazing our meadows. Their very fine wool makes them a good “huggable investment.”
Read More about Logging
High-Tech
The Washington County economy began to grow beyond logging and agriculture after World War II. The high-tech industries made their first appearance when Tektronix opened in Beaverton in 1946. With the arrival of Intel, Epson, NEC and Fujitsu, Washington County earned the nickname "Silicon Forest." Nike put on running shoes here in the early 1980s. Read More about the Silicon Forest
