Below: Oregon Electric Train arriving in Hillsboro, 1908.
Hillsboro
The evolution of a town – from “Sin City” to “Silicon Forest”
By Carolyn Buan and Winnifred Herrschaft
Naming the Town
In 1843, when Oregon settlers established their first provisional government, Hillsboro was nothing more than a gleam in the eye of David Hill. Hill was a member of the committee that had helped divide Oregon into five local districts and owner of a land claim in the vast Tuality district, which at the time included Portland.
That committee had failed to name a district seat, and Hill saw an opportunity to outbid Portland. He thought that his land claim, at the confluence of two well-worn Indian trails, would make an excellent site, so he sold 40 acres of his claim to the district’s court and threw in a small log cabin to serve as a courthouse. He called the site Columbus and began trying to attract buyers. However, the town grew slowly because the settlers preferred to remain on their farms, which occupied large parcels of land at great distances from one another. David Hill died in 1850 and Columbus was re-named Hillsborough to honor his memory.
Developing a Community
Diverse elements and interests worked to bring together the sparse population and mold it into a town. Politics, for example, played an important part in establishing one major group. Early residents took an interest in local issues. Those who had moved from the South to the Midwest and on to Oregon brought with them a tradition of political involvement. Coalitions formed quickly and the practice of viva voce (publicly declaring one’s choice) assured an active and involved electorate.
In addition, Congregationalists, Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Roman Catholics and others set up gatherings, which became the settlers’ first meeting and socializing opportunities. Churches continued to provide a religious and social focus though Hillsborough developed more worldly entertainment as well. Because of the abundance of saloons, the town became known as Sin City. This was in contrast to Forest Grove’s high-toned designation of Piety Hill. Dances, theatrical performances, gambling, parades, barbeques, picnics and, in 1855, the introduction of the county fair all had a place in creating the community. The intellectual elite established itself as an influential unit with lectures, poetry readings, spelling bees, debates and musical evenings. Happy Days (Fourth of July) became a reason to celebrate and parade. The town’s two brass bands (one male and one female) were part of the tradition.
Communication and Transportation
With growth came the need to communicate events and developments within the town. In 1869, the first issue of the Washington County Democrat appeared, subsidized by local merchants’ advertising. At the same time, the area needed better and faster ways to transport goods to market and people to other places. The 1867 arrival of the Tualatin River Steam and Navigation Company’s steamboat, The Onward, in Hillsborough established navigation on the Tualatin River.
It was the advent of the railway, however, that brought real growth to Hillsborough. Ben Holladay’s Willamette Valley Railroad reached Hillsborough in 1872. When public land was not awarded to the railroad in return for a Hillsborough station, a disgruntled Holladay is said to have moved the railroad tracks farther south, forcing Hillsborough to create a means of transport from the station to the town.
By the end of the 1870s, Hillsborough had a station, a mill, a wheat warehouse, some planked streets and a new brick courthouse to replace the 1852 cedar building. While the economy thrived with the coming of the railway, it took the coming of the “electrics” in the early 1900s to make rail travel truly popular. By 1914 the “red electric” commuter trains of the Southern Pacific Railway ran six times a day in competition with the Oregon Electric service. Both were profitable.
A Chartered Town
The county seat finally received its charter in 1876 and was incorporated as Hillsborough with a board of trustees and president. The charter dropped the English spelling of Hillsborough and replaced it with Hillsboro. The city had arrived. It had an opera house, four saloons, two blacksmiths, two general stores and one drug store. Growth continued into the 1880s and ’90s though two severe depressions occurred in 1893 and 1897. In a time of mainly wooden buildings, fire posed a constant threat to western communities of the 19th century.
In 1880 a Hillsboro city ordinance established a fire district with a volunteer fire department. By 1890, the town had a new city hall, a building for the fire department and three fire hydrants.
When the Oddfellows Hall burned down on a cold winter’s night in 1894, a local bar owner offered free drinks to firefighters to keep their bodies warm and their spirits up. Unfortunately, the next day the Fire Department was greatly depleted as the men stayed home to recover from the bar owner’s generosity. The result was the formation of the Hillsboro Coffee Club, which thereafter provided coffee and cakes to the firefighters to keep them out of saloons. The Club later purchased a house as a resting place for farmers and their families. The Coffee Club disbanded in 1997.
A number of other service and fraternal organizations were active during the growing years of the city, all dedicated to cleaning up the Sin City image. The city passed ordinances to curb drunkenness, and more were added against vagrancy, pool and gaming.
The city built water and light systems in the 1890s and telephones arrived at the same time. A sanitary sewer district and a storm drainage system came in 1911 along with paved streets. Hillsboro weathered World War I and the flu epidemic that followed. The 1920s produced the automobile, which spurred a whole new industry. Blacksmiths became auto mechanics, horse dealers became car dealers and Americans fell in love with their cars. TV Highway expanded and, in the early ’30s, planning for Sunset Highway began.
The War and the Silicon Forest
World War II brought a new population to Hillsboro. Some sought employment in the shipyards, while others were military personnel and immigrants whose labor replaced that of the men in service.
World War II also marked the end of Washington County as a pastoral oasis and brought Hillsboro to a new level of industrialization. The war and the Atomic Age produced the high tech era, which led to today’s thriving Silicon Forest. The war created the need for specialized electronic equipment and instruments that helped design and repair it. Washington County companies sprang up to meet this need. Today Hillsboro and Washington County are characterized by an industrial system with complementing technology sectors. Now, however, Silicon Forest companies are part of the international as well as regional economy.
Growth has continued in population and commercial development, bringing with it greater social and service challenges. Extended highways, light rail, an expanded airport, bigger and better health facilities, cultural centers, more schools and libraries all attest to an energetic, vital community meeting the needs of a changing world. From Sin City to Silicon Forest, Hillsboro has proven it can handle whatever comes next.
Sources:
Bourke, Paul and Donald DeBats, “Washington County,” Politics and Community in Antebellum America, Baltimore and London, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995
Buan, Carolin M. “This Far-Off Sunset Land,” A Pictorial History of Washington County, Oregon, Virginia Beach, VA., The Donning Company, 1999
Mathew, Richard P. “From Sin to Silicon: A Brief Chronicle of the Evolution of the City of Hillsboro,” Washington County Museum, June, 1985.
Meyer, Heike, Ph.D., “Taking Root in the Silicon Forest: High Technology Firms As Surrogate Universities in Portland, OR.” Unpublished dissertation. Portland State University, 2003.
