Below: Map of Willamette Valley, Gibbs and Starling 1851.
Below: H.O. Quick homestead on the Tualatin Plains. Fertile prairie and lush forests attracted settlement.
The Tualatin Plains
LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION. Present-day real estate agents bent on selling or buying property repeat this essential axiom to their customers. Location most often overrides price or even condition in determining property value.
The same principal holds true throughout history. Geographical environment takes precedence over most other elements in shaping the culture and development of towns, cities, nations and the world. History depends on what geography offers and what occupants do with it.
The land was the magnet that attracted intrepid settlers to the Tualatin Plains in the 1840s and 1850s. From the days of Lewis and Clark, word had filtered east about the Eden-like environment of that corner of Oregon that is now known as central Washington County. Newspapers contained articles extolling the geography waiting to be occupied and developed. Pamphlets circulated around the cities of the East and of the “old” Northwest listing all the virtues of the area. An 1842 communication from Philip Edwards, a four-year resident of the Plains, indicates the pictures painted for friends and families in the East.
There were no winters – “no weather a western or northern man would call cold” – the land was “equal to any part of New York,” and the fields produced wheat seven feet high and yields of fifteen to twenty bushels per acre. “In no country in the world, may the husbandman look forward with more assurance to the reward of his toil.” The land was beautiful “beyond anything to which we of the Mississippi valey (sic) has ever been accustomed. (i)
The migrants to the Tualatin Plains faced great obstacles and trials crossing that country. Numerous diaries, logs and recorded reminiscences attest to the loss of life and property and to the frustrations and hardships encountered along the way. Journey’s end brought some relief but also replaced the trials of the trip with the toil and tribulations attendant on establishing homes and making a living.
The pioneers who so painfully made their way west and undertook the torturous work of preparing the land for farming owed much to nature. However, they also owed a debt to Native Americans who preceded them in the Tualatin Plains. The Kalapuya, the indigenous people of the territory, posed no threat to the newcomers who often took their land. Because the Kalapuya population had been decimated by the viral epidemics of the 1830s, they were not capable of resisting any intrusion. Instead, they passively relinquished to the newcomers a “perfect mixture of prairie land and woodlands” (Bourke, .p. 72).
This perfection was a result of the Indian practice of annually burning the land. Burning, for the Indians, “ensured easier hunting, more efficient seed gathering, and a more secure defense against hostile tribes” (Bourke, p. 72). For the settlers, it ensured rich soil, rolling hills and extensive woodlands. Added to the boon of rich and fertile land was the advantage that, by the 1840s, agriculture was already a booming business in the area. The Hudson Bay Company’s powerful manager, John McLoughlin, and the head of the company, George Simpson, had the foresight to cultivate acres of wheat, barley, peas, corn and potatoes in the 1840s.
By the end of the decade, farming was perhaps the main activity at the post, and the export of lumber, fish and flour flourished between Fort Vancouver and the Hawaiian Islands.
If validation of the long, tedious trek was needed by the pioneers, it could no doubt have been found in the prospects presented by lush land and a thriving infant agrarian and commercial economy. Oregon settlers arrived in a land previously explored by trappers, traders and independent and company employees. These men had traversed the area for decades blazing trails for future comers. They had taken Indian wives, settled claims and become farmers. Among them appear such well-known names as Meek, Ebberts, Doughty and Wilkins.
These legendary residents were joined by the bureaucratic members of The Hudson’s Bay Company who had been retired or down-sized as the beaver market and animals diminished. Supported by McLoughlin, these retirees elected to stay in the area rather than accept repatriation to Britain or Canada. All these veterans of the fur trade found themselves acting as guides, advisors and teachers to later arrivals. Indian wives taught the white women their secrets of food preparation and preservation and shared tribal knowledge of medicinal roots and vegetation.
The population of the region also contained a number of Metis, who were descendants by marriage from Native Americans and Caucasians. They came from the Red River Settlement in Canada where they and their native wives had suffered discrimination and social ostracism from the English establishment. After a failed attempt at a company settlement in the Puget Sound area, most of the settlers left for the Tualatin Valley. Familiar names like McKay, Buston, Flett, Colder and Spence appear in the records of this venture.
The missionaries also arrived into this diverse mix. The initial impetus for this crusade came in 1831 when four natives from the west coast arrived in St. Louis. They were likely seeking William Clark, the superintendent of Indian affairs at the time. Protestants soon insisted that the travelers were seeking “the white man’s book of heaven” (Native American term for the Bible), though there is no documentation to bear that out. Two years after the event, a well-written and challenging story appeared in two Christian papers. The president of Wesleyan University, Wilbur Fisk, took up the challenge and sent four young, single Methodist men on their way west. With plenty of money and an equal amount of zeal available, more missionaries and ministers followed. Jason Lee directed a plan to establish agricultural stations and outposts to civilize and Christianize the natives. Despite the best intentions and hard work from laity and clerics alike, the enterprise was unsuccessful and resulted in few conversions. However, the lessons learned about the country and the natives served subsequent missionaries and churches well.
Roman Catholic, Congregational, Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist and other churches are all well represented in the history of the Tualatin Valley. Each shares credit in promoting educational institutions and health facilities and establishing the moral and ethical values that determined the character and history of the growing towns and cities. Their paths were not easy and misunderstandings and misrepresentations occurred due to varying styles and personalities of religious leaders.
Women played an important role in the settlements of the early Plains. They were well represented among the missionary and pioneer wives as well as among educators and nurses.
The beautiful Tualatin Plains were home to the Kalapuya people for hundreds of years before they enticed aspiring settlers to central Washington County in the mid-1800s. All came with a purpose, whether it was to spread religion, escape discrimination, settle after years of hunting, trapping and trading or to realize some long held dream of achieving riches and comfort.
This patchwork of settlers moved into two distinct towns, Forest Grove and Hillsboro, whose stories will be told in upcoming “Crossroads Communities” articles.
References
Bourke, Paul and DeBats, Donald , P. (1995.) “Washington County: Politics and Community in Antebellum America,” The John Hopkins University Press.
Oregon Historical Quarterly 15(1914):pp.206-207.
