The Elder Statesman

Oregon 1859: A Snapshot in Time
By Janice Marschner
Timber Press, Inc.
Quality Paperback $27.95 

By BILL DUNCAN
The News-Review

Next Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14, 2009, Oregon will celebrate 150 years of statehood. That first year of statehood is captured in what Janice Marschner calls a "time-traveler’s guide" to that first year including how Douglas County, was created in 1852 out of a portion of the former Umpqua County. Ten years later, the county was enlarged to encompass all of Umpqua County.

Interestingly, since the book is about the first year of statehood, when Umpqua County was already in existence, Marschner devotes an entire chapter to its existence. Winchester at the time of statehood was the county seat, but by popular vote in 1854, the county seat was moved to Deer Creek, later to become Roseburg. According to the 1860 federal census, the county’s population was 3,203. The Applegate Trail passed through the north-south center of Douglas County, however in places it meant a treacherous 1,300 foot descent from the pass at the head of Canyon Creek to Canyonville.

Marschner, a retired legislative analyst in California, grew up in Eugene. Her first book, "California 1850," commemorated California’s sesquicentennial in 2000. The Oregon book is her third

published work.

In the chapter about the early history of the county, she notes that four distinct Indian tribes lived in the county boundaries for thousands of years before white settlers arrived. The Yoncalla band of the Kalapuya Indians lived along the Calapooya Creek, the dividing line between Douglas and Umpqua counties.

"The original Cow Creek Indians were a named band of Umpqua Indians," she writes, "but they were not related to other tribes in the Umpqua region."

She described the Umpqua and Cow Creek Indians as "generally peaceful and tolerant of the Euro-Americans passing through or settling on their lands." Most of the settling of the county was done in the valleys bordering the Umpqua River where farming was possible and villages were established in Winchester, Wilbur, Sutherlin and Oakland, as well as Deer Creek founded in 1851 by Aaron Rose. It acquired the name Roseburg in 1857, but even so, according to Marschner, the name was often misspelled as "Roseburgh," until 1894 when the name officially became "Roseburg."

She traces the pioneer settlers in the county and ends the chapter with a surname listing of those pioneers broken down in segments from Roseburg, Winchester, Wilbur, Sutherlin and Oakland. Listed separately those pioneers in Dillard and Lookingglass and those in Myrtle Creek, Canyonville, Riddle and Azalea. Marschner details why Deer Creek became a more important trading post than Winchester and thus eventually became the county seat and renamed Roseburg, to honor its founder.

Umpqua County is in a separate chapter, but as she notes its existence as a county was short-lived, after being formed in 1851 from the southern portion of Benton County and the Western portion of Lane County. That county encompassed Yoncalla, Drain, Elkton, Scottsburg, Reedsport, Gardiner, Kellogg and Tyee, but in 1852 a large portion including those communities listed was annexed to Douglas County, while other portions went to Coos and Lane counties. The county seat was never fully established and alternated between Elkton and Scottsburg. The first newspaper in the entire state was published in Scottsburg. The first lighthouse on the Oregon coast was at the mouth of the Umpqua River.

Some of the most famous pioneers in the state settled in Umpqua County, including the trail blazers, Jesse and Lindsay Applegate, but the author reveals that the first family to settle in Yoncalla Valley was not the Applegates, but the Robert Cowan family in 1848. Like Marschner’s listing of pioneer families in Douglas County, she also lists the surnames of those settling the former Umpqua County.

While Douglas and Umpqua counties will be of utmost importance for the readers of this review, these two chapters are just a minor part of Marschner’s excellently researched and written "snapshot"

of the state of Oregon and its sesquicentennial. The author said one of her main goals in writing "Oregon 1859," was to get Oregonians "excited about the upcoming sesquicentennial celebration and to encourage them to become involved in their local community’s plans for 2009." Douglas County is already gearing up for that celebration as part of a state-wide effort.

The book is solely a one year history of Oregon’s statehood. Each chapter includes a map of the county and a local history of that county and a collection of more than 150 historic pictures, 45 black and white drawings and 21 maps. It is a treasure for the native born

Oregonian as well as the new arrival. It doesn’t require a long presence in the state to become an Oregonian at heart.

(Bill Duncan is the editor of The Senior Times. He also writes a weekly column on the Opinion Page of The New-Review every Thursdays.)