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| New York Times, Jul. 13, 1891 (source) |
"At the time of consolidation, Albina, a railroad company town, was one of Oregon's most rapidly growing communities, and the first settling point for many of the region's newcomers. D.W. McLoughlin, president of the Albina Light & Water Company, and superintendent of the OR&N railroad shops, opposed consolidation and transfer of political control the west side of the river. However, Albina's recent growth in population, area and indebtedness, left no alternative. Moreover, most Albina residents were enthusiastic about the prospect of free ferry service and access to Bull Run water. This plaque is located one block east of the site of the 1891 Albina City Council rooms" (installed July 1991, the centennial of consolidation by the City of Portland with assistance form the Portland/Oregon Visitors Association, Oregon Historical Society, and the City Bureau of Maintenance."
1891: Albina annexes everything north to Columbia Boulevard and west to the Portsmouth area.
1890: Electric streetcars replace horsecars on the Morrison Bridge.
1889: Electric streetcars introduced into Portland (Nov).
1889: The Oregonian calls Portland "the most filthy city in the Northern States", due to the unsanitary sewers and gutters. The West Shore reported "The new sidewalks put down this year are a disgrace to a Russian village."
1889: Albina annexes the land north to Killingsworth Street and east to 24th Ave.
1888: Morrison Bridge begins carrying horsecars, about a year after the bridge opened.
1887: City of Albina incorporated.
1887: First bridge across the Willamette at Portland. "The original Morrison Bridge (or Morrison Street Bridge) was a wooden truss swing-span bridge completed on April 12, 1887, as the first Willamette River bridge in Portland and the longest bridge west of the Mississippi River. It was named for the street it carried, which had been named for John L. Morrison, a Scottish immigrant who built the first home on Morrison Street. It was first a toll bridge (rates: horse-drawn rig - US$0.15, team of horses - $0.20, pedestrian - $0.05) but went toll-free in 1895. The second Morrison was another swing bridge that was built in 1905. It was not designed for automobiles and the 1958 replacement was long overdue."
1887: Portland connected by railroad to California. Oregon and California Railroad reaches Siskyou Summit. Operations are taken over by the Southern Pacific Railroad.
1881: First edition of The Sunday Oregonian. "The paper became known as the voice of business-oriented Republicans, as evidenced by consistent endorsement of Republican candidates for president in every federal election before 1992."
1881 (April 14): Oregon Short Line Railroad chartered as a subsidiary of the Union Pacific Railway. The Union Pacific intended the line to be the shortest route ("the short line") from Wyoming to Oregon with intention to connect the Union Pacific to Oregon.
1880: The Oregon & California Railroad Ferry No. 2, is put into service by Henry Villard, near the present-day location of the Burnside Bridge. The O&CRR Ferry #2 was rendered obsolete by the construction of the Morrison and Steel bridges, and ultimately relocated to San Francisco, where it was converted to an oil-fueled ferry and, later, a famous houseboat, still in use as of 2013."
1877: Corbett sells The Oregonian back to Pittock in 1877, marking a return of Scott to the paper's editorial helm. A part-owner of the paper, Scott would remain as editor-in-chief until shortly before his death in 1910."
1876: Henry Villard takes over the Oregon and California Railroad.
1874: The Oregonian goes bankrupt. "Holladay having lost $200,000 in the process."
1874: Holladay falls behind in bond payments. Henry Villard is sent by Holladay's German investors.
1874: Settlement begins in Albina.
1873 (Sept 18) Market collapse Panic of 1873 . Holladay loses much of his fortune. Construction on the Oregon and California Railroad stops.
1873 (Aug). Major fire sweeps through downtown Portland. "destroying 20 blocks along the west side of the Willamette between Yamhill and Morrison. The fire caused $1.3 million in damage"
1872: Oregon and California railroad reaches south to Roseburg. "Along the way, the railroad created growth in Willamette Valley towns such as Canby, Aurora, and Harrisburg, which emerged as freight and passenger stations, and provided a commercial lifeline to the part of the river valley above Harrisburg where steamships were rarely able to travel."
1872 (Oct): Henry W. Corbett buys The Oregonian from a cash-poor Pittock and places William Lair Hill as editor. "Scott, fired by Corbett for supporting Ben Holladay's candidates, became editor of Holladay's rival Bulletin newspaper."
1872: City of Albina is platted on the east side of the Willamette downstream from Portland. "Albina was laid out in 1872 with a plat for the new town filed in April 1873 by Edwin Russell, William Page, and George Williams. Albina was named after Mrs. Albina Page, the wife of William Page. The original dimensions of Albina were modest: from Halsey Street north to Morris Street, and from the Willamette River to Margareta Avenue (later Union Avenue, and now Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard)."
1871: East Portland is incorporated. The value of East Portland waterfront property skyrockets.
1869: The East-Side Oregon Central Railroad connecting East Portland and Salem is completed. Railroad magnate Ben Holladay established ferry service across the Willamette to Portland from the northern terminus of the railroad about that time. The original ferry service was near the present-day location of the Steel Bridge."
1868: Benjamin Holladay of Kentucky, the "Stagecoach King" who had created Overland Stage to California during the height of the 1849 California Gold Rush, moves to Portland to oversee completion of his new railroad along the Willamette "He had organized the construction of a railroad along the Willamette River, purchasing the illegally incorporated Oregon Central Railroad of Salem, turning it into the Oregon and California Railroad Company. In April 1868, construction started on lines along both the sides of the river. Holladay's "Eastsiders" completed 20 miles (32 km) of track before the competition, using "every trick known to man" in the construction, including bribing the Oregon Legislature in October 1868. The competition subsequently sold out to him in 1870. Holladay financed the operation via German bankers, who bought $6.4 million of bonds (out of a total $10.95 million."
1866: Harvey Scott becomes editor of The Oregonian.
1866: Congress authorizes railroad grants to connect California and Oregon. "As part of the U.S. government's desire to foster settlement and economic development in the western states, in July 1866, Congress passed the Oregon and California Railroad Act, which made 3,700,000 acres (1,500,000 ha) of land available for a company that built a railroad from Portland, Oregon to San Francisco, distributed by the state of Oregon in 12,800-acre (5,200 ha) land grants for each mile of track completed. Two companies, both of which named themselves the Oregon Central Railroad, began a competition to build the railroad, one on the west side of the Willamette River and one on the east side. The two lines would eventually merge and reorganize as the Oregon and California Railroad."
1861: The Oregonian becomes a daily newspaper. "Henry Pittock became the owner in 1861 as compensation for unpaid wages, and he began publishing the paper daily, except Sundays. Pittock's goal was to focus more on news than the bully pulpit established by Dryer. Pittock ordered a new press in December 1860 and also arranged for the news to be sent by telegraph to Redding, California, then by stagecoach to Jacksonville, Oregon, and then by pony express to Portland."
1859 (Feb. 14): Oregon admitted to the Union as the 33rd state.
1854: Portland city council votes to form the Portland Fire Department,
1854: Construction begins on the first Oregon State Capitol in Salem.
1851 (Feb. 8): Portland is incorporated.
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| Plat map of Portland Township No. 1; From: Oregon document miscellany, 1843-1864. (source) |
1850 (Dec. 4): First issue of The Weekly Oregonian, edited by Thomas J. Dryer. The paper's offices and presses were originally housed in a two-story building at the intersection of First Street (now First Avenue) and Morrison Street Each weekly issue consisted of four pages, printed six columns wide. Little attention was paid to current news events, with the bulk of the paper's content devoted to political themes and biographical commentary. The paper took a staunch political line supportive of the Whig Party—an orientation which soon brought it into conflict with The Statesman, a Democratic paper launched at Oregon City not long after The Weekly Oregonian's debut. A loud and bitter rivalry between the competing news organs ensued."
1850: Territorial Legislature designates Salem as the capital. Several years of dispute follow regarding the site, including a U.S. Supreme Court case.
1850: Portland citizens travel to San Francisco looking to recruit a newspaper editor: "One year prior to the incorporation of the tiny town of Portland, Oregon in 1851, prospective leaders of the new community determined to establish a local newspaper—an institution which was seen as a prerequisite to urban growth. Chief among these pioneer community organizers seeking establishment of a Portland press were Col. W.W. Chapman and prominent local businessman Henry W. Corbett. In the fall of 1850 Chapman and Corbett traveled to San Francisco, at the time far and away the largest city on the West Coast of the United States, in search of an editor interested in and capable of producing a weekly newspaper in Portland. There the pair met Thomas J. Dryer, a transplanted New Yorker who was an energetic writer with both printing equipment and previous experience in the production of a small circulation community newspaper in his native Ulster County, New York"
1850: First census of Portland yields total population of 851. "653 male whites, 164 female whites and four "free colored" individuals."
1850: Lowndale and Stark come to agreement over the Portland claim, in a meeting in San Francisco. "The agreement gave to Stark the land north of Stark Street and about $3,000 from land already sold in this area. This settlement reduced the size of Chapman's claim by approximately 10%.."
1848: Pettygrove sells Portland claim to Lownsdale. "Pettygrove had lost interest in Portland and become enamored with the California Gold Rush. On September 22, 1848, he sold the entire townsite, save only for 64 sold lots and two blocks each for himself and Stark, to Daniel H. Lownsdale, a tanner. Although Benjamin Stark owned fully half of the townsite, Pettygrove "largely ignor[ed] Stark's interest", in part because Stark was on the east coast with no immediate plans to return to Oregon. Lownsdale paid for the site with $5,000 in leather, which Pettygrove presumably resold in San Francisco for a large profit."
1848: Treaty of 1848 divides the Oregon Country between U.S. and Great Britain (Hudson's Bay Company) at the 49th parallel. U.S. portion is organized by Congress as the Oregon Territory with its capital at Oregon City.
1846: The city of East Portland is founded on a 640-acre (260 ha) land claim by James B. Stephens in 1846, who bought the claim from John McLoughlin of the Hudson's Bay Company. "Stephens platted the land from the Willamette River to East First Street, and from today's Glisan Street to present Hawthorne Boulevard. Much of the land east of the river was marshy and crossed by creeks and sloughs, so it was less desirable than Portland river front property on the west side of the Willamette River. Development was difficult and expensive since many streets had to be built on trestles. A few years after Stephens acquired his land, Gideon Tibbetts filed a Donation Land Claim for 640 acres (260 ha) south of what is now Division Street in southeast Portland. Tibbetts founded the first flour mill on the east side of the Willamette, planted extensive orchards, and raised hay on part of his claim. He platted some of this land in the Brooklyn neighborhood, and platted an addition to East Portland. Tibbetts later sold some parcels and his flour mill to Stephens."
1846: Roman Catholic diocese of Oregon City is established. "The town became the see city of the first Roman Catholic archdiocese in the western United States, Its territory included all of the western United States. The population in the area of Oregon City declined due to the California Gold Rush. That of nearby Portland grew, and the headquarters of the archdiocese was moved there in 1926."
1846 (Nov. 1): Lovejoy sold his half of the land claim of Portland. to Benjamin Stark, as well as his half-interest in a herd of cattle for $1,215
1845: Naming of Portland. William Overton sells his half of the claim to Francis W. Pettygrove of Portland, Maine. "When it came time to name their new town, Pettygrove and Lovejoy both had the same idea: to name it after his home town. They flipped a coin to decide, and Pettygrove won."
1844: Oregon City becomes first city west of the Rockies to be incorporated.
1843: Tennesseean William Overton and Asa Lovejoy, a lawyer from Boston, Massachusetts, filed a 640 acres (260 ha) land claim with Oregon's provisional government that encompassed The Clearing and nearby waterfront and timber land.
1840: Massachusetts sea captain John Couch logs an encouraging assessment of the depth of the Willamette River adjacent to The Clearing, noting its promise of accommodating large ocean-going vessels, which could not ordinarily travel up-river as far as Oregon City, the largest Oregon settlement at the time.
1830s: American, Canadian, and British traders, trappers and settlers identify "The Clearing," a small stopping place along the west bank of the Willamette River as a convenient stopping piont for travelers en route between Oregon City and Fort Vancouver.
1829: Oregon City founded near the Falls of the Willamette River. "It was established by Hudson's Bay Company's Dr. John McLoughlin in 1829 near the confluence of the Clackamas River with the Willamette to take advantage of the power of Willamette Falls to run a lumber mill."
1824: Founding of Fort Vancouver on the Columbia as the headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Company in the Oregon Country. John McLoughlin (later known as the 'Father of Oregon") was made a Chief Factor and Superintendent of the Columbia District (until 1845).
1818: Anglo-American Convention of 1818. Britain and U.S. agree to join occupation and settlement of the Oregon Country.
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