Page:Oregon Geographic Names, third edition.djvu/417

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
OREGON GEOGRAPHIC NAMES
397

the late '60s and had a house on a small bench above the bay. He used to haul freight to the Siletz Agency.

McMahan Branch, Polk County. This stream rises on the west slopes of the Eola Hills and flows into Mud Slough, a tributary of Rickreall Creek. It was named for Richard McMahan, who was born in Kentucky in 1812, and who settled on a donation land claim nearby in March, 1851.

McMinnville, Yamhill County. McMinnville was named by William T. Newby, who was born in McMinnville, Warren County, Tennessee, in 1820, and came to Oregon in 1843. He settled near the present site of McMinnville early in 1844, and in 1853 built a grist mill and founded the town. In 1854 he started a store. He was county assessor in 1848 and state senator in 1870. McMinville postoffice was established on May 29, 1855, with Elbridge G. Edson postmaster. The name was later changed to the present spelling. McMinnville is on the land claim of Thomas Owens.

McMullin Creek, Josephine County. This is a tributary of Deer Creek near Selma. It bears the name of William McMullin, a pioneer of the Illinois Valley. See Walling's History of Southern Oregon, page 452.

McNab, Morrow County. This station west of lone was named for Wesley T. McNab, who came to Pendleton from Iowa, and subsequently settled in Morrow County. He was a stockman and later a grain buyer. McNary, Polk County. McNary is a station on the Southern Pacific railroad about one and one-half miles west of Eola. It was named for the McNary family, pioneer settlers in Polk County.

McNulty Creek, Columbia County. This stream and a railroad station were named for John McNulty, a pioneer of Oregon, who took up a claim not far from the present site of Saint Helens.

McTimmonds Valley, Polk County. This valley, about three miles west of Lewisville and draining into Luckiamute River, was named for Lambert McTimmonds, who received a patent for land in the vicinity in 1875.

Meacham, Umatilla County. Meacham is a station on the Union Pacific Railroad near the summit of the Blue Mountains. It is where H. A. G. Lee established Lees Encampment in the '40s. Meacham was named for Harvey J. and Alfred B. Meacham, brothers, who operated Meacham Station in the '60s and early '70s. See interview with Mrs. Nellie Frances Meacham Reddington, editorial page of the Oregon Journal, November 9, 1935. She was the daughter of A. B. Meacham. Harvey J. Meacham, already in Oregon, urged his brother to come here from California, which he did in February-March, 1863, and the two started a small stage station at Lees Encampment. A larger station was built in the spring of 1865 and called Meacham Station. Harvey Meacham was killed at the station May 29, 1872, when a tree fell on him. Alfred B. Meacham was born in Orange County, Indiana, April 29, 1826. He joined the gold rush to California in 1850, and came to Oregon in 1863. On May 1, 1869, he was appointed Superintendent of Indian Affairs by President U. S. Grant. For his activities in trying to bring about peace with the Modocs, see his book, Wigwam and War-path, and also The Indian History of the Modoc War, by Jeff C. Riddle. In the Modoc Lava Beds attack on April 11, 1873, General E. R. S. Canby and the Reverend Eleazar Thomas, D. D., were killed, and Meacham was bad-