Millicoma River, Coos County. Millicoma River is the main north branch of Coos River and is sometimes called North Fork Coos River, although the USBGN has adopted the style Millicoma. In 1929 S. B. Cathcart, pioneer surveyor of Coos County, told the compiler that Millicoma was the original Coos Indian name for the stream and not North Fork. The meaning of the word is not known.
Millwood, Douglas County. Will G. Steel told the writer that this place was named by W. B. Clarke, who built a sawmill nearby. Millwood is west of Sutherlin.
Milo, Douglas County. Milo was established as a post office in 1923, with Cora E. Buker first postmaster. Amos O. Buker, the husband of the postmaster, was born in Milo, Maine, and suggested the name. Milo post office is at the site of a former post office called Perdue. The Perdue office was closed in 1920, because no one could be found to accept the position of postmaster after Amos O. Buker had been removed from office for acting as a census enumerator when he was postmaster at Perdue, contrary to the rules of the postal authorities. Milo, Maine, was named for the island of Milo, in the Grecian archipelago.
Milton, Umatilla County. This place is said to have been called Freeport originally. The compiler has been told that the name was changed to Milton about 1873, but an article in the Oregon Journal, August 3, 1926, page 8, implies that the name Milton was selected shortly after 1868 by William S. Frazier, a pioneer resident, because a mill was projected for the community. The form Milltown was rejected, according to the article mentioned. The discrepancy in dates may not be important, as it may have taken some time for the new name to come into use. The article says that the first postmaster was Isom Quinn, but this does not agree with postal authorities, who inform the compiler that the post office at Milton was established February 3, 1873, with Wm. A. Cowl postmaster. The compiler can find no confirmation for the statement that the place was named for the great poet, John Milton.
Milton Creek, Columbia County. The town of Milton in Columbia County was one of the early rivals of Portland. It was laid out as a town in 1851 and was founded by Captain Nathaniel Crosby and Thomas H. Smith. It was once swept away by a flood. Crosby and Smith ran advertisements in the Oregonian in 1851 offering to give two lots to each married man and one lot to each single man who would make his home there and build a house. A district school advertisement for the town is in the Oregonian September 13, 1851. About 1890 efforts were made to secure a post office, and it was necessary to change the name of the community because there was already a post office named Milton in Umatilla County. Milton in Columbia County was accordingly renamed Houlton. See under that heading. Houlton post office was near Saint Helens railway station. The name of Milton is still attached to a creek that flows near the post office and railway station. The name Milton was adopted for the town because of the location nearby of a pioneer sawmill. The original townsite of Milton was near the mouth of Milton Creek, and not where Houlton was situated.
Milwaukie, Clackamas County. Lot Whitcomb founded Milwaukie in 1847, as a rival to Oregon City. It was named probably for the Wisconsin city, the spelling of which, in its early days, was varied. Milwaukie had a population of 500 in 1850 (Bancroft's History of Oregon, volume II, page 251). For narrative of pioneer episodes, see the Oregonian,
