Page:Oregon Geographic Names, third edition.djvu/514

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chart of the Pacific Coast, issued by the Coast Survey in 1851, shows the name Ewing Harbor attached to what is now called Port Orford. He apparently named the harbor for his ship, the Ewing, which was used in the survey in 1850. The name Ewing did not prevail, and the place has been known since the early '50s as Port Orford because of its proximity to the cape named by Vancouver. Tebenkoff's chart shows the name Indian Bay. George, third Earl of Orford (1730-1791) was the grandson of Sir Robert Walpole, first Earl of Orford and was the nephew of the fourth Earl of Orford, the famous Horace Walpole. Port Orford has given its name to a valuable lumber, Port Orford cedar, botanically known as Lawson cypress, Chamaecyparis lawsoniana. It is considered one of the most beautiful cedars in cultivation. Port Orford post office was established March 27, 1855, with Reginald H. Smith first postmaster.

PORTERVILLE, Lake County. Porterville was a homesteaderspost office situated a few miles southwest of Silver Lake town, in the north part of section 7, township 29 south, range 13 east. This is on the Buck Creek drainage. The post office was established February 3, 1898, with James C. Porter first and only postmaster, and was discontinued June 15, 1899, with papers to Silver Lake. The office was named for the Porter family, several members of which had homesteads in the vicinity.

PORTLAND, Multnomah County. Portland was named for Portland, Maine, in 1845, by Francis W. Pettygrove. Whether the name should be Portland or Boston was decided by Pettygrove and A. L. Lovejoy by the toss of a copper coin. Pettygrove was born at Calais, Maine, in 1812, and came to Oregon by sea in 1843 with a stock of merchandise. He built a warehouse at Champoeg, had a store in a log house at the southwest corner of Front and Washington streets, Portland, and a store called the Red House in Oregon City. There is uncertainty about the exact date that Portland was established. William Johnson and his Indian wife had a cabin as early as 1842 near what is now Southwest Macadam Avenue and Curry Street, but Johnson apparently had no notion of starting a town and his house was some distance south of the locality that became Portland in 1845. Etienne Lucier may have settled in what was later East Portland as early as 1829, but this was not in the original Portland townsite. A. L. Lovejoy and William Overton landed at the site of Portland in November, 1843, on the way from Fort Vancouver to Oregon City. That winter they returned and took a land claim of 640 acres. Lovejoy was the first proprietor, and Overton, his hired man. Overton took a share of land for his services, and in 1844 sold it to Pettygrove for fifty dollars. The subsequent history of Overton is unknown. In the winter of 1814, the first building was erected at the foot of Washington Street. In 1845, Lovejoy and Pettvgrove laid off sixteen blocks of the townsite and named the place Portland by the process mentioned above. Captain John Couch of Newburyport, Massachusetts, had been in the Columbia River trade and soon recognized the strategic importance of the locality of Portland. He made settlement in the place in 184546, and became an important addition to the community. In the fall of 1845, Lovejoy sold his interest to Benjamin Stark and moved to Oregon City. Daniel H. Lownsdale located on what later was called the King claim, and built a tannery. In September, 1848, Lownsdale bought out Pettygrove, then in sole possession of the 640 acres, for $5000 in tanned