Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/734

This page needs to be proofread.

giving an area of about 2,000 square miles, of which 256,000 acres are im proved. The valuation of farms and buildings for 1879 was over seven millions, of live-stock nearly a million, and of farm products almost a million and a half. The total valuation of assessable property reached to considerably over four million dollars. The population is between twelve and thirteen thou sand. This county has three natural divisions, the first lying between the north and south Santiam rivers; the second between Santiam River and Cala- pooya creek, and the third between Calapooya creek and the south boundary line, each of which has a business centre of its own. Albany, the county seat, founded in 1848 by Walter and Thomas Monti eth, named after Albany, N. Y., by request of James P. Millar, and incorporated in 1864, is the prin cipal town in the county, and the centre of trade for the country between the Santiam and Calapooya rivers. It has a fine water-power, and several manu factories, and is the seat of the presbyterian college. The population is 2,000. Brownsville, incorporated in 1874, Lebanon, and Waterloo, each with a few hundred inhabitants, are thriving towns in this section. Scio, in the forks of the Santiam, incorporated in 1866, is the commercial centre of this district, with a population of about 500. Harrisburg, situated on the Willamette River and the Oregon and California railroad, is the shipping point for a rich agri cultural region. It was incorporated in 1866. The present population is 500. Halsey, named after an officer of the railroad company, was founded about 1872, and incorporated in 1876. The lesser towns in this county are Pine, Shedd, Sodaville, Tangent, Oakville, Fox Valley, Jordan, Mabel, Miller, Mount Pleasant, and Crawford sville.

Marion county, one of the original four districts of 1843, called Champoeg, had its name changed to Marion by an act of the legislature of September 3, 1849, in honor of General Francis Marion. Champoeg, or Champooick, dis trict comprised all the Oregon territory on the east side of the Willamette, north of a line drawn due east from the mouth of Pudding or Anchiyoke River to the Rocky Mountains. Or. Archives, 26. Its southern limit was fixed when Linn county was created, and the eastern boundary when the county of \Vasco was established in 1854. Its northern line was readjusted in Jan uary 1856, according to the natural boundary of Pudding River and Butte Creek, which adjustment gives it an irregular wedge shape. It contains about 1,200 square miles, of which 200,000 acres are under improvement. Its farms and buildings are valued at nearly eight million dollars, its live-stock eight hundred thousand, and its annual farm products at more than a million and a half. The assessed valuation of real and personal property is four million dollars, of all taxable property over six millions. The population is between fourteen and fifteen thousand. Salem, the county seat and the capital of the state, was founded in 1841 by the Methodist Mission, and its history has been given at length. It was named by David Leslie, after Salem, Mass., in prefer ence to Chemeketa, the native name, which should have been retained. It was incorporated January 29, 1858, and has a population of about 5,000. The Willamette university, the state-house, county court-house, penitentiary, churches, and other public and private buildings, situated within large squares bordered by avenues of unusual width and surrounded by trees, make an im pression upon the observer favorable to the founders, who builded better than they knew. Salem has also a fine water-power, and mills and factories, and is in every sense the second city in the state. Gervais, named after Joseph Gervais of French Prairie, incorporated in 1874, is a modern town built up by the railroad. Butteville, which takes its name from a round mountain in the vicinity butte, the French term for isolated elevations, has been adopted into the nomenclature of Oregon, where it appears in Spencer butte, Beaty butte, Pueblo butte, etc. is an old French town on the Willamette at the north end of French prairie, but not so old as Champoeg in its vicinity. They both date back to the first settlement of the Willamette Valley, and neither have more than from four to six hundred in their precincts. Jeffer son, the seat of Jefferson Institute, was founded early in the history of the county, although not incorporated until 1870. It is situated on the north \n