Iron, Wood & Water - An Illustrated History of Lake Oswego

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Ann Fulton, Author 

Susanna Kuo, Photography Editor 

Published for the Oswego Heritage Council 

Historical Publishing Network 

A division of Lammert Publications, Inc. 

San Antonio, Texas

❖ 

Previous page: This dramatic night 

scene of ironworkers in the casting 

house shows that once “blown in,” the 

furnace operated night and day. The 

molten iron was drawn twice a day, at 

five in the morning and at five in the 

afternoon. The stream of incandescent 

metal ran down a central channel 

called a “sow.” Smaller channels in a 

bed of raked sand were fed from the 

sow, hence the name “pig iron.” 

ILLUSTRATION FROM THE WEST SHORE, 

NOVEMBER 2, 1889, P. 240-241. COURTESY OF THE 

LAKE OSWEGO PUBLIC LIBRARY. 

First Edition 

Copyright © 2002 Historical Publishing Network 

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including 

photocopying, without permission in writing from the publisher. All inquiries should be addressed to Historical Publishing 

Network, 8491 Leslie Road, San Antonio, Texas, 78254. Phone (210) 688-9006. 

ISBN: 1-893619-26-5 

Library of Congress Card Catalog Number: 2002103759 

Iron, Wood & Water: An Illustrated History of Lake Oswego 

author: Ann Fulton 

photography editor: Susanna Kuo 

editorial committee: George Bergeron 

C. Herald Campbell 

Malcolm Mathes 

cover design and colored maps: Corinna Campbell-Sack 

contributing writer for 

“Sharing the Heritage”: Eric Dabney 

Facing page: Sucker Lake was 

renamed Oswego Lake in 1913. Over 

the next fifteen years, the lake was 

enlarged and its image as a water 

wonderland close to Portland was 

carefully crafted. 

COURTESY OF THE OSWEGO HERITAGE COUNCIL. 

Historical Publishing Network 

president: Ron Lammert 

vice president: Barry Black 

project manager: Malcolm Mathes 

director of operations: Charles A. Newton, III 

administration: Angela Lake 

Donna M. Mata 

book sales: Dee Steidle 

graphic production: Colin Hart 

John Barr 

PRINTED IN SINGAPORE 

2 ✦ IRON, WOOD & WATER

CONTENTS 

FOREWORD 4 

PREFACE 5 

I Waluga Legends 6 

II Sucker Creek Sawmill 14 

III Pittsburgh of the West 24 

IV Making a New City 46 

V Redesigning Sucker Lake 68 

VI Lake Oswego, Suburban Paradise 92 

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 113 

SHARING THE HERITAGE 114 

INDEX 166 

SPONSORS 168 

Contents ✦ 3

FOREWORD 

Eventually we all realize the need not only for personal roots, but also for a sense of community—a 

sense of place. Some sociologists observe that a lack of community is perhaps one of the most 

serious voids in our modern society—a feeling of disconnection for many. 

Recently my wife, Antoinette, and I were returning from Portland to our adopted community of 

Mary’s Woods in Lake Oswego, and noted the wonderful hanging baskets of flowers on State Street. 

They not only were beautiful, but said to us that Lake Oswego is truly a caring community. We are 

fortunate that our neighbors have created such civic assets as fine schools for our children, churches, 

parks, shops and cultural institutions such as the Oswego Heritage House. 

Now Oswego Heritage Council is adding an exciting new book to our recorded history whose 

foundation was laid by the oral history In Their Own Words (1976), Mary Goodall’s Oregon’s Iron 

Dream (1958), and Lucia Bliss’ The Foundation (1944). Ann Fulton, the author, and Susanna 

Campbell Kuo, photo editor, have given us a great gift in Iron, Wood & Water: An Illustrated 

History of Lake Oswego. This new book is more than facts and figures; it is a superb story of our 

ancestors, beginning with the Native Americans of this vicinity and the early settlers who created a 

special mosaic of people and enterprise in Oswego. We shall become better citizens and more aware 

of our heritage as a unique community through this new work. 

Having known only one grandfather, who died when I was in high school, I regret not having 

asked him more about his life—his experiences in crossing the Plains and reaching California during 

the Gold Rush and then moving to the Roseburg area of southern Oregon. Once generations pass on, 

their stories are lost unless we have recorded them in some way. In the words of Pulitzer Prize-winning 

historian, David McCullough: “History is an extension of life. It both enlarges and intensifies the 

experience of being alive. It’s like poetry and art. Or music. And it’s ours, to enjoy.” 

Iron, Wood & Water presents significant events in the lives of our ancestors that help us to reflect 

on how far we have come and how far we can go to improve our community. It gives us both rewards 

and tools for rediscovering our roots, our place, and perhaps even a better sense of self. As the poet 

William Butler Yeats wrote: “The end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know 

the place for the first time.” 

Mark O. Hatfield 

Lake Oswego 

Mark O. Hatfield served as governor of Oregon from 1959 to 1967 and as U. S. senator from 1967 to 1997. 


PREFACE 

Lake Oswego has a hidden past. Much of its history as a sawmill site, an iron town, and a 

backwoods lake resort is invisible. The purpose of Iron, Wood & Water: An Illustrated History of 

Lake Oswego is to make that history visible through images and to explain with words the historical 

forces that turned Lake Oswego into a successful suburban city. Enticement is another reason for 

writing the book. Those who study Lake Oswego’s history are eager to attract others to this 

pleasurable pursuit. 

Iron, Wood & Water begins with Native Americans and concludes in 1960 when success as a 

town transformed the community into the new city of Lake Oswego. Each chapter in Iron, Wood & 

Water focuses on a key stage in Lake Oswego’s development. “Waluga Legends” documents Native 

Americans’ use of the land and the legends they left behind. “Sucker Creek Sawmill” covers the era 

of pioneer settlement. “Pittsburgh of the West” tells of industrial entrepreneurs’ dreams to turn the 

town into a great manufacturing center. “Making a New City” documents residents’ efforts to pick up 

the pieces of their town and to build an incorporated city. “Redesigning Sucker Lake” discusses the 

industrialists’ decision to sell the land as prime residential property. “Lake Oswego, Suburban 

Paradise” explains why Oswego became one of Oregon’s most desirable suburbs. 

The importance of iron, wood, and water in shaping Lake Oswego’s history is the book’s thematic 

thread. Water attracted Native American bands. Water and wood drew the town’s founder to the site. 

Discovery of iron ore brought the industrialists, and the lake later encouraged them to redesign their 

property. Iron, Wood & Water emphasizes the importance of these assets of the land in determining 

the stages in Lake Oswego’s development. A complex mix of social, political, and economic forces 

also were at work. Within that mix, the possibility of making a profit played a significant role. 

Many agencies, organizations, and individuals provided historical information and images. Above 

all, the author and photo editor would like to thank those who supported Iron, Wood & Water by 

writing profiles of individuals, families, businesses, and organizations. They also would like to thank 

the board of directors, the editorial board, and Susan Headlee, executive director of the Oswego 

Heritage Council, the Lake Oswego Planning Department, the Lake Oswego Public Library, the 

Multnomah County Public Library, the Oregon City Public Library, the Clackamas County Family 

History Society, the Clackamas County Historical Society, the Oregon Historical Society, the Lake 

Corporation, the Lake Oswego Fire Department, the Lake Oswego Hunt, the Oswego Lake Country 

Club, and the Western Water Ski Museum. 

Iron, Wood & Water is dedicated to William Headlee, who initiated this project, as well as the 

acquisition of the Oswego Heritage House. 

Ann Fulton 

Portland, Oregon 

Preface ✦ 5


I 

WALUGA LEGENDS 

The Indian name for the lake was Waluga: when an Indian said “Wah-loo-ga” he was imitating the 

cry of the swan, and he might be referring to the swans flying overhead or he might be talking about 

the lake where the swans made their nest. 

— Lucia A. Bliss 

The Foundation: Early Oswego History, Oregon, 1944 

LEGENDS & PREHISTORIC PEOPLE 

Oswego pioneers handed down legends about the land and the lake that they loved. One of their 

favorites was the legend of the wild swan, which explained why the Indians called the lake “Waluga.” 

The Indians picked that mellifluous word because it mimicked the sound of wild swans skimming 

over the water. There were other legends about the place where the town of Oswego grew. These 

Waluga legends gave misty glimpses of the prehistoric people that preceded the white settlers. 

Oswego was one of the oldest inhabited areas in the Willamette Valley. Thousands of years later, 

residents found obsidian projectile points and other artifacts in Old Town, the place where pioneers 

first settled. These artifacts marked the presence of prehistoric people as early as sixty-one hundred 

years ago. The native people also left behind petroglyphs that were possibly three thousand years old. 

Those engraved images were once visible on both sides of Willamette Falls six miles upriver from the 

future site of Oswego. Carved on three sides of a basalt boulder, one haunting image of a human face 

etched itself into the memories of river voyagers. 

Early Indians either traveled to or traded with people who collected obsidian east of the Cascades 

at Mount Spodue, Silver Lake, or Sycan Marsh. If the early Indians got their obsidian through trade, 

it was no surprise because Willamette Falls attracted many tribes. This giant cliff under the 

Willamette River created falling water of tremendous force and an ideal fishery for salmon, steelhead 

trout, and eels. 

THE CLOWEWALLAS & THE KALAPUYANS 

With their petroglyphs and millions of artifacts buried in the soil, prehistoric people left fragments 

of their existence everywhere. The written record of the Indian people, created by white observers, 

grew much later. Nineteenth century explorers’ and missionaries’ journals, legends, and pioneer stories 

then opened another window to the lives of the Indian bands near Oswego. 

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark of the Corps of Discovery were the first explorers to write 

down detailed descriptions of the Indians they met along the Willamette in 1806. A custom these 

tribes shared, that members of the Corps marveled over, was head flattening. Missionary Narcissa 

Whitman described the procedure in 1836: 

❖ 

Four Clackama Indians, painting by 

Paul Kane, 1847. All of the tribes that 

inhabited the lower Willamette Valley 

practiced head-binding as a mark of 

beauty and social status. Their 

striking profiles drew the attention of 

Captain William Clark who made 

sketches of the way mothers pressed 

the heads of their infants beneath a 

small board hinged to the top of the 

cradleboard. 

COURTESY OF STARK MUSEUM OF ART, 

ORANGE, TEXAS. 

The child lay upon a board between which and its head was a squirrel skin. On its head was a small 

square cushion over which was a bandage drawn tight around, pressing its head against the board. In this 

position it is kept three or four months or longer until its head becomes a fashionable shape. 

William Clark talked to an old man in “Neerchokioo Village” on April 3, 1806, who told him more 

about the people in the region. The old man described four bands that Clark called the “Clark-a-mus” 

at the Clackamas River, the Cash-hooks and Char-cow-ahs at Willamette Falls, and the Cal-lar-peeway 

near Willamette Falls. The Char-cow-ahs probably were the Clowewallas who lived closest to 

Chapter I ✦ 7

❖ 

Above: Prehistoric projectile points 

have been found in Oswego’s Old 

Town in the area bordered by Oswego 

Creek on the South and Leonard 

Street on the North. Some obsidian 

spear and dart points came from 

Central Oregon and are 6,000 to 

8,000 years old. 

COURTESY OF ROBERT M. BURNETT AND 

ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS 

NORTHWEST, INC. 

Below: Oswego was located in a 

transitional geographic zone between 

the lands of Kalapuyan-speaking 

Tualatins and the lands of 

Chinookan-speaking Clowewallas 

and Clackamas people. 

MAP BY CORINNA CAMPBELL SACK. 

the future location of Oswego. The Cal-lar-peeways 

probably were the Kalapuyans who lived 

in the Tualatin Valley. 

The locations and names of Indian bands 

varied a little from one observer to the next, 

but their general territory in the early 

nineteenth century was clear. The powerful 

Clackamas occupied the Clackamas and 

Sandy River Valleys. Fierce Klickitats from the 

upper Columbia claimed rights and demanded 

tribute at Willamette Falls. The Clowewallas, 

who lived at the future location of Linn City 

(later West Linn), and the Tualatins, a 

Kalapuyan band whose main territory was the 

Tualatin Valley, were closest to the future 

location of Oswego. 

The Clowewallas, like the Clackamas, were 

Chinookan-speaking and the Tualatins were 

Kalapuyan-speaking. These two linguistic 

groups lived in the transitional geographic 

zone where Oswego developed. The future 

location of Oswego also was a short distance 

from the Willamette Falls fishery that attracted 

so many Indians. Highly traveled Indian trading 

routes cut through the region. One traveled 

towards southern trading spots. Another went 

towards Mount Hood and then on to the major 

trade center at Celilo Falls where it connected to 

northern routes. 

South of Oswego at the Clowewalla village, 

the people hunted and gathered according to 

the seasons. Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, who led 

the United States Exploring Expedition’s survey 

of the Willamette Valley in 1841, observed: “The 

mode of life of the Oregon Indians is peculiar, 

they have no fixed habitations, but wander from 

place to place in rotation, according to the 

months of the year with great regularity.” In the 

winter they stayed in cedar-plank long houses 

on the west side of the Willamette. They dug 

wapatos on the lower Willamette and returned 

to their villages for the spring salmon runs. The 

meadow land west of Oswego, where the Kruse 

family began to farm in the mid-nineteenth 

century, provided a place to dig camas bulbs. 

The Indians’ seasonal cycle ended with 

harvesting berries and nuts, hunting, and 

fishing the salmon runs in late summer and fall. 

Shimmering salmon played a central role in 

Clowewalla culture and trade. 

Clowewallas, like other Chinooks, were 

savvy traders. As early as 1814, the Clowewallas 

bartered salmon and the pelts they acquired 

from other bands with traders. Their 

commercial talents greatly impressed George 

Simpson, governor-in-chief of the Hudson’s Bay 

Company, in 1824: “Chinooks never take the 

trouble of hunting and rarely employ their 

Slaves in that way, they are however keen 

traders….” The Clowewallas acquired many 

slaves through war and more through trade. 

Anthropologist Verne Ray wrote in 1938: “There 

is no doubt that the Chinook not only possessed 

more slaves per capita than any surrounding 


people, but that their eminence as traders was 

largely responsible.” 

Chinooks and the Klickitats who had fishing 

rights at Willamette Falls did not want to share 

the Falls’ bounty. Waluga (Oswego Lake) and its 

creek (Oswego Creek) probably had a special 

attraction for the Tualatins because those tribes 

excluded them from the Falls. At Waluga the 

Tualatins could hunt the wild swans whose call 

named the lake. They could fish for the suckers 

that filled the lake and the creek that flowed 

from the lake to the Willamette River. Peter 

Kinai, one of the last Kalapuyan speakers in 

1877, remembered: “At the creek mouth they 

fixed rush baskets, trout baskets. They went for 

small suckers, they caught them by hand.” He 

said the Tualatins “ate salmon, small salmon, dog 

salmon, red salmon, suckers, trout, whale, wild 

geese, swan….” 

Oswego historian Rella McAllister wrote: 

“The fishing and berry picking were good so 

there is no doubt but that the Indians spent 

much time around this lake.” The Oregon Journal 

reported on March 27, 1939: 

Rella McAllister noted that the Indians used 

the lake for transportation: “Legend has it that 

the Indians often made use of this lake during 

❖ 

Above: Joseph Drayton’s 1841 sketch 

of Indians fishing at Willamette Falls. 

Drayton, who accompanied Charles 

Wilkes and the United States 

Exploring Expedition, noted that 

the Indians caught salmon, suckers, 

and lamprey eels by net. 

COURTESY OF OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 

#ORHI 46193. 

Left: Knotted dip nets were made from 

Indian hemp or nettle fiber in a 

variety of shapes and sizes designed 

for specific types of fish and locations. 

Fish traps were made of willow or 

roots in a basketry technique called 

twining. They were used with a weir 

in shallow streams like Oswego Creek. 

ILLUSTRATION BY FAUN RAE HOSEY, P. 19 OF 

OREGON INDIANS: CULTURE, HISTORY & CURRENT 

AFFAIRS—AN ATLAS AND INTRODUCTION. BY JEFF 

ZUCKER, KAY HUMMEL, AND BOB HØGFOSS, 

OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY PRESS, 1987. 

Allen Morris, proprietor of Lake Oswego 

swimming pool, found strong evidence of a large 

Indian campground last week in the lakebed of 

Lake Oswego. The evidence consisted of a large 

number of Indian arrowheads of different shapes 

and sizes and a 10-inch stone pestle…. 

Chapter I ✦ 9

❖ 

Above: Oswego Lake as it once looked 

with thickly wooded shores and snags 

standing in the shallows. 

PHOTO BY WILLIAM BICKNER. COURTESY OF 

LAKE OSWEGO PUBLIC LIBRARY. 

Opposite, top: The Hudson’s Bay 

Company monopolized the fur trade 

and ruled the Willamette Valley from 

1821 to 1846. Water travel was the 

chief means of transportation, as 

illustrated in this engraving of a 

Hudson’s Bay bateau on the Columbia 

River near Beacon Rock. 

SKETCH BY A. BURR FROM THE COLUMBIA: 

AMERICA’S GREAT HIGHWAY (THIRD EDITION), BY 

SAMUEL C. LANCASTER, 1926. 

Opposite, bottom:Willamette Falls 

(shown here in an early photograph) 

and Celilo Falls on the Columbia 

River were major fishing and trading 

centers. Indian bands used these 

natural geographic barriers to exact 

tribute from other tribes and from fur 

traders for the right of portage across 

their lands. 

COURTESY OF THE LAKE OSWEGO 

PUBLIC LIBRARY. 

their travels from north to south as there was 

but a short portage to the Tualatin River.” 

MORE TALES OF THE LAND 

The Tualatins hunted the hills and valleys. 

One story Clackamas County pioneer Harvey G. 

Starkweather passed down described how they 

hunted elk and deer. According to Starkweather, 

the settlers named the tall cliff just north of 

Oswego “Elk Rock” because the Indians 

stampeded their game over it. Antlers on the 

shore below helped to verify the story. Old 

Quinaby and Jo Hutchins, Indians who lived on 

the Grande Ronde Reservation at the turn of the 

nineteenth century, remembered the similar 

method of stampeding Kalapuyans used for their 

Great Fall Hunt. The bands that occupied the 

land that later comprised all of Marion County 

positioned as many as five hundred men in a 

giant circle. They drove the game into the circle’s 

center to kill it. 

Kalapuyan bands intermarried with 

Chinooks. Intermarriages were particularly 

common between headmen’s families because 

elders, who selected the mates, wanted spouses 

of high status. The Waluga legend of Council 

Bluff and Phantom Bluff dramatized these 

marriage customs. According to the pioneers, 

one Indian band camped at Phantom Bluff 

on Waluga’s south side. Another band camped 

at Council Bluff (later called Diamond Head), 

a point of land that jutted from the lake’s 

north shore. 

The headman’s handsome son at Council 

Bluff fell in love with the beautiful daughter of 

the headman at Phantom Bluff. The daughter’s 

father objected and tied up his child. The 

young man paddled across the lake to free her, 

but he drowned after being attacked. When the 

father untied his daughter, she ran to the place 

where her beloved died and drowned herself. 

Perhaps this tale of star-crossed lovers had its 

beginning in a real prenuptial disagreement 

between Tualatins camped in their territory on 

the north side of the lake and Clowewallas, 

whose village was on the south side. This 

Waluga legend described the possibility of 

conflict over intermarriage, elders’ authority, 

and the young peoples’ desire to chart their 

own course. 

Council Bluff took its name from another 

Waluga legend. The pioneers said Indians from 

the upper and lower Willamette River held 

councils, traded, and gambled there. To get to 

Council Bluff some bands followed a trail that 

started from a point near Elk Rock and traveled 

west of the Willamette. This path connected to 


the main trail that led into the western valleys. 

William Cook, who grew up on a farm south of 

Oswego in the early part of the twentieth 

century, remembered an oval shape worn 

into the soil on Council Bluff. Cook thought it 

might have been the Indians’ racetrack, but 

maybe it was a field for shinny, a form of hockey. 

Peter Kinai remembered how much Tualatin 

men liked shinny and how dangerous it was 

for a player: “He might be struck (by the 

wooden shinny ball) on the head (or) face, he 

would be split open on his chest… And too 

some men (got angry and) hit each other, they 

fought. It was bad (dangerous) to roll (to play) 

shinny ball.” 

FUR TRADE FEVER 

The fever of the fur trade in the early 

nineteenth century rapidly changed the cultures 

of the Indian bands near Oswego. The fur 

trade altered Indian alliances, modernized 

their hunting and trading, and brought more 

violence and disease. The high profits at 

stake and disregard for the Indians’ territory 

produced conflict. Indian bands used natural 

geographic barriers to exact tribute for the right 

of entering their territory. Battles erupted often 

at river falls and rapids that required portage. 

Violence flared at Willamette Falls in 1816 

when Indians, perhaps the fearsome Klickitats, 

demanded tribute from a North West Company 

fur brigade. 

The fur trade spread diseases ranging from 

small pox to alcoholism. Particularly deadly in 

the Willamette Valley, the Cold Sick was 

influenza or measles that killed with a 

vengeance between 1829 and 1833. Oswego 

resident Mrs. C. W. Nash remembered that her 

grandmother believed that the Cold Sick was 

measles. She thought that the Indians’ cure was 

worse than the disease because they jumped 

into the chilly Willamette after using the 

sweathouses that lined its banks. Perhaps as 

many as ninety percent of the Clowewallas and 

Tualatins died from the Cold Sick. While bones 

bleached on the shores, bands torched their 

villages to prevent more destruction. 

Alcoholism spread too. Rum or “lum” in 

Chinook Jargon, the language of trade, was a 

medium of exchange that flowed cunningly 

through the fur economy. Too many Indians 

were drunk or “partlelum” too often. Peter Kinai 

said in 1877: “The Tualatins drank water (and 

did not drink alcoholic drinks),” but Indian 

alcoholism rose with the trade. Yankee 

schoolmaster Hall J. Kelley, an ardent promoter 

of pioneer settlement, blamed the British traders 

for handing out “rum by the bucket.” American 

traders probably were guiltier. 

Chapter I ✦ 11

❖ 

In 1828 the Hudson’s Bay Company 

directed Chief Factor John 

McLoughlin to build a sawmill and 

establish a settlement at the falls on 

the Willamette. The Indian plank 

house, canoes, and racks of drying 

fish in the foreground show how 

quickly the new settlers dispossessed 

the Indians of their traditional fishing 

site. This sketch of Willamette Falls 

was made by E. De Girardin in 1857. 

COURTESY OF CLACKAMAS COUNTY 

HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

HUDSON’ S BAY COMPANY 

The Hudson’s Bay Company monopolized 

the fur trade and ruled the Willamette 

Valley with a gloved fist from 1821 until 

1846. The company’s California Brigade 

and Indian bands hunted and trapped in the 

valley and established a large trading post 

at Champoeg. 

They brought their pelts up the Willamette 

and then on to Fort Vancouver, where the 

Willamette met the Columbia River. Fort 

Vancouver was the giant emporium for the 

Hudson’s Bay Company’s highly profitable 

Columbia District, supervised by Chief Factor 

John McLoughlin. Ocean-going ships laden 

with furs left the fort headed for Astoria and 

then on to international ports. 

Elizabeth (Bessie) Evans Pettinger, whose 

family came to Oswego in 1892, remembered 

old settlers telling her that Oswego was “a 

stopping place; sort of a relay station for boats, 

both large and small, plying up and down the 

river between Astoria and Champoeg in the 

earlier pioneer days—going as far back as 

Hudson Bay days.” 

To diversify its interests, in 1828 the 

Hudson’s Bay Company ordered McLoughlin to 

build a sawmill at “the falls of the Wilhamet 

(Willamette) where the same Establishment 

of people can attend to the Mill, watch the Fur 

and Salmon Trade, and take care of a stock of 

cattle.” Company directors were the first of 

many people to be attracted to the Falls because 

of the water power it offered. McLoughlin 

established a land claim for the company in 

1829 and built a millrace and several log 

houses. McLoughlin assumed the claim when 

the Hudson’s Bay Company decided not to 

develop south of the Columbia River. 

McLoughlin named the place Oregon City and 

platted the townsite in 1842. 

The Hudson’s Bay Company’s early 

development of Oregon City shaped the entire 

area around Willamette Falls, including 

Oswego. It encouraged settlers to capitalize on 

the expansion of population and businesses 

there by platting townsites, starting commercial 

ventures, and establishing farms on both sides 

of the river. When the 1846 treaty set the 

boundary between the United States and Great 

Britain at the forty-ninth parallel, the Hudson’s 

Bay Company left the shores of the Willamette 

River in the willing and eager hands of 

missionaries and pioneers. 

MISSIONARY 

ZEAL 

The early nineteenth century missionary 

movement played as important a role as the 

Hudson’s Bay Company in developing the 

region. The Falls was one place where 

Protestants and Catholics waged their hardfought 

competition for Indian souls. Sent by 

the American Board of Commissioners for 

Foreign Missions, Reverend Samuel Parker 

visited the Clowewallas in 1835. After the 

Clowewalla headman Wanaxka invited Parker to 

spend the night, Parker wrote about the 

Clowewallas’ village close to Oswego. He 

described Wanaxka’s longhouse as “a long, 

permanent building on the west side of the 

river.” Parker added that “Besides the family of 

the chief, there were two other families in 

the same building, in sections of about twenty 

feet, separated from each other by mats hung up 

for partitions.” 


The attraction of the land around Willamette 

Falls extended to Catholic missionaries. Fathers 

Francis Blanchet and Modeste Demers came to 

Oregon in 1838. Called the “Black Robes” by the 

Indians, the Catholic missionaries established 

St. Francis Xavier Mission in the Cowlitz Valley 

and St. Paul’s Church of the Willamette. In 1841 

Father Demers converted an entire Indian 

village near Willamette Falls. 

After a decade of effort, missionaries faced 

the fact that the Willamette Valley was not a 

prime location for gathering souls. The 1829- 

1833 epidemic killed so many Indians that few 

remained and most of those who did were 

happily unchristian. Both Protestants and 

Catholics enticed potential converts with gifts, 

but Joseph Gaston, a land and railroad 

developer who also wrote a history of early 

Oregon, judged that the Indians “would not be 

converted, or if converted, stay so.” 

A NEW FLOCK FOR 

MISSIONARIES 

Although they did not forget the Indians, the 

missionaries shifted their energies to settlers 

when they began to arrive in the 1840s. The 

United States government’s establishment of 

Oregon Territory in 1843 fueled this shift by 

encouraging settlement. The government 

promised pioneers protection against territorial 

wars with the Indians and legal land claims. 

The early nineteenth century missionary 

movement’s greatest impact on the place where 

Oswego grew was to promote settlement and 

economic development. After establishing 

Willamette Falls Mission in 1840, Methodist 

missionaries eagerly sought pioneers to set 

down roots in the Willamette Valley. Methodists 

publicized the virtues of the land, wrote glowing 

letters home, and organized wagon trains. 

Christianizing and civilizing were interwoven 

activities for the missionaries. Harvey Hines, 

a Methodist missionary and historian of 

early Oregon, reflected that if the missionaries 

“came to convert Indians, they came as 

well to plant the seed of Anglo-Saxon 

civilization in the soil of the decayed and 

decaying paganism.” While they proselytized, 

they established farms and towns, built mills, 

and started businesses. 

The first seeds of civilization that the 

Methodists at Willamette Falls planted were the 

establishment of the Island Milling Company 

and a sawmill in 1842. The missionaries and the 

pioneers wanted to recreate the towns and 

countryside that they left behind. To staunch 

Methodist Albert Alonzo Durham, Oswego’s 

founder, the idea of civilizing a wilderness by 

building a sawmill sounded just right. 

❖ 

An emigrant camp on the Oregon 

Trail. Oregon City was the end of 

the trail and the point from 

which pioneers fanned out to 

stake claims and build a new life in 

the Willamette Valley. 

LITHOGRAPH BY H. WILCOX AND S. SARTAIN. 

COURTESY OF THE OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 

#ORHI 5231. 

Chapter I ✦ 13


II 

SUCKER CREEK SAWMILL 

A half an hour’s puffing brought us within seeing distance of Oswego...The sawmill located here, 

at the mouth of Succor Creek (sic) has done quite a business in furnishing lumber for the California 

market. 

— D. J. Schnebly 

Oregon Spectator, March 13, 1851 

ALBERT & MIRANDA DURHAM 

Albert Durham’s mill on Sucker Creek (now Oswego Creek) was the start of the town of Oswego. 

Albert Alonzo Durham, born on March 15, 1814 in Chenango County, New York, moved with 

his family to Ohio in 1825. He married another New Yorker, Miranda White of St. Lawrence 

County, and they operated mills and farmed in Springfield, Illinois. Like many other enterprising 

people in the 1840s, Durham read with fascination the journals of the western expedition 

of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. Struck by Oregon fever, Durham consulted with his family 

lawyer. Albert Durham’s great-grandson, Walter Durham, Jr., recalled that the lawyer was “a 

wiser and more experienced man.” He told Albert Durham: “If you have a hankering to go West, 

you ought to do it now while you have only one kid and a strong wife.” The family lawyer was 

Abraham Lincoln. 

Methodist missionary and historian Harvey Hines reported that Albert, Miranda, and their young 

son George started their trek west with “three yoke of oxen, a wagon, provisions, and a splendid gun” 

in the spring of 1847. Finding the wagon train delays frustrating, Albert Durham struck out with the 

family wagon, declaring: “I started for Oregon, and I am going. ” Arriving in Oregon City on October 

1, 1847, the Durhams operated a sawmill near that town for several years. 

❖ 

The 1852 General Land Office survey 

of Oswego and the vicinity showed 

early roads, settlements, and 

industries such as Durham’s sawmill 

on Sucker Creek. 


THE DONATION LAND ACT & PUBLIC LAND SURVEY 

In 1850 Congress passed the Donation Land Act allowing single adults to claim 320 acres and 

husbands and wives to claim 640 acres if they arrived before December 1, 1850. To give claims legal 

boundaries, the United States government started the Public Land Survey in Oregon Territory in 

1851. Two chainmen, using a tally system, measured lines with a Gunter’s chain of fifty links and a 

set of eleven chaining pins. After establishing corners, the survey crew monumented them. 

Chainmen recited the calls of topography from memory and a crewmember recorded them. Paid by 

the mile, crews slogged through bogs and scrambled over hills as fast as they could. They completed 

the survey of Township 2 South, Range 1 East, Section 11, where Oswego was located, on June 30, 

1852. Monuments, such as the one marking the quarter corner of the section (near what later 

was the corner of Oswego’s Furnace and Green Streets), remained in the ground for later surveyors 

to use. 

Albert Alonzo Durham established a donation land claim in 1850. Like other pioneers, he picked 

the place best suited to his intentions. Durham’s claim included Sucker Creek so that he could have 

water power for another sawmill. The pioneers named the creek “Sucker” because there were so many 

suckers there that they seined them to use for fertilizer. With a fall of one hundred feet in one-third of 

a mile, Sucker Creek provided the perfect millsite. Durham made sure his claim included access to the 

best means of transportation—the Willamette River. His land ran from the Willamette River to what 

later became the western boundary of the Oswego Lake Country Club golf course and from B Avenue 

south to Maple Street. 

Chapter II ✦ 15

❖ 

Top: Albert Alonzo Durham, Oswego’s 

founder, filed a donation land claim 

in 1850 and built a sawmill on 

Sucker Creek. 

COURTESY OF THE LAKE OSWEGO PUBLIC LIBRARY. 

Above: Miranda White Durham, who 

accompanied her husband and son to 

the Oregon Territory in 1847, was, 

for a time, Oswego’s postmistress. 


TOWN FOUNDERS ON THE 

WILLAMETTE RIVER 

Albert Durham also platted a town in 1850 

and entered it in the early race for dominance 

being fought between Willamette River 

settlements. Durham named his city after 

Oswego, New York. New York pioneers derived 

“Oswego” from the Iroquois phrase “on ti ahan 

toque,” meaning “where the valley widens” or 

“flowing out.” By March 1851 Durham built a 

house on the bluff overlooking the Willamette 

near what later was the corner of Church and 

Furnace Streets. D. J. Schnebly, the editor of the 

territory’s first newspaper, described Durham’s 

house in the Oregon Spectator in 1851 as “the 

most commodious and imposing in appearance 

of any dwelling we have seen in the Territory.” 

From their vantage point, the Durhams had a 

spectacular view of the river traffic. 

When Albert Durham platted Oswego, there 

were already towns on the west bank near 

Willamette Falls. Their proprietors had the same 

vision of winning the struggle to have their 

cities become market centers. Like Durham, 

they located towns on rivers and streams to 

capitalize on transportation and water power. 

Hugh Burns platted Multnomah City 

approximately two miles south of the future 

townsite of Oswego in 1842. Robert Moore, 

who traveled with the first wagon train to 

Oregon in 1840, platted Robin’s Nest south of 

Multnomah City in 1843. Robin’s Nest, later 

called Linn City, became the future site of West 

Linn. Because of its superior wharves, by 1853 

Linn City overpowered Burns’ Multnomah City. 

Besides wanting to harness the teeming water 

power that Willamette Falls offered, Robert 

Moore hoped to mine the iron ore he discovered. 

Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, the leader of the U.S. 

Exploring Expedition, did not believe Moore 

when he talked eagerly about mining in 1841. 

Twenty-five years later Oswego became the 

location of the first West Coast iron smelter that 

Moore could not find the capital to build. 

George Walling and his brother, Albert, along 

with S. M. Holderness and C. W. Savage, platted 

the town of Willamette by 1850. Approximately 

one mile south of Oswego, Willamette was 

Oswego’s closest competitor. Willamette’s 

proprietors founded the town on George and 

Frances Walling’s donation land claim at the 

river’s edge. The Walling clan crossed the Plains 

in 1847. George and his father Gabriel and their 

families settled on the west bank of the 

Willamette in 1849. Willamette did not succeed 

in its bid to be a market center, but its founders 

had high hopes when they advertised in the 

Oregonian on December 4, 1850: 

Willamette 

They flatter themselves that all disinterested 

persons will be struck With its prospects of 

speedily becoming a place of importance. With 

The prospect of having a Plank Road, or a Rail 

Road, to go by horses to the head of the Falls, 

they feel confident that persons wishing to take 

an interest will not be disappointed in its 

ultimate success. 

& 

FARMERS 

SAWMILL OWNERS 

Pioneers who were farmers and mill operators 

rather than town founders also took up claims 

near the future site of Oswego. Felix A. Collard 

and his wife, Damaris Lewis Collard, came over 

the Oregon Trail in 1847 and settled on the south 

side of Sucker Creek. Their grandson Frank 

Collard remembered: “They spent the winter of 

1847-1848 in a log cabin at Oswego.” Jesse and 

Nancy Howard Bullock came to Oregon City in 

1848. After success in the California Gold Rush, 

the Bullocks claimed a 618-acre tract south of the 

Collards’ claim in 1850. Josiah and Sarah 

Franklin staked a flag-shaped claim north of 

where Oswego would grow. 

Socrates Hotchkiss Tryon established another 

sawmill in the area. His son, Socrates Tryon, Jr., 

remembered: “My father, Socrates H. Tryon built 

a sawmill on his donation land claim near 

Oswego in the fall of 1849.” Tryon’s mill was 

approximately one-quarter mile upstream from 

the mouth of Tryon Creek. Socrates Tryon was a 

doctor who came to Oregon in 1849 after 

working in the Sandwich Islands. He left his wife 

and their young son in Iowa. Tryon used the 

water power from his stream (later named Tryon 

Creek) to operate his sawmill. 

William and Mary Jane Whitcomb Torrance 

claimed a 632-acre tract north of Tryon’s property 

across the river from Milwaukie in 1849. 


William Torrance arrived in Oregon City in 

approximately 1847. That year he helped weary 

emigrants at The Dalles who still had to make 

the most difficult journey of the Oregon Trail— 

down the Columbia or over Samuel Barlow’s 

road around Mount Hood. Traveling by bateau 

to The Dalles, Torrance delivered food and 

clothing donated by recent settlers to grateful 

new arrivals. 

William Torrance became a business partner 

of Milwaukie townsite owner Lot Whitcomb. He 

also helped build the Lot Whitcomb, the first 

American-owned steamboat on the lower 

Willamette in 1850. A landing for the steamboat 

was on the Torrances’ claim. Tuality Plains 

farmers did not have to pay to get their grain 

across the river if they took it to Whitcomb’s 

gristmill in Milwaukie. 

The road farmers traveled to get to the 

Torrances’ landing was an Indian trail. The 

territorial legislature appropriated funds in 1855 

to improve the road (later called Military Road) so 

that it could be used to move soldiers through 

Tuality Plains. 

SETTLEMENT 

PATTERNS 

Oswego land claims had a distinctive pattern. 

Nearly all had river frontage because the 

Willamette River provided the best and almost 

only transportation. There were very few wagon 

roads to get their products to market, so it was 

critical for these pioneers to have river access. 

When only a little piece of river frontage was 

available, the settlers snatched it up and 

extended their claims back from the river to 

form flag-shaped parcels. 

In the early 1850s when there was more land 

to choose from, farmers only took up land 

without river access if it were exceptionally 

fertile. The Charles Brown family was the only 

one to establish a donation land claim in the 

northwest corner of the township. The Browns 

picked their location because the land was fertile 

and they wanted to cultivate large fields. Their 

productive land, near what later became Kruse 

Woods, provided good soil to farmers for many 

years. They also chose land on the main market 

road between Tuality Plains and Oregon City and 

on a road that led to Oswego. Until the pioneers 

claimed all of the more desirable acreage, most of 

the land in the western half of Oswego’s township 

remained empty. Settlers took up those heavily 

forested acres with clay soil, available for a dime 

a dozen in Oregon, under later land acts such as 

the Homestead Act of 1862. 

ALBERT 

PLATS 

DURHAM 

OSWEGO 

Albert Alonzo Durham’s venture to found a 

new town started with his success in the gold 

fields. The possibility of getting rich quick made 

Oregon settlers itchy to try their luck. Historian 

of early Oregon Joseph Gaston wrote: “Two 

thirds of the Oregon men started for California. 

Only five men were left in Salem, and only a few 

women, children and some Indians were left at 

Oregon City.” Missionary and historian Harvey 

Hines reported that in the Gold Rush Albert 

Durham “made an average of $300 every day he 

worked and on his best days he took out $800, 

and took out $3,600 in twelve days.” 

❖ 

The 1862 map of donation land 

claims revealed the importance of 

access to the Willamette River for 

transportation. 


Chapter II ✦ 17

❖ 

The Lot Whitcomb was the first 

American-owned steamboat on the 

lower Willamette in 1850. William 

Torrance was an owner of the 

steamboat and a landing on his claim. 


#CN 017878. 

The California Gold Rush produced a boom 

in Oregon’s industrial development. With their 

gold sacks in hand, Albert Durham and other 

entrepreneurial souls came back to build mills, 

businesses, and towns. Oregon Spectator editor 

D. J. Schnebly wrote on October 31, 1850: 

Oswego-the plat of the town bearing this 

name is in my office and may be inspected by 

anyone who may desire to do so. Of its merits 

we are not able to say anything, not having seen 

it. It certainly looks well upon paper. The 

proprietor has enterprise, which if properly 

directed, will produce favorable results. 

Durham’s original plat for Oswego no doubt 

was simple, but its configuration remained a 

mystery. Oswego’s first plat was never filed. 

A RURAL 

MANUFACTURING 

VILLAGE 

Albert Durham knew operating a sawmill 

would be an excellent business venture. Any 

settler could turn logs into cordwood, shakes, or 

fence posts, but few had saws to make lumber 

for buildings. Durham dammed Sucker Creek 

near the foot of the lake, built his mill below the 

dam, and used the lake as a log pond. He 

shipped his lumber from the spot where Sucker 

Creek spilled into the Willamette, which local 

people later called Oswego Landing. Beginning 

in the first issue of the Oregonian published on 

December 4, 1850, and through most of 1851, 

Albert Durham advertised: 

Lumber 

The subscriber is constantly manufacturing 

and offers for sale, at his saw mill at Oswego, 7 

miles above Portland, sawed lumber of all 

descriptions suitable for building purposes, or 

for shipping to the California markets. 

Albert Durham, “Lumber Merchant of 

the Town of Oswego, Washington County, 

Oregon Territory,” bought three sailing ships 

to sell lumber to California and international 

markets. California needed lumber and so 

did the Sandwich Islands (later called the 

Hawaiian Islands). Before the Panama 

Canal’s construction, the islands were a closer 

market for the ocean trade than the eastern 

United States or Europe. Oregon merchants 

carried on a very lively trade with them, 

exporting lumber, wheat, and salmon, and 

importing sugar. 

Durham’s sawmill ushered Oswego into the 

pastoral phase of the Industrial Revolution. 

Water-powered manufacturing took place in the 

countryside. New England manufacturing 

villages passed through this stage thirty years 

earlier, but Oswego entered it in 1850. No gritty 

stacks yet sent smoke into the sky and no 

railroads rushed the lumber to market. 


Although rural manufacturing communities 

like Oswego were almost self-sufficient in 

supplying their daily needs, some of the products 

they made intimately tied them to faraway 

markets. The strength of the Sandwich Islands 

market for lumber powerfully affected the fate of 

little Oswego on the shores of the Willamette 

River in Oregon Territory. 

Oswego’s first industry was extremely profitable 

during the brief burst of prosperity that the Gold 

Rush, the flood of early settlers, and a strong 

Sandwich Islands lumber market brought Oregon. 

Harvey Hines wrote in 1893 that Durham’s mill 

was “a very large business” and Albert Durham was 

“one of the leading and most enterprising men on 

the river.” Durham’s mill made as much as $5,000 

a month during this short period between 1850 

and 1853. Durham used his profits to buy ships to 

expand his business. 

George Walling and others who settled close to 

Oswego capitalized on the boom too. Learning 

that an apple sold for a dollar in San Francisco, in 

1850 Walling followed in the footsteps of 

Henderson Luelling, Oregon’s first nurseryman. 

Joseph Gaston wrote that Walling “was one of the 

pioneer nurserymen of the northwest; in fact, was 

the second man in this part of the country to 

conduct business along that line.” 

OSWEGO PIONEERS 

ESTABLISH THE TERRITORY 

Some of the settlers who were successful in 

trade or agriculture played key roles in making 

Oregon a territory in 1848. Felix Collard, Gabriel 

Walling, and Albert Durham served as 

representatives in the territorial legislature. 

Durham and Walling were Washington County 

representatives because they served before 1855 

when Oswego became part of Clackamas County. 

❖ 

Water-powered sawmills, like this mill 

on Eagle Creek, were common in 

early Oregon. At Oswego, a flume 

carried water from the lake to 

Durham’s sawmill on Sucker Creek. 

PHOTO BY C. E. WATKINS. COURTESY OF THE 

OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY, ORHI #21118. 

Chapter II ✦ 19

Their most important responsibilities were 

to enact a code of laws, to secure the election 

of a constitutional convention, and to frame a 

state constitution. 

Oswego settlers wanted territorial status 

because it would give their claims legal status and 

bring government aid. Military protection was 

foremost on pioneers’ minds, but they also wanted 

other services, including mail delivery. Because 

Linn City was the largest town in the area on the 

west side of the Willamette, Oswego residents first 

received mail there. The postmaster general 

established a post office in Oswego on December 

31, 1853, with Wesley C. Hull as postmaster. 

Oswego, on the Oregon City-Astoria route, had 

mail service twice a month. When Wesley Hull 

filled out the application for a post office he noted 

that it would be on the river (probably at Hull’s 

or the Durhams’ house). Felix Collard served 

as postmaster in 1855 and Albert Durham served 

in 1857. 

EARLY EDUCATION & 

RELIGION 

Oswego pioneers wanted schools and 

churches. According to an 1855 deed, settlers 

built the first school located near the corner of 

Ladd and Furnace Streets in the early 1850s. 

Postmaster Wesley C. Hull reported that 

Oswego only had twenty-five residents in 1853, 

so there were few pupils. Funds were scarce and 

the school term lasted only three months. 

The Methodists held Oswego’s first church 

services in members’ homes. The surveyor for 

the Public Land Survey in 1852 wrote in the field 

notes that there was “a newly built Methodist 

Church” near what later became the southwest 

corner of Ladd and Furnace Streets. Residents 

formally organized the Oswego Methodist 

Church in 1854. According to Oswego historian 

Lucia Bliss, the Methodists conducted a Sunday 

School on the bluff under the Peg Tree in 1852. 

The Peg Tree was a big fir with a peg from which 

settlers hung lanterns to light town meetings. 

The Peg Tree was on the north side of Leonard 

Street between what later became Durham Place 

and Furnace Street. 

After the Methodist Church organized its 

Oregon Annual Conference in 1853, 

missionaries Gustavus and Harvey Hines came 

west to expand the church’s activities. The 

Bryant family, who established a donation claim 

south of Sucker Lake, were part of the 

Methodist missionary wagon train led by the 

Hines. Because several Methodist families, 

including the Bryants, Durhams, Collards, and 

Wallings, took up claims near Oswego, the town 

became a preaching point on circuit rider 

George M. Berry’s route. Berry sometimes got a 

free ride to Oswego on the steamer Lot 

Whitcomb, but he found it difficult to make a 

living. An outspoken man, Berry was not afraid 

to grumble in a letter reprinted in the Oregon 

Spectator in 1853: “the inhabitants of 

California…pay their preachers well. Not so in 

Oregon. May the Lord help us.” 

A FRONTIER SOCIETY 

Oswego was part of the rough and ready 

frontier environment of Oregon Territory in the 

1850s. Families crowded into tiny cabins until 

they could afford to build wood-frame houses. 

They ate quantities of venison, salmon, and boiled 

wheat because there was little else. The scarcity of 

adult white women and the Donation Land Act 

that doubled claim sizes for married couples 

encouraged men to marry twelve- and thirteenyear-old 

girls. 

Husbands and wives found their lives full of 

backbreaking work on the frontier. When Socrates 

Tryon died in 1855, Frances Tryon ran the farm. 

Her son recalled: “My mother was a Scotchwoman 

and was one of the hardest workers I ever 

saw. She took a man’s place on the farm, and in 

addition to that she did the washing for the 

girls’ school at Milwaukie…so my sister could go 

to school.” 

Like any other frontier community, Oswego was 

the temporary residence of single young men. They 

moved from job to job, doing dangerous work in 

the woods, mills, and on the river. Albert Durham 

hired Samuel Gay, one of these frontier foot 

soldiers, to log his trees. Oregon Spectator Editor 

D. J. Schnebly reported Samuel Gay’s sad fate in “A 

Melancholy Accident” in 1851. A falling tree killed 

the young Irishman who lived with the Durhams. 

Schnebly hastened to note that Gay “was taken to 

the house of Mr. Durham-medical aid provided- his 

wounds dressed and had every attention paid 

him…. He is represented to have been a man of 


good morals and habits; and his prospects bid fair 

for prosperity.” 

The threat of danger came not only from 

frontier work. Another source was conflict 

between Indians and settlers. After the Whitman 

Massacre in 1847, Indian wars ignited the 

territory. For Oswego pioneers, the killings at 

the Whitman Mission brought the possibility of 

fierce violence close to home. Besides fearing 

tribes’ rampaging through the Willamette Valley, 

some pioneers demanded retribution for the 

Walla Walla deaths. They eagerly joined the 

Oregon Riflemen, a volunteer militia organized 

to avenge the massacre. Dr. Henry Saffarans, 

who took up a donation claim four miles 

south of Sucker Lake, served as an assistant 

surgeon to the Oregon Riflemen. Oswego 

settlers also watched in the Oregon City crowd 

when the hangman tightened the noose on 

the necks of the Cayuse Indians found guilty of 

the massacre. 

Even after the establishment in 1857 of the 

Grande Ronde Reservation near McMinneville, 

Indians remained near Oswego. Many did not 

want to move to a strange place. Celinda Hines 

Shipley remembered that “they were quite angry 

when they took them off to the reservation.…” 

Some Clowewallas stayed at their fishing village 

at Linn City where they had fished for 

generations. Others worked for the settlers. 

Called “Canoe Indians” by whites, Indian men 

often earned their livelihood transporting people 

and goods over the rivers. Expert fishermen, they 

also sold their catch to survive. Indian women 

found work as laundresses and servants. 

Indian labor and products were very cheap. 

James Miller, who settled south of Oswego in the 

1850s, said: “We could buy from the Indians a 

salmon weighing from 20 to 30 pounds for 

almost anything that we had to give in old 

clothing, or, if we had any money, twenty-five 

cents.” When the United States government 

established Grande Ronde Reservation, some 

settlers protested sending Indians to it because 

they would lose their cheap labor. 

OSWEGO DOES NOT GROW 

Oswego did not grow in the early 1850s. The 

only buildings were the Durhams’ large house, 

the church, some small dwellings, the school, 

and the sawmill. Albert Durham found no buyers 

for his town lots. Men such as Samuel Gay came 

to Oswego looking for work, but they did not 

stay. Alvah Davis was another unmarried man 

who came to Oswego in the early 1850s. He 

wrote in his diary that he met a friend named 

“Wilder Harris and went with him to Durham’s 

mill” to try to find a job. Davis’ diary entry on 

January 14, 1853, reflected the economic 

difficulties of the early 1850s. His perspective 

was that of a young man seeking to make 

something of himself: 

I am this day twenty-eight years of age, and I 

am very poor; I am owing $18.28 for board in 

town (Portland). I have some wood near town, 

but it is not marketable as there is so much on 

the ground. Among the most remarkable of my 

acts for the past year is my leaving a good 

situation with G. B. Martin in Lockport, Illinois, 

and coming to the country and spending all of 

my money and six months’ time. 

There were good reasons for Oswego’s lack of 

growth during the hard times of the early 1850s. 

An important one was the conclusion of the 

economic boom that the Gold Rush and the 

Donation Land Act created. That boom spawned 

the founding of hundreds of new towns. When 

it stopped, Oswego looked like it would become 

just one more ghost town that the Gold Rush 

and Donation Land Act left behind. Whatever 

business there was tended to go to Oswego’s 

competitors. Portland and Linn City dominated 

the commercial and industrial life of the 

Willamette’s west side. Oregon City, the oldest 

town in the territory, lorded over the east side. 

The end of the Gold Rush and the slowing in 

settlement shrank the demand for lumber. Albert 

Durham’s loss of his schooners slowed the town’s 

development too. A storm destroyed one 

schooner, a crew stole another, and Durham’s 

beautiful bark Desdemona crashed on the Oregon 

coast. These were harsh blows because 

transportation was the most expensive part of 

Albert Durham’s lumber business. 

Transportation made or broke towns and 

Oswego had less access to transportation than 

the larger towns did. Early resident James Miller 

remembered: “Traveling at that time in the 

Willamette Valley was done either by canoe or 

Chapter II ✦ 21

❖ 

Above: A portrait of Bishop Thomas 

Fielding Scott taken in 1854. Scott, an 

Episcopal missionary, bought the town 

site of Oswego from Albert Durham in 

1855 and founded a boarding school 

for boys. 


#ORHI 83393. 

Below: Bishop Thomas Fielding Scott 

purchased a school building on 

property between Church and 

Furnace Streets in 1855 for an 

Episcopal Boys’ school. The building 

was destroyed by fire in 1901. 


small boat or on the hurricane deck of a cayuse 

pony….” When Alvah Davis took a job near 

Oswego, he reported ruefully in his diary on 

October 16, 1852: “there is no wagon track to 

this place, ten miles below Portland.” 

Until the legislature appropriated funds to 

improve it in 1856, the road to Oswego was 

only a section of the Portland-Linn City road 

widened from an Indian trail in the 1840s. After 

crossing Sucker Creek’s covered bridge and 

going south two miles, the route to Linn City 

turned back into a trail. The road between Elk 

Rock and Oswego was steep and rocky. Because 

river travel was much easier than wagon travel, 

Oregon City took business away from Oswego 

and other west-side towns. Its schools, 

churches, and businesses enticed settlers to 

cross the river by canoe or boats everyday. 

BISHOP THOMAS FIELDING 

SCOTT BUYS OSWEGO 

Albert Durham was ready to sell his townsite 

when Episcopal Missionary Bishop Thomas 

Fielding Scott offered him $4,000 for it in 1855. 

After the Episcopal Church established the 

Oregon and Washington Territories as a 

missionary diocese, it worked hard to create a 

stronger presence in the Northwest. Scott came to 

Oregon in 1854 charged with the responsibility 

of starting a seminary and a boarding school. 

Oswego pioneer and stalwart Episcopalian Josiah 

Dickinson probably nudged the church toward 

selecting Oswego as a school site. Bishop Scott 

thought that Oswego was a good choice because 

it already had a large schoolhouse and the 

beautiful new residence that the Durhams built 

before the economy weakened. 

Oswego was the setting for Bishop Scott’s 

grand vision of providing religious and secular 

education to all who wanted it. He described the 

Diocesan School for Boys, later called Trinity 

School, as “an enterprise of no small moment to 

our progress on this coast” in 1855. Because few 

pastors wanted to come west, Scott knew that 

the church needed a school to train homegrown 

boys to be future ministers. He also thought that 

the sparse population made it difficult for 

children to receive a proper education at home. 

To meet these needs, the church had to supply a 

seminary and a boarding school with trained 

staff. Educated at Trinity College in Dublin, 

Bernard Cornelius was the “scholar of ripe 

attainments” who became the first instructor. 

To offer as many children as possible 

intellectual and moral training, the church 

opened the school to everyone. Students could 

work in the school’s garden to pay their tuition. 

Oswego families, including the Dickinsons, 

McMillans, Trullingers, and Tryons sent a few 

day students to the school. There also were 

seventeen boarders the first year. 

After buying the town of Oswego, Scott 

bought another 446 acres in 1858—almost all 

of Durham’s claim except for the millsite. Scott 

wanted the school to expand. Trinity School’s 

first two years were promising, but enrollment 

dropped after 1860. Joseph Gaston observed 

that the school struggled financially because of 

its “distance from any settled membership of the 

church.” The school closed in 1866 and Oswego 

did not become the center of the Episcopal 

Church’s educational activities. Trinity School 

was the experiment that preceded its Portland 

successor, the Bishop Scott Academy, which 

carried on Thomas Fielding Scott’s vision. 

After Bishop Scott bought Oswego’s schoolhouse 

in 1855, Oswego became part of Concord 

School District #28 between 1856 and 1868. 

This district included settlements on both sides 

of the Willamette. Some Oswego students rowed 

across the river to attend Riverside School. 


Settlers built this log cabin school, later called 

Concord School, on the Orville Risley claim. 

Some pioneers also remembered attending the 

Oswego school near the corner of what later 

became Furnace and Ladd Streets. 

A MODERN 

MANUFACTURING 

TOWN 

After the 1861 flood washed Linn City away, 

Oswego lost its nearest competitor and now had 

more chance to grow. Newspaper stories about the 

iron ore nearby may have attracted Oswego’s next 

town proprietor, but his first enterprise was milling. 

John Corse Trullinger wanted to make 

Oswego a modern manufacturing town. 

Trullinger came to Oregon from Iowa in 1848. 

He was an inventor during America’s age of great 

inventions. Trullinger patented seven machines 

and tools, including a Triple Turbine Water 

Wheel that was more efficient than earlier 

water wheels. Like New England cotton 

manufacturers and others, Trullinger wanted to 

profit from technological change. He hoped to 

buy an old mill and modernize it by installing 

his Triple Turbine Water Wheel. Durham’s mill, 

built in 1850 and outdated by the 1860s, gave 

John Trullinger his perfect opportunity. 

Trullinger’s vision went beyond improving 

Durham’s mill. He wanted to transform Oswego 

from a struggling sawmill village into a thriving 

manufacturing town, invigorated by the latest 

tools of the Industrial Age. Trullinger bought a 

half-interest in Durham’s mill in Oswego in 

1863, and established the Oswego Milling 

Company. With his brother Daniel, a skilled 

millwright and carpenter, Trullinger soon 

bought out Durham’s interest and modernized 

Durham’s mill by 1865. Three stories tall at one 

end and 150 feet long, the mill had two circular 

saws and two water wheels. One was Trullinger’s 

Triple Turbine Water Wheel with its rotary fins 

turned by water. The Oswego Milling 

Company’s main product was sidewalk lumber 

for Portland’s streets. The company also made 

lath and pickets, as well as dressed and tongued 

and grooved lumber. 

The transportation industry was one of the 

surest ways to make a fortune on the Oregon 

frontier. Oswego’s new town proprietor wanted to 

invest in it. Together with the developers of the 

Sucker Lake and Tualatin River Railroad and 

the People’s Transportation Company, John 

Trullinger planned a new transportation route for 

the heavy trade between Portland and the 

Tualatin Valley. The new route would provide an 

alternative to portaging around Willamette Falls. 

It had the potential to monopolize the shipping 

market for Tualatin Valley wheat and it would 

provide the Trullingers with a cheaper way of 

getting logs to the Oswego Milling Company. 

The Sucker Lake and Tualatin River Railroad, 

connecting the Tualatin River to Sucker Lake in 

1865, was the key link. Horse-drawn with two 

cars that hauled as much as ten tons, the railroad 

took twenty-five minutes to travel through the 

one and three-quarters-mile swale from Colfax 

Landing on the river to the lake. To carry cargo 

over Sucker Lake to the mill, in 1866 the Oswego 

Milling Company built the Minnehaha, a flatbottomed 

steam scow. Workers portaged the 

mill’s lumber and farm goods one-third mile 

down to Oswego Landing on the Willamette. 

The expert riverboat captain and People’s 

Transportation Company founder Joseph Kellogg 

supervised construction of the steamer Onward to 

run on the Tualatin in 1867. Designed to 

negotiate the sixty-mile trip from Forest Grove to 

Colfax Landing on the serpentine and knee-deep 

Tualatin, the narrow and shallow-drafted Onward 

suited its task. The Oregonian reported in 1867: 

“It may seem like a wild idea…that steamers 

should attempt to bring the produce of the 

Tualatin to Portland, but it is to be done, thanks 

to the enterprise of the Oswego Milling Company, 

and the People’s Transportation Company.” 

Wheat, logs, and travelers to Portland went 

downriver aboard the Onward, took the Sucker 

Lake and Tualatin River Railroad to Colfax 

Landing, and steamed over Sucker Lake in the 

Minnehaha. Travelers stayed overnight at Shade’s 

Hotel in Oswego, and then went on to Portland. 

Fred Lockley, reporter for the Oregon Journal and 

chronicler of regional history, wrote in 1911: 

“While these diminutive craft on short routes may 

seem inconsequential, it should be remembered 

that when they were built they supplied practically 

the only means of transportation in the regions 

which they served.” John Trullinger’s vision of 

turning Oswego into a manufacturing town at the 

center of a major new transportation route to 

Portland seemed possible. 

❖ 

A portrait of John Corse Trullinger 

taken in 1848. Trullinger, a visionary 

and skilled inventor, patented a Triple 

Turbine Water Wheel. In 1865 he 

purchased Durham’s sawmill and 

founded the Oswego Milling 

Company, which produced sidewalk 

lumber for Portland streets. 


#ORHI 67479. 

Chapter II ✦ 23


III 

PITTSBURGH OF THE WEST 

Oswego is destined to become the center of a great iron producing district. 

— The British Colonist 

Quoted in the Oregonian, July 31, 1866 

THE IRON DREAM 

Oswego’s dream of becoming an iron-manufacturing city attracted attention from many corners of 

the world in the 1860s. The great demand for iron tools and machine parts in early Oregon, the 

enticing lure of making a fortune, and high optimism all fueled a dream that lingered more than 

thirty years. Of all these things, optimism lasted the longest. From the 1860s until the 1890s, 

investors and residents repeatedly tried to make Oswego into “the Pittsburgh of the West.” Major 

investors, such as Simeon Gannett Reed, lost thousands of dollars and residents watched their town 

struggle through economically depressed years. Oswego was the location of the only blast furnace in 

Oregon’s history, and the end of the iron dream was painful. 

Molten basalt flowing through the Willamette Valley millions of years ago laid the foundation that 

started men’s search for ore. Those ancient flows created basalt layers under Oswego. Bogs formed in 

pools where plants decomposed and leached iron. Slowly the bogs turned to mulch that compressed 

to hematite, creating beds of ore. Before iron smelting started in Oswego, people discovered ore or 

made iron nearby. Robert Moore, the founder of Linn City, saw ore there in 1841. Clackamas County 

pioneers Morton McCarver and Bartholomew Kindred discovered ore in the hills near Oswego in the 

early 1840s. 

PIONEER STRIP MINING 

Mathew Patton, who staked a donation land claim in the hills above Portland, was the pioneer of 

Oswego’s mining industry. With the $10,000 he made in the Gold Rush, Patton bought part of Felix 

Collard’s claim, and strip mined iron ore there in the late 1850s. The Patton beds continued to be 

mined by later companies. Mathew Patton’s grandson Edward recalled in 1927: “the first ore from 

which iron was produced in Oswego came from the land owned by my grandfather. He was one of the 

organizers and stockholders of the iron works, and also a stockholder of the old Macadam Toll Road.” 

❖ 

For thirty years Oswego’s potential as 

a major center of iron manufacturing 

attracted attention from many corners 

of the world. In 1889 the West Shore 

magazine published a supplement 

illustrating the mines and works of the 

Oregon Iron & Steel Company. 


PORTLAND’ S WEALTHY INVESTORS 

New settlers and industries rapidly swelled the demand for iron farm tools and machine parts. 

Oregonians eagerly hoped to produce their own rather than to pay other states to make them. Along 

with Mathew Patton, wealthy Portlanders William S. Ladd and Henry W. Corbett and others sought 

Eastern capital to build a smelter at Oswego in 1861. William S. Ladd entered business in Portland 

as a merchant ten years earlier. By 1859 he and his partner Charles E. Tilton opened Ladd and Tilton 

Bank, Oregon’s first financial institution. Henry W. Corbett opened a wholesale hardware business in 

Portland in 1851. Soon he was investing in steamboats, railroads, and the iron industry. 

Oswego’s iron attracted the attention of Portland’s wealthy founders from the beginning. Many of 

them got their start as pioneer merchants. Through business alliances and intermarriage, they formed a 

cartel eager to establish banking, transportation, and manufacturing monopolies. This rising Portland 

elite invested in all the new activities that a frontier society spawned. Their attraction to iron making 

stemmed naturally from its connection to their other commercial and industrial interests. One key link 

Chapter III ✦ 25

❖ 

William Sargent Ladd, a wealthy 

Portland merchant and investor, 

joined Mathew Patton, Henry W. 

Corbett, and others to build the first 

smelter at Oswego in the 1860s. 


#ORHI 26166. 

was railroads. If they could make rails and car 

wheels at Oswego, they could save money for 

their railroad companies and have freight to haul. 

Ownership and control of the iron works and 

property in Oswego by these wealthy Portland 

founders remained a constant thread. 

Mathew Patton, William S. Ladd, and Henry 

W. Corbett and others published an open letter to 

Eastern iron manufacturers in the Oregon Farmer 

in 1861. They sought the technical knowledge 

and money of Eastern iron manufacturers to 

build a smelter in Oswego. Sending the letter to 

Pennsylvania newspapers, the Portland investors 

tried to: 

...induce iron masters of that State, to turn 

their attention in this direction, where an ample 

opportunity would be found for the application 

of their enterprise, and where capital invested in 

opening our iron mines, under skillful 

managers, would insure great profits, and prove 

eminently advantageous to this country. 

The search for capital to support the expensive 

industry continued through the years. 

ore. Charles E. Botsford, a merchant and investor, 

came out from Connecticut’s iron-making region 

to evaluate Oswego’s potential. Botsford 

described Oswego’s ore fields and timber in 

glowing terms in an effort to attract Eastern 

investors in 1874: 

…the land is literally filled with brown and 

red hematite ore of the richest quality. It is found 

in quantities near the surface and in many places 

crops out in plain sight, and as to depth, no 

bottom has yet been found…. And this same 

land is covered with the finest of timber, 

producing in some instances two hundred cords 

of wood to the acre. 

The immense trees covering the land were as 

necessary as the ore. The developers of the iron 

works planned to burn charcoal rather than the 

stone coal used in the Eastern states. Charcoal 

iron was superior in quality to that made with 

stone coal, but charcoal was a much more 

expensive fuel. 

OREGON IRON COMPANY 

OSWEGO’ S FIRST IRON 

The first iron made from Oswego ore came 

from a tiny iron works in 1862 on the Tualatin 

River four miles from Oregon City. Aaron K. 

Olds, who pounded the first iron on Lake 

Superior, and H. S. Jacobs, who owned a wagon 

shop in Portland, made the iron with a 

blacksmith’s bellows. Ellenette Olds Booth, later 

said: “When Father came to Oregon, he started a 

forge on the Tualatin River to smelt iron ore, but 

the ore was refractory, and he couldn’t smelt it.” 

The ore’s resistance to smelting, a reduction 

process that separated the iron from the ore, was 

not a good omen. The horseshoe nails and 

miner’s pick made from the iron, however, 

attracted attention when Jacobs displayed 

them in his wagon shop’s window on Portland’s 

Front Street. 

Iron making was Oregon’s first major 

manufacturing enterprise and the little town of 

Oswego was the center of this venture. Oswego 

was the perfect place for a smelter. Riverboats 

could stop at Oswego Landing, Sucker Creek 

provided water power, and the ground was full of 

The iron making at Aaron Olds’ forge spurred 

Henry D. Green to invest in the iron industry. 

After sending six tons of ore to San Francisco to 

be tested for its iron content, Green learned that 

the ore contained approximately sixty percent 

iron. He bought the water rights to Sucker Creek 

and four acres above Oswego Landing in 1862 at 

the place that later became George Rogers Park. 

Henry, his brother John, and Herman C. Leonard 

owned the Portland Water Company. They 

wanted an iron works so they could make castiron 

water pipes rather than pay high prices for 

pipes made in the East. Like William S. Ladd and 

Henry Corbett, these men were members of that 

select group of Portland financiers and 

developers who launched Oswego’s iron 

industry. A few New York and San Francisco 

businessmen also invested. 

The Oregon Iron Company, incorporated in 

1865, built the first charcoal iron smelter on the 

Pacific Coast. William S. Ladd was the company 

president; Herman C. Leonard served as vice 

president and the first plant superintendent; and 

Henry Green was secretary. The company 

directors chosen by the twenty stockholders 


were Charles Dimon of New York City, Henry 

Failing, Henry Green, William S. Ladd, Herman 

Leonard, Louis McLane of San Francisco, and 

Addison M. Starr. Construction of the Oregon 

Iron Company’s works started on May 21, 1865. 

Herman Leonard went to New York City to buy 

machinery for the blast furnace and brought it 

back to Oregon with much fanfare in 1866. 

OREGON’ S FIRST 

INDUSTRIAL ENTERPRISE 

Oregonians recognized that starting an iron 

works in the state was a truly momentous event. 

Newspapers covered the construction of the 

furnace at Oswego. Prominent people spoke 

enthusiastically about the growth in economic 

development that iron making would spawn. 

The editor of the Herald, a Portland newspaper, 

wrote excitedly on July 28, 1866: 

The working of an iron mine is a perpetual 

source of supply to the elements of wealth 

included in industry, manufactures, trade, 

commerce and general prosperity…. The 

establishing of iron works under such favorable 

auspices we regard as the beginning of a new era 

in the prosperity of Oregon. 

TRULLINGER REPLATS OSWEGO 

John Trullinger replatted Oswego on January 

10, 1867, in anticipation of the new residents and 

businesses the Oregon Iron Company would 

bring. Grandson Fred Trullinger said that Daniel 

Trullinger, who studied surveying, drew the plat. 

Others attributed the plat to Captain Joseph 

Kellogg, another investor in Oswego’s industrial 

development. A monument set by the General 

Land Office survey crew in 1852 served as a 

starting point for the plat’s orderly block and 

street arrangement. According to Oswego 

historian Lucia Bliss, town proprietor John 

Trullinger dedicated the two undivided central 

blocks as a public park, but no record of that plan 

remained. Furnace Street led to the furnace. The 

main street through the center of town was 

Durham Place. Other streets bore the names of 

important people in the Oregon Iron Company, 

including William S. Ladd, Herman Leonard, the 

Greens, Henry Corbett, and George D. Wilbur, 

who supervised the furnace’s construction. 

THE BLAST FURNACE 

The heart of Oswego’s iron works was the 

blast furnace. Modeled after the Canaan 

❖ 

This early view of Oswego was 

recorded by landscape photographer 

Carleton E. Watkins. In 1867 Watkins 

traveled from San Francisco to 

Oregon to document significant 

natural and man-made sights, 

including Oswego’s iron works. 

Watkins’ photos were made on 

enormous glass plates that measured 

18 by 22 inches. As a result, his 

photographs show with remarkable 

clarity the riverboat landing by 

Sucker Creek, the buildings of the iron 

company, and the town perched above 

the river. 


#ORHI 21592. 

Chapter III ✦ 27

The stack itself is being built of hewn 

stone, obtained on the ground. When 

completed, it will be thirty-four feet square at 

the base…thirty-two feet in height, and twentysix 

feet square at the top. On the top of the stack 

will be the chimney, to be built of brick, forty 

feet high, and containing the oven for heating 

the air for the blast. 

MAKING CHARCOAL IRON 

❖ 

John Trullinger filed this plat of 

Oswego on January 10, 1867. 

Durham Place ran through the center 

of town and other streets bore the 

names of important people in the 

Oregon Iron Company. 


furnaces at Lime Rock, Connecticut, the 

foundation of the furnace extended 12 to 16 feet 

below ground to bedrock. Construction 

foreman George D. Wilbur left Sharon, a town 

near Lime Rock in Connecticut’s iron-making 

region, in April 1866 and came by sailing ship 

to Oregon. His brother James B. Wilbur wrote in 

1917 that George Wilbur “remained at work as 

foreman, about ten months.” Richard Martin, an 

English stonemason, made the furnace’s 

masonry a work of art. 

The blast furnace was called a “ten-ton stack” 

because it could produce ten tons of iron in one 

day. Judge Matthew P. Deady, a prominent 

Portland leader, described the furnace stack and 

the chimney above it in 1866: 

The basic recipe for making charcoal iron 

called for ore, charcoal, limestone, and air. 

Superintendent Herman Leonard reported that 

the ironmasters needed 166 bushels of charcoal, 

4,970 pounds of ore, and 884 pounds of 

limestone to make one ton of iron. They put 

these ingredients in the top of the blast furnace. 

By weight, air was the largest mass in the 

production process. The fierce blast of air 

burned the charcoal. The gas produced changed 

the iron oxide in the ore into pure iron. After the 

heat reduced the iron, the limestone was the 

flux that floated impurities to the surface as slag. 

The molten iron ran down a channel into a 

pit, then into a gutter called a sow. From the 

sow it entered small sand molds called pigs 

because they fed from the sow. The bar-shaped 

pigs could be remanufactured into cast iron, 

wrought iron, or steel. Although the Oregon 

Iron Company produced some cast-iron water 

pipes, the company’s main product was pig iron. 

The mighty stone blast furnace had several 

other buildings clustered around it. A bridge 

house extended from the hilltop on the west 

side of the works to the top of the furnace. 

Workers transported the charcoal, ore, and 

limestone through the bridge house to avoid 

hoisting them from the ground to the furnace’s 

top. The machinery that produced the air blast 

and the double turbine water wheel that ran that 

machinery were in the blast house. Water to 

cool the furnace and to put out fires filled a large 

water tank. 

Ironworkers made the pigs in the casting 

house. Two coal houses stored the twenty-five 

hundred bushels of charcoal the furnace 

burned daily. The 148-foot-long dam, at the 

place where McVey Road later crossed Sucker 

Creek, was in the same location as the earlier 


sawmill dams. A nine-hundred-foot-long flume 

brought water from the dam to power the 

plant’s machinery. The Oregon Iron Company 

also owned several other buildings in town, 

including the company store. 

The Oregon Iron Company was the center of 

activity in Oswego. Tucked into the place where 

Sucker Creek met the Willamette, the works 

hummed like a hive. The Oregonian reported on 

August 27, 1867, that the company employed 

eighty men as “miners, coal burners, heavers, 

teamsters, and artisans.” Workers strip mined the 

Patton beds on the south side of Sucker Creek 

near the stack. Workers also picked out the ore 

from the Prosser mine, which was a shaft mine on 

Mine Hill (later called Iron Mountain). Located 

on land owned by the Henry Prosser family, the 

Prosser mine was three miles northwest of town. 

Once “blown in” or started, the furnace 

ran continually unless maintenance or lack 

of capital required blowing it out. Riverboats 

stopped at Oswego Landing in a steady stream 

to unload limestone and to pick up the finished 

pigs. Each day wagon haulers drove down 

Furnace and Ladd Streets delivering heavy loads 

of iron ore and charcoal. Whenever the 

ironmasters blew in the furnace, smoke stung 

the townspeople’s eyes. 

CHEAP 

LABOR 

The iron industry brought Chinese men to 

Oswego as a source of cheap labor. They came to 

the West Coast in large numbers in the 1860s 

and 1870s before the 1882 Chinese Exclusion 

Act prohibited their immigration. Some mined 

and logged in China and brought their skills to 

Oswego. Their ability to work hard for a fraction 

of the wages paid white workers made them 

highly desirable. Oswego townspeople and 

farmers hired Chinese men for many jobs, 

including farm and household work. They also 

operated laundries and stores and truck 

gardened through the years. 

Gathered together by Portland Chinese 

merchants and contract labor bosses, these 

single men first came to Oswego primarily to 

chop wood for charcoal. Threatened and 

angered by their low wages, white workers 

protested the company’s hiring of Chinese men 

in 1867. The Oregonian published a “Protest 

Against Chinese Labor,” on March 25, 1867. 

The forty-four men that signed it wrote: 

We, the citizens of Oswego and surrounding 

country, having heard the rumor that the Oregon 

Iron Company are about to force upon this 

community a large horde of Chinese laborers…do 

protest…against the introduction of Chinese in 

our midst.…. 

White employers and Chinese contract labor 

bosses exploited their labor. Herbert Letcher 

Davidson remembered: “Anyone with a nickel 

could hire Chinese in pioneer days.” But 

Chinese men still managed to save money. 

Davidson recalled: “Chinese could save 15 cents 

a day from the 25 cents paid a cord.” 

❖ 

The earliest known photograph of the 

Oswego furnace was taken in 1867 

when construction of the buildings 

around the furnace had just begun. 

The men on top of the roof were 

building the furnace chimney. 


Chapter III ✦ 29


The size of Oswego’s Chinese community 

fluctuated. The Oregon Iron Company hired a 

small number of men in the 1860s. When the 

Oregon Iron & Steel Company built the second 

furnace in 1888, it hired 150 Chinese men. Most 

of them chopped wood, but others hauled ore and 

bricks. Legally denied the right to own land, they 

settled in undesirable areas around town. Early 

Oswego resident Jerry O’Brien said: “They lived 

by themselves. Old fellows in shacks along the 

Willamette below the river bank.” They also lived 

in “Chiney Camp” near the east end of the lake. 

Ella Ball Curtis recalled that her father hired one 

hundred men to chop wood near Cook’s Switch, a 

railroad switching station near what later became 

the corner of Boones Ferry and Pilkington Roads. 

Those men lived in three log houses at the west 

end of the lake. 

A HOME INDUSTRY 

The great demand for charcoal gave Oswego a 

new home industry. The process of making 

charcoal, called charcoal burning, was a timeconsuming, 

expensive part of producing charcoal 

pig iron that required skill. Charcoal burner Jesse 

N. Griffith recalled in 1933: “You have to know 

how to burn charcoal or you’ll lose a lot of 

money. I have seen a whole pit burned up and no 

charcoal left. The trick is in watching the draft to 

make the wood char properly.” 

The opening of Oswego’s iron works attracted 

some experienced charcoal burners from the ironmaking 

states. Letcher Nelson remembered: 

“Charcoal burners came from Ohio….” Others 

learned the delicate art in Oswego where charcoal 

pits soon dotted the land. Superintendent Herman 

Leonard reported on October 1, 1867, that “there 

are forty-five hearths or pits in operation.” Earl 

Hughes, who came to Oswego as a child in 1914, 

remembered that “right across from the Oswego 

Review, there was a big charcoal pit. When they 

excavated to put in those buildings across from the 

Review they were uncovered. And there were some 

on Sixth and some on Eight Streets and in various 

other places.” Because the charcoal had to be kept 

dry, most pits burned through the summer months 

when there was no rain. Polk and Thed 

Worthington, charcoal burners from Ohio, built 

sheds over the pits so that they could make 

charcoal in the winter. 

To make charcoal, charcoal burners put 

approximately sixty cords of wood, stacked in a 

circle, into a pit covered with dirt and fir boughs. 

They tossed a shovel of coal into the middle of 

the wood and let the pile burn for several weeks. 

The pit demanded constant vigilance because the 

charcoal had to be just the right hardness. 

Anything less burned inefficiently. The pits also 

had to be watched to make sure that they 

collapsed in the middle, rather than toppling 

over and starting a fire. Sleepy-eyed farm boys 

watched over the pits day and night. Modeling 

her characters after Oswego settler Josiah 

Dickinson’s clan, Oswego author Theresa Truchot 

described how important charcoal burning was 

to farm family economies in Charcoal Wagon Boy: 

Mr. Sutton turned to his wife and announced, 

“Abbey, I’m going to burn charcoal for the 

smelter. 

“Charcoal?” 

“Yes, they burn it in the furnace with 

limestone to smelt out the iron. I’ll get six cents 

for each bushel of charcoal I deliver at the 

smelter.” 

Three forks full of roast venison paused in 

mid-air…. To eight-year-old Bathsheba money 

meant schooling and a chance to be a teacher. To 

Flora it meant books. To six-year-old Bedie, it 

meant packer’s paper to draw on. 

ECONOMIC BOOM & BUST 

The Oregon Iron Company’s furnace went 

into blast on August 22, 1867. Two days later, 

❖ 

Opposite, top: The layout of the iron 

works took advantage of the natural 

slope of the land. Ore was carried 

across the bridge house and fed into 

the top of the furnace. Molten iron 

was tapped from the bottom of the 

furnace and allowed to flow into 

trenches in the sand floor of the 

casting house. From there, the bars of 

pig iron were moved down to the 

boat landing. 

PHOTO BY C. E. WATKINS, 1867. COURTESY OF THE 

OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY, #ORHI 21596. 

Opposite, bottom The blast house, 

on the left in this photo by Carleton E. 

Watkins, sent compressed air through 

a pipe running into the furnace. The 

building on the far right was the 

casting house where smelted ore was 

cast as pig iron. 

PHOTO BY C. E. WATKINS, 1867. COURTESY OF THE 


Above: The size of Oswego’s Chinese 

population fluctuated from a handful 

in the 1860s to 150 or more in the 

1890s. In addition to cutting wood, 

digging canals, and building railroads, 

Chinese laborers in the Oswego area 

worked in brickyards, mills, farms, 

and domestic service. 

COVER FROM THE WEST SHORE, OCTOBER 4, 1890. 


#ORHI 83510. 

Chapter III ✦ 31

❖ 

William S. Ladd’s bank, the Ladd and 

Tilton Bank, was a commercial palace 

with an Italianate facade made of 

Oswego iron. After demolition of the 

bank, its cast-iron facade was 

reinstalled on the Ladd and Bush 

Bank in Salem. 

COURTESY OF WILLIAM HAWKINS III. 

ironmasters tapped the first pigs on August 24, 

1867. The Oregonian reported that townsite owner 

John Trullinger received two pigs, dated and 

inscribed with his initials, from the first blast. Used 

as a street marker at the corner of Ladd and 

Durham, one pig continued to mark the importance 

of the early iron works through the years. 

The Oregon Historical Society later received a 

piece of one of the pigs to commemorate the event. 

“Oregon Iron,” the name under which the 

company sold its pigs, found ready markets in 

Portland and San Francisco. Like many other 

Portland buildings, the Ladd and Tilton Bank, 

Oregon’s first bank organized by Oregon Iron 

Company President William S. Ladd, had a castiron 

front made out of Oregon Iron. The first stove 

made from Oregon Iron warmed the big rooms of 

the new bank. Foundry men also used the iron to 

make the shovel blade for the groundbreaking 

ceremony of the Oregon Central Railroad, an 

event that thrilled Oregonians in 1868. 

Along with the Oregon Iron Company, the 

Trullingers’ Oswego Milling Company brought 

long awaited growth to Oswego. John Trullinger 

built a substantial home on the northwest corner 

of Durham Place and Ladd Street. Using lumber 

shipped around the Horn, local carpenters 

Henry Shipley and Lucien Davidson helped 

build the house. James A. McDonald built a store 

and restaurant, and the Globe and Capital Hotels 

opened their doors. The post office, closed by 

the postmaster general for lack of business on 

May 31, 1864, reopened on February 26, 1867. 

The Oregonian enthused about Oswego’s 

progress that year: 

Mr. J. C. Trullinger has a fine and costly 

dwelling nearly completed, and other buildings 

of lesser note are in course of construction. The 

residents of Oswego and employees of the Iron 

Company number now about seventy-five. This 

number will, of course, be largely increased 

when the iron works get to smelting. 

Oswego established its own school district 

after the number of residents grew. When Oswego 

School District #47 organized on February 10, 

1868, there were 51 legal voters in it and 40 

children of school age. The town was the center of 

the new district that extended north to Socrates 

Tryon’s claim and south to Francis Collard’s claim. 

Some young scholars remembered attending 

school in 1868 or 1869 in the Locey house 

located on the northeast corner of Wilbur and 

Durham. Ann Calkins Locey was one of the first 

teachers. Other buildings, including the first 

Methodist Church on Furnace Street, also served 

as schools. 

Although the future looked bright when 

workers made their first pigs, the Oregon Iron 

Company did not make a profit from the 2,395 

tons of Oregon Iron produced between 1867 and 

1869. Foundry men preferred Oswego’s finegrained 

malleable charcoal pig iron because it was 

easier to work with, but it was expensive to 

produce. The West Shore, a popular illustrated 

magazine, reflected in 1877 that Oswego’s iron “is 

of very fine compact grain, superior for most 

kinds of work to the best Scotch pig,” but that 

Scotch pig iron was $4.96 less per ton. Britain’s 

grain fleet needed ballast so the ships brought 

over Scotch pig at rock-bottom prices. The 

furnace’s small size and the high price of charcoal 

and limestone raised expenses too. 

TUALATIN RIVER 

NAVIGATION & 

MANUFACTURING COMPANY 

The Tualatin River Navigation & Manufacturing 

Company organized in 1870 to make Oswego a 


major manufacturing and shipping center. It 

planned to put Oswego in the middle of a direct 

water route between Portland and the Tualatin 

Valley. The company bought the townsite and 

sawmill from John Trullinger for $26,000. The 

Tualatin River Navigation & Manufacturing 

Company had visions of transporting Tualatin 

Valley crops and lumber to Portland. Company 

plans included a warehouse, a sawmill, a lumber 

and freight chute, a dam to raise the lake’s level, 

canals, and locks. The Tualatin River Navigation & 

Manufacturing Company competed with investors 

who wanted to build a canal and locks at 

Willamette Falls that would bring trade through 

Oregon City. 

OSWEGO 

CANAL 

While Eastern states dug canals in the 1820s 

and 1830s, the Canal Era came belatedly to 

Oregon. When railroads were still on the horizon, 

river navigation made sense because roads were 

hard to build and exceedingly difficult to maintain. 

Many of Oregon’s canal investors were from 

Eastern states and knew that canals dramatically 

increased population and trade. 

To create a continuous waterway from the 

Tualatin Valley to Portland, the Tualatin River 

Navigation & Manufacturing Company needed 

two canals. One would replace the horse-drawn 

railroad that traveled between the Tualatin River 

and the west end of Sucker Lake. After passing 

through that canal, a steamer would transport logs 

and farm produce over Sucker Lake. Logs would 

be turned into wood products at the mill and, 

along with Tualatin Valley farm crops, would 

travel through a second canal and on to Portland. 

The second canal, with locks, would connect 

Sucker Lake to the Willamette. It would replace 

the portage on Sucker Creek’s north side that 

Albert Durham and the Trullingers used to carry 

their lumber the one-eighth of a mile from the 

sawmill to Oswego Landing. The company also 

needed the west-end canal to let more water into 

the lake. The water would increase water power 

for manufacturing at Oswego. 

Chinese laborers hewed solid rock to 

construct the canal at the lake’s west end. The 

company also built a dam to raise the level of 

the lake for navigation and manufacturing. The 

higher water level produced the lake’s first 

expansion in size from 2.75 miles to 3.5 miles. 

Completed in 1872, the canal reestablished the 

connection between the river and the lake 

that ancient volcanic activity destroyed. The 

Tualatin River Navigation & Manufacturing 

Company, under the guidance of stockholder 

and riverboat captain Joseph Kellogg, built a 

steamer in 1869 to run on Sucker Lake to 

connect with the Onward, the steamer that he 

operated on the Tualatin. Low water levels 

prevented the Onward from passing through the 

canal with its first two thousand bushels of 

wheat until January 21, 1873. 

& 

WATER RIGHTS 

DISCOVERY OF ORE 

The Tualatin River Navigation & Manufacturing 

Company’s activities both harmed and helped the 

❖ 

The Willamette Falls canal and locks 

were completed in 1873. In the battle 

for dominance over river shipping, the 

Willamette Falls Canal & Locks 

Company was the chief competitor of 

the Tualatin River Navigation & 

Manufacturing Company. Although 

the Tualatin company completed the 

canal linking the Tualatin and the 

lake in 1872, it never realized its 

dream of building a locks between the 

Willamette and the lake. 

DETAIL FROM A POSTER ISSUED BY 

BORTHWICK, BATTY & CO., “BIRD’S EYE VIEW OF 

PORTLAND AND VICINITY SHOWING POSITION OF 

OSWEGO” (C. 1887). COURTESY OF THE OSWEGO 

HERITAGE COUNCIL. 

Chapter III ✦ 33

❖ 

View of the Oregon Iron Company 

works in the 1870s. Slag from the 

smelting process was dumped over the 

river bank. The bridge across Sucker 

Creek (lower left) formed part of the 

original river road between Oswego 

and Willamette Falls. 


Oregon Iron Company. In 1869 the iron company 

sued the Tualatin River Navigation & 

Manufacturing Company for limiting its water 

power. The lawsuit forced the iron company to 

blow out the furnace that year. Three years later, 

construction of the canal and resolution of the 

lawsuit unexpectedly sparked the reopening of the 

iron works. The Oregonian excitedly announced on 

June 14, 1872, that canal diggers discovered rich 

ore that could be “shoveled into boats and 

transported down the canal to the lake, across that 

body of water, and through another canal to the 

river, where the works now stand.” The Oregon 

Iron Company planned to reopen and hired new 

ironworkers from the East to run the works. The 

Oregonian stated on September 11, 1873: 

There is scarcely room for the present 

population. Not a house or room to let, and not 

lumber enough to supply the demand…. If we are 

surprised at the thrift and activity there now, 

while these different industries are just beginning, 

what may we not expect when they are all in 

full blast? 

OSWEGO, 1873 

If in 1873 a young man heard that the Oregon 

Iron Company was blowing in the furnace, he 

might walk from Portland to Oswego to see if he 

could get a job. As he traveled down the old 

Portland-Linn City Road, the stagecoach flew by 

him, headed for the Oregon Iron Company’s store 

on the south side of Green Street. When the 

jobseeker finally got to Oswego, he walked east to 

scrutinize his place of possible employment. Ladd 

Street was Oswego’s business street and on it were 

Dooley’s saloon and the post office. The iron 

works was on the south side of Ladd Street. It was 

easy to see the tall chimney of the furnace. The 

bridge house, casting house, and other buildings 

needed to make charcoal pig iron gathered around 

the furnace. 

If the job hunter looked beyond the furnace, he 

saw the Willamette River bordering the iron works. 

Limestone laid on the shore, waiting to go up to the 

works. When he looked north up Furnace Street, 

he saw the Durham house on the bluff and the 

Portland Hotel, where he could board. Noticing 

that the young man was a stranger to Oswego, a 

passing resident told him that the Portland Hotel 

once housed Trinity School. The resident puffed 

out his chest when he explained that Trinity School 

was a fine effort by the Episcopal Church to bring 

a boarding school of quality to the region. 

Walking back up Ladd Street, the youth 

strolled slowly to get a feeling for the town. He 

noticed the grand house built for the Trullinger 

family on the corner of Ladd and Durham. He 

almost thought that Oswego was a fancy place 

until he got a whiff of oxen and saw the barns 

where the iron company kept its beasts. Reaching 

the west end of Ladd Street, he looked south 

towards the noisy sound of a sawmill on Sucker 

Creek. The mill’s sign read “Kellogg & Company.” 

The young man recalled that the well-known 


iverboat captain Joseph Kellogg now operated 

Trullinger’s mill. Kellogg supervised construction 

of the steamer that brought logs and wheat across 

the lake. Looking west up the lake, the youth saw 

the Henrietta (also called the Harriet), pulling 

logs. After his brief perambulation, he knew that 

Oswego was the town for him. 

FINANCIAL 

FAILURE 

After reducing the capital stock from $500, 000 

to $200,000 and hiring experienced ironmasters 

and workers from the East, the Oregon Iron 

Company blew in the furnace on March 13, 1874. 

Profits escaped the company. Oswego now had 

two industrial plants plus a shipping industry. 

Although it was still a rural manufacturing village, 

its ties to the world economy had grown. Oswego’s 

fortune in 1874 depended not only on lumber 

markets, but also on iron, steel, and financial 

markets. The national financial panic of 1873 

played a key role in thwarting the fledgling iron 

works just when it tried to struggle to its feet. The 

1873 panic produced a five-year national 

economic depression. The recession closed more 

than eighteen thousand steel and iron furnaces 

and other businesses in its first two years. 

Combined with slumps in European economies, 

this drastic downturn made it difficult to find 

investors for Oswego’s iron industry. 

A host of other factors were unfavorable. Low 

tariffs helped to price Oregon Iron out of the 

market, even on Portland docks. Eastern pig iron 

was cheaper because East Coast labor and raw 

materials were cheaper. The Oregon Iron 

Company faced high costs for charcoal, 

limestone, and labor. The Tualatin River’s shallow 

water also made navigation difficult and the 

improvement of Canyon Road to Portland 

encouraged wagon travel, so the plan for a major 

new transportation route through Oswego died. 

Neither the canal, the sawmill, nor the iron 

industry fulfilled the promise glimpsed in 1873. 

THE OHIO CROWD 

Due to the national economic depression, the 

Oregon Iron Company could not borrow money 

to pay its promissory notes. Samuel H. Brown, 

Jr., and Ernest W. Crichton filed suit against the 

company for failing to pay their notes. To satisfy 

a judgment in favor of Brown and Crichton, the 

owners of the Oregon Iron Company sold the 

business at a sheriff’s auction in 1877 for 

$38,612—a fraction of its cost. Samuel H. 

Brown, Jr., and Ernest W. Crichton bought it. 

Their business partner was Lamar B. Seeley. 

These three men were members of the “Ohio 

Crowd,” intermarried newcomers all hailing 

from the Buckeye state. The Ohio Crowd pooled 

resources to form business partnerships to 

invest in Oregon’s new industries. 

Brown, Crichton, and Seeley were Oregon 

Iron Company employees hired after the 

company searched for knowledgeable eastern 

ironmasters in 1872. Ernest Crichton and Lamar 

Seeley were boyhood friends raised in the 

company town of Buckhorn Furnace, located in 

Ohio’s Hanging Rock Iron Region. Their fathers, 

James Crichton and Boudinot Seeley, owned 

Buckhorn Furnace at one time. T. A. Walton, a 

resident of the Hanging Rock Iron Region, 

remembered Buckhorn Furnace in 1869 as the 

place where “we first saw iron run like 

molasses.” James Crichton died in 1861, but 

Boudinot Seeley made a fortune producing 

charcoal iron during the Civil War. 

Ernest Crichton and Lamar Seeley came to the 

Oregon Iron Company as experts in the 

manufacture of charcoal pig iron. They also had a 

practical knowledge of river navigation, learned 

by watching flatboats carry iron ore down the 

Ohio River. Seeley arrived with a letter of 

introduction to native Ohioan and Oregon Iron 

Company President Martin Strong Burrell. Burrell 

came from Ohio in 1856 and established Knapp, 

❖ 

The Ohio Crowd consisted of a group 

of investors, originally from Ohio, who 

were experts in river navigation (from 

left to right): Samuel H. Brown, Jr., 

Captain Uriah B. Scott, Lamar B. 

Seeley, H. A. Hatch, and Ernest W. 

Crichton. In 1877 Crichton, Seeley, 

and Brown, who were also experts in 

charcoal iron production, acquired the 

Oregon Iron Company and organized 

a new company called the Oswego 

Iron Company. 

COURTESY OF WHITCOMB CRICHTON. 

Chapter III ✦ 35

Burrell & Company, later the largest agricultural 

implement business on the West Coast. With a 

company that manufactured farm tools and 

investments in sailing ships using metal parts, 

Martin Burrell was eager to hire fellow Ohioans 

who knew the charcoal iron industry inside and 

out. Burrell quickly put Seeley in charge of the 

plant in 1874, and Crichton became the 

company’s bookkeeper in 1875. 

UBIQUITOUS SCOTT’ S 

STEAMBOATS 

when she returned to Portland three days later 

with 180 tons of wheat aboard at $5 per ton…. 

After the Ohio’s success, members of the Ohio 

Crowd, including Oregon Iron Company 

employees Crichton, Seeley, and Brown, and 

President Martin Burrell, invested in the U. B. 

Scott Steamboat Company, incorporated in 

1875. The Ohio Crowd made Northwest 

transportation history by operating the fastest 

boats on the rivers. 

❖ 

The capacity of the furnace was 

enlarged and its stack raised by its 

new owners, Crichton, Seeley, and 

Brown. Cruder masonry marked the 

ten-foot addition to the furnace. 


Crichton, Seeley, and Brown, who remained 

life-long business partners, found their first 

success in Oregon by investing in Uriah B. 

Scott’s steamboats. Seeley and Scott were close 

friends in Ohio, where Scott manufactured axes 

in Ironton and captained boats on the Ohio 

River. Called “UBiquitous” Scott, Uriah Scott 

was a navigation genius. He was a member of 

that group of steamboat men from the Ohio and 

Mississippi Rivers enticed west by the millions 

made by the Oregon Steam Navigation 

Company. The tremendous profit the company 

accumulated through its domination of early 

Columbia and Willamette River navigation 

provided the capital for most of Oregon’s 

pioneer industries in the 1860s. Investors such 

as William S. Ladd used their Oregon Steam 

Navigation Company earnings to start Oswego’s 

iron works. 

UBiquitous Scott tried to get a job with the 

Oregon Steam Navigation Company as a boat 

builder or captain, but the company made the 

mistake of not hiring him. Oregon Journal 

reporter and regional historian Fred Lockley 

wrote in 1911 that Captain Scott “had few equals 

and no superiors” in his ability to design lightdraft 

steamboats. Steamboat men in Oregon said 

that the Ohio, the first boat Scott built here, 

could “run on a heavy dew.” The Ohio made 

Scott rich by regularly hauling wheat from places 

further up the Willamette River. Lockley wrote: 

Nothing like the Ohio had yet appeared in 

Oregon. While under construction she was 

regarded as the water-front joke, and when she 

finally limped away on her first trip there was 

much merriment and universal predictions of 

failure. The strange craft was no longer a joke 

OSWEGO IRON COMPANY 

The Ohio Crowd decided to use its steamboat 

profits to expand the iron works. The money to 

be earned supplying the new railroads with nails, 

rails, and car wheels was a major enticement. 

The new owners remembered that the Central 

Pacific Railway Company’s order for car wheels 

kept the furnace going in 1875. When Ernest 

Crichton visited Ohio, the Ironton Register editor 

wrote on December 14, 1876: 

Our friend E. W. Crichton, formerly of 

Buckhorn, but now of Oswego, Oregon, is now 

visiting in this county. He called upon us and we 

were pleased to see that he is sunny and jolly as 

ever. He is fond of Oregon and couldn’t think of 

living any place else. He is in the furnace business 

out there, and says if they can only make 

car wheel iron, there is a fortune for them. 

Knowing more than anyone else in Oregon 

about how to manufacture charcoal iron, the 

three Ohioans believed they could make the 

iron works profitable. The editor of the 

Willamette Farmer, writing on September 21, 

1877, agreed: “…in the hands of men of 

practical experience and thorough energy we 


may look to the development of an extensive 

and profitable manufacture of this most 

important staple.” 

The new owners were just as eager to control 

the Oswego Canal. With the help of UBiquitous 

Scott’s light-draft steamboats, the Ohio Crowd 

believed it could create that elusive, 

tremendously profitable continuous waterway 

between the Tualatin Valley and Portland. By 

1881 the Oswego Iron Company spent $23,000 

widening the canal to improve navigation and to 

increase water flow so Oswego would have more 

water power for manufacturing. 

& 

EXPANSION 

A COMPANY TOWN 

The Oswego Iron Company, incorporated in 

1878, had grand ideas for expansion. Seeley, 

Crichton, and Brown planned to buy thousands 

of acres of timberland for charcoal, to build a 

rolling mill and foundry, to make steel, and to 

operate a railroad and shipping line. Ernest 

Crichton stated that the Ohio Crowd also 

wanted “to operate in the manner of eastern iron 

works,” where owners ran company towns. 

Oswego already had some of the characteristics 

of a company town. The company owned the 

townsite as well as the millsite and most of the 

townspeople worked for the iron company. 

The Ohio Crowd also began modernizing the 

iron works to make it pay. To improve the 

furnace, considered primitive by 1878, workers 

enlarged its capacity and raised its stack. Cruder 

masonry marked the ten-foot addition. The 

Oswego Iron Company also opened a new 

entrance to the Prosser mine and used the most 

advanced mining technology to build tunnels 

and shafts. 

The Oswego Iron Company built a 2.6-milelong 

railroad, south of what is now Avenue A. 

Traveling between the furnace and the Prosser 

mine, the railroad cut transportation costs and 

made the industrial process more efficient. The 

company’s spur connected with the Willamette 

Valley Railroad, a narrow-gauge railroad that 

was the first to reach Oswego in 1880. 

Originally called the Dayton, Sheridan, & 

Grande Ronde Railroad, it was the first railroad 

built through the Willamette Valley. After 

Scottish investors bought the railway, William 

Reid, a Scot from Dundee, became the president 

of the newly organized Willamette Valley 

Railroad Company in 1880. 

Perhaps through fellow Scot Ernest Crichton, 

“Dundee” Reid met the members of the Ohio 

Crowd, then owners of the Oswego Iron Company 

and the steamers City of Salem and Ohio. Dundee 

Reid bought the Ohio Crowd’s steamboats. After 

the narrow-gauge train took farmers’ crops to the 

Willamette, the boats shipped the produce to 

Portland. Reid and the Ohio Crowd planned to 

continue building the railroad all the way to 

Portland to monopolize the valley’s transportation 

market. Henry Villard, who also wanted to capture 

that market, thwarted their plan by leasing the 

narrow-gauge railroad in 1880. 

REED & VILLARD INVEST IN 

THE IRON INDUSTRY 

Under the experienced management of the 

Ohio Crowd, the Oswego Iron Company 

increased iron production from 1,750 tons in 

1876 to 6,100 tons by 1881. To continue the 

necessary improvements and expansion, the 

company began borrowing money from Simeon 

Gannett Reed. 

Simeon Reed, whose fortune later financed 

the founding of Reed College in Portland, came 

to Oregon from Massachusetts in 1852. Hired 

as a clerk in William S. Ladd’s store, Reed 

became a partner in Ladd, Reed & Company 

in 1859. He invested in steamboats and made 

his mark as one of Portland’s leading developers 

of early industries. Simeon Reed was vice 

president of the Oregon Steam Navigation 

Company in 1879. 

German-born Henry Villard came to Oregon in 

1874 to protect the railroad interests of German 

investors. Villard quickly rose to international fame 

and fortune as a railroad financier. Joseph Gaston 

wrote that Villard wanted to concentrate “the trade 

of all the land west of the Rocky Mountains and 

north of California, at Portland, Oregon” by 

monopolizing land and water transportation. In 

1879 Villard organized the Oregon Railway & 

Navigation Company, a multi-million-dollar 

transportation corporation that included shipping 

lines and railroads. Henry Villard made Reed the 

vice president and manager of the Oregon Railway 

& Navigation Company when it absorbed the 

❖ 

Portland investor Simeon Gannett 

Reed joined railroad financier 

Henry Villard to purchase the 

Oswego Iron Company in 1882. Reed, 

whose fortune later financed the 

founding of Reed College, became the 

president of the new Oregon Iron & 

Steel Company. 


Chapter III ✦ 37

❖ 

Workers built a tall trestle from the 

bluff at Front Street (later called State 

Street) to the new smelter on the 

Willamette. The narrow-gauge 

railroad carried ore from the mines to 

the furnace. 


Oregon Steam Navigation Company in 1880. 

Villard’s intent was to build the first 

transcontinental railroad to the Pacific Northwest. 

To avoid the Northern Pacific Railroad’s 

competition, he bought that line in 1881. 

Simeon Reed and Henry Villard considered 

buying the Oswego Iron Company to achieve their 

goal of controlling the region’s railroads by 1880. 

They saw the purchase as the first step towards 

monopolizing West Coast iron and steel 

production. The owners of the successful Portland 

foundry Smith Brothers & Watson encouraged 

Reed and Villard to buy the Oswego Iron Company 

so that their company could make castings. 

The prospect of developing Oswego’s iron works 

greatly excited Simeon Reed. He believed this 

might be the most significant venture of his 

extremely successful career. Reed’s vision was to 

develop Portland into a giant manufacturing center 

fueled by the iron works. Simeon Reed wrote 

effervescently to Henry Villard in 1880: “there is no 

reason why we could not supply the whole Pacific 

Coast and as far East as Salt Lake—and we would 

only be too glad to get this large quantity of down 

freight for our steamers.” Perhaps Reed intended to 

become “the Carnegie of the West.” 

THE OREGON IRON & 

STEEL COMPANY 

The Ohio Crowd, now heavily indebted to Reed 

and Villard, decided to sell the Oswego Iron 

Company to them. Simeon Reed and Henry Villard 

organized the Oregon Iron & Steel Company in 

1882. The Oregonian reported in October 1882 that 

the Oregon Iron & Steel Company would: 

…carry on the greatest industrial work ever 

proposed for Oregon…. The majority of stock is 

held by some of the heaviest capitalists of New 

York, Portland and San Francisco. The new 

company has bought all the property of the 

Oswego Iron Works, embracing furnace, ore mine, 

canal, water power, and 24, 057 acres of land. 

Reed, Villard, and Darius O. Mills, founder of 

the Bank of California and investor in the Pacific 

Rolling Mills in San Francisco, were the leading 

investors. Simeon Reed became the new 

president. The formation of the Oregon Iron & 

Steel Company represented a shift in the 

controlling interest rather than a complete 

change in the iron works’ ownership. William S. 

Ladd remained a major stockholder, and 

members of the Ohio Crowd retained a quarter of 

the stock. Ernest Crichton continued to play a 

key role as plant superintendent. 

Reed and Villard planned to continue 

expanding the iron works to realize the Ohio 

Crowd’s goal of making Oswego a major 

manufacturing center. The capital stock of the 

Oregon Iron & Steel Company was $3 million, 

six times that of the Oregon Iron Company 

when it built the first iron works in 1867. In its 


1882 prospectus the Oregon Iron & Steel 

Company proclaimed its great vision of: 

…mining ores and constructing and operating 

blast furnaces, foundries, rolling mills, nail mills, 

and other works for the manufacture of iron and 

steel, and more especially for supplying the 

current requirements of the Northern Pacific and 

the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company. 

The Oregon Iron & Steel Company decided 

that the old iron works at the bend in the river 

was too antiquated. It needed a new location to 

build a much larger plant employing the most 

sophisticated smelting technology. Construction 

of the new works started in 1883 on the west 

bank of the Willamette a quarter-mile north of 

the old furnace. To build the new works, 

Simeon Reed shipped forty-five hundred tons of 

firebrick, fire clay, and Portland cement from 

England on three vessels. 

The new investors continued to develop 

Oswego as a company town. They wanted to 

build many more houses for their workers near 

the new plant. The owners also established a 

scrip system to pay employees. A reporter for the 

Portland Evening Telegram reminisced in 1925 

that Oregon Iron & Steel Company scrip 

circulated in Oswego and throughout Oregon by 

1882. The reporter recalled: “Everywhere these 

orders on the company store were accepted as 

freely as cash in any ordinary business 

transaction except for payment of taxes.” 

A POWER STRUGGLE & 

A LACK OF CAPITAL 

The Oregon Iron & Steel Company’s big 

dreams died quickly. The company barely began 

to build the new plant before the Ohio Crowd 

tried to regain ownership and lack of capital 

halted construction. As experts in charcoal iron 

manufacturing, the Ohio Crowd, still 

stockholders but no longer controlling 

operations, thought that Simeon Reed floundered 

in managing the works. 

The Ohio Crowd also had no love for Reed or 

Henry Villard because they tried to squeeze the 

Ohio Crowd’s steamboats out of the market by 

monopolizing river navigation. They thwarted 

Dundee Reid’s plan to run the narrow-gauge 

railroad to Portland. To win back the iron works 

for the Ohio Crowd, Lamar Seeley repeatedly but 

unsuccessfully sued Simeon Reed. With tongue in 

cheek, Ernest Crichton expressed his enmity for 

Henry Villard in 1883: “We now hope & fervently 

pray that he will devote a small portion of his 

mighty intellect to the Oregon Iron & Steel 

Company which company stands before the world 

today as a living corpse.” 

By January 1884 the Oregon Iron & Steel 

Company was so cash-poor that Ernest Crichton 

wired Simeon Reed: “Must have two thousand 

dollars telegraphed Friday to pay Chinamen wood 

choppers for new years or hell will be to pay.” 

Chinese tradition demanded that all debts be paid 

before the new year began. Crichton later 

telegraphed Seeley in June: “Will Ladd and I have 

wired Reed for funds. Matters growing critical. 

Miners threaten to destroy property of company 

and its officers.” 

Again the iron company desperately needed 

capital during a national economic depression, 

primarily financial in origin, that lasted from 1883 

to 1885. After losing control of his railroad empire 

during this financial panic, Henry Villard could 

not find investors to loan money to the Oregon 

Iron & Steel Company. In 1884 the company 

owned 24,057 acres of land, a canal, railroad, 

blast furnace, one hundred worker houses, a 

company store, barns, and thousands of dollars 

worth of materials, but was nearly bankrupt. 

PLANS FOR 

AN ELECTRIC PLANT 

Company stockholders did search for other 

ways to make money, including harnessing 

❖ 

Oregon Iron & Steel Company 

scrip was accepted as freely as cash 

in Oswego and throughout Oregon in 

the 1880s. 


Chapter III ✦ 39

❖ 

The new Oregon Iron & Steel 

Company furnace went into operation 

in 1888. The arched openings of the 

temple-like casting house on the left 

helped to vent the heat. Brick for the 

buildings came from clay deposits in 

the Duck Pond (Lakewood Bay). 


water for electricity. The Oregon Iron & Steel 

Company knew it could make a huge profit by 

getting in on the ground floor of the developing 

electrical power industry. Hired to investigate 

the feasibility of a power plant, Nathaniel S. 

Keith came to Oswego. Keith was a nationally 

recognized expert in electricity whose pioneer 

New York electric company produced electric 

dynamos. In glowing terms, Keith reported the 

extra horsepower the lake could help deliver 

in 1886: 

By the use of suitable dynamos at Oswego 

upwards of 90 per cent of this power may be 

converted to electrical energy, which may be 

transmitted, with only slight loss, to Portland…. 

At night the power can be used through the 

same generators for supplying electric lamps of 

both the arc and incandescent type…. 

Lamar Seeley in later years expressed his 

continuing interest in developing energy at 

Oswego: “Portland is destined to be the power 

city of the American continent…we have in 

the twenty-one million potential horsepower 

of the Columbia river system an asset worth 

more than oil, coal and gold, because it cannot 

be exhausted.” 

THE MODERN IRON WORKS 

After a four-year delay, the Oregon Iron & 

Steel Company resumed construction of its new 

plant. The end of the Ohio Crowd’s lawsuits and 

an 1888 contract to supply Portland with castiron 

water pipe for its new Bull Run water 

system sparked completion of the works. 

Oregon Iron & Steel Company officers who 

were members of the Portland Water 

Commission helped secure the job. The new 

contract put 325 workers on the monthly 

payroll of $11,000. 

The sophisticated modern plant demonstrated 

the latest mining technology. The new 

furnace had a fifty-ton daily capacity. Furnace 

Superintendent E. C. Darley wrote proudly in 

1888: “With a furnace built on her lines you 

could not stop her from making iron.” Visible for 

nearly four miles, the chimney of the new 

furnace was 160 feet high. 

The king of the equipment was a Weimar 

blowing engine weighing over one hundred tons. 

This monstrous machine arrived in five railroad 

cars. Three seventy-foot-high hot blast stoves 

heated the air forced into the furnace. The old 

charcoal-burning industry that pocked the 

landscape was left behind. Workers made the 


❖ 

Left: Workers in the casting house 

posed in front of the new furnace for 

this portrait. The large “bustle pipe” 

encircling the furnace held hot air, 

which was injected through numerous 

small pipes into the furnace. 


Below: Three rows of beehive kilns 

near the plant made charcoal 

production easier to control. Each kiln 

burned fifty cords of firewood at 

a filling. 


Chapter III ✦ 41

Oswego newspaper published between 1892 

and 1897, reported in 1893 one of many mining 

accidents in an article titled “A Narrow Escape 

from Death:” 

Tuesday morning at 11 o’clock, Gus Bernhardt 

and Gust Shuholm, employees in the Oswego 

mines, were at work in the mines and the former 

was fixing a fuse in a box of caps when a drop of oil 

from the lamp on his cap fell on a dynamite cap…. 

Fortunately, the two men survived the explosion 

that followed. Although no one liked to talk about 

them, mining accidents were common. 

THE PIPE FOUNDRY 

The Oregon Iron & Steel Company built the 

only pipe foundry west of St. Louis five hundred 

yards north of the new furnace in 1888. With a pit 

for casting pipe vertically, the foundry could 

produce twenty-five tons of pipe each day. 

Workers brought the iron on a flat car from the 

furnace to the pipe foundry where they remelted it 

and poured it into flasks. Oswego foundryman 

Karl Schurz Faucette remembered: 

❖ 

Top: Inside the mine, ore cars shot up 

the tunnel every few minutes. They 

were pulled by a cable on a narrow 

two-foot-wide track to a hoist house 

outside the mine where their loads 

were tipped into a bunker. 

ILLUSTRATION FROM THE WEST SHORE, NOVEMBER 

2, 1889. COURTESTY OF THE OREGON HISTORICAL 

SOCIETY, #ORHI 100091. 

Above: Miners worked in an 

environment where accidents were 

common. Soft ore could be dug 

with a pick and shovel, but drilling 

and blasting were necessary in 

harder deposits. 


charcoal in thirty-six beehive kilns that were thirty 

feet in diameter and thirteen feet high. Built close 

to the furnace, the new kilns solved the problem of 

keeping the charcoal free of moisture when carried 

by wagon and saved the cost of transportation. 

Oswego resident Jerry O’Brien remembered that 

workers made the red brick for the kilns and 

several buildings from clay dug out of the Duck 

Pond (later Lakewood Bay). The brickyard was on 

the flat land between the new plant and the town. 

Miners opened two new entrances to the 

Prosser mine. Tunnels and excavated chambers, 

called rooms, laced the hill. Two miners typically 

worked together in a room and loaded six tons 

per day. They furnished their own light and 

powder at the cost of fifty cents per day and 

earned $1.00 for a carload of ore. Miners 

also risked their lives. The Iron Worker, an 

These flasks, or molds that they cast the pipe 

in, were arranged in a row around the rim of this 

big, perfect circle. In the center of this circle was 

a crane that moved around and placed these flasks 

into upright position, and then the hot metal was 

poured from the cupola into those forms…. 

Oswego foundry men spent two years making 

pipe for the main line that brought Portland’s 

water from its source at Bull Run; workers also 

made the water pipe for other cities. 

THE IRON INDUSTRY 

RESHAPES OSWEGO 

The new furnace went into blast in 1888. The 

grand improvements dramatically increased 

production for a few years. The Oregon Iron & 

Steel Company produced 12,305 tons of pig 

iron in 1890, more than it had ever made in any 

year. After two decades of fits and starts, the 

industry seemed to have resolved its difficulties. 

Oregon Iron & Steel Company’s construction 

of its modern works one-quarter mile north of 


the old works permanently changed the shape of 

Oswego. To provide homes for workers in 

walking distance of the plant, the company 

platted First Addition in 1888 on the slope west 

of the new works. Oswego’s railroad station was 

conveniently located below the foot of new A 

Avenue. First Addition’s boundaries were A 

Avenue, Front Street, G Avenue, and Tenth Street. 

In an 1888 stockholders’ report, President 

Simeon Reed wrote: 

A new town site called the “First addition to 

Oswego” consisting of 49 blocks of 16 lots each 

50 X 120 has been laid out and a map of the 

same has been filed and recorded with the 

County Clerk of Clackamas Co. Already 95 lots 

have been disposed of for the sum of $4778.83. 

Residents began calling First Addition “New 

Town” and the pioneer settlement on the hill 

“Old Town.” During the few years of success 

following the completion of the new plant, 

newcomers flocked to New Town. Lucien 

Davidson made some money hauling the 

possessions of New Town’s newcomers. He wrote 

in his memorandum book on June 22, 1892: 

“This afternoon I moved 2 loads of house hold 

goods from the Oswego landing to the new town 

of Oswego.” 

Oswego’s business district moved away from 

the old iron works to be near First Addition and 

the new plant. The railroad on the eastern edge 

of the addition encouraged the move. Enticed by 

the economic growth that the company hoped 

would last, new businesses opened in Oswego. 

❖ 

Tunnels into the mine were not 

vertical shafts but gradually sloping 

passages that varied in height from 4 

to 9 feet. 


Chapter III ✦ 43

❖ 

After the Oregon Iron & Steel 

Company closed in 1894, the modern 

new plant stood decaying on the 

riverbank, a grim reminder of 

Oswego’s abandoned industrial dream. 


The Oregon Iron & Steel Company’s 

expansion added a new neighborhood south of 

Old Town, too. Mathew Patton platted South 

Oswego in 1883 when he thought a wave of 

ironworkers would buy his lots, but South 

Oswego did not develop until after the 

company’s triumphal year of 1890. Following 

that success, in 1891 the Oregon Iron & Steel 

Company platted Oswego Heights, immediately 

west of the South Oswego Addition. Residents 

called the area south of Sucker Creek “South 

Oswego” or “South Town.” 

THE END OF OSWEGO’ S 

IRON INDUSTRY 

The Oregon Iron & Steel Company’s bubble 

of optimism burst by 1893. The Panic of 1893 

originated with the railroad industry and spread 

through related industries such as iron and 

steel. This panic produced another severe 

national economic depression that lasted from 

1893 until 1897. In an economic environment 

in which it was impossible to borrow money, the 

Oregon Iron & Steel Company could not 

survive. When workers blew out the new 

furnace in 1894, production of Oregon Iron at 

Oswego ended forever. For the next thirty-five 

years the modern new plant stood grimly silent, 

waiting its dismantlement in 1929. 

The Oswego iron industry boomed and busted 

for more than twenty-five years. It shut down at 

least six times, reorganized twice, and produced 

91,520 tons of pig iron. The iron works’ struggle 

to prosper in the long-wave national economic 

depression that lasted from 1873 to 1897 was 

unsuccessful. The cycle of improving the works 

and shutting it down mirrored the vigorous 

business upswings and financial panics that 

occurred throughout America in the last quarter 

of the nineteenth century. Across the nation prices 

declined and thousands of other industrial 

ventures folded along with Oswego’s iron works. 

The Oswego works suffered its own special 

problems too, including lack of high-quality ore, 

and crippling lawsuits. The end of the industry 

hurt wealthy investors and hundreds of 

ironworkers. Simeon Reed’s airy hope of becoming 

a “Carnegie of the West” dissolved, as did the 

dreams of Oswego ironworkers. 


THE IRON INDUSTRY’ S 

LEGACY 

Although the iron industry did not succeed 

in making Oswego an industrial town, it did 

change the city’s character, shape, and future. 

The industry transformed Oswego from a tiny 

sawmill village that might have disappeared by 

1862 into a company town with a modern iron 

works and foundry by 1894. The iron industry 

introduced Oswego to the rapid booms and 

busts in prosperity and population that befell 

one-industry towns. The community saw 

money and people rush in and out, depending 

on the iron market. 

The iron industry also changed the social 

profile and social geography of the town. Added 

to the existing population of families with 

farming, milling, and mercantile backgrounds 

were ironworkers’ families from company towns 

in Ohio and Pennsylvania. It brought Chinese 

workers to Oswego, who clustered together on 

scraps of undesirable land around the town. The 

industry encouraged landowners to plat new 

additions to the old town. South Town and New 

Town, developed in response to the industry’s 

promise, remained as permanent neighborhoods. 

Oswego’s business district moved away from the 

old iron works to be near First Addition and the 

new plant. Enticed by the year of peak production 

in 1890, new businesses lined up on Front Street. 

The iron industry transformed Oswego’s 

landscape. It brought a railroad, giant trestles, 

and a furnace with a chimney one hundred and 

sixty feet high. It added a canal and increased 

the size of the lake. To make charcoal, workers 

sheared the trees off thousands of acres of land 

around the town. Surrounded by a shoreline of 

rotting stumps, the lake’s beauty disappeared. 

Miners strip mining south of the lake left long 

scars on the earth. Tunnels reamed Mine Hill. 

The canal, expansion of the lake, and railroad 

were changes that remained visible. Trestles and 

the new furnace were mammoth industrial 

structures that disappeared. 

The Oregon Iron & Steel Company owned 

13,820 acres around Oswego, 9,449 acres in 

Washington, and 120 acres in British Columbia 

in 1894. As the town’s largest owner of property 

that no longer served an industrial use, the 

company looked to the land for new ways to 

make a profit. 

❖ 

A view of Mount Hood and the lake 

from the top of Iron Mountain. At the 

end of Oswego’s iron era, iron 

company investors looked to the 

natural beauty of the lake for a way 

to capitalize on their extensive 

property holdings. 

COURTESY OF ROBERTA PIERCE. 

Chapter III ✦ 45


IV 

MAKING A NEW CITY 

The City of Oswego shall remain and continue a body politic and corporate... 

— Charter of the City of Oswego 

January 15, 1910 

A CHANGING TOWN 

For more than two decades following the end of the iron era, Oswego suffered economically. 

Without the iron industry, residents struggled to find work and to build up their town. They 

still considered Oswego a city of industry and hoped for new manufacturing enterprises. Through 

their community institutions and a fervent desire to keep their town alive, the people kept 

Oswego going. 

After the Oregon Iron & Steel Company blew out its new furnace in 1894, a heavy economic 

gloom settled over Oswego. No railroad cars loaded with ore rattled through the streets. No heavy 

smoke rising from the charcoal kilns filled the noses of the townspeople. The iron industry was dead, 

but reminders of it were everywhere. The charcoal dump by the old furnace burned long after hoboes 

lit it for warmth. The portage between the lake and the river remained etched into the hillside by 

oxen’s hooves. Further north, the new furnace awaited its unknown fate. 

Without the iron industry, the town had little to attract people. By 1894 Oswego looked 

like all it could be was Portland’s lowly servant, providing that larger city with workers and 

shoppers. The severe national economic depression from 1893-1897 only made Oswego’s plight 

worse. Not only did Oswego lose over three hundred jobs that the Oregon Iron & Steel Company 

created, but many of the new businesses enticed by the industry’s boom closed. After struggling to 

keep publishing the Iron Worker, Editor Herbert Gill finally gave up in 1897. He lamented in “A 

Sunset Bow:” 

❖ 

Oswego’s new public school, 

built in 1893, was the town’s 

grandest structure. 


It was our objective to continue the publication of the Iron Worker and assist in the enjoyment of the 

good times that will without doubt visit Oswego, but our good intentions have been blasted by the fact that 

the air of Oswego, while healthful, does not sufficiently invigorate when taken alone. 

IRON- WORKING FAMILIES DEPART 

Many of the iron-working families left Oswego. Once again the men took their talents to other 

towns where other companies had furnaces. Following their tradition of moving across America to 

find jobs in their industry, Oswego men provided charcoal-iron companies with a skilled work force. 

Robert James Meyers’ father, an ironworker for the Krupp Munitions Works in Germany, immigrated 

to Michigan and then followed the industry west. As charcoal-iron companies burned up the forests, 

the Meyers family moved from furnace to furnace. Meyers took his family to Irondale, Washington. 

When Irondale’s furnace closed, the family came to Oswego. After the Oregon Iron & Steel Company 

blew out its furnace, the Meyers moved again before returning to Oswego in later years. 

The closing of the iron works and the national economic depression drastically shrank Oswego’s 

population after 1894. The successful year of 1890 pushed the number of residents to a high of 540. 

By 1900 the population fell to approximately three hundred people. Ella Bickner, who grew up in South 

Oswego, lamented the tiny numbers when she and Oscar Eaton, who led the drive to organize the 

Congregational Church, opened the church’s doors on Sundays. Oswego author Theresa Truchot 

remembered that Ella Bickner: 

Chapter IV ✦ 47

had to be quiet. And they were quiet. Quiet and 

sad because there was nothing much to look 

forward to.” 

FAMILY ECONOMY & 

JOB COMPETITION 

❖ 

Top: Worried and poverty-stricken 

men were a familiar sight in 

Mosier’s Saloon during the years of 

hardship that followed the close of 

the iron works. 


Above: In 1905 catches of spring 

Chinook were often one ton a night at 

the mouth of Sucker Creek. Salmon 

sold for 10 to 15 cents a pound. 


PUBLIC LIBRARY. 

…would go over in those early bleak days, 

when the smelter had shut down, and she and 

Father Eaton were practically the only grown-ups 

there. But she would ring the bell. She told me 

how discouraging it was with so many people 

leaving Oswego…. 

Herbert Letcher Nelson delivered the Oregon 

Journal as a young boy during those desolate 

years. He saw the handful of tired, anxious 

Oswego men who wearily leaned across the 

saloon bars. Remembering their grim resignation, 

Nelson said there was “never a murmur—from 

the tired poverty stricken, drinking a glass of beer 

after work.” Nelson reflected: “Those days were so 

tough, the living standard was so low that people 

Oswego women now watched over their family 

economies with hawk-like eyes. Dora Headrick 

Brandt recalled that Mr. Bethke, the butcher, was 

“an awful nice old man. He would give you a soup 

bone for nothing. But when his wife was there she 

wasn’t so liberal when she was waiting on you.” 

Like Mrs. Bethke, many Oswego women helped 

run the family business. Some added to the family 

income in other ways, including managing 

boarding houses and selling eggs and butter. As 

women often did during lean years, Oswego wives 

pinched pennies until they squeaked. 

Competition for remaining jobs rose sharply 

among Oswego men. The Oregon City Courier in 

1894 reported complaints about T. W. Sullivan, 

the Portland General Electric Company’s 

engineer. Bitter men protested that Sullivan 

discriminated against Protestants by hiring fellow 

Catholics to build the new power plant on the 

Willamette’s west side. The reporter wrote that 

Sullivan claimed: “it never made any difference to 

him what the nationality or religion was of a 

workingman. All he wanted to know was 

whether he was a man and could and would do a 

man’s work….” Sullivan protested that: “Mr. 

Thomas, who had the contract for the concrete 

work, employed nothing but Welshmen, but, 

strange to say, no one has found any fault with 

Thomas for that.…” 

Many Oswego men left their families to take 

seasonal jobs in the woods or on the Willamette 

River. Once hired often by the iron companies to 

construct buildings, carpenter and farmer Lucien 

Davidson went to Portland several days a week 

to find employment. A few men loaded railroad 

cars at the Crown Willamette Pulp and Paper 

Company’s log hoist, approximately one-third of 

a mile south of the old furnace. Some men 

walked ten miles each day to work in the West 

Linn and Oregon City paper mills. Others 

blasted rock at the quarries on the north and 

south edges of Oswego. Many men chopped 

cordwood for the steamboats and used their 

wagons to haul loads. 


THE OREGON IRON & 

STEEL COMPANY FOUNDRY 

Oswego was still a company town, but the pipe 

foundry was the Oregon Iron & Steel Company’s 

only industrial enterprise. Between 1894 and 1928 

the pipe shop made cast-iron water pipe. Local 

newspapers frequently reported, as did the Oregon 

City Courier-Enterprise on March 6, 1908: “The pipe 

shop has closed down for an indefinite time.” 

Depending on its contracts, only 35 to 75 men 

worked at the foundry: coremakers, crane 

operators, mechanics, and laborers. 

The pipe foundry was never very profitable 

and pipe making was a difficult process. Notes 

describing the shop’s production record, 

probably written by foundry superintendent W. 

E. Simonton, stated: “Until 1919 the result of 

the day’s cast was considerably a gamble.” Pipe 

making also was dangerous. Herman Blanken, 

who ran the foundry’s steam locomotive, 

described coremakers freezing in their tracks to 

avoid being burned: 

Sometimes this core would not be exactly 

dry, and when this redhot iron would hit it 

❖ 

Left: The Oregon Iron & Steel 

Company’s pipe foundry operated 

intermittently between 1894 and 

1928, producing cast-iron water pipe 

for Portland and nearby cities. 


Below: Pipe making was difficult and 

dangerous. If the clay-coated cores 

were not thoroughly dry when the 

molten iron was poured, workers 

could be showered with an explosion 

of red-hot metal. 

ILLUSTRATION FROM THE WEST SHORE, 

NOVEMBER 2, 1889, P. 234. COURTESY OF THE 


Chapter IV ✦ 49

always said it that way.” Each community had its 

own identity derived from its location, history, 

and residents. Within them men and women 

searched for ways to make Oswego prosper. 

OLD 

TOWN 

❖ 

Above: By 1895 Oswego had three 

distinct communities: Old Town, New 

Town, and South Town. 


Below: A panorama of Old Town 

looking North from Sucker Creek. The 

tower of the 1893 school was just 

visible above the trees on the left. The 

iron company’s power plant (lower left 

corner) was built on the edge of 

Sucker Creek. The Odd Fellows Hall 

was the tallest building on Durham 

Place, which was no more than a dirt 

road in 1910. The new smelter, with 

its towering stack, was destined to 

vanish in a few years while the old 

stone furnace (right foreground) would 

survive into the twenty-first century. 

COURTESY OF THE CLACKAMAS COUNTY FAMILY 

HISTORY SOCIETY. 

would fly like sparks all over. And I’ve seen them 

stand like that and it would run out off their 

shirts. It wouldn’t burn them but it would just 

fall out of their shirts. 

THREE 

COMMUNITIES 

Part of the iron industry’s legacy was the 

creation of three distinct communities. Arthur 

Carhart Jones, who came to Oswego as a young 

boy in 1906, recalled: “There was New Town, 

Old Town, and South Town and they almost 

Old Town was the pioneer settlement that 

developed near the river landing and Albert 

Durham’s sawmill. The first two iron companies 

added business streets and worker housing. By the 

time the iron industry ended in 1894, Old Town 

expanded its original boundaries to include Front 

Street (later State Street) south of A Avenue. Oswego 

author Mary Goodall wrote in Oregon’s Iron Dream, 

“Old Town was soon enlarged in the minds of those 

who lived there and taken to include the entire area 

from Sucker Creek along the Willamette to what is 

now known as ‘A’ Avenue.” Old Town lost its 

business district when New Town developed. The 

Oregon Iron & Steel Company boarded up the old 

business buildings on Ladd Street. Prosser’s store, 

one of Old Town’s last commercial enterprises, 

moved to New Town in 1896. 

Even without a business district, Old Town 

remained the center of community life for some 

time. Townspeople selected Front Street at the 

crest of the hill, part of the expanded Old Town, as 

the location for a new school and a new Methodist 

Church. The Oswego correspondent for the 

Oregon City Enterprise reported on May 19, 1893: 


We will have built this summer one six-room 

school house which will cost about $6,000, and 

the Methodist society will build a $2,000 church, 

all in the old town and on the elevated ground 

between South Oswego and the new town. 

The Grange Hall on Leonard Street and the 

Odd Fellows Hall on Durham Place were large 

two-story public buildings that helped Old Town 

maintain its status as the center of community life. 

Crowds gathered in them regularly for meetings, 

dances, and lectures. When Oswego was one 

precinct, voters waited in lines formed according 

to political parties before casting their ballots 

inside the Odd Fellows Hall. The ball field next to 

the old brickyard on the patch of level land north 

of Leonard Street brought everyone to Old Town. 

The Oswego Redmen was one of several teams 

that helped to solidify town identity and pride. 

And, as long as the steamboats stopping at the old 

landing provided the best transportation, Old 

Town was the most convenient place to live. 

Old Town’s buildings reflected their past as 

part of an iron-making community. The Oregon 

Iron & Steel Company owned most of the 

structures and land. There was a mix of singlefamily 

houses, boarding houses, public buildings, 

and commercial buildings. Many of the 

company’s houses on Wilbur Street stood empty 

after 1894. There were only a few buildings north 

of Leonard Street. 

Old Town residents ranged from families of 

laboring men to managers’ and merchants’ families. 

Durham Place, which cut through the heart of Old 

Town, was the social dividing line. Working men’s 

families lived west of Durham Place, while the 

families of merchants and professional men lived 

east of it. Furnace Street, overlooking the 

Willamette River, was Oswego’s most desirable 

location. From the beginning, the bluff over the 

Willamette was the domain of Oswego’s prominent 

people. Albert Durham built a second and grander 

home there, and Bishop Scott chose that location 

for the Episcopal Church’s boarding school. 

❖ 

George Prosser’s store on Durham 

Place served as one of Oswego’s 

post offices. 


Chapter IV ✦ 51

❖ 

Gans’ feed and grocery store in South 

Town as it looked around 1891. 

Henry Gans, standing at left with his 

wife and three daughters, later sold 

the store to Joseph Bickner, who 

married Gans’ eldest daughter, Mary. 


When John Trullinger platted Oswego in 1867, he 

named the road on the bluff Furnace Street. Here 

storeowner and prominent civic leader George 

Prosser built his home. 

Furnace Street remained the preferred location 

of Oswego’s managerial class after 1900. George 

Howard Pettinger and Elizabeth (Bessie) Evans 

Pettinger lived on Furnace Street. Howard Pettinger 

was an accountant for the Oregon Iron & Steel 

Company and Bessie Pettinger was one of Oswego’s 

civic leaders. The Portland Cement Company (later 

the Oregon Portland Cement Company) also built 

its president’s house on Furnace Street in 1912. 

SOUTH 

TOWN 

Gans, was the only commercial establishment. 

Bickner built his second store in New Town. 

Herbert Letcher Nelson remembered: “Over to 

South Town you had to go quite a little way 

down across this old covered bridge and there 

was Bickner’s Feed and Grocery Store. There 

were just a few houses over there.” 

Single African-American workers lived in a 

boarding house in South Town. The Johnson and 

Ransom Daniels families, also African American, 

made South Town their home too. Ransom 

Daniels came from Texas to Portland, where he 

married Minnie Johnson. They moved to Oswego 

when Mr. Daniels took a job in the pipe foundry. 

Their children went to the school on Front Street. 

South Town, also called South Oswego, told its 

history as an iron-working neighborhood too. 

Bounded by Maple Street on the north, Fir and 

Laurel on the south, Patton on the west, and 

Prosser Street on the east, South Town was sparsely 

settled. South Town bore the scars where men first 

strip mined iron ore in Oswego. Originally platted 

in 1883, South Town was the place where many 

Ohio iron-working families settled. Streets later 

took their names from these families: Bickner, 

Nelson, and Worthington. South Town also 

retained signs of its pioneer roots. The Jesse Bullock 

house, one of the few remaining homes of donation 

land claim settlers, was in South Town. 

South Town was a residential community 

without a business street. Joseph Bickner’s first 

store, purchased from pioneer merchant Henry 

NEW 

TOWN 

New Town represented Oswego’s hope for 

the future. New Town was First Addition, 

platted by the Oregon Iron & Steel Company in 

1888 to provide worker housing within walking 

distance of its new plant. New Town’s recently 

constructed buildings contrasted sharply with 

the older structures in Old Town and South 

Town. New Town attracted people who wanted 

to live in a modern city. Supporters of progress, 

they participated enthusiastically in America’s 

modern Industrial Age. 

At first, New Town looked like it would 

quickly overtake Old Town to become the 

center of community life. That process 

slowed when the iron works shut down, but 


New Town’s businesses kept the area alive. 

Arthur Carhart Jones remembered: “one of the 

features of New Town was the business street 

which ran from about Bickner’s store down to a 

little beyond the only brick building in the town 

in those days.” 

After the iron works closed, the Oregon 

Iron & Steel Company owned hundreds of New 

Town lots it could not sell. When Arthur Jones’ 

family came to Oswego in 1906, New Town had 

more vegetation and birds than homeowners. 

Jones said: 

We all walked from the Oswego depot up 

what is now A Street to Fourth and then on past 

the Congregational Church, following paths in 

and out among the many stumps and the wild 

rose bushes and hazel brush and lots thickly covered 

with second growth firs…there was a field of 

rye up the slope east of our house and Mt. Hood 

loomed above the sky line in clear full view…. 

Sited on a slope with a beautiful vista of Mt. 

Hood, New Town stopped growing after 1894. 

But New Town remained Oswego’s future. 

SOCIAL 

TIES 

Although Oswego consisted of three distinct 

communities, social ties developed across them. 

People from all three neighborhoods supported 

Oswego’s public school and maintained the town’s 

❖ 

Above: Businesses on Front Street 

(State Street) included the Oswego 

Lumberyard, Davidson’s drugstore, 

Prosser’s store and post office, the 

Oswego Gardens (a saloon), Koehler’s 

blacksmith shop, and Bickner’s store. 


Below: A view of A Avenue looking 

toward the river. The building at left 

housed the public bath and 

confectionery. The Oswego Depot was 

the small building at the foot of A. It 

stood on the east side of Front Street. 



Chapter IV ✦ 53

❖ 

Members of the Oswego Grange 

included both men and women, 

townspeople and farmers. 


lodges and churches. Participation in these activities 

gave the townspeople a sense of shared goals, which 

helped Oswego weather the difficult years. 

The schools, lodges, and churches that brought 

residents together also served as social conduits for 

new ideas that modernized Oswego. After children 

began attending the new school, parents discussed 

improving the education the school provided. 

Residents joined national organizations where they 

learned modern methods of running their 

businesses and farms. Influenced by the Oregon 

Iron & Steel Company’s gleaming, modern iron 

works, some residents wanted Oswego to have all 

the latest technological advances—electricity, 

trolleys, hard-surfaced roads, and wood sidewalks. 

The new public school on Front Street 

embodied the modern spirit entering the town. 

Although sophisticates in America’s cultural 

centers considered the school’s style outdated by 

1880, Oregon architectural tastes lagged far 

behind. For Oswego residents, the building’s 

Second Empire Style represented a modern 

sensibility. The grandeur of the architecture 

testified to the new importance placed on 

educating children for twentieth century life. The 

tall steps leading up to the two entrances 

suggested that those who ascended them would 

attain a higher level of learning. Principal C. H. 

Jones reported on October 12, 1894 that 187 

students attended the beautiful new school. 

COMMUNITY 

ORGANIZATIONS 

As Oswego became increasingly connected to 

the world outside it, people joined a dizzying 

number of national organizations. These popular 

groups had fraternal and benevolent missions. 

They too introduced modern ideas and services. 

Oswego residents often belonged to more 

than one lodge. Organizations included the 

Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the 

Rebekahs, Ancient Order of United Artisans, 

Masons, Improved Order of Red Men, 

Pocahontases, International Order of Good 

Templars, Knights of Pythias, and the Grangers. 

Most groups held weekly meetings. Lucien and 

Clara Davidson were one of many 

Oswego couples who attended at least one 

lodge meeting a week for nearly forty years. 

Besides the Grange, the Davidsons joined Pig 

Iron Lodge #135 of the Ancient Order of United 

Artisans, and Mistletoe Lodge, its female 

auxiliary. 

Nearly every group brought in guest speakers 

who presented fresh ideas. At meetings of the 

Good Templars, members listened to speakers 

rail against the evils of drink. At the Grange 

Hall, members heard speakers debate the 

politics of candidates such as William Jennings 

Bryan and William McKinley. 

Groups often formed to provide life insurance 

to their members. In an era before many people 

bought benefits from life insurance companies, 

Oswego residents joined lodges because dues 

paid for benefits if people suffered sicknesses, 

accidents, or death. The Odd Fellows, Artisans, 

and others also emphasized members’ 

responsibility to bury the dead. 

This duty encouraged Odd Fellow George 

Prosser to donate land for Oswego Cemetery 

and Sacred Heart Cemetery, both located on 

what later became Stafford Road. Prosser and 

other Odd Fellows also attended to the burials 

of members’ families. Dora Headrick Brandt 

appreciated the Odd Fellows’ assistance when 

her young son died: “Mr. Prosser came to the 

house to help. Him and his boys laid him out 

and took charge of the funeral. My little boy was 

buried up here at the cemetery.” 

Funerals showed the strength of the social 

bonds created by Oswego’s lodges. When Dena 

Bronleewe Prosser, George Prosser’s third wife, 

died on February 2, 1895, the members of three 

organizations that the Prossers belonged to 

marched behind her coffin. The Oregon City 

Enterprise reported on February 8, 1895: 


After the services the funeral procession was 

formed. First. the members of I.O.O.F. No. 93, 

and members of Star Lodge K. of P.; second, 

school children; third, members of J.B. Finch 

Lodge I.O.G.T., followed by the pallbarriers [sic] 

and hearse. These were followed by more than 

fifty wagons and other vehicles. There were fully 

four hundred persons in the process. 

More than anything else, Oswego people 

joined community organizations because they 

offered sociability. Residents enjoyed attending 

dinners, dances, and fairs with their friends. 

Herman Blanken recalled the Odd Fellows’ 

meetings: “When I was Noble Grand, a good 

many years ago, there was all the way from fifty 

to a hundred at every meeting. They came from 

miles around in wagons and everything.” 

Many community events took place in the 

Grange Hall. Adam Randolph Shipley, who 

played a leading role in organizing the Grange in 

1874, provided a little house for its first 

meetings on his Hazelia farm. When Oswego’s 

population grew in the 1880s, the Grangers 

decided to move their meetings into town. 

Grangers held meetings in Prosser’s Hall, the 

Odd Fellows’ Hall, and the Grange Hall. At one 

point, the Grange Hall on Leonard Street shared 

space with Oswego’s school children on 

weekdays and Methodists on Sundays. 

Everyone enjoyed the events at the Grange 

Hall. Townsfolk outnumbered the farmers who 

attended them. The Davidsons and other families 

who lived outside of town came to the Grange 

Hall in the morning and sometimes stayed the 

whole day. Maude Lehman Grimm, Adam 

Shipley’s great-granddaughter, remembered: 

In the early days, you see, there was no place 

to go. And this Grange took the place for that 

sociability that they were after more than anything 

else. They had many dances…. Chris 

Borland, one of the charter members, was one of 

the best callers I ever heard. He always would go 

out by himself and lead the grand march. And he 

could lead it! Oh, that was fun! 

❖ 

Four hundred people attended the 

funeral of George Prosser’s third wife, 

Dena, on February 8, 1895. The 

funeral cortege assembled on Church 

Street, beside the Odd Fellows Hall, 

for the procession to the cemetery. 


Chapter IV ✦ 55

❖ 

Nearly one hundred people attended 

the Grange Hall wedding of 

Albert M. Holton and Ollie Z. Gage 

on April 15, 1896. 


OSWEGO WOMAN’ S CLUB 

Oswego Woman’s Club, the town’s first civic 

group, was one of the most important sources of 

new ideas and civic improvements. Sarah 

Shannon Evans laid the roots for the club when 

she moved with her husband William Evans to 

Oswego in 1892. Evans was the Oregon Iron & 

Steel Company’s chemist. 

Sarah Evans was one of thousands of women 

who participated in the social reform 

movements that flourished at the turn of the 

nineteenth century. Among the causes Evans 

supported were social work among immigrants 

and the laboring poor, Prohibition, woman’s 

suffrage, and pure food and drug legislation. 

After settling on Furnace Street, Sarah Evans 

organized a reading club. Her next step was to 

encourage its members to support a free reading 

room. Mr. H. Harnsden operated a circulating 

library in Oswego in 1893, but people had 

to pay to borrow books. Sarah Evans was a 

firm believer in the uplifting nature of 

education. She no doubt thought that 

unemployed ironworkers needed a free reading 

room so they could use their spare time for selfimprovement. 

The Oregon City Courier reported 

on November 9, 1894: 

The Reading Room Club met at the residence 

of Mrs. Jackson Wednesday and decided to open 

the reading room immediately. Books are being 

collected and the doors of the reading room will 

be thrown open in a few days. The officers of the 

club are: Mrs. Evans, president; Mrs. Stewart, 

vice-president; Mrs. Walling, secretary; Mrs. 

Prosser, treasurer. 

Oswego women opened the Free Library 

Reading Room in the Kellogg Building on 

the corner of Front Street and A Avenue. The 

Kellogg Building was the town’s first brick building 

and the home of Oswego’s first bank. Operating 

only until 1896, the Free Library Reading Room 

was the beginning of a larger vision. 

The same week that Sarah Evans and other 

women organized the Free Library Reading Room, 

they also started the Social Whist Club for 

something to do on wintry evenings in Oswego. 

The Social Whist Club was the nucleus of the 

Portland Woman’s Club. Sarah Evans later said: 

“Of course had it not prospered as a whist party, it 

would have come into existence anyhow for the 

time was ripe for just such an organization.” 

Founded in Oswego in 1895, the Portland 

Woman’s Club had a long life as one of that city’s 

greatest contributors to civic improvements. 

After starting Oswego’s Free Library Reading 

Room, the members of the new Portland 

Woman’s Club successfully lobbied the state 

legislature to pass a 1901 law that allowed cities 

to use taxes to support libraries. Oswego’s Free 


Library Reading Room was the seed from which 

Oregon’s public library system grew. 

The Portland Woman’s Club also served as a 

model for the Oswego Woman’s Club, founded on 

March 28, 1906, by Sarah Evans’ daughter. Bessie 

Evans Pettinger learned about civic responsibility 

at her mother’s knee. Oswego author Theresa 

Truchot called Bessie Pettinger “Oswego’s 

guardian angel.” She was always in the foreground 

of civic life, introducing her friends and neighbors 

to new ideas that would improve their town. 

Started during the years of economic hardship, 

the Oswego Woman’s Club’s first mission was to 

serve Oswego’s children and their school. In later 

years these clubwomen led countless campaigns 

to improve their town, including establishing a 

free public library and free school lunches. 

Besides serving the town, the Oswego Woman’s 

Club served its members. By informing them of 

larger social issues, it expanded their vision 

beyond their immediate circle. Clubwomen 

learned that they could improve Oswego by 

combining their energies. 

Townspeople organized other local groups 

based on special interests. Literary societies, such 

as the Osmoni Club, lifted people out of their 

everyday lives and gave them the opportunity to 

indulge in art and literature. Bessie Pettinger and 

other Oswego residents, eager to elevate the 

cultural life of their little town, encouraged their 

friends to participate. 

CHURCHES 

Pastors and church members rued the fact that 

more people attended meetings of the Grange, 

lodges, and community organizations than they 

did church services. Completion of the Oregon 

Iron & Steel Company’s new plant in 1888 gave 

the city three churches. Expecting continued 

population growth, the Congregational and 

Catholic Churches organized and the Methodists 

built a new building. 

The Congregational missionary minister Dr. 

George H. Atkinson encouraged Oswego 

parishioners to establish a self-supporting church. 

Wanting their own church, the many Catholic 

families that came from Belgium’s great iron-making 

district built Sacred Heart Catholic Church in 1890. 

The Methodists moved from their building in Old 

Town to be on Front Street next to the new school. 

The three churches hoped to attract new 

members and to establish a Christian moral 

dominion over the town. As proprietors of a 

company town, Oregon Iron & Steel Company 

owners had a vested interest in joining the 

churches in these goals. Besides sharing a real 

belief in the spiritual importance of Christian 

faith, both groups wanted to foster values that 

they believed created a Christian community of 

diligent workers. Those values included 

industriousness, punctuality, and sobriety. One 

reason that Dr. Atkinson encouraged a 

Congregational church in Oswego was to counter 

the influence of the town’s many saloons. 

Company owners also wanted to foster 

Christian fellowship between workers and owners 

as a means of strengthening industrial capitalism. 

Socialism and violent labor strikes threatened 

America’s upper classes at the turn of the twentieth 

century. By emphasizing Christian fellowship in a 

company town, owners stressed the shared 

interests of workers and owners. The owners of the 

Oregon Iron & Steel Company demonstrated their 

Christian stewardship and self-interest by 

donating church buildings and lots. By 1900 the 

company donated a parsonage to the Methodist 

Church and lots for church buildings to both the 

Catholic and Congregational Churches. 

The closing of the iron works ended visions of 

filling these churches with large congregations. 

Hard times steeled the parishioners that remained 

to long hours devoted to keeping their churches 

alive. The churches reflected Oswego’s lean years 

by combining parishes, sharing pastors, or doing 

❖ 

Social life for the town’s young people 

revolved around dinners, dances, and 

fairs held at the Grange Hall. 


Chapter IV ✦ 57

without them. Church members shouldered 

endless voluntary activities, including feeding 

their pastors. Methodist minister E. V. Smith came 

to Oswego in 1897 and stayed until 1898. Church 

historian Clarice Holstrom later wrote that 

Reverend Smith “received very little pay, but the 

congregation was very generous with food and he 

was never so well fed as in Oswego.” 

CHURCHWOMEN 

❖ 

Right: The Congregational Church 

was built in 1891 on the corner of 

Fourth and D in New Town. 



Below: The Reverend R. M. Jones, 

seen here with his wife and daughter, 

Gladys, served as the Congregational 

pastor from 1891 to 1897. 


Oswego women led voluntary efforts. 

Women established the Altar Society for the 

Catholic Church, the Ladies’ Aid Society for the 

Methodist Church, and the Dorcas Society for 

the Congregational Church. Through these 

associations women raised funds for buildings, 

Sunday schools, and youth programs. 

Oswego’s churches offered mostly middle-class 

women, restricted from all the professions except 

teaching and nursing, with a niche of volunteer 

work where they could use their talents and free 

time. Oswego women donated their time by 

cooking, baking, and sewing to create the church 

suppers and evening entertainments that enabled 

their churches to continue. The Oregon City 

Enterprise reported on September 28, 1894, one of 

hundreds of gala events Oswego women organized: 

The ladies of the Catholic Church gave an 

entertainment in Prosser’s hall, Tuesday evening. 

Music, supper, fish pond, and the “light 

fantastic” made up the order of the evening. Take 

it altogether it was a very enjoyable time. The 

proceeds of the evening were for the benefit of 

the church of the Sacred Heart. 

TRANSPORTATION 

Residents’ support of community institutions 

helped the little town endure the grim years. 

When people looked for ways to take Oswego 

out of its depressed state, transportation 

improvements quickly came to mind. Oswego’s 

isolation was very noticeable in 1910. It 

even struck a young boy when he moved 

that year from the advanced state of Wisconsin. 

Edward Twining recalled: “Oswego was 

rather remote from Portland in those days, due 

to transportation.” 

Transportation to and from Oswego in 1900 

was a patchwork of systems. Until the 1920s 

residents chose from wagon roads, rivers, or 

railroad routes to travel through the Willamette 

Valley. People went to Portland and Oregon City 

by steamboat, by railroad, by wagon, buggy, 

horseback or foot. Bessie Pettinger recalled: 

We usually went to Portland on the boat 

(more convenient as to time) and came home on 


the narrow gauge train…or we drove into town 

in a surrey with a fringe on top—or rode on 

horseback….We often walked to Oregon City or 

Portland, just for the walk. 

ROADS 

The old wagon roads were the workhorses of 

the three systems. A presidential election barely 

bested road building as the more important 

political topic in Oswego. The major roads were the 

county road (later Macadam Avenue) to Portland 

over Elk Rock, the Gans Road (later River Road) to 

West Linn and Oregon City, and Boones Ferry 

Road, which many farmers used to take their crops 

to Portland. In 1900 these roads had steep grades, 

deep ruts, and no paving. Edward Twining said: 

There was a rock road, almost impassable 

sometimes, in to Portland city limits. In bad 

weather it was either snowed up, broken up, or 

mud up to your ears. The same was the main street 

going through Oswego. That was a foot of dust in 

the summer and a foot of mud in the winter. 

STEAMBOATS 

Steamboats were the quickest, easiest, and 

best-loved form of travel. Oswego, after all, had 

its beginning as a town that grew up by a river 

landing. This piece of its identity remained until 

automobiles erased it. Steamboats ran deep in 

the blood of many Oswego residents who 

worked or traveled on them. There was nothing 

so romantic as the deep tones of a steamboat 

whistle. The Altona, the Ramona—each 

riverboat had a name and an identity that 

people remembered. The townspeople watched 

with some sadness as the steamboat era ended 

in the 1920s. 

Herbert Letcher Nelson, born in 1900, reflected: 

Even when I was a kid fifteen years old, I 

remember going down there and holding up my 

hand to a big steamboat coming up the river. 

They would put down the gangplank, I would 

walk up on deck to where the purser was standing 

and hand him a quarter, which was the price 

for a ride to Oregon City…. It was a great thing 

in those days. 

RAILROADS 

Railroads pushed Oswego out of the 

nineteenth century into the twentieth century. 

They speeded up the tempo of life while whetting 

appetites to move even faster. The arrival of the 

narrow-gauge railroad thrilled residents in 1880. 

Knowing that the railroad would make land more 

valuable, people eagerly bought property near it. 

Ben Whitcomb, a bachelor working for the 

Oswego Iron Company cutting wood, hoped to be 

❖ 

Left: The Sacred Heart Catholic 

Church was erected on the corner of 

First and E Streets in 1890. 



Right: After years of meeting in the 

Grange Hall and other buildings, the 

Methodists of Oswego built a church 

on property purchased in 1894 from 

the Oregon Iron & Steel Company. 

The church was located on Front 

Street next to the new school. 



Chapter IV ✦ 59

had the thrill of going over the Elk Rock trestle. 

It was a massive wood structure that in hairraising 

fashion skirted the side of Elk Rock high 

above the river. Riding over Elk Rock trestle was 

always an unforgettable experience. Frances 

Pauling Jenkins, sister of the famous scientist 

Linus Pauling, remembered the trestle when she 

visited her grandparents in Oswego: 

❖ 

Above: A covered bridge crossed Tryon 

Creek at the northern edge of Oswego 

where the road to Portland and the 

railroad paralleled each other. 


Below: Riverboats were the quickest, 

easiest, and best-loved form of travel 

in the Willamette Valley. The 

steamboat era ended in the 1920s. 



one of the buyers. In 1880 he wrote his Ohio 

sweetheart that he wanted six hundred acres of 

land south of Oswego “crossed by the line of the 

narrow gauge RR that can be had…for $5.00 per 

acre….” Painting a glowing picture of himself as a 

good prospect for a husband, Whitcomb told her: 

“There is a man living about a mile from here who 

made $1,800 off ten acres of ground a year ago.” 

The Portland & Willamette Railroad Company 

organized in 1885 and completed a trestle and 

track to Portland in 1887. Stockholders in the 

new railroad included William S. Ladd, Simeon 

G. Reed, and Henry C. Leonard, who also were 

stockholders in the Oregon Iron & Steel 

Company. They wanted a railroad to carry the 

iron company’s products into Portland. 

Prior to 1887, the narrow gauge railroad’s 

tracks stopped at Elk Rock where passengers 

boarded a steamer for Portland. Now residents 

The most exciting part of the journey was 

when the train slowly crossed the trestle that 

hugged the face of the towering Elk Rock. Linus, 

Lucille, and I always took seats on the river side 

of the coach because it was a little more scary. 

ECONOMIC 

OPTIMISM, 

1906-1909 

When residents learned in 1906 that the 

Southern Pacific Railroad Company would build 

new lines, they were ecstatic. This was the kind of 

transportation improvement that they thought 

could make Oswego boom again. It was the first 

good economic news in more than a decade. 

The new lines would connect Southern 

Pacific’s three west-side lines, which included 

the former Portland & Willamette Valley 

Railroad after 1890, and the company’s main 

line on the Willamette River’s east side. The 

connecting lines would allow trains to get to the 

Southern Pacific’s main line and yard more 

efficiently. Oswego people thought that the new 

Milwaukie Branch would attract businesses to 

their town. Lucien Davidson wrote happily on 

January 5, 1906, about his son: “Orrin worked 

on the railroad survey. Nice weather for out of 

door work, 48 degrees.” 

The Milwaukie Branch, soon called the 

Willsburg Cut-Off, traveled on the east side of 

the Willamette from Willsburg Junction near 

Milwaukie through Menefee. The new line 

crossed the river to Wilsonia, a little community 

on the northern edge of Oswego. Menefee, the 

east-side log dump for Southern Pacific logging 

trains, was the line’s primary destination. The 

first train steamed over the new bridge on July 

17, 1910. 

Construction of the Willsburg Cut-Off did 

what Oswego residents hoped. It encouraged 

owners of a cement manufacturing company to 

choose Oswego as the location for a new plant. 

After the English monopoly on Portland cement 

manufacture ended in the mid-nineteenth 


century, the cement industry grew rapidly in 

America and Canada. 

Stockholders in Oswego’s new cement plant 

included major investors in the Oregon Iron & 

Steel Company, such as William S. Ladd’s son, 

Charles E. Ladd, and Theodore Wilcox, former 

president of the company. Lack of capital 

delayed completion of the plant until 1916, but 

the future looked bright when the cement 

company purchased land from the Oregon Iron 

& Steel Company. The Oregon 

Journal 

proclaimed in 1910: “Oswego Elated over 

coming of Cement Factory.” The reporter 

noticed that “not since the closing of the iron 

plant about twenty years ago has such activity 

been displayed in the quiet little village of 

Oswego during the past week.” 

needed.” The Portland General Electric power 

plant provided the Pettinger family with the first 

electric lights in Oswego in 1908. When the 

Oswego Power & Light Company completed its 

plant in 1910, it provided electricity to the city. 

AN EARLY INCORPORATION 

EFFORT, 1893 

Residents first considered incorporating 

Oswego in 1893. They realized the Oregon Iron 

& Steel Company’s new iron works would not 

❖ 

Above: For nearly seventy years the 

sandy beach near the mouth of Sucker 

Creek was the center of traffic in 

Oswego. Here the riverboats set down 

their gangplanks for passengers, 

horses, and cargo. 


Below: The Elk Rock trestle, built in 

1887, provided a thrilling ride above 

the river. Prior to its construction, 

passengers had to transfer to a 

steamboat at Elk Rock to continue 

their journey to Portland. 


OREGON IRON & STEEL 

COMPANY POWER PLANT 

The growth of industries and population in 

Oswego promised a potentially large market for 

electricity. By 1909 the economic mood in Oswego 

was so positive that Oregon Iron & Steel Company 

Secretary Alexander S. Patullo enthused: “It is yet 

too soon to say how large the [electric] plant will 

be. We have a strong possibility there which makes 

a large amount of power available whenever it is 

Chapter IV ✦ 61

❖ 

Above: Oswego Depot was located on 

the east side of Front Street (State 

Street) at the foot of A Avenue. The 

Glenmorrie bus was waiting for fares 

when this photo was taken in 1915. 


Opposite, top: In 1909 the Oregon 

Iron & Steel Company built a power 

plant on the edge of Sucker Creek. 

The original plant had no surge tank 

to relieve sudden increases in water 

pressure. This photo recorded the 

dramatic results when the lake flooded 

and water burst through the roof of 

the power plant. 


Opposite, bottom: Small business 

owners were the principal leaders of 

the movement to incorporate. Charles 

N. Haines, the man in the center 

without a hat, stood in front of his 

business on the corner of First and A 

for this group photo. After 

incorporation, Haines became the 

town’s first marshal. 


be successful and knew that many townspeople 

would lose their jobs. The Oregon City Enterprise 

reported on May 19, 1894: 

The citizens of the new town were called to the 

American Hotel to hear the best wishes of B. and 

G. about incorporation—to see if they could not 

go down in their pockets and start a hospital for 

them, as the furnace has been shut down for some 

time and the grass is getting short around them. 

Advocates saw incorporation as a way of 

bettering Oswego and helping the many ironworking 

families. Incorporated cities could buy, 

sell, and lease property, tax residents, and 

collect licensing fees for the public good. 

Incorporation enabled towns to borrow money 

and to secure bonds to pay for city 

improvements, including better water systems, 

sanitation facilities, and hospitals. 


COMPANY OPPOSITION 

Concern about jobless ironworkers in 1893 

produced a meeting to discuss incorporation, but 

the fight to incorporate was a long one. The 1893 

incorporation movement died at the second 

community meeting. Oswego residents who 

supported incorporation faced a powerful 

opponent—the Oregon Iron & Steel Company. 

Robert L. Pollock, the company’s foundry 

superintendent, managed to stamp out the first 

incorporation movement. The Oregon City Courier 

reported on March 23, 1894: 

The committee on incorporation held its 

second meeting Tuesday evening last. On motion 

of Robert L. Pollock the committee on petition 

was discharged and the meeting adjourned 

subject to the call of the chair. Politics in Oswego 

are becoming lively, more interest being shown 

this year than ever before. 

As the largest landholder in Oswego, the 

Oregon Iron & Steel Company certainly did not 

want its property taxes raised. The early 

twentieth century was an era of trust busting 

and new business controls imposed by the 

federal government. America’s industries did 

not relish more government restrictions forced 

down their throats. 

ECONOMIC OPTIMISM & 

PROGRESSIVE REFORM 

Economic optimism and the Progressive reform 

movement created an environment that pushed 

incorporation to the foreground in 1909. The 

Southern Pacific Railroad Company’s plans to 

construct the Willsburg Cut-Off and the arrival of a 

cement plant in Oswego made some residents eager 

to incorporate to prepare for growth. An increase in 

population and industries meant a greater need for 

community funds to improve the water supply, 

transportation, and other services. 


Renewed interest in incorporating reflected 

the influence of the Progressive reform 

movement that spread across America between 

1900 and 1916. A continuation of earlier reform 

activities, this movement was a response to the 

social and economic problems created by 

industrialization. Progressives focused on using 

government to improve their cities. They 

believed that large corporations and America’s 

upper class undermined American democracy. 

The political corruption they saw in all levels of 

government appalled them. 

Progressive reformers also hoped to improve 

the health and well-being of the public. They 

saw Prohibition as a necessary part of attaining 

those goals. The Prohibition crusade played a 

key role in supporting incorporation. 

Incorporation would allow Prohibitionists to 

control alcohol consumption by city statutes. 

NEW TOWN RESIDENTS 

LEAD THE INCORPORATION 

MOVEMENT 

New Town (First Addition) residents led the 

drive to incorporate Oswego in the first decade 

of the twentieth century. A failed subdivision of 

worker housing, New Town in 1909 consisted 

mostly of empty lots owned by the Oregon Iron 

& Steel Company. It also contained Oswego’s 

business district and people who owned 

struggling businesses. 

Most of New Town’s incorporation supporters 

were small business owners. Jerome W. Thomas 

and his son George were leaders of the 

movement. Jerome W. Thomas ran unopposed to 

become Oswego’s first mayor and George 

Thomas was one of Oswego’s first six 

councilmen. Before moving to Oswego, Jerome 

Thomas was the first merchant in the tiny 

Eastern Oregon town of Olex. The Thomases 

came to Oswego in 1892 during Oswego’s great 

iron industry boom. After building a store on 

First Street, they planned to open Thomas & 

Co., a general merchandise business. In 1892 the 

Thomases looked forward to success. 

Other incorporation leaders who later became 

some of Oswego’s first councilmen were 

storeowner John Bickner, butcher Herman Bethke, 

and blacksmith Henry Koehler. Like the Thomases, 

these men were not dependent on the Oregon Iron 

& Steel Company, for their livelihood. Other 

leaders, such as foundry coremaker Matthew 

Didzun, worked for the company. 

Incorporation leaders wanted to end 

Oswego’s existence as a company town and to 

create a new government. Their reasons 

included business interests and a desire for a 

form of government in which the townspeople 

had a voice. Anger at railroad and industrial 

monopolies and political corruption spurred on 

many people. The desire to prohibit the sale of 

alcohol was another important source of 

support for incorporation. 

Promoting the interests of Oswego’s small 

businesses was one of the strongest motives. 

Thinking that their economic survival depended 

on incorporation, business people created a 

Chapter IV ✦ 63

❖ 

Top: Some of the leading supporters of 

incorporation lived on B Street in New 

Town. Henry Koehler lived in the first 

house on the right and the Bickner 

brothers, William and John, lived in the 

next two houses on the right. Both 

Koehler and John Bickner became 

city councilmen. 


Above: The Johnson Hotel on the 

northwest corner of First and B was 

one of New Town’s largest commercial 

establishments. 


group willing to fight for their cause. They 

thought that by creating city funds to improve 

Oswego’s public utilities they could encourage 

economic and population growth. 

Some of the incorporation supporters were 

angry about Oswego’s stagnation. Borthwick, 

Batty & Co., a real estate firm, enticed many 

small business owners by publishing lavish 

advertisements describing Oswego’s potential. An 

1892 Iron Worker advertisement proclaimed: 

“Oswego now offers better inducements to 

Manufacturers, Merchants and Business Men 

generally than any other section in the West.” 

Borthwick, Batty & Co. hawked the message that 

“Oswego is Portland’s great Manufacturing 

Suburb.” After arriving in Oswego with very high 

hopes, many business owners saw their dreams 

die. They felt that the Oregon Iron & Steel 

Company had done little to help Oswego prosper 

after the industry’s fall. 

The wealth of Oregon Iron & Steel Company 

stockholders, such as William M. Ladd and Simeon 

G. Reed, angered New Town residents. While these 

rich investors lived in luxurious mansions, some 

Oswego townspeople barely fed their families. The 

political corruption that tainted a few stockholders 

disgusted New Town residents, too. 

William M. Ladd caught the ire of Oswego 

townspeople. He became the Oregon Iron & 

Steel Company president after his father, William 

S. Ladd, died in 1893. Although William M. Ladd 

was a philanthropist and president of the 

Portland Young Men’s Christian Association and 

Portland Art Museum for many years, the 

Oregonian raked him over its coals. From 1905 

through 1908, the newspaper splashed across its 

front page its portrayal of William M. Ladd as a 

politically corrupt plutocrat. The Oregonian’s 

1905 charge that the Ladd family reaped princely 

benefits from preferential tax assessments only 

made some of Oswego’s incorporation leaders 

seek their goal more fervently. Nothing would be 

better than to see the company pay taxes to 

Oswego’s new city government. 

Prohibition, the most important social issue 

in early twentieth century politics, created strong 

support for incorporation. Incorporation would 

allow passage of saloon-licensing fees that could 

reduce the number of Oswego saloons. Many of 

Oswego’s incorporation leaders were Protestants 

reared in churches that declared drinking a 

sin. Others supported Prohibition because 

alcohol consumption after 1900 was clearly on 

the rise in America. Prohibitionists feared the 

consequences to the American family. 

Newspaper articles such as “Oswego Woman 

Seeking Divorce,” published in the Oregon City 

Courier on September 24, 1909, fanned the fire 

of Oswego’s advocates of Prohibition. The 

Oswego woman alleged: 

…that her husband used bad language and 

called her vile names. She says that he spent his 

evenings at a saloon instead of at home, and that 

he was drunk part of the time; that he failed to 

provide for herself and the children…. 

These newspaper articles spurred on the 

Prohibitionists. Oswego voters supported a 

ban on selling alcohol in their precinct on 

November 2, 1909. Winning by a narrow margin, 


Prohibition advocates were eager to incorporate 

their city to create new ways of controlling drinking. 

TOWN 

CRISES 

Water contamination and a fire that might have 

destroyed a town of wood-frame buildings were 

turning points that created a climate conducive to 

political change. Together these town crises 

galvanized support for incorporation. Cholera 

epidemics broke out frequently during the early 

twentieth century. In 1909 many Oswego residents 

worried about polluted water. Prior to the 

construction of its new plant, the Oregon Iron & 

Steel Company supplied water from springs near 

Old Town. When New Town grew rapidly, the 

company built a pumping plant at the McMillan 

spring near the foundry. Use of that spring 

heightened people’s anxiety. Oswego residents 

remembered the deaths of the McMillan children 

who drank from their spring in the 1860s. 

A fierce fire struck more fear in the hearts of residents. 

The Oregon City Courier reported on May 

14, 1909: “Conflagration visits Oswego—Entire 

Block Destroyed in Blaze.” This racing fire burned 

two buildings on New Town’s business street—the 

Oswego Hotel building which included a hotel, 

saloon, and drugstore, and the Kellogg Building. 

The fire threatened lives and destroyed property 

valued at $17,700. The Oregon City Courier stated: 

“At the time of the fire there were a number of 

guests at the hotel who barely escaped with their 

lives. Mrs. Schreiber and her five year old boy were 

carried out half-suffocated, in their nightclothes.” 

Oswego’s worst fire to date impressed itself on the 

townspeople. All they could do to quench it was to 

run down to the foundry to borrow the Oregon 

Iron & Steel Company’s hose cart. Now people 

worried whether the water supply was adequate for 

fire protection. 

GEORGE CLAYTON BROWNELL, 

A POLITICAL ALLY 

George Clayton Brownell was the lawyer 

Oswego incorporation leaders chose to represent 

them in their incorporation petitions. Brownell, a 

former president of the Oregon senate, was a 

politically powerful Republican state senator from 

Clackamas County. He was known far and wide as 

a reformer who had led the fight for instituting 

Oregon’s initiative and referendum amendment. 

Brownell made righteous speeches that fanned 

public sentiment against industrial monopolies 

and political corruption, but he used corporations 

and party leaders to his own advantage. 

George Brownell had the reputation of being a 

cunning adversary whom it was better not to 

cross. Oregon Iron & Steel Company owners and 

others who opposed incorporation did not relish 

incurring his political wrath. Brownell, the Oregon 

Voter reported in 1916: 

had an ordinary weathercock twisted to a 

standstill when it came to political variability…. 

Brownell was sought after by members and 

lobbyists who felt they could never be sure 

of his support but who feared to incur his 

powerful opposition. 

Brownell also was a staunch Prohibitionist. He 

represented the Oswego woman who sought a 

divorce because her husband preferred Oswego’s 

saloons to his home. Brownell’s stance against 

drinking made him an attractive representative of 

Oswego’s incorporation movement. 

OLD TOWN & SOUTH TOWN 

DO NOT INCORPORATE 

The residents of Old Town and South Town 

did not join the 1909 incorporation movement. A 

most important reason was the absence of a 

❖ 

The desire to control the sale of 

alcohol in saloons such as the Oswego 

Gardens was one of the incentives 

for incorporation. 


Chapter IV ✦ 65

❖ 

In 1909 fire destroyed two buildings 

on Front Street (State Street) 

including Oswego’s only brick 

building. This fire increased the desire 

for municipal fire protection and the 

need to incorporate. 


business district and many small business owners 

in Old Town and South Town to lead the fight. 

George Prosser, a civic and political leader in 

Old Town and South Town, opposed 

incorporation. The Portrait and Biographical 

Record of Portland and Vicinity described Prosser 

in 1903 as “investing in land in town and county 

which nets him a handsome income.” Prosser 

owned a large amount of property in the two 

communities. Although a generous man who 

donated land for cemeteries, trees, and a 

bandstand, Prosser most likely did not want to 

pay taxes to a new city. Old Town and South 

Town residents thought well of George Prosser 

because of his generosity and the burial assistance 

he offered to grieving Odd Fellows’ families. His 

resistance to incorporation did not make them 

eager to follow New Town’s course. 

Old Town and South Town’s opposition to 

incorporation also stemmed from their rural 

community identities. Nellie Nelson Kyle recalled: 

“The incorporating of the town in 1910 made the 

children of Old Town and South Town the butt of 

the jokes of the children of New Town. They called 

us ‘hicks.’ We were out in the country and they were 

in the city.” Many parents felt that their country 

ways were good enough. They did not want to pay 

for city services that they thought they did not need. 

Resistance to newcomers taking over Oswego 

no doubt made some Old Town and South Town 

residents unwilling to follow the plan of New 

Town leaders. Old Town and South Town people 

believed that their communities, established 

long before New Town, were the “real Oswego.” 

Some were unhappy about the movement of the 

business district out of Old Town after New 

Town developed. 

Residents also felt that the communities they 

loved lost status to an upstart—the fledgling New 

Town with its recent buildings and empty lots. 

When the Pettinger and Nelson families built new 

houses in Old Town, Nellie Nelson Kyle 

remembered: “Mr. Pettinger remarked to my 

father, ‘We will put Old Town on the map yet 

because we have the largest houses in Old Town’. 

But no other larger houses were built.” Thirteen 

years passed before Old Town and South Town 

supported annexation to the incorporated City of 

Oswego in 1922. 

THE INCORPORATED 

CITY OF OSWEGO 

Incorporating Oswego was not an easy task. 

The Oregon City Enterprise reported on December 

10, 1909: “After four attempts have been made to 

incorporate the town of Oswego, it is probable that 

the last effort will be successful.” The Oregon Iron 

& Steel Company, joined by Southern Pacific 

Railroad Company, again opposed incorporation 

to keep their taxes low and to avoid government 

regulation. When the county court granted the 


esidents’ petition to hold a special election on 

incorporation, Brownell boldly declared: “The 

reason why the Oregon Iron & Steel Company and 

the Southern Pacific Company are contesting this 

case, is because they think they may have to pay 

two and a half cents more taxes.” 

New Town, the recent addition to the pioneer 

and early iron settlements of Oswego, broke from 

the past. By a vote of 79 to 22 on December 11, 

1909, New Town residents supported 

incorporation. After electing Jerome W. Thomas as 

the first mayor, they selected John T. Bickner, C. 

H. Nixon, Henry W. Koehler, Thomas R. 

Clinefelter, George Thomas, and C. H. Elston as 

councilmen. Citizens also elected a recorder, 

treasurer, and marshal. They voted to accept the 

city charter on May 27, 1910. 

The new city council members lost no time in 

addressing the crises that helped them win the 

incorporation battle. At their third meeting on 

February 3, 1910, they appointed a committee to 

discuss “betterment of the water service and the 

quality of the same” with secretary of the Oregon 

Iron & Steel Company Alexander S. Patullo. 

Mayor Thomas and Councilman Elston reported 

that Mr. Patullo said “that the water now supplied 

by them to this city was pronounced to be pure.” 

The debate over the quality of water continued 

until 1925 when the townspeople decided to join 

Portland’s Bull Run water system. To improve fire 

protection, residents organized a volunteer 

bucket-and-ladder brigade at a meeting held at 

Councilman Koehler’s blacksmith shop in 1910. 

The residents of New Town won a fight that 

fundamentally changed the nature of Oswego. 

The Oregon Iron & Steel Company, which still 

owned most of the property around the new 

town, continued to have great influence. But 

incorporation meant that Oswego was no longer 

a company town. 

❖ 

Left: Blacksmith Henry Koehler and 

his wife in front of their house on the 

corner of Second and B. After New 

Town incorporated, city councilmen 

voted to rent the second floor of 

another building owned by Henry 

Koehler for its council meetings. 

Consequently, Koehler Hall on Front 

Street became Oswego’s first city hall. 


Below: The desire for safe drinking 

water helped galvanize support for 

incorporation. Some people collected 

water in cisterns. John Bickner had a 

wind-powered pump and water tower 

on his property at the corner of Front 

and B Avenue. 


Chapter IV ✦ 67


V 

REDESIGNING SUCKER LAKE 

WE WILL BUILD 

A modern bungalow for you at the lake and sell you the house and a one acre tract for $1,600 on 

easy terms like rent or we will sell an acre tract for $400 alone. 

— Advertisement for Lake View Villas 

Portland Telegram, 1914 

THE OREGON IRON & STEEL COMPANY 

SHAPES OSWEGO’ S FUTURE 

Sucker Lake and Oswego changed dramatically in the first three decades of the twentieth century. 

The Oregon Iron & Steel Company, Oswego’s largest landowner, redesigned the lake’s size and 

appearance. To sell houses and lots, developers marketed the recreation the lake offered. By the end 

of the 1920s the lake and town had new identities. Sucker Lake’s new image as a water resort and 

Oswego’s new image as an exclusive Portland suburb endured for the rest of the twentieth century. 

Real estate became Oswego’s biggest industry. 

THE CHILDREN AND THE LAKE 

Oswego children always knew that Sucker Lake was made for recreation. Ruth Wint, who lived in 

Old Town, recalled clandestine swims in 1900. She reminisced: “The water was kinda stagnant 

sometimes and father gave us heck, but we went every day almost.” Letcher Nelson thought that 

children were the first to appreciate the lake. Nelson explained that the older citizenry “absolutely 

neglected and actually abhorred” Sucker Lake. He recalled: 

❖ 

Most people considered the lake’s 

marshy, stump-studded shores 

uninviting, but to local children 

and fishermen, it was an 

undiscovered paradise. 


…the lake was just nothing, it was a place where kids went to swim and the fish in there were carp and 

suckers. But it was a fun place for us because we had it all to ourselves for a great many years. We could 

do as we pleased and we owned it all, you might say. 

The real owner of the lake was the Oregon Iron & Steel Company. 

THE WILDERNESS VOGUE 

Children shared their enjoyment of Sucker Lake with naturalists, fishermen, and hunters in the 

1890s. A national enthusiasm for the great outdoors, marked by the founding of the Sierra Club in 

1892, revealed nature’s popularity. The turn-of-the-century wilderness vogue was a reaction to industrialization. 

At Sucker Lake nature lovers hoped to find physical challenges and spiritual restoration. 

Theodore Roosevelt’s popularity as a president from 1901 to 1908 reinforced the zest for the wildwood. 

Roosevelt relished swimming, hiking, hunting, fishing, and horseback riding. He encouraged 

Americans to live a “strenuous life” outdoors. 

Clifford D. Hall was one of the outdoor enthusiasts who fell in love with Sucker Lake. Lillian Hall 

Webster, his daughter, recalled that the lake “was practically a wilderness, I presume from the way 

he spoke of it…. He would come out every chance he could to go hunting and fishing. This was 

about 1894.” Attraction to Oswego’s wildlife prompted Clifford Hall to accept the position of Oregon 

Iron & Steel Company foundry superintendent in 1900. An amateur taxidermist, he gathered specimens, 

including, no doubt, the wild swan for which Indians named the lake. Oswego’s wildlife 

Chapter V ✦ 69

leased lake frontage from the company at a cost 

of one dollar a month per rowboat. By 1923 the 

Nelsons rented fifty boats at their swimming 

and boating concession at the lake’s east end. 

The Dyer family joined the Nelsons in the boat 

rental business. 

Children found more ways to profit from 

Sucker Lake. Nellie Nelson Kyle recalled: 

❖ 

Hunting and fishing were popular 

activities in the Oswego area in the 

first decades of the twentieth century. 

Clarence Kruse (far left) and Herbert 

Kruse (far right) posed with friends 

after a pheasant hunt. 

COURTESY OF KAREN KRUSE PONG. 

helped Hall win the gold medal for the finest 

collection of Oregon birds at the 1905 Lewis 

and Clark Exposition. 

PROFITING FROM 

SUCKER LAKE 

Like all Oswego children, the Nelsons loved 

playing at the landing on the Willamette River. 

They took an old boat they found there to 

Sucker Lake. David Nelson, their father, had to 

clear debris from the lake so that they could 

launch the boat. Soon anglers begged to borrow 

it. People always fished on the Willamette at 

Oswego, but after they discovered black bass in 

Sucker Lake, fishing on the lake became a major 

attraction. The Oregon City Enterprise reported 

in 1908: “Fishing on Oswego Lake is something 

grand. About one hundred people from 

Portland every Sunday are in this town looking 

and fishing.” With so many people coming to 

Sucker Lake, the Oregon Iron & Steel Company 

decided that the lake needed a caretaker. 

Company Secretary Alexander Patullo offered 

the job to David Nelson, a long-time employee. 

The idea of profiting from the recreation the 

lake offered expanded. The wilderness vogue 

made vacationing at lake and mountain resorts, 

mineral springs, and spas popular. The Nelson 

family recognized that Sucker Lake was the 

perfect lake resort for Portlanders. Mrs. Nelson 

shrewdly observed that “money could be made 

by putting some boats in the lake.” The Nelsons 

rented their first boat in 1904. David Nelson 

One of my brothers, David, was so 

enterprising that he contrived a cart which he 

took to the lake after it became so popular. 

People paddled their canoes from Portland to 

Oswego river landing. They were too lazy to 

carry their canoes up the hill. But my brother 

David, a small-framed boy, pushed their canoes 

up the hill on his cart, for twenty-five cents…. 

Letcher Nelson remembered gathering 

minnows at the lake: 

When fishing got good, we used to go up the 

canal with a seine. The canal was such a 

beautiful brook in those days and we used to 

seine minnows on Saturdays. And then we could 

come down on Sunday morning when the 

fishermen came and sell them for twenty-five 

cents a dozen for live bait. 

Nelson ruefully added: “the ones we seined out of 

the river and sold are absolutely extinct now.” 

After the Southern Pacific Railroad Company’s 

Red Electric began operating in 1914, Sucker 

Lake attracted droves of Portlanders. The 

interurban electric railroad transformed a long 

country drive into a jaunt, so more families came 

to the lake on Sunday, a new day for relaxation. 

C. Herald Campbell, Oswego’s mayor from 1979 

until 1985, recalled: 

As a youngster attending Couch School in 

Northwest Portland in the early 1920’s, I can 

remember riding the Red Electric to Lake Grove 

Station on weekends to picnic with my parents 

on a lakeside lot owned by a friend of ours…. 

Oswego turned into a backwoods lake resort. 

The Nelsons’ enterprises expanded to include an 

ice cream stand and tent cottages for rent. A 

year-round colony of lake-dwellers developed. 

The Oregon Journal reported enthusiastically in 


❖ 

Left: In the first decade of the 

twentieth century, the lake was 

discovered by the public in search of 

outdoor recreation. The Oregon City 

Enterprise reported in 1908 that 

about one hundred people from 

Portland took the train to Oswego 

every Sunday to picnic and fish. 


Below: Elaborate picnics on the 

shores of Oswego Lake were popular 

with both local residents and visitors 

from Portland. 


1915 that there were “cozy cottages along 

the shores of Oswego Lake, and hundreds of 

canoes and swimmers will be found.” So many 

people walked Oswego’s city streets in bathing 

suits that the City Council banned the practice 

in 1922. 

LAKE VIEW VILLAS 

Like the Nelsons, the Oregon Iron & Steel 

Company wanted to capitalize on Sucker Lake. 

When the iron industry failed, the company’s 

indebtedness to the Ladd and Tilton Bank 

brought its Oswego property under the domain 

of the Ladd interests. The Ladd interests were 

interrelated companies controlled by the 

William S. Ladd family. Ladd, who died in 

1893, was the first president of the Oregon 

Iron Company and the Ladd and Tilton Bank. 

William M. Ladd, who succeeded his father as 

president of the Oregon Iron & Steel Company, 

was anxious to sell the Oswego property. By 

1909 banking problems cost William M. Ladd 

$2.5 million. 

Chapter V ✦ 71

❖ 

While Oswego residents like Lilian 

Bickner, seen here in her canoe, were 

accustomed to the rustic, snagpunctuated 

character of the lake, 

powerful real estate interests were at 

work crafting a more manicured lake. 


On July 4, 1910, the intermarried Ladd and 

Corbett clans gathered at the popular picnic 

spot at the grove (later Lake Grove) at the west 

end of Sucker Lake. Letcher Nelson, who rowed 

the party of wealthy Portlanders to their 

destination, believed the outing had a critical 

mission. Nelson said: “I think on that date the 

Ladds and Corbetts had that picnic…to see if 

anything could be done with Oswego Lake, to 

see if it was worth anything.” 

A rush to subdivide followed 1910, a banner 

year in real estate produced by the 1905 Lewis 

and Clark Exposition’s success in attracting 

people to Oregon. William L. Brewster, a 

prominent attorney and William M. Ladd’s 

friend, reflected in 1933 that there “was a 

glamour surrounding real estate which affected 

not only the landholding class but also the 

bankers themselves…successful speculations in 

real estate acquired a temporary financial and 

even social” status in Portland circles. 

Lake View Villas was the start of the Oregon 

Iron & Steel Company’s drive to profit by selling 

its lake property as residential real estate. D. 

Thompson Meldrum, surveyor of Clackamas 

County, platted the subdivision in 1912. 

Meldrum divided the 160-acre tract into a linear 

grid with 143 lots. Most were one-acre parcels, 

a few were larger, and there were thirty-seven 

lots with fifty feet of lake frontage. “Lake View 

Villas” was a name that lent the subdivision an 

air of prestige. After eighteenth century English 

architects borrowed “villa” from the Italians to 

describe a suburban house, Americans adopted 

the word. Dressing up a rural plat with the 

image of an English country house on the 

edge of town and the allusion to a lovely Italian 

villa was a good marketing strategy. Lake View 

Villas was the beginning of the community of 

Lake Grove. 

When the iron industry ended, developers 

temporarily stopped creating subdivisions near 

Oswego. Renewed hope for growth produced 

fourteen new plats between 1908 and the 1912 

Lake View Villas plat. Other developers selected 

sites along the Willamette River or the Southern 

Pacific’s route because those were the features 

that they thought would sell lots. Lake View 

Villas was the first subdivision to make Sucker 

Lake a main attraction. A 1913 Lake View 

Villas advertisement coaxed: “Lake shore lots 

are cheaper and more desirable than river 

front property.” 

The Red Electric helped Sucker Lake grow. 

For mutual benefit, railroad and real estate 

investors combined capital to build railways 

to subdivisions. Investors hoped that the 

Southern Pacific’s electric railroad, which 

looped through the Willamette Valley, would 

promote residential growth. 

But Lake View Villa lots sold slowly during 

their first decade of existence. It did not help 

that they went on the market in 1913, right 

before the uncertainty accompanying the 

outbreak of World War I produced a national 

recession. A more fundamental problem was 

that few people wanted to live year-round at 

Sucker Lake. Portlanders thought Sucker Lake 

was fine for a summer cabin, but not a place to 

build a permanent home. They said the area was 

too damp. Many complained that there were no 

roads. When Ward C. Smith and Ruth Carter 

Smith first went to look at Lake View Villas lots, 

they could not find them. Ward Smith 

remembered: “…we started up and went up the 

old mountain trail around the side of the 

mountain until we couldn’t go any further. So 

we backed down again and went back to 

Portland.” Sucker Lake was not everyone’s 

vision of loveliness. Some Portlanders called 

Sucker Lake “Skunk Lake,” perhaps because of 

its skunk cabbages, stagnant water, or striped 

nocturnal visitors. 


MARKETING 

LAKE VIEW VILLAS 

The Oregon Iron & Steel Company embraced 

the newest marketing techniques to sell Lake 

View Villas. It bought a tour boat to show 

prospective buyers lots. The boat tour had the 

appropriate effect on a Portland Telegram 

reporter who wrote in 1913: 

A launch recently put into service on the 

lakeshore takes passengers to points where 

charming views are to be had…The tinting of the 

hills, the curve where lake meets land…are things 

better realized from seeing than description. 

The company built Lake View Park (later Lake 

Grove Swim Park) as an outdoor salesroom open 

to the public. Sales agents stopped the boat tour 

at the park, near the later intersection of South 

Shore and Lake View Boulevards. The Red Electric 

stopped at Lake Park Station (later Lake Grove 

Station), conveniently located at the park. The 

developers built roads to the subdivision to 

capitalize on the new Sunday entertainment of 

automobile touring. Signs posted along Boones 

Ferry Road pointed the way to Lake View Villas. 

The Oregon Iron & Steel Company offered 

houses built on speculation, installment buying, 

and package deals. The first houses were located 

on what later were named Upper Drive and 

Reese Road. Henry Ford’s popularization of 

installment buying for automobiles worked well 

for real estate. Ward Smith remembered the 

package deal: “In order to buy an acre of land,” 

Smith said, people “had to buy a lot on the lake 

for $50.” Atchison-Allen Company was the real 

estate firm that sold Lake View Villas. 

Advertising the acre lots as farmland, Norris 

Atchison suggested that buyers use the lot with 

fifty feet of lake frontage as a watering hole for 

the family cow. 

To successfully market Lake View Villas, the 

Oregon Iron & Steel Company had to sell three 

ideas: residence parks, location, and social 

prestige. Residence parks, in which developers 

created a park-like setting for homes, were easy 

to sell. Spreading throughout America in the 

early twentieth century, they appealed to middleand 

upper-class families eager to escape city 

crime, noise, and dirt. The Ladd interests, who 

owned the Oregon Iron & Steel Company, 

developed Laurelhurst, Eastmoreland, 

Westmoreland, and Ladd’s Addition in Portland 

before they turned to Oswego. 

Restrictions were the basis of residence 

parks. Philip V. W. Fry, Ladd Estate Company 

sales director in the 1930s, later explained that 

residence parks prohibited the “intermingling of 

incompatible elements” to keep property values 

high. Lake View Villas had a long list of 

restrictions. No multi-family dwellings could be 

built. No “Chinese, Japanese or Negroes, except 

that persons of said races may be employed as 

servants.” No advertising. No liquor sold or 

offered in any public place. No sewage or refuse 

dumped in the lake. No homes built for less 

than a specified cost. No homes built without 

the Oregon Iron & Steel Company’s approval of 

plans. Lake View Villas’ 1913 slogan, “A Strictly 

High Class Residence District,” conveyed the 

message of restriction. 

Prosperous Americans moved in a steady 

stream to suburbs at the turn of the nineteenth 

century. They wanted “country living” with easy 

city access. Oswego developers had no trouble 

selling restricted suburbs, but they did have a 

difficult time selling Lake View Villas’ Sucker 

Lake location. Advertisements promoted the site 

by pointing out that Lake View Villas was “The 

Only Suburban Lake Resort Near Portland.” The 

Red Electric helped make the location 

accessible, but America’s growing reliance on 

cars limited peoples’ desire to live in backwoods 

places with no paved roads. 

❖ 

A jaunty real estate launch provided 

scenic tours of the lake for prospective 

property buyers. In the background is 

one of the tent cottages rented by 

summer visitors. 

COURTESY O F THE OSWEGO HERITAGE COUNCIL. 

Chapter V ✦ 73

❖ 

Above: In December 1913 sidewalk 

supervisors on Front Street watched 

the raising of a seventy-five foot pole 

for electrification of the Southern 

Pacific rail line. 


Below: The Red Electric rail line was 

an essential transportation link 

between Portland and Lake View 

Villas. Lake Grove station was located 

directly above Lake View Park (later 

Lake Grove Swim Park). 


Opposite, top: Built by Chicago’s 

Pullman Company, Red Electric cars 

were painted bright red and their 

interiors featured green plush seats 

with mahogany trim. The trip from 

Portland to Lake View Villas took 

thirty minutes. 


Opposite, bottom: The Elk Rock 

Tunnel was completed in 1921 by 

boring through 1,420 feet of solid 

basalt. The tunnel replaced a 

precarious wood trestle that skirted 

the face of Elk Rock where it was 

vulnerable to rock falls. 


RENAMING SUCKER LAKE 

Convincing homebuyers of the social prestige 

of a Lake View Villas address required a frontal 

assault on the old identities of Sucker Lake and 

Oswego. The Oregon Iron & Steel Company 

could not let the lake’s image be determined by 

the popular will. “Sucker Lake” had no social 

cachet. The company requested a name change 

from the United States Geographic Board in 1912. 

The lake had different names over the years. 

Some Indian bands called it “Waluga.” Settlers 

called it “Sucker Lake.” Oswego postmaster 

George Prosser explained in a 1912 letter to the 

United States Geographic Board that “From 1847 

to 1888 the lake was known as Sucker Lake” 

because “Sucker Lake was filled with Sucker 

Fish….” Letcher Nelson observed sixty years later: 

“…there always seemed to be at the right time of 

the year a bunch of suckers, even today, at the 

mouth of the creek you know with their heads 

sticking up out of the water.” 

As early as the 1860s, newspapers from 

surrounding towns referred to the lake as 

“Oswego Lake” or “Lake Oswego.” “Lake 

Tualatin” or “Tualatin Lake” appeared on maps 

after the Oregon Iron & Steel Company platted 

First Addition in 1888. Because the Tualatin River 

provided water after Chinese laborers dug the 

canal, Tualatin seemed like a logical name for the 

lake. Old Town resident Bessie Pettinger 

remembered: “We liked ‘Sucker!’” Other people 

agreed with Letcher Nelson that “Sucker” made 

the lake sound like a mudhole. Nelson said: “Of 

course, we never called it anything but Oswego 

Lake…we didn’t like the name of “Sucker” 

because it branded all of us in a way.” 

Oregon Iron &Steel Company secretary 

Alexander Patullo argued to the United States 

Geographic Board that the new name of 

“Oswego Lake” would help to locate the lake. 

He protested in 1912: “The older name of 

Sucker Lake is very far from euphonious and 


is undesirable.” The Geographic Board changed 

“Sucker Lake” to “Oswego Lake” on January 10, 

1913, and “Sucker Creek” to “Oswego Creek” in 

1927. More than a decade passed before the 

lake’s new image as a scenic beauty spot took 

root. The first lots that sold were close to the 

Red Electric, but not on the lake. 

AN INTERURBAN ELECTRIC 

RAILROAD SUBURB 

day, bored through 1,420 feet of solid basalt. 

The track traced an S-curve inside the cedarlined 

tunnel. A Southern Pacific promotional 

brochure proclaimed: “The track within the 

tunnel is on a double reverse curve and along 

the sides are electric lights.” The Oregonian 

reported in 1921 that “the center of the two 

holes varied probably less than one-quarter of 

an inch” when the crews met. 

The Red Electric was as responsible for Lake 

View Villas’ early growth as the lake was. Lake 

View Villas was an interurban electric railroad 

suburb. Initially, the Red Electric provided the 

only reliable transportation to Lake View Villas. 

Advertisements emphasized the commuter 

service: “Lake View Villas…30 Minutes Ride 

From Portland, on a ten cent Commutation 

fare.” Goodin Station was at the eastern edge of 

Lake View Villas, two miles west of Oswego. 

Lake Grove Station was at Lake View Park and 

Bryant Station was at the intersection of streets 

later named Bryant Road and Lower Drive. 

Life in Lake View Villas revolved around the Red 

Electric. Lake View Villas’ early twentieth century 

pioneers relied on it to get to Portland, where most 

people worked and shopped. From Goodin Station 

the Red Electric went to Oswego Depot at the foot 

of A Avenue. For commuters’ convenience, the 

train made thirteen stops between Oswego and 

Portland. Built by Chicago’s Pullman Company, 

Red Electric cars were swift and sleek. Painted a 

deep red with plush interior compartments, the 

Red Electric cars raced along at sixty miles per hour 

between stations. Oswego resident Claire Banks 

reminisced: “…I’d get on at Goodin Station and be 

at Fourth and Alder in this relatively short time. 

And comfortable, you’d get in to a nice, warm 

electric car. You got to know everybody from here 

to Portland as they’d get on at each station.” 

The completion of Elk Rock Tunnel in 1921 

made traveling the Red Electric safer, but less 

thrilling. The tunnel replaced the wood trestle that 

skirted the sheer face of Elk Rock. According to 

local legend, the Southern Pacific Railroad 

Company built the tunnel after falling rocks injured 

Winifred Newlands, the wife of the superintendent 

of the Oregon Portland Cement Company. 

Tunnel construction crews, starting at 

opposite ends and working twenty-four hours a 

Cozy and quick, the Red Electric was a 

popular transportation system from 1914 to 

1929 when it stopped running. It left Oswego 

with a legacy that included Lake Grove as an 

interurban electric railroad suburb and a 

fondness for commuter trains. More than fifty 

years later, Kathleen Tween Allen said: “I think 

Chapter V ✦ 75

❖ 

The entrance to Oswego Lake Villas 

and Lake Front Road was marked by 

an imposing gate. This was one of 

many new subdivisions connected 

to the boulevard system encircling 

the lake. 

COURTESY OF BETTY AGER. 

it’s a shame that they took that Electric off; see 

how nice they could use it today….” The 

railroad’s right-of-way endured for use after the 

last Red Electric headed for Portland. 

THE BEGINNING OF 

OSWEGO’ S BOULEVARD SYSTEM 

The Oregon Iron & Steel Company knew 

that the automobile would become the vehicle 

of choice. The success of its residential 

developments depended on building roads to 

make them accessible, because people 

complained about how difficult car travel was to 

Oswego. By 1913 the company designed a 

grand boulevard system to connect the 

residential center it planned in Oswego to the 

business metropolis of Portland. The boulevard 

system would be a lovely scenic drive that 

wound through all the subdivisions that the 

Oregon Iron & Steel Company envisioned for its 

vast west-side acreage. The Portland Evening 

Telegram in 1914 described: 

…the scenic boulevard which will circle 

Oswego Lake….For about a mile on the 

south shore the road winds through the only 

large amount of original first growth timber in 

this section. 

The Ladd Estate Company hoped to follow 

the popular plan of building a resort hotel to 

finance road construction. With the Pacific 

Highway at its doorstep, the hotel could attract 

thousands of tourists. Oswego Mayor William S. 

Ewing remembered in 1934: “It was and had 

been for many years known that the estate 

intended eventually to use the strip between the 

foot of the lake and the river for a large hotel and 

country resort with frontage on both lake and 

river.” The company never built the hotel, but 

when crews finally completed the boulevards 

around the lake in the 1930s, Oswego had a gift 

to treasure. Carefully located to reveal beautiful 

vistas and undulating with graceful curves, the 

boulevard system swept around Oswego Lake in 

elegant style. 

The Red Electric’s track and the boulevards 

tightened the economic and social bonds 

between Oswego and Portland as they pulled 

Oswego further away from its political base in 

Clackamas County. These transportation systems 

brought outsiders, especially Portlanders, into 

the community to transform Oswego’s social 

character. After the furnace closed in 1894, few 

people joined the existing mix of remaining 

ironworkers, small business owners, and handful 

of professionals. The 1920s newcomers made 

Oswego less insular. For better or worse, they 

helped Oswego forget its past. 

THE OREGON PORTLAND 

CEMENT COMPANY 

Lake View Villas represented Oswego’s future 

as a residential suburb centered on a lake. The 

$2-million cement factory north of Old Town was 

the last large manufacturing plant in Oswego. 

Started in 1909, construction halted in 1912 

because of lack of capital. Building resumed in 

1915 following company reorganization and the 

infusion of $500,000. Leading cement 

manufacturers Charles Boettcher and R. P. 

Butchart were major investors in the Oregon 

Portland Cement Company. Charles Boettcher 

was a Denver banker and western cement factory 

stockholder. After establishing one of Canada’s 

first cement plants, Butchart became well-known 

for creating the Butchart Gardens in an old 

limestone quarry near Victoria, British Columbia. 

The Oregon Iron & Steel Company was a major 

stockholder in the new cement factory too. 

Oswego’s cement plant had a difficult 

beginning. Aman Moore, the plant’s first 

superintendent, irritated townspeople by hiring 


African Americans in the still job-hungry 

town. Prejudice ran high in Oregon during the 

early decades of the twentieth century. R. P. 

Butchart handpicked Lawrence C. Newlands to 

replace Moore. Formerly superintendent at 

Butchart’s Tod Inlet plant in British Columbia, 

Newlands settled into the managerial enclave on 

Furnace Street in 1916. Residents rejoiced when 

the Oregon Portland Cement Company produced 

its first cement in June 1916. The plant powdered 

the town with a fine gray dust, but few people 

protested because they appreciated the industry. 

The Oswego Times, the city’s second newspaper 

established in 1916, enthused: “No one can have 

any idea of the importance of the magnitude of 

the manufacture of cement here until he has 

visited the plant…. It is certainly a splendid thing 

for Oswego.” The company had a payroll of 

approximately $2,500 per month and a daily 

capacity of 1,150 tons of cement. 

By employing more townspeople and trying 

to protect Old Town’s plants and trees from 

cement dust, the new superintendent made 

friends. When Newlands opened the doors of 

the company’s clubhouse to city organizations, 

he provided a much needed community 

meeting place. Newlands helped to solve city 

problems and the cement company supported 

Oswego’s civic improvement projects. 

THE ANNEXATION MOVEMENT 

A 1919 annexation movement brought to the 

surface the Oregon Iron & Steel Company’s 

powerful role in shaping Oswego’s future. 

Failure to pave the west-side branch of the new 

scenic Pacific Highway that passed through 

Oswego as Front Street (renamed State Street in 

1926) provoked the annexation movement. 

Supporters presented a bill to the Oregon 

legislature in 1919 to annex Oswego to 

Multnomah County. 

Clackamas County Representative Christian 

Schuebel identified the Ladd interests as the 

driving force behind annexation. Schuebel 

charged that the Ladd interests supported 

annexation because they could use their 

political power in Multnomah County to get 

roads paved to Lake View Villas and future 

subdivisions. Schuebel explained at a 1919 

Oregon legislative session: 

This bill originates with the Ladd interests, 

which have large land holdings in the Oswego 

district which they want to get rid of…. They 

have promised the sportsmen of Portland that 

they would build a splendid boulevard around 

Oswego lake if that territory could be taken into 

Multnomah County. 

Oswego would have found itself in its third 

county in seventy years if the annexation 

petition succeeded. Although it failed, the 

annexation movement brought the charge that 

the Ladd interests had too much control over 

Oswego into public view. 

PROGRESSIVE 

CRUSADERS 

Julia and V. F. Cooper warned Oswego 

residents to be wary of the Ladd interests. 

❖ 

Above: The cement plant was built 

north of Old Town near the river. This 

aerial view shows Oswego’s industrial 

area divided from the First Addition 

neighborhood by the Pacific Highway. 

The second smelter (to the right of the 

cement plant) was dismantled in 1929. 


Below: The Pacific Highway was 

finally paved in 1920 to the undoubted 

relief of merchants like the Turnell 

brothers who owned a gas station and 

a grocery store on Front Street at the 

corner of Wilbur. 


Chapter V ✦ 77

❖ 

Above: Beginning in 1850, a 

succession of wood dams were built at 

the lake outlet. The last wood dam 

(left of the covered bridge) was built 

in 1909 and provided water power for 

the Oregon Iron & Steel Company 

electric power plant. 


Below: Oswego’s wood dams 

repeatedly washed out. In 1916 the 

rushing waters nearly took out the 

upper bridge across Sucker Creek. 


The Coopers opened the Fern Lodge Parlor on 

property just south of Oswego Depot that they 

bought from the Oregon Iron & Steel Company 

in 1914. When their confectionery nearly went 

bankrupt, they felt the same anger that surged 

in the business owners who supported 

incorporation in 1909. The Coopers blamed 

their failure on the Ladd interests. 

The Coopers argued that the “Lake View Villa 

land swindle” was a perfect example of the Ladd 

interests’ hidden power. V. F. Cooper worried 

that lakefront homeowners would wake up one 

day to a giant mudflat because the Oregon Iron 

& Steel Company decided to empty the lake. He 

did not think lot buyers realized that they did 

not own water rights or the lakebed. To notify 

them, Cooper repeatedly published a copy of a 

Lake View Villa deed in the Oswego Times. 

The Coopers blamed all of Oswego’s 

economic problems on the Ladd interests. The 

Coopers did not see that larger forces caused 

the doldrums Oswego endured in the 1910s. 

The entire nation suffered during the economic 

recession following the outbreak of World 

War I. When the war later created jobs, Portland 

pulled workers and business away from 

little towns. 

The Coopers also performed a great service 

to Oswego. They were Progressive crusaders 

who brought the Progressive reform movement 

to town before World War I. Like other 

Progressives across America, they saw the 

dangers of powerful companies and political 

influence. By splashing the Coopers’ views 

across its front page for three years, the 

Progressive-minded Oswego Times kept criticism 

of the Ladd interests on center stage. The 

Coopers encouraged civic leaders to develop 

their own plans to improve Oswego. 

WORLD WAR I IN OSWEGO 

Oswego sent men and women to war and to 

work during World War I. Nearly seventy men 

from the town and surrounding farms served in 

the war. The Oswego Woman’s Club placed a 

service board on Front Street that listed each 

soldier’s name in 1918. Frank Davidson, son of 

Lucien Davidson, was Oswego’s enrollment 

officer for the Public Services Reserves. The 


Reserves registered skilled workers for war 

industries. So many Oswego men left to build 

warships in Portland that Vera Wagner Larson, 

whose family farmed outside of Oswego, 

remembered: “During World War One there 

wasn’t a man alive left around and we girls 

pitched in…. Dad said if it hadn’t been for us we 

would never have harvested the wheat….” 

Residents contributed several thousand 

dollars to fund-raising drives. The Oswego Times 

reported that a 1917 Red Cross Drive “was a 

brilliant success for such a small town…. 

Whatever may be said of Oswego she is not 

lacking in patriotism.” Veterans established the 

Harrington-Elston American Legion post in 

1921. Members named the post after Oswego 

soldiers Loren G. Harrington and Thomas H. 

Elston, who lost their lives in 1918. 

THE CONCRETE DAM 

After World War I ended, in 1921 the Puget 

Sound Dredging Company built a concrete dam 

to supply water power for the Oregon Iron & 

Steel Company’s electric plant. Earlier wood 

dams repeatedly washed away. The Oswego 

Times reported in 1916: 

❖ 

Above: The lake was still lowered 

when this photo of the nearly finished 

concrete dam was taken. The 

structure on the right is the covered 

bridge on the road later named 

McVey Avenue. 

COURTESY OF THE LAKE OSWEGO CORPORATION. 

Below: In 1921 the Puget Sound 

Dredging Company built a concrete 

dam for the Oregon Iron & Steel 

Company. Concrete was poured with 

the help of a gravity-fed trough rigged 

to a tower. 


The water is still rushing over the spillway 

with terrific force and it is feared the South 

Oswego bridge may yield…. It is likely that a 

permanent concrete dam will be built…. 

The concrete dam was an important addition. 

The power system now included the Tualatin 

River diversion dam, the headgate at the 

south end of Oswego Canal, the concrete dam 

at the east end of the lake, and a giant wood 

pipe called a penstock that took the water to 

a surge tank and the powerhouse. Although 

the Oswego powerhouse produced only a 

tiny portion of the electricity that the city 

Chapter V ✦ 79

❖ 

Above: Paul C. Murphy, a banker and 

real estate investor from Seattle, 

became the guiding force in Oswego’s 

residential development between 1912 

and 1942. 


#ORHI 89613. 

Right: The scenic West Side Pacific 

Highway swept down to Oswego 

from Dunthorpe Hill. Called “The 

Road of Three Nations” because it 

stretched from Canada to Mexico, the 

highway spurred development all 

along its route. 


needed, the Oregon Iron & Steel Company 

continued to produce power, which it sold to 

Portland General Electric Company. Power 

generation was essential because the state 

required the company to use the water for an 

industrial purpose to keep its water rights. 

The concrete dam greatly improved the 

residential value of the land by raising the lake’s 

water level. Water submerged the unlovely 

stumps left over from logging and produced 

more lakefront lots by increasing the lake’s size. 

Edward Twining, who came to Oswego in 1910, 

said: “The lake was beset with snags and it’s no 

wonder they called it Sucker Lake. It was more 

or less of an eyesore. The lake was at least ten 

feet lower than it is now.” 

The concrete dam gave the Oregon Iron & 

Steel Company the means to control Oswego 

Lake’s level within a nine-inch range. In 

its original state the lake was much lower. An 

old-timer recalled in 1960 when “the old 

wooden dam went out in 1920 and the natural 

lake was exposed.” The ability to control the 

water level also increased the attractiveness of 

lakefront lots. The memory of shallow and 

odiferous Sucker Lake was not one that 

encouraged sales. Now homebuyers felt 

confident that there would always be a 

shimmering lake in front of their houses. 

THE LAKE OSWEGO 

COUNTRY CLUB DISTRICT 

The national economic boom and the 

paving of West Side Pacific Highway fueled 

land development. Called “The Road of Three 

Nations” because it stretched from Mexico to 

Canada, scenic Pacific Highway thrilled 

towns along its route. The Oregon Iron & 

Steel Company knew that Oswego could 

become Portland’s ideal suburb. Record 

real estate sales in 1922 triggered subdivisions, 

just as the previous banner year in 1910 

had. The Ladd Estate Company, another one 

of the Ladds’ businesses, began managing 

the Oregon Iron & Steel Company’s property 

that year. It planned to sell more than one 

million dollars worth of real estate in 1924. 

Organized in 1908 to protect real estate 

investments, the Ladd Estate Company 

subdivided thousands of acres in metropolitan 

Portland. In 1923 it started building the Lake 

Oswego Country Club District. The company 

included different neighborhoods in the 

Country Club District over the years, but the 

District’s heart was always the land around the 

golf course. 

THE 

DEVELOPERS 

Residential development rested in the hands 

of Paul C. Murphy, Frederick H. Strong, and 

William M. Ladd. Murphy was a well-known 

Washington banker and real estate investor who 

created the Laurelhurst Residence Park in 

Seattle. He came to Portland to develop another 

Laurelhurst carved out of a Ladd farm in 1909. 

Business associate Louis Lavachek said that 

Murphy invested in three thousand acres of 

Oregon Iron & Steel Company land 

surrounding Sucker Lake in 1912. Murphy 

thought the area had potential because of its 

proximity to the Willamette River, a resort lake, 

and wooded hills. Frederick H. Strong managed 

the Ladd Estate Company in 1923. William 

Strong, his grandfather, invested in Oswego’s 

iron works. William M. Ladd was the Ladd 

Estate Company’s president. 


The Ladd Estate Company’s selection of 

Seattle civil engineer George F. Cotterill to 

design the Country Club District showed the 

importance of its layout. Cotterill was one of the 

West Coast’s best civil engineers and a former 

Seattle mayor and state senator. In 1907 

Cotterill helped to design Seattle’s Mount Baker 

Park Addition, the first Seattle subdivision to 

include boulevards and park grounds. 

Lake Oswego Country Club District 

developers believed that metropolitan growth 

should be planned. Forward-looking, they 

reflected the national interest in planning 

spawned by the Progressive movement’s desire to 

control urbanization. They supported Portland’s 

first zoning ordinance in 1924, which protected 

single-family residential areas from intrusion by 

non-residential buildings. The Country Club 

District developers contended that residential 

neighborhoods that restricted use, ownership, 

building costs, and architectural style were 

beneficial because they created attractive areas 

and protected property values. 

Paul C. Murphy, Frederick H. Strong, 

William M. Ladd, and George F. Cotterill shared 

ideas about what residential districts should 

look like. The cultural value placed on enjoying 

nature’s beauty and a burgeoning recreation 

movement that produced national and city 

parks cemented these opinions. The City 

Beautiful and Arts and Crafts movements 

influenced the Oswego developers’ ideas about 

design. A picturesque aesthetic colored all their 

decisions and the internationally recognized 

landscape architecture firm of Olmsted Brothers 

provided examples to emulate. 

The City Beautiful and the Arts and 

Crafts movements were reactions to 

industrialization’s ugly byproducts. The City 

Beautiful movement started in the 1890s as an 

effort to beautify industrial areas. Arts and Crafts 

enthusiasts reacted to industrialization’s erosion 

❖ 

Developers of Oswego’s Country Club 

District laid out new subdivisions on 

curving boulevards that responded to 

the natural contours of the landscape, 

unlike older neighborhoods whose 

streets were platted on a grid. 


Chapter V ✦ 81

COMBINING RESIDENCE 

PARKS & RECREATION: 

“ LIVE WHERE YOU PLAY” 

Higher values placed on recreation, leisure, and 

saving time in the 1920s forged the merging of 

residence parks and recreation. Frederick Strong 

noted the social transformations that produced the 

combination in 1926: “Stores and factories close 

early; working hours are shorter…. People 

accomplish more in less time and have more 

leisure.” The quickened pace of life produced by 

improved transportation systems encouraged even 

more time-saving. Oswego developers recognized 

the appeal of the country club districts that already 

formed rings around large American cities by 1920. 

The idea of a golf course near Portland 

businessmen’s homes and offices was the seed 

from which the Country Club District grew. Golf 

was extremely popular among middle-class and 

wealthy Americans in the 1920s. The game 

symbolized the leisure-class style of living that the 

developers wanted people to associate with their 

residential district. Frederick Strong observed that 

Oswego offered the perfect setting: 

❖ 

Top: The ideals of the Arts and Crafts 

and City Beautiful movements 

were embodied in the architecture of 

the Oswego Lake Country Club with 

its evocation of genteel English 

country life. 

COURTESY OF THE OSWEGO LAKE COUNTRY CLUB. 

Above: Members of the Country Club 

counted this well-equipped swim park 

among their membership privileges. 


of craftsmanship. Both movements advocated 

nature and outdoor recreation as antidotes to 

industrialization. The picturesque point of view, 

rooted in nineteenth century English aesthetics, 

made its imprint on the Country Club District. It 

left a legacy of cultivated landscapes and 

architectural styles with romantic roots. The 

Olmsted Brothers’ landscape architecture 

influenced the Lake Oswego Country 

Club District developers too. Frederick Law 

Olmsted, designer of New York’s Central Park 

and other outstanding city parks, originally 

established the firm. William M. Ladd hired 

Olmsted Brothers to prepare a preliminary 

layout for Laurelhurst. Paul Murphy and George 

Cotterill worked with the firm on Seattle 

residence parks. 

Here we found a three-and-a-half-mile long 

lake for canoeists and yachtsman, beautiful 

scenery, wide stretches of woodland for hikers 

and horsemen and land that by its very nature 

was ideal for the creation of the finest kind of a 

golf course, all convenient to home sites and only 

a few minutes removed from the city itself. 

“Live Where You Play” was the stylish motto 

the Ladd Estate Company created to market the 

Lake Oswego Country Club District. 

THE MASTER PLAN 

Carefully supervised by Paul C. Murphy, 

George Cotterill prepared his master plan for 

the District in 1923. A golf course and 

clubhouse formed its hub. The Ladd Estate 

Company added other recreational features to 

suit almost every fancy—hiking and riding 

trails, a polo field, and tennis courts. George 

Cotterill rejected a grid of streets for the modern 

curvilinear street pattern frequently used in 

fashionable neighborhoods. Crews improved 

Oswego Lake’s shoreline by landscaping 


with native plants and building sea walls, 

boathouses, and docks. 

Completion of West Side Pacific Highway 

and a sharp jump in real estate sales encouraged 

the Ladd Estate Company to add the lake’s 

east end to its master plan. After 1922 Oswego 

Lake property sold so quickly that the Ladd 

Estate Company raced to open subdivisions. 

With the highway at its door, the peninsula on 

the south side of the marsh called the Duck 

Pond was the perfect place for a new 

neighborhood named Lakewood. If the 

company flooded the Duck Pond, it could sell 

more lakefront lots. The Duck Pond would 

become “Lakewood Bay,” where residents could 

fish, boat, and swim. 

The Ladd Estate Company repeated the 

marketing technique it used at the lake’s west 

end by opening a large area for public use at the 

east end. The Oregonian reported on June 1, 

1924: “Approximately five acres of ground 

between the lake shore and Pacific Highway will 

be immediately made into a parking and 

recreational center.” Pacific Highway allowed 

thousands of fishermen and fun seekers to 

stream off the highway to the lake. People 

continued to flock to the boating and swimming 

concession that the McMillan family took over 

from the Nelsons in 1924. Vacationers rented 

swimsuits, towels, boats, and canoes to enjoy 

the lake. 

Crews rushed to construct the boulevard 

system because roads determined the Country 

Club District’s success. The developers wanted 

to finish South Shore Boulevard first and then to 

build North Shore Boulevard. The goal was a 

system that used connecting streets to link the 

lake shore boulevards to Iron Mountain and 

Terwilliger Boulevards, along which the 

company also wanted to subdivide land. 

Because of the iron industry, Oswego was the 

perfect place to achieve the City Beautiful 

movement’s objective of erasing unsightly signs 

of industry. Constructing a golf course on 

William M. Ladd’s Iron Mountain Farm made 

canny use of land where the town’s intensive 

mining occurred. Flooding the Duck Pond to 

create Lakewood Bay hid places where laborers 

gouged out clay to make pipe cores. George 

Cotterill’s cultivated landscape perfectly 

expressed the Olmsted Brothers’ emphasis on 

enjoying nature and outdoor recreation. Every 

lot had a scenic feature. Walking paths 

led efficiently to the lake. The District’s master 

plan made the great outdoors comfortable 

and convenient. 

The center of the Country Club District’s 

social life was the Oswego Lake Country Club. 

Only property owners could become members 

and club activities revolved around golf. Paul 

Murphy asked H. Chandler Egan to design the 

golf course. Egan, the U.S. amateur champion in 

1904 and 1905 and designer of the Pebble 

Beach Golf Course, produced a preliminary 

layout in 1923. William H. Tucker & Sons, a 

nationally recognized firm that produced more 

than one hundred notable golf courses, built the 

course. The Ladd Estate Company gave Oswego 

a tournament-quality course in 1925. Originally, 

it was an eighteen-hole course with multiple 

altitude changes that created dramatic vistas and 

❖ 

Top: The recreational advantages of 

life in the Country Club District 

were depicted in the Ladd Estate 

Company logo. 


Above: The Forest Hills Polo Team 

played on a field built by Paul 

Murphy at the foot of Iron Mountain. 

In 1936 the site became the home of 

the Lake Oswego Hunt. 


Chapter V ✦ 83

❖ 

With the Pacific Highway at its door, 

the peninsula on the south side of 

man-made Lakewood Bay was the 

perfect place for a new neighborhood 

called Lakewood. 


one of the most challenging courses on the West 

Coast. After playing the course, ardent golfer 

Clara S. Shepard wrote: “The lightly rugged 

contour of the Lake Oswego country gave so 

much nature-placed hazard to the links that 

they had no need to be “trapped to death,” and 

all seem to agree that as a place for the tired 

business man to rest from the cares of the office, 

it has no parallel.” 

THE ARCHITECTURE OF 

THE COUNTRY CLUB DISTRICT 

The developers selected English styles such 

as Colonial, Tudor, English Cottage, and Arts 

and Crafts to define the District’s architectural 

character. These styles had the social prestige 

that the Ladd Estate Company wanted people to 

associate with the District. Except for the 

Colonial Style that was dominant prior to 

World War I, they were picturesque in 

character. Their qualities of asymmetry, 

suitability to setting, and emphasis on outdoor 

living embraced the themes of appreciating 

nature and outdoor recreation. 

The clubhouse of the Oswego Lake Country 

Club served as an architectural model of the 

English styles the company desired. Respected 

Portland architect Morris H. Whitehouse 

designed the clubhouse in the Arts and Crafts 

Style, a favorite among Ladd Estate Company 

officers. With its emphasis on craftsmanship, 

use of native materials that were economical and 

harmonious with their surroundings, and the 

integration of the building with its setting, the 

Arts and Crafts-Style clubhouse embodied the 

developers’ architectural ideals. 

The Ladd Estate Company planned 

the stunning Tudor-style Charles W. Ertz 

House (demolished in 2000) as the District’s 

architectural showplace. Charles W. Ertz, 

the company’s architect for other important 

buildings, designed “Madrona Place” as a 

personal residence. Ertz was one of the 

many prosperous Portlanders who fell 

in love with the lake in the 1910s. He first 

built a handsome, steeply pitched, gableroofed 

summer cottage (the Ertz-Ager 

House) on Lake Front Road in 1925. Ertz’ 

decision in 1928 to sell the house to J. Verne 

Savage and to build a permanent residence 

on North Shore Boulevard illustrated Oswego 

Lake’s transformation in image and status. 

By the 1920s the lake enticed Portland 

architects to display their talent. “Madrona 

Place,” with its sensitivity to site and scale, and 

fine execution in local brick and wood, amply 

illustrated Ertz’ elegant hand. As a model of the 

Tudor Style for the Country Club District, it set 

a very high standard. 


The Ladd Estate Company’s control over 

building costs and plans encouraged expensive, 

architect-designed residences. The Ertz House 

cost approximately $40,000 to construct in 1928, 

when most houses cost less than $1,000. Deed 

restrictions set building costs that varied by 

location. In some areas no house could be built 

for less than $2,500. In other areas building costs 

had to exceed $4,000. By controlling costs, the 

developers tried to guarantee that property values 

remained high. New opportunities to develop 

architectural talent at the turn of the century, 

including the Portland Atelier and schools of 

architecture added to the University of Oregon 

and other universities, created a pool of available 

professionals. The Country Club District was 

exceptional because architects designed 

approximately thirty percent of the residences 

built in the 1920s. 

The prosperity of the era and the Ladd Estate 

Company’s control over house design and 

cost left Oswego with an historic architecture in 

the 1920s. Although not innovative, the 

architecture was significant because of its 

responsiveness to its lake setting and use of 

beautiful native stone, wood, and brick. 

Oswego’s historic architecture was an extremely 

fragile treasure. 

STRONG & MURPHY BUY THE 


COMPANY’ S OSWEGO PROPERTY 

Frederick H. Strong and Paul C. Murphy 

bought the Ladd Estate Company and the 

Oregon Iron & Steel Company in 1926. 

Company secretary Alexander Patullo also 

bought land, which he developed into Mossy 

Brae and other subdivisions. After financial 

problems closed the Ladd and Tilton Bank, 

William M. Ladd retired to California. The 

Oregonian called the real estate deal, valued at 

$5 million dollars, “the largest in years.” Among 

Strong and Murphy’s holdings were 

Eastmoreland, Westmoreland, Ladd’s Addition, 

Dunthorpe, Lake Oswego Country Club 

District, and Burlingame. 

Paul C. Murphy and Frederick H. Strong 

marked their ownership of the Ladd Estate 

Company by asking Charles Ertz to design an 

office. Located at the main entrance to the 

Country Club District at the head of A Avenue, 

the Colonial-style building was grander than the 

company’s first Oswego office. It testified to the 

popular appeal of combining recreation and 

residences. “Live Where You Play,” the 

company’s sales slogan, expressed the desire of 

❖ 

Nelson’s boating and swimming 

concession at the east end of Oswego 

Lake accommodated thousands of 

fishermen and fun-seekers for twenty 

years. In 1924 the McMillan family 

took over the concession and 

continnued to provide public access to 

the lake. 


Chapter V ✦ 85

❖ 

Right: An eighteen-hole golf course 

covering 165 scenic acres, was the 

jewel in the center of the Country 

Club District. It was built on 

farmland owned by William M. Ladd 

and over a portion of the former route 

of the mine railroad. 


Below: The golf course was designed 

by H. Chandler Egan, U.S. amateur 

champion in 1904 and 1905 

and designer of the Pebble Beach 

Golf Course. 

COURTESY OF THE OSWEGO LAKE COUNTRY CLUB. 

many prosperous Americans in the 1920s. The 

Oswego Heritage Council later carefully 

renovated the office and made it the center of its 

activities in 1999. 

The key to the Country Club District’s 

success was the transformation of Sucker Lake 

into seductive Oswego Lake and Oswego into a 

suburb worthy of envy. In 1928 the Ladd Estate 

Company finally finished one of its largest lakeremodeling 

jobs. It created a channel between 

the lake and the shallow marsh that was the 

Duck Pond. Nothing revealed the changes in the 

lake’s identity as much as a proposed ordinance 

that it would be a “finable offense to refer to 

Lakewood Bay by its former name.” 

GROWTH OF OSWEGO’ S 

BUSINESS DISTRICT 

Residential development was a tremendous 

boon to Oswego. The Oregon City Enterprise 

published a feature article on the city in 

1929 that noted that the Ladd Estate Company 

saved the town from economic decline. The 

Enterprise observed that home building 

produced a new Oswego with a thriving 

business district. The Enterprise proclaimed: “To 

the largest extent the Ladd Estate Company 

must be credited.” 

Charles Sadilek and his brother Victor 

contributed to the business district’s growth in 

1922 by opening Oswego State Bank, the town’s 

second bank. Olga Sadilek Davis, Charles 

Sadilek’s daughter, recalled that Oswego people 

eagerly supported the bank by helping to raise 

the capital stock of $15,000. The Rogers 

brothers, who were from the Madeira Islands, 

started a grocery business in 1923 and 

constructed Oswego’s most modern commercial 

building in 1925. Designed by Charles Ertz, the 

Mediterranean-style structure with a tile roof 

reflected the Rogers’ roots. This commercial 

showplace dominated Oswego’s best business 

location. Centered on the corner of A Avenue 

and Front Street, the main entry was in an 

octagonal tower. 


The business district’s expansion in the 1920s 

was the first since the district moved from Old 

Town to New Town. By 1929 new and modern 

buildings lined up along State Street. The Rogers 

brothers also built the two-story “Oswego 

Building” between A and B Avenues on State 

Street. Construction costs for the two Rogers’ 

buildings were approximately $60,000. The 

Piggly Wiggly Corporation opened Oswego’s first 

chain store. Located on State Street, the onestory, 

modern concrete building was on the site 

where Koehler’s blacksmith shop stood. The 

Speedwell Service Station on State Street 

modernized and enlarged its building. Ed T. 

Pierson purchased Oswego’s third newspaper, 

the Western Clackamas Review. After installing a 

new printing press and changing the paper’s 

name to the Oswego Review, Pierson printed the 

first edition on September 9, 1929. The Oswego 

Review 

reported in December that Oswego 

“dozing for many years, has started an expansion 

program which, for the size of the city, is of 

rather surprising proportions. ” 

CIVIC 

LEADERSHIP 

Residential and commercial growth 

encouraged Oswego’s leaders to modernize their 

town. Motivated by a sense of civic duty, these 

men and women created organizations and 

participated in city government to create a 

modern city framework. The Oswego Woman’s 

Club set a fine example by forming the city’s first 

service organization in 1906. Businessmen 

founded the Commercial Club in 1915. It 

helped bring the Oswego Times to town. 

Businessmen organized the Civic Club in 1924, 

renamed the Commercial Club in 1928. The 

Civic Club’s goal was to make itself “useful in 

solving community problems.” 

During the 1920s concerned citizens took 

steps that later led to a city-operated public 

library. Oswego’s Free Public Reading Room 

closed in 1896 after the iron industry ended. 

Mildred Corbin Kyle’s donation of her husband 

George A. Kyle’s library to the Oswego Woman’s 

Club inspired Lucia Bethke Bliss to reestablish a 

Chapter V ✦ 87

Library Association operated competing 

libraries in a room that the City Council rented 

for meetings in Didzun’s Hall on A Avenue. 

AMENDING THE 

CITY CHARTER 

❖ 

Above: Distinguished architect 

Charles W. Ertz was one of many 

Portlanders who fell in love with the 

lake. He built this summer cottage on 

the south side of the lake in 1925. 

COURTESY OF BETTY AGER. 

Below: In 1928, Charles W. Ertz built 

his permanent residence on the 

north shore of the lake. The house, 

which was demolished in 2000, 

was an outstanding example of the 

Tudor Style. 


circulating library in 1917. More books 

prompted another step towards a public library. 

When the City Council declined Dora Espy 

Wilson’s gift of her husband A. King Wilson’s 

library, the Civic Club provided a solution. It 

sponsored the 1924 organization of the Oswego 

Library Association to accept the Wilson library. 

The Oswego Woman’s Club and the Oswego 

The City Council’s rejection of the Wilson 

library called attention to the city charter’s shortcomings. 

Adopted in 1910, the charter reflected 

Oswego’s depressed economy. It prohibited 

spending money not in the treasury and limited 

taxes. These restrictions, coupled with voters’ 

rejection of bond measures, made it impossible to 

finance improvements. The city had no money 

for a library, fire department, water system or 

sewer system. Fifteen years after incorporation, 

Oswego still did not have a city hall. 

Prosperity in the 1920s created a climate for 

change. Walter Spencer Wessling, Oswego’s new 

mayor elected in 1925, demanded progress. 

Wessling came to Oswego in the early 1920s, 

attracted by the town’s reputation as the ideal 

suburb for businessmen. When elected mayor, 

Wessling managed the Pathé Film Exchange in 

Portland and was one of Oswego’s new 

commuters. As a progressive-thinking outsider 

with no encumbering ties to Oswego, Wessling 

knew that the city’s charter had to be 

amended—no matter who objected. 

Opposite, top: In 1928 Charles Ertz 

designed this Colonial-Style building 

at the head of A Avenue for the new 

offices of the Ladd Estate Company. In 

1999 the building became the home of 

the Oswego Heritage Council. 


Opposite, bottom: The Rogers brothers 

constructed Oswego’s most modern 

commercial building in 1925. 

Designed by Charles Ertz, the 

Mediterranean-Style building with a 

tile roof and octagonal tower became 

a landmark at the corner of A Avenue 

and Front Street. 

COURTESY OF PHILIP ROGERS ROSSI. 


Walter Wessling conducted his first city 

council meeting in 1925 in the manner to which 

he was accustomed. He was a good-hearted 

man, but someone his grandson Spencer 

Wessling called “a hard-headed German” that no 

one dared to contradict. Walter Wessling 

declared that the charter would be revised and 

that bond measures would be passed. He 

reminded the City Council that Old Town and 

South Town joined incorporated Oswego in 

1922 and would have a voice in decisions. 

Strong civic leadership and voters eager to 

modernize their town gave Oswego 

a water system, fire department, and city hall 

by 1926. 

Following the newest architectural fashion for 

public buildings in the 1920s, Oswego City Hall 

on A Avenue was Art Deco in style. It housed the 

Police Department on one side, and the Fire 

Department on the other. The two libraries were 

in the middle of the building and the jail was at 

the rear. Editor R. C. Cooke noted in 1928 in the 

Western Clackamas Review that building City Hall 

heralded “the beginning of a new era for Oswego.” 

THE OSWEGO VOLUNTEER FIRE 

DEPARTMENT 

The drive to modernize city services 

improved Oswego’s Volunteer Fire Department, 

Chapter V ✦ 89

❖ 

Top, left: Arthur “Red” McVey (left), 

and Joe Nemec, two of Oswego’s first 

volunteer firemen, sat in the 

department’s 1923 GMC fire truck for 

this photo. 


FIRE DEPARTMENT. 

Top, right: Oswego’s first city hall was 

built in 1926 on A Avenue between 

State and First. The Police 

Department was housed on one side 

and the Fire Department on the other. 



first formed as a bucket-and-ladder brigade in 

1910. Organized as a city department in 1925, 

the volunteers used their first city funds to buy 

a new siren. Arthur “Red” McVey, one of the 

original volunteers, loved to recall that they also 

bought a rumrunner’s car. McVey said that 

during Prohibition the police took a Studebaker 

sedan loaded with whiskey into custody. When 

no one claimed it, the firemen bought the car for 

one dollar and rebuilt it as a chemical wagon. 

The sound of the Fire Department’s siren was 

poignant in Oswego. Firemen were neighbors 

who dropped what they were doing to respond 

to the alarm. Residents showed their appreciation 

by making the Fire Department’s annual 

dance the most important community event of 

the year and the firefighters’ biggest fundraiser. 

The City Council loved the Fire Department 

because it almost supported itself. 

A MODERN SCHOOL 

Families gathered on April 29, 1928, at a 

farewell ceremony for Oswego’s grand old 

grammar school. Located on Front Street at 

the top of the hill, Oswego’s first two-story 

public school building represented the best 

in educational institutions when it was built 

Below: In 1928 a new brick grammar 

school replaced Oswego’s grand old 

schoolhouse, which, for thirty-five 

years, had stood proudly as the town’s 

tallest building. 



in 1893. The Western Clackamas Review editor 

praised the old school and the new school to be 

built: “A modern and efficient school building 

will have risen where the old edifice crowned the 

hilltop and local children will…find within well 

arranged and properly ventilated classrooms in 

which to prepare for citizenship.” When 

students rushed into the new Oswego Public 

School on September 17, 1928, they entered a 

refined Georgian-style building constructed for 

$60,000. It accommodated nearly five hundred 

students and had an assembly hall that the 

School Board allowed the community to use. By 

the end of the 1920s Oswego’s civic leaders 

rallied residents’ support for charter 

amendments, city services, and public buildings. 

A modernized framework made the city more 

attractive to potential residents. 

A NEW TOWN & LAKE 

Town leaders and residential developers gave 

Oswego and its lake new identities during the first 

decades of the twentieth century. Citizens created 

service organizations and supported funding for 

public improvements. They amended the city 

charter so that the town could modernize. 

Oswego developers participated in the nationwide 

activity of redesigning the land to enhance 

its value for residential real estate. They enlarged 

Sucker Lake and turned the property purchased 

for iron-making into restricted neighborhoods. 

The city was part of the national suburbanization 

movement too. Oswego attracted families hoping 

to realize the American dream of buying a home, 

raising children, and prospering in a community 

that offered suburban living. 

Pacific Highway and the boulevard system 

allowed Oswego to be part of the tremendous 

increase in public mobility resulting from 

America’s early twentieth century improvement 

of its roads. The highway and Oswego’s 

boulevards permanently altered the town by 

dispersing its population around Oswego Lake. 

The new roads intensified the ties between 

Oswego and Portland and changed the town’s 

social character. Along with the lure of the lake, 

the boulevard system guaranteed that Oswego 

would have a steady flow of newcomers eager to 

live in such a beautiful and convenient spot. 

The Commercial Club discussed Oswego’s 

transformation into a residential town and 

pronounced it positive in 1928. Workers 

dismantled the second furnace’s 160-foot 

smokestack. Few people cared that Oswego’s 

towering landmark, visible for miles around and 

a symbol of Oswego’s industrial nature, was 

gone. Oswego Lake, the main cause of the city’s 

transformation, shed its ugly duckling past and 

emerged as a beautiful swan. 

❖ 

Between 1873 and 1921 the lake was 

enlarged several times beyond its 

original size. The last remodeling of 

the lake occurred in 1928 when a 

channel was dug between the Duck 

Pond and the main lake to 

create Lakewood Bay. 


Chapter V ✦ 91


VI 

LAKE OSWEGO, SUBURBAN PARADISE 

There is no stopping the folks from moving to Oswego, but you can’t blame them. Where else can 

you swim, ride, play golf, fish, motorboat, and raise prize-winning roses? 

— Frank Sterrett 

The Oregonian, October 9, 1960 

A MOST DESIRABLE SUBURBAN CITY 

Oswego became one of Oregon’s most desirable suburban cities during the three decades following 

the 1920s. Although the Great Depression brought some hardship, the residential development that 

began in the 1910s continued and Oswego prospered. After World War II ended, baby boom families 

eager to raise their children in a suburban environment rushed into the land around the lake. The 

population boom changed village-sized Oswego into the suburban paradise of Lake Oswego in 1960. 

THE GREAT DEPRESSION 

Oswego was an exceptional small town because of its economic good fortune during the Great 

Depression. The large number of middle-class and rich families living around the lake meant that 

Oswego could offer relief to the needy people in the rest of Clackamas County. The city was one of 

a handful of Oregon towns that provided enough funds to secure many Federal projects. During the 

Depression, developers and merchants also promoted recreation to bring business to town. Low 

prices for houses and city dwellers’ dreams of living more cheaply in a suburban area created a 

building boom. 

Governor Julius Meier selected Clackamas County Judge Charles W. Kruse to serve as one of the 

chairmen of the Clackamas County Relief Committee. The Kruse family owned a farm west of 

Oswego. Judge Kruse appointed Mayor William S. Ewing to organize the Oswego Unemployment 

Relief Committee in 1931. Committee members gratefully observed that their list of unemployed 

people was short in comparison to other communities. The area’s most prosperous sections were Old 

Town, Lake Grove, and Forest Hills, where many professional people and owners of businesses lived. 

South Town (South Oswego) and New Town (First Addition) felt the Depression’s sting more sharply. 

People were willing to help the needy. Oswego Review Editor Ed T. Pierson pointedly reminded the 

prosperous of their social obligation with a 1931 headline: “…Wealthy Must Feed Hungry,” but the 

conscience-pricking was unnecessary. Hazelia farmers William Cook and Fred Lehman delivered 

donated vegetables to City Hall. George Rogers, the owner of Rogers Brothers Food Company, supplied 

groceries and a room above his Oswego Market as a place to collect donated clothing. Oswego also had 

enough residents of comfortable means to make an annual charity ball the Relief Committee’s most 

successful fundraiser. Four hundred people attended the first Charity Ball in 1931, which provided the 

committee with its initial donation of $214.75. The gala ball became the city’s biggest winter social event. 

❖ 

The Lake Oswego Water Festival was 

held at George Rogers Park on the 

Willamette River from 1955 to 1960. 

Members of the Lake Oswego Water- 

Ski Club in this photo were (from left 

to right) Merry Lee Eggers, Karen 

Kisky, Marion Blew, Janet Wilson, and 

Valerie Davidson. 

COURTESY OF THE WESTERN WATER SKI MUSEUM. 

NEW DEAL PROJECTS 

Some residents found their first good use for the federal government during the Depression. 

Between 1933 and 1943, approximately six hundred local people worked on federal projects. By 

April 1935 the Civil Works Administration and the Federal Emergency Relief Administration 

provided Oswego with $15,164. The city contributed $8,555 to complete eighteen projects. After 

1935, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) allocated more money. 

Chapter VI ✦ 93

❖ 

Judge Charles W. Kruse (standing 

beside a truckload of cauliflower from 

Kruse Farm) served on the 

Clackamas County Unemployment 

Relief Committee during the 

Depression and helped organize local 

relief efforts to provide jobs, clothing 

and food, including produce from 

local farms. 

COURTESY OF KAREN KRUSE PONG. 

Oswego Municipal Swim Park and the city’s 

first sewer system were the most important and 

controversial New Deal projects. In 1934 the 

Ladd Estate Company donated a lot for a park at 

the lake’s east end. The Ladd Estate Company 

developed and managed the lake and the land 

around it that the Oregon Iron & Steel 

Company owned. The gift followed the city 

council’s request for WPA funds to build South 

Shore Boulevard and a sewer system—two 

projects that benefited residential construction. 

Deed restrictions on the donated lot 

attempted to solve problems of liability and 

park maintenance. A restriction requiring the 

city to provide a septic tank or sewer system for 

the property testified to the difficulty of keeping 

the lake clean. Limiting park use to Oswego 

children was a restriction designed to stop the 

many drinking, carousing adults who partied on 

the lake and dragged their canoes on to 

lakefront lawns to spend the night. Restricting 

park use to the town’s children also eliminated 

the fear expressed in the Oswego Review in 1933 

that a park would be overrun by “swarms of 

Portlanders at the exclusion of Oswego citizens 

who would pay the taxes to build the park.” 

The Ladd Estate Company offered the lot to 

build good will in the community. Demands for 

public access were increasing as more homes 

ringed the lake. Writing in the Western Clackamas 

Review in 1928, “Oldtimer” voiced many residents’ 

opinion that “As an asset to Oswego, the lake has 

ceased to exist…. It may be highly enjoyed by the 

privileged few who own land up to 20 feet of its 

edge, but the public has been maneuvered out of 

its rights….” The gift aroused more controversy. 

Some Lakewood homeowners thought that a city 

park would aggravate the problems of littering and 

trespassing. When the company offered the lot in 

1934, Lakewood homeowners petitioned the State 

Emergency Relief Administration to stop its 

allocation of $3,000 to build a park. 

Mayor William Ewing held a public meeting 

to vote on building a city park. Ewing 

emphasized that it was Lakewood residents who 

opposed the idea. He pointed out that the Ladd 

Estate Company donated the lot, kept five acres 

at the lake’s east end open, and never intended to 

eliminate lake access completely. Mayor Ewing 

angrily reminded the protestors: “I defy you to 

find one lot where there won’t be some of you 

appear before the council with that same protest 

‘It will hurt the value of our property.’” 

Supporters outvoted protesters. In August 1936 

workers completed Oswego Municipal Swim 

Park on Ridgeway Road. 

City officials rejoiced when the Public Works 

Administration authorized $140,000 for the 

town’s first sewer system in 1935. They liked the 

bargain that Oregon Portland Cement Company 

Vice President Lawrence Newlands struck with 

the Collins Concrete Pipe Company. If the city 

chose its concrete pipe, the Collins Company 

would set up a plant next to the cement factory, 

use Oswego cement, and hire local people. 

Controversy arose in 1936 when the Gilpin 

Construction Company fired Oswego men 

working on the project. The men accused the 

company of replacing them with a “crackerjack 

crew” of fast-working outsiders. Oswego workers 

denied slowing down their work to keep their 

paychecks flowing. The Oswego Review 

indignantly reported in 1936: “What a joke to 

pretend that Oswego men, used to hard work all 

their lives, couldn’t or didn’t work reasonable 

well.” By 1938 workers laid twelve-and-a-half 

miles of sewer pipe. 

Federal money generated jobs and public 

improvements. When the New Deal ended, 

administrators praised Oswego for creating so 

much work for the unemployed of Clackamas 

County. Oswego benefited because it would not 


have been able to afford such necessary projects 

as a sewer system. Federally funded public 

improvements also laid a foundation for 

postwar residential construction. 

PROMOTING 

RECREATION 

Developers, service clubs, and merchants did 

everything they could to promote Oswego’s 

recreation during the Great Depression. The 

lake was their main marketing tool. One of the 

most successful events in the town’s history was 

the Lake Oswego Water Carnival, sponsored 

from 1933 to 1935 by the American Legion and 

local businesses. As many as twelve thousand 

spectators came to see every imaginable type of 

water race and stunt. A swimming contest for 

horses pitted eminently deserving, hardworking 

Oswego farm horses against pampered saddle 

horses. Canoe tilting contests allowed residents 

to hone their balancing skills. 

The Lake Oswego Water Carnival introduced 

aquaplaning and the inboard motors with the 

pulling power that the sport required. 

Aquaplaning was a forerunner of water-skiing. 

The Water Carnival provided a rare opportunity 

to see an exhibition of people skimming over 

the water balanced on a board towed by a boat. 

Inboard motorboats made some of their earliest 

Oregon appearances on the lake because 

wealthy people who lived there had the money 

to buy the glamorous watercraft. The Water 

Carnival also provided early opportunities to 

race inboards. In 1935 the Oregon Journal noted 

that “the Mystery Boat” of Milwaukie could win 

one of the competitions because it was 

“rumored to be the fastest boat on the 

Willamette River.” Sleek inboards replaced 

canoes as the most desired watercraft on 

Oswego Lake after these contests. 

The Depression’s golden age of movies 

popularized swimming. Motion picture shows 

were cheap entertainment and many townspeople 

saw at least one movie a week. In theatres they 

watched glamorous film stars frolicking in the 

water at country clubs and resorts. Swimsuit 

manufacturers paid Hollywood idols such as 

Loretta Young and Ronald Reagan to model trim 

new styles. Swimming and diving gained devotees 

when Olympic champion Johnny Weismuller 

showed off his muscled body in Tarzan movies. 

Martha Perry Schollander, mother of 1960s 

Olympic swimming champion Don Schollander, 

was a stunt swimmer in the Tarzan films. 

Schollander brought her talent for swimming to 

Oswego, where she later taught water ballet. 

Jantzen Knitting Mills highlighted Oswego 

Lake as a center for water sports by using the 

lake to market its swimwear. The Portlandbased 

manufacturer’s transformation of the 

old-fashioned bathing suit into the modern, 

skintight swimsuit was extremely successful. By 

1930 Jantzen sold swimwear in sixty-two 

countries. After building Jantzen Beach 

Amusement Park, the company added Oswego 

❖ 

The Lake Oswego Water Carnival 

drew thousands of spectators to 

Lakewood Bay over the Labor Day 

weekend in 1935. Events included 

motorboat races, aquaplaning, 

demonstrations of stunt flying by 

Dorothy Hester Hofer, and a horse 

swimming race, which was won by 

Herbert Kruse on a draft horse. 


Chapter VI ✦ 95

Lake as another perfect setting in which to 

promote swimsuits bearing the provocative 

logo, the “Red Diving Girl.” The Sons of 

Neptune, a Portland aquatic club, wore Jantzen 

swimsuits at a 1938 Canoe Pageant on the lake. 

Oswego resident Rella McAllister later 

remembered that Jantzen Knitting Mills’ cofounder 

Carl C. Jantzen used the mansion he 

built “in connection with his knitting mills, 

displaying his suits to his guests with large 

swimming parties.” 

The Ladd Estate Company promoted 

equestrian sports to attract horse lovers to the 

Lake Oswego Country Club District. The Forest 

Hills Polo Association played its first game on a 

polo field built by the company in 1930. The 

Multnomah Hunt and the Ladd Estate Company 

joined forces when the Hunt needed a home. 

The developers contributed nineteen acres and 

trail right-of-ways, while Hunt members raised 

more than $50,000 to build an equestrian 

center on Iron Mountain Boulevard in 1936. 

The new riding facility, designed by John 

Annand, had the largest privately owned riding 

arena in the West, a fifty-stall barn, a half-mile 

track, one hundred miles of trails, and a 

clubroom. To promote the Country Club 

District, the Multnomah Hunt changed its name 

to Lake Oswego Hunt. 

GREAT DEPRESSION 

BUILDING BOOM 

Paul C. Murphy controlled the Oregon Iron & 

Steel Company and the Ladd Estate Company 

after Frederick H. Strong sold his interest in 1930. 

Residents called Paul C. Murphy “Mr. Oswego” 

because of his role in developing the town. Paul F. 

Murphy, Paul C. Murphy’s son, became the Ladd 

Estate Company’s vice president. 

The lure of recreation, cheap prices for labor 

and building materials, and the dream of living 

inexpensively in a rural area, fueled a 

Depression-era construction boom. In 1929 

Carl Jantzen bought four-acre Crazy Man’s 

Island (later called Jantzen’s Island) from the 

Ladd Estate Company for $50,000. According 

to local legend, settlers called the property 

Crazy Man’s Island because an eccentric recluse 

lived there for many years. The Oswego Review 

applauded Carl Jantzen for building the 


❖ 

Opposite, top: During the 1930s, 

Jantzen Knitting Mills used Oswego 

Lake as a setting in which to promote 

its streamlined swimsuits. This 

snapshot of Ann Wade (Schukart) 

evoked Jantzen’s famous logo, the 

“Red Diving Girl.” 


Opposite, middle: The extensive 

facilities of the Lake Oswego Hunt, 

built on Iron Mountain Boulevard in 

1936, included a polo field, one 

hundred miles of bridle trails, a fiftystall 

barn, and the largest privately 

owned riding arena in the West. 

PHOTO BY S. C. KUO. 

Opposite, bottom: Paul C. Murphy 

(right), known as "Mr. Oswego" for 

his role in developing residential 

neighborhoods, also oversaw 

development of the Hunt Club and the 

Country Club. 


Above: A stone and timber bridge 

designed by Richard Sundeleaf 

provided a romantic entrance to the 

island estate of Carl C. Jantzen. 

COURTESY OF HILARY MACKENZIE. 

Left: The Jantzen boathouse, with its 

stone tower, arched entry and port 

cullis, created a picture of medieval 

romance on the lake shore. 


mansion because the project created jobs, but 

the decision also benefited the Jantzen Knitting 

Mills owner. Depression-era prices allowed him 

to construct the residence for approximately 

$140,000—one-third less than he would have 

paid in the 1920s. 

The Jantzen estate, named “Carneita” after 

the Jantzen children Carl and Oneita, had a 

medieval theme that matched its island setting. 

The bridge and water lapping the island’s edges 

conjured up visions of castle drawbridges and 

moats. Architects used stone, a tower, and 

turrets to weave a medieval motif. The firm of 

Ertz & Burns designed the house. Carl Jantzen 

first asked Richard Sundeleaf, designer of 

Jantzen Knitting Mills’ factories, to draw the 

plans. Emma Pregge Jantzen protested that no 

“factory architect” would design her house. 

Chapter VI ✦ 97

❖ 

Above: Richard Sundeleaf designed 

many distinguished Oswego houses 

including this palatial home on the 

Palisades, the steep cliffs overlooking 

the south side of the lake. 


Below: The cabañas, designed by 

Richard Sundeleaf in 1936, combined 

avant garde European Style with the 

romance of life on the lake. Standing 

on stilts above the water, these “little 

cabins” were inspired by a trip Paul F. 

Murphy took to Venice. 


Relegated to crafting the bridge and boathouse, 

Sundeleaf created unforgettable structures that 

embellished the theme of medieval romance. 

Tommy Thompson, noted California 

designer of the Santa Anita racetrack gardens, 

worked with Richard Sundeleaf to landscape 

“Carneita.” The mansion’s terraces, benches, and 

arbors provided many outdoor retreats. Similar 

landscape features were frequent additions to 

lakefront homes. Whimsical structures were 

popular, such as the island J. Verne Savage built 

out of rock to hide a stump in the lakebed. 

Combining utility with charm, lakefront 

landscape architecture reflected the popularity 

of outdoor living. 

Newspaper reports on “Carneita’s” 

construction sparked a swell of interest in 

Oswego real estate. Richard Sundeleaf soon 

designed other residences. One of Sundeleaf’s 

first houses was built in 1933 on the steep cliffs 

called the Palisades. The elegant Tudor-style 

landmark with two turrets and carved wood 

panels displayed handsome craftsmanship. The 

residence became the home of the Paul F. 

Murphy family in 1947. 

Oswego’s developers offered less grand 

houses too. “Out of the City—Into the Country,” 

like “Live Where You Play,” was another 

melodious slogan that the Ladd Estate Company 

devised to appeal to popular desires. Middleclass 

buyers wanted land, low prices, and 

mortgage financing. Lots sold quickly when 

Forest Hills Acres opened in 1932. Families 

could plant gardens and keep a cow on the oneacre 

parcels. The Ladd Estate Company used the 

marketing techniques it first adopted to sell 

Lake View Villas during the economically 

depressed 1910s. Advertisements for Forest 

Hills Acres emphasized inexpensive, pre-built 

homes and small down payments. 

When the Depression loosened its grip after 

1935, the real estate market soared. The 

Murphys bought a new boat for public 

excursions and to show lakefront lots to 

prospective buyers. Christened with a bottle of 

champagne at McMillan’s Resort, the sleek Lake 

Oswego was the first cabin cruiser in the water. 

Lake Oswego was just one sign of the real 

estate boom. Workers completed the 

boulevards, built the city sewer system, and 

drilled wells to lay the foundation for more 

residential development. 

The Ladd Estate Company continued the 

progressive outlook it established in the 

1920s by insisting on planning and good design 

in home building. The Murphys encouraged 

the use of modern architectural styles and 


construction methods. Richard Sundeleaf 

designed International-style cabanas built on 

stilts on Lakewood Bay in 1936. One-bedroom 

cabanas rented for $25 per month, which made 

them very popular among people who wanted to 

live in the lake’s first apartments. The developers 

also constructed model homes publicized in the 

national magazines Life, Look, and Colliers. The 

“Triple Insulation House” (Johns-Mansville 

Model Home) built in 1936 on Tenth Street 

across from the Ladd Estate Company’s office 

(later the Oswego Heritage House), introduced 

the novel idea of home insulation. The “Gas 

House,” constructed near the intersection of 

Country Club and Iron Mountain Boulevards in 

1939, promoted the residential use of gas. 

Federal Housing Administration (FHA) 

financing for new homes, available in 1938, 

buoyed the real estate market. Houses built to 

FHA specifications offered small down payments 

and twenty-five year mortgages. By 1939 the 

volume of mortgage loans returned to the high 

point it reached at the peak of the 1920s 

building expansion. FHA financing increased the 

number of middle-class residents in Oswego. 

FHA also encouraged innovation because it 

financed only new construction. In 1938 master 

builder Burt Smith and John B. Yeon produced 

early examples of the Northwest Regional Style in 

Lakewood. Yeon became one of the emerging 

style’s most celebrated designers. Talented people 

such as Yeon often drew plans for homes built on 

speculation during the Depression because 

commissions were scarce. The result was high 

quality architecture for housing developments. 

John Yeon’s houses were modern in spirit and 

building fabric. He used the new material of 

exterior plywood to construct houses based on a 

two-foot module. His designs showed the 

influence of the Northwest environment 

through their use of wood and floor-to-ceiling 

fixed picture windows designed to capture 

elusive light. Builders saved money because 

plywood cut the cost of labor and materials. The 

houses sold for approximately $4,500, with 

monthly payments as low as $27.50. 

GROWTH IN THE 

BUSINESS DISTRICT 

Oswego State Bank mirrored the Depression’s 

economic impact on the city. The 1929 stock 

❖ 

Above: In 1938 master builder Burt 

Smith and John B. Yeon produced 

early examples of the Northwest 

Regional Style in the Lakewood 

neighborhood. Built on a two-foot 

module, the houses featured board 

and batten siding and fixed picture 

windows with louvered vents below. 

ILLUSTRATION BY S. C. KUO. 

Below: The intersection at State and A 

was the commercial center of Oswego. 


Chapter VI ✦ 99

market crash had little effect, but in 1932 loans 

and investments fell dramatically. Loans followed 

the typical recessionary path of decline, dropping 

from $79,179 in 1929 to $36,895 in 1934. 

Oswego State Bank was like many banks across 

the nation that survived because of sound 

management. The Charles Sadilek family 

carefully steered the bank, located on A Avenue 

between Second and First Streets, through the 

leanest years between 1932 and 1936. Residents’ 

willingness to deposit money expressed their 

confidence in the bank and the city’s economic 

future. People realized that Oswego’s economy 

revolved around real estate and agreed with the 

❖ 

Right: The Lake Theatre building, 

designed by Richard Sundeleaf to 

resemble an English village, was 

built just south of Wally’s Marina on 

State Street. 


Below: In 1930 Oswego’s business 

district spread south to the strip of 

land between State Street and the east 

end of Lakewood Bay. Wallace 

Worthington’s Marina (the square 

building with boats docked behind it) 

was the first business built there. 



Oswego Review’s 1932 opinion that “the Lake 

Oswego district will prove its worth as one of the 

best residential home sections in the state.” 

Oswego’s residential growth combined with 

the improving national economy to bring new 

life to the commercial district by 1936. The 

arrival of a Safeway store that year was an 

additional sign of the modernization of the 

business district. Safeway followed Piggly 

Wiggly as Oswego’s second chain store. Safeway 

Stores, Inc. purchased J. Bickner & Sons, which 

opened in 1902 on Second Street. Residents 

were sad to see such long-lived local merchants 

go out of business, but they appreciated not 

having to travel to Portland to find cheaper 

prices at chain stores. 

Depression-era construction added more 

commercial development to the lakefront. 

Pacific Highway’s traffic made State Street 

unsuitable for single-family residences and a 

fine place for businesses and apartments; the 

Ladd Estate Company planned to have more 

businesses at the lake’s east end. In 1930 

workers built Wallace Worthington’s Marine 

Sales and Service. Wally’s Marina was a magnet 

for boat owners because it provided a place for 

them to fuel and to dock their boats. The 1940 

addition of a building on the south side of the 

marina delighted residents. Designed by 

Richard Sundeleaf to resemble an English 

village, this two-story structure provided 

mooring and was the home of the Lake Theatre 

and Ireland’s-on-the Lake, a restaurant. Boat 

owners who docked their craft, saw a first-run 

movie, and dined on Ireland’s terrace 

overlooking Lakewood Bay, could imagine that 

they were enjoying themselves at some faraway 

resort. This commercial development spread 

Oswego’s business district south to Lakewood 

Bay and brought it closer to its Old Town roots. 

OSWEGO PUBLIC LIBRARY & 

LOCAL HISTORY 

After years of hesitation, the City Council 

voted to establish a city library in 1930. 

Libraries throughout America grew during the 

Depression; they were perfect places to get an 

education, to escape into the world of literature, 

and to keep warm. The Oswego Public Library 

reflected the cultural consequences of hard 

times. Townspeople visited their library more 

frequently as its hours of operation and book 

collection expanded. The 1932 Library Report 

noted that Oswego’s annual per capita 

circulation was 7.5, although the standard set 

for a model library was only five. By 1937 the 

number of circulating books was ten times 

greater than it was when the library opened. 

The Oswego Woman’s Club played a key role 

in the growth that the library achieved during 

the Depression. Bessie Evans Pettinger led the 

club’s endless activities to raise money. For 

many years members canvassed every home 

seeking donations to a yearly book drive. After 

managing the Oswego Woman’s Club library, in 

1930 Lucia Bliss became the first salaried 

librarian to preside over the new public library 

in City Hall. Bliss devoted herself to the cause of 

improving the Oswego Public Library for 

seventeen years. She taught herself the Dewey 

Decimal System to catalogue books. In 1936 

Bliss spearheaded the movement to establish the 

Clackamas County Library Association, an 

organization that increased books and services. 

Preservation of local history was another cultural 

product of the Depression. Feeling that the 

hard times of the 1930s mirrored the pioneer 

era, Oswego residents became interested in their 

past. In 1932 an anonymous letter writer pleaded 

in the Oswego Review for residents to protect 

the old furnace. “Observer” warned: 

❖ 

Above: The Oswego Public Library, 

established in 1930, occupied a 

front room in City Hall until a new 

library was built on Fourth Street 

in 1964. 


Below: Lucia Bliss was the city’s 

first salaried librarian and 

spearheaded the movement to 

establish the Clackamas County 

Library Association. She devoted 

herself to the library for seventeen 

years and wrote the town’s first 

history in 1944. 


Chapter VI ✦ 101

❖ 

Above: The Oswego Woman’s Club 

played a critical role in developing the 

city’s library. Front row (children, 

from left to right): Willa Worthington, 

Robert Sadilek, Owen Centers, Doris 

Poulson, and Joyce King. Second row 

(seated, from left to right): Mrs. 

Newman, Elizabeth Pettinger, Mrs. 

Duval Jackson, Elsie Duis, Ida 

Worthington, and Minnie Clinefelter. 

Third row (seated, from left to right): 

Irene Beutler, and Mrs. Eugene 

Worthington. Back row (standing, 

from left to right): Elsie Sadilek, Cora 

Bullock, Mrs. Nelson, Belle Robertson, 

Gladys Centers, Millie Sadilek, 

Zobedia Schawper, Vera Poulson, 

Leona Davidson, and Myrtle King. 


Below: In 1937 when thieves stole the 

iron smelter’s metal plaque, citizens 

were awakened to the importance of 

preserving and protecting the town’s 

historic structures. 


Pretty soon the last old timer will be placed 

under the sod and the only history that could 

be written will be from hear say…should it be 

forgotten and just be called a pile of rocks? 

In 1937 junk dealers hacked off the furnace’s 

metal plaque with the inscription: “Oregon Iron 

Company Founded 1866.” The vandals also may 

have planned to smash the furnace to get its tie 

rods and face plates. The Oregon Journal reported 

on April 12, 1937: “There is much indignation at 

the desecration, laid to the high price now being 

paid for old iron.” Oswego Chief of Police Lloyd 

Shriner threw the scoundrels in jail. 

Women established a tradition of serving as the 

guardians of Oswego history by working together 

and inspiring others. Lucia Bethke Bliss, Agnes 

Nelson Cox, and Bessie Evans Pettinger began the 

mission to preserve the town’s past. Bliss’ The 

Foundation: Early History of Oswego, Oregon, 

written in 1944, was the town’s first history. 

The early research encouraged Theresa Moore 

Truchot, Elizabeth Salway Ryan, and Mary 

Holmes Goodall to continue the quest. In 1952 

Theresa Truchot published her fictionalized 

account of the iron industry, Charcoal Wagon Boy. 

Truchot devoted herself to collecting Oswego’s 

history and writing about it for more than forty 

years. Elizabeth Ryan spread interest by writing 

historical articles for the Oswego Review. Mary 

Goodall wrote Oregon’s Iron Dream: A Story of Old 

Oswego and the Proposed Iron Empire of the West in 

1958 as a contribution to the state’s centennial 

celebration. Later Goodall founded Oregon’s first 

Junior Historical Society and organized the 

Oswego Heritage Council in 1970 to protect the 

city’s historic structures. Together, these cultural 

custodians made city history an abiding interest 

and historic preservation a civic duty in Oswego. 

The women also forged a strong link between 

preserving city history and the Oswego Public 

Library. They supported the library and used it as 

their archives; few small towns could match 

Oswego Public Library’s impressive collection on 

local history or the size of its holdings. The 

women also created a strong tradition of 

community use and pride in the library. Mary 

Goodall’s donation of the profits of Oregon’s Iron 

Dream to construct a new library building 

illustrated how the missions of preserving history 

and developing the library supported each other. 

THE LAKE OSWEGO 

CORPORATION 

The Lake Oswego Corporation formed in 

1941 to manage Oswego Lake, which was valued 

at $1 million. A reorganization among the 

developers prompted the change. Paul C. 

Murphy retired and his son, Paul F. Murphy, 

became the president of the Oregon Iron & Steel 

Company, which owned the lake. In 1940 the 

Paul F. Murphy Company, Inc. replaced the Ladd 

Estate Company as the developer and manager 

of the Oregon Iron & Steel Company’s property. 

The developers no longer wanted to 

maintain the lake. The cost of cleaning, 

patrolling, and paying taxes and insurance fees, 

rose as more people bought land. Beginning in 

the 1920s, the Ladd Estate Company kept the 

lake sanitary and patrolled, although it had no 

legal obligation to do anything other than 


maintain the lake’s water level. In exchange for 

ownership of all the stock, the developers 

offered to deed the rim and lakebed to property 

owners, if they created a corporation to manage 

the lake. The developers promised to maintain 

a certain water level and, when they no longer 

wanted to own them, to deed the powerhouse 

and dams to the new corporation. The 

developers gave the property owners the tasks 

of management, but retained ultimate control 

until they deeded all of the facilities to the Lake 

Oswego Corporation in 1960. 

Property owners accepted the offer because 

they worried about alternatives. When the 

developers reorganized, the homeowners 

realized that a company unwilling to keep the 

lake filled or to limit the lake to private use 

might buy the lake. They also feared a 1939 bill 

passed by the Oregon legislature that allowed 

the state to form an assessment district 

including the lake. Government control opened 

the door to higher taxes as well as public and 

commercial use. The Oswego Review observed in 

1941 that government management meant “that 

some cheap commercial outfit could rent boats, 

etc., and the rowdy parties would be 

considerably on the increase. They could be on 

the lake at all hours, day or night….” 

Four hundred and fifty-six lakefront property 

owners and 3,500 residents with easements that 

gave them the right to use the lake formed the 

Lake Oswego Corporation. Initial fees were $7 

for the first sixty feet of lakefront and $1 for each 

additional ten feet, with a maximum fee of 

$30. The new corporation kept the lake clean 

❖ 

Above: Lakefront property owners were 

shareholders in the Lake Oswego 

Corporation which owned the lake rim 

and lakebed. The fees they paid helped 

keep the lake clean and safe. 


Left: Long before other lakes and 

rivers in Oregon had laws governing 

the operation of watercraft, Lake 

Oswego, under the aegis of the Lake 

Corporation, had its own patrol boat, 

safety rules, and licensing procedure 

for motorboat operators. 


Chapter VI ✦ 103

its management. People later challenged the 

legal status of this lake that provided limited 

public access. 

Lakefront property owners and those with 

easements protected themselves from the 

higher taxes that would have resulted from the 

state’s formation of an assessment district. They 

kept the lake restricted to residential use. The 

Lake Oswego Corporation created an 

organization of many members with a vested 

interest in keeping Oswego Lake clean, safe, 

and private. People who did not own lake front 

property or have easement rights benefited 

from having an exclusive, well-groomed lake in 

the middle of their town; the lake was a magnet 

for homebuyers and kept property values high 

for everyone. The organization of the Lake 

Oswego Corporation also closed an 

opportunity to make the lake public and open 

to commercial development. 

WORLD WAR II 

❖ 

Top: Five days after Pearl Harbor, 

Mayor Oscar C. Roehr (shown here 

with members of the 1943 City 

Council) urged residents to register as 

Civilian Defense volunteers. 


Above: During World War II, volunteer 

airplane spotters manned the 

observation post atop Iron Mountain. 

Mrs. C. A Smith (left) and Mrs. D. E. 

Updike were among those who kept 

watch during weekly three-hour shifts. 


and patrolled. Initially, it lowered the lake every 

year so that property owners could repair 

lakefront structures. Through its review of 

building plans for boathouses, sea walls, and 

docks, the corporation continued the developers’ 

supervision over all lake construction. 

The new form of ownership was unusual. In 

1949, Ward Smith, a member of the Lake 

Oswego Corporation’s first board of directors, 

observed: “As far as we have been able to find 

out, there is no other residential lake setup like 

this in the United States.” The corporation gave 

a large number of people private ownership of 

the rim and lakebed of a lake whose water was 

public. Four hundred-acre Oswego Lake was 

in the middle of an incorporated city, yet no 

federal, state, or local government controlled 

World War II refocused the townspeople’s 

energies. Depression-era concerns about 

employment and economic growth dissolved. 

Residents organized the Oswego-Lake Grove 

Office of Civilian Defense in October 1940. Five 

days after Pearl Harbor, Mayor Oscar C. Roehr 

emphasized citizens’ urgent obligation to 

register as Civilian Defense volunteers at City 

Hall, Allen’s Pharmacy, or the Oswego Review 

office. Paul F. Murphy donated space in his State 

Street building for the first Air Raid Protection 

headquarters. Airplane spotters kept their vigil 

in the observation post at the top of Iron 

Mountain. People also donated time and money 

to the Oswego-Lake Grove Service Club, 

organized in July 1941. Soldiers fresh off their 

ships and convalescents from Portland’s 

Veteran’s Hospital came out to enjoy the lake. 

Volunteers handed out swimsuits and 

entertained soldiers on boat rides. 

The war changed family patterns. Minnie 

Howell Clinefelter helped supervise fifty-three 

women who knocked on every door to identify 

the industrial skills of their female neighbors. In 

early 1942 the federal government urged women 

to participate in wartime work. Wives and 

husbands found employment in Portland’s highpaying 

war industries. The hours that they spent 


away from home lengthened, even though buses 

ran between Oswego and Portland shipyards at 

shift changes. 

Those who did not go off to war wanted to 

send a little bit of normalcy overseas. Theresa 

Truchot mailed “The Honk,” a newsletter filled 

with the everyday events of small-town life, to 

approximately one hundred military men and 

women. Truchot thought the name was a perfect 

choice “because we were blessed with so many 

ducks and mallards and little ones down on the 

Duck pond.” The “Honk” symbolized the city’s 

special character. Images of ducks waddling 

across State Street crossed soldiers’ and nurses’ 

minds as they read the newsletter. “The Honk” 

comforted them with the thought that life went 

on as usual in their hometown. 

But life did not go on as usual. World War II 

brought blackouts, rationing, and fears that 

spies signaled from Pete’s Mountain south of 

Oswego. Volunteer work filled extra time. 

Drives for the scrap material that the 

government wanted involved more Oswego 

residents than any other homefront activity. 

Mountains of rubber, metal, and paper grew on 

the streets, waiting to be hauled away. Oswego 

had an abundance of rubber because of the 

inner tubes and old tires turned into boat 

bumpers that were used on the lake. Everyone 

helped Oswego claim the record for a small 

community by gathering 59,865 pounds of 

paper for the U.S. “Victory” Paper Drive in 

September 1944. 

Hortense Gore Slocum’s zeal in collecting 

scrap material inspired others. Slocum, the vicechairman 

of the Civilian Defense Office, 

remembered: “I made up my mind that nothing 

was stopping me from winning that war. If they 

needed anything, I was going to get it.” The 

passion to gather scrap material was one way of 

participating in faraway battles. Oswego honored 

Hortie Slocum as “the mother of all service men 

and service women in the Lake Grove-Oswego 

District.” By the end of the war, everyone 

contributed something to the war effort. 

POSTWAR POPULATION GROWTH 

World War II halted Oswego’s development. 

The growth that followed the war was the 

greatest since the 1890s iron era. In the fourteen 

years between 1940 and 1954, population 

increased from 1,727 to 4,220. The national 

baby boom and the cultural trend of 

suburbanization made many towns expand, but 

Oswego’s growth had additional sources. The 

city was especially appealing because of its 

village-like charm and the easy commute it 

❖ 

Oswego and Lake Grove gathered a 

record 59,865 pounds of paper for the 

U.S. Victory Paper Drive in 

September 1944. Standing in front of 

the Civilian Defense Office were (left 

to right): H. W. Trueblood, Hortense 

Gore Slocum, Ronnie Blodgett, 

Postmaster Reg C. Cooke, Rodney 

Heestand, George H. Carl from 

American Legion Post 92, and Bob 

Scholer. The Boy Scouts were from the 

Lake Grove troop. 


Chapter VI ✦ 105

❖ 

Willa Worthington, three-time world 

woman’s water-ski champion, made 

Oswego Lake famous for the sport. 

Skiing in this photo on a “jitterboard” 

with her partner Red McGuire, 

Worthington starred at Cypress 

Gardens, Florida, and was one of 

the sport’s greatest innovators, 

introducing 360-degree turns and 

backward jumps that no one had 

attempted before. 


offered to Portland. Even more important were 

Oswego’s family environment and the lure of the 

lake. At the beginning of the population boom, 

the Oswego Review observed on July 11, 1946: 

Real estate men of the area report more 

than 600 lots sold in the district since the 

war, approximately 50 houses now under 

construction. A high percentage of these have 

been purchased by young couples with children 

of elementary school age. 

Population growth was responsible for many 

changes, including a surge in residential and 

commercial construction. More people settling 

outside the city ultimately expanded it. New 

residents pushed to join incorporated Oswego 

to get city water and sewer services. Growth also 

ushered in a modern city charter in 1948. 

RESIDENTIAL 

DEVELOPMENT 

Postwar housing followed the course set in the 

1930s when housing developments multiplied. 

Before World War II, “Stockbroker Tudor”-style 

mansions on the lake created the image of 

Oswego housing. After 1945 the city attracted 

attention as a place where middle-class 

subdivisions rose at lightning speed. Postwar 

housing displayed more architectural diversity, as 

Ranch and Northwest Regional Styles became 

popular. The Oregonian’s 1957 announcement of 

the opening of Oswego Highlands in South 

Oswego noted that “new homes will range from 

$15,000 to $25,000” and “more than 23 new 

designs are available.” One of the city’s first large 

apartment projects was built in 1947 on the 

southwest corner of Middlecrest and State Streets. 

The Lake Oswego Zoning District was the result 

of residential construction outside incorporated 

Oswego. This 1947 suburban zoning district was 

the first one in Oregon. Property owners realized 

that their twenty-five year old deed restrictions 

protecting them from “undesirable land uses” were 

expiring as new suburbanites poured into the area. 

To maintain similar restrictions, residents created 

the Lake Oswego Zoning District. Just as property 

owners organized to manage Oswego Lake, they 

joined together to control land use. The new 

district enabled an elected board of residents to 

regulate the location of businesses, apartment 

houses, and duplexes. The chief purpose of the 

district, supported by an overwhelming majority 

of voters, was to keep commercial enterprises out 

of residential neighborhoods. 

A FAMILY ENVIRONMENT 

Oswego’s reputation as an ideal family town 

was a primary source of attraction for the people 

who rushed to the suburbs. Schools and 

churches helped to establish the city’s standing 

as the perfect place for families. Business people 

promoted Oswego as a family town and the 

success of this marketing strategy became 

essential to the town’s economic well-being. 

Schools were especially important because 

their quality determined where many 

parents decided to live. Residents focused their 

attention on improving the school system. 

In 1948 Lewis and Clark College President 


Morgan S. Odell suggested that his students use 

Oswego as their laboratory to study educational 

needs in a small town. Oswego residents 

enthusiastically accepted the offer. Between 1945 

and 1959, taxpayers supported construction of 

four new schools. Prior to World War II, Oswego 

Public School (renamed Lakewood School in 

1955) was the only public school. Its 

overcrowding prompted the construction of 

Forest Hills School, built in 1950. After forty 

years of discussion, residents of Oswego and 

Lake Grove finally agreed to raise their taxes to 

build Lake Oswego High School in 1951. 

Workers completed Lake Oswego Junior High 

School in 1956 and Palisades School in 1959. 

Religious organizations contributed to 

Oswego’s reputation as a wholesome place for 

families. Church buildings rose rapidly to support 

family life. Sacred Heart Church, the Methodist 

Church, the Lutheran Church, and Christ 

Episcopal Church were a few of the religious 

institutions that built new churches or parish 

halls. Most building plans reflected the 

importance of space dedicated to family activities. 

A MECCA FOR WATER SPORTS 

The lake was one of the most powerful lures 

for couples with children. When the production 

of consumer goods resumed and prosperity 

blossomed, swimming, boating, and waterskiing 

reached new heights of popularity. These 

aquatic pleasures symbolized every thing that 

many people wanted: healthful exercise, 

recreation, and leisure time. Water sports also 

were what most parents desired—family 

activities in which everyone could participate. 

The “Cody Kids” brought Oswego Lake 

national attention as a training ground for elite 

swimmers in the early 1940s. Portland-based 

Multnomah Athletic Club coach Jack Cody 

produced three champions who developed their 

skills in Oswego Lake. Nancy Merki, one of the 

Cody Kids, started her swimming career at age 

nine when she was the first female to cross the 

finish line at the Annual Oswego Lake Marathon 

Swim. From 1940 to 1948 the Cody Kids’ success 

publicized the lake. National magazines Look and 

Life showed them swimming in its inviting water. 

Nancy Merki, Brenda Helser, and Suzanne 

Zimmerman, all Cody Kids, were members of the 

1948 United States Olympic Swimming Team. 

Zimmerman won a silver medal in the women’s 

one-hundred-meter backstroke. The rise in 

popularity in swimming and American success in 

the sport added to the strong attraction Oswego 

had for families. A 1950 survey showed that 

swimming was twice as popular as any other sport 

among Oswego residents. 

Fifty motorboats cruised the lake in 1938; by 

1950 there were more than three hundred. 

Changes in boat technology and cost made their 

numbers increase. The introduction of more 

powerful outboard motors and cheaper, 

lightweight plywood boat construction made it 

possible for people to ski behind outboard boats. 

Their new affordability and the desire for family 

sports brought water-skiing to the peak of its 

popularity. Lake Grove resident Ray Morris 

remembered how excited he was to water-ski as a 

teenager. Like many early enthusiasts, Morris 

skied using tennis shoes nailed to boards in 1948. 

Willa Worthington, “queen of the world’s 

feminine water-skiers,” made Oswego Lake 

famous for the sport. Marina owner Wally 

Worthington taught his daughter to ski on the 

lake when she was fourteen. Worthington 

trained on top of its green water for three years 

to become the National Women’s Water-Ski 

Champion in 1946 at the age of seventeen. In 

1949 she won the title in women’s water-skiing 

❖ 

Swimming was the most popular sport 

among Oswego residents. On August 

30, 1941, the first Annual Water 

Frolic was held at the children’s 

municipal swimming park. 


#ORHI 86576. 

Chapter VI ✦ 107

❖ 

The Lake Oswego Water-Ski Club, 

under the dedicated guidance of Earl 

Spencer, staged water-ski shows on the 

Willamette River from 1955 to 1960. 

In this photo, high school classmates 

Janet Wilson, Marion Blew, Karen 

Kisky, and Merry Lee Eggers practice 

in front of Jantzen Island on the lake. 

A number of Oswego water-skiers 

including Ray and Marion Morris, 

Karen Kisky, Marion Blew, and Earl 

Spencer’s daughters Diane and 

Sharon, later performed at Cypress 

Gardens, Florida. 

COURTESY OF KAREN KISKY BROOKS AND 

KASEY BROOKES HOLWERDA. 

at the first world championship meet held in 

France and completed her career with eight 

national and three international titles. 

Worthington began promoting the sport in 

Oswego when she helped organize the Lake 

Oswego Water-Ski Club in 1947. Students 

gathered at Wally’s Marina where the water-ski 

jump Willa trained on was waxed for use. 

Oswego water-skiers added their talent to the 

famous exhibitions held in Cypress Gardens, 

Florida. Willa Worthington, Ray Morris, Diane and 

Sharon Spencer, and others learned their skills on 

the lake and displayed them in Cypress Gardens. 

The Lake Oswego Water Festival, held on the 

Willamette River from 1955 to 1960, continued to 

highlight Oswego as a center for water-skiing. 

BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY 

Oswego’s residential growth expanded its 

commercial district. By July 12, 1945 the 

Oswego State Bank passed the $1-million mark 

for deposits. The town’s commercial center, 

almost dead in 1909, grew by leaps and bounds. 

The Oswego Review reported on January 3, 1946 

that the town was “on the eve of a business 

growth that will double the present commercial 

district.” Merchants added new stores, including 

the Oswego Food Center on A Avenue in 1948. 

George Rogers owned the building and James 

Wizer owned the business. 

The commercial district reflected the growing 

importance of the lake to the city’s economy. A 

few specialty shops typical of resort towns 

opened. Merchants dreamed of capitalizing on 

the appeal of the lake by developing a “resortlike” 

atmosphere. They discussed regulating 

commercial construction to keep buildings small 

and “village-like” in character. On Second Street 

the Country Square, which included the Country 

Store (the historic Koehler House), reflected the 

interest in designing the town as a village. 

The city’s first zoning ordinance was a product 

of postwar expansion. The City Council 

appointed a planning commission in 1946 and 

enacted a zoning ordinance in 1947. The 

objective was to keep development orderly, to 

protect property values, and to separate land uses. 

Above all, the ordinance was designed to preserve 

the residential character of Oswego by limiting the 

areas where business and industry could operate. 

It established five zones: a single-family zone, a 

two-family zone, a community shopping center 

zone, a business zone, and an industrial zone. 

Some business people hotly contested the 

ordinance because it limited their ability to 

manage their property without city involvement. 

Oswego also contributed to Portland’s 

industrial expansion after 1945. Two times a day 

trains with 15 to 20 log cars chugged through 

town towards Portland. Development occurred 

in the Foothills, the newly zoned industrial 

section between the Willamette River and State 

Street. In 1946 the Oregon Portland Cement 

Company spent $1.25 million to enlarge its 

factory to meet builders’ needs for 159 new 

Portland plants. Expansion meant more 

complaints about manufacturing in a suburban 

city. Oswego’s movement away from its 

manufacturing roots to its residential character 

ultimately made large-scale industry and the 

town incompatible. 

SERVICE 

CLUBS 

Postwar business confidence encouraged the 

growth of service clubs. Founded in 1940, the 

Oswego Chamber of Commerce swelled in 

membership after 1945. One of the Chamber of 

Commerce’s first activities was to prepare a fivepoint 

plan to encourage people to shop in Oswego. 

The Business and Professional Women’s Club, 

Lions Club, and Kiwanis Club formed soon after 

the war ended. The Oswego-Lake Grove Business 


and Professional Women’s Club organized in 1946 

to improve working conditions for professional 

women. The Oswego Lions Club, founded the 

same year, earned enthusiastic community support 

by holding an annual pancake breakfast on the 

Fourth of July. Civic improvement, sight 

conservation, and aid to the blind were the group’s 

main activities. The first task that the new Kiwanis 

Club undertook in 1947 was construction of a city 

park on the Willamette River. 

The League of Women Voters of Oswego and 

the Rotary Club organized in the 1950s. In 1955 

West Clackamas County league members 

sponsored the formation of the League of Women 

Voters of Oswego. The wisdom of incorporating 

Lake Grove into Oswego was an early question 

that the League researched to help voters make 

informed decisions. One of the Lake Oswego 

Rotary Club’s first programs was to establish a 

scholarship for a graduating Lake Oswego High 

School student. These new clubs sponsored the 

projects that the city needed but could not fund. 

As the Oswego Woman’s Club, Odd Fellows, and 

other early service clubs lost older members, the 

new organizations continued the activities the 

earlier groups started and added others. 

MODERNIZING CITY 

GOVERNMENT 

Growth changed city government and added 

more public buildings. Discussion of replacing 

Oswego’s original “horse and buggy” charter 

began in the 1930s when the League of Oregon 

Cities recommended modernizing charters. A 

key addition that won support for the new 

charter in 1948 was a provision for special 

assessment districts. These districts allowed 

citizens to have public improvements built in 

their neighborhoods, if they were willing to pay 

higher taxes. The 805 charter supporters who 

outvoted 205 opponents confirmed that most 

citizens wanted public improvements. 

Public buildings rose rapidly. Workers built a 

new post office on Second Avenue. In addition 

to the schools, crews constructed a new fire hall 

in 1948. The fire hall proved a valuable addition 

on July 1, 1949, when firefighters battled one of 

the city’s worst fires. Attributed to a smoldering 

firecracker, the blaze burned a quarter of a block 

in the business district and damaged City Hall. 

GEORGE ROGERS PARK 

Enthusiasm for city improvement produced a 

city park at the site of the old furnace. Beginning in 

the 1920s, citizens concerned about the furnace’s 

deterioration and eager to expand public recreation 

pushed for a park. The twelve-and-a-half-acre tract 

the city purchased in 1945 had a sweeping view of 

the Willamette River and bordered on Oswego 

Creek. It offered a place to swim and to launch 

boats. The Oswego School District purchased an 

adjoining twelve-acre parcel for an athletic field. 

The Kiwanis Club supervised the development 

of the park and the assistance of other service 

❖ 

Top: In 1948 the Volunteer Fire 

Department moved into a spacious 

new fire hall on First Street behind 

City Hall. 



Above: On July 1, 1949, firefighters 

battled one of the city’s worst fires 

when fireworks ignited the 

lumberyard behind City Hall. Some 

city records were damaged. 



Chapter VI ✦ 109

❖ 

Above: The iron smelter was the focal 

point of the city’s new park. The 

Kiwanis Club constructed restrooms, a 

fireplace and picnic tables. The 

Oswego Garden Club created a 

memorial garden with donated trees 

and flowers. 


Below: Oswego merchant and city 

councilman George Rogers made the 

city’s first public park his special 

project. In 1952 the city council 

honored his dedication to the park by 

naming it after him. 

COURTESY OF PHILIP ROGERS ROSSI. 

clubs; Kiwanis Club members also constructed 

restrooms, a fireplace, and picnic tables. Oswego 

Garden Club members added their talents by 

helping to prepare the landscape design and by 

planting trees, shrubs, and flowers. Oswego 

merchant George Rogers made the park his 

special project when he became a city council 

member in 1949. Because he devotedly 

maintained the property, city council members 

named the park for him in 1952. 

Allen Morris offered to sell the city Lake 

Oswego Public Swim, his boating and swimming 

concession at the east end of the lake. Oswego 

Swim, with its bathhouses, water slide, boats, 

and canoes, was the favorite destination of 

thousands of water lovers. The City Council 

signed an option to buy the property in 1957. It 

planned to call a special election so that voters 

could decide whether they wanted to authorize 

the sale of bonds to buy Oswego Swim. The 

Oregonian reported in 1963 that the city let the 

opportunity slip away because it did not have 

the asking price of $200,000. The city’s decision 

not to purchase the Morris’ property, meant that 

the only public access at the lake’s east end was 

Oswego Municipal Park, which only Oswego 

children could use. 

The sale of Oswego Swim to developers 

brought the end to a long tradition. The property 

was the first recreational site and place of public 

access on the lake. Beginning with the Nelsons’ 

concession in the first decade of the century, 

Portlanders and people from all around the area 

came to the spot to enjoy the lake’s water. After 

Allen Morris sold Oswego Swim in 1963 and 

construction of Bay Roc Apartments started, 

most Oswego residents found themselves unable 

to enter the lake. 

THE NEW CITY OF 

LAKE OSWEGO 

The influx of suburbanites outside the 

incorporated city transformed Oswego into 

Lake Oswego. Expansion was the result of the 

convergence of prosperity, a baby boom, 

suburbanization, increased leisure time, and a 

desire for recreation. These trends made the city 

attractive to postwar families. The concept of 

“Live Where You Play,” introduced in the 1920s, 

reached fruition after 1945. 

Population growth created growing pains. 

Especially acute problems were the lack of 

sewers and an adequate water system. The drain 

fields of hundreds of new houses in the hills 

around Oswego leaked onto the lawns of the 

homes below them. People complained that the 

water lines outside the city delivered only a 

trickle of water during dry summer months. 

The Lake Oswego Corporation led the drive 

to join the incorporated city, Because only onethird 

of the lakeshore was in the city’s limits 

before 1959, most lakefront property owners 

yearned for city sewers and water. Oregon Journal 


Reporter Bob Shults observed in 1959: “…the 

powerful Lake Oswego corporation smoothly 

pilots its boat toward a merger with Oswego.” 

Some Lake Grove residents vehemently opposed 

incorporation. They took great pride in Lake 

Grove’s history as the first settlement on the 

lake. Lake Grove had its own school, volunteer 

fire department, churches, stores, and post 

office; these institutions created a strong 

community. Opponents to incorporation did 

not want Lake Grove to lose its identity or 

to be treated as Oswego’s poor relation. They did 

not like the idea that Lake Grove had to be taken 

under Oswego’s wing to get better services. 

But visions of sewers and water mains 

enticed most voters. Incorporation advocates 

outvoted opponents by five to one. Civic leaders 

advised combining the two names to salve 

political wounds. Residents selected “Lake 

Oswego” as the city’s new name in a general 

election held on November 8, 1960. Oswego 

leapt from being approximately the twentyeighth 

largest city in Oregon to the eighteenth 

largest city when it became Lake Oswego. Its 

population and acreage nearly doubled and 

sparkling Oswego Lake was now entirely within 

the city’s boundaries. 

The new city of Lake Oswego grew upon a 

foundation of iron, wood, and water. Geology and 

geography gave the city physical beauty and a 

wealth of resources. Iron ore developed from 

hematite, timber covered the hills, and a waterfall 

provided water power. The geology and geography 

of the area drew people hoping to make great 

fortunes. The town founder wanted to create a 

lumber-milling center. Industrialists tried to 

manufacture iron and turn Oswego into the 

“Pittsburgh of the West.” Entrepreneurs envisioned 

the city as the hub of a water transportation route 

that used Oswego Lake to link the Tualatin and 

Willamette Rivers. These ideas all failed. 

The plan to transform Oswego into a 

prime residential district succeeded. Oswego’s 

existence as a company town, whose owners 

bought approximately fourteen thousand acres 

surrounding the city for their iron dreams, was 

essential to the plan. The owners controlled every 

aspect of the Country Club District that they 

created. Conceived in the 1920s, this residential 

development established Oswego’s course for the 

rest of the century. The city’s location near Portland 

provided it with a steady stream of newcomers 

who found the short commute between home and 

work extremely attractive. The developers wisely 

based their entrepreneurial vision on Oswego’s 

land and water. To make the land more valuable as 

residential real estate, they beautified and enlarged 

the lake. 

The developers capitalized on cultural values 

and desires for social status. They recognized the 

expansion of the prosperous middle class in the 

early twentieth century and catered to its values of 

leisure, recreation, and health. A lake that 

symbolized those values was the center of their 

plan. Oswego became a city with a private lake 

and a large amount of private land devoted to the 

❖ 

Below: In 1957 Allen Morris offered 

to sell the city his boating and 

swimming concession for $200,000. 

However, the city decided not to act 

on the option to buy the property, and 

the site was sold to private developers 

six years later. 


Bottom: Lake Oswego’s float in the 

1959 Portland Rose Festival parade 

celebrated the city’s past and 

introduced its new name. 

COURTESY OF KAREN KISKY BROOKS AND 

KASEY BROOKS HOLWERDA. 

Chapter VI ✦ 111

❖ 

When Oswego annexed Lake Grove in 

1959, the communities at the east and 

west ends of the lake were joined under 

one municipal government and the 

expanded town was renamed “Lake 

Oswego.” In this aerial view, the 

Willamette River is in the foreground. 

COURTESY OF VIRGINIA AND PETER MAWDSLEY. 

enjoyment of pleasure and sport. The real estate 

developers also appealed to desires for social 

status. Like most early twentieth century planners 

of residential districts, Oswego’s developers 

created restrictions regarding who could live in 

the area and what could be built there. The 

restrictions gave the town an exclusive, 

homogenous reputation. In later years the 

developers removed the restrictions. 

By the time that village-sized Oswego became 

expanding Lake Oswego in 1960, its course was 

set for the rest of the twentieth century. Lake 

Oswego was the spot where people directed 

newcomers wanting to buy a home near the 

metropolis of Portland. Preserving the city’s 

reputation as a prime residential location became 

a top priority. Lake Oswego was the place where 

couples came to raise a happy family in the 

suburbs. The new residents in 1960 represented 

the beginning of an even greater population 

boom to follow. Lake Oswego’s development 

reflected a stroke of genius. Rather than selling 

off their land piecemeal, the property owners 

kept it intact. They crafted it into a residential 

district with a lake and landscape that continued 

to entice. 


SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Books and Articles 

Abbott, Carl. Portland: Planning, Politics, and Growth in a Twentieth-Century City. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983. 

Corning, Howard K. Willamette Landings: Ghost Towns of the River. Portland, Oregon: Oregon Historical Society Press, 1973. 

Goodall, Mary. Oregon’s Iron Dream: A Story of Old Oswego and the Proposed Iron Empire of the West. Portland, Oregon: 

Binfords & Mort, 1958. 

Hergert, Herbert L. Early Iron Industry in Oregon. Reed College Bulletin 26, no.2 (1948): 1-40. 

Johansen, Dorothy. Organization and Finance of the Oregon Iron and Steel Company, 1880-1895. Pacific Northwest Quarterly 31, no.2 

(1940): 123-59. 

Lake Oswego Public Library staff and volunteers, eds. In Their Own Words. Lake Oswego, Oregon: Lake Oswego Public Library, 1976. 

Lockley, Fred. History of the Columbia River from The Dalles to the Sea. Chicago: S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1928. 

Landerholm, Carl, trans., Notices and Voyages of the Famed Quebec Mission to the Pacific Northwest, 1956. Portland, Oregon: Champoeg 

Press, 1956. 

Lynch, Vera M. Free Land for Free Men: A Story of Clackamas County. Portland, Oregon: Artline Printing, 1973. 

MacColl, Kimbark. The Shaping of a City: Business and Politics in Portland, Oregon, 1885-1915. Portland, Oregon: Georgian Press, 1976. 

_______________. The Growth of a City: Power and Politics in Portland, Oregon, 1915-1950. Portland, Oregon: Georgian Press, 1979. 

MacColl, Kimbark and Stein, Harry. Merchants, Money, and Power: The Portland Establishment, 1843-1913. Portland, Oregon: Georgian 

Press, 1988. 

Ramsay, Jarold. Coyote Was Going There: Indian Literature of the Oregon Country. Seattle: University of Washington, 1977. 

Truchot, Theresa. Charcoal Wagon Boy. Portland, Oregon: Binfords & Mort, 1952. 

Zucker, Jeff et al. Oregon Indians: Culture, History, and Current Affairs. Portland, Oregon: Western Imprints, 1983. 

Newspapers and Magazines 

Lake Oswego Review 

Oregon City Banner-Courier 

Oregon Journal 

Oregonian 

Oswego Times 

Portland News-Telegram 

West Shore Magazine 

Western Clackamas Review 

City Documents 

City of Lake Oswego Archives 

Lake Oswego Public Library Archives 

Selected Bibliography ✦ 113

❖ 

Top: The Oswego Cornet Band played in President McKinley’s parade on July 4, 1893. 


Bottom: Third- and fourth-grade students were dressed in their Sunday best for flag drill in 1907. Edna K. Bickner was their teacher. 



SHARING THE HERITAGE 

historic profiles of businesses, 

organizations, and families that have 

contributed to the development and 

economic base of Lake Oswego 

Lakeside Lumber Company, Inc. .......................................................116 

Rossman Sanitary Service, Inc. ........................................................118 

Mary’s Woods at Marylhurst............................................................120 

Ann Parshall Schukart....................................................................122 

City of Lake Oswego ......................................................................124 

Tualatin Valley Builders Supply .......................................................126 

Equity Office ................................................................................128 

Lake Oswego School District............................................................130 

Nick Bunick & Associates, Inc. ........................................................132 

SAFECO Corporation .....................................................................134 

Lake Oswego Rotary .......................................................................136 

Carl M. Halvorson.........................................................................138 

Sturdi-Built Greenhouse Manufacturing Company ...............................140 

Wizer’s Oswego Foods ....................................................................141 

Vic’s Auto Center, Inc.....................................................................142 

Grimm’s Fuel Company ...................................................................143 

Bank of America ............................................................................144 

Oregon Management Group/The Headlee Company ..............................145 

Alice L. Schlenker..........................................................................146 

Oswego Heritage Council ................................................................147 

Delia “Dee” Denton........................................................................148 

Lakewood Theatre Company/Lakewood Center for the Arts ...................149 

Lake Oswego Review ......................................................................150 

Evergreen Pacific, Inc. ...................................................................151 

Dr. Paul Klein...............................................................................152 

Jennings Insurance Agency ..............................................................153 

Graham’s Book and Stationery .........................................................154 

Ward C. Smith ..............................................................................155 

Gage Industries .............................................................................156 

William T. Buckley, Attorney at Law.................................................157 

River’s Edge Athletic Club ...............................................................158 

Dr. Dale Rhoney............................................................................159 

Stoutt Executive Services, Inc..........................................................160 

Walter Durham, Jr. ........................................................................161 

Gerber & Associates and the Gerber Family.......................................162 

Otak, Inc. ....................................................................................163 

Kruse Way Rotary..........................................................................164 

Colin Herald Campbell ...................................................................165 

SPECIAL 

THANKS TO 

Lambs Palisades Market 

May Management 

Oregon Business Bank 

VGO, Inc., Engineers 

Sharing the Heritage ✦ 115

LAKESIDE LUMBER 

COMPANY, INC. 

❖ 

Above: Original location of Lakeside 

Lumber on State Street across from 

Lake Theater. 

Below: Ernie Jacobsen and his wife, 

JoAnn, who were married for fortyseven 

years. 

When Jack Huddleston hired Otto Jacobsen as 

the first employee of his new lumber company in 

1937, a seed was planted in the Jacobsen family 

that has grown and flourished for well over fifty 

years in Lake Oswego. Therefore, the history of 

Lakeside Lumber Company not only encompasses 

what has become an outstanding producer of 

quality real wood products that stand the test of 

time in the damp climate of the Pacific Northwest, 

but also parallels the life of the Jacobsen family. 

Otto’s son, Ernie, loved going to work with his 

father at the lumber company. When he entered 

high school and was finally able to earn a few extra 

dollars, he took a job alongside Otto. Ernie joined 

the Navy after graduating from high school in 

1944. During his enlistment he contracted 

rheumatic fever and received an early medical 

discharge. Upon his return to Lake Oswego, he 

took a job as a yard worker and was often given 

stock instead of overtime pay. Ernie and his wife 

JoAnn saved every dime they could and were 

eventually able to buy the controlling shares of 

Lakeside Lumber in 1965 and, in 1966, moved the 

company from State Street in “old” Lake Oswego to 

its present location at 17850 Southwest Boones 

Ferry Road. Ernie Jacobsen was now president of 

Lakeside Lumber Company. 

Over the next thirty years, Ernie changed the 

direction of Lakeside from a full service hardware 

store to predominantly specializing in cedar siding 

and decking. He became known as an innovator in 

the lumber industry, creating many new products 

that others would only imitate. His decision to 

specialize in cedar was also a fortuitous business 

move in that he was well positioned to take 

advantage of many of the composite siding failures 

that would hit the Northwest in the 1990s. 

Disaster struck in late August of 1997 as one 

of Lakeside’s warehouses burned to the ground, 

destroying nearly one million feet of imported 


cedar siding and trimming valued at $1.2 million. 

Despite the calamity, Ernie was optimistic and 

opened for business the following day. An 

Oregonian reporter covering the story quoted 

Jacobsen, “You’ve got to do what you can to get 

back into business. There are twenty-four people 

working here. They need these jobs.” Though 

arson was suspected, no one was ever arrested. 

After fifty-plus years at Lakeside, Ernie 

handed over ownership of the company to his 

son Kevin and daughter Lori in 1999. Shortly 

thereafter, Ernie was diagnosed with lung and 

brain cancer and died on August 7, 2000, at the 

age of seventy-three. 

Today, Lakeside Lumber remains unmatched 

in its reputation for selling consistently high 

quality cedar siding and decking. In addition 

to cedar, the company has recently added 

hemlock and fir products to its inventory in 

order to accommodate the more cost-conscious 

customer. Using only the highest quality primer 

and name brand semi-transparent and clear 

stains, the on-site staining and priming 

operation is a major attraction for customers. 

Through its great experience and solid 

reputation, Lakeside continues to implement its 

own high quality control and consistently meet 

the customer’s high expectations. 

❖ 

Left: First Lakeside Lumber employee 

Otto Jacobsen working at circular saw 

at Lakeside Lumber, c. 1937. 

Below: Present location of Lakeside 

Lumber at 17850 Southwest Boones 

Ferry Road, c. 1998. 


ROSSMAN 

SANITARY 

SERVICE, INC. 

❖ 

Art Rossman (wearing hat on the side 

of the truck). Art and members of the 

Lake Oswego Lions recycling 

newspapers in the 1960s. 

In 1929 George Frank and his son Herb 

Frank and stepson Arthur Rossman created a 

sanitary company servicing accounts in Oswego, 

West Linn, Tigard, Tualatin, Sherwood, Durham, 

and the unincorporated area in the counties 

surrounding these towns. Art Rossman said, “We 

had few accounts and a long distance between 

them. We might go to one place in West Linn 

and then drive to Tualatin for the next stop.” 

Collecting 50 cents a month from customers, the 

entrepreneurs picked up “anything we could 

handle with our hands, feet and back,” Art 

remembered. In 1931 Art earned about $25 a 

month throwing trash onto his stepfather’s truck. 

By 1938 the business had grown to a lofty $280 

a month enterprise, enough to provide the sole 

support for two families and the purchase of a 

new Ford flatbed truck. 

As growth came to the area and the business 

continued to expand, Art and his wife Nettie 

decided to concentrate on the Lake Oswego 

area. The business was known as Oswego 

Garbage and, in 1946, was renamed Rossman 

Sanitary Service, Inc. The company was 

operated from a location off of Rosemont Road, 

with Art and a handful of men working long, 

painstaking days manually lifting garbage into 

open-boxed dump trucks and hauling it to 

dump sites where it was burned. 

For years Art pondered over the disposition 

of trash being collected and began looking for 

better ways to get rid of what nobody wanted. 

He hit upon the idea of a landfill where trash 

would be buried. It is believed that he pioneered 

land filling in the State of Oregon. In 1960, after 

some experimenting, Art opened the Rossman 

Landfill in Oregon City. Even while operating 

the landfill, he continued to rise early at 4:30 

a.m. to work the garbage routes. The proceeds 

from his hard work were reinvested in building 

the business, while the rest was used to 

purchase real estate in the area. 

Art ran the family business until 1974 when 

he sold it to his children, George and Barbara. 

George and his wife Sharon took over the 

garbage collection portion of the business and 

Barbara and her previous husband D. Keller ran 

the drop box portion, naming it Keller Drop Box. 

As one of the pioneers in recycling, Rossman 

began curbside collection of newspapers and 

cardboard in 1980. As mandates have been 

imposed to provide additional recycling services, 


the company has always been on the bandwagon 

long before deadlines, offering a full range of 

multi-material collection for residential, 

commercial and multi-family customers. 

In 1990 George and his wife retired and sold 

the business to their children. As the century 

came to a close, even more services were 

offered. Yard debris collection began in 1992. 

Between multi-material recycling and yard 

debris recycling, customers were given the 

opportunity to divert as much waste as possible 

from going to the landfills that Art Rossman had 

worked to develop fifty years earlier. 

In 1991 Art gave back to the city that had 

provided him and several generations of his 

family the opportunity to work and support its 

members. Wanting to do something that would 

stand the test of time, he donated four downtown 

lots on Fourth Street and C Avenue. He donated 

the money to have the houses there demolished 

and the land prepared for construction. The 

space would be named Rossman Park. 

In October 2000 the Rossman family sold the 

stock in the business to Allied Waste Industries, 

Inc. Allied is the second largest waste hauling 

company in North America, owning and operat - 

ing companies across the United States. 

Rossman Sanitary Service, Inc. continues to 

operate from its original location providing 

quality refuse and recycling services to the citizens 

and businesses of Lake Oswego and the 

surrounding communities. 

❖ 

Left: Rossman Sanitary Service, Inc. 

founders Art and Nettie Rossman. 

COURTESY OF RICE’S PHOTOGRAPHY. 

Below: Curbside recycle operations 

“2000.” 


❖ 

Above: This aerial photograph from 

1952 gives a partial idea of the extent 

of the Sisters’ original property. 

Toward the top is Marylhurst 

University campus and the Sisters’ 

Cemetery. The Provincial House is in 

the center. At the bottom is the 

Christie School Administration 

Building with the historic Laundry 

Building just to its upper right and to 

its far right the former farm buildings. 

On the far left is Old River Road, 

which was the main road between 

Oswego and Oregon City when the 

Provincial House was constructed in 

1910-11. 

MARY’S WOODS AT MARYLHURST 

Tucked between the wooded beauty of the 

Oswego hills and the tranquil Willamette River 

is a new community christened in June 1999 as 

Mary’s Woods at Marylhurst. Founded out of 

the vision of the Sisters of the Holy Names of 

Jesus and Mary, Mary’s Woods provides persons 

in the later stages of life with a variety of 

housing and health services within a caring 

retirement community. 

In 1859 twelve Sisters of the Holy Names 

arrived in frontier Portland, Oregon, after an 

arduous trip from Quebec, Canada. For over 

140 years the Sisters have served in the Pacific 

Northwest establishing schools and colleges 

throughout the region. Today the Sisters remain 

active in education at all levels and pursue other 

social and advocacy ministries. An international 

congregation, the Sisters of the Holy Names 

serve in the United States, Canada, Africa, and 

Latin America. 

The Holy Names Sisters came to Oswego in 

1908. Their first ministry upon the land was St. 

Mary’s Orphan Home, now the Christie School; 

a separately incorporated residential treatment 

center for youth. In 1910 the cornerstone was 

set for their new administrative headquarters at 

Marylhurst, the Provincial House. Upon its 

completion, it became the heart of the 

Northwest Region of the Sisters of the Holy 

Names. First calling the area Villa Maria, the 

Sisters changed the name in 1913 because of so 

many similar names. The Sisters fashioned 

“Marylhurst”—combining “Mary,” for their 

patron, the Mother of Jesus, and “hurst” 

meaning woods. They added the letter “l” for a 

more melodic sound. 

Fulfilling a long-held dream to expand their 

college established at St. Mary’s in downtown 

Portland in 1893, the Sisters broke ground on 

their south acreage in 1929 for a new campus. 

Marylhurst University continues today as an 

independent liberal arts college operated by a 

board of trustees. 

The Sisters have always considered their land 

at Marylhurst a treasured resource and a sacred 

responsibility. Their newest ministry, Mary’s 

Woods at Marylhurst, is a reflection of their 

commitment to that responsibility. Animated 

by the spirit of their foundress, Blessed Marie- 

Rose Durocher, the Sisters believe in the full 

development of the human person—the growth 

of mind, body, soul and spirit of the whole 

person at every stage of life. Mary’s Woods at 

Marylhurst embraces this philosophy. Dignity, 

independence, well being, and security are 

reflected in the range of options—from 

independent living to skilled care—available 

with Mary’s Woods. Healthcare and supportive 

services enrich each resident through wellness, 


❖ 

Opposite, bottom: Three novices 

admire a flower garden located near 

the west side of the Provincial House 

in the mid-1940s. The building’s chief 

uses were as the administrative 

headquarters of the Sisters of the Holy 

Names in Oregon, a residence for 

their retired Sisters, an infirmary for 

those who were ill or infirm and a 

novitiate for young women in training 

as Sisters of the Holy Names. 

activity, spirituality, and intellectual growth 

opportunities. 

For nearly a century and a half the Sisters of 

the Holy Names have consistently responded to 

society’s needs. Mary’s Woods, a sponsored work 

of the Sisters of the Holy Names, Oregon 

Province, is strengthened by Catholic, ethical 

values. It embraces an environment of beauty, a 

spirit of celebration, and a commitment to 

hospitality, compassion, reverence, and integrity. 

For more information about the Sisters of the 

Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, call 503-675- 

2467. For more information about Mary’s 

Woods at Marylhurst, call 503-635-7381 or 1- 

800-968-8678 or visit the Mary’s Woods website 

at www.maryswoods.com. 

Left: Designers were careful to 

preserve the character of the original 

“Italian villa”-style architecture of the 

Provincial House in the construction 

of Mary’s Woods. The new Mt. Hood 

Dining Room is tucked cozily into an 

area between wings of the building.To 

the right is the breezeway leading to 

the Céré Residence, one of several 

residence buildings. The fountain in 

the foreground is one of many gardens 

and water features incorporated into 

the landscape environment. 

Below: The river-oriented original 

entrance to the Provincial House is 

once more the main entrance of the 

building, serving as the primary entry 

into Mary’s Woods at Marylhurst. 


ANN 

PARSHALL 

SCHUKART 

Honored for her civic pride and exceptional 

contributions to the community of Lake 

Oswego, Ann Parshall Schukart has left an 

indelible print upon her adopted hometown. 

Born Ann Elizabeth Wade on July 31, 1906 

to Laura Maude Wade and Robert Lincoln 

Wade, Ann enjoyed her life traveling along the 

West Coast and into Alaska as her father 

marketed Ford farming and mining equipment 

throughout the land. Her older sister, Roberta, 

kept a close watch over Ann as the family 

traversed the countryside, living six months 

each year in Oregon and six months in 

California. Ann grew to become an intelligent 

and popular young lady as she flourished in her 

role as editor of the Franklin School newspaper 

and member of the Tri-Y, a prestigious social 

organization in the community. With a varied 

love for ice-skating, golf, and oil painting, this 

budding society and community leader enjoyed 

dancing and modeling, and won the starring 

role in her senior class drama entitled “The 

Charm School.” She was voted “Prettiest Girl in 

Class” and graduated from Franklin High 

School in 1925. 

Robert (Bob) Parshall, Ann’s high school 

sweetheart, proposed marriage and Ann soon 

accepted, setting the date for October 2, 1932. 

A short time later the newlyweds moved to Lake 

Oswego and Bob joined the Paul F. Murphy Real 

Estate Company. They built a beautiful home on 

the lake and quickly settled into their new life 

together. The next two decades in Lake Oswego 

would be a prosperous and happy time for the 

Parshall family. 

❖ 

Above: Ann Parshall Schukart’s 

Debutante photograph from 

the 1920s. 

Below: Adam and Ann 

Parshall Schukart. 


married only a few short years before Adam 

died of a brain aneurysm on February 24, 

1964. Ann never remarried. 

Not to be stopped by the great losses of her 

past, Ann busied herself with community and 

civic activities as a charter member of the 

Oswego Lake Country Club, member and 

secretary of the Chamber of Commerce, director 

and secretary of the Lake Oswego Corporation, 

member of the Oswego Garden Club, member of 

the Republican Women, and advisor to the Adult 

Community Center. She was a major contributor 

to the purchase and renovation of Lakewood 

Center for the Arts and enjoyed her crowning 

achievement, the Tryon Creek State Park. 

As an active property developer in Lake 

Oswego, Ann instinctively summed up her life’s 

work as she spoke of how good the land had 

been to her down through the years, “The land 

is like my children, I never sell a piece of 

property unless I feel the person buying it loves 

it and will take good care of it.” 

Ann Parshall Schukart continued working 

until 1988 and enjoyed the close relationship 

she held with her sister, Roberta Britton, and her 

niece, Roberta Pierce, who cared for Ann until 

her death on April 21, 1995. Her contributions 

to the community of Lake Oswego are 

memorialized in a bronze plaque dedicated on 

May 20, 2000, in Millennium Park Plaza. 

❖ 

Left: Ann Wade Parshall and 

Bob Parshall. 

Below: Ann Parshall Schukart 

with a Model A Ford. 

Tragedy struck on August 13, 1959 as Bob 

died suddenly of insulin shock. But Ann was 

determined to keep going and felt a great 

personal conviction to keep the business alive 

that her husband had struggled so hard to 

build over the years. An astute businesswoman 

throughout her life, she had already acquired 

half of the Oregon Iron and Steel properties in 

July of 1952. Ann went to the local banker and 

asked for a recommendation of someone who 

could teach her the real estate business. She 

was introduced to Adam Schukart, whom she 

married one year later. Ann commented on the 

experience with trademark candor, “Well, we 

worked together, ate together, we were 

together all the time except we went to 

different homes at night. I really liked him and 

so we decided to get married.” Tragedy was 

destined to strike again as the couple were 


CITY OF 

LAKE OSWEGO 

❖ 

Above: The original iron smelter in 

George Rogers Park, c. 1910. The 

smelter was built between 1866-1867. 

Below: Farmer’s Market. 

Today, more than ever, the City of Lake 

Oswego is a place to “live where you play.” From 

its outstanding schools and beautiful residential 

sites to its flourishing sports programs and 

award-winning senior center, the town provides 

its citizens with a sense of deep pride and 

community that is so often elusive. 

Today, Lake Oswego offers its thirty-five 

thousand residents full service police and fire 

protection, planning and zoning regulations, 

outstanding street maintenance and 

beautification programs and water, sewer, and 

surface water services. It is a unique and 

attractive community, with fountains and public 

art displays, a self-financed eighteen-hole golf 

course, an indoor tennis center, and an outdoor 

amphitheater that overlooks the Willamette 

River. The City consistently strives to provide its 

citizens with outstanding public services. 

An excellent example is the Lake Oswego 

Public Library. It has come a long way from its 

modest roots as the Oswego Free Reading 

Room. It regularly sets circulation records and 

recently checked out more than a million items 

in a single year. The library offers children’s 

programs and other activities each month, along 

with a team of staff members who are eager to 

assist anyone looking for information or a 

special book. 

In addition to literary pursuits, citizens can 

enjoy a new downtown public park, Millennium 

Plaza, with views of Mt. Hood and Lakewood 

Bay next to an eye-catching collection of art by 

sculptor Simon Toparovsky. A Farmer’s Market 

is organized each Saturday. Free concerts are 

held in the park while listeners rest on the grass 

and enjoy a bite at one of the many French 

bistro tables scattered throughout the plaza. 

The City has 23 developed parks on a total of 

429 acres, including an historic farm purchased in 

1998. Luscher Farm has a beautifully restored 

barn, residence, and several original outbuildings. 

The City is currently developing a community 

gardening program at the farm in order to 

preserve the area’s agricultural history. 


Another park of note is George Rogers Park 

in the Old Town area of Lake Oswego. An old 

iron smelter inside the park was listed as a 

historic landmark in 1974. George Rogers is 

also the scene of the annual Lake Oswego 

Festival of the Arts and countless sports matches 

and summer activities. 

Residents value the City’s natural areas. In 

1998 they passed a bond authorizing the City to 

purchase land around Lake Oswego as open 

space. The City now owns more than 224 acres 

that work to provide habitat for wildlife and 

scenic beauty for residents and administers a strict 

protection program for trees. A web of beautifully 

maintained walking paths runs throughout the 

city, connecting many of these parks and open 

spaces. Many Lake Oswegans regularly take 

advantage of opportunities to run, bike, and walk, 

skate or use equestrian trails. 

In order to increase pedestrian visits 

downtown, in the summer of 2001, the City 

installed a full-scale sculpture exhibit that 

stretches several blocks. Titled Arts Downtown, 

the exhibit includes the work of twenty local 

Northwest artists crafted from granite, wood, 

ceramics, limestone, bronze, and, even, recycled 

car tires. On loan from the artists, each piece is 

available for purchase during the year it is 

displayed. A new collection of works will be 

installed each June. Unusual in its scale and 

accessibility, Arts Downtown has been a 

successful addition to the wonderful shops and 

other attractions found downtown. 

With first-rate municipal services and fine 

touches of art and natural beauty, Lake Oswego 

is indeed a place to “live where you play.” 

❖ 

Above: The Obelisk on AAvenue. 

Below: Bigelow Plaza. 


TUALATIN 

VALLEY 

BUILDERS 

SUPPLY 

❖ 

Above: TVBS has been at its Boones 

Ferry location since 1946. 

Below: TVBS’ Lake Oswego truss 

plant provides commercial, 

residential, and agricultural trusses to 

customers throughout the Northwest. 

Tualatin Valley Builders Supply (TVBS) 

started in 1946 primarily as a window glazing 

facility. Owner Ron Bozeman had worked as a 

window glazer in Portland prior to World War 

II, and that was his primary focus when he 

opened his business at 15700 Southwest Boones 

Ferry Road in Lake Oswego. 

In 1950 Richard “Dick” Reiner purchased the 

business and added lumber and hardware to the 

window glazing operation. Dick, whose family had 

moved to Lake Oswego in 1939, had sold Fuller 

brushes while in college, but did not have building 

materials experience. Reiner ran TVBS as an 

independent hardware store for some years before 

becoming affiliated as an ACE Hardware store. 

In 1964 Reiner opened a small truss plant across 

the street (Lakewood Avenue) from the store. Here 

he employed six or seven persons to 

build trusses, and they also built 

cedar picnic tables, which they first 

sold at TVBS and then produced 

them for sale in Sears stores. The 

City of Lake Oswego did not want a 

truss plant located on busy Boones 

Ferry Road, so in 1968 or early 

1969, Reiner purchased property 

at 5930 Southwest Jean Road and 

built a much larger truss plant. The 

site of the original truss plant on 

Boones Ferry Road is now a small 

retail mall. 

In 1985, Reiner sold TVBS to Mike Hillier, 

one of his employees who had started working 

for him part-time while attending Portland State 

College. Mike thought that the future for TVBS 

was to concentrate heavily on the professional 

side of the business supplying building materials 

including cabinets, windows, doors and trusses 

to homebuilders. Under Hillier’s direction, the 

company expanded to include retail stores and 

lumber yards in Aloha (1986), Scappoose 

(1992), St. Helens (1993), Astoria (1994), Salem 

(1995), and Gresham, Oregon, and in 

Vancouver, Washington. Contractor Service 

Centers including lumberyards and truss plants 

were also purchased in Bend and Klamath Falls, 

Oregon along with a Wall Systems Plant in 

Ridgefield, Washington. In 1990 TVBS also 


ventured into the California market with a 

Contractor Service Center and yard in Upland, 

California. In 1993 TVBS founded TVBS 

Worldwide, which operates out of the TVBS 

Vancouver location, with an office in Nagoya, 

Japan, which opened in 1997. TVBS Worldwide 

sells western home building packages to Pacific 

Rim countries. 

As more retail store locations were added, 

some were ACE Hardware and others True Value 

stores, making it difficult to buy from and 

advertise two different hardware cooperatives, 

so in 1995 TVBS joined the Do-It Best hardware 

cooperative and did remodels at all locations to 

present one consistent image. 

During the 1990s TVBS somewhat lost sight of 

its primary focus in serving the professional 

builder and branched out into serving the do-ityourselfer 

as well. TVBS is re-tooling its locations 

and refocusing again on its primary customer— 

the professional builder and expanding its 

international business. 

For more information visit Tualatin Valley 

Builders Supply at www.tvbsinc.com. 

❖ 

Above: TVBS’ contractor yard on Jean 

Road supplies millions of board-feet of 

lumber yearly to contractors. 

Below: TVBS provides crane service 

for customers allowing trusses to be 

craned into position at the jobsite. 


❖ 

EQUITY 

OFFICE 

Below: The Kruse family barn as 

seen from Carman Drive with a view 

of the 4949 Meadows Building in 

the background. 

Bottom: The Kruse family homestead 

and barn seen from Kruse Way with 

the 4800 Meadows Building 

appearing in the distance. 

The landscape on Kruse Way has changed 

dramatically since Herbert and Josephine Kruse 

first farmed their land. Herb’s grandparents 

originally settled on 160 acres in 1863, and in 

the following years the family more than 

doubled that amount. 

The family’s rich pastures and orchards 

remained until the 1960s, when the location 

gave way to roadway providing convenient 

freeway access from Lake Oswego. The Kruse 

family farmed much of the 102 acres that is now 

an upscale office development appropriately 

named the Kruse Woods Corporate Park. 

Amidst the premier office buildings on 

Meadows Road stand the Kruse homestead and 

barn, where Josephine Kruse still lives after the 

passing of her husband in 1997. Although the 

barn and home show their age from years of 

providing cover from the relentless Oregon 

rains, and the acreage surrounding the 

homestead is now littered with rusting car 

bodies and a horse-drawn wagon, Josephine 

plans to live out the rest of her days on her 

beloved farm. 

Realizing that times were changing, the Kruse 

family formed the Kruse Development 

Company and began to strategize on parceling 

off the land for investment. The family decided 

to lease the land to office building developers, 

rather than for home subdivisions. As Herb 

Kruse once said, “Your freedom will last longer 

the farther away you are from people.” 

John Shonkwiler, the family’s attorney, 

described Herb as a complex, yet reasonable 

man. “There was kind of like a dichotomy in his 

personality. He could hunt a deer and save a 

fawn, hunt a coyote and save the pups. He could 

farm his property, but have dense urban 

development all around him.” 

Shonkwiler credits the Kruse family’s ability 

to foresee the development of the Lake Oswego 

area to continue their success and longevity. 

Although he would not categorize the Kruse 

family as being wealthy, he says the land lease 

payments allow for Josephine to remain where 

she is happiest, at her home amid the brick 

office buildings along Kruse Way. 

The Kruse Woods Corporate Park is 

professionally managed and maintained by 

Equity Office, a commercial real estate company 

that acquired and developed the existing 

buildings seen from Kruse Way today. Currently, 

Equity Office owns and operates fifteen highquality 

Class A brick buildings with plans to 

develop four more buildings on sixteen acres as 

the need for more office space arises. The 

delicate balance between the growing needs of 

the industry and preserving our natural 

environment has been a challenge well met by 

Equity Office and the Kruse Development 

Company, who have successfully met the needs 

of the Lake Oswego community with quality 

office space, one building at a time. Equity 

Office has a firm dedication to the communities 

of which their office buildings are a part and is 

determined to help maintain the rich historic 

heritage of Kruse Way. 


Equity Office, originally founded in 1968, now 

owns and operates 125 million square feet of 

premier office space throughout the nation. Since 

its inception, Equity Office has grown into the 

largest and most successful REIT (Real Estate 

Investment Trust) in the country by concentrating 

on high quality office buildings in strategic 

markets. Kruse Way is Equity’s largest 

concentration in Oregon, however the company 

also owns seven buildings at Lincoln Center 

across from Washington Square, and six 

prestigious buildings in the John’s Landing and 

Downtown areas. 

Equity Office has dedicated itself to being an 

extension of each of its customer’s business by 

providing outstanding service and an unbeatable 

location. A team of highly qualified real estate 

experts manage and operate the buildings in Lake 

Oswego, but that’s not where its dedication ends. 

The team at Equity has been extensively involved 

in the local community events of Lake Oswego, 

such as volunteering at the Lake Oswego Festival 

of the Arts, sponsoring golf tournaments that 

benefit schools in the immediate area, and by 

sponsoring and providing volunteers for the 

annual (Lake Oswego) Lake Run. Equity Office 

believes community involvement is just one 

aspect of the management service it provides 

customers. As its company motto says, “Equity 

Office - Redefining the Workplace Together.” TM 

Understanding the growing needs of its 

customers, Equity Office has been able to use its 

extensive office space on Kruse Way to 

accommodate growth, providing a stable workplace 

environment for tenants along Kruse Way. 

Equity Office has been meeting the office 

needs of enterprises located in the prominent 

Kruse Way corridor since 1997. With over one 

million square feet of distinctive and wellappointed 

office space on Kruse Way alone, 

Equity offers its customers the unique 

combination of a prestigious address in a 

relaxed and easily accessed suburban location. 

The prestigious buildings seen from Kruse 

Way are a reminder of the history of this region 

and a sign of the future of suburban office 

buildings. Those who office from these locations 

treasure the knowledge that these developments 

have not extinguished the pioneering flame lit 

by the Kruse family in 1863. Rather, these 

buildings are simply a new format for pioneers 

in the high-tech and finance industries to begin 

their own historic journey on Kruse Way. 

❖ 

Above: The 4800 Meadows Building 

sits on the corner of Meadows Road 

and Carman Drive, and is one of the 

newest developments on Kruse Way. 

Below: A view of the 4949 Meadows 

Building and the surrounding 

neighborhoods on Kruse Way. 


LAKE OSWEGO 

SCHOOL DISTRICT 

❖ 

Right: Students at Oswego Public 

School, 1912. 

Below: Professor Evans, Professor 

Mawrey, and students at Oswego 

Public School, 1893. 

Opposite, top: The original Lake 

Grove School burns, 1947. 

Opposite, middle: A class picture of 

Springbrook School students, and 

visiting dogs, 1917. 

Opposite, bottom: Students at Oswego 

Public School proudly display health 

projects, c. 1925. 

For well over a century now, the Lake 

Oswego School District (LOSD) has been 

committed to providing each and every student 

in the community with a strong academic 

program that flourishes in a supportive 

educational environment. Currently led by 

award-winning district superintendent Dr. 

William A. Korach, 800 dedicated employees 

and volunteers in each of the district’s 13 

elementary and secondary schools strive to 

foster a love of learning, a strong sense of 

civic and social responsibility, and the 

development of intellectual, physical and social 

skills that are necessary for life-long personal 

achievement in over seventy-one hundred 

students each year. 

The District’s roots can be traced to the year 

1856 when the city of Oswego first began 

providing education as a joint effort with the 

communities Gladstone, Oak Grove and 

Jennings Lodge in an annual six-week 

educational program. In its first year the district 

attracted fifteen students and had an operating 

budget of $72.75 (today’s budget is $45 

million), with students meeting for classes in a 

log cabin on the east side of the Willamette 

River—students commuted daily by boat. In 

1868 the city decided to form its own school, 

which at the time included 51 voters and 40 

children, and housed the new educational 

facility in an old vacant saloon in the vicinity of 

Leonard and Furnace Streets. The school year 

was three months long. In 1893 the city erected 

its first school building, a wood-framed 

structure costing $10,000. 

Throughout the century a number of changes 

and additions have highlighted the district’s 

history. Oswego Public School was replaced by 

Lakewood Elementary School in 1928, which 

was sold to the Lake Oswego Community 

Theatre in 1980. In 1954 Lake Grove and 

Oswego Public Schools merged to form a 

unified school district. Today elementary and 

secondary schools at all levels in the Lake 

Oswego School District have been selected as 

National Schools for Excellence, with over 

eighty percent of all students going on to 

college. The district also has the highest 

percentage of schools rated strong or 

exceptional by the State of Oregon, and 

consistently has among the highest student test 

scores of any major district in the state. 

The Lake Oswego School District and its 

dedicated, volunteer board members have 

enjoyed exceptional community support for 

many years. The LOSD Foundation currently 

provides funding for ten additional teachers 

each year, and a recently approved $85 

million bond measure will provide significant 


uilding improvements over the next several 

years. Residents continue to place a high 

premium on quality education for their 

children, and have always supported their 

schools accordingly. 

An exceptional school district committed to 

the high value of education in the community 

and larger society, the Lake Oswego School 

District is characterized by talented educators, 

able students, caring parents, and a supportive 

community—conditions that place almost any 

accomplishment within its collective grasp. The 

challenges often come in developing a school 

district with the will and the power to improve 

and grow, so that today’s vision will become 

tomorrow’s reality. 

This metamorphosis is well-established in 

five primary values and objectives that are 

the foundation of the district’s overall 

improvement efforts. They include the 

development of a school district where learning 

is clearly the primary value influencing 

decisions and actions, where a comprehensive 

vision of instruction includes a variety of 

instructional approaches appropriate to a 

diversity of specific learning outcomes, where 

creativity, innovation, and decision-making 

abilities are encouraged and made available, 

where trust, caring, and respect for the dignity 

and worth of the individual are clearly evident, 

including the accepting and valuing of many 

different beliefs and opinions, and leadership 

that is characterized by the individual and 

collective strengths of administrators and 

teachers focusing together upon the 

improvement of learning and instruction. 

Headquartered on the campus of Lake 

Oswego High School along Country Club Road, 

the Lake Oswego School District proudly serves 

the following schools within the community: 

Lake Oswego High School, Lake Oswego Junior 

High School, Forest Hills Elementary School, 

Lake Grove Elementary School, Oak Creek 

Elementary School, Uplands Elementary 

School, Lakeridge High School, Waluga Junior 

High School, Bryant Elementary School, 

Hallinan Elementary School, Palisades 

Elementary School, River Grove Elementary 

School, and Westridge Elementary School. You 

can also visit the District on the web at 

www.loswego.k12.or.us. 


NICK BUNICK & 

ASSOCIATES, INC. 

❖ 

Nick Bunick. 

Some people know Nick Bunick as the 

co-founder of In Focus Systems, Inc., one of 

Oregon’s most successful high-tech companies. 

Others know him in his present position, as the 

chief executive officer of a non-profit foundation 

for abused children. But also, he should be 

known as one of the people who had the greatest 

impact on the City of Lake Oswego. 

In 1971 Nick Bunick had a vision. He 

recognized that Lake Oswego offered some of 

the most beautiful properties in the Greater 

Portland area for building outstanding 

residential neighborhoods. His vision was to 

help make Lake Oswego one of the most 

prestigious and livable bedroom communities in 

the Pacific Northwest. 

Bunick moved his land development and 

custom home building companies to new offices 

in Mountain Park in Lake Oswego, and 

proceeded over the next few years of having 

his vision of Lake Oswego become a reality. 

He proceeded in developing raw land and 

then building quality custom homes in what 

became some of the city’s finest neighborhoods, 

such as Lake Oswego View Estates, Greentree 

and Sunnyhill. 

In 1976 Bunick contracted with the Mormon 

Church to create the master plan of the 

approximately three hundred acres that the 

Church owned, which was bordered on the west 

by the I-5 Freeway and on the east by Carman 

Road. At that time, Kruse Woods Boulevard did 

not exist. There was no access from the I-5 

Freeway directly into Lake Oswego. For that 

reason, Bunick’s development of this property 

became one of the most important events 

affecting the future of Lake Oswego. It became 

the gateway to the city, forever changing its 

image and its destiny. 

Bunick proceeded in working with the county 

and the City of Lake Oswego in the design and 

creation of Kruse Way Boulevard, also providing 

two access roads into the 300 acres, which 

Bunick named Westlake. Today, Westlake 

represents one of the most prestigious planned 

unit developments in the Pacific Northwest, 

being a combination of single-family residential, 

multi-family and commercial properties. Also, 

Bunick was instrumental in providing the city a 

twelve-acre donation of land, which is now 

known as Westlake Park, as well as many acres of 

open space, jogging trails and the neighborhood 

shopping center located in Westlake, which 

Bunick owns with his wife, Mary Jo Avery. 

During the five years that Bunick spent 

processing Westlake through the city, he also 

proceeded in creating the master plan for the 

south side of the Kruse Way Boulevard, which 

today is one of the most outstanding and sought 

after office campuses in the Greater Portland area. 

Bunick created over 2,000 residential home 

sites, housing over 10,000 people in the City of 

Lake Oswego, and designed and built more than 

700 custom homes. Some of the neighborhoods 

he developed are Lake Oswego View Estates, 

Greentree, Sunnyhill, Kimberly Woods, Douglas 

Woods, Village on the Lake and his last 

development, before transferring his energies to 

his non-profit foundation for abused children, 

Twin Points. 

Being neither a land conservationist or 

an insensitive developer, Bunick has always 


approached his land planning with the belief 

that man and nature could live in harmony 

together, carefully preserving the natural beauty 

of a property while at the same time creating an 

outstanding living environment that could be 

enjoyed by families. 

No wonder that a few years ago Bunick was 

selected as one of the fifty people who have had 

the greatest influence on the City of Lake 

Oswego, an influence that would last forever. 

Nick Bunick grew up in Boston, 

Massachusetts and attended college on a 

football scholarship at the University of Florida. 

He then served as an officer in the U.S. Army 

Special Troops, preceding his business career. In 

addition to sitting on the board of directors of 

several corporations, his non-profit foundation 

has won international recognition. 

Nick has five children and his wife, Mary Jo 

Avery, has been the number one realtor in 

Oregon for fourteen consecutive years. 

❖ 

Top, left: Mary Jo Avery and Nick 

Bunick at Bunick Drive and Avery 

Lane. An adjoining street, Gabrielle 

Court, was named in honor of Mary 

Jo’s mother, Gabrielle Trottier Avery. 

Above: Nick and Mary Jo and their 

children. Back row (from left to right): 

Bill Tucker, Christopher Bunick, Nick 

Bunick, Kim Bunick DeNeff, and 

Kevin Bunick. Front row, seated (from 

left to right): Cindi Bunick Tucker, 

Mary-Jo Avery Bunick, Nicholas 

Avery Bunick, and Tonya Self Bunick. 

Not pictured is Todd DeNeff. 

Left: Mary Jo and Nick Bunick at the 

twelve acres they donated to City of 

Lake Oswego. The area is called 

Westlake Park. 


SAFECO 

CORPORATION 

❖ 

The SAFECO offices located at 

4101 Kruse Way. 

Hawthorne K. Dent, an insurance industry 

maverick, started the General Insurance Company 

of America in 1923 and it has developed into what 

we know today as SAFECO. He was determined to 

provide consumers a solid product at a fair price, 

which has been achieved throughout the years. 

Dent also knew that General would not have 

ordinary people run this innovative company. 

Excellence and efficiency was required from his 

people and assured after listening to one of his 

famous motivating speeches. Dent’s demanding 

leadership style has helped the company enjoy a 

rich history of growth and prosperity. 

Today SAFECO, a Fortune 500 company 

based in Seattle, sells insurance and related 

financial products through more than seventeen 

thousand independent agents and financial 

advisors nationwide. This family of companies 

provides property and casualty insurance, 

surety bonds, life insurance, annuities, 

retirement services, and asset management. The 

company employs over 10,000 people and 

reported over $7 billion of revenue in 2000. 

Serving 3.5 million customers across 

the nation, SAFECO has regional offices in 

Atlanta, Georgia, Dallas, Texas, Indianapolis, 

Indiana, and Los Angeles, California. The 

company also maintains Service Offices in 

Lake Oswego, Oregon, and from coast to 

coast in Chicago, Illinois, Hartford, 

Connecticut, Cincinnati, Ohio, Denver, 

Colorado, Pleasant Hill, California, Spokane, 

Washington, and St. Louis, Missouri. 

In 1981, relocating from downtown Portland, 

SAFECO became the first major corporate 

neighbor along Kruse Way, which has grown into 

one of the major suburban office sites in the 

Portland Metro area. The Lake Oswego SAFECO 

is one of the largest private employers in the city 

and its operations focus on claims, marketing, 

and administrative/technical support for 

SAFECO’s agents. Satellite offices are located in 

Eugene, Medford, Bend, and Vancouver, 

Washington to serve customers and agents 

throughout the State of Oregon. 

Over the last ten years SAFECO has invested 

financially and with corporate volunteers to 

support community based organizations and 

celebrate diversity in the communities where 

they live and work. 

Lake Oswego’s arts organizations, businesses, 

schools, and music programs have benefited 

greatly from these investments. SAFECO was 

the founding sponsor of Celebrating 

Community Cultures Week (Lake Oswego 


Diversity Week) and sponsors various cultural 

events such as Good in the Hood, Fiesta Latina, 

Fiestas Patrias, and community concerts with an 

ethnic twist locally and in other Oregon cities. 

Strengthening its commitment to the 

community and diversity, SAFECO, through its 

Strengthening America’s Neighborhoods giving 

program, maintains its connections with 

communities in a constructive way. SAFECO is 

also an active member of the Hispanic Chamber 

of Commerce and the Oregon Association of 

Minority Entrepreneurs. This company also 

sponsors youth based forums like Asian 

American Youth Leadership Conference and the 

Cesar Chavez Youth Leadership Conference. 

Partnering annually with Hacienda Community 

Development and James John Elementary 

School, SAFECO sponsors and promotes back 

to school drives for children in need. 

Giving generously is part of SAFECO’s 

heritage and the company’s Lake Oswego office 

is continuing the tradition. Memberships in 

organizations like the Lake Oswego Chamber of 

Commerce and its Business School Partnership 

Program; supporting and sponsoring community 

events like the summer concert series, Lake 

Oswego Festival of Arts, DUI reenactments at 

local area high schools; partnering with the Lake 

Oswego Fire Department on fire and family 

safety programs; booster of the Lake Oswego 

School Foundation and School District on a 

variety of levels; and founding contributor of the 

Lakewood Center are some of the ways SAFECO 

helps the community. 

In February 2001 SAFECO’s Board of 

Directors named Mike McGavick chief executive 

officer of the corporation. Since then McGavick 

has chartered an aggressive course to “Return 

SAFECO to Excellence”—improving the 

performance of its core products, strengthening 

the balance sheet, reducing expenses, and 

investing in people—continuing to deliver on 

SAFECO’s promise to take care of its customers 

and neighbors when they need it most. 

❖ 

Above: Ed Todd, SAFECO’s senior 

analyst for diverse marketing, 

received the “Community Leader of 

the Year” award from the Lake 

Oswego Chamber of Commerce and 

the Lake Oswego Review. 

Below: SAFECO employees dress in 

ethnic attire for the Employee 

Diversity Fair. 


❖ 

LAKE OSWEGO 

ROTARY 

One of many flower baskets found 

along Lake Oswego’s streets, each a 

part of the Rotary Club’s city 

beautification project. 

The Lake Oswego Rotary was created with 

twenty-six dedicated individuals and led by 

President Wilson Schiffer on August 29, 1958. 

Members were expected to contribute to the 

community, not through club-sponsored projects, 

but as individuals. Under the charismatic 

personality of the Club’s second president and 

mayor of the city, Lee Stidd, the Club grew to 

seventy-two members in 1969. However, due to 

the fact that there was no dining room in Lake 

Oswego at that time able to hold over seventy 

people, membership remained static until the 

club luncheon was moved to the Lakewood 

Center. Membership flourished to 115. 

The Club met at noon Mondays at the 

Pinafore Restaurant, then moved to The 

Odyssey located in the building now occupied 

by the U.S. Bank. After both restaurants 

closed, the Club settled in for lunch off the 

Commons at Marylhurst College. In the early 

1980s the Lakewood Theatre Company 

approached the Rotary with the promise for a 

permanent meeting location if the Club would 

contribute $20,000 to help purchase the 

Lakewood School. 

Noted for projects to improve the 

communities, the Club has sponsored a 

scholarship to high school students every year 

since its inception. The money originally came 

from dues collected from its members. Most 

Rotarians wanted to fund projects in the city, 

while others wanted to help the less fortunate 

people living elsewhere in Oregon. The 

discussion was moot, however, because the 

Club had very little money in its treasury. The 

flood of the Willamette River in 1964 offered an 

opportunity to help Lake Oswego victims. 

Rotary International made funds available to 

the Club to fund the relief effort in the amount 

of $3,000. The Club also contributed funds to 

a flood in the 1990s that ravaged not only 

the city’s industrial area, but residential homes 

as well. 

With the influx of new members and the 

added initiation fee, the club treasury grew, and, 

in the 1970s, an eleven-passenger van was 

purchased for Youth Adventure in Oregon City. 

An annual member-only auction and the selling 

of roses in the spring acquired additional funds. 

When Rotary International requested funds for 

the International Project to Eradicate Polio by 

early 2000, Lake Oswego members pledged 

$31,000 to the project. Mayor Herald Campbell 

led the campaign almost single handedly and 

raised $41,000. By the year 2000 polio had been 

eradicated from the Americas. 

Pledge America, another successful and 

important project of the Rotary Club, is a 

program of supplying audiovisual aids and 

speakers to groups in Oregon and Washington 

to discourage drunk driving. Club member and 

leader of the project, Dr. John Tongue, is an 

orthopedic surgeon who has operated on many 


❖ 

Left: Rotarians Bill Gerber, Dave 

Berentson, Jim Elliott, Warren Oilver, 

and Doug Jost and one lobster–all 

participants in Rotary’s annual lobster 

feed and auction. 

Below: Rotary Club President Phil 

Engstrom with members Andy Paris 

and Warren Oliver, both of whom 

joined the club within a year of its 

inception in 1958. 

victims of accidents, which he refers to as 

“preventable collisions,” caused by drunk 

drivers. Over twenty Lake Oswego Rotarians 

traveled to several states to lecture on the 

dangers of driving drunk. At the end of each 

lecture, audience members were asked to sign 

individual cards pledging not to drink and 

drive, and always wear seat belts. 

The first Lake Oswego Lobster Festival was 

held in the early 1980s in the gym of the 

Lakewood School with two hundred in 

attendance. It netted over $20,000, more than 

enough to cover the pledge to the Lakewood 

Theatre Company. The Lobster Feed and 

Auctions have continued with six hundred 

lobsters now cooked and served by Rotarians in 

twenty minutes, contributing over $550,000 in 

past years to the Lakewood Theatre Company. 

Proceeds primarily from the Lobster Festival 

now fund not only Lakewood Theatre Company, 

but also Clackamas Women’s Services, 

scholarships to graduating seniors of the two 

high schools, YMCA, Lake Oswego School 

Foundation, medical and sanitation aid to 

Honduran and Guatemalan villages, flower 

baskets throughout the city, and individual 

projects of the board of directors. Lake Oswego 

Rotarians are proud of their contributions and 

good deeds, and remain dedicated to quietly 

providing “service above self.” 


❖ 

CARL M. 

HALVORSON 

Carl M. Halvorson reviewing the plan 

for Mountain Park. 

With his wife Kathryn and their growing 

family, Carl M. Halvorson settled in Lake 

Oswego in 1948. A Norwegian immigrant who 

had passed through the portals of Ellis Island in 

1921 at the age of six, the young man was busy 

building up the heavy construction company he 

created after World War II. He would go on to 

help build many of the hydroelectric dams 

in the Pacific Northwest, including the John Day 

Dam, The Dalles Dam, Ice Harbor Dam and 

Libby Dam. He would initiate and develop 

several of Oregon’s finest residential 

communities, such as Black Butte Ranch, 

Mountain Park and Little Whale Cove on the 

Oregon Coast. And he would devote a great deal 

of time and energy to civic activities, serving on 

the executive committee of Lewis and Clark 

College in neighboring Dunthorpe, the 

executive board of Blue Cross/Blue Shield of 

Oregon, and on the boards of the Portland Art 

Association, the Portland Opera Association, the 

Portland Performing Arts Center and the 

American Red Cross of Oregon. He was 

president of the Portland Chamber of 

Commerce in 1972, chairman of the 1981 

United Way Portland campaign and chairman of 

the board of Legacy Emmanuel Hospital and 

Health Center. For thirteen years he was the 

executive chairman of the Washington Public 

Power Supply System, taking over after its 

record default and accomplishing a multi-billion 

dollar gross debt service savings on the existing 

bonds. He described this massive refinancing as 

“one of the programs I am most proud to be 

associated with.” 

When he was honored as Portland’s First 

Citizen in 1983, it was noted that as “a 

vintage Republican who has earned the 

respect of Portland’s liberals, a dirt 

contractor who is a sophisticated patron 

of the arts, and a land developer who 

has long supported the efforts of 

planning, Carl Halvorson is a walking 

contradiction. But it is that characteristic, 

the ability to appeal to both 

sides of an issue, that has made him so 

effective in improving the city’s way of 

life.” It was these strengths that he 

brought to Lake Oswego, as well. In his 

forty years as a resident, he helped 

transform the town into the city that it 

is today. 

Carl and Kathryn first lived on West 

Bay and, in the 1950s, built a larger 

house on Iron Mountain Boulevard that 

was featured in Sunset Magazine. Later, 

they moved with their six children to 

the Carl Jantzen estate on the island in 

the lake. Built in the 1930s as “one of 

the showplaces of the West,” its beauty 

had a great effect on the whole family. 

Carl delighted in the lake, which 

reminded him of the coastal inlets and 

fjords of Norway. He served on the Lake 

Corporation for several decades, 

helping to maintain and improve the 

waterway and the Oswego Creek dam, 

even testifying before Congress on its 

behalf. Many a weekend was spent 


sailing in regattas and hosting boating 

barbeques on the lawn adjoining the 

turreted boathouse. Piloting the “Avast,” 

a mahogany Chris-Craft that was the 

largest boat on the lake, he would take 

friends and family out boating and 

water-skiing. No matter where his 

travels took him, he always returned to 

Lake Oswego saying it was the most 

beautiful place of all. 

In 1967 Carl began development of 

Mountain Park on a 600-acre farm 

previously owned by Portland’s Kerr 

family. He dreamt of a mix of singlefamily 

homes, apartments and 

condominiums for a diverse population 

of ages, occupations, and education, 

where one could conceivably start out 

in an apartment as a young person and 

later move into a spacious home. “I was 

envisioning an upwardly mobile 

potential,” he said. Nearly a third of the 

design was reserved for greenways, 

parks and native wooded areas, and 

included a multi-million dollar 

Recreation Center, an Equestrian 

Center with indoor riding areas, a 

Tennis Club, and miles of pathways 

linking the neighborhoods. 

Carl always said he had the most 

fun choosing the street names in 

Mountain Park. He divided the areas of 

Mountain Park by grouping the streets 

according to various themes: 

Shakespearean characters (including 

Falstaff, Touchstone, and Hotspur), great 

composers (Gershwin, Sibelius and 

Bartok), great artists (El Greco, Botticelli, 

da Vinci) and great philosophers and 

writers (Cervantes, Aquinas, Erasmus). 

He insisted on underground utilities to protect 

the landscape, and commissioned European 

sculptures for public areas. 

Mountain Park is now considered Oregon’s 

largest residential development, with over 

twelve thousand residents, and has become an 

award-winning model for other communities 

around the nation. It has had a profound 

impact on Lake Oswego, beginning with almost 

doubling the city’s population, to more than 

doubling its assessed valuation and tax base, 

and ending with a development that includes 

such amenities as open space, beautiful design, 

unique charm and recreational facilities that are 

the envy of many greatly larger towns. 

In many ways, Carl Halvorson’s life 

epitomized the American immigrant saga. He 

not only had the great fortune to live in Lake 

Oswego and enjoy its beauty and charm, but 

also had the opportunity to give something back 

to the city through his industry, sense of public 

service and visionary imagination. 

❖ 

Carl M. Halvorson, 1916-1999. 


STURDI-BUILT 

GREENHOUSE 

MANUFACTURING 

COMPANY 

Individual attention and handcrafted detail are a 

well-established theme at Sturdi-built Greenhouse 

Manufacturing Company, originally created as a 

commercial orchid nursery in the early 1950s. As a 

sideline to the orchid business, the original owner 

began building small hobby-size greenhouses for 

local customers. The facilities were gradually 

converted from orchid growing to greenhouse 

manufacturing. Bill and Barbara Warner, impressed 

with the extraordinary quality and singular care 

that went into each greenhouse, purchased the 

business in 1967 and have remained dedicated to 

designing and manufacturing custom-made 

Redwood and glass greenhouses for residential use. 

Today, Sturdi-built greenhouses are made in a wide 

variety of architectural designs and shipped 

nationwide to gardeners who enjoy the ultimate in 

gardening—their own personal greenhouse. 

The company still occupies its original, 

though expanded, facilities just north of Lake 

Oswego on Boones Ferry Road. While no longer 

an Oswego address, its ties to the community of 

Lake Oswego run deep with the Warner family. 

Former Midwesterners, Bill and Barbara moved 

to Oregon in 1958, left the area for a few years, 

and came back to settle in Lake Oswego in 

1967. Sons Rick and Jeff grew up in the 

community and graduated from LOHS. Over 

the years, the couple have supported and been 

active in many community activities and 

organizations. They have served on committees 

or boards of youth programs, church, schools, 

Campfire, Rotary, Chamber of Commerce, 

Lakewood Center for the Arts, and the Oswego 

Heritage Council. While president of the Lake 

Oswego High School Lakers Parents Club in the 

late 1970s, Bill coined the memorable slogan, 

“I’m A Laker Lover,” which can occasionally be 

seen around town on bumper stickers even 

today. Rick Warner now owns Sturdi-built and 

is leading the family business into a new century 

of personalized service. 

Looking back over thirty exciting years of life 

in Lake Oswego, Bill and Barbara are proud “to 

have played a part in making Lake Oswego the 

fine family community it is today.” 

❖ 

Top, left: A ten-by-twenty-eight-foot 

Lean-To Greenhouse attached 

to a home. 

Top, right: Sturdi-built Greenhouse 

Manufacturing Company, 2000. 

Right: A ten-by-fourteen-foot Free- 

Standing Greenhouse. 


WIZER’S 

OSWEGO 

FOODS 

Wizer’s Oswego Foods, or J. J. Wizer 

Investment Company, with loyal, knowledgeable 

staff is dedicated to providing a shopping 

experience that excels in quality and variety of 

food products, friendly and reliable service, and 

a commitment to community involvement. 

Founded in October 1929 by James J. Wizer 

in southeast Portland on Milwaukie Avenue, 

Wizer’s Fine Foods not only served the Moreland- 

Sellwood neighborhood for eighteen years, but 

also made deliveries to Lake Oswego. 

Encouraged by customers living in Oswego and 

George Rogers, who operated a grocery store on 

State Street, Jim Wizer closed Wizer’s Fine Foods 

in 1947 and began working for Rogers. Wizer 

later purchased the business from Rogers and 

built the first supermarket in Lake Oswego on the 

northeast corner of First and A Avenue in 1948. 

Over the years customer knowledge and tastes 

for wine, and gourmet and natural foods 

broadened, allowing Wizer’s to evolve into more 

than a full service supermarket specializing in 

those departments. Wizer’s is a leader in 

supporting local cottage industries with Northwest 

ties by providing a retail source for new food-based 

products. With a premier wine selection that 

complements gourmet foods and knowledgeable 

wine stewards, Wizer’s is considered by wine 

distributors and connoisseurs as having the largest 

and best vintages in the State of Oregon. 

Jim Wizer’s son, Gene, has worked in the 

business for over forty years. Both men have 

exhibited a strong commitment to community 

involvement by being actively involved in the 

Chamber of Commerce, Junior Chamber of 

Commerce, Lions Club, local schools and 

churches, Little League, Lakewood Center, Adult 

Center and the Oswego Heritage Council. As a 

member of the Lions Club, Jim Wizer formed the 

first Fourth of July Pancake Breakfast at George 

Rogers Park in 1949, an annual event attended 

by nearly two thousand people. 

Wizer’s Oswego Foods is located at 330 First 

Street in Lake Oswego, with a second store that 

opened in 1991 on Boones Ferry and Bryant 

Road in Lake Grove. The two stores combine to 

employ seventy-five people. 

❖ 

Above: Wizer’s first store in Lake 

Oswego opened in 1948. 

Below: James J. Wizer, owner and 

founder of Wizer’s. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF DALE SWANSON, 

STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER, THE OREGONIAN. 


VIC’S AUTO 

CENTER, INC. 

❖ 

Above: Vic’s Auto Center, c. 2001. 

Below: Vic Keeler and his 1940 treasure. 

Vic and Earlene Keeler have enjoyed life and 

work in Lake Oswego since they first detoured into 

the city in 1973. After meeting Dee Denton, then 

executive-director of the Chamber of Commerce, 

the Keelers settled into town and opened Vic’s 

Auto Center in Lake Grove in 1974. Outstanding 

customer service, personal attention to detail and 

exceptional workmanship has since served the 

couple well in their business and community life. 

Vic Keeler is a man who loves his job and cars, and 

they will always be his passion. 

Vic happily traces his love of auto mechanics 

back to his childhood in Kansas. Responsible for 

keeping the family’s farm implements running 

smoothly, he would take his first job at the local 

service station and work as an auto mechanic 

throughout college. After four years serving in 

the Air Force and operating a small shop in 

Riverside, California between 1957 and 1968, 

Vic opened the first Vic’s Auto Center in 

Honolulu in 1968. When the couple decided to 

move back to the mainland in 1973, they drove 

from Seattle to Phoenix looking for a place to 

call home. An unplanned stop in Lake Oswego 

on the drive back to Seattle proved that they 

were home. 

Community affairs have been as important to 

the Keelers as their business affairs. Vic has been 

a Rotarian since 1982, belongs to the Chamber 

of Commerce, and has been a state officer on the 

Automotive Service Association board, serving 

as their President in 1993 and 1994. He also 

served as advertising chairman for ASA Auto Pro 

magazine. Vic received the Rotary Club’s 

Vocational Service Award for outstanding work 

in his profession and generous contributions to 

the community. 

Vic and Earlene have been married for fortythree 

years and have one son, Michael, who works 

in the auto industry in Portland. Vic’s Auto Center 

continues to provide dependable and professional 

service at 15880 Southwest Boones Ferry Road. 


GRIMM’S FUEL 

COMPANY 

Grimm’s Fuel Company, one of the oldest 

businesses in Lake Oswego, is a landmark in the 

city’s history. Its founder, Frederick Henry Grimm, 

created the company in 1929 as he cut and sold 

firewood to local townspeople. His hard work and 

determination resulted in a company which would 

remain true to Grimm’s principles of integrity and 

public service. Today, the business includes a stateof-the-art 

automotive service station, bark dust 

and landscaping products, home heating oil, 

furnace repair, and the largest organic waste 

recycling facility in the Portland metropolitan area. 

Born in 1909, Fred Grimm grew up with a 

keen business mind and a great enthusiasm for 

hard work. It was in 1930 that Grimm found 

himself in need of storage space for wood and 

spied the property at the corner of McVey- 

Stafford Road. Fred’s wife Wilda remembered the 

location as “isolated and quite a distance from 

downtown Lake Oswego, with South Shore 

Boulevard just a narrow mud road at the time.” 

Fred and Wilda married in 1935 and began 

delivering wood to the Rogers Brothers’ Food Store 

on State Street in exchange for groceries. They sold 

coal for fuel and soon began selling home heating 

oil. In 1940 they opened the service station at the 

corner of McVey and South Shore Boulevard and, 

in 1947, built the Palisades Market on McVey. 

After his father’s death in 1962, Rod Grimm 

began directing the successful path of the company. 

Rod’s sons, Jeff, Mark, and Dan, and stepson Paul 

Delaney all work in the company today. 

Instrumental in forming the Chamber of 

Commerce in 1940, Fred Grimm was a charter 

member and served on the board for many years. 

Wilda was a charter member of both the Business 

and Professional Women’s Club and the Quota 

Club. Grimm’s Fuel Company was the original 

sponsor of the Lake Oswego Little League. 

The company is actively involved in the Organ 

Donor Program, and has a Christmas tree 

recycling program for non-profit organizations 

such as the Boy Scouts. Still selling firewood, 

Grimm’s Fuel Company has evolved into a vital, 

progressive business. 

❖ 

Above: Grimm’s Service Station. 

Below: Founder Frederick Henry Grimm. 


BANK OF 

AMERICA 

❖ 

Above: Cornerstone being placed with 

time capsule, May 5, 1970. Standing: 

S. E. Gjerde, executive vice president; 

Louis Courtemanche, president of 

Orbanco, Inc.; John Youell and 

Donald Tisdel, vice president and 

treasurer of Orbanco and Dr. T. J. 

Pasquesi. Kneeling: Mayor John 

MacLean; John M. Brown, senior vice 

president; and Virgil E. Solso, 

president of The Oregon Bank. 

Below: The three winners of the essay 

contest with Virgil E. Solso, president 

of The Oregon Bank. (from left to 

right): Sue Griffiths, Sally Drendel, 

President Virgil E. Solso, and Jole 

McMurdle, May 5, 1970. 

The Citizens Bank of Lake Oswego began its 

historic journey on November 15, 1952, under 

the leadership of President and Chairman of the 

Board Paul Murphy. Through sound investments 

and outstanding service to the community of 

Lake Oswego, the bank flourished and, on 

December 14, 1954, Virgil E. Solso was elected 

president. In 1958 the bank opened a Lake Grove 

Branch and purchased Oswego State Bank. In 

April 1959, the bank moved to a new $250,000 

building at 415 North State Street and became 

Citizens Bank of Oregon. 

The 1960s saw continued growth. In 1969 

Citizens Bank of Oregon, with more than $23 

million in deposits and four offices, merged with 

The Oregon Bank. The merger created combined 

deposits totaling more than $95 million and 

assets in excess of $105 million. In October of the 

same year, construction began on a new building 

for the Lake Oswego Office at Fourth and “A” 

Street. On May 5, 1970, the cornerstone was laid 

at the bank’s present location and the building was 

completed by late summer. 

Thirty years later on May 5, 2000, the seal of 

that same cornerstone was broken in a ceremony 

to open the contents of a time capsule placed 

there by several community organizations in Lake 

Oswego. Three prize-winning essays entitled 

“What Will Life Be Like in Lake Oswego in the 

Year 2000” were written and enclosed in the 

historic capsule by Lake Oswego junior and 

senior high school students for the 1970 event. 

In 1991 the first truly nationwide bank, the Bank 

of America, entered the Oregon market by 

purchasing The Benjamin Franklin Federal Savings 

and Loan, and later acquired Security Pacific Bank, 

which purchased Oregon Bank. Today, the Bank of 

America strives to help people realize their dreams 

by providing simplicity and convenience, helping 

businesses to succeed, and improving the lives of 

people and communities. Bank of America’s 

commitment to the communities it serves is 

evidenced through support from the corporate level 

as well as the involvement of individual employees. 

The dedicated employees of Bank of America 

serve over thirty million households nationwide. 

In Oregon, Bank of America has a network of 83 

banking centers and 236 ATMs. Lake Oswego has 

banking centers at Fourth and “A” and on Boones 

Ferry Road in Lake Grove, as well as a Small 

Business and Real Estate Loan Office on Sixth and 

“A” to serve to the Lake Oswego Community. 


Bill and Buzz Headlee established Oregon 

Management Group in 1970 as a real estate and 

business consulting firm. In 1980 they purchased 

the real estate operations of Millette & Associates, 

renaming it The Headlee Company. In this latter 

transaction they also acquired the classic 

structure at 47 North State Street, which started 

their interest in historic restoration and 

residential infill construction. 

Richard Sundeleaf designed the 47 North State 

Building in 1940, for Paul C. Murphy, developer of 

Oswego Lake, as his development and sales office. 

Major restoration was done in 1980 and again in 

1995. In 1997 the Headlees also purchased the 

original Murphy Office Building located at the head 

of “A” Avenue. At the completion of two years of 

extensive restoration this historic structure, which 

was built in 1928, was turned over to Oswego 

Heritage Council and serves as its headquarters 

with historic displays and archival storage. 

As president of Lakewood Theater Company, 

Headlee was instrumental in the purchase and 

restoration of Lakewood School, constructed in 

1928, now the Lakewood Center for the Arts. This 

project was a major community commitment to 

restore a historic building to community service in 

the arts. In addition to many other civic activities, 

Buzz and Bill have both served as presidents of the 

Chamber, the first husband and wife to serve in 

this capacity. 

The 47 North State location served as Oregon 

Management Group’s headquarters in the 

development of The Green at Glenmorrie, Old 

Town Condominiums, First Street Townhouses, 

and Old Town infill housing. In 1991 a group of 

local leaders met at 47 North State and formed 

the Flower Basket program that beautifies the 

streets of Lake Oswego. The program is still 

financed by donations of local citizens and 

community organizations and is now operated by 

the Chamber. 

After the Headlee Company discontinued its 

residential resale business in 1984, the Lake 

Oswego Chamber of Commerce occupied the first 

floor. Currently the building is serving the 

community with Starbucks Coffee House on the 

ground floor and professional offices on the second. 

As they say in the trade: Location, location, location. 

❖ 

Oregon Management Group’s 

headquarters at 47 North 

State Street. 

OREGON 

MANAGEMENT 

GROUP/ 

THE HEADLEE 

COMPANY 


❖ 

ALICE L. 

SCHLENKER 

Above: (From left to right) Lisa, 

David, and Alice Schlenker in front of 

their historical Lake Oswego home, 

which was built in 1928 and 

marketed by E. V. Schukart, an early 

Lake Oswego realtor and developer. 

Below: Lisa Schlenker, 2000 Olympic 

U.S. Rowing team, with Alice, mother 

and mayor on June 5, 1993, at the 

dedication of the Lake Oswego Water 

Sports Center. 

Alice Schlenker and the integral role she and 

her family have played in the life of Lake 

Oswego began in 1975 when a corporate 

transfer relocated the family to the beautiful, 

original, Dutch colonial home at 257 Iron 

Mountain Boulevard. The next several years 

would find Alice active in her business, city, 

and school and community activities as she was 

elected city councilor in 1982. In 1986 she was 

elected Lake Oswego’s first woman mayor and 

was reelected to the position in 1992. Her 

vision and theme: “Secure the Livability of Lake 

Oswego.” Her husband, Harold, and her 

children, David and Lisa, were avid and helpful 

campaigners, and also active in sports and 

outdoor adventures. 

The overarching issue of Mayor Schlenker’s 

two terms of public leadership were the climb 

from the recession both Oregon and particularly 

Lake Oswego were experiencing in the ’80s. By 

1988 there was an upturn in the economy and 

an eight percent population growth within the 

City of Lake Oswego. Californians were cashing 

out their homes and moving their families and 

businesses to Oregon and Lake Oswego was the 

first community in the region to address this 

astounding growth and purchasing land for 

parks and open space became paramount to 

Alice and Lake Oswego citizens. 

Other accomplishments during these years 

included projects to beautify, preserve, and 

protect the Lake Oswego business area, as well 

as using her talents to serve on the board of 

directors for both the Oregon League and the 

National League of Cities. During her mayoral 

years, Alice established many important issues 

including sister city ties with Pucon, Chile, 

Yoshikawa, Japan, and Mordialloc, Australia, 

and established “Lake Oswego Together,” a 

drug and substance abuse prevention program 

for at-risk youth in the community and the 

Arts Commission. 

She served eight consecutive years as mayor 

before retiring by city charter in 1996. Upon 

retirement, Alice was appointed as a 

commissioner for Oregon State Government 

Standards and Practices Commission (Ethics) 

and continues to serve as vice chairman. She 

remains active in the life of Lake Oswego and 

serves on the board of directors for Oswego 

Heritage House, the Chamber of Commerce and 

is a member and Paul Harris Fellow of the Lake 

Oswego International Rotary. Harold serves the 

Lake Oswego Adult Community Center 

Welcome Break Board. Lisa and David’s careers 

are both based in the Portland area. 


Oswego Heritage Council was founded under 

the leadership of Mary Goodall Ramsey in 1970 

in an effort to save a historic residence from 

demolition. Her interest in local history had 

begun in 1958 when she wrote Oregon’s Iron 

Dream, which detailed the beginning of Oswego’s 

first industry. 

Goodall’s interest in history and preservation 

was not limited to historic sites and homes. As a 

city councilor she introduced the first ordinance 

to protect our urban forest and saved the giant 

sequoia at Fifth and A. 

In 1975 Walter A. Durham Jr., the great 

grandson of Albert Alonzo Durham, founder of 

Oswego, led this small group of concerned and 

historically minded citizens as president. They 

continued to place bronze plaques on historic 

buildings and sites in Lake Oswego. The Council 

then grew from under 100 members to over 600 

members during the following presidency of C. 

Herald Campbell. By 1992 the bylaws were 

restated to clarify the purpose of the Council, 

whose mission is “to promote the preservation of 

the community’s legacy of historically significant 

buildings, sites, natural charm, and recorded 

materials and to cooperate with other organizations 

working toward similar goals.” 

The growing accumulation of maps, artifacts 

and photos motivated the Council to find a 

building where its historic collection could be 

properly stored and displayed. Coincidentally, the 

historic Murphy Building (the office of the first real 

estate company in Oswego) came on the market 

and it was purchased and recently restored under 

the leadership of presidents William Headlee and 

John Baines. Through grants, citizen and 

membership donations, it was possible to collect 

the $670,000 needed to turn this 1928 Colonial 

Revival building into the offices, meeting room 

and exhibit spaces that serve the Council today. 

Oswego Heritage House is regularly used for 

community meetings and private and corporate 

receptions. Historic exhibits hang on its walls, 

with revolving shows that reflect Oswego’s past, 

and the rich artistic and cultural contributions 

of our citizens. 

❖ 

OSWEGO 

HERITAGE 

COUNCIL 

Oswego Heritage House, 2001. 


DELIA “DEE” 

DENTON 

❖ 

Above: The Denton family (from left 

to right): Tris Denton Johnson, Delia 

“Dee” Denton, Dennis Denton, and 

Michael Denton III. 

Below: Delia “Dee” Denton. 

An enthusiastic personality with a deep love 

for her community and unswerving devotion to 

her family, Delia “Dee” Denton has always considered 

Lake Oswego an important part of her 

extended family. In 1963 she was hired as a 

part-time visionary manager in the city’s sixtymember 

chamber of commerce. In 1975 Denton 

would become its executive director. 

Integrity and a genuine love for people have 

allowed Dee many successful opportunities for 

service to the community. She was instrumental 

in the development of a classified business 

directory, the downtown Christmas tree lighting 

tradition, Lake Oswego Leadership seminars, 

and the co-founding of The Festival of the Arts 

in 1964. She has served on the board of 

directors of the Columbia River Girl Scouts, 

Quota Club of Lake Oswego, Lake Oswego 

Rotary, the Adult Community Center, Lakewood 

Associates, and the Festival of the Arts. 

Dee was the first woman named as president 

of the Oregon, Idaho and Washington Chamber 

Associations in 1978 and 1979, president of the 

Oregon Chamber Executives in 1979, in the 

Lake Oswego Rotary in 1987, and was the first 

woman named 1989 Royal Rosarian in Portland. 

She is a member of the Heritage Council, a 

charter member of the Lake Oswego Women’s 

Coalition, and was chairman of the annual 

Rotary auction in 1998. She has served on city 

boards including the Arts Commission, Quality 

of Life Commission, the Millenium Celebration 

Committee, and was honorary chairman of the 

school bond ballot measure passed in 1999. She 

is presently serving on the Clackamas County 

Tourism Council and is co-chairman of the Lake 

Oswego Festival of the Arts. 

Dee has received many honors in her tireless 

service to her community. She was inducted into 

the 1970-71 Who’s Who of American Women and 

received the 1989 Rotary International Paul 

Harris award, the 1995 Rotary Vocational 

Service award and the 1995 City of Lake 

Oswego Business Community Service award. In 

1997 the Lake Oswego Chamber of Commerce 

established the Dee Denton Small Business 

award, which is given annually to a business for 

outstanding community involvement. 

At her retirement in 1996, and with 

membership in the Chamber exceeding six 

hundred members, her enthusiasm and devotion 

to the community and her family have proven 

invaluable time and again. Dee’s children, Dennis, 

Michael and “Tris” Patrice Denton Johnson, seven 

grandchildren and one great-grandson continue to 

enjoy life and community service in Lake Oswego. 


Attracting over one hundred thousand people 

each year to classes, performances and exhibits, 

and with a combined annual budget of $850,000 

paid through fees and contributions from 

individuals, corporations, foundations, and service 

clubs, the formation of the Lakewood Center for 

the Arts is an impressive example of a community’s 

dream finally realized. 

That long-awaited dream was actually born on a 

cold December evening in 1952 when sixteen 

budding actors met at the home of Dorothy Peetz 

to form an acting troupe first known as the Oswego 

Players, then as the Lake Oswego Community 

Theatre. However, as the popular theater group 

outgrew its surroundings, its board of directors was 

determined to find a suitable home. In 1979 the 

group purchased the former Lakewood Elementary 

School on State Street and converted it into the 

Lakewood Center for the Arts. 

Over fifty years and hundreds of plays later, the 

Lake Oswego Community Theatre stands as the 

oldest continually operated, not-for-profit theatre 

company in the Portland metropolitan area. It 

annually provides more than seven hundred artists 

the opportunity to learn and display their craft in 

state-of-the-art facilities at the Lakewood Center for 

the Arts. 

Housed in the historic twenty-four-thousandsquare-foot 

Lakewood school building, which was 

purchased by the group in 1970, the theatre 

changed its name to Lakewood Theatre Company 

in 1995 to identify with its new location. It is now 

the recognized center of activity in the Lakewood 

Center of the Arts. 

Establishing and maintaining a permanent arts 

and theatre center while providing sponsorship 

and coordination of educational and cultural 

programming in visual arts, theatre, and 

community events, Lakewood Theatre is debt-free 

and has achieved recognition statewide. Lakewood 

Center for the Arts brings together people with 

diverse agendas to participate in a common goal— 

to serve the community. Through its arts preschool, 

Rotary Club attendance, educational and theatre 

arts programs, available meeting spaces, Lakewood 

Center Associates, an annual Festival of the Arts, 

and fundraising, Lakewood continues to help 

create the glue and synergy that gives Lake Oswego 

such a strong sense of community. 

LAKEWOOD 

THEATRE 

COMPANY/ 

LAKEWOOD 

CENTER FOR 

THE ARTS 

❖ 

Above: The State Street entrance of 

the Lakewood Center for the Arts. 

Left: Leif Norby and Laurie 

Campbell-Leslie in the 2001 

production of Sweeney Todd. 


❖ 

LAKE 

OSWEGO 

REVIEW 

Right: The Lake Oswego Review 

from March 6, 1942. 

Below: The front page of the 

Lake Oswego Review from 

September 20, 2001. 

It is said that the heart and soul of a 

community is its local newspaper. For Lake 

Oswego, the Lake Oswego Review has served 

this role admirably. The people who have 

worked tirelessly since its inception in 1891 

have given more to this community than 

many will ever realize or understand. Publishers 

like Bill Blizzard and Bob Bigelow have set 

the tone for the community’s growth and 

direction. Their earlier commitment to Lake 

Oswego is evident today in the livability of this 

fine community. 

Besides this commitment to community 

the Review has also set the standard for weekly 

newspapers in the state and nation. The Review 

has been named Oregon’s best weekly 

newspaper nine times since 1982 and the 

nation’s best weekly newspaper three times 

since 1984. 

The Review has deep-established roots in the 

community dating back 110 years. In 1891, 

when the local iron smelter dominated the 

town’s activities, Herbert L. Gill started Lake 

Oswego’s first newspaper, the Ironworker. A. M. 

and W. A. Byrd published the paper and named 

it the Oswego Review in 1928. 

The beginning of the paper’s real growth and 

influence occurred in 1946 when Bill Blizzard 

bought the newspaper and served as its owner 

and publisher for the next thirty-two years. 

When Blizzard bought the paper, Lake 

Oswego’s population hovered around twentythree 

hundred. The paper had three parttime 

employees, published eight pages weekly 

and had a circulation under 1,000. The 

newspaper’s name was changed to the Lake 

Oswego Review in 1961 when Lake Grove was 

annexed into the City of Oswego, establishing 

Lake Oswego. 

By 1976 Blizzard had changed the paper to 

a biweekly of 90 pages with a circulation of 

8,200; and the paper employed 45 people 

full-time. 

Many staff members and community leaders 

considered Blizzard the heart of community 

journalism in Lake Oswego for the thirty-two 

years he owned the newspaper. According to his 

son, Rich, “Blizzard’s greatest contribution was to 

the town’s livability.” 

The era of Blizzard ended in 1978, when Eagle 

Newspapers purchased the Lake Oswego Review. 

Joe Blaha served as the Review’s publisher and 

Steve Clark as the executive editor. 

Tom Decker replaced Blaha as publisher 

of the newspaper in 1984. And in 1988, 

Eagle Newspapers Inc. and the Eugene Register- 

Guard formed Community Newspapers Inc., 

in which the Review was joined with six 

other suburban weekly newspapers under one 

common umbrella. 

In 1992 Bob Bigelow was named publisher of 

the Review. Under Bigelow’s direction, the 

newspaper continued in the tradition of the 

Blizzard era, setting a tone for the community’s 

growth and direction. Bigelow’s commitment 

and leadership in the community is evident 

today in the many causes he championed. 

In 1996, the Review and its parent company, 

Community Newspapers Inc., returned to local 

ownership when they were bought by former 

Review editor Steve Clark and his wife, 

Randalyn. Over the next few years, the company 

grew to include nine community newspapers. 

In August 2000, the company was sold to 

Lake Oswego residents Bob and Marilyn 

Pamplin. That same month, Review Publisher 

Bob Bigelow died of a heart attack at the age of 

forty-two. J. Brian Monihan was named 

publisher of the Review in October 2000. 

Today, the Review continues in its efforts to be 

the primary source for local news and advertising 

in Lake Oswego. 


EVERGREEN 

PACIFIC, INC. 

Gail Oldham and his wife Judi incorporated 

Evergreen Pacific Inc. in January of 1983 as a 

development and construction company. 

Oldham’s first construction supervision in Lake 

Oswego was at Mercantile Village with R. A. Gray 

Company in 1973. He also developed residential 

and commercial projects for Shelter Properties 

prior to incorporating his own business, 

Evergreen Pacific Inc. 

Judi and daughters, Tara and Mandi, have 

worked with Gail in expanding the corporation to 

undertake multimillion-dollar projects in Lake 

Oswego. Evergreen Pacific Inc. has been the 

prime contractor in such residential development 

projects as The Green at Glenmorrie, Old Town 

Village Condominiums, and First Addition 

Townhouses. Commercial projects have included 

Lakewood Center for the Arts, Mountain Park 

Recreation Center, and offices for Barbara Sue Seal 

Properties, Windermere/Cronin & Caplan Realty 

Group, Pacific Northwest Title, Otak, and 

Hallmark Inns. Major structural renovations 

included the Lake Theater and Lakeside Lumber. 

Evergreen Pacific’s development work in 

Northwest Oregon and Southwest Washington 

includes such diverse undertakings as Cabanas 

on Lakewood Bay, Hayden Island Moorage—a 

major floating home community on the 

Columbia River, industrial warehouses and residential 

developments throughout the metro area, 

and most recently a retail office center at Lake 

Oswego’s West Entrance. 

Evergreen Pacific Inc.’s strong connection 

with construction and development in Lake 

Oswego allowed it to relocate to its current 

offices and storage facilities on Carman Drive. 

Its company motto “Honesty and Integrity Pay 

Off” has allowed it to become a multimilliondollar 

development firm in Lake Oswego. 

❖ 

Above: Gail Oldham enjoys his work 

at Evergreen Pacific and has been 

working in the construction business 

in Lake Oswego since 1973. 


DR. PAUL KLEIN 

❖ 

Above: The Klein family (from left to 

right): Nancy, Paul, Jr., Jean, Doug, 

and Paul, Sr. 

Below: Paul and his son, Doug, with 

one of his inventions. 

Paul Klein was born in the small Dutch 

community of Pella, Iowa. His parents enjoyed 

watching their inventive, curious, and often 

ingenious son build cameras, photo enlargers, 

and surely the country’s first “clock radio.” 

During WWII Klein was sent to India and 

China in the Army Signal Corps. He received his 

dental and orthodontic training at Northwestern 

University in Chicago. He married Lou Jean 

Bonkrude in 1948 and they have three children. 

A desire to live “out West” and an invitation to 

be a professor at the University of Oregon 

Orthodontic Department brought Paul and his 

family to Oregon. Growing up in Iowa, he always 

dreamed of living on the water. The village of 

Lake Oswego looked perfect. The Klein family 

moved to Lake Oswego in 1954 and 

Paul Klein became the 

town’s first orthodontist. 

Local teens enjoyed 

showing off their “Klein 

Smiles.” Klein remains 

active in the Lake 

Oswego Rotary and Our 

Savior’s Lutheran Church. 

To this day, he cannot 

travel anywhere without 

running into a previous 

patient or student. 

The inventive spirit 

Klein demonstrated as a 

child remained with him. Soon he sought ways 

to improve the art and science of orthodontics. 

Of his twenty U.S. and international patents, 

two are recognized as having changed the 

practice of orthodontics. In 1969 Klein coinvented 

“Alastiks,” the simple but ingenious 

use of small elastic bands instead of wires to 

fasten archwires to individual braces. This 

invention revolutionized orthodontics 

worldwide. It sped up the application of braces, 

was more comfortable, less expensive, and less 

obtrusive than using wires. The next time you 

see a child or adult with small, colored elastic 

bands on their braces, you are looking at one of 

Dr. Klein’s inventions. The second major 

advance was the invention of the widely used 

headgear safety mechanism. 

In 1983 Paul’s son, Dr. Douglas Klein, joined 

the orthodontic practice and together they have 

served Lake Oswego for over sixty years. Doug 

and his wife, Debbie, live in Lake Oswego and 

have three children. Nancy Klein Tongue, an 

artist, and her husband, orthopedic surgeon Dr. 

John Tongue, also have three children and live 

in Lake Oswego. Paul, Jr., a musician and 

teacher in Bellingham, Washington, and his 

wife, Becky, have three children. 

Paul Klein, Sr.’s children wish to honor their 

father for his enthusiastic spirit, creativity, 

leadership, and contributions to his profession, 

community, and family. 


JENNINGS 

INSURANCE 

AGENCY, INC. 

R. Grant Jennings, CLU, ChFC, joined the 

insurance industry in 1950 as a casualty 

insurance underwriter and safety engineer for 

Iowa National Mutual and was given 

responsibility for the states of Missouri, Kansas, 

and Iowa. Grant moved from the casualty 

business to life insurance with Equitable Life 

Assurance of New York. After being promoted to 

district manager and agency manager in 

Northern California, he eventually settled in 

Oregon in 1968 serving as agency manager. 

Grant and his wife of nearly fifty years, Norma 

Jean, had three children and founded an 

insurance agency in Lake Oswego in 1971. 

Jennings Insurance Agency is a family affair. 

Norma Jean joined the insurance agency as a 

licensed agent in 1975 and only recently retired as 

executive secretary and remains on the agency’s 

board. Candace Jennings, after graduating from 

Lake Oswego High School and the University of 

Oregon, worked for fourteen years in medical sales 

with Johnson & Johnson and Baxter International 

before joining the agency. 

The family is active in the community of Lake 

Oswego. Grant is a past Board Member of the 

Lake Oswego Chamber of Commerce, a Harris 

Fellow of the Lake Oswego Rotary, Christ Church 

Parish Senior Warden, a past member of the 

Portland Art Museum Activities Council and is 

currently president of his Neighborhood 

Association. He enjoys golf, gardening, spending 

time with his grandchildren, and serving as a 

volunteer for the Lake Oswego Adult Center. 

Norma Jean stays active in her retirement 

with golfing, the Country Gardens Club, the 

Portland Art Museum, and volunteering at 

Christ Church. She has also served as president 

of the Oswego Lake Country Club Women’s 

Board. She enjoys spending time with her 

grandchildren and sharing in the life of her onehundred-year-old 

mother. 

Candace Jennings, LUTCF, is active with the 

Lake Oswego Junior Women’s Club, Lake Oswego 

Rotary and is a current member of the Board for the 

Lake Oswego Chamber of Commerce, the Country 

Gardens Club, and Oswego Heritage Council. She 

relaxes by spending time with her husband, Dr. Gil 

Rodriguez, gardening, running, and traveling. 

Jennings Insurance Agency, Inc. is an 

independent insurance agency representing 

several different companies in the fields of 

personal insurance, business insurance, individual 

health, employee benefits, life insurance, disability 

and long-term care insurance. 

❖ 

Norma Jean Jennings, R. Grant 

Jennings, and Candace Jennings. 


❖ 

GRAHAM’S 

BOOK & 

STATIONERY, 

INC. 

Above: Paul and Teri Graham. 

Below: Graham’s Book and Stationery 

on Second Street in Lake Oswego. 

“A healthy city requires a 

community that supports its 

downtown business district and 

realizes its importance as a gathering 

place for its citizens. Likewise, local 

businesses that give back to their 

community help make a better city in 

which to live.” - Paul and Teri Graham 

Four stores and over four decades 

after its grand opening in 1957, a trip 

to Graham’s Book & Stationery still 

provides patrons a sense of discovery. 

With a broad range of high-quality, 

well-priced office products, art 

supplies, books, unusual gifts and 

stationery, Graham’s personally 

selected products continue to surprise 

and delight its visitors. Moreover, providing 

“extra-mile” personal service is a core value at 

Graham’s. Wally and Norma Graham’s early 

success was based upon their focus on personal 

service and knowledge of the products they 

sold. Little did they know their small business 

would continue to flourish into the twenty-first 

century under the leadership of their son, Paul 

and his wife, Teri, who joined the business in 

1974 and purchased it in 1980. 

Today, the Grahams continue to personally 

seek out products and services that respond to 

the needs and creative impulses of the 

community. Operating among four locations— 

Lake Oswego, Milwaukie, Canby and Oregon 

City—that house 22,000 square feet of retail 

selling space, 6,400 square feet of warehouse 

space and with a staff of 30, Graham’s offers a 

wide variety of business, educational and 

computer products to students, small business 

and home office patrons. Customers are also 

drawn by Graham’s selection of stationery, 

wedding invitations and writing instruments. 

Best known for their women and children’s 

collections, Graham’s has become a favorite spot 

for local book groups as well. In addition, Paul 

and Teri’s personal taste and panache in finding 

the ‘unusual’ are continually reflected in the 

flair of the store’s gift department. Part of the 

fun of a visit to Graham’s on Second Street in 

Lake Oswego is the block-long adventure 

through the store that even passes under a 

city street. 

Graham’s, however, is not just about what is 

within its buildings. The other half of its dynamic 

is continuous community involvement. The 

Grahams have been hands-on members 

of Rotary, the Chamber of Commerce, 

Downtown Business Associations and 

local politics. Wally served a term as 

Lake Oswego’s mayor in 1976. The 

Grahams have participated in 

successful campaigns for School Bonds, 

a new City Hall and Downtown 

improvement projects. They have also 

been actively involved in starting local 

Trolley operations, an additional Boy 

Scout Troop and expansion of the local 

Arts Center. “We believe that our 

business success and personal success 

are measured by our positive impact on 

the community.” 


Ward C. Smith was born in Boston, 

Massachusetts, in 1882. He met his wife-to-be, 

Ruth Carter, in Boston and married in 

Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1910. Soon after, they 

moved to beautiful Oregon, eventually settling 

into a home in Portland at Thirty-third and 

Hancock. By then they had a son, James, and a 

daughter, Gretchen. A few years later Margaret was 

born, followed by Mary Ellen. 

World War I had made shipbuilding a 

productive business and Ward became a partner in 

Northwest Steel and North West Machinery, later 

renamed Smith/Woodbury Company, at Second 

and Pine in Portland. At one time, he was a 

purchasing agent for the construction of 

Timberline Lodge. He also owned a steel foundry 

in Oswego. Ward later co-founded, with Virgil 

Solso, The Citizen’s Bank, now Bank of America, 

on “A” Avenue in Lake Oswego. 

In 1922 the City of Lake Oswego had just begun 

its surge in residential development and Ward 

moved his family to a summer cottage at the west 

end of Oswego Lake. When the family decided to 

live permanently at the lake, Ward bought three 

lots at 3690 Lakeview Boulevard for about $1,500 

apiece. There were no paved roads accessing the 

west end of the lake so building materials for the 

residence, copied after a home in Victoria, British 

Columbia, were brought in by train. Construction 

was completed in 1925, making it one of the first 

permanent homes on the lake. The family has 

enjoyed this home for over seventy-five years. 

An active Rotarian since 1914, Ward was a 

co-founder of The Rotary Club of Lake Oswego 

in 1958, where he remained active until his 

death in 1980 at the age of ninety-seven. He was 

one of the early officers of the Lake Corporation 

and an original member of the Oswego Lake 

Country Club. Ward and Ruth were also charter 

members of the Lake Grove Presbyterian 

Church and were instrumental in helping obtain 

land for the construction of the church on 

Upper Drive in 1927. 

The Smiths enjoyed extensive travels, which 

often included children and grandchildren. Ward 

reveled in “choosing” careers, such as lawyer, doctor 

or architect, for his many granddaughters. However, 

his love for his family and the City of Lake Oswego 

was his “specialty” and remain a tribute to his life 

and work even today. 

WARD C. 

SMITH 

❖ 

Above: Ward C. Smith. 

Left: The Smith home at 3690 

Lakeview Boulevard. 


❖ 

Above: Rip Gage. 

COURTESY OF PHOTO ART 

COMMERCIAL STUDIOS, INC. 

GAGE 

INDUSTRIES 

Below: The Gage family at work 

(from left to right): Jeff, Rip, Betty, 

and Liz. 

Gage Industries ranks high on the list of the 

many diversified and successful businesses in 

Lake Oswego. Founded by Rip and Betty Gage in 

1958, these two resourceful people had a vision 

about the growing importance plastics would 

play in manufacturing. The founders were right 

on target. The company has grown to be 

recognized as one of the leading plastic sheet 

extrusion and thermoforming operations in the 

United States, manufacturing products for Class 

Eight trucks, watercraft, construction, 

electronics, food and medical packaging, 

greenhouse growers and more. 

The Company started with its first location on 

Foothill Drive Road. When the Willamette 

flooded in 1964 causing significant property 

damage and condemnation of the building, it 

moved to higher ground and its current corporate 

headquarters located on McEwan Road. 

Although Rip and Betty retired in 1992, the 

Gage legacy continues. Rip and Betty’s son, Jeff, 

joined the company in 1973. Their daughter, 

Liz, joined the company in 1983. The “kids” 

have followed in their parent’s footsteps, 

expanding the original vision and operations. 

Today, Gage covers more than ten acres of prime 

industrial property in Lake Oswego and Tigard, 

with over 225,000 square feet of manufacturing 

operations and 300 employees. 

Gage Industries’ commitment to excellence is 

widely recognized. In 1982 Rip Gage was 

named the Society of the Plastics Industry’s 

Western Region “Man of the Year.” Rip and Betty 

were named the National Society of Plastics 

Engineers’ “Thermoformer of the Year” in 1992. 

The crowning achievement happened in 2000 

when Rip and Betty were inducted into the 

Western Plastic Pioneers “Hall of Fame” 

honoring their lifetime achievements. 

The Gages have always recognized the 

importance of community and the environment. 

Rip played significant roles within the National 

Society of Plastics Industry holding, among 

others, the position of National Chairman. He 

chaired the Association of Oregon 

Industries from 1990-1992 and currently 

sits on the board of the Meridian Park 

Hospital Foundation. Jeff, aside from 

activities within the SPI organization and 

his chairmanship of the Oregon Plastics 

Recycling Markets Council, has chaired 

or participated within several committees 

of DEQ, SOLV, and the Environmental 

Learning Center. 

Gage Industries has achieved its 

unique success because of a corporate 

philosophy that integrates the values of 

a family-held business with industry, 

environmental, and community concerns. 

Proud of its reputation, three 

generations of Gage family members 

continue to live, work and thrive in the 

Lake Oswego area. 


WILLIAM T. 

BUCKLEY, 

ATTORNEY 

AT LAW 

Affectionately known as the “grandfather of 

Kruse Way,” William T. Buckley has been an 

influential, pioneering leader in the economic 

expansion and success of the Kruse Way area since 

the mid-1970s. Building a consensus within the 

community has been his trademark. 

Founding and senior partner of Buckley 

LeChevallier P.C. law firm on Kruse Way in Lake 

Oswego, Buckley has been involved in the farreaching 

plan to develop the Kruse Way area, as 

well as local and regional economic development, 

transportation issues, and plans for the Interstate 

5/Highway 217 interchange. Buckley has worked 

closely with the Oregon Department of 

Transportation and served on regional task forces 

with Tri-Met. Buckley is a former board member of 

the Lake Oswego Chamber of Commerce, cofounder 

of the Boones Ferry Commercial Club, and 

in 1987, was a charter member of the Kruse Way 

Rotary Club (president 1990-1991). From 1992- 

2000 Buckley was president of the board of trustees 

of the Kruse Way Rotary Foundation, Inc. 

Buckley has received many awards including 

Rotarian of the Year, the Paul Harris Fellow, 

Presidential Recognition, and the Vocational 

Service Award as well as the Rotary International 

Four Avenues of Service Citation. Active in the 

Tualatin Valley Economic Development Corporation, 

Buckley’s determination and commitment 

helped Lake Oswego develop the image of 

one of the truly quality communities in Oregon. 

Buckley is on the board and is chair of the 

legislative committee for the Certified Commercial 

Investment Managers Association. 

He has served his community well by his 

tireless spirit and willingness to serve on frontline 

important economic and environmental issues in 

civic and charitable organizations, such as the 

many critical challenges which have resulted from 

the listing of the salmon and steelhead under the 

Endangered Species Act. 

Buckley is a well respected business and 

real estate attorney in the Portland area: 

representing many corporations and businesses, 

assisting clients in structuring all phases of real 

estate transactions, underground storage tanks, 

environmental clean up issues, trans-portation 

and access issues, buying and selling businesses, 

formation of businesses, business development 

issues, contract negotiations, and business 

planning. 

A native Oregonian, Buckley graduated from 

the University of Oregon in 1967 and entered the 

United States Army and served in Korea. Buckley 

and his wife, Bonnie Grafft Buckley, have been 

married since 1971. In 1973 he graduated with his 

Juris Doctorate degree from the Northwestern 

School of Law at Lewis and Clark College in 

Portland, Oregon, and began his law practice in 

Lake Oswego in January 1974. 

❖ 

William T. Buckley. 


RIVER’S EDGE 

ATHLETIC CLUB 

❖ 

Above: Lorna and her children, 

Shannon, James, and Lance, currently 

operate River’s Edge Athletic Club. 

Below: Jim Coffel and trampoline 

students. 

Supporting a healthy, balanced lifestyle through 

creative and educational programs, River’s Edge 

Athletic Club is a state-of-the-art facility that has 

served the people of Lake Oswego in a healthy, fun 

and safe atmosphere for many years. Welcoming 

members, employees and guests as part of the 

River’s Edge family is the primary goal of this full 

service athletic club that includes an indoor pool, 

weight training/cardiovascular conditioning 

center, racquetball courts, a full court gymnasium, 

group exercise classes, personal training, fully 

equipped Pilate’s Studio, physical therapy and 

massage therapy. Offering healthy lifestyle 

programs and activities for men and women 

ranging in ages from three months to 103 years, 

beginning or expert, the Club provides everything 

from nutritional counseling to classes in Yoga, T’ai 

Chi, or African Jazz. 

The original founders, James and Lorna 

Coffel, had become successful in providing 

trampoline and tumbling instruction at seven 

Lake Oswego elementary schools before 

opening Coffel’s Swim and Trampoline School at 

5450 Southwest Childs Road in Lake Oswego in 

1969. Historically, their pool was the first 

indoor swimming pool in town and patrons 

were charged fifty cents for an all-day swim. 

When the couple divorced in 1978, James went 

on to create and run Coffel’s Ski Club and Coffel’s 

Day Camp, which continued until his retirement 

in 1990. Lorna (now Lorna Chapman) had long 

dreamed of building and directing a first-rate 

fitness club and soon joined forces with her grown 

children, Shannon Coffel Vial, James M. Coffel, 

and Lance F. Coffel to continue the swim school 

and begin construction of the River’s Edge Athletic 

Club in 1983. The original family home located in 

front of the club now serves as the Kid’s 

Club/Babysitting services for the facility. 

After nearly thirty-four successful years of 

providing healthy lifestyle programs and direction 

to the people of Lake Oswego, Lorna proudly 

watched as her children stepped into 

management roles in 1986 and have successfully 

led the club throughout the past fifteen years. 

Lorna remains active as a consultant and enjoys 

her home on Mt. Hood. James Sr. died in May 

1994 and was memorialized on Mt. Hood with a 

ski run at Timberline named in his honor— 

Coffel’s Run. 


You could not live in Lake Oswego for very 

long before hearing of or meeting Dr. Dale 

Rhoney. He has been an orthodontist in Lake 

Oswego since 1975 and has been busy around 

town. Over the years many kids have benefited 

by having their teeth straightened and their 

overbites corrected and now their children are 

having the same successes with the help of 

Dr. Rhoney. 

You will recognize the new office that 

was built on “A” Avenue with the landmark 

cherry trees in the front yard. Those trees have 

been there for fifty years and help transform 

Lake Oswego into an even more beautiful 

city every spring. Dr. Rhoney’s office received 

the city’s Headlee Beautification Award upon 

its completion in 1997 and is considered 

a wonderful addition to the downtown 

redevelopment effort. 

As a strong supporter of the Lake Oswego 

School system, Dr. Rhoney has proudly 

supported the excellence reflected in the 

schools. He and his wife were phone-a-thon 

chairpersons and Dale served as president of 

both the School District Foundation Board and 

the Laker Club at Lake Oswego High School. 

Dr. Rhoney has been an active member of the 

Rotary Club for many years and has been 

involved in the development and improvement 

of the downtown area. He served as Rotary 

president, was named Rotarian of the year in 

1998, and received the prestigious Vocational 

Service Award in 2000. He has supported local 

programs through his participation in the Lake 

Oswego Rotary Lobster Feed Auction both as its 

chairperson and master of ceremonies. 

Professionally, Dr. Rhoney is active as a leader 

in orthodontic and dental groups, and as an 

educator he continues to teach in the orthodontic 

department at OHSU. He has been an assistant 

professor for twenty years and strives to set an 

example of honesty, ethics, and professionalism 

before his students. 

The Rhoneys have two children. Suzanne 

attends the University of Washington and 

Michelle is a student at Lake Oswego High 

School. And then, of course, there is Oscar, the 

family’s black pug. 

You might see Dr. Rhoney around town in 

one of his fun cars…his hobby and pastime. 

Wave at him if you do. He likes that. 

DR. DALE RHONEY 

❖ 

Above: The Rhoney family, 1999. 

Bottom, left: Dr. Rhoney enjoys 

driving through Lake Oswego in a 

favorite fun car. 

Below: Dr. Rhoney’s office on 

A Avenue. 


STOUTT 

EXECUTIVE 

SERVICES, INC. 

Kim (Babb) Stoutt’s life has been filled with 

“new beginnings.” From her early childhood 

experiences in an orphanage outside of Seoul, 

Korea to a new home, a new name, birthday and 

family in Lake Grove in 1956, she has found that 

an “I can do it!” creed has served her life well. 

With husband Gordon and children Kami and 

Kenny, Kim has developed her company Stoutt 

Executive Services, Inc. from a small home office 

in 1979 to two locations, Kruse Way and 

Tualatin Commons, with 102 leasable offices. 

Stoutt Executive Services’ primary activity is the 

subleasing of smaller, full-service office space on 

shorter terms with onsite administrative support 

services. This facility concept is better known as 

Executive Suites or Office Business Centers. Office 

Business Centers provide individual or suites of 

offices with common area amenities of conference 

rooms, lobby/reception area, kitchen, copy center 

and access to workout or shower facilities. The 

support services include professional onsite 

receptionists and customized levels of 

personalized telephone answering, with voice, fax 

and high-speed access, mail handling and 

shipping services, as well as computer and 

secretarial services provided in-house and many 

other amenities coordinated through Stoutt’s 

expert staff. Clients may lease space for six months 

to a year or choose from a variety of other options 

ranging from month-to-month or by the hour. 

Controlled growth and outstanding service to 

clients has firmly placed Stoutt Executive 

Services in a league of its own. In 1996 The 

Business Journal ranked the company among 

the top one hundred fastest-growing private 

companies in the greater Portland Metropolitan 

Area. Though awards have been an encouragement 

to her, Kim believes that no business 

can do without excellent employees and giving 

back to the community. Kim is active in 

the Kruse Way Rotary, the Chamber of 

Commerce and the Lakewood Center for the 

Arts, and many other civic activities. 

Though the town has grown and changed 

considerably, Kim Stoutt will always be thankful 

for her “new beginning” on December 17, 1956 

and new parents Dr. Thomas and Berta Babb. 

❖ 

Above: Kim (Babb) Stoutt. 

Right: Stoutt Executive Services, Inc. 

has an office on Kruse Way and at 

Tualatin Commons. 


In 1847 Albert Alonzo Durham, his wife 

Miranda, and son George left Springfield, 

Illinois with encouragement from their attorney 

Abraham Lincoln. Durham was an avid reader 

of the Lewis and Clark journals and felt 

his opportunity lay in the West. The journey 

took from April to October. The Durhams did 

not encounter the hardships that plagued the 

Donner party traveling to the Oregon territory a 

year previously. Albert Alonzo built a sawmill 

along the Clackamas River near Oregon City 

and engaged in the milling business. In 1848 

Richard Lycurgis Durham was born. 

The gold bug bit Durham and he 

left his family and set out for the American River 

in Northern California. After only three weeks 

Durham returned to Oregon with over twenty 

thousand dollars. Albert moved the family to 

their 640-acre land claim on Sucker Lake and 

named the town Oswego after a New York town 

near where he grew up. A lumber mill was 

constructed along Sucker Creek (Oswego 

Creek), and on December 4, 1850, he placed his 

first advertisement for lumber and box shook 

in the first edition of The Oregonian. Their third 

son (not counting one lost in infancy), Silas, was 

born in 1854. 

After the destruction and loss of 

his three sailing ships, Durham sold 

full rights to his mill and the remaining acres of 

their donation land claim to his partner John 

Trullinger in 1864. The Durhams moved to Fanno 

Creek, where Albert Alonzo built a new mill and 

dam. The town of Durham (between Tigard and 

Tualatin) is named after Albert Alonzo. 

In 1865, a year after Trullinger purchased the 

Oswego mill from Durham; the first of the three 

iron companies was incorporated with the 

intent of developing the town into the 

“Pittsburgh of the West.” 

Walter A. Durham, Jr. is a great grandson of 

Albert Alonzo, grandson of Silas, and son of 

Walter A. Durham and Vesta Broughton of 

Portland. Walter has two brothers: Richard L. 

Durham (former Lake Oswego City Council 

member) and George B. Durham. 

❖ 

WALTER 

DURHAM, JR. 

Above: Walter Durham, Jr., with his 

brother, Richard, at Reed College 

in 1932. 

Below: Walter Durham, Sr., and his 

three sons in 1959 (from left to right): 

George B. Durham, Richard L. 

Durham, Walter A. Durham, and 

Walter A. Durham, Jr. 


❖ 

GERBER & 

ASSOCIATES 

AND 

THE GERBER 

FAMILY 

Above: Bill and Beth Gerber. 

Right: Gerber Gardens Place. 

Laura S. and Albion T. Gerber purchased 

Lake Oswego property in 1939, built their home 

and moved with their family, Alice Anne and 

William H. (Bill) Gerber, from Portland Heights 

in 1942. In 1947 Laura Gerber established 

Gerber Gardens, a retail nursery specializing in 

annuals, nursery stock, and Japanese Iris 

imported from Japan. Soon she branched into 

landscaping design, designing many residences, 

and drawing the original plans for Lake Oswego 

Junior High School, Waluga Junior High School, 

Rivergrove Grade School, and the Lake Grove 

Presbyterian Church. 

Alice married Ken Cushman and moved to 

Lake Oswego in the 1950s. Four children— 

Dorothy, Tom, Ken, and Nancy—graduated 

from Lake Oswego High School. Dorothy and 

her husband Mike live in Lake Oswego with 

their children—Allison, Brian, and Carlen— 

who have attended Lake Oswego schools. 

Bill and his wife Beth moved to Lake Oswego 

in 1954, after college and a tour in the Navy. 

Their children—Carl, Doug, and Laurie— 

attended Lake Oswego schools. Their granddaughter 

Erika currently attends Lakeridge 

High School. 

Bill bought the family property and business, 

Gerber Gardens, in 1961 and moved into the 

family home in 1969. Customized landscape 

installation, augmenting the design business, 

became the primary focus of the company. In 

addition to over a thousand homes, projects 

include the Country Club entry and parking, 

Lakewood Center’s new entry and parking, and 

the Heritage House. 

A retail division of Gerber Gardens was 

opened on Boones Ferry in 1975 and was sold 

along with the name in 1985. The core business 

name was changed to Gerber and Associates. In 

1996 the Boones Ferry site was developed and 

named Gerber Gardens Place. 

Bill Gerber has always been active in 

community affairs. He has served on various 

school district committees, the City Goals and 

Objectives Committee, the Planning Commission, 

as the city’s mayor, on the Chamber of Commerce 

Board and the Lakewood Center Board. Bill is a 

founding member and current chair of the Village 

Basket Committee and currently serves as first 

vice president of the Heritage House Board. 

For four generations of the Gerber family, 

roots run deep in Lake Oswego. 


OTAK, INC. 

For over twenty years, Otak, Inc. has built a 

reputation based on integrity, skill, and 

creativity by strengthening communities, 

performing exciting work, and serving clients. 

Four partners—Nawzad Othman, Ralph 

Tahran, Greg Kurahashi, and Ken Nelson— 

formed Otak in June 1981 in the midst of one of 

the worst economic periods of the twentieth 

century. Otak has since averaged over fifteen 

percent annual growth and has expanded from its 

headquarters in Lake Oswego to include offices 

in Corvallis and Bend, Oregon; Vancouver, 

Kirkland, and Seattle, Washington; Carbondale 

and Denver, Colorado; Tempe, Arizona; and one 

overseas. Otak currently employs over 250 

accomplished professionals (144 in Lake 

Oswego) that provide expertise in architecture, 

civil engineering, landscape architecture, 

planning, urban design, surveying and mapping, 

bridge design, construction management, GIS, 

real estate consulting services, visualization, and 

water resources. 

The company’s first project was in Lake 

Oswego as part of the initial design team for the 

Westlake Planned Unit Development. Otak 

currently serves a multitude of public and private 

clients with signature projects including the 

Vancouvercenter in Vancouver, Washington; King 

Street Station Redevelopment in Seattle, 

Washington; and Entrance to Aspen in Aspen, 

Colorado. As a leader in the transit movement in 

the Northwest, Otak has been instrumental in the 

planning and design of the Westside Light Rail 

Transit System, the Hillsboro Light Rail extension, 

the Portland Streetcar, and many other transit 

projects in the region. Otak has been recognized 

for excellence by agencies and professional 

organizations nationwide, including a recent 

National AIA/HUD Mixed-Use, Mixed-Income 

Development Award for Center Commons in 

Northeast Portland, one of only four projects 

nationally to receive the honor. 

Two of Otak’s founders, Othman and Tahran, 

have lived in Lake Oswego for over twenty 

years. Otak takes great pride in the community 

it has helped shape over the past two decades 

and is active in the Lake Oswego Chamber of 

Commerce and remains a strong supporter of 

the Festival of the Arts. 

❖ 

Above: Otak, Inc.’s signature projects 

include (clockwise from left) Portland 

Streetcar, Portland, Oregon; 

Vancouvercenter, Vancouver, 

Washington; and Westlake 

Planned Unit Development, Lake 

Oswego, Oregon. 

Below: Otak, Inc. has provided its 

professional services on projects such 

as Center Commons Townhomes, 

Portland, Oregon (top, left); the Lewis 

and Clark Interpretive and Tourism 

Plan, Washington (right); and the Art 

from Hillsboro LRT Extension, 

Hillsboro, Oregon (bottom, left). 


❖ 

KRUSE WAY 

ROTARY 

The holiday season provides the 

perfect opportunity for members of 

Kruse Way Rotary to enact the 

principle of “Service above Self.” 

Lake Oswego resident Earle C. May assembled 

twenty-five businessmen and women who became 

the charter members of The Rotary Club of Kruse 

Way-Durham in 1987. Kruse Way Rotary was 

immediately challenged by Rotary International to 

raise $7,000 for Polio Plus, a worldwide effort to 

eradicate polio. Drawing upon the club’s successful 

sponsorship of a Junior Achievement company, the 

Lake Oswegopoly game board was designed and 

marketed, raising over $9,000 for Polio Plus and 

other club projects. The club’s premier annual 

project, initiated in 1988 and co-sponsored by The 

Embassy Suites, is a Christmas party for over four 

hundred Candlelighters. Candlelighters is a 

support organization for families of children with 

cancer. In 1990 Kruse Way Rotary Foundation was 

incorporated. With the cooperation of the Rotary 

Club of Lake Oswego, the Kruse Way Rotary was 

renamed The Rotary Club of Kruse Way-Lake 

Oswego in 1997. 

Based upon the principle of “Service Above 

Self,” Rotary clubs seek to provide four avenues for 

the expression of this ideal: community, vocational, 

international and club service. These avenues are 

reflected in the work of Kruse Way Rotary. 

Community service activities have included 

providing repairs and improvements to the 

Streetlight Youth Shelter; sponsoring Odyssey of 

the Mind, alcohol-free high school graduation 

parties, Safety School, and Meals on Wheels; 

helping to fund the PAL reading and mentoring 

program and providing muscle for the Great Lake 

Oswego Clean Up and beautification of the 

Lakewood Center. In 2001 Kruse Way Rotary 

teamed up with the Lake Oswego Junior Women’s 

Club to produce the Lake Run and Foot Fair. 

Through vocational service activities Kruse Way 

Rotary has played host to several delegations of 

Russian business people brought to this country 

by the Center for Citizen Initiatives. Students from 

the Youth Employment Institute have been 

recipients of honors and scholarships from Kruse 

Way Rotary, as have graduating seniors in Lake 

Oswego. Teachers, physicians, and other 

professionals have been presented with Rotary’s 

Vocational Service Award for excellence. 

International service has played a vital role as 

the Kruse Way Rotary joined 

Northwest Medical Teams 

International on two separate 

occasions to build potable 

drinking water systems for 

Indian tribes in Mexico. 

Members have traveled to 

third world nations to provide 

pro bono dental (RotoDent) 

and plastic surgery (RotoPlast) 

services. Rotary Group Study 

Exchange teams from Italy, 

Japan, Peru, Zambia, 

Zimbabwe, India, and the 

Philippines have enjoyed the 

hospitality of Kruse Way 

Rotarians who have 

contributed more than 

$50,000 to the Rotary 

International Foundation. 

Foreign exchange students 

from Austria, Sweden, Brazil, 

Japan, Croatia, Argentina, India, and the 

Philippines have lived in Rotarian host homes 

while attending Lake Oswego high schools. Also, 

Kruse Way Rotary assisted in the hosting of the 

Rotary International Convention in 1992. 

For more information, please visit the Kruse 

Way Rotary website, www.krusewayrotary.org, 

or attend one of their meetings held during the 

noon hour every Tuesday at Metropolitan 

Portland Homebuilders Association on Bangy 

Road in Lake Oswego. 


Colin Herald Campbell provides a challenging 

example of civic leadership. Born in Winnipeg, 

Manitoba, Canada on January 18, 1911, he came 

to Portland in 1919, graduated from Jefferson 

High School, and earned a B.A. in Political 

Science from Reed College in 1933. 

His professional posts include executive 

secretary of the City Club of Portland, 1934- 

1939; alumni secretary, endowment 

administrator, and instructor in photography at 

Reed College, 1939-1942; contract engineering 

supervisor, Kaiser Company Swan Island, 

1942-1945; assistant personnel director, 

Portland Gas and Coke Company, 1945-1948; 

and director of Industrial 

Relations, Pacific Light and 

Power, 1948-1976. 

Herald and his wife, 

Virginia, moved to Lake 

Oswego in 1952 to provide 

a suburban setting and a 

superior school system for 

their three daughters— 

Susanna, Corinna and 

Ginny. Challenged by 

Virginia’s civic activities as 

co-founder and president of 

the West Clackamas League 

of Women Voters and 

chairman of the Library 

Board, Herald was elected a 

director of the Lake Oswego 

Corporation in 1961 

and again in 1971, serving 

as corporate secretary, 

treasurer, and president. 

Retiring from PP&L in 

February of 1976, he was 

elected to the Lake Oswego 

City Council in 1976, 

became mayor in 1978 and 

was reelected in 1980. 

Elected to the board of 

the Oswego Chamber of 

Commerce in 1985, he 

became vice-president in 

1987 and chaired the 

Land Use and Legislative 

committees. A member of 

Lake Oswego Rotary Club 

since 1979, he co-chaired its 

first two Annual Lobster Feed and Charity 

Auctions in 1983 and 1984, led the Polio Plus 

campaign in 1987 and 1988, and was treasurer of 

the organization from 1990 to 1993. 

Herald was appointed as the first chairman of 

the city’s Historic Review Board in 1990 and 

became president of the Oswego Heritage 

Council in 1992, subsequently serving as its 

secretary, treasurer, and journal editor. His 

vision and enthusiasm led to the growth of the 

Council from 18 members to over 600 and 

included the acquisition and restoration of the 

historic Murphy Realty building into Oswego 

Heritage House. 

❖ 

C. Herald Campbell. 

COLIN 

HERALD 

CAMPBELL 


A 

Allen, Kathleen Tween, 75 

Allen’s Pharmacy, 104 

Altar Society, 58 

Altona, 59 

American Hotel, 62 

Annand, John, 96 

Astoria, 12, 20 

Atchison-Allen Company, 73 

B 

Banks, Claire, 75 

Barlow, Samuel, 17 

Bay Roc Apartments, 110 

Beacon Rock, 10 

Bernhardt, Gus, 42 

Berry, George M., 20 

Bethke, Herman, 63 

Beutler, Irene, 102 

Bickner, Edna K., 114 

Bickner, Ella, 47 

Bickner, John T., 63-64, 67 

Bickner, Joseph, 52 

Bickner, Lillian, 72 

Bickner, Mary Gans, 52 

Bickner, William, 64 

Bickner’s Feed and Grocery Store, 

52-53 

Bishop Scott Academy, 22 

Blanchet, Francis, 13 

Blanken, Herman, 49, 55 

Blew, Marion, 93, 108 

Bliss, Lucia A., 7, 20, 27, 87, 101-102 

Blodgett, Ronnie, 105 

Boettcher, Charles, 76 

Booth, Ellenette Olds, 26 

Borland, Chris, 55 

Borthwick, Batty & Co., 64 

Botsford, Charles E., 26 

Brandt, Dora Headrick, 48, 54 

Brewster, William L., 72 

British Colonist, 25 

Brown, Charles, 17 

Brown, Samuel H., Jr., 35-37 

Brownell, George Clayton, 65, 67 

Buckhorn Furnace, 35-36 

Bullock, Cora, 102 

Bullock, Jesse, 16, 52 

Bullock, Nancy Howard, 16 

Burlingame, 85 

Burns, Hugh, 16 

Burrell, Martin Strong, 35, 36 

Butchart, R. P., 76, 77 

C 

Campbell, C. Herald, 70 

Capital Hotel, 32 

Carl, George H., 105 

Carneita, 97-98 

Cayuse Indians, 21 

Celilo Falls, 8, 10 

Centers, Gladys, 102 

Centers, Owen, 102 

Central Pacific Railway Company, 36 

Champoeg, 12 

Charcoal Wagon Boy, 31, 102 

Chinese Exclusion Act, 29 

City of Salem, 37 

Civil Works Administration, 93 

Clackamas County, 10, 19, 25, 43, 65, 

72, 76-77, 93-94, 109 

Clackamas County Library 

A 

Association, 101 

Clackamas County Unemployment 

Relief Committee, 93-94 

Clackamas River, 7 

Clackamas Valley, 7 

Clackamas Indians, 7-8 

Clark, William, 7, 15 

Clinefelter, Minnie Howell, 102, 104 

Clinefelter, Thomas R., 67 

Clowewallas Indians, 7-8, 10-12, 21 

Cody Kids, 107 

Cody, Jack, 107 

Colfax Landing, 23 

Collard, Damaris Lewis, 16 

Collard, Felix A., 16, 19-20, 25 

Collard, Francis, 32 

Collard, Frank, 16 

Collins Concrete Pipe Company, 94 

Columbia River, 7, 10, 12, 17, 36, 40, 

45, 76 

Commercial Club, 87, 91 

Concord School, 22-23 

Concord School District #28, 22 

Congregational Church, 47, 53, 57-58 

Cook, William, 11, 93 

Cook’s Switch, 31 

Cooke, Reg C., 89, 105 

Cooper, Julia, 77 

Cooper, V. F., 77, 78 

Corbett, Henry W., 25-27 

Cornelius, Bernard, 22 

Corps of Discovery, 7 

Cotterill, George F., 81-83 

Council Bluff (Diamond Head), 10-11 

Cowlitz Valley, 13 

Cox, Agnes Nelson, 102 

Crazy Man’s Island, 96 

Crichton, Ernest W., 35-39 

Crichton, James, 35 

Crown Willamette Pulp and Paper 

Company, 48 

Curtis, Ella Ball, 31 

D 

Daniels, Minnie Johnson, 52 

Daniels, Ransom, 52 

Darley, E. C., 40 

Davidson, Frank, 78 

Davidson, Herbert Letcher, 29 

Davidson, Leona, 102 

Davidson, Lucien, 32, 43, 48, 60, 78 

Davidson, Orrin, 60 

Davidson, Valerie, 93 

Davis, Alvah, 21-22 

Davis, Olga Sadilek, 86 

Dayton Sheridan & Grande Ronde 

Railroad, 37 

Deady, Matthew P., 28 

DeGirardin, E., 12 

Demers, Modeste, 13 

Desdemona, 21 

Dickinson, Josiah, 22, 31 

Didzun, Matthew, 63 

Dimon, Charles, 27 

Diocesan School for Boys, 22 

Donation Land Act, 15, 20, 21 

Dorcas Society, 58 

Drayton, Joseph, 9 

Duck Pond, 40, 42, 83, 86, 91, 105 

Duis, Elsie, 102 

Dunthorpe, 85 

Dunthorpe Hill, 80 

INDEX 

A 

Durham, Albert Alonzo, 13, 15-23, 33, 

50-51 

Durham, George, 15 

Durham, Miranda White, 15-16 

Durham, Walter, Jr., 15 

E 

Eagle Creek, 20 

Eastmoreland, 73, 85 

Eaton, Oscar, 47 

Egan, H. Chandler, 83, 86 

Eggers, Merry Lee, 93, 108 

Elk Rock, 10, 22, 59-61, 74-75 

Elk Rock Tunnel, 74-75 

Elston, C. H., 67 

Elston, Thomas H., 79 

Ertz & Burns, 97 

Ertz, Charles W., 84-87 

Evans, Sarah Shannon, 56-57 

Ewing, William S., 76, 93-94 

F 

Failing, Henry, 27 

Faucette, Karl Schurz, 42 

Federal Housing Administration, 99 

Fern Lodge Parlor, 78 

Forest Grove, 23 

Forest Hills, 93 

Forest Hills Acres, 98 

Forest Hills Polo Association, 96 

Forest Hills Polo Team, 83 

Forest Hills School, 107 

Fort Vancouver, 12 

Four Clackama Indians, 7 

Franklin, Josiah, 16 

Franklin, Sarah, 16 

Free Public Reading Room, 56-87 

Fry, Philip V. W., 73 

G 

Gans, Henry, 52 

Gaston, Joseph, 13, 17, 19, 22, 37 

Gay, Samuel, 20, 21 

George Rogers Park, 93, 109 

Gill, Herbert, 47 

Gilpin Construction Company, 94 

Glenmorrie, 62 

Globe Hotel, 32 

Goodall, Mary Holmes, 102 

Goodin Station, 75 

Grand Ronde Reservation, 10, 21 

Grange Hall, 51, 54-57, 59 

Green, Henry D., 26-27 

Green, John, 26 

Griffith, Jesse N., 31 

Grimm, Maude Lehman, 55 

H 

Haines, Charles N., 62 

Hall, Clifford D., 69-70 

Harrington-Elston American Legion 

Post #92, 79, 105 

Harrington, Loren G., 79 

Harris, Wilder, 21 

Hatch, H. A., 35 

Hazelia, 55 

Heestand, Rodney, 105 

Helser, Brenda, 107 

Henrietta (Harriet), 35 

Hines, Gustavus, 20 

A 

Hines, Harvey, 13, 15, 17, 19-20 

Hofer, Dorothy Hester, 95 

Holderness, S. M., 16 

Holstrom, Clarice, 58 

Holton, Albert M., 56 

Holton, Ollie Z. Gage, 56 

Hudson’s Bay Company, 8, 10, 12 

Hughes, Earl, 31 

Hull, Wesley C., 20 

Hutchins, Jo, 10 

Hutchins, Quinaby, 10 

I 

Ireland’s-on-the-Lake, 101 

Iron Mountain, 45 

Iron Worker, 42, 47, 64 

Ironton Register, 36 

Island Milling Company, 13 

J 

J. Bickner & Sons, 101 

Jackson, Duval, 102 

Jacobs, H. S., 26 

Jantzen Beach Amusement Park, 96 

Jantzen Knitting Mills, 95-97 

Jantzen, Carl C., 96-97 

Jantzen, Emma Pregge, 97 

Jantzen, Oneita, 97 

Jantzen's Island, 96 

Jenkins, Frances Pauling, 60 

Johnson Hotel, 62 

Jones, Arthur Carhart, 50, 53 

Jones, C. H., 54 

Jones, Gladys, 58 

Jones, R. M., 58 

K 

Kalapuyans Indians, 7, 10 

Kane, Paul, 7 

Keith, Nathaniel S., 40 

Kelley, Hall J., 11 

Kellogg Building, 56, 65 

Kellogg, Joseph, 23, 27, 33, 35 

Kinai, Peter, 9, 11 

Kindred, Bartholomew, 25 

King, Joyce, 102 

King, Myrtle, 102 

Kisky, Karen, 108 

Klickitats Indians, 7, 9, 11 

Knapp, Burrell & Company, 36 

Koehler, Henry W., 63-64, 67 

Koehler Hall, 67 

Kruse Woods, 17 

Kruse, Charles W., 93-94 

Kruse, Clarence, 70 

Kruse, Herbert, 70, 95 

Kyle, David, 70 

Kyle, George A., 87 

Kyle, Mildred Corbin, 87 

Kyle, Nellie Nelson, 66, 70 

L 

Ladd and Bush Bank, 32 

Ladd and Tilton Bank, 25, 32, 71, 85 

Ladd Estate Company, 73, 76, 

80-86, 88, 94, 96, 98-99, 101-102 

Ladd, Charles E., 61 

Ladd, Reed & Company, 37 

Ladd, William M., 64, 71-72, 

80-83, 85-86 


Ladd, William Sargent, 25-27, 32, 

36-38, 60-61, 64, 71 

Ladd’s Addition, 73, 85 

Ladies’ Aid Society, 58 

Lake Grove, 72, 75, 93, 105, 107, 

109, 111-112 

Lake Grove Station, 70, 73, 75 

Lake Grove Swim Park, 73-74 

Lake Oswego Corporation, 102-104, 

110 

Lake Oswego Country Club District, 

80, 81, 82, 85, 96 

Lake Oswego High School, 107, 109 

Lake Oswego Hunt, 83, 96-97 

Lake Oswego Junior High School, 107 

Lake Oswego Kiwanis Club, 108-110 

Lake Oswego Public Swim, 110 

Lake Oswego Rotary Club, 109 

Lake Oswego Water Carnival, 95 

Lake Oswego Water Festival, 93, 108 

Lake Oswego Water-Ski Club, 93, 108 

Lake Oswego Zoning District, 106 

Lake Park Station, 73 

Lake Theatre, 100-101 

Lake View Park, 73, 75 

Lake View Villas, 69, 72-77, 98 

Lakewood, 84, 94 

Lakewood Bay, 40, 42, 83-84, 86, 91, 

95, 99-101 

Lakewood School, 107 

Larson, Vera Wagner, 79 

Laurelhurst, 73, 80 

Lavachek, Louis, 80 

League of Oregon Cities, 109 

League of Women Voters of 

Oswego, 109 

Lehman, Fred, 93 

Leonard, Henry C., 60 

Leonard, Herman C., 26-28, 31 

Lewis and Clark College, 106 

Lewis and Clark Exposition, 70, 72 

Lincoln, Abraham, 15 

Linn City, 7, 16, 20-23, 25, 34 

Locey, Ann Calkins, 32 

Lockley, Fred, 23, 36 

Lot Whitcomb, 17-18, 20 

Luelling, Henderson, 19 

M 

Martin, G. B., 21 

Martin, Richard, 28 

McAllister, Rella, 9, 96 

McCarver, Morton, 25 

McDonald, James A., 32 

McLane, Louis, 27 

McLoughlin, John, 12 

McMillan’s Resort, 98 

McMinnville, 21 

McVey, Arthur (Red), 90 

Meier, Julius, 93 

Meldrum, D. Thompson, 72 

Menefee, 60 

Meriwether, Lewis, 7, 15 

Merki, Nancy, 107 

Meyers, Robert James, 47 

Miller, James, 21 

Mills, Darius O., 38 

Milwaukie, 16, 17, 20, 60, 95 

Milwaukie Branch, 60 

Minnehaha, 23 

Moore, Aman, 76 

Moore, Robert, 16, 25 

Morris, Allen, 9, 110-111 

Morris, Marion, 108 

Morris, Ray, 107-108 

Mossier’s Saloon, 48 

Mossy Brae, 85 

Mount Hood, 8, 17, 45, 53 

Mount Spodue, 7 

Multnomah Athletic Club, 107 

Multnomah City, 16 

Multnomah County, 77 

Multnomah Hunt, 96 

Murphy, Paul C., 80-83, 85, 96-97, 102 

Murphy, Paul F., 96, 98, 102, 104 

N 

Nash, C. W., 11 

Nelson, David, 70 

Nelson, Herbert Letcher, 31, 48, 52, 

59, 69-70, 72, 74 

Nemec, Joe, 90 

New Town (First Addition), 43, 45, 

50, 52-53, 63-67, 77, 87, 93 

Newlands, Lawrence C., 77, 94 

Newlands, Winifred, 75 

Nixon, C. H., 67 

North West Company, 11 

Northern Pacific Railroad Company, 

38, 39 

O 

O’Brien, Jerry, 31, 42 

Odd Fellows Hall, 50-51, 55 

Odell, Morgan S., 107 

Ohio, 36-7 

Ohio Crowd, 35-40 

Old Town, 7-8, 43, 50-52, 57, 65-66, 

74, 76-77, 87, 89, 93, 101 

Olds, Aaron K., 26 

Olex, 63 

Olmsted, Frederick Law, 82 

Onward, 23 

Oregon City, 12-13, 15, 16, 17, 20, 

21, 22, 26, 33, 48, 58, 59 

Oregon City Courier, 48, 56, 62, 64-65 

Oregon City Courier-Enterprise, 49 

Oregon City Enterprise, 50, 54, 58, 62, 

66, 70-71, 86 

Oregon Farmer, 26 

Oregon Herald, 27 

Oregon Historical Society, 32 

Oregon Iron & Steel Company, 25, 31, 

37-40, 42, 44, 45, 47, 49-54, 56- 

57, 59-67, 69-71-74, 76-80, 85, 94, 

96, 102 

Oregon Iron Company, 26-29, 31, 32, 

34-36, 38, 102 

Oregon Journal, 9, 23, 36, 48, 61, 70, 

95, 102, 110 

Oregon Portland Cement Company, 

52, 75-77, 94, 108 

Oregon Railway & Navigation 

Company, 37, 39 

Oregon Riflemen, 21 

Oregon Spectator, 15, 16, 18, 20 

Oregon Steam Navigation Company, 

36, 37, 38 

Oregon Territory, 13, 15-16, 18-20 

Oregon Trail, 13, 16-17 

Oregon Voter, 65 

Oregon’s Iron Dream, 102 

Oregonian, 16, 18, 23, 25, 29, 32, 34, 

38, 64, 75, 83, 85, 93, 106, 110 

Oswego Building, 87 

Oswego Canal, 33, 37, 79 

Oswego Cemetery, 54 

Oswego Chamber of Commerce, 108 

Oswego Cornet Band, 114 

Oswego Creek, 9, 15, 75, 109 

Oswego Depot, 53, 62, 75, 78 

Oswego Food Center, 108 

Oswego Garden Club, 110 

Oswego Gardens, 65 

Oswego Grange, 54-55, 57 

Oswego Heights, 44 

Oswego Heritage Council, 86, 102 

Oswego Heritage House, 99 

Oswego Highlands, 106 

Oswego Hotel, 65 

Oswego Iron Company, 34-35, 37-38 

Oswego Lake, 2, 9-10, 70-77, 80, 

82-84, 86, 91, 95-97, 102-104, 

106-107, 111 

Oswego Lake Country Club, 15, 82-84 

Oswego Lake Marathon Swim, 107 

Oswego Lake Villas, 76 

Oswego Landing, 18, 23, 26, 29, 33, 43 

Oswego Library Association, 88 

Oswego Lions Club, 109 

Oswego Methodist Church, 20 

Oswego Milling Company, 23, 32 

Oswego Municipal Park, 110 

Oswego Municipal Swim Park, 94 

Oswego Power & Light Company, 61 

Oswego Public Library, 101-102 

Oswego Public School, 91, 107 

Oswego Redmen, 51 

Oswego Review, 31, 87, 93-94, 96, 

101-104, 106, 108 

Oswego School District #47, 32, 109 

Oswego State Bank, 86, 99, 100, 108 

Oswego Times, 78-79, 87 

Oswego Unemployment Relief 

Committee, 93 

Oswego Volunteer Fire Department, 

89-90 

Oswego Woman’s Club, 56-57, 78, 

87-88, 101-102, 109 

Oswego-Lake Grove Business and 

Professional Women's Club, 

108-109 

Oswego-Lake Grove Office of Civilian 

Defense, 104-105 

Oswego-Lake Grove Service Club, 104 

P 

Pacific Rolling Mills, 38 

Palisades, 98 

Palisades School, 107 

Panic of 1893, 44 

Parker, Samuel, 12 

Pathé Film Exchange, 88 

Patton, Edward, 25 

Patton, Mathew, 25-26 

Patullo, Alexander S., 61, 67, 70, 74, 85 

Paul F. Murphy Company, Inc., 102 

Pauling, Linus, 60 

Peg Tree, 20 

People’s Transportation Company, 23 

Pete’s Mountain, 105 

Pettinger, Elizabeth (Bessie) Evans, 

12, 52, 57-58, 74, 101-102 

Phantom Bluff, 10 

Pierson, Ed T., 87, 93 

Piggly Wiggly Corporation, 87 

Pollock, Robert L., 62 

Portland, 18, 21-23, 25-29, 32-39, 47- 

48, 58-61, 64, 71-72, 74, 76, 80, 84- 

85, 88, 91, 96, 101, 104-108, 111 

Portland & Willamette Railroad 

Company, 60 

Portland Art Museum, 64 

Portland Cement Company, 52 

Portland Evening Telegram, 39, 76 

Portland General Electric Company, 

48, 61, 80 

Portland Hotel, 34 

Portland Rose Festival, 111 

Portland Telegram, 69, 73 

Portland Water Commission, 40 

Portland Water Company, 26 

Portland Woman’s Club, 56, 57 

Portland Young Men’s Christian 

Association, 64 

Portrait and Biographical Record of 

Portland and Vicinity, 66 

Poulson, Doris, 102 

Poulson, Vera, 102 

Prosser, Dena Brownleewe, 54-55 

Prosser, George, 51-52, 54-55, 66, 74 

Prosser, Henry, 29 

Prosser’s Hall, 55, 58 

Puget Sound Dredging Company, 79 

Pullman Company, 74-75 

R 

Ramona, 59 

Ray, Verne, 8 

Reagan, Ronald, 95 

Red Electric, 70, 72-76 

Reed College, 37 

Reed, Simeon Gannett, 25, 37-39, 43- 

44, 60, 64 

Reid, William (Dundee), 37, 39 

Risley, Orville, 23 

Riverside School, 22 

Robertson, Belle, 102 

Robin’s Nest, 16 

Roehr, Oscar C., 104 

Rogers Brothers Food Company, 93 

Rogers, George, 93, 108, 110 

Roosevelt, Theodore, 69 

Ryan, Elizabeth Salway, 102 

S 

Sacred Heart Catholic Church, 57-59, 

106 

Sacred Heart Cemetery, 54 

Sadilek, Charles, 86, 100 

Sadilek, Elsie, 102 

Sadilek, Millie, 102 

Sadilek, Robert, 102 

Safeway Stores, Inc., 101 

Saffarans, Henry, 21 

Sandy River Valley, 7 

Savage, C. W., 16 

Savage, J. Verne, 84, 98 

Schawper, Zobedia, 102 

Schnebly, D. J., 15, 16, 18, 20 

Scholer, Bob, 105 

Schollander, Don, 95 

Schollander, Martha Perry, 95 

Schuebel, Christian, 77 

Schukart, Ann Wade, 97 

Scott, Thomas Fielding, 22 

Scott, Uriah B. (Ubiquitous), 35-37 

Seeley, Boudinot, 35 

Seeley, Lamar B., 35-37, 39-40 

Shade’s Hotel, 23 

Shepard, Clara S., 84 

Shipley, Adam Randolph, 55 

Shipley, Celinda Hines, 21 

Shriner, Lloyd, 102 

Shuholm, Gust, 42 

Shults, Bob, 111 

Sierra Club, 69 

Silver Lake, 7 

Simonton, W. E., 49 

Simpson, George, 8 

Slocum, Hortense Gore, 105 

Smith Brothers & Watson, 38 

Smith, Burt, 99 

Smith, C. A., 104 

Smith, E. V., 58 

Smith, Ruth Carter, 72 

Smith, Ward C., 72, 104 

Social Whist Club, 56 

Sons of Neptune, 96 

South Town (South Oswego), 44-45, 

47, 50-52, 65-66, 79, 89, 93, 106 

Index ✦ 167

Southern Pacific Railroad Company, 

60, 62, 66-67, 70, 72, 74-75 

Speedwell Service Station, 87 

Spencer, Diane, 108 

Spencer, Earl, 108 

Spencer, Sharon, 108 

St. Francis Xavier Mission, 13 

St. Paul’s Church of the Willamette, 13 

Starkweather, Harvey G., 10 

Starr, Addison M., 27 

Sterrett, Frank, 93 

Strong, Frederick H., 80-82, 85, 96 

Strong, William, 80 

Sucker Creek, 15-16, 18, 20, 22, 26, 

28-29, 33-34, 44, 48, 50-51, 62, 

75, 78 

Sucker Lake, 2, 20-21, 23, 27, 33, 69, 

70-75, 80, 86, 91 

Sucker Lake and Tualatin River 

Railroad, 23 

Sullivan, T. W., 48 

Sundeleaf, Richard, 97-101 

Sycan Marsh, 7 

T 

Thomas & Co., 63 

Thomas, George, 63, 67 

Thomas, Jerome W., 63, 67 

Thompson, Tommy, 98 

Tilton, Charles E., 25 

Torrance, Mary Jane Whitcomb, 16 

Torrance, William, 16-18 

Trinity College, 22 

Trinity School, 22, 34 

Truchot, Theresa Moore, 31, 47, 57, 

102, 105 

Trueblood, H. W., 105 

Trullinger, Daniel, 23, 27 

Trullinger, Fred, 27 

Trullinger, John Corse, 23, 27-28, 32- 

33, 35, 52 

Tryon Creek, 16, 60 

Tryon, Frances, 20 

Tryon, Socrates Hotchkiss, Jr., 16 

Tryon, Socrates Hotchkiss, Sr., 16, 20, 32 

Tualatins Indians, 7-11 

Tualatin River, 10, 23, 26, 33, 35, 74, 

79, 111 

Tualatin River Navigation & 

Manufacturing Company, 32-34 

Tualatin Valley, 7, 23, 33, 37 

Tuality Plains, 17 

Twining, Edward, 58-59, 80 

U 

U. B. Scott Steamboat Company, 36 

United States Exploring Expedition, 

8-9, 16 

United States Geographic Board, 74-75 

University of Oregon, 85, 

Updike, D. E., 102 

V 

Villard, Henry, 37-39 

W 

Walling, Albert, 16 

Walling, Frances, 16 

Walling, Gabriel, 16, 19 

Walling, George, 16, 19 

Wally’s Marina, 100-101, 108 

Walton, T. A., 35 

Wanaxka, 12 

Watkins, Carleton E., 27, 31 

Webster, Lillian Hall, 69 

Wednesday, Jackson, 56 

Weismuller, Johnny, 95 

Wessling, Walter Spencer, 88-89 

West Linn, 7, 16, 48, 59 

West Shore, 25, 32 

Western Clackamas Review, 87, 89, 

91, 94 

Westmoreland, 73, 85 

Whitcomb, Ben, 59 

Whitcomb, Lot, 17 

Whitehouse, Morris H., 84 

Whitman Massacre, 21 

Whitman Mission, 21 

Whitman, Narcissa, 7 

Wilbur, George D., 27, 28 

Wilbur, James B., 28 

Wilkes, Charles, 8-9, 16 

Willamette Falls, 7-13, 16, 23, 33-34 

Willamette Falls Canals & Lock 

Company, 33 

Willamette Farmer, 36 

Willamette River, 7-8, 12, 17-19, 

29, 31, 33-34, 36, 38-39, 48, 

50-51, 60, 70, 72, 80, 95, 108-112 

Willamette Valley, 7-8, 11-13, 21, 25, 

37, 58, 60, 72 

Willamette Valley Railroad Company, 

37, 60 

William H. Tucker & Sons, 83 

Willsburg Cut-Off, 60, 62 

Willsburg Junction, 60 

Wilson, A. King, 88 

Wilson, Dora Espy, 88 

Wilson, Janet, 93, 108 

Wilsonia, 60 

Wint, Ruth, 69 

Wizer, James, 108 

Works Progress Administration, 93-94 

World War I, 72, 78-79, 84 

World War II, 93, 104-107 

Worthington, Eugene, 102 

Worthington, Ida, 102 

Worthington, Polk, 31 

Worthington, Thed, 31 

Worthington, Wally, 107 

Worthington, Willa, 102, 106-108 

Y 

Yeon, John B., 99 

Young, Loretta, 95 

Z 

Zimmerman, Suzanne, 107 

SPONSORS 

Bank of America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 

William T. Buckley, Attorney at Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 

Colin Herald Campbell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 

City of Lake Oswego. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 

Delia “Dee” Denton. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 

Walter Durham, Jr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 

Equity Office . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 

Evergreen Pacific, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 

Gage Industries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 

Gerber & Associates and the Gerber Family . . . . . . . . . . 162 

Graham’s Book and Stationery. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 

Grimm’s Fuel Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 

Carl M. Halvorson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 

Jennings Insurance Agency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 

Dr. Paul Klein . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 

Kruse Way Rotary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 

Lake Oswego Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 

Lake Oswego Rotary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 

Lake Oswego School District . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 

Lakeside Lumber Company, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 

Lakewood Theatre Company/ 

Lakewood Center for the Arts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 

Mary’s Woods at Marylhurst . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 

Nick Bunick & Associates, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 

Oregon Management Group/The Headlee Company . . . . 145 

Oswego Heritage Council . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 

Otak, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 

Dr. Dale Rhoney. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 

River’s Edge Athletic Club. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158 

Rossman Sanitary Service, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 

SAFECO Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 

Alice L. Schlenker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 

Ann Parshall Schukart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 

Ward C. Smith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 

Stoutt Executive Services, Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 

Sturdi-Built Greenhouse Manufacturing Company . . . . . 140 

Tualatin Valley Builders Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 

Vic’s Auto Center, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 

Wizer’s Oswego Foods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 


U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey 

Planimetric Map 1947 

(Compiled from 1945 aerial photographs)

ISBN: 1-893619-26-5 

IRON, WOOD & WATER: AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF LAKE OSWEGO 

describes the development of a city following the era of Native American occupation to the midtwentieth 

century. Throughout its growth, Lake Oswego was the home of grand schemes to make 

fortunes. Plans to turn the town into a lumber-milling center, an iron manufacturing center, and the 

hub of a water transportation route that used Oswego Lake to link the Willamette and Tualatin 

Rivers, all failed. The idea of creating a prime residential Country Club District by redesigning the 

lake and waging a clever marketing campaign was a great success. IRON, WOOD & WATER traces 

the metamorphosis of a former mining town, struggling to survive, into one of Oregon’s most 

desirable cities.

Iron, Wood & Water - An Illustrated History of Lake Oswego

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