LOUIS SOUTHWORTH SCULPTURE UNVEILED The city of Waldport held a ceremony Saturday, Nov. 19, to celebrate the arrival and unveiling of a bronze sculpture of Louis Southworth, a Black man who lived in the Waldport area after buying his freedom from slavery for $1,000 in the mid 1800s. The sculpture, created by artist Peter Helzer, is on display at the Alsea Bay Bridge Visitor Center & Museum until it can be placed at its permanent home in Waldport’s new Louis Southworth Park. Festivities included speakers, refreshments and music provided by a fiddler player who specialized in tunes from the 1800s, which was appropriate as Southworth was known for his fiddle playing during that era. (Photos by Jeremy Burke) 30 <strong>OC</strong> WAVES • VOL <strong>3.4</strong>
BORN A SLAVE, SOUTHWORTH PIONEERED LINCOLN COUNTY Louis Southworth came to Oregon a slave, died a respected fixture in his community and is now memorialized in Waldport. Southworth took his surname from his enslaver, James Southworth, who brought him with him on the Oregon Trail in 1853, when Louis was in his early 20s (some accounts have him born in Tennessee in 1829, others in the same state in 1830). According to the Oregon Historical Society’s Oregon Encyclopedia, “Before long, James Southworth, along with his family and Louis Southworth, left Oregon for California to try his hand at gold mining. Louis Southworth soon found that he could make more money playing his violin for dance schools, and by 1858, he had raised $1,000 (equivalent to $23,000 in 2009), enough money to purchase his freedom.” Sometime during the intervening years (1854-57), Southworth is believed to have fought in the Oregon Militia, participating in skirmishes against Indigenous bands during the Rogue River Indian Wars in southern Oregon. He reportedly joined the fighting unit under the command of Col. John Kelsay to avoid surrendering his rifle to soldiers during a chance encounter, and though his name is not included in the militia’s rolls, according to Charles H. Carey’s “General History of Oregon,” Southworth was wounded during in a clash during either March or April of 1856. After buying his freedom, Southworth lived in Polk, Jackson and Benton counties — meeting and marrying Mary Cooper (and taking in her adopted son, Alvin McCleary) while living and operating a livery stable in Buena Vista — before founding a homestead in 1880 about 4 miles up the Alsea River from Waldport at the confluence with a creek. It should be noted that at this time, Oregon’s 1857 Constitution banned Black people from the state, a carryover from previous, territorial laws. The prohibition on residency exempted those present in Oregon prior to the constitution’s ratification, and it extended to a ban on owning land or signing contracts in the state. The socalled exclusion act was not repealed until a successful ballot measure in 1926, and it took another 34 years for Oregon’s Black population to exceed 1 percent. The year Southworth moved to south Lincoln County, he was reportedly the only resident of Waldport to vote — he lashed oil drums to his small barge to cross the Alsea during a fierce southwest storm that prevented all of his neighbors from casting their ballots. At his homestead on the banks of the Alsea, according to the Oregon Encyclopedia, Southworth “cleared 10 to 12 acres per year over a six-year period, using animal power and a wooden plow.” He supported his family by fishing and hunting with a homemade rifle, operating a sawmill, and ferrying passengers up and across the river. In 1883, Southworth donated onehalf acre of land for the construction of the area’s first school. He later served as chairman of the school board. He also regularly played his fiddle for events in Waldport. The local Baptist church reportedly told Southworth he could not be a member if he continued to play his fiddle. “Was brought up a Baptist. But the brethren would not stand for my fiddle, which was about all the company I had much of the time,” Southworth said of the ultimatum. “So I told them to keep me in the church with my fiddle if they could, but to turn me out if they must; for I could not think of parting with the fiddle. I reckon my name isn't written in their books here anymore; but I somehow hope it's written in the big book up yonder, where they aren't so particular about fiddles.” After his wife died in 1901, Southworth remained on his Alsea homestead until 1910, moving to Corvallis in August of that year and marrying Josephine Jackson three years later. His health deteriorated and he fell into dire financial straits, endangering the Victorian home he’d purchased near downtown, but the community reportedly rallied to fundraise and pay off Southworth’s mortgage. Southworth died in 1917 and was buried in Crystal Springs cemetery next to his first wife. His stepson, Alvin McCleary, continued living in Lincoln County and later served as a Waldport City councilor. For decades, Southworth was memorialized near his homestead with two racist place names — Darkey Creek, on whose banks he’d settled, and Darkey Road, which meets Highway 34 across the Alsea River from Drift Creek (Some historians say the racist moniker was not meant as pejorative and may have been Southworth’s nickname suggested by himself.). The Oregon Geographic Names Board changed the name of the 5-mile stream to Southworth Creek after a public campaign 20 years ago, and the road followed suit years later on the initiative of U.S. Forest Service employees (it’s since been given a forest road designation, 3489). Last year, Waldport City Council voted to name a new park at the corner of Highway 34 and Crestline Drive in Southworth’s honor, and earlier this year, the city received $750,000 from the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department for the first phase of the park’s development on the 12-acre former site of Waldport Middle School. This Saturday, Nov. 19, a life-sized sculpture of the Oregon pioneer that will later be placed at the park is to be unveiled at the Alsea Bay Visitor Center and Museum. <strong>OC</strong> WAVES • VOL <strong>3.4</strong> BY KENNETH LIPP 31
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