The Homestead Acts were several laws in the United States by which an applicant could acquire ownership of government land or the public domain, typically called a homestead. In all, more than 160 million acres of public land, or nearly 10 percent of the total area of the United States, was given away free to 1.6 million homesteaders; most of the homesteads were west of the Mississippi River.
The Treaty with the Kalapuya, etc., also known as the Kalapuya Treaty or the Treaty of Dayton, was an 1855 treaty between the United States and the bands of the Kalapuya tribe, the Molala tribe, the Clackamas, and several others in the Oregon Territory. In it the tribes were forced to cede land in exchange for promised permanent reservation, annuities, supplies, educational, vocational, health services, and protection from ongoing violence from American settlers. The treaty effectively gave over the entirety of the Willamette Valley to the United States and removed indigenous groups who had resided in the area for over 10,000 years. The treaty was signed on January 22, 1855, in Dayton, Oregon, ratified on March 3, 1855, and proclaimed on April 10, 1855.
Samuel Royal Thurston was an American pioneer, lawyer and politician. He was the first delegate from the Oregon Territory to the United States Congress and was instrumental in the passage of the Donation Land Claim Act.
George Washington Bush was an American pioneer and one of the first African-American non-Amerindian settlers of the Pacific Northwest.
John Pollard Gaines was a U.S. military and political figure. He was a Whig member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Kentucky from 1847 to 1849, and he served as Governor of the Oregon Territory from 1850 to 1853, stepping down after a turbulent term in office. He was the owner of Margaret Garner, whose enslavement and sexual assault is the basis for Toni Morrison's novel, Beloved.
Kinton is an unincorporated community in Washington County, Oregon, United States. It is located near the northern shore of the Tualatin River, near the intersection of Oregon Route 210 and River Road, a major county arterial that runs northwest towards Hillsboro. Kinton is located approximately eight miles north of Newberg, six miles southwest of Beaverton, and seven miles southeast of Hillsboro. The community was once the site of a ferry crossing the Tualatin River between Kinton and nearby Scholls. While the ferry has long since been replaced with a bridge, OR 210 is still known locally as Scholls Ferry Road. Kinton is in Oregon's wine country, with several notable wineries in the area.
Colonel Isaac Neff Ebey was the first permanent white resident of Whidbey Island, Washington.
William J. Bailey was a British-born physician who migrated to the United States, where he became a pioneer and politician in the Oregon Country, particularly the Willamette Valley. Bailey participated in the Champoeg Meetings that led to the creation of a provisional government in Oregon. He was selected as a member of that government, first on the executive committee and later in the Provisional Legislature of Oregon.
William P. Bryant was an American jurist from Kentucky. He served as the first chief justice of the Oregon Supreme Court in the Oregon Territory. United States President James K. Polk appointed Bryant, of Indiana, to the court once the Oregon Territory was established in 1848. In Indiana he served in both houses of the Indiana General Assembly and was a county judge. Bryant also fought in the Black Hawk War against Native Americans.
Salem Pioneer Cemetery is a cemetery in Salem, Oregon, United States.
William Strong was an American attorney and jurist in the Pacific Northwest. He was the 4th justice of the Oregon Supreme Court when the region was still the Oregon Territory. A native of Vermont, he settled in the Washington Territory after it was created in 1853 and served in the legislature of that territory and on the Washington Supreme Court. Later he returned to Oregon and settled in Portland.
Alonzo Albert Skinner was an American judge and Whig party politician in Oregon. He was the 16th justice of the Oregon Supreme Court and unsuccessful candidate for the office of governor. He also served as a circuit court judge for the state of Oregon, was a customs collector, a judge in the Provisional Government of Oregon, and a commissioner on a Native American treaty commission.
Albert E. "A.E." Wilson was an American pioneer and merchant in Oregon Country. Raised in the United States, he moved to what would become the U.S. state of Oregon where he operated stores, was involved in politics, and was elected as the first judge of the Provisional Government of Oregon.
Hiram Aldrich Straight was an American farmer and legislator in what became the state of Oregon. A native of New York state, he would live in Iowa before traveling the Oregon Trail to what was then the Oregon Country. In Oregon, he would serve in the Provisional Legislature of Oregon and the Oregon Territorial Legislature.
Benjamin F. Hayden was an American attorney and politician in the state of Oregon. A native of Kentucky, he moved to the West Coast with the California Gold Rush in 1849 and to Oregon in 1852. A Democrat, he served in the Oregon House of Representatives, including the 1870 session as speaker of the body.
Lorane is an unincorporated community in Lane County, Oregon, United States. It is located on Territorial Road about 20 miles (32 km) southwest of Eugene; it is 13 miles (21 km) northwest of Cottage Grove. The community is near the headwaters of the North Fork Siuslaw River in a valley in the foothills of the Central Oregon Coast Range. Local businesses include several wineries, including the King Estate Winery, Chateau Lorane Winery and Iris Hill Winery, and two general stores.
Robert Crouch Kinney was an American businessman and politician in what became the state of Oregon. A native of Illinois, he helped found Muscatine, Iowa, before crossing the Oregon Trail and settling in what became Oregon. In Oregon he was a prominent businessman in the milling business and served in the Oregon Territorial Legislature before being a member of the Oregon Constitutional Convention.
The Native American peoples of Oregon are the set of Indigenous peoples who have inhabited or who still inhabit the area delineated in today's state of Oregon in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. While the state of Oregon currently maintains relations with nine federally recognized tribal groups, the state was previously home to a much larger number of autonomous tribal groups, which today either no longer exist or have been absorbed into these larger confederated entities. Six of the nine tribes gained federal recognition in the late 20th century, after undergoing the termination and restoration of their treaty rights starting in the 1950s.
James Terwilliger was an Oregon pioneer and one of the first residents of Portland, Oregon. He is the namesake of Portland's Terwilliger Boulevard and Terwilliger School.
Letitia Carson was an Oregon pioneer and one of the first African Americans to be listed as living in Oregon according to the U.S. Federal Census. In fact, she was the only black woman to successfully make a land claim in Oregon under the Homestead Act of 1862. She was the inspiration for Jane Kirkpatrick's 2014 novel A Light In The Wilderness.
