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.
Carson was born into slavery in Kentucky around 1814. [1] Little is known of her early life besides that some time before 1845, she arrived in Missouri. [1] It is presumed that she was involved in the hemp or tobacco farming industries as a field hand, a house servant, or both. It is also presumed that she might have been either a Baptist or a Methodist and may have attended Sunday services in her enslaver's church, with an all-black congregation, or both. [2]
In 1845, she set out in a 6-month journey on the Oregon Trail for Oregon with David Carson, an Irish immigrant who owned land in Platte County and had become an American citizen in 1844. [1] It is not clear whether Letitia was ever enslaved by David. [1] However, by the time they began their journey to Oregon, he recognized her as a free person. On June 9, 1845, Carson gave birth to their daughter, [1] Martha Jane somewhere along the South Platte River. [3]
Upon their arrival, the Carsons staked a 640-acre land claim in the Soap Creek Valley, located in modern-day Benton County, Oregon. [4] Government officials reduced the Carsons' land claim by half in 1850 to 320 acres since David and Letitia could not legally marry, as Letitia was black and the Donation Land Act provided up to 640 acres solely for married couples, in addition to black people at the time being ineligible to make a land claim in Oregon. [4] Letitia Carson gave birth to a son, Adam Andrew Jackson, in 1849. [4] According to the 1850 U.S. Federal Census, Letitia and David lived in Benton, Oregon Territory, with their two children.
In September 1852, David Carson died from an illness. [1] When he died, Letitia and their children were excluded from his estate settlement, and their wealthy white neighbor Greenberry Smith was named executor of his estate instead. [1] Smith claimed that Carson and the children were slaves who "were themselves property and therefore could not be heirs to the estate." [1] For her children's benefit, Carson filed a lawsuit and took Smith to court to recover an equitable portion of David's estate, stating that David Carson had promised "he would make me his sole heir or that he would give me his entire property" in the event of his death, even though this was not ever put into writing. [4] She asked that the court award her $7,450 as compensation for her seven years of work on the Soap Creek Valley claim, "plus the value of livestock and other property to which she claimed she was entitled." [4] On May 12, 1855, Carson was awarded $300 by a Benton County Jury, plus $229.50 to pay her court costs. [4] On October 25, 1856, a federal court awarded her $1399.75 for the loss of her cattle. [4] Although she won both of these lawsuits, her accomplishments were not acknowledged in the local press at the time.
During [1] or after [4] the federal trial, Carson moved with her children to the upper Cow Creek Valley of Douglas County, Oregon, where she worked as a midwife who was well known among community members. [1] She is thought to have lived in Douglas County with the family of Hardy Eliff, for whom she also worked in addition to being a midwife. [5]
Oregon became a state and adopted its 1857 Constitution in 1859, which stated that black people were banned from migrating to the area. The Constitution also enforced the ban on property ownership, voting rights, and the right to sue in court to black residents in the area. In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act, and the law changed to not ban homesteaders based on race. On June 17, 1863, Carson then filed a 160-acre claim under the Homestead Act of 1862 on South Myrtle Creek in Douglas County, Oregon as a widow and single mother of two children [1] [6] Her claim was certified on October 1, 1869, by President Ulysses S. Grant. [1] Her claim was one of the first 71 homestead claims to ever be certified in the United States, and she was the only black woman to successfully file an Oregon claim under the act. [4] [7] Carson spent the rest of her life on her claim. [1] A tributary to South Myrtle Creek near her claim is known as Letitia Creek. [8] She built "a two-story house, a barn, [and] smokehouse" on the property, which also included a fruit orchard, which according to the 1870 Census lists her real estate and personal property value at $1,000 and $625, respectively. [1] [9] Carson lived another 20 years on her property before she died at the age of 73 or 74 on February 2, 1888, and was buried at Stephens Cemetery in Myrtle Creek, Oregon. [4] The Letitia Carson Pioneer Apple Tree was named after her by researchers who completed a cultural resource inventory of the property owned by Oregon State University.
Carson's daughter, Martha Jane, moved to the Umatilla Indian Reservation in 1886. On November 26, 1864, Martha gave birth to a daughter, Mary Alice Bingham, presumed to be the daughter of Solomon Bingham who also lived in Douglas County during this time. [10] Martha had ten more children with her husband Narcisse Lavadour, whom she married on January 19, 1868; Narcisse's father was a retired Hudson's Bay Company employee and his mother was from the Walla Walla tribe. [3] He claimed an allotment of land on the Umatilla Reservation. [3] Martha and Narcisse's children were Agnes (1870–1941), Ira (1872–n.d.), Ada (1873–n.d.), Albert (1875–n.d.); Ida Ethel (1877–n.d.),Fred (1879–n.d.), Millie (1883–n.d.), Nelson (1886–n.d.), Grace (1888–n.d.), and Thomas (1890–n.d.). A year after Narcisse's death in 1893, Martha married Charles Carpenter. After divorcing him in 1910, Martha died on July 17, 1911, at the age of 66. She was buried at the Athena Cemetery in Umatilla County, Oregon. [10]
Carson's son, Adam “Andrew Jackson”, farmed in the Canyonville area and was known for his skill as horse trainer. He never married and lived in Douglas County nearly his entire life until his death on September 14, 1922, at the age of 73. He was buried at the Stephens Cemetery, Myrtle Creek, Douglas County, Oregon, next to his mother. [11]
Carson is the heroine of Jane Kirkpatrick's 2014 historical fiction novel, A Light In The Wilderness. [12] The novel chronicles her relationship with David Carson, journey to Oregon, and legal battle with Greenberry Smith. [13]
An elementary school in Corvallis, Oregon was renamed in honor of Letitia Carson in 2021. [14] [15]
Corvallis is a city in and the county seat of Benton County in central western Oregon, United States. It is the principal city of the Corvallis, Oregon Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Benton County. As of the 2023 Census Population Estimates, the population was 61,087, making it the 9th most populous city in Oregon. This does include the nearly 25,000 Oregon State University students attending classes in Corvallis, over 5,250 of which live in one of 16 residence halls on the main campus. Corvallis is the location of Oregon State University 420-acre main campus, Samaritan Health Services, a top 10 largest non-profit employer in the state, a 84-acre Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center campus, and a 2.2 million square foot, 197-acre Hewlett Packard research and development campus that invented the Laser jet printer and the Computer mouse. Corvallis is a part of the Silicon Forest Corvallis is the westernmost city in the contiguous 48 states with a population larger than 50,000.
Umatilla County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. The population of 81,826 ranks it as the 14th largest in Oregon, and largest in Eastern Oregon. Hermiston is the largest city in Umatilla County, but Pendleton remains the county seat. Umatilla County is part of the Hermiston-Pendleton, OR Micropolitan Statistical Area, which has a combined population of 94,833. It is included in the eight-county definition of Eastern Oregon.
Douglas County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the population was 111,201. The county seat is Roseburg. The county is named after Stephen A. Douglas, an American politician who supported Oregon statehood. Douglas County comprises the Roseburg, OR Micropolitan Statistical Area. In regards to area, Douglas County is the largest county west of the Oregon Cascades.
Benton County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2023 census population estimates, the population was 99,355. Its county seat is Corvallis. The county was named after Thomas Hart Benton, a U.S. Senator who advocated American control over the Oregon Country. Benton County is designated as the Corvallis, OR Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is included in the Portland–Vancouver–Salem, OR–WA Combined Statistical Area. It is in the Willamette Valley.
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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.
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The China Ditch in Douglas County, in the U.S. state of Oregon, was a 30-mile (48 km) canal built in part by Chinese laborers to supply water for the hydraulic mining of gold. The Myrtle Creek Consolidated Hydraulic Gold Mining and Manufacturing Company began purchasing land for the ditch in 1890 and was bankrupt by 1894. Portions of the ditch, which carried water from Little River to North Myrtle Creek, remain visible, and an 11-mile (18 km) section is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
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Danford Balch was a mid-19th-century settler in what later became the Willamette Heights neighborhood of Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon. He was born on November 29, 1811, in Colrain, Massachusetts, but spent his early years in Onondaga County, New York. In 1850, Balch moved west to Portland, and settled on a donation land claim of about 346 acres (140 ha) with his wife, Mary Jane, and nine children. A commemorative stone at Northwest 30th Avenue and Upshur Street marks the spot of the Balch homesite. A family named Stump, with whom the Balches quarreled, settled a nearby claim.
Lewis Southworth, also identified as Louis Southworth (1830–1917), was an American pioneer in Oregon who settled a donation land claim in 1880 near Waldport in the U.S. state of Oregon. Southworth was born into slavery and brought to the Oregon Territory by his enslaver, from whom he bought his freedom with cash, earned chiefly from his expertise with the fiddle or violin. Southworth lived or worked near Monroe, Jacksonville, and Buena Vista before settling along a small tributary of the Alsea River, where he farmed and engaged in other enterprises and civic undertakings. After his first wife died in 1901, Southworth bought a house in Corvallis, where he lived for the rest of his life and married his second wife.
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Myrtle Creek is a short tributary of the South Umpqua River in Douglas County in the U.S. state of Oregon. Its main stem, formed by the confluence of two forks just south of the city of Myrtle Creek, is only about 1 mile (1.6 km) long. Its only named tributaries are the two forks, North Myrtle Creek and South Myrtle Creek, each of which is much longer than the main stem.
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