Verboort is an unincorporated community in Washington County, Oregon, United States. [1] It is located approximately two miles northeast of Forest Grove, one mile east of Oregon Route 47 in the Tualatin Valley. [2] [3] The community is part of the Forest Grove Rural Fire Protection District. [4]
Verboort was named for early settler Father William Verboort in 1876. [5] [6] Verboort post office was established in 1893 and ran intermittently until 1919. [5]
The community was founded by six Dutch Catholic families. [6] The group was led by John Verboort, who had traveled from the Netherlands with his family and first settled in Wisconsin. [6] In 1875, the group, unhappy with the soil and weather in Wisconsin, bought 550 acres of land in the Verboort area and shared a large house. [6] Father William Verboort, son of John, joined family later that year. [6] Father Verboort and the community built St. Francis Xavier Church, and an informal school was founded at the same time. [6] In 1883, a new church was built and named Our Lady of the Visitation, while the old church was converted into a schoolhouse. [6] The Sisters of St. Mary of Oregon established a convent in Verboort in 1891, and by longstanding tradition, local families provide the sisters with produce. [6] In 1922, the school at Verboort and the Sisters of St. Mary who taught there were affected by the Oregon Compulsory Education Act, which was later overturned by the United States Supreme Court. [6] The current Visitation Church building, with 150-foot sequoias on either side, was constructed in 1959. [7] The sequoias were planted in 1888 by John Porter, who brought the seeds back to Oregon from California after returning from the California Gold Rush of 1849. [7] [8]
The church at Verboort established successful missions in Hillsboro, Cornelius, Forest Grove, and Roy (another Dutch Catholic community), which all became self-supporting parishes. [9]
The annual Verboort Sausage and Sauerkraut Festival, founded in 1934, is held on the first Saturday in November; proceeds go to the upkeep of the church school. [7] The festival, with its sausage and sauerkraut dinner, attracts between 7,800 and 10,000 people each year, while the line for purchasing bulk sausage and sauerkraut starts forming four or five hours before sunrise. [10] [11] [12] In 2008, 15 tons of sausage and 2,000 pounds of sauerkraut were produced for the event. [11] [13] The sausage is smoked using green vine maple wood. [14]
Along with the Catholic church and its pioneer cemetery, notable sites in the community include the 1864 house of Henry Black, on whose Donation Land Claim the Verboort family originally settled, the 1921 William Hermans Granary, the 1921 Verboort Garage and General Repairing building, and the 1876 Martin Hermens House and Farm. [5] [7] [15]
Major league baseball All-Star pitcher Larry Jansen, member of the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame, was from Verboort. [16]
Forest Grove is a city in Washington County, Oregon, United States, 25 miles (40 km) west of Portland. Originally a small farm town, it is now primarily a commuter town in the Portland metro area. Settled in the 1840s, the town was platted in 1850, then incorporated in 1872, making it the first city in Washington County. The population was 21,083 at the 2010 census, an increase of 19.1% over the 2000 figure (17,708).
Hillsboro is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon and is the county seat of Washington County. Situated in the Tualatin Valley on the west side of the Portland metropolitan area, the city hosts many high-technology companies, such as Intel, locally known as the Silicon Forest. At the 2020 census, the city's population was 106,447.
Pacific University is a private university in Forest Grove, Oregon. Founded in 1849 as the Tualatin Academy, the original Forest Grove campus is 23 miles (37 km) west of Portland. The university maintains three other campuses in Eugene, Hillsboro, and Woodburn, and has an enrollment of more than 4,000 students.
The Tualatin Valley Highway No. 29 is an Oregon highway which passes through the Tualatin Valley, between the cities of McMinnville and Beaverton. Between McMinnville and Forest Grove, the highway is signed as Oregon Route 47; between Forest Grove and Beaverton it is signed as Oregon Route 8. Oregon 8 becomes Canyon Road in Beaverton east of Hocken Road.
The Hillsboro Argus was a twice-weekly newspaper in the city of Hillsboro, Oregon, from 1894 to 2017, known as the Washington County Argus for its final year. The Argus was distributed in Washington County, Oregon, United States. First published in 1894, but later merged with the older, 1873-introduced Forest Grove Independent, the paper was owned by the McKinney family for more than 90 years prior to being sold to Advance Publications in 1999. The Argus was published weekly until 1953, then twice-weekly from 1953 until 2015. In early 2017, it was reported that the paper was planning to cease publication in March 2017. The final edition was that of March 29, 2017.
Samuel Bruce Huston was an American politician and lawyer in Oregon. Originally a Democrat and later a Republican, he served in both chambers of the Oregon Legislative Assembly and was twice the mayor of Hillsboro, Oregon. A native of Indiana, he served in the state senate as a Democrat from one county his first term, but moved and changed parties by his second term 20 years later.
John Wright Shute was an American banker in the state of Oregon. He was the founder of the first bank in Washington County, Oregon, and both Shute Park and Shute Road in Hillsboro, Oregon, are his namesakes.
The Beaverton Valley Times, also known as the Valley Times, is a weekly newspaper covering the city of Beaverton, Oregon, United States, and adjacent unincorporated areas in the northern part of the Tualatin Valley. Owned since 2000 by the Pamplin Media Group, the paper was established in 1921. Currently based in neighboring Portland, the Valley Times is printed each Thursday.
Roy is an unincorporated historical community in Washington County, Oregon, United States. It is located south of the Sunset Highway and southeast of the city of Banks.
Daniel M. C. Gault was a newspaperman, educator and politician in the U.S. state of Oregon. A native of Iowa, he immigrated to the Oregon Territory with his family as a child where he became a teacher in several locales. A Republican, he served three terms in the Oregon Legislative Assembly over a period of nearly 30 years. He also worked for several newspapers and founded two others.
Dilley is an unincorporated community in Washington County, Oregon, United States. It is located south of Forest Grove and north of the city of Gaston on Oregon Route 47 in the Portland metropolitan area. Settled in the late 1840s, the community was platted in 1874 after the arrival of the railroad. The population of the area in 2000 was approximately 2,000.
The Oregon Chorale is an American concert choir based in Hillsboro in the U.S. state of Oregon. Founded in 1985 as the Washington County Chorale, the 60 person group performs in the Portland metropolitan area, as well as tours in Europe. The group presents music ranging from classical and opera music to folk and contemporary numbers.
Hillsboro Artists' Regional Theatre (HART), originally the Hillsboro Actors Repertory Theater, is a community theatre group in Hillsboro, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1994, the non-profit group presents around six plays each year. Their 99-seat theater is located in downtown Hillsboro next to the Hillsboro Civic Center along Washington Street.
Hillsboro Symphony Orchestra (HSO) is an amateur orchestra based in Hillsboro in the Portland metropolitan area of the U.S. state of Oregon. Founded in 2001, the non-profit group has 86 musicians and is led by conductor Sharon Northe. They perform three concerts per year at Hillsboro's Trinity Lutheran Church. Additionally, the orchestra also has five ensembles that perform at other events in the area.
The Forest Grove Leader was a weekly community newspaper in Forest Grove in the U.S. state of Oregon. Started in 2012, it was published by the Oregonian Publishing Company, which also published The Hillsboro Argus newspaper and continues to publish The Oregonian. The free publication competed with the News-Times in the city, a suburb of the Portland metropolitan area. In January 2016, it was combined with two other newspapers to form the Washington County Argus, but the Argus ceased publication only 14 months later, in March 2017.
Sonrise Church is a Conservative Baptist church in Hillsboro in the U.S. state of Oregon. Founded in 1980 as Sonrise Baptist Church, the church is located in the Orenco neighborhood and has about 1,200 worshipers at its main campus, a former industrial building.
Forest Grove Fire and Rescue is the municipal fire department for the city of Forest Grove, Oregon. Started in 1894, the department has two stations used to provide fire fighting and emergency medical services to both the city and the Forest Grove Rural Fire Protection District. The department also provides administrative support to the neighboring Cornelius Fire Department.
Susan McLain is an American politician. A Democrat, she currently serves as a member of the Oregon House of Representatives from District 29, representing Cornelius, Forest Grove, and parts of Hillsboro. She served as a councilor for Metro, the regional government covering the urban portions of Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington counties, for 16 years, first winning election in 1990. She was an unsuccessful candidate for Washington County commissioner in 2006. She was elected to the Oregon House of Representatives in 2014, defeating Republican Mark Richman.
Stimson Lumber Company is an American Forest products company based in Oregon. Founded in 1931, it was started by three partners, including G. W. Stimson of the Stimson family of King County, Washington, responsible for the Stimson House, Hollywood Farm, and the Colonnade Hotel.
Municipalities and communities of Washington County, Oregon, United States | ||
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| Footnotes | ‡This populated place also has portions in an adjacent county or counties | |