Molalla

By Judith Sanders Chapman and Lois E. Helvey Ray

Molalla is a small community on the edge of the Willamette Valley where some of the first Oregon Trail settlers arrived in the 1840s. Thirty miles south of Portland and north of Oregon s capital at Salem, Molalla rests snugly against the foothills of the Cascade Mountains, watched over by snowcapped Mount Hood. Though close to the region s first capital at historic Oregon City, Molalla is an independent Western town famous for its annual Fourth of July Buckeroo rodeo and parade. Molalla grew as an important agricultural trade center but is best known for its logging operations and abundant lumber mills. People had long visited summer resorts along the Molalla River and rejuvenated at the now-vanished Wilhoit Mineral Springs resort. Molalla retains its small-town atmosphere and independent spirit, not unlike the pioneer forebears who made the Molalla Prairie their home.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Jun 16, 2008
• ISBN: 9781439635971

Judith Sanders Chapman

Judith Sanders Chapman is a Molalla resident and fourth-generation Oregonian who works as a professional historian. Lois E. Helvey Ray, whose pioneer ancestors settled in Molalla in the 1840s, is a local research historian and former newspaper editor. For this volume, historical images were obtained from the Molalla Area Historical Society, the community, and from various museums, libraries, and archives.

Book preview

organization.

INTRODUCTION

Molalla is situated in southwest Clackamas County in a wonderfully scenic area that offers a rural lifestyle greatly appreciated by residents and recreationalists alike. Its outstanding natural features, small-town atmosphere, and close proximity to the Portland metropolitan area, the Cascade Mountains, and the Oregon coast contribute to Molalla’s livability. It is the ideal Western town. Since the earliest days of settlement, economic incentives from agriculture, livestock, crop production, and lumber have dominated the lives of Molalla’s residents. Local people continue to thrive on many of the virtues that characterized their pioneer fathers. Indeed, many descendants of the earliest pioneer stock reside in the area today.

Historically the Molalla Prairie was a beautiful oak savannah set against the thickly forested foothills of the Cascade Mountains. The region was inhabited by the Molala Indians, whose trails and settlements marked their territory. Reportedly the first European American to pass a favorable eye over the area was William Russell, who came in late 1843 to the banks of the Molalla River, but was reportedly driven off by the Native Americans. He returned later to settle a government land claim. William Vaughan, who later became known as the Sage of Molalla, hoisted his wagon up over the bluff at Oregon City and traveled south through the woods and fields to the Molalla Prairie in early 1844. He became the first permanent settler on a government land claim. Soon other settlers followed, lured by the fertile soils, ample water, and rich grasses of the Willamette Valley. Many of the first groups of pioneers who came over the Oregon Trail settled in the Molalla area.

Clackamas County was one of four original districts created in 1843 by the Provisional legislature, a governing body in the early Oregon Country that acted until legal authority was extended from the United States. Land claim acts had been passed to make it possible for married couples to file on free land comprising 640-acre parcels. Claimants were required to build a residence and cultivate a portion of the claim to secure a land patent. The law gave 320 acres to a man and 640 to a man and wife—creating one of the few instances in which a woman could actually own land.

A donation land claim of 640 acres was taken up at each of the four corners. William Engle claimed the southeast corner, William Larkins the southwest corner, Hugh Gordon the northwest corner, and William Barlow, the northeast corner, which was later purchased by Charles Sweigle. In 1845, when William Engle arrived, he built the first log cabin in the area. William Barlow came in 1847 and started a wheat field on his claim while building a large barn from locally sawn lumber. Hugh Gordon looked around the Willamette Valley for the best land to claim, finally settling on the Molalla Prairie. When William Larkins arrived with his family in 1847, they spent the first night under a giant oak tree in the middle of a trail (present-day Highway 211 west of Molalla). Rachel Larkins received title to this land claim when her husband died. She later sold the claim to Horace Dibble, who completed his saltbox-style house in 1859, the year Oregon became a state. The house still stands as part of the Molalla Area Historical Society Museum complex.

Other early settlers who took advantage of free land under the government were the Cutting, Dart, Dickey, Woodcock, Baty, and Davis families, several having chosen the fertile soils southeast of Molalla on Dickey Prairie. As subsistence farmers, these early settlers raised livestock and grew wheat and hay. Several Molala Indians were still living in the Dickey Prairie area at this time, but most had been decimated by disease or relocated to reservations by the mid-1850s. The former Native American trails later became Main Street and Molalla Avenue where they intersected at Four Corners, the first named settlement. The change in name to Molalla resulted from the Molala Indians (Molala is the preferred spelling for the local tribe). The derivation is unknown, but the word has been described as a variant in the native people’s language for the land of elk and berries or the grass country.

Oregon became a United States territory in 1848, which encouraged settlement, especially after passage of the Donation Land Act in 1850. Many of the new settlers were anti-Republican Secessionists from the South, causing Molalla to become one of the few Secessionist precincts in Clackamas County. The 1850 census shows 19 heads of households in the Upper Molalla Precinct. They included members of the Wright, Engle, Reese, Cline, Vaughan, Jackson, Russell, Riggs, Callahan, Officer, Klinger, Woodcock, Sweigle, Wingfield, Gordon, and Larkins families.

In 1853, the area was sparsely settled, but by the late 1850s, Molalla had the beginnings of an agricultural center with the establishment of the first store building. Through the 1860s and 1870s, the town developed slowly but saw gains in agricultural production. J. V. Harless, a Molalla farmer who arrived in 1877, owned the first steam traction engine in the area. The following is an account in the Molalla Pioneer from years ago:

Mr. Harless told me that every time the engine blew off steam the farmers would drop their pitchforks and run for their lives. For which they could hardly be blamed, because those old engines had a habit of blowing up and scattering pieces of metal all over the map. When the Harless family first came to Molalla there were just two stores and one blacksmith shop, and all the grain raised in that part of the county was hauled to Oregon City for sale or shipment.

The 1870s brought the establishment of the Methodist and Christian churches, along with a new school building, to Molalla. With the 1880s came a proliferation of gold claims along the upper Molalla River and several mining operations. Much later, a coal mine opened. These increases in mining activity added more population to the town. Wilhoit Mineral Springs, a popular destination established southwest of town in the 1880s, became a famous resort until it fell into disrepair; today no recreational buildings remain at this Clackamas County Park. One can still stock up on the curative waters, however, declared in the Springs’ heyday as comparable to famous German spas. Molalla had a rowdy reputation at the close of the 1800s—others said it was simply the liveliest spot in the country.

As Molalla grew into a Western frontier city,