John Whiteaker, a self-educated farmer from Lane County, was elected in 1858 as Oregon’s first governor after statehood, part of a political career that spanned …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Joseph Gervais was a prominent French Canadian settler in the Willamette Valley. He was one of the small number of French Canadians who voted …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Josephine Martin Plymale was both a woman of her time and a woman who defied the gender standards of nineteenth-century Jacksonville, Oregon. She was an …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Kay Atwood researched and wrote extensively about southern Oregon history, establishing herself as one of the region’s leading historians. Her publications on the area’s orchard …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Katherine Sara Sterrett Munra, known widely as "Grandma Munra," became famous for her skillful operation of fine dining rooms at railroad eating houses in early …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Chief Kiesno (his name has also been spelled Keasno, Casino, Kiyasnu, Q’iesnu, Ciasno, Cassino, and Cassinov) was an important Multnomah-Wakanasisi Chinookan leader in the Wapato …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Leonard Wallulis was one of the most colorful lumberjacks in Oregon history, putting on Paul Bunyan demonstrations and winning contests in front of thousands of …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Marcus "Mark" A. Bell was a visible and enterprising leader in Portland’s early Black community. His enduring commitment to "equality under the law for …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Mary Beatty, one of the first Black women west of the Mississippi to advocate publicly for woman suffrage, attempted to vote in the 1872 …

Oregon Encyclopedia

Masuzo Maruyama boarded the Iyo Maru in Kobe, Japan, on March 15, 1903, his twenty-fifth birthday. When he went ashore in Seattle ten days later, …

Oregon Encyclopedia