+ Old churches. Donation Land Claims Tualatin Valley Donation Land Claims Map Legend:

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1 Donation Land Claims The map Aloha s Donation Land Claims and following transcript of a three-part series of articles, published in December, 1980, based on a prize-winning essay by Tualatin Valley historian Robert L. Benson s research and prizewinning essay in the Aloha History Contest, sponsored by the Aloha Rotary Club. Except for a small percentage of open prairie land, the country around aloha was in general too thickly wooded or too swampy to attract the very earliest Oregon pioneers. These early-comers seized on the splendid grassy plains that extended from Orenco to Banks--the famous Tualatin Plains--50,000 acres of the finest farm land anywhere to be found. Later arrivals land to be content with land that was slightly less good than open prairie. Each claim near Aloha was likely to contain some portion of open land, or land easily cleared. Within a year of two of settlement, most future famers would have at lea t one field in production. Some claimants wert over to Oregon City, the territorial capital, and certified without delay; others but this chore off for years, so a low certificate number is not always a sign of early arrival. Later, often many years later, final proof of ownership arrived, in the form of a federal deed or patent signed by the president in Washington, D.C. Tualatin Valley claim certificates were numbered 1 to 5,289 in the Oregon City series. By the time the law expired in 1855, 7,437 land patents had been issued. Tualatin Valley Donation Land Claims Map Legend: Claimant names Surnames of families that registered land claims, and section numbers at or near center of section Solid lines show claim boundaries Pioneer roads (1852 survey) s-era roads and streets S Surveyed section corners, one mile apart Old schools, still standing or not + Old churches Houses mapped in or about 1852 X Other old houses

2 Description in Alphabetical Order by Last Name ADAMS: John M. Adams registered his claim in 1855 (certificate 5214; 109 acres). It was east of today s SW 185 th Avenue, (formerly Wheeler Street), between approximately Jay Street and Sandra or Augusta Lane and included a portion of Beaverton Creek. ADAMS: Timothy M. and Achsah Adams claim spanned the approximate distance between modern- day s SW 185 th, west to SW 206 th. The surveyed base line was the northern border. Modern-day Baseline Road would have bisected the property. ADAMS: William and Cecilia Adams registered their claim in 1854 (certificate 1617; 312 acres). It included the west and southwest portions of Elmonica, between SW 185 th, east to SW 170 th (Huber). The surveyed base line was the northern border. Modern-day Baseline Road would have bisected the property. The Adams managed a private school or academy in early Hillsboro. BARTON: Edward and Hannah H. Barton (certificate 145; 321 acres). They came to Oregon from Ohio in August 1851, and registered their land claim on February 25, Barton served as a Washington County Commissioner from and was one of the early members of the Reedville school district. Later, he went on to manufacture carriages in Portland. The claim s northern boundary was today s SW Marty Lane. The eastern boundary was SW 170 th Avenue (Huber Road), except for the triangular wedge of the adjacent Elliott claim. The western boundary is 178 th (formerly Union Avenue). The southeast corner is between Blanton and Shaw streets, with the old Southern Pacific station at Huber (earlier Perkins Crossing) near the southeast corner. Today s Beaverton International School is in the very southwest corner of the claim. Post Office was named for Jacob Huber (McArthur). Near the southern boundary, Highway 8, the Tualatin Valley Highway, cuts through at an angle, while SW 174 th (Washington) Avenue comes northward toward the center of the claim. BENNETT: William H. and Lucy Hall Bennett settled in 1850 (certificate 398; 564 acres). The Bennett s were members of the ill-fated wagon train guided by Stephen Meek in He served as county sheriff from , and as treasurer from The L-shaped claim includes 200 acres of prime prairie land to the north. The home site might now be numbered 2250 NW 229 th Ave at Quatama Road. Not far to the south, modern-day Cornell Road crosses, and a jump south is the village of Orenco. The eastern blade of the Bennett L extends along Beaverton Creek and is bounded on the north by Quatama Road. Their church was located near at the intersection with SW 216 th Avenue (Reedville Road), on either Bennett or Butler land. BRONSON: Winslow and Sarah McClerg Bronson claimed land in 1855 (certificate 1312; 314 acres). This surname is sometimes spelled Brownson on official documents, although Bronson Creek and Bronson Road both cross the claim diagonally. Highway 26 (Sunset Highway) parallels Bronson Road on the north and Cornell Road to the south. BUTLER: Issac and Tabitha Jane Tucker Butler settled east of Orenco in 1850 (certificate 393; 641 acres. They arrived in Oregon with the Stephen Meek train in Their homestead was just northeast of Orenco in a location which could be numbered NE Cornell Road. Butler was born in Alabama, June 13, Later, his family moved to Illinois, then Missouri. Butler served in the Cayuse War of 1847, and was a member of Tuality Lodge, A.F. and A.M. He was also affiliated with the development of Canyon Road.

3 BUTTS: Theodosia Butts (certificate 3826; 152 acres), was the widow of Stephen, who died in 1854, before their claim was certified. The eastern boundary was Murray Boulevard (formerly Hyland Road, and 145 th Avenue). The northern boundary approximated Davis Road; the south was Hart. The Hyland s house faces Davis Road and has been restored by Arden Eby. Davis Road was part of the pioneer Plains-Falls Road. COMFORT: Edwin B. and Elvira Holland Comfort settled in 1853 but arrived long before (certificate 1584; 632 acres). The L.C. Cooper house is on this claim, a bit northeast of the Highway 208-Clark Hill intersection. Riggs Road is in the northern part of this claim, Kahler Road on the south, and Grabhorn Road to the east. COOPER: Perry and Nancy Cooper (certificate 4682; 320 aces), married in 1849, emigrated in 1852 and settled in 1853 on the northwest side of what is today Cooper Mountain. Modern-day Grabhorn Road was once the western boundary of the Cooper claim, the site of Gassner and Kemmer roads. ELLERSON: David and Annie Elizabeth Lord Ellerson settled in 1852 (4011; 642 acres). Their home was about at SW Farmington Road, which makes a diagonal through this claim from 175 th Avenue to Hazeldale School and beyond. The school dates from the 1880 s, and is at the foot of Miller Hill Road, which joins Farmington Road from the south. Chapman Corner crosses the highway at SW 185 th Avenue. GRAHAM: John and Matilda Graham settled in 1853 (certificate 4025; 309 acres). This claim borders 185 th on the west side from about current-day SW Honeywood Drive to almost SW Johnson Street and northwest past SW Baseline Road. Their claim was irregular in shape due to the neighboring Elliott claim, and stretches nearly two miles long--between SW 170 th to the west and SW Hocken Road to the east. Highway 8 bisects the claim. HORNBUCKLE: George and Charlotte Knight Hornbuckle were from England. They settled in 1853 (certificate 3847; 309 acres). There is a Hornbuckle biography (Hines). INNES: John Innes, originally from Scotland, settled in 1850 (certificate 3857; 321 acres. His house was just south of the old Harris Ferry Road where the address SW Farmington Road might be located today. The western edge is of this claims would be in the vicinity of modern-day SW 165 th (Hennessey) Avenue. Both SW Division Street and SW 160 th (Lang) Avenue bisect the property. JOHNSON: Hiram and Jane Harris Johnson settled in 1846 (certificate 4700; 640 acres). The Johnsons, along with Jane s parents Phillip and Sarah Harris, who settled Bridgeport, and other were members of Stephen Meek s wagon train in Jane s sister Eliza died along the way. LEVERICH: Benjamin and Sarah Leverich settled in 1853 (certificate 4949; 340 acres). Bany, Reusser and Rigert Roads are prominent in this claim, in the Cooper Mountain foothills. MASTERS: Andrew Jackson and Sarah Jane Jenkins Masters settled in 1850 (certificate 4903; 638 acres), following a shipwreck near Astoria in A house, still standing on the Masters claim at SW Kinnaman Road, served as a stagecoach posthouse near the intersection of the Plains-Falls road and the route leading east to Portland and south to the Harris Ferry. Present-day SW Johnson Street was the northern boundary of this claim. The SW 209 th and Rosa intersection was the southwestern boundary. The eastern boundary, SW 198 th (Tobias Road), also known as Devil s Lane, was the site of a deadly dispute between Masters and James McMillan, owner of an adjacent claim. In October 1854, McMillan shot Masters and was later tried and acquitted. Masters widow outlived three husbands, Henry Willoughby and Noah Mull, who owned the Blue Bell saloon in Reedville. In 1851, Masters had 200 acres under cultivation.

4 MC MILLAN: Captain James H. McMillan (sometimes McMillen), a native of New York state, came to Oregon by ox team, arriving October 25, He followed the millwright trade at Willamette Falls, and served in the territorial militia during the Cayuse war in In the spring of 1849, McMillan travelled to the California gold fields, returning in December with $8000, which he used to purchase Richard Torney s land claim along the Plains-Falls Road, on February 19, For nearly a year, McMillan leased the land to John M. and G.W. Ritchie, and H. Lindsay, in payment for furnishing all the seed wheat, oats and potatoes together with one plough and one harrow, in exchange for one-third of all crops stored in his barns. In October 1851, McMillan married Tirzah Barton, daughter of Edward and Hannah Barton, who owned an adjoining claim. The McMillans lived on the land until 1865, then sold a principal part to Jacob and Jemima Wheeler. The sale to the Wheelers may have been, at least in part, a trade. Their original land claim in East Portland (certificate 451), is where the McMillans spent their later years. The north edge of the claim Arthur W. Johnson also purchased McMillan land in 1857, eventually owning a total of 1,400 acres. The claim touches Highway 8 briefly at its northeastern corner and extends south to Rosa Road. East and west borders correspond to 178 th (Union) and 198 th (Tobias) Roads. MERRELL: Charles G. and Margaret DeVoe Merrell settled in 1850 (certificate 430; 640 acres). This claim is exactly a surveyed square mile or section. The Jenkins Estate would have been located in the southeast corner of this claim, which extended westward to about SW 209 th. The northern boundary was present-day SW Rosa Road, with SW Grabhorn Road as the eastern border. Charles and several other members of the Merrell family are buried in the Lewis Pioneer Cemetery in Hillsboro, Oregon. REID: James H. and Sarah Jane Reid settled in 1851 (certificate 3738; 645 acres). Their house today would probably be numbered SW Farmington Road. It was north of the intersection of the Harris Ferry Road (Hwy 208/Farmington Road), and the Plains-Falls or Military Road. The intersection later became known as Perkins Corner. Johnson (see McMillen above) had a large beef ranch, shipping from Perkins Crossing, later renamed Huber Station. Perkins built the (Imperial) Hotel in Portland, with its famous gilded steer. Jacob Huber also has associations with Reid claim land. The Reids east line is 165 th, formerly Hennessey, Avenue; their western boundary is 178 th, formerly Union. The north-south artery is 170 th, formerly Huber. Parallel to it is 173 rd, formerly Highland, not to be confused with Hyland Road, which is now Murray Boulevard. The mid-century old Perkins house was destroyed about ROBINSON: Nathan and Mary Dorland Robinson registered a claim on July 12, 1847 (certificate 736; 640 acres). The east line is 209 th, formerly Kinnesswood Avenue, and the west is 229 th Avenue, once Churchley Road. The southern boundary is Hagg Road to the south, and Johnson Street to the north edge. In the 1850 s apples from his orchard were exhibited in several states east of the Rocky Mountains. According to Secretary of State Records, the last year the Robinsons owned the property was For many years before his death he was a member of and a communicant in the Methodist Episcopal Church. This land claim would later be owned by Simeon Reed, and operated as by the Ladd and Reed Farm Company. SCOTT: James and Margaret E. Scott came to Oregon in 1854 (certificate 5127; 209 acres). This meandering claim has the distinction of being bisected by Hwy 26, Sunset highway in two different locations. SEXTON: Edward S. and India Sexton certified their claim in 1853 (certificate 3153; 640 acres); but actually arrived in Oregon much earlier. Today s Murray Boulevard forms the eastern edge of the claim, also bounded by Hart Road to the north, and Weir Road to the south. The claim includes Sexton Mountain, a long-time quarry site.

5 SMITH: Issac W. and Mary Smith certified their land claim July 20, 1851, in the area between Blanton and Johnson, and 178th to 198th streets. A log building, on the site until around 1900, just north of the modern-day Aloha Post Office, may have been the site of the Smith homestead buildings. Smith was in partnership with Captain John Couch of Portland to move emigrants down the Columbia River by boat. Smith also served in the provisional government in The Smith house was near the southwest corner of their claim, at or just east of a house (19730 SW Shaw Street), built by John Masters while he owned the land, The claim extends from this spot a mile to the northwest, with Johnson Street well inside its northern edge, Route 8 or TV Highway, slanting across the southern boundary and 198 th, formerly Tobias forming the western edge. An old pioneer road that once led from the James E. Masters house to Walker Road crossed the Smith claim diagonally from southwest to northeast. It was the route settlers in this area would take into Portland, and led to Walker Road, then Canyon Road. SMITH: James and Sarah Smith came to Oregon from Kentucky in November Their claim was registered on October 12, 1851 and was located south of the Barton farm and east of McMillan s. SPARKS: Lemuel A. and Catherine Sparks settled in 1850 (certificate 1296; 630 acres). This square-mile claim is on both sides of the surveyors base line, with Baseline Road at the south edge, 173 rd Avenue, once Sheppard Road, at the west and 158 th, formerly Lundgren, in the eastern part. Walker Road takes a northwesterly course across the middle. SPENCER: Peter L. and Mary Ann Spencer settled in 1850 (certificate 1296; 320 acres. Beaverton s Spencer Street is in the eastern part of this claim, Allen Avenue is the southern. Today s Murray Boulevard forms the western boundary. At the extreme southwest is Davis Road, a remnant of the old Plains-Falls or Military Road. The main house, which today might be located at SW Davis, was the site of the first school in Beaverton. Following the death of her husband, Mary Ann taught classes in her home and in 1853, married William Watts. TORNEY: Richard K. Torney registered the very first donation land claim in the Aloha-Reedville area, then transferred it by quit claim deed to James H. McMillan on February 18, McMillan paid $5,000 for the land. A.L. Lovejoy and F.W. Petty grove witnessed the sale. The land is described by the number of chains (66 feet or 22 yards), between swales, fir and oak trees. WALKER: William E. and Hannah Harlem Walker settled in 1853 (certificate 1303; 319 acres). This claim along Walker Road, was called Old Meadow Farm by its owners. Their granddaughter, Lauretta Walker Olds, received recognition as a Century Farmer a few years before her death. The original house, which bore the number SW Walker Road, was built in 1851 and razed more than 100 years later. WALTERS: David M. Walters, settled in 1853 (certificate 282; 151 acres). Unmarried, Walter s claim is south of Baseline Road and north of Merlo Road. WHITE: Richard and Caroline White settled in 1844 (certificate 1281; 643 acres). Because Caroline died in 1850, Richard applied or certified for only 318 acres, thinking himself entitled to no more. After learning that his wife, although deceased, could be a claimant through her heirs, he applied for expanded acreage. Today the house would be located about 213 th and Rock Road. The claim s northern boundary is Baseline Road on the north, 219 th, (formerly Reedville Road) on the west, Johnson Street on the south, and 198 th on the east is fairly close to the claim boundary. White took a license from the county to sell groceries in Much of the White land was incorporated in the Johnson Estate.

6 WILKINS: Caleb and Marion Wilkins settled in 1844 (certificate 3809; 630 acres). Their house was just east of Cornelius Pass Road, some 1,000 feet north of Rich s Corner, the Cornell-Cornelius Pass junction. The Portland- Plains road passed a little south of the house. Cornell Road, a later successor to that road, is on the southern boundary of the claim. Caleb s first wife, Catharine, died in His marriage to Marion in 1850, made her an associate in the federal donation. Wilkins was a famous mountain man and served as Tuality County s treasurer from 1846 to 1849 and may have attended the Champoeg meeting on May 2, Rock Creek, which flows through the eastern quarter of this claim, was once known as Wilkins Creek. WILLIAMS: William H. and Rosela Williams (certificate 3855; 320 acres) had an exceptional claim. The husband settled in 1853 as a single man, marrying in 1853, Rosela should have been his associate in ownership but the papers were made out to him alone. Their house was on the north side of the old Plains Falls road. It connected modern-day Kinnaman Road with Hall Boulevard via Davis Road. Mt. Williams is a large hill or small mountain nearly filling the south half of this claim. WOODS: See McGuire above. WOODS: Joseph W. and Martha Jane Woods came to Oregon in 1843 with the great migration, but did not settle here until 1850 (certificate 3856; 546 acres). The eastern and western boundaries of this claim are 219 th and 239 th Avenues. Johnson Street is the southern boundary. The house was about 200 feet northeast of the angle made by Johnson Street with 229 th Avenue, formerly Churchley Road.