The quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society, Vol. 4, March, 1903-December, 1903Oregon Historical Society
History
The quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society, Vol. 4, March, 1903-December, 1903
Oregon Historical Society
Oregon -- History -- Periodicals
This condition was soon to be changed, for the trains of immigrants
were beginning to arrive in the Willamette Valley, and some were to
push on to the extreme western limit of the continent. In 1843 J. M.
Shively came to Astoria and took up a claim in what is now the heart
of the city, and known as Shively's Astoria. He was followed by Col.
John McClure, who took the claim joining the Shively claim on the
west, and now known as McClure's Astoria, and A. E. Wilson, who
located on the claim to the east of Shively's claim, and now known as
Adair's Astoria. These three men and James Birnie, the trader, in
charge of the Hudson Bay Company's station, were the only white men in
Astoria in 1844. Soon after this Robert Shortess located on the land
now known as Alderbrook, and a Mr. Smith located at what is now known
as Smith's Point. Mr. Birnie lived in the company's building, situated
near the present site of Saint Mary's Hospital, Colonel McClure lived
in a small cabin just to the south and east of where the Baptist
Church now stands, and Mr. Shively, "who didn't believe in joint
occupancy, which disturbed the social relations between Mr. Birnie and
himself," lived at "Lime Kiln Hall," on the ridge near the eastern
limit of his claim. Mr. Wilson lived in a cabin in Upper Astoria.
There were several settlers on Clatsop Plains at this time, among the
number being D. Summers, Mr. Hobson and family, Rev. J. L. Parrish,
Messrs. Solomon Smith, Tibbets, Trask, and Perry. Ben Wood, N.
Eberman, and other young men held claims on the plains, but lived
elsewhere.
Astoria the fur-trading post now ceased to exist; Astoria, the town,
was started. Astoria's real beginning, from which resulted a city,
dates back, then, only to the early forties when the homeseekers first
settled here. In 1846 James Welch and family and David Ingalls
arrived. Mr. Welch took possession of the Shively claim during Mr.
Shively's absence in the East and divided the claim into city lots as
Mr. Shively had previously done. This led to a dispute over the
ownership of the claim which was finally settled by an equal division
of the claim between the two interested parties.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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