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Welcome to the Newberg Area Historical Society!

Mission: Preserve, present, and promote the history of Newberg and the surrounding areas.

Vision: To be the go to resource for Newberg area history, supporting historic efforts through research, preservation, funding, and outreach.

Welcome to the Newberg Area Historical Society, we are passionate about our local history and are excited to share this passion with you!

We will be at the Newberg Old Fashioned Festival in July and celebrating Herbert Hoover's 145th Birthday with the Hoover Minthorn House Museum in August.

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Ewing Young History

Courtney Walker and Ewing Young A young 22 year-old Courtney Walker first came to Oregon with Nathaniel Wyeth. Wyeth was an American businessman in Boston’s ice industry. In the 1830s, he became interested in the Oregon Country thank s to Hall Jackson Kelley a nd the Oregon fever breaking out along the eastern seaboard. In 1834 Wyeth outfitted and led an expedition, with plans for establishing fur-trading posts, a salmon fishery, and a colony on Wapato isla nd near present-day Portland Oregon. Courtney Walker joined this expedition and stayed in Oregon despite the fact Wyeth’s operation was doomed and abandoned. It could not compete against the British Hudson's Bay Company ne arby at Fort Vancouver. Courtney Walker met Ewing Young at this time. He even sold him a cauldron that Wyeth was going to use for pickling salmon. (Ewing Young planned to use it for his whiskey operation.) After working with Ewing Young a few more times, he settled as a farmer near Dayton. He was a surveyo

Ewing Young Bibliography

This is a list of references we have compiled for those interested in learning more about Ewing Young. NATIVE AMERICANS IN NORTHERN WILLAMETTE VALLEY Beckham, Stephen Dow; The Indians of Western Oregon, This Land was. Theirs, Aarago Books, 1977. Clarke, S.A.; Pioneer Days of Oregon History, Vol 1, J.K. Gill, Portland, 1905. Clark, Malcolm; The Eden Seekers, Houghton Mifflin, 1987, p.95. Edwards, P.L; Sketch of the Oregon Territory. Liberty, Missouri Herald Office, 1842 p.19. Mackey, Harold; Indians of the Willamette Valley, Monmouth OR. 1968. Gibbs-Starling Map of 1851, "Sketch of Wallamette Valley showing purchases and reservations made by the board of commissioners appointed to treat with the Indians of Oregon." Galschet, Albert S.; The Kalapuya People, 1899. CHAMPOEG Atherton, John H; * Excavations at Champoeg, Oregon", 1974 Mimeographed report from archeological investigations in 1974. Brauner, Dr. David; Presentation on tape presented at Champoeg Park, 199

What's all this about Herbert Hoover?

By Britta Stewart If you’ve been around Newberg or George Fox University you may have noticed that the name Herbert Hoover comes up a lot. There is a Hoover building on the George Fox campus and a stretch of Highway 99W called Herbert Hoover Highway. It does seem unusual for a small town in the Willamette Valley to be seemingly obsessed with a president who is most often remembered by the economic turmoil of the Great Depression. However, a deeper look shows that this fascination is not that strange. Herbert Hoover actually called the Willamette Valley home for six years during his childhood. Hoover, or Bert as he was often called, was born in West Branch, Iowa in 1874. Unfortunately, he was orphaned by the time he was nine and subsequently moved to Newberg when he was eleven to live with his uncle and aunt, John and Laura Minthorn. Dr. Henry John Minthorn (John) and his wife Laura had recently moved to Newberg to teach at a school called Friends Pacific Academy. This was

The Newberg Friendly Club

By Rachel Thomas A mysterious box full of letters was recently donated to the Newberg Area Historical Society. Upon opening, we discovered that it was the correspondence of an organization called the "Friendly Club." With such a name, we at first assumed it must be part of the local Friends Church, but to our surprise, it was actually a separate organization, unrelated to the Quakers. The Friendly Club, which ran from 1919-1960's, was a women's social club devoted to building strong friendships and building community among the women of Newberg. While engaging in charitable work. Their club poem, below, showed their values and interests: Friendly Club, by Phoebe Damewood Hill F- Is for friendly, a magic word It's golden chains your heart will gird. R- Is for royal, the banner we bear Willing each other's problems to share. I- Is for ideals, for which we stand

Central School to Chehalem Cultural Center: Part Four

By Barbara Doyle This is part four of a multi-part series on the history of Central School, look for new installments in the weeks to come! Installments in this series are adapted from Barbara Doyle's book on this topic: From Then 'till Now: Schooling in Newberg, Oregon. Part One Part Two Part Three Part Five Part Six Part Seven Part 4 - A New Building The 1932-33 school year began just like the previous one – short on cash, struggling financially in the Great Depression. But the long view was more promising. In early 1933, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected president and his new Democratic government promised financial help. Newberg went for a $50,000 project – a new grade school – with residents taking on $35,000 bonded indebtedness and the federal government providing a $15,000 grant. The least costly plan was to build right on the existing site. The project moved forward – slowly. Thursday, January 24, 1935 was the last day of classes in the old school that

Central School to Chehalem Cultural Center: Part One

By Barbara Doyle This is part one of a multi-part series on the history of Central School, look for new installments in the weeks to come! This and future installments in this series are adapted from Barbara Doyle's book on this topic: From Then 'till Now: Schooling in Newberg, Oregon . Part Two Part Three Part Four Part Five Part Six Part Seven Newberg Oregon was just like many other small towns in late nineteenth century America. We had a one-room wooden schoolhouse with students that could vary between five and twenty years of age – with just one teacher. Erected in 1881, the building was located at the Northeast corner of Main and Illinois streets. Initially thirteen students attended this ungraded public school. Students progressed individually thru the educational program. Good spelling and penmanship plus competence in simple arithmetic and understanding the words and ideas in Readers [numbered 1-6] was often the equivalent of an eighth grade education. This buildi

Central School to Chehalem Cultural Center: Part Three

By Barbara Doyle This is part three of a multi-part series on the history of Central School, look for new installments in the weeks to come! This and future installments in this series are adapted from Barbara Doyle's book on this topic: From Then 'till Now: Schooling in Newberg, Oregon. Part One Part Two Part Four Part Five Part Six Part Seven Part Three – Good Times to Hard Times The new building had space for the principal’s office, a library and high school grades 9-11. The large basement could be used for recess time activities. The furnace wasn’t capable of heating sixteen rooms and long hallways; it was replaced. But some first and second graders still had classes in three separate rooms at the Creamery. Newberg experienced tremendous growth in the first decade of the 20th century. Perhaps the newcomers brought new ideas – high school, library, City Hall, bridge across the Willamette River, commuter train service to Portland. The three buildings were constructed

Newberg Area Historical Society

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