Oregon Trail marker, Gilliam County, Oregon, ca. 1926.
Between 1843 and
1869, hundreds of thousands of people crossed the Oregon Trail
to settle in Oregon, Washington and California. Many of the Oregon
settlers came to be associated with Corvallis College, which later
became Oregon State University. One of those emigrants was James
Knox Weatherford, brother of W. W. Weatherford (for whom the marker
in the photo honored). The Weatherfords migrated to Oregon from Missouri
in the early 1860s.
James K. Weatherford graduated from Corvallis College in 1872; in 1885 he
was appointed to the college's board of regents. Weatherford served on the
board until 1929, when it was replaced by the Oregon State Board of Higher
Education. [OSU Archives #411.]
First
large number of settlers arrived in Oregon and Willamette Valley, having
traveled over the Oregon Trail.
Future
site of "Corvallis" and "Oregon State University," near the confluence
of the Willamette and Marys Rivers, first settled by Joseph C. Avery
in October.
Benton
County was established on December 23. It originally encompassed 18,660
square miles, from the southern border of Polk County to the California
line.
Oregon
became a territory of the United States on August 14. (Abraham Lincoln
was asked to be governor of the Territory of Oregon.)