Where did Oregon's ancestors come from? (ethnic, Russian, fishing)

[Nell Plotts]

Our European heritage is basically folks with roots in Great Brittan, Germany, Scandinavia - very northern. There is a reason why we don't have much in the way of Italian or Greek cuisine.

[EnricoV]

The truth of the matter is, they came from everywhere.

From an old post, here is a break-down I did for birthplaces for Oregonians in the 1860 census:

• Foreign countries: Spain 4, Australia 9, Russia 12, Mexico 19, Italy 28, Norway 34, Denmark 44, Sweden 49, Switzerland 60, Scotland 168, Germany 246, Canada 432, England 478, Ireland 1009. Total = 2592

• New-England: RI 30, NH 122, CT 140, VT 209, ME 279, MA 376. Total = 1156
• Mid-Atlantic: DE 31, MD 186, PA 894, NY 1513. Total = 2624
• South-east: FL 6, MS 18, GA 53, AL 57, SC 65, NC 288, VA 813. Total = 1300
• Mid-west: MI 89, IA 311, IN 946, IL 1013, OH 1753. Total = 4112
• South-central: TX 12, AR 76, TN 819, KY 1278, MO 1442. Total = 3627
• West: WA 25, CA 48, OR 531. Total = 604
  
  Total US Born = 13423

[callmemaybe]

Originally Posted by EnricoV

The truth of the matter is, they came from everywhere.

From an old post, here is a break-down I did for birthplaces for Oregonians in the 1860 census:

• Foreign countries: Spain 4, Australia 9, Russia 12, Mexico 19, Italy 28, Norway 34, Denmark 44, Sweden 49, Switzerland 60, Scotland 168, Germany 246, Canada 432, England 478, Ireland 1009. Total = 2592

• New-England: RI 30, NH 122, CT 140, VT 209, ME 279, MA 376. Total = 1156
• Mid-Atlantic: DE 31, MD 186, PA 894, NY 1513. Total = 2624
• South-east: FL 6, MS 18, GA 53, AL 57, SC 65, NC 288, VA 813. Total = 1300
• Mid-west: MI 89, IA 311, IN 946, IL 1013, OH 1753. Total = 4112
• South-central: TX 12, AR 76, TN 819, KY 1278, MO 1442. Total = 3627
• West: WA 25, CA 48, OR 531. Total = 604
  
  Total US Born = 13423

Interesting, Oregon has a pretty southern heritage!

[Larry Caldwell]

My long term ancestors were a mixed bunch. One branch of the family was from New York originally, via Ohio. One 4great-grandmother started on the Oregon Trail and her husband died earlier. When she got to Joplin they wouldn't take her on the wagon train without a husband, so she married a guy from Missouri. Her daughter married a Scot who indentured himself to a New Zealand sheep station for 5 years before working off his passage to Oregon, where his brother had already settled. Their daughter married my grandfather, who was born in Pennsylvania 1863, left home when he was 15 and booted all over the west doing cattle drives, mining silver, etc. before ending in Oregon in 1893. His ancestors were Scot and Pennsylvania Deutsch. My father married a 100% German girl who came to Oregon from Nebraska as a refugee from the dust bowl.

5great-grandfather was pretty flush. When he arrived in 1845 he bought Louis LaBonte's claim. He was probably smart. In the early years, everybody had lots of money, but there was nothing to spend it on. The French trappers were the first to arrive, but they were mountain men, and I think LaBonte was ready to move on. I went to school with a kid named LaFollett, whose ancestors were here before mine were.

[Nell Plotts]

Thanks EnricoV, that is very interesting. My Oregon Pioneer (1/4 my heritage) were all from MO. GGMother's family settled in what is now Shasta County, GGFather the mid-Willamette Valley. GGMother's extended family, Shelton, were early explorers. Her uncle founded Shelton Washington and was in the first WA State Legislature. The descendent's of GGFather's extended family, Bevins, are still well represented in the mid-Willamette Valley.

[EnricoV]

Originally Posted by Larry Caldwell

5great-grandfather was pretty flush. When he arrived in 1845 he bought Louis LaBonte's claim. He was probably smart. In the early years, everybody had lots of money, but there was nothing to spend it on. The French trappers were the first to arrive, but they were mountain men, and I think LaBonte was ready to move on. I went to school with a kid named LaFollett, whose ancestors were here before mine were.

Louis LaBonte was likely doing some pretty good speculating. Land settled prior to Oregon actually becoming a part of the United States ... they didn't know whether the claims would be honored or not. Turned out, they were honored by the U.S. But guys like LaBonte (and I had an ancestor who did the same thing) sold off the rights to the first claim they made (under the provisional government) and made a new claim under the U.S. government. LaBonte and his many descendants mostly stayed where they were in Marion County. He's buried in St. Paul.

[Larry Caldwell]

Originally Posted by EnricoV

Louis LaBonte was likely doing some pretty good speculating. Land settled prior to Oregon actually becoming a part of the United States ... they didn't know whether the claims would be honored or not. Turned out, they were honored by the U.S. But guys like LaBonte (and I had an ancestor who did the same thing) sold off the rights to the first claim they made (under the provisional government) and made a new claim under the U.S. government. LaBonte and his many descendants mostly stayed where they were in Marion County. He's buried in St. Paul.

That's interesting about LaBonte. I never knew where he ended up. That ggfather's daughter, my ancestor, didn't come with the rest of the family because her husband was sick. She started out the next spring and he died on the trail. She and her Missouri replacement husband took the Applegate Trail in 1846, he got into a fight as the result of road rage, and ended up with either a broken arm or leg, I'm not clear. Anyway, they abandoned their wagon around Canyonville and headed north to Dayton, where they spent the winter in LaBonte's original trapper cabin. The next spring they homesteaded near what would be Ballston. My mother still owns 75 acres of the original donation land claim filed in 1847.

An interesting footnote on women's rights is that the original homestead was 320 acres for a man and 640 acres for a husband and wife. That ancestor, Rachel Davidson, by all accounts was a hard woman. She figured 320 acres were hers, so when Andrew died she kept her land. When she died, she willed it to her daughters, who in turn willed it to their daughters, which is how my grandmother came to have it. She would have willed it to her daughter, but that daughter married a Wyoming cattle rancher who measured his ranch in square miles. My dad wanted to farm, so he got the land. My grandfather was a wheeler-dealer who wanted to sell the land around 1913 and invest the money, but my grandmother wouldn't let him. They would have been better off to let her manage the money, since he lost every nickel he ever earned. He was the Ford dealer in Newberg when my dad was born, but decided the Maxwell was the coming thing, so he sold the Ford dealership and bought the Maxwell dealership.

By the time the depression rolled around he was raising sheep and pasturing them in the Coast Range. He was pretty much the classic Horatio Alger drifter with a good spiel, looking for his fortune in the West and generally not finding it. He eventually could afford to retire, thanks to my grandmother's ability to handle money. I was 14 years old when he died, and stayed with him on weekends for the last 3 years of his life. I had many days to listen to the stories of a man who was born 2 years before the Civil War ended, who was at the Chicago Exposition at the turn of the century in 1900, worked trail drives from Texas to Kansas and mined silver in Colorado. He wasn't the greatest role model, but he sure was interesting, and loved to talk.

[EnricoV]

Do you know where the cabin was? There was a survey done in 1856, that's just great. It shows all the features of the land. The buildings, the plowed fields, trails, roads, etc. It's a great picture of their lives.

Good for Rachel. But in actual fact, the land was hers. One of my favorite things about Oregon history is the fact that the Donation Land Claims, if they got a married man's claim, half of it was the property of the wife. Usually when the American government gave land, it all went to the men. I love that the donation land claim where the city of Seaside now sits was given in its entirety (the full 640 acre claim because her husband had died) was given to the Indian wife of a Hudson's Bay man. Love the way it bucked the trend of handing things out to white males.

[callmemaybe]

Actually I guess Oregon's heritage is still much more 'northern'. The numbers of foreign people is pretty interesting too. I wonder how the make up has changed since 1860? Obviously more Californians and Mexicans, I wonder how else though.

[oldtrader]

The vast majority of Oregonians came from nearly any state, that was largely settled by White Europeans or from Europe itself. Quite a number came from Scandinavian ancestry for the lumber and fishing industry. Not just one state, or country. To this day, the state is not diverse racially, and by ethnics.