Where did Oregon's ancestors come from? (Eugene, Monroe: construction, rail, food)

[callmemaybe]

Were they primarily from New England and the Midwest? Was there a large Southern or Canadian component?

I guess I'm talking about the population of the state between the years say, 1830 and 1975, before you had influxes of Californians and hipsters from all over the US come in.

[BLAZER PROPHET]

Good question. I suppose the obvious answer would be that they came from the east- be it the east coast thru the mid west initially. Aside from that we have our fair share of overseas people who have moved in. Another large contingent are migrant laborers from south of the border as we do have a large amount of farming with our valleys and orchards. Anyway, that's my best guess.

[Nell Plotts]

The ancestry of our first people is the subject of conjecture. Linguistic studies indicate that our coastal natives probably immigrated via the Aleutian Islands by boat and established settled communities. The natives in eastern and central Oregon probably descended from the groups who migrated via the Bering Straight, central Alaska, then south and were largely nomadic - following game and other food sources.

European heritage and Asian immigration came in waves. Most of the settlers who came over the Oregon Trail were first generation Missouri-ites. Farm land in Missouri was largely claimed out by their parents so they headed west. Missouri at that time was a slave state. With the discovery of gold (which was our currency) in California and Alaska people from across the US migrated to the west coast headed for San Francisco and Seattle. Chinese arrived to provide labor for the construction of the rail roads. Although the first group of Caucasians came from slave states most were small farmers who once had a couple of slaves, or they were workers who competed economically with slaves. The arguments about slaves was a labor issue, not a moral issue, for most. With no gold, Oregon's economy was farming, timber and fishing.

Excepting refugees from WWII and Vietnam, it usually takes one generation for an immigrant to find Oregon. The exception were Scandinavians who's skills were fishing and logging. My Norwegian grandfather first settled in Monroe, WA, then came to the Willamette Valley and established a sawmill west of Eugene. Oh the stories my father told of the dissing by each Scandinavian nationality of the other.

[callmemaybe]

Do you notice any similarities/ties between Oregon and Missouri in the present day?

[pdxMIKEpdx]

My ancestors came from New England, then settled in Missouri for a while.
Sometime in the 1850's they left Missouri and split fairly evenly between Arizona (around Prescott), Colorado (North of Denver), and the Willamette Valley.

[oldtrader]

My ancestors moved to Oregon mid 1899s. Here is good quick read about where the people came from.

http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm...m&file_id=9501

My great grandfather came to Oregon as a Methodist Circuit Rider Minister and operated in North Eastern Oregon on a wagon train.

[PNW-type-gal]

Originally Posted by Nell Plotts

The ancestry of our first people is the subject of conjecture. Linguistic studies indicate that our coastal natives probably immigrated via the Aleutian Islands by boat and established settled communities. The natives in eastern and central Oregon probably descended from the groups who migrated via the Bering Straight, central Alaska, then south and were largely nomadic - following game and other food sources.

Some really interesting stuff on this lately, based on the Paisley Caves:

As old as Clovis sites, but not Clovis: Paisley Caves, Oregon yields Western Stemmed points, more human DNA

The dates keep getting pushed back. At one point you'd get very firm arguments that the migrations could have started no earlier than 10,000 years ago. And it's always amusing to note that some of the very earliest sites are in Central and South America - did the earliest migrations leave no trace in North America? Was it that sea level was a good 300' further out so that coastal sites got wiped out as sea level rose? Were the very first migrations NOT through Siberia, but much further south, by open sea?

[Steve Pickering]

Mostly the "Old Frontier", Ohio, Missiouri, and Nebraska. Check the Oregon Trail and Applegate Trail logs.

[Nell Plotts]

When I was in New Zealand I noticed that their indigenous people looked like our coastal indigenous people as well. Pacific Islanders traveled great distances in their canoes, there is no reason not to believe they are not different branches of the same migration.

When I was in Alaska recently it was interesting to me that the Bering Straight Inuit communities make it clear that they are not related to the Tlingits, Haida, Eyaks or Aleuts. A representative of the Athabaskan community also distinguished himself linguistically and ethnically from these coastal communities. Although this article claims that Athabaskan languages belong in the latter group a Hopi I met said that he could understand Alaskan Athabaskan native speakers but not the others. Early Prehistory of Alaska When Russian Caucasians arrived Siberia the Russian Orthodox Church converted many Aleuts and there was some intermarriage.

[Steve Pickering]

Works for "First Americans", but the majority are Europeans (A lot of Irish and Germans) via the so called Mid West.