Salem in 1997

World Events

• Yasser Arafat returns to Hebron in Palestine after a 30 year absence to celebrate Israel's return of West Bank Palestinian cities.
• The United Kingdom lease on the territory of Hong Kong expires. Its administration is taken over by the People's Republic of China.
• The Nobel Peace Prize is shared by Jody Williams (US) and the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (Switzerland) for their campaign to ban and clear anti-personnel mines around the world.
• Madeleine Albright becomes the first female US Secretary of State.
• Diana, Princess of Wales, with her companion Dodi Fayed, dies in a Paris auto crash in the Pont de L'Alma tunnel. (The Diana Chronicles, Tina Brown, 2007.
• Pathfinder sends Mars photographs back to earth.
• In London, DNA on a Neanderthal skeleton supports the theory of an African Eve of 100,000 to 200,000 years ago.
• The F. W. Woolworth Company closes after 117 years in business.
• Timothy McVeigh is convicted of multiple murders in Oklahoma City bombing in previous year. Andrew Cunanan shoots and kills fashion designer Gianni Versace outside his Miami home.
• Academy Awards: "Titanic"(US), "Character" (Netherlands). Prize-winning Books: Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier and Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer, Steven Milhauser.

World Beat Festival 1997

In Salem

The Salem Multicultural Institute is founded in February of 1997. Two moms with young daughters saw the need to create a positive, tangible response to growing concern about racial tensions in Salem. This grass-roots effort grew out of meetings in living rooms and coffee shops into a meaningful celebration and year-round community volunteerism, taking the form of a festival, celebrating all of the many cultures that make Oregon such a wonderful place. Their first event, World Beat, was held in Riverfront Park in the next summer. The photograph above is from the 1998 Statesman Journal files with the caption, " Middle Eastern dancer Naia of Eugene whirls across Riverfront Park's outdoor stage in the World Beat Festival and the official dedication of the park."
Held annually at this "front yard" of Salem, the summertime festival has grown from the amphitheater park site, shown above, to encompass the whole 23-acre park with more 250 exhibitors and performing arts groups, 400 volunteers and 70 sponsors involved with the festival annually. The average annual attendance has reached approximately 30,000 guests.
The Institute continues to follow its original vision: to create an environment of openness for all people. SMI aims to be family-friendly, economically inclusive, and culturally authentic. Although a voluntary donation is welcome at all entrance gates, the Institute does not have an entrance fee for its World Beat Festival or for its exhibits at the Reed Opera House World Beat Gallery or lecture series. SMI also hosts an annual Multicultural Ball each October in the Reed Opera House Ballroom.


When you visit

World Beat Gallery in Reed Opera House 2014

 In 2006, the Salem Multicultural Institute moved their office downtown and opened the World Beat Gallery at the Reed Opera House with an exhibit entitled Diversity in the Philippines. The gallery has since hosted other cultural exhibits, including Holidays Around the World, Black Voices from Salem’s Past, Scotland and Her People, Windows into China and three series about international marriage customs. The Performance and Lecture series, which began in 2007, encourages local ethnic communities to showcase cherished traditions in the intimate, historic setting of the Reed. A small staff coordinates the work of volunteers, curates the exhibits and organizes the year-round events

Other events

• Raul Ramirez is the first Hispanic to be elected as Marion County Sheriff. A star athlete and student leader, eighteen-year-old Raul Ramirez was ordered to report to his Woodburn High School principal’s office. There he found the local Police Chief waiting to talk to him. "I didn’t do it," thought Ramirez, sure he was about to be blamed for something. As he explains it, "Back then, law enforcement was not a friend of the Hispanic community. "
  Until then, Ramirez's goal was to be a physical education teacher and work with youth. But his meeting with the Police Chief that day changed his life -- and his future career.
  Police Chief Bob Prinslow wanted Ramirez to help police build relations with teen-agers. "I needed him," Prinslow later said. "There was a lot of juvenile crime at the time and I wanted a leader to help me. Raul was a natural." Ramirez became the department’s first police cadet and was later hired as a part-time dispatcher. Prinslow was the Marion County Under Sheriff when Ramirez was hired as a deputy. The two have remained friends and Prinslow watched proudly as Ramirez replaced him as Marion County Sheriff.
• The Oregon Garden in Silverton is begun with a groundbreaking ceremony in June. It will open to the public in April 1999.
• The transit district, following ADA guidelines, converts buses for the use of disabled patrons.
• The Salem-Keizer Volcanoes, a minor league baseball team, is organized. They are a Short-Season Class A team in the Northwest League, and are an affiliate of the San Francisco Giants. They play their home games at Volcano Stadium that seats 4,252 fans.
• A group of prisoners in the State Penitentiary dig a tunnel 24 feet long before their escape route is discovered.
• In January of 1996, Keiko, the killer whale star of Free Willy and Free Willy II, was moved from Mexico City via cargo plane into his new home at the Oregon Coast Aquarium. Over the next 32 months, Keiko is rehabilitated at the aquarium, where more than 2.5 million people pay him a visit. In the fall of 1998, Keiko was moved to a pen in the waters of the North Atlantic off Iceland, rehabilitated for living on his own. He died December 12, 2003, after the sudden onset of pneumonia in the Taknes fjord.
• In 1997 several "Salem Public Library History" exhibits were mounted in the Heritage Room. In March, Tired Old Barns was the exhibit with over 40 Marion Court Historical Society photographs taken by Al Jones. Other collections on display included "Oregon Covered Bridges" and Salem Public Library History.

Salem in 1911

World Events

• The Mexican Revolution, led by Madero and Pancho Villa, ends as Porfirio Diaz resigns and flees to France. Political conflict continued until the adoption of a Constitution in 1917 .
• Physician, writer and philosopher Sun-Tat-Sun (known afterward as the Father of the Nation) is elected Provisional President of a democratic government in China as Manchu dynasty falls.
• Marie Curie wins Nobel Prize for chemistry.
• U. S. Supreme Court finds Standard Oil Trust violated Sherman Anti-trust Act. The monopoly broken up and 34 companies established.
• Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City kills 146 immigrant (mostly women) workers unable to escape as the doors were locked by owners to prevent unauthorized work breaks.
• Hiram Bingham rediscovers Machu Picchu in Peru.
• Roald Amundsen's Norwegian expedition reaches the South Pole.
• Bobby Jones wins is first golf title at the age of 9.
• New American Books: Jennie Gerhardt, Theodore Dreiser; Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton; Canzoni, Ezra Pound.

In Salem

• In this photograph, President William Howard Taft stands in an automobile, surrounded by not-so-Secret Service. In the background is the Eugene Breyman house on the northeast corner of Church and Court Streets, now the site of Statesman Journal. The president appears to be facing the Breyman Brothers Spanish American War Memorial at the entrance to Willson Park. Hallie Parrish Hinges (featured in the 1903 entry) leads a chorus of school children as the president gazes down on the group.

After leaving office, Taft spent his time in seeking world peace through his self-founded "League to Enforce Peace." In 1921, President Warren G. Harding appointed Taft Chief Justice of the United States, fulfilling Taft's lifelong dream. Taft served in this capacity until his death in 1930.

When you visit
The Eugene Breyman residence, like that of his brother Werner (a block south), has been demolished. This house, greatly renovated, was moved to Summer Street during the conversation of the original residential block to commercial use. In the 1990s it was demolished for the construction of the State Lands Building.
The 1904 Spanish American memorial remains the Cottage Street gateway into Willson Park. The park was created in 1854 when William Willson, pioneer of the Methodist mission, donated a portion of his land to build the new Oregon territorial capitol building. The capitol would be located in the center of a long, open space designated on Willson's original plat as "Willson Avenue," just south of his house on the corner of Court and Capitol streets. (See 1881) It was Willson's wish to preserve open spaces within the growing town, similar to the village commons in the New England towns. The block between the capitol building and the Marion County Courthouse was declared a public square. It eventually became known as Willson Park.

Other events

Duniway-Lachmund Home on Court Street, 1911-1930s

Present State Street Location, 2014

• Louis Lachmund becomes mayor. Due to the construction of the North Capitol Mall in 1937, his home on Court Street was condemned, purchased by Willamette University and moved to the campus. A subsequent move brought it to its present location on State Street. When the Lachmunds left their home, they moved to the Jarman House, a 1929 Spanish Colonial residence designed by Beverly Hills architect Glen McAlister with gardens created by the local landscape firm of Lord and Schryver. This National Register property can be seen on SHINE Gaiety Hill/Bush's Pasture Park Walking Tour.
• An outstanding social event is the wedding of Margaret Boot to Asahel Bush IV, grandson of the newspaper publisher and founder of Ladd and Bush Bank. Her parents' home is on Birdshill Drive in South Salem neighborhood. The young couple became parents of Asahel V and Stuart Bush. Margaret died at age of 34 in 1934 after an illness of 3 years.
• D. A. White Warehouse is erected on Front Street. This company had numerous large feed warehouses, including one in Europe, but this the only one that remains a token of that enterprise of the horse-and-buggy era.  It is still standing in the same location and can be seen on the SHINE Historic Downtown Walking Tour.
• Eugene Ely, the Bird Man, an aviation pioneer, visits Salem and makes a successful flight. He mounts his fragile machine on Lone Oak track at the fairgrounds, turned on the juice and after skimming along the track, arose from the ground in front of the grandstand. He ascended about 400 feet and raced around the track, first with an automobile and then with a motorcycle. As a final performance, he circled the Capitol Dome. That October he died during a Macon, Georgia exhibition in a crash when his plane was late pulling out of a dive.

In the Capitol Journal:

• Salem's mayor was arrested for violating a traffic ordinance, His honor was charged with cutting a corner at the intersection of State and Commercial streets. The mayor pleaded that his horse was just a colt and that he could not control it. Judge Elgin remitted the fine and the mayor was richer by a $5 gold piece.
• Buren and Hamilton, Salem household furnishers, advertised heating stoves from $1.50 up. Their carbon heaters for both coal and wood were supplied with heavy grates and extra-heavy cast iron fire pots. All had large mica doors in front, giving the effect of an open fire. They were neat and free from superfluous trimmings.
• Barnes Cash Store offered old Civil War Springfield rifles of 45-70 calibers with a bayonet for $1.50. "A very appropriate decoration for Memorial Day".
• Secretary of State Olcott desired to oust State Printer Duniway from the Capitol. he requested an opinion from Attorney General Crawford on the subject. Crawford ruled that the state printer was occupying his quarters without authority, but so were the secretary of state, the state treasurer, the governor and the Supreme Court.

(See Ben Maxwell's Salem, Oregon, edited by Scott McArthur, 2006.)

Salem in 1863

World Events

• French capture Mexico City and proclaim Maximillian as Emperor.
• International Red Cross founded with ratification by 16 nations after a Geneva Conference.
• Most memorable battle of Civil War fought at Gettysburg: Lincoln delivers his Gettysburg Address. He proclaims last Thursday of November as Day of Thanksgiving.
• Medal of Honor is established for those who "distinguish themselves conspicuously by gallantry and integrity" in combat.
• Four-wheel roller skating introduced in New York City.
• James Whistler's paintings exhibited at "Salon des Refuses" in Paris along with Claude Manet and Paul Cezanne.
• New American Book: Edward Everett Hale publishes his novel, Man Without a Country. 

In SalemNoble goals are expressed in our nation this year: The Red Cross, Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and the Medal of Honor. In Salem these ideals of service are expressed in the founding of the First Congregational Church at the corner of Liberty and Center Streets with Obed Dickinson as minister. Charlotte and Obed Dickinson had been newlyweds in November of 1852 when they embarked on the long voyage around the Horn to Obed's assignment as a Congregational minister in frontier Oregon. Landing in Portland the following April, they had personal baggage and simple furnishings for their home: a stove, table, chairs, and bedding. It took them eighteen days to transport their belongings and themselves by boat and cart to Salem, a village of 500 people, ten dry goods stores, four physicians, a flouring mill, various mechanics - and five other ministers, all Methodist. His church was an abandoned schoolhouse at Commercial and Marion Streets described as "dirty as a pig sty, its floor covered with mud." Boarding was too expensive, so Obed purchased a half acre of land, deep in the brush between Front Street and the river, for a small 16 by 26 feet home.
His conflict with the membership, especially the founding Gilbert family, arose when he allowed African-Americans to attend services and one couple to marry there (see below). His wife Charlotte taught four of these women to read and write. Obed resigned his pulpit four years later, becoming a successful seed merchant. This church building was replaced in 1905. The third construction is at the corner of Marion and Cottage Streets, location of the boyhood home of A. C. Gilbert, demolished in 1941.
When You Visit: Dickinson family sites
Nordstroms is currently on the site of this church. Dickinson's seed store was at Chemeketa and Commercial Streets, now the Union Gospel Mission Office. The family's first home, a rough cabin built by Dickenson himself in this year, was near Ferry on Front Street. After Dickinson became a successful merchant, their 1880s home bordered the then-fashionable Marion Square Park. It was demolished for Marion Street Bridge ramp construction. The graves of Obed and Charlotte are in Pioneer Cemetery. Their daughter, Cora Dickinson Moores (1857-1938), was buried near her parents. Another daughter, Edna Dickinson Raymond, was living in Santa Monica, California when her sister died.
The Cora and Albert Moores' home was on Chemeketa Street in Piety Hill, the four block residential section north of the State House. When this area was acquired by the state for North Capitol Mall, their house was one that survived demolition. It was moved to Leffelle Street where it is today.

Other Events

• H. M. Thatcher was mayor during 1863-4.
• The Union House on the northeast corner of Ferry and Commercial Street, site of Salem's first store, burned in May of this year. The hotel was so named because it was a combination of the store and the blacksmith shop next door. The Union House contained the Gem Saloon with bar and billiard table.

Sacred Heart Academy

• Sacred Heart Academy was established on the east side of Cottage between Center and Chemeketa Streets by the Sisters of the Holy Names, opening with 80 girls as students. Legend gives Asahel Bush credit for encouraging the founding of this school for the primary eduction of his daughters. Mass was celebrated there until St. John's Church (now St. Joseph's) was dedicated. This 1886 photograph shows the original three story, brick building. A handsome, high-ceiling classroom with louvered shutters on the windows was photographed in 1908. The school moved to Lancaster Drive in the 1960s, but has since closed.
• Hamilton Campbell, a Salem pioneer in engineering, construction and photography, was murdered in Mexico while working in for a mining company. He had created the die for the Oregon Beaver coin. He and his wife, Harriet Biddle Campbell, had arrived in Oregon in 1840 as members of the Lausanne missionary reinforcement. His widow Harriet was living in Portland in 1900, still "sprightly" at 83. 
• Richard and America Waldo Bogle were married at the First Congregational Church on January 1. Richard was Jamaican, living in Salem where he met America Waldo. Rev. Dickinson officiated the wedding and hosted the wedding reception. A black wedding taking place in a white church and a party attended by both blacks and whites was apparently too much for some people to handle. The event provoked negative comments from Asahel Bush, first in his private letters and then in the Oregon Statesman where he called it a "disgrace"; eventually, the incident made the newspapers as far away as the Portland Oregonian and the San Francisco Bulletin. The couple moved to Walla Walla in the Washington Territory. There, Richard tried his hand at mining, but he didn't strike it rich and later returned to his old trade of barbering. The Bogles made their money ranching, and Richard was sufficiently wealthy that he was one of the founders of the Walla Walla Savings and Loan Association, providing some of the seed capital for the organization and backing it with his good name. Richard and America had eight children together, at least two of whom went on to become barbers in Portland.