Salem in 1906

World Events

• The All-India Muslim League is founded as a political party to advance the creation of an independent Pakistan.
• Mt Vesuvius erupts and devastates Naples. Funds that were to be used for holding the 1908 summer Olympic games there were diverted to reconstructing the city.
• San Francisco suffers an earthquake and resulting fire which destroyed over 80% of the city.
• US Marines begin a 2-year occupation of Cuba after revolt against the government.
• President Theodore Roosevelt is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his diplomacy in ending the Russo-Japanese War (1904-5).
• The sailing vessel Peter Iredale wrecks at Clatsop Spit off Oregon coast, eight miles south of Columbia River Channel. The remains are still visible.
• "Allergy" is introduced as medical term for hypersensitive reactions.
• The first Victor Victrola, a wind-up record player, is manufactured in Camden, New Jersey.
• New American Books: The Four Million, O Henry; The Jungle, Upton Sinclair.

In Salem
Prune orchards brought prosperity to the south Liberty Street, Sunnyside and Rosedale areas. After being gathered, fruit was taken to dryers to be washed and stacked in trays. The prune drier closest to downtown Salem was located in the Candalaria area, where the Falk family had a prune orchard. Another orchard and drier was near the Hilfiker's orchard. Between 1905 and 1930, nearly seventy driers could be found within a radius of about 2 1/2 miles from Liberty and Reese Hill Road. The driers (see above) were barn structures with furnaces. Many of the driers were near springs; otherwise a well had to be dug for water and power used to pump it.
This was the area of the Smith Donation Land Claim, purchased by Ferdinand Ewall and developed as Ewall Fruit Farms, located at the south end of the Commercial Street Car line. Fred Thompson purchased the northern section of the Smith land for his Salem Heights development. Because the buildings south of Salem Heights were so few, it was called "String Town."

When you visit
By 1982, housing developments had taken over most of the land formerly used for prune orchards. This is now an established residential area of Salem with businesses along Commercial Street. However, as late as 1935, when the State House burned, Candalaria was still such a rural area that there was consideration of reconstructing the Capitol building there on the heights.
There are at least four historical residential properties still in their original location in this South Salem neighborhood, all but one are still private homes. The 1878 Falk House is probably one of the oldest and, in spite of many exterior alterations, has been designated as a Local Landmark. In 1909, the Boot family purchased a home on Birdshill Drive. The original 1901 farmhouse has also been remodeled and the property divided so it now contains a fraction of its acres as a prune orchard. In 1905, Fred Thompson built a residence for his parents on Liberty Street. The structure has had many uses since that time, including as The House of Design and is now a popular business location as McMenamin's Thompson Brewery and Public House. On Mountain View Road, another home that once within an orchard is the one associated with the Calaba family.

Other Events

• A photograph taken this year from the State House roof shows Willson Park and downtown looking toward the Willamette River. This was a popular site for early photographers seeking an aerial view, especially of the residential neighborhood to the north and looking west toward downtown from tower of this prominent capitol structure. Foreground, old Bandstand. The Post Office is the nearest building in the center with Marion County Courthouse just beyond. The Odd Fellows building is to the right. Methodist Church to left.
• The Vaudette Theater in the Wagner Building on Court Street brought the earliest movies to Salem.
• Two prominent constructions in downtown are the Ada and Mark Skiff Block with its Queen Anne feature and /Meyers D'Arcy buildings.
• On Court Street the Constable House is completed. It replaced an earlier 1870s structure, probably built by James Joseph, and may incorporate elements of the original dwelling. In 1902, it was sold to Charles O. and Sarah E. Constable for the amount of $1,650. The residence is now in the Court-Chemeketa Historic Residential District in the NEN neighborhood and is featured in the SHINE slide show walking tour of that district.
• East of town, in the present SESNA neighborhood, Mr. Potter, a carpenter, constructs a fine, two-story residence. Divided into apartments many years ago, it has recently been renovated to its former dignity.

Photo of early pioneer graves used by courtesy of Elisabeth Walton Potter

• Jason Lee's body is interred in Salem's Lee Mission Cemetery with the same gravestone as the original burial site in Canada. The cemetery was established in 1854 on the land grant to Methodist missionary wife, Elizabeth Winn Parrish. The first burial while it was family property (1842) was of Jason Lee's second wife, Lucy Thompson Lee, who died in childbirth in Salem's first residential structure of Salem (now the Jason Lee House, relocated to Willamette Heritage Center). At about the same time, the remains of Anna Maria Pittman Lee, his first wife and their child who died at birth were re-interred here. Their 1838 burial had been at Mission Bottom, the first settlement location approximately ten miles upstream along the Willamette River, but due to flooding the site had been abandoned in favor of Chemeketa (Salem).

From the Capitol Journal:

• Claude Barker, a young religious enthusiast in North Salem who went for 34 days without food and only occasionally sipping hot water, broke his fast by eating popcorn and canned tomatoes. During his fast, his weight dropped from 180 to 130 pounds.
• This newspaper defined the Fourth of July as "patriotism expressed in noise". It also stated "With vaudeville and the city council, Salem people will not lack for amusement this summer."
• The Board of Trustees of Willamette University ruled that hereafter no faculty member would be allowed to become unduly active in local politics. Removal of W/ P. Drew, professor of Latin and Greek, had settled the issue. Professor Drew had been active in agitation to close Salem saloons.
• The Capitol Journal listed these Salem owners of automobiles: Charley Stege, H. B. Thielsen, H. S. Gile, John Maurer, T. A. Livesley, Dr. O. B. Miles, Joseph Albert, George Graves, Jack Peterson, C. I. Kurtz and George Pearce.
• Wong Him, prosperous merchant in Salem's Chinatown, was much troubled. His beautiful wife of Oriental origin had fallen victim to the seductive wiles of Lee Foo, Chinese fan tan gambler. Lee Foo, described as a "dandy", had departed to points unknown with Mr. Him.

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

Salem in 1876

World Events

• Korea is forced to sign a treaty opening ports to Japanese trade, beginning the Japanese domination of Korea.
• Carlist Wars in Spain end after four years: revolutionary military forces of Carlos VIII defeated and he goes into exile. King Alfonso XII enters Pamplona, historical capital of Navarre.
• 20 disputed electoral votes prevented either Tilden or Hayes winning the presidential election until the Compromise of 1877 settled the question: Republican Hayes becomes President after an agreement to end that political party's Reconstruction policies in the former Confederate states.
• Plains Indians have their last great gatherings. At the Battle of the Rosebud Creek, Sioux and Cheyenne under Crazy Horse beat back General Crook's forces. At the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Lt. Col. George Custer's 7th Cavalry is wiped out by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. Also in the west: Colorado is admitted as 38th state.
• A Centennial Exhibition opens in Philadelphia displaying America's industrial wonders in the Machinery Hall, including the new Bell telephone.
• US National Baseball League founded.
• Librarian Melvil Dewey first publishes the Dewey Decimal Classification system.

In SalemSalem has become quite a grand city by this year and begins to solve its drinking water problem. In the photograph of an artist's drawing seen above, to the right of the steamboat in the Willamette River, can be seen the 80 foot water tower, built this year. With a 45 feet deep cistern, and water from the Willamette, it marks the beginning of the Salem Water Company. This system of water supply accommodates the Reed Opera House (1869) and the Chemeketa House (1871) by allowing water to be supplied to these multi-storied buildings. However, the water tower soon began leaking and the river became too polluted to be an acceptable source of water. Other solutions were found a decade later.

When you visit
One of the most remarkable of Salem's early artifacts is this drawing, much reproduced, that gives an aerial view of the city. The tower was almost in line with State Street where the Riverfront Park (and the Carousel) is located now, so the urban landscape is much different today.
Notice the landmarks that are familiar: the present Capitol is in the same place as the State House of 1876, but the current building faces north instead of west; the former Victorian-style Marion Country Courthouse is in the same place as the current structure; the historic First Methodist Church (not completed until 1878) is barely visible just a block away and to the south; Waller Hall of Willamette University is in the background, to the right of the State House. At the intersection of Ferry and Commercial, the large building with dark roof is the Marion House hotel (later Chemeketa House). Diagonally across the intersection is the Holman Building that had housed the original legislature of Oregon and would now continue to serve the city with the Salem Theater. Along the river, at the slough, the Willamette Mill stands over Pringle Creek where the Boise-Cascade facility is now (2012) being demolished. A block south is the Commercial Street bridge. Counting three more blocks south, one may see an indication of the Smith House (now Smith-Fry House) at the top of the hill at Oak Street. Continuing in the same direction, the hill falls at City Line (now Mission Street) and another hill then rises to the Leslie House that would stand there for another year. Asahel Bush would remove it and begin building his own home there in the next year. On the Willamette River there is some industry and steamboats are busily chugging toward town. Notice the small area of business and the surrounding farmland. West Salem appears to be uninhabited as evergreen trees stand in the foreground.

Other Events

• General Sherman of Civil War fame visits Salem. (Sherman County was named for him in 1889.)

• The new State House is completed at the head of Willson Avenue. This second statehouse was classically inspired but it reflected a revived interest in the monumental architecture of the Italian Renaissance. This building, resembling the nation's capitol, was far larger than the previous structure. To contain all the departments of government as well as the legislature and officers of state, the building was three stories tall and shaped in the form of a cross. The long axis extended north to south the length of 264 feet. Minor arms, or projecting sections were centered on the east and, especially, the west front that was considered the ceremonial entrance. Walls were constructed of brick above the ashlar (building stone) ground story of native Oregon sandstone from the Umpqua region. Upper stories were trimmed with limestone and ultimately were given a stone gray finish. The monumental exterior stairways and porticoes would not be added until 1887-8 and the copper-clad dome completed in 1893. The cost of the building was $550,000.
• The Falk House, now a Local Landmark on Candalaria Boulevard, is built by a member of the Fabritus Smith Family. (Mr. Smith, a farmer in this area, was elected to be a state legislator this year.) In 1891 Samuel A. Clarke is noted in the Salem City Directory as residing in this location. Clarke is believed to have named his fruit farm "Candalaria", a name later given to that area of Salem. A later resident was Adam Ohmart, son-in-law of Fabritus Smith, who lived there in 1902. Long-time owners Conrad and Nellie Falk moved here before 1909; the Falks had a prune orchard on the property and continued to reside on the property through the late 1940s. The house, although much altered, still rises proudly above Commercial Street in the South Salem neighborhood.
• Seth Lewelling is best remembered for his work in developing new fruit varieties. In 1875, a planting produced a promising seedling that he named "Bing" after his faithful Chinese helper. When Bing cherries were exhibited this year at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, people at first thought, because of their size, they were crabapples. According to reports, the large Bings averaged 35 cherries to the pound and sold in the East for three cents a cherry.