Salem in 1871

World Events

• Henry Stanley, a correspondent for the New York Herald , locates the missing Scottish explore and missionary near Lake Tanganyika in Africa, greeting him with, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"
• The German Empire is established by a number of small, independent states. The king of Prussia is declared Emperor as Wilhelm I of Germany in a ceremony held in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles.
• President Grant signs the 3rd Civil Rights Act to give authority to action against the KKK.
• An urban fire, attributed to "Mrs. O'Leary's cow" destroys a large section, 4 by 3/4 mile, though the urban heart of Chicago.
• Barnum brings his "Greatest Show on Earth" to Brooklyn.
• Charles Darwin publishes The Descent of Man and George Eliot, Middlemarch.

In SalemSalem residents can identify with urban fires, such a the one in Chicago this year. In 1855 a fire had destroyed the first Salem capitol building.  The Holman Building at the northwest corner of Commercial and Ferry Streets was built by Joseph Holman that same year as hotel, but became the state's Legislative Hall. Local residents appreciated the new gaslights and power for downtown businesses and residences provided by the Coal Gas Company. According to tradition, the first street gas lamp was lit by Joseph's son, George Holman, in front of this building. (Replicates of these gas lamps decorate our parks today.) It served the new state legislature for almost 20 years until the second Capitol was completed in 1876. It is also believed that George Holman brought the first maple trees to Salem to beautify city streets.

When you visit: Holman Building site
The Holman Building is seen here in the early 1900s. (it is also featured in an earlier year's entry.) the building was demolished in the late 1940s, despite efforts by Oregon State Archivist David Duniway to preserve it. The Marion Car Rental and Park replaced it in 1950, becoming one of the first elevated rooftop automobile parking structures in Salem. Inside the Salem Conference Center, 200 Commercial St. SE, on the landing of the stairway at this Ferry and Commercial Street corner, an interpretive panel has been installed that highlights the historic importance of this building and others at that location.

Other Events

• Penitentiary Gates on State Street are erected. One of the few remaining original structures, they were placed on the National Register of Historic places in 1971.
• The Salem Water Company pump station makes a considerable improvement in travel convenience: it takes water to third floor of the new Chemeketa House. A hotel existed at this location until the construction of the present Conference Center.
• Susan B. Anthony, then 41, spent several weeks in Oregon this year, and several days in the Salem area drumming up support for women’s suffrage, which was still almost 50 years away. She camped out at the Oregon State Fair with local women’s rights leader Abigail S. Duniway. The two women traveled throughout the Willamette Valley by stagecoach and even horseback to campaign for a woman’s right to vote. According to a Sept. 17, 1871, The Oregon Statesman report on Anthony’s speech at the Reed Opera House: "People may have expected that a champion of the new movement would be something of a scold, but the tones in which she did her scolding - - for she scold all of mankind at a terrible rate - - were decorous and womanly, so much so that the effect of her lectures was greatly enhanced by the admirable manner and apparent good taste of their delivery." "...We believe that when the first effect of her appearance wears away, the women of Oregon will realize that while she told many truths and told them well, she treated their own husbands and fathers unfairly."
  
• SC Adams publishes a 23-foot scroll entitled "Chronological Chart of Ancient, Modern and Biblical History." Revised editions of this complete history of the world (from Adam and Eve to President Ulysses Grant) went through several successful printings and this production was a forerunner of illustrated educational materials for American middle class families. Mr. Adams traveled the country for 6 years, promoting its sale, very much in the style of modern authors with their book tours, and was very successful. The later entries for him in the City Directory described his occupation as "Capitalist". The State Library exhibited a copy in 2007-08.
• The home of Sebastian Adams at 547 Court Street was still standing in 1954. Other fashionable Victorian homes along Court Street included those of Eugene Breyman at Church Street, Mrs. J.J. Murphy (later home of George Rose and C. P. Bishop families) next door and Joseph Holman residence at the Cottage Street intersection. They were demolished between 1950 and 1970.

This photograph of the Baptist Church was taken in 1891

• Membership of the First Baptist Church in 1871 was reported to be around 100, with 123 Sunday school attendees. During this year an imposing belfry (seen above), which amplified the bell calling people to services, weddings, and funerals, was added to the structure. A fence protected the property from cows that roamed Salem’s streets.
• A house is built by and for Gustave Norgren, a carpenter. The 1872 Salem City Directory lists his residence at the corner of Sangamon (now Saginaw) and Owen, and an etched nail imprint on the brick fireplace is dated 1871. In 1869 Norgren purchased this lot from Anna B. and J.W. Gamble. Mr. Norgren died shortly after 1875 and his widow moved from the area. Mr. Cannon, a farmer from Turner, sold the property in 1905; following this the property changed hands many times until the present. It is a designated Local Landmark in the SCAN neighborhood.

Salem in 1862

World Events

• Otto von Bismarck becomes Prussian Prime Minister. He will dominate European politics for 30 years and be the first Chancellor of the German Empire between 187- and 1890.
• French gunships compel the Vietnamese emperor to cede Saigon, three provinces and treaty ports. The resulting French Indochina became an important international trade colony for France.
• The Civil War battles continue, including those at Shiloh, New Orleans, Antietam.
• Conflict at Fort Henry inspired "Star Spangled Banner"
•  The Homestead Act was passed in Congress.
• US issues first paper money: $5 to $1000
• President Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation freeing slaves under Union control by the next January.
• The first petroleum is shipped from U. S. to Europe: 1,328 barrels.
• Pasteurization tests completed in France.
• In Europe, this year, Ivan Turgenev publishes Fathers and Sons, and Victor Hugo, Les Miserables.

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 In Salem 

The distant battles of our Civil War are not as urgent as local problems. A covered bridge is erected across Pringle Creek at Commercial Street to replace the structure washed out by flood the year before. When this photograph was taken, the city had about 1000 residents, dirt roads, no police or fire department, no water supply or sanitary services. The size was about the same as the present CAN-DO neighborhood: from the river to 12th Street, north from Mission Street to Division Street, just above Marion Square Park. Asahel Bush, publisher of the Oregon Statesman newspaper, had disputed the need for a city charter for the community, referring to the charter as a "garment too large for the child" and to city councils as "fleas on the body politic". It took three years to get the charter passes due to disputes about it legality.

When You Visit
The photographer appears to be where the hill rises south of Commercial Street, similar to the location for the photograph for 1861. Standing there in 2012, you will see the progress being made in removing the industrial complex which has so long covered Pringle Creek as it cascades into the Willamette River. The first flour mill was built there in 1869 and Pringle Creek continued to be a reliable source of power. However, the use of electric power and the esthetic demands of urban development call for "daylighting" this natural asset. The creek has been uncovered, flowing between the basement walls of the demolished industrial building. Only the rail tracks, suspended above, cross the creek. The next step was reconstructing the Commercial Street bridge, this time to allow for pedestrians to stroll underneath it, from Civic Center Park, along the north shore of the creek, to Riverfront Park.

Other Events

• Ferry and Commercial streets lived up to their names as the transportation and business center of Salem. Steamboats on the Willamette, bringing cargo and passengers, landed at Ferry Street, named for the rope ferry organized by Capt. James White in 1846 and continued by his widow after his death in 1854. She ran the ferry until 1863. The principal businesses, offices and saloons were at this intersection with Commercial. 

Nesmith Building

Holman Building

• During the last 3 years of the Oregon Territory and the first 16 of Oregon statehood, Oregon governor's office was in the Nesmith building on the southwest corner and the legislature met in the Holman building across Ferry to the north. The first Capitol had burned in 1857 and the new classic structure would not be complete until 1876.

• Residents lived in rooms above stores, in small houses with kitchen garden (and livestock) on Front Street, around Marion Square Park and eastward in the former missionary lands centered by "Willamet University".  

  

  Oregon Institute

• The university, originally the Oregon Institute,  was one of the first Salem settlement buildings. It was organized by the pioneer Methodist missionaries in 1842 and gained the title of  University, the first on the Western United States, in 1852. The first teacher and later Head of the Women's Department, was Chloe Willson, widow of the William Willson who laid out the first plats of the city, establishing the location of the Capitol, the school, and the original downtown. Willson Park is named for him. The first graduate of Willamette University, always a co-educational institution, had been Miss Emily J. York who received the degree of Mistress of English Literature in 1859.

• Marion County is chosen as the site for the second State Fair because of its closer proximity to the agricultural center of the Willamette Valley. John Savage, who had homesteaded a parcel of eight acres, three miles outside the city of Salem, donated the land. John Minto contributed $1,200 to build a wooden fence around the grounds. New events were added, including canning, quilting, and baking.

•  Sam Adolph establishes the first Salem brewery with John Brown at Church and Trade Streets. The cultivation of hops became a major agricultural enterprise in the Willamette Valley and breweries a significant industry. It attracted migrant laborers, who settled down to make homes in the town and created several significant fortunes for the local breweries and business owners.

• In January snow fell to a depth of one foot and remained for a month. Temperatures dropped to four degrees below zero.