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Museum:
590 Main Street
Springfield, Oregon
541-726-2300

General History of the City of Springfield

Elias and Mary Briggs and their family first arrived in Springfield in the winter of 1848. They were among the first party to travel to the region via the “Southern Route,” by Klamath Lake, over the Cascades, into the Rogue River Valley, then north to the Willamette Valley. This route is now known as the Applegate Trail.

The trip was longer and harder than they had expected. This was in a time when all overland trips to Oregon were difficult, and the winter rains had set in before they arrived in the Willamette Valley.

Tired and travel weary, the party stopped in the first settlement they came to, that of Eugene Skinner of Eugene and Elijah Bristow of Pleasant Hill. The Briggs’ family settled in what was to be Springfield. Others in the party settled nearby in different parts of Lane County. Mary Skinner was no longer the only white woman. Elias and Mary Briggs filed their Donation Land Claim for 640 acres in 1849.

Native Americans already had settled the land. The Indians, who inhabited the land between the Cascades and the Coast Range, were the Teleman-Kalapuas, sometimes called the Callapoias. In 1812, Donald McKenzie and his party of Pacific Fur Traders had the first known contact with the Kalapuas. From 1830-1833, a malaria epidemic decimated the Kalapua population, reducing it from an estimated 10,000 to 350. They were made up of many small bands. The band that lived in the Springfield area is unknown, except for brief mention in the Treaty of 1856, which indicated that they were either the Winefellies or the Mohawks. The natives were extremely non-hostile. According to one early writing, the Indians were rarely known to commit any act of depredation or lawlessness in the sight of man or to raisetheir arm to injure his, but were ever ready to take advantage of an unprotected woman and compel her to prepare for him a meal which he would sit down and enjoy.

Their primary source of food was the bulb of the camas. This iris like blue flower has a bulb that resembles a small onion. The bulbs could be eaten raw in the early spring or dried and pounded into cakes for winter storage or traded with other tribes. During the summer months they traveled to food-gathering areas, living in temporary shelters. During the rainy season, they lived in long plank houses that were about 60 feet long. Often more than one family would occupy the same house. A hole cut in the roof allowed smoke to exit. These were called long houses.

In 1856, the government moved the Teleman-Kalapuya to a reservation in Yamhill County, but only about one half of the Indians stayed. The rest wandered off the reservation and returned to where they came from, where they stayed unobtrusively. Many often found work in the hops fields and other agricultural enterprises.1

Elias Briggs choose a site for a new city on the east bank of the Willamette, between the Willamette and the McKenzie Rivers, on rich prairie, that was surrounded by virgin timber. The Briggs’ claim included a spring in a field. The town of Springfield was named for the spring that still exists on the corner lot of 2nd and B Streets. The spring has been capped and covered. Today an apartment building covers what was once the community’s water source.

Most the original land claims in Springfield were filed between 1851 and 1853. The average size of a claim was 320 acres. Building sites were located on the high ground because of frequent flooding. Elias began building a town. In 1852, using shovel and plow, he built the Millrace.

After the Millrace was completed, he and Mr. Driggs of Linn County formed the Briggs’ and Driggs’ Company to build the flour and sawmills in 1853 and 1854. They were not the usual slap-dash mills built in pioneer communities for temporary and local consumption only, but instead, were constructed under the supervision of an experienced millwright hired from the east. They used the latest and best machinery and spending $10,000 on the two mills.

Transportation was dependent on a very crude road system. The first road to Springfield was called Eastside Territorial Road which originally ran from Oregon City to Brownsville and then to Springfield. In 1853, the McKenzie Highway was completed to Eastern Oregon. It was called Scott’s Trail. At first, it was operated as toll road. Parts of this road are still traveled on Mill Street, Game Farm Road, High Banks Road, Thurston Road, parts of Jasper Road and the McKenzie Highway. By 1859, a weekly stagecoach was connecting Oregon City to Jacksonville, Oregon.

In the early 1850s, the settlement of Springfield consisted only of a ferry service across the Willamette, the Briggs’ house, two mills, a trading post and a school. In 1852, James Huddleston started the trading post, near Mill and Main Street. Other businesses of the time included a shoemaker, a wagonmaker, a cabinetmaker, four carpenters, two blacksmiths, a physician and a merchant.

The Springfield School District was formed in 1854, the same year the mills were built. Miss AgnesStewart was the first teacher. She was of Scottish descent and came to Oregon via the Lost Wagon Train from Pennsylvania.

During her early years of teaching, Miss Stewart lived with the Pengra family in Springfield. Later, she married Thomas Warner. His family had been on the Lost Wagon Train with her. They lived near Little Fall Creek where they raised three sons. Agnes died in 1905 at the age of 73.

The first schoolhouse was probably located in a crude little building near 7th and South B Streets. Two other schools also served the residents of the Thurston area. This area was named after George H. Thurston, a pioneer settler of the region. The Davis School was a one-room schoolhouse built in the 1850s at the east end of Thurston. Thurston Elementary was located on the northeast corner of 66th and Thurston Road and it operated until the 1930s.

The town was platted in 1856, two blocks between South A and Main and Mill and 3rd Streets. The lots measured 66 x 120 feet, with streets 66 feet in width. The original town was designed in a grid system that aligned to the four cardinal directions.

The settlement, with two mills and a school, and at what people thought was the head of steamboat navigation on the Willamette River, seemed destined for great agricultural and industrial growth. With the California Gold Rush luring settlers south, the town grew slowly. B.J. Pengra and other men formed the Springfield Manufacturing Company and bought the two mills, no longer the latest and best mills, from Driggs and Briggs. In 1864, the town began to derive importance from the mills. The company tore down the old sawmill and built a new one, also on the millrace. It ran with a pair of double circular saws and a Leffle Turbine Wheel. Considered the best sawmill in Lane County, it was a catastrophe when the mill burned down in 1882. Pengra immediately replaced it with a larger sawmill, four stories high, that had a capacity of 30,000 feet of sawed limber daily. The company also reconstructed and enlarged the old flourmill. It was then considered to be the first flourmill of any size in the County.

By the year 1853, most farmers raised grain crops (wheat & oats) and maintained a variety of animal stock: cows, oxen, horses, mules, sheep and hogs.

A writer for the Morning Oregonian reported in 1864 that Springfield, with three mills, a school, a general store and several workshops, was one of the busiest places he had seen.

But despite the fortunate natural setting and glowing predictions, Springfield grew very slowly, and in fact, the population began to decline. In 1870, the population was 649, but in 1890 it had declined to 371. Although the steamboat, Relief, made it to Springfield in 1861, Springfield turned out to be the head of navigation on the Willamette River only during floods. Without reliable river transportation, markets were nearly inaccessible. The real blow fell, when in 1871, Eugene received the main line of the Oregon & California Railroad. A group of prominent Eugene businessmen paid the railroad financier, Ben Holladay, $40,000 to bypass Springfield by crossing the Willamette River near Harrisburg instead of Springfield. Eugene prospered while Springfield languished. The famous mills continued to produce, but rarely worked to capacity, for many years brought no profit to the owners. The mills gradually became rundown until the flourmill was considered only fit to produce feed for stock.

If Springfield was not booming, it did get some amenities. The first post office opened in a drug store on South Mill Street in 1868, with Albert Hovey as the first postmaster.

The Baptist church, the first church built in Springfield, was built in 1871. It cost $1,600 and was located on the corner of 2nd Street

By 1870, the census included the following businesses: a wagonmaker, a tannery, a chair manufacturer and a sash and door factory, along with the saw and flour mills.

A bridge replaced the Briggs Springfield-Eugene ferry in 1875. Supervised by A. S. Powers, the price for this structure was shared between public money and county funds. However, with frequent floods on the Willamette, it had to be replaced at least two times before 1891.

The I00F (Independent Order of Odd Fellows) organized in 1881 and built their first lodge on North A Street. Later, the building housed the volunteer fire department, the city jail and the council chambers.

The first little school building was replaced in the 1880s by a one story, two-room schoolhouse. It was the first school built on the Mill and D Street site where the District 19’s Administration Building now stands. By 1888, the school had a total of 67 students.

Springfield incorporated as a city February 25, 1885. Albert Walker, a Springfield blacksmith, was the first mayor. Treasurer was Joseph W. Stewart, a merchant, and the City Recorder was W.R. Walker, a farmer. The councilmen were T.O Maxwell, owner of a livery stable, and W.B. Pengra, a mill owner and county surveyor. The first City ordinance they passed was to give the council power to open, grade, pave, plank or otherwise improve the streets of the city. The costs of these improvements were to be paid by the owners of the property adjoining the street.

At this time, Springfield had mud streets, and some wooden frame business establishments. Farms were a block off Main Street and even town dwellers often kept chickens or a pig in the yard. The City Council also made a list of offenses that the City would not tolerate. These included disorderly conduct, splitting wood on the sidewalk, gambling, and opium smoking.

The lowlands of Springfield had problems with flooding in the early years. The worst flooding occurred in 1861-1862 when the entire valley floor was covered with at least four feet of water. During the time of this flooding, a steamer named the “Relief” navigated up the Willamette River. It was able to take 13 tons of supplies from Springfield to other ports in Oregon.

In the year 1891, twenty years after Eugene, Springfield finally secured a railroad line and the isolation ended. The flourmill changed hands, and after expensive renovation, Springfield flour became famous throughout the northwest. The old wooden carriage bridge over the Willamette flooded out and was replaced by a steel bridge in 1891. It was 402 feet long and cost $40,000. The catalyst for improvements was the arrival of the railroad.

Springfield obtained the railroad because C.P. Huntington, who ran Southern Pacific, foreclosed on yet another small, bankrupt company. Huntington was a bitter rival of Ben Holladay’s, the man who built the line through Eugene. The small railroad Huntington acquired was the Oregonian Railway Co., Ltd., which had been started by a group of Scottish settlers in the Willamette Valley. The narrow gauge line ran from Dundee south to Coburg. After Huntington acquired the line, he made plans to extend the line to Springfield. The Springfield Investment and Power Company in 1891 donated 50 acres to be used for a depot and shop grounds. The depot that is now on Mill and A Street was built in 1891. It was originally located along the tracks at the end of South 7th Street.

The original railroad plan called for the line to continue across the Cascades to eastern connections, making it one of the shortest transcontinental lines. This, the town felt assured, would greatly enhance the importance of Springfield and nothing could prevent the town from rising to a position of great commercial and manufacturing importance.

With news of Southern Pacific’s plans trickling in, C. W. Washburne, a Junction City banker and owner of many flour mills, sensed better days ahead for Springfield industries. In anticipation of the arrival of the railroad, he purchased the aging flourmill from Pengra in 1890 and remodeled it with the finest roller machinery. His son, B. A. Washburne, later managed the mill and resided in Springfield. The historical downtown neighborhood is named after the Washburnes’.

Hops, used in brewing of beer, became an important agricultural crop during the 1880s. Oregon was the leading producer of hops in the United States. Springfield was the leading hops producer in Lane County. Many families worked in the fields gathering hops.

By 1891, Springfield had a general merchandise store, two groceries, two cigar stores, a drug store, two dress shops, two blacksmiths, a variety store, a meat market, three hotels, a saloon, a barber shop, a shoe store, two schools (with 120 students) and three churches.

In the 1890s, Springfield received another sign of an up-and-coming town: a town newspaper. The Springfield Messenger, published by Frank and Will Gilstrap, was a four-page weekly. It printed only local news, was completely hand set and was printed by a hand press. The circulation was about 500 papers, and each subscription sold for $1.50 per year. It published for only one year. The forerunner to the present Springfield News began in 1896 as the Nonpareil.

Agriculture has played an important role in Springfield’s history. In 1890 the average farm size was 212 acres. Farmers raised a variety of crops: wheat, oats, hay, potatoes, dairy cows, hops, flax, and peppermint. Lane County produced 700,000 pounds of hops per year. Angora goats were raised for the mohair industry.

Entertainment in Springfield was still home grown. There was a Springfield Cornet Band that performed Sunday concerts in the bandstand that used to be on the southwest corner of Main and 2nd, in a grove of locust trees. People gathered there for the concerts, barbecues and ice cream socials.

George and Lulu Dorris bought 277 acres of land along the Willamette River in 1892. After experimenting with crops of peaches, cherries, grapes, walnuts, asparagus and hops they discovered filberts. George, along with his nephew Ben, developed advanced methods for growing filberts. Each year they produced more than 70,000 trees in their nursery.

The new Opera House opened on Main Street in 1893. To celebrate the grand opening of the Opera House, the Springfield Band, under the direction of G.H. Veringler, offered a varied program, featuring a tuba solo. Admission for the show was twenty-five cents.

In 1892, Springfield also boasted a baseball team. They even played against a Portland team on occasion.

Although the 1890s brought modern changes to Springfield, including the all-important railroad, the population was slow to catch up. In 1900, the population was only 353. But the lumber boom was beginning and in ten years the population would grow to 2,500.

In 1902, Booth-Kelly built the largest, most modern and economical mill in Springfield. While the old water powered mill had a capacity of 36,000 feet of lumber daily, the new steam powered mill produced 150,000 feet daily. The first volunteer fire department was organized in 1890. It was called the “Hook, Ladder, and Bucket Brigade.”

Two years later, in 1904, the population had almost doubled with an influx of eastern settlers attracted by the booming lumber industry. Lots that had sold for $40 and $50 were suddenly bringing $125 to $150. Business properties sold at the inflated rate of $10 to $12 per foot.

The Wasburnes’ Springfield flourmill was also doing well. “Snowball XXX’s flour was reputed to be the best. The daily capacity of cream of wheat, whole wheat, corn meal and feed was 19,600 pounds a day.

Other evidences of progress were the establishment of the newspaper and the first bank. J.F. Woods who bought The Nonpareil in 1898 and established The Springfield News in 1903. The first bank, called the First Bank opened in 1906 on Main Street with a capital of $20,000. H.W. Stewart was the first president. The Stewart House is still standing on Pioneer Parkway West and North 2nd Street.

The railroad completed the connection between Eugene and Springfield with a fine steel bridge in 1906.

Springfield had 38 telephones on the exchange, electricity and now in 1906, the Willamette Valley Co. brought plumbing. The cost was fifty cents a month for each faucet, bathtub and toilet.

Opportunities were expanding for the citizens of Springfield. There was a twice-a-day stagecoach to Eugene. It left Springfield at 7:30 AM and 1:00 PM and left Eugene at 11:00 AM. and 4:30 PM It cost twenty-five cents to ride the covered stagecoach. Extra trips were made on request, and the stage would wait for customers. Southern Pacific offered a reduced round trip rate to Portland for $4.00.

For local entertainment, there were whist parties, band performances, and free lectures from the I.O.O.F. (Independent Order of the Odd Fellows) on such subjects as fraternalism. Traveling shows came to the opera house, such as the 1907 performance of “For Love’s Sake,” advertised as a military drama with plenty of action.

By 1907, the lumber industry was supreme in Springfield. Booth-Kelly employed 400 men. The flourmill produced up to 130 barrels a day, and the Springfield businessmen’s Club was shopping around for more industries to settle in Springfield. They advertised in The Oregonian for a door and sash company. Within a month, they had a deal and were selling shares in the proposed $10,000 door and sash industry.

The pace of life was increasing and Springfield embraced progress eagerly. Springfield jubilantly welcomed the Portland, Eugene and Electric Railroad’s electric streetcars in 1910. The electric streetcars were efficient, cheap and cleaner than the train. Everyone could travel on them. PE&E built a new bridge for the streetcar, giving the Eugene-Springfield area three bridges.

The electric streetcar bridge, built in 120 working days under the direction of Lord Nelson Roney, cost $30,000. It had three 200-foot trusses and was the object of much local pride, although some people thought it was a pity that the new bridge was not covered.

The first streetcar crossed the bridge from Eugene to Springfield in October of 1910 and was met by a street celebration. It cost 6 cents to travel to Eugene. The streetcar ran up Main Street to 10th, replacing the infrequent stage as the means of public transportation between the two cities. The streetcar served another important function. In 1908, Eugene went “dry” (no alcohol) by local option. Springfield opted to stay wet. The streetcar became the favored form of transportation for Eugene drinkers. A sheriff rode the streetcar to see that the drunks returning to Eugene did not bother the ladies. By 1912, Springfield’s saloons far outnumbered the churches.

A private hospital was built in the early 1900s. It is believed that the hospital provided an important role in the growth of the City. In 1914, Springfield General Hospital was built and the private hospital was no longer needed. This hospital was two stories high with a large verandah. A small building called the “Pest House” was located right next to it. It housed patients that had communicable diseases. In 1918, Springfield was hit hard with a severe outbreak of the Spanish Flu Epidemic. Nationwide a half of a million people died from this flu. This building is still located at 846 F Street.

With progress came problems. The town grew fast. The Springfield News chided the citizenry for the messy state of the town: logs littering the streets, rubbish on Main Street, old irregular sidewalks and the plethora of signs. It suggested that trees and roses be planted and that streets be improved. “Permanent Improvement” was the City sponsored organization that repaired the muddy rutted streets. By 1911, the improvement was well underway. Grading and paving of streets with crushed rock began between 10th and Mill Streets. The rock came from the City’s own rock quarry, still visible at the end of Quarry Road. By operating the “Permanent Improvement” through City supervision, rather than through private businesses, Springfield won a reputation for efficiency and economy. Newspapers avidly followed the progress of the paving and citizens lined the streets to watch the work. The city estimated the cost of paving to be $1.25 per yard.

This was one of the two biggest events in Springfield that summer, culminated in October with a masquerade ball being held on the new paving. The theme was “Springfield Paves the Way.” The City invited all of Lane County to attend. The street was lined with evergreens and illuminated with Japanese lanterns. Mayor Stevens and his wife led the grand march, while two brass bands played. Unfortunately, the bands did not play in the old bandstand because it had been destroyed when the new paving went in on Main Street. The other event of that summer that shook Springfield happened on July 28, 1911 when Booth-Kelly burned. At that time, over half of the population of Springfield worked for Booth-Kelly. Citizens helped the volunteer fire department all through the night to prevent the fire from reaching an oil storage tank west of the mill. Booth-Kelly rebuilt the mill the next year 1912, and life resumed.

The streetcar itself became a relic in the 1920s when the automobile became a practical reality. The first motorcar traveled from Portland to Eugene in 1908, a trip that took two days over rough roads. Springfield’s first automobile dealer started in 1911.

In 1912, residents of Thurston built the Thurston Community Hall. It was the first building in Oregon that was constructed using curved laminated beams. This building, located at the corner of 66th and Thurston Road, later became a grange hall and is still being used today.

Welby Stevens was mayor in 1915. The following community services and business were available at this time:

• The largest flour mill in Lane County
• Sawmill
• Two banks
• A ice and cold storage plant
• Forty-two blocks of pavement
• A sewer system 6 miles long
• A gas and electric light plant which furnished power and light for 11 towns.
• Street car service
• A creamery
• Two newspapers
• Steam laundry
• Two hospitals

In 1926, the City Council decided to allow Portland, Eugene and Electric Company to discontinue streetcar service. Bus service was instituted.

Springfield maintained its small town demeanor until after World War II in 1945. The retail center was still on Main Street, industries were to the northwest by the railroad tracks between 2nd and 3rd Streets, and residences were to the north. The population in 1940 was 3,805, an increase of only 1,300 in 30 years. Ten years later, the population grew to 10,087.

Increased timber demand accounted for the boom of population between 1940 and 1950. Booth-Kelly enlarged and modernized its Springfield mill in 1948 and Weyerhaeuser arrived in 1949. In 1959, Georgia-Pacific bought out the Booth-Kelly operation and expanded. Lane County became the lumbering capital of the nation and Springfield was called the “Lunch Bucket City.” Rosboro Lumber Company also began operating. It still operates today at 25th and Main Street, employing 425 people.

Springfield covered 1.5 miles in 1940, compared to 14 square miles today. Industry expanded along the north of downtown and expanded north and east. With residences moving away from the old downtown and with the added competition of the larger marketing area in Eugene, downtown retailing declined. The traffic increased on Main Street to such an extent that the City re-routed east bound traffic on South A. In 1950, the second bridge was built which is currently used on the Willamette River. The one way traffic tended to further detract from the downtown retail areas. Boomtown industrial expansion and the lack of planned development lacking caused problems. There were conflicting land uses. Old mills mingled with family dwellings, and streets were poorly laid out including a lack of thoroughfares between schools and homes. One area of particular concern was along 3rd Street, where the old industries were declining or were abandoned. Residences were neglected, and the school board had built a new elementary school. With a grant from the Federal Government, Springfield initiated the Third Street Urban Renewal Project in 1956-57. The project demolished the houses and industries judged too blighted, relocated residences and redeveloped the area with street paving, lights and sidewalks. The City mounted a campaign for voluntary property improvement. Willamalane Park and Recreation District developed Meadow Park. Through planning for land use, the area was revitalized for residences.

The downtown continued to decline as a commercial area. In reaction to the spreading residential areas, developers built two shopping centers, one at Mohawk and Centennial Boulevard, and the Paramount Shopping Center east of downtown.

The Chamber of Commerce sponsored an experiment in 1957 on downtown revitalization called Shoppers’ Paradise. For one week in August, the city closed Main Street to car and truck traffic to create a pedestrian mall. Although the shoppers liked it and sales increased downtown, the plan to permanently create a pedestrian mall was dropped. This was due to the difficulty of rerouting traffic off Main Street the lack of support from the downtown merchants and the projected cost of the improvements.

Another plan, the 1958 Springfield Core Area Plan, called for rerouting the major traffic routes to emphasize pedestrian traffic and discourage automobile traffic in central downtown. The plan was not developed. The opening of Spring Village, between 5th and 7th Streets in 1976, did not reverse the trend of retailers moving away from downtown. Spring Village was sold to the City of Springfield in 1978 and remodeled for use as City Hall and the Springfield Public Library. The Power Substation was part of the property and became the Springfield Museum.

Downtown, once the heart of the City, still has the potential to recover its position of importance to the city. Main Street still has many of the structures that were built during the 1900s that are now under used or empty. These buildings retain the old fashioned charm but have the potential space for modern functions. The buildings were designed to provide city services and they are still appropriate for services such as retail, cultural and professional services and restaurants.