During this time, in the mid-Willamette Valley of Oregon Country, there was a settlement called Marysville near what is now Corvallis. One of the inhabitants, George W. Bethers wrote a request to the United Brethren in 1849 on the behalf of his family and his neighbors, to have a missionary sent to Oregon.” The Bethers family lived on a 602-acre plot of land where the Corvallis Country Club and Oak Lawn Cemetery currently stands.
The Indiana Conference of the United Brethren Church chose to raise funds to support Bether’s request and proceeded to find a preacher and a doctor. Thomas Jefferson Connor volunteered for the position of Reverend and Jeremiah Kennoyer for the position of doctor and assistant.
To make the trip Connor was given $1,000 for expenses and Kennoyer was given $150. Also joining as assistants were J.B. Lichtenthaler, M.M. Crow, R. Price and David Mason. What came to be known as the preacher’s wagon train left from Council Bluffs, Iowa in May of 1853. Time was of the essence for this group as the Federal Government land donation act was to expire Dec. 1, 1853. The total count of 98 persons, 16 covered wagons and about 100 oxen began the long trip west.
The first leg of the trip was aboard the steamship Sparhawk headed for St. Louis. On the Sparhawk Reverend Connor had a conversation with a slave girl.
“Well, Miss, you have a hard time here.”
“Yes, Sir, I would rather be at a home.”
“Where is your home?”
“My young master lives in Missouri.”
“How old are you?”
“Don’t’ know, Sir.”
“What is your name?”
“Mary.”
“What else?”
“Nothing else, just Mary.
“Can you read any?”
“ No, Sir, I never learnt to read.”
“Does you master let you go to meeting?”
“Yes, Sir, sometimes.”
“Well, Mary, be a good girl, and although you have a hard time in this world, you will get to a better world by and by.”
Tears flowed freely down her dark cheek. She could make no reply and I continued, “I think it is very wicked, Mary, that colored people are used so bad in this world, but those of us who think so cannot help it.”
“No,” said she, “all we can do is to hope for a better world” whilst tears flowed freely down her face.
O, my God, how long must those unfortunate victims of oppression groan under this accursed system!
8 o’clock P.M. Supper being over, the gentlemen’s cabin is made ready and a regular dance is going off. Some of the ladies have to leave their prattling babes in the care of others while they join in the revelry of the evening. O! What a world of iniquity there is upon those waters! Tongue cannot describe it!
The United Brethren have very specific beliefs about what is right and what is wrong. Key to their core values was equality and plainness of manner. They were even against dancing so much it was discouraged from the pulpit. On this day, while a passenger on the Sparhawk, he was dealing with a violation of everything he had been taught while a member of the United Brethren. I think that racism is a very lopsided way to see the world. One kind of skin being “better” than the other is just wrong. We are all people and being from one part of the world does not mean you are better or worse.
On the second leg of the journey, they were on the wagon train headed to Oregon. Being a religious train, a question was raised about whether or not to travel on the Sabbath. The train was running behind schedule, a vote was held, and the majority decided to travel so as not to miss the deadline for the land grant. Though Reverend Connor wanted to follow his principles, he was also a practical man and allowed the company to continue. Reverend Connor also made very smart decisions about what should happen. One example of this is in the near miss of an Indian attack on June 15, 1853.
Our company was thrown into quite a panic this morning, when about 6 miles from the fort we were stopped by an Indian trader and informed that hostilities had commenced between the Missouri Sioux Indians and the soldiers of the fort, that they had come to an engagement the day before which resulted in the death of 9 whites and 6 Indians. Our company with others called a council to determine what should be done. Wilst we were yet consulting, a messenger arrived and informed us that the Indians were collected to the no. of 500 and were sending off their squaws and children and had killed 30 head of cattle that morning belonging to emigrants and had declared they would kill every white man on the road, &c. Under those circumstances it was thought best to halt until a considerable company would come up and then move on. We accordingly waited until ten o’clock when we found we had about 75 wagons and one hundred men. We then moved on cautiously to the fort when lo and behold! There was scarcely an Indian to be seen, and everything as quite as a country village.
This near miss of an Indian attack is one of many adventures that Reverend Thomas Jefferson Connor and the preacher’s wagon train encountered while on the trail to Oregon. Indians were treated as savages just because they did not have all the machinery that we had then. We do not treat Africans like savages just because many places in Africa are in poverty. We may be heading that way ourselves.
Reverend Connor’s train arrived in Oregon City on September 27 of the same year and sailed up the Willamette River on the sailboat Ohio to the settlement Marysville. Their work had just started.
They arrived at the Bethers acreage on October 7, 1853 where the Corvallis Country Club and Oak Lawn Cemetery are now located and where his brother’s grandson, Ralph Owen Connor, my grandfather is buried. I visit the cemetery about twice a year. Once during Christmas and during the summer when I spend time with my grandparents.
Prior to The Brethren arriving in Oregon, the Shipley’s, a slave owning family, came to Oregon. Ruben “Shipley”, their best slave, also came with the promise of freedom. Ruben left his wife and two sons hoping to be able to buy their freedom later. Before he could free his family, his wife had died and the man who now owned his sons refused to let Ruben buy them. Ruben then married Mary Jane “Holmes”, and against the advice of his friends, Reverend Connor, Jerry Hartley and Eldridge Hartless, purchased her freedom, which was already hers in Oregon, a slave-free state. The black Shipley family raised three boys and three girls near Corvallis. William Wyatt suggested that the highest point of the Shipley estate be converted to a cemetery. Ruben agreed, on the condition that black people could be buried there. Ruben and one of his daughters died of smallpox and were buried there. Mary remarried and after her second husband died, she returned to Philomath and was buried next to Ruben and her children.
In 1854, Reverend Connor established the Mt. Union Schoolhouse and Church where the Mt. Union Cemetery is now located, and where Reverend Connor is buried. Another school was erected beyond where the Philomath is now located and was called Maple Grove School. Parents complained that their children could not get to school because the river was too high at times. In 1865, a meeting was held at the Mt. Union Schoolhouse to decide if an institution for higher learning should be built. The majority of the people wanted a new school to be built, so with Reverend Connor leading the way, plans for Philomath College were developed. Over 300 acres were purchased from David Henderson by the board of Philomath College for $2,500. Lots were laid out and a portion was set aside for the campus in the middle of the town.
Upon arrival in Marysville, Connor and Kennoyer decided to split the area into a north and south districts. The Southern district, headed by Connor was called Philomath, which means, “Love of learning in Greek; and the Northern district, headed by Reverend Kennoyer was called “Yam Hill.” With a primary school already underway in Philomath, Kennoyer decided to start a preparatory school for the kids to go to when they were done with the primary school in Philomath. Reverend Milton Wright, father of renowned aeronauts Orville and Wilbur Wright, headed Sublimity Prep, as it was later called.
The first year of the college’s operation 100 students attended paying $3 to $10 a semester. The president and vice-president for the college were Hannon and E.E. Woodward respectively.
A half-section of land was purchased from David Henderson for $2,510. A half-section of land is the size of Philomath (or about 5.25 mi2). The land not needed for the college was divided into lots. The lots had certain conditions on them such as no gambling saloons or theaters. $1,321 was raised between the cost of the property and the sales of the lots. Paying for the building cost $3,000 and put the college in debt for $1,769, which they hoped to make up with the tuition for the first year. Other colleges opened up, specifically the Corvallis College and the Oregon Agricultural College competed with Philomath College. Corvallis College and the Oregon Agricultural College merged into one because each had financial problems. During this spike is activity in Corvallis, Philomath College had a significant drop-off in enrollment. Philomath College closed in 1912 due to a schism in the church leaving both fractions with a lack of funding.
Before Oregon Agricultural College merged with the Corvallis College, it went bankrupt and was sold at an auction to Reverend Orceneth Fisher from the South Methodist Episcopal Church. Later that year it reopened as Corvallis College with Reverend Culp as its principal. A new Oregon Agricultural College reopened as Oregon’s land grant school with federal funds. In 1867, the new Oregon Agricultural College combined with second Corvallis College to form a state school. Oregon Agricultural College took over Corvallis College in 1870 and later became Oregon State University with the ability to grant a Bachelor of Science and a Bachelor and Master of Arts. A sea grant, space grant and sun grant designations came later, making Oregon State University one of only two universities in the nation to hold all four titles. I would like to go to Oregon State University not only because my parents went there along with most of my immediate family, but because my family and I have many ties to Benton County and because Oregon State University offers very good engineering and technical design courses.
Thomas Jefferson Connor, in addition to opening Philomath College also owned the first general merchandise store in the mid-Willamette Valley. He purchased the 88th block of town on August 25, 1869 for $200 from George Hinkle. It was located at what is now the Northwest intersection of 13th and Main. The deed states that “no theater, grog shop, tippling house, gambling saloon, spirituous or malt liquor vending establishment of any kind” be allowed. On this site, though not the original building, stands the CD&J Café. I have had lunch there and I can vouch it has some of the best bacon I have ever tasted.
The Mt. Union Cemetery, land donated by Shipley, is the final resting place of Hannah Phoebe (Borden) Connor who died on January 8, 1873 because of unknown causes. She was 55 years old. Her gravestone is one of the first you see as you enter Mt. Union Cemetery. Reverend Thomas Jefferson Connor is also said to be buried there. He, among other abolitionists of his time are laying in Mt. Union Cemetery and mark a time of one of the greatest growth periods in Oregon.
Bibliography
Year: 1880; Census Place: Indianapolis, Marion, Indiana; Roll: T9_295
A SHORT HISTORY OF THE OREGON-IDAHO ANNUAL CONFERENCE, Raymond E. Balcomb and Robert W. Burtner. Unknown. <>
. Oregon State University. 2008. <>
Roy Bennet. “The Life and Times of Lizzy De Moss.” Corvallis Music History Project
June 14 2008. <>
Benton County Historical Society. History of the Philomath College Building. Oregon: Benton County Historical Society. 2009.
Chronological History of Oregon State University 1860. 11 Aug. 2008 <>
Reverend Thomas Jefferson Connor, Diary of the trip to Oregon, 18 March 1853.
The original handwritten diary is in the possession of the Benton County historical
Society, Philomath, Oregon. Diary used with permission.
Diary, June 5, 1853
Diary, June 15, 1853
Transcript of Interview with Jerry Hinckley
John B. Horner, Oregon. Portland, Oregon: The J.K. Gill Company, 1921.
John B. Horner, Oregon. Portland, Oregon: The J.K. Gill Company, 1921.
John B. Horner, Oregon. Portland, Oregon: The J.K. Gill Company, 1921.
Interview
Olsen, L, “Pioneers of Benton County Oregon.” Pioneers of Benton County Oregon” 1 Apr. 2008.
<>
Oregon. Commission on Capital Punishment. Deed and plat. Benton County, 1869.
United Brethren. Steve Dennie, Webmaster. Unknown. United Brethren Offices. <>.
Appendix
Portland Public Schools
| Peopling the Nation - Thomas Jefferson Connor
Year: 1880; Census Place: Indianapolis, Marion, Indiana; Roll: T9_295
John B. Horner, Oregon, p. 152
Reverend Thomas Jefferson Connor, Diary of the trip to Oregon, 18 March 1853. The original handwritten diary is in the possession of the Benton county historical society, Philomath, Oregon. Diary used with permission.
John B. Horner, Oregon, p. 152
Transcript of Interview with Jerry Hinckley
John B. Horner, Oregon, p. 152
History of the Philomath College Building pg. 2
by
cnnrward (student)
