Linn County Towns and Geographical Places

Sand Ridge through Woodraffe

Jump to:  Sand Ridge - Santiam - Santiam City - Santyam Forks - Scio - Shedd - ShelburnSoda Springs - Soda Stone - SodavilleSpicer - Sweet Home - Syracuse - Takenah - Tallman - Tangent - Thomas - ThurstonTulsa - Twin Buttes - Union Point - Upper Soda - Verdure - Washington Butte  - Waterloo  - Went  - West Scio - Whitaker - Whitcomb - Williams - Woodraffe

Sand Ridge

Location:  Twp 12S, Rge 3W, Sect 24

Name Origin: 

Other Names:  Iola

Post Office Established: 

First Postmaster: 

Post Office Discontinued 

Considered the geographic center of Linn County.  A town was planned, but never established.  See "County Seat Question".

Santiam

Location:  Twp 13S, Rge 1W, Sect 15

Name Origin:  Santiam Indians, a Kalapooian tribe.

Other Names: 

Post Office Established:  16 Jan 1887

First Postmaster:  James Hatchett (Matchett?)                More Postmasters

Post Office Discontinued  26 Apr 1906

The name Santiam, with varied spellings, has been used for several Oregon post offices.   This one was located  between Brownsville and Waterloo.

Santiam

Location:  Twp 12S, Rge 2W, Sect 10 approx.

Name Origin:  Santiam Indians, a Kalapooian tribe.

Other Names: 

Post Office Established:  14 Mar 1851

First Postmaster:  Russell T. Hill                        More Postmasters

Post Office Discontinued  30 Jul 1852

The name Santiam, with varied spellings, has been used for several Oregon post offices.   This one was located near Lebanon.  See Town Histories -- Lebanon.

Santiam City

Location:  Twp 10S, Rge 3W, Sect 3

Name Origin: 

Other Names:  Syracuse

Post Office Established:  14 Mar 1851

First Postmaster:  Samuel S. Miller                    More Postmasters

Post Office Discontinued  3 Jun 1852

The name Santiam, with varied spellings, has been used for several Oregon post offices.   This one was located  in the northwest corner of Linn County, near Jefferson.  See Syracuse.

Santyam Forks

Location:  Twp 10S, Rge 1W, Sect 18

Name Origin:  Near Crabtree

Other Names: 

Post Office Established:  9 Apr 1850

First Postmaster:  Jacob Conser                        More Postmasters

Post Office Discontinued  27 Jul 1852

The name Santiam, with varied spellings, has been used for several Oregon post offices. 

From Oregon Geographic Names:  An office called Santyam Forks was established in Linn County, Apr. 9, 1850, with Jacob Conser postmaster.  John Crabtree became postmaster Oct 4, 1850, and the office was discontinued July 27, 1852.  It is known that Jacob Conser was living near the present site of Scio early in 1850, and John Crabtree lived in the same general locality.  It may be assumed that the office was in the neighborhood.

Scio

Location:  Twp 10S, Rge 1W, Sect 18

Name Origin:  Scio, Ohio

Other Names:  McDonald's Precinct

Post Office Established:  3 Oct 1860

First Postmaster:  Euphronius E. Wheeler                      More Postmasters

Post Office Discontinued 

Early Linn County, town, tenth incorporated town in Oregon.  See Town Histories.

Shedd

Location:  Twp 13S, Rge 3W, Sect 7

Name Origin:  Captain Frank Shedd DLC

Other Names:  Shedds

Post Office Established:  28 Aug 1871

First Postmaster:  Almon Wheeler                      More Postmasters

Post Office Discontinued  25 Aug 1871

Railroad town, south of Albany.  See Town Histories -- Boston.

Shelburn

Location:  Twp 10S, Rge 2W, Sect 1

Name Origin:  Combination of parts of the names of two pioneer residents, Shelton and Washburn

Other Names: 

Post Office Established:  9 Jun 1890

First Postmaster:  Nevils B. Washburn               More Postmasters

Post Office Discontinued  31 Jul 1946

Post office and town, north of Scio, now abandoned.  See Town Histories.

Soda Springs

Location:  Twp 13S, Rge 1E, Sect East

Name Origin:  Descriptive of soda springs in area.

Other Names: 

Post Office Established:  24 Sept 1869

First (and only) Postmaster:  Daniel D. Gibson

Post Office Discontinued  7 Dec 1873

First of several post offices located in the area of mineral springs, northeast of Foster. ("Soda Springs" was also used as a name of Sodaville, but this post office was at Foster.)   

Soda Stone

Location:  Twp 13S, Rge 3E, Sect or 4E

Name Origin: 

Other Names:  Sodaville

Post Office Established:  14 Mar 1876

First (and only) Postmaster:  Isaac Hutchins

Post Office Discontinued  11 Sept 1876

Post office at community of Sodaville.  See Town Histories.

Sodaville

Location:  Twp 12S, Rge 2W, Sect 36

Name Origin: 

Other Names: 

Post Office Established:  16 Apr 1873

First Postmaster:  William A. Peterson               More Postmasters

Post Office Discontinued  8 Dec 1933

Early settlement and mineral springs resort, southwest of Lebanon.  See Town Histories.

Spicer

Location:  Twp 11S, Rge 2W, Sect 28

Name Origin:  Local resident, W. E. Spicer

Other Names:  Leng

Post Office Established:  17 Aug 1886

First Postmaster:  Adam A. Basher                    More Postmasters

Post Office Discontinued  30 Nov 1904

Railway station, shipping point on the Oregonian Railway narrow gauge line running from Shelburn to Brownsville.  See Town Histories.

Sweet Home

Location:  Twp 13S, Rge 1E, Sect 31-32

Name Origin:  Descriptive of geographic area.

Other Names:  Buckhead

Post Office Established:  13 Mar 1874

First Postmaster:  John R. Hughes                     More Postmasters

Post Office Discontinued 

Early settlement, long a sleepy little town, later industrialized by logging and timber industry.  See Town Histories.

Syracuse

Location:  Twp 10S, Rge 3W, Sect 3

Name Origin: 

Other Names:  Hale's Ferry

Post Office Established:  4 Oct 1850

First Postmaster: 

Post Office Discontinued  27 Jul 1852

Very early settlement of northwest Linn County, along North Santiam River and near Jefferson. 

From Land of Linn:  "Syracuse, earlier known as Hale's Ferry, was the first town in Linn County to be born and the first to die.  A gravel bar, out in the middle of the Santiam River, serves as a tombstone.

Milton Hale saw the importance of establishing a ferry to ply between the north and south banks of the Santiam River a few miles downstream from present Jefferson, Oregon.  Here he built as ferry for the travelling settlers and in 1846 platted the townsite of Syracuse.  On his claim was the best ferry site for quite a distance, and his was the only ferry upon the river.  Practically all immigrants travelling southward headed for the ferry.  A post office, store, blacksmith shop and dwellings sprung up.  The post office was established October 4, 1850 with the name and location being changed to Santiam City, July 27, 1852.

On the opposite north bank another area of land was platted by Samuel Miller and named Santiam City.  Settlement came to both sites but the Santiam City location became the more aggressive of the two, and Syracuse began to decline.  However, the flood of 1861 put an end to both towns as they were completely washed away.  Today, both sites, now only a ghostly memory, lie under the gravel bed of the Santiam River."

Takenah

Location:  Twp 11S, Rge 3W, Sect 5, 6, 7, 8

Name Origin:  Indian word for "deep and placid pool" or perhaps "hole in the ground"..

Other Names: 

Post Office Established: 

First Postmaster: 

Post Office Discontinued 

For two years, the name of Albany.  See Town Histories.

Tallman

Location:  Twp 11S, Rge 2W, Sect 32

Name Origin:  Local settler James Tallman

Other Names: 

Post Office Established:  19 Jul 1886

First Postmaster:  Elvis E. Hammack                 More Postmasters

Post Office Discontinued  15 Aug 1923

Railway stop, with tracks running north, south, east and west from its busy depot, northwest of Lebanon.  See Town Histories.

Tangent

Location:  Twp 12S, Rge 3W, Sect 7

Name Origin:  Descriptive of long stretch of rail tracks in area.

Other Names: 

Post Office Established:  17 Sept 1872

First Postmaster:  Thomas J. Beard                   More Postmasters

Post Office Discontinued 

Railway station on the Southern Pacific line south of Albany.  See Town Histories.

Thomas

Location:  Twp 10S, Rge 2E, Sect 7

Name Origin:  Fredrick Thomas of Thomas Creek.

Other Names: 

Post Office Established:  4 May 1898

First Postmaster:  William Price             More Postmasters

Post Office Discontinued  31 Jan 1921

A railroad station on the Oregon Pacific Railroad, later the Corvallis & Eastern, near the mouth of Thomas Creek.  See Town Histories.

Thurston

Location:  Twp 15S, Rge 4W, Sect 9 & 16

Name Origin:  Samuel R. Thurston, first territorial delegate in Congress.

Other Names:  Harrisburg

Post Office Established:  31 Dec 1853

First (and only) Postmaster:  Gamaliel Parrish

Post Office Discontinued  3 Dec 1856

The name Thurston was probably used more than once in Linn County.  It was an early name for what was later called Harrisburg, but perhaps the post office was located elsewhere.  See Town Histories -- Harrisburg. 

From Land of Linn: "Thurston is assumed to have been located in the Harrisburg area, but some written statements indicate that the Thurston store and post office were located upon the Gamaliel Parrish property about two miles west of the old Rock Hill schoolhouse southwest of Lebanon on the Lebanon-Brownsville road."

Tulsa

Location:  Twp 13S, Rge 4W, Sect 34

Name Origin: 

Other Names: 

Post Office Established: 

First Postmaster: 

Post Office Discontinued 

Station on the Oregon Electric Railway line

Twin Buttes

Location:  Twp 14S, Rge 3W, Sect 15

Name Origin: 

Other Names: 

Post Office Established: 

First Postmaster: 

Post Office Discontinued 

Station on the Southern Pacific Company line.

Union Point

Location:  Twp 14S, Rge 2W, Sect 18

Name Origin: 

Other Names: 

Post Office Established:  18 Feb 1854

First Postmaster:  William Blain             More Postmasters

Post Office Discontinued  18 Aug 1859

Very early settlement, near Brownsville, site of historic union of two branches of the Presbyterian church.  See Town Histories.

Upper Soda

Location:  Twp 13S, Rge 4E, Sect 26

Name Origin:  Descriptive of soda springs in area.

Other Names: 

Post Office Established: 

First Postmaster: 

Post Office Discontinued 

Community, mineral springs, near Foster.

Verdure

Location:  Twp 12S, Rge 4W, Sect 22

Name Origin: 

Other Names: 

Post Office Established: 

First Postmaster: 

Post Office Discontinued 

Station on the Oregon Electric Railway line.

Washington Butte

Location:  Twp 12S, Rge 2W, Sect 10 approx

Name Origin:  George Washington?

Other Names: 

Post Office Established:  30 Jul 1852

First Postmaster:  John W. Bell             More Postmasters

Post Office Discontinued  2 Nov 1859

Early post office in the Lebanon area.  See Town Histories.

Waterloo

Location:  Twp 12S, Rge 1W, Sect 28 & 29

Name Origin:  See notes.

Other Names:  Kees Mill

Post Office Established:  5 Jan 1875

First Postmaster:  Stephen D. Gager                  More Postmasters

Post Office Discontinued 

Early settlement, southeast of Lebanon.  See Town Histories.

Went

Location:  Twp 12S, Rge 3W, Sect 12

Name Origin: 

Other Names: 

Post Office Established: 

First Postmaster: 

Post Office Discontinued 

Unable to locate any information about this locale -- railway station?  Still appears as vicinity on local maps, local road signs.

West Scio

Location:  Twp 10S, Rge 2W, Sect 12

Name Origin: 

Other Names: 

Post Office Established: 

First Postmaster: 

Post Office Discontinued 

A station on the Southern Pacific Company line.

Whitaker

Location:  Twp 12S, Rge 2W, Sect approx.

Name Origin: 

Other Names: 

Post Office Established: 

First Postmaster: 

Post Office Discontinued 

Appears as populated place on USGS; otherwise unable to locate.

Whitcomb

Location:  Twp 12S, Rge 3W, Sect 31

Name Origin: 

Other Names: 

Post Office Established:  26 Dec 1889

First (and only) Postmaster:  George B. Whitcomb

Post Office Discontinued  15 May 1899

A locality on Quartzville Creek about 15 miles northeast of Sweet Home, now inundated by Green Peter Lake.  The name has been preserved in Whitcomb Island.

Williams

Location:  Twp 9S, Rge 1E, Sect 21

Name Origin: 

Other Names: 

Post Office Established: 

First Postmaster: 

Post Office Discontinued 

A station on the Southern Pacific Company line.

Woodraffe

Location:  Twp 15S, Rge 1E, Sect 34

Name Origin: 

Other Names: 

Post Office Established: 

First Postmaster: 

Post Office Discontinued 

Station on the Oregon Electric Railway and Southern Pacific Company lines.

 

More Towns:  Abberdeen Crowfoot    Dever Griggs   Halsey Lyons  Marion Forks Rowland   Sand Ridge Woodraffe

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