An Urban Interpretation of Oregon Settlement

Everett G. Smith, Jr. University of Oregon An Urban Interpretation of Oregon Settlement The importance of cities and the dominance of urban functions in modern American life should be evident to most everyone. As the tendency increases for people to live in and around cities, social scientists often employ the word "urban" as the strategic explanatory variable for a host of research efforts. Aside from the fact that "urban" has sometiiing to do with cities, there is little agreement over the meaning of the concept. If "urban" is viewed not only as a relatively large and dense form of setdement, but also as a social structure and style of life for a respectable proportion of a total population, tìien conventional notions about evolving American settlement merit re-examination.1 This paper raises questions about the significance of urbanization in the settling of Oregon during the past century. It can be argued that if urbanization involves processes not only of population concentration but also of a growing share of a total population engaged in urban activities of exchange and organization, then towns loom larger in the story of Oregon settlement than is generally recognized . For despite the limited size of most Oregon places tìirough the 19th and early 20th centuries, a surprising share of the total population resided in towns and villages. In 1880, for example, towns accounted for a quarter of Oregon's population. Near the end of his career, Frederick Jackson Turner predicted an urban reinterpretation of our history; however, there is little danger in overemphasizing towns in an historical geography of Ore1 See John Friedmann, "Two Concepts of Urbanization: A Comment," Urban Affairs Quarterly, Vol. 1, No. 4, June, 1966, pp. 78-84. In this paper the concept "urban" refers more to facts of physical nucleation of settlement and a mix of economic, political, and social activities than to measures of size. 43 44ASSOCIATION OF PACIFIC COAST GEOGRAPHERS gon.2 The saga of the emigrant trekking to the Far West over trails mountain men had marked and staking out farms in lush valleys like the Willamette overshadows the prominence of early urban activity on the Pacific slope.3 What evidence supports the view that towns played a more significant role in the development of the Far West than is generally acknowledged? Even in sparsely populated states, historian Earl Pomeroy has observed, "Society was remarkably urbanized. The prospective settler headed for Salt Lake City, San Francisco, and Portland, or one of their later rivals; if he did not work in the city, he visited it often, and it dominated his life."4 Speculators and entrepreneurs in the Far West required urban settlements. When homesteaders and miners began to move into Oregon and California, they too needed ports to handle their supplies and their commerce. In an analysis of city growth in the 19th century, Adna Weber expressed surprise to find so large a proportionate number of town dwellers in the Far West compared with the Midwest.5 For instance, in 1890 the proportion of Portìand's population to the Oregon total was greater than that of the combined population of all cities of 10,000 or more in Indiana and Kentucky to their state totals.8 Despite the large increments of people to towns in recent years, the belief, pronounced in the news media, that urban life is a recent intrusion into the American experience needs revision. A realization that modern urban life has historical roots could stimulate study of earlier solutions to town problems as possible alternatives to pres2 For example, excerpts from a feature in the Eugene Register-Guard describing the beginnings of die University of Oregon stressed the agrarian qualities of early life among white settlers in die State. Education did not excite Oregonians, because "a day in the fields eking out a living left diem with little energy for study." Apart from the few who received higher education in church schools, "everyone else stuck with his prayer book and plow." Fred Crafts, "University Town," Eugene Register-Guard, Emerald Empire, Sunday, January 8, 1967, p. 3. 'William Diamond, "On the Dangers of an Urban Interpretation of History," in Eric F. Goldman (ed.), Historiography...