Benton County history

The earliest settlement was established in 1848 by David Gilman in Watab.

As Europeans moved west and began to settle in indigenous lands in ever-increasing numbers, however, the introduction of European diseases such as small pox and malaria decimated the population; by 1849, there were fewer than 600 Kalapuya people living in the central Willamette Valley.

Three years later, in 1854, the first county courthouse was erected.

Thomas Hart Benton died in Washington D.C. on April 10, 1858.

Oregon State University Memorabilia Collection, circa 1860-present The Memorabilia Collection is an artificial collection containing items of interest about Oregon State University and to a lesser extent, the city of Corvallis, Benton County, and the state of Oregon.

Among the publications included in the collection is an 1875 edition of the Benton County Almanac (Box 01) which includes a brief introduction with information about Benton County, Corvallis, and other communities and advertisements for local and regional businesses.

Smaller groups of Irish, Belgians, French, and French-Canadians had small settlements also. It grew quickly after 1877.

Oregon: D.D. Fagan, 1885.

A life-long resident of Albany, Oregon, Tripp earned a BS in Secretarial Science from Oregon State College in 1940.

Oregon: Benton County Pioneer Historical Society., 1975.