Editor’s note: As part of The Chronicle’s flash to the past, excerpts below are extracted or summarized from the draft pages of the “Historic Atlas of Springfield, Oregon,” to be published later this year. Read more about that project here.
The Willamette Valley has been home to Indigenous people for over 14,000 years. The first occupants of Springfield were Kalapuyans. White settlers started appearing in the 1840s.
Springfield started just as it sounds, as a spring in a field. In 1849, Elias Briggs and his wife immigrated to Oregon and settled on a 640-acre plot near present-day B Street. The area he fenced as his homestead contained a “bubbling spring” from which the descriptive name Springfield comes.
This 1973 photo shows Phil Kushlan, the city manager’s administrative assistant, looking into the spring that gave Springfield its name.
SPRINGFIELD HISTORY MUSEUM PHOTO
“You would not believe how long we’ve looked for photos of the spring itself. The closest one we found was the one of the (Phil Kushlan) looking into it,” said Jenna Fribley, a key player in the creation of the atlas, referencing the 1973 photo above. “That one wasn’t even labeled as the spring; we figured that out later.”
The spring was filled in, and the present-day Spring Site Apartments at 195 B St. were built atop, along with a commemorative plaque in 1983.
SPRINGFIELD HISTORY MUSEUM PHOTO
When Springfield was plotted in 1856, Kalapuyans and other western Oregon tribes were forcibly relocated to the Grand Ronde and Siletz reservations to make room for further settlement. Settlers allowed Indigenous people to work seasonally in the Willamette Valley. This gave the tribes “a unique status as both original inhabitants of the area and also its first migrant workers.”
Hops played an important role in Springfield’s early days. Hops, used for flavoring and preserving beer, was a cash crop for early farmers like Alexander Seavey.
According to 1975 oral history quotes from H. Farmer Franklin, a former hop buyer for Seavey Ranch between 1914-37, noting that Seavey Ranch “had a special place for the Indians to camp and a special yard for them to pick in. … The Indians came down here to pick hops then – they’d stop up there at the hatchery where they were taking the eggs out of the salmon, and they’d take those old salmon, and they’d dry them, and they’d come down there maybe two or three weeks before hop picking time.”
Workers were paid by the pound rather than by the hour. By the 1930s, hop-pickers earned about $1.25-$1.50 per hundred pounds of hops. A skilled hop-picker could earn $3-$4 a day.
River ferries were among the first settler businesses. Downtown Springfield started as two blocks near the Willamette River ferry crossing.
This 1913 photo shows the Deadmond Ferry, which crossed near present-day Riverbend Hospital.
SPRINGFIELD HISTORY MUSEUM PHOTO
Next week, The Chronicle will continue its look into Springfield’s past by examining the evolution of transportation and industrialization in the 1900s.
Click here to see excerpts, summaries and photos from the draft pages of the Atlas.
Do you know more about this topic or have other stories about Springfield to share? Contact McGraw at [email protected] to help fill in the blanks of local history.
This reporter is supported by the Catalyst Journalism Project at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication.
Timeline: Springfield in the 1800s
Pre-1830: Thirteen Kalapuyan Tribes inhabited the Willamette, Elk Creek, and Calapooya watersheds in Western Oregon, including the Winefelly, Mohawk, and Chafin tribes.
1830: A malaria epidemic reduced the Kalapuya population from 10,000 to 350.
1847: William Stevens became Springfield’s first white settler, staking a Donation Land Claim near Riverbend Hospital.
1849: Elias Briggs claimed land with a natural spring, leading to the establishment of Springfield, and began a ferry service across the Willamette River.
1850: The Donation Land Claim Act validated claims but excluded Black, Native, and Hawaiian Islander settlers. Treaties forced remaining Kalapuya onto reservations.
1851: Stevens’ house was built, now Lane County’s oldest structure; the East Side Territorial Road was extended through Springfield.
1852: Briggs began digging the millrace; Felix Scott, Sr. established the first sawmill on the McKenzie River.
1853: The Briggs and Driggs Company built the first sawmill and flour mill in Springfield.
1856: Springfield was platted in two blocks.
1859: Oregon achieved statehood on Feb. 14.
1861: The first Springfield Post Office was established.
1871: The main railroad line bypassed Springfield for Eugene.
1875: Bob E. Campbell’s house on Aspen Street became a historic landmark; the bridge was replaced by a covered wooden carriage bridge.
1885: Springfield was incorporated on Feb. 25, with Albert Walker as the first mayor.
1890: The Clark Hotel opened, followed by a steel wagon bridge replacing a wooden one.
1891: Springfield gained rail service with the Southern Pacific Railroad depot.
1893: A city charter and an opera house opened; Franklin Chase established Chase Gardens.
1895: Springfield’s first city hall was built.
1896: The Pruneville School was established, and Booth-Kelly Lumber Company formed the town of Wendling.
