| Introduction
The circa 1863 John Quincy Adams and Elizabeth Young house is locally significant under National Register Criterion A for its association with the early growth and community development of the Cedar Mill area in Washington County, Oregon. Serving as the residence of the John Q.A. and Elizabeth Constable Young family (circa 1863-1874) and then as the first post office and a store for the community (1874-1881), this is the oldest remaining historic resource in Cedar Mill, and one of a diminishing number of resources from this period in Washington County and in Oregon. The house is also the last remaining above-ground resource associated with the cedar mill for which the community was named. Although not being nominated under National Register Criterion C, the Young House clearly displays the physical characteristics of the vernacular, utilitarian houses commonly built in mid-19th century rural Oregon. Included in the nominated area are three historic trees – a pear, an apple and a hickory – all of which contribute to visual and historic character of the property.
Cedar Mill began its physical manifestation as a community in 1874 with the establishment of the post office in the Young house. Located on the south side of Cornell Road in unincorporated Washington County just east of the present-day Cedar Mill business core, the house was identified in Oregon’s first historic resource survey of 1976, and was subsequently identified as a property of “Primary” significance in the 1983 Washington County Survey.
The Young family (Elam & Irene Young and their three youngest sons, including John Q.A.) came across the Oregon Trail to settle in the Oregon Territory in the late 1840s and survived the Whitman Massacre. In 1869, John Quincy Adams Young bought a sawmill next to Cedar Mill Creek with his partner William Everson and lived in this house just west of the mill. The Youngs occupied the house until 1874 when they moved to a newer, larger residence they had built across Cornell Road. That same year John Q.A. Young was named postmaster, naming the settlement “Cedar Mill” and the subject house was converted for use as a general store and post office for the community. The house continued to be used in this capacity until the end of 1881 when the post office was moved to another nearby location.
The period of significance spans from the presumed construction date of circa 1863 through 1881 when the post office and store operated by John Q.A. Young were closed. There seems to be no definitive information concerning the construction date of the house, and family sources provide dates of either 1863-64 or 1869-70. The earlier beginning date was chosen to accommodate the possibility that the building could have been constructed as early as 1863 (based on family sources) or as late as 1869. Structurally the building is in fair condition, and while it has sustained some alterations (most within the historic period), they do not significantly hinder the building’s ability to convey its historical design, function, or associations.
Washington County Settlement and Community Development
Euro-american settlement in Washington County had begun by 1840 with the arrival of independent fur traders to the Tualatin Plains, among them Joseph Meek. Missionaries and settlers from Canada (Red River Settlers) soon followed, and by 1843 emigration to the Oregon Country was in full swing with 800 settlers arriving from “the States”; the following year there were 1500 settlers, and in 1845 there were nearly 3000. Attracted by the promise of productive farmland, a healthy climate and abundant water, many people braved the difficult crossing in order to have the opportunity to establish farms in the Oregon Territory. In the Tualatin Valley of what would become Washington County, the most fertile lands – those that were clear and readily plow-able, perhaps with some available timber - were settled first, mostly near present day Hillsboro and Forest Grove, stretching up toward North Plains. The mountainous places on the eastern side of county along the west slope of the Tualatin Hills (near present day Cedar Mill) were settled last and used primarily for timber.
The Oregon Territory was originally divided into four administrative districts – the Twality (also spelled “Tuality” and “Tualatin”), Clackamas, Yamhill and Champoick. In 1846 the Twality District became Twality County, and later Washington County in 1849. By 1855, after several boundary adjustments, the county had “...assumed a shape approximating its present configuration...” and the county’s governmental framework had been established.
The 1850 Donation Land Act provided incentive in the form of “free” land for settlers who emigrated to Oregon: a married couple arriving in the Oregon Territory prior to December 1, 1850 was eligible to receive 640 acres after “proving up,” or living on and improving a portion of their claim for several years. Those arriving after 1850 were eligible for 320 acres. Emigrants who settled in Washington County came from states known as the ‘Old Northwest’, which included Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, and many had already migrated from states further east, such as Tennessee, Kentucky or northeastern states. Clan migration to Oregon was fairly common. Families, friends and neighbors would make the decision to come west, and would often travel together and settle claims in close proximity to each other, resulting in pre-established “communities” on the Oregon frontier.
When basic subsistence needs – housing, livestock shelter, and food – had been established, agriculture and timber processing expanded to provide for the increased market. Farming and lumber processing were among the first industries in the Tualatin Valley. The arable soil in the valley between the Tualatin Mountains and the Coast Range was ideal for agricultural development. The California Gold Rush was a significant catalyst for such growth, as much of the produce and lumber needed to support burgeoning mining towns came by ship from the fertile lands in Oregon. As more settlers arrived, lumber was needed to construct homes, buildings, and plank roads for the growing settlements. Local landholders sold or leased timbered areas, and as they were cleared more acreage became available for farming.
Goods were initially transported from the Tualatin Plains to Portland via Canyon Road (through Tanner Creek Canyon), which was improved in response to this need. The Portland & Valley Plank Road Company was established in 1850 to fund the development of this route, which remained the primary “improved” road to Portland until the 1860s. The 1868 survey and construction of Cornell Road would later provide Tualatin Valley farmers and mills with better market access to Portland.
While some towns were named and platted almost immediately, others were formed as population density, infrastructure development and social and commercial needs grew in a particular area. As the need and means arose, the nucleus of a town center would appear in the form of a concentration of buildings, and the early framework of the towns seen today became established. The impetus for such development varied, depending on the site’s proximity to major transportation routes and the needs of the surrounding occupants. The growing trade and commercial center of Portland enticed a number of the early Tualatin area settlers to sell their land not long after arriving, and then relocate to Portland where they invested money, time and effort into that town’s development. Much of Washington County, however, remained rural well into the 20th century.
Cedar Mill is not an incorporated town, but it boasts a strong sense of identity nonetheless. Its boundaries may be roughly defined by “...the community of Bethany on the west and northwest, Bonny Slope on the northeast, Multnomah County line due east, the old Swedeville community to the southeast and Highway 26 directly south.” Samuel Walters is credited with being the original settler in Cedar Mill proper, having arrived in 1847 and remaining on his claim until the 1890s. Other early settlers to Cedar Mill included James and Amanda Flippin, Thomas Pearson, the McGuires’, and the Halls; the Young family settled several miles west. Approximately seven square miles, or 4,300 acres comprised the Cedar Mill area and between 1850 to 1855 sixteen claims were settled.
“By the mid-1850s, the ... judicial precincts of Cedar Mill...Hillsboro...Forest Grove [and others] ... had been named, testifying to the concentration of population and the emergence of discrete regional zones.” Once proper shelter and subsistence crops had been established, settlers turned their efforts to the broader cultural needs of the community. Following the organization of subscription schools in the mid-1850s, the Union School District No. 6 was formally established in 1856; the school was located on NW 143rd Avenue adjacent to the Union Cemetery, also established in the mid-1850s. The district encompassed much of Cedar Mill: all or portions of ten land claims in the area as well as several south. As early as 1858 the Methodist Episcopal church was active in the Cedar Mill area, served by circuit riders who initially met in private residences or in the Union School house. In 1867 Wesley Chapel was finally constructed a few blocks west of the present-day NW Cornell and Murray Blvd. intersection to serve the Cedar Mill faithful. (Figure 10)
Much of the land in the vicinity of Cedar Mill was originally wooded, and lumber milling in the area began early with the establishment of the Jones “cedar mill” circa 1855. Justus Jones, his wife Eliza and sons John (19) and Elihu (4) had come to Oregon in 1852 and initially settled in Clatskanie. They moved to the area now known as Cedar Mill in 1855 and purchased land near NW 119th and Cornell Road from a squatter, subsequently filing a donation land claim for the 183-acre parcel.
The Jones’ constructed the first sawmill in the area on the south side of what would become the Cornell Road alignment near a 32-foot drop of Cedar (Mill) Creek. The mill produced cut lumber as well as cedar shingles that were sold to residents of the immediate vicinity and in Portland but also as far away as Lake Michigan.
In the early years ... the power for the mill was furnished by a large ‘overshot’ wheel (waterwheel) using water from the creek nearby, (later named Mill Creek) the water falling over a natural rock waterfall, giving a 32-foot drop. The same creek also furnished water for the log pond, just north of the mill ... When water was plentiful the mill was kept busy cutting lumber, mostly cedar and occasionally cut logs hauled in from other areas, such as oak from the Bethany area and also from the northeast area in Portland. Many of the homes in the northeast area of Portland were built, and shingled, from the products of this mill, as well as some of the homes in Cedar Mill which are still standing today (1977) ... For several years the mill products were hauled to Portland through the canyons by oxen, later by horses.
As with many early rural Willamette Valley settlements, Cedar Mill’s early community development history was limited to the housing and feeding of families, and the establishment of reliable crops for consumption and market, educational and worship opportunities, and transportation routes. Farms could be as much as a mile apart, and the sense of a community core or business center as it is understood today was limited to larger shipping or commercial points like Portland. By the mid-1860s, the future Cedar Mill community consisted of the Union School, the Union Cemetery, Wesley Chapel and the mill in addition to the farms scattered throughout the area. The earliest business endeavor – and the only one for many years – was the saw mill.
The [Jones] mill provided the economic focal point for the community and was among others in the region, such as Potter’s Mill and Bonlock’s Mill, that were fed by the vast stands of timber along the upper eastern edges of the Tualatin Valley. The lumbering of these tracts induced, or at least coincided with, the second wave of settlement within the region during the late 1870s. The earlier DLCs were subdivided and purchased by immigrants in search of productive farmland, most of which was created by the conversion of the surrounding stumplands.
More extensive growth occurred throughout Washington County with road improvements and the arrival of the railroad in 1870-71, thus effectively ending the isolation of the early Tualatin valley settlements. Though not on the rail line, Cedar Mill became an important link in the Tualatin Valley-Portland travel route, and as a result a more tangible community began to emerge. The Young house, being closely associated with the mill as the residence of the mill owner/operator, was also part of this early “economic focal point,” particularly with the establishment of the Cedar Mill post office and general store in 1874.
The Young Family and Cedar Mill Community Development
It is unclear exactly when John Quincy Adams & Elizabeth Constable Young moved to the Cedar Mill area, but it appears they relocated around 1863 from the Elam Young family land claim, located further west. John Quincy Adams Young was born in Clermont County, Ohio in 1828, the youngest son of Elam & Irene Eaton Young. Elam was a veteran of the War of 1812, and following that war moved to Ohio and eventually to Missouri where he worked as a farmer and millwright.
Struck by the desire to travel to Oregon, Elam Young and his family (wife Irene and three sons James, Daniel and John) embarked on their trip west in the Spring of 1847. According to John Q.A. Young, they arrived at the Whitman Mission in October 1847 en route to The Dalles, and stayed on to work at the Mission so that they could replenish their supplies. At the request of Dr. Whitman, the family traveled to a site some twenty miles north of the Mission to mill lumber at a newly constructed sawmill. The Young family was at this site at the time of the Whitman Massacre on November 29, 1847, and James Young was killed by the members of the Cayuse tribe the following day as he was hauling a load of lumber to the Mission.
Following this tragedy, The family traveled down the Columbia River to Fort Vancouver, and on to Oregon City and where they settled, working at a local sawmill and making tools. In May of 1848 they moved to the Tualatin Valley where Elam took up a claim near present-day Hillsboro. According to John, they
...came on to Portland and stopped there an hour or two. Portland at that time contained two frame houses and a few log huts. The houses stood on Washington Street. We camped that night on Ross Island, about two miles above Portland, and the next day we reached Oregon City, destitute of everything. The Indians had taken all of our property except what few bundles we could carry in our hands, and a sorry lot it was….My brother Daniel and I secured a contract cutting twenty cords of wood at one dollar a cord for a man by the name of Stewart, a blacksmith, to make charcoal for this shop… My brother then went to work in a sawmill. My father made patterns occasionally for one Price, who owned a foundry, and as for myself, I made ax handles with a butcher-knife and sold them to the stores...
On the 10th of May, 1848, we moved to the Tualatin plains in Washington County, and worked that summer for Walter Pomeroy, Sr. ... In the fall of 1849, we went on the place now occupied by T.L. McEldowney. There we got along about as Oregonians usually did in those days. We lived on boiled, dried and boiled wheat when we failed to get our wheat ground at Oregon City, the nearest mill. Father and mother died here. Here I was married to an estimable young lady, whose sweet face I now behold.
Census data indicates that Elam Young worked as a millwright while in Washington County, but died in 1855, and is buried at the Union Cemetery. His wife Irene, their two sons Daniel and John and their families continued to live and work on the farm. Irene died in 1865, and Daniel and his family stayed on the claim until circa 1880. John Q.A. married Elizabeth Constable on December 25, 1856.
Little verifiable information has been found about Elizabeth Constable Young. According to the 1850 census, she was born in Missouri and was living there in that year with her parents James Barton & Martha and several younger siblings. The family started on the Oregon Trail in 1852, but in June 1852 Barton and Martha died on the Trail, apparently of cholera. According to J.Q.A. Young’s memoir, “She was one of five orphans brought to the Oregon Territory by their father's nephew and lived at his home until grown. Her parents perished while enroute [sic] across the plains to the West [1852],” and it appears that Elizabeth and her younger sister Mary grew up on the Constable claim north of Elam Young and his family. On marrying John in 1856, she moved to the Young claim. John had received the east half of his parents’ claim from his father in 1854, and John Q.A. and Elizabeth remained on that land and continued farming it until circa 1863 when they relocated several miles east to Cedar Mill.
The house in which they lived in Cedar Mill (the subject house) was built sometime in the 1860s, but a precise date of construction or by whom it was built has not been determined. Some family tradition supports a construction date of 1863-64, but a number of other citations suggest 1869 or 1870 as the date of Young’s purchase of the land and the mill, construction of the house, and the family’s relocation to Cedar Mill. One family source provides this insight on the years following John and Elizabeth’s 1856 marriage:
They lived on his parents farm (Elam Young DLC, Orenco) a few years, later moving to Cedar Mill area in 1862 and built a log cabin as a tempory [sic] home, on a creek just south of the mill. In 1863-1864 they built a 2-story ‘box’ house, near the mill and falls where they resided for ten years – then built a third residence, a large two-story home on 200 acres of ground, to the north.
The 1863-64 date is echoed in several other sources, including notes on the back of a circa 1888 photograph of the house, a 1958 Hillsboro Argus article, as well as in a 1943 entry in Oregon Geographic Names. The 1869 date may be a simplified (but perhaps inaccurate) way of dating the house by encompassing a series of events that actually happened over a period of years starting in the early 1860s. Sources that support the later date include a document supposedly written by J.Q.A. Young himself; this information has also been attributed to his daughter, Mabel Young McIlwain. Regardless, neither date is currently verifiable through archival research or physical analysis of the building. Lacking any additional or more compelling evidence, the period of significance therefore begins circa 1863 in order to encompass the possibility that the building may have been constructed at that time. Whether the house was built by the Jones’ or the Youngs is also not clear. Sited approximately one block south and west of the sawmill, the builder likely utilized wood sawn at the mill, but by or for whom the house was constructed remains unknown.
By 1869, the Jones’ had been operating their mill for almost 15 years and in December of that year, John Q.A. Young and William R. Everson formed a business partnership and purchased the Jones family sawmill for the sum of $5,000. The relationship between these two men does not appear to be sudden or purely economic. The Eversons and the Youngs had both come from the same Ohio county, settled Oregon claims in close proximity, and lived near each other in Cedar Mill; it is possible, perhaps likely, that they knew each other before arriving in Oregon. 1870 census records indicate that John (listed as “Lumberman”) and Elizabeth (listed as “Keeping House”) and their five children James, William, Jasper, Abraham Lincoln, and Lowell were then residing in the subject house. (The family would continue to grow with the birth of Frank in 1871, Martha Elizabeth in 1878 and Mabel in 1882.) (Figures 11-13)
Everson and Young operated the mill for several years and continued producing shakes, shingles and milled lumber, with many of the products being sold in Portland. During this time John Q.A. Young and his growing family occupied the subject house, which was located just west and south of the mill site. No other mill-related buildings remain, but a depression indicates the location of the former mill pond across Cornell to the northeast of the house.
“About the time J.Q.A. Young and William Everson purchased Justus Jones’ cedar mill in 1869, the business community of the area began to emerge. By 1867, Barnes Road had been surveyed and the following year Cornell Road was connected to Portland. Once these routes were established, a ready commercial market was created.” With these improvements, the arrival of the railroad to the region, and the splitting up of larger early land holdings, a second wave of settlement occurred in the 1870s, bringing immigrants from Ireland, Switzerland and Germany as well as new arrivals from the eastern states. Most of these later settlers engaged in agriculture, making use of the former timber land that had been cleared by the mills operating along the west slope of the Tualatin Hills.
In 1871, John Q.A. Young sold his interest in the mill business to Everson for $2,000, and in January of 1874 he
... received an appointment as postmaster and was commissioned to establish a post office in the area. The name Young selected, “Cedar Mill,” was an obvious choice for two reasons. The sawmill, which specialized in cedar products, was located next to the postal building and had long been a source of revenue for the area. Young had operated the mill, the only organized business in the community, until shortly before his appointment as postmaster.
Although the location of the Cedar Mill Post Office changed three times, the service was continually maintained in a local store. Young’s small store, on the ground floor of his two-story former home, served as the first post office headquarters. Here the postmaster constructed a pigeonhole cabinet where patrons received mail delivered weekly from Portland. For his postal duties, Young received a commission based on the number of 2¢ postage stamps and 1¢ postcards purchased at the office.
The family moved to a larger new house he had constructed across Cornell Road and converted part of the first floor of the older house into the post-office and the first general store in the Cedar Mill community. (Figures 14 and 15) Notes on the circa 1888 historic photograph of the house indicate that the post office was located in an enclosed portion of the west end of the front porch. (Figure 14) Prior to the establishment of the Cedar Mill post office, area residents received mail at the Oceola post office (located about a mile south of Cedar Mill on Walker Road) beginning in 1854. The Oceola office closed in 1863, leaving Portland and Hillsboro the two closest post offices to the Cedar Mill community. The establishment of the Cedar Mill post office in the Young house perpetuated its position – along with the mill – as the economic center of the agrarian and lumber-based community, providing both a business and social gathering point for the surrounding residents. In mid- to late-19th century rural Oregon communities, mail was often delivered on a weekly basis rather than every day, making the post office a social gathering place where local news was exchanged.
Young served as the postmaster until he resigned on December 29, 1881, which is the closing date for the period of significance. Post office responsibilities were then shifted to George Reeves who moved the office to the Reeves general store, said to be located north of the Barnes-Cornell intersection. It was in this vicinity, about a block west of the Young House along Cornell Road at the Barnes Road-Saltzman Road and Murray Boulevard intersections, that the commercial area of Cedar Mill developed historically and continues to flourish today. It is presumed that the Young house then reverted to residential use.
In addition to the establishment of the post office and general store, the surge in population in the mid-1870s promoted the growth of other community assets. In 1878 a Catholic Church was constructed on the west side of Murray Boulevard. The Cedar Mill School was built in 1884, and was located on the Sam Walters claim along upper Cornell Road, serving the newly-formed Cedar Mill School District 62J. By 1886 Cedar Mill boasted a blacksmith, wagon maker, the Everson & Briggs steam saw mill, a general store, cattle dealers, and a number of other businesses. In 1891 Jasper Young donated land for a new Methodist Episcopal church building on Cornell Road, which in later years was leased to the Cedar Mill Bible Church (now just west of the Young House).
The family’s involvement with the sawmill did not end with John Young’s sale of his interest in 1871. Deed records indicate that over a period of years, William Everson eventually sold all of his interest in the mill, and John Young re-purchased it from a man named Simmons in 1889. He then transferred ownership to his sons Jasper and Abraham, who briefly operated the business as the Young Brothers Mill. (Figure 16) The enterprise closed in 1891 due to a lack of available nearby timber, but Jasper Young continued in the lumber business, operating a mill in east Portland with Nils Sorenson in the early 1890s.
After the turn of the 20th century, growth continued in Cedar Mill. In the early 1900s Cornell Road was resurveyed with John Q.A. Young acting as chairman and road viewer; several easements were sold by Young to Washington County for these road improvements. The circa 1901 Woodmen of the World Hall, located on NW 143rd across from the Union School and Cemetery, was purchased by the Leedy Grange (organized in 1903) in 1913. This building remains but has been substantially altered. When the automobile appeared, businesses such as the Cedar Mill Garage (1919) began to replace wagon makers and blacksmiths.
The Young family, in addition to being early Washington County settlers, running the first organized business in the community, establishing the first post office and the town name, and running the first store, contributed significantly to the social development of Cedar Mill. Elizabeth Young was “...perhaps the earliest woman known as a midwife...” in this section of Washington County. Mabel Young recalled her mother’s activities in the fledgling community: “...[Elizabeth] was a wonderful soul. She brought fifty babies into the world (and never charged a penny, of course), and the first thought among her neighbors in any sickness was “Send for Mrs. Young.” She was also active in the Oregon Pioneer Association (established in 1873). John Young was active at Wesley Chapel (established 1858), the Oregon Pioneer Association, the Oregon Historical Society, the Oregon State Grange, and in local politics, serving as Justice of the Peace and as a Washington County Commissioner from 1898-1902. On reflection, John Q.A. Young described his life and career in Cedar Mill in an undated autobiographical sketch:
Here most of my children were born. Three of them lie buried here, and to this place I have devoted half my days in Oregon. It is a spot where twines many recollections of the past. I lived here when Hillsboro was named, and when the first Circuit Court was held in a log school house in Hillsboro. I hauled the first merchandise brought to Hillsboro for Abraham Suglar—a great many friends remember his congenial face. In 1870 I moved to Cedar Mill, and in company with W.R. Everson bought a sawmill. I ran the mill for two years, sold out, went into the merchandise business, and kept store and post office for seven years. I was the means of procuring the mail route from Portland to Glencoe, and also named the post offices of West Union and Cedar Mill. And now I have gone into farming and horticulture, the noblest calling of man.
He died in 1905 and is buried in Union Cemetery in Cedar Mill. Elizabeth died in 1934 and is buried next to John.
The Cedar Mill post office was discontinued soon after the turn of the 20th century, and residents adopted Portland addresses. Still known by locals as Cedar Mill (or sometimes “Cedar Mills”), the bustling community remains unincorporated but retains a strong identity, supporting a number of businesses and organizations, including its own Cedar Mill Library and the Cedar Mill Business Association.
Since the closure of the post office and store in 1881, the house has been used as a residence. Both the mill and the Young house passed out of the Young family in 1912. After several changes of ownership it was purchased by Oscar G. Russell in 1924, and the house remained in the Russell family until it was sold to the Cedar Mill Bible Church in 1970. The Tualatin Hills Park and Recreation District purchased the property from the Church in 2005.
Conclusion
The John Quincy Adams and Elizabeth Young House is locally significant under National Register Criterion A in the area of community development for its association with the community development – including the commercial and social growth - of Cedar Mill and rural Washington County. The building served as the home of the Young family while they were operating the nearby sawmill, which was for many years the only business operating in the area. It later served as Cedar Mill’s first post office and general store, forming the initial core component of what would become a well-developed and vibrant center of social and commercial activity for the area. This is the oldest remaining built resource in Cedar Mill; other extant historic resources date to the turn of the century or later, and most have been significantly altered.
Though somewhat altered since its period of significance of circa 1863 to 1881, the Young house retains many of its original or historic physical elements. Visually, its external appearance is largely unchanged: no major additions have marred the building’s massing or configuration, it remains on its original site, the siding is similar to the original, window placements have not been altered and original windows remain in place or on site. The house retains sufficient integrity to convey its historical associations and period of significance, and remains important in Cedar Mill as a marker of the community’s settlement and development past. |
