A. T. Smith Diary transcript 1850

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A transcription of a 1850 diary in which Alvin Thompson Smith writes about topics such as his daily life on the increasingly populated Tualatin Plains; his farmwork; his business ventures and religious life; his trips to Portland, Willamette Falls, Milwaukee, and Oregon City "to see the Indians hung that were condemned for the murder of Doc Whitman;" his buying of land in Hillsboro (he spells it "Hillsborough"); his taking care of the Gale children; his work at the mill; his contributing efforts to the Tualatin Academy; the death of U.S. President Zachary Taylor; the Oregon Donation Land Bill; his interactions with his wife Abigail Smith (often referred to as "Mrs. Smith"), John Fletts, a Mr. Gibson, Charles Stewart, William Geiger, David Harper, Jacob Reeds, Joseph Davis, a Mr. Butts, a Mr. Knighton, a Benjamin Catchings, the Naylor family, a Mr. Parsons, Henry and Eliza Spalding, a Mr. Holbrook, a Mr. Buxton, the Pomeroy family, a Mr. Wilks, Isaiah Mills, a Mr. Beagle, Alanson Hinman, a Mr. Mulkey, John Smith Griffin, and a W. W. Chapman.

Born in Connecticut in 1802, Alvin Thompson Smith, along with his wife Abigail Raymond, was amongst the first Euro-Americans to settle in the area on the Tualatin Plains that became Forest Grove, Oregon in the early 1840s. In his life, Smith was a missionary, a postmaster, a notable participant in the Champoeg Meetings, the builder of a 1856 house in Forest Grove that is today recognized by the National Register of Historic Places as the Alvin T. Smith House, and a contributor to an orphanage that became Tualatin Academy and later developed into Pacific University. Smith died in 1888 at the age of 85. This is one part of a collection of transcriptions of Alvin T. Smith's diaries from the years 1840-1853. The transcriptions, which are likely not identical to the diaries themselves and perhaps summarize some entries, were likely typewritten in the 1970s. The diaries are notable for their near daily entries. This year's diary was transcribed by M.S. Gilbert. The original diaries are held by the Oregon Historical Society (Mss 8).