The Union Forever

Between 1836 and 1884 about 12,000 immigrants made the 2000 mile journey from Independence, Missouri on the Oregon Trail. William Jay Bowerman, the University of Oregon's iconic one-time  coach of Track & Field and whose forebears came to Oregon in that migration, would tell his team members, "The cowards never started, the weak died along the way and that leaves us.  The men of Oregon."

Those were the men and women who, on February 14, 1859, brought Oregon into the Union. Those courageous women who survived that incredibly arduous experience were, of course, not allowed to vote as citizens of the new state.  Nor were African-Americans, Chinamen or Mulattos. But as America drifted toward the bitter, bloody chaos of the Civil War, Oregon joined the Union forbidding slavery.  It wasn't until August 26, 1920 that the 19th amendment to the Constitution finally gave women the right to vote and Oregon Suffragettes had played a leading role in that movement.

The Chinese, Mulattos, and African-Americans had to wait until 1927 for their deliverance to the ballot box.

Bowerman identified a culture in the state of Oregon that was shaped by those pioneers who crossed the plains and the mountains, forging rivers and, in some cases, resisting the welcoming committees of hostile Native-Americans.  That gritty code of the trail is evident in the way, from the beginning,  Oregonians vote on issues.  On the Trail, no person was an island.  Everyone was dependent for survival on the others in their party and that spirit of interdependence became an element of the Oregon culture.  In those early family farms surrounding the settlements, doors were left unlocked so a neighbor could get something needed if the owner was away.  This willingness to help a neighbor also became a part of the culture.

Why did Oregon voters time after time vote against allowing gas stations to put in self-service pumps?  The principal reason was to save jobs for their fellow citizens.  Oregon and New Jersey remain the only states to forbid self-service.

It would be an interesting study to discover what percentage of today's Oregonians are native-born compared to arrivals on the now friendly Oregon Trail. Whatever that number might be, the reality is there are lots more coming than there are going.  Coming soon: Who wins the Most Valuable Player trophy for the state's high achievers from 1859 to 2020?