Publications
Publications are one way in which the Willamette Heritage Center preserves and documents the history of the Mid-Willamette Valley. The WHC and its predecessor organizations, the Marion County Historical Society and the Mission Mill Museum, have an impressive catalog of publications, listed below. Looking for a particular topic? Make sure to check out our WHC Publications Master Index. Titles not out of print are available for sale at the Willamette Heritage Center.
Digital Publications & Resources
Willamette Valley Voices
Willamette Valley Voices journal is the latest in a long history of documenting our community’s history through scholarship and publication. It was begun in 2012 as a showcase for scholarly writing pertaining to history and heritage in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, south of Portland. Articles are written by scholars, students, heritage professionals and historians – professional and amateur. Editions are themed to orient authors and readers to varied and important topics in Valley history.
All Willamette Valley Voices editions are available here in digital format for free; hard copies may be purchased in person at the WHC for $10.
Willamette Valley Voices
Winter 2014, Vol III, No. 1
Click here to view as a PDF
Willamette Valley Voices
Summer/Winter 2013, Special Edition
Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde
Click here to view as a PDF
Willamette Valley Voices
Summer 2013, Vol II, No. 2
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Willamette Valley Voices
Winter 2013, Vol II, No. 1
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Willamette Valley Voices
Summer 2012, Vol I, No 1
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Willamette Valley Voices
Spring 2017, Vol IV
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Other Digital Titles
The Wallace Prairie Years
A Chapter in the Saucy Family History
By Paul and Tracey Saucy
Click here to view as a PDF
While not published by the Willamette Heritage Center, the authors kindly allowed us to post here to make it digitally accessible to all.
What Price Eden?
The Willamette Valley In Transition, 1812-1855
Click here to view as a PDF
Proceedings from a symposium hosted by the Mission Mill Museum Association on April 2, 1988. Includes then largely unpublished research in to the cultural interaction between the Kalapuya Indians and the French Canadians and Americans who traded and settled in the Willamette Valley. The symposium was funded through the Oregon Committee for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
“Mill Place” on the Willamette
A New Mission house for the Methodists in Oregon 1841-1844
Click here to view as a PDF
Thesis written by Elisabeth Walton Potter in 1965 documenting the history of the Jason Lee House and the Parsonage and plans to transform these historic structures into house museums.
100 Years of Education in Marion County (1857-1957
Click here to view as a PDF
Centennial publication listing histories of various schools in Marion County, Oregon. Hard to find publication, digitized for easier access.
WHC Publications Master Index
Includes subject index to Marion County Historical Society’s Marion County History, Historic Marion and Member Matters; Mission Mill Museum’s Milling Around and What’s Spinning; the Willamette Heritage Center’s Willamette Valley Voices; and the Ladd & Bush Bank’s Ladd & Bush Quarterly
Print Publications
The following titles are publications created by the Willamette Heritage Center or predecessor organizations over the past 70+ years. Many titles (unless notated) are available at our museum store for purchase.
Marion County History
David Duniway Books
David Cushing Duniway (1912-1993) Photo Source: WHC 2007.001.0501.
David Duniway
David Cushing Duniway (1912-1993) was a founding member and first president of the Marion County Historical Society. In his professional life, Duniway served as Oregon State Archivist from 1946-1972. Through his personal and professional interests, he was involved in many historic preservation projects throughout the City of Salem including the restoration of Deepwood Estate, development of the Mission Mill Museum and that of his own home, the 1865 McCully-McMahan House. In conjunction with the Marion County Historical Society he researched, wrote and published several books on Salem history.
Includes articles and images related to buildings, homes, people and traditions of South Salem, Oregon.
Features include:
- The David Leslie House
- 1878 Bush House Description
- Annual Lamb’s Tongue Display
- Harding House, 1884
- Pioneer Cemetery
- Fabritus Smith, Pioneer of 1846
- Four Generations of the Smith-Ohmart Family, 1938
- Dr. Luke Port built Deepwood Mansion in the ‘teeth of tight money’
- Winding of the Maypole at Yew Park School, 1912
- Yew Park Streetcar line contributed to the development of Morningside
- Webster House: working man’s dream house
- Salem — From the top of Twelfth Street, 1913
- Beautiful Saginaw Street House has tragic past (1445 Saginaw Street)
- Curtis Cross’ Fairmount Home
- Alderbrook is one of Salem’s most interesting Victorian Houses
- Once a fine hop, sheep farm, Minto Island now becoming South Salem’s greatest park
- Finished in 1912, the Oregon Electric gave Salem important railway service
- Bush Photo give panoramic view of South River Road, slough, dairy
- Schindler brothers operate Fairmount Dairy
- First South Salem Italian Prunes planted by S.A. Clarke
- One-room Liberty Schoolhouse overcrowded by 1891
- New, larger Liberty School built in 1908
- Coming of street cars to Salem in 1889 facilitated city expansion
- 27 inch snowfall in 1937 broke 18 year record
- Fairbanks ‘Guidance of Youth’ statue
- David McCully House, 1865
- Civil Works Administration backed Leslie Pool Project, 1934
- Leslie Methodist Church’s Parsonage moved for the second time in its history
Contains historical information on Native Americans, Settlers, Land, First Plats, Bush House & Pasture, Deepwood and Yew Park, Events, Fairmount Hill and Development.
Including features on:
- Battle of Battle Creek
- D.W. Craig’s log cabin on Pringle Road
- Pettyjohn’s Stoughton Ranch
- Streams in South Salem
- Man’s intrusions on wildlife
- E.A. Daue Grocery Store
- South Salem School
- John Minto
- Miller Street Grocery
- 1095 Saginaw St. S. The Daue House
- South Salem essentially a bungalow neighborhood
- Leslie Methodist Church destruction, 1985
- Linis Z. Simpson Home
- Salem’s first three Asahel Bushes
- Sally Bush invites the girls to tea
- Oak grove south of Bush Barn now heart of annual Art Fair
- Picnics
- Omega window at Deepwood estate
- Dr. Luke A. Port
- Deepwood Carriage House
- Deepwood birdcage gazebo
- Alice Bretherton Brown
- Safety on early trains
- Fairmount Athletic Club
- All quiet on the Willamette, September 19, 1911
- Ice skating on the Willamette Slough, 1914
- First Public tennis courts in South Salem built at Leslie Middle School
- Running Water, 1871
- Bungalow Chalet Saginaw and Washington Streets
- Harry and Laura Hawkins house on Fairmount Hill
- Livesley mansion (Mahonia Hall), 1924
- 415 Leffelle S. Spec House bought first by Ernest A. Miller
- Robertson House added to National Register (460 Leffelle St S.)
- House at Fir and Lincoln St.
- 1874 Wade house
- Memorial Day
- Rosedale
- Liberty Store
- Liberty residents
- Liberty Women’s Club
- Salem Heights Store (Henry and Donald Wiggins)
- Fairview Hospital and Training Center
- Salem Heights School District
- Merriam family settled along Fairview Avenue
- Ben Lomand Park
- Port-Manning House finds new home site
An Urban Report from England to Salem, Oregon and San Diego, California. Contains history of builder Luke A. Port and the history of his work at Deepwood and elsewhere.Other Publications
Historical Atlas Map of Marion & Linn Counties, 1878 (2004 Reprint)
Originally published by Edgar Williams & Co. in 1878, this is a reproduction of an original from the Center’s collections. It contains detailed maps showing land ownership, plate illustrations of prominent buildings and homesteads and a demographic descriptions of communities in Marion and Linn Counties, Oregon.
The Kalapuyans: A Sourcebook on the Indians of the Willamette Valley, 2004
This is the 2nd edition of Harold Mackey’s text on the Kalapuya. It was published in 2004 as a joint project between Mission Mill Museum and the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde. This edition includes a new afterward from the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde and an updated bibliography.
John Minto: Man of Courage, 1980
Written by Beverly Elizabeth Lowe, this book is full of images and stories related to John Minto (1822-1915) from the coal mines of Wylam, England to the Legislative Halls of Salem, Oregon.
Missionary Footpaths: The Story of Anna Maria Pittman Lee, 1978
by Sylvia Mattson
Anna Maria Pittman left her life behind to sail half way across the world to be a missionary in Oregon. Drawing upon her letters and diaries and those of other early Oregon Missionaries, this book gives a good overview of Pittman’s life and marriage to mission leader Jason Lee.
Spinning and Weaving Wool: The Men and Women of the Mill, 1985
By Harry H. Stein
Booklet detailing the history of the Thomas Kay Woolen Mill (1889-1962) in Sale, Oregon and the daily experiences of its employees, especially focused on the years between 1914 and 1939.