[or-roots] Enjoyed Row River Row

[Denise Sproed]

I enjoyed the colorful story.  Thanks for sharing Stephen.

 

Denise

A member of the Association of Professional Genealogists

 

The web page I made for my parents is at:
http://freepages.family.rootsweb.com/~merritt/

 

My genealogy related pages are at:
http://freepages.misc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~merritt/
and http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~merritt/
The latter created using John Cardinal's Second Site

 

User of The Master Genealogist (TMG) http://www.whollygenes.com/

 

From: rowriver at aol.com



Les,

That's one I had not heard.

The most generally accepted story regarding the renaming of the Row River
follows:



In the mid 1800s this river was known as the North Fork of the Middle Fork
of the Willamette River. Early Oregon Pioneers that settled along the river
which runs from the Cascades west to the Willamette near present day Cottage
Grove. 

These Pioneers always felt that the name was much too difficult to
pronounce. It just did not roll off the tongue very easily so, almost from
the beginning of settlement, the community was trying to come up with a name
that was more suitable, easier to say but could not agree.

At this same time two families that had DLCs in the area, the Clarks and the
Southwells, were embroiled in a bitter 'row' or feud that went back to their
roots in Yorkshire, England and Morgan County, Illinois.  They were, by the
way related through marriage.

Everyone along the river was aware of this feud... In the spring of 1868,
March 27th this 'row' boiled over and a confrontation between Joseph
Southwell; his sons Benjamin, Edwin, and John and George Clark erupted.  The
dispute is generally thought to have been over land and sheep.  During this
confrontation George Clark was shot in the back by one of the Southwells and
killed. 

The other residents along the North Fork of the Middle Fork of the
Willamette declared the Clark/Southwell 'row" at an end and agreed to rename
the river the Row River in honor of George Clark. 

George Clark was my ggg grandfather.


So when I was setting up my email accounts I chose rowriver as a tribute to
my grandfather.  It is a good story anyway... Hope you enjoyed it.


Stephen

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