Francis Pettygrove
Encyclopedia
Francis William Pettygrove (1812 – October 5, 1887), commonly known as William Pettygrove, was a pioneer and one of the founders of the cities of Portland, Oregon
, and Port Townsend, Washington
. Born in Maine
, he re-located to the Oregon Country
in 1843 to establish a store in Oregon City
. Later that year he paid $50 for half of a land claim on which he and Asa Lovejoy
laid out a town named Portland after the port city in Pettygrove's home state. Lovejoy preferred Boston, but Pettygrove won a coin toss giving him the right to choose the name.
Teamed with Benjamin Stark
, who bought Lovejoy's half-interest in the town site in 1845, Pettygrove engaged in a highly profitable three-cornered trade between Portland, San Francisco, and Hawaii
. Making money in his stores and warehouses, in trades of lumber, grain, and salted fish, and in real-estate deals, Pettygrove by 1848 was one of the richest men in the Oregon Territory
. When the California Gold Rush
drew potential laborers from Oregon and threatened Pettygrove's short-term prospects, he sold his assets in Portland and vicinity. In 1851 he joined with others to start a new town, Port Townsend, on Puget Sound
in what became the U.S. state of Washington. He died at the age of 75 and was buried in Port Townsend.
Pettygrove was married to Sophia Roland, with whom he had at least two children, one of whom was named after Benjamin Stark. While living in Oregon, he belonged to the Pioneer Lyceum and Literary Club
of Oregon City and served as jury foreman in a trial there related to the Cayuse War
. Pettygrove Park in southwest Portland and Pettygrove Street in northwest Portland are named after him.
. Educated in Maine schools, he worked as a merchant's clerk in New York City
before a company there sent him by ship in 1842 to Oregon City to open a store. Oregon City was then part of what was known as the Oregon Country
, part of the Pacific Northwest
. He and his wife, their child, as well as Pettygrove's sister, her husband, and their four children, traveling on the Fama, reached their destination in 1843. Stopping first in Vancouver
, Pettygrove arranged with the Hudson's Bay Company
(HBC) for a schooner
to take his store goods up the Willamette River
to Oregon City. There Pettygrove established the agreed-upon store in partnership with George Abernethy
. After building a warehouse in Oregon City, Pettygrove began trading in fur and wheat.
. The tract was along the Willamette River in a place known as The Clearing, 12 miles (19.3 km) downstream of Oregon City. Pettygrove and Asa Lovejoy
, who owned adjoining land, decided to create a town on part of the site. Strongly encouraged by John Couch
, a sea captain who considered The Clearing a good site for a river port, they hired Thomas A. Brown in 1845 to plat
the town. Brown and his assistant, James Terwilliger, a blacksmith, laid the town out more compactly than usual on a grid of 16 square blocks, 200 feet (61 m) to a side. They allowed 80 feet (24.4 m) public rights-of-way for north–south streets, 60 feet (18.3 m) rights-of-way for east–west streets, and no alleys. The short blocks and small rights-of-way created more corner lots than usual and reduced the amount of stump removal needed to create streets. A proliferation of stumps on unbuilt lots prompted a derisive nickname for the place, Little Stump Town.
Lovejoy and Pettygrove, who could not agree on a name for the town, held a best-two-of-three coin toss
won by Pettygrove, who named the town after Portland, Maine
. Had Lovejoy won, he would have named it after Boston, Massachusetts. The two men cleared trees and debris from the site. Pettygrove built a small log store near the river, hired a married couple to run it, and commissioned the building of a wharf
. He also acquired a granary and boat landing at Champoeg
, site of the Oregon Country's first provisional government.
In late 1845, Lovejoy sold his half-interest in the townsite (and his half-interest in a cattle herd he owned jointly with Pettygrove) to Benjamin Stark
, who was the agent in charge of merchandise being shipped from Benson & Company, Pettygrove's supplier in New York, to Pettygrove's warehouse in Portland. Stark, the supercargo
(cargo supervisor), arrived in Portland on Captain Nathaniel Crosby's Toulon. The three men then arranged to have Stark act as Pettygrove's supercargo on the Toulon, trading lumber, wheat, salted fish, and other goods between San Francisco, Honolulu, and Portland. Adding a second ship, the Mariposa, for a short time they controlled much of the trade in and out of Oregon.
The two men engaged in projects by land as well as sea. Among these were construction of a wagon road on the east side of the Willamette between Portland and Oregon City and a wagon track along an 11.5 miles (18.5 km) route, surveyed by Brown, between Portland and the farmlands of the Tualatin Plains
to the west. To increase profits from cattle, Pettygrove built a slaughterhouse along the river and sold hides to Daniel H. Lownsdale
, who had opened the first tannery on the Pacific Coast on a tract just west of the town site. Fiercely competitive, Pettygrove and Stark drove others, including Couch, who had his own store in Oregon City, out of business by monopolizing trade between Portland and Hawaii, charging high rates to import goods for others and raising the price of imported salt to gain control of the salmon
trade.
In 1847, after the United States and the United Kingdom
had negotiated a boundary treaty dividing the Oregon Country between them, thousands of pioneers entered the Oregon Territory
, the part of the Oregon Country ceded to the U.S., most of them settling in the Willamette Valley
. Meanwhile, after an apparent disagreement with Pettygrove, Stark returned temporarily to New England
, and Pettygrove took control of the entire town site. By 1848, Pettygrove "was one of the wealthiest residents of the territory". During that year, the California Gold Rush
attracted so many men from Oregon that it caused an Oregon labor shortage. Seeing little hope of further short-term growth in Portland, Pettygrove began selling his assets. While Stark was out of town, Pettygrove sold the entire 640 acres (259 ha) townsite, including Stark's share, to Daniel H. Lownsdale
for $5,000 worth of leather. This netted Pettygrove a one-hundredfold profit for his original $50 investment.
in the U.S. state of Washington. Scouting the area for a likely spot, they met Alfred A. Plummer and Charles Bachelder, who had filed land claims near a bay on the northeastern corner of the Olympic Peninsula
. After the four agreed to found a city on this site, Pettygrove and Hastings returned to Oregon for their families and other settlers and returned to what became Port Townsend
. Pettygrove died there in 1887 and is buried in Laurel Grove Cemetery.
), where they stopped on the way to Oregon. The second child, named Benjamin Stark Pettygrove, was the first boy of European descent born in Portland.
Pettygrove was a member of the Pioneer Lyceum and Literary Club
in Oregon City. In May 1850, he was the jury foreman in the Oregon City trial and subsequent hanging of five men from the Cayuse
tribe of Native Americans
who were accused of murder committed during the Cayuse War
.
Lovejoy and Pettygrove used a copper Matron Head
penny, dated 1835, in their coin flip to determine Portland's name. Pettygrove bequeathed this penny to the Oregon Historical Society
in his will.
Pettygrove Park
, an 0.8 acre (0.3237488 ha) tract in downtown Portland, is named for him. It is one of two nearly adjacent parks developed in the 1960s in an urban renewal
area. The same coin that Lovejoy and Pettygrove flipped to decide who should name the city was flipped to decide which park would be Lovejoy and which would be Pettygrove. Lovejoy Fountain Park, which features water cascades, is about 300 yards from Pettygrove Park, which features grass mounds, trees, paths, and stonework. Pettygrove Street in northwest Portland is also named for him.
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
, and Port Townsend, Washington
Port Townsend, Washington
Port Townsend is a city in Jefferson County, Washington, United States, approximately north-northwest of Seattle . The population was 9,113 at the 2010 census an increase of 9.3% over the 2000 census. It is the county seat and only incorporated city of Jefferson County...
. Born in Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
, he re-located to the Oregon Country
Oregon Country
The Oregon Country was a predominantly American term referring to a disputed ownership region of the Pacific Northwest of North America. The region was occupied by British and French Canadian fur traders from before 1810, and American settlers from the mid-1830s, with its coastal areas north from...
in 1843 to establish a store in Oregon City
Oregon City, Oregon
Oregon City was the first city in the United States west of the Rocky Mountains to be incorporated. It is the county seat of Clackamas County, Oregon...
. Later that year he paid $50 for half of a land claim on which he and Asa Lovejoy
Asa Lovejoy
Asa Lawrence Lovejoy was an American pioneer and politician in the region that would become the U.S. state of Oregon. He is best remembered as a founder of the city of Portland, Oregon...
laid out a town named Portland after the port city in Pettygrove's home state. Lovejoy preferred Boston, but Pettygrove won a coin toss giving him the right to choose the name.
Teamed with Benjamin Stark
Benjamin Stark
Benjamin Stark was an American merchant and politician in Oregon. A native of Louisiana, he purchased some of the original tracts of land for the city of Portland. He later served in the Oregon House of Representatives before appointment to the United States Senate in 1860 after the death of...
, who bought Lovejoy's half-interest in the town site in 1845, Pettygrove engaged in a highly profitable three-cornered trade between Portland, San Francisco, and Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
. Making money in his stores and warehouses, in trades of lumber, grain, and salted fish, and in real-estate deals, Pettygrove by 1848 was one of the richest men in the Oregon Territory
Oregon Territory
The Territory of Oregon was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from August 14, 1848, until February 14, 1859, when the southwestern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Oregon. Originally claimed by several countries , the region was...
. When the California Gold Rush
California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...
drew potential laborers from Oregon and threatened Pettygrove's short-term prospects, he sold his assets in Portland and vicinity. In 1851 he joined with others to start a new town, Port Townsend, on Puget Sound
Puget Sound
Puget Sound is a sound in the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected marine waterways and basins, with one major and one minor connection to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Pacific Ocean — Admiralty Inlet being the major connection and...
in what became the U.S. state of Washington. He died at the age of 75 and was buried in Port Townsend.
Pettygrove was married to Sophia Roland, with whom he had at least two children, one of whom was named after Benjamin Stark. While living in Oregon, he belonged to the Pioneer Lyceum and Literary Club
Oregon Lyceum
The Oregon Lyceum or Pioneer Lyceum and Literary Club was founded in Oregon City, Oregon Country around 1840. The forum was a prominent fixture for the leading pioneer settlers during its brief existence...
of Oregon City and served as jury foreman in a trial there related to the Cayuse War
Cayuse War
The Cayuse War was an armed conflict that took place in the Northwestern United States from 1847 to 1855 between the Cayuse people of the region and the United States Government and local Euro-American settlers...
. Pettygrove Park in southwest Portland and Pettygrove Street in northwest Portland are named after him.
Early life
Pettygrove was born in Calais, MaineCalais, Maine
Calais is a city in Washington County, Maine, United States. The city has three United States border crossings or also known as a Port of entry with the busiest being on the St. Croix River bordering St. Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada...
. Educated in Maine schools, he worked as a merchant's clerk in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
before a company there sent him by ship in 1842 to Oregon City to open a store. Oregon City was then part of what was known as the Oregon Country
Oregon Country
The Oregon Country was a predominantly American term referring to a disputed ownership region of the Pacific Northwest of North America. The region was occupied by British and French Canadian fur traders from before 1810, and American settlers from the mid-1830s, with its coastal areas north from...
, part of the Pacific Northwest
Pacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest is a region in northwestern North America, bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains on the east. Definitions of the region vary and there is no commonly agreed upon boundary, even among Pacific Northwesterners. A common concept of the...
. He and his wife, their child, as well as Pettygrove's sister, her husband, and their four children, traveling on the Fama, reached their destination in 1843. Stopping first in Vancouver
Vancouver, Washington
Vancouver is a city on the north bank of the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington. Incorporated in 1857, it is the fourth largest city in the state with a 2010 census population of 161,791 as of April 1, 2010...
, Pettygrove arranged with the Hudson's Bay Company
Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company , abbreviated HBC, or "The Bay" is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and one of the oldest in the world. A fur trading business for much of its existence, today Hudson's Bay Company owns and operates retail stores throughout Canada...
(HBC) for a schooner
Schooner
A schooner is a type of sailing vessel characterized by the use of fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts with the forward mast being no taller than the rear masts....
to take his store goods up the Willamette River
Willamette River
The Willamette River is a major tributary of the Columbia River, accounting for 12 to 15 percent of the Columbia's flow. The Willamette's main stem is long, lying entirely in northwestern Oregon in the United States...
to Oregon City. There Pettygrove established the agreed-upon store in partnership with George Abernethy
George Abernethy
George Abernethy was an American pioneer, notable entrepreneur, and first governor of Oregon under the provisional government in what would become the state of Oregon in the United States...
. After building a warehouse in Oregon City, Pettygrove began trading in fur and wheat.
Oregon
In 1843, Pettygrove paid $50 for 320 acres (1.3 km²) of land owned by William OvertonWilliam Overton (Portland founder)
William Overton was a pioneer of the Oregon Country in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. In the mid-1840s he purchased the land claim, along with Asa Lovejoy, for the site which would become Portland, Oregon. Overton sold his share shortly thereafter to Francis Pettygrove.According to...
. The tract was along the Willamette River in a place known as The Clearing, 12 miles (19.3 km) downstream of Oregon City. Pettygrove and Asa Lovejoy
Asa Lovejoy
Asa Lawrence Lovejoy was an American pioneer and politician in the region that would become the U.S. state of Oregon. He is best remembered as a founder of the city of Portland, Oregon...
, who owned adjoining land, decided to create a town on part of the site. Strongly encouraged by John Couch
John H. Couch
John Heard Couch was an American sea captain and pioneer in the Oregon Country in the 19th century. Often referred to as Captain Couch, he became famous for his singular skill at navigation of the mouth of the Columbia River. He is one of the early residents and founders of Portland,...
, a sea captain who considered The Clearing a good site for a river port, they hired Thomas A. Brown in 1845 to plat
Plat
A plat in the U.S. is a map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. Other English-speaking countries generally call such documents a cadastral map or plan....
the town. Brown and his assistant, James Terwilliger, a blacksmith, laid the town out more compactly than usual on a grid of 16 square blocks, 200 feet (61 m) to a side. They allowed 80 feet (24.4 m) public rights-of-way for north–south streets, 60 feet (18.3 m) rights-of-way for east–west streets, and no alleys. The short blocks and small rights-of-way created more corner lots than usual and reduced the amount of stump removal needed to create streets. A proliferation of stumps on unbuilt lots prompted a derisive nickname for the place, Little Stump Town.
Lovejoy and Pettygrove, who could not agree on a name for the town, held a best-two-of-three coin toss
Portland Penny
The Portland Penny is the name subsequently given to a specific coin, a U.S. copper one-cent piece, used to decide the name of Portland, Oregon, United States...
won by Pettygrove, who named the town after Portland, Maine
Portland, Maine
Portland is the largest city in Maine and is the county seat of Cumberland County. The 2010 city population was 66,194, growing 3 percent since the census of 2000...
. Had Lovejoy won, he would have named it after Boston, Massachusetts. The two men cleared trees and debris from the site. Pettygrove built a small log store near the river, hired a married couple to run it, and commissioned the building of a wharf
Wharf
A wharf or quay is a structure on the shore of a harbor where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers.Such a structure includes one or more berths , and may also include piers, warehouses, or other facilities necessary for handling the ships.A wharf commonly comprises a fixed...
. He also acquired a granary and boat landing at Champoeg
Champoeg, Oregon
Champoeg is a former town in the U.S. state of Oregon. Now a ghost town, it was an important settlement in the Willamette Valley in the early 1840s. It is positioned halfway between Oregon City and Salem and the site of the first provisional government of the Oregon Country...
, site of the Oregon Country's first provisional government.
In late 1845, Lovejoy sold his half-interest in the townsite (and his half-interest in a cattle herd he owned jointly with Pettygrove) to Benjamin Stark
Benjamin Stark
Benjamin Stark was an American merchant and politician in Oregon. A native of Louisiana, he purchased some of the original tracts of land for the city of Portland. He later served in the Oregon House of Representatives before appointment to the United States Senate in 1860 after the death of...
, who was the agent in charge of merchandise being shipped from Benson & Company, Pettygrove's supplier in New York, to Pettygrove's warehouse in Portland. Stark, the supercargo
Supercargo
Supercargo is a term in maritime law that refers to a person employed on board a vessel by the owner of cargo carried on the ship...
(cargo supervisor), arrived in Portland on Captain Nathaniel Crosby's Toulon. The three men then arranged to have Stark act as Pettygrove's supercargo on the Toulon, trading lumber, wheat, salted fish, and other goods between San Francisco, Honolulu, and Portland. Adding a second ship, the Mariposa, for a short time they controlled much of the trade in and out of Oregon.
The two men engaged in projects by land as well as sea. Among these were construction of a wagon road on the east side of the Willamette between Portland and Oregon City and a wagon track along an 11.5 miles (18.5 km) route, surveyed by Brown, between Portland and the farmlands of the Tualatin Plains
Tualatin Plains
The Tualatin Plains are a prairie area in central Washington County, Oregon, United States. Located around the Hillsboro and Forest Grove areas, the plains were first inhabited by the Atfalati band of the Kalapuya group of Native Americans. Euro-American settlement began in the...
to the west. To increase profits from cattle, Pettygrove built a slaughterhouse along the river and sold hides to Daniel H. Lownsdale
Daniel H. Lownsdale
Daniel Lownsdale was one of the founders of Portland, Oregon, United States.Coming from Kentucky sometime before 1845, Lownsdale established the first tannery near the current location of Jeld-Wen Field just west of downtown. He served as a member of the Provisional Legislature of Oregon in 1846...
, who had opened the first tannery on the Pacific Coast on a tract just west of the town site. Fiercely competitive, Pettygrove and Stark drove others, including Couch, who had his own store in Oregon City, out of business by monopolizing trade between Portland and Hawaii, charging high rates to import goods for others and raising the price of imported salt to gain control of the salmon
Salmon
Salmon is the common name for several species of fish in the family Salmonidae. Several other fish in the same family are called trout; the difference is often said to be that salmon migrate and trout are resident, but this distinction does not strictly hold true...
trade.
In 1847, after the United States and the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
had negotiated a boundary treaty dividing the Oregon Country between them, thousands of pioneers entered the Oregon Territory
Oregon Territory
The Territory of Oregon was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from August 14, 1848, until February 14, 1859, when the southwestern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Oregon. Originally claimed by several countries , the region was...
, the part of the Oregon Country ceded to the U.S., most of them settling in the Willamette Valley
Willamette Valley
The Willamette Valley is the most populated region in the state of Oregon of the United States. Located in the state's northwest, the region is surrounded by tall mountain ranges to the east, west and south and the valley's floor is broad, flat and fertile because of Ice Age conditions...
. Meanwhile, after an apparent disagreement with Pettygrove, Stark returned temporarily to New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
, and Pettygrove took control of the entire town site. By 1848, Pettygrove "was one of the wealthiest residents of the territory". During that year, the California Gold Rush
California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...
attracted so many men from Oregon that it caused an Oregon labor shortage. Seeing little hope of further short-term growth in Portland, Pettygrove began selling his assets. While Stark was out of town, Pettygrove sold the entire 640 acres (259 ha) townsite, including Stark's share, to Daniel H. Lownsdale
Daniel H. Lownsdale
Daniel Lownsdale was one of the founders of Portland, Oregon, United States.Coming from Kentucky sometime before 1845, Lownsdale established the first tannery near the current location of Jeld-Wen Field just west of downtown. He served as a member of the Provisional Legislature of Oregon in 1846...
for $5,000 worth of leather. This netted Pettygrove a one-hundredfold profit for his original $50 investment.
Washington
In 1851, Pettygrove and L.B. Hastings, another businessman, decided to establish a new town on the west side of the entrance to Puget SoundPuget Sound
Puget Sound is a sound in the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected marine waterways and basins, with one major and one minor connection to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Pacific Ocean — Admiralty Inlet being the major connection and...
in the U.S. state of Washington. Scouting the area for a likely spot, they met Alfred A. Plummer and Charles Bachelder, who had filed land claims near a bay on the northeastern corner of the Olympic Peninsula
Olympic Peninsula
The Olympic Peninsula is the large arm of land in western Washington state of the USA, that lies across Puget Sound from Seattle. It is bounded on the west by the Pacific Ocean, the north by the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the east by Puget Sound. Cape Alava, the westernmost point in the contiguous...
. After the four agreed to found a city on this site, Pettygrove and Hastings returned to Oregon for their families and other settlers and returned to what became Port Townsend
Port Townsend, Washington
Port Townsend is a city in Jefferson County, Washington, United States, approximately north-northwest of Seattle . The population was 9,113 at the 2010 census an increase of 9.3% over the 2000 census. It is the county seat and only incorporated city of Jefferson County...
. Pettygrove died there in 1887 and is buried in Laurel Grove Cemetery.
Other interests, legacy
Pettygrove married Sophia Roland in 1842. By 1845 they had two children, the first of whom had been born in the Sandwich Islands (Hawaiian IslandsHawaiian Islands
The Hawaiian Islands are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, numerous smaller islets, and undersea seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll...
), where they stopped on the way to Oregon. The second child, named Benjamin Stark Pettygrove, was the first boy of European descent born in Portland.
Pettygrove was a member of the Pioneer Lyceum and Literary Club
Oregon Lyceum
The Oregon Lyceum or Pioneer Lyceum and Literary Club was founded in Oregon City, Oregon Country around 1840. The forum was a prominent fixture for the leading pioneer settlers during its brief existence...
in Oregon City. In May 1850, he was the jury foreman in the Oregon City trial and subsequent hanging of five men from the Cayuse
Cayuse
The Cayuse are a Native American tribe in the state of Oregon in the United States. The Cayuse tribe shares a reservation in northeastern Oregon with the Umatilla and the Walla Walla tribes as part of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation...
tribe of Native Americans
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
who were accused of murder committed during the Cayuse War
Cayuse War
The Cayuse War was an armed conflict that took place in the Northwestern United States from 1847 to 1855 between the Cayuse people of the region and the United States Government and local Euro-American settlers...
.
Lovejoy and Pettygrove used a copper Matron Head
Matron Head
The original Coronet Large Cent, sometimes nicknamed "Matron Head", was a type of cent issued by the United States Mint in Philadelphia from 1816 until 1839...
penny, dated 1835, in their coin flip to determine Portland's name. Pettygrove bequeathed this penny to the Oregon Historical Society
Oregon Historical Society
The Oregon Historical Society is an organization that encourages and promotes the study and understanding of the history of the Oregon Country, within the broader context of U.S. history. Incorporated in 1898, the Society collects, preserves, and makes available materials of historical character...
in his will.
Pettygrove Park
Pettygrove Park
Pettygrove Park is a city park in downtown Portland, Oregon, U.S. It is the second park in a series of urban open spaces designed by American landscape architect Lawrence Halprin in the South Auditorium District urban renewal area...
, an 0.8 acre (0.3237488 ha) tract in downtown Portland, is named for him. It is one of two nearly adjacent parks developed in the 1960s in an urban renewal
Urban renewal
Urban renewal is a program of land redevelopment in areas of moderate to high density urban land use. Renewal has had both successes and failures. Its modern incarnation began in the late 19th century in developed nations and experienced an intense phase in the late 1940s – under the rubric of...
area. The same coin that Lovejoy and Pettygrove flipped to decide who should name the city was flipped to decide which park would be Lovejoy and which would be Pettygrove. Lovejoy Fountain Park, which features water cascades, is about 300 yards from Pettygrove Park, which features grass mounds, trees, paths, and stonework. Pettygrove Street in northwest Portland is also named for him.
Works cited
- Corning, Howard McKinley, ed. (1989) [1956]. "Pettygrove, Francis W." in Dictionary of Oregon History (2nd ed.). Portland, Oregon: Binford & Mort Publishing. ISBN 0-8323-0449-2.
- Lansing, Jewel (2005) [2003]. Portland: People, Politics, and Power, 1851–2001 (1st paperback ed.). Corvallis, Oregon: Oregon State University Press. ISBN 0-87071-559-3.
- MacColl, E. Kimbark; Stein, Harry H. (1988). Merchants, Money, and Power: The Portland Establishment 1843–1913. Portland, Oregon: The Georgian Press. ISBN 0-9603408-4-X.
- Snyder, Eugene E. (1979). Portland Names and Neighborhoods: Their Historic Origins (softcover ed.). Portland, Oregon: Binford & Mort Publishing. ISBN 0-8323-0351-8.