Sumner is an unincorporated

Unincorporated area

In law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality.To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, a city, town, or village with its own government. An unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a municipal government...

 community in Coos County

Coos County, Oregon

-National protected areas:*Bandon Marsh National Wildlife Refuge*Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge *Siskiyou National Forest *Siuslaw National Forest - Incorporated cities:- Unincorporated communities and CDPs:-See also:...

, Oregon

Oregon

Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...

, United States. It is located about ten miles southeast of Coos Bay

Coos Bay, Oregon

Coos Bay is a city located in Coos County, Oregon, United States, where the Coos River enters Coos Bay on the Pacific Ocean. The city borders the city of North Bend, and together they are often referred to as one entity called either Coos Bay-North Bend or the Bay Area...

 on the route of the old Coos Bay Wagon Road.

According to William Gladstone Steel

William Gladstone Steel

William Gladstone Steel , called the "father of Crater Lake", referring to the creation of Crater Lake National Park in Oregon, United States. A native of Ohio, he worked in the newspaper business before becoming a mail carrier...

, the community was founded in 1888 by John B. Dalley (other sources have the spelling as "Dulley"), who named it after Charles Sumner

Charles Sumner

Charles Sumner was an American politician and senator from Massachusetts. An academic lawyer and a powerful orator, Sumner was the leader of the antislavery forces in Massachusetts and a leader of the Radical Republicans in the United States Senate during the American Civil War and Reconstruction,...

, a Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

senator who died in 1874. Sumner post office, however, was established in 1874, so Steel must have had the date wrong. Dalley was the first postmaster and the office closed in 1961. In 1915, Sumner had a population of 100. As of 1990, the community had one store.