Clackamas County Historical Society

Name: Clackamas County Historical Society
Address: Oregon City, OR, US
Telephone: (503) 655-5574
Price range: $

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Clackamas County Historical Society

Clackamas County Historical Society (CCHS), in Oregon City, Oregon, is a nonprofit regional educational institution. Visit us at: www.clackamashistory.org

Since 1952, CCHS has served as the steward of Oregon's early history. Museum of the Oregon Territory, 211 Tumwater Drive, Oregon City OR 97045

Stevens Crawford Heritage House, 603 6th Street, Oregon City OR 97045

Clackamas County Family History Society Library at Museum
Research Library open Wednesdays and 1st and 3rd Saturday. BY APPOINTMENT ONLY.

08/07/2026

Did you know the Clackamas County Historical Society maintains over 35,000 artifacts as part of its collections? Johnnie, Alexis, Libbey, and Zack are here to highlight just a few of the incredible items that can be found in our Museum of the Oregon Territory. However, we need funding to curate, preserve, and keep these collections accessible to the public. Visit our website today at clackamashistory.org to learn how you can help us in our mission.

08/05/2026

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Due to wildfire smoke creating an unhealthy environment for our visitors, volunteers, and staff, we have decided to postpone this year's Stevens-Crawford Heritage House Annual Fundraiser Yard Sale. This event will no longer take place on Friday and Saturday, August 8 - 9. Instead, we are holding this year's Yard Sale on Friday and Saturday, August 14 - 15. SCHH will still be participating in Oregon City Porch Fest this weekend. Thank you for your understanding, and be sure to check our website for the latest updates.

07/31/2026

Tomorrow is the final day to donate items to the Stevens-Crawford Heritage House Fundraiser Yard Sale! On Friday and Saturday, August 7 and 8, 2026, CCHS will host its Annual Fundraiser Yard Sale. The proceeds go directly to CCHS and help us in our efforts to preserve, collect, and interpret Clackamas County history!

If you'd like to do some spring cleaning while helping your local historical society, please consider making an item donation towards the Yard Sale! Stop by either the Museum of the Oregon Territory or the Stevens-Crawford Heritage House during business hours, and a volunteer will assist you in parting with your item donations. The last day to drop off donations will be tomorrow, Saturday, August 1, 2026.

For a list of donated items our volunteer team are looking for and will accept, as well as condition guidelines and what we will not accept, please visit the event page on our website at clackamashistory.org.

Additionally, the SCHH Annual Fundraiser Yard Sale will coincide with Oregon City Porch Fest, and SCHH will be hosting on Saturday, August 8, 2026! Porchfest is a free festival of performances on porches, yards, featuring over 80 mini-concerts taking place in driveways and historic locations throughout Oregon City’s McLoughlin neighborhood. At SCHH, you can look forward to performances from The Fed and Redhead Darling. For more information, visit the official OC Porchfest website at oregoncityporchfest.com

07/25/2026

We are thrilled to announce that the Stevens-Crawford Heritage House is a participant of Oregon City Porchfest 2026!

Porchfest is a free festival of performances on porches, yards, driveways and historic locations throughout Oregon City’s McLoughlin neighborhood. Porchfest will include approximately 80 mini-concerts taking place at various locations in the McLoughlin neighborhood on August 7-8, 2026.

At the Stevens-Crawford Heritage House, you can look forward to the following performances on Saturday, August 8, 2026. Porchfest will coincide with our annual fundraiser Yard Sale, so stop in and do some shopping while you're jamming out!

For more details, including planned performances, visit the official Oregon City Porchfest website at https://oregoncityporchfest.com

07/17/2026

The Stevens-Crawford Heritage House Annual Fundraiser Yard Sale is in just a few weeks, and we're currently looking for donations! On Friday and Saturday, August 7 and 8, 2026, CCHS will host its Annual Fundraiser Yard Sale. The proceeds go directly to CCHS and help us in our efforts to preserve, collect, and interpret Clackamas County history!

If you'd like to do some spring cleaning while helping your local historical society, please consider making an item donation towards the Yard Sale! Stop by either the Museum of the Oregon Territory or the Stevens-Crawford Heritage House during business hours, and a volunteer will assist you in parting with your item donations. The last day to drop off donations will be Saturday, August 1, 2026.

For a list of donated items our volunteer team are looking for and will accept, as well as condition guidelines and what we will not accept, please visit the event page on our website at clackamashistory.org/calendar

07/03/2026

IT'S TODAY! 🎇To celebrate the United States' 250th anniversary, the Museum of the Oregon Territory will offer FREE ADMISSION to visitors on Friday, July 3, 2026! Come and see our newest exhibits, such as "Land & People of the Willamette Valley: A History Shaped by River," and "Jennings Lodge Camp: A Gathering of Faith, Community, and Revival." Visitors can get hands-on by building a simulated campfire, sending a telegraph, taking on the role of engineers figuring out how to channel power to Portland, and many more interactive activities. At MOOT, visitors can discover how the region evolved through historic maps and photographs, see a sample taken from Tomawanos, and view a recreation of a 1920's pharmacy, each artifact telling the story of our region from the age of the Missoula Floods all the way to the modern industrial period.

Plan your trip today! For more information on our exhibit and hours, visit our website at clackamashistory.org.

06/26/2026

To celebrate the United State's 250th's anniversary, the Museum of the Oregon Territory will offer FREE ADMISSION to visitors on Friday, July 3, 2026! Come and see our newest exhibits, such as "Land & People of the Willamette Valley: A History Shaped by River," and "Jennings Lodge Camp: A Gathering of Faith, Community, and Revival." Visitors can get hands-on by building a simulated campfire, sending a telegraph, taking on the role of engineers figuring out how to channel power to Portland, and many more interactive activities. At MOOT, visitors can discover how the region evolved through historic maps and photographs, see a sample taken from Tomawanos, and view a recreation of a 1920's pharmacy, each artifact telling the story of our region from the age of the Missoula Floods all the way to the modern industrial period.

Plan your trip today! For more information on our exhibit and hours, visit our website (link in bio).

06/10/2026

Alfred Luelling (the last name is usually spelled Lewelling now) is buried in , land adjacent to the first orchard the Lewelling family planted in the 1840’s.

It was Alfred’s father, Henderson Lewelling, who decided his family should leave Iowa for the Oregon Country in 1847. And with them, the Lewellings brought a specially-devised cart filled with 700 grafted fruit trees to be replanted in the rich soil of the Willamette Valley in what is now Milwaukie, Oregon.

It was Henderson’s eldest son, Alfred, just 15 years old, who drove the oxen that carted the unwieldy wagon. It must have weighed tons - it took six oxen to haul the cart, which was filled with the delicate grafted trees and damp soil. A traveling nursery of grafted apple, pear, plum, and cherry trees. Only about half of them would survive the nearly 10 month long perilous journey, but those that did would be the first grafted fruit trees planted in Oregon. And this first orchard of grafted trees would become the origins of the Pacific Coast fruit industry and many new varieties of fruit.

For example, if you’ve ever sunk your teeth into a tasty Bing cherry, you can thank the Lewellings. The Bing cherry is named for the Chinese immigrant, Ah Bing, who was the foreman in one of the Lewelling orchards.

The Lewellings and their orchard partners once held nearly 1900 acres of farm land in Milwaukie. Only a few of the grafted trees or their descendants remain.

But fortunately, the story of the Lewellings and their development of the fruit industry on the Pacific Coast is not lost. Their story is brilliantly told by Willamette Valley writer and culinary historian, Linda Ziedrich, in the book: First Fruits: The Lewellings and the Birth of the Pacific Coast Fruit Industry.

Ziedrich will talk about her book Thursday, June 11 at 7 pm at the Museum of the Oregon Territory as part of the Museum’s Look Back series. The talk is open to the public. The lecture is $10 for museum members and $20 for non-members.

For more information about this upcoming lecture, visit our website at clackamashistory.org.

06/09/2026

You are looking upon something that nowadays is a genuinely rare sight.

Brian Koffler, the Director of Agronomy for the , is standing between two huge winter nevil pear trees that he believes may be two of the original trees Henderson Lewelling brought with him on the Overland Trail from Iowa to Oregon in 1847. (Few of the grafted Lewelling trees or their descendants remain.) The Lewellings’ first orchard is now the Waverley Country Club’s south practice range.

Henderson Lewelling, his wife, eight children (nine, counting the son that would be born on the almost ten month long journey) and an oxcart specially constructed to haul 700 grafted fruit trees came west in 1847.

The Lewelling family cleared the first five acres, planting their well-traveled fruit trees and themselves in the rich soil of the Willamette Valley. Eventually, the Lewellings and fellow orchardists they partnered with would own roughly 1900 acres. Their journey and their pioneering spirit was one of grit and hardship, but also ambition, perseverance, and opportunity. Their story tells the development of the fruit industry in Oregon and on the Pacific Coast.

It is also the history of westward expansion.

The land the Lewellings settled and farmed had been the home to the Clackamas people. Land we now call Southeast Portland and Milwaukie, Oregon.

The Lewelling story is brilliantly told by Willamette Valley writer, Linda Ziedrich, in the book: First Fruits: The Lewellings and the Birth of the Pacific Coast Fruit Industry.

Ziedrich will talk about her book Thursday, June 11 at 7 pm at the Museum of the Oregon Territory as part of the Museum’s Look Back series. The talk is open to the public. The lecture is $10 for museum members and $20 for non-members.

Oh, and the Lewellings were not just fruit growers. They were also liberal reformers. Some of their ideas were radical for their day. Back east, they had been Quakers. Out west, they were attracted to Spiritualism. Henderson Lewelling had hopes of starting a free love commune in Honduras. For more information about the upcoming talk, visit our website at clackamashistory.org.

06/06/2026

You are looking at living history. These stunning pear trees date from the 1840’s, saved by the in Southeast Portland. The land is now a private golf club, but before that, it was one of the Lewelling family’s fruit orchards.

Henderson Lewelling came west on the Overland Trail in 1847, bringing with him 700 grafted fruit trees. A traveling nursery, if you will, in a wagon specially designed to haul these small trees from Iowa to Oregon. Henderson and his brothers pioneered the fruit industry in Oregon and along the Pacific Coast.

At one point, the Lewelling family had as many as 1900 acres of land in Southeast Portland and Milwaukie. Land that was the territory of the Clackamas people, though few still lived there. Disease had killed off much of the Indigenous population before the Lewellings arrived. The Lewellings’ story is part of the story of the expansion of the American West.

Today, only a few of the Lewelling fruit trees remain. But the story of the Lewellings is not lost. And it’s being told in a new book: First Fruits: The Lewellings and the Birth of the Pacific Coast Fruit Industry. Willamette Valley author and culinary historian Linda Ziedrich will talk about her book Thursday, June 11, at 7 pm at the Museum of the Oregon Territory as part of the Museum’s Look Back series.

The Lewelling brothers were not just fruit growers. They were also liberal reformers. Some of their ideas were radical for their day. Back East, they had been Quakers. Out West, they were attracted to Spiritualism. Henderson Lewelling had hopes of starting a free love commune in Honduras.

Henderson Lewelling came west on the Overland Trail in 1847, bringing with him 700 grafted fruit trees. A traveling nursery, if you will, in a wagon specially designed to haul these small trees from Iowa to Oregon. Henderson and his brothers pioneered the fruit industry in Oregon and along the Pacific Coast.

The talk is open to the public. The lecture is $10 for museum members and $20 for non-members. For more information, visit our website at clackamashistory.org

Address

Oregon City, OR

Telephone

(503) 655-5574

Website

http://www.clackamashistory.org/

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