WPA Interviews in Linn County Oregon were done in the late 1930s and early 1940s by Leslie Haskin of Brownsville. He interviewed people who were pioneers in Linn County and people closely associated with them. In these interviews, you can find first person accounts of their passage along the Oregon Trail and early life in Linn County. You can also find a wealth of information about their family members and neighbors. Most of the interviews are concentrated around the Brownsville area, and some are from Benton County interviews with strong Linn County connections.

These interviews were transcribed by Patricia Dunn of Lebanon Genealogical Society between 1998 and 2001. She transcribed the interviews from over 900 handwritten, mimeographed, or typed pages found in notebooks maintained by Elsie Browning. Elsie and her husband, Emil Browning, were very involved with Linn Co. history. Elsie worked with others in recording the cemetery records done about the same time. Patricia has generously given permission to publish her transcriptions on the LGS web site. This effort represents a tremendous amount of work, and we thank Patricia for sharing it with everyone.

The following list contains the names of the interviewees in alphabetical order by surname or married name. Maiden names are shown in parenthasis where known. Click on a name to display that interview.

The Schwartz Obituary Collection is available at the Linn Genealogical Society Library. The obituaries and funeral notices in the collection were clipped by Vera Schwartz primarily from the Oregonian newspaper from January 1977 through March 1980. There are also some representative obituaries and funeral notices.

The clippings are pasted, front and back, on 5x8 inch index cards. The obituary cards are numbered 1–1099 and 2000–2304. The funeral notice cards are numbered using a letter and a number. The letter represents the first initial of the deceased's last name. The cards are coded A1–A3, B1–B7, C1–C6, D1–D3, E1–E2, F1–F3, G1–G4, H1–H7, I1, J1–J2, K1–K3, L1–L4, M1–M7, N1–N2, O1–O2, P1–P4, Q1, R1–R4, S1–S8, T1–T3, U1, V1, Wa–W5, Y1, and Z1.

Oregon county boundaries have changed from 1843 to the present. This section contains a list of maps showing the evolution of counties for the Oregon Territory and, after 1859, the State of Oregon. Maps are courtesy of the Oregon Historic Society.

Grateful acknowledgement is made to the Oregon Historical Society for making these maps and to Glenn Harrison, of the Linn County Historical Society who made them available for inclusion in our site.

Oregon Map Reprinted from
Mitchell's New General Atlas - 1865

Lists some Linn County Oregon cemeteries. Each cemetery in the list contains directions to the cemetery, a description of the cemetery along with a short history, and an index of people laid to rest in the cemetery. Note:  The list is a work in progress; further cemeteries will added as time goes by; Every effort has been made to ensure accuracy; we are but human and mistakes may have inadvertantly occured.

Members of the Linn Genealogical Society have been transcribing, clipping, and indexing obituaries and death notices from the Albany Democrat-Herald and other newspapers since the late 1970s. To date, there are 39 volumes of transcribed obituaries or obituary clippings available at the Linn Genealogical Society Library. The consolidated index for volumes 1 through 39 (volume 2 is not a LGS project and Vol.6 & 8 indexes are not yet available) is available using the following search form. You can order copies of the obituary transcription or clipping by using the order form available in this section.