WPA Interviews

INTERVIEW, August 14, 1940

An interview with Mrs. Charlotta (Monteith) Pipe. (Mrs. J.V. Pipe). Mrs. Pipe is a daughter of Thomas Monteith who was one of the founders of the city of Albany, Linn County, Oregon. In this interview Mrs. Pipe was much occupied with other matters and a great deal of the information given was in the form of printed and written matter for copying. Much of the printed matter was in the form of newspaper clippings, some of it without date and with nothing to indicate from what paper it came. For this reason this interview is not given in direct quotation but simply as a general narrative of his life. It is hoped that at a later date more specific information may be obtained on certain matters. L.H.

Thomas Monteith was the father of the informant. The Monteiths were of Scotch descent. His father was Archibald Monteith, born in Scotland. His mother was Mary McLain, also born in Scotland. Together they came to America at a date not definitely known and settled in the State of New York. Archibald and Mary McLain Monteith were the parents of ten children. The names of all the children was not learned, only those who came to Oregon at a later date. These were the following:

Thomas Monteith. (Father of the principal informant.) He was born near Broadalbin, Fulton County, New York on April 23, 1824. He came to Oregon in 1847.

Walter Monteith. He was born in New York and came to Oregon in 1847, accompanying Thomas Monteith on the trip. His birth date was 1816. Died June 11, 1876.

George Monteith. Came to Oregon. Year unknown.

William J. Monteith. Came to Oregon but exact year not learned. He was a Presbyterian minister and was the first president of Albany College, serving from 1867 to 1868. He died in Idaho.

John Monteith. Came to Oregon but date not learned.

Walter Moneith, and his brother Thomas, came to Oregon together in the year 1847. The following year they came to Linn County and purchased the claim of Hiram Smead who had come in 1845. It was on this land that the Monteith brothers platted a town and began to sell lots to the settlers. In almost all of their projects, up to the time of Walter's death, these two brothers were closely associated. Walter Monteith was a volunteer in the Cayuse Indian War. He was married and had two sons but their names were not learned.

Thomas Monteith, with his brother Walter, crossed the plains to Oregon in 1847. Another member of the party at that time was Samuel Althouse who later became a prominent Albany citizen. As soon as the Monteith brothers had purchased their claim, for which, by the way, they paid Mr. Smead $400.00, they platted a town site which they called Albany in honor of their familiar trading town in their old home, Albany, N. Y. At the first the county government had its seat at Calapooia, a settlement on the river of that name now called Brownsville. Later, officers elected from the more northern part of the county met at Albany for convenience. In order that the County Seat might permanently remain at Albany the Monteiths contributed land for a courthouse site, and other blocks of land to be sold to settlers and the proceeds to be used to erect a county building. This was done although there had never been any legal action making Albany the County Seat. The Monteith Brothers also contributed lots to be used by various religious denominations and later gave a large block of land as a site for Albany College.

One of the first important business enterprises in Albany was the erection of the Magnolia Flouring Mill by the Monteith Brothers. A partner in this enterprise was the above mentioned Samuel Althouse. Later Thomas Monteith built what was known as the Albany City Mills. The Magnolia Mills were started in 1851, the Albany City Mills in 1865.

In the year 1849, it is believed, Thomas and Walter Monteith began the construction of the first frame house in Albany. It was a large and important house but owing to the rush of labor to the California gold mines they were unable to complete it for a number of years. This house was situated at the corner of Second and Calapooia Streets. It is still standing and in use but has since been moved about half a block further west.

The Monteith Brothers established a ferry across the Willamette in order to facilitate travel to the town. This ferry was located just west of the Magnolia Flouring Mills and the street running north and south at that place is now named Ferry Street. Another street in the town is called Broadalbin Street after the town in New York where Thomas Monteith was born.

About the year 1853 Thomas Monteith and Samuel Althouse took a trip back to the east for pleasure and business. When they returned each young man brought with him a bride. That of Thomas Monteith was Christina Maria Dunbar who was born at Providence, Indiana. They were married at Oskaloosa, Iowa, on June 29, 1854. (This was the mother of Mrs. Pipe the chief informant.) Grandfather's name, my mother's father, was Colonel Bitler Dunbar. He was a native of Connecticut but had moved to Indiana and later to Iowa. He was a veteran of the Black Hawk Indian wars.

Grandmother's name was Sarah Heaton. She was born in Pennsylvania. After their marriage, Mr. & Mrs. Thomas Monteith returned to Oregon, traveling by way of the Isthmus of Panama. They took the steamer, George L. Law to Panama and after crossing the Isthmus they took the Steamer John L. Stevens. They arrived back in Oregon in December 1854. To this marriage five children were born. They are:

Archibald Monteith. He never married. He made his home in Portland and in Albany. He died in 1938 or 1939.

Charlotta A. Monteith. (The principal informant). She married J. V. Pipe who was a businessman of Albany. They have one son, J. M. Pipe, who succeeds his father in business.

Christina A. Monteith, named after her mother. She married W. H. Keading. Her home was at Oskaloosa, Indiana.

Montrose D. Monteith. Died at Albany when a young man of some 24 years.

Rev. William Monteith, brother of Thomas Monteith was a Presbyterian Minister for many years. He was also the first President of Albany College.

The Monteith claim was in the western portion of present Albany. The eastern half of the town is on the Claim of Abram Hackleman. For many years there was strong rivalry between the Hackleman and the Monteith sections. The town was first named Albany by the Monteiths, but the eastern section finally had a bill passed by the Legislature changing the name to Takenah. The word Takenah is of Calapooia Indian derivation and is supposed to indicate a "deep and placid pool," referring to the deep basin at the confluence of the Willamette and Calapooia rivers. Some of the people of the town hooted at the name and said that it really signified "hole in the ground". At any rate, the name Takenah did not long remain but in a year or two was changed back to Albany.

About the year 1882 Thomas Monteith retired from active business. He died on July 21, 1889. In the year 1863 Thomas Monteith was commissioned as Lieutenant Colonel in the Oregon State Militia. On August 21, 1864 he received a commission as Colonel in the same division.

COPY OF VARIOUS RECORDS OF THE MONTEITH FAMILY.

Did you ever hear of the town of Takenah? If you will look over the files of the old papers for 1853 and 1854 you will see frequent mention of Takenah. In 1853, at the request of L.C. Burkhart and others, the name of the town of Albany was changed to Takenah. However, the name was soon changed back to its original name, Albany. The first settler on the present site of Albany was Abner Hackleman, who left Burlington, Iowa, in the spring of 1845 to find a home in the valley of the Willamette. He hired Hiram Smead to take up the land on which the business part of Albany is now built, to hold for his son Abram. In the spring of 1846 Abner Hackleman went back to Iowa to get his family. He was taken sick a few days after reaching home, and died. Abram, his son, came out, took up the claim taken by his father, and Hiram Smead sold the claim he was holding for him to Walter and Thomas Monteith for 200 dollars. This, (the sale) was in the spring of 1848. The two young Scotchmen immediately had it surveyed for a city. In 1849 they put up a good house at the corner of what is now Second and Washington streets, which house is still in use. In the spring of 1850 Abram Hackleman put up a house. The embryo town of Albany, named by the Monteith brother for Albany, N. Y., soon had nearly a dozen people. There were Hiram Smead, A. Hackleman, John Burkhart, Captain J. M. McConnell, John Layton and a Mr. Davis. Davis and Laton built a frame house and opened a store.

In 1851 J. M. McConnell and the Monteiths went into partnership and opened a store. In the winter of 1850-51 Isaac Hutchins built a house, which he rented to Rev. J.P. Miller, in which house the first Court ever held in Linn County convened, in 1852. In 1851 work was started on a mill called the Magnolia Mill, to handle the wheat raised in the valley. The partners in the mill were Sam Hill, Sam Althouse, Jerry Driggs and Walter and Tom Monteith. The mill started grinding in 1852. This same year the first steamboat that ever went up the Willamette as far as Albany went to the mills to get a load of flour. When the Multnomah tied up at the mill all the people in that part of the country were there to give her a welcome.

The following year, 1853, the famous Octagon Court House was built. It was a famous sight until it was burned down in 1861.

In 1854, on October 31, a meeting of the citizens of Takenah, as Albany was then called, was held to organize a school district. Anderson Cox, J. H. Foster and George Cline were elected directors and J. M. McConnell, clerk. This meeting was decided to be illegal, so another meeting was called on November 28, and Joseph H. Foster, J. G. Lincoln and Anderson Cox were elected directors. J. M. McConnell was again elected clerk. Walter Monteith and J. H. Foster and J. N. McConnell were chosen as a committee to select a site for a school. A site was selected and a school building built in the spring of 1855. On January 6, 1856, the county school superintendent formally organized a school district to be known as the Takenah school district.

In 1853 Rev. J. P. Miller built what was known as the Round house, an eight-sided building having sixteen large rooms to be used as a Presbyterian girls boarding school. Before the school was ready to start he was killed aboard the Gazelle when it blew up at the wharf at Canemah; so the school never started. The old eight-sided house, famous for its age and for the fact that more than 300 couples had been married within its walls, is still used as a residence (1914.)

The first church built was the Methodist Church, which was erected 1857. The next was the United Brethren, in 1861, and three years later the Congregationals put up a church.

Albany people raised $50,000 to get Ben Holladay to come through the town with the railroad, and the first train entered the city in December 1870.

In 1872, $62,000 was raised to build the Santiam Canal, twelve miles in length, bringing the waters of the Santiam from near Lebanon. Soon Albany had a twine factory, a foundry and a planning mill, all run by waterpower. Mrs. Walter Monteith still resides in Albany (1914) and has given much unwritten history of the early days of Albany."

In the fall of 1849 Anderson Cox began the construction of a sawmill on a small stream which is now spanned by a county bridge on the road between Albany and Jefferson. This was the first sawmill built in Linn County.

In the spring of 1850 Walter Monteith and others began hauling logs to the mill in order to have them cut as soon as the mill was ready to start. The capacity was about 2,500 feet per day. It ran day and night when there was plenty of water. The lumber for the first frame house that was built in Albany was cut that winter, and in the spring of 1853 Mr. Monteith built a residence on Second Street between Calapooia and Washington fronting on Washington, on the south side of Second, which is yet standing a little further to the west. In the spring of 1852 Mr. Pearce (Ashby Pearce) erected a building for a store and put in a stock of goods of all descriptions, of course a limited assortment. It stood north of the Sternburg Store on Water Street and was eighteen by twenty-four feet. The lumber was put up just as it came from the saw, and the cracks were stripped with the same material.

In 1848 Walter and Thomas Monteith came to Albany, bought the claim of Mr. Smead and appreciating its value as a site for a town laid it off in town lots and named it Albany in honor of their former trading center, Albany, New York. The brothers erected the first frame house in the city, now standing at the corner of Washington and Second Streets. From that time on, Mr. Monteith was identified with the growth of the city up to about 1882 when from adverse circumstances he retired from business. In 1856 Mr. Monteith helped establish the Albany City Flouring Mills, which were run under the firm name of Beach, Monteith & Company until 1876. Mr. Beach dying, Mr. Monteith assumed control of the mill. Mr. Monteith held several trusts under the county and city. He was twice elected County Treasurer in the early days of the county, was Mayor in 1878-9 and several times filled the position of Councilman. He was prominently mentioned for the office of State Treasurer and on one occasion was run for that office. Mr. Monteith was identified with many of the prominent enterprises of the city, and his name will always be remembered in connection with its early days."

Copyright © 2000 Patricia Dunn. All rights reserved. This transcription may not be reproduced in any media without the express written permission by the author. Permission has been given by the Transcriber to publish on the LGS web site.