A tree farm near Pedee
The homestead story that wasn’t.
Sullivan Tree Farm: Sections 28 and 33, Township 9 South, Range 6 West, Willamette Meridian, west of Pedee, Polk County, Oregon · See the Surveyor’s Walk card
“Was this land homesteaded around the turn of the century, the way the old management plan says?”
Written by AI
The Sullivan Tree Farm is a 211-acre tree farm just west of Pedee in Polk County, Oregon, in Sections 28 and 33 of Township 9 South, Range 6 West. For years the farm’s management plan said the land “was homesteaded around the turn of the century.” The records tell an older story: two pioneer land claims surveyed in 1855, railroad grant land, and one thin strip of homestead land, about 7 acres. Family stories are like fence lines: handy, old, and not always where the surveyor put them.
What the record shows
Deputy Surveyor Daniel Murphy ran the section lines around what is now the farm on March 13–16, 1854, and he was not crossing empty country. His notes keep stopping to take compass sightings on houses: Mr Tedroe’s, Mr Johnson’s, Taylor’s. Halfway down the west side of Section 33 his post fell “in dooryard,” 39 links (about 26 feet) from Mrs Gillam’s dwelling. Tedroe and Gillam are his spellings; the later patents read Tedrow and Gilliam.
“Mr Tedroe’s dwelling bears S 51½° W.”
Source: Murphy, Daniel. Field notes of the subdivision of T. 9 S., R. 6 W., Willamette Meridian, 1854–55. BLM Oregon State Office, vol. R0029 (as transcribed in the landowner’s own history of the farm, October 2026)
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The township map drawn from Murphy’s notes was approved on May 1, 1855. Small black squares mark the dwellings labeled Tedroe, Johnson and Taylor, and lettered across Section 33 and on to the northeast is a verdict any farmer would envy: “Level prairie and soil 1st rate.”
“Level prairie and soil 1st rate.”
Source: General Land Office township plat, T. 9 S., R. 6 W., approved May 1, 1855. BLM Oregon State Office (as transcribed in the landowner’s own history of the farm, October 2026; see the first picture above)
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The settlers Murphy sighted held their land as Donation Land Claims, and each claim got a survey of its own. Deputy Surveyor Thomas H. Hutchinson did them in 1855: Mary Gilliam’s claim on July 13–14, John W. Tedrow’s on August 10–11 and John Johnson’s on September 14–15. BLM’s index says 1856; the field notes are dated 1855, and we follow the notes.
“10th Aug 1855”
Source: Hutchinson, Thomas H. Field notes of the Donation Land Claim surveys, T. 9 S., R. 6 W., 1855. BLM Oregon State Office, vol. D0022 (as transcribed in the landowner’s own history of the farm, October 2026; the date line is on page 351, the third picture above)
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About 150 of the farm’s acres lie in Claim No. 54, the 322 acres of John W. and Rachel Tedrow. Hutchinson’s summary: little improvement yet, but valuable for its timber along the Luckiamute and its rich prairie.
“There is but little improvement on the claim — but it is valuable on account of the timber on Luckiamute river and the rich prairie.”
Source: Hutchinson, Thomas H. Field notes of the Donation Land Claim surveys, T. 9 S., R. 6 W., 1855. BLM Oregon State Office, vol. D0022, page 351 (as transcribed in the landowner’s own history of the farm, October 2026)
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About 12 more acres, on the east side, lie in Claim No. 53, the 323.5 acres of John Johnson. Of that claim Hutchinson wrote that three fourths was rich level prairie and one fourth timbered, and that it was highly improved. Johnson even had a “new barn.”
“Three fourths of this claim is rich level prairie, one fourth is timbered. The claim is highly improved.”
Source: Hutchinson, Thomas H. Field notes of the Donation Land Claim surveys, T. 9 S., R. 6 W., 1855. BLM Oregon State Office, vol. D0022 (as transcribed in the landowner’s own history of the farm, October 2026; page not given)
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Hutchinson tied both houses to one corner, Johnson’s southwest corner, which lies inside today’s farm: “Tedrow’s house” stood S 40° E, 100 links (66 feet) from it, and “Johnson’s house” N 40° E, about 6 chains (about 396 feet). Plotted on the county map, both sites fall inside the farm, only about 400 feet apart. These are plotted positions, not discoveries: nobody has yet walked the sites with the notes in hand.
“Tedrow’s house”
Source: Hutchinson, Thomas H. Field notes of the Donation Land Claim surveys, T. 9 S., R. 6 W., 1855. BLM Oregon State Office, vol. D0022 (as transcribed in the landowner’s own history of the farm, October 2026; house sites plotted there on Polk County map layers, approximate)
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Reading every bearing tree out of the two surveyors’ notes for 13 corners on and near the farm gives 23 trees: 11 white oak; 4 “oak,” kind not stated; 2 each of ash, alder and cherry; 1 willow; and 1 “red fir,” the surveyors’ name for Douglas-fir. That is 15 oaks and only one Douglas-fir. Hold the picture loosely: these are trees the surveyors chose, a small sample, not a survey of the vegetation.
Source: Murphy, Daniel. Field notes of the subdivision of T. 9 S., R. 6 W., Willamette Meridian, 1854–55. BLM Oregon State Office, vol. R0029; Hutchinson, Thomas H. Field notes of the Donation Land Claim surveys, T. 9 S., R. 6 W., 1855. BLM Oregon State Office, vol. D0022 (the tally of 23 bearing trees as counted in the landowner’s history, October 2026)
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The farm’s 211 acres left federal ownership through five patents, probably six. The two claims were patented in 1877. About 31 acres on the west, never part of a claim, passed to the Oregon & California Railroad under its federal land grant, by patents of 1897 and 1899. An 1871 railroad patent appears to cover a strip of about 7 acres in the northeast, the 6.93-acre lot on the old claim plat; that match is an inference, and nobody has looked at the patent itself. Estimated from county map layers, the pieces add up to about 207 of the 211 acres.
Source: BLM General Land Office Records (land patents) and BLM Historical Index, T. 9 S., R. 6 W. (looked up by the landowner; as transcribed in the landowner’s own history of the farm, October 2026)
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The only homestead land on the farm is a strip about 138 feet wide along most of its north edge, in Section 28: about 7 acres. Charles W. Pagett received a Homestead Act patent for 104.35 acres there on October 12, 1900, and the farm holds its southern edge. Pagett was not the first to try: the federal index lists three earlier homestead entries on the same tract, made in 1881, 1886 and 1887, all cancelled, the last in October 1894.
Source: BLM General Land Office Records (land patents) and BLM Historical Index, T. 9 S., R. 6 W. (looked up by the landowner; as transcribed in the landowner’s own history of the farm, October 2026)
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Forest historian Bob Zybach caught the error. Donation Land Claims could no longer be started after 1855: Congress kept the donation law in force only “until the first day of December, eighteen hundred and fifty-five,” that is, December 1, 1855. The Homestead Act became law on May 20, 1862, and settlers could enter land under it from January 1, 1863. So the 1855 claims cannot be homesteads, and the only homestead land here is the 1900 strip.
“extended and continued in force until the first day of December, eighteen hundred and fifty-five”
Source: Act of Feb. 14, 1853, ch. 69, § 5, 10 Stat. 158; Homestead Act of May 20, 1862, ch. 75, 12 Stat. 392 (entries from January 1, 1863) (Homestead Act scan: govinfo.gov, STATUTE-12-Pg392; Dr. Zybach’s point as reported in the landowner’s history)
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Before 1989 the whole property was fenced and grazed by cattle, the farm’s management plan says. About 1976 Publishers Paper planted the open areas with Douglas-fir seedlings, each in a tube to keep the deer off. WTD Industries bought the land in 1988, built dirt roads and in the spring of 1989 logged nearly all the merchantable timber. In 1990 the bare ground was replanted: two plantings of about 25,000 Douglas-fir seedlings each.
Source: Sullivan Tree Farm Management Plan (2012), as summarized in the landowner’s history (October 2026) (the history notes that the plan’s word “homesteaded” is wrong for most of the land)
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For most of the twentieth century the best record is the view from above: U.S. Department of Agriculture aerial photographs from 1936, 1955 and 1978, free on Oregon Digital in the “Aerial Photos, Mid-Willamette” collection. 1936 shows a patchwork of dark tree clumps and lighter open ground; 1955, open grassland with scattered trees; 1978, more trees, about two years after the planting. Fitted to today’s map by matching roads, they are good only to 100 to 250 feet: they show what grew where, not where a corner is. They are not shown here.
Source: USDA aerial photographs, Polk County, 1936–1978, in Oregon Digital, “Aerial Photos, Mid-Willamette” (Oregon State University) (as transcribed in the landowner’s own history of the farm, October 2026)
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What the record can’t say
Written by AI
- Gap in the record Who bought out the claimants and the railroad, and how the pieces came together under one owner: the county deed books have not been opened yet.
- Gap in the record Whether the 1871 railroad patent really covers the 7-acre strip is an inference; nobody has looked at the patent itself.
- Gap in the record Every position here is plotted from county map layers, not surveyed. Nobody has walked the house sites and corners with the notes in hand, and most of the witness trees are surely long gone.
- Gap in the record Who the Tedrows and Johnsons were beyond the survey is not settled: the family accounts are unconfirmed and disagree in places, and which John Johnson held Claim 53 is an inference from a cemetery record.
- Gap in the record How people lived on this ground before the surveyors came: the files used here are nearly silent. The Native people of the Willamette Valley are generally known as the Kalapuya, but that is regional background, not this property’s record, and a published account of the Luckiamute country still has to be added.
What to look up next
Written by AI
Now try your own place Bring boots; the corner posts won’t come to you.