Archives West Finding Aid

"William Henderson Packwood (1932-1917) holds a unique place in Oregon history as the youngest participant of Oregon's Constitutional Convention of 1857. This mostly self-educated pioneer became one of Oregon's most versatile entrepreneurs. His occupations included soldier, Indian fighter, miner, cattle rancher, merchant, ditch and road builder, ferry owner, and public servant. He was a founding father of two Baker County mining boom towns—Auburn and Sparta. He is also the great-grandfather of Oregon Senator Robert Packwood."

"Packwood was born October 23, 1832, near Mount Vernon, Illinois. The family settled in Sparta for a while and then, when he was fourteen, moved to Springfield, where Packwood clerked in a store, often meeting Abraham Lincoln on his way to work."

He first came to Oregon in the 1950s. "In 1857, Curry County sent the twenty-four-year-old Packwood as its delegate to Oregon's Constitutional Convention to draft a constitution in preparation for statehood. In later years, Packwood took pride in his work on the state seal committee, which adopted his suggestion of a sea view and an elk."

"The gold rush of 1862 lured Packwood to Eastern Oregon. Arriving at Blue Canyon, he helped lay out the town of Auburn, which that summer swelled to several thousand miners—customers for Packwood's hastily built mercantile store. In September 1862, before there was a state-sanctioned court, Packwood was elected as one of three judges who condemned a murderer to hang."

"Auburn briefly served as the county seat for newly-created Baker County. Packwood was appointed Baker County's first school superintendent; he then married the county's first teacher, Johanna O'Brien, and appointed a successor for her position. Their long marriage produced five children."

[Source: Oregon Encyclopedia online, oregonencyclopedia.org]