Archives West Finding Aid

John Calbreath, born in West Virginia, came to Oregon with his family in 1865. Having attended Toland Medical College in San Francisco, he practiced medicine in Lafayette and McMinnville, Oregon. He married Irene Smith, daughter of Sidney Smith, an Oregon pioneer in 1874. From 1899 to 1908 he was superintendent of the Oregon State Insane Asylum beginning in 1900.

Calbreath was active in Republican party politics and served in the Oregon State Senate in 1895 and 1897. He went to St. Louis in 1896 as a delegate to the Republican National Convention, supporting William McKinley for the presidency.

Sidney Smith was born in Amsterdam, New York, on October 2, 1809. In 1839 he joined a group of men, known as the Peoria Party, and they headed off on a quest to settle the Oregon Territory. They were among the first people to travel on what would become the Oregon Trail. On August 2, 1845, Sidney Smith married Mianda Bailey, the daughter of newly arrived settlers who stayed with Smith while they acquired a claim for themselves. They had five children: Irene, Almira, Mianda, Gustavus, and John U. John U. Smith graduated from Pacific University in 1888

Mary Evelene Calbreath was born in 1895 in McMinnville, Oregon. She studied piano and violin in Berlin, Germany. When she returned to America, she shifted to studying vocal music. She worked for 10 years as an assistant to music teacher William Brady in New York before moving to Portland, Oregon. She worked as vocal teacher and was a member of the Oregon Music Teachers Association. She also composed a number of songs and pieces for violin and string quartet.