Collection is open for research.
Gift of William Dierdorff, January 2012 (Lib. Acc. 27524).
William Henry Dierdorff was born in 1849 in Pontusac, Illinois. In 1856, he emigrated with his family to Oregon. He worked as a civil engineer and a draftsman before becoming a Presbyterian minister in 1892. In 1894, when Reverend George Ross of the Presbyterian church in Tualatin Plains (known as the Old Scotch Church) died, Dierdorff was appointed as his replacement. Later that same year he married Ross's daughter, Emma Ross (1870-1960); the couple had three sons: Ross Ainsworth Dierdorff (1896-1964), William Henry Dierdorff (1898-1975), and John Dierdorff (1899-1989). In the later 1890s, Dierdorff preached in Klamath Falls, but illness forced him to retire in 1900. He died in 1903 in Hillsboro, Oregon.
Sources: Vital records on Ancestry.com; obituary in the Tillamook Headlight, September 17, 1903; obituary for Emma Ross Dierdorff in the Oregonian, June 16, 1960; biographical information provided by Dierdorff's grandson, William Henry Dierdorff III.
Dierdorff and Ross family photographs collection, Org. Lot 1088, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
Dierdorff family papers, Coll 646, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
Photographs depicting the Ross and Dierdorff families. Collection includes images of the Reverend William H. Dierdorff, his wife, Emma Ross Dierdorff, and his brother, Ainsworth W. Dierdorff; members of the Ross family (descendants of the Reverend George Ross), and the Tualatin Plains Presbyterian Church. Formats include cabinet cards and daguerreotypes. Also included are a small quantity of clippings and ephemera.
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