The City of Philomath, with a population of about 3,800, is located in the mid-Willamette Valley, just west of Corvallis. Beginning as an early college town in a rural agricultural setting, Philomath later evolved into a timber community. The community is implementing a comprehensive economic development plan in order to diversity and strengthen the economy, to expand employment opportunities, and to improve the area’s quality of life.

The Kalapuya, a native people of the Pacific Northwest, lived in the tributary river valleys of the Willamette River, and along the middle fork of the Umpqua River. The Kalapuya were not a tribe, but a number of distinct bands that spoke different languages and dialects having similar linquistic roots. They spent the winter months in permanent villages. During the rest of the year, the Kalapuya traveled throughout their respective territories, harvesting plant foods, and hunting and fishing.

The Chepenefa, the Marys River band, inhabited the valley of the Marys River. The fertile valley, future townsite of Philomath, and the foothills of the Coast Range provided the Indians with a great variety of plant and animal foods. Marys Peak, called Tcha Teemanwi, was the Chepenefa’s spirit power place.

In the late 1700s, maritime explorers and fur traders brought smallpox to the Pacific Northwest. Lacking immunity to the disease, many Northwest Native Americans died. In the mid-1830s, the Kalapuya, already weakened by the earlier epidemic, were all but wiped out by malaria. An estimated ninety- percent of the population perished. When the early pioneers arrived in the Willamette Valley, they found only the traumatized remnants of this once proud people. By 1856, the Federal Government had driven nearly all of the surviving Kalapuya from their ancestral lands and herded them onto reservations populated by a number of unrelated Oregon tribes. Most of the Kalapuya were sent to the Grande Ronde Indian Reservation (western Yamhill County), although some from the Marys River area ended up on the Siletz Indian Reservation (Lincoln County). Forced to live under terrible conditions, many of these Native Americans succumbed to disease, starvation, and exposure.

The earliest non-Native Americans to enter the valley of the Marys River were fur trappers and traders; many were French Canadian voyageurs. In search of beaver pelts, they probably frequented the area as early as the 1810s. They traveled by boat, and by land on the Hudson’s Bay Company Pack Trail, also called the Oregon-California Pack Trail. The Pack Trail was the major north-south route on the west side of the Willamette River. In the vicinity of the Philomath (from north to south), this historic route skirted the east side of Bald Hill, followed the alignment of Corvallis’ 72^nd Street (north of Highway 20/34), then passed along the east side of Neabeack Hill. In 1846, settlers first entered the Willamette Valley from the south; they graveled a new route – the Applegate Trail. In Benton County, the Applegate Trail followed the earlier Pack Trail.

Beginning in 1845, significant numbers of Euroamericans started to arrive in Benton County in search of choice farmland. The area of pioneer farms that was bounded on the east and west by the Willamette River and the Coast Range, and, on the north and south, by the Oak Creek hills and the Marys River, respectively, came to be known as the Marys River Settlement. The City of Philomath eventually was platted within this agriculturally rich area.

David Henderson (1813-1872) came to Oregon as a single man in 1846, and settled on a Donation Land Claim in Benton County – on the future site of Philomath. When his sister, Anna Hughart, died in1846, she was buried on his claim. About a dozen persons subsequently were interred at the same site (now, the northeast corner of Pioneer and North 8^th Streets). Anna was said to have been the first Euroamerican buried in Benton County. The old Philomath Cemetery probably was the first graveyard in the County; the bodies later were moved elsewhere.

In 1849, George Bethers, an early Benton County pioneer and a member of the United Brethren Church, wrote a now-famous letter to Dayton, Ohio, to the Church’s official publication. He requested that a missionary be sent to the Marys River Settlement. In response, an entire wagon train of the faithful set off for the Oregon Territory in 1853. Many of those ninety-six pioneers, which included two missionaries and three other ministers, settled on farms in the Marys River Settlement.

In 1865, the residents of the Marys River Settlement, in conjunction with the United Brethren Church, decided to build an "institution of learning" to be called Philomath College (Philomath meaning, "lover of learning"). The newly formed Philomath College Corporation purchased the Donation Land Claim of pioneer David Henderson, and proceeded to plat the City of Philomath on that tract, setting aside eight centrally located acres for a college campus. This sequence of development was unusual, for the presence of a town usually predates the building of a college. To raise money for the construction of the college building, the Trustees of the Corporation sold the City lots to local settlers. The handsome Georgian-style structure still is Philomath’s most important landmark; today, it houses the Benton County Historical Museum. The central part of the building, including the bell tower, is the original 1867 college. The west and east wings were added in 1905 and 1907, respectively.

In October 1867, Philomath College officially opened its doors to about 100 students. At first, the College assumed Philomath’s public school responsibilities, offering only a preparatory or secondary school curriculum. In time, college courses were added.

A schism arising from doctrinal differences overwhelmed the national United Brethren Church in the 1880s. The liberals and the radicals soon were at odds with one another in churches and affiliated colleges throughout the country, including Philomath College. In 1889, the Trustees of the Philomath College Corporation, as well as the faculty members, permanently split into two factions. The courts eventually awarded the college building to the liberals.

The radicals organized a new college, eventually naming it the College of Philomath. In 1890, they constructed a building on the northwest corner of Pioneer and North 10^th Streets. That structure burned in 1892, subsequently was rebuilt, burned again after the turn of the century, and was rebuilt yet a second time. The third building, a two-story structure with an imposing bell tower (since removed) is used today as an apartment building. Sarah Keezel, second president of the College of Philomath (1890-1897), was an anomaly for her time, for she served as a female president of a coeducational college during the Victorian Period.

The College of Philomath, always the smaller of Philomath’s two colleges, permanently closed in 1912. Philomath College subsequently purchased the College of Philomath building for use as a music hall. Then, Philomath College, which had had financial problems throughout much of its existence, closed in 1929. In the end, the bitter conflict between the two church factions and the competition for money and students, both locally and at the State level, weakened Philomath’s two United Brethren colleges and contributed to the demise of both institutions.

Throughout its existence, Philomath College shaped the life of the town. The deed to each city lot directed that "…there shall never be located, erected, or allowed, upon said premises, Any Theatre, Grog-Shop, Tippling-House, Gambling Saloon, or Spiritous or Malt-Liquor Vending establishment, of any Kind…" The development of factories and the industrial workforce that those factories would attract was discouraged. Such growth was viewed as not in keeping with the ideals of a Christian college town.

The Oregon Pacific Railroad, which eventually connected the Willamette Valley to the Oregon coast, reached Philomath in 1884. In 1904, a Philomath-based newspaper, the Benton County Review, was founded; that paper and its successors continued to exist for most of this century. Ever so briefly, Philomath was the rodeo capital of Oregon. For two years, 1916 and 1917, the Philomath Roundup surpassed the Pendleton Roundup in attendance. (The local Roundup was the precursor to today’s Philomath Frolic and Rodeo.)

Several sawmills, with ready access to timber in the Coast Range, operated within a few miles of Philomath during the 19^th Century. During the period 1920-1940, the timber industry became firmly established in central Benton County. A number of new mills were clustered in the Philomath area, reflecting the fact that marketable timber had displaced the grasslands of the 1850s.

Philomath, a mid-Willamette Valley town with a population of about 3,800, is located just west of Corvallis, 85 miles south of Portland, and 45 miles northwest of Eugene. The City is nestled among tree-covered hills and farm fields. Marys Peak, the highest point in the Oregon Coast Range, is about eleven-airline miles southwest of Philomath. From its 4,097-foot summit, which is accessible by car and a short trail, one can look west to the Pacific Ocean and east to the Willamette Valley and the Cascade Range.

Philomath is located on the north bank of the east-flowing Marys River, a tributary of the Willamette River. Marys River Park, a City park in the southwest part of the town, is a peaceful natural area that attracts residents and visitors alike. The privately owned rodeo grounds, adjacent to the park property, are host to the annual Philomath Frolic and Rodeo.

Philomath's beautiful natural surroundings and its location between Corvallis and the coastal city of Newport provide an attractive site for business and tourist development. The City’s commercial district, located north and south of Main Street (Highway 20/34), includes a variety of businesses, as well as the Benton County Historical Museum, City Hall, the Philomath Library, the Philomath fire station and police station, and several churches. Some of Philomath’s older buildings reflect its history as a pioneer settlement and early college town. The historic Philomath College building (now the Benton County Historical Museum) is the City’s most important landmark; the imposing structure, built in 1867, is located on a grassy knoll on the north side of Main Street.

Applegate Street, located one block south of and parallel to Main Street, transects several of Philomath’s residential neighborhoods, and passes by the Philomath Elementary School and High School, and pastoral City Park. Some of the older residential areas of the City are located along historic College Street and Pioneer Street, both of which are north of and parallel to Main Street.

Philomath area mills and wood products manufacturers provide a major source of employment. Other local employers are the Philomath School District, the City of Philomath, a variety of retail businesses, and utility cooperatives. Many of Philomath’s residents commute to jobs in Corvallis, Albany and Lebanon. Large local employers in the Corvallis area include Oregon State University, the Hewlett-Packard Company, the U.S. Forest Service (Siuslaw National Forest), and a variety of high-technology firms.