The Very First Hamilton Family Land Deed in the Pacific Northwest

September 8, 2018

A copy of Supplina Hamilton's 1866 land patent for Linn County, Oregon, received by email from the Bureau of Land Management in Washington, DC (touched up for readability from a black-and-white original); the original document exists in the National Archives, Pacific Alaska Region, in Seattle. It quite literally took an 'act of Congress' to get the Hamilton family to the Pacific Northwest: the Donation Land Claim Act of Sept. 27, 1850, forerunner of the later Homestead Act, granted free land in Oregon to settlers who could get there, claim it, and prove it up over four years. The first migration season after the act passed, in April of 1851, found 19-year-old Supplina Hamilton driving a wagon in the Powell Wagon Train across the 2,200-mile trail to Oregon from Menard County, Illinois. He was an orphan; his home for the previous 10+ years was 'where ever he was treated kindly.' Though he had siblings and relatives in Illinois, he left those behind and, in his words, was 'off to see the Elephant and grow up with the country.'

This is one of the documents shared publicly. The complete archive — photographs, recordings, the family tree and the forum — is open to family members and invited researchers. Apply for an account or sign in.