McMinnville, Yamhill County, Oregon Genealogy

McMinnville, Oregon- McMinnville, the county seat of Yamhill county, has a decided metropolitan appearance. The main business district of the city is confined to one street, which is well macadamized, and the sidewalks of this main thoroughfare are constructed in part of well laid planks and in part of artificial stone. Substantial brick buildings line both sides of the street for a distance of three blocks, and in the heart of the business center but few frame buildings are still standing. The principal stores of McMinnville are well stocked with the goods usually demanded by a thriving young place of the dimensions of the city and by a prosperous farming community which is the principal mainstay of McMinnville's prosperity.
     McMinnville was incorporated as a town in 1876. Its population today is not far from 2,500. A steady growth has marked its history for the last decade, during which period the population of the place has more than quadrupled. It is the proud boast of the people of McMinnville that the growth of their town has been in the lines of steady advancement and solid prosperity and the place has never experienced even the shadow of a boom. The prosperity of McMinnville is due to the enterprise of its citizens, which has been materially aided by rapid and solid development of one of the richest farming sections of the Northwest which is directly tributary.
     Like other growing cities of the Northwest, the educational facilities of McMinnville have never been neglected, and the excellent schools located at this point have contributed materially to the city's growth. The excellent public school system of McMinnville of McMinnville together with the well conducted Baptist college located at this point, which is described at length in connection with the present article, has gained for the place a standing as an educational center of no mean importance. Within the last two years the district has voted to add another building to be used for school purposes. In addition to the large six-room building, another structure of equal dimensions, but better designed for school work, has been completed at a cost of $14,000. The value of the property of the city devoted to public school purposes is now $30,000, an indication of the intelligence of a community which can fully appreciate the benefits of a proper schooling for the rising generation and which has the enterprise to advance all the needed money for this purpose. The public school system of McMinnville is well graded, the grades ranging from one to nine. Nine teachers are employed in the public schools, and courses of study embrace the primary, grammar and high school, just as they do in the best conducted schools of any large city. The total number of pupils enrolled in the public schools at McMinnville for the past year was 430.
     Two flouring mills with a combined daily capacity of 225 barrels, a creamery and an arc and incandescent electric light plant are McMinnville's most prominent industries. The city also has a most efficient water-works system. The water is delivered all through the city on what is known as the "direct pressure" plant. This water for city use is pumped out of the Yamhill river within a stone's throw of the city and it is of the clearest and purest quality for domestic use. Both the electric and water plants are owned by the city. A sufficient pressure is maintained in the city mains at all times to insure ample protection against fire. Water plugs are located at convenient distances all over the city and these with the efficient volunteer fire department which is maintained here are absolute safeguards against serious conflagrations.
     McMinnville is built on the strongest of foundations, a rich and well settled farming district. The soil of Yamhill county has long been noted for its fertility. Wheat, oats, fruit and hops are cultivated more extensively here than are other crops. McMinnville is the trading center for the principal part of Yamhill county who resources are touched on fully in another article.
     In addition to the trade of the farming community which McMinnville holds, the lumbering interest of the tributary district is a great source of revenue to the city. The Coast range of mountains west of the place is dotted with sawmills the output of which mills is nearly all brought to McMinnville. McMinnville furnishes all the supplies used at these mills and at the lumber camps. The timber belts of this section contain an inexhaustible supply of as fine a quality of merchantable timber as is found in any part of the coast and the sawing of this timber will always prove a source of great revenue to Yamhill county and to the city which is the principal trading center of this rich section of country.
     Near the foothills of the Cascade Range west of McMinnville, sheep raising is carried on to a considerable extent, although not sufficient sheep are raised in this country at the present writing to meet the demands at McMinnville for mutton and wool. Sheep raising is a profitable industry, and with proper attention can be made a source of considerable revenue to the ranchers of Yamhill county.
     With other parts of the Willamette valley the dairying possibilities of Yamhill county have received the special attention of the farmers of this section during the past few years. With plenty of grass throughout the year, with an equable climate and with an abundance of the clearest mountain water, this is an ideal dairying country, and it is highly probable that there will be great development in this line here during the next few years
     Yamhill county boasts of a fine brick court house located at McMinnville. This public building is cemented on the outside, thus giving it the appearance of a structure constructed entirely of stone. It was built in 1888 at a cost of $62,000. It covers an area of 9,000 square feet and is 121 feet high. It occupies a sightly location commanding a perfect view of the entire city and surrounding country, and it is perfectly adapted in ever way for handling the public business of the county.
     McMinnville has two strong banks the first National and the McMinnville National. Each of these banks has a capital stock of $50,000. Two good weekly papers flourish here, the Yamhill County Reporter and the Telephone-Register. Tourists have the advantage of two good hotels to choose from in the place and also have the benefit of the competition afforded by two large livery stables.
     McMinnville is well supplied with churches. These are five in number, the Cumberland Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, Episcopal, Christian and Roman Catholic.
     The city is on the direct line of the West Side division of the Southern Pacific railroad, and is 50 miles south of Portland. Two passenger trains and one freight pass each way over this line through McMinnville daily. The city is located in the richest of farming districts; it contains a large number of prosperous and well-to-do people and there is no reason why McMinnville should not continue to make the same steady growth in the future as has marked the progress of this point during the past few years.

The Oregonian's Handbook of the Pacific Northwest, c. 1894