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United States History

Portland State University

Frontier and pioneer life -- West (U.S.)

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in African American Studies

Myths, Museums, Mothers, And The Power Of Letitia Carson, Hailey Brink Jun 2023

Myths, Museums, Mothers, And The Power Of Letitia Carson, Hailey Brink

University Honors Theses

Letitia Carson was a trailblazing Black Oregon pioneer woman whose life offered remarkable and unprecedented departures from the white pioneer status quo. Letitia's story presents numerous points at which she could be heralded for her successes; her pregnant journey across the Overland Trail, giving birth in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains, cultivating and maintaining two separate homesteads, challenging and conquering two lawsuits against administrator Greenberry Smith, her midwifery and community involvement, and lastly, becoming the first Black woman to own land in Oregon in 1862. And yet, her story fell to obscurity, only to be revived nearly a century …


George Bush Of Tumwater: Founder Of The First American Colony On Puget Sound, Darrell Millner Jan 1994

George Bush Of Tumwater: Founder Of The First American Colony On Puget Sound, Darrell Millner

Black Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

A biography of pioneer George Washington Bush is presented. A free mulatto, information on Bush's childhood and birth date are uncertain. Believed to have been raised in Pennsylvania and educated under Quaker influence, Bush was literate and worked in the cattle business before moving to Oregon with his wife and children in 1844. Bush encountered various forms of racism, but was not deterred by pioneer life and by 1850 the family farm in the Tumwater, Washington area was thriving.