On the 27th of September, 1862, the Legislature of the 3-year old State of Oregon carved out Baker and Umatilla Counties from Wasco County, which at that time encompassed all of Oregon east of the Cascades. This was in response to the "gold rush" to the Powder River and North Fork John Day mining districts and the associated growth in settlement in northeastern Oregon. However, at that time, there were no "towns", as such, in the area of the new Umatilla County, which included all of what is now Morrow County, the north half of Grant County, and a part of Gilliam County. There were mining camps on the upper John Day and trading posts along the roads from the Columbia River to the mines, in particular at Upper Umatilla, Grande Ronde Landing, and at Ireland’s, which later developed into the towns of Pendleton, Irrigon, and Milton, respectively. The legislature selected Marshall’s Station in the Upper Umatilla district, located approximately ¼ mile west of Eastern Oregon Correctional Institute, as the interim County seat.

The governing body of the newly-created county took awhile to get organized, and it was not until the 6th of April 1863, that the first term of the County Court was held, Judge Jasper W. Johnson presiding. The County Court sessions were held upstairs in the roadhouse and trading post of Swift & Martin’s, who had bought out Marshall. There was also a blacksmith shop, stage station, and post office at this little settlement on the north bank of the Umatilla River, which by 1865 was crossed at this point by a bridge.

The first minutes in County Commissioners Journal "A" are dated 27 May 1863, and indicate that the first item of business was the letting of a contract to build a 12’ x 20’, two-room, log jail with clapboard or shingle roof. At the second session, on July 7th, the first liquor licenses were issued for the Meacham Brothers, 4 Mile House (north of Hermiston), and two saloons each in Umatilla Landing and Lower Umatilla, which was the Meadows area west of Echo and Stanfield.

By 1864, the location of the county seat had become an issue, particularly since Umatilla Landing, founded only the year before, had grown to a sizable town of some 1000-1500 permanent inhabitants, and many more during the winter months. In June of 1864, new officers were elected, with R.B. Morford presiding as County Judge. At the July 8th session, former Judge Johnson requested the County Court to formally select a site for county buildings at "the county seat", namely Swift & Martin’s Station, which was now being touted as a new town site called "Middleton". However, the new Court tabled the issue as they were in the process of counting the "write-in" comments many folks had included on their June ballots. Commissioner Ninevah Ford protested this action, however, noting that the county seat location issue had never been officially presented on the ballots for a vote of the people.

In January 1865, the town of Middleton was formally platted by Welcome Mitchell, one of the new County Commissioners, as surveyed by Capt. D.P. Thompson, U.S. Deputy Surveyor. Rueben Baskett, the County Clerk, taking matters into his own hands, bought Lot 2 in Block 7 of the new town site, and built a house to serve his residence and as the County Clerk's Office as well. This site was located only two lots west of the hotel where the County Court met, and was situated on the south side of the Oregon Trail, which passed through the middle of town. On February 6, 1865, the County Court paid Baskett $403.50 for the County Clerk’s Office and property. Thus the first "courthouse" of Umatilla County was the upstairs of Swift & Martin’s Hotel and the home of Rueben Baskett, County Clerk, next door, all located in what is now a grove of trees on the north bank of an old oxbow of the Umatilla River west of Pendleton.

On the 3rd of April 1865, the minutes first clearly indicate that "the County Court of Umatilla County met at Umatilla City." They had rented space for this purpose, and the next day they requested that proposals be submitted for "the selection of house and offices." On April 7th, lots 4 and 7 of Block the Umatilla Town site were purchased from B.R. Biddle for $2100. This second "courthouse" for Umatilla County was undoubtedly a storefront or hotel building, and it faced directly out onto Front Street, the bustling Columbia River waterfront area. On the 8th of April, the Court disposed of the old Clerk’s Office at Middleton to Archie Vermason, who ran the saloon there.

Umatilla City’s boom times lasted but 5 years. Her function as transshipment point for the Boise and Baker mining districts began to dwindle as early as 1866, and by 1868, the extension of the transcontinental railroad into Nevada, seriously undermined this trade. With loss of trade came loss of population. Meanwhile, settlement had progressed rapidly in the central and eastern parts of the county, and residents there resented the long distances they had to travel to conduct official business. So, advocates for relocating the County Seat effectively petitioned the State Legislature, which on 13 October 1868, passed an Act authorizing a vote on the location of the County Seat at the November 3rd election. The choice would be between Umatilla City, and "Upper Umatilla, some where between the mouth of Wild Horse and Birch Creeks."

The vote was cast, 394 for Upper Umatilla, 345 for Umatilla City. Therefore, the County Court, on November 16th appointed a committee of J .S. Vinson, James Thompson, and Samuel Johnson to locate and name the exact site for the new County Seat. They met on the 23rd at Swift & Martin’s Station, and on the 24th, accepted the offer of Moses E. and Aura Goodwin for the donation of a site for the courthouse at Goodwin’s Station. This trading post, also occupied by Lot Livermore’s Hotel, was a rival to Swift & Martin’s, and was located on what is now the southwest corner of S. Main Street and S.W. Byers. Goodwin had obtained a license from the County in 1866 to build a toll bridge at what is now the Main Street bridge. He relocated his trading post there from a site near the 10th Street bridge where he had settled two years prior. Evidently, Goodwin provided effective competition for Swift & Martin’s, and it was said that he actually diverted most of the traffic to his place.

Accordingly, Goodwin filed a plat for the new town, on December 18th, and accepted the committee’s recommendation that the town be named "Pendleton" in honor of George Hunt Pendleton, of Ohio, a national leader of the Democratic Party. During the winter, the Goodwins paid for the construction of a 2-story courthouse on the Courthouse Square they had donated in the middle of the new town. On April 7th, 1869, the County Court accepted the deed for the property, which had been signed on December 1st, 1868, and ordered the County Officials to move their offices. The next day, April 8th of 1869, the Umatilla County Court convened at the new town of Pendleton, Oregon. The 3rd Courthouse of Umatilla County was thus established, in a new town that was created to be a centrally located county seat, at the direction of the voters.

However, the citizens of Umatilla City were not going to let the county seat get away from them without a fight. The very first business that the relocated Circuit Court took up at their 3rd of May, 1869, session was a suit by David Simpson and others to prevent the removal of the county seat. This case went clear to the Oregon Supreme Court and involved the ablest attorneys from Portland and Walla Walla. At contest was the indebtedness the County would incur over the $5000 limitation in the Oregon Constitution, as well as the vagueness of the language stating where the alternate county seat site would be located. The Supreme Court sustained the ruling of Judge Wilson, and the county seat remained at the new town of Pendleton.

An oft-quoted story relates that Pendleton "stole" the County records from Umatilla City. The late Mrs. Oscar F. Thompson, wife of the Sheriff at that time, related a slightly different story. She reported that one evening, three representatives of the new town brought teams and wagons to Umatilla City to move the County records. They stayed at her home, spent the rest of the night, rising at 3 o’clock the next morning. She cooked them breakfast, and with the help of her husband, they loaded the safes on the wagons and took the records back to Pendleton. However, there was yet no suitable building for the courthouse, so citizens of Umatilla City obtained an injunction for the records to be returned. Soon, she recalled, a proper courthouse was built and the records were moved once again.

The fact that Pendleton used to have a Courthouse Square, right on Main Street between S.E. Court and Dorian streets, comes as a big surprise to many folks. The photographs of the late 1800’s reveal that it was a lovely place indeed; with picket fence all around, shade trees on all sides, and a bandstand in the northwest corner; providing a proper town square for citizens to gather. However, the Courthouse itself was far from suitable for the rapidly-growing county. Vivid recollections note that jurors were confined overnight in the hot, upstairs Court Room, forced to sleep on hard benches placed in a sea of sawdust. Nevertheless, the building functioned for 20 years, together with the jailhouse that was built behind.

The 4th Courthouse, built during 1888-89 is recounted elsewhere in this booklet, as was the novel funding mechanism for its construction. It was in that effort to save the taxpayers money that Pendleton lost its original downtown green space. In the long run, was it worth the "savings"? In any case, the 1889 Courthouse was a dandy, fully embellished in the height of Victorian fashion. But, progress dictated that in time its useful life also was surpassed. So, in 1955, Umatilla County occupied its 5th Courthouse, built on the same site as the 4th and now in 1989, joined by an elegant clock tower to house the 100-year old clock that formerly graced the high tower of its predecessor.

Sources:"Reminisences of Oregon Pioneers", Women’s Pioneer Club of Pendleton, 1937; Articles by Mrs. O.F. Thompson & Col. Raley. "Historic Sketches of Walla Walla, Whitman, Columbia and Garfield Counties, Washington Territory, and Umatilla County, Oregon", FrankT. Gilbert, Portland, Oregon, 1882. Umatilla County Commissioners Journal "A" (1863-66)