By CHERI BRUBAKER/YachatsNews.com
WALDPORT — Louis Southworth came to Oregon in the 1850s along the Oregon Trail, a young Black slave owned by a man from Tennessee. He paid $1,000 for his freedom in 1858, eventually making his way to the upper Alsea River bay, where he homesteaded and donated land for the area’s first school.
Jesse Dolin grew up in Waldport. Now working for Oregon Coast Visitors Association, a regional arm of Travel Oregon, he looks for ways to improve tourist experiences, shares knowledge that enhances the experience, and tries to find ways to honor the area’s history.
Dolin also grew up near Darkey Creek Road. When he was a kid he thought the name referred to salmon returning from the ocean to spawn. Only later did he learn it was named for Southworth.
So when the city of Waldport was searching for a name and elements for a new park on 12 acres of land at the former Waldport High School site, Dolin suggested naming it after Southworth. In turn, he would use money in his tourism budget to commission a statue of the Black homesteader for a signature entrance to the park.
In May, the Waldport City Council agreed to officially name the site Louis Southworth Park. In August, the visitors association contracted with a bronze artist to create the statue, using money its public arts budget funded by Travel Oregon’s rural cooperative tourism program.
“ … the design, the history, the varied activities, and the funding, is the culmination of nearly a decade of discussion and planning,” said Waldport City Manager Dann Cutter. “And it’s not done yet. We still have hurdles to overcome … But we must push past this. It’s time to provide the kids a place to play, seniors a place to walk, teams a place to practice, families a place to gather. It’s time to fulfill a promise of a decade to the citizens of Waldport.”
Decade of planning
The Waldport City Council devoted significant time the past decade researching, seeking comments and trying to determine the best use of the big field along Northeast Hemlock Street at Crestline Drive.
The land became available when the Lincoln County School District, with $3 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, moved Waldport Middle/High School out of the tsunami zone in 2013. As part of the agreement with FEMA, the only allowable use of the site is for a park or open space — no asphalt and no buildings with walls, other than a restroom.
The school district then gave the land to the city – and for almost a decade the city held meetings, gathered ideas, comments and made plans. Then, planning stopped.
“We had plans, but we had no money,” Cutter said.
But now with some money from the federal government stimulus plan, the city is trying to get the long-stalled project moving.
The first piece of the 12-acre puzzle is the entrance off the current parking lot along Crestline. The bronze statue will be cast by Peter Helzer of Eugene. The city has agreed to provide the concrete platform on which it will sit.
The city project does not affect Seashore Family Literacy, which sits on an adjacent but separate piece of property.
Who was Louis Southworth?
By many accounts it was not clear if Southworth’s first name was Louis or Lewis. A historian who wrote extensively about him used “Louis.” The Benton County Historical Society has his last will and testament which is signed “Lewis.” In several turn of the century newspaper articles he is referred to as “Uncle Lou.”
While his father’s last name was Hunter, Louis was born into slavery and therefore given the surname of his master, James Southworth of Tennessee.
His birthdate and historical accounts vary. His gravestone says July 4, 1830. But they agree that in the early 1850s, when he was in his early 20s, Southworth came to the Oregon Territory with his owner on the Oregon Trail. He arrived in Oregon even though an 1844 exclusion law passed prohibited Blacks from settling in Oregon.
The Corvallis Weekly Gazette Times reported that around 1858 Southworth bought his freedom with $1,000 earned by working in gold mines in southern Oregon and California and playing the fiddle at gatherings and schools.
Peggy Baldwin wrote about Southworth in the Oregon Historical Society’s Oregon Encyclopedia as well as the essay, “A Legacy Beyond the Generations.” She said that James Southworth circulated a petition in the Legislature to protect his “slave property,” and though he reportedly did not issue actual documents freeing Southworth, Southworth lived as a free man.
Southworth first settled in Polk County around 1870, establishing a livery stable and blacksmith shop in downtown Buena Vista. He married Mary Cooper in 1873, and learned to read and write at Buena Vista Academy where his stepson, Alvin McCleary, attended school.
According to an account by McCleary, Southworth and a white friend, Jim Doty, traveled four miles up the Alsea River bay, selecting land on both sides of a creek — Doty settling on the north side and Southworth on the south.
Between 1880 and 1885, Southworth built a house and barn, had more than 10 acres of land in cultivation and 27 acres cleared and sown in grass.
He became a fixture in the town, ferrying people across upper Alsea Bay and often playing his fiddle at dances. He proudly cast his vote in the election of 1880, rowing across the Alsea Bay in a storm to do so.
Perhaps most notable was Southworth’s donation of a half acre of land near the current Oakland Landing for the area’s first school, becoming one of three school board members.
But, the local Baptist church told Southworth he couldn’t attend services unless he stopped playing his fiddle.
“Was brought up a Baptist,” Baldwin wrote about Southworth in her essay. “But the brethren would not stand for my fiddle, which was about all the company I had most of the time. So I told them to keep me in the church with my fiddle if they could, but to turn me out if they must; for I could not think of parting with the fiddle. I reckon my name isn’t written in their books here any more; but I somehow hope it’s written in the big book up yonder, where they aren’t so particular about the fiddles.”
Oregon’s racist past
In addition to the exclusion law of 1844, the 1857 Oregon Constitution indicated, “No free negro, or mulatto, not residing in this State at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall come, reside or be within this State, or hold any real estate, or make any contracts, or maintain any suit therein.” The prohibition was not repealed until 1926.
In her account for the Oregon Historical Society, Baldwin said hostility toward Blacks was expressed openly in the early days of Oregon’s statehood, such as by Asabel Bush, publisher of the Oregon Statesman, equating Negros voting to goats and cows running for office. It’s not surprising, Baldwin wrote, that only 54 Blacks were counted in the 1850 census, and the percentage of Blacks in Oregon didn’t pass 1 percent until 1960.
Southworth appears to have been held in high regard by those in the Waldport area — the creek he settled on was named Darkey Creek and the road off what is now Oregon Highway 34 was known as Darkey Creek Road.
The name using the archaic slur was shocking for many unaware of Southworth, his history and contributions to Waldport, and the resilience of a man who not only lived but thrived through adversity. While it was likely not meant to be derogatory — and some suggested Southworth may have named the creek himself — the name did not survive the test of time.
Outrage over the name made national news in 1999 when the Oregon Geographic Names Board initially voted not to change the name from Darkey Creek to Southworth Creek. Public outcry and new board members six months later said renaming the creek after the man better reflected his contributions to the community.
It took another 14 years to change the name of the road along the creek — Darkey Creek Road — after a push from Siuslaw National Forest staff. The state removed the road sign in 2013 or 2014 and the gravel road is now known as Forest Service Road 3489.
Why Southworth?
Dolin says diversity, equity and inclusion is part of the work of the Oregon Coast Visitors Association, one of six regional arms of Travel Oregon, the state agency that promotes tourism in the state. Proposals with that focus get priority when seeking funding from Travel Oregon.
“We’re trying to address systemic racism in a real way,” Dolin said.
People should know about Southworth, Dolin now says, know the stories, even the ones that are uncomfortable to tell. He acknowledges the work in Coos Bay to remember Alonzo Tucker, who was hanged in broad daylight from a bridge in 1902. Dolin asks rhetorically, “How much are we not telling?”
For Dolin, the Southworth project is also personal. He’s offended by racism and intolerance. He’s passionate about the history of the community, and would like the stories of the First Nations in the area also be told, and be included in school curriculum.
Now, he walks the line between a local boy with favorite fishing spots he’d like to keep that way and the professional tasked with championing the value of tourism.
Dolin would like to see a focus in Waldport on sustainable tourism, saying just as many people explore tide pools as go fishing or crabbing. He says, quoting Joanne Kittel, who called attention to the Native American history in Yachats, that when you know the story of the Amanda Trail, it goes from being a hike to a prayer walk.
A bronze public sculpture
It was a shared connection to the novelist Ken Kesey that prompted Dolin to ask Helzer to do the bronze of Southworth.
Helzer’s work includes the statue in Eugene’s Broadway Plaza of Kesey reading to his grandchildren, and a statue of Rosa Parks at the Eugene bus station. With more than 200 works in public spaces, Helzer says as he’s gotten older and more established “I’ve gotten much more selective about the projects I take on.”
“The Southworth story is a compelling one,” he says.
But there are details to be worked out. First, it must be determined at what age Southworth will be portrayed. It hasn’t yet been decided if Southworth will be sitting or standing, playing or holding his fiddle. Helzer is also limited to the few photographs available, two of which are Southworth as an old man and one as a young man.
Helzer indicated the Southworth project – which will likely take a year — may his last big project. “It seems like a fine way to end a forty five-year career. I turned 74 this year, and bronze isn’t getting any lighter.”
Helzer calls it a “certain genius” Southworth had for building community and building trust. “That seems to be consistent throughout his life and wherever he lived,” he said, “And whomever he was with quickly came to trust him and work with him.”
Author and activist Carol Van Strum of Five Rivers details much of Southworth’s story in her novel, “The Oreo File.” Although a work of fiction, Van Strum spent years researching Southworth’s story and considers him inspiration.
Local artists, organized as the Alsea Bay Center for the Arts, recently announced the Southworth Folk ‘n Art Weekend to be held in 2023.
The arts group was not aware that Van Strum’s 2017 novel ends with just such a music festival honoring Southworth. They simply wanted to honor his contributions to the community.
— — —
Southworth lived east of Waldport until 1910 when he moved to Corvallis, purchasing a house on the corner of Fourth and Adams streets in a neighborhood of Victorian houses. In the next few years his health took a turn for the worse and at the end of his life he ran into financial difficulties with community members raising money to pay the rest of his mortgage. In 1913, when he was 84 years old, he married Josephine Jackson, who was 31 years his junior. Jackson, a nurse, was taking care of him and they married, he lying in bed and her standing alongside. He died in 1917 and was buried in Crystal Lake Cemetery in Corvallis.
- Cheri Brubaker is a freelance reporter on the Oregon coast who can be reached at cheribrubaker@me.com