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2. J. C. Smock General Store.
Smock's town was renamed "Sherwood" less than five years after Smock and his wife Mary Ellen (Sebastian) filed their plat. Smock had attempted to name the town after Ellen, but all variations around the name "Mary" and "Ellen" had already been taken. Some old timers recall the town being named "Stringtown" at first. The near-by town of Middleton had definitely been known by that name. This was a generic name given towns that were literally thrown together while the train tracks themselves were being laid. A contemporary observer described the process: A spot is chosen in advance of the line, and is marked off into streets, blocks, and town lots, sometimes by the railway company, sometimes by an independent land company. As the rails approach it, the fun begins, and up goes the price of the lots, higher and higher. At last it becomes the terminal depot.... A long freight train arrives laden with frame houses, boards, palings, old tents, and all the rubbish that makes up one of these mushroom cities. It then becomes a scene of great activity, and quickly rises to the zenith of its glory. Town lots are bought up on all sides to build accomodation for the traders, teamsters, camp-followers, and loafers, who seem to drop from the skies. This state of things, however, lasts only for a time. The terminal depot must soon be moved forward, and the little colony will be left to its own resources.
There were several interesting ethnic issues involving Sherwood's rail-line. Sherk's History of Sherwood states that the number of Chinese laborers never exceeded that of the Caucasian residents. One old-timer assured me the reverse was true, that "...there were more Chinese here than anyone else." A 1994 publication of the Tualatin Historical Society, Tualatin from the Beginning suggests a reason for the Chinese to be down-played: Hundreds of Chinese laborers were brought in to build the trestle over the river and lay the narrow-guage tracks.... Some of the local lads took a dim view of the 'furriners' and pelted them with rocks and scorn as they walked to and from work." [Chapter 7 Boomtown 1890-1912] The Chinese had already made their mark on American history during the most difficult railway construction project in American history, when they carved a path through the Sierras for the Central Pacific. By comparison, the twenty mile route from Dundee to Portland was probably a lot less daunting than it sounds. "The work of building trestles and making rock cuts was extensive and costly. For example, Chehalem Creek was spanned by a 700-foot trestle; Blair Creek by a 1000-foot trestle; Rock Creek by an 1800-foot trestle and Tualatin River by a 180-foot trestle. Deep rock cuts were made at Elk Rock, Oswego and Chehalem Gap [Rex Hill]." [OHS, 1919, Vol. XX, No. 2] The building of the Portland & Willamette Valley Railroad provides a fascinating glimpse into the pay as you go mentality of the frontier. Abraham Lincoln may have been the force behind the nation's railroads, but these down-state farmers in the Willamette Valley were definitely Jeffersonian in their willingness to thumb their nose at the railway magnates they were competing with, Ben Holladay and Henry Villard. Having barely survived the Panic of 1873 (a perfect example of what Jefferson had been warning us about) the farmers were determined to build their own railroad their own way. Breath-taking plans were laid. The Rocky Mountains would be crossed and the Central Pacific accessed. Ports up and down the Oregon Coast, including Astoria and Portland, would be opened up. The picturesque locomotives would weigh less than 10 tons. The passenger cars would be converted flat cars. The tracks would be about as wide as my lawn mower, 30 inches apart. There would be no money wasted on gravel road beds. The cross ties were placed directly on the soil... resulting in all kinds of interesting surprises each time the trains poked along them in rainy weather, never exceeding 12 or 15 miles per hour even during a dry spell. During the first year of construction, 20 miles of track was laid... between Dayton and Sheridan, enough to provide wider access to river transport on the Willamette River. Then the project went bankrupt.  SHERWOOD DEPOT CIRCA 1935. The building measured 20' by 90'. It stood 51 ' from the center line of Main Street. 82' from the center line of Railroad Street. But that was not the end of the story. A Scottish financier named William Reid rallied a group of his countrymen to rescue the rail-line. A special law was passed in Salem to allow a foreign country to own a railroad in Oregon. As a result, our railway company was presided over by a Scottish Laird for a time. A small town still exists at a Southern terminus of the line, named in honor of the Laird, the Earl of Airlie. Reid's Scottish hometown of Dundee was borrowed as the name of the system's northern terminus. 
The Peavine, as the narrow guage sytem came to be known (because of the ever-shifting nature of the railbed) had been incorporated into the Southern Pacific Railway Company by the time the difficult Dundee to Portland section was built— to the great disappointment of many Oregonians who were enjoying seeing the big corporations challenged. The Southern Pacific provided both narrow and standard guage tracks for a time, visible in surviving photographs of Old Sherwood Town. As tentative as the Portland & Willamette Valley was, "It influenced the policies of Henry Villard, who was then in command of the Northern Pacific, the Columbia River rail route of the present Oregon-Washington Railroad and Navigation Company, and the present east side and west side lines of the Southern Pacific in Oregon." [OHS, 1919, Vol. XX, No. 2]. The Scottish influence did not end with the building of the railroad. According to a 1939 newspaper article, the name "Sherwood" was suggested "..by a group of Englishmen who had settled here and who saw in the vast acreage of timber in this area a resemblance to the famed Sherwood forest of England." Ronald Sherk's History of Sherwood credits one fellow in particular, Robert Alexander, as the progenitor of the name. Alexander owned a considerable share of the Portland Pressed Brick Company as well as many other properties in town. It is said that he was well acquainted with the British Isles, as his name indeed suggests (The names "Robert" and "Alexander" may be found on the Scottish King's List).
The Sherwood Forest theme probably received a great deal of help from the 1891 DeKoven-Smith comic opera, Robin Hood. The vaudeville classic was one of the most popular theatrical entertainments in America during the 1890s. Like Robin Hood and Maid Marian singing the musical's hit song, Oh Promise Me, Sherwood would stay true to her British benefactors. Sherwood Town Ordinance Number Thirteen, Sherwood's first tree planting ordinance, was enacted during the first year of incorporation. "Future generations" were specifically mentioned as the beneficiaries of the Ordinance. Town Minutes state that trees were planted on the town lot at First and Main by the Town Marshal himself. Trees possibly dating to 1893 may be found in Old Sherwood Town today. Sherwood would have planted shade trees without inspiration from the British Empire. A holiday observed across the nation, Arbor Day, began as a small town festival in Nebraska during the 1880's, and it was all the rage by the time Sherwood got started. Even so, when I began collecting history, Sherwood old-timers repeatedly assured me that the name Sherwood was chosen in order that the idea of Old Sherwood Town and the idea of Sherwood Forest would be linked in the public's mind. The Town of Sherwood was officially incorporated February 10, 1893 under Oregon Senate Bill 36. |
