A portrait of "Colonel" Benjamin Stark (1820-1898), issued by the Davies Studio in Portland circa 1890.
Stark was the son of a sea captain from New London, Connecticut who became a shipping merchant. He was one of the earliest white landowners in what later became Portland, purchasing land on speculation there in 1846. He moved to Portland as a merchant in 1850, then served in the Oregon Territorial House of Representatives as a Whig in 1852-3. In the mid-1850s, he served in Oregon's militia, during repressive acts against tribes during the Rogue River Wars and Yakima Wars. On the eve of the Civil War in 1860, he was elected to the Oregon Legislature as a conservative pro-slavery Democrat. When Oregon's Republican Senator Edward Baker died in 1861, the governor appointed Stark in his place. After filling out the term, Stark returned to Connecticut, but he continued to influence Portland's development through his properties. A street in Portland was once named for him, but it was renamed Harvey Milk Street in 2018.
A portrait of Mrs. Spalding, spelled "Mrs. Spaulding" on the back of the photo. This is most likely Rachel Johonet Smith Spalding, the second wife of Henry Harmon Spalding. Henry was a missionary who arrived in the Oregon Territory in 1836 and died in 1874. His first wife, Eliza, died in 1851. He married Rachel (the sister-in-law of another early missionary, John Smith Griffin) in 1853. Rachel died in Hillsboro, Oregon in 1880. This photograph in carte-de-visite format was taken in the studio of Dunlap & Brosius of Salem, Ohio. This studio was active in 1866, which is the probable date of the photograph (see Gagel, Ohio Photographers: 1839-1900, p. 54).
A portrait of Henry Spalding, the son of H. H. Spalding who was an early pioneer missionary. H. H. Spalding arrived in the Washington County area after the Whitman Massacre. He and his wife were involved with Tualatin Academy.
Portrait of Dr. Edward G. Olsen, Pacific University Class of 1930. He later became Education Director of the National Conference of Christians and Jews.
Portrait of Lois Drinkwater McCobb and Caroline Talbot McCobb. They taught at Pacific University's Conservatory for a few years in the early 1900s; Lois taught vocal music and Caroline taught piano-forte, organ, and musical theory.
Portrait of Mrs. Mary Strong Kinney, granddaughter of Pacific University and Tualatin Academy founder Tabitha Brown. She attended Willamette University and was a suffragette and Oregon State legislator.
