December 6, 2022 3:40 a.m.
The Douglas County Board of Commissioners along with the Douglas County Museum staff have announced that for the first time, a new traveling exhibit from the Letitia Carson Legacy Project and Oregon Black Pioneers will open Friday at the Douglas County Museum of History and National History.
A County release said it honors the life of one of Oregon’s first African American pioneers. The new exhibit includes photographs, historic maps, newspaper articles, published works and other documentary evidence about Letitia Carson, her family and the Letitia Carson Legacy Project.
A special reception will debut the new exhibit Friday from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
The release said Letitia Carson was a Black Oregon homesteader, farmer and matriarch living in the time of Oregon’s exclusion laws. She came to Oregon in 1845 with a white man, David Carson, with whom she would have two children. After David’s death in 1852, the Carson land, cattle and belongings were sold by a neighbor who claimed she could not own land because of the whites-only provision of the 1850 Oregon Donation Claim Act. In two unprecedented court cases in 1855 and 1866, Carson successfully sued for compensation.
A short time after the settlement of the lawsuits, she moved to Douglas County. For several years she reportedly lived in the upper Cow Creek area with the Hardy Elliff family, for whom she worked. In 1863, Carson submitted a claim for 160 acres along South Myrtle Creek, approximately 13 miles northeast of Myrtle Creek. In 1869, her claim was certified by President Grant. This made her the first black woman in Oregon to successfully secure a land claim.
The release said Oregon Black Pioneers is Oregon’s only historical society dedicated to preserving and presenting the experiences of African Americans statewide. The Letitia Carson Legacy Project is a collaboration between Oregon State University, Oregon Black Pioneers, Black Oregon Land Trust and the Linn-Benton branch of the NAACP and Museum. For more information on the organization, go to: https://oregonblackpioneers.org/
The traveling exhibit will be open through January of 2023.
The Douglas County Museum is open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.