Page:Oregon Geographic Names, third edition.djvu/144



CHENOWETH CREEK, Wasco County. Chenoweth Creek rises in the hills west of The Dalles, and after flowing across Chenoweth Flat reaches the Columbia River southeast of Crates Point. This stream was named for Justin Chenoweth who was a prominent pioneer of Oregon. He was born in Clark County, Illinois, November 17, 1825, and was educated as a surveyor. He started to California in 1849 by way of New Orleans and Panama, but on reaching New Orleans he changed his plans and proceeded up the Mississippi to Saint Louis and thence to Fort Leavenworth. At Fort Leavenworth he joined, as a civilian, the party of the First U. S. Mounted Rifles which reached The Dalles in the fall of 1849. Chenoweth lived for a short time in the Willamette Valley, taught school, was a clerk for the territorial legislature and was employed in the territorial library. He married Mary H. Vickers, at Butteville, December 9, 1852. He settled on a claim west of The Dalles, and carried the mail between The Dalles and the Cascades in a small boat. He was actively engaged in surveying public lands, both as a private surveyor and as United States surveyor at the Vancouver land office. His cousin, Francis A. Chenoweth, was one of the promoters of the tramway at the Cascades and it is a family tradition that Justin surveyed the line. He left The Dalles about 1866. He died in Portland March 16, 1898, and his obituary appears in the Oregonian March 20, 1898. Nathan Olney owned a store near Crates Point before Chenoweth settled there, and Chenoweth Creek was then known as Olney Creek, but that name did not persist. The name of the geographic feature near The Dalles is frequently spelled Chenowith, but the USBGN has officially adopted the form Chenoweth. Dr. William C. McKay is authority for the statement that the Wasco Indian name for the locality of Chenoweth Creek was Thlemit, which means a caving or washing away of the banks.

CHERRY CREEK, Jefferson County. This creek was named on account of the wild cherries growing along its banks. It flows into the John Day River near Burnt Ranch, and was one of several geographic features in central Oregon named by the pack train party of Joseph H. Sherar on the way to the John Day mines in 1862. See also ANTELOPE, BAKEOVEN and Muddy CREEK. Cherry Creek post office was named for the nearby stream. The office was established on the Crook County list on June 23, 1884, with Mrs. Harriet P. Tucker first postmaster. The office was closed June 21, 1886. All the evidence available to the compiler shows that this office was in what is now Jefferson County, but that may not have been the fact.

CHERRY CREEK, Wallowa County. William Duncan, a pioneer stockman named this stream because of the many wild cherry trees that grew along its banks. Cherry Creek flows into Snake River in township 5 north, range 48 east.

CHERRY GROVE, Washington County. Inquiries as to how this com'munity received its name have produced no results. There are very few cherries in the place and the postmaster in 1926 wrote that he was there at the time it was named and can give no reason for the name being selected. It is supposed that its proximity to Forest Grove had something to do with the form of name selected.

CHERRYVILLE, Clackamas County. Cherryville is near the Mount Hood Loop Highway. It is said to have been named because of the wild cherries growing in the neighborhood.

CHESHER, Lane County. The pioneer post office Chesher was named