Page:Oregon Geographic Names, third edition.djvu/530



Richardson BUTTE, Lane County. This butte is northeast of Elmira. It was named for a pioneer family. See OHQ, volume V, page 136. Richardson Butte has an elevation of 812 feet.

RICHARDSON GAP, Linn County. Richardson Gap is east of Franklin Butte and southeast of Scio. It was named for a family of early settlers who resided nearby. Plats dated 1878 show several members of the family owning land in the vicinity of the gap. The principal man in the clan was W. W. Richardson. This gap connects the valleys of Thomas and Crabtree creeks.

RICHLAND, Baker County. W. R. Usher platted this community and named it Richland on account of the character of the soil.

RICHMOND, Wheeler County. Richmond was named by R. N. Donnelly. He gave the site and was the prime mover in establishing the community. The writer is informed that Donnelly selected the name as a result of a controversy he got into with William Walters, another pioneer resident, who objected to Donnelly's selection of the site for a school building. Donnelly called Walters"Jeff Davis" because of Walters' rebellious tendencies about the school, and applied the name Richmond because it was the name of the capital of the confederacy.

RICKARD, Benton County. Rickard post office was named for John Rickard, a well-known Benton County pioneer. The office was established April 28, 1879, and was closed October 5, 1880. Robert S. Brown was the only postmaster. The office was situated on the Rickard claim about two miles east of Bruce.

RICKEY, Marion County. The community of Rickey is southeast of Salem and about a mile south of the Penitentiary road. The locality, which is not incorporated, was named for James Rickey, a very early settler. Rickey School is the principal landmark. For a short account of the place, see Salem Statesman, October 10, 1931. RickREALL CREEK, Polk County. Few geographic names in Oregon have caused such a dispute as the name of this stream, which rises in the Coast Range and how's eastward through Dallas and Rickreall to the Willamette River west of Salem. Members of pioneer families living along its banks have written fully on both sides of the subject, without converting those of opposite belief. The controversy deals with two problems, one concerning the original, pioneer name of the stream, and the other about the meaning of the word Rickreall. One group of early settlers is of the opinion that the pioneer name of the creek was La Creole, and that this name had its origin in the fact that an Indian was drowned at the ford near the present site of Dallas. The French-Canadians referring to the event used the word la creole, meaning the native. Another group insists that the first name of the stream was Rickreall, an Indian word. The matter is complicated by the belief by some that Rickreall is a perversion of la creole, and not an original name, while others insist that Rickreall comes from livak chuck, Chinook jargon for swift water. It has also been suggested that the word Rickreall was an Indian name for a locality near the stream. As far as the compiler knows, the first use of the name is in Wilkes Narrative, 1811, volume V, page 222, Creole Creek, Joel Palmer uses the name Rickreall in 1845-46 in his Journal of Travels, published in 1847. A school at Dallas (La Creole Academy) retains the early name. This school was founded by Horace Lyman. See letter of J. T. Ford in the Oregonian, August 4, 1916, page 8, on Indian origin of the name Rick