Out of the Ooze….. Eugene Skinner relinquished to Mary the right to choose the name of the town they were helping to found, as his preference, Marysville, had already been snatched up by another Oregon community (now called Corvallis!). She went with her husband’s first name, which proved to be unique not only in Oregon but globally. The original Eugene City site was platted out along the Willamette in 1852 but, thanks to rain and the river’s freedom-loving ways, it soon earned the nickname “Skinner’s Mudhole.” Historian A.G. Walling later wrote, “Indeed it is said that the mud there was of so fine a quality that two hogs that were rooting about in the semi-aqueous street sank out of sight to be forever lost from view.” And we complain about potholes. In any event the town was wisely re-platted farther south of the river in 1853, leaving the original riverside land free for its eventual reincarnation as Skinner Butte Park. Eugene City was designated the seat of the newly formed Lane County. The county took its name from Oregon’s first territorial governor, Joseph Lane, whose strong pro-slavery views render him a disreputable namesake in most modern eyes. The 1850 Donation Land Claim Act granted single pioneers 320 acres of land and couples 640. (This led to a rash of sudden marriages, some, at least on paper, to girls as young as 12, by men looking to double their claims.) In 1856 the Skinners donated 40 of their allotted acres for the county courthouse, matching 40 adjacent acres donated by fellow pioneers Charnel and Martha Mulligan. The courthouse tract became a locus for public meetings, concerts, fairs and cookouts so the Skinners and Mulligans gave the Eugene community its first de facto park and social center, on county property. (A city park later named for Charnel Mulligan is smaller than the Skinner namesake, but Mulligan also got a street named after him: Charnelton.) Some of that original donation now survives as a park in the downtown 10
Park Blocks, which were deeded by the county to the city in 1988. The first courthouse was built straddling the border of the two donated tracts, but later had to be moved to the Skinner side when it blocked 8th Avenue. The Skinner land donation has re-emerged in the news in 2014 as Lane County considers swapping part of it to the City of Eugene for a nearby city parcel – ironically for the purpose of building a new county courthouse on the currently city-owned land. Some contend that trading the tract to the city (for an expanded farmers’ market) would violate the Skinners’ deed restriction that the gift be used for “county seat purposes.” Lawyers from all sides are busy studying this. Oregon was admitted to the Union in 1859, during the run-up to the Civil War, as a “free” state. While it prohibited slavery, the state constitution also barred any additional free Negroes from taking up residence. This exclusion clause, while generally not enforced, wasn’t officially repealed until 1926.
Incorporation Legal incorporation of the settlement into the municipality of Eugene City began in 1862 and was completed two years later. In a minor change of identity, Eugene City was re-branded as the City of Eugene and the name has remained thus ever since, even if the city logo gets tinkered with periodically.
11