Fiechter House

 The Benton County Historical Society's collection includes this tintype of Benton County pioneer, John Fiechter.

John Fiechter with his son,
Francis Marion Fiechter

Born in Germany in 1822, John Fiechter came to the United States in 1835.  In 1846, he traveled with A. L. Humphrey, driving one of Humphrey's teams across the plains. Also with Mr. and Mrs. Humphrey were their niece and nephew, Elizabeth and Manley Currier. Manley's daughter wrote down his memories of those early days; a copy of  the account is part of the museum's collection.

According to this document, the party followed Jesse Applegate on his newly scouted alternative route to Oregon. After traveling through California “to within forty miles of the sink of the Humbolt River...” they turned north passing by Goose and Klamath Lakes, “across the Siskiyou Mountains through the Rogue Rive and on to the Umpqua.

“Manley Currier and John Fiechter drove the first two wagons that were passed through the famous Cow Creek Canyon. The family went on ahead on horseback with the cattle.  They were three days getting through the canyon, a distance of about twelve miles. This is the place where the storms came on and so many lost all they had and the way was paved with dead cattle.  But as they had a good outfit and were the first on the trail, the fared better than many.

“The party who came to meet them on the Humbolt took all of the men, tools, and food that could be spared and went on ahead to make roads for the wagons to pass over; but when they got as far as ch Calapooya Mountains, they found that they had gone on without making a road there. So with their meager resources the emigrants built a road but their progress was slow, for it was over a rough country.  They were sixteen days crossing the Calapooya Mountains, a distance of about fifteen miles, which brought them to the head of the Willamette Valley....They crossed Marys River at the present site of Corvallis on the 5^th day of December, 1846, being the first wagon to arrive over the southern trail.” 

“The party was rowed across the Missouri River in a ferry boat, and forded all of the other streams they came to between that River and Long Tom [River]. There they swam their cattle and felled a tree across the river on which they crossed carrying their belongings and wagon, which had been taken apart. They crossed the Marys River in the same way in the pouring rain.”

Both John  Fiechter and Manley Currier left in 1847 to fight in the Cayuse Indian War. Returning in June of the following year, John married and filed a donation land claim in the area that is now Finley Wildlife Refuge.  In 1855 he began building a house on the property but  did not get to live their for long s he died in a hunting accident in 1861. His wife Cynthia and children continued to live in the house for many years.

John and Cynthia Fiechter House,
photo by Leslie Heald, 1998

That house still stands, making it one of the oldest buildings in the country. The house (26208 Finley Refuge Road) is open to the public the remaining Saturdays in September between 10 and 4.  An interpreter will share more stories about the family. 

By Martha Fraundorf, Volunteer for Benton County Historical Society, Philomath, Oregon