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150 years ago: way back in Forest Grove history

The microfilm reader is struggling, so we've jumped way back in time to the Forest Grove of 1925 AND 1875 with two newspapers.

150 years ago: way back in Forest Grove history

1925: Moonshiners roamed the hills outside Forest Grove. The city pondered building a National Guard armory. Now-lost silent films played at the Star Theater. Step into Forest Grove history from the lens of newspaper archives of the day.

In this column, we take a look back one hundred years ago in Forest Grove. This week, the clips come from the Hillsboro Argus, published July 30, 1925. Tap on an image to bring it into focus. The microfilm reader at the Forest Grove Library was out of order this week, so we've switched to the Hillsboro Argus until repairs can be made. As a special treat, we've added a segment from 150 years ago from The Independent, an early four-page Hillsboro newspaper.


These news clips are selected for news events that I believe would have been of significance to readers of the time. or of interest to readers of today. They are presented as-is, and without comment. At the time, the newspapers of the day often expressed viewpoints that today would be considered racist, xenophobic, and sexist, frequently using slurs to describe ethnic groups and often stepping outside the norms of what we consider to be ethical journalism today.

Want more local history? Visit the Friends of Historic Forest Grove, online at www.fhfg.org.

Do you have access to historic photos, diaries, or other historic tidbits from Forest Grove? Email me at chashundley@newsinthegrove.com; we'd love to share the past with the present!



These clips come from the July 29, 1875 edition of The Independent, a four-page broadsheet operating in Hillsboro just a few decades after the city's pre-statehood founding. In addition to Hillsboro news, it covered some Forest Grove topics as well.

Chas Hundley

Chas Hundley

I'm a born and raised Forest Grove and Gales Creek resident, attended FGHS, and own and operate a small newspaper in western Washington County.

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