Briggs, Isaac
From Lane Co Oregon
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Springfield was settled when Elias M. and Mary Briggs and their family, including Isaac Briggs arrived in the winter of 1848 via the South Road. Isaac and Betsey Briggs had migrated from Iowa in 1847 along with their son Elias with his wife Mary over the Applegate Trail. They had pioneered the Church of Christ in Iowa State and they were about to do the same thing again in for Springfield, Oregon. They first settled at Pleasant Hill and were charter members of that active church, then relocated to the Springfield area. Donation land claim records list their filing date on 640 acres as October 1849 (Geneaological Forum of Portland 1957):
[Briggs] chose as the site of his dwelling a spot convenient to a spring of water that sent up its bubbled with ceaseless energy. A portion of the prairie where stood this found in due time was fenced in the inclosure becoming known as the Spring-field - - hence the name of the town. Here for two years dwelt the Briggs family, the father and his belongings removing at the end of that time to a farm about a mile and a half from their original location. The father and son conducted the ferry where the fine bridge spans the Willamette…(Walling 1884:452).
We do not know just when the church began meeting, but by 1871 the Springfield Church reported 60 members. Early members included both Briggs families and Dr. William M. and Mariah Owsley.
Contradictory information
The greatest impetus to town growth was the water-powered sawmill and grist mill built by Elias Briggs in 1853-1854. Walling (1884:306) claimed the Springfield townsite contained “one of the best water-powers in the country.” Briggs and his brother, Isaac, completed the digging of a millrace during the latter part of 1852. In partnership with Jeremiah Driggs and Thomas Monteith, two Linn County millers who financed the enterprise, the brothers hired an experienced millwright from the East Coast to design and supervise construction of the mills. The grist mill was the first flouring mill in Lane County, and the sawmill, which featured a sash saw, had the distinction of supplying the lumber for building the first county courthouse.
Tomb
Isaac is buried along side Robert Briggs on Laurel Hill Cemetery. Date of death not stated.
Isaac Briggs
Pioneer of 1847
Founder of Springfield, Ore.
Pioneer of 1847
