Trees

Sequoia
The first Giant Sequoia [//Sequoiadendron giganteum// (Lindl.) Buchholz] in Oregon were planted in Forest Grove no earlier than 1868.(1) The seeds were brought from California, and were planted by John Ramsey Porter (1827-1886), a European American pioneer who filed a donation land claim just outside of Forest Grove in 1852. He settled on the land as a "nursery-man" in 1860, after a period of travel between Oregon and California.

In the 1970 Proceedings of the Oregon Academy of Science,University of Oregongraduate Tom Burns, Jr., MA Geography, abstracted his thesis on the topic of Giant Sequoia in the Willamette Valley. Here is an excerpt on Mr. Porter planting trees in Forest Grove:

"His plantings in two rose of 36 trees bordering a lane to his house are the first known in the state. Of these, there remain today 31 trees, four stumps from the 1962 Columbus Day storm blowdown, and one apparent gap... Porter, a nursery man, was no doubt responsible for all the earliest sequoias in the Hillsboro-Forest Grove Area. He gave 24 seedlings to the Verboort Catholic Church in 1882, and five seedlings to the Hillsboro Courthouse in 1888. He probably was also the source for the earliest Portland trees in the Lone Fir Cemetery...The Porter sequoias in the Forest Grove-Hillsboro area today, tower over all the surrounding native trees, many sequoias having reached an age of the old giants in their natural locale."

Citations
 * 1) Burns, Tom Jr., "Man and the Giant Sequoia in the Willamette Valley of Oregon," //Proceedings of the Oregon Academy of Science for 1970//, p. 39.
 * 2) Ibid.

Further Reading
 * "Big Trees Inspire Party to Acclaim Beauties of Grove," //News Times//, 4/14/1927.
 * "First Sequoia Planted Here Some 60 Years Ago," //News Times//, 4/23/1931.
 * "S.T. Walker Tells Story of Sequoia Tree About Grove," //News Times//, 4/9/1936.