Places

14 places. Each one is here because the pages reproduced in this series name it. Where the same place already has a page in the Soap Creek gazetteer — built from what twenty-one narrators said about it a century later — this list links there rather than making a second entry.

This page carries no coordinates and no map pins. The two things that could be pinned here — the homestead ground and the burying ground — are the creator’s own published photograph subjects and are named as he names them. Nothing on this page locates a Native village, camp or burial site, and the Library does not build a map layer that would. Where the creator writes that the Lavadour family settled near an old Indian townsite, the Library records that he wrote it and locates nothing.

• Kentucky · United States

  Where Letitia Carson was born, between 1814 and 1818. Nothing more about her early life is known.

  Named on 4pages — The Search for Letitia Carson, I p.4 , The Search for Letitia Carson, II p.12 , The Search for Letitia Carson, II p.14 , BlackPast entry p.2 . Also in the Soap Creek gazetteer: what the narrators said about it.

• Platte County, Missouri · Missouri

  David Carson’s 160-acre farm and his town lot in Platte City; the land whose taxes and rents ran through the Missouri probate for seven years after his death.

  Named on 29pages — Estate sales transcriptions p.3 , Estate sales transcriptions p.35 , Estate sales transcriptions p.36 , Estate sales transcriptions p.43 , Estate sales transcriptions p.44 , Estate sales transcriptions p.45 , Estate sales transcriptions p.46 , Estate sales transcriptions p.47 and 21 more.

• The Oregon Trail

  The six-month crossing of 1845, in the Tetherow train. Martha was born on it, near the crossing of the South Platte.

  Named on 12pages — Estate sales transcriptions p.2 , The Search for Letitia Carson, I p.4 , The Search for Letitia Carson, I p.6 , The Search for Letitia Carson, I p.13 , The Search for Letitia Carson, I p.14 , The Search for Letitia Carson, II p.3 , The Search for Letitia Carson, II p.4 , The Search for Letitia Carson, II p.8 and 3 more.

• Soap Creek Valley · Benton County

  David Carson’s 640-acre provisional claim of 1845, reduced to 320 acres under the Donation Land Act in 1850. Letitia Carson lived here for seven years; the estate that followed is the reason most of these papers exist.

  Named on 8pages — The Search for Letitia Carson, I p.6 , The Search for Letitia Carson, I p.7 , The Search for Letitia Carson, I p.13 , The Search for Letitia Carson, I p.19 , The Search for Letitia Carson, II p.4 , BlackPast entry p.2 , BlackPast entry p.3 . Also in the Soap Creek gazetteer: what the narrators said about it.

• Corvallis · Benton County

  The county seat: where the probate court sat and where Carson v. Smith was tried.

  Named on 27pages — Estate sales transcriptions p.17 , Estate sales transcriptions p.23 , Estate sales transcriptions p.27 , Estate sales transcriptions p.34 , Carson v. Smith transcriptions p.1 , Carson v. Smith transcriptions p.7 , Carson v. Smith transcriptions p.8 , Carson v. Smith transcriptions p.12 and 19 more. Also in the Soap Creek gazetteer: what the narrators said about it.

• Benton County · Oregon

  The probate court and the district court whose files make up two of the document groups.

  Named on 100pages — Estate sales transcriptions p.3 , Estate sales transcriptions p.4 , Estate sales transcriptions p.5 , Estate sales transcriptions p.6 , Estate sales transcriptions p.12 , Estate sales transcriptions p.15 , Estate sales transcriptions p.17 , Estate sales transcriptions p.18 and 92 more. Also in the Soap Creek gazetteer: what the narrators said about it.

• Upper Cow Creek Valley · Douglas County

  Where Letitia Carson moved after David Carson’s death — about 1853 — and served as midwife and housekeeper. The Rogue River war and the Territorial Road ran through it.

  Named on 9pages — The Search for Letitia Carson, I p.6 , The Search for Letitia Carson, I p.8 , The Search for Letitia Carson, I p.12 , The Search for Letitia Carson, I p.13 , The Search for Letitia Carson, I p.15 , The Search for Letitia Carson, I p.16 , The Search for Letitia Carson, I p.17 , The Search for Letitia Carson, II p.4 and 1 more.

• South Myrtle Creek · Douglas County

  The 160 acres Letitia Carson entered under the Homestead Act on 17 June 1863, proved on 19 June 1868 and patented on 1 October 1869. She lived on it for twenty years and deeded it to her son.

  Named on 8pages — The Search for Letitia Carson, I p.8 , The Search for Letitia Carson, I p.9 , The Search for Letitia Carson, I p.17 , The Search for Letitia Carson, I p.19 , The Search for Letitia Carson, II p.8 , The Search for Letitia Carson, II p.10 , The Search for Letitia Carson, II p.18 , BlackPast entry p.3 .

• Stephens graveyard · Douglas County

  The burying ground on the Benjamin Stephens donation land claim, a few miles from the homestead, where Letitia Carson was buried in 1888 and her son in 1922. The creator applied in 2014 to have it restored.

  Named on 2pages — The Search for Letitia Carson, I p.9 , The Search for Letitia Carson, I p.10 .

• Milo · Douglas County

  On the South Umpqua a few miles south of the homestead, where the Lavadour family settled. The creator writes that they settled near an old Indian townsite; the Library records that as he wrote it and locates nothing.

  Named on 2pages — The Search for Letitia Carson, I p.8 , The Search for Letitia Carson, II p.9 .

• Canyonville · Douglas County

  Named on 3pages — The Search for Letitia Carson, I p.14 , The Search for Letitia Carson, I p.16 , The Search for Letitia Carson, I p.20 .

• Umatilla Reservation · Umatilla County

  Where the two Lavadour–Carson families moved in the summer of 1887, to take up allotments. Martha Carson Lavadour was buried in Umatilla County in 1911.

  Named on 3pages — The Search for Letitia Carson, I p.3 , The Search for Letitia Carson, I p.10 , The Search for Letitia Carson, I p.12 .

• County Antrim · Ireland

  Where the seven Carsons came from, about 1818, sailing from Belfast.

  Named on 1page — The Search for Letitia Carson, I p.4 .

• Ashe County, North Carolina · North Carolina

  Where the Carson brothers and sisters first settled and where their citizenship papers were filed; several heirs still lived there in the 1850s.

  Named on 13pages — Estate sales transcriptions p.5 , Estate sales transcriptions p.30 , Estate sales transcriptions p.43 , Estate sales transcriptions p.47 , Estate sales transcriptions p.49 , Estate sales transcriptions p.50 , Oregon probate transcriptions p.1 , Oregon probate transcriptions p.34 and 5 more.

The ground on paper

The creator has gathered General Land Office township plats and USGS quadrangles for each of the Oregon places, several of them marked up to show the Carson claim. They are registered under Maps: Soap Creek Valley · Upper Cow Creek · South Myrtle Creek · South Umpqua · Umatilla .

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