Andrew Jackson Dufur, Jr. (August 29, 1847 – June 19, 1914) was an American businessman and stockraiser who founded the city of

Dufur, Oregon Dufur is a city in Wasco County, Oregon, Wasco County, Oregon, United States. The population was 604 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. It is a agriculture, farming community where wheat, fruit tree, tree fruit, and vineyard, grapes a ...

, which took his namesake.

Biography

Dufur was born in

Williamstown, Vermont Williamstown is a New England town, town in Orange County, Vermont, Orange County, Vermont, United States. The population was 3,515 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, making it the second largest municipality in the county. Geography ...

, on August 29, 1847. His father was a native of

New Hampshire New Hampshire ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

, as were his parents. His father served through the entire

War of 1812 The War of 1812 was fought by the United States and its allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom and its allies in North America. It began when the United States United States declaration of war on the Uni ...

and drew a pension for a partial disability. Andrew Jr.'s great grandfather was a French

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , ; ) are a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, ...

, a refugee from France at the time of the historic French Revolution. They were of the aristocratic element whose lives were forfeited through the edict of the leaders of the

Sans-culottes The (; ) were the working class, common people of the social class in France, lower classes in late 18th-century history of France, France, a great many of whom became radical and militant partisans of the French Revolution in response to their ...

, Marat and Robspierre. Andrew J. Dufur, Sr., crossed the

plains In geography, a plain, commonly known as flatland, is a flat expanse of land that generally does not change much in elevation, and is primarily treeless. Plains occur as lowlands along valleys or at the base of mountains, as coastal plains, an ...

to California in 1859. His wife, Lois (Burnham) Dufur, was a native of Williamstown, Vermont, descendant of an old and distinguished New England family. She died at Dufur in 1895. She and her son went to

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

, via

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

, arriving in April, 1860. They had been preceded by the father, Andrew J., Sr. For 12 years the family lived from Portland, on a farm owned jointly by father and sons, comprising . This property they disposed of in 1871. The father of our subject died at Dufur, in June, 1897. Dufur was educated in district schools, supplemented by a term at

Pacific University Pacific University is a private university in Forest Grove, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1849 as the Tualatin Academy, the original Forest Grove campus is west of Portland. Affiliated with the United Church of Christ, the school mainta ...

Forest Grove, Oregon Forest Grove is a city in Washington County, Oregon, United States, west of Portland, Oregon, Portland. Originally a small farm town, it is now primarily a commuter town in the Portland metro area . Settled in the 1840s, the town was platted in ...

. In 1872 Dufur and his brother, Enoch B. Dufur, came to the vicinity of where is now the town of Dufur, and jointly purchased between . They were pioneers; only one settler was there before them, Joseph Beasley. The brothers platted the townsite in 1880. Dufur and his wife owned about of land as of 1905. With his son-in-law, Charles P. Balch, he was engaged profitably in stock-raising. Mr. Dufur had two brothers, Enoch B. Dufur, a practicing attorney at Portland, Oregon. William H.H. Dufur, a farmer near Dufur, and one sister, Arabelle, wife of Thomas W.S. Slusher, a farmer living from Dufur. On May 2, 1869, in Portland, Dufur married Mary M. Stansbery, of Indiana, daughter of John E. and Ann M. (Hughes) Stansbery. The father came to Oregon in 1862, settling on

Columbia Slough The Columbia Slough is a narrow waterway, about long, in the floodplain of the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Oregon. From its source in the Portland, Oregon, Portland suburb of Fairview, Oregon, Fairview, the Columbia Slough meanders west ...

, where he lived until the time of his death, in 1889. The mother lived in East Portland. Mrs. Dufur had three brothers and five sisters; John E. and Stephen E., at Woodlawn, Oregon; William G., on the Yukon River, in Alaska; Elizabeth, married to Milton M. Sunderland, a Portland capitalist; Susan, wife of James Wendell, of Portland; Lucetta, widow of John Foster, late of Hood River, Oregon; Rosabelle, married to Daniel Zeller, a builder and contractor at Dawson, Alaska; and Frances, wife of Morgan A. Zeller, of Portland. Mr. and Mrs. Dufur had two children, Lois, wife of Charles P. Balch, and Anna, married to H.A. May, a merchant at Portland. He was a Democrat and frequently served his party at county and state conventions.

References

An Illustrated History of Central Oregon, Western Historical Publishing Company, Spokane, WA. 1905, page 232.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dufur, Andrew People from Wasco County, Oregon 1847 births Pacific University alumni 1914 deaths