Continue to Stand in the Gap: Polk County

Western Oregon University

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. II Timothy 2:15

Polk County was created in 1845, partitioned off from Yamhill County and named after the 11^th President of the United States, James K. Polk. The county seat is Dallas, named after Polk’s vice president.

The Board of Commissioners are Craig Pope, Lyle Mordhorst, and Jeremy Gordon.

The County Sheriff is Mark Garton.

Towns in addition to Dallas, the county seat, include Grand Ronde, Rickreall, Eola, Fort Hill, Monmouth, Independence, Falls City, and some of Salem and Willamina.

You can find more information on Polk County here, here, and here.

Polk County, Oregon

Polk County, as well as much of this region of western Oregon, was settled quite early by the pioneers who came over on the very first wagon trains of the 1840s. Polk County is home to Western Oregon University at Monmouth, and the history of that institution involves some of those early pioneers. An early stage in the establishment of WOU was the merger of Monmouth University and Bethel College in 1865. The establishment of Bethel College in 1855 was due in part to a Reformation homesteader and minister, Glen Owen Burnett, who arrived in Oregon with his wife and seven children in 1845, traveling from Missouri on the Oregon Trail.

The Burnetts seem to have been a high-achieving family. The famous 1843 wagon train, the beginning of the Great Migration to Oregon, was led by Glen’s brother, Peter Burnett. Since his family were members of the Reformed movement, Christian church pioneers had high hopes for Peter to establish new churches in Oregon. However, upon arriving in Oregon, something unexpected happened. Peter Burnett converted to the Catholic Church.  

Peter did not stay in Oregon long, although he did take a position with early Oregon’s provisional government before the gold rush of 1849 drew him to California. There he became California’s first governor as that state was coming into existence. Unfortunately, Peter Burnett’s reputation is tarnished by his racist and exclusionary views. He pushed for both the exclusion of slavery in Oregon as well as the exclusion of free blacks. He was known for promoting policies in California and Oregon to exclude the Chinese as well, and for laws that resulted in a policy of extermination toward Native Americans. He was the first governor of California, but also the first to resign, and that under a cloud of unpopularity.

His brother Glen, however, seems to have gone in another direction. He came to Oregon with his family two years after his brother. Once settled on his 640-acre homestead in Polk County, he began a life of farming and preaching, often walking eight or ten miles to preach in a schoolhouse, church, log cabin, or the open air. He later estimated that he preached at more than 150 locations during those (about 15) years and helped establish various congregations. He and another early pioneer of Polk County, Amos Harvey, were determined to build the first Christian college in Oregon, and each donated a portion of their land to found Bethel College, later part of Western Oregon University. Glen and his family moved to California in 1861 so one of his sons could attend a Bible college there. The son returned to Oregon, but Glen spent the final thirty years of his life planting churches in Northern California. He and his wife are buried in Santa Rosa, California.

The accounts I have seen do not mention Glen Burnett’s political views, nor his attitude toward slavery or the indigenous population. Did he share his brother’s views? He seems to have devoted his time and energy to preaching the gospel, raising his large family (eventually eleven children), and establishing schools and churches. Oregon’s roots are mixed, good with bad, sometimes in the same family, or even the same person. Pray we can build on the planted good and root out the bad.