By Melissa Wagoner What would a celebration of the famous political cartoonist, Homer Davenport, be without a celebration of cartoons? “To that end, the International Cartoon Contest has returned,” organizer, Gus Frederick, wrote in a recent press release. “As in past years, the competition is for ‘political’ or ‘editorial’ cartoons on any topic as long as they are not libelous, […]
By James Day The Geer farmhouse is in line for a new roof, courtesy of a grant from Oregon Heritage. Oregon Heritage, a division of the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department, awarded the GeerCrest Farm & Historical Society $20,000 for its roof project. The award was one of 18 statewide that added $277,681 to historical preservation efforts. Jim Toler, a […]
By Melissa Wagoner Did you know Silverton was once home to the first secular university west of the Mississippi? Created in the 1890s by a group of “freethinking” Silvertonians – including Homer Davenport’s cousin, Pearl Geer, and his sister, Alice – the Liberal University of Oregon (LUO) aimed to “impartially cover and stimulate the higher culture and motives of life.” […]
By Melissa Wagoner When Homer Davenport expert, Gus Frederick, learned that the original of one of Davenport’s most famous cartoons was for sale by a private seller out of South Carolina he immediately made an offer. The deal took several months but eventually “Look Who’s Coming” made its way to Silverton. “It showed a barren tree, filled up with a multitude of different […]
At the Silverton Country Historical Society’s annual meeting vice president Fred Parkinson will present a talk about historic Silverton architecture, specifically a building that recently turned 100 years old. Now serving as the local branch of Citizens Bank, 217 E. Main St. started out in 1923 as the new building for Coolidge & McClaine Bank. Additionally, the meeting will showcase […]
By Melissa Wagoner A stroll through Mount Angel or Silverton can feel like a walk through the past – if you know where to look. Kennedy High, the Mount Angel Abbey, Coolidge McClaine Park, even Silver Creek – all of these landmarks are rooted in the past, their stories are sometimes obscured but not forgotten by the men and women […]
By Melissa Wagoner There is no symbol in Silverton’s history more iconic than that of the “Old Oak Tree,” a meeting place initially for the Native tribes of the Molalla and Santiam area and eventually for the white homesteaders who settled here. “The old oak, as everybody called it, was a stately giant, and the early settlers of Silverton looked […]
By Stephen Floyd When The Silverton Appeal was established in 1880, the city was barely older than the paper’s founder, 25-year-old Henry Guild. The Appeal outlasted numerous competitors during its early decades and survived two world wars, the Great Depression, the rise and fall of the Soviet Union, and the advent of the internet. But Silverton’s first and longest-running newspaper […]
I secretly wished that Olivia Newton-John was singing her mega-hit, I Honestly Love You to me when it was released in 1974. Stationed at Bergstrom Air Force Base in Austin, Texas, I found her breathy rendition of that song made me even more enamored with her. Certainly at least 50 million young and old men had the same fervent dream, […]
By Melissa Wagoner Gus Frederick has always been interested in the art of cartooning. But in 1972, he’d never heard of the famous political cartoonist Homer Davenport, let alone seen any of his art. It wasn’t until a shift at the local cannery, where he met several other cartoon fanatics, that he learned a famous cartoonist once lived in the […]
By Melissa Wagoner Affectionately known as “Homer Days,” the Homer Davenport Community Festival – held the first Friday through Sunday in August (the sixth through eighth this year) – is absolutely unique. An offshoot of the Silverton Arts Association’s, Family Festival of the Arts, held for the first timåe in 1980, the Homer Days festival is the only celebration in […]
Editor’s note: We set out to present six to eight profiles on Silverton residents who share traits with Silverton’s own “Country Boy” Homer Davenport, the author and political cartoonist who worked for newspaper baron William Randolph Hearst about 100 years ago. What we found were many who exhibit his passion, interest in many pursuits, and love of Silverton. We wish […]
Although Homer Davenport is known by most as a world famous cartoonist who poked fun at the high and the mighty in public life, he was more than a political caricaturist.
He’s just doing what he loves, but Gus Frederick’s lifelong passion for unearthing local history could yield a heaping of tourism for Silverton. Over the years, Frederick’s research, multi-faceted as any family tree, has resulted in countless films, articles and books as well as live lectures, dramatizations and the like. Naturally, he’s had a hand in Silverton’s Homer Davenport Community Festival throughout its 30-year history.
Silverton residents have been robbed of two priceless pieces of history. Sometime between Feb. 1 and March 17, a thief took watches that once belonged to two men who played important roles in Silverton’s history – Homer Davenport and Bill McGinnis – from the Silverton Country Historical Society Museum, 428 S. Main St.
The cover of Homer Davenport’s most enduring book, The Country Boy, features an illustration by the author/artist of himself, as a youth, sitting next to his father. This was more than just homage to family. Homer was fully aware that without the lifelong support of his father, he would not have been nearly as successful as he was.
Whether you attend the parade, davenport races, chicken barbecue or GeerCrest Farm during the 29th annual Homer Davenport Days Festival, take a moment to reflect how cool it is to live in or visit Silverton.
By Linda Whitmore The threads of one Silverton family’s story run through the quilt of Oregon history. The Geer family – in addition to being among the few today who can trace their genealogy to the earliest settlers – has the unique distinction of still living on the farm their ancestors settled. As Oregon celebrates its 150th anniversary of statehood […]
By Linda Whitmore For a family to have maintained ownership of their farm since Oregon was a territory is exceptional. Then consider that this family has included such notables as an early governor, a nationally famous political cartoonist and a 19th century woman who stepped beyond restrictions of her time to attain success, and you know there is historical significance […]
