Three cities in Washington County are celebrating 125th birthdays this year. Once known as Beaverdam, Smockville and Free Orchards, today they are the communities of Beaverton, Sherwood and Cornelius.

Photo Courtesy of City of Cornelius

Cornelius 125th Birthday Event

The city of Cornelius was incorporated in 1893 and held its first council meeting on May 5th of that year. Exactly 125 years later, Cornelius will host the city's 125th birthday celebration from 3-7 p.m. Saturday, May 5 at Cornelius Elementary School.

The event will feature period costumes and historic memorabilia from the Washington County Museum, including a hat owned by the city's namesake, Col. Thomas R. Cornelius. Antique farm implements, vintage cars, the 1910 Forest Grove fire pumper and other mechanical memorabilia will be on display in the school parking lot.

A cake cutting by Mayor Jef Dalin is planned for 4 p.m. with light food and beverages.

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City of Cornelius

The Cornelius School House, circa 1875

As part of the birthday celebration, the city is sponsoring a drawing contest that asks Cornelius students in grades kindergarten to 12th to imagine "What Did Cornelius and its Residents Look Like in 1893?" The drawings will be on display and should be no larger than 22-inches by 28-inches.

The Cornelius Youth Advisory Council will judge the entries and pick two winners from each age category. Prizes for the winners will be awarded at the event.

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City of Cornelius

Business Street in Old Cornelius

An Oregonian article from the 1993 centennial celebration of Cornelius offers a bit of the town's history: White settlers began arriving in the area now known as Cornelius in the 1850s, thanks to the steamboats that toured the Tualatin River.

The region was then dubbed Solomon Emerick's Landing. Benjamin Tucker settled in the area in 1845. He eventually sold the land, and in 1871, W.L. Halsey deeded 107 acres of his farm to the public for a town site.

The town of Free Orchards was platted Sept. 22, 1871.

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City of Cornelius

Historic Cornelius

Businessman Ben Holladay brought in the railroad in 1871. A depot went up on the southern edge of town, followed by the St. Joseph's Hotel for railroad workers. A post office and telegraph office soon followed.

Holladay renamed the town Cornelius after Col. Thomas Cornelius, owner of the largest store in town.

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City of Cornelius

Col. Thomas Cornelius

The city of Cornelius website tells a bit about its namesake: "After the Indian War of 1855-56 Col. Cornelius served 20 years in the Territorial Legislature. He then returned to his 1300-acre farm in 1871, and over time built a grain warehouse, creamery, two sawmills, a grocery store, several houses and barns over a wide area."

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Michael Lloyd/ File photo

The old Smock House

Long before it was known as Sherwood, the community in southern Washington County went by the moniker of Smockville.

The town was named for J.C. Smock, who granted the Southern Pacific railroad a right of way through his property in 1885. But no one, it seems, liked the name Smockville.

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Michael Lloyd/ File (2006)

Sherwood Historical Society Heritage Center

A large meeting was held in 1892 to come up with a new name for the town. The owner of the brick yard, Robert Alexander, suggested they call it Sherwood, partly because the dense forests surrounding the town reminded him of forests near his hometown of Sherwood, Michigan.

That town had been named after Sherwood Forest in England.

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The Sherwood Robin Hood Festival, 1954

Sherwood officially became a city on Feb. 10, 1893. Earlier this year, the city passed an official proclamation honoring the 125th anniversary of its incorporation.

The proclamation, signed by Mayor Lee Weislogel on Feb. 6, notes that "the name Sherwood is shared with a legend that inspires people in every corner of the globe, especially the oppressed and downtrodden."

For the town's 125th anniversary, he proclaimed, "May adventurers from realms at home or far away feel especially welcome in Sherwood, Oregon."

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Courtesy of the city of Beaverton

Beaverton's Broadway Street at West Avenue, 1892

According to the Beaverton Historical Society, the Atfalati Tribe of the Kalapuya people who lived near modern-day Beaverton called the area Chakeipi or "Place of the Beaver."

When white settlers moved into the area in the 1840s and 1850s, they called the land "Beaverdam."

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City of Beaverton

Beaverton's Main Street

With a slight name change, Beaverton was incorporated on the same day as Sherwood - Feb. 10, 1893 - with a population at the time of 400. According to the Beaverton Area Chamber of Commerce, Alonzo Cady, a local businessman, was the city's first mayor.

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City of Beaverton

Beaverton's 125th year

The Beaverton City Council celebrated the city's 125th birthday with a cake celebration in February.