In One Ear: Around town

Published 5:00 am Thursday, February 26, 2026

Morsels from The Daily Astorian, Feb. 26, 1879:

• Clatsop County wants 150 bona fide settlers a year, men with families, for the next five years. We are modest in our claims, but can sustain that number well.

Note: The population of Astoria was only about 1,800 in 1880; in 2020, it was 10,181.

• Wild ducks were swimming in the bay inside the streets of the city yesterday. They seemed to realize that there is a city ordinance preventing the use of firearms.

Note: Scow Bay divided downtown Astoria from Uppertown. Before a bridge was built from 18th to 21st streets in 1878, you could only row or sail between the two towns. Columbia Memorial Hospital is just one of the many buildings that are located in what used to be Scow Bay.

• Notice: All persons are hereby notified not to pay R.F. Wickham any tax due the city, he having been dismissed from the office of superintendent of streets of the city of Astoria, and not authorized to collect taxes. J. H. D. Gray, acting mayor.

Note: Steamboat pilot John Henry Dix Gray, born in 1839, was touted as the “first white male child born west of the Rocky Mountains.” His Astoria house still stands. He was buried in Astoria’s Greenwood Cemetery in 1902. (Photo: Clatsop County Historical Society)