Mary (Baker) Smith
Jan. 20, 1901; Oregonian, p 5  (photo)
"Death of an Oregon Pioneer of 1847"
Corvallis, Jan. 19

   Mrs. Mary Smith, who died here January 15, came with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. John Baker, with the first emigrant train that entered Western Oregon via the California route.  The party left Missouri in the Spring of 1846, and arrived in California  in the Autumn of the same year.  On the plains the party was met by Captain Lindsay Applegate, one of three brothers then residing in Southern Oregon.  In Humboldt County the course was changed northward, and such of those as still remained with the train reached Mary's River, at what is now Corvallis, January 15, 1847.  The trip through the various mountain ranges of Northern California and Southern Oregon was arduous, much of the time being spent in cutting out roads.  On the spot where Eugene now stands, Mr. Skinner was just laying the foundation in the first house as the train passed.  It was to be a log cabin, and the four foundation logs had just been put in position when the travelers arrived.  At Mary's River, the Avery cabin, then temporarily unoccupied, stood on the site of the present Avery residence, and it was the first house the immigrants had seen since their arrival on the Coast.

   Mrs. Smith, whose maiden name was Baker, was born in Missouri, and in 1829 she was married to the late Green Berry Smith in 1849.  The donation claim of 640 acres in the north end of Benton County, 12 miles from Corvallis, taken by Mr. and Mrs. Smith a short time subsequently, is still in the family.  But one child was born to Mr. and Mrs. Smith, John Smith, who resides with his family in Corvallis.  A brother of the deceased is William Baker, of the vicinity of Arlington.