Dowell, B. F. (Benjamin Franklin)

Benjamin Franklin Dowell, a native of Virginia, came west on the overland trail in 1850. He practiced law in Jacksonville, Oregon and in Washington, D.C. Dowell, with the assistance of his wife and others, owned the Oregon Sentinel newspaper in Jacksonville. The Benjamin Franklin Dowell Papers includes memorandum books, diaries, scrapbooks, and correspondence between Dowell and his wife from Jacksonville and Washington, D.C.

The collection contains one letter dated January 29, 1870, from James McDonald, of Oakland, Oregon to J. S. Smith. In the letter, McDonald asks Smith to press a claim, through B. F. Dowell, for payment for service of mules during the Yakima war, 1855-1856.

56-page manuscript folio of affidavits and claims for compensation for depredations during the Rogue River Wars in the 1850s. These papers were filed in the 1880s by Benajmin Franklin Dowell and Daughter, attorneys in Portland, Oregon who specialized in Oregon Indian claims.

Stearns and Chenoweth was a hardware store located in Oakland, Oregon, that dealt in hardware, stoves, tinware, guns, pistols and sewing machines. The collection (1855-1912) contains deeds and legal papers, account books, a map, and correspondence.