Letitia Carson

Letitia Carson was an Oregon pioneer and one of the first African Americans to be listed as living in Oregon according to the U.S. Federal Census. In fact, she was the only black woman to successfully make a land claim in Oregon under the Homestead Act of 1862. She was the inspiration for Jane Kirkpatrick's 2014 novel A Light In The Wilderness.

Early life Carson was born into slavery in Kentucky between 1814 and 1818. Little is known of her early life besides that some time before 1845, she arrived in Missouri.

Life in Oregon In 1845, she set out in a 6-month journey on the Oregon Trail for Oregon with David Carson, an Irish immigrant who owned land in Platte County and had become an American citizen in 1844.

Upon their arrival, the Carsons staked a 640-acre land claim in the Soap Creek Valley, located in modern-day Benton County, Oregon. On their homestead, Letita and David raised cattle, planted crops, and established an Orchard. They likely sold produce, dairy, and meat to travelers along the Applegate Trail.

During

Oregon became a state and adopted its 1857 Constitution in 1859, which stated that black people were banned from migrating to the area. The Constitution also enforced the ban on property ownership, voting rights, and the right to sue in court to black residents in the area. In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act, and the law changed to not ban homesteaders based on race. On June 17, 1863, Carson then filed a 154-acre claim under the Homestead Act of 1862 on South Myrtle Creek in Douglas County, Oregon as a widow and single mother of two children Her claim was certified on October 1, 1869, by President Ulysses S. Grant. Carson spent the rest of her life on her claim. She built "a two-story house, a barn, [and] smokehouse" on the property, which also included a fruit orchard, which according to the 1870 Census lists her real estate and personal property value at $1,000 and $625, respectively.

Carson remarried to Narcisse Lavadour, the son of a French-Canadian fur trapper and a Walla Walla woman. They lived on the Douglas County homestead until 1886, before moving to the Umatilla Indian Reservation, where many of her descendants live today. Martha had ten more children with her husband Narcisse Lavadour, whom she married on January 19, 1868; Narcisse's father was a retired Hudson's Bay Company employee and his mother was from the Walla Walla tribe.

Legacy Carson is the heroine of Jane Kirkpatrick's 2014 historical fiction novel, A Light In The Wilderness. The novel chronicles her relationship with David Carson, journey to Oregon, and legal battle with Greenberry Smith.

An elementary school in Corvallis, Oregon was renamed in honor of Letitia Carson in 2021.