Socrates Hotchkiss Tryon, Sr.

Socrates Hotchkiss Tryon Sr. (January 24, 1816 – May 15, 1855) was a pioneer medical doctor in what became the U.S. state of Oregon. The younger Tryon was educated at Castleton Medical College in Rutland County, graduating in the Spring of 1836. His grandfather, Socrates Hotchkiss, was also a medical doctor in Vermont. The territorial governor had appointed him as sheriff of the county in January 1839, but Tryon declined the position. Tryon represented Linn and Benton counties at Iowa's Second Constitutional Convention held in May 1846, which led to the admission of Iowa into the Union in December of that year. Tryon then moved to California with his wife, Frances (née Safley), and son, Socrates Hotchkiss Tryon Jr., before moving north to the Oregon Territory. There he was one of the first medical doctor in Oregon, settling a donation land claim in 1850 near what later became the city of Lake Oswego. Tryon farmed land near what later became Stampher Road in Lake Oswego, built a sawmill, and constructed a house on the property. Prior to its demise, it was the only house in the Portland metropolitan area that remained on its original donation land claim. Rectangular in form, it was a rural farmhouse built on a foundation of brick and stone and included "greatly simplified" Greek Revival details.

Legacy For nearly 25 years, the company cut virgin cedar and fir on the old Tryon homestead to use in its foundry in Lake Oswego. The Oregon Iron Company's logging road later became Old Iron Mountain Trail in the state natural area.