Albany, about twenty-five miles from the capital. This city is the county seat of Linn county, generally considered the best agricultural county in the State. This county extends from the Cascade mountains westward to the Willamette river and has a variegated surface, largely prairie, and a very fruitful soil. The city is situated at the junction of the Callapooia with the Willamette river, where a rich prairie abuts against the river, and about fifty feet above it. It is very near the center of the great valley and a vast outlook over prairie, and along the great mountain ranges on either side of the valley, is enjoyed by its people.
     Albany is a very handsomely built city. Its churches are numerous and of very creditable architecture, and all its public buildings show the wealth and culture of the city. Its educational facilities are of the best, for, in addition to its excellent public schools, it has the Albany College, the leading educational institution of the Presbyterian Church in Oregon. Its business is large, consisting of all the ordinary branches of trade, and besides it has a very large milling establishments, it being the center of one of the best wheat growing sections of the State. Its water power is exceptionally good, the enterprise of its people having created a large canal, some twenty miles long, conveying the waters of the Santiam river, a bold, clear, sweet mountain stream, down through the wide prairies into the very heart of the city,-a thing of beauty and of utility, as well.
     Albany is something of a railroad center, it being one of the most important stations on the Southern Pacific road, the point of junction of the Lebanon branch with the main line, and also the place where the Oregon Pacific crosses the Willamette river, and the Southern Pacific in its course eastward from Newport on Yaquina bay toward Boise City, and whatever may be its Atlantic connection. From these general statements it will be seen that Albany is not only now, but will always be, one of the most important cities of the State. Its population is about 8,000, and has a very excellent reputation for all that is superior in human life.

An Illustrated history of the state of Oregon, 1893

Contributed: ©Shauna Williams

Brownsville

Crabtree

Halsey

Lyons

Marion Forks

Mill City

Millersburg