1904 & 1912 - Taft’s First Stores - Oregon Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

This sign is one of a group of history signs about the Historic Taft District and is located along SW 51st Street.

Marker Name: 1904 & 1912 - Taft’s First Stores

Marker Text: The ocean-going vessel “Della” brought site seers from Cloverdale to Siletz Bay in 1904. Two of the passengers, merchants Charles Nelson and Charles Ray (man in foreground), made arrangements with homesteader John Wesley Bones to supply a general store in his home. Overcrowding soon led Bones to rent the Johnson home to use as a store until he could build a new one just to the west. On January 22, 1906, a post office was established in the store and the village of Taft was born, named by Bones after William Howard Taft, then Secretary of War and later the 27th President of the United States.

In the picture above, Susannah (Farmer) Bones, wife of J.W. Bones, sits on the store porch with her son, D. Chesley Bones and and his wife, Lillia, and their first born, Daniel.

William Dodson purchased the Bones’ store in 1911, remodeled it with a false front and a year later built a new general store and post office. These buildings were all located where 51st Street is now, directly behind where you are now standing.

For a more complete photographic and written history of the Taft area and North Lincoln County, visit the North Lincoln County Historical Museum at 4907 Highway 101 here in Taft.

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