cwfive.html

The Hood River News, Hood River, OR., June 25, 1913, page 4

COUNTY WAS FIVE YEARS OLD MONDAY

Hood River county had a birthday Monday, being five years old on that date. The state election which divided Wasco county and created Hood River was held in April, 1908, and the governor signed the proclamation declaring Hood River a separate county on June 23 of that year.
Hood River's first county officials appointed by Governor Chamberlain, were as follows: County judge, A.J. Derby; sheriff, L.E. Morse; county clerk, George D. Culbertson; assessor, J.P. Lucas, superintendent of schools, E.C. Smith; county treasurer, V.C. Brock; county surveyor, John Leland Henderson.
Subsequent officers who have served the county included G.D. Culbertson and George R. Castner, judges; W.E. Hanson clerk; T.F. Johnson, sheriff; Jasper Wickham, assessor; E.E. Coad and C.D. Thompon, school superintendent; J.M. Schmeltzer and F.E. Bishop, treasurer; Murray Kay, surveyor.
Hood River still enjoys the distinction of being the only county in the state created by a vote of the people. The measure carried by a vote of 43,948 for and 26,778 against.
Hood River is a husky infant, considering the tender age of five years. Naturally a unit, both geographically and commercially, the creation of a separate county has had beneficent results. Hood River has grown in population, prospered in a business way and made many county improvements which would have been impossible under the old regime. This has been possible largely because of the competent and public-spirited officials who have had charge of the county's business during this, the first span of Hood River's history.