Background
Socrates Tryon was born on January 24, 1816, Pawlet Township, Vermont, to Laura Hotchkiss and Jesse Tryon.
Socrates Tryon was born on January 24, 1816, Pawlet Township, Vermont, to Laura Hotchkiss and Jesse Tryon.
The younger Tryon was educated at Castleton Medical College in Rutland County, graduating in the Spring of 1836.
A native of Vermont, he later lived in Iowa and California before moving to the Territory where he settled the land that now comprises part of the Tryon Creek State Natural Area in Portland and Lake Oswego. Socrates Tryon later moved to the Iowa Territory where he lived in Linn County and served as the clerk for the United States District Court in 1840. The territorial governor had appointed him as sheriff of the county in January 1839, but Tryon declined the position.
Tyron 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.
There he was one of the first physicians in, settling a donation land claim in 1850 near what later became the city of Lake Oswego. The Tryons had a second child, Sallie, born in 1852.
Tryon farmed land near what later became Stampher Road in Lake Oswego, built a sawmill, and constructed a house on the property. lieutenant was one of the few homes built in Clackamas County during the territorial period, 1848-1859, before became a state.
Described in Classic Houses of Portland, 1850–1950, the house was demolished in the 1990s.
Prior to its demise, it was the only house in the Portland metropolitan area that remained on its original donation land claim. lieutenant stood on a promontory overlooking the Willamette River. Socrates Tryon died in on May 15, 1855, and was buried in Lone Fir Cemetery in southeast Portland.
In 1874 they sold the 645 acres (261 ha) to the Iron Company.
Frances and Socrates Tryon, Junior., were also buried at Lone Fir Cemetery. Foreign nearly 25 years, the company cut virgin cedar and fir on the old Tryon homestead to use in its foundry in Lake Oswego.
More logging occurred from 1912 until 1961, and in 1969 Multnomah County bought part of the old property to use as a park. More land was added and a state park was created in 1970, later changed to Tryon Creek State Natural Area.
Tryon Creek, which flows through Tryon Creek State Natural Area and the former Tryon property to join the Willamette River near Lake Oswego, was named for Tryon.
The Iron Company"s logging road later became Old Iron Mountain Trail in the state natural area.
He was also a member of the 1846 Iowa Constitutional Convention.
