William Royal diary and bible census

Collection

Identifier: Coll 915

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The collection consists of a diary of Methodist minister William Royal and a notebook he used to record data about bible ownership in Portland, Oregon. The diary covers the period of Royal's life from 1858 through February 1862. The notebook contains the names of the heads of 808 households that Royal canvassed from April to July 1864, along with information about the number of men and women in the household, the number of people who were literate, the number of Protestant bibles, Catholic bibles, or Torahs they owned, and whether they purchased a bible from Royal, accepted a bible donation from him, or refused. The first page of the notebook includes a clipping from a November 23, 1864, issue of the Oregonian newspaper, summarizing Royal's findings.

Dates

Creation: 1858-1864

Creator

Royal, William, 1796-1870 (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

The Oregon Historical Society owns the materials in the Research Library and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use may require seeking additional authorization from copyright owners.

Biographical Note

William Royal was born in 1796 in Monogalia County, Virginia (later West Virginia). He came to Oregon in 1853, and lived in Portland, Oregon, in the 1860s. Royal was a Methodist minister, and in 1864 he founded the Centenary Methodist Church (later Centenary-Wilbur Methodist Church) in East Portland; a building for the church was completed in 1867.

Royal married Barbara Ebey (1800-1890) in 1818; the couple had seven children. William Royal died in 1870 in Salem, Oregon, and was buried there.

Sources: Vital and census records on Ancestry.com; articles in the Oregonian, 1870-1939; Portland city directories from 1863 to 1868; "The Royal Way West," by Violet Coe Mumford and the Royal Family Association, Inc. (Baltimore: Gateway Press, 1988); "The Preacher Train," by Robert Livingston Casebeer, oregonpioneers.com, http://oregonpioneers.com/ThePreacherTrain.pdf

Extent

0.1 Cubic Feet (2 folders in shared box)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Diary of William Royal (1796-1870), and notebook he used to record information about bible ownership in Portland, Oregon. Royal was a Methodist minister who came to Oregon in 1853, and who lived in Portland in the 1860s.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Dorothy M. Mumford, August 1997 (Lib. Acc. 23211).

Related Materials

Other papers of or relating to William Royal at the Oregon Historical Society Research Library are in the Royal family papers, Mss 1628; and in a vertical file, Genealogy - Royal family.