Multnomah County juvenile court manual for probation officers

Multnomah County, Oregon, established a juvenile court in 1905, six years after the first juvenile court in the United States was established in Illinois. Its first judge was Arthur L. Frazer. In 1929, the court was placed under the auspices of the Department of Domestic Relations in the Multnomah County Circuit Court. By the 21st century, the juvenile court had nine rotating judges.

Sources: Collection materials; "Will Establish Juvenile Court," Oregonian, May 31, 1905, page 11; "Juvenile Court Grows Up," by Janine Robben, Oregon State Bar Bulletin, June 2005 (online version accessed in June 2026), https://www.osbar.org/publications/bulletin/05jun/juvenile.html

Will Drum was born in 1898 in Danzig, Germany (now Gdańsk, Poland). He received a doctorate in law from the University of Göttingen in Lower Saxony, Germany, in 1921, and practiced law in Danzig before emigrating to the United States in 1937. He received a master's degree in social work from the University of Washington in 1944, and from then until 1952 was director of the juvenile court and home in Portland, Oregon. From 1952 to 1968, he was an associate professor of sociology and social work at Portland State University. He also maintained a private practice in marriage and family counseling. He died in 1979.

Sources: Obituary in the Oregonian, May 12, 1979, page B8; vital records via Ancestry.com.