John Gurley Flook
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John Gurley Flook (1839-1926) was a pioneer to the Oregon Territory and an American politician. Flook is best remembered as a member of the Oregon State Legislature who sponsored the bill establishing Oregon Agricultural College in Corvallis, Oregon — today's Oregon State University.
Biography
Early years
John Gurley Flook was born August 12, 1839 in Clermont County, Ohio. Flook's father, John Flook, Sr., was an immigrant born in Baden, then a sovereign country which joined the German empire only in 1871.[1] His mother, the former Sarah Durough, was the daughter of an Ohio pioneer with family lineage dating back to the Virginia colony.[1]
Political career
In 1868, while still a resident of Douglas County, Flook was elected to the Oregon State Legislature on the ticket of the Republican Party.[1] He would only serve for a single two-year term in that office, but during that time he managed to make his mark as the author of the so-called "Flook bill," which established a state-owned land-grant agricultural college at Corvallis.[1]
It should be noted that Flook's legislation did not create a university in Corvallis from thin air. As early as 1851 the legislature of the Oregon Territory passed a bill establishing a territorial university in the town of Marysville, a small enclave in the Willamette Valley renamed Corvallis in December of 1853.[2] It was not until 1856 that the Corvallis Academy — the first post-secondary school in the area — was established, however.[2] This school was incorporated and rechristened as Corvallis College in 1858.[2]
Later years
Death and legacy
John G. Flook died January 24, 1926 at his home in Corvallis. He was buried in a cemetery located in his former home town of Roseburg.[3] He was 86 years old at the time of his death.
Footnotes
- ^ a b c d Portrait and Biographical Record of Western Oregon: Containing Biographical Sketches of Many Well Known Citizens of the Past and Present. Chicago: Chapman Publishing Co., 1904; pp. 491-493.
- ^ a b c "Chronological History: 1850-1859," OSU Libraries — University Archives, Oregon State University.
- ^ "John G. Flook," Oregon Pioneer Biographies, citing The Oregonian, January 31, 1926, pg. 28.
- 1839 births
- 1926 deaths
- Oregon pioneers
- People from Clermont County, Ohio
- People from Roseburg, Oregon
- People from Douglas County, Oregon
- People from Corvallis, Oregon
- People from Benton County, Oregon
- Members of the Oregon House of Representatives
- Oregon Republicans
- Education in Benton County, Oregon
- Oregon State University