This article was published in the March 1, 1998 Argus Observer Progress edition.
Farmers were attracted to the Big Bend area in 1903, when irrigation ditches diverted water from the lower Boise River to the area. Few people were drawn to the west bank of the Snake River, which causes some historians to speculate Adrian actually began on the east bank.
Arthur C. Holly of Granville, Ill., first homesteaded in the Big Bend about 1898, and he was joined by his brothers John and Dan in 1903. and his brother John, bought land next to Arthur’s in 1903, followed closely by their brother Dan. In 1913, John Holly built a store and secured a post office across the river from the current site of Adrian. He named the post office Riverview.
About the same time as the Hollys were building up Riverview, Reuben McCreary, his wife, Dollie and her mother, Susie Johnson, had taken up claims on the west side of the Snake River. In 1911, the Oregon Short Line Railroad sent surveying crews south from Nyssa.
The rumor spread that a railroad was to be built tracing the course of the Snake River all the way to Buhl, Idaho, where it would connect with the Minidoka and Southwestern Railroad coming from Twin Falls. McCreary chose 73 acres of his claim to plat a townsite, which was then still called Riverview. Sept. 1, 1911, he gave the O.S.L. a right-of-way through a corner of his property.
While the railroad was being built, McCreary replatted his townsite and considered changing its name, because of a requirement by the post office that names of post offices should be as far as possible from offices with the same name. A Riverview, also known as Riverside, had been founded on the south fork of the Malheur River south of Juntura. Because McCreary had been born in Adrian, Ill., he chose the name of his birthplace for his new town. The name change was official March 31, 1914.
The name change, according to the Nyssa Gate City Journal newspaper, would not adversely affect “the latest competitor for favor in Eastern Oregon towns.” McCreary placed an advertisement in the Nyssa newspaper which ran in the summer of 1913, advising readers of the availability of business locations in the new townsite. The paper wrote:
“Mr. McCreary is enthusiastic over the future of the embryo city and believes it will experience a rapid and permanent growth, as it is favorably located … McCreary is now engaged in leveling and otherwise putting (the townsite) in shape for the population that is to follow. He will rent his farm and devote his entire time to the welfare of the new city.”
The expected sales of lots did not materialize, however, and McCreary went back to farming to pay his bills.
As the railroad progressed, Big Bend residents wanted to have easier access to the railroad, and began pushing for a bridge to replace the county ferry which was operated by Dewey Miller. The bridge was completed in September 1915, and Dollie McCreary was the first user to cross the bride; she rode her horse on planks across to the east bank.
Some historians have confused the origin of the town’s name, as Jess Adrian moved his sheep to the area in 1916, then to Ontario in 1918, but documents prove the name was established long before the sheep man arrived in town.
It wasn’t until 1917 the Holly brothers decided to make the move across the river to build a store. The post office at Riverview was closed, and John Holly established the first Adrian post office Nov. 10, 1919.
McCreary spent much time and effort bringing water to the site, negotiating with the Idaho-Oregon Power Company to extend its lines from where they were at Kingman Kolony a mile south to a location where he planned to install a pumping plant. He named it the Riverview Irrigation District, and it was to water the desert claims and and the townsite of Adrian. A bridge was built across McCreary’s irrigation ditch, which extended west toward Brown Butte. The power line was built in the spring of 1913.
Growth in the town was slow until the Owyhee Irrigation Project began. At that time, construction camps for tunnels, canals and power lines were situated temporarily near Adrian, bringing in trade. There was considerable land around the area which was eligible for irrigation water, and this in turn brought in more settlers.
Reuben McCreary died Sept. 9 1922, before he saw the success of his new townsite. His wife, unable to pay the mortgage, lost the family’s lands when the bank foreclosed.
Fifty-nine years after the town was founded, it was incorporated and the boundaries were enlarged to include the businesses on the west side of the highway, and those located to the south of Washington Street. Members of the first city council were George Cartwright, Marvin Bowers, Vernon Parker, Glenn Ward and W.W. Looney. Cartwright served as the first mayor, and the group’s first big project was a construction of a sewer system.
In September of 1939, a new high school opened in Adrian, with school officials telling the Gate City Journal prior to opening that 150 students had registered for classes, but that they expected 200 students to attend the new school. Students in grades 1-8 continued to attend their neighborhood schools until the new elementary school was built in Adrian in the 1940s.
Information from this article is from “Malheur County History,” a publication of the Malheur Country Historical Society.