Francis Pettygrove

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Francis Pettygrove (1812 - 1887) was one of the earliest promoters of the Portland township.

Pettygrove was born in 1812 in Calais, Maine, and, at the age of thirty, came to Oregon as a merchant. He first settled in Oregon City, engaging in the fur trade as well as the wheat trade of French Prairie. In either late 1843 or early 1844, he purchased the half-stake in the land claim that would become Portland from William Overton, compensating him with about fifty dollars of supplies. This partnership entered him into partnership with Asa Lovejoy and together they hired Thomas A. Brown to survey and plat the township that would become Portland.

Pettygrove is the person who named Portland, winning that right in a coin toss against Lovejoy. Lovejoy had wanted to name the town Boston.

In 1851, because of health concerns, Francis Pettygrove left Portland for the seaside. He went on to found the town of Port Townsend, Washington.