The History of Sheridan Days

Phil Sheridan Days was started in 1934 by a group of people who liked horses and the excitement that goes with rodeos. While Phil Sheridan Days began as a rodeo, over the years it evolved into a full-blown celebration lasting three to four days. Eventually the West Valley Kiwanis Club purchased the rodeo grounds and the PRCA Rodeo continued under the direction of the Kiwanis Club. After a number of years, the Kiwanis Club sold the rodeo grounds.

This move left Phil Sheridan Days without a place to hold the rodeo and the Destruction Derby that traditionally followed. These two events were the strong draws for the celebration, and without them, attendance dwindled. So, Phil Sheridan Days went on a hiatus for the next three years. This evoked a cry from all over the state. It seems people from everywhere had grown up attending Phil Sheridan Days.

The current committee has worked hard since 1999 to reinvent Sheridan Days and provide a weekend of family fun.

The History of Sheridan

Sheridan was originally laid out by A. B. Faulconer on his donation land claim, the first in the area, settled some time in 1846-47. James B. Graves arrived in 1847 along with William Chapman and the Bewley family. Graves’ son, C. B. Graves, had arrived the year before with his sister, Mary Ann and her husband, A. B. Faulconer. It was portions of these early land claims belonging to the Faulconer, Graves and Chapman families that eventually became what is known as the city of Sheridan today.

The town was called Sheridan long before it was incorporated, though General Phillip Henry Sheridan had little or no direct involvement in the town other than his friendship with the Faulconers. Thomas Faulconer was the town’s first President of the Board of Trustees, since Sheridan did not yet have an office of Mayor. Faulconer’s Red Front Livery Stable was at the east end of Main Street. Marcellus and Tom Faulconer had a mercantile store about where the Huntley building is now. According to B. B. Branson, who wrote in 1884, “The town was first laid out and named Sheridan about the time Gen. Phil Sheridan made his first great raid on the democrats at Winchester.” The Battle of Winchester was in 1864. Phil Sheridan had been assigned to Ft. Yamhill at the Grand Ronde Indian Reservation in 1856. He was later given command of the Fort.

Fire has leveled a large part of Sheridan’s business district on four separate occasions: January 12, 1888; July 18, 1913; June 3, 1922; and October 11, 1934. Each time, the task of rebuilding began immediately, giving the town a rebirth out of the ashes. Virtually nothing was left standing after the 1913 fire – the worst in the City’s history.

Records from Sheridan’s first two decades after incorporation are scarce and not very revealing of what life was like then. In 1880, there were only about 200 people in Sheridan; in 1884 about 300; by 1894 about 400. The school had about 100 students a year, teaching two more years of advanced subjects beyond eighth grade. By 1905, Sheridan had a population of 800, which grew to 1200 by 1908. The growth was reflected in increased businesses.

During the 1910 decade, Sheridan was probably more modern and thriving for the time than it was at any other time during the century. Though the population in 1910 dropped down to 1021, it rose again to about 1500 by 1915. Sheridan’s population by 1920 had shrunk to 979 because of the closing of the big mills. The 1930’s brought the Depression; however, Sheridan did not start to feel the effects of economic crisis until almost two years after the October 24, 1929 collapse of the stock market. Sheridan began the 1940’s with a record-breaking building program, spending a total of $200,000 for new homes, new businesses and beginning a street improvement program.

The 1950’s brought a new school, Chapman, which was featured in a four-page article of Progressive Architecture for excellence of design. The 1960’s brought more growth and a big flood on December 22 and 23, 1964, with water up to three feet deep. In the 1960’s, Sheridan, just by being a country town removed from the turbulences of the urban centers, missed the race riots and the anti-war demonstrations. But it entered the 1970’s in stride with the rest of the nation in having to adjust to diverse groups migrating in to the area.

Through it all, Sheridan has survived. The beginning of 1980 brought with it some of the pressures we have witnessed in the past with the closing of some of the big mills, widespread unemployment, gas shortages, inflation, cold wars, and a myriad of other influences that threaten not just a city, but also a nation. But, we’ve lived through it before, by rebuilding “out of the ashes,” and we’ll continue to do it, because we’re a city of do’ers not say’ers!