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Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Calapooia Rivers, the city of Albany, Oregon is the seat of Linn County though part of it is in Benton County. In 1845, a farmer from Iowa named Abner Hackleman, who died a year later while back in Iowa to retrieve his family. In 1847. Shortly thereafter, Oregon Trail travelers Thomas and Walter Monteith, brothers, arrived from New York. They bought 320 acres of land in the area and settled in, naming the settlement Albany, in honor of their hometown. Meanwhile, Abram Hackleman inherited his father’s land and named his small settlement Takenah. The two settlements opposed each other on almost all issues: Albany settlers were mostly Republicans while Takenah residents were mostly Democrats; Albany settlers were merchants and professionals while Takenah was working class; and Albany settlers mostly supported the Union, while Takenah sympathized with the Confederacy. Yet the settlements merged and became a city in 1864.

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