Where did the community of Hilgard get its name?

There are two possible answers, including one that would link the community to Henry Villard, a major figure in the development of the railroad in Oregon.

Villard was born Ferdinand Heinrich Gustav Hilgard, in Germany in 1835, but changed his name before coming to the United States in 1853, according to the book “Oregon Geographic Names” by Lewis A. McArthur and Lewis L. McArthur.

A financier, he acquired direct control of Northern Pacific Railroad in 1881, and under his guidance, the construction of Oregon’s first link to the transcontinental railroad was completed in 1883, according to the “Dictionary of Oregon History,” edited by Howard McKinley Corning. Villard’s work with Northern Pacific Railroad is also credited with establishing the first railroad line over the Blue Mountains.

The entrepreneur founded what Corning’s book describes as an “immigration bureau” that helped send 30,000 people to Oregon by train as new settlers in the 1880s.

Villard made several significant donations to the University of Oregon in the late 1800s and he was honored for doing so. A building was dedicated in his honor in 1886, according to the Library of Congress website. Today, Villlard Hall is a theater arts building and is the second oldest structure on the University of Oregon’s Eugene campus.

Villard had a cousin, Eugene W. Hilgard, who was dean of the College of Agriculture at the University of California in the late 1800s. Villard had his cousin make an agricultural survey of a portion of Northeast Oregon in the 1880s. The McArthurs wrote they believe that Hilgard is likely named for Eugene W. Hilgard. However, they also stated that there is a chance Hilgard was named in honor of both men. 

“The cousins should probably share the distinction,” the McArthurs, a father and son team, wrote in their 2003 book.

Early work

Villard’s initial work in the United States did not involve the railroad but instead journalism.

He started newspaper work in the United States in 1858 when he reported on the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates between Abraham Lincoln, the Republican Party candidate for the United States Senate from Illinois, and incumbent Sen. Stephen Douglas, the Democratic Party candidate. Villard was a correspondent for newspapers in New York and Washington, D.C., during the Civil War, according to the “Dictionary of Oregon History.”

The unincorporated community of Hilgard was initially named “Dan” but was changed to its present name on Aug. 23, 1883, when its post office name was changed to Hilgard. The McArthurs noted that Villard’s cousin, Eugene W. Hilgard, who was well known in the Northwest, was in the area at the time the name change was made. Hilgard’s post office closed in 1943.