Gaffney Lane Neighborhood Association

Around Oregon City…

Mar 16, 2002

Dr. Forbes Barclay was born in the Shetland Islands on Christmas Day, 1812. As a young man he studied medicine in Edinburgh, but before he had finished, he joined an Arctic expedition as a ship?’s surgeon. The expedition was searching for the explorer Sir James Clark Ross.
The vessel was wrecked en route, and Forbes Barclay was one of the few rescued by natives who cared for him on the island of Disco.
On returning to Scotland, he resumed his studies, graduating from the Royal College of Surgeons in 1838. The following year he joined the Hudson?’s Bay Company and arrived at For Vancouver in 1840.
Dr. Barclay and Maria Pambrun were married at the Fort in 1842. Maria was the daughter of Pierre and Catherine Humphreville Pambrun, a Hudson Bay Company family.
The Barclays had 7 children: John , Peter, Alexander, Wm. Charles, Edmund, Hattie and Katie. Katie was born in 1852 and lived in this house until her death in 1934.
The family moved in on New Year?’s Day, 1850. Dr. Barclay practiced in the Oregon City area for 23 years. He often rode his pony ?“Snowball?” out into the night and/or bad weather over crude trails to care for the sick.
In addition, he served his community as a School Superintendent, Mayor of Oregon City and the first coroner in Oregon.
When he died in 1873, grateful Oregon City residents placed a marble monument at his grave in Mountain View Cemetery which reads ?“Well done, thou good and faithful servant.?”
The Barclay house was moved from the river level to its present location next to the McLoughlin House in 1937 (719 Center Street). In the years since it has housed a tea room and a Chamber of Commerce office. Currently, it serves as a gift shop, ticket office for the McLoughlin House and has a room to rent for small meetings or parties on an hourly basis.
Admission to the Barclay House is free. For current operating hours or to make room reservations call 503-656-5146. Come on down for a bit of history!