In the spring of 1866 T.T. Lieuallen bought the claim of a man who had settled on a spot which was later to become a portion of the Weston townsite and built a farm residence for his bride, Mrs. Sarah Barnes, and her children. The Lieuallen brothers were joined by many other families, including: the William and Noah Lieuallen, Mosier, Kilgore, Murphy, Ridenaur, Lansdale,
La Dow, Isaacs, Price, Mays, Greer, and O'Harra families. Soon, the Rawhide School was built on Wild Horse Creek west of the
JA King ranch (sec 3, T3N, R35E), and a Mr. Pinkerton built a rail fence around the school by tying the rails with rawhide strips. That fall, T.T. Lieuallen persuaded a man named Abell, who was living near Centerville, to open a store by giving him land as well as a cash bonus. The settlement was known as Mitchell's Station when the post office was established in February of 1867 with W.H. Abell the store proprietor and acting postmaster. However, the business was short-lived as within a few months his goods were taken by the local sheriff. Jesse Melton bought the little building and converted it into a hotel. J. Lieuallen later brought a small house built by his brother Asbury, and stocked it with goods needed by the early-day settlers.
With one residence, a shanty hotel, a small school, and a store, Mr. Lieuallen called upon his neighbors to aid in naming the settlement. The majority voted for his recommended name of Westen: however, a mixup by postal authorities caused a change to Weston, a name used ever since. The stage road was soon rerouted through Weston, and both John White and E.D. Seely opened shops thereafter. In the next few years, there was steady growth, both in business and in population.
In the summer of 1874, some boys playing with matches caused a devastating fire that destroyed all of the business district on the north side of Main Street except for the Saling & Reeses brick building on the NE corner of Franklin & Main Streets.
By 1878 the town's people found themselves in need of a city government. A charter was drawn up and sent to the Legislative Assembly. On October 19, 1878, the governor signed the document and Weston became the second oldest city in Umatilla County. T.H. Lucy was the first mayor, and T.T. Lieuallen was first postmaster. That same year the Weston Steam Flouring Mills was built by the Proebstal Brothers who began operations with two sets of millstones. Also in 1878, a planning mill began operation, a Chinese immigrant was hired to water Main Street, using 2 water buckets with holes for dust abatement, and D.C. Black published the first issue of the Weston Leader newspaper on December 7th.
Around 1890, Weston consisted of 3 general stores, 2 hardware stores, 2 drug stores, 2 millinery stores, a furniture store,
a saddle shop, a variety store, a jewelry store, 4 saloons, 2 hotels, one restaurant, a bakery, a meat market, 2 agricultural implement warehouses, 2 livery and feed stables, one barber shop, a paint store, 2 boot and shoe shops, 3 blacksmith shops,
a brewery, planing mill, flouring mill, new city hall, a school house, 2 churches, many homes, and a population of about 600 citizens.
In 1897 the Weston Brickyard fired 280,000 bricks in its kiln, a telephone system was established, and dust abatement on Main Steet was done by a Chinaman sprinkling water from two square coal oil buckets with holes in the bottoms as he walked back and forth throughout the day.
By 1900 the population had grown to 900 residents, and then reahed a peak of 100 by the year 1910. The 1929 stock market crash had a devastating effect, causing the closure of the Farmers Bank and the Weston Brickyard. The Marshall House, as well as several other business buildings, were taken over by Umatilla County for back taxes, and then torn down by WPA workers soon thereafter in the early 1930s.
By the mid-1930s, the local economy improved with the introduction of the green pea industry, the start up of the Weston Farmers Co-op cannery in 1944, which was bought out in 1950 by the Lamb Family that established Lamb-Weston, a major food processing plant, which was later sold, and became Smith Canning & Freezing Company (Smith Frozen Foods) in 1973.
