ABOUT
Vernonia is a city in Columbia County, Oregon, United States.The population was 2,151 at the 2010 census.
History
The community was first settled in 1874 by the Parker and Van Blaricom families. Cousins Judson Weed and Ozias Cherrington, both of Ohio arrived in 1876. Sometime afterwards, the question of a name for the community came up, and Cherrington suggested the name of his daughter (Vernona) in Ohio, which was adopted. Due to a clerical error during the incorporation process, an "i" was inserted in the name. Cherrington died of a farming accident in 1894, having never seen his daughter since his departure from Ohio.Vernonia started to become more than an isolated farming community on July 10, 1924, when the Oregon-American Lumber Company opened a state-of-the-art lumber mill, which was supported by a railroad line connecting Vernonia to the rest of the country. Oregon-American merged with Long-Bell Lumber Company in May 1953, which itself merged with International Paper in November 1957. International Paper judged the mill antiquated, and closed it on December 20, 1957.