The following information is taken from our old website and History of the Pacific Northwest, Oregon and Washington; 1889 by Evans, Elwood (1828-1898).
History of Imbler
Imbler was founded by Farmer Jesse Imbler and it was on his land that the town was platted in 1891. The Kerr Gifford Company elevator in Imbler stands on the site of the first flour mill built in here town by Jesse Hindman and John McKinnis in 1903.
About Jesse Imbler
The following data is extracted from History of the Pacific Northwest, Oregon and Washington, 1889.
Jesse Imbler was a native of Kentucky (1842) and as a boy came west to Iowa. Then in 1853 continued the journey to Oregon, with his father, who made his home near Eugene.
Upon the appeal made for soldiers to quell the Rogue River Indians in 1855-56, Jesse then but sixteen, joined his two older brothers at the front, where, on account of his youth, he was assigned to the supply department, and remained with it to the end of the war.
Afterwards, returning home he accompanied his father and brother to The Dalles, and engaged with them in extensive cattle operations.
In 1868, however, they moved to the Grande Ronde; and in that magnificent valley each voter in the family located a claim and engaged in stock-raising.
It was at this time that Mr. Jesse Imbler owns his first homestead. In addition to this he swelled his land-holding to an aggregate of a thousand acres, all of which he supervised personally and kept in cultivation. He made special effort with improved stock, owning some one hundred and twenty high-grade Hereford and Durham short-horn cattle and a considerable number of high-grade Norman Percheron horses, imported by himself, and the first of the kind in this section.
In 1867 he was married to Miss Esther Massiker, of Yamhill county. They had a fine family of four children. Mr. Imbler did not shirk public duties, having twice served in the onerous position of county commissioner.