Editing Ontario, Oregon (section)

==History==
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Ontario was founded on 11&nbsp;June 1883, by developers William Morfitt, Mary Richardson, Daniel Smith, and James Virtue. In March&nbsp;1884, Richard Welch started a post office for the quarter<!--used to say "quartet"?? source?--> of Ontario, so named by James Virtue after [[Ontario, Canada]]. Two months later Joseph Morton applied for a Morton post office at an island about one mile south of town, with Oscar Scott as postmaster. Unfortunately for Morton and Scott, merchants Morfitt and Richardson of Malheur City, gold miner Virtue, and lumberman Smith of [[Baker City, Oregon|Baker City]] acquired more land and were better financed. More importantly, Morfitt had negotiated a train depot for Ontario. All the settlers and speculators knew the railroad was coming and how important that would be to Ontario's future so Scott closed his Morton post office and built a hotel at present-day Ontario. By December, Scott was Ontario's postmaster.

The town continued to grow with the arrival of the [[Oregon Short Line Railroad]] in later 1884, and freight and passenger service were added to the town's offerings. Soon after, stock began arriving from Eastern Oregon's cattle ranches to Ontario's stockyard for transshipment to markets throughout the Pacific Northwest. Ontario became one of the largest stockyards in the [[Western United States|West]]. In addition, the construction of the Nevada Ditch and other canals aided the burgeoning agricultural industry, adding those products to Ontario's exports.

Ontario was incorporated by the [[Oregon Legislative Assembly]] on 11&nbsp;February 1899.<ref>{{cite report |editor-last=Leeds |editor-first=W.H. |year=1899 |chapter=Special Laws |title=The State of Oregon General and Special Laws and Joint Resolutions and Memorials Enacted and Adopted by the Twentieth Regular Session of the Legislative Assembly |publisher=State Printer |location=Salem, Oregon |page=683 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gsCwAAAAIAAJ&q=%22ocean%20grove%22%20seaside%20oregon&pg=PA683}}</ref>

A city by the time of [[World War II]], Ontario Mayor [[Elmo Smith]] allowed [[Japanese American]]s to settle at a time when much of the West Coast supported their exclusion. Smith told the [[Associated Press]] "If the Japs, both alien and nationals, are a menace to the Pacific Coast safety unless they are moved inland, it appears downright cowardly to take any other stand than to put out the call, 'Send them along; we'll cooperate to the fullest possible extent in taking care of them.'" A population of about 134 in the city and surrounding county before the war ballooned to 1,000 as the county recruited farm workers during the war.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Robert |last1=Kinoshita |first2=Benjamin |last2=Tanaka |first3=Augustus "Gus" |last3=Tanaka |year=2004 |chapter=Resettlement and return to the West Coast |editor1-last=Hirahara |editor1-first=Naomi |editor2-last=Jensen |editor2-first=Gwenn |title=Silent Scars of Healing Hands |page=143 |publisher=California State University |place=Fullerton, CA |department=Center for Oral and Public History}}</ref>