Fiechter House/Trailhead
John Fiechter was born in 1822 in Baden, Germany. He immigrated to the United States in 1835 and arrived in Oregon on November 15, 1846. He married Cynthia Ellen Newton on March 21, 1850 when he was 28 and she was 16. The Fiechters had seven children; Melissa, Francis, Marion, Emeline, Rachel, Clarinda, Ellen Ann and Cynthia Ann.
Construction of the house is thought to have begun around 1855 and took two to three years to complete. While the house was being built the large family lived in a log cabin nearby.
In 1861, at the age of 39, John Fiechter was accidentally shot as he prepared to go hunting. Archibald Johnson, a farm laborer from Indiana, who apparently lived on the claim, was with Fiechter. His wife Cynthia was left a widow with seven small children at the age of 27.
In 1862, Cynthia married Archibald Johnson. Together they had five children making a total of twelve children raised in the Fiechter House. The house remained home to the Fiechter/Johnson children until they were married and moved out.
Cynthia and Archibald continued to operate the farmstead until his death in 1889. Cynthia and her son, Francis Marion Fiechter, managed the farmstead until 1906 when it was sold. After the sale of the land, Cynthia moved to Corvallis where she lived until her death in 1924 at the age of 90.
