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Oliver P. Lent also had deep feelings for education. He saw the need of a school for the children of the early settlers, and thereafter donated land opposite his home as the site for one of the first Lent schools, a one-room hewed log cabin. He was also the school director and later was clerk of the school board.
The naming of the settlement of Lent, Oregon came about by a coin flip between Oliver P. Lent and another early pioneer, William Johnson. Lent won the coin toss, the new post office station was named after Lent, and Johnson was then awarded the naming of the creek that runs through the area, now called Johnson Creek.
(Randy Dagel for Lents Body Shop. Title: The Founding History of the Lents Neighborhood Portland, OR. 2005)
Fun Facts
Oliver Perry Lent (b. 1830) and his wife Martha A Buckley left Ohio for Oregon in 1852. He settled in Portland area in 1856 on farm of 190 acres.
- The family established a sawmill in Johnson Creek as well as establishing the first school in Lents.
- The area became the center of a growing farm community.
- George P. Lent, the eldest son of Oliver Lent, platted the town of Lents in 1892.
- In 1912, the Lents community was annexed from Multnomah County and incorporated into the City of Portland.
(Oregon Historical Society.Title:Vertical File Genealogy-Lent,Oliver Perry family. n.d.)