North County has deep Irish roots

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With the popularity of DNA-based heritage tests on the rise, people in Clark County and abroad are tracing their roots back as far as they can. 

But not many people in North County can trace their heritage back as far as the Carty family. Born in Wexford County on Saint Patrick’s Day in 1808, James Carty made quite a name for himself in the Ridgefield area in the early to middle part of the 19th century.

After spending his younger years growing up in Ireland, James Carty declared his intent to become a citizen of the United States in New York City in 1826. James Carty, 18 at the time, originally came to the U.S. on a whaling ship bound for the Russian-owned Alaska Territory. After spending time in the Klondike, James Carty found himself on a ship owned by the Hudson’s Bay Company that was headed for Vancouver, Washington. 

In 1840, when he was 32, he would be the first to file a land donation claim in the area. He built a house on the shores of Lake River and lived there until it was washed away in about 1860. He then rebuilt the property on higher ground and married a fellow Irish immigrant, Belle (last name unknown). They had four children. 

On March 16, 1859, around the time James was settling his family with Belle, his nephew, James. N. Carty, was born in Blackwater, Wexford County, Ireland. After setting sail for the great blue sea at the age of 15, James N. Carty wound up spending time in Chile and Panama. He worked himself up to the San Francisco Bay area and subsequently Portland, Oregon, while spending time on various ships in America. He eventually found himself next to Lake River and filed for a donation claim on the plot of land directly next to his uncle’s. 

In an interview with the Clark County Historical Museum, James N. Carty’s grandson, James (Jim) Carty, said the Carty property was about a mile outside of town in his day. 

“The north part was my grand-uncles land claim (James Carty); the other property, owned by my grandfather, is part of the Gee donation land claim,” he said. 



The Cartys would eventually make a large name for themselves in the area. James Carty, the original settler in the area, died in 1873 at 65 years old. Just a few months after his uncle’s death, James N. Carty married Irish immigrant Jane Flynn Reed, the widow of Captain Reed, who helped settle the town of Saint Helens, Oregon.

 “He had helped found the Masonic Lodge,” Jim Carty said about Reed. “Mr. Reed and my grandfather’s first wife (Jane) are buried in the Masonic Cemetery in St. Helens.”

Following Jane Reed’s untimely death in 1886, James N. Carty married Anna O’ Rourke, a professional nurse of Carlow County, Ireland. They had one son, William Edward Carty, in 1894. “My father was an only child,” Jim said in the interview with the CCHM. 

According to Jim, the land in Ridgefield was originally called Union Ridge until the name was changed due to an influx of people from the south. 

“It had been named Union Ridge. After the Civil War people from the south moved in and they objected to the word ‘Union,’ it was changed to Ridgefield,” he said. 

William Carty had five children, three girls and two boys. Jim Carty was born on Nov. 11, 1920. His brother William H. Carty worked for Ridgefield’s U-Haul company for about 40 years. William, Jim’s other brother, spent time working for the Cowlitz County Government. 

Today, people in Ridgefield can still see the impact the Carty family had on the small but now rapidly growing community. When the interview with Jim Carty was conducted in 1993, the population of Ridgefield was about 900 people. Now the population is closer to 9,000 people. The Carty property now sits at the northernmost end of the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge and encompassess many historic sites in the Refuge. From the Cathlapotle Village to a site where Lewis and Clark stayed overnight in 1806, the Carty unit houses the history of both natives and the effects Irish Immigrants had on the community.