Preston Murphy and Sarah Bond traveled west to Oregon on separate wagon trains in the 1850s. Both were children of Protestant minister fathers who followed the Oregon Trail to claim land and establish towns and institutions. Preston and Sarah married in 1874 and went on to build their lives in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, running a boot shop and raising six children. They were also both deaf.

The Golden Age of Deaf Education in Oregon is one of the first books to explore Deaf history in the Pacific Northwest. Drawing from primary sources, Amy Lemco explores the history of Deaf culture in early Oregon through the lives of Preston Murphy and Sarah Bond. Their stories offer a glimpse into the growth of Deaf education in the developing American West and provide a unique lens to explore the intertwining of global, national, and regional histories and their effect on Deaf culture at the turn of the century.

While Preston became deaf after a childhood illness in Illinois, Sarah, along with two of her brothers, was born deaf in Iowa. In Oregon their varied deaf experiences would pave the way for the Oregon School for the Deaf but also illuminate how deaf Oregonians navigated daily life and remained closely connected to their hearing communities. It is the hidden experiences of Preston and Sarah’s ordinary lives that make their stories extraordinary.

Amy Lemco is a teacher, historian, writer, and mother of two. She is the author of Wading In: Desegregation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Amy lives in Monmouth, Oregon, where she volunteers with the Monmouth Historic Commission and Friends of the Library.