STEVE JOBS FINDS AN ICONIC NAME FOR HIS NEW COMPUTER COMPANY
Diversifying in 1978, “Steven Jobs” purchases land in Yamhill County, Oregon—home to the original ‘Apple’ orchard
DS, signed “steven jobs,” four pages, 8.5 x 11, August 17, 1978. Agreement in which Steve Jobs purchases real estate “located in Yamhill County, State of Oregon,” from Gene R. Stephenson, Lucy M. Stephenson, and Marjorie Bederman, for $150,000. Neatly signed at the conclusion in blue ball-point by Steve Jobs, countersigned by the sellers, and notarized three times. The attached “Schedule ‘A'” describes the tract as “lands lying West of Market Road No. 3,” defines its boundaries, and notes: “The premises herein described have been zoned or classified for farm use.” Stapled into its original blue legal folder. In very fine condition.
Though today he is most closely associated with Cupertino and Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs came of age in Oregon: he enrolled in Portland’s Reed College for the fall semester in 1972, but dropped out after just six months to preserve his parents’ meager funds. However, he hung around campus for a year and a half to audit creative courses, including classes on Shakespeare, dance, and calligraphy—these would help to shape his artistic world view that influenced the innovation of the Macintosh computer. In his 2005 Stanford commencement speech, Jobs recalled: ‘If I had never dropped in on that single calligraphy course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts.’
While at Reed, Jobs met and befriended Robert Friedland—now a billionaire financier—who was serving as the charismatic undergraduate student body president. Friedland served as the caretaker of an apple orchard south of Portland near McMinnville—the largest city in Yamhill County—which he turned into a commune called All One Farm. Jobs spent a great deal of time at the commune, and numerous accounts (including one from Steve Wozniak), attribute Apple Computer traces its name to Jobs’s time working in the Yamhill County orchard as recounted by Steve Wozniak As the company began to achieve success—the Apple II was introduced in 1977 and became an overwhelming success—Jobs sought to diversify his investment portfolio, and purchased land near the place where he found his greatest inspiration.
