Before settling in Clark County, Henry Caples took his family along the Oregon trail from the state of Maryland on May 15, 1852. Their first home in the west is known as Caples Landing. In 1855-56 they went across the Columbia River to St. Helens to be safe from Indians.
Joseph Caples was another branch of the Caples family. He worked as a farmer, legislator, miner, lawyer, deputy auditor and as a storekeeper. Joseph Caples came west in the year 1844. He lived several miles west of St. Helens, Oregon, along the shore of Columbia. The Caples family moved to Vancouver, on Dec. 6, 1864, because their children needed better schools. Caples Road in Brush Prairie is named after this family.
Source: Margaret Kuhn Staley Caples and Rosa Caples Spedden, "The Henry Caples Family On the Columbia," Clark County History, 1961.