Boring takes its namesake after William Harrison Boring, an Illinois native and early resident who began farming there in 1874, and subsequently donated land for the community's first schoolhouse to be built. He was a Union veteran who had moved to Oregon after having fought in the Siege of Vicksburg during the Civil War. William's half-brother, Joseph, had settled in the area in 1856 prior to his arrival. William Boring died in 1932 at the age of 91 and was buried beside his wife Sarah in Damascus Pioneer Cemetery.