The Winters / Duncan history in the 1800s is exciting. The families of Winters and Duncan originally come from France, Germany, Scotland, and England but all came together in Oregon. For reference and orientation - here is the family tree for the 1800s for Velda Winters:
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, INDIANA
Scott Township occupies a central position on the South Tier of townships of Montgomery Co. It an area of 36 square miles, and is known as T. 17N., R.4W. It is bounded on the north by Union township, on the east by Clarke township, on the south by Putnam County, and on the west by Brown township. The eastern and southeastern portions of the township are watered by Big Raccoon and Cornstalk creeks, while the western and northwestern are drained by Indian and Rattlesnake creeks. Jacob Shuck [ancestor of William Leander Winters. grandfather of Velda Erickson] was in all probability the first pioneer who braved the dangers and inconveniences of frontier life in this portion of Montgomery County, whom it is reported reached here as early as 1820, which, however, we think improbable, as the county's earliest settlements are not reported to have been made prior to 1821. Mr. Shuck was nevertheless an early toiler among the tall timbers of Montgomery. He settled on Sec. 31, no doubt on account of the delightful and almost famous springs of clear, cold water located on this section. Soon after locating he was followed by his brothers who made the land where Parkersburg now stands their home, but immediately after the close of the Black Hawk war they moved to Iowa. These were followed by John Danner the Lemmonses, George Goyer, Jacob Winter. |
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In 1833 Noble Welsh and family reached here from Kentucky and settled upon the farm previously occupied by Christopher Shuck, on Sec. 32. Near this time Jacob Winters, one of the township's most ancient landmarks walked to Iowa and visited the Shuck family. The fertile, rolling prairies of the Hawkeye State were an inspiration even to so aged a pioneer. He returned with five yoke of cattle and two wagons which served to transport his household and goods to that state, which was his future home and whose bosom today holds his ashes
Jacob Shuck's father was Philip Shock (son of John Schock Sr.), born 1760 Berks County, Pennsylvania and died in 1835 in Indiana. He served in the Revolutionary War. Note: Philip entered service as substitute for his father in 1776, served 2 months; drafted 2 months; volunteered as a minute man. Our best information available indicates the Shock (Shuck) family came from Germany and settled in Berks County, Pennsylvania. John Shock was naturalized as a British subject at a court in Philadelphia on April 10 or 11, 1776.
Jacob Shuck was born in 1784 or 85 in Pennsylvania; died January 18, 1856 in Yamhill County (Dundee), Oregon. Jacob is said to have served in the War of 1812 - battle of Tippecanoe; no records found.
Jacob Shuck's son Martin, and Martin’s wife Margaret Jones, made their first trip across the plains in 1850 with daughter Mary Jane and son-in-law Benjamin Heater [see diary], arriving at the home of his parents in Dundee Oregon on October 31, 1850. In 1851, Jacob went to California, mined gold for a while, then took a ship to Panama, crossed the Isthmus by foot and sailed north again from the other side to return to Iowa. In 1854 he returned to Oregon with his wife and four daughters.
Elizabeth Shuck (daughter of Philip Shuck) married Jacob Winters on October 6, 1819 in Harrison County, Indiana. Their son Philip, born 1823 was father of William Leander Winters. [Our data does not indicate this, but logic says Jacob Winters was the son of the elder Jacob Winters mentioned above who emigrated from Ohio to Indiana with his cattle and etc.]
Mary Jane Shuck (daughter of Martin J. Shuck) married Benjamin Heater and crossed the plains [see above] with their daughters Margaret Elizabeth and Mary Jane. Margaret Elizabeth (Lizzie) was Velda Erickson's grandmother whom the Indians offered to purchase to obtain her red dress. Hence, because the Winters family and the Heater family both were descended from the Shuck family, William Leander Winters and Margaret Elizabeth Heater Winters were cousins, though not close enough to create insanity so we can't use that as an excuse.
Jacob Shuck's father was Philip Shock (son of John Schock Sr.), born 1760 Berks County, Pennsylvania and died in 1835 in Indiana. He served in the Revolutionary War. Note: Philip entered service as substitute for his father in 1776, served 2 months; drafted 2 months; volunteered as a minute man. Our best information available indicates the Shock (Shuck) family came from Germany and settled in Berks County, Pennsylvania. John Shock was naturalized as a British subject at a court in Philadelphia on April 10 or 11, 1776.
Jacob Shuck was born in 1784 or 85 in Pennsylvania; died January 18, 1856 in Yamhill County (Dundee), Oregon. Jacob is said to have served in the War of 1812 - battle of Tippecanoe; no records found.
Jacob Shuck's son Martin, and Martin’s wife Margaret Jones, made their first trip across the plains in 1850 with daughter Mary Jane and son-in-law Benjamin Heater [see diary], arriving at the home of his parents in Dundee Oregon on October 31, 1850. In 1851, Jacob went to California, mined gold for a while, then took a ship to Panama, crossed the Isthmus by foot and sailed north again from the other side to return to Iowa. In 1854 he returned to Oregon with his wife and four daughters.
Elizabeth Shuck (daughter of Philip Shuck) married Jacob Winters on October 6, 1819 in Harrison County, Indiana. Their son Philip, born 1823 was father of William Leander Winters. [Our data does not indicate this, but logic says Jacob Winters was the son of the elder Jacob Winters mentioned above who emigrated from Ohio to Indiana with his cattle and etc.]
Mary Jane Shuck (daughter of Martin J. Shuck) married Benjamin Heater and crossed the plains [see above] with their daughters Margaret Elizabeth and Mary Jane. Margaret Elizabeth (Lizzie) was Velda Erickson's grandmother whom the Indians offered to purchase to obtain her red dress. Hence, because the Winters family and the Heater family both were descended from the Shuck family, William Leander Winters and Margaret Elizabeth Heater Winters were cousins, though not close enough to create insanity so we can't use that as an excuse.
Five branches of the ancestors of the family traveled to Oregon on the Oregon Trail - the Shucks (1850 and 1854), Heaters, Winters, Bingmans (1851), and Paquets. Jacob Shuck even traveled on the trail twice! The Duncan family also likely traveled to Oregon on the Oregon Trail since Thomas Benjamin Duncan was born in Missouri in 1858 but had his first child with Ella Bingman in Oregon in 1882. It is possible the transcontinental railroad was taken by the Duncans but there are no records found as of yet. Here are all of their stories:
Oregon Trail crossing 1850: Heater and Shuck families
History of the Family of Benjamin and Mary Jane Heater
Written by Grant Heater (1915)
An emigrant train of covered wagons drawn by oxen left Mt. Pleasant, Henry County, near Des Moines, Iowa, May 1, 1850, and arrived at the home of Jacob Shuck in Yamhill County Oregon, October 31, 1850, six months from the time they started. This train was under the leadership of Captain Jesse Parrish. Other members of the party were Benjamin and Mary Jane Heater with their two little daughters Margaret Elizabeth and Mary Jane, Lorenzo Dow Heater, Solomon Heater, John Hash, Martin J. Shuck and a Mr. Harmon. We do not know who· else was included in the party. Jesse Parrish was the grandfather of Annie Parrish who married Albert Heater. John Hash later married Susan Shuck Woods, sister of Mary Jane Heater.
Benjamin Heater owned a lot in Mt Pleasant which he traded for a pair of pants when he started west. Financial conditions were not good, and it was the lure of free land which could be secured in Oregon from the government which prompted the move. They had no trouble with Indians on the way. On one occasion a squaw wanted to buy Margaret Elizabeth because she was wearing a red dress. The dress was taken off and hidden away until her future home was reached.
The men of the party and even some of the women and children walked to Oregon. Some of the men carried ropes which were looped over the horns of the oxen to help guide and control them. While crossing the grassy plains along the Platte the oxen were so well fed that they became high strung and frequently ran away. Sometimes they stampeded from the corral by jumping over the wagons et night and sometimes they ran while attached to the wagons. On one occasion they ran dangerously near the bank of the Platte River, barely turning in time to prevent· a serious accident. Rivers were forded unless they were too deep, in which case rafts were built and the people and wagons loaded on them, while the cattle and horses swam. The few horses were used to scout for food and run other errands.
Benjamin Heater’s wagon drawn by four oxen carried sleeping accommodations, food, and supplies for three adults and two children, all of whom slept in the wagon at night. The chief articles of diet were bacon, bread and beans - not a well-balanced diet for adults, let alone for children. Occasionally birds or animals were shot and at times fish could be caught but such luxuries could not be depended upon. Food was cooked over fires built of buffalo chips. Bread was baked in large iron skillets which were buried in the hot ashes.
While in Eastern Oregon the party ran short of food but men with horses were sent on ahead and food was brought back from the fort at The Dalles. At The Dalles a member of the party died. After the grave was covered, the oxen and wagons were driven over it to prevent the Indians from knowing there had been a death. Even on such a journey as this the young people played and danced around the campfire at night, friendships were formed and lovers pledged and married. One young couple "did their sparking" on Benjamin Heater's wagon tongue.
The journey from The Dalles to Oregon City was made over the old Barlow Trail. In some places it was so steep that trees were cut and tied to the back to the wagons to serve as brakes. Benjamin Heater had fallen ill of Mountain Fever on the way and was quite sick upon arrival. His two brothers, Martin Shuck, and other members of the party built the log cabin on the homestead of 640 acres which he selected northeast of the present site of Springbrook, in Yamhill County, Oregon, not far from the home of Mrs. Heater’s grandfather, Jacob Shuck.
Pioneer life was not always rosy while Oregon was experiencing growing pains. This was no place for laggards or for the faint-hearted. It had not been possible to bring many tools or household utensils on that long journey from Iowa and there was no money with which to buy much needed articles even if' there had been any place where they could be bought.
The chimney and fireplace of the first house were built of rock and mud as high as the mantel. The upper part of the chimney was built of sticks and mud and the hearth was of mud. An iron rod was built into the chimney. From it hung two short chains with hooks on the end so pots of food could be cooked. The log house was warm in winter and cool in summer. There was no glass to be had in Oregon, so holes were sewed in the logs to give light. Sometimes these holes were covered with greased paper and sometimes when it was very cold and at night, board covers were put over them. Then the house was lighted by the fireplace and by tallow candles. The first winter a blanket was used for a door. When doors were made, they were fastened with wooden latches, such as are frequently used on garden gates, and a string was hung through a small hole in the door so the latch could be raised from the outside. To lock the door the string was pulled inside. When shelves were needed, holes were bored in the logs, wooden pegs driven in, and boards laid on top, for it was impossible to get nails.
Martin Shuck was very handy about building bedsteads, chairs, tables, and other household articles, and since Benjamin Heater was sick most of the first winter much of that work fell to him - and was done with very few tools to work with. Wooden frames were made for bedstands and holes bored along. the sides. Rawhide was cut in strips, and while wet, was laced through the holes. When the skin dried and contracted, it made a· firm bed, not unlike woven wire springs. Chairs were made with seats of rawhide. '
Mary Jane Heater had two iron pots, a larger kettle, tea kettle, dutch oven, frying pan, coffee pot and mill to grind coffee, wash tub, wooden washboard, and a few dishes, besides her spinning wheel and loom. She spun the wool, wove it into blankets and cloth, made the cloth into garments, and even made the shoes for her growing family from cowhide and other skins. Logwood, madder, indigo and dye made from moss and bark were used to color the wool yarn, so the children wore pretty plaid and striped dresses. Socks and stockings were knit from wool yarn. If there was a surplus a ready sale was found for socks among the single men who had no one to knit for them.
Bread was baked in the dutch oven by putting coals on the hearth under it, and on the lid. In the absence of a shovel a board was used to lift the coals and ashes onto the lid. It would catch fire and soon be too short and a new. one would be used. A stick was used to lift the lid. Soap was made of grease and lye which was made from ashes saved from the fires. If salt was added, the lye would settle to the bottom and the solid part rise to the top. It was then cut into cakes for toilet use. Wheat or barley were parched and used instead of coffee and they tasted very much like the postum which is now manufactured. Fruit was dried in crude homemade driers, fish and beef were salted in barrels to preserve them for winter use and hogs were killed and smoked.
Mary Jane was frequently alone with her small children and the Indians passed along the path not more than a hundred feet from the cabin on their way to and from Oregon City. Benjamin often worked miles away from home and carried flour home on his back from one of the mills with burrs of stone to grind the wheat. These burrs occasionally had to be sharpened and then the flour, for a time, would be seasoned with grit.
The fir and oak trees were cut into wood, the cedar into shingles and posts, the stumps grubbed out and fruit trees, grain, and gardens planted - all without the modern implements that are used today. Vegetables grew well in the new, rich soil, and turnips, radishes, cabbages, apples, etc., were entirely free from worms. Squashes were hard shelled. If one was wanted for breakfast, a half was turned upside down on the clean swept hearth and covered with hot coals and ashes before the family went to bed. In the morning the ashes ware raked off end the squash set by the fire to keep it warm till the rest of the meal was ready. The shell, with a string to pull it, made a fine buggy for the children's rag dolls. Dolls such as children have today were unknown during pioneer days.
Matches could not be bought so fire was carefully· hoarded. When necessary, neighbors borrowed it. Flint was sometimes used to start fire and sometimes a shot was fired into a pile of carefully prepared inflammable material.
Brooms were made from hazel sticks about an inch and a half in diameter. The bark was removed and the tick split in thin strips about half an inch in width for about eight inches from the end. When only the small center core was left, that was cut out. Thin strips were shaved from the handle part down to the point just above the split portion. These strips were bound down over the end strips and the broom was ready for use. For dirt and rough wood floors it was quite satisfactory but it did not reach into the corners as well as a present day broom does.
In the spring of 1851 both Martin Shuck and Benjamin Heater went to the mines, Mr. Shuck to California and Mr. Heater to Southern Oregon. Neither venture resulted in much but grief and loss. Mr. Shuck went from California to the Isthmus of Panama, walked across, and west from there to Iowa. In 1854, with his family which had remained in Iowa, he again crossed the plains to Oregon.
Benjamin Heater found himself unable to make a living for his growing family on the homestead of uncleared timberland and with no cattle, so in 1856, he and John Etzwiler rented the farm of Sidney Smith in Chehalem Valley. The two men were to receive half of the stock and grain raised during the time they were there. In 1865 Benjamin Heater returned to his own homestead bringing bis share of the cattle and horses. John Schilling lived on the homestead during the time the family was away but did little toward improving it.
On January 8, 1862, a heavy snow fell and di not melt until after the middle of February. Pioneer barns were not prepared for such lack of pasture, and cattle, horses and sheep died by the hundreds and wild deer came up to the very doorsteps seeking shelter and food. Cattle would lie in the snow too weak to rise, The settlers and their children would endeavor to help thorn to their feet in the hope that they could be revived but often they were too weak to remain standing. This was a loss the pioneers could ill afford.
At the age of sixteen Margaret Elizabeth became a teacher in the little log schoolhouses of Yamhill County. Teachers boarded around in the various homes of the community. She used to return to the home of her parents as often as possible on weekends, frequently walking six or eight miles over valley trails, after school on Friday, and returning the same way on Sunday afternoon. Sometimes her father or one of her brothers would meet her with a horse and take her part way back when she returned. As they grew up each of Benjamin Heater's daughters taught school for periods of time from three months to several years.
Benjamin and Mary Jane lived on the homestead until the time of their death. Albert, Ernest, and Grant with their families, live on their share of the place. Lucinda and Dan Putman spent the last days of their lives there, and Mary Judy and Lizzie Winters have lived in the county. Thus the Heater family has been an integral part or the community from pioneer days until the present.
The part of Chehalem Valley in which Springbrook is situated was first settled about sixty-five years ago. The valley was named after an Indian chief, "Chehalem" who, it was claimed by the Indians, charmed all the rattlesnakes out of the valley.
My father and uncle were among the first settlers here. My uncle "taking up" the land on which the principal part of Springbrook is now located. They crossed the plains with their ox teams and arrived here in the autumn of 1850, having taken six months (to the day) for the trip from Iowa.
This part of the valley was called the "grubby end of Chehalem" because of the thick growth of oak grubs covering the larger portion of it. The tops of these oaks were killed every few years by fires which were set by the Indians with the purpose of killing them so the grass would have a better chance to grow, but the roots were still all there as every old timer can testify.
The grubs were not so high but that the deer could be seen running through them. The deer were so plentiful that it was necessary to build high fences around the orchards to keep the apples from being eaten by them. When I was a small boy it was almost a daily occurrence to hear a pack of hounds chasing coyotes over the mountains. ·
Bears were quite numerous and the last one I remember of being seen here was killed near where Mr. Montgomery now lives.
Numerous bands of Indians traveled through the country but never tried to harm the settlers of this valley.
For several years the nearest Post Office was at LaFayette and the neighbors took turns in going for the mail for the whole neighborhood, and it took six months to get an answer to a letter written to friends in the east and then they had to pay a fee of twenty five cents to get the letter. LaFayette was also the nearest place for a Doctor, who served as dentist also.
The Newberg post office was first established at Mr: Brutcher's house, then moved to where Mr. West now lives, where there was a small store kept by a Mr. Albee. I mention him because of a peculiar trait of his. He always kept a coffin in his store for himself to be buried in. And when there was a death in the neighborhood, he would sell the coffin on hand and have another one made for himself. It was rumored that he slept in his coffin, but I cannot vouch for that.
After being moved from Albee's the Post Office was kept at Mr. Everesl’s house, then at a small store where Charlie Addison now lives and from there to different places in Newberg. This neighborhood did not boast of a standardized school in those days nor for that matter any kind· of a school. For several years any children that were old enough to go to school had to either be sent away or taught at home. ·
The first schoolhouse built near here was in the Chehalem center district known as the Westfall district. Then the Brutcher schoolhouse in what is now the Fernwood district. Then the district was formed on the mountain known as the Gibbs school district. It was named after Governor Gibbs who then owned the farm now known as the Burke place. This district was about five or six miles in diameter and embraced most of the country now in the Springbrook School district. There was usually six months of school in the year, but the older boys usually only attended during the three winter months.
The schoolhouses served also for churches and when building a new one it was supplied with a platform and built-in pulpit. The desks were home-made affairs and were ten or twelve feet long, six or eight pupils being seated at each desk.
There were no good roads in those early days, and it made it a long hard trip to Portland to get supplies, so people usually bought enough at one trip to last for six months or a year. Sugar was bought by the barrel and was all brown sugar, the white being unknown at that time.
The first flour mill built here was on the creek near where Mr. Tallman now lives. Each man took his grain to mill and waited until it was ground into flour, the miller taking a portion of the grain for his pay which was called taking toll.
At first the buildings were all of logs, but at quite an early date Mr. Brutcher built a small sawmill on his place, which made only rough lumber and anyone wishing dressed lumber had to plane it by hand.
The principal amusement in early days was dancing. The young people often riding horseback twenty miles, horseback dancing all night and returning home the next day.
It might be of interest to name the different places now included in what was once my uncle's donation land claim. The places owned by the different members of the Graves family, Mrs. Hoskins' farm, the Mrs. Henriot place, Milton Newlin's, Mr. Whittlesey's, Mr. Montgomery's, Dennis Mills, Horace Newlin's, Fred Kincaid's, Wm. Kincaid's, Clyde Carey's, Lin Carey's, Mr. Nordyke's, Mr. Newhouse's, Mr. Rush's, Mr. Lemon's, Mr. Macy's, Mr. Wallen's, A. R. Mills, Mr. Lewis, Frank Carlisle, Mr. Morton, Justin Haworth, Huber Haworth, Mrs. Hoskins, Walter Wilson, Mrs. Markell and also part of Zimri Mills place and part of mine.
Written by Grant Heater (1915)
An emigrant train of covered wagons drawn by oxen left Mt. Pleasant, Henry County, near Des Moines, Iowa, May 1, 1850, and arrived at the home of Jacob Shuck in Yamhill County Oregon, October 31, 1850, six months from the time they started. This train was under the leadership of Captain Jesse Parrish. Other members of the party were Benjamin and Mary Jane Heater with their two little daughters Margaret Elizabeth and Mary Jane, Lorenzo Dow Heater, Solomon Heater, John Hash, Martin J. Shuck and a Mr. Harmon. We do not know who· else was included in the party. Jesse Parrish was the grandfather of Annie Parrish who married Albert Heater. John Hash later married Susan Shuck Woods, sister of Mary Jane Heater.
Benjamin Heater owned a lot in Mt Pleasant which he traded for a pair of pants when he started west. Financial conditions were not good, and it was the lure of free land which could be secured in Oregon from the government which prompted the move. They had no trouble with Indians on the way. On one occasion a squaw wanted to buy Margaret Elizabeth because she was wearing a red dress. The dress was taken off and hidden away until her future home was reached.
The men of the party and even some of the women and children walked to Oregon. Some of the men carried ropes which were looped over the horns of the oxen to help guide and control them. While crossing the grassy plains along the Platte the oxen were so well fed that they became high strung and frequently ran away. Sometimes they stampeded from the corral by jumping over the wagons et night and sometimes they ran while attached to the wagons. On one occasion they ran dangerously near the bank of the Platte River, barely turning in time to prevent· a serious accident. Rivers were forded unless they were too deep, in which case rafts were built and the people and wagons loaded on them, while the cattle and horses swam. The few horses were used to scout for food and run other errands.
Benjamin Heater’s wagon drawn by four oxen carried sleeping accommodations, food, and supplies for three adults and two children, all of whom slept in the wagon at night. The chief articles of diet were bacon, bread and beans - not a well-balanced diet for adults, let alone for children. Occasionally birds or animals were shot and at times fish could be caught but such luxuries could not be depended upon. Food was cooked over fires built of buffalo chips. Bread was baked in large iron skillets which were buried in the hot ashes.
While in Eastern Oregon the party ran short of food but men with horses were sent on ahead and food was brought back from the fort at The Dalles. At The Dalles a member of the party died. After the grave was covered, the oxen and wagons were driven over it to prevent the Indians from knowing there had been a death. Even on such a journey as this the young people played and danced around the campfire at night, friendships were formed and lovers pledged and married. One young couple "did their sparking" on Benjamin Heater's wagon tongue.
The journey from The Dalles to Oregon City was made over the old Barlow Trail. In some places it was so steep that trees were cut and tied to the back to the wagons to serve as brakes. Benjamin Heater had fallen ill of Mountain Fever on the way and was quite sick upon arrival. His two brothers, Martin Shuck, and other members of the party built the log cabin on the homestead of 640 acres which he selected northeast of the present site of Springbrook, in Yamhill County, Oregon, not far from the home of Mrs. Heater’s grandfather, Jacob Shuck.
Pioneer life was not always rosy while Oregon was experiencing growing pains. This was no place for laggards or for the faint-hearted. It had not been possible to bring many tools or household utensils on that long journey from Iowa and there was no money with which to buy much needed articles even if' there had been any place where they could be bought.
The chimney and fireplace of the first house were built of rock and mud as high as the mantel. The upper part of the chimney was built of sticks and mud and the hearth was of mud. An iron rod was built into the chimney. From it hung two short chains with hooks on the end so pots of food could be cooked. The log house was warm in winter and cool in summer. There was no glass to be had in Oregon, so holes were sewed in the logs to give light. Sometimes these holes were covered with greased paper and sometimes when it was very cold and at night, board covers were put over them. Then the house was lighted by the fireplace and by tallow candles. The first winter a blanket was used for a door. When doors were made, they were fastened with wooden latches, such as are frequently used on garden gates, and a string was hung through a small hole in the door so the latch could be raised from the outside. To lock the door the string was pulled inside. When shelves were needed, holes were bored in the logs, wooden pegs driven in, and boards laid on top, for it was impossible to get nails.
Martin Shuck was very handy about building bedsteads, chairs, tables, and other household articles, and since Benjamin Heater was sick most of the first winter much of that work fell to him - and was done with very few tools to work with. Wooden frames were made for bedstands and holes bored along. the sides. Rawhide was cut in strips, and while wet, was laced through the holes. When the skin dried and contracted, it made a· firm bed, not unlike woven wire springs. Chairs were made with seats of rawhide. '
Mary Jane Heater had two iron pots, a larger kettle, tea kettle, dutch oven, frying pan, coffee pot and mill to grind coffee, wash tub, wooden washboard, and a few dishes, besides her spinning wheel and loom. She spun the wool, wove it into blankets and cloth, made the cloth into garments, and even made the shoes for her growing family from cowhide and other skins. Logwood, madder, indigo and dye made from moss and bark were used to color the wool yarn, so the children wore pretty plaid and striped dresses. Socks and stockings were knit from wool yarn. If there was a surplus a ready sale was found for socks among the single men who had no one to knit for them.
Bread was baked in the dutch oven by putting coals on the hearth under it, and on the lid. In the absence of a shovel a board was used to lift the coals and ashes onto the lid. It would catch fire and soon be too short and a new. one would be used. A stick was used to lift the lid. Soap was made of grease and lye which was made from ashes saved from the fires. If salt was added, the lye would settle to the bottom and the solid part rise to the top. It was then cut into cakes for toilet use. Wheat or barley were parched and used instead of coffee and they tasted very much like the postum which is now manufactured. Fruit was dried in crude homemade driers, fish and beef were salted in barrels to preserve them for winter use and hogs were killed and smoked.
Mary Jane was frequently alone with her small children and the Indians passed along the path not more than a hundred feet from the cabin on their way to and from Oregon City. Benjamin often worked miles away from home and carried flour home on his back from one of the mills with burrs of stone to grind the wheat. These burrs occasionally had to be sharpened and then the flour, for a time, would be seasoned with grit.
The fir and oak trees were cut into wood, the cedar into shingles and posts, the stumps grubbed out and fruit trees, grain, and gardens planted - all without the modern implements that are used today. Vegetables grew well in the new, rich soil, and turnips, radishes, cabbages, apples, etc., were entirely free from worms. Squashes were hard shelled. If one was wanted for breakfast, a half was turned upside down on the clean swept hearth and covered with hot coals and ashes before the family went to bed. In the morning the ashes ware raked off end the squash set by the fire to keep it warm till the rest of the meal was ready. The shell, with a string to pull it, made a fine buggy for the children's rag dolls. Dolls such as children have today were unknown during pioneer days.
Matches could not be bought so fire was carefully· hoarded. When necessary, neighbors borrowed it. Flint was sometimes used to start fire and sometimes a shot was fired into a pile of carefully prepared inflammable material.
Brooms were made from hazel sticks about an inch and a half in diameter. The bark was removed and the tick split in thin strips about half an inch in width for about eight inches from the end. When only the small center core was left, that was cut out. Thin strips were shaved from the handle part down to the point just above the split portion. These strips were bound down over the end strips and the broom was ready for use. For dirt and rough wood floors it was quite satisfactory but it did not reach into the corners as well as a present day broom does.
In the spring of 1851 both Martin Shuck and Benjamin Heater went to the mines, Mr. Shuck to California and Mr. Heater to Southern Oregon. Neither venture resulted in much but grief and loss. Mr. Shuck went from California to the Isthmus of Panama, walked across, and west from there to Iowa. In 1854, with his family which had remained in Iowa, he again crossed the plains to Oregon.
Benjamin Heater found himself unable to make a living for his growing family on the homestead of uncleared timberland and with no cattle, so in 1856, he and John Etzwiler rented the farm of Sidney Smith in Chehalem Valley. The two men were to receive half of the stock and grain raised during the time they were there. In 1865 Benjamin Heater returned to his own homestead bringing bis share of the cattle and horses. John Schilling lived on the homestead during the time the family was away but did little toward improving it.
On January 8, 1862, a heavy snow fell and di not melt until after the middle of February. Pioneer barns were not prepared for such lack of pasture, and cattle, horses and sheep died by the hundreds and wild deer came up to the very doorsteps seeking shelter and food. Cattle would lie in the snow too weak to rise, The settlers and their children would endeavor to help thorn to their feet in the hope that they could be revived but often they were too weak to remain standing. This was a loss the pioneers could ill afford.
At the age of sixteen Margaret Elizabeth became a teacher in the little log schoolhouses of Yamhill County. Teachers boarded around in the various homes of the community. She used to return to the home of her parents as often as possible on weekends, frequently walking six or eight miles over valley trails, after school on Friday, and returning the same way on Sunday afternoon. Sometimes her father or one of her brothers would meet her with a horse and take her part way back when she returned. As they grew up each of Benjamin Heater's daughters taught school for periods of time from three months to several years.
Benjamin and Mary Jane lived on the homestead until the time of their death. Albert, Ernest, and Grant with their families, live on their share of the place. Lucinda and Dan Putman spent the last days of their lives there, and Mary Judy and Lizzie Winters have lived in the county. Thus the Heater family has been an integral part or the community from pioneer days until the present.
The part of Chehalem Valley in which Springbrook is situated was first settled about sixty-five years ago. The valley was named after an Indian chief, "Chehalem" who, it was claimed by the Indians, charmed all the rattlesnakes out of the valley.
My father and uncle were among the first settlers here. My uncle "taking up" the land on which the principal part of Springbrook is now located. They crossed the plains with their ox teams and arrived here in the autumn of 1850, having taken six months (to the day) for the trip from Iowa.
This part of the valley was called the "grubby end of Chehalem" because of the thick growth of oak grubs covering the larger portion of it. The tops of these oaks were killed every few years by fires which were set by the Indians with the purpose of killing them so the grass would have a better chance to grow, but the roots were still all there as every old timer can testify.
The grubs were not so high but that the deer could be seen running through them. The deer were so plentiful that it was necessary to build high fences around the orchards to keep the apples from being eaten by them. When I was a small boy it was almost a daily occurrence to hear a pack of hounds chasing coyotes over the mountains. ·
Bears were quite numerous and the last one I remember of being seen here was killed near where Mr. Montgomery now lives.
Numerous bands of Indians traveled through the country but never tried to harm the settlers of this valley.
For several years the nearest Post Office was at LaFayette and the neighbors took turns in going for the mail for the whole neighborhood, and it took six months to get an answer to a letter written to friends in the east and then they had to pay a fee of twenty five cents to get the letter. LaFayette was also the nearest place for a Doctor, who served as dentist also.
The Newberg post office was first established at Mr: Brutcher's house, then moved to where Mr. West now lives, where there was a small store kept by a Mr. Albee. I mention him because of a peculiar trait of his. He always kept a coffin in his store for himself to be buried in. And when there was a death in the neighborhood, he would sell the coffin on hand and have another one made for himself. It was rumored that he slept in his coffin, but I cannot vouch for that.
After being moved from Albee's the Post Office was kept at Mr. Everesl’s house, then at a small store where Charlie Addison now lives and from there to different places in Newberg. This neighborhood did not boast of a standardized school in those days nor for that matter any kind· of a school. For several years any children that were old enough to go to school had to either be sent away or taught at home. ·
The first schoolhouse built near here was in the Chehalem center district known as the Westfall district. Then the Brutcher schoolhouse in what is now the Fernwood district. Then the district was formed on the mountain known as the Gibbs school district. It was named after Governor Gibbs who then owned the farm now known as the Burke place. This district was about five or six miles in diameter and embraced most of the country now in the Springbrook School district. There was usually six months of school in the year, but the older boys usually only attended during the three winter months.
The schoolhouses served also for churches and when building a new one it was supplied with a platform and built-in pulpit. The desks were home-made affairs and were ten or twelve feet long, six or eight pupils being seated at each desk.
There were no good roads in those early days, and it made it a long hard trip to Portland to get supplies, so people usually bought enough at one trip to last for six months or a year. Sugar was bought by the barrel and was all brown sugar, the white being unknown at that time.
The first flour mill built here was on the creek near where Mr. Tallman now lives. Each man took his grain to mill and waited until it was ground into flour, the miller taking a portion of the grain for his pay which was called taking toll.
At first the buildings were all of logs, but at quite an early date Mr. Brutcher built a small sawmill on his place, which made only rough lumber and anyone wishing dressed lumber had to plane it by hand.
The principal amusement in early days was dancing. The young people often riding horseback twenty miles, horseback dancing all night and returning home the next day.
It might be of interest to name the different places now included in what was once my uncle's donation land claim. The places owned by the different members of the Graves family, Mrs. Hoskins' farm, the Mrs. Henriot place, Milton Newlin's, Mr. Whittlesey's, Mr. Montgomery's, Dennis Mills, Horace Newlin's, Fred Kincaid's, Wm. Kincaid's, Clyde Carey's, Lin Carey's, Mr. Nordyke's, Mr. Newhouse's, Mr. Rush's, Mr. Lemon's, Mr. Macy's, Mr. Wallen's, A. R. Mills, Mr. Lewis, Frank Carlisle, Mr. Morton, Justin Haworth, Huber Haworth, Mrs. Hoskins, Walter Wilson, Mrs. Markell and also part of Zimri Mills place and part of mine.
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Martin Shuck, the musician
Martin Shuck was born in Springfield, Washington County, Kentucky, and came to Oregon in 1847, where he settled on Chehalem Mountain, south of Portland in the Willamette Valley. He was a fiddler and a well-educated man, and the father-in-law of Thomas Martin Haynes. He died in Dundee, Yamhill County, Oregon. His music is included in a manuscript of dance tunes from that time period The Haynes Family Manuscript This manuscript of sixty-five dance tunes was handed down through several generations of the Haynes, Shuck, and Adams families who came West over the Oregon Trail from Ohio, Kentucky, Iowa and Missouri between 1847 and 1853. They settled on Chehalem Mountain, near Newberg, Yamhill County, in the Willamette Valley of western Oregon, where they raised grain, strawberries and raspberries, orchard fruit and other crops. Several members of the family worked at a local grain mill, and others were carpenters. Many of the family members were musical, and over the years several people contributed tunes to the manuscript, from which they played dances over the period from around the 1860s to the 1890s. Several individuals’ handwritings (tune titles and music notation) appear in the manuscript. |
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The manuscript contains examples of many of the popular dance forms of the middle and late nineteenth century. About half the tunes in the manuscript are quadrille tunes. In addition, the manuscript contains a number of couple dance tunes, over half of them waltzes, along with galops, polkas, schottisches, mazourkas, and varsouviennes. The tunes in the manuscript are written as single melody lines, with no harmony parts and only a few chords, which are easily playable as double stops on a violin. Since the violin was the most common dance instrument of the era, it can be assumed that the tunes were intended to be played on it. Some of the tunes can be found in published sheet music of the era; others may have been original compositions of the contributors.
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Oregon Trail crossing 1851: Bingman family
BINGMAN DIARY
The family of James K. Bingman crossed the Plains from Marshalltown, Iowa and reached Oregon City September 5, 1851. He began a diary starting at Pacific Springs Wyoming. Perhaps the trip from Iowa to Wyoming was too boring to write about or maybe that part was lost. The land is fairly easy and flat from Iowa to Wyoming, and was more traveled so it's likely that James just didn't write about it. In any case, we know it took them 2 months to go from Wyoming to Oregon, and the entire trip took four months, so Iowa to Wyoming must have taken 2 months as well.
The family of James K. Bingman crossed the Plains from Marshalltown, Iowa and reached Oregon City September 5, 1851. He began a diary starting at Pacific Springs Wyoming. Perhaps the trip from Iowa to Wyoming was too boring to write about or maybe that part was lost. The land is fairly easy and flat from Iowa to Wyoming, and was more traveled so it's likely that James just didn't write about it. In any case, we know it took them 2 months to go from Wyoming to Oregon, and the entire trip took four months, so Iowa to Wyoming must have taken 2 months as well.
It is incredible to think about how all of this travel was done on foot. Wagons pulled by oxen were reserved for the belongings and supplies of the travelers - 90% of which was food supplies.
This is the diary of James K. Bingman (at the age of 25 - born June 28, 1826) who crossed the Plains from Marshalltown, Iowa and reached Oregon City September 5, 1851. [Misspellings and grammatical errors are his from the original diary] Some links are included for websites that have more descriptions of those places, stories of Oregon Trail pioneers, and photos.
July 2, 1851 - Left Pacific Springs and traveled to Little Sandy 20 miles without water or grass. Sixteen miles from the Springs is the junction of the road which leads to Salt Lake. We take the right hand road. This is a good, level road.
July 3 - Traveled from the Little Sandy to Big Sandy seven miles. Very good roads. At Big Sandy, we stayed until 6 o-clock in the evening, then we started on the desert. Traveled until 12 o'clock and then stopped and rested one hour. Then traveled the balance of the road without resting. This desert is fifty miles long. It is from Big Sandy to Green River. The first twenty five miles of the desert is good roads, and the rest is hilly. We started on this desert at six o'clock in the evening of the 3 of July and landed on Green River at twelve o'clock on the Fourth of July, without water or-grass. We traveled 50 miles.
Saturday July 5 - We traveled from the ferry to Fortenells Fork, ten miles. The road is hilly and rough.
Sunday July 6 - Traveled four miles up Fontinells Fork of Green River. On this creek is plenty of grass and good water.
Monday July 7 -Traveled twenty four miles from Fontinells Fork to Hams Fork. This is a very rough and hilly road. There is a number of small streams and springs between those two creeks. At Hams Fork there is a good camping place. Plenty of water, wood-and grass.
Tuesday July 8 -Traveled from Hams Fork to a spring on Bear River Valley. 24 miles. This spring you will come to before you strike the river. From Hams Fork to a large spring, 8 miles; from this spring to Muddy Creek 6 miles; from Muddy Creek to the spring on Bare River Valley, 10 miles. This road is very bad and hilly and dangerous to travel.
Wednesday July 9 -Traveled four miles from the spring on Bear River Valley to Bear River. It is a very level bottom.
Thursday July 10 - Traveled 15 miles. The road good. It crossed two creeks. One creek is bridged which we crossed by paying one dollar. After you cross the bridge you raise a hill and one miles on the other side is a small creek where we camped at Smith Fork which is the first creek we crossed. There is a large rocky mountain and some of the rocks have broke off and fell in the road and made it very rough. This road is on Bear River.
Friday 11 - Traveled 24 miles. When we left our camp in the morning of the 11, we assended [sic] a very high and rocky mountain and when you desend [sic] this mountain, you will find it the worst and steepest hill you have seen. Then you are in Bear River Valley. The balance of the road is level. You cross a number of small streams which is formed by springs at the mountains breast and wind their way through the valley and empties into Bear River. On one of those streams we camped.
Saturday 12 - Traveled 20 miles. The roads are good. We camped at Soda Springs. Those springs is one of the greatest natural curiousities on the road. Those springs rise from two small hills which has the appearance of being a volcano a number of years ago but now those hills are covered all over the top with springs of soda. The substance which runs from those springs make the hills look white like soda. There is a number of other soda springs on the bottom close by the river edge about one mile down the river. One of those springs is called the Steam Boat Springs on account of the noise which sounds very much like the steam escaping from those pipes which throws the water about two feet high in the spring. The water comes up through a rock and forms a small stream.
Sunday July 13 - Left Soda Springs and traveled ten miles to a small stream. On this road we saw a number of volcanic eruptions, also a beautiful spring called the Bason Spring. This is enclosed by a rock all around the edge which forms the basin. Four miles from Soda Springs is the junction of the California and Oregon road. Our road turns to the right. We had about three hours rain this afternoon. It was quite refreshing. At the junction of the road we left Bear River and traveled in a valley in the direction of Fort Hall. The creek in this valley is called Portnief Fork.
Monday 14 - Traveled 20 miles up this creek. The roads is good and level and just at the crossing of the creek we encamped for the night.
Thursday 15 - Traveled 20 miles. Over the mountains to Rosses Fork, ten miles. Then down this creek ten miles where we encamped for the night. Here we crossed another dividing ridge. Here we passed between very high mountains on each side of the road. The roads are rough and hilly.
Wednesday 16 - Left Rosses fork and traveled to Fort Hall, 15 miles. There we encamped for the night. The road is level but six miles very heavy sand then you strike Snake River Valley. You cross three cricks which is very miry and bad to cross.
Thursday 17 - left Fort Hall and traveled 20 miles down Snake River. Three miles from Fort Hall we crossed a beautiful creek then two miles is another creek still larger. Then we raise a small bluff and travel six miles and strike the valley again. Then we raise the bluff and strike a crick. This crick is very miry and bad to cross. There is a bad place to cross just before you rise the first bluff from the Fort. After we left this creek we traveled until we struck the Valley again. There we encamped for the night.
Friday 18 - Traveled 20 miles down Snake River. Two miles from where we encamped on the 17 of July is the American Falls of the Snake River. It has a fall of fifty feet. It runs first as a rapid and then has a perpendicular fall. It is a beautiful sight. At the falls it is very rocky. The water runs over and through rocks. This fall is 22 miles from Fort Hall. The road is rather rough and some bad ravines. We crossed three creeks. There is a great many curious rocks. We encamped on the river bank. In the night the indians came into our camp and our guard drove them off and they went to a camp close by and stole a horse and left the camp.
Saturday 19 - Traveled ten miles. Two miles from where we encamped to Fall Creek, then eight miles to Raft River. The road is good here. We encamped for the night. At this creek is another junction of the California and Oregon road turns west and the California road goes up the creek in a south direction.
Sunday 20 - Traveled 16 miles from Raft River to a small creek and swamp. There is no water between these two creeks. The road is stony in some places but not very hilly. They are tolerably good roads. At this creek we encamped for the night. At 9 o'clock the Indians slipped close to our camp and shot a flight of arrows among our cattle and horses and set them to flight. The camp was immediately wakened up to persue [sic] the stock. With quick haste we went the direction they run and surrounded them and brought them back. Our guard being faithfull and brave stood their ground like men. When the cattle and horses was brought back we retired again. About eleven o'clock we was again wakened by the report of a gun which had been fired by one of our guards at some Indians. They left the camp immediately and we saw nothing more of them that night. In the morning we examined our cattle and found five arrows stuck in their sides. We pulled them out and the spears remained in. One of our oxen was shot but the arrow struck a rib and we could reach the point of the spear with a pair of nippers and pulled it out. Some of them we had to cut out. Those Indians are Snakes and Diggers mixed.
Monday July 21 -Traveled 22 miles. Four miles down the creek to the crossing then six miles to the river. From the river to Goose Creek, four miles; from Goose Creek to the river, eight miles, where we encamped for the night. The road is good and level. When we struck the river we saw the appearance of Indians ahead so we armed ourselves ready for battle but we saw no Indians. There has been three men shot on Goose Creek.
Tuesday 22 - Traveled 25 miles. From the river where we was encamped to Dry Creek 12 miles; from Dry Creek to Rock Creek 12 miles; down the creek one mile where we encamped for the night. It was reported that there was some men on this creek shot by Indians and we would be attacked by them for there was a band close by who made it their business to attack trains as they passed by. So when we came here we prepared ourselves for guarding well but we saw no Indians that night. The roads is good and level with a few stones here and there.
Wednesday 23 - Traveled 13 miles down Rock Creek to the 8 mile crossing. Then five miles on the other side from this creek we strike another desert which is 32 miles long.
Thursday 24 - Traveled 24 miles. We started on this desert at daylight. About half way on the desert you will find water by driving your stock down a very steep and rocky hill to the river. When you cross this desert and come to the river you will find a creek four miles along down the river where we encamped for the night. There is no grass where we first strike the river. The road is level and good but some stony. (We) got through this desert by five o'clock in the afternoon.
Friday 25 - Traveled 5 miles to a creek where we encamped for the night. The road is good except one hill. This creek is called Bannic(k) River.
Saturday 26 -Traveled 7 miles from Bannick River to Salmon Falls. You cross some bluffs which makes the road rough. At the falls we traded for some salmon of the Indians. The flesh of this fish is red. The weight is from 8 to 15 pounds. They are the prettiest fish I ever saw.
Sunday 27 - Traveled 32 miles from Salmon Falls. 32 miles is another desert without water or grass. We started on this desert at two o'clock in the morning and traveled all day. Got through at six o'clock on the evening. The first part of the road is good. The balance [sic] of the road is hilly. We encamped on the river right under the bluff.
Monday 28 - Traveled 15 miles along the river bank. The bluffs are close to the river bank and are very rocky which makes the road very bad. We encamped where the road leaves the river. In the night the Indians stole two horses. The guard was asleep.
Tuesday July 29 - Traveled 8 miles. We left the river and went over a small bluff and struck the river again in five miles, then down the river three miles where we encamped for the night. The road is good.
Wednesday 30 - Traveled 20 miles. When we left the river we traveled along bluff and came on to a beautiful creek (six miles) then over another bluff from the creek to the river, six miles, then down the river eight miles where the road strikes the river. There we encamped for the night. The road is good.
Thursday 31 - Traveled 25 miles. From our camp we traveled down the river 10 miles then left the river and went over a bluff five miles to a creek then from that creek to another creek, ten miles, where we encamped. Here we could not see out for hills and bluffs. Before you came to this creek you will see some curious looking rocks on the north side of the road. We encamped in a hollow. The road is tolerable good.
August 1 - Friday - Traveled 18 miles. Immediately after leaving our camp in the morning we rise a large hill. The balance [sic] of the road is good but there is fifteen miles before you come to the river, without water. Then we traveled three miles down the river where we encamped for the night. This is the first day that we suffered for water.
Saturday 2 -Traveled 12 miles. Five miles down the river to a creek then seven miles farther we encamped on the river bank. After you pass the creek about three miles you come to the Boiling Springs. They are on the left side of the road about two hundred yards and the water from the springs cross the road in two places. The road is good and level and on the river bank.
Sunday 3 - Traveled 20 miles. Five miles to a small bluff. When we cross this bluff you strike the river. You travel in sight of the river all day. The road is good and level.
Monday 4 - Traveled 20 miles. We traveled along the river fifteen miles. Then we left the river and traveled five miles (across) and come to Owyhe River where we encamped for the night. The road is good and level and the water is bad in this river.
Tuesday 5 - Traveled 17 miles. On passing along about two miles we had a view Fort Boise on the right and on the north side of the Snake River. From the Fort we cross the bluffs fifteen miles without water. Then we come onto Malheur River. Here we encamped for the night. The road is good but the water is not very good.
Wednesday 6 - Traveled 22 miles. From Malheur River to Sulpher Springs, ten miles; from Sulpher Springs to a small creek, twelve miles. On this creek we encamped for the night. The road is good on this creek. There was two men buried the day before we came here. One of these men was shot by an Indian and died here.
Thursday 7 - Traveled 9 miles. From the creek where we encamped to Snake River four miles; from Burnt River, five miles. This is the last time we saw Snake River. Here we traveled along Snake about two hundred yards and leave it by ascending a long hill, to the left of the river which leads to Burnt River. The road is good but the country is mountainous but has a better appearance than the country we have passed through.
Friday 8 - Traveled 16 miles up Burnt River. This is a mountainous country with beautiful scenery. We passed through several groves of timber and the mountains are covered with grass. The road passes over several. bluffs which makes the roads rough. After traveling 16 miles up this river we encamped for the night, about three hundred yards above a grove of large timber, where the mountains was eight hundred feet from the bed of the river to the top.
Saturday 9 - Traveled 18 miles. From our camp in the morning we traveled up the river about one mile, then turned in a northern direction up a small stream which wound its way up the side of a mountain. Traveling up this creek some distance we then made a short turn in a west direction rising to the top of the mountain, then you descend to the main river which is about eight miles from where we left it in the morning. Then traveling some distance on the bottom we ascended another mountain and traveled about four miles from the river where we came onto a mountain stream with good grass and water. Here we encamped for the night. The country is mountainous and the road is rough and hilly.
Sunday 10 - Traveled 25 miles from a branch of Burnt River to a slew on Powder River Valley. From our camp of Saturday morning we traveled up a branch a short distance, then the road turns to right and rises a steep hill. Then you traveled some distance up another small stream. When you leave this stream your road turns off to the left and rises a hill. When you leave this stream we traveled about 15 miles without water except a small spring where we strike a kind of a valley.
From this spring to the slue on Powder River Valley 12 miles. On this slough we encamped for the night. The road is tolerably good. About 12 o'clock we had a sight of the Blue Mountains which are covered with timber, principally pine which makes the mountains look green. There is some snow on the Blue Mountains at this time. We had a small shower of rain this afternoon.
Monday August 11 - Traveled 14 miles. On Powder River valley we crossed two sloughs and then traveled close to a branch of Powder River. Then we crossed a small bluff where we cross this branch. Then we traveled about four miles and come to the main river where we encamped for the night. The road is good and level.
Tuesday 12 -Traveled 25 miles. From Powder River to the Grand Rounds 15 miles. Then across the Grand Rounds 10 miles. The Rounds is a valley that lies between the Blue Mountains. This valley is 20 miles across in some places but only ten where we crossed it. The prettiest place we have seen since we left home. The mountains around are covered with pine timber which is ever green, all the year round and the valley covered with beautiful grass. There are two streams which run through this valley. One on each side of the Rounds. The road is bad the first 15 miles on account of stone and a large hill. The other ten is good.
Wednesday 13 -Traveled 20 miles. From the Grand Rounds to the Grand Round River eight miles; from the river we traveled 12 miles in the mountains. These mountains are densely covered with pine trees. We traveled through timber all day. The scenery here is beautiful for the mountains are covered with timber and grass. From the Grand Round valley we traveled immediately up the Blue Mountains where the road is steep and rocky. There is a great many hills and hollows and they are all steep and rocky. After traveling 20 miles we encamped on the side of a mountain and found water a half a mile from the road in a hollow. About dark it commenced raining and lasted about three hours. This is the most refreshing rain we had since we left home. In the morning everything looked beautiful and green for the sun made her appearance through the trees as though all nature smiled upon us and blessed our progress with her beautiful rays.
Thursday 14 – Traveled 10 miles, from our camp on the 13 to a branch of the Grand Round River, eight miles from the river we traveled two miles and turned off to the left a hundred yards for water and grass. Here we encamped for the night. The scenery of todays travel is beautiful but the road is rough and rocky. About noon we passed two trains on the river of about 30 wagons. In the evening it commenced raining and rained all night. The rain fell beautifully but the night was cold and chilly.
Friday 15 - Traveled 20 miles. From our camp in the morning to Eumatilla valley twelve miles; then down the Eumatilla River, eight miles. Here encamped for the night. This is a beautiful valley and the soil is productive for the Indians had peas and potatoes for sale and they also raise wheat in this valley. The climate is mild and pleasant. The Indians in this valley has about ten hundred horses. This tribe is named Cayuse. They are the smartest Indians we have seen on the road and most civilized and friendly. The road today was good in the mountains and the road in the valley is level and good.
Saturday 16 - Traveled 24 miles. From our camp in the morning we traveled down the river one mile then left the river and crossed a bluff five miles. Then we crossed the river and traveled down on the north side two miles. Here we leave the river for sixteen miles by traveling over a bluff without water. Then we strike the Eumatilla River where we encamped for the night. The road is very good and the country is beautiful.
Sunday August 17 - Laid in camp all day on the Umitilla River until Sunday. Then we hitched up and traveled 16 miles after night. We traveled six miles down the Umitilla River and take the left-hand road and cross the river. From there to Alder Creek ten miles where we encamped for the night. The road is level and good but sandy. We got in camp about one o'clock in the morning. In the afternoon there was a woman in a company laying just below us, put a coal of fire to a can of powder weighing 8 lbs. And very nigh killed her and her child.
Monday 18 - Laid in camp all day until six o'clock in the evening. Then we hitched up and traveled all night, being a stretch of twenty miles without water. This stretch is from Alder Creek to Wells Spring, twenty miles. We got to the Springs about sunrise in the morning.
Tuesday 19 - Traveled 15 miles from Wells Springs to Willow Creek without water. On this creek we encamped for the night.
Wednesday 20 - Laid on Willow Creek until five o'clock in the evening. Then hitched up and traveled until twelve o'clock in the night and then started again at daylight and went to Johnday River by eleven o'clock in the morning of the 20. This distance is 24 miles without water. Road is good.
Thursday 21 - Traveled 14 miles. Started at daylight in the morning. Roads good. There we had a view of Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens.
Friday 22 - Traveled 24 miles. From Johnday River to the Columbia River 24 miles without water. The road is good. We could see Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens. These mountains are covered with snow the year round.
Saturday 23 - Traveled 4 miles down the Columbia to Deschutes River. This is a bad river to cross. There was a number of wagons here when we came so we was the last wagon they crossed that day. The ferrage is five dollars. The current runs very rapid, by this it takes its name. We encamped on the west side of the river. The road is good.
Sunday-24 - Traveled 14 miles. From the Deschtes River to a small creek, five miles. Then from that creek to another creek, nine miles where we encamped for the night. The road is hilly but good. When you first strike the creek, five miles from the ferry you travel up a hollow about a mile to a spring. At this spring is the junction of the road. We take the left hand road. The other leads to the Dalles which is twelve miles out of the road, if you wish to cross the mountains.
Monday August 25 - Traveled 8 miles up a small creek. We are in sight of the Cascade Mountains all day. You cross this creek a number of times in the eight miles. The road is good.
Tuesday 26 - Travel 16 miles without water. The road is rough and rocky. When you leave this creek, you travel sixteen miles without water and strike Tithe Creek. In going down into this creek there is a very bad gukkm very stony. The weather today was cold and chilly.
Wednesday 27 - Traveled 12 miles from Tithe Creek to Barlows Gate. Here we encamped, at the foot of the Cascade Mountains, surrounded by large pine trees with a beautiful stream of cold water winding its way from the mountains. The road is very stony in the places where we cross the creeks. We cross two creeks before we came to the Gate. The weather was cold and chilly.
Thursday 28 - Traveled 12 miles over the Cascade Mountains. This road is very rocky and some steep hills to go down and up. The timber is very large and principally pine. Water is plenty of the best quality. We crossed a number of creeks of cold mountain water.
Friday 29 - Traveled 14 miles among the hills and rocks and miry places. These are the worst roads that I ever seen in all my travels. Some places the wagon pitches form five to six feet perpendicular, where the trees is so close together that the wagon can scarcely go between them. About four o'clock in the evening we passed within four miles of Mountain Hood. Here we beheld one of the beautiful sites of Nature. When looking up from the valley in which we stood at a mountain seventeen thousand feet above the level of the sea and clad in its white raiment of snow. This snow-covered mountain is formed of rocks and is very nigh perpendicular to the summit. It is one of the natural curiosities of the Western Wilds. It is said that man has never been known to reach the summit. We encamped on a small creek winding its way from Mt. Hood down into (the) valley. The water was very cold and good.
Saturday August 30 - Traveled 3 miles and laid up for the day. We traveled over a hill and encamped at the side of a small prairie. The road is so bad that it cannot be described. It is a perfect mudhole; among pine roots. The cattle would go in to their sides very nigh every step and it rained all day and all night.
Sunday 31 - Traveled 14 miles. The a-d very bad and hilly. Some deep muddy places and some very bad mountains to cross. Laurel Hill the worst to go down in the mountains. It rained all day. This hill is rocky with a small stream running down the road. In the morning the out and the sun came was pleasant. Here we could see Mount Hood very plain.
Monday September 1 - Traveled 12 miles. The road is pretty good. We traveled all day down Big Sandy. This is a valley with heavy timber and a beautiful creek winding its way down the valley. The day is beautiful and pleasant.
Tuesday 2 - Traveled 15 miles. It rained all day. The road is pretty good but we crossed the backbone and came down on the valley where Big Sandy winds its way down between the mountains. Here we encamped at the foot of the backbone.
Wednesday 3 - Traveled 2 miles. From our encampment in the morning we crossed Big Sandy and went to the top of the hill on the other side of Big Sandy and encamped for the night. It rained all day which made it disagreeable.
Thursday 4 -Traveled 8 miles which brought us.to Foster. Here we came to settlements. It rained all day and the road was bad and muddy and some bad hills to go up. Here we saw civilization once more.
Friday 5 - Went to Oregon City 17 miles from Fosters. The road is hilly down to the City. We landed in Oregon just four months from the time we left the States.
This is the diary of James K. Bingman (at the age of 25 - born June 28, 1826) who crossed the Plains from Marshalltown, Iowa and reached Oregon City September 5, 1851. [Misspellings and grammatical errors are his from the original diary] Some links are included for websites that have more descriptions of those places, stories of Oregon Trail pioneers, and photos.
July 2, 1851 - Left Pacific Springs and traveled to Little Sandy 20 miles without water or grass. Sixteen miles from the Springs is the junction of the road which leads to Salt Lake. We take the right hand road. This is a good, level road.
July 3 - Traveled from the Little Sandy to Big Sandy seven miles. Very good roads. At Big Sandy, we stayed until 6 o-clock in the evening, then we started on the desert. Traveled until 12 o'clock and then stopped and rested one hour. Then traveled the balance of the road without resting. This desert is fifty miles long. It is from Big Sandy to Green River. The first twenty five miles of the desert is good roads, and the rest is hilly. We started on this desert at six o'clock in the evening of the 3 of July and landed on Green River at twelve o'clock on the Fourth of July, without water or-grass. We traveled 50 miles.
Saturday July 5 - We traveled from the ferry to Fortenells Fork, ten miles. The road is hilly and rough.
Sunday July 6 - Traveled four miles up Fontinells Fork of Green River. On this creek is plenty of grass and good water.
Monday July 7 -Traveled twenty four miles from Fontinells Fork to Hams Fork. This is a very rough and hilly road. There is a number of small streams and springs between those two creeks. At Hams Fork there is a good camping place. Plenty of water, wood-and grass.
Tuesday July 8 -Traveled from Hams Fork to a spring on Bear River Valley. 24 miles. This spring you will come to before you strike the river. From Hams Fork to a large spring, 8 miles; from this spring to Muddy Creek 6 miles; from Muddy Creek to the spring on Bare River Valley, 10 miles. This road is very bad and hilly and dangerous to travel.
Wednesday July 9 -Traveled four miles from the spring on Bear River Valley to Bear River. It is a very level bottom.
Thursday July 10 - Traveled 15 miles. The road good. It crossed two creeks. One creek is bridged which we crossed by paying one dollar. After you cross the bridge you raise a hill and one miles on the other side is a small creek where we camped at Smith Fork which is the first creek we crossed. There is a large rocky mountain and some of the rocks have broke off and fell in the road and made it very rough. This road is on Bear River.
Friday 11 - Traveled 24 miles. When we left our camp in the morning of the 11, we assended [sic] a very high and rocky mountain and when you desend [sic] this mountain, you will find it the worst and steepest hill you have seen. Then you are in Bear River Valley. The balance of the road is level. You cross a number of small streams which is formed by springs at the mountains breast and wind their way through the valley and empties into Bear River. On one of those streams we camped.
Saturday 12 - Traveled 20 miles. The roads are good. We camped at Soda Springs. Those springs is one of the greatest natural curiousities on the road. Those springs rise from two small hills which has the appearance of being a volcano a number of years ago but now those hills are covered all over the top with springs of soda. The substance which runs from those springs make the hills look white like soda. There is a number of other soda springs on the bottom close by the river edge about one mile down the river. One of those springs is called the Steam Boat Springs on account of the noise which sounds very much like the steam escaping from those pipes which throws the water about two feet high in the spring. The water comes up through a rock and forms a small stream.
Sunday July 13 - Left Soda Springs and traveled ten miles to a small stream. On this road we saw a number of volcanic eruptions, also a beautiful spring called the Bason Spring. This is enclosed by a rock all around the edge which forms the basin. Four miles from Soda Springs is the junction of the California and Oregon road. Our road turns to the right. We had about three hours rain this afternoon. It was quite refreshing. At the junction of the road we left Bear River and traveled in a valley in the direction of Fort Hall. The creek in this valley is called Portnief Fork.
Monday 14 - Traveled 20 miles up this creek. The roads is good and level and just at the crossing of the creek we encamped for the night.
Thursday 15 - Traveled 20 miles. Over the mountains to Rosses Fork, ten miles. Then down this creek ten miles where we encamped for the night. Here we crossed another dividing ridge. Here we passed between very high mountains on each side of the road. The roads are rough and hilly.
Wednesday 16 - Left Rosses fork and traveled to Fort Hall, 15 miles. There we encamped for the night. The road is level but six miles very heavy sand then you strike Snake River Valley. You cross three cricks which is very miry and bad to cross.
Thursday 17 - left Fort Hall and traveled 20 miles down Snake River. Three miles from Fort Hall we crossed a beautiful creek then two miles is another creek still larger. Then we raise a small bluff and travel six miles and strike the valley again. Then we raise the bluff and strike a crick. This crick is very miry and bad to cross. There is a bad place to cross just before you rise the first bluff from the Fort. After we left this creek we traveled until we struck the Valley again. There we encamped for the night.
Friday 18 - Traveled 20 miles down Snake River. Two miles from where we encamped on the 17 of July is the American Falls of the Snake River. It has a fall of fifty feet. It runs first as a rapid and then has a perpendicular fall. It is a beautiful sight. At the falls it is very rocky. The water runs over and through rocks. This fall is 22 miles from Fort Hall. The road is rather rough and some bad ravines. We crossed three creeks. There is a great many curious rocks. We encamped on the river bank. In the night the indians came into our camp and our guard drove them off and they went to a camp close by and stole a horse and left the camp.
Saturday 19 - Traveled ten miles. Two miles from where we encamped to Fall Creek, then eight miles to Raft River. The road is good here. We encamped for the night. At this creek is another junction of the California and Oregon road turns west and the California road goes up the creek in a south direction.
Sunday 20 - Traveled 16 miles from Raft River to a small creek and swamp. There is no water between these two creeks. The road is stony in some places but not very hilly. They are tolerably good roads. At this creek we encamped for the night. At 9 o'clock the Indians slipped close to our camp and shot a flight of arrows among our cattle and horses and set them to flight. The camp was immediately wakened up to persue [sic] the stock. With quick haste we went the direction they run and surrounded them and brought them back. Our guard being faithfull and brave stood their ground like men. When the cattle and horses was brought back we retired again. About eleven o'clock we was again wakened by the report of a gun which had been fired by one of our guards at some Indians. They left the camp immediately and we saw nothing more of them that night. In the morning we examined our cattle and found five arrows stuck in their sides. We pulled them out and the spears remained in. One of our oxen was shot but the arrow struck a rib and we could reach the point of the spear with a pair of nippers and pulled it out. Some of them we had to cut out. Those Indians are Snakes and Diggers mixed.
Monday July 21 -Traveled 22 miles. Four miles down the creek to the crossing then six miles to the river. From the river to Goose Creek, four miles; from Goose Creek to the river, eight miles, where we encamped for the night. The road is good and level. When we struck the river we saw the appearance of Indians ahead so we armed ourselves ready for battle but we saw no Indians. There has been three men shot on Goose Creek.
Tuesday 22 - Traveled 25 miles. From the river where we was encamped to Dry Creek 12 miles; from Dry Creek to Rock Creek 12 miles; down the creek one mile where we encamped for the night. It was reported that there was some men on this creek shot by Indians and we would be attacked by them for there was a band close by who made it their business to attack trains as they passed by. So when we came here we prepared ourselves for guarding well but we saw no Indians that night. The roads is good and level with a few stones here and there.
Wednesday 23 - Traveled 13 miles down Rock Creek to the 8 mile crossing. Then five miles on the other side from this creek we strike another desert which is 32 miles long.
Thursday 24 - Traveled 24 miles. We started on this desert at daylight. About half way on the desert you will find water by driving your stock down a very steep and rocky hill to the river. When you cross this desert and come to the river you will find a creek four miles along down the river where we encamped for the night. There is no grass where we first strike the river. The road is level and good but some stony. (We) got through this desert by five o'clock in the afternoon.
Friday 25 - Traveled 5 miles to a creek where we encamped for the night. The road is good except one hill. This creek is called Bannic(k) River.
Saturday 26 -Traveled 7 miles from Bannick River to Salmon Falls. You cross some bluffs which makes the road rough. At the falls we traded for some salmon of the Indians. The flesh of this fish is red. The weight is from 8 to 15 pounds. They are the prettiest fish I ever saw.
Sunday 27 - Traveled 32 miles from Salmon Falls. 32 miles is another desert without water or grass. We started on this desert at two o'clock in the morning and traveled all day. Got through at six o'clock on the evening. The first part of the road is good. The balance [sic] of the road is hilly. We encamped on the river right under the bluff.
Monday 28 - Traveled 15 miles along the river bank. The bluffs are close to the river bank and are very rocky which makes the road very bad. We encamped where the road leaves the river. In the night the Indians stole two horses. The guard was asleep.
Tuesday July 29 - Traveled 8 miles. We left the river and went over a small bluff and struck the river again in five miles, then down the river three miles where we encamped for the night. The road is good.
Wednesday 30 - Traveled 20 miles. When we left the river we traveled along bluff and came on to a beautiful creek (six miles) then over another bluff from the creek to the river, six miles, then down the river eight miles where the road strikes the river. There we encamped for the night. The road is good.
Thursday 31 - Traveled 25 miles. From our camp we traveled down the river 10 miles then left the river and went over a bluff five miles to a creek then from that creek to another creek, ten miles, where we encamped. Here we could not see out for hills and bluffs. Before you came to this creek you will see some curious looking rocks on the north side of the road. We encamped in a hollow. The road is tolerable good.
August 1 - Friday - Traveled 18 miles. Immediately after leaving our camp in the morning we rise a large hill. The balance [sic] of the road is good but there is fifteen miles before you come to the river, without water. Then we traveled three miles down the river where we encamped for the night. This is the first day that we suffered for water.
Saturday 2 -Traveled 12 miles. Five miles down the river to a creek then seven miles farther we encamped on the river bank. After you pass the creek about three miles you come to the Boiling Springs. They are on the left side of the road about two hundred yards and the water from the springs cross the road in two places. The road is good and level and on the river bank.
Sunday 3 - Traveled 20 miles. Five miles to a small bluff. When we cross this bluff you strike the river. You travel in sight of the river all day. The road is good and level.
Monday 4 - Traveled 20 miles. We traveled along the river fifteen miles. Then we left the river and traveled five miles (across) and come to Owyhe River where we encamped for the night. The road is good and level and the water is bad in this river.
Tuesday 5 - Traveled 17 miles. On passing along about two miles we had a view Fort Boise on the right and on the north side of the Snake River. From the Fort we cross the bluffs fifteen miles without water. Then we come onto Malheur River. Here we encamped for the night. The road is good but the water is not very good.
Wednesday 6 - Traveled 22 miles. From Malheur River to Sulpher Springs, ten miles; from Sulpher Springs to a small creek, twelve miles. On this creek we encamped for the night. The road is good on this creek. There was two men buried the day before we came here. One of these men was shot by an Indian and died here.
Thursday 7 - Traveled 9 miles. From the creek where we encamped to Snake River four miles; from Burnt River, five miles. This is the last time we saw Snake River. Here we traveled along Snake about two hundred yards and leave it by ascending a long hill, to the left of the river which leads to Burnt River. The road is good but the country is mountainous but has a better appearance than the country we have passed through.
Friday 8 - Traveled 16 miles up Burnt River. This is a mountainous country with beautiful scenery. We passed through several groves of timber and the mountains are covered with grass. The road passes over several. bluffs which makes the roads rough. After traveling 16 miles up this river we encamped for the night, about three hundred yards above a grove of large timber, where the mountains was eight hundred feet from the bed of the river to the top.
Saturday 9 - Traveled 18 miles. From our camp in the morning we traveled up the river about one mile, then turned in a northern direction up a small stream which wound its way up the side of a mountain. Traveling up this creek some distance we then made a short turn in a west direction rising to the top of the mountain, then you descend to the main river which is about eight miles from where we left it in the morning. Then traveling some distance on the bottom we ascended another mountain and traveled about four miles from the river where we came onto a mountain stream with good grass and water. Here we encamped for the night. The country is mountainous and the road is rough and hilly.
Sunday 10 - Traveled 25 miles from a branch of Burnt River to a slew on Powder River Valley. From our camp of Saturday morning we traveled up a branch a short distance, then the road turns to right and rises a steep hill. Then you traveled some distance up another small stream. When you leave this stream your road turns off to the left and rises a hill. When you leave this stream we traveled about 15 miles without water except a small spring where we strike a kind of a valley.
From this spring to the slue on Powder River Valley 12 miles. On this slough we encamped for the night. The road is tolerably good. About 12 o'clock we had a sight of the Blue Mountains which are covered with timber, principally pine which makes the mountains look green. There is some snow on the Blue Mountains at this time. We had a small shower of rain this afternoon.
Monday August 11 - Traveled 14 miles. On Powder River valley we crossed two sloughs and then traveled close to a branch of Powder River. Then we crossed a small bluff where we cross this branch. Then we traveled about four miles and come to the main river where we encamped for the night. The road is good and level.
Tuesday 12 -Traveled 25 miles. From Powder River to the Grand Rounds 15 miles. Then across the Grand Rounds 10 miles. The Rounds is a valley that lies between the Blue Mountains. This valley is 20 miles across in some places but only ten where we crossed it. The prettiest place we have seen since we left home. The mountains around are covered with pine timber which is ever green, all the year round and the valley covered with beautiful grass. There are two streams which run through this valley. One on each side of the Rounds. The road is bad the first 15 miles on account of stone and a large hill. The other ten is good.
Wednesday 13 -Traveled 20 miles. From the Grand Rounds to the Grand Round River eight miles; from the river we traveled 12 miles in the mountains. These mountains are densely covered with pine trees. We traveled through timber all day. The scenery here is beautiful for the mountains are covered with timber and grass. From the Grand Round valley we traveled immediately up the Blue Mountains where the road is steep and rocky. There is a great many hills and hollows and they are all steep and rocky. After traveling 20 miles we encamped on the side of a mountain and found water a half a mile from the road in a hollow. About dark it commenced raining and lasted about three hours. This is the most refreshing rain we had since we left home. In the morning everything looked beautiful and green for the sun made her appearance through the trees as though all nature smiled upon us and blessed our progress with her beautiful rays.
Thursday 14 – Traveled 10 miles, from our camp on the 13 to a branch of the Grand Round River, eight miles from the river we traveled two miles and turned off to the left a hundred yards for water and grass. Here we encamped for the night. The scenery of todays travel is beautiful but the road is rough and rocky. About noon we passed two trains on the river of about 30 wagons. In the evening it commenced raining and rained all night. The rain fell beautifully but the night was cold and chilly.
Friday 15 - Traveled 20 miles. From our camp in the morning to Eumatilla valley twelve miles; then down the Eumatilla River, eight miles. Here encamped for the night. This is a beautiful valley and the soil is productive for the Indians had peas and potatoes for sale and they also raise wheat in this valley. The climate is mild and pleasant. The Indians in this valley has about ten hundred horses. This tribe is named Cayuse. They are the smartest Indians we have seen on the road and most civilized and friendly. The road today was good in the mountains and the road in the valley is level and good.
Saturday 16 - Traveled 24 miles. From our camp in the morning we traveled down the river one mile then left the river and crossed a bluff five miles. Then we crossed the river and traveled down on the north side two miles. Here we leave the river for sixteen miles by traveling over a bluff without water. Then we strike the Eumatilla River where we encamped for the night. The road is very good and the country is beautiful.
Sunday August 17 - Laid in camp all day on the Umitilla River until Sunday. Then we hitched up and traveled 16 miles after night. We traveled six miles down the Umitilla River and take the left-hand road and cross the river. From there to Alder Creek ten miles where we encamped for the night. The road is level and good but sandy. We got in camp about one o'clock in the morning. In the afternoon there was a woman in a company laying just below us, put a coal of fire to a can of powder weighing 8 lbs. And very nigh killed her and her child.
Monday 18 - Laid in camp all day until six o'clock in the evening. Then we hitched up and traveled all night, being a stretch of twenty miles without water. This stretch is from Alder Creek to Wells Spring, twenty miles. We got to the Springs about sunrise in the morning.
Tuesday 19 - Traveled 15 miles from Wells Springs to Willow Creek without water. On this creek we encamped for the night.
Wednesday 20 - Laid on Willow Creek until five o'clock in the evening. Then hitched up and traveled until twelve o'clock in the night and then started again at daylight and went to Johnday River by eleven o'clock in the morning of the 20. This distance is 24 miles without water. Road is good.
Thursday 21 - Traveled 14 miles. Started at daylight in the morning. Roads good. There we had a view of Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens.
Friday 22 - Traveled 24 miles. From Johnday River to the Columbia River 24 miles without water. The road is good. We could see Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens. These mountains are covered with snow the year round.
Saturday 23 - Traveled 4 miles down the Columbia to Deschutes River. This is a bad river to cross. There was a number of wagons here when we came so we was the last wagon they crossed that day. The ferrage is five dollars. The current runs very rapid, by this it takes its name. We encamped on the west side of the river. The road is good.
Sunday-24 - Traveled 14 miles. From the Deschtes River to a small creek, five miles. Then from that creek to another creek, nine miles where we encamped for the night. The road is hilly but good. When you first strike the creek, five miles from the ferry you travel up a hollow about a mile to a spring. At this spring is the junction of the road. We take the left hand road. The other leads to the Dalles which is twelve miles out of the road, if you wish to cross the mountains.
Monday August 25 - Traveled 8 miles up a small creek. We are in sight of the Cascade Mountains all day. You cross this creek a number of times in the eight miles. The road is good.
Tuesday 26 - Travel 16 miles without water. The road is rough and rocky. When you leave this creek, you travel sixteen miles without water and strike Tithe Creek. In going down into this creek there is a very bad gukkm very stony. The weather today was cold and chilly.
Wednesday 27 - Traveled 12 miles from Tithe Creek to Barlows Gate. Here we encamped, at the foot of the Cascade Mountains, surrounded by large pine trees with a beautiful stream of cold water winding its way from the mountains. The road is very stony in the places where we cross the creeks. We cross two creeks before we came to the Gate. The weather was cold and chilly.
Thursday 28 - Traveled 12 miles over the Cascade Mountains. This road is very rocky and some steep hills to go down and up. The timber is very large and principally pine. Water is plenty of the best quality. We crossed a number of creeks of cold mountain water.
Friday 29 - Traveled 14 miles among the hills and rocks and miry places. These are the worst roads that I ever seen in all my travels. Some places the wagon pitches form five to six feet perpendicular, where the trees is so close together that the wagon can scarcely go between them. About four o'clock in the evening we passed within four miles of Mountain Hood. Here we beheld one of the beautiful sites of Nature. When looking up from the valley in which we stood at a mountain seventeen thousand feet above the level of the sea and clad in its white raiment of snow. This snow-covered mountain is formed of rocks and is very nigh perpendicular to the summit. It is one of the natural curiosities of the Western Wilds. It is said that man has never been known to reach the summit. We encamped on a small creek winding its way from Mt. Hood down into (the) valley. The water was very cold and good.
Saturday August 30 - Traveled 3 miles and laid up for the day. We traveled over a hill and encamped at the side of a small prairie. The road is so bad that it cannot be described. It is a perfect mudhole; among pine roots. The cattle would go in to their sides very nigh every step and it rained all day and all night.
Sunday 31 - Traveled 14 miles. The a-d very bad and hilly. Some deep muddy places and some very bad mountains to cross. Laurel Hill the worst to go down in the mountains. It rained all day. This hill is rocky with a small stream running down the road. In the morning the out and the sun came was pleasant. Here we could see Mount Hood very plain.
Monday September 1 - Traveled 12 miles. The road is pretty good. We traveled all day down Big Sandy. This is a valley with heavy timber and a beautiful creek winding its way down the valley. The day is beautiful and pleasant.
Tuesday 2 - Traveled 15 miles. It rained all day. The road is pretty good but we crossed the backbone and came down on the valley where Big Sandy winds its way down between the mountains. Here we encamped at the foot of the backbone.
Wednesday 3 - Traveled 2 miles. From our encampment in the morning we crossed Big Sandy and went to the top of the hill on the other side of Big Sandy and encamped for the night. It rained all day which made it disagreeable.
Thursday 4 -Traveled 8 miles which brought us.to Foster. Here we came to settlements. It rained all day and the road was bad and muddy and some bad hills to go up. Here we saw civilization once more.
Friday 5 - Went to Oregon City 17 miles from Fosters. The road is hilly down to the City. We landed in Oregon just four months from the time we left the States.
Oregon Trail crossing - 1851/1852: Paquet family
We don't have direct references to tell us exactly when the Paquet family traveled from St. Louis to Oregon, but we can ascertain that it was 1851 or 1852, as their 4 year old daughter Louise Elizabeth died in St. Louis in 1851 and their son George W. was born in Oregon in 1852. This means they traveled on the Oregon Trail while Mary Louise was pregnant making her one incredibly tough woman!
STORY OF JOSEPH PAQUET
(from Portland - It's History and Builders J. Gaston, Vol. III, pg. 687.)
From the pioneer epoch to the present day, the record of Joseph Paquet has been closely interwoven with the history of Portland and this section of the country. As a contractor, he has been connected with much public work. Not by leaps and bounds has he attained the goal of prosperity, but by steady progress which. indicates the wise and careful improvement of every opportunity that has come his way.
He was born in St. Louis, Missouri, March 19. 1841, son of Francis Xavier Paquet and Marie Louise Lannadier de Langdeau.
Joseph Paquet, whose name introduces this record, had attended school in St. Louis for about six years, beginning his education there when a little lad of five. He attended school in Oregon City under Judge Shattuck, and in 1854 the family removed to a ranch four miles from Oregon City, after which he spent about four months in a school taught by Charles Cartwright. This completed his education. He was then about fifteen years of age, and from that time forward his life has been devoted to business pursuits and unfaltering energy and intelligently directed labor have constituted the basis of his success.
When the family removed to the ranch, they had no team and Joseph Paquet and his brother two years older than himself carried groceries on their backs from Oregon City to the farm. The next year a pony, cow, and chickens were purchased. The father, a ship carpenter by trade, worked in Canemah in the summer and fall repairing boats and getting them ready for the winter run, the Willamette River above the falls being navigable only during the winter months. When Joseph Paquet was old enough, he worked with his father, and thus learned the use of tools. He studied the business until he was able to build complete any kind of a boat and also draw the plans for the same. As a youth, he was very fond of hunting wild game and his first experience at killing deer came during the first winter that the family occupied the ranch. The deer would come nearly every night within thirty or forty yards of the house and eat cabbage and turnips which were growing in the field, his eldest brother killing several by shooting from the windows. Joseph Paquet afterward became one of the most successful deer hunters in the state and when a boy was regarded as one of the best rifle shots in Oregon. Even yet, he displays much skill in hunting. In 1885, he won the championship in live pigeon shooting in the three days’ tournament held in Portland, and in the winter of 1910-11 made an excellent record in shooting ducks.
After leaving the ranch, Mr. Paquet followed steamboat building and built the first steam ferry that ran across the river at Salem in 1866. He also built the first snag boat the government had built in Oregon in 1871; the first dams built by the government on the Willamette in 1872; the first dikes built on the lower Willamette, including the dam across Willamette slough in 1880. He worked for two years, in 1868 and 1869, for the Oregon Steamship Navigation Company, building and repairing boats, and in 1870 was superintendent of construction for the People's Transportation Company.
On Christmas day of that year, Mr. Paquet was married and established his home at Canemah, where he lived until 1879, when he removed to Portland. Throughout all the in intervening years, Mr. Paquet has followed contracting of every kind, his work including the building of boats of every description, the Klamath irrigation ditch, the Tualatin River and other dams and some of the largest sewers of Portland, including the Brooklyn sewer. He also took contracts for building a number of steamboats, including the fastest stern-wheel boat in the world--the steamer Telephone, now running in California. He has built bridges, wharves, railroads, stone work, concrete work and, in fact, has contracted for work of almost every description. He has maintained a prominent position in business circles, and is now president of the St. John Shipbuilding Company, president of the Portland Sand Company, and a member of the firm of Paquet, Giebisch & Joplin Company, contractors. He has two pile drivers which he uses in contract work, two fish wheels at the foot of the Cascade rapids, and an eight hundred acre ranch thirteen miles from Portland, and considerable property in Portland, all of which interests he continues to manage and still has time for occasional hunting and fishing trips, which constitute his chief source of rest and recreation. His life has, indeed, been a busy and useful one, and he occupies a prominent position among the contractors and businessmen of Portland.
On the 25th of December 1870, in Oregon City, Mr. Paquet married Miss Mary Elizabeth Blottenberger, whose parents were of American birth, although the name is undoubtedly of German origin. In 1865 they became residents of Oregon. Mr. and Mrs. Paquet have three children: Mary, the wife of Albert E. Gebhardt; Joseph David, who married Clara Washburne and Francis Gilbert, sixteen years of age. They also reared a daughter of Mrs. Paquet's sister, now twenty years of age.
While leading a very busy life, Mr. Paquet has found time to devote to public interests. He served as school director in East Portland for nearly six years and was chairman of the board when the cities were consolidated in 1891. He served as school clerk in Portland for a year and was a member of the port of Portland commission for about a year. He usually supports the Republican party but does not hesitate to scratch from the ticket the name of a man whom he does not regard as well qualified for office. He is a strongly temperate man, never using liquor or tobacco in any form and the many sterling qualities which he has displayed throughout his entire life have gained for him the confidence, good will, and high regard of those with whom he has been associated.
(from Portland - It's History and Builders J. Gaston, Vol. III, pg. 687.)
From the pioneer epoch to the present day, the record of Joseph Paquet has been closely interwoven with the history of Portland and this section of the country. As a contractor, he has been connected with much public work. Not by leaps and bounds has he attained the goal of prosperity, but by steady progress which. indicates the wise and careful improvement of every opportunity that has come his way.
He was born in St. Louis, Missouri, March 19. 1841, son of Francis Xavier Paquet and Marie Louise Lannadier de Langdeau.
Joseph Paquet, whose name introduces this record, had attended school in St. Louis for about six years, beginning his education there when a little lad of five. He attended school in Oregon City under Judge Shattuck, and in 1854 the family removed to a ranch four miles from Oregon City, after which he spent about four months in a school taught by Charles Cartwright. This completed his education. He was then about fifteen years of age, and from that time forward his life has been devoted to business pursuits and unfaltering energy and intelligently directed labor have constituted the basis of his success.
When the family removed to the ranch, they had no team and Joseph Paquet and his brother two years older than himself carried groceries on their backs from Oregon City to the farm. The next year a pony, cow, and chickens were purchased. The father, a ship carpenter by trade, worked in Canemah in the summer and fall repairing boats and getting them ready for the winter run, the Willamette River above the falls being navigable only during the winter months. When Joseph Paquet was old enough, he worked with his father, and thus learned the use of tools. He studied the business until he was able to build complete any kind of a boat and also draw the plans for the same. As a youth, he was very fond of hunting wild game and his first experience at killing deer came during the first winter that the family occupied the ranch. The deer would come nearly every night within thirty or forty yards of the house and eat cabbage and turnips which were growing in the field, his eldest brother killing several by shooting from the windows. Joseph Paquet afterward became one of the most successful deer hunters in the state and when a boy was regarded as one of the best rifle shots in Oregon. Even yet, he displays much skill in hunting. In 1885, he won the championship in live pigeon shooting in the three days’ tournament held in Portland, and in the winter of 1910-11 made an excellent record in shooting ducks.
After leaving the ranch, Mr. Paquet followed steamboat building and built the first steam ferry that ran across the river at Salem in 1866. He also built the first snag boat the government had built in Oregon in 1871; the first dams built by the government on the Willamette in 1872; the first dikes built on the lower Willamette, including the dam across Willamette slough in 1880. He worked for two years, in 1868 and 1869, for the Oregon Steamship Navigation Company, building and repairing boats, and in 1870 was superintendent of construction for the People's Transportation Company.
On Christmas day of that year, Mr. Paquet was married and established his home at Canemah, where he lived until 1879, when he removed to Portland. Throughout all the in intervening years, Mr. Paquet has followed contracting of every kind, his work including the building of boats of every description, the Klamath irrigation ditch, the Tualatin River and other dams and some of the largest sewers of Portland, including the Brooklyn sewer. He also took contracts for building a number of steamboats, including the fastest stern-wheel boat in the world--the steamer Telephone, now running in California. He has built bridges, wharves, railroads, stone work, concrete work and, in fact, has contracted for work of almost every description. He has maintained a prominent position in business circles, and is now president of the St. John Shipbuilding Company, president of the Portland Sand Company, and a member of the firm of Paquet, Giebisch & Joplin Company, contractors. He has two pile drivers which he uses in contract work, two fish wheels at the foot of the Cascade rapids, and an eight hundred acre ranch thirteen miles from Portland, and considerable property in Portland, all of which interests he continues to manage and still has time for occasional hunting and fishing trips, which constitute his chief source of rest and recreation. His life has, indeed, been a busy and useful one, and he occupies a prominent position among the contractors and businessmen of Portland.
On the 25th of December 1870, in Oregon City, Mr. Paquet married Miss Mary Elizabeth Blottenberger, whose parents were of American birth, although the name is undoubtedly of German origin. In 1865 they became residents of Oregon. Mr. and Mrs. Paquet have three children: Mary, the wife of Albert E. Gebhardt; Joseph David, who married Clara Washburne and Francis Gilbert, sixteen years of age. They also reared a daughter of Mrs. Paquet's sister, now twenty years of age.
While leading a very busy life, Mr. Paquet has found time to devote to public interests. He served as school director in East Portland for nearly six years and was chairman of the board when the cities were consolidated in 1891. He served as school clerk in Portland for a year and was a member of the port of Portland commission for about a year. He usually supports the Republican party but does not hesitate to scratch from the ticket the name of a man whom he does not regard as well qualified for office. He is a strongly temperate man, never using liquor or tobacco in any form and the many sterling qualities which he has displayed throughout his entire life have gained for him the confidence, good will, and high regard of those with whom he has been associated.
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Francis Xavier Paquet (son of Joseph Paquet)
Obituary – August 24, 1898 BUILT BOATS IN 1852 FRANCIS X. PAQUET DIES AT THE AGE OF 87 One of the First Ship-Builders Who Located on the Willamette River Francis Xavier Paquet, a pioneer resident and ship-builder of Oregon, died yesterday afternoon at 5 o’clock at 383 Union Avenue, East Side, at the home of his son Louis Paquet, at the age of 87 years. In the early history of steamboat navigation on the Willamette river, Mr. Paquet was a well-known and prominent boat-builder, having constructed at Oregon City some of the first craft that plowed the waters of the Willamette. He was born in Quebec, Canada, January 15, 1811, and moved to St. Louis Missouri where he made his home until he started for Oregon. In 1852 he landed in Portland, but proceeded to Oregon City, where he made his home for many years, and was identified with the early history of that place. As he was a thorough ship carpenter and contractor, he engaged in that business, building most of the steamers of the old People’s Transportation Company. He moved to Oak Grove, in Eastern Oregon, about 17 years ago, where he remained on his ranch until the death of his wife, which took place three years ago. After that Mr. Paquet came to live with his son, Louis Paquet, on the East Side, constantly failing with the feebleness and debility of old age. For the past three months he has been helpless and constantly in bed. Mr. Paquet was a stalwart, vigorous character, and possessed the elements that characterized the early pioneers. Few men when in the prime of his life were better known, and his death at this time will recall to the minds of the survivors the stirring events of 1853 and 1854 when boat-building on the Willamette was in its infancy. The deceased leaves three sons, Joseph, Louis, and Oliver Paquet. The two former followed the profession of their father in steamboat-building. They reside in Portland, where they are well known. The other son lives at Oak Grove. Several of the family are buried in the cemetery at Oregon City, among them being Peter, who was prominent in Clackamas county affairs, and died two years ago at the close of a term as receiver of the Oregon City land office. The time for the funeral was not fixed yesterday, but it will likely take place tomorrow, and the remains will probably be taken to Oregon City for interment. |
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Honorable Peter Paquet (son of Francis Xavier Paquet)
From the book History of the Pacific Northwest Oregon and Washington 2 v. Portland, Oregon: North Pacific History Company. 1889
This pioneer of 1852, who is the son of Francis Xavier Paquet and Marie Louise Lanadier de Langdeau, was born in the city of St. Louis, Missouri, on the 13th of January 1839. He received an education in the private and public schools of St. Louis. In the spring of 1852, he left the city of St. Louis with his parents, who had determined to emigrate to Oregon, the family then consisting of father, mother and six children. They came up the Missouri river on the old steamer Timour No. 2, and in eight days reached the town of St. Joseph, where they completed the outfit.
Sometime in the month of May, with their ox-teams and wagons laden with the provisions for the trip, they took their lives and fortunes in their hands, and started to cross the great American desert, known as the plains. They pursued their journey without particular incident or accident, barring the usual sickness and privations which were the lot of most of the emigrants of that year, until they reached the crossing of Snake river. Here some rascally traders had established themselves for the purpose of swindling the tired emigrant, and buying the running gear of his wagons, after persuading him that he could get into a boat, conjured out of an old wagon-bed caulked up tight with rags, and that he could float down the Snake river into the Columbia, and down the Columbia to the mouth of the Willamette, and up the Willamette directly into the settlements, without any obstruction whatever. To the weary and travel-worn emigrant, who had inhaled the usual amount of alkali dust, this was indeed an alluring prospect.
The Paquets, with several others, concluded to try this river route. a busy scene followed. The running gear of the wagons was sold to the traders, who were there for that purpose, at their own price. Nine wagon-beds were speedily converted into nine little flatboats; and these nine little flats were lashed together three abreast and three deep, making a craft about eleven feet wide, and about thirty feet long. Into this frail craft all the household goods of these sturdy pioneers was placed, oars were rigged, and the command given to start; and this novel craft, with its living freight, consisting of eight men, five women, and about one dozen children, glided gracefully down the stream, the voyagers little thinking of the troubles in store for them. The first afternoon was all that could be desired, and justified the assertions of the traders, about fifteen miles being made. The next day, however, they began to encounter rapids and a rough, rocky bottom; and on the fourth day the great falls were reached, where it became necessary to unlash and detach the wagon-beds, and, taking each one separately, to carry it on the shoulders of men over steep, rough mountains for over half a mile, before it could be placed in the water again. It requir3ed three days of almost superhuman effort to accomplish this result; but it was done successfully, and the journey resumed. Every day brought its new troubles; and such were the difficulties to overcome that it required twelve days to accomplish the journey to the crossing of Snake river near old Fort Boise, a distance that can be traveled by land in about four days.
There our voyagers were informed that it was impossible to reach the settlements in that way, and the journey was given up. The wagon-bed flatboat was sold to some parties for a ferry-boat, and our travelers compelled to resort to ox-teams and wagons again. The weary journey was resumed; and without further incidents, except the usual ones, of stock stampedes, losses of stock, Indian scares, and such trifles, the party reached The Dalles in October. Making the voyage by water to the Upper Cascades and overland to the Lower Cascades, they took passage on the old steamer Multnomah, and arrived in the little village of Portland in November, having been about six months on the journey. The Paquets resided in Portland during the winter of 1852, and in the spring of 1853 moved to Canemah, and in the fall of 1854 moved out on the plains now known as the Paquet Donation claim. The subject of our sketch spent the next seven years of his life on that place, much of the time having charge of the farm, his father being absent working at his trade of boatbuilding.
From 1861 till 1866 he followed the trade of boatbuilding, and then went into the sawmill business until 1869. In 1870 Peter Paquet was elected a member of the legislature from Clackamas County, and served with such satisfaction to his constituents that he was nominated in 1872 for the office of county clerk but failed of election by a few votes. In 1874 he was nominated for state senator, and in 1882 for county judge, but shared the fate of most of the Republican ticket and was unsuccessful. In 1888 he was again nominated by the Republican party of Clackamas County for the legislature, and was elected, receiving the highest number of votes cast for any candidate for the legislature. He served as a member of the House of Representatives during the fifteenth regular session and was recognized as one of the ablest members of that body, and as a hard-working and faithful representative of his constituents. Mr. Paquet has been elected nine times a member of the city council of Oregon City, several times receiving the votes of both parties. He served three times as president of the board of delegates of the Oregon City Fire Department, of which he is an exempt member, and has served one term as mayor of Oregon City.
He was married September 5, 1871, to Miss Sarah E. Hamilton and has three children – Louise J., Florence C., and Victor H.H. Sarah’s family came West on the first train to Oregon. Mr. Paquet has been a resident of Oregon City since 1870 and has followed the occupation of a general contractor and builder, and has built some of the finest bridges, steamboats, and buildings in the state. He is a prominent member of Multnomah Lodge, No. 1, A. F. and A.M., and has been engaged for some time in writing up a history of Multnomah Lodge and a biography of its past masters.
In politics Mr. Paquet is an uncompromising Republican, but always aims to be fair, and has the respect and confidence of his political opponents. As a citizen, he is a man of high moral character, and where best known is most respected.
He died in Portland April 21, 1896.
From the book History of the Pacific Northwest Oregon and Washington 2 v. Portland, Oregon: North Pacific History Company. 1889
This pioneer of 1852, who is the son of Francis Xavier Paquet and Marie Louise Lanadier de Langdeau, was born in the city of St. Louis, Missouri, on the 13th of January 1839. He received an education in the private and public schools of St. Louis. In the spring of 1852, he left the city of St. Louis with his parents, who had determined to emigrate to Oregon, the family then consisting of father, mother and six children. They came up the Missouri river on the old steamer Timour No. 2, and in eight days reached the town of St. Joseph, where they completed the outfit.
Sometime in the month of May, with their ox-teams and wagons laden with the provisions for the trip, they took their lives and fortunes in their hands, and started to cross the great American desert, known as the plains. They pursued their journey without particular incident or accident, barring the usual sickness and privations which were the lot of most of the emigrants of that year, until they reached the crossing of Snake river. Here some rascally traders had established themselves for the purpose of swindling the tired emigrant, and buying the running gear of his wagons, after persuading him that he could get into a boat, conjured out of an old wagon-bed caulked up tight with rags, and that he could float down the Snake river into the Columbia, and down the Columbia to the mouth of the Willamette, and up the Willamette directly into the settlements, without any obstruction whatever. To the weary and travel-worn emigrant, who had inhaled the usual amount of alkali dust, this was indeed an alluring prospect.
The Paquets, with several others, concluded to try this river route. a busy scene followed. The running gear of the wagons was sold to the traders, who were there for that purpose, at their own price. Nine wagon-beds were speedily converted into nine little flatboats; and these nine little flats were lashed together three abreast and three deep, making a craft about eleven feet wide, and about thirty feet long. Into this frail craft all the household goods of these sturdy pioneers was placed, oars were rigged, and the command given to start; and this novel craft, with its living freight, consisting of eight men, five women, and about one dozen children, glided gracefully down the stream, the voyagers little thinking of the troubles in store for them. The first afternoon was all that could be desired, and justified the assertions of the traders, about fifteen miles being made. The next day, however, they began to encounter rapids and a rough, rocky bottom; and on the fourth day the great falls were reached, where it became necessary to unlash and detach the wagon-beds, and, taking each one separately, to carry it on the shoulders of men over steep, rough mountains for over half a mile, before it could be placed in the water again. It requir3ed three days of almost superhuman effort to accomplish this result; but it was done successfully, and the journey resumed. Every day brought its new troubles; and such were the difficulties to overcome that it required twelve days to accomplish the journey to the crossing of Snake river near old Fort Boise, a distance that can be traveled by land in about four days.
There our voyagers were informed that it was impossible to reach the settlements in that way, and the journey was given up. The wagon-bed flatboat was sold to some parties for a ferry-boat, and our travelers compelled to resort to ox-teams and wagons again. The weary journey was resumed; and without further incidents, except the usual ones, of stock stampedes, losses of stock, Indian scares, and such trifles, the party reached The Dalles in October. Making the voyage by water to the Upper Cascades and overland to the Lower Cascades, they took passage on the old steamer Multnomah, and arrived in the little village of Portland in November, having been about six months on the journey. The Paquets resided in Portland during the winter of 1852, and in the spring of 1853 moved to Canemah, and in the fall of 1854 moved out on the plains now known as the Paquet Donation claim. The subject of our sketch spent the next seven years of his life on that place, much of the time having charge of the farm, his father being absent working at his trade of boatbuilding.
From 1861 till 1866 he followed the trade of boatbuilding, and then went into the sawmill business until 1869. In 1870 Peter Paquet was elected a member of the legislature from Clackamas County, and served with such satisfaction to his constituents that he was nominated in 1872 for the office of county clerk but failed of election by a few votes. In 1874 he was nominated for state senator, and in 1882 for county judge, but shared the fate of most of the Republican ticket and was unsuccessful. In 1888 he was again nominated by the Republican party of Clackamas County for the legislature, and was elected, receiving the highest number of votes cast for any candidate for the legislature. He served as a member of the House of Representatives during the fifteenth regular session and was recognized as one of the ablest members of that body, and as a hard-working and faithful representative of his constituents. Mr. Paquet has been elected nine times a member of the city council of Oregon City, several times receiving the votes of both parties. He served three times as president of the board of delegates of the Oregon City Fire Department, of which he is an exempt member, and has served one term as mayor of Oregon City.
He was married September 5, 1871, to Miss Sarah E. Hamilton and has three children – Louise J., Florence C., and Victor H.H. Sarah’s family came West on the first train to Oregon. Mr. Paquet has been a resident of Oregon City since 1870 and has followed the occupation of a general contractor and builder, and has built some of the finest bridges, steamboats, and buildings in the state. He is a prominent member of Multnomah Lodge, No. 1, A. F. and A.M., and has been engaged for some time in writing up a history of Multnomah Lodge and a biography of its past masters.
In politics Mr. Paquet is an uncompromising Republican, but always aims to be fair, and has the respect and confidence of his political opponents. As a citizen, he is a man of high moral character, and where best known is most respected.
He died in Portland April 21, 1896.
Oregon Trail crossing 1852: Winters family
We don't have very much concrete information about exactly when the Winters family went on the Oregon Trail from Iowa to Oregon, but we can guess to a fairly close degree that it was probably 1852. Polly Ann Winters (born Gregg) gave birth to her son Thomas in 1851 in Iowa and gave birth to her daughter Ella in Oregon in 1853. Her parents John and Elizabeth Gregg are both listed as having died on the wagon trail in 1852 - Elizabeth in Utah and John in "The Dallas" Oregon. The Dalles was named by fur trappers for the French word for gutter. Here emigrants floated down the Columbia River in rafts through the stony river gorge. The passage, with emigrants and their wagons crowded onto a small wooden raft, was often perilous - as it was for John Gregg whose wife had just died. It then makes sense that Polly Ann and Phillip would have made the Oregon Trail crossing with her parents John and Elizabeth in 1852. Some of Elizabeth's siblings also went from Iowa to Oregon (John, William, Louisa, Almeda) though it is unclear if they made this same journey all together in 1852. There is no record of Phillip Winters' parents Jacob and Elizabeth migrating to Oregon.
1860s - 1900 in Oregon
William Leander "Lee" Winters was born in Iowa on February 22, 1849. His wife Margaret Elizabeth Heater was born in Iowa on December 29, 1847. They were both brought to Oregon by their parents on the Oregon Trail at the tender ages of 2 and 3.
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The children of William Leander "Lee" Winters and Margaret were Elsie, Helen, Lester, and Ellis:
Elsie Winters
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Helen Winters, age 71
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From left to right: Ellis, Helen, Elsie, Lester with their dad Leander
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Both Lester and Ellis Winters filled out draft registration cards for WWI and WWII and listed themselves as "farmer" for occupation.
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