History of Benton County, Oregon, Part 53

Author: David D. Fagan
Publication date: 1885
Publisher:
Number of Pages:

USA > Oregon > Benton County > History of Benton County, Oregon > Part 53

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A. Q. Walling, Lith. Portland, Or.

FARM RESIDENCE OF C. READ, ESQ .. 2 Miles South of Wells Station, Benton Co., Oregon.

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street to B street ; thence down B to Fourth street, and down Fourth to Monroe, and along Monroe to the Willamette river. Whole distance twelve and one-half miles.

" The third, diverges from the second a mile south of Irvin's Buttes, and runs west of the buttes with a view of crossing the rim of high ground further south than on the second line. On this line the ground maintains its elevation to a much greater distance than on the other line and in consequence the work will be heavy. Estimated at seven thousand dollars per mile; the distance on this line is twelve miles, which renders it impracticable.

" The fourth line starts out from the Willamette river just below the house of G. B. Smith, Esq. I find the water at that, the beginning point below the table land on which the city is situated and that the excavations are extremely heavy, rendering the line wholly impracticable.

"I would give a decided preference to the second line, described above, which I regard as altogether feasible and practicable. The fall between the head of the canal and the top of the bank in this city is fully sufficient to bring the water to us in abun- dance, and with the thirty-foot head, at a medium stage of the river, all can see that it affords every advantage that can be derived from such an improvement.

"The estimates on this, the second line, are, including excavation, embankment, timber, flumes, dams, bridges, engineering and superintending, forty-two thousand dol- lars as a total. This estimate is based on a ditch twelve feet wide on the bottom, with a slope on the sides of one lateral foot to a foot in height. A ditch six feet wide on the bottom will cost twenty-seven thousand dollars-the only material difference in the cost being in the difference in the amount of earth to be removed.

" I need scarcely enlarge on the vast advantages to accrue to the city and county from the construction of this work. The impetus it will give to manufactures and other improvements in the city, with the advantages of drainage and stockwater throughout its course, are understood and appreciated by all who have studied the subject.

Respectfully,

WILT. T. WEBBER, Engineer.

CORVALLIS, June 10, 1876.

Further than the survey nothing has been achieved and the matter becomes included in the category of things that might have been.

On June 16, 1876, there died at Corvallis, Hon. Joseph C. Avery. He was born in Lucerne county, Pennsylvania, June 9, 1817, and at the time of his death was fifty- nine years and seven days old. Mr. Avery was educated at Wilksbarre, the county seat of his native county, and in 1839 come westward and located in Illinois. In 1841 he married Miss Martha Marsh ; crossed the plains in 1845; arrived in Oregon late in the spring of 1846 and settled then in what is now Benton county, taking up a claim at the junction of the Willamette and Mary's rivers, on which, in the winter of 1850, he laid out the town of Marysville, now Corvallis. He engaged in the mercantile business in 1849 and continued the same for twenty-three years. He was a member of the first Territorial Legislature of Oregon and served for several terms, was Postal Agent under the administration of President Buchanan and figured prominently in the politics of Benton county for over a quarter of a century. Noble, generous, though slightly impetuous, he had warm and true friends, and bitter enemies, while his deeds of 45+

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charity and acts of kindly hospitality towards suffering immigrants in early days, will ever be held in grateful remembrance.

During the year 1876 the Centennial rejoicings were had, if not in the county, then associated with the residents of some other locality, all combining to make them worthy of so grand an anniversary. In the two following years Benton county enjoyed a fare share of prosperity, its various phases being adverted to in other portions especially bearing on the locale of their occurrence, while we now take up the thread of narrative in 1879. Unhappily the tale henceforward is but a record of the harvest gathered in by the unrelenting hand of Time.

Another of Benton county's most useful and prominent citizens breathed his last, August 24, 1879. The Hon. Judson Sherman Palmer was born in Marietta county, Ohio, in April 1831. In 1854 he came to the Pacific coast, stopping at Salt Lake City until the spring of 1855. He then went to California where he remained until 1858, when he removed to Oregon and located in Benton county, where he afterwards per- manently resided. In June, 1868, he was elected Sheriff of Benton county, which office he held continously until June 1876, when he was elected joint Senator for Ben- ton and Polk counties, a position he held at the time of his death August 25, 1867, he was married to Miss Sylvia Butterfield, of Corvallis, and just twelve years afterwards, in the same room where they were joined in matrimony, his encoffined remains lay awaiting the tomb. Mr. Palmer possessed a warm heart and no case of poverty or dis- tress ever appealed to him in vain. He was a devoted loving husband, kind and affection- ate father, obliging neighbor and steadfast friend, while the large concourse of people that followed his remains to the grave, bore testimony of the esteem in which he was held.

The State generally was visited by a hurricane, January 9, 1880, but Benton county escaped any very disastrous results from it. Farmers suffered most in the prostration of fences which in some instances were laid flat for miles ; their barns and sheds were demolished, destroying much grain and hay and injuring farm machinery which had been stored away for the winter. In many places the roads were blocked by fallen timber, bridges were destroyed and traveling rendered very difficult and unsafe.

We now have to notice one of the most serious losses that the county had as yet sustained. On Sunday, April 25, 1880, William B. Carter was summoned away to the " bourne from whence no traveler returns." We who have gone through the files of the Corvallis Gazette from its first issue by him, know with what force Mr. Carter fought the battle for Benton county, manfully maintaining, sometimes against over- whelming opposition, a fight to bring her forward to her proper place among the counties of the Pacific coast. Valiantly did he wage war for this section of the country ; but he did not live to see his utmost wishes-the opening up of the Yaquina District-come to full fruition. In the publication so lately edited by him, under date April 30, 1880, we find the following :

" William B. Carter was born in Springfield, in the State of Illinois, in the year 1831, and was there brought up, educated and learned the trade which he practiced all his life long. Having heard like the rest of the early settlers here, a good report of the fair western land, he crossed the plains in 1851, and by dint of persevering, if tedious,

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travel, got safely to the end of that weary journey. Thus he typified so many of this undertakings of his after life, wherein he never knew how to turn aside or be put back from any course his judgment assured him was desirable, and his conscience approved, however long and dusty the road, how great so ever the obstacles in his way might be. " He practised his trade here in Oregon till 1859, and then for a season returned to his home in Illinois. There he married, very happily, and came back to Oregon in 1862. In the year 1865, he acquired that interest in this paper for which he so faith- fully worked until his dying day. Here our pen hesitates, doubting for a moment to pass on at once to the review of his public life, which is the property of us all, or to raise with reverend hand the veil of private life and private sorrow. But here, after all, lies the key to many a public man's subsequent career, which, without a knowledge of the secret of his private life, would fail to be accounted for aught. In 1877, the family of the friend whom we mourn to-day was visited with afflictions severe beyond the common lot. Death laid his cold hand on three fair children, while it was doubt- ful for a time if the father would then follow them or no. We doubt not that in those terrible shocks to body and mind, the seeds were laid of that disease which ended so suddenly on Sunday last.

" It would not have been strange if a man so tried had refused to lift again the burden of daily toil and to resume the harness which was worn the more lightly while the family circle was unbroken and health was vouchsafed sufficient for daily needs. But our friend resumed his pen and as soon as strength returned was found again in his working place, striving to show once more that cheerfulness and heartiness of interest in public and social matters which was one of his strongest characteristics. Not many journalists could turn back for fourteen years to the files of their paper and not blush for some bitterness of temper; for some public object not quite honestly advocated ; for some opponent not quite fairly struck ; for some yielding to private ends or private pique. And William B. Carter was far too honest and humble-minded and sincere a Christian to examine himself, and plead not guilty before the bar of his own conscience. But we, his friends have the privilege he would have denied himself and we can boldly ask, where can we find his like again. For to match him the man must be as he was- honest in soul and pure minded ; eager and persevering for the public good ; capable of a warm and thorough enthusiasm for, and ready to undergo sacrifice of no common kind in pursuing a worthy object for benefitting the community where lay his home and heart; gentle and forbearing in controversy ; trying ever to hit but not to wound ; faithful to his party and ready in their service, but open-eyed to the good principles and good men on the other side ; cheerful and bright as a friend, and thus filling no small place in the little world in which he lived; charitable and kind to all in need ; seeking always to be of service, regardless of the sacrifice of his own time and comfort ; and ever ready to recognize and be grateful for any kind act or intention in others.

" For many months past it has been but too obvious that his health was failing and that the strain was too severe, the lines of care and sickness on his face testified only too well. On Friday evening last he attended the Good Templars' meeting according to his wont, and though complaining, no one supposed him more unwell than, alas, was usual with him. On Saturday evening he was bright and cheerful ; taking lively interest and satisfaction in the insertion by the Oregonian of that day of

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his vindication of his beloved Yaquina bay, and expressing firm hopes that he would soon see the public recognition of that object which, as he said, he had made his own for ten years and more. About one o'clock on Sunday morning he was seized with severe pain in the region of the heart, which medicine could not allay, and at five o'clock he passed peacefully away.

" As we laid his body to rest this bright spring day in the Masonic cemetery here, followed by so large a throng of all classes and ages, testifying by their solemn demeanor at once their sense of loss in him, and their deep sympathy with the widow and son whose grief is too deep and sacred for words to avail aught, the words which follow come to our mind. Let us copy them and so conclude this notice in a sense we cannot but think our friend would himself most thankfully adopt : 'In that rest, which remaineth for all His people, we shall be far away from all weariness, all anxiety, all care, all sorrow ; and while the soul shall pass to God to enter on the rest of glory, the mortal body has its rest no less, sleeping peacefully till the resurrection day. And when the green grass of another spring waves over us; when the soft sum- mer wind again sighs through the now green leaves; when the genial sunshine shall again brighten the stone which may bear our name and yours; what better can we wish, than that if we leave behind us those who may sometimes visit the quiet spot, they may be able to say, humbly and hopefully, 'Surely, here, at last ; and surely there, in a better place, the weary heart and hand are still ; yea, surely, God hath given His beloved sleep.'"

The foregoing lengthy tribute we have inserted in the pages of the history of Benton county as our meed of praise, respect and thanks for a series of lucid articles through many years, that have, more than aught else, aided us in the compilation of the county's chronicles.

On looking back over the occurrences of the year 1880, the most important events that have transpired were the obtaining of the Congressional grant for the improve- ment of Yaquina harbor and the subsequent incorporation of the Oregon Pacific Rail- road Company. For both, the county is mainly indebted to the persistent energy of Col. T. Egerton Hogg. The farmers had the blessing of an abundant harvest, justi- fying the title of the garden of Oregon to the Willamette valley ; while the visit of President Hayes, General Sherman, and the Secretary of War was an affair that caused the people of the Eastern States to alter their tone concerning the far away Northwest.

It is a matter of interesting record here to state that, April 26, 1881, General Joseph Lane, the first Territorial Governor of Oregon, and a man who occupied a most important place in the history of the State, passed away at the ripe age of eighty years. His death was long expected and was no surprise to his friends. General Lane was born in North Carolina in 1801, and in 1821 he moved to Indiana, settling on a farm in Vanderburg county. In 1822 he was returned to the Legislature; his representa- tive career thenceforth extending over twenty-five years, as State Senator and Member of the lower house of the Indiana Legislature.

At the breaking out of the Mexican war, in 1846, he resigned his seat in the Indiana Senate and volunteered as a private soldier, but was at once appointed colonel by President Polk and soon afterwards commissioned Brigadier-General. At the battle of Buena Vista, where he was wounded, he commanded the left wing of the

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American army. October 9, 1847, at the head of three thousand men, he defeated General Santa Anna at Huamantla. On the nineteenth, he took Atlixa, losing only one man while the enemy lost five hundred. November the twenty-second, Lane took the strongly fortified town of Maidre Mori, with a large quantity of military munitions. He afterwards captured Orizaba. On the twenty-fourth, he defeated General Jaruota at Tehualapan. At the conclusion of the war Lane was breveted a Major-General of the United States Army and in August, 1848, was appointed Governor of Oregon Territory, from which office he was subsequently removed by President Taylor. In 1851 General Lane was elected Delegate to Congress, beating Governor Gaines, and continued to represent the Territory until 1858, when, July the seventh, he was elected to represent the new State of Oregon in the United States Senate, receiving forty-five out of fifty votes in the Legislature, In 1860 Joseph Lane was nominated by the National Democratic Convention at Baltimore, for the Vice-Presidency, on the ticket with Breckenridge, and on the breaking out of the war was in sympathy with the doctrines of secession. During the Indian war in Rogue River valley he took an active part, having been unanimously tendered command of the forces operating against the Indians. General Lane filled every position honestly and well, and any errors committed, even the fatal mistake of sympathizing with the rebellion, were errors of judgment. As a private citizen Joseph Lane left the unsullied record of an honest man. The brave old veteran answered the roll-call of the Eternal-may his rest be easy.

The old soldier was laid to rest in the Masonic cemetery at Roseburg, in the family vault, to which the remains of his wife had been removed. There was a large attendance from Salem, Albany, Corvallis, Eugene City and Oakland, and a very large gathering from Douglas county. An eloquent and impressive eulogium was passed by his old friend, ex-Senator J. W. Nesmith, who paid a fitting tribute to the memory of a man who had filled so large a space in the history of Oregon.

Many of the early pioneers, will remember Edmond Marsh, who died in Corvallis, May 1, 1881. He was born in what was then Lucerne, but now Wyoming county, Pennsylvania, June 9, 1818, where he resided until manhood. In 1845, in company with his brother-in-law, J. C. Avery, he came to Oregon, and settling in Benton county, there resided continuously until his death. Mr. Marsh was the first man to carry the United States mail through the Willamette valley. Commencing in 1851 he continued that business for nearly ten years, and was the friend of many of the argon- auts of Southern Oregon, who always expected to see him on his regular day, and the weather was never so bad, or the waters so high that he did not come, thus evincing the indomitable courage and perseverance that always characterized the man.

There died at his residence near Monroe, April 30, 1881, H. C. Buckingham, who was born in Chenango, New York, March 15, 1812. He came to Oregon in 1847, and in 1850 settled on the land in Benton county, on which he died. Mr. Bucking- ham was a prominent member of society, universally respected by all who knew him ; a good citizen, an upright man and a consistent christian. He left a wife and family besides a large circle of friends to mourn his departure to the unknown realities of the other world.

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On September 27, 1881, appropriate memorial services were held, consequent upon the death of President Garfield, Julge Burnett, and Rev. Joseph Enery making effective speeches, while Judge Kelsay paid his meed of honor in the following beauti- ful sentiment : " I desire to say a few words on this sad occasion. Party spirit sleeps this day throughout the length and breadth of this vast nation. Man, the lord of creation, is the sport of every wind that blows and every wave that flows. He is beset by ten thousand dangers, both seen and unseen, along the short road of life. He is like the grass of the field, which grows up, is cut down and withers before the sun is set; or, like the dew of the morning which sparkles in the sunlight on the flowers and is soon exhaled.

" President Garfield but a few weeks since was in the noon of his life and pros- perity, filling the first office in the gift of the American people, and then and there, without the slightest intimation, was mortally wounded by an assassin and passed from this life a few days since.

" His ascending spirit let fall the spotless mantle of purity to gild with unfading beauty that imperishable pillar of our country's fame which stands like a towering beacon to the coast of human destiny, exhibiting to surrounding nations and empires the chart of American liberty. We can see a man better, just after his sun is set in the twilight, as his day declines along the hills, amidst the cross lights and shadows of that hour, than at any other period, for there is no envy or malice that reaches beyond the grave. President Garfield has been added to the growing constellation of presi- dential stars which float below the horizon of time, and like our natural sun after he has set, throws his light down upon us by refraction and reflection. So will the light come to us and our race through all succeeding ages.

" He was assassinated not for the causes which led to the assassination of Dion, the tyrant of ancient Syracuse, or Julius Caesar, who crushed out the Roman Com- monwealth at Pharsalia, but for doing his duty, with ability and learning superior to any other chief executive of our Union, save Jefferson and John Quincy Adams. The death of President Garfield will cause no change in our system of Government. We will have no usurpers as in ancient times, and no quarrel here as there was in Eng- land a few centuries ago between the Red and White Roses. The people of the United States will ever respect the 'jewel of liberty in the family of freedom.' Therefore we can go home and mingle our feelings of sadness with feelings of safety and security."

One more of the earliest pioneers of Benton county was called away, November 16, 1881, in the ninetieth year of his age. Jesse Belknap was born in Chany Valley, Chenango county, New York, January 27, 1792, where he grew to man's estate, and in 1811 married Jane Garlinghouse, who died December 10, 1877. While yet a young man Mr. Belknap removed from the place of his birth, with his young wife, to the State of Kentucky, from whence he went to Ohio, and from there, in 1839, to Iowa. After remaining in that State until 1847, he started from there across the plains with his family, arriving in the fall of that year in the Willamette valley, where he, with a few others, in those pioneer days, formed the Belknap Settlement, where he resided ever since, and where he passed from this world of care.

This already long list was added to on January 18, 1882, by the death of David Newsom, at Howell Prairie, one of those men that did noble work toward bringing the

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resources of Oregon before the public and assisted in obtaining for it a deserved recog- nition. He was for many years employed by the Agricultural Department at Wash- ington, and contributed largely to that institution. He was a constant writer, interest- ing and truthful, and never advocated a wrong principle, while the example he set was on the side of good laws and good morals. He was a pioneer in the settlement of Yaquina bay in 1867-68. His writings at that time viewed by the light of to-day, read like the prophesies of olden time. He was a man of energy but its force was spent in a direction that seldom brings personal profit. Men who use the pen to tell the world of advantages in a new country invite immigrants, but receive nothing for their outlay of patient toil, save the rather cheerless satisfaction of having performed a duty. Almost his last work was the advocacy of an enterprise that to him had been a " reverie by day, and dream by night " for fifteen years-the building of the Oregon Pacific Railroad, which is now all but completed. Dying at the good old age of four score years, the grave claimed an honest man and a pure christian.

On February 25, 1882, the warehouse of W. A. Wells, near the railroad depot at Corvallis was destroyed by fire. The saddest occurrence of the affair, however, was the death of George P. Wrenn, who was instantly killed while assisting to move the contents of the burning building, a portion of which falling, he was struck on the head and shoulders, and by its force crushed to the ground.

Mr. Wrenn was born in the District of Columbia, May 9, 1825. Having removed with his parents to Ohio, he married, January 31, 1847, Miss E. F. Caldwell. He came to Oregon first, in the year 1849, by water and stopped at Portland, where he remained but a short time, when he went back to Ohio for his family and returned to Portland. In the year 1851 he came to Benton county, settled in the town of Marys- ville (now Corvallis), and in company with one Douglas, carried on the business of blacksmithing and the manufacture of plows. After which time he settled on a Dona- tion claim to the west of the city, on Mary's river, since when he lived a portion of the time on that land and the remainder in Corvallis. He was a carpenter by trade and while residing in Portland, and a part of the time in this county, worked at that busi- ness. At the session of the Oregon Legislature for the year 1876 he was elected and served as Sergeant-at-Arms of the Senate, and at the session of 1878, he was elected and served as door-keeper of the same Body. His health having failed so as to be unable longer to labor at his trade, in the spring of 1879 he opened an office in the town of Corvallis as real estate, broker, and insurance; also dealing in doors and win- dows. At the June election in the year 1880, he was elected Justice of the Peace for Corvallis precinct, which position he held at the time of his death. His first wife having died in Benton county, he was married, April 25, 1867, to Elizabeth Freel, and had a large family.

Mr. Wrenn had always been a very active and efficient member of the Fire Department of Corvallis, and to him, more than to any other, is she indebted for that branch of public utility and security. Through his efforts, mainly, was Young America Engine Company organized, and in 1872, he was elected their first foreman, being, on the official formation of the Department elected and served two terms as the first Chief Engineer of the Corvallis Fire Department. He was entitled to a certificate as an exempt fireman; was at the time of his death an active member of the Hook and Ladder

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History of Benton County, Oregon, Part 53

Author: David D. Fagan Publication date: 1885 Publisher: Number of Pages:

Author: David D. Fagan
Publication date: 1885
Publisher:
Number of Pages: