History of Oregon, Vol. III, Part 91

Author: Carey, Charles Henry
Publication date: 1922
Publisher: Chicago, Portland, The Pioneer historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 766

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Dr. Houck is a Mason, a member of the Shrine and a Knights Templar. He is likewise affiliated with the Elks and the Woodmen of the World. In line with his profession he is past president of the Southern Oregon Medical Society and a member of the Oregon State Medical Society and the American Medical Association. Mrs. Houck is an active and prominent member of the Daughters of the American Revolu- tion, Roseburg chapter, and is a leader in all of the city's social affairs. She is past grand worthy matron of the Eastern Star, of which order Dr. Houck is past worthy patron. Dr. Houck has devoted his life to his profession, of which he remains a deep student, and he has one of the most complete libraries in the state. He and his wife have many friends throughout the country and their home is a center for many social and intellectual gatherings.

GEORGE MILLICAN.

George Millican, one of the outstanding pioneers of Oregon, was born near Otsego, New York, November 22, 1834, of Scotch-English parentage. His mother was born in Edinburg, Scotland, and her maiden name was Scott, a descendant of the Scott clan of Scotland. His father, Robert, was born in England. After their marriage they immigrated to the United States and settled in New York. Their family consisted of three children the eldest of whom was George. Robert, three years younger, came to Oregon when a young man, by way of the Isthmus of Panama, and settled on the Mckenzie river, where he married, and continued to live until his death a few years ago. The third child, a daughter, married a man by the name of Smock in Indiana, where she lived and spent most of her life. At an early age their father was killed by a falling tree, after which, the widow moved to Madison, Indiana, where she educated her children. Being a woman of strong religious convictions, she had her children reared in the faith of her fathers.

Madison was the seat of Hanover College, a Scotch Presbyterian Institution. The only education George ever received was a few years attendance at this college, where preparatory instruction was given at an early age. His adventurous spirit tiring of the prosy, staid surroundings of his home, he sought the west, and engaging with emigrants going west, he was paid to assist in driving a band of cattle across the plains to Sacramento valley, California. Accompanying him on the journey was a faithful shepherd dog, Nellie, whom he took boyish delight in training, and she was able to perform feats almost unbelievable. Upon arrival at the Yuba River Gold Mines, he learned that his was the only shepherd dog in northern California, but that a male shepherd dog had been shipped around the Horn and was in the southern part of the state. Nellie's ability to handle sheep was the admiration and cause of

MR. AND MRS. GEORGE MILLICAN

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much gambling among the miners. Nellie, however, was but one of the many dogs trained by Mr. Millican. Throughout Mr. Millican's experience in northern California, and eastern Oregon, he was widely known for his ability to train and handle dogs. He spent a great deal of time and money in the selection and the breeding of his dogs, and showed great skill and ability in the training of them.

Mr. Millican began working in the mines, and said: "I worked first with a rocker, and later with a long Tom. I struck rich ground on Rabbit creek. I aver- aged nearly twenty dollars per day. Of course this average was brought up by the fact that I struck a pocket of coarse gold and nuggets, from which I took out eighteen hundred dollars in a few hours. From there I went to the Yreka country, in 1854, mining on Deadwood, Indian creek, Green Bug, Humbug, Scotts Bar, Trinity, and Happy camp. I stayed in the the mines there until 1861, when I went to the Nez Perce country, Idaho, coming by way of Jacksonville, thence up through the Umpqua and Williamette valleys to Portland, and from Portland to Walla Walla, thence across the Snake river, at the mouth of Clearwater. I went first to Oro Fino, then to Pierce City, and later with a party of seven men, shared in the discovery of Florence." Among the miners was Dr. Furbur of Yreka, who was very popular with the boys. He had a daughter, eighteen years old, and they voted to name the mines Florence, in honor of his daughter.

In 1862 he went to San Francisco, taking out his gold dust and selling it at the United States mint for about fifteen thousand dollars. That fall he came to Eugene, settled on the Mckenzie river, sixteen miles east of Eugene, and next year he was married to Susan Ritchey. Of this union, three children were born. Madella and Margaret were born on the Mckenzie farm. In 1863 he made his initial trip to central Oregon in the Ochoco valley, making a trail and accompanying Captain Crouch of Douglas county, who was making a trip across the Cascades, on a military expedition to Boise, Idaho. He later returned to Lane county, and helped lay out the wagon road across the Mckenzie, which was subsequently made a toll road, known as the Willamette valley, Salt Spring, and Cascade Wagon road. He was identified with the building and upkeep of this road until later it was turned over to Lane county.

In 1868 he crossed the mountains with a band of cattle, which was the first taken into the Crooked River country, and settled on McKay creek, two and one-half miles from the present site of Prineville, Oregon. He established the heart brand for his cattle and horses, which brand he run until he sold out five years before his death. Coming into this central Oregon country the same year, were seven other men who spent the winter together. They had some trouble with roaming tribes of Indians, who infested this country. He later moved his family out where his son Walter was born in 1870. He was the first white male child born in central Oregon. After re- turning to Lane county, a post office was established, of which he was the postmaster for a number of years. He named the place Walterville, in honor of his son.

The country where Prineville now stands, the Ochoco and Crooked River bottoms were waving fields of bunch and rye grass, and said he, "Where I established my stock ranch at this place, it was a stock man's paradise, and I was, like Crusoe, monarch of all I surveyed! There were no fences nor need of them at that time, other than corrals. I raised cattle and horses out here, and made semi-annual trips, driving them to my place on the Mckenzie, from which place I marketed them. In the hard winter following the bones of my stock were bleaching on the lands about Prineville. We used to have lively times in that country in later days, when the Vigilantees and moonshiners operated."

"In those early days the nearest trading point was The Dalles, one hundred and twenty miles away, where we got our mail." He used to go to Eugene for his mail and supplies. It usually took about two weeks to make the trip. Civilization in- creasing, and the town getting too close, in 1886 he relocated on the old river bed near Pine mountain, some thirty-five miles south of Prineville, and twenty-seven miles east of Bend, where the post office of Millican is located. His wife died on the Mckenzie, in 1875. In 1879 he bought in with a leading meat market on Slate street in Salem, Oregon, where he continued in business, later selling out to the late Ed. Cross. This was not a paying investment.

On September 23, 1881, George Millican was married to Miss Ada Bradley, at Eugene, Oregon. To this union a son, Scott Bradley, was born at Eugene, Oregon, in 1890. Mr. Millican devoted all his time to the raising of cattle and horses, and development of his ranch at this place. In 1873 he left the farm on the Mckenzie,

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now owned by his nephew, Oscar Millican, and, taking his full blooded Herefords, the first to be brought to Oregon (England's Sovereign and Countess of Bedford im- ported from England and Augusta), shipped from Indiana some good graded Durhams and graded Clyde horses, devoting his time to the raising of cattle and horses. He bought "Wedmore," a full blooded Clyde stallion, a prize winner, from the Ladd farm in Portland. This horse headed his horses and was the veteran of the range for over seventeen years. During this time he added several imported full blooded Shire stallions to his herd. A two thousand dollar stallion was stolen off the range during the time of trouble with cattle and horse rustlers, which raged for over six years. Mr. Millican arrested and convicted a number of both cattle and horse rustlers, who were sent to and served time at the state penitentiary. He bred and raised the largest range horses in the state. He continued in the stock industry, operating ranches at Millican and Bear creek, some twenty-five miles distant, up to and during the time when the homesteaders, taking up the three hundred and twenty acres under the dry homestead laws settled on the High Desert. The Millicans, on account of having the only water available, were obliged to keep the travel for about five years.

The Millican valley was settled by homesteaders, whom he furnished with water until a short time before disposing of his holdings. When prospective settlers would come into the country and questioned Mr. Millican as to the prospect of the develop- ment of this country from a stock range to an agriculture country, he always replied that owing to scarcity of water and high altitude it was unadvisable. Locaters, reaping a rich harvest, continued to ply their trade, settling up the Millican valley, Hampton valley, Glass Butte valley, Fort Rock and the whole High Desert country. Many settlers, who were unable to convert "the desert to blossom as the rose" would stop on their way out and say, "Mr. Millican, you are the only one here who told us the truth, as to conditions out here in this homesteading country. We thought and were told by locaters that you and such men as the Loganes and Bill Brown wanted this country for your stock ranges." The deserted shacks of most of this country have verified Mr. Millican's predictions.

With the advent of homesteaders the Millican post office, Millican School district and Millican voting precinct were established. The first sermon ever preached on the High Desert was at the Millican Inn, by a Baptist colporter, traveling through the country.

The Millicans continued in the stock business until 1916, when he sold out his ranch holdings of about eighteen hundred acres, and stock to Frank Sloan of Stanfield, Oregon. Afterward he thought of locating in Portland, buying a home there, but a residence of over fifty years in central Oregon, where most of his life was spent, and amidst the friends and early pioneers of Prineville, he preferred to live until over- taken by the illness which uncomplainingly he endured for over six months, until his death on November 25, 1919. He was buried in the Odd Fellows' cemetery, near the campus of the University of Oregon, at Eugene, Oregon. Leaving the ranks of the earliest pioneers of central Oregon, it might be fittingly said of him, "He had abiding faith in the honesty of his fellowman, and pioneering, as was his preference, he unafraid laid down his life, among his friends and surrounded by the evidences of a work well done."

ADA BRADLEY MILLICAN.

Ada Bradley Millican, widow of George Millican and daughter of Kennon Witt and Elizabeth (Pierce) Bradley, was born in a log cabin on a dairy ranch, between Petaluma and Tamallis Bay, Marin county, California, March 14, 1858. Her father was a native of Tennessee, receiving his education in the south. He crossed the plains by ox team from Missouri to Oregon in 1851 and was the first settler on a government donation land claim in Coles valley, Douglas county, Oregon. Besides being a local preacher in the Methodist Episcopal church for a number of years, Mr. Bradley taught the first school in Coles valley. Among his pupils was Elizabeth Pierce, whose parents crossed the plains from Illinois in 1852. En route the oxen gave out and Elizabeth walked part of this great distance. In the little log schoolhouse with its dirt floor, Elizabeth occupied the seat of honor, a huge flat-topped rock. Their associations as teacher and pupil developed a romance and a few years later they were married and moved to California.

When Mrs. Millican was an infant her parents came back into Oregon, locating

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this time near Albany in Linn county, where Ella (Mrs. Busey), now living with Mrs. Millican, was born. In the spring of '65 the Bradley family moved to Walla Walla, Washington, returning a few years later to Coles valley, Oregon, at which place Mr. Bradley died in 1874.

Ada Bradley received her education in the district schools of Coles valley, with the exception of one term at Wilbur Academy, which was spent in the preparatory department. At the age of sixteen years she began teaching in the country schools of Oregon, teaching in Douglas, Linn, and Lane counties for some years. At that time the average school term was three months and the salary twenty-five dollars per month and "boarding 'round." Ada spent part of her vacations in clerking and keeping books in a country store. She was a pioneer along that line, as teaching school, housework at two dollars to two dollars and fifty cents per week, and mar- riage, were the only avenues open to women at that time.

On September 23d, 1881, Ada Bradley was married to George Millican at Eugene, Oregon. Several years were spent at Salem, Eugene, and at the farm on the Mckenzie. A son, Scott Bradley, was born May 18th, 1890, in Eugene. This son died in 1892. After losing their home on the Mckenzie she began teaching again in the rural schools of Linn and Lane counties. In October, 1899, she entered the Government Indian school department, where she taught in training schools and on Indian reservations, in the activities of academic, economic, and industrial occupations for six years. During that time she was at the following places: Whiterock, Utah, Yuma, Arizona, and Sacoton, Arizona, also Cushman (Tacoma), Washington.

During her associations with the Indians Mrs. Millican made what is possibly the best individual collection of Indian curios, along historical lines, in the northwest. Among these are several pieces of pre-historic pottery, implements and jewelry secured from the Pima Indians, on whose reservation are some of the oldest pre-historic ruins in the United States. This collection, which is comprised of specimens from eighty-seven different tribes was secured mostly from the Indians direct, except her Alaskan collection.

A source of great interest and pleasure to Mrs. Millican is working for the ad- vancement and social welfare of the Red man. She is also a strong advocate for the preservation of the Indian names given our towns and natural locations in the west. "Preservation of Indian nomenclatures is," she says, "my hobby."

Mrs. Millican has had time among her other activities for the study of art and literature. A large collection of her paintings and sketches adorn the walls of her Wigwam in Prineville. She has been a contributor to many newspapers and periodicals. One of her best literary works is the "Heart of Oregon or Legend of the Wascos," which was published in 1914. She is considered an authority on questions dealing with Indians on the Pacific coast and for years was the only woman member of the Indian Rights Association from Oregon. Mrs. Millican has also been a member of the American Folk Lore Society and the International Society of Archaeologists, and she took active part in woman's club work, both local and state. She was a charter member of the Woman's Republican Patriotic League at Eugene, Oregon, organized at the time of President Mckinley's election. She is a charter member of the Shu-mi-a Club, which she had the honor of naming, and also a member of the Ladies Annex, both Prineville organizations. At Millican she organized among the women homesteaders and named, The Sku-Ke-Leek Club and in Prineville she organized the Civic Improvement Brigade among the children, this organization being the first to clean up the town.

Mrs. Millican was the first woman in clubdom to put Central Oregon on the map, being the first delegate to the State Federation of Women's Clubs, which she rep- resented for seven years. In 1916 she represented Oregon at the National Federation of Women's Clubs, which was held in New York. She has served as chairman of the literature committee, also on the art and legislative committees of the State Federated Clubs, for a number of years, and at present is chairman of the Indian Welfare department.

A lifelong worker for equal suffrage, Mrs. Millican was president of the Crook County Association when the bill was passed. Crook county at that time comprised Deschutes, Jefferson and Crook counties. While interested in working for the political interests of the country both local and national, Mrs. Millican never ran for office, but was elected justice of the peace in Millican precinct and served numerous times on election boards.

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For many years Mrs. Millican has been an active church member, joining the Methodist Episcopal church at Eugene in 1885. She is a member and has held all of the offices in the fraternal order of the Women of Woodcraft. In 1920, she entered the University of Oregon at Eugene and took up special studies for a time.

With these many activities along social and civic lines, and the constant work- ing for the betterment of conditions surrounding those less fortunate than herself, Mrs. Millican has been an outdoor woman, enjoying nothing better than mountain climbing, hunting and shooting game, and riding the range-the all-around typical western woman.

WILLIAM HANLEY.

By Anne Shannon Monroe.

The substantial quality which marks the state of Oregon today is traceable to her first settlers, who were incarnations of rugged strength and determined purpose. Outstanding in even this notable group of pioneers was Michael Hanley, a river boat- man from Ohio, six feet two and broad in proportion, who came around the Horn to Oregon in 1850 and located on a donation claim near the present town of Roseburg, later buying the Clinton donation claim just below Jacksonville, where he made his permanent home. Two years later he married Martha Burnett of old Virginia stock, a direct descendant of President Polk, whose parents had recently crossed the plains in ox wagons. Michael Hanley took hold of the problems of early pioneering in a big creative way, became a cattle man, a fruit grower, introduced irrigation into Oregon, built a large substantial house for his family, of the high-ceilinged, spacious character, expressive of the spirit of the people of that day- a house still in use and in perfect condition, testifying to the quality of its workmanship-and furnished it with solid mahogany shipped around the Horn from New York. His hospitality was as broad as his acres. His home became the gathering place for all the people round about. Neighbors, travelers, newcomers seeking locations, preachers, educators with college bees in their bonnets, they all found a welcome at the Hanley hearth and a place at the Hanley table. He became the father of a large family: Alice Hanley, who still maintains the Hanley tradition for hospitality at the old Hanley home; Ella, now Mrs. Ella Bush of Medford; Edward B. Hanley, a southern Oregon fruit raiser and Alaska salmon packer; William Hanley, the immediate subject of this sketch; and Michael Hanley, who operates a cattle and fruit ranch near Medford. One son, John, died in his young manhood.

The elder Hanley was notable for his native philosophy and his constructive leader- ship. He helped many a man to meet his problems, and he planted many a settler on Oregon land. At one time he brought out an entire colony from Germany and got them established on virgin soil, which they made into fine producing ranches. He was one of the earliest advocates of free shools, in consequence of which Jacksonville had the first free school in the state. To his initiative and leadership is largely due the pro- gressive spirit that notably marks all southern Oregon. He set the pace. In every undertaking his wife, a delicately bred Southern girl, energetically and ably seconded him. Both paid with their lives the price of too exhaustive pioneering, dying younger than they should have done in the natural course, but leaving a fine record of citizenship to the state and a fine property to their children.

Early in his Oregon experience, Michael Hanley's imagination had been fired by the great unsettled country that swept from the Cascade mountains to the eastern and southern borders of the state. It was a sunny land, a natural cattle man's paradise. with wild grass horse-neck deep over much of it, and great springs that bubbled per- petually, furnishing an abundance of pure cold water. Trading with the Klamath army post and the Klamath Indian agency took him repeatedly into this country, and finally he bought a ranch near the present town of Klamath Falls, and put a boat on the Klamath lakes. When his boys began to grow up, he steadily directed their thoughts toward this still untouched wilderness, shut in by high mountain ranges, unrailroaded and almost unknown, though it comprised two-thirds of the great state. Between William Hanley and his father there was a close bond. Riding to the top of the Cascade mountains one day, the elder Hanley pointed to the great Eastern basin, and said, "Son,

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over there is your opportunity." Failing health made him realize he could never make that land of his dreams, but he wanted his son to make it.

So, when scarcely seventeen, William Hanley, who had always been too intensely occupied with ranch work for much schooling, set off across the Cascade mountains with a little bunch of cattle. He came at last, out of wide desert reaches, to a group of springs, both cold and warm,-the location of the present OO ranch-and here he stopped and made his camp. The sun shone, the sky was blue, the air was dry and sweet, and on beyond lay great sweeps of beautiful grass-filled range. All his father's first love for the vast basin seemed to descend upon him: he adopted it then and there as his own.

From that on he lived the rugged, out-of-door life of a pioneer, getting a start in a wilderness, and taking the punishment all alone. Though only a boy-at the age we are busy "protecting" our boys of today-he was a true pioneer. He wanted the great wild country to become a replica-on a larger scale of southern Oregon: he wanted to see there alfalfa ranches, grain fields, orchards, houses and schools: a boy alone with a bunch of stock on the range and a dream in his head. A long hard fight began-the fight to win the wilderness to developed use. There were a few families, living at great distances from one another, tied to the struggle for existence, so far away from markets, shut off from all communication with the ouside world. Crops had to go out afoot; cattle lost weight on the long hard drives, and often reached the yards only to fail to pay for their trip out. Continually older men with families gave up the struggle, sold out, and left.

But the boy stuck. Little by little his stock increased, he got title to more land, and his strength and understanding grew. He began to plan for a railroad. To settle the country without a railroad was not practical, prior to the advent of motor cars and trucks. The history of the railroad maneuvers in this country is one of the greatest railroad romances-and tragedies-in the whole west. The Harriman interests secured the right of way into the country through the mountain gorges and passes, began a survey, started a flurry of excitement-more settlers were encouraged to stick and others to flock into the country-then dropped the whole matter. The settlers got together, planned a private railroad, raised money and started surveys. Then the railroad interests came in and bought them out, promising to go ahead with the work-and once more dropped the whole matter. This program was repeated time after time with sickening loss of hope on the part of settlers, sickening despair in their lives. The history of transportation promises and disappointments in central Oregon is a history of hearts broken with unfulfilled pledges. William Hanley finally began what was con- sidered an impossible task, interesting Mr. James J. Hill of the North Pacific lines, in the country. With his broad development policy he had made a garden spot of a region very similar, just to the north, in the state of Washington: he could do the same thing for Oregon. Mr. Hanley brought the Hills into the country, laid the possibilities before them, got them interested, and as a result there began the famous race down the Des Chutes canyon, the Hills building a road on one side of the narrow gorge, the Harri- mans on the other. Mr. Hill died, the Harrimans bought out the Hill road, and develop- ment once more stopped; but the most expensive piece of construction was finished, and there now remained only the task of laying lines across the great open flat area to the east. Lines were eventually laid from the south and the east, bringing the great central Oregon basin into fairly good marketing connection with such centers as Boise, Salt Lake, Chicago, Omaha and San Francisco, and still other lines are on the way.

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History of Oregon, Vol. III, Part 91

Author: Carey, Charles Henry Publication date: 1922 Publisher: Chicago, Portland, The Pioneer historical publishing company Number of Pages: 766

Author: Carey, Charles Henry
Publication date: 1922
Publisher: Chicago, Portland, The Pioneer historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 766