Portrait and biographical record of the Willamette valley, Oregon, containing original sketches of many well known citizens of the past and present, Part 166

Author: Chapman Publishing Company, Chicago
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: Chicago, The Chapman Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1622

USA > Oregon > Portrait and biographical record of the Willamette valley, Oregon, containing original sketches of many well known citizens of the past and present > Part 166

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been a member of the Christian Church, during which year she joined the church with her hus- band, both working zealously thereafter for the promotion of the cause of truth and morality.

The first departure from accustomed grooves in the life of James M. Stafford was when he went to Idaho, and with the rough and daring element in search of fortunes in the mines exper- ienced a decided change from the quiet farming existence. Fourteen months sufficed to convince him of the dignity and usefulness of the life he had left behind, and returning to it, he has never ceased to pay it the homage of a sincere, practical and industrious devotion. In 1866 he bought four hundred acres of his father's farm, and October 25, 1866, married and brought to the old home, Sarah Hardman, daughter of Samuel and Mary (Backus) Hardman. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Stafford eleven children were born: Of these Marion F. is the oldest; Lina F. is the wife of Findlev Lena; Clara M. is the wife of John Haines of Eugene; Geneva M. is the wife of Thomas Seavey; Laura V .; Pearl ; Fred J. died at the age of fourteen years; Wal- ter; William G .; Edgar L .; and Esther B.

At the present time Mr. Stafford owns five hundred acres of land in the Mohawk valley, seven miles northeast of Springfield, and carries on principally stock-raising, having large num- bers of Shorthorn cattle. In addition to his polit- ical services he was prominent in the Mohawk Grange during its existence, serving as master, and in many ways promoted the best interests of the association, and for many years was mas- ter of the Pomona Grange. Mr. Stafford enjoys the prestige arising from a successful career, and from the possession of those personal attri- butes which win and retain friends, and inspire confidence in those with whom he is associated.

JESSE H. SMITH. A busy, energetic and capable life has been that of Jesse H. Smith, who has long been a resident of Lane county, his home being in the vicinity of Natron. He was born in Polk county, Mo., February 20, 1837, and came here in 1849 with his parents, for a more detailed account of whom refer to the sketch of William F. Smith, the oldest son of the family. given on another page of this work. The duty of this young emigrant while on the trip was to guard the cattle, and after his arrival in Ore- gon he lived the life of a pioneer's son in his father's home until 1854, when he helped to build the first courthouse in Eugene, there being only four other men detailed on the work. In 1856 he went to the mines in southern Oregon and located with others on Grave creek, where he took out a half cupful of gold every

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day, but after nine days they were driven out by the Indians. Returning to his father's farm he remained there until the death of the latter, in the meantime purchasing a farm of three hundred and thirty-three acres, where he lived for a year. This property he sold and invested the proceeds in the farm which he now occupies, at the present time owning seven hundred acres of land, it having been reduced from twelve hundred by the distribution of a large amount to his children. Throughout his life he has carried on general farming and stock-raising, and has also been largely interested in the dairy business.

The marriage of Mr. Smith occurred in 1856, and united him with Miss Mary Grigsby, and of the five children born to them Sadie is the wife of John Laird, of Garfield, Whitman county, Wash .; Emma is the wife of James Wallace, in this vicinity; Cora is the wife of Newton Lindley, also in this vicinity; Walter is a merchant in Natron; and John died at the age of twenty-one years. In his political rela- tions Mr. Smith has always been a stanch Repub- lican, and through the influence of this party his son Walter was made postmaster at Natron. In religious views the family are all in accord, their membership being in the Christian Church.

ALBERT S. WALKER. The advancement and prosperity of the thriving little city of Springfield, Lane county, Ore., is largely due to the progressive and energetic captains of indus- try, who early perceived its advantages as a business center and have been influential in de- veloping its resources. Prominent among these is Albert S. Walker, now one of its foremost cit- izens and a prosperous real estate dealer and in- surance agent. A native of Missouri, he was born January II, 1846, in Greene county, a son of the late William Walker, an Oregon pioneer.

William Walker was born in Georgia, but spent a large part of his earlier life in Chatta- nooga, Tenn. Going to Greene county, Mo., in 1843, he lived there four years, working as a millwright and a cabinetmaker. Coming across the plains in an ox-team train in 1853, he located first in Lane county, Ore., taking up three hun- dred and sixty acres of land near Creswell, where he lived four years. Removing to Eugene in 1857, he established himself in mercantile pur- suits, dealing in drugs and general merchandise until 1861. Investing then in land near Eugene, he carried on ranching ten years in that location, and then, in 1871, purchased a farm at Pleasant Hill, where he pursued his independent vocation until his retirement. He attained a good old age, dying at Springfield, Ore., in 1881, at the age of seventy-eight years. One of the representative

pioneers of this section of the state, he rendered material assistance in developing one of the best counties in Oregon, and was an important factor in advancing its educational, moral and political status. In his younger days he was a Whig, and afterward affiliated with the Republican party, and was in hearty sympathy with the Abolition- ists. He married Mary Shields, who was born in Georgia, and died, at the age of seventy-six years, in Eugene, Ore. Of the nine children that blessed their union, Albert S. was the only son.

Having been but seven years of age when he came with his parents to Lane county, Albert S. Walker obtained the rudiments of his education in the common schools, afterwards attending the old Columbia College, at Eugene, for two years, finally graduating therefrom. Assuming charge of the farm which his father owned in the vicin- ity of Eugene, he conducted it from 1862 until 1881, being successful as a farmer. Locating then in Springfield, Mr. Walker established him- self as a blacksmith, winning a large and lucra- · tive patronage in this vicinity. Since retiring from his trade in the spring of 1903, Mr. Walk- er has been actively engaged in the real estate and insurance business, in which he is meeting with encouraging success, handling both farm and town property. He has acquired a good share of this world's goods, and owns a well improved ranch of forty acres, lying about three miles southeast of Springfield.

Mr. Walker married, in Polk county, Ore., in 1868, Miss Sarah L. Higgins, who was born in Massachusetts. Her father, the late Seldon Higgins, also a native of Massachusetts, was a dyer by trade, and worked for a number of years in the mills of Woburn, Mass. Leaving his native state in 1851, he came with his family by train to the Missouri river, and then across the plains with ox-teams, to Oregon. Locating in Polk county, he purchased three hundred and sixty acres of land in Spring Valley, and was there engaged in general farming until his death, at a venerable age, in 1898. In common with the other pioneers of his county, he labored with untiring energy to develop a farm from the wild country in which he had settled, and was successful in his efforts. Mr. and Mrs. Walker are the parents of eight children, all living at home, namely: Herbert E., William F., Mary B., Ralph Gladstone. Jessie May. Grace, Ida and Joy. A man of broad and liberal views, alive to the important needs of the day, Mr. Walker has been influential in educational and political circles, and besides serving ten years as school director has the distinction of having served in 1891 as the first mayor of Spring- field. He has likewise served as councilman, and is one of the leading Republicans of the

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city. For twenty-two years he has been identified with the independent Order of Odd Fellows, be- ing a charter member and past noble grand of the subordinate lodge, and a member of the en- campment. He also belongs to the fraternal order of Woodmen of the World. He is an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which he is a trustee, and also the superintendent of its Sunday School.

BRUNO C. VITUS. The road to success, with its innumerable windings, furnishes a never- ending theme to the old and young, the latter be- cause they desire, and the former because their own course still charms with its gain, or endears with its sorrow and misfortune. Each suc- ceeds in his own way, yet certain underlying principles light the careers of the truly suc- cessful. These same principles lead more often through hard and disappointing ways, as many right in our own midst might testify, and were one to select an example of the truth of the say- ing it were impossible to find a better than that furnished by a whole family, banded together and working for their mutual benefit, and that one in Lane county. The family referred to is that of Augustus J. F. Vitus, himself one of the most prominent of the pioneers, and the father of sons who would scorn the idea of failure in life.

Bruno C. Vitus, the second child of the five sons and three daughters of Augustus J. F. Vitus, was born in Dunkirk, N. Y., December 17, 1852, and his removal to Philadelphia, Pa., followed not many months later. He was twelve years old when the family located in Springfield, Ill., where he attended school for nine years, and then accompanied his parents to Breckenridge, Mo., in 1873. Long years before. the sons and father had established a sort of co-operative existence, inspired by peculiarly strong family ties, and the harmonious blending of dispositions and aspirations. They had not been successful in Missouri, and when they arrived in Oregon in 1878 the family assets consisted of thirty-two dollars and a wonderful amount of determina- tion. A cook-stove was purchased for thirty dollars, some tinware for the remaining two dollars, and a sack of flour was purchased on credit. It was necessary for all hands to start out at once' to earn money for the necessities of life. and father and sons succeeded in finding work on the surrounding farms during the first summer. That fall they rented a farm, and went in deht for a considerable amount. the following vear hlasting their expectations, owing to rust on the wheat. They were obliged to borrow $4,000, paving fifteen per cent interest, and the drain of such an expenditure, even with the most favorable crops, can be imagined, but hardly

appreciated. Nevertheless, this difficulty was overcome by pluck and perseverance, and in time the sum of $25,000 was paid in full on the farm. After getting started this was compar- atively easy, and they often made as high as $13,000 a year on grain and stock. For six- teen years father and four sons worked together on the six hundred and ninety-five acres, their name standing for all that was reliable and substantial in business, and fine and honorable in character.

In 1894 Mr. Vitus left the home farm and with his earnings bought his present farm of three hundred and twenty-seven acres two and a half miles northeast of Springfield. This by no means represents the whole of his investments, for he owns fifty lots in an addition to the city of Eugene on the south and has other property scattered over the county. For his first wife Mr. Vitus married, in 1894, Theresa Kimmel, who lived only six years after her marriage. The present Mrs. Vitus was formerly Dorothy Blume, daughter of John F. and Henrietta (Kriesel) Blume, who was married in 1900, and who is the mother of two children, Maurice Bruno and Cosima Dorothy. The Vitus home is a pleasant and hospitable one, surrounded by well kept lawns, and outhouses and fences of modern and substantial make. The farm is all valley land, and Mr. Vitus devotes the greater part to stock and hog raising. He is a Repub- lican in politics, and is fraternally associated with the Eugene Lodge of Elks. Personally and from a business standpoint, Mr. Vitus ex- erts a wide influence in Lane county, his repu- tation resting upon his own individual efforts, rather than upon any dignity and honor cast by his capable and prominent father. He is broad- minded, enterprising and public-spirited, foster- ing education, morality and integrity.

AUGUSTUS J. F. VITUS. JR. Yet another of the sons who are helping to maintain a stand- ard established by an earnest and capable pioneer is Augustus J. F. Vitus, Jr., the namesake of his sire, and in many respects the counterpart of the older man. Mention having been made else- where of the ambitious man who brought his family to Oregon in 1878, and who has given to his adopted state sons of whom she may well he proud, it is necessary only to say that in his home he enforced obedience. and reared his children to improve and use the faculties with which they had heen endowed. Augustus J. F., Jr., was born near Springfield, Ill., August 8. 1867, and was therefore eleven years of age when he came to this state.

After coming to the west Mr. Vitus com- pleted the education begun in the public schools

JAMES M. SPORES.

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of the middle west, and with his brothers and father conducted their large stock-raising and milling business. He then identified himself with his brother, Robert, leaving his other brothers and father sole possessors of the former enterprise. The two brothers own about a thousand acres of land, six hundred of which are given up to grain cultivation, and the bal- ance to stock and general farming. No more enterprising or successful young men are con- tributing to the upbuilding of this section, nor are any more enthusiastic in their praise of the state which has given them an assured income, as well as a pleasant home and genial friends. Mr. Vitus was happily married to Laura Wes- trope, the ceremony having taken place Novem- ber 19, 1902. From her native Sonoma county, Cal., Mrs. Vitus seems to have brought a dispo- sition and character tinged with the brightness and cheerfulness always expected of the daugh- ters of California. This young couple are well educated and progressive, alert to the happenings in the outside world, and by no means confining themselves to the borders of their farm. Both are members and workers in the Baptist Church, and Mr. Vitus is a stanch Republican, although he is never troubled with official longings, and would in all probability refuse tendered offices. He has many friends in the neighborhood and county, and is destined to take an important part in the development of agriculture and stock-raising.

JAMES M. SPORES. One of the largest family gatherings which came to Oregon in 1847 was that gotten together by Jacob C. Spores, the founder of an honored name and a large farm- ing and ferrying interest in Lane county. His son, James M., to perpetuate whose memory this sketch is written, and whose death on his farm near Springfield, February 22, 1900, caused widespread regret, was born while his parents were living in Winnebago county, Ill., May 19, 1835. In 1846 the family removed to Missouri, and in the spring of 1847 carried out the object which had inspired their emigration, the making of a home among the crude but promising con- ditions of the northwest. Jacob C. Spores reared a large family, some of whom married young and had children of their own, all living around the old folks, or on nearby farms. These helped to swell the number of the party with western aspirations, and all lent a helping hand in the extensive preparations required for the overland jaunt. Many horses and cattle accompanied the expedition, and in due time, and with the usual number of unpleasant occurrences, the west was reached, holding out to the industrious and re- sourceful pioneers varied and giant possibilities.

The grandfather settled on a farm near Coburg, and the town afterward springing up on a portion of his land, he was the very first thus to identify his fortunes with the now prosperous locality. At that time a man by the name of Eugene Skinner occupied the townsite of Eugene. Jacob C. Spores set about making himself comfortable in his new surroundings, and on his section of land erected a log cabin near where the bridge has since been built. He regarded the river from the standpoint of utility, and, knowing that many must pass and repass before much had been ac- complished in the way of upbuilding the neigh- borhood, he started a ferry across, which was as useful as it was novel and enterprising. He was the architect and builder of the ferry-boat, mak- ing it out of rough timber, a strong but unwieldly structure, calculated to weather the stress and storms of a long and varied career. The boat was not erected too soon, for during 1848-9 hundreds of miners passed that way on their way to California, and all were glad to avail them- selves of the easy transportation, thus swelling the receipts from this pioneer water-craft, and giving the ferryman a good start in life. With the advent of the bridge the boatman's occupa- tion disappeared, and something of the pathetic surrounds the thought of the modern innovation, for many years had passed since the cumbersome craft first glided over the water, and many mem- ories had been stored up in the mind of the ferryman. It was necessarily a part of his life, and as such was hard to part with. He con- tinued to make his home on the old place for the remainder of his life, both himself and wife living to an advanced age.

While James M. Spores was driving an ox- team across the plains for his father he dreamed many dreams, and fortunately was able to realize more than does the average dreamer in this world of chance. A turning point in his life was his marriage, March 27, 1853, with Mary C. Thomas, member of one of the pioneer families of Ore- gon, and a native of Calhoun county, Mich., where she was born in 1832. Her parents, Jona- than and Jeanette (Simons) Thomas, were born in New York state, moved soon after to Michi- gan, and from there went to Illinois in 1836. In Winnebago county the father took up gov- ernment land, and, in the spring of 1852, crossed the plains with seven yoke of oxen. three cows and a mare, his family at that time consisting of his wife and five children, of whom Mrs. Spores is the oldest. Louisa, the second daughter, married Frank Powers : Samuel lives near Coburg; Almira married John H. Milliron, and lives on the Mckenzie place, and John lives on the home place near Coburg. The family were nine months in ac- complishing the journey to Oregon, and their

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trip was characterized by all of the horror and dread of that great cholera year. At the end of the trip Mr. Thomas found that he had just two oxen and the mare with which to start life in the west, all of the other stock having died on the way. The following spring he took up a claim of three hundred and twenty acres near Coburg, and here the remainder of his life was spent, his death occurring in 1876, at the age of seventy-seven years.

Shortly after his marriage Mr. J. M. Spores moved near the farm now occupied by his widow, and worked in the sawmill for a time, afterward returning to his father's farm and assisting him with the ferry-boat. In June, 1857, he located on the farm where his last days were spent, and which at the time con- sisted of one hundred and sixty acres. Prac- tical and progressive, he utilized the most ad- vanced ideas in further improving his farm, additional land being required as his interests increased in variety and extent, and in time he accumulated nearly one thousand acres. The farm is unrivalled for location, being five miles northeast of Springfield, on the McKen- zie river, and in the Mohawk valley. Mr. Spores was sufficiently public-spirited to ap- preciate the duty of every able-bodied citizen from a political standpoint, and he gladly gave his services towards maintaining a high stand- ard of excellence in county government. He was county commissioner for two terms, and served on the jury for sixteen years continu- ously. From early manhood he gave his moral and financial support to the Methodist Epis- copal Church, and he was fraternally con- nected with the United Workmen. Since his death, his widow has continued to reside on the home place, and, assisted by her sons, ex- pects to carry out the plans so well laid by her popular and highly respected husband. A large family was born to Mr. and Mrs. Spores, the oldest daughter, Arminda, being the wife of Thomas Jenkins, and living on the home place ; John married Emma Drury, and lives near his wife's mother; George married Josie Clark ; Mary S. is the wife of George Smith, of Coburg; Samuel lives in eastern Oregon ; Irene is the wife of John Reneger, of this vi- cinity ; Frank married Belle Barrett, and lives near his mother ; Charles is engaged in mining at Nome, Alaska ; Daniel married Kate Drury, and Leila lives in Portland. Mr. Spores was a man of leading characteristics, and he not only succeeded from a financial standpoint, but made many and true friends, leaving to those bearing his name the heritage of a nobly-lived and well-directed life,

HON. JAMES L. COLLINS. Prominent among the representative men of Polk county is Hon. James L. Collins, known not alone as one whose name was among the first to be identified with the American settlements in Oregon, but rather for his intimate relations with the per- manent history of our commonwealth. Begin- ning in pioneer days, in the midst of undeveloped resources and a rude civilization, he gave himself wholly to the western cause, faithful in the pur- suit of duty, whether in camp or field, as a sol- dier in defense of the settlers or a citizen in tlie material upbuilding of the country; through the changes of time and progression he has ad- vanced his own interests and those of his adopted state by lifting himself to a position of exceptional prominence among the many who are entitled to the esteem and admiration of the present generation. The interest which attaches to the pioneers of Oregon is not inspired by cur- iosity, but rather by that affection which centers about the lives and deeds of those who blazed the trail for the westward march of progress. Before touching upon the life of Judge Collins we will give a brief outline of the ancestry to which he owes those characteristics which have enabled him to become a power among many hampering conditions. His maternal grandfather was a descendant of Thomas Wyatt, a man well known in the history of England through his opposition to the marriage of Queen Mary to Philip of Spain, and who was beheaded by her orders for his participation in the rebellion which occurred about 1554. Sir Henry Wyatt, the father of Thomas Wyatt, was a member of the privy council of Henry the Eighth. His maternal grandmother, Elizabeth Sea, was de- scended from the Duke of Argyll, while his father's mother was Jane Eddings, the repre- sentative of an old Virginia family. Smith Col- lins, the father of Judge Collins, was born in Orange county, Va., in 1804, the son of George and the grandson of William, both of whom were natives of the same location. The latter was an intimate friend of General Washington. and served under him in the Revolutionary war. He was a Virginia planter and died in the Old Dominion. George Collins moved to Montgom- ery county, Mo., and later by a division of this county he found himself located in the new county of Warren, near Warrenton, where he owned a large tract of land on Barracks creek, and was engaged extensively in the culture of tobacco and corn. He served in the war of 1812, and died in Missouri in 1845.

Smith Collins was a boy of ten years when the British burned the city of Washington, and he heard the cannonading and saw the con- flagration, His home remained in Virginia for

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many years, and at the age of eighteen he learned the tanner's trade at Port Republic, that state. On the completion of his apprenticeship he went to Fayetteville, N. C., where he worked as a journeyman for a Mr. Prince, and later re- moved to Cheraw Hill, S. C., and became fore- man for H. G. Nelson. In 1827 he located in Missouri, where his father had previously set- tled, both being pioneers in this state of the middle west. He brought with him a little mare for which he was offered forty acres of land now in the heart of the city of St. Louis, which was then only a little French village with the greater part of the land about covered with black-jack. When the Collins family left the state, nineteen years later, St. Louis had become an important city of the south, with flourishing markets and substantial business houses. On his arrival in Missouri Mr. Collins became superintendent of the Stevenson tannery in St. Charles county, where he remained until 1829, when he opened a tanyard and shop near his father's home on Bar- racks creek. He was married the same year and shortly afterward his father-in-law, Douglas Wyatt, gave his daughter forty acres of land located on Chariton creek, where Mr. Collins subsequently established a tannery and conducted the same in connection with farming.

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Portrait and biographical record of the Willamette valley, Oregon, containing original sketches of many well known citizens of the past and present, Part 166

Author: Chapman Publishing Company, Chicago Publication date: 1903 Publisher: Chicago, The Chapman Publishing Company Number of Pages: 1622

Author: Chapman Publishing Company, Chicago
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: Chicago, The Chapman Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1622