Portrait and biographical record of the Willamette valley, Oregon, containing original sketches of many well known citizens of the past and present, Part 249

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 249

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The second marriage of Mr. Matlock united him with Louisa Rutledge, who was born April I, 1852, in Illinois, and is a half-sister of his first wife. Her death occurred in Eugene, July

17, 1891, after which he married Mrs. Sarah Durant, the widow of William Durant. She was born in Indiana, August 15, 1843, and came to Oregon in 1874. Her father was Samuel Lowe, a native of Ireland, who came to a farm near Omaha, Neb., and when retired made his home near that city until his death. The first husband of Mrs. Matlock was a merchant in Eugene, who died in 1887. Of the six children born of their union five are now deceased, one daughter, Jen- nie, who married Robert M. Pratt, living in Eu- gene. Mr. Matlock is the father of twelve chil- dren: Elizabeth C. is the wife of S. C. Smith, of Eugene; Edis De Witt and Caswell C. are merchants in Eugene; Lulu S. died in Eugene ; Louisa C. is the wife of George Randebusch, of Los Angeles, Cal .; Bertha M. is the wife of E. E. Emmons, of Dawson, British Columbia; Mary M. died in Eugene; Joseph Fry is attending the Naval Training School; Frankie and William are deceased; Eugene is at home; and Hazel is deceased. In his fraternal relations Mr. Matlock was made a Mason in Engene Lodge No. 1I, A. F. & A. M., and is also a member of Eugene Chapter No. 10, R. A. M .; Ivanhoe Commandery No. 2, K. T., and the Consistory No. I, having taken the thirty-second degree; and Al Kader Temple, N. M. S. He was made a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows in Eu- gene, in which he is past noble grand, and also belongs to the Encampment. He is a member of the Christian Church.

HUGH M. FINLEY. The fruit-raising pos- sibilities of Benton county, and more especially of the region around Bruce, have tempted many to engage in this always interesting occupation to the credit of themselves and of the whole neighborhood. Among these may be mentioned Hugh M. Finley, owner of a farm of two hun- dred acres on the Willamette river, and about six miles northeast of Monroe. The majority of the improvements on this paying property are traceable to the enterprise and progressiveness of the present owner, who has lived here since 1876 and is an integral part of the prosperous community. He is one of the largest fruit grow- ers in the vicinity, having a prune orchard alone which is thirty-five acres in extent. Besides this he has a grain warehouse capable of storing his own and his neighbors' commodities.

Born in Saline county, Mo., January 27, 1847, Mr. Finley is a son of James W. and Margaret (Campbell) Finley, natives respectively of Ken- tucky and North Carolina, and the former born in 1820. At a very early date James W. Finley moved with his parents from Kentucky to Mis- souri, where he married, and lived on a farm until 1852. In the meantime seven children had

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been born into his family, of whom William A. is now a resident of California; Newton also lives in California; Sarah Emery is a resident of California; J. P. lives in Portland; Anna Em- bree lives in Polk county, Ore .; James B. is in Nevada ; and Hugh M. is the subject of this ar- ticle. With his seven children and wife Mr. Finley crossed the plains in 1852 with ox and mule teams, the journey consuming about six months. Coming direct to California, he took up a claim in Santa Clara county, and soon after- ward the mother died. Mr. Finley subsequently married again, and lived to be fifty-six years old.

At the age of twenty Hugh M. Finley came from California and located in Corvallis, where he supplemented his common school education by further training at the Oregon Agricultural College, from which he was duly graduated. Thereafter he engaged in educational work, and, in 1872, married Emma Canthorn, a native of Missouri. For five years Mr. Finley was en- gaged in teaching. In 1876 he bought his pres- ent farm of two hundred acres on the Willam- ette river, where he has reared his four children, of whom Ross C. is in Portland, Edna and Ada are in Corvallis, and Percy is at home. Mr. Finley is a Democrat in politics, and is frater- nally associated with the Ancient Order of United Workmen. He is popular and well liked and is one of the cultured, broad-minded and very successful men of his neighborhood.

HON. LINDSAY APPLEGATE. Few pio- neers of history who participated in the multi- tudes of disasters and hardships attending those emigrating to a new, unsettled country have had more thrilling experiences than those of Lindsay Applegate, who, with his brother Charles and Jesse Applegate, stand so conspicuously in the early history of Oregon.

Lindsay Applegate was born September 18, 1808, in Henry county, Ky., and lived in his na- tive state until 1820, when the family removed to St. Louis county, Mo. There the educational advantages were yet in very poor condition and the education he received until his fifteenth year was by no means complete. With some young comrades he enlisted under General Ashley of St. Louis, in a trapping expedition over the Rocky mountains. This expedition was divided ; one division taking a train of pack mules was to travel overland and the other, of which Lindsay Applegate was a member, with heavy baggage started to ascend the Missouri river. When the river party had reached Pawneetown, they were attacked by the Indians, defeated, and sought refuge at Council Bluffs. At this place young Applegate and several others were taken ill, which necessitated their return to St. Louis. From

there he returned to his home, but his restless spirit longed for a more adventuresome life than was there afforded him, and he followed trading on the Mississippi river. After awhile, he dis- continued this to work in the newly discovered lead mines of Galena, Ill., and later served as volunteer in the Black Hawk war under General Whitesides.

In 1831, Mr. Applegate was joined in mar- riage with Elizabeth Miller in Cole county, Mo .; not long afterward he removed to southwestern Missouri, where he erected the first saw-mill built in that section of the state. In company with his wife and brothers and a small company of emigrants he crossed the plains to Oregon in 1843 and soon became known as one of the pioneer settlers of Polk county. In 1844 he served as a member of the First Volunteer Com- pany organized to protect the new settlements from the Indians. In 1846 he was one of the fifteen who discovered the south road from the Willamette valley to Fort Hall. Two years later he made a trip by land to the newly discovered mines of California, but the same year returned by water. He raised a company of soldiers in 1850 and went in pursuit of the deserting regu- lars from Oregon City and captured them. The same year he went south to the Umpqua river, there to serve as special Indian agent under Gen- cral Palmer. Lindsay Applegate also raised a detachment of Mounted Oregon Volunteers and was soon mustered into the United States service in the war against the Rogue River Indians. August 22, 1853, they marched from Winchester to Fort Alden, near Table Rock, then the head- quarters of Governor Lane, and served until Sep- tember 7, 1853, when Mr. Applegate was made captain of the company. When the treaty be- tween the Indians and Governor Lane was signed at Table Rock, Captain Applegate was also present.

In 1859, he took possession of the Toll House in the Siskiyou mountains, Jackson county, and there attended to the toll road from that place to the California state line, which was then on his land. Two years later, as captain of the Rogue river volunteers, he traveled east of the Siskiyou mountains, protecting the emigrants into Oregon from the Indians. In 1864 he served as in- terpreter at the Klamath-Modoc treaty and in the ensuing year was appointed sub-agent, serving at Klamath until 1869, when a military agent took the place and he was removed. As a proof of Captain Applegate's honesty while acting as Indian agent we quote from his final discharge and settlement: "Your account for disburse- ments in the Indian services from January 1, 1868, till January 1, 1869, has been adjusted and a balance found due you of $42.01, differing that amount from your last account as explained in

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the accompanying settlement. (Signed) E. B. French, Auditor."

There are those who believe that had Lindsay Applegate remained in charge of the Lake In- dians all would have gone well, and that one bloody drama of the Modoc war would never have been played. Mr. Applegate represented Jackson county in the Oregon legislature in 1862 and acted under Superintendent Rector as spe- cial Indian agent for southern Oregon. He died at his old home in Ashland, Jackson county, Ore., one of those restless strong spirits which help hew out the way for civilization in the wilder- ness, and who are nevertheless willing to aid liberally in promoting the refining influences of an advancing people.

Among his children were three of special men- tion, as follows: Lucien B. Applegate, who was surveyor general of Oregon and Indian agent at Klamath Falls; Capt. Ivan Applegate, who served in the Modoc Indian war, and Capt. Oliver C. Applegate, who is now Indian agent at Kla- math Falls and also served in the Modoc war.

HENRY SHEAK. The position which Henry Sheak has occupied in the professional line in Oregon has been one of no little im- portance, for many students have gone from his instruction into the business world either to add to its prestige by a life in keeping with their work or to a failure which would reflect upon their preceptor. That success has attended Mr. Sheak is attested by the many who have profited by his capable instruction in their own successes, strong commendations from the citizens of all communities where he has made his home being the tribute paid to his qualifications and special fitness for the work which has engrossed his at- tention for so many years.

To the citizens of the Willamette valley Mr. Sheak needs no introduction, for he is well and favorably known. He was born near Canal Ful- ton, Ohio, June 19, 1843. His great-grand- parents were Hollanders and immigrated to this country with an infant son, christened Christian, and settled in Connecticut, but both parents died when Christian was so young that he never learned the German language. Christian Sheak grew up and married Mary Kirkham, a Yankee girl of English ancestry. The issue was three children, Mary, Ezekiel and Almira. They re- moved to Troy, N. Y., where Ezekiel, the grandfather of Henry Sheak, grew up, attended the public schools, working on the farm, clerk- ing in a grocery, learning the harnessmaking trade and that of shoemaking, teaching school, becoming captain of a battery in the state militia and at thirty-nine marrying Olive Young, a young widow with two boys, George and Hamil-

ton. James Devoe, her grandfather, came to this country with LaFayette and she attended a reception given LaFayette on his last visit to this country. Mrs. Sheak's mother's maiden name was Irene Root, and her people came from England in early colonial times, many of her relatives participating in the Revolutionary war.

The marriage of Ezekiel Sheak occurred about 1835 at the home of the bride's parents at Saratoga Springs, N. Y. On October 28, 1837, the first child was born and named James. The following year Mr. Sheak with his father's family and one step-son, Hamilton, removed to Canal Fulton, Ohio, and purchased a tract of timber land near there, and the work of carving out a home on the frontier commenced. The parents were aged and feeble, but Ezekiel was in his prime, athletic, six feet and one inch in stature and weighed one hundred and ninety pounds. Log houses were built and the heavy forests were rapidly converted into orchards and into fields of grain. Here three more sons were born to Ezekiel Sheak and wife, John, Henry and Charles.

In 1846 the parents both died and Ezekiel gave all of his share of the estate, which had been held in common, to his maiden sister, Al- mira, and moved on a farm near Massillon, Ohio. Here he provided a good home for his family and educated his children in the public schools, until 1855, when he was taken down with lung fever and soon died. A series of mis- fortunes had left the family destitute, and the mother, paralyzed with grief, was left in a piti- able condition. Henry, at the tender age of eleven, with tearful eyes and a heavy heart, turned from all the endearments of home and found a home among strangers. The family with whom he found a refuge was Dutch, and Henry soon learned to talk the language. They clad him with a suit of clothes of a boy much larger than he, who had died, and his uncouth appearance was very mortifying to him, but his extreme timidity kept him from revealing his embarrass- ment. In early springtime his feet were wet for weeks at a time, and many times he found his stockings frozen in the morning, and he had a hard time to get them on, to say nothing about his discomfort after they were on. Here a good part of two years was spent. Meanwhile the mother and two older brothers had bought eight acres of land and put up a house, and Henry returned home to work in summer and attend school in winter. His ambition was to get an education, and his mother had promised to let him attend the high school of Massillon as soon as the place was paid for. About the time this was accomplished Henry was greatly agitated over the news and pictures in Harper's Weekly. of the preparations the south was making for

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war. When the news came that Sumter had been fired upon he was so excited that for two nights he could not sleep at all, and he made his bed on the floor and practiced the most abste- mious habits of living in order to inure himself to the hardships of soldier life. On April 21, 1860, when he was but seventeen years of age, he enlisted, but was disappointed by not being called into the field. Nearly all of his neighbors were in sympathy with the south, so he bought a soldier cap and wore it to show which cause he espoused. In September of the same year both he and his brother James enlisted in the Nine- teenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and went to the camp of rendezvous at Alliance, Ohio. The regiment was soon sent into Kentucky and the winter campaign was very severe, what with marching through rain, sleet and mud, living on mush made of unsifted corn meal without salt, half burned and half uncooked, carrying that in the haversack and eating it cold, but straight for dinner, often having to wring out the wet blan- kets after the night's rest and carry the enor- mous load of wet blankets and wet clothes all day, trudging through the slush all day and crawl under wet blankets at night and lie in mud and water. After several weeks of this expe- rience Henry was picked up in a fence corner one day and taken in an ambulance to an ex- temporized hospital and laid on the bare floor, where he lay half unconscious for two days, when his case was diagnosed and he placed on a mat of straw and given something to eat. After several weeks he was able to walk, and wanted to go to his regiment. but being refused, he and a comrade who had lost his speech ran away from the hospital and for several weeks marched alone through the storms of winter, de- pending upon the mercy of guerillas for their lives and the hospitality of the people for food and shelter, when they finally reached Bowling Green, Ky., and took the cars and met their regiment at Nashville and were soon en route for Shiloh. After this severe battle the Corinth campaign commenced, and after that city was evacuated the army marched through northern Mississippi and Alabama to Battle-Creek. Tenn. Here the army camped, and for two weeks lived on fresh pork, foraged without permission, and cooked and eaten without salt or crackers or any condiment whatever. Then Mr. Sheak was taken down with chronic diarrhea and taken to the hospital at Nashville, and only recovered in time to return to his regiment just before the battle of Stone River. After this sanguinary battle Mr. Sheak was on the top of a train which ran off the track, and he was thrown down an embankment of about thirty feet and was in- jured internally, on account of which he was sent to Nashville, and from there to Louisville

and thence to Camp Dennison, and recovered in time to return to his regiment just before the battle of Chickamauga. After this disastrous conflict the army was shut up and besieged at Chattanooga and the army became so famished that Mr. Sheak said he often was tempted to gnaw the flesh from his own arms. The battle of Missionary Ridge relieved the siege, and part of the army was sent to relieve the army besieged at Knoxville. The army was without rations and but partially clothed, but they parched corn and wrapped their feet in rags and marched over the frozen ground, leaving the snow stained with blood. Under these circum- stances the time for which the regiment had enlisted had expired and the men were asked to re-enlist and Mr. Sheak, with all of his company, with the exception of two, again entered the service of their country for three years, or dur- ing the war. This term of service commenced January 1, 1864, and Mr. Sheak was promoted to corporal.

A furlough of thirty days was joyously spent with friends, after which the regiment returned to east Tennessee and soon started on the At- lanta campaign, when they were under fire night and day for one hundred and four days continu- ously, and the army slept with their accoutre- ments on, with the exception of three days. Mr. Sheak had many bullet-holes shot in his cloth- ing from time to time, one bullet going through the crown of his hat and grazing his scalp; and in the last battle of the campaign, the battle of Lovejoy, he had eighteen bullet-holes shot in his clothing, and every commissioned officer in the regiment was either killed or wounded.

Assistant Inspector Gen. R. L. Walker certi- fies as follows: "This is to certify that Henry Sheak, corporal Co. I, One Hundred and Nine- tieth V. V. I., was a member of my company and participated in the following named battles : Shiloh, Corinth, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, Mission Ridge, Newhope Church, Pine Knob, Kenesaw, Ferry Road Camp Ground, Peach- tree Creek, Atlanta, Lovejoy, Columbia, Frank- lin and Nashville. Since May 17 last he has held a clerkship in this office and by good con- duct as a soldier on the field and by ability, faithfulness and integrity in this office he has won for himself the esteem of both officers and men. [Signed] R. Ludlo Walker, Acting As- sistant Inspector General, and formerly Captain Company I, Nineteenth Ohio Veteran Volunteer Infantry.

"San Antonio, Texas, September 29, 1865."

From the office of the inspector general he was promoted to the office of the assistant pay- master general, and from that to the office of the assistant adjutant general, which position he held until summoned by his regimental officers

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to assist in mustering the regiment out of serv- ice, which occurred November 28, 1865.

On returning home, Mr. Sheak spent the first winter in the high school of Massillon, Ohio; then spent one term in the literary department of Oberlin College, and then being offered the position of bookkeeper in the First National Bank of Massillon he prepared himself for the position by taking a course in the Business In- stitute of Oberlin, graduating therefrom, but on returning home to take the position in the bank he found that the position had been given to a brother of the president of the bank the day before he reached home. Mr. Sheak having overtaxed himself taking his commercial course, he found himself broken in health and decided on a change of work and purchased a tract of land in the vicinity of Frankfort, Mich., and put it out to fruit; but, while visiting a brother in Iowa, he was given the principalship of the commercial department of Western College, and he also matriculated as a student in the literary department and graduated therefrom in 1873. During a period of eighteen months prior to his graduation he held the office of official court re- porter of the eighth judicial district of Iowa. In the winter of 1872 he was taken down with typhoid fever and for several days was not ex- pected to live. This sickness left him ever after a sufferer from indigestion and consequent weakness. Through exposures during his army life he lost the use of one ear and contracted rheumatism, both of which have seriously crip- pled him in his life-work.

Soon after his graduation from Western Col- lege he took the ague, and as soon as he recov- ered sufficiently to be able to travel he, in com- pany with his college chum, Prof. R. E. Will- iams, president-elect of Philomath College, came to Oregon and took a position with President Williams in the faculty of that college. The next year he went to Portland and engaged in teaching stenography, and did reporting for the newspapers. President Williams becoming sick, begged Professor Sheak to return to Philomath and take a position with him in the college fac- ulty, and to take his place during his sickness, and begged it for friendship's sake. Mr. Sheak accepted the invitation, and from that time to 1902 occupicd a professorship in Philomath Col- lege, being continuously principal of the com- mercial department and part of the time teach- ing mathematics, part of the time the natural sciences, the physical, ethics and psychology. Nearly all of this time he was a member of the board of trustees and of the executive board, and secretary of both, and for three years the agent and treasurer.

On September 5, 1878, Professor Sheak was married to Miss Ida A. Castle, the daughter of

Bishop Nicholas Castle, D. D. Two children were born of this union, Gertrude Almeda, who, after reaching her senior year in college, com- pleted a course of music in the conservatory of music at Philomath and then took courses at the Willamette University and the conservatory of music at Denver, Col., and was principal of the conservatory of music at Philomath College for two years. In 1900 Miss Sheak was united in marriage to Prof. W. G. Fisher, who occupied the chair of languages in Philomath College. Two years later the professor accepted the pas- torate of the First U. B. Church of Portland, where they now reside. The second daughter, Edith Lenora, was born May 18, 1886, and at this writing is a sophomore in Philomath Col- lege and a student of music.

Aside from Mr. Sheak's college work he was statistical secretary of the State S. S. Associa- tion for five years; wrote the first charter for the city of Philomath and secured its passage in the legislature, and has been either mayor or councilman of the city government almost con- tiuously for eighteen years. Three times he was nominated for county superintendent of public instruction by the leading political parties, but declined the nominations.

In political preference Mr. Sheak is a Prohi- bitionist, and during his residence in the west has done much to advance the cause which he espouses. In his religious convictions he affili- ates with the United Brethren Church. Broad- minded and progressive, Mr. Sheak has proven himself a desirable citizen, lending his influence toward the promotion of all enterprises which have for their end the general welfare of the community, and seeking in every way to fulfill the law of earnest, practical living.

W. D. WALLACE. Frugal and thrifty by inheritance, W. D. Wallace, a farmer of Lane county, located in the vicinity of Jasper, has added to his native qualities those which come from an early contact with the world when viewed from the standpoint of a pioneer, for he was only eight years old when his parents emi- grated to the west and the hardships and priva- tions which followed the movement became a part of his life. He was born in Iowa, Novem- ber 21, 1844, the son of James A. Wallace, born in 1821, and married in Illinois to Miss Irene C. Daniels, after which the young couple located in Iowa a short time and then moved back to Illi- nois, and remained until 1852. They then start- ed across the plains with ox-teams, nearly all of which died on the journey. Reaching Bar- low's Gate Mr. Wallace succeeded in trading the wagon for a pony and placed his wife and two younger children on its back, himself and an-

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other child on one of the remaining oxen and packed their provisions on another ox and a cow, when they proceeded over the mountains. When they finally got to Foster Mr. Wallace again made an exchange, this time securing a wagon in trade for the pony, and hitching the cattle, a yoke of oxen and two cows, to the wagon, proceeded to the Willamette valley, eventually locating at Jasper, where the father took up a donation claim of three hundred and twenty acres in Lane county and made that his home until his death, in 1868. Their first gar- den was cultivated by hitching one ox to a rude plow, using ropes for tugs, and while the elder man held the plow, W. D., then a lad of thir- teen years, guided the ox. The death of his wife occurred in 1899. Of their six children W. D. was the first in order of birth, those follow- ing being Marion and J. C., located in this vi- cinity ; Mary E .; Lucy A. and Emma.

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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 249

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