Portrait and biographical record of western Oregon, containing original sketches of many well known citizens of the past and present.., Part 83

Author: Chapman Publishing Company, Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: Chicago, Chapman publishing company
Number of Pages: 1064

USA > Oregon > Portrait and biographical record of western Oregon, containing original sketches of many well known citizens of the past and present.. > Part 83

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him, as well as surveying the Sterling mining ditch from Little Applegate to the Sterling mine, a distance of twenty-four miles, and the Oregon mountain road, from Waldo, Ore., to Crescent City, Cal. For practically the entire time since 1872 he has been a member of the United States Mineral Survey. He also served for many years as special agent for examining surveys of the United States Land Office, operating in Oregon and Arizona, but this position he resigned in 1898 to take charge of the survey of the Gold Hill hugh line ditch in Jackson county. This ditch, one hundred and forty-five miles long, is now in process of construction. Mr. Howard was the engineer of the Conder Dam on the Rogue river, in Jackson county, which was finished at a cost of $100,000. This dam fulfills many important expectations, and will be used for generating electric power for lighting, railroad, mining, and manufacturing purposes. Mr. Howard has surveyed nearly all the mining claims in southern Oregon. No man in the coun- try has more modern appliances for carrying on his work, and among these is a solar compass which has tested the ingenuity of one of the fore- most manufacturers in the world. He does not use a needle, as do most surveyors.

Notwithstanding his great and absorbing un- dertakings as an engineer, Mr. Howard has gained a reputation also as a merchant, having es- tablished a store in Jacksonville in 1878. He was one of the first residents of Medford, and long before its present prosperity had been thought of he brought the first load of lumber to the town- site and built one of the first structures. He was ably assisted in the work of upbuilding the em- bryo hamlet by his sons, who ran a general store, while their father served as the president of the first board of the'town, and took an active in- tcrest in establishing municipal order. He was the first postmaster, serving seven years, and for ten years he had charge of the Wells-Fargo ex- press office. From time to time he has owned large tracts of farming and mining lands, and is an officer in the Jackson County Land Associa- tion, incorporated, and general agent of the com- pany at this town. He is a member of the Ma- sonic fraternity, having joined Lodge No. 10, at Jacksonville, in 1872, eventually becoming a member of the Blue Lodge, No. 103, of Medford. His trained and accurate mind has foreseen ad- vantages for his adopted community, and his zeal and public spirited enterprise have inspired oth- ers to assist in carrying out these same designs. lle has the faculty of disseminating enthusiasm, and inspiring others to do their hest. A student always, he keeps abrcast of the times, not only as regards engineering, but in connection with af- fairs which engage the attention of bright minds

in many departments of activity. Mr. Howard has four living children and eleven grandchildren to perpetuate his name and large life purpose. Two of his children are deceased, Horace and Eliza, the youngest children. Charles J., the old- est son, a farmer and surveyor of Kerby, Ore., was state representative from Josephine county in 1880, and has also been county surveyor of Jackson county ; George S., a printer by trade, is a resident of Medford; Nettie L. is the wife of B. S. Webb of Covina, Cal., and Martha C. is the wife of James Roberts of Medford, Ore. Mr. Howard is a Republican in politics, and has been county surveyor for six terms.

REV. ROBERT ROBE. To the mission- ary of the early days Oregon owes a debt of gratitude which can never be repaid. Diamet- rically opposed to the hundreds who staked all on the possibility of acquiring a fortune, his object in life has been the saving of souls and the building up of moral character in the rising generations. Like a benediction, his face and voice have recalled the miner, the tiller of the soil and the merchant to the teachings of his youth, and caused him to pause in the midst of his mad struggle for the smile of mammon. Thus a few honored names are associated with peace and tranquility, rather than the strife of pioneer days, and among these that of Rev. Robert Robe is one of the best known and most worthy.

That Mr. Robe should associate his minis- terial labors with the Presbyterian Church was a foregone conclusion, for on both sides of his family there were stanch adherents to the ec- clesiastical rule of presbyters. His grand- father, William, was a strict churchman of Scotch ancestry, and became a very early set- tler at Morgantown, Va. His father, Josiah, was born in Virginia, and established his fam- ily in Guernsey county, Ohio, in 1809. He be- came a large land owner, and took an active part in the church, was an elder therein, and reared his children to follow his worthy ex- ample. At the time of his death, on his farm in 1845, he was seventy-five years old, and left behind him a record as a business man and up- right, influential citizen. In his youth he mar- ried Jane Frame, who was born in Pennsylva- nia and died in Ohio, and who was a daughter of David Frame, one of the early settlers of Ohio. Mr. Frame was an elder in the Presby- terian Church. Robert was the youngest of the three sons and five daughters born to his parents, and he was educated primarily in the public schools. In 1845, shortly after the death of his father, he entered Muskingum College at New Concord. He had previously received

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some training at a college in Antrim, Ohio, and in 1846 entered Washington College, at Washington, Pa., from which he was duly graduated in 1847. Returning to his home he commenced studying for the ministry, and, in the fall of 1848, entered the Western Theolog- ical Seminary at Pittsburg, the following two years being devoted to ministerial labors in the state of Ohio.

As a missionary Mr. Robe came to Oregon in 1851, crossing the plains in an ox-train, and being on the road from the first of April until the latter part of August. For three months he taught a pioneer school in the wilderness, and then, finding that Lane county had no spiritual advisor, he removed to Eugene, making that his headquarters for the whole county. He organized the first Presbyterian Church in Eu- gene, and was one of three to organize the Presbytery of the Willamette in 1851. This was the first presbytery north of California and west of the Rocky Mountains, and its im- portance in the history of the church in the state cannot be over-estimated. Rev. Robe assisted in the organization of the first synod in San Francisco, out of which grew the pres- bytery in the north. He has been a member ever since. During his ten years of residence in Lane county Mr. Robe accomplished a world of good, stimulating right living and gentle judging, and in a strong, forceful man- ner promoting the cause of education. For some time he was county superintendent of schools, and assisted in laying out the school districts of that county.

After his recall to Brownsville Mr. Robe had charge of the Brownsville Church until he was superannuated in 1895. He has since lived a practically retired life, although his interest in moral and educational promotion continues unabated. Since coming to Brownsville he has organized the church at Crawfordsville, and his voice has been heard in exhortation in many pulpits throughout the county. He is a stanch Prohibitionist, and his own life best illustrates his uncompromising belief in tem- perate living. At present he is a resident of Brownsville, but during certain portions of his life he has lived on a farm, and engaged in stock and grain-raising. At times his remu- neration for services rendered has been small, and would have seemed entirely inadequate to one less devoted to the cause of humanity. Dur- ing the Civil war, especially, his salary was cut very low, and the prevailing high prices aug- mented the financial discomfort of this worker for the betterment of the world. His cour- ageous spirit has been the wonder of all who have labored with him, and his life of self-

sacrifice undoubtedly has inspired many a weary toiler in other fields.

July 18, 1854, Mr. Robe was united in mar- riage with Eliza A. Walker, who was born in Murray county, Ga., February 4, 1835, a daugli- ter of William Walker, a carpenter by trade. Mr. Walker removed to Tennessee in 1841, and, in 1843, located on a farm in Missouri, his emigration to Oregon taking place by way of the plains, in 1853. After locating in Eugene he worked at his trade for many years, his death occurring in Springfield, Ore., at the age of eighty years. Eleven children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Robe, the order of their birth being as follows: William W., residing in Brownsville; Maria J., the wife of Mr. Mar- sters, of this place; Mary Bell; Emma Annella, Ida Augusta and Robert, deceased; Herman L .; Charles, deceased; Stella, who died in in- fancy, and Elbert S., a bookkeeper in the mill at Albany.

STEPHEN O. EMERY. One of the aged residents of Douglas county, Ore., is found in the person of Stephen O. Emery, a prosperous agriculturist who formerly owned three hun- dred and twenty acres of first-class farming land in Coles valley, near Umpqua Ferry. He has superintended business at his present home since his location in Douglas county, in 1866, and has proved himself a capable man of busi- ness, and one largely interested in all that pertains to town, city or county affairs. Like other pioneers of the state, he is ever willing to assist in the development of the country by doing all he can.

Stephen O. Emery was born in northern Pennsylvania, in the city of Towanda, Brad- ford county, April 20, 1833. At the early age of twelve years he commenced his travels westward, and his first location was at White- hall. Later he went to Pekin, Ill., where he stayed on a farm until he had attained his majority. He was a resident of Illinois until 1853 and in that year, like many another ad- venturesome spirit, he made ready to cross the prairies and mountains for California. The usual manner of traveling was by means of ox-teams, and in this way he also made the journey, and in six months found himself in the far west. From that year until 1866, when he left California, he followed his for- tune in the gold mines, but finally deemed Oregon a better location, and took up his pres- ent line of business in Coles Valley. Douglas county. immediately after his arrival here. Through all the years that have passed, he has remained on the same farm, with the excep- tion of the time spent in the milling business

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at Oakland and Calapooia, acquiring by his thrift and industry a competence for old age and a pleasant home in which to live.

In 1866 Mr. Emery was joined in the holy bonds of matrimony with Mrs. Louisa Evans, widow of S. D. Evans. Mr. Evans was lo- cated in the California mines in 1849 and went east to Illinois in 1851, where he was married, and in 1852 once more crossed the plains, this time for Oregon. Six months after their start, he staked off a donation claim in Coles Val- ley, Ore., and started as a rancher. In 1861, while passing Goose Lake, Klamath county, Ore., with a herd of cattle, he was killed by the Indians. He left his wife and one son, S. D. Evans, who resides on the home farm about one mile from the donation claim on which his father settled.

Mr. and Mrs. Emery have only one child, W. T. Emery. He married Annie Withers, a daughter of J. P. Withers of Lane county, Ore., and a sister to the sheriff who was killed. They have been blessed with three children, namely, Loyal, Margaret and Helen, and live on a farm adjoining that of Stephen O. Em- ery and his wife. In politics Mr. Emery is a Republican.

JUDGE LEVI F. WILLITS. The identifica- tion of Judge Willits with Klamath Falls dates from September 23, 1896, when he came to this city for the purpose of embarking in business. The location was not new to him nor its possi- bilities unknown, for he has had an intimate ac- quaintance with almost every part of southern Oregon during a considerable period of time. On coming here he purchased a mercantile busi- ness, of which he has ever since been the proprie- tor. In June of 1898 he was elected, on the Re- publican ticket, to the office of county judge, which he filled faithfully and well during the term of four years.

On a farm in Cedar county, Iowa, Levi F. Willits was born February 27, 1850, being a son of Amos and Sarah Anna (Thornton) Willits. His paternal grandfather, William Willits, was a native of New York, of Welsh extraction, and as an occupation followed farming. Amos Wil- lits was born in Wayne county, Ind., August 20, 1817, and in 1835 removed to Iowa, settling in Muscatine county and from there in 1849 re- moved to Cedar county. In both of these coun- ties he was a pioncer and an industrious, hard- working farmer. During 1875 he came to Ore- gon and settled in Ashland, where resided all of his family except his sons, O. P., L. F. and B. R. His death occurred in that town November 23, 1899. At the time of the Black Hawk war he had enlisted in the service, but the required

quota being filled he was not sent to the front. His wife was born in Tippecanoe county, Ind., November 25, 1820, and accompanied the Thorn- ton family to Muscatine county, Iowa, in 1835. In that county her marriage to Mr. Willits was solemnized October 18, 1842, and seven years later she went with her husband to Cedar coun- ty. Many years afterward they removed to Ore- gon, and in this state she died May 6, 1897. Their children were named as follows: O. P., who is a mail contractor residing at Aledo, Ill .; Esmeralda, wife of J. H. Vandever, of Nebraska ; Theodosia, Mrs. Marion McCauley, deceased, formerly a resident of Iowa; Levi F., of Klamath Falls; J. Q., county superintendent of schools of Lake county, Ore., residing at Lakeview; B. R., who now makes his home in Ashland, this state; W. W., of Jackson county ; and Luella, Mrs. Peter Wilson, formerly a resident of Gold Hill, this state, but now deceased.

Subsequent to his public-school education Levi F. Willits had the advantage of two years of study at Cornell College, Mount Vernon, Iowa, also a full course in Bryant & Stratton's Busi- ness College in Davenport, Iowa, from which he was graduated in 1873. For a time he en- gaged in clerking in a store, also in teaching school in southern Indiana. During 1876 he came west and joined his parents in Ashland, where for three years he held the principalship of the Ashland public schools. For a similar period he was employed in the Jacksonville schools. On his return to Ashland he was for two years principal of the city schools, after which he conducted the Ashland Academy and Business College for one year. In 1884 he took charge of the Lakeview schools. A year later he abandoned teaching and went to Salem, Ore., where for two years he engaged in the drug busi- ness. On his return to Jackson county, he be- came manager of the general merchandise store of C. K. Klum, at Talent, from which place in 1891 he came to Klamath county. During the next four years he was engaged in the Indian service as superintendent of the Yainax Indian industrial and boarding school, on the Klamath Indian Reservation, and later spent a year in Ashland. On his return to Klamath county he settled at Klamath Falls, where he has since made his home, and been closely identified with the business interests of Klamath Falls, and county.

The marriage of Judge Willits was solemnized in 1878 and united him with Laura A. Alford, who was born near Harrisburg, Linn county, Ore., February 6, 1859. Her father, Albert Al- ford, crossed the plains during an early day and settled in Linn county, Ore., whence he removed to Talent, Jackson county, and has since resided in the latter town. During his residence in Ash-

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land Judge Willits was for one year a mem- ber of the city council and since coming to Kla- math Falls he has acted as a school director, and is a member of present city council. Ever since attaining his majority he has participated in local affairs as a member of the Republican party and a supporter of its principles. Fraternally a Mason, he is at present master of Klamath Lodge No. 77, A. F. & A. M .; and is a member of Sis- kiyou Chapter, R. A. M., and Malta Command- ery No. 4, K. T., at Ashland, Ore.

MRS. MARY ELIZABETH McCALL. Com- ing across the plains with her brother and sister in 1854, Mrs. Mary E. McCall, widow of the late Gen. John Marshall McCall, taught in the first school established in Ashland. A woman of culture and refinement, she is prominent in social and fraternal circles, and has the distinction of having served as the first grand matron of the Grand Chapter, O. E. S., of Oregon, having been elected to this office at the first meeting of the Grand Chapter, which was held in 1889 at Roseburg. A daughter of George Anderson, she was born in Bowling Green, Ind., of Scotch descent. Her paternal grandfather, Daniel An- derson, was born in Pennsylvania, where he spent the larger part of his active life, although he died in Indiana.

Born on the home farm in Pennsylvania, George Anderson was reared to agricultural pur- suits. Subsequently going to Indiana, he was engaged in the hotel business at Bowling Green for a few years. Removing to Albia, Monroe county, Iowa, in 1850, he took up land and im- proved a homestead, on which he lived until his death, in 1852. He married Hannalı Knighten. who was born in North Carolina and removed with her parents to Indiana in girlhood. Two years after the death of her husband, in 1854. she came across the plains to Oregon, and lived here until her death, at the age of seventy-three years. She was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, to which Mr. Anderson also belonged. Six children were born of their union : Daniel Preston, who came to Oregon in 1857, died in California; Eli Knighten, who crossed the plains to California in 1850, located in Oregon in 1852, and now resides near Talent, Jackson county ; James Firman died in Siskiyou county, Cal .; Marion, who came to Oregon in 1854. died near Talent ; Mary E. is the subject of this sketch; and Nancy is the wife of F. W. Chapin, of Sacramento, Cal.

In 1854 Mary E. Anderson came with her mother, her brother Marion, and her sister Nancy, to Oregon, making the journey with ox teams, and being six months en route. They came by the southern route, via Klamath and

Soda Springs, and were met on the way by James Anderson, a brother, who furnished them with provisions, which they very much needed, their own supply being nearly exhausted, and piloted them to their brother Eli's ranch. Miss Ander- son and her sister and some of the men of the party rode on horseback through Ashland, in which there was then a mill, a blacksmith shop, a hotel and one store. Arriving at her brother Eli's, she assisted in preparing supper for the rest of the party, that meal being the first she had eaten in a house in six months. She subse- quently attended school at Eden precinct, Jack- son county, continuing her studies at Umpqua Academy, where she was graduated in 1856. She immediately began teaching, and taught in the first school opened in Ashland. After teach- ing three years, Miss Anderson married, at Moun- tain House, Jackson county, in 1858, Rev. George H. Brown, a Methodist minister. Mr. Brown was born in Massachusetts, came to Oregon by way of the Isthmus in 1855, and settled first as pastor of a church near Corvallis. Going from there to Clackamas county, he preached in Oregon City until his health failed, when he en- gaged in farming near Talent, Ore. Two years later, hoping to improve his health by a change, he removed to Henley, Cal., where he resided until his death in 1866.

July 4, 1876, Mrs. Mary (Anderson) Brown married for her second husband Gen. John Mar- shall McCall, a man of great prominence and influence. A Pennsylvanian by birth, General McCall was born in Washington county, January 15, 1825, and died in Ashland, Ore., November 4, 1895. Going to Iowa when about seventeen years old, he lived in Louisa county a number of years. During the great excitement that followed the finding of gold at Sutter's run, he was seized with a desire to try his fortune at finding the precious metal, and emigrated, in 1850, to Cali- fornia. Meeting with but fair success, he came to Jackson county, Ore., in 1852, and seven years later took up his residence in Ashland, becoming part owner of the Ashland Flouring Mills, in which he was for some time interested. Respond- ing to his country's call for volunteers in 1861, he was commissioned second lieutenant of Com- pany D, First Regiment, Oregon Volunteer Cavalry, and was subsequently promoted to the rank of captain. During the closing year of the conflict, in 1865, he was in command of an escort to B. J. Pengra, the head of the party that sur- veyed and laid out the wagon road from Engene to Stone Mountain. Remaining with this party at Fort Klamath until the following spring, Gen- eral McCall was honorably discharged at Van- couver, having won an excellent record as a sol- dier and an officer. Returning to his home in Ashland, he became actively interested in its in-

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dustrial interests. In the spring of 1867 he established the Ashland Woolen Mills, of which he was the manager for a number of years, build- ing up an extensive and profitable business. Active and influential in public affairs, he was made brigadier-general of the Oregon State Mili- tia in 1883, receiving his commission from Gov. Z. F. Moody. He also served as a representa- tive to the state legislature, in which he served on important committees.

April 30, 1868, General McCall married for his first wife Theresa R. Applegate, a daughter of Lindsay Applegate, one of the very earliest set- tlers of this state, coming to the Willamette valley with the first train of Oregon emigrants. Of their union four children were born, namely: Lindsay, deceased; Lydia, a resident of Ashland ; Elsie, who died at the age of eighteen years; and John A., of Redding, Cal. July 4, 1876, General McCall married, as previously stated, Mrs. Mary ( Anderson) Brown, who still contin- ties her residence in Ashland. Mrs. McCall is very active in fraternal circles. February 24, 1888, she was made a member of Alpha Chapter, O. E. S., which she has served as matron several terms, and in which she is affectionately referred to by her junior sisters as the mother of the order in Oregon. In 1889. in Roseburg, at the first meeting of the Grand Chapter of Oregon, she was elected grand matron of the Grand Chapter of Oregon, and has since served one term as grand treasurer of the Grand Chapter. In 1901 she was presented hy the Grand Chapter with the grand matron's jewels as a token of the high esteem in which she is held in the fraternity. Mrs. McCall is also a member of the Ashland Woman's Relief Corps, No. 24, of which she was the first president. Politically she is a Republi- can and a Suffragist. General McCall was prominently identified with the Masons, belong- ing to lodge and chapter, and was a member and ex-commander, of Burnside Post, No. 34, G. A. R.

JACOB WAGNER. Occupying a place of prominence in the vast pioneer army of brave and fearless men that left homes in the civilized cast, crossed the barren desert, and invaded the Rogue River valley when it was a well nigh primeval waste, was Jacob Wagner, late of Ash- land, and for nearly half a century one of Jack- son county's most highly respected and estecmed citizens. Coming here when the red-skinned children of the land held full sway, he assisted in the ardnous labor that transformed the entire country and conditions, helping to set and keep in motion the wheel of progress. A man of acknowledged enterprise, keen intuition, and of rare mental and moral calibre, he became one of

the leading spirits in inaugurating beneficial projects. School-houses and meeting-houses were built, struggling hamlets became thriving villages and towns, Indian trails gave way to smooth wagon roads, and industrial enterprises of all kinds were permanently established. Keeping pace with the more strenuous times of later days, he watched with gratification what were in some respects still greater changes, a vast network of railways spanning the entire country from the Atlantic to the Pacific, telegraph communication becoming established throughout the length and breadth of the Union, while telephones were installed in rural as well as city homes. In local and public affairs he was active and prom- inent, and as a man of unquestioned honor and integrity his influence was felt throughout the community in which he resided. A son of John Wagner, he was born September 26, 1820, in Dayton county, Ohio, and died January 4, 1900, at his home, in Ashland, Jackson county, Ore.

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Portrait and biographical record of western Oregon, containing original sketches of many well known citizens of the past and present.., Part 83

Author: Chapman Publishing Company, Chicago, pub Publication date: 1904 Publisher: Chicago, Chapman publishing company Number of Pages: 1064

Author: Chapman Publishing Company, Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: Chicago, Chapman publishing company
Number of Pages: 1064