USA > Oregon > The centennial history of Oregon, 1811-1912 > Part 61
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115 | Part 116 | Part 117 | Part 118 | Part 119 | Part 120 | Part 121 | Part 122 | Part 123 | Part 124 | Part 125 | Part 126 | Part 127 | Part 128 | Part 129 | Part 130 | Part 131 | Part 132 | Part 133 | Part 134 | Part 135 | Part 136 | Part 137 | Part 138 | Part 139 | Part 140 | Part 141 | Part 142 | Part 143 | Part 144 | Part 145 | Part 146 | Part 147 | Part 148 | Part 149 | Part 150 | Part 151 | Part 152 | Part 153 | Part 154 | Part 155 | Part 156 | Part 157 | Part 158 | Part 159 | Part 160 | Part 161 | Part 162 | Part 163 | Part 164 | Part 165 | Part 166 | Part 167 | Part 168 | Part 169 | Part 170
413
THE CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF OREGON
mining most of the time. He died in Yreka, California, and, his wife in Benton county, Oregon. Paul Fairclo had active experience in the Indian war of 1855 and 1856, serving as a volunteer in that struggle for the su- premacy of the civilized race. He actively assisted in the development of southern Ore- gon and at all times and on all occasions proved himself a worthy and valued citizen. His wife was at one time shot by Indians, causing her the loss of the use of her right arm for a year. Their home was burned by Rogue river Indians a number of times when they were living in Jackson and Joseph- ine counties, but notwithstanding all these hardships they continued to make their home on the frontier and aided largely in its devel- opment and progress, being now numbered among the honored pioneers to whom the state owes a debt of gratitude for the work which they accomplished in the improvement of the west. They had five children: Clara, the wife of Charles Craft, of Kennett, Cali- fornia; Horace G., of this review; Isabelle, who is the wife of Enoch Powell and resides near Lebanon, Oregon; Eva, the wife of Thurston King, of Spokane, Washington; and Eunice, deceased.
Horace G. Fairclo spent his youthful years in Jackson and Josephine counties and in 1888 came to his present ranch, which com- prises one hundred and sixty acres and which he homesteaded. He has been identified with mining in California and Oregon dur- ing much of his life and has always been a busy man, occupied with important inter- ests. He received a normal-school education, being graduated in 1885 from the Philo- math Normal School of Oregon and for seven years engaged in teaching in Oregon and Cali- fornia. He has since followed mining and farming and has today a good property, which yields substantial returns through the care and labor which he bestows upon it. His ranch presents a neat and attractive appearance and upon it are many good im- provements which he has made.
In 1887 Mr. Fairclo was married to Miss Anna Murray, who was born in Illinois and crossed the plains with her parents about 1880. By her marriage she became the mother of three children, James, Bessie and Jay. In 1906 Mr. Fairclo was called upon to mourn the loss of his wife, who was then about thirty-seven years of age, her birth having occurred in 1869. He is a well known representative of a worthy pioneer family and has for more than a half century wit- nessed the growth and upbuilding of Oregon. He has seen its wild lands reclaimed and cul- tivated, its rich mineral resources developed and its waterways utilized. At all times he' has rejoiced in what has been accomplished and his work has brought to him substantial returns.
L. D. WARD. An excellent farm of three hundred and twenty acres pays tribute for the care and labor bestowed upon it by L. D. Ward. Waving fields of grain and al- falfa, broad pastures upon which are found high grades of stock, all indicate his pro-
gressive methods and show that the work of improvement is being steadily carried for- ward. Mr. Ward was born in Henderson county, Illinois, March 22, 1860, a son of C. W. and Ellen Elizabeth (Crenshaw) Ward, the former a native of Illinois and the latter of Iowa. The parents resided in the middle west until 1864, when they crossed the plains with teams, spending eigliteen months in Nevada. They next removed to Yuba coun- ty, California, where the father died in 1873, at the comparatively early age of thirty-six years. The mother still lives. In the fall of 1885 she came to Oregon, residing at Kla- math Falls until four years ago, since which time she has made her home in San Diego, California. In her family are four children of whom L. D. Ward is the eldest, the others being: Eva, the wife of Charles Graves, of Klamath Falls, who is mentioned elsewhere in this work; Frank, who is a member of the grocery firm of Ward & Oberchain, of Klamath Falls; and Susie, the wife of H. E. Smith, of San Diego.
L. D. Ward spent the first four years of his life in his native county and was then brought by his parents to the west. He resided in Yuba county, California, from 1866 until 1884, when he came to Klamath county, Oregon, where he has since made his home. For a time he was proprietor of a hardware store in Klamath Falls and in the fall of 1885 went to Linkville, where he became a member of the firm of Graves, Ketchem & Ward, dealers in hardware. In 1888 he sold his interest in that business and afterward speculated in timber and farm lands for three or four years. Subsequently with J. W. Semens he conducted a barber shop and club room for two years in Klamath Falls, and at the end of that time began farming. He owns three hundred and twenty acres in addition to which he rents and improves two hundred and sixty acres of land. He is thus extensively engaged in general farming, and makes a specialty of the production of grain and alfalfa. He has one hundred and forty-five acres of his land under government ditch and has greatly improved his property with modern equipment and buildings. He raises stock to some extent. He has alto- gether improved four ranches and has thus contributed largely to the work of progress and upbuilding in this part of the state.
In October, 1901, Mr. Ward was united in marriage to Mrs. Mary E. Brantlacht, who was born in Shasta county, California, May 12, 1876, and is a daughter of A. M. and Martha (Walker) Zwely, both of whom were natives of Missouri. The father crossed the plains in 1860 and the mother in 1868. She died on the 3d of March, 1912, at the age of fifty-seven years, and the father is living at Alturas, California. Mrs. Ward was first married to Henry Brantlacht, who died, leav- ing two children, Jessie and Alethia. To Mr. and Mrs. Ward has been born a son, Levi Z., and a daughter, Mary Ellen. Fraternally Mr. Ward is connected with the Independent Or- der of Odd Fellows and the Ancient Order of United Workmen. He takes comparatively little active part in outside interests, prefer-
414
THE CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF OREGON
ring to concentrate his energies upon business affairs which are proving a profitable source of income, owing to his careful direction and able management. His home is pleasantly situated about twelve miles south of Kla- math Falls, in the Klamath valley, and he is recognized as one of the representative agriculturists of this community.
JOSEPH FRANKLIN BARROWS. On Au- gust 18, 1886, one of the pioneers in the set- tlement of Oregon died in Coos county. Joseph Franklin Barrows first settled in this state in 1847 and since that time with a few interruptions engaged in important enter- prises here until his death. He saw the de- velopment of Oregon, and his individual ac- tivities were prominent factors in it. The various representative occupations to which he gave his attention repaid his efforts by prosperity and success and his death was felt as a distinct loss to business and agricultural circles of the state. He was born in Lexing- ton, Kentucky, January 1, 1822, a son of Isaac and Matilda (Fry) Barrows. In the family were three children: Joseph F., of this review; Samuel B., deceased; and Susan C., who died in infancy.
Joseph F. Barrows was reared upon his father's farm in Kentucky and received his early education in a little log schoolhouse in his native district. He later took a classical course in a Chicago college. In 1847 he located in Oregon and remained in the state for two years, joining the rush to the Cali- fornia gold fields in 1849. He was successful in his mining operations but later lost the money which he made in this work. In Cali- fornia he married and settled in Alviso where he opened a general merchandise store and a large warehouse which was the only enter- prise of its kind in the county. For some years Mr. Barrows conducted this establish- ment, gaining success by reason of his in- near Astoria, where he purchased a farm on the Lewis and Clarke river and followed gen- eral agricultural pursuits for a number of years. He eventually added to his activities boat building in which he was deservedly suc- cessful for some time. When he disposed of his property in Astoria he went to Forest Grove, where he remained for two years. In 1865 he went to Idaho and mined in that state for one year, returning to Forest Grove and then to Astoria, where he resided until he came to Coos county. Here he established himself in the contracting and building busi- ness and soon became identified with the con- struction of many important business build- ings. He erected a large cannery and ware- house besides numerous smaller structures, branching out gradually into the boat build- ing line in which he became successful and prosperous. In the later years of his life lie rented a ranch near Bandon and upon this re- sided and worked at the carpenter's trade until his death which occurred August 18. 1886. He was numbered among the very earliest settlers in Oregon and his life was an exemplification of the forceful and vital qualities which distinguished the pioneers of the state. He fought in the Cayuse Indian
war of 1847 and 1848, helping to carry the cannon to the fort during the night. He always strove to do his duty in every rela- tion of life and this conscientiousness made his business activities successful and his more personal career honorable and upright.
Mr. Barrows was united in marriage to Miss Margaret Stevenson, a native of Illinois, who died sometime afterward. In 1850 Mr. Bar- rows was again wedded, his second wife being Miss Diana T. Lightner, who was born in Missouri, a daughter of A. T. and Jemima (Snelling) Lightner. Their marriage occur- red in California. Mrs. Barrows is a de- scendant of one of the oldest American families, her grandfather having fought in the Revolutionary war. She is one of nine children born to her parents, the others being: Isaac, Sarah, Ann, William and Daniel, all of whom have passed away; Mary, the wife of Daniel Wolser, of California; Lovina, who married Walker Rankin, of California; and A. T., who resides in Bakersfield, California. Mr. and Mrs. Barrows became the parents of nine children: William and Alice. deceased; Samuel, a machinist of Bandon; Frank, who has passed away; Carrie, the wife of L. C. Gibson, a building contractor, of Bandon. Abia, who is engaged in the sawmilling busi- ness in Prosper; Lee, who resides in Bandon ; Cassie, who died in infancy; and Charles, also deceased.
Mr. Barrows gave his allegiance to the democratic party and was a prominent figure in the affairs of the local organization. When a resident of California he served for two years as justice of the peace and in Oregon was for two terms sheriff of Clatsop county and also county commissioner. He was a devout adherent of the Presbyterian church and well known in the Masonic order. Dur- ing his life he acquired a comfortable for- tune which he invested judiciously, mostly in farm and timber lands in Coos county. His widow owns one hundred and sixty acres of valuable property besides important manu- facturing sites upon the water front. Twenty- six years have now passed since Joseph Bar- rows died, but he is well remembered as a useful, upright and representative citizen. The regret which attended his death was a tribute of sorrow for the passing of a pio- neer in the settlement of Oregon and was an evidence of the importance of the place which he had attained in the esteem and honor of his friends.
JESSE APPLEGATE. Though almost a quarter of a century has passed since the demise of Jesse Applegate, pioneer and state builder, his memory yet remains enshrined in the hearts of many who knew him and his name figures in history as that of one of the most dominant characters in the early pioneer life of Oregon. Jesse Applegate could claim pioneership by the threefold title of inheritance, training and lifelong habit. His father, Daniel Applegate, of English lineage. was reared in New Jersey. He entered the Revolutionary army as a fifer at fifteen. and when the war closed emigrated to the wilder- ness of Kentucky. There he married Rachel
MR. AND MRS. JOSEPH F. BARROWS
417
THE CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF OREGON
Lindsey, of a distinguished pioneer family, and settled on a farm. Forty years later, in 1823, caught up once more in the resistless "westward movement," he was carried over into the new state of Missouri, accompanied now by a large family and settled near the present city of St. Louis. Jesse was the youngest child of Daniel and Rachel Apple- gate. He was born on the 5th of July, 1811, and was a lad of twelve years when the fam- ily moved to Missouri. While Kentucky was no longer strictly a "hunter's paradise," as in the days of Boone and Kenton, pioneer conditions had by no means disappeared when the Applegates took up the line of march to a newer frontier. Yet the boy had acquired in his early home a good elementary educa- tion, so that on going to Missouri he was able, within a year or so, to fit himself for the work of a village schoolmaster. But this was a temporary occupation, for he soon found more congenial employment in the city of St. Louis, where he remained until 1831.
Into the environment of St. Louis during this period of her history, presenting a strange jumble of more or less contradictory elements, young Applegate came with a mind dilated to its most divergent influences. No phase of life, rude or refined, was to him indifferent. The profane but original and strenuous obser- vations of the well seasoned "river-man," and the learned disquisitions of St. Louis' great- est lawyer, alike interested him; he sought information from men of classical training and in libraries crowded with the works of great minds. but did not fail to go, also, to the humble and rude fellow who had had some unique experience or could furnish a desired fact. Applegate's strong pioneering bent is shown by the efforts he made. while at St. Louis, to gather information of every sort about the great western region embrac- ing the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific slope. Whatever he could find in print he read, but that was very little; the most im- portant single item was the journal of Lewis and Clark, published in 1814. But better than the written record of their wonderful journey was a personal meeting he had. about 1825, with Captain Clark himself, then a white-haired veteran who inspired him, as he long afterward confessed, with a genuine enthusiasm for pioneering. Three years later. while clerking in the surveyor-general's of- fice, Applegate gained the intimate friendship of Wilson Price Hunt. then postmaster at St. Louis. Mr. Hunt will be remembered by all readers of Irving as Astor's agent in the dramatic commercial enterprise on which he sent the ship Tonquin to the Columbia in 1811. He was the founder of Astoria and, in a certain sense, of the trans-Rocky Moun- tain trade for which that fort was the earliest emporium. Hunt talked freely about these romantic episodes of his younger days. stimu- lated no doubt by the eager inquisitiveness of liis youthful friend. In this manner Applegate secured from the highest living authority a graphic account of the first occu- pation of the Columbia. and this many years before the publication of Irving's Astoria.
Mr. Applegate boarded at the Old Green Tree Tavern, an unpretentious hostelry which commonly served as the winter rendezvous of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. There the partners, Jedediah Smith, David Jackson and William L. Sublette would meet, in their leisure time, to settle the season's accounts and plan the operations of the following year. Each of the three had spent many years in the heart of the Rockies. Besides, the vast spaces beyond the Rockies were to them by no means a sealed book. Jedediah Smith had explored for his company an overland route from Salt Lake to southern California ; he had traversed the entire length of that then mysterious Mexican province, had forced a way northward to Fort Vancouver on the Columbia, where he spent the winter of 1828- 29 as the guest of Dr. John McLoughlin, and had made himself conversant with the fur trade as conducted by the Hudson's Bay Company in Oregon under McLoughlin's skill- ful supervision. He therefore brought to St .. Louis, when he next met his partners at the Green Tree Tavern, the freshest and most complete report obtainable on conditions all along the coast, from San Diego to Vancouver and inland from the Rio Colorado to Coeur d'Alene lake. Little wonder that a high- spirited, adventurous youth like Applegate should improve the opportunity of a fellow guest to ingratiate himself with these men in order to lose no item of their exciting discourse. "I was then handy with the pen," he writes, "and handier still with figures, and volunteered my services to these moun- tain heroes, my sole reward being to hear them recount their adventures." These vet- erans of the inland trade, with its glamour of romance and allurement of riches, had al- most won in Applegate a convert to their wild, irregular mode of life. But the appeal of his kind, wise master, Colonel McKee, was even stronger than theirs, and our young pioneer was saved for other pioneering labors that should yield nobler fruits to society if smaller gains to himself.
Another man who, during the St. Louis period, exerted a profound influence on Ap- plegate's mind, was the distinguished lawyer. Edward Bates, later a member of Lincoln's first cabinet. Bates was always revered by Applegate as benefactor and friend. There is a tradition that he assisted the boy to improve his education, also that he took him into his office for a time as clerk; at all events, the association between them was ex- ceedingly close and left an abiding record in the character of the younger man. This as- sociation probably helps to explain Apple- gate's clear, strong views on government, as he afterward impressed them, through numer- ous channels, upon the Oregon people; it may have contributed to develop in him the pas- sion for order and the punctilious regard he ever showed for forms and precedents in legislative matters. His militant nationalism and his abhorrence of slavery are explicable on other grounds, but to both traits the great lawyer's influence lent positive support.
The St. Louis period, extending from about 1825 to 1831. or from his fourteenth to his
418
THE CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF OREGON
twentieth year, is manifestly the time in which young Applegate was being specially schooled for his later carecr. It was then that his youthful fancy, rioting in tales of far west adventure, began to form those bold de- signs of pioneering that foreshadow the dis- tinctive work of his life. And it was during the same period of time that he laid the. foundations for a broad and accurate, thoughi general knowledge, of literature, history and science which marked him later as one of the best read men on the Pacific coast. He gained, also, considerable familiarity with Latin, be- came highly proficient in mathematical sub- jects, and developed a literary style which was singularly pure and graceful as well as virile and dignified. He acquired in addition at least the fundamentals of both law and engineering, each of which proved of distinct service to the new community he was to help build beyond the mountains.
Mr. Applegate's proficiency as a surveyor obtained for him at the age of about nineteen, a deputyship in the office of surveyor-general. Thereafter much of his time was spent in field work, especially in the southwestern portion of the state. Marrying in the spring of 1831, he settled on a fine tract of land in the Osage valley in St. Clair county, and made his home there as a farmer and stock- raiser for twelve years, but he continued to act as deputy surveyor also during the greater part, if not the whole, of that time. In 1843 he carried his trusty compass to the western shore of the continent and at once resumed its use in a significant service cover- ing almost forty years. He was commissioned to set apart donation elaims with the title of surveyor-general of Oregon. He was also commissioned to find and survey a wagon road for military purposes connecting the western slope with the country east of the cascades. This is the military road running out by Diamond peak.
The interest in Oregon had widened and intensified since Applegate first met the mountain traders at the Green Tree Tavern, and sources of information about the coun- try had multiplied. Oregon was no longer, as it had once been, the object of desire to exploiters of furs only but was coming to be regarded as a practicable field of opera- tion for agricultural pioneers. Something had already been done to establish proper relations with the Oregon tribes of Indians through the sending of an Indian sub-agent in 1842. The government, however, was in general too slow for the pioneers. Before congress could pass a law to encourage set- tlers, before Webster and his successors in office could negotiate a treaty, before the war secretaries could accomplish the design of opening a road, the frontiersmen them- selves, under the leaders of their own choos- ing and hence of their own type, had rendered the contemplated governmental action if not superfluous at least less urgent. They had opened a road all the way to the Columbia, had occupied, in an orderly manner, for agricultural purposes, much of the best land in western Oregon, and without charter, law or other authorization beyond the treaty
of joint occupation which merely gave them a right to be in the country, they had or- ganized on the shores of the Pacific a truc American government, the first of its kind in that portion of the world. After the Mexican war congress discussed plans to promote the settlement of the country, and the department of state was trying to ter- minate the Oregon dispute with Great Brit- ain, and the war department moved for the exploration of a road to the Columbia in order to facilitate emigration thither.
In all the momentous activities here out- lined, Jesse Applegate was a prime leader. He, like many others of his time and sec- tion, had become discouraged at the long duration of the "hard times," which pressed heavily upon those frontier settlers living away from navigable streams, then almost the sole means of transportation for the country west of the Mississippi. Besides, the progress of slavery was rapid in Missouri. Applegate, who would not own negroes, was forced to hire their labor from neighboring owners in order to be able to cultivate his fields. He felt keenly the social as well as the economic evils of the slave system and was constrained to remove his young family beyond its influence. He had kept up with the new information regarding Oregon and was in personal correspondence with a friend who lived there. Applegate had long known, what others were just learning, that western Oregon was a paradise for the stock-raiser. So, after mature deliberation, he decided to transfer his Osage valley herd, which was all but valueless from the prevailing de- pression, to the virgin meadows of the Wil- lamette, two thousand miles away.
The story of the great immigration to Oregon in 1843 has been frequently told, sometimes with embellishments that sadly mar the truth of history. It should be re- membered that the movement was a per- fectly natural expression of the pioneering genius of our people and not, as often mis- represented, an outburst of Quixotie pa- triotism. The emigrating company of nearly one thousand persons was recruited by no one man; it gathered almost spontaneously. in response to feelings and motives that were widespread along the border and that came to fruition in a variety of ways- sometimes through public discussion, oftener in the neighborly chat or the fireside con- ference. Personal influence was felt in this as in every large human event., Emigrat- ing parties were organized in different locali- tics, and the accession anywhere of an able or a prominent man was the signal for others less independent to give in their namcs. The decision of Jesse Applegate to go to Oregon probably caused a number of others in St. Clair county, Missouri, to do likewise, among them his two elder brothers. Charles and Lindsey.
The several companies from Missouri and other western states met near Independence, Missouri, in April, 1843, prepared for the long overland march. Applegate's outfit is said to have consisted of about one hundred head of live stock, and four wagons, "loaded
1
419
THE CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF OREGON
with flour, bacon and such fruits and vegetables as were fit for transporta- tion; tools of all kinds; household goods and wearing apparel; a few valuable books, among them the schoolbooks of his children, some historical works, a Worcester's dic- tionary, a copy of Shakespeare, the Bible he had carried on his surveying trips, his mathe- matical works, The emigrants organized for the journey with Peter H. Burnett as captain, intending at first to travel as a single great company. But at the Kan- sas river trouble arose over the question of caring for the loose stock, those having no cattle objecting with some justice to the per- formance of guard duty. Burnett now re- signed and a reorganization took place, those without the encumbrance of cattle forming the light column, the others the so-called "cow column." Of the latter company Jesse Applegate was chosen captain.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.