On Wednesday, May 11, 1870, the first number of the Bedrock Democrat was issued-the first newspaper published in Baker County Abbott & McArthur, proprietors. The editor in his address to the public promises devotion to the interests of the people of Eastern Oregon in all things pertaining to the material interests of the people, and […]
Joseph Kinnison came to Powder River valley in July and took up a ranch where he has ever since resided. To him belongs the honor of plowing the first furrow ever turned in Baker County. In the spring of 1863 he had about forty acres in cultivation. About the first of June there was a
Arrivals, Incidents and Anecdotes of Baker County Oregon Read More »
About two thousand claims on quartz lodes have been recorded in Baker County since 1862. More or less development work has been done on most of them, perhaps one half of them having been worked to the extent which the law requires in order to make the claim secure. Nineteen quartz mills have been built,
A little more than thirty-one years have passed away since the first discovery of gold on Griffin’s Gulch an event which led to the first permanent settlement in Eastern Oregon southwest of the blue mountains. Many of the pioneers of thirty years ago are still living, but their number is growing less year after year,
Baker City In the month of August 1864, R. A. Pierce laid claim to the SE ¼ of Sec. 17, Tp. 9. S. 40, east of the Willamette meridian, and proceeded in 1865 to get a title to the same from the state. He built a house west of where the court house now stands,
Sydney Abell, Justice of the Peace opened the first legally constituted court in Baker County, October 29th 1862. The first case was that of the people vs. D. Scott, action to bind defendant to keep the peace, entered on complaint of Thomas Ricketts. The prosecuting witness failed to appear and the case was dismissed. Of
People who come to the Pacific States in palace cars, making the trip in four or five days, can have but a faint conception of the toils and hardships endured by those who crossed the plains with teams before the advent of railroads. Experience would also be necessary, perhaps, to enable one to fully appreciate
Incidents in Pioneer Days in Baker County, Oregon Read More »
Wallowa, Oregon Lois Cowan of Wallowa died May 17, 2006, at the Wallowa Memorial Hospital after a short illness. She was 94. Mrs. Cowan was born Jan. 31, 1912, in Elgin to James Elvis and Bertha Witty Witherspoon. She grew up on the family farm on Cricket Flat and attended the Hindman Country School. She
North Powder, Union County, Oregon Passed Away Last Saturday Morning The community was saddened last Saturday morning to learn of the death of Mrs. Homer M. Carnes, a prominent young matron of this vicinity. Mrs. Carnes had been ill only a short time, many of her friends not being aware of her serious condition. Mrs.
Doris V. Conklin, 81, of La Grande, died Sunday evening March 6, 1994, at Grande Ronde Hospital. A service will be held at 1 p.m. Wednesday at Payne Family Mortuary with Rev. Norm Shrumm of the First Presbyterian Church of La Grande officiating. Private interment will take place later at Union Cemetery. She was born
