Downey California

Merritt, Clarence D. “Don” – Obituary

Baker City, Oregon Clarence “Don” D. Merritt, 81, a longtime Baker City resident, died Feb. 4, 2004 at St. Elizabeth Health Services. A memorial service will be held in his honor at 1 p.m. Monday, Feb. 9, at Gray’s West & Company Pioneer Chapel with Pastor John Goodyear of the Baker Valley Church of Christ officiating. A celebration of life at Settler’s Park Assisted Living Center will follow the memorial service at 2 p.m., with a snack tray potluck reception. Clarence was born June 25, 1922, in Baker City to David and Grace (Srack) Merritt. He attended school in Baker … Read more

Biography of James Boyd

James Boyd, a pioneer of Riverside, came to the colony in 1872, all his worldly goods consisting of a farm team of four horses, four cows, a lot of chickens and a few household effects, and eight dollars in cash; but he had a reserve capital of health, energy, intelligence, and a determination to succeed. He secured a squatter’s claim to seventy-three acres of Iand about two miles north of Riverside, and later an adjoining tract of eighty acres, upon which he camped with his family, his only shelter being a shanty 10 x 10, devoid of protection from the … Read more

Biography of Henry Sterling Pankey

Henry Sterling Pankey a farmer of the Los Bolsa tract in Orange County, was born in Tippah County, Mississippi, in 1852, and reared principally in Tennessee. His parents, Henry and Zilpah (Daniels) Pankey, were natives of South Carolina The father died when his son Henry was only a year old, and the mother married Marion Clark four years later. Being ill-treated by his stepfather, Henry left him to live with William Burns, of Texas. Six months’ schooling was all that Mr. Pankey ever received. During the war he suffered many privations and undertook many disagreeable risks. He had to go … Read more