Oregon City Oregon

Biography of Dr. Alden H. Steele

DR. ALDEN H. STEELE. – “Olympia will always be a place for pleasant homes,” says one of her citizens well qualified to render an opinion, – the gentleman whose name appears above. The wide streets, magnificent shade-trees and comfortable residences of the capital of Washington Territory, together with her delightful climate, an extensive view of water and mountains, fully justify the remark; and no place could have a more pleasant recommendation. The Doctor has also examined the facilities of the place for a naval station, and finds that the location is most desirable from the following particulars: Safe anchorage and … Read more

Biography of James Johnson

JAMES JOHNSON. – James Johnson, a pioneer of 1844, son of James Johnson of Berkshire county, Massachusetts, was born on his father’s farm in 1814, and as a child moved with his parents to a new home in Onondaga county, New York, living there until he attained his manhood. In 1836 he gave rein to the desire for change and adventure and freedom, which ultimately made of him one of the early pioneers of Oregon, going in that year with his brother Daniel to Tippecanoe county, Indiana, and engaging in work as carpenter near Lafayette. In the winters, when there … Read more

Biography of James Duval Holman

James Duval Holman was born in August 18, 1814, on his father’s farm in Woodford county, Kentucky. He was of the Holman family so well known in the Southern and Middle States. His mother was a Duval of Hugenot descent, a family of equal position with the Holmans in the south. Of Mr. Holman’s great-grand parents, three came from Virginia and one from North Carolina. His parents were John and Betsy L. Holman, who were married in October, 1810. In 1817 they moved to Tennessee, where they resided for nine years, when they moved to Clay county, Missouri. His mother … Read more

Diehl, Marilyn Marie Bond Mrs. – Obituary

Baker City, Baker County, Oregon Marilyn Marie Diehl, 66, of Pendleton, a former Baker City resident, died Dec. 31, 2005, at Willowbrook Terrace in Pendleton. Her funeral will be scheduled later in Baker City. Disposition was by cremation. Mrs. Diehl was born on June 10, 1939, at Baker City to John and Vera Speelman Bond. She attended Baker High School and was a graduate of Eastern Oregon State College at La Grande (now Eastern Oregon University). She was an elementary school teacher at Union and Oregon City. Her hobbies included music, drawing and arts and crafts. She was a member … Read more

Stevens, Jeffery Max – Obituary

Union County, Oregon Obituary La Grande, Oregon Jeffery Max Stevens, 39, formerly of La Grande, died March 10 after battling cancer. There will be a private family memorial service in Canby. Arrangements are under the direction of Loveland Funeral Chapel. Jeffery was born Aug. 22, 1967, to Arthur and Shirley (Shelly) Stevens in Oregon City, where he graduated from high school. He never married and was a painter by trade. He enjoyed spending time with his children, taking trips to the Wildhorse Casino in Pendleton, bowling and working in his yard. Survivors include his children, Jessy Stevens of Milwaukie and … Read more

Biography of George E. Wells

GEORGE E. WELLS. – The subject of this sketch is a man of great energy and power of adaptability, as is manifested in the occupations that have been engaged in by him during the years in which he has been in this western country, and it is pleasant to remark that during all of these varied undertakings, some of which have been exceedingly arduous and fraught with hardship and danger, he has manifested a stanch and unflinching courage, marked industry and enterprise, with excellent personal qualities of integrity and upright principles, while a good success has attended his efforts, both … Read more

Biography of Archbishop F. N. Blanchet

ARCHBISHOP BLANCHET. – The Most Reverend F.N. Blanchet ranked among the apostolic men who laid the deep foundations of the Catholic faith in this country. He was born at St. Pierre, Riviere-du-Sud, Quebec, Canada, September 5, 1795, was educated in the Petit Seminaire, Quebec, and was ordained July 18, 1819, by Archbishop Plessis. At that time Oregon was simply the name given to a territory extending along the Pacific coast from latitude forty-two degrees to fifty-four degrees, forty minutes north, until finally, in 1846, – the year of the accession of Pius IX. to the see of Peter, – all … Read more

Kasinger, Lyman Roy – Obituary

Imbler, Union County, Oregon Local Resident Hears of Brother’s Death Mrs. Keith Glenn received word that her brother, Lyman Roy Kasinger died Sunday of a heart attack at his home in Oregon City. He had been a resident of Imbler and La Grande several years ago, and was the son of the late Mr. and Mrs. Tom Kasinger. Survivors include a daughter, Gertrude Persyn of Oregon City, and two [*] grandchildren; one brother Jack T. Kasinger, San Bruno, Calif.; sisters Lillie Fehr, Woodland, Wash.; Floy Davis, San Francisco, Calif., Hattie Bell, Hood River, Bessie Ruckman, Oakland, Calif., Hester Glenn, Summerville, … Read more

Roy, Doris Mary Scott Mrs. – Obituary

Dorris Mary Scott Roy, 88, a former Baker City resident, died Aug. 10, 2001, in Oregon City. Mrs. Roy was born on Sept. 30, 1912, at Corvallis to Frank and Malinda Scott. She was proud of her roots and the fact that she was a native Oregonian. Her paternal grandfather came West in a wagon train from Dubuque County, Iowa, and settled at Tangent in 1853. After graduating from Corvallis High School, she completed a degree in home economics from Oregon State University and earned a master’s degree in Extension Education from the University of Wisconsin. She lived in Baker … Read more

Biography of Gen. Morton Mathew McCarver

GEN. MORTON MATHEW McCARVER. THE FOUNDER OF BURLINGTON, IOWA, SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA AND TACOMA, WASHINGTON,- General McCarver was born near Lexington Kentucky, January 14, 1807. Of an independent, roving spirit, determination, courage and enterprise that knew no bounds, he quit his home at the age of eighteen years and went to Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, and not finding anything congenial to his tastes returned and settled in 1830 at Galena, Illinois, where he was married to a Miss Mary Ann Jennings. He served in the Black Hawk war, and after the surrender of the great chief of the Sacs and Foxes, … Read more

Stains, Inez J. Mrs. – Obituary

Inez J. Stains, 97, a former North Powder resident, died Nov. 12, 2000, at Oregon City. Her graveside funeral was Wednesday at the North Powder Cemetery. Mrs. Stains was born June 13, 1903, at North Powder. She had worked as a music teacher and in cosmetics sales. She moved from North Powder to Oregon City 20 years ago. Her husband, Howard Oscar, died Jan. 1, 1985. Survivors include three nieces, Joanne Thompson of Boise, Patricia Kerns of Casper, Wyo., and Lorraine Millar of Greer, S.C. The Hillside Chapel Inc. of Oregon City is in charge of arrangements. Used with permission … Read more

Biography of Hon. Zenas Ferry Moody

HON. Z.F. MOODY. – Zenas Ferry Moody, ex-Governor of the State of Oregon, was born on the 27th of May, 1832, in Granby, Massachusetts. His father was Major Thomas H. Moody. His mother was Hannah M. Ferry, an aunt of ex-Senator T.W. Ferry, of Michigan, formerly vice-president of the United States. Governor Moody comes of good old New England Revolutionary stock, his grandfather, Gideon Moody, having borne arms as a soldier during the Revolutionary war. He has proved himself worthy of his lineage; and the principles which he imbibed on New England soil have been the guide of his whole … Read more

Biography of Judge Columbia Lancaster

JUDGE COLUMBIA LANCASTER. – Judge Lancaster, one of our earliest and most eminent judges, was born at New Milford, Litchfield county, Connecticut, on the 26th of August, 1893. His father was of Quaker descent, and settled in Ohio at an early date. Columbia read law under Whittlesy & Newton in Ohio. The Whittlesy of the firm was the honorable Elisha who was a long time in Congress, and afterwards held office in the auditor’s department under both Whig and Democratic administrations with no charge of his political sentiments. He though almost as much of his student Lancaster as of his … Read more

Biography of Hon. Dolphes Brice Hannah

HON. DOLPHES BRICE HANNAH. – This gentleman is the son of Brice and Celia Tade Hannah, and was born in Gallatin county, Illinois, October 11, 1822. His father, who was a substantial business man engaged in trade and forwarding, died in the spring of 1823, leaving a wife and two children, one boy and one girl. He left considerable estate, consisting of personal property. John McLaughlin and the widow were appointed to administer the estate; and, as usual, McLaughlin did the work, pocketed the entire proceeds of the estate, and then left for parts unknown. About two years after the … Read more

Biography of Oliver P. Goodall

OLIVER P. GOODALL. – Mr. Goodall, one of our best men in developing Oregon, was born in Jefferson City, Missouri, August, 1828, and grew up on a farm, securing a common-school education. At the age of eighteen he left school and joined Colonel William Bent, and spent the winter of 1846-47 at Bent’s fort on the Arkansas river, in the capacity of clerk. He there met with continuous adventures, associating with such old mountaineers as Kit and Bob Carson, Bridger, the Calloways, Bill Williams, Dick Dallam, Black Dick Curtis and others; and his recitals of their brave and daring deeds … Read more

Biography of Capt. John H. Couch

CAPT. JOHN H. COUCH. – A native of Newburyport, Massachusetts, he was one of the handful of hardy, brave, adventurous settlers who made the wilderness their home, and devoted the best portions of their lives in opening the way and preparing the land for the immigration and occupation of their brothers across the mountains. He was born February 21, 1811, and was perhaps influenced by the surroundings in his native place; for Newburyport is noted as one of the oldest and most famous seaports and nurseries of maritime enterprises in America. Be that as it may, he manifested in early … Read more

Biography of Henry Martyn Chase

HENRY MARTYN CHASE. – This gentleman was born March 28, 1831, in Philadelphia, from whence he moved to Newburyport, Massachusetts, in 1844. He is a descendant of Aquila Chase, one of the early settlers of Newburyport, Massachusetts, and also directly descended from the famous Hannah Dustin, who killed her Indian captors in the Indian war of 1689. Mr. Chase sailed from Boston for California January 11, 1849, in the brig Forest, and arrived in San Francisco July 6th of the same year. He earned his first money there by painting a ship. In August, 1849, he sailed for Oregon in … Read more

Biography of Joseph Buchtel

JOSEPH BUCHTEL. – The peculiar composition and make-up of this man is that of only one in a million. He is noted for his daring deeds of adventure, if they may be so called; and his whole life is made up of daily events in rescuing others from their perilous positions; indeed, so much so that he is known far and wide as the “Oregon Life Saver.” Hundreds, if we may not say thousands, who are living to-day directly owe their lives to him. The natural daily routine of circumstances seems to have brought him upon the scene just in … Read more

Biography of Rev. Gustavus Hines

REV. GUSTAVUS HINES. – Gustavus Hines was born in Herkimer county, New York, in 1809. On his mother’s side he was descended from the Carvets and Wilkensons of the old Massachusetts colony, and on his father’s from the Hopkinns of Rhode Island, all names of the highest respectability and even celebrity in the early history of New England. Governor Carvet of Massachusetts colony, and Stephen Hopkinns, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, were of the same families. he grew to his majority in the county of his birth, and in 1832 removed to Cattaraugus county, in the … Read more

Biography of Mrs. Harriet Jewett

MRS. HARRIET JEWETT.- A mournful personal as well as historic interest lingers about those who survived the dreadful affair at Waiilatpu in 1847. Many of these feel that those who died were the happier; and no sympathetic friend, as every reader of this book must be, will care to inquire more minutely than is given in the pages of the general history of this work. But all will be glad that these sufferers from Indian atrocity outlived their great sorrow, – the butchering of a husband or father or friend, – and have for all these years been useful and … Read more