DR. WILLIAM PROEBSTEL. – Few among our early residents have been more serviceable to society than the gentleman whose name appears above. He was born in Germany in 1829, and is the son of a wine-grower. He received his primary education in the old country, and at the age of thirteen migrated to America, locating in Missouri, remaining there ten years, and receiving from the common schools the rudiments of an English education. He also took a course in dentistry.
In 1852 he crossed the plains to Oregon, locating at Portland. The next spring, with two brothers, he purchased the present site of Albina. In 1855 Mr. Proebstel was one of a party of independent scouts who figured in Clarke county during the Indian troubles of 1855-56, after which he removed to The Dalles, engaging in the grocery business, which he conducted eighteen months. In the fall of 1857 he bought a section of land six miles from Vancouver, and engaged in farming. In 1861 he married Miss Lucinda F. Nessly, who crossed the plains with her parents in 1852, and made her Oregon home at Scappoose.
He removed to the Grande Ronde valley in the fall of 1863, and located a mile north of La Grande, where he has resided ever since, and now owns five hundred and twenty acres of land well improved and stocked. He made a specialty of stock-raising until the range was eaten out, varying the monotony by practicing dentistry. He has five children; and his present home is one indicative of refinement and happiness. His numerous friends are always entertained in true pioneer style.