Enterprise, Wallowa County, Oregon
Jesse Ownbey Came To Oregon In 1845
Pioneer Who Died Recently Took a Homestead North of Enterprise
Jesse Ownbey, whose funeral was held in Cove, August 27, was one of the historical band of pioneers to cross the plains even before the “days of 49.’ Which started the gold seekers in their mad rush for California. He first crossed the plains in 1845, then being 21 years old.
He was born in Buckhannon County, Missouri, July 10, 1824. After his first trip to Oregon he remained in the far west for two years, returning to the eastern states in 1847 by the way of Panama. In December of that year he was married to Elizabeth C. Jasper. The lure of the west was too great, and in the following spring he again set out on the journey over the plains, his bride remaining back in Missouri. A second time he returned east by the way of isthmus.
On his third trip across the continent he was accompanied by his wife, in 1851, and from that year until his death at Pendleton, August 25, he remained a resident of this state.
At first, Mr. Ownbey lived in the Willamette valley near Corvallis. He sold his interests there in 1864 and then moved into Eastern Oregon wilderness, locating in the Grand Ronde valley, in the old settlement at Cove.
Still another pioneering trip remained to be made by Mr. and Mrs. Ownbey. They moved into the unsettled Wallowa valley and took up the Blow farm, on Trout Creek, just north of Enterprise. The railroad of the East Oregon Lumber Co. is now being built through this farm, illustrating how rapidly commercial development has followed on the heels of the pioneers.
He sold the Blow place in 1892 and moved to Baker County for two years. Then he went back to Cove, where he lived until his wife died in 1900. Since then Mr. Ownbey had lived with his children.
In his early manhood he united with the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, but during his later years he was a member of the Methodist Church, to which he was devoted until his death.
Four sons and two daughters survive the pioneer: Mrs. N.M. Biggs of Humboldt county, California; Mrs. M.L. Eckersley of Cove; A.J. Ownbey of Oregon City; B.F. Ownbey of Enterprise, Jeff Ownbey of Prosper and J.M. Ownbey of Milton.