Pioneers! 0 Pioneers! Walt Whitman, Yloneersith Uc'ji-Ioneers-I--Is Table Ofcontents
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P1 OEERS! Through the battle, through defeat, moving yet andnever stopping, Pioneers! 0 pioneers! Walt Whitman, YloneersITh Uc'Ji-ioneers-i--is Table ofcontents K / \frJ \ \\ \\ / .,- \\ /\ / \\ /If' ! ABI,j 'Thebest people The Siletz God ever made' 2 Indians 16 - - Oregon Agricultural College 6 Curator of a most private museum 8 A 'surfman' r remembers 11 -----' -r---__:,2--- - Philomath College 14 Ji ' floskins: a fort 20 - - that couldn't 24 A Eddyville's Eddy 26 A window on Chautauqua is coming 28 the river 23 'The best people Godevermade' by Judy Carlson In the fall of 1852. / with others began preparing for it. First, twenty-one wagons had to to talk of the Oregon Country and the longer be made, then the oxen and horses chosen, and we talked about it the bigger it got. So those finally the necessary provisions collected. of us that had the fever. when we would meet each other, that would be the first thing to Provisions of flour, bacon, beans, sugar. talk about ... all we knew about Oregon salt, sea biscuit and such like were packed in would be when someone would come back long sacks and loaded in the lower deck of by that time it would go through a half the wagons; while the lighter provisions, such dozen hands... the virgin grass would grow as had to be gotten at three times a day, a so tall in the great Willamette Valley that a medicine box for each family and the bedding man on horse back could tie it over his head and clothing were placed on the upper deck. as he would ride through it. and that the cat- tle would get so fat that the tallow candles Leaving on April 4th, 1853, the wagon train would grow out on the ends of thefr horns. made its way slowly across the plains, the desert and that it wasn't necessary to p/ow up the and over the mountain range arriving near ground only once in eight or 10 years, and the Silverton, Oregon early in October. Although grain would volunteer right along and reap a their passage was safe and losses minimal, bountiful crop, and that the timber grew so Henkle recorded this: tall that you had to look twice up to see the The bright anticipations we started with tops of the trees.. Oh, this was too much from Iowa began to fade when we would stop for a young fellow of 27 years. a young wife at a green plat of grass to allow our poor cat- and two lovely children. tle to graze and someone would come out and command us to move on, saying it was Jacob Henkle Jr. dreamed this dream of their grass. Oregon Country and followed it the next year. Leaving most of the party encamped near Three brothers and their families, parents Jacob Silverton, Henkle and two others searched the and Anna Henkle Sr., and six other families valley for land still open for homesteading (the (King, Barker, Walker, Goodlin, Montgomery, federal government offered 320 acre land options and Wood) joined young Jacob on that long for every adult). The homes selected were in journey west. The winter of 1852-53 was spent Pleasant Valley (three miles south of Philomath 2 on Rock Creek) and the entire party arrivedon presence, to pull visitors into this Henkle family Christmas Day to "camp in our new homes." history as if it was their own. Time has passed since that memorable day "When Jacob and Anna came across the in April when they had turned their backson safe- plains, they had a stove fixed up in their covered ty and security and certain comforts. Whether wagon because they were old," she says. "They Oregon lived up to their many expectations, the had all kinds of conveniences - like horses to reader can only guess. The Henkles joined with draw their wagon, rather than an ox team. I had others to tame a rugged land, builda new town to laugh, because he was in his 60's and she in her and live a decent life. 50's...that's not so old." They stayed and built and married and mul- In recalling her own early years, she points tiplied. In this year of 1975, the Henkle descen- out how her father, a Methodist minister, kept dants number in the hundreds from that single the family on the move: "My Dad preached a wagon train. while and moved and preached and moved, so we One of their number is Florence Mason lived in so many places. It wasn't until Dad Smith, descended from Jacob Henkle Jr.on her wanted us in better schools that we moved back mother's side. She is the daughter of Emma to Philomath." There she and her family stayed, Shipley (daughter of Rachel Henkle Shipley, the until her graduation from the college in 1910. second eldest daughter of Jacob) and Rufus Those were family years spent with Henkles, Mason. She was born in1891in Creston, Shipleys, Masons, and other relatives who were Washington. early settlers too. Florence knows the family history and has In recalling her extended family, Florence made efforts to preserve and enlarge it. She singles out Jacob Henkle Jr.: "To me, Grandpa stepped down as President of the Henkle Family Henkle Jr. was completely special. He never was Association several years ago after serving 12 down deeply glad that he left the comforts of the years. east, but awfully proud of the fact that they At 84, Florence Smith is able toweave helped build a new country. He felt it was quite through the family history pulling threads from an achievement to see the towns grow, and the here and there, and buttoningup the gaps without churches grow and the schools grow- and all a moment's hesitation. She has the facts at her these young people be educated; it was an in- fingertips,the intelligence,and an aura of spiration to anybody to talk with him." 3 After deliberating, we decided we would ed over to the State. which is now Oregon build a saw-mi/I as there was nothing of the AgriculturalCollege (now Oregon State kind, and we wou/d have better houses to live University). in. In the spring of '54 we commenced work Our little mill furnished lumber, which road (old We had to dig a race to bring the water to the we hauled, to cover bridges on this place we wanted to set the mill, a half mile road to Vaquina Bay). So the mill had its part in building Vaquina Road. long. We sent lB. (Ichabod) to Oregon City to Jimmy Connor, the adopted son of T.J. Con- get the mill irons, while the rest of us went to nor (who named Philomath) wascited by digging the mill-race. And when we got the Florence as another example in her early life. mill-race done, we shouldered axes and broad Nancy axes and went into the timber to hew the "He married my grandmother's sister timbers forthe frame of the mill.By Henkle," she explains. "He was a minister and a very wonderful man. I somehowadmired him November we had the mill running. .. If we got 3,000 feet in 24 hours we thought we and Aunt Nancy so very much, were doing well "Christina Barker also made a great impres- Now this little mill did its part in furnish- sion on me," she continues. "She was totally school houses and blind, you know (Christina was blinded by swirl- ing lumber. .. Bridges and I churches were built here and there in the ing alkaline dust crossing the desert). county, and this little mill had a part. remember one time - it was threshing season, Later on, TJ. Connor sprung the College and Christina asked me to go out and watch the (Phiomath) proposition. Of course there were threshing with her. And I thought to myself, red hot speeches made on how badly we blind? Well, we went, and she said to me, 'Child. needed such a school. Our children would be come here - aren't the treeswonderful and held up before us. that they were growing up everything smells so good; it's great to be alive.' among the Indians. This was all calculated to I decided she was blind, but she seemed to see warm up the blood to fever heat. So the little things just the same. You know, I had the exam- mill had its part here too. I remember that we ple of all these fine people." went into the timber, felled the trees and put The Henkles have been gathering with them through... We worked day and night to friends and relatives every summer for over 50 make lumber as fast as the carpenters years to pray, potluck and visit. Florencemakes wanted it. an effort to be there to shareher favorite This little mill also had a part in building memories. At this year's reunion, she read from up Corvallis.The Southern Methodists Grandpa Henkle's diary, adding her own com- ments when she thought necessary and answer- wanted to build a school there. So .. they built a school in which this mill had to take a ing questions as they arose. part. It was run for a few years and then turn- The reunionistraditionally held at the Florence Mason Smith, 1975 Florence Mason. 1910 United Brethren Church, adjacent to Philomath vatory, the college offered liberal arts, teachers College. The Henkle descendants are proud of the certificates andreligioustraining.Florence college (now in the process of being restored).