In Lincoln Country

Hollister Daniels's great-grandfather, Champney Pendleton, is one of the delightful exceptions to the relative anonymity of our family tree. He seems to have been both civic minded and entrepreneurial, traits that insured mention in written records.

I’m dividing Champney’s life into two parts—the period prior to leaving for Oregon and then once he’s here.

Champney Pendleton was born in Clark County, Kentucky in 1812, three years after Abraham Lincoln was born, also in eastern Kentucky. There is a genealogy source that says that Champney's father died when the boy was 11 years old .

Champney, like Lincoln, didn’t stay in Kentucky for long. There are documents dated 1833, 1834, and 1835 showing Champney Pendleton’s purchase of public lands in Sangamon County, Illinois. He married Phebe Mann in Illinois in 1830, when he was 18 years old. Phebe’s family had come to Illinois even earlier than Champney, true Illinois pioneers. Both the Mann family and Champney Pendleton are mentioned in a book History of Logan County Illinois, published in 1911.

Abraham Lincoln moved to New Salem, Illinois (also in Sangamon County) in 1831. New Salem has been preserved as a state park, the town rebuilt on the footprint of the original. I visited New Salem in July 2008 and came away with a real appreciation for the challenges Lincoln and Champney faced. Champney had one up on Lincoln, though. There were other Pendletons where he settled, giving him a support system that Lincoln lacked.

Champney settled in Mt. Pulaski, not far from New Salem; he was one of the first settlers in the township.

Lincoln’s presidential history is well known, but we often forget that he began his professional life as a lawyer and circuit rider. He’d ride through fourteen counties, conducting business. Is it possible that Champney ever had legal issues that brought him into contact with Abraham Lincoln the lawyer?

Perhaps his in-laws, the Manns, saw Lincoln at work in the Mt. Pulaski courthouse? It’s impossible to know, as the records of the Mt. Pulaski courthouse were destroyed in a fire.

Perhaps Lincoln’s earlier work as the surveyor brought him into contact with Champney? Lincoln was most active in that job during the years that Champney was purchasing land.

All speculation, to be sure, but a lot of fun. But any possibilities for Champney and Abraham to interact end in 1847, when Champney came down with “Oregon Fever.”

____________

The courtroom is in the Mt. Pulaski Courthouse and the caretakers are immensely proud of the fact that Abraham Lincoln argued cases in this very spot.

Champney Pendleton in Oregon

Hannah Pendleton Daniels Whitney’s obituary described how her family, led by Champney and Phebe Pendleton, left Illinois on May 2, 1847 and arrived in Oregon City on September 3. The train was led by Captain Joel Palmer, who went on to found the city of Dayton in Oregon and to become the Superintendent of Indian Affairs in Oregon.

Champney quickly became involved in Oregon affairs, as early as December 1847 contributing money for a militia to fight the Cayuse Indians involved in the Whitman Massacre. He and the others who contributed eventually petitioned the United States Congress for reimbursement.

Champney and his family were the first settlers on Baker Prairie, near what is now Canby, Oregon. He operated a ferry across the Willamette River, perhaps at the spot where the ferry still operates today.

(Thank you to Joy Wulff for the image above.)

Tragically, Champney died of typhus at age 45, in 1857. Typhus was not uncommon and there was a mistaken belief that if water was moving, it was safe to drink.

The archives in Salem have the extensive probate records for Champney Pendleton. He died without a will and his wife Phebe was required to inventory all of his belongings. There were claims against the estate. The most interesting, for us, is that of A C Daniels for $147.50 for labor done during the summer of 1855. The meticulous AC Daniels even calculated the interest due to him.

Champney Pendleton, Phebe Pendleton, and Samuel Pendleton are all buried at the Zion Cemetery in Canby, Oregon.

Champney is mentioned in Ralph Friedman's In Search of Western Oregon, though, as in so many other documents during his lifetime, mistakes his first name.

Champney and Phebe Pendleton had nine children. There are many Pendletons buried in the Hubbard, Oregon cemetery, near Hannah Pendleton Daniels Whitney and very close to Hollister Daniels's father, Samuel Daniels.

Restless Ancestors

Ethel Henrietta Ralston’s great grandparents, Daniel and Rachel Fiester,* were among the early arrivals to Oregon Territory. They came across the Oregon Trail in 1847, most likely leaving from Illinois, to what would later become Barlow, Oregon.

Ethel, in a family history narrative, described her great grandparents as “Pennsylvania Dutch.” Their name is variously spelled as Feaster, Feister (Ethel’s spelling), or Fiester (the spelling used in Daniel Fiester’s will).

Daniel and Rachel, like so many of our ancestors who came to Oregon, seemed to be a restless bunch. Daniel was born in Pennsylvania, Rachel in Ohio. Their first child was born in Ohio, their next two in Illinois, and Ethel’s grandmother, Henrietta, was born in Oregon Territory.

Daniel and Rachel, like most who came over the trail, first settled in the Willamette Valley. Henrietta was born in Gervais. (Gervais is located in the French Prairie area.) Four more children were born in Oregon.

At some point, Daniel and Rachel left the Willamette Valley for southern Oregon. (They are in Josephine County for the 1870 and 1880 census.) They settled near Kerbyville and farmed there. (After Daniel died, his son leased the property to another farmer and took as rent 1/3 of all the grain grown and ½ of all the hay grown on the land.)

Daniel and Rachel came back to the Salem area before they died in the early 1890s, though I have no information on where they are buried.

_______________

*The family tree a couple of postings back has the Fiesters at the bottom . . . hope that helps.

Young Love

Henrietta Fiester, born December 10, 1848 in Gervais, Oregon Territory, was Ethel Ralston’s grandmother. She was the fourth child of Daniel and Rebecca Fiester and the first born in the Oregon Territory.

In Ethel’s narrative, Henrietta eloped with Ephraim Jackson, being too young to marry in Oregon. They rowed across the Columbia River to Washington Territory and married in 1866, when she was 17 years old.

They returned to Linn County (in the Sweet Home area) where they eventually had twelve children. Ten survived to adulthood.

Ephraim and Henrietta Jackson both died at a young age. Ephraim died in 1899 at 58 and Henrietta died in 1896, when she was 48 years old. Their younger children went to live with older siblings. (The youngest, Lena, who was four when their mother died, lived with Ethel’s family in Eugene.)

The photo is of Henrietta Jackson, most likely about 1874, with her daughter Ella. Ella died soon after the photo was taken.

Three of Ephraim and Henrietta’s daughters married the three Ralston brothers. Alice married Samuel. Emma married James. And Lottie married Ernest. That’s a lot of double cousins.

(The three Ralston brothers are in the photograph a few postings back.)

Hope This Helps

Here's a tree (click to enlarge) that has some of the names I've blogged about.

1840 - 1918

Samuel Mathers Ralston, grandfather to Ethel Ralston, is a relative rarity in our family tree. Samuel Ralston served in the military. He was a participant in the Civil War.

Samuel Ralston was born in 1840 in Ohio. When he turned 18, he moved to Allegheny City, Pennsylvania to learn a trade (carpentry). When the rest of his family moved from Ohio to Iowa, he briefly joined them, but returned to Pennsylvania where there was work for him.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, recruited by his pastor, he joined the army and served in the infantry. (Private, 123rd PA Infantry, August 9, 1862 to May 16, 1863---I'll leave it to the military historians who read this to tell us if his group was involved in important battles.)

It was after his service was over that he moved to be with his family in Iowa and where he met Elizabeth Caldwell.

Samuel and Elizabeth lived for many years in Halsey, Oregon.

It was in Halsey that he joined the Presbyterian Church, becoming an elder. It was clear from his obituary that the Presbyterian Church was a central part of his life.

The Brownsville Times, in a "Church Notes" piece after his death, said, "for many years he was a Ruling Elder and, although nearing the four score mark, distance or weather never kept him from attending all the regular church services. His kindly advice and cheerful greeting will be missed by the entire membership."

But it's also clear his military service affected him greatly as well. He died just as the First World War was coming to a close and in his obituary, the Times noted that "his patriotism was deep and fervent, his thought being much with the country for which he had fought in his younger days."

The often florid writing style of the newspapers means we have to read between the lines. I'd say though, given the front page placement of his lengthy obituary in the Brownsville Times, he was probably considered an upstanding member of the community.

The photo on the left shows Samuel Ralston (on the right) in 1916, two years before he died. On the left is his brother, Robert. (The writing on the back of the photo is Ethel's and she refers to them as Grandpa and Uncle Bob Ralston.)

1844 - 1913

Ethel Ralston, like her husband, Hollister Daniels, came from Oregon pioneers. One of her grandmothers was born in Oregon in 1848, her parents having made the overland trip in 1847.

But her Ralston grandparents, while we’d consider them pioneers, came later to Oregon, arriving in the mid 1870s, almost twenty years after Oregon statehood.

Samuel and Elizabeth Ralston married in Madison County, Iowa in 1869. (Madison County was the setting of the novel and movie “Bridges of Madison County.) There were two children born in Winterset, Iowa, then the family came to Oregon where three more children were born.

Ethel had some information about her grandmother, Elizabeth Ralston. And in my research, I have found more.

Elizabeth Rebecca Caldwell was born August 1, 1844 in Vinago County, Ohio*. Her father was an itinerant preacher, traveling from place to place. Her mother died when Elizabeth was five years old. Elizabeth’s father soon remarried, but it turned out that the new stepmother didn’t like Elizabeth or her two older siblings. So, Elizabeth’s father took her to Dowagiac, Michigan and left her with a family named Conine.

Ethel refers to this time as Elizabeth being a “bound girl.” In a letter written by Samuel Ralston to a granddaughter or niece**, he said:

“She lived with them until she was grown. When Mother was a small girl, they considered it necessary to keep them busy, because ‘Satan finds something for idle hands to do,’ so when there was no work they had her carry chips across the road, and if there was still no work to do, she carried the chips back across the road. When she finished school, she went to Iowa and got a teaching certificate, and taught for quite some time.”

Ethel notes that she sold Watkins Products, traveling by horse and buggy. She was 25 when she married, so she would have had to support herself for a fair amount of time, if she finished school at 15 or 16.

After she married Samuel Ralston, though, she devoted herself to raising her family and working in her church. Her itinerant preacher father was a Methodist, but Samuel Ralston was Presbyterian, so that became her new church. Her son, though, said “I remember her singing the Old Methodist Hymns, while doing the work about the house.”

Elizabeth and Samuel Ralston lived for years in the Halsey, Oregon area, but finally settled in Brownsville, Oregon. Elizabeth died on May 19, 1913 at the Oregon State Hospital (the mental institution) in Salem, Oregon. She had suffered from dementia and eventually died of “La Grippe,” or influenza.

The Brownsville Times, in their obituary, said “All her life she lived a consistent Christian. Her greatest interest apart from her family was in her church . . . Because of her goodness and interest in others, she made many friends, and it was with deep sorrow that these saw her gradual decline in health, and breakdown of her physical energies.”

Elizabeth and her husband Samuel Ralston are buried in Kirk Cemetery near Brownsville.

_________________
*Census records don't show a Vinago County, Ohio, but there is a spelling similar in Pennsylvania.

**The letter excerpt is courtesy of a distant cousin back east. He received it from Mary Lou Cooley, who would be descended from Winifred Ralston. The confusion comes because he assumes the letter was written by Elizabeth's husband Samuel. I'm thinking it was written by Elizabeth's son Samuel.