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Wednesday, August 8, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Whispers from the past…
By Sue Stafford
Correspondent
Several pieces of early
Sisters history from the
Edgington Ranch, that had
been stored in longtime
resident Georgia Edgington
Gallagher’s garage, now have
a new home with the Three
Sisters Historical Society
— including a wicker-and-
leather chair belonging
to Georgia’s father, Ellis
Edgington, a large kitchen
“dough boy” used as a bak-
ing center with pull-out flour
drawers, and a small cabinet.
The name Edgington
has been familiar in Sisters
Country for 130 years, and
is memorialized today in
Edgington Road, which
runs up into the woods off
Highway 242.
Ellis Hartley Edgington
came to Wasco, Oregon, from
Indiana in 1888 at the age
of four with his parents, Dr.
and Mrs. Jesse Edgington.
He attended elementary
and high school in Wasco
before enrolling at Oregon
Agricultural College (now
OSU) where he played foot-
ball as a Beaver in 1903 and
1904.
In 1905, Ellis came to
Central Oregon, establishing
a homestead on Bull Ridge
in the vicinity of Plainview,
southeast of Sisters. Seven
years later, in 1912, he left
Bull Ridge and, with his
cousin Howard Hartley, went
in on a 1,200-acre deeded
ranch on Three Creek Road.
Part of those 1,200 acres
had been homesteaded by
William Cox in 1882. Cox
ran one of the first sawmills
in the Sisters area.
Two years after acquiring
the homestead outside Sisters,
Ellis married Martha Ellen
Crawford on September 2,
1914, who was a teacher for a
year in the Plainview School.
She had come with her par-
ents to Plainview when they
left their wheat ranch near
Pullman, Washington.
Ellis and Ellen became
parents to four children:
Robert (1916), Martha Jean
(1917), Jesse (1918), and
Georgia (1922). Robert died
at the age of 14 in 1930.
The Edgingtons raised cat-
tle on the Circle E Bar ranch,
allowing them to graze freely
until later when Ellis pro-
cured a grazing permit dur-
ing the summer months in the
Deschutes National Forest.
Ellis had a road con-
struction business for eight
years with Mel Harrington.
According to an April 1964
Ruralite, they used “horse-
drawn equipment to clear and
grade the road from Sisters
to Plainview, Prineville
Junction to the Crook County
line, Alfalfa Market Road,
Buckhorn Canyon Road to
Tumalo, 15 miles of The
Dalles-California highway
from Beaver Marsh south,
and others. The roads were
not paved until years later.
Service to the community
was an integral part of Ellis’s
life for many years and Sisters
reaped much benefit from
his volunteerism. In 1928 he
organized one of the earli-
est 4-H Clubs in Deschutes
County, with the young mem-
bers winning multiple ribbons
for their dairy animals.
He served for 16 years as a
member of the Sisters School
District board of directors,
helping to construct its first
high school and gym as well
as a new elementary school
building. He was also one of
the founders of the original
Sisters Rodeo Association
and served as a member of
the Sisters City Council.
The Deschutes County
and Oregon Cattlemen’s
Associations both benefitted
from his memberships, with
him serving as president of
the state organization. Other
board positions included as
a director for eight years of
Central Electric Cooperative
and for many years on the
county fair board.
Ellen and Ellis both played
musical instruments, him the
banjo and her the accordion.
Ellen also played the organ
for the church where they
attended services. They were
founding members of the
Plainview Grange.
Ellis died in 1966 and
Ellen in 1973, and they are
buried in the Greenwood
SMALL
ENGINE
REPAIR
PHOTO PROVIDED
The original Edgington ranch house in 1950 on the 1,200-acre Circle E Bar
Ranch originally located off Three Creek Road. Today, there are only a few
remains of the house left.
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PHOTO PROVIDED
Ellen and Ellis Edgington shared a love of music with their instruments, the
accordion and mandolin.
Cemetery in Bend.
Following Ellis’s death,
his son Jesse began to subdi-
vide the ranch into one-acre
parcels. However, a change
in land-use laws required the
parcels to be at least 10 acres.
At that same time, the Corps
of Engineers constructed a
portion of gravel road from
Highway 242 that joined
the Brooks-Scanlon main-
line road where it ran at the
bottom of the hill where the
Edgington ranch was located.
That road became
Edgington Road and went
on up the hill where there are
now 10-acre or larger prop-
erties with homes on them.
Jesse lived on Edgington
Road until moving into
Sisters where he lived in
the house Ellis and Ellen
had lived in when they left
the ranch. After returning to
Sisters, Georgia lived in that
same house, and her daughter,
Norah, is now living there.
As with so many houses in
Sisters, the house was moved
from another location to the
lot purchased by Ellis and
Ellen.
A portion of the ranch,
where the remains of the old
ranch house were located,
was purchased by Don
Frisbee, CEO of PacifiCorp
in Portland, and his son still
owns it.
Georgia kept a number
of mementos and pieces of
furniture from the original
house on the ranch. Georgia’s
children, Norah, Dennis, and
Vince Gallagher, recently
contacted the Three Sisters
Historical Society when they
began to divest themselves of
some of Georgia’s belongings
and offered them to the soci-
ety, which happily accepted
their offer.
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