Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 24, 1972)
SECTIONS PAGE 4 Oregon Trail cont. from pg.2 liticUns' aspirations, and ot her factors pressed Oregon steadily toward statehood. After three times voting aga inst the proposal, each time by a smaller nurgin, the peo ple of the territory in 1837 approved the calling of a con vention to frame a state con stitution. The constitution was ratified, Oregonians vot ing to exclude both slavery and free negroes from the state. Without waiting for congressional action, a state government was elected In 1858, with John Whitaker as first state governor. "In Congress, meanwhile, Oregon hung in the balance between northern and south ern factions, and was not admitted as the 33rd state until Feb. 14, 1859. The news, anxiously awaited, left St. Louis by overland ex press for San Francisco, and from there traveled on the steamer Brother Jonathan, arriving In Portland early on March 15. No boat was scheduled to leave Oregon City that day, so the message went by horse back to Salem, where It re lieved the uncertainty of state officers elected nearlyayear before." OREGON GROWS The population of Oregon grew rapidly, in 1841 It was 253 with only 35 classed as settlers. The Hidwell-Bartle-son party was 70 strong when It left Independence, Mo. that year, and about half came on to the Willamette Valley. The emigration of '42, led by Eli jah White numbered more than 100. Almost 900 came across In 1843 with about 1300 head of cattle. Esti mates of arrivals numbered 1,200 in 1844; 3,000 in 1843; 1,350 In 184G; and about 700 in 1848. In 1849 most of the emigrants turned toward California and the gold rush and many Oregonians left their farms to try their luck. Between 1830' s census count of 13,294 and 1853, there was an increase of 30,000 people, many of them attract ed by the Donation Land Law. By 1860 the new state's po ulation was 52,405. (Blue book) MORROW TRAIL CAMPS The Oregon Trail was a real highway for about 30 years, from 1840 until after the Civil War. Trains head ing for the Willamette Val ley crossed Morrow as they traveled between Pendleton and The Dalles. The wagons stopped at various places hut some camps were outstand ing. West of Pendleton many stopped at Echo (In 1855, Fort Henrietta) where they forded the Umatilla. Thev moved west to cross Butter Creek just a little north and west of the present Echo Junction and just east of the present county line. They .. i'. ' f ' 25 Years of Progress and Growth with Polled Herefords! COLUMBIA EMPIRE WW n 1 LBCR Lamplighter T7: 1600 lbs. at 20 months. Purchased from Little Beaver Creek Ranch, Belnap, Montana. Don Robinson is in the middle of the picture. Our breeding program is planned for the needs of the com mercial cattleman by stressing weight per day of age, length, height and trimness, plus the ability to convert feed economically in the feed lot. This goal is attained by using large, long, trim herd bulls with a bred-in continuous growth factor crossed with large cows that are easy keepers and have good milking ability. Steers fed out as projects have weighed an average weight of 1030 lbs. at an average age of 14 mos., much earlier than the usual feed-lot steer, which attains this weight at 20 mos. Steers sold as projects have at numerous times been champion and reserve champion. ECirk mid Rom nson HENRY and DICK KliEBS WIKXSE RANCH IS WHERE the Old Oregon Trail crosses Willow Creek at Cecil. struggled westward across Sand Hollow and across Ju niper Canyon sometimes un der the hot sun, and often ex posed to strong winds. How they welcomed the water of historic Wells Springs just east of Ella which some of them reached the night after leaving Echo! Aiming almost due west they went on to cross Willow Creek at Cecil, another favored stop. From Cecil they climbed into Gll iam and continued toward The Dalles. In 1848, during the reac tion to the 1847 Whitman Mas sacre, the Cayuse under Ch iefs War Eagle and Five Crows were met by a small territorial force under Colo nel Cornelius Gilliam in the Battle of Sand Hollow near Wells Spring, where there remains some graves and a marker dedicated to Colonel Gilliam. IN THE SIXTIES In the early 1860's white men sought gold in Eastern Oregon and some drove hor ses and cattle in to pasture. There were few white women in the area. In fact, until after statehood there were no permanent settlers in Mor row. In 1860 Wasco County cen sus lists Henry Heppner as an itinerant packer. Among the early recorded settlers (1863) was one who is said to have settled by accident, William Y. Cecil, a wheelwright. It seems he stopped on Willow Creek to repair a wheel on his own wa gon and soon had so manv needing his help that lie set tled there beside the trail. Others must have settled nearby because the first postoffice was established there in 1867. Thomas and William Ayers settled early on Butter Creek near Lena, where a postof fice was authorized in 1873. The B.C. Atwouds (parents of PimiK! Bartholomew's mother,, wei-p further north on Butler Creek M'ur the emi grant crossing. The John Vinsons came back from the Willamette Valley to settle on land now owned by twins, Darrell and Delbert Vin son, several miles north of Luna. John Jordan had a cabin at the forks of Rhea and Wil low and was planting crops in 1860. The Elijah W. Rhea family settled In 1864 on their creek, a son Columbus A. came first, then the father E.W. and others came. (C. A. Rhea later established the First National Bank In Hep pner.) Oscar Clark after whom Clark's Canyon is named, A. J. Breeding, and the town's founder, William Penland, came Into the Lexington area in the 60' s. In 1868 A manual Pettys settled near lone. He is listed as the postmaster of the Willows Forks postoffice in 1872 (he also was post . master of the Pettysvllle P. O. in 1878 which replaced the earlier P.O.) In 1869 George W. Stans bury came and purchased land from a man named David Es tes. It was just above where Hinton Creek enters Willow Creek. The meadow became known asStansbury's Flatand the Stansbury cabin was the only building there. Later this property became the town site of Heppner, The 1870-census of Umatilla County listed these Morrow people (in addition to those already mentioned), John H. French, 36, and wife Annie, 19, and two children living on Butter Creek; Joseph Vey, 21, farmer; David Anderson who had homesteaded the southeast quarter of Section 35, just south of Heppner; Hugh Fields, 44, stockman; Frank Maddock. 34. stock man, wife Lucy, 24, and four children; Peter Saling, 39; John Shipley, 42, saddletree maker, Thomas Matlock, Elisha Sperry, David Herren, conL pg.5
