CHAPTER FOUR

FAMILIES

Copyright 1986 by Hollyfo Ann Harer [BeersJReproduced on the City of Ukiah website with

permission from the author.

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GENEAOLOGIES

The Beneaologies and sev-eral stories of the early - daypioneers are contained in thischapter,

A sanpling of f arnilies isincluded, al,ong r^tith 2 of thefounders of Alba-Ukiah fron the1880's, Huston and carnbee. TheRhinehart, Moss ie, Mettie, Hi1-bert families before the turnof the c entury and the Mart 1n,fleengs, Mi 11s, Kirk, Scroggin ,Arbuckle, Weissenfluh f arniliesafter 190O,

As I said, these are buta sampling as many other nanescan be found who honesteadedinearlier years. Although thesepioneer's fanil ies haven't beenlisted in the geneaologies theysti11 pl.ayed an inportant pat:tin the settling of the Alba andUki ah areas, and their nanreswj11 be faniliar to anyone whohas had contact with the area.

The Peterson r s were earlysettlers as were the Brehm ' s &

Chil.son's. Chilson Creek onBridge Creek Fl,ats was nanedfor that fanily. Brehn Thick-et, Clark Spring-for a man bythe nane of Ralph C1ark, Car-ney Butte-for Leonard Carney ,circa 1876, Meengs Canyon, andGulliford Spring were all nanedfor early hones teaders in theregion. Corley's have Longbeenassociated with the Albee areaand several of the street nanesnow found in Ukiah honor the$re11 known families r.iho havehelped keep Ukiah going.

DeSpain, Hartman, Bryan ,and Alba & Camas are all streetnames in Ukiah's plans.

Although all the famiLiesare important to the area onlya few could be included for onereason or another, but, 1et us

rLot forget the others, e ither,as they are no less important,

A special thank you to thec ontribut ors of the f ollowinginformat i on on f amilies:

C. R. "Ke 11y" Huston, AgnesRickert, DT. John Gambee,SusanRhinehart Riddle, Red & ElnorBeers, Estelle I'1i11s Barklow ,Watt Scroggin, Albert Petersonand Trevah l^leissenf 1uh Hulden.

t.r ".itl'|.

._:FqGl:.i_. !l

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JAMES T. HUS TON

Huston and his wife, Li11yBe11e (Be11e) Rippey Hl,lston, ar-rived in Unatilla County i.n 1880.They were f rorn Lakeport, .Ca1i-fornia and at first settled nearAthena, 0re gon.

Their first son, Harry, wasborn in Athena that sane year,In 1881 they moved to the CamasPrairie settlement r4here Louis(Gip) ttuston, their second sonr'ras born in 1882. J.T. & Bel.1ehones teaded west of present-dayIlkiah just this side of UkiahJunction on the north side ofthe highr^'ay. The honestead issti11 standing today and a signon the house reads, somewhat dry-1y, E1 Rancho Horse Manuro.

The Hus ton' s were one ofthe original fanilies who caneto Carnas Va1ley to stay. Janeswas also instrumental i-n forn-ing the Canas Land Conpany andfounding both Alba and Ukiah a-long with cambee and the others.

The Hus ton' s bu i1t a hotelin 1898 after havinB moved intoUkiah frorn the honestead. In an0ctober 24 19OI edition of theUkiah Sentinel there appeared the?oTTo"ing=d-i6rt is ernent concern-ing the hotel: "my tables areconstantly supplied with thebest the narket affords. " ,'Feedand Livery stable in connectionand "courteous treatnent to ourguests. "

Harry Huston, J.T..s

Harry & Edith Huston had ason, their only ch i1d, who wasborn at the Huston homestead in1912. They narned hirn Clar:enceR. Huston but he has always beenknown as K e 11y.

When Ke11y.was 5 or 6- hisparents bought sone of what isnow the Fletcher place south ofUkiah and Louis (Gip) moved on-to the hone s tead the sane year.

Gip Huston worked for theMossie's on their farm for atirne and lived in Ukiah for norethan 70 years.

In 1928 !larry Huston diedof appendicitis at age 48.

Edith Huston worked as theschool custodian for 2O years &

later married Walt Kirk afternany years of widowhood. Shedied in I974 at the age of 94,Edith McReynolds Huston Kirk hadlived in Ukiah for 85 ye ars .

Ke1ly Huston r^Ias raised inUkiah and in 193 2 narr i ed AlmaParrish fron Condon. They hadone s on, Richard, born Aug. 13,L933,

Dick Huston rnarried EvelynDuttridge (b. 7-17-33) on Aug.21, 1955. They had two daugh-ters, KelLi (b. 9-B-58) & Kerr i(b. 7-r3-67).

Ke1li married Randy Lind-e11 (b. 6-29-58) on December 26,1980. They have a son, Ryan ,born 4-19-84.

KeL1y and Alma Huston sti11reside nost of the year in Lrkiahwith winters spent in Arizona.

The Huston' s have been thenost pernanent of the early set-tlers having lived in Ukiah forover 1-00 years.

J. T. Huston and Frank Hi1-bert once argued over the found-ing of Ukiah, Frank was againstit. and told J.T.-"You will see theday when ny Colds wj.ll run the streetsof UKfAH ! "

s on,married Edith McReynolds circa190O. Edith r^ras the dauBhterofCharles and Elizabeth McReynoldswho honesteaded the o1d Hines/Doc Roberts place and they op-erated Ukiah's first creamery .

The McReynolds traveled toCanas Prai-rie frorn San Francis-co, California when Edith was 8years o1d (1889).

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GAMBEE ' S EARLY ANCESTRY

Eber Blogett Garnbee's an-cestors were German immigrantsand came to Anerica in ttre 1700's.

John Ganbe e, Eber's greatgrandfather was a bLacksmith &

married MarY Liebrock. TheYhad l-2 children born in Arneri-ca including Daniel- (b.L792 inOhio ) . Daniel married SarahGanber (N0TEr Garnber is correctand she narried Gambee). Gid-eon G. Ganbee was born to thenin 1818. Gideon married a wo-nan naned Arminda BLodgett in1847. Their onLy childra' son,was born September 24' 1852 inAdrian, Michigan. TheY nanedhim Eber Blodgett Ganbee.

Eber's nother died earlYin 1865 when he was L2 Yeats oldand tbe following Year he wentto a Quaker school in Union Tor^ryl

New York. In L873 Eber earneda Masters Degfee frorn Notre Dame

University and devoted an ad-ditionaL year to the study ofpoli.tical e c onomy.

In 1874, at the age of 22,Gambee traveLed bY rail to Cal-ifornia where he taught schooLfor a year in Fresno County' He

then settLed in Ukiah, CaLif-ornia where he was PrinciPalofthe ligh sehool as well as oneof the teachers. TI^to years laterhe purchased the local newsPa-per which he rnanaged and edit-ited for two Years before sell-ing it to return to teaching.Around 1880 the bank in Ukiah,Cal-ifornia failed, wiPing outseveral years s aving s .

Seeking free government1and, r^6ter, and tinberr EberGambee turned north' arr iv ingin Catnas Prairie in 1881. Soonafter arriving Gambee Purchaseda homestead relinquishnent andbui!.t a cabin about thre€ hun-dred yards south of LittLe Cam-

as Creek. It sat at the footof the hilL aPProximate!.Y 30feet below tbe nost easterlYof

tr^'o springs which flowed outof the low hi1ls which markedthe southern boundary of theprairie.

IJntil 1881 the Camas Pra-irie settlers had traveled toPilot Rock for their mail butin June a Post office was es-tablished about 6 miles northof what wouLd becorne Ukiah'Itwas ca11ed SniPe Pos t Office '

In 1882, howeverr Ganbeedecided on a better nane forthe postal" site and sugEestedthe nane Alba' neaning "white"in Latin' for the A1banHil1s upon ldhich Rone had beenbui1t. The Post office con-forned in April.

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GAMBEE MARRIED IN 1882

Canbee and Mary Mossie hadbeen acquainted while both rrereliving in Michigan. After r-nov-ing west they evidently kept intouch as they decided that theywoul.d t-narry,

lfary Mossie was born April5, 1855, one of 5 children. Sheattended schools in Michiganandbegan teaching at a young age.

In 1882 she left home for0regon, traveling by rail to SanFrancisco. There she boarded theS.S, 0regon for portland. Maryand Eber were rnarried there onAugust 18, 1882.

After their wedding the new-lyweds started for Camas prairiefirst tr.ave 1i ng by boat to TheDa11es, then by train to Urnatil-la which was the end of the lineat that time.

t{ith a span of horses hitchedto a wagon the Ganbee's left U_nratilla on a three dayr gO rnilej ourney to Camas prairie, goingby way of Pendleton. 0n1v onebrick sl.ructure was locatLd inPendleton in that year.

At Pilot Rock they sl.eptunder their wagon and wele onthe Ye11ow Jacket Road the nextday. They had supper in Alba &arrived at Eber' s honestead inthe late evening, 3 weeks af terMary Mossie had 1e ft for Ore gonand her new husband.

IIrs. Gambee was quite busyafter arriving as shc taught thefirst school in Canas prairie.

The school bu i ld ing s tooda few yard s west of present-dayIlighway 395 on one of the 1owridges that approached the roada few hundred yards north of U-kiah Junction. Arnong sone ofher first pupils were the Gibbs,Rippey and Sturtevant children.

GAMBEE EX PAND S

Around 1884 the Gambee's ac_quired acres further south and

built a 2-room, 1l story 1oghouse with a 1-story kitchenon the south s ide. ft was lo-cated about 4/5 ot a mile fronthe original honestead and a1itt1e further west near aspring which flowed fron underthe roots of a f ir tree. Ia'hilel iving there the Gambee's hadtwo sons . Edwin Ephren, bornSeptenber 30, 1885, and EricJulian, born July 7, lagO.

In 1884 cideon C. cambeecarne to 0reBon to visit hisson and while here also exer-cised his rjght to acquire gov-ernr-nent land. By this tieansa substantial adition was nadeto the Ganbee acreage.

Gideon Gambee never re-turned to his native Ifichiganas he died in Ukiah on June 8,l9O4 at the age of 86. A tal1,white headstone narks his gravein the southernnost corner ofthe Ukiah cemetary.

GAMBEE AS POLITICIAN

Eber Gambee, being quitepolitically notivated, was e-lected to the olegon Legislaturetwice.He served in the House ofRepresentatives once in 1899,and again in 1891. During thosetwo years the f arnily resided inSa1en.

In 1890, betr^reen the twoterms as Representative, Gan-bee was appointed to the Boardof Directors of the Canas LandCompany. He was then electedPresident. The Canas Land Co.nenbers were the original in-corporators of the future townof Ukiah,0regon.

OLD FORT AI,BEE

Early in 18 91 Ganbee andhis wife purchased the BedfordBolin acres and the family rnov-ed to the new location a 1it-

tle over a mile southeast of U-Kiah. With the Bolin propertyGambee acquired o1d Ford Albee,which r^/as situated about fortyyards west and a few feet southof the res idence. Thls fort wasconstructed of hewed westernlarch (tarnarack) tinbers about6 i.nches thick and 12 inches innidth, beaut ifu11y dove-tailedat the corners. ft was 18 feetlong by 16 feet wide with opengables and a steep shake roof.Holes through the thick wa11smade it possible for those in-s ide to protect themselves withrlfles, Sone of the tanarackt imbers fron this building wereused j-n a barn built by Ganbeearound 1900.

According to E. E. Garnbeein a letter written to Ella can-ger in the 1940's, not nuch in-fornation existed even then re-lative to the early history ofthe fort, but it was thought tohave been built circa 1.875, "whenthe Ind ians lrere rather ugly ".f assumed this to mean about thetirne of the Bannock-Paiute Raidin 1878, although f cannot becertain.

MORE GAMBEE HISTORY

On April 4, 1892 anotherson was born to Eber & Mary andhe was naned I-ouis Phaon. The irlast chi1d, also a son, was born

fn his barn, built withthe tirnbers from o1d Fort A1-bee, he had a 28-inch cyL inderthresher and a straw cutter whichfirade the s traw alnost as val u-able as the hay. The barn wasquite large as it neasured 70X104 feet in ground dirnensions.

Garobee ran quite a nunberof sheep in the oarlier year s,but by this tirne had sold offmost of his sheep stock & wasconsidering going into the cat-t1e business.

Garnbee being a prof essor,taught his four sons fron firstgrade through high school. Inorder to further theiT educat-ion, which was so important toGambee the scholar, the Ganbeefanily sold thei-r-. ranch circa1905 to Mary ' s brother, MilesH. (Henry) flossie, and all ofthen noved to Santa C1ara, Cal-i forn ia. They l ived there un-ti1 after the severe earthquakeof Septneber 1906. Their e1d-est s on, Edwin, attended nedi-cal school in San Francisco atthe tine.

The re:raining years oftheir lives the elder Gambee'slived i.n 0regon, chiefly in thePort land area. Mary Ganbeedied June 6, 'l-,939. Four r-nonths1ater, October 8, 1939, EberGarnbee passed away. He was a-bout 87 years of age. Both areburied at Mt. Calvary c eme t aryin Portland.

GAllBEE'S OFFSPRING

As their father had hoped,all of Eber & Mary, s sons wenton to lead very successful 1ives.Three became doctors and one ahigh school principal.

Edwin practiced nedicinefor 45 years before his retire-ment. He was rnarried to ClaraWaddock on 0ctober 20, lglO andthey had one s on, Ph i 11ip Jos-eph. Phillip married Mary ca1-lagher and they had four chil-

onr{as ca11ed Hosner Cu11en.

fn 1902, r^rlth a family offour sons, Ganbee had one ofthebest equipped ranches in CanasPrairie country. He owned 1800acres of land and one of the im-provements he made on that landwas a mi1l building by Camas Creek.He successfull"y harnes s ed theI^rater supply and operated nanymachines inc 1ud ing a band s aw,a drag saw, a lathe and a wash-ing rnachine. There was also afair s ized workshop in connect-ion with the ni 11 building.

Decenber 7, I893 and he

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dren. Two girls and two boys.David Ganbee narried Joyce

Modre1l. They have four sons-11ichae1, cregory, Kent & Brad-1ey, Davied was a profession-a1 basketball. player, now inthe lurnbet: business.

John Gambee rnarr i e d JanetHenderson and they have elevenchildren including I S e an, Court-enay, S arah, Seth, Elisabeth ,John Maren, Luke, Benson, C ar-den and Gabriel.

Gretchen Ganbee and herbusband, Gerald Opdahl have 6sons: Patrick, Thonas, Joseph,Jordan, Gregory and Christoph-er.

C ar o 11'n Garnbee married aman naned Jane s Fol ey and theyhave 5 children: Rachael rClare,Michael, Sar.ah and Seth.

There are no. grandchil.drenfor any of these four childrenof Phillip & Mary Carnbee as ofyet so the l.ineage fron EberGanbee ends hear on this branch,

Eric Canrbee, second e1d-est of Eber' s sons, practicednedicine in Oregon and Iowa be-fore an autonobile accident tookhis I ife two days bef ore his45th birthday in 1945. He wasnarried Lo Dora Langenfield in

Phoenix, ATizona until his re-tirerrrent. He had one son andthree daughters who were resi-ding in Arizona, a1so.

Eber Blodgett Ganbee notonly left a Lasting inpress ionon the Ukiah-A1ba area, he alsoleft his mark on the medicalf iel-d as nany of his progeny be-came doctors.

Not only his own 3 sons,but s everal of his grands ons,and great-grandsons have chosento becone physici.ans and sur-Beons, including;

Edwin, Er ic, Lou i s, John,Joseph and L. Phaon Gambee

1922 and they had 2 sons3 daughter:s.

and

Louis Garnbee, third son ofEber & 11ary, married Mary Can-ning on JuIy 24 1926. They hadtwo sons and one daughter. He(Louis) taught agriculture atPendleton High School for twoyears. During the second ye arhe was also the principal, HelateI became a physician, prac-tj cing med ic i ne and surgery inthe Portl.and area for a goodnany years.8, 1957 .

He died Septenber

Hosner, the younge s t, wasa teacher and taught sclence ln

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ALBINA A}iD OSCAR RH INEHART

Albina Rh inehart was b ornNovenber 18r 1837 in Ilinnesota.She and her hus band, 0scarrhads ix children including l^la1ter,Edward, 0scar, George, Li11ie,and E11a.

In 1884 the Rhinehart'scane to I{eston, 0regon. fn thatsane yeaT 0scar, a Civil I{arveteran, died and was buriedatl{eston. In late 1884 Albinanoved with her children to theCanas Prair:ie area where theyhonesteaded a stock ranch nearAlba. Albina lived on the ranchfor 27 years before i11 healthprompted her to move to Pend-leton with her son I,la1ter. Bythi s tinre Oscar (Jr.) l ived inGrass RangerMontana, George atJohn Day, one daughter in Pend-Leton and one in iiashington.

0n1y Edward rernained onthe ranch near A1bee.

l\ralter was a widower, Hiswife, coIa, d ied in childbirthpos s ibly before nidnight NewYear's Eve' because now thereis a tonbstone near Cora Rhine-hart's grave in the Albee cern-etary where an infant is alsoburied. The narne given is !lar-vin hi. (Walter?) Rhlnehartrwhowas born in 1898 and died inl aoo

0n May II , L926 Mrs. Albi-na Rhinehart d ied at her honeat 301 South Lincoln Street inPendleton where she had livedf or 15 years . She r,/ou1d havebeen 89 years o1d in Novnebert7926.

Edward Albert iihi nehartwas born to Albina and oscaronJanuary 1, 1865. He narried agirl named Mary Arvelda Pattonat Alb a Decenrber 25r 1888,

Mary Patton Rhinehart wasone of ten children born toRobert and Felicia (Smith)Pat-ton, Her parents were origin-a 11y fron Penn sylvani a. Marywas born March 15,1871 in Penn-

sylvania ar)d she cane west rviththern in the 1880's.

l'{ary's sistet', Cora, nrar-ried J. B. llcDi11, one of thefounders of Ukiah and Albee. Helater became superintendent ofthe county hospital.

Two ye ars after the ir wed-ding Edward and llary Rhinel.iart

S ixchildren would be born to themin the next 15 years including:Verna Ethel (I-27-I890 to 2-22-48) who had one chi1d. ForrestRobert (77-22-1897 to 2-28-75 )who had five childr:en. I.larionEdward (B-23-1894-sti11 living

had the ir fiISt child.

in Pendl e ton, oregon). lla:rion

had tl.ro children. Cecil Lee

narried a woman named Anna, healso served in the Cavalry andhas no chil.dren. Chrystle llyrna(3-10-1.897 to 1O-16-1964). Shenarried a man naned Enright and

(8-9-1900 to 8-22-1980), Ite wasa1s o childless, Virg i 1 Delo (6-24-05 to 4-24-84). Virgil. hadf our children.

0f the children born to Ed-ward and I'fary--Forre s t, Ilarion,Cecil and Virgil sp ent most oftheir lives in Canas Prairiec ountry. ChTystle r^ras lrarriedand honesteaded at Top, 0regon.Verna lived in Idaho for a tinreand then in Portland,

Edward and Mary were d iv-orced in 1912. Mary stayed onthe ranch wi th her children andEdward noved to Pendleton wherehe worked as caretaker of thePendleton Round-Up grounds f ormany years.

Forre s t Robert Rhinehartlived in Eastern 0regon allhis 1ife. He rnarried Susan l'{el-vina (Mi11ie) Hensl.ey Male April29, 1937. She had one daughternamed Barbara Male fTon a prev-ious narriage, Folrest & Mi1-1ie had five children of the iTohrn. Forest Robert RhinehartrJr.(b. 2-27-38) sti11 living on the

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Rhlnehart place up Cable Creekoutside Ukiah. H€ and MarionIda Stanley (b.8-30-45) weremarried December 28, 1963 atHeppner, 0regon. They had fourchildren incLud ing Forest Rob-ert Rhinehart fII (b.LL-24-64)Amber Ann (b. 10-3O-66), Crys-ta1 Kay (b, 10-8-67) and JesseLee (b.6-73-73).

Forest Robert Rhinehart fflhad a son Septenber 26, 1986and named hin Forest Ty1er.

SusanArvelda Rhinehart(b.5-12-I94I ) had two sons in-cluding Robert Earl Parrish (12L9-61) at Pagosa Springs, Ca1-ifornia and Terry Lee Riddle,(b, 1-26-65) at Moses t ake, l^IA

Phillip Richard Rhinehartwas born June 4, 1947 to For-rest and Mi11ie. He "1.ives inSalt Lake City, Utah and hasno children.

Steven Lee Rhinehart wasborn March 74, L949. He has nochildren and Lives in Pendleton,0regon.'trrri11ian (Bi11y) We 11s Rhinehart,(b.4-15-1950) lives near PilotRock, 0regon and has one gir1,Rhonda Lee (b. 6-7-74)in H"p-pnex.

Edward Rhinehart and d au gh t er- in-1aw Willie on John Day River

Forres t and Millie Rhine-hart

Above: Forres t Rhineharthaying at Ukiah ranch

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Top photo i Mrs EdRhinehart at ALba,

( Mary )0regon

Above: Forrest Rh inehar tputting up hay on Cabl-eCreek ranch

To the Left: Marion Rhinehar:t

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HII,BERT-MARTIN

The Hilbert family cane toUkiah fron Wa11a Wa1La, Washing-ton on December 20, Igg4 & werecat t1e ranchers for rnany years.

Fr:ank and Beulah had fourchildren, Jess, Oscar, Ilyrtie &Crace. Beulah Hil^bert died ofcancet:,

Jess Hilbext married KatieMcKenzie and they had two 6ons_Frank and Everett.

0scar Hilbert married aworn an named Maude Dern.

Myrtie and Grace Hilbert,the two sisters, married two ofthe IJartin brothers, Der:t & Earlrespectively.Earl and Grace Martin werethe parents of five chiLdrenin_

luding Georgia, Eldon, Bud, Vir_ginia and Louiso.Georgia narried Freernan H.Beers and their children wereDarre11, Duane, Judith & Elaine.Darrell Beers and Jerryleellaxie narrled and had 3 child_ren-Robert, Kathleen and Chris_tine, Their are now six grand_children.Duane rnarried a woman nan_ed Ann and had two sons-KyleandKevin. lle later was married toGloria Pace and they had a son

named Chad.Judy married Chuck Clark &had two children, (el1i & Brad.

She now has two granddaughters,and is narried to Clenn Loonis.

Elaine narried Leonard Ko_ke1 and thet:e were no children.Bud Martin rnarried a girlfrom freLand during the war andthey wore the parents of 3 boysand 1- girl--Gary, Steve, patty,

and Mike. There are several grandchildren. Bud & Maureen, Cary,and Steve al. 1 sti11 live in il_kiah.

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ELdon Mart in narried DonnaWi11ians. Their chitdren areBruce, Brian, Brad and Carla.

Virginia l'tart in married ltrGeorge White. They had 3 sons-Ron, Gene and Jack, Virginia 1a-ter married Ray Smith and had as on, Dan,

Louise narried Lester Deanand they had several children.

The originaL Martin fanilythat came to Ukiah on Deceinber8, L908 consisted of 8 childrenand sone of their nanes includedBert, Milford, Ear1, Marion, Clarhand Merle. The llartin familvhonesteaded on Bridge Creek Flats'.

Clark Maxtin became a statepolicenan in 1933-34 and triedto catch his nieces husband, Free_nan in the act of poaching formany years, unsucces s fu11y. Mr.Martin died in December, 19g5.

Jess Hilbert & Forrest (Sr.)Rhinehart used to bet each otherthat they couldn't Tide this orthat horse. Every so often oneof them rn'ou1d cone leading adifferent horse to town to wagerthat the other one couldn't rideit. Jess brought a nasty highkicking bucker to Ukiah one dayand told Forre s t he had f ina1lyfound one he couldn, t ride. For-rest said that he could and pro-ceeded to get a hanner & najl.s.He nail.ed a 2 X 4 tright acrossthe front of his s add 1e. He mayhave had sore thighs but he didr ide Jesses horse that dav.

MlLES H (HENRY) MOSSIE

Henry Mossie was born inMichigan August 14' L842. He

was Mrs. Eber (Mary) canbee'sbrother. His wife, MarY Loran-ger Mossie and he were narriedat Monroe, Michigan in 1-864.

Henry was also a CiviL War

veteran, having fought on theUnion s ide.

on March L, 1886, Mossiearrived at Catnas Prairie, tra-veLing fTom Ann Arbor' Michi-gan. His wife, three sona andtwo daughtets atrived Later.

The Mossie name was Frenchand speLLed Md.ce' until Hen!Ysfather changed the sP e 11ing.

Henry is r ernenb er ed ashaving Long, flowlng lthite hairand a Long, white beard. Hiswife's nicknane was 'rMoL1Y. r'

The Mossie's had 6 chiLd-all born back east incl-ud-

Jarnes, Louis, Eberr LucY &

. EmiLy wa6 the el"dest ofchil-dren and she died be-the famiLY noved from the

Ros€ was a nurse and mar-They hadried Vaughn Finch

no children.The eLdest son, Louis, was

never narr i ed .

Ten,ingRosetheforeeast

The Mos s ie' s honesteadedLand east of the holdings ofEber and Mary Gambee andr I'ikethe majority of their neiglborsin the area, devoted thelr ef-fort6 to raisint cattle.

James and Louis vtorked withtheir fathe! on the lanch andJarnes marrled MarY A. MulroY.

Eber Mossie was lnthe iAr-my and served in the ?hill'iP-ines during the SPanlsh-Ameri-can war of 1898. After coninghorne, he was a security guardat Sal-em. He married Susan Til-1ot6on ln 1912. Susan died &

later Eber narried a wldotc bYthe name of Catherlne Btown.Hewas a beeman in later years inthe Hermi eit on alea.

Lucy was 4 schooL teacheland marrled CharleB Morris inPoneroy, Washlngton. TheY hadtwo sons. One died before 1940.

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JOSEPH & ROSE (MOSSIE) }f ETTIE

Rose Ilossie Ilettie i^ras bornin Ilichigan in 1857, one of fivechildren. Henry I.lossie & |1aryLouise Gambe e were her brotherand sisteT. Ilrs. Ilettie & herhusband arrived 11 years af terHenry Ilos s ie ,in October of 1897.The llettie's had 1O children r,+}oIdere all born back eas t exceptfor the youngest, Agnes. Ear1,(1881-1955) was 16 when the farn-i1y moved west. Louise (1883 to1952), Mossi.e Rose (1885-1961),Jos eph LaFayette (1888 to 1967),Zena (b. 1887), Gordon (1891 to1923) , Louis Phaon (1893-1941),r!1ar ie (1.895-1979), Agnes (1898-stil1 l iving in L'oodburn, Ore-gon.

The i\Tettie family farned aplace they bought from a previ-ous owner on Camas Creek, aboutl mi1e from the J. T,lluston home-stead on Highway 395 south ofUkiah Junct ion. The ir hone wasa two roon 1og cabin situated onthe banks of Carnas Creek. Ithad2 roonts, was about 2O fee t longand had a sma11 ce11ar. It wasa most popular place for parLiesand things. The following sum-mer (1897) the cabin was expand-ed by Jos eph, who was a carpen-ter. He bui 1t between the tworoons making one end two feetwider that the other. The ftet-tie's lived there unt-i1 IgI6when Mr. llettie built a new honrewith 6 bedroons. That house wasthe ir until about 1925 at whichtime it burned dor,rn. The onlytlring salvaged was a washing mach-ine off the back porch.

Joseph LaFayette or Fay-ette as he was cal^1ed bought thehous e frorn his father, farned &raised sheep fron the 1920's tothe I960's. He was living thereat the tine it burned down. Hemarried llary Loonis and theyhadthree ch ildren-Don, John & He1-en.

Ilossie Rose |iettie had ahonestead she proved up on thatwas located r^rhere Camas Creekprepares to enter the gorge.

Although she never rnarried orhad children she did teach ata school on Little Butter Creelt.

Ilarie lJettie also taught onLittle Butter Creek. She nar-ried Frank J. Kopp in Ukiah onSeptenbex I4, 1922 and they hadfour children. Charles Richard(b, August 17, 1924. )Mary Kath-leen (b. Feb. 9,7927,) JohnPaul (b. Api'. 8, 193O, ) ltarga-ret Rose (b, Apr. 7, 1934).

Char 1e s Richard Kopp rnar-ried Mayanna Snith in PendletonDecenber 9, 1950. They had 5children. Patricia Anne ( b. 9-5-51) rnarri ed Richard Farthingat Reno, Nevada on Septenlber 4,L977-no children.

Richard Charles (b. Augus t14, 1.953 ) married SandTa Thornein Pendleton, 0regon June 26,197 6-one daughter Christine flarieborn Novenber 3, 7979.

Jeanne ff arie married 1\l1enShelby at Hal e iwa, Hawaii June72, 7.984-no children. (b,9-27-55

Robert Michael and RonaldJanes (b. May 15, 195S).

Robert nratried Jeannie llansenJuly 28, 1984. Jeannie had twochildren from previous I'tar-riages- Ryan McPherson and EricHansen. Patrick Michael Kopp wasborn to the couple on ltarch 22,1984 at Pu11rnan, Washington.

Ronald Janes had not rnar-ried as of thj s writing.

I-ouise Mettie rnarried a mannaned Chapnan and has one sonl iving in Pilot Rock, Gordon.

Gordon Mett i e was rnurder-ed in 1.923 while driv j_ng stagenear the Fisher place in Al.bee.In the early 20 's Cordon & Fay-ette ran fTeight l ine fron pi-lot Rock to Ukiah.

Agnes Mettie was born nearUkiah in 1898 and lived thexeuntil 1930. She attended schooluntil the 6th grade in Ukiah &

then wont to St. JosePh's Acad-eny in Pendl"eton.

She narried Lloyd Rickertin Ukiah itt 197L. TheY I^reTe nar-ried 61 years before his death in

They had 4 girls and one

ing to wea" his attire

water down his milk with springwater:

Mrs. Rickert also remen)berswhen the l'tartin's arrived fTomMissouri circa 1908. Accordingto h€r they cut "lots of di-dosat the dances" and also broughtsnalLpox to the cornmunity.

79 82boy. The boy died in infancy.

The girl's names were Mav-is Rose, Laurel MaY, Carol Lee,and Marian Louise. Carol nar-ried an Eberdt and had 3 child-ren and llarian married a nan bYthe nane of ?etshow and theyhad4 ch i 1dr en.

Agnes Mettie Rickert toLdne the following story about a

Catholic priest who nade roundsin the Ukiah area narned FatherHolrnes. He was a very snal.lnanwearing only a size 6 shoe & onone trip to Ukiah it was so col"dhe borrowed an overcoat and apair of shoes from large FatherBucknan Father Buckman woreabout a size 12 shoe so one caninagine poor Father Holmes try-

Therehappened to be a skiff of snowon the ground the norning afterhe had spent the nitht with theMettie's so I'n sure he enj oYedthe sleiSh ride to the Mossie'shouse! I doubt he could havewal.ked far in Father BuckmaD' s

shoes.In the earlY 190O I s there

was, of course, a creamerY inUkiah where butter was made inthe sunmer and cheese in wintermonths. One nilk suPPlier whobrought unusuaLly large quanti'-ties of niLk to the creamerywassoon caught for watering downhis product when a frog junPedout of the can! The owner, Itr.Myers didn't sPeak to the rnan a-bout his dishonestY but he di'dtie the frog bY the 1eg to theernpty nilk can so when the sel-1er picked it uP he knew he wascaught and never tried again to

."stL T

41

DR. PETER C. MEENGS

Peter Meengs, M.D., noved hisfamily frorn Michigan by r{ay ofLong Creek to Camas Prairie Coun-try in L903. Dr. Meengs mini-stered to settlers all the wayflom the southern end of Unat-ill-a County and up the MiddleFork of the John Day to curdanein the west.

The Meengs homesteaded onBridge Creek Flats & the houseand barn are visible but dila-pidated even today on the vastneadowl-and set against the bigbreaks of the North Fork of theJohn Day River.

In L906, Meengs got out ofhis own sickbed to tend a pat-ient, suffered a relapse -anddied hinself shortly after.

0ne of Meengsr sons, Ray,(b. 1895) Lived in the Ukiaharea fron the time he was about11 until his death in 1982 atthe age of 87. He worked forthe Forest Service and he aLsospent 20 years with the statehighway department. While ayoung man, Ray carried the mailfrom Ukiah to Long Creek onhorseback, even in weather 25degrees below zero.

He narried Lulu Caverhillwho was the daughter of W.S.CaverhiLl, a noted area author,Mrs. Meengs taught school atUkiah for many, flany yearsrandthe coupLe raised the ir chil,d-ren there.

Acco"ding to Ray everyonein town "were menber:s of 1i.t-erary and debating societies "in the oLd days. He also r^rasquoted as saying that he couldremembeI: when "farners fromHeppner and Lexington would aL1bring their fami lies over inwagons after the harvest toLehrnan Springs and camp out formaybe a month. "

Mrs. Meengs is sti11 living andj ust recently authored a child-renrs book entitled Four FurryFriends. Cop ies are-6iETTlSTEat Pendleton bookstores.

Meengs Canyon is locatedabout three niles east of Daleon the North Fork of the JohnDay River. There is also a bigspring theie by the same nane.

Both were naned after PeterMeengs.

Ray and Lulu' s children areRaynond and Donald Me engs ,

!'When BillScott had Hidaway Springs, youwould top the hill & see theval1ey abLaze with campfires."

Mr. Meengs died in L982after having l-ived in Ukiah foralmost 80 years.

Raynond Meengs

42

JETT'ERSON DAVIS KIRK

J.D, Kirk was born in Ken-tucky in 1"86L. He came to theUkiah area in about 1"903 as hehad purchasEd a drugs tore althat time. J.D. married a wom-an named Myamnan and they werethe parents of several chiLdrenincluding Walt, HarLey, Tillmanand ALta, CarL, Vesta and Irene.

The first Mrs. Kirk diedin l-915 at the age of 49. Tnthat same year the drugstore MrKirk owned burned down and J.D.rn'ent into the ranching businessfor five years. After fhe fiveyears J. D. soLd his interest inthe ranch to his s on, Harl ey.

J.D. served as U.S. LandCornrnissioner for 17 years inUkiah.

J.D. later married a womannaned NelLie (b. 1878). The Kirkfamily lived in what is now HenryMarshall's house. Ne11ie diedin L952 or 1953. J.D. died at96 years of age in 1957 and isthe oLdest person to have beenburied in the Ukiah cenetary.

J.D.'s son, Harley, builtthe E11i s house on Battle Moun-tain. Alta Kirk rnarried a mannamed Sanford ChiLson. They hada son, also naned Sanford, whodied at 6 years of age. Chilsondied in L966 at 80 years of ageand ALta Kirk Chilson died inL97O at age 83.

Wa 1t Kirk married EdithMc-Reynolds Huston after Edith waswidowed.

Jefferson Davis Kirkr 91, Ukiah

43

WILLIAM HENRY MT L],S

Mil"Ls r,ras born near 0rovi11-e,ohio on March 3, 1873.

His wife, Emna Cedora Shafer,was born May 10, 1877 near Rippon,Wisconsin. The coupLe was marriedon February 14, 1895 in Minnesota.

0n June 4, I896 the Millsrfirstchild was born--ZeL1a, Having mov-ed to Wisconsin Willian and Emma'snext two chilren were born there ;Estelle on June 22, 1898 and JohnHarold on 0ctober 4, 1900.

Circa 19O4 the Mi1ls fanilycame west, first living near Hep-pner rnrhere they raised sheep. Theylater moved to the Ukiah area andbuilt a ranch about 11 rniles eastof town, up Cabl€ Creek. It washere that Charles Arthurrthe Mi11s,Last child was boTn to then Jul.y16, 1913.

Willian and Enma Mi11s raisedsheep, cattle and dairy cor^rs. Hesold cream to the crearnery in U-kiah.

Ze\la, Estel"1e, and John At-tended school together through gran-mar schooL in the Cable Creek area

and some of the teachers wereAmy Phill ipp i, Miss Canfield,and a Miss Warrington.

Neither ZeLLa nor Johnwent to high school but Est-e 11e graduated fron Pend 1e t onin l92I 6, graduated from col-lege in L925,

Chaxlie attended schoola few niles r{est of the horne-stead in a one roorn schoolhouseand then went on to high schoolbefore attend ing WillanetteValley for a year.

Ernrn a C. Mi11s diedin0ct-ober, 1955 and William on oct-ober 25, L956,

Zell-a rnarried Cliff Con-stant. They had 4 children :

0pa1 married Emil Domas,Margaret (b. f-12-1919) marriedJack Tedder. Warren C.(b.11-9-20dJ-10-83) married Mary Jean. Edna(b,12-20-25) married Mr. A1l enParkins.

Estelle Mi 11s marr ied Er-vin Barklow & they had one son Don

The Mi11s f arni 1y: Wi 1l i am, Enma, Charles, and John(Not p ictured-ZeLLa & Estelle)

44

a1d Lee. Donald narried HelenLaVina Mil-1er and they had twosons, Dan E. (b.6-14-61) andDavid J. (b.8-3-65).

John Harold Mil-1s narriedElizabeth ( Betty) Marsh. Theyhad no children but there wasa stepson, LLoydr frorn EIiza-beth' s previous narriage.

CharLes Arthur Mi11s nevermarried but noved to Birch Creekoutside Pilot Rock with his par-ent s sonetine in L935-36.

Charl.es died March 27 ' 1957fron injuries suffered in atractor accident on the farm onWest B itch Creek.

John l ived in the house onthe horne place outside Ukiah un-ti1 it burned and then movedinto the homestead house for afew years. John joined the Ca-va1.ry circa )-929, He setved un-til 1935-36. ft lias in Texaswhile serving the military thathe net his wife. They lived onthe originaL honestead for atine and then noved into Ukiahwhere Betty Mitr1s died aroundT947. John moved to the BirchCreek place after his parentsdeaths, .circa 1956.

John died March 4r 1973 atUkiah.

Beers and f arn-i1y had bought the B irch Creekplace a couple years prior tohis death. John is buried inPendl-eton, Ore g on.

I.

;-L_- q

45

My Friend, John Mills

Up before the norning brokeThis was Johnny's wayllorking hard the whole day throughTil1 evening's dying rays

And as he worked on bToken leatherWith horses or ripe hayHe stopped not oft for idle talkNor wiled the day away

But, I remenber as a girlI often heard hin say"Arenrt you up yet, it'6 tine to work,You gonna sleep all day?"

John was quite a characterQuiet in his wayand f remember he said "Wuuul"A hundred tines a day

As years went by old John got tiredAnd didnrt care to stayIn this old world the way it wasHe loved the olden days

When neighbor heLped his neighborAnd none expected payAnd ladies were respectedYou tipped your hat their way

When horses were your transportFor nothing beat a bayAnd working was a ploasureAnd all your bitls you paid

Yes, I rernember JohnnyAnd fondly, too, frd sayFor John was one of honest wordAnd thought and deed and way

A truer or rnore loyal friendYou couldn't find todayf guess f'n just like JohnnyI love the old time ways

by

HollyJo HarerT973

46

I{I LLIA}I & LUCY SCROGGIN

The Scroggin's cane fronlIllinois by train to Pilot Rocknear Christmas in 1912. Theyhomesteaded near lristol Carnpeast of Ukiah. Their son, I{att,was 3 years o1d.

Lucy Scroggin was a teach-er and her firs t pos it ion wasat District 34 grade school near.Ukiah. She taught around 4Ochildren for $65 a month whileschool r^'as in session.

In 1924 high schoot. washeld in the Ukiah Church for anonth or two then was noved tothe Hardware Store located be-tween the hote1, s ervic e stat-ion and b l ack snith shop. I{attScroggin Braduated there in 1928and rel.ated that some of thosewho taught were Ursal Stiles,D.C. Holbrook and a rnan narfiedRhinehart,

0ne story about I'trs. Stileswas l:ather hunorous. She re-portedl.y could not smell verywell so Watt and a couple ofhis friends took coyote scentand put it behjnd tlte bl.ack-board. I{hether she smelled itor not she never said but theculprits who planted it had tosuffer with the odor for sever-a1 days.

fn the 20's the school &cornnunity put on severaL pl.ays.Ono was "The Arizona Cowboy,' &Watt got to play the 1ead. Mrs.Blackburn played a chinarnan &E11a Cardwell was an fndian girli.rith Sarn Woods portraying herfather.

In "Lighthouse Nan", whichwas staged upstairs in WagnersStore, I{att was again the leadand Mable Case played the lead-ing 1ady. Watt. r^ras to kiss lfa-b1e at the end of the play butNab 1e had other ideas. She wasreportedly a rather plump girland not much interested in theboys. She told Watt that if hekissed her sho'd punch hin in

the nose and THAT would be theend of the p1ay. f guess hrattnever tried it, either.

Llatt was also a pole vault-er in high school but during 1track neet in Pilot Rock hiscoach told hin to go throw thediscus. Watt won first pl.aceand received the first "Letter"ever awarded at Ukiah High

In 1928 I.latt's folksded Jin & Mil1ie Constantfarm for the Ukiah Hote1.

tra-the ir

I,Jatt rnarried E 11a Cardwelland they Lived in Ukiah until1950. E11a died in rEcent yearsand Llatt narri.ed Dorothy par-tridge,

Watt worked for the forestService in Ukiah for 11 years,then retired frorn the State Uigh-way Department after 38 year sof service. Fie hel.ped bui l.dthe first 3 rniles of the high-way down Canas Creek in 1928 -1929, and also helped build theroad fron Lchrnan Spr.i ngs.

WATT ' S REMEMBRANCES

Watt had nrany stories torelate to rne about Ukiah & someof it's notorious charachters.

Bert Gibbs was an o1d nanwhen young Amel Bolin and hegot into a scuffle in Uk i ah,

Anel had Bert down on theground and while he was on thebottonr o1d Bert said, "k/hen Icatch rny breath f 'rn going tobeat the he 11 out of you."

The Gibbs' had several sawmi11 sites around the area andFrances and Oxen were Bert r ssons. He also had a daughter,Leona and a stepson, Ur-sal Dald-win.

John Be11 & John }ti11s weretold by Dale Ranger George Lang-don that they could round uphorses over by Ritter. Apparent-

witli horse rustling and given 2choices: Join the cavalry orgo

1y the hoTSes belonged to sonre-one after all and weren I t wi1d,as John and John were charged

to the hoosegow, That' s whenJohn 11i11s decided to join thecavalry. John Be11 evidently de-cided to j oin to as his 'grave-

47

h in. 0scar Ayars later replac-ed Ca1dwe11.

i{hen the store burned doI"nIlrs. Florence Ayar-.s was ki11edin the fire.

In talking about the notor-ious "Red Iling" nhose Teal nanewas Julia I\ralker:, Iiatt 1'elatedseveral. stories about her al.1eg-ed horse th i eving, and that sher.ras def initely a f orce nraybe notto be reckoned with. She was ahard drinking, rough riding o1dfndian ga1 who lived up jn theNorth Fork country. As the roadup between Dale and Ukiah LTasbe ing bu i1t an old van was not-iced by Iiatt's superior to bebToke down along the side of theroad. It had been there for. awhile so I{attrs boss wanted hirnto buTn the van. uatt said, "doyou know who that van belongs to"and his supervisor said he hadno idea. I{hen i{att told hiin itbelonged to Red I\iinB they al.l

matkel says he was a Cp1.Ser-v. Comd, Unit, I{ i\r IL

A rnan narned Arthur McRob-erts homesteaded on Texa s Bar.Ile and his wife ran thetelephoneoffice. Their sna11 daughter isburied near Texas Ba!- Creek, Thecounty road crew char.rRed the site

19 28

of the road so as not to an-

was located right next to the

terlupt the site.I{att al so 1'eca11ed thatthe

stage ran six days a week be-tween Ukiah and Pendleton wel.1into the 2 0th c entury. The Ex-tensi,on of the rail.road fromPendleton to Pilot Rock was madein 1907 and elininated the needfor a stageline.

I{hi1e it ran the stage car-ried nrail and passengers arrdhor s enen fanned out - al.ong theroute to del iver nail to the i-solated settl.ernents.

liatt explaine d that the or-i gi na1 Dixie Ranch are a r.ras or{n-ed by J.T, Iluston, In 19O7 itwas a Pendleton banker named i,lT.C.B. Lrade who soid the place toJ.S. IlcCloud for $8,050.

In 1.932 0scar Ayars boughta CMC light p1ant. It was a 10thous and ki l.owatt Lister diesel.plant and the town then had sonleelectr icity. ?he o1d light plant

decided to leave it there andthere it sat for quite a while I

htatt, in fact, had qu j.te alot to say ab out hors e theives.I'fbre about then in the rc-xt chap-ter.

For alnost 1O years l{attrsparents ran the hotel. Then a-round 1937 a nan naned Bowman,who was a caT salesnan in Pend-Ieton, heard a nan wan ted tobuy a car in Ukiah. He wentup to Ukiah and rnet a Mr, Scrog-gins who was thinking of buyingat the time. Instead of se11-ing hirn a car, Bownan boughtthe hotel that Scroggins owned!

The hotel had 11 rooms anda cafe and the Bowrnan's spenta 1ot of time in hunting seas-ons "thawing out hunters caughtby early snow, "

Past Tinre Drug Store. Ayars &h'agner bought the store from }trGeorge Caldwel. 1. Today, crannysCountry Store occupies the siteof the Past Tine. Across thestreet the ir was a danc e ha1l,

The Past Tirne burned in the1940 r s. l.,iagner had originallybuilt the Past Tirne and GeorgeCa1dwe11 went in partners with

Left: A1 Petersonand the old stage

Lyman Peterson was born ona ranch on Granite Creek nearRange in 19L1. In 1915 his par-ents bought the hotel and feedbarn in Ukiah and the Petersonsnoved there. Lyrnan went toworkat age nine "driving derrickforthe Helnick brothers. "

The fanily hostel burneddoran in 1926. In the year fo1-lowing, at age 16, Lyman tookover the last horse-dTawn stageout of Ukiah to ?i1ot Rock andhandLed the job until the con-pletion of Highway 395 to SnipeValley in L929 retired hin andhis teams.

In 1930 he moved to a ranchnear Ukiah. He sold out around1959 and noved into Ukiah wherehe lived until 1966. 35

Much of the infornation inthis book is due to Peterson'sinterest in history as he gath-ered many articles about Ukiahand the surrounding area. Hisson, Albert, of La Grande, for-warded the naterial to me.

Mary Peter:son & Bert Keeney

-|

49

ARBUCKLE-WEISSENFLUE

The We i s senfluh's or g ina 1-1y came fron Guttannen, Switzer-land in L882 and settled in thel,ong Creek Va1-Ley in L887.

The Arbuckle farniLy imnri-grated fron Cadder in LanarkCo-unty, Scotland. 0ne Robert Ar-buckle came to oregon by cover-ed wagon in 1850. It is believ-ed that ArbuckLe Mountain backof Heppner was named by one ofthe early settlers to this area.

The Caspar Weissenfluh'snoved to Ukiah around L923 aft-er having purchased the pl.acewhere Red Leverenz noI,J livesfron Eber Gambee. J.D.Kirh hadloaned then the noney to buy itand they raised cows for a 1iv-ing selI ing the milk and al so afew beef cattle. The Cox'srwhoowned a creanery in Heppner p.i'ckedup the milk once a week and theWeissenfluh's rnade it throughthe Depre s s ion by selling tothem, as did many of the areaf arrners.

The Weissenfluh's moved toUkiah with the Joseph tr.I. Arbuck-1es. Joseph and Mary El,len 'trleis-

enfluh were brother and sister.Joseph " 11i11 " ATbuckles

wife, Mary ran the Ukiah postoffice for many years and Billrcan a garage whetre the new Landmark Inn now stands.

Caspar and Mary Ellen irieis-s enfLuh had three children, E1-ris, Trevah, and Ward who allgraduated from Ukiah High.

The Weissenfluhadditionto the town of Ukiah was partof the original Weissonfluh ranchand when talk of building theBrown & Hoxie Mi11 began Caspersold property to acconodate themi11 and sone home sites. AfteTsel-Ling the ranch to Glenn RedrLeverenz the Weissenfluh's builta grocery store and operated itduring the 194o I s. They final-1y sold the store to Fancho Stub-blef iel-d and Mary E1len Arbuck-

l-e We is senfluh then taught atUkiah school for several- yearsbefore she and Cap moved to Ar-lington.