WPA Interviews for Linn County Oregon

Jan 22 1940

INTERVIEW

Interview with Joseph N. Bellenger Jr.

Joseph N. Bellenger Jr., lives at 138 Grant Street, Lebanon, Oregon. He is quite a young man but has many family papers concerning his family history and so is qualified to tell of the Bellenger family history. This is only a short interview as Mr. Bellenger was met in the country away from his home and had not the necessary data to refer to, but it was deemed best to record such facts as he was able to give from memory.

My Grandfather was Francis Bellenger. He was born in Canada in 1826. His father, by the way, was Honicle Bellenger and he was born in Pennsylvania in the year 1801.

My grandfather Joseph Bellenger moved from Canada to Michigan and lived there for some time before coming to Oregon. Grandfather came to Oregon by the usual early pioneer route by way of the Platte River, Fort Hall, Fort Boise and the crossing of the Umatilla River, then down the Columbia as far as the Cascade mountains and crossing the Cascades over the Barlow Road to Foster's Station and Oregon City. He reached Oregon in the year 1849 and came directly on to Linn County.

My grandfather had a brother named Merrit Bellenger and one named Edward Bellenger. Merrit settled in Jacksonville in Southern Oregon and Edward settled at Simicoe (Spelling unknown to this worker).

Grandfather, when he first came to the west, had an opportunity to take up a claim on the site of the present city of Seattle but could see no future in that region. He therefore came on down to Linn County and settled far back next to the foothills near the present village of Berlin. His original cabin was about three miles west from the present Berlin Schoolhouse. Later he built a permanent house and there he raised his family.

I should say here that the older boys of the family were born in the original cabin on the claim. The younger boys were born on "Uncle Deb's" place near by, and have lived on that place the most of their lives.

Grandfather's family consisted of the following sons-he had no daughter-

Grant Bellenger, the oldest. Born 1865. Died 1930.

Jasper Newton Bellenger (The informant's father) Born 1867. Died 1926.

M. V. S. Bellenger (Sheridan Bellenger) Now lives at Berlin, Linn County, Oregon.

Meritt Bellenger.

Nelson Bellenger. Lives at Forest Grove.

Delbert Bellenger (Believed to be the Uncle Deb previously mentioned.) Lives at Lebanon.

Grandfather used often to drive to Oregon City with wheat to be ground into flour. He would be gone for weeks at a time and his family was left alone and without adequate protection. The Indians never became actually warlike but were sometimes threatening. Grandfather made it a practice to give them liberal handouts to win their friendship. No Indian was actually turned away without at least some food.

There were a great many poor settlers and weary emigrants passing through the neighborhood in the early days and my grandfather always kept open house for them. There was a great deal of entertaining at his home.

Grandfather was twice married. His first wife was Catherine (her maiden name may have been Elkins but this not certain.) She was born in 1827 and came to Oregon with her husband in 1849. To that first marriage three daughters were born. Then, in 1854 while the children were still small their mother died. My grandfather lived alone for a time, working in his fields and often taking his small daughters to the fields with him so as to watch over them.

Catherine Bellenger, grandfather's first wife was one of the first deaths in the neighborhood. She was buried in the open pasture where her grave remained for several years. Then, on the establishment of the permanent "Belonged Cemetery" her body was taken up and reburied there. (The informant stated that when Catherine Bellenger's body was removed the casket was opened and her husband viewed the wasted remains. The shock was so great that Mr. Bellenger would never again go near the cemetery.) Her grave is the earliest burial of record in the Bellenger cemetery.

The three daughters of Francis and Catherine Bellenger were-

Alwilda E. Bellenger. Born November 10, 1849. (The same year that they reached Oregon.)

Mary E. Bellenger. Born F7, 1852.

Catherine J. Bellenger. Born Jan. 2, 1855.

In the year 1864 there was a terrible epidemic of diphtheria swept over the country. All of the three daughters contracted the disease and all died in May of that year. Catherine died on May 9th, Alwilda on May 14th; Mary on May 14th. At that time Alwilda was 14 years, Mary was 12 years and Catherine was 9 years of age.

While these children were still small and beginning to go to school grandfather hired a young girl to stay with them and help with the housework. Her name was Ellen Dunlap. She was born in 1844. In 1860 grandfather and Ellen Dunlap were married, Ellen then being only sixteen years of age. She became the mother of all the Bellenger sons already listed, and the informants grandmother.

My father, Jasper Newton Bellenger was the second of those sons which was the second family raised on the Bellenger claim. He married my mother, Catharine Holt.

In telling of my great-grandfather and my great-uncles I neglected to say that my great-grandfather also came to Oregon. He settled at Jacksonville, near his son Meritt Bellenger. Both there engaged in gold mining in the early days.

Concerning this Berlin neighborhood where the Bellengers settled, there was an old Indian trail running about one-fourth mile east of the settlement and leading from the Columbia River to Southern Oregon. It was much used by early day bands of traveling natives."

The Francis Bellenger claim was in Section 23. Township 12 South Range 1 West, Linn County.)

Copyright © 2000 Patricia Dunn. All rights reserved. This transcription may not be reproduced in any media without the express written permission by the author. Permission has been given by the Transcriber to publish on the LGS web site.