WPA Interviews

INTERVIEW

Interview with Mrs. Anna Stockton Millhollen. She resides four miles southeast of Corvallis, Oregon. (In Linn County.)

My name is Anna Millhollen. My maiden name was Stockton and I was born near Oakville, Linn County, Oregon, in the year 1857. I am therefore nearly eighty-two years of age.

My mother's maiden name was Margaret McCoy. She was a sister of John McCoy, a pioneer of 1845 in the Oakville neighborhood. John McCoy was a member of the first County Court of Linn County, beginning in the year 1847.

My mother was first married to Dr. Washington B. Maley. To that marriage was born the following children:

Mary Maley.

Samuel Maley.

Agnes Maley.

Irene Maley.

Lydia Maley.

Also a number of small children who died very young. There were thirteen children in all, among them William Maley, born 1848 and died 1853, and Washington Blain Maley, named after his father and his father's friend, Wilson Blain. He died in 1853. Both of these boys are buried in the Oakville cemetery. The both died in 1853 and their father died the same year. The first burial in that cemetery was a Polish soldier, Cassimer Wallowich, in 1853, and Washington Maley and his two sons, William and W.

Blain died soon after in the same year. These were the first four persons buried there.

My mother's first husband, Dr. Maley, was the first doctor in this section of the county. He was a highly educated man, a University graduate and far ahead of his day in all matters of medical treatment. His professional calls took him far and wide through the valley and he was often away from home for days at a time. My mother was often left alone in the pioneer cabin with her children and sometimes it was a lonesome, trying experience.

The Indians were all about here and bears and cougars were common.

Some of the experiences of those early days have been told me by my older half-brothers and sisters but I do not remember many. I know that at one time when Dr. Maley was away during a night, my mother was called outside the cabin by some disturbance. The cabin was surrounded by a rail fence and mother leaned against it and let her hand drop down on the other side. As she stood thus, listening, a bear ran past on the other side of the fence and so closely that its fur brushed my mother's hands. That was enough for her and she went back into the cabin and let the bears carry off the family pigs.

The Indians were sometimes ugly, too. I have heard how at times they would get provoked and follow the immigrants wagons throwing spoiled salmon over them.

My half-brothers have told me how they sometimes had to go as much as five miles seeking the cattle which ranged out over the valley. They always took their hounds with them and whenever the hounds would begin to crowd up close to them and whine they would know that a bear or cougar was near and would get home as quickly as possible. They were only small boys themselves at that time.

The Presbyterian Church of Oakville was built on a portion of the Washington Maley claim. It was first organized in the old Maley Schoolhouse where the cemetery now is.

If you could have talked with my Maley half-brothers and sisters who were older than I you could have learned much more about the family, but they are now all dead.

After the Death of Dr. Maley my mother married again. Her second husband was my father, Frances B. Stockton. He was born in 1817 and died in 1898.

To that marriage was born four children as follows:

Anna Stockton (Myself) Sister Luella and I were twins. We were born in 1857.

Luella Stockton

Clarence Stockton. Born 1862.

George Stockton. Born 1860.

My mother died in 1868 when I was only ten or eleven years old. She was forty-seven years old at the time, having been born in 1821.

I went to school in the old Oakville schoolhouse. One of the first teachers at that school was Rev. Samuel G. Irvine. That, however, was before my day but almost all of our early teachers were University graduates and capable of teaching in all branches usually found only in advanced schools. Dr. Irvine was also the second pastor of the Oakville Church, following after Dr. Kendall. My first teacher was named James Pollock. I attended school to him in 1863 when I was only six years of age. Some of my schoolmates then were:

Sarah and Mary McIlree. Mary is still living at Salem. Besides that there were the Pugh children, Alice and Adelade. Adelade Pugh is now Adelade Jackson. She is still living and her home is in Linn County somewhere east of the town of Tangent. Joseph McCoy went to school with me and the McCuan (?) girls. The McCuans live on the country road between Oakville Church and Shedd. You should certainly go and see them.

When I was a small girl there was a pottery which ran somewhere south of here but I was only a little girl then and I do not know just where it was located or by whom it was run. I only remember that my people used to drive over there to get jugs and Jars and crocks. When they brought them home I remember how pretty they looked to me with their various colored glaze. There were crocks and lots of things that looked so pretty to a little girl. I do not think that the pottery was at Peoria. I seem to remember that it was further east, more nearly where Halsey now stands.

In the early days all of our traffic was done by boats on the river or by ox team. I remember too that there was a man who traveled through the county with a team and little wagon and bought eggs and butter to take to Portland. The pony express brought the mail through the valley and there was a little Post Office at Oakville, only in the early days it was more often known as "Oak Point".

I was married to Henry Millhellen in 1880. He was a son of David A.

Millhollen, (1827-1904) and Elizabeth Millhollen, (1836-1902). My husband has been dead for about five years. We have only one son, Loyd F.

Millhollen who is a druggist at Corvallis. My husband's sister, Mary A.

Millhollen married Rev. L. A. Banks, well known Methodist preacher and writer.

My father was a native of Ohio. He settled at Oakville near where John McCoy, and John McCoy's brother-in-law, Dr. Maley lived. As I have said, Maley was my mother's first husband. There were three little children in the family when my mother and Dr. Maley came from the east.

Through my father I am a direct relative of Richard Stockton who signed the Declaration of Independence. He was an uncle of my father's.

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.