WPA Interviews

Githens, Ella (Armstrong)

INTERVIEW, February 17, 1939

Interview with Mrs. Ella Armstrong Githens. Harrisburg, Ore.

My father's name was W. L. (Logan) Armstrong. My mother's name was Emily Keys.

Father was born in Indiana (Wabash Indiana) in 1831. He started for Oregon in 1851. My mother was born in England in 1832 and came to America when she was twelve years of age, first settling in Illinois and later coming to Oregon in 1852. Both father and mother died in this town of Harrisburg, father at the age of eighty-three and mother at the age of eighty years.

My parents settled in Linn County after their marriage, on what is now known as Lake Creek near Peoria. (His claim was in Section 32, Township 13 South of Range 4 West of Willamette Meridian.) "I was born in 1855 and lived to maturity on my father's claim near Peoria.

On Thanksgiving day, 1875, I was married to Randolph Githens also of pioneer stock. The ceremony was performed by a Justice of the Peace whose name I have forgotten. He was a one-legged man. I have always said that is why I have never amounted to much. If I had been married by a regular preacher who had two legs I might have amounted to something. My husband and I had only two children, a daughter who died at the age of twenty-six years and my son with whom I now live. My husband and I lived in many places, farming and renting. I was married thirty-nine years and during that time I moved thirty-three times. Since my husbands death in 1914 I have lived in this one house where I now stay. I was never sick in my life until last November when I had a long and serious illness. I was out of my head for a long time and since then my memory is very poor.

My husband, Randolph Githens, was born in Indiana in 1851. He was a son of George Githens. Randolph's mother died here in Oregon in 1854 when my husband was only about two years old. On arriving in Oregon the Githens family spent the first winter on Council Crest, now a part of the City of Portland. The snow on that mountain was very deep that winter so they moved over near Beaverton, and then out near Estacada. George Githens lost his wife that year and my husband was left motherless.

George Githens, the father, then went to California to the gold mines.

That was in 1854. Perhaps I had better give these things in a little better organized manner even though it requires me some repetition.

George Githens was born March 15, 1828. Died June 9, 1897. He was a son of Samuel A. Githens and of Jane Dwarf, a native of Philadelphia. This couple had twelve children of whom George was the fifth born.

George Githens was reared in Rush Co., Indiana on a farm. He married August 4, 1848 to Miss Jane Stout. To this marriage two sons were born, William and Randolph. With his wife and these two sons George Githens crossed the plains to Oregon in 1852 by ox team. They started from Indiana Feb. 9th. Came to St. Joseph, Mo., by steamboat and there purchased an outfit and started for Oregon in a company of one hundred men, women, and children. While on the way west the cholera attacked the train and six persons died. Some of their stock was also lost in various ways. They arrived in Oregon Oct. 1, 1852. The eighth day of the following February, Jane Stout Githens died, leaving her two children in the care of Mrs. R. M. Wade of the Wade family later to be prominent in Oregon mercantile activities.

After the death of his wife George Githens went to the Puget Sound country and engaged in the cutting of timber and in logging. In 1854 he spent a few months in the California gold mines. Returned to Oregon in 1854. Soon after this he was again married, this time to Mary A. Hallet. To this marriage eight children were born. Of this latter family five died in a Diphtheria epidemic about the year 1867 or 1868.

That covers about all that I can recollect of my own and husband's family history. The rest is mere scattered remembrances.- "I went to school a great deal to W. R. Bishop, a Cumberland Presbyterian preacher and pioneer. He also taught at the Brush Creek District near present Crawfordsville. His son is a prominent Oregon Woolen Mill man.

The most prominent church activity in my youth was across the Willamette River in the old Bellfountain neighborhood. The Starrs, Leepers, and other early Methodists were the leaders there.

I.D. Driver was another active Methodist preacher. He ran all the camp meetings in these parts. Among the prominent Methodists near Shedd were the Staffords. Bethel Stafford married a member of the Thompson family in that neighborhood. There was a big camp-meeting ground on the Thompson farm where they gathered every summer and had a big time.

One of the prominent pioneers between Peoria and the present town of Shedd was Thomas Garrett. Garrett built himself a wonderful house which cost an immense sum of money. All of the rooms were decorated with frescoes and paintings. There were scenes of pioneer life on almost all the walls. Over the fireplace there was a hunting scene showing a pioneer hunting deer. The man who painted the pictures was named Fletcher. He was from California and was just passing through the country. The paintings and decorations which he put on the walls cost Garrett $1,200.00. Anna Bayne, at Peoria, is a daughter of old Tom Garrett and his wife Nancy Garrett.

Our neighbors in the early days were the McNeils, the Owens, the Bears, the Cummings, the Shephards and the Garretts. The Bear family settled at the point a mile or so below Peoria which was called Burlington. There was no good boat landing there so the town was moved up stream to the mouth of Lake Creek and renamed Peoria.

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.