WPA Interviews

Hume, Catherine Louise (McHargue)

INTERVIEW, July 7, 1939

Interview with Mrs. Catherine Louise McHargue Hume, daughter of James and Sarah McHargue who were pioneers of the year 1847.

My name is Catherine Louise Hume. I was born on my father's Donation Land Claim about four miles east of Brownsville. My birthday was June 12, 1859 which makes me just eighty years old this month.

My husband's name was Joseph Hume. His family was not such early settlers in this region as the McHargues; nevertheless they came at a rather early date and were prominent in many affairs in the progress of the region. My husband's uncle, Peter Hume, was especially well known here many years ago.

My husband died last year (1938).

My father's name was James McHargue. He was born in Laurel County, August 6, 1822. (Laurel County, Kentucky). At the age of five years he moved to Sheridan County, Missouri, with his parents.

My mother's name was Sarah Jane Montgomery. She was born in Howard County, Missouri and lived at that place until she was grown and married to my father.

In April, 1847 my mother and father with their one child, my oldest sister, Mary Ellen, started for Oregon by ox team. Mary Ellen was born on December 7, 1845. They arrived in this vicinity on October 20, 1847 and began looking about for a piece of land to settle on. Father finally bought out the squatter rights of a man and settled about three miles southeast of the present town of Brownsville. Father paid his last $20 gold piece for the claim and was then practically penniless. The land on which he settled is situated in Sections 10 and 15, Township 14 South, Range 2 West. A considerable part of that old claim is still owned by my sister Ida. (Mrs. Ida Hansen of Brownsville.)

The land which my father settled on had a small cabin on it and a few acres planted to wheat-perhaps 20 acres. My people were so hard up that they did not even have any flour to make bread. Father went to Jonathan Keeney who had settled the year before on the Courtney Creek side of the ridge asked for a loan of flour until he could harvest his wheat. Keeney, he later told my father this, sized him up an impecunious young man from whom he could never hope to collect the loan. However, he gave father some flour but chose the poorest that he had. In about two weeks my father threshed his wheat and took it to Oregon City to be ground. It took a week to make that trip by ox team but when father returned he weighed out twice the amount of flour that he had borrowed, and the very best flour he had, and took it over to Jonathan Keeneys to repay the debt. In after years Keeney often told father how ashamed he felt of the way he had treated his new neighbor. Keeney was a good man, and generous as a rule. He helped many of the poor settlers who came into the neighborhood at the point of starvation. Among others whom he helped was the Templeton family. William T. Templeton reached Oregon in 1847, the same year as my father. After he had crossed over the Barlow Pass he found his oxen too weak to travel further so he squatted down in a cabin to spend the winter. Someone happened to talk to him there who was coming on to the Calapooia. That person told Keeney that there was a Presbyterian elder with a big family stranded in the upper valley. Keeney asked what his name was. The answer was, "Templeton". Keeney said, "That's my old neighbor, William T. Templeton from Missouri. He took two strong yoke of oxen and brought the Templeton's on to this valley. They settled on the south bank of the Calapooia just north of my father's claim. William T. Templeton, the father, took up one claim and he had several sons old enough to take up land also, so that there were a number of Templeton claims in that region.

My father and Jonathan Keeney were the best of friends from the very first. Keeney's house, which he built in 1852, is still standing on the south side of the ridge just south of father's old claim house, which is also standing though nearly ready to fall. Jonathan Keeney finally went to Boise City, Idaho, to live. He owned and operated a ferry at that place. He died by drowning at his ferry.

As I have said, my father spent his last twenty dollars to buy the rights to his claim. After that he had to work out to get money. The nearest available work was on the R. C. Finley flour mill, which was being built on the Calapooia several miles east. That was the first mill ever built in this valley. All during the winter father worked on that mill. He would leave home long before daylight and work until long after dark besides walking the several miles each day. The pay was fifty cents a day. Mother was so afraid of the Indians that as soon as father was gone she would shut and barricade the cabin door and taking her child, my oldest sister Ellen, would crawl under the bed and hide and stay there until father returned at night. That old cabin in which they then lived stood exactly where the kitchen of the old house now stands. When father built that "new" house he left the old cabin to be used as a kitchen. Later he tore the old cabin down and built a better kitchen in its place.

The house standing on the old place was built by a pioneer carpenter named Peter Kessling. He built many of the first good houses in this region when the settlers became prosperous enough, and when sawmills were started to make sawed lumber available. Among the very old houses still standing which I believe he built are, The Tom Kirk house a mile south of Brownsville, the Keeney house, the Fields house and the James Blakely house. Many of those are still in use. Some have been rebuilt so that they do not look anything like they first did. Some, like my father's old house and the J. Keeney house are falling into decay. I know of but one really old house which Kessling did not build. That is the Alexander Kirk house in Brownsville, built in 1847. That is a log house, though now covered over with sawed lumber.

I know just when our old house was built because that was the year when my brother George was born and when my oldest sister, Ellen, died. That was the year when the old McHargue Cemetery was started also, and my sister Ellen's was the first grave there. Ellen died on the same day that George was born.

When Ellen died my mother was of course sick. My father looked about for a place to make the grave. He went up on the hill near the house and started to dig. Water immediately began to rise in the hole. This, you see, was in mid-winter, December 7, 1852. Unable to complete the grave father went still further back from the house and tried again. Again water prevented completion of the grave. He then went far back on the place, nearly to the southwest corner of the claim and at the summit of a bench-like rise. Here the soil was more open and the drainage more perfect and the grave was completed and my sister buried. Sister Ellen was seven years old at the time of her death and she was the only one of our family born before the folks came to Oregon.

I may as well tell you of some of the other people buried in that cemetery. The Lucinda R. McHargue there is the wife of my father's brother, William McHargue. Her maiden name was Proffitt and she was a daughter of P.

and M. Proffitt. She was born in Madison County, Missouri, and came to Oregon with her husband, my uncle, in 1852. They were married in Olinto Co.

Missouri March 22, 1832. William McHargue, her husband and my uncle was born in Missouri or Kentucky, I am not certain. We have a letter in our family (Sister Ida has it) written by Uncle William to my father to notify him that he was starting for Oregon in the spring of 1852. It is most interesting as it tells of prices of cattle and oxen being sold and bought in preparation for the trip to Oregon. It also tells prices and disposition made of certain family Negroes. (This letter has been copied and sent in.

Leslie L. Haskin, field worker.)

Ellen Montgomery who is buried there was my mother's mother. She came to Oregon with her husband, Robert (?) McHargue. He died and was buried somewhere in the state of Washington. Grandmother Montgomery lived with us for many years. She was born in the year 1802.

William T. Templeton buried there was the man of whom I have already told you, whom Jonathan Keeney helped to reach this region. He was a very staunch Presbyterian elder. He was also the principal mover in the establishment of the Presbyterian Church in Brownsville. At one time there were forty of his family and descendant members of this church. Templeton was one of the first to try raising tobacco in this region, and experiment not very successful. He also raised many hops at an early date and was the first to bring the Warm Springs Indians over into the Valley to work at hop picking.

Grandma" Templeton, wife of the last, was born in 1812. She was a sister of Barnett Ramsay the potter.

A grandson of the above was Lieutenant Raymond Templeton who is buried there. He died while in training as an aviator during the World War. In his will he left money for the drinking fountain situated on Main Street in Brownsville.

I do not know just who the M. D. M. Findley was whose death date is given as March 20, 1851, but I do know that he was not buried here before my sister. The chances are that he died and was first buried at some other place and later removed here. John and Fancy Findley who are given as his parents were early settlers in the McHargue neighborhood and were relatives of Josiah Osborn who was a survivor of the Whitman massacre.

Perhaps the most historically notable persons buried in this cemetery were Josiah and Margaret Osborn. Margaret Osborn's grave is marked but Josiah Osborn's is not, but they are buried here close together, also I believe that there are two of their children buried there in unmarked graves. The Osborns first settled in my father's community about the year 1845. In 1847 Marcus Whitman hired Josiah Osborn to assist in building a mill at the Whitman mission. Osborn and his whole family were there at the time of the Whitman Massacre. All of the children were sick with the measles at the time and Mrs. Osborn was sick following a miscarriage in childbirth. I used to play with the Osborn children when I was small and knew the whole family well. Mrs. Osborn has often told me the story of the massacre.

When the massacre began Josiah Osborn was at work outside and Mrs. Osborn and the children were all sick in the cabin. Josiah Osborn ran to the cabin and taking a single blanket and a loaf of bread he raised the loose boards of the floor and the whole family crept beneath. They stayed there all day, small children, sick children, sick mother and all. They heard all the terrible noise of the massacre, some of which took place just above them.

Mostly the small children were good but sometimes they would begin to cry and then Mrs. Osborn would quiet them as best she could, or if necessary smother their cries beneath their blanket. They stayed there until late into the next night and then Osborn crept out hoping to meet a friendly Indian who would help them to escape. They finally crept away and tried to make their way to Fort Walla Walla. They traveled for several days, sleeping without shelter during the daytime and traveling at night. These measles-sick parents and children had to ford cold flooded streams and then sleep in their wet clothes. It is a wonder that all of them did not die.

Finally they reached the fort but were denied entrance. Apparently the small force there so feared the Indians that they did not dare admit them for fear of angering the Indians. At last they were admitted and hidden in an inner room. Mrs. Osborn was so sick and think that her bones actually protruded through great sores where she lay on the hard floor. They were finally rescued and taken to Oregon City where one child died. Mrs. Osborn suffered for years from unhealable ulcers, the result of her hardships and exposure.

I knew all of the Osborn children well. They had five girls and two boys.

The boys were Alec and Wilson, the latter named after Rev. Wilson Blain, early Presbyterian preacher in this region. Then there was Nancy who was the baby at the time of the Whitman Massacre. After that there were twins, Narcissa and Louisa. Narcissa was named after the wife of Marcus Whitman.

The younger children were Malinda, Margaret and Merinda. Nancy later was rather well known as Nancy E. Jacobs, her married name. The Osborn claim was just east of my father's claim so that I naturally associated with the younger children almost every day.

The Spalding family, (Rev. H. H. Spalding), were our neighbors too but further away. I did not know Mr. Spalding much but I of course knew some of his children, especially Martha who married a son of Hugh L. Brown, founder of Brownsville, and Eliza who was the wife of A. J. Warren. The Warren place was across the Calapooia in the hills to the north. Eliza Spalding Warren was attending school at Whitman when the massacre took place. She was about twelve years old at that time and was the only person alive who could talk the Indian language so she was forced to act as an interpreter.

She also helped to sew the bodies of the dead into sheets to prepare them for burial. She was of course much older than I.

Speaking of the Osborns again. I believe that there is one of them still living at Waitsburg, Washington, and until recently at least Miranda(?) was still living at Eugene, Lane County.

One of the very earliest families to settle here was the Courtneys.

Courtney Creek, just over the ridge from our old claim, was named in their honor. When the Courtneys sold out father bought some of their land.

Another early settler on the Courtney Creek side of the mountain was Thomas Morgan. There was a very early mill on the old Morgan place.

My father was at one time a part owner of the flour mill which was built in Brownsville at a very early date-probably in the early 1850's. His chief partner in that venture was a miller named Bassett. Father never actually ran the mill himself. That mill is now being torn down. For many years it has been run with modern machinery but underneath the floor when it was taken up they found one of the large old millstones such as were used in early days. My uncle, William McHargue was also interested in the business.

I remember once his coming up to talk with my father about repairs on the old milldam which had become weak and insecure. Uncle William McHargue came to Oregon in the year 1852. His wife, Lucinda R. McHargue was a daughter of P. & M. Proffitt. She was born in Madison County, Kentucky, Mar. 15, 1805.

She died at my father's house May 2, 1869.

Another business interest of my father's was his work in the organization and erection of the old Brownsville Woolen Mill which is still in operation.

He was one of the prime movers in that enterprise which was very successful for a time. The whole growth of the town of Brownsville was dependent upon the old mill. Almost all prominent persons in the neighborhood had a hand in that. Thomas Kay, the well known Oregon woolen mill man came to Brownsville to help operate the mill at an early day. He was a fine mill man-his training was in the woolen mills in England, but he was a heavy drinker and his family were almost destitute. Later he came under religious influences and reformed and became very prosperous. His wife was a "raw English mill girl". She once confided to a friend that before coming to Brownsville she had never seen a horse or a cow or even so much as a chicken running at large. She worked in the woolen mill and had a box beside her loom in which she watched over her small children.

One of the graves in the McHargue Cemetery is that of Alex. Foster. He was an early day mill worker and had charge of the dye room. He lost his balance one day and fell headlong into a vat of boiling dye. He dived in and passed from side to side of the vat before he was pulled out. He died soon. At that time he was only a boy of 21 yrs. or so. His wife was Matilda Templeton, daughter of Wm. T. Templeton. They had one son, Clyde Foster, who is still living.

When my parents came to Oregon they were accompanied by mother's father and mother. The mother was Ellen Montgomery already mentioned. In the Montgomery family there was also my mother's sister, Elizabeth Montgomery.

Also her brother, Robert Montgomery. Robert Montgomery lived with my parents until his marriage. His wife was a daughter of Hugh L. Brown for whom Brownsville is named. The sister, Elizabeth, (my aunt) married N. G. Rice who became one of the largest landowners in this region. (He was commonly known as "Gray" Rice.)

My father's family consisted of the following children. I have given them according to their ages, listing the oldest first, but may not perhaps be able to give all dates-

Mary Ellen McHargue. Born in Sherman Co. Missouri, 1845. Died in Linn County, Oregon, 1852. The first person buried in the McHargue Cemetery.

William McHargue. Born in Linn County, Oregon Jan. 29, 1848. The first child in the family to be born after reaching Oregon. Died at 26 yrs. 8 ds.

John McHargue. Born in Linn County, April 20, 1849. Died Feb. 28, 1875.

James McHargue. Born 1851. Died May 15, 1932.

George McHargue. Born Dec. 27, 1852. He was born the same day that my oldest sister, Mary Ellen McHargue died.

Robert McHargue. Born Dec. 24, 1855.

Columbus McHargue. Born Sept. 20, 1857. Died November 20, 1958.

Catherine Louise McHargue. Born June 21, 1859. (This is the informant). Married Joseph Hume.

Elizabeth McHargue. Born July 21, 1861. Died ---- ----(?)

Ida A. McHargue. Born Nov. 27, 1863. (Still living.) Home at Brownsville, Oregon. Married George William Hansen, who was born Feb. 1, 1859 and died Feb. 4, 1915.

Charles McHargue. Born May 15, 1866. Died Nov. 20, 1880.

My brothers William and John each had a land claim near Colfax, Washington Territory. The neighborhood was then known as Union Flat. Billie died there of heart trouble. John died at Tukannon(?) (spelling uncertain) in Washington. He was with father and took a drove of cattle there. He contracted a cold which developed into TB. He returned home and was becoming much better but when Billy passed away John went up to Washington to help and took another cold, a relapse, and died. Father brought both of them back to Brownsville for burial. Billy died three months before John.

Grandfather Montgomery also died in Washington and was buried there.

My father, besides his woolen and flour mill interests was largely interested in growing, buying, and shipping cattle. He bought large herds of cattle and marketed them east of the mountains or brought them over there and marketed them here. He also sold cattle in California.

If you are interest in old schools and school-teachers I must tell you of the McHargue school. I do not know when it was first established but it was an old school when I went there. It was situated on the first level spot just below (north) of the McHargue Cemetery. If you visit that place you will find some old apple trees still growing among the brush on that flat.

Near by these apple trees there is a large native boulder. That boulder was the doorstep of the old schoolhouse. It was not moved there to be used as a step, but the school house was built there in such a manner that the boulder, already in place, was situated just before the door. The old road from the Richard Finley mill and the upper Calapooia passed just below the schoolhouse, leading towards the town of Union Point. That old road was much traveled although it was not a road in the sense that we now think of roads. It was simply a succession of farm lanes leading from one claim to another and invariably ending in a claim barnyard. Then another lane would lead on to the next barnyard. There would be gate at each claim line and sometimes one or two between. There used to be at least ten gates to open and shut between Union Point and the Finley Mill. Still it was the main road for that region. That is the way most roads were in the early days, all except the old "Territorial Road" and a few others of considerable importance. If you wished to pass straight across the valley you went by a series of lanes and gates.

The old schoolhouse was, of course, of logs. Bert Templeton tore the building down after it was no longer used-just when it was razed I cannot tell. When I went to school there was a big old maple tree near the corner of the cemetery, I do not know whether it is still standing or not. It leaned far over and was easy to climb and we spent long hours playing in that tree. It was near the Southeast corner of the cemetery.

My first teacher in that school was named David M. Cooper. He had a brother who lived southwest of Brownsville on the farm now owned by the Keen family. (Section 10. Township 14 S. Range 3 W.) The brother's name was T.

J. (?) Cooper. My second teacher there was a Miss Ellen Williams. She was an aunt of Peter Hume, who was my husband's uncle, and she was a daughter of A. Williams. That you may know whom these people were I will say that one of the very first settlers in this region was Elias Walters. He came in 1845, I believe and settled just west of Brownsville on the Calapooia River bottom. With Walter came his wife, his mother-in-law whose name was Naomi Williams, and his wife's brother, A. Williams. This Ellen Williams, my second teacher, was A. Williams daughter. (Not certain what this William's first name was. Probably Austin. He was commonly called "Os" or "Aus" Williams.) This Walters place of which I spoke is now owned by Carl Stewart and others. My husband and I lived on it for about twenty one years after we were married.

Concerning my schooling, well, it was just like any other pioneer schooling. Reading, writing, arithmetic and a little geography and a taste of some other studies. The teachers were expert at whipping, at least.

There is one incident concerning my school days which perhaps I should not tell, but I will. I was just a little girl when I went to school to David Cooper. Hoop skirts were then in style and small though I was I wore hoop skirts. One day while I was reciting in class I suddenly felt my hoops beginning to loosen and fall. They fell out on the floor and cause quite a sensation and what did that teacher do? He reached down and picked them up and flourished them around his head! I certainly was disgusted with him and so were the other scholars."

(Mrs. Hume, the above informant is eighty years of age. She is in rather frail health but still lives alone and does all of her own work. Until recently there has been no sign of mental weakness from age, but within the past few months her memory at times becomes uncertain and confused. She is a member of the Presbyterian Church, as might be supposed from her Scotch ancestry. She has been an influential member of Brownsville social life for many years. She has, so far as the writer could learn, but one son, Mr. George Hume who is now the junior member of the pioneer mercantile firm of Cooley & Company. (The oldest store in Linn County, established, probably, in 1851.)

Appendix to Hume Interview.

In looking up the matter of the pioneer teacher, David M. Cooper, this worker found his person biography which was published in Edgar Williams & Co.'s "Atlas Map of Marion and Linn County." San Francisco, 1878. It seemed suitable to copy the entire biography here. It follows. -

David M. Cooper

Was born in September, 1840, in Ohio, his ancestors were Dutch, Scotch and Welch, and came to the continent previous to the Revolutionary War. Mr. C. lived in Ohio until he grew to manhood. When he was about five years old his father died, and he then went to live with an uncle; while with his uncle he received about seventy days schooling each year; that is, after he was nine years of age. He remained with his uncle until he was eighteen years old, when he started out for himself. His greatest ambition at this time was to provide a home for his mother. To accomplish this noble purpose, he worked with all the energy and perseverance of which he was capable, so that when he went to Oregon he left her well provided with a good home. He then went to work for fifty cents a day through the summer, and attended school during the winter. He then obtained employment as the superintendent of a farm, and occupied that position for about nine months, when he returned to school, attending about three months.

In the spring of 1859, he bought a farm near Sharon, Ohio, and remained on this farm, a part of the time, for about two years. He then got ready for a trip to the Salmon River mines, and started in the spring of 1861, arriving at his destination in September of the same year, having had a very pleasant journey. He remained in the mines about two months, working at $1.50 per day. He then went to Lebanon, Linn County, Oregon, and attended school four months, when he commenced teaching. At this period his fortune amounted to $10. He taught three months, and then he ran a sawmill for three months, after which he returned to school, being determined to get an education. In the spring of 1863, Mr. Cooper bought 100 acres of land near Lebanon, though he did not commence farming immediately, but ran a sawmill at Waterloo, and continued in that business until late in the fall. He then clerked in a store for a while; and then attended school for two months; this was his last term of school, and he then lacked but fourteen months of a full course. He had been a thorough and diligent student.

In the spring of 1864 he took a school and taught until the end of summer, when he sold out his real-estate, intending to return to the States; but he did not go, feeling convinced that a new country was the best for a young man of enterprise. Accordingly, he went to work with a full determination to succeed, making school teaching his principal business, but speculating in livestock and other property, at the same time; and met with good success constantly. In the fall of 1866, he purchased a farm of 120 acres on Albany Prairie, which he rented out. This proved a good investment, for in three years he sold it at a considerable advantage. About this time, too, he relinquished school teaching, and devoted his whole time to farming and stock-speculation. He had now accumulated about $2,000 and he has continued his speculations in land and stock, until his estate is now worth about $20,000. In 1876, he built a fine residence in the Village of Halsey, which, when completed, will be one of the best residences in the county. In the fall of 1876 he bought a large warehouse, which he is using for wheat and wood storage. During the year 1877, he handled about 23,000 bushels of grain.

Mr. Cooper is an energetic and successful business man. In 1874 he was married to Miss Rebecca Wilson, daughter of James Wilson who came to Oregon in 1853, from Indiana. They are the parents of three children, two boys and one girl. The eldest is three years of age. Mr. C. is not an active politician, but nevertheless takes a warm interest in all measure that he thinks are for the public good and improvement." (pp. 58-181).

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.