WPA Interviews

Kuiken, Nona (Miller) -- Truxler, Kate (Miller)

INTERVIEW, July 16, 1940

An interview with Mrs. Nona (Miller) Kuiken and Mrs. Kate (Miller) Truxler.

This interview principally concerns the history of the Malcom Miller family which settled near the present site of Shelburn, Linn County, in 1850. Both of the above informants are granddaughters of the above Malcolm Miller. The interview took place at the Kuiken farm residence, home of the first informant. The second informant resides at Anaheim, California but was visiting with her sister at the time.

This farm where we live is a part of the Malcolm (#OC 2897) Miller Donation Land Claim. Malcolm Miller was our grandfather. He was a Scotchman. Just when, or where in Scotland grandfather was born we do not know, but he came to America when he was 26 years old. He was married when he came to America, but our father, who was the oldest of his children, was not yet born. In Nova Scotia, where grandfather first settled in America, he worked as a coal miner. Our father always said that grandfather and grandmother only stopped in Nova Scotia on their way to Oregon long enough for him to be born, but that was not quite true for the family lived in various parts of the east from about 1832 or 1833, to 1850.

Father, James W. Miller, was born on the Island of Nova Scotia on August 17, 1833. The name of the town where he was born at was Bridgeport. The family remained at that place until 1843 when they removed to Tioga County, Pennsylvania. How many of our uncles and aunts were born in Nova Scotia, and how many in Pennsylvania, we do not know for we do not have our complete family records here, but we do know that our uncle, Gabriel Miller, was born there on March 24, 1847. Probably several other of the family were also born during the ten years grandfather lived there. A complete list of grandfather's family is as follows-

James W. Miller (Informants father) Born in Nova Scotia, August 17, 1833.

Gabriel Miller. Born in Nova Scotia, March 24, 1841 Andrew Miller.

George Miller.

Malcolm Miller. Named after our grandfather.

William Miller. He died as a mere child and was probably the first burial in the Miller Cemetery situated just above this farm.

Isabell Miller. Her married name was Wheeler.

Jeanette Miller. Her married name was Goodman. She was named after our grandmother, Jeanette Anderson Miller.

Maggie Miller. Her married name was Tindall.

We have not even been able to give these person according to their birth dates. All of them are dead.

Our grandmother was Jeanette Anderson. She, also, was born in Scotland but we cannot give the date.

Grandfather lived in Pennsylvania for a number of years and then moved to Beardstown, Illinois. I think that all of his family were born in the East, except possibly William. In 1850 the family moved to Oregon. Our father, at that time, was about 17 years old. The trip was in the main without notable incident except for some threatening words from the Indians when a practical joker in the train offered to trade one of the girls for ponies.

(Note: This incident of the unwise joker and the offer of a girl for ponies, with resultant trouble, seems to have happened in almost every emigrant train. It crops up in numberless interviews. Leslie L. Haskin.) "Our father attended school after coming to Oregon; first, in what was known as the "Miller" schoolhouse here on the claim and later in Jefferson at "The Institute". Here at the "Miller School" one of the first teachers was Ellen Miller.

In December, 1851, grandfather, together with our father and father's brothers, George and Andrew, went to California with a pack train and worked in the gold mines. The hope of getting some money to finance their home improvements was the incentive, for when grandfather first reached Oregon with his husky family of eleven growing boys and girls his total financial resources was "just six bits". They received encouragement, however, from N. G. McDonald, their nearest neighbor, who had been here since 1847.

McDonald promised to see that they should not want for flour at least. He also hired grandfather to split rails for him, the pay being, I believe, the magnificent sum of 50 cents per hundred rails split! All groceries and supplies at that time had to come from Oregon City or Portland.

Grandfather, father, and his brothers remained at the California mines for one winter. In the following fall father came back to Oregon and began to run a pack-train from Portland to the mines at Yreka, California. About 1853, or thereabouts, he moved down to Coos Bay region and there began to open and operate some coal mines. A little later he began to purchase cattle in Linn County which he drove to the mines in Jackson and Josephine Counties, or to the mines in California and sold for beer. He kept at that until about 1859. In the 1860's he went to the mines in the Salmon River country, in Idaho. After that he came back to Linn County and spent the rest of his life farming this land where we now live, a part of grandfather' s old claim.

The first cabin on this claim was situated must below the present house. It was, of course, of logs. Later a frame house was erected on practically the same spot. The present house is the third erected on the old claim.

Our mother's name was Rosa A. (Brenner) Baker, a widow. Mother and father were married January 25, 1874. Mother was born in Indiana, on April 12, 1848 and came to Oregon with her parents in 1853, when she was five years old. Mother's parents were Peter S. Brenner and Hannah (Islay) Brenner.

The Brenner's settled on the Santiam River about three miles east of present Shelburn where they purchased the land rights of a man named Dr. Warren and completed title to the claim. Grandfather Brenner died in 1899.

The children of the Brenner family, mother's brothers and sisters, were:

Peter Brenner.

Davis (?) Brenner.

Elizabeth Brenner.

William Brenner. Still living at Scio although very old and feeble. The only one of the family now living.

Catherine Brenner.

Rosa A. Brenner. (Informant's mother.)

Sarah Brenner.

Mother had been married once before marrying our father. She had three children by her first marriage. They are:

Janie Baker. Her married name was Flemming. She had four children before her death.

Lee Baker. Dead.

Etta Baker. Married William Manis.

After father and mother were married they had five children:

Malcolm Miller. (Living)

William Miller. (Dead)

Kate B. Miller. (One of the informants.) Now Mrs. Truxler of Anaheim, California.

Lena Miller. Now Mrs. McClain. Lives near Shelburn.

Nona P. Miller. (One of the informants.) Now Mrs. Kuiken. Lives on a portion of the original Miller claim near Shelburn.

About the year 1880 what was then known as the "Narrow Gauge" railroad built a line through this community which cut across a corner of father's farm. (The official name of this road was Oregon Railroad Company.) The line ran from Silverton to Brownsville. A few years later the line of the Corvallis and Eastern Railway, extending from Yaquina Bay to the summit of the Cascades, crossed the line of the "Narrow Gauge", also on father's farm.

When these two lines met a station was established. Father laid out some town lots for sale, anticipating the establishing of a town here. Father and mother named the new town "Shelburn." The name is derived from the names of the first two men to buy lots in the town. They were N. B. Washburn who opened the first store here, and a man named Shelton who opened a blacksmith shop. The first part of Shelton'' name, added to the last part of Washburn'' name, made the name of the town-Shelburn.

The Miller family, being Scotch, naturally belonged to the Presbyterian faith. As there was no Presbyterian church near by the family usually went to Jefferson to Methodist services there in the early days. About the year 1900 there was a small Presbyterian church organized in Shelburn. The building still stands there but it is now organized as an interdenominational or community church.

One of the very early settlers in this community was Preston Munkers. His claim was south of the Miller Claim and a short distance northwest of Scio.

The steep hill on the road between Scio and Shelburn is still known as "Munkers Hill" for it was there that Preston Munkers built his home. There was a community store on the Munker's claim, one of the first in this region, founded before there was any village of Scio. There was also a store and post office south of Scio about two miles, where the Franklin Butte Cemetery is now located. These two country stores preceded Scio by a number of years.

Scio was founded when H. L. Turner and Wm. McKinney built a mill there on the banks of Thomas Creek. Either Mr. McKinney, or a Mr. Woods built the first store there.

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.