WPA Interviews for Linn County Oregon

McChesney, Nancy Candis (Conn)

INTERVIEW, Dec 10, 1937.

Short interview with Mrs. Nancy Candis Conn McChesney. This interview deals entirely with the origin of the name, "Murder Creek", for a small stream in Linn County, a few miles east of Albany.

My name is Nancy Candis Conn McChesney. My husband's name is John McChesney. My father's name was Isaac Conn, and he was a pioneer of the Knox Butte neighborhood.

I was the baby on the sled, (you may have heard about it), when the man was shot at Murder Creek. That was one of the first murders in Linn County.

My brother Joshua Conn had me out of doors and down the road a little ways from the house when the shot was fired. He heard a man cry out and heard a shot, and he knew at once that something was happening. He ran back to the house drawing me on the sled. He went as quick as he could. We had company at our house that day and brother went in and told them that something was happening down on the creek. He said, "I heard a man cry out and a shot."

Father said, "Oh, you're always hearing things." That was the truth for my brother always heard whatever was going on anywhere in the neighborhood.

Father thought that there was nothing to it, but he and the man who was visiting us walked down to the creek, talking as they went. In that way the murderer heard them coming and had a chance to run away. When they got down to the creek they saw a man's arm sticking out of the water. They pulled him out and it was a young man named Pate. He had been shot.

The men went in to Albany as soon as it was possible. There were a few inches of fresh snow on the ground and it was easy to track the murderer. They found him in a shop in Albany. He was another young man named Lamb. When they found him he was wearing one of his own shoes and one of Pate's shoes. Later he was hung for the murder.

These two young men, Lamb the murderer, and Pate whom he killed, came from Indiana with my folks. The reason for the murder was that Pate was a steady, hard-working man and saved his money. He had saved up almost five hundred dollars and Lamb killed him to get the money and because he wanted a girl that Pate was going with.

All this happened in the winter of 1861 or 1862. It was in the middle of the winter but I do not know whether it was before or after New Years.

The creek where this took place is a few miles east of Albany, and it has always been called Murder Creek ever since then. They have it marked that way on the bridge where the Pacific Highway crosses the creek.

I was the baby that my brother was pulling on the sled when he heard the shot that day. (Perhaps you have heard about it.)"

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.