WPA Interviews

McKnight, D. B.

INTERVIEW

Interview with Judge D. B. McKnight. On being interviewed Judge McKnight gave the following information:

My father and mother were Oregon Pioneers of the year 1852. That was the year when the cholera swept through all the emigrant trains crossing the plains. There was quite a little cholera in the train with which my parents traveled by so far as I have ever learned there was only one death that resulted.

My father's name was James William McKnight. He was born at Beardstown on the banks of the Mississippi River in Illinois in 1833.

My mother was Marilla Chlorinda Wilson McKnight and she was born on the banks of the Wabash River in Indiana in the year 1832.

My father and mother were acquainted practically all of their lives as they grew up together as children. They were married at Burlington, Iowa on the day before they started for Oregon.

The Captain of the train with which they traveled was Cam. Settle. Others in the train who came with them were James Gore, (Billy Gore had come previously). The Gores settled near Lebanon. There was also John Gilliland who became a prominent citizen and was toll keeper on the Willamette Valley and Cascade Mountain Wagon Road above Sweet Home. Besides that there were the Parker family and Lewis Stimson. Stimson's wife and my mother were sisters-and John W. Fronk. Fronk was a married man when he started for Oregon but his wife soon died, possibly while on the way to Oregon, and he later married my father's sister.

My people's train was quite a large one and they had no particular trouble with the Indians though many minor disputes.

When the train reached Oregon, my father, though a married man was barely old enough to prove up on a claim. He lived at first with Uncle Jimmy Tallman, after whom the station of Tallman was named. Tallman was a pioneer of the year 1845. After a short time my father took up his own place which was situated about two miles from here and near Lebanon. My sister Winella McKnight Armstrong still lives on that place.

Before I get further with my family history I will tell of my grandfather' s life. My father's father was a citizen of Beardstown on the Mississippi River. He was a carpenter and millwright and is believed to have helped Abraham Lincoln build his flatboat at that place before Lincoln took one of his early trips down the river. My grandfather was also a veteran of the War of 1812 and fought at the battle of Lundy's Lane.

Grandfather died when father was fourteen years of age. Grandmother had died previously. My father made his living with his axe cutting wood on the Mississippi River bottoms from his fourteenth year onward. Like his father he took up the trade of millwright and after coming to Oregon father ran many of the very early sawmills in this region. He ran the old Sash sawmill on the Santiam River east of Albany owned by Anderson Cox; the Price-Nickerson mill on McDowell Creek; the Driggs Mill near Sanders's bridge. The Anderson Cox mill was just east of the Knox Butte and was running before I was born, probably about 1858. Barnett Ramsay probably ran the Cox mill at a later date.

A study of pioneer communities is a most interesting thing. There were no towns at first and the Doctors, the lawyers, the artisans and the professional men all settled on claims in the open country and practiced their professions there. This was true of almost all communities and our own pioneer neighborhood was a fine example of the trend. We had some extremely talented men living in our neighborhood. Leg me give you a sort of a picture of how things were:

First, our nearest neighbor was Dr. W. Alexander, a noted early day physician. He had a big practice all over the state, was a learned man.

His nearest neighbor was Dr. G. F. Crawford. Crawford came the same year as my parents but by a different rain. He had been a physician in the east but had been forced to give up active practice because of ill health but practiced dentistry instead. He made all of his own dentist's tools himself. His daughter, Miss Helen Crawford of Lebanon (recently deceased) had all his old dentists tools and I saw them a few years ago. It was astonishing how much those old, hand-made tools resembled the most recent things that dentists now use. People came for miles to have their teeth pulled or filled by Dentist Crawford. Another close neighbor was John W.

Gilmore who was a blacksmith. Gilmore made the first metal plows in Linn County and my father would stock them. John Gilmore's plow pattern was unsurpassed in the state. All the sod in this region was broken up by the use of his plows. Thomas W. Faulkner was another neighbor. He was a shoemaker and had learned his trade in Ohio. He made and mended shoes and filled wagon wheels. He was a very interesting character and was never happier than when he could get a crowd of boys into his shop and tell stories to them while working on his shoes. Another neighbor was ------(?) Sloan. He was a chair maker. He not only made fine chairs but tanned and dressed hides as well which he used for his chair seats. Still another neighbor was a man named Marks who was a brick maker. He was the grandfather of Senator Marks and of Willard Marks of the Oregon Board of Higher Education. These all lived in our neighborhood, then called the "Oak Creek District" but now more commonly called "Tallman School District." They illustrate the various crafts which country communities then supported.

The center of the Oak Creek District was the old Oak Creek log schoolhouse.

There all community gatherings were held. Many of the notable pioneer preachers came to hold services there, notable among them, Rev. Joab Powell.

Powell was a really talented preacher and a great many of the tall stories now told concerning his eccentric character are not at all true. I went to school first at the old Oak Creek schoolhouse.

My father's family consisted of the following children: James Alvin McKnight. He was my oldest brother and was born in Oregon on January 8, 1853, only a few months after my parents reached Oregon. He died at what is now known as "Tombstone Prairie" on October 17, 1871, at the age of 18 years, 9 months and 9 days. Since his death was the cause of the naming of that prominent point in the Cascades, I will tell it to you quite fully. Our family at that time was crossing the Cascade Mountains by way of the old South Santiam Toll Road. I was one of the party though only a boy of eleven years at the time. On the night of which I am telling we had just reached the summit of Seven-mile-hill and had made camp. My father had been driving one of the wagons and my brother James Alvin (usually called Alvin), another. After dark had come and we were all about the campfire Alvin left and went around behind the wagons, for what reason we do not know, but presumably to get his bedroll. (We had several wagons.) In the back of the wagon there were two bedrolls and between the rolls were packed two guns.

One of them was a rifle and the other was a little double-barreled, muzzle-loading shotgun. The latter was an old gun which had been brought across the plains and which my father had given to me. It was the only one of the guns which was loaded, and that in only one barrel. Of course we do not know exactly what happened as it was dark, but we believe that in moving the bedrolls this gun was struck or the hammer caught in some way. At any rate the gun was discharged and the load, going through the soft endgate of the wagon hit my brother. We heard the report and father ran out to the wagons. Alvin was still standing and said, "Father, I'm shot." Father took him and carrying him to the fire laid him down and asked, "Where?" Alvin raised one hand to his chest and immediately expired. Alvin's body was brought out from the mountains and was buried at the Sand Ridge Cemetery. Of course the incident was a great shock to my mother (she was present at the time), and later she had a memorial erected at the place of the accident. However, the body does not lie there as so many now suppose. (See Sand Ridge Cemetery Survey. L.L.Haskin, Field worker.) I have told you this at some length because Tombstone Prairie where the memorial stands is now a well-known point on the South Santiam Road.

Frank McKnight, my second brother, born 1855. Died 1937 at the age of 82 years.

George McKnight. Born 1859. He is four years older than I. He lives in Malheur County where he served as County Judge for the county at the same time that I was serving for Linn County.

D.B. McKnight. (Narrator). Was born in 1860 in Washington. At the time of my birth my father was running a sawmill at Tumwater. There has been little notable about my life save my service as Assessor of this county and as County Judge from 1912-1918. (Assessor 1902-1918.) My sisters were:

Ida McKnight, born 1863.

Winella McKnight Armstrong. Born 1873. Still lives on the old McKnight Donation Land Claim.

My father owned the first regular drugstore in Lebanon in association with Dr. Ballard. Dr. Ballard had been Territorial Governor of Idaho, appointed to the position by Lincoln.

There was another drugstore at Lebanon before my father's, but it could scarcely be called "regular". It was more of a herb vender's store and was run by a "Doc" Simons who was more or less of a recluse. This same "Doc" Simons also ran a store on Sand Ridge at a very early date.

My father retired from the farm and spent his last years at Portland.

I first attended school at the old Oak Creek Schoolhouse. Dr. George Crawford was the first teacher at that school, but that was before my memory. Another teacher there was an eminent Divine, Rev. J.M. Denison.

The first teacher that I remember was named Van Landingham. One of my teachers at Oak Creek School was James Balch. He was the father of Frederick Homer Balch, author of The Bridge of the Gods. "Fred" as we called him was younger than I, and just a beginner learning his letters at his father's knee. My sister, Ida, and Fred Balch were two little tykes learning their letters together. Fred was a remarkable character but he lacked health. He worked too hard and was too ambitious. He was born at Lebanon. There is a memorial plaque erected on the old Oak Creek (Now Tallman) school grounds in his memory.

I knew Fred Balch's mother slightly. She was married three times. As a girl she lived at Brownsville. Her first husband's name was Gallaher. She had a daughter, Alice Gallaher who attended the Oak Creek School with me.

She was at that time 14 or 15 years old. We all called her "Allie" and I presume that her name was Alice. Gallaher died and his widow then married a man named Helm. A son Bill Helm, still lives at Salem. After that she married James Balch.

James Balch was at one time a member of the lower house of the Idaho Territorial legislature. At that time Dr. Ballard of whom I have already spoken was Territorial Governor. Balch and Ballard were great friends here at Lebanon.

There is one other old pioneer of this region who I will mention. That is William Peterson from whom Peterson Butte is named. You will notice the tall thicket of plum brush to the south of this house. Those are known as "Peterson" Plums named after the same man. Peterson had a nursery here in the very early days and the plum was one of the species which he distributed. No one knows where he obtained it, whether from seed or by bringing the plants across the plains. Dr. Crawford told me this, that the Peterson plum was the only plum that William Peterson had in his nursery.

(Field worker's note: Mr. McKnight although advanced in years is still active both in mind and body. Few persons of his age yet interviewed had a better command of language, or were able to narrate pioneer facts in better style. Mr. McKnight lives with his family on a small farm about four miles west of Lebanon.)

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.