[or-roots] Aikens Pioneers in Roseburg, OR

[Bill & Chris Strickland]

fyi --

I have several members of my Aikins family in Southern Oregon, and in
the process of researching them, I have come across a couple documents
that are from an unrelated (as far as I know) family with a variant
spelling.

1) an unidentified newspaper obituary, 'Mrs J C Aiken, Pioneer, Passes',
probably from 1938

It states Mrs J C (Dee Ellen (Chapman)) Aiken, 87, resident of Douglas
County for 85 years ...

Her husband, John C Aiken also was of pioneer parentage, and his father,
John Aiken, for many years conducted a ferry service at Winchester. ...

She leaves a daughter, Florence Aiken Banks ...


2) 'Florence Aiken Banks, Roseburg, Oregon, A Personal Interview, August
10, 1938', apparently published as or at lest a part of a manuscript
titled 'Reminiscences of Southern Orregon Pioneers', pg 19-21. It
states:

Her father, John L Aiken, came over the plains in 1852. He was 14 years
of age. Both of John L's parents died on the trail, his mother buried at
Bonner's Ferry, Idaho, and her father at Lone Fir Cemetery in Portland.

John L, 14, and his sister Nancy, 10 years of age, took care of the
seven other children of the family. John L went south from Portland and
finally arrived at the Umpqua River. His uncle, John Aiken, who had come
across the plains in 1847, was located at Winchester, Oregon, on the
banks of the Umpqua, and to him, the young lad went.. The ferry business
made John wealthy -- he was one of the financeiers if what is now
Douglas National Bank and also of the first big department store that
was opened in Salem, Oregon.

The eldest daughter of John Aiken, Sarah, married the son of General
Joseph Lane at age 15 --  a year later the young bride died in
childbirth, and the baby passed away three days later.

I have ascertained no connection between these folks and my Aikins
family from Morgan County, Ohio, nor can I offer any opinion of the
apparent confusion betwen John L and John C in the above documents and
their relationship to the 1847 immigrant, John.

Godspeed!

Bill Strickland
Oregon City, OR