[or-roots] James H. Russell, one of the Greensprings Mountain House "Boys."

[William P. Russell]

I'm seeking information about the parentage and ancestors of James H.
Russell, a very early settler of the area that became Ashland Oregon.

He came across the continent in the "Big Mule Train" from Pittsburg where he
had been a stone mason.  After a year on the Yuba River, he spent the next
winter in the Sandwich Islands to regain his health.

When he returned he moved to Jackson County and took up a Donation Land
Claim which was patented as certificate number 13 on the books of the
General Land Office in Roseburg.

Three other miners from the Yuba River took up the claims adjacent to his.
Together they built the Greensprings Mountain House at the junction of their
claims.  It is said to be the first house built of sawn boards south of
Roseburg.  It still stands next to the old Highway 99 where it heads up the
Siskiyous 1/4 mile from the junction with State Highway 66, about 2 miles
east of Interstate 5.  The sign out front says "Barron's Stage Stop," but
the original building was built long before the first stage.  Jim Russell
ran the Mountain House string of mules up to Scottsburg at the head of
navigation on the Umpqua and supplied not only Jacksonville but Yreka.

Just north of the Mountain House claims, Isaac Hill took up a Donation Land
Claim (Number 106 in the Roseburg book) on which he settled his family that
included 3 teen aged girls.  There was of course a swarm of miners and
farmers seeking an opportunity to court the lasses.

Jim Russell won the hand of the middle daughter, Ann Haseltine Hill and she
became his bride and the hostess at the Mountain House.  The first of their
eleven children was James B. Russell, my grandfather.

Much more info about both these families are on my web site at
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~hill2oregon/