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<DIV><FONT face=Arial>More from Florence Courtney Melton</FONT></DIV>
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They lost no time in packing their wagons. <FONT
color=#009900>[Jacob]</FONT> Houk had sold his wagon. He bought our light
wagon. That left us with one, so Molly and one of the boys rode the mules;
some of the time a pair of horses. We had seven head to one wagon.
It was on the twenty-fifth of September, I think, that we again started for
Oregon.</FONT> </FONT>
<P><FONT size=+1> We went the Barlow route, down through
Pendelton then about the size of Pataha City [<FONT
color=#009900>WA</FONT>]. The big wheat ranches below the Penitentiary
were a desert then. I never put in a worse day on the road than we
experienced from Pendelton to the foot of the Cascade Mountains. The first
day in the mountains was September thirtieth - my birthday, eleven years old -
no cake with candles. We broke the hind wheels of our wagon so they went
to</FONT> <BR><FONT size=+1>work to make the wagon over. The wheels were
like the drawing - oak grubs made the stays. The wagon was overloaded, so
Mother and I walked nearly all the way through the mountains. We had no
rain and it was warm. We were in sight of the Columbia River at The Dalles
and saw a steamboat there. There were three memorable hills: Tighe Valley:
this we reached after dark and we nearly had to spend the night there. The
Deschutes Hill and Laural Hill were both bad ones. The ones who crossed
first let their wagons down with chains. The bark of the trees was scored
and cut through. I do no doubt but that they show today as plain as
then. We saw no animals of any kind, but we camped one night at a
Frenchman's, old Mr. Revenous. He lived about three days travel from
Portland. They had several children. They were not allowed to go
farther from the house than the back of the orchard for fear of the
panthers. They lost several head of stock by panthers each year.
They had several dozen California quail in coops feeding them to send them to
the Portland market. The first we ever saw. They are prettier than
the Bob Whites.</FONT>
<P><FONT size=+1> When we crossed the Big Sandy, it was
so smoky we couldn't see much of the valley. The first town we came to was
<A href="http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~cchouk/courtney/oc.gif"
target=_blank>Oregon City</A>. Then we came to Salem. The most
beautiful town we had seen since we left Iowa. OREGON THE BEAUTIFUL!!! All
the hardships we had endured were well repaid by the picturesque beauty we
feasted our eyes on, everywhere we looked. It was indeed the land of red
apples. Everyone we talked to would say, "Now help yourselves to apples"
out of any orchard you came to. Everyone who owned an orchard would feel
badly to think of anyone going without. The most sociable generous people
on earth. All of them at some time or another had crossed the
plains. They knew what we had gone through and stood ready to lend a
helping hand.</FONT>
<P><FONT size=+1> One Saturday evening about the
fifteenth of October, we stopped at Calvin Burkhart's home. They asked if
there were some place they could camp for a few days until they could find a
farm to rent. He directed us to a gate that led back in the timber to an
old sawmill. There we would have wood and water. He pointed to a
stubblefield and said to turn our</FONT> <BR><FONT size=+1>horses in there; also
to stop at the orchard and help ourselves to fruit. We found a very good cabin
and an old heating stove. They set it up, and we were very
comfortable.</FONT>
<P><FONT size=+1> Mother and Sarah were congratulating
themselves that the had gotten rid of <FONT color=#009900>[William]</FONT>
Cluster, as they expressed it. Imagine their surprise and disappointment
when on Sunday morning while at the breakfast table who should walk in but Will
Cluster. I laugh yet when I think of the look on Mother's face. She
said, "How in the world did you find us?" He said, "I was riding along and
saw the horses in the field, and asked a man at the house back there if there
were some immigrants camped close by." He had stopped in the Grand Ronde
Valley, and they were sure Molly had received no mail, but what they didn't know
was that Molly had written a letter which Uncle Holbrook had mailed at Uniontown
telling him they were going to Walla Walla but if they didn't like the country
would go on to the Willamette Valley. She thought Albany was the
destination. Well, Mother and Sarah got dinner, and predicted all sorts of
calamities that would befall Molly if she took up with that stranger. She
didn't seem to worry much. They settled it that day. He went up to
Lane County and rented a farm three miles from <A
href="http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~cchouk/courtney/jc.gif"
target=_blank>Junction City</A>. He bought the necessary implements with
which to go to farming.</FONT> </P></FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial>The "mother and Sarah" mentioned above were my gr gr &
gr grandmothers.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Cecil Houk, ET1 USN Ret.<BR>PO Box 530833<BR>San Diego CA
92153<BR>FAX 619-428-6434<BR><A
href="mailto:cchouk@cox.net">mailto:cchouk@cox.net</A><BR>ANDERSON - BLAKELY -
FORD - HOUK - KIMSEY - MOE - RULAFORD - SIMPSON<BR>Searchable GEDCOM: <A
href="http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/~cchouk">http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/~cchouk</A><BR>My
web page MENU: <A
href="http://members.cox.net/~cchouk/">http://members.cox.net/~cchouk/</A><BR></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>