Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/622

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BIOGRAPHICAL.
571

ing. Their children are many of them living the grass valleys of the Klamath basin which they were the first, of the American frontiersmen to

    Boone, married George L. Curry, afterward governor of Oregon Territory. Curry's Biography, MS., 4.

    W. P. Breeding settled at Salem, and put up the first blacksmith's forge there. He served in the Cayuse war under Colonel Waters. In 1850 he returned to Missouri, to bring to Oregon his father and in the following year was married, and removed to a farm in Lane County, near the present town of Junction City. In 1875 he removed to Whitman County in Washington, where he erected a flouring mill and made other improvements, at the same time laying off the town of Palouse City on his land, at the falls of Palouse River. Mr Breeding was a genial man, his his head as white as snow, with 'keen, kindly blue eyes and rugged features on which the glow of health' was stamped. Nichol's Indian Affairs, MS., 17, 18.

    George William Burnett was born in Nashville, Tennessee, October 18, 1811. At 6 years of age he removed with his parents to Missouri, and was married in that state to Miss Sidney A. Younger in 1831. He settled in the autumn of 1847 on a land claim in Yamhill County, where he resided till his death in December 1877. He was a brother of Peter H. Burnett, a religious-minded, exemplary man, and useful citizen. In 1868 he was elected to the state legislature. Or. Pioneer Assoc., Trans., 1877, p. 74; Burnett's Rec., 182.

    Ezekiel Kennedy was born in Kentucky in December 1789, but removed to Frankfort at an early age. He built the state-house in that city in 1817. His wife was Fanny Thurston of Shelbyville, Ky., whom he married about this time. In 1834 he removed to Missouri, and in 1846 to Oregon in the souther branch of the immigration, being one of those who were detained in the Umpqua Valley. In the spring of 1847 he settled in Yamhill County, where for a number of years he remained and occupied offices of public trust and honor. He finally settled at Dallas where he died June 11, 1869, leaving a widow and 4 children. Dallas Times, June 26, 1869.

    Frederick W. Geer, with his wife Mary Ann, and 2 children, settled on the west bank of the Willamette, opposite the present town of Butteville. The family was increased after arriving in Oregon to 10 children. Like others of this name in Oregon, Mr Geer achieved success in his undertakings. Portland Oregonian, May 20, 1876.

    Towner Savage was born in the state of New York in 1801. He removed to Kalamazoo Co., Mich., and thence to Oregon, and settled in Marion County. He died at Salem, March 3, 1871. Salem Statesman, March 14, 1871.

    David Colver settled 14 miles east of Salem, where he continued to reside until his death, December 31, 1874, at the age of 80 years. Salem Statesman, Jan. 9, 1875.

    James Smith, born in Virginia in 1802, settled in Polk County Oregon, in 1846, where he died March 25, 1872. Dalles Republican, March 30, 1872.

    James D. Fay came to Oregon, an orphan, in 1846. He possessed good talents, and studied law under A. A. Skinner and Judge Thayer of Corvallis. He married a daughter of Jesse Applegate; but his politics and conduct being obnoxious to her family, there was unhappiness. She died, and he married Miss Rosa Young of Jacksonville. He had a son by his first and a daughter by his second wife. He committed suicide at Empire City in Coos County, June 4, 1879. Portland Oregonian, June 7, 1879.

    James T. Crump, whose father opened the first store in Salem, and died about 1864, was born in Missouri and emigrated with his parents in 1846. He was a young man of promise, but committed suicide in February 1870, a few months after his marriage, on account of disappointment in not securing a business situation. He had two brothers, one of whom is William R. Crump, and two sisters, living in Salem. Or. Statesman, Feb. 25, 1870.

    Wilson Lee settled on the Little Luckiamute in Polk County. Mrs Lee