Millicans In Oregon, 1843

This was copied and pasted from the following webpage: http://www.oregonpioneers.com/1843.htm

Andrew Jackson MILLICAN (1834-1907): s/o Elijah and Lucinda (Crisp) Millican; shown in 1850 Yamhill Co census living with parents

Edmund MILLICAN (c1812-c1895): brother of Elijah Millican; father of 12 children

Elijah MILLICAN (1804-c1887): m'd 1827 Lucinda Wilson CRISP. Elijah settled Linnton in 1843 but moved to Lafayette, Yamhill Co in 1844. He emigrated with 2 wagons he built himself and 5 yoke of oxen. Elijah went to CA temporarily in 1849.  The father of 12 children, he died at age 83yrs.

Elizabeth Hannah MILLICAN (1840-1917): m1. 1861 Robert HORTON; m2. 1867 (Unknown) MCCULLOUGH; m3. Dorsey Sydney BAKER; d/o Elijah and Lucinda (Crisp) Millican

James K. MILLICAN (1843- ): m'd Sarah (Unknown); s/o Elijah and Lucinda (Crisp) Millican

Lettice Jane MILLICAN (1830-1911 ): m1. 1845 Ransom CLARK; m2. Amos Reynolds; d/o Elijah and Lucinda (Crisp) Millican; Lettice met Ranson Clark during the 1843 emigration and was married to him in 1845.  They settled in Yamhill Co where they took up a successful farming operation.  In 1856 Ransom Clark traveled to Walla Walla in present day Washington to secure a land claim.  Mr Clark returned to Portland. but was taken sick on the way home and lived only a couple of weeks. Sixteen years before, Lettice Millican, as a girl of thirteen years, had passed through the Walla Walla valley; now she returned, the widow of Ransom Clark. At Celilo, she boarded the steamer Col. Wright, which was loaded with supplies for Lieutenant Mullah, who was in charge of the construction of the Mullen road between Fort Benton, Montana., and Walla Walla.  Upon arrival at the claim she found the log house finished and farm work progressing, Mrs. Clark returned to Portland, settled her affairs and later, with her two youngest children, one a baby girl six weeks old, left for her donation claim on the Yellowhawk to make final proof. The town of Walla Walla was just starting. The camping place for teamsters packers and immigrants was along Mill Creek, on one side of which the cantonment was built in 1856, so the town was started there by merchants, butchers and saloon-keepers. Split logs were driven into the ground, poles were laid across the top, and canvas or clapboards laid for a roof.
   There were only five donation claims in Walla Walla county. Three of these were taken by Hudson's Bay Company men, one by the American Foreign Missionary Society which included the Whitman site. The Ransom Clark claim was the fifth and was destined to become the scene of splendid endeavor and triumph by a brave young pioneer mother. Her deeds have since been commemorated in a bronze marker embedded m the fireplace of the local Y. M. C. A., also in a marker affixed to a large block of native granite brought from the hills and placed near the northwestern corner of the claim The marker bears this inscription :  "To mark the site of the Ransom Clark Donation Claim and to honor the memory of   LETTICE J. REYNOLDS 1830-1911 A pioneer of 1843 with Whitman's Train       As widow of Ransom Clark this brave woman completed in 1859 under conditions calling.for the greatest courage the claim to this land, initiated by him in1800.   She married Almos H. Reynolds in 1861 and survived him 22 years. She was the ideal pioneer wife, mother, and generous Christian citizen. [This marker was placed by the Narcissa Prentiss Chapter, Daughters Of the American Revolution, June, 1935].

Louisa Allen MILLICAN (1837-c1902): m'd c1858 DIXON, Jesse Downs; d/o Elijah and Lucinda (Crisp) Millican; settled in Yamhill Co where she is enumerated in the 1850 census with her parents and the1860, 1870 and 1880 census with her husband and children.  In 1900 she is living in Tillamook with her daughter, Jane, and her son-in-law S.M. Hayes.  She is shown as a widow at that time.

Mary Adlin MILLICAN (1832 - ): twin of Melvina

Melvina MILLICAN (1832-1916): m'd 1845 James L. HEMBREE; twin of Mary; "Before the emigration of 1843, there were so few white women in the Oregon country that most of the white men took Indian wives. White girls were so much in demand that many of the girls married at the age of 12 or 13 years.... One of my chums was married when she was 12 years old. Mother made me promise not to get married so young, so I waited till two days after my thirteenth birthday before I was married.";
"Melvina celebrated her eleventh birthday on the Oregon Trail.  She was born September 22, 1832, in Arkansas, the daughter of Elijah Milligan and Lucinda [Crisp] Milligan.  Just two years after celebrating her birthday on the trail, Melvina was married to James N. T. Hembree, on September 29, 1845, in Yamhill County, the week after her thirteenth birthday.
      In 1914 Melvina recalled, "Two days after I turned thirteen I married.  My husband was nineteen years old.  When we exchanged vows, I was wearing a new calico dress that Mama made me, regular store-bought shoes, and even stockings.  We took a donation land claim of 640 acres and built a cabin which we moved into at once.  Within the next few days my husband made a bedstead out of fir poles, which he peeled and fastened to the wall.  He pegged them together for we had no nails.  On this bed we laid dried ferns for our mattress.  Our table was a tree split down the middle, and we had two stools.  Pegs were driven into the walls for hats, coats, and clothes. My only dishes were a big iron kettle, a small iron pot, and an iron skillet.  I had to stoop over the mud fireplace in order to cook.  I baked bread in the iron skillet, pot-roasted our meat in the iron pot, baked potatoes in the ashes, and browned wheat or oats for our coffee.  My husband was a great hand to hunt.  He usually turned out about daybreak and would be gone only an hour or two, returning with deer, grouse, rabbit, or the like.  We always had game hanging in the tree near the kitchen door.  The first baby came along.  Others followed.  I took care of the babies, cooked, washed clothes, made soap and candles, knitted and darned and seved and did all the other things that had to be done.  For entertainment we used to go to preachings at the neighboring houses or to barn-raisings or house-warmings.  The kids are grown and we have grandchildren, great grandchildren, and even a few great great.  Next year Pa and me will celebrate seven decades of being together, and that's mighty good."
      The Hembrees lived for many years in Lafayette, Oregon.  They were married seventy years when Melvina died at the age of eighty-three on March 17, 1916, in Lafayette, a longer marriage than any other pioneer of 1843.  In 1910 Melvina and James, his brother Waymon and Waymon's wife Nancy Beagle Hembee, and Charlotte Matheny Kirkwood posed for a photograph and news article as the last five survivors of the 1843 migration.  There were several others alive then, but it made a good story anyway."  [Information provided by Don Rivara; his sources include: [1] Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, on-line Family Search; [2]  "Newlyweds," p.8, Pioneers Vol. 11, by Rick Steber, Bonanza Publishing, Prineville, OR, 1993.]

William Mansil MILLICAN (1836- ): s/o Elijah and Lucinda (Crisp) Millican