Millicans, Clarks, Freemonts, Oregon Pioneers

Below is a link to a PDF which is an account given by William S. Clark, son of Ransom Clark and Lettice Jane Millican, and grandson of Elijah Ellison and Lucinda Wilson Crisp, Spencer Clark and Betsy Slack, of his father's (Ransom Clark) settling in the Oregon Territory. 

It is taken from this link HERE.

And the PDF is HERE. 

Further information obtained from here reprinted below:

Reminiscences of Charles Webster Clark, oldest son of Ransom Clark and Lettice Jane Millican Clark, later Mrs. Almos H. Reynolds. Written about 1920.

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Millican family came west in wagon train of 1843, led by the Applegate brothers and piloted by Dr. Marcus Whitman.
Children:

• Lettice Jane Clark Reynolds, born 1830
• Melvina Hembree, born 1832 (?, not clean in MS)
• Mary Hill (grandmother of Dorsey Hill) born 1834
• Louisa Dixon, born 1836
• Margaret Millican, born 1838
• Elizabeth Baker (3d wife of Dr. Dorsey Baker), born 1840
• Married 1st, Robert Horton
• Married 2nd, J.W. McCullough
• Married 3d, Dr. Dorsey Baker
• Andrew J. Millican (dates of these births not given, many have followed spacing of other children, 2 years apart)
• born 1842?

Children below not on wagon train:

• William M. Millican, born 1844?
• James Millican, born 1846?
• John Millican, born 1848?

MELVINA married James Hembree about 1847, Lafayette, Oregon

• Children:
• Jim, who dies young.
• John, married Miss Berry. Their children, Dorsey Hill and Bertha Brackett
• Six other children not named

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"I do not remember the year the J.W. McCullough worked for Father Reynolds but think it was in '63 and '64. (His wife was left here and he went to the mines.) Mr. McCullough worked for Mr. Reynolds in the mill here. Robert Horton died in '62 or '63. McCullough then married the widow, but he also died soon.
The Millicans crossed the plains in 1843, starting from Missouri. They came into the Wallla Walla Valley by way of Weston Hill, down to the Walla Walla River. I imagine they crossed Meacham Creek into Thorne Hollow, then to Weston and down to the mission at Whitman. Left there and went to Wallula, having some great experiences going down the Columbia in flatboats. From The Dalles, they went over the mountains by way of Barlow Road. Went directly to Lafayette, taking the first wagon into Oregon. There they took up a Donation claim.
Ransom Clark came also in 1843, but with Lt. John Fremont. John G. Campbell and my father came as partners from Vermont and joined Fremont in Missouri. (From another account: "Most of he company were French and Canadian frontiersmen. At The Dalles he, with two other Americans, left the command and joined the American immigrant train of '43, guided by Dr. Marcus Whitman. Among those in the train was the Millican family, whose oldest child was Lettice, age 13.")
Clark and Lettice Millican were married in Lafayette in 1845. She was 15 years old. They moved to his farm, a mile from her parents. Twins were born on August 12, 1846. Charlie lived, the other died.
Ransom joined the California gold rush and while he was gone, another child, Harry, died at the age of four.
When father came home, the moved to Linn City, Oregon, where he ran a hotel, as a sawmill was being built there. (1853) Later, they moved to Portland. In '55 and '56, he went to the Colville Mines but did not stay long. On his way back, he stopped to look around the Walla Walla Valley, which he had first crossed in '43 with Fremont. He located a Donation claim on Yellow Hawk and Russell Creeks but cecause of Indian troubles, white people were all ordered out of the country. So he went back to Portland where he started in the hotel business again, on the corner of Front and Washington Streets, the name being the Columbia Hotel. A Mr. J.J. Jarvis was in business with him. Part of the time the family lived at the hotel and part of the time in a private home. Will was born there. At that time Charlie was in school at Oswego. He often went to Lafayette to visit his grandparents.
Clark could not get up to his claim until the fall of 1858, after a treaty had been made with the Indians. He hired a man named John Haley to make some fences. Clark went back to Portland until March, '59, then brought Charlie up with him. They came by boat to Lower Cascades, bringing six horses. There they went over the side of mountain to the first station where a transportation line was operating between Portland and the Dalles at that place. (Confused) They portaged from Lower to Upper Cascades. Rode on the steamer Ohio, the captain's name being Smith. At the Dalles they had to wait a week for delivery of fruit trees, etc. Uncle Jack brought down two horses from here and with the horses they were bringing up (6) and these two horses, they finished the trip.
Below Pendleton they stopped at a place run by Mr. Mason. There they ate horse meat, thinking it was elk meat. The first night out, they stayed at Fulton's. Crossed the toll bridge over Des Chutes River. The next camping place was at John Day's, then on Spring Creek, Butler Creek, Umatilla, Wild Horse Creek, then at Pambrun's place on the Walla Walla River. Here Charlie was injured in a fall from a horse. The horse stepped in a badger hole and he was thrown, his foot caught in the stirrup and he was dragged some distance. One joint in his back was knocked out of place. From then on he was called lazy becase he could not rise quickly out of place. (Twenty-five years later he was cured by an osteopath.)
From Pambrun's they came to the claim where John Haley was then living, March 27, 1859.
In May, Clark was called back to Portland because Jarvis was mis-managing the hotel. Charlie received a letter from his father saying he had reached home but nine days later he died of pneumonia. Mr. Jarvis got away with some $3000 of Mrs. Clark's money. Mother left the hotel and went to her parents' home in Lafayette, later came to Walla Walla since Charlie was there alone. She had been warned about danger from Indians but came with the Dent family on the boat. Also rode in the government ambulance. Captain Dent was a brother of Mrs. U.S. Grant. He was commander of Fort Walla Walla and Mother stayed there over night.
When Charlie first received notice of his father's death he could not believe it. At the time he was riding a horse in a four-mile race conducted by Tom Hughes. John Shauns had given Charlie $2.50 to bet on a horse. Robert Horton came to Charlie and told him not to go hoome. A.H. Robie got off the boat at Umatilla and rode horseback to Walla Walla and beat the boat, while Charlie's mother came on the boat. (Evidently her brother William came up the river with her.) Uncle Bill came from the fort next morning to the tent and told Charlie of his father's death.
Mother stayed two weeks. Father had hired Horton at The Dalles and brought him up here. Uncle Bill stayed with us after Mother went back to Portland. Mother went to Lafayette where Lizzie was born and when Lizzie was six weeks old, Mother came up here. From The Dalles she came with John Abbott in his stagecoach. She paid the freight on Abbott's coach from Portland to the Dalles. Abbott later had the goods brought up to Walla Walla on the first stagecoach in 1859. (This seems confused since she came in the stagecoach herself.)

MARY married Henry Hill

LOUISA married Jesse Dixon, 3 children

ELIZABETH maried first, Robert Horton, a Canadian who came to Walla Walla with Ransom Clark in March, 1859, Mr. Clark having employed him in the Dalles. Stayed on Clark Donation claim until fall of '59, went back to Oregon, met Elizabeth Millican whom he married in 1861. In spring of 1860, he rented and farmed the Ransom Clark claim between Springfield Creek (Spring branch, now Colwell Creek?) and Russell Creek. In 1861, bought a farm and married Elizabeth. Double wedding noted elsewhere. Mr. Horton died on this farm (when?). Then Elizabeth married J.W. McCullough who was working for A.H. Reynolds (her sister's new husband) as a millwright. A short time later Mr. Reynolds sent him to run a mill he and D.S. Baker had set up in Uniontown, Oregon. McCullough's health turned bad and in a short time he returned and died. About two years later, Elizabeth married D.S. Baker, whose first wife, Caroline Tibbitts of Portland had died, also his second wife. Miss Tibbitts had a sister, Mrs. Kennedy (Earl's grandmother?) who lived on Park St. (So Henrietta's grandmother and Earl's grandmother were sisters?) I am not sure of this relationship. (N.L.F.)

MARGARET blinded by measles in childhood. Never married.

ANDREW J. (Uncle Jack) left home in 1858 and came up to the Umatilla River, bringing his father's stock. Stayed a year. Had two horses that belonged to Ransom Clark, his brother-in-la, who wished them sent to the Dalles. In 1859, he brought them up to his sister, then a widow. Was always interested in mining. (Later at Thunder Mt., Idaho.)

WILLIAM came to Walla Walla about June 1, 1859 with his sister on their first visit, soon after the death of her husband, Ransom Clark.

JAMES and JOHN both married. No other facts about them.