Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1914-06-25
Recalls Indian
Wars Of 1856


third of next month he will reach his !
eighty-ninth year, and one of his !
greatest disappointments is that he !
could not attend the meeting of Ore
gon Trail Blazers in Portland this
week. This disappointment has been /
made doubly bitter by reason of the |
presence at the meeting of his old
commanding major during the early |
Indian days OF Jackson county and
southern Oregon. Mr. Rockfellow
says:
Major James Bruce, referred to
in the Trail Blazers meeting and re-
ferred to in the accompanying clip |
ping, was the commanding major in
the company to which l belonged in
the Indian war of 1866, in which
the ill-fated DR.. Miller of Crescent
City, Cal, fell dead at my side with
a bullet hole through the head.
Only few moments previous my own
head occupied the same position
from which he fell.
This engagement was at the Cab
ins on the Applegate creek, where we
had the Indians surrounded and were
bOmbarding them with shells from
howitzer on the hillside nearby.
''It is almost needless to say that
during the night following the In
dians escaped from their hiding place
in the brush to the brush of the
mountains and far away from their
pursuers by the following morning."
Numbered in the pioneer visitors
expected to attend Tuesdays reunion
are many who crossed the Oregon
trail, the historic old way to the
northwest said to have been marked
by the graves Of $4,000 men, women
and children, most of them name
less, who gave up their lives between
1910 and 1859.
There is Major James Bruce,
one of the most widely known pio-
neers of Oregon, who was born in
Indiana in 1897. and who came to
Oregon by way of California in 1850
He is nephew of that famous pio-
neer, Daniel Boone, his mother being
a sister of the Kentucky woodsman.
He engaged in the mercantile bust
ness in Jacksonville, afterward set
Ting on a farm in Benton county,
and now residing at McMinnville. In
1857 he married Miss Margaret Kin
ney, who died in 1884. In 1886 he
married Elizabeth Marsh. He has
one daughter, Catherine. In 1874
1876 he was member of the Oregon
legislature.
One of these successful pioneers
was William d. Stillwell of Tilla-
nook, who wears a badge of 1874.
He was born in Ohio in 1924, and
came to Oregon with an "oxomobile''
as far as Boise, where his party took
pack horses for the remainder of the
distance. He says that for only three
days OF the trip did he enjoy the lux
ury of riding. walking otherwise the
whole of the way. driving an OK team
for his father and mother and after
wards the pack animals. He settled
in Yamhill county, and when his
father, Thomas Stillwell, moved to
Douglass county, William stayed with
Yamhill. He was one of the founders
of that city and resided there for
many years, establishing the first
mercantile establishment, known as
Stillwell's store from Portland to
Roseburg by every pioneer.
Afterwards he removed to Tilla-
nook county and engaged in the
dairying business. now residing in the
city of Tillamook. passing the last
years of a ripe old age in peace and
comfort He married Elizabeth Bax-
ter in 1851, who died in 1868. He
has four sons. all living in Tillamook
county. His vigorous step and kindly
smile, with a full head of only partly
gray hair, would not indicate that the
Oregon country" had dealt hard
with him.
Captain Thomas Mountain. another
distinguished pioneer, came to Ore
gOn in 1S41, and is probably the ear
lest pioneer of Oregon now living. He
was member of the Captain Wilkes
party that was wrecked on the United
States sloop Peacock off the Colum-
bia river, and Is undoubtedly the only
survivor of that expedition now alive,
although he escaped from the wreck,
Eie served with distinction through
the Mexican war. afterwards coming
TO Oregon again about 1S49. For
many years he served as an officer
aboard river and coast vessels and
steamers, then as warehouse and
wharf tender, finally retiring in 1903
His health is not good, but II Is
hoped to secure his presence at the
reunion Thursday for little while
He was married in New York city IL
1892 TO Margaret Frances Barnes
~