Ashland weekly tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1919-1924, 1920-06-16
THE PASSING OF A SOUTHERN
OREGON PIONEER

I NaaNN h'hNANf iibhN'A ih'N VI
builders whose years of labor and
ministrations of love are so WOW
en- amid the golden skeins of his
torlc memories, as to render her
passing benedictiOn of loyalty
anu service to the land she loved
so we'll.
Our beautiful Rogue River val
ley, redeemed from its wilderness
by these Mothers OF Men," is
now hallowed as the resting place
OF their final sleeping. Ger them
spans the bridge of stars, EN-
blematic of their faithful virgils
and the forget-me-nots of noble
sacrifices and heroic efforts.
While yet in the bloom OF girl
hood, Martha Louise Hill left her
home in Tennessee to journey with
her family DER what seemed like
never ending miles, to treasured
Oregon. A land of fact and fable
that in the year 1852, lured west
ward among its caravan of path
finders and pioneers, Isaac and
Elizabeth Hill with their family
of six children. From the time
OF their arrival and settlement
ia the upper section of the Rogue
River valley, their activities have
been an essential part of the life
and growth OF this community.
The Hill home at the foot of the
SisQiyous became a center of So
Cial life and many an otherwise
lonely hour was spent around the
glowing hearthstone by the young
miners and future home builders
Of the valley. Here Martha Hill
was wooed and won, On April 3,
1853, she was married to Almond
V. Gillette at Yreka, Calf, the
mining center of the Siskiyou dis
trict.
Eight children were born to
this union; Charles Hill, Carolin
Minerva, George, Virgil, Hugh
Homer, of Ashland, Oregon; Al
mond Cicero and Frank Fine (de-
ceased) Effie Elizabeth of Los
Angeles, Calf; Edward |, Of
ROise, Idaho.
The pioneer days provided few
social or educational advantages
and much depended upon the in
genuity and resourcefulness of the
frontier mother to provide social
cheer and theinspiration of moral
and religious teachings. In this
respect, Mrs. Gillette was an ideal
mother; her household typified
the hospitality of the West and in
her spiritual vision she became
leader and founder of the Pres
hytcrun faith in our ct}. With
hU two sisters, Mrs, T. H. Russell
and Mrs. Mary NJ. Dunn, she had
always been an active worker in
the moral and religious welfare
OF the community.
At the age of S2 Mrs Martha
L. Gillette, at the earnest request
of her many friends, wrote vivid
and highly entertaining account
Of her eventful life for The New
American WOman's Magazine. In
this she described her adventures
across the plains, the gold discoy-
cries in California, the Indian
wars of 1853 and 1855 and the
general chain of events in the
long strides of western civiliza-
ton from an unsettled country
to its present standard Of derel-
opment.
Mrs. Gillettes life was happy
fu!fllment of the poets injunc-
ton:
Live all thy yife,
Seem what thou art
Nor from simplicity depart
And peace shall come upon thy
heart
Live all thy life"
With the dawning morn, came
peace and the journeys end. To
such a life, tribute is paid not in
words but in the hum of growing
cities and the joyous laughter OF
hopeful posterity who now but
lightly tread the paths first made
by weary feet that journeyed far
to leave their imprint on the gold
EN- sands of time.