Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/519

468 Pierce Asbill was born in Howard County, Missouri, in October 1835, whence he emigrated, with his parents, in 1844. In 1849 the family removed to California, finally settling in Sonoma County, since which time they have been engaged in various vocations, but principally in stock-raising. In their expeditions through the country Frank M. Asbill, in 1854, discovered Round Valley in California.

Daniel Clark, a native of King County, Ireland, was born Feb. 14, 1824. His father emigrated to Quebec in 1828, and went from Canada to Missouri in 1836. At 13 Daniel was impelled to begin life for himself, and engaged with a neighbor for 8 dollars a month to cut cord- wood. At 18 he was employed as overseer on a plantation; but hearing of the prospective donation of land in Oregon to actual settlers, determined to go to the new country, and try his fortunes there. He joined the independent colony under Gilliam, and arriving late and destitute, went to making rails. Two years afterward he married Miss Bertha B. Herren. In 1848 he went to the California mines, returning to Oregon for his wife and infant child the same winter. In 1850 he left the mines and returned to his home 5 miles south of Salem. His wife dying in 1861, he married again in 1865 Miss Harriet Scheoffer. When the Oregon state grange was organized in 1873 he was elected master for his services in the movement, in which he has ever been heartily interested. Mr Clark lived long in firm health and vigor, enjoying the reward of a temperate and just life. S. F. Pacific Rural Press, in ''Or. Cultivator'', June 15, 1876.

Willis Jenkins and wife, entering Oregon in 1844, settled on the Luckiamute in Yamhill district. In 1852 he built the first dwelling, store, and hotel in Dallas; afterward aided in developing eastern Oregon. His wife died in 1872; his children are scattered over Oregon.

James Welch, born in Clark County, Kentucky, February 16, 1816, removed with his parents to Missouri. On their death, he was, when about 6, bound to a planter till about 18. Then, after learning the brick-mason's trade, he removed to what is now Muscatine, Iowa, where in 1840 he married Miss Nancy Dickinson. He left Missouri for Oregon April 4, 1844, arriving in Oregon City in December. Late in 1845 he paid $2,000 for a half interest in a donation claim at Fort George, now Astoria's site. The next spring, with David Ingalls, he settled there with his family, the first white family to settle in the place. He built the first house there. In 1847 he packed salmon. Visiting California in 1848, he returned in 1849 and engaged in the lumber trade. In 1850 he built a second house; it subsequently gave place to another, in which his widow still lives. For several years he was active in handling lumber, fishing, and merchandising. In 1861-4 he was in the Idaho mines. Returning, he engaged in boating and fishing, but health failing, he retired partially from business. He held several offices of trust. On September 29, 1876, while visiting his son, James W. Welch, internal revenue collector at Walla Walla, he died suddenly while asleep. There still live in 1887, of his 3 girls and 7 boys, Jas W., John W., Daniel H., Mrs Sarah F. Woods, and Mrs Mary I. Herron, all living in Clatsop Co. His wife, born in Washington Co., Ohio, in 1818, still resides in Astoria.

Joseph Watt was born in Ohio, "but emigrated from Missouri. He remained at Oregon City over two years, when he returned to the States to bring out sheep and a carding-machine. This attempt to drive sheep overland from the east was suggested by the fact that one of the Shaws in 1844 drove 16 sheep to Oregon, which he intended to kill for mutton by the way; finding that they travelled as well as the other stock, and buffalo being plenty, he spared them. This Shaw removed to Benicia, California. Watt had no sooner returned to Oregon with his carding-machine and sheep than the gold discovery in California drew everybody who could go to the mines, and he realized nothing from his scheme of introducing a useful manufacture. But his sheep increased, and money came into the country, until finally he conceived the idea of a woollen factory, which was finally established at Salem in 1857, this being the pioneer woollen-mill on the Pacific coast of the United States. Mr Watt still resides at Salem.