Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 3.djvu/281



The history of Oregon, as it is pursued more definitely and is traced to its sources and details, becomes a study of families quite as much as of localities or of tendencies. Without royalty or nobility or hereditary titles Americans have yet developed family traits and characteristics more strongly than other people, and no where is this more noticeable than in our own Oregon. A family name is already well recognized here as indicating a certain type of man. This may be due in part to the considerable proportion of Englishmen among the early pioneers, who brought with them not only strong racial, but also family characteristics. It is quite noticeable, too, that when once here the Englishmen became most sturdy and radical Americans. Among the well-known families of Oregon is that of the Jorys, who crossed the plains to Oregon in 1847. The family home is in Marion County, south of Salem, among the Red Hills, which have become famous as a prune-growing country.

James Jory, Sr., the founder of the Oregon family, and perhaps the first of the name to come to America, was a carpenter and mechanic of Cornwall, England, being a son of James Jory, gamekeeper and gardener on an English estate. He was married about 1812 to Mary Stevens in St. Clear Parish. There were two daughters and six sons reared in this family. The daughters were Mary and Elizabeth, and the sons John, James, Henry, Thomas, William, and H. S., all except the last born in England.