The Weston Leader/Grave of Captain Lenox Marked by Bronze Plaque

GRAVE OF CAPTAIN LENOX MARKED BY BRONZE PLAQUE


 * MAN WHO HEADED FIRST WAGON TRAIN SLEEPS IN KEES CEMETERY

In the Kees cemetery near Weston where many Oregon pioneers were buried lies the remains of David T. Lenox, Captain of the first wagon train to cross the Rocky Mountains in 1843.

Captain Lenox died near Weston in 1873 at the home of his son-in-law, Honorable John S. White, who was prominent in early Oregon politics and was familiarly known as "Uncle John White ." Still surviving him are a daughter and a son, Mr. Susan Amanda White of Hermiston, Ore. and S. S. Lenox of Gaston, Ore. Mrs. White was the only survivor of the 1843 wagon train present at the Oregon Trail celebration at Meacham, of which President Harding's address was the feature, and was shown much honor.

The 1843, expedition across the plains was organized by the famous Peter Burnett and was the occasion of an immense gathering of prospective emigrants on the Missouri river. Many were not prepared for the toilsome and hazardous journey, and only one hundred families finally made up the train. A few days out from the Missouri, Lenox was elected Captain to succeed Burnett. Realizing that because of the discovery of gold and the tremendous rush to California of the Argonauts that she would precede Oregon to receiving the honors and advantages of statehood, Peter Burnett went to California in 1849. He campaigned with such vigor and success among the mining camps that he was elected as California's first governor, beating Freemont at the convention at Monterey. Captain Lenox remained in Oregon and settled on the Tualitin Plains, where he was elected and served as county judge. He was regarded as a staunch friend by the Indians, who frequently camped about his premises.

These facts are among these recalled by W. P. Ford of Wharton, Texas, grandson of Captain Lenox, who came to Weston recently for the purpose of caring for the grave of that celebrated pioneer. He is building a concrete vault, and will mark it with a handsome bronze tablet which was made in Houston and which he brought in his trunk from Texas, although it weighs eighty pounds. The tablet is inscribed with the name of the deceased, and sets forth the fact that he was born in New York in 1807 and died near Weston in 1873. It also, bears the Lenox coat of arms and family motte, "Auctor Protiosa Facit,'1 which means "The value of the gift is in the giver."

Mr. Ford is the son of Reuben W. Ford, who married the oldest daughter of Captain Lenox and moved to Texas in l858. Like his grandfather, he is a friend of the Indians, and ascribes' most of the trouble with the red man to the fact that they were wantonly killed by reckless "forty-niners" on the rush to California. Prior to 1849 he claims that immigrants were invariably received with friendliness by the Indians.

Mr. Ford is the guest during his stay of Mr. and Mrs. A. A. Kees.

Another grandson of the departed pioneer Millard F. White, a well known architect came up from Portland this week to assist Mr. Ford. A grand daughter, Mrs. Louise Thorne of Newberg, Ore. was also here for a few days as the guest of Mrs. H. N. Greer. Mrs. Thorne is the daughter of John S. White.