[or-roots] Philander Lee (1802-1887) and family
Virgene and Dean Travis
travis.north at centurytel.net
Wed Oct 29 13:53:42 PST 2003
I'm a descendant of Philester Lee, one of Philander Lee's brothers. Most of
the date and name info. below comes from Candis Sanders, a descendant of
Philander and much of her information comes from Winifred Jane Saltmarsh
Raines ( 1910-1986)the original Lee Family genealogist and a granddaughter
of Elvira Belle Lee (1835-1915) who is a dau. of Philander (see below).
Hope this helps with the confusion
about Philander Lee.
Virgene Travis in Montana
PHILANDER LEE b. 22 Feb 1802 in Washington Co., NY, d. 12 Jan 1887 in Canby,
Clackamas Co., Oregon, son of Joseph Lee and Abigail Tallman.
He married on 20 Oct 1827 in Jefferson Co., NY
ANNA HARVEY GREEN b. 17 Dec 1807 in Ovid, Seneca Co., NY and died 28 Mar
1900 in Canby, dau. of Isreal Green and Hannah Witter.
Their children:
1. EMILY ARMINA LEE b. 22 Jul 1828 in Jefferson Co., NY, died
15 Dec 1857 in Canby, Clackamas Co., OR. She married
JAMES ROLAND LEABO on 16 Mar 1851 in Clackamas Co.
2. EDWIN TALLMAN LEE b. 11 Sep 1830 in Jefferson Co., NY; he
died 16 Jul 1872 near Corning, Tehama Co., CA
He was married 3 times. I have names if anyone is interested.
3. HEMAN ALLEN LEE b. 29 Mar 1833 in Jefferson Co., NY. He died
on & Jan 1914 in Canby. He married on 9 Apr. 1867
EDA ELIZABETH TICE.
4. ELVIRA BELL LEE b. 24 Dec 1835 in Jefferson Co., NY; died
25 Jun 1915 in Lebanon, Linn Co., OR. She married on 20 Aug
1854 in Sodaville, Linn Co., OR Terr ARTHUR VANCE
SALTMARSH.
5. OREN LEE b. 12 Jul 1838 in Jefferson Co., NY. He d. 11 Mar 1881
in Portland, Multnomah Co., OR. He married on 26 Nov 1876
in Clackamas Co. CHLOE P. WHITING.
6. CAROLINE EUPHEMIA LEE b. 6 Jun 1841 in Jefferson Co., NY, died
unknown date in Salem, Marion Co., OR. She married on 3 July 1864
in Clackamas Co. Rev. GEORGE W. ROORK.
7. JASON R. LEE b. 22 Jun 1844 in Jefferson Co., NY; died Sept 1846
in Iowa.
8. ALBERT HARVEY LEE, b. 22 Jan 1847 in Des Moines, Polk Co., Iowa
and died 23 Aug 1936 in Canby, Clackamas Co., OR. He married
on 10 Sep 1871 to MARTHA JANE HALL in Canby.
Below are some of my notes on Philander Lee:
1830 U.S. CENSUS: Lyme, Jefferson Co., New York, page 261
Philander Lee: 1 male 5-10, 1 male 20-30, 1 female under 5, 1 female 20-30
!1835 NEW YORK STATE CENSUS: Living in/near Lyme, New York, Film #895,240,
Book 2: Philander Lee, 3 males, 2 females, 1 female under 16, no males
eligible for military, 130 acres, 13 cattle, 7 horse, 17 sheep, 44 hogs, 20
yds. fulled cloth, 40 yds. flannel cloth
1840 U.S. CENSUS: Lyme, Jefferson Co., New York, page 638
Philander Lee -- 120001,101001
1 male under 5
2 males 5-10
1 male 30-40
1 female under 5
1 female 10-15
1 female 30-40
NOTE 1: On the same page is Daniel Griggs -- 1001100001, 0000101
NOTE 2: In the 1840 census index, there is another Philander Lee in
Ellisburgh, Jefferson Co., New York on page 27 as follows: 100001, 10101
1846 RESIDENCE: Ottumwa, Wapello, Iowa
Vol. I, 1841-49 Iowa Census, Wapello Co: Philander and Philester Lee both
listed in 1846 and 1847
REASON FOR MIGRATION: The following is an excerpt from the Lebanon Express,
Lebanon, Oregon on 21 December 1970:
ASTHMA PROMPTED LEE FAMILY'S MOVE ACROSS THE OREGON TRAIL
The autobiography of Anna Lee was the basis of a series of stories
printed in the Lebanon Express a year ago. However, that story did not
include the following material, furnished by a descendant of Edwin Lee, Mrs.
Gladys Martin of Sacramento, California.
Edwin Lee [son of Philander & Anna Green Lee] experienced little of the
adventure of the Oregon Trail -- but
much physical suffering. According to his daughter, Mary Elizabeth Lee
Roberts -- he was born with asthma. Because of this ailment, the family
moved (1846) from his birthplace in New York to Iowa where his grandfather,
Israel Green, lived.
That climate didn't agree with him, either, so after much consultation,
the entire branch of the Lee family decided to go to Oregon. They had heard
the climate was more healthful and the winters milder.
MIGRATION: All four children of Josephus Lee (including Philander Lee)
joined together in St. Joe, Missouri on the "Oskaloosa Train" June 15, 1847
led by Captain Wiley Chapman. Coming west with Philander and Anna (Green)
Lee were four sons and three daughters, their seventh child dying in Iowa in
September 1846. He was then the youngest, named Jason. Their eighth child,
Albert H., was born in January 1847 in Iowa. The family arrived in Oregon
on November 15, 1847.
LAND: Oregon Donation Land Claim, Certificate No. 2795. 647 acres in
Sections 33 and 34 and Section 4, Twp. 4S, Range 1E. Born Feb. 22, 1802
Washington Co., New York. Married Anna Green (born Dec 1807) daughter of
Isreal & Hannah (Witler [sic]) Green) on October 20, 1827, Jefferson Co.,
NY. Arrived in Oregon December 1847; settled claim in Jan/Feb 1850.
Affidavits: Rice Pendleton, Champion Pendleton, Herman (sic) H. Lee (son),
Lucius A. Seeley, Isaac F. Beals. Town of Canby is now part of this claim.
Responsible for 80-foot wide streets in the original platted portion of the
City of Canby.
HEALTH: Philander had asthma.
OCCUPATION: From Shirley Isaac of Watsonville, California in April 1997:
"Philander was a farmer and a rancher. Hazel Jenkins told me that Philander
started from scratch as he was not rich and had a large family."
1850: From Oregon Census Records Index 1851-1859, Vol. I:
Lee, Philander Washington Co. 1850
1850 U.S. CENSUS: Milwaukie, Clackamas Co., Oregon Territory, 20 Sep 1850,
Page 23, Family 184
Orlando Lee age 50 farmer all born NY, except Albert
--Anna age 44
--Emily age 22
--Edwin age 20
--Herman age 17
--Elvira age 14
--Orrin age 12
--Caroline age 9
--Albert age 3 b. Iowa
1860 U.S. CENSUS: Clackamas Co., Oregon, Family 1068
Philander Lee age 58 farmer 2,500 600 b. NY
-- Anna age 52 b. NY
-- Heman age 27 b. NY
-- Caroline age 19 b. NY
-- Albert age 13 b. IA
1870 U.S. CENSUS: Oregon City, Clackamas Co., Oregon, Family 455, page 113
June 1870
Philander Lee age 68 farmer b. NY $1800/$1000
Anna age 62 kpng hse b. NY
Mary age 16 b. OR
Lebo, Josiah age 48 laborer b. OR
1880 U.S. CENSUS: Canby, Clackamas Co., Oregon, ED12, page 20, June 15,
1880
Lee, Philander age 78 farmer NY MA VT
--Annie age 72
--Millard grd-son age 7
Knotts, Annie grd-dau age 25
-- William grd-son age 6
-- George grd-son age 3
WHO WAS PHILANDER LEE? written in 1976 by Myra Wenton of Canby, Oregon.
This article was written for the May 1976 dedication of the Philander Lee
Elementary School at 1110 S. Ivy Street in Canby, Oregon. A portion of the
article follows:
Philander Lee was an 1847 covered wagon pioneer of the Oregon Trail at
the age of 45. His wife and mother of eight, Anna Green Lee, was 40. Baby
Albert, born in January 1847, and six older children came with them. Jason,
their seventh child, had died in September 1846 in Iowa after the Lee's
four-month trip from New York, where both were born and where they married.
(After arriving in Oregon,) the Lees wintered at Linnton and grew
vegetables on Sauvie Island to sell to villagers in Portland. They then
sought their own homes. Philander and Anna came that fall of 1848 to Baker
Prarie, buying "squatter's rights" and building a log cabin. In 1850 they
gained title to their land claim and in 1860 built a frame house, the first
in what is now Canby, Oregon.
Philander, his oldest son Edwin, and brother Philester, joined the
gold rush to California in 1849. They earned enough to return to Oregon and
buy apple trees which Philander planted on part of his 636-acre land claim
in 1852. Lee's trees produced fruit for hungry gold-seekers in California.
Lee and his sons hauled apples in home-made boxes by wagon and ox-team over
the tortuous route to the steamboat landing in Oregon City, seat of
government for the Oregon Territory and until 1871 the nearest post office,
for transport to San Francisco.
Pushing their Oregon & California line up the valley, railroad builders
apprached Lee for land in 1870. Lee, a man of vision and action, sold for
$2,960 111 acres of his claim for the 24-block city, 12 lots in each block.
Parts of other claims were also bought for the westerly part of the town
surveyed by George Weidler on Baker Prairie. Lee's sale was contingent on
wide streets, as he recalled experiences with Oregon City's narrow ones by
the bluff. His youngest son, Albert, turned the ox-team, measured the turn
at 80 feet, the width of the streets in the original Canby townsite. On
Aug. 9, 1870, the city's plat was filed in Oregon City.
Maj. Gen. Edward R. S. Canby, hero of Civil and Indian wars, had come
to Oregon that summer to command the Army's Dept. of the Columbia. The
popular hero's name was given the new town. Canby's plat is No. 14 in
Clackamas county records. Filed earlier, in 1863, was the plat of the
one-acre Baker Prairie Cemetery in which Lee and his wife, Anna, are buried.
He was 84 at death in 1887; she was 92 and died in 1900.
Although her children were grown, Mrs. Lee was interested in education.
She and Mrs. Wait (daughter-in-law of Oregon state's first supreme court
chief justice, Aaron Wait) took story books to children of the "white
school" on Baker Prairie after that one-room frame building was built. The
1860 log schoolhouse was moved in 1863 to the east edge of Lee's claim, and
burned about 10 years later. The "white school" was built by William Knight
about 1875 on the highest point of Wait's land at what is now 1408 N. Holly
Street in Canby. Church services were held in both the log and frame
schoolhouses before Canby's first church was built in 1884. Caroline Lee's
husband, the Rev. George Roork, a Methodist minister, held services in both.
(Note: Caroline is a daughter of Philander and Anna.)
Heman (sic) A. Lee, Philander and Anna's second son, became Canby's
first mayor when the city was incorporated Feb. 15,1893, to become Clackamas
county's second earliest. The 1847-born Lee, Albert, became Canby's first
merchant when he and Caroline's husband opened Roork and Lee's store Aug. 1,
1871. Albert Lee also was Canby's first railroad agent. One of Albert's
sons, Millard J. Lee, was the first white boy born in Canby. M. J. was a
champion bicycle rider, state legislator, pioneer in irrigation in the Canby
area, and is the man for whom the 1953-built ferryboat at Canby Ferry was
named. One of Heman's daughters, Ora Lee Cattley, was first queen of the
Clackamas County Fair, first woman elected to the Canby Union High School
board, and Canby librarian in her later years. Other descendants of the
Lees have made contributions through the years to the Canby community in
which many of them still live.
In this U.S. Bicentennial year of 1976, Canby district 86 school board
has named its new elementary school at 1110 S. Ivy Street in recognition of
Canby's founder, Philander Lee.
RESIDENCE: The following was written by Myra Weston of Canby, Oregon in
January 1994 and submitted to me by Denise Swenson of McMinnville, Oregon:
Three houses were homes to the Philander Lees in Canby, Oregon: First a log
cabin on what has become S.E. 1st Avenue, near the streets of Willow Creek
tributary through Hazel Dell Gardens. Second, the 1860 house of two stories
which a grandson, Warren P. Lee and his wife, Jane Mitts Lee, occupied in
1904, and which Warren moved west in 1914 and placed over a potato cellar.
All four of the Warren Lee children were born there. Damaged by fire
Decebmer 6, 1956, the house was reduced to one story and still stands in use
in 1994. Jane Lee lived there until her death in February 1978. Its last
owner was her daughter, Vesta Lee Tucker (deceased). Third house, near a
three-stemmed oak tree near the railroad and east of the second house's 1914
location, was built in 1868 and both Philander and Anna Green Lee lived
there through their final years. Later it was the property of Heman's
youngest child, Ora Lee Cattley and her husband, George H. Cattley, its
occupants for some years. In 1967, the property was purchased by Package
Containers, Inc., for a manufacturing plant which was built on the site of
the largest Lee house.
CEMETERY INSCRIPTIONS: From Baker Prairie Cemetery, Canby, Clackamas Co.,
Oregon
LEE, Albert H. 1847 - 1936
LEE, Anna Green Passed Over Mar 28, 1900 aged 92 ys
(Note: Philander and Anna LEE share one headstone)
LEE, Martha J. Wife of Albert H. LEE Died May 15, 1890 aged 36 y 19d
LEE, Millard J. 1872 - 1950
LEE, Oren b. 12 Jul 1838, died 1881
LEE, Philander Passed Over Jan 12, 1887 aged 84 ys 10 ms 18 ds
(Note: shares a headstone with Anna LEE)
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