[or-roots] JAMES and ELIZA POWELL Family

[DanM]

Valuable Information Contained in Letters Relative to JAMES and 

Jan. 24, 1971

Mrs. Mary Mallett

Gresham, Oregon 97030

Dear Mrs. Mallett:


Mrs. Harvey McAllister was telling me her mother married a Powell, your brother, Oscar Alfred Powell.


The mother of my husband, Walter Kittredge, was Mary Powell whose father was James Powell of Powell Valley. Mary Powell married Franklin Kittredge at the home of James Powell on August 27, 1862 by Rev. Clinton Kelly of the M.E. Church.

I have been so interested in knowing more about the Powell families. I know Aunt Louise Stevens, and also sisters Dora, Myrtle, Della and Nettie Williamson. I met Rose and Irene Brandess and the Dolan sisters.


Franklin Kittredge passed away at Silver Lake, Oregon Feb. 7, 1899, Mary J. Kittredge passed away at Ashland, Oregon Feb. 5, 1911.

One of my sons has the Kittredge Bible. I would be happy to copy the records if you would like them, and also more of the Kittredge families.

I have met Mrs. Nettie Mitschelm, who is living at. Tigard, Oregon.

Mrs. McAllister was telling me you are writing the Powell history which will be most interesting.


I copied the obituary of James Powell as follows: " James Powell died July 12, 1896 at Long Beach, California. He came to Oregon in 1851. He and his brothers were the first to make their way into Powell's Valley. He left his widow Eliza and 11 grown children."

I hope this will be a help to you. I would like to meet you.

Best of wishes.

Sincerely,

Maude E. Kittredge

Bend, Oregon 97701

February 13, 1971

Dear Mrs. Mallett:


I was so happy to receive you letter, and I hope what I am enclosing will help you. 

I didn't know the father Kittredge or the mother Kittredge-I didn't know the family until 1912. Walter and I married September 26,1914 and we had three boys, Walter Duglas, born June 17, 1919; Franklin, born February 21, 1922. died February 21, 1922; Jack Leston, October 5, 1923. If you want more about their families, I can send it.

. Lota Wallace told me that the mother Kittredge (Mary J. Powell) was a daughter from a first marriage. He married Eliza and had the large family. . 

Best of wishes,

Maude E. Kittredge 

Bend, Oregon 97701

Death of Mrs. M. J. Kittredge (Mary J. Powell)


"Mrs. Mary J Kittredge passed at the home of her daughter, Mrs. C. D. Porter, 309 Scenic Drive, Sunday evening, aged 69 years. She passed away February 5, 1911.

" The funeral services are being held this afternoon at the residence, Rev. H. J. Van Fossen officiating, the deceased haven been a member of the Methodist Church since childhood.


"Mary J. Powell was born in St. Louis, Missouri, February 26,1843, and crossed the plains with her family and settled in a valley near Portland where Gresham stands. It was named in honor of her father and his brothers, "Powell's Valley!" They were the first settlers on August 27, 1862. She was united in marriage with Franklin Kittredge and accompanied him to California where they remained two years. Returning to Multnomah County, Mr. Kittredge taught school for many years. Both were engaged for four years at the Yakima reservation at Fort Simcoe, where he was superintendent and she was matron of the Indian school. Later they resided in Powell's Valley, then at Corvallis and Monroe and then at Silver Lake, Oregon where Mr. Kittredge died.

"The deceased had resided for several years with her children and arrived in Ashland at Christmas time enroute to Oakland, California. She was taken ill with spinal meningitis and had recovered when stricken with apoplexy.

"She leaves eight living children, as follows: Prof. Herbert Kittredge of Antioch, California: Walter Kittredge, Silver Lake, Oregon: Wm. Kittredge, Lota Wallace, Corvallis, Oregon: Emma Mahoney, Oakland, California: Daisy Porter and May Porter, Ashland, Oregon: and Mary Kittredge, Medford, Oregon.

"First and second generation Powells, prolific pioneers of Oregon, dominate the cemetery. The monument of Jackson Powell (1816-1890) bears the inscription, 'Settled Powell Valley, 1848.' James Powell (1818-1896) and his wife, Eliza (1833-1904) lies nearby.

"Dr. John P. Powell was cremated, but his wife, Adaline Powell (1826- 1913) is buried there, as are Nancy R. Powell, 'Baby,' and Dr. Fleetwood Powell (1855-1882), son of Dr. J. P. and Adaline Powell"-from Oregon Journal, Portland, Oregon, Tuesday, August 5, 1958.

Death of Mr. James Powell

"Mr. James Powell, and old resident of East Portland and pioneer of 1851, died at Long Beach, California at 12 o'clock Thursday night. News of the death was received yesterday morning by his sons in East Portland. The remains will be brought here this morning for interment. Mr. Powell had been in very poor health for some time, and had been out in the mountains at McIntyre's place before going to the seaside. He was subject to severe attacks of asthma and at times his sufferings were intense. He went to the coast Wednesday with three of his daughters and his son-in-law, but the climate did not agree with him. Mr. Powell came to Oregon in 1851 from California. He returned to Missouri and then brought his family to Oregon in 1852. Some of his brothers had already arrived. He and his brothers were the first to make their way into what is now known as the Powell Valley, cutting a road out to Gresham, the famous section being named from the families. 

"Mr. Powell belonged to a hardy class of pioneers who helped to develop the country. He has been a familiar figure in East Portland for many years and will be greatly missed. He leaves a widow and 11 grown children, besides numerous relatives. 

"Mr. Powell was a member of Washington Lodge, A.F.A.M. and it is expected that this lodge will have charge of the funeral and that the remains will be buried at Gresham,"-from The Oregonian, Saturday, July 12, 1896.

"Dr. J. P. Powell Physician

--by Marion Dudley Eling

"No story of early days in Powell Valley and Gresham would be complete without mention of Dr. John P. Powell and his wife, Adaline D. Powell. It would indeed be impossible to even start the tale without including them, as their home was one of the center from which the community grew. They came among the earliest and lived over half a century in the land of their choice.

"John Parker Powell was born October 4, 1822, in Gatesville County, North Carolina. At the age of 10 years he went in 1844, after receiving his doctor's degree, he married Adaline Duvall, the daughter of a family of stock-raisers who had moved to Missouri from Kentucky. 

"As everybody knows, 1852 was the year of heavy emigration from Missouri to the Oregon territory. The Duvalls, fired by the tales of the wondrous wealth in the west, sacrificed their large holdings and started west with the endless chain of prairie schooners making the journey. In the old diary kept by Dr. Powell is the story of the long lines of emigrants wending their way down banks of the Platte River. There too is the record of the threats and depredations of the fierce Sioux and Comanche; of cattle run off by the Indians, of a woeful lack of food and water, of oxen dropping in their tracks for lack of pasture because of the heavy emigration, of herds of buffalo grazing on the far slopes, of antelope running through the mountain passes, of the ELIZA POWELL Familysad spectacle of abandoned outfits, the cholera having stricken entire trains. 

"It was in the capacity of physician for the Duvall party that Dr. Powell came, 

bringing his young wife, his small son Herman, and two daughters Sarah and Jennie, now Mrs. S. E. Wishard and Mrs. J. P. Sayles of Portland. The outbreak of cholera and smallpox was responsible for several deaths in the party. There were numerous calls on Dr. Powell from other parties. He spent little time with his young family. Many times he rode back 50 miles or more over the hard-worn trail to help a sorely distressed traveler, and to preach caution to the voyagers as to boiling the water they drank.

" 'Dig you own well,' Dr. Powell would insist. When water and feed were scarce and the cholera was raging through the trains he rode along insisting that each party dig a fresh well for itself at each camping place. It soon became a part of the day's work to dig a well. Certain members of a party would forge ahead, select the camp site for the night and have the well dug and the water ready for the thirsty wayfarers, oxen and cows. In this way the disease was kept in control.

"Shortly before the Duvall train reached The Dalles, Dr. Powell was stricken with mountain fever, brought on by overwork. At The Dalles the cracks in the wagon were plugged up and the prairie schooners, filled with people and cattle, became boats. At the Cascades the Powells left the party that the sick man might rest and recuperate. Upon his partial recovery he practiced medicine there long enough to pay the exorbitant board bill. He charged Oregon, and not Missouri, fees. The family spent the winter of 1852 at Columbia Slough with David Powell camped in his yard. Here Dr. Powell taught school in the log school of District 3, of which he was one of the founders.

"Hearing from James and Jackson Powell of the fine open country to the southeast, Dr. Powell started through the forest with his wife and babies and located his Donation Land Claim in the present city of Gresham. The City Bakery stands on the southeast corner of the claim. The Mow Plywood Co. occupies the home site.

"His nearest neighbors were James Powell and Stephen Roberts. With Martin Wing and Charles Reynolds they organized the first school district in Powell Valley. A log schoolhouse was built on the Charlie Reynolds place. Up there went the children of Dr. Powell, James Powell and Jackson Powell, as well as the Cornutt, Cathy, Reynolds and other pioneer families. The nearest church services were held in Fairview in the home of Dr. John Crosby, Mrs. Martin Roberts' grandfather. Dr. Powell and Mrs. Powell, each of them carrying a baby, walked to the church. Small Herman Powell, six years old, walked with them. Others did likewise.

"Later the services were held at Gresham in the camp meeting grove, where Mrs. J. N. Clanahan (Minnie Powell) remembers being put to bed in a cabin with scores of other babies and being awakened by the devout and lusty hymn-singing of their parents. In these early days the circuit riders, preachers and teachers were always sure of a hearty welcome beside Dr. Powell's hearthstone. And as his own family of 10 children grew up most of them taught school at Pleasant Home, Cedar, Damascus and other valley points.

"Any project that made for community betterment received from Dr. Powell the support it deserved. For many years he was superintendent o the Sunday School here. And while he was guiding the young and old in their spiritual life he was caring for their bodily needs. For many he was the only physician in the valley east of Portland. The three generations of forests up in Egypt (Pleasant Home) he went on black night when he simply gave his horse the reins and let it find the paths he could not see in the darkness. He was doctor, friend, father, to these people.

"At one time he was the county coroner. He was appointed one of the viewers when the Base Line and Section Line road, interested to the last in the welfare of Gresham, the town that had grown in the Powell Valley at the bend of the creek.

"During the Civil War times he was one of the leaders of the Republicans. From a slave state himself and a believer in slavery, he became a union man the day Fort Sumpter was fired upon, and through the war times of tense situations and strained feeling he never last an opportunity to avow his loyalty.

"Of those pioneer days his daughter, Mrs. J. N. Clanahan, has many thrilling remembrances. As for instance, the stormy days in 1880 when the famous old camp meeting grove was blown down. The boom of the falling trees was too much for the nerve of the schoolteacher and her class in mental arithmetic. Classes were dismissed and as they left the building a roof came sailing over their heads. They scurried up to the Sleret blacksmith shop near where the Currin home now stands. That roof was gone, too, but there sat the Smithy, George Sleret, the elder, on his anvil. He did not propose to have it follow the roof!

"Mrs. Clanahan remembers when her mother considered $50 a rather excessive price for a barrel of flour. At that time quinine cost the doctor $10 an ounce! Realty prices were somewhat lower. In the early sixties Dr. Powell sold 80 acres of farm land (the smith place on Wallula Heights) to a Mr. Smith for a team of horses and harness.

"Dr. Powell died in 1909 and Mrs. Powell in 1911, two well-loved pioneers who played an important part in the building of Gresham" -Printed on the Gresham Outlook, July 4, 1919. 



Maternal Family Record of Nina Laura Emken Gill

Daniel Powell (English), born August 4,1765, died August 28, 1825.

Mary, wife of Daniel Powell (German), born December 23, 1765, died December 25, 1820

Family of Daniel and Mary Powell:

Pricilla Powell, born August 30, 1792

Cader Powell, born September 12, 1795

Christina Powell, born January 12, 1798

James Powell, born April 22, 1800, died,

January 12,1870. (Married Nancy Swan

Parker April 9, 1799; died January 12, 1870)

Julia Powell, born June 5, 1808

Mary Powell, born June 25, 1870. (not the author)

Jacob Powell, born June 5, 1808

Hance Powell, born June 6, 1811

Sarah Powell, born January 8 1813

Family of James and Nancy Swan Parker Powell:

Nancy Swan Parker (English), was born in North Carolina

John Parker Powell, born October 4, 1822

Mary Swan Powell, born September 29, 1824

Christina Ann Powell, born December 30, 1826; married John H Davis

Rebecca Powell, born January 31, 1829

Sarah Jane Powell, born April 27, 1834

Rhoda Simerel Powell, born March 23, 1837

James A. J. Powell, born May 14, 1840

Family of Christiana A. Powell and John H. DuVall:

John H DuVall, born December 18, 1829 in Illinois, died in the summer of 1852 of Cholera while crossing the Plains. Married Christiana "Kitty" Powell December 30, 1848

Christiana "Kitty" Powell December 30, 1848 in Missouri

Children of John H. DuVall and Christiana Powell:

Costanza A. DuVall, born December 9, 1849

Clark M. DuVall, born November 19, 1851

After the death of John DuVall, Christiana married Kttemeir in 18t52 but divorced him in a few months 

======================

We typed this up for Ray Powell

I hope there was a clue or 2 in here for some one.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://omls.oregon.gov/pipermail/or-roots/attachments/20040121/02dc75c2/attachment.html>