Biography of Ellis L. Leep, 1902, Baker Co. Oregon: Surnames: Leep, Wise, Bragg, Fortune, 

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Transcribed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
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An Illustrated History of Baker, Grant, Malheur and Harney Counties, pub. 1902
by Western Historical Pub. Co. of Chicago. page 359

Ellis L. Leep

One of the leading citizens and prosperous farmers of Pine valley, is a
product of the sunny south, his birthplace being the vicinity of Wheeling,
West Virginia. He remained with his parents, John and Sarah (Wise) Leep, until
about twenty-two years old, then, in 1866, went north to Indiana. Two years
later we find him again in Virginia and engaged in the oil works there and in
mercantile pursuits. A quadrennium was thus passed at the end of which time he
built what is known as a trading boat, which he ran up and down the various
rivers of the system existing near his home for a number of years, eventually
selling and moving to Missouri, whither his father and the remainder of the
family had gone. He farmed in that state two years, then went to Texas and
spent four years on the railroad, after which he bought cattle and drove them
over the trail to Missouri, then returned to Texas, later crossing the plains
to Oregon. He spent the first winter, that of 1875, in the Grande Ronde
valley, coming the next spring to Pine valley, baker county, taking a
homestead of one hundred and sixty acres, now increased to two hundred and
twenty acres, a half mile north of Halfway post-office, where he is now to be
found. He has been ever since engaged in general farming and cattle raising, a
business in which he has achieved a very enviable success. He has a pleasant
home and surroundings and his premises bear testimony to his thrift, energy,
and progressiveness. As a man and citizen his standing in the community in
which he has passed so many years is of the highest.

While in Missouri, our subject married Miss Anna Fortune, a native of
Missouri, who died while crossing the plains in 1875, and was buried at
Laramie. She left one infant child, which died upon reaching the Grande Ronde
valley. In 1878, at Brown Lee ferry, in Idaho, Mr. Leep again married, the
lady being Miss Anna Bragg, who died in Pine valley in 1879, leaving one
daughter, Anna B., at home with her father.

Mr. Leap tells that when he came to Pine valley, there were any number of
bears, deer, elk, and antelope in the country, and that while the settlers
were stockaded up for fourteen days during the Indian troubles the bears
wrought great depredations among their hogs and other domestic animals.
Apropos of the fort, he says that it was built about a quarter of a mile from
Halfway, and was constructed in this wise. A trench three feet deep around a
one hundred foot square was dug and into it were inserted the butts of
fourteen foot pine trees, stood side by side, the smallest being two feet
through. At each corner a semi-circle of logs was made to shoot from, and a
lining of logs was constructed inside of the enclosure as high as the
portholes. Inside of this stockade a block house was built with roof about two
feet higher than the outside palisade, with portholes near the top.