Clatsop County OR Archives Biographies.....Hustler, Mrs. J. G. December 2, 1834 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/or/orfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Ila L. Wakley iwakley@msn.com July 4, 2010, 1:07 pm Source: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. III, Published 1928, Pages 458 - 462 Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company MRS. J. G. HUSTLER. In the ranks of the real pioneers of the Columbia River valley, those who arrived here in the '40s, but few are left and it is a matter of real importance to secure from them and preserve in permanent form the story of the pioneer period, for their personal experiences and recollections of the events of the settlement period comprise a most valuable contribution to the historical annals of their respective communities. Among these is Mrs. J. G. Hustler, who, at the age of ninety-four years, lives in Astoria and whose personal history was written by Fred Lockley, after an interview with Mrs. Hustler, and printed in the Portland Daily Journal on December 19 and 20, 1921, as follows: "Mrs. J. G. Hustler, of Astoria, recently celebrated her eighty-seventh birthday. She was born in Illinois, December 2, 1834. Her maiden name was Eliza Jane McKean and, as the name indicates, she is of Scotch descent. Her great-grandfather, who fought in the Revolutionary war, was a brother of Thomas McKean, of Delaware, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Samuel Terry McKean, her father, married Miss Polly Hicks, in Delaware county, New York, in 1817. Not long after their marriage they moved to Richmond, Ohio, and thence to Illinois, where Mrs. Hustler was born. He founded the town of Chillicothe in Illinois, naming it for Chillicothe, a famous Indian village in Ohio. With his wife and a prairie schooner full of children, he came to Oregon in 1847 and the following spring settled at Astoria. "Not long after the arrival of General Lane to become the first governor of Oregon territory the first territorial legislature met at Oregon City. It met on July 16, 1849. The members of the council were Mrs. Hustler's father, S. T. McKean,, who represented Clatsop, Lewis and Vancouver counties; W. U. Buck, of Clackamas county; Wilson Blain, of Tualatin; Samuel Parker and Wesley Shannon, of Champoeg; J. Graves, of Yamhill; W. B. Mealey, of Linn; Nathaniel Ford, of Polk, and Norris Humphrey, of Benton. They were allowed to spend one hundred days to form a code of laws and were paid three dollars a day. They adjourned in August to reap the wheat crop. They reassembled and after seventy- six days' work finally adjourned on September 29. On December 2, 1850, the legislature again met, with nine members in the council and eighteen in the lower house. Mr. McKean was one of the hold over members from the first session, that of 1849. He was later clerk of the district court of Clatsop county. He served as county judge of Clatsop county and was president of the board of trustees of the town of Astoria. "'When we started for Oregon, in 1847, my eldest brother, Ira Hicks McKean, was married and had two children, and my brother, Ambrose Bronson McKean, was engaged,' said Mrs. Hustler. 'He was married a few days before we started across the plains, so he and his wife called their six months' trip across the plains their wedding journey. Three of my brothers and my two sisters grew up to be married and rear families. "'I was thirteen years old when we crossed the plains in 1847, so of course the incidents of that trip are very vivid in my memory. I can still see the plains, with the shimmering heat waves, the dark masses of buffalo moving over the rolling hills toward the Platte, the campfires of buffalo chips, and later of sagebrush, the dust cloud hanging over our long train of prairie schooners as the oxen, with swinging heads and lolling tongues, pressed into the yoke to move the wagons slowly westward to the land of our hearts' desire. I walked most of the way across the plains, as did many of the other young folks, for we were young and vigorous then, and preferring walking to riding. I remember a little baby, a girl, died on the plains. We buried her in the middle of the road and drove the oxen over her grave so the Indians would not discover where she was buried. "'Between the Blue mountains and the Cascades Dr. Whitman visited us. This was a few weeks before he was killed. Father decided to stop that winter at Dr. Whitman's mission so that we children could go to school during the winter, but Dr. Whitman asked him not to stop over. He said, "You are early enough to get to the Willamette valley before the winter rains set in. There will be many coming much later than this who will want to stay over with us, so you had better go on to Oregon City." Dr. Whitman hired several persons in our train to stay over, among them the Kimballs, Saunders and Gilliland. Mr. and Mrs. Kimball had five children. Mr. Kimball was killed in the massacre. One of the Kimball girls, now a widow, Mrs. Megler, lives here in Astoria. She and her half-sister run a lodging house.' "From many others I have interviewed, among them Mrs. Helm, Mrs. Delaney, Mrs. Denny, Mrs. Jacobs and one or two others, all of whom were at the Whitman mission at the time of the massacre in November, 1847, I learn that in addition to Dr. and Mrs. Whitman there were at the mission when the massacre occurred, Joseph and Hannah Smith with their five children; Lorinda Bewley and her brother, Crockett Bewley; Mr. and Mrs. Kimball with their five children; Mr. and Mrs. Saunders, with their five children; Joseph Canfield, with his wife, Sally Canfield, and their five children; Mr. and Mrs. Hall, with their five children; Elam Young and his wife, Irene, with their three children; Josiah Osborne and his wife, Margaret, with their three children; Mrs. Rebecca Hayes and her baby; Mr. Marsh and his daughter, Mr. Hoffman and Mr. Sales, a teacher named Rogers, Eliza Spalding, a daughter of Rev. H. H. Spalding, of Lapwai; the six Sager children, who had been there since 1843; a daughter of Joe Meek, a daughter of James Bridger and two sons of Donald Manson. "'We went on to The Dallas,' said Mrs. Hustler„ 'where we went in Indian canoes to the Cascades. After making the portage there, we went in Hudson's Bay bateaux to Vancouver. We stayed that winter at Linn City, across the river from Oregon City. That place was founded by Robert Moore and at first was called Robin's Nest, but the provisional legislature officially named it Linn City. We stayed at Linn City until February, 1848, when father decided that Linnton had a better chance to become the big city on the Willamette, so we moved there. "'General M. M. McCarver and Peter Burnett, who later became the first American governor of California, had taken up a claim above Sauvie's island and named the town they planned to establish there Linnton, after United States Senator Lewis F. Linn, of Missouri, but people would not buy lots when they could take up all the land they wanted without having to pay for it, so they gave up the place and father moved to Astoria. "'We went to Astoria because we knew Mr. James Welch, who had moved to the mouth of the Columbia. The Welches had a double log cabin. Mr. Welch went to California as soon as word came in 1848 of the discovery of gold there. We went by boat down the Columbia to Astoria and moved into one half of Mrs. Welch's double log house. My two brothers took up claims on Young's river, near Astoria. I have lived in Astoria for the past seventy-three years and I have seen it grow from a little group of log cabins to a great seaport. "'In 1848, when I came to Astoria, there were only a few families here, so everyone knew everyone else,' said Mrs. Hustler. Mr. and Mrs. Conrad Boelling with their children were here. Mrs. Flavel, who lives back of the court house, was one of the Boelling girls. The Ingallses had come here in 1845. Cyrus Olney and his family came in 1839. Mr. and Mrs. James Welch came in 1844, some time later than the Shivelys. When John M. Shively wanted to go east to be married he gave Mr. Welch a certain amount of his donation land claim, if he would care for his property while he was gone. (This afterwards lead to numerous lawsuits as to just which lots were to belong to Shively and which to Welch until it was settled by a decree of the circuit court.) When Mr. Shively was married he brought Mrs. Shively and her sister Miss Elliott out to Astoria. This was in 1847, the year that my great-grandfather came to Oregon. Mrs. Shively was Susan Elliott and I think she came from Maryland. Then there were the McClures and the Van Dusens and some others. A good many had come down to Clatsop Plains in the early '40s and we often saw them when they came to Astoria to trade or to parties and dances. Mr. and Mrs. Alvah Condit, N. E. Eberman, Hiram Carnahan, Philip and Margaret Gearhart, William, John and Diana Hobson, James and Esther Taylor, the Shortesses and the Trasks, Tom Owens and his family, the Munsons and Naylors, R. W. and Nancy Morrison, the Motleys, Judsons, Grays, Kindreds and Parrishes and some others, all came before the eyes of the world were turned toward California by the discovery of gold in Sutter's mill race. "'I owe my marriage to the discovery of gold in California. My husband, Captain Jackson Gregory Hustler, came to Astoria on Christmas day in 1849. I was fifteen years old and he was twenty-three at that time. He was born in New York city. His father was captain of one of the first packet ships that plied between New York and Liverpool. That was in 1818. My husband took to the sea. He was thirteen when he went aboard the "North Carolina." Later he was a midshipman on the "Independence."' "Right here is a good place to make a comparison of the life of a sailor when Captain Hustler was a boy and the sailor's life today. While young Hustler was in the United States navy, being a gob aboard the ship of war 'Preble,' while coasting off the African coast in the summer of 1844 some of the crew took the African fever. While anchored in the Gambia river one hundred and nineteen of the crew of one hundred and thirty-two died of the fever. The handful of men left managed to reach the Cape Verde islands, where, falling in with the 'Macedonian,' under command of Commodore Perry, they were furnished a crew, with which they made their way to New York city. We have abolished grog, flogging, plagues and epidemic diseases from the navy, and no longer are our warships floating pesthouses or floating hells. Today our gobs not only have clean, wholesome, well prepared food, comfortable quarters and the best of medical care, but they also have an opportunity to learn trades or professions. "After the expiration of his enlistment in the navy, Hustler served as a pilot in New York harbor till news of the gold discovery in California came. With a company of Argonauts, he then purchased the brig 'Sarah McFarlane' and sailed for the Golden Gate. They arrived at San Francisco in September, 1849. A few weeks shoveling gravel in a placer claim was plenty for Captain Hustler, so he returned to San Francisco. The harbor was full of crewless ships, which could be picked up for a song. Captain Hustler and a fellow pilot from New York city, John White, bought the schooner 'Mary Taylor' and sailed for Astoria, where they dropped anchor on Christmas day, 1849. They at once began piloting vessels over the bar, using their schooner as a pilot boat. The 'Mary Taylor' was the first regular boat to engage in piloting over the Columbia bar. In 1852 a board of pilot commissioners was organized and Captain Hustler received the first branch. "'Captain Hustler and I were married May 27, 1852,' said Mrs. Hustler. My daughter Mary who married Robert Monroe Spedden is now a widow and lives in San Francisco. She has four children: Maud E. who is a graduate of the San Jose Teacher's College and is now teaching in Alameda, California; Robert Hustler who married Frances Higgins of San Jose and who is now in the candy business in San Francisco; Mrs. Mabel Carper who is the secretary of the western branch of the John Nickerson & Company, Inc., a bonding company of New York; and Percy Monroe who married Dorothy L. Dempster of San Francisco. He is credit manager for the San Francisco office of the Richfield Oil Company. He enlisted in the Quartermaster's Department in April, 1917, serving during the entire war. He was at the Artillery Officers' Training Camp at Louisville, Kentucky, when the armistice was signed. He is a member of the Olympic Club of San Francisco. My daughter Margaret married Harrie Thomson Spedden. They had one child, a daughter, Stella H., who married William Glendinning, of Rossshire, Scotland. Yes, I live with my granddaughter and her husband, Mr. Glendinning. I am eighty-seven, but I do all the marketing and my share of the housework. I wouldn't be happy if I couldn't keep busy. "'Wrecks? Oh, yes. We have had quite a few wrecks off the mouth of the Columbia. That chair you are sitting in is from the "Great Republic," wrecked on Sand Island. She was an old-time China liner. She tried to come in over the bar at midnight, in place of waiting for daylight. That was in April, 1879. She had with her, first class and steerage, nearly nine hundred passengers aboard. The passengers were landed safely, but some of the crew were drowned. That big mirror over the dining room door came from the dining room saloon of the "Great Republic." Lift that chair near you.' When I had done so and expressed my surprise at its great weight, Mrs. Hustler said, 'That chair is made from the timbers of the old packet "Sylvia de Grasse." It was built of live oak, locust and teak, and though it was wrecked in 1849, for fifty years afterwards her ribs were visible at low tide. They seemed as durable as iron. It was the "Sylvia de Grasse" that brought the news of the French Revolution to this country. A man named Gray owned her when she was wrecked. He had loaded her with half a million or more feet of lumber, which he had bought at a low price at Oregon City, St. Helens and Hunt's mill. Lumber was worth nearly five hundred dollars a thousand at San Francisco in 1849, so if she had not been wrecked she would have made a fortune for her owner. She drifted on a ledge of rocks opposite Upper Astoria. A hole was ground in her side and she sank. One of the wrecks I remember very vividly was that of the bark "Oriole." She was wrecked in the fall of 1853. Her rudder was unshipped and she stuck in the south sands and sank. She had aboard supplies for the building of the Cape Disappointment lighthouse.' "Captain Hustler retired from pilot work in 1859. He served as city treasurer of Astoria six years. He was county clerk of Clatsop four years and for more than thirty years he served as school clerk. When Ben Holladay was in the heyday of his glory in Oregon, Captain Hustler had charge of the Main street dock at Astoria. He died February 1, 1893. The 'Mary Taylor,' our first Columbia river pilot boat, was succeeded by the pilot boat 'California,' and the 'Mary Taylor' was sold and became an oyster boat at Shoalwater bay." Harrie Thomson Spedden, who was a native of Pettis county, Missouri, was married twice, reference having already been made to his first union, which was with Margaret Ellen Hustler. She died and subsequently he was married to Miss Rosa Caples, who was born at Caples' Landing, then Clarke county, but now in Cowlitz county, Washington, and to them were born three children: Mrs. Margaret Bown, who lives at Walla Walla, Washington, is the mother of six children, Evelyn, Ethel, Helen, Frank, Ena and Henry; Henry R., of Colville, Washington, is married and has two children, Catherine and Henry R., Jr.; and William C., also of Colville, Washington, is married and has five children, Cora Stella, Charles Edward, William, Donald and Dorothy, twins. Mrs. Glendinning attended the public schools of Astoria and graduated from St. Helen's Hall, a noted girls' seminary at Portland. She taught kindergarten in Astoria for two years and in 1920 became the wife of William Glendinning, who came from Scotland to this country in boyhood and later joined the gold rush to Alaska, where he remained nine years. After his return to Washington, he followed the logging business for several years and in 1911 came to Astoria, where he is now serving as constable. He is a member of Temple Lodge, No. 7, A. F. & A. M.; St. John's Chapter, No. 14, R. A. M.; St. Aldemer Commandery No. 11, K. T., at Astoria; and Al Kader Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., at Portland, and Mrs. Glendinning belongs to Fern Chapter, No. 38, O. E. S., at Astoria; Oregon Shrine Jerusalem No. 1, at Portland, and Astoria Chapter, D. A. R. She is also a member of the Protestant Episcopal church. In the paternal line, Mrs. Glendinning is descended from Samuel Thomson, who was born at Blair Manor, Ayrshire, Scotland, whence he came to this country in 1717, and settled in Virginia, where he taught school. He was married to Miss Mary McDonald, who also was a native of Scotland. 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