Umatilla County OR Archives Biographies.....Cate, Charles R. September 10, 1847 - ************************************************ 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: Carlene Still crstill@oregontrail.net August 1, 2006, 4:49 am Author: Colonel William Parsons Page 369, 370 CHARLES R. CATE The worthy pioneer whose name initiates this paragraph has long been known as one of the leading stockmen of this section, while his industry and wisdom have placed him as a bright example for the younger men who are filling Umatilla county. He has wrought since the ‘sixties with assiduity and faithfulness, surmounting all obstacles and overcoming all difficulties with a record that is very creditable. His father, John Thomas Cate, was a native of New Hampshire, born September 25, 1807, and a pioneer of Independence county, Arkansas. There he married Miss Sarah A. Patterson on January 2, 1840. There, also, the subject of this sketch was born on September 10, 1847. When he was scarcely six years of age his parents, taking him and three other children, joined Joseph R. Patterson’s emigrant train, and threaded the dreary plains with the slow-going ox teams. Joseph R. Patterson was an uncle of the subject of this sketch. In the fall of 1853, the same year they started, they landed in Salem, Oregon, where they lived for one year on the uncle’s farm, then removed to Yam Hill county, and settled upon a donation claim. Two years later, when they had only begun to hew out their frontier home, the father passed to his reward across the river of death, leaving the widow and the little handful of children to do battle alone with the trying scenes of a relentless world. For eleven years they toiled along together (in the meantime his mother having married again), then the subject of this sketch decided to come east of the mountains to a region more congenial to his tastes and better fitted for the business which he desired to follow. In the fall of 1867 he worked his passage over the Cascade range by assisting to drive over a herd of cattle. He arrived in Umatilla county with a horse and saddle and twenty-five dollars, the latter soon melting away for food and clothes. The following spring he went to work for wages. Mr. Cate was married, on Butter creek, on October 23, 1870, to Miss Sarah P. Hamer, whose father was a stockman of that section, but since deceased. After this event he located a claim on Butter creek and embarked in the cattle business on a small scale. By strict economy and attention to business they accumulated seventeen hundred acres of land on Butter creek. In 1892 they sold out and removed to Mountain valley or Gurdane, Oregon, purchasing there twelve hundred acres of good land, where he now lives. Mr. Cate is still in the stock business, handling cattle and horses, of which latter he has a good band, and of cattle a fine heard of over two hundred head. To our subject and his estimable wife there have been born the following children: Ella O., married to G. H. Daugherty, of Wallowa valley, this state; Alpha J.; Asa I. V.; May; Irena A.; Charles E.; Sarah A.; Roy.; Nina A.; Verne M.; Art D., deceased; Clay R. Mr. Cate has always found time for the proper attention to political matters where he has an active interest. He is a man to be relied upon, and one who has the esteem and respect of his large acquaintance. Additional Comments: An Illustrated History of Umatilla County by Colonel William Parsons and of Morrow County by W. S. Shiach with a brief outline of the early history of the State of Oregon. W. H. Lever, Publisher 1902. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/or/umatilla/bios/cate133gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/orfiles/ File size: 4.0 Kb