Washington-Multnomah-Yamhill County OR Archives Biographies.....McEldowney, W. H. February 19, 1856 - ************************************************ 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 May 29, 2010, 10:32 pm Source: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. III, Published 1928, Pages 330 - 333 Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company W. H. McELDOWNEY. Among the agriculturists of the Columbia River Valley no name stands higher than that of W. H. McEldowney, of Forest Grove, Oregon, who is the owner of valuable farm property, in the operation of which he has been successful, and he has also served as the manager of big farms for many years, showing executive ability of a high order. He was born in Iowa on the 19th of February, 1856, a son of T. L. and Helen M. (Henderson) McEldowney, both of whom were natives of Mercer county, Pennsylvania. His paternal grandfather, William McEldowney, who was of Scotch descent, came from the north of Ireland to the United States when eighteen years of age. The father was born March 13, 1835, and died April 25, 1895, while the mother, who was a niece of old Dr. Hawthorne, of Portland, was born May 20, 1835. and died September 8, 1916. They were married in 1855 and in that same year moved to Iowa, where Mr. McEldowney engaged in farming. Shortly afterward, leaving his wife on the farm, he and a brother started with ox teams for Pike's Peak, Colorado, where he engaged in mining, but later went to the quartz mines at Virginia City, Nevada. He and his brother next went to California, where they bought a number of mustang horses, which they drove back to Iowa about 1861. Indians were making much trouble for the white people crossing the plains at that time, but they made the trip alone without serious trouble. In 1863 T. L. McEldowney started with his family across the plains, with horse teams and wagons, and arrived at Virginia City, Nevada, where they remained for a time, but later went to Oroville, Butte county, California, where he worked in the Cherokee Flat placer mines for about eight years. In December, 1871, he brought his family to Oregon through the advice of Dr. Hawthorne and located on the latter's farm near Orenco, about three miles east of Hillsboro. He remained there until about 1890, when he removed to Polk county, this state, and bought a farm on the Luckiamute river, to the operation of which he devoted his attention until 1895, when he went to Reedville to relieve his son, W. H., as manager of the Ladd & Reed farm. Shortly afterward he caught a severe cold, which resulted in his death. To him and his wife were born eight children, as follows: W. H., of this review; E. L., who was born in Iowa and lives in Polk county, Oregon; T. A., who was born in Nevada and lives on his father's old farm in Polk county; F. E., who was born in Nevada and now lives at Monrovia, California; Maude H., who was born in California and is deceased; S. J., who was born in California and lives in Wenatchee, Washington; J. H., who was born in Oregon and lives near Mt. Hood, this state; and Louise, who was born in Oregon and died at the age of two and a half years. W. H. McEldowney received his education in the public schools in the various places in which the family lived after coming west. He remained at home with his father, assisting in the work of the farm until twenty years of age, when he was married and located on a farm near Hillsboro. In 1880, after the death of his wife, he took a course in the Portland Business College and then sold machinery throughout the valley for D. M. Osborne & Company. In 1883 he again married and returned to his farm, but a year later he moved to his father-in-law's original farm, which he operated for four years. In 1887 he became manager of the Ladd & Reed farm at Reedville, where he remained six years. He was then transferred to that company's big stock farm at Broadmeade, Yamhill county, which he managed for fifteen years, after which he returned to Forest Grove, where he has lived to the present time, excepting several times when he has gone back temporarily to his own farms when they had been mismanaged, remaining long enough to install a new manager and get things straightened out. He now has charge of the Reedville property of the Ladd & Reed Company, which belongs to Reed College. At Broadmeade he farmed two thousand five hundred acres of land, on which were many pure bred Shorthorn cattle, from five hundred to a thousand pure bred Cotswold sheep, a large herd of registered Berkshire hogs, and he stabled at one time one hundred and fifty horses, most of which were pure bred Clydesdales. The big barn housed sixty- one horses on the upper floor; seventy-five head of cattle were stabled in the basement, and six hundred tons of hay were in the loft. The annual grain harvest amounted to from sixty-five thousand to eighty-five thousand bushels. Mr. McEldowney there operated the first clover seed huller ever brought to Oregon, it having been brought by R. M. Wade about 1895. He raised, hulled and shipped the first carload of clover seed from a single grower, this being from the Ladd & Reed farm at Broadmeade. During the year 1914 Mr. McEldowney also managed the Baldwin ranch in Jefferson county, Oregon, about twenty- five miles north of Prineville. On this farm were twenty thousand head of Andulasian Rambouillet sheep, all registered stock, which were shipped to every part of the world. The Baldwin ranch was established in 1873 for the purpose of introducing this breed of sheep to the west, and, at the time Mr. McEldowney was there it was owned by Henry Pittock and L. B. Menafee. The ranch comprised twenty-seven thousand acres, in addition to which they controlled from fifty thousand to sixty thousand acres of pasturage. On March 1, 1876, Mr. McEldowney married Miss Anna Luelling, a native of Alameda, California, and a daughter of Alfred Luelling, of Milwaukie, Oregon, to whom belonged the distinction of having brought the first fruit trees across the plains. To Mr. and Mrs. McEldowney were born two children, namely: Wilbur Waite, now cashier of the Forest Grove National Bank, married Miss Eleanor Russell, who died in 1926, and they had a daughter, now Mrs. Helen Johnson, of Seattle, Washington, who has two children, Joan and Charles H. For his second wife Wilbur W. McEldowney chose Mrs. Maude (Buxton) Kinney. He is a thirty-second degree Mason. Mary Helen, who lives in Forest Grove, is the widow of Dr. M. C. Strickland and is the mother of three children: Robert Lee, who was graduated in 1928 from the medical school of the University of Oregon, is married and has one child, Joyce; Graeme H., who was graduated from Pacific University in 1928 and is now in the medical school of the University of Oregon; and Janice, who is attending Pacific University. Mr. McEldowney's first wife died October 17, 1880, and on January 17, 1883, he married Miss Anna E. Moore, who was born near Greenville, Washington county, Oregon, and is a daughter of J. H. and Polly C. (Tidwell) Moore. Her father crossed the plains in 1849 to Oregon, and in 1852 went to California, where he remained but a short time. He followed the occupation of farming, in which he was successful. His death occurred in 1863. His wife was brought across the plains when seven years old by her parents, Roland and Sarah (Phillips) Tidwell, who arrived in Oregon in 1846. Mr. McEldowney is a Mason and both he and his wife are members of the Eastern Star. He is a man of sterling character, straightforward manner and friendly social relations, so that throughout the range of his acquaintance he commands uniform confidence and respect. Photo: http://www.usgwarchives.net/or/washington/photos/bios/mceldown1079gbs.jpg File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/or/washington/bios/mceldown1079gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/orfiles/ File size: 8.2 Kb