The Essons of Oregon. A History: With a History of the Oregon Trail, 1852

By Thomas Ewing

Thomas Esson Ewing is a fourth generation Oregonian, the great-grandson of Alexander Esson. He was born on Maple Hill Farm in 1945. With a Ph.D in Asian studies, Ewing was a university professor in the United Kingdom from 1972 to 1981. After earning a law degree in 1984, he returned to Maple Hill, where he and his wife Virginia raised their three sons—Alexander, Ross and Nathan. Ewing moved to the neighboring town of Mt. Angel in 2019, but he and his brother, Zan Esson Ewing, continue to own Maple Hill Farm.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Thomas Ewing
• Release date: Oct 5, 2022
• ISBN: 9781959096214

Book preview

Part One

The Essons of Oregon

A History

Esson Family, 1907

L-R, standing: Albyn Esson, Arthur Janz, Ethel Janz, Mabel (Esson) Marsh, Isabel Esson, Lawrence Simmons, Achilles Esson, Ann Esson (Achilles’s wife), Milton Esson, Ronald Esson, Leroy Esson, Arthur Simmons, Hugh Esson.

L-R, seated: Ella Esson (Milton’s wife) with Ida on her lap, Luke Smith, Jr. , Alexander Esson, Lyle Janz, Christina Esson, Edna Esson (Ron’s wife) with Dorothy on her lap.

Alexander and Christina’s children, each in their own way, were rather extraordinary. These biographies fail to capture the richness of their lives. It is the best that can be done given the paucity of sources. One more comment: I made a decision at the beginning that this history to tell our history honestly and fairly. In some ways, that has been the most difficult task of all. The truth of Alexander’s birth and Florence’s death, for example, has been known but not discussed. Future generations will prefer a family picture drawn with accuracy, clarity and detail over one that is pale and blurred in which blemishes are glossed over. This history is really for them. In the meantime, though, I sincerely hope no one is offended.

I am also concerned that the treatment be fair. With the passing of each generation, the stories increasingly become the final statement on the lives of our ancestors. For example, after much personal deliberation, I included a comment about Aunt Sallie, Albyn’s wife, because it seemed important and was said so often by different people. If that is the impression that is to endure for the future in this family, it must above all be correct.

There was personal sorrow in writing the story of our family. It was a melancholy task in many ways. Personal memories of my grandfather Leroy, great-uncle Milton, great-aunts Betty, Mabel and Isabel were revived. Those people are all gone. I tend their graves now, and I miss them. I read their letters of happy times on the farm. This farm, still happy, is a quieter place. But when memories are lost, that person is truly extinguished—except perhaps for a tombstone and an obituary buried in a newspaper somewhere. I’m happy to have saved them from that. But I’m also happy my work is done. Perhaps our children and grandchildren will try to save memories of us, too.

Particular thanks are owed to Kenneth Brown, Elizabeth’s (Betty’s) son. He, more than anyone, must take credit for whatever is good about this history. Kenneth spent many hours talking with me about Ida, Inez , Florence and others. His memory was surely as prodigious as Alexander’s. I constantly marveled at the detail he could summon. As the patriarch of the Esson clan for so many years, he had a genuine feel for this family. I am indebted to him.

I can do no better than to close this introduction with a poem written around 1936 by Frederick Marsh, Mabel’s husband:

Esson Family Reunion

The evening shadows full apace

And once again my thoughts retrace

The pleasant hours with kith and kin,

With tears just ‘neath our laughter’s din.

Some thirty years since? I recall,

My first reunion did befall;

Now, those who then scarce knew its stage,

The front row grace in honored age.

The session o’er, then dame and man,

Foregather, all the Esson clan,

To once again upon the farm,

The echoes voice to wild alarm.

We roam its oft trod pathways o’er,

That each year passed endears the more

And with the evening’s fading light,

With talk encroach far on the night.

We sample from the aged trees

Fruits, rarer than Hesperides

E’er grown within her fabled space,

Whose memoried tangs holds matchless grace.

Here memories fond crowd thick and fast

About each scene linked with the past;

The ancient shed, the landmark tree

Strong grip the hearts of you and me.

When comes our time, we’ll scarcely mind

The newer things to leave behind,

But these old friends we cannot take

Will grieve as sore to thus forsake.

There peacefully ‘neath sheltering tree,

The sire, came far from over seas.

The wife, who came scarce more than maid,

Their wearied limbs at least have laid.

The Stevens

Stevens siblings at 25th annual reunion, July 19, 1916 at the home of Ellis Stevens, North Howell

Standing L-R: Millard Stevens, Sarah (Stevens) McCubbins, Mary (Stevens) Smith,

Martha Arabelle Mattie (Stevens) Cahill

Seated L-R: Isaac Stevens, Rebecca (Stevens) Mount, Rispa (Stevens) Ringo,

Christina (Stevens) Esson

We Essons of Oregon tend to trace our ancestry almost exclusively from Alexander Esson, founder of Maple Hill Farm. I plead guilty. In so many ways it is understandable. He was a towering figure in the lives of his children; stories of him shaped their memories as well as those of his descendants. It is easy to forget, however, that we are in equal measure Stevens and trace our descent from his wife Christina Stevens Esson, daughter of Hanson and Lavina Stevens who came across the Oregon Trail in 1852. I would be seriously remiss if I ignored that part of our history.

Surely the preeminent event in the lives of the early Stevens family was the 1852 journey, etched deeply in their memory, the subject of endless stories at annual reunions which began in 1891. Regrettably, those recollections have been lost in time. For that reason I have included in the appendix to this book a narrative history of the Trail beginning in the early 19th century. Separately I have written a diary of the 1852—a selected composite of 1852 diaries describing the daily toils, dangers, and tragedies—it is the diary that the Stevens would have written had they chosen to do so. As useful as I hope my history is, one doesn’t get a true feel of 1852 without reading the accounts contemporaneously written by emigrants of that year. Of the Trail’s entire history, 1852 was without question the most challenging—pushing emigrants to the limits of their endurance.

Hanson was the grandson of Obediah Stevens (1787-1852).¹ We know nothing of his ancestors. Obediah was born in Pennsylvania and subsequently moved to Indiana. He served in the US Army during the Anglo-American war of 1812, attaining the rank of first sergeant. Following the war he settled on a farm in Ripley County, Indiana. Obediah had twelve children by two wives. In the early 1840s Obediah was planning on establishing a chain of stores (general merchandise?) along the Mississippi River. While on the river with his wife and younger children, the steamboat hit a sandbar near Keokuk, Iowa. The Stevens survived but all possessions were lost except their clothes and sever hundred dollars carried by Obediah. Obediah decided to make Keokuk his home and open some businesses, eventually building three stone structures.

Hanson, a cooper by trade, joined Obediah in Keokuk between 1847-47. He had in the meantime married Lavina Wickard. The Wickards haled from County Cork, Ireland. They emigrated to the United States, first to Maryland, then Ohio, then to Ripley County, Indiana. There, Lavina and Hanson, married in 1838, having four children—Isaac, Rebecca, Rispa, and Christina (1844) in Indiana. Later, after moving to Keokuk, they had Sarah, Millard, and Mary. Obediah now had two barges operating on the Mississippi, going as far south as New Orleans. In the meantime Obediah and his wife moved to Texas where shortly after Obediah died from dengue fever during an epidemic, 1852.

In 1852 Hanson decided to move to Oregon. I write Hanson because in general wives opposed uprooting themselves from home. There was a host of reasons that lured emigrants west which I explain in my history of the Oregon Trail, but most likely it was the prospect of free land. Now, back to the Essons.

The Early Essons

Since at least the latter part of the 17th century, Essons (variously spelled in the historical records as Esson, Eason, or Easson²) have inhabited that area of Aberdeenshire around Tarland in the highlands of Scotland. The Poll Book of Aberdeenshire, 1690-1696, for example, mentions that one Alexander Esson, the tenant of Mill of Kinaldie (near Coldstone Church but not Millhead) lived with two servants. There was a Peter Esson, mentioned in 1696 at Blackmill, not far from Millhead.

In time, the Essons became associated with a particular farm, Millhead (formerly known as Milnhead in the Scottish dialect before the name was anglicized), just one mile outside of the village of Tarland. There were other Essons in the neighboring farms of Daugh and Waukmill. (For a map of Tarland in the region of Logie Coldstone, Aberdeenshire, see appendix.) The earliest recorded Esson in Tarland was Robert Esson.

Robert Esson was the son of John Esson. We know only that he had four sons. One of them was Robert, born around 1723. Robert was apparently a farmer, living at Millhead, who himself had eleven children (the name of his wife is unknown): Marjory (1748), James (1751), John (1754), Jannet (1755), Margaret (1757), Isabel (1760) , William (1762), Elspet (1764), Alexander (1766) and Helen (1771). All were born at Millhead. Later, at least some of the sons would inhabit farms adjacent to one another: William at Clashnettie, Harry at Easter Daugh, Alexander at Millhead, John at Waukmill, and William at Melgum.

Buzz Price (son of Isabel Esson Price) visited Tarland in 1945.³ He met a local native, himself of Esson stock, from whom Buzz learned miscellaneous lore about the Essons over the generations. There was a certain Harry Esson of Melgum (probably early to mid-19th century), who had a reputation for being thrifty, allowing his children one blackberry per slice of bread for spreading. The Esson girls of that time were famed pipe smokers, smoking them upside down and then spitting and drawing at the same time. They smoked during breakfast and were, like as not, to expectorate in the morning porridge. Harry Esson of Easter Daugh had a grandson who fought with Winston Churchill in the Boer War. Their troop train was ambushed and Churchill and Esson were the only two to escape, by jumping the train and hiding under a railroad bridge.

At the age of 31, Alexander of Millhead (son of Robert), married Christian Anderson (born 1773), on March 25, 1797 at Logie Coldstone. (Logie Coldstone and Tarland were separate parishes, but shared one cemetery). Christian was the illegitimate daughter of Alexander Anderson, the 9th Laird of Candacraig, and Jean Farquharson, daughter of Robert Farquharson of Allargue (or of Invercauld). The Farquharsons were a wealthy family in the Strathdon area. Jean later married Alexander Anderson, who apparently adopted Christian, giving her his own name. Either Alexander Anderson or the Farquharson family (more likely the latter) owned Millhead. The Anderson family was well established. Since the 16th century they had owned the Candacraig estate, 13,500 acres, located on the north bank of the Don River. In the Strathdon Church is a monument erected in 1757 by Charles Anderson in memory of the "Andersons of Kandocraig [sic] interr’d here for seven Generations past." Christian’s half-brother Major John Anderson, later the 10th Laird of Candacraig, earned fame at Waterloo (1815). John rebuilt the granite mansion, creating a baronial-style house. The 12th Laird moved to Canada and sold the estate in 1866.

Christian was already two months pregnant when she married. Parish records indicate that two months before the birth of their first child, the Kirk Session met, at which Alexander Esson and Christian acknowledged before the Session that they had been guilty of antenuptial fornication, upon which they were suitably rebuked, absolved and were dismissed from church discipline. The Session closed with prayer. They lived at Millhead farm, Alexander dying on June 22, 1832. He was buried in the Old Churchyard, Tarland. [I add this curious note: In a booklet "The Kirkyard of Tarland published by the Aberdeen & North-East Scotland Family History Society, is a list of all the church’s tombstones. Lot 64 records the following: Erected by CHRISTIAN ANDERSON in memory of her husband (ALEX)ANDER ANDERSON/ (fa)rmer in Millhead/ this life June 26 1832 aged 66/ (Al)so their son (ALEX)ANDER ANDERSON/ Millhead 30 Apr. 1854 aged 78. I cannot explain the Anderson. Nevertheless, the dating of his death and that he was a farmer of Millhead cannot be merely coincidental.] Alexander was a lessee of Millhead. Very shortly before his death he devised the leasehold interest equally to sons Robert and John. Christian died in 1854 and was buried at Eden Place, Aberdeen. Her inventory on death included £1, two shillings, and sixpence in cash, and clothes appraised at £2. Included in the inventory was £256 owed to her by her son John Esson of Millhead for farming stock, furniture, etc.," sold to him by Christian in 1847. It seems that he probably had taken over the farm.

Alexander and Christian had seven children: Christian (1797), Alexander (1799), twins Robert and Isabela also spelled Isobol (1800) (Robert died in 1866; Isabela in 1878), John (1803; died 1876), Helen (1804), Margaret (1810), and Charles (1814). Charles later ran a hostelry in Glasgow. John lived in Aberdeen. That is all we know of the other members of the family.

Alexander the Surgeon

Alexander and Christian’s second child, Alexander, was born on January 19, 1799, at Millhead. It appears that sometime between the years 1811-1815 he attended King’s College, University of Aberdeen, in Aberdeen graduating in 1815 with a Master of Arts (qualifications for degrees were different then). He then began a medical apprenticeship. At least part of this training may have been subsidized by Alexander Anderson, Alexander’s maternal grandfather, who on his death in 1817 bequeathed to Alexander £100 sterling upon completion of an apprenticeship and another £100 thereafter.

Alexander began as a Hospital Assistant to the Forces at Aberdeen under a Dr. Skene, Professor of Anatomy of the University of Aberdeen, for three years (1816-1818). Skene instructed him in anatomy. He also studied chemistry and materia medica under Dr. Henderson of Aberdeen. During the latter two years, he served as dresser to a Dr. Barclay of the Aberdeen Infirmary. In 1819 Alexander went to London. He became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in that year. He continued his education in London, studying anatomy under Joshua Brookes between 1819 and 1822, and midwifery under Dr. Davis in 1822. Upon successful completion of an examination before the Director General of the Medical Department (of the army, perhaps) and before the Royal College of Surgeons, London, he was formally appointed Hospital Assistant by Commission on March 18, 1824 and then posted to Fort Pitt, Chatham, Kent.

He was there only about seven months when he was transferred to India with the rank of captain. On January 5, 1826, Alexander became Assistant Surgeon of the 48th Foot Regiment (the Northamptonshire). The particular appointment surely was influenced by the fact that his maternal uncle, Dr. Robert Anderson (later 11th Laird of Candacraig and brother of Major John Anderson of Waterloo fame), was surgeon to the Regiment. Both Robert and John’s sister was Christian Anderson, Alexander’s mother. Alexander served, at least for a time, at Fort Colombo, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). He died on June 11, 1831, 32 years of age, at Cannanore, Madras, India (on the west coast of India above Calcutta). British military records, which incidentally spell his name Eason, describe him as a casualty of war. Alexander died in the arms of Robert and was buried in an unmarked grave (the British did not begin the practice of marking military graves until the 1880s) in St. John’s Churchyard at Cannanore. The next day Robert took charge of his personal effects, sending them to the family at Millhead. (Later, on the death of John Anderson, Robert returned from India to take possession of Candacraig.)

During these years, Alexander and Christian, parents of Alexander (the surgeon) continued to live at Millhead (Christian remained there until her death in 1854). Presumably, during his schooling, Alexander their son made periodic trips back to see them. During one such visit in the late fall of 1822, he became intimate with a young woman named Isabel Ross, the daughter of Alexander Ross and Mary Glennie of Strathdon, not far from Millhead. Alexander and Mary had four daughters: Jean, Mary, Isabel, and Ann. Isabel, then 26 years old, was no doubt dazzled by this military officer and surgeon. Isabel gave birth to a child, Alexander (of Maple Hill Farm), on July 10, 1823, at Strathdon. The Strathdon parish records report the following: July 10, 1823, Alexr Esson. Surgeon in Millhead and Isobel Ross in Fornication had a child named Alexander. This was not, however, Alexander’s only indiscretion. On June 6, 1824, the Logie-Coldstone parish session met. The parish register records that Mary Walker of Bolton,

. . . an unmarried woman, appeared voluntarily before the Session, acknowledged being with child and gave up Dr. Esson, late in Millhead as the Father thereof. The Session agreed to enquire of Dr. Esson’s friends for his address, and, as soon as that can be procured, appoint their Clerk to write to the said Dr. Esson and inform him of the charge laid against him, and the Session drop all further consideration of the case until they hear from Dr. Esson.

Eleven months after Alexander’s birth, Isabel died at Cottown (spelled also Coattown, also known as Euxtertown of Culquhannie, Strathdon parish) on June 12, 1824, apparently of tuberculosis. Her parents placed a tombstone:

In memory of Isabel Ross, daughter of Alexander Ross in Cottown who died 12 June 1824 in the 28 year of her age done by her parents ARMG [Alex Ross, Mary Glennie] 1829.

The Ewings have a very old box containing letters going back to the 1860s. Wrapped in a newspaper, dated 1871, are the braids of seven children, all blond. Tucked in the box are letters from Albyn, Ida, Christina, and others. There is also a folded piece of brown linen paper, roughly legal size, with poetry written throughout. There is no date, only the signature of Isabell Ross, Coattown, Strathdon. It is now at least 178 years old. The ink has faded and the writing is hard to decipher. But the penmanship and spelling suggest refinement and education. Most of the verse is dedicated to a Charlotte, perhaps a friend, who had died. Here are some of its decipherable parts:

Tell her, ‘tis not alone the favor’d rose

That drinks the nectar of the morning dew

the lonely field flower sinks with liquid pearl

and in the blessing . . [?] affliction . . [?].

Tell her, the . . [?] of the admiring throng,

whose verse her flattering kindness taught to . . [?]

by fortune banishes from the soothing smile,

but me no muses taught with skillful strains

to mock the harmony of heavenly spheres,

the muse of melancholy blots my verse

and brings me no other aid than sighs and tears.

on earth no garland grows for this sad brow

for me, alas! the fates unkindly move

the sable . . [?] of consuming grief

with thy sweet rosebuds, hope-deluding love!

A heaven, O charlotte! is thy matchless form,

where dwell those flowers that are more divine

there the illumin’d star of science glows,

the graces in a constellation shine!

I hear harmonious sounds—t’is Charlotte’s voice

I hear her strike the sorrow-soothing lyre’

ah! how persuasive is that melting air,

that makes my . . [?] with new desire!

but a presumptuous youth! . . [?] to tell

with what emotions thy . . [?] breast may glow

hie thee, vain youth, in some sequester’d shade,

. . [?] millions weep thy woe!

(of Joys departed, never to return

how painful the remembrance!)

Happy are we met

Happy have we been

Happy shall we part

Happy meet again

On the side of one corner is another piece of verse:

Assist, my . . [?] this last . . [?]

no more I’ll seek thy aid

no more the graves resound my lay

This humble tribute paid

A tribute due to worth so clear,

and his lamented name,

who fell in honour’s high career—

the favourite of fame.

Dauntless & virtuous—young and wise—

both valiant and refin’d,

was he who claims the tender sigh

which heaves my gloomy mind.

On flanders’ plains he fought—he fell

and sank in glory’s grave;

while fame, exulting still shall tell

he sleeps among the brave

yes, monuments repose our hearts

shall be engraved by fame,

more lasting than the . . [?] are

to consecrate his name.

The surgeon’s thoughts on the subject of the birth of his son Alexander are unknown, for example whether he visited the child or made a financial contribution to his maintenance. It is also uncertain whether the true circumstances of his birth were ever revealed to the young Alexander. According to family tradition—presumably from Alexander himself—the surgeon married Isabel and took her to (alternatively, later visited him in) India, where she contracted tuberculosis; she became pregnant and returned to Scotland to have the child, dying during childbirth on the high seas. In Portrait and Biographical Record of the Willamette Valley, Oregon, (Chicago, 1903), there is a biography of Alexander Esson. These biographies were purchased by subscription, so the honoree had the opportunity to write his story. This one states that Alexander was born at sea, off the east coast of Scotland, July 10, 1829. Alexander of Oregon himself may have known the truth but perhaps preferred to pass on to his children a more decorous version. We do not know.

Alexander Esson of Oregon

On the death of his mother, and only a year old, Alexander was taken in by his mother’s younger sister Ann, who lived in Coattown. She was married to an Irishman John Jock Law, a farmer and handyman. John Law was then 19 years of age, Ann 24. They had at that time no children of their own (they were later to have six). Alexander lived with them until he was about 14 years old; thereafter, according to the Portrait and Biographical Record, he was thrown upon his own resources, working on the farms in the surrounding locality.

This locality was the countryside between the mansion house of Candacraig, owned by his uncle, and the castle called Newe. He spent his boyhood in the country between these two estates. Both underwent some reconstruction during his youth (John Law, and perhaps even Alexander, worked on the projects).

Many years later Alexander’s son, Albyn, asked Alexander what he would like to see were he to return. Albyn recorded Alexander’s answer:

Would ask first who occupies the farm of Millhead. His cousin, Alexander Esson, did the last he knew of him. Would ask for John Ross of Toly, also George Dom, blacksmith of Heughhead. Would inquire for Kellas family of Glen Carvey. Would look at Glackriach road near which he herded cows. Would take a look at the Mansion House of Candycraig [sic], a granite residence on the north bank of the Don with wooded hill rising above it. Also observe the Mansion House of Newe. His boyhood was passed in country between these then noted buildings.

The biography does not explain why he left. According to family tradition, Alexander and John Law never got along, despite the fact that Law was the only father that Alexander had known. According to his son Milton, when Alexander was 14 he and Law got into a fight. The dispute was apparently over ownership of a watch which had belonged to Alexander’s father (the surgeon) brought back by Dr. Robert Anderson from India. Perhaps the Anderson family