This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: sherryk180 Surnames: Ginn, McFadden, Spence, Kinnear, Frasier, McCoy, Royse, Green, Reynolds, Ladow, Orr, Ransom, Pruett, McArthur Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.oregon.counties.umatilla/34.37.2/mb.ashx Message Board Post: A descendant of Richard Ginn [1820-1899] wrote about her family [probably Minerva Agnes Ginn] and Sherry Kaseberg edited it in 1971: "Sketch on Richard Ginn. "The forefathers of Richard Ginn migrated from Scotland to Ireland where his father, also Richard Ginn, married Miss Betty McFadden who was born in Derry and who died in 1862 in Minnesota. Richard Ginn, the father, died in 1838 in Ireland, and Betty McFadden Ginn came to Canda and America with her son, Richard, in 1845. Richard and Betty Ginn had five known children. Betty married a Spence and lived in Pennsylvania. John and Archie both came to America quite a while before Richard did; John settled in Canada and died leaving a family of two boys and four girls. The last heard of Archie was when he lived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Alex joined the British army and died in Hong Kong, China at the time of the China Rebellion. Richard, the subject of this sketch, removed to Canada with his mother in 1845, and she lived with Richard until her death. "Richard Ginn, son of Richard, and his mother migrated to Canada, crossing the ocean in a sailing vessel, a voyage of about 45 days. He worked on a farm for eight dollars per month, mowing hay with a scythe. He worked from five in the morning until dark in the evening. Later he settled with his mother near Cornwall, Ontario. About 1850 he married and the following year his child was born and mother and child both died. "About 1854 Richard Ginn made a trip to the territory of Minnesota where he came very near to dying of fever. On the way back to his home in Canada, he visited his sister, Betty, in Erie, Pennsylvania. This was the last time he saw her. During the summer and fall of 1855 he worked on the Grand Trunk Railroad then building through Canada. In March 1856 or 1857 Richard Ginn married Catherine Kinnear and they moved to Stormont County, Ontario, Canada and bought and lived in a home built by Simon Frasier, the man who discovered the Frasier River in British Columbia. Catherine was the daughter of Moses Kinnear and was born in 1834 on a farm near Cornwall. "Two children were born in Canada: Robert James on December 15, 1857, and Eliza Jane on June 18, 1859. In the fall of 1860 the family, including Richard's mother, removed to Northfield, Minnesota. His mother died there in the spring of 1861. That spring he moved to a farm that he bought near Fallpoint, Minnesota in Goodhue County, and they lived there ten years, suffering the hardships and privations incident to settling in a new country. During the ten years in Minnesota four more children were born: Ellen Mary on February 4, 1861; Sarah Ann on December 16, 1862; Caroline Ruth on March 23, 1865; and John Archie Ginn on May 28, 1868. "Hearing glowing reports from Oregon, in the spring of 1870 Richard started for the then far-off land by way of San Francisco. The railroad had been completed that far by then. He left his family in Minnesota to follow later if things looked satisfactory. From San Francisco he travelled by water to Portland and spent a short time looking over the Willamette Valley. He had a letter of introduction to Hon. Lafayette Grover, later Governor of Oregon and United States Senator. He also had a look at Western Washington but did not like that part of the world. Returning to Portland, he decided to take a look at Eastern Oregon and went to The Dalles on the boat in the company of Father Wilbur, a missionary to the Indians at North Yakima at the time. Father Wilbur tried to persuade him to go to that part of the country with him, but Richard was already determined to see the Walla Walla country before going elsewhere. "Richard Ginn walked from The Dalles to Walla Walla after finding a man going from The Dalles to Pendleton who would haul his blankets and gear. His first stop was at Weston where he said that he stayed a couple of days and attended a political meeting held in the old school house, the principal speaker being Mr. Ladow, a candidate for Congress on the Democratic ticket. Other speakers were Mr. Thomas McCoy, father of E. O. McCoy of The Dalles, Mr. Royse and Mr. Taylor Green of Weston. From the meeting he went to McCoy's who lived near where Freewater now is located. He worked for the Reynolds brothers during summer and harvest. About September 1, 1870 he bought a squatter's rights to a quarter of land one mile west of Weston, on which there was a dug well and about 1,200 feet of lumber from a man named John Orr, paying him $60 for his right. "About September 20, 1870 he started, with John Orr, for Kelton, Utah to meet his family. His wife, with true pioneer devotion, had disposed of what personal property they had and left the farm unsold. Times were hard in Minnesota and all the grain had been wet by early and heavy rains in harvest, destroying nearly all the crop. His wife had not paid a note he had endorsed for a car load of seeders nearly two years before he went west because she would not have had the money for tickets for her children and herself. As it was, she borrowed one hundred dollars to help pay the expenses of the trip to Oregon. It was a big undertaking for a woman at that time, to start on a long journey with six children, the eldest being but twelve years old, but she arrived at Kelton safely, about October 25, 1870. Her husband, Richard, had arrived earlier and was uneasy about her delay. He bought two small horses and a second-hand set of harness and a second-hand wagon. He had worked f! or a Mormon near Kelton, helping get in wood for winter and did not buy the wago until his wife arrived, expecting her to have the money. They started for Oregon in October, a discouraging outlook for a journey with an old linchpin wagon, two small horses and winter on the way. "It happened that the weather was good almost all the way and roads were good in spite of crossing two mountain ranges and mountain rivers. They crossed the Snake River at Glenn's Ferry which had just been established, and forded the Boise River to save the toll for the bridge. They forded the Weiser River for the same reason. The water was pretty deep in both rivers. At the second crossing of the Snake River they traded a quilt to pay the ferry. They saw a gold mine on Burnt River near where Huntington now is. They went through LaGrande about the latter part of November and camped the following night at Oredel, two miles from LaGrande. The next night they camped at Meacham's near the summit of the Blue Mountains. The night of November 23 was spent near the Cayuse Stage Station on the Umatilla River and they arrived at their future home near Weston on November 24, 1870. "A man named Milo Ransom, bachelor, built a house on an adjoining claim and let them have his house to live in that first winter. Richard went his security in necessities at a hardware store, including a cook stove to be paid for in ninety days. He was expecting the farm in Minnesota would be sold in that time. In ninety days, the Minnesota farm still unsold and his bill not paid, he sold his wagon for $60 and went to Walla Walla to Mr. Reese's store and paid his bill. He thereby established credit that never was tarnished during his life. "A Mr. William Pruett started a subscription school in Weston about December 1st and the Ginn children went, paying $6 each for a term of three months. The winter of 1870-1871 was a very open winter. There was not over four inches of snow at any one time, nor did it stay on the ground over two days at a time all winter. He improved by digging a ditch fence around five acres of ground and spaded up nearly an acre of ground for a garden. In the spring he plowed and seeded about four acres of land, and that wheat was the first sown and harvested on the upland in Umatilla County. "In the spring of 1871 he built a house on his land and moved in. He worked for wages whenever he could get work. During the fall and winter of 1871 and 1872 he worked on the railroad then building from Wallula to Walla Walla, having charge of a crew or gang of men on the grade work. While working on the railroad in the spring of '72 he bought a new Whitewater from Pain Bros. of Walla Walla. He plowed and seeded about ten acres more that spring and harvested it by mowing with a scythe. The children raked it with hand rakes and he threshed it my tranping it out with horses and cleaning the grain with a fanning mill. "During the spring and summer of 1872 he made rails in the mountains south of Weston. He did the same in the summer of 1873 so he could buy or trade for a little horse he bought from Mr. Hugh McArthur in the spring of 1872 and other things. He then had three horses for plowing. In the winter of 1871 the mother and wife, Catherine, learned to make buckskin gloves and she sold several hundred dollars worth of gloves at Weston, Walla Walla and Umatilla Landing during 1873 and 1873. She paid for a barrel of brown sugar at Umatilla in 1873 with the gloves. In December 1872 Catherine was taken sick with lung fever and two of the girls had typhoid at the same time. The eldest girl, Eliza, died with it on December 16 at the age of 12. She had been converted in the summer of 1872 and joined the United Brethren Church, and was a very exemplary Christian.Her death was a great shock to the family. "When Richard Ginn settled on the farm, he could not file on it for it was inside the Northern Pacific land grant and remained so until the summer of 1876 when he did file. The land officials permitted him to make final proof on the land at the same time he filed, for he had been living there more than the required five years. During the Indian outbreaks in the summer of 1878 quite a number of neighbors and people from farther west came and camped with the family as the location was considered safely outside the danger zone. They all left to go to town for safety once or twice. Indians came to within ten miles of the Ginn home, burning buildings. In all their lives, I don't think anyone ever came to Richard and Catherine Ginn in need without having their wants supplied. "While at Weston, Richard and Catherine had four children: Walter Thomas on July 18, 1871; Margaret Jane born November 6, 1873; George Christy born Novmeber 27, 1875; and Minerva "Minnie" Agnes born March 2, 1878. Richard Ginn had seen Eastern Oregon develop from stock range to one of the best wheat producing areas in the world. When he commenced to raise wheat he was compelled to haul it either to Wallula, 35 miles away, or to Umatilla Landing, 60 miles away, and it was then shipped by boat to Portland. At that time wheat had to be handled six times between the wharf and boat at Umatilla and the warehouse in Portland. "In 1880 Richard Ginn moved to Wasco in Sherman County and filed and proved up on a pre-emption. With this exception, he lived on the home place near Weston until the summer of 1898 when they moved to 626 Whitman Street in Walla Walla, Washington. Richard died there April 8, 1899 of pneumonia. The last few years of his life he was afflicted with Bright's Disease and bore his suffering with Christian fortitude. He left a wife and eight children, all grown and filling an honorable place in the world. It could be truthfully said of him that 'the world was better for his having lived in it.' " Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board. <br>