James Alexander HURST married Malinda May DAVIS 16 Nov 1850 and the couple headed for Oregon the following spring. He was 19 years old and she only 16, and their first child arrived less than two months after they reached Oregon soil. They first settled in Linn Co., presumably to be with other family there, but ventured eastward to Wasco Co in the late 1850s. Their final settlement was in the Tygh Ridge area, south of The Dalles. James & Malinda had 14 children, most of whom stayed in Wasco Co. That resulted in many collateral lines for our family in the next generations. Surnames closely related to our Hursts that are known to be in Oregon include: Cowsert, Patterson, Gray, Love, Bowles, Brown, Peck, Reynolds, Zumwalt and Dickens. My line descends from their daughter Susan, who married James Gray. I will give details about that line in the next post. There is much we still don't know about why our ancestors made some of the choices they did, such as settling first in Linn County but moving eastward again when they had proved up on their Linn Co Donation Land Claim. We have strong reason to believe other family migrated westward with them in 1851, but thus far have not found the families for sure. Families with whom they had close bonds in Missouri included the following, in addition to others who shared the Hurst amd Davis surnames. If anyone is related to families by these surnames in either Linn or Wasco Co's, we'd love to hear from you and are happy to share all info we have on the earlier generations plus our own line: Tripp, Scribner, West, Coulter, Todd, Whitlock, Estes, amd Farmer, to name a few. Clues, help, or hints all are appreciated! -- Cheri puny@mail.com --->>>^<<<--- Wasco Co., OR GenWeb site--> http://www.historysavers.com/orwasco/