"Portrait and Biographical Record of Portland and Vicinity, Oregon." Authors: "a
compilation of this work....by a number of writers".  Chapman Publishing Co;
Chicago, 1903. p. 539.
 
GEORGE ARMENTROUT

     The confidence born of success in life, the geniality produced by
all-around good fellowship and many friendships, and the tolerance bred by close
association with such leveling influences as existed in the early pioneer days,
is the heritage of George Armentrout, at present living a retired life in Forest
Grove. Mr. Armentrout comes of a family numerously represented in this state,
and which has invariably been associated with excellent and permanent
accomplishment.  He was born in Richland county, Ohio, January 14, 1834, and is
a son of Jacob and Mary (Hammond) Armentrout, the latter of whom was born in
Shenandoah county, Va., a daughter of George Hammond, a planter of Virginia,
born in the Old Dominion in 1810 or 1812. George Hammond finally removed from
Virginia to Richland county, Ohio, where his death occurred at the advanced age
of ninety-six. On the maternal side. Mr. Armentrout is of German descent, the
family having come from Germany many years ago, and located in the state of
Virginia.
     Jacob Armentrout was left fatherless when  two years of age, but he seems
to have been well trained in his youth, and to have been more or less ambitious.
He removed to Ohio in 1818, and in 1822 located on a farm in the dense woods
near Newville, Richland county, Ohio, and there  hewed his trees and created in
the wilderness a home and competence. About 1848 he took up his residence near
Warsaw, Ind., and in 1853 removed to Cedar county, Iowa, this farm continuing to
be his home up to the time of his death at the age of seventy-seven. A truly
remarkable fact in connection with the children born to Jacob Armentrout and his
wife is that all twelve of them are now living; that the oldest is eighty, and
the youngest over fifty-five years of age. In the order of birth the children
are: Nancy A., now Mrs. Daniel Armentrout of Iowa; Ethan Allen, a business man
in San Bernardino, Cal., and veteran of the Mexican war; Annis, a resident of
Iowa; Amelia, the wife of Ezekiel McKibben of Iowa; Amity, now Mrs. John Wise of
Richland county, Ohio; George; Abram, a merchant of Colorado Springs; Ansel, a
cotton and wool merchant of Fort Worth, Tex.; Albro, a resident of Cedar county,
Iowa; Dallas, an attorney of DeWitt, Iowa; Catherine, the wife of David Rhoads
of Cedar county, Iowa; and Philip, a farmer of Shelby county, Iowa.       
     George Armentrout was fourteen when his family settled in Indiana, and
nineteen when  they removed to Iowa. In the former state he attended the little
log school house with its primitive furnishings, and had to put up with the
generally crude conditions of those times.  From earliest boyhood days he worked
around his father's farm, and while yet a lad evinced traits of thrift and
industry.  At the age of twenty-four he came to California via Panama, and after
a short time in Sonora, engaged in mining in the northern part of the state for
a couple of years. In the fall of 1860 he removed to Portland, and soon after
engaged in teaming ten miles north of Hillsboro, at the same time working on a
farm. In the fall of 1862 he was joined by his two brothers in a trip to Idaho,
where he prospected and mined for a couple of years, and returned to Oregon,
considerably richer than when he started out.                         
     March 2, 1865, Mr. Armentrout was united in marriage with Melissa A.
Walker, who was born in Washington county, Ore., and has ever a since made her
home in this state. Mrs. Armentrout is a daughter of Robert Walker, who was born
in Iowa, and whose father, Samuel A. was born in South Carolina. Samuel Walker
participated in the Black Hawk war and while stationed at Council Bluffs, Iowa,
his son was born.  He afterward crossed the plains in the early '40's, settling
on a farm in Marion county, Ore., where the balance of his life was spent.
Robert Walker crossed the plains in 1847 and after living on and improving a
donation claim in Washington, retired to Cornelius, Ore where his death occurred
in March, 1899. Soon after arriving in the west he participated in the Cayuse
war, and in other ways showed his keen interest in the affairs by which he was
surrounded.  Through his marriage with Minerva Knighten, a native of Cass
county, Mo., eight children were born, six of whom attained maturity, Mrs.
Armentrout being the oldest of all. Elizabeth J. is now Mrs. James Lyle of
Idaho; Samuel A. is living retired in Forest Grove; James is engaged in the
lumber business on the Hood River; Robert is living in eastern Oregon; and
William Green is a farmer on the old homestead in Washington county. The mother
of Mrs. Armentrout, who is living on the old place, and is seventy-three years
old, is a granddaughter of Ammon Knighten, who came to Oregon in 1847.
     After his marriage Mr. Armentrout purchased a farm of two hundred and
forty-four acres four miles north of Hillsboro, and which at the time was in
very bad condition, and sorely in need of good management. He happened to be the
right man in the right place, and under his enterprise and indefatigable energy
a transformation was wrought, many improvements added, including a commodious
residence and roomy barns. This property was disposed of at an advantage in
1870, the chief motive of the owner being the fact that he was a great sufferer
from asthma, and hoped to benefit his condition by  a change of location.
Accordingly he returned east and settled on a farm of two hundred and eighty
acres in Shelby county, Iowa, and during his thirteen years in that state spent
the majority of his summers in Colorado. In 1883 he sold his Iowa land and
returned to Oregon having never been satisfied with the east since experiencing
the many advantages of the west. His second farm in this county consists of two
hundred and forty-four acres eight miles northeast of Forest Grove, where he
lived and farmed up to the time of his retirement to Forest Grove in 1899. He
has built one of the best and most comfortable residences in the town, and with
his wife is enjoying the fruits of many years of well applied industry.  He has
taken a prominent part in the genera] upbuilding of his county, and has
especially been active in promoting the cause of education. Four children have
been born to Mr. and Mrs. Armentrout, of whom Ansavilla is now Mrs. John Bledsoe
of Washington county, and has three children; Benjamin Wade is living on the
home farm and has one son; Emma Gertrude is the wife of Edward Martin Purdin of
Washington county; and Frank Seigel married Miss Maggie Anderson.  Mrs.
Armentrout is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.


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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in January 2011 by Diana Smith.  Submitter
has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.