"Illustrated History of Lane County, Oregon." Portland, Oregon: A. G. Walling,
publisher, 1884.  pg. 490.
 
GEORGE HENRY ARMITAGE
     Was born in Queens county, New York, January 26, 1824, and there resided
until 1845, in which year he joined his elder brother in St. Charles, Illinois.
Having passed the winter there, in the spring of 1846, he moved to St. Jo. and
there procured an outfit intending to cross the plains to Oregon, which,
however, he soon after sold, on receiving the discouraging intelligence from two
men he had met that the valleys of the far-off land to which he had all but
started were forever covered with water.  He now proceeded to Iowa and erecting
a saw-mill on the Wapoonock river conducted it until the fall of that year when
he disposed of it and removed to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, purchased a canoe from
Indians and made his way to New Orleans, a distance of two thousand miles, and
there shipping as the ship's carpenter on board the "Mary Kingsland," bound to
Mexico with troops, remained so employed until the close of the campaign.  Mr.
Armitage now sailed to New York, whence, in the spring of 1848, he took passage
in the "San Francisco," a steamer dispatched by the government to carry mails
between Astoria, Oregon, and Panama.  Hitherto our subject had been the only
passenger, but on leaving Valparaiso the number had been increased to upwards of
six hundred, to which one hundred and sixty more were added at Panama, all bound
to the land of gold.  On landing at San Francisco the steamer received orders to
abandon the Oregon route and ply between San Francisco and Panama, therefore the
captain returned Mr. Armitage one hundred of the two hundred dollars he had paid
and put him ashore.  The gold fever was at its height, and it was not long ere
our subject found himself en route for the mines.  He first tried his luck in
the Tuolumne region but at the end of the fall gave up the search for the
"yellow stuff" and came to Oregon, arriving in Oregon City, December 16, 1848.
That winter, 1848-49, he spent on the Calapooia -- where Brownsville, Linn
county, now stands -- and there helped with money and labor to erect the first
school house built east of Salem.  In the spring of 1849 he returned to
California via The Dalles, Des Chutes and Klamath lake country, but that fall
came back to Oregon, and after passing a few weeks on the Santiam, went on to
Brownsville to pass the winter.  During the spring of 1850, Mr. Armitage came to
that old pioneer, the late Wilham M. Stevens, took up the claim on which he now
resides and forthwith commenced making improvements.  He then built the first
ferry-boat to cross the McKenzie river, where the bridge now is, with lumber
procured from the contiguous forests and whip-sawed by Mr. Stevens (his
brother-in-law) and himself, and by which it was not uncommon to take in from
eighty to a hundred dollars per day.  This occupation our subject abandoned to
Mr. Spores on starting his ferry.  In the spring of 1851, accompanied by
Harrison Stevens, Mr. Armitage drove a band of beef cattle and a pack train to
Scott's Bar, California, and on their return had exciting times, camping by day
and traveling by night, for the Rogue River Indians were beginning to show signs
of ill-feeling.  On November 21, 1851, Mr. Armitage married Sarah Jane Stevens,
who was born in Ray county, Tennessee, October 4, 1833, and has a family
consisting of six children, viz: Mary Emaline, James Arlus, Sylvanus C., Ella
V., Ora E., and Frank L.  The original log cabin erected on his property in
early times has long since given place to a more befitting residence, an
excellent view of which, with its surroundings, will be found in this work,
while, as a representative man Mr. Armitage is second to none.  He has been
identified with the erection of several of the places of worship in Eugene City,
and gave substantial aid towards the bringing the State University to Lane
county; while, to Mr. Armitage is the honor of having first hoisted the American
ensign within the limits of Lane, the banner being the handiwork of himself and
wife, and first given to the breeze from the summit of Brigg's Butte during the
election that settled Eugene City as the county seat.  There is no doubt but Mr.
Armitage was the first person that ever came around Cape Horn with the direct
purpose of being a permanent settler in Oregon. 
 
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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in May 2005 by Diana Smith.  Submitter
has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.