Bancroft, Hubert Howe. The History of Oregon, Vol. I 1834-1848. From "The Works
of Hubert Howe Bancroft," Vol. XXIX.  The History Company, San Francisco, CA,
1886. p 451-452.

JOHN MINTO

	John Minto became well known and highly esteemed in Oregon.  He was of
English birth and education, a native of Wylam on the Tyne, in Northumberland,
born Oct. 10, 1822.  He came to the United States in 1840, and settled at
Pittsburgh, Pa., as a coal-miner.  From Pennsylvania he went to St. Louis in the
spring of 1844, on his way to the frontier of Iowa, and learned at this place of
the emigration to Oregon, which he determined to join.  Having no means to
procure an outfit, he engaged with R. W. Morrison to drive team and make himself
useful, for his passage and board.  It is to "Minto's Early Days," a manuscript
by his own hand, that I am chiefly indebted for the account of Gilliam's
company.  It contains, besides, valuable remarks on the political situation of
1844-6, on the industries of the country and stock-raising, and on the social
conditions of the colonists, with other miscellaneous matter.  Minto married
Miss Martha A. Morrison when they had been about three years in Oregon, and they
went to reside near Salem.  Minto had been a useful, intelligent, and every way
an exemplary builder on the edifice of a new state; a farmer, stock-raiser, and
editor; public-spirited in every position he has been called upon to fill.  Mrs.
Minto is known throughout the state for her fearless vindication of what she
esteems the right; and has been called the "musket-member" of the Woman's
Suffrage Association of Oregon.  According to Minto, her mother carried, or at
least was furnished with, a rifle, on her journey to Oregon, which she was
competent to use had it been necessary.  Mrs. Minto has, as well as her husband,
furnished a manuscript to my collection.  It was taken from her lips by a
stenographer at a meeting of the Pioneer Association in 1878, and is called
"Female Pioneering."  As it gives the woman's view of frontier life, it is
especially valuableÑfew records having been made of the trials which women were
called upon to endure in the settlement of the Pacific States.

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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project by Jenny Tenlen. Submitter has no
additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.