Hines, H. K. "An Illustrated History of the State of Oregon." Chicago: Lewis
Pub. Co. 1893.  p. 383.
 
HON. JOHN POWELL

     of East Portland, came to Oregon as early as 1847, a son of one of the most
respected pioneers. He was born in Piketown, Kentucky, May 28, 1823. His father,
Allen Powell, was a native of Virginia. It is believed that the family
originated in Wales, but came from England to the colony of Virginia many years
previous to the Revolution. The grandfather of our subject, Cader Powell, served
as a soldier in the Revolution. Allen Powell married Miss Polly Johnson and had
eight children, of whom only two are now living.
     Mr. John Powell, the youngest son and next to the youngest of the family,
spent the first fifteen years of his life on a farm in Kentucky; the next nine
years he was in western Missouri and Kansas,๗the latter State being then a part
of Indian Territory. Being an orphan from the age of seven years, it can be
justly said of him that he is a self-made man.
     In 1847 he came overland to Oregon. On May 10th he crossed the boundary
line of Missouri about twelve miles south of where Kansas City now stands. He
and his party started with six wagons, but soon there were forty-two wagons in
the train. Two of Mr. Powell's brother's were with him; the eldest had an
outfit, but John, our subject, had none, and he worked for his passage by
driving teams and loose stock. On their journey they escaped the cholera and the
Indians, but had measles and mountain fever. When near the Dalles they went into
camp for two weeks, cut down trees and with a whipsaw made lumber and built a
scow, on which they came to the Cascades. There they unloaded the boat, shoved
it out into the river and let it go over the falls, after which it was fished
oat and reloaded; and thus they came on to their destination.
     Their first work in Oregon was tatting saw-logs. Soon Mr. John Powell
bought a squatter's right to 328 acres of land, on which was a log cabin, and of
which two acres were cleared and one sown to wheat. After remaining here a year
and a half, the California gold fever reached his community, in 1848, and he
immediately repaired to the origin of the excitement, and mined for gold on the
Feather and American rivers. Becoming sick, he returned to Oregon, by water; but
the next spring he went again to the gold fields; and on arriving there,
however, he met his brothers returning to Oregon, and he came back with them. In
the fall of 1849 they went again to California, with a company, and Mr. Powell
spent a year in the placer mines, meeting with moderate success.
     Returning finally to Oregon, he took up a grant claim on the Columbia
river, about seven miles from Portland, on which he built and made other
improvements, and where he made a permanent home. The property is now very
valuable. He followed farming from 1851 to 1883, and then retired from active
life to a pleasant home, which he purchased in East Portland, where he resides.
     Prior to the war Mr. Powell was a Douglas Democrat, but the firing upon
Fort Sumter drove him to the ranks of the Union party, and ever since then he
has found himself most at home in the Republican party. In 1884 he was elected
to the State Legislature, and while there he had the pleasure of casting his
vote ratifying the amendment to the Federal Constitution which declares that
slavery shall never exist in the United States. He was brought up in a slave
State and was always opposed to slavery, and he took special pleasure to being
present at its death. During the war he was active on the side of the Union, and
all his life he has in his modest way done what he believed would result in good
to the world, especially in his own State.
     December 20, 1852, is the date of his marriage to Miss Martha Milliorn, a
native of Virginia and a daughter of John Milliorn, a Pennsylvanian, who came to
Oregon that year. Mr. and Mrs. Powell have had eight children, six of whom are
living, namely: William Franklin; Sarah Jane, who is the wife of James Stott;
Thomas Cader; Stephen Douglas; Fanny, who married William Gilson and died May 1,
1887; John Allen, who died when an infant; Rose, who is the wife of Carl
Brandis; and Irene, who is at home with her parents and is a teacher in the
public school.

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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in June 2008 by Diana Smith.  Submitter
has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.