"Portrait & Biographical Record of the Willamette Valley Oregon."  Chapman 
Publishing Company, 1903. p. 498.
 
JOHN SAPPINGFIELD

     In the death of John Sappingfield, which occurred on his farm eight miles
east of Salem, March 8, 1903, Marion county lost one of its oldest and most
highly esteemed pioneer inhabitants.  Mr. Sappingfield was born in Davis county,
N. C.,  November 25, 1809, when even the eastern states were in their infancy,
and at a period when the great "Oregon country" was a wilderness practically
unknown to the civilized world.  When he was a year old his parents, George and
Catherine (Myers) Sappingfield, moved to southern Indiana, then regarded as far
"out west," settling in Harrison county, where they lived upon a farm most of
the time.  In the course of time they removed to Parke county, that state, and
about 1833 moved still further westward into Iowa.  In the latter state they
devoted their energies to farming in Des Moines and Monroe counties until 1847,
when they removed to Davis county and took up a tract of land under the
homestead laws of the country.
     John Sappingfield had remained with the family in their various locations
until they decided to settle in Davis county, Iowa, when he determined to seek
his own fortune independently.  May 27, 1838, he married Mary Hagey, a native of
the same county in North Carolina which witnessed his own birth, and who had
been brought by her parents to Des Moines county, Iowa.  The young people felt
the spirit of their fathers strongly exercised within themselves, and when the
parents of Mr. Sappingfield finally decided to make Davis county their home, he
and his bride concluded to seek an improvement in their fortunes in the great
northwest, of whose wonderful resources they had heard so many tales from the
lips of travelers who had visited Oregon Territory.
     Whit their hearts fired by a most laudable ambition, they therefore set
forth, in 1847, leaving the associations of their childhood and youth behind
them, but with their minds fully made up to brave any and all dangers which
might confront them, and to remain true to their purpose of assisting in laying
the foundation of a great commonwealth in the land beyond the mountains.  They
started across the plains with two wagons, three yoke of oxen to each,
accompanied by their family of three children, following the trail known in
those days as the "middle route."  After a long and wearisome journey of six
months they arrived in Oregon, coming at once to Marion county, the destination
of many of the far-seeing farmers who had emigrated from the east.  Here Mr.
Sappingfield almost immediately rented some land on the old Edmundson claim.
This was in the fall of 1847.  Subsequently he purchased the right to a donation
claim located about eight miles east of Salem, which he regarded as the most
fertile of the available land in the county.  In the spring of 1848, he erected
on this property a log house of one room, its site being the same plot of ground
where he afterward built one of the most commodious homes of the day.  Without
any unnecessary delay he began the improvement of the land, and in the fall of
that year brought his family to their new home, where he spent the remainder of
his life.
     From time to time Mr. Sappingfield was able, with the accumulation of
years, to increase his landed possessions.  His first step in this direction
consisted of taking up six hundred and forty acres, about eighty acres of which
was in prairie and the remainder in timber and small brush.  To clear this land
and prepare it for the fruits of the harvest time presented a herculean task,
but it was not gigantic enough to daunt the sturdy and determined owner, who at
once applied himself to the work with energy.  During the years he devoted
himself to the undertaking, he succeeded in making it one of the finest and most
productive pieces of property in Marion county, and, indeed, in the entire
Willamette valley.  At the time of his death Mr. Sappingfield was the possessor
of three hundred and twenty acres of the original donation claim, upon which
they settled in 1848, and on which he erected three substantial houses.  To his
honor it is to be said that he assisted materially in the construction of nearly
all the roads in the neighborhood of his home.
     Side by side with this venerable man stood his equally faithful wife, now
in her eighty-fourth year, the couple forming, during the latter years of their
lives together, almost the last link with a historic and romantic past.  Their
long and useful life together was peculiarly blessed.  they accumulated an
abundance of worldly goods and innumerable friends, and their recollections of
more than a half century of life in the northwest enriched every passing day.
Their union has been blessed with the following children:  William, a prominent
resident of the state of Washington; Louisa, deceased; George, deceased; Amanda,
wife of J. T. King, a resident of Marion county; John W., deceased; Henry A., a
farmer of Marion county; and Charles.  The last-named son married Mary E. Given,
in September, 1892, and the young couple make their home on the farm occupied
for so many years by their parents, the same having been given over to their
management.
     Thus is told, though necessarily in brief outline, the story of the career
of one of the worthy founders of the empire of the northwest.  His business
sagacity, his integrity of character, and his splendid personality, supplemented
by his appreciation of the early possibilities of this region of the country,
render his record one that will endure as a monument to the important part he
bore in the development of one of the most favored agricultural localities in
the whole world.
 
 
Transcriber's additional notes:
 
"To Oregon By Ox-Team In '47"
The story of the coming of the Hunt family to the Oregon country and the
experience of G. W. Hunt in the gold diggings of California in 1849.
Author:  Fred Lockley
Published by Fred Lockley; Portland, Oregon
 
page 12, 13
     "Late that Fall several members of the party, including Mr. Hunt, took the
mountain fever from drinking impure water.  They took liberal doses of whiskey
and quinine, but this not proving effective, they decided to go back to the
Willamette Valley for the Winter.  They packed their outfit and moved to the
Oregon Trail, where they joined John SAPPINGFIELD and some others who were going
back to winter in the Willamette Valley."
     "Before leaving the Shasta district, Mr. Hunt and his comrades had been
joined by Nathan Olney, whose name is perpetuated by Olney Creek.  They also
visited by Captain Ben Wright, who hailed from Richmond, Indiana, and who later
gained considerable fame as an Indian fighter.  John SAPPINGFIELD, G. W. Hunt
and the rest of the Oregon-bound miners, traveled north till they came to the
base of Mt. Shasta, where Mr. Hunt was so sick with the mountain fever that he
could no longer stay in the saddle.  They camped for a while at the soda springs
there and while waiting for Mr. Hunt to recover, Mr. SAPPINGFIELD made a litter
of two poles, to which was fastened a blanket.  Putting Mr. Hunt in this litter,
they fastened the litter to two horses with Mr. Hunt swinging between.  The
party was joined by other miners to prevent attack by the Indians while crossing
the Siskiyou Mountains.  The newcomers wanted Mr. Hunt left by the side of the
road to die as they had to travel slower if he was taken along in the litter.
John SAPPINGFIELD, with one or two of the others, refused to abandon him and
they crossed the Siskiyou Mountains successfully and reached Cowan's place in
the Umpqua Valley.  They stopped there til Mr. Hunt ahd so far recovered that he
was able to ride over the Callapooia Mountains.  Word was sent ahead to Mr.
Hunt's father and Mr. Hunt was met near Eugene Skinner's place, on which the
city of Eugene is now built, by his father and mother with a wagon and an
ox-team and taken to his home in the Waldo Hills."
 
 
"A History of the Hunt Family"
Author:  G. W. Hunt
Press of McDonald, Gill & Co.; Boston, 1890
 
page 47 - 52
When we arrived at Tullis' they gave me a dose of quinine, and I was crazy for
two days.  Hearing that John SAPPINGFIELD and some others were camped a few
miles distant on their way to Oregon, Bus and I hurried down the Sacramento and
camped on the trail where SAPPINGFIELD's party was expected along.  When we
struck the Oregon trail we found no grass for our horses, so we went down on an
island in the Sacramento and camped.  While there we heard SAPPINGFIELD would
not be along for several days.  While camped here a man (whose name I will not
mention), learning we had considerable gold dust, kept on our trail and came to
our camp and pretended he wanted to go to Oregon with us.  He was a large, stout
man, and we were both quite weak on account of the fever.  We felt quite sure
his object was to rob us.  We coaxed him to return to the Springs for supplies.
We now moved our camp several miles, and hid so securely that he never found us.
While camped here we made some wild grape dumplings which made us deathly sick,
I had to eat a handful of gun-powder to relieve me of pain.  The second night at
this camp my old French work-horse gave a snort, and acted so strangely that we
dressed and snatched up our guns, and, peering through the grape vines in the
darkness, we saw a party of Indians crossing the Sacramento opposite our camp;
and they were so still about it we felt sure they had discovered us.  When they
came opposite us on the bank, Bush said, "Let's shoot."  I said, "For God's sake
don't shoot until we have to, for I don't know for sure that they mean to harm
us."  I suppose they heard Bush talking, for they turned around and swam to the
other side and were lost to view; what their object was we never knew.  The next
day we moved up the Oregon trail where we found the SAPPINGFIELDs camped, and
found them feasting on a huge grisly bear they had killed..................We
now took the trail once more for Oregon...............I managed to keep up with
the company until we arrived at the base of Mount Shasta, where there are some
fine soda springs.  I gave out here, and SAPPINGFIELD, who was may good
Samaritan, made a litter of two poles with a blanket fastened securely between
them; and putting one horse in the lead and one behind the litter, he fastened
the poles to the pack saddle, thus making a comfortable bed so I could lay down.
In this way I traveled very well, though very weak............One company of
miners overtook us while we were crossing Shasta Plains, who deliberately
proposed to the rest of our company to leave me and push on, as they were too
few in number to encounter the Indians alone.  John SAPPINGFIELD and several
others declared they would stay by me as long as I had life in me.  When we
arrived at Cowan's in Umpaqua Valley, SAPPINGFIELD and I stopped there a few
days to rest; and after resting here I was able to ride over the Calipooia
Mountains.............Of Mr. SAPPINGFIELD, who now lives on Howell Prairie, I
will say, a more unselfish, humane man than he it has never been my lot to meet;
and to him, under God, I owe my safe arrival at home.
     
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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in April 2006 by Diana Smith.  Submitter
has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.