Gaston, Joseph.  "Portland, Oregon Its History and Builders."  Vol. 2. 
Chicago and Portland, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1911. p. 78.
 
JACOB T. HUNSAKER

     With those "first things" which mark the beginnings of history, which
are in fact the vanguard of an advancing civilization, Jacob T. Hunsaker was
closely connected, for he became a resident of this section of the country in
1846. Portland practically had no existence at that time but Oregon City had its
little band of enterprising residents and a few venturesome spirits were located
in the Columbia and Willamette river valleys, yet on the whole this section
was a great unclaimed, unsettled and unimproved district. Mr. Hunsaker was
of Swiss ancestry and was born in southern Illinois, July 20, 1818.
     On the 7th of December, 1837, he was married to Miss Emily Margaret
Collings of the old Collings family of Kentucky. Her mother was a
representative of the Burdett family of Virginia and both her paternal and
maternal grandfathers were soldiers of the Revolutionary war. Mrs. Hunsaker was
born near Louisville, Kentucky, October 3, 1820, and ere the start was made for
the northwest, she had become the mother of five children. A belief that
superior advantages might be enjoyed in that section of the country led the
family in 1846 to bid farewell, a tearful one it was, to friends and relatives
in Illinois and start upon the long, wearisome march to Oregon, Mrs. Hunsaker
driving a team hitched to a light wagon, in which were the children, while the
bedding and cooking outfit were also packed therein. The parents being anxious
to get  through and establish their home, left their ox team and wagon in charge
of their man and pushed on ahead of the train over the Barlow road. They
were the first to come thus directly over past Oregon City to the Molalla
prairie where Mr. Hunsaker soon put in a crop. He also aided in building the
school-house in that district and thus planted the seeds of educational progress
there. Another child was born to them while the parents were living in that
district. Later Mr. Hunsaker went down the Columbia river to look up a site for
a sawmill which he finally located at a point on Milton creek, near where the
town of St. Helen's now stands. When the mill was completed he removed
his family to that location. It was a needed industry and he found
immediate market for the product of the mill. Ships coming from California
bought his lumber and so eager were they that they would have torn down the mill
to secure more had they been permitted. When they left not a loose stick or slab
could be found anywhere. Mr. Hunsaker received a splendid price for the lumber
and a few months later also disposed of his mill at a high figure. His purpose
in selling out was to go to a district where educational opportunities could be
secured for the children. A huge raft was built by lashing together piles of
lumber and lumber was also piled on all sides for protection. On this the family
embarked and with sail and oar worked their way to Oregon City, where schools
had been established. The three older girls were placed in the Sisters School
and the son became a pupil of Mary Johnson, who had been placed in charge of the
school in the first Baptist church built west of the Rocky Mountains, a school
from which has been developed the present McMinnville College. Soon Mr. Hunsaker
built another sawmill, which he erected on the Washougal river near the present
site of LaCamas. A terrible forest fire drove them from their Washougal mill
and, in October, 1849, they returned to Oregon City, where they purchased a
place near the Clackamas river, where the family home was maintained through the
succeeding forty years. While there residing six more children were added to the
family and there the two oldest, Horton and Josephine, died in 1853.
     While Mr. Hunsaker devoted much attention to his business interests and met
with substantial success therein, he was also connected with many of the early
events which have left their impress upon the pages of history. He was one of
the jury impaneled to try the Indians who participated in the famous Whitman
massacre and hung the jury for sometime, believing that there was not sufficient
evidence to convict a certain Indian. His political support was given to the
whig party until its dissolution and he acted as chairman of the meeting at
which the republican party of this district was organized in Oregon City.
However, he never took a prominent part in politics.
     In 1874 the family were called upon to mourn the loss of wife and mother,
who died very suddenly on the 14th of January. She had many noble, heroic,
self-sacrificing qualities and at the burial services Dr. Achinson said of her:
" She hath done what she could. Only for her help and hearty cooperation, her
cheer and encouraging words, I should have been utterly discouraged in the
attempt to raise means for the building of the Young Ladies' Seminary." All who
knew her expressed the same opinion of her splendid qualities. After the death
of his first wife, Mr. Hunsaker was never satisfied with the old home and
thereafter removed to a farm which he purchased near Woodburn, there passing
away on the 20th of August, 1889.
     They reared a large family and several of their children have taken an
active part in the public life and business development of this section of the
country. The oldest of their living children is Marianne, who became the wife of
A. C. Edmunds, a Universalist minister from California, whose grandfather and
uncles were soldiers of the war for Independence. He died in 1878.  Their only
daughter, Emily Coryell, became the wife of I. C. Sanford, who was descended in
both the paternal and maternal lines from those who fought with the American
army in the Revolutionary war. At the present time, Mr. and Mrs. Sanford are
living in Portland and have two children, Dorothy and Harold. Mrs. Edmunds
married a second time, becoming the wife of J. F. D'Arcy, a native of Boston,
Massachusetts, and a lawyer by profession. She had one son by this marriage,
Francis, who is a graduate of the law department of the University of Oregon and
is now living with his mother in Portland.
     Araminta Hunsaker became the wife of Theodore Burmister, a German by birth
and at that time a young law student. She met a sad and tragic death near Boise,
Idaho. She had one son, Frank Theodore, who lives in Salt Lake City, and has a
large family of children.
     Jacob Hunsaker married Lizzie V., daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Chambers,
of Chambers Prairie, who were pioneers of Oregon and Washington. They have four
children: Lloyd, residing in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Hallie, Cassie and
Margaret, all living in Everett, where the family have made their home for a
number of years.
     Sarah Hunsaker, the first child born after the arrival of the family in
Oregon, was married to J. Tompkins, the eldest son of D. D. Tompkins, a pioneer
of 1847, whose ancestors were represented in the Revolutionary war. They have
six children: Daniel D., Jacob, Forbes Barclay and Morton, all of whom are
married; and Emily and Verna, who are living with their parents near Salem,
Oregon.
     Lycurgus Hunsaker, who was born in 1849, soon after the family settled on
the home place near the Clackamas, married Lilly, a daughter of Mr. Learn, an
Oregon pioneer.
     Nancy Katherine became the wife of H. B. Nicholas, an attorney and a son of
Peter Marks Nicholas, a member of the old Virginia family of that name, whose
mother was a niece of President Thomas Jefferson. The eldest son of Mr. and Mrs.
H. B. Nicholas is Byron Randolph Nicholas, who married Nancy Voorhies, of
Kentucky, and they have one son, John Voorhies III. Their only daughter, Beulah,
is the wife of Francis Phillips Hallinan. Two other sons, Wilson Cary and Robert
Winn, are living with their parents in Portland.
     Caroline Hunsaker married Frank E. Arnold, a native of Boston and
a representative of an old colonial family. For a number of years they
have resided in Portland and have seven children, Ruth, Carolyn Kellogg,
Emmons, Alice Frances, Sam and Josie, A.H. are still at home with the exception
of Ruth, who is now the wife of Dr. Wardell, of Seattle.
     Alice Hunsaker is the wife of Charles Oster, a farmer of eastern Oregon and
they have three children, Winnefred, Margaret and Charles Jacob, all living at
home near Heppner.                                                 
     Emily Jane Hunsaker is the wife of Ernest P. Waite, of Maine, whose
fore-fathers for many years have been sea captains. Mr. and Mrs. Waite are now
living in Eureka, California.
     John Hunsaker, the youngest member of the family, is unmarried and lives in
California.


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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in June 2007 by Diana Smith. Submitter
has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned
above.