Hines, H. K. "An Illustrated History of the State of Oregon." Chicago: Lewis
Pub. Co. 1893.  p. 984.
 
SAMUEL HEIPLE

     a prominent farmer of Clackamas county, and an Oregon pioneer of 1852, was
born in the State of Pennsylvania, September 1, 1828, and is of German descent.
Great-grandfather Heiple, a native of Germany, came to America and settled in
Pennsylvania previous to the Revolution. His son, David Heiple, lived to be
ninety years of age, and his son, also named David, was born in Somerset county,
Pennsylvania, November 15, 1796. The younger David Heiple, father of our
subject, was married in his native State to Miss Tenney Swanck, a daughter of
Jacob Swanck, their marriage occurring June 29, 1824.  In 1829 they removed to
Ohio, and in 1841 from there to Missouri, settling in Cedarville township,
Rockford county, where his death occurred September 24, 1857. They had ten
children, of whom Samuel, the third born, is now the only survivor.
     Mr. Heiple went with his parents to Ohio, where he resided thirteen years.
He then returned to Pennsylvania, and subsequently came from there to Oregon,
driving an ox team to pay for his board during the journey. That year, 1852, is
noted in the annals of history as the cholera year, and the train with which our
young friend traveled did not escape the epidemic. While on the Platte he was
taken with the cholera one morning, and before getting up his team some of the
Ohio boys gave him alcohol to drink. He waded the river six times in securing
the teams, a part of the way the water being neck deep. He has always
attributed his recovery to the alcohol and the water. Many were the emigrants he
helped to bury on that memorable journey, and he recalls the scenes at those
new-made graves as among the saddest he ever witnessed.
     Mr. Heiple arrived in East Portland early in December. He camped there in
the heavy timber and cut logs and made rails. He remembers having split 2,600
rails for fifty pounds of flour. It was a hard winter and, not withstanding he
worked right along regardless of the rain and snow, he ran behind in his
expenses $20, and then only had salt pork, coffee, bread and molasses. In the
spring he went to Puget sound, where he worked till the 4th of July, 1853. Then
after living in Marion county, two years, returned to Portland. He was engaged
in cutting cord-wood there, two years and after that took contracts to furnish
the steamboats with wood, remaining there, thus engaged sixteen years. In 1883
he purchased 673 acres of land in Clackamas county, to which property he removed
in 1888, and on which he has since made extensive improvements. He purchased ten
acres of land in East Portland, from which he cut the steamboat wood before
mentioned and a part of the land he afterward sold for $26,000.   The remaining
portion is now worth $45,000.
      November 1, 1865, he was married to Miss Mary Jones, a native of Missouri
and a daughter of George Jones, a native of the State of Ohio. The Jones family
came to Oregon in 1861, and Mr. Jones became one of the prominent citizens of
the State. At the time of his death he was the owner of three valuable farms. He
died August 22, 1888, and his wife passed away about eight months before. They
had twelve children, of whom nine are now living, Mrs. Heiple being the sixth
born. At her father's death she inherited a fourth interest in 290 acres of
land, located three miles east of the city of Salem. Mr. and Mrs. Heiple have
had eight children, as follows: Noah F.; George S., who died in his fourth year;
Simon E.; Edgar R.; Harlan L., who died at the age of sixteen months; Henry 0.,
Cleveland G., and Clara J.
   Mr. Heiple is a member of the Farmers' Alliance, and is Vice-President of the
order in Clackamas county. He is a good farmer and a reliable and worthy
citizen, who by his own honest efforts, has risen to be one of the most
prosperous men of his county.

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