Shaver, F. A., Arthur P. Rose, R. F. Steele, and A. E. Adams, compilers.  "An
Illustrated History of Central Oregon." ("Embracing Wasco, Sherman, Gilliam,
Wheeler, Crook, Lake, & Klamath Counties")  Spokane, WA: Western Historical
Publishing Co., 1905.  p. 785.
 
WILLIAM SMITH

     No record could be written of the pioneers of western Oregon that could
claim any measure of completeness if it did not contain the name of the
gentleman mentioned above. He is well known as the earliest pioneer of the
country now embraced in Crook county and has been here through all the history
making epochs since before the county organization. In all this he has taken the
part of the good citizen and is certainly deserving of much credit for what he
has done. Mr. Smith's home is some twelve miles up from Prineville on Mill
creek. He was born in England, the son of James and Catherine (Baxter) Smith,
both natives of the same country. After receiving his education in his native
place he came to America in 1850 and spent one year in hew York, then he went to
Ohio and worked on a farm for wages for two years. The next move was to Rock
Island, Illinois, and then with mule teams he crossed the plains in 1864 to
Stockton, California. He wrought for wages for some time there and in the spring
of 1865, came to Linn county, Oregon. In the fall of the same year he journeyed
east of the Cascades to Camp Polk, a military post in what is now Crook
county. He remained there until 1866, when he returned to the Willamette valley
and stayed one summer. In 1867 Mr. Smith came east of the mountains again, took
land by squatter's right and built the house where he is now located. There were
no settlers here then and he, as far as we have any record, is the first
permanent settler in Crook county. The land was all unsurveyed and the
wilderness uninhabited, save by the savages and the wild beasts. Warm Springs
Post, a small military station some fifty miles away, was the nearest white
man's abode and The Dalles, distant one hundred and thirty miles, was the
nearest postoffice. Mr. Smith had to devise all sorts of plans to maintain
himself in this new country and it was with difficulty that he secured the
necessities of life. His flour had to be made in a coffee mill and it was no
small task to raise wheat, cut it with a sickle, thresh it with a flail, winnow
it by the breezes of heaven and thus gain bread for his subsistence. However,
despite the adversities and the exceeding hard work that was necessary to gain
all this, Mr. Smith continued. In the spring of 1868 six settlers located in
this vicinity where Mr. Smith was residing. The Indians came in and stole their
work oxen and one horse and the entire settlement buried their provisions and
left the country. The next spring, however, Mr. Smith returned and since that
time has made his home here. His is the oldest house in the country and his
place is one of the abiding land marks of this part of Oregon.


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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in November 2011 by Diana Smith.
Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned
above.