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. 496.
 
CHARLES R. ROLLINS, M.D.

     an esteemed citizen of Grass Valley, now retired from active business, is
also one of the builders of Sherman county. He was born in New Hampshire, on
June 2, 1829, the son of Joseph and Mary (Russell) Rollins, natives of the same
state. The father came from an old colonial family of English ancestry and died
in 1874 in California, being then aged eighty years. The mother came from French
ancestry and died in 1846 in New Hampshire. The first six years of our subject's
life were spent in New Hampshire and then the family moved to Vermont. When
Charles was fourteen, he went to Roxbury, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston, and
there attended a night school and learned the printing trade in the office of
the Uni-Vicelum, a communistic paper, edited by Charles R. Dana, assisted by
George Ripley. Dana, as is well known, later became one of the most prominent
journalistic men of the English ,speaking world, being for years editor of the
New York Sun. After three years the paper suspended where our subject was
learning his trade, then he went to New York city and thence to New Jersey,
where he joined the North American Phalanx a communistic community and was
occupied in driving the stage from Red Bank, New Jersey, to the community and
boarded at the same house where Mr. Horace Greeley lived. Later he went to
Massachusetts and studied medicine with Dr. Jerome Wilmoth, practicing during a
portion of the time. After four years in these studies, the doctor returned to
New Jersey and took charge of the machinery part of' a large sash and door
factory. Later, we find him in Indiana and in 1856, he took up land twenty-one
miles south from St. Paul upon which was afterwards built the town of
Farmington, Minnesota, where he lived and practiced medicine until about 1873,
when he journeyed to California and passed the examination of the state board to
practice in that state and then took a post graduate course in the Columbia
Medical College, graduating in 1877 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. In
1878, he came to the vicinity of Grass Valley and took up land. A portion of the
town now stands upon the land he took up. There were only forty-two white people
then in the precincts of what is now Sherman county when the doctor landed here.
He erected a store building and operated a mercantile establishment in addition
to his practice. His riding was very extensive as he was the only physician
between Antelope and the Columbia river. Later, he was associated in the
mercantile business with his son-in-law, Mr. Moore, who is mentioned elsewhere
in this volume, the doctor taking a personal supervision of the drug department
of the establishment. Dr. Rollins was one of the organizers of the State
Pharmaceutical Board and the State Druggists Association and has been a leading
figure here for over a quarter of a century. During this entire time, he has
steadily resided in Grass Valley with the exception of two years that were spent
in Portland. Of late, he has retired from the practice of medicine and also from
all active business, being justified by the success he has won in his life's
labors.
     In Massachusetts, when nineteen years of age, Dr. Rollins married Sybil A.
Lillie, who was born in Massachusetts in November, 1829, the daughter of Henry
and Charlotte F. Lillie, natives of Massachusetts. In 1886, Mrs. Rollins died
here in Grass Valley. Doctor Rollins has one brother, Ira L., a farmer in
Michigan. His father had one brother, Henry, an architect in Elsimore,
California.
     To the Doctor and his wife, five children have been born; George H., in Rye
Valley, Oregon, handling a mail contract; Edward, a barber in Portland ; Nena
M., the wife of Charles G. Staples, a confectioner of Spokane ; Eva L., wife of
Charles W. Moore, mentioned elsewhere in this work ; and Charles M., residing in
Grass Valley.
     The Doctor is a member of the A. F. & A. M. and is a man of excellent
standing and worth. In August, 1891, Dr. Rollins platted the town of Grass
Valley and still owns a goodly portion of the townsite, as well as additions
which he has since platted. He was the first practicing physician here, operated
the first store and conducted the first hotel, as well as raised and threshed
the first crop of wheat within the boundaries of the present Sherman county.

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