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. 620. HUGH C. STRICKLAND devotes himself to farming and raising stock. He resides about five miles northwest from Condon, and there owns an estate of fourteen hundred acres. It is a valuable property and has been made much more so by the wisdom and thrift of the owner. Eight hundred acres were cropped to wheat this year and the bounteous harvest demonstrated the skill of Mr. Strickland. He is known as one of the leading citizens of Gilliam county and has done very much to build up the county and bring it to its present prosperous condition. He is a stimulus to good labors, as he is always striving for the best. He takes great pride in raising good stock, in tilling the soil in the best manner, in improving in the best way and in fact, he is a man with an ideal of the perfect and constantly strives for the attainment of his ideal. This has stimulated others to good action and Mr. Strickland is to be greatly commended for his efforts in these lines. Hugh C. Strickland was born in Portland, Oregon, on January 2, 1856, being thus both a native of the Web-foot State and one of its earliest pioneers. William Strickland, a native of Virginia, was his father and he was a true frontiersman. He removed from his native state to North Carolina when a young man and thence he journeyed to the territory of Iowa in the early thirties. After nineteen years of life there, he came on across the plains in the memorable forty-nine. He was accompanied by Charles Denton and wintered the first winter on Fifteenmile creek, now in Wasco county. The snow fell to a great depth that year and they lost all their stock. In 1852, Mr. Strickland determined to try the Willamette valley and accordingly went to where Portland now stands and took a donation claim. A portion of that great city now stands on this ground. Finding it a terribly hard task to clear the heavily wooded land and being obliged to raise food for his family he abandoned 'the claim and went to Clackamas county and took land. That was his home until 1872, when he sold and came back east of the mountains, settling in Wasco county. He purchased land and lived on it until called away by death in 1879. He was aged seventy-six at that time and was a highly respected man. He had undergone all the hardships known to the pioneer and was a good man, a bold Indian fighter, and a true blue frontiersman. He had married Miss Elizabeth Willis, a native of Des Moines county, Iowa, and she crossed the plains with her husband and participated in his life until his death. Her first child was horn while they were crossing the plains. She died in 1889, aged sixty-three. Our subject was educated in the Willamette valley and in 1873 came to Wasco county and remained one winter with his father at Barlow gate. The next year he came where he now lives and took a homestead, and since that time he has continued here. This makes Mr. Strickland one of the earliest pioneers of this county and one of the oldest settlers. In 1889, Mr. Strickland married Miss Jessie M. Becker, the wedding occurring in Aberdeen, South Dakota. Mrs. Strickland's parents are Joseph and Lucy Becker, natives of Toronto, Canada. She also was born in Toronto, Canada, and came thence with her parents when a small girl to Dakota. Two children are the fruit of this union, Hazel M. and Genevieve. Mr. Strickland is a member of the I. O. O. F. He started in life without capital and is now the possessor of much property, all accumulated by his own labors and skill. He and his wife have a lovely home, supplied with spring water and all conveniences, and they are leading people in the county and have a great many friends. ******************* Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in November 2010 by Diana Smith. Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.