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.


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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.