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. 756.
 
SAMUEL RUSH

     a farmer residing at Lamonta, Crook county, was born in Jackson county,
Alabama, on April 24, 1829. His father, Jacob Rush, was born in North Carolina,
in 1806, and married Malinda Satterfield, who was born in Jackson county,
Alabama, in 1813. Our subject received his early education in the common schools
of Alabama, but owing to the fact that the country there was very new, he had
little opportunity for schooling. However, he studied books and periodicals that
he could secure outside of school and became well read. He went with his parents
to Crawford county, Arkansas, in 1846, where they settled on a farm and remained
until March 15, 1852, when they started with an ox team across the plains. Our
subject's father was the captain of the train and the company consisted of
twenty-one wagons and one hundred and five people. Their first difficulties were
encountered when they got to the Big Blue, as there the cholera broke out and
one man died. In a very short time the disease spread throughout the train and
to other trains on the road and when they reached the Little Blue our subject's
father died. Our subject, one brother and his youngest sister took the disease
and just at the critical stage a doctor came along and gave them medicine, which
with good care pulled them through. So terribly, fierce were the ravages of this
disease that a cavalry captain in the United States army who came along at that
time counted eleven hundred graves inside of ninety miles. As the Indians were
hostile, our subject was urged to push on and they finally got to Fort Kearney,
over-taking five wagons of their train that had gone on. There six people from
these wagons died in seven days. Then the little train pushed on up the Platte
valley and everything went well until in the Rockies, when Nancy Rush, a sister
of our subject, took mountain fever. She lingered until they crossed the John
Day and then died. At Willow creek, in Morrow county, they had exhausted their
provisions and our subject purchased from a man who was camped on the road,
seventeen pounds of flour for eighteen dollars. On Fifteenmile creek, in what is
now Gilliam county, they came to a settler's place, named Nathan Olney, who sold
them a few potatoes for thirty-seven and one-half cents per pound. When they
arrived at The Dalles, our subject had no money but he sold a yoke of oxen and
bought a little flour which cost three bits a pound. As Mr. Rush could get no
passage on the boats on the river, he hired Indians to take him and the balance
of the family to Cascade Falls. His brother, Richard, drove the cattle down, and
took the typhoid fever. Then they hired another party to take the cattle on to
the mouth of the Sandy and the family went down the river on a flat boat owned
by Joseph Stephens, who, owing to their terrible troubles, suffering and
shortage of cash, took them down free of charge. At the mouth of the Sandy, the
mother died and was there buried. They had left one wagon on the Malheur in
Eastern Oregon and one with Parker & Elliott at The Dalles, who agreed to
deliver it at Portland by December 25. Afterwards, Mr. Gates, an attorney at The
Dalles, said that the wagon was carried away by a freshet so our subject
sustained that loss. At Sandy, he secured a wagon from Mr. Smith to carry their
effects to Oregon City with the agreement with Mr. Smith that the wagon was to
be delivered in Linn county by December 25. They were very short of provisions
on this trip to Oregon City and on one occasion he met a man who had a little
sugar who kindly divided with them as they had almost nothing. Out of one
hundred and five souls starting on this memorable trip across the plains, but
forty-five reached Oregon, the others having all remarks that Mr. Barlow was
very kind to him in many ways at this time and he continued in his employ until
August, 1853, then the family made its way into Lane county, where our subject
took a donation claim, the date being September 3, 1853. He lived there fifteen
years and then in 1867, moved to Jackson county, where he remained until 1884,
then he journeyed to Crook county. Here he purchased land and has continued
farming since. He has done pioneer work both in the valley and here and deserves
much credit as a frontiersman and pathfinder.
     On March 12, 1857, Mr. Rush married Elizabeth Breeding, who was born in
Missouri, on December 25, 1838. The children born to this couple are Jennie, the
wife of T. R. Bennett: Malinda, married to J. W. Robinson; I. C.; Mrs. Ella
Springs; Belle, wife of James Wood; and Mamie, wife of J. T. Robinson.
     Mr. and Mrs. Rush are members of the Christian church and are worthy
people. In politics, he has always been a Democrat. Everything that is for the
betterment of the country finds in Mr. Rush a hearty support and he is well
known and highly esteemed.
     It is of interest to know that Dr. Benjamin Rush, who signed the
Declaration of Independence, was a brother of the grandfather of our subject.


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