Gilbert, Frank T. "Historic Sketches of Walla Walla, Whitman, Columbia and Garfield Counties, Washington Territory; and Umatilla County, Oregon." Portland, OR: Print & Lithographing House of A. G. Walling, 1882. p. a28. THOMAS P. PAGE now resides on a farm two miles south of Walla Walla city, through which runs Yellow Hawk creek. The place was formerly owned by M. B. Ward, and counted among those most valuable in the country. It contains 487 acres, is all fenced and cultivated, has a two and a half acre orchard, and is peculiarly adapted to the dairy business. For general appearance and adjacent scenery, refer to view of it accompanying this work. In this connection it would not be amiss to mention the fact that Mr. Page has a farm in the Assotin country of 160 acres, and that he makes a specialty at his home farm of the dairy business, where from sixty to seventy-five cows are milked. The subject of this sketch was born in Galway county, Ireland, March 3, 1832, from where he emigrated to America in 1847. He found his way the same year to Independence, Mo., where lived an uncle of his, named Cornelius Davy, who was a Santa Fe trader. The following spring he went with that uncle to El Paso, New Mexico. For four years he remained in New Mexico in the capacity of clerk, most of the time for a firm named Ogden & Hopin, who were sutlers for the 3d U. S. Infantry, at Dona Ana. In 1852, in company with several young companions, he started for California, and going by way of Mazatlan, in Mexico, sailed from that port for the scene of his gilded hopes. For forty days the crazy little craft beat up along the coast, until starved out he landed with his companions on the Peninsula of Lower California, at a Mexican town, from where they took horses and rode to San Diego, and thence by steamer to San Francisco. He reached the mines at Sonora, in Tuolumne county, without a cent of money and failed for a time to get employment, although offering to work for his board. He remained in that section of country until 1854, meeting with varied success, when he determined to leave the mines. We next find him stationed at Fort Tejon, California, where he was employed by a firm to conduct their sutler business until 1858, when he started merchandising at that place for himself. He did not continue his own business venture long, before concluding that his prospects would be improved by changing to what he imagined a more favorable locality in Oregon. Before leaving that country, however, he was married, January 11, 1857, to Miss Ellen, a daughter of that famous mountaineer, and frontiersman, Captain Joseph Gale, after whom "Gale's Peak" and "Gale's creek" in Washington county, Oregon, are named. This old pioneer, after a long life actively spent among the early trials and vicissitudes incident to the development of Oregon from a wilderness to civilization, finally yielded to the march of time, and answering to the call of the dark angel, passed into the shadowy unknown. His death, which leaves but a corporal's guard of that old pioneer phalanx behind, occurred in December, 1881, at his home in Eagle valley, Union county, Oregon. Mr. Page with his young bride reached Fort Vancouver in 1858, having come overland from Fort Tejon, and then passed up at the Columbia river to the Dalles. In November he reached Mill creek, in this county, and December 3 moved into his newly erected cabin on what now is known as the Patrick Lyon place. This was the second house built on that creek east of Walla Walla, and Mr. Page had brought with him a carriage, the first seen in this part of the country. Mr. Page remained on this farm until 1872, when he rented it, and went east of the Blue mountains with stock: into the Assotin creek country, but returned to Walla Walla city in 1874, to take charge of the post office for Mrs. S. D. Smith. In January, 1877, he assumed the duties of County Auditor, to which he had been elected the previous November 6, and, in 1878, he purchased the place where he now resides. The limited space devoted to personal histories in this work, permits but a mere glance at the outline of the many incidents that have made up the sum of Mr. Page's life, which has been marked and eventful. He was the first County Assessor of Walla Walla county; was elected County Commissioner in 1863, and served three years; and was twice chosen a member of the Territorial Legislature, first in 1866, and again in 1869. He was head farmer, in 1860 and 1861, at the establishment of the Lapwai Agency, and was Captain of a volunteer company that went from Walla Walla to assist General Howard in the Nez Perce outbreak, under Chief Joseph. From all of this, it will readily he observed that any attempt to particularize would swell this biography into a volume. In conclusion, we would suggest that the men who develop and shape the prospects and property of a country are such men as the subject of this sketch ; men who by activity, force of character, and honorable purposes, guided by a superior intelligence, mould for success that which they control, and shape for improvement that which falls within range of their influence. The birth and ages of Mr. and Mrs. Page's children are as follows: Sabina, September 24,1858 ; May, May 23, 1860; Minnie, May 1, 1862, died December 23, 1872 ; Thomas D., March 23, 1864; Elizabeth, December 11, 1869 ; Belle, October 19, 1870 ; Nellie, December 24, 1874. * * * * Submitted to the WA. Bios Project in February 2007 by Diana Smith. Notice: These biographies were transcribed for the Washington Biographies Project. Unless otherwise stated, no further information is available on the individual featured in the biographies.