Oregon Republican League: History 104 Biographies

Every Wednesday, the Oregon Republican League will post the biographies of important figures, in the League's/State of Oregon's history. Feel free to comment or share stories of your family's Republican affiliation.

http://www.rootsweb.com/~orgenweb/bios/davidoliverquick.html

Hon. David Oliver Quck

This is information from the Pen Pictures of the Garden of the World:
Hon. David Oliver Quick, one of Polk County's prominent citizens, was born in Indiana, August 27, 1829. His ancestors were people who settled in the colonies prior to the Revolutionary War. His great-grandfather lost his life in that struggle for independence. Mr. Quick's father, James was born in Kentucky in 1803. He married Miss. Elizabeth McClure, a native of Indianna, born in 1806, daughter of William McClure. They reared to maturity nine children, of whom seven are still living. The father removed to Indiana when a child of three with his parents and was reared there on a farm. He was a good member of the Baptist Church. He died in Franklin County, Indiana in 1868, the sixty-four-year of his life. His wife lived to be eighty-five and then died September 15, 1891. The son, David was their third child, and was sent to public school of his native state. He began life for himself as a school teacher in Illinois and taught for eight year. In 1856 "57 '58 Mr. Quick read law in Hillsboro Illinois and was admitted to the bar in 1858. He practised his profession in Litchfield until 1862, when he crossed the plains to Oregon. His family consisted of his wife and onne child. They started in April and arrived in August at Fort Lemhi, Idaho. They adandoned their wagons and traveled on the new indian trail to the waters of the Missouri and crossed the Rocky Mountains three times. They followed that to Elk City. Here they remained for two months while Mr. Quick engaged in the mines. He then packed to Linn County and from there to Washington County, and settled on 200 Acres of land North of Hillsboro. He was engaged in Washington County, purchased 120 acres of land on the property he was engaged on. He was engaged in Horticulture, growing all kinds of nursery stock. In Politics, Mr. Quick was a democrat until the firing upon of Ft. Sumpter when he espoused the cause of the Union with all his heart and joined the ranks of the republican party where he has since proven himself a valuable ally. In Washington County he was elected to the State Legislature and served the session of 1864-65 and he had the honor and pleasure of voting upon the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

Mr. Quick was married for the first time to Miss Sarah Updike in 1852, she was a native of Indiana, and it was in that state that the ceremony occurred.. Mr. and Mrs. Quick had two children: Emmerson Eugene now resides in St Helens, Columbia County, where his is County Clerk. The second child died as well as the mother in 1857, and in 1858 Mr Quick married his second wife Miss Parmelia Young a native of Kentucky, born 1840.. Mr and Mrs Quick had seven children as follows: Sara E, wife of Mr Thomas Fowles, Oliver Emmet resides in Washington County, Oregon, William is with his father on the farm, Annie , James Warren, Fred Young and Ada Gertrude are at home Mr. and Mrs. Quick are worthy members of the Evangelical Church in which he is an officer .. Mr.Quick is a man of integrity and intelligence, and he was won a host of friends wherever he has made his home.

****************************************

McDonough Bainbridge Rees

An Illustrated History of Union and Wallowa Counties With a Brief Outline of the Early History of the State of Oregon. The Western Historical Publishing Company, 1902, pp. 257-258.

An active, energetic, and progressive man, the subject of this sketch has ever been in the van guard of advancement and his vigorous spirit and fine abilities have been an equipment for the conflicts and struggles of life which have given him victory at every point and caused him to be attended with prosperity, while his walk has been of such a character that he has always to the fullest extent enjoyed the esteem and confidence of his fellows. Mr. Rees has been a man of wide and extended experience in many walks of life and his powers of adaptability have ever given him a prestige and success that many another has missed, while the many years of activity in all the leading occupations that man has taken up and expecially in the varied callings of the frontiersman Mr. Rees has acquired a wealth of knowledge and wisdom that few have the privilege of enjoying, and which have made him a very valued citizen and one sought after by his fellows.

The birth of our subject was in Butler county, Ohio, on February 10, 1831, being the son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Griffin) Rees. The old log school houses of the primitive days were the centers whence the lad received his educational training, which was more highly prized as the means were simple and incomplete. For the first seventeen years of his life, he was at home and in the service of the farm and working for neighbors and then he started into the commercial world as a peddler, handling oil cloth, pumps, and wind mills, and later selling lightning rods through Tennessee and Mississippi. In the fall of 1852, he returned to Ohio and entered business with his brother, J. G. Rees, who was proprietor and editor of the Greenville Journal, in Darke county, of hi native state. Two years he operated in that capacity and then started for the Pacific coast, making the trip by way of New York, the isthmus, and the Pacific ocean to Portland. His brother, W. H. Rees, had previously , in 1844, settled in what is now Marion county, and there he went, settling at Butteville on the old French Prairie, remaining there until July, 1855, engaged in various occupations. At the date mentioned he went on a mining trip to the mouth of the Pend Oreille river, where placer diggings had been discovered. He went by steamer to The Dalles and thence by horseback to his destination. Success smiled upon him and he was enabled to have the joy of returning to Butteville with a goodly portion. the following winter was spent in the place and there, in 1856, was contracted his marriage with America Frances Hall, whose parents, James and Cynthia, were pioneers to that section in 1845. Mr. Rees then bought a farm and also taught school for some time in the vicinity of Butteville, being occupied also in tilling his farm until 1860, when he was again stirred to take part in mining and so went to the new and thriving camps of Oro Fino, in Idaho. One summer was spent there and then he repaired to Florence, where two years were spent, being crowned with reasonable success. In the fall of 1862 he returned to Butteville and the following spring found his vigorous and exploring spirit in the Bannock camps in Idaho, whence he returned to Butteville for the winter of 1863 and there in company with J. Herren bought cattle, which they drove to Union county in the spring and herded them on Willow creek and arrived in the Grande Ronde valley in the fall of 1864. Here he bought one hundred and sixty acres of land near Cove and there made his home until 1869. In this vicinity, Mr. Rees has accumulated nine hundred acres of good land and just recently he purchased twelve hundred and forty-six acres two miles south of Elgin, which is used partly for raising crops and partly for pasture. In 1880, Mr. Rees took up the sheep business, handling only the improved breeds, and in 1889 sold out the entire bunch.

There have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Rees seven children, four of whom are now living, namely: Sherman, manager of the flour mill at Cove; Edward C., farming near Cove; Walter; Harry C., farming on the property near Elgin. Politically, Mr. Rees has always taken the part of the intelligent and progressive citizen, yet never pressing himself for preferment. However, in 1866, his friends placed him in nomination on the Republican ticket for the state legislature, and in 1892 he was also brought forward for the senate but to use his own words, he was "fortunate enough to get beaten each time." In all of his dealings, Mr. Rees is a man of uprightness and is a prosperous business man and respected member of the community and citizen of the county.

********************************************

http://www.rootsweb.com/~orgenweb/bios/william-rees.html

AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OREGON
Gustavus Hines

Hon. Willard Hall Rees, of French prairie, Marion county, Oregon, was born on an old family estate adjoining Smyrna, Kent county, Delaware, September 17, 1819, in the same house where his great-grandfather Griffin, grandfather, mother and eldest sister were born, the property having been purchased by his father, Thomas Rees, just prior to his marriage to Elizabeth Stout Griffin, early in 1817. His ancestors were Welsh on both sides, of the Quaker persuasion; emigrated and settled in Delaware in 1682. The now state of Delaware being then included in the Penn grant. The ancestors on both sides were soldiers in the Revolutionary war on the side of the colonies. Thomas Rees, father of our subject, lost his parents at the age of fourteen, inheriting his father's mills and other real estate; leaving school at the age of sixteen, his uncle David Rees, his guardian, sent him to Philadelphia to learn the milling business. When the subject of this sketch was six months old his father moved to Dover, near which place he had mill property, conducting the same until the fall of 1825, when he moved westward, settling on a farm near Cincinnati. Where his father-in-law, Jacob S. Griffin, had preceded him eight years. Thomas and Elizabeth Rees, father and mother of our subject, reared to manhood and womanhood a family of twelve children. Two sisters residing in Preble county, Ohio, four brothers in Kansas, two farmers and two bankers. M. B. Rees, of Cove, Union county, Oregon; Major R. R. Rees, editor and merchant, died in Walla Walla, in 1889; S. G. Rees, accidently killed at Alturas, California; Thomas Clayton Rees, drowned in Kansas river; Lieutenant D. A. Rees, of Sherman's army, was killed at Kenesaw Mountain; and Lieutenant Corwin P. Rees, United States Navy, now on duty at World's Fair at Chicago. In 1844, while yet a young man, filled with the spirit of adventure and with a desire to see the country, he crossed the plains to Oregon, and came in the same company as did Hon. John Minto, with others. The season was a wet one and the party was obliged to ford the streams, as they were much swollen, and the party covered seven months on the journey. They met with many difficulties, but surmounted them all and reached the end of the journey safely.

At Vancouver Mr. Rees met Dr. McLoughlin, then a man of sixty years of age. Our subject at once took a mill building contract, the mill to be erected above Astoria, and he was engaged in this business until May 1845, when he came to Oregon City, taking a contract on the Catholic Church and several other buildings. After this he came to ST. Louis, in Marion county, to build a Catholic church for the French-Canadian settlement. Here he learned of the rich land on French prairie, and was induced to purchase a right to a donation claim of one Stephen Pelchie. For this property Mr. Rees paid $975, and here he has since made his home.

This farm is now one of the most desirable in the county and here our subject has lived and reared his family. In January, 1847, he was united in marriage with Miss Amanda Hall, who was born in Missouri, August 20, 1828 and was the daughter of James E. Hall, an Oregon pioneer of 1845, from the State of Kentucky. The father of Mrs. Rees died in his seventy-second year, but her mother is yet living, in her eighty-ninth year.

The discovery of gold in California gave many of the emigrants the gold fever, and Mr. Rees, with a number of his neighbors, made the trip overland with pack animals in 1848. They were thirty days on the journey, and it was one in which they were in great danger. While prospecting in California a party of the company were attacked by Indians and one of them was killed, one severely wounded and two others slightly wounded. The party mined on the Mokelumne rivers.

Our subject worked until the following February, taking out $3,000; but was then taken sick and returned to Oregon. After is return, he and Mr. O. S. Thomas and Mr. William Whiting built the first saw and grist mills at Aurora, on Deer creek, Marion county. For several years he continued contracting and building, and was engaged for some time on the Government buildings at Champoeg, where Oregon's first Indian treaties were held. During all this time he continued his farming.

To Mr. And Mrs. Rees were born twelve children, as follows: Olivia married J. W. Welch, and resides in Astoria; Elizabeth E. became the wife of William Hendershott; Annie R. is now Mrs. John Clark; Lora C. is the wife of Dr. C. H. Day, of Portland; David C. resides at Waitsburg, Washington; Thomas H. and Harry L. are both at home, running the farm; Park A. is a dentist at Astoria; Willard H. is at home; Clara A. and Priscilla are both at home; and Lilly died in her sixteenth year. There are now twenty-one grandchildren in the family.

In his early life Mr Rees was a Whig in his politics, but he has the honor of having been one of the organizers of the Republican party, and since then he has been stanch in the ranks of the Republican party. In 1847 he was elected a member of the Territorial Legislature, and was Chairman of the Committee on Counties, and gave Linn county its name. Since then he has declined office. He drew up the constitution and took a leading part in organizing the Oregon Pioneer Association, a useful institution. Its historic research is limited to the original Territory, embracing Oregon, Washington and Idaho. The addresses at its annual reunions call out the best pioneer talent within its filed of research. Mr. Rees is thoroughly posted on its history and takes an active part in its transactions. He has been chosen as the orator for the annual address to the society, and is an interesting and capable writer and speaker. His family fairly represent the native sons and daughters of Oregon, and both he and wife are much esteemed among the pioneers of this great State where they so long have found a home.