General Notes

Father:  Darling Smith (b. 29 Jan 1824 in New York; d. 27 Dec 1896 Yamhill County, OR)

Mother:  Ellen Texanna Gerrish (b. 29 Oct 1835 in Texas; d. 10 Aug 1861 in Yamhill County, OR)

married on 27 Nov 1851

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from the NewsRegister.com (newspaper in McMinnville, OR)
http://204.200.26.244/news/story.cfm?story_no=187676
accessed 3/12/2006


First large wagon train left for Oregon in 1842

Published: November 30, 2004

Darling Smith's name is one that has intrigued us for some time. A story in the News-Register edition of March 6, 1989, written by Barbara Smith Bodeen [a descendant of Darling Smith], acquaints us with the important contribution he and his family have made to Yamhill County.

Darling Smith was one of the sons of Andrew D. Smith and Polly Porter Smith, originally from New York state.

They married on Sept. 18, 1817. They had Elizabeth in 1818, William in 1820, Andrew in 1822, Darling in 1824, Ezra in 1826, Jane in 1827, Riley in 1829, Almond in 1831 and Adaline in 1835.

They lost William and Ezra as infants. They would go on to lose Riley, Almond and Adaline after coming to Oregon, Riley drowning at Yamhill Locks.

Andrew and Polly were not happy with their situation in New York. They dreamed of a place where they could have a better life, with a nice home, green pastures, fat cattle and friendly neighbors.

They saw a chance for this when Dr. Elijah White happened by their church expounding on the wonders of Oregon Territory.

Elijah White was born in New York in 1806 and educated at the medical college in Syracuse, N.Y. In 1836, the Methodist church appointed him physician to a mission in Oregon's Willamette Valley.

Over time, disagreements with Jason Lee, who ran the Salem-based church mission, led to White's resignation and return East. He hurried back to Washington, D.C., where he was able to secure appointment as subagent for the territory's Indian tribes.

He was encouraged to gather a group of emigrants to take with him to settle the area. The next year, he led the first wagon train ever to include more than 100 people bound for Oregon.

Andrew Smith and his family were excited about the promise of this new land, so prepared to join White. Theirs would be the first emigrant train to cross the Great Plains to the Willamette Valley.

They began their trip in the spring of 1842, a full year before the first great emigration of 1843, which brought so many early pioneers to Yamhill County. They counted about 20 wagons and more than 100 people, including three wagons and nine people associated with the Smith group.

While the trip went smoothly, rumors of Indian atrocities frightened the emigrants. Rumor had it that the Ogallala Sioux were on the warpath, torturing to death any whites trying to pass through their lands.

White hired Thomas Fitzpatrick to guide the group to the Willamette Valley. He was known for being able to broker deals with the Indians.

Another fortunate event was having F.X. Matthieu along, as he could speak the Sioux language. He was bound for Oregon with a party of six French-Canadian trappers.

The only trouble came near Independence Rock, where 5,000 Indians descended on their camp. The Indians went from tent to tent, looking in at the occupants.

Dressed in little more than war paint, they began scouting the young women. They soon turned their focus to the Smith group, deciding either Elizabeth or Jane would be an appropriate gift for their war chief.

Andrew Smith Sr., near panic, sent his oldest surviving son, 20-year-old Andrew Smith Jr., to fetch Matthieu. Matthieu had to explain that neither of the girls was for sale.

The Indians expressed surprise, noting that white men commonly bought Indian women to take as wives. Before they could press the matter further, the wagon train staged a predawn departure to put the trouble behind.

Passing through Sioux country, heading up the North Platte and Sweetwater rivers to the Green River, proved full of difficulty. But the problems were with Nature, not Indians.

Fitzpatrick and Matthieu were able to get the people all through in good shape, but not the wagons. Most had to be cut apart and turned into carts.

At Fort Hall, even the carts were abandoned. The party loaded their remaining goods on pack animals and proceeded from there on foot.

Arriving at Oregon City, just a Hudson Bay outpost at the time, the Smith family spent the next few months recovering and assembling the wherewithal to develop their own place. Before long, they were ready to claim a tract of land and start building.

They followed the advice of a friend to go west across the Willamette River. After paying Medorem Crawford $12 to cross the river, they found their Eden at the end of a two-day journey.

Their new home was where the town of Dayton had its beginnings.

Andrew Sr., Andrew Jr. and Darling Smith all filed claims in 1844. They soon had a log cabin up on good land that included about half of present-day Dayton.

Their closest neighbors were Francis Fletcher, James O'Neil, Amos Cook, Joseph McLaughlin, Louis La Bonte and George Gay, all among the area's earliest settlers.

There weren't many people around, but wonderful lifelong marriages were made nonetheless.

Upon arriving in Oregon, none of the Smith children were married.

Eldest at 24, Elizabeth was courted by Frances Fletcher and they married on Dec. 28, 1843. They raised five children.

Two years later, Pleasant Armstrong began courting Jane Smith. They married on Oct. 30, 1845, but had no children.

Armstrong died in the Indian wars of 1854 in Southern Oregon. Two nephews helped her farm the land for a time, but she was eventually forced to sell out.

Known as The Armstrong Farm, her original tract is now owned by Ray and Barbara Kauer.

In 1847, new neighbors moved in near the Smiths - Gen. Joel Palmer, his wife and their eight children.

Polly Smith was ecstatic to have such close neighbors and the families became fast friends.

Palmer hired Andrew Smith Jr. to help him build a sawmill. Soon, a new romance was in the works.

He married Joel Palmer's daughter, Sarah Elizabeth, on June 28, 1848.

About this time, Smith Sr. and Palmer decided to plat a town, with both contributing property. They named it Dayton, probably after a town with the same name in New York's Catteraugus County.

Darling Smith married Ellen Texanna Gerrish on Nov. 27,1851. Their child, Pleasant Smith, was born in 1853.

The exciting part of this story is how those early pioneers became fast friends and were able to support and help each other. As they intermarried, the blood lines of these early heroes worked their way down in many of our present families.

Jim Lockett, now retired, is a former Memorial Elementary School principal whose study of local history has made him a widely recognized authority.

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  Burial Notes

Pike Cemetery, Plot: Block 23, Lot W-6

  Recorded Events in His Life

• Parents: Darling Smith and Ellen Texanna Gerrish.

• He has conflicting birth information of 1853 and Dayton, Yamhill County, Oregon, USA.

• He appeared on the 1900 US Federal Census on 9 June 1900 in North Yamhill Precinct, Yamhill County, Oregon, USA. ³
  

Household Members:       
Pleasant A Smith       48
Mary A Smith       42
Hugh T Smith       18
Bessie M Smith       16
Perry C Smith       14
James Parker       27
Lottie E Parker       21

• He has conflicting death information of 10 September 1936 and Yamhill, Yamhill County, Oregon, USA.