An update to my earlier post of the letter written home by Lula Massey when she was teaching in a one-room school house in Whitaker, Oregon. Found this photo of Lula and her husband Wiley Milton Wilson (1873-1976) in my mother's things. It appears to be at Christmastime about 1940 in Portland, Oregon. In tracking down information on Wiley, I found a clue that led me to find the wagon train that Lula's grand-father and father had traveled to Oregon with. The following obituary was posted on http://www.ancestry.com/ by ToniR_L in the Linn-Beebe Family Tree on 14 Dec 2010
February 25, 1976
Wiley Milton Wilson, 98, Sandy, a motorman of Portland streetcars was for 36 years, died Monday.
He was born on his father's homestead on the hills above the Sandy River.
His grandfather, the Rev. James Lynn Wilson, was captain of a mule-drawn wagon train that traveled to Oregon in 1853. His father, James Harvey Wilson, served at Fort Klamath in the first Oregon Company B during the Civil War.
Mr. Wilson lived most of his life on the family homestead. He spent one winter in a tent on a claim in Southeastern Oregon. When the well on the land turned alkali, he returned to Portland.
He was the oldest member of the Retired Transit Employees.
Surviving are several nieces and nephews.
Funeral services will be at 11:00am, Friday at Carrolls Funeral Home, Gresham. Interment will be private.
added by Toni R. Linn, Dec 14, 2010
Obituary provided by the Oregon Historical Society
In searching for information on Rev. James Lynn Wilson and the "mule drawn" wagon train that traveled to Oregon in 1853, a http://www.google.com/ search led me to Oregon immigrant arrivals reconstructed from Donation Land Records at www.condortales.com/wagntm53gfo.html and there on the list of arrivals for 6-8 September is Lula's grandfather Sylvester C. Massey. At this time, I am assuming (I know, very dangerous for a genealogist) that his wife Paulina Skeene Massey and children Nancy Jane, William Pleasant, Mary A and Permelia Elizabeth accompanied Sylvester on the journey across the plains.
My mother has several of the objects that came across the plains... more about that later.
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