Page:Pen Pictures of Representative Men of Oregon.djvu/160

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rents moved to Bellevue, Ohio, where he attended school, and when he was at the a{,'e of twelve they again removed, this time to Rockford, Illinois, in which place they farmed for four years. At the age of twenty-one, Mr. Oatmau was married to Miss Lucena K. Ross, and in the year 1852 he, with his wife and family, crossed the plains to Oregon and located in Rogue river valley, where he engaged in farming and afterwards mined and traf- ficked in merchandise. He remained there fourteen years and then came to Portland, where he has since resided. On arriving here, he went into the grocery business, and, becoming the owner of considerable real estate, he finally gave up the grocery trade and devoted himself solely to specu- lating in lands. Last October, when the MetropoHtan Savings Bank was organized, Mr. Oatman was one of the first subscribers to its stock and he is now one of its heaviest stockholders. On April 4, 1865, Mr. Oatman joined the First Oregon Infantry, and after serving two years, was mus- tered out July 14, 1867. It was said that this company was the last one composed of white men in the volunteer service. In this company Mr. Oat- man was made lieutenant and was frequently commended for gallant conduct on the field.


HON. ASA A. M'CULLY

Is one of the solid men of Oregon, and one of those to whom the early set- tlers of the State owe much. He was born in the province of New Bruns- wick in 1818, and with his parents moved to Ohio when he was but five years of age. While a young man he learned the trade of making fanning mills and worked for nine years at the business in Ohio, when he removed to Iowa, where he engaged in merchandising and trading in Burlington and New London. In 1848 he " came the plains across" with ox teams to California and for a feat it was without an equal. Although over four months on the way, the whole train, consisting of twenty-three wagons and teams, 65 men, one woman and one dog, all came through without the loss of a life or a single pound of property, with the exception of one wagon which broke down so badly that it had to be abandoned. After remaining two years mining and trading in California, lie returned to Iowa and, in 1852, again started across the plains with his family by ox teams, this time to Oregon, coming to Harrishurg and taking up a claim, a portion of which that town now stands on, which he named and in which he built the first house. The same year he returned to Iowa and brought 150 head of cattle overland, shipping also around the Horn a stock of merchandise from Phil- adelphia. In 1863 Mr. McCully removed to Salem and, in the following year, was elected President of the People's Transportation Company, an organization that controlled the passenger and freight traffic for many years on the upper Willamette river. He occupied that position until the locks were built, when the line was sold to Mr. Ben Holliday. Mr. McCully rep- resented Linn county in the Legislature of 1860, and has served as Coimcil- man of the capital city several years during his residence there. Mr. Mc- Cully is a fine, hale, hearty-looking gent, and enjoys a good joke about as well as any man in