Jared Michael (1792 - 1873)

Born 9 Oct 1792 in Morgantown, Monongalia County, Virginia

Ancestors

Husband of Mary (Kelso) Michael — married 23 Dec 1815 in Frederick, Virginia

Descendants

Died 26 Oct 1873 at age 81 in Brownsville, Linn County, Oregon

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Biography

Jared Michael was the eldest son (or second eldest, if Philip Michael is counted as a son) of Casper; Jared was born in Monongalia County, VA on the 9th of October 1792. He married Mary Kelso on 23 December 1815 in Bedford County, PA. Jared is listed in Clinton County, Indiana in the 1830 and 1840 Censuses. The eleven children were all born in Indiana. It is told that he killed a large bear with a tomahawk when it attacked one of his hounds.

In 1846 Jared decided to bring the family to Oregon. Not all the Michael children came; the ones who came west were Eli, Elijah Grant, Anna, Elizabeth, Hannah and David Kelso Michael. Anna by this time was the wife of Jason Squire Clark and Hannah’s husband was William Forgey. Elizabeth, however, abandoned her husband, Joseph Alvord, and ran off to Oregon with her parents. The extended Michael family spent the winter of 1846-47 in Platte Co., MO, just east of the Big Muddy, in an area called Fancy Bottom near present-day Weston, MO. On arriving in Missouri, they camped for a week while the men rode about the neighborhoods looking for a suitable place to spend the winter, a place that had extra housing, food, feed for the stock and where they could work through the winter months. Four men would set out in as many directions, and go as far as they could to make it back by night. Finally they found a man who had a large house and plenty of fodder, and a corncrib with 1200 bushels in it. He was anxious to sell, so they made a bargain. The men worked for him over the winter clearing land, splitting rails, and building fences.

The extended Michael family was part of a large wagon train led by William and Alex Vaughn, leaving St. Joseph, MO on May 9, 1847, timing their departure to allow grass to grow for feeding the animals. The journey to Oregon took six months. Indians did not bother them much; only once was their cattle stampeded. Only the very old, the very young, and the sick rode in the wagons, as they were loaded with supplies to last the trip plus a year. Nearly every man, woman and child walked barefooted. The Platte river was dry, and the party strained and drank the urine of their stock. If they had dug just a few feet into the river bed they would have found water. Hannah and William had a baby along the trail, but it lived only six weeks; it was buried ahead of the wagons so the wagons could run over the grave and pack the dirt down to keep it from being dug up by wild beasts.

Lore has it that Jared Michael was a blacksmith and carried a large amount of change with him when he left Missouri so he could collect for his work. Suspicious that someone was stealing his animals’ feed, he put wooden pegs in the feed and found them in the manure of the animals that were fed the grain. Jared Michael arrived in Oregon and signed the register at the Umatilla Agency on the 19th of October 1847. Jared had a compass that was 35 degrees off when he went out and surveyed his claim in the Union Point area of Linn County, Oregon. This caused all the later claims around it to be off square. He refused to sell, barter or buy land around it to square it off and there were many quarrels and fist fights over this survey. His sons and sons-in-law took up lands adjacent to this claim. Jared died on the 26th of October, 1873.

Jared and Mary Kelso Michael are buried in the little Michael cemetery in the Union Point area on land that once was the claim of Martin Paris Fruit, Eli and Jane’s son-in-law. I (Margaret Summitt) visited this cemetery in 1987 during the Michael family reunion and took photos. The land at that time was owned by Joel Pynch. We were told that people have come all the way from Germany to visit. Jared and Mary’s graves are not marked but those of their family had old and handsome markers. Jared and Mary have concrete markers, unlettered. There are two of these markers standing side by side. The one to the south marks the grave of Jared Michael, father of Eli W. Michael. Jared Michael took up a donation land claim to the north and west of that taken by his son. Both reached Oregon in the same train in 1846.

This person was created through the import of kaisersheehanworldconnect.ged on 22 February 2011. The following data was included in the gedcom. You may wish to edit it for readability.

Sources

• https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/36407284/person/260156709157/facts

• https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/105186704/person/300044198101/facts

• 1820 United States Federal Census

• 1860 United States Federal Census

• Oregon, Compiled Census Index, 1841-1890; Database OR 1841-1849 Census Index

• http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=50647118&ref=acom

• http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~sengercm/micbook.html

• "Benton County Pioneers: A Study of the Inhabitants Listed in the 1850 Federal Census of Benton County, Oregon" by Shirley H. O'Neil, pg 12.

• "Genealogical Material in Oregon Donation Land Claims". Publisher: The Forum, Portland Oregon, 1957; 809 pages. Volume 2 (profile no. 1259)

• "Pioneer Stories of Linn County, Oregon: W.P.A. Interviews by Leslie L. Haskin, et al" Compiled & Indexed by Nina L. Williamson & Richard R. Milligan. Volume 2 - 17-Apr-1940 interview with Mrs. Marena Emma (Michael) Fruit

• "Michael Family—Oregon Pioneers," Albany, Ore. Democrat-Herald, Sunday, November 4, 1923, by Everett Earle Stanard

• Michael Cemetery; Database online, at http://www.linncountyroots.com/Cemeteries/michael.htm

• Oregon Territory Donation Land Claim Families to 1855: Table of Contents - Volumes 1-23. http://www.usgennet.org/usa/or/town/lebanon/tocdlcmtoz.html