HUNDREDS OF PERSONS in the Pacific Northwest, as has been observed in the preceding chapters, are descended from
the pioneers of the ox-wagon trains from the Pleasant Hill country in the 1840s and 1850s. Among the early Pike
county families who contributed to the northwestern settlement were the Lewises, Collards, Hubbards, Barnetts,
Sittons, Cappses, Thurmans, Cannons, Zumwalts, Koontzes, Harlows, Wellses, Galloways, Philipses, McNarys and many
others.
Over the great Oregon Trail traveled the Pike county pioneers to implant in the northwestern territories family
names that still persist in the states of Oregon and Washington, even as they do in Pike county, Illinois, their
point of origin.
The story of Felix Alver Collard and Danaris Lewis, descendants of heroic lines of the Revolutionary period, has
been told, together with the stories of seven of their nine children, six of whom were of Pike county birth and
one of whom occupies a Pike county grave.
Eighth of Felix Collard's children, and the next after Isaac Newton Collard whose family history has just been
related, was Martha Ann Collard, born three years after the family's arrival in Oregon Territory. She was born
October 7, 1850, in Oregon City, Oregon. On March 22, 1866, when she was only 15 years of age, she married James
T. Mael. She and her husband were probably parties in a double wedding, as the records show that her brother, Elihu
Benton Collard, one of the Pleasant Hill emigrants to Oregon Territory in 1847, was married the same day. Martha
Ann did not long survive her marriage, her death occurring two months later, on May 9, 1866. She is buried in Oregon.
Last of the children of Felix Alver Collard and Martha Damaris Lewis was William Franklin Collard, born in Oregon
City January 1, 1853. He was educated and grew up in Oregon City. In November, 1877, he married Priscilla Evaline
Rogers, sister of Jane Ann Rogers, who was the wife of his brother, Isaac Newton Collard. The story of Priscilla
Evaline's family has been related in connection with that of her sister, Jane Ann, this family being connected
with the Rogers family which has played such a conspicuous part in the history of Pike county, Illinois.
Four children were born to William Franklin and Priscilla Evaline (Rogers) Collard: Frederick William, Lewis Langdon,
Grace Damaris and Bessie Frances.
Frederick William, born in 1882, is a machinist in a paper mill at Camas, Washington, where he resides. He has
been twice married, both marriages to widows with children. He married, first, Mrs. Edith Wurtzburger, who had
two children, and second, Mrs. Dorothy (Daly) Allen, who had three children. The second marriage was in 1931. Fred
has raised the five stepchildren in his home but has had no children of his own.
Lewis Langdon Collard, born 1884, married Althea Scotten and they had two children, Mary Evelyn and William Franklin
Collard. Mary Evelyn, who is about 19, is married to George Mathies. William Franklin is about 16, born 1923 or
1924. Lewis Langdon resides at Camas, Washington.
Grace Damaris Collard, born in March, 1888, married William Carl Scotten (brother of Althea Scotten who married
Lewis Langdon) and they reside near Vancouver, Washington. They have one son, William Noreen, born 1923 or 1924.
Bessie Frances Collard, born December 2, 1891, married A. L. Karnath and they have three sons, Langdon Lewis, Lyle
and Norris. Langdon, aged about 24, married Billie Marchbank and they have an infant son, about six months of age,
named Langdon. The Karmaths reside at Fisher's near Vancouver, Washington.
William Frankin Collard, the youngest son of Felix Alver, early in life learned the paper makers' trade. He was
among the first paper makers on the Pacific coast. He began working for William Lewthwaite in the paper mill at
Clackamas, Oregon, and continued in the paper making business for over fifty years. He later settled at La Camas
or Camas, Washington.
In his old age, William Franklin Collard, writing under date of November 11, 1919, from Camas, Washington, to his
niece, Mrs. Laura Adelaide (Jones) Benjamine (now Crawford), then residing at Estacada, Oregon, enclosed the following
article concerning the old days in the paper making industry, taken from "Makin' Paper," a paper published
by the paper making trade:
"Here is a record that is hard to beat, 46 year since W. F. Collard first started in the paper making game
- most of which time has been spent with our company, and he is neither a bolsheviki or a downtrodden slave - something
wrong, either with him or with the arguments of the radicals, for W. F. has all the looks of contentment and good
health and is going strong. If you could see him at his home on the banks of the Columbia or see him driving his
‘Hup,' you would never believe he had served 46 years at continuous toil, but would be more apt to think that he
had that many years before him.
"Mr. Collard first started in the old mill on the Clackamas River under William Lewthwaite, father of our
present Resident Manager. At that time ‘News' was made from rag stock and all the paper was supplied for the Portland
Oregonian, the Seattle P. I., the Oregon City paper and a number of other papers. In addition to the ‘News,' considerable
quantity of Butcher and Manila was manufactured.
"Mr. Collard says that the old machine of that day would just about make a good sized watch charm of today
and could probably supply enough paper for one day's issue of the Oregonian if they were to run a month without
accident but at that they made some fine paper.
"The finished product was freighted by wagon from the mill to what is now Parkplace, Oregon, which was then
the southern terminal of the old Ben Holloday Land Grant Railway, which, by the way, was the first 15 miles of
railway to be built in Oregon.
"The old force at the Clackamas mill consisted of William Lewthwaite, superintendent, Cap and Gus Smith, beater
engineers; H. P. Nary machine tender; James Root, bleach room; William Campbell and William Faubin, firemen; H.
L. Pittock, owner and paymaster.
"Mr. Collard has worked under the following Crown Williamette superintendents: Mr. Teurck, C. S. West, Noble
Heath, Joe Kaster, William Shehan, Mr. Fuller, P. J. Lamerough and Al Witherbee. At the present time he is working
for Superintendent Jim Duvall at the Camas Bag Factory."
The foregoing again stresses the significance of the pioneer Pike county influence in the development of the northwest
territories, and of the part which descendants of the Pike county pioneers have continued to play in the history
of the Pacific coast settlements.
William Franklin Collard lives to the age of 71. In politics, he was a staunch Democrat. He was a musician and
a maker of musical instruments. He and his two sons, Fred and Lewis Collard, in the old days had an orchestra and
played for many of the old-time dances in Camas, Washington, and Bridal Veil, Oregon. He was a skilled cabinet
maker and the making of guitars, banjos, mandolins and violins was a hobby with him. A violin of his making is
still a prized possession of his niece, Mrs. Evelyn Collard Fidelle of Portland, Oregon, whose father, Isaac Newton
Collard, treasured it in his lifetime. (The making of this violin was mistakenly attributed in a preceding article
to another Frank Collard, son of William Franklin's elder brother, Elihu Benton Collard.)
William Franklin Collard was another of the family who did much collecting and writing of Collard family history.
He was authority for considerable family history that was accumulated by his nephew, Frank, son of Elihu Benton
Collard.
William Franklin Collard and his elder brother, Isaac Newton, were the latest survivors of Felix Alver Collard's
children. William Franklin died at Camas, Washington, February 22, 1924, preceding the brother, Isaac Newton, noted
survey scout, who died at McMinnville, Oregon, August 30, 1929, following seven years of total blindness. William
Franklin's wife (the former Priscilla Evaline Rogers) died prior to 1919.
William Franklin, in November, 1919, wrote his niece, Mrs. Addie (Jones) Benjamine: "We will soon all be gone.
Ike (Isaac Newton) and I are all that is left of us. We can only hope for a reunion ‘over there.' I am very lonesome,
all alone now."
Felix Alver Collard and Martha Damaris Lewis, pioneers in the wild Bay Creek country of more than a hundred years
ago, sleep side by side in the cemetery at Oregon City, at the far end of the famous Oregon Trail, over which we
have followed them in this history as they wended their slow way westward from Pleasant Hill behind an ox- team,
in the year 1847.
Felix, in Oregon Territory, became identified with the early political history of that region. He became the personal
friend of John McLaughlin, known as "The Father of Oregon," whose home was at Oregon City after he ceased
working for the Hudson's Bay Company at Vancouver. A Democrat in his political allegiance, Felix served in the
Oregon legislature from Clackamas county. In July, 1848, Felix and his wife helped build and organize the first
Baptist church in Oregon. In the early days all of the Pacific country as far north as Alaska was Oregon Territory.
Death came to Felix Alver suddenly. He was out in his yard at his home in Oregon City on Sunday, August 7, 1864.
He stooped to pick up a stone or some missile and started to throw it at some chickens. Life snapped; the pioneer
of Kentucky, Missouri, Illinois and Oregon stepped across another frontier.
Felix Alver was described as a tall man, at least six feet in height, red-haired and light complected.
Felix's wife, Damaris Lewis, descendant of that noted Lewis who slew his Irish landlord and fled to the wilds of
North America, where he later founded the first white settlement in what is now Augusta county, Virginia, survived
until March 11, 1867. She and her husband are buried in Oregon City, where they arrived as pioneers in the late
fall of 1847.
All of Felix Collard's children are dead. His oldest grandchildren are in their eighties. His youngest grandchild,
Thomas H. Collard, younger brother of Evelyn Collard Fidelle, born February 4, 1900, is 39. One daughter-in-law
of Felix Alver is still living. She is Mrs. Isaphena (Waldren) Collard, widow of Elihu Benton and mother of his
eleven children. She resides at 7326 N. E. 6th Avenue, Portland, Oregon. She was 90 years old, February 12, 1939.
Felix and Damaris Collard, as we have seen in former chapters, have many descendants in the Pacific Northwest.
Over 200 of them met in a reunion on the third Sunday in June, 1936.
Evelyn Collard Fidelle of Portland sends the following additional information concerning the children of Isaac
Newton Collard:
Lillie Collard was born at Portland, October 25, 1878. Nellie Ellen Collard was born at Hillsboro, Oregon, on Felix
Collard's birthday, July 20, 1879. She married, first, James W. Turner, who died in 1934; her present husband,
whom she married in 1935, is George Washington Hamblin. They live at McMinnville, Oregon. There are no children.
Princilla Evelyn Collard was born at Hillsboro, Oregon, November 13, 1881. In 1905 she married Arthur H. Thomas
who died in 1928 at Forest Grove, Oregon. They had a daughter, Dorothy Evelyn Thomas, born January 15, 1909, on
her grandfather Collard's birthday, and on his wedding anniversary, she being his only granddaughter. She married
Warren Edward Peas, January 15, 1929, and they have two children, Dorothy Ellen, born November 26, 1927, and Ruby
Eloise, born July 7, 1929. Evelyn Collard married, second, James William Fidelle, March 29, 1930. They live at
4630 S. E. 46th Avenue, Portland. Mr. Fidelle is a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has been checker on
the loading dock of Swift & Company, North Portland. He has been in ill health for some time.
Fourth child of Isaac Collard was a son, born at Hillsboro, Oregon, in 1883 or 1884. He died when a week old and
was never named.
William Rogers Collard was born December 7, 1887, at McMinnville, Oregon. He is a master mechanic in the mills
at Camas, Washington, where Fred and Lewis Collard, sons of William Franklin Collard, are employed. Lewis Collard
is also a master mechanic. William Rogers married Ency Brown, December 31, 1912, she a daughter of Curtis Brown.
They have a son, Loren Rogers Collard, born July 23, 1925. Two other children, a boy and a girl, died at birth.
Oda Frances Collard, born December 2, 1893, at McMinnville, died in August, 1895.
Thomas H. Collard, youngest grandson of Felix Collard and Damaris Lewis, is unmarried. Formerly located at Philadelphia,
he is now in San Francisco. He is art director for the largest advertising firm in the world, N. W. Ayer Company.
Also we have this late information concerning the Agnes Collard Savage family, supplied by Elihu Benton Collard's
eldest daughter, Agnes Collard Savage:
Elihu Benton was born at Fairfield (now Pleasant Hill), March 23, 1838. He died at Newberg, Oregon, July 12, 1917.
He married Isaphena Waldron in Oregon March 22, 1866. She was born February 12, 1849. She celebrated her 90th birthday
in Portland, February 12, 1939. She weighs 90 pounds, in mentally alert, and as active as her daughters.
Agnes Collards, born November 6, 1869, married William Henry Savage (born February 6, 1861) on May 1, 1887. He
died July 7, 1936. The children: Carl Benton, born December 13, 1889, died May 3, 1890; Roy Arden, born April 27,
1891, died July 7, 1903; Roy William, born December 2, 1893, married Elva E. Jacobson and has a son, Roy Wayne
Savage, born February 14, 1938; Irma Agnes, born February 20, 1895, married William S. Thomas and has Jean Agnes,
born August 28, 1915, Robert Benton, born May 16, 1917, Bruce Arden, born February 7, 1920, and Mark Norman Thomas,
born April 27, 1922.
Jean Agnes Thomas married Elden E. Hepburn, January 25, 1935, and has one daughter, Carol Agnes Hepburn, born April
11, 1936, who is a granddaughter of Irma (Savage) Thomas, a great granddaughter of Agnes (Collard) Savage, and
a great great granddaughter of Isaphena (Waldron) Collard.
Agnes Collard Savage also supplies further records of Elihu Benton Collard's descendants, with birth dates and
data not included in the record heretofore quoted:
Benton's son, Frank Alver, was born May 4, 1868, died September 26, 1935. He never married.
Anna Agnes Collard, second child, record above. Lyman Douglas Collard, born August 28, 1872, died January 27, 1915.
Never married.
Roy Lynn Collard, born October 16, 1875, living, unmarried.
Ella Maude Collard, born March 1, 1878, married Dennis Ryan (about 1901), had Marjory, Kenneth and Leah Mary (born
September, 1906); Marjory married B. J. Lekas and had Daphne and Janet Gary; William Kenneth married and had Patrick
and Damaris; Leah Mary married Leslie Haffey and had Dennis and Joan Clancy (born December 4, 1936). Ella Maude
married, second, Harry Saunders, and had Damaris.
Mabel Isaphena Collard, born March 2, 1880, married J. H. Davis and had Ray, Lawrence and Elizabeth (now Mrs. Rex
Jones).
Samuel Benton Collard, born March 30, 1882, married Marie Cook and had Helen (born about 1929).
Charles Cleveland Collard, born April 9, 1884, unmarried.
Harry Glenn Collard, born March 22, 1887, unmarried.
Helen Gertrude Collard, born February 18, 1890, married Fred M. Stevenson, September 16, 1911. No children.
Jessie Lorena Collard, born December 2, 1892, married Henry Spady, September 20, 1914. No children.