Margaret Templer-Carter's Friday Night Lecture

Margaret brought a double handful of pictures of the Sanderson family to share with us. She wove the patriotic and inspiring words of Judge Joseph Willard (author of the Willard Memoirs) into her story of the doings of the Sanderson family in Oregon, beginning with the establishment of a home in Myrtle Creek, Oregon by Ellen Clara (Feathers) and her husband William Charles Sanderson Jr., and showed how family characteristics first noted by Judge Willard have cropped up in our Oregon branch.
 

Nancy A. Willard Feathers was the 8th child of Alexander Hamilton Willard Sr. and Eleanor McDonald. Nancy was born in Wisconsin, shortly after the family moved there from Missouri. Alexander and Eleanor are pictured below:

 

Elinor and Alexander Willard

The Oregon family got its start in Wisconsin, with the birth of Ellen Clara into the Feathers' home:
 
David Hamilton Feathers married on 5 June 1843 to Nancy A. Willard (of AHW Sr.) 
1. Ellen Clara Feathers, born 1844 
2. Jane A. Feathers, born 1846 
3. Charlotte Feathers, born 1848 
4. Catherine Elizabeth Feathers, born 1851 
5. Lewis Willard Feathers, born 1852 
6. Eliza Mary Feathers, born 1855		 Ellen Clara Feathers married in 1859 to William Charles Sanderson Jr 
1. George David Sanderson, born 1859 
2. Frederick Thomas Sanderson, born 1862 
3. Nancy A (or Clollie) Sanderson, born 1865 
4. William Charles Sanderson III, born 1867
 
Ellen Clara Feathers Sanderson 
William Charles Sanderson Jr		 Ellen Clara Feathers & William Charles Sanderson Jr
 
Ellen & William & surviving children

Seated: Ellen Clara Feathers Sanderson and William Charles Sanderson Jr. 
Standing (left to right): Frederick Thomas Sanderson, James Wright Gilmore - Lolly's husband, Nancy A. (Clollie) Sanderson aka "Lolly", William Charles Sanderson III. 

Since Lolly married in 1885, and Fred married in 1891, and Will in 1894; this photo must date from after Lolly's marriage and before Fred's. 

Ellen's oldest child, George David Sanderson, drowned and was buried in Riddle, Oregon in 1864 when he was five years old. He's buried next to his Uncle Lewis Willard Feathers, who died the same day.

 
Fred married November 29, 1891 at Canyonville, Oregon to Cora Ann Butler. Cora was born January 3, 1874 the daughter of Thomas Jefferson Butler and Rachel Ann Simpkins. Fred Sanderson and Cora Butler
Thomas Jefferson Butler, Cora's dad Father of Cora Ann Butler:  Thomas Jefferson Butler
 
Cora Ann Butler Sanderson's grandparents (her mother's parents): 
Mr. and Mrs. Simpkins		 Cora's grandparents
 
Fred and Cora Sanderson Frederick Thomas Sanderson and Cora Ann Butler 
1. Maysel Ellen Sanderson, born 1893 
2. Lawrence Frederick Sanderson, born 1897 
3. Dorothy Gertrude Sanderson, born 1901 
(Dorothy is Margaret Templer-Carter's mother)
 
Left to right: Lawrence Frederick Sanderson, Dorothy Gertrude Sanderson, Maysel Ellen Sanderson Fred's kids
Fred did some surveying, placer mining, managed a prune ranch for George W. riddle, and from 1893-1897 managed the nickel mine near Riddle, Oregon. With his brother Will, he opened a General Merchandising Store in coquille in 1899. They moved the store in 1901 to Bandon, Oregon and in 1905 to Klamath Falls, Oregon.

Fred was mayor of Klamath Falls from 1908-1911 and developed the street and sewer systems there. He was instrumental in obtaining the route of the Southern Pacific Railroad through the town to Eastern Oregon.
 
Fred's House Fred & Will's store
Frederick T. Sanderson's house in Klamath Falls, Oregon Frederick T. and brother William C. Sanderson's store in Klamath Falls, Oregon
 

Newspaper Clippings of Railroad reaching Klamath Falls

Herald and News, Klamath Falls, Ore

Friday, July 24, 1959

Railroad Captured Fancy Of The Basin, Fifty Years Ago

By Norm Cardoza
[this was written in 1959]

   People of Klamath County were having a wonderful time 50 years ago this year. Nearly all good things people ever dreamed would happen to the Klamath Basin were happening, just like everyone always knew they would.

   In that year two major developments that would change the area's economic picture completely took place. The first Southern Pacific train tootled into town. And in the same breath, the federal government launched its $4,5000,000 reclamation project that would release more than 300,000 fertile acres for farming.

   The railroad captured the fancy of people who lived in the Basin then. For several years they suffered through one disappointment after another waiting for rails to span the mountains between Klamath Falls and Weed. When the big project was completed, they staged one of the biggest and wildest celebrations the town has ever seen. They felt reprieved from exile and ready to make the Basin the garden spot of the nation.

   They honored the man who brought the railroad by exalting him only slightly less than God. E. H. Harriman, president of Southern Pacific, had streets and landmarks named for him, and the mayor in a welcome speech called him "Brother Harriman."

   A new era was born and an old one was dying during the celebration. Throngs of people boarded the steamer Klamath and rode to Ady, a few miles down the Klamath River on the passenger boat's last run. there they boarded the first northbound train and rode triumphantly back into town.

   The Klamath used to steam passengers and freight to Laird's Landing, 50 miles below Klamath Falls on lower Klamath Lake. from there the payload was transported to Bartles, 45 miles further southwest, to make connections with the McCloud River Railroad and finally the SP line running between San Francisco and Portland.

   At the same time, rumblings of range wars between cattlemen and sheepmen still were circulating. Rumors had it that men were shooting at each other, but newspaper accounts of the period indicated sheep -- dozens of them -- were the only casualties.

   Big lumber companies were buying large tracts of timber, previously considered worth something, but not much. The city was building a library, a high school and other public works.

   The official celebration heralding the arrival of the railroad was saved for June 14, 1909, just under a month since the first train arrived.

   Said one newspaper writer: "Nature in all its beauty clothed in glorious sunshine and kissed by the gentle breeze from off the snow-capped peaks and shimmering lakes gave cordial welcome to Klamath's greatest day, and by its gentle touch gave stimulus to the enthusiasm that has been held in bay for this occasion."

   About 2,000 people attended. That was nearly double the population of Klamath Falls. Dignitaries from Sacramento and San Francisco were present. "The only delegation missing," the reporter snickered, "was from poor old Portland." It would be another 17 years before the Southern Pacific completed the circuit from Klamath Falls to Portland.

   In his speech to the assembly, Mayor Fred T. Sanderson said, "Today marks the passing for all time, so far as Klamath Falls is concerned, of the stagecoach and freight team. It is as though we had today been annexed to and made a part of the great commonwealth of Oregon. My friends, we are grateful to Brother Harriman for his efforts to eliminate the beautiful distances that have for years intervened between us and civilization."

   "Let us not forget that today they (nearby counties and communities without railroad) in their isolation and deprivation, are rejoicing with us, confident that Brother Harriman has heard their prayers for deliverance."

   Here are statements by Judge J. B. Griffiths who prophesied: "The marshes that are richer than anything you ever saw will someday grow the finest celery you ever saw." "Klamath County will soon be supplying the East with lumber and cattle."

   Previously, W. H. Holabird, a key instrument in finagling that won for SP a clear track into Klamath Falls, foretold that Klamath County contained enough room for 100,000 people, and that Klamath Falls would become a community of 20,000.

   Latest estimates by the Klamath County Chamber of Commerce (which was formed in 1906 to subscribe $100,000 to lure the railroad) places county population at 51,112, the city's at 20,200, and the South Suburban area at 16,000, excluding approximately 5,000 at Kingsley Field and Capehart Housing.

   To celebrate the occasion, schools were recessed and business ceased. The Klamath Falls Military Band and the Peterson Brothers Band, which was travelling with a circus brought to town for the celebration, played.

   Railroad excursions to Ady and back cost 55 cents. There were trapshoots, an old settlers' reunion, a baseball game between Klamath Falls and Lakeview, a tennis tourney, a "bronco busting contest," a "Calithumpian" parade, and a water carnival on Lake Ewauna.

   So began an era for the Basin, and the railroad lived up to just about all the fond dreams of the "isolated and depraved" Klamath residents.



   The First Train To Klamath Falls, Southern Pacific's Engine 2251 and nine cars, was mobbed by dwellers of the Klamath Basin when it arrived over brand new tracks 50 years ago. Seldom has the community's atmosphere been so festive. In the words of then Mayor Fred T. Sanderson, Klamath County was suddenly "annexed" to the rest of the world. About 2,000 people attended the arrival -- nearly double the town's population. Throngs of them are visible in the lower photograph shot by an unknown but expert photographer and loaned to the herald and News by Hal Ogle, a topnotch Klamath County historian. So wild was the celebration that it attracted six automobiles which drove in a big parade. mostly, though, the celebrants came in surreys and on horseback. in the lower picture the train is a faint caterpillar on the horizon. Pennants of a circus tent are barely visible at right.