MSWord(5.4MB)-LaneEducationServiceDistrict.docVIP

PIONEER CABIN REPLICA DORRIS RANCH Contents Background Information: The Masterson Family and Dorris Ranch Land William A. Masterson Gravesite Photos from Gillespie Butte Cemetery Background Information: The Willamette Valley Migration and Settlement on the Oregon Frontier by William A. Bowen Music on the Oregon Trail Play Party Dances Background Information on the Masterson Family and the Dorris Ranch Land William A. Masterson was born in Kentucky on December 18, 1813. He married Eliza Jane Violet on November 19, 1842 in Kentucky, and they then moved to Missouri, residing there until 1851. In April of that year, with their five young children in tow (James, Daniel, George, Elizabeth, and Robert A.), they crossed the plains with ox teams in the Masterson train, of which William was captain. The train included his brother, Robert Masterson, Walker Young, and Robert Campbell, arriving in Oregon on September 18, 1851. They traveled down the Columbia River from The Dalles (where his brother, Robert settled) to Portland and proceeded up the Willamette Valley and settled their 320-acre Donation Land Claim Number 61, Notification Number 3730, on October 1, 1852. This beautiful property located south of Springfield, on the Willamette River, is now known as Dorris Ranch. Here the Mastersons built a cabin and added three more children (William, McClelland, and Lucy) to their flock, making them a family of 10, living in a cabin no larger than the one we have built at Dorris Ranch. William busied himself as a brickmaker; one brick has been found on the grounds of Dorris Ranch near our current building site. In addition, he was a millwright, a contractor, and a farmer; records indicate that he was also a slave owner in Missouri before his trip to Oregon. There is not much written information about the family’s life at the cabin. We have included some background information from William Bowen’s book, The Willamette Valley: Migration and Settlement on the Oregon Fronti