2. ELIZA J.² BUTLER (BENJAMIN¹) was born May 1848 in Illinois, and died 01 Dec 1924 in Portland, Multnomah, Oregon³. She married GEORGE BENSON KUYKENDALL 30 Jan 1868 in Oakland, Oregon, son of JOHN KUYKENDALL and MALINDA STARK. He was born May 1843 in Indiana, and died 24 Jun 1931 in Portland, Multnomah, Oregon⁴.

More About ELIZA J. BUTLER:

Census 1: 1850, IL Fulton Joshua Pg 265(See Father)

Census 2: 1880, WA Yakima Fort Simcoe ED 45 Pg 409A(See Husband)

Census 3: 1900, WA Garfield East Pomeroy ED 20 Pg 3A(See Husband)

Census 4: 1910, WA Garfield East Pomeroy ED 68 Pg 4A(See Husband)

Census 5: 1920, WA Garfield Pomeroy ED 51 Pg 7A(See Husband)

Notes for GEORGE BENSON KUYKENDALL:

http://www.kjvuser.com/kuykenda1.htm

Title: History of the Kuykendall Family Since Its Settlement in Dutch New York in 1646 Author: George Benson Kuykendall This book contains the genealogy and history of the Kuykendall family of Dutch New York.

Bibliographic Information: Kuykendall, George Benson. The Kuykendall Family. Kilham Stationery & Printing CO. Portland, Oregon. 1919.

Copyrighted 1919

George Benson Kuykendall

AUTHOR'S REMINISCENCES

Looking back over my past, one of the things that strikes me most forcibly is the wonderful changes that have, during my life time, taken place in the country and people. The changes pertain to our manner of living, and of doing almost everything done, the lighting, heating of our homes, the improvement in all domestic operations, the amazing profusion of books, papers and magazines and the wonderful improvement in their printing and illustrations, the modern speed of travel, transportation and transmission of news. The oceans and seas that once seemed to spread out infinite distances have shrunken to mere ponds, and the continents that once extend out beyond our confused comprehension, have shrunken to mere neighborhoods, within as easy communication and reach as our next door neighbor. The telegraph keys are touched and in a few minutes our thoughts are being talked in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Islands of the sea.

If old people who were living in my boyhood days could have been suddenly placed amid surroundings like those of today, they would have felt as if they had been ushered into a new and strange world. During the span of my life there have come the larger part of all the inventions and discoveries that have revolutionized the manner of living of civilized mankind.

My education was mostly received in the west. Following the acquisition of the common branches there came the study of the higher mathematics and the branches that go to make up the higher academic curriculum. Connected with these days there are a thousand delightful associations, memories of faces fair and young and forms manly, with pleasing personalities. There was the academy school life, the debating society, stirring debates, papers, readings, impersonations, songs and music. How charming the memory of them still! Then the pictures of our home life in beautiful southern Oregon, with its bright skies and balmy atmosphere, how memory sweeps back over the vista of years and brings fresh again the perfume of honeysuckle, eglantine and roses of May and June, as it stole in under the raised sash of my east bedroom window, while the morning breeze fanned the fluttering curtains. I seem to hear, even yet, the drowsy droning of the bees against the window panes, or among the climbing vines outside. Like a soothing lullaby there floated in the song of the robin, linnet, catbird and the cooing of the doves and noise of domestic fowls.

How indescribably sleepy I was on those lazy, balmy mornings! With youth and health, free from care, I seemed to be reposing upon a bed of down or floating dreamily away on cottony clouds, in the ethereal blue. I delved into my books, studied hard and had plenty of physical exercise about home. The months and years sped by. I read much in other books than those in the regular school curriculum, and these opened up to me a new world. I was filled with the aspirations and ambitions of youth.

In 1861 there came the discovery of gold in eastern Oregon. With my father and two uncles, I went to the mines in the spring. That trip was full of thrilling adventures. Arriving at the mines, I was thrown into environments only to be found in a new mining camp. The mines, mining operations, mining towns of mushroom growth, the drinking, gambling, carousing, shooting, fighting and stabbing affrays, with the doings of frontier desperadoes, from all quarters of the world, brought humanity before me in an aspect entirely different from anything I had ever seen. I found profitable employment of a mechanical sort, and I had neither time nor inclination to become entangled with wild performances around me.

Well along toward winter we left the mines and returned to our homes to spend the winter. The next spring we went to the Idaho mines, in the "Boise Basin," where Idaho City was built. This was one of the wildest mining camps of the Pacific Northwest. Here were events that occurred with the most spectacular settings imaginable. From a little camp of a few rude rough log cabins, there grew up in a few weeks, a town of three or four thousand people, a town consisting mostly of stores and business houses of all the kinds found in civilized communities.

Late in the summer of 1864, tiring of mining camps and life among miners, I returned to civilization and home, and taught school and worked at the trade my father had taught me. Teaching did not seem to agree with my health, the constant exercise of my voice in oral work affected my throat and I went to California, spending the winter of 1866-1867 there, returning the following spring. After my return, my father had a very severe and dangerous illness, so that the physicians in attendance despaired of his recovery and said they could do no more, and gave up the case. Under these desperate circumstances I told the home folks I would never consent to abandon effort, and that we must exert ourselves and do all we could for he might possibly recover yet. They all seconded my efforts, following my lead and directions.

I had been for some time studying materia medica, and treatment of disease during my spare time, because I liked the study, but not with any serious thought of becoming a physician. The knowledge acquired certainly now came into good use. For eight days I scarcely ate or slept, but was in constant attendance upon my father. At the end of that time, almost utterly exhausted, I went up to my room for a little sleep and rest. About midnight, the neighbor who had been left in charge, came up to my room and said, "Your father is better and wants to see you." I was soon at his side, and found him better, but completely prostrated, so much so that he was powerless to speak above a whisper, and could not lift his hands from his bed. He gradually, but surely recovered, and lived thirty years of useful life. When the physicians who had been in attendance met me, they generously complimented and congratulated me, and said, "Young man, it is plain what should be your business in life. You ought to fit yourself for the practice of medicine; that is your calling."

Later I married Miss Eliza J. Butler, who had been a pupil of mine in school.

We acquired a comfortable home and were getting along happily. But I had a constant feeling that I was not filling my place in the world. Then came the decision to complete my studies, graduate and enter the profession. By this time we had two little children. Nevertheless, I determined to go through. Our home was sold and turned into cash to pay my college expenses. How I digged and delved! After all these years, I think with admiration of the splendid courage and loyalty of my young wife, in giving up our home and standing by me through those anxious times of toil and study.

It was my good fortune to graduate at the head of my class, but I came through "worn to a frazzle." A malarial attack, a few days before final examination, almost finished me for the time. My funds were exhausted and I was left a thousand dollars in debt. Shortly afterwards I had an offer of a government position as physician at Fort Simcoe, Yakima Indian Agency, Washington. In my run down physical condition, and with my depleted finances the offer was accepted. I had to go out of my own state and leave my debts unpaid, but determined to go to my principal creditor and tell him what I wanted to do.

When I had stated my proposition to him, he said, "I know you and know all your people. I am not afraid of you. Go wherever you want to go, and when you can spare the money, send it to me. If you would like to go into business here, I will put up a drug store and stock it, and you can run it and practice medicine right here. If you want to go elsewhere, all right." He was "white" and fair with me, all through, and (though he has been dead a good many years, I think of Hyman Abraham, as a friend. If some of his children should see this, they will be pleased to know that I remember and appreciate the generous act of their father.

I arrived with my family at Fort Simcoe, in July, 1872, and entered upon one of the most interesting periods of my life, a period marked by experiences not common to the average medical man. Some of these experiences were thrilling--all were interesting. Here at the Fort I had the medical oversight of a large corps of government employes and instructors, pupils of the Indian schools, and about sixteen hundred Indians. Besides, there was an extensive range of practice among the outside settlements. The white people at the Fort had a two-fold mission; first, as government employes, secondly, as missionaries, whose object was to instruct the Indians in the white man's ways and civilization. A complete history of events and our experiences while there would make an interesting volume.

Soon after arriving at Fort Simcoe, Major Powell, of the Department of Ethnology in the Smithsonian Institution, at Washington, D. C., wrote me asking me to take up in behalf of the government, the study of Indian ethnology, language, folk lore; their myths, traditions and beliefs and their ancient customs and usages. This, being undertaken, made a sort of diversion from the regular routine of my medical duties. A large amount of data was accumulated, and later part of it was printed and published, and has since gone into and become a part of the History of the state of Washington.

While at the Fort, much time was devoted to microscopical work and study, in the diagnosis of disease, and considerable attention was given to practical micro-photography. A large number of mounted microscopic specimen were prepared, many of which are good yet, after more than forty years. The people about the Fort in the government employ were of a high average intelligence, culture and morality, having been selected with special reference to their fitness in the qualities that would make them efficient as teachers and examples to the Indians. We had frequent visits from Washington City, from Indian Inspectors, and military men of the highest character, among whom were Gen. O. O. Howard, and numerous others. Under these circumstances it could hardly be said we were entirely isolated from intellectual and social environments.

Some of the great Indian councils and meetings while we were there were held amid the most dramatic and thrilling settings. Whatever we may have thought of Indians or Indian character, we discovered that there is much that is good in them, that only needs to be drawn out and cultivated to make them men and citizens.

During the Nez Perce Indian war of 1877, there was much excitement at times among the Indians on the reservation, lest the Snake Indians and tribes at war with the whites, should attack the reservation Indians and the whites about the agency. We had convincing proofs that the Indians around us were the friends of the whites. We learned afterwards that during the period of greatest fear and excitement, the leaders among the Indians came in the night and stood guard over the white people there, lest the hostiles should make a rush upon the place and murder us all. We did not know of this while it was being done; it was only after the trouble was all past that we heard of it.

I distinctly remember on one occasion when General O. O. Howard was at the fort with several of his staff, just before the Nez Perce Chief Joseph's Indians began hostilities. He came to sound the Indians there, and to discover what was their feeling, and if possible, learn what they knew of the disposition of the Indians on the upper Columbia. His stay continued over Sunday, and there was a large gathering of Indians, to see and hear the "big white chief." On Sunday there was a religious service, which the General and his staff attended. The assembly was large and the interest profound. The Indians sang various hymns and songs, some of them in their own language. Various persons spoke, and among others General Howard and some of his company. The chief of the Yakimas, Joe Stwire, arose and told his experience while on a mission among the Warm Spring Indians. As he proceeded he became more enthused, and his eloquence rose to a high strain.

The large audience all around was deeply moved, both whites and Indians. I saw the tears flowing down the face of General Howard and the members of his staff, as well as of numerous others. The effect was profound and electrifying. I thought at the time, "What a power as a speaker this man might have been, if he had been educated and cultured."

Our stay at the agency embraced all that thrilling period before and during the "Chief Joseph War," and those exciting times of alarms and uprisings of the Indians up the Columbia river, above Priest Rapids, while the old renegade chief, prophet, and dreamer, Smohalla, was stirring up sedition among the "wild" restless ones of those tribes. At that time there were but few settlers in the Yakima valley, and all the upper Columbia river country. The distances between stock ranches and pioneer homes were long, and all the frontier was constantly exposed to Indian outbreaks.

We had been at Fort Simcoe almost exactly ten years, when I resigned my position to get out where there would be better advantages for school and society.

I wish that there could have been more space for a narration of our experiences among the Indians and pioneer people of the Yakima country; there were so many things that would have been intensely interesting. We had an adventurous trip from Fort Simcoe to Pomeroy, thirty-seven years ago. Looking back, after all these years, the sage, sand and dust, the terrific thunder storm we had, having been driven from our camps several times by rising water, and being compelled to go back to the hills among rocks, thorny cactus and rattlesnakes to make new camps, being tormented by mosquitoes and heat, and getting stuck in the sand, the turning bottom side up of my hack, emptying everything out into the water--all this can be looked at with complacency now, but at the time there was in it an element not calculated to contribute to comfort or pleasure. Arriving in Pomeroy, it was found that there seemed to be a demand for my services as physician, and soon there came to me all the medical practice I could manage. We identified ourselves with the interests of the community, whether material, educational or moral, though in those pioneer days, it was not always the popular thing to do. I have formed the acquaintance of many great-hearted, noble people, whose confidence and friendship has been valued more than could be measured in dollars and cents.

In the early days of my practice I often went on horseback, later in a buggy, but we knew nothing about automobiles, telephones or electric lights then. I remember well, on many a cold ride or drive, how anxiously I peered out into the darkness and storm, longing to see some signs of life, and wondered how far I should have to travel to reach warmth, rest and shelter, then how the gleam of a lamp in the window of the house to which I was going brought a thrill of joy and cheer. As I write, I remember how, when I was called at midnight to start out on a cold dreary drive, Mrs. Kuykendall was always up and had a cup of hot coffee ready, and something warm for me to eat before going. In those days the livery stable or my own hired man had to be called to bring a team for me. In later years I could be on my way with my automobile ten or twelve miles or to the place where I was going, before in earlier years I could have even started.

My wife was frequently of great aid to me in my professional work, especially in the case of very sick women and children. Her superior qualities as nurse, her skill in devising suitable and dainty foods for patients, and her quick perception of conditions and of changes in conditions caused me to be less worried when I had to be away from a bad case looking after others. While I really appreciated these things at the time, like many others, I failed perhaps, in not expressing it sufficiently. We often expect more of our home people and give them less credit than we do to others.

There has never been any desire on my part for public office or to be prominent in politics, feeling that such things might cause a neglect of my patients. I have never been called lazy or of lacking in energy, and have always felt that it was due my patients to give them the best possible service, and to keep myself abreast of the progress of medicine and surgery.

To do this, a point was always made to visit the eastern medical colleges and hospitals, and take post graduate courses, so as to keep in touch with the leaders in the profession. My time has been so fully occupied with professional business that it was found impossible to give much attention to lodges and fraternal orders, though I was never opposed to them, and really held membership in several, for a number of years. I am now a member of the Holland Society of New York, member of the Oregon Pioneer Society and Oregon Historical Society, a member and secretary of the Garfield County Pioneer Association. For over sixty years I have been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and actively associated with its social and moral endeavors.

It has been an especial pleasure, and a benefit as well, to be associated with the Epworth League and young people societies of my church and the young of other churches, in their moral and intellectual endeavors. It has, perhaps, helped me to remain young in spirit and feeling.

As I now write, I am well along toward my seventy-seventh birth day, and am glad that my interest in the world and world affairs was never greater--it never gave me more pleasure to read, think, study and write--and the advance of the world in progress was never watched with greater interest or more pleasure.

************

1880 United States Federal Census > Washington > Yakima > Fort Simcoe > District 45

Line 7

Kuykendall, John WM 56 M Wagon Maker IN VA VA

------------------Malinda WF 57 Wife M Keeping House IN KY KY

------------------W. Eddie WM 14 Son S At Home OR IA IN

------------------Delman WM 12 Son S At Home OR IA IA

Line 11

Kuykendall, B. George WM 37 M Physician IN IA IA

------------------J. Eliza WF 31 Wife M Keeping House IL OH OH

------------------E. Chester WM 11 Son S Goes to School OR IA IL

------------------E. Victor WM 9 Son At Home OR IA IL

------------------P. Minnie Wf 7 Dau S At Home WA TERR IA IL

------------------O. Grace WF 5 Dau S WA TERR IA IL

------------------V. George WM 8/12 Son S WA TERR IA IL

Source Citation: Year: 1880; Census Place: Fort Simcoe, Yakima, Washington; Roll: T9_1398; Family History Film: 1255398; Page: 409.1000; Enumeration District: 45; .

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1900 United States Federal Census > Washington > Garfield > East Pomeroy > District 20

Line 5

Kuykendall, George B. Head WM May 1843 57 M33yrs IN IN IN Physician

------------------Eliza Wife WF May 1848 52 M30yrs (8-8) IL IL IN

------------------Chester Son WM Mar 1869 31 S OR IN IL Pharmacist

------------------Minnie Dau WF Jan 1873 27 S OROR IN IL

------------------Grace Dau WF Sept 1874 25 S OR IN IL

------------------George Son WM Oct 1878 21 S WA IN IL Telegraph Operator

------------------Willie Son WM Oct 1883 16 S WA IN IL At School

-------------------Hubert Son WM Jan 1885 15 S WA IN IL At School

-------------------Bessie Dau WF Mar 1887 13 S WA IN IL At School

Source Citation: Year: 1900; Census Place: East Pomeroy, Garfield, Washington; Roll: T623 1743; Page: 3A; Enumeration District: 20.

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1910 United States Federal Census > Washington > Garfield > East Pomeroy > District 68

Line 21 - Columbia Street

Kuykendall, George B. Head MW 67 M1 42yrs IN IN IN Physician/Gen'l Practice

------------------Louisa Wife FW 60 M1 42yrs (8-8) IL OH OH None

------------------Minnie Dau WF 37 D (1-1) WA IN IL Artist/Painter

------------------Bessie Dau FW 23 D (0-0) WA IN IL Music Teacher/Piano

Start, Grace Dau FW 35 M1 9yrs (1-1) WA IN IL None

-------------Eldred Gson MW 7 S WA IA WA None

Kuykendall, Margery Gdau FW 1-8/12 S WA UN WA None

Source Citation: Year: 1910; Census Place: East Pomeroy, Garfield, Washington; Roll: T624_1654; Page: 4A; Enumeration District: 68; Image: 1175.

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1920 United States Federal Census > Washington > Garfield > Pomeroy > District 51

Line 21

Kuykendall, Geo. B. Head OF MW 77 M IL VA MD None

------------------Eliza Wife FW 70 M OH VA ID None

------------------Bessie E. Dau FW 35 S WA OH OH None

Source Citation: Year: 1920;Census Place: Pomeroy, Garfield, Washington; Roll: T625_1920; Page: 7A; Enumeration District: 51; Image: 545.

==========================

1930 United States Federal Census > Oregon > Multnomah > Portland (Districts 271-553) > District 299

Line 59 - 1204 Main Street

Wineland, John S. Head Own$5000 radio MW 52 M@22yrs old IL IL IL Engineer/Sand & Gravel

----------------Bessie E. Wife FW 43 M@20yrs WA IN IL None

Kuykendall, George B. Father/Law MW 87 WD M@25yrs old IN IN IN None

Watts, Mary C. ???FW 57 WD M@21yrs old OR MO MO None

Source Citation: Year: 1930; Census Place: Portland, Multnomah, Oregon; Roll: 1951; Page: 3B; Enumeration District: 299; Image: 1062.0.

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More About GEORGE BENSON KUYKENDALL:

Census 1: 1880, WA Yakima Fort Simcoe ED 45 Pg 409A

Census 2: 1900, WA Garfield East Pomeroy ED 20 Pg 3A

Census 3: 1910, WA Garfield East Pomeroy ED 68 Pg 4A

Census 4: 1920, WA Garfield Pomeroy ED 51 Pg 7A

Census 5: 1930, OR Multnomah Portland ED 299 Pg 3B

More About GEORGE KUYKENDALL and ELIZA BUTLER:

Marriage: 30 Jan 1868, Oakland, Oregon

Children of ELIZA BUTLER and GEORGE KUYKENDALL are: