The Oregon Legislature changed the name of Rogue River to Gold River, hence the change of the name of the circuit to Gold River Circuit.
1852.
    Rev. J. S. Smith was the first preacher sent by the Oregon Annual Conference to the Rogue River Circuit. During his pastorate of one year he preached extensively among the miners at Jacksonville and elsewhere.
    He commenced building a house of worship in Jacksonville by collecting some materials and erecting a frame of hewed timber.
    No societies were organized under his administration.
1853.
    T. F. Royal, a transfer from the Rock River Conference of 1852, having crossed the plains in 1853, was next employed on the Rogue River Circuit.
    In Jacksonville and vicinity only one Methodist could be found--a young man, Christopher Alderson.
1854. Church Building.
    The materials collected for building a church were all missing but the hewed timbers. A new site was selected, a lot was donated by James Clugage and the timbers removed to the new location.
    David Linn, Thomas Pyle and James McDonough were employed to build the church, and the Preacher in Charge began to collect subscriptions and materials. With his own hands and a borrowed team he hauled the lumber from Lindley's mill 8 miles.
    For subscriptions and other items see pages 6, 7, 8, 9, 0, 11, 12.
    The first Methodist Episcopal Church organized in Jackson County, Oregon Territory was in Jacksonville on the 1st day of January 1854, with the following members, viz: Sylvester H. Taylor, Christopher Alderson, J. H. B. Royal, Mary Ann Royal and the pastor, T. F. Royal.
    The society was soon increased by the addition of William Kahler, Mrs. William Kahler, Mrs. S. H. Taylor, Miss Mary E. Royal, J. P. Hawks, R. S. Munn, Rice Benson, Thomas Trimble, Curtis Davenport, H. B. Horn, Mrs. Ganung, S. P. Shock, George Payne, Isaac Jones, a Negro, Local Preacher, a noble man of God, William Miller, M.D., Mrs. William Miller, and her father George Young, Enoch Walker, Mrs. E. Walker, and Mrs. Newcomb, Butte Creek.
    The first society of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Phoenix was organized January 15, 1854. The first members were Rev. Stephen P. Taylor, a local preacher, Mrs. S. P. Taylor, Rev. John Gray, a superannuate of the Missouri Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, Mrs. J. Gray, Mary Gray, Robert Gray, added afterwards Clark Taylor, Hobart Taylor, Rachel Taylor and Abigail Taylor.
    The first Methodist Episcopal Church at the Eden school house in the Wagner Creek neighborhood was organized February 18, 1854 with the following members: Rev. William Royal, superannuate of the Rock River Conference, an Elder, Barbara Royal, Jason L. Royal, Father Rockfellow, Mrs. Albert Rockfellow, [W.] Cortez Myer, Mrs. C. Myer, Mrs. John Myers and daughter, now Mrs. E. K. Anderson.
Southern Oregon Historical Society Research Library MS 161, folder 5


    A day or so ago I dropped in to renew my acquaintanceship with Mrs. C. Alderson, who has learned to grow old gracefully. She lives at No. 1280 East Belmont Street. Mrs. Alderson is four-score years and two, having been born January 26, 1842. She was born in La Salle County, Illinois.
    "There were 13 children in our family--nine boys and four girls," said Mrs. Alderson. "I was the 12th child. My father, Charles Royal, was born in Virginia in 1797. My mother, Mary Gearhart Royal, was born in Virginia on the Fourth of July, 1800, and died on Christmas Day, 1888. My father and mother were married at Piqua, Ohio, in 1818, when Mother was 18 years old.
    "My father was a potter. He and my uncle William Royal made cups, saucers and plates, and earthenware, such as jugs, jars and other glazed ware. My father got lead poisoning from working with the glazed ware, so he had to give up the business. My father's brother William also quit the pottery business and joined the Rock River Methodist Conference.
    "When I was 10 years old--that was in 1852---we started across the plains by ox team for Oregon. There were 25 wagons in our train, with Captain Ross in command. The older children did not come to Oregon. Only five of the children came--my brothers James, Fletcher, William, Louis and myself. Of the 13 children in our family there are but three now living. My sister Mary Elizabeth, now Mrs. Mahan, lives at Eureka, Kan., and my brother William, who is 86 years old, lives at Elmo, Wash.
    "When we reached The Dalles we stayed there a week, during which time Father sold our oxen and wagons. Father wanted Mother to go down the river on the log raft with our goods. My mother refused to go on the raft. She said to Father, 'We have crossed the plains together, we have lived together 34 years, and I am not going to be separated from you now.' So Mother and I walked down the trail with Father, who was driving our cows, from The Dalles to the Cascades. At the Cascades we boarded a boat and were landed at the mouth of the Sandy, where Father made arrangements to have our cows pastured. At Portland we took passage aboard the Lot Whitcomb and went to Astoria. Mother kept a boarding house there for the next year and my brother Fletcher got work in a sawmill at $75 a month.
    "In the fall of 1853 Father took up a donation land claim two miles north of Gresham. In 1854 I started to school at the Portland academy. 'Father' J. H. Wilbur came down in 1849 from the Oregon Institute at Salem, where he had been teaching, and secured from the proprietors of the Portland townsite a site for a proposed academy, which he named the Portland academy. He was a good hand with an ax, so he cleared the land of the standing timber, and in 1851 a building was put up and 'Portland Academy and Female Seminary' started in a modest way. It was not incorporated till 1854, the year I started to school there. The year before I started, Father Wilbur went to Southern Oregon and started the Umpqua academy. I attended the Portland academy three years. Professor C. S. Kingsley and his wife were my teachers.
    "When I was 17 years old I taught my first school. I taught in the old Cedar school, near Gresham. My next school was on the Columbia, near Fairview. From there I went to a school near Hillsboro. While teaching there I met Rev. C. Alderson. I was 20. He was 35. He was born in Yorkshire, England. He came to Oregon in the same year in which I came--1852. Before I met him he had preached two years at Olympia, and also two years at a lumber camp called Seattle, which gave no promise at that time of becoming a world port. He was pastor of the Methodist church at Seattle when we were married, in 1862. Father Wilbur performed the marriage ceremony for us. We went to Roseburg shortly after our marriage. My husband's salary at Roseburg was $300 a year.
    "The wife of a Methodist minister learns geography at first-hand, and she learns to do without. Just to give you an idea of how we were shifted about, I need only tell you that after a two years' pastorate at Roseburg we were assigned to Whidbey Island, where we stayed two years. From there we went to Rock Creek, in Clackamas County, for two years, and from there to Dayton and Lafayette, where we stayed two years and then went for two years to Sheridan, after which we spent two years at Dallas, which was followed by two years at Brownsville. From there we went to a country church in Coos County, where we sojourned for a year, after which we went to Empire City, where we stayed three years. At that time Empire City had three or four hotels and three or four stores, and was a thriving place, though now it is one of the 'ghost cities' of Oregon. From there we went to Jacksonville and Ashland, where my husband received a salary of $800 a year--the largest he ever received.
    "Our children were growing up and needed to go to school, so we moved to Salem so they could enter Willamette University. I became matron of the women's college. My husband filled occasional temporary appointments in the vicinity of Salem.
    "We lived in Salem 15 years. I kept boarders and sold milk so that my children might remain in the university.
    "We had seven children--five girls and two boys. My son Will has served as county superintendent of Multnomah County schools for eight years. Scott works in the city water department. Edith lives with me and is a teacher in the Glencoe school. Anna married W. A. Pearson. She and her husband live in Portland and work for the Southern Pacific Company, and have for more than 20 years. They are both telegraph operators. Marguerite graduated from the music department of Willamette University, taking both vocal and instrumental music. She married Robert L. Burkhart of Albany. Pearl is dead. Lois married Joseph Huggins of Portland.
    "My father's brother, Rev. William Royal, came to Oregon in 1853, the year after we came. He founded Centenary Methodist church in Portland, in 1867. Two of his sons--T. F. and J. H. B.--became ministers. Another son, C. W., was a well-known merchant of Salem half a century or more ago."
Fred Lockley, "Impressions and Observations of the Journal Man," Oregon Journal, Portland, July 16, 1924, page 10


    Before moving to Laurelhurst I lived on Mount Tabor. A few blocks from my home was a small house in which lived Mrs. Sarah A. Royal. As I passed her home I would occasionally stop and pass the time of day. One day she said to me:
    "I spent my girlhood at Galesburg, Ill., though I was born in East Tennessee, on September 20, 1827. My father was a blacksmith. My father was born in Pennsylvania, and disliked slavery. We lived on the public highway on the road to Baltimore, and we would frequently see gangs of slaves going along the road, so we left Tennessee in 1836 for Illinois. I taught school prior to my marriage to C. W. Royal on September 2, 1864. We left New York state in the early summer of 1865. We went to New York to take the boat for the Isthmus. The soldiers were just coming home from the war. It was a time of rejoicing and sorrowing. The nation was sorrowing over the death of President Lincoln, and the coming home of thousands of soldiers opened afresh the wounds of those who had lost their husbands, sweethearts, brothers or fathers during the war. My sister's husband died in Andersonville prison. My brother was wounded shortly before peace was declared. He was married and had three children. His wife was notified what train he would come home on, so she went to the depot with the children to meet him. When the train pulled in they watched eagerly as the soldiers got off. When all the soldiers were off, my brother's wife asked the conductor, who told her that her husband died on the way home and that his body was in the baggage car.
    "My husband's father, William Royal, was a pioneer missionary. He lived in Portland. He had been superannuated, but he did conference work and also met the emigrants at the dock and collected and cared for destitute emigrants. He was born in England, but came to America when he was a boy, settling in Virginia. From Virginia he went to Ohio and later moved to Illinois. He was in Illinois at the time of the Black Hawk War. He crossed the plains with his family to Oregon in 1853. He founded Centenary Methodist church in Portland in 1867. Two of his sons, J. H. B. Royal and P. F. Royal, became Methodist ministers. My husband, C. W. Royal, was born in Ohio in 1823. He did not come to Oregon with his father, Rev. William Royal, in 1853, but came 12 years later.
    "My husband, when I married him, was a widower with two children, Ladru and Osmon. Back in Illinois my husband was in the hardware business, but when we came to Portland he became a real estate dealer. We bought a 30-acre farm on Mount Tabor. When we moved here in 1866 there were only three houses between our place and the river. The districts that are now Sunnyside, Irvington and Laurelhurst were then covered with heavy timber.
    "From Portland we moved to Salem, where we stayed six years so Ladru could attend Willamette University. He graduated there and later taught at Oregon City, Vancouver, Ashland and Corvallis. My father-in-law, William Royal, had a brother Charles who lived at Albany. My husband was William Royal's second son. His first son was Fletcher Royal. The next child after my husband was William Royal, then came James, then Mary, who married Rev. John Flinn, and then Jason, who was the youngest child."
    Mrs. Royal's stepson, Dr. Osmon Royal, was a well-known physician here in Portland for many years. He was born near Bloomington, Ill., on January 3, 1856. After attending Willamette University, he spent three years at Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, Ohio. From there he went to a Boston university, where he took a four years' course in the medical department. After spending a year or two in practice in the East he came to Portland and built a sanitarium on Mount Tabor. In 1889 he was married to Miss Julia Morgan of Ilion, N.Y.
    In coming across the plains the emigrants often brought a passenger along in the prairie schooners that they were unaware of--Dan Cupid. As a result many marriages occurred on the way across the plains. In the absence of a minister in the wagon train someone who had once served as a justice of the peace or county judge back East was pressed into the service to perform the ceremony. As a result of these impromptu marriages the records of the territorial legislature have numerous records similar to the one I am here copying from the session laws of Oregon Territory for 1855, which reads as follows:
    "An act to legalize the marriage between John C. Carey and Sarah Carey.
    "Whereas, doubts exist as to the legality of the marriage heretofore solemnized in June, 1846, on the Platte River, between John C. Carey and Sarah Carey, of Marion County; therefore--
    "Section 1. Be it enacted by the legislative assembly of the Territory of Oregon, That the marriage heretofore solemnized between John Carey and Martha Cleinfeldter, in the year 1842, is hereby dissolved.
    "Sec. 2. The marriage heretofore solemnized on the Platte River between John C. Carey and the said Sarah Carey, in the year 1846, followed up by continued cohabitation as husband and wife ever since to this day, be and the same is hereby declared legal and valid, and all the children of said Sarah, begotten by said John, as well before as after the passage of this act, are hereby declared legitimate to all intents and purposes.
    "Sec. 3. The said parties are hereby exempted from all penalties, fines and imprisonments incurred by them, or either of them, as to which they may be liable in consequence of the illegality of said last mentioned marriage.
    "Passed January 5, 1855."
    Changing the names of people and of places was another favorite indoor sport of the early-day legislators. Here are two acts passed by the territorial legislature of 1854-55.
    "Sec. 1. Be it enacted by the legislative assembly of the Territory of Oregon, That the name of the town of Takenah, in the county of Linn and Territory of Oregon, be and the same is hereby changed to that of Albany.
    "Sec. 2. This act to take effect from and after its passage.
    "Passed January 23, 1855."
    "Sec. 1. Be it enacted by the legislative assembly of the Territory of Oregon, That the name of Gold River be and the same is hereby changed to that of Rogue River.
    "Sec. 2. That all acts and parts of acts inconsistent with this act be and the same are hereby repealed.
    "Sec. 3. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage.
    "Passed January 24, 1855."
Oregon Journal, Portland, July 2, 1925, page 8




    "My daughter Emma, who lives with me here at 1635 East Morrison Street, was born February 3, 1873, and was the first white child born in Goldendale, Wash.," said Mrs. Emma J. Royal. "When I married the Rev. J. H. B. Royal, on July 23, 1868, we moved up to Claquato, in Lewis County, Washington. In 1871 we moved to where Goldendale was later built. We built the first house in Goldendale. The winter of 1871 was very cold. The snow fell and crusted over and the next two snowfalls also crusted over. The snow was deep and this triple crust of snow cut the horses' legs so badly that we had no mail for six weeks. We had no milk during the time and we lived on frozen beef, bread and dried apples. In those days you couldn't buy canned fruit or other canned things as you can today. After two years my husband was assigned to the Clear Creek church, on the Molalla. He served there two years, then his blindness came on and he was superannuated and we moved to West Portland.
    "I remember distinctly how we used to cross the ferry at Portland in 1855. The flatboat was run by a treadmill operated by a mule. I used to feel so sorry for the poor mule, walking and walking and never getting anywhere.
    "In 1881 we moved to Salem so the children could attend Willamette University. Emma at that time was 7 years old and was the youngest pupil at Willamette. Lizzie Boise was her teacher. We lived near the Lincoln school, in South Salem. After 22 years at Salem we moved to Portland, where we have lived ever since.
    "My husband's people, the Royals, were early-day settlers in Southern Oregon. Not only did my husband teach the first school in Jacksonville and in 1854 served as principal of Umpqua Academy, at Wilbur, but his brother, Thomas Fletcher Royal, later served as principal of Umpqua Academy."
    The father of the Rev. J. H. B. Royal and the Rev. Thomas Fletcher Royal was the Rev. William Royal, who was born in England, settled in Virginia, later moved to Ohio and still later to Illinois. He was in Illinois at the time of the Black Hawk War. He crossed the plains to Oregon in 1853. He founded Centenary Methodist church, in East Portland, and had the pleasure of seeing two of his sons, the Rev. Thomas Fletcher Royal and the Rev. J. H. B. Royal, became Methodist ministers. Dr. Osmon Royal, who became a well-known physician in Portland, was the son of C. W. Royal, who was born in Ohio in 1823 and was a brother of the Rev. J. H. B. Royal and the Rev. T. F. Royal. Dr. Royal's father, C. W. Royal, started a hardware store in Salem about the close of the Civil War. Dr. Royal was a student at Willamette University and founded a sanitarium on Mount Tabor.
    The Methodist church in Jacksonville was built when the Rev. Thomas Fletcher Royal was pastor there. It was built by Pyle, McDonough and David Linn. James Clugage, one of the founders of Jacksonville, gave the land on which it was located. The Rev. J. H. Wilbur, presiding elder of the Umpqua district, at the request of the Rev. T. F. Royal came to Jacksonville in the fall of 1854 to assist in the dedication of the building. Umpqua Academy was located by the Rev. James H. Wilbur in what was known as Bunton's Gap. He cleared the ground and helped put up a log cabin. For many years Umpqua Academy was the only school of higher learning between Sacramento and Salem. In 1900 it ceased to have an official existence and was merged with the public school system. Its founder, the Rev. James H. Wilbur, built the first Methodist church in Portland, in 1850, and prior to coming to Portland had organized a Sunday school at San Francisco, the first Protestant work to be established in that city.
Oregon Journal, Portland, February 2, 1933, page 6


    When you and I were young, Maggie, Methodist ministers were shifted about like the bits of colored glass in a kaleidoscope. The bits of glass remained the same, but with every move of the kaleidoscope they formed new combinations. I have interviewed scores of old-time Methodist ministers who during a ministry of 40 years would have served as pastor in from 25 to 30 communities. Recently I interviewed Mrs. Emma J. Royal, on Mount Tabor, whose husband, the Rev. J. H. B. Royal, was a Methodist minister here when Oregon was a territory. Her father-in-law, the Rev. C. W. Royal, was the founder of Centenary Methodist church in East Portland, and her brother-in-law, the Rev. T. F. Royal, served as pastor in many new communities, particularly throughout Southern Oregon. The Rev. William Royal, her husband's grandfather, prior to crossing the plains to Oregon belonged to the Illinois conference.
    One gets a good idea of how these early-day Methodist ministers were shifted about when one learns that the Rev. William Royal served as pastor at Bloomington, Ill., in 1832, at Ottawa in 1833, the following year at Fox River mission, at Des Plaines in 1836, at Waterloo in 1837, at Waynesville in 1838, at Winchester in 1839, at Pulaski in 1840 and 1841, at Monmouth in 1842, at Richland in 1843, at Greenville in 1844, and the next year was transferred to the Rock River conference and appointed to the Peoria circuit. The next year he was transferred to the Little Rock circuit. In 1848 he was at Newark. In 1850 he was transferred to the Livingston circuit and was superannuated in 1851. In 1860 he was restored to the active list, transferred to the Oregon conference, and appointed to the Portland mission. In 1861 he served as pastor at Tualatin and from 1862 till 1868 served as conference tract agent.
    The Rev. William Royal's son, C. W. Royal, crossed the plains to Oregon in 1853. When Oregon was a territory the Methodist circuit riders rode on horseback through remote settlements, preaching in schoolhouses and at log cabins. Frequently there would be a pioneer settlement where, in spite of the absence of a pastor, meetings would be held, a Sunday school organized and class meetings held even though no minister was present.
    One of the most curious incidents I have run across in this connection is typical of what frequently happened here in Oregon, though this particular instance occurred near the mouth of the Wabash. A group of 10 settlers met to help put up a log cabin. They agreed to meet the following Sabbath at religious services at one of the cabins. The following Sunday eight women and 10 men assembled. No one present had ever conducted a public service and, what was strange, not a single one of the men present belonged to any church. One of the number had brought a Bible. This was laid open on a three-legged stool. As no one volunteered to lead, the man of the house prepared nine straws and they agreed that the one who drew the long straw should conduct the services. George Davidson drew the long straw. He read a chapter in the Bible. They sang an old-time Methodist camp-meeting hymn, and then they kneeled in prayer and were led by George Davidson. Thereafter they met weekly, George Davidson leading the services. He later became a minister and every man in the settlement was converted and joined the church.
    When Robert A. Booth [sic] erected the bronze equestrian statue "The Circuit Rider" near the statehouse at Salem in honor of his father a large number of Oregon poets wrote verses commemorating the event.
Oregon Journal, Portland, April 30, 1933, page 6


    "I was born at Wilbur, in Southern Oregon, August 3, 1863," said Mrs. Harold Oberg when I interviewed her recently on the Oberg farm on Northeast 102nd Avenue.
    "I graduated from Willamette University in 1888 and married a classmate, Harold Oberg. My maiden name was Acolia F. Royal. My father, the Rev. Thomas Fletcher Royal, was born at Columbus, Ohio. He died in 1911 at the age of 90. Father attended Galesburg College, at Galesburg, Ill., and shortly thereafter joined the Rock Creek Methodist conference, in Illinois. My mother, whose maiden name was Mary Ann Stanley, was born in New York state. Father and Mother were married on September 19, 1849.
    "My father's grandfather, Thomas Royal, was born in England in 1752. He came to America, enlisted in the army and was wounded in one of the battles of the Revolution. Not long after the close of the war he married Hannah Cooper, daughter of William Southerby Cooper, who lived in New Jersey, seven miles from Philadelphia. Thomas Royal, having come from England, was a member of the Church of England, while his wife, Hannah Cooper, was a birthright member of the Quaker Church, After their marriage they settled in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. In 1795 they moved to Monongahela County, in West Virginia. They had 10 children, nine of whom lived to maturity and eight of whom raised good-sized families. Samuel Royal, a brother of my father's grandfather, served in Hull's army in the War of 1812 and died on July 30, 1812.
    "My father, Thomas Fletcher Royal, was the oldest of seven children. His brother Charles, who was a school teacher, died in Portland. Charles was born in Ohio in 1823. He had a hardware store in Illinois but after coming to Oregon settled at Salem. His son, Dr. Osmon Royal, was educated at Willamette University and later put in three years at Ohio Wesleyan University, at Delaware, Ohio, later securing his medical education at Boston University. My uncle William was a physician. My uncle James was a Methodist minister and belonged to the Oregon conference. My uncle George died young. My uncle Jason had a shoe store, first at Salem and later at Portland. My aunt Mary, who was Father's only sister, married the Rev. John Flinn. She lived to be over 90, and her husband also passed his 90th milestone.
    "My father's father, the Rev. William Royal, was the founder of Centenary Methodist church in East Portland, now known as Centenary-Wilbur Methodist church.
    "My father and mother crossed the plains by ox team in 1853. In the same wagon train were Father's brother, the Rev. James H. D. Royal, and his father and mother, the Rev. William and Barbara Royal. Father was then about 32 years old. He went to Jacksonville, which at that time was the metropolis of Southwestern Oregon and one of the livest mining camps in the West. James Clugage had deeded a lot at Jacksonville to the Methodist church. Father would go into a saloon where a lot of miners were gambling and where stacks of $20 gold pieces or pokes of gold dust were on the table, and would hold a service. The saloonkeepers were glad to have him take up a collection and go, for while Father was praying, the miners, out of respect to him, would not drink or gamble. By making rather frequent visits to various saloons Father soon collected enough money to build the church. The church was built by Pyle & McDonough and David Linn, whose son, Fletcher Linn, lives in Portland. This church, which is still standing in Jacksonville, was dedicated in the fall of 1854 by the Rev. J. H. Wilbur, at that time presiding elder of the Umpqua district. My mother secured cotton cloth, which she sewed together, and with which the church was lined. In those days they tacked cloth to the walls before papering a room.
    "My father had been lame since he was a boy, but after he came to Oregon he fell from a ladder. The fall snapped a tendon, so that thereafter he was much less lame than he had been. Father was a circuit rider at the time I was born.
    "There were eight of us children, two of whom came across the plains and one of whom was born while Father and Mother were crossing the plains.
    "I learned the alphabet at Wilbur. When I was a little girl, Father was made presiding elder, and we moved to Salem. In 1871 we moved to Portland, where my grandfather, the Rev. William Royal, was city missionary. Father came to Portland to become principal of the Portland Academy and Female Seminary. During the four years he had this position I attended school there. From Portland we moved to the Siletz Agency, where Father was agency clerk, served as teacher and also preached. I attended school at Siletz."
Oregon Journal, Portland, February 23, 1935, page 4


    "We are old-time Methodists," said Mrs. Harold Oberg, whose home is on Northeast 102nd Avenue. Mrs. Oberg, whose maiden name was Aeolia F. Royal. and her husband, the Rev. Harold Oberg, retired Methodist minister, were classmates at Willamette University, graduating in the class of 1888. Mrs. Oberg's father, the Rev. Thomas Fletcher Royal, was a Methodist minister and a son of the Rev. William Royal, founder of Centenary-Wilbur Methodist church. Her uncle James Royal was also a Methodist minister and a member of the Oregon conference.
    "When Father and Mother crossed the plains they had two children, and one was born on the plains," said Mrs. Oberg. "There were eight of us in all. The oldest, Nina T., married Clark Smith, a teacher, who later became a minister. He and my sister studied medicine. They lived for awhile at Cornelius and Hillsboro. They went to Africa as medical missionaries under Bishop Taylor. Nina died in Africa and is buried on the banks of the Congo. Her husband brought the family back to Cornelius. Two of their daughters are still living--one in Washington and one in California. My brother Stanley Olin Royal graduated from Willamette University in 1874, and later from Drew Theological Seminary. He married Matilda Walden, daughter of Bishop Walden. Stanley is dead, but his widow and two daughters live at Dayton, Ohio. My brother Miller Gould Royal was born on the plains. He also graduated from Willamette University. He taught school some years in Oregon and Washington and was appointed principal of the Weston Normal School. Later he was principal of the normal school at Ashland. William died while studying for the ministry at Ohio Wesleyan University. My brother Forrester was a teacher and was a government employee at the Klamath Agency. Later he worked for the Southern Pacific for many years. He died last August. My brother Orsemus died as a child. My sister Carrie Lucretia, named for the wife of Father Wilbur, after graduating from Willamette University married Edgar Mumford of Olympia. They went to Utah, where Mr. Mumford taught for some time, then entered the government service as a clerk in the land office department and was stationed for a long time at Vancouver, Wash. He retired recently after 30 years of service. He and my sister live at Vancouver.
    "We moved to Siletz when I was a girl, Father having secured a position as teacher there. I attended school at the Siletz Agency for awhile, and later at Hillsboro, as Father had been called to the pastorate of the Methodist church at Hillsboro. Still later I attended Pacific University, at Forest Grove. From Hillsboro we went to Salem, as Father had been made presiding elder. We were there four years. I attended Willamette University several years and then went to Ashland to teach. My brother Miller Gould Royal, who was born while my parents were crossing the plains, in 1853, was principal of the school at Ashland. From Ashland, in the early '80s, I went to a charming little community called Zena, in Spring Valley, in Polk County, about seven miles from Salem, where I taught for a year. Among the pupils I remember best were Balm Mann, who is now married and lives at Yonkers-on-the-Hudson, and Ida Purvine. With the money I had saved from teaching I returned to Willamette University.
    "My father, who had been presiding elder at Salem, after serving his four-year term became pastor of the Methodist church at Lincoln, two miles east of Zena and near Spong's ferry. Colonel Carle Abrams' father had a mill there for many years.
    "From Lincoln we went to the Klamath Indian Reservation, Father having secured a position as teacher there. I taught in the Indian girls' boarding school and served as seamstress. This work was very practical, for we made all of the clothing for both girl and boy students. From Klamath Agency I once more returned to Willamette, staying three years, graduating in 1888.
    "My classmate Harold Oberg and I were married on August 22, 1888, and at once went East to continue our education at Garrett Biblical Institute. I majored in Greek and Hebrew. After graduating my husband was appointed pastor of the Methodist church at Woodburn. Within the next few years I became well acquainted with the Methodists and others at our various pastorates at Woodburn, Lebanon, Halsey, Corvallis, Oregon City, Hillsboro, Astoria and Portland.
    "Ovedra, our oldest daughter, has been for 16 years bookkeeper for the H. W. Sharp Company in Portland. Our son Terry Royal is with the Western Electric Company in New Jersey. Our daughter Miriam has been financial secretary of the Portland Y.W.C.A. for eight years. Ruth has passed on. Elaine graduated from Willamette University in 1924 and for several years was a teacher in the high school on Vashon island, in the state of Washington. She then became a teacher of biology in Washington High School in Portland. She is now an exchange teacher with McKinley High School of Honolulu and is spending a year teaching in Honolulu."
Oregon Journal, Portland, February 28, 1935, page 12


    "I was born at Wilbur on August 1, 1868," said Mrs. E. M. Mumford when I interviewed her at her home at 514 Beech Street, Vancouver. "My father was the Rev. Thomas Fletcher Royal. His father, the Rev. William Royal, founded Centenary-Wilbur Methodist church. I am one of a family of eight children. For many years my father was principal of Umpqua Academy, at Wilbur. When I was 2 years old we moved to the Siletz agency, Father having secured a position as teacher there. My mother also taught. We were there five or six years. From there we moved to Hillsboro, where Father served as pastor of the Methodist church.
    "Father was made presiding elder, so we moved to Salem. During the four years we were there I attended the preparatory department of Willamette University. 'Aunt Lizzie' Boise was one of my teachers. From Salem we went to Lincoln, on the Willamette, in Polk County. Our next-door neighbors were Lettie, Lois and Carle Abrams. Carle later joined the Oregon National Guard, became lieutenant colonel and went to England and France during the World War. While we were there my sister, Aeolia F., now Mrs. Harold Oberg of Portland, taught in the school at Zena, in Spring Valley, about two miles west of Lincoln. From Lincoln we went to the Klamath agency, where Father served as missionary and teacher and where my mother was employed as matron. Aeolia secured a position as teacher in the Indian school. She taught sewing, and she and the Indian girls made all of the clothing for the students.
   "From the Klamath agency Aeolia and I moved to Salem to attend Willamette University. My parents went to Monroe, in Benton County, where Father was pastor of the Methodist church. Aeolia married a classmate, the Rev. Harold Oberg, on August 22, 1888, and they went to Garrett Biblical Institute to take further work. Meanwhile, Father had been appointed pastor of the Methodist church at Dallas, so my parents moved there and I took a position as teacher at the Oak Grove school, in Polk County. I taught there a year and then returned to Willamette, from which I graduated in 1891. There were six in our graduating class--B. L. Steeves, who came from Silverton, and who became a doctor; Carrie A. Gleason of Hubbard, Minnie Frickey, who later became a professor in Willamette University; J. F. Ailshie, who became an attorney at law; William Heerdt and myself. Among playmates I remember best when I was a little girl in Salem was Kate Dalrymple.
    "After graduating from Willamette I went to Olympia, Wash., where I taught in the public schools two years. Later, I went to Pendleton and taught some time. I was there during the big flood. I think that was in 1894. I was elected assistant principal at Pendleton, but I had already accepted a position at Halsey, so I could not return to Pendleton. I taught at Halsey three years.
    "I forgot to tell you that my father at one time was principal of the Portland Academy and Female Seminary.
     "I remember a curious experience in the way of travel when I was teaching at Pendleton. It was during high water on the Columbia. The railroad was out of commission. I went from Pendleton to Wallula in a caboose, then by wagon for awhile, then took a steamer, climbing from the deck of the boat to the Pasco bridge. I had to stay at the hotel at Pasco all night. I then took the Northern Pacific to Kalama, where I caught a steamer for Portland, and thence west on to Brooks, arriving at midnight. The trip from Pendleton to Brooks took several days and cost me $20. 
    "While teaching in Olympia I met Edgar M. Mumford, a teacher in Olympia Collegiate Institute. He went to Salt Lake City, and on June 23, 1897, came to Mehama, where my father was located, and my father, the Rev. T. F. Royal; my brother-in-law, the Rev. Harold Oberg, and my brother, S. O. Royal, performed the marriage ceremony. I went as a bride to Utah, where my husband and I taught in the schools. Our first child, Edgar Royal, was born in Utah on May 23, 1898. He is professor of mathematics in the junior high school at McMinnville. In 1899 we went to Palouse City, Wash., where my husband taught for some time. Our daughter, Beatrice, was born there on October 16, 1899. She married Earl H. Gray and now lives at Spokane. My husband was appointed a clerk in the United States land office at Vancouver, so we moved to Vancouver in 1902 and lived here 22 years till the land office was closed, when my husband was transferred to Spokane. Still later we were transferred to Pierre, S.D. After serving 30 years he was retired.
    "While we were living in Vancouver we had three more children--Harold Stanley, born October 7, 1903, and who graduated from Willamette University; William Waldon, born June 17, 1905, and Hope, born June 30, 1910. Hope attended Linfield College and Willamette University and graduated from the state normal school at Cheney, Wash. She teaches in Clark County."
Oregon Journal, Portland, May 19, 1935, page 10


    The first white child born at Goldendale was Emma Royal, whose father, James Henry Bascom Royal, was pastor of the Methodist church at Goldendale. When I first met Emma Royal in 1891, she was a young girl at Salem. Her father came from New York state by ox team when he was 30 years old.
    Recently I renewed my acquaintance with my long-time friend at the celebration of the 95th anniversary of the Mount Tabor Methodist church, of which Emma's father was pastor from 1857 to 1859. "My father was the first superintendent of Umpqua Academy at Wilbur in Douglas County," she said. "General W. H. Byars and his future wife, Emma Slocum, were students there, as were N. A. Booth and his brother, J. H. Booth. Bill Byars, son of General and Mrs. Byars, is owner and editor of the Goldendale Sentinel. I was 8 months old when we moved from Goldendale to Rock Creek. I was a student at Willamette University in 1888, '89 and '90. We moved to Salem when I was 7 years old and we lived there for 20 years. When I was 17 I was granted a certificate to teach school. We had hard sledding in Salem. My father lost his sight when I was 2½ years old, so Mother taught school, raised flowers for sale and did sewing to support the family. I was married when I was 18. My daughter Elizabeth lives in San Francisco. She is married and her son, 21, is married and is a student at Harvard law school.
    "My husband, John Singleton, and I lived on a homestead six miles from Hood River. We spent three years and $1500 on our homestead. We couldn't sell it, but we pulled out anyway. We returned to Salem and in 1904 I came to Portland and took training as a nurse. I was head surgical nurse under Dr. Coffey in the North Pacific Sanatorium for three and a half years. I was superintendent of the Multnomah County farm for 10 years. I have put in 30 years in the nursing profession. In 1920 I married James Joseph O'Sullivan, head engineer at the Multnomah farm. He died 18 months after our marriage. I live at 6221 SE Morrison Street and have been a member of Mount Tabor Methodist church for 44 years.
    "Do you realize you and I have known each other since 1891? Most of our old-time friends at Salem have taken the one-way trail. My father walked across the plains in 1853, driving five yoke of oxen. He went to Jacksonville, Or., where he taught the first school there during the winter of 1853 and the spring of 1854. In 1895 Father was assigned to the Oak Point circuit, which at that time included both sides of the Columbia River. Father was there during the Indian war of 1855 and '56. My father has many 'firsts' in his record. He was the first principal of Wilbur Academy when it was opened in 1854. In 1857 he was pastor of the Mount Tabor Methodist church. In the early sixties he had the Cascades-Fort Steilacoom circuit. He traveled on horseback, by canoe and afoot. My father's uncle, Colonel Ebey, a brother of Father's mother, lived on Whidbey Island in Puget Sound. One night there was a knock on his door. He went to the door. An Indian pulled him out on the porch, cut off his head and took it with him to Alaska and left his body on the porch."
    The Rev. H. K. Hines, born in New York state, crossed the plains the same year as did the Rev. J. H. B. Royal in 1853. He was 25 years old and had been preaching for five years, He preached his first sermon in Oregon at the Old Taylor Street church on October 10, 1853. In 1856 he organized a church at The Dalles, and in 1859 became presiding elder of the Salem district. In 1865 he was presiding elder of the Puget Sound district and in 1869 of the Walla Walla district. In 1875 he was presiding elder of the La Grande district, and also of the Boise district. During  the '70s he founded the Blue Mountain University at La Grande. In 1880 he became editor of the Pacific Christian Advocate. For two years he was president of the upper house of the Washington territorial legislature.
Oregon Journal, Portland, February 15, 1948, page 18