If there is just the page listed it is one that I have transcribed. Otherwise, it will have the name of the person who donated the biographies.  If you have any biographies you can donate, please drop a line to Janine M. Bork.Your information can help others.

JOHN H. O'BRYANT. - We esteem it a privilege to be permitted to chronicle for the history of our county a brief review of the substantial and prominent citizen, whose name is at the head of this article, and who has wrought in the pioneer's life so well and faithfully for the opening of this and adjacent counties and for their development and advancement for over one-third of a century, while his life of constant adherence to right and the principles of truth and uprightness, together with manifestation of sagacity and sound judgment, has placed him in a most enviable position of esteem and prominence throughout the entire county.

John H. O'Bryant was born to Elias and Sarah O'Bryant on July 10, 1830, in Blount county, East Tennessee, and at the age of seven years he was brought by his pare3nts to the city of Springfield, Missouri, where they settled on a claim. At the age of fourteen our subject was called to mourn the loss of his father and from that time until he was twenty-(?) years of age he was constant in labor on the farm for his mother and the other members of the family. When he had arrived at the age of twenty-four, others had matured to be able to shoulder some of the responsibilities of life, and John H. followed the desire that the reports from the Pacific slope had kindled in his breast, that of coming hither to seek his fortune and build a place for himself. Accordingly he embarked with an expedition that was bringing cattle to the coast; It consisted of eighteen men, four wagons drawn by oxen, thirty-five horses and mules, and six hundred and seventy-six head of cattle. For four months and one day they steadily pursued their way toward the setting sun, and they arrived in Beckwith valley, in California. Mr. O'Bryant went from there to mariposa county and commenced to mine, continuing at that enterprise until the spring of 1857, then went to Sonoma county and there worked in the redwood forests for a period and then in 1860 came to Salem in this state and later went to Polk county. In this latter place he remained until the fall of 1862, and then came to Auburn, in Baker county, and embarked as freighter from The Dalles to Auburn, and in 1863 he went to Idaho basin with freight. In the fall of this year he came to Baker county, settling eight miles below Baker City and remaining there until 1866. In that year he came to his present place, which is five miles west from North Powder and entered a homestead on the ground where he is living at the present time. To the original holding he has added by purchase until he has a good farm of two hundred and fifty acres. During all the years from 1866 until the present time, he has labored faithfully, and wisely at the home place, and the result is that he has a fine estate, well improved, large barn, good dwelling, orchard, and many other conveniences and necessaries that make the rural life both pleasant and profitable. While Mr. O'Bryant has devoted most of his time to the culture of the soil, he has some stock and gives some attention to rearing animals.

The marriage of Mr. O'Bryant and Mrs. Elizabeth J. hand was solemnized at Baker City, on June 12, 1884. They are both devoted and prominent members of the Baptist church, and their lives are daily exemplifications of the teachings of the faith that they espouse. Mr. O'Bryant's mother died in 1867, near Springfield, Missouri. Mr. O'Bryant has seen much of the life of the frontiersman and endured the hardships that beset that path, taking his full share in both danger and grief and endurance of trying ordeals, but at the present time he is enjoying the fruit of his toil and the esteem and love of his neighbors, and all that are acquainted with him, while he and his wife are faithful in showing to a world the light of Christianity and the Redeemer of mankind, whom they delight to honor and love to follow.

On June 14, 1849, in Germany, Albert Ohms was born to William and Wilhelmina, natives also of Germany, but immigrants to America in 1852, settling first in Ontario, Canada, where they engaged in farming until 1868. In that year they came across the line and settled in Winneshick county, Iowa, and there engaged in farming until the death of the father, which sad event occurred on December 19, 1880. Our subject was educated in the schools of the various sections where he lived, and assisted his father on the farm, during the last years of the latter's life, taking charge mostly of the estate. After the father's death, our subject carried on the farm until 1882, in July of which year he sold the entire property and in company with his own family and his mother and the other members of the parental family, he journeyed to Union county, where his brother had preceded him by one year. He purchased his present handsome and valuable estate of three hundred acres, one mile northwest from Elgin, and adjoining his brother's farm. In addition to general farming, Mr. Ohms devotes much attention to raising stock, and he is one of the most successful agriculturists and stockmen of the entire valley, owing to his industry and careful attention to the details of business as well as to the general supervision of the same.

In addition to the above mentioned labors, Mr. Ohms has spent about six years in operating a saw mill, and he is one of the expert threshers of the county of Union, having operated a machine since he was twenty years of age and now owns a first-class steam outfit.

On August 3, 1873, in Winneshiek county, Iowa, Mr. Ohms married Miss Maggie, daughter of Valentine and Julia Barth, natives of Germany, and to this happy union there have been born the following children: Hulda, Rudolph, Laura, Edwin, Alvin, Walter, and Charlie. Mrs. Ohms was born in Winneshiek county, Iowa, on February 6, 1856. Her parents had come from Germany to that section in 1855, and they were farmers of the county until the time of their death. In church relations, our subject and his wife and their parents were all members of the Evangelical church, but there is no organization of their faith in their locality. Our subject's mother died at his home in this county on December 19, 1901, and her remains are buried in the Elgin cemetery. William, a brother of our subject, and who had made his home with Mr. A. Ohms, also was called hence on February 22, 1895, being buried in Long cemetery near Elgin. Mr. Ohms is a member of the K. of P., Orion Lodge, No. 73.

In the northern part of the renowned Anglo-Saxon country of Holland, our subject was born, and there he received his early training, which ceased when he had reached the age of eleven but further research was made by personal effort later in life. He continued with his father, a fruit grower of that country, until he had arrived at the age of twenty and then was forced to serve in the army for three years, following which he returned to his father's farm for a time and then went to work at different occupations until he was thirty-three, at which time he came to America, landing first in Detroit, Michigan, where one year was spent. Then he came to Ann Arbor, the same state, and for two and one-half years engaged in the fruit business, when he went to Lackawanna county, Pennsylvania. A short time only was spent there and next we find our subject in the Grande Ronde valley, where he rented a farm for a time and then took up a pre-emption later which he also sold, and rented his present place for five years at four hundred dollars per year. He soon saw it was advisable to buy it, the amount being fifty acres, and he did so. Adding later twenty acres more that had good bearing trees. His orchard then was five hundred fruit trees, but he has added until at the present time he has doubtless the best orchard in the valley and one that will compare favorably with anything in the entire northwest. He handles annually nearly ten thousand boxes of apples, one hundred and twenty thousand pounds of Italian prunes, six hundred boxes of pears, two thousands gallons of cherries, three hundred boxes of peaches, besides an immense amount of the smaller fruits, selling as high as five hundred dollars worth from one acre. He irrigates and in addition to fruit raising has made a record in vegetables, raising one thousand bushels of potatoes on one acre, and seventy tones and eight hundred pounds of beets on the same amount of ground. Mr. Oldenburg has improved his farm in a becoming manner, having a fruit house that will hold nearly twelve thousand boxes of apples.

On October 15, 1870, Mr. Odenburg married Miss Lorena Yonker, a native of northern Holland, and ten children have been born to them: Berna, married to Minna Shafer and living in Lagrande; Garret, married to Etta Rollen and living in Medford in the Rogue river valley; Rena, wife of J.E. VanDermuelen, living in Lagrande; Ludwick, deceased, John: William, deceased: Willie: Jerrie; Ludwick, George. Politically Mr. Oldenburg is allied with the Socialists, and in 1896 he was the delegate to the state convention of the Populist party. Our subject and his wife are members of the Presbyterian church and they are highly esteemed in the community where they reside.

ELIJAH W. OLIVER. - One of the land kings of Union county, the subject of this sketch, has wrought his magnificent success in our midst by honest endeavor directed by consummate skill in financiering and untiring attention to the business in hand,and it is very gratifying to note, that Mr. Oliver is practically a product of our county, being educated in its schools and having his life directed by the influences brought to bear here, while his estimable moral qualities do credit to him in all his enterprises.

Mr. Oliver was born in Marion county,Iowa, on September 1, 1857, being the son of Hiram and Julia Ann (McCaleb) Oliver, who crossed the dreary plains in 1864 and settled three miles north from Summerville, where the father erected a sawmill and continued in the operation of the same, and he is living on the home place to-day. The immediate subject of this sketch attended the comon schools of the county and received a good educationt herefrom and from further research and when he had reached mature years, began life's battles by teaching school, continuing the same for four years, during which time he manifested marked ability in the ranks of the educators of the county, taking place with the leading instructors. Immediately subsequent to this time he engaged in the art of agriculture for four years, renting land for the purpose, finally in 1885 he purchased the nucleus of his present place, one hundred and twenty acres constituting the purchase. To this he has steadily added by purchase until he owns one body seven hundred and sixty acres of fine land, all well cutlivated, and producing abundant returns in grains and fruits. On this place he has an orchard of three acres planted to the ordinary fruits of this section. In addition to this elegant estate, which lies three miles from Alicel, Mr. Oliver owns two thousand and five hundred acres fourteen miles south. This magnificent domain is utilized as follows: Five hundred acres for the production of hay and grain and the balance for pasturage for his fine herds, among which he has some excellent animals. He owns one Clydesdale stallion that has always taken first premium whenever he has been exhibited. He also owns excellent thoroughbred shorthorn cattle, some one hundred and twenty-five or more.

In 1878 Mr. Oliver was married to Miss Maggie, daughter of J.Q. and Eliza (Woodell) Wallsinger, who came to the Grande Ronde valley in 1862 and took up a homestead three miles north from Summerville. In 1898 the father died but the mother is still living in Lagrande. To our subject and his estimable wife there have been born nine children, two of whom are married, Charles E., living on the large estate of his father; Minnie J., wife of A. Thomas, of Logan, Utah. Two of the children are attending the high school in Lagrande and five are at home. Mr. Oliver has always taken the part of the intelligent citizen in political matters, although never accepting personal preferment. He has freely given his services and wisdom to the district in educational matters as clerk, and he always manifests a broad public spirit. Mr. Oliver is interested in the Oregon Artesian Well and Oil Company, being one of its incorporators, and he ever displays the enterprising and progressive spirit with which he is favored. Mr. Oliver is highly esteemed by his fellows, because of his real intrinsic worth, and his high moral qualities, as well as for the wisdom and ability manifested in achieving the success that has crowned his efforts.

HIRAM W. OLIVER. - It is with pleasure that we are enabled to grant to the esteemed pioneer and capable citizen whose name is at the head of this article a representation in the history of the county of Union, where he has labored long and faithfully, both for its advancement and development and for the successful culmination of his various business enterprises, wherein he has demonstrated a consummate wisdom in handling the raw resources of the wild country and in subduing it and bringing forth the wealth that lay wrapped in its coffers of natural stores, while also he has manifested a stanch and upright character, unswerving integrity, and capabilities of the best order.

Hiram W. was born on December 29, 1827, in Rush county, Indiana, being the son of Elijah T. and Catherine (Boone) Oliver. Catherine Oliver was a granddaughter of a brother of the famous Daniel Boone. He came to Kentucky with Daniel and brought his family there. Another brother, Isaac Boone, was killed in the battle on the Raisin river. With his parents, our subject removed to Cass county, thence to Pulaski county and in the spring of 1849 to Morgan county, the latter being in Illinois. Soon after, they went thence to Marion county,Iowa. In January, 1855, Mr. Oliver returned to Scott county, Illinois, to marry the lady of his choice, Miss Julia A. McCaleb, a native of Tennessee. Her grandfather, a Scotchman, was a Continental soldier in the time of the Revolution. In the spring of 1864, he gathered his worldly possessions together and undertook the journey across the plains, his two brothers with their families and his parents also accompanying him, they going to the Willamette valley, but our subject stopping in this county. He selected land in the vicinity of his present home, three miles north from Summerville, entered a government right, and settled down to work of developing the country. He soon started a sawmill and did a good business in that line for years. He now owns five hundred and twenty acres of good land, well improved, with good house, barn, and out buildings, and he is giving his attention to general farming and fruit raising, having rented his mill in 1887. He has one of the finest orchards anywhere in this vicinity, being fifteen acres of well selected bearing stock, of all kinds adapted to this section. It is of note that the wheat had to be ground in a coffe mill when they first came to the valley. The nearest flour mill was in Walla Walla, and the snow was too deep on the mountains to cross. The first real flour they had cost Mr. Oliver fourteen dollars per hundred weight.

To Mr. Oliver and his wife there were born the following children: Elijah, married to Miss Margaret Walsinger; Turner, a lawyer of Lagrande and married to Anna McDonald; John R., married to Winnie Blakeslee, of Union; Marshall, married to Ida Gerhardt; Arthur, married to Rosa Brown; Charles W., married to Martha Cook; Catherine, wife of Edgar Marvin, of Wallowa. Mrs. Oliver died in 1875, being beloved by all and sincerely mourned. Mr. Oliver contracted a second marriage in December, 1879, the lady then becoming his wife, being Maria L. Burt, and three children have been born to them. H. Perry, who married Edna Robinson, of Des Moines, Iowa; Frank H., and Burt M. Mrs. Oliver is a native of Mount Morris, New York, and is a descendant of James Fisk and Genera Hathven. The former was of Greenwich, Massachusetts, and joined the Continental army before he was sixteen and fought through the entire struggle until victory crowned their efforts. The latter acted on General Washington's staff during the same war. Mr. Oliver is a member of the A.F.&A.M. and has been since 1868, while in political affiliations he is allied with the democratic party. Mr. and Mrs. Oliver are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, South, and they are consistent supporters of the faith. In pioneer work and labors, Mr. Oliver has taken a comendable part and is deserving of much credit for the faithfulness and ability that he has manifested and he is one of the substantial citizens of the county to-day, highly esteemed and respected by all.

Mr. Oliver hauled lumber over the mountains to Walla Walla in 1860. In 1865, or thereabouts, Mr. Oliver was the moving spirit to form a company of several leading men, which was incorporated and had for its object the rebuilding of the old road over the mountains. It was known as the Summerville and Western Wagon Road Company. The company completed the work in good shape and just as it was done, a terrific storm came and washed out all the bridges, slid down the cuts of the m0ountains, and filled the roadway with timber and boulders, and wrought havoc generally. The damage was beyond repair and so the company dissolved after expending about thirty thousand dollars in the enterprise.

HIRAM W. OLIVER. - Mr. Oliver is a native of Indiana, and was born in 1827. He is the son of a farmer. In 1849 he moved to Illinois, farming until the fall of 1853, when he changed his residence to Iowa. In 1864 he crossed the plains to the Pacific coast, and located a claim in the Grande Ronde valley, Oregon, at the north end of the broad, timbered flat northwest of Summerville, and purchased a sawmill there which he is still operating. He manufactures a large quantity of excellent lumber, and also conducts large farming operations.

He married Miss Julia McCaleb in Illinois in 1856; and their seven children are all prominent in Union county. This companion died in 1874. His present wife, Maria L. Burt, makes for him and their three children a delightful home. Mr. Oliver owns ten hundred and forty acres of timbered land in the vicinity of his mill, and also has considerable well-bred stock.

Turned obtained the most of his primary education by a systematic course of study at home, working at his father's mill during the day, and studying by the light of a fire of pine knots at night. By this assiduous application he fitted himself to teach school, and began a career in that line at the age of seventeen. After he was twenty years of age he made further attainments by two years' attendance at the Blue Mountain Academy, and two years more at the State University.

In 1884 he succeeded to the management of his father's lumbering business at Summerville. In 1885 he accepted the principalship of the public school at Union, which he raised from a chaotic condition to one of the best in Eastern Oregon. He declined the same position the next year in order to accept that of deputy county clerk of Union county, and in that capacity is serving with credit to himself and with honor to his county.

Mr. Oliver is of a bold, frank and generous disposition, with plenty of nerve and an inflexible will. He takes great interest in the cause of education, and allies himself with every enterprise calculated to benefit society, and to accelerate the wheels of progress.

While on an expedition to my hometown of Haines, OR, my mother and I found this typewritten label from a trunk at the Haines Museum: This trunk was placed in the museum by the family of Neil and Elizabeth Olson (deceased). Neil and Elizabeth Olson came to Oregon in the year 1887 and spent the rest of their lives in or near North Powder. This trunk was built in Bergen, Norway by Peter Hansen, father of Elizabeth. It was made about the year 1866. Elizabeth was born in the year 1869. The Peter Hansen family left Norway in the year 1882 and later that year settled on 80 acres of land bought from a railroad company near the town of Eleva, state of Wisconsin. In the year 1885, Elizabeth Hansen married Neil Olson and in the spring of 1887, the 5th of May, Neil and Elizabeth started across the northern plains route headed for the Pacific coast. This trunk was given to Elizabeth at that time by her father, Peter Hansen, and she kept and used it until her death in 1943.

This trunk traveled across the Atlantic ocean-up the St. Lawrence river to Quebec, Canada, then to Chicago, Ill. by rail, the to the new farm home near Eleva, Wisconsin. This trunk rode in the covered wagon across the northern plains with the Olsons and their oldest son, Oscar, who was 6 months old; arriving at North Powder, then made the last short trip to Haines, Oregon to this museum. These were the founders of the Olson family in Union and Baker Counties. Here is their story as near as I can piece together.

According to family legend, Elizabeth Cecelia made the crossing to America by herself. This is born out by passenger lists of the ship Ontario arriving in Quebec August 22, 1881 that enumerated her mother and father and four siblings, but not Elizabeth herself. Elizabeth was born Nov. 24,1869 in Bergen Norway making her 12 or 13 when she did make the crossing. Was she alone or in the company of relatives or friends?

She was a 16 year-old girl when she was married to Olaf Cornelius Olson. Now Olaf C. was born in Wisconsin (Black Earth, Dane Co., WI) and his parents were Olaf Olson and Julia Roe (the marriage certificate specified the mother of the groom was Gunhild Nelson, but the Norwegians being rather casual about changing names, I suspect she went by either maiden name). Olaf had 2 brothers, Albert (who went by the Norwegian spelling: Olsen) and Charles who ended up in the vastness of Canada. There is little else that we know about the Olsons of Dane Co.. Wisconsin is full of Ole Olsons and there is no evidence to differentiate one Ole from another.

The Wedding was held in Albion, Trempeleau Co., WI on Dec. 23, 1885. It was an Evangelical Lutheran Ceremony performed by O.O. Dahlen. Rev. Dahlen was not a Lutheran minister, but may have performed a "Lutheran" ceremony for the Olsons in the absence of an ordained Lutheran minister. The marriage lines list the brides's parents as Ludwig Hansen and Marie Thomassen (maiden name). This concurs with the Ontario's passenger list which names L. (Ludwig) P. (Peter) Hansen and wife, Marie. This must have been a festive affair, right before Christmas with all the traditions of Norway, a gathering of family and the hope of a new country in which to build their marriage.

A year and a half later, on May 5, 1887, the young couple left Wisconsin by covered wagon taking the northern plains route, for North Powder, OR. For Neil (Olaf Cornelius) this was a long journey, for Elizabeth this was the last leg of many thousand miles.

They prospered in North Powder. On the 1905 tax list their assets were valued at $290 but by 1910 they were worth $3530. They owned their own farm and had 9 children, Oscar Levi, Malvin Gerhard, Agnes Amanda, Alfred Leslie, Olaf Roger, Arthur Sigvard, Norval Gotford, Gladonia Malfryda Geneva and Dagmar Charlotte. The Olson family bible lists one other small entry. An unnamed Baby Olson whose birthday and death date were the same, Mar. 12, 1911, born 12 years after the other children.

The Olson Family was very musical and from 1909 to 1918, as the Olson Family Orchestra, they traveled up and down the Pacific coast playing engagements in many localities. There is a lovely old family photo showing 5 of the young Olson men and two of the girls playing violins, drums, piano, trombone, trumpet and clarinet. There are other instruments hung on the wall and a star spangled banner cordoning them off. A family story is told about one of the Olson boys, Ole Roger. His bride Eva loved to dance, but Ole was always playing at the community celebrations. She would set them out, not wanting to dance with other men (though she loved to dance).In later years, when he no longer played, he asked her to dance. She declined, explaining she'd had to wait too long for him.

Olaf Cornelius' brother Albert also emigrated to North Powder in October of 1887. In 1893, he married Nellie Frew Shaw, a native of Glasgow, Scotland. Together they had 8 children: Tilman, Harry, Dean, Thomas, Robert, Ernest, Alvin and Helen. The brothers both farmed the North Powder area and each passed away with heart compaints; Albert in 1930 and Olaf in 1939.

I would be most happy to ammend this biographical sketch if anyone has further information to share. Source citations and further dates and details can obtained by Email: