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HON. HENRY RINEHART. - The name at the head of this sketch is familiar all over eastern Oregon, and doubtless a more active and efficient and progressive man is not domiciled within the borders of Union county, than Henry Rinehart, whose ability is well known and whose faithful efforts, dominated by a sagacity that is commendable, have been instrumental in much good to his fellows and this county, and he is richly deserving of a representation in the history of his county, which we accord to him with pleasure, being assured it is fully deserved.

Mr. Rinehart is a native of Illinois, being born in Adams county, on February 1, 1842, and the son of Lewis and Elizabeth (Ellis) Rinehart, natives of east Tennessee. In 1845the parents came to Iowa, whence in 1854 they came across the plains with ox teams to Lane county, Oregon, consuming six months and four days on the road. Our subject grew to manhood on the old donation claim there and was educated in the schools, and before he left home at the age of nineteen he had taught school one year. From home he came to Walla Walla and spent one summer in the manufacture of shingles, and to this day, he has not forgotten his pay. The following year, 1862, he came to this valley and was one of the first crowd that opened the Auburn mines in Baker county. He came to Lagrande in the fall and in 1863 took a claim near Summerville. He planted a crop from seed that he had packed from Walla Walla and then went to freighting to the Idaho mines with ox teams. Later he sold this outfit and going to Lane county and securing pack animals returned to the same business. In 1864 he went again to Lane county and brought over a drove of cattle, and then took up stock business. In 1865 we find him behind the counter, selling merchandise for himself, then in the four milling business with two brothers, L.B. and J.H. In 1868 he sold this business and bought his present farm, three miles east from Summerville, and turned his attention to farming, stock raising and freighting. He was through all of the Indian troubles in 1868 and 1878. In 1871, we find him again in the mercantile business in Lagrande, whence two years later he removed his store to Summerville, and in 1874 returned to his farm. In 1877 he was chief drover with a bunch of cattle that he took to Granger, Wyoming, and thence to Chicago. In 1868 Mr. Rinehart was elected by the people to represent Union and Wallowa counties, they being one county then, in the state legislature, and there he did faithful and efficient labor for his constituents securing a ten-thousand-dollar appropriation for Union county. In 1895, President Cleveland appointed our subject as register of the United States land office at Lagrande, and for four years he did good service there. He has always been active in politics, and is one of the influential men of the county. He owns six hundred acres of well improved land, where he resides and is engaged in farming, stock raising and dairying, being also president of the creamery association and recording secretary of the Pioneer Association. Mr. Rinehart is a member of the A.F.&A.M. and has been for thirty years, and twice he has been master of the lodge.

In March, 1864, he was married to Miss Margaret A., daughter of Even and Mary Martin, and a native of Missouri, the wedding occurring in Lane county, Oregon. Four children have been the fruit of this happy union: Nellie M., wife of James M. Eubanks of Summerville: Eugene: Franklin C.: and Bertha. Mrs. Rinehart's parents came across the plains in 1853. Mr. Rinehart's mother is still living in this valley, the father dying here in 1881. The mother is ninety-four years of age. Mr. Rinehart is one of the leading citizens of our county, and has always displayed a broad public spirit and an energy and wisdom commendable and praiseworthy.

At this point we desire to take occasion to repeat a remark that Mr. Rinehart made which we feel, for the cause of temperance, should be given wide circulation. He said, "I have always been strictly temperate, never indulging in strong drink, nor even in the use of tobacco in any form." Few men have gone through prosperity and adversity in life in the far west, having mingled in society with so great a variety of our citizens, and yet under all circumstances and on all occasions have been strictly temperate as has the worthy subject of this article, whose bright example should be emulated.

His first home in Oregon was in Lane county, near Eugene, where his father, Lewis Rinehart, settled on a Donation claim; and it was there that he received a liberal education.

In 1861 he seized the opportunities presented in the Inland Empire, spent the year 1861 at Walla Walla, and in 1862 crossed over the mountains to the Grande Ronde. The trip was made in April, and snow was still five and six feet deep on the Blue Mountain Pass. Continuing the journey to the mines of Powder river, then but recently discovered by Captain Stafford and company, he remained the summer through, mining and prospecting. Returning in the autumn to the Grande Ronde, he choose that delightful valley for his future home, and has there remained to the present time.

He has interested himself in various business enterprises, and has been blessed with good fortune in each. In 1863 he was ranching and freighting, in 1864-65 driving beef cattle to the Eastern Oregon and Idaho markets, and from 1866 to 1868 was interested in merchandising, together with milling and freighting, at Summerville. Thenceforth, until 1886, he was operating with stock and in mercantile affairs. It was in that year that he was appointed registrar of the land-office, and filled the position with great acceptance to the community.

In public affairs Mr. Rinehart has ever been highly esteemed, and as early as 1868 was elected as representative from Union county to the Oregon legislature, being at the time the youngest member in that body.

In 1865 he was married to Miss Margaret A. Martin, and has two daughters, Nellie and Bertha, and two sons, Eugene and Clay..
 

In July, 1862, he arrived with two of his brothers in the Grande Ronde valley, and struck camp at a point where now stands the flourishing city of La Grande. The valley then had no town nor postoffice, the nearest places being Walla Walla and The Dalles. The valley at that time was wholly unsettled, and was covered with tall bunch-grass. The young settler located on unsurveyed land near Summerville, Oregon, and in that vicinity has resided for over twenty-six years. The first four years he was chiefly engaged in stock-raising and farming, and in 1866 undertook the flouring-mill business, and still clings to it, having become the principal proprietor in the Anna-Lulu roller mills at Summerville.

Mr. Rinehart is the father of Doctor Willard E. Rinehart of Portland, Oregon and of H.C. Rinehart, cashier of the Farmers' Mortgage and Savings Bank of Summerville. He has two daughters, Anna and Lulu; and from the combination of these two names was formed the present appellation of his roller mills.

Although having been among the wild savages of the Northwest, Mr. Rinehart has escaped all serious difficulty with them, and has no marks or scars inflicted upon his person by their arrows or tomahawks. He is one of a family of thirteen children, all of whom were born and raised on the frontier; and all but one sister having crossed the plains to Oregon. He never saw a railroad until he was twenty-six years old.

He has been intrusted with public duties, having been elected in the fall of 1878 to the state legislature on the Democratic ticket. Not only a firm Democrat, he is also a sterling temperance man. In December, 1885, he established a bank at Summerville, and is a large owner of real estate, having some thirteen hundred acres to his name. He also has a band of two hundred and seventy-five horses now ranging on Eastern Oregon bunch-grass. With marked business sagacity, he is not without fine sentiment, and is one of those better citizens in whom we see the hope of future progress and development for the state.

His birth occurred near Quincy, Illinois, in 1844, being the son of Lewis and Elizabeth Rinehart, natives respectively of Tennessee and North Carolina. Two years after the birth of our subject the family moved to Iowa, and in 1854, when Lewis was a lad of the interesting age of ten years, the family crossed the plains to Oregon, settling near Eugene. His mother is still living in Union county at the advanced age of ninety-four years, being the oldest person in Union county. In 1862 Lewis B., in company with his two older brothers, came to Lagrande, which then consisted of one log house. They brought cattle with them. In the fall he returned to the home in Willamette valley, and in the spring of 1863, accompanied by his father, he came back to Lagrande and temporarily located, having builded the second house in old Lagrande before returning to the Willamette valley. Soon after the return they removed to Summerville, named the place and built the first house there, and Lewis B. entered upon commercial pursuits. In 1866 he bought the flour mill owned by Hannah L. Wright and operated it in company with his brothers for three years, and then he and his brother Henry sold to their brother, J.H., and freighted with ox teams from Summerville to Idaho City. In the fall of 1869 he went to Lagrande and bought into the mercantile establishment of J.L. Morrow, the father of the present senator. The firm was known as Morrow & Rinehart, and did a thriving business. In 1870 he was elected county treasurer on the Democratic ticket. After serving two years in this office he removed to Malheur county, locating the land where the town of Vale is now built. In 1876 Mr. Rinehart was elected assessor of Baker county and served for two years, and in 1889 he was elected representative to the state legislature from Baker county, fulfilling all this public service in a very creditable manner. He remained in the vicinity of Vale until after this, then removed to Union and erected a comfortable residence adjoining the town on the south, where he resides at the present time, being engaged in the real estate business. He owns his stock ranch adjoining Vale and is also interested in various other parts of the country. In 1884 Mr. Rinehart was elected state senator, Union and Wallowa being one county then. During his term the division was made as also the division between Baker and Malheur counties. Mr. Rinehart had the honor of naming the first officers of both Malheur and Wallowa counties, under the administration of Pennoyer. Mr. Rinehart was one of the principal promoters of the well known Hunt railroad and was instrumental in gaining a subsidy of one hundred and sixty thousand dollars for the undertaking. He was superintendent of the line and supply agent for a period.

In 1867 Mr. Rinehart married Amanda M. daughter of W.S. Glen. They became the parents of three children: Arthur W., an attorney; Carrie died in 1875; James B. died in 1883. Mr. Glen was a captain of a train across the plains and a pioneer of the Grande Ronde valley of 1862. Mrs. Rinehart opened a millinery establishment in Union in 1889 and has continued in the business ever since. She is now operating a ladies' furnishing store in North Yakima, and has demonstrated herself to be one of the leading business women of the entire northwest. Mr. Rinehart has been a leading figure, as is seen, in the eastern part of our state and has accomplished much for its advancement, while his integrity and real worth have always been manifested in all his dealing. It is of note that in 1868 Mr. Rinehart turned loose one hundred and fifty head of cattle in Baker county, at the mouth of the Malheur river, they being the first consignment ever turned loose on the Oregon side of the Snake.

Mr. Rinehart was, for a number of years thereafter, engaged in cattle-ranging and cattle-driving between the Willamette and Grande Ronde valleys; until, in 1865, he and his brother erected the first mercantile house in the village which they afterwards named Summerville. the next year they were joined by a third brother, and purchased the first gristmill in Union county. Being possessed with the requisite qualities, Mr. Rinehart was soon called upon to fill public offices, first as treasurer of Union county; and later, having moved to Baker county, he acted as assessor two years. In 1880, in response to the voice of the people, he represented Baker county in the House of representatives.

In 1881 he returned to his first home, and encamped at the south end of what is now the most beautiful village in the Pacific Northwest, - that of Union, Oregon. Since then he has been engaged in mercantile enterprises and in stock-raising, and for four years was state senator from Union county. He is owner of the townsite of Vale, Malheur county, and also owns eleven hundred acres of land, and is in every respect one of the most prosperous men of the Inland Empire.
 

History of Pacific Northwest -
Oregon and Washington
Volume II
Copyright 1889
Page 537

In 1868 he married Miss Elizabeth Jane Martin of Lane county; and three of their ten children are now living in the Grande Ronde. Six of their children died of the devastating scourge of diphtheria, all within one week in the year 1881.

THOMAS A. RINEHART. - It is beyond peradventure that the educators of the country, perhaps more than any other class of residents, exert a powerful influence upon the body politic and lift it into a place of intelligence and enterprise, that betokens the permanence of our institutions and the advancement of the march of civilizatin and the upbuilding of our commonwealth. The subject of this article is one of the leading instructors of Union county, and has made a record for himself in the work of his life that is very commendable, achieving a success both brilliant and praiseworthy.

Mr. Rinehart was born in Lane county, Oregon, on July 24, 1859, being the son of John and Sarah E. (Edwards) Rinehart. In 1869 he came with his parents to the John Day country, settling in the territory that is now embraced in Gilliam county. Our subject received his primaryeducation in the common schools and then attended the State University at Eugene, afterwards matriculating in the Portland Business College, from which he graduated in 1884. He taught school some before this time and one year afterwards in Lane county, but in 1885 he came to his present home in Summerville and taught school near this city, in Elgin, for three years, and one year at Island City. He is now finishing his tenth year as principal of the Summerville schools, and in this long term of service he has displayed great ability and faithfulness, with manifestation of erudition and integrity that have won him prestige and standing that are very enviable. While in the Elgin schools he had the satisfaction of seeing them increase under his wise management from three rooms to five rooms. Mr. Rinehart affiliates with the A.F.&A.M., Hiram Lodge, No. 67, being a master Mason. He is also a member of the United Artisans, Mount Emily Assembly, No. 35. In politics, Mr. Rinehart is with the Democrats, and has labored for the tenets of his party with intelligence and energy.

On December 29, 1886, Mr. Rinehart married Miss Bertie A., daughter of Murdo and Marion (Matheson) Murchison, of the vicinity of Summerville. Mrs. Rinehart's parents were pioneers of this valley in 1863, coming from the state of Illinois. The mother has passed the river of death, but the father is living in Summerville, and is in his eighty fourth year. Mr. Rinehart and his wife are members of the Presbyterian church and are faithful in the dispensation of a Christian influence in their lives. They are highly esteemed and valued members of society and are constantly laboring for the advancement and amelioration of the condition of all.

In 1868 he married Miss Elizabeth Jane Martin of Lane county; and three of their ten children are now living in the Grande Ronde. Six of their children died of the devastating scourge of diphtheria, all within one week in the year 1881.