Vitus, Augustus J.F.
From Lane Co Oregon
AUGUSTUS J. F. VITUS
For various and well founded reasons the Vitus family commands the attention of people in Lane County. First and foremost it supplies the comforting assurance that obstacles, however great, are by no means insurmountable, and that good judgment, perseverance, and plenty of common sense are excellent aids in accomplishing one's desires. The law of heredity, however much it may be questioned by later day science, is convincingly emphasized in this instance, for Augustus J. F. Vitus, the founder of the family in the far northwest, has handed down his fine traits of character, his strong will and unflinching rectitude, to several sons who represent collectively and individually the backbone and sinews of the commonwealth.
Born in Prussia, Germany, April 5, 1828, Mr. Vitus comes from farming stock, although his family was represented among the trades and industries of the Fatherland. According to custom, he ceased to be dependent upon the support of his parents after his fourteenth year, at which time he began to work in the silk mills of Prussia, and was thus employed until coming to America in 1852. At this time he was twenty-four years old, strong of frame and clear of mind, and filled with great enthusiasm for the land to which so many of his friends had emigrated. The sailing vessel successfully weathered calms and storms, landing in New York at the end of five weeks. Mr. Vitus looked around for work, and not finding it in the silk mills, identified himself with a tannery near Dunkirk, N. Y., remaining there during the winter, and the following spring making his way to Philadelphia. Here he entered the woolen mills and learned the trade of weaver, removing in 1865 to Springfield, Ill., where he was similarly employed. In 1872 he removed to Caldwell county, Mo., where he purchased one hundred and eighty-one acres of land, and contemplated spending many years in its improvement. His hopes were doomed to disappointment, for drought interfered with the maturing of the crops, and he not only lost them all, but was obliged to sacrifice his farm upon which he had intended to pay a large installment that year.
In the face of this first setback in America Mr. Vitus decided to come to the far west with his family, and arrived in Oregon in the spring of 1878. With his sons he found employment on farms surrounding the town, and in the spring of 1879 rented a farm with his sons in Lane county. This venture proved even more disastrous than the last, for after renting for one year the strugglers found themselves in debt about $4,000. Mr. Vitus decided after five years of renting to purchase a farm, and for this he was obliged to go in debt $12,000. This fact alone would discourage the average man who had already experienced hard luck, but father and sons bravely put their shoulders to the wheel, paid off the indebtedness, and established themselves as men possessing business judgment of a high order, and more than average perseverance. Thus has the father transplanted to the larger opportunities of the states the reliable and always welcome Teutonic traits, admittedly as strong and upbuilding as any that come to us from foreign shores.
Broad-minded and liberal in all of his tendencies, Mr. Vitus makes no exception of politics, and though inclined towards the Republican party believes in voting for the man best qualified to serve the public good. For a time he served as postmaster of Junction City. Through his marriage with Minnie Behren in 1851, eight children have been born into his family, the five sons who are reflecting great credit upon his teaching and example, and three daughters. The sons are mentioned elsewhere in this work, and the daughters, Rosa and Mary, are the wives respectively of F. H. Miller and Benjamin Frank Andrews. Although a comparatively old man, Mr. Vitus is still in heart, mind, and physical activity the equal of many men twenty years his junior.
"Portrait & Biographical Record of the Willamette Valley Oregon." Chapman Publishing Company, 1903. p. 1110.
There are ten members of the Augustus J.F. Vitus (1828-1913) clan entombed in the Hope Abbey Mausoleum — the largest family group there. The original family arrived in Albany, Oregon in 1878 with thirty-two dollars to their name. They bought a cook stove and borrowed a sack of flour, then set to working for area farmers. They came to Lane County the following spring, rented a farm near Junction City, and worked through bad crops and heavy debt. The family, including sons Augustus Jr., Bruno, Louis, and Robert, and daughter Mary (Andrews), stayed together until the farm became successful — so successful that the senior Vitus left in 1894 to start a new farm near Springfield. The original land remained in the family until the 1930s, and is today known as Thistledown Farm.
