Lockhart, William W
From Lane Co Oregon
[Condensed & Extracted from The Centennial History of Oregon 1811-1911; Vol. 3]
Born in Ashland county, Ohio in about 1842, his paternal side of the family is of Scotish ancestry, his grandfather having come to America. His father, David Lockhart, was born in Pennsylvania and became an early settler of Ohio where he followed farming between 1820 and 1830. In that state he married Miss Fleming who died when her son William was very young. The family had numbered nine children, four sons and five daughters. One of the sons, Hiram James, served in the Civil war as a member of the Ohio infantry regiment and died in Ontario, Oregon in about 1884. The eldest brother, David, died before the birth of William; and one other brother, John Lockhart, lived in Ohio. The eldest sister, Malona, also died before the birth of William and the next sister, Marie Mahola passed away about the time he was born. The third sister, Martha, died while he was in the army in about 1863, and Mary married in Colorado but passed away in Jacksonville, Oregon. The youngest sister, Matilda Jane was in San Francisco at the time of the earthquake and no word was heard of her since leaving the family to believe she lost her life there in the disaster. (Note: Date of earthquake 18 April 1906)
William had a very meager education but while in the army learned to read and write and later took up the study of arithmetic while freighting in Colorado. His first business was driving an ox team across the plains in company with his brother who died in Ontario. He afterward engaged in the maufacture of cheese in Boulder county, Colorado in connection with a man by the name of Barkley, this being about 1867. They also joined forces with a Mr. Douglas and did well until a large band of Comanche Indians made a raid on their neighbors and drove serveral head of horses away. Mr. Lockhart went in pursuit of the Indians with twenty-six other men and on one occasion had a fight with a band of warriors who wounded two of their men and shot seventeen of the horses, thus dismounting nearly all the party. The white men then retreated to Colorado City, glad to escape their lives, but another summer's work was lost. Following this period, he drove freight teams and in the spring sold his cows and ponies and started off for California going by rail to Salt Lake City, thence by state to White Pine and later over the Central Pacific Railroad to Sacramento City. At Stockton, he met his two sisters who, while he was in the army, had crossed the plains with their uncle, Peter Johnson.
For almost two years he remained in Stockton and in the San Joaquin valley where he engaged in grain farming, but the drought utterly ruined his crop and all he had remaining was a six horse team and a wagon. About 1872 he came to Oregon and for a year engaged in making cheese on the Hadley Ranch in Lane County, and that summer took up a land claim, but because of the outbreak of hostilities with the Joseph tribe of Indians he never filed the claim. He eventually came to Baker county and purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land on Powder River at what became known as Lockhart station on the Sumpter Valley Railroad.
In June of 1862 he had enlisted in the Union army as a member of Company I, fifty-second Ohio Volunteer Infantry and remained with them for three years, having participated in the battles of Perryville, Bowling Green, Nashville, Stone River, Chickamauga, Tannehill, Buzzards Roost, New Hope Church, Kenesaw, Resaca, Dalton, Rome and Peach Tree Creek. Near Atlanta he was taken prisoner and sent to Andersonville, Georgia whence he was transferred to the prison at Florence, South Carolina. After five months he was paroled and when Sherman's army reached Charleston, he rejoined his regiment and remained with them until he was mustered out at Washington D.C. at the close of the war. He was discharged at Columbus, Ohio. His other military experiences included service as a scout in the Bannock Indian war in Oregon in 1877-78 under Major General O.O. Howard.
He was married at Stockton, California in about 1872 to Miss Alice Chase, a daughter of Chance Chase. With her mother and brother she went from Iowa to California at an early day. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Lockhart have been born several children: John Oliver who lived at Bandon, Oregon and married Miss Sweeton; Archie who died in Malheur county Oregon in about 1878 at about the age of five; Almer who died in Sumpter Valley in 1911 at about age thirty three; Thomas Guy who married Miss Laura Cooley and after her death Pearl Dean; Frank James; Mame Lily who married Bert Jenkins and lived at Oaks Bar, California; and Edith who died in early childhood in about 1891.
