Appersons

Many thanks to Anita Crabtree who provided most of the information about the Apperson family.

            When George married Elizabeth Jeannette Apperson in 1877, he joined a family with a long heritage in North America.  Elizabeth Jeannette, the daughter of Milton Moses Apperson and Virginia Coon, was born in California on September 9, 1859.  


             Virginia Coon Apperson's maiden name is lost to us.  "Coon" was a married name, according to family tradition.  There is a story circulating that Virginia Coon was a member of the Pawnee tribe.  Another branch of the family claims that she was Cherokee. 


            Anita Crabtree, an Apperson descendant, has compiled an Epperson / Apperson descendant line:

            Our direct ancestor is Milton Moses Apperson.  In 1847, Milton Moses and his brother Beverly, along with the Beverly’s wife Jane Gilbert Tubbs and their children, left the States with two wagons on a wagon train headed west along the Oregon Trail. From the diary of Emma Ruth Ross Slavin, who travelled as part of this same wagon train, we learn that “...People collecting from all quarters formed themselves into a company, electing Mr. White as Capt.  We were known as Capt. W. Co consisting of 42 wagons and ox teams and perhaps hundreds of loose stock.”  She goes on to describe the journey crossing the Missouri river into Indian territory.

            Beverly Apperson died suddenly of mountain fever on the trail on July 21, 1847.  Jim Lockett of the McMinnville News-Register writes of the story:

It was not long before Beverly came down with mountain fever and died. He was a strong, healthy, good-humored man, so the whole train was shocked at the news of his sudden death.

The Appersons had two wagons.  Jane had the men make a coffin out of one. After a short service, they buried Beverly in the middle of the trail.

Emigrants Crossing the Plains. Hand Colored steel engraving by Henry Bryan Hall after a drawing by Felix Octavius Carr Darley. Published by D. Appleton & Company

This would allow the wagons and stock to pack the earth and hide the scent from wolves. It also prevented Indians from robbing the grave for clothes. Jane abandoned the running gear and ox yoke of the second wagon, along with some of the family's gear.  She finished the trip with just one wagon for her and her nine children, the youngest just an infant.

            Beverly's tragic death left Jane and their nine children to travel on with their Uncle, Milton.  We know that Jane settled in Portland.  Jim Lockett continues the story:

Jane decided to take the new Barlow Trail when they reached The Dalles. The trail had just been scouted by Sam Barlow and Joel Palmer, and was hardly wide enough for the wagons.

They found it a "fierce road," but made it through to Portland, which was not much of a town in 1847.

It consisted of a few shanties, a small sawmill and a dock or two. However, it was fast becoming a port for ships sailing to California and other points.

Jane had no money, and she had nine children to feed. There were no food stamps or welfare in those days, and certainly no jobs for women in the sawmill.

Being a resourceful pioneer mother, she took in washing. She visited the ships coming in, gathered laundry from the passengers and crew, and soon had more washing than she could handle.

Unable to cope with the physical labor, she saved her money and put it into a boarding house. It was located on Second Street between Washington and Stark.

But the boarding house didn't produce enough income. What to do?   An older daughter, Sarah, married at 15 and went south to the gold fields. "   Two of her sons set out on their own and another daughter was encouraged to marry when a much older man asked for her hand.  The departure of these children helped lighten the load.  (According to the lists of Emigrants to Oregon in 1847, Sarah was already married since 1843.  Harriet Rebecca would have been 15 years old when they arrived in Portland so it appears that Harriet is the daughter that went south to the gold fields.  There are also records of Milton and Harriet's marriage in  1848 in California.)

            In 1851 Jane Gilbert Tubbs Apperson met and married Major Robert Moore.  In the 1840s, Moore had purchased his land, known as Robin's Nest (on a hillside opposite Oregon City) from Wanax-ha, a Wallamut .  This was the beginnings of the town that eventually became known as West Linn.  In the next five years or so, Moore built four flour and lumber mills, as well as dwelling for his mill workers.  In addition, he ran a ferry to Oregon City.  Moore was also involved in setting up the Oregon Provisional Government, was Chairman of the committee that wrote the Oregon Constitution, and served in the legislature.

           As for Milton Moses, it appears he and Harriet left the Portland area soon after arriving in Oregon.   Ships were travelling down the coast from the port of Portland by this time.  The southwest including California belonged to Mexico.  The United States and Mexico went to war over this territory in 1846 and the United Sates won the war in 1848.  Milton Apperson must have heard of the this new opportunity for settlement of rich farm land in the San Francisco Bay area that this provided and along with Harriet his niece they sought their fortunes in California.   1848 Milton married his niece Harriet (daughter of Beverly and Jane) in Fremont, Alameda County, CA.  Milton and Harriett had one child, Rebecca Jane, born December 12, 1848 in Fremont.  The child died the next year in 1849.  Harriett then died the next year, 1850. 

            Was it after his wife's death, that Milton, finding himself alone, left for Nevada County California?  In 1849 the gold rush had begun with the first large nugget found at Sutter in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

            By 1851, Milton Apperson can be found in Nevada County. It is there that he met and married Elizabeth Virginia Coon in the year 1851.  She had been born in 1834 in Indiana and presumably came to California with family.  She was just sixteen years old and he was thirty-six when they were married.  Family legend has it that she was a widow and Coon was her married name.  It does seem that she was fairly young to have had a previous marriage but life for the pioneers often found girls marrying very young.

             Milton Moses and Elizabeth Virginia Apperson had ten children:

1. Julius Albert¹

2. Matilda Jane, born 17 October 1852 in  Nevada Co.; married William Cyrus; CA; died 15 November 1876

3. L. A. born about 1853-4, female who died young

4. John Milton, born 22 November 1854 in Grass Valley, CA; married Ida May Speefle (born 9 September 1868; died 8 March 1949 in Vina, CA); died 3 July 1938 in Red Bluff, Tehama Co., CA

5. Mary Virginia, born about 1858; married John Caldwell

6. Elizabeth Jeannette, born 9 September 1859 in Nevada Co., CA; died 1 November 1902 in Creston, WA.

7. Charles William, born c.1862

8. Jefferson Davis (Jeff / Jake), born c.1864

9. Martha T., born c.1869.

10. James Beverly, born 4 March 1871 in Lake Co., CA; married Myrtle O. Nelson (born 6 January 1870; died 29 August 1955); died 1 February 1939 in Red Bluff, Tehama Co., CA.

 

            Milton and Elizabeth Virginia Apperson settled in Grass Valley, Nevada County  and six of their children were born there.  Sometime shortly after Elizabeth Jeannette's birth in 1859, the family moved to Cache Creek near Cacheville in Yolo County for it is there they are recorded on the 1860 Federal census.  There are five children recorded living at home at that time. The oldest son, Julius, does not appear on the census.

Apperson tombstone Hartley Cemetery, CA

            Milton and Elizabeth Virginia continued to move on because on May 20, 1867, Milton Moses signed the Great Register in Lake County, CA.  He was 52 at the time and owned 80 acres in the N 1/2 in the NE of quarter section.10, TWP. 14 N, R 10 W in Scotts Valley.  By the 1870 census there are five children remaining at home,  Mary J. [sic.] (V.), Jennette [sic.] (Elizabeth Jeannette), John M., Charles W. and Jeff David [sic.] (Jeff Davis).  Matilda was married by this time to William Cyrus.  Martha is missing from the census records; perhaps she was not born yet.  James Beverly was the last child born to Milton and Elizabeth Virginia.  His date of birth is March 4, 1871, in Lake County.

Elizabeth Virginia Coon Apperson

            Milton Moses died in 1876 in Lake County, CA of stomach cancer at age 61.²  At the time of probate his wife Elizabeth could not sign her name.  When all the debts were submitted, at least some of the property had to be sold to settle the debts.  When the probate started, Matilda Jane Apperson Cyrus was listed as one of Milton Moses' heirs, but by the time it was settled, she had died and her children were listed as heirs in her place.  Milton Moses was buried in Hartley Cemetery, near Lakeport, CA.

            On August 17, 1878, Virginia Elizabeth Coon Apperson married Samuel Logan, in Scotts Valley, Lake Co., CA.  He had been born about 1815 in Ohio.  

            By July 1883, she was married to a Mr. Fisher and living in Grant County, OR along with children Jefferson (20), Martha (15), and James (12).  We do not know where or when Elizabeth Virginia died.  We do know that a grandchild (through Jefferson) lived in Washington State, so perhaps Elizabeth Virginia stayed in north-central Oregon or Washington State, rather than move back south to California.

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¹ Lingenfelter Archive, http://www.csuchico.edu/lbib/spc/lingenfelter/introduction.htm

² Obituary for Milton Moses Apperson, Russian River Flag, Healdsburg, Sonoma Co., CA (6 July 1876).