Exploring Mike's Family History in Oregon City

Chasing History: Exploring My Ancestral Roots - Blog Post #40

By Tonya McQuade

Well, once again, it has been far too long since I added a new post, but I'm finally sitting down to write - and this time, I've reached a milestone. It's post #40! And, surprise! This one is about Mike's family!

In June, we had the opportunity to travel through Oregon, and one of our stops was in Oregon City, where Mike has family ties. Specifically, his grandfather, Thomas Victor McQuade, was born there, and Thomas's mother, Ella, was born nearby. Her father, Aaron Jay Walker, spent much of his life in that area, and one of our stops was at the old Pioneer Cemetery in Salem to find Aaron's grave. (Mike has visited enough cemeteries with me to find my ancestors' graves, right? I figured it was his turn!) Here you can see Mike standing at his great-great grandfather's grave.

Aaron Jay Walker (1846 - 1914), Salem Pioneer Cemetery

Aaron Jay Walker was born to James Reuben Walker and Mary "Polly" Casey on 18 Mar 1846 in Bond County, Illinois. James (b. 1816 in Adair, KY) and Mary (b. 1813 in Warren, KY) were married 17 Oct 1832 in Montgomery, Illinois, and had a total of eight children - one girl and seven boys - with Aaron being the next to last. He did not get to know his father well since James died in 1847.

In 1841, Aaron’s father was granted 40 acres in Bond County; in 1850, his mother shows up as still living there in census records with the eight children. They were living next to two other Walker families - likely relatives. Aaron was still living in Bond at the time of the 1860 Census, along with his mother Mary, brother Cyrus, sister Sarah, and her husband and 4-month old daughter.

At the age of 19, Aaron entered military service on 9 Mar 1864, serving in the 3rd Illinois Cavalry Consolidated, Company E. He was mustered into service in Vandalia, Illinois, at Camp Butler. He listed his height as 5’ 9 ½”, his hair and complexion as “light,” and his eyes as “gray.” According to military records, he was discharged on 1 July 1865 at Fort Snelling in Minnesota following the end of the Civil War.

On 15 Apr 1868, Aaron married Anna “Annie” McKinney/McCann (b. 1847 in Illinois) in Fayette County, Illinois. Their first son, John, was born 3 Mar 1869. By 1870, census records show that Aaron was living with the Jones family in Eureka, Greenwood County, Kansas, working as a farm laborer; by 1880, he was living in Highland, Clackamas County, Oregon with his wife Anna “Annie” McKinney/McCann and three children: John (11, born in Illinois), Mary (8, born in Kansas), and Margaret (2, born in Oregon). That means, he arrived in Oregon sometime between 1872 and 1878. Once again, he was working as a farmer.

Daughter Ellen “Ella” Walker - Mike’s great grandmother - was born in Clarks, Clackamas County, Oregon on 27 Feb 1880. Ella’s mother Annie died in Oregon City in June 1882 (we couldn't figure out where she was buried), and on 7 Nov 1883, Aaron remarried in Oregon City to Mary Esther Ferguson (b. 1865 in Oregon City). Their first child was born in Eagle Creek, Clackamas County, in 1886, but by 1888, the family had moved to the Dalles, where the next two children were born.

One of the places we visited in Oregon City was the "End of the Trail Museum," which tells about the history of the Oregon Trail and the role Oregon City played as the first capital of the Oregon Territory. When you enter the museum, it looks like you are entering a giant stage coach. The museum exhibits present information about the many difficulties people faced on their journey along the trail, as well as the challenges pioneers faced creating a new life in this far western territory.

Entrance to the "End of the Trail Museum"

There are many stories about the earliest settlers, including Dr. John McLoughlin, who is considered the "Father of Oregon." He started out working for the Hudson Bay Company at nearby Fort Vancouver (which we also visited), but he eventually resigned that position, moved to Oregon City, built the house in 1846 that still stands there today as a national historic site, and became a U.S. Citizen. He helped many settlers when they first arrived to have the food, shelter, and other supplies they needed to survive. 

Memorial to Dr. John McLoughlin in Oregon City

The McLoughlin House is near Railroad Avenue, which is where Mike's great-grandparents - Michael Joseph McQuade and Ella (Walker) McQuade - lived when his grandfather Thomas was born. 

A view of Railroad Avenue today

By 1880, when Ella Walker was born, Oregon City has a population of about 1400. In 1899, Ella married Michael Joseph McQuade (b. June 1876 in Ireland). At the time of the 1900 census, they were living in a rented house on Railroad Avenue in Oregon City, Clackamas County, with their four-month old son Thomas Victor McQuade - Mike’s grandfather, born 14 Jan 1900.

Mike standing under the Railroad Avenue sign,

with the Oregon City Municipal Elevator in the background

According to that same Census record, Michael was working as a “woolen weaver,” likely at the mill just down the street along the Willamette River. He had immigrated to the United States in 1885 from Ireland after spending four years first in Quebec, Canada, where six-year old Michael arrived in 1881 with mother Mary and six siblings: Mary (11); Owen (10); Maggie (8); Ellen (4?); Thomas (3); and Charles (1).

View from the Municipal Elevator, looking out toward the Willamette River 

where various mills used to be located - including the Woolen Mill

Michael and Ella must have left Oregon City soon after, for daughter Alice was born 20 Sept 1902 somewhere in California. Son Michael Tyrone was born 22 Dec 1906 in Portland, Oregon, so they obviously returned to Oregon for a while. However, they soon left for good. By 1910, the family was living at 8 Palmer Street, San Francisco, with Michael working as a carpet layer. A 1915 San Francisco city directory shows the family living at 289 Randall Street, and according to census records, Ella was still living there in 1930. What's more, I recently discovered that the house is still there! Next time we are in San Francisco, Mike and I plan to stop by.

Built in 1910, the house still stands at 289 Randall, now valued at $2.2 million,

according to Redfin.com (I'm not sure which is the most recent photo of the house)

 

Michael died 4 Apr 1939 and is buried at Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery in Colma, San Mateo County, California. Ella died 6 Mar 1963. Her obituary lists her as “beloved wife of the late Michael J. McQuade.” It also describes her as “loving mother of Thomas V. McQuade, Mrs. Alice Lambert and the late Tyrone M. McQuade, survived by eight grandchildren; a native of Oregon.” She, too, is buried at Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery in Colma, where she and Michael share a headstone.

And wouldn't you know, even though that cemetery is only about 45 minutes away, Mike doesn't remember ever having visited it. I think perhaps all my family history research is sparking his curiosity a bit. The Colma cemetery is now on our list of future places to visit.

My Dad: Master Builder Extraordinaire

Chasing History: Exploring My Ancestral Roots - Blog Post #39

By Tonya Graham McQuade

Since I wrote about my mom for Mother’s Day, it seems only fitting I should write about my father for Father’s Day. In my Mother’s Day post, I shared lots of photos of my mom’s sewing and craft creations. Here, I will share some of my father’s building projects – many of which adorn our house. And we just added a new one this week!

The first time I remember being really excited about my dad’s construction abilities was when I was ten years old and he built me a new bedroom set. I helped in its design, sanding, and painting – but it was he who built it so solidly that it is still in use today. 

After years of use by me in three different houses in Antioch, that bedroom set moved with me to various locations during my college years at UC Santa Barbara, then to my apartments in Santa Barbara and East Palo Alto, and eventually to my two homes in San Jose. Here in San Jose, I passed it on to my daughter Anna - who now has it in her office in her apartment in San Diego – painted brown instead of the “antique white” I chose all those years ago.

The next big building project that looms large in my memory is when my dad decided to build a house on Minta Lane in Antioch. For a time while I was in 8th grade, we moved into the old house at the front of the property while our family worked to build the new house behind it. THAT needs a whole post of its own, but here is a photo of the completed house as shown in our family “Christmas Card” photo in 1982.

The Minta Lane house, where my parents still live, is filled with furniture my dad has built – but so is our house here in San Jose. Almost every room features something my dad has designed, built, and delivered as a gift for us or the kids. Each piece is a reminder of the skill and work ethic he possesses, as well as the love and generosity he feels toward his family. Here I will share some of the photos and stories of his handiwork.

Two of the largest pieces he has made for us are the two different wall units we have in our living room and family room. The living room wall unit originally had a smaller piece in the middle designed for the smaller TV we used to have. (Remember those days?). Once we decided we wanted to buy a larger smart TV, my dad rebuilt that section for us, and I now use the small section in our dining room.

This is the wall unit in our living room - the folding doors hide our TV. 

The smaller original centerpiece now stands in our dining room.

Our family room wall unit used to have sliding video cabinets 

on the sides before we added a larger TV here as well.

Another treasured item in our living room is the table my dad made for Mike and me as a wedding gift. In his typical fashion, he “signed” the furniture – in this case, using a router (sometimes he leaves written messages underneath or on the sides of drawers). 

Mike & Tonya - August 23, 2003

When my scrapbooks were overflowing the shelves we had available, I asked my dad to build me a small cabinet for our family room to house my digital scrapbooks. So, he did. Merry Christmas! (You can see I also use it for all my Outlander and Harry potter books!)

The dining room also features some corner cabinets my dad helped Mike to build - helping to hone Mike’s building skills so he can do the wood projects he now so enjoys. My dad has also given him many tools to aid him in his craft. 

Soon after we were married in 2003, my dad helped Mike to extend the deck in our backyard so we could add a hot tub back; then, he helped Mike build a shed on the side of our house to store tools, bikes, paints, etc. His most obvious contribution to our backyard is the playhouse he built for Aaron and Anna for Christmas in 2000 – it’s still there, now mostly as a storehouse for their old toys, but hopefully it can someday be put to use again by grandkids! 

Mike and my dad building an addition to our back deck – 

and Anna deciding it was the perfect stage before we put the hot tub on it!

Aaron & Anna’s Playhouse

My dad also came through when we needed new “grown up” furniture for Aaron’s room (Anna already had my old bedroom set). He built Aaron a bed with drawers, a wall unit, and a toy box. Then, later, when Aaron no longer needed a toy box, he converted it to a book shelf – which is what you can see in the picture below.

The middle section used to be a toy box. My dad designed it so that 

the front of the “toy box” became the shelf in the middle.

In the other upstairs “bedroom” that we use as an office, my dad built a wall of bookshelves for us – which, as you can see, are overflowing with books and CD’s (as is our whole house).

Even our laundry room and bathrooms feature items built by my dad. Over our washer and dryer hang three large cabinets he built when I first moved into this house, and in our two upstairs bathrooms, he built the vanities under the sinks. Here’s the one in our master bath:

The most recent addition to our master bedroom is the wall unit we added this week - the wall unit that used to belong to my parents. My dad recently built some new furniture for their room, so I asked if we could “inherit” the old set. It took some effort to get all these large pieces of furniture up the stairs to our room, and I sprained my ankle in the process (which has temporarily forced me to slow down a bit). But, we have now mostly settled into our new space – and I definitely love the extra storage! Mike and I each now have our own wardrobe, plus three large drawers on each side under the bed. 

Everything inside the house that my dad has built for us has been stained a Golden Oak color, which is what I also chose for our kitchen cabinets (which we ordered from Home Depot, not from my dad). When I chose that for the kitchen, I was told that oak cabinets were not really the modern style – that many people were redoing their kitchens to get rid of oak cabinets. Ask me if I care! LOL. 

As you can clearly see, I LOVE the look of oak, and I am EVER SO THANKFUL for the many things my father – a builder extraordinaire – has made for us through the years. What a gift to have so many handmade items in our home! 

My Mother: Seamstress and Craftswoman Extraordinaire

Chasing History: Exploring My Ancestral Roots - Blog Post #38

By Tonya Graham McQuade

It’s been quite a while since I wrote a post for my blog. The last one featured lots of descriptions and examples of how my mother taught me to love Christmas, including through her baking, gift giving, Christmas card sending, scrapbooking, special crafts, and travel-inspired ornaments. In this post, I want to talk about another way my mother Dorothy has shown us all a lot of love through the years: through her sewing. 

Starting when I was very young, my mother used her Singer sewing machine and her sewing skills to sew clothes for me. In those early years, they often involved matching outfits, as seen in the following photos - dresses, jumpers, nightgowns, shirts, and scarves were all part of her repertoire.

Matching Nightgowns

Matching Jumpers

Whether my mother was primarily motivated by economic reasons, enjoyment of sewing, or a desire for us to match, I’m not certain. Perhaps it was all of the above. I do know that, in kindergarten, I desperately wanted a fancy dress that fit over a full, puffed out slip like my friend Sandy wore. Instead, I got a brown, floral plaid sort of skirt to wear over my puffed slip, and it certainly did not live up to my vision. This, I suppose, marked my first rebellion against my mother’s sewing.

Through the early grades of elementary school, the main sewing I remember my mom doing for me was sewing strips of material to the bottoms of my pants to make them longer once I had outgrown them. It sounds like an awful fashion choice now, but this was the 70’s, and it was a common enough practice not to make me feel too out of place. In another 70’s fashion statement, she embroidered the backs of blue, button down shirts for the whole family; and when I was in third grade, she sewed me some black, elastic band pants and a short-sleeved blouse out of material with rulers all over it (not my favorite) to wear in the school fashion show. Her efforts didn't stop with the sewing machine. She also crocheted me a couple sweater vests in elementary school - you know, the granny square kind? Definitely a child of the 70’s!

Third Grade Fashion Show

She also frequently made Halloween costumes - or at least parts of them - for my brothers and me. Here's one memorable set of costumes - I think I was a gypsy for at least a couple Halloweens because I liked being able to wear big earrings! LOL. Cam went for the soldier look, and Andy made a great little "Raggedy Andy."

One of my mom’s most ambitious sewing projects when I was in elementary school materialized during the Bicentennial, when she sewed our family matching red, white, and blue flag shirts, as well as Colonial outfits, which we wore in our town of Antioch's Bicentennial Parade. I got a Betsy Ross dress, and my brother Cam got a George Washington suit. When Antioch hosted a George Washington look-alike contest that year, he won the first prize of $100. That was a huge amount back then! I was pretty sad they didn't host a Betsy Ross look-alike contest!

Our Bicentennial Colonial Family - 1976

My mom taught me to do some of my own sewing in those early years, helping me to embroider some pictures, sew a quilt for my Barbie dolls, and crochet a blanket (which still sits unfinished in my attic - I keep telling my husband I'll finish it someday). In fact, the first time I was in the newspaper was when my mom hosted an AAUW meeting at our house when I was in second grade, and while she was teaching me to crochet, a reporter snapped a picture. I don’t know why the AAUW members were crocheting at the meeting or why a reporter was there (maybe I should ask her sometime!), but I still have the photo.

Learning to Crochet at an AAUW meeting
(American Association of University Women)

When I was in 6th grade, my mom made me two noteworthy dresses: one I wore with my friend Monica in our school talent show when we played a piano duet; the other, I wore for my piano recital. I think both of these outfits I wore only for those events - at least I can't recall wearing them another time. I have to wonder now if I thanked my mom for the time she put into these creations.

Turner School Talent Show - "Lady of Spain" Duet (I think)

Piano Recital

I shied away from my mom’s sewing creations in junior high and high school, limiting her efforts to hemming my pants if needed, but I learned to use a sewing machine in my 8th grade Home Ec class. I even had to learn to sew a zipper on the dress I made for our 8th grade fashion show! My mom attended that with me - there, we got (I believe) our only formal portrait of just the two of us other than at my wedding.

Later, I inherited my grandmother’s sewing machine, and the first summer of college, I pulled it out and went on a sewing spree, sewing several pairs of shorts and a couple sundresses. Since then, my sewing machine has only been out a couple times: first, to sew a "Sneezy" costume for my daughter for the play Snow White; and second, to sew some beanbags for my husband’s cornhole game. He was surprised I still knew how to use the sewing machine!

With Anna in her "Sneezy" costume that I sewed for her

My mother, however, kept her sewing machine in active use for many years, sewing MANY Halloween costumes for my son Aaron and daughter Anna, as well as for my nieces Katharine, Greta, Alice, and Violet. Two standouts in my mind include the "Luke and Leia" combo the year the kids wanted to dress up as Star Wars (and, ironically one of the neighbors dressed up as Darth Vader), and the "Daniel Boone and Kirsten the American Girl" combo the year that Anna was very into her American Girl history books.

Darth Vader, Princess Leia & Luke Skywalker

Daniel Boone & Kirsten the American Girl

My mom also took on what she considers her biggest challenge of all: sewing the costumes for Anna when she was cast as Belle in a production of Beauty and the Beast when she was in 4th grade. This involved sewing the white and blue pinafore-style dress Belle wears at the start of the play, the dark cloak she wears when she goes out looking for her missing father, and - most amazingly - the extravagant yellow gown she wears when she dances with the Beast. What an undertaking! 

The Blue & White Belle Dress my mom made for Anna

Anna in her beautiful Belle gown - 4th grade

When Anna was turning “Sweet Sixteen,” she decided she wanted a 50’s-themed birthday party. My mom sewed her a darling red poodle skirt. She wore the same skirt again when the Sadie’s Hawkins dance at school had a 50’s theme. Then, I wore it for a dance performance in Los Gatos High School's “Fractured Follies” (our teacher talent show). Perfect!

Dressed up "50's Style" for the LGHS Sadie Hawkins Dance

My mom also sewed baby quilts, pillows, and crib ruffles for Anna and a quilt for Aaron. His was Noah’s Ark-themed; hers, Precious Moments, in multiple colors. She sewed a matching quilt for Anna’s doll bed and rocking chair, as well as reupholstered the rocking chair that was mine when I was young to match the Precious Moments theme. In the photo below, you can also see Anna propped up against a pink, blue, and white blanket my mom crocheted for me.

Other creations of my mom’s also regularly found their way into our home. One of the most memorable was the ark she and my dad made for Aaron when he was two. My mom hand painted male and female sets of animals that she and my dad cut out of wood - including two Barney’s. LOL. Not sure how they would have reproduced, but Aaron was a huge fan of Barney at the time, so they were a big hit.

Noah's Ark with lots of hand-painted animals

She also sewed Aaron's ring pillow and created Anna’s flower girl basket when they were in my brother Andy’s wedding, as well as later when they were in my wedding to Mike. For our wedding, she crafted lots of wedding favors as well, which included small vases filled with flower seeds, enclosed by pink netting and a bow, with a paper cut out flower on a stick saying, “In the Garden of Life, Friends and Family are the Flowers in Bloom.”

Our house features many other of my mom's creations as well: paintings, hand-crafted dolls, drawings, and photo books describing her travels. On my wall still hangs the piano embroidery she did when I was taking piano lessons. Every Christmas, we hang her hand-sewn Christmas stockings on the mantel, place the matching Christmas pillows on the couch, and hang her hand-crafted and hand-painted ornaments on the tree. 

Embroidery of Young Girl Playing Piano

Sadly, my mother’s sewing machine now sits idle, too difficult for her to use with her advanced rheumatoid arthritis. I know she feels the loss. Still, her creations abound in my home and in the homes of others - and I hope to someday see my own grandchildren put on some of the Halloween costumes she has sewn through the years. Every costume - from Betsy Ross to Belle, to Luke and Leia, Daniel Boone and Kirsten the American Girl, and Marty McFly in the Old West and a "teeny-bopper" in the 50's - brings back a flood of memories. I’m sure each of my nieces can say the same, as they, too, have worn many of Grandma’s handmade creations.

Mom's painting of Stargazer Lilies - 
the main flower Mike and I chose for our wedding

Yes, my mother has been a seamstress and craftswoman extraordinaire for all the years I have known her. What a gift she has given us by creating and showering us with so many treasured heirlooms over the years!