Cynthia (Lorton) Strang
Born: 30 Apr 1809 – Nashville, Tennessee
Died: 2 Jun 1884 – Salem, Oregon
OBITUARY:
Died suddenly, on the 2d inst., Mrs. Cynthia Strang, relict of Daniel Strang, and mother of Ben. Strang and Mrs. Reily, of this city. Capt. J. Strang, of Portland, Mrs. Gillespie, of Ellensburg, and Mrs. McAlpine, of Assotin, W. T., aged 75 years, 1 month and 2 days. Funeral from the residence of Mrs. Reily, Tuesday 3d inst., at 2 p. m.
Daily Oregon Statesman 3 June 1884, 2:2
From the Biography of Daniel Strang (husband):
The year 1862 was a trying one in the annals of Oregon history. It was known as the cholera year and immigration was heavy at that time. Thousands died of that dread disease and were buried along the road, few even having headboards to mark their graves and they were lost to surviving friends for all time.
Indians were very treacherous and easily set on the war path, so that a return along the trail to the east was a very dangerous undertaking, as but few were going that way and there was always safety in numbers.
Among the more fortunate of those coming in 1852 was the train made up of Daniel Strang, the Stewarts, Parkers, Ogles, Stevens and the George families, with Mr. George as the captain. There were sixty wagons in the company and much loose stock to be driven along to Oregon.
Solomon Strang, with his wife Sarah, were the first of the family to come to America. They came from London, England, about. 1807, and settled for a time at Baltimore, Md. Four children, two sons and two daughters, accompanied their parents to America and after a short time the subject of this sketch, Daniel Strang, was born, in 1808.
In the course of time this family moved to the "west" (Illinois), where Daniel grew to young manhood and was wed to Cynthia Lorton. She was born at Nashville, Tennessee, and had gone out to Illinois with the family of her uncle.
Cynthia was a true southerner and carried her head high. She was very attractive, bright and witty; a capable housewife and a good manager in her own home and able to make the most of her surroundings, an excellent endowment for pioneer life.
After the marriage of Daniel Strang they moved still farther west, to Burlington, Iowa, where they settled just three miles out of this little town and kept an inn, called the Three Mile House.
A large farm surrounded this old brick hostelry and Mr. Strang followed farming as well. There was no market for produce; for instance, eggs were only 3 cents a dozen; hens were $1 a dozen; butter 6 cents a pound, while good oak wood, cut and hauled the three miles to Burlington, only brought $1 per cord. It was not very encouraging to farm under such conditions.
Mr. Strang became discouraged, saying he wanted to leave a country where the winters were so severe; that all he could raise in the summer he had to feed out during the winter. He had heard of the wonderful Willamette Valley, with its mild climate, and decided to try his luck in that far western country.
He sold his land, part of it for $40 per acre, while a good share of it only brought $2 per acre. Two years later a railroad came to Burlington and this same land sold for $150 an acre. Besides selling his land so cheaply, they left several hundred chickens on the farm that they could not sell.
Mrs. Strang never fully sanctioned this move. She loved Iowa and was not entirely satisfied in Oregon. She said, "They always seemed to move just ahead of railroads and peach orchards." They had heretofore just lived in a place long enough to set out an orchard and move on again before it began bearing.
Mr. Strang, however, was very happy in the Oregon valley of Willamette, wherein he made his permanent home.
Before they started on the long trek across the plains, Mr. Strang fitted out four covered wagons with false bottoms, under which he stored an ample supply of provisions for the long journey. They emptied two feather beds in each bed-tick, to save space and to get them across. On these they made their beds.
Mrs. Strang also tucked in among the stuff many little household articles that none but she knew were on board, until near the end of the trip.
Mr. and Mrs. Strang were devout members of the Cumberland Presbyterian church and it was customary, in this train, to hold religious worship regularly all along the way. As to politics, Mr. Strang was first a Whig and later on an ardent republican.
This caravan, that started out early in the spring of 1852, was not troubled much with cholera. Just one young man, a helper, died of this dread disease.
Mr. Strang believed he saved many lives in his company and others they met along the way with the gallon jug of brandy and the loaf sugar he carried in his wagon. The treatment he used was this: A few tablespoonfuls of brandy were poured into a dish on some of the precious sugar. This was set on fire and when all the alcohol was burned up the residue was put with a little water and given to the patient. The writer remembers that this remedy was very extensively used among the pioneers for bowel disorders, with good results, even to the time she was grown and has not forgotten the strong, hot taste of this potion.
The Indians, however, were very troublesome to the company of which the Strang family were members. Whenever they camped for the night the savages flocked around the train as it corralled for safety, with wagon tongues to the center. They sat about the campfire, peered into the covered wagons, lifted the lids of utensils and otherwise made themselves a nuisance.
They were so meddlesome that the immigrants had to watch everything they possessed, or the Indians would steal from them. They were known to be very treacherous and many tales of massacres by these dusky redmen were rife about camp and caused the white folk to use great caution as to their treatment of the trouble-makers. The least show of hostility upon the part of the travelers would likely mean the extermination of the whole train.
It was Mrs. Strang's custom to set her salt-rising bread in the morning before the wagons started on and tuck this down under the warm covers to rise. When they camped at night she would bake these savory loaves in her big Dutch oven.
One night, as she had her baking about ready, she told her little daughter Sarah to stir up the buffalo chip fire, so as to hurry matters. As she complied, she accidentally let a big red-hot chip fall against the foot of an old squaw who sat crowded in about the camp fire so closely as to be in the way.
This Indian woman set up a raucous wail and from that on, all during the night, kept up her screaming, until a great horde of savages, numbering several hundred, gathered about the train camped on that inhospitable plain.
At daybreak most of the Indians stole away, but to return to the company again that night, as they were camped a little farther on. This time they came all decked out with war paint and feathers, with many more added to their number. They at once demanded the "pappoose" that had spilled the coals and the innocent cause of all this uproar. All this time the little girl was kept hidden in the wagons.
Mr. Strang offered the Indians food, money and almost anything, but they harassed the immigrants for two days and nights, until they finally tired of the game and slunk off in small bands, not again to return, much to the peace of mind of our pioneers. After this they had no further trouble, until nearing the Oregon country, one of the little Strang boys, Benjamin, was taken ill of camp fever. He could not eat the coarse camp fare and the problem of a proper diet for the lad was a serious thing, as their milk cows had gone dry because of the lack of feed.
A little while before they reached The Dalles, Mr. Strang bought three potatoes of an Indian - all he could get. These potatoes they roasted in hot ashes and the little fellow relished them but he begged his mother not to let the other children stand around his bed with their mouths watering for these toothsome tubers, or he could not eat them, since they could not share them with him.
At The Dalles this company, like many others, took their household goods and human freight down the Columbia River on rafts, while their stock were driven over the mountain trails.
At Portland, where they landed, Mr. Strang was offered two full "city" blocks in that embryo city in exchange for two yoke of oxen. Mr. Strang did not have much faith in the town and as his oxen were in good order, he would not make a deal.
The family came on up the Willamette river and camped a while at the Samuel Brown place, near Gervais, Marion county. Because of the continued illness of the little lad, Mrs. Brown invited Mrs. Strang to take the little boy into her house and she assisted the mother in his care, furnishing from her own larder suitable food for the sick child.
As soon as he was able to travel again, they came on to the little settlement at Salem and camped on the river bank at the location of the present Spaulding mill. Their neighbors at this place (also campers) were the I. R. Moores family, destined, with the Strangs, to become "first citizens" of the city of Salem.
The little sick boy still needed much nursing and one night during his illness, four old squaws set up a mournful cry, very near their camp. They kept up this wailing for three days and nights, for the burial of an Indian baby, in a near-by tree top, as was their custom. At the end of their journey this family still had some dried apples, dried beef and drier hardtack and a few other articles of food left from their original stock of provisions laid in for the trip, enough to sustain life a little longer.
A pint of the precious brandy was also left in the bottom of the jug, showing this liquor had not been used except for medicinal purposes or it would have long since been drained to the dregs.
Our party found Dr. Belt, a pioneer doctor, already ministering to the needs of the immigrants to the best of his ability at the village of Salem.
Mr. Strang was a brick-mason by trade, but after arriving at Salem, and for many years afterward, kept a hotel in a building owned by a Mr. Ford. In after years he followed farming to good advantage.
The children of Daniel Strang and his wife Cynthia were all born near Burlington, Iowa, and were:
James, who married Lydia Warner.
Thomas, who married Amelia Schwatka.
Elizabeth, who married William Paddocks.
Benjamin, who married Jeanette Taylor.
Sarah E., who married, first, A. J. Riely; second, E. C. Small.
Mary, who married George Anderson.
Ellen, who married David McAlpin.
One child died in Iowa.
Sarah Hunt, BOOK OF REMEMBRANCE OF MARION COUNTY, OREGON, PIONEERS 1840 - 1860, Portland, Oregon, The Berncliff Press, 1927, (Source: Mrs. E. H. Small, Salem, Oregon 1926), pp 240-243
