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Joseph W. Hess was born February 1, 1815, in Lawrence County, Arkansas Territory. He was the son of Solomon Hess and Nancy (last name unknown).
The 1830 Independence County, Arkansas, census, Ruddell Township, shows Joseph as a male between the age of 5 and 10 years.
Joseph married Mary Louise Keizer on October 22, 1836, in Van Buren County, Arkansas. Mary Keizer was born February 1817, in North Carolina, the daughter of Thomas Dove Keizer (b. 1793, NC; d. 1871, OR) and Mary Gurley (b. 1793, NC; d. 1853, OR). We believe Mary was a sister to Matilda Caroline Keizer, born 1820, in North Carolina, who married Joseph's cousin, Samuel C. Penter.
Joseph's father died about November 1840, leaving his property to his wife and children. Joseph is mentioned by name in his father's will.
Joseph's family appears on the 1840 Independence County, Arkansas, census, in Washington Township. The census shows one male age 20-30 years (Joseph); one male under the age of 5 (Tilman); one female 20-30 (Mary); and 2 females under the age of 5 (Mary and Sarah). Joseph's family was living near his brother William and his family.
Information contributed by Pauline Pierce (Ref: The Cornwall Trek of 1846, compiled by Marion S. Craig, M.D., Little Rock, Arkansas) states that Joseph and his family left O'Neal, Arkansas, in early 1843. They stopped in Missouri for a short time, where their son William was born. The family then traveled with a wagon train out of Missouri, bound for Oregon Territory. Traveling on the wagon train with the Hess family was Joseph's cousin, Samuel C. Penter and his family. Samuel Penter wrote an article, Recollections of an Oregon Pioneer of 1843, which appeared in The Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society, Vol VII, dated March 1906, in which he recounted the trip to Oregon Territory in 1843. After a long, hard, discouraging trip with many hardships over the Oregon Trail, the wagon train arrived in Oregon on December 25, 1843.
Joseph Hess cleared land and began farming in Chehalem Valley, Oregon. He had a grist mill at the headwaters of a stream that still flows through the town of Newberg. The name of the creek that runs through the city park is called Hess Creek.
Joseph Hess had been a good friend to Josephus Cornwall in Independence County, Arkansas. The Cornwall family left Arkansas for Oregon sometime in 1846. When they arrived in Oregon, they were on the verge of starvation, ill from small pox, and suffering from wounds from Indian attacks. Joseph Hess rescued the family and gave them food, shelter and medicine until they were able to be on their own. (Ref: The Cornwall Trek of 1846, compiled by Marion S. Craig, M.D. of Little Rock, Arkansas)
Joseph is mentioned in an agreement which was signed June 30, 1849, by the younger heirs of Solomon Hess concerning property left them by their father.
Joseph and Mary Louise raised their family of 13 children near Newberg, in Yamhill County, Oregon.
The 1850 Yamhill County, Oregon census shows Joseph Hess, 35, merchant; Mary L., 33; Tillman C., 13; Mary J., 11; Sarah E., 10; Virginia R., 9; Wm H., 7; John M., 5; Andrew J., 4 and Lovinda A., 1 year old.
The 1860 Yamhill County census shows Joseph Hess, 50, farmer, $9000 real property, $2095 personal property; Mary, 43; Sarah, 20; Virginia, 18; William, 17, farm laborer; John, 15; Andrew, 13; Larinda, 11; Joseph, 9; James, 7; Julia, 5; Martha, 3; and Samuel, 4 months old.
Joseph began going into the gold fields of southern Oregon and northern California prior to 1870. The 1870 Siskiyou County, California census shows Joseph, age 60, living with his son Thomas C. Hess and his family. Mary Louise appears on the 1870 Yamhill County, Oregon census. The census shows Mary Hess, 52, $15,000 real property, $4700 personal property; Joseph, 19, farm laborer; James, 17, farm laborer; Julia, 15; Martha, 13; and Samuel, 11 years old.
Mary Louise divorced Joseph in July 1875 in Yamhill County, after she discovered him living with another woman while working the gold fields. Information contained in a letter written by Thomas M. Hess in Stone County, to his cousin Lucinda Adeline Hess Westlake, daughter of Joseph and Mary Louise, also confirms the divorce.
Joseph married Eliza Jane Morine in July 1875, soon after his divorce from Mary Louise. Eliza was born January 23, 1849, in St. Louis, Missouri. She and Joseph had four children; two children born prior to their marriage and two more children born after they were married.
Joseph was accidently killed on December 29, 1879, in Jackson County, Oregon. It is believed that Joseph is buried at Eagle Point, on Yankee Creek, in Jackson County, Oregon.
The 1880 Jackson County, Oregon census, Little Butte Township, shows Eliza J. Hess, head of the household, 31, born in Missouri; George W. Hess, son, 8, born in California; Marion Hess, son, 6, born in California; Mordica Hess, son, 4, born in Oregon; and Ellen Hess, daughter, 1, born in Oregon. (Note: The two oldest children were born prior to their marriage.)
The 1880 Yamhill County, Oregon census, West Chehalem Township, shows Mary Louise Hess, 63, born in North Carolina and her son Samuel C. Hess, 20, born in Oregan. Living nearby were her children William, James Thomas and Solomon and their families.
Eliza Jane Morine Hess married John Niles Martin Berg on February 26, 1882, in Jackson County, Oregon. She and John Berg had several children.
The 1900 Yamhill County census, West Chehalem Township, shows Mary Louise living with her son Samuel and his wife Emma. The census shows Mary L., 83, widowed, born February 1817, in Arkansas, mother and father born in North Carolina, had given birth to 13 children, 13 children still living. Also living with the family was Mary's son John Medford Hess, 55, widowed, born April 1845, in Oregon.
Mary Louise died February 20, 1903, at Newberg, Yamhill County, Oregon, and is buried in Newberg Friends Pioneer Cemetery.
Eliza Jane Berg died December 18, 1916, in Modoc County, California.
Children of Joseph Hess and Mary Louise Keizer
1. Tillman Culwell Hess, b. Mar 16, 1837, Independence Co, AR; d. Mar 20, 1928, OR; m. Rachel Marinda Hall abt 1858, in OR. Children: (1) John M. Hess, b. 1861, OR; (2) Andrew Harrison Hess, b. 1864, OR; (3) Tilman Culwell Hess, Jr., b. 1866, OR; (4) Mary L. Hess, b. abt 1870, CA; (5) Annie M. Hess, b. 1873, CA; (6) Thomas J. Hess, b. 1875, CA; (7) Addie E. Hess, b. 1877, CA; and (8) Charles J. Hess, b. 1880, CA
2. Mary Jane Hess, b. Jan 30, 1839, Independence Co, AR; m. Albert Cartwright on July 8, 1858, in OR. Children included: (1) Charles M. Cartwright, b. 1859, OR; (2) Ella Cartwright, b. 1868, OR; d. bef 1900; and (3) Leroy Cartwright, b. 1872, OR; d. bef 1900
3. Sarah Evaline Hess, b. Apr 18, 1840, Independence Co, AR; d. Jan 9, 1936; m. Henry M. Jones. Children included: (1) Mary C. Jones, b. 1863, OR; (2) Thomas F. Jones, b. 1866, OR; and (3) Erva Jane Jones, b. 1872, OR
4. Virginia Rowley Hess, b. Nov 11, 1841, Independence Co, AR; m. John Miller on Jan 26, 1862. Children included: (1) James T. Miller, 1870, OR; (2) Sarah Jane Miller, b. 1872, OR; (3) Charles A. Miller, b. 1876, OR; and (4) Mary E. Miller, b. 1879, OR
5. William Henry Hess, b. Feb 25, 1843, MO; d. Feb 12, 1932; m. Lucy McCurren abt 1874. Son: Wilber Hess, b. 1894, OR
6. John Medford Hess, b. Apr 21, 1845, Yamhill Co, OR Territory; m. Rachel E. Bryan
7. Andrew Jackson Hess, b. Dec 20, 1846, Yamhill Co, OR Territory; m. Rebecca Matilda Heater on Dec 13, 1866, in OR. An article was written and published about Jack Hess and his family, in a book called The History of Oregon. Children: (1) James Walter Hess, b. 1868, OR; (2) Thomas Marion Hess, b. 1870, OR; (3) Joshua E. Hess, b. 1872, OR; (4) Mary Elizabeth Hess, b. 1875, OR; (5) Emma S. Hess, b. 1877, OR; d. 1879, at age 2 from diphtheria; (6) Hiram Jackson Hess, b. 1879, OR; (7) Nelly Hess; (8) Frederick Hess; (9) Laura Hess; and (10) Alice Hess
8. Lucinda Andeline Hess, b. Jan 25, 1849, Yamhill Co, OR Territory; d. abt 1928, in OR; m. J. Westlake, then George C. Hill
9. Joseph Solomon Hess, b. Feb 5, 1851, Yamhill Co, OR Territory; m. Kate Pratt, then Virginia Triplett
10. James Thomas Hess, b. Jan 12, 1853, Yamhill Co, OR Territory; d. Nov 30, 1938; m. Lucinda E. Duncan. Children included: (1) Mary L. Hess, b. 1880, OR; (2) Joseph W. Hess, b. 1881, OR; (3) James R. Hess, b. 1888, OR; and (4) Rosetta Hess, b. 1897, OR
11. Julia Ann Hess, b. May 1, 1855, Yamhill Co, OR Territory; m. Joel Alexander "Josh" Bryan. Children included: (1) James E. Bryan, b. 1875, OR; (2) Carrie M. Bryan, b. 1877, OR; (3) Vista Bryan, b. 1879, OR; (4) Mary E. Bryan, b. 1881, OR; and (5) Eva E. Bryan, b. 1886, OR
12. Martha Elizabeth Hess, b. May 4, 1857, Yamhill Co, OR Territory; m. Edward Young
13. Samuel Cisco Hess, b. Feb 11, 1860, Yamhill Co, OR; d. Newberg, Yamhill Co, OR; m. Emma Alice Shann. Samuel and Emma had one child who died as an infant.
Children of Joseph Hess and Eliza Berg
14. George W. Hess, b. 1872, CA
15. Marion Hess, b. 1874, CA
16. Mordecai Hiram Hess, b. June 6, 1876, Jacksonville, Jackson Co, OR; d. Apr 27, 1964
17. Ora Ellen Hess, b. Sept 14, 1878, Yankee Creek, Jackson Co, OR; d. July 19, 1970; m. Elick Davis, then Sam Pruitt