Mary Hunsaker's husband was J. F. D'ARCY. Her father was Jacob T. Hunsaker was closely connected, for he became a resident of this section of the country in 1846.

Portland practically had no existence at that time but Oregon City had its little band of enterprising residents and a few venturesome spirits were located in the Columbia and Willamette river valleys, yet on the whole this section was a great unclaimed, unsettled and unimproved district. Mr. Hunsaker was of Swiss ancestry and was born in southern Illinois, July 20, 1818.

On the 7th of December, 1837, Jacob Hunsaker was married to Miss Emily Margaret Collings of the old Collings family of Kentucky.

Her mother was a representative of the Burdett family of Virginia and both her paternal and maternal grandfathers were soldiers of the Revolutionary war.

Mrs. Hunsaker was born near Louisville, Kentucky, October 3, 1820, and ere the start was made for the northwest, she had become the mother of five children.

A belief that superior advantages might be enjoyed in that section of the country led the family in 1846 to bid farewell — a tearful one it was — to friends and relatives in Illinois and start upon the long, wearisome march to Oregon, Mrs. Hunsaker driving a team hitched to a light wagon, in which were the children, while the bedding and cooking outfit were also packed therein. The parents being anxious to get through and establish their home, left their ox team and wagon in charge of their man and pushed on ahead of the train over the Barlow road. They were the first to come thus directly over past Oregon City to the Molalla prairie, where Mr. Hunsaker soon put in a crop. He also aided in building the schoolhouse in that district and thus planted the seeds of educational progress there. Another child was born to them while the parents were living in that district.

Later Mr. Hunsaker went down the Columbia river to look up a site for a sawmill which he finally located at a point on Milton creek, near where the town of St. Helen's now stands. When the mill was completed he removed his family to that location. It was a needed industry and he found immediate market for the product of the mill.

Ships coming from California bought his lumber and so eager were they that they would have torn down the mill to secure more had they been permitted. When they left not a loose stick or slab could be found anywhere. Mr. Hunsaker received a splendid price for the lumber and a few months later also disposed of his mill at a high figure.

His purpose in selling out was to go to a district where educational opportunities could be secured for the children. A huge raft was built by lashing together piles of lumber and lumber was also piled on all sides for protection. On this the family embarked and with sail and oar worked their way to Oregon City, where schools had been established. The three older girls were placed in the Sisters School and the son became a pupil of Mary Johnson, who had been placed in charge of the school in the first Baptist church built west of the Rocky Mountains — a school from which has been developed the present McMinnville College.

Soon Mr. Hunsaker built another sawmill, which he erected on the Washougal river near the present site of LaCamas. A terrible forest fire drove them from their Washougal mill and, in October, 1849, they returned to Oregon City, where they purchased a place near the Clackamas river, where the family home was maintained through the succeeding forty years. While there residing six more children were added to the family and there the two oldest, Horton and Josephine, died in 1853.


THE CITY OF PORTLAND 79

While Mr. Hunsaker devoted much attention to his business interests and met with substantial success therein, he was also connected with many of the early events which have left their impress upon the pages of history. He was one of the jury impaneled to try the Indians who participated in the famous Whitman massacre and hung the jury for sometime, believing that there was not sufficient evidence to convict a certain Indian. His political support was
given to the whig party until its dissolution and he acted as chairman of the meeting at which the republican party of this district was organized in Oregon City. However, he never took a prominent part in politics.

In 1874 the family were called upon to mourn the loss of wife and mother, who died very suddenly on the 14th of January. She had many noble, heroic, self-sacrificing quaHties and at the burial services Dr. Achinson said of her: " 'She hath done what she could.' Only for her help and hearty cooperation, her cheer and encouraging words, I should have been utterly discouraged in the attempt to raise means for the building of the Young Ladies' Seminary." All who knew her expressed the same opinion of her splendid qualities. After the death of his first wife, Mr. Hunsaker was never satisfied with the old home and thereafter removed to a farm which he purchased near Woodburn, there passing away on the 20th of August, 1889.