Military service: John served in the Oregon Volunteer Militia during the Rogue River Indian Wars of 1855-56. He was at the battle of Hungry Hill near Leland, Oregon. When asked by his grandchildren, if he had killed any Indians during the Indian Wars, his reply was, "I hope not."
Residences: His early Oregon home was on the family donation land claim east of Dixonville. After his 1866 marriage to Lethy Matthews, the couple lived on the family donation claim for a year. By 1869, they had moved to Pitt River, Modoc County, California, where their second child was born. They lived near the Dixon ranch, located just over the hill from 1000 Springs. They left California by September 1870, returning to Dixonville because so few other settlers had come to the Pitt River area. By 1874, the family had moved to Sumner, Coos County, OR where the father and sons engaged in logging. By 1878,
the family had moved to the present site of Idleyld Park, Oregon, then known as Patterson Mills, where the Livingstons logged for the sawmill. By 1890, having sold the Idleyld Park property, the family moved four miles up Little River on the Asa Williams donation land claim. John and Lethy moved to Roseburg, Oregon, as they aged living on Mill Street in South Roseburg. The home had a spring house, with creek water flowing through it from Parrott Creek, which they used to keep milk, butter and other food stuffs cool. Their last residence was with their daughter Amy Livingston Criteser near Melrose,Oregon.
Occupations: During the gold rush years in Eastern Oreon, Idaho and Montana, John Livingston operated a pack train providing mining supplies to miners in those areas. His route was from Scottsburg, Oregon, at the head of tidewater on the Umpqua River, over the Cascades, probably using the Willamette Pass, to Mitchell, Oregon, thence to the mines at Canyon City, Grant County, Oregon, then to the Powder River in Baker County, Oregon, and north to the Idaho mines. It is possible that he went as far east as the Montana mines, but that is not certain. His pack train was part of an effort to bypass the high cost of freight charged by the steamboat and pack train routes from Portland and The Dalles, and to help retain the supply port that had serviced the mines in Southern Oregon and Northern California. John was also a logger, there are pictures of ox-team logging in Coos County, Oregon, and he was a steam sawmill operator. Apparently, John was working with his first cousin William Washington Gage at this time. Gage later was a sheriff for nearly a quarter of a century for Coos County, Oregon at Coquille, OR.
After John moved his family to the North Umpqua near the Narrows (Idleyld Park today) he was engaged in ox team logging for Patterson Mill. The logs were rolled into the North Umpqua River and floated downstream about a mile to the mill which was located on the south bank of the North Umpqua River (later a fish hatchery was located at the mill site which was just downstream from where Britt Creek enters the North Umpqua River. John and his sons also operated a sawmill up Cavitt Creek when the China Ditch was being constructed. Around the turn of the century, John worked for the U. S. Forest Service, being stationed at Dry Creek up the North Umpqua River, and that summer was part of the group that built the initial trail into the lakes on the South Umpqua River. John Livingston, his great- grandson, has a diary detailing the activities of that summer.
- Kenneth D. Bogard
Added: Apr. 13, 2004