Polk county Oregon Biographies

     David L. Hedges, an Indian war veteran and a pioneer of Polk county, Oregon, was born in Morgan county, Ohio, February 25, 1838. His ancestor, Charles Hedges, came from England in colonial times and settled in Virginia, and he and his posterity have been prominent in the affairs of the State of Virginia ever since. Grandfather Silas Hedges fought in the colonial army during the Revolution and he died in Athens county, Ohio, in the eighty-fourth year of his age. Mr. Hedges' father, Israel Hedges, was born in Virginia in 1812, and while he was yet a lad the family removed to Ohio, where he grew to manhood and married, in 1835, Miss Mary Ann Jenkins, a neighbor, and a native of Ohio, the daughter of Richard Jenkins, an Ohio pioneer. They remained in Ohio, he working at the trade of blacksmith and also farming until 1851, when he started across the plains with his wife and five children. The eldest son, Eli, lived to be twenty four years old and was drowned while fording the Willamette river. The second child was David L., the subject of this sketch; Sarah became the wife of Theodore Thorp, and resides in Independence; William was unfortunately shot by accident at the age of twenty-five years. Two children were added to the family in Oregon, the eldest of these, Pearly, died in his eighteenth year; and Rosa married Albert Carey, and resides in Salt Lake City.
     Mr. Hedges and family were six months in crossing the plains, and at one time, when by the Platte river, their cattle were stampeded, but they recovered them, and aside from that they experienced the usual hardships of the travelers across the plains at that time. After landing in Oregon they came direct to Polk county, and here took a donation claim, one mile and a half above Independence, where he resided a number of years and then sold and purchased the Thorp bottom, five miles above Independence, where they prospered. However, when the year of the high water of '61 and '62 came, their house was floated and was kept from going down the river by a tree being in the way. This was the greatest flood known before or since. This fertile land Mr. Hedges sold to Harry Christian, and then he moved into Independence and began work at his trade of blacksmith and worked at it for twelve years.
     In 1881 our subject's father had to part with his faithful wife, but he is still living in his seventy-ninth year, and has the name of always having been an honest and honorable man. He served as Lieutenant in the Indian war of 1855-'56 in Company A, with Captain Marion Goff.
      David L.. Hedges was reared and educated in Polk county, and began to do for himself when he was but sixteen years of age. He was eighteen years of age when the Indian war broke out, and in 1856 he volunteered in the Marion County Company and went to the Dalles. Here he was transferred to the Polk County Company under Captain B.G. Burch, and like a brave man he suffered all the privations of the company, being reduced with the rest to the eating of horse flesh for seven days. The fights with the Indians were always skirmishes, the savages always running.
     After this war Mr. Hedges worked for such wages as he could get, and in 1861 he purchased 160 acres of land across the Willamette from Buena Vista. The following winter the flood came and swept away all he had, the house with all its contents, and the only way that the people escaped with their lives was when people came with a skiff and took them off, and an hour later the house went down the river. In 1862 he removed to the Cascades, and for six months was engaged in teaming, but was taken sick and returned to independence. After two years he went east of the mountains and was engaged in the stock business on Butter Creek, and here he met with success and continued three years, when he sold out and came to his present location.
     After reaching this place Mr. Hedges purchased eighty-nine acres of land, but about two years later he sold it and bought school and university land, 300 acres of which he farmed for a number of years. He then sold out and went to Whitman county, Washington, and there engaged in the sheep business for nine years, but all this time he retained his home in Independence, and this he still owns. He made a success of sheep raising and he purchased 173 acres on the river two miles below Independence, and on this pleasant place he resides in summer and at his home in Independence in the winter.
     Our subject was married to Miss Amanda Jane Fudge, a native of Illinois, born in 1843. Her father, Adam Fudge, was an Oregon pioneer of 1847. They have had a family of four children, as follows: Minnie, who married H.R. Patterson, a druggist of Independence; Lottie, resides at home; Emma Gertrude, married J.A. Morris, and resides in Independence; and Parly is at home. Mrs. Hedges is a member of the Congregational Church. Our subject has been for many years a Democrat, but now votes with the People's party. He has been a very industrious and hard-working man, and his labors have been rewarded with a competency, which has been richly deserved.

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