Pioneer Passion and the Hard Fought Road

A recent paper I finished for my summer term, enjoy a little history!

Pioneer Passion and the Hard-Fought Road by George-Login

    I approached the oak tree of magnitude in awe of its shade that surrounded me and pondered who else on this property once sat under this monster in deep thought. This now quaint land of 3 acres in Woodburn was the site of my paternal family’s new home in 1850 Oregon Territory, and has been appropriately called the “Settlemier House” by the French Prairie Historical Society. The house was once a symbol of pioneer resilience and ambition for a man of political stature, Jesse H. Settlemier. His father, (My great grandfather x5) George Franklin Settlemier, joined a caravan with his young family of 13 (12 of them boys). Thinking of ancestral nostalgia under the soft leaves, I researched a few grand sources that were bestowed upon me by my grandmother. What drove my ancestors to continue such a long journey to the new west? What kind of resilience were they known for to create new lives for their legacy? After death and desperation, stories of the Donner party perishing in the sierras, and uncertain geography, they still pushed forward to the fertile lands in search of fortune. \

    I come from a long line of movers, people with restless spirits and aptitudes for ambition. However, ambition takes finance and land most often. Administration seems to have been tied closely with our last name, Harry E. Wilson states in “Descendants of Jacob Zettelmeyer,” that the name was likely of Bavarian origins meaning, “Administrator of a settlement.” Born in 1706, Johann Jacob Zettelmeyer came to America on a ship called “Neptune'' in 1751, this was while America was still a British colony. He was no one of particular importance or fervor, his father being a humble Lutheran tinkerer in Bavaria (someone who traveled around the area repairing items for payment of low profits). It is hard to say why he left Germany in the first place, but I can speculate that Johann was convinced to try his hand at the new world with religious and civic freedom. He boarded an immigrant ship in Rotterdam, Holland with whom was likely his cousin or brother, Georg. It was a time of new world boomings and land grants galore, they landed in Pennsylvania to claim a fresh plot near Lenhartsville, though it is mentioned; “Many people had arrived earlier and were squatting on the land.” (Wilson pg 4-5). 

    After a few generations of bustling around states, the test of time within families made its course. Based on Wilson’s research and perception of this time period, the most prospective thing for a group of German farmers was a piece of new land. In 1849, my great grandfather x5, George Franklin Settlemier set off on a journey to the west in a 50-wagon caravan heading for Oregon. He was a master carpenter and was said to have built much of his own property, including furniture and wagons (Lockley interview 10/5/26). This was just shortly after Lewis and Clark finished their expedition to the west, inviting tales of open land spread through the east to tempt the ambitions of young Americans struggling in the wrecked economy. Along the way, upon meeting other trailers coming back east from California, the party had heard,”...such wondrous tales of the new gold fields that were all infected with the desire to test their truth” (Wilson pg 215). While George Franklin wanted to continue North to Oregon, the prospect of fresh gold after escaping a collapsing economy in the east was too good to pass up. The fork in the road at Fort Ball is where the journey changed directions, most of the caravan (including the Settlemiers) were now in due course for California. Calamity struck once they arrived there, George’s wife and young son caught mountain fever and passed in the company of their family. They were buried near Feather River for the time. Years later, he returned with some of his sons to bring the bodies back to the family plot in Oregon, but the water levels over the years had changed the landscape of the area and they never found them again. Shortly after, George Franklin remarried to a woman by the name of Mary Rhyne, the sister of his former wife! She would later pass as well before his final days, he lived to be about 90 years old, which is pretty impressive for those days (Lockley interview 10/5/26).

    
    Under this same tree, my ancestors thought about their lives, hopes and dreams, reflecting on the past and anticipating the future. Researching their lives and tribulations gives me some consolation to my own, lives hard fought and won live in some fraction of fame and it’s a history I can share with them.

    George Franklin sounds like a man of steel, not only being a widower twice in his life, but crossing the Oregon trail with 13 children and little adult relatives is a huge challenge on its own. Despite the trials they endured, his success in arriving in the Oregon Territory paid off for himself and his future generations. Once he sat a much younger version of himself, under a much younger tree, to think of the past and proclaim the future. These tales are a history I hold close to my conscience while I run in the same pursuit of success and resilience to nature that my ancestors once did. Zettelmeyer was nothing but a poor immigrant name from Germany in 1751, almost 3 centuries later it’s a name of flexible fortitude which continues to work the land we’ve been placed upon. I’ve done right to live in the light of their accomplishments and reflect the true values of being a Settlemier. As my Grandfather would say, “Treat others the way you want to be treated.”

I learned a lot not only as a researcher but as a pupil of my family’s history during this project. I hope to contribute to the long effort of keeping their stories alive and preserving the lessons others have learned. Part of this project was exploring the resilience in my family and how that translates to my own life. Perhaps one day one of my descendants will flip through my journals and scan our family tree, making connections to people I write about and sitting under this same old oak tree which outlasts us all. I learned a few things through this research, firstly that resilience is part of humanity. We learn by our trials and adapt to them as if we were dropped onto a strange planet of no knowledge. But I also learned that recording history and giving perspective in the unlikeliest of places, may end up becoming the most sound advice for someone generations on.

Wilson, Harry E. “Adam Zettelmeyer of Berks Co. PA.” Descendants of Jacob Zettelmeyer of Berks                             County, Pennsylvania, Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 2001, pp. 1–220.

Lockley, Fred. “Impressions and Observations of the Journal Man.” The Oregon Journal, 5 Oct. 1926.