Los Angeles County
Biographies
OWEN HUMPHREYS CHURCHILL
CHURCHILL, OWEN HUMPHREYS, Retired Capitalist, Los Angeles, California, was born in Mechanicsburg, Sangamon County, Illinois, June 16, 1841. He is a son of Willoughby Churchill and Martha Elizabeth (Humphreys) Churchill. He married Frances Alberta Porter at Lexington, Kentucky, April 20, 1882, and to them were born three children, Marion (Mrs. David Henry McCartney), Gertrude (Mrs. Francis Pierpont Davis), and Owen Porter Churchill. Mr. Churchill’s ancestors on both sides were Southerners, his father and mother having been born in Kentucky and his grandfather, George Churchill, in Virginia.
Mr. Churchill is one of the few survivors of that race of men who braved the perils of the Indian-infested Western plains that the present great American empire might be claimed for the white man. In 1851, when he was a lad not quite ten years of age, his father and mother, in whom the pioneer spirit was strong, took him with their other children across the plains. They used prairie schooners, drawn by oxen, and were part of a wagon train containing 100 wagons and about 400 persons.
An entire summer was consumed in making the journey from Illinois to Oregon, and it was one of the most hazardous trips recorded in that day of dangers. Many Indian tribes were on the warpath and the train had many adventurous and discouraging experiences with the redskins, terminating in skirmishes with loss of life on both sides. On one occasions the caravan became strung out for about three miles and a Mrs. Scott, with her wagons and horses, was detached. As the Scott party was crossing the Raft River, it was attacked by Indians, who killed Mrs. Scott and family, with the exception of her fourteen-year old son, who escaped by jumping into the river and hiding among the willows that overlapped the water. The Indians escaped with the horses. As soon as the attack became known to the rest of the train, twenty-five men were sent in pursuit. After traveling twenty-five miles they discovered the Indians camped on a high plateau. Fighting followed and several of the white men were killed and wounded. The survivors, parched with thirst and suffering from wounds, were obliged to give up the effort to punish the marauders and returned to the train, leaving two mortally wounded men behind. They intended to return for these unfortunates, but the leads of the train decided they couldn’t afford to lose any more men or time in the rescue and moved onward.
After leaving the Missouri River at Council Bluffs, Iowa, the travelers saw no white face until they reached Fort Laramie. From there until they neared Fort Dalles, Oregon, the only white man they met was, as he recalls, Johnny Grant, living at Fort Hall. One sad recollection of the journey was the death of Mr. Churchill’s mother, who became ill and died at The Dalles, just as they were reaching civilization.
The Churchill family located in the Umpqua Valley and remained there for six years. Mr. Churchill finished his education in the schools of Oregon, also mastering the Chinook Indian jargon, which he can still converse in with fluency. At the age of seventeen, having contracted the gold fever, he started out as a prospector.
He first began prospecting in British Columbia and then worked back through Washington and Idaho, continuing in this pursuit for about six years. He had indifferent luck until 1863, when he struck it fairly rich at Boise Basin, Idaho.
During his mining days Mr. Churchill had several thrilling adventures with the Indians and also suffered many hardships. One time, in order to save his own life, he was compelled to knock out one of the redskins, and this incident forms one of the most thrilling anecdotes in his career. While only a boy of seventeen, he was prospecting at Rock Creek, British Columbia, with a Doctor Bell. They determined to go to the deserted camp of Samikameen, with the intention of securing tools left by stampeding miners.
After riding thirty miles they came to the Okanagan River, where they employed two Indians to carry them across in canoes, and also to cross the Samikameen River, three miles farther on. It was agreed that the Indians were to cross them on their return, at which time the miners would pay them a pair of twenty-dollar blankets.
When the prospectors returned to the Samikameen they unpacked their horses and drove them into the water. The beasts swam across the were caught by the Indians on the opposite shore and tied to trees. The Indians then crossed the river and informed the white men that they would not ferry them back unless their pay was doubled. Churchill and Bell balked. The Indians threatened the pair and, under orders of Dr. Bell, Churchill struck one of the redmen with a pick handle. He fell and the other Indian fled, pursued by Bell. He escaped and set up such a wild yelling that the miners feared other members of his tribe might be attracted. An examination proved that Churchill’s Indian had been disposed of by the blow from the pick handle, so the miners packed their goods in the canoes and hurriedly crossed.
They made for the Okanagan River, near the Indian village of Tonasket, anticipating trouble because of the absence of the Indians. Fortunately, they fell in with a party of fourteen miners from Caribou who took them in and the entire outfit was crossed by the Indians. While packing, a miner shot an Indian. Confusion followed and Mr. Churchill and his partner, realizing the danger of a massacre, started on a run from the camp. They took a side trail and reached Rock Creek in safety, although they learned later than the Indians had pursued the rest of the party.
An instance displaying Mr. Churchill’s, endurance and aid to companions occurred when three of them, heading for a new discovery at Salmon River, Idaho, had to cross Commerce Prairie, a bleak plateau of thirty miles, covered with a foot of crusted snow. One of them gave out entirely and as there were no trees, wood or shelter, they couldn’t stop, so Mr. Churchill carried the prostrate man for two miles and the other miner shouldered the three packs until they reached a camp of miners at Whitebird.
One dismal morning, when it was about sixty degrees or more below zero, he was standing on the threshold (sic) of his miner’s cabin facing starvation. His partner and himself rolled up their blankets, three pounds of salt, a box of matches, a half loaf of bread and a pressed miner’s pan and put them on their backs, strapped their snow shoes to their feet, grabbed their guns and started for the Salmon River Mountains, where it was reported there was wild game.
By noon they had covered 100 miles, and Mr. Churchill, having shot a grouse, they made camp at once in a clearing. After their meal they went out to hunt food for the next meal, and while they were away their blankets and most of their provisions were burned. Thus, in a temperature averaging sixty degrees below zero, they were without covering and for twenty-nine days suffered intensely. Leaving there they started back to their mining camp with fifty-eight grouse, and after these were consumed took their gold dust and went to Slate Creek, where they had heard provisions were to be had. However, when they reached there the provisions had not arrived and for one week they were compelled to live at an Indian boarding house, where they were charged three dollars a meal. When the pack train arrived, each bought 105 pounds of provisions and they packed it on their back to their camp, forty miles away.
After following the prospector’s life for six years Mr. Churchill engaged in the cattle business in Oregon and continued in the same business through Washington, Idaho and Montana, where he was one of the pioneers.
An interesting coincidence in connection with Mr. Churchill’s success as a cattleman occurred in 1864. Fourteen years previously he had known, crossing the plains, a young man named H. H. Snow, but lost track of him afterward. With $10,300, which he made out of his mining operations at Boise, Mr. Churchill had embarked in the cattle business at Walla Walla, Washington. He had about 650 head of cattle, when he accidentally met Snow and renewed old acquaintance. He offered to sell his cattle to Snow for $40 a head, but the latter could not take them and instead urged Mr. Churchill to take the stock to Montana, where he assured him he could get $100 a head. He did so and sold his cattle for more than $100 a head. Mr. Churchill never saw his friend again to thank him for his very good counsel and heard nothing of him until 1908 when he was informed by a Washington man that Snow had died twenty years previously.
In 1869 he made a trip to Texas, where he bought a herd of cattle and while driving them to Montana, passing through Utah, near soda Springs, Mr. Churchill forced three thieving redskins to release a cow, which they had stolen from his herds. He approached them and, although they leveled their guns at him, he continued and by sheer nerve, forced them to flee. Having recovered his cow, he was leisurely heading towards camp when suddenly thirty Indians swarmed up the bank directly on him; three of them, probably the same he had encountered before, pointed their rifles at him, but the others, being friendly, jumped in between. For ten minutes he was held and while they were disputing over his fate, several opened a gap for him and whispered, “you go,” and he fled.
This incident caused Mr. Churchill to regard Indians as more humane than many white desperadoes he met in later life. He finally located at Sun River, where he continued in the cattle business with profitable results.
Still another experience came to him near Sun River, Montana, while he was riding up a gulch on a buffalo trail, gathering cattle. On the hillside above him he saw an Indian leaning on his rifle. Mr. Churchill could have avoided the savage by going far out of his way, but decided to risk riding by him. As he reached the nearest point to the redskin, they both started shooting; four shots apiece were fired. Mr. Churchill, having no more cartridges, ran his horse, bounding and jumping down the crooked canon (sic), not noticing the trail as closely as he should. While glancing back at the Indian, who remained on the same spot, he plunged over a perpendicular bluff of thirty feet, landing in the soft sand. While he was not hurt, he had become separated from his horse and had to continue on foot to camp. The following morning he and his friend, J. R. Cox, returned to the scene to look for his horse and the Indian, but both had disappeared.
He remained at Sun River until the latter part of 1883, when he disposed of his interests to R. B. Harrison, ex-President Benjamin Harrison and associates.
During his stay at Sun River Mr. Churchill was also a stockholder and director in two of the pioneer banks of Montana. When he left Montana his departure was the occasion for a commemorative tribute on the part of the Helena (Montana) Herald, the editor of which wrote an article praising the works of Mr. Churchill and thanking him for his part in the development of the country.
In 1884 he moved with his family to Los Angeles and became heavily interested in real estate and other lines of business, which added to his fortune. He was one of the charter members of the organization, in 1889, of the National Bank of California and was the second largest stockholder in that institution. For about ten years he was a Vice President of the bank, and still retains his place on the Board of Directors.
Mr. Churchill has been one of the prominent figures in the development of Los Angeles and Southern California, and although he is now practically retired from business life, still maintains a deep interest in the welfare of his adopted city. He was one of the organizers of the Chamber of Commerce and still retains membership in it.
In 1910 Mr. Churchill incorporated his personal holdings into the O. H. Churchill Company, Incorporated.
Transcribed 3-14-10
Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Press
Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Pages 388-389,
International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles,
Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2010 Marilyn R. Pankey.
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