From Missouri to Oregon: A Biographical Brief of Kinman Elliott

Kinman Elliott was born in Missouri in1831 and died at the age of 87 in Lebanon, Linn County, Oregon in 1918.  Kinman was the father of John Morgan Elliott (1866-1962), who was the father of Elbert Aaron Elliott (1897-1986), who was the father of James Elbert Elliott (1924-1965).  Kinman was married to Nancy Pickerell who was born in Green County, Kentucky in 1832.  Nancy died in Lebanon just four years prior to Kinman in 1914 at the age of 82.  Preliminary research suggests that Kinman and Nancy were married in 1849, but I have been unable to substantiate which state they were married in.  However, general vital record information suggests they were married in Missouri.

Kinman and Nancy were the parents of ten, possibly eleven, children.  Vital records also suggest all but two of their children were born in Northwest Missouri (they lived both in Graham and St. Joseph).   It would seem their family lived in Nebraska for a time, which is where John Morgan Elliott was born.  Joel Elliott, the youngest of Kinman and Nancy, was born in Oregon in 1870.  As a result, we are left to assume that Kinman Elliott and his family arrived in Oregon between 1866 and 1870. To give readers a contextual point of reference, in 1870 Oregon had only been a state since February 14, 1859.  Five years prior, the 13th Amendment (abolishment of slavery) had been ratified and Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865.  Two years prior, Andrew Johnson, Lincoln's successor, was impeached and Ulysses S. Grant was elected President in 1868.  One year prior, the Transcontinental Railroad was completed and 14th Amendment (states reconstruction) was ratified in 1869.

It's plausible that Kinman and Nancy were enticed to move westward when hearing success stories of families that homesteaded in the Great Plains states and the Northwest territories under the Donation Land Act of 1850.  Subsequently, further settlement in Oregon was spurred on by the 1862 Homestead Act which was signed into law by Abraham Lincoln.  Hopeful homesteaders, possibly like Kinman Elliott, need only to file an application, improve the land, live on the land for five years, and then file a deed for ownership.  In time I hope to find evidence of such an application on behalf of Kinman and his family.  It could also be that Kinman was lured to the Willamette Valley by the blossoming and productive economy of western Oregon between the early 1820s through to the late 1880s.  Whether the intent was to homestead or otherwise capitalize on socioeconomic opportunities that existed in the Willamette Valley, it is unclear. Either way, I think it safe to assume that Kinman and Nancy sought to improve their young and burgeoning family's circumstance with an eventual migration to Oregon's Willamette Valley, a land many Elliott's have called home since. 

Conjecture based on dates and locations is fun, but substantiated evidence is preferred.  If you have any additional information or documentation about Kinman and his family, including oral histories, please share in the comments section of this post or e-mail me at tim.degraw04@gmail.com.