Americas

Oregon

Fletcher

Francis FLETCHER (1814-1871) born at Allerton, Bradford, West Yorkshire, emigrated to Canada with his parents in 1825. He later moved to Peoria, Illinois where he joined a group of men, the 'Oregon Dragoons' who were planning to settle the Oregon country. The party split up, one group staying on track, the other staying over winter on the trail. Francis was in the second group that arrived in Oregon June 1, 1840. He became a part of the Oregon Provisional government in 1843, the same year he married Elizabeth Smith, whose father had brought his family along the Oregon Trail at the age of 50. Francis was on the first Board of Trustees of Willamette University in 1853. He died at Dayton, Oregon in 1871. He and Elizabeth had 8 children.

Kay

Thomas KAY (1837-1900) left the mills of Yorkshire, travelled through the Panama Isthmus up the west coast of America to the State of Oregon. Thomas Lister Kay was born in Shipley , Yorkshire and went to work in the woollen mills when he was 10. In 1857 he sailed to the Americas to fulfill a boyhood dream, to own his own mill. He worked for Oregon mill owners then, in 1889, opened his own mill in Salem, Oregon - The Thomas Kay Woolen Mill Company where they manufactured American Indian trade blankets and mens and womens wear. At that time it was the largest mill in Oregon, employing 50 people. "He was a man of little education, but bright and with a driving urge to succeed." The mill closed in 1959 and became the centrepiece of the Mission Mill Museum.