The Saga of Maria Callaby( 1818-1888 ) and William Baldra(1810-1891)

Author: Ed and Don Guenther
Written: 2014-2019

Baldra/ Callaby Ancestral Chart

By Don Guenther on Ancestry.com

1771 Charles Callaby Marries Elizabeth Seele

The Industrial Revolution was in its mid stages when Maria’s grandfather Charles Callaby lived and died in Newton, Norfolk County, England. Newton, a civil parish in England, is a village by Castle Acre about four miles north of the town of Swaffham. 

Charles married Elizabeth Seele in 1771 in the village of Castle Acre. He was a farmer, in a time when owning a horse with a walk behind plow and a roof over your head was all you could hope for in Norfolk. However, it is unlikely that they owned anything. They were poor. The work was brutal for both man and wife, but not unsatisfying. These conditions would lead many to leave for the American shores in the 19th century. 

They lived in the smoke of kerosene lanterns and candles. The fireplace provided what heat they could muster. Any after dark activities for the children would be mostly by the light of the fireplace.  But the homes were small and cozy, one just needed to wear extra clothing. Food was carefully hoarded, and the hog was cut up using every portion possible. Farmers kept food on the table. They pumped and carried their water. And the aroma of cooking bread mingled with the smoke of the lantern.

The Ruins of Castle Acre

Near Newton, where Charles and Elizabeth lived, and about four miles north of Swaffham, where Maria grew up, are the spectacular ruins of Castle Acre. The castle and accompanying Priori were built in the 11th and 12th centuries and ruled the region around the monastery until about the 1530’s when King Henry VIII was purging England of monasteries. The power of Castle Acre was gone. But villages persisted in the region, two of which were Newton and Swaffhom. The people generally were very poor and put what they had into the church. As peasants, the Callabys worked the fields for the land owners. And they were illiterate by today’s standards. 

The ruins of Castle Acre stood as a metaphor of the Norfolk area. King Henry VIII had destroyed the monastery, and modernization had wreaked havoc on the peasant farmers a couple of centuries later. Times change, things change, people change, and the survivors must adapt to the new challenges.

1811-1817 The Deaths of Charles and Elizabeth Callaby

Elizabeth died in 1811. As one old widower once grieved that his wife was old and worn out, so it must have been for Elizabeth… a hard life accompanied by child birthing. Charles Callaby followed six years later, probably relieved to be joining his sorely missed wife. They are buried in the Newton Church Graveyard. Charles and Elizabeth had four children: Ezekiel(1777-1852), John(1779-1852), Thomas(1781-1863), and Charles(1786-1848).    

1807 Thomas Callaby Marries Jane Eyres

Thomas Callaby(1781-1863) married Jane Eyres(1783-1872) on February 2, 1807 in Swaffham, Norfolk. 

Norfolk is the eastern most  province of England. It is noted for good farmland, but the industrial revolution continued strong and would be in full tilt when Queen Victoria ascended the throne in 1837. This changed the face of farming. It disrupted the lifestyle of Norfolk’s farming community, never to be the same again. The small farmer was being pressed out, the big farms were taking over.

Jane Eyers (1783-1872)
Rebecca Laycock Collection

These were years of massive population growth in the western world. If you were lucky maybe half or two thirds of the children lived into adulthood. Thomas Callaby was a farmer like his father before him, or as the census listed him, an agricultural laborer, as were the majority of the rural population of Norfolk in the 19th century. He and his wife were  illiterate as they “signed” the marriage register with a cross. Only the larger populations had schools and it wasn’t until 1880 that England had compulsory education. 

New inventions in farm equipment pressed harder and harder on the small peasant farmers. Reapers, planters, steam tractors, and combines were seen in the big fields. Who could afford equipment like that? It was either work for the ‘Man’ or find a way out. One way out was to find work in the city. Another way was to cross the Atlantic Ocean.

For Thomas and Jane three of their eight children did not reach adulthood. 

The family lived in Narborough where Maria Callaby and her siblings were born. They had eight children in seventeen years: Susan(1807-1809), Mary(1809- ), Elizabeth(1811-1892), Richard(1814-1896), Maria(1816-1888), Sophia(1818-1912), Ann(1822-1836), and Ellen(1824-1829)

Maria Callaby

Maria was baptized in Narborough Catholic Church. She was one of the lucky ones to live a full life. Times were hard for the Callabys, but growing up one would just assume that this is the way life was. These girls were in training for the hardships of life in their times, and there would be plenty. A person does not always want to see what lies ahead, but rather take it as it comes.                         

Maria’s father, Thomas Callaby, died in 1863. Nine years later Jane died in 1872. Maria would be long gone by this time. They are buried in Narborough.

Some say Norfolk had the best farming methods in the  world, others claimed that Germany surpassed them. Either way, many of them were coming to America! They would bring spouses or meet them at the mystical valley of the gods where the soil was black and deep, a place called Oregon. Farmers were coming to Oregon.

Maria grew up in Narborough. She had to have been a good girl, for she was a very generous and gracious woman. Her sisters Mary and Elizabeth were 6 and 4 years older  and would have been like mothers to her. She learned a lot from her big sisters. Then there were her little sisters Sophia, Ann and Ellen. Maria in turn taught her younger sisters many things. This was expected and Maria undoubtedly liked helping them learn to become productive women. They all shared a room. Maria loved her sisters. But life was hard in those years in Norfolk. The population had increased, but the work had not. Farmers struggled to make ends meet. Maria’s precious sisters Ann and Ellen died at ages 14 and 15, an unbearable grief. 

Norfolk, England, Places of Interest

Maria’s Brother Richard

Maria’s brother Richard was two years older. Richard broke away from farming and ended up driving cab in Cambridge. He also engaged in a vicious animal fighting business, pitting dogs against dogs as well as other types of animals. A very sadistic and cruel sport, but legal. The flip side of Richard shows him as an ‘old man’ jumping into the river to save a drowning woman; forget the fact that he couldn’t swim! He ended up needing saving himself! Maria’s second baby would be named Richard. The Callaby families all lived  near the Swaffham area.

1835 William Baldra Marries Maria Callaby

William Baldra, son of James Boldero(1774-1837) and Jane Isgate(1787-1823), married  Ann Chapman on May 4, 1834, but she became ill and died within the year. William wasn’t a man to let this get him down, and when Maria Callaby, a young 18 year old beauty at church, fetched his eye, he married her on November 8, 1835 at St. Clement Church in Terrence. They settled in Narborough.

The changing times were difficult for William. He understood the traditional farms of the day, where families shared the farm with other families and marketing was local and simple. The big farms were requiring management with education, they were shipping food around the nation and running big business practices as was fitting in the new industrial age. Even so, Norfolk was a leader in new methods of land conservation and rejuvenation with fertilizers.

William understood horse and plow farming, crop rotation to renew soil, and good drainage. But with the new corporate farms there was the national market to contend with, transportation to coordinate,  and expensive land reclamation as well as expensive equipment.

It was the age of the conglomerate farms, the little guy being pressed out.

William was not trained for these kinds of challenges. He was illiterate like his father and grandfather before him. He signed his marriage certificate with an ‘X’. Up until now a farmer did not need to learn reading and writing. William and Maria’s children would be educated though, but in a far away place.

Maria too was illiterate and signed her name with a mark. Her brother Richard had gone to school but at the time peasant girls learned a trade or worked in the fields. She may have trained as a seamstress, but most certainly she would have worked in the fields. At age 18, Maria had landed her man. William knew farming, agriculture was in his blood. Food would be on the table. No more dolls for Maria, she was going to be a married woman!

1836 Hudson Bay Company

But there was this Canada/America thing William started harping about. Maybe that is why he married so quickly the second time, to have a wife to take with him to the new land, a land flowing with milk and honey. Opportunities. Wealth. But for Maria, change. Lots of changes. And challenges.

For William and Maria Baldra, Norfolk would no longer be their future. They would adapt on another continent, in another culture. They would be stepping off the edge of the world that they knew.

William was hearing more and more news about North America and the expansive opportunities there. The Hudson Bay Company was recruiting farmers. A business strategy of the Hudson Bay Company was to have their settlements to be more self-supporting. It was costly to ship in all the needed goods when much of it could be farmed at the location. It would save the company big money and peasant farmers were available for the task. The HBC recruited able agriculturalists from the Norfolk area, men that knew how to farm. This could be William’s big chance. What future was there in Norfolk?  Work in the factories? He was a farmer. Besides, there was the glory of the adventure!

William and Maria talked. She was the typical submissive wife of her time, but the idea of leaving family, home, and familiarity behind was disturbing. She knew how to get along in Norfolk, but what would the new country offer? Would they have a home there?  Friends? No family for sure. Who would help her with the birth of her children? Who could she talk to? Would there be a church like her church? She had heard that The Hudson Bay Company was a man’s world. Their forts in Canada would be fit for slobs if it weren’t for good women to run the place. HBC recruited men with wives. Still, William knew what he was about. He was older and wiser, right?

William listened carefully to The Hudson Bay Company representative. He was assured that his type of farming would be in demand and useful in the new country. The HBC needed old school farmers to run their agricultural farms on their outlying forts running east to west from the Hudson Bay to the Columbia River. Perhaps William already had his eye on Oregon when he signed up with HBC or maybe it was on the HBC ship where men started telling him about the possibilities of farming in Oregon. The Prince Rupert IV, the ship William and Maria sailed the Atlantic in, had serviced the Pacific Northwest for years and the hands were well familiar with Oregon shores. William was all ears when it came to talk of Oregon. Could there really be a place with better farming then Norfolk?

Oregon was an almost mystical land where the weather was pleasant and the farming land plentiful. Land, once abundant in Norfolk, had been fenced off and there was now not enough for a young man to start a farm and bring up a family.  At some point Oregon became William’s dream. Talk was starting to circulate that there was a valley there with soil a mile deep! But William was headed to the cold regions of Red River, Manitoba, Canada. He had never experienced the kind of cold that was ahead. Fourty below? Worrisome.

William signed a legal contract with the Hudson Bay Company with his “X”, a commitment likely for 5-9 years. There was lots of excitement as they were planning and packing, William seeing the treasure at the end of the rainbow, Maria wondering what would become of the baby she now carried. There would be many tears as they made their final goodbyes. Yes, final goodbyes, and everyone knew it. People crossing the Atlantic rarely returned.

1836 Narborough to London

Sailing vessels of this era were not the safest travel. Some 72 ships were lost at sea in the 19th century. They needed wind but all too often there was more wind then they could handle.But the Hull Steamer on the Red Sea presented little danger, low winds. And the steamer didn’t use sails.

In late May or early June of 1836, with goodbyes said, William and Maria had to travel about 40 miles to King’s Lynn to board the steamer traveling  out of Hull going to London. This would be the last they ever saw of Narborough in the province of Norfolk. Maria was about four months pregnant. They would have traveled on foot or by wagon. Maybe a family member assisted them in the old family wagon. Many walked.

By 1836 England had cleaned up the roads for travelers, extinguishing much of the threat of the highwayman. Hudson Bay Company records show that William and Maria were transported by steamer from King’s Lynn to London. In 19th century England roads were kept up by the county, each county requiring the residents to donate a few days a year to road maintenance. Many farmers objected to this since they didn’t use the roads very much. Turnpikes were used to collect tolls on many of the roads to help pay for its upkeep. At least this leg of their long trip to America was relatively short and safe. The Baldras would not have had a lot to offer thieves anyway. They packed light, just a bag or two. With little money they camped at night along the road in the open air, or perhaps they were able to find lodging with family. The food fare was prepared from their own farming efforts, dried meats and fish, and bread.

The roads were dirty. Maria could smell the dust. The there was the horse manure. Nobody was picking up the manure. It is said that London was swimming in it; their streets were afloat with disease and plague. But the Baldras traveled on rural roads where traffic was relatively light, at least until nearing King’s Lynn, a thriving metropolis.

Rain, sun, fog, what? They would have made about 20 miles a day, the complete trip to King’s Lynn taking just a few days. 

Maria thought of the baby often. William thought of the trials and difficulties ahead, but mostly it was just getting through the day at hand. When he signed up with HBC there was an understanding that they would be landing in Canada at York Factory on the Hudson Bay, a place that had been ravaged by some unknown disease going on 3 years. Three of York Factory’s 20 inhabitants were dead and others were disabled for life. What in the world had he gotten them into?  Well, there was no turning back now. They had it to do. What was left in Norfolk anyway? Nothing. This was a one way ticket. Who knows, maybe this Oregon he had heard talk about might be in their future. Soil black, rich and deep. What else could a man ask for? Maria was wondering if there would be a woman in sight for the birth of her baby. No doctor for sure. She had never had a baby before. HBC assured them that there would be other couples joining them on their journey and at their destination of Red River in Manitoba, Canada, near the southern tip of Lake Winnipeg.

It probably worried Maria that William was tense and nervous, but he was also confident. If half of what he promised was even remotely true there was indeed a pot of gold at the end of this rainbow! Did she really believe that? No matter, she would go where her man went. She had landed her man and now she had it to do.

King’s Lynn was a growing port city in the 19th century. Imports and exports were even coming from North America. Along with progress, crime grew.The streets were smelly and dirty, as was the norm for 19th century cities. In 1832 an epidemic of cholera broke out. It was a rough place and a big city to rural travelers, but William counted himself capable of handling a rough lot. Seaport towns usually attracted people of all types, sin of all types. 

They boarded the Hall Steamer at King’s Lynn, and headed down the River Great Ouse that took them into the septic Bay of Wash, and from there into the North Sea to London On the Thames River. The North Sea  provided fresh, clean air, at least until they hit London.

June, 1836, London

After a few days on the North Sea they headed up the Thames River and into port, at The Pool just below the London Bridge, where the deeper water could accommodate ships. The streets of London were a horrible stench and the filth washed down the Thames on the way to the sea. Animal manure, human waste of all sorts, and even dead bodies were the order of the day. Systems of sewers and safe public drinking water didn’t come into practice until later in the century.The city was laden with crime and sordid deeds. This was no place for a couple of country bumpkins like William and Maria, although William may have found a fascination with the taverns. Cholera epidemics were a regular part of the London life due to polluted drinking water, a concept they did not understand at the time. Just to travel through London was risky.

The HBC had purchased and built sailing vessels for their trading ventures across the Atlantic, one being the Prince Rupert IV. It transported cargo and people. Mostly cargo. They were set up to deliver goods across the Atlantic into Canada and North America, not furnish fine lodging for travelers. Sailing the  sea in the 18th and 19th century, it was risky business for sure. The good thing for William and Maria is they did not have to go through the degradation of most immigrants going to America. No big lines to be checked by health inspectors, no huddling in the cargo hold with hundreds of potentially diseased and infested people, rats, vomit and you name it. However, the Prince Rupert IV was no luxury liner. It was no doubt rat infested. All sorts of vermin thrived on board. The sailors could be vulgar. Maria was not the only woman on board, there were at least 14 women with their husbands.

That had to be some comfort for Maria. They were traveling with eleven other couples that were listed as farm laborers. A small area of maybe 10 by 10 feet in the cargo hold would probably have to suffice. Chamber pots, lice, sea sickness and darkness accompanied them down there. If the weather was stormy there was no coming on deck. In fact HBC did not give open privileges for their travelers to wander the decks. The ship’s log showed 12 men with their wives heading to North America.  Included was William Boldero with his wife.

Captain Carey was on board with his family. His family had cabin privileges, listed as cabin passengers, whereas the farm laborers were listed as laborer passengers. Big difference. Captain Carey had been hired by HBC to oversee the Red River Experimental Farm project. George Simpson, colonial governor for HBC would later write that Carey had flaws as an overseer. These flaws undoubtedly contributed to the trouble William would find himself in while working at the Red River farm. But to be fair, one might wonder if whisky was in the mix where Willliam was concerned. William did indeed have a hankering for home brewed whisky.

The crossing would be over 3,000 miles and take about 90 days.

June 25, 1836, The Atlantic Crossing

The Prince Rupert IV, captained by John C. Grave, left port and sailed from Lower Hope in the Thames River estuary on June 25, 1836, en route to the Hudson Bay, via the Atlantic crossing. Sails were increased. The Baldras watched as England disappeared in the haze. Good riddance.

Maria may have wondered if she would die here in the Atlantic, perched on top of the world, heading to its outer rim. Why not? The days were endless, the nights never stopped. Day. Night. It was all the same. The rocking and tipping of the boat, tumbling about in the rough waters. She tossed in her bed. Bed? On the blanket on a board. The ship was full of cargo, and lower class passengers, the farm laborers, had to wiggle themselves out some space. Perhaps the HBC ships didn’t have the rat infestations that other ships had, since their livelihood depended solely on their cargo. Maria could hardly stand up to move. Would they never get used to the rocking of the sea? Would they vomit to their deaths? They were farmers, not seafarers. No doubt Maria wondered if God was even there. And yet, if He was not, there was no hope whatsoever. He must be there. Yes, He was there.  

William seemed to know what day it was but Maria just survived. Would the baby live? And if they ever landed, which was doubtful, what about that mysterious plague at their destination, York Factory? What was to become of them? She had heard many stories of Norfolk people lost at sea. This could not happen to her. There was the baby. She would fight for the baby! There was God, there was the baby, and there was the sea. Stories had not done justice to the miseries of this crossing. If there was no God it was just her and the baby. No, this thought was dark and black and to be rejected utterly. 

All William’s promises seemed to blow away in the winds of the sea, seep into the darkness of the cargo hold. And yet, there was hope, she must tell herself over and over. She was in a fox hole, all right, but life awaited her. She would live it because that was all there was to do. She would make a place for her baby. Maria was not aware of sails going up or sails coming down. She just was.

One Atlantic traveler’s journal had the ominous entry: “Darkness was falling as we rode the wintry seas, the lights of Ireland fading to become fond memories. The Maud was creaking, tossing, lashed by the wind and rain, and the sea-sickness gripped us, as our stomachs ached with pain. The feeling it was awful as you tried to keep your head, as you rolled about that bloody boat, you wished that you were dead. Murphy in his agony belched and cried and roared, ‘Get me absolution quick’ says he, ‘for I’m jumping overboard!’”

William paid attention to the workings of the ship as much as he could, though moving about was restricted for him too. It had interesting points, but the sea was not where he belonged. He belonged to the soil. He was a farmer. His father was a farmer and his father before that. He would farm until he dropped. He knew nothing else. Just farming. He had told Maria that this would all come to an end, but would it really? This could be the end for them. So be it then. He had tried to do something different, had tried to make a new start. After all, what was left in Norfolk? There was a bed at least. And a peasant’s house… but no future. He had to hold fast to that last thought. He had done the right thing, leaving Norfolk. Yes, and he would make a place out there somewhere for Maria and the baby. William and Maria were among hundreds of thousands of people who sailed the Atlantic in search of a new start. It was an immigration like the world had never known. It was full of heartache and joy. Love and loss. It was the age of the American pioneer.

Was it day or night, Maria wondered. Did it really matter? Was not this whole voyage just night? How could a person continue to vomit when there was nothing left inside? Was it wise to eat at all? She must eat, for the baby. She must not give up. Was it all just a dream?

There was God, the baby, and the sea. Nothing else. She felt alone, isolated. Nothing but water on the horizon. She could barely remember her name, why bother? The air tasted salty. She breathed.

Commentary on the Crossing

by Ronald Guenther 

“In the days of sailing vessels, there were three classes, first class which was super, second class which was pretty good and then a class called steerage or in slang, below decks. Those people in steerage never saw any fresh air except for what came through the port holes. There was no deck to get to. Sea sickness must have been horrible as was other illnesses, they crowded four to six people into a single room. When I took the ship to Germany as a student, we went second class. That was 1959 to 1963 and there was no way for us to get to the first class area and also no way for us to intermingle on their decks. I remember the first day out, they had a big ball and we all dressed up. There was one girl who really caught my eye, she was beautiful and the belle of the ball. Then I did not see her for four or five days and I wondered what had happened to her. One time I went by sick bay. There were about three dozen passengers outside of sick bay. They were all suffering from sea sickness and there was nothing that could be done for it. The men were all unshaven, unkempt, in pajamas and various stages of dress and undress, the women were uncombed, in night gowns and various stages of undress, they all had a greenish hue to their skin, they all felt like they were about to die and in fact, I have been told that such people wished they could die. The funny thing is, as soon as you get out onto solid ground, you are completely cured.

“So, here is how it was when my father in law came over in 1905. He was on a steamship and they had eliminated the below decks class. It was now the 3rd class. They did have a little place, more like a covered patio where you could get some fresh air. He said that he felt rather queasy himself as the days went on. For my crossing, the trip lasted ten days. For him, it lasted just over two weeks. There was no table where they ate. Instead, at meal time, this big giant of a man came out carrying a huge cauldron of spaghetti or soup or whatever, he wore an undershirt, he was sweating and the sweat was dripping into the food, but nobody worried about that, after all, that was third class, a step above steerage. He said he held out for just over a week and then he got so sick he wanted to die. He eventually did reach Ellis Island and was so sick that he landed in the hospital. He was not alone. Despite that, 3rd class was above steerage, the trip lasted about two weeks as opposed to forty days. It is really a wonder that there were ever any immigrants at all. They were really made of stern stuff. I 

“When I happened to walk by sick bay, there was that girl that I said had been the belle of the ball as the ship sailed out of the harbor. She looked as horrible as the rest. Her skin was green, her hair uncombed, only half way dressed. In this condition, you really do not care who sees you or anything. You just want to die. I avoided going by sick bay from then on and I never saw her again. She was not one of the students. In second class there were almost nine hundred passengers and of those about 250 students. In first class there were something like 21 passengers. They all ate at the captain’s table, they all had to dress for dinner, it was all very formal. There was one girl in first class. This had been a graduation present from her grandmother, I still remember that. She was 21 or 22 and really felt left out. The youngest person in first class after her was about fifty five or sixty. She got special permission from the captain to be allowed to come into the second class section and to get there, she had to be escorted by a steward. To get back, she contacted a steward and that one brought her back to the first class. There was absolutely no mixing, but she was a special case. They also disembarked differently from the rest of us. That is just the way it was. By this time, there was no third class, that had been eliminated. Maybe on the huge ships like the USS United States or the Queen Elizabeth or something, but ships like ours did not have a third class.”

August, 1836, Hudson Bay Ice

Hudson Bay Company ships were designed for encountering ice. They were relatively small and could maneuver in tight places. The rounded bottoms could make for some tricky sailing and sometimes the ships would move almost in a sidewards fashion. They tended to roll a lot in wavy seas, making sea sickness even worse. Ocean currents brought huge amounts of ice from the north that caused problems at the entrance to the Hudson Bay. Normally, by August, ice was not a problem. Not so in 1836.

At last, William told Maria that their trip was coming to an end. Only it did not end. They were iced in at the entrance to the Hudson Bay from August 23 until September 19. This was treacherous in the extreme. Not only did they have to endure extra weeks on board in cold windy weather, the ship had to break free of the ice without damage, no small feat with giant ice chunks mulling the sides of the ship during the breakup. The clanging of the great blocks of ice vibrated the ship, thumping and echoing in the ears.The cold ice water permeated the holds of the ship.

The two ships accompanying the Prince Rupert IV, the Eagle and the Esquimaux, were badly damaged and the Esquimaux was abandoned after reaching shore.

September, 1836, 

York Factory

Finally, they landed at the mouth of the Hayes River, the location of York Factory, on the southwestern shore of the Hudson Bay. Maria was in her sixth month of pregnancy. The Hudson Bay and its tributaries provided a good transporting system for the fur trade. Trappers and Indians would bring their goods to York Factory and other outposts for trading. Furs were brought in from the York Factory Express. From York Factory they were shipped to England to be sold. The fur market was huge! Every woman wanted fur.
                

Inquiry to Hudson Bay Company

In response to an inquiry by Donald Guenther, Hudson Bay Company supplied the following information:

Thank you for your interest in the Hudson’s Bay Company Archives (HBCA), and your email regarding your relative, William Baldra, and his employment with the HBC from 1836-1841.

I did a search of our records for the last name Baldra and did not get any results; however, I did manage to find a number of records and references to a man whose last name was variously spelled Boldero, Baldero, Balderow, and Baldro, whose dates and locations match up quite well with the short passage that you supplied. I have summarized these preliminary findings below to help you assess whether this is indeed the same man.

Engagement and travel from England:

–          Servants’ engagement register (B.239/u/1, #139): William Boldero from Terrington, Norfolk, engaged as a farm labourer in 1836 (also a John Boldero from St. Peter’s, Walpole, Norfolk, who may or may not be related)

–          Ship’s log, Prince Rupert IV (C.1/929, fo. 2): William Boldero + wife Maria listed as passengers from Gravesend (England) to York Factory, July 1836 (also John Boldero and his wife)

Red River Experimental Farm (at Upper Fort Garry):

–          Northern Department district statements (B.239/l/8-9): William Boldero listed as a servant for 1837 & 1838

–          Extracts from registers of baptisms in Rupert’s Land (E.4/1a, fos. 148 & 156): records of baptisms of Thos. William Baldero (28 Dec. 1837) and Richard Baldrow (16 Sept. 1838), sons of William and Maria, Red River Settlement

–          Northern Department district statements (B.239/l/10): W. Boldero listed under “General Changes – Servants” as being transferred to the Columbia [District] (1839)

–          (Letter from George Simpson to Governor and Committee, 8 July 1839 (D.4/106, fos.62-63): “I have found it necessary to remove four of the most troublesome Families, who have this season been sent to the Columbia.”)

Columbia District (Nisqually/Puget Sound Agricultural Company)

–          Letter from Donald Mactavish to W.G. Smith (Secretary), 5 May 1855 (B.223/b/41, fo. 78-78d): Baldero mentioned as a labourer whose term had expired in 1841 who was allotted land and a house to be built at Nisqually, abandoned by 1842 or 1843. Later, Baldero mentioned as a member of a suit launched in 1854 by [Mr.] Otchin against Dr. McLoughlin, Dr. Barclay, Dr. Tolmie, and Richard Lane (all of the Puget Sound Agricultural Company) for non-fulfillment of the terms of the land agreement in the 1840s.

–          Letter from Donald Mactavish to George Simpson, 21 July 1855 (B.223/b/41, fo. 83d): dismissal of the 1855 trial of Baldro v. Tolmie and others in the PSAC by Judge Olney discussed, including an appeal by Baldro to the Oregon Supreme Court.

 Sincerely, 

Samantha Booth

Archival Studies Intern

Hudson’s Bay Company Archives, Manitoba Archives

                                                                     

Spending some few months at York Factory, the Baldras were anxious to be on their way, leaving the strange plague behind. They escaped it unscathed! Maria had her first son soon after the Atlantic crossing at York Factory on December 25, 1836. She named him Thomas, after her father and brother. She wished her mother could have been there to help. Or her older sister Elizabeth. Oh, what she wouldn’t give to have Elizabeth with her. 

Looking out on the Hudson Bay it seemed cold and lifeless, its steel gray waters presenting the harsh reality of the region. It represented the path where they had come from but would not return. Maria was thankful for the other women close at hand, wives of the HBC farmers.

1837, York Factory to Fort Garry

It is believed that the Baldras left York Factory for Fort Garry in late spring or early summer. It was up the Hayes River several hundred miles on a difficult  route. The river passages were dangerous with steep rises in elevation. Regularly the men would walk the shores, reigning in the boat with ropes through rough waters. They would pack their boats around unnavigable passages.That brought the Baldras to Norway House. From there it was another three hundred miles across Lake Winnipeg, north to south. The lake freezes in winter with about one meter of ice. Even with the ice gone, it was chilly crossing the lake, and wind chill factors were felt. Then it was down the Red River to Red River Experimental Farm at Upper Fort Garry, their home for the next two or three years.

Following river routes were HBC outposts or forts. Each fort was a key point in the fur trade of the HBC. A fort consisted of a store, warehouses, shops, stockades and a bastion. There were also dwellings, outbuildings, agricultural lands, and pasture.

1837-39, Hudson Bay Company Employment

Red River

William and Maria Baldra worked as farming wards for the Hudson Bay Company at Red River Experimental Farm at Upper Fort Garry in Manitoba, Canada from 1837 to 1839. The Hudson Bay Company was probably the biggest landowner in the world. They were an English company, but strangely it was started by two Frenchmen, Radisson and des Groseilliers. In 1670 Prince Rupert granted the company a charter to the vast watershed of the Hudson Bay. They expanded west and in 1821 merged with the North West Company, extending their borders from coast to coast, connected by The York Factory Express, a trail crossing Canada east to west and terminating in Oregon Territory. The company planned and expanded, always ready to adapt to the changes of the time, and the HBC exists to this present day. They are one of the oldest retail businesses on the planet.

The Red River farm was specializing in growing flax, hemp, wool, and tallow.This is what they came from Norfolk, England, to do. Export to England. Revenue back to the farm. It was an extensive farming operation in a cold climate. It was doomed to failure. Some of the men, including William, grumbled at the way it was run. 

Back in Norfolk a man by the name of Coke was demonstrating wonderful new farming and breeding techniques, but outside of Norfolk it wasn’t being heeded. It is possible that William knew much more about farming than Captain Carey, who was managing the Red River project. This may have been a point of contention. The Baldras were being sent west.

Here at Red River, Maria had a second son, Richard, on August 21, 1838. Both Thomas and Richard were baptized at Fort Garry.

Maria processed foods and did chores as well as care for her sons. William worked long hours, caring for the crops in summer and keeping them warm in winter, as well as caring for company goods. The company in general was shot full of strife, trade feuds, and moral problems due to a high energy business, but they prospered due to the diligent service of its workers. The hours worked and distances traveled by HBC workers took its toll.

Ultimately, four men were singled out as troublemakers, and William was one of them. It is noted that Captain Carey ‘did not manage the people well’ according to Governor Simpson, so the fault may not have altogether been William. At the same time, consumption of alcohol was reported to be a problem at the fort, and you can be sure that William was in on that.

1839, Going West, York Factory Express

William was looking for the chance to go further west, toward Oregon. The chance came in 1839.The Baldras would travel north across Lake Winnipeg to join the HBC traveling company at Norway House en route west.  Maria would have looked out upon the rivers and lakes and mountains and pondered where she was, where she was going or might go. Would she ever see her homeland again? Probably not. No, she would not. Her faith would have to carry her through as it did in the old country at her little church. So far away, a lifetime ago. How simple life was then. What would become of her two boys? They could make a home in Oregon maybe. But first she had to get them there… alive. Little Thomas was three, Richard age one.

After three years at Red River William was ready and Maria wondered if maybe it would be warmer in Oregon country. It couldn’t be colder, could it? And the trip, could it be worse than the Atlantic crossing? They would travel on the York Factory Express, a river trail connecting up with rivers running east and west. It started at York Factory on the Hudson Bay and ended on the Columbia River at Fort Vancouver. If you started on the Columbia and came east it was called the Columbia Express. Forty five to seventy men would travel the route in a group, one group starting in the east and the other in the west. They would meet halfway. On their trip they would pick up furs for the company and deliver supplies to the outposts.

These rivers were cold and dangerous. It taxed Maria’s strength. Packing around falls and rapids was very difficult, and who ever called these trails? All this with a baby. Now they had a baby and a toddler! Nonetheless, she would go with William. There was a place out there for them, maybe this Oregon that William seemed obsessed with was the end of the rainbow. William and Maria traveled about 2500 miles in 90 days, from Red River to Fort Vancouver on the York Factory Express. Starting in June, they arrived in October of 1839 having traveled at an incredible speed of 26 miles per day. This is twice the speed of the Oregon Trail travelers! 

The HBC’s boats were dubbed York boats. They were nine and a half meters long and nine meters at the keel with an inside depth of one meter. They were flat bottomed for shallow waters and could carry three tons. The oars were six meters long with 6-8 oarsmen per boat. The oarsmen would stand to push with the oar and sit to pull. Stand and sit. Push and pull. Row day in and day out. They used poles in shallow waters and small sails as part of the rigging. These boats were made to haul furs!

The Baldra boys watched the rowers, back and forth, back and forth, like a machine. They were mesmerized by the repetition of the action. It became like a sedative. Maria made sure they stayed warm and dry. Even in June the temperatures were cool. By August it was hot.

From Norway House it was up the North Saskatchewan River and toward Fort Edmonton. They had 2-5 York boats with them. Oftentimes they had help from Indians, whom they paid. When not on the river they walked. Maria thought constantly of the boys. William helped but he had other work to do too, so the weight of the boys’ safety fell mainly on her. On the Atlantic she only had to think of herself surviving. Now, with the boys, she could no longer think of herself. Not ever again. She would live for them. She would help them make a place in this wilderness. If she could get them through alive. This was a man’s journey, and a rare womans, but children?

The river was glacier fed and ice cold. These waters oftentimes brought death. To go down in the Saskatchewan could mean death,  almost certain death for a child. After a few days the boys seemed to live in a stupor. Maria might have had an Indian backpack to carry the one year old. Mornings came before nights ended and days ran together. Would it ever end? Would they make it alive? Eat, sleep, travel. It was like a race. More profits for HBC.

Maria thought less and less of Norfolk.

Still, there was something almost mystical in the clean, translucent air. The fragrance of the conifers. The howling of the wolves. The burnished steel sky. The mingling with the various Indian groups. This was the new reality for Maria.

Athabascan Pass
Fort Edmonton offered a brief respite and maybe a bunk, then came Fort Assiniboine. But another river waited, a treacherous river, the Athabasca River, through the famous high mountain Athabascan Pass in the northern Rockies. The pass was a critical connection between Rupetrt’s Land and the Columbia River area on the fur trade route, connecting Jaspar House on the Athabasca River with Boat Encampment, and was part of the York Factory Express.

The Athabascan Pass marked the Continental Divide, where on one side the rivers flow west and on the other side east. The nights were cold as ice, even in summer. The trail was rugged and they traveled it by horseback. It can only be wondered at how Maria survived these conditions with baby Richard in tow. Maria no doubt had an Indian style pack for the baby, but how did little three year old Thomas fare? William must have carried him.

Maria diligently watched her children. She believed God would answer her prayers. Somewhere there must be a place that Maria could rest her weary head and call home, a place of their own. Darest she wish for such a thing? She was one of several women in the party, and her hands were full with the two toddlers. It is not likely that the other women could help her, they had their own problems. All the men would have generously helped her where they could. Women of the early west were few and highly valued. But they had their own heavy burdens and could only deal with their own problems. 

Maria was 21 years old and had a strong constitution to be sure. After the nightmare and wonder of the pass they came to Boat Encampment.

Boat Encampment was located in what is now British Columbia and north of the ‘Big Bend’ of the Columbia River.

They boated down the Columbia River and passed through HBC outposts Fort Colvile and Fort O Kanogan. And finally Fort Nez Perces in Walla Walla, with each fort offering only a short respite. They arrived at Fort Vancouver in September of 1839.

1839, Wapato Island, Columbia River

On October 17, 1839, William and Maria and the boys boated down the Columbia to Wapato Island, also called Sauvie Island, on the Columbia River near where the Willamette River feeds in. They worked on the company’s dairy farm. William milked cows.

Sauvie Island is one of the largest river islands in America at over 24,000 acres. It was here that they were visited by the famous Joseph Meek, who trapped with Jim Bridger and Jedidiah Smith. Meek’s report was that the Baldras, with their scant provisions, were very generous. Ah, yes, with Maria’s hard life you would not be surprised to find a generous person, refined in the fire. He further reported that though the supply was poor and scanty, the Baldras, with great kindness, shared with them dried salmon and sea bread. Meek added ducks and swans. Meek had been living on boiled wheat, so this was sumptuous! 

For Maria, the climate was more agreeable than northeastern Canada. Women were few and Maria was challenged to keep a semblance of cleanliness  and order with the rough hewn men. No wonder William brought her along! It was on Wapatoo Island that their third child, Mary Jane, was born in 1840. Maria was assisted by a Chinook Indian Woman in the birth, also known as flatheads due to the board used to shape the heads of their babies. The Baldra family worked the dairy on Wapato Island for about a year.

The Chinook people of the Multnomah tribe, a group that traded with the white man, built cedarwood houses and hefty boats to move on the Columbia River. In 1829 they were nearly wiped out with some kind of plague they called the auge, but their descendants are still found in Oregon today.

Joe Meek’s Politics

Joe Meek(1810 –1875) struck up a friendship with William on Sauvie Island and Joe may have mentioned the Hillsboro area as good farming land. Meek was influential in the time leading up to the Provisional Government (1843-1849) that gave big gobs of land, unheard of amounts of land, 640 acres. Meek had even gone to Washington to represent the pioneers of the area.Then, in 1850, when a permanent government came in, they decided they would have a riot on their hands if they didn’t let everybody keep their 640. Meek and Baldra ended up with 640 acres adjacent to each other in Hillsboro. 

Both Meek and Baldra liked to tip the bottle, as did many men of that time in the West. The heavy drinking gave rise to the Temperance Movement of  the 1840’s, made up largely of women trying to subdue the riotous drinking  of the men. 

Joining with another mountain man, Meek and his third wife, a Nez Perce Indian named  Virginia, guided one of the first wagon trains to cross the Rockies on the Oregon Trail, but Meek recognized that the golden era of the free trappers was ending, plus, he was getting old.  He hunkered down in the Willamette Valley of western Oregon, became a farmer, and actively encouraged other Americans to join him. In 1847, Meek led a delegation to Washington, D.C., asking for military protection from Indian attacks and territorial status for Oregon. Though he arrived “ragged, dirty, and lousy,” Meek became something of a celebrity in the capitol. Easterners relished the boisterous good humor Meek showed in proclaiming himself the “envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary from the Republic of Oregon to the Court of the United States.” Congress responded by making Oregon an official American territory and Meek became a U.S. marshal in Oregon Territory.

Meek was powerful in the Champoeg Meetings of 1843, where he was elected as sheriff. He served as an elected official in the Provisional Legislature of Oregon. Joe Meek was a good friend to have.

William Cushing(1823-1875) traveled throughout Oregon, journaling the life and times that he encountered. He was a  young educated son of a ship owner, a Harvard graduate. In his travels through Oregon country trading, visiting, and looking over future business opportunities, Cushing visited some Tualatin farms, including the Meeks. The following is an excerpt of a night he spent with Joe Meek in Joe’s little cabin: 

William Cushing’s Journal, Saturday, August 17th, 1844:

“Found that Capt. Couch had been gone up country on business and would not probably return for a week or two ~ Everything was quiet here & affairs going on very well, tho’ business was rather dull ~ In a day or two I got rather tired of doing nothing & Saturday the 17th took a start of the Tualitian Plaines, a part of the country situated on the west side of the Willamette and about 30 miles from the river ~ Joe Meek, a noted old mountain hunter, now High Sheriff of Oregon, & who has a farm at the plains was my companion ~ after a fine ride of four or five hours, principally through thick forest, with small plains scattered along at irregular distances, & over a rough mountain road, we reached the edge of the plains ~ here we found a fine level country, composed of plains of eight or ten miles in breadth & skirted by oak & pine timber ~ It being nearly sundown we did not stop anywhere but pushed on & arrived at Meeks about 8 o’ clock~ I passed the night here in a miserable log cabin – with a plank for my bed & one blanket for bedding. The hut contains but one room, occupied this night by Meek, his Indian wife & four children, all of whom by the way slept in one bed & two hired men & myself, who had the floor for our portion ~ Notwithstanding the peculiarity of the situation to me, I had a fine night’s sleep & awoke the next morning very much refreshed.”

1841 Fort Nisqually

In 1841, William transferred from the HBC to the Puget Sound sister company AC. In November of 1841 Chief Factor James Douglas led a group to the Puget Sounds Agricultural  Company farms at Fort Nisqually, in what is now DuPont, Washington, near Tacoma. It was useful for its location as a shipping port. William was running out of options with HBC and It wasn’t long before many of the families, including the Baldras, headed for Willamette River country.

1842 Dairy Creek

In 1842, William, continuing to work for the HBC/AC , went to Dairy Creek in the Tualatin area. Dairy Creek runs about eleven miles and empties into the Tualatin River near Hillsboro, Oregon. This would be another brief stay for the Baldras. William milked more cows.

A Rags to Riches, Norfolk to Oregon: The Oregon leg of their journey

1842 Baldras on Their Own Farm

By 1842 the Baldras had parted ways with the HBC. William had milked his last cow for them! They were farming in the Hillsboro area in the lush Willamette Valley where Mary Jane and her two brothers were raised. Mary Jane was one of the first white girls born in this region. Here they took up farming on 20 acres.They harvested wheat by hand, and Maria helped. This is the way it was done in this place at this time. It was all legal according to the provisional government leanings.

They had come home to Oregon. Norfolk was a long way away; Oregon and its rich soil were here and now. This was surely a farmer’s paradise! Old style farming, the kind William knew. There were other Red River boys coming into the area in about 1844 and drinking seemed to accompany them. Some of them even brought with them Indian women, not marrying them. This was more than Reverend Griffin could handle. All sinful stuff.This was the wild west, after all. These were not tame men.

Canada thought Oregon would be theirs. They thought The Hudson Bay Company was their right of ownership to the territory, but the American pioneer movement from 1840 to 1860 was overwhelming. HBC opened it up, but the Oregon Trail was bringing Americans by the droves. The Americans would have Oregon. William and Maria and the boys would be Americans. Why not be Americans? England was in the past. Maria would be American, maybe even in her heart. But her children would be Americans through and through. William and Maria made a place in Oregon for their descendants to walk and live, and even die.

1843, Maria at Oregon’s First Camp Meeting

In July of 1843, Mrs. Baldra is listed as attending the first camp meeting on the Pacific Coast, held on the Tualatin Plains. Leading the camp meeting was Jason Lee, Gustavus Hines, H.W.K. Perkins, David Leslie, and Harvey Clarke. The camp meeting was the forerunner of the Methodist Meeting House, which was built the following year. Maria was converted.

There is a record of early Christianity in Oregon that shows that the Baldras got old trapper Joe Meek to come to Oregon’s first revival meeting. Joe got saved that day! William and Maria were a positive influence on America in many ways.

William Cushing Visits Baldras

William Cushing, on Sunday, August 18, 1844:

“Our breakfast consisted of green corn, roasted and mixed with milk, water melons & milk ~ about 9 we started for Charley McKay’s; about 1 ½ miles distant; where I got a fresh horse & then we started for church ~ Mr. Hines held forth & a more miserable discourse I never remember listening to ~After the church was over I rode home with a Mr. Baldra & Lady & took dinner~The next three days I spent riding about the plains, partly on business & partly for pleasure, visiting nearly every house on them ~ I was well received by the farmers & was quite pleased with what I saw ~The farms, generally speaking to me, seemed to be in a prosperous state. Large fields of wheat met my eye on every side. Most of the farmers have bands of cattle & horses, some containing 6 or 7~ I fell in with several very pretty girls, who with cultivation would be ornaments to any part of the world ~ but being transplanted from the Western wilds of the United States to the forests and plains of Oregon, they will probably remain as coy and shy as when I saw them ~ Still noble hearts beat beneath many a course jacket in this wilderness ~ hearts too that will ever protect the fair though frail flowers of forest & plains ~History of Hillsboro, William Cushing in love . . . ”

William and Maria Get Their 640

Likely, around 1843, when the Oregon Provisional Government was handing out 640 acres, William and Joe Meek grabbed up acreage adjacent to each other. All they had to do was live on it and make improvements for four short years. Then they owned it outright! What a country, this USA! It may have been where William was already farming the 20 acres.

Though it is uncertain exactly when William moved onto the 640 acre DLC it is certain that he had it in 1850 when the Oregon State government was established and reaffirmed what the provisional government had allotted.

Landless in Norfolk, land barons in Oregon!

As fate would have it, one of Joe Meek’s friends, Richard Wiley, purchased a piece of land off Meek’s 640 and moved in next to the Baldras.

Baldras Witness Marriage of White Wings

William and Maria stood in as witnesses to the marriage of a Cascade Indian White Wings, Betsy Slahuts, to Richard Ough in a white man’s ceremony in 1842. This is the Richard Ough who complained that the “grog” they were getting was too weak! William and Maria were becoming established as truthful and kind people in the western region.

William a Local Protector

William is recorded in the Willamette Farmer Newspaper as being a protector of his community along with a group of old trappers. These guys knew how to take care of their womenfolk.

Financial Difficulty

In spite of William acquiring his 640 acres it appears he had problems financially. Having started as a farmer, he then became a bondsman, working with Richard Wiley. R.G. Dunn reports that Baldra was “not much good at business” and “hard up, slow to pay.” Drink may have held him back from being more successful.

Still, in defense of William, it is a well known fact that farmers may not always have money, but they barter and keep food on the table. Being illiterate, his business records couldn’t have been much.

Home

The Baldras were falling in love with a whole new way of life, a life of wilderness, of hardship, of love, of challenge, of risk, of adventure. Maria was matriarch of all this! They lived in a great time, a great place. They were a big part of making America strong. They were all immigrants here. Almost 6,000 miles by land, sea, and river from Norfolk to Oregon and William and Maria were finally home. A golden sunset was illuminating their land.

A Historical Account of William Baldra

“BALDRA, WILLIAM–Born in England in 1810; came to America in 1836, and lived three years on Red River in Manitoba; came then to Oregon and settled on the Tualatin Plains, locating in 1842 three miles north west of the site of Hillsboro. Had married Maria Callaby in England in 1835. Their children are, Thomas W. and Richard C., and a daughter, now Mrs. R. E. Wiley, the later having been the first white child born in Washington County. Her birth took place August 1, 1840. Mr. Baldra was an employee of the Hudson’s Bay Company in the earlier years of his residence in America. He speaks of the Indians in Washington County in the “forties”as having been numerous, but not troublesome except by their thieving.” [History of the Willamette Valley by Herbert Lang p.599]

Baldras Take in Orphan Jane Shaw

An obituary in the Oregonian newspaper dated November 30, 1907 recorded a heartbreaking story of Jane Elizabeth Shaw, later to become Mrs. Zina W. Wood. In 1852 on the Oregon Trail her family was wiped out by cholera. Their Oregon dreams did not die though. Jane, 15 years old, survived and made it through to Washington County. There she was taken in by the Baldra family, who by now had a 12 year old daughter, Mary Jane. A big sister is a handy thing for a girl and Mary Jane now had one. Jane would teach her things of life, like Maria’s big sister had done for her. Jane Shaw had come home to Oregon!

Death of Maria Callaby Baldra

Maria lived from 1818-1888, and was believed to be a loving wife and mother. William lived from 1810-1891 and the jury is out concerning his character; he was a hard bitten, whisky drinking man of his time; nevertheless, he was a great pioneer!

Maria lived on the frontier where women worked alongside men on the farm. She also washed clothes, cooked, sewed and quilted, and tended a large garden.  Then there were the kids to take care of, and they helped with the work too. Not a lot of time for play, and a totally different lifestyle from Norfolk. Maria was a pioneer woman in every sense of the word, kind and generous. The Baldras witnessed Oregon as it became a state in 1859. They were part of it!

On Maria’s gravestone is written: “Born in Norfolk, Eng. Aged 69 yr 8 mo 10 da. God in His wisdom has recalled, The boon His love had given, And though the body moulders here, The soul issafe in heaven. Come to Oregon 1839.

Maria may have desired more of a city life, but she took on the challenge of the farm and country living and did it with class. It is believed that William is buried next to her, but there is no stone. William and Maria started in Narborough, Norfolk County, England, with nothing. They pioneered their way to Oregon and found friends and prosperity, riches that was befitting of their times. Land, horses, house ,,, they were successful beyond their wildest dreams! It was the end of the pioneer era.  The farm has passed through several hands and the land divided but the house acreage is now a historical site.

Mary Jane Baldra’s interview at age 81 (Mrs. Mary Edwards is Mary Jane Baldra). Some of the details are not correct, but the heart of her memories is wonderful:

“Many’s the time, when I was a little girl, I have sat on Doctor McLoughlin’s lap,” said Mrs. Mary Edwards of Portland. “Though he was considered a rather stern man, yet he was so kindly that children liked him. I can remember as a little girl I did not stand at all in awe of him, in spite of the fact that, as chief factor of the Hudson’s Bay Company, he had been virtual governor of the whole Oregon Country. My father, William Baidra, came out from Cambridge, England, in 1833 to serve as farmer for the Hudson’s Bay Company. My mother, whose maiden name was Marie Collaby, was also born at Cambridge. My father and mother were married there and until she came to America she had never lived away from the city. You can imagine what a change it was for a person born and reared in the city to come to the wilds of North America. My eldest brother, Thomas, was born at York Factory, in Canada. My next brother, Richard, who is now, at the age of eighty-three, in the Odd Fellows home here in Portland, was born in the Red River Country, August 21, 1838. I was born on Sauvies Island, August 1, 1840. An Indian squaw took care of mother when I was born. Doctor Barclay, the Hudson Bay doctor, attended her.

“When I was a little child my people moved to Portland. One of the first things I remember was attending a wedding in Captain Crosby’s house. Captain Nathaniel Crosby founded the town of Milton, near the mouth of Willamette Slough, in 1846. Two years before this, just at the head of Sauvies Island, General M. M. McCarver and Peter Burnett founded the town of Linnton, while just across from the lower end of Sauvies Island, where the lower mouth of the Willamette flows into the Columbia, Captain Knighton started the town of St. Helens, in 1845. Captain Nathaniel Crosby was a Cape Cod man. He came to Oregon  in command of the old bark Toulon, which came up the river to the village of Portland in 1845. He unloaded his cargo at what is now the foot of Washington Street and sent up the goods to Oregon City in  small  boats. When he built his house it was the finest in Portland, the  lumber having been brought around the Horn from Maine. It was a story and a half house with dormer windows. It was built on Second Street, but was later moved to Fourth Street between Yamhill and Taylor.

“When I was a little girl I was a great favorite with all of the sea captains. Captain Couch was always very good to me. He came to Oregon the year I was born, 1840. At that time he was captain of the Mar yktncl. A wealthy firm at Newburyport, Mass., at the suggestion of Jason Lee, sent him out to establish a salmon cannery on the Columbia River. He brought out with him at that time George W. LeBreton. Two years later Captain Couch came back with the brig Chenamu8. Some years later, when I was about eight years old, Captain Couch came back to Oregon on the Madonna. His first mate was George H. Flanders. Captain Flanders and Captain Couch both settled in Oregon. 

“When we moved to Portland there were but a few hundred people living here, so everybody knew everybody else. Among the men I remember best in those days were Mr. Wicox, Portland’s first school teacher, Mr. Lovejoy, Mr. Lewis, Captain Crosby, Captain Flanders, Captain Couch, Steve Skidmore and Doctor MbLoughlin.

“From Portland we moved to Washington County. Father sowed a little patch of wheat. He harvested the first year or two with a sickle and threshed with a flail. He would take three sacks of wheat to Doctor McLoughlin’s mill and have it ground into flour. I remember how eager we children were to eat the bread made from this flour, but mother would say, ‘We must save the flour for  father; he has to work. Boiled wheat is plenty good enough for the  rest of us.’ And so, for several years, we ate boiled, cracked wheat. Doctor McLoughlin used to send us loaf sugar as well as tea. 

“The donation land claim act was passed by Congress when I was ten years old. This was in the fall of 1850. This gave a man and wife a full section of land, while an unmarried man could take only 320 acres. Within a few years after the passage of this act almost every girl in the country was snapped up. Sometimes an old man of forty or fifty would marry a girl of twelve or fourteen, so that he could take up a 640-acre claim. A man named Richard Wiley found a fine 640-acre claim in Washington County and, having found the claim, looked around for a wife. He found me, and we were married, July 27, 1855. I was older than some of the girls who got married, however, for I was fifteen. Six children were born to us. After Mr. Wiley’s death I married K. M. Edwards.” (History of the Columbia River Valley from the Dalles to the Sea, p. 988, Volume 1,  by Fred Lockley(1871-) , published in 1928)

Richard Wiley married  Mary Jane Baldra July 29, 1855. William and Maria were there. Mary Jane was 15 and pregnant. They had six children: Wilbur(1856-1909),Annie(1858-1949), William(1861-1942), Dora(1863-1930), Ella(1866-1954), Benema(1879-1963).

Mary Jane’s Death

“That one is a noble Christian lady, Mrs. (Mary Jane) Edwards, of Newberg, Oregon, who is now in the first splendor of the yellow autumn of a lovely Christian life, and is believed to be the first white female born in the old Oregon who is now living-. She was born in 1840, and her mother, Mrs. Baldra, was one of the converts of that first camp-meeting under the oaks and firs of Tualatin Plains. The camp meeting and her mother’s conversion at it, are almost the first distinct memory of Mrs. Edward’s life. It is not only her first, but her most cherished memory. Thus the deeds of these pioneer missionaries in that far back day, and among the few of that day in Oregon, are perpetuated in the very region where they endured so much and wrought so well. They have all passed into the life beyond, and have long been resting from their labors, but their works do follow them.” (Mission History of the PNW page 281)

On Mary Jane’s headstone it reads, “She made Home Happy.”Mary Jane’s Obit. She died June 12, 1926

Thomas Baldra(1836-1876) was in Maria’s womb on the Atlantic Crossing. He was born at York Factory, Hudson Bay, Canada in 1836. His first love and marriage was Mary Terah in 1858, but they parted ways after two years. Next he married a woman named Aseneth in 1866. They had 3 children before their divorce: William Richard(1867-1948), Thomas E.(1870-1940), and Minnie(1876-1958).  Some believe that his pioneer ways were too rough for Aseneth, though she lasted 7 years with him. He died in Washington County in 1876.    

                                  
William and Maria’s son Richard was born at Red River in Canada in 1838. He married Sarah Jane Catching(1847-1928). They had 4 children: Millie(1866-1921), Mary(1869-  ), Ruba(1877- ), and Carrie(1878-1899).                                  

Wilbur Wilbur(1856-1909)

Richard and Mary Jane Wiley had Wilbur in 1856. Wilbur Wiley married Corena Landess in 1889. They had three children, including Wilda in 1891. Corena divorced Wilbur in 1898. Wilbur tried to support his three little children he’d left behind. In 1909 Wilbur was killed by a train accident in Pasco, Washington. A very sad story.

Wilda Wiley Delsman(1891-1960 )

Wilda Wiley married Joe Delsman in 1910. They had three children: Louise in 1913 who died of polio at age 14;  Dick in 1917, who died in the Mediteranean Sea, earned the Purple Heart in WWII; and Geraldine in 1916.  

Gerladine Clara Delsman Guenther(1916-2012)

Geraldine was a farmer’s daughter and loved to grow things! She may have been in the same mold as Maria Callaby. Geraldine knew hardship. She married John Guenther in 1935. They had the 14. They lived on the Old Place in North Bend, on the bay, 1965 East Bay Drive. It is here where Ronny, Bobby, Weezy, Dory, Phiddy, Richy, Annie and Anjo, Johnny, Donny, Eddy, Davy, and Mary and Margy grew up.

Afterward by Donald S. Guenther

The voyage across the Atlantic was no luxury liner. They didn’t bath and the sailors were immoral. Both William and Maria had their birth dates wrong and their names misspelled. The Baldras were one rough couple! I can’t imagine Maria looked like a princess. He was 24 and she was 19. They were viewed as mature adults practically in old age when they left Norfolk, where the life expectancy was maybe 40. William working as a peasant in the field and Maria making ends meet in a small village, it was live now and try to survive. The fact that they not only survived but thrived proved that they were the strongest of the strong. These were pioneers in the strictest sense of the word. I bet HBC was lucky to get anyone to go to York Factory following the epidemic. To think, a young couple willing to take that kind of chance. This all means life in Norfolk was dismal at best. We have Maria living her Christian convictions and stuck with a hardened farmer. A man it appears who was obsessed with finding a place where he could thrive. I think she was sensitive and knew how important it is for a man to provide for his family. William had little future for himself in Norfolk. He had learned the best farming methods in the world and that knowledge may have gotten him into trouble. Maria could have said she wouldn’t go and by doing so she would have destroyed her husband and the family’s future. I do not think he forced her into going. She was smart enough to know the value of a good hard working man. Maria left a small village she’d later refer to as a city compared to her frontier home. I think she was intelligent and a church goer. She followed her Christian beliefs and God protected her, and William protected her and their neighbors in Hillsboro as well. The chance of surviving that journey as an adult aren’t good. Bringing their two very young boys across the York Factory Express had to have been very difficult.  It appears every time Maria got pregnant God had them move. Maria’s life displayed a beautiful Christian walk. Look at what we have, a couple open to Indians (they helped her when Mary Jane was born), welcoming strangers (Joe Meek), helping orphaned Jane Shaw, going to church, a woman traveling 6,000 miles so her husband could hold his head up high (he was illiterate) and a mother teaching her children to sacrifice for their father’s success.

Bibliography

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