History of Early Pioneer Families of Hood River, Oregon. Compiled by Mrs. D.M. Coon

JOHN M. MARDEN AND FAMILY             1859

     John M. Marden was born in Georgetown, D.C. November 30, 1828. His parents were Nathaniel M. and Mary (Lutz) Marden. He attended the public schools of Washington D.C. and later entered college. When his school days were over he learned the carpenter trade.
     In 1849 he joined a party of men going west, they were known as "Washington City and California Mining Association", and numbered sixty-four men in their company. They crossed the plains with mule teams arriving at Lassen ranch in California on Oct. 13th, 1849. He mined at Bidwell's Bar until January 1, 1850, when he went to Sacramento in hopes of getting letters from home.
     In February he went to Marysville and helped to build the first frame building erected in that town. Later he went to Shasta with pack train, then to Scotts Bar, Weaverville and again to Marysville.
     In 1856 he sold his mules and returned to Shasta filing on a placer claim on Whiskey Creek where he washed out considerable gold in nuggets, one nugget being worth $800. That fall he went again to Marysville and up the Yuba river to Trask Bar, working there successfully for six months. In July 1858 he went to Fraser river with three men traveling from Victoria B.C. in an Indian log canoe as far north as Port Langley, B.C. He then returned to Olympia, going across country to Monticello at the mouth of the Cowlitz river and then to Portland and up the Columbia river to the Cascades. In 1859 he filed a pre-emption claim on land about twenty miles east of the Cascades, on the south bank of the Columbia river. This land was formerly occupied by a warlike tribe of Indians under Chief Walluchian, the place being called Polally-Illahee, which in English means sand land. In later years it was given the name of Ruthton by a lumbering company that operated a planer on the place. For ten years Mr. Marden lived alone on his farm, then on February 13, 1869 at The Dalles he was married to Miss Harriet Reed of Troutdale, Oregon.
      Their farm was isolated from Hood River Valley, if they wished to ship their produce on the steam boats they had to take it in a small boat to the steamer landing two miles east of their place.
     They had no road in those days, only an Indian trail, following the river, came through the farm and wound its way up a precipitous bluff to the valley nearly four hundred feet above. Theodore Perham made his home with the Marden family for a time, and twice each schoolday he dared its perils, attending the Hood River school which was located on the south-west corner of Wm. Jenkins claim.
     Mrs. Armstrong of New York was the teacher and left an impress for good on the characters of her pupils.
     Their nearest neighbors were Amos and Ed Underwood, who with their wives lived on the north bank, nearly two miles distant. Amos Underwood had filed on Polally-Illahee before Mr. Marden came, but preferring the north bank had moved across the river where he made his home. The wife of Amos Underwood was a Cascade Indian woman, baptized by the missionaries as Ellen, daughter of Chief Chenowith.
     Col. Lear, of the U.S. Army had married her, according to Indian rites, but when the army was ordered away Ellen and her daughter were left behind. Amos Underwood befriended her and later married her with the Indian ceremony, saying that later he would have the ceremony repeated by a minister when one could be found. Ed Underwood while on a visit to his brother at White Salmon met and loved Isabel Lear; an Indian marriage ceremony followed1 and a new home was founded near the home of Amos Underwood.
     At the close of a cold disagreeable day two forlorn travelers stopped at the Marden home and begged for shelter. For three weeks they had been traveling over rough Indian trail along the bank of the Columbia river. The man was about thirty years old, the girl sixteen, her home had been at Hillsboro in Oregon and she had run away with her lover when her parents had refused their consent to her marriage. They had found no one to perform the marriage ceremony and the girl was exhausted. Mrs. Marden listened to their story, then made them welcome to her home, Rev. Thomas Condon, Congregational minister of The Dalles was sent for and a message was also sent to Amos and Ed Underwood. Mrs. Marden made three wedding cakes and when the minister arrived a wedding was solemnized at the Marden home and soon after two more at the home of the homes of the Underwood brothers.
     In 1872 the Marden Farm was sold to Haynes and Sanders. Later Mr. Marden purchased a tract of land east of Mosier which he soon developed into one of the most valuable ranches on the Mid-Columbia river. In 1883 this farm was sold and the family moved to The Dalles.

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