Preachers, Teachers, Loggers, Farmers [& Astronauts]
by James Edward Allen
Tigard, OR
That I attended college at University of Oregon is a coincidence of geography, since I was born & reared near Cottage Grove [at the southern end of the Willamette Valley]. That I went to college at all is no accident, but it certainly wasn’t automatic, either. I come from a long line of loggers, farmers, preachers & teachers. This Christmas my wife & I spent several days with my mother in Cottage Grove. One of the most enjoyable parts of the visit was reading the diary of my great-great grandfather Robert Robe [a Presbyterian minister], written as he came west on the Oregon Trail in 1851. That in itself would make a terrific Oregon story…maybe I’ll ask Mom to submit it…Robert’s son Hermon Linn Robe played on the 1st U of O football team in 1894.
Another of my great-great grandfathers was Charles Bonner Marsters [a Methodist/Episcopal minister]. His Oregon story is told in ‘Greener Pastures’, written by Calea Marsters Rankin, my great-aunt. He also started west in 1851, although the Iowa winter and the birth of his second son delayed the bulk of his trip until 1852. He was a circuit-riding minister in Lane & Douglas Counties, in addition to farming to make a living. I suspect there weren’t too many early ministers who got rich from it [except in spirit, of course].
Although the “other” side of the family are more recent immigrants, they too have an Oregon story: My great-great grandfather James Washington Allen served in the Civil War then farmed in Ohio before he came to Oregon in 1912. Here already to welcome & provide a home to him and Elvira were their son Weston, who’d arrived from Oklahoma in 1911 with his family, including my grandfather Edward Alvin Allen. His oldest son [my father Boyd Edward Allen] began his Oregon story on a Yoncalla farm September 19, 1920.
Because of these 4th-generational ties to Oregon, I qualified for a Joseph Kinsman Starr memorial scholarship in 1966, which is how I paid my college tuition. That $50 per month, along with everything I earned during the summer, made it possible for me to attend and graduate from the U of O. I find it hard to believe today, but my resident tuition was ‘only’ $167 a term in the 60s. Books were about $50 more and that just about cleaned me out the 1st two years; joining the Army ROTC in my 3rd year brought in another $50 per month. That year I could afford to live ‘off-campus’ on my own! Today’s tuition is nothing like that, of course, but [here comes the astronaut part] since then my cousin John Glenn has orbited the Earth and served the citizens of Ohio for several terms. John’s great-grandmother Sarah [Robe] McLaughlin and my great-great-grandfather Robert Robe were brother and sister. How’s that for a Trivial Pursuit question?
