Children’s Oregon Roots
by Jean Hunsaker
Salem, OR
My three children, Ron, Brett and Diane Hunsaker, have roots that go deep into Oregon’s history as a result of having had six great, great, great grandparents and four great, great, grandparents who crossed the Oregon Trail in 1846 and 1847. The two ancestors who came in 1846, were George William and Sidney Ann (Younger) Burnett. George came at the urging of his brother Peter Burnett, who had come to Oregon with the first Wagon Train in 1843. When word reached Oregon in 1848 about the gold strike in California, Peter put George in charge of his Donation Land Claim in what became McMinnville and took off for the gold fields. Peter found that using his legal talents was more rewarding than panning for gold so he followed that line of work and in 1849 served as California’s first governor even before California became a state.
The other ancestors who traveled the Oregon Trail in the same 1847 wagon train were Joseph and Elizabeth Jane (King) Hunsaker, and Richard and Nancy (Fulkerson) Miller. The Millers settled in Yamhill County while the Hunsaker’s settled near Turner, Oregon. In 1951, Thomas Howard Hunsaker, son of Joseph and Elizabeth, married Elizabeth Jane Miller, daughter of Richard and Nancy. Both had walked the trail with their parents.
