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Nathaniel Hamlin Grave
An interesting bit of Haines history is the grave
located by the Quarry. The grave is located just above the road near the
Ingram's home. The name of the man buried there is Hamelin; he was the
father of Ben Hamlin who resided here at one time. The story of this
graves goes as follows; it was the wish of this man to be buried at the
crest of this hill where he owned and worked a mine, but on the day of his
burial there were blizzard conditions and a great of snow making it impossible
for the funeral procession to attain the crest of the hill, so they buried him
near the road.
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Nathaniel Hamlin
1818 - 1889 |
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Update
After questions were asked about this grave on the
mail list, Gary took new pictures, and then went to the library and
found additional information on Nathaniel Hamlin.
| Sally Captured
Charles Sally, who
viciously, shot at Ida Gilmore in a house of ill-fame
last Monday night at Baker, is in the hands of the law.
N. H. Hamlin and W. Hall, of Express (Durkee),
acting deputy sheriffs, made the capture at the farm of
Wm. Sally, near Express, an uncle of the prisoner. The
culprit submitted quietly to arrest at 4 o’clock
Wednesday afternoon and came peaceably with his captors
to Baker, arriving at an early hour Thursday morning. |
Sumpter News,
Sumpter, Baker County, Oregon
September 4, 1897 |
Then he
found:
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Vernon Stewart |
Haines Man Maintains
Single Grave Of Miner Near Coyote Peak
By Lisa Britton, Record Courier
Haines-A lone grave resides next to the
Haines Dump Road below Coyote Peak. This unlikely
location is the resting place of Nathaniel Hamlin, whose
life spanned from 1818 to 1889.
Vernon Stewart, retired Haines postmaster and member of
the Haines Cemetery Board, has maintained this lonely
gravesite on the outskirts of town for the past 20
years.
Stewart says that Hamlin had a mine up on Coyote Peak
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requested to be buried
there when he died. Unfortunately he passed away in the
winter time, and no one could make it to the top of the
hill. It ended up that he was buried halfway up the
hill.
"The road used to be farther away from it, but not
anymore," Stewart says. The grave protected by a wrought
Iron fence is nearby five feet from the road. The grave
used to be separated from the sagebrush hillside by a
picket fence, but that was burned down when a fire swept
through the area.
"The old graveyards used to have fences around the
lots," Stewart said. This section of fencing came from
the Haines Cemetery when they decided it was too
time-consuming to mow around and removed the fencing.
Stewart cleans the grave thoroughly once a year, and
this summer he hopes to put a graveyard marker on the
fence. Stan Ingram, who owns the land beside the grave,
donated the granite headstone identifying Hamlin.
People just drive past and never know it's there," he
says.
Stewart's parents came to this area in a covered wagon
in 1884 and they knew Hamlin. |
Then he learned:
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Fred and Ben Hamlin
visited the grave of Nathaniel Hamlin, Fred's
great-grandfather, who died near Haines in 1887
By Debby Schoeningh, Baker City Herald
Haines-A pilgrimage to search out their
family history led Fred Hamlin, a high school teacher
from Ashland, has always been interested in his family's
ancestry and wanted to share his heritage with Ben on
his 12th birthday which was earlier this year.
Hamlin wrote to Evelyn Fisher at the Haines Museum in
February searching for his great-grandfather Nathaniel
Hamlin's grave, which was believed to be near Haines.
Fisher found the long grave located East of Haines at
the base of Coyote Peak.
The grave originally had a picket fence, which was
destroyed in a fire that burned nearly 70 acres in this
area during the 1960's. |
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Vernon Stewart, a member of
the Haines Cemetery Board, had Warren and David Mays of
his Boy Scout troop earn their Eagle Scout badges by
replacing the fence with a rod iron one in 1978. He
said, "I just knew one day someone would come looking
for it and I wanted it to be presentable. I think it's
important to preserve some of the little things in our
area."
Hamlin said his great-grandfather had a silver mine near
the top of Coyote Peak and asked to be buried there.
However, he died in the winter of 1887 and the snow was
too deep to carry out his request, so was buried as
close to the peak as possible.
Hamlin tells a story that was handed down in his family
of how Nathaniel would place his silver minds on a
mule's back, give him a slap and the mule would head
down the hill to his wife. She would then take the
silver, sell it and by a grub-stake (provisions), which
she in turn placed on the mule's back, gave it a slap on
the backside and he would go back up the hill to her
husband. Nathaniel and his wife had 14 children.
Ben said he learned a lot on this trip about his
great-great-grandfather Nathaniel. Ben and his dad
learned Nathaniel's father also had an interesting
history.
He was Hannibal Hamlin, vice president to Abraham
Lincoln from 1861 to 1865 during Lincoln's first term.
Leaving the Democratic party in 1856, Hannibal strongly
opposed slavery and helped organize the Republican party
as an anti-slavery opposition group. He was not selected
to serve a second term because Lincoln wanted a democrat
on the Republican ticket, and Andrew Johnson was elected
instead. A statue of Hannibal, who was born in Paris,
Maine, was placed in the Statuary Hall in Washington,
D.C., in 1935.
Ben said he is enjoying his tour of Eastern Oregon.
Despite acquiring a sunburn at Lehman Hot Springs he
thought it was a great place. The pair plan on spending
some time along the Columbia River on their, return trip
and will visit his grandmother in Portland.
Hamlin said, "It's really wonderful to be able to share
this with my son.
"This is his heritage and I appreciate the people
involved in maintaining areas like my
great-grandfather's grave site for us to visit." |
Our thanks to Lisa and
Debby for allowing us to use their articles, Gary for taking the
time to find the additional information on a very interesting
person. Vernon Stewarts family and Belva Ticknor had copies of the
original articles from the newspapers.
Note: Vernon Stewart
passed away in 2007.
Haines Index |
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