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Mt. Hope Pioneer Cemetery ~ Eglentine 'Tiny' D. Geer
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Geer, Eglentine 'Tiny' D.
LAST: Geer FIRST: Eglentine 'Tiny' MID: D.
GENDER: F MAIDEN NAME: DeHart TITLE: 
BORN: 4 Feb 1852 DIED: 5 Jan 1935 BURIED: 8 Jan 1935
OCCUPATION:  
BIRTH PLACE:  Carthage, Illinois
DEATH PLACE: Goodnoe Hills, Klickitat Co., Washington
NOTES: 
1860 OR CENSUS - Ellen [sic] Dehart, age 8, is enumerated with father Lathrop Dehart, age 35, occupation farmer, b. Canada, and Juliet, age 24, along with Rebecca, age 3, and Evaline, age 8 months.
MARRIAGE - "L. B. Geer & Miss Egelentine Dehart, m 16 May 1870 at house of Calvin Geer; Warren Cranston, J. P. Wit: Flora A. Davenport & Helen A. Cranston #1239 pg 486"
1880 WA CENSUS - Tina Geer, age 28, b. Illinois, is enumerated with her husband L. Byington Geer, age 35, occupation raising fine stock, b. Illinois, age 28, along with Carrie B., age 9, b. Oregon, Musa C., age 7, b. Oregon, Myrtle T., age 2, b. Washington Territory, and Bertie B., age 5 months, b. Washington Territory;
1900 OR CENSUS - Egalantine Geer, b. Feb 1852 in Illinois, married 30 years, mother of 7 children 6 of whom are living at the time of the census, b. Illinois, is enumerated with Bert B., age 20, b. Jan 1880 in Washington, Chet C., age 17, b. Jan 1883 in Washington, and Arch A., age 14, b. Nov 1885 in Washington.
1910 WA CENSUS - Eglantine Geer, age 58, widow, mother of 6 children, b. Illinois, is enumerated as mother in the home of Arch A. Geer, age 25, occupation farmer, b. Washington, along with Musa C., identified as sister [of Arch], age 38, single, b. Oregon
NOTE: Photo of Eglentine courtesy of Vesper Geer Rose.
OBITUARY: 
Bits for Breakfast by R.J. Hendricks: ‘Aunt Tiny,’ Homer Davenport’s sweetheart, came home to rest: All that was mortal of Mrs. Eglentine DeHart Geer came home to rest in her beloved Waldo Hills.
The spirit of this pioneer woman of a race of pioneers left its tired body and went pioneering into the realms of eternity on Saturday, January 5, 1935, from her home at Goodnoe Hills, Wash.
Eglentine DeHart was born at Carthage, Illinois, February 4, 1852. Her father was Lothrop DeHart, a French Canadian, born in Ontario, Canada. He came with his family to California in 1852, and to Oregon seven years later. Eglentine’s mother was Julia Remington, a member of the clan that produced the Remington firearms and the Remington typewriters. She was born in Pennsylvania.
During Eglentine’s childhood in California, her father was engaged in dairying. He sold milk and butter to the early California miners. An interesting experience occurred when some Chinamen, who were mining a small creek near their place, one day asked Eglentine’s mother how much she would take for the little two and a half year old girl. In a joking way she answered, ‘oh, fifty dollars.’ The next evening 50 Chinamen brought $50 and demanded the baby. Her mother said that if it had not been for the timely arrival of Eglentine’s father with a gun, she would not have succeeded in breaking the bargain, but the father, as the other legal property owner, declared that he wouldn’t sell his share, so the deal fell through.
Another noteworthy occurrence in Eglentine’s early California life was the fact that whenever the dirt floor in the cabin was swept, tiny gold nuggets appeared. When this became known, two wiley Swedes bargained for and bought the little home. They took more than $30,000 out of the soil immediately under the cabin.
May 16, 1870, Eglentine DeHart was married to L.B. Geer, cousin of T.T. Geer, who was governor of Oregon from 1899 to 1903. He was known to his familiars as ‘By’ Geer.
At the time of his marriage, ‘By’ asked his father, Ralph C. Geer, then county clerk of Marion County, for a marriage license – the fee system then being in force. ‘You getting married? You have no business to get married, with not enough to support a wife,’ said the father.
‘Well, I think the wife can help some,’ was the reply. And she proved a wonderful helper. So, young ‘By’ wrote his own marriage license and his father signed. The noted pioneer of the Waldo Hills, Warren Cranston, in the capacity of justice of the peace, performed the marriage ceremony. The bride and groom pioneered in Umatilla County. Their pre-emption land claim was at what and still is known as Geer Springs and they ranged their stock on Pine Creek, in a section about 20 miles east of Pendleton.
Next they went to Coppel Creek (named for an Indian chief), in Walla Walla County, Wash., not far from Dayton, where ‘By’ Geer for 17 years bred Spanish Merino sheep and gained a reputation for his fine strain. He sold Noble, ram of his breeding, for $500.
Next they went to Baker County and, with Hon. George Chandler, raised sheep and cattle. Chandler, about 1870, had brought the first white faced (Hereford) cattle to Oregon, and that is a famous herd to this day, still owned by members of the Chandler family. Later the partnership was dissolved, Mr. Geer taking the sheep and Mr. Chandler the cattle. Their headquarters place was near North Powder.
It is interesting to know that Ralph C. Geer brought the first Shorthorn cattle of the famous Bates & Booth strain to America; to Marion County.
Also, that ‘By’ Geer suggested the name that became the name of Baker County, after the noted orator and statesman, Col. E.D. Baker, killed at the battle of Ball’s Bluff while he was U.S. Senator from Oregon, Oct. 21, 1861. He did this while assisting his brother-in-law, T.W. Davenport, father of Homer Davenport, on a surveying tour in that section.
From Baker County, ‘By’ Geer and family came back to their beloved Waldo Hills and acquired a part of the pioneer Ralph C. Geer donation land claim, and resumed the raising of fine cattle there and on a place they had near Corvallis, continuing until his death, May 6, 1908. From 1899 to 1903, L.B. Geer was Oregon state land agent, during which time the family lived in Salem, on North Capitol Street near Union.
After her husband’s death, Eglentine Geer went pioneering again. She moved to Goodnoe Hills, Wash., and took up a pre-emption claim and there connected with the Spokane, Portland & Seattle railroad, which connection lasted for about 25 years, up to her death. During 19 years of the period she was station agent and caretaker of the property of the company, and for a time she was postmaster, the name of the post office there being Geer.
Daily Oregon Statesman 12 Jan 1935 4:5-7.

Bits for Breakfast by R. J. Hendricks: (continued from previous issue):
Eglentine DeHart Geer was a true pioneer.
She saw the first railroad in California, in Oregon, and in Washington. She was always a leader in her community, and the latchstring of her door was ever on the outside, with a welcome to all comers.
In the Waldo Hills she was a Sunday school teacher at Willard, in the school that became the Willard Congregational Church, with Rev. P.S. Knight long its pastor. Men and women of more than middle age recall her as their beloved Sunday school teacher.
At Salem she was prominent in the work of the W.C.T.U. and was state press agent for the organization. In this connection she sponsored the movement that resulted in the employment of a matron for the women prisoners at the Oregon State Penitentiary.
Her home at Goodnoe Hills was an outstanding community center, where every worthy thing of a public or private nature that concerned the neighborhood, the state, nation, or humanity as a whole had a worker and an efficient sympathizer.
She literally lived in the house by the side of the road and was the friend of every neighbor – with her definition of neighbor as broad as all the implications of the parable of the Good Samaritan.
In later years, the Geers were to members of their clan ‘Uncle By’ and ‘Aunt Tiny’. She was to Homer Davenport, the greatest cartoonist of his day, whose mother was a daughter of Ralph C. Geer, ‘Aunt Tiny,’ and he called her his sweetheart throughout his later life, and the mutual attachment was strong and beautiful.
Seven children came to bless the Geer home. Their names follow: Carrie Crouter, Union, Oregon, wife of D.H. Crouter; Miss Musa, former popular teacher in the Salem public schools, now postmaster and merchant at Goodnoe Hills, Wash.; Lorenzo Homer, died at 8 months, 8 days, and buried at Waitsburg, Wash.; Evelyn Dabney, wife of H.B. Dabney of Portland, died from injuries in an accident on the Lyle and Goldendale division of the S.P. and S. railroad, buried at Mt. Hope (Warren) Cemetery; Bert, of Maryhill, Wash., formerly sheriff of Lincoln County, Oregon; C.C., 1395 Cottage Street, Salem, and A.A., at 845 Marion Street, Salem. There are 15 grandchildren, and six great grandchildren.
The Geers were among the earliest pioneers to have purebred Merino sheep in Oregon. Their wool was so fine that the original Salem woolen mill, first factory of its kind on this coast, could not handle it, and it had to go east to market.
‘By’ Geer kept up the reputation of the family, and for a long time supplied considerable part of the large market for males among the sheepmen of Montana. He also developed the same kind of a reputation for his strain of Shorthorn cattle, and shipped some of them across the waters, including consignments to Hawaii.
The Goodnoe Hills district of Washington is a famous fruit section, with some of the leading growers of the coast. Some of the outstanding orchardists there hark back to the time when Ralph C. Geer, at his donation land claim home, had the first nursery in the central Willamette Valley; and they are still using some of the Geer methods of training and culture in their orchards and vineyards.
The funeral rites for Eglentine Geer were held on Thursday, January 8, at the Rigdon mortuary in Salem, under the direction of Rev. H.S. Stover of the Knight Memorial Congregational Church, and all that was mortal of the devoted mother, beautiful even in the sleep that knows no waking, was laid to rest in the family plot in the Mt. Hope (Warren) Cemetery, which holds so many pioneers of the Waldo Hills section.
The good woman had a more than welcome home with any one of her sons and daughters; but she was independent of spirit and preferred to make her own way. Her death was somewhat untimely, even at 83 years. It was hastened by a fall, which broke an arm and thigh. Her physical condition had been such as to promise many more years of useful life. She might have passed for a vigorous woman of 60, or 50, or less.
Daily Oregon Statesman 13 Jan 1935 4:5-7.
INSCRIPTION: 
E. D. Geer
Born
Feb. 4, 1852
Died
Jan. 5, 1935
[south face of monument shared with E. D.]

West face of Monument:
Gone But Still
Remembered
SOURCES: 
Hellie, Mader & Rickey
Saucy
1860 OR CENSUS Washington Co., Hillsboro, FA #358)
Marriage Records of Marion Co., Oregon, 1849-1871, Vol I, pg 82
1880 WA CENSUS (Walla Walla Co., ED 49, pg 226B
1900 OR CENSUS (Marion Co., S. Silverton, ED 126, sheet 14A)
1910 WA CENSUS (Kickitat Co., Sand Springs, ED 113, pg 254B)
OS 12 Jan 1935 4:5-7
DOS 13 Jan 1935 4:5-7
SECTION: A LOT:   
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