Samuel Looney Handsaker

1887 - 1954

Samuel was an interesting person and I have spent a lot of time proving or dis-proving everything I have heard or read about him!

Samuel was born 13 May 1887 at Jasper, Lane, Oregon to Edward Baker and Annie (Smith) Handsaker. Annie died suddenly in January 1888 of typhoid fever before Samuel was a year old. Samuel was bounced back and forth between his Dad Edward, and both sets of his Grandparents when he was growing up.

In March 1907 he married Mabel Neff. Six months later he was off to prison! The family story was that when Samuel was 14 years old he shot and killed a man. The actual story is when he was 20 years old he and another friend tried to rob a man. Samuel told the Sheriff he had no intention of shooting the man but he was so excited and was gripping the pistol so tightly his finger pulled the trigger and shot the man in the shoulder (he survived). An article in the “The Morning Register”, Eugene, Oregon said:

         “Handsaker is a young man, only 20 years old, and was married about

           five months ago. He comes from one of Lane’s best families and feels

          very badly to have so disgraced the family name. When the party

          arrived at the sheriff’s office there was a good sized crowd of friends

          there who were willing to go his bail, but he preferred to have the matter

          go at once to the court. Some six or seven of the number to greet him

         were women and all felt very badly over the unfortunate affair".

         (I’m sure Mabel was not happy about that!)

Samuel was sentenced to six years in prison and served two years.

By 1910 he and Mabel were living in Butter Creek, Umatilla County, Oregon. He was a laborer on a farm. In 1912 he participated in the Pendleton Round Up and rode in the "Wild Horse Race". In this contest the rider picks a wild horse, puts a saddle on him and rides him around the track, then returns the horse to the corral. I have not been able to find out how he did.

June 1915 Sam married wife number 2, Ethel Quillen in Kalispell, Montana. Three years later in 1918 they had a daughter June Leona. When they split up Samuel told Ethel not to worry about getting a divorce because he was still married to his first wife because they never divorced.

Samuel served in the Army during World War I. He enlisted in 1917 and was honorably discharged in June 1920. He was a mechanic.

Wife number 3 was Myrtle Delena Wheeler, also known as Sybil. They were married in Gering, Nebraska in December 1920. Samuel’s second child, a son, Keith Samuel, was born May 1921 in Kingman, Arizona. According to his son Keith they moved around quite a bit. About 1927 Samuel left Myrtle and Keith. Keith only saw him three more times the rest of his life and was unaware he had a half-sister (June). (I will profile Keith sometime in the future).

Samuel and Myrtle divorced in 1928 in Flathead County, Montana and by 1929 he lived in Portland, Oregon. He was a truck driver. He married wife number 4, Molly Schwartz in 1930. They divorced on March 20, 1947 and two days later on March 22, 1947 he re-married Myrtle Wheeler Handsaker, so she was wife number 3 and 5. I was told by a relative that Myrtle had been diagnosed with breast cancer and Samuel married her so she would have health insurance benefits and support. She died in November 1948.

Samuel married his 6^th and last wife, Loretta Wright in February 1950. Four years later in May 1954 Samuel passed away in Portland, Oregon.

I was told by a Sister-in-law of Samuel’s that he was “a very nice man and also very good looking”. I have never been able to find a picture of him.

 

THOMAS HANDSACRE/HANDSAKER

AND

MARY FAULKNER HANDSAKER

Thomas was christened 5 September 1784 in Kings Bromley, Staffordshire, England. The name on his christening record is spelled ‘Handsacre’. He married Mary Faulkner in April 1807 at Hamstall Ridware, Staffordshire, England. Mary Faulkner was born about 1788 in Derbyshire, England.

They lived in Scropton, Derbyshire, England and had ten children: Sarah, Ann, William, Thomas, Mary, John, Henry, James, Emma and Samuel. Thomas was a wheelwright and carpenter. In August 1836 Thomas was bitten by a “mad dog” as described by son Samuel and he died.

Thomas and Mary belonged to the Methodist Church, and were considered Independent or Non-Conformists as they were not members of the Church of England. Thomas was buried in the churchyard cemetery of Marston upon Dove which is a Church of England church. It was explained to me when visiting this church that the Methodist Church was small at the time and they probably did not have a church or cemetery in the area at the time so he was buried there.

As described in Samuel Handsaker’s autobiographical sketch in his book Pioneer Life, after Thomas’s death Mary taught a class of girls such subjects as reading, spelling, knitting and sewing. About 1840 Mary opened a small store and bakery (in the town of Hatton) and received considerable trade from the traveling public.

After saving their money in 1843 they had enough to go to America! Mary and five of her children (the rest would follow) sailed to New Orleans and then after another trip up the Mississippi settled near Alton, Illinois. Mary bought 40 acres of land for $5.00 an acre. She joined the Methodist Church. She was known as an intelligent and religious lady according to her son in law Thomas Bates. In her obituary she was described as a cheerful happy Christian.

Mary died 3 July 1854 of Cholera. She is buried at Alton Cemetery in Alton, Illinois.

DESCENDANCY CHART 

 

EDWARD BAKER HANDSAKER

1863 – 1942

Edward Baker Handsaker, my Great-Grandfather is related or connected to many of the Handsakers that will be profiled in future blogs. His parents were Samuel and Sarah (Cannon) Handsaker and he had eight siblings. He was married three times and has descendants from all three marriages.

He was born 13 December 1863 near Oakland, Umpqua, Oregon. He was named after Colonel Edward Baker, who was one of Oregon's first Senators and was killed at Ball's Bluff early in the Civil War. He attended Lost Valley School near Dexter, Lane, Oregon in the 1870’s with his siblings.

Edward married Annie Smith in February 1886 in Jasper, Lane, Oregon. They had a son, Samuel Looney Handsaker in May 1887, however, Annie passed away less then a year later in January 1888 of typhoid fever. She would have been around 19 years old.

Edward married Mary Amanda Clow September 1891 in Junction City, Oregon. They had three children, Edward Clow born in 1892, daughter Frances Lucretia in 1893 and a baby girl in 1896 who died at 3 days old.

In 1894 Edward filed a Homestead Application for 160 acres of land in Anlauf, Douglas, Oregon just outside of Drain. Edward seems to have lived here until at least 1903 when he divorced Mary. The grounds for divorce was desertion by Mary who was now living in Seattle. Edward was given full custody of Edward and Frances. Trying to take care of a little girl as a traveling minister and making little money was to much for Edward so Frances was put in St. Mary’s orphanage, where I was told he would visit her when ever he could.

Edward soon married Hattie May Wood in 1904. Hattie was only 15 years old so her father had to give permission to marry. Edward and his growing family moved many times, mainly in Douglas and Lane Counties. He was a traveling minister as well as working various jobs in saw mills, the railroad, cook, and laborer. Edward and Hattie had seven children: James Robert, Abraham Kenneth, Elsie Irene, Hobart, Vernon, Melvin and Alfred Delmar.

Edward divorced Hattie in 1919. Hattie had an affair with another man and told Edward she did not want to be married any longer. Edward was awarded custody of all seven children, ages 3 to 14.

I think it was a pretty hardscrabble life being a single father and raising his children. I was told by one of his children (Elsie) and several of his grandchildren that he was a wonderful man and father.

Around 1932 he moved to Ashland, Oregon. He remained there until he had a stroke in 1941 and moved to a rest home in Eugene where he passed away in 1942 of cardiac failure.

Edward’s obituary listed all of his children, except his son Edward and daughter Frances, his children from Mary Clow Handsaker. It might be that the informant for the obituary did not know about them, or left them out?

 

Samuel, Sarah and their descendants will comprise most of the 

Handsaker profiles posted in this blog.  

 

SAMUEL HANDSAKER

19 November 1831 – 5 October 1909

Samuel was born at Scropton, Derbyshire, England, the 10th and youngest child of Thomas and Mary Handsacre/Handsaker.

In 1843 Samuel, his widowed mother and four of his siblings emigrated to the United States.  His mother bought 40 acres of land 10 miles from Alton, Madison, Illinois.

In March 1853 he left Illinois and traveled the Oregon Trail as a longshoreman (driver) on a wagon train.  He wrote of his accounts on the trip  under the pen name 'Quail' for the Daily Alton (Illinois) Telegraph newspaper.

He spent the winter of 1853-54 in Portland, Oregon where he lived at  Batchelors Hall (his spelling).  In a letter to his Sister Emma in April 1854 he wrote that he had difficulty finding enough work and was planning on going to California.  If it did not work out there he would return to Illinois.  He was meeting that night with a gentlemen from Umpqua County (now Douglas County) and since that is where he ended up I am guessing that was because of that meeting.  We know he didn’t go back to Illinois!

In 1855 he joined the Volunteer Army and fought in the Rogue River Indian War.  He had to supply his own horse and rifle.  He was discharged 8 months later and in November 1856 he married Sarah Johnson Cannon in Camas Swale, Umpqua, Oregon (Sutherlin today).  Samuel and Sarah had nine children: Julie Emma, George Washington, Mary Susannah, Edward Baker, Martha Ellen, Luella Sarah, Henrietta Arena, Thomas Samuel and John Jacob.  They eventually settled near Canyonville, Douglas, Oregon and lived there for about 14 years.  Samuel also became a naturalized U. S. Citizen October 11, 1859.

By 1871 the Handsaker family moved to Dexter, Lane, Oregon.  Samuel became the first postmaster of Butte Disappointment (Lane)  in 1872 and in 1875 for Dexter, Oregon.  Samuel and Sarah had a store and ferry service on the Middle fork of the Willamette river.  The store and barn were wiped out by a flood in 1880.  (The river was dammed up in the 1940’s and is now Dexter Lake).  A new store was built which was operated by Samuel around 1890.  This store still operates in Dexter, Oregon today.

  

During Samuel’s life he was butcher, farmer, auctioneer, Postmaster and Justice of the Peace among other jobs.  He also enjoyed writing to the newspapers about various topics, sometime under his own name, a pen name or sometimes anonymously.

  

In the mid 1890’s Samuel retired and they settled in Eugene, Oregon until his death in 1909.

 INTRODUCTION

My name is Janice Handsaker and I have been doing family research on the Handsaker family for almost 30 years. My initial goal was to find out what happened to my Grandfather Edward Clow Handsaker who left my Dad and Uncle orphans after his wife died in 1918 from influenza. He just disappeared and my Dad never heard from him again,.

Dad told me growing up that we did not have any Handsaker relatives, so what a surprise to find out there were many Handsaker’s especially here in Oregon. It took me 25 years to find out what happened to Edward (will be in a future blog post) but during that time I have learned about many Handsaker family members and met quite a few of them.

The purpose of this blog is to share information and stories about Handsakers to anyone who is interested. Each blog entry will profile a Handsaker or someone connected to the Handsaker family.

There are many different stories for the Handsaker’s I have learned about. Some have happy stories, some sad stories, some are notorious, and others are just interesting.

I hope you enjoy reading about the Handsaker family!