Dudley Bailey Dustin

McKinley School land was once part of the original 1852 Donation Land Claim # 1297 of Dudley B. Dustin. Here is the story.

November 1850

Dudley Bailey Dustin was born July 26, 1804 in New Hampshire; he married Catherine (Slosson) 1840; moved to Ohio, then to Iowa where in 1850 he crossed the plains with his family of four children. Ox teams brought them to the small village of Portland in the Oregon Territory in November of 1850. Leaving his children with the Birges family, Dustin looked for land to stake his claim.

December 31, 1850 United States Federal Census

Shows the Dustin children living with Jno M. Birges (blacksmith) and his family. Helen Dustin 13, Charles Dustin 10, Melville Dustin 8, Hiram Dustin 4, stayed here while their father searched for land to settle.

Settled Claim January 11, 1852 — Donation Land Claim #1297

After a year of exploration, they settled in Washington County— Donation Land Claim #1297. SC 11 Jan. 1852. Aff: Samuel A. Sparks, Edward H. Lenox, Malcolm Dustin. (Affidavits were given attesting to when he settled upon the land, most usually by neighbors or family members.)

Charles Enlistment Influenced by a Famous Family History

                                                                                     (See story of his great great-grandmother Hannah Dustin)

In 1856, Charles Dustin at age 16 leaves his family home to enlist with the Washington Territory Volunteers under Captain Hamilton to “fight the Indians who were making trouble at that time. He enlisted at Vancouver and from there the company went to the Sound and from thence across the Natchez pass in the Cascades to the Yakima country, then to Walla Walla, and finally on to the Grande Ronde country, where they had a severe conflict with the savages, three men being killed and a number wounded, while many horses were shot. The company of soldiers numbered eighty, while the Indians were two hundred strong. After this they returned to Vancouver, and he was mustered out.

Returning in 1858, Charles Dustin attended Pacific in Forest Grove for two years.

Dustin Family Continues to Farm

1860 United States Federal Census lives in Washington County, Oregon [Names were often misspelled by person taking the census.] (Helen, Dustin’s daughter, married James Walworth Mack in 1855.)

Dudly B. Dustin age 56, farmer
Chas Dustin 20, school teacher (born 23 Feb 1840) Mellsell Dustin 17, laborer
Hiram Dustin 13.

                                                                                    Early Elk City. Idaho State Historical Society.

Pursuit of Gold —Hard Work for Pay Dirt  

1862 finds Charles Dustin in the Elk City Gold Mines in Idaho, “and for nineteen days after
reaching that famous camp he industriously mined, and found at the end of that time that he was twenty-one dollars in debt. Here his actual experience in digging for gold ended.” He turned to freighting, packing goods. In 1868 he returned home and married. (Later known as “Hon. Charles S. Dustin a Justice of the Peace, twice elected to the legislature from Grant and Harney counties now practicing law.” 1902 An Illustrated History of Baker, Grant, Malheur and Harney Counties.)

1870 United States Federal Census
DB Dustin 65
Melvin Dustin 27 school teacher
Emma Dustin 18 [Melville’s wife] keeping house Dailey C. Dustin l [Melvin & Emma’s baby]

D.B. Dustin’s Death—Prairie City Cemetery Grant Co, Oregon.
Dustin, Dudley b. 26 Jul 1804 d. 2 Feb 1878 age 73 years, 7 mos, 6 days