More About The Hillman Family and Martha's Possible Brothers

Martha's parents are largely a mystery.  Her 1935 death certificate signed by her son Edward H. Turner (who presumably provided the information on it) indicates that Martha's father's name was George Hillman however the space to indicate the mother's name reads "don't know".  (I'm a little supprised that Edward wouldn't know his grandmother's name.)  Census records show that Martha's father was born in Ohio and mother in Tennessee.   I have been so far unable to find a George Hillman in census records for any appropriate time and/or location.

My cousin Dick Turner has provided me with some information he obtained some years ago regarding brothers George and Wash Hillman in Malheur County, OR which bears mentioning here even though a definitive connection to them hasn't been made.  There are, however, some suspicious possible connections.  The name George matches Martha's indicated father's name and Malheur County, OR is just west of, and adjacent to, Weiser, ID where Martha along with several of her children moved and lived for a time after her divorce from E.J. Turner in 1903.

Dick sent me a copy of a handwritten letter (see below) which indicates that in 1888 George W. Hillman, age 29, of Bully, Malheur County, Oregon was married in Ada County, Idaho which is not far from Weiser, ID and Bully OR.  George would have thus been born about 1859 making him a possible brother of Martha who was born in 1854.

Dick also provided a copy of an email (see below) which quoted some passages from a book titled "Pioneer Days in Malheur County" by Jacob Ray Gregg (1950):

"p. 330:   Among other early-day Westfall pioneers were:........(names)........ who came to Bully creek valley in 1881;  .....(names)........... who came in 1882; Wash and George Hillman."

"p.333:  Wash Hillman, pioneer of 1870, came from Missouri by ox team.  At one time he freighted between Boise and The Dalles.  Most of his time, however, was spent in the vicinity of Westfall.  He died at La Grande, Oregon May 13, 1930 at the age of 75 years.  Survivors were his widow Ida, .................(more names, all descendents).........  His brother, George Hillman, made his home on Bully creek for many years."  This paragraph suggests that Wash was born in about 1855, the year after Martha.

In summary, this establishes brothers George and Wash Hillman as being of an age to easily be Martha's brothers.  Wash "come from Missouri by ox team" at a date not certain but before 1870 when he became a pioneer presumably of Malheur County.  Martha's obituary indicates that she "crossed the plains in the early 1960's with her parents who settled in Washington" and census records show her to be from Missouri like Wash.  Martha's father's name was George so she could have possibly had a brother named after the father.  Finally the geography is intriguing.   All the geographic locations mentioned above including Bully, Westfall, La Grange and Malheur County in Oregon and the town of Weiser and Ada County in Idaho are located within about 40 to 50 miles of each other along the Idaho/Oregon boarder, not all that far by the standards of the pioneer days in the 1800's in this part of the country.

So, while there is no conclusive proof, there is circumstantial evidence that Martha Hillman had relatives in eastern Oregon and/or nearby western Idaho.   A speculative sequence of events regarding the Hillman family based this evidence could be as follows:

The Hillman family including young children (Martha and possibly George and Wash) came west from Missouri in the early 1860's and initially settled in the Washington Territory (as indicated in Martha's obituary).   The Hillman family stayed in Washington till at least the early 1870's where Martha and E.J. Turner met on a wagon train (as suggested by my mother's note) and were married in Steven's County Washington near Spokane in the north eastern part of the state in early 1873 (as indicated by their marriage record).   The birth of the Turner's first two children suggests that they moved around Washington somewhat in the early days of their marriage with daughter Rose being born in Walla Walla, WA in 1875 (in the south eastern part of the state) and son Edward being born in 1877 in Spokane, WA in the north eastern part of the state near where the marriage took place.  The Turners then headed for the Gentile Valley in south eastern Idaho in 1877.  In the early 1870's Martha's possible brother's George and Wash and probably with their parents left Washington and headed south for Malheur County, Oregon (adjacent to western Idaho).  30 some odd years later when Martha was divorced from E.J. Turner in 1903 she moved from the Gentile Valley in south eastern Idaho to Weiser in far western Idaho to be near her brothers George and Wash who lived in nearby Oregon (and possibly her parents who, if still living, could possibly be then living with or near their sons).