tburgen.html

The Klickitat County Agriculturist, Goldendale, WA., May 27, 1927, page 1

TOM BURGEN CAME TO KLICKITAT SEVENTY YEARS AGO, IN 1857

The Spokesman-Review of Sunday has an interesting sketch of Thomas Burgen, a brother of William C. Burgen of Goldendale.
"The claim has been made," says the article, "that Thomas Burgen is the oldest living pioneer of the Inland Empire, in the point of continuous residence. Mr. Burgen is 80 years old. There are, of course, older residents, but Mr. Burgen came to Goldendale in 1857, just 70 years ago. It is impossible, of course either confirm or verify this allegations of Mr. Burgen's friends that he has lived in the Inland Empire continuously longer than any other resident. Be that as it may, 70 years is unquestionably a long sojourn.
Almon Baker, now a resident of Deer Park, near Spokane, sent in a clipping of the article to W.C. Burgen. It states that "Thomas C. Burgen was born near St. Joe, Mo., in 1847, and migrated to Oregon in 1852. They were a part of a large train of 250 wagons. Oxen were used, for Indians were prone to still horses but had no use for oxen.
They had no Indian trouble on the long journey. Many times Indians entered camp and helped themselves to food but never were antagonistic. Many times the emigrants came across smaller groups who had been killed by Indians. Large trains were seldom molested however.
The father settled the in the Willamette valley, near Scio, where he received a donation claim of 640 acres. In a few years this was traded for cattle and the family moved to Washington, settling near Goldendale in 1857. The Dalles was the shipping point and Portland was the chief market.
Mr. Burgen says:
"I just grew. I rode the range ever since I can remember. When just a lad I can remember officers came to solicit my father's name for the draft in the war of '60. I vowed that if father went, I'd go to, but father never was drawn.
"When I was 16 I went into the cattle business for myself and have been at it ever since. After I was crowded out of Klickitat county by settlers who came to farm, I came to Grant county. Everything was opened then. A young fellow had lots of room to make a start. Two bachelors were living where Ephrata and now is."
Mr. Burgen married Jessie Haskett in 1885, in Klickitat county, just before coming to Ephrata. He later took up a homestead on Sagebrush flat, northwest of Ephrata, the place he is now farming. Mr. Burgen has been out of the state but twice since his early coming, once to drive government horses to the Black Hills and another time to drive 2000 head of cattle to Cheyenne to be shipped to Chicago from there.
The Burgens have one son, Colin, a graduate of the Washington State College and a World War veteran, who is now employed by the Northern Pacific railway company in Spokane.
Mr. Burgen is a tall stalwart man who looks no older than 60 at the most. He is quite talkative and his conversation is brightened by a good deal of humor.
He does his own work on his wheat ranch and although he has a home in Ephrata, he is seldom seen there during the spring and summer months. He has proved himself a true pioneer in every sense of the word and has all the faith in the world in Grant county.
He speaks of Spokane and as a pile of boulders upon his first trip there and says at that time Sprague was the much more promising city."
There are still a large number of people in Klickitat county who remember Tom Burgen, although he left here in many years ago.