Charles Vause KUYKENDALL

                   p. 106-107 History of the Kuykendall Family: Since its Settlement in Dutch New York in 1646, by George Benson Kuykendall
"In the fall of 1868, mother married a man by the same of Simmons who had lived for some years in Oregon, but was back in Virginia, on a visit. I did not want to go, but this grieved my mother so that I consented to accompany the others. We went from where we lived to New York, and from there by the way of Panama. The night off Cuba we had the worst thunder storm I ever have witnessed, it discounting anything I ever saw anywhere. Nine days from New York we reached Panama, nine o'clock in the evening, were aboard the steamer about midnight. we laid over the next day in the bay, the hottest day I ever saw. The voyage was tedious and monotonous, all the worse because we were in a dead calm, with not a ripple on the water. the fifteenth day from Panama we pulled into the Golden Gate, in a dense fog, which came near causing us to have a collision with a clipper ship, but we landed safely twenty-five days after leaving New York. After three days we boarded the John L. Stevens, for Oregon. that craftwas the worst old tub that ever ventured to sea. After a tedious and smoky trip along up the coast, we reached the mouth of the Columbia and had to lay outside because of the rough water on the bar. We finally ventured and made it over into the smooth water in the bay. There was a general feeling of relief. At the mouth of the Willamette we transferred to another boat and went on up to Vancouver.


from letter to Lena upon the death of her father, C.V., from Mr. J. E. Todd of McMinnville, OR. "Your Fathers life was a long & usful one, filled to overflowing with good & generous deeds, to my mind Lena your Father was one of Gods Noblest Men, honest, Fearless, generous to a falt, & I loved him as my own Bro in the Flesh. I know I will miss him more than any one outside his own family."
C. V. was a charter member of the Farmer's Alliance, and in politics a Democrat (with populist or socialist leanings).