From Lane Co Oregon

Revision as of 19:43, 11 September 2007

Pengra, Byron J. or Bynon John Pengra (1823-1903)

The Briggs brothers ran the mills smoothly until 1865, at which time they sold the operation to a local consortium of prominent businessmen, led by Byron J. Pengra. The enterprise was renamed the Springfield Manufacturing Company (Clarke 1938:10-27).

That same year, he also purchased the Springfield townsite from Elias Briggs. An attempt was made by another group of local investors to build a woolen factory at Springfield in 1865. It was to be called the Springfield Woolen Manufacturing Company. Although capital was raised and construction planned, the venture never went beyond setting up an eight-horsepower carding machine in a building once used as a cabinet shop. Farmers were invited by the owner, Charles Goodchild:

to inspect the new machinery and to patronize the proprietor for the sake of home industry and to save themselves the inconvenience of sending their wool out of the county to be carded (Lomax 1941:301-303). The two-man operation lasted only a short time before being purchased by the Pengra brothers in 1873. The machinery was sold to Drury S. Stayton, who started the woolen mill in Stayton, Oregon (Walling 1884:453).

An active Republican, Pengra established the first Republican newspaper in Oregon in 1858, and called it the People’s Press. He was appointed Surveyor General of Oregon in 1862. He initiated the building of a military wagon road up the Middle Fork of the Willamette River.

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The Republicans, April 19, 1860, again nominated David Logan for representative in Congress, chose T. J. Dryer, B. J. Pengra and "W. H. "Watkins for presidential electors, and adopted in substance the platform of 1859, except that the Seward instructions were omitted and a strong protest against the Dred Scott decision was added. [History of Oregon By Carey, Charles Henry] p 640.

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To digress a moment from consideration of the Villard activities, two other transcontinental railroad projects which claimed attention while Willamette Valley rivalries were at their height were proposed by W. W. Chapman, pioneer lawyer and surveyor-general for Oregon in President Buchanan's administration, and B. J. Pengra, an engineer who was surveyor-general during President Lincoln's term. Chapman proposed a line up the Columbia River to The Dalles and thence to a junction with the Union Pacific Railroad at Salt Lake.

Pengra had a practical scheme for a connection with the Central Pacific Railroad near Winnemucca, Nev., by way of Southeastern Oregon. This line would have crossed the Cascade range by the pass known as the "Middle Pork," of the Willamette, surveyed by Lieutenants Williamson and Abbot in 1853, connecting with the Willamette Valley Railroad system at Eugene City.

Byron J. Pengra's son was buried in the Pioneer Cemetery in Springfield. He was married to a "Charlotte Emily Pengra. [History of Oregon By Carey, Charles Henry] p 697.

Tombstone

On a marble pillar about a foot and a half tall were written these words:

Son of B.J. & C.E.

Pengra

"Suffer little children -[to]- come unto me,

and for -[forbid]- them not, for of -[such]- is the

Kingdom of Heaven"