English Cemetery ~ John C. Hastings ~ part of the Polk County Pioneer Cemeteries of Oregon
Hastings, John C.
LAST: Hastings FIRST: John MID: C.
GENDER: M MAIDEN NAME:  TITLE: 
BORN: 18 Mar 1833 DIED: 11 Sep 1916 BURIED: 13 Sep 1916 (English Cemetery)
OCCUPATION:  Farmer
BIRTH PLACE:  Tennessee
DEATH PLACE: Independence, Polk Co., Oregon
NOTES: 
MARRIAGE - John Hastings & Melissa Wood m 23 July 1857; Isaac Staats, JP. Wit: Rice W. Simpson & Arch Hastings
[Note-father of Martha J. O’Kelley] 

BIOGRAPHICAL (Source - Portrait & Biographical Record of the Willamette Valley, Oregon, Chicago, Chapman Pub. Co., 1903, pg 817):
"John C. Hastings has been for several years an honored resident of Airlie, and an Oregon pioneer of 1852. A Southerner in ancestral connections and early training, Mr. Hastings was born in west Tennessee, March 18, 1833. A son of John Hastings, and Annie (Estes) Hastings, both born in North Carolina. John Hastings removed as a young man to near Paris, Tenn., and from there came farther west to near Westport, Ark., where he farmed for many years, and from where he removed to near Batesville, where his death occurred at about fifty-two years of age.
The fourth in a family of seven children, five sons and two daughters, John C. Hastings received a limited education in the south, owing to the necessity of the children early starting out to earn their own living. The sons seem to have been ambitious and alert to opportunities for improving their prospects, for three of them, John C., A. L. and B. L. became interested in the glowing reports which reached them from the west, and determined to shift their chances to the coast. With ox-teams and wagon they joined a caravan of home-seekers bound for the other side of the Rockies via the Platte river route, and after six months arrive in Polk county, Ore., having experienced the usual number of adventures on the way. The same year they went to the mines of California, but returned in 1853, locating in Polk county. John C. and A. L. then became interested in building and contracting, and in this capacity put up a great many barns throughout the county. In 1856 John C. left off building and enlisted for the Indian service in Company K, Second Regiment of Oregon and Washington, and served for more than four months, and participation in many skirmishes, and in the battles of Grand Round and Walla Walla.
After being discharged from the service in September, 1856, Mr. Hastings returned to Polk county and married Melissa Wood, who was born in Arkansas, and whose father, Frank Wood, was a trader and farmer, who crossed the plains in 1853. Locating near Eugene, Ore., he traded and farmed until his death. Of this marriage there have been born eight children, the order of their birth being as follows: James Francis and Martha Jane, deceased; Henry Greenbury, a farmer near Airlie; B. S., a farmer of this county; Joseph L., a conductor on the Southern Pacific Railroad, with headquarters at Roseburg, Ore.; Mary Alice, the wife of Clyde Jackson, of Utah; John Franklin, living at Walla Walla, Wash.; and Clara Olive, living at home. For a time after his marriage Mr. Hastings lived on a rented farm in Polk county, and then went to Walla Walla, intending to make his home. However, he changed his mind after eighteen months and came back to Polk county, where he bought a farm of one hundred and sixty acres on the Willamette river, but sold the same in 1871. He then purchased his farm of four hundred and forty acres adjoining the town of Airlie, one hundred and sixty acres of which is at present under cultivation, and all is fenced and improved. His son, Henry G., at present has charge of the property, and he is enjoying life after many years of arduous toil. Mr. Hastings is a Democrat in politics, and has served as road supervisor and school director, having held the latter office for twelve years. He is a member of the Christian Church, and has been since his young manhood. Honorable and upright in all of his dealings, with a stern sense of duty and the claims of citizenship, Mr. Hastings has won the respect and good will of all with whom he has come in contact in the west, and his success is a matter of pride in this progressive community."
OBITUARY: 
John C. Hastings died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. P.L. Hedges, in Independence Monday afternoon at the age of 83 years. He had not been well for a few days, tho it was not considered that he was seriously ill and his death was very unexpected. 
Mr. Hastings was a pioneer of Oregon, residing on a farm in the Airlie section for many years before coming to Independence to be near his daughter. He was acquainted with nearly everybody in town and had many friends. Four sons, two daughters and a number of other relatives mourn his going. 
Funeral services were held at the P.L. Hedges home Wednesday afternoon, Pastor H. Claude Stephens of the Christian church in charge. Interment at Airlie.
Independence Monitor, Friday, 15 Sep, 1916, 1:3
INSCRIPTION: 
John C. Hastings
Mar. 18, 1833
Sept. 11, 1916
[shares marker with Melissa]
SOURCES: 
Saucy/Tolle Survey & Photographs
OSBH DC (Polk County 1916) #93
Polk Co, Oregon, Marriage Records, 1849-1879, page 13
PBRWV, pg 817
IM 15 Sept 1916, 1:3
CONTACTS: 
ROW: 22-5  
IMAGES: