Fagan, David D. "History of Benton County, Oregon."  Portland, OR: A. G.
Walling, Printer, Lithographer, Etc., 1885.  pg. 510.
 
JESSE H. CATON

     Deceased.  This pioneer, the son of Noah and Frances Caton, was born in
Carroll county, Missouri, December 10, 1819.  In his early boyhood his father
moved to what was at that time Bates county, and settled on a stream called
Maunation.  He remained with his father most of the time, assisting in the
cultivation of the farm, until the spring of 1843, when he started for Oregon in
company with the Applegates, Dr. Whitman and Col. Nesmith.  He helped to bring
the first wagon down the Blue Mountains.  The first three years he passed in
Oregon he was employed in Oregon City and Forest Grove, at whatever employment
he could obtain, making his home with Alvin T. Smith of the latter place.  At
Almond Hills on Wapato Lake, in that neighborhood, he worked ne hundred days and
received therefor two Spanish cows, these animals being then valued at fifty
dollars per head.  In the fall of 1846 he located the first claim in waht has
since become known as the Belknap Settlement.  In the spring of 1847 he moved
with thirty head of cattle and one horse to his new home, Jacob Hammer and wife
keeping house for him during the first twelve months.  Mr. Caton was married,
December 31, 1848, to Miss Precious Starr, Rev. J. Starr officiating.  In 1856
he visited his old home in Missouri, his wife and child accompanying him, and
returning to Benton county in the following year, bought a residence in the city
of Corvallis, where his family still dwell.  April 26, 1863, he started for
Eastern Oregon purposing to be absent a few weeks, but after a few hours
sickness died in Union county, June 15, 1863, leaving a widow and four children,
two boys and two girls, who still own the farm in the Belknap settlement.  He
was a member of Barnum Lodge, No. 7, I.O.O.F., also of the Methodist Episcopal
church in Corvallis.

*******************

Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in September 2006 by Diana Smith.
Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned
above.