Stevens, Ellis LAST: Stevens FIRST: Ellis MID:  GENDER: M MAIDEN NAME:  TITLE:  BORN: 15 Sep 1866 DIED: 24 Jan 1934 BURIED: 28 Jan 1934 OCCUPATION:  Farmer BIRTH PLACE:  Marion Co., Oregon DEATH PLACE: Silverton, Marion Co., Oregon NOTES:  1880 OR CENSUS - Ellis Stevens, age 13, b. Oregon, is enumerated with father Isaac, age 40, farmer, b. Indiana, and Catherine A., age 32, b. Ohio, along with Vina, age 10, Willard, age 9, and Erma, age 7, all born in Oregon. Also enumerated with the family is a domestic servant, Lydia McConnell, age 20, b. California. 1st MARRIAGE - "Ellis Stevens, over 21 and Eva A. Vinton, over 18, m 28 Dec 1894 at house of G. L. Vinton by T. F. Royal, M. G., Brooks. Aff: C. E. McIlwain. Wit: W. T. Ramsden & C. E. McIlwain. #4587 pg 468". 2nd MARRIAGE - "Ellis Stevens, over 21 & Mary A. Nys, over 18, m 1 Feb 1899 at house of & by Arthur Lane, C. P., Aff: W. H. Wolf. Wit: Jos. Fisher & Edna Garrow #5643 pg 328". 1910 OR CENSUS - Ellis Stevens, age 43, farmer, b. Oregon, is enumerated with his wife of 11 years, Mary, age 35, b. Wisconsin, along with Edna, age 9, and Theodore, age 7, both born in Oregon. 1930 OR CENSUS - Ellis Stevens, age 63, farmer, b. Oregon, is enumerated with wife Mary, age 55, b. Wisconsin, along with son Theodore, age 27, b. Oregon BIOGRAPHICAL (From The Gervais Star, 1 Jul 1927): FARMING AT NORTH HOWELL MADE PROFITABLE. “The other day I was on the 200-acre farm of Ellis Stevens, who lives about two miles east of North Howell school house,” said Ivan Stewart, field agent for the Charles R. Archer Implement Company. “I was very much impressed by his farming methods and was particularly pleased to note his optimism regarding the farming situation and toward county life in general. Ellis is a graduate with a master’s degree from the school of practical farming in a course of study that took him over 20 years to complete. “In brief, his present farming operations are so arranged that he keeps seven or eight milk cows, 200 to 300 chickens, two brood sows which provide 20 to 30 head of pigs to fatten, and a small bunch of goats to clean up brush land. His cash crops consist of hay and grain. It is his opinion that this is a livestock valley and he mentioned that he could make far more money fattening from 25 to 30 hogs on the corn he raised on 10 or 12 acres than he could make on several times that much land devoted to grain or hog farming alone. He believes that dairying is indispensable on every farm because it goes hand in hand with the raising of pigs and chickens. “He has raised grain and hay and beef and he knows by actual experience how these compare with the present system of farming. For 28 years he had 108 acres of the old Greenwich donation land claim rented, Grain raising was alright as a major crop enterprise 32 years ago when the taxes were $11 on this 160-acre tract. In 1924 the taxes on this place were $250 and, of course, labor was up in a like proportion. As a consequence this marked the end of straight grain farming for him. Ellis used to run lots of beef cattle along the Pudding river. A few years ago someone gave a talk on the radio and pointed out how much it cost to raise beef cattle up to three years of age. Shortly after that radio talk he sold some prime beef for $25 per head, and when his neighbors asked him how he came out on them, he said, ‘Well, the only thing that kept me from going broke was that I didn’t have enough beef cattle to sell.’ Rasing beef cattle for him was brought to a close. “Our North Howell land is too valuable to raise sheep, except as a very minor side issue, because we can do so much better with cows, hogs, poultry, corn and with small grain and clover work in rotation,” says Mr. Stevens. “With Ellis Stevens the labor problem is growing less in stead of greater, as is the case on many farms, because his son, now in his 20's is a partner. By agreement his son matches his labor against half the net profits and such a plan works out might fine. If any father has any doublet about such and arrangement it is my suggestion that he try it out before he passes judgement, because in practically all the instances that I have seen it tried out it has been very successful. “Country life is satisfactory to the Stevens family, because, as he remarked, it gives a chance for a steady accumulation over a period of years. ‘If I want to visit for an afternoon, I feel that I can do it,’ said Mr. Stevens, ‘or if the wife and I desire to take a trip, we go ahead and take it, and don’t have to ask any boss if we can go.’ “Mr Stevens mentioned that during the past 50 years he was had the pleasure of seeing more improvements for making farm life easier and better than were made in the entire 50 centuries previous to the past 50 years. As a boy he used to drive the old Wood’s reaper when it took one man to rake the grain off the platform and four men to follow behind and tie the bundles. One boy and five men to bind grain ...[line marred on the microfilm copy - can’t read]... who does the entire operation now. ‘My father thought a sulky plow was a joke and absolutely no good, and the greatest objection was, that it was a lazy man’s was of farming.’ “Ellis Stevens is optimistic about farming and country life because he has through years of experience worked out a system of farming that pays. He has built up a fine country home with every improvement that a home in the city can boast, and he is con... [line marred on the microfilm copy - can’t read]... into the harness to carry on for coming generations." OBITUARY:  INSCRIPTION:  Ellis Stevens 1866-1934 Father SOURCES:  Hollin Saucy Survey & Photographs OSBH DC (Marion County 1934) #55 1880 OR CENSUS (Marion Co., Howell, ED 87, sheet 6B) Marriage Records of Marion Co., Or., Vol VII, pg 38 Marriage Records of Marion Co., Or., Vol IX, pg 27 1910 OR CENSUS (Marion Co., Howell, ED 211, sheet 4B) 1930 OR CENSUS (Marion Co., N. Howell, ED 43, sheet 4A) SECTION: II LOT:    IMAGES: