In 1847 William Kuykendall (b. Virginia) arrived in Oregon. He married Margaret Jane Hines on 3/9/1848 and on June 1, 1850, they took a Donation Land Claim of 638.71 acres (#8062 claim #57)) in the Grand Ronde Valley, along the South Yamhill River in Polk County, Oregon Territory. Margaret had arrived in Oregon 10/31/1847, and was born in Cole County, Missouri in 1827. The land they claimed was owned by the Yamel (Yamhill) band of Kalapuyans. The land claim was diamond shaped, with points north, south, east and west which did not align with the normal grid of the land established in the 1850s under the General Land Office survey system grid (with corners NW, NE, SW, SE). Its clear the claim was taken before a survey, otherwise the claim would have likely aligned with the regular grid. William, before his death gave Margaret the lower half of the land claim, and to his children the upper half of his claim under a sworn statement delivered to the Justice of the peace in 1872- this division was changed to a division of the east and west halves, due to the question of which direction was upper-or northern, and which was lower or southern. There is some discussion of this new division in the Babcock files (OR State Archives microfilm) as east and west were considered true north and south. In 1871 John and Leonia Babcock had gotten a surveyor to redivide the land with E-W division based on their building a barn in a convenient location for them. On December 21, 1867, Leonia Babcock purchased from Avery and Margaret the west 200 acres of the east half of the Kuykendall land for $2000.
William Kuykendall died June 17, 1851 from an unspecified illness, and he was only 36 years old. He and Margaret had already had a son, William H. Kuykendall. Margaret continued to cultivate the land and in her affidavit specified this fact, so they she may gain the title after five years- a residency requirement for the DLCs. Margaret married again to the close neighbor to the west, Avery D. Babcock, on May 15, 1853. Avery had entered Oregon and taken a claim of 159.35 acres in 1852 and so he apparently never met William Kuykendall. He had been married previously to Leona R. Lady (Dodson, Babcock, Lady, Babcock are the various surnames given for Leona/Leonia) and she filed a quit claim against the Avery Babcock land claim. Lady also appears to have married Avery’s brother, John C. Babcock in Avery’s home (1867), and moved to Tillamook.
The Kuykendall claim was under review for decades after William’s death. In 1856 affidavits were taken from Margaret and the neighbors, J. Simpson, Levi Burden, Nathan Hussey, George Tharp, George Brown, and others attesting to the fact the Margaret Kuykendall now Babcock had resided on the Kuykendall land from 1850 to 1853. John and Leona Babcock (sometimes in the files written as surname Lady, but usually Babcock) filed a claim against the Avery Babcock’s land claim, which was not decided until 1878. The Kuykendall land was claimed by Lady since she maintains a claim to the Babcock land until 1874. But the Court decided that the Kuykendall land was not part of the divorce settlement.
In addition on September 16, 1871 Avery and Margaret conveyed by deed the west half of the Kuykendall land to William’s sole heir William H. Kuykendall. The country register Owen Wilson recommended that William H. maintain the western half of his father’s claim and that Margaret and Avery had already sold part of their claim to the eastern half to the Leonia and John. John died in Grand Ronde, Polk County, Dec. 6, 1871 of pneumonia.
The Kuykendall and Babcock lands claims were within the reported 60,000 acre reservation Grand Ronde Indian Reservation (reported in numerous Indian office annual reports) . There were five such claims maintained inside the reservation. They were William Kuykendall, Avery D. Babcock, Levi Burden, George Musker, John Wallace. (Kuykendall 638.71 acres, Babcock 159.35 acres, Burden 320.19 acres, Musker 320.68 acres, Wallace 320.91) Their total acreage was 1,759.84 acres owned; therefore, the reservation was only ever 58,240.16 acres. See GLO cadastral survey map t060s070w 10/31/1863, BLM GLO website for acreage counts. (see my other essay Acreage counts)
In 1897 Avery D. Babcock and his wife made a claim to the Department of War over the use of his land claim by the United States for the Grand Ronde Indian reservation
“these lands were taken possession of by the United States in 1856 and…