John SIMPSON

                   Obituary included in notes.

Cemetery Lot:  Buried in lot 1, Block 73, Goldendale cemetery.  I have picture of grave stone.
Carl R. Wallis

The Goldendale Sentinel, Goldendale, WA., December 30, 1915, page 1MRS. BURGEN PASSESMrs. Susan Burgen an octogenarian and pioneer of the Klickitat Valley and head of a family of five generations who died at home of her daughter Mrs. Frank L. Branton, in Goldendale on December 21 was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, March 21st, 1829. Mrs. Burgen was the widow of John S. Burgen one of the very first settlers in the Klickitat Valley and mother of the first white child born in Klickitat. Mrs. Burgen was married in the east and crossed the plains with her husband by ox team in 1852, locating in Linn County, Or., near Scio. In 1859 John S. Burgen, having heard of the wonderful bunch grass valley on the Washington side of the Columbia east of the Cascades, came to Klickitat by the Barlow route across the Cascades with his family and the families of his brother and another man. After his arrival in Klickitat he erected a sturdy log cabin at a large spring on the upper swale four miles south of Goldendale and established a stock ranch. Later Mr. Burgen homesteaded the land and title to the place was still retained by Mrs. Burgen at the time of her death. The Yakima Indians who used the Klickitat Valley as a summer grazing grounds for immense herds of cattle and horses, resented invasion by a white settlers and during the many Indian scares of the 60âs when great hordes of painted savages on the war path swapped down into the Klickitat Valley from across the Simcoe Range, causing many settlers to flee in a wild stampede leaving their livestock and property behind. Mr. Burgen held his ground in his cabin and his wife stood guard with him with a rifle in her hand many a night to protect their family and property from blood thirsty redskins. Despite her advanced age Mrs. Burgen remained active till the end and until her health began to fail about five years ago she directed the affairs on her large grain farm and a few days before her death she was engaged in making Christmas quilts for her great grandchildren. As a citizen of Mrs. Burgen was always keenly interested in the development of the Klickitat county and her greatest pleasure in recent years was motoring through the broad grain fields and substantial dwellings on the land that she had seen as virgin soil more than half of a century before. Mrs. Burgen is survived by eight children, 25 grand children, 32 great grand children and one great great grand child. Surviving children are: Mrs. Jane Thompson, cliffs, Wash.; Mrs. Mary Wallace, Rufus, Ore.; Thomas Burgen, Ephrata, Wash.; Mrs. J.P. Graham, Goldendale; William C. Burgen, Goldendale; Oscar Burgen, Ephrata, Wash.; Mrs. Emma Pierce, Pacific City, Wash.; and Mrs. F.L. Branton of Goldendale. Nineteen of the twenty five surviving grandchildren are: Frank Thompson, North Yakima; Mrs. William McGrath, Goldendale; John O. Thompson, Lewiston, Idaho; Mrs. C.K. Andrews, Heppner, Ore.; Walter Thompson, Cliffs, Wash.; W.A. Wallis, Mrs. Ida M. Foister and Mrs. Paul M. French of Portland; H.E. Willamette, Ore.; C.W. Wallace, Fairbanks, Alaska; Collin Burgen, Ephrata, Wash.; Mrs. Charles McEwen, Thomas Graham, George Burgen, and J.O. Branton of Goldendale; William D. Burgen, Hoquiam, Wash.; Mrs. Etanley Fells, Portland and Mrs. Maude Ragsdale of Pacific City, Wash. The fifth generation is represented by the baby daughter of Mrs. Bertha Brown of Portland, Ore. Mrs. Burgenâs sister-in-law also named Susan Burgen still lives on the farm on Chamberlain Flat near Cliffs on the Columbia River taken up by Thomas Burgen when he came to Klickitat with John S. Burgen in 1859.