Sept 7, 2013, Alice Elliff Gravestone at Elliff DLC

Sept 7, 2013, Alice Elliff Gravestone at Elliff DLC

A photograph from September 7th, 2013 of Alice Elliff's gravestone on the Elliff DLC land in Myrtle Creek, Douglas County, Oregon. On November 15, 1853, 18-year-old Melvina Baker married 28-year-old Hardy Elliff. The following month, on December 16, Hardy and Melvina filed a 320-acre Donation Land Claim along the Territorial Road – including the Nidey’s original campsite and Elliff’s cabin. According to the Elliff’s granddaughter, Bess Clough, (in 1961), their first child was born nine months later, in August 1854. Clough said, “Her first child, Alice, was born in the fall of 1854 in the Elliff cabin with the help of Mrs. Fanny Levens, a mid-wife, and Letitia “Aunt Tish” Carson, a Negress who lived with the Elliffs.” Carson and her children appear in Douglas County. For many years she reportedly made her home with the Hardy Elliff family near Galesville (present vicinity of Azalea) in the upper Cow Creek Valley, where she worked for the Elliff family and also served as the community midwife. Her gravestone states that she lived from August 1854 to October 1855 and died during the Rogue Indian Wars. According to her gravestone, she was the first white child born in Cow Creek Valley.

Bob Zybach

Bob Zybach Personal Collection

LCLP

2013-09-07

Bob Zybach

Copyright: Bob Zybach

From a series of photos taken by historian Bob Zybach on September 7th, 2013 at Elliff Cabin, where Letitia lived and worked after leaving David Carson's estate and in the Stephens Graveyard along South
Myrtle Creek, a few miles west of her long-time Douglas County home.

JPEG image

Photograph

Elliff DLC 2013 -4

Stephens Graveyard, Myrtle Creek, Douglas County