George Walling Loosley

One of the first white children born at Champoeg, Oregon, in Clackamas County, was George Walling Loosley on August 16, 1856. He and his father, John Loosley, came to Klamath County in 1871, built and operated the first flour mill here and took an active part in the early development of the county. John Loosley was born on February 9, 1824, in Oxford, England, where he received his education. There he sang in Queen Victoria’s choir in the Episcopal Church. His trip to the United States required three months and on arrival he began his life-long trade of flour miller by operating a mill in Chicago. In 1852 he settled in Clackamas County, after coming west by covered wagon, remaining there nearly twenty years before he located in Klamath County at Wood River Valley where he was the first rancher and built the first home, dying there November 24, 1900. George Loosley’s mother, Lucy Walling, was born at Muscatine, Iowa, January 22, 1834. She crossed the plains in a covered wagon with her father, locating at Albany, Oregon, in 1847, and was married at Amity, Oregon, April 1, 1854. Her life was devoted to her 12 children and neighborhood service as practical nurse. On May 28, 1912, she died at Wood River. Among her children known here are Benjamin Henry of Malin; Birdseye McPherson, of Diamond Lake Junction; Fanny (Mrs. Oscar Bunch), of Chiloquin; Philip Sheridan, of Medford, Oregon.

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Death of John Loosley

It is reported that John Loosley an old settler and highly respected resident of this county died at his home in Fort Klamath last Saturday of heart trouble with which he has been a long sufferer. He came to Klamath county from McMinnville, Ore. in 1872. He leaves a wife and seven sons and three daughters. The sons are George, Fred, Phillip, Bird, Marion and Ben of Fort Klamath, Milan Loosley who is in Alaska, and the daughters, Mrs. John Smart, Mrs. Oscar Bunch of Fort Klamath, Mrs. George Nutley of Tacoma, Wash. The funeral took place Sunday.

Source: Klamath Republican, November 29,1900

 

George Walling Loosley

Various business interests and activities have claimed the attention of George W. Loosley, whose efforts have not only been a source of individual profit but also an element in public progress and prosperity. He now makes his home on a ranch on the west bank of Wood river, three miles south of Fort Klamath, and has converted the place from a tract of wild land into a well developed farm. He was born at Champoeg, Clackamas county, Oregon, August 16, 1856, a son of John and Lucy (Walling) Loosley. The father was born in Oxford, England, February 8, 1824, and the mother in Muscatine, Iowa, January 22, 1834. The father served an apprenticeship at the miller’s trade and when twenty-one years of age crossed the Atlantic to New York, whence he made his way to Chicago. There he operated a mill for a year and in 1852 made his way to the Gold Mines of California. He followed mining near Yreka and also in Jackson county, Oregon, and he operated the first gristmill at Albany, Oregon. He was married there and later when to Champoeg, where he conducted a gristmill for Major McLaughlin. Subsequently, he removed to the Grande Ronde Indian reservation in Yamhill county, where he was in the employ of the government under General John F. Miller for about three years. He next went to McMinnville, where he operated a gristmill for several years, but he lost all that he had in the milling business about 1870. He was also in ill health and he had a family of seven children to support. Conditions looked very dark and discouraging but in 1871 he made his way to Klamath Agency, secured a tract of government land and filed on his homestead, settling in the Wood River valley before the survey was made. The remainder of his life was here passed, his death occurring November 8, 1900. He engaged in the cattle business here, starting with sixty head, and he was the first to demonstrate the fact that cattle could remain in the valley through the winter, the other settlers telling him that there was too much snow. Mr. Loosley, however, cut hay and fed his stock and his care of them enabled them to withstand the hard winter. He owned three hundred and twenty acres of land and hard from three hundred to four hundred head of cattle on the range, for the whole country was open then. During the first two years of his residence in this part of the state he was employed at the Indian agency, at which time his nearest neighbors were at Klamath Falls, forty miles away, with some soldiers at the fort. He was largely instrumental in having this valley settled by homeseekers and he contributed in large measure to the early improvement and progress in this part of the state. His wife survived him and passed away in the Wood River valley May 28, 1912. She was a daughter of Jerome B. and Sarah Walling, natives of the middle west, who in 1847 crossed the plains to the Willamette valley and settled on the present site of Amity, in Yamhill county, where they secured a donation claim. In 1864 Mr. Walling removed to Boise Idaho, where he secured land and put in the first irrigation system and also planted the first orchard of that district. He prospered in his undertakings and had a goodly competency to leave to his large family at this death.