Isaac & Sarah Ellis Lyle

Isaac & Sarah Ellis Lyle

Submitted by

Meri Arnett-Kremian

(Great –great granddaughter)

Issac and Sarah Caroline Ellis Lyle

Photo Courtesy of Marti Lehman

Sarah Caroline Ellis was the 8th child of David and Sarah Ellis. She was born 01 Dec 1841 in Oldtown, Hampshire County, Virginia (now West Virginia), on the Potomac River. By 1850, the family had moved across the river to Maryland and is found there in the 1850 Census (Maryland - Allegany County, 7th Election District, page176 - Dwelling # 2431 - Household # 2487). The household at the time of the census included the following members:

David Ellis 69 M millwright b. Virginia

Sarah Ellis 45 F b. Virginia

Susanna Ellis 19 F b. Virginia

Samuel Ellis 18 M b. Virginia

Alice Ellis 16 F b. Virginia

Elly Ellis 14 M b. Virginia

Thomas Townsend Ellis 13 M b. Virginia

Hiram Ellis 11 M b. Maryland

Sarah Ellis 9 F b. Maryland

Henry Ellis 6 M b. Maryland

Joseph Morris 35 M S cutter b. France

Sometime between late 1850 and 1852, the family packed up their belongings and set off to find land to farm in Iowa. They were present for the 1852 Iowa Census, living in Cedar Township of Mahaska County. David Ellis, the family patriarch, died in Mahaska County in December of 1852, leaving Sarah Farmer Ellis a 47-year old widow with five minor children, including her daughter Sarah Caroline.

Sarah Farmer Ellis, mother of Sarah Ellis Lyle,appears as the head of household in the 1860 Census - Iowa - Mahaska County - Cedar Township - page 185 - Dwelling # 461Household # 476. She listed her occupation as housekeeper, her birthplace as Virginia, and valued her real property at $2000 and her personal property at $300. Her 29-year-old widowed daughter, Susan Frances Ellis Zaring -- age 29 -- lived with her. Susan was a seamstress, born in Virginia, with real property valued at $800 and personal property valued at $50. Susan's children, Sarah A. Zaring (age 3, born in Iowa) and Elena M. Zaring (age 11 months, born in Iowa) lived with their mother. Sarah Caroline Ellis, age 17 - born in Virginia, and Henry C. Ellis, age 15, born in Iowa (per the census) lived in the household, as well. Henry had attended school within the previous year, but Sarah Caroline had not. She could read and write, however, as could the other adult members of the household.

Approximately ten years after David's death, Sarah Jane Farmer Ellis --the family matriarch -- loaded up her children and their families and went west by wagon train. The captain of the wagon train was John Knox Kennedy (the father of Rhoda Kennedy, wife of Sarah Jane Ellis's son Samuel George Ellis). The wagon train route traveled along the Platte River almost all the way through Nebraska, by way of Cheyenne and Laramie through Wyoming, into Idaho following the Snake River to about the point now called Weiser, then proceeded into Oregon, and on to Walla Walla. They arrived in Wally Valley in Washington Territory in about September 1862.

According to information collected by their grandson, Estel Lile, Sarah Caroline Ellis met her future husband at a dance, which was being held in honor of a wagon train leaving the valley to return to the east. As the story goes, Isaac Lyle (b. 12 Dec 1836 Cooperstown, Lancaster County or Westmoreland County., PA) had set his mind on going back to the east to be with his mother and siblings in Ohio and Pennsylvania until he Miss Sarah Caroline. He fell instantly in love and decided on the spot to stay in Walla Walla. He and Sarah were married December 31, 1863. The marriage certificate is recorded in the Walla Walla County courthouse.

At Elmer Miller’s 80th birthday celebration in La Grande, Oregon in 1980, descendants of Issac and Sarah said that Isaac Lile came to Walla Walla, Washington from Pennsylvania by wagon train in 1854 when he was 18 years old. It is more likely that he had moved from Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania to Ohio with his mother and left from there, but perhaps the family story is correct. Issac was said to have lived in the sixteenth house built in Walla Walla. There he set up a cobbler shop and made boots for the cowboys. As a young man, he had been apprenticed to a shoemaker in Pennsylvania or possibly Ohio, where his mother settled after her remarriage following the death of John Lyle. Isaac lived in Walla Walla for a while, but was becoming homesick and missed his family. But for the fortuitous meeting with the comely Miss Ellis, he might have departed Walla Walla with a wagon train that was going back to the east.

But the match was made and a marriage consummated within a year. Issac and Sarah Ellis Lile had three sons, Levi Townsend Lile (December 12, 1864- August 12, 1877), George David Franklin Lile (November 25, 1866 – February 10, 1920), and Charles Arthur Lile (November 5, 1868 – October 26, 1895).

After their marriage, the couple lived in the Waitsburg area in Walla Walla county.

1870 Census - Washington Territory - Walla Walla County -Waitsburg - page 2 (handwritten) - Dwelling # 21 - Household #21

Isaac Lyle 33 M W shoemaker RP $2500 PP $500 b. Pennsylvania -father of foreign birth - mother of foreign birth - male citizen over 21

Sarah Lyle 28 F W keeping house b. Maryland

Levi Lyle 6 M W b. Washington Territory - attended school

George Lyle 4 M W b. Washington Territory

Charles Lyle 2 M W b. Washingotn Territory

Sarah J. Ellis 64 F W b. Virginia (Sarah was Isaac's mother in law)

W. H. Goddard 28 M W preacher b. Connecticut

Sarah Ellis Lyle's brother Samuel Ellis and his wife Rhoda Kennedy Ellis and their children lived next door.

Isaac Lile was one of the first permanent settlers in what is known as the "Ruark section" of Garfield County. Isaac Lile arrived in 1877 following Thomas Ruark, who arrived in 1875.Major Truax arrived in 1878. Truax was an engineer and surveyor who built the first wheat chute by which wheat descended from the top of the plateau about 2000 feet down to a boat in the Snake River. The History of Garfield County(Washington) byJudge E.V. Kuykendall (in N.W. Collection of Tacoma PublicLibrary).

At the time of the 1880 Census, Isaac and Sarah Lile were living in enumeration District No. 53 in Columbia County, Washington Territory. Living in the home with them were George, age 12, and Charles, age 11. Both boys had attended school during the previous year. Their brother, Levi Townsend Lile, had died about three years previously. The 1880 Census lists Isaac's place of birth as Pennsylvania and that of both his father and mother as Germany (which is likely an error, although they may have been of German or "Pennsylvania Dutch" heritage).

Sarah proceeded Isaac in death on 04 Nov 1887. She died in Alpowai, near Pomeroy, Garfield County, Washington Territory. After Sarah’s death, her son George married Sarah Emoline Clayton in October 1891. When George was able to obtain a homestead, it was adjacent to his father’s land in the Deadman area near Pomeroy, Garfield County, Washington.

George Lile's homestead land adjoined his father's in the Deadman area northeast of Pomeroy. The land had an orchard, a spring, and a hydraulic ram that kept their water barrel filled with good tasting, clear sparkling water all the year round.This water barrel was just outside the kitchen door a few steps and the overflow was piped down to the watering trough for the horses and cattle. They had a handsome clapboard house that George and his father built and there was a good country school about 1 1/2 miles away. George and Emmy's children reported that their father was a good manager and a good provider. Their mother was a good cook, a fine mother, and a homemaker who did much sewing, quilt making, canning and baking.

There were lots of horses on the farm and some cattle. There were riding horses, horses to pull the buggy and the hack and the wagons, horses to pull the harrows, plows, discs, the"drill" that seeded the wheat and barley. There was also a binder and a combine harvester, all "horse powered." The harvester required 27 horses to pull it. No doubt the children in the family helped to feed and care for the horses and cattle.

Isaac Lile lived on his own farm for a while, but he eventually moved to the home of his son and daughter-in-law Sarah Emoline “Emmy” Clayton. Isaac was always busy. He had a garden that he tended in the summer and he always chopped wood for the woodpile in cold months. He kept a subscription to "The Youth's Companion" and all the family read it. He enjoyed reading his Bible and smoking his pipe. He bought one of Thomas Edison's phonographs with a big blue horn that had roses painted inside it. The family had many cylinder records. Sometimes on Sunday afternoon, “Grandpa Isaac” Lile would hitch up the team to the hack, put the phonograph and some records in it, and drive to a neighbor's farm and play records for them. His was the first phonograph in the area and it must have been a great cause for celebration when the music played.

After some trouble with neighbors whose children were

so reckless that the Liles feared for their children’s lives, the Lile family decided to sell their land. They moved first to Clarkston in Asotin County, Washington.

After two years in Clarkston, George Lile heard about a farm available in Wallowa County, Oregon and it seemed like a good deal. The family moved to this farm in the fall of 1917. It was in the Eagle School district and the family was readily accepted in the community. Lela and Estel went to school, walking a mile and a half, carrying their lunches.

At the time of the 1920 Census, Isaac was living with his son George, his daughter in law Sarah "Emmy" Clayton Lile, and his grandchildren in Wallowa County, Oregon. Isaac was 83 years old. His place of birth was listed as Pennsylvania, but curiously, his parents' birthplaces were listed as Ohio. (This information may have been supplied by someone other than Isaac. The census was taken January 24, a week before Isaac died during the flu epidemic. George David Franklin Lile, Isaac and Sarah Ellis Lile’s only surviving son, died of the flu only one week after the death of his father.