Extensive Research Leads to a Book & a Special Designation
By Craig Reed
When Janet Fisher walks the hillsides of her property overlooking the Umpqua River, she imagines stepping into the footprints left by Martha Maupin.
Carisa Cegavske, Janet’s daughter, frequently has that same feeling because walking over the land has been a longtime family tradition.
On April 24, 1868, Martha A. Maupin took ownership of the 320-acre Shadrach Hudson donation land claim and began the tradition of walking the river bottom pasture and the timbered hillsides.
“This is where she took her stand,” Janet says of her great-great-grandmother Martha.
So many years later, Janet now lives in a hillside home, and Carisa, with husband Robin Loznak, lives in a home on the river valley floor.
“Living here is like walking in the footsteps of your ancestors,” Carisa says. To recognize and honor Martha’s strength and the history of the family property, Janet has accomplished 2 goals. She researched, wrote, and released in 2014, “A Place of Her Own: The Legacy of Oregon Pioneer Martha Poindexter Maupin,” a 240-page book detailing Martha’s life from her 1829 birth in Kentucky to her final days in 1909 along the Umpqua River.
In 2024, Janet’s research was used as she applied for certification of the Martha A. Maupin Sesquicentennial Farm, recognizing the property’s ownership in the same family for 150 years. The sesquicentennial designation was officially announced at a ceremony during the 2024 Oregon State Fair in Salem.
“It’s wonderful to be a part of that history,” Janet says.
“It’s amazing,” Carisa says. “Mom is right when she says we have deep roots here. To stand on this property and to know my great-great-great-grandmother also stood here is pretty amazing.”
According to Janet’s research, Martha grew up on a farm in Greene County, Illinois. At 15, Martha traveled with 2 of her brothers to Missouri. There she met Garrett Maupin. Against her parents’ wishes, they married on May 16, 1845. She was 16.
In 1850, with 2 young daughters and Martha pregnant with a third child, the family made the 2,000-mile trek across the Oregon Trail. Martha walked all the way. The journey ended in Lane County, where the couple’s third child was born.
In the spring of 1851, the couple took out a donation land claim in Lane County for 640 acres. They endured the next several years, surviving rough times in their marriage and in their community. Late in 1860, Martha sued Garrett for divorce but didn’t go through with it, probably because she would have lost her children. There were 7 at the time, and in those days, Janet says, the children belonged to the father.
Financial troubles forced the Maupins to give up half of their donation land claim. In 1864, Garrett, a staunch Southern sympathizer, got in the middle of the North-South rivalry. Wanted by the law, Garrett and his family fled south to Douglas County, renting a cabin on a farm near Elkton. He worked on the farm to pay the rent and also got a job hauling freight.
In 1866, while hauling a load, Garrett’s wagon tipped over, and he was smothered under bales of wool. Friends offered Martha and her 9 children temporary lodging.
When she learned the nearby Shadrach Hudson land claim of 320 acres was for sale, she was interested but didn’t have the $1,000 needed to buy it. She learned of a man in Scottsburg who would lend the money, but he wouldn’t negotiate with a woman. So, Martha’s oldest son, Cap, 13 at the time, negotiated the $1,000 loan, and the property was purchased in April 1868 from H.M. Martin. Cap was too young to own property, so it was Martha’s.
18 years later, Martha sold the property to Cap and another grown son, Thomas. Cap became the sole owner of Martha’s original land when he and his brothers split up the additional property they had purchased together.
Cap became the first farmer in Douglas County to grow hops and build a hops dryer. He planted the first prune orchard in 1895 and converted the dryer to work on the prunes.
Martha died in 1909 at age 80 or 81, depending on the source.
Eugene Fisher, Cap’s great-nephew, was the farm’s next owner. Soon after graduating from Oregon State College in 1933, Eugene contracted with Cap to purchase the farm Martha founded. Cap died in 1934, and 3 years later, Eugene and his wife, Marian, completed payments on the contract for the farm.
Eugene turned out to be the longest owner/operator of the farm. During his 75-year stewardship, he expanded the prune orchard, automated the dryer facility, managed the timber as a crop and bought adjacent land.
He also found time for community service. Eugene served on school boards at every level from local to national. President Dwight Eisenhower appointed him to a special White House Conference on Education. Oregon Gov. Mark Hatfield appointed him to the Oregon State Board of Education. He also served on farm boards and is listed in the Oregon 4-H Hall of Fame. Twice, he was named Douglas County Tree Farmer of the Year.
In recognition of his community service, he was presented the Oregon State University Distinguished Service Award, 1 of the university’s highest honors.
Eugene died in 2007 at 95. Until becoming ill in 2006, he actively operated the farm with the help of his daughter, Janet. Upon completion of probate, Janet purchased her sister’s share of the property inheritance and became the sole owner of the 641-acre farm.
For several years, the farm continued to harvest and dry prunes. It also dried prunes for other local growers. But when the price of oil used in the dryers spiked in 2011, the operation was shut down. For a few years, the farm’s prunes were transported to dryers in Northern Oregon, but due to a poor prune market, the farm’s older trees and a tree disease, most of the prune orchard was replaced with plantings of hazelnut trees.
To cover expenses, Janet sold 71 acres in 2014 and another 40 in 2018. The remaining 530 acres include Martha’s original 320 acres.
When Janet took ownership of the farm, she thought about the fact that a woman was the first in the family to own property and that another woman in the family now owns it. It led to her work on the book and sesquicentennial designation.
“I came back to the farm because it’s a gorgeous place and my roots are here,” Janet says. “I hope to remain agile enough for quite a few more years in order to manage the land.
“There’s no easy answer,” she adds of the farm’s future, noting that she has 2 daughters, Carisa and Christiane, and 2 adult grandchildren.
Somewhere in time, those generations will make the decisions regarding the family’s ties to the land along the Umpqua River.