The Preacher in the Valley

The claim
In my novel, a preacher named Philip Workman talks with the protagonist, who builds his church. He is drawn from a real man: my third great-grandfather, Philip Workman (1839-1909) of Mabel, Oregon.

Mabel church, in Oregon 1941

What my family told me
Philip's family came west over the Oregon Trail, and his first wife died along the way. He became a preacher in Oregon.

What the record shows
Philip was born on March 18, 1839, in Knox County, Ohio, and died on February 4, 1909, in Mabel, Oregon. He was a farmer and, from 1872 in Iowa, a minister. He helped found the Mabel church in 1887 and was ordained an elder when it was dedicated in 1896. His first wife, Harriet, died on July 20, 1871. He remarried in Iowa in 1872. A San Francisco hotel list from December 1876 names a Workman couple from Iowa, which may be Philip and Maria on their way to Oregon. Until he bought eighty acres near Mabel in 1899, the family appears to have lived on or with his brother Andrew's property.

What I kept, and what I changed
Kept: his name, his ministry, his church and his brother's land.
Changed: who builds. In my novel the protagonist builds the church and a coastal fortress on that land. In life, the congregation built the church in 1896 on two acres bought from Andrew.

What I can't tell you
My family says they crossed on the Oregon Trail, while a 1939 history and the hotel list point to a journey through San Francisco in the winter of 1876. A family sheet says Harriet died "on the Oregon Trail," but he remarried in Iowa in 1872, so I don't know where she died.

One possibility, which I can't prove: the family first set out west in 1871, Harriet died on the way, and Philip turned back to Iowa. He remarried, then made the journey again in 1876. That would make both accounts true, each of a different trip.

How I'm treating it

Documented: Philip's 1909 death certificate (Lane County, no. 686); his ordination and the church's dedication, reported in The Gospel Messenger (October 24, 1896); his election to the ministry in Iowa, reported in The Pilgrim (January 1873); the December 18, 1876 San Francisco Chronicle guest list naming "R. Workman" and "Mrs. M. Workman" of Iowa (the initial may be a misread "P").

Compiled histories (secondary): The marriages, children and Harriet's death, from a family sheet; the journey, from a 1939 history by Gladys Esther Muir that carries the account of Philip's daughter Ida Mae.

Family testimony: The Oregon Trail crossing, and Harriet's death on the trail.

Unknown: Whether there were two journeys, where Harriet died, and the full pension file I've requested.

Open the files
FILE 001-C-001 // Life of Philip Workman