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96 d D Breaking Chains unanimously in the Council on January 5, 1854, and apparently without objection in the House two days later.15 The law, as written into the Revised Statutes of the Territory of Oregon for 1855, provided, “The following persons shall not be competent to testify: Negroes, mulattoes and Indians, or persons having one-half or more of Indian blood, in an action or proceeding in which a white person is a party.’’16 However, the law seems to have been ignored by some judges, as blacks would testify against whites in at least two court cases in later years. Despite the ruling in Holmes vs. Ford, the legacy of slavery would remain very much alive for African Americans in Oregon in the mid-1850s. One whose ordeal wasn’t over was Holmes’ daughter, Mary Jane. Reuben Shipley The slave known as Reuben Shipley arrived in Oregon on September 1, 1853, just six weeks after Judge Williams’ ruling in favor of Robin and Polly Holmes.1 Oregon’s 1849 exclusion law was repealed in 1854, and thus did not seriously threaten Shipley with removal. Shipley, who was born in Kentucky, traveled from Missouri to Oregon in a wagon train with his white owner, Robert N. Shipley. Census records for 1850 in Missouri listed Robert Shipley with three slaves. These were two women, ages thirty-one and fifty-five, and one male, age forty-four, who no doubt was Reuben Shipley. Reuben served as overseer on the Shipley farm near Saline in Miller County in central Missouri. Overseer was a position of prestige for a slave, indicating he was well-thought-of and trusted by his owner. Robert N. Shipley owned five properties in Miller County over the years, totaling one hundred and eighty-six acres, although it’s not clear he owned them all at the same time. Several accounts, including the author’s family genealogy, said Reuben Shipley—“Uncle Reuben Shipley” in the genealogy—was promised his freedom if he would help Robert Shipley move to Oregon with his first wife, Charlotte Mulkey, and their seven children.2 Reuben was to drive a team of oxen, pulling a wagon. Should he refuse Shipley’s offer, his other option was to remain in Missouri and be sold again as a slave. In a 1938 interview, Robert Shipley’s daughter, Amy Shipley Lurwell, indicated that the choice for Reuben was a Reuben Shipley d D 97 painful one, as going to Oregon meant leaving behind his wife and two sons, who belonged to another owner or owners. As Lurwell told the story, Robert Shipley’s two female slaves were given the same option, but chose to stay in Missouri. Before leaving Missouri my father was a slave holder in a small way. He had two women and one man slave. When he prepared to leave for Oregon he offered these slaves their choice. Either they could go with him and help on the journey and then be free in Oregon, or they could stay behind where their relatives lived and have another master. The women chose to stay in Missouri with their husbands and families (belonging to other masters), but the man, though married, chose to go to Oregon. He worked faithfully all the way across the plains and then took his liberty. After reaching Oregon this man whose name was Reuben went to work to earn money to purchase his wife back in Missouri.3 The Robert Shipley family settled in Benton County, establishing a claim for one hundred and sixty acres south of present-day Philomath, near the foothills of the Coast Range. Shipley’s wife, Charlotte, died soon after they arrived, and in 1856 he married Elizabeth Jane Goodman. In addition to farming, Robert Shipley also identified himself as a wheelwright. Unlike Nathaniel Ford, Shipley did not enter politics. The 1860 U.S. Census listed the combined value of his real and personal property as $3,600.4 He died in 1883 and is buried in the Monroe Cemetery in Benton County. More is known about Shipley’s son, John L. Shipley, who no doubt would have worked alongside Reuben. John Shipley married Rachel Ann Henkle and became postmaster and collector of toll charges on the Yaquina Bay Wagon Road in Lincoln County. He later moved to Philomath where he purchased a store from The Reverend Thomas J. Conner in 1872.5 Keeping his word, Robert Shipley gave Reuben his freedom in Oregon, after which...

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