CREED T. BIGGERS was born in the state of Virginia c /1805. He was one of the earliest settlers in Miller
County, locating in the Big Richwood’s. He came to Miller County prior to 1841 and settled on a farm near the Brushy Fork of the Big Tavern creek. Creed was well-known in the area as a fine cabinet maker and also served as an undertaker to the early settlers. In 1853, about the age of 50 years,

Creed and his family moved to Oregon Territory with other Miller County families who had developed gold fever’ and an ever-present wanderlust. He died in Linn County, Oregon in 1877.

In 1853, when they pulled up stakes and moved west, the land surrounding his old cabin home was an open pasture of fine grass. By 1897, when his son, Dr. George W . Biggers, a physician from LaGrande, Oregon, visited the home of his birth, he found a dense forest. The old log house where he had been born in 1845, was almost unchanged and was occupied by the Thomas Spearman family. It had an old spring that still flowed cool and clear with the same log springhouse nearby. It had been there for over 50 years.

Creed T. Biggers married Nancy Lane in Miller County on 19 January 1841. Their marriage was performed by Reuben Short, a Baptist minister in the Big Richwoods. Nancy was a native of Kentucky, born in 1814. In the Miller County census of 1850, Creed and Nancy lived in Richwoods township with their three children: George W . Biggers age 5, Elizabeth Biggers age 3, and James Biggers age 1. Also in the household was Joseph Whittle age 55 of KY; Priscilla Luree /Lane? age 23of Alabama; Obediah and Benjamin Vaughan, ages 11 and 8 of Missouri. I believe Priscilla’s name was actually Lane and she was a sister to Nancy. Also interesting to me was finding Joseph Whittle in their home. He was my great, great, great grandfather (a native of Edmonson Co ., KY ). His wife and children were listed in a separate household during the same census. I do not know why he was in the home of Creed Biggers while his family was living elsewhere.
 

Creed T. Biggers was granted additional land in Miller County from the U .S . government on 1 October 1845. The location of the 40 acres was northeast of Iberia, owned today by the Prather family. In the same section and to the southeast, a man named Mordecai Lane owned 80 acres of land which he had purchased in the 1830 s. I believe that Creed’s wife, Nancy (Lane ), was the daughter of Mordecai.

Mordecai and his wife, Celia (Atkinson ), were parents of six known children: NANCY LANE b. c / 1819 Kentucky m. Creed T. Biggers; JOHN J . LANE b. c /1821 Kentucky m. Louisa Coffey; MARY LANE b. 1824 Alabama m. James Lynch; FRANCES LANE b. c /1825 Alabama; PRISCILLA LANE (speculation ) b. 1827 Alabama; and ELMIRA LANE b. c /1832 Alabama. All these people were in the 1850 census ofMiller County in Richwoods township.

The land where Creed and Nancy decided to build their log home was located about 5 miles west of Iberia near the Brushy Fork creek. Until a few years ago all this land was owned by the Spearman family but has now been sold in tracts to various new owners. The old Spearman country school sat on part of this land for many years.
 

About 1853, Creed and Nancy Biggers, along with her Lane family, left Miller County and moved over the Oregon Trail to Linn County, Oregon, settling near Scio where other pioneers from Miller County had also located. I was not aware they had moved there until I did some research on the internet and found them living there during the 1860 s and 1870 s.

 

I was looking for more information about my Bilyeu and Kinder ancestors who had moved to the Willamette Valley of Linn County and, by chance, found the name Creed T. Biggers. It was not a common name, and I realized it must have been the same family who once lived in the Big Richwoods! Looking further, I found Mordecai and Celia (Atkinson ) Lane also had lived there during the same years and all are buried in Franklin Butte Cemetery, Linn County, Oregon.

 

........According to information gathered from the Linn County website,

I learned that Celia (Atkinson ) Lane was the daughter of Thomas Atkinson, a soldier of the Revolutionary War.

My stories come from some of the most unusual sources .......Creed T. Biggers had been a name I had seen in some of my old files and I had kept it because of the unusual name. Also, he was among our earliest settlers and that was reason enough for me to keep his name on file .........

 

In an old copy of the Miller County Autogram, dated 6 July 1897, I found a news item which stated that Dr. George W.
Biggers from LeGrande, Oregon had stopped in Miller County on his way to New York City. He wanted to take the time to see his old home where he was born in 1845. He told his interviewer about his family’s trip to Oregon and spoke of his many memories of Miller County, even though he was only 8 years old when they left Missouri. It was a great article and very informative. Now, a few years after reading the 1897 article, I learn the Biggers and the Lane families moved to the same Oregon county as my Bilyeu and Kinder ancestors

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