May 9, 2025
Introduction: In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry continues her series on Mayflower descendants, featuring the family lines of Oregon pioneers who descend from Mayflower passengers William Bradford, Richard Warren, Edward Doty, and Isaac Allerton. Melissa is a genealogist who has a website, americana-archives.com, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History.
Today I continue my series on “Mayflower Descendants: Who’s Who,” featuring Oregon families who descend from Mayflower passengers William Bradford, Richard Warren, Edward Doty, and Isaac Allerton.
To recap: My two previous stories (see links at the end of this article) featured Isaac Ball and his wife Abigail (Howland) Ball, a direct descendant of John Howland, and their grandson James Isaac Ball (1860-1904), who married Jerusha Buell Connor (1861-1903), a direct descendant of William Bradford, Richard Warren, Edward Doty, and Isaac Allerton.
I tracked another Mayflower connection to the Ball line when I came across this 1931 newspaper article. In it, Emeline Blair (Connor) Woodley (1851-1939), daughter of Oregon Trail pioneers, was interviewed by Fred Lockley of the Oregon Journal.
Emeline is the daughter of Nathan and Elizabeth (Buell) Connor and the granddaughter of Elias and Sarah (Hammond) Buell – all four of them came across the plains on the Oregon Trail in the same wagon train in 1847. Emeline was born in Polk County, Oregon, four years after they arrived.
Elias Buell (1797-1891), founder of Buell, Oregon, located in Polk County about 8 miles south of Sheridan, is the line carrier to the Plymouth Pilgrims. He left many scions, including our subject today: Melissa (Buell) (Hinshaw) (Van Horn) Conlee (1832-1923).
Lineage:
- Richard Warren and Elizabeth Walker
- Joseph Warren and Pricilla Faunce
- Mercy Warren and John Bradford, grandson of Mayflower passenger William Bradford
- Mercy Bradford and Isaac Cushman, great grandson of Mayflower passenger Isaac Allerton
- Pricilla Cushman and Israel Holmes, great grandson of Mayflower passenger Edward Doty
- Samuel Holmes Buell and Jerusha Griswold
- Elias Buell and Sarah Hammond
- Melissa (Buell) (Hinshaw) (Van Horn) Conlee
In 1912 the Oregon Journal featured four generations of direct descendants of Mayflower passengers William Bradford, Richard Warren, Edward Doty, and Isaac Allerton.
The photo caption reads:
Mrs. Melissa Conlee of Dallas, [Oregon,] aged 80, and two sets of four generations. [To] the right of Mrs. Conlee, on the top row, is her son, Zimri, his daughter, Mrs. A. G. Stewart, and her children, Reta and Irvin. [To the] left is her son, Avery, his daughter, Mrs. Laura Huffman, and her son, Elmer. The other two are Harry Hinshaw and daughter, Larea.
Here’s more information and genealogy regarding the photo in the above newsclip.
The central figure in the photograph, Melissa (Buell) (Hinshaw) (Van Horn) Conlee, had just recently (February 27) celebrated her 80th birthday. She was the daughter of Elias and Sarah (Hammond) Buell and married pioneer Isaac Hinshaw on 1 January 1850. They had 13 children. After Isaac’s death in 1873, she married 2nd Isaac Van Horn and 3rd James Reuben Conlee.
Melissa’s son in the above photo, Zimri Hinshaw (1851-1913), married Mahala Elizabeth Syron (1858-1940), daughter of Peter Adolphus and Mary Jane (Franklin) Syron. Zimri’s daughter, also shown in the above photo, is Mittie Melissa Hinshaw (1878-1960), married Albert Gallington Stewart (1871-1933), son of Gerard M. and Catharine (McGinnis) Stewart.
And the two children born to Albert Gallington and Mittie Melissa (Hinshaw) Stewart in the above photo are: Orea Loreta “Reta” Stewart (1903-1987), married Robert Vern Ross (1902-1971), son of John and Alice (Haynes) Ross; and Irvin Ray Stewart (1900-1986), married Jessie D. Geer, daughter of Theodore M. and Minnie (Butson) Geer.
Melissa’s next son named in the above photo is Avery Hinshaw (1858-1931), married Sarah Jane Lynch (1849-1886), daughter of John Francis and Eliza Narcissus (Sparks) Lynch. His daughter in the above photo is Laura Mae Hinshaw (1879-1970), married Harry Arley Huffman (1876-1959), son of William H. and Mary E. (Ross) Huffman, and her son Elmo “Elmer” Huffman (1900-1983), married Annie Barstad (1905-1992), daughter of Sondre Eben and Signe Jørgine Olsdatter (Tveitane) Barstad.
I was unable to verify the last two people in the above photo, Harry Hinshaw and his daughter Larea.
The story furnished with the feature photograph reads (I have inserted a photo into the text):
Falls City, Or., March 2. – Mrs. Melissa Conlee of Dallas, [Oregon,] celebrated her eightieth birthday in that city, February 27. Mrs. Conlee was born in Indiana in 1832. She moved from there to Iowa with her father, Elias Buell, and from there to Oregon, where she has since resided, the greater part of the time in Dallas. She was married to Isaac Hinshaw [son of Elias and Sarah (Williams) Hinshaw], January 1, 1850.
Thirteen children were born, eight of whom are still living: Zimri, Tillman, Avery, Zenas, Anderson, Villa, Elias Hinshaw and Sarah Walling.
She is the grandmother of 21 grandchildren, great-grandmother of 22 children, and great-great-grandmother of 2 children. Her first husband died June 29, 1873. On May 24, 1874, she married Isaac Van Horn, who died in 1888. She then married James Conlee, June 13, 1895.
About 40 of her relatives gathered at the family home in Dallas on February 27. Mrs. Conlee is very active. Here son, Tillman, was married to Mrs. Waldon on that day.
I could not locate Mrs. Waldon, but I did find that Tillman/Tilgham Hinshaw (1857-1934) married Ann Almeda Conlee (1859-1946) on 26 May 1878 in Buell, Polk County, Oregon. Ann is the daughter of James Reuben and Susan Ann (Barney) Conlee.
Below is Tillman and Ann’s wedding photograph.
Tillman and Ann had several children, including Myrtle Melissa Hinshaw (1889-1981), married Albert Willard Johnson (1882-1960), son of Julius Alexius and Arvida Constance (Carlson) Johnson.
The photograph below features four generations of the same family, including the grandchildren of Tillman and Ann Hinshaw and great grandchildren of Melissa (Buell) (Hinshaw) (Van Horn) Conlee.
In this photo, we see: (standing to the right) Ann Almeda (Conlee) Hinshaw; (standing to the left) her daughter Myrtle Melissa (Hinshaw) Johnson; (sitting in the chair) Ann’s father and proud great-grandpa James Reuben Conlee, son of Reuben Samuel and Nancy (Doyle) Conlee; and on James’ lap are great-grandchildren (on the left) Willard Leroy Johnson (1909-1966) and (on the right) Emily Viola Johnson (1909-2000).
To be continued…
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Note on the header image: “Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor,” by William Halsall, 1882. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.
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I’ve traced my family back to William Bradford through my mother‘s line and have recorded it all in ancestry.com for future generations if they care to see it. I find this is very extensive work that’s been done and I am very interested in finding out more about the Bradford line.