The community at Butte creek lost a very worth citizen by the death of William Allen Jack, which occurred February 10, 1895, at his
home near Marquam, Clackamas county. Mr. Jack had been feeble for several years and his death was not unexpected, and by him not
unprepared for, as he had divided his farm among his children and given them deeds some two years ago, reserving to himself and wife
life estates in the land. Mr. Jack, though a pioneer of 1847, did not avail himself of the opportunity offered by the donation land
law. His parents were aged and rather infirm upon their arrival in the territory, and needed the care and support of their children,
which was freely and self-denyingly given. The reply of the father, Jeremiah Jack, when asked him why his sons, William and Robert,
did not take claims when that beautiful Butte creek country was unoccupied, was: "Oh! we could not bear to be separated. My wife and
I have taken a section, and Porter has taken a half-section, and don't you think that a section and a half of land is enough for our
three boys?" The section and a half was all in one body, lying on both sides of Butte creek, including a large area of splendid creek
bottom, and the parents and the three boys, William Robert and Porter, lived in the same house. The father was Irish and the mother
was Scotch, but it was a happy family. Differences of opinion seemed to weld them more firmly together.

In 1853 the father desired to have a run a line dividing the section from the half section, and passing through the house, so that
he could swear to a residence on his section and Porter to a residence on his half section. The problem was satisfactorily solved and
the requirements of the land law fully obeyed.

William Jack's marriage to Miss Mary Jane Weddle January 5, 1854, was a fortunate one, and unto them six children were born,
Barton, J. E., W. S., A. F., Nettie Albright and Susan Hook.

William Allen Jack was born August 28, 1818, near Madisonville, Monroe county, East Tennessee, where he lived until March, 1838,
when his father and family consisting of wife, three sons and one daughter, moved to Sedalia Pettis county, Missouri. Here they lived
for 11 years, when the family joined an emigrant train bound for Oregon, which they reached in October of the same year, 1847. The
winter of that year the family lived near Oregon City, and in the spring of 1848 moved to their claim on Butte creek. He joined a
company of volunteers enlisted for the Cayuse war in Eastern Oregon, bore unflinchingly ever duty during that rigorous winter and was
one of the company who buried the bleaching bones of Dr. Whitman and family. Arriving home late in the spring of 1848, he and his
brother set about preparing for a trip to the California gold mines, which they reached in the fall. But the hardships he had
undergone were beginning to tell upon a constitution never strong, and sickness continually interrupted the mining business.
Despairing of success, he took passage for Oregon on an old sailing vessel, which made the trip in 21 days at a cost of $128 for each
passenger.

Mr. Jack became a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian church in 1842.