Oregon Area Historical Society

This month’s blog is written by Joel Olson from our Tuesday Crew.

A Story about Nathaniel Ames

Joel Olsen, Museum volunteer

Opportunity, adventure, survival and challenge – such are the adjectives that describe Nathaniel Ames who was a soldier, farmer, preacher, and pioneer.  In fact, he is surely Oregon’s most remarkable early pioneer.

Like many of the first settlers, Ames came to the Oregon area from out East – New York state in his case.  Unlike the others, Nathaniel Ames was 83 years old when he purchased 320 acres of woods and prairie southwest of Oregon to clear for himself and his sons.

And this was in 1844.  It was quite an arduous relocation.  From central New York, the Ames family floated west along the newly-opened Erie Canal, then jostled by oxcart through Ohio, Indiana and Illinois before turning north to Wisconsin.  There were few established roads at the time; the journey would have taken several months.  Recall that both Ames and his wife were in their 80s at the time.

But Ames was up for it.  He had been born in 1761, orphaned a few years later, raised by a stern grandfather, escaped his clutches and began serving in local militias. Before Nathaniel was 20, he had enlisted in the Continental Army and was stationed in Morristown NJ during an especially harsh winter.  The soldiers experienced every kind of deprivation.  General George Washington even visited the troops to encourage them to hold on until spring.  They survived.

After the Revolutionary War, young Ames shipped out on a privateer, sailed the Caribbean as a merchantman, and was briefly taken prisoner at sea.  Seeking even more adventure, he signed on with an English ship sailing the Mediterranean; during a storm Ames went overboard and nearly drowned until rescued.  

Apparently he had enough with ocean experiences.  By age 25, Nathaniel had taken up farming in New York.  That lasted a long time.  He soon married Sarah Hall and they raised eleven children in the area.  Feeling the call of the Gospel, Ames preached in Methodist churches for nearly a half-century.  

But the urge to move on beckoned once again, and thus the trek to Wisconsin territory.  Of that tract of government land that Ames purchased between Oregon and Brooklyn, he gave eighty acres to each of his three sons who sojourned west with him.  While some of those eventually moved on out of the area, others stayed and established families.  There are a number of descendants of Nathaniel Ames still in the Oregon and Brooklyn communities.  

Nathaniel stayed on the farmstead for eighteen years.  Finally, at the age of one hundred years, he moved into the village of Oregon.  He lived two more years.

Thus, Oregon is able to claim as its own the remarkable Nathaniel Ames as the oldest, and last, Revolutionary War soldier in Wisconsin.  He always liked to tell of his contact with General Washington and his tears would flow freely.  He added: “You must excuse these expressions of an old man’s weakness, for I can never think of Washington without causing my heart to be stirred within me.”  

May we be stirred by the story of this venerable soldier and settler.  Nathaniel Ames died in Oregon, in 1863, during the Civil War, at the age of 102!  Hundreds attended his funeral.  A Wisconsin Historical Marker at the entrance to Prairie Mound Cemetery recounts the details and significance of his life.  The Oregon Historical Museum has additional information about Ames’ life and family, with large portraits of succeeding generations.  The public is welcome to the Museum to learn more.