Enterprise, Wallowa County, Oregon
Augustus A. Belden, veteran of the Civil war, died at the home of his daughter at 6210 58 Ave., S.E. Portland, Oregon, September 5, 1921. He suffered from a stroke of paralysis over a year ago. Increasing weakness for four weeks caused from a fall resulted in capillary pneumonia, which was the immediate cause of his death.
Mr. Belden came from a long line of English pioneers. His first ancestry traceable being Sir Francis Belden who landed in England with William the Conqueror and was knighted by him for bravery. The first families in this country were surveyors, laying out the town of Weatherfield, Conn., soon after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth. The immediate ancestor of Augustus Belden, also a surveyor, later laid out the town of Canaan, Conn., and his family was given the portion of the town adjoining Belden Street. Here Augustus Belden was born in 1837, the sixth child of Captain Harry Belden and Sarah Beebe Belden.
In 1861 he enlisted with the Second Michigan cavalry and was in active service for four years, making out the payroll when the last of his company were mustered out in 1865. Surveying with the Union Pacific, employed on the first train which came over the new road, visiting our cities when they were little more than diagrams in the wilderness-always a pioneer.
In 1874 he married Susan C. Adams of Illinois. Four children were born to them – Mrs. Pearl Chadwick, Union, Ore.; Harry I. Belden, Wallowa, Ore.; Kathryn B. Swift, and Miles B. Belden, of Portland.
Funeral services were conducted by Dr. Stanfield, assisted by George Wright Post at the Finley chapel, and burial was in Riverview cemetery by the side of his wife who died February 22, 1915.
Mr. Belden lived in Cove, Union county, for a number of years and was a member of Preston Post, Union. – Union Republican.
Enterprise Record Chieftain, Enterprise, Wallowa County, Oregon, Thursday October 6, 1921.
