Mrs. Elizabeth Byars -- Mrs Elizabeth Byars passed away at her home, 799 N. Edison Street, Thursday morning, Sept. 14th, after an illness of ten days. Elizabeth Byars was the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Jefferson Huff. She was born in Boone County, Indiana, Oct. 25, 1834. In the Spring of 1852 Dr. Huff and his family started on the long trip across the plains with an ox team. They had numerous trials. First one party took sick and more sickness followed. Some were buried by the wayside. Water became a luxury; food was getting scarce. Shoes wore out a long time before they got to Oregon, and walking became a torture. But after long, weary months they arrived in the most beautiful country -- Oregon -- at least they thought so. It was late in the Fall when they camped near what is now the site of the Lewis and Clark Fair. They stayed there all of that Winter. The following Summer, August 9th, 1853, Elizabeth Huff married Irijah Byars, a young man who came across the plains in the same party. The newly married couple intended to settle in St. Johns. But after a short time they went down the Columbia River and took up a homestead on the North Fork of the Lewis River. But trouble followed them up. After living on potatoes and salmon all of one Winter, the uprising of the Indians drove them away. So they came back to St. Johns. They traded their homestead to James John for 100 acres. After years of hard labor they made a comfortable home and built a house of boards and bats, finished inside with redwood which was shipped from California. The house is now owned by Mrs. Byars' daughter, Mrs. W. E. Ashby, who prizes the old home very highly, as it is the oldest house in St. Johns. February 18th, 1884, Mr. and Mrs. Byars and family moved to East Portland, on 7th and East Burnside, which at that time was a wilderness. Mr. Byars died July 3, 1899. Mrs Byars again moved to St. Johns, on the old place, nine years ago, where she lived until her death. Mrs. Byars was a woman of noble and generous character, and was a member of the Presbyterian Church, also a member of the Pioneer Association. The high esteem of her life spent in Oregon was manifested by the friends gathered to share their last respects to the noble pioneer. Her daughter, Mrs. W. E. Ashby, was with her during her last illness. [unidentified newspaper clipping]