1. John Allen Veatch, b. March 5, 1803 [sic]. (Below) ...
John Allen Veatch, (above) eldest child of Isaac Veatch and Lucinda Ramsey, had a career of unusual interest. Possessed of fine abilities and an acquisitive mind, particularly where scientific subjects were concerned, he became successively a surveyor, a doctor of medicine, a soldier, a scientist, an explorer and a college president.
In 1830 he married an accomplished lady, Charlotte Edwards, of Covington, La.
They removed from Covington in 1833 and settled in the “Zavillis Colony” in eastern Texas. He was active in the struggle for Texan independence in 1835 and again in 1845 took up arms in the War with Mexico. During the later part of the war he was captain of a company which he himself had recruited.
Charlotte (Edwards) Veatch died in 1844.
He married (2) Mrs. Ann M. Bradley, of San Antonio, whom he afterwards divorced and
married (3) ___ ___.
He joined the gold seekers in California in 1849, was moderately successful, then devoted himself to the study of the plant and animal life of the Pacific coast and to exploration. Later he moved from California to Oregon and became president of Portland College, a position he occupied at the time of his death, which occurred in 1876.
He was a man of commanding presence, magnetic personality and remarkable conversational powers. He was temperate in his habits and of high moral excellence. In politics he was a strong Democrat.
His seven children were all by his first wife. Born and bred in the South they were intensely loyal to it and dyed-in-the-wool Democrats, every one. The two eldest were born in Covington, La., the others in eastern Texas.
