Eli Barnum Dies as Siskiyou County Oldest Pioneer

Eli and Mary Ann Barnum and six children crossed the plains in 1859 to California. They branched off the Applegate Trail toward Yreka and stopped at some hand-hewn watering troughs fed by springs. A dilapidated building nearby became the family home for the next 10 years. While living there, the couple’s seventh child, Winfield Scott, was born. The couple lost three more children in infancy.
The children rode long distances by horseback to attend the first school established in Little Shasta. Determined that their children be well schooled, the family moved to Little Shasta, where two more children were born, Luella and Abraham Lincoln.
 
The couple ranched in Siskiyou County for many years, moving to Scott Valley around 1905.  Eli Barnum died on April 5, 1915, at the age of 98, three weeks short of the Barnum’s 72nd wedding anniversary. The Siskiyou News reported a few days later that Barnum had been the oldest pioneer living in Siskiyou County. As a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows for 75 years—perhaps the longest lived member in the lodge at that time—Eli was buried in the Etna cemetery.
Source: “The Eli Barnum Family.” Siskiyou Pioneer and Yearbook. No. 4 ed. Vol. 3. Yreka: Siskiyou County Historical Society, 1960. 35-40. Print.