The William E. and Louisa Tate Family
The Tale of Six Sisters
In the late 1800's a loving couple living in Sherman County, Oregon, started their family. They had six daughters! These daughters grew up, had their own families and the generations have continued, spreading throughout the United States and across the globe. This is the story of that clan, the Tates.
In the summer of 2023, Peter Barbur (grandson of Mary Barbur), spearheaded the effort to bring back the Tate Family Picnic, bringing cousins back together after a long hiatus. During the picnic a committee was formed with the charter of digitizing photos from Tate picnics past, and identifying the aunts, uncles and cousins found in the hundreds of photos. Once the committee met the effort grew. This website is a part of that expanded effort, providing a place for the family to come and explore, research and reminisce. The foundation of our effort is "The Red Book" which is a genealogy effort Helen Wittenberg (wife of Bill and daughter in law of Bess Wittenberg) took on in the 1990's, consolidating biographies, documents and family trees. it is an impressive document that we are expanding on. Our goal is for future generations to have a place to go to learn about their genealogy and the rich history of the Tate Family and six sisters from Sherman County, Oregon.
Louisa Hansen Tate
Louisa Hansen was born 1868 in Josephine County in southern Oregon. Louisa was the eighth of eleven children born to Frederick and Augusta Hansen, immigrants from Schleswig Holstein and Hanover. After losing her father at ten and her mother at eighteen, she made her way to Sherman County, Oregon where she met and married William Ernest Tate. They had six lovely daughters.
William Ernest Tate
William Ernest Tate was born 1865 in Chicago to an Irish immigrant father, William Tate, and a first-generation mother, Elizabeth Steele Tate, the daughter of Irish immigrants. After high school, he left Chicago seeking a new life out west, eventually settling in Sherman County, Oregon. He married Louisa Hansen and they raised six amazing daughters. He was the postmaster of Wasco, Oregon for thirty years.
Florence Tate
Born 1891. Married Louis Murdock 11 June 1913. They had three sons, Victor, Louis Jr and Robert. Florence attended the Oregon Normal School in Monmouth. She was an accomplished singer and choral director and she loved to travel even teaching in Hawaii for a time. She spent most of her adult life in the Willamette Valley, mostly in the Eugene area.
Bessie Tate
Born 1893. Married Ralph Wittenberg and had three children, Mary Lou, Dorothy and William. Bess spent a year at University of Oregon studying English and was a teacher at one point. Bess and Ralph split their time between Los Angeles and Portland. They ran GrandMa's Cookies from 1942 to 1980.
Gladys Tate
Born in 1902. Married Floyd "Fudge" Ford and had two children, Donald and Janet. Being the youngest, Gladys was always known as "Babe" or "Honey" to her sisters. Babe and Fudge loved to travel and lived in California for a long time. Eventually Babe moved back to Oregon to be closer to family.
A portrait of William "Ernie" Tate and Louisa Hansen taken in Portland, Oregon around the time of their marriage 10 September 1890.
Bill Wittenberg, son of Bessie (Tate) and Ralph Wittenberg is the last of his generation. As the only remaining living child of the Tate sisters, he is a wonderful representative for the family past, present and future.
The three sons of Florence Tate, Victor, Louis Jr and Robert Murdock all served in the armed forces during World War II
Wayne and Lynn (granddaughter of Aileen Tate), graciously hosted the Tate Family Picnic through many years in the 80's, 90's and 2000's. Their generosity in opening their home and bringing the family together was pivotal in maintaining connections within the family.
Helen, wife of Bill (son of Bessie Tate), was the original Tate Family genealogist, creating The Red Book in the 1990s. Her comprehensive work is the foundation for the website and provides direction to those who continue the genealogy effort.
Legend has it the Tate Family Picnic started in the 1930s. One of the earliest photos from a picnic is the 1952 picnic that took place at the home of Vic & Helen Murdock on Glen Creek Rd, West Salem, Oregon. Participants included William E. Tate (in the center with the fedora), father of the six Tate sisters.
In the mid-1800s, Europe was in a state of turmoil. War and rebellion, famine and unemployment, and the promise of prosperity across the ocean led to a massive wave of immigration to that new land known as the United States of America. Between 1850 and 1860 almost two million people found their way to America to start a new life. Between 1845 and 1852, the Irish Potato Famine, also know as The Great Hunger, had decimated Ireland, with the majority of the population living in extreme poverty and forcing a mass exodus to other parts of Europe and to America. In County Armagh, some bold members of the family Tate in the village of Keady, made the brave decision to venture across the Atlantic to find a new life in a new land. On or around the 5th of April, siblings, William, Frank, Alex and Sarah Tate boarded the SS Arctic in Liverpool along with 429 other immigrants heading to the new world. On the 15th of April, 1851, they arrived in New York City, New York. William Tate made his way to Chicago, working as a carpenter and later as a cooper. Throughout most of the second half of the 19th century, William split time between Chicago and California where his brothers had settled. In 1859, William married Elizabeth Steele, the daughter of Irish immigrants Hugh and Mary Ann (Cole) Steele. The Steeles had originally immigrated to Canada before coming to the states and settling in Illinois. William and Elizabeth had at least nine children, six who made it to adulthood, including William Ernest (Ernie) Tate who would accompany his father and some of his siblings to the golden plains of Sherman County, Oregon. Around the same time the Tate family was making their way to America, a Danish/German family was also looking for a new life in America. Frederick Hansen was from Schleswig Holstein which was being fought over by Denmark and Prussia, while his bride, Augusta Rosina Neuhaus was born and raised in what was the Kingdom of Hanover. Both are now part of modern day Germany. Frederick and Augusta arrived in New York along with Frederick’s brother Peter. They were looking for their fortune through the gold rush taking place in California and Oregon. Rather than traveling over land, Frederick went ahead, taking a ship to Panama, crossing the isthmus (there was no canal) and upon reaching the Pacific Ocean, embarked on another ship that took him to San Francisco. Augusta and Peter followed the same route sometime later. Eventually, Fred and Augusta (in the photo to the right) settled in Josephine County, Oregon near Grants Pass. They had eleven children, although in 1878 Fred passed in an accident on the river while Augusta was pregnant with Fredericka. Augusta remarried but passed away in 1886 at the age of 47. One of their daughters, Louisa Hansen, made it to Sherman County and met a young man they called Ernie.
Victor and Helen Murdock
Born in 1914, the oldest son of Florence and Louis Murdock, Vic was a renaissance man. Warm, quick-witted and insightful, he was a loving father and husband, and he had a positive impact on all who knew him. From serving in the Army during WWII to practicing reiki, and everything in between, Vic always strived to live a life of introspection and enrichment. Married for 64 years to Helen Ewing Murdock (a renaissance woman in her own right), the couple lived a life less ordinary, and their legacy within the Tate Family will live on for generations to come.
GrandMa's Cookies
Between 1942 and 1980, Bess Tate Wittenberg and her husband Ralph Wittenberg owned and operated GrandMa's Cookie Company in Portland, Oregon, eventually moving the operation to Beaverton, OR. It was a vibrant part of the Tate Family history as kids, grandkids and cousins were involved in the business through the years. Click the link to read an amazing history of GrandMa's by Pattie Hogan, granddaughter of Bessie and Ralph.
Leland Barbur
Born in 1928, Leland was the only child of Mary and Hap Barbur. He was a life-long resident of the Portland area with the exception of his stints in the Navy and Oregon National Guard. A dedicated father to his three boys, an ardent fan of the Ducks and Buckaroos and a prominent businessman in the Portland area, Leland was an Oregonian through and through. Click on the link to read a humorous and thoughtful look back at the life of Leland Barbur.
A compilation of surnames that appear in our Tate Family Tree
We make every effort to document our research. If you have something you would like to add, please contact us.
