An Illustrated History of Baker, Grant, Malheur and Harney Counties, 1902
published by Western Historical Publishing Company

ELLIS BEGGS

Mr. Beggs was born in Chickasaw county, Iowa, near Bradford on June 12, 1858. He resided there until twelve years old, then accompanied his parents to California and thence to Jacksonville, Oregon. At the age of fourteen he began driving stage on the route between Oregon and California, and in 1878 he came to Baker county, and drove between Kelton and Umatilla Landing. He continued in stage driving until 1895, making his trips over many different routes in Washington, Oregon and Callifornia, and in his extensive experience, he has been in no fewer than fourteen holdups. He was eight times overtaken by highwaymen on the Mendocino and Cloverdale route, escaping each time without injury, but on what is known as the Red Hill route, in 1891, he was shot through the wrist, though he succeeded in making good his retreat in a running fight.

In 1895, when our subject retired from stage driving, he engaged in freighting around Red Rock and Virginia City, Montana, and he still oversees the operations of his three six-horse freight outfits in Baker county, though he gives most of his own time now to the livery business, he having a year and a half ago purchased an interest in the livery stable of his brother, Mil Beggs, in Baker City. The firm has an outfit of about forty single and double rigs and keeps in all about seventy-five head of horses.

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