Introduction / Westray Grays / George Gray and Margaret Seatter / George Gray and Jean Reid / Jean Gray and James Miller / Isabella Miller and James Logie

Isabella Miller and Jonathan Moar

Shortly after the death of Isabella Miller's first husband, James Logie, Isabella married Jonathan Moar.

The marriage was on 1st November 1854 in Clatsop County, Oregon. Jonathan was also an Orcadian, born on 13th August 1829 at Newgar, Sandwick. He was the son of Jonathan Moar and Margaret Traill Clouston. Jonathan worked for the Hudson's Bay Company as a blacksmith at York factory signing his first contract, along with his father in 1845. Later he went to Fort Vancouver and took over the dairy after the death James's death. Isabella received the "donation land claim", started by her first husband, shortly after marrying Jonathan. Jacob Cline and Alexander McQuinn signed the claim as witnesses on 19th July 1854.

Isabella was the first white woman to settle on Sauvie Island, Oregon. She provided much needed medical aide to the native people of the island, members of the Multnomah tribe of Chinook Indians. It is said that Isabella studied under Dr. Barclay and Dr. McLoughlin (whom she had first met on the boat out with her first husband) at nearby Fort Vancouver. Isabella brought medicinal plants from Scotland and helped care for the natives who were suffering from smallpox and other diseases. She quickly gained the trust of the chief and the respect of the people who had named her "White Godmother", "Angel of the Island" and "Angel of Mercy". As a show of gratitude, they often brought the family food (usually fish, venison & berries), did household chores and offered protection in wartime.

Isabella also assisted at the birth of the first white baby on the island, a baby girl named Isabella Logie Cline born on 25th January 1846.

Isabella and Jonathan had the following children:

• James Watt Moar, b. Sep 1855 at Fort Vancouver, Washington (WA). James married Mary B. Harol (b. about 1870) and died on 5th Aug 1896 in Aberdeen, WA. It does not appear that they had family.

• Thomas Traill Watt Moar, b. 6th Mar 1857 in Kirkwall and married Laura Mathers (b. 1869) on 13th June 1889. They had four children and later divorced. Thomas subsequently married Gertrude Strantz, and they had a daughter. Thomas died on 6th Dec 1916 in Portland, Oregon age 59.

• Margaret Ann Moar, b. 6th July 1858 in Oregon and married Charles Robert Johannesson Wilson on 21st Nov 1878. Charles, born 24th July 1846 in Goteborg, Sweden, was the son of Johan Henrik Olofsson and Christina Elizabeth Andreasdotter. Charles had a saw mill business and they had a family of nine children. He died on 15th Aug 1908 in San Jacinto, California. Margaret died on 31st May 1954, age 95, in Aberdeen, WA.

• Jonathan "Don" Moar Jr., b. 11th Feb 1860 on Sauvies Island. On 11th April 1895 he married Esther Ann Kimber in Clark County, WA. Esther was born in England on 10th December 1870. They had a family of seven children. Esther died on 2nd May 1913, age 43 on Sauvies Island. Jonathan lived another 25 years. He died, also on Sauvies Island, on 20th December 1938.

• Isabelle "Belle" Moar, b. 4th July 1861, Sauvies Island. She married Norman H. McKay on 1st January 1882, in Portland, Oregon (OR). Norman was the son of Malcolm McKay and Lucinda Lamberson. He was born on 3rd September 1856 in Scappoose, OR. They had two children and divorced in 1885. On 7th February 1886 Isabelle married Dixie Hamilton Clement in Portland. Dixie, born 30th November 1858 in Wicklow, Ireland, was the son of Dixie Clement and his wife Maria. They had a daughter. Isabelle died on 13th November 1908 in St. Helens, OR. Dixie died there on 1st Mar 1934, age 75.

It is clear that Isabella visited Orkney in the late 1850s, but nothing is known of the visit other than from the birth record for their son Thomas Traill Watt Moar. It indicates that he was born at Quenbank, Kirkwall in 1857 and that his father, Jonathan Moar, was a landed proprietor.

Isabella unexpectedly died the 29th of April 1872 on Sauvie Island. Her death was felt by many as indicated in her obituary.

Jonathan later married Mary Ann Fox on 22nd March 1878. She was a daughter of Peter Fox and his wife Sarah and born in New York in 1852. Jonathan and Mary Ann had two children. She died in 1883 around the birth of their third child that was stillborn. Jonathan died in February 1925 in Aberdeen, Washington and was buried at Sauvie Island.

There is a family cemetery on the island, on land that was in the original land claim of 1854. Isabella, James Logie, Jonathan Moar and Mary Ann Fox are all buried there, as are several of their children and others.