Daughter of Early Crook County Pioneers

Margaret “Maggie” Glaze Daughter of Early Crook County Pioneers

Margaret “Maggie” Glaze

By Steve Lent, Historian

Margaret Glaze was born on May 13, 1869 at Dallas, Oregon. Her parents were Tillman and Ann Wilson Glaze. When she was ten years old her family moved from Dallas to Prineville in 1879. “Maggie” as she was commonly known attended schools in Prineville. Her father operated a saloon in the community.

Two years after the family moved to Central Oregon in 1881 a shooting took place near Grizzly Mountain that resulted in two men being killed by a neighbor over a property dispute. The shooter was captured and brought to Prineville and held in the local hotel as there was no jail. A group of men known as the Vigilantes invaded the hotel and killed the shooter. That same day the group found a hired man of the shooter and considered him guilty by association. They dragged him through the streets of Prineville and hung him from the bridge across Crooked River. Maggie remembered the noises of that night as Prineville was still a very small community. It was an event she would never forget.

The Glaze family were all very musically talented. Her father started the first band in Prineville and her mother, two brothers and sister were all musicians. Maggie was taught to play the piano and each member of her family could play musical instruments. Maggie became quite popular with local gentlemen and she had numerous offers of marriage but she resisted. One of her enamored suitors was a local photographer. He would superimpose Maggie’s photo onto his landscape photos and a few of them still survive today.

Maggie’s father was killed in a gunfight in Burns in 1894. Maggie was very involved in local social and musical affairs. She was very well thought of in the community. She was a beautiful young woman but she never did marry claiming she was just too busy to get married.. She lived the remainder of her life in Prineville. She became ill in 1944 and was a patient at the Stevens Hospital in Prineville before being taken to Bend. Maggie died on February 3, 1944 at St. Charles Hospital in Bend. She is buried in Juniper Haven Cemetery in Prineville.