The Ellis Place was homesteaded by a man by the name of William R. Wise, who by law would have occupied the land for five years prior to obtaining the land patent in 1893. The land is irrigated by water from the Kay Young Ditch with 1885 water rights. Before the irrigation ditch, the unimproved land would have been covered in sagebrush. In 1896, the improved property was purchased by Samuel F. Gover for his bride Mattie Cundiff. Although the original house burned long ago, the farm has an impressive post-and-beam barn that was built by Sam Gover in the late 1890s. After daughter Vina Gover's marriage in 1917 to Cornishman William John Ellis, the Gover farm became known as the "Ellis Place." The land has remained in the family for 105 years; our daughter Sarah is the great-great-grandaughter of Sam Gover.
Samuel F. Gover was born in Somerset, Kentucky in 1850 When he was 22, he travelled the Oregon Trail to Baker City and quickly moved to Eagle Valley, where he worked as a farmhand for four years. Sam began driving cattle from Baker County to Rock Creek in southeastern Wyoming, where the cattle were sold for transhipment on the newly constructed transcontinental railroad. Rock Creek was a rough frontier town that claimed five saloons, no churches, and several large stockyards. Sam's photo (right) shows a man who looks like he could take care of himself. In 1884, the Oregon Short Line reached Baker City, which eliminated the need for the long cattle drives to Wyoming. In 1891, Gover married Mattie Cundiff back in Kentucky, brought her to Oregon, and had three children: Walter Carson (b. 1894), Vina (b. 1898), and Woodie (b. 1902). In 1896, he bought the Ellis Place, site of today's Two Josephs Vineyard. At the time of his death in 1911, Sam Gover owned 161 acres of prime, watered Eagle Valley property. Today's 77 acre farm is the family's legacy from Sam's pioneering activities.