Shortly after Hiram's birth, his father, James, moved Mary (wife) and two older children to New York. When Hiram was old enough, he drove horses on the Erie Canal. Hiram had met his wife Alvira Angeline Goodwin, in New York. He first caught sight of her at her father's sawmill. She was 14 sitting on a wood box. They used to meet on a towpath. Her father did not approve of him. She was one of twelve children the Goodwin's had.

The Goodwins, Prindels and some other friends left New York about 1855 and went west. Alvira and Hiram were married in Beloit, Rock County, Wisconsin, November 21, 1856. They were living on a farm in 1860. They had two children by then, Lafayette Alfonso Edmund Levi David, and a girl named Alta Melissa.

Lafayette was always being teased about his name and took Edmund as his second name. Alta Melissa knew a girl in school who was filthy minded as well as physically unkept, with head lice all the time. This girl's name was Alta Melissa too; who could have been a cousin. She and her mother agreed that she could take the name of Alta Mary instead. Their next child, Ulissus, died of complications from the measles when he was a little past three years old and is buried in the Durand Cemetery, Illinois.

Hiram enlisted as a Private in the Co. B 7th Reg. 111 Calvary Volunteers at Lightsville, Illinois on September 5, 1861. He had his own horse. He was under Grant's Command and was in on Sherman's March to the Sea. He was stationed at LaGrange, Tennessee. Hiram was discharged on October 15, 1864. Received honorable discharge papers in Gaylord, Kansas on November 18, 1893.

Joined Gaylor post by Muster

February 20, 1892.
Detailed for Hospital Nurse1862
Orderly at Headquarters1863
Left on detail of Reg April '63
Detailed as Baker July '63
Detailed in Communications Dept Oct '63
Baker at Post in Memphis, Tennessee Feb1864
Mustered Out Oct '64

He then moved and farmed in Illinois for10 years, his father was with them at this time. Then in Kansas 14 years and Illinois 7 years. While in Kansas, he helped build the railroad. While Hiram and Alvira were in Kansas, working on the railroad, Alvira wanted to leave camp and go home, but Hiram wanted to wait until morning to leave. Alvira insisted they leave at once, they found out later the Indians wiped out the camp that night. One other time when living in Illinois, they had started for town and Alvira insisted that they go back to the farm. She felt something was wrong there. Their son, Scott had gotten a waterwheel dumped on him. The injury left him lame for life.

They came west in the 90's by train, some to Washington, some to California, and most of Hiram's family settled on 160 acre homesteads in Lane County, Oregon on both sides of Deadwood Mtn. about 1896. Quin and Harvey on the Deadwood/Alpha side and Everett, Elsworth, Lafayette, Hiram and Alvira on the Paris/Lobster Valley side. It was also known as Five Rivers, as five streams came together there. They farmed the valley, raised cattle for milking, horses for work and pleasure, hogs, chickens, etc. He had nine children, eight sons and one daughter.

Hiram had dark brown hair, black eyes and his height was 5 foot 7 and one half inches. He wore a beard to cover a scar he received from a wound in the war. It is said that Hiram was an honest, quick tempered man, who believed in respect from his children. He did not tolerate any foul language or back talk, especially around Alvira. He was a small man with a husky voice and was very nice.

Audrey Broadley, their grand-daughter, recalls:
"Their home was a two story, with three doors. One opened into the sitting room, one out through the woodshed, down the hill to the barn. That one was used the most. And the other door led from the side of the kitchen onto a covered porch. There was a wooden sink with cold running water into it. There was a series of wooden troughs running from a spring on the hill beside the house to drain into the sink and out of a hole in the bottom to the ground underneath and on down the hill. The sink was on the back porch. Sometimes the cattle would cause a clog in the run and they would have to go up and fix it. The house was on a slight rise above the creek. The barn and other buildings were down the stream farther on a flat. They carried the milk to the woodshed where the separator was and poured it into the tank on the top of the separator and turned a crank. The milk came out one spout and the cream out of another. One could regulate how thick you wanted the cream by turning a screw. The cream had to be tested and regulated to what the creamery wanted.

In the winter, the roads would get so rutted and muddy that wagons couldn't always make it, so they used sleds. They would ride on top of the ridges, so the horses could pull them. One mail carrier made the bottom of his sled waterproof so he could cross the creeks. When they were overflowing, the horses would swim, it was so deep. The mail was normally delivered by horseback. The freight waited until the water went down. If it snowed enough, they used a sled to haul the freight in.

They had a hammock at one end of the front porch. The grandkids thought that was neat, but had trouble staying in it because it kept tipping them out. There was a phonograph in the bedroom, off the sitting room. It was an Edison with a large horn. No one remembers hearing it play. The stairway was between the living room and the kitchen and there were three or four bedrooms up there. The bathroom was a two holer outside, a hole dug in the ground and when it got full, you moved it to another dug hole. Toilet paper was the last year's Sears catalogue. There was a wood shed attached to the house."

Hiram, Alvira and son Scott W. are listed in the May 17-19, 1910 Federal Census for Five Rivers, Lane County, Oregon in the Suislaw National Forest, page 7.

Hiram applied for his pension on Dec 7, 1910. He died in 1911 at the age of 77 years and is buried in Lobster Valley, Benton, Oregon.

BLM Land claim, (Homestead) doc. 5002, issued Feb 27, 1901. T15S, R9W, parts of sections 22 & 27.

HIRAM M. PRINDEL:
Burial: Lone Fir Cemetery, Benton, Oregon
Cause of Death: cerebral hemorage
Occupation: Farmer
Residence: Illinois, Kansas, Oregon, Vermont