Samuel F. Gover (1850-1911) was born in Somerset, Pulaski Co, Kentucky. At age 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 they were sold for transhipment on the newly constructed transcontinental railroad. Rock Creek was a rough frontier town that claimed five saloons and no churches. 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 February of 1891, Gover married Mattie Cundiff back in Somerset, Kentucky; they then moved to Gretna, Nebraska. Two years later, in 1893, Sam and Mattie left Nebraska, moving back to Eagle Valley, where they soon 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.