CHAPTER V

PIONEER REMINISCENCES

This is a chapter of remembrances. The author has felt that the work would be incomplete without some space devoted to the personal experiences of those who made the history. Out of the vast amount of matter which might be available he has selected such narrations as cover the widest range and afford the greatest variety.

Some of these selections are of early letters, the writers of which have long since passed away. A few were prepared originally for the Inland Empire Pioneer Association. The larger number have been written especially for this work by those who are still actively engaged in the affairs of the community. It is with the belief that this collection of actual experiences and observations will constitute a chapter of present interest to the pioneers and will be a source of ever-increasing pleasure and instruction to their descendants, that the author gives it a place as the crowning feature of the book.

We first incorporate a letter by Doctor Whitman, never published before, significant of the life and conditions, as well as the habit of thought and mode of expression of that first stage in the history of Old Walla Walla. Doctor Whitman's letter gives a vivid view of the variety of interests with which he was concerned. It is as follows:

Rev. Elkanah Walker.

Waiilatpu, September 29, 1845.

Dear Brother: I take a moment only to write as Mr. Eells is soon to be off. The first thing I have to say is, will you send Cyrus here to school this winter in case we have one, which we expect we may? I. W. Gilbert, formerly my day and Sabbath School scholar, has come up from the Willamet and will be likely to winter here, and most likely we may employ him to teach.

If you send you may do well to come this way as you go to Lapwai [Mr. Walker was located at Tshimakain in the Spokane country] and leave Cyrus

here.

Few of the immigrants call on us.

Four hundred and fifty wagons passed Fort Hall, but from seventy to one hundred went to California and one hundred left the trail at Malade to go to Waskopum. As they are so early they have no great need of provisions short of The Dalles. Most are now passed.

Mr. Eells can tell you about Mr. Green's letter to me. We can now have little hope of a reinforcement. I do not think it best for me to say anything in relation to the subject hinted at in your first, but may at another time.

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I am trying to burn some coal [charcoal] in order to have a little work done in the shop. I hope also to get a millwright for a few days to set the sawmill at work.

We would like scholars enough to take some of our time, the more the better. Mrs. Whitman is anxious also and more than willing to have as many as possible.

With esteem and expectation of seeing you and letting you have a first rate article of corn meal, with our united compliments to you all.

Yours truly,

MARCUS WHITMAN.

A letter of an earlier date than that of Doctor Whitman, by one of the immigrants of 1843, is of great interest for a number of reasons. We give it here as containing the spirit of that first genuine American immigration, the one that sealed the American possession of Oregon.

Jesse Looney to John C. Bond,

Greenbush, Warren County, Ill.

Waiilatpu, October 27, 1843.

Dear Sir: I embrace the opportunity of writing to you from this far western country, afforded me by the return of Lieutenant Fremont to the States this winter. He thinks he will be at Independence, Mo., by January next, which will be in time for those who intend coming next season to this country to get some information about the necessary preparations to be ready for the journey.

It is a long and tiresome trip from the States to this country, but the company of emigrants came through safely this season to the number of 1,000 persons with something over 100 wagons to this place, which is 250 miles east of the Willamet Valley, and, with the exception of myself and a few others, have all gone on down there, intending to go through this winter if possible. About half of them have traded off their stock at Walla Walla, twenty-five miles below here [he means the Hudson's Bay fort] and are going by water. The balance went on by land to the Methodist Mission, 175 miles below this, intending to take to the water there.

I have stopped here in the Walla Walla Valley to spend the winter, in order to save my stock. This is a fine valley of land, excellent water, good climate, and the finest kind of pine timber on the surrounding mountains, and above all a good range for stock both summer and winter. The Indians are friendly and have plenty of grain and potatoes, and a good many hogs and cattle. The missionaries at this and other missions have raised fine crops of wheat, corn, potatoes, etc., so that provisions can be procured here upon as good or better terms than in the lower settlements at present. Cattle are valuable here, especially American cattle. Things induced me to stop here for the winter, save my stock and take them down in the spring.

In preparing for the journey of Rocky Mountains, you cannot be too particular in choice of a wagon. It should be strong in every part and yet it should not be very heavy. The large size, two-horse Yankee wagons are the most substantial wagons I have seen for this trip. You should haul nothing but your clothing, bedding and provisions. Goods are cheaper here than in the States. Let your main load be provisions-flour and bacon. Put in about as much load

ing as one yoke of cattle can draw handily, and then put on three good yoke of cattle and take an extra yoke for change in case of failure from lameness or sore necks, and you can come without any difficulty. The road is good, much better than we had expected, but is long. Bring all the loose cattle you can, especially milk cows and heifers. Do not attempt to bring calves. They will not come through, and by losing them you will be in danger of losing their mothers.

I cannot urge you too strongly to be sure to bring plenty of provisions; don't depend on the game you may get. You may get some and you may not. It is uncertain. We were about five months on the way to this place, and I had plenty of flour, etc., to do me, but most of the company were out long before they got here, and there is little or nothing in the way of provisions to be had at the forts on the way. I would advise you to lay in plenty for at least five months, for if you get out on the way you will have trouble to get any till you get here. I would advise you to start as soon as the grass will admit. We might have started near a month sooner than we did, and then would have been here in time to have gone through with our cattle this winter. We left Independence, Mo., the 22d of May and we are just about a month too late. Myself and family were all sick when we left and continued till we left Blue River, and the rain and wind, but when we reached the highlands along the Platte we began to mend. My health is better than for years, and so far as I have seen this country I think it is very healthy. There was five or six deaths on the road, some by sickness and some by accident, and there were some eight or ten births. Upon the whole we fared much better than we expected. We had no interruptions from the Indians. Our greatest difficulty was in crossing rivers. Mrs. L. says prepare with good strong clothing or sage brush will strip you.

This shrub is very plenty, and was hard on our teams, especially those that went before, but it will not be so bad on those that come next year, for we have left a plain, well beaten road all the way. I will have a better opportunity of giving you accounts of this country next spring, and I want you to write the first chance and to direct to the settlement of Willamet.

So no more, but remain,

Your brother till death,

JESSE LOONEY.

In connection with these letters dealing with the mission at Waiilatpu and the immigration of 1843, we wish to include two of much interest, not hitherto published, both dealing with Doctor Whitman. These are letters of much later date than the preceding, though pertaining to the times of the mission.

The first of these is by Perrin Whitman to W. H. Gray. Perrin Whitman lived many years at Lewiston and was well known in all that region. Letter from Perrin Whitman to W. H. Gray:

Lapwai Station, October 11, 1880.

About the 20th of April, 1843, I left Rushville, Yates County, N. Y., with Dr. Marcus Whitman (my uncle) for Oregon. I distinctly remember of his telling his mother and friends that his visit with them would be necessarily short, as he had on his way east from Oregon, notified all who were desirous of

emigrating to Oregon to rendezvous at Westport and Independence, Mo., and that he would pilot them with their wagons across the Rocky Mountains to the Columbia River. The immigration, consisting of about one hundred and twenty wagons, left the Missouri line about the last of May and reached Waiilatpu (Walla Walla Valley) about the 5th of the following September.

The doctor piloted them the whole distance, as he had promised to do. Gen. J. C. Fremont (at that time a lieutenant) arrived at Waiilatpu with his Government train across the plains a few weeks after the arrival of our immigration.

Doctor Whitman's trip east in the winter of 1842 and 43 was for the double purpose of bringing the immigration across the plains, also prevent, if possible, the trading off of this northwest coast to the British Government. I learned from him that the Mission Board censured him in strong terms for having left his missionary duty and engaged in another so foreign from the one they had sent him to perform. While crossing the plains I repeatedly heard the doctor express himself as being very anxious to succeed in opening a wagon road across the continent to the Columbia River, and thereby stay, if not entirely prevent, the trade of this northwest coast, then pending between the United States and the British Government.

In after years the doctor with much pride and satisfaction reverted to his success in bringing the immigration across the plains and thought it one of the means of saving Oregon to his Government. I remained with him continuously till August, 1847, when he sent me to The Dalles. He was murdered the following November.

The above statement is correct and true, so help me God.

P. B. WHITMAN.

The next letter is from Judge O. S. Pratt, the territorial judge who presided at the trial of the Indians implicated in the Whitman massacre. It was addressed to Mrs. Catherine Sager Pringle, one of the adopted children of Doctor Whitman, evidently in response to inquiries for information.

While the facts which it states might be known from other sources, it is of much interest as a summary of the permanent views of Judge Pratt upon the life and character of Doctor Whitman.

San Francisco, March 4, 1882.

Dear Madam: In my reply to your letter of January 20th last, I wrote you I thought the late Doctor Whitman was born in Ontario County, N. Y. I said I would soon know as I had just written to a friend who had the means of knowing the doctor's birthplace and would be likely to send me exact information on the subject. In reply to a letter, which I caused to be written to Mrs. Henry F. Wisewell, residing at Naples in Ontario County, N. Y., who is the doctor's sister and the only surviving member of his father's family, I received today, under date of February 22, 1882, an answer dictated by her, stating that "Marcus Whitman was born in Rushville, Ontario County, N. Y., September 4, 1802-the county then being very wild and new. In infancy he narrowly escaped death by burning, his cradle having taken fire from a brand falling out of the fireplace, when left alone. His father died in April, 1810; the same fall the son was sent to Plainfield, Mass., to live with his grandparents. He then attended school and returned to Rushville when eighteen years old. At the

latter place he studied medicine and received a diploma at the Fairfield (N. Y.) Medical College. He thereafter practiced medicine a short time in Canada, and afterwards for a few years near his native place. The Rev. Mr. Parker of Ithaca, N. Y., while preaching in the interior of that state on behalf of the Northwestern Indians, became acquainted with Doctor Whitman; and the latter. having become deeply interested in Mr. Parker's efforts, first went with him to explore Oregon in the spring of 1835, and returned to his native village about Christmas of the same year, bringing with him two Indian boys. They were sent to school and learned rapidly and were soon able to read well and write legibly.

"In February, 1836, the doctor married Miss Narcissa Prentiss, a resident of Prattsburg, N. Y., and not far from his native village, who, with the doctor and the Rev. and Mrs. Spalding and the Indian boys, left April, 1836, for Oregon, their mission field, traveling west of the Mississippi, with pack horses and mules. Mrs. Whitman and Mrs. Spalding are understood to have been the first white women who ever crossed the Rocky Mountains. The doctor thereafter returned but once, starting October 7, 1842, and reached New York April 2, 1843, having suffered many hardships by the way, sleeping for the most part on the ground, and being at one time without food five days, and in his greatest extremity was compelled to kill his dogs to sustain life. From New York, before visiting his family, he hurried to Washington on his mission with the Government, which was to secure, if possible, Oregon to the United States. Not long afterwards he returned to his home west of the Rocky Mountains, and was, as is well known, massacred with his wife and others by the Indians, November 29, 1847."

I trust the foregoing, which may rightly be treated as authentic, will leave no uncertainty as to the birthplace and some of the important facts connected with the history of the late Doctor Whitman's useful life.

Respectfully yours,

O. S. PRATT.

Turning now from the letters to special contributions we will first present one dealing with the Cayuse war, following the great tragedy at Waiilatpu. This contains the personal experience of W. W. Walter, an immigrant to the Walla Walla country of 1859. He lived many years near Prescott. This article was written from his dictation by his daughter, Mrs. Pettyjohn.

CAYUSE INDIAN WAR

By W. W. Walter

In December, 1847, word reached the settlements in Oregon that the Cayuse Indians had killed Doctor Whitman and wife and twelve others. A runner carried the word to Vancouver, and a messenger was at once dispatched to Oregon City to Governor Abernethy, while Peter Skeen Ogden, factor of the Hudson's Pay Company, with a small company of Hudson's Bay men set out at once for the scene of the massacre-where he accomplished his wonderful work of ransoming the white captives held by the Indians.

"No other power on earth," says Joe Meek, the American, "could have