An illustrated history of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas counties; with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington, Part 9

Author: Interstate publishing co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: [Chicago] Interstate publishing company
Number of Pages: 1146

USA > Washington > Kittitas County > An illustrated history of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas counties; with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington > Part 9
USA > Washington > Yakima County > An illustrated history of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas counties; with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington > Part 9
USA > Washington > Klickitat County > An illustrated history of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas counties; with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington > Part 9

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

CENTRAL WASHINGTON.

charge. Fort Okanogan, at the mouth of the river of that name, established by David Stuart in 1811, was, in the absence of Mr. Ogden, in charge of a single white man. Concerning Fort Hall, nothing is said; but it fell into the hands of the Hudson's Bay Company in 1836. It was then a stockaded fort, but was rebuilt with adobe in 1838. Mr. Parker is also silent in regard to Fort Boise, which was constructed on Snake river from poles in 1834 as a rival establishment to Fort Hall, was occupied in 1835 by the Hud- son's Bay Company, and later was more sub- stantially constructed from adobe. If there were other establishments in 1835, west of the Rocky mountains, between the forty-second and forty- ninth parallels, the writer has failed to obtain evidences of them."

Meanwhile, Whitman was working in the east with characteristic energy, and he succeeded in raising funds and securing associates for two missions in Oregon territory. The population of Oregon was accordingly increased in the year 1836 by five persons, namely, Dr. Marcus Whit- man, Narcissa (Prentiss) Whitman, Rev. H. H. Spalding and wife, and W. H. Gray. The ladies mentioned gained the distinction of having been the first white women whose feet pressed the soil of old Oregon, and whose blue and dark eyes looked into the dusky, mystic orbs of the daughters of the Columbia basin. A few months later the Methodist mission was also blessed by the purifying presence of noble womanhood, but the laurels of pioneership have ever rested upon the worthy brows of Mrs. Whitman and Mrs. Spalding, and so far as we know, no fair hand has ever been raised to pluck them thence. The missionary party brought with them eight mules, twelve horses and sixteen cows, also three wagons laden with farming utensils, blacksmiths' and carpenters' tools, clothing, seeds, etc., to make it possible for them to support them- selves without an entire dependence upon the Hudson's Bay Company for supplies. Two of the wagons were abandoned at Fort Laramie, and heavy pressure was brought upon Dr. Whit- man to leave the third at the rendezvous on Green river, but he refused to do so. He suc- ceeded in getting it to Fort Hall intact, then reduced it to a two-wheeled cart, which he brought on to Fort Boise, thus demonstrating the feasibility of a wagon road over the Rocky mountains.

Although a reinforcement for the Methodist mission sailed from Boston in July, 1836, it failed to reach its destination on the Willamette until May of the following year, so that the American population at the close of 1836 num- bered not to exceed thirty persons, including the two ladies.

Until 1836 there were no cattle in the country except those owned by the Hudson's Bay Company, and those brought from the east

by the Whitman party. The Hudson's Bay Company wished to continue this condition as long as possible, well knowing that the introduc- tion of cattle or any other means of wealth pro- duction among the American population would necessarily render the people that much more nearly independent. When, therefore, it was proposed by Ewing Young and Jason Lee that a party should be sent to California for stock, the idea was antagonized by the autocratic Columbia river monopoly. Thanks largely to the assist- ance of William A. Slacum, of the United States navy, by whom money was advanced and a free passage to California furnished to the people's emissaries, the projectors of the enterprise were rendered independent of the Hudson's Bay Com- pany. Ewing Young was captain of the expedi- tion; P. L. Edwards, of the Willamette mission, was also one of its leading spirits. The men purchased seven hundred head of cattle at three dollars per head and set out upon their return journey. They succeeded in getting about six hundred head to the Willamette country, not- withstanding the bitter hostility of the Indians. Gilbert quotes from the diary of P. L. Edwards, which he says was shown him by the latter's daughter in California, to prove that the trouble with the Indians was caused by the wanton and cold-blooded murder by members of the party of a friendly Indian who was following the band. The Indian hostilities were not incited by the Hudson's Bay Company, as some have stated, but may properly be laid at the doors of the men who committed this barbarous outrage in revenge for wrongs suffered by a party to which they belonged two years before.

The arrival of neat cattle in the Willamette country provided practically the first means of acquiring wealth independent of the Hudson's Bay Company. "This success in opposition to that interest," says Gilbert, "was a discovery by the settlers, both Americans and ex-employees, that they possessed the strength to rend the bars that held them captives under a species of peon- age. With this one blow, directed by missiona- ries, and dealt by ex-American hunters, an inde- pendent maintenance in Oregon had been ren- dered possible for immigrants."

As before stated, the reinforcements for the Methodist mission arrived in May, 1837. By it the American population was increased eight per- sons, namely, Elijah White and wife, Alanson Beers and wife, W. H. Wilson, the Misses Annie M. Pitman, Susan Downing and Elvina Johnson. In the fall came another reinforcement, the per- sonnel of which was Rev. David Leslie, wife and three daughters, the Rev. W. H. K. Per- kins and Miss Margaret Smith. Add to these Dr. J. Bailey, an English physician, George Gay and John Turner, who also arrived this year, and the thirty or thirty-one persons who settled pre- viously, and we have the population of Oregon

PERIOD OF SETTLEMENT.

independent of the Hudson's Bay Company's direct or indirect control in the year 1837.

In January of that year, W. H. Gray, of the American Board's mission, set out overland to the east for reinforcements to the missionary force of which he was a member. His journey was not an uneventful one as will appear from the following narrative, clothed in his own words, which casts so vivid a light upon transcon- tinental travel during the early days that we feel constrained to quote it:

Our sketches, perhaps, would not lose in interest by giving a short account of a fight which our Flathead Indi- ans had at this place with a war party of the Blackfeet. It occurred near the present location of Helena, in Mon- tana. As was the custom with the Flathead Indians in traveling in the buffalo country, their hunters and warriors were in advance of the main camp. A party of twenty-five Blackfeet warriors was discovered by some twelve of our Flatheads. To see each other was to fight, especially par- ties prowling about in this manner. and at it they went. The first fire of the Flatheads brought five of the Blackfeet to the ground and wounded five more. This was more than they expected, and the Blackfeet made little effort to recover their dead, which were duly scalped and their bodies left for food for the wolves, and the scalps borne in triumph to the camp. There were but two of the Flat- heads wounded; one had a flesh wound in the thigh, and the other had his right arm broken by a Blackfoot ball.

The victory was complete, and the rejoicing in camp corresponded to the number of scalps taken. Five days and nights the usual scalp dance was performed. At the appointed time the big war drum was sounded, when the warriors and braves made their appearance at the appointed place in the open air, painted as warriors. Those who had taken the scalps from the heads of their enemies bore them in their hands upon the ramrods of their guns.

They entered the circle, and the war song, drums, rat- tles and noises all commenced. The scalp-bearers stood for a moment (as if to catch the time), and then commenced hopping, jumping and yelling in concert with the music. This continued for a time, when some old painted woman took the scalps and continued to dance. The performance was gone through with as many nights as there were scalps taken.

Seven days after the scalps were taken, a messenger arrived bearing a white flag, and a proposition to make peace for the purpose of trade. After the preliminaries had all been completed, in which the Hudson's Bay Com- pany trader had the principal part to perform, the time was fixed for a meeting of the two tribes. The Flatheads, however, were all careful to dig their warpits, make their corrals and breastworks, and, in short, fortify their camp as much as if they expected a fight instead of peace. Ermatinger, the company's leader, remarked that he would sooner take his chances of a fight off-hand than endure the anxiety and suspense of the two days we waited for the Blackfeet to arrive. Our scouts and warriors were all ready and on the watch for peace or war, the latter of which from the recent fight they had had was expected most. At length the Blackfeet arrived, bearing a red flag with "H. B. C." in white letters upon it, and advancing to within a short distance of the camp, were met by Ermat- inger and a few Flathead chiefs, shook hands and were con- ducted to the trader's lodge-the largest one in the camp- and the principal chiefs of both tribes, seated upon buffalo and bear skins, all went through with the ceremony of smoking a big pipe, having a long handle or stem trimmed with horse hair and porcupine quills. The pipe was filled with the traders' tobacco and the Indians' killikinick. The war chiefs of each tribe took a puff of the pipe, then passed it each to his right-hand man, and so around till all the circle had smoked the big medicine pipe, or pipe of peace,

which on this occasion was made by the Indians from a soft stone which they find in abundance in their country, hav- ing no extra ornamental work upon it. The principal chief in command, or great medicine man, went through the ceremony, puffed four times, blowing his smoke in four directions. This was considered a sign of peace to all around him, which doubtless included all he knew any- thing about. The Blackfeet, as a tribe, are a tall, well formed, slim built and active people. They travel princi- pally on foot, and are considered very treacherous.

The peace made with so much formality was broken two days afterward by killing two of the Flatheads when caught not far from the main camp.

It was from this Flathead tribe that the first Indian delegation was sent to ask for teachers. Three of their number volunteered to go with Gray to the States in 1837 to urge their claim for teachers to come among them. The party reached Ash Hollow, where they were attacked by about three hundred Sioux warriors, and, after fighting for three hours, killed some fifteen of them, when the Sioux, by means of a French trader then among them, obtained a parley with Gray and his traveling companions -two young men who had started to go to the United States with him. While the Frenchman was in conversa- tion with Gray, the treacherous Sioux made a rush upon the three Flatheads, one Snake and one Iroquois Indian belonging to the party, and killed them. The Frenchman then turned to Gray and told him and his companions they were prisoners, and must go to the Sioux camp, first attempting to get possession of their guns. Gray informed them at once: "You have killed our Indians in a cowardly manner, and you shall not have our guns," at the same time telling the young men to watch the first motion of the Indians to take their lives, and if we must die to take as many Indians with us as we could. The Sioux had found in the contest thus far that. notwithstanding they had con- quered and killed five, they had lost fifteen, among them one of their war chiefs, besides several severely wounded. The party was not further molested till they reached the camp, containing between one and two hundred lodges. A full explanation was had of the whole affair. Gray had two horses killed under him and two balls passed through his hat, both inflicting slight wounds. The party were feasted, and smoked the pipe of peace over the dead body of the chief's son. Next day they were allowed to proceed with nine of their horses; the balance, with the property of the Indians, the Sioux claimed as part pay for their losses, doubtless calculating to waylay and take the bal- ance of the horses. Be that as it may, Gray and his young men reached Council Bluffs in twenty-one days, traveling nights and during storms to avoid the Indians on the plains.

Gray proceeded east, and with the energy and courage which ever characterized him, set about the task of securing the needed reinforcements. He succeeded in enlisting Rev. Cushing Eells, Rev. E. Walker and Rev. A. B. Smith, with their wives, also a young man named Cornelius Rogers. He also succeeded in inducing a young woman to become his own bride and to share with him the dangers and tedium of a transcontinental journey and whatever of weal or woe the new land might have in store for them. Mention should likewise be made of the noted John A. Sutter, an ex-cap- tain of the Swiss guard, who accompanied this expedition and who afterward became an impor- tant character in the early history of California.

Two priests, Rev. F. N. Blanchet and Modest Demers, also came during this year, so the seeds of sectarian strife, which did so much to neutral- ize the efforts and work of the Protestant mis-

CENTRAL WASHINGTON.

sionaries, then began to be sown. The popula- tion of Oregon, independent of the Hudson's Bay Company, must have been about sixty at the close of the year 1838.

In the fall of 1839 came Rev. J. S. Griffin and Mr. Munger, with their wives, Ben Wright, Law- son, Keiser and Deiger, also T. H. Farnham, author of "Early Days in California," Sidney Smith, Blair and Robert Shortess. W. H. Gray, in his history of Oregon, estimates the popula- tion as follows: "Protestant missionaries, 10; Roman priests, 2; physicians, 2; laymen, 6; wonien, 13; children, 10; settlers, 20; settlers under Hudson's Bay control with Amerian tend- encies, 10; total, 83.'

In 1838 Jason Lee made a journey overland to the states for the purpose of procuring a force wherewith to greatly extend his missionary oper- ations. His wife died during his absence and the sad news was forwarded to him by Dr. McLough- lin, Dr. Whitman and a man hired by Gray. In June, 1840, Lee returned with a party of forty- eight, of whom eight were clergymen, one was a physician, fifteen were children and nineteen were ladies, five of them unmarried. Their names are included in Gray's list of arrivals for 1840, which is as follows:

"In 1840 Mrs. Lee, second wife of Rev. Jason Lee; Rev. J. H. Frost and wife; Rev. A. F. Waller, wife and two children; Rev. W. W. Kone and wife; Rev. G. Hines, wife and sister; Rev. L. H. Judson, wife and two children; Rev. J. L. Parish, wife and three children; Rev. G. P. Rich- ards, wife and three children; Rev. A. P. Olley and wife. Laymen: Mr. George Abernethy, wife and two children; Mr. H. Campbell, wife and one child; Mr. W. W. Raymond and wife; Mr. H. B. Brewer and wife; Dr. J. L. Babcock, wife and one child; Rev. Mrs. Daniel Lee, Mrs. David Carter, Mrs. Joseph Holman and Mrs. E. Phillips. Methodist Episcopal Protestant mis- sion: Robert Moore, James Cook and James Fletcher, settlers. Jesuit priest : P. J. De Smet, Flathead mission. Rocky mountain men with native wives: William Craig, Robert or Dr. Newell, J. L. Meek, George Ebbetts, William M. Dougherty, John Larison, George Wilkinson, a Mr. Nicholson, Mr. Algear, and William John- son, author of 'Leni Leoti; or, The Prairie Flower.'" Mr. Gray estimates the population of all the Oregon territory, not including Hud- son's Bay operatives, at about two hundred.

In 1841 eight young men built and equipped a vessel, named the Star of Oregon, in which they made a trip to San Francisco. Joseph Gale served as captain of the doughty little craft, of which Felix Hathaway had been master builder. The vessel was exchanged at Yerba Buena (San Francisco) for three hundred and fifty cows. Gale remained in the Golden State through the winter, then set out overland to Oregon with a party of forty-two immigrants, who brought with

them, as J. W. Nesmith informs us, one thou- sand two hundred and fifty head of cattle, six hundred head of mares, colts, horses and mules, and three thousand sheep. The incident forms the theme of one of Mrs. Eva E. Dye's most charm- ing descriptions, but its strategic importance in helping to Americanize Oregon and break up the cattle monopoly seems to have been overlooked by many other writers.

The Joseph Gale who figured so prominently in this undertaking was afterward a member of the first triumvirate executive committee of the provisional government. He is affectionately remembered in eastern Oregon, where he passed the closing years of his eventful life.

By the close of the year 1841 the independent population of Oregon had reached two hundred and fifty-three, thirty-five of whom are classed as settlers. In 1842 came an immigration of one hundred and eleven persons, two of whom, A. L. Lovejoy and A. M. Hastings, were lawyers. In this year, also, came the Red river immigration of English and Scotch and of French-Canadian half- breeds to the Puget sound country. This immi- gration was inspired by the Hudson's Bay Com- pany, which designed it as an offset to the grow- ing American power in the Oregon country. It had, however, very little political effect, as many of its members drifted southward into the Willa- mette country and became members of the pro- visional government. The year 1842 is also memorable for the famous winter ride of Dr. Whitman.

In 1843 came the largest immigration the Oregon country had yet known, piloted across the plains and over the mountains by Whitman himself. Its eight hundred and seventy-five per- sons, with their wagons and thirteen hundred head of cattle, settled forever the question of the national character of Oregon. J. W. Nesmith has preserved for us the names of all the male members of this expedition over sixteen years of age, as also of those remaining from the immi- grations of the year previous. 1n 1844 came eight hundred more Americans, and in 1845 a much larger number, estimated by some at three thousand. The year 1846 added another thou- sand to Oregon's American population. In it the ownership of the country was definitely settled by treaty with Great Britain, and the famous world problem was solved.

It is impossible here to adequately treat of life and conditions in the Northwest during those early days of American occupation. Some idea of the inner life of the first settlers of Oregon may be gained from the following excerpt from a lecture by Colonel J. W. Nesmith, delivered before the Oregon Pioneer Association:

The business of the country was conducted entirely by barter. The Hudson's Bay Company imported and sold many articles of prime necessity to those who were able to purchase. Wheat or beaver skins would buy anything the

PERIOD OF SETTLEMENT.

company had for sale. But poor, wayworn emigrants, just arriving in the country, were as destitute of wheat and beaver as they were of coin. The skins purchased by the company were annually shipped in their own vessels to London, while the wheat was shipped to the Russian pos- sessions on the north and to California, to fill a contract that the Hudson's Bay Company had with the Russian Fur Company. A small trade in lumber, salt, salmon, shingles and hoop-poles gradually grew up with the Sand- wich islands, and brought in return a limited supply of black and dirty sugar in grass sacks, together with some salt and coffee.

There being no duty collected upon importations into Oregon previous to 1849, foreign goods were comparatively cheap, though the supply was always limited; nor had the people means to purchase beyond the pure necessities. Iron, steel, salt, sugar, coffee, tea, tobacco, powder and lead, and a little ready-made clothing and some calico and domestics, were the principal articles purchased by the settlers. The Hudson's Bay Company, in their long inter- course with the Indians, had, from prudential motives, adopted the plan in their trade of passing articles called for out through a hole in the wall or partition. Persons were not allowed inside among the goods to make selec- tions, and the purchaser had to be content with what was passed out to him through the aperture. Thus in buying a suit of clothes, there was often an odd medley of color and size. The settlers used to say that Dr. McLoughlin, who was a very large man, had sent his measure to Lon- don, and all the clothing was made to fit him. The hick- ory shirts we used to buy came down to our heels and the wrist-bands protruded a foot beyond the hands; and as Sancho Panza said of sleep, "they covered one all over like a mantle." They were no such "cutty sark" affairs of "Paisley ham" as befuddled Tam O'Shanter saw when peeping in upon the dancing warlocks of "Alloway's auld haunted kirk." A small sized settler, purchasing one, could, by reasonable curtailment of the extremities, have sufficient material to clothe one of the children.

* * * * * *

The pioneer home was a log cabin with a puncheon floor and mud chimney, all constructed without sawed lumber, glass or nails, the boards being secured upon the roof by heavy-weight poles. Sugar, coffee, tea and even salt were not every-day luxuries, and in many cabins were entirely unknown. Moccasins made of deer and elk skins and soled with rawhide made a substitute for shoes, and were worn by both sexes. Buckskin was the material from which the greater portion of the male attire was manufactured, while the cheapest kind of coarse cotton goods furnished the remainder. A white or boiled shirt was rarely seen and was a sure indication of great wealth and aristocratic pretension. Meat was obtained in some quantities from the wild game of the forests or the wild fowl with which the country abounded at certain seasons, until such time as cattle or swine hecame sufficiently numerous to be slaughtered for food. The hides of both wild and domestic animals were utilized in many ways. Clothing, moccasins, saddles and their rigging, bridles, ropes, harness and other necessary articles were made from them. A pair of buckskin pants, moccasins, a hick- ory shirt and some sort of cheaply extemporized hat, rendered a man comfortable as well as presentable in the best society, the whole outfit not costing one-tenth part of the price of the essential gewgaws that some of our exqui- site sons now sport at the ends of their watch chains, on their shirt-fronts or dainty fingers. Buckskin clothing answered wonderfully well for rough-and-tumble wear, particularly in dry weather, but I have known them after exposure to a hard day's rain to contract in a single night by a warm fire a foot in longitude, and after being sub- jected to a webfoot winter or two, and a succeeding dry summer, they would assume grotesque and unfashionable shapes, generally leaving from six inches to a foot of nude and arid skin between the top of the moccasins and the lower end of the breeches; the knees protruded in front, while the rear started off in the opposite direction, so that

when the wearer stood up the breeches were in a constant struggle to sit down and vice versa.

The pioneers brought garden seeds with them, and much attention was paid to the production of vegetables, which, with milk, game and fish, went a long way toward the support of the family. Reaping machines, threshers, headers, mowing machines, pleasure carriages, silks, satins, laces, kid gloves, plug hats, high-heeled boots, crinoline, bustles, false hair, hair dye, jewelry, patent medicines. railroad tickets, postage stamps, telegrams, pianos and organs, together with a thousand and one other articles to purchase which the country is now drained of millions of dollars annually, were then unknown and con- sequently not wanted. A higher civilization has introduced us to all these modern improvements, and apparently made them necessaries, together with the rum mill, the jail, the insane asylum, the poor-house, the penitentiary and the gallows.

Of the people who lived in Oregon during this period, Judge Bennett, in his book entitled "Recollections of an Old Pioneer," says:

"Among the men who came to Oregon the year I did, some were idle, worthless young men, too lazy to work at home and too gentle to steal, while some were gamblers, and others reputed thieves. But when we arrived in Oregon, they were compelled to work or starve. It was a bare necessity. There was no able relative or indul- gent friend upon whom the idle could quarter themselves, and there was little or nothing for the rogues to steal. There was no ready way by which they could escape into another country, and they could not conceal themselves in Oregon. I never knew so fine a population, as a whole community, as I saw in Oregon most of the time I was there. They were all honest because there was nothing to steal; they were all sober because there was no liquor to drink; there were no misers because there was nothing to hoard; they were all industrious because it was work or starve.'

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An illustrated history of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas counties; with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington, Part 9

Author: Interstate publishing co., Chicago, pub Publication date: 1904 Publisher: [Chicago] Interstate publishing company Number of Pages: 1146

Author: Interstate publishing co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: [Chicago] Interstate publishing company
Number of Pages: 1146