USA > Washington > Walla Walla County > An illustrated history of Walla Walla County, state of Washington > Part 8
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71
Such was this dreadful event which at the now peaceful site of the Waiilatpu desecrated all the sanctities of life and left a tragic stain on the heroic pages of Walla Walla's history.
As one stands now upon the monument hill and views that entrancing rural scene, the sil- very bend of the Walla Walla, the dark green belts of birch and cottonwood, the bright fields of alfalfa, the continuous wheat-fields, green or gold with changing seasons, the gullied Um- atilla highlands to the west, the roofs and spires of Walla Walla, near at hand to the east, with the many-hued Blue mountains filling the back
ground of the east and south, it is hard to realize how Waiilatpu was once torn and beaten with the relentless cruelty of savage warfare. Still harder is it to realize that the momentous world question of the ownership of Oregon came nearer its focus of settlement in this quiet spot than anywhere else. The people of Walla Walla are not greatly given to imagining or idealizing, and hence do not generally realize the historical significance of the old mission ground. The time will surely come when they will perceive that the richest products of field and orchard have played but a small part in making Walla Walla known compared with that tale of heroism and patriotism.
Among many reminiscences of that time those of some of the hapless children are the most vivid and doubtless the most reliable, for a child's memory for details, as well as in- genuousness and freedom from prejudices, gives such testimony the greatest value. Among the children was Mrs. Jacobs, now matron of Billing's Hall, Whitman College. Her re- membrances of the horrors of the massacre, and the equally dreadful details of the escape of the Osborne family, of which she was a member, have the intensity of fire even after the lapse of these fifty-three years. Mr. Os- borne gave to Mr. Spalding many years ago for publication an account of his escape, from which we take the following extracts. Mr. Osborne says: "As the guns fired and the yells commenced I leaned my head upon the bed and committed myself and family to my Maker. My wife removed the loose floor. I dropped under the floor with my sick family in their night clothes, taking only two woolen sheets, a piece of bread and some cold mush, and pulled the floor over us. In five minutes the room was full of Indians, but they did not discover 115. The roar of guns, the yell of the savages
46
IHISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY.
and the crash of clubs and knives and the groans of the dying continued till dark. We distinctly heard the dying groans of Mrs. Whitman, Mr. Rogers and Francis, till they died away one after the other. We heard the last words of Mr. Rogers in a slow voice call- ing 'Come. Lord Jesus, come quickly.' Soon after this I removed the Hoor and we went out. We saw the white face of Francis by the door. It was warm as we laid our hand upon it, but he was dead. I carried my two youngest chil- dren, who were sick, and my wife held on to my clothes in her great weakness. We had all been sick with measles. Two infants had (lied. She had not left her bed for six weeks till that day, when she stood up a few minutes. The naked, painted Indians were dancing the scalp dance around a large fire at a little dis- tance. There seemed no hope for us and we knew not which way to go, but bent our steps toward Fort Walla Walla. A dense cold fog shut out every star and the darkness was com- plete. We could see no trail and not even the hand before the face. We had to feel out the trail with our feet. My wife almost fainted but staggered along. Mill creek, which we had to wade, was high with late rains and came up to the waist. My wife in her great weakness came nigh washing down, but held to my clothes. I braced myself with a stick, hokling a child in one arm. I had to cross five times for the children. The water was icy cold and the air freezing some. Staggering along about two miles, Mrs. Osborne fainted and could go no further, and we hid ourselves in the brush of the Walla Walla river, not far below Tam- sukey's (a chief ) lodges, who was very active at the commencement of the butchery. We were thoroughly wet and the cold fog like snow was about us. The cold mud was partially frozen as we crawled, feeling our way, into the
dark brush. We could see nothing the dark- ness'was so extreme. I spread one wet sheet clown on the frozen ground : wife and children crouched upon it. I covered the other over them. I thought they must soon perish as they were shaking and their teeth rattling with cold. I kneeled down and commended its to my Maker. The day finally dawned and we could see the Indians riding furiously up and down the trail. Sometimes they would come close to the brush and our blood would warm and the shaking woukl stop from fear for a moment. The day seemed a week. Expected every moment my wife would breathe her last. Tuesday night. felt our way to the trail and staggered along to Sutucksnina ( Dog creek), which we waded as we did the other creek, and kept on about two miles when my wife fainted and could go no farther. Crawled into the brush and frozen mud to shake and suffer on from hunger and cold, and without sleep. The chil- dren, too, wet and cold, called incessantly for food, but the shock of groans and yells at first so frightened them that they did not speak loud. Wednesday night my wife was too weak to stand. I took our second child and started for Walla Walla; had to wade the Touchet : stopped frequently in the brush from weakness : had not recovered from measles. Ilcard a horseman pass and repass as I lay concealed in the willows. Have since learned it was Mr. Spalding. Reached Fort Walla Walla after daylight ; begged Mr. MeBean for horses to get my family, for food, blankets and clothing to take to them, and to take care of my child till I could bring my family in, should I live to find them alive. Mr. McBean told me I could not bring my family to his fort.
"Mr. Hall came in on Monday night, but he could not have an American in his fort, and
47
HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY.
he had put him over the Columbia river : that he could not let me have horses or anything for my wife and children, and I must go to Uma- tilla. I insisted on bringing my family to the fort, but he refused : said he would not let us in. I next begged the priests to show pity, as my wife and children must perish and the In- dians undoubtedly would kill me, but with no success. I then begged to leave my child who was not safe in the fort, but they refused.
"There were many priests in the fort. Mr. McBean gave me breakfast, but I saved most of it for my family. Providentially Mr. Stan- ley, an artist, came in from Colville, narrowly escaped the Cayuse Indians by telling them he was 'Alain' H. B. He let me have his two horses, some food he had left from Rev. Eells and Walker's mission; also a cap. a pair of socks, a shirt and handkerchief, and Mr. Mc- Bean furnished an Indian who proved most faithful, and Thursday night we started back, taking my child, but with a sad heart that I could not find mercy at the hands of the priests of God. The Indian guided me in the thick darkness to where I supposed I had left my dear wife and children. We could see nothing and dared not call aloud. Daylight came and I was exposed to Indians, but we continued to search till I was about to give up in despair when the Indian discovered one of the twigs I had broken as a guide in coming out to the trail. Following these he soon found my wife and children still alive. I distributed what little food and clothing I had, and we started for the Umatilla, the guide leading the way to a ford.
"Mr. McBean came and asked who was there. I replied. Ile said he could not let us in: we must go to Umatilla or he would put us over the river, as he had Mr. Ilall. My wife replied she would die at the gate but she
would not leave. He finally opened and took tis into a secret room and sent an allowance of food for us every day. Next day I asked him for blankets for my sick wife to lie on. He had nothing. Next day I urged again. He had nothing to give but would sell a blanket out of the store. I told him I had lost every- thing, and had nothing to pay ; but if I should live to get to the Willamette I would pay. He consented. But the hip-bones of my dear wife wore through the skin on the hard floor. Stickus, the chief, came in one day and took the cap from his head and gave it to me, and a handkerchief to my child."
Mr. Osborne and his family finally went to the Willamette valley, where they lived many years as honored members of the community. though Mrs. Osborne never entirely regained her health from the dreadful experiences of the massacre and the escape.
A less distressing case of a few weeks later is presented in the following extract from some reminiscences of Mrs. Catherine Pringle of Colfax. Mrs. Pringle was one of the Sager children adopted by Dr. and Mrs. Whitman.
The story of a Christmas dinner which fol- lows was given by Mrs. Pringle to the Con- moner of Colfax in 1893:
"The Christmas of 1847." said Mrs. Prin- gle, "was celebrated in the midst of an Indian village, where the American families who kept the day were hostages, whose lives were in constant danger. There is something tragic- ally humorous about that Christmas, and I laugh when I think of some of the things that i cried over on that day.
"When the survivors moved to the Indian village, a set of guards was placed over us, and those guards were vagabond savages, in whose charge nobody was safe. Many times we thought our final hour had come. They
48
!11STORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY.
ordered us around like slaves, and kept us busy cooking for them. Whenever we made a dish, they compelled us to eat of it first, for fcar there was poison in it. They kept up a din and noise that deprived us of peace by day and sleep at night. Some days before Christmas we complained to the chief of the village, who was supposed to be a little gener- ous in our regard, and he gave us a guard of good Indians, under command of one whom we knew as 'Beardy.' The latter had been friendly to Dr. Whitman; he had taken no part in the massacre, and it was claimed to be through his intercession that our lives were spared.
"We hailed the coming of Beardy as a providential thing, and so when the holiday dawned the elder folks resolved to make the children as happy as the means at hand would allow.
"Mrs. Sanders had brought across the piains with her some white flour and some dried peaches, and these had been brought to our abode in William Gray's mission. White flour was a luxury, and so were dried peaches then. Mrs. Sanders made white bread on Christmas morning, and then she made peach pie. Beardy had been so kind to us that we had to invite him to our Christmas dinner. We had ever so many pies, it seemed, and Beardy thought he had tasted nothing so good in all his life. He sat in one corner of the kitchen and crammed piece after piece of that dried peach pie into his mouth. We were de- termined that he should have all the pie he wanted, even if some of us went hungry, be- cause Beardy was a friend on whose fidelity probably our lives depended.
"And so we had our Christmas festival, and we sang songs and thanked heaven that we were still alive. After dinner and about
an hour after Beardy went away, we were thrown into alarm by a series of mad yells and we heard Indian cries of 'Kill them Tomahawk them! . A band of savages started to attack the Gray residence, and we saw then from the windows. Our time had come and some of us began to pray. The day tha opened with fair promises was about to close in despair.
"To our amazement and horror, the Indian band was led by Beardy himself, the Indian we counted on to protect us in just such emer gencies. He was clamoring for the death o all the white women.
"Fortune favored us at this critical junc ture, for just as the Indians were entering the house messengers arrived from For Walla Walla. The messengers knew Beard well, and they advanced on him and inquired the reason of his wild language.
" Me poisoned,' cried Beardy: 'me killed White squaw poison me. Me always white man's friend; now me enemy. White squaw must die.'
"That would be a liberal translation of the Indian words. Then followed a colloquy be tween Beardy and the messengers, and fron the language used we gleaned that Beardy had suffered from an overdose of American pie and not knowing about the pains that lie in wait after intemperate indulgence even in pie he rushed to the conclusion that the pie hac been poisoned.
"It required a long time for the messen- gers to convince Beardy that the women were innocent of any intention to cause him pain but that he was simply suffering from the effects of inordinate indulgence in an indiges- tible luxury.
"The messengers talked Beardy into a reasonable frame of mind; he called off his
49
IIISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY.
horde of savages, and peace once more spread her wings over the William Gray mission.
"We were all happy that night-happy . that Mrs. Sanders' pie had not been the means of a wholesale slaughter of white families on Christmas day.
"The messengers I speak of brought good news from the fort. Succor was at hand, and on December 29th we were moved to the fort, and started down the river to The Dalles, January 3. 1848. The Christmas of the year 1847, as it was celebrated .in this territory, offers somewhat of a contrast to the Yule- tide merriment in all the churches and homes to-day."
We have now described the Whitman mis- sion, Whitman's midwinter journey, his work for Oregon, and the massacre. It now re- mains to speak of the Cayuse war, which fol- lowed as a natural sequence.
THE CAYUSE WAR.
The ransomed missionaries from Waiil- atpu, Lapwai and Tchimakain reached the Willamette valley in safety. Concerning those from Lapwai and Tchimakain, it may be said here to the credit of the Indians, that though one band, the Cayuses, were murder- ers, two bands, the Nez Perces and Spokanes, were saviors. Few things more thrilling ever came under the observation of the writer than the narrations by Fathers Eells and Walker of the circuit of the Spokanes at Tchimakain to decide whether or not to join the Cayuses.
The lives of the missionaries hung on the decision. Imagine their emotions as they waited with bated breath in their mission house to know the result. After hours of excited discussion with the Cayuse emissaries, the 4
Spokanes announced their conclusion: "Go and tell the Cayuses that the missionaries are our friends and we will defend them with our lives." The Nez Perces made the same de- cision. Bold though those Cayuses were- the fiercest warriors of the Inland Empire- their hearts must have sunk within them as they saw that the Umatillas, the Nez Perces and the Spokanes, and even the Hudson's Bay Company, were all against them and that they must meet the infuriated whites from the Wil- lamette. For as soon as tidings reached the Willamette the provincial government at once entered upon the work of equipping fourteen companies of volunteers by an act of Deceni- ber 9. These volunteers mainly provided their own horses, arms and ammunition, without a thought of pecuniary gain or even reimburse- ment.
Cornelius Gilliam, father of W. S. Gilliam, of Walla Walla, was chosen colonel of the regiment, and with great energy pushing all necessary arrangements, he set forth from the rendezvous at The Dalles on February 27th, 1848. Several battles occurred on the way, the most severe being at Sand Hollows, in the Umatilla country. Five Crows and War Eagle. the great fighters of the Cayuse tribe, had gathered their braves to dispute the cross- ing of the Umatilla river. The former elaimed that by his wizard powers he could stop all bullets, and the latter agreed to swallow all that were fired at him. But at the first onset the "Swallow Ball" was killed, and the wizard was so severely wounded as to be obliged to retire from the war. Nevertheless the Indians maintained a plucky fight and the whites suf- fered several casualties. The Indians broke at last and the way to Waiilatpu was clear. Gilliam's command reached it on March 4th. They paused several days to recuperate and
50
IHISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY.
give a reverent burial to the remains of the martyrs, which had been hastily covered with earth when Ogden ransomed the captives, but were afterwards partially exhumed by coyotes.
The Indians had now fallen back to Snake river. Following them thither the whites were somewhat outgeneraled. They surprised and captured a camp of Indians, among whom were. as afterwards discovered, some of the murderers themselves. But the wily Cayuses professed great friendship, and pointing to a large band of horses on the hill, said that the hostiles had abandoned them and crossed the river. Completely deluded, the whites sur- rendered the camp and rounding up the horses started on their return. AAnd now the released captives, mounting at once, began a furious attack which proved so harrassing that the volunteers were obliged to retreat to the Touchet, and finally, although they repelled the Indians, they let loose the captured horses. These the Indians seized, vanishing with them over the plains.
But the Indians in general had no wish to fight, and finding that the whites insisted on a surrender of the murderers, the tribe scattered in various directions : Tamsuky with his friends going to the head waters of the John Day. There they remained for two years. In 1850 a band of U'matillas under- took to capture them, and after a fierce fight killed Tamsuky and captured a number. Of the captives five were hanged at Oregon City on June 3d, 1850. The Cayuse Indians assert, however, that only one of those condemned was really guilty. That was Tamahas, who struck Dr. Whitman the first fatal blow. The claim that the others were innocent is very likely true, and if so is but another instance of the lamentable failure to apply either pun- is iment or mercy accurately, which has char-
acterized all Indian wars on both sides. The innocent have borne the sins of the guilty in more ways than one.
Many men afterwards famous in Oregon and Washington history took part in the Cay- use war. AAmong those we may name James Nesmith, afterwards United States senator, and father of Mrs. Ankeny, of Walla Walla. William Martin, of Pendleton, was a captain in that war. Joel Palmer, Tom McKay, J. M. Garrison and many others bore their part in that beginning. as later in the maturer de- velopment of the country. Colonel Gilliam. who had shown himself a brave and capable commander, was accidentally killed on the re- turn, a most melancholy end of a career which was full of promise to this country.
In taking our leave of this great epoch in the varied history of Walla Walla, we can only say in the way of reflection, that, griev- ous as this end of Whitman's career was. it will no doubt ultimately be seen to have pro- duced greater results for this region and the world than if he had survived to enjoy a well- merited rest. For the subsequent development of this section, the founding of Whitman Col- lege, and the whole train of circumstances arising from American occupation may be seen in some measure to have grown out of the tragedy of Waiilatpu. Here, as elsewhere, martyrdom seems a necessary accompaniment of the profoundest progress. While the offenses of the Indians cannot be condoned, yet charity compels the admission that the poor creatures were hardly more responsible than the wild beasts who also disputed the ground with civ- ilized man, and though the progress of the world demanded the removal of both as ob- stacles, yet the disposition of many people to indiscriminate hate and to hold savages to a higher standard of responsibility than we
5 1
HISTORY OF WALLA WALLAA COUNTY.
would allow even for the best of ourselves, does little credit to our boasted civilization and Christianity.
The following interview casts so vivid a lighit on our earlier time, and bears so directly on the Whitman epoch, that we preserve it here entire.
INTERVIEW WITH L. T. BOYD.
Mr. Boyd is a well-known pioneer of Walla Walla. He came to Oregon in 1843 with the famous wagon train led by Dr. Marcus Whit- man. He drove Dr. Whitman's cart part of the way and was well acquainted with him. On October 5, 1900, he gave the following account of his experience at that time and of his subsequent life :
"The way I came to get started was some- what peculiar. My uncle with whom I was living gave me a tremendous thrashing one day, which riled me so that I gathered to- gethier my clothes and struck out afoot and alone. I came up into Jackson county, Mis- souri, and got in with an old farmer and lived with him a couple of years. One day the farmer's daughter told me that my uncle had got wind of where I was and was coming after me. so I skipped out from there and in the spring, having heard that an immigration was going to start from this country, I joined it. We started from Independence, Missouri, in the spring of '43 with about one hundred and fifty wagons which averaged about ten people to the wagon. It was commonly believed by the people in the wagon train that it was Dr. Whitman's influence that brought them to- gether.
"I was a lad of about nineteen years of age at that time and was assigned to drive Dr. Whitman's cart. The Doctor himself rode
ahead with the captain of the immigration, Applegate, in a light wagon. They took with them when they started out each morning, a bundle of long sharp stakes with white rags tied to their tops. Every half mile or so they would set up one of these stakes and the driver of the lead teams of the wagon train took these as his guide posts. When they struck a good place to camp with plenty of grass and water, they would stop and the train when it came up would stay there for the night. I drove the Doctor's cart every other day until we reached Fort Boise and from there I drove it all the way.
"We had a good deal of rough weather along through the country near the Missouri river, but after we got to the Platte we had good weather all the way out. The first bad luck we had was in crossing the Platte. The water was so deep that it would get into the beds of the wagons and we were afraid that we would lose all our provisions. We had to stop and figure out a way of getting the provisions and things that water would spoil, across in some way. At last we hit upon the scheme of building buffalo boats. So we struck out and killed a lot of buffalo and made boats out of their hides in which to take the stuff across. To get the boats across was no small trick in itself. We made long ropes of hide, and when a boat was filled a man would swim his horse to the nearest island, taking the loose end of the rope with him. When he was securely on the island the boat would be swung from the shore and the current would help to put it over to the island. Then the man would go from that island to the next until the boat and its cargo were ferried across. This process took a lot of time but was the best we could do. There were some cattle lost by getting mired in the sand and two women came near getting
52
HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY.
drowned. They had passed one island in safe- ty and were just being swung to another when their raft sunk and they were left floundering in the water. They would certainly have per- ished had it not been for the bravery of Char- ley Applegate and Mr. Gilliam, who swam out from shore and rescued them just as they were being carried into the swift water above the rapids.
"The wagons went in single file until we saw signs of Indians. Then they would form in a column of twos, and if Indians actually came in sight we drove four and four. At night we made a round corral by running the tongue of one wagon up on the hind wheel of the next wagon in front, and then camped in- side of that. One wagon would take the lead one day and the next day the wagon behind it would take the lead and the first wagon would fall back to the rear. We had to break the sage brush and it would have been too hard for one team to break the road all the time. All along the Platte there was heavy sand.
"We crossed the North Platte at the Cot- tonwood grove and took across and struck the South Platte nearly one hundred miles be- low Independent Rock, which is right in the gap of the Rocky mountains. We never saw an Indian on the plains except at Cottonwood grove. There we met a war party, and when they saw us coming they all formed in line be- side the Indian trail and got off their horses. We came up to them four abreast and formed a corral and put the women and children in- side of that. Then we made motions to the Indians to come down as we wanted to know what they were going to do. They made signs that they wanted to be friendly, so they came down and we gave them bacon, flour and meat and such things as we could spare. When
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.