USA > Washington > Walla Walla County > An illustrated history of Walla Walla County, state of Washington > Part 9
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they got ready to go they got up and raised war whoop, got on their horses and away tl went. This was the only party of India that we saw except the Indians at the for
"We had hunting parties out nearly the time. We laid over at Sweetwater g for about a week and all the men went ( and killed buffalo and antelope and laid ir stock of dried meat. There was plenty game and we had no trouble in getting a l supply. One day when we were about for miles this side of Sweetwater gap we saw big cloud of dust rising away out to the soul Pretty soon we saw that it was a great he of buffalo heading our way. We hurried1 and drove as fast as we could, but the he struck us about mid-way of the train. L Whitman gave us orders to make a gap f them, for if we didn't they would make o for themselves and mash cattle, men ai wagons into the dust. We made a gap abo two hundred yards wide for them and killed lot of them as they went through. The catt of the front wagons got scared and ran f about a mile before they could be stoppe They turned one wagon right over on top of family of three little children. but fortunate no one was hurt. Another time some buffa came near camp and scared a team so that ran away and ran over a woman and broke little child's arm.
"Not long after starting we held an ele tion and elected Dr. Whitman guide, or pik as you might say, because he knew the route well, and especially from Fort Hall down knew it perfectly. Jesse Applegate w. elected captain until we got to Fort Ha There some of the wagons got to lagging b hind and we broke up into two trains. Lin say Applegate took charge of the head trai and Charley Applegate took charge of the hir
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HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY.
train. The trains arrived about a week apart. After we got this side of the Black Hills the wagons took their own gait, staying in companies of four or five wagons, and were scattered from that time until we reached the valley. Whitman stayed in the first train all the time. When his team fagged the com- pany would furnish cattle and he would go on. "Dr. Whitman would give us family prayer every night and morning and preach once in a while, probably two sermons a week; nearly every Sunday evening he would have a sermon. He would give out word every morn. ing that he would have family prayers, and as regular as the night came he would come out to the guard tent and have prayer out there. Everyone thought a great deal of him. They thought that what he said was about right. Of course there were some that didn't like him. but that was only natural because there were so many of them.
"I have heard him say that he went back to Washington on business, but he never talked much about it, or told what particular busi- ness he went back on.
"He was sandy complexioned, a man that would stand about five feet seven or eight, and when he talked he talked fast. His eyes, I think. were blue, his mouth tolerably small and his teeth very white and even. As well as I can recollect. his forehead was rather square and his temples came out full and his brows were shaggy. He had a heavy beard. He was raw-boned, broad shouldlered and stood as straight as an Indian. He was a good horse- man and had splendid powers of endurance. He could stand almost anything and was al- ways ready to take the lead in danger or work. If any one was out longer than usual, he was the first one to say: 'Come, boys, let's go and lunt for him.' Sometimes they would find
the lost one and sometimes he would get back to the train before they did. He did most of the doctoring. There was not much sickness in the immigration, only two deaths : a little child died on the way and a man named Rich- ardson died at Fort Hall.
"They looked to Whitman for everything; for orders and for directions to travel. When we came to the Black Hills he told us he would have to stop and make roads across the swamp. He superintended the making of the corduroy roads in person. It took us two weeks to cut poles and carry them in. We laid down three long poles or strings of poles for stringers and then laid other poles across them. There was about a mile of road in one place and a quarter of a mile in another that we had to build, but there were so many of us that it did not take long. Dr. Whitman did the managing of it and stayed right with the company till they got it done, working right along with the rest of the men. I do not think a more willing man to do work ever drew breath, and if there was anything that needed attention anywhere in the camp, he would get up at any time of night to attend to it. He was always in the place where there was the greatest need of some one to take hold and do things.
"At Fort Hall the Hudson's Bay officials and trappers tried to get us to turn and go to California. They were going in that way trapping and they did not want us in their hunting grounds ; but we had our heads set on Oregon and we made up our minds to go through. Then they tried their best to get us to leave our wagons and pack our stuff the rest of the way on horses. They said that we couldn't cross the rivers, that the Indians would scalp us and drive our stock off, and that even with pack-horses the trail was difficult, but with wagons it was impossible.
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Dr. Whitman got up and told the men that they could get their wagons the rest of the way just as easily as they had gotten them to Fort Hall, and he told us that he had already taken his wagon there. We told the Hudson's Bay people that we had made up our minds to fol- low Dr. Whitman and wherever he went or said we could go we were going.
"We thought that Oregon belonged to the Indians and in the long run would belong to the United States unless the English got hold of it, and they were trying mighty hard to get hold of it. The settlers made no difference between the land north of the Columbia river and south of it: it was all Oregon to the Sis- kiyou mountains. It was the treaty of 1846 that really settled the Oregon question, and we all felt that it was our settling in Oregon in 1843 that saved the country to the United States.
"Along in the winter of 1842 Whitman made a speech at Independence, Missouri, and it was published and they got hokl of it down in Franklin county and St. Louis. He made this speech at Independence on his way to Washington, D. C. It got spread around that there was to be an immigration the next spring, and a rendezvous was appointed at a place about ten miles from Independence. When Whitman came back from Washington in April, he made another speech that he was going to take this immigration through to Oregon and that he would go all the way with them.
"When we got to the Snake river an amus- ing incident occurred that came well nigh being fatal in its outcome. At the first cross- ing a Dutchman named Stemmerman tried to drive a cow across, as she would not lead. When the cow got to swimming water, he took hold of her tail to help himself along.
The cow did not like this performance, and turning around gave him a jab in the ribs with her horns. He let go the cow's tail and sank. As he did not come up some of the men jumped in and brought him out, and then we had to roll him over a cottonwood log until he came to.
"When we got to the Grande Ronde valley the Doctor was called up to the Clearwater to attend Mrs. Spalding. so he left us and we went on. We came right through Union and LaGrande and up past where Baker City now is. Coming through the Blue mountains we had a pretty hard time building corduroy roads in many places, and in general experi- enced about the hardest part of the whole trip almost at its end.
"li I recollect right it was about the mid- die of September when we struck the Whit- man mission. We found an adobe house about 30x40, some out-buildings and a corral made of willow brush. The flour mill had been burned by the Indians during the Doc- tor's absence.
"I believe that there were ten wagons that stopped at the station during the winter and the rest of the wagons went on down into the valley. When the cattle got rested up they came to The Dalles and came down in boats from there.
"We settled in Yamhill county, Oregon, and I stayed there until a month or two be- fore the massacre.
"We got news that the Indians were get- ting bad and we came up to kind of corral them. They all appeared to be friendly and we took a notion to take a little scout up around the Snake and Clearwater. We roved around until the news came that the Indians had killed Whitman and all the family. We gathered together and came back again and stayed for
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HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY.
about eighteen months, ransacking the coun- try all over. The Indians got word that we were hunting them and they brought the girls that they had captured to Wallula, then Fort Walla Walla. We had one skirmish up here about four miles this side of the mouth of the Clearwater. We killed about forty of them and threw them in the river. While we were counting how many we had killed, we ran across one old Indian whose horse had fallen on him and pinned him to the ground. As we came along he pulled his bow and arrow on us, but he only shot a couple of his shafts before we fixed him and threw him in the river with the rest. Only two of our boys were wounded and they not enough to make them stay behind.
"We got a lot of them corralled in the Big Bend about ten o'clock one night and waited until daybreak to pick our ground to fight. The next morning at daybreak we opened fire on them, and, as the saying is, the river ran red.' We didn't show any mercy on them and when the fight was over we took some scalps in regular Indian style and strung them to our saddle bows. The Indians fought with bows and arrows and old flint locks, but they were pretty good fighters. This was our last big fight and it occurred about eighteen months after the massacre. When we got back to Wallula they tried to get us to go back with the regulars to the valley, but we said we hadn't followed the regulars up here and weren't going to follow them back."
CHAPTER IV.
INITIAL ATTEMPT TO ORGANIZE WALLA WALLA COUNTY-ORIGINAL BOUNDARIES-OFFICIAL APPOINTMENTS-PROGRESS IMPEDED BY INDIAN OUTBREAK.
Reference has already been incidentally made to the organization of Walla Walla coun- ty, but it is clearly incumbent that further de- tails be given in regard to the vicissitudes and circumstances which attended the efforts made to erect the county. At the first session of the legislature of the territory after its organization sixteen counties were created, among the num- ber being Walla Walla, whose boundaries were described as follows : "Commencing its line on the north bank of the Columbia river. opposite the mouth of the Des Chutes river, and running thence north to the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude:"and it took in all of Washington Ter- ritory between this line and the Rocky mount- ains. Thus it will be seen that the original
county included what are now northern Idaho and northern Montana, the greater portion of Klickitat and Yakima counties, and all of the territory comprised within the present counties of Spokane, Stevens, Whitman, Columbia. Garfield and Walla Walla. Of the counties of our great state Walla Walla may be most consistently designated as the "mother of coun- ties."
The population of this monster county was very small and widely scattered, so that it be- came expedient to attach it to Skamania county, contiguous on the west, for judicial purposes. The county thus had assignment to the first judicial district, over which Judge Obadiah B. McFadden presided. The counties of Walla
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HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY.
Walla. Skamania and Clarke were jointly al- lowed one member in the legislative assembly, and the county-seat was by enactment located on the land claim of Lloyd Brooke, who had, as previously noted, established himself at the old Whitman mission. This first legislature, that of 1854, duly reinforced the political and official dignity of the new county, as is shown in the following extract from the proceedings of the session: "That George C. Bumford. John Owens and A. Dominique Pambrun be, and they are hereby constituted and appointed. the board of county commissioners ; and that Narcises Redmond be, and is hereby appointed sheriff ; and that Lloyd Brooke be, and is hereby appointed, judge of probate, and shall have jurisdiction as justice of the peace: all in and for the county of Walla Walla." Of these ap- pointments Gilbert's history speaks somewhat facetiously, as follows: "Some of these offi- cials never knew of the honor that had been cast at their feet ; and Mr. Pambrun. in 1882. insisted to the writer that hitherto he had been ignorant of this early application to himself of Shakespeare's fancy, when he wrote that, 'Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.' None of these parties acted officially in the positions to which they were chosen ; and their appoint- ment. in a region including less than a dozen American citizens, was a legislative absurdity."
It will be readily inferred that the Indians yet held practical dominion in the county, and there had as yet been no enactment for the ex- tinguishment of their title to the land within its environments. When this enactment was finally made, it may be said in passing, it gave slight evidence of the application of justice and was a veritable travesty. It must be admitted that there was but. little to attract settlers to this section at that time, for land could be easily
secured nearer the centers of civilization, where the hardships to be endured were far less and where the menace from the Indians was eliminated. Indeed, it is a matter of fact that the federal government as yet had no right to give title to any claim for lands in the region lying between the Rocky and Cascade mount- ains. Yet such were the opulent resources but waiting proper development, that the settle- ment of the country could not be long de- ferred.
The next session of the territorial legisla- ture was held in January, 1855, at which time a second attempt was made to bring about a genuine organization of the county. A statute was adopted on the 24th of January, and by the provisions of the same the following officers were chosen : Probate judge, Lloyd Brooke: county auditor, Lloyd Brooke ; county treasur- er. Lloyd Brooke: county sheriff. Shirley En- sign ; justice of the peace, George C. Bumford ; county commissioners. John Owens, George C. Bumford. John F. Noble. The county was further authorized to elect two representatives to the territorial legislature. It is interesting to relate that none of the gentlemen mentioned seemed to desire the honors or emoluments of public office, since none of them qualified for the duties of the respective positions, thus leav- ing the county organization one of merely nom- inal character, as before. Thus it may be seen that Walla Walla county was born of sore travail and that her infant days were regarded with most apathetic interest. But the day of better things was even now dawning, for soon indisputable inducements were offered to the white settlers.
But before the day was fairly to break it was necessary that there should precede, as there has in nearly every American settlement, that hour of darkness before the dawn, an In-
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COUNTY COURT HOUSE AND HALL OF RECORDS.
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HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY.
dian war. Fully to narrate this, with its causes and results, will require two long chapters.
A few brief statements, however, as to the first attempts at settlement may be fittingly connected with this chapter, though in chro- nology they carry us somewhat beyond the Indian wars of the succeeding chapters.
BEGINNING OF SETTLEMENT OF EASTERN WASII- INGTON.
Subsequent to the Whitman massacre, con- cerning which special mention has been made on other pages of this volume, the country east of the Cascade mountains, in area the larger portion of the territory of Washington. had been without any white settlers, excepting a few here and there. Therefore it had no part in the initiatory steps toward territorial organi- zation. Prior to the '6os it had scarcely any history except that connected with the early ex- plorations, the labors of the early missionaries, the Indians and Indian wars. The first settler in eastern Washington after the missionaries was Henry M. Chase, who entered the Walla Walla valley in 1851. He was soon followed by Lloyd Brooke, George C. Bumford and John F. Noble. the three for a time occupying the Whitman mission. They had to leave be- tween 1855 and 1858. . After the Indians had been thoroughly subjugated through the vigor- ous campaign of Colonel George Wright. the interdict of Major-General Wocl against the oc- cupancy of eastern Washington by white people was rescinded by his successor in command, General N. G. Clarke. Accordingly the whole country was thrown open to settlement in 1858. Soon we find a considerable number of families. farmers and stockmen in the Walla Walla val- ley, and also along and adjacent to the streams flowing from the Blue mountains. Thus the
development of the Inland Empire became as- sured. In January, 1859, the territorial legis- lature organized the county of Walla Walla, and a small village began to grow around Mill creek, about five miles from the Whitman mis- sion. Its first name was Steptoeville, then Waiilatpu. It was selected as the county-seat, and when the commissioners assembled they gave it the name of Walla Walla. The county was so large that one of the commissioners lived only about sixty miles from the present site of Missoula, Montana. It would have taken him six weeks to reach his county-seat on horseback and return. He never qualified.
In 1860 the Salmon river gold discovery gave a wonderful impetus to immigration and settlement north of the Snake river, and by the opening of the year 1861 the mining excitement in that region was at its height. Adventurous mining prospectors flocked in from all direc- tions. It was a veritable and typical rush for the precious metal, and, as usual in such cases. misfortunes were more in evidence than suc- cesses. The winter of 1861-2 was an excep- tionally severe one, and the gold-seekers on their way to the Salmon river country suffered great hardships, as did, indeed, the settlers of eastern Washington, also. But the influx of population was stopped for but a short time. In the spring of 1862 the people flowed in in a tide, estimated at from five to fifteen thousand, while some say they were twenty thousand strong.
With all the misfortunes concomitant with this almost unparalleled gold excitement, it served as the means of ushering in a new civili- zation, for it initiated the marvelous develop- ment which has taken place in the upper Column- bia country. Lewiston at the confluence of the Snake and Clearwater rivers, was laid out early in 1862. The territorial legislature of 1859 created Spokane county, lying north of Snake
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HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY.
river to the British line. March 3, 1863, con- gress passed an act organizing the territory of Idaho out of the eastern part of Washington, including nearly all the mining region. There were at that time in eastern Washington the counties of Walla Walla, Klickitat and Spokane. The increase in population north of the Snake river during the next decade was slow. This region had but few scattered set-
tlers, not including the United States soldiers. The limits of this work preclude the addition of details with respect to settlements other than those of Walla Walla. It may be sufficient to say here, that Walla Walla contained the only settlement worth mention in what is now Washington for some years after the opening of the country in 1859.
CHAPTER V.
THE INDIAN WARS OF THE 'FIFTIES.
We have seen in the previous chapter the struggle for possession with England. Ameri- ca won. Her home-builders outmatched the fur-traders. But there was, as there always has been in our national history, another inevitable struggle for possession. This was with the In- dians. The so-called Christian nations have never stopped to consider much the rights of the native claimants of the land. This, too, though accompanied by needless cruelty, de- ceit and treachery, is one of the necessary though seemingly hard and bitter laws of life. The thing greatly to be deplored in all Indian wars, however, has been the general practice on both sides of inflicting punishment upon any innocent person that might happen along. Some drunken and ferocious savages, as devoid of humanity as the wild beasts about them, would plunder, outrage and kill some family of immigrants or settlers, and forthwith, a band of the brave, manly, yet harsh and intolerant frontiersman, who have made our early history. would rush forth impetuously and kill some
poor Indian wretches who had never heard of the outrage and had not the remotest concep- tion of having committed any offense. In like manner, when some avaricious white had swindled the ignorant Indians out of land or some other valuable property, or some lustful and conscienceless white desperado had out- raged Indian women or murdered unoffending braves, a band of Indians, inflamed with whisky purchased of some post-trader, and armed with weapons from the same source. would go on the war path and torture, mutilate and murder some innocent, helpless women and children, who had never had a thought of injuring a liv- ing thing. No one who has ever lived on the frontier can wonder at the bitter and intolerant hatred of whites for Indians. But if we, the civilized and the victors, could put ourselves in the place of the natives and view life with their eyes, none of us would wonder that they had hated us with the fury and frenzy of wild beasts. For it is safe to say that for every pang suffered by whites, a score have been suffered
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HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY.
by Indians. And we, the higher race, must admit that we know better than they, and have less excuse for inhumanity and intolerance.
Yet in the final summary there can be 110 other conclusion than that the extermination of the majority of the Indians and the total de- struction of their claims as owners of this coun- try, was "writ down in the book of fate." It was simply part of the irrepressible conflict of life. Moreover by reason of the necessities of existence the early settlers could not wait to argue abstract questions of riglits. They had obeyed the fundamental law to subdue and re- plenish the earth, and in pursuance of that con- dition of all progress they could not stop to philosophize on the principles of human broth- erhood. They had to live and with a tomahawk just leveled over their heads they had to repel. .And if the right to repel existed, the right to counter attack followed as a matter of course ; for extermination of their enemies was, gen- erally speaking, the only effectual means of re- pelling. It was sad but inevitable. And though we have lived a "Century of Dishonor," it is much easier now to condemn them than it would have been then to improve.
By reason of the conditions just noted. we find the history of our Indian wars the subject of bitter controversy. Hardly any two writers or witnesses give the same version of supposed facts. One has a bias in favor of the volun- teers and makes his facts conform to his opin- ions, and hence represents the volunteers as al- ways justifiable and the Indians as always to blame. Another gives the reverse impression. Nor are pioneers generally much disposed to qualify or smooth either their opinions or ex- pressions. It is all one thing or all the other with them. The other fellow is a fool or a liar and that ends it. Compromise does not flourish
in pioneer conditions. . All are angels on one side and all devils on the other.
We shall use our best endeavor in these pages to present the facts without bias, ac- knowledging the probable impossibility of sat- isfying all readers, but believing that at this distance from the time, though not far from the scenes of the struggle, we can calmly view it and clearly see that its good or evil are not to be found exclusively on one side or the other, but, as with all human affairs, the tex- ture of each is of a mingled warp and woof.
After the Cayuse war had ended in 1850. by the execution of the supposed murderers of Dr. Whitman, there was a lull along the bunch- grass plains and sage-brush banks of the Col- lumbia and Snake rivers, and a few adventur- ous explorers .and ranchers began to seek lo- cations on the streams hallowed by martyr- doms. The most considerable settlement was at Frenchtown. ten miles below Walla Walla. According to the best information obtainable, there were eighty-five persons, the men entirely of French origin and former Hudson's Bay Company employes, with Indian wives and a good stock of half-breed children, living there and in the vicinity. There were a few men at what is now Wallula. There were some fifteen men living at various separated points. Among them were Henry M. Chase, well known for many years in Walla Walla, and Dr. W. C. McKay, the most famous man of mixed white and Indian blood that ever lived in Oregon. There were three men, Brooke, Bumford and Noble, at Whitman station.
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