USA > Washington > History of Washington the evergreen state : from early dawn to daylight with portraits and biographies Vol. I > Part 22
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STEVENS, HON. ISAAC, was born at Andover, Mass., March 18th, 1818 ; gradu- ated from West Point in the class of 1839, of which he stood at the head, and was immediately thereafter commissioned Second Lieutenant of Engineers. In 1840 he was promoted to a first lieutenancy. In the war with Mexico (1846-48) he served on the staff of General Scott, and for gallant and meritorious services at Contreras, Churubusco, and Chapultepec earned the brevet rank of Major. He was severely wounded in the capture of the city of Mexico, from the effects of which he suffered during life. At the close of that war Alexander Dallas Bache, Superintendent of the United States Coast Survey, appointed him Chief Clerk in charge of the office at Washington, D. C., a position he resigned in
Gilbert FLoch.
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March, 1853, and also his commission in the United States Army, to accept the first governorship of Washington Territory. He journeyed thither across the continent, exploring a route from the headwaters of the Mississippi River to Puget Sound.
He entered the Territory on September 29th, 1853, and assumed the perform- ance of his gubernatorial duties. He issued his proclamation thereof at the crossing of the dividing ridge on the summit of the Rocky Mountains bearing that date. During the years 1854 and 1855, as Superintendent of Indian Affairs, he concluded treaties with the native Indian tribes within the Territory, by which the so-called Indian title to an area of land including 100,000 square miles was extinguished. In the latter year he served as a member of the Joint Commission to effect peace between the tribes divided by the Rocky Mountains-viz., the Blackfeet and other nations in the buffalo country east of the mountains, and those tribes upon the western side whose necessities compelled them to cross the mountains in quest of buffalo, at that time and prior thereto the great source of supply of food and raiment to the aborigines. During his absence at the Black- feet Council, the Indian war of 1855-56 had been inaugurated. Upon his return to Olympia he called out one thousand volunteers, assumed general direction as Commander-in-chief, and prosecuted the war with vigor until peace was restored in the fall of 1856. In July, 1857, he was chosen Delegate to Congress, and served with credit to himself and benefit for his Territory for two terms, ending March 3d, 1861.
Early after the breaking out of the Rebellion he hastened East, and offered his services for the preservation of the Union and the perpetuity of the life of the nation. They were accepted, and he was appointed Colonel of the Seventy-ninth Regiment, New York Volunteers (the Highlanders). Eight companies of that regiment, dissatisfied with being commanded by a West Point officer, mutinied ; but his resolute courage and energetic conduct restored discipline, and he soon became the idol of his regiment. Gaining distinction in many engagements in which he took a conspicuous part, he had been promoted (July 4th, 1862) Major-General United States Volunteers.
On the morning of September 1st, 1862, his division encountered the Confed- erate forces near Chantilly, Va. Major-General Stevens, with his characteristic dash, seized the colors of his old regiment (their color sergeant had just fallen, and the line was wavering). On foot, at the head of that regiment, bearing aloft those colors with his own hands, and while cheering his old comrades, his gal- lantry animating the whole division, he was shot through the head and instantly killed, and when his body was found among the piles of slain, in his death grip was clenched the flagstaff he had so gallantly borne in the face of the foe. That check of the Confederate advance, which he there and then had caused, afforded the precious time and opportunity so needed on that day of gloom and saddened memory to put the nation's capital in a state of defence, and prevent its fall into the hands of the enemy.
BAKER, DR. DORSEY S., was born in Wabash County, Ill., on October 18th, 1823. It was this section of country that produced so many illustrious men, of whom Lincoln, Logan, and Edwin S. Baker were notable examples. Dr. Baker
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came of Puritan stock, and numbered among his ancestors General Ethan Allen, of Ticonderoga fame. While young Baker was a boy in his teens his father was engaged in milling and merchandising, in the management of which he assisted ; he thus acquired business experience and training that was useful in later life. In 1845 he graduated from the Jefferson Medical College, of Philadelphia. After practising his profession for a short time at Des Moines, Ia., he determined to try his fortune on the shores of the Pacific. Accordingly, in 1848, prior to the dis- covery of gold in California, he set out for Oregon, where, in the fall of the same year, he arrived, without friends or fortune. He began at once the practice of his profession at Portland, then a small town.
Gold was discovered in California the following year, and the young doctor joined the rush to the gold fields. He remained in California till the spring of 1850, when he returned to Portland and entered into a partnership with L. B. Hastings in the general merchandise business. He again went to the mines the following spring, taking an ox team loaded with supplies to Yreka, then a newly discovered mining camp. Returning to Oregon in May of the same year, he located in the Umpqua valley, where for several years he was variously engaged in stock-raising, milling, and general merchandising. In 1858 we find him again in Portland engaged in the hardware business. In 1860 he established a store in Walla Walla, and placed William Stevens in charge as manager. In 1861 he took personal charge of the business, and in 1862 formed a partnership with his brother-in-law, John F. Boyer, and established the firm of Baker & Boyer, so well and so favorably known in Eastern Washington. In 1862 he associated himself with Captain Ankeny, H. W. Corbett, and Captain Baughman, and organized a steamboat company for the purpose of running a line of boats on the Columbia and Snake rivers. This company built the steamer Spray for the upper river trade, and put a steamer named the E. D. Baker on the lower Columbia. These lines were sold out the following year to the O. S. N. Co.
Some nine years later we find him engaged in the construction of a line of railroad from Walla Walla to the Columbia River. This he built almost unaid- ed, and from his own personal resources, after overcoming unnumbered difficul- ties. Despite prophecies of his friends and enemies alike that this undertaking would end in disaster, he lived to see it a great success, not only adding largely to his personal fortune, but bringing great prosperity to the entire Walla Walla country. It was ever his pride and boast that during his ownership and manage- ment of the Walla Walla and Columbia River Railroad it was never encumbered with a mortgage and never had a floating debt. This road was finally sold in 1878 to the Villard syndicate, and became a part of the Oregon Railway and Naviga- tion Company's system.
Dr. Baker devoted the remaining years of his life to banking and the inaugu- ration of various enterprises in and about Walla Walla. He died at his home in Walla Walla, in July, 1888, at the age of sixty-five years, universally lamented by the community in which he had lived for so many years, and who had come to regard him as their ablest and most enterprising citizen. A fine monument of granite, emblematic of his rugged strength of character, in the city of Walla Walla cemetery, marks his resting place. His most lasting monument, however, is in the grateful memory of his appreciative fellow-citizens.
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In the history of communities and States there are always figures that stand up like lofty mountain peaks, that lift themselves above their fellows. In the history of Washington there is no more commanding figure than that of Dr. Dorsey S. Baker. His life was an illustration of what can be accomplished by energy, courage, perseverance, and self-denial, coupled with integrity of char- acter.
HALLER, COLONEL GRANVILLE O., U. S. A., retired, was born in York, Pa., January 31st, 1819. His father, George Haller, died when he was but two years old, but through the devotion and self-sacrifice of his mother he was enabled to acquire a liberal education. It was her intention that Granville should be fitted for the ministry, but conscientious scruples on his part prevented him from adopt- ing that profession. In 1839 a vacancy belonging to his district occurred at West Point, and he became an applicant for the place. The Hon. Joel R. Poin- sett, Secretary of War, decided that the applicant receiving the recommendation of the Representative of the district should secure the appointment. Haller re- ceived the recommendation, but failed to secure the appointment. Walter S. Franklin, of York, Pa., Clerk of the House of Representatives, and a warm friend of Hon. James Buchanan, Senator from Pennsylvania, had recently died, when Senator Buchanan strongly urged that his son, William B. Franklin, be appoint- ed to the vacant cadetship. The latter was thereupon appointed to West Point, and Haller was invited to appear before a board of military officers in Washington City, for examination as to his fitness for the military profession. He presented himself, was examined, and on November 17th, 1839, was commissioned a Sec- ond Lieutenant in the Fourth Regiment, U. S. Infantry, being at that time not quite twenty-one years of age. Lieutenant Haller served in the Seminole War in Florida in 1841-42, and is frequently mentioned in Sprague's history of " The Origin, Progress, and Conclusion of the Florida War." He was Adjutant of the Fourth Infantry from January 1st, 1843, until his resignation, September 10th, 1845, and was promoted to be First Lieutenant July 12tli, 1846. He was Brigade Major of the Third Brigade, U. S. Regulars, under General Taylor, in Texas, in 1845, until relieved for duty as Assistant Commissary of Subsistence to the bri- gade. He served under General Taylor in Mexico until after the capture of Mon- terey, when the Fourth Infantry was transferred to General Worth's division and ordered to join General Scott's command at Vera Cruz, Lieutenant Haller was in every battle and capture of the city of Mexico with General Worth's division. For " gallant and meritorious conduct" at the storming of Molino del Rey, Sep- tember Stlı, 1847, he was breveted Captain, and was breveted Major September 13th, 1847, for " gallant and meritorious conduct" at Chapultepec. January 1st, 1848, he was promoted to Captain in the Fourth Infantry.
In 1852 Brevet-Major Haller, under command of Major Rains, Fourth Infantry, embarked on the Fredonia, a U. S. store ship, with his company, "I," and Brevet-Major Larned's company, " A," Fourth Infantry, in charge of the regi- mental baggage, and sailed cia Cape Horn, reaching Washington Territory in June, 1853. After a brief rest at Fort Vancouver, Haller was ordered to Fort Dalles, Oregon. Toward the fall of 1854 news was received of the massacre by Indians, on the Boise River, of Mr. Ward and family and other immigrants, when
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Major Haller, with a command of twenty-six soldiers, with Lieutenant MacFeely as Acting Assistant Quartermaster and Acting Assistant Commissary of Subsist- ence, and Dr. Suckley, Assistant Surgeon U. S. A., were dispatched to give pro- tection to immigrant trains, and, if possible, to punish the Indians. On the road they were re-enforced by a party of mounted volunteers, under Captain Nathan Olney. They suffered many privations in consequence of short rations, due to numerous immigrants joining voluntarily to punish the assassins. They arrested four Indians who had been engaged in the murders, were examined by a military commission and admitted their guilt. One was shot while trying to escape, and the others were hung on the massacre grounds, about thirty miles east of the Hudson's Bay Company's old Fort Boisé.
In the following spring General Wool ordered Major Haller, with parts of two infantry companies, and a detachment of Third Artillery, under Lieutenant Day, to return to give protection to immigrants, and again make a search for the mur- derers. This expedition was more successful, owing to the fact that it learned that the murderers had retained one shod horse and one mule that belonged to the Ward train, and finding their tracks, the savages were pursued as far as Fort Lemhi, on the headwaters of the Missouri River ; on the return trip by another route they again discovered the trail, pursued and captured the band, and hung the guilty ones. On his return to Fort Dalles, Major Haller found that the Yakima Indians were about to take the war-path, and that Major Bolan, the Indian sub- agent, had been murdered. He organized two companies of fifty men each, be- lieving that he would be ordered against the hostiles with all the forces avail- able, but the report sent to Major Rains, who had been transferred to Fort Van- couver, made little impression. Finally Acting Governor Mason requested that a command be sent into the Yakima country to demand the murderers of Mattice and another, miners who had been killed while passing through the country. Major Rains ordered one company at Fort Dalles, Oregon, to be sent, but by the time the order was received Major Haller had the provisions packed and across the river, and assumed the responsibility of going with the two companies rather than send one. The march began October 3d, 1855. Late in the afternoon of October 6th, while descending the heights along Toppimish Creek, they discov- ered a considerable body of Indians in their front. After a vigorous charge the Indians fled, and darkness coming on, the command camped for the night near the battle-ground. Early next morning they were surrounded by the enemy, variously estimated from five to seven hundred in number, who were greatly re-en- forced at intervals during the day, increasing their number to about fourteen hundred. The Indians were led by Kamiaken's brother, the war chief. Major Haller's troops, though greatly outnumbered, maintained their position all that day, and by repeated bayonet charges drove away numerous Indian war- riors who had made, or were making, rifle pits within close quarters. Up to Sunday night the loss had been two soldiers killed and thirteen wounded. Find- ing the force inadequate, it was deemed advisable to return to Fort Dalles while the march was practicable and get a sufficient force to subdue the enemy. The movement began on the 7th ; soon after the Indians withdrew, proceeding to the north near sundown. In making the march in the dark the rear guard became separated from the advance, and a halt was made near the summit of the moun-
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tain to wait for them, but they had taken a different trail, so early on the morn- ing of the 8th the march to the Dalles was resumed, when the Indians pursued, and a running fight ensued which lasted several hours, when the command halted to rest, fill their cartridge boxes and clean their muskets. Before sundown the Indians were again charged and driven out of the timber, after which the troops were not molested. The command overtook the rear guard that night, and reached Fort Dalles on the morning of October 10th, bringing with them the wounded, leav- ing four dead on the field. The total loss was five killed and seventeen wounded. The great number of Indians to oppose this expedition alarmed the whites and roused the people to a sense of their danger ; volunteers were called out, and the department commander, Major Rains, took the field with all the Regulars at his command. Major Rains, with six companies of Regulars, and Colonel Nesmith, with six companies of mounted Oregon Volunteers, shortly after invaded the Yaki- ma country and met the forces of Kamiaken near the Two Buttes, at the mouth of Attanum Creek, and held them there until sunset, when they were driven from the plain and butte by a charge of Major Haller's company, supported by that of Captain Augur's, both of the Fourth U. S. Infantry. On the next day the Ind- ians fled across the Columbia River, snow having fallen, which would betray the lurking places of the hostile Indians and deprive the cavalry horses of pasture, causing them to turn back to the Dalles for forage, and, no enemy within reachı of the infantry, the campaign was ended by a return to Fort Dalles. In the fol- lowing Spring Colonel George Wright arrived from the East with the Ninth In- fantry and assumed command. The day he marched out from Fort Dalles intend- ing to overawe the Indians of the Walla Walla country the massacre at the Cas- cades occurred, which caused him to countermarch his command and proceed in steamers to the Cascades of the Columbia River to drive away the hostiles. Re- turning to the Dalles, he crossed the Columbia and invaded Kamiaken's country. At Quiwiches Creek, three miles in front of the Natches River, he met a large body of Kamiaken's warriors prepared to resist his advance. Colonel Wright sent for Major Haller's company to increase his force, and then offered the Indians peace on condition that they would cease to molest the whites, return to their homes, and obey the agents appointed for their protection, or he would overrun their country and destroy the very last hostile Indian. Kamiuken advised his people to accept the terms, and Owhi, his brother, the next in rank, agreed to meet Colonel Wright at the crossing of the Natches River. At this interview all was satisfactory until Owhi was told that his people must give up all the horses and mules stolen from the whites. As they from time immemorial regarded a cap- ture as valid as a purchase, the Indians thereupon declined to give up the stolen property and dispersed, leaving Colonel Wright without an enemy. Selecting Simcoe for a military station, he left a battalion under Major Robert Garnett, Ninth U. S. Infantry, to erect the building and garrison it, while he located the companies of Brevet-Major Haller, Fourth Infantry, and Captain Archer, Ninth Infantry, in the Kittitas valley to observe and threaten that region.
In the fall of 1856 Haller was ordered to establish a military post on Puget Sound, near Port Townsend. He located his barracks some three miles up the bay, and with much difficulty erected the necessary buildings for the garrison, as the Caribou gold mines caused constant desertions, in consequence of the fabu-
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lous reports of gold found there. The garrison at this post, while under Haller's command, made frequent excursions against the Northern Indians, and rendered valuable assistance in protecting the settlers.
In 1859 General Harney, having been assigned to the command of the Depart- ment of the Columbia, visited the posts on Puget Sound for inspection. He ordered Captain Pickett's company to remove from Fort, Bellingham to San Juan Island, and Major Haller's company to repair to Fort Steilacoom. This was at the very moment the commissioners appointed by the United States and Great Britain were engaged in determining the water boundary between the United States and British possessions, and involved the location of San Juan Island. At this time the Navy Department had transferred to the Quartermaster Depart- ment, U. S. Army, the steamship Massachusetts, four guns, to cruise the sound and remove the foreign Indians. Major Haller's company was assigned to this duty, and while patrolling the waters of the sound he met a boat sent out to ad- vise him that the Nooksachk Indians had entered Whatcom in war paint, which resulted in their killing a citizen, when the inhabitants fired on them, killing four Indians. Haller landed his company at Whatcom, marched out to the Nook- sachk River, and demanded the war party as hostages to preserve peace. They were surrendered, and the boundary commissioners were thus enabled to pursue their surveys, etc., without fear of hostile Indians. This was followed by the San Juan Island difficulty, when Haller was directed to land on San Juan Island, to which all General Harney's forces had been ordered, and participated in the occupation. He was in command of the American forces when General Scott arrived-Lieutenant-Colonel Casey being absent on court-martial duty at Van- couver barracks. The intimate relations of Major Haller with his district com- mander and with Captain Pickett made him familiar with every phase of the San Juan difficulty. The offensive position assumed by Captain Pickett toward the claims of the British Government rendered him obnoxious to the Governor of British Columbia and Her Majesty's officers of the navy, and at their request General Scott relieved Captain Pickett and stationed Captain Hunt's company, Fourth Infantry, on the island. General Scott readily conceded what Captain Pickett had refused-viz., joint occupation by a limited number of soldiers until the boundary question was definitely adjusted.
Major Haller was assigned to the command of the military post of Fort Mo- jave, Arizona, in 1860, and early in 1861 was ordered to San Diego, Cal., and finally to New York to join the Union army, then being organized by General McClellan. On his arrival he found he had been promoted to Major of the Seventh Infantry, September 25th, 1861. This regiment had become prisoners of war in Texas, and were not at liberty to engage against the Confederate troops until exchanged. Accordingly, Major Haller reported to General Mcclellan, and was attached to the Provost-Marshal-General's staff. Soon afterward he was appointed Commandant-General of the general headquarters on Mcclellan's staff, and the Ninety-third New York Volunteers were placed under his command as general headquarters guard, and, when required, as guard to prisoners of war captured on the field. He was thus employed during the Virginia and Maryland campaigns under Mcclellan, the subsequent campaign of Burnside, and a short time under Hooker. He was then designated to perform the duties of Provost-
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Marshal-General of Maryland, but upon the invasion of Pennsylvania by Lee, he was attached to General Couch's staff, whose headquarters were at Harrisburg. He was detached to York and Gettysburg to muster in volunteers, obtain informa- tion of the movements of the Confederate army, and to order the citizens to re- move their horses, wagons, and farm stock across the Susquehanna, as a visit from the rebel army in that direction was apprehended.
In July, 1863, General Couch received orders to relieve Haller, who, upon re- porting to the Adjutant-General, United States Army, was informed that he had been dismissed July 25th, 1863, " for disloyal conduct and the utterance of dis- loyal sentiments." Haller's appeals for a hearing were peremptorily refused. By joint resolution of Congress, March 3d, 1879, sixteen years afterward, lie was allowed a court of inquiry. The trial took place in Washington City, and he was completely exonerated, the court holding that there was not sufficient evidence of disloyalty in conduct or sentiment to justify the allegations, and the dismissal which had been made sixteen years before was " wrongfully." The court find- ings were approved by President Hayes, and upon the nomination of Major Haller to be made Colonel of Infantry, United States Army, he was promptly confirmed by the Senate, to rank from February 19th, 1873, the date he would have been commissioned had he remained continuously in the military service. Upon the death of Colonel Jeff C. Davis, of the Twenty-third United States Infantry, Colonel Haller was assigned to the command of that regiment, which assignment was confirmed by the Senate ; and thus he received a second commission, that of Colonel of the Twenty-third Infantry, from December 11th, 1879. He served with the Twenty-third Infantry at Camp Supply, Fort Dodge, and at Fort Union until retired on account of age.
After liis dismissal from the service in 1863 he resided in Washington Terri- tory, a great portion of the time on his farm on Whidby Island. He was also engaged in mercantile pursuits, and conducted a water-power saw-mill near Port Townsend for some time, which was an unprofitable venture forced upon him in liquidation of a debt. Having establislied a branch store on Whidby Island, he disposed of his interests at Port Townsend and located his family at Coupeville, where he conducted a general merchandise store for some years. He was very generous in furnishing goods to families on credit who were clearing their land, . some of whom he supplied year after year until they could meet their payments. This liberality was the cause of serious embarrassment in closing his mercantile career. In 1882 Colonel Haller was placed upon the retired list, and taking his family back to Washington Territory, located at Seattle, where he has ever since resided. With his estimable wife and family he is now passing his later years quietly on Puget Sound, superintending his farming interests, and resting from the busy life of usefulness he had given to his country.
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