USA > Washington > Asotin County > Lyman's history of old Walla Walla County, embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties, Volume I > Part 11
USA > Washington > Columbia County > Lyman's history of old Walla Walla County, embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties, Volume I > Part 11
USA > Washington > Garfield County > Lyman's history of old Walla Walla County, embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties, Volume I > Part 11
USA > Washington > Walla Walla County > Lyman's history of old Walla Walla County, embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties, Volume I > Part 11
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"The outlay in the first instance would be but trifling. Forts like those of the Hudson's Bay Company, surrounded by walls enclosing all the buildings, and constructed almost entirely of adobe, or sun-dried bricks, with stone foundations only, can be easily and cheaply erected. * *
"Your familiarity with the Government policy, duties and interest render it unnecessary for me to more than hint at the several objects intended by the en- closed bill, and any enlargement upon the topics here suggested as inducements to its adoption would be quite superfluous, if not impertinent. The very exist- ence of such a system as the one above recommended suggests the utility of post- offices and mail arrangements, which it is the wish of all who now live in Oregon to have granted them; and I need only add that contracts for this purpose will be readily taken at reasonable rates for transporting the mail across from Missouri to the mouth of the Columbia in forty days, with fresh horses at each of the contemplated posts. The ruling policy proposed regards the Indians as the police of the country, who are to be relied upon to keep the peace, not only for themselves, but to repel lawless white men and prevent banditti, under the solitary guidance of the superintendents of the several posts, aided by a well-directed system to induce the punishment of crime. It will only be after the failure of these means to procure the delivery or punishment of violent, lawless and savage acts of aggression, that a band or tribe should be regarded as conspirators against the peace, or punished accordingly by force of arms.
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"Hoping that these suggestions may meet your approbation, and conduce to the future interest of our growing country, I have the honor to be, Honorable Sir. "Your obedient servant,
"MARCUS WHITMAN."
It may be added that Whitman was so thoroughly interested in the idea of the line of forts across the continent that he wrote another communication to the Secretary of War from Waiilatpu in 1847, October 16th, only about six weeks before his murder, setting forth with similar force and clearness the wisdom of such a system.
During the four years that followed the coming of the "Great Immigration," the mission at Waiilatpu was a center of light and help to the incoming immigra- tions. Many incidents have been preserved showing the industry, fortitude, and open-handed philanthropy of the Whitmans. The earlier immigration usually stopped at Waiilatpu, coming across the country in the vicinity of the present location of Athena and Weston and down Pine Creek to the Walla Walla. The immigrants were always short of provisions and generally had no money. To have a stock of provisions at all equal to emergencies put a tremendous strain on Doctor Whitman, and nobly did he meet the needs. Among many instances of the helping hand of the missionaries are two given in Eells' life of Whitman which we give as illustrative of many that might be given.
"Among the immigrants of 1844 was a man named Sager, who had a family consisting of his wife and seven children, between the ages of infancy and thir- teen. The father died of typhoid fever on Green River, and the mother sank under her burdens when she reached Snake River and there died. The immigrants cared for the children until they reached Doctor Whitman's, but would take them no farther. The doctor and his wife took the strangers in at first for the winter, but afterward adopted them and cared for them as long as they lived.
"Mrs. C. S. Pringle, one of these children, afterwards gave the following account of this event. It was written in answer to a charge made by Mrs. F. F. Victor that the doctor was mercenary, making money out of the immigrants : 'In April, 1844, my parents started for Oregon. Soon after starting we were all camped for the night, and the conversation after awhile turned upon the probability of death before the end of the journey should be reached. All told what they would wish their families to do in case they should fall by the way. My father said: 'Well, if I should die, I would want my family to stop at the station of Doctor Whitman.' Ere long he was taken sick and died, but with his dying breath he committed his family to the care of Captain Shaw, with the request that they should be left at the station of Doctor Whitman. Twenty-six days after his death his wife died. She, too, requested the same. When we were in the Blue Moun- tains, Captain Shaw went ahead to see about leaving us there. The doctor ob- jected, as he was afraid the board would not recognize that as a part of his labor. After a good deal of talk he consented to have the children brought, and he would see what could be done. On the 17th day of October we drove up to the station, as forlorn a looking lot of children as ever was. I was a cripple, hardly able to walk, and the babe of six months was dangerously ill. Mrs. Whitman agreed to take the five girls, but the boys must go on (they were the oldest of the family). But the 'mercenary' doctor said, 'All or none.' He made arrangements to keep
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the seven until spring, and then if we did not like to stay, and he did not want to keep us. he would send us below. An article of agreement was drawn up in writing between him and Captain Shaw, but not one word of money or pay was in it. . I had it in my possession for years after I came to the ( Willamette) Val- ley, having received it from Captain Shaw. Before Captain Shaw reached The Dalles he was overtaken by Doctor Whitman, who announced his intention of adopting the seven, on his own responsibility, asking nothing of the Board for maintenance. The next summer he went to Oregon City and legally became our guardian, and the action is on the records of Clackamas County. Having done this, he further showed his mercenary nature by disposing of our father's estate in such a way that he could not realize a cent from it. He exchanged the oxen and old cows for young cows, and turned them over to the two boys to manage until they should grow to manhood; besides this, he gave them each a horse and saddle, which, of course, came out of his salary, as we were not mission children, as the three half-breeds were that were in the family. After doing all this he allowed the boys opportunities to accumulate stock by work or trade. Often he has said to us, 'You must all learn to work, for father is poor and can give you nothing but an education. This I intend to do to the best of my ability.'
"Another incident with an immigrant is here related, given almost in the words of the narrator, Joseph Smith, who came to the country in 1846. He says : I was mighty sick crossing the Blues, and was so weak from eating blue mass that they had to haut me in the wagon till we got to Doctor Whitman's place on the Walla Walla River. Then Mother Whitman came and raised the wagon cover and says, 'What is the matter with you, my brother?' 'I am sick, and I don't want to be pestered much, either.' 'But, but, my young friend, my husband is a doctor, and can probably cure your ailment ; I'll go and call him.' So off she clattered, and purty soon Doc. came, and they packed me in the cabin, and soon he had me on my feet again. I eat up a whole band of cattle for him, as I had to winter with him. I told him I'd like to work for him, to kinder pay part of my bill. Wall, Doc. set me to making rails, but I only made two hundred before spring, and I got to worryin' 'cause I hadn't only fifty dollars and a saddle horse, and I reckoned I owed the doctor four or five hundred dollars for my life. Now, maybe i wasn't knocked out when I went and told the doctor I wanted to go on to Webfoot and asked him how we stood; and doctor p'inted to a Cayuse pony, and says, 'Money I have not, but you can take that horse and call it even, if you will.' "
It is worth noticing that though Mr. Smith says "Mother" Whitman, she was only thirty-eight at the time.
But at that time, the very year of the final consummation of the great work of Whitman, the treaty of 1846, giving Oregon up to latitude 49° to the United States, a consummation which must have made the brave hearts of the heroic pair thrill with joy and gratitude, the shadow was approaching, the end was near. The crown of heroism and service must be still further crowned with martyrdom. Even since the death of little Alice, the Indians at Waiilatpu had seemed to lose in growing measure the personal interest which they had manifested. With the coming of constantly growing immigrations and the apparent eagerness of the whites to secure land, the natives felt increasing suspicion. The more thoughtful of them, especially those who had been in the "States" and had seen the countless
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numbers of the "Pale-faces," began to see that it was only a question of time when they would be entirely dispossessed. Again, the unavoidable policies of the Hud- son's Bay Company were hostile to the American settler. While as kind and courteous to the missionaries as men well could be and helpful to them in their religious labors, it was a different matter when it came to settlers swarming into the country with the Stars and Stripes at the head of wagon trains and with the implements of husbandry in their hands. The Indians were predisposed for many reasons to side with the company. With it they did their trading. It preserved the wild conditions of the country. The French-Canadian voyageurs and cour- eurs des bois were much kinder and more considerate of the Indians than the Americans and intermarried with them. Besides those general causes of hostility to the Americans, there were certain specific events during that period of doubt and suspicion which brought affairs to a focus and precipitated the tragedy of the Whitman Massacre. Some have believed that the murder of "Elijah" (as the whites called him), the son of Peupeumoxmox, the chief of the Walla Wallas, apparently a fine, manly young Indian, was a strong contributory cause. The young brave had gone to California in 1844 and while near Sutter's Fort had become involved in a dispute with some white settlers and had been brutally mur- dered. The old chief Peupeumoxmox had brooded over this dastardly deed, and though there is no evidence that he had any part in the massacre, there was deep resentment among the Indians of the Walla Walla Valley and no doubt many of them were in the mood to apply the usual Indian rule that a life lost demanded a life in payment. Apparently the most immediate influence leading to the mas- sacre was due to an epidemic of measles which swept the valley in 1847. Doctor Whitman was indefatigable in ministering to the sick, but many died. The im- pression became prevalent among the Indians that they were the victims of poison. This idea was nurtured in their minds by several renegade Indians and half- breeds, of whom Lehai, Tom Hill, and Jo Lewis were most prominent.
Seeing the gathering of clouds about the mission and the many warning indi- cations, Doctor Whitman had taken up the project of leaving Walla Walla and going to The Dalles, a point where he had in fact at first wished to locate, but had been dissuaded by the Hudson's Bay Company officials. The story of the mas- sacre has been many times told and may be found in many forms. We can but briefly sketch its leading events. Mr. Spalding of Lapwai was temporarily at Waiilatpu, and on November 27, 1847, he and Doctor Whitman went to the Umatilla in response to a request for medical attention. Feeling uneasy about affairs at home, Doctor Whitman returned on the next day, reaching Waiilatpu late at night. On the following day, the 29th, while engaged with his medicine chest, two Indians, who seem to have been leaders in the plot, approached him, and while one, Tilaukait, drew his attention by talking, the other, Tamahas, struck him with a tomahawk. He fell senseless, though not yet dead. Jo Lewis seems to have directed the further execution of the cruel conspiracy and soon Mrs. Whitman, shot in the breast, fell to the floor, though not dying for some time. She was the only woman slain. There were in all fourteen victims of this dread- ful attack. Several escaped, Mr. Spalding, who was on his way back from the Umatilla, being one of them. After several days and nights of harrowing suffer- ing, he reached Lapwai. There were forty-six survivors of the massacre, nearly all women and children. Many of these are said to have been subjected to cruelty
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and outrage worse than death, though it may be noted that some of the few living survivors of the present date deny the common opinion. They were ransomed by Peter Skeen Ogden of the Hudson's Bay Company, and transported to the Willamette Valley. The full story of the war which follows belongs in the suc- ceeding chapter.
So ended in darkness, but not in shame, the mission at Waiilatpu. The peaceful spot six miles west of Walla Walla, in the midst of the fair and fruit- ful valley, is marked with a granite monument on the summit of the hill, and a grave at the foot. There the dust of the martyrs rests in a plain marble crypt upon the surface of which appear their names. It is indeed one of the most sacred spots in the Northwest, suggestive of patriotism, devotion, self-sacrifice, suffering, sorrow, tragedy, and final triumph. In November, 1916, the remains of W. H. Gray and Mary Dix Gray, his wife, were removed from Astoria and placed in the grave at Waiilatpu. As associates from the first of the Whitmans, and engaged in the same arduous struggle for the establishment of civilized and Christian institutions in this beautiful wilderness, they are fittingly joined with them in their final resting place.
By reason of priority in time as well as its connection with immigration and public affairs, and also its tragic end, and perhaps, too, the controversies that have arisen in connection with it, the Whitman Mission has secured a place in history far more prominent than that of any other, either east or west of the Cascade Mountains. But it should not be forgotten that within a short time after the incoming of white settlers, all the leading churches sent missionaries into the Northwest, both for the Indians and whites. Next in point of time after the Methodist missions of the Willamette Valley and the Presbyterian and Congre- gational missions of the Upper Columbia and Snake rivers, came the Catholic. It should be understood that in speaking of that church as third in time, we speak of the era of the beginnings of settlement. For it should be remembered that there had been visiting Catholic priests among the Hudson's Bay posts long prior to the coming of Jason Lee, the first of the Protestants. The French-Canadians were almost universally of Catholic rearing, and the officers of the company en- couraged the maintenance of religious worship and instruction according to the customary methods. There were not, however, any regular permanent Catholic missions until a little after the Protestant missions already described. The inau- guration of regular mission work by the Catholic Church grew out of the planting of a settlement at Champoeg on the Willamette by Doctor McLoughlin during the years from 1829 on. Quite a little group of retired Hudson's Bay Company men, French-Canadians with Indian wives and half-breed children, became located on the fertile tract still known as French Prairie. So well had the settlement thrived that in 1834, the year of the arrival of Jason Lee in the same neighbor- hood, an application was made to Doctor Provencher, Vicar Apostolic of Hudson Bay, to send a clergyman to that point. Not till 1837 could the request be ful- filled. In that year Rev. Modeste Demers went to the Red River, and the follow- ing year, in company with Rev. Francis N. Blanchet, resumed the journey to Oregon. In the progress of their journey they stopped at Walla Walla for a day. Reaching Vancouver on November 24, 1838, they entered with zeal and devotion upon their task of ministering both to the whites and Indians. Remaining at Van- couver till January, 1839, Father Blanchet started on a regular course of visita-
WHITHAY
WHITMAN MONUMENT AT WAHLATPU, SIX MILES WEST OF WALLA WALLA
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tions, going first to the settlement on the Willamette where there were twenty-six Catholic families and where the people had already constructed a chapel. Next he visited Cowlitz Prairie, where there were four families. These stations were, of course, outside of the scope of the present work, but reference to them indi- cates the time and place and manner of starting the great series of Catholic mis- sions which soon became extended all over Oregon. While Father Blanchet was at Cowlitz, his fellow worker, Demers, started on an extended tour of the upper Columbia region. In the course of this he visited Walla Walla, Okanogan, and Colville, starting work among the Indians by baptizing their children. From that time on Father Demers or some one of the Jesuit priests made annual visits to Walla Walla, adding children by baptism each year. In the meantime another of the most important of the Catholic missionaries, and the one to whom the world is indebted for one of the best histories of Oregon missions, was on his way. This was Rev. Father Pierre J. De Smet. In March, 1840, he set out for Oregon from the St. Joseph Mission at Council Bluffs, journeying by the Platte River route. On June 25th he reached Green River, long known as a rendezvous of the fur-traders. There he held mass for the trappers and Indians. Referring to this in a subsequent letter he writes thus: "On Sunday, the 5th of July, I had the consolation of celebrating the Holy Sacrifice sub dio. The altar was placed on an elevation, and surrounded with boughs and garlands of flowers; I ad- dressed the congregation in French and in Englishi and spoke also by an inter- preter to the Flatheads and Snake Indians. It was a spectacle truly moving for the heart of a missionary to behold an assembly composed of so many different nations who all assisted at our holy mysteries with great satisfaction. The Canadians sang hymns in French and Latin, and the Indians in their native tongue. It was truly a Catholic worship. The place has been called since that time by the French-Canadians, la prairie de la Messe."
After a week at the Green River rendezvous, Father De Smet with his Indian guides resumed the journey westward by way of the Three Tetons to the upper waters of Snake River. While at Henry Lake he climbed a lofty peak from which he could see in both directions and while there he carved on a stone the words: "Sanctus Ignatius, Patronus Montium, Die Julii 23, 1840." That was as far west as Father De Smet went at that time. After two months among the Flatheads about the head of Snake River, he returned to St. Louis in the last part of the year. One point of interest in connection with this return, as showing the disposition of the Indians to seek religious instruction, is that a certain Flat- head chief named Insula who accompanied Father De Smet to St. Louis, had gone to Green River in 1835 to meet missionaries. It is stated by Rev. Father E. V. O'Hara in his valuable "Catholic History of Oregon" that Insula was much disappointed to find, not the "black-gowns" as he had expected, but Doctor Whitman and Doctor Parker on their reconnaissance. It is probably impossible to determine just what distinction between different denominations of Christians may have existed in the Indian mind, but it may be recalled that Whitman and Parker while at Green River deemed the outlook so encouraging that they decided that Whitman should return to the "States" for reinforcements, while Parker went on with the Indians and made an extensive exploration of the entire Oregon country. Father De Smet returned to the Flathead mission in 1841 and in 1842 proceeded to Vancouver by way of the Spokane. In the course of the journey Vol. I-8
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he visited all the principal Indian tribes in the Kootenai, Pend Oreille, Coeur d' Alene, and Spokane countries. In the progress of this journey he made a brief visit at Walla Walla. Returning to the East after twenty-five months of mis- sionary service in Oregon and then spending some time in Europe, he returned with quite a reinforcement in the ship "L'Infatigable" in 1844. The ship was nearly wrecked on the Columbia River bar, and of the experience De Smet gives a peculiarly vivid description. He deemed the final safe entrance due to special interposition of Divine Providence on account of the day, July 31st, being sacred to St. Ignatius. Father De Smet was a vivid and interesting writer and a zealous missionary. He greatly overestimated the number of Indians in Oregon, placing them at a hundred and ten thousand and in equal ratio estimated the converts at numbers hardly possible except by the most sweeping estimates.
The Catholic missions were gradually extended until they covered points in the entire Northwest. The bishop of Oregon was Rev. Francis N. Blanchet who was located near Salem. In 1845 and 1846 he made an extensive tour in Canada and Europe for the purpose of securing reinforcements. As a result of his journey and the action of the Holy See the Vicariate was erected into an eccle- siastical province with the three Sees of Oregon City, Walla Walla, and Van- couver Island. Rev. A. M. A. Blanchet was appointed bishop of Walla Walla, and Father Demers bishop of Vancouver Island, while Bishop F. N. Blanchet was promoted to the position of archbishop of Oregon City. Bishop A. M. A. Blanchet reached Fort Walla Walla on September 4, 1847, having come with a wagon train by the usual emigrant road from St. Louis. This might be regarded as the regular establishment of Catholic missions in Walla Walla. The bishop was accompanied to Walla Walla by four oblate fathers of Marseilles and Father J. B. A. Brouillet as vicar general, and also by Father Rousseau and Wm. Leclaire, deacon. Bishop Blanchet located among the Umatilla Indians at the home of Five Crows. The mission was fairly established only a few days prior to the Whitman Massacre. Bishop Blanchet went to Oregon City after the massacre and by reason of the Indian war he found it impossible to return to Walla Walla. He established St. Peter's Mission at The Dalles, and there he remained till September, 1850. During that year there came instructions from Rome to transfer the bishop of Walla Walla to the newly established diocese of Nesqually. The diocese of Walla Walla was suppressed and its administra- tion merged with that of Colville and Fort Hall in the control of the archbishop of Oregon City.
That event might be considered as closing the missionary stage of Catholic missions in Walla Walla, though Father Brouillet remained into the period of settlement and in conjunction with Father Arvidius Junger, founded the Catholic Church at Walla Walla of what may be called the modern period. There was during the period of the Hudson's Bay Company and of the Indian wars, a location at Frenchtown, known as St. Rose Mission. There was a little church building there until a few years ago.
With the period of Indian wars it may be said that the missionary era ended and after that sanguinary interim the modern period began in Walla Walla.
Archbishop Francis N. Blanchet. 1838
Rev. J. B. A. Bronillet. 1847 Bishop Modeste Demers, 1838 Bishop A. M. A. Blanchet. 1847
EARLY CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES
CHAPTER VI
INDIAN WARS AND OPENING OF COUNTRY TO SETTLEMENT
In the preceding chapter we have narrated the Whitman Massacre. It was followed by the first of the succession of wars which desolated Old Oregon for about eleven years. During that time Walla Walla, as well as the other parts east of the mountains, was swept clean of white settlers. Not till the public proclamation of opening Eastern Oregon by General Clarke in 1858 and the beginnings of immigration in the next year can the epoch of Indian wars be said to have ended.
The war following the Whitman Massacre may be taken as the starting point of this chapter. Great praise must be accorded to the Hudson's Bay Company's people for promptness and efficiency in meeting the immediate emergency. Dr. John McLoughlin, with whom we have become acquainted in earlier chapters, had retired from the company and made his home at Oregon City. This truly great man, a man for whom no commendation, secms too strong in the minds of the old-timers, had been deciding during the year's following the advent of the inis- sionaries that American possession of Oregon was inevitable and that in order to ally himself with the future he should become 'an American. His humane and liberal policy toward the American immigrants was, disapproved by the company in London, and in 1844 James Douglas was appointed to succeed him. The good doctor thereby not only lost what was then and in those conditions a princely salary, $12,000 per year, but was charged by the company for the large supplies which he had advanced to the Americans, who in many cases were unable to pay. Moving to the Falls of the Willamette where he had taken up a valuable claim. he started the process of naturalization. But after the Treaty of 1846, his claim was contested by the representative of the Methodist Mission, Rev. A. F. Waller, and the first territorial delegate to Congress, Samuel R. Thurston, was chosen largely on the platform of hostility to the Hudson's Bay Company and the British in general, and he secured a provision in the Congressional land law debarring anyone who had not acquired his final naturalization from holding a donation claim. This law deprived Doctor McLoughlin of the main part of his property. It was a cruel blow. He said with grief and bitterness that he had intended in good faith to become an American citizen, but found that he was rejected by the British and not received by the Americans and was practically a man without a country. It may truthfully be said that he died of a broken heart. It is gratifying to remember that the Oregon Legislature, recognizing the injustice, made amends by restoring his land claim. But this action came too late to do the "Old King of Oregon" any good. We have digressed to make this reference to Doctor McLoughlin, inasmuch as his change of location and condition occurred just prior to the Oregon Treaty and the Whitman Massacre. James Douglas,
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