USA > Washington > Asotin County > Lyman's history of old Walla Walla County, embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties, Volume I > Part 55
USA > Washington > Columbia County > Lyman's history of old Walla Walla County, embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties, Volume I > Part 55
USA > Washington > Garfield County > Lyman's history of old Walla Walla County, embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties, Volume I > Part 55
USA > Washington > Walla Walla County > Lyman's history of old Walla Walla County, embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties, Volume I > Part 55
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Another time that day Mungo's horse was shot from under him. Tom Cornelius and I saw him fall and ran back to him. He had stopped to take his saddle-we were just in time, as the Indians were coming pell-mell, shouting, "We've got Mungo." I took Mungo behind me and Tom took his saddle and away we went. This was the way we were at it all the way, some one in close quarters all the time.
Mungo told the Cayuses we would fight when we reached the Touchet and got water. Then began the race for the first stand at the Touchet. The Indians beat us on the lower side, but we headed them off above the ford. Some Indians hid in the brush and shot at our men as they passed on the trail. We were
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trying to get our wounded men across, but the Indians were killing horses and men. I was in the company up the creek. When we came down, Col. Gilliam told Lieut. Engart to rout those ambushed Indians. Engart called for volunteers to go in after them. I was one with twenty others. We started for the hiding place, skirting along the brush, expecting any minute to run on them. When we did find them, not more than five or six of us were together in the lead, and the Indians were firing at another squad of men some distance away-we were within thirty feet of them. I fired and hit my Indian just as he turned to run. striking him in the back of the head. He fell and I stepped back behind a bush to reload, when another man ran in and stood in my place; as he did so the Indian rolled over and fired at him, killing him. Just then Nate Olney, an old Indian figliter, ran in with a tomahawk and made a good Indian of him. He scalped him and I carried the grewsome trophy at my saddle horn when I returned home. We killed about sixty Indians there. It was hard to make an estimate of how many, as they carried their dead away unless too hard pressed.
All during this battle the chief sat on his horse on the rocky point just above Bolles Junction [ the present junction] and gave command and encouragement in a loud and stentorian voice. He could be heard for miles. Finally a bullet sped his way and he was killed-and he being the medicine man, the battle ceased and a council was called. We were now across the Touchet. We were carrying our wounded men on litters made by stretching blankets on willow poles-taking turns carrying-that was a hard job. As we began to climb the hill beyond the Touchet we heard the Indians let up their death-wail-they were gathered to- gether on those low hills just north the Bolles Junction depot.
We traveled on to Dry Creek that day ; there we went into camp and spying some Indian horses on the prairie, myself with some others ran in a bunch, near some brush where some of our men were hidden, and as they passed, shot two. That was the first horse meat I had tried to eat, but it made me sick-though they were young unbroken horses. I was sure they tasted of the saddle blanket- suggestion, I suppose. When we awoke next morning there was four or five inches of snow on our blankets-we had no tents.
A runner had been sent on to the Mission and a wagon sent out for our wounded men. My bunkie and I got up early, mounted our horses and rode on to the Mission that morning. The boys soon were preparing provisions for the famishing troops, but after starving so long the smell of food cooking made me sick and I could not eat until the next morning. Some of the boys were so ravenous they had to be restrained or they would have killed themselves eating.
Now we laid around camp, getting into mischief, and I learned to smoke. The only regular rations issued us was tobacco-and the smokers seemed to take such comfort in the pipe, I too indulged.
When we came into the Indian country Gilliam told us we could have any Indian horses we captured. I was pretty handy with a rope and got away with three head from the battle at the Touchet. One, a fine horse rode by a chief, I was particularly proud of. A big burly Dutchman in another company also coveted that horse, so one morning he put his rope on him and led him into camp. I at once claimed the horse and proceeded to make good my claim. He resisted and we got into a "scrap"; he had friends, so had I. All took sides-it was decided we fight for possession ; the winner to get him. That suited me all right-
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so at it we went. Men say it was a hard fight, but I won and took the horse to lead him off, when an under officer, a friend of the Dutchman, stepped up and took hold of the rope, saying, "I'll take this horse." I was only a boy of nineteen years, but I did not intend to give up the horse without a struggle, and was con- sidering the consequences of hitting an officer when Colonel Gilliam walked unob- served into the ring, cut the rope behind the officer's hand, handed the rope to me and walked away without a word. I tell you I was the proudest boy in that camp-and after the colonel was gone I could not resist crowing at the Dutchman in true boy fashion. This is just an example of how justice was meted out in the army of volunteers.
In the spring about two hundred recruits came. We now numbered about five hundred men. Then a party set out for north of Snake River to hunt Indians. I was with the company. We crossed the Snake at the mouth of the Palouse-we made a camp at Little Falls-were at Big Lake on Cow Creek and all over the upper country, but failed to find any number of Indians. We fired a few shots at stragglers now and then, but had no regular engagement. The Cayuse warriors had scattered about among other tribes, many going over the mountains to wait until the soldiers left the country.
A detachment of men was sent to Walker's Mission, called Tshimakain, where Walker and Eells and their families were located as missionaries among the Spokanes. We got the families and brought them back with us. We came back across country, crossing Snake River at the mouth of Alpowa Creek to an Indian encampment known as Red Wolf's Land-then we returned to Waiilatpu. This expedition went out the first of May. Sometime in June we began our return trip to Oregon, having been out about six months.
I remember while camped in the Umatilla country I was breaking an Indian horse to ride-and he would throw himself whenever I mounted. I had become pretty mad at his persistence in lying down, so concluded to tie him down until he would be willing to stand up. I did so and left him close to camp-but in the morning I was minus a horse-the wolves had eaten him up. We had much to learn in those days.
On this trip Colonel Gilliam was killed accidentally. In pulling a gun from a wagon it caught in,a rope and was discharged, killing him. He was a good man and a good officer, well liked by all his men, as he was a friend to all.
We arrived at Oregon City a few days before the Fourth of July. The Governor rode out and reviewed the troops, as we were on parade. Every man had his horse decked out in Indian trappings and we were as wild as a band of Indians. Crowds of people had gathered to welcome us home. The Governor made us a short talk and dismissed us. Thus ended the organization of Oregon's First Mounted Volunteers-we all scattered out to our homes .- Thus ends Mr. Walter's article.
Another of the pioneers of '59 was W. S. Gilliam, son of the Colonel Gilliam referred to in Mr. Walter's article. Mr. Gilliam was one of the most honored and useful of Walla Walla's pioneers. A number of years ago he prepared a contribution for the Pioneer Association which we are presenting here. We are making selections on account of the length of the article. The first pertains to
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the journey across the plains in 1844, and gives a view of some of the interesting events there :
"The next morning a sight opened up to us that can never be seen again by mortal man. As far as the eye could reach up the valley of the South Platte and as far on the bluffs as we could see was black with buffaloes. The quantity of the buffaloes was one thing that the early travelers could not exaggerate.
"Under the guidance of Mr. Sublette we struck across the country from the last mentioned camp to the North Platte. In the course of the day we descried a large band of buffaloes under full headway, making directly for the train. We hastily gathered our guns and put ourselves in position, and as soon as the head of the herd came in shooting distance we commenced firing on them and succeeded as we thought, luckily, in turning them around the rear of the train. I think I may safely say that while we were in the buffalo country we were hardly ever out of sight of the animals.
"We struck the North Platte the next day and traveled up the stream most of the way to Fort Laramie, where we laid by a day. We met Mr. Joseph Walker here, who was a noted mountaineer and also an old friend of my father's. He happened to be going our way as far as Fort Bridger and made a very acceptable guide for us.
"The day we laid by I was taken with a very violent fever and remember but little that happened till we got to Sweet Water, where I became con- valescent. I remember seeing Independence Rock, covered with names innumera- ble, and the Devil's Gate, where the river had cut its way through a hill, leaving perpendicular banks perhaps a hundred feet high and a gorge not any wider than the stream.
"We followed up Sweet Water several days to a point where we left it to our right and took into the South Pass across the Rocky Mountains. After a mod- erate day's travel we camped at the Pacific Springs, the first water that we had encountered that flowed westward. I remember that we felt quite jubilant over the affair and thought that this was quite a circumstance in our journey. In passing over the country from here to Fort Bridger we crossed the two Sandies, Green River, and Ham's Fork. We stopped a day at the fort and next day, it being the first day of September, we started a northerly course across the country to Bear River. We followed down this stream to the Soda Springs, which was a great wonder to us. On an area of perhaps one hundred acres hundreds of springs boiled up, many in the bed of the river."
Following this is an estimate of Captain Grant, the Hudson's Bay commandant at Fort Hall. As the character of Captain Grant has been the subject of contro- versy, the views of Mr. Gilliam have much interest :
"We camped here .and next morning when we started we left the river, and after traveling some sixty or seventy miles we reached Fort Hall, then a Hudson's Bay Company trading post, where Mr. Grant was chief factor. Here a circum- stance occurred that has caused me through life to regard Grant as a bad hearted man. Peter H. Burnett, a noted man of the previous emigration, had written a letter of instruction and encouragement and sent it to Grant with instructions that he should read it to the emigrants when they reached Fort Hall. When we arrived there the letter was called for and Grant read it to us. It was a very welcome note, giving us useful instructions about the route and strong encour-
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agement about the country we were going to. But you can hardly conceive of the barrels of cold water he poured onto Mr. Burnett's words of encouragement. The circumstances were such that such a proceeding was of no profit or benefit to him or the company he was serving, for it was next to impossible for us to turn back. We were from the very nature of our situation compelled to go ahead, and he well knew that his discouragement could avail nothing towards stopping tis. I have never been able to regard him as a good man."
A retrospeet by Mr. Gilliam, and an account of settlement in the Willamette Valley contains matter of interest :
"It may be well enough to take a retrospect of things as they were then and compare them with things as they are now. We traveled through the territory that now constitutes the states of Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho and well through Oregon, and in all this vast region we did not find one single home, unless you, by a strained construction, call a mission or trading post a home. There were a thousand miles of this journey, which required six months to per- form it. We stood guard to protect our lives and property from hostile Indians. This being the year that Polk was elected president, the earliest news that we got of it was in July following, and we considered ourselves rather fortunate in getting it thus early ; it having come by ship, when in fact we did not expect to get it until the arrival of the emigrants in the fall. When a presidential election occurs now if we do not get the news the next day we feel that we are unfortunate in being deprived of the news so long.
"I took my first trip back three years ago. I was three days in making it, and on the route found two large cities, Salt Lake and Denver, and seemingly happy homes everywhere, and made the trip in a comfortable manner that was undreamed of in those early days.
"Well, to return. We wintered where the town of Cornelius now stands, about eighty rods south of the depot, with Messrs. Waters and Emerick, who were keeping batch at that time. The winter was very mild, which impressed us very favorably with the climate.
"In February father went up the country to select a land claim. I think his was the first claim taken south of the Rickreall. The town of Dallas stands on part of it. He came back with a glowing account of the country he had seen and particularly of the place that he had selected for a home. So we got ready and as early in March as traveling was good we started for our new home. We arrived there the 16th of March, it being Sunday. The whole country was a natural park, and, combined with the ideal spring day that we reached there, made it seem to me like dreamland.
"We went to work in good earnest building a log cabin, but before we could complete it we were overtaken by the equinoctial storm, which gave us some very serious discomfort. The next thing to do was to put in some garden and sow some wheat. Will say that nature gave us a bountiful yield in both field and garden.
"During this season we suffered some privations in food. For instance, at times we had to substitute boiled wheat for bread. It is hardly necessary to say that we did not do this from choice, but having plenty of wild meat, milk and butter, we could have a meal that would hardly pass muster now, but I can assure you that a person would be a long time starving to death on it. We never
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had any shortage of breadstuffs after the first season, for there was a grist-mill built in the immediate neighborhood the next year, where we could get flour any time."
Mr. Gilliam's brief reference to Dr. Whitman is of special value:
"A large share of the immigrants who wintered at Dr. Whitman's during the season settled in our immediate neighborhood and I learned a great deal about the Doctor's character from them. It seemed as if he had made a deep impression on them, for they talked a great deal about him, and from their talk I came to have a high regard for him. They told me that he would come home from Wallula, a distance of twenty-five miles, before breakfast, or if necessary go up to where they were building the sawmill, a distance of eighteen miles, before breakfast. In fact, his energy seemed to have no bounds and no obstacle with him seemed insurmountable. It was this summer of 1845 that he visited Willamet Valley and while there he called on my father, and as it happened I was away from home and therefore failed to see him, a circumstance that I have always regretted, more especially since he has become such an important figure in history."
The portraiture of early conditions in the Wilamette, reference to his father's death, gold discovery, and then settlement in the Walla Walla country follow :
"The immigration of 1847 brought from Washington City father's appoint- inent as postal agent with instructions from the Post Office Department concerning the same. On a recent visit with my sister at Dallas, Ore., who has all the papers, I had the pleasure of inspecting them anew. I found them queer reading from our standpoint.
"In the fall of 1847 father disposed of the place we settled on and moved up the country about twelve miles and bought a place on Pedee. This fall one of my sisters married. In the meantime some Indians had become acquainted with us and were living in the immediate neighborhood. They took some interest in the wedding and were very curious to know what her husband gave for her, it being their custom to sell their daughters into marriage. They were surprised beyond measure when told that she was given to him.
"It was November of this year that the Whitman massacre occurred. Father was at once notified that he was requested to take command of the volunteers that were to be raised to march against the hostile Indians. He left home abruptly early in December, never to return. His death was the heaviest blow that has ever befallen me.
"The next year was one long to be remembered in Oregon. It was the year of the discovery of gold in California. It was late in August that reports of the discovery began to reach Oregon. They reported the mines to be so rich that at first they were discredited; but they were soon confirmed in such a way as to relieve all doubts. It would be hard to exaggerate the excitement that was raised upon the confirmation of the news. In fact, it would be hard to excite a com- munity in any other way to the pitch ours was on this occasion, more especially when we consider how small it was. Everybody that could get away dropped their business and left. My brother-in-law and I rigged ourselves out with a saddle horse and pack-horse apiece and started. We had to travel through the Rogue River and Klamath countries in considerable bands to protect ourselves against the hos- tile Indians, but by the time we got to where it was dangerous we had fallen in
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with plenty of company, so we had no trouble on that score. We passed through the hostile country without being attacked or having any horses stolen. In fact, to ine it was a trip that afforded me some of the keenest kind of pleasure, new scenery every day and some of it, Mt. Shasta, for instance, was of the grandest kind. It was the first time I had left the parental roof.
"When we got well into the Sacramento Valley, just after we had struck camp, an acquaintance rode into camp with his pack-horse and proceeded to camp with us. He had a thrilling story to tell of his previous night's experience. It seemed that the company he traveled with through the hostile country were highly disagreeable to him, so when they reached the Sacramento Valley, where the Indians were friendly, he tore himself away from it and was traveling alone. During the first day of his lone travel he bought a salmon of the Indians. When he camped that night he cooked part of the salmon for supper and laid the balance within a few feet of where he made his bed. After retiring, while looking out into the increasing gloom, he saw an approaching form that looked as large as a covered wagon. His bearship, for such it was, very coolly and unconcernedly appropriated the remainder of the salmon and sat down within a few feet of him and quietly ate it. After eating he still sat there, seeming to ponder on what to do next. In the meantime the campfire got into the dry grass and burnt towards where Mr. Bear was sitting. When it got unpleasantly near him he slowly moved away and disappeared. Some Indians were at the camp in the morning and were shown the track. They assured him the best they could that he was very fortu- nate in not being served up for a supper for Mr. Bear. When he reached our camp and narrated the circumstance he remarked that he had concluded that he would not camp alone any more.
"I went into the mines and worked with only fair success until late next spring, when I became homesick, and not appreciating the opportunities as I would have in later life, I returned home, where I arrived the 16th of June, 1849.
"After resting a few days I visited a camp meeting that was in progress near Salem. I had visited the meeting at the same grounds the year before. I was very forcibly impressed with the difference in the dress of the people in the two years. The first year, before California had poured her wealth of gold into the country, the people were dressed in very plain pioneer style, the men in buckskin pants with the balance of the suit corresponding, the women in calicoes and muslin. But this year it was very evident that they had freely availed themselves of the privilege that the great quantity of gold that had found its way to Oregon gave them to improve their attire, for in the case of the men broadcloth had taken the place of buckskin, and in the women silks and satins had replaced calico and gingham.
"In 1851 there was a vacancy in the sheriff's office and I was appointed by the county commissioners to fill the vacancy. During my incumbency, in the discharge of my duty as sheriff, it fell to my lot to execute a death warrant by hanging a man by the name of Everman, who had committed a very foul murder. It was not a very pleasant duty to perform and most certainly one that I never wanted to be called on to repeat. This was the first execution for murder in Polk County, and I think the second in the territory, excepting the Indians that were hung at Oregon City for the murder of Doctor Whitman and others.
"There was another circumstance that grew out of the murder case that
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gave me the unenviable distinction of being the only man that ever put up a white man at auction and sold him to the highest bidder. The man in question was a brother of the above murderer. He was found guilty of being accessory to the murder after the fact, which would entitle him to a term in the penitentiary. There was no penitentiary in the territory at that time, and the judge in sen- tencing him to a term made the provision in the order that in default of there being a penitentiary he be sold to the highest bidder for the same term that he was sentenced to the penitentiary. Some of my lawyer friends tell me that the judge assumed a very doubtful right in so sentencing the culprit ; but no legal move was made to invalidate the judge's order, so the matter rested.
"The above execution occurred on the IIth of May, 1852. That year my future wife crossed the plains and settled in the neighborhood where I lived. After a year's acquaintance we were married and moved onto a donation claim that I had three miles northwest of Dallas. At this time I was engaged in cattle raising.
"We lived here until 1859, when I became disgusted with the long, wet, dreary winters. That, coupled with the growing shortage of public pasturage, caused us to sell and seek a country with less winter rains and more public range. From what we could hear of the Walla Walla country we concluded that the winter weather and range were about what we wanted, so we at once decided to emigrate thither. In July I gathered up the cattle and started. The journey was somewhat tedious, a part of it being over dusty roads and the weather at times hot. I reached Dry Creek at Mr. Aldrich's place, early in August. I bought a man's claim just above the Aldrich place. I stayed some two weeks getting the cattle settled on the range. I started back for the family the first day of September, traveling with saddle- and pack-horse.
"On my way back I had the good fortune to fall in with an immigrant who had been in Oregon and knew the locality where my land was, to sell him my farm, and was thus relieved from being detained on that account.
"I reached home in twelve days after leaving Dry Creek and found the folks all well. We hurriedly made arrangements for our departure to the place that I had selected for our new home. We bundled our household goods into a wagon, bade good-bye to our friends and started. We drove over the country to Portland, where we put the wagon and team on the boat and got on ourselves, and finally landed at The Dalles. From there we took the wagon to Walla Walla. arriving at our new home the 23rd of October.
"There was nothing there in the shape of a house but a miserable hut that would neither protect us from the rain or cold. Therefore it was very important to build a house at the earliest possible time. I took a man with me into the mountains to assist me in getting out the timbers, and put another one to hauling them as fast as we got them cut ; so it was but a few days till we had the material on the ground with which to build a cabin. We at once put it up and finished it so as to make it endurable for the winter.
"This was a tolerably severe winter, a great deal of snow and cold weather ; but the stock got through in good shape for the reason that the grass was fine in the late fall, which put them in good shape to withstand bad weather ; and the country was all open so that they could range on to the creeks and browse when the grass was covered with snow. As to ourselves, we got along fairly well in
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