USA > Washington > Asotin County > Lyman's history of old Walla Walla County, embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties, Volume I > Part 9
USA > Washington > Columbia County > Lyman's history of old Walla Walla County, embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties, Volume I > Part 9
USA > Washington > Garfield County > Lyman's history of old Walla Walla County, embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties, Volume I > Part 9
USA > Washington > Walla Walla County > Lyman's history of old Walla Walla County, embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties, Volume I > Part 9
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78
Following this heading is a letter addressed to her parents, dated Vancouver, October 20, 1836, in which she says that the journal covers the journey from the "Rendezvous," and that while at Vancouver she had been so situated that she could copy her notes taken on the way. The party had crossed the Great Divide on July 4th, and on that day celebrated the natal day of the country, and as they looked down the long vista westward, seem to have felt that they would claim possession of that western land in the name of the American Union and the Church of Jesus Christ. They had reached the "Rendezvous" on Green River July 6th. After several days there, refitting and resting and conferring with Indians, they resumed the next great stage of the march with a detach- ment of the Hudson's Bay Company, under Mr. McLeod, bound for Walla Walla.
It was July 18, 1836, when they set forth under these new auspices. A com- pany of Flathead and Nez Perce Indians also travelled with them. It appears from the diary of Mrs. Spalding that the Nez Perces were very anxious that
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the party accompany them, but as they apparently wished to hunt on the way it was manifestly necessary that the party go with the traders. One chieftain, Mrs. Spalding says, concluded to go with them, though it would deprive him of the privilege of securing a supply of meat for the winter. Mrs. Whitman tells of the tedious time which Doctor Whitman had with his wagon. This was one of the notable features of his journey. Some have asserted that he was the first to drive a wagon from the Missouri to the Columbia. This is only partly true. Ashley, Smith, Sublette, Bonneville, and other trappers, had driven wagons to the Black Hills, and to other points, but none of them had gone so far west as Whitman, with a wagon. But when he reached "Snake Fort," near Boise, generally known as Fort Boise, he left his wagon. In 1840 Robert Newell went clear through the Blue Mountains and reached Walla Walla. However, Doctor Whitman deserves all praise for his energy and persistence in pushing his "Chick-chick-shaile-kikash," as the Indians called his wagon, even to Fort Boise, and he may be very justly called one of the first wheel-track-makers. It is interesting and pathetic to see how Mrs. Whitman craved some of her mother's bread. During part of their journey they had an exclusive diet of buffalo meat. Occasionally they would have berries and fish. They had several cows with them and from them had some milk, which was a great help. They had to shoe their cattle (presumably with hide, though it is not so stated) on account of sore feet. With the cows were two sucking calves, which, Mrs. Whitman says, seemed to be in excellent spirits, and made the journey with no suffering, except sore feet. Soon after passing a point on Snake River, where the Indians were taking salmon, Mrs. Whitman bade good-by to her little trunk which they had been able to carry thus far, but were now compelled to leave. It is truly pathetic to read the words in her journal.
"Dear H. (This was her sister Harriet, to whom she is especially addressing the words) : The little trunk you gave me has come thus with me so far and now I must leave it here alone. Poor little trunk! I am sorry to leave thee. Thou must abide here alone and no more by thy presence remind me of my dear Harriet. Twenty miles below the falls on Snake River, this shall be thy place of rest. Farewell, little trunk. I thank thee for thy faithful services, and that I have been cheered by thy presence so long. Thus we scatter as we go along." A little later it appears that Mr. McKay rescued the trunk. Mrs. Whitman shows that she had quite a sense of humor by recording that when she found what Mr. McKay had done her "soliloquizing about it last night was for naught."
The journal contains quite a glowing account of the beauties of Grande Ronde Valley, then of the toilsome, zigzag trail out of it into the Blue Mountains westward. On August 29th, the party stood upon the open summit, from which they saw the Valley of the Columbia. "It was beautiful. Just as we gained the highest elevation and began to descend the sun was dipping his disk behind the western horizon. Beyond the valley we could see two distant mountains, Mount Hood, and Mount St. Helens." The latter of those mountains was Adams, not St. Helens. Our missionary band were now in sight of their goal. It was not, however, till September Ist, that they actually rode into Walla Walla. In fact, part of the company, including the Spaldings, did not reach the fort till September 3d. It was a thrilling moment to that devoted little band. It seemed to them almost equal to what it would to one of us moderns to enter Washington
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or Paris or London. Think of the journey of those two women, those brides, three thousand miles from St. Louis to Walla Walla, five months and mainly on horseback. As they drew near the fort, both horses and riders became so eager to reach the end of the journey that they broke into a gallop. They saw the first appearance of civilization in a garden about two miles from the fort. That garden must have been nearly upon the present location of Wallula. . As they rode up to the fort, Mr. Mcleod ( who had gone ahead to prepare for their coming), Mr. Pambrun, the commandant, and others, came forth to meet so new and remarkable an addition to the population of Walla Walla. Mrs. Whitman has the enthusiasm of a child in describing the chickens, turkeys, pigeons, hogs, goats, and cattle, which latter were the fattest that she ever saw, and then she goes into ecstasies over the breakfast of salmon, potatoes, tea, bread and butter, and then the room in the fort with its comfort after all their hardships. The officers of the fur company treated them with the utmost courtesy and consider- ation. Such was that momentous entrance of the missionaries and of the first white women into Fort Walla Walla, September 1, 1836.
The next chapter in the story of the Whitman party was their journey to Van- couver, the emporium of the Hudson's Bay Company. Leaving Walla Walla by boat on the 7th of September, they reached the "New York of the Pacific," as Mrs. Whitman says they had been told to consider it, on the 14th. Mrs. Whit- man expresses in her journal the admiration of the party for the beauty of the river, more beautiful, she says, than the Ohio, though the rugged cliffs and shores of drifting sand below Walla Walla looked dismal and forbidding. They found much to delight them at Vancouver,-the courtesy and hospitality of Doctor McLoughlin and his assistants, the bounteous table, with feasts of salmon, roast duck, venison, grouse and quail, rich cream and delicious butter, a picture of toothsomeness which it makes one hungry to read; the ships from England moored to the river brink, and the well-kept farm with grain and vegetables, fruits of every sort, grapes and berries, a thousand head of cattle, and many sheep, hogs, and horses-a perfect oasis of civilized delights to the little com- pany of missionaries, worn and homesick during their months on horseback across the barren plains and through wild mountains.
Doctor Whitman and Mr. Spalding, leaving their wives in the excellent keep- ing of the Hudson's Bay people at Vancouver, returned, in company with Mr. Gray, to the Walla Walla country to decide upon locations. They had expected, so Mrs. Whitman says, to locate in the Grande Ronde, the beauty and fertility of which had been portrayed in glowing colors by returning adventurers and fur- traders. But discovering as they passed through that it was so buried in the moun- tains and so difficult of access from the rivers and the regular routes of travel, they fixed upon Waiilatpu ( Wielitpoo, Mrs. Whitman spells it ) for one post and Lapwai for another. The Whitmans became established at Waiilatpu, "the place of rye grass," six miles west of the present Walla Walla ; and the Spaldings at Lapwai, two miles up the Lapwai Creek, and about twelve from the mouth of the Clearwater, the present site of Lewiston. A few months after the location at Waiilatpu, on March 4. 1837, a beam of sunshine lighted in the home of the Whitmans, in the form of a daughter, Alice Clarissa, the first white child born west of the Rockies and north of California. The Indians were extraordinarily pleased with the "little white papoose," or "Cayuse temi" (Cayuse girl), and if
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she had lived, the tragedy of a little later might not have occurred. In a letter preserved at Whitman College, from Mrs. Whitman to her sister and husband, Rev. Lyman P. Judson of Angelica, N. Y., dated March 15, 1838, the mother says : "Our little daughter comes to her mother every now and then to be cheered with a smile and a kiss and to be taken up to rest for a few moments and then away she goes running about the room or out of doors, diverting herself with objects that attract her attention. A refreshing comfort she is to her parents in their solitary situation." With her parents so needing that child, fairly idolizing her and their very lives wrought up with hers, it is too sad to relate that on June 23, 1839, the bright, active little creature wandered out of the house while the mother was engaged in some household task, and took her way to the fatal river that then ran close to the mission house, though it now has a new channel a quarter mile away. Missing little Alice Clarissa, Mrs. Whitman hastened to the river, with a sinking dread, and there she saw the little cup where the child had dropped it. This mutely told the heart-breaking tale. An Indian, diving in the stream, found the body, but the gentle and lovable life, the life of the whole mission, was gone. The faithful and devoted father and mother had one less tie to life. The patient resignation with which the anguished parents endured this infinite sorrow shows vividly what strength may be imparted by the real Christian spirit.
Both Doctor Whitman and Mr. Spalding were indefatigable workers and quickly created civilized conditions upon the beautiful places where they had planted their missions. That of Mr. Spalding was outside of the territory cov- ered by this history, and we therefore devote our larger attention to the mission at Waiilatpu. It should, however, be said that from the standpoint of results among the Indians, Mr. Spalding accomplished more than any of the mission- aries. This may be accounted for in some part by the superior characters and minds of the Nez Perces, among whom he was so fortunate as to have cast his lot. They seem to have been of the best Indian type, while the Cayuses in the vicinity of Waiilatpu were turbulent, treacherous, and unreliable.
Doctor Whitman was a man of powerful physique and familiar from boy- hood with the practical duties of farm and mill. He could turn his hand to almost anything in the way of construction. The same was true of Mr. Gray, who spent part of his time at Waiilatpu and part at Lapwai, though he returned in 1837 to the east in search of new helpers. But within a few months the Whit- mans were comfortably housed, and every year saw some improvement about the buildings and land. Seed for grain, and fruit trees were secured at Vancouver, and stock was provided also. The Waiilatpu farm consisted of a fertile belt of bottom land of about three hundred acres between the Walla Walla River and Mill Creek, with an unlimited range of low hill and bench land covered with bunch-grass, which furnished the finest of stock feed almost the whole year round. Doctor Whitman was himself a practical millwright and soon had a small sawmill equipped about twenty miles up Mill Creek, while adjoining the mission house he laid out a mill dam, the lines of which can still be seen. The water for the mill pond was supplied from Mill Creek by a ditch which followed nearly the course of the ditch of the present time. The mill was a grist mill and located at the western side of the pond, and within a few steps of the mission house and the "mansion," as they called the large log building erected a few years after their arrival for the accommodation of the frequent visitors, especially after
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American immigrants began to come. Toiling incessantly, the missionary doctor and hero was rewarded by seeing his mission brought in a surprisingly brief time to a condition of profitable cultivation. T. J. Farnham, who came with the so- called "Peoria party" in 1839, says of Whitman's place: "I found 250 acres enclosed and 200 acres in good cultivation. I found forty or fifty Indian children between the ages of seven and eighteen years in school, and Mrs. Whitman an indefatigable instructor. It appeared to me quite remarkable that the doctor could have made so many improvements since the year 1836; but the industry which crowded every hour of the day, his untiring energy of character, and the very efficient aid of his wife in relieving him in a great degree from the labors of the school, enabled him, without funds for such purposes, and without other aid than that of a fellow-missionary for short intervals, to fence, plow, build. plant an orchard, and do all the other laborious acts of opening a plantation on the face of that distant wilderness, learn an Indian language, and do the duties, meanwhile, of a physician to the associate stations on the Clearwater and Spo- kane." Joseph Drayton of the Wilkes Exploring Expedition of the United States Navy, visited Waiilatpu in 1841. He says of the mission: "All the premises looked comfortable, the garden especially fine, vegetables and melons in great variety. The wheat in the fields was seven feet high and nearly ripe, and the corn nine feet in the tassel." Had not Doctor Whitman possessed great physical strength, as well as determination and energy, he could not have endured the excessive toil which was the price of his rapid progress. Senator Nesmith, who came to Oregon in the immigration of 1843, said in the hearing of the author of this work: "Whitman had a constitution like a sawmill." Another old timer said of him that he had the energy of a Napoleon. Some old timer has said that Whitman used to ride in a day to the present site of Lewiston, from Waiilatpu. about ninety miles. He would do it by changing horses several times. He was hard on horses, and when someone remonstrated on the ground of cruelty, the doctor replied : "My time is worth more than the horse's comfort."
As has been stated, Mr. W. H. Gray went east in 1857 for reinforcements. The next year he came again to Oregon with a valuable addition. Besides the addition to his own life of a bride, Mary Dix (who was one of the choice spirits of Old Oregon, and during many years a center of life and light in the new country) there were three missionaries, each also with a newly-wed wife. These were Revs. Elkanah Walker, Cushing Eells, and A. B. Smith. Mr. Cornelius Rogers accompanied the party. Reaching Walla Walla, the new arrivals were assigned to new stations, Messrs. Eells and Walker to Tschimakain, near the present City of Spokane, while Mr. Smith went to Kamiah, about sixty miles east of the present site of Lewiston. Mr. Rogers and the Grays went to Lapwai. There seem never to have been more faithful and devoted missionaries than were these of the four missions of Waiilatpu, Lapwai, Tschimakain, and Kamiah. Yet, it could not be said that they were successful in turning any considerable number of natives to Christianity. The Nez Perces at Lapwai and other stations established by Mr. Spalding, notably the one at Alpowa, were most amenable to Christian influences, while the Cayuses in the Walla Walla Valley were least so. In contemplation of the apparently scanty progress, the Missionary Board at Boston decided to discontinue the missions at Waiilatpu and Lapwai, to dis-
WHITMAN PARTY ON CREST OF ROCKY MOUNTAINS, JULY 4, 1836
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charge Messrs. Spalding, Gray, Smith, and Rogers, and to send Doctor Whitman to the Spokane country.
While these difficulties were harassing the missionaries, very important events were taking place in national life. The slavery and the tariff questions had be- come firebrands in domestic politics. The questions of annexation of Texas, of the occupation of Oregon, of possible trouble with Mexico over the former, and with England over the latter, were threatening corresponding chaos in foreign affairs. Doctor Whitman, reticent and sagacious, saw clearly that his chosen aim of leading the natives to civilization and Christianity was rapidly sinking in im- portance in comparison with the question of the white race in the new land, and of the ownership of this great region. In 1842 the Ashburton treaty with England settled the Northeastern boundary and the supposition was that it would also settle the Oregon question. But when the treaty was signed on August 9th, it appeared that the question of Oregon was left unsettled. In a message of August IIth, President Tyler explained to the Senate that so little probability of agree- ment existed that it was thought not expedient to make that subject a matter of negotiation.
While the Ashburton treaty was pending, the first real immigration, though a small one of 112 persons, came to Oregon. In it, among several of the most notable of the old Oregonians, was A. L. Lovejoy, a young New England lawyer, a man of energy and ambition, destined to play a conspicuous part in Oregon history. When the party reached Whitman's Station on the Walla Walla, they delivered to him letters from the United States and discussed with him the pend- ing treaty and the danger that it might draw the line so as to leave Oregon to Great Britain, or at least to make the Columbia River the boundary, placing the entire Puget Sound Basin and the mountains and plains eastward to the river in possession of Great Britain. Seeing the imminence, of the danger, Whitman determined upon a supreme effort. He decided to make a mid-winter journey East with three aims in view : to present to the Government the situation and the vital need of preserving Oregon for the United States ; to try to aid in forming and guiding an immigration to Oregon; and to settle affairs of the mission with the Board at Boston. He asked Lovejoy to go with him. It looked like a desperate undertaking, but Lovejoy, an athletic, ambitious young man, agreed to go.
At this point comes in the bitterly disputed "Whitman Controversy." It is not within the scope of this work to undertake an argumentative treatment of this question. The question at issue, if rationally considered, is rather the extent of the services of Doctor Whitman in "saving Oregon to the United States." Mrs. F. V. Victor, Elwood Evans, Prof. E. G. Bourne, and Principal W. I. Marshall have, more than others, presented arguments in favor of the contention that Doctor Whitman had no important part to play in the great political drama of Oregon, while the claim that he had large political aims and bore a conspicuous part in influencing the final result has been supported in books written by Dr. O. W. Nixon, Rev. William Barrows, Prof. William Mowry, and Rev. Myron Eells. The final book by the last named, the "Life of Marcus Whitman," is, in the judg- ment of the writer, the final and unanswered and indeed unanswerable word on the subject. The author of this history has given in the Washington Historical Quarterly of April, 1917, his reasons for thinking the statements of Professors Bourne and Marshall inaccurate and their arguments inconclusive. The fact Vol. 1-5
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acknowledged by all is that Whitman made a ride during the fall and winter of 1842 and succeeding months of 1843, which for daring, heroism, and fortitude has few parallels in history. The question of controversy is, what did he make such a journey for? His critics say that it was in consequence of the decision of the Missionary Board to discontinue his mission on the Walla Walla. Mrs. Victor and Principal Marshall are the only ones among these critics who have achieved the distinction of attributing base or selfish motives to Whitman. They have held forth the idea that he, foreseeing the incoming of immigrants, wanted to maintain the station at Waiilatpu in order to raise vegetables and other supplies to sell at a high price. Whether a motive of that sort would lead a man of Whitman's type to take that desperate ride in mid-winter through the Rocky Mountains, at peril of life a dozen times over from Indians, freezing, and starva- tion, is a question which different people would view differently, according to their way of estimating the motives which determine men's actions. Perhaps people whose estimate of human nature, based possibly on their own inner con- sciousness of motives, is that selfish gain is the leading motive, would agree that the hope of cornering the vegetable market at Waiilatpu was an adequate canse of Whitman's ride. To some people it would seem likely that the mainspring of his action was some great national and patriotic aim and that while he wished to maintain the mission, his great aim was to convince the Government of the value of Oregon and to help organize an immigration which would settle the ownership of Oregon in favor of his country. At any rate, he went. That much is undisputed.
Practically the only account of that memorable mid-winter ride from Waiilatpu to St. Louis is from A. L. Lovejoy, the sole white companion of Whitman. Whitman himself was, like most heroes, a man of few words. He told various friends something of his experiences in Washington and Boston, and told to asso- ciates and wrote a few letters to friends about the immigration of 1843, but he seems to have been very reticent about the "Ride." Mr. Lovejoy wrote two let- ters about that journey, one dated November 6, 1860, which is found in W. H. Gray's History of Oregon. and one addressed to Dr. G. H. Atkinson and used by him in an address on February 22, 1876. This letter so vividly portrays the char- acter of this undertaking as it comes from the only witness besides Whitman himself, that we deem it suitable to incorporate it here.
"We left Waiilatpu October 3, 1842, traveled rapidly, reached Fort Hall in eleven days, remained two days to recruit and make a few purchases. The doctor engaged a guide, and we left the Fort Uinte. We changed from a direct route to one more southern, through the Spanish country, via Salt Lake, Taos and Santa Fe. On our way from Fort Hall to Fort Uinte we had terribly severe weather. The snows retarded our progress and blinded the trail, so we lost much time. After arriving at Fort Uinte, and making some purchases for our trip, we took a new guide and started for Fort Uncumpagra, situated on the waters of Grand River. in the Spanish country. Here our stay was very short. We took a new guide and started for Taos. After being out some four or five days we encoun- tered a terrific snowstorm, which forced us to seek shelter in a deep ravine, where we remained snowed in for four days, at which time the storm had somewhat abated, and we attempted to make our way out upon the highlands, but the snow was so deep and the winds so piercing and cold, we were compelled to return to
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camp and wait a few days for a change of weather. Our next effort to reach the highlands was more successful; but, after spending several days wandering around in the snow without making much headway, our guide told us that the deep snow had so changed the face of the country that he was completely lost and could take us no further. This was a terrible blow to the doctor, but he was determined not to give it up without another effort.
"We at once agreed that the doctor should take the guide and return to Fort Uncumpagra and get a new guide, and I remain in camp with the animals until he could return, which he did in seven days with our new guide, and we were now on our route again. Nothing of much import occurred but hard and slow traveling through deep snow until we reached Grand River, which was frozen on either side about one-third across. Although so intensely cold, the current was so very rapid that about one-third of the river in the center was not frozen. Our guide thought it would be dangerous to attempt to cross the river in its present condition, but the doctor, nothing daunted, was the first to take the water. He mounted his horse; the guide and myself shoved the doctor and his horse off the ice into the foaming stream. Away he went, completely under water, horse and all, but directly came up, and after buffeting the rapid foaming current, he reached the ice on the opposite shore a long way down the stream. He leaped from his horse upon the ice and soon had his noble animal by his side. The guide and myself forced in the pack animals, and followed the doctor's example, and were soon on the opposite shore, drying our frozen clothes by a comfortable fire. We reached Taos in about thirty days, having suffered greatly from cold and scarcity of provisions. We were compelled to use mule meat, dogs and such other animals as came in our reach. We remained at Taos a few days only, and started for Bent's and Savery's Fort, on the head waters of the Arkansas River. When we had been out some fifteen or twenty days we met George Bent, a brother of Governor Bent, on his way to Taos. He told us that a party of moun- tain men would leave Bent's Fort in a few days for St. Louis, but said we would not reach the fort with our pack animals in time to join the party. The doctor, being very anxious to join the party so he could push on as rapidly as possible to Washington, concluded to leave myself and guide with the animals, and he him- self, taking the best animal, with some bedding and a small allowance of pro- vision, started alone, hoping by rapid travel to reach the fort in time to join the St. Louis party, but to do so he would have to travel on the Sabbath, something we had not done before. Myself and guide traveled on slowly and reached the fort in four days, but imagine our astonishment when on making inquiry about the doctor we were told that he had not arrived nor had he been heard of. I learned that the party for St. Louis was camped at the Big Cottonwood, forty miles from the fort, and at my request Mr. Savery sent an express, telling the party not to proceed any farther until we learned something of Doctor Whitman's whereabouts, as he wished to accompany them to St. Louis. Being furnished by the gentleman of the fort with a suitable guide, I started in search of the doctor, and traveled up the river about one hundred miles. I learned from the Indians that a man had been there who was lost and was trying to find Bent's Fort. They said they had directed him to go down the river and how to find the fort. I knew from their description it was the doctor. I returned to the fort
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