aassJm? Book , V/a r HMf*^ AN ILLUSTRATED HI5TOPY OK Walla Walla County 5TATI: or WASHINGTON n\ PPOI l:550P W. D. LVMAN \V. II. LEVER, Pum.isiiEij I'JUl U \\^ o\ i^:c^ ^.,..^ ^^ e ^ -^ DEDICATED TO THE PIONEERS OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY THH BRAVE MHN AND DEVOTIiD WOMEN THOSE WHO HAVE GONE AM) THOSE WHO REMAIN ■ Tct never a doubt, nay, never a fear Of old, or nozt', inczv the pioneer.''' PREFACE. The volume herewith presented speaks for itself, and extended preface is unneces- sary. It is fitting, however, that special thanks be given here by the author of the historical portion of the work to those who have so kindly assisted, by information, suggestion, and encouragement, in its preparation. Among these may be named the committee of endorsement, Messrs. Frank Paine, Lewis McMorris, and W. S. Gilliam, to whose patient attention and invaluable corrections the author is especially indebted. Particular mention should be made of the assistance given by Prof. J. A. Keener, of Waitsburg Academy, in the elaborate account of that institution. Prof. O. A. Hauerbach, of Whitman College, should be credited with the author- ship of the greater part of chapter twenty-three, and Mr. W. M. Proctor with that of chapter twenty-two. Many citizens of Walla Walla have given important information and have evinced an interest in the work, and a spirit of local patriotism which is one of the best auguries for a noble future in the historic county of Walla Walla. To these and all the hearty thanks of both publisher and author are due and are hereby most cordially tendered. AN ENDORSEMENT. We, the undersigned, after listening to the reading of the manuscript containing the "" History of Walla Walla County," written by W. D. Lyman, bear testimony that it gives evidence of extensive reading and conscientious research, and presents to our best knowledge, an accurate, comprehensive and impartial record of events, and as such we endorse and commend it. Lewis McMorris, ,,T c- /- I Committee W. S. Gilliam, \ c- ,,. n \ of Citizens. F. \\ . Paine, | -^ TABLE OF CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION. Discoveries on the North Pacific Coast. Strait of Anian — Sir Francis Dralie — Juan de Fuca — Admiral de Fonte — Russian Exploration — Captain James Cook — Beginning of the Fur-trade — Troubles at Nootka — The " River of the West " — Captain Gray's Discovery — Explorations by land — Purchase of Louisiana — Lewis and Clark Expedition — Hunt's Expedition — The Tonquin Tragedy — Dawning ° I the Present 1 CHAPTER L The Oregon Question. Great Britain's Claims — Hudson's Bay Company — Opinions of American Statesmen — Joint Occupation — Treaty of 1846 33 CHAPTER IL The Inception of American History in Washington. Michael T. Simmons — Founding of Seattle — Division of Territory — Appointment of Isaac L Stevens as Governor — Boundaries of Washington Territory 37 CHAPTER III. Missions of Walla Walla and Whitman Massacre. The Missionary Impulse — Parker, Whitman, Spalding — Mission at Waiilatpu — Whitman's Ride — The Massacre — Mr. Osborne's Reminiscences — " The Christmas Dinner '' — Cayuse War — Reminiscences of L. T. Boyd 40 CHAPTER IV. Atte.mpts to Organize Walla Walla County. The Original County Boundaries — First Appointment of Officers — First Settlements— Gold Discoveries. . . 55 CHAPTER V. Indian Wars of the 'Fifties. Troubles of 1853-.54— Council at Walla Walla— Looking Glass vs. Lawyer — Treaty Ratified— Its Provisions — Kamiakin and Peupeumoxmox — Outbreak of War — Battle of Walla Walla— Colonel Kelly's Report — Governor Stevens' Report — Stevens and Wool 58 CHAPTER VI. Indian Wars of the 'Fifties — Continued. Campaign of '66— Battle of Grande Ronde— Colonel Shaw's Report — Second Walla Walla Council — Battle near Walla Walla — Trouble Between Stevens and the Regulars — Steptoe's Defeat — Its Avenging— Wool's Policy Reversed 77 viii CONTENTS. CHAPTER VII. Definite Organization of Walla Walla and Political History, 1869-63. Early Settlers— First Appointments of Officers— Walla Walla Christened— Election of 1860— Effects of Gold Excitement — Sergeant Smith's Gold Discoveries — Beginnings of Business — Hard Winter of 1861- 62— Famine Prices— Rush of Gold Seekers in '62— Election of 1862— Development of the Wheat Industry *^6 CHAPTER VIII. Political History of Walla Walla County, 1863-66. Gold Discoveries in Boise— Stage Lines— O. S. N. Co.— Election of 1863— George E. Cole, Delegate— Effect of Rebellion on Politics — Founding of Waitsburg — Election of 1866 95 CHAPTER IX. General and Political History of Walla Walla County, 1866-74. New Routes to Idaho— Attempts at Annexation to Oregon— Exportations of Flour— Election of Alvin Flanders to Congress— First Court House— Philip Ritz's Flour Trade— Starting of Railroad Projects- Selucius Garfielde— Election of 1868— Investigating County Officials— Ambitions of Waitsburg— Census of 1870— Election of 1870— Renewal of Attempts at Annexation— Railroad Projects— Founding of Dayton — Election of 1872— New Court House — Election of 1874 99 CHAPTER .\. Annals of the Years 1875-1881. Completion of Walla Walla & Columbia River Railroad— Division of County — Industrial Statistics- Election of 1876— Finances— Constitutional Convention— Election of 1878— Efforts at Statehood- Election of 1880 110 CHAPTER XI. Walla Walla County Elections, 1882-1900. Thomas H. Brents— " Bossism "—Election Statistics to 1900— The Voting Precincts— Statehood— Walla Walla .Men in Cjagress- Penitentiary Politics — Present Situation— -Auditor's Report 115 CHAPTER XII. The Land We Live In. Variety of Resources— Selection from Post-Intelligencer— Inland Empire— Legend of the Walla Walla Valley—" Beautiful W.illa W.illa "—Selection from Huwthjrne's History 120 CHAPTER XIII. A Journey Through Walla Walla County. Enter County from the North— Waitsburg— Wait's Mill— Town Government in 1881— Churches of Waits- burg— Fraternities of Waitsburg— Schools and Public Improvements of the Town— Farming Region Adjoining— Dixie— Farming Region Adjoining Dixie— Farms Between Mill Creek and Russell Creek- Eureka Junction— "Wheat Kings"— Wallula— Fort Walla Walla of Hudson's Bay Times— McKinley and Pambrun— Abandonment of Fort Walla Walla by the English— Establishment of Steamboats on the River— Touchet—Frenchtown— The Garden and Orchard Lands— Dry Creek Ranches— Prescott — The New Farming Lands — The Alto Hill 1'j3 CHAPTER XIV. The Industries of Walla Walla County. \'iew From Pike's Peak— Physical Characteristics of the County— Story of Wishpoosh— The Stock Business —Statistics— Agriculture— Beginnings of Wheat and Flour Exportations— Dr. Blalock's Big Crop- Horticulture and Fruit Raising— Nurseries and Orchards— Fruit Fairs— Markets for Fruit— The Flour- CONTENTS. ix ing Mills — Their Output— The Gilbert Hunt Factory — Roberts' Foundry — Whitehouse & Crimmins' Factory — Other Lumbering Establishments— The Weber Tannery — Creameries — The Cox & Bailey Manufactory — Ringhofer Bros.' Saddle-tree Factory — Marble Works — Summary of Other Business Establishments 145 CHAPTER XV. The Transportation Line.'; of Walla Walla County. Voyageurs and Bateaus — Early Steamboat Lines— Oregon Steam Navigation Company — Dr. D. S. Baker — — First Railroad Agitation — Grading at Wallula — Paper Railroads — Completion of Dr. Baker's Rail- road — Bought out by O. S. N. Co. — Stage Lines — Transcontinental Railroads — Northern Pacific — The Hunt Road— The 6. R. & N. System 165 CHAPTER XVL Educational Institutions of Walla Walla County. Education in the West — Public Schools of Walla Walla County and City at Present — The High School— The Public School System in Early Days — Its Development — Whitman College — St. Paul's School — La Salle Institute — St. Vincent's Academy — Walla Walla College — Business College — VVaitsburg Academy l'i'4 CHAPTER XVII. Earlier History of Walla Walla County, 1862-88. Establishment of Fort Walla Walla — Beginnings of Business — Steptoeville, Waiilatpu, Walla Walla — First Election — Successive Elections — City Indebtedness — Division into Wards — First Efforts at Munic- ipal System of Water Works IST CHAPTER XVIII. Later History of City Government of Walla Walla, 1883-1900. Charter of 1883 — City Wards — Apportionment of Councilmen — Election Statistics to Present Time 194 CHAPTER XIX. The Churches of Walla Walla. Ancient Churches — Catholic Church — First Methodist Church — St. Paul's Episcopal Church — First Con- gregational Church — Cumberland Presbyterian Church — Christian Church — Baptist Church — Method- ist Episcopal Church, South — German Methodist Episcopal Church — First Presbyterian Church I9s CHAPTER XX. Fraternal and Other Organizations of the City of Walla Walla. Freemasonry — Odd Fellows — Odd Fellows' Home of Washington — Young Men's Institute — United Arti- sans — National Union — Pioneers of the Pacific — United Workmen — Degree of Honor — Women of Woodcraft — Woodmen of the World — Foresters of America — Knights of Pythias — Rathbone Sisters- Ladies of the Maccabees — Modern Woodmen of America — Improved Order of Red Men — Degree of Pocahontas — Royal Arcanum— Good Templars — Grand Army of the Republic — A. Lincoln Relief Corps — Sons of Herman — Order of Washington — Spanish-American War Veterans — Fraternal- Order of Eagles— Building Association— Walla Walla Gun Club— Walla Walla Club— Walla Walla City Library — Women's Reading Club — The Ladies' Relief Society — Walla Walla's Part in the Philippine War— Welcome Home 208 CHAPTER XXL Journalism in Walla Walla County. The Pioneer Printing Press— The Walla Walla Press— The Washington Statesman— The Walla Walla Statesman — The Union — The Journal— The Garden City Gazette, the Watchman and the Walla Walla Record — The Argus — The Inland Empire — The Waitsburg Times — The Waitsburg Gazette 227 X CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXII. The Bench and Bar of Walla Walla. Old Times in the Circuit — The Days of Six-shooters in Court — Judge Strong's Court — Judge Wyche — Judge Oliphant and the Court "Getting Roused "—Judge Kennedy— Judge Lewis and his Peculiar Resigna- tion — Judge Wingard and his Lengthy Term — Judge Langford, Last of the Territorial Judges — Law- yers of the Olden Times — Superior Judges Since Statehood — Judge Upton — Judge Brents— Some Important Cases — The Thomas Murder Case — The Elfers Murder Case — Mrs. Pyle and J. T. Hurn — The Royse Murder Trial — The Case of Isaacs vs. Barber — The Case of Denny vs. Parker — The Walla Walla Water Case .' . 233 CHAPTER XXIII. Walla Walla in the Olden TiiMes. Richness of Material— Joe Lewis — The Vigilantes — Story of " Slim Jim "—The Story of Furth Patterson — Disunion Sentiment During the War— Union Flag at Milton — Political Business Men— Dr. Baker and his Railroad — "Wabash," and his flag— " Gentle Eells— " Portuguese Joe"— Allen's Knowlege of Faro —Colonel George and his Plug Hat— Ditto with the Water I5ottle— His Bet with the Priest— Floods in Walla Walla — Fires— Ancient Barrenness and Present Verdure 241 CHAPTER XXIV. Walla Walla City ln I90L By Way of Pasco— The State Penitentiary— The Sewerage System— Water Works— Law Suit Between Company and City— Establishment of Municipal Ownership of Water Works— The Hotels— The Banks —The Stores— The Residence Section— Suburban Homes— Visit to the Schools— The Telephone System— The Lighting System— Telegraphic Reminiscences— The Defunct Street Car System— Public Benefactions— Amusements and Entertainments— Condition of the Churches— The Postal Business— The City Fire Department— The Question of a New Charter— Opposing Opinions of the Press— Fort Walla Walla— Adjoining Attractions 2.i2 GENERAL ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE ■ County Court House and Hall of Records 5B Combined Harvester 144 Main Street, Walla Walla, in 1877 2fi4 Main Street, Walla Walla, in 1901 2fi4 Odd Fellows' Home, Walla Walla 21fi Walla Walla City Hall, Police and Fire Station 216 - Walla Walla College 184 ■ State Penitentiary and Warden's Residence, Walla Walla 252 ■ Waitsburg Academy 136 Waitsburg Public School 136 PORTRAIT INDEX. PAGE A. Abbey, Henry J 384 Abbott, John F 472 Aldrich, Newton 480 B. Baker, Dorsey S 288 Berryman, J. E 496 Blalock, N.G 472 Bowers, C. J 502 Bowers, Mrs. C. J 502 Boyer, John FrankMn 296 Bradbury, George W 4H6 Brents, Thomas Hurley . 304 C. Castleman, Nelson 432 D. Dacres, George 4.52 Delany, George 424 Denne'y, Nathaniel B 488 Denney, Mrs. Nathaniel B 48S Devvar, James M 476 Dinges, Solomon 496 E. EUingsworth, William 392 H. Harbert, Joseph W 448 Hardman, Sol 492 Hardman, Mrs. S 492 Harnien, Charles T.. 472 Harmen, Mrs. Charles T 472 Hoffmann, John o60 Hoffmann, Mrs. John Hood, John R PAGE . . 360 . . 408 I. Isaacs, Henry Perry. J. 312 Johnson, Alexander 496 Johnson, Samuel 502 Johnson, William C 496 Painter, William C 328 Parker, HoUon Frontispiece Pettyjohn, Jonathan 464 Picard, lohn 496 Preston, Piatt A 468 Preston, Mrs. Piatt A 468 Preston, William G 468 Preston, Mrs. William G 468 K. Kershaw, James S. Kirkman, William. Loney, Samuel K 496 Lyman, W. D 344 M. Q- Quinn, Thomas 368 480 876 R. Reynolds. Rasselas P 416 Ritz, Philip 4H6 Rohn, J. 1 476 Russel, Thomas A 496 Mix, James D. . Mix, Mrs. Annie S. Seeke, Marshall C 602 Singleton, John 460 Smith, J. C 464 Smith, Samuel J 440 'i' T 'cX.'5 Stewart, Daniel 3.52 P" ^ •.^. Swan, lohn M 488 Manion, John 502 Masterson, Andrew C 400 McEvoy, Joseph 472 McMorris. Lewis 320 Miller, Joseph L 502 Miller, .Mrs. lose McC. N. 458 458 Nelson, Cyrus T., 480 Tavlor, John A 476 Taylor, Mrs. John A 476 Nelson, Hiram 480 Norman, Nelson R 492 W. O. Osborn, Obadiah. Ward, Michael B 336 Wellman, Alfred C 444 4.H; Williams, Edward J 488 BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX. A. Abbey, HiTiry J 384 Abboit, John F 473 Achurmann, Charles 3(i(i Aklrich, Milton 490 Aldrich, Newton 4Sl Ash, Samuel A 441 B. Habcock, E. F 382 Bahcock, Georije \V 2^9 Bachtoki, Alfred 3(i2 Bachtokl, John 368 Baker, Uorsey S 2**8 Baldwin, J. M 38O Barnelt, Carrick H 4*5 Barnett, George E 308 Barrett, James S 348 Bauer, Robert E 482 Bauineister, Max 34I Beard, John A 4fiti Becker, Oswald 347 Becker, I'hilip A 3.J8 Berney, Ulysses H 4II Berrynian, J. E f,OU Herrynian, Richard J ,50(1 Binghani, John E 9!Ki ; Blaiock, N. G 474 J Blaiock, Y. C 306 Blanchard, Mrs. Elizabeth J 399 Blandford, Henry S 326 Boj,'le, Richard A 345 Boston, Alvin 369 Bourgeois, Eugene 493 Bowers, C. J ,50o Boyer, Eugene H 354 Boyer, John E 3.^9 lioyer, John F 29'> Bradbury, George W 436 Bralton, Walter A 4O8 Brents, Thomas Hurley 3O4 Brewer, B. F 4O6 Brewer, John F 374 Brewer, John W 398 Brewer, Alerton E 402 Brown, Alvah 28I liruce, James \V 378 Bryan, M ilton E 403 Brzezowsky, Frank 342 Burns, Robert 372 Buroker, J 4.'-,0 Buroker, Udliam H 4S7 Burr, Daniel 30" Burrows, Charles E 303 Bush, John 428 I'AGK C. Cain, Oscar 300 Callahan, William 4,39 Cameron, Alex 452 Cameron, John A 305 Caris, Matthias A 427 Carnes, William H 442 Castleman, Nelson 432 Cation, James 479 Cauvel. Austin Lynn 435 Chamberlain, P. B 462 Chamberlin, George Harris 445 Clancy, R. G 407 Clapp, Rufus 411 Clark, William A 3(Jti Cochran, John G 403 Coffin, IJelos H 338 Copeland, Thomas 471 Copeland, Wallace R 4(i(i Corkrum, Francis M 421 Cox, Anderson 509 Cox, Fred O 3!<2 Crocker, Benjamin D 341 Croup, Eli W 444 Crowe, George R .... 431 Crowell, Henry A 29S Cummings, .Amos 447 Cummings, Charles F 433 Cummms, James 3fil Cummins, Jesse 3ti3 Cummins, Woodson 457 D. Dacres, George 452 Daniels, John H 300 Dauhon, John W 325 Davin, Hippolyte 342 Davis, John A 479 Davis, Lorenzo A 308 Debus, Harry 357 Delany, George 424 Dement, Frank S 290 Denney, Nathaniel B 488 Dewer, James M 477 Dewitt, "Oliver 4B1 Dickinson, A. S 422 Dinges, Solomon 497 Dooley, lohn 318 Dorris, Edgar A 403 Drumheller, Jesse 333 Dunlap. John K .3j6 E. Edgerley, EIron 412 Eichler, Charles H •"41! I'AGE Eldridge, Harlan D 422 Ellingsworih, William .392 Ennis, Christopher 303 Estes, Hugh P 33j Evans, Andrew J 349 Evans, Emmett 493 Evans, Mark A .507 Evans, Milton 482 F. Faucette, John 327 Ferguson, Walter S 443 Ferrel, Brewster 405 Ferrel, Joseph W 434 Ferrel, Seth A 442 Ferrel, Thomas J 432 Fix, A. J 4.Mt Flohr, Michael 322 Foster, Frank 332 Foster, John H 351 Fuller, John H 413 G. Gaston, John 441 Genevay, Lucien 292 Gholson, Charles E 3(57 Gilkerson, Charles 429 Gilkerson, Harry 427 Gilkerson, Thomas 429 Gillhani, Alonzo 350 Gilliam, Washmgton Smith 263 Ginn, Richard 438 Glasford, Wm 289 Goodhue, James P 280 Goodman, William S 349 Gril'lith, Robert M 428 Guichard, Ralph E 321 Guthridge, Benjamin G 334 II. Haggist, Fred 391 Hall, lay H 314 Harbert, Joseph W. 448 Ilardman, -Sol 492 Harer, John H 371 Harman, Urias .S 448 Harmen, Charles T 472 Harper, Joseph L 3()1 Hart, Francis G 374 Hart, Thomas D. S 377 Hartness, Orlander W 325 Hastings, Henry W 397 Hauber, Martin H 3S1 Havnes, Oscar 3.55 INDEX. Xlll PAGE Hays, William H 419 Highlt-y, D. K ;»9 Hill, J. iM ;^4o Hodgis, John H 307 Hoffmann, John J^CO Hood, Charles Edward 508 Hood, John A SOS Hood, John R 408 Howard, Joshua A ... 49,5 I. Ingalls, Henry 494 Ingle, Elijah ;-i~6 Isaacs, Henry Perry 312 J- Jackson, Otis C 386 Jacobs, Charles A 4.')0 Jaussaud, Leon F. C 290 Jennings, Jefferson 335 Jessup, Theadore H 308 Johnson Brothers 498 Johnson, Robert H 383 Johnson, Samuel 504 Jones, William R 385 K. Kauffman, John Jacob 316 Keefe, Uion 317 Kellough, George E 388 Kelly, Martin F 507 Kennedy, Robert 323 Kershaw, J. Frederick 40-'J Kershaw, James S 482 Kershaw, John H 411 Kirkman, William 376 Koger, Marion 409 Koontz, William A ::i27 Kralman, William 355 Kuhl, Henry 433 Kydd, John 285 Kyger, Daniel T 294 L. Lafortune, Joseph 449 LaGrave, Dennis 879 Lamb, James M 416 Lamb, John D 47.5 Lasater, Harry 406 Lasater, James H 404 Lee, Henry 495 Lewis, George F 429 Linn, Eathan A 437 Logan Edward 3W8 Loney, Samuel K 497 Loundagin, George W 387 Lovewell, Samuel Harrison 362 Lowden, Francis M 324 Lowden, Francis M., Jr 318 Lowden, Marshall J 318 Lyman, William D 344 Lynch, P. M 4«7 Lynrh, Robert E 418 Lyons, Thomas 494 M. Mabry, Mrs. Flmeline J 3^9 Magallon, Adrien 358 PAGE Malloy, William S 486 Mangan, Edward H 417 Mangan, Joseph J 415 Manion, John 503 Mann, William H 405 Marcy, Benjamin W 3fi.5 Martin, Michael 390 Martin, Patrick 491 Masterson, Andrew C. 400 Mathew, William L 432 Maxson, Samuel R 485 McAuliff, James 315 McCann, Edwin W 424 McCool, Robert 414 McCoy, John D 395 McCoy, Joseph H 401 McDonald, John B 425 McDonnell, Edward 363 McEvoy, Joseph 472 McGhee, John VV., Jr 29ii Mclnroe, Charles 483 McKinney, Thompson M 370 McKinney, William 393 McKinney, William E., Jr 390 McLean, Clark N '.^99 McMorris, Lewis 3'20 Meiners, Martin 42li Michel, Justus 399 Middleton, George H 449 Miller, Joseph L .502 Mills, Edward D 396 Mix, Mrs. Annie McC 458 Molkin-, Iwa S 373 Moore, Miles C 282 Moore, Thomas 345 Morrow, 1. H 420 Morse, Franklin -B 339 M urphy, Horace J 364 N. Nelson, Cyrus T 480 Nelson, Hiram 481 Nicholas, Amander M 451 Noble, William A 395 Norman, Nelson R 493 O. O'Donnell. William 284 Offner, Winfield S 311 Osborn, Obadiah 4.56 Osborn, Robert H 394 Owens, S. A .391 P. Painter, William C 328 Parker, Hollon 273 Peck, F.beneezer M 387 Perkins, Perry C 379 Perry, Alfred F 423 Peterson, William 3.50 Pettyjohn, Jonathan 4(54 Phillips, Charles W 465 Picard, John 499 Preston. Charles B 375 Preston, Dale 485 Preston. Piatt A 470 Preston, William G 468 PAGE Q. yuinn, Thomas 368 R. Reborn, John 413 Reid, Albert E 439 Reser, John L 4()3 Reser, William P 457 Reynolds, Allen H 307 Reynolds, Almos H 310 Reynolds, Rasselas P 416 Roedel, Charles Ottmar 302 Rohn, J. Fred 451 Rohn, J. J 477 Richardson, Charles B 454 Riflle, ElihuG 3.54 Ritz, Philip 496 Rudd, Irby H 389 Rulaford, George A 380 Kussel, Thomas A 499 Russell, Chai les 293 Russell, E. Shepard 3.50 Russell, Patrick 484 Russell, Walter E 412 S. Sanderson, Henry 285 Scholl, Louis 319 Schumacher, Carl 317 Seeke, Marshall C 503 Sell, Nicholas 419 Seitz, John P 4.54 Selland, Severt O 487 Sharpstein, Benjamin L 364 Shaw, Ellsworth E 314 Shaw, Le F. A 301 Shelton, William M 44f) Simpson, Francis I 410 Singleton, John 460 .Smails, George 311 Smith, Ezekiel 343 Smith, John C 464 Smith, Samuel J 440 Smith, William S 333 Smith, Winfield D 359 Stetson, Clinton 393 Stewart, Charles B 286 Stewart, Daniel . . 352 Stewart, Meredith E 331 Storey, John C 420 Strah 1 , John U 402 Strahm, Peter 394 .straight, Zebulon K 326 Stringer, Robert J 322 Struthers, Williaiii A 397 Sturgis, William P 484 Swaim, Moses 430 Swan, John M 489 Sweeney, Samuel B 414 Sweetser, Charles T 445 Swezea, Thomas J 501 r. Tash, Andrew J 426 Taylor, Charles M 371 Taylor, John A 476 Taylor, Thomas 306 Thompson, James B 509 XIV INDEX. PAGE Thompson, Robert 463 Townsend, William C 347 Truax, Henry C 343 Tyson, Charles A 446 V. \'illa, Frank 417 W. Walker, Robert F 392 Wa PAGE lace, Herbert F 348 Ward, Michael B 336 Weaver. Jacob F 3f<5 Wellman, Alfred C 444 PAGE Wilson, Valentme 369 Wiseman, Jonathan T 409 Wiseman, William N 407 Woods, Joel 396 Wheeler, Kmerson L 373 Whitehouse, George W 295 Whitman, E. B 287 Whitman, E.S 287 Whitman, Stephen G , 291 Wickersham, James 365 Wickersham, John 440 Willi, Philip A 383 Williams, Edsvard J 488 Young, Samuel P 'MO Yeend, James A 491 Yeend, William 486 Yenney, L O 501 Yennev, Philip 506 Yenney, W. H 495 HISTORY (IF W4LLA WALLA COOITY. INTRODUCTION. The opening of a new century is a fitting time to cast a backward glance in our local history, reconstruct to the eye of the present the interesting and heroic events of the past, and by comparison between past and present forecast something of the future. Old Oregon Territory, of which this coun- ty and this state were once parts, with its isola- tion, its pathos, its hospitality, has passed away. It had a strange history. It was the ignis fatiiiis of successive generations of explorers, luring them on with that indescribal)le fascina- tion which seems always to have drawn men tc the ever-receding circle of the "Westmost West," and yet for years and years veiling itself in the mists of uncertainty and misap- prehension. We do not usually realize how soon after the time of Columbus there began to be at- tempts to reach the western ocean and to solve the nn'stery of the various passages, north- west, southwest, and west, which were sup- posed to lead through the Americas to Asia. The old navigators had little conception of the breadth of this continent. They thought it to lie but a few leagues across, and took for granted that some of the many arms of the sea would lead them through to another ocean that would wash tlie Asiatic shores. In 1500, only eight years after Columbus, Gasper Cortereal, the Portuguese, conceived the idea of entering what afterwards became known as Hudson's Bay and proceeding thence westward through what he called the Strait of Anian. That mythical Strait of Anian seems to have had a strange charm for the old navigators. One of them, Maldonado, a good many years later, gave a very con- nected and apparently veracious account of his journey through that strait, averring that through it he reached another ocean in lati- tude 75. But by means of Magellan's Straits and the douljling of stormy Cape Horn, a connection between the two oceans was actu- ally discovered in 15 19. In 1543 Ferrelo, a Spaniard, coasted along the shores of California, and was doubtless the first white man to gaze on the coast of Oregon, probably somewhere in the \icinity of the mouth of the Umpqua river. In 1577 that boldest and most picturesque of all English sailors and freebooters, Francis Drake, started on the marvellous voyage l:)y which he ])lundered the treasures of the Span- HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY. 3sh Main, cut the golden girdle of Manila, •queen of the treasuries of the Spanish orient, skirted the coast of California, Oregon and Washington, and at last circumnavigated the ^lobe. But in 1592, just one hundred years after Columbus, comes the most picturesque of all those misty stories which enwrap the early history of Oregon. This is the story of Juan de Fuca, whose name is now preserved in our northwest boundary strait. According to this romantic tale of the seas. Juan de Fuca was a Greek of Cephalonia, whose real name was Apostolos Valerianos, and under commission of the king of Spain, he sailed to find that Strait of Anian, whose entrance the Spaniards wanted to fortify and guard so as to prevent ingress or egress by the English freebooters Avho were preying on their commerce. Ac- cording to the account given by Michael Lock, "he followed his course in that voyage, west .and northwest in the South Sea, all along the •coast of Nova Spania, and California and the Indies, now called North America (all which voyage he signified to me in a great map, and a sea-card of my own, which I laid before him), until he came to the latitude of 47 de- grees; and that, there finding that the land trended north and northwest, with a broad inlet of sea, between 47 and 48 degrees of latitude, he entered thereinto, sailing more than twenty days, and found that land still trending northwest, and northeast, and north, and also east and southeastward, and \ery much broader sea than was at the saitl entrance, and that he passed by divers ishuuls in that sailing: and that, at the entrance of the said strait, there is, on the northwest coast thereof, a great headland or island, with an exceedingly high pinnacle or spired mck. like a ])illar, thereupon. Also he said that he went on land in divers places, and that he saw some people on the land clad in beasts' skins : and that the land was very fruitful and rich of gold, silver and pearls, and other things, like Nova Spania. Also he said that he being entered thus far into the said strait, and being come into the North Sea already, and finding the sea wide enough e\-erywhere, and to be about thirty or forty leagues witle in the mouth of the straits where he enteretl, he thought he had now well discharged his office ; and that, not being armed to resist the force of savage people that might happen, he therefore set sail and turned home- ward again toward Nova Spania, where he ar- rived at Acapulco, Anno 1593, hoping to be re- warded by the Viceroy for this service done in the said voyage." This curious bit of past record has been interpreted bv some as pure m_\'th, and by others as \-eritable history. It is at any rate a generally accurate outline description of the Straits of Fuca, the Gulf of Georgia and the shores of \'ancouver Island and the mainland adjoining. And whether or not the old Greek pilot did actually exist and first look on our "Mediterranean of the Pacific," it is pleasant ti) imagine that he did, and that his name fittingly preserves the memory of the grand old myth of Anian and the northwest passage. There is one other more obviously myth- ical tale concerning our northwest coast. It is said that in the year 1640 Admiral Pedro de Fonte, of the Spanish marine, made the jciurne_\- from the .\tlantic to the Pacific and return, through a system of rivers and straits, entering the coast at ab. ut latitude 53. Coming from Callao in April, 1640. and after having sailed for a long distance through an archipelago, he entered the mouth of a vast river, which he named Rio de Los Reyes. Ascendino- this for a long distance northeast- HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY. •erly, he reached an immense lake, on whose -shores he found a weaUhy and civiHzed nation, wiio had a capital city of great splendor called Conasset. and who welcomed the strangers with lavish hospitality. From this lake flowed another river easterly, and down this Fonte descended until he reached another great lake, from which a narrow strait led into the At- lantic ocean. There is one curious thing about these leg- endary voyages, and that is the general accu- racy of their descriptions of the coast. Al- though these accounts are unquestionably mythical, it is not impossible that their authors had actually visited the coast or had seen those who had, and thus gathered the material from which they fabricated, with such an appear- ance of plausibility, their Munchausen tales. We are briefly referring to these fascinat- ing old legends, not for the purpose of discuss- ir.g them here at any length, but rather to re- mind the reader of the long period of romance and myth which enveloped the early history of our state. J^Iany years passed after the age of myth before there were authentic \-oyages. During the seventeenth century practically nothing was done in the way of Pacific coast exploration. But in the eighteenth, as by common consent, all the nations of Europe became suddenly infatuated again with the thought that on the western shores of Amer- ica might be found the gold and silver and gems and furs and jjrecimis woods, f(jr which they had been striving so desperately upnn the eastern coast. English, French. Spanish, I\)rtuguese, Dutch. Russian and .\merican. ei'.tered their bold and hardy sailors into the race for the possession of the l.'uid of the Oc- cident. The Russians were the first in the field. That gigantic power, which the genius of Peter the Great had suddenly transformed. like one of the fabled genii, from the propor- tions of a grain of sand to a figure overtop- ping the whole earth, had stretched its arms from the Baltic to the Aleutian Archipelago, and had looked southward across the frozen seas of Siberia to the open Pacific as offering them another opportunity of expansion. Many years passed, however, before Peter's designs could Jje e-xecuted. It was 1728 when Vitus Behring entered upon his marvellous life of exploration. Not until 1741, however, did he thread the thousand islands of Alaska and gaze upon the glaciated summit of Mt. St. Elias. And it was not until thirty years later that it was known that the Bay of Avatscha, in Siberia, was connected by open sea with China. In 1771 the first cargo of furs was taken directly from Avatscha, the chief port of eastern Siberia, to Canton. Then first Europe realized the vastness of the Pacific ocean. Then it understood that the same waters which frowned against the frozen bul- warks of Kamtchatka washed the tropic isl- ands of the South Seas and foamed against the storm-swept rocks of Cape Horn. Mean- time, while Russia was thus becoming estab- lished upon the shores of Alaska, Spain was getting entire possession of California. These two great nations began to overlap each other. Russians became established near San Fran- cisco. To oft'set this movement of Russia, a group of Spanish explorers, Perez, Martinez, Heceta, Bodega, and Maurelle, swarmed up the coast beyond the present site of Sitka. England, in alarm at tlie progress made by .Spain and Russia, sent out the Columbus of the eighteenth century, in the person of Captain James Cook, and he .^ailed up and down the coast of Alaska and of Washington, but failed to discover either the Columlna river or the Straits of Fuca. HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY, Xevertheless liis labors did more to estab- lish true geographical notions than had the combined efforts of all the Spanish navigators who had preceded him. His voyages mate- rially strengthened England's claim to Oregon, and added greatly to the Inster of her name. The great captain, while temporarily on shore, was killed by Indians in 1778. and the com- mand devoh-ed ujion Captain Clerkg. who sailed northward, passing through Behring Strait to the Arctic ocean. The new com- mander died before the expeditii)n hail pro- ceeded far on its return journey. Lieutenant Gore, a Virginian, assumed control and sailed to Canton. China. arri\-ing late in the year. The main purpose of this expedition had been the discovery of a northern waterway be- tween the two oceans and the extending of Briti.-h territory, hut, as is so often the case in human affairs, one of the most important re- sults of the voyage was entirely unsuspected by the navigators and practically the i)utcome of an accident. It so happened that the two vessels of the expedition, the Resolution an{ its non-existence was thus started in his own account of the voyage : "W^e can now with safety assert that there is no such river as St. Roc (of the Spaniard, Heceta) exists, as laid dnwn in the Spanish charts," and he gave a further une(|uivocal expression of his opinion by naming the bay in that vicinity Deception Bay and the promontory north cif it Ca])e Disapjiointment. "Disap- pointed and deceived," remarks Evans face- tiously, "he continued his cruise SdUthward to latitude forty-five degrees north." It is not without sentiments of patriotic pride, that we now turn our attention to a period of discovery in which the vessels of our own nation plaxed a prominent ]iart. The northern mystery, which had been partially resolved by the Spanish, English, French and Portuguese explorations, was now to be com- pletely robbed of its mystic charm, s]:)eculation and myth nuist now give place to exact knowl- edge, the game of discovery must hereafter be played principally between the two Ijranches of the .\nglo-Saxon race, and Anglo-Saxon energy, thoroughness and zeal are henceforth to characterize operations on thi shores of the Pacific northwest. The L'nited States had but recently won their independence from the British Crown and their energies were find- ing a fit field of activity in the titanic task of national organization. Before the constitu- tion had become the supreme law- of the land, however, the alert mind of the American had begun projecting voyages of discovery and trade to the northwest, and in September, 1788^ two vessels with the stars and stripes at their mastheads arrived at Nootka sound. Their presence in the harbor while the events culmi- nating in the Nootka treaty were transpiring has already been alluded to. The vessels were the ship Columbia, Captain John Ken- drick, and the sloop Washington, Captain Robert Gray, and the honor of having sent them to our shores belongs to one Joseph Bar- rel, a prominent merchant of Boston, and a man of high social standing and great influ- ence. While one of the impelling motives of this enterprise had been the desire of commer- cial profit, the element of patriotism was not wholly lacking, and the \-essels were instructed to make what explorations and disco\-eries they might. After remaining a time on the coast. Cap-- tain Kendrick transferred bis shiji's proi:)erty to the Washington, with the intention of taking a cruise in that vessel. Pie jilaced Ca]itain Gray in command of the Columbia, with instruc- tions to return to Boston by way of the Sand- wich Islands and China. This commission was successfully carrieve stated, the United States succeeded to the title by treaty of April 30, 1803. Exact boundaries idea of tlie extent of tliis purcliase may be had when we remember that it extended from the present Britisli line to the Gulf of Mexico and included what arc new the states of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana, the territory of Oklahoma, Indian Territory, more than three-fourths of Montana and Wyoming, also parts of Colorado and New Mexico. Thus an enterprise which had its inception for its chief object to advance the commerical interests of the L'^nited States acquired a new puqxjse, namely, the extending of the geo- graphical and scientific knowledge concerning our ozvit domain. L'pon Lewis and Clark a further duty devolved, that of informing the natives that ol^edience Was now due to a new great father. The world-old wizard of "Out West" stretched his wand over them, and under its magic sway they began, by mountain trail and river and open highway of the prairie, to follow i*: into the wilderness. That same impulse led them which drew the camel-dri\-ers of Syria to the shores of the Mediterranean, which filled the sails of Roman galleys, which beckoned the Norse Viking to the desolate grandeur of Greenland, and which lit a signal tire in the tropic verdure of the Bahamas for the far- reaching vision of Columbus. So our great- grandfathers were chasing toward the sunset the shadow of their own coming greatness, a shadow gigantic but always growing, crossing the great plains with seven-league boots and stepping across the ridge-pole of the continent like a Colossus. It is not surprising that to minds just ad- mitted to this atmosphere of boundless expecta- tion, even this plain and common-place narra- tive of Lewis and Clark shouKI have had the fascination of a novel. This historic ex])edition had been pro- jected and even partially fitted out by Jefferson before the purchase of Louisiana. But imme- diately upon the completion of that most saga- cious investment, the lingering preparations were hastened, and on the 14th of May, 1804, the party left St. Louis by boat, upon the muddy current of the Missouri, to search for the un- known mountains and ri\ers between there and the Pacific. Their plan was to ascend the Mis- souri to its source, cross tlie divide, strike the headwaters of the Columbia, and, descending it, reach the sea. And what manner of men were undertak- ing this voyage, fraught with both interest and peril ? Meriwether Lewis, the leader of the party, was a captain in the United States army, and in Jefiferson's judgment was, by reason of endurance, boldness, and energy, the fittest man within his knowledge for the responsible duties of commander. His whole life had been one of reckless adventure. It appears that at the tender age of eight he was already illustrious for successful mid- night forays upon the festive coon an 1 the meditative possum. He was lacking in scienti- fic knowledge, but. when appointed captain of the expedition, had. with characteristic pluck, spent a few spare weeks in study of some of the branches most essential to his new work. Will- iam Clark, second in command, was also a United States ofificer. and seems to have been ecjually fitted with Lewis for his work. The party consisted of fourteen United States regu- lars, nine Kentucky volunteers, two French voyageurs, a hunter, an interpreter, and a ne- gn.!. To each of the common soldiers the gov- HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY. I r ernment offered the munificent reward of retire- ment upon full pay with a recommenflation for a soldier's grant of land. Special pains were taken to encourage the party to keep complete records of all they saw and heard and did. This was done with a vengeance, insomuch that seven journals besides those of the leaders were carefully kept, and in them was recorded nearly every event from the most important discov- eries down to the ingredients of their meals and doses of medicine. They were abundantly provided with beads, mirrors, knives, etc., etc., wherewith to woo the savage hearts of the natives. .\fter an interesting and easy journey of five months they reached the country of the A'andans, and here they determined to winter. The winter having been profitably spent in making the acquaintance of the Indians and in collecting specimens of the natural history of the plains — which they now sent back to the president with great care — they again embarked in a squadron of si.x canoes and two pirogues. On June 13th they reached the great falls of the Missouri. A month was spent within sound of the thunder and in sight of the perpetual mist- cloud rising from the abyss, before they could accomplish the difficult portage of eighteen miles, make new canoes, mend their clothes, and lay in a new stock of provisions. Of material for this last there was no end. The air was filled with migratory birds, and the ])arty was almost in danger of being overrun by the enor- mous herds of buffalo. The long, bright days, the tingling air of tlie mountains, the pleasant swish of the water as their cano-s breasted the swift current — the vast camp fires and the nightly buffalo roasts — all these must have made this the pleasantest section of their long journey. The party seems to have pretty nearly ex- hausted its supply of names, and after having- made heavy draughts ( n their own with various ptrmutatory combinations, they were reduced to the extremity of loading innocent creeks with the ponderous names of Wisdom, Philosophy, and Philanthropy. Succeeding generations- have relieved the unjust pressure in two of th.ese cases with the sounding appellations of Big Hole and Stinking Water. On the 1 2th of August the explorers crossed the great divide, the birthplace of mighty rivers, and descending the sunset slope found them- selves in the land of the Shoshones. They had brought with them a Shoshone woman, rejoicing in the pleasant name of Sacajawea, for the express purpose of becoming acquainted with this tribe, through whom they hoped to get horses and valuable information as to their proper route to the ocean. But four days were consumed in enticing the suspicious savages near enough to hear the words of their own tongue proceeding from the camp of the strang- ers. When, however, th.e fair interpretress had been granted a hearing, she speedily won for the party the faithful allegiance of her kinsmen. They innocently accepted the rather general in- timation of the explorers that this journev had for its primary object the happiness and pros- perity of the Shoshone nation, and to these evidences of benevolence on the part of their newly adopted great father at Washington, they (|uickly responded by bringing plenty of horses and all tlie information in their poor p(.)wer. It appears that the expedition was at that time on the headwaters of the Salmon river, near where Fort Lemhi afterward stood. With twenty-nine horses to carry their ainnidant bur- dens they bade farewell to the friendly Sho- .^hones on the last dav of .August, and com- 12 HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COL'XTV. niitted themselves to tlie dreary and desolate solitudes to the westward. They soon became entangled in the savage ridges and defiles, al- ready spotted with snow, of the L5itter Root mountains. Having crossed se\'eral branches of the great river named in Ikmhu- of Captain Clark, and becoming distressed at the increasing dangers and delays, tliey turned to the left, and, having punished a brawling creek for its in- hospitality by inflicting on it the name of Colt- killed, commemorative of their extremity for food, they came upon a wild and beautiful stream, inquiring the name of which from the Indians they received the answer. "Konskoos- kie." This in realit_\- meant simply that this was not the stream for which thc\- were search- ing. But not understanding, they named the river Kooskooskie. This was afterwards called the Clearwater, and is the most beautiful tribu- tary of the Snake. The country still frowned on them with the same forbiddmg rocky heights and blinding snow storms as before. It began to seem as though famine would ere long stare them in the face, antl the shaggy precipices were marked with almost daily accidents to men and beasts. Their only meat was tlie flesh of their precious horses. Under these circumstances Clark decided to take six of the most active men and push ahead in search of game and a more hospit- able country. A hard march of twenty miles rewarded him with a view of a vast open plain in front of the broken mountain chain across which they had been struggling. It was three days, however, before they fairly cleared the edge of the mountains and emerged on the great prairie north and east of where Lewis- ton now is. They fomid no game except a stray horse, which they speedily dispatched. Here the adx'ance guard waited for the main body to come up, and then all together they went down to the Clearwater where a large number of Nez Perce Indians gathered to see and trade with them. Receiving from these Indians, who. like all that they had met, seemed \cr\' amicabh- disposed, the cheering news that the great river was not \-ery distant, and seeing the Clearwater to be a fine, navigable stream, they determined to abandon the weary land march and make canoes. Five of these having been constructed, they laid in a stock of dog meat, and then committed themselves to the sweei)ing current with which all the tributaries of the Columbia hasten to their destined place. They left their horses with the Xez Perces, and it is worthy of special notice that these were remarkably faithful to their trust. In- deed, it may be safely asserted that the first ex])lorers of this country almost uniformly met with llie kindest reception. The cruelty and deceit afterward characjeristic of the Indians were learned jiartly of the whites. On the loth of October, haNing traveled sixty miles on the Clearwater, its pellucid waters delivered them to the turbid, angry, sullen, and lava-banked Snake. This great stream they called the Kimooenim, its Indian name. It was in its low season, and it seems fiom their account that it. as well as all the other streams, must have been uncommonly low that year. Thus they say that on October 13th they descended a very bad rapid four miles in length, at tlie lower part of which the whole river was compressed into a channel only twen- five yards wide. Immediately below they passed a large stream on the right, which they called Drewyer's river, from one of their men. This must lia\e been the Palouse river and rapid, and certainly it is very rare that the HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY. 13 niiglity Snake becomes attenuated at tliat puint until broken by tbe rounded summits of tbe to a widtli of twenty-five yards. Tbe next Blue mountains. They tind the Sohulks, who dav, descending the worst rapids they had yet lived at the junction of tbe rivers, a mild and seen (probably the ^^lonumental rapid) it re- happy people, the men being content with one pelled their afifrontery by upsetting one of the wife, whom they actually assist in the family boats. No lives were lost, but the cargo of work. the boat was badly wetted. For the purpose Captain Clark ascended the Columbia to the of drying it they stopped a day, and finding mouth of a large river coming from the west, no other timber, they were compelled to use which the Lidians called the Tapteal. This a very appropriate pile which some Indians was, of course, the Yakima. The people living- had very carefully stored away and cov- at its mouth rejoiced in the liquid name of ered with stone. This trifiing circumstance is Chimnapum. Here Captain Clark shot what noticed because of the exi)lorers speaking in he called a prairie cock, the first he had seen, connection with it of their customary scrupu- I.: was the sage hen, no doubt, a handsome bird lousness in never taking any property of the nearly as large as a turkey and very common Indians, and of their determination to repay along the river at the present time, the owner if they could find him, on their re- After two days' rest, being well supplied turn. If all explorers had been as particular, with fish, dog, roots, etc., and at peace with nuich is the distress and loss that wtndd have their own consciences and all the world, with been avoided. satisfaction at the prospect of soon completing They found almost continuous rapids from their journey, they re-embarked. Sixteen this point to the mouth of the Snake, which miles below the mouth of the Kimooenim, they reached on October i6th. Here they were which they now began to call the Lewis river, met by a regular procession of nearly two they described, cut clear against the dim hor- hundred Indians. They had a grand pow- i:;on line of the southwest, a pyramidal moun- wow and both parties displayed great affec- tain, covered with snow — their first view of tion for each other, the whites bestowing Mount Hood. medals, shirts, trinkets, etc., in accordance with The next day, being in the vicinity of the rank of the recipient, and the Indians re- Umatilla, they saw another snowy peak at a paying the kindness with abundant and pro- conjectured distance of one hundred and fifty longed visits and accompanying gifts of wood miles. This they supposed to be Mount St. arid fish. On the next day they measured the Helens, but it was, in reality, ]\Iount Adams. rivers, finding the Columljia to be 960 yards Near here Captain Clark. ha\-ing landed, shot wide, and the Snake 575. They indulge in no a crane and a duck. Some Indians near were poetic reveries as they stand by the river which almost paralyzed with terror. At last they re- had been one principal object of their search, covered enough to make the best possible use but they seem to have seen pretty much every- of their legs. Following them Captain Clark thing of practical value. In the glimmering found a little cluster of huts. Pushing aside haze of the pleasant October morning they no- the mat door of one of them, he entered, and tice the vast bare prairie stretching southward in the bright light of the unroofed hut discov- <4 HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY, ered tliirty-two persons, all of whom were in the greatest terror, some wailing and wringing their hands. Having hy kind looks and gestures soothed their grief, he held up his burning glass to ■catch a stray sunbeam with which to light his pipe. Thereat the consternation of the In- dians revived, and they refused to be com- forted. But when the rest of the party arrived with the two Indian guides who had come with them from the Clearwater, terror gave way to curiosity and pleasure. These Pishquitpaws— such was their name — explained to the guides their fear of Captain Clark by saying that he came from the sky accompanied by a terrible noise, and they knew that there was a bad medicine in it. Being convinced now that he was a mortal after all. they became very affectionate, and having heard the music of two violins they be- came so enamoured of the strangers that they stayed up all night with them and collected to the number of two hundred to bid them good bye in the morning. The ]H"incipal busi- ness of these Indians seemed to be catching and curing salmon, which, in the clear water of the Columbia, the explorers could see swimming about in incredible numbers. Continuing with no extraordinary occurrence, they passed the river now called the John Day. to which they applied the name Lapage. Mt. Hood was now almost constantly in \iew. and since the In- dians told them it was near the great falls of the Columbia, they called it the Timm (this seems to be the Indian word for falls) moun- tain. On the next day they reached a large river on the left, which came thundering through a narrow channel into the e(|ually turbulent Co- luml)ia. This river, which Captain Lewis judged to contain one-fourth as much water as the Columbia (an enormous over estimate) answered to the Indian name of Towahna- hiooks. It afterwards received from the French the name now used — Des Chutes. They now perceived that they were near the place hinted at by nearly every Indian that thev had talked with since crossinor the divide — the great falls. And a weird, savage place it proved to be. Here the clenched hands of trachyte and basalt, thrust through the soil from the buried realm of the volcanoes, almost clutch the rushing river. Only here and there between the parted fingers can he make his escape. After making several portages they reached th.at extraordinary place (now called The Dalles ) Avhere all the waters gathered from half a million square miles of earth are squeezed into a crack forty-five yards wide. The desola- tion on either side of this frightful chasm is a fitting margin. As one crawls to the edge and peeps over he sees the water to be of inky blackness. Streaks of foam gridiron the blackness. There is little noise compared with the shallow rapids abo\e. but rather a dismal sough, as though the rocks below were rub- bing their black sides together in the vain eft'ort to close over the escaping river. The river is here "turned on edge." In fact, its depth has not b^en found to this day. Some suppose that there was once a natural tunnel here through which the ri\-er flowed, and that in consequence of a volcanic convulsion the top of the tunnel fell in. If there lie any truth in this, the width of the channel is no doubt much greater at the bottom than at the top. Lewis and Clark, finding that the roughness of the shore made it almost impossible to carry their boats over, and seeing no evidence of rocks in the channel, boldly steered right through this Witches' Cauldron. Though no HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY. 15 doubt whirled along with frightful rapidity dalles and the cascades. But the explorers had and flung like foam flakes on the crests of the their eyes wide open, and the calm majesty of boiling surges, they reached the end of the the river and the savage grandeur of its shores "chute" without accident, to the amazement received due notice. They observed and named ■of the Indians who had collected on the bluff m.ost of the streams on the route, the first of to witness the daring e.xperiment. After two importance being the Cataract river (now the more portages the party safely entered the Klickitat), then Labieshe's river (Hood river), broad, still flood beginning where the town Canoe creek (White Salmon) and Crusatte's of The Dalles now stands. Here they paused ri\'er. This last must have been the Little for two days to hunt and caulk their boats. White Salmon, though they were greatly de- They here began to see evidences of the white cci\-ed as to its size, stating it to be sixty yards traders below, in blankets, axes, brass kettles, wide. In this vicinity they were much struck and other articles of civilized manufacture, with the sunken forest, which at that low stage The Indians, too, were more inclined to be of the water was very conspicuous. Thev saucy and suspicious. correctly inferred that this indicated a dam- The dalles seemed to be a dividing line be- ming up of the river at a very recent time. In tween the Indian tribes. Those living at the deed they judged that it must have occurred falls, where Celilo now is, called the Enee- within twenty years. It is well known, how^ shurs, understood and "fellowshipped" with all ever, that submerged trees or piles, as indicated the up-river tribes. But at the narrows and by remains of the old Roman wharfs in Britain, thence to the dalles was a tribe called the Es- may remain intact for hundreds of years. It cheloots. These were entirely alien to the is. nevertheless, evident that the closing of the Indians above, but on intimate terms with those river at the cascades was a very recent event, below to the cascades. Among the Esche- It is also evident from the sliding, sinking, and loots the explorers first noticed the peculiar grinding constantly seen there now that a sim- "cluck" in speech common to all down-river ilar e\ent is liable to happen at anv time, tribes. The flattening of the head, which above The cascades having been reached more belonged to the females only, was now the pijrtages were required. Slow and tedious common thing. though tlie\- were, the explorers seem to have The place where Lewis and Clark camped en.dured them with unfailing patience. They while at the dalles was just below Alill creek were cheered bv the prospect of soon putting (called by the natives Ouenett), on a point of all the rapids behind and launching their ca- rocks near the present location of the car noes on the unnl)structed \-astness of the lower shops. river. The next Indian trilie, extending appar- This was successfully accomplished on the enth- from the \icinity (if Crate's point to the 2d of November. 'l"he\- were greatly delight- cascades, capped the clima.x of tongue-twist- ed with the verdure which now robed the gaunt ing names l)y calling themselves Chilluckitte- nakedness of the rocks. The island formed at (juaws. the lower cascades by Cnlumbia slough also Nothing of an extraordinary character ].)leased them greatly by its fertility and its seems to have been encountered between the dense growth of grass and strawberry vines. i6 HISTORY OF \\"ALLA \V.\LLA COUNTY. From this last circumstance they named it Strawberry island. At the lower part of that cluster of islands, that spired and turreted relic of the old feudal age of the river, when the volcano kings stormed each other's castles with earthquakes and spouts of lava, riveted their attention. They named it Beacon rock, but it is now called Castle rock. They esti- mated its height at eight hundred feet and its circumference at four hundred yards, the lat- ter being only a fourth of the reality. The tides were now noticeable. This fact must have struck a new chord of reflection in the minds of these hardy adventurers; this first-felt pulse beat of the dim vast of waters which grasps half the circumference of the earth. And so, as this mighty heart-throb of the ocean, rising and falling in harmony with all nature, celestial and terrestrial, pulsated through a hundred and eighty miles of river, it might have seemed one of the ocean's mul- tiplied fingers outstretched to welcome them, the first organized expedition of the new re- public to this westmost west. It might have betokened to them the harmony and unity of future nations, as exemplified in the vast e.x- tent, the liberty, the 'human sympathies, the diversified interests, industries and purposes of that republic, whose motto yet remains, one from many. The rest of their journey was a calm float- ing between meadows and islands from whose shallow ponds they obtained ducks and geese in great numbers. They thought the "quick-sand river" — Sandy — to be a large and important stream. They noticed the W'ashougal creek, which from the great numl)er of seals around its mouth they called Seal river. But strange to say they missed the Willamette entirely on their down trip. The Indians in this part of the river called themselves Skilloots. Drop- ping rapidly down the calm but misty stream, past a large river called by the Indians the Cowaliske — Cowlitz — through the country of the Wahkiacums, at last, on the Jth of No- vember, the dense fog with which the morn- ing had enshrouded all objects, suddenly broke away, and they saw the bold mountainous shores on either side to vanish away in front, and through the parted headlands they looked into the infinite expanse of the ocean. Overjoyed at the successful termination of their journey, they sought the first pleas- ant camping ground and made haste to land. The rain, which is sometimes even now ob- served to characterize that part of our fair state, greatly marred the joy of their first night's rest within sound of the Pacific's billows. Six days passed in mouldy and dripping inactivity at a point a little above the present Chinook. They then spent nine much pleas- anter days at Chinook Point. This, however, not proving what they wanted for a perma- nent camp, they devoted themselves to explo- rations with a view to discovering a more suitable location. After many adventures of which lack of space forbids us to speak, they became settled. The party wintered in a log building at a point named by them Fort Clatsop, on the Lewis and Clark river, south side of the Columbia. On the 23d of March, 1806. they turned their faces homeward, first, however, having given to the chiefs of the Clatsops and Chinooks certificates of hospitable treatment, and posted on the fort the following notice : "The object o' this last is. that, through the medium of seme civilized person who may see the same, it may be made known to the world, that the party consisting of the persons whose names HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY. 17 arc licrcunti) annexed and wlio were sent out liy tile t;i;vernnient of the United States to ex- plore tile interiiir of the continent of North America, did ])cnelrate the same by way of the Missouri aiul Columbia rivers, to the discharge of the latter into the Pacific ocean, at which they arri\'ed on the 14th day of November, 1805, and dei)arted on their return to the United States by the same r(jute by which they had come." Of this notice several copies were left amon<;- the Indians, one of which fell into the hands of Captain Hall of the brig Lydia and was conveyed to the United States. The expedition made its way with no little difficulty up the C(jhimbia ri\'er. They dis- covered on their return a large tributary of that river (the Willamette) which had escaped their notice on their downward journey, and made careful inquiries of the Indians concern- ii:g it, the results of which were embodied in their ma]) of the expedition. .\t the mouth of the John Day river their canoes were abandoned, their baggage was packed on the backs of a few horses they had imrchased from the Indians, rmd tra\'eling in thiis manner, they continued tlieir homeward march, arriving at the mouth of the Walla Walla river on April 27th. The great chief Yellept was then the leader of the Walla Walla nation, and by him the explorers were received with such generous hospitality that they _\'ield- ed to the temptation to linger a couple of days before undertaking further journeyings among the mountain fastnesses. Such was the treat- ment given them by these Indians, that the journal of the expedition makes this ap]M-ecia- ti\-e notation concerning them: "We may in- deed justly afiirm that of all the Indians that we have seen since leaving the United States, the Walla Wallas were the most hospitable, honest and sincere." Of the return journey for the next hun- tlred and fifty miles, that venerable pioneer missionary, Dr. Jl. K. Hines, writes as fol- lows : ''Leaving these hospitable people on the 29th of April, the ])arty passed eastward on the great 'Nez Perce trail." This trail was the great highway of the Walla Wallas, Cayuses and Nez Perces eastward to the Iniffalo ranges, t'.) which they aniuially resorted for game sup- plies. It passed up the valley of the Touchet, called by Lewis and Clark the AVhite Stal- lion,' thence over the high prairie ridges and down the Alpowa to the crossing of the Snake river, then up the north bank of Clearwater to the x'illage of Twisted Hair, where the ex- ploring party had left their horses on the w^ay down the previous autumn. It was worn deep and broad, ;nid on many stretches on the open ]ilains and over the smooth hills twenty horse- men could ride abreast in parallel paths worn 1/y the constant rush of the Indian generations from time immemorial The writer has often passed over it when it lay exactly as it did when the tribes of Yellept and Twisted Hair traced its sinuous courses, or when Lewis and Clark and their companions first marked it with the licel of ci\'ilization. Rut the plow has long since obliterated it. and where the monotonous song of the Indian march was droningly chanted for so many barbaric ages the song of the reaper thrills the clear air as he comes to his garner bringing in the sheaves. A more delightful ride of a hundred and fifty miles than this that the company of Lewis and Clark made over the swelling prairie upland and along the crystal streams between Walla Walla and the village of Twisted Hair, in the soft May days i8 HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY. of 1806, can scarcely be found anywhere on earth. To trace the explorations of these trav- elers further is not within the province of this work, but in order to convey a general idea of the labors and e.xtent of the voyage we ciuote the brief summary made by Captain Lewis himself: "The road by which we went out by the Avay of the Missouri to its head is 3,096 miles; thence Iw' land by way of Lewis river over to ■Clark's river and down that to the entrance of Traveler's Rest creek, where all the roads from ■different routes meet; thence across the rugged ])art of the Rocky mountains to the navigable waters of the Columbia 398 miles, thence ■down the ri\er 640 miles to the Pacific ocean — making a total distance of 4,1 34 miles. On ■our return in 1806 we came from Traveler's Rest directlv to the falls of the Missouri river, Avhich shortens the distance about 579 miles, and is a much better route, reducing the dis- tance from the ]\Iississippi to the Pacific ocean to 3.555 miles. Of this distance 2.575 miles is up the Missouri to the falls of that river; thence passing through the i)lains and across the Rocky mountains to the navigable waters of the Kooskooskie river, a branch of the Co- lumbia. 340 miles. 200 of which is good road, 140 miles over a tremendous mountain, steep .•and broken, sixty miles of which is covered several feet deep with snow, on which we passed on the last of June ; from the navigable part of the Kooskooskie we descended that rapid river seventy-three miles to its entrance into the Lewis river, and down that river 154 miles to the Columbia, and thence 413 miles to its entrance into the Pacific ocean. About 180 miles of this distance is tide water. We passed several bad rapids and narrows, and •one considerable fall, 268 miles above the en- trance of this river, thirty-seven feet, eight inches ; the total distance descending the Co- Ir.mbia waters 640 miles — making a total of 3.555 miles, on the most direct route from the Mississippi, at the mouth of the Missouri, to the Pacific ocean." The safe return of the explorers to their homes in the L'nited States naturally created a sensation throughout this couritry and the world. Leaders and men were suitably re- wardetl. and the fame of the former will live \\'hile the ri\-ers to which their names have been given continue to pour their waters into the sea. President Jefferson, the great patron of the expedition, paying a tribute to Captain Lewis in 1813, said: "Never did a similar event excite more joy throughout the United States. The humblest of its citizens have taken a lively interest in the issue of this journey, and looked with impatience for the information it would furnish. Nothing short of the of- ficial journals of this extraordinary and in- teresting journey will exhibit the importance of the service, the courage, devotion, zeal and perseverance under circumstances calculated to discourage, which animated this little band of heroes, throughout the long, dangerous and tedious travel." Among many journeys of discovery liy land which followed that of Lewis and Clark we select as the most interesting and typical tl:at of the Hunt party, which was the land division of the great Astor movement to estab- lish the Pacific Fur Company. That com- ]Xiny was established by John Jacob Astor for the purpose of making a bold and far-reach- ing attempt to control the vast fur trade of the Pacific coast in the interest of the United States. The sea di\'ision set sail frum New York in 1810 in the ship Tonquin. In the meantime Wilson Price Himt. the second part- HISTORY OF \\'ALLA WALLA COUNTY, 19 iier in tiie concern, was at St. Louis organizing a land party, which was to cross tlie plains and ■co-operate with the dixisinn l)y sea. Hunt had been merchandising for some years at St. Louis. His principal trade being with trappers and Indians, he had become very familiar with the requirements of the business. In addition to this primary requisite he possessed a character, native and acquired, worthy of more frequent mention in our early annals and of more fre- ■quent emulation jjy his associates and suc- cessors. Bra\'e, humane, patient, cheerful and resolute, he rises from the mists of history and reminiscence as the highest type of the Jasons who vied with those of ancient story in their search for the fleeces (this time of seal and beaver instead of gold) of the far west. To a powerful physi(|ue and iron nerve Hunt added a refinement and culture rare indeed among the bold, free spirits of the frontier. In company with Hunt from the outset was another partner, Donald McKenzie by name. He was a man insensible of fear, inured by years of hardship to the ups and downs of the trapper's life, and renowned even on the border for his marvelous accuracy with the rifle. The first thing for them was to get their men. To do this all the tact and patience of Hunt were brought into full play. For a proper under- standing of his position it will be necessary to describe briefly the classes from whom he Avas obliged to fill his .ranks. There were at tliis time two great classes ol trappers. The first and most numerous were the Canadian voyageurs. These men were mainly of French descent. Many of them were half-breeds. They were the legacy of the old French domination o\-er Canada. Cradled in the canoe or batteau. their earliest remem- brance being the cold l)lne lake or foamine river, almost amphibious bv nature and train- ir.g, gay and amiable in disposition, with true French vivacity and ingenuity, gilding every harsh and bitter experience with laugh and song, with their quick sympathies and humane instincts easily getting on the best side of the savages, not broad in designing but not the less patient, courageous and indomitable in executing, these French voyageurs were the n:ain dependence of traffic in the wilderness. The second class were free trappers ; Eooshaways they were sometimes called. These men were mainly Americans. Virginia and Kentucky were the original homes of many of them. They were the perfect antipodes of the voyageurs. Often with gigantic frames built up on prairie dew and mountain breeze, with buffalo steak and wild birds' flesh wrought into their iron sinews; with nerves of steel, on which it seemed might harmlessly play e\-en the lightnings of Missouri storms, the drift- ing snows of winter but a downy coverlid to them, and the furnace blasts of summer but balmy zephyrs ; gorging themselves in the midst of plenty, but mocking the power of hunger and thirst when in want; mighty braggarts, yet quick as lightning to make good their boasts; patient and indefatigable in their work of trap- ping, but when on their annual trips to the towns given to wild dissipations and savage rcvelings, "sudden and rash in quarrel," care- less of each other's sympathy or co;niDany; harsh ami cruel to the Indians when in power over them, but bold and recklessly defiant when weaker than they; seizing without compunction the prettiest Indian women and the best horses as their rightful booty; with blood always in their eyes, thunder in their voices, and pistols in their hands, yet underneath it all many of tl-.em having hearts as big as- buffaloes, could th.ey but be reached, — this now vanished race of Booshaways has gone to a place in history be- 20 HISTORY OF W ALLA WALLA COUNTY. side tlic 1)1(1 Spartans, whose greatest boast it was that the city had no walls, their army being the wall and every man tlierein a brick, or beside the Spanish con(|uerors of Mexico and Peru, like Orellana, who descended the Amazon on a raft and then put to sea with such a climax of audacity that even the stormy Atlantic was frightened into acrpiiescence and let him pass in safety. This old streak of brutality and tyranny, originally cast into the Anglo-Sa.xon nature and n-.anifested in its best form in the savage grandeur of the Norse Valhalla, and in the overpowering energy of the Vikings, and at every emergency breaking with volcanic fury tln-ough the tliin crust of modern culture, has .shown itself in no way more notably than in the whole Indian management of the American Government. These free trappers executed with a vengeance the unsiioken, but not less real, policy of our government. Humanity, ar.d even shrewd ])olic}-. had little place in the thoughts and actions of most of them. The Irdians were simply to be stamped on like so many rattlesnakes. In the trapper's code, for an Indian to look longingly at a white man's horse, or even to be seen in the ^■icinity of a beaver trap, was sufficient warrant to send a ride ball |)loughing its way through his heart. The Gallic gentleness and social)ility which enabled the Canadian voyageurs to go almost anywhere unharmed among the Indians, found no counterpart in the sterner composition of the great majority of .\merican trappers and traders. Such were the men from whom I hint had to make up his little army, and a ve.xatious job it was, too. The rivalries of opixjsing companies were the opportunity of the trappers. Big wages were demanded. Old whisky bills had to be paid off. The clutch of the sheriff had to be loosene 1 by the golden lever of wages in advance. Worst of all. Hunt found at nearly every station where he tried to eneaee men that the agents of the ilissouri Fur Com- p;iny, chief of whom was a Spaniard named Manuel Lisa, were neutralizing his efforts by representing the dangers from the hostile tribes and barren wastes intervening between the Missouri plains and the Pacific. But Hunt's patience and perseverance, backed by Astor's unstinted purse, overcame all obstacles, and in .\pril. iSn. the winter rendezvous at the mouth of the Nodowa ( four hundred and eighty miles above St. Louis) was abandoned, and in four boats, one of large size, and mount- ing a swivel and two howitzers, the party of sixty set forth up the almost untraveled Mis- souri. Of the party five were partners. Hunt, Crooks, McKenzie, Miller and McLellan. One was a clerk. Reed by name. There were two English naturalists, Bradbury and Nuttall. Forty of the party were Canadian vo\-ageurs. They were to do the rowing, transporting, carrying, cooking, and all the drudgery in gen- eral. The remainder were American hunters and trappers. These were the fellows to hunt and fight and i>lan and explore, and, when the proper place was reached, to cast themselves upon the mercy of the savages and wild beasts, endure hunger and thirst and establish trading posts. The chief of these hunters was a \'ir- ginian named John Day. We shall meet him freciuently. The party was in all respects most bountifully equipped. They designed following as nearly as possible the route of Lewis and Clark. Many interesting and some thrilling and exciting scenes were encountered on the pas- sage up the Missouri, especially on their way through the country of the Sioux Tetons. But thev met with no serious hindrance, and on HISTORY OF ^^'ALLA WALLA COUNTY. 21 the nth of June they reached a large village of the Arickaras, fourteen hundred and thirty miles above the mouth of the Missouri. It had been determined before this, on the advice of several hunters who joined the party in the wilderness, after they had left the Nodowa, to abandon' their canoes at this point and, se- curing horses, strike across the country south of Lewis and Clark's route, so as to avoid the dreadful Blackfeet, who, alike the terror of the other Indians as well as of the whites, dominated all the region of the upper Mis- souri. So with eighty-two horses heavily loaded — the partners only, together with the family of Pierre Dorion, being mounted — on the 1 8th of July they set out hopefully, though with many gloomy prognostications from trappers remaining at the Arickara village, on their march across the Great American Des- ert and through the volcanic defiles of the great divide. On the wide monotony of the sky-bordered prairie they seemed to make no progress. Day succeeded day, and e\-ery morning's sun shot up, hot and dry, on apparently the very land- scape of the day before. They did not seem in fact, though taking a more direct route, to make so good time as did Lewis and Clark. Guided by the Crow Indians, they penetrated range after range of the stepping stones to the final ridge, supposing each to be the last, only to find when it was surmounted that one yet higher succeeded, and at last on the 15th of September — the summer already gone — they mounted a lofty peak whence the bound- less wilderness over which they had come as well as that which they must yet traverse, lay like a maj) at their feet. Gazing attentively westward tlieir guide finally pointed out three shining peaks ridging the western sky, whose bases he assured them were washed bv a trib- utary of the Colum1)ia. These peaks are now known as the Tetons from their peculiar shape. A hundred miles evidently lay between the wear}- travelers and that goal. When tJiere, they felt that they would be almost at the end of their journey, little realizing the character of the thousand miles of travel yet awaiting them. Passing the green banks of Spanish river, a tributary of the Colorado, they laid in a large stock of the plentiful bufifalo, gave their horses five days' rest and grazing on the alumdant grass, and on the 24th of September, crossing a narrow ridge, found themselves on the lianks of a turbulent stream, recognized by their guide as one of tlie sources of the Snake. From the name of the guide the stream was called Hoback's river. Down the rugged promontories which flanked this stream the party descended, often in danger of fatal falls, to its junction with a much larger one, which so much exceeded the first in fury of current as to recei\'e the name of Mad river. This seemed to issue from the midst of the Tetons, whose glacial and snowy immensity overtopped the camp of the trav- elers at the junction of the two streams. The all important question now arose, should they abandon the horses and make canoes with which to descend the river. It was evident that, though containing abuntlant water for large boats, it was so impetuous as to render navigating a dangerous Imsiness. But the Canadians insisted on making the attempt. Weary of the toilsome and rocky foot-paths of the mountains, and having all confidence in their well-tried ability in handling boats in any kind of water, they longed to betake them- selves once more to their favorite element, and, paddle in hand, their gay French songs beating time to the music of the paddles, they 22 HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY. \V()ukl lie ready t(5 shocit another Niagara, if it came in their way. Tlie partners linally gave tlieir consent to mai dians, with French abandon, rushed into each dians had clearly grasped the fundamental other's arms, crying and hugging like so many doctrine of civilized trade, to-wit : Get the school girls. And even the hard-visaged greatest possible return with the least possible Scotchmen and nonchalant Americans gave outlay. To this end they levied a heavy toll themselves up to the unstinted gladness of the on all unwary passers. These levies were usu- occasion. The next day was devoted to feast- ally collected while the eyes of the taxed were ing and story telling. Xo doubt, like the feast- otherwise engaged. In short, these \\'ishram ing mariners of the .'Eneid, they discussed Indians were professional thieves. with prolonged speech the "ainissos socios." Endeavoring at first to frighten Mr. Hunt These, as the reader will remember, were into a liljeral "potlatch," then to beg of him Crooks and John Day, with four Canadians, l)y representing their great services in pro- who had been left sick on the banks of the tecting him from the rapacity of other Indians, Snake. Little hope was entertained of ever but finding no recognition of their claims ex- seeing them again. But as their story is a cept abundant whiffs at the pipe of peace, they natural sequel to that just ended, it shall be gave up in disgust and contented themselves given now. The next summer a party under with picking up whatever little articles might Stuart and AIcLellan, on their way from be lying around handy, .\fter considerable Okanagan to Astoria, saw wandering on the haggling several finely made canoes were pro- river bank near Umatilla two wretched beings, cured of these people ant! in these the last stage naked and haggard. Stopping their canoes to 28 lilSTOKV OF WALLA WALLA COL'XTY. investigate, they discovered to their glad sur- prise tiiat these l)eings were Day and Crooks. Their forlorn pliglu was c|uickly relieved with abundant food and clothes, anil while the canoes went flying down the stream with speed accelerated in the joy of deliverance, the two men related their pitiful tale. Left in destitution of food and clothing, they had sustained life by an occasional beaver or a piece of horse meat given by the Indians, whcj, seemingly possessed of a superstitious fear, dared not molest them. With rare heroism and self-abnegation, Crooks remained by the side of John Day until he was sufficiently re- cuperated to travel. Then, abandoned by three of the Canadians, they had plodded on amid Blue mountain snows, subsisting on roots and skins. In the last of March, hav- ing left the other Canadian exhausted at a Shoshone lodge. Crooks and Day pressed on through a last mountain ridge and found them- selves in the fair and fertile plain of the Walla Wallas. Here they were relieved by the kindness which marked the intercourse of those Indians with the whites. Fed and clothed they contin- ued down the river with lightened hearts, only to find at the dalles that there are differences in Indians as well as whites, for there the Eneeshurs, or Wishrams. as Irving calls them, first tlisarming suspicion by a frieniUy exterior. perfidiously robbed them of the faithful ritles which thus far in all their distress they had never yet lost sight of. and. stripping them, drove them out. More wretched than ever they now turned toward friendly Walla ^\'alla. And just as they were striking inland they saw the rescuing boats. So with added grati- tude they all paddled away for Astoria. But' poor Day never recovered. In an insane frenzy he tried to kill himself. Prevented from thia he soon pined away and died. The barren and bluffy shores of John Day river possess an added interest as we recall the melancholy story of the brave hunter who first explored them. The four Canadians were afterward fountl alive, though destitute, among the Sho- shones. The limits of this work forbid us to en- large upon the subsequent fortunes of the great Pacific Fur Company's enterprise. We could hardly do justice, however, to the heroic age of Oregon history without a few addi- tional words about the fur business and a brief description of that most dramatic event in all our early history, the destruction of the Toncpiin. Astor seems to have designed that Astoria should be the central depot of trade and sup- plies; that from it parties should radiate by land and river, and trade with the Indians for furs as well as fit out trapping parties of their own ; that from Astoria, as headquarters, should proceed the annual supply ship (from New York) on fur trading trips to the bays and ports north of the Columbia : and that those supply ships having filled up partially on those trips should complete their lading at Astoria. Then away for China, the great market for furs at that time. In China the emptied vessel should reload with nankeens and teas and silks wherewith to clothe and exhilarate the fair inhabitants of New York. Two years would pass in completing this vast commercial "rounding up." For the still fur- ther enlargement of his business, Mr. Astor had also made arrangements to supply the Russian posts at New Archangel. He wished to do this partly for the profits accruing therein and partly to shut off competition in HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY. 29 his own territory. This last he could accom- pHsh tlirough that semi-partnership with the Russians in furnishing" tliem supplies. There were at that time three especially valual)le fur-producing animals found in vast numbers in this country. Tlie first, the bea- ver, was found in all the interior valleys, the Willamette country, as was afterward found, being pre-eminent in this respect. The two others, the sea otter and seal, were found on the coast. The sea otter fur was the most valuable. Its velvety smoothness and glossy l)lackness rendered it first in the markets of the world of all furs from the temperate zones of Xorth America, and inferior only to the ermine and sable and possibly the fiery fox of the far north. The profits of the fur trade were such as miglit well entice daring and avarice to run the gauntlet of icebergs, starvation, ferocious savages and stormy seas. The profits of a single voyage might liquidate even the enor- mous cost of the outfit. For instance, Ross, one of the clerks of Astor's company, and located at Okanogan, relates that one morn- ing before breakfast he bought of Indians one hundred and ten beaver skins at the rate of fi\-e leaves of tobacco per skin. Afterward a yard of cotton cloth, worth, say, ten cents, purchased twenty-five beaver skins, worth in New York $5 apiece. For four fathoms of blue beads, worth, perhaps, a dollar, Lewis and Clark obtained a sea otter skin, the mar- ket price of which varied from $45 to $60. Ross -notes in another place that for $165 in trinkets, cloth, etc., he purchased peltries worth in the Canton market $11,250. In- deed, even the ill-fated voyages of Mr. As-- tor's partners proved that a cargo worth $25,000 in New York might be expected to be replaced in two years by one worth a quar- ter of a million, a profit of a thousand per cent. We cannot wonder, then, at the eager enterprise and fierce, S(jmetimes bloody, com- petition of the fur traders. With this outline of the business awaiting the Tonquin, let us pursue her fortunes to their terrible conclusion. A Frenchman, Franchere by name, one of the Astoria clerks, is the chief authority for the story. Irving seems to have taken some poetic license with this account. According to him, with a total force of twenty-three and an Indian of the Chehalis tribe called Lama- zee, for interpreter, the Tonquin entered the harbor of Neweetee. Franchere calls the In- dian Lamanse, and the harbor, he says, the Indian called Newity. We shall probably be safe in following Bancroft and suppose tha place to have been Nootka. Nootka sound, on the west side of Vancouver's island, has been referred to on a previous page as a bad place for the traders. In 1803 the ship Bos- ton and all her crew but two had been de- stroyed there. But it is well worth noting that these In- dians, like all others on the coast, were dis- posed at first to be frientlly, and only the in- dignities and \'iolence of traders transformed their pacific disposition to one of sullen treach- ery. Captain Thorn had been repeatedly and urgently warned by Mr. Astor and his asso- ciates against trusting to the Indians. One standing rule was that nut more than four or five should be allowed on the deck at once. But the choleric Thorn treated with equal con- tempt the suggestions of caution and savage hucksters. A great quantity of the finest kind of sea otter skins had been brought on deck and to all appearance a most lucrative and am- icable trade was before them. But twenty years of traffic with the whites and a long 30 HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY. •course of instruction from the diplomatic and .successful chief Maquinna had rendered the Nootka Indians less pliable and less innocent than Thorn expected. His small stock of pa- tience was soon exhausted. At one cunning and leering old chief, who seemed to be urg- ing the others to hold out for higher prices, the captain soon began to scowl with special rage. But the oily visage was scowl-proof, -and the impatient sailor had the mortification to see that he was likely to be out-Jewed by one of those dirty and despised redskins. He -could stand it no longer. In his most impres- sive and naval manner he bids the Indians to leave. But the obnoxious chieftain stands mo- tionless, a perfect statue of savage impudence. All sense and judgment \anished from the -captain's mind. Seizing him by the hair he propelled him rapidly toward the ship-ladder. Then, with a convenient bundle of furs, snatched up furiously, he emphasized the •chieftain's exit. Xor is it likely that he spared a liberal application of boot leather to tlie most accessible part of the savage trader's anatomy. Instantly, as if by magic, the Indians left the ship. In place of the babel of jabbering traffickers were only the hair-brained captain and his astonished and silent crew. ^Nlr. Mc- Kay, the partner on board, was very indignant when, on returning from a short trip ashore, he learned of the untimely cessation of trade. He assured Captain Thorn that he had not only spoiled their business but had endangered all their lives. He therefore urged making sail from the place at once. The Chehalis In- dian, Lamanse, also enforced jMcKay's wish, asserting that further intercourse with the In- dians could result only in disaster. But the stubborn captain would listen to no advice. So long as he had a knife or a handspike they needn't try to scare him into running before a lot of naked redskins. The night passed in (piiet. Early the next morning a number of Indians, demure and peaceable as can be imag- ined, paddled alongside. Bundles of furs held aloft signified their wish to trade. In great triumph Captain Thorn pointed out to McKay the successful issue of his discipline. "That is the way to treat them," he said; "just show them that you are not afraid and they will behave themelves." The Indians were very respectful and exchanged their furs for what- e\er was offered. Pretty soon another large boat load, well supplied with the choicest peltries, asked per- mission to go aboard. The now good natured and self-satisfied skipper gladly complied. Then another canoe, and a fourth, and a fifth disgorged a perfect horde on board. But some of the more watchful sailors noticed with alarm that contrary to custom, no women left the canoes, and that certain of the fur bundles the savages would not sell at any price, while as to others they were perfectly indifferent. Pret- ty soon it was noticed that, moving as if by ac- cident, the Indians had somehow become massed at all the assailable points of the vessel. Even Captain Thorn was startled when this fact became unmistakable. But putting a bold front upon his sudden fear, he gave the order to up anchor and man the top-mast, preparatory to sailing. He then cHxlered the Indians to re- turn to their boats. With a scarce perceptible flush darkening their listless faces, they picked up their remaining bundles and started for the ladder. As they went, their cat-like tread scarce audible even in the oppressive stillness their knotted fingers stole into their bundles. Out again like a flash and in them long knives and cruel bludgeons ! In an instant the wild war-yell broke the awful silence. And then the peaceful Ton- HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY. 31 (|uin's deck saw a slaughter grim and pitiless. Lewis, the clerk, and McKay were almost instantly dispatched. Then a crowd with fiendish triumph set upon the captain, hent on evening up at once the old score. The brawny frame and iron will of the brave, though foolhardy old salt, made him a dangerous object of attack. And not until a half dozen of his assailants had measured their breeding lengths on the slippery deck did he succumb. Then he was hacked to pieces with savage glee. Meanwhile four sailors, the only survivors, besides the interpreter, Lamanse, from whom the whole stgry is told, having gained access to the hold, began firing on the triumphant Indians. And with such effect did they work that the whole throng left the ship in haste and sought the shore. Lamanse, mean- while, was spared, but held in captivity for two years. The next day the four surviving sailors attempted to put to sea in a small boat, but were pursuetl and probably miu^dered by the Indians. And then, like a band of buzzards circling around a carcass, the Indian canoes began to cluster around the deserted ship. The night had been spent in savage mirth, and now in prospect of the rifling of an en- tire ship their joy knew no bounds. All was silent. The hideous tumult of the day before was succeeded by an equally hideous calm. Cautiously at first, then emboldened by the utter lifelessness, in throngs the Indians clamb- ered to the deck. Their instinctive fears of strategem were soon lost in gloating over the disfigured forms of their vanquished foes, and in rifling the store-houses of the ship. Arrayed in gaudy blankets and adorned with multiplied strands of beads, thcv strutted proudly over the deck. Five hundred men, women and chil- dren now swarmed the ship. Suddenly, with an awful crack, crash and boom, the luckless Tonquin with all its loatl of living and dead is flung in fragments around the sea. Her powder magazine had imitated Samson auKing the Phillistines, and she had made one common ruin of herself and her ene- mies in the very scene of their triumph. Dis- membered bodies, fragments of legs and arms, and spattered brains, stained and darkened the peaceful water far and wide. According to Lamanse, as quoted by Franchere, two hundred Indians were thus destroyed. Franchere also says that no one knows who blew up the ship though he thinks it most likely that the four sailors left a slow train on board when thev abandoned her. Irving most thrillingly de- scribes Lewis as having been wounded, and remaining on board after the four survivors had gone, for the purpose of enticing the sav- ages on board and then letting off the train so as to destroy himself and them in one final and awful retribution. Bancroft, however, find- ing no warrant for this in the narrative of Franchere, the only known authority, does not hesitate to accuse Irving of fabricating it. ^^^^ate\■er may have been the details, the general fact, with its horrible results to both whites and natives, rapidly spread abroad. Ere long it began to be whispered with bated breath among the Chinooks around Astoria. Then it reached the ears of the traders there. At first entirely disbelieved, it began to be painfully sure, after the lapse of months, and no Ton- quin in sight, that there must be something in it. The floating fragments of stor\- finally as- sumed an accepted form, though not until the reappearance of Lamanse, two years after the e\'ent, was it fully understood. A more extended narration of that absorb- ingly interesting era of disco\-ery, exploration, and beginnings of trade, would lead us beyond •the jiurpose of this work. We desire rather to 32 HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY. present a picture of our heroic age sufficiently full to make plain the steps of our subsecjuent evolution. The glimpses into our earliest his- tory already given indicate to us something of the stages of our progress as a civilized Ameri- can state. Exploration followed discovery; trade, exploration; settlement, trade. Develop- ment is now treading on the pathway of settle- ment. We have seen before our very eyes in the close of the nineteenth century, this devel- opment assume a new form. The genius of our railroad age has realized the dream of the old navigators, and has created from rails of steel the Strait of Anian. The northwest passage has been found, but it is dry land instead of water. And not alone have we put a north- west passage through our own land, but we have extended our hands into the Pacific ocean for more land. Great already, our territory, by the events of the past few years, has become larger, and our international influence vastly wider. Our nation is entering now, with this new century, upon an epoch of international power which will transcend the previous epoch as much as that transcends the era of our old colonialism. In this new age of world development, our good state of Washington seems surely des- tined to bear a conspicuous part. The treasures of the Orient and of tropic islands, the golden sands of Alaska, and the industries of the great states of our own Union, find their ex- change point on Puget sound. Our queen city, Seattle, holds the keys to the golden caskets of Asia and of the north. In variety and quality of resources, in the thrift and energy of her population, and in the excellence of her system of education and social life, the state of Washington gives promise that she will prove adequate to the vast oppor- tunities which her situation has placed within her grasp. Standing thus on the threshold of a ma- terial development whose possibilities dazzle the imagination, we are in some danger of for- getting the small and feeble advances of the first era of American settlement in this land, we are apt to forget the heroic striving which planted homes here and there in the wilder- ness. In that epoch of the making of a state the county of Walla Walla bore no inconspicuous part. Containing the first settlement between the Cascades and the Rocky mountains, being the scene of more tragic and stirring events tlian an\- other community in this portion of Old Oregon, having for many years the largest population anywhere within the state, and in its later development possessing, in some respects, the highest results of industrj' and production to l)e found within the inland empire, Walla Walla county may justly be regarded as one of the foremost counties of the state, both from a historical and a present point of view. In the early history of Walla W'alja county we find much of the pathos and tragedy which have marked the settlement of most pioneer -Vmerican communities. In its present, with its unfolding industrial activity, we see a part of that great movement which we have already pointed out as marking the present epoch of our state. In its future we plainly read the fulfillment of the promise of growth which will outrun even the most eager imaginations of the present. ^\'e invite therefore to the perusal of this history both the old-timer and the new-timer. The old-timer will traverse again some of the difficult or dangerous or amusing experiences of the past, and by opening his eyes now upon one HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY. 33 scene, now upon another, he will comprehend Ijefore, and by contrasting what he reads with again something of the distance that he has what he sees about" him will more clearly un- traversed. The new-timer will learn by the derstand what it has taken to make Walla perusal of these pages things unknown to him Walla county. CHAPTER I. THE OREGON OUESTION. While it is not within the distinct province of this compilation to enter into a detailed consideration of the early history of the Pa- cific northwest, nor even of that section now in- cluded within the boundaries of the present state of Washington, it is still but consistent that brief resume be given of the more salient points which marked the opening of this now fruitful and opulent section of our national domain to the march of civilization, — an ad- vancement made under conditions and circum- stances which bespeak the restless energy, the fortitude and the inflexible determination of those who constituted the forerunners of the star of empire. To the "Oregon question" Dr. Barrows re- fers as the "struggle for possession," and cer- tain it is that diplomacy never met a severer test without recourse to arms than was repre- sented in the long drawn out disputations, the ambiguous concessions and the alert watchful- ness which marked the history of that eix)ch. Fortunate, indeed, was it that the independence of the republic, the genius of the true .Vmer- ican spirit, were eventually brought into high relief, saving to our national commonwealth the great and valua])le territory which was at that lime practically a terra liieogiiita. As has already been intimated, there has, perhaps, no question ever arisen that so nearly precipitated a war between the United States and Great Britain without the actual conflict of arms. The Oregon question was one that included all points of international diplomacy and negotiations between the United States and Great Britain regarding title to the northwest country, and pertaining particularly to the ter- ritory now included in the state of Washington, for the country north of the Columbia river was what the English crown particularly coveted. Prior to 1818 the Hudson's Bay Company, a powerful corporation holding charter from the British crown, the same having been granted by Charles 11, in 1670, invaded the Oregon territory, including what are now the states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and western Montana. The personnel of the invading force included hunters, traders and trappers, who proceeded to fortify their possessions with commercial and military establishments. While these aggressive move- ments were under way a few persons from the United States found their way into the territory, and their interposition eventually led to the discussion as to the ownershii) of the country. Our great statesmen of the day naturally had very inadequate conceptions of 34 HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COL'XTV. the value and iinportaiice of the territory in- volved in the discussion, and this tact was un- mistakalily indicated in tlieir expressions. In the earlv *40s the National Intelligencer gave utterance to the following statements, which will strike the reader of the present day as ludicrous in the extreme : "Of all the coun- tries upon the face of the earth Oregon is one of the least favored by heaven. It is almost as barren as Sahara, and quite as unhealthy as the Campagna of Italy." Contemplating even the productive wealth of Walla Walla county alone at the present time, it seems abnost impossible that oliicial and ix^pular judgment could even at that time have l>een so llagrantly in error. Fiu-ther. Senator Dayton, of Xew Jersey, from the depths of his conviction and high order of intelligence, did not hesitate to speak as fol- lows: "Ciod forbid that the time shouUI ever come when a state on the shores of the Fa- citic, with its interests and tendencies of trade all looking toward the .\siatic nations of the east, shall add its jarring claims to our already distracted and overburdened confederacy." It is beyond peradventure that the contuiental idea bad not as yet pervaded the judicial body of the national governnieiit. As farther indicating the attitude main- tained bv the leaders of .\merican thought and action at the time, we can not do Inciter than to offer an excerpt from statements made by that gifted and venerated statesman. Daniel Webster, who said: "What do we want of this vast, worthless area, this region cd savages anil wild beasts, of deserts, of shifting sands and whirlwinds of ilnst, of cactus and prair,ie dogs?: To what use could we ever hope to put these great deserts or these great nwuntain ranges. imi)enetrable and covered to their k\se with eternal snow? What can we ever hope to do with the western coast, a coast of three thousand miles, rock-bound, cheerless and un- in\iting, and not a harbor on it? What use have we for such a country? Mr. Fresident, I will never vote one cent from the public treas- ury to place the Facitic coast one inch nearer Boston than it is now." One other opinion, voiced by Senator Ben- ton, in 1825. may be. with undoubted propriety, incorporated at this juncture. What the re- sult of the advice of this astute man might have been if followed is dit^cult to conjecture at this end of the centivry period : "The ridge of the Rocky mountains may be named as a convenient, natural and everlasting lK>undary. Along this ridge the western limit of the Re- public should be drav.n. and the statue of tlie fabled god. Terminus, should hs erected on its highest peak, never to be thrown down." The significance of these expressions is un- mistakable, and still we can scarcely wonder- that they were uttered and promulgated, when we take into consideration the fact that nearly all information in regard to the country — and that of a most fragmentary and unreliable character — had been received through repre-- sentatives of tlie Hudson's Bay Company or through persons jnlhienced by them, either voluntarily or otherwise. The emissaries of tlie Hudson's Bay. Company had advisedly, aiid for selfish purposes, looking to the aggTandize-. nient of the corporation, represented the region as a. "Miasmatic wilderness, uninhabitable ex- cept, by savage beasts and more savage men." Tliis action was takgu in order to discourage the settlement of white people in the conntry, which accomplished they realized would ulti- mately interfere seriously with their lucrative fur traffic with the aborigines of tlie land. HISTOKV OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY. 35 JOINT OCCUPANCV TKKATV A rRACTUA:. FI- ASCO. llolli (ircat r.ritain and llic L'uitcd States beiiii^' apparciuly unprepared for delinile aclinn, in iSiS a treaty of joint occupation was en- teral into, liv tlie terms antl provisions of w hich "Tlie northwest coast of America west- ward of the Stony mountains shall he open to the suhjccts of the two contracting powers, not to he construed to the prejudice of any claim which either of the high contracting parties may ha\-c to any part of said country." This treaty was extended indefinitely in 1827, with the pro\-ision lliat after 18,^8 either i)arly could abrogate it h)- giving to the other one year's notice. Under this somewhat ecpiivocal treaty the shrewd representatives of the Llud- son's Bay Company resorted to every conceiv- able strategy to i^revent immigration from the United States, and they succeeded in efifecting their designs to a large extent for a consider- able period of time. However, an increasing knowledge of the value of the country stim- ulated the indomitable frontiersmen to move westward, and, despite the despicable efforts and questionable methods of the Hudson's Bay Compau}- to arrest wagons, l)reak l^lowshares, freeze out settlers, and by a system of overland forts and seajjort sur\-eil- lance prevent e\-ery movement that tended to- ward the actual occupancy of the countr)-, a suiilicient number of .\mericans had effected settlement i)rior to 1844 to force ui)on the United States the question of title. In the year mentioned JNIr. Calhoun, then secretary of state, demanded of the British government a specific statement of its claims to the Oregon territory. This overture elicited from (Ireat Britain a reiteration of a claim already made in 18J4, namely: "That the boundary line be- tween the possessions of the two countries should be the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude to where it intersects the northeast- ern braneh of the Columbia river, then dowu tlie middle channel of that river to the sea." 'ibis claim, if allowed, would ha\e given Great Britain not only British Columbia but also the greater portion of the state of Washington. Great Britain based its claim upon the explora- tion of the Columbia Ijy Vancouver after Gray ha r r o m n o » o (/I HISTORY OF ^^^\LLA WALLA COUNTY. 57 (Han war. Fully to narrate this, with its causes and results, will require two long chapters. A few hrief statements, howe\-er, as to the first attempts at settlement may be fittingly connected with this chapter, though in chro- nology thev carry us somewhat beyond the Indian wars of the succeeding chapters. BITGIXXING OF SETTLEMENT OF EASTERN WASH- INGTON. Subsequent to the Whitman massacre, con- cerning which special mention has been made on other pages of this volume, the country east of the Cascade mountains, in area the lar-ger portion of the territorj- of Washington, had been without any white settlers, excepting a few here and there. Therefore it had no part in the initiatory steps toward territorial organi- zation. Prior to the '60s it had scarcely any history except that connected with the early ex- plorations, the labors of the early missionaries, the Indians and Indian wars. The first settler in eastern Washington after the missionaries was Henry M. Chase, who entered the W'alla Walla valley in 1851. He was soon followed by Lloyd Brooke, George C. Bum ford and John F. Noble, the three for a time occupying the Whitman mission. They had to leave be- tween 1855 'I'lc^ 1858. After the Indians had been thoroughly subjugated through the vigor- ous campaign of Colonel George Wright, the interdictof Major-General Wocl against the oc- cupancy of eastern \\'ashington by white people was rescinded by his successor in command. General N. G. Clarke. Accordingly the whole country was thrown open to settlement in 1858. Soon we find a considerable number of families, farmers and stockmen in the Walla Walla val- ley, and also along and adjacent to the streams flf)wing from the Blue mountains. Thus the development of the Inland Empire became as- sured. In January, 1859, the territorial legis- lature organized the county of Walla Walla, and a small village began to grow around Mill creek, about five miles from the Whitman mis- sion. Its first name was Steptoeville, then Waiilatpu. It was selected as the county-seat, and when the commissioners assembled they gave it the name of Walla Walla. The county was so large that one of the commissioners lived only about sixty miles from the present site of Missoula, Montana. It would have taken him six weeks to reach his county-seat on horseback and return. He never qualified. In i860 the Salmon river gold discovery gave a wonderful impetus to immigration and settlement north of the Snake ■ri\-er, and by the opening of the year 1861 the mining excitement in that region was at its height. Adventurous mining prospectors flocked in from all direc- tions. It was a verital)le and typical rush for the precious metal, and, as usual in such cases, misfortunes were more in evidence thaiT suc- cesses. The winter of 186 1-2 was an excep- tionally se\-ere one, and the gold-seekers on their wav to the Salmon river country suffered great hardships, as did, indeed, the settlers of eastern Washington, also. But the influx of population was stopped for but a short time. In the spring of 1862 the people flowed in in a tide, estimated at from five to fifteen thousand, while some say they were twenty thousand strong. With all the misfortunes concomitant with this almost unparalleled gold excitement, it served as the means of ushering in a new civili- zation, for it initialed the marvelous develop- ment which has taken place in the U]:)per Colum- bia country, Lewiston, at the confluence of the Snake and Clearwater rivers, was laid out early in 1862. The territorial legislature of 1859 created S])okane county, lying north of Snake 58 HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY. river to the British Hue. ^larch 3, 1863, con- gress passed an act organizing the territory of Idaho out of tlie eastern part of Washington, including nearly all the mining region. There ^verc at that time in eastern Washington the counties of ^^'alla \\'a]la, Klickitat and Spokane. The increase in population north of the Snake river during the next decade was slow. This region had but few scattered set- tlers, not including the L'nitcd States soldiers. The limits of this work preclude the addition of details with respect to settlements other than those of Walla Walla. It may be sufficient to say here, that ^^'a]la \\'alla contained the only settlement worth mention in what is now Washington for some years after the opening of the country in 1859. CHAPTER V. THE INDI.W W.\RS OF THE ' FIFTIES. We have seen in the previous chapter the struggle for possession with England. Ameri- ca won. Her home-builders outmatched the fur-traders. But there was. as there always has been in our national history, another inevitable struggle for possession. This was with the In- dians. Tlie so-called Christian nations have never stopped to consider much the rights of the native claimants of the land. This, too, though accompanied by needless cruelty, de- ceit and treachery, is one of the necessary though seeminglv hard and I)itter laws of life. The thing greatly to be deplored in all Indian wars, however, has been the general practice on both sides of inflicting punishment upon any innocent person that might happen along. Some drunken and ferocious savages, as devoid of humanity as the wild beasts about them, would plunder, outrage and kill some family of immigrants or settlers, and forthwith, a band of tlie brave, manly, yet harsh and intolerant frontiersman, who have made our early history, would rush forth impetuously and kill some ])oor Indian wretches who had ne\'er heard of the outrage and had not the remotest concep- tion of having committed any offense. In like manner, when some avaricious white had swindled the ignorant Indians out of land or some other valuable property, or some lustful and conscienceless white desperado had out- raged Indian women or murdered unoffending braves, a band of Indians, inflamed with whisky purchased of some post-trader, and armed with weapcins from the same source, would go im th.e war path and torture, mutilate and murder some innocent, helpless women and children, who had never had a thought of injuring a liv- ins" thing. No one who has ever lived on the frontier can wonder at the hitter and intolerant hatred of whites for Indians. But if we, the civilized and the victors, could ])ut ourselves in the ])lace of the natives and view life with their e\'es, none of us wonkl wonder that they hatl haled us with the fury and frenzy of wild beasts. For it is safe to say that for every pang suffered hv whites, a score have been suffered HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY. 59 by Indians. And we, the higiier race, must admit tliat we know better than they, antl liave less excuse for inhumanity and intolerance. Yet in the final summary tliere can be no other conclusion than that the extermination of the majority of the Indians and the tutal de- struction of their claims as owners of this coun- try, was "writ down in the book of fate." It was simply part of the irrepressible conflict of life. Moreover by reason of the necessities of existence the early settlers could not wait to argue abstract questions of rights. They had obeyed the fundamental law to subdue and re- plenish the earth, and in pursuance of that con- dition of all progress they could not stop to philosophize on the princijiles of human broth- erhood. They had to live and with a tomahawk just leveled over their heads they had to repel. And if the right to repel existed, the right to counter attack followed as a matter of course ; for extermination of their enemies was, gen- erally speaking, the only effectual means of re- pelling. It was sad but inevitable. And though we have lived a "Century of Dishonor," it is much easier now to condemn them than it would have been then to improve. By reason of the conditions just noted, we find the history of our Indian wars the subject of bitter controversy. Hardly any two writers or witnesses give the same version of suj^posed facts. One has a bias in fa\'or of the volun- teers and makes his facts conform to his opin- ions, and hence represents the volunteers as al- ways justifiable and the Indians as always to blame. Another gi\-es the reverse impression. Nor are pioneers generally much disposed to qualify or smooth either their opinions or ex- pressions. It is all one thing or all the other with them. The other fellow is a fool or a liar and that ends it. Compromise does ni)t llnurish in pioneer conditions. All are angels on one side and all ijevils on the other. We shall use our best endeavor in these pages to present the facts without bias, ac- knowledging the probable impossibility of sat- isfying all readers. Ijut believing that at this tlistance from the time, though not far from the scenes of the struggle, we can calmly view it and clearly see that its good or evil are not to be found exclusively on one side or the other, but, as with all human affairs, the tex- ture of each is of a mingled warp and woof. After the Cayuse war had ended in 1850. by the execution of the supposed murderers of Dr. Whitman, there was a lull along the bunch- grass plains and sage-brush l)anks of the Col- lumbia and Snake ri\'ers, and a few adventur- ous explorers -and ranchers began to seek lo- cations on the streams hallowed by martyr- doms. The most considerable settlement was at Frenchtown. ten miles below Walla \\'alla. According to the best information obtainable, there were eighty-five persons, the men entirely of French origin and former Hudson's Bay Company employes, v.-ith Indian wives and a good stock of half-lireed children, living there and in the vicinit}-. There were a few men at what is now ^^'allula. There were some fifteen men living at various .separated points. Among them were Henrv AI. Chase, well known for many vears in Walla Walla, and Dr. W. C. ]\IcKay, the most famous man of mixed white and Indian blood that ever lived in Oregon. There were three men, Brooke, Bumford and Noble, at Whitman station. On the 3d of March 1853, Washington became a separate territory. Major Isaac I. Stevens was appointed go\-ernor, and in the following summer he set out for his domain. Ciiild had been disco\-ered in the Culville coun- 6o HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUXTY. try and tliere were many adventurers moving across the plains in that direction. The In- dians were very restive. These explorations they regarded with well grounded suspicion as the entering wedge of the establishment of white sovereignty. There were at that time two remarkable In- dian chiefs, chiefs who belong to that line of remarkaljle Red Men of which Philip, Pontiac, Red Jacket, and Tecumseh were more illus- trious specimens : whose qualities of mind and character contain a hint of what Indians might have been had they had any wide or long con- tinued opportunity. These two Columbia val- lev chiefs were Kamiakin of the Yakimas and Peupeumoxmox of the ^^'alla Wallas. Like all the Indian chiefs, he perceived the handwriting on the wall revealed by the entrance of the whites, and they determined to make a des- perate effort to burst their tightening bonds while there was yet a chance of success. There was a general outburst of all the tribes of Oregon and \\'ashington in iering iourteen men, among whom were Spotted Eagle, Looking Glass and Three Feathers, principal chiefs among the Xez Perces, ex- pressed their determination to accompany me and share any danger to be encountered. They expressed a desire that after crossing the moun- tains I should go to their countrv where a large force of their young men would accompany me to The Dalles and protect us with their lives against any enemy. "Having replenished my train with all the animals to be had, on November 14th we pushed forward, crossed the Bitter Root mountains the twentieth, in snow two and a half to three feet deep, anti reached the Cceur d'Alene mis- sion the twenty-fifth, taking the Coeur d'Alenes entirely by surprise. They had not thought it possible that we could cross the mountains so late in the season. "With the Cfieur d'Alenes I held a council, ar.d found them much excited, on a 'balance for peace or war, and a chance word might turn them either way. Rumors of all kinds met us here : that the troops had fought a battle with the Yakimas and driven them across the Colum- bia towards the Spokane, and that the Walla Wallas, Cayuses and Umatillas were in arms, and that they had been joined by a party of Nez Perces. The accumts were of so con- tradictory a nature that nothing certain could be ascertained from them, excepting that the several tribes below were in arms, blocking up our road, and liad threatened to cut off my ]);;rty in any event. However, I determined to push to the Spokane. "The Spokanes were even more sur])rised tl.r.n the Cceur d'.Vlenes on seeing us. Three hours before my arrival they had heard that I was going to the settlements by way of New \'ork. I immediately called a council ; sent to Fort Colville for Mr. McDonald in charge of that post of the Hudson's Bay Company: sent also for the Jesuit fathers at that jioint. They arrived. .\ council was held, at which the whole Spokane nation was represented. The Cceur d'Alenes and Colville Indians also were present. "The Spokanes and Colville Indians ex'inced HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY. 71 extreme liostility of feeling: spoke of the war below; wanted it stopped; said the whites were wrong. The lielief was current that Peupeu- moxmox would cut off my party, as he had re- peatedly threatened. They had not joined in the war. but yet would make no promise to remain neutral. If the Indians now at war were (lri\'en into their country they would not answer for the consequences ; probably many of the Spokanes would join them. After a stormy council of several days the Spokanes, Oeur d'Alenes and Colvilles were entirely conciliated and promised they would reject all overtures of the hostile Indians and continue the firm friends of the whites. "Having added to my party and organized, etc., we thence made a forced march to the Xez Perce country. Air. Craig had received letters which informed me that the whole Walla Walla valley was blocked up with hostile In- dians, an liar- 74 HISTORY OF \\^\LLA WALLA COUNTY. barism. In 1857 the present Fort Walla Walla was established, and a force in charge of Lieu- tcnant-ColoneJ Steptoe lay inactive at the fort. One thing interesting to note in connection Avith mustering out of the xdlunteers is that the horses which they had cai)tured on the Grande Ronde were sold at such a good price as to pay the entire cost of the expedition. Sales were for scrip issued by the territory, v.hich depreciated hut little. The total amoimt of script issued was $1,481,475.45. The gen- eral testimony of witnesses of those times is that there was a remarkably high morale on the ])art of all the \'olunteer forces, and that th.is was due \'ery largely to the character, ahil- ity, and magnetic influence of \\'ashington's first governor, certainly the greatest man in the official history of those times. And so there Avas "ciuiet in the land hy the space of a year." In 1858 the Yakimas became so troublesoms that Wright began to conclude that they were not such desirable citizens after all. Major Garnett was accordingly sent into their country with a strong force, and he seized and executed a numlier of their chiefs and liraves. killed seven hundred of their ponies, and secured quiet at last in the land of the sage-lM-ush. And now, though uf) battle was to be fought again on Walla Walla soil, it was the outfitting ])oint fnr the most remarkaljle disaster in the history of the territtiry, one which, if it had not been for the ever faithful Nez Perces, woukl ])iohal)ly have anticipated the Custer massacre i'l completeness and horr^ir. This was the STEPTOE DEFE.VT OF 1 858. Steptoe set out in May. 1858, to go witli two hundred cavalry to the Spokane country, though those powerful and independent Indians liad warned the troops to keep out, alleging that th.ey were neutral and wnuld nut allow either Yakimas or whites in their country. Steptoe, or more strictly speaking his subordinates, com- mitted a most egregious and incom])rehensible blunder in starting from Walla Walla. On account of the great weight of provisions and l>aggage, a brilliant quartermaster ( said to have been Lieutenant Fleming) concei\'ed the idea of omitting the greater part of the auimnni- tioii, by way of lightening the load. .\s Josei:)h McEvoy expresses it, the force was beaten be- fore it left Walla Walla. The expedition was made in ^lay. The wild torrent of Snake river was running bank- full from the floods of summer as the com- mand crossed. Timothy, a chief of the Xez Perces, with a few followers, was living then at the mouth of the Alpowa, and by his efficient aid the soldiers crossed the wicked looking stream in good order and good time, and con- tinued on their way, the iM'ave old Nez Perce accompanying them. On May 16th the force reached a point near four lakes, prohahly the grou]) of which Medical Lake is one, though there seems to be a rather curious difference among the survivors as to where all this hap])ened. But wherever it was, here the Indians gathered in strong force and evidently with hostile intentions. Steptoe. re- alizing the dangerous odds, decided to return, the chief Salteese assuring him that if he would retire they would not attack. It is said that one of the friendly Nez Perces struck Salteese, telling him that he was speaking "two tongues." On the next day at nine (/clock as the sol- diers were descending a canyon to Pine creek, just about where Rosalia is now located, the attack was suddenly made. Throughout the forenoon the retreat and fight continued. The ghastly consec|uences of the blunder about the ammiuiition h'egan to stare them in the face as HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY, 75- man after man had to cease firing. Captain O. U. P. Taylor and Lieutenant William Gas- ton were in command of the rear guard, and Avith amazing courage and devotion they kept the line intact and foiled all efforts of the In- dians to rush through. They sent word to Steptoe to halt the line and give them a chance to load. But Steptoe deemed it safer to make no pause, and soon after those gallant heroes fell. A fierce fight raged for possession of 'tiieir bodies. The Indians secured that of Gaston, Ijut a small band of heroes fighting like demons got the body of the noble Taylor. One notable figure in this death grapple was De May, a Frenchman, who had been trained in the Crimea and in .\lgeria, and who made haviic among the savages with his gun barrel used as a sabre. But at last he, too, went down before numbers, crying, "Oh, my God, for a sabre." At night fall they had reached a point said to be somewhere on the east flanks of Steptoe Lutfe, though there is a difference of opinion as to the exact location. Here the disorganized and suffering force made camp, threw out a picket line for defense, and buried such dead as they had not been forced to leave. In order to divert the Indians they determined to bury their howitzers and leave the balance of their stores, hoping that if the Indians made an attack in the night they might succeed in stealing away. The Indians, however, feeling sure that they had the soldiers at their mercy, made no effort a: a night attack. There was but one chance of salvation, and this was Ijy means f)f a dif- ficult trail thmugh a canyon, which the Indians supposed to be entirely unknown to the whites. But by the good favor of fortune or Providence the Xez Perce chief Timothy knew this pass. Without him that next day would doubtless have seen a grim and ghastlv massacre. Dur- ir.g the dark and cloudy night the soldiers mounted and in silence followed Timothy over the unwatched trail. Michael Kinney, well known in Walla Walla, was in charge of the rear guard, and is our chief authority for this narration. The horrors of that night retreat were probably never surpassed in the history of In- dian warfare in this state. Several of the wounded were lashed to pack animals, and were thus led away on that dreadful ride. Their iiufferings were intense, and two of them, Mc- Crossen and Williams, suft'ered so unendurably that they writhed themselves loose from their lashings and fell to the ground, begging their comrades to leave some weapon witli which they might kill themseh'es. But the poor wretches were left lying there in the darkness. During that night they foUow-ed, generally at a gallop, the faithful Timothy, on wdiose keen eyes and mind their li\es depended. The wounded and a few whose horses gave out were scattered at intervals along the trail. Some of these finally reappeared, but must were lost. After twenty-four hours they found that thev had ridden se\'entv miles, for the yel- low flood of Snake river suddenly broke be- fore them between its desolate banks. Here the unwearied Timothy threw cut his own peo- p'e as guards against the pursuing enemy and set the women of his tribe to ferrying the force acr(xss the turbulent ri\'er. This was safely ac- C(.implished. and thus the greater portion of the command reached Walla Walla in satety ii-om that ill-starred expedition. Indi\idual narratives of experiences on that expedition have Ijeen given by men long after living in Walla Walla. Among these was John Singleton, Sr.. now deceased, who told the writer that being without a horse, he crawled on his hands and knees during the greater part 76 HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY. of two (lays, running at night, until he at hist reached Snake river and was put across the stream l)y the Nez Perces. His knees and hands were worn to the hone. A soldier named Snickster reported that he and Williams, rid- ing one horse, had reached Snake river, when the Indians overtook them and in a spirit of grim pleasantry told them that if they could swim the river tliey might escape. Plunging into the river with their horse, they soon fnund the Indian bullets boiling around them. Will- iams and the horse were almost immediately killed and Snickster, with an arm already broken, swam the rest of the way across Snake river. This story is told in several ways, and Michael Kinney considers it a fabrication. Air. Singleton, however, told the writer that he con- sidered it as true. Joseph ]\IcEvoy also regards it true, though he claims that Williams was killed in the battle. It was generally accepted as true in early times. But we would doubt the possibility of any one, even under the most favorable circumstances, swimming Snake river in flood time with a broken arm. Wright's e.xpedition. The se(|uel to the Steptoe defeat furnishes a more creditable chapter in the history of our Indian warfare. General Clark at once ordered Colonel Wright to equip a force of six hundred men, proceed to the Spokane country and casti- gate the Indians with sufficient severity to set- tle the question of sovereignty forever. On August 15th Colonel Wright left Walla Walla on his northern campaign. In the battle of Four Lakes on September ist, and in the liat- tle of Spokane Plains on September 51)1. Col- orel \\'right broke forever the power and spirits of the northern Indians. The severest blow which he struck them was the killing of nearly a thousantl horses. In his report Colonel Wright thus summarized the results of this campaign: "i. Two battles were fought by the troops under my command against the com- Ijined forces of the Spokanes, Coeur d'Alenes and Palouses, in both of which the Indians were signally defeated, with a severe loss of chiefs and warriors, either killed or wounded ; 2. One thousand horses and a large number of cattle were captured from the hostile In- dians, all of which were either killed or ap- propriated to the ser\-ice of the United States; 3. Many barns filled with wheat or oats, also several fields of grain with munerous caches of vegetables, dried berries and camas, were de- stroyed or used by the troops; 4. The Yakima cl'iief, Owhi, is in irons ; and the notorious Vv'ar chief, Oualchen. was hanged : the mur- tlerers of the miners, the cattle stealers, etc. ( in all, eleven Indians), were hanged: 5. The Spokanes, Coeur d'Alenes and Palouses have been entirely subdued, and have sued most ab- jectly for peace on any terms ; 6. Treaties have been made with the abo\-e named nations. They ha\'e restored all property which was in their possession, belonging either to the United States or to individuals. They have promised tliat all white people can travel through their country unmolested, and that no hostile Indians shall be allowed to pass through or remain among them : 7. The Indians who commenced the battle with Lieutenant-Colonel Steptoe con- trary to the orders of their chiefs have been delivered to the officer in command of the L'ni- ted States troops ; 8. One chief and four men, with their families, from each of the above named tribes, have been delivered to the officer ii; command of the United States troops, to be taken to fort Walla Walla and held as hostages for the future good conduct of their respective nations : 9. Tlic two mounted howitzers aban- HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUxNTY. 17 cluned liy tlie troops under Lieutenant-Colonel Steptoe liave been recovered." The following words from General Clark's report show how completely the policy of Wool had been reversed. "Some time since I was persuaded that the treaties made by Governor Stevens, superintendent of Lulian affairs for Washington Territory, with the Indian tribes east of the Cascade range, should not be con- firmed. Since then circumstances have changed and with them my views. The Indians made A\ar and were subdued. By the former act th.ey lost some of their claims to considera- tion; and by the latter the government is en- abled and justified in taking such steps as may give the best security for the future." Thus the land rested at last from strife, and no general Indian war thereafter disturbed the "Valley of Many Waters." CHAPTER VI. INDI.-VN WARS OF THE FIFTIES CONTINUED. Governor Stevens reached Olympia early in January, 1856, and found that the storm of war was in full blast from east to west. The Sound Indians, aided by the Yakimas, had ranged over the greater part of the region adjacent to the sound and had killed many settlers. Governor Stevens, full of courage and resources, roused the dis- heartened settlers and set on foot measures for saving the territory by the equipment of an army of one thousand volunteers, organizing forces of friendly Indians, issuing script for meeting expenses, seizing necessary stores and implements, inducing the settlers to get back again upon their farms and plant their crops, and sending Secretary Mason to Washington to acquaint tlie government with their plight and needs. In the very midst of his appeal the Indians liy a sudden attack seized Seattle and destroyed the most of it. Nevertheless llie brave words and acts of the governor roused the faint-hearted and the territory speed- ily got it.self into a better jxisture of defen.se and finally of attack. The Washington volun- teers were equipped and the Second Regiment, under command of Colonel B. F. Shaw, started in the summer of 1856 for Walla Walla. Meanwhile the Oregon volunteers had been spending that dismal winter and spring at Vvalla Walla and vicinity. The first American fort of the regular army at Walla Walla was laid out on the location of McBride's stable, on^e of the old log buildings remaining there until a few years ago. The volunteers camped at a later time higher up the creek near the present location of the ranch of Patrick Lyons. During the spring Colonel Kelly returned to Portland, leaving Colonel T. R. Cornelius in command. The detachment set forth from their camp on J^Iill creek on March loth and proceeded to the Yakima country, meeting and dispersing the Indians whom they met there, and then passing on to the Columbia : they re- turned to Oregon and disbanded. They had rendered signal service, having broken up the Indi.-in forces of both the Walla Walla and Yakima countries. A\'hile tliev were doing this one of the most 78 HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY. daring blows struck In- any of the Indians fell upon the settlers up and down the Columbia, near the Cascades. The famous old block house there is a souvenir of that epoch. As- sociatetl with it also is the memory of the fact that Pliil Sheridan fought there one of his first battles, distinguished, as he later was, for dare- devil courage and impetuosity. That Cascades disaster was one of the most cruel and severe that the settlements had suffered. The L'nited States troops at that time made The Dalles their chief headquarters and the force there had their hands full with wars and rumors of wars from ^^'alla Walla. Yakima and the Cascades. The ofificers more especially concerned with the campaign on the east side or the mountains were Colonel Wright, Colonel Steptoe and Major Raines. It is to be remem- bered that there were three distinct forces op- ■erating in the country, \\z. — L'nited States regulars, Oregon \-olunteers and W'ashington volunteers. Governor Curry, of Oregon, and Governor Stevens, of Washington, were in en- tire harmony, believing alike in a vigorous prosecution of the war, but the L'nited States • forces were entirely aloof from them in sym- jiathy of aim and action. We have already outlined the achievements of the Oregon volunteers. In May Colonel Wright mo\-ed from The Dalles to Yakima. There he found a force of twelve hundred or more defiant Indians, whose evident strength seems to have led Colonel Wright to crave peace without a battle. He shaped his policies in the direction of acceding to the demand of the Indians that he withdraw from the country and exclude settlers therefrom. In July the Second Regiment of \\'ashing- ton volunteers, under Colonel B. F. Shaw, moved up the river and on July 8th camped on tlie place now owned liy the heirs of Alfred Thomas, about two miles above A\'alla \\'alla. Learning that the hostiles were in force in the Grande Ronde valley. Colonel Shaw determined to move thither and strike. Pushing rapidly o\-er the mountains he encountered the savages on July 17th. and in the most decisive battle thus far fought he scattered them in all direc- tions. The excellent Life of Governor Stevens, by his son, Hazard Stevens, contains a pictur- esque account of how Colonel Shaw, with his long, red beard and hair streaming in the wind, swept down like a hurricane upon the foe and drove them fifteen miles, clear across the valley. Colonel Shaw's own version is so clear and vivid that we believe our readers will enjoy its perusal. Alore clearly than any present de- scription could, this account preserves the flavor of the time in which it happened; that time, which, only forty-five years ago, seems so re- mote from our own. BATTLE OF GR.\XDE ROXDE, JULY IJ. 1 856. "\\'e arrived in the Grande Ronde valley on the evening of the sixteenth, and camped on a branch of the (irande Ronde river in the tim- ber, sending spies in advance who returned and reported no fresh sign. On the morning of the seventeenth, leaving Major Blankenship, of the Central, and Captain Miller, of the Southern battalions, assisted by Captain DeLacy. to take up the line of march for the main valley. I pro- ceeded ahead to reconnoitre, accompanied by Major Maxon, Michael ]vlarchmean. Captain John and Dr. I'.urns. After proceeding about fi\-e miles we ascended a knoll in the valley from which we disco\ere(l dust rising along the tim- ber of the river. I immediately sent INIajor Maxon and Captain John forward to recon- noitre and returned to luuTy up the command w hich was not far distant. The command was HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY. 79 ii'stantlv formed in order; Captain Miller's and on our moving forward the enemy fled after company in advance, supported by Maxon, firing a few guns, part taking to the left and Henness and Powell's companies : leaving the part continuing forward. pack train in charge of the guard under Lieu- "Those who took to the left fell in with tenant. Goodwin, with a detachment of Goff's Capitain Miller's company, who killed five on comi)anv under Lieutenant Wait, and Lieuten- the spot and the rest were not less successful ant Williams" company in reserve with orders in the pursuit, which was continued to the ti) follow on after the command. crossing of the ri\'er, where the enemy had' "The whole command moved on quietly to ti'ken a stand to defend the ford. Being here this order until within half a mile of the Indian rejoined by Captain Miller and by Lieutenant village, when we discovered that the pack train Curtis with part of Maxon's company, we fired had moved to the left, down the Grande Rnmle a volley and I ordered a charge across the river, river. At this moment a large body of war- which was gallantly executed. In doing this riors came forward, singing and whooping, and Private Shirley, ensign of Henness' company, one of them waving a white man's scalp on a who was in front, was wounded in the face, pole. One of them signified a desire to speak. Several of the enemy were killed at this point, whereupon I sent Captain John to meet him We continued the pursuit until the enemy had and formed the command in line of battle, reached the rocky canyons leading towards When Captain John came up to the Indians Powder river, and commenced scattering in the}- cried out to one another to shoot him, every direction, when finding that I had but five when he retreated to the command and I or- nien with me. and the rest of the command dered the four companies to charge. scattered in the rear, most of the horses being "The design of the enemy evidently was to completely exhausted — I called a halt and fell draw us into the brush along the river, where back, calculating to remount the men on the from our exposed position they would have the captured horses and continue the pursuit after advantage — they no doubt ha\-ing placed an night. ambush there. To avoid this, I charged down "I found the pack train, guard and re- the river towards the pack train. The war- serve encamped on a small creek not far from riors then split, part going across the river the crossing, as I had previously ordered them and part down toward the pack train. These to do, and learned that a body of the enemy were soon overtaken and engaged. Tlie charge had followed them up all day and annoyed was vigorous and so well sustained that they them, but had inllicted no damage beyond cap- were broken, dispersed and slain before us. turing many of the animals which we had taken After a short time I sent Captain Miller to in charge and left behind. the left and },Iajor :\Ia.xon to the right, the "I learned also that Major Maxon had latter to cross the stream and cut them off from crossed the ri\er with a small jjarty and was a point near which a large body of warriors engaged with the enemy and wanted assist- had collected, apparently to fight, while I moved ance. I immediately dispatched a detachment forward with the commands of Captain Hen- inider Lieutenants Williams and Wait, sending ness and Lieutenant Powell to attack them in (he man who brouglit the information back front. The Major could not cross the river, with them as a guide. Thcv returned after 8o HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY. dark witliout tinding tlie major, but brouglit in one of his men whom they found in the brush, and who stated tliat one of the major's men was killed and that the last he saw of them they were fighting with the Indians. At day- light I sent out Captain IMiller with seventy men, who scouted around the whole valley with- out finding him, but who unfortunately had one man killed and another wounded whilst pursuing some Indians. I resolved to remove camp the next day to the head of the valley, where the emigrant trail crosses it and con- tinue the search until we became certain of their fate. The same evening I took sixty men under Captain Henness and struck upon the mountains and crossed the heads of the canyons to see if I could not strike his trail. Finding no sign, I returned to the place where the major had last been seen, and there made search in different directions and finally found the body of one of his men (Tooley) and where the major had encamped in the brush. From other signs it became evident to me that the major had returned to this post by the same trail by which we first entered the valley. "Being nearly out of provisions, and unable to follow the Indians from this delay, I con- cluded to return to camp, recruit for another expedition in conjunction with Captain Goff, who had, I presumed, returned from his ex- pedition to the John Day's river. "I should have mentioned previously that in the charge the command captured and after- w^ards destroyed about one hundred and fifty horse loads lacamas, dried beef, tents, some flour, coffee, sugar, and al)out one hundred pounds of ammunition and a great quantity of tools and kitchen furniture. We took also about two hundred horses, most of which were shot, there l)eing but about one hundred ser- viceable animals. "There were present on the ground from what I saw, and from information received from two squaws taken prisoners, about three liundred warriors of the Cayuse, Walla Walla, Umatilla, Tyh, John Day and Des Chutes tribes, commanded by the following chiefs: Stock Whitley and Simmistastas, Des Chutes and Tyh ; Chickiah, Plyon, W' icecai, Watah- siuartih, Winimiswoot, Ca3-uses, Tahkin, Cay- use, the son of Peupeumoxmox, Walla Walla and other chiefs of less note. "The whole command, officers and men, be- liaved well. The enemy was run on the gallop fifteen miles, and most of those who fell were s!-.()t with the revolver. It is impossible to state how many of the enemy were killed. Twenty-seven bodies were counted by one in- dividual, and many others were known to have fallen and been left, but were so scattered al)out that it was impossible to get count of them. When to these we added those killed by ^iajor Maxon's command on the other side of the river, we may safely conclude that at least forty of the enemy were slain and many went off wounded. When we left the valley there was not an Indian in it, and all the signs went to show that they had gone a great distance from it. "On the twenty-first instant we left the val- ley Iiy the emigrant road and commenced our return to camp. During the night Lieutenant Hunter, of the Washington Territory volun- teers, came into camp with an express from Captain Goff'. I learned to my surprise that the captain and Major Layton had seen Indians on John Day's river, had followed them over to Burnt river and had a fight with them, in which Lieutenant Eustus and one private were killed, and some seven Indians. They were shaping their course for the Grande Ronde valley and had sent for provisions and fresh HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY. horses. I immediately sent Lieutenant Will- iams back with all my spare provisions and horses and continued my march. On Wild Horse creek I came across Mr. Fites, a pack n-.aster who had been left in camp, who in- formed me, to my extreme satisfaction, that Major Maxon and his command had arrived safe in camp and were then near us with pro- visions and ammunition. These I sent on im- mediately to Captain Goff. "1 learned that Major !\Iaxon had been at- tacked in the valley by a large force of Indians on the day of the fight : had gained the brush and killed many of them; that at night he tried to find our camp and hearing a noise like a child crying, probably one of the captured snuaws, had concluded that my command had gone on to Powder river and that the Indians had returned to the valley by another canyon. He moved his position that night and the next day saw the scout looking for him, but in the distance thougbt that it was a band of Indians hunting his trail. Conceiving himself cut off from tlie command, he thought it best to re- turn to this camp, thinking that we would l)e on our way back to Grande Ronde with pro- visions and ammunition." \\ hile Shaw was winning this ver\' impi>rt- ant victory, Go\-erjior Stevens was making every eft'ort to sustain the friendly faction of the Xez Perces under Lawyer, aided by Will- iam Craig, a white man wlio had been adopted by the Xez Perce tribe and who had been one of the greatest factors in sustaining Governor Stevens. To hold the Walla Walla country seemed to the governor the key of the situation, because thus only could he come in touch with these faithful Nez Perces. The moral effect of Shaw's victory proved so great that the gov- ernor decided to go in person to Walla Walla to hold another great council of the friendly and neutral tribes and to get as many as possible of the hostiles to attend the same. He seems t') ha\e had the double aim of giving the hos- tiles e\'ery reasonable chance to make peace and also of refuting the slanderous charges of Wool to the eft'ect that he was treating the hostiles cruelly and dishonestly. On August 3d he urgently advised Colonel Wright to es- tablish a permanent garrison in the Walla Walla valley and requested also that he meet him in conference at The Dalles on September 14th. He also called out two hundred more \-olunteers to take the place of Shaw's force, whose term had expired. And so Governor Stevens set forth again on another of those harrassing, exhaustive and dangerous expeditions to which fate seemed to have appointed him. Reaching Vancouver on August 13th, he met Colonel Wright, who in- formed him that he could not attend the pro- posed council, but would dispatch Lieutenant Colonel Steptoe with four companies of regu- lars to reach \\'al!a Walla in season for the meeting. Ascending the river to The Dalles in com- pany with Colonel W^right, and while there meeting the chief officers of the command. Gov- ernor Stevens, with the ardor and enthusiasm of his nature, and with his personal ascendency over men, so influenced them that for the time being he seemed to have won them over entirely to hearty co-nperatinn with him in his plans. In reality, however, tliev were at that very time under orders from General Wool to dis- band the volunteers and expel them from the country and to forbid white settlers to remain ;ni\-where in the n])]icr country, and to allow tlie Hudson's Bay ])Co])le only to occupy it. Wool's idea was to make the Cascade moun- tains the eastern frontier of American settle- ment ; a very wooly idea, if one may be par- 82 HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY. donetl such a decrepit i)leasantry. Wright and Steptoe were ahnost guilty of dishonesty in allowing the gallant governor to proceed into the heart of the Indian country with such an erroneous impression of their real orders. Leaving The Dalles on August 19th the in- defatigable little governor pushed on ahead of Steptoe. attended only by Pearson, a trusty scout, and with no escort except the "Bull- punchers" of his ox train, he reached Shaw's camp, two miles above \\'alla ^^'alla, on the •23d. On September 5th. .Steptoe reached \\'alla ^^'alla and established himself at a point four miles below Shaw's camp, said by Lewis Mc^Iorris to have been at the present garri- son. The next day came Lawyer with a large force of Xez Perces, faithful still. Governor Stevens was exceedingly anxious to have perfect harmony of action with the reg- ulars and thereby present a united front to the enemy, manv of whom had drawn the cnn- ciusion that the regulars and volunteers were entirely different sets of people. He therefore requested Steptoe to move camp to a point near his own. On tb.e next morning Steptoe got un- der way and paused at the governor's tent, who supposed of course that he w-as going to make camp there. He was dum founded, as he well may have been, to discover that Step- toe was passing on from sight up the valley. This was the more startling, for on account of a report that volunteers below were being attacked, Shaw had gone down leaving Stevens with but ten men. However, it had now be- come necessary for Shaw and his force to leave permanently, and with this in \iew the gov- ernor requested Steptoe to return to his near vicinity; incredible as it may seem, Steptoe de- clined to do so, alleging that General Wool's orders did not authorize him to make any such arrangements. The governor, though it must have made his hot blood boil, had to retain a detachment of sixty-nine men and left Steptoe to his own devices, at a camp which was on tlie island on the present Gilkerson place. And now opens THE SECOND GRE.\T W.\LLA W.\LL.\ COUNCIL. Space does not permit us to gi\-e the de- tails of this remarkable meeting, fully as re- n^arkable as the one of the year before. The Kez Perces were in large force at first, and the faction under Lawyer was fully committed to the support of the whites. But a large num- ber, e\en of the Xez Perces, led by Looking Glass,' Speaking Owl, Joseph, Red Wolf and Eagle-from-the-Liglit, were plainly at the \'erge of outbreak. Kamiakain, the redoubtable chief of the Yakimas, was coming out with a strong force. The scrowling Cayuses and the brawny Umatillas came whooping, 3-elling and firing the prairie grass. ]\Iurder was in the air. Gov- ernor Stevens sent an urgent re(iuest to Step- toe to come to the council with at least one company. Steptoe returned an answer to the effect that if the Indians were reall}- meditating an outbreak he had not enough force to defend both camps, and therefore he deemed it neces- sary for Stevens to move to him. instead of he to Stevens. The heart of the fiery go\-ern()r was almost broken at this humilialinn. hut he had to yield to necessity, and he adjourned the council to Steptoe's camp. On the march Kamiakain and Owhi, with one hundred and five warriors under the immediate command of Cualchen, the murderer of Bolon, met them. The fierce and threatening lt)oks of these Yaki- ma braves did not reassure the little force and things looked exceedingly squally. On every day of the council but the first. Indians, armed to the teeth, took places near the governor, HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY, 83 whh tlie evident design of murdering him and tl'.en attacking the force. Ixit tlie nerve and vigilance of tlie governor and those around him prevented. The faithful Nez Perces kept their drums heating all nigh.t and maintained a guard around Stevens" camp. As remarked before, the debt of gratitude to these Nez Perces is be- yond computation. One of the remarkable features of the last days of the council was the speech of Spotted Eagle, a Nez Perce, and one Of the warm adherents of the whites. Gov- ernor Stevens mentioned this speech as one which, for feeling, courage and truth, he had never seen surpassed. And now the council was ended, and what had been accomplished ? Nothing. They stood just where they were at first. Half the Nez Perces were determined to stand by the treaty, the other half not. All the other tribes were hostile. The governor repeated to them the terms of peace alone possible : "They must throw aside their gims and submit to the justice and mercy of the government, but as they were invited under safe conduct, they were safe in ■coming, safe in council, and safe in going." Governor Stevens naturally felt disap- pointed at the failure of his hopes, but hav- ing done all that man could do he had no cause to reproach himself. Whatever impediments had fallen in his way were due to the position of General Wool and the officers who felt com- pelled to echo his opinions. It may very prop- erly be said here that \\'right and Steptoe dis- covered their errors soon and modified their lK)iicy. Wool ne\er did and in the early part of 1857 he was relieved of his command and was succeeded by General N. G. Clarke, who gave, as we shall learn later, a "new deal" to the impatient pioneers of Walla \\'alla and Other parts of the Inland Empire. And now the governor and his retinue must mi)\-e again westward. It must needs be that another battle be fought. Governor Stevens' own official report is the best summary of his return and of this last battle in Walla Walla: "So satisfied was I that the Indians would c;.rry into effect their determination a\'owed in the councils in their own camps for several nights previously to attack me, that in starting I formed my whole party and moved in order of battle. I moved on under fire one mile to water, when forming a corral of the wagons and holding the adjacent hills and the brush on the stream by pickets, I made my arrange- ments to defend my position and fight the In- dians. Our position in a low open basin five or six hundred yards across (he was attacked on what is now known as Charles Russell's ranch) was good, and with the aid of our corral we could defend ourselves against a vastly su- perior force of the enemy. "The fight continued till late in the night. Two charges were made to disperse the Indians, the last led by Lieutenant-Colonel Shaw in per- son with twenty-four men; but, whilst driving before him some one hundred and fifty Indians, an equal number pushed into his rear, and he was compelled to cut his way through them towards camp, when drawing up his men, and aided by the teamsters and pickets who gal- lantly sprang forward, he drox'e the Indians back. in full charge upon the corral. Just be- fore the charge the friendly Nez Perces, fifty i.i number, who had been assigned to hokl the ridge on the south side of the corral, were told by the enemy they came not to fight the Nez Perces but the whites. 'Go to your camp,' said they, 'or we will wipe it out." Their camp, with the women and children, was on a stream about a mile distant and I directed them to re- tire as I did not rerpiire their assistance and was fearful that mv men might not be able to 84 HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY. distinguish tliem from liostiles, and thus friend- ly Indians he killed. "Tt)\vards night I notifietl Lieutenant-Col- onel Steptoe that I was fighting the Indians; that I should move the next morning and ex- pressed the opinion that a company of his troops would he of service. In his reply he stated that the Indians had hurned up his grass and sug- gested that I should return to his camp, and place at his disposal my wagons, in order that lie might move his whole command and his supplies to the L'matilla or some other point, where sustenance could be found for his ani- mals. To this arrangement I assented and Lieutenant-Colonel Steptoe sent to my camp Lieutenant Davidson, with detachments from the companies of dragoons and artillery with a mounted howitzer. They reached my camp about two o'clock in the morning, everything in good order and most of the men at the corral asleep. A picket had been driven in an hour and a half before by the enemy, that on the hill south of the corral, but the enemy was im- mediately dislodged and ground pits being dug, all the points were held. The howitzer having bten fired on the way out, it was believed noth- ing would be gained by waiting tUl morning and the whole force immediately returned to Lieutenant-Colonel Steptoe's camp. "Soon after sunrise the enemy attacked the camp, but w^as soon dislodged by the howitzer and a charge by detachment from Steptoe's command. On my arrival at the camp I urged Lieutenant-Colonel Steptoe to build a block house immediately; to leave one company to defend it with all his supplies, then to march below and return with an additional force and additional supplies, and by a vigorous winter campaign to whip the Indians into submission. I placed at his disposal for the building my teams anti hulian employes. The block hou>e and stockade were built in a little more than ten days. My Indian store room was rebuilt at one corner of the stockade. "On the 23d day of September we started for The Dalles, which we reached on the 2d of October. Nothing of interest occurred on the road. "In the action of the 19th, my whole force consisted of Gofif's company of sixty- nine, rank and file, the teamsters, herders and Indian employes, numbering about fifty men. (3ur train consisted of about five hundred ani- mals, not one of which was captured by the enemy. We fought four hundred and fifty Indians and had one man mortall}', one dan- gerously and two slightly wounded. We killed and wounded thirteen Indians. One- half the Xez Perces, one hundred and twenty warriors, all of the Yakimas and Palouses, tw(j hundred warriors: the great bulk of the Cayuses and L'matillas and an unknown num- ber of the \\'alla Wallas and Indians from other bands were in the fight. The principal war chiefs were the son of Ouhi, Isle de Pere and Chief Ouoltomee; the latter of whom had two horses shot under him. and who showed me a letter from Colonel Wright acknowledging his valuable services in bring- ing about the peace of the Yakimas. "I have failed, therefore, in making the desired arrangements with the Indians in the Walla Walla, and the failure, to be attrib- uted in part to the want of co-operation with me as superintendent of Indian affairs on the part of the regular troops, has its causes also in the wlmle plan of operations of the troops since Colonel \\'right assumed command. "The Xez Perces, entirely friendly last December and January, became first disaf- HISTORY OF WALLA ^^^•\LLA COUNTY. 85 fected in consequence of the then chief of the Cayuses. L'mehowiish, and the friendly Cay- uses going into the Nez Perce country con- trary to my positive orders. I refused to allow them to go there in December last, say-i ing to them : T have ordered the Nez Percen to keep hostiles out of the country. If you go there your friends in the war party will come; they cannot be kept out. Through them disaffection will spread among a portion of the Xez Perces.' Umehowlish, my pris- oner, was sent into the Xez Perce country by Colonel Wright, and from the time of his arrival there all the efforts made by Agent Craig to prevent the spread of disaffection were abortive. What I apprehended and predicted had already come to pass. Look- ing Glass, the prominent man of the lower Nez Perces, endeavored to betray me on the Spokane as I was coming in from the Black- foot council, and I was satisfied from that time that he was only awaiting a favoraI)le moment to join bands with Kamaiakun in a w'ar upon the whites, and Colonel Wright's management of affairs in the Yakima fur- nished the opportunity. "The war was commenced in the Yakima on our part in consequence of the attempt first to seize the murderers of the agent Bo- lon and the miners who had passed through their country; and, second, to punish the trilje for making common cause with them and driving Major Haller out of the country. It is greatly to be deplored that Colonel Wright had ni;)t first severely chastised the Indians, and insisted not only upon the rendition of the murderers, but upon the absolute and un- cfMiditional submission of the whole tribe to the justice and mercy of the government. The long delavs which occurred in the Ya- kimas, the talking and not fighting, this at- tempt to pacify the Indians and not reducing them to submission, thus giving safe conduct to murderers and assassins and not seizing them for summary and exemplary punish- ment, gave to Kamaiakun the whole field of the interior, and l)y threats, lies and prom- ises he has brought into the combination one- half of the Nez Perce nation, and the least thing may cause the Spokanes, Cceur d'Alenes, Coh-illes and Okanogans to join them. 'T state boldly that the cause of the Nez Perces becoming disaffected and finally going into war, is the operations of Colonel Wright east of the Cascades — operations so feeble, so procrastinating, so entirely unequal to the emergency, that not only has a most severe blow been struck at the credit of the gov- ernment and the prosperity and character of tliis remote section of the country, but the impression has been made upon the Indians that the people and the soldiers were a dif- ferent people. I repeat to you officially that when the Indians attacked me, they expected Colonel Steptoe would not assist me, and when they awoke from their delusion, Kama- iakun said, T will now let these people know who Kamaiakun is." One of the good effects of the fight is, that the Indians have learned that we are one people, a fact which had not previously been made apparent to them by the operations of the regular troops. "Is, sir, the army sent here to protect our people and punish Indian tribes, who without cause and in cold blood, and in spite of sol- emn treaties, murder our people, burn our houses and wipe out entire settlements? Ir, it the duty of General Wool and his officers to refuse to co-operate with me in my appro- priate duties as sui)erintendent of Indian af- 86 HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY. fairs, and thus practically to assume those issue edicts prohibiting settlers returning tO' duties themselves? Is it the duty of General their claims, and thus for at least one county Wool, in his schemes of pacifying the Indians, ■ — the Walla Walla — make himself dictatnr of to trample dmvn the laws of Congress; to the country ?"' CHAPTER VII. DEFINITE ORGAXIZATION OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY AND POLITICAL HISTORY, 1859 TO 1863. It was not until the autumn of Ihe yeat lands along the various streams as far north- 1858 that the Walla Walla country was for- east as the present site of Dayton, located mally opened to permanent settlement or oc- on the Touchet river, in Columbia county, cupation by white men, and even yet it was Walla \\'alla county was as yet hobbling not until the following spring that Congress along with essentially no political organiza- ratified the Indian treaties made through the tion. as has been noted in a precetling chai)- efforts of Governor Stevens in 1855. The ter. The legislature, however, made another Indians were, however, in a state of subjec- effort to look after the destinies of this ter- tion and fear, owing to the successful work ritorial offspring, and in 1859, under an act of Colonel George \\'right in his recent ex- bearing date of January 19th of that year, peclition directed against the hostile savages once more appointed officers to ser\'e the in this section of the territory. This circum- ccnmty, the incumbents to retain their posi- stance made it ])racticable for the white set- tions until the election and (jualification of tiers to come in and occupy the lands. A their successors. The oflicers thus appointed number of ranchers and cattle men soon es- \\'ere as follows: County commissioners, tablished themselves along the streams run- John Mahan, Walter R. Davis, John C. Smith ; ning forth from the western base of the Blue sheriff, Edward D. Pearce; auditor. R. H. mmmtains. Among those who thus located I'veighart: probate judge, Samuel D. Smith; in this section during the ckxsing months of justice of the peace, J. A. Simms. Commis- 1858 may be mentioned Thomas P. Page, sioners ]\lalian and Davis met at Walla \\';illa James Foster, Charles Russell, J. C. Smith, on the 15th of }ilarch, 1859, and, as author- Christopher ^laier, John Singleton, John A. ized by the general law of the territory, ap- Simms and Joseph .McAvoy, all of whom pointed James Cialbreath auditor and Lycur- long continued iheir residence there, being gus Jackson sheriff, after which they ad- well-known ])ii)neers. Mr. Simms subse- journed. 1. T. Reese was elected recorder cjuently became Indian agent at the Colville in the following July, and upon him devolved reservation, where he served acceptably. The the duty of properly entering upon the rec- year 1859 showed a materia! influx of per- orils the minutes of the proceedings of this manent settlers, ranchers filing claims to first, as well as subsecjuent meetings, of the HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY. »7 commissioners. The secoiul meeting of the board was held on tlie J6th of March, when E. H. I'rown was appointed probate judge; Lycurgus Jaci