Monday into Tuesday (29th - 30th)
Monday
night was a night of terror for Catherine Sager, who, although only thirteen
years old, was trying to be a mother to her two younger sisters and to
the two half-breed girls. Three of the girls in the attic room were very
ill. Kimball was in too much pain as the result of his wound to be of
any help. No one can read Catherine's account of the massacre and the
subsequent captivity without feeling great admiration for the way she
tried to measure up to the responsibilities so suddenly thrust upon her.
In Catherine's account
of the night of November [2]9th [sic], we may read: "The Indians seemed
to be making preparations to set fire to the house. We heard them ask
for fire and splitting up kindlings. We fully expected to perish in the
flames but this was more desirable than to be killed by the savages. Night
came on. The Indians seemed to have left. We sat on the bed hardly daring
to breathe in our fright. I took all the children on one bed. Their clothes
were saturated with blood where they had lain on the bed with Mrs. Whitman.
I tried to soothe them but they were perishing for water . . . They cried
almost all night." Finally, one by one, the children fell asleep leaving
Catherine and Kimball still awake. She remembered bearing "the yowls of
the cats" in the room below and the striking of the hours by the clock.
No doubt the cats were yowling because of hunger. No one had fed them.
"Never shall I forget that awful night," wrote Catherine. "I think of
it now with a shudder . . . I knew not what the new day might bring."
Finally, towards morning, out of utter exhaustion, Catherine lapsed into
sleep.
When day began to
break, Kimball awakened Catherine and said that he was going to try to
go to the river for a pail of water. Since everything was quiet in the
house, the two felt that perhaps no Indians were around. There is no evidence
that the Indians left any guards at Waiilatpu during the night to keep
check on its residents. Although Kimball and Catherine talked in low tones,
still their conversation awakened the children who at once began to cry
for water. Before leaving for the river, Kimball felt it best to have
his arm bandaged, as it pained him greatly. He told Catherine to tear
up one of the sheets and use that as a bandage. Catherine's initial reaction
to the idea of tearing up a good sheet was such that she exclaimed: "Mother
would not like to have the sheets torn up." "Child," replied Kimball,
"don't you know that your mother is dead, and will never have any use
for the sheets?" Reluctantly Catherine tore the sheet into strips and
bound up the wounded arm.
Kimball disguised
himself the best he could as a blanketed Indian. Taking a pail, he started
for the river which he reached in safety. As he was about to return, he
noticed that some Indians had arrived on the grounds. Fearful of being
detected, Kimball bid in some bushes which grew along the river where
he remained all day. About sundown, thinking that the Indians were all
gone, Kimball started back to the house. just as he was climbing over
a fence, he was seen by Frank Escaloom78
who immediately shot him. Catherine wrote: "As he fell the Indian gave
a brutal laugh."79 Evidently
death came to Kimball instantly. He thus became the tenth victim of the
massacre.
Attracted by the
crying of the children early that Tuesday morning, some Indians came to
the foot of the stairway leading to the attic and inquired what was the
matter. Catherine begged them to get water, which one did and he also
got some bread. Since the children cried for more water and the Indian
refused to get any more, Catherine decided to go for some herself. Of
this she wrote: "I could not bear to hear the piteous calls for water."
Going down stairs, she found her shoes where she had left them the day
before and went to the river. Upon returning with her pail of water, her
life was threatened. She wrote: "Some Indians were sitting upon the fence.
one of them pointed his gun at me. I was terribly frightened, but walked
on. One sitting near him knocked the gun up and it went off in the air."80
As Catherine moved
through the lower rooms of the house, she could not have avoided seeing
the dead body of Dr. Whitman and one or both of her brothers. She knew
from Elizabeth's account that Mrs. Whitman and Rodgers had been killed
and that their bodies were lying outside the door of the Indian room.
Added to the horror of such sights was the threat to her life. All in
all, she had a traumatic experience which found relief in an outburst
of weeping after she returned with the water. The other children in the
attic room joined her. Of this Catherine wrote: "We were weeping over
the slain when Joe Stanfield came in. He told us to stop that noise; that
they were dead and it would do them no good, and if the Indians saw us
crying, they would be mad." Stanfield told Catherine to take the children
to the emigrant house.
Since three of the
younger children were too ill to walk Catherine carried six- year-old
Louise, and Elizabeth managed to carry four-year-old Henrietta. These
four with Mary Ann started for the emigrant house. Helen Mar Meek had
to be left behind but Catherine assured her that she would return and
get her. Someone in the emigrant house saw the four children on their
way and several rushed out to meet them.. "For a few moments," wrote Catherine,
"we wept together." Catherine, accompanied by one or more of the women,
hastened back to get Helen Mar. "We found her," Catherine wrote, "sitting
in the bed, surrounded by Indians and screaming at the top of her voice."
81She thought she had been deserted.
Sometime during Tuesday,
all of the survivors of the massacre were brought into the emigrant house.
This included the Canfield family and the two sick men, Crockett Bewley
and Amos Sales. As will be told, Hall, Canfield, and the Osborn family
had managed to escape. With the exception of the two families still at
the sawmill, all of those who were later rescued, numbering over forty,
were in the emigrant house. The five Sager girls, now twice orphaned,
were together again.
The
Hudson's Bay Company Informed of the Massacre
William McBean at
Fort Walla Walla first learned of the massacre When Peter D. Hall arrived
at the fort about seven o'clock Tuesday morning, [November][sic] 30. Hall
had been busy in carpenter work in the room being added to the east end
of the main mission building when the attack began. When the sound of
firing in the kitchen was heard by the Indians outside, several rushed
to attack Hall, one with a gun which misfired. Hall grappled with the
Indian who had the gun and succeeded in getting possession of it. Catherine
wrote: "By pointing the gun, he kept them at bay until he reached the
river where he plunged boldly in and swam for the opposite shore. His
pursuers, seeing him out of reach, yelled defiantly and shot their guns
at him without effect." 82
Shielded by the protecting
willows which lined the river banks, Hall cautiously made his way down
stream towards Fort Walla Walla. He was able to travel the twenty-five
miles during the night and was the first to give McBean the news of the
attack at Waiilatpu His information was fragmentary. He reported that
"the doctor and another man were killed," perhaps referring to the death
of Marsh at the mill. He could give McBean no details regarding the identity
of the murderers nor how the attack originated. 83
In his excited state, he was sure that his wife and children and all white
people at Waiilatpu had been slaughtered.
Father Ricard, founder
of the Saint Rose Mission, happened to be at Fort Walla Walla on that
Tuesday morning and recorded the event in his journal: I was at the fort
with Mr. McBean when, at 7 o'clock, the American brought us the news of
the massacre. At 11 o'clock a native Catholic woman arrived, quite breathless,
and told us that the Cayuses had resolved to come to the fort and kill
all the whites there. At this far from reassuring news everyone in the
fort, namely Mr. McBean Fr. Pandosy, three hired men, and myself, closed
the doors, loaded our guns, and prepared to defend ourselves. This was
in vain for the Cayuses did not appear. Nevertheless, as a precaution,
we kept the doors closed from then on."84
Hall was greatly
agitated, being fearful that the Indians would seek him out at the fort
and kill him. McBean wrote:
He finally resolved
to leave and make for The Dalles. I remarked to him that it was rash and
imprudent . . . The fort being enclosed, doors locked day and night, and
fortified with two bastions, he would be safer in it than he would be
on the open plain. My arguments had no force. I then asked him if he left
a wife and children at the Mission. He replied he had, but supposed them
all killed. I observed that it was only a supposition - they might still
be living, and that it was wrong to leave them without ascertaining their
fate. With tears in his eyes, he begged and entreated me to let him go,
being sure to reach The Dalles.
Finding he was
determined, I provided him with a coat, shirt, provisions and other
necessaries for his voyage, and advised him to take the route less frequented
by the Indians (across the Columbia river), and to travel only during
the night, when be would have a better chance of evading any camp by
noticing their fire. I saw him safely across and the last tidings I
had of him was that he had safely reached within a few miles of the
Deschutes; but unfortunately having taken a canoe from the Indians and
being near a rapid, he run down [i.e., attempted to navigate the rapids],
and was drowned.85
It should be noted
that McBean wrote this account some seventeen years after the events described
had occurred. In some particulars, his version of his treatment of Hall
has been questioned. Hall's body was never found. Although be was not
killed at Waiilatpu, Hall is included in the total of fourteen victims
because his death is attributable to the events which had taken place
at the mission.
McBean was alarmed
at the news that Hall had brought to him. Eager to get more information
as to what had actually taken place at Waiilatpu, he sent his interpreter,
a man by the name of Bushman, on Tuesday morning to make inquiry. In the
meantime, Nicholas Finley left the mission with the three half-breed boys
that same morning for Fort Walla Walla. Mrs. Saunders, learning from Joe
Stanfield that Finley was going to the fort, hastily wrote a note to McBean
for Finley to carry in which she listed the names of eleven people she
thought had been killed. She included the names of Osborn and Canfield,
as she was unaware that both had escaped. Catherine, in her account of
what happened on Tuesday said that when Bushman arrived at Waiilatpu,
he was so frightened by what he saw and heard that he "came only to the
door and as soon as they assured him that it was so, he left."
86
Catherine also reported
that on Tuesday, Joe Stanfield was busy digging a grave in the mission
cemetery "three feet deep and wide enough for all to lie side by side."
Stanfield had some help from Beardy and two Walla Walla Indians. From
other evidence , it appears that the grave was not as deep as Catherine
indicated. It was shallow, and this may have been due to the fact that
digging was difficult. Until the bodies were collected on Wednesday morning
for burial, they lay where each person had fallen. Some bodies had been
covered with blankets.
About two o'clock
Tuesday afternoon, the unsuspecting James Young was killed while driving
a team of oxen hitched to a wagon loaded with lumber which he had brought
down from the sawmill. The murder took place as he was passing an Indian
camp a mile or so to the east of Waiilatpu. The name of his assailant
is not known. Spalding reported that the Indians, in their frenzied anger
against the white men, even killed the two oxen. Later Stanfield buried
the body near the place where Young was killed. Hall and Young were the
eleventh and twelfth victims There were still two more to die.
Bushman made the
fifty-mile round trip from Fort Walla Walla to Waiilatpu in the same day.
On the evening of his return, McBean wrote to the officials of the Hudson's
Bay Company at Fort Vancouver, giving them their first news of the massacre.
The arrival of this letter at Fort Vancouver on December 6 started the
sequence of events which, after about a month, brought about the release
of the captives...
Among those who were
wounded and who succeeded in finding temporary refuge in one of the mission
buildings at the time the attack began, was W. D. Canfield. He and his
family, being late comers to Waiilatpu had to be content with some makeshift
accommodations in the blacksmith shop. When the attack began, Canfield
was butchering a beef with Hoffman and Kimball. Catherine tells us what
happened: "He [i.e., Canfield] saw his family standing in the yard and
ran over toward them. As he did so, he was wounded in the side [by a rifle
bullet]. Snatching up his youngest child, and calling his family to follow
him, he rushed into the house [possibly, the blacksmith shop]. Going upstairs,
he concealed himself under some old lumber and rubbish where he lay until
night."87 The Indians did
not pursue him into the building. Sometime during the early part of Monday
night, Joe Stanfield came and showed him the trail that led to Lapwai.
Evidently by this time, Canfield was convinced that the Indians did not
intend to kill the women and children; that his life would be in grave
anger should he remain on the premises; and that Mrs. Spalding and her
family should be warned of their danger. He therefore started out on the
120-mile journey to Lapwai on foot even though he carried a rifle ball
under the skin on one side of his body.
Canfield had never
been over the trail before, but after being directed to the trail, he
followed the well-beaten road which led in a northeasterly direction.
Catherine wrote: "After traveling for a day or two, he fell in with an
Indian and his boy driving cattle." Evidently they were friendly Nez Perces
who had no objection to having a white man accompanying them. Canfield
arrived at Lapwai on Saturday, December 4, having taken about four and
a half days to make the journey.
Mrs. Spalding, Mary
Johnson (who had previously worked for Mrs. Whitman) and the three younger
Spalding children were in the Spalding home. Horace Hart and Mr. Jackson
were temporarily absent. Spalding tells of Canfield's sudden appearance.
After being received into the home, he asked: "Has Mr. Spalding yet come?"
Mrs. Spalding replied: "No, but we expect him every day." "The stranger
replied: 'I have heavy tidings, they are all murdered at the Doct's.'
All were silent for a minute. My dear wife simply rose to her feet &
with an unfaltering voice said 'I was not prepared for this, but go on,
Sir, let me hear the worst.' 'Mrs. Whitman is murdered & your husband
without doubt shared the fate of all the women & children who I expect
are butchered.'"88
Mrs. Spalding then
said that she would inform the Indians at Lapwai as to what had happened.
Canfield remonstrated as be feared that they do what the Cayuses had done,
but Mrs. Spalding knew the character of the Nez Perces. She called for
Timothy and Eagle and sent a messenger to Craig's home located about eight
miles up the valley from Lapwai. Craig, who had a Nez Perce wife, was
the only white man who had settled in the vicinity of the Spalding mission.
Although times Craig had given Spalding much trouble, now he willingly
offered shelter to Mrs. Spalding and her family. The next day, Sunday,
an Indian arrived from Waiilatpu with the report that Spalding had fled
on a horse, possibly headed for the Willamette Valley. Although Eliza
was relieved to hear that her husband was alive she remained concerned
not only about his safety but also of her daughter who was among the captives
being held at Waiilatpu.
When Canfield, Jackson,
and Craig urged Mrs. Spalding to move on Sunday to the Craig home, she
refused to do so. So strongly did she cling to the Puritan conception
of strict Sunday observance that she would not travel eight miles even
when grave danger threatened. "We will rest on the Sabbath," she said
and then, paraphrasing a Biblical promise, added: "for he that obeyeth
the commandment shall be rewarded." The example that Mrs. Spalding set
that day in refusing to travel on Sunday was long remembered by the Christian
Nez Perces
On Monday morning
December 6, when Mrs. Spalding and her household were about to leave for
the Craig home, a party of dissident Nez Perces from Chief Joseph's band
suddenly appeared at Lapwai with evident hostile intentions. As with the
Cayuses these Nez Perces constituted only a small minority of the Nez
Perce tribe and, since they lived near the Cayuses had been adversely
influenced by what had taken place at Waiilatpu. They arrived at Lapwai
just as Craig and a party of friendly Nez Perces were about ready to escort
Mrs. Spalding up the valley. The hostile band, seeing that they were outnumbered,
refrained from acts of violence for the time being, but as soon as the
Craig party left, they looted the Spalding home. Mrs. Spalding, eager
to learn what had happened to her daughter at Waiilatpu, sent two of the
most trusted Nez Perces, Timothy and Eagle, to make inquiry.
Before the story
of the escape of the Osborn family from Waiilatpu, can be told, it is
necessary to review what happened to the artist, John Mix Stanley, for
his experiences dovetailed with those of Josiah Osborn. As was told in
the previous chapter, Stanley had visited Waiilatpu, during the first
days of October 1847 but missed seeing the Whitmans as they had gone to
meet the immigrants on the Umatilla River. When Stanley left Waiilatpu,
for Tshimakain on October 4, he promised to return at some later date
in order to meet the Whitmans. After spending several weeks at Tshimakain
and vicinity, Stanley set out for Waiilatpu, on Tuesday, November 23,
having with him one of the most faithful of the Spokane Indians for a
guide, whom the Walkers had named Solomon. Fortunately for Stanley, Solomon
could speak Nez Perce as well as his mother tongue. Stanley and Solomon
camped on Tuesday evening, November 30 about twenty miles from Waiilatpu,
On Wednesday morning, when within about six miles of Waiilatpu, they met
an Indian woman and a boy who gave them the frightening news of the massacre
and that the lives of all Americans, or "Boston men" as they were known
by the natives, were in danger. The Indian woman warned Stanley that he
would surely be killed if he continued on to Waiilatpu,
Heeding the warning,
Stanley and Solomon turned their horses towards Fort Walla Walla but they
had not proceeded far before they met an armed Cayuse who immediately
asked Stanley: "Are you a Boston man?" Solomon, being able to understand
what the Cayuse was saying and wishing to protect Stanley, answered for
him by telling a lie and saying: "No." The Indian then asked: "What then?"
Having come recently from Ohio, Stanley, aware of the danger of saying
that be was a "Boston man," replied: "A Buckeye." This was a new nation
to the Cayuse who had never heard of the nickname for residents of Ohio.
"Oh , said the Indian, "Elysman [English man]," to which Stanley answered:
"Yes." After that, according to Stanley's account, ". . . the villainous
wretch suffered me to pass." Commenting on his deception, Stanley added:
"Let those laugh who will."89
For him, the whole terrifying incident was no laughing matter.
Thoroughly alerted
by this time as to their danger, Stanley and Solomon left the trail for
fear of meeting other Cayuses and spent the rest of that day and the following
night in hiding. They reached Fort Walla Walla early on Thursday morning,
December 3, where they were given more detailed information from McBean
regarding the massacre. Feeling the necessity of informing the Walkers
and the Eellses as to what had happened, Stanley, as soon as he was able
to do so, addressed a short letter to them. He began by saying: "It is
my melancholy duty to inform you of one of the most tragical massacres
on record in Oregon." He then gave the names of nine of the victims including
Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, Andrew Rodgers, and the two Sager boys. His
letter includes the following: "Some attribute the cause to the poisoning
of the Indians, although there are many rumors. As I have been here only
one-half hour, and hearing so much, and running the gauntlet for two days
myself, I am perfectly unnerved and bewildered. Solomon has been faithful
to the last; may God bless him! I am informed that a party of Indians
started to Mr. Spalding's to complete their horrid butchery, also to the
Dalles. Mr. McBean has sent an express to Vancouver requesting them to
send up boats for such as may escape."90
As soon as the letter
was written, Solomon was sent on his way to Tshimakain. He arrived there
on Thursday, December 9. The two families were horrified at the news he
brought. Walker and Eells questioned Solomon closely to make sure that
his story was correct and that it confirmed what Stanley had written.
In a letter to Greene, written the next day, Eells stated: "Almost all
Natives will exaggerate & distort the truth, but I have confidence
to believe that Solomon has endeavored to state to us pretty nearly as
he received it from others. He says moreover that all the different individuals
gave the same account. Or to give a more literal translation of his expression,
'the speech of all went along in the same track."'
The Flight of the Osborns
The Osborn family
had a harrowing experience in their flight from Waiilatpu to Fort Walla
Walla. While hiding under the floor of the Indian room they had heard
the shooting of Mrs. Whitman, Andrew Rodgers, and Francis Sager, and had
heard the dying groans of Rodgers until late in the evening. Even though
Mrs. Osborn had only that day arisen from her sick bed and even though
their four-year-old son, John, just recovering from the measles, was too
weak to do much walking, the Osborns decided on making the attempt to
get to the Fort. There was no other way than to walk the twenty-five miles.
According to Nancy's
recollections, they left about ten o'clock that Monday night. Groping
their way through the darkness of the Indian room, they searched for some
clothing, blankets, and food. "We could find but little," wrote Nancy,
"and did not linger long."91 Osborn
wrote: "Taking John Law on my back, and A[lexander] Rogers in my arms,
we started. The first step outside was in the blood of an orphan boy [Francis
Sager]." According to Nancy, they struck out across the field to the confluence
of Mill Creek with the Walla Walla River. The night was dark as a half
moon did not rise until about midnight.92
Osborn recalled:
'We could see no trail and not even the band before the face. We had to
feel out the trail with our feet. My wife almost fainted but staggered
along." 93 In addition
to carrying his two sons, Osborn also had to carry some of the bedding
and some provisions. No doubt the little girl helped, but Mrs. Osborn
was too weak to assist.
When they came to
the ford across the Walla Walla River, they found the water waist deep
and icy cold. Osborn had to cross five times, to take each of the little
boys, his nine-year-old daughter, and finally his wife to the other side.
Of this last trip, he wrote: "My wife, in her great weakness, came near
washing down, but held to my clothes, I bracing myself with a stick."
Only the great fear of being killed prompted them to stagger on. After
traveling about two miles, Mrs. Osborn fainted. Since they could go no
further, they lay down in the mud among some willows. When daylight came,
they could hear Indians coming and going on the trail that paralleled
the river. The temperature was near freezing. All of Tuesday was spent
in hiding and later Osborn wrote: "The day seemed a week."
On Tuesday night,
November 30, they continued their slow journey. Now they left the bank
of the river with its tangle of willows and shrubbery and ventured to
walk on the trail. Several small streams had to be waded. After only a
few hours of walking, Mrs. Osborn fainted again. Of their misery that
night, Osborn wrote: "[We] crawled into the brush and frozen mud, to shake
and suffer from hunger and cold without sleep. The children, too, wet
and cold, called incessantly for food, but the shock [i.e., the memory]
of groans and yells at first so frightened them that they did not speak
loud."
Another day was spent
in hiding. When Wednesday night came, Mrs. Osborn was too weak to stand.
She urged her husband to take one of the boys and go to the fort for help.
They were then at least fifteen miles from their destination. At first
Osborn rejected any suggestion of leaving his wife and the children, but
she insisted. Finally he agreed to go, as this seemed to be the only possible
way all might be saved. Taking John with him, whom he had to carry, Osborn
started for Fort Walla Walla. Since Osborn also had had the measles, he
found it necessary to rest frequently. He arrived at the fort early Thursday
morning, December 2, and to his dismay was given a cool reception by McBean.
In a letter sent
to relatives in the States dated the following April 7, when memories
were still fresh, Osborn wrote of McBean. "He gave me about a half pint
of tea, and two small biscuits. When we had got warm, I asked for assistance
to bring in my family, but was unable to procure any."
94 Since McBean had sent his interpreter,
Bushman, with news of the massacre to Fort Vancouver, he had only two
hired men with him besides the two priests. By Thursday morning, McBean
had learned of the dispatch of two bands of Indians - one to Lapwai to
kill Spalding if he could be found; the other to The Dalles to inflict
a like fate on Perrin Whitman and others who might be at that mission.
Without a doubt, McBean was frightened at the possibility of the Cayuses
attacking Fort Walla Walla, especially if they learned that he was harboring
one of the Americans and his family who had escaped from Waiilatpu. This
seems to be the only rational explanation for McBean's inhospitality to
both Hall and Osborn. He was made craven by his fear of an attack by the
murdering Cayuses.
Osborn's account
continues: "[I] begged Mr. McBean for horses to get my family, for food,
blankets and clothing to take to them, and to take care of my little child
till I could bring my family to his fort. Mr. Hall had come in on Monday
right, but be could not have an American in his fort, and he had put him
over the Columbia River; that he could not let me have horses, or anything
for my wife and children, and I must go to Umatilla." In other words,
McBean was trying to get Osborn and his family to seek refuge with the
Catholic missionaries at the newly established Saint Anne Mission.
Osborn's account
of his reception by McBean raises serious doubts as to the truthfulness
of McBean's account of Hall's disappearance in his letter to the Walla
Walla Statesman in 1866, to which reference has been made. We have
no way of learning how Hall felt about McBean's alleged insistance that
he continue his journey to The Dalles. Bancroft, in his Oregon, gives
this judgment: McBean was 'below the salt' when compared with other gentlemen
in the company." 95
After McBean's adamant
refusal to provide horses and supplies or to receive Osborn and his family
if they could have managed to get to the fort, Osborn in his desperation
appealed to the priests: "I next begged the priests to show pity, as my
wife and children must perish, and the Indians would undoubtedly kill
me, but with no better success. I then begged to leave my child, who was
now safe in the fort, but they refused." As guests of McBean, the priests
found themselves placed in an embarrassing situation. Evidently they agreed
with McBean's proposal that Osborn take his family to Saint Anne's Mission
on the Umatilla.
At this opportune
moment, when Osborn's every plea for help had been rejected, Stanley and
Solomon arrived at the fort. No doubt McBean was appalled to have still
another American seeking refuge in his undermanned post. There were, however,
some extenuating circumstances which made Stanley's presence more acceptable
than Osborn's. Stanley had not fled from troubled Waiilatpu and hence
had not been involved in the events which had occurred there. Moreover,
he had led a hostile Cayuse to believe that he was an Englishman. Finally,
in case of an attack, here was another man who could shoot a gun.
Rescue
of the Osborn Family
As soon as
Stanley arrived, Osborn turned to him with his frantic appeal for help.
Stanley's response was immediate and sympathetic. After having spent more
than a day and a night in hiding in fear for his own safety, be could
understand Osborn's concern. Stanley offered the use of his two horses
and also gave Osborn some food and clothing, Osborn, greatly relieved,
then asked if Solomon could go with him as he felt the need for a guide,
and someone to help him. Stanley, however, declined this request as he
felt the urgency of sending Solomon back to Tshimakain with word of the
massacre as soon as possible in order to put the missionaries there on
guard.
McBean seeing that
there was a good probability of Osborn finding his family and bringing
them to the fort, then offered to provide a Walla Walla Indian guide with
the distinct understanding that if Osborn were able to find them, he should
take them to the Umatilla mission. McBean even specified that if he could
not find them, then Osborn himself was to go to the Umatilla. Osborn,
in his letter of April 7, 1848, said that one of the priests gave him
a letter of introduction to Bishop Blanchet. Osborn had no alternative
but to accept McBean's terms, as he needed the Indian guide to help him
find his family.
Osborn wanted to
leave his son, John Law, at the fort and Stanley expressed his willingness
to care for the boy, but McBean refused. 96
Fearful of being seen by the watchful Cayuses, Osborn, his son, and the
guide did not set out on their search until nightfall that Thursday evening,
December 2. Since he had left his family during darkness and since the
terrain was strange to him, Osborn had difficulty in locating them. He
dared not shout for fearing of being discovered by hostile Indians. The
whole night was spent in a fruitless, frustrating search. Friday morning
dawned. In desperation Osborn continued looking for his his family in
the daylight. Early that morning, to great joy and relief of all, they
were found.
Osborn wrote that
they had "almost perished with hunger and thirst." While the Walla Walla
Indian went for water, Osborn gave them food. As soon as possible, Osborn
helped his wife mount one of the horses, and after dividing the children
among the three, they started for the Umatilla mission. They had not gone
more than a couple of miles before they met an armed Cayuse who threatened
to kill Osborn. The Walla Walla Indian shamed the Cayuse by asking if
he would "kill an old man that was sick, with a sick wife and children?"
The Cayuse put down his gun and allowed them to proceed. He warned Osborn,
however, that he would surely be killed if he attempted to go to the Umatilla.
Osborn then decided, regardless of the promises be had given to McBean,
that he would return to Fort Walla Walla.
Just when the family
arrived at this destination is not clear, possibly on Saturday morning
if Osborn had felt it prudent to go into hiding the rest of Friday. When
the Osborns arrived at the gate for admission, McBean at first refused
to admit them. Mrs. Osborn said that she would "die at the gate, but she
would not leave." Reluctantly, McBean admitted them and provided a room
where they could stay. Osborn wrote: "We had hardly got warm before McBean
came to me and wanted me to leave my family with him, and go down to the
valley by myself; but I refused to leave the fort and would not go." It
is also reported that McBean provided blankets only after Osborne had
signed a promissory note in payment.97
The Osborns remained
at the fort until all the captives were released and then accompanied
them down the river to the Willamette Valley during the first week of
January. Shortly after their arrival in the Valley, four-year-old John
Law died. The exposure he suffered, no doubt, was a contributory cause
of his death.
In his letter of
April 7, 1848, to which reference has been made, Osborn recounted the
terrifying experiences through which he and his family had passed and
told of the death of his three children, including the baby who died the
day she was born. He ruefully recalled bow happy he and his family had
been in the Willamette Valley before Dr. Whitmanhad persuaded him in the
late summer of 1847 to accept work at Waiilatpu. "Not being satisfied
with doing well," he wrote, "I consented to go."
The survivors who
had been held captive at Waiilatpu, were released in late December, 1847
to Peter Skene Ogden of the Hudson's Bay Company. A ransom of fifty blankets,
fifty shirts, ten guns, ten fathoms of tobacco, ten handkerchiefs, and
one hundred balls and powder was paid to the Cayuse. The Oregon Volunteers
(the first organized militia group for the area) arrived at Waiilatpu
in early 1848 to punish the Cayuse. They found the buildings pushed over
and burned, except for the gristmill which the Indians found to be useful.
The Volunteers rebuilt part of the Mission House and named it Fort Waters.
The First Cayuse War lasted until five men were turned over for the crimes
at Waiilatpu. They were tried and hanged at Oregon City in 1850, although
evidence indicates that one of the men was definitely innocent. The Treaty
of 1855, signed in Walla Walla, placed the Cayuse on a reservation in
Oregon where some still live today (please note that there are no full-blood
Cayuse alive, they have mixed with many other tribes of the Columbia Plateau
and other areas.). Another result of the Whitman Killings was the creation
of the Oregon Territory by Congress in 1848.
This is just a short
summary of events that took place after the killings at Waiilatpu. More
information regarding this period may be found in: Marcus and Narcissa
Whitman and the Opening of Old Oregon by Clifford M. Drury; The
Cayuse Indians: Imperial Tribesmen of Old Oregon by Robert H. Ruby
and John A. Brown; and Juggernaut: The Whitman Massacre Trial, 1850
by Ronald B. Lansing. These books may be found at libraries, or through
the Whitman Mission Bookstore.
Drury's
account of events at Waiilatpu on November 29, 1847
Top of Page
Endnotes
78Spalding,
Senate Document, p. 33.
Back
79Pringle ms., p. 35. Delaney, A Survivor's
Recollections, p. 20, gives a different account of the death of Kimball.
Matilda claimed that Kimball started back to the house as soon as he had
gotten the water and was then killed.
Back
80Clarke, Pioneer Days, II:538, quoting
Catherine.
Back
81Pringle ms., p. 37.
Back
82How Catherine learned these details is not
known. Possibly she got the story from Joe Stanfield.
Back
83Victor, Early Indian Wars, p. 128
Back
84Ricard, Journal, p. 6.
Back
85McBean letter of March 12, 1866, published
in the Walla Walla Statesman. Spalding, in a series of "lectures"
published in this paper beginning February 9, 1866, made serious charges
against McBean. McBean was answering these charges in this letter of March
12.
Back
86Following Bushman's return to Fort Wala
Walla, McBean on November 30, 1847, wrote an account of what had happened
at Waiilatpu to Ogden and Douglas at Fort Vancouver. Published in Oregon
Spectator, Dec. 10, 1847; Victor, Early Indian Wars, pp. 128
ff.; and in Cannon, Waiilatpu, pp. 135 ff.
Back
87Pringle ms., p. 54. Catherine states that
Canfield rushed his family into the emigrant house. In the author's copy
of her manuscript, she intimates that he fled to the blacksmith shop and
then hid in the lumber stored over the rafters. This latter seems to be
the more reasonable of the two accounts.
Back
88Drury, Spalding, pp. 341-2, quoting
from Spalding ms., Whitman College, Walla Walla, Washington, dated Jan.
14, (1851?).
Back
89Stanley to Walker and Eells, from Fort Walla
Walla, Dec. 31, 1847, published in the Portland Oregonian, Aug.
30, 1885.
Back
90Ibid.
Back
91See ante, fn. 73 of this chapter.
Back
92Philip Fox, once Director of Adler Planetarium,
Chicago, in a letter to me dated Aug. 28, 1934, wrote: ". . . in the dates
30 November to 6 December 1847, the Moon was in the last quadrant of its
journey, on November 30 rising about midnight as a Half Moon in the sky
of course until dawn. Toward the end of this period, on December 6, the
Moon would be an exceedingly small crescent, rising just before dawn."
Back
93Spalding, Senate Document, p. 32,
includes Osborn's account.
Back
94Original letter in Whitman College, Walla
Walla, Washington. Copy in Hulbert, Overland to the Pacific, VIII:257
ff.
Back
95Bancroft, Oregon, I:661.
Back
96Lockley, Oregon Trail Blazers, p.
357, quoting Nancy Osborn Jacobs.
Back
97Brouillet, House Document, p. 54,
quoting from a statement made by Stanley. McBean's letter of March 12,
1866 (see ante fn. 85), contains statements which do not agree with earlier
accounts given by Osborn and Stanley.
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