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The
Great Grave in the mid-19th century. A mound of earth over a
wagon box was all that protected the final resting place of
thirteen people who were killed during the Whitman Killings
in 1847.
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The
middle of the 19th century began with the Oregon City trial and hanging
of five Cayuse for the crime of killing the Whitmans. Their graves
near Portland, Oregon lie unmarked in a bustling city far from their
original quiet
home among the rye grass. At the same time, Waiilatpu, now silent
of singing, talking, and children's laughter, became home to grasses
and game animals as it had been before the first Cayuse made their
home there.
Only
a few years passed before Waiilatpu again saw use by people. Isaac
Ingalls Stevens stopped at the former mission site in 1853:
"November
5 [1853]. We remained with Mr. McBane overnight, and returned to
the fort to-day by way of the Whitman Mission, now occupied by Bumford
and Brooke. They were harvesting, and I saw as fine potatoes as
ever I beheld, many weighing two pounds, and one five and a half.
Their carrots and beets, too, were of extraordinary size. Mr. Whitman
must have done a great deal of good for the Indians. His mission
was situated upon a fine tract of land, and he had erected a saw
and grist mill. From Bumford's to the mouth of the Touchet are many
farms, mostly occupied by the retired employees of the Hudson Bay
Company..." (Stevens, 1900:
403).
Bumford
and Brooke ran cattle at Waiilatpu from 1852 to 1855, leaving at the
beginning of the Second Cayuse War. There was such hostility during
the Second Cayuse War that General Wool closed the entire region to
settlement including Waiilatpu:
"No
emigrants or other whites, except the Hudson's Bay Company, or persons
having ceded rights from the Indian, will be permitted to settle
or remain in the Indian country, or on land not ceded by treaty,
confirmed by the Senate, and approved by the President of the United
States..." (Ruby and Brown, 1989:
240-241).
In
1859, when settlement was finally permitted again, Cushing Eells,
one of Dr. Whitman's former associates, chose to settle at Waiilatpu
and fulfill a dream that Dr. Whitman had during his life. Dr. Whitman
had wanted to establish an academy or college near Waiilatpu, Cushing
Eells saw the dream to completion. He obtained a charter to create
Whitman Seminary in honor of his friend and former colleague that
lived and died at Waiilatpu. Although he did build a cabin and live
with his family at the site of Waiilatpu, he chose to build Whitman
Seminary in nearby Walla Walla after having classes at Waiilatpu for
3 months. The school later became Whitman
College and is a small private college today that is still a memorial
to Marcus Whitman.
Waiilatpu
was continuously occupied from 1859 on. The grasses were cleared,
crops were planted, cattle were pastured -- the wild nature of Waiilatpu
was once again subdued. William Gray, another of Whitman's previous
associates, decided that there should be a fitting memorial at Waiilatpu
in honor of the missionary.
The
1897 dedication of the Memorial Shaft honored the Whitmans fifty
years after their deaths. The obelisk still stands today in
memory of a clash of cultures perhaps long past, but not forgotten
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This
dream came true after Gray's death. In 1897, fifty years after the
Whitmans died, on the hill overlooking where the mission once stood,
a memorial shaft was dedicated. In
addition, a new tomb, the third Great Grave, was erected to house
the remains of the victims that died among the grasses of Waiilatpu
one-half century before. These lonely monuments stood among the grasses
as silent testimony to events not fading in memory despite the passing
of several generations among both the Cayuse and the Euro-Americans.
Next
Time Period
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Written and
created by: Tina Boehle, Whitman Mission National
Historic Site
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Last modified on:
March 3, 2004
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