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There is a mystery here at Whitman Mission National Historic
Site. The Whitman Mission story is rather like a puzzle and
the solution of this mystery would be one of the last pieces
needed to finish this puzzle. The mystery begins on a day
in June when a little girl, just past two years of age, goes
undetected to the river near her home to get a cup of water,
falls into the water and drowns. Her grief stricken parents
lay her to rest in a grave near their missionary home. As
years pass, those who visited the mission were often shown
the well tended site, surrounded by a white picket fence.
By
now you realize, of course that this mystery concerns Alice
Clarissa, only child of Marcus and Narcissa Whitman. Details
about her short life are well documented, but unfortunately
all traces of Alice's last resting place are gone.
Today,
the pioneer cemetery is located behind the Great Grave that
holds the remains of Marcus and Narcissa Whitman and others
who died that tragic day in 1847. There is much evidence that
this cemetery is not the Whitman Mission cemetery. When Cushing
Eells, a missionary associate of Dr. Whitman, who was very
familiar with the location of the mission cemetery, visited
the site in 1859 he could not readily locate it. The mission
cemetery, the white picket fence around Little Alice's grave,
the other wooden markers, had all been reclaimed by the land,
bunch grass, sagebrush, rye grass, etc. It appears the site
of the pioneer cemetery was selected by residents of the area
who selected it as being the best location for it at the time
and near the grave of the Whitmans.
This
brings us to the location of the Mission Cemetery. It appears
that Marcus Whitman selected a site near the base of the hill,
the present day Shaft Hill. The need for a cemetery began
early, when soon after Whitman's arrival in 1836, a black
man, named Hines who had accompanied the Whitman party west,
died.
In the
following years, several more folks also passed away at the
mission and it seems safe to assume they were also laid to
rest in the mission cemetery. When the "Massacre" occurred
in 1847, the bodies of Marcus, Narcissa and the others were
buried. According to the Sager sisters, Marcus and Narcissa
were placed in a mass grave adjacent to Alice Clarissa's grave
site. Others who survived or who pass through soon after also
indicated the mass grave and that of Alice were in the same
area.
The mass
grave subsequently may have been moved a month later by the
Oregon Volunteers as they had to rebury the victims. The first
grave site, hastily dug, only two or three feet deep according
to survivors, had been ravished by coyotes or wolves. Dispersed
section of the bodies were gathered from great distances from
the mission grounds. The remains were gathered together, reburied,
a wagon box turned over them and a large mound of dirt put
on top to protect the grave site. This action helped identify
the location of the mass grave in later years. In 1897 when
the granite tomb was placed over the grave site, the remains
were placed in a coffin and the site may have been moved slightly
again.
It is
also important to note the changes in the contour of the land
since then. It is known that during the years 1952-1953 the
owner of the land northwest and west of the grave site decided
to level out somewhat an eight foot embankment for the purpose
of ease in farming. Knowing this, we have to take into account
that this embankment was there in the 1830's and basically
extended the rise of the northwest section of the shaft hill.
Let us
now look at the evidence that points to the location of the
Mission Cemetery. First white men traditionally bury their
dead on flat ground, not sloped ground. Secondly, the map,
(Illustration A), is a drawing Narcissa sent to her father.
It is clearly marked with the letter "S". This "S" according
to Narcissa stands for the cemetery.
Conclusions
are thus: The pioneer cemetery has nothing in common with the
mission cemetery. Using the evidence gathered we find that the
possible site of the mission cemetery lies within an arc at
the base of the Shaft Hill, (Illustration B), on ground that
was flat and within sight of the mission house. There is also
good evidence that those buried in the Mission Cemetery were
placed in wooden caskets held together with nails. Even if the
area within the arc has been tilled in the years since, we must
assume that those laid there were in graves four to six feet
deep as was and still is common. Ground is usually tilled to
a depth of no more than a foot or so. Therefore, human remains
at that depth would not be disturbed.
Now we
come to the reason for all of this and why it is important
to the Whitman Mission story. The site of the grave of the
only child of Marcus and Narcissa is the largest piece missing
from our puzzle and our unsolved mystery. Today's knowledge
and technology are tools that early day NPS archeologists
could only dream about and may now make it possible to complete
our puzzle.
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