We Who Survived - 1- John Young's Request

1880

John Quincy Adams Young

Recently I have been thinking a lot about how important it is to write down the story of my life. I am still a relatively young man, but as I get older, I might forget things – or lose the capacity to write. And my daughter, Mabel, (bottom row, far left in above picture, as I am far right) is encouraging me, and says she will help me with it. She thinks I should write up the story of our family's move to Oregon, including the experience we had during what is referred to as the Whitman massacre. Of course, I only got in at the end of that experience – and can't really say much about why it happened, other than that the Indians were unhappy with the Whitmans and decided to get rid of them. Of course, many others, who the Indians had no grudge against, were killed as well, including my brother. Mabel has suggested that I write to some of the other massacre survivors and find out their ideas on the subject. Some of them might be thinking of writing up their experiences as well.

I have written an introductory letter to Mrs. Catherine Sager Pringle, a girl I remember vaguely from those long ago days, and will include a copy of my letter to her here.

March 10, 1880

Salt House

Cedar Mill, Washington Co.

Dear Mrs. Pringle,

Please excuse me writing to you like this. I obtained your address through the Oregon Spectator.

I met you briefly when we were children. I want to write the story of my life, which of course includes the time my family and I spent at the Whitman Mission in Oregon, where you lived. I don't want to dredge up bad memories for you being as the Whitmans – who were your adopted parents – were murdered in front of your eyes. But I do want my story to be a true as possible, and as you knew so much more about it than I did, I hoped you might be able to help me recall the story better.

You probably won't remember me. My parents, my two brothers and I went there in 1847, and we worked at the saw mill. We were only there about six weeks before the massacre so I never did see much of you children from there until the Indians forced us back to the mission to work for them. You probably remember my brother James better, as he was the one that made the regular deliveries from the sawmill. He was killed by the Indians when he was delivering a load of wood, for no good reason except that he was a man and therefore a threat to them, and by then they had gotten into killing mode, I think. Then the following Monday, when James hadn't returned, my other brother Daniel went down to investigate.

Here is what Daniel told me about the situation there at the time.

“On Saturday evening, our co-worker, Mr. Joseph Smith, had asked me to go down the next day for
provisions. I didn't wish to go down; and told him if he wanted provisions he could go himself. Smith said if he had a horse he would go. We offered him a horse. He still urged me to go, as there was no
one, he said, to stay with his family. I went down on horseback on the Sabbath, being the next Sabbath after the massacre but we didn't know about it then. We had been living on salmon trout and bread made from unbolted flour without salt.

I didn't get to the place till about an hour after dark, and learned nothing of the massacre till after I'd got into the house. In the room where I expected to find James, I found the others eating supper, with several Indians in the room. At the table was Mrs. Hays, Joseph Stanfield and Mrs. Hall and her family, (all people whose families lived and worked with the Whitmans). About a couple of minutes after he went in, Joseph Stanfield left the table and went out of the house, and was gone for about three hours, no one knew where; but after Joe returned, he said he had started to go to Nicholas Finlay’s, the half-breed’s lodge, but had got lost. Nicholas had come in about half an hour before Stanfield returned. In the meantime I'd learned from the Indian Beardy, through Eliza Spalding (his interpreter – her father was also a minister like Dr. Whitman), of the massacre. This was in short sentences and much confused. Beardy said, however, that the Doctor was his friend, and he did not know of it until a good many had been killed, and he was sorry for what had taken place; he said the Indians said the Doctor was poisoning them, and that was the reason they did it, but he (Beardy) did not believe it. That he was there to protect the women and children, and no more should be killed. During the evening I also learned of the number that had been killed, and of those who had escaped from the place; but it was not known what had become of them.

“I was informed by Stanfield that our brother, James, had met an Indian who had told him to go back to the saw mill and stay away for a week, but another Indian told him he could safely go on for provisions, and that he would go with him. He went on to within half a mile of the mission. The Indians were said to have gone thus far with him. Stanfield said it was there he found him dead,
shot through the head near one eye, and there he buried him.

"Stanfield said also that evening that the Doctor was poisoning the Indians, which had caused the massacre; that Joe Lewis, (the Canadian half-breed)  had heard from an adjoining room one night the Doctor and Mrs. Whitman talking of poisoning them, and that the Doctor had said it was best to destroy them by degrees, but that Mrs. Whitman said it was best to do it at once, and they would be rid of them, and have all their land and horses as their own; and that he Joe Lewis, had told the Indians this before the massacre.

“Stanfield also asked me if I'd heard of his being married. I told him I had heard from James that he was going to take Mrs. Hays for a wife. He said: “We are married, but have not yet slept together.” Isaid: “Yes, I understand, you pretend to be married.” He said: “We are married; that is enough.” I thought it strange why Stansfield hadn't been massacred unless he was a Catholic and the Indians had a soft spot for the Catholics, and during the evening took an occasion, when I thought Iwould not raise suspicions, to ask Stanfield whether he was a Catholic? He said, “I pass for one.”

“I slept at Stanfield's that night; and did not retire till late. Next morning, Crockett Bewley, (whose family were just having a rest there en route west) came into the room wrapped in a blanket or a quilt. Bewley spoke of the Doctor’s poisoning the Indians as something commonly reported among them as the cause of the massacre, but said he didn't believe anything of it, but he believed
Joe Lewis was one of the leaders, and the Catholic priests were the cause of it. Stanfield replied, “You need not believe any such thing, and you had better not let the Indians hear you say that,”
and spoke in a voice as though he was somewhat angry. Soon after this, Bewley left the room; Stanfield turned to me and said: “He had better be careful how he talks; if the Indians get hold of it the Catholics may hear of it.” As soon as I could do it without being suspected, I sought an opportunity to caution the young man, Crockett Bewley who'd been sick so got missed during the massacre, about the danger he thought he was running in speaking thus in the presence of
Stanfield, and asked him if he didn't know of Stanfield being a Catholic? He said he did not. I told him he might have known it from the fact of most French being Catholics. He replied he did not know
of the French being Catholics more than any other people. I told him to be cautious hereafter how he spoke, and he said he would.

“Soon after the conversation with Bewley, I told Stanfield I must return home; Stanfield replied that I
must not, the Indian chiefs would be there after a while and would tell me what I must do; said he did not think I could get off till the next day.

“So I was asked to help make the coffin for one of Sager children who had died the night before. Soon after, the chief Tiloukaikt came. He told me I could not go back till the next day, that he would then send two Indians back with me. I told Stanfield, in the chief’s presence, that I had told our folks that I would be back on Monday if I came at all. Stanfield said that the chief says, “Then you may go. The chief says tell them all to come down and bring everything down that is up there; we want them to come down and take care of the families and tend the mill. Tell them, “Don’t undertake to run away; if you do, you will be sure to be killed; do not be afraid, for they shall not be hurt.”

“The chief had now done talking. Stanfield now told me to caution us at the saw-mill, as to what we should say; if they said any thing on the subject, “say that the Doctor was a bad man, and
was poisoning the Indians.” I got a piece of meat and returned home, accompanied by the Chief's sons Clark and Edward and another Indian, Stickus, and informed the others as to what had taken place, and my father’s first reply was, “The Catholics are at the bottom of it.” Mr. Smith agreed , but said, immediately, we must all become Catholics for our safety, and before we left the sawmill, and
afterward, he said he believed the Doctor was poisoning, and believed it from what Joe Stanfield had told him before about the Doctor’s misusing the half-breeds and children at his mission."

Now I can tell you things from my own experience. The next day, Tuesday, we went down to the mission, accompanied by the same three Indians. I learned from Mrs. Canfield and her daughter, that this same Edward, before he came to us, gave the first blow to young Bewley with his whip, and other Indians finished the slaughter of the sick men. We arrived after dark; and found the young men, Bewley and Amos Sales, were both killed, and their bodies were lying outside of the door near the house where they lay during the night, and Stanfield said he could not bury them until he got the permission of the Indians. The next day we helped to bury them.

Joseph Smith threatened us all with the Indians if we did not obey him. I felt our condition as bad and very dangerous from the Indians, and feared that Smith would join them. He sometimes
talked of going on to the Umatilla to live with them. His daughter was taken by the chief’s sons (first Clark, and in the second place, Edward) for a wife. Daniel told Mr. Smith, were he a father, he would never suffer that, so long as he had power to use an arm; Smith's reply was, “You don’t know what you would do; I would not dare to say a word if they should take my own wife.” We continued
to regard our situation as exceedingly dangerous till we got out of the country.

After the siege was over and we were allowed to go to Fort Walla Walla, my brother Daniel said, in the presence of Mr. McBean, the man in charge of the fort, that he supposed there were present some of the Indians who had killed our brother, and if he knew them he would kill them yet. Mr. McBean said, “Take care what you say, the very walls have ears.” He was very anxious to get us safe to the Willamette River.

Anyway, I am going on too long. I just wanted to remind you of how my family and I were in the bunch that went with you from the Whitman Mission to Fort Walla Walla and then down the river to
Fort Vancouver. I am thinking of writing a book, not just about the massacre and being a hostage, but also about our trip to Oregon and my life since then.

Since I want to include the events of the Whitman massacre, and would like to make sure I have my story right, I think you would have much information to contribute to my research on the subject. I understand that you wrote down what happened shortly after it occurred, and have given lectures to various groups on the subject. I guess I really am curious as to what you and the other survivors have to say about why you think it happened, as much as what did happen. You Sager children probably knew the situation better than anybody else, as you had been living there the longest. I
am wondering about how you feel about the Indians now, having lived among them so long and having had them treat you like that.

It would also be useful to me, if you could provide me with addresses of any of the others who were involved in the massacre - if you have them. I would of course like to speak to you in person, but that is not always easy to do, with the distances involved, so in the first instance, I am looking for starting my research by correspondence.

If you are going to reply to this letter, which I sincerely hope you will, what I would hope for from you is a bit about your lives from the time you moved West - and then how you have progressed in your adult life - and just what you are doing with your life, and how you feel moving West has changed you in any way.

I know that you might well not wish to discuss this subject, due to your painful experience at the time of the massacres - but I am hoping to write an open and honest account from all points
of view.

I eagerly await hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

John Quincy Adams Young