Chapter II: Part 2

Although some pine timber had been handsawed in the Blue Mountains and dragged to the mission by horses, Whitman felt a dire need for a waterpowered sawmill. Among other things, he wanted to replace his leaky, earthen roofs with boards. He picked a spot on a stream in the foothills about 20 miles from the station and, by 1846, had the mill ready for operation. In 1847 a small cabin was built at the sawmill to house two emigrant families whom Whitman hired that autumn for a season of sawing. Physically, Waiilatpu was fast becoming the most substantial and comfortable of all the stations. From time to time, the other missionaries were just a shade envious of the Whitmans.

As the missionaries carried their work into the 1840’s, they continued their efforts among the Indians. Whitman had his greatest success in teaching them the rudiments of agriculture. In 1843 he wrote that about 50 Indians had started farms, each cultivating from a quarter of an acre to three or four. The Cayuse also became interested in acquiring cattle, and by 1845 nearly all possessed the beginnings of a herd.

Much slower progress was made in education and religious instruction. To the Whitmans’ disappointment, the Cayuse became less and less interested in learning the principles of Christianity. The demands made of them were too great for their simple and seminomadic way of life. Then, too, the Whitmans found they had less and less time to devote to Indian affairs. In addition to the multitude of details involved in the everyday job of acquiring food and shelter, the arrival of the annual emigrant trains from the United States demanded much time and energy from the Whitmans. Waiilatpu became not only an Indian mission but also an important station on the Oregon Trail.

At Lapwai, Spalding was having greater success among the Nez Percé and was able to convert several important Indian leaders. In 1839 he obtained a printing press from the American Board mission in Hawaii and printed parts of the Bible in the Nez Percé language. Both he and Asa Smith had difficulty in devising a workable alphabet. But on the second attempt, they contrived one that captured the sounds of the Nez Percé tongue. At Tshimakain and Kamiah the work of teaching and converting Indians proved a laborious and slow task. Although they recognized the difficulties facing them, the missionaries clung tenaciously to the idea of preparing the Indians for the day when white settlers would pour into the fertile lands of the Far West.

Meanwhile, the signs of white migration were becoming more plentiful at Waiilatpu, situated as it was on the main route of travel from the East. One of the ways in which this movement was making itself apparent was in the increasing number of white children who were to be seen at Whitman’s station.

_The Mission Children_

On her 29th birthday, March 14, 1837, Narcissa Whitman gave birth to her only child, a baby girl who was named Alice Clarissa after her two grandmothers. Alice was the first child born of United States citizens in the Pacific Northwest. Her arrival was a great joy not only to her parents but to the Cayuse as well. The Indians had been aware of the baby’s coming, and after her birth all the chiefs and elders of the tribe visited the house to see the _temi_ or “Cayuse girl,” as they promptly named her because she was born on their lands.

That autumn the Whitmans took 8-month-old Alice Clarissa on a visit to the Spaldings at Lapwai. It was time for Eliza Spalding’s first confinement, and Dr. Whitman had come to officiate. On November 15, the baby arrived. The Spaldings named their daughter Eliza, after her mother. Back home again, little Alice Clarissa provided her parents with untold happiness. But that happiness was to be tragically short lived. On a fine Sunday afternoon, June 23, 1839, Alice Clarissa Whitman met death by drowning. Unattended for a few minutes, she had wandered down to the steep bank of the nearby Walla Walla River and had fallen in. Though her body was found but a short time later, all attempts to revive her failed. Her heartbroken parents tried to console themselves with the thought that her demise was the will of God. Yet their loneliness was immense. Before long, however, the Whitmans once again had children in their home to care for and to raise.

The first of these was Helen Mar, the half-breed daughter of the famous mountain man, Joe Meek. Helen Mar’s Nez Percé mother had deserted Meek, and when he journeyed to Waiilatpu in 1840, he persuaded Mrs. Whitman to accept the care of the child. The next year, another little part-Indian girl was added to the Whitman household when another famous mountain man, Jim Bridger, sent his 6-year-old Mary Ann to the Whitmans.

In 1842 two Indian women brought a “miserable-looking child, a boy between three and four years old,” to Narcissa and asked her to take him in. This boy was also half-Indian; his Spanish father had once been an employee of the Hudson’s Bay Company. Narcissa tried to decline the responsibility, but her pity was too great. Taking the child, she named him after an old friend back home, David Malin. Then, when Marcus returned to Oregon in 1843 from his trip East, he brought with him his 13-year-old nephew, Perrin Whitman. Thus the Whitmans acquired their fourth youngster.

The next seven children to be added to the household were all of one family. In 1844 Henry and Naomi Sager left Missouri with six children. On the trail to Oregon, Mrs. Sager gave birth to her seventh child. But tragedy rode with the Sagers. Henry died when the family reached the Green River; a month later, Mrs. Sager died near what is now Twin Falls, Idaho. The children, benumbed by the loss of both parents, were brought on by the wagon train. The women of the train took turns caring for the baby, while Dr. Dagan, a German immigrant, drove the Sager cart with the other six children toward the Whitmans’ mission.

For many days, the emigrants’ wagons had been passing through Waiilatpu. Just before the seven orphans came, Narcissa had written home: “Here we are, one family alone, a way mark, as it were, or center post, about which multitudes will or must gather this winter.” On the morning the children arrived Mrs. Whitman was called to the yard to greet them. There she witnessed a poignant scene.

Before the cart stood the four barefoot girls in their tattered dresses. Afraid of the unknown, they huddled speechlessly, first looking at Mrs. Whitman then at one another, not knowing what to expect. John, the older boy, still sat in the cart. Exhausted but relieved, he bent his head to his knees and sobbed aloud. His brother, Francis, leaned on a wheel and also began to cry. Dr. Dagan, who had been both father and mother to the orphans, stood to one side and, filled with emotion, watched Narcissa murmur a compassionate welcome. She then took the children into the mission house.

At that time Narcissa’s health was not good, and she and Marcus debated that evening whether or not to take all seven orphans into their family. But the plight of the children resolved all doubts. The Whitmans now found themselves directly responsible for a family of 11 children.

In addition to this family, the children of the emigrant families stopped at the mission each autumn and often stayed for the winter. Also present were the children whom the Whitmans took into their school as boarders—such as the young lady whom Dr. Whitman had brought into the world, Eliza Spalding—and the two Manson boys, the half-breed sons of a Hudson’s Bay employee at Fort Walla Walla. Thus, following the death of Alice Clarissa, there was always a large number of youthful voices at Waiilatpu, as indeed there was, to a lesser degree, at the other missions.

_Missions in Oregon_

During the 11 years they operated in Oregon, the American Board stations continually sent home requests for lay assistants to help convert the Indian tribes. Despite these pleas, no additional reinforcements were sent to Oregon after 1838. On the contrary, the mission stations were reduced from four to three. Discouraged, lonely, and increasingly concerned over his wife’s health, Asa Smith left Kamiah in 1841 and sailed for the Hawaiian Islands. From then until 1847 only Waiilatpu, Lapwai, and Tshimakain remained in operation.

In western Oregon the Methodist missions, established with the arrival of Jason Lee in 1834, were suffering difficulties of their own. Faced with a rapidly diminishing number of Indians, the Methodists began to concentrate in the early 1840’s on establishing churches among the new white settlements that were rapidly filling the Willamette Valley. In 1847 the Methodists offered to sell their remaining Indian mission, Waskopum at The Dalles, to the American Board. Whitman, worried that Catholic missionaries would take over the area if the American Board did not, agreed to purchase it. Lacking a missionary to send there, he hired Alanson Hinman and his wife, from the Willamette Valley, to take charge of secular affairs and sent his nephew, Perrin, to live with them.

As early as 1834 French Canadian employees and ex-employees of the Hudson’s Bay Company in Oregon had petitioned the Catholic bishop at Red River in western Canada for priests. At first the Hudson’s Bay Company refused to help priests come to Oregon, but in 1838 it agreed to transport Catholic missionaries across the Rockies provided that no missions were established south of the Columbia River.

The Bishop of Quebec accepted responsibility for sending Catholic missionaries to the Pacific Northwest. As soon as the Hudson’s Bay Company agreed to help with transportation, the bishop sent the Reverend Francis N. Blanchet to be vicar-general of the new area. Joined at Red River by Father Modeste Demers, Blanchet arrived at Fort Vancouver late in 1838.

Because of the company’s restriction, Blanchet was careful not to establish mission stations south of the Columbia. Before long, however, the restriction was removed, and a Catholic mission was established at French Prairie in the Willamette Valley.

LEGEND:
(A)—American Board
(C)—Catholic
(M)—Methodist
Fort Langley
Victoria (C)
Whidby Island (C) 1840
Fort Nisqually (C) 1839 (M) 1840,
Clatsop Plains (M) 1840, (C) 1840
Cascades (C) 1841
Fort Vancouver (C) 1838
Willamette Falls (M) 1840, (C) 1841
Old Mission (M) 1834
Chemeketa (M) 1841
Willamette R.
The Dalles (A) 1811
Clackamas (C) 1841
St. Paul’s (C) 1839
St. Louis (C) 1844
Fort Colville (C) 1838
St. Paul’s (C) 1845
St. Francis Regis (C) 1845
Tshimakain (A) 1839
Fort Okanagan (C) 1838
St. Ignatius (C) 1845
St. Michael’s (C) 1844
Sacred Heart (C)
1842
1843
1846
Immaculate Heart of Mary (C) 1845
The Assumption (C) 1845
St. Francis Borgia (C)
St. Rose Lima (C) 1847
Fort Walla Walla (C) 1838
Waiilatpu (A) 1836
St. Ann’s (C) 1847
Lapwai (A) 1836
St. Mary’s (C) 1841
Kamiah (A) 1839

During 1839 both Blanchet and Demers made extensive tours throughout Puget Sound and on the upper Columbia. While at Fort Colville, near the American Board station at Tshimakain, Demers learned that an American priest, Father Peter DeSmet, was in the Flathead country to the east. Father DeSmet had been sent out to Oregon by the Bishop of St. Louis in answer to a call similar to that which had stimulated the Protestant missions. In 1841 DeSmet founded St. Mary’s mission in the Bitter Root Valley in present-day Montana and, in the next year, the Sacred Heart mission among the Coeur d’Alene Indians, in what is now Idaho.

By 1842 the Canadian and American Catholic missions in Oregon were united under the authority of Blanchet. Soon reinforcements were received from Canada, the United States, and Europe. In 1844 Francis Blanchet was designated as bishop and 2 years later was promoted to archbishop when Oregon was elevated to an ecclesiastical province. The brother of the archbishop, A. M. A. Blanchet, was made bishop of Walla Walla. He arrived at Fort Walla Walla in September 1847, accompanied by Vicar-General J. B. A. Brouillet, six priests, and two lay brothers.

The 1830’s and 1840’s were years of strong antagonisms between the Protestant and Catholic churches in the United States. The missionaries in Oregon shared in this feeling. When Marcus Whitman met Bishop A. M. A. Blanchet at Fort Walla Walla, he was greatly disturbed by the presence of the Catholic missionaries.

Bishop Blanchet proceeded to establish St. Ann’s mission among the Cayuse on the Umatilla River and St. Rose of Lima near the mouth of the Yakima River. The Catholic missionaries unwittingly had chosen a most unpropitious time for establishing these missions. Their beginning was to coincide with the disaster at “the place of the rye grass.”

With the outbreak of violence at Waiilatpu in November 1847, strong anti-Catholic feeling flared up in Oregon that was to color many minds for years to come. The troubles at Waiilatpu, however, were not the result of religious rivalry, and the Catholic missionaries could in no way be rightfully blamed. The tragedy at the Whitman station would have occurred had there been no Catholics in eastern Oregon.

Besides the real and imagined troubles of rival churches during this decade, the American Board missionaries were experiencing difficulties within their own ranks. Out of this dissension came one of the most remarkable cross-country journeys in American history.

_The Ride East_

In September 1842 an alarming letter from the American Board arrived at Waiilatpu. It ordered the closing of Waiilatpu and Lapwai and directed Whitman to move to Tshimakain. Spalding, Gray, and Smith were told to return home.

These drastic orders were the result of letters written by Smith, Gray, Rogers, and others, telling the Board of the many dissensions among the missionaries. Reports were sent to Boston about Spalding’s bitterness toward the Whitmans, about the feud between Spalding and Gray, and about Smith’s constant faultfinding. They told, too, of the inability of the missionaries to agree on policies toward the Indians and toward the independent Protestant missionaries who strayed into the Northwest. The letters recounted in painful detail the petty squabbles that had risen from time to time among all the missionaries.

But before the orders reached Oregon, many of these problems had already been solved. The missionaries, realizing the harm coming from dissension, had agreed to patch up their differences and had had some success in doing so. The Smiths had long since left the mission, and the Grays were about to go. Meeting at Waiilatpu to discuss the orders, the missionaries first decided not to put the directive into effect until the Board should hear of the improvements that had been made. This would take time, for it was not unusual to wait a year or more for an answer to a letter. Deeply concerned over the matter, Whitman made the sudden decision that he should go at once to Boston to talk to the Board’s Prudential Committee. Reluctantly, the other missionaries agreed.

On October 3 Whitman set out on his remarkable ride across the continent in the height of winter. Accompanied by a newly arrived emigrant, Asa Lovejoy, and an Indian guide, Whitman reached Fort Hall on the upper Snake River after 15 days of travel. Persuaded to detour to the south because of rumors of Indian wars east of the Rockies, the tiny party crossed the Uintah Mountains to Fort Uintah, in Utah. The hazardous trip was made through deep snow and in bitter cold.

Whitman’s Ride, 1842
Oregon Trail, 1843
Later cut-offs, Oregon Trail
International Boundaries
St. Louis
Liberty
Independence
{_Whitman_}
Bent’s Fort
Taos
Santa Fe
Fort Uncompahgre
Fort Uintah
{_Oregon Trail_}
Fort Laramie
_South Pass_
Fort Bridger
{_Oregon Trail Cutoff_}
Fort Bridger
Fort Hall
Fort Boisie
Waiilatpu
Fort Walla Walla
Fort Vancouver

Following the Uintah, Colorado, and Gunnison Rivers, Whitman reached Fort Uncompahgre, Colo. From there, he set out for Taos in northern New Mexico, but had to return when his guide became lost. Severe winter storms continued to harass Whitman and Lovejoy, but by mid-December they reached Taos. On the trail to Bent’s Old Fort on the Arkansas River, they learned that a group of mountain men were leaving the fort for St. Louis. Whitman pushed on ahead to catch this party before it left.

Later when Lovejoy reached the fort, he discovered that Whitman had not yet arrived. Sending word to the mountain men to wait, Lovejoy turned back and found Whitman, who in his haste had become lost. Exhausted, Lovejoy stayed at Bent’s Old Fort until summer, when he joined Whitman at Fort Laramie for the return trip to Oregon. On February 15 Whitman reached Westport, Mo. By March 9 he was in St. Louis, and about March 23 he arrived in Washington, D.C.

Even after he reached Boston, Whitman left no written record of his overland journey. Although Lovejoy did write about it in later years, his account includes only the western part of the trip. For the last half of the journey, we must rely on the accounts of those who saw Whitman as he traveled toward the American Board headquarters at Boston. On reaching civilization at St. Louis, it is probable that he gave up the saddle gladly and traveled to Washington by steamer and stagecoach.

In Washington, Whitman visited Secretary of the Treasury J. C. Spencer, an old friend. It is possible, too, that he was introduced to President John Tyler. This stopover in Washington caused many people years later to claim that Dr. Whitman had ridden East to persuade the government to save Oregon from the British, an argument not widely accepted today. Most historians agree that Whitman’s ride was to save the missions and that the trip through Washington was secondary.

The great weakness in the “save Oregon” theory was that it failed to distinguish between the reasons for the trip and the results that came of it. This theory also tended to link the causes of the journey with the results of all Whitman’s later efforts in Oregon, including assistance to the American emigrants and the development of Waiilatpu as an important way station on the Oregon Trail.

When Marcus Whitman arrived at New York City about March 25, he was interviewed by Horace Greeley, the famed editor of the _Tribune_. At New York the doctor boarded the _Narragansett_ and sailed to Boston, where he arrived March 30. Despite the rough seas of the Atlantic coast, this part of the extraordinary trip must have seemed calm to Whitman after the hundreds of miles on horseback through the winter snows of the Rocky Mountains and the western prairie—a journey of hardships rarely paralleled in American history.

In the office of the American Board Whitman was greeted with coldness, but the Board agreed to listen to his reports and arguments in favor of the Oregon field. In all respects, Whitman’s visit was a successful one. The Board rescinded the unfavorable orders and agreed to send reinforcements to Oregon if suitable persons could be found.

His task accomplished and a hasty visit paid to his home, Whitman began his return trip to Oregon in April 1843. At Independence, Mo., he joined that year’s migration of almost 1,000 people who were preparing to follow the Oregon Trail.

_A Caravan on the Oregon Trail_

The wagon train of 1843 was the largest yet to assemble for the trip to Oregon. Its way had been paved by the triumphs and failures of the fur traders, adventurers, missionaries, and settlers who had gone before. Back in 1832, Capt. Benjamin Bonneville had taken 20 wagons beyond the Continental Divide. However, he did not attempt to take them to the Columbia River, which he visited in 1834 and again in 1835. In 1836 Whitman and Spalding set a new milestone by taking a light wagon, by then converted to a two-wheeled cart, as far west as Fort Boise.

The first wagons reached the Columbia in 1840. They were brought from Fort Hall, where earlier travelers had abandoned them, by a group of mountain men who were on their way to settle in the Willamette Valley. The trail was so rough that the men finally stripped the wagons down to their bare frames to get through the sagebrush. The next year an emigrant train of more than 100 people, led by Dr. Elijah White, reached the Columbia, but their wagons were taken only as far west as Fort Hall. It was the caravan of 1843 that brought all these efforts to fulfillment by taking its wagons intact to the Columbia. One of the reasons for this success was Dr. Whitman.

In May 1843 the emigrants held a general meeting at Independence to plan the organization of the wagons. For better control, it was eventually decided to divide the train into two parts: an advance group unencumbered by livestock, and a slower group that would take the cattle. Beyond Fort Hall, where the danger from Indian attack was much less, the train was to split into smaller units, each to proceed at its own speed. The emigrants also appointed a committee to talk to Dr. Whitman to obtain advice on the journey. From his own experiences, Whitman was in a position to offer many sound suggestions.

While the caravan crossed the prairie during June and July, Marcus Whitman remained behind with the cow column. But when the lead wagons reached the mountains in the first week of August, he moved up to the advance party. From then on Whitman was active in helping to guide the train westward. He assisted in finding the easiest fords and in crossing the rivers. He pushed on ahead to locate and mark the best routes. Whenever necessary, he treated the sick and the lame. Above all, he constantly urged the emigrants, some of whom were experiencing great discouragement, to keep on pushing westward so that they would reach Oregon before winter set in. At Fort Hall, the Hudson’s Bay Company trader, Richard Grant, in good faith advised the emigrants to leave their wagons there. But Whitman insisted that the wagons could be taken to the Columbia. Catching his enthusiasm, the emigrants formally hired the doctor to lead them the rest of the way. From Fort Hall to the Grande Ronde Valley, he went ahead of the train marking the route for the wagons to follow.

Just before the difficult crossing of the Blue Mountains, Whitman received word by messenger to hurry to Lapwai where both Henry and Eliza Spalding were seriously ill. To help the emigrants in crossing the mountains, he persuaded them to accept as a guide an outstanding Cayuse leader named Stickus. This chief faithfully and carefully guided the wagons across the timber-covered range and on to the mission station.

After a fast ride to Lapwai, Whitman treated the Spaldings, then hurried on to Waiilatpu. He arrived home on September 28, just 5 days short of a year since he had started on his trip. Stopping only long enough to notice that the first of the emigrant wagons had already arrived, the doctor mounted his horse once more in answer to another summons and rode to the Tshimakain mission to deliver Myra Eells of a son.

By the time Whitman again returned to Waiilatpu, most of the emigrants had already stopped at the mission and had gone on to the Columbia. From the mission’s storerooms, the travelers had refurnished their supplies with wheat, corn, potatoes, beef, and pork raised at Waiilatpu.

This migration of 1843 confirmed Marcus Whitman’s thoughts that his mission was to be an important way station on the Oregon Trail. From then on, by the time emigrants reached the Walla Walla Valley each autumn many were sick, exhausted, or suffering from hunger. Marcus and Narcissa welcomed these people, whether they stopped overnight or stayed for the winter. The sick and injured were treated; produce from the fields was sold or given to the needy; worn-out horses and cattle were replaced with fresh ones from the mission’s herd. A few, not yet aware of the high cost in the Far West of food, tools, and other things needed by the emigrants, criticized Whitman for being mercenary, but most visitors praised him for his aid. He turned no one away. Whitman felt it was his special responsibility to care for the destitute and the sick.

The Oregon Trail was repeatedly changed with the discovery of shortcuts during these years. In 1845 the majority of the emigrants by-passed the mission when a trail was opened down the Umatilla River past present-day Pendleton, Oreg. But each autumn many of the wagons still turned toward Waiilatpu for shelter. The famous as well as the unknown came to the mission: T. J. Farnham, emigrant leader; Capt. John Charles Frémont, army explorer; Paul Kane, artist; and John Sutter, of later California fame. These and hundreds more found comfort and aid at Waiilatpu.

Because Whitman was back at his station and relations among the missionaries were greatly improved, the next few years seemed to be good ones for the Oregon mission. But, despite the outward signs of success, troubles were breeding that would lead to tragedy.

_The Gathering Storm_

One of the results of the increasing number of emigrants on the Oregon Trail was the Cayuse’s conviction that their way of life was in danger. Although the emigrants, up to now, had continued on to the rich Willamette Valley, the Indians feared the day when the settlers would stop on Cayuse land. The Cayuse were quick to identify the Whitmans with the tide of settlers. Tom Hill, a Delaware Indian living among the nearby Nez Percé, contributed to this conviction. He told the Cayuse that before long the emigrants would be taking their lands. This, after all, was what had happened to his own people. He also said that the Whitmans were becoming rich from the sale of their produce to the travelers, and he argued that this wealth should be used in helping the Indians.

The Cayuse’s concerns were intensified by the increasing interest Dr. Whitman was showing in the emigrants. The doctor himself foresaw that the Indians’ mode of living would not be able to withstand the encroachments of the aggressive settlers for very long. It seemed obvious to him that the future of Oregon belonged to the whites. As Whitman turned his attention more and more to the problems of emigration, which he was forced to do by the very presence of the travelers, there was naturally a decrease in the time and effort he could devote to the Indians. Furthermore, the results of more than 10 years labor among the Cayuse offered little encouragement, and he feared that the future would be little better. The Cayuse were quick to sense this change. When they did, they lost their faith in the purpose of the mission and in the missionaries themselves.

These growing resentments and suspicions were heightened in the autumn of 1847 when a measles epidemic spread from that year’s wagon train to Cayuse villages. This was a new disease for the Cayuse, and their bodies had little resistance to it. The effect of the disease in the lodges was disastrous. Within 2 months about half the Cayuse tribe died from measles or from the accompanying dysentery, though the Whitmans tried desperately to relieve the suffering. Panic stricken, the Cayuse lost completely their faith in Whitman’s medicine and turned to their traditional treatments. A sweat bath, followed by a plunge into the cold river, practically assured their immediate death.

With the wagons of 1847, a half-breed named Joe Lewis had arrived at Waiilatpu. Whitman soon learned that Lewis was a troublemaker, but had no success in getting rid of him. When the epidemic struck, Lewis told the Cayuse that Whitman was spreading poison in the air to kill off the tribe. He said that when all the Indians were dead, Whitman was going to take their lands for himself. The more desperate of the Indians believed Lewis and decided to rid themselves of the doctor who now seemed a man of evil design. In this belief, they were encouraged by Nicholas Finley, another half-breed living near the mission. His lodge, a few hundred feet from the mission house, became a headquarters for the malcontents.

In the minds of these Cayuse there was no question of their right to dispose of Dr. Whitman. One of the practices of the tribe for generations was that if a patient of a medicine man, or _tewat_, should die, the sick person’s relative could seek revenge by killing the _tewat_. Since measles was a white man’s disease and since Whitman, a white doctor, surely knew the cure, they believed that he was deliberately withholding that cure from them. Their people were dying, and revenge should be extracted from _tewat_ Whitman.

The Whitmans had long been aware of the dangers that faced them because of the Indians’ attitude toward medicine. But, with their high sense of obligation and responsibility, they had threaded their way through the maze of superstitions, sometimes at great risks, but always with success—until 1847.

Although the majority of the Cayuse had become concerned with the events of that autumn, only a few extremists took part in planning an attack on the mission. As November 1847 drew to a close both the whites at the mission and the Cayuse leaders knew that a crisis was at hand. This crisis grew out of a conflict between two groups holding opposing ideas, each believing itself to be right. The Whitmans believed they were fulfilling a destiny that God had determined for them. The Cayuse believed they were doing what was necessary to defend and preserve their land and their way of life.

_The Massacre_

When Monday, November 29, 1847, dawned cold and foggy in the Walla Walla Valley, there were 74 people staying at the Waiilatpu mission. Most of them were emigrants, stopping over on the way to the Willamette Valley. The mission buildings were crowded almost beyond capacity: 23 people were living in the mission house; 8 in the blacksmith shop; 29 in the emigrant house; 12 in the cabin at the sawmill, 20 miles up Mill Creek; and the 2 half-breeds, Lewis and Finley, were living in lodges on the mission grounds.

The Whitmans, aware that a crisis was at hand, had discussed what they should do. Both Marcus and Narcissa rejected the idea of attempting flight. Dr. Whitman believed that if the Cayuse went on the rampage only he would be involved and the others would not suffer on his behalf. Courageously, the missionaries decided to continue administering to the sick and to attempt to keep peace with the Indians. On that Monday morning, Marcus treated the ill and officiated at the funeral of an Indian child. Narcissa, ill and temporarily despondent, remained in her room until nearly noon, not touching the breakfast brought to her.

After lunch Whitman stayed in the living room, resting and reading. Narcissa, feeling better, was in the room also, bathing one of the Sager girls. Throughout the rest of the mission, the duties of the day were being carried out. Several children were in the classroom where L. W. Saunders had begun to teach that day after a forced vacation caused by the measles epidemic. Isaac Gilliland, a tailor, was working in the emigrant house on a suit of clothes for Dr. Whitman. At the end of the east wing of the mission house, Peter Hall was busy laying a floor in a new addition being built that autumn. Out in the yard, Walter Marsh was running the gristmill, and four men were busy dressing a beef. There were more Indians than usual gathered about the grounds that day, but it was thought they had been attracted by the butchering.

Into this scene walked two Cayuse chiefs, Tiloukaikt and Tomahas. They entered the mission house kitchen and knocked on the bolted door that led to the living room, claiming they wanted medicine. Dr. Whitman refused them entry but got some medicine from the closet under the stairway. Warning Mrs. Whitman to lock the door behind him, he went out into the kitchen. There, Tiloukaikt deliberately provoked the doctor into an argument. While the doctor’s attention was thus diverted, Tomahas suddenly attacked him from behind with a tomahawk. Whitman struggled to save himself but soon collapsed from the blows.

Mary Ann Bridger, in the kitchen at this moment, dashed out the north door, ran around the building to the west entrance of the living room, and cried out in terror, “They have killed father!” John Sager, the oldest of the seven orphans, was also in the kitchen when the two Indians fell upon the doctor. John, recovering from the measles, had been busy preparing twine for new brooms. When the doctor was attacked, John attempted to reach for a pistol but was assaulted by the Indians before he could get it. He fell to the floor mortally wounded. At this time, a shot rang out that was apparently the signal for an attack by the Indians in the yard.

At the sound of the shot, the Indians dropped their blankets, which had concealed guns and tomahawks, and began their attack on the men at the mission. Saunders, the school teacher, was killed while trying to reach his wife in the emigrant house. Hoffman, one of the butchers, was killed while furiously defending himself with an ax. Gilliland, the tailor, was killed in the room where he had been sewing. Marsh was killed working at the gristmill. Francis Sager, the second oldest of the family, was in the schoolroom when the attack began. With the other children, he hid in the rafters above the room. Before long he was discovered by Joe Lewis, and soon he too was shot and killed.

Two others—Kimball who also was working on the beef, and Andrew Rodgers who was down by the river—were wounded; but both were able to reach the mission house where Narcissa let them into the living room. A few minutes later, Mrs. Whitman, looking though the window in the east door, saw Joe Lewis in the yard. She called out to him asking if all this was his doing. Lewis made no reply, but an Indian standing on the schoolroom steps heard her voice and, raising his rifle, fired. The bullet hit Mrs. Whitman in the left breast. She fell to the floor screaming but quickly recovered her composure and staggered to her feet.

Narcissa gathered those about her, including several children and the two wounded men, and led them upstairs just as the Indians burst into the living room. In the attic bedroom, a broken, discarded musket was found, and the refugees used it to fend off the Indians. Finally, Tamsucky, an old Indian whom the Whitmans had long trusted, convinced Narcissa that the mission house was about to be burned and that all must go to the emigrant house for safety.

Narcissa and Rodgers agreed to come downstairs, but for the time being the children and the wounded Kimball were to stay. At the foot of the stairs Narcissa caught a glimpse of her husband who now lay dead, his face horribly mutilated. Shocked and weak from loss of blood, she lay down upon a settee. Rodgers and Joe Lewis picked up the settee and carried Mrs. Whitman outdoors. Just beyond the north door of the kitchen, Lewis suddenly dropped his end of the settee, and a number of Indians standing there began firing at Narcissa and Rodgers. After her body had rolled off the couch into the mud, one Indian grabbed her hair, lifted her head, and struck her face with his riding whip. Mrs. Whitman probably died quickly, but Rodgers lingered on into the night.

Kimball remained upstairs with the children through the long night. In the early dawn of Tuesday, he slipped down to the river to get water for them. But he was discovered by the Indians and killed. On that same day, unaware of what had happened, James Young drove down from the sawmill with a load of lumber. He was caught a mile or to from the mission and slain on the spot. A few days later two more victims were added when the Indians killed Crockett Bewley and Amos Sales, two sick youths who dared to openly criticize the Cayuse for the massacre. These two young men brought the death total to 13.

Peter Hall, the carpenter working on the house, managed to escape when the Indians attacked. He made his way to Fort Walla Walla where he received help from the trader, William McBean. Departing from there, he started across the Columbia River to make his way down the north bank to Fort Vancouver. But he never arrived. Perhaps he drowned in the Columbia, perhaps he was caught and killed. Nothing further is known about him.

A few of the people at the mission made successful escapes. W. D. Canfield, one of those dressing the beef, managed to hide in the blacksmith shop until nightfall. Then he set out on foot for Lapwai, 110 miles away. Though he had only a general knowledge of the trail and the direction, he reached Spalding’s mission on Saturday. But the most desperate escape was that of the Osborn family. Josiah Osborn, his wife, and their three children were living in the “Indian Room” of the mission house. When the attack came, Osborn hid himself and his family under some loose boards in the floor and escaped detection throughout the afternoon and evening. Crouched under the floor, they could hear the groans of the dying and the sounds of looting above their heads.

After the coming of darkness when the rooms above them grew quiet, the Osborns came out of hiding and made their way silently to the river. They started walking to Fort Walla Walla, but after a short distance, Mrs. Osborn, who had just recovered from measles and the loss of a child at its birth, could not go on. Hiding his wife and two of the children in the willows, Osborn continued on to the fort where he eventually was able to get a horse and a friendly Indian to help him. After some difficulty, he found his family where he had left them and took his wife and children on to Fort Walla Walla. The Osborns did not reach the security of the fort until Thursday—after 4 days in the damp cold of an Oregon autumn. Sick and afraid, all five of the family survived the ordeal and eventually reached the Willamette Valley.

At Waiilatpu, the Cayuse were exultant. They had destroyed what they believed had been the cause of all their troubles; once again their lands would be free from the tracks of wagon wheels and the unfathomable ideas of the whites.

Their victory was to be but a short respite. Before long, the Cayuse were to suffer heavily for these deeds. They could not foresee that Marcus and Narcissa Whitman would be regarded as martyrs by their countrymen. They did not understand that Americans could and would wreak a terrible vengeance.

_The Harvest of Violence_

With the exception of David Malin and the two Manson boys, whom the Indians allowed to go to Fort Walla Walla, they held all 49 survivors captive at Waiilatpu. Although most of them suffered greatly from shock and were fearful of the future, most of the captives were not treated severely. Three of the older girls were singled out by Indians who desired them for wives. Especially maltreated was Lorinda Bewley who was subjected to the unwanted attentions of Five Crows, a chief who had not participated in the attack and who had long enjoyed many favors from the Whitmans. During their captivity, two young girls died—Louise Sager and Helen Mar Meek. Both these children had been critically ill with measles before the massacre, and it is possible they would have died even with Dr. Whitman present to care for them.

On Tuesday, the day following the attack, Joe Stanfield dug a shallow, mass grave near the mission cemetery north of the mission house. On the same day, Father Brouillet, one of the priests whose arrival in the vicinity a few weeks earlier had so greatly disturbed Dr. Whitman, reached Waiilatpu. Horrified by the scene of death and destruction, Brouillet helped Stanfield prepare the dead. Rendering “to those unfortunate victims the last service in my power to offer them,” Brouillet officiated at the burial. A few days later wild animals disturbed the shallow grave, and it had to be covered again. In March 1848 the remains, which again had been disturbed by wolves, were placed in a new grave and covered with an upturned wagon bed by the Oregon Volunteers. On the 50th anniversary of the massacre, the bodies were disinterred and reburied in a more fitting tomb, where they lie today.

News of the massacre reached Fort Vancouver early in December. Moving quickly, Chief Factor James Douglas sent Peter Skene Ogden up the Columbia with a supply of goods to bargain for the release of the captives. On December 29, one month after the massacre, the prisoners were exchanged for 62 blankets, 63 shirts, 12 guns, 600 loads of ammunition, 37 pounds of tobacco, and 12 flints.

None of the other American Board missions were attacked. On January 1, 1848, the Nez Percé escorted the Spaldings to Fort Walla Walla, where they joined the 49 Waiilatpu survivors for the journey to Willamette. The Eellses and Walkers continued to live among the Spokan until the following spring when they, too, left for Oregon City. Thus the activities of the American Board came to an end in the Pacific Northwest.

When Gov. George Abernethy, head of the provisional government in Oregon Territory, heard of the massacre, a company of riflemen was enrolled to punish the Cayuse. Soon the call was increased to 500 volunteers. At the end of February the volunteer soldiers reached the Walla Walla Valley. The Cayuse fled to the mountains north of the Snake River, but the disorganized and poorly disciplined troops did not pursue them far. These volunteers stayed at Waiilatpu until early summer. Then, leaving behind a guard of 50 men at the mission—by now called Fort Waters—the rest returned home.

After 2 years of wandering and hardships, the Cayuse gave up five of their men in an effort to make peace with the whites. These five were arrested for murder and tried by jury in Oregon City. All five were found guilty (although one of them probably took no part in the massacre) and were hanged in 1850. There is bitter irony in the fact that the hangman was Joe Meek, the father of Helen Mar. The Indians’ problems were not solved by the hanging. In fact, the time of troubles was just starting. For the next generation intermittent Indian wars plagued the Pacific Northwest; but the Cayuse were never again a source of real trouble.

At the time that he dispatched the Oregon Volunteers, Governor Abernethy and the provisional legislature sent emissaries to Washington (led by Joe Meek) to call attention to the state of affairs in Oregon. News of the massacre moved Congress to act, and in August 1848 a bill was passed creating the Territory of Oregon. Thus did Marcus and Narcissa Whitman serve the Pacific Northwest and their country after death.

Alive, they had striven to prepare the Cayuse for the civilization that was sure to engulf them. When the emigrants did arrive, the Whitman mission became a haven in the wilderness for these weary wanderers. The Whitmans’ deaths had the immediate result of creating the first formal American territorial government west of the Rocky Mountains. Today, the story of the Whitmans serves to inspire all people who would pursue the way of high principles and ideals. Events at Waiilatpu were climaxed with disaster, but from this tragedy there shines a rare courage, dedication, and strength that men will ever need.

_Preservation of the Past_

For a brief time in 1848, the Oregon Volunteers occupied the mission in their unsuccessful campaign to punish the Cayuse. Building an adobe wall around the mission house, they named it Fort Waters. In 1859 the Reverend Cushing Eells, the former associate of Dr. Whitman, established a claim on the former mission site and lived there until 1872, when his house burned down. His great achievement during these years was the founding of Whitman Seminary (now Whitman College) in the new community of Walla Walla, 6 miles east of the mission site.

For the next few generations the land that Dr. Whitman first tilled continued to be farmed by a number of owners. In 1897, on the 50th anniversary of the massacre, Mr. and Mrs. Marion Willard Swegle donated about 8 acres, including the site of the Great Grave and the Memorial Shaft Hill, to a group of citizens interested in perpetuating that historic spot. As the 100th anniversary of the Whitmans’ arrival at Waiilatpu approached, public-spirited citizens initiated efforts to acquire and preserve the land on which the mission itself had been located. In 1936 the Whitman Centennial Co. acquired 37½ additional acres of land, which included the building sites. These two tracts were donated to the Nation, and on January 20, 1940, Whitman National Monument was formally established.

In 1961 an additional 45 acres of land were purchased by the Federal Government, pursuant to an Act of Congress, to permit the proper development of the monument. In 1962 Congress changed the name of this area to Whitman Mission National Historic Site.

TESTIMONY FROM THE EARTH: A FOLIO

_About Your Visit_

Whitman Mission National Historic Site is 6 miles west of Walla Walla, Wash., just off U.S. 410. Walla Walla is served by an airline, two railroads, and bus-lines. Since there is no public transportation between the town and the monument, you must arrange your own transportation between these two points.

The grounds of the historic site are open from 8 a.m. until dark. A self-guiding system of trails enables you to tour the mission grounds and see the great grave and the memorial shaft. Markers, pictures, wayside exhibits, and an audio system are located along the trails. Special guide service is available to groups making advance arrangements with the superintendent. In summer, free guided tours are usually available on weekends without prior arrangement.

A visitor center housing a museum and a small auditorium is open from 8 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. every day except Christmas. The museum tells the story of the missionaries in the Pacific Northwest, especially that of the Whitmans. Illustrated talks about the missionary era and special programs are given in the auditorium. Uniformed personnel are stationed at the visitor center, where free informational literature and sales publications of special historical interest are available.

_Administration_

Whitman Mission National Historic Site is administered by the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.

The National Park System, of which this Site is a unit, is dedicated to conserving the scenic, scientific, and historic heritage of the United States for the benefit and inspiration of the people.

Development of the site is part of MISSION 66, a dynamic conservation program to unfold the full potential of the National Park System for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations.

A superintendent, whose address is Whitman Mission National Historic Site, Route 2, Walla Walla, Wash., 99362, and whose offices are in the visitor center, is in immediate charge.

_America’s Natural Resources_

Created in 1849, the Department of the Interior—America’s Department of Natural Resources—is concerned with the management, conservation, and development of the Nation’s water, wildlife, mineral, forest, and park and recreational resources. It also has major responsibilities for Indian and territorial affairs.

As the Nation’s principal conservation agency, the Department works to assure that nonrenewable resources are developed and used wisely, that park and recreational resources are conserved, and that renewable resources make their full contribution to the progress, prosperity, and security of the United States—now and in the future.

_Related Areas_

Included in the National Park System are these other areas commemorating phases of early western history: Jefferson National Expansion Memorial National Historic Site, Mo.; Homestead National Monument of America, Nebr.; Chimney Rock National Historic Site, Nebr.; Scotts Bluff National Monument, Nebr.; Fort Laramie National Historic Site, Wyo.; Grand Teton National Park, Wyo.; Custer Battlefield National Monument, Mont.; Big Hole National Battlefield, Mont.; Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, Wash.; McLoughlin House National Historic Site, Oreg; and Fort Clatsop National Memorial, Oreg. The nearby city of Walla Walla has preserved the military cemetery of the U.S. Army Post, Fort Walla Walla.

_Suggested Readings_

Bagley, Clarence B. ed., _Early Catholic Missions in Old Oregon_. 2
vols. Lowman & Hanford Company, Seattle, 1932.

Bancroft, Hubert Howe, _History of Oregon_, 2 vols., (vol. 2,
1834-1848). The History Publishers, San Francisco, 1886.

Bischoff, William N., S.J., _The Jesuits in Old Oregon, 1840-1940_.
Caxton Printers, Caldwell, Idaho, 1945.

Brosnan, Cornelius J., _Jason Lee, Prophet of the New Oregon_. The
MacMillan Company, New York, 1932.

Drury, Clifford M., _Marcus Whitman, M.D.: Pioneer and Martyr_. Caxton
Printers, Caldwell, Idaho, 1937.

Elliott, T. C., _The Coming of the White Women_. Oregon Historical
Society, Portland, 1937.

Garth, Thomas R., “The Archeological Excavation of Waiilatpu Mission.”
_Oregon Historical Quarterly_, XLIX, 117-36 (June 1948).

Haines, Francis, _The Nez Percés: Tribesmen of the Columbia Plateau_.
University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 1955.

Hulbert, Archer B. and Dorothy P., eds., _Marcus Whitman, Crusader_. 3
vols. Stewart Commission of Colorado College and the Denver Public
Library, Denver, 1936, 1938, 1941.

Jones, Nard, _The Great Command: The Story of Marcus and Narcissa
Whitman and the Oregon County Pioneers_. Little, Brown, and
Company, Boston, 1959.

Lavender, David, _Land of Giants: The Drive to the Pacific Northwest,
1750-1950_. (Mainstream of American Series, Lewis Gannett, ed.)
Doubleday & Company, Garden City, N.Y., 1958.

★ U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1964 O-747-534

NATIONAL PARK SERVICE HISTORICAL HANDBOOK SERIES

Antietam
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The Lincoln Museum and the House Where Lincoln Died
Manassas (Bull Run)
Montezuma Castle
Morristown, a Military Capital of the Revolution
Ocmulgee
Petersburg Battlefields
Richmond Battlefields
Saratoga
Scotts Bluff
Shiloh
Statue of Liberty
Vanderbilt Mansion
Vicksburg
Whitman Mission
Wright Brothers
Yorktown

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Transcriber’s Notes

—Silently corrected a few typos.

—Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook
is public-domain in the country of publication.

—In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by
_underscores_.