A Survivor's Recollections of the Whitman MassacreSager, Matilda
History
A Survivor's Recollections of the Whitman Massacre
Sager, Matilda
Whitman, Marcus, 1802-1847
Tuesday morning, Miss Bewley made some gruel, hoping to be able to send
it over to her sick brother. Chief Tilokaikt came in and she told him
of her brother and he was very sympathetic and took a number of us in
charge to go over to the Mission house. Some of the party went inside
of the fence on the north side, while some took the south side which
was the public road. When we were a few yards from the house, we saw
Mr. Sander's body lying there; then we heard a cry and saw Catherine
and Elizabeth coming, each carrying a sick child in their arms. The
women hastened to meet them and helped them to the house, which had
sheltered us through the night. Poor Mary Ann Bridger was tottering
along by herself. They had to leave Helen Meek alone and we could hear
her screaming and begging to be taken also, disregarding Catherine's
assurance that she would soon return for her. At last all the sick ones
were transferred to the immigrant house, save Mr. Bewley; and Mr.
Sales, who was also very ill in the blacksmith shop. Sister Louise died
five days after this and Helen Meek a few days after her.
This same morning (Tuesday) we were given muslin to make sheets to wrap
the dead in and Wednesday morning Joe Stansfield and the women helped
to cover and sew them in these sheets. He had dug a long trench about
three feet deep and six feet long; then all the bodies were put in a
wagon and hurried to the grave. They were all piled up like dead
animals in the wagon bed. A runaway occurred and scattered some of the
bodies along the road and they had to be picked up. There was a
Catholic father who was visiting the Indians and he went up to the hole
where they were burying them and helped. He would take hold of one end
of a body and Joe Stansfield hold of the other and they would lay them
in this shallow place until all the victims were ranged side by
side--Mr. and Mrs. Whitman, then the two Sager boys and Mr. Rogers, and
so on, then covered with the earth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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