Blazing the Way; Or, True Stories, Songs and Sketches of Puget SoundDenny, Emily Inez
History
Blazing the Way; Or, True Stories, Songs and Sketches of Puget Sound
Denny, Emily Inez
Indians of North America -- Northwestern States; Oregon Territory -- History; Washington (State) -- History
He had answered that Mr. Denny was not near so high up nor as great as
some others and was always a good friend of the Indians and then carried
him to a place of safety by fast and furious paddling. The one who was
silent during the colloquy declared afterward that he said nothing for
fear they would kill him too.
This exhibition of faithfulness on the part of Indian hirelings is
worthy of note in the face of many accusations of treachery on the part
of their race.
It is my opinion that Arthur Armstrong Denny led an exemplary life and
that he ever desired to do justice to others. If he failed in doing so,
it was the fault of those with whom he was associated rather than his
own.
A leading trait in his character was integrity, another was the modesty
that ever accompanies true greatness, noticeable also in his well known
younger brother, D. T. Denny; neither has been boastful, arrogant or
grasping for public honors.
A. A. Denny fought the long battle of the pioneer faithfully and well
and sleeps in an honored grave.
MARY A. DENNY.
Mary Ann Boren (Denny) was born in Tennessee, November 25th, 1822, the
first child of Richard Boren and Sarah Latimer Boren (afterward Denny).
Her grandfather Latimer, a kind hearted, sympathetic man, sent a bottle
of camphor to revive the pale young mother. This camphor bottle was kept
in the family, the children resorting to it for the palliation of cuts
and bruises throughout their adolescence, and it is now preserved by her
own family as a cherished relic, having seen eighty years and more since
its presentation.
After the death of her father, leaving her mother a young widow with
three small children, they lived in Illinois as pioneers, where Mary
shared the toils, dangers and vicissitudes of frontier life. Was not
this the school for the greater pioneering of the farthest west?
November 23rd, 1843, she married Arthur A. Denny, a man who both
recognized and acknowledged her worth.
When she crossed the plains in 1851 with the Denny company, Mrs. Denny
was a young matron of twenty-nine years, with two little daughters. The
journey, arduous to any, was peculiarly trying to her with the helpless
ones to care for and make as comfortable as such tenting in the wilds
might be.
At Fort Laramie her own feet were so uncomfortable in shoes that she
put on a pair of moccasins which David T. Denny had bought of an Indian
and worn for one day. Mrs. Denny wore them during the remainder of the
journey to Portland.
One incident among many serves to show her unfaltering courage; an
Indian reached into her wagon to take the gun hung up inside: Mrs. Mary
A. Denny pluckily seized a hatchet and drew it to strike a vigorous blow
when the savage suddenly withdrew, doubtless with an increased respect
for white squaws in general and this one in particular.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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