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
"Then we moved out to the Tualatin Plains, where we wintered in a
barn, with three other families, each family having a corner of
the barn, with fire in the center and a hole in the roof for the
smoke to go out. My father went to work for a man by the name of
Baxton, as all my father was worth in money, I think, was
twenty-five cents, or something like that. He arrived with a cow,
calf and three oxen, and had to support his family by mauling
rails in the rain, to earn the wheat, peas and potatoes we ate, as
that was all we could get, as bread was out of the question.
Shortly after father had gone to work my little brother had a
rising on his cheek. It made him so sick that mother wanted us
little tots to go to the place where my father was working. It
being dark, we got out of our way and went to a man, who had an
Indian woman, by the name of Williams. In the plains there are
swales that fill up with water when the heavy rains come, and they
are knee deep. I fell in one of these, but we got to Mr. Williams
all right. But when we found our neighbor we began crying, so Mr.
Williams persuaded us to come in and he would go and get father,
which he did, and father came home with us to our barn house. My
little brother got better, and my father returned to his work
again.
"Among the settlers on the Tualatin Plains were Mr. Lackriss, Mr.
Burton, Mr. Williams and General McCarver, who had settled on
farms before we came, and many a time did we go to their farms
for greens and turnips, which were something new and a great
treat to us.
"Often the Indians used to frighten us with their war dances, as
we called them, as we did not know the nature of Indians, so, as
General McCarver was used to them, we often asked him if the
Indians were having a war dance for the purpose of hostility. He
told us, that was the way they doctored their sick.
"General McCarver settled in Tacoma when the townsite was first
laid out and is well known. He died in Tacoma, leaving a family.
"After we moved out to the Tualatin Plains, many a night when
father was away we lay awake listening to the dogs barking,
thinking the Indians were coming to kill us, and when father came
home I felt safe and slept happily.
"In the spring of 1845 my father took a nice place in West
Yamhill, about two miles from the Willamette River and we had
some settlers around, but our advantage for a school was poor, as
we were too far from settlers to have a school, so my education,
what little I have, was gotten by punching the cedar fire and
studying at night, but, however, we were a happy family, hoping
to accumulate a competency in our new home.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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