Jack Paupaw and George White went to their own homes. Jack Paupaw was
a blacksmith by trade and was working in Crescent City. He was an old
pioneer of Crescent City and the Klamath river. He returned to Crescent
City while White went up the river to a place known as Big Bar, thus
leaving McGarvey with the soldiers, as everything was now quiet. Things
proceeded smoothly while the soldiers were there and all thought that
the trouble was forgiven and forgotten and the soldiers were ordered
back to their command.
But the Indians of the Cortep village began to scheme for another plan
for revenge of their lost relatives, but gave up McGarvey and chose
this time a man by the name of Bryson who was the superintendent of the
Klamath Bluffs Mine, situated only about two hundred yards up the river
from the store. Bryson had a miner’s cabin which he lived in while
working at the mines, up from the river out of the way of high water.
The mine was down close to the river. He was coming up the trail to
his cabin for dinner just about twelve o’clock when one of the Cortep
Indians shot him down in his tracks with one of the old muzzle loading
rifles; this Indian was named Lotch-kum. Then all the Indians left for
the timber to get out of the way of the whites and friendly Indians.
This started the row going again and McGarvey barricaded his store
until the friendly Indians came to his assistance. The first family to
come was Weitch-ah-wah (my father) and his brother (my uncle).
At that time they were camped at the mouth of Tec-tah creek, some four
miles down the river from the store, and as soon as they heard of the
killing of Bryson they started for their home at the Pec-wan village
about one mile above the store and on going home went by the store
and stopped to learn the particulars of the killing. McGarvey made
arrangements with Warrots (my uncle) to go up the river and give notice
to the whites, T. M. Brown, the Sheriff of Klamath County, and to the
soldiers stationed at Camp Gaston in Hoopa Valley, some twelve miles up
the Trinity river from its junction with the Klamath. After Warrots had
delivered the message at all points he stealthily returned to his home
at Pec-wan in the night so the other Indians would not find out he was
on this errand against them. On the day following Warrots’s return,
the Sheriff and other white men came among them. George A. White, who
was a cripple as has before been stated, started to walk on the front
porch of the store when some of the angry Indians said to him, Melasses
White you can’t fight, you are crippled (Melasses was his Indian name).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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