The Van Buren press. [volume] (Van Buren, Ark.) 1859-1914, 1878-11-05
AN OLD ARKANSAS CITIZEN.
Interesting Scraps of Her Early His
tory.
RussrILyIIIr. ARK. Oct %


EDITORS GAzETTE; The reading OF
| several interesting communications in
your late issues, from Judge Eakin the
Rev. Mr.. Stout and others, in regard to
the organization of State Historical
/ Society, in Little Rock, in which some
interesting scraps of history are given,
reminds me of the fact that there is an
old lady, residing in this county, and
near the old village Of Norristown, who
is, perhaps, the most historical woman in
the State. We mean Mrs. Abbey Wash
burne, widow Of the late Iephas Wash
burne, an Old School Presbyterian prea
| cher, and Indian Missionary, whose his.
tory, together with that of his widow, is
| well-known to many of the old citizens
of Arkansas.
In the year 1920 Mrs, Washhurnc and
her husband came up the Arkansas river
to Arkansas Post, on the first steamboat
that ever aseended that river. They re-
manned a number of days at the Post,
and while there, Mr., Woodruff. the foun
der OF the Gazette, arrived there with a
printing press Mr.. Washhurue employ
ed a number of French boatmen to bring
them up to what was afterwards called
Dwight Mission, on the Illinois Bayou,
at or very near where the Little Rock
and Fort Smith Railroad now crosses
| that stream. Those rude hoatmen had a
sort of keel boat into which these mis-.
slonaries and their baggage and supplies
were placed, and they were one month
! coming up from the Bost to Dwight Mis-
sion. They reached Little Rock on Sat
urday, and remained there on Sunday.
The town did not contain a dozen fami
! lies. There never had been sermon
preached in the place, Mr.. Wash burne,
being invited by the people, on that Sun.
day preached to them the first sermon
ever delivered in Little Rock
They reached their destination in the
summer or fall of 1920, and established
at the place named Dwights Mission,
among the Cherokee Indians, naming it
in honor of old Dir. Dwight, of Dart.
mouth College, New Hampshire. 70
show the uninhabited condition of the
country at that time, she says they had
not been at Dwight long, before they
NSlS oht vi lHCNtSitlt, VI lltIl IluN
| ing been sick with chllls, and they gave
an Indian $50 to go to Arkansas Post
tor medicine. He made the trip by land,
and was gone three weeks.
A large Mission School, taught by Mr..
Washburne, Mrs Washburne, and sever
al other assistants, was at once establish
ed at Dwight, for the purpose of educa-
ting The Indians, and was kept up until
the Indians were sent to the Indian Ter
ritory, about the year 1880. They then
went to the Cherokee Nation, aud estab.
lished new Dwighl's Mission, on the
Salisau, near the Arkansas river, and re-
NAMED there, teaching the indiana, as
missionaries, thirteen years longer, when
| they returned to Arkansas, and Taught q
school, many years, in Benton county,
and then elsewhere in Northwest Arkan,
sas, and finally settled on u little farm,
as we said before, near Norristown
where, with two widowed daughters--al
the children she has liying--and then
children, she will, no doubt, spend the
remainder of her days,
Mrs. Washhurne Is eighty two years o
kansas. Two generations have passed
away, since her husband first ascended
the Arkansas river. She is genial old
woman, celebrated for her piety and in
| telligence; and her knowledge of the
Indians in Arkansas, and, also. in the
Indian Territory-espccialy the Chero.
kees--smoug whom she spent twenty
+ two years with her husbanl, laboring as
missionaries, is probably more extensive
than that of any human now living in
Arkansas.
A great many Of the old and middle
aged men, who are now the leading spir
its, among the Cherokees, were pupils OF
hers and her husbands, at these Indian
Mission Schools and what they did in
educating and Outstanding the Indians,
has given them a warm place in the
hearts and memory Of that people, that
will last as long as there is an Indian
living that remembers the name of the
Washburnes.
Edward Z. Washburne, the young ar
tisi who painted the backswoods scene,
called the " Arkansaw Traveller" was
her youngest son. He and his father
both died in Little Rock, just before the
commencement Of the late civil war, We
believe, at the house of the Rev. Dr.
Welch.
Mrs Washburne was well acquainted
with all the State and United States off.
cials of Arkansas, from 1920 to 1886
Gen. Gaines, Gen. Arbuckle, and many
drher army officers were often at the
Mission When the Mission and school
were removed, in 1880, from Old to New
Dwight, in the Cherokee Nation, they as
cended the Arkansas on a steamboat.
Soon after she and her husband had 90,
upon the boat, they noticed very large
intelligent looking man, travelling as a
passenger, and they very soon learned il
was Gen. Houston. who had just resign
ed his Office as Governor of Tonnassoo,
and was on his way to the Cherokee Ma
| ton. He appeared to be in so much
trouble that Mr. Washburne went to him
in his state-room, thinking he was sick
and asked him if he could do anything
for him Houston thanked him very po-
I,cly and told him that his suffering was
not physical, but mental Houston re,
manned for years at The house Of his
friend, a wealthy Cherokee named r. dg-
ers, and she saw him very frequently.
His Indian life was, in many respects,
one not to be commended, and when the
war between Texas and Mexico broke
out, he left for Texas, and when she