The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1905-03-21
MRS. WARREN, SURVIVOR OF
OF WHITMAN MASSACRE, TO
MEET OLD PIONEERS.
Will Be Accompanied to Exposition by
Her Daughter and Grand
daughter.

With the proud distinction or be-
ing the oldest living white child of
the famous Marcus Whitman expedi-
ton, Mrs. Eliza Warren of Chelan and
we'll known in Walla Walla where she
has often visited, is planning to visit
the Lewis and Clark exposition this
summer where she expects to meet
many old pioneers of the northwest.
Mrs. Warren will be accompanied by
her daughter, Mrs. w. M. Illsley, and
her granddaughter, Mrs. John Flirk
Blackmore, of Seattle, so that Wash
ington will furnish three living de-
scendants in direct line of members of
the Whitman band.
Mrs. Warren is the daughter of Rev.
and Mrs. H. H. Spaulding, and the
mother was one of the two brides of
that expedition. Her father was one
of the best known missionaries in the
northwest, and his name is still held
in loved remembrance by the Nez Perez
Indians, among whom he labored.
Rev. Mr.. Spaulding and his bride left
New York city, February 1, 1886, with
the intention of laboring among the
Usage Indians, but they were persuad
ed a short time later to join the Whit
man party, which was destined to
travel across the Rocky Mountains to
country.
A Sister Drowned.
Mrs. Warren was born November Is,
1897. A little daughter was born to
Rev. and Mrs. Whitman the preceding
April, but she was drowned when 2
years of age, so that Mrs. Warren is
the oldest white person now living who
was a member of that party. She was
born at Lapwai, which is in what is
now known as Idaho, but which was
then part Of the great Oregon coun-
try, and her mother was one of the
first two white women to cross the
Rocky mountains, Mrs. Whitman be-
ing the other.
Mrs. Warren knew Chief Joseph
when ne was a boy at Lapwai, and she
knew his father, who was a famous
chief among the Nez Perces. When
she was 10 years old, ner father
brought her to the Walla Walla coun-
try, where Dr. Whitman and his wife
had settled, so that she could attend
school. That winter DR.. Whitman and
fourteen white immigrants who were
resting there were massacred by the
Cayuse Indians. The lives of the
women and children were spared, but
they were kept captives three weeks.
Mrs. Warren talks interestingly Of
those trying times.
Commander Ogden of the Hudson
Walla Walla with a body of men and
rescued the captives, taking them to
Portland. 1t was December and the
women and Mrs. Spaulding contracted
a severe cold during the trip. This cold
developed later into consumption and
she died when her daughter, now Mrs.
Warren, was 10 years of age. Rev.
j Mr.. Spaulding died at Lapwai in 1874.
| Mrs. Warren was married when she
| was 16 years old to Andrew J. Warren,
a stockman, in the Willamette valley.
| Mrs. Warren has visited her birth
place, Lapwai, but once since she left
it, and that was forty-s six years later.
Even with the lapse of nearly half a
century she found one old Indian VINO
remembered her, and tears of joy
streamed down his wrink1ed face when
he clasped her hand, for he had
rocked her as a baby.
| Mrs. Warren saw Portland for the
first time in 1915, and at that time she
says there was but one house there
and that was made of logs. She made
that trip from Lapwai on a pony, ac-