Idaho County free press., 1923-06-07
COUNTY
FOLK PICNIC
At SALEM

was not disclosed has sent to the F're'
{ Press a copy of the Oregon Statesman
Salem, for May %, carrying the fol
lowing account of an Idaho and Ne;
: Perce county picnic held at Salem, OF
Sunday, May 20:
Fifty people, former residents OF
Idaho gathered at Wilson park
Sunday afternoon for their first state
reunion in the Willamette valley. II
was not an all-Idaho gathering, how
ever; only the people from Idaho and
Nez Perce counties. A number of
guests came from Portland, few from
McMinnville, and several are from Sa-
lem
! A permanent organization was per-
fected, with J. I. Overman, of Port
land, president, and Allan Mclean, of
Portland, secretary. A committee of
three, one of whom is Mrs Carey r.
Martin, of Salem, will take up The for
mutation of bylaws and permanent
membership plan, and they will report
to the president who will spread the
action before the entire membership.
Started by Elias KiIen
The movement was started in Sa-
lem. by Elias Kilen, of the Ladd &
Bush bank, and Mrs. @. f. Martin. Mrs.
Martin came here from Grangeville,
Idaho, twenty years ago, as a bride
and Mr., Kilen is a later-date Oregon
ian. Charles J. Lisle, of the States
man, published the Standard, at
Grangeville, for a number of years,
just following the great Buffalo Hump
mining excitement, which brought 10-
900 people to the inland railroadless
town, back in 1S9S The town was the
refuge of hundreds of settlers during |
the Nez Perce Indian war in 1877 |
when Chief Joseph, the greatest In |
dian general in the history of his cop !
people, brought his war
riors almost to the log walls of the
fortified Grange hall. The county
contributed almost S300,000,0O0 in
placer gold to the wealth of the world,
Turing the placer gold boom of the
sixties and the seventies. From one
little patch of country, twenty miles
square, ar Florence, near Grangeville,
IN estimated $150,000,0O0 in placer
,old was taken.
Big Picnic Dinner
Not all the Idahoans represented in
he Sunday meeting were of this
'ioneer stock, and not many of them
ave the golden plunder that their
orefathers wrested from the hills,
Mt everybody had a lavish appetite
nd the picnic dinner was worth al
lost as much as all the money A
umber of brief addresses Were made
nth Carey f. Martin as the speaker
, welcome the visitors to Salem.
One Of the interesting guests was
Irs. c. NJ. Kirkwood. living twelve
lies north of Salem. She is proper
an Oregonian, having come to the
ate in 1S43, with the party that
Fought Marcus Whitman back to the
ate in the fall after the Champtoeg
sclaration of independence. In 1889,
RS. Kirkwood made a trip back to
laho, to write up the story of the
ldian war as it was locally told at
She visited the grave of
e thirteen soldiers who had been
He'd and buried in one grave and
e still has the boot of one of these
ave but unfortunate warriors
lncle Joe" Vincent. who was a
Dneer of Idaho, and who served in
e Indian wars of southern Oregon
ring the fifties, had moved over to
angeville and gave her the doll that
lief Joseph's little grandchild played
tn. She still has this historic lit
Indian doll. Mrs Kirkwood plans
have her Indian story put into print
Drtly.
The expectation is thai the next
citing will be on a more cempre-
nsive call, to include all Idahoans
make it a genuine mass conyen-
n h