The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1936-08-20

INTRODUCTION: This Is the
seventh Of q series Of eight articles
covering the lives Of Narcissa Prem
IT, Whitman and her husband, Dr..
Marcus Whitman. The Centennial
celebration of the 1855 overland
journey of the Whitman-Spalding
band Of missionaries Is being held
in Walla Walla, August 1916. 1885.
CHAPTER WI
Tom Hill, q Delaware Indian told
tie Nez Perces the lands of his
people had been taken by the
whites, that theirs soon would be
taken. In January 1847, occurred the
most severe cold weather the Walla
Wa1la Valley had known in all
the years the Whitmans had work
ed q Waiilatpu. Craig, q mountain
man settled at Lapwai, aroused the
Indians to hate Whitman and
Spalding because he wanted the
mission property. Joe Lewis, . half
breed whom the Whitmans had be-
friended, proved viciously migrate
ful to his benefactors.
Then came the measles, raging
among the settlers Of the 1047 Inn
migrant train killing half the
Cayuse tribe. The Indians had for
gotten their ancient superstition
that disease was caused b. evil
medicine men, and that such should
be killed. Whitman's teachers had
known nothing Of our modern germ
He could help the suffering but
not stop the plague. Measles patients
were In the mission house kitchen
on the fatal day, November %. 1847.
There was q sick man in the black
smith shop. DR.. Whitman and Mrs.
Whitman were in the dining room
with three sick children. School was
going on as usual.
It was about two o'clock in the
afternoon when an Indian a8ked
to zee the doctor. Dr.. Whitman took
his medicine chest and went into
the kitchen, ready for duty a. al-
ways. While Ti-lau-kait the war
chief, kept his attention, Tan-a-haS.
whose name was The Murderer"
is said to have come up behind
DR.. Whitman, pulled a pipe toma-
hawk from under his >blanket and
struck the doctor on the back Of
but not lifeless.
John Sager, the Oldest Of Narcissa
Whitman's adopted family, drew q
pistol and attempted defense. He
was quickly overpowered. Grue-
some details Of what happened dur
ing the rest Of that drearful day
are given in Marcus Whitman,
Pathfinder and Patriot" by Rev
fellow missionary, Cushing Eells
Many eyewitness accounts have
been published. Altogether, nine
were killed that first day, most Of
them dying slow and cruel deaths.
Mrs. Whitman was the only woman
slain. though the other women and
girls were cruelty treated and the
school children threatened. Ten.
year-old Eliza Spalding was forced
to serve as interpreter, as she was
the only survivor who could talk
with the Indians in their own
tongue. One man who had been at
Whitman's saw mill in the Blue
Mountains came down on Novem-
Der 80 and was killed. Another who
had been wounded on the first day
was killed on the 30th. Two were
not massacred until eight days after
the Whitmans were killed. one man
who escaped from the mission Is
believed to have drowned. Counting
the Whitmans and the men slam
thirteen were killed on the mission
grounds. The captives. mostly wo-
men and children, totaled forty-six
when the two families of settlers
wintering at the mill had been
brought down.
A few escaped. among them were
the Osburns. The father had been
working at flooring one OF the
rooms and hid his family and him
self under the floor until an op'