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Text originally published in 1951 under the same title.
Pickle Partners Publishing 2015, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.
Publishers Note
Although in most cases we have retained the Authors original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern readers benefit.
We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.
THE UMATILLA TRAIL: PIONEER DAYS IN THE WASHINGTON TERRITORY
BY
HELGA ANDERSON TRAVIS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS
REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER
DEDICATION
Dedicated to Marie Smith and Minnie Travis Wheeler, pioneer mothers of Horse Heaven, and to my husband, whose understanding and encouragement has never failed me.
H. A. T.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
To all those who have helped by giving me information about the old timers, I want to express my thanks and appreciation, especially to Mr. and Mrs. W. F. Sonderman, Mr. and Mrs. Horace Dimmick, Nina Buck, Mrs. Emma Mathews, Charles Tyacke, Paul Craddock, Mr. and Mrs. Will Webber, Ed Layton, Billy Rasmussen, Harry Pearson, Clara Travis, Edith Hines, Maude Denson, Bernice Tomaske, O. K. Williamson, Alec McIntyre, Ed Bean, Winifred McB. Christen, Frank Richman, and the Prosser Record-Bulletin.
H. A. T.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
- Autograph Verse From John Webber to His Sister Minnie
- Mary Webber
- Solomon Webber
- Ladies Hall at Whitman College, With Minnie Sitting on the Steps
- The Travis Threshing Outfit
- The First Car in Horse Heaven, or in Benton County an Oriole Owned by Nat Travis
- Bedrock Springs
Call Them Never Lonely
The lonely hills? But the hills have never been lonely.
Only the unshared heart is a thing alone,
These hills have been sanctuary and home to unnumbered,
A cavalcade which moves on, ever swollen and grown.
Here came the red man when this was his nation,
Here the wild creature, unhunted, knew freedom and peace,
Here in the glory of sunrise, the bright blaze of sunset
Came in the autumn the winging wedge of wild geese.
Here to these hills came the white man, and liked what he visioned,
The abundant growth of grass on the wide plateaus sweep,
Here, said the white man, is wealth a-waiting the taking,
Wealth measured in dollars, in well-fed cattle and sheep.
Here too, said the white man, where grass grows richly, untended,
The soil should be good for the cultivation of grain;
Then to the hills came the homesteaders wagon and cabin,
And virgin prairie knew first the plowshares sharp pain.
The procession grew greater; from Denmark and Norway and Sweden,
From Englands and Scotlands moors, from the shores of France,
Women and men knew these hills from a homesteaders cabin,
And mingled as one in their work, their frolic and dance.
Here grew their children, and some to the fifth generation
Look up to the hills, and down to the soil which was home;
Those who have wandered afar found their feet had been traitor
To the heart which remained with the hills, refusing to roam.
Call them never lonely, the unchanging hills which encircle,
For at their feet sleep the many who loved them best,
Come back, one by one, as to enter the greatest cathedral,
And lie guarded and blessed by the hills, in eternal sleep.
WINIFRED MCBEE CHRISTEN
CHAPTER 1HORSE HEAVEN HILLS
This is surely a heaven for horses! It was with these very words that the plateau over the top of Prosser Hill was named.
In 1837, a boy was born in Michigan to an already large family. Times were hard, but the boy grew in stature as well as in spirit. When he was sixteen he started West on horseback. For four years he was on the trail, always westward. He worked whenever he could find a job, and when the work ran out he saddled his horse and went on.
In 1857, he arrived at the Columbia River at Wallula, Washington Territory. Camping that night, he rested, and in the morning boy and pony swam the river. From there he still headed west over hills of pungent sage and plateaus of bunchgrass, until, riding along a ridge in the purpling dusk, he came to an Indian trail. The trail led down into a valley, to Tap-teil, as the Indians called the Yakima River. Here there was food and water.
His tired horse, turned out to feed during the night, wandered away the following morning, up the side of the hill. The boy caught the pony, and riding over the top, he looked the country over in the light of the early morning sun. He saw the Yakima and the Columbia rivers gleaming to north, east, and south; snow-capped mountains, Rainier, Adams, and Hood lay to the west. Bunchgrass was knee-high, thick as a carpet. It covered the ground as far as his eye could see. It was then that he said to himself, This is surely a horse heaven!
People do not realize now that when this boy named the country, he was taking in the Yakima valley and the Rattlesnake Hills as well as all of Horse Heaven as it is known nowall of the lands south, north, and west of the Columbia River. Before his arrival the area had been called the Bedrock country or the Columbia Plateau.
This boy, or man, was James Gordon Kinney. He settled later on land that became known as Prossers Evans addition. He called it Kinneyville, and it was located a mile from the Lone Tree precinct. Prosser Falls and Kinneyville later combined and became Prosser.
The Indians had a trail across the country along which for centuries they had traveled from the shadows of their loved, and feared, Mt. Takoma (Rainier) to the Umatilla landing, ferrying over the Columbia. It wound like a cow trail, passing by where the Mathews family later lived at the top of the hill, then wandered down to Bedrock Springs, where the travellers camped overnight. From there it meandered in a leisurely manner southeast over miles of sand, sagebrush, and bunchgrass to the riverthe Umatilla Trail. The Indians called the plateau We-hope-pum, but the early comers liked Kinneys name, even though Oregon had its Horse Heaven, too.
Many things have happened in Horse Heaven since it first got its name, and settlers arrived. Wild animals have been killedcoyotes, sagehens, geese, rabbits, bobcats, even a few deer and bear. Murder and greed, a little child lostall of these stories are here as told by the early yarn-spinners to Old Timer. Although many of them occurred before his time, he had a wonderful memory and never forgot the things he heard.
