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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (May 27, 1926)
HEPPNER GAZETTE TIMES, HEPPNER, OREGON, THURSDAY, MAY 27, 1926, PAGE THREE GILLIAM FAMILY HISTORY RECALLED (Continued from First Page) and miles for flour, which they would carry home on their backs. We got some wheat from the Hud bon Bay people and planted it on our claim. We made it into hominy and also ffround it in our coffee mill and made it into bread. After a mill was started at Ellendale by Jas. O'Neal, we (tot our wheat ground there. The Indians made bread from ca mas roots and something that we call ed bread roots, or sup-lill in their language, which grew along swales or low places; there was plenty of it growing everywhere then but we rever see any of it any more. They would pulverize it in their mortars tnd bake it; they used to give us children some and we liked it, but they soon learned our way of making it from wheat flour and dropped their hard and tedious methods. My father was accidentally killed near Walla Walla during the Cayuse Indian war, in 1848, he had command of the volunteers at that time. The Indians were not afraid of the Regu lars and would laugh at them, saying "they could catch their bullets in their mouths," but not so with the volunteers; they used the Indian me thods of fighting and fought them in their own style and soon had them whipped. One dHy my father asked some of his men to take a rope from a wagon bod in which a number of guns had been placed, one of these guns was loaded and in pulling out the rope the gun was discharged killing him in stantly. Coi. Jas. W. Nesmith then took charge of the volunteers, but the lighting was all over. It was twelve days before they ar rived with my father's body. I can re member that Mr?. Blodgett came all the way over the hills and moun tians from what it known as Blod gett's valley to stay with mother, and after she went home Mrs. King came, who lived where King s valley now is, and stayed a while with mother. We had no near neighbors, no white per son within five miles of us. Two bachelors had claims five miles to the cast of us, one was Mr. John Johnson, and he was so good to help mother, and she in turn would wash and mend for him. ' Soon after we moved up on the Ve dee there was an epidemic of meas les among the Indians, and wh.tes also; several Indians died; we chil dren all had it and mother nursed us through it. The old chief's daughter took it and he came to mother and asked her to help cure his child; mother hesitated for she had seen him shoot a medi cine man as he sat on his pony, be cause some of his patients had died. My brother advised her to have noth mg to do with it, but the old chief begged so hard, and so faithfully promised to do as mother told him, that she finally consented. Not know ing what kind of food or herbs they might give the girl, Mother made him promise to feed her only food that she herself had prepared, and each day he sent some one to our house for the food. She told him to hang skins around the wigwam to keep his daughter warm and she would soon break out all over with little red spots. He promised to al low no one in the wigwam except the one squaw who attended her, and to keep her warm and not to allow her to jump into the cold water in the stream as the Indians did when sick. One morning, early, we heard the old chief at our door, calling Mother we were all frightened nearly to death, for fear the girl had died and he had come to kill Mother, but he had come to tell that his little pa poose was all covered with red spots, just as Mother said she would be and he was so pleased. She got well in a short time, and after that there was nothing mother wanted, which this old chief would not do for her. One day a band of Klickitat Indians came by our place on a hunting trip thev went on south, down on the Umpqua, and when they came back they had two Indian women with them whom they had stolen from the Coquille tribe and were taking them back with them as slaves. I think they were the largest In- dian women I ever saw. They stop ped for several days and camped near us, and when the men returned from a hunt they would send these two r.quaws out over the trail to bring in the deer on their backs. The Indian men never carried any thing themselves, always the squawa did the hard work. I have seen these two slave squaws with such loads of bark tied on their backs, so large that it looked like i load of hay coming, all we could see underneath the load was their feet. They walked bent over, holding two sticks in their hands, and had to be helped up to start with their load, and when they were relieved of It they wiped their faces with their two hands and gave one big grunt. They were taken on up into Wash ington as slaves of the Klikitat tribe. While we were living at our home, en the Pedee, U. S. Grant, in company with General Wool stopped at our door one day to inquire of Mother the dirtction to Fort Hoskins, which was being built at that time, a few miles farther southeast from our home. Grant was never stationed in Ore gon but often came from Vancouver, where he was located, to inspect the forts in the Willamette Valley. Lieut. Phil Sheridan often stopped at our house, and many times spent the night with us on his trips from Grand Ronde to Fort Hoskins; it was a day's ride from Grand Ronde to our home, nnd seven miles farther on to Fort Hoskins. Later he was stationed at Fort Hos kins and the house that he built there for him was afterwards move to my brother, Marcus Gilliam's claim and is still used as a part of the home of my nephew, Frank Gilliam. I knew Sheridan s squaw wife, who was the daughter of Chief Harney of the Rogue River tribe, and who has been at our home a number of times. She was a bright little woman, very good looking, and quite likeable. Sheridan was always good and kind to her and taught her to read and to do many things. They had no chil dren. But when he went back to Washington and left her, it almost broke her heart. A We all liked Mrs. Phil Sheridan. One day she came to our home, pre tending to be looking for a horse, but she really came to tell us that she was going on a trip to Washington, D. C. Her father had died and her broth er was now Chief Harney, and he and she, along with several other Indians, influential among the tribes had been invited to go to Washington, at the expense of the government. She was all fitted out in clothes and trunks and ready for the trip. I told her she would see many wonderful things, and probably see Phil Sheri dan, and asked her to come and tell me all about her trip when she came back. It was wonderful, the things she told me afterwards about her trip and what she saw and she did see Phil Sheridan. lie came and shook hands with them all and took her hand and asked about her welfare and then took them all upon the rostrum and introduced them. After that she nev er saw him again. My brother, Smith Gilliam, who liv ed at Walla Walla, has often seen General Grant's squaw wife, and his two children, one a daughter whom he named Nellie. He seemed to like that name for he named his white daughter Nellie, too. His other child was a boy, but I fail to remember his name. It was no uncommon thing for a white man to have a squaw wife in those days. Jnmes O'Neal had a squaw wife but when he met the Bowman family he decided he would rather have a white one, so he discarded the Indian wom an and married ono of the Bowman girls. The squaw wife was so angry and jealous that she took her little half breed papoose and s went down to Yamhill county and drowned little Jimmie O'Neal in the Yamhill river. Among the Indians who camped near us was a little Indian girl aDout my age, who often played with my sister and me and we became great friends and playmates. One day one of the older Indians ci.me to our home and told us that this little girl was sick and wanted t" see us, and mother let us go to their camp near by She wes very sick but tried her best to welcome us and we knew she was glad that we had come. But It was only a few days until they came again to us and asked mother to go too for the little thing was dying. When we got there they were all f.athered around and in their way were trying to keep death from taking this little favorits away. They were making all kinds of mournful sounds, beating on sticks and trying to scare the bad rpirit away, but to no avail. That night the little girl died. Next morning when we went to their camp we found that they had moved the tent in which she had died a few feet from where it had been, and had brought in all the horses belonging to the tribe. They cut off the tails ol all these ponies, pulverized quant ities of beads in their mortars, and with ashes gathered from their camp fires, scattered these ground beads, horse hairs and ashes all around the tent and ground, and over the bushes near where the child had died. They found out in some way that white people placed their dead in boxes and they asked my brother if he would make them a box in which to bury this little girl, and he got to gether a few boards and make them cne. My sister Reta and I were invited to attend the burying, being special friends and playmates of the little girl, but no others of our family were i sked. Mother hesitated at first, but she decided that we might go. They buried her within sight of our house and mother and my brothers stood outside our door watching. They dug a grave, not very deep, and had my sister and I to stand at cne side of the grave, while the In dians were all arranged on the oppos ite side. Inside the box they placed beads, strands and strands of them, covering the child completely. I be lieve they must have used four bushel of beads for that funeral, then they placed inside all her garments and nicest things. Over the grave, when filled with earth, they stuck sticks ubout two feet high, on which were tied all her trinkets and playthings, and numerous red strings. At the head of the grave they lead a little pony and at the foot a dog. , They talked only in the Indian lan guage, and we could not understands what was being said, but never at any funeral have I ever seen 3uch grief displayed, for the whole tribe loved this little girl. All at once a shot was fired and they killed the pony and the dog. We chidren were frightened nearly to death and my siBter grabbed me by my skirts; then Indians came and told us to hae no fear, they would never harm us, and explained that they had killed the pony for the little girl to ride on her journey to the Happy Hunting Ground, and the little dog would pro ject her on the way. Our old 'friends are passing away and not many are left with wnom to talk over old times; no one living to day will ever see again the changes that we have seen. We have seen this country in its virgin state, just as nature made it, grow and change into what it is today and to us it seems like magic. 101 ROUND TRIP TO DENVER $67.20 OMAHA 75 60 KANSAS CITY... 75.60 DBS MOINES 81.55 ST. LOUIS 85.60 CHICAGO 90.30 DETROIT 109 92 CINCINNATI .... 110.40 CLEVELAND 112 86 TORONTO 118.0S ATLANTA 121 65 PITTSBURG 124 06 WASHINGTON ... 145.86 PHILADELPHIA. 149.22 NEW YORK 151.70 BOSTON 157.76 ALWAYS ON DUTY In effect dailv nrtwi5 . y MaO 22 and SeDtemberlfv tZtnalXctam limit October 31 J '926 ABOVE are examples of the generous low round trip excursion fares which will ob tain daily on the Union Pacific to all important Eastern Points from May 22 to September 15. Final return limit October 31, 1926. . Liberal stopover privileges both going and returning. Plan your business or vacation trip East via the historic and scenic U. P. Trail. We'll help you arrange your itinerary, map out side trips to Zion National Park, Yellowstone and other vacation spots, furnish ail infor mation, make your reservations and get your tickets. XJHIOH PACIFIC CALL ON CHESTER DARBEE Agent Heppner, Ore. How to make Strawberry Jam keep the color and flavor . of the fresh berries Your jam will taste enough like fresh berries to use in strawberry shortcake if you make it this new, easy, short-boil way with Ccrto, Save the following recipe to use for your first batch of strawberry jam. Cut in halves lengthwise with stainless knife about 2 quarts of small or medium-sized fully ripe berries. After halving, weigh out 2 lbs. berries, or measure 4 level cups of berries, packing solidly into the cud until .mice and fruit come to the top of the cup. Add 7 level cups (3 lbs.) sugar and mix well, Use hottest lire and stir constantly before and while boiling. Bring to a full rolling boil and boil hard for 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from fire and stir in cup Certo. Skim and stir repeatedly for just 6 minutes after taking from fire, to cool slightly. Pour quickly and cover hot jam at once with hot melted paraffin. , The short boiling time, possible only with Certo, prevents the loss of delicate flavor and the darkening in color -which used to occur during the old long boil. It also gives you a larger amount of jam, sincet you save the large quantity of juice which used to boil away. Certo is a pure fruit product the jellying substance of fruit re fined and bottled. A book of simple recipes comes vith each bottle. Your grocer carries Certo, or you can send 10c (for postage) and gel a trial half-size bottle which will make from 6 to 10 glasses of jam or jelly, depending upon the recipe used. Write Douglas-Pectin Corp. laaDi Granite Bldg Rochester, N. Y, YOU DON'T SAVE BY SENDING AWAY A GREAT MANY PEOPLE WHO HAVE HEARD AND READ OF THE ADVANCED RUBBER PRICES HAVE THOUGHT THEY COULD SAVE MONEY BY SENDING AWAY FOR TIRES. IF YOU THINK SO, READ THIS Typical Mail-Order Prices Effective March 1, 1926 Our Prices on "Pathfinders 30.3'j Clincher Cord O, S 11.25 " .38 " 11.63 11.35 81x4 Straight Side Cords 19.95 " .48 " 20.43 18.00 32x4 " " " 20.25 " .50 " 20.75 19.20 33x4 " " " 20.95 " .52 " 21.47 20.20 31x4 " " ' 21.45 " .54 " 21.99 21.20 32x4 " " " 26.45 " .54 " 26.99 23.75 33x4 " hi. 27.25 " .60 " 27.85 24.70 34x4 H " " " 28.50 " .62 " 29.12 25.45 33x5 - " " " 37.25 " .74 " 37.99 31.50 35x5 " 38.50 " .80 " 39.30 33.65 29x4.40 Balloon Cords ....... 14.45 " .38 " 14.83 14.05 30x4.95 " " 18.95 " .48 " 19.43 . 19.20 31x5.25 " 22.45 " .48 22.93 21.95 30x5.77 " " ,. 27.95 " .62 " 28.57 25.15 33x6.00 " " 30.95 " .78 " 81.73 29.55 i Cost of letter, stamp or money order not included. ftlHIHIHIHIHIIIMIIIHIIIIIIIII IIIIIIMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIItlllllllllMIIIIIMIIIIIIIMIIIII IMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIItllMIIII IHIIIIIMIIMir ,,,MI.,,l!f..liS1,.S i,: XlI.i.2,.,ML..H3;Yl,,to Wit for Them. We Put the No Extra Charge, of Course. You can get Goodycar-made Pathfinder tires from us at less than the mail-order prices. You don't need to write a letter, get a money order, wait a couple of days, or put the tires on yourself. When you buy tires from us vou get everything any mail order house can give you plus SERVICE. HEPPNER GARAGE (VAUGHN & GOODMAN) United States Tires are Good Tires GREAT NEWS! For Those Who Want Low Priced Dependable Tires Get out of your mind the idea that you have to buy un-trade-marked, unwarranted or mail order tires in order to get tires at a low price. You can buy from us today The USCO BALLOON A handsome, sturdy balloon tire at a low price. Flat, high-shouldered tread. Strong, flexible cord construction giving full balloon, cushion ing and long service. Car rie the name, trade mark and full warranty of the United States Rubber Company. Balloons, High-Pressure Cords or Fabrics at a better price than you pay for tires in the "uncertain" class. 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