Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 19/Number 3 News and Comment
NEWS AND COMMENT
In harmony with other efforts of like character in the State of Washington for the purpose of establishing permanent monuments to designate points of general public interest, a pioneer picnic was given on the thirtieth of last June in an apple orchard adjacent to the site of the garden which marked the "il-li-he" or home of the noted Yakima Indian chief Ka-mi-a-kin over seventy years ago. This point is situated on the Ahtanum creek about eighteen miles west of the present city of Yakima. The Yakima County Pioneer Association, David Longmire, President, and John Lynch, Secretary, was instrumental in getting the assemblage together primarily as an annual social and neighborhood function, but really to arouse interest in the locality by submitting an excellent programme of pertinent historical significance in order to emphasize the importance of the event.
The president of the day was Mr. Fred Parker, of Yakima. The invocation was given by Rev. George Waters, a full-blooded Yakima Indian, and a convert to the Methodist Episcopal church in 1862 by James H. Wilbur, a pioneer minister, who came to Oregon from Lowville, N. Y., via Cape Horn, in 1847, who organized the first church in Portland in 1848, and built the first building for church purposes in 1850. Later in the exercises of the day Mr. Waters made an address reminiscent in character. An historical paper was submitted by Mrs. A. J. Splawn, whose husband, recently deceased, was an Oregon Pioneer of 1852, and who, at the time of his death, March 2, 1917, had been a resident of Yakima Valley nearly sixty years. This paper was placed in an iron tube which was driven into the ground beside the main traveled county road to mark the site of the future monument.
In the address by Mrs. Splawn allusion was made to the irrigating ditch made by Chief Ka-mi-a-kin, the water being taken from a branch of the Ah-tan-um and was about onefourth of a mile long. It is impossible to state the exact date when this ditch was opened, but it is believed that it was in 1853, and that the chief was instructed regarding the use of it by the Roman Catholic missionaries stationed near by. At any rate this place is generally recognized as the starting point of irrigation and stock raising in the Yakima Valley.
Brief addresses were made by Prof. Edmond S. Meany, of the University of Washington; General Hazard Stevens, ex-President of the Thurston County Pioneer Association, Olympia; W. P. Bonney, Secretary of Washington State Historical Society, Tacoma; Prof. William D. Lyman, of Whitman College, Walla Walla; Miss Martha Wiley, a pioneer daughter of Yakima Valley; Rev. George Waters, from the Indian Reservation; George H. Himes, Curator of the Oregon Historical Society and Secretary of the Oregon Pioneer Association, Portland.
Mrs. Abigail Walker Karr, the fourth white child born within the limits of what is now the State of Washington, (May 24, 1840), and Mrs. D. R. Reynolds, of Wiley City, the first white child born in Yakima, were present and introduced to the assembly.
An interesting feature of the occasion was the singing by David Simmons, a full blood Yakima Indian, who had been studying voice culture in Tacoma for two years. He surprised as well as delighted every body by the rendition of a number of ballads, having a baritone voice of fine quality and great power.
Three representatives of the first direct immigration into Western Washington, numbering one hundred and eighty, which passed through Yakima Valley in September, 1853, were present, as follows: David Longmire, George Longmire and George H. Himes.
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Among the recent accessions to the documentary material of the Society the following items deserve mention; A large scrap book, 14×17 inches, 300 pages, compiled by Mrs. G. W. Bell, a pioneer of 1852, in the last month of her eighty-ninth year. Also, a second scrap book, 10x12 inches, compiled by the late Mrs. A. H. Morgan, a pioneer of 1845. When properly indexed both books will be of great value as secondary sources of information relating to a wide range of subjects, as well as a valuable addition to the seventy scrap books the Society has already.
Quite a notable addition to the collection of photographic material was recently secured from Mrs. S. P. Davis, a resident of Oregon City for a number of years, and formerly a minister. Health failing, and having to leave the ministry, he acquired the art of photography, and in retiring from that business he donated eighty-two negatives of varied scenes and individuals to the Society.
Pursuant to the expressed wish of Mrs. Minnie Holmes O'Neill, a pioneer of 1843, who died on June 30, 1918, in her eighty-third year, a number of scenic views, relics of early days, books, and account books of her father William L. Holmes, who was a well known business man of Oregon City sixty years ago, have been acquired. All books recording business transactions, naming different articles of merchandise and stating prices, are valuable as original source material. Through the courtesy of Mrs. B. Lee Paget, who had a good deal to do with the settlement of the estate of the late Mrs. Anna M. E. Mann, a pioneer of 1854, who died on May 27, 1918, an interesting collection of minerals, shells and fossil specimens from a wide range of territory has been secured, Oregon being well represented. The collection was made by Mrs. Mann's father, Mr. D. C. Lewis, a pioneer civil engineer of fine repute, prior to 1866. With the collection there is a suitable case, 20×56×87 inches, with twenty-seven drawers, in which to arrange it. In addition there were twenty volumes of works, a number of them early government reports which are useful for reference.
A diary of Robert H. Renshaw, a pioneer of 1851, kept while crossing the plains, has been unearthed and secured through the interest manifested by a grandson, William E. Kinnear, of Butte, Montana.