The present bar of Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties are mostly home products, but they are good lawyers, upholding the honor of their profession, and full of promise, and will undoubtedly follow in the footsteps of their predecessors, and help write the future history of our great state.
The representative of bench and bar in old Walla Walla County who has attained the most distinguished rank in office, having been a member of the State Supreme Court of Washington, as well as possessing high rank in the regard of multitudes of his fellow-citizens, is Judge Mack F. Gose of Pomeroy. He also, like the other contributors, belongs to a prominent pioneer family, and also a family of lawyers. He too is on our advisory board.
We have the pleasure of presenting here a special sketch by Judge Gose, including a narration by him of a case of peculiar interest and importance, the case of old Timothy, the Nez Percé hero of the Alpowa:
TIMOTHY OF ALPOWA AND HIS LAND CASE
On a broad fertile plain on the Snake River near the mouth of the Alpowa Creek, about 1800, there were born two Nez Percé children of the full blood, a boy and a girl, named Timothy and Tima, who, upon attaining the age of manhood and womanhood, became husband and wife and remained such until the death of the wife which occurred in 1889. Timothy, the subject of this sketch, passed on about a year later. He was a chief of the Nez Percé tribe and, from the time of his birth until his decease, dwelt at the place where he was born.
He was converted to Christianity by the Reverend Spalding, and became a licensed preacher. There was born to Timothy and Tima as issue of their marriage four children, three sons and a daughter: He-yune-ilp-ilp, or Edward Timothy, Jane Timoochin, Estip-ee-nim-tse-lot, or Young Timothy, and Amos Timothy who died during childhood. Edward was twice married. There was born to his first wife a daughter Pah-pah-tin, who married Wat-tse-tse-kowwen. To them was born a daughter Pitts-teen. The issue of his second marriage was daughter Nancy Tse-wit-too-e, who was married to Rev. George Waters, an Indian of the Yakima tribe. The issue of this marriage was two daughters, Ellen and Nora. Jane Timoochin was twice married. To her was born a son, William, the issue of her first marriage. To William was born a daughter named Cora. To Young Timothy was born a daughter Amelia, who had a son named Abraham. The living issue of Timothy and Tima at the time of the death of the latter was Jane Timoochin, Pitts-teen, Ellen, Nora, Cora and Abraham. The second husband of Jane Timoochin was John Silcott, a prominent and much respected citizen of the State of Idaho, with whom she lived until her death in 1895. In 1877 Timothy filed his declaration of intention to become a citizen of the United States. A year later he filed a homestead entry on the tract of land upon which he was born, and had continued to reside. In 1883 he made final proof as a naturalized citizen of the United States, and a year later received his letters patent. No record evidence of his naturalization has been found, but there is abundant evidence that he voted at least once and that he was a taxpayer.
A reference to the dates given will show that Timothy was a lad four or five, perhaps six, years of age when the Lewis and Clark party made its memorable voyage down the Snake River in 1805 and stopped at the Indian village where he resided. The writer has heard it stated by a friend of Timothy that he claimed to remember seeing these white men. There can be but little doubt that he was old enough to have an occurrence so strange to him indelibly stamped upon his memory. From early manhood until his death Timothy was a good man, whether measured by the white skin or the red skin standard. He early adopted the habits of civilized life, and was a friend of the white race. History records that he was instrumental in saving the lives of General Steptoe and his command. Gen. Hazard Stevens in the life of his father, the eminent Gen. Isaac J. Stevens, relates that Timothy attended the great Indian council held at Walla Walla between Governor Stevens and many Indian tribes in 1853, at which time and place a treaty was concluded, and that "the morning after the council, being Sunday, he (Timothy) preached a sermon for the times and held up to indignation of the tribe and the retribution of the Almighty those who would coalesce with the Cayuses and break the faith of the Nez Perces." Like Lawyer, the head chief of the Nez Percé tribe at the time this council was held and the treaty was made, Timothy loved to dwell in peace. They alone among all the chiefs there assembled saw the folly of fighting the white man.
The remains of Timothy rest in an unmarked grave on the banks of Snake River—the spot of his birth, his life and his death. Efforts have been made to secure Congressional recognition of his worth to the white man when he was struggling to make a settlement in the Northwest in the heart of a country peopled by thousands of Indians, many of whom were hostile to our race. So far the effort has been unavailing. It is said that there were but two pictures in Timothy's simple cabin home—one of George Washington, the other of himself. This may excite the derision of those who know nothing of the simple, honest, Christian, loyal character of Timothy; but to those who know his history it seems not an improper linking of two names: one great and loyal to all that was right and just; the other, obscure as measured by white skin standards, but also loyal to right and justice as he understood the Christian teaching.
With this sketch of Timothy and a proper understanding of the prominent part that he played in several of the momentous events of history in this section, the reader will see the interest which gathers around a noted law case connected with the land upon which he filed near the junction of Alpowa Creek with Snake River.
A summary of the case is as follows: