The next letter is from Judge O. S. Pratt, the territorial judge who presided at the trial of the Indians implicated in the Whitman massacre. It was addressed to Mrs. Catherine Sager Pringle, one of the adopted children of Doctor Whitman, evidently in response to inquiries for information.
While the facts which it states might be known from other sources, it is of much interest as a summary of the permanent views of Judge Pratt upon the life and character of Doctor Whitman.
San Francisco, March 4, 1882.
Dear Madam: In my reply to your letter of January 20th last, I wrote you I thought the late Doctor Whitman was born in Ontario County, N. Y. I said I would soon know as I had just written to a friend who had the means of knowing the doctor's birthplace and would be likely to send me exact information on the subject. In reply to a letter, which I caused to be written to Mrs. Henry F. Wisewell, residing at Naples in Ontario County, N. Y., who is the doctor's sister and the only surviving member of his father's family, I received today, under date of February 22, 1882, an answer dictated by her, stating that "Marcus Whitman was born in Rushville, Ontario County, N. Y., September 4, 1802—the county then being very wild and new. In infancy he narrowly escaped death by burning, his cradle having taken fire from a brand falling out of the fireplace, when left alone. His father died in April, 1810; the same fall the son was sent to Plainfield, Mass., to live with his grandparents. He then attended school and returned to Rushville when eighteen years old. At the latter place he studied medicine and received a diploma at the Fairfield (N. Y.) Medical College. He thereafter practiced medicine a short time in Canada, and afterwards for a few years near his native place. The Rev. Mr. Parker of Ithaca, N. Y., while preaching in the interior of that state on behalf of the Northwestern Indians, became acquainted with Doctor Whitman; and the latter having become deeply interested in Mr. Parker's efforts, first went with him to explore Oregon in the spring of 1835, and returned to his native village about Christmas of the same year, bringing with him two Indian boys. They were sent to school and learned rapidly and were soon able to read well and write legibly.
"In February, 1836, the doctor married Miss Narcissa Prentiss, a resident of Prattsburg, N. Y., and not far from his native village, who, with the doctor and the Rev. and Mrs. Spalding and the Indian boys, left April, 1836, for Oregon, their mission field, traveling west of the Mississippi, with pack horses and mules. Mrs. Whitman and Mrs. Spalding are understood to have been the first white women who ever crossed the Rocky Mountains. The doctor thereafter returned but once, starting October 7, 1842, and reached New York April 2, 1843, having suffered many hardships by the way, sleeping for the most part on the ground, and being at one time without food five days, and in his greatest extremity was compelled to kill his dogs to sustain life. From New York, before visiting his family, he hurried to Washington on his mission with the Government, which was to secure, if possible, Oregon to the United States. Not long afterwards he returned to his home west of the Rocky Mountains, and was, as is well known, massacred with his wife and others by the Indians, November 29, 1847."
I trust the foregoing, which may rightly be treated as authentic, will leave no uncertainty as to the birthplace and some of the important facts connected with the history of the late Doctor Whitman's useful life.
Respectfully yours,
O. S. Pratt.
Turning now from the letters to special contributions we will first present one dealing with the Cayuse war, following the great tragedy at Waiilatpu. This contains the personal experience of W. W. Walter, an immigrant to the Walla Walla country of 1859. He lived many years near Prescott. This article was written from his dictation by his daughter, Mrs. Pettyjohn.
CAYUSE INDIAN WAR