Lyman's History of old Walla Walla County, Vol. 1 / Embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties

by William Denison Lyman

The weather was getting warm and pleasant after all, and through all of our hardships we had some pleasant and amusing things happen. There was a good many jack rabbits along the road. We had a rabbit pot-pie pretty often. One day about a half-dozen men got after a rabbit and were running past our wagon and shooting with their pistols. My husband was walking by our wagon and said, "Hand me the shotgun," and I handed it to him. He shot and brought down the rabbit, then gave it to me. That ended the race and raised a laugh.

Once in every two days we would stop a day and rest, lay over, we called it, to do our washing. We would take a bucket and camp kettle and go to the creek; that was all the utensils we had to wash with. When the clothes were dry they were ready to put on—no ironing on that trip. We saw irons, tubs, washboards, and a good many other things that people had thrown out of their wagons because their teams were giving out. We did not dare to pick them up and haul them for fear our own teams would give out. I knew one woman that had a cook stove in her wagon and she was so anxious to bring it through that she would get out and push on the wagon when it was going up hill, but she had to give it up and set it out and go on without it. We were beginning to find out how dependent we were on our teams.

Before we left home our neighbors and friends gave me a lot of nice pieces and helped me make a keepsake quilt. I prized it very highly. One day, I put it out to sun and some fire blew on it and burned it up. Then I shed a few tears. Much as we needed everything we had we would lose and leave our things at the camps. We lost our axe and coffee pot and our comb. Then we tried to borrow a comb, but found out there were but few in the train. So we women got together and had our hair cut off. Then we were called the short-haired train.

The health of our train was pretty good. Sometimes a family would get very sick from eating too many wild weeds they would gather and cook for greens so as to have a change, as variety of wood was getting scarce.

We brought a keg of sorghum syrup with us, and would have had plenty to last through, but one day our little boy was missing, and looking in the wagon we saw him. He had found the matches and was just putting the last bunch in the syrup keg, so we had to do without sorghum.

One night we stopped near an old fort where some men were staying. So I felt pretty safe, but before morning we found out they were worse than Indians, for they had whiskey to sell and some of the men in our train got some whiskey and got drunk, then fought and quarreled all night. Next morning when a few wagons were ready to start the men that had been drunk were asleep. Another train came along and we drove on with them. It seemed a trip where every one had to look out for self. We did not dare to stop long to help the unfortunate or we would not get through ourselves. We did not start out to die on the plains. We passed many a new made grave.

At this time it was as disagreeably hot as it had been cold on the start. One time we tried traveling at night to avoid the extreme heat, but that would not do.

I have not given many dates, as I have forgotten most of them. Am writing this mostly for my children and grandchildren to read and want it to be as near true as I can remember.

We learned that the main thing on that trip was to keep on moving. As we got near and into the mountains the weather got cool and pleasant. But, oh, such mountains and roads, sometimes they would seem almost perpendicular, but we would climb and get up most all out of the wagon walking, then slide down on the other side, then up, then down, and soon day after day some of the mountains seemed almost solid rock.

One day we came to a beautiful little stream. Someone that was walking dipped up a cup of water and said, "Will you have a drink?" I took the cup. Imagine my surprise when it almost burned my lips. Those were the first hot springs we had ever seen. Then we came to a place that looked like it was covered with ice and frost, but it proved to be salt. We picked up some pieces and used it for cooking.