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The Goldendale Sentinel, Goldendale, WA., March 31, 1960, page 2

OLD LETTERS PORTRAY LIVES OF EARLY SETTLERS OF THIS AREA

Editor's note: the following are excerpts from letters written by Lizzie (Miller) Nesbitt, later Stultz, to her granddaughter, Mary E. (Nesbitt) Ledbetter, and were compiled by Nesbitt Byars from copies of the letters made by Cort Miller of Yacolt, Wash., who was younger brother of Lizzie Miller.

Father, Samuel H. Miller, came west (to Oregon) in 1853 and spent the first winter in Oregon City.
In 1868 grandfather (Dr. Joseph Boyce, Oregon pioneer of 1852) moved to Hillsboro, Ore. It wasn't long before we all went there and lived on a farm three miles out … father heard of this … Klickitat valley, with its wonderful scenery, bunch grass, cattle on a thousand hills and land just where you wanted it. So he came in 1869 to explore the Klickitat valley. On this trip he walked from Rockland (now the Grand Dalles vicinity) to the valley, meeting John Golden and many wild cattle on the way, and found what he wanted. He took a homestead and returned to Hillsboro.
In 1870 he came back to Klickitat with wagon and team, worked at the Golden sawmill (located on Bloodgood creek) and built a house on the homestead. At that time there were Indians a-plenty. While he was building the house, five or six Indians who did not like to have their spring and race track fenced, came to interview him. He saw them coming, so he placed his gun under a plank. When they got to saucy he picked up his down. My, how they made the dust fly, except one old man that got a lot of fun out of them.

OBJECT TO FENCES

I wonder that they did not do worse then they did when they saw their land taken from them. My, and how the cattlemen objected to fences.
In November 1870 we all moved up here. It took one day to get to Portland from Hillsboro. Then one long day by boat to get up the Columbia river to Rockland, for we landed on the north side of the river opposite The Dalles.
When father went down for us he left his team and wagon at Rockland. So as soon as we could get a load up the steep bank of the river we were on our way. All went well until we got to the mountain, for then the fat horses got tired and decided to rest too often. On the steep hills we nearly all walked and we had to follow the trail the Indians had used many years. At times it was necessary to place rocks behind the wheels when resting the team. Mother walked some too and carried the baby Sophia who was eleven months old.
It was dusk when we reached the summit of the mountain. Pa showed us the buttes behind which was the homestead for which we were headed. How my heart sank …We arrived at Dr. Turner's at 11 p.m. Mrs. Turner was alone and glad to see us. (The Turner's lived ¼ mile S.W. of where the old No. 12 school was built and still stands. -- Cort Miller

RETURNS FOR GEAR

Next day we went to our home, one mile east of the No. 12 school building. In a few days Pa had to make the trip to Rockland to get the rest of our things. This meant we had to spend two days alone, for it took that time for him to make the trip. We kept very close to the house for fear of the Indians. One day we ventured out to see what we could see. Could not see anything so felt safe. But to our amazement two squaws and a buck suddenly appeared. Mother had just baked bread so brought out a loaf and gave it to them. They soon went on.
We only stayed on the homestead 2 or 3 weeks when Pa went to Golden sawmill seven miles north to work and moved us there. (The Golden Mill was the second mill in Klickitat Valley built in 1865. I know how the old crank casting of that mill, around which I have made a restoration of the mill. The first mill was built in 1860 on Mill Creek N.W. of Goldendale. -- Cort Miller.)

They built a small school house and we had a school. Aunt Helen Richardson taught there. The Goldens, Harpers and us (Miller) children attended. When spring came we went back to the homestead, our house had not been fenced, so the first thing was to put a fence around it. The closest school was a four miles West. It was called the Burgen school and was No. 2. No. 1 of was at Rockland.
We had a glass eyed white Indian pony that Joe, Phil and I rode to school, the boys in the saddle and I behind with a lunch bucket on my arm. With that small lunch we were good and hungry when we got home. Mother nearly always had dinner ready. Then there were the cows to bring in to milk. We went there two summers to school. Then there was a school house built at No. 6 only two miles east of our homestead, so we went there.
By that time the country was quite settled up. No. 6 had a store, blacksmith shop and a post office called Lebanon.
As fast as father could improve our house he did so. He kept making fence, had a blacksmith shop which was quite amusing to us children for recreation. This is where we would make for when we would hear the bulls begin their bellowing. They gathered at the spring for water and many a free bull fight.
At our first Christmas Rev. Harper preached in Golden's house at the sawmill and we all had dinner together. I was never so hungry in my life for he preached three hours. No Josh! Grandpa and Grandma (Boyce) sent us some books.
The summer of 1873 a neighbor girl and I went over the mountain on the zigzag trail to visit the Tom Burgen place near Chamberlain flat. On the north side we went up through timber when near the top I saw a big panther on the other side of the big clump of willow brush, so I hurried on until we got to the top where we stopped to tighten the cinch of our saddle. I told her what I saw. On going down the mountain on the south side I expected every minute the panther would leap on us.
Did we come back the way we went? No. A few days after that some Indians were traveling this same trail. As they went under a tree a panther jumped on one and they killed it. It was quite old and very large. At that time there were a good many roving around the country.