slucy.html

The Goldendale Sentinel, Goldendale, WA., January 16, 1964, page 6

HISTORICAL TALKES FROM THE PAST
Siwash Sally Saves Goldendale People

The author of the following anecdote of early days in Goldendale is a resident of Lebanon, Oregon. She writes as follows (last November):
"I am just an old lady nearing a my 88th birthday … I was born Lillie Mae Cruson, in Brooks, Adams county, Iowa, March 31, 1876. When I was nearing six months of age my parents came west on one of the first emigrant trains to Sacramento, Calif.
"Those trains were vastly different from the fine trains of today. One produced his own bedding at night, the benches were moved back and they spread their beds on the floor. They also did their own cooking on a huge stove in the car and supplied their cups, plates, silverware and grub.
"At Sacramento they had to take a boat to San Francisco. There my folks did some sightseeing and visited an aunt and her family, who had come there around the Horn. Then my parents and my uncle (my father's brother) took passage on the old 'George Elder' with Fort Vancouver, Wash., as destination.
"They spent the winter there and in early spring went by boat to The Dalles, Ore. From there, they went by wagon to the little village of Goldendale, Wash. My dad bought four acres of ground and built a house (it was the 12th in town then). Mr. Oldham had a black-smith shop just across the street.
My dad donated the land and furnished the brick for the first church Goldendale ever had. Dad had put in a brick yard east of town on the banks of the Klickitat. Later he built a long house to room and board his men on the brickyard.
I remember two girls that worked for my mother there. Their name was Sims, and they lived out at Sims Butte. (Not Snipes Butte; George and Ed Snipes lived out there and I remember them.) And I remember Grandma Golden, and others. I well remember a little boy who had a large dog and a little wagon; he used to take me for a ride - his name was Johnnie Chappel.
I also remember Bill and Jake Burgen, and the Indian agent, Mr. French, who had a squaw wife, and a son and two daughters, Lucy and Susie. I remember the Fentons, who lived toward town from them.
"My uncle, Amos Cruson, worked with the Richardson survey, and surveyed much of the area around Goldendale and out in the Simcoe country. Since my father was able to talk quite a few Indian languages, he was sent to Fort Vancouver as an interpreter. He often had to make the trip down the trail with a pack horse to Fort Vancouver to attend court.
"I well remember old Chief Nanass and quite a few Chiefs Minanack. The chief had three sons, who, at his passing, took over the chief's job. First, George Minanack, then his brother Jim, and I do not know what happened to Bill, of Fort Simcoe.

Mrs. Griffin's true story, "How Siwash Lucy Saved Goldendale," follows:
By Lillie M. Griffin

Siwash Lucy, an Indian washer woman, saved the town of Goldendale. She used to do washing about town and had a real mean Indian husband, who used to beat her and take the money she earned to buy liquor and gets very mean and drunk.
My mother hid her from him in a large piano box that stood at the east side of our house. Everyone was very worried over an Indian attack. The men all built a big blockhouse and wanted all to go into it for safety. But my father, who talked the Indian language and had many friends among them, said he would rather take his chances at home. He thought he could do more good there.
About 12 o'clock at night came a strong knock on our door. My Dad called out, "who is there? " She quickly answered "Siwash Lucy". My mother was very frightened and told Dad the Indians are in town. She heard Mother and called out to her, she was alone, wet and cold. My dad got up and let her in and she was shivering and wet to her waist.
Goldendale had guards out all around the town and Siwash Lucy had left her horse before she reached the guards and waded down the Klickitat past them. After she got warm, dry and some food, she told her story and wanted my dad to take as out before the Indians came. She had gone up behind the council tent and heard all about their plans; how the Warm Springs of Oregon were going to cross the Columbia River and join the Rock Creek Indians and burn the town of Goldendale. She said she must get back before daybreak or the Indians would kill her.
Dad took her out past the guards and went straight to the headquarters and told them. They sent a runner to Ft. Vancouver to ask for help. They sent two gun boats up the river and they shot in to the Warm Springs as they were crossing, killing many horses and some Indians and the rest turned back. The head man wanted father to take a posse of men and go to the Indian camp.
Dad told them he would go but not with a posse of men. If the Indians wanted to kill, he would be only one male. He came home and told Mother his plans. She told him to saddle a horse for her, as she was going with him and would not have it any other way. She then kissed my small brother and I goodbye. I remember she was crying hard and told our father's brother, our uncle, to try to get us out and take us to her mother in Iowa.
The guards the Indian's had out were very hostile. My father told them, in Indian, he had come to see his friend and brother, their chief. They held them there and sent a runner to the chief's tent. He sent word back he wanted to see them. He told then told a long hard story how his people had been treated by the white brothers and Dad told him all the ones that had harmed his people were being punished. He said all his all his people were hungry and starving, tthey needed food. Dad said the day at 10, when the sun got so high, to bring pack horses and be at his place and he would have all kinds of food for him and his people. They all shook hands and Dad went at once to the head man and I still remember the huge pile of flour, sugar, coffee. etc., piled in our front yard with a huge white canvas over it.
My parents and many others knew that Siwash Lucy had prevented a massacre.