Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 3.djvu/293

Rh On the Umatilla Mr. Jory also met with Doctor Whitman. He remembers him as a plain man of medium size and direct manner and speech. The Doctor had been with a party of immigrants showing them a route to The Dalles by the John Day, keeping along the foothills rather than taking the old route through the heavy sands along the Columbia. He also gave Mr. Jory the directions, telling him that without very heavy grades this hill route would afford them abundant water and good grass, as well as avoiding the sands.

The Jorys, the remainder of the family having now come up, and meeting James Jory and his family at the Umatilla, came by this route to The Dalles. At this point they built flatboats, preferring to come down the Columbia rather than attempt the snow-covered route over the Cascades. About forty boats were built at The Dalles that year, from the pine trees along the shore of the Columbia.

At The Dalles Captain Magone still stayed by his party, to see that the last one got through. He had, indeed, made all the young men promise that they would stay by the families until all were at their journey's end. There were some, however, that never came through. A family named Wilcox contracted the measles early on the way, and owing to exposure in looking after cattle in the rain, the entire family, except two girls and a little boy, died. A family named Rydenhour also, with the exception of one boy, died of the same. Measles were general that year on the Plains, and, as is well known, were the occasion of the outbreak against Whitman that occurred late in the autumn, the Cayuses contracting the disease from the immigrants, and becoming terrorized at a plague which they could not control.

A man by the name of Koontz was drowned on the Snake River. He was crossing cattle at the ferry, and