Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 14.djvu/375



REMINISCENCES OF CAPT. W. P. GRAY 335

anxious for me to join him and hurry forward the work of building the Cascadilla, and after running the sloop for five months the owners laid it up for the rest of the season and I joined father and helped finish the Cascadilla. She was 110 feet long, 18 foot beam and drew 20 inches.

"Our family moved from Portland to The Dalles in the fall of 1862. We lived in The Dalles that winter. Father launched his steamboat, the Cascadilla, in December, 1862. Next spring we took the Cascadilla up to Lewiston, plying on the Clear- water and the Snake rivers. We carried wood from Lapwai and lumber from Asotin to Lewiston.

"That spring father had trouble with A. Kimmell, his purser. He found the purser was not turning in all the money. Father put him off the boat and told him what he thought of men who were crooked. What he told him was plenty. Shortly after the purser had been put ashore, we were laid up cleaning the boilers. The Cascadilla was a half deck boat. Father was lying on his back on a pile of cordwood repairing the steering wheel ropes. I was in the cabin aft. Looking out I saw Kim- mell take an axe from the wood block and start towards father, whose head was toward him. Father had both hands in the air splicing a rope. Kimmell drew back the axe and as he brought it down to split father's head open, I jumped for him. I had no time to do anything but to launch myself at him. I struck him like a battering ram in the back and shoulders. The axe's blow was deflected and the axe missed father's head. It also overbalanced Kimmell and he fell overboard. Kim- mell, wild with anger, clambered ashore, pulled a pistol from his pocket and began shooting at us. The first shot he fired struck me in the hand, cutting the flesh on my third and fourth fingers. The second shot struck me in the foot. I did the only thing possible under the circumstances. I ran down the gang- plank and stooping, I picked up several rocks and threw them at him as I closed in on him. By good fortune I hit him with one of the rocks, in the stomach, and knocked him breathless. He grabbed his stomach with both hands. I closed in on him and hit him in the chin. The blow knocked him down and I