Page:The Overland Monthly, Jan-June 1894.djvu/243

1893.] was found willing to venture back; it was almost certain death to attempt it. So, after the last sad rites for the dead left on the banks of Snake River, the train moved on.

It reached Oregon in the early fall without any other mishap. Some of the members of the company are now living in the Willamette Valley, prosperous farmers and thrifty business men. Little Jim and his brother Henry are the well-known Huffman Brothers, of Eugene, Oregon, known all over that State and Idaho.

J. B. Rhinehart.

seemed to me strange that in the many years that have passed since the following incident, no one but myself has ever referred to it in print. At the time it happened, what now comprises eight counties in the State of Washington was all Stevens County. That included nearly the whole of Eastern Washington. The same Spokane River was there, no doubt, but it was long before the white man had discovered it. It was before James Glover, "The Father of Spokane," had set foot on Washington soil. It was before the whites had located land for farming purposes. There were three or four log huts and stables scattered along the road,—one at Chewelah, one at Walker's Prairie, and one farther down,—to accommodate freighters who hauled supplies from Walla Walla to old Fort Colville. a distance of three hundred miles. The road was a long, lonesome one, and the Indians could do about what they chose along it.

Forty-six miles from the weather-beaten relics of old Fort Colville,—built over one hundred years ago,—on the old road down the Colville valley, is a lonely grave. To the east of it towers a noble mountain scene; to the west lies a still more charming view, the grand waters of the Chamokane and its banks grown with service berry, thorn apple, red, black, and yellow currant bushes, and wild cherry trees; north and south are ranks of stately pines.

Judge William Watson was the first representative sent to the territorial legislature from Stevens County, thirty