Skamania County HERITAGE

Volume 16, No. 4

Reference

NW-R 979,7978 SKAMANI Vol.16No.4

March1988

"Indian Mary" Will-wy-ity, daughter of Chief Tumulth

''INDIAN MARY'' By Ida Williams ·Altringer

i :

FT. VANCOUVER REGIONAL UllRARY

''INDIAN MARY'-' By Ida Williams Altringer

(Granddaughter of Mary's)

"Indian l\fary" Will-wy-ity - Indian name for "Kalliah"

MARY STOOQUIN

Her Indian name was "Kalliah". To many she was known as "Indian Mary", but not to us - to us she was "Grandmother", "us" being eleven little Williamses and five little Reynoldses, children of her daughters, Amanda and Abbie.

Mary was born at the Cascades in 1854, in the "Moon of the Falling Leaves", October. Many In­dians did not know what year they were born, much less the month and day.

Mary's mother was Susan, a member of the Wishram tribe. Her father was Tomalth. * (Amanda pronounced it "Tum'uth".) He was the 6'4", red-haired chief of the Cascade tribe of Chinook Indians. He was the son of Chief Stilgat of one of the tribes at the mouth of the Columbia River.

Mary was only eighteen months old at the time of the Battle of the Cascades, in March 1856. After her father was hanged by order of the U. S. Army, Mary went with her mother and other family members back to the Wishram village.

In the 1870's, as the young widow of Henry Will-wy-ity, a Wishram Indian, she traded a team of horses to Kenzy Marr for 160 acres of his donation land claim at Marr's Landing. Here, at the end of the present lndiari Mary Road, her brother built for her a nice wooden cabin.

Mary later remarried twice and in this cabin were born her daughters and also two little boys who did not survive. Also born in this cabin were Amanda's three oldest children, Carrie, Nina, and Pearl Williams.

The cabin was on the main east-west trail through the Columbia Gorge. Amanda told of horses brushing on the side of the cabin and of land-hungry white settlers peering in the windows.

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Old photo shows "Indian Mary" Stooquin, right, with daughters and a friend. From left is Nellie Ar­quette Miller, 18, a friend; Amanda Williams, 14; Abbie Reynolds Estrabrook, 7; and Mary Will-wy­ity, 40. Photo taken at Moffett's Hot Spring about 1894.

After Mary and Johnny Stooquin separated, she was married briefly to Louis Weiser, who was from the The Dalles. . · .

Mary kept both her daughters in school through the eighth grade. Amanda told of going to school at a fish scow anchored in the slough; across the Columbia River by rowboat (presumably with the neighboring Frese boys, both of whom became river pilots); and finally to the Number 9 school near the St. Cloud Ranch. Schoolmates there were Johnny Mackey, Bob Prindle, Ben, Louise and Alice Thomas, and Mabel Clark. Mabel's mother was the first postmistress and her father the justice of the peace.

The Portland and Seattle Railway (later known as the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway -the SP&S) began condemnation proceedings March 14, 1906, for a railroad right-of-way through Mary's front yard. This was a few months before Mary's death.

The family moved to a site about one-half mile east. The cabin was used as a hotel by hoboes and was accidentally burned down by them a few years later. As late as 1960 myrtle plants from her flower garden still grew there, and trees in her orchard still bear fruit.

Mary does not appear in any census of the region. It is not known whether she was away when the census taker came, or just not talking that day. Amanda told that her mother pretended not to understand English with strangers or people she didn't like.

Mary died December 21, 1906, from a broken blood vessel in her arm, sustained while piling cord­wood. She was 52 years old. She is buried in Cascades cemetery, next to her little sons and her mother.

The inscription on her stone reads: Mary Will-wy-ity, youngest daughter of Chielf Tomulth of the Cascade tribe. Born October 1854, died December 21, 1906.

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Here are photos of Indian Mary's daughters. At left is Amanda who was born in 1882. At right is Ab­bie who was born in 1887 and was 15 when photo was taken in 1902 •

. *Various spellings of Chief Tomalth's name: Tomulth - on Mary's gra"Vestone Tomult, Tomalsch - Clyde Williams and: Tumulth - Abbie Estabrook Tamahl - Virginia Miller Tumalth - Chuck Williams

Because Indians were not citizens, Mary was in danger of losing her land. By a special Act of Con­gress Mary was officially granted title to her home as "Vancouver Homestead No. 11 ",dated August 7, 1893.

In 1892, Mary had a contract to carry the U.S. Mail, horseback, from the Cascades to Cape Horn. Because the western Skamania County area was not densely populated, the steamboats stopped only at Warrendale, Oregon, on a regular basis. The mail was taken across the river in rowboats to the Cascades. One of the boatmen was Mary's nephew, Johnny Baughman.

Another nephew was a famous steamboat captain, Marshall Martineau. Mary's brothers were Joseph, who built the cabin, and at least one other. Amanda remembered

them as being very tall men. Pictures of Mary show a short woman, whom granddaughter Carrie describes as not fat, just round.

Mary's three sisters were Virginia, Isabel, and Sally. Virginia married George Miller, a white former sailor, and settled in Home Valley. There they raised Isabel's small orphaned daughter, Georgie. Sally died as a teenager.

Besides visits to Home Valley, there were visits to a foster-sister, Kate White, who ran a boarding house in Cascades. One such trip-horseback, of course-was made on New Year's Day, 1880, two days before Amanda's birth.

Late summer trips to the Mt. Adams huckleberry fields were a major event. Mary's second husband was Johnny Stooquin, a Wishram Indian, well-known as a jockey. Aman­

da spoke of Hamilton Island as being Chief Tomalth's racetrack. Horse racing was an important part of native life.

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Family of Amanda's sits for photo in 1901. Amanda was 21 and husband Charles Williams was 35. Children from left: Nina, 4; Ray, 1; Pearl, 3; and Carri~ 5.

CLYDE WILLIAMS EXPLAINS KALLIAH NAME In regard to my grandmother's name Kalliah. I have had a copy of a contract dated in 1891

between the last members of the Cascade Tribe and a Washington, D.C. attorney to secure compensation for lost land.

In this contract she, my grandmother Indian Mary, used the name Kalliah Tomult, Aunt Virginia Miller used Quiuck Miller, and Aunt Isabel used Isabel Tomult.

Incidentally, all 70 names was signed by an X except Isabel Tomult and Isabel Chenowith. The names were in Isabel Chenowith's handwriting. It is unknown as to how Aunt Isabel became literate. Cliff Meacham said that his mother, Georgia Meacham Jackson (Isabel's daughter) had attended the, Catholic Academy in Vancouver. Possibly her mother had.

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CLYDE WILLIAMS Grandson of "Indian Mary"

' *

..

Mother CHIEF TUMULTH (TOMALSCH)

K.J::-----vi,L J., l,y ~ ~. sally

I I 1854-1906 ~ Johnny Baughman, Sr. G · A I d Abb' I I I \ eorg1a man a 1e

· (f. Louis Weiser) John Jr., Lucy, Lulu, Marguerite

Edith, Kathy, Lillian, Lawerance (Compiled by Clyde Williams)

ABBIE (Reynolds, Estabrook) (1887-1968)

(Andrew. Morris Roy, Anna Patria all died in infancy)

RAY REYNOLDS

1908-1970

MARY MILLER BRANDL

1910-

Lester Shirley Leroy Rita

LUCILLE KATHLEEN JOHN AALVIK WILLIAMS

1913- 1914- 1920-1932

Ronald Jaunita Albert Robert Walter Sharleen Lloyd Marsha Dennis Leslie

Douglas Linda

GEORGE MEACHAM

Joyce George Jr.

GEORGIA (Meacham, Jackson) (1887-1978)

CLIFFORD ROY VERNON MAX MEACHAM MEACHAM JACKSON JACKSON

Colleen Charles Sandra Debbie Maxine Mark

Anita

AMANDA (Chas. Williams, 1865-1946) (1882-1953)

CARRIE NINA PEARL RAY OTIS DORA WILLARD AMY FAYE IDA GREN IA WILLIAMS CUSHING WILLIAMS WILLIAMS WALKER WILLIAMS BEASON FLANNERY ALTRINGER

1896- 1898-1978 1899-1982 1901 -1979 1902-1966 1905- 1907-1968 1909-1981 1911 - 1915-

---Josephine Dawn Joan Bill Garry Dan Carroll Marilyn Judy Gail Lynn

Valerie Kasey Don

ZANE , JACKSON

Donna

CLYDE WILLIAMS

1919-

Chuck Anne

U.S. LAND OFFICE PROTECTS ACREAGE Mary Will-wy-ity had traded a team of horses to the Marr family in the l 870's for the rights

to 160 acres (110 of these are still part of the family estate). Some wise homesteaders realized that because she was an Indian she could not hold title to

land and were going to homestead it out from underneath her. She went to Fort Vancouver (now Vancouver, Washington). She got this letter and was told

that it was of no value but would probably scare off homesteaders until he could get a bill through Congress to make it land held in trust for her. He later succeeded in doing this in 1893.

* *

To All Whom It May Concern:

* United States Land Office

Vancouver, Washington May 12, 1891

This is to notify that Mary Will-wy-ity, an Indian woman of the Cascade Tribe, is entitled to the South East Quarter of Section 33, T. 2 N., R. 6 East, and any interference with her rights to said land is in violation of law.

SKAMANIA COUNTY HERITAGE BOX 396 STEYENSON, WA 98648

{:rrTt';~: TOM -rr.:tY'LOR 1007 E. MILL PLAIN \/At-J.COl.J\lER 7 V,h~

L-7866.".3

BULK RATE U. S. POSTAGE

PAID Stevenson, WA 98648

PERMIT NO. 28