Abandon ship! Under cover of darkness, the men aboard the Hackstaff let down lifeboats and rowed to the north shore, avoiding discovery by Indians they’d seen walking the other side. Fall weather remained warm and they didn’t need heavier attire. They crept along the riverbank, each man carrying a portion of what few foodstuffs had […]
Hallie. H. Huntington
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Story Keepers #10–Lost At Sea
Continued from last post. . . The Hackstaff left San Francisco Bay with twenty-seven passengers aboard and provisions for a fourteen-day voyage up the Pacific Coast stowed securely within the belly of the vessel. Soon, though, those aboard grew wary, as the captain seemed to have lost his bearings. The captain, bewildered by the whims […]
Story Keeper#6–Earning Respect
A story passed down through the family . . . . Splitting logs to make fencing consumed most of my great-great-grandfather’s time his first winter in Oregon. One afternoon he was swinging his axe when a panicked Indian came running across the field, shouting. “Little White Brother! Come! You must come!” Alarmed at the anxiety […]
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Story Keeper #4–A Wilderness Home
The first winter my great-great-grandfather spent on his homestead consisted of a miserable existence. Proving up a land claim to meet the requirements of the Homestead Act and later the Donation Land Act of 1850 meant living on it for four years, constructing dwellings, and defining boundaries to make the acreage habitable. But it didn’t […]