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The Mt. Adams Sun, Bingen, WA., January 15, 1937, page 1

“COTY” CHAPMAN TELLS OF HARDSHIPS OF EARLY CAMAS PRAIRIE

Noah Chapman was born in Gales Ferry, Connecticut, December 12, 1838, and in 1854 was first mate of his father’s ship, a whaling vessel, at the young age of 16 years, and was in the ship wreck on Verdes Isle, and was forced to stay there two years.
The second year when they were found and they were gathering see gull eggs for the coming winter. Soon the government dispatched a vessel and rescued them. They were brought to the Pacific coast, and landed at Snoqualmie on his brother-in-laws ship. His name was John Culver.
The ship, with Noah as its mate, was to return to London and Noah refused to make the trip, having got the gold fever in ’49.
Noah Chapman, the father of Courtland Chapman, of Bingen, later made several trips around the world. Ending up in Buenos Aires, Argentina, they were forced to eating sea gulls. The crew all took sick with the measles, and drank whiskey to cure the malady, except Mr. Chapman who was the only one able to handle the vessel on the return trip.
From there Noah Chapman came to the William F. Collins place in Skamania county in the year 1862. He married Lucinda F. Till, in Condon, Oregon, an adopted daughter of Collins.
From this union were born four children, Lucy Chapman, born in 1865 at Collins Landing, Skamania county; Courtland Chapman in 1868 in Portland, Oregon; Guy E. Chapman, born in Fulda, Washington.
Noah Chapman was sent by the Hudson Bay company, to Alaska, to investigate the gold rush in that country. He had in his charge 80 men and found mines and it was a success, and they found much gold there.
Lucinda Till, following her adoption was brought to Portland to the Collins’ residence and was sent to Santa Merzes school, where she finished her education and remained until she married. Her people all are in Massachusetts. Her brother, James lives in New York, and up to last year had a large tailor shop there. Her nationality was Spanish, English and Negroid.
According to information gathered, a lot of the reports of the historical happenings in this section about the Chapman families are false. Some of the things, very untrue, should be changed.
“When he passed on his set of books and apron were given back to William Barker, a brother Mason, and he in turn gave them back to the lodge, through W.R. Dunbar, a Mason of Goldendale.
Noah Chapman started a livery stable in Portland in 1866 and worked at the business for several years. He had several teams.
Through breaking of a contract with a concern by the name of Albert and Lam, which walked out, Chapman went broke, and had to sell all his teams and property to settle up.
Through this discouragement he then came to Camas Prairie in 1873 and was at the Dymond place in an old log house for a while in 1875. He then moved on the Dan McKercher place.
On this place lived one Bill Barker. He and Noah Chapman were into partnership with Dan McKercher, and a contract was drawn up the first day of December, 1875, between D.C. McKercher of the first part and Noah Chapman of the second part. Eight hundred and twenty-five head of Moreno sheep were involved in the deal.
Soon Bill Barker moved off the McKercher place to the Bird Creek country. Noah Chapman then took the place and went ahead to it.
From that date on Jim Cogswell herded the sheep on what was known as Bald Mountain, that is, from Husum to Burdoin hill.
Soon after Cogswell quit, “Coty” Chapman began herding the sheep, and herded them in the Glenwood district. He was the first to herd sheep in the Glenwood section.
Mr. Chapman could tell many stories about that community. One day while sitting under a pine tree he was alarmed when he noted all the sheep running towards him. Soon he saw a huge bear following, snatching at sheep here and there. He was unable to do anything as he had no dog or gun, so jumped on his horse and raced for help.
With only a rope around the horses’ neck, he rode 14 miles just as fast as possible to report to his father.
They returned to find the sheep feeding and several killed by the bear. Mr. Chapman was very scared and his father on leaving had some difficulty in getting him to remain. He soon picked up plenty of courage and remained.
At the time ”Cody” was boarding at the Bill Barker place, the only house which was a very small log hut in the Bird Creek district. They were the only family in that location.
Mr. Chapman aided Barker in building a log barn by cutting logs out of black pine. The log cutting would begin early in the morning until about 8 a.m. then he would go and herd sheep.
One morning while cutting logs the axe on glancing, cut off “Coty”'s toe. He was forced then to go home and Johnny Conboy finished the work herding the sheep for that year.
Soon after he got well in the spring and was able to walk around he joined with Mr. Conboy, they herded later near White Salmon in the Bald hills country.
One day on leaving camp to go to dinner, Johnnie, was leading several yards. Mr. Chapman and the dog were walking behind. While passing under a large spreading oak a Lynx jumped on Johnny’s neck and immediately began scratching for his throat. The dog soon was biting the cat so viciously the Lynx let loose and ran up the tree. The men had no gun and were unable to do anything.
Soon the sheep had accumulated to quite a large band. The two men then moved them back to Camas Prairie for the winter quarters.
In 1877 about seven feet of snow fell in the Camas Prairie country. Soon afterwards a heavy rain hit the section and caused a regular flood. It so happened that the sheep barns were across the meadow from the farm, and the men had to make boats to get across to feed the sheep. They had four big barns connected under one roof.
The snow was so heavy the men were unable to get it shoveled away from the roof quickly enough and it broke through killing many sheep.
In the spring Mr. Chapman reported pulling wool from so many sheep he “never wanted to see another one.”
Throughout the summer the Indians were thick, picking berries, digging Camas roots, sweet wapatos, all kinds of roots, cranberries, blue huckleberries which were plentiful around Glenwood, and along Bird Creek meadows. The cranberries were at the southwest end of the valley on the Oliver Kreps place.
The Indians were always fairly good, except for one time when most of the settlers remained in their log cellars for a few days until it was quieted down.
The several horses his father had were turned over at Trout Lake for range. No one was living in that section of the country then. An old Indian doctor William Homilk used to make his home at Noah Chapman’s place who had horses and they would turn then out together.
“Coty” Chapman reported, “father made up his mind he wanted some of the horses to go haying so mother fixed up a big lunch for the Indian and I, and we were to got to Trout Lake and get the horses. We went over there and hunted until noon, se we spread the lunch. I was not hungry, but ate some, and the doctor ate what was left. Later, we were unable to find any trace of the horses.
“Soon night came on and I wanted to go home, but the Indian wouldn’t go until the horses were found. We slept on the ground that night with only a horse blanket for warmth.
“Being hungry the next morning I argued with the Indian about going home, but still he insisted that we get the horses first. About noon he got off his horse and commenced eating camas roots. I got off and commenced to eat too. When he got to feeling better he said we would look the upper end for the horses. We went up near the lava caves and found tracks that were fresh. Near the ice caves we found the horses.
“Then to satisfy our hunger he dug a small root which we ate. When we arrived home neither of us were hungry. Later on several trips he showed me all kinds of roots to eat, and now I am able to make a pretty good living on “roots” for awhile.”
Mr. Chapman said, “when father said mother came to Camas Prairie they came up the Cascades by boat then by a small railroad for about four miles, then by boat, the old Hales, to Warners’ landing in Bingen, After staying over night there the family with Indian Jacobs as guide took his family by horse back through White Salmon, a trail along the bluff to Bald Mountain, down the old Chimney Hill, on up the valley to the falls of the Rattlesnake where we barely made it across the swift flow of water.”
They had to unpack the horses and carry the goods across on a foot log, and later swim the horses over. After repacking they started out again went through by Twin mountain trail. All there was to follow were trails so narrow the packs rubbed on brush and trees when passing.
Finally reaching Camas Prairie they lived on the old Dymond place. A log hut served the purpose for two winters, 1874 and 1875.
His father for awhile was scared of the Indians, but soon made friends, and “Coty” later learned many things from them, including their language.
On resuming, “Coty” said, “we worked and worried along from one year to the next, sometimes had plenty, others not so much. Later years father was in Goldendale much. He was justice of the peace at Camas Prairie for awhile and county commissioner for two terms.
“In 1877 he went to a dance at John Detmonks place, and was up all night. It was bitter cold. The following day he had to drive a school teacher to White Salmon, a Mrs. Hampton. He caught cold and it developed into pneumonia. He was ill just a short time then passed on.”
“When he was at his worst I came to White Salmon for a doctor at Hood River, named D.R. Newcomb. The snow was five feet at Camas Prairie and from Husum on it was an average of about 2 to 2 and one-half deep, and bitter cold. I had only tracks to follow in the snow. When I got to White Salmon to the T.E. Johnson place I got a lantern and started for the river, which was frozen over, and had been for several days.
“The doctor got about third of the way across on the return over on the ice of the Columbia on skiis, Then the ice began to break, so turned back, giving me the medicine to carry on. I could see Jacobsen’s light across the river and made for it. He gave me hot coffee and whiskey and warmth then I went home, but too late as father had passed on.”
The next morning the ice on the Columbia river was drifting and all broken up. From that time on his mother and the children had to take care of the farm.
Guy Chapman and “Coty” would go every year to the round up near Loggy Creek and bring them back to White Salmon and sell them to make a little money in 1900. On may 2nd of that year they went over to that place to buy horses but were too early and had to wait until the 15th after the round up. They stayed with at the old doctor Tumwasher’s Indian place on Loggy Creek and camped.
"While there he called us to the house one day when his wife had gone to Toppenish for groceries so the three of use were alone he brought forth a trunk and commenced to show us what he had," commented Mr. Chapman.
"The first specimen was a large fur coat lined with red flannel, and asked me to put it on. I didn't care to as it had been packed in the trunk so long it smelled filthy, but soon I decided, and put it on. He fixed it just as he used to wear it. Pulled the hood over my head. He thought it was just fine and took it off and folded it up. The next was a nice beaded vest. A beautiful thing. I tried it on.
"He also had with it a beaded belt with a long knife and also a pair of mocassins, all beaded also. He them removed them.
"Next came a lot of rock tomahawks with short handles. Looked like old rust on the blades as if they had been used at one time. He then showed several knives and old revolvers with the hammer underneath. There was considerable hair attached. Didn't pay much attention to the hair, as I thought it was just some make of hair rope. I thought I wouldn't remove the hair as I saw something that looked queer to me.
"I picked up the hair and _____ it out on the floor and then discovered it was scalps. On looking closer and laying it out to view, the scalps appeared plainly visible. Some was long hair, some gray hair, and some blond hair. A lot of women's hair was also noticed.
"We looked it over, but said nothing. The Indian Tumwasher offered no comment, but merely stared at me.
"Coty" on looking at a curious pile of junk, noticed it to be Indian wampum, or money, a pile amounting to about a bushel. That was all in that trunk. Another trunk there was not offered for inspection.
The children of Noah Chapman were married to the following: Lucy T. Chapman married to Gilbert Knutson in 1899, in Vancouver, Washington; Guy C. Chapman was married to Matilda Paleman in 1906 at Vancouver, Washington; Kate Stella Chapman married George Rankin in Vancouver, Washington; Courtland M. Chapman was married to Hattie G. Arndt in 1909 of Portland, Oregon.
Linda Till Chapman died at the age of 69, in the year 1908.
On speaking further, Mr. Chapman reported "the pioneer days, although interesting, were not a time of all roses" but had many set-backs and disappointments.
"People had no chance to become educated. They had to work by their hands for a living. They had to fight for their rights to exist so that the incoming generation might be able to survive."

Editors note: It is the truth... Most of the pioneer stories of the past printed by the Sun, prove that these early settlers had
to work. Although many live comfortably now, several have not much, but they proved hardy pioneers, willing to sacrifice their all, education and lives, and future so that we may carry on. Although many too, appear now to be without much, and get little attention from the present generation for their past efforts, have accomplished their task well.
Many though crippler, or without much as a result from those pioneer hardships of life, learned it the "hard way," and still have little. So that we may have plenty.