History of Early Pioneer Families of Hood River, Oregon.
Compiled by Mrs. D.M. Coon
INDIAN NELLIE
From the Glacier, November 1914. Tribute to Indian Nellie by Mrs. A.L.H.
Indian Nellie, aged 75 years, died Friday, November 14,
at the home of Joe Aleck, two miles east of Hood River. She was buried from
the Bartmess under-taking parlors. Rev. Parsons conducted the service which
was simple yet very impressive.
Nellie was a devoted member of the United Brethren church
and a regular attendant when she was well. Indian Nellie was a woman of rare
attainments, being very refined and clean, one of the few of her race who
looked forward and made preparations for "cold winter time.' She did washing
and ironing among the pioneers. Mollie, the daughter, would go with her and
play with the white children. Many a time as Nellie ironed some of the children's
clothes she did so in memory of her own little ones, three of whom had passed
on in infancy. When Mollie was sixteen years old she married Peter, but only
lived a year after, dying with her first child.
Nellie grieved for her as few do among their people.
She went into deep mourning for several years. About fourteen years ago she
became afflicted with rheumatism and was a helpless invalid as well as a
great sufferer. Her kind neighbors and friends would go in and help her and
try to make her comfortable. At one time several of us met and cleaned and
papered her little living room. As we lifted her back into the house in the
evening, she raised her hand and said, "Tank you, tank you ladies". I asked
her one day what she had said when she said Grace, as she always did in her
own language before eating. She answered, "Nellie asks God to bless the food
and the hands that gave it to her." Some way I always felt as if I had been
to church when I went to see her. She lived so close to the Great Spirit
of Light that she could not help shedding forth its glory. About so seven
years ago the boundary line was shifted between the Adams and Coe tracts
and it brought the street through Nellie's little home. She was ordered to
vacate as the street was to be opened. I was sent for and found her in a
state of despair over losing her little home. Some suggested that she be
sent to the poor farm at The Dalles, others thought that she should go to
the Pendleton reservation, where she as a Umatilla Indian had a right.
She begged us not to let her go a "These are my mountains,
this is my country, these are my people," she said. Her friends rallied,
collected enough to build her a little room out on Mrs. Alma Howe's place
where she spent two happy years. Then the old love of roaming got possession
of her and she decided to visit some of her "tilicums" near The Dalles. I
will not record all the hard-ships she endured during her two years of wandering
among her own people, but she returned to Hood River with the same sweet
spirit, full of thankfulness for every visit and every favor. Nellie lived
the last years of her life with Joe and Martha Aleck in their home about
two miles east of town, the county paying for her care.
As I sat and listened to the beautiful funeral service,
saw the many pretty flowers placed there by loving hands and so many white
people, representing almost all the pioneer families, I thought what a saintly
life had passed on. Not one of us regretted being called her friend.
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