jparrott.html

The Enterprise, White Salmon, WA., October 12, 1923, page 2

JOSEPH PARROTT, PIONEER

Glenwood, Oct. 8. - Joseph Parrott age 79, late of New Era, Ore., died Oct. 1, 1923, and was buried in the Zion cemetery, Canby, Ore., Oct. 3, 1923. Numerous relatives, and a host of friends mourn his death.
He was among the earliest settlers of Klickitat county, and was a pioneer of this vicinity as well as of Oregon.
Following is an article by him on the early history of his family, and their achievements as pioneers:

History of the Parrott family in Early Times

On the Parrott side of my ancestors the fartherest back of whom I learned it was my grandfather, Adonisan Parrott. Of my Grandmother Parrott I never learned of her maiden name. But Adonisan in 1776 was a rebel against England. He was in the battle of Bunker Hill and was also in the encampment at Valey Forge during "the times that tried men's souls," and stayed in the army to the end of the war. In 1804 he, with his wife and children, settled near Platsburg, NY. My father, Joseph Parrott, a Sr., was born in the Jessier Inn in 1803. In the second war with England, 1812-1814, I had to uncles - William and Richard - who engaged in that war; were wounded, taken prisoners and paroled. When in 1814 Provist, with 14,000 Wellington veterans, came to Platsburg, the two boys broke their parole and the father himself turned out and assisted to drive the "red coats" from New York.
In the latter part of the 1820s, Joseph and his brother, William, went to Canada. Will came back to Platsburg and went to the Mexican War and was heard of no more. Joseph returned and worked on the Erie Canal for some time. Then he went to Frankfort, Ky., in 1839, and after that moved to Andrew County, Mo., where Joseph, Jr., was born in the Jan., 1844.
On the first day of May that same year we crossed the Missouri river bound for Oregon City, Oregon. The company included my mother's parents, two of her brothers, one sister and their families, besides many others. During the trip many delays occurred. At one camp on the bank of a stream that we came to, we were detained by hard rains which made the streams unfordable. Here we were detained two weeks for not crossing in this stream before camping. With their jaded teams the company encountered snow in crossing the Blue mountains. We arrived at The Dales where we embarked on a Hudson Bay batteau for the Cascades. We rode along the south line of Klickitat county late in November and were detained at the Cascades three weeks waiting for a boat to take us to Oregon City. Our food was boiled wheat and Indian cured Salmon skins for breakfast. For dinner for a change, we had Salmon skins and boiled wheat; for supper we had both. My father had a project of his own. His wagon bed was made to answer as a boat so he planned to go down the river in it an tow his wagon behind. He went all right for a while, but the river became too rough and his outfit unstable, so he abandoned by wagon. He stopped near an Indian camp for the night and motioned to a little fellow to bring him some fire and he would give him some powder, which he did, but the older Indians came, all hungry and begging for something to eat. One Indian would not have the piece of meat given him and waded to the stern of the boat to help himself. Father unwittingly took up his gun and pointed it at the Indian. The Indians, with one exception, became very angry. They took his gun away from him and made him pay a good price to get it back. When the angry Indians, the other Indians, who father thinks saved his life, motioned him to leave and showed him how they would kill him if he stayed. He pulled out and camped on an island with no fire. Part of the emigrants drove their stock down some Indian trail on the Oregon side. Their provisions got so low a fat stray Indian dog was butchered at a camp made at a crossing of a small river which gave the river the name of Dog river. This name it kept for many years before it came to be known as Hood River.
We all reached Oregon City on the 23rd day of December, 1844, a crestfallen, discouraged, forlorn looking group of mortals; barely clothed, in rags and moccasins, with no money or provisions, and winter upon us. What was to carry us through this condition? In fact there was no money, it was all barter and swap except wheat, which was legal tender by custom. The Hudson Bay company had a well supplied store and the head manager, Dr. John McLoughlin, a man of stern commanding qualities, but of a generous and tender heart, freely supplied the wants of the helpless emigrants, even to his own detriment.
The Kindreds, my mother's folks, in 1776, were in the southern states somewhere. The great grandfather Kindred followed Daniel Boone to Kentucky. Some of the Kindreds are in the mountains districts of Tennessee. But David, my grandfather, moved to Indiana then to Iowa; from there to Missouri, and from Missouri to Oregon. He located near Tumwater, Wash. in 1845. His son, John, and partner, Mike T. Sicons, also located on Tanzy Point at the mouth of the Columbia river, where the town of Hammond now is, while father took a claim on the east bank of the Willamette, six miles south of Oregon City, where he and mother lived until their deaths.
I lived there mostly until the spring of 1883, when with my family I moved to Goldendale, Wash., and lived there until the spring of 1895, when we moved northeast of Glenwood, Wash., and lived the life of pioneers. I made many miles of wagon road, and made the Klickitat river crossable by the erection of the Parrott suspension bridge.
In 1916 he and his family moved from the old homestead to Glenwood Hotel for about four years. He was postmaster during that time, and also for a few years more after moving out of the hotel. From Glenwood he moved to Seaside, Ore., and bought property where he made his home until 1920.
The last two years of his life were spent as caretaker of the Spiritualist camp grounds at New Era, Ore., where he spent his last days among the scenes of his boyhood, along with such old friends and acquaintances as were left of those early pioneers of Oregon.

So pass the pioneers!