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History of Early Pioneer Families of Hood River, Oregon.
Compiled by Mrs. D.M. Coon

THE HISTORY OF JIM AND NELLIE
(By S.E. Bartmess)

Thirty six years ago Indian Jim and Indian Nellie, husband and wife, lived in a shack across the street and just east of the present freight depot (however there was no street there at that time.) They were happy and contented, for they were both industrious. Jim was always ready for odd jobs around town. Nellie found employment in washing for the families, and in this way the two managed to live comfortably.
On a Monday morning Nellie cane to our house sorely troubled. She had come to do the week's washing, and said the white people were digging up the bodies of the Indians on Memaloose Island, and she was afraid they would dig up the bodies of her two boys and Jim's two girls. She always spoke of their family in that way. She wanted to work and save enough money to bear the expense of bringing the bodies to Hood River, which she did, and buried them in the Knights of Pythias cemetery. After that, life to Jim and Nellie seemed rosy and we thought "happy ever after" was a certainty, but one day Jim looked upon Nellie and concluded that she was getting too old for household duties, so he packed his grip and de-camped for the Yakima reservation, returning in a few days with a buxom young Indian girl, as big as two of Nellie. In fact she was bigger than Jim, and must have caused considerable trepidation on Nellie's part, for she knew what she was up against.
The first intimation our peaceful little city had of an Indian disturbance was when Mr. Sinnott, our section boss, heard the war whoops and rushed out his back door to find Nellie and the young Indian woman in fierce combat, and started to separate them, but Jim stood there at the woodpile with the axe, acting as referee, and said, "You leave them alone, we see those house this is. " The new squaw was the invader, while Nellie was fighting for "home and native land," and gained a glorious victory. Jim and the girl of his choice walked off, leaving Nellie in peaceful possession.
Sometime after this event Nellie and Indian Martha, the latter who lives at present on the Columbia highway just east of the city, became Identified with the United Brethren church and were faithful in attendance and sincere in their profession. Nellie, a widow and without alimony, needed some help. Mrs. Alma Howe, always a friend of the Indians, offered her services and the church built a neat cottage for Nellie just east of ours. Howe's home at the Cottage Farm Resort, whore it can be seen at the present time. This cottage was built about the year 1907, and it was stipulated in the contract that it would revert to Mrs. Howe at Nellie's death. It now belongs to the Cottage farm.
Mrs. Howe endeavored to make Nellie contented in the best home she over possessed, but after two years the nomadic instinct urged her to the wild and she sought the Indian tribe south of The Dalles where she remained for about two more years and then cane back to live with Indian Martha, in whose home she died in November 1913. We buried her In the K. of P. cemetery with "her two boys and Jim's two girls."
Jim's second wife died in a few years and left him to lead a lonely life, but he finally came back to make his home with Indian Sam Willliams and wife, Susie, and at the end of two years died at their home April 19, 1925.
Indian Sam Williams ministered to him in his last years and preached his funeral sermon in my chapel at his death. His theme was "Jim has gone to God." His sermon was not punctuated by thoughts of higher criticism, but was emphatic in the Fundamentalist doctrines. Sam is Bishop of the Indians of the Shaker denomination and lives on his farm on the east side overlooking the city and valley of Hood River. He is a man of means and owns a fish wheel at The Dalles, where Seufert Bros. have been trying un-successfully for years to run him off the river. He is firm in his Christian faith and perhaps some of the Modernist D.D.'s could learn something from Bishop Sam Williams. I wonder if they could.
Bishop Sam and his wile, Susie shared their home with Jim in his last years and undoubtedly were a great comfort to him when he needed shelter and sympathy.
Jim's motives were good but with a mind beclouded by the customs of many generations of his people, was in error as to his domestic duties and thought he had a right to "find out whose house this is." There was a true sense of honor in his willingness to walk off and leave Nellie in possession. Bishop Sam recognized this honor which characterized Jim throughout his life.
When meeting Jim on the street during the last years of his life he would say, "Do you know me?" Now with his simple faith, no doubt, as Bishop Williams has placed him, "Jim has gone to God."
Jim and Nellie and Jim's two girls and Nellie's two boys are at rest in the Knight's cemetery.