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The Mt. Adams Sun, Bingen, WA., June 5, 1952, page 1

YAKIMAS BURN JOSLYN RANCH;
INCITE OUTRAGED KLICKITATS TO REVENGE LOSS OF RIFLES

The most exciting moment in local history occurred in 1855. This episode will provide one of the highest points of interest in the "Mt. Adams Story". Hub Strain and Mrs. Claire Smith will play the leading roles of Erastus and Mary Joslyn. Nelson Burgess is cast as Colonel Stepcoe, leader of a cavalry unit from Fort Dalles, Mr. and Mrs. Bill Bates and children, attired in period costumes from the R.J. Bates' heirloom wardrobe, will enact the parts of the Lindsay family. Here follows the Joslyn story.

BY HARRIETT P. CRANK

"Men make camps; women make homes!" So spoke Sir Edwin Sandys when he dispatched the first bride ship to Virginia; 234 years later it took the hand of Mary Joslyn, a Massachusetts girl, to establish the first permanent home in White Salmon. The light of her lamp cast a steady gleam on the Bingen meadows where before nothing but camp-fires of traders and trappers pricked the darkness of wilderness nights.
Mary was the wife of Erastus S. Joslyn, a young man from her own state. With honest pioneer instinct, he paid the Indians for a tract of land were Bingen now is. Together the two began the hard work of building a home in the wild vastness of the Columbia River Gorge.

PEACE

But Mary Joslyn was not content with mere homemaking. She started a Sunday school. In Christian fashion she invited everyone to attend. Her students, of course, where all Indian.
Sunday school services were held in the Joslyn home. On Sunday mornings the Indians crowded into the log cabin, and Mary Joslyn taught them from the Bible and to sing simple hymns. The log walls rang with "When the Roll is Called Up Yonder" and savage voices repeated "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want."

RIFLES

At peace with her home and her wilderness neighbors, Mary Joslyn did not know that there were those who would employee the fine influence she and Erastus had with the Indians, to seek their own ends.
News of the Joslyn's flourishing Sunday School, reached military officers at Fort Vancouver. They decided to use the Joslyn's influence to disarm the Indians, and instructed the Joslyns to notify their Indian friends that they must surrender their firearms and ammunition to officers sent to receive them.
It was midwinter. The Indians needed their guns to kill game for food. Nevertheless, on the day set, 30 faithful Indians came to Sunday school and gave up their firearms. But the officers from the fort were not content with this submission.
They seized Epea, Chumcully and Stemelew, three of the most prominent Indians at the Joslyns family mission. Bitter tears were shed as Mary and Erastus watched the officers place the strong brown arms of their friends in the iron fetters.

WAR

The Joslyns pleaded in vain for mercy for their Indian friends. Sadly they watched the officer's boat as it carried the prisoners up with the Columbia toward The Dalles. Mary felt the Indians could never trust them again. It was a day of evil foreboding.
Despite this military treachery, some of the Indians still remained friendly. It gave Erastus a grim satisfaction to learn that Epea, Chumcully and Stemelew had escaped from the white man's prison at Fort Vancouver.
One day, Spotiwell advised Erastus of a plot to kill both him and Mary. Well knowing the anger of aroused savages, the Joslyns left their home and sought refuge in the Cascades. They left their cattle in care of David Galantine, the hired man, and a 14-year old boy, Samuel Woodburn Hawks, who had since joined of the household.

THE ATTACK

One evening Galentine went to the log the corral to milk. As he pressed his head against the side of the cow and sent the thin, white streams of milk thudding into the pail, he heard a woman's voice. Pretending not to hear, he picked up the milk bucket and drove the cow closer to the fence.
Slowly, as the bucket filled, a squaw hidden in the brush informed him the Indians were on their way to kill him.
"Be still," she whispered. "If they find out I told you, they will kill me." Galantine promised.
With dreadful calm he carried the heavy bucket filled with milk he never expected to use. In the log house he held a brief consultation with the 14-your old Sam.
Galantine got his gun. Together he and Sammy made their way like shadows into the willow thickets by the edge of the Columbia. All night the two stole stealthily in and out among the trees by the water while the blood thirsty savages hunted them. Several times they passed within arms' length. A false move, a cough, a snapping twig would have cost them their lives.
But the will to live was more cunning than the will to kill. When morning came, the fugitives stood on a point of land nearly opposite where Mosier now is. They hailed The Dalles boat on its way down stream and were taken aboard her to safety.

THE TORCH

Soldiers were immediately dispatched to the scene of trouble. At that Joslyn Farm, the Indians in possession saw the soldiers coming. Using their age-old weapon, they appointed David Shootskin to set the log structures afire with a blazing torch.
Not knowing of the trouble, the Joslyn's returned to their home from the Cascades. They were greeted by the be ominous scent of smoke. As they remained in their boats offshore, they watched the flames devour their house and farm buildings. Grief gripped their hearts as they viewed the charred ruins. Erastus comforted his wife …"We can build again". "The Lord willing," thought Mary Joslyn.
But build again they did. Eventually there was another log house under the big oaks, new sheds and new barns. The grass was good and the cattle fat. The Joslyns made butter and cheese for the Portland market.
Erastus made a skiff to provide his own transportation to The Dalles. No longer was he dependent on the river boats. According to one yellowed account, Erastus left the Dalles one day with his skiff full of guests.
"It was May," the old narrative reads, "and they have had wild strawberries and thick cream for supper. Mary Joslyn entertained her guests by assigning each one of them a task. Even the children worked, hulling strawberries. They were allowed to eat none until their stint was finished. Then there were great bowls of berries, thick cream, and bread warm from the oven."