The Sagers Go West, part 16

Now prisoners of the Indians, they were led to another building to wait their fate. After putting Louise down, Catherine did manage to return to the mission and bring Helen Mar back with her. On her return, Catherine learned that her brother Frank had been murdered. Lewis had shot the boy in the head.

For an entire month the remaining Sager children and all of the other prisoners were held captive on the mission grounds. Three young boys were taken away to Fort Walla Walla because they were part Indian and would not be hurt. It was never understood why Mary Ann Bridger and Helen Mar Meek, also being part Indian, were not also removed. Helen, however, would have been too ill to travel anyway. She and Louise Sager were unconscious part of the time they were captive on the mission grounds. Henrietta, who had also been sick, begin to recover.

Joseph Stanfield, one of the men left alive, was now ordered to begin digging graves for those that had been killed by the Indians, all of whose bodies still lay where they had fallen. The dead included Marcus and Narcissa Whitman as well as John and Frank Sager.

Two days after this solemn mass funeral Louise Sager died, then Helen Mar Meek. The two girls were buried not far from where the Whitmans' little daughter, Alice, had been buried a few years previously.

The Sager family continues their journey west at: The Sagers Go West, part 17: http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/1379...

To learn more on the Internet about the Whitmans please see:

Whitman Massacre--Preliminary Events http://www.oregonpioneers.com/whitman1.h...

The Whitman Massacre Trial: The Trail Proceeds Cayuse Chief Stickus http://arcweb.sos.state.or.us/50th/whitm...

Source for this article is:

Frazier, Neta Lohnes. Stout-Hearted Seven. Northwest Interpretive Association, Seattle, Washington, 1984.

THE WILD WILD WEST HAS ARRIVED AT SUITE 101 UNIVERSITY

To get in on the action check out these two courses: THE GREAT AMERICAN WEST, 1861 to 1876, http://www.suite101.com/course.cfm/17161...

BATTLE OF THE LITTLE BIGHORN, 1872 to 1876, http://www.suite101.com/course.cfm/17638...

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