Miss Templeton recalls Pioneer days

Published 2:49 pm Thursday, October 2, 2008

The Annual Pioneer Picnic was held in the new

park last Sunday with about 150 persons in

attendance. Former residents of the Valley came from

Portland, Olympia, Tacoma, Snohomish, Monroe and Seattle.

J.J. Fowler of Portland brought a “loud speaker” which

enabled all to hear the program, which had been

arranged for the occasion by Mrs. Adair. Mrs. Kathryn Galley

sang and Mr. Leyde gave two humorous readings. Music

was furnished by Jeannette Pickering and Gail Trezise.

The historical highlight of the program at the

new park was the address by Miss Bertha Templeton,

who spoke on “The Oregon Trail.” Miss Templeton is

the granddaughter of Ezra Meeker, one of the famous

men who crossed the Plains to Washington in pioneer days.

Miss Templeton stated that pioneer stories,

experiences and incidents, with accounts of constant

stalking by Indians, and of encounters with them furnished

the greater part of the nursery rhymes and bedtime

stories of her childhood.

Drawing upon her memory of these stories, Miss Templeton presented a thrilling picture of the

dangers which beset the pioneer families of the Northwest

and also insight into the limitations and privations those

heroic men, women and children endured.

Oregon Trail Retraced

Ezra Meeker, said Miss Templeton, devoted the

last years of his life to writing of the discovery and

development of the Northwest. In 1905 he equipped a

prairie schooner and ox team and attended the Lewis and

Clark Exposition in Portland. There he was housed in a

huge tree stump — an exhibit of the state of Washington.

In 1906 he left Portland by ox team to retrace the

Oregon Trail and erect monuments along the way.

Later the oxen were stuffed and yoked to the

prairie schooner and the complete outfit was exhibited in

the San Francisco Exposition in 1915. It now stands in

the museum in Pt. Defiance Park at Tacoma as a

monument to the pioneer days of the Great Northwest.