SHERWOOD BONNEY
SHERWOOD BONNEY
Includinghis trip to Oregon by wagon in 1852
My great,great grandfather, Samuel "Sherwood" Bonney, was born in 1812 inCornwall, Litchfield County, Connecticut. While the Barbour Index of Connecticut vital records lists him as Samuel"Sherman" Bonney, the actual listing in the Cornwall town records isSamuel Sherwood Bonney and he used the name "Sherwood" Bonney. He was the son of John Bonney and Orilla(Sherwood) Bonney. In the summer of1813, the family moved to the Connecticut Western Reserve and settled in NelsonTownship, Portage County, Ohio. Whenhis father died in the fall of 1814, his mother was left with eight children tosupport and care for. When he was 14years old, Sherwood went to live with his eldest brother, John, and lived withhim until he was 21 years old.
When heturned 21, he got a portion of his father's land and in July 1837 he bought hisbrother Timothy's share to make a small farm of about 58 acres, where he livedfor 15 years. He went to work clearingland for himself and other people, and took jobs, at four dollars per acre,chopping heavy beech and maple timber, cutting it to logging length, and pilingthe brush. On March 9, 1837, he marriedElizabeth Byrnes in Nelson Township. Hebuilt a log house on his land and lived there until the spring of 1839 when hesold it for seven hundred dollars which he took in one span of horses and awagon, and the balance in dry goods and money.
About thefirst of May 1839, Sherwood and Elizabeth left their home in Ohio and startedfor Iowa with their year old son. Theyhad a "very pleasant" journey and stopped 14 miles west of Burlingtonat his brother Timothy's house while he went back to Ohio for a wife. While he was gone, Sherwood rented a farmfrom S. S. White, brother-in-law of General McCarver, proprietor of oldTacoma. He engaged in farming duringthe fifteen years he resided in Danville Township, Des Moines County,Iowa. In 1852, Sherwood and his wife,Elizabeth, decided to move west and sold their land for $1000; bought twowagons, six yoke of oxen, two cows and provisions for the journey. A first hand account, by Sherwood, of thistrip across the country in 1852 via the Oregon Trail is as follows:
"Mywife favored the plan, thinking that in the future we could have plenty of landfor our children, six in number, and we saw nothing but success. We were in good health; and with high hopeswe started on that tiresome journey for the far west on the 7th of April,1852. My brother, Timothy Bonney, hadpreceded us, and we overtook him, with his family, about sixty miles on theroad in Wapolo County, Iowa. Fearing ascarcity of feed, we camped at Gray's Creek and bought corn for our cattle. We then loaded our wagons with as much cornas we could conveniently carry, but to our great surprise we found plenty ofcorn on the road - so much for people not speaking the truth.
We got toCouncil Bluffs on the Missouri River all right, but were obligated to waitthere, with many others, for a new boat to be finished before we could crossthe River. The company had nowincreased to twenty-six wagons, cattle, horses, men, women and children. We commenced the crossing on May 20th, butit took four days to land all on the other side. Our captain's name was Ogle; who was the father of the Ogle whoowned the nursery at Puyallup.
Our routelay on the north side of the Platte River, through a level country entirely unsettled,mostly without timber, and sometimes making it difficult to get a few stickswith which to build a fire at night. After crossing the River we began to see Indians. They did not bother us much, butoften-appeared in camp to beg food, or to find what we had left on theground. We saw no buffalo or animalslarger than coyotes or prairie dogs.
We corralledour cattle at night. One night weencountered a severe storm of rain and wind which blew down our tents andstampeded our cattle, which took nearly all the next day to find. My oldest son found them about three milesaway from camp. We found the dust veryuncomfortable in so long a train. Oftenwe could hardly see the team we were driving, and it shut out all distantview. Gradually the country became morerugged, and we began to ascend hills.
Nothing ofany importance happened before we reached Fort Laramie, where we saw a fewSioux Indians and a few soldiers. Iwent over to the fort on the opposite side of the river from our camp, where westayed only overnight. The next morningmy brother Timothy and I started with our three teams from the fort andtraveled alone for a while, leaving the dusty train for a time behind us.
On theFourth of July we camped on the summit of the Rocky Mountains at South Pass,starting at night to descend toward Green River, a beautiful stream on thebanks of which we camped in the morning. When we reached the River we found a ferry kept by the white men. We paid them eight dollars to take us acrossthe stream the next morning. Soon afterthis, Timothy's team failed, so he had to leave his heavy wagon and take one ofmine that was lighter. We took histhings and family into one of my wagons.
Reaching theSnake River [at Three Island Crossing], we found John Rigdon with ropestretched across the river and a wagon-box for a ferry. We asked him if we could join hiscompany. We were permitted to join hiscompany. We brought up our teams andthe next day we all got across safely.
Thefollowing day was the 4th of August. Putting our wagons together again, we pursued our way as usual, untilfour o'clock in the afternoon, when my little son, Alvin, five years old, wastaken violently sick with cholera. Nomedicine seemed to do him any good, and he died. The next morning we put him in a chest, it not being long enoughwe had to knock out one end which left his feet sticking out. It was sad, indeed, to lay him down for hislast sleep in this wild place, but we had no alternative - the Indians gave us nochance to stop - we must push onto keep out of their way. There were several persons buried there thatday. The others became sick, mybrother Timothy, and his little daughter, aged two years. We did all we could for them, but after afew days of suffering they died on the 8th day of August, and were buried nearour path, as well as many others, who were strangers.
There wasneither comfort by day nor rest by night. My second and third boys, David and Lyman, were very unwell, and it wasnot wonderful that my dear wife, worn and fatigued with the long journey andsorrow, should be the next victim. Thesituation seemed very hard; everybody was frightened at the cholera and theIndians. We could not stop alone, andnone was willing to face death and the Indians, so we struggled along sick andsorrowful until we had crossed the Snake River the second time [at Fort Boisewhere they entered Oregon] and had a hard drive to reach the next camp which wedid not reach until after dark, where we could get water [at the Malheur Riverat what is now Vale, Oregon].
That was adreary and hopeless night as I watched my dear wife, the companion of my earlyyears, battling disease and yielding up that hope that had sustained herthrough many trials. She lingered untilnoon the next day, August 14th, when she breathed her last. We were left almost alone to perform the sadrites of burial. Most of the companyhad hastened on. Mr. Fisk and August Lewis were, with their wives, kind enoughto stop with us until it was over. Weburied her on a little mound beneath a tree, and smoothed it down as well as wecould, lest the Indians might disturb the grave.
The childrenwere improving slowly and we were obliged to move on and camp at Burnt River,where there was feed and water. Weforded the stream in the morning, and at evening camped at Powder River [nearwhat is now North Powder, Oregon], where I lost an ox. The Indians, still impelled by curiosity,followed us and there were one hundred or more straggling along to escort usacross the Grande Ronde Valley. When wearrived at the foot of the Blue Mountains [near what is now La Grande, Oregon]we found a man by the name of Gabriel - he had one yoke of oxen and cart andwife. He could not have been an angelbecause he swore like a pirate at the oxen because his poor oxen could not pullhis almost empty cart up the mountain. I told him to quit and I would help him up. We put one yoke of my oxen on the lead of his and went up withoutany further trouble.
The road wasrough and my fourth son, Samuel A., took the mountain fever and was nigh untodeath door. He could eat nothing andwasted to almost a skeleton, but when we reached The Dalles he began to mendand could eat fresh salmon. Here mybrother's widow and what was left of his family went down to Portland in asmall boat, but I camped for three weeks, and sent my oldest son with two hiredmen to drive the cattle down the trail to the Cascade landing, where I was tomeet them by boat.
Fifteenfamilies with all of their belongings were put upon a large keelboat called theSea Serpent. When we arrived at theCascades I carried my wagons off the boat and put them together. I loaded them and hitched up the teams andwent down River five miles, where they were again taken apart and loaded onto asteamer and carried to the mouth of Sandy River, and again we rebuilt ourwagons and drove to French Prairie to spend the winter."
At FrenchPrairie, Sherwood earned money by thrashing wheat and making 20,000 shingles. They sent the shingles to Salem where theysold them for $9.00 per thousand. InFebruary 1853, Sherwood married his brother's widow, Lydia Ann (Wright) Bonney,and moved to Salem. There they rented ahouse on the opposite side of the street from T. Mercer and Dexter Horton. Sherwood did some carpentry work, hauledsome lumber, and took a job cutting and thrashing 25 acres of wheat onshares. He hired Mercer and Horton to helphim with the work.
The 1853Oregon Territorial Census for Marion County includes: Sherwood Bonney, JervisBonney (Sherwood's father's first cousin], Bradford Bonney, Truman Bonney(Sherwood's father's first cousin] and Silvester Wright (possibly Lydia Ann'suncle who may also have gone to Oregon).
Mercer andHorton went up to Puget Sound and came back with glowing reports of thecountry. Sherwood and Lydia decided tomove to the Washington Territory in the fall. They started out about October 1 with eight children, five yoke of oxenand four cows. Ring Perkins accompaniedthem as far as Olympia. They wentthrough Portland to St. Helen where they stayed one week waiting for aconveyance down the Columbia River. They shipped the stock across the river in a scow and Mr. Perkins andtheir three oldest sons went down the river with the stock. After waiting about a week, the rest of thefamily finally got aboard a large batteau. Sherwood, Lydia, and five children, Mr. Sanders and his wife and two children,the captain of the ship, 2 wagons, bedding and other belongings were all loadedon board. It took two and a half daysto get down to Monticello, a little town above the mouth of the Cowlitz River,where they had to wait another week before they could get conveyance up theriver.
Sherwood charteredtwo canoes and Mr. Sanders chartered one. They put the wagons in one of the canoes and the two families in theother two. They also had two Indians ineach canoe. Sherwood paid theproprietor a fifty dollar gold slug for his part of the conveyance. It took them two days to get to the landingbecause the river was very low. A goodpart of the way they had to walk. TheIndians used paddles where the water was deep and poles where it wasshallow. They found the boys with thecattle without any problems.
They thenhitched up the teams and went to Olympia where they bought some provisions andstruck out for Chamber's Prairie. Therethey stopped and camped close to Mr. T. Chambers. Sherwood and Mr. Sanders rode by horse down to Steilacoom wherethey found "a place quite lovely". They went back for their families and moved to the smallsettlement. Sherwood turned his stockout on the plains near American Lake, went to work for three weeks as acarpenter and then got a job hauling lumber from Bird's saw mill.
In the fallof 1854, the first election was held in Pierce County and Sherwood Bonney wasthe first elected Justice of the Peace. As such, he performed the first marriage ceremony, at the old ThomasChambers house near Steilacoom, where Charles Hogan married a Miss Kilbuk. He next married Mr. J. R. Meeker to Mrs.Nancy Burr at Fort Steilacoom. He alsoofficiated at the first wedding on the town site of Tacoma when Nicholas DeLinand Gertrude Meller were married in 1854 at the old saw mill on Gallegher'sGulch (creek) at the head of Commencement Bay. In 1855, he conducted the first wedding in the Puyallup Valley, at thehome of the Hon. Robert Moore, when Mr. J. W. McArty married Miss Ruth Kincaid.
In thespring of 1855, he took up a donation claim on the north shore of AmericanLake, built a house and moved his family into it. This claim consisted of 322.9 acres in sections 16 and 17,township 19, range 2 east. Itsubsequently became the home of the Country Club until it was laterrelocated. The land was then subdividedinto many small tracts, and was the location of a number of summer homes. The veteran's hospital was built on groundadjoining the old Bonney claim.
During thesummer of 1855, there began to be rumors of a war with the Indians. Sherwood rented a double log house inSteilacoom and moved the family into it. The people of the town undertook to turn it into a fort where they couldsleep at night. They made a stockade ofsplit cedar logs stuck on end around the house. In the fall of 1856, the family moved back onto the claim nearAmerican Lake. During the winter of1861/2, there was a very deep snow that stayed on the ground all winter. More than 2/3 of the stock in Oregon andWashington died during that winter, and Sherwood himself lost 40 head.
In thespring of 1862, Sherwood went with captain Settle to the Salmon River mines inIdaho. They each took two horses andwent by way of the Columbia River, past Fort Vancouver and over the trails toThe Dalles. They then went up theUmatilla River where they saw a great many dead cattle on the road past WallaWalla; and then over to Lewiston. Fromthere they took a southeast course across the Cammer Prairie and up a trail alongthe bank of the Salmon River on a trail where the river was several hundredfeet below. They came to the mouth ofSkate Creek then ascended a long and steep trail to the summit where the snowwas five or six feet deep.
They thenwent on a prospecting tour with several others, around what was called theCamel's Hump. Sherwood then startedhome in the company of Father Guthrie of Olympia. When he arrived home he rented, for one year, the Sumner farmowned by Cyrel Ward which was later purchased by Joseph Rives Dickenson. While there, he raised a good crop of wheat,oats, barley and vegetables. He thenrented the farm owned by John Carson. The following winter Sherwood Bonney, John Carson and Mr. E. Meeker chartereda scow, loaded it with wheat, and sailed past where Tacoma is now located andaround the Narrows to Chamber's Mill. When they returned, they got an Indian to pilot the scow into theslough.
In 1863,Sherwood acquired a preemption claim near Sumner which he farmed. He later served on the jury, which heard theevidence in the famous Leschi trial. Sherwood died on March 30, 1908, at the age of 96, at the home of hisson, Fred Bonney, at Sumner. He wasburied at Sumner Cemetery beside his second wife, Lydia, who died in 1884. Lydia was the daughter of Levi Wright andhis wife, Lydia Chapman) Wright. Shebecame the first schoolteacher in Pierce County; when she taught in her home inSteilacoom in July, August, and September 1854.
Lydia hadthe following children by her first marriage to Sherwood's brother, TimothyStone Bonney: Ralph, Levi C., Mary Emeline, Sarah Amelia, and Lucy (who died onthe Oregon Trail). Sherwood had thefollowing children by his first marriage to Elizabeth Byrnes: Edward Philander;David H. who married Emma Bishop; Lyman Walter who married the widow, EuniceHeckle Hughes; Samuel Alonzo who married Emma Northover; Alvin (who died onAugust 5, 1852 on the Oregon Trail); and Ransom Kendall who married MinaNesbitt.
An articlein the March 30, 1908 issue of the Tacoma News newspaper reads as follows:"The 96th birthday of Sherwood Bonney was celebrated by a family reunionat the residence of his daughter, Mrs. Etta Dickenson, Forty-Fifth and WarnerStreets, Tacoma. Six sons and fourdaughters [including his step children] are still living: David H. Bonney -Fresno, Cal.; Ransom K. Bonney - Oakland, Cal.; L. W. Bonney, Mary Shorey, Mrs. Gardner Kellogg and Lucy Harris -Seattle; Levi C. Bonney and Fred W. Bonney - Sumner; and Mrs. Etta Dickensonand W. P. Bonney of Tacoma."
OnAugust 24, 1905, Sherwood Bonney, at the age of 93 years, wrote the following:
"I havelived to see the iron horse take the place of the ox team, and the steamerplough the waters of Puget Sound, where once only the Indian canoe was pushedlaboriously along. The telegraph, telephoneand electric lights, with all the modern improvements of civilization are here,but we the old pioneers are passing away; soon they will all be gone. Have they lived in vain? When I look back upon that wonderful journeyacross the mountains so full of hope at first, and then of toils, privation andsorrow, I see many failures and mistakes, many opportunities lost. But the opportunities are not all passed by,nor the labors all done.
The futureis coming when the hills will give up their gold, the waters will havereclaimed the desert, and over every step of this road, where we struggled andtoiled and died, new conditions of life will have come to pass. The wild grandeur and beauty of the pathwill be changed from the Missouri to the Pacific. It will be transformed into fields, gardens, towns and cities forthe abodes of men in happy homes, who will never think of those who cut theroads and hewed down the forests, and planted the seeds of prosperity andwealth."
Links to related photos:
BonneyFamily Homestead Marker - Steilacoom, WA
BonneyFamily Homestead - American Lake, WA
Don Dickenson 327 Jewell St. San Rafael, CA 94901-2216 (415) 456-2675 12/28/99