Story about her memories on her 80th birthday.

Memories Of Pioneer Asotin Days Recalled By Two Women As Angie Wamsley Reaches 80

Asotin – Feb. 2 – Miss Angie Wamsley, who came to Asotin county in the fall of 1877, and Mrs. James Chapman, who came in May, 1888, reminisced together on the occasion of Miss Wamsley's 80th birthday Monday. Both disqualified themselves as contenders for the title of longest continuous residents, since they both lived elsewhere after maturity.

Miss Wamsley was born in the Cherokee strip in Oklahoma (GGA – she was born in Cherokee Co., IA), then moved with the family to Nebraska, and came as one of eight children and two adults in a prairie schooner to Dayton in the fall of '77. Winter set in before the family could trek to Cloverland the next spring.

The family lived first on the school section at Cloverland, in a dugout with an earth floor and enough roof to keep the rain out. Park of that original dugout remains, according to reports.

During the Indian scare of '78 and '79, Miss Wamsley recalls that her father was not at all frightened – he had hunted and fished with Indians on the plains, and knew many of their ways. He went to the mountains to inspect the tracks which had given rise to the scare. He returned to report to the family that the tracks were not Indian tracks, but probably white men's, because they appeared to be made by a pigeon-toed person.

Meanwhile, terror was in the settlers' hearts on Cloverland and Anatone flats. Some kept their horses saddled, waiting at the gate. Others fled to Anatone to the old fort, constructed of tree trunks as thick as a man's body planted upright. Still others left in alarm to stay at Lewiston until the Indian wars were over. War never struck Asotin county settlers, but the Moduc wars in Idaho were close and terrifying. The Wamsley family was one of three families remaining at Cloverland, but she recalls that their mother was frightened.

Their second house was somewhat of an improvement over the first – it was a dugout chest deep, then log construction, chinked with mud up to the roof.

Move to Asotin

Two years later, they moved to Asotin, and built a house on the banks of Asotin creek and the Snake river. Her father farmed the land that is now Asotin, raising grain and soft fruits. Three of the orchards were on the present Cleveland street, the site of the old Farrish planer mill, and near the present grade school.

During their life at Asotin, she and her brothers and sisters often played with the Indian children camped along the Asotin creek as far south as Jerry. But the Chinese mining the banks of the Snake river and panning gold frightened the youngsters while they lived there.

New settlers coming from the Walla Walla territory came to the county by either fording Asotin creek a little below the present Memorial bridge, or coming down Maguire gulch to Jerry, fording the creek there. "We always had room for them if they needed to sleep there, because we had a two-room house then," Miss Wamsley said.

When they moved to their newly purchased land at Ten Mile, large pieces of household equipment and some of the livestock were hauled up the Snake river by boat, for Ten Mile had no access road at that time. The children drove the geese, ducks, and pigs over the trail to their new home, a 2 ½ story structure, which was the height of elegance then.

Lumber for this new home was dragged down the grade from the Farrish mill at Anatone by horses. The lumber skidded, banged into the horses' heels, and frightened the horses, which broke loose and ran. The lumber scattered every which way, she said.

The story of the river road came out in the two women's reminiscences. J. S. Wamsley (GGA most likely this was H.S Wamsley) agitated in the community for a road to his new property, and townspeople said they'd help him build a road if he'd put on dances, providing food for the all-night affairs. The road was built several years later.

Father Killed

A tragic accident, news of which traveled like wildfire over the prairie, occurred in December, when Angie was 14. Her father, digging in the bank for beaver, was suffocated by a cave-in. Shortly after, a family Bible he had ordered for his wife's Christmas gift arrived in the mail. Miss Wamsley proudly displays the Bible.

After their husband and father's death, the mother and children put their shoulders to the wheel more than ever. All ten children eventually were sent to high school – even the tot who was only 2 when his father died. Each child had field chores, and she says, "Brother, did we have to get up early in the morning."

Miss Wamsley, in her life, has worked hard and faithfully for her friends. Among her ventures have been farming at Craigmont when the reservation was opened to homesteading, and a timber claim near Spokane. Both of them she proved up and later sold.

She has lived 46 years in her present home, once a part of her father's holdings, and which her mother bought when the family returned to Asotin.