The Clarke Murder.NOTE.—This narrative was taken by Frank Richardson from the lips of IV. N. Vaughn, a Tillamook County pioneer. Vaughn is a truthful, well respected citizen, and the narration may be regarded as a true one.Tillamook, June 14, 1901. C. T. THAYER.I.ALONG in the early '50s, a preacher from Yamhill County, Oregon, Clarke by name, with his wife and son, took up a claim in the woods, intending to clear it and make a rural home, as so many others had done.On a Saturday Clarke left his family at home, and started for the Valley to preach, expecting that upon his return he would find them as well and happy as when he took his departure.During Clarke's absence Eschicua, a Tillamook Indian, and his two squaws, en route to Grande Rounde to trade with the Indians of that reservation, called at the Clarke cabin and asked for food, which was given them by Clarke's son.This younger Clarke was a physician, and in the cabin there was a cask which Eschicua saw and which he thought contained whiskey. The Indian asked the doctor for some whiskey, and Clarke replied, "That is not whiskey. It is medicine for sick people." Eschicua left the cabin with the victuals for the squaws, not at all satisfied that the doctor was telling him the truth regarding the contents of the cask.That night, about eleven o'clock, Eschicua returned to the cabin, and, finding Dr. Clarke and his mother asleep, forced an entrance, intending to procure some whiskey. Between the entrance and the cask was a camp stool, which Eschicua tipped over, awakening the doctor and his mother, both of whom rushed upon the Indian, the doctor attacking him with an iron poker and inflicting severe injuries on the Indian's back. After being cornered and beaten, he stabbed first young Clarke and then his mother with a long dirk.Eschicua then took all articles of value, set fire to the cabin and with his women returned to Tillamook. Upon Clarke's return from the Valley he found his cabin burned and the charred remains of his wife and son among the ashes. The burning of the cabin and the cremation of Mrs. Clarke and son were reported in the Oregonian of that year (1855.)At this time Kilchis was chief of the Tillamook tribe and his son, Charley Kilchis, was the chief medicine man of the same tribe. Kilchis was the son of a fullblooded negro and a Nehalem squaw This negro was a blacksmith on the historical "wax-ship" that went ashore on Nehalem beach, nobody knows when.The negro was "taken in" and made one of the tribe by the Indians, and tradition tells us that the rest of the ship's crew were killed. He married one of the women of the tribe and Chief Kilchis was the issue.Eschicua, suffering from the wounds received at the hands of his victims, consulted several medicine men, but they were unable to give him any relief, and, as a last resort, he came to Charley Kilchis for treatment. This move of Eschicua's proved his undoing.When an Indian applies to a medicine man for treatment, which treatment is much in the line of hypnotism and Christian Science, he must make a confession of his sins and the wrongs he has done his fellow beings.Eschicua confessed having murdered the Clarkes to Charley Kilchis, who, in turn, informed the white settlers and thus opened the second act of our drama.II.The sun was two hours high when a slave of Charley Kilchis came to the cabin of W. N. Vaughn and told him that Eschicua had confessed to the murder of two whites, and that the Boston men, as the white settlers were called, should come to the chief's house and take the murderer. Mr. Vaughn, Isaac Alderman and Zeb Thomas proceeded to Kilchis Point, the home of the chief, and demanded Eschicua. The Indian was thereupon held prisoner and turned over to Justice of Peace Alderman for trial.When taken before the justice Eschicua admitted the killing of the Clarkes, and his story was corroborated by the two squaws who were with him at the time of the murder.The acting sheriff of Tillamook county was a Mr. Quick, who took the Indian to North Yamhill for trial. Entering the office of the sheriff of Yamhill county, Quick said to the sheriff, "Here's an Injun for you.""What's he been a-doing?" inquired Yamhill's sheriff."He killed the Clarke family at Grande Rounde last Spring.""Where's your commitment?""Commitment! Hell! Aint got any. Here's your Injun."Lawyer Dave Logan, who was standing by, told the sheriff to hold the Indian until inquiries were made.Eschicua was tried and hanged in the Fall of 1856.