More of Grandpa Leo Arnolds Story

William Arnold, b. 1802, was in his sixties when he brought his family over the emigrant trail. The Healys were in their forty's.

******Taken from L.F. Arnold Family History, 1974******

Thomas Arnold

1864

Somewhere on the Missouri River (maybe at Independence) a group of people from in and around Des Moines, Iowa, gathered and formed a wagon train to cross the plains and mountains to the west coast.  My father [Thomas Arnold, b. July 20, 1856], eight years old at the time, came on that train. I do not know the size of the train.

He told of camping along the Sweetwater River and of watching an Indian boy practice shooting with his bow and arrow.  But the highlight of his trip was when some Indians ran by on their horses and shot at them, killing a steer or ox.  He said he would never forget seeing that dead animal with the arrow sticking in it just up to the feathers.

The next thing he told of was how clean the air was - seeing a mountain they were driving to, he and other boys wanted to walk to it and wait for the train.  They traveled three days before they came to it.  It shows how clear the air used to be, and the space of travel (10 to 20 miles per day) I suppose.

Father never told me what route they took into California but they spent the first year at Healdsburg on the Russian River where he learned to swim and be a boy.  After living there a year they moved to a place on Elk River, 40 or 50 miles west of Corvallis, Oregon, where the deer, elk, bear and panther were all plentiful and the wolves set up their mournful howl every night.  One highlight of that was when my 12 or 13 year old Uncle Will killed a big panther (10 feet, 6 inches) with a muzzle loading rifle.

William Arnold Family

After living there a few years they moved to Philomath on Mary's River, about seven or eight miles from Corvallis where my father went to school in the Philomath College which may still be a landmark.  As I remember, it‘s a three story wooden building with lots of windows setting up on a hillside near the road from Corvallis to Newport on the coast.

They next moved to a valley near the Santiam River where my father finished school and taught school two or three years.

Viola (Healy) Arnold

1865

Somewhere on the Missouri River a crowd of people, also from Iowa, gathered and formed a wagon train to head across the plains and mountains to the west coast. My mother, Viola (Healy) Arnold, b. October 30, 1858, seven years old, was a passenger on that train. It was a large train (250 wagons), some horses and some cattle. Mother said the cattle seemed to stand the long trip better than the horses - there were so many wagons that driven end to end they would form a circle one fourth mile across where they would turn horses and cattle in to feed at night.

The Indians seemed not to dare attack a train of that size but they passed where smaller trains and been massacred or captured and their belongings were burned and the feather beds were still smouldering. Mother told of their captain who would ride around every morning on a big white horse- waking them up so they would be ready to start together. She told of one incident when a man was out scouting for water and pasture for the next camp, some Indians chased him back to the camp and he jumped his horse in, the Indian shot at him - the arrow hit a cylinder of a revolver he was carrying, deflecting it so it did very little harm.

The next she told of was when they reached Grande Ronde Valley (where Pendleton now stands) and someone reported Indians ran off and stole some of grandpa's horses and cattle, but grandpa said it was white man, not Indians that stole his stock. The next stop of importance was at Portland and she never said so but they must have come the old Barlow route which goes just south of Mt. Hood near where the big ski resort is now operated.

Fernando Leo and Olivia Terrell Healy

Of Portland, she said there was only a trading post and a black smith shop there and she remembered someone had set out a small orchard. They came south and settled on Sand Ridge about three miles southwest of Lebanon just six months to the day from the time they left the Missouri River. The three older boys farmed, plowing the fields with horse drawn walking plows, raising wheat on the fertile land, making pretty good money for those days. They built a house in Sodaville and lived there for awhile.

My mother went to school at Sand Ridge and at Sodaville. She was a schoolmate of Alvin McKnight, the only person buried at Tomb Stone Prairie near the summit of the Cascade Mountains and near the Santiam Highway. She then moved with grandpa and grandma Healy to the little valley near the Santiam River.