oh
and in the Wilderness with no sickness in his heart, no mist in his
cold eyes? For those who care to read, Mrs. Collins' brief but very
positive statements may be found in Volume One of Polk County
Pioneer Sketches, sponsored by so careful and patriotic a society as
the Daughters of the American Revolution, and independent personal
acquaintance testimony in confirmation may be secured in the typed
manuscript copies of Recollections of Portland in the ^0 ,s, 8o'$ and
90'i by Charles Mose Oliver.
Meanwhile, if you will and if you can, dismiss as fable the inter
racial romance of one of the two men whose fame filled the world,
and read now with full belief of the great love that was given to and
never taken away from the other.
Lieut. Phil Sheridan often stopped at our house, and many
times spent the night with us on his trips from Grand Ronde
to Fort Hoskins. It was a day's ride from Grand Ronde to
our home, and seven miles farther on to Fort Hoskins.
Later he was stationed at Fort Hoskins...
.
I knew Sheridan's squaw wife, who was the daughter of
Chief Harney of the Rogue River Tribe, and who has been
at our home a number of times. She was a bright little wo
man, very good looking, and quite likeable. Sheridan was
always good and kind to her and taught her to read and do
many things. They had no children. But when he went back
to Washington and left her, it almost broke her heart.
We all liked Phil Sheridan. One day she came to our
home, pretending to be looking for a horse, but she really
came to tell us that she was going on a trip to Washington,
D. C.
Her father had died and her brother was now Chief
Harney, and he and she, along with several other Indians,
influential among the tribes, had been invited to go to Wash
ington, at the expense of the government.
She was all fitted out in clothes and trunks and ready for
the trip. I told her she would see many wonderful things
and probably see Phil Sheridan, and asked her to come and
tell me about her trip when she came back.
It was wonderful,the things she told me afterwards about
her trip and what she saw. And she did see Phil Sheridan.
He came and shook hands with them all and took her hand
