Mrs. Emiline Himes
By GEORGE H. HIMES.
MRS. EMILINE HIMES was born in Le Roy, Bradford County, Pennsylvania, December 27, 1821. Her maiden name was Holcombe, her father, Hugh Holcombe, descending from Thomas Holcombe, who came from England to Massachusetts, in 1860, on the ship "Mary and John." He removed from Connecticut to Pennsylvania in the year 1796, and settled in Bradford County, which was on the extreme frontier at that time. It is a family tradition that Mrs. Himes' mother, Prudence Bailey, descended from one of the company which made tea in Boston Harbor. Mrs. Himes was married to Tyrus Himes in Bradford County, May 1, 1843, and to this union eight children were born, five boys and three girls, four in the East, two boys and two girls', the first boy, George H., in Pennsylvania, May 18, 1844, and the other three children in Illinois, to which state the family removed in the autumn of 1846, settling at Lafayette, Stark County. In 1838 Mr. Himes became imbued with the idea of going to Oregon as a result of hearing Rev. Samuel Parker, D. D., of Ithaca, N. Y., lecture on Oregon in Bradford County, Pa., in 1835. Mr. Himes really started for Oregon in 1846, but illness caused him to stop in Illinois.
On March 21, 1853, the westward march was again begun, and after a trying journey of seven months the family arrived at Olympia in what is now Thurston County, Washington. At the date of starting on this journey Mrs. Himes had a little daughter six months old. This child had beautiful auburn hair, and this fact caused the Indians through whose country the "Oregon trail" passed to observe her very closely—in fact, the Indians at different times wanted to buy the child, and one chief on the western slope of the Blue Mountains offered some hundreds of ponies for her. As may be imagined, this desire upon the part of the Indians caused considerable apprehension at different times on the part of my mother.
Our train was the first to enter the Puget Sound Basin direct, and the experiences of that expedition over a most rugged road, with scanty food much of the time during the month we were in the mountains, were most trying to all, but particularly to mothers of little children. The little ones when hungry could not understand why food was not forthcoming. After arriving at the settlements on Puget Sound and securing shelter in the rudest of log cabins for the first winter, my father was compelled to be away from home a great deal in order to earn funds to keep the food supply going. Everything was high, and mother patched clothing for the children and herself and also spun yarn from wool that she got on s'hares from neighbors, made socks and stockings for a family of six, and in addition knit at least three pairs of men's socks a week to sell, besides making garments whenever father could get ahead enough to get a piece of clothing stuff. Her life was a strenuous one, indeed. My father was a very industrious man, so between the two the family began to get on, and at the end of two years the way seemed clear for a little relief from the incessant toil which had been the lot of both parents; and the children large enough to work had their allotted tasks. In October, 1855, the Yakima Indian war of 1855-56 broke out, and continued until September, 1856. During this time the family removed four times from one blockhouse or stockade to another, all the while apprehensive lest the Indians would make an attack. During those perilous months Mrs. Himes bravely bore her part without complaint, and never gave in any public way the slightest hint that she was at all disturbed.
One of the hardest experiences she had to undergo frequently for months at a time was the lack of religious privileges. For the first five years in the Puget Sound Basin there were but few religious services of any kind oftener than once in three months, and
