A portrait of Levi and Belle Walker and their daughters Leva and Elda, probably taken around 1901. The Walkers were a prominent family in Forest Grove, Oregon, that had helped to found Pacific University. Levi's parents, Elkanah and Mary Richardson Walker, were two of the earliest missionaries in the Oregon Territory, having arrived in 1838 and founding a mission among the Spokane. Many members of their extended family were involved in missionary and educational work. Levi and Belle, who were both graduates of Pacific University, worked at the Forest Grove Indian Training School in the 1880s. This portrait was probably made around the time when the two daughters, Elda and Leva, graduated from Pacific. They would go on to earn Ph.D.'s. The sisters became professors of botany at the University of Nebraska.
From the left counterclockwise: Sarah 'Belle' Putman Walker, Leva Walker, Levi C. Walker, and Elda Walker.
Panoramic photograph of the Pacific University campus, showing the principal buildings as they stood in 1887 before Marsh Hall was built. From left to right, the large buildings are: Old College Hall (which is now in a different location); Academy Hall (burned in 1910); Herrick Hall (the first girls' dormitory, burned in 1906). Students or faculty stand in the field between the buildings, and David Hill appears in the background. This photograph was taken by a travelling photographer from the I.G. Davidson Studio, based in Portland.
Letter from Mary Frances Lyman to her parents, Reverend and Mary Denison Lyman, concerning her dreams, missing her father, visiting Pacific University, and runaway Indian boys.
Letter from Mary Frances Lyman to her parents, Reverend and Mary Denison Lyman. She discusses her light workload at the Indian Training School, cleaning her house, and a description of gifts she sent.
Letter from Mary Frances Lyman to her parents, Reverend and Mary Denison Lyman, on decorating, teaching at the Indian Training School, and receiving bills.
Letter from Mary Frances Lyman to her parents, Reverend and Mary Denison Lyman. She reports the death of Joseph Unthank (1815-1883) and her decision to quit her teaching job at the Indian Training School to study music.
The 1884 diary of Samuel A. T. Walker (also known as "Saturday Sam" Walker), a resident of Forest Grove, Oregon. He was a shoemaker by trade with a significant side business as a fiddler at dances. At the time he was writing this diary, he was the shoemaking instructor at the Forest Grove Indian School. The diary has brief summaries of his daily activities, often just 1-3 sentences long. It provides insight into the everyday work done by Native students at the school. The diary is written into a blank booklet that was given away as a promotional freebie by Alanson 'Lant' Hinman Jr., who was selling insurance at the time.
A letter by an employee of the Warm Springs Indian Agency, Cyrus Walker, to his wife Mary Wheeler Walker. On the second page of the letter, he describes the fate of the children who had been sent from Warm Springs to the Forest Grove Indian School and its successor, Chemawa Indian School, between 1880-1890. "I have been at work making out a list of all the Indian children that have been sent to Forest Grove and Chemawa, when they went, when returned, for what cause, when died of those dead, present place of residence & health." The list itself is not attached, but he does provide a compilation of the figures, e.g. "Died 22. Graduated 8." He says that of the 35 who were originally sent to the Forest Grove Indian School campus, 14 either died at school or died soon after being sent home. Overall, a third of the children who had been sent to Forest Grove and Chemawa up through 1890 died at the school or soon after being sent home.
Cyrus Walker was the oldest son of the early Oregon Territory missionaries Elkanah and Mary Richardson Walker. He grew up at Tshimakain in the 1830s-40s, where he learned the native Spokane language. After joining the U.S. army during the Civil War and then attempting to make a living as a farmer, he became a teacher at the Warm Springs Indian Agency. These letters, documents and clippings shed light on his experiences as a missionary, a soldier, a pioneer and a teacher at Warm Springs. This collection was donated to Pacific University by Betty Thorne, a descendant of the Walkers.
A portrait of Peter Kalama, a former student of the Forest Grove Indian Training School, with his family. Peter was of Nisqually and Native Hawaiian ancestry. The woman is most likely his first wife, Lillie Pitt, a Warm Springs woman who also graduated from the Forest Grove Indian School. This photograph was probably taken on the Warm Springs Reservation, where the Kalama Family lived for many years. A handwritten note on the back of the photograph states that this photograph was given by the estate of Charles L. Walker to Pacific University in 1949. Charles L. Walker was the son of Samuel A. T. Walker, the shoemaking instructor at the Forest Grove Indian School in the early 1880s.
A group of young men sit for photo outside the Pacific University boy's dormitory. The building had formerly been the boys' dormitory of the Forest Grove Indian School, before being converted to the use of Pacific University students in the 1890s. This building was located to the northwest of the modern intersection of 22nd Avenue and C Street in Forest Grove. Text on back: "Boys Dormitory and Club of '97 & '98- Nearly all my students."
A portrait of G. W. Hutchinson, M. D., originally of Jamestown, Missouri. At the time that this photograph was taken at the W. P. Johnson Photography Studio in Salem, Hutchinson was serving as the School Physician for the Chemawa Indian School (see: Official Register of the United States. Washington: GPO, 1887. Vol. 1: p. 575). This photo was originally found with material relating to the Samuel A. T. Walker Family. The Walkers also worked at the Indian School.
A portrait of an unidentified Native American girl, most likely a student at the Chemawa Indian School in Salem. The photograph was taken by the W. P. Johnson studio in Salem, which was active from 1886-1888 (See: Robinson, Oregon Photographers, 1993, p. 394). It is dated November 11, 1886 on the back. The photo was found with material relating to the Samuel A.T. & Belle Walker family.
Black and white studio image of a woman standing beside a chair. She wears a tightly fitted dark dress, with a buttoned bodice featuring embroidered trim and a ruffled lace collar. Her skirt is draped, also appliqud and embroidered, and gathered in the back into a bustle. She holds a fan in the hand resting on the back of the chair. Her bangs are curly and her hair is pulled back and piled on top of her head.
Black and white studio image of a man in a suit. He stands behind a velvet chair, with one hand on the back of the chair and one behind his back. His suit is all of the same material, and has a very narrow lapel and collar. He is light-complexioned, with dark hair parted at the side and slicked down.
Four men dressed as cowboys, identified on the back of the photograph from left-to-right as: Albert Tozier, Henry Sicade, Ben Martin, and James Hopkins. Sicade was a notable member of the Puyallup Tribe. He entered the Forest Grove Indian School in 1880 before enrolling in regular high school classes at Tualatin Academy nearby around 1883. Later in life, he went on to found an integrated public school system in Fife, WA, near the Puyallup Reservation. Albert Tozier was also notable: He later became the editor of several newspapers in Washington County, Oregon. At the time that this photograph was created, the four young men had taken on work as cowboys and traveled together across the country. This studio portrait was made in Geneva, New York, in 1886.
An outdoor portrait taken in 1881 or 1882 of twelve male students from the Puyallup tribal agency who were attending the Forest Grove Indian School. Those pictured appear to be from the first group of students from Puyallup who were admitted to the school on February 25, 1880. Notes penciled on the back of the photograph identify several of them as: Augustus Kautz; Nugen Kautz; David Brewer; Henry Sicade; Peter Kalama; and Jerry Meeker. The Kautz brothers are the two standing in the back row, wearing similar darker-colored suits. A descendant has also identified Samuel "Spott" McCaw as the student sitting furthest left on the bottom row.
The remaining students probably include five of the other seven boys who were admitted in the same cohort from Puyallup: Charles Ashue, Samuel Ashue, Edward Richard, Andrew Richard, Peter Stanup, Harry Taylor, and Willie Wilton.
The back appears to be signed by Henry Sicade, who was one of the most successful former students of the school. This copy is water-damaged. This portrait was taken on the grounds of the Forest Grove Indian School by a photographer from the I.G. Davidson Studio, whose office was in Portland. It is part of a series of photographs of the school that were shot, sold and distributed by the Davidson Studio, with a portion of the sales going to support the school.
