Genealogy and History

The Wrights Hills and Taylors, as far back as we have been able to document (the we being my wonderful cousins - a few times removed - and the users of Ancestry.com) started in Appalachia. The stories that I have been able to find are facinating, I yearn to get to know that part of the country, but alas I am totally illiterate when it comes to the US east of the Mississippi. I have a terrible time connecting in my mind one state as it relates to another. In my neck of the woods, the Pacific Northwest, for the most part we are connected to one state only. I live in eastern Washington, which is very different than western Washington and as I live close to the Idaho and Oregon borders I feel some connection to those states, but not as knowledgable about their geography and history.

For those who know Washington you know we are divided by the Cascade mountain range. People who are not really knowledgeable about the state  think of us as the evergreen state, full of evergreen trees, mountains and rain. Most of the population is on the coastal side of the state, gathered tightly along the eastern side of the Puget Sound and sprawling from the Canadian border north to Portland Oregon south along the I-5 corridor. I often think that those who live in the metro area also think that is all there is to Washington state, especially those that are fairly new to this part of the country. Washington on the west side also has the Olympic Peninsula which is often forgotten as well; at least until the Twilight series came along and put Forks back on the map along with Port Angeles. I think many who live in Seattle think they live as far west as you can get. But then I am digressing. My point was that it is not the wet and wild Washington that the Taylors and Wrights came to (with Hill blood mixed in) but the dry, expansive eastern Washington.

It has been written that they had intended to go all the way to Seattle but ran out of money and stopped near the edge of the eastern Cascades. It is documented that the Taylors had a farm in Bristol, a little east of Cle Elum. There is much to indicate that the Wrights settled south of there on the Wenas Prairie, part of what became Yakima County but still very close to Ellensburg in Kittitas County. The early census has them as Kittitas County and then later Yakima but that may not be because the family moved, but that the geographic boundaries changed. There is mention in the biographies and histories of and around the family that the Wrights started north of Ellensburg, what is now Okanogan County, in Wenatchee, East Wenatchee and Waterville but personally I have not found anything that confirms this. This part of the country, Kittitas and Yakim,a was predominantly started as cattle ranching and farming. So it appears that is what the Wrights and Taylors set out to be, ranchers and farmiers.

Families coming to the west were greatly effected by what was happening in the US at that time. The Taylors, Wrights and Hills remained in Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina until the end of the Civil War. The war between the states did a lot to shape the future of the family. As families and neighbors were divided, some fighting for the Union, some for the Confederacy, the communities would forever be changed. Jasper and Weitzal Wright, both married to Taylor sisters moved to Meeker County MN after the war with their in-laws William and Dicey Hill Taylor. Dicey died in Minnesota and William Taylor with Weitzal's family moved on to Washington in 1883. The railroad was not yet finished all the way to Washington State, the homestead act was in full swing and the ending of the Indian wars in Washington all influenced the family decisions. You cannot tell a family history without including the larger history.

I am familiar with the history of eastern Washington so I feel fairly qualified to share these parts of this history. And even at that I feel unworthy of the task at hand. When the story shared by William Taylor to his grandson (thanks for sharing this Gretchen) about crossing the Columbia by a ferry ran by Native Americans, I can picture the present day Columbia River near Vantage as we now travel to Ellensburg from my home in Whitman county, with its deep gorge, sagebrush and rocky topography. But I don't know if that is what it looked like in 1883. Has the arid ground changed, was there anything every there but sage brush? As there was a Desert Land Act in 1877 as an amendment to the Homestead Act in Washington, I have my doubts.

The Columbia has 14 modern day dams along its waterway (3 in Canada) which has to have changed it from when they crossed it in 1883. Was it deeper or more shallow? Since much of it is used for irrigation, how does that effect how it has changed? The Columbia River, in my experience. is the most beautiful river in existence. It is deep and broad, runs fairly fast and is blue, a deep clean blue. It is not muddy and shallow as I have seen the Rio Grande or the Mississippi to be. Even the Snake which is part of the same waterway and also infested with modern day dams (which personally I do not find a bad thing) is not as pristine of a blue as the Columbia. When I picture them crossing the river I have to picture what I see now,  not what they saw then. But I hope to spend more time looking at the geological history of Washington to gain a better insite of Washington topography in the 1880s.

On November 29, 1847 the Whitman Massacre occuried near Fort Walla Walla. This beginning of Indian uprising that led to Indian Wars in Washington stopped families from locating to eastern Washington prior to the end of the Civil War. In 1855 the main wars were over; then started the treaties, reservations, ammendment to treaties, changes of reservations and so on. On Swuak and Ruby creeks, gold was found  north of Cle Elum and along that region, where reservations were formed, they were taken away due to the white man interest in prospecting. I am still a novice in understanding all of the dealings the European decendents had with the native population so please be patient with any descrepencies. I hope to improve get to understand as it was shaping and shifting during this time, who had positive experiences, who had horror stories to share. Other than the crossing of the Columbia, how much did the native population effect our Washington family?

In this blog I will not ignore the years before the War Between the States. I am hoping that I will find expertise from those that still reside east of the Mississippi and those that have researched hard those early years. Even in Washington the family is not all about central Washington; Kittitas, Yakima and to a lesser extent Klickitat and Okanogan counties.  My branch of the family left central Washington and settled in Spokane, where I have even more to share about our inpact there. Other branches crossed the Cascades, I know one branch in Vancouver, Clark county, just across the border from Portland Oregon. Another branch of the Taylors, went to Grays Harbor on the Olympic Peninsula. One at least for awhile went to Alaska. I am sure more movement will be found. I look forward to every new branch I discover and more cousins to meet. But I also hope to add my Washington experiences that will make this genealogical trek have more meaning to those who read it. Wish me luck and I hope you enjoy the ride.