Mrs. Tremewan, now residing at Champoeg, has many most interesting
recollections of her early life. Although now past middle age she is
of magnificent physique, being about five feet eight inches tall,
straight as an arrow and well proportioned, but at the same time of
that peculiarly supple mold and movement that so distinguishes the
French creoles. Her hair is still jet black, and long and wavy and
very thick; her eyebrows heavy and black, and her features, though
strong and marked, refined and very intelligent.
Her speech is remarkably clear, every word being distinctly
pronounced, with rather an English or Scotch accent, and in a full
rich voice of rather low key. During conversation her features light
up noticeably, and though she speaks deliberately she has no
hesitation, never pausing to think of a word or construction. She
complains of her poor memory for dates, but possesses a large fund of
family information, both of her own people and the Hudson Bay Company.
Her mother was a daughter of Etienne Lucier, of French Prairie; her
father was Donald Manson, a trusted captain of the Hudson Bay Company,
and her first husband was Isaac Ogden, a son of Peter Skeen Ogden,
governor during the latter years of the Hudson Bay Company's
occupation of Fort Vancouver. She is living now at Champoeg, in the
old house built by her father, though now owned by herself with her
husband.
Her brothers are men of education and ability; Donald Manson, Jr.,
being a resident of Portland; James Manson, living at Victoria; and
William Manson, who was educated in Scotland, being principal of a
school at New Westminister, B. C. Another brother, Stephen, no longer
living, who was named by his mother or his grandfather Lucier, is
described by those who knew him as a man of remarkably handsome
appearance, and bright intellect. He was, as a boy, attending the
school at Waiilatpu at the time of the Whitman massacre, and although
uninjured was so shocked by the bloody occurrence that long afterwards
he would start from sleep crying out "The Indians, the Indians!" There
were two daughters besides Anna (Mrs. Tremewan), Isabella and Lizzie.
The following are some of the recollections taken hurriedly at a
morning call of Mrs. Tremewan. In reply to a question about her father
she said: "My father was in the employ of the Hudson Bay Company--you
may have heard of it. We lived until I was fifteen in British
Columbia; no, not at Victoria, but on the head waters of Frazer River,
at Stuart's Lake--you might call that a little ocean. That was a long
way from Victoria, though that was our point of supplies, and my
father made a trip from there every year to carry out the furs--for
that was what he dealt in. He went a part way by river, and a part way
by horses. At Fort Langley he met the steamer from Victoria, and from
that point the goods were brought up the river to our place.
"Yes, he used to leave us all alone at Stuart's Lake every year while
he made the trip, and that would be from April to September. On one
time I remember perfectly well he came back on the seventh of
September. What makes me remember this was because it was then my
sister Lizzie was born, and my mother was still in bed, and when the
cry was made that the boats were coming, we were all so eager to have
papa see the baby.
"Indeed, Stuart Lake was a beautiful place, the loveliest I have ever
seen. The mountains were blue across it, they are so far away. When
the wind blew the waves rolled up like a sea. The water is perfectly
clear. When we used to walk along the shore, or swim in the lake, we
could see to the bottom. It was full of fishes of all kinds; salmon
and sturgeon and trouts. I have often told my husband that I wished I
could see Stuart Lake again.
"But I was born in Alaska,--in the land where the gold is now; at Fort
Stikeen. The cabin was so near the water that the waves rolled up
against it. I have have often heard my mother tell about it.
"Yes, I remember the trip out from Stuart Lake perfectly. Our first
stop was at Fort Alexandria; then we came on by boat to a place called
Kamloops, where we waited a month while the horses were got together
and trained for the rest of the journey. We came on to Fort Hope, and
then by boat to Fort Langley. There we took the steamer _Otter_. There
were two steamers then, the _Otter_ and the _Beaver_; we had the
_Otter_.
"I did not know what a Yankee was. I remember that when I was on the
steamer they used to say to me 'So you are going to be a Yankee!' I
did not like it a bit. We had more the English way of talking, and did
not say 'I guess.' It was a long time before we could talk like the
Yankees.
"When my father first came to Oregon he was pretty wealthy and bought
this place. But he lost so much in the flood of '61 that he was nearly
broken up. He never fully got over this--together with sickness and
other things.
"When the Hudson Bay Company was at Fort Vancouver, and during the
Whitman massacre, Ogden was governor at the fort. Well, his son was my
first husband--his name was Isaac. Peter Skeen Ogden was a wealthy old
man; he was from Montreal. He left considerable money to his children.
He had four; Isaac, who lived at Champoeg, where we were married;
William, who lives in Portland; Emma, who died at the age of thirty;
and Mrs. Sarah Draper, of McMinnville, who has six children.
"My mother was a daughter of Stephen Lewis--I think that would be the
English of it; but the French called it Lucier, Etienne Lucier. What
makes me think it was 'Stephen,'--I have heard mother say she named my
brother Stephen for his grandfather. My grandfather was a Frenchman
from Canada, and my mother was the daughter of his first wife; I think
she came from east of the Rocky Mountains."
Mrs. Tremewan was well acquainted with Archibald McKinley, who settled
just across the river from Champoeg; and the family of Mr. Pambrun,
one of whose daughters was Mrs. Dr. Barclay, of Oregon City; Mrs.
William Pratt, another; and Mrs. Harriet Harger, of Chehalem Valley,
another. Mrs. Harger has a family of six daughters.