He was a full-blooded Twana Indian, but from his earliest infancy lived
with his step-father, who was a white man. A part of the time he lived
very near to the reservation, and afterward about thirty miles from it.
The region where he lived was entirely destitute of schools and church
privileges. His step-father, however, when he realized that the
responsibility of the moral and Christian training of his children
rested wholly upon himself, took up the work quite well. His own early
religious training, which had been as seed long buried, now came back to
him, and he gave his children some good instruction which had excellent
effect on M. Still when he was twenty-two years of age he had never been
to church, school, Sabbath-school, or a prayer-meeting. He was a steady,
industrious young man, had learned to farm, log, build boats,--being of
a mechanical turn of mind,--and had built for himself a good sloop. When
he was twenty-one he had learned something of the value of an education
from his lack of it, for he could barely read and write in a very slow
way, and was tired of counting his fingers when he traded and attended
to business. Therefore he saved his money until he had about two hundred
dollars, and when he was twenty-two he requested the privilege of coming
to the reservation and going to school. It was granted, not like other
Indian children, for they were boarded and clothed at government
expense, but because his step-father was a white man he was required to
board and clothe himself, his tuition being free. He willingly did his
part. This was a little after New Year’s, 1877. He improved his time
better than any person who has ever been in school, oftentimes studying
very late. Thus he spent three winters at school, working at his home
during the summers.
A few days before he left for home at the close of his first winter was
our communion season. On the Thursday evening previous was our
preparatory lecture and church-meeting, and the man and his wife where
he was boarding presented themselves as candidates for admission.
Nothing, however, was said him about it. Indeed it is doubtful whether
much had ever been said to him personally on the subject, for he was of
a quiet disposition. But a day or two afterward he spoke to the family
where he was boarding and said that he would like to join the church,
but had been almost afraid to ask. The word was soon passed to my
father, and the first I knew about it was that he came to me and said:
“See, here is water, what doth hinder me from being baptized?” I said:
“What do you mean by that?” His reply was: “I do not know but that we
have just such a case among us.” And then he explained about M. Another
church-meeting was held and he was received into the church on the
following Sabbath. Previous to this he had never witnessed a baptism or
the administration of the Lord’s Supper.
When he had finished going to school, he received in 1879 the
appointment of government carpenter on the reservation, the first Indian
ever in that place, and the first Indian employee on the reservation
except the interpreter receiving the same wages as a white man. He
remained in this position a few years, when his health failed and he
resigned. No fault was found with his work, for he was very faithful and
steady, and could be depended on to work alone, or to be in charge of
apprentices and others with no fear that the work would be slighted. He
afterward, for a time, lived mainly with the whites, as the government
cut down the pay for all Indians so low that he could earn much better
wages elsewhere. He often lived with a very rough class of whites at
saw-mills and among loggers, but he held fast to his profession. In his
quiet way he spoke many an effectual word for Christ, and gained the
respect of those with whom he mingled by his consistent Christian life.
Lately, however, he has gone to the Puyallup Reservation, where he has
secured a good piece of land and has taken a leading part among those
Indians.