b'THE PIONEERS OF WALNUT GROVEPART 3 By Bill Roberts Reprinted from The TravelerThe LambersonsTimothy Lamberson was a farmer who with his wife and children moved from Ohio to Iowa in the early 1800s, then in 1845 traveled to St. Louis, Missouri to join a wagon train for Oregon Territory. It was May 24, 1845, when the 46 wagons, 98 men 40 women and 57 children, along with 300 loose cattle, set out under the banner of GLOlmsted / geogypsytraveler.comThe New London Emigrating Company for Oregon. J.B. Halliday and Abe Hackleman were co-captains of the train. Four other groups more or less under the same banner were traveling ahead of them. It was a large migration.Walnut GroveThe group Lamberson was with traveled six days but restedGenung said Ann Lambersons dog made it possible for on the Sabbath. This caused them to lag behind the othersher to live alone in Walnut Grove as she did in those early and caused division in the companies. Halliday led a groupdays. If Indians would come around at night, the dog would that broke away from the main body over the Sabbath issue.attack them. Genung said it was common for the dog to Timothy Lamberson was among the 51 men, 35 women,return home with something he had taken from the Indians 44 children, and 200 cattle that made up this breakawayduring one of these battles.train of 28 wagons and 11 horses and mules. The Halliday train pulled into Fort Laramie on July 11. It made Red BluffLamberson was a first-rate farmer. His farm soon boasted on July 26 and Fort Bridger on August 13. It was in Soda50 acres of corn and more than 500 peach trees. He built Springs on August 23, all points on the old Oregon Trail. the first grist mill in Walnut Grove. Hand-built by this one-time stone cutter, it could grind 1000 lbs. per day and was Here, Timothy Lamberson became separated from a huntinga great convenience to Walnut Grove farmers who brought party that was sent out from the train and failed to returntheir grain and corn to be ground.that night. The next day, a search party was sent out to look for him. They looked for him for three days and then gaveFamily records show that John McNary was a corporal He also had an interest in mining and built an arrastra to up the search. The train continued to Fort Hall arriving onin the Sixth Kansas Cavalry. crush ore from the Big Rebel, Josephine, and Wabash mines August 29. They then moved some three miles from the fortin the area at that time. The arrastra was water-powered. and camped on September 1. No more had they set up campThese enterprises to supplement his farming and his than up to the train walked Timothy Lamberson. He toldthe San Pedro settlement, near Ft. Breckenridge, then Neworchard brought him quite a fortune, according to those them that he had become lost while hunting and finally metMexico Territory. Timothy was 50 years old that year. Hiswho knew him. By 1869, reports of his rich wheat field and an old Indian and his son. The son wanted to kill him, butson Daniel had accompanied him and Ann on the journeypeach yields were making the Prescott paper. One item in the old Indian would not allow it. The elder gave Lambersonto Mexico and back. At San Pedro, Daniel was captured bythe paper was an open appeal to Lamberson to ship more of some roots for food and gave him the directions to FortApaches, tortured to death, his body riddled with arrowshis peaches to Prescott where he could count on the citizens Hall. Fortunately, Lamberson encountered a herder from theand left tied to the chaparral.to buy them and eat them too.fort before getting there. He said he was about starved and he had traveled through such dense brush his clothes hadIn 1864, Timothy and Ann are recorded in Yavapai County,Like other settlers, Lamberson had trouble keeping his stock. been all but ripped from his body. At the fort, he was givenArizona Territory. They bought the homestead PaulineIn 1871, one press item tells of his losing three horses to the moccasins, buckskin pants, and a shirt to wear. He was fedWeaver had settled in 1863 from Stephen Richardson, whoIndians, The fortieth timethis old gentleman has been and directed to the wagon train. bought it from Weaver sometime after the quarter sectionrobbed of his animals since 1864. Timothy Lamberson was recorded in 1865. Lamberson bought the land in 1873.prospered in the Grove until he died on April 2, 1880. He The wagon train continued to Fort Boise where it arrived onCharles Genung said the couple lived in a little palisadeswas buried in the Walnut Grove Cemetery on April 9. Ann September 28. From there it was on to a crossing of the swifthouse they had put up on the quarter section in the earlyLamberson was reported arriving in Prescott on April 16, Deschutes River and a mission at The Dalles. After building1860s. He said they had with them when they arrived twoaccompanied by Mr. and Mrs. George Jackson, following rafts for the journey down the Columbia River they arrived atcows, a pair of ponies and a dog.her husbands death and burial. Ann was elderly and in poor Fort Vancouver on November 1, 1845. There the train split up,health. She received her husbands estate after his death but with each family going their way. Timothy Lamberson and hisGenung said that Bill Kirkland and his companionssold the 160-acre homestead to William Pierce in 1881. By family settled on Sauvies Island in the Columbia. along with John White, Fred Henry, and others were the1884, Ann was residing in San Bernardino, California and by Lambersons neighbors about a half-mile up the Hassayampa1886 had returned to Prescott, where it was reported that she Timothy ventured to California in 1846 looking for stockwhere they were mining. Genung said that Ann Lambersonhad lost her reason and was being cared for at the Waldo raising and farming opportunities. He remained for 18often remained at the house for days alone with her cows andHouse at the countys expense. months and then returned to Oregon. A few months laterdogs while Timothy was out working. According to Genung, the excitement over the gold find at Sutters Mill tookTimothy had to go to Tucson on business on one occasion inThe McNaryshim back to California in 1849. He mined a tributary of1867. He had not gone far when he was attacked by ApachesFamily records show that John McNary was a corporal in the Sacramento River with success, and then returned toand one of their bullets struck home. It went through histhe Sixth Kansas Cavalry. After the Civil War ended, he left Oregon in 1850. He built the first sawmill in the area ofshirt, hitting a buckskin glove he had doubled up in his shirt.Kansas in 1875 with his family and a few heads of cattle. All Scappoose with his sons as partners. The bullet penetrated five thicknesses of the glove and droveof McNarys possessions were on two Conestoga wagons. At the sixth in between two of Lambersons ribs, knocking himOsage, the McNary wagons joined a train heading west. The Timothy and his wife Sarah had nine children by thisoff his horse. Lamberson fell to the ground with his Henrytrain followed the Santa Fe Trail. Wintering in Santa Fe, the time. On January 12, 1852, Sarah died at the age of 38. Therepeating rifle in his hands and began firing at the Indians.train headed west in the spring. It was more than a year before following Christmas day, Timothy married Ann P. Gardner,The Henry, which would fire 16 times without loading, drovethe trip brought McNary to the Chiricahua Mountains. a school teacher who had just arrived in Oregon that year.the Indians off. Lambersons horse, which had fled after his In 1857, they sold part of the Oregon property and went tomaster had fallen, returned. Lamberson made it into theA mule wandered off from the McNary wagons and according Mexico. In August of 1860, they moved north and were insaddle, badly wounded, and the horse carried him home. to family tradition, an Indian chief who spoke fluent English 20 July 2020'