WRIGHT'S MASSACRE OF HORSES
There is some conjecture as to the effect of Wright's campaign in the Spokane valley on Antoine Plante's cattle and horses. In 1858, his herds must have been large, as Lieutenant Grover noted considerable numbers in 1854. It is not all unlikely that Wright's massacre of the 800 horses involved some of Antoine's stock, and although Antoine is not mentioned in the campaign he might have become involved with the Indians through his previous services to Governor Stevens and the surveying parties. As a result of this difficulty his house and crops might well have been burned by the Coeur d'Alene Indians instead of by toll bridge competitors. If the Coeur d'Alene Indians had been a mind to do damage to Antoine they would surely also run off his horses and cattle. This conjecture is given some foundation by the report of Theodore Kolecki, topographer for Mullan, in his report of August 29, 1859, in which he says —
"I called on Antoine Plante for some provisions as my bread had entirely given out and I had yet two good days march to reach the Coeur d'Alene mission; he could spare me only two small loaves of bread, each weighting about 2 pounds, and a little butter. I asked him also for fresh horses, but he had non at hand."
Daniel Quinemosey, now of Tensed reservation, son of the old chief, was born in 1849 and lived with his family on the southern or eastern shore of what was then Saltese lake. He remembers the killing of the horses near Spokane Bridge. He reenacted the scene, showing first one soldier shooting, then the terrific volleys and finally he indicated with sweeping gestures the vast numbers of bones scattered around the field. He said that not all of the horses were killed. His father and some other Indians had a large band back in the hills.
PLANTE'S DAUGHTER JULIA MARRIES THOMAS STENSGAR
All of the children of Antoine apparently were with him when he first settled in the valley, that is, Julia, Francois and Charley.
As Julia told the story about 1854 when she was 18 years old, Louis Brown one day arrived from the Colville country on a visit, bringing along a man named Thomas Stensgar. Louis took Julia aside and explained to her he had brought this man along as a possible husband for her, that it would be a good match and she would do well to marry him.
The death of Thomas' first wife, already referred to, left him with three small boys, John, Tom and Jim. He had worked for the Hudson Bay company for a time after his arrival with Angus McDonald, but resigned and settled on a claim of 320 acres in the town of Addy, Wash. He was a large owner of live stock and bore a good reputation. His name has been spelled "Stengar" and "Stensgar." Most of the Orkney Island people are descendants from the old Norse stock and their language Stengar or Stensgar meant "stone homestead." The record of the proceedings of the Spokane county commissioners — the original Spokane county — show "Thomas Stensgar" as being one of the three commissioners at the last meeting held on November 20, 1863.
Julia agreed to the marriage and so the entire family and all their visitors journeyed up to the Kettle Falls Mission church and there Julia and Thomas were married. In addition to Maggie (Mrs. Donald McDonald) and Nancy (Mrs. Moore of Inchelium) their children were Isaac, and Alec. The children of Thomas and Julia remained in the Colville country permanently except as to Maggie, who moved in 1910 to Dixon, Mont. Up to that year she and her husband Donald McDonald lived on the old site of Fort Colville which had been taken over by Donald as a homestead when the Hudson Bay Company had retired from American Soil in 1871.
Julia Plante Stensgar continued to live at the Addy homestead after the death of Thomas, making occasional trips to see her daughter, Maggie, at Dixon, Mont. In 1917, while she was making a call on a kinswoman, the daughter of a brother of Mary Therese, she complained of feeling queer while walking back to town, where her daughter, Mrs. McDonald, lived. She stopped at a nearby stream for water, but suddenly collapsed, apparently dying of heart failure. Her age was 81 years.
ANTOINE'S SON CHARLEY MARRIED THERESE PEONE
Charley Plante married Therese, nicknamed "Sophie," Peone, the daughter of old Jean Baptiste, and they lived with Antoine, Duncan McDonald remembers a remark made by his mother that Sophie Plante was rather vain, liked to doll up in beaded caps and finery. Also she was not much of a worker. Neither was Charley, so that hard work fell upon Francois or Frank, the older stepbrother, and his wife, Lizette. They tended the garden, milked the cows, made butter, gathered the fruit and did all the other domestic duties. So in time Frank grew tired of this and moved out. Frank and his family stopped with Julia at Addy on his way to the Flathead country and Julia suggested they leave their little girl, Kate, with her for a time, as they had another baby in arms and a winter journey was before them. Kate never saw her mother again.
Soon after Frank came to Flathead country with two Indians he went on a horse rustling trip to Blackfeet country and was killed. Lizette, his widow, married Louis Varsi. One day word came to Julia Plante in Addy that Lizette would pass their way en route to the Okanogan Lake country, where her family intended to stay, but Lizette never visited them, and a neighbor on the opposite side of the river reported that a party stopped at their place and that the woman, who had several "tow-headed" children, stated she had a daughter living with Julia. This was as near as Kate came to seeing her mother or any of her immediate family. In 1927, she died as Kate Raymond — a very fine woman.
Charley Plante's easy-going habits seemed to fit in with his other characteristics. He was considered a pleasant type of man, rather quiet, liking race horses and usually having entries in the races, which were the main pastime in the early days.
Maggie remembers her grandfather, Plante, visiting their place at Addy, and later Charley, who came with strings of pack horses loaded with wheat to be ground into flour at Fort Colville. Once she remembered Antoine stopping at their place with a pack horse laded with skins on his return from a trapping trip. For a time Maggie went at least once a year for a few days to visit at the Plante home one the Spokane. This was a day's trip from Addy.Her grandfather provided her first pony and she well remembers her first ride after she could manage the pony alone.
As Maggie grew older she was obliged to stay home and allow her younger sister, Nancy, to make the visit to grandfather. One time when her mother was away on such a visit she made bread against her father's protest that she would simply waste the flour, and much to her pride had creditable success.
THOMAS STENSGAR ADVISES CHIEF GARRY AGAINST OUTBREAK
Maggie also remembers, as a vague incident, that Chief Garry and an Indian named "Daylight" talked to her father Thomas Stensgar at the Addy farm in regard to a proposed attack on the whites, Garry said. "We'll scalp the whites and hang the scalps around our bellies just like we do the gopher skins." Stensgar in reply advised against any such attack, saying that the whites would outnumber them and more would come from across the "big water" to fight them. "It's no use, don't fight."
Maggie also remembers her own grandmother, Mary Therese, coming to the Colville country to visit them. She recalls her as well preserved and that with her she often had her small children by a second marriage to a man named Paul. She brought buffalo meat and one time brought buffalo robes. Mary Therese died in 1907, outliving her three children by Paul and all their descendants. She passed her last days with her niece, Mary Susan, on Crow Creek in the Lower Flathead Valley.
Maggie always felt that Mary Plante, the second wife, was more a grandmother to her than Mary Therese.
FERRIES ON THE SPOKANE RIVER
The story of Antoine Plante's ferry and its gradual elimination through the building of bridges has already been told in the first series of these stories. From about 1855 until 1864 Antoine had a free hand and undoubtedly made money from the miners, the packers, the boundary commission men and especially after the Mullan road crossed his ferry in 1861. But Kendall's (Spokane) Bridge crippled him in 1864 and Newlon, who built a bridge near Trent in 1866, added to his trouble. The latter bridge probably became Schnebly's Bridge in 1867, for A.J. Splawn, a pioneer trader, wrote that the Mullan road crossed by that bridge to the north bank of the Spokane in 1867.
Antoine had always had some opposition from ferries below the falls. The earliest ferry there is mentioned by Samuel Parker in the account of his journey in 1835. That ferry was operated by the Spokane Indians, as was the ferry crossed by Saxton, one mile below the falls in 1853. Durham's Spokane and the Inland Empire," which is a mine of detailed information on the life and activities of the early settlers, relates that in 1859 J.R. Bates operated the ferry at the Government crossing, which was at that time near the mouth of little Spokane. This man Bates figured prominently in the early affairs of the country. He was a doctor, had a claim in the Colville valley was the first justice of the pace of the original Spokane county, later auditor, was one of the first legislative representatives elected in 1861 and the same gentleman, who taking warning of the tragic fate of Mr. Watson, murdered while returning from Olympia, went properly "heeled" with a Colt's dragoon revolver, including gunstock attachment. He presided at the county convention at Pinkney City June 14, 1864, and was nominated for treasurer. In 1860 Bates sold his ferry to W.J. Terry and William Nix or Nixon, and on Sept. 20, 1860, James Monaghan, then 20 years old, was employed by them to take charge of it. The legislature on January 11, 1861, granted them a charter to build a bridge under the corporate name of Spokane Bridge company. P.M. Engel, a topographer for Mullan, reported as of March 8, 1860 "just above the ferry a company has commenced the building of a bridge which was not completed at the time I passed." But the ferry afterward became the property of James Monaghan, who built the first bridge there (LaPray) in 1865, or one year after Kendall's (Spokane) bridge was built. William Nixon married a daughter of Stephen Liberty. His descendants still live in Spokane.
During the late 60s new settlers were coming in and taking up the best land, the best springs and the best grass an timber. Antoine undoubtedly saw the end of free grazing and perhaps had already suffered losses in horses and cattle from the passing traffic, as well as from Indian enemies.
-Series III consists of six installments, No. 1, 2 and 3 have already appeared. No. 5 will appear Sunday, Dec. 31, No. 6 Sunday, Jan. 7.
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