Cemetery Tales - Pataha Flat

I decided to take a drive Sunday afternoon…you might say my destination was a familiar one – at least on the surface.  Throughout my lifetime, I have driven through Pomeroy from Lewiston going west mostly to Canby, OR.  As a youngster, it was merely a landmark on a long car trip…today, it is much more.  I recognize a place that was a home to some of my family members.

Pomeroy, WA is the only incorporated town in Garfield Co., WA.  It became a town in May 1878 and was officially incorporated on 3 Feb 1886.  Garfield Co., WA is the smallest county in the state of Washington in terms of population.  It is a lovely little town full of old homes, old buildings with character and one of the most beautiful court houses in the area.  It is also the place where my great grandparents moved to after living up on Grouse Flats in neighboring Wallowa Co., OR.  They went there so their son could graduate from high school (Jasper James “Jack” Friddle) and was also the place that several members of the Friddle family lived.  It is interesting to note that my sister-in-law’s family also came from the Pomeroy, WA area as well.  As I have learned more about my families’ history, I recognize the significance of this little town.

Garfield County, Washington Courthouse

Two Views of the Pataha Flat Schoolhouse

Pataha Flat - Established 1865

One of the first times that I can remember going to Pomeroy as a destination to somewhere other than further west…Mom and I learned that her step-father’s family were buried up at the Pataha Flat cemetery which is a few miles outside Pomeroy.  As you climb the hill towards Pataha Flat, you experience what is like living in the Palouse hills.  There are many communities that rest at the bottom of a valley and farmland encompasses the hills surrounding the region.  It is truly some of the best farm land in the world and during the hot July afternoon it was obvious that wheat harvesting was well under way.  Usually you can look around 100 miles in several directions on a clear day and see several landmarks clearly…but not on Sunday.  The dust from harvesting and the few grass fires that have occurred during the past week have created a haze on every horizon.  When I reached the top of the ridge, I looked for the old schoolhouse. To my sorrow the old schoolhouse doesn't look so good anymore.  It is probably around 100 years old and was probably in use up until the advent of electricity.  Perhaps it was even around before the turn of the century and my step grandfather’s relatives attended the school.  It is a landmark that signals that is time to turn east and head a few hundred feet down to the Pataha Flat cemetery. 

Jesse Green Shearer -
My Step Grandfathers - Grandfather

Joel Sturges Shearer - Jesse Green's father

The first time we visited this cemetery we looked around and until we found the cache of Shearer graves.  It was there we saw my step grandfather’s grave as well as that of his father.  Also in the same area were several Crumpacker graves but that of Cassandra Arrasmith Crumpacker didn't seem to be around there.  We took pictures of the Shearer graves and then headed home.  After we headed home, it was time to do a bit more research on the family.  Initially family legend said that Cassandra Arrasmith had been killed along the Oregon Trail…however; this didn't seem to be the case.  With a little research, I found that Cassandra Arrasmith was originally married to William Crumpacker on 21 Dec 1843 in Linn, Osage Co., MO.  They were the parents of nine children and after his death on 3 Mar 1862; Cassandra gave birth to twin girls on 20 Jul 1862.  Within a year, she gathered her children and began her trek across the Oregon Trail.  Within a short time after her arrival in the Washington territory, Cassandra married B. F. Newland and on 3 Mar 1876, she married Schuyler Woolery.  Finally on 23 Jun 1889, Cassandra married John Lewis Tewalt, her daughter’s father in law…so knowing this, I made another trip to Pataha Flat and searched to find Cassander Tewalt in the Pataha cemetery.   It took me a while to find the middle two husbands, but finding this grave was definitely proof that Cassandra didn’t die on the Oregon Trail during her journey west.

Cassandra Arrasmith Tewalt's Grave

So, there in the tiny country cemetery are my step grandfather’s relatives.  I’m sure he must have known about them, but I don’t ever recall him going there.   The biggest mystery that I had after untangling Cassandra’s life was wondering what had happened to Jesse Green Shearer.  I knew that he had died young by his gravestone and left his wife, Mary Crumpacker a widow at the age of 26.  It wasn't until this past year when I located Mary Crumpacker Shearer Earl’s obituary that I discovered that Jesse Green Shearer had died of pneumonia.  It is surprising to note that the Pataha Flat Cemetery is still an active cemetery and there are still burials that have been made there during the last 20 years.  After a perusal of some of the newer burials, I find that I am going to have to make another trip perhaps in the spring.  I just discovered another cousin buried there.  When I visited Sunday, I didn’t walk through the cemetery – too much grass and much too cautious of the possibility of snakes.  I suspect I will have to until Memorial Day next spring, when it is ready for visitors to see if I can locate that cousins’ grave!

Cassandra - Oregon Trail Pioneer

I always knew growing up that my grandfather had a fascination with Native American history and western history.  I don’t think he ever knew all that much about his family beyond his more current relations.   I think he was interested in learning about his family heritage…but he had no one to ask to provide him with information – he certainly would have been thrilled to learn about his great grandmother’s trek across the country along the Oregon Trail.

Cassandra Arrasmith was born on 20 Aug 1823 in Bourbon Co., KY to John Richard Arrasmith and Nancy Wood.  Cassandra’s family moved to Missouri and she met and married William Crumpacker on 21 Dec 1843 in Linn, Osage Co., MO.  William and Cassandra were the parents of 11 children born between 1845 and 1862.  William Crumpacker died on 3 Mar 1862 leaving his widow pregnant with the youngest two children, who were twins.  It is unknown what William died of…he was 44 years old and probably died in Chillicothe, Livingston Co., MO where his youngest children were born, although he was recorded in Sullivan Co., MO in the 1850 and 1860 census.

Cassandra’s oldest son was 17 years old and while I’m sure some of her 11 children were no longer alive – she must have had to make a difficult decision.  Her husband died in March and she had the twin girls in July of that year.  Looking at history, it is easy to see that the Civil War was wreaking havoc on the country and perhaps she had no other recourse other than to leave for a new life.  Whatever caused her to make the decision, she packed up her family and headed west on the Oregon Trail.  I believe the family left Missouri about 1864.  Her oldest son, Henry married a Rachel Frazier on 13 Jan 1864 in Sullivan Co., MO.  Their oldest child was born on 11 October 1864 in Boise, ID then the Washington territory. So Cassandra and her family probably packed their wagon and headed west in the spring of 1864.

When I first started researching Cassandra, just about everyone had her killed on the Oregon Trail.  Evidently their wagon train was attacked on route and she was injured badly enough that some thought she had died. From what I have read, Cassandra drove her own team even though she was still nursing her twins.  She must have been quite a woman – traveling towards a new home with no knowledge of what she was to face on the journey or even what her destination would be like.  I believe that I have read that some of her family (her mother’s relatives) came west about the same time – so perhaps there was comfort in numbers.

The family arrived in Washington State in late 1864 perhaps in Pomeroy, WA but most likely in the Walla Walla, WA area.  According to some researchers, Cassandra married a B. F. Newland on December 21, 1843 probably around Walla Walla.  She then married Schuyler Woolery on 6 Mar 1876 in Columbia Co., WA.  I’m not real sure if she stayed married to these men or left them and moved on.  However, I do know that she is recorded with her youngest children in the 1870 census in Walla Walla, WA territory under her own name, and also in 1880 is recorded as Mrs. C. Crumpacker.  I know that she married John Lewis Tewalt in 1889 and she herself is buried at the Pataha Flat or Schoolhouse cemetery near Pomeroy, Garfield Co., OR. 

Cassandra Arrasmith Crumpacker Tewalt's grave

Pataha Flat Cemetery, near Pomeroy, WA.

While there is still plenty of mystery surrounding Cassandra’s life from the time she left Missouri in 1864 until her death in 1893, I find Cassandra an interesting puzzle.  If nothing else she was a survivor – she survived being left as a widow with eleven children – traveled across the United States to make a new life for herself and lived to see her children marry and have children of her own.  She is someone that I wish my grandfather would have known about…he would have liked her and admired her!