Told by the Pioneers - Washington Secretary of State

Told by the Pioneers
played this moaning instrument upon his arrival, he was a mile across
the waters. ·When he began moaning before pulling out some of the
minor keys of the bagpipe, I thought it ·was another sick Indian across
the bay, and by the sounds, the Indian would die before morningbut
there were few smarter men in Thlason County than Bagpipe
Charley. He claimed to have been chief piper for Queen Victoria, and
he evidently wore the same suit of buckskin he had worn before the
•
Queen. Charley had been in many Indian wars, carried dispatches
for Generals Reno and Custer, and had been in the ~lodoc war in
Southern Oregon and Northern California, where he had exchanged
shots with Shagnasty Jim. Charley sold his oyster holdings for a cool
hundred thousand dollars, later, and we lost track of him.
Upon leaving Oyster bay, we moved to Olympia in 1900 and a year
or so later we became game warden of Thurston county. In 1907 we
moved to Bandon, Oregon, and became a game warden under .John
W. Baker. After working in Oregon until the great war broke out,
we moved to Pacific county, vVashington, and worked as a marshal in
the shipyards, then game warden of Pacific county, for nearly fifteen
years. Then we resigned as game warden after thirty years of the
work in Oregon and Washington states, among the hills and valleys,
watching for game violations. That we were successful goes without
saying, after making 1,700 arrests in the two states.
ISAAC V. MOSSMAN (My Father)
Isaac V. Mossman, aged 82 years, an Oregon pioneer and one of the
foremost Indian fighters and pony express riders of the state, died
Thursday at Roseburg. In the death of Mr. Mossman there passes
one of the best known men of pioneer days. He was born in Indiana,
August 8, 1830, and came to Oregon by ox team in 1853, arri,-ing at
Oregon City, October 20.
Mr. Mossman carried the mail from Oregon City to Scottsburg, on
the Umpqua river, in October, 1855, when he went to The Dalles.
There, learning that the Indian agent at the Yakima reservation
had been murdered by the Indians, he enlisted in Company G, first
regiment, Oregon mounted volunteers, of which A. N. Armstrong was
captain. After being mustered out of the company, he enlisted in
Company B, second regiment of Oregon mounted volunteers, in command
of Captain B. F. Burch. In April, 1861, he started a "pony express"
to the Orofino mines, and soon after its establishment took in
Joaquin Miller as a partner.
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