Book 2 - Nathan, Amy, Madison and Ethan Berga

earlier and still had, “Washington Territory” stamped
on it. 63 She said a tearful goodbye to her brother, Sam
and joined Albert in the wagon. 91 The only father Alma
had known was her Uncle Sam; it must have been difficult
to leave the familiar boundaries of Maple Valley
for the unknown in Kamilche. A quiet, nervous tension
filled the wagon as Alma rode in the back, bouncing
along the pot marked
road for fifty-one miles
to her new home. What
a site awaited them when
they arrived. The team
turned off the main, dirt
road and quickened their
pace down a narrow lane
made evident only by the
ruts of the wagon wheels.
To the left towered a
dense forest of Fir, coated
in ivy; the forest floor was
a thick glen of briars and
underbrush. To the right
opened up to reveal a pasture
pale in color from
the morning frost. A
brook, swollen with winter’s
melt, passed lively
under a low bridge, made
only of planks laid over
beams which stretched
out above the current.
Further up the lane the
wagon creaked over the
rail road tracks which
cut through Albert’s land
joining Shelton with
Olympia. With an abrupt stop, the lane ended and a
small, log home, graying with the weather, stood before
them. This was to be the bride’s home for the next
twenty-five years. Alma and Nettie set out to tidy up
their new home and to unpack. Curtains needed to be
made; quilts spread out over the beds, braided rugs,
which Nettie made, to cover the floor and a garden
to be planted when the weather warmed. A year later,
a daughter, Verna Geneva, was born, May 9, 1911;
74
Alma had a new baby sister, she was 15.
That same year John Tornow entered into the woods
behind Nettie’s home as a fugitive, suspected murdering
of his twin nephews. He became known as the
Wild Man of Wynoochee. Sheriff Ed Payette offered a
$500 dollar reward to anyone who brought in Tornow
for questioning. For the next two years Tornow
stalked through the woods
between Matlock and Shelton.
Local residents were
fearful and built his legend
by attributing small nuisances
to the Wild Man.
A local Posse hunted in
vain. Two deputies were
killed while on the trail;
both Colin McKenzie and
Al Elmer were found in a
shallow “T” shaped grave.
The man hunt intensified
and the reward was raised
to $5,000 dollars. A number
of trappers and hunters
went into the forest never
to be heard from again.
Official posses of deputies
kept coming back emptyhanded.
Area farmers reported
that supplies occasionally
disappeared from
their farms, with deer meat
left in exchange. Finally in
Albert Ellison and Nettie (Nordrum) Johnson April 1913, Tornow found
married January 22, 1910.
that he was cornered in
his forest hide-away, and
was killed in the ensuring gunfight. “Deputy Louis
Blair died instantly, a bullet through the chest, before
deputies knew they had found Tornow. Deputy Charley
Lathrop, from behind a tree, exchanged rifle shots
with Tornow. Lathrop was wounded so badly he fell
into the open and was killed. Deputy Giles Quimby
separated from the others, approaching Tornow from
the opposite side of the shooting. He began firing, and
Tornow fired back. Finally, with the last bullet in his