The History of the Yakima Valley, Washington, Comprising Yakima, Kittitas and
Benton Counties, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1919, Volume II, page 79

MRS. ABIGAIL KARR.

Mrs. Abigail Karr, wife of James A. Karr, whose record is given above, passed
away on the 9th of November, 1918, at the advanced age of seventy-eight years.
She was the first white girl born within the limits of the present state of
Washington, to survive infancy. Mrs. Karr was the second child of her parents,
Rev. and Mrs. Elkanah Walker, missionaries, who crossed the plains in the second
company brought across by Marcus Whitman in 1838. In the spring of 1839 Rev.
Walker and his associate, the Rev. Cushing Eells, established a mission at
Tschimakain meaning "the place of springs") not far from the present city of
Spokane. Here on May 24, 1840, Abigail was born. The place is still known as
Walker's Prairie. The chief anxiety of these pioneer parents was that their
children must grow up without other companionship than that of the Indians. The
mothers banded themselves together in what was known as "The Maternal
.Association" for the express purpose of keeping fresh in their own minds the
ideals and standards of their far away New England home. This was the more
necessary when we reflect that it required usually a year for mail from the east
to reach these far away places. Mrs. Walker who kept a diary of these days,
gives many interesting glimpses of the primitive methods of living necessitated
by pioneer conditions. Here Mrs. Karr spent the first seven years of her life.

When Dr. Whitman was massacred in November, 1847, the terrible news came swiftly
to the little group of people at Tschimakain. Great anxiety was felt as it was
reported that the Cayuse Indians were coming on to murder the two families at
Tschimakain. The men of the station felt that they must be away at times to aid
in the search for the murderers and to do scout duty. Needless to say these
anxious times made a great impression on the seven-year-old child, to whom thus
early tragedy came close. The Flatheads, who were attached to the Tschimakain
mission, waited upon the people of the mission and told them that the bad
Indians could not reach them except over their dead bodies. In this confidence
they rested and in the end met no harm, though they remained at the station
until spring. Then they went for a time to old Fort Colville and still later
they were accompanied to Oregon City, then the metropolis of the west, by a
company of soldiers. When a few years ago the Historical Society of the state
unveiled a monument at Walker's Prairie to Messrs. Eells and Walker, one of the
soldiers who formed this escort was present and gave a vivid description of the
party as they started overland for Oregon City.

"Mrs. Karr spent her girlhood here and at Forest Grove, where she received her
education. Among her earliest teachers was Professor Thomas Gatch, a pioneer
educator of the northwest, who for many years was president of the University of
Washington. Upon reaching young womanhood Mrs. Karr took up the work of teaching
and while acting in that capacity she met James A. Karr, the pioneer resident of
Hoquiam, who sought her hand in marriage. The wedding was celebrated September
14, 1863, and their wedding journey consisted of a trip by team to Olympia. They
spent the first winter of their married life at Little Rock, where Mr. Karr was
teaching the village school. In the spring of 1864 they took up their abode upon
the old homestead, which now constitutes the north half of Hoquiam, and thereon
they resided for four decades or until 1904, when they removed to Yakima. There
Mr. and Mrs. Karr celebrated their golden wedding in 1913 and a year later Mr.
Karr passed away. By request of the State Historical Society the special
pictures of Mr. and Mrs. Karr taken at that time will be presented to the
society to be placed in the pioneers' corridor.

"While living upon the homestead at Hoquiam the twelve children of Mr. and Mrs.
Karr were born, eleven of whom reached adult age and eight were present at the
fiftieth anniversary of their parents' marriage together with many
grandchildren. Notwithstanding the manifold duties which devolved upon her in
the care of her household and the rearing of her children, Mrs. Karr took the
deepest interest in things intellectual and ever kept in touch with the trend of
modern thought and progress even to the end of her days. She was a broad reader
and discussed most intelligently many questions bearing upon the welfare of
community, state and nation. She belonged to the Congregational church, to the
Woman's Christian Temperance Union, to the Order of the Eastern Star and the
Daughters of the American Revolution. Her grandfather had been a minute man in
the war for independence and the same patriotic spirit was ever manifest in
Mrs. Karr, who after the United States entered the great world war devoted long
and happy hours to Red Cross work. She had early become most skillful in
knitting and she employed her time in knitting for the soldiers, shaping many an
article of comfort for them. She lived to know that the signing of the armistice
would soon come, recognizing that the world had thus been saved from the
militarism of Prussia to benefit by the democratic principles that recognize the
rights of all mankind. She was a lovable woman, her life enriched by broad
experiences and liberal study and most of all by that deep human sympathy which
was constantly manifest in a hand extended to assist others. She was ever indeed
a helpmate to her husband and an inspiration to her family and friends, and 'her
good works follow her.'"

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Submitted to the Washington Bios Project in December 2007 by Jeffrey L. Elmer.
Submitter has no additional information about the subject of this article.