Lockley, Fred. "History of the Columbia River Valley, From The Dalles to the Sea." Vol. 2. S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1928. p. 278. JOHN B. CRATE Among the most interesting features of the Oregon Daily Journal are the articles of Fred Lockley, who wrote the following account of the life of John B. Crate, the oldest pioneer resident of The Dalles: "When did you come to The Dalles? I asked of Mr. Crate. 'I came here in May, 1850, just seventy-five years ago this month,' he replied. 'My father worked for the Hudson's Bay Company. In 1838 Dr. McLoughlin sent him up to Stuart lake in British Columbia, to bring down the furs from their post there. He was given command of ten three-ton boats. He piloted the leading boat himself and the others followed the lead of his boat. These boats made the round trip each summer from Stuart lake to Fort Vancouver. Coming down the Columbia, they shot the rapids at the cascades, but on the return trip they had to make a portage there. They carried their loads around the cascades at what is now Cascade locks and towed their boats or carried them around the swift water. At the big eddy, sometimes called The Dalles rapids, they made another portage, carrying their loads clear beyond Celilo falls. They put their boats into the river above Celilo and paddled them to the mouth of the Okanogan, where they put their trade goods on pack horses and took them over the divide to the waters of the Frazier river, where they had boats in which they took the goods to Stuart lake. Father stayed with this work for some years—in fact, until 1846, when they transferred him to Fort Walla Walla, now called Wallula. " 'In 1847 Peter Skene Ogden detailed my father and another employe named Champagne to take H. H. Spaulding down the river to Fort Vancouver. This was immediately after the killing of Dr. Marcus Whitman, Mrs. Whitman and the other white people at Wai-lat-pu mission. The Indians fired at my father and the other two men from the bank but did not hit them. They brought the news of the massacre to the Willamette valley, and soon the whole valley was humming with excitement like a hive of angry bees. My father and Champagne joined their own people from French prairie to go up to Wai-lat-pu to punish the Indians. They fought with the volunteers from French prairie until the Cayuse war was over. Then they returned to the employ of the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Walla Walla. " 'In 1847 my father took up a place called Crates Point, which my mother left during the trouble with the Indians in 1849 and went to Oregon City. She was at Dr. McLoughlin's mill on the island at what they sometimes called Willamette falls when I was born on April 27, 1850, and when I was a few weeks old she returned to our place here. My mother's name was Sophia Berchier. She pronounced it "Bushey." She was from the Red river of the north. She lived to be ninety-four years old. When she was coming here by the old Hudson's Bay trail my brother Ed, who retired from the Portland police force recently after forty years of service, was born. The Indians attacked the party when Ed was one day old, so mother had to grab him up, catch her horse and get away from there as fast as the animal could travel. "'My father, Edward Crate, was a French Canadian. In the fall of 1849 he purchased from the Hudson's Bay Company a boat which he operated on the river between The Dalles and Fort Vancouver. He took emigrants from The Dalles to Oregon City while the men of the party drove their cattle overland to the Willamette valley. Father had the contract to transport the soldiers from Vancouver to The Dalles in 1852, when the United States government built the fort here. After this for three years he stayed on his land at Crates Point and farmed the place. In the summer of 1856 he operated his boat between Celilo and Wallula. Father acted as pilot on the first boat than ran from Celilo to Wallula and thence to the mouth of the Snake river. I believe Captain Gray was skipper of the boat. After serving as pilot on this river for a while father returned to his ranch, later going to the newly discovered gold mines in Idaho, near where Lewiston now is. Father and mother had fourteen children, seven of whom are now living. " 'When I was eighteen—that would be in 1868—I started riding the range. In 1872 I was riding for Ben Snipe, whose horses ranged all over the Yakima country and along the Columbia. He had about twenty thousand head of cattle. In 1875 my horse fell with me and broke in a lot of my ribs, so I came to The Dalles and went to work for John Michaelbach, who ran a butcher shop here in those days. In 1880 my brother Ed and I purchased the shop. After a few days I bought Ed's interest and he went to Portland to work for O'Shea Brothers, the meat packers. Ed soon went on the Portland police force. I ran the butcher shop for some years and sold out when I was appointed a member of the police force here. Ed Word, later with the Oregon Railroad & Navigation Company, and I were put on the police force the same day. He was day man and I had the night shift. There were thirty-two saloons here then. Yes, I have had to take guns away from hundreds of men. You see, when they get drunk they hardly know what they are doing and they frequently get ugly and' pull their guns. If I didn't take the gun away they might kill someone, or someone might shoot them in self-defense. I served on the force over twenty years. Yes, I have lots of friends. The lawbreakers and bootleggers don't like me, but the wolves and coyotes don't like a watchdog, and for the same reason. "'Was I ever city marshal? Yes, when Gibbons, the city marshal was shot and killed I was appointed in his place. Did I ever have any fights? Look at the knuckles of my right hand. I couldn't tell you how many times I have broken my knuckles fighting with drunken men or gangs of men who resisted arrest. No, I never used a gun or a billy. One morning at about five o'clock I was called to a saloon to stop a fight between Frank Summers, a gambler, and a small man. Summers, who weighed about three hundred pounds, was holding the small man with one arm around his neck and beating- him with the other arm. I managed to separate the two men and dragged Summers outside the saloon. While I was taking Summers to the jail he promised to behave if I would take him to his room instead, which I did, and left him there. In the melee Summers- lost his hat and a man named Gentry took it up to his room. The gambler told Gentry he was going to get his gun and kill me. Meanwhile I had gone downtown and was told later on that Summers was back in the saloon and boasting of what he intended to do. I returned to the saloon and when I reached the swinging door Summers opened fire. The first bullet hit me in the left breast, an inch above the heart, and penetrated my body. I grabbed a heavy chair of oak, using it as a shield, and closed with Summers, who fired two more shots before I was able to knock him down with the chair. I took away Summers' gun, handing it to my deputy, who had arrived on the scene by that time, and then fainted from loss of blood. They took me to a hospital and probed for the bullet, but the probe ran clear through me and when they took off my shirt the bullet fell to. the floor. I had to stay in the hospital for over a month. The fight took place at The Dalles in 1902 and Summers was sent to the penitentiary for a term of five years."" Mr. Crate was married June 1, 1882, to Miss Elizabeth Bill, a native of Steuben county, New York, and a daughter of Nicholas and Mary Bill, both of whom were born on the Rhine, in Germany. About 1850 they came to the United States, settling in Steuben county, New York, and there Mr. Bill engaged in farming until 1875. He then sold the place and migrated to Oregon, arriving at Hood River on November 15, 1875. There he spent the winter and in the spring of 1876 came to Wasco county, taking up a preemption claim and homestead of one hundred and sixty acres near Hosier. He removed a portion of the timber, which he cut, and sold the wood. Mr. Bill cultivated the ranch until his demise in 1880 and his wife passed away a few days later. They had ten children, seven of whom survive: Mrs. Mary Britten, who makes her home at The Dalles; Mrs. Barbara Dunsmore, of Mosier; Mrs. Eva Hall, who lives in Portland, Oregon; Elizabeth; George C., of Calistoga, California; Mrs. Louise Shepard, a resident of Oakland, that state; and Henry A. Bill, also of Oakland, In the family of Mr. and Mrs. Crate were two children. Violet was born in 1884 and died in infancy. The other daughter, Anna Lucille, who was born at The Dalles and has become a well known concert singer, is the wife of James W. Purcell, who is manager for the Ellison-White Chautauqua Company and travels extensively in the interests of the firm. Mr. and Mrs. Purcell reside in Portland, Oregon, and are the parents of two sons: James W. Jr., a student at Reed College in Portland; and James Bardell Purcell, a junior in high school. A lifelong resident of Oregon, Mr. Crate has an intimate knowledge of the history of the state, to which he is deeply attached, and his conversation, is enriched with interesting reminiscences of the past. He has been loyal to every trust reposed in him and faithful to every duty and the years have strengthened his position in public esteem. ******************* Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in January 2013 by Diana Smith. Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.