Memoirs of Albert Jay Price - Good Stock Country, Splendid Farming Country Excerpts from clippings of the memoirs of Albert Jay Price published in the Sherman County Journal; dates unclear. Editorial note. George Masiker was born in New York in 1825, married Palmyra Elizabeth Trumbull in Kane County, IL in 1847, and came to Oregon about 1852-1853 with his wife and three children. They first lived at Fort Yamhill where two children were born, and where their son Edwin probably died, until 1860 when they appear in the U.S. Census of Wasco County where their sixth child was born the following year. By 1863 when his youngest child was born, he operated a stage station at Sand Spring, east of the Deschutes River, on the south side of Highway 206 in the Cottonwood and Poplar grove. He died at Sand Springs, where he is buried, in 1863 leaving his wife Palmyra and six children: William Ward, Esther, Carson Charley, Elmira, George B. and Martyn J. Masiker. Palmyra (Trumbull) Masiker, a widow with six children, married Samuel Price on January 2, 1864 in Wasco County. Price came to present-day Sherman County in 1862 and worked for George Masiker. He and Palmyra had a son! , Albert Jay Price in 1866. Esther Masiker married Jesse J. Imbler of Imbler, OR in 1866, the first child to marry. Elmira Masiker married Henry Barnum in 1873 in Wasco County. William Ward Masiker married Laura Henderson of Columbus, Klickitat County, WA in 1877. Carson C. Masiker married Mary Henderson of Columbus, WA in 1878. Albert Jay Price, born 23 years before Sherman County was carved from Wasco County, grew up at Sand Spring at the Masiker-Price stage station, Price's Station. The canyon running north from there was then called Price's Canyon. He knew and worked for early stockmen and ranchers east of the Deschutes River, and later wrote about his experiences in great detail. Jay Price's Memoirs. The Last Indian War. [Helm, Chapman, Dunlap, Fulton, Price, Shannon, Masiker] It may be interesting to the residents of Sherman County to know that one of the final episodes of the last Indian war, which was in 1878, happened between the John Day and Deschutes rivers. General Howard (the Indians called him "day after tomorrow") had driven the Indians out of the Blue Mountains, and they attempted to swim the Columbia near Blalock, but were prevented from doing so, when they were fired upon by an improvised gunboat. It was estimated there were perhaps seven or eight hundred Indians, and a large band of horses, and some cattle. That was really the end of the war, as each lot headed for their individual reservations. So about 75 Indians that belonged to the Warm Springs reservation, with quite a band of horses, forded the John Day river and were coming up Biglow canyon when Charley Helm and Ike Chapman saw them, and the Indians, seeing the men, dropped back out of sight. The men had not heard about the fight on the river and supposed that the Indians were still on the warpath, while they were really sneaking back home. The men quickly rode to the Dunlap ranch, where several families and a large band of horses had collected. The women were told that the Indians were coming and they were put in wagons and told to get across the Deschutes as quick as they could. It was near sundown when the wagons passed our place. They stopped just long enough to tell us that the Indians were coming, and that we better run, and on they went. There were about 20 men staying at our place that night that lived east of the John Day, who had taken their families to The Dalles and had bought Winchesters and were on their way to protect their stock. After the wagons were gone they said, "You folks do as you think best, but we are going to stay here tonight and go on in the morning." Dad and Mother said all right they would stay, too. About that time here came the big band of horses driven by eight or 10 men. It was dark when they got in the canyon where the Fulton and Price canyons join, and they could not be moved, and stayed there until daylight. Now at this time the stage was leaving The Dalles at 6 p.m. When the stage arrived at the Deschutes, the driver, George Shannon, was told that the Indians had crossed the John Day and he had better stop, but he said he would go on, but his two passengers got out. He knew nothing about the band of horses and it was dark and the first thing he knew he was surrounded with horses. He waited a while, but could not move. He tied up the lines and got in front and led the team, and with his whip slowly made his way for nearly a mile before he was clear of the horses, and thinking they were Indians he said, "klihiam." The men laughed, then he knew they were white men, and I heard him say afterwards that was when his hat settled down on his head. He finished his trip and saw no Indians. The following morning, when the men left, Martyn [Martyn Masiker, Jay's half-brother] and another man went with them, and out near where Klondike is now, they saw a wide dusty streak leading south, showing that the Indians had passed that way headed for the Warm Springs reservation. And that was the end of the Indian war. Jay Price. Submitted by Sherry Kaseberg.