Hevel Is Keeper Of Her Family History

WAITSBURG - A phone call from Waitsburg resident Laura Jean Hevel's distant relative put responsibility in her hands that she never thought she would have.

That phone call was from Hevel's grandmother's first cousin twice removed, Gail Parsons of Elma. Parsons had been the keeper of the family history, including letters from a very significant ancestor. And Parsons wanted Hevel to have some of her artifacts. Now, she is the keeper of letters and artifacts from her ancestors and has collected the information of her family tree for future generations.

"One day, the phone rang and it was she," said Hevel. "I didn't expect to have any (artifacts)."

In November 1847, Hevel's ancestor Andrew Rodgers, just 29 years of age, was killed in the massacre at the Whitman Mission. Rodgers' sister was Hevel's great- great- grandmother.

The mission, located just outside of Walla Walla, was established by Presbyterian missionaries in 1836. There was tension between the native Cayuse people and the missionaries and the tension resulted in the massacre of Marcus and Narcissa Whitman as well as 11 others, including Andrew Rodgers.

Rodgers had traveled west and lived at the mission in 1946 and 1947, Hevel said. He taught the children of the mission and was studying under Marcus Whitman.

"He was just sort of in the wrong place at the wrong time," Hevel said of his death.

Hevel said Rodgers was thoughtful and interested in the countryside.

At a trip to the mission years ago, Hevel said she learned Rodgers was excommunicated from the Associated Presbyterian Church in Monmouth, Ill., because he did not confine his singing to the approved version of the Psalter. He had traveled to Oregon in 1845, became a school teacher at the Whitman Mission; joined the First Church of Oregon, Feb. 27, 1846. He was the first candidate for the Protestant ministry on the Pacific Coast. Hevel supposes his difficulty with the home church may have spurred his interest in migrating to the West.

He often wrote to his family back in the Midwest and tried to convince them to join him at the mission. She said Narcissa Whitman was always writing to her sister back east, trying to get her to come out to the mission and talked in her letters about Rodgers and how they enjoyed singing together.

Hevel knows so much about him from letters she has transcribed. His last was from May of 1847.

"It's so fragile and hard to read," she said.

Rodgers had been so convincing in his letters, his family members had started making arrangements to go meet him out West. But, his death changed their minds. The family received a package of his things, including his bed sheets. The sheets were also returned with a violin that Rodgers played.

One of the most significant pieces Hevel has from Rodgers is a piece of those sheets that were sent back to his family. They are stained and worn, barely resembling the light-colored sheets they had once been. The sheets had been divided up and given to various relatives, she said.

Grandmother Rodgers had spun the flax and it was woven into cloth for the sheets in Henderson County, Hevel said.

To have this piece of history is very special to Hevel. Growing up in Pendleton, Hevel heard her family tell stories about Rodgers and seeing the fabric of Rodgers' sheets that her mother had.

"I was just a girl asking 'what's this mom?'" Hevel recalls.

In 1850, Rodgers' brotherin law John Graham decided to go west and see what it was like. He traveled to Oregon City to find out how much it cost to live out there. It took him one year to make the trip. He took a train and rode horseback and when he ran out of money, Hevel said he would work odd jobs. For his trip home, he traveled more than 9,000 miles and spent $275. He took a ship from Portland to San Francisco, spending some time in Astoria. He waited 10 days for a steamer to Panama and started across the Isthmus to Gorgona, Colombia, and across the Caribbean to New Orleans, where he went up the Mississippi River to get back home.

Hevel said he wrote to his family asking them to write more to him. He missed his wife and family, who were taking care of the family farm.

John and his wife never left Illinois. Hevel said Laura Mc- Cully, the great niece of Andre Rodgers, married a Hampton and moved to Pendleton.

Roger Trick, the park ranger at the Whitman Mission said Hevel is a special case. About 50,000 to 55,000 people visit the mission each year and only a few people visit claiming to be ancestors of those who lived there.

"We get a few, but it's only a handful," he said. "It's pretty rare."

Many of those who visit are relatives of the Sager children, who were orphans adopted by Marcus and Narcissa Whitman. The relatives come to the mission to see the artifacts and they even donate artifacts, he said.

When Hevel was given letters from Parsons, she went to the mission to visit and started collecting books on its history. Soon, she became the keeper of the family history, in charge of writing it down and helping children in the family with history assignments. " I've turned out to be the keeper of family records," Hevel said. "It' is enriching to know what happened to other people. They had dreams and lives."