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How
“Greenbacks” Saved the Lives of the Bush Family
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IntroductionThis document was kindly provided by Sue Cameron Bush, a descendants of the Bush family. It is an account of the Casto Massacre of 1864 according to Andrew Jackson “Jack” Bush, the son of James and Martha Bush. Jack Bush dictated the account to his wife Mandy Bush who passed it down to descendents.
This transcript represents personal recollections and points of view from a time very different from our own. It includes descriptions of Native Americans that are now considered stereotypical, inaccurate, and derogatory. Some readers might find the graphic descriptions of the massacre gruesome. To enhance clarity, some punctuation and spelling has been revised and clarifications have been added in brackets. Most significantly, references to the surname "Kasto" in the original text have been corrected to read "Casto." Finally, some readers might note that Jack Bush refers to his father and mother as “Mr. and Mrs. Bush” respectively. Sue Cameron Bush suggests that this formality was a form of respect to his parents. |
In 1860, Mr. Casto and wife came to Squak Valley and settled there. They were the first white family to do so. Shortly [after they settled], others followed. In May 1964, Mr. James Bush and [his] family settled there. The only means of entrance [to the valley] in those days was by way of Lake Washington and [through] the eighteen miles of slough, with four miles of portage, which connects with Squak Lake [now known as Lake Sammamish].
They [James and Martha Bush] chose a location for their future home, a spot about a mile and a half from the lake shore. He [Bush] bought a squatter’s right to 160 acres with a one-room log house from Mr. J. Stevens. Later he built on a shed to the cabin of split cedar boards. The entrance to this [shed] was from outside. The family then consisted of a wife and five children. The oldest [child] nine years: the youngest [child] two years. All was peaceful among the Indians until the following November.
Casto and [his] partner, John Holstead, lived on the adjoining place to Bush’s [home]. Squak Creek ran between the two places. The buildings were a short distance from the banks. Casto made barrel staves for the market and employed some Indians, often time paying them off in whiskey, which was, in all new territories, the cause of the Indian butcheries.
L.B. Andrews had invested in coal lands farther up the valley, later known as Gilman Mines. Mr. Bush, with oxen and sled, hauled the coal down to the lake to be loaded on scows to be taken to Seattle. He also employed some Indians at times, paying them off in greenbacks [currency], which really saved his and his family’s lives. In the first days of November, a few Indians who had gone into Snoqualmie country had some difficulty with the whites and two Indians were killed. At that time, they did not know who killed them, but an Indian is always bound to get revenge. If not the culprit, anyone will do. Believing it was a white, they [the Indians] must have the blood of other whites. Later they [the Indians] met on Cedar River at a pow-wow to decide what should be done. The greater number [of Indians] was for peace but some were dissatisfied and wished to go on the warpath.
A few days later while Mr. Bush was at work, Joe Lake, a white man who hung around with Indians, came and asked Mrs. Bush for something to eat, which she quickly prepared for him. When he finished eating, told her because she had been so kind to him, he would warn her that the Indians were preparing war on the whites.
When Mr. Bush came in [the house], he found his wife greatly alarmed. He laughed at her fears and told her if this man ever came there again to order him out, as he was only trying to frighten women and children. Later in the same day (November 7th) while Mr. Bush and the boys were out at work, four or five bucks [Native American men] came to Mrs. Bush and demanded food. She told them she had but little prepared. The bucks then drew long butcher knives and began sharpening them, looking very fierce and following her around. She gave them what she had and they left in a surly manner.
When Mr. Bush came home, he found the family badly frightened. He tried to reassure them that the Indians were just doing it to frighten her, and if they ever came in that way again not to show them she was afraid but to open the door and tell them to go. That evening, after the children had gone to bed, they heard shooting and Mrs. Casto calling. Mr. and Mrs. Bush started on the run for Casto’s place, thinking Casto and Holsted were fighting, as it was known they had been drinking hard. At the dividing fence, a Klickitat Squaw, Betsy, met them, telling them to run. The Indians were killing the Castos. Although the blind was down, it was thin, and with candles burning inside, they [Mr. and Mrs. Bush and Betsy] could see within.
They saw the shadow of a man running around a table. Pursuing him were a number of Indians. Then a shot rang out. Mrs. Bush became hysterical. Betsy grabbed her around the waist and helped Mr. Bush put her over the fence and carried her to the bridge with the help of her man Alec, who was urging them to hurry. On reaching the bridge, she refused to go farther, saying if the Indians knew they were helping them, they would kill them. Alec and Betsy wanted them to get the children and go to the woods and hide. Mr. Bush wanted them to remain at home, thinking it wiser to hide there. At stated, the entrance to the bathroom was outside. They woke up the children, taking them and bedding to the main room. Overhead some loose boards were laid and the children with their mother were hid in the loft under feather beds to protect them from shots.
Soon a neighbor, Fred Johnson, came to aid them, having heard the shooting at Casto’s. Then another neighbor came, but, being cowardly, took to the woods with the only revolver there was. Then Indian Charlie, who had been working for Mr. Bush, came. He and his young squaw, Susy, had started to warn them as soon as the trouble commenced but suspicious Indians were watching them. So Susy hid in the woods while Charlie watched for his chance and rushed up. The door being fastened, he called to Mr. Bush to open, saying it was Charlie to warn them.
Mr. Bush, letting him in, asked if he had any weapons. His reply was to pull out a jackknife with two broken blades, which he handed over. He then said if they could keep the Indians out they would not burn the house as they were after the greenbacks they knew he had. Mr. Bush, not entirely trusting Charlie, then told him if he did not want to fight the Indians he could go in the loft, which he did, remaining there until it was over.
Soon Indians surrounded the house calling: “Bush let us in.” He told them to come on in. The told him come on out . . . they wanted to cut his heart out. They then fired a few shots through the door. Mr. Bush stood on one side of the door with an axe in hand and Johnson [on] the other side with an iron bar. The Indians pulled back out of range while reloading, then crept out looking for a spot of light within, then fired another round. The only weapon Mr. Bush had for defense was one Hudson Bay musket with only black blasting powder and caps, so he went around the walls and broke the nails off for shot. The Indians continued shooting at intervals until they had a hole through the door large enough for a man to crawl through, but they did not fire the house. Whenever a Brave would rush up and kneel to aim through the hole, Mr. Bush would fire first, in that manner killing two Indians.
After a night of terror, the Indians drew off at break of day. During the fight at Casto’s, the Indians were going back and forth to their camp down the creek a ways. Alec and Betsy—with Alec standing behind a tree—waited until one of the attacking Indians came along, then stepped out and struck him across the back of the neck with a hatchet and killed him. When the next one came along, Betsy stopped from behind and threw her arms around him and Alec struck him on the forehead, killing him.
The morning after the fight, the remaining neighbors who had been notified of the tragedy with the Casto family, assembled at the Casto place. Casto’s body lay on the lounge were he was shot. Holstead’s [body] was on the floor where he was shot and hacked to pieces. Mrs. Casto had taken a candle and gone to the creek for water. There she had been overpowered and stabbed twenty seven times, the fiends inserting knives and then twisting them. Then the body was dragged and thrown in the pig pen.
Mr. Bush—not knowing if all was quiet with the Indians and deeming it best to take the family to Seattle for protection—started with them accompanied by Ned Welch and wife and other white men, including the friendly Indians, Alec, Betsy, Charlie, and Susy, who helped carry two of the children down the trail in terror lest they be ambushed. They arrived safely in Seattle. The next day Bush, Tom Cherry, Bill Dennis, Harper, J.P. Adams, Dutch Ned Ohm and others returned for the bodies to take them to Seattle for burial. Mrs. Casto was a lovely woman, both in face and character, and in preparation for her burial the ladies said it was the most beautiful body they had ever seen.
The families were left in Seattle for months, the men returning to protect their homes. That was the only trouble the Whites ever had with Indians in the valley.
And so the “greenback” saved the lives of the Whites in 1864.
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