Speaker: Donna Cummins

Location: Online

Cost: Free

How to Join: This will be offered online through Zoom. Register at https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_u55grnl0QAufL4e-5eP5Ww

Registration: Please register for this event! You will be able to add this event to an email calendar to remind you to join. Your registration helps us to monitor audience attendance so that we can better serve you in the future.

Synopsis: This presentation by Donna Aycock Cummins will focus on two families who entered the Walla Walla valley 162 years ago.  

The land in eastern Washington Territory and the Walla Walla Valley was officially opened for settlement in 1859 after Congress had ratified a treaty with the Nez Perce, Yakima, Umatilla, Walla Walla, and Cayuse tribes. The tribes had been forced to relocate to the Umatilla Indian Reservation.

In October 1859, the families of Amos and Mary Mendenhall Barnett and William and Priscilla Ayers Moore arrived at the town soon to be named Walla Walla. They arrived within a week of one another after having endured the trials of the Oregon Trail over the previous five months. The stories of these intertwined families are a part of our local history and the family history for the descendants who, many generations later, still live here.