I was looking through the NARA electronic records and found references to a man, Henry Petit, at Umatilla. The Petit name is well known at Grand Ronde. My Great GGG Grand Father Francis Mercier (Belgian) married Mary Petit (Chinook, Clackamas, Iroquois) and this brought the Mercier surname to the tribe. Peter Petit’s father Amable Petit was a prominent French Canadian fur trader in Oregon. There are actually 2 Amable Petits who were Oregon fur traders, the son married into the Chinook tribe and settled on the Columbia, while the father Amable Petit Sr. marries a Chinook women Susan Tawakon and they have numerous children and go to the Grand Ronde Indian Reservation. Amable Sr. was evidently a laborer in the early Willamette Mission operated by the Methodists in the valley (see Jette, At the Hearth of the Crossed Races).
Peter Petit (1845-1902) is the star of this story for a time. He ventures to Pendleton and takes a wife Mary Ann Jeandrew. (Sometimes this name is Gendron as well, there are many variations of the spelling.) They had a child Henry Petit. Peter and Mary Ann do not stay together, he goes off to marry Rosa Tim Tim (Umpqua?) and spends time in the Umpqua Valley before settling at the Grand Ronde Reservation and having a large family. Henry, the son by Mary Ann, is raised by stepfather Frank Parr, a white man who married Mary Ann Jeandrow. This story now becomes more complicated because Henry takes the surname of his stepfather and yet is mostly know as Henry Parr (but he tends to vary the use of his surname as either Parr or Petit). Later in life he reverts back to Henry Petit (Walla Walla Census for 1889 & 1888 he is Petit, while in 1887 he is listed as Parr).
The name “Henry Petit” is confusing because at the Grand Ronde tribe there is another Henry Petit (1868-1933). At first when I saw the name I thought maybe Henry was going back and forth between the two reservations. But the Henry at Umatilla dies in 1896 in the State Penitentiary in Salem, and so its clear he is a different man.
(Some details like dates for Henry Petit are written into June Olson’s book (Living in the Great Round) but they are inaccurate according to the official affidavits by the BIA. Olson has Henry dying in 1899 but the letter from the superintendent of the State Penitentiary in Salem, H.C. Minto, states 1896, and then there is a Burial Record for Henry a few days later at St. Andrews Catholic school in Umatilla.)
Henry Parr/Petit evidently got around and had two wives and an affair that ends up with an illegitimate child- all of whom become Umatilla tribal members. Henry also has some problems with the law, he goes to the penitentiary several times for larceny, the last, he reportedly stole a horse in The Dalles and is injured when they catch him. He dies in the State Penitentiary from his injuries. (See the Peter Petit entry in Olson’s book for some details.) Henry’s children are Irene Parr, and a son who dies at 9 months, (from Maggie Farrow), and Basil Bushman (From Louis Perry). Henry’s third wife, Mary Dobson, never had a child with him.
Searching on the Oregon Historic Newspapers site and I found several events involving Henry Petit. He was very much a rogue and his exploits with his half brother Joseph gained them the name “The Parr Boys.”
Aug. 9, 1883- “Yesterday Governor Pennoyer pardoned…. Joseph and Henry Parr from Umatilla county for rioting.” (Albany Democrat)
Mar. 9 1891- “at the Cascade Locks Saturday night Henry Parr, and S.P. McCormick had trouble in a saloon over a trivial affair. The both drew revolvers and began firing, which they kept up until both weapons were empty. McCormick’s wounds, it is feared will prove fatal. Parr received two fresh wounds but is in no danger.” (Evening Capitol Journal)
1893- “Several stiff punches were served at the Transfer house saloon, Saturday evening- not over the bar but in front of it. It looked like a free fight for a time. Bob Estes and man named Cooper began the circus….Landlord Frank Schempp came in from the back room to stop the trouble and was interfered with by Henry Parr who seemed to act as a referee…. he had a lively skirmish with Parr who was forced to break a window pane with his head and suffer the indignity of a choking that caused his utter defeat…”
Apr. 2, 1895- “The Parr’s sound over- Their story of trepidation and fear had no effect- The second charge entered against Henry and Joe Parr, that in which they were accused of assault with intent to kill, was first brought up for trial before justice Park Friday in Pendleton. The witnesses examined were the Indian Police who effected the capture and the defendant’s, particulars of which were given in the Press this week. Henry Parr appeared in his own behalf, and after conducting the cross examination, was placed on the witness stand to relate his story of the capture. He pleaded timidity at the time of the chase, and naively told the court of the danger he felt in being hunted down by a band of bold, bad Indians, and the lawful privilege he employed in self defense against so treacherous a following. The defendants having resided all their lives among these Indians without any serious results did not succeed in satisfying the courts as to the justice of their acts, even at a critical moment, and after listening to their appeal, the court bound them over to the grand jury on $300 bonds each. To the charge of larceny the defendants waving examination and a decision similar to the one already mentioned, was made by the court to effect this separate case.” (Athena Press)
Apr. 5 1895- “They Showed Fight- The Parr Boys captured by the Indian Police- Last week a warrant was sworn out for the arrest of the Parr Boys by Hugh Robie for larceny of horses. The officers succeeded in capturing Henry Parr and locating his brother and a third party [Ike?] who was an accomplice in the crime of stealing two horses belonging to a private p[r]osecutor. The prisoner was arraigned and placed under $100 bail, but forfeited bus bond and escaped. Wednesday Sheriff Houser followed up a clue and placed the Indian police, under charge of Agent Harper on the scent. These officers headed by Capt. Shumphin, a sure man for the game started out yesterday in pursuit Jim Cash Cash, Gus Conoyer and Luke were of the party. They found the first trace of the thieves at Frank Bonifer’s place on the reservation. As they approached the house the Parrs mounted their horses and started off at full speed for the top of the mountains. When they could proceed no longer on horseback they left their horse and struck off on foot covering about eight miles before they were overtaken at the foot of the canyon three miles east of the Catholic mission, Being cornered, the pursued men drew revolvers and fired two or three times at the police without effect. They are said to be sure shots, but about 70 feet separated them from their captors and they missed aim and were consequently unable to make escape.” (Athena Press)
Apr. 2 1895- ” Sheriff Houser is out after the Parr Boys, wanted for horse stealing. Henry Parr was caught last evening and placed under bail, but failed to appear today. Others wanted are not to be traced. The Parr boys are member of a notorious gang of horse and cattle thieves, who have been operating their county for fifteen years, and are considered a hard gang and have often imperiled the lived of deputy sheriffs by resisting arrest. This time friends notified all by Henry and allowed them a chance to escape.” (Astorian)
May 27, 1895- “Sensational Jail Break- a notorious character leaves the Pendleton jail in Daylight- There was a sensational delivery Sunday evening from the Umatilla county Jail in which one of the most notorious characters of this county escaped. Ike Parr brought three horses in from the reservation, two of them for Joe and Henry Parr, who were captured after an exciting chase, by Indian Policemen, several weeks ago, on charges of horsestealing and trying to kill an Indian posse. A large bar was sawed off and bent down and Joe crawled through, jumped on his horse and flew to his friends, who equipped him for flight to the mountains. The courthouse is in the middle of a block of land, exposed on all sides, and the escape was made in broad daylight. Henry Parr was too large to get through the opening. How the thing was accomplished is shrouded in mystery. The officers are chasing Parr.”
June 21, 1895- “Henry Parr was found guilty of assault with a dangerous weapon in the circuit court in Pendleton last week.”
April 9, 1896- “The relatives of Henry Parr at Pendleton received a dispatch Tuesday night that he was dead at the Pententiary in Salem. He died from the effects of a gunshot wound received five years ago at Cascade Locks.”
The initial estate inheritance file with the BIA from 1912 (Estate File 75384-12), only has Irene Parr, only child, and Mary Dobson, his widow, as dividing the 80 acres Henry got as an allotment. By 1915 a divorce is found for Mary Dobson, which they had filed weeks before Henry went to the State Penitentiary, for the last time. And Basil Bushman Parr stakes a claim. Irene originally had testified in 1912 that Henry did not have any other living children, but in 1915 she admitted she knew about Basil, and that he was a son of Henry. The BIA are suspicious due to the fact that Basil’s mother Louis and Henry were never married, but it is common knowledge around the tribe, and in the immediate family, and then admitted by Irene that Basil is a son of Henry, and even looks like his twin.
Eventually by 1916 it is decided to divide the 80 acres, already purchased years earlier for $10,440 by Frank Martin, between Basil and Irene. Interesting enough, Basil is characterized as a person of low character and so his half of the estate is kept away from him, put away in a trustee account, except for $1,000 he is allowed to have up front.
The BIA had enormous power in its ability to make decisions about Native people. They decided based on a written statement about Basil’s character to not allow him to have his money. Native people in 1916 are not citizens and are subject to federal administration and had little help from lawyers for their rights. They were almost always determined to be of questionable character and as such every right that white people had was taken from them and had to be decided for them by officials in the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Natives living on the reservation were not subject to state laws and as such the federal government had near ultimate authority. BIA officials were regularly making decisions based on their personal values gotten from Christian upbringing and their assumed and privileged rights to determine who was of “good moral character.” Good moral character likely is coded language for whether they were “civilized” enough. This is paternalism, an assumption that white men could make better “civilized” decisions, than the “savage” Indian people themselves. Much of this system of paternalism yet remains in place in the federal system regarding Indian affairs.
The story of Henry Petit was personally interesting due to the fact that one of Amable Petit Sr.’s daughters, Mary, a sister to Peter Petit- married my ancestor, Francis Mercier, a man from Belgium. So we have some distant relations at the Umatilla tribe. I have friends in the Parr family there, from my days as a University of Oregon student (Ducks are everywhere!). The tribes of Oregon are more related than many want to admit. It is a constant irritant to our harmony in the state that Tribes continue to argue over a few remaining healthy water systems, when it is white settlers, the state, the federal government, and their land and Indian policies over the past 200 years which are really to blame for the loss of a vast amount of pristine natural resources that all tribal members depend on for their identity and livelihoods.