An Incident In Local History

Almost seventy years ago George Pollard, a settler near where the town of Huntsville now stands, was hauling timber from the mountains. The road he went was up Wilson Creek, but it was not very much of a road because it had never been worked. Settlers were few and far between and not many people traveled mountainwards. Pollard secured his load and started down what was a rather steep grade. His brake block slipped and the wagon turned over and the load fell upon Mr. Pollard.

This would have been his end and the end of the story had not Milt Aldrich come along. Aldrich moved the load from Pollard and worked with him until he came to. He found him with a badly crushed hip. What to do was the problem. First Aldrich turned loose all the horses but one. How he got Pollard a mile below to a wood-chopper's cabin is not recorded, but he concluded that something must be done to straighten out the leg and put it in shape.

He did not have many facilities, neither did anyone else, for Walla Walla had no hospitals and only one doctor. Far different from the institutions we have now with twenty or more physicians on the staff. Aldrich concluded to do what he could with what he had. An axe furnished some good splints. He straightened the leg, placed the splints alongside but had nothing to fasten them with. This would not stump a pioneer. He took off his shirt and tore it into strips and tied securely the splints. He procured some water and told Pollard to lie quiet until they came after him from Dixie.

A settler near Dixie possessed a hack as it was called then — not a very comfortable rig but a light spring wagon. It is not recorded who went after Pollard with the hack. Aldrich rode his horse bareback to Walla Walla and found the Doctor. He was in one of those "Pre-Volstead" institutions which were more common in Walla Walla than anything else. Aldrich got him started toward the Pollard cabin up on the Touchet. When they arrived, the hack from Dixie was already there. It had come down Wilson Hollow past where Waitsburg now stands and reached the Pollard cabin two miles above.

The doctor had but little to work with. He was not in condition to work at all. "Mrs. Pollard, who was just married the year before, told me the balance of the story," said Mr. Dumas.

The doctor looked at Pollard's leg and said, "Wh-wh-who did this?"

"I did," said Aldrich.

"Wh-where did you learn to be a doctor?"

"I didn't learn, I did just what I could to make him comfortable."

"Th-thas alright, I'll just leave it the way it is."

This was probably the best thing he could do. Many of Pollard's trials that summer were told me by Goldsmith Hammer who crossed the Plains in '44 and was a helper of Pollard during his troubles. His leg finally united after much trouble but he was a cripple the balance of his days, for 60 years. Mrs. Pollard said that Pollard was very much dissatisfied with his treatment and never paid the doctor. Strict justice would have sent the Doctor to the penitentiary for malpractice.

This is a real story told me by W. S. Gilliam forty years ago. The settlers thought it a good joke and Milt Aldrich was known as "Doc" Aldrich the rest of his days. Three of Milt Aldrich's children are living in the county. They do not recognize that their father did anything unusual. He did what any settler would do for another settler but in my judgment his act of neighborliness, courage and kindness should be commemorated.

"What would be more appropriate than to plant and care for two rows of red fir trees along the highway on 'Doc' Aldrich's homestead, for it is still in possession of the family, and in this way commemorate the spirit of the Pioneer which is too often forgotten," says Mr. Dumas.