The name was Olney

Among those durable pioneers coming West 150 years ago, was Nathan Olney, a dynamic young adventurer from Iowa, destined to perpetuate the Olney family name by being commissioned by President Franklin Pierce as an Indian Agent for the Oregon Territory in 1854. It was destiny. Seven hundred seventy-seven years earlier, his ancestor, Richard Olney’s name was emblazoned in England’s Domesday Book of 1086. Endowed with the courage and energy of his forefathers, Nathan plodded west with a covered wagon train. At Fort Walla Walla he chose a river route and paddled his home made fafts down the unknown Columbia River to come ashore at Wascopum, an Indian village later to become The Dalles. It was here he settled down as the first white settler and his dramatic life story unfolds in the spirit of the Way West. Uninterrupted, the Olney name leaves famous footprints across several continents. This is the sotry of Nathan Olney. Born 1824, died 1866. Buried at Fort Simcoe, in the state of Washington. He was a courageous and prominent pioneer. You’ll like him.