| Notes |
- He ultimately ended up in Olympia, Washington. He had 6 children, I think (though I only know of four) and his descendants were living in Washington and Oregon during the latter part of the 19th century. His brother Alpheus Hyatt also moved to Oregon.
On his way he patented some land. In 1837 he got land in Indiana.
Then, he apparently moved eastward. "Richard H. Lansdale" purchased land in Miami Co., Ohio, around 1840, according to the Miami Co. Recorder's index; Troy is the county seat for Miami Co. Records show that he married Mary McLung there in 1838.
20 Feb 1838 Lansdale, Richard H. <-- Brown, John 16 111 Troy Lot 54
07 Oct 1839 Lansdale, Richard H. <-- Culbertson, Hentry H. 18 578 Troy Lot 54
05 Feb 1839 Lansdale, Richard H. --> Culbertson, Henry H. 17 161 Troy Lot 54
05 Aug 1842 Lansdale, Richard H. --> Smeltzer, John 21 053 Troy Lot 54
04 Aug 1842 Lansdale, Richard H. <-- Smeltzer, John 20 091 Troy Lot 51
06 Sep 1845 Lansdale, Richard H. --> Brown, William 22 085 Troy Lot 51
He and his brother Alpheus Hyatt also patented about 260 acres of Land, in patents, in Lucas Co. Ohio in 1844; I don't know whether they were living there, or whether it was for family or an investment.
He was in the Washington Territory by 1850. He appears on the 1880 census for Olympia, Thurston Co., WA, from which three children's names are taken. Aside from censuses, however, his work in the Oregon and Washington Territories as a pioneer and Indian agent means that quite a bit of information seems to exist for him.
He is mentioned in the Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft, who wrote histories of Oregon and Washingon. A brief biography appears for him there in a footnote: "Richard Hyatt Lansdale was born in Md. about 1812, but bred in Ohio, and removed to Ind., then to Ill., and finally to Mo. in 1846. In 1849 he came to Or. via Cal., entering the Columbia in Oct. He was the first auditor of Clark Co.., and first postmaster north of Columbia. He purchased half of Short's town site at Vancouver, which he lost and abandoned."
He was apparently the first post master of Vancouver, Washington, appointed in March of 1850. Later, however, he moved west to the coast. He is the "Dr. Richard Lansdale" who established the village of Coveland, at the head of Penn's Cove, in 1852. It's on Whidbey Island: "Captain Barstow filed a claim on the west end of the cove and soon established a trading post, stocked with goods from San Francisco. Near Barstow's trading post was Dr. R.H. Lansdale's claim of 320 acres. This area came to be known as Coveland, a townsite Dr. Landsdale platted but never filed" (see http://www.nps.gov/ebla/lpp/lpp3.htm).
Also according to Bancroft, "In the summer 1852 R.H. Lansdale explored a route up the Snohomish River via the Snoqualmich fork to the great falls, and thence downward to the base of the mountains, where it followed up the south fork of the ‘Dewamps or Black River' to the summit of the mountains. The trail then turned directly toward the headwaters of the middle fork of the Yakima, and thence down the mountains towards the Columbia. This appears to have been the first survey of the Yakima Pass by citizens of the U.S. A portion of this route was an old Indian trail which could then have been traversed by pack-trains without serious inconvenience. Lansdale, who resided on Whidbey Island, proposed to beginning the construction of a road over this route the following spring, which would then have brought immigration to the lower portion of the Sound. Ebey, the member of the Oregon legislation from that region failed, however, to obtaion the approval of that body to establish a territorial road from Snohomish falls to Fort Walla Walla, the assembly preferring to memorialize congress for a military road."
A few years later he became an Indian agent. His name appears congressional records, kept at the Library of Congress, as an Indian Agent for Indians in the northwest in the 1850s; this is the time during which he kept his journals (now preserved at Yale; see below). He reports describe him as "agent for the Indians north of the Columbia river and east of the Cascade mountains" and "agent for the Klickitat, Wisham, Columbia river, Yakima, and Winatcha Indians." According to U.S. Senate records, President Pierce's nomination for him to be an Indian agent in the Washington Territory was submitted and confirmed on August. 3, 1854, and Pres. Buchanan's nomination was forwarded on Dec. 14, 1858, "to be agent for the Indians of the Flathead Agency in Washington Territory, his previous term having expired," and confirmed on Dec. 22.
Four of his annual reports, from 1857-1860, are appended as .pdf files. Their due date seems to have been August, though the first is late, as he explains at its start.
They make fascinating reading, especially the first; he notes with anger the ways in which Washington doesn't uphold its treaties with the more peaceable tribes. The first area he was in charge of, according to the areas he describes, was in what is now central and eastern Washington all the way to Idaho (he mentions both the Bitterroot Range and the Coeur D'Alene tribe in the 1857 report). He describes meetings with the Nez Perce, and policies towards the Flathead and Blackfoot tribes there.
During this time he was a signer of the Hell Gate Treaty with the Flatheads in 1855 as an Indian Agent, and a signer of the Blackfeet Treaty of Fort Benton, also in 1855, as an Indian Agent for the Flathead Nation; this treaty was signed by a myriad of tribes including the Nez Perce, Blackfoot, and Flatheads.
As he explains in his 1858 report his area was changed in Nov. 1857 to "that portion of the Washington Territory lying north of the Columbia River and east of Cascade Mountains." This seems to have been a move farther west to the "Columbia River district." Here he refers especially to the Yakima but also the Klikitat and other groups.
Papers of his are kept at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale, Shelving control number: WA MSS\292; RLG Union Catalog Record ID: CTYAFFX4940-A. This includes two volumes of journals from 1854-1858. The catalog description gives this biographical information:
"Dr. Richard H. Lansdale settled on Whidby Island, Washington Territory in 1852. He was justice of the peace for Lewis County and practiced medicine until appointed Indian agent by Governor Stevens. In 1855, he and James Doty were sent to eastern Washington to arrange for a general council of Indians, which was held at Walla Walla in May. Later, under James W. Nesmith, he was placed in charge of Indian affairs for the Flathead district in eastern Washington.
“The first volume contains Richard Lansdale's personal diary from October 1854 to August 1855. The second volume is his official diary from August 1855-1858 recording his work with the Indians of eastern Washington. The second volume also contains information on goods distributed to Indians and the continuation of Lansdale's personal diary."
One book which gives includes mention of his work during the 1850s is John Fahey, The Flathead Indians (Norman: U of Oklahoma Press, 1971), esp. ch. 4; this describes his role especially in the Hellgate council and his role in assignment the Kootenai, Flathead, and Pend Oreille indians to the Jocko reservation. He was, I'm happy to say, more sympathetic than many to their plight; some of the attached reports bear this out.
Other items in the Beinecke, in the papers of William Winlock Miller, also contain references to him.
During the 1860s I don't know where he was.
In the 1870s he patented two BLM land claims in Olympia: the first, as "Richard H. Lansdale," was for 171.3 acres, in King County, was issued on Dec. 5, 1872 in the Olympia land office; the doc. no. is 4426, the BLM serial no. is WAOAA 074796. The second was as "Richard Hyatt Lansdale" was issued in Island Co., Washington for 320.5 acres on Apr. 6, 1878. This was granted under the Oregon-Donation Act (grant) (99 Stat. 496); this is Document #197, BLM Serial #WAOAA 083545.
In 1876-77 he was the government physician at the Skokomish Reservation in Washington. In 1877 he contributed to a book entitled The Twana Indians of the Skokomish reservation in Washington Territory, by Myron Eells. [10, 11]
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1812 - 1897 (84 years)
- Yes, date unknown
[1, 2] 
Census
Lansdale
