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Breezy,
John having laid out the KEITH ancestry pretty well, I'll toss in this reference for you:
"Pioneer Mother Saves Her Children
The pioneers of Whitman county were no less hardy than those who settled other parts of this country. With determination and endurance they met the hardships of disease, accident, and harsh weather head on. There must have been many incidents of extreme bravery shown in those days. An account of one such incident follows.
In 1879, Mrs. Frances Boone Keith gained recognition in national publications for her courage and fortitude. A 27 year old frontier wife and mother in the Leitchville district of Whitman county, Mrs. Keith's home overlooked the canyon of the Snake river. On January 9 of that year she decided to take her two small children to spend the night with a neighbor, Mrs. George Barkhuff, who lived two miles away. The menfolks, her husband, A. D. P. Keith (Alonzo), and her father, Daniel Miller Boone, had gone with Mr. Barkhuff to the Moscow mountains to cut wood for several days.
About four in the afternoon when the light of the winter day was already fading she led the horse with the two little girls astride up to a creek bank so she could mount. As she climbed on the horse it slipped on the ice and fell, pinning her beneath it. The children were thrown clear. The horse finally managed to get to its feet and wandered into a nearby shed. The fall had left Mrs. Keith with a broken ankle. In great pain she crawled to the shed and caught the horse once more and then helped the children to remount. Then unable to get on the horse herself, she put the reins between her teeth and began to crawl on hands and knees through the snow to the neighbor who was expecting her. Suffering with pain and cold she arrived late that night.
Mrs. Barkhuff aided them as best she could and then decided she should ride for a doctor. Cold and tired she stopped at the Eli Wiggin's home to rest and he volunteered to go to Genesee for the doctor. Mr. Wiggins only 17 years old at the time could not make the whole trip that night. He rode on the next day after the storm had eased and returned with the doctor. Mrs. Keith eventually recovered but remained lame the rest of her life.
The courage against great odds shown by all three young people is a prime example of the pioneer spirit to do what had to be done.
Footnote:
An account of the above incident was first published in the Palouse Gazette and later in the Boston Police Gazette where it appeared with artist's sketch. Mrs. Keith is the same one whose letter to her parents in Oregon appeared in the last issue of the Bunchgrass Historian. However, her father's name was incorrectly given then as David R. Lewis instead of Daniel Miller Boone. David R. Lewis was her maternal grandfather."
In my records I show William Grayson KEITH II married Maud STEPHENSON, but the source of such information is not recorded. Would like to know for sure if her name was STEPHENSON or HARROW....or if William G. married twice.
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