Thomas Priestley was born on January 29, 1836 in Leeds, England, to George Priestley and Ellen Ward. In 1838, the family moved to Mineral Point, Wisconsin, where Priestley became the proprietor of a harness-making shop. In 1861, Priestley enlisted as a sergeant in Company E of the 11th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment; later, he enlisted as a second lieutenant in Company B of the 30th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment, where he was promoted to captain. During his final year of service, he also served as provost marshall of Kentucky. In 1866, he married Katherine (or Catherine) Jane Tyack. The couple had four children: Mary Ward Priestley, William Priestley, Henry Tyack Priestley, and Thomas Mortimer Priestley. In 1886, Priestley was appointed as United States Indian Agent at Fort Simcoe, Washington. Captain Priestley died on July 29, 1890.
Fort Simcoe is located on the Yakama Indian Reservation at a site of an ancient gathering place of the Yakama Indians. Fort Simcoe was one of two regular Army posts established in the interior of Washington Territory as a direct consequence of the Yakima Indian War of the late 1850's. The other was Fort Walla Walla, located 120 miles further east.
Fort Simcoe was barely completed before its usefulness as a military post ended. On May 22, 1859, Fort Simcoe was turned over to the Department of Indian Affairs, remaining an Indian agency until 1923. During the agency period, the agency staff occupied the former officers' quarters and the post lost its military atmosphere. The parade ground was plowed and planted as a garden, tended by boys of the school, and then, in 1861, as an orchard. Various of the military buildings were razed and replaced by frame structures.
Photographs of Captain Thomas Priestley and Native Americans at Fort Simcoe. Priestley was the Indian Agent in the 1880s.
In this guide, the Yakama Indians are referred to as Yakama. Since the agency was the Yakima Indian agency, references to the agency are spelled in the manner that was used in the 1880s.
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Donor: probably Mary Ward Priestley
Processed by Beck Prigot, 2017; processing completed in 2017.
Photographs relocated from the Washington Localities Subject File, 2017.
Written on verso: Group of employees and children at Fort Simcoe in 1888 or 1889. From M. W. Priestley, 21 W Gilman St, Madison, Wis.
People in photograph: Thomas Mortimer Priestley (left), M. Wilger? (second from left), John Lacy (third from left), George T. Priestley (fourth from left), Harry Priestley (fifth from left), H. Sinclair (center), G. B. Taliaferro (fifth from right), H. J. Kilgore (fourth from right)
Handwritten notes on item 1b indicate that the men sixth from left and first and second from right are Indian (probably Yakama Indian).
Individuals in photograph: (standing) Homer Hoffer (probably) (third from left), Mr. Taliaferro (possibly) (fifth from left), Mr. Kilgour (possibly) (sixth from left), Captain Priestly (seventh from left), Mrs. Kilgour (probably) (eighth from right), Celeste Lacy (possibly) (second from right), Wallace Arquette (possibly) (right)
People in photograph: Thomas Priestley, Thomas Mortimer Priestley, Catherine Tyack Priestley, Harry Priestley, Georgie Priestley, Mary "Maria" Ward Priestley
A handwritten note on item 4b indicates that the family's dog "Sport" sits between Catherine Tyack and Harry Priestley.
Identifications of individuals in the photograph are handwritten on item 5b.
Written on item 5b: North side of Square.
Written on item 6b: Only shows one side of L. Old log house used as carpenter shop, police quarters, & etc. (S. side of square)
Handwritten notes on item 6b indicate the location of the school and the Agency house.