Collection is open for research.
Donated to the Whitman College and Northwest Archives by various members of the Sager family from 1976 to 1999. The accession numbers are retro-0079 retro-0080.
The Sager family migrated west during April, 1844. During their journey Henry and Naomi Sager died of "camp fever," leaving their seven children orphaned. The Sager children were adopted by Marcus and Narcissa Whitman in what is now Washington. Narcissa was mourning the death of her recently drowned daughter, Alice, and welcomed the opportunity to add the Sager children to the Whitman family. The Sagers lived with the Whitmans until the Whitman Massacre in November, 1847, in which Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, as well as John and Francis Sager were killed. In 1860 Catherine Sager, the oldest Sager daughter, wrote an autobiographical account of their journey west, "Across the Plains in 1844."
In 2010, the Margaret Trader Clark Collection was merged into the Sager Family Collection. Magaret was the grand-daughter of Matilda Sager.
The collection consists of letters, photographs, biographies and autobiographies, writings, genealogies, newspaper clippings and publications of and about this pioneer Northwest family with ties to the Whitman Massacre. Presentation, talk and lecture materials as well as scrapbooks and albums are part of this group. Artifacts include a family Bible, items of clothing and paintings.