Catherine Sager Pringle, 1835-1910.

This article focuses on Catherine Carney Sager, an Oregon Trail pioneer and survivor of the 1847 Whitman Massacre. Born in 1835, Catherine and her family joined the Independent Colony's migration westward, enduring hardships including illness and injury. After the deaths of her parents during the journey, the Sager children were taken in by missionaries Marcus and Narcissa Whitman at the Waiilatpu mission. In 1847, amid tensions and a measles epidemic among the Cayuse tribe, the Whitman Massacre resulted in the deaths of Catherine’s brothers and the Whitmans, with Catherine and her sisters held captive before being ransomed. Catherine later married pioneer Clark Spencer Pringle, raised a family, and lived until 1910.