The Tacoma News Tribune
Tacoma, Pierce County, Washington
(from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, AP)
Friday, April 1, 1955

Martha Luella (Mrs. William) Alkire

Covered Wagon Pioneer of 1855 Stricken at 103

A Northwest pioneer woman who eloped on horseback at 15 with a Civil War veteran died here Wednesday night at the age of 103. Mrs. Martha Luella Alkire was born in the midwest and went to Oregon in a covered wagon with her family when she was 3.

At age 15 she eloped after a dance with William Alkire and was married at Eugene, Ore.

The Alkires moved to Walla Walla a short time later and she often recalled how, when the Indians threatened their home, and her husband was away, she would hide the children in the cornfield, load a rifle and stand in the doorway waiting. The Indians never attacked.

She moved here [Coeur d'Alene) about 75 years ago and outlived all but one of her seven children. Her husband died about 1930. A son, A. W. Alkire of Oregon City, Ore., survives.