Gustav Sohon

Gustav Sohon was born in 1825, educated in Germany, emigrated to the United States in 1842 and enlisted in the U.S. Army. One of his first assignments was with Lt. John Mullan surveying the country between the Rocky and Bitterroot  Mountains for the Isaac Stevens led survey of a northern railroad route to the Pacific.  Sohon was transferred to Stevens command, where he served as a Flathead interpreter, recorded of meteorological observations, and illustrator at the important 1855 Council with the Nez Perce, Walla Wallas, Yakimas, Cayuse and Umatilla Indians.  These illustrations, as well as many more, are located at the Washington State Historical Society.  Sohon was honorably discharged in 1857.  He served a time as a civilian guide/interpreter for the Mullan road building crew.  He married in 1863 and spend much of the remainder of this life in Washington D.C. where he died in 1903.