History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889, Part 12

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe, 1832-1918; Victor, Frances Fuller, 1826-1902
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: San Francisco : History Co.
Number of Pages: 880


USA > Idaho > History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889 > Part 12
USA > Montana > History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889 > Part 12
USA > Washington > History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889 > Part 12


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


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The appropriations obtained for Washington by Lancaster, assisted by Stevens and Lane, were $30,- 000 for a military road from the great falls of the Missouri to intersect the road leading from Walla Walla to Puget Sound. This was a scheme origi-


31 Olympia Pioneer and Dem., May 13, 1854. For a chapter on the San Juan difficulty, see IFist. Brit. Columbia, this series.


32 Lane added to his bill amendatory of the land law, which passed in July, a section giving Washington a surveyor-general. He consented that Wash- ington should have the arsenal, should congress grant one jointly to both ter- ritories, and in various ways helped on the delegate, all of whose letters home complained that he could not get the attention of congress. Had he been a Thurston or a Lane, he would have compelled the attention of congress.


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APPROPRIATIONS BY CONGRESS.


nating with Stevens, who thought by making the Mis- souri River a highway, and constructing a road from its head waters to the navigable waters of the Co- lumbia, or to intersect with the old immigrant road, to shorten the distance travelled by wagons and lessen the hardships of immigration, as well as to avoid the danger from Indian attacks on a portion of the road by the South pass. For this reason, and to cultivate the friendship of the Indians, as well as to make a more thorough exploration of the Blackfoot country for railroad passes, he left lieutenants Grover and Mullan and Mr Doty in the mountain region west of the Missouri through the winter of 1853-4, during which the line of road across the Rocky Mountains, from Fort Benton to Cœur d' Alene Lake, was marked out, and afterward used as the route for the expendi- ture of the congressional appropriation named above, and which, from the fact that Mullan was appointed- to construct it, took the name of the Mullan road.


An appropriation of $25,000 was made for the con- struction of a military road from Fort Dalles to Fort Vancouver, and of $30,000 for a road from Vancouver to Fort Steilacoom; for light-houses at Cape Shoal- water, Blunt's Island, Cape Flattery, and New Dun- geness, $89,000; and for buoys at the entrance of Dungeness and the anchorages on Puget Sound, $5,000. Some increase was made in the salaries of territorial officers, and a liberal appropriation for the Indian service, including $100,000 to enable Stevens to treat with the Blackfoot and other tribes in the north and east portions of the territory.


Washington territory, or that portion of it to which its early history chiefly relates, was surrounded by and at the mercy of the most numerous, if not the most warlike, native tribes of the original territory of Oregon. The census in Stevens' report, 1853-4, gave the whole number of Indians in western Wash- ington as between seven and eight thousand, and


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east of the Cascade Mountains between six and seven thousand.33 Besides the tribes actually resident about the Sound, the settlements were liable to incursions from the Haidahs of Queen Charlotte Island, and even from the tribes of the coast as far north as Fort Simpson, these tribes being good seamen, and possessing large and strong war canoes, in which they made long voyages to commit a murder or a theft.34 The Indians on the sea-coast of Washington and along the strait of Fuca were sometimes guilty of murder, and those about the settlements could not always withstand the temptation to commit a robbery, for which they were promptly punished when detected, but no serious outbreaks had yet occurred since the organization of the territory.


In July 1852 the United States coast surveying steamer Active, James R. Alden commanding, with a surveying party under lieutenants Davidson and Law- son, entered Neah Bay, and encamped on the shore near the trading post of Samuel Hancock, having gained the full consent of the Makahs living there in order not to give offence. The steamer then pro- ceeded on a preliminary survey up the strait to Dun- geness and Port Townsend, Davidson establishing astronomical stations at the latter place and Port Angeles, after which he returned to Neah Bay, and the Active again left for Shoalwater Bay to make a survey there before the close of the season, leaving the party of nine persons at Neah Bay without the means of quitting that station until she should re- turn. The camp was well armed with rifles, cavalry pistols, shot-guns, and revolvers, and although not


83 Incl. Aff. Rept, 1854, 249.


34 On the 26th of September, 1852, the American schooner Susan Sturges, sailing along the coast of Queen Charlotte Island with a light breeze, was surrounded by thirty canoes, the Indians professing a desire to sell some fish. When they were near enough, they simultaneously sprang on board, taking possession of the vessel, stripping the crew naked, and taking them on shore prisoners, after which they burned the vessel. The captives were rescued by the H. B. Co.'s steamer Beaver, from Fort Simpson, with the exception of one man, whom the Indians refused to release. His fate it is needless to conjecture. Olympia Columbian, Jan. 1, 1863.


91


, INDIANS AND SMALL-POX.


apprehending any danger, were prepared for an attack. All went well for a few days after the departure of the steamer, when a fleet of canoes containing between 150 and 200 Nitinats from Vancouver Island an- chored in the bay, most of them remaining in their boats. Thinking this a precautionary measure to avoid quarrels between the resident tribes and the strangers, the surveying party remained in negligent satisfaction, pleased with this apparent discretion of the visitors.


But Hancock, who was buying fish oil of them, had discovered, by overhearing on the second day a con- versation not intended for his ears, a plot to massacre himself and the surveying party, and possess them- selves of the goods and arms of both. He hastened to impart this information to Davidson and Lawson, who immediately loaded all their arms, threw up a breastwork, and detailed a night-watch. Hancock, who had two men at his post, made preparations for an attack, and himself mounted guard. During the night some Indians came ashore and proceeded in the direction of the surveyors' camp, but being challenged by the guard, retreated to their canoes, which took their departure at daybreak. The plot originated with the Vancouver Island Indians, the Makahs being reluctant accomplices, fearing the vengeance of the white people. Happily nothing came of it, and noth- ing was said about it to the Makahs. 35


Not long afterward the schooner Cynosure, Fowler master, from San Francisco, visited Neah Bay, having on board two Makahs, and a white man sick with what proved to be small-pox. The disease had been com- municated to Indians, who soon fell ill and spread the contagion among their tribe, who perished by scores from its ravages. Not being able to control it, they conceived the idea of running away from the scourge, and fled to Vancouver Island, where they communi-


35 Lawson's Autobiography, MS., 51-3; Hancock's Thirteen Years, MS., 273-8.


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cated it to the Nitinats. The beach at Neah Bay was strewn with the unburied bodies of the miserable Makahs, who were no longer able or willing to attend the sick or bury the dead. At the end of six weeks the disease abated, but the tribe had lost a large percentage of its members, and was plunged in grief. After a few months of brooding over their losses, they came to the conclusion, as they had never experienced such a visitation before Hancock came to live among them, that he must have originated the plague, and he was threatened with death if he remained. His trad- ing post was therefore vacated in the spring of 1853.36


In September 1853 a large party of the Makahs visited New Dungeness in their canoes, encamping on a sand-spit at the entrance to the harbor, having among them an Indian who had killed Albert Pet- tingill near Port Townsend in the previous spring. On being informed of this by a Clallam, McAlmond, Bradshaw, Abernethy, Cline, Brownfield, and Moore, being all the settlers who were in the neighborhood at the time, met, and having sent for reinforcements, finally delegated Brownfield to seek an interview with the Indians and demand the surrender of the mur- derer. But upon visiting their camp, the Makahs refused to deliver up the guilty one, challenging the white men to battle. Being reenforced by J. C. Brown, H. W. Watkins, and William Failing, the settlers attempted to enter the Indian camp, when they were fired upon. Firing followed from both sides, and in the affair two Indians were killed, two wounded, and one white man slightly hurt by a ball in the neck. Darkness put an end to the engagement, which was conducted in canoes, and the Indians dis- persed, the murderer going to Port Townsend.87


On hearing of the attempted capture and the escape


86 Id., 278-86, 333. Swan, in his Northwest Coast, 55-6, refers to the prevalence of a light form of small-pox at Shoalwater Bay, which did not carry off white men, but was fatal to Indians. Hancock also relates that one of the Makahs who first had the disease recovered, but his people, holding him responsible for its introduction, killed him. Thirteen Years, MS., 285-6. 31 Olympia Columbian, Oct. 8 and 15, 1853.


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DEPREDATIONS BY NATIVES.


of the murderer, Captain Alden pursued him from port to port in the Active, and succeeded in overtak- ing him at Port Ludlow, where the chiefs of his tribe coming on board were detained until the criminal was given up. He was tried and found guilty at the Oc- tober term of the 3d district court in 1854, together with an accomplice.38


Early in March 1854 William Young, in the em- ployment of C. C. Terry at Alki, while looking for a land claim with a canoe and a crew of three Snoho- mish, was killed and robbed, two of the Indians being found with his clothing and other property in their possession. Suspecting themselves about to be arrested, they fled to Holme Harbor, Whidbey Island, whither they were pursued by the sheriff, T. S. Russell, of King county, with a posse of four men, who made the arrests, but were fired upon by the friends of the prisoners and four of their number wounded, one of whom, Charles Cherry, died soon after returning to Seattle.39 Nine Indians, including one of the murderers, were killed, and the other one secured, who confessed not only the killing of Young, but also of one of his confederates in a quarrel over the spoil. This Indian was imprisoned for several months, but finally discharged.


About the same time the Clallams at Dungeness having killed Captain Jewell and his steward, Lieu- tenant Floyd Jones, 4th infantry, with a squad of men repaired to the disturbed district, where two Indians were killed and several slightly wounded in an encounter between the Clallams and the military and settlers. On hearing of these troubles, Governor Stevens made a visit to the lower Sound; but in the mean time the murderers, three in number, were ar-


38 W. H. Wallace and Elwood Evans defended Pettingill's murderers; Joseph S. Smith and B. F. Kendall defended Jewell's murderers, and the Ind- ian who killed Church. Olympia Pioneer and Dem., Oct. 21, 1854.


39 A petition was sent to congress asking relief from the loss sustained by T. S. Russell, F. M. Syner, and Robert R. Phillips by reason of their wounds and consequent inability to labor. Wash. Jour. Council, 1854, 205-6.


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rested, and three others underwent flogging for theft.40


In consequence of the affair at Holme Harbor, Major Larned, who took command of Fort Steilacoom in July previous, proceeded to Whidbey Island with a detachment of nine soldiers, to endeavor to restore peace to the settlement at that point. While return- ing in a government surf-boat, navigated by John Hamilton of Steilacoom, all were lost by the sudden upsetting of the craft in a squall off Port Madison, except two privates, who clung to the boat and drifted ashore near Seattle.41


No Indian agents as yet having been commis- sioned for Washington, Governor Stevens, as superin- tendent of Indian affairs, appointed M. T. Simmons special agent for the Puget Sound district. Simmons entered upon his duties by publishing a request to all good citizens to aid in the suppression of liquor-selling to Indians, by informing him of every such infraction of the law which became known to them; by advising persons employing Indians to have a written contract witnessed by a white man; and by refraining from punishing suspected Indian criminals except upon cer- tain proofs of their crimes. With this caution ob- served, he hoped to be able to preserve the peace. Soon after the appointment of Simmons west of the Cascade Mountains, Stevens appointed A. J. Bolan, member of the legislature from Clarke county, special agent for the district extending east of the Cascades to the Bitter Root Mountains, and W. H. Tappan, councilman from Clarke county, special agent for the Columbia River district.


In April 1854 the Snohomish voluntarily hanged two of their own people at Seattle for the murder


40 Joseph S. Smith and B. F. Kendall defended these Indians, and also the murderer of Judah Church, who was killed in March 1853. Olympia Pioneer and Dem., Oct. 21, 1854. They were all convicted, but escaped.


41 The drowned were Major Larned, who left a family at Fort Steilacoom, John Hamilton, Corporal Jirah T. Barlow, John Mcintyre, Henry Hall, Lawrence Fitzpatrick, Charles Ross, John Clark, and Henry Lees. Id., April 8, 1854.


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INDIAN WARS.


of a white man at Lake Union, in July previous, and the most friendly relations seemed established in that quarter About the same time James Burt murdered an Indian of Fort Simpson, near Olympia, was tried and acquitted, but fled the territory to avoid the vengeance of the tribe. In the estimation of the public, the white man should have been punished,42 and apprehensions of the consequences of this act were expressed in the Olympia newspaper.


In the latter part of May ten large war canoes, containing several hundred northern Indians, appeared at Vancouver Island, and a party of eight coming on shore, shot Charles Bailey, an Englishman, whom they mistook for an American. Governor Douglas ordered out a force from the fort at Victoria, pursuing them to their canoes, two of which proceeded to Bel- lingham Bay, landing at the claim of a settler named Clayton, who, perceiving from their demeanor that hostilities were intended, fled to the woods, pursued by the Indians, and escaped to the house of Captain Pattle, where some of the Lummi tribe were found and sent to alarm the settlements. Clayton, Pattle, and five others, in order to avoid being taken should the enemy have found the trail of the fugitives, em- barked in a canoe, and anchored off the house of Pat- tle, in readiness to escape by water should the Indians attack by land. Here they remained from Satur- day afternoon to 10 o'clock Sunday night, when all went ashore except two-David Melville and George Brown-who were left to keep guard. During the night Richard Williams, one of the shore party, dis- charged his gun to clean it, the arm having been wet the day before. His fire was returned by a volley out of the darkness and from the water. At the sound of the firing, some friendly Indians came to the rescue, and the enemy was driven off. The two men in the boat were never seen again, but as their canoe


42 Id., May 20, 1854; rept of Capt. Stoneman. in U. S. H. Ex. Doc., 88, x., 173-6, 35th cong. 1st sess.


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was found on the beach the next morning, covered with blood, it was supposed that they were surprised while asleep and beheaded, as was customary with these northern Indians. The murderers then robbed several houses on Bellingham Bay and Whidbey Island, and disappered. Secretary and acting gover- nor Mason and Agent Simmons, on learning that armed northern Indians had appeared in the waters of Washington, immediately repaired to Fort Steilacoom, and with a small detachment of soldiers proceeded down the Sound to ascertain the condition of affairs in that quarter. Nothing, however, was effected be- yond making a display of the intention of the United States to punish crimes committed against its citi- zens, when able. Upon receiving advices from the Secretary, Governor Stevens called the attention of the war department to the inadequacy of the force stationed at Puget Sound, and the necessity for some means of transporting troops other than by canoes.


The absence of steam-vessels on the Sound made the communication of news slow and uncertain, as it also made the chance of succor in case of need nearly hopeless. The Fairy, which ran for a short time, had been withdrawn, and for the period of nine months nothing faster than a sailing vessel or canoe could be had to transport passengers or troops from point to point, while land travel north of Seattle was imprac- ticable. At length, in September 1854, the steamer Major Tompkins, Captain James M. Hunt, owned by John H. Scranton, was brought from San Francisco and placed upon the Sound to ply regularly between Olympia, where a wharf had been erected by Edward Giddings, Jr, on the flat north of the town,43 and Victoria, calling at the intermediate ports. Very soon afterward the custom-house was removed from Olympia to Port Townsend, and the revenue-cutter Jefferson Davis, Captain William C. Pease, arriving


43 Sylvester's Olympia, MS., 22; Parker's Wash. Ter., MS., 5-6; Eldridge's Sketches, MS., 11; Wash. Jour. Council, 1854, 209-10.


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LOSS OF THE MAJOR TOMPKINS.


for service on the Sound, sensibly relieved the feeling of isolation of the inhabitants of the northern counties.


In October the murderers of Captain Jewell and Church escaped from Fort Steilacoom, and Acting Governor Mason offered a large reward for their re- apprehension. These Indians were retaken in Decem- ber, when the Major Tompkins, with the revenue-cutter carrying troops in tow, proceeded to a camp of the Clallams on Hood Canal, to demand the surrender of the convicts. Already Simmons had secured Church's murderer, but the tribe refused to give up the others. When the soldiers under Lieutenant Nugent landed, the savages fled, and the only result of this expedition was the destruction of their camp and winter supply of salmon. The cutter also fired some shots into the woods before leaving, by which five Clallams were reported to have been killed. On the return down the canal, Simmons succeeded in capturing a Clallam chief known as the Duke of York,4 and detained him as a hostage for the surrender of the escaped con- victs, who were finally delivered, and taken to Steila- coom. The Indians were terrified by the rapidity with which the Major Tompkins followed then, and the certainty with which they were overtaken in flight, and it was believed the moral effect of the fear inspired would be effectual to prevent crimes. To the chagrin of the white population and the relief of the Indians, the Major Tompkins was lost the night of the 10th of February, 1855, by being blown on the rocks at the entrance to Esquimalt Harbor, Vancou- ver Island, her passengers all escaping to land. Her place was filled soon after by the Water Lily, owned by C. C. Terry.


44 This Indian and his two wives, Queen Victoria and Jenny Lind, have become historical characters in Washington, being often referred to by writers visiting Port Townsend, where they resided. Swan, in his Wash. Sketch, MS., 8, makes mention of them, saying that the Duke of York lived at one end of the beach, and at the other a remnant of the Chimakum tribe. Nothing less like the personages they were named after could be imagined than thesc squalid beach dwellers.


HIST. WASH .- 7


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ORGANIZATION OF GOVERNMENT.


Governor Stevens returned to Olympia with his family45 on the 1st of December, in time to be present at the opening of the legislature46 on the 4th of that month.


In his message the governor referred to the Indian disturbances on the immigrant road to Oregon and Washington,47 as well as the troubles on the lower part of the Sound, and the effect they were likely to have upon the immigration of the following years,48


45 Accompanying the governor on his first arrival was his nephew, George Watson Stevens of Lawrence, Mass., 22 years of age. He was a young man of talent and education, from whom much was expected; but was accidentally drowned in the Skookum Chuck, Feb. 16, 1885. Olympia Pioneer and Dem., Feb. 24, 1855.


46 The members of the council elected to fill the places left vacant by the. expiration of the short term and other canses were Jefferson Huff and Ira Patterson from Clarke and Skamania, C. C. Terry and W. A. Strickler from Pierce and King, and A. M. Poe from Island, Clallam, Jefferson, and What- com counties. Catlin, of the former council, was chosen president; Butler P. Anderson, chief clerk; A. J. Moses, assistant clerk; J. L. Mitchell, ser- geant-at-arms; William Cullison, door-keeper.


The lower house was composed of William McCool, of Skamania county; C. C. Stiles, Chas S. Irby, William Hendrickson, Henry R. Crosbie, of Clarke; John Briscoe, ef Pacific and Walkiakum; George Watkins, of Chehalis and Sawamish; Charles H. Spinning, Charles F. White, of Lewis; Stephen Guthrie, William Cock, Benjamin L. Henness, William P. Wells, of Thurs- ton; William H. Wallace, Frank Clarke, Samuel McCaw, of Pierce; John Car- son, of Pierce and King; A. A. Denny, of King; Timothy Heald, of Jefferson and Clallam; R. L. Doyle, of Island and Whatcom; A. S. Abernethy, of Cowlitz. Crosbie was chosen speaker; B. F. Kendall was elected chief clerk; R. M. Walker, assistant clerk; Milton Mounts, sergeant-at-arms; William Baily, door-keeper. Wash. Jour. House, 1854-5, 8-9, 16.


47 The massacre of the Ward train, in Hist. Or., ii., chsp. xiv., this series, and the killing of George Lake, Walter G. Perry, and E. B. Cantrell, immi- grants to Washington, is referred to here. Ebey's Jour., MS., 12-15, 17, 19, 23, 25.


48 The immigration to Washington by the road opened in 1853 to Walla Walla was not large. The road had been further improved, but was not yet good. Jacob Ehey and W. S. Ebey, with six others of the family, Harvey H. Jones, A. S. Yantis, Moses Kirtland, M. Cox, T. J. Headley, Henry Whitsill, George E. King, the families of Lake and Perry killed by the Indians, C. P. Anderson, Charles Van Wormer, William Goodell, A. D. Neely, J. R. Meeker, M. W. Morrow, James Kirtley, W. N. Ayers, in all about 20 families and 200 head of stock, passed over this route. Olympia Pioneer and Dem., Sept. 16 and Oct. 15, 1854. In Ebey's Journal, MS., i. 101, I fiud mention of A. J. Bradley, Dick Bradley, John Waste, Judson, H. H. Jones, S. P. Burr, and hints of the settlements already made and to be made in White and Puyallup valleys. Porter's claim was the first after leaving the mountains in White River Valley. 'King, Kirtland, Jones, and others,' says Ebey, 'will probably locate in this vicinity,' and by reference to Morgan's map of Puget Sound I find these names, and that of Cox on White River. Three miles from Porter's was Connell's prairie, and three miles farther was Fennellis' prairie; six miles to the Puyallup bottoms, where some houses were being put np; nine miles after crossing the Puyallup to J. Montgomery's claim cast of Steilacoool, and near that place the claim of Peter


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TREATIES WITH THE NATIVES.


and again recommended the enrolment of the militia, before which an application to the secretary of war for arms and ammunition must fail, and expressed the hope that the people would give him their support in arranging "on a permanent basis the future of the Indians in the territory." Feeling the necessity of this work, the governor very soon set about it, and concluded on the 26th of December a treaty with the several tribes at the head of the Sound. Three small reservations were made, as follows: an island op- posite Skookum Bay, two sections of land on the Sound west of the meridian line, and an equal amount on the Puyallup River near its mouth. Under this treaty the Indians had the right to fish as usual, to pasture their horses on any unclaimed land, and to gather their food of berries and roots wherever they did not trespass upon enclosed ground, or to reside near the settlements provided they did nothing to make their presence objectionable. Between six and seven hundred signed the treaty, which, besides their annuities, gave them teachers, a farmer, mechanics, and a physician, and manifested their satisfaction.49 This treaty was immediately ratified by the senate.


On the 22d of January, 1854, a treaty was con- cluded with about 2,500 natives on the eastern shore of the Sound. The treaty was held at Point Elliott, near the mouth of Snohomish River. Speeches were made by Seattle, Patkanim, and other chiefs of influ- ence, all expressive of friendship for the white people and pleasure at the treaty, and a reservation was agreed upon on the Lumimi River. Then followed a treaty




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