History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889, Part 3

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 3
USA > Montana > History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889 > Part 3
USA > Washington > History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889 > Part 3

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THE FIRST SETTLEMENTS.

It required fifteen days to open a road for the pas- sage of the ox-teams from Cowlitz landing to Budd Inlet, a distance of less than sixty miles. Simmons named his place New Market, but subsequent settlers called it by the Indian, and more appropriate, name of Tumwater,7 which it keeps, and which to avoid confu- sion I shall hereafter use.

The seven Puget Sound settlers took their claims within a radius of six miles, Kindred two miles south of Tumwater, McAllister about six miles north-east, and the others intermediate, on a sandy plain now known as Bush prairie, from George W. Bush.8 In the same summer or autumn George Waunch located himself on the Skookum Chuck, making the ninth man not in the Hudson's Bay Company's service who settled north of the Cowlitz farm in 1845.

The first house was built on Kindred's claim, at the west edge of Bush prairie,9 Simmons building at

which he had heard of; but owing to the difficulty of travel at this season, he proceeded no farther than Simon Plomondon's place on the Newaukum River, a confluent of the Chehalis. But about the second week in July he again set forth for Puget Sound, accompanied by W. P. Dougherty, H. A. G. Lee, Joseph Watt, Jacob Haldry, and Stewart. The Oregonians turned back from the Che- halis, and Jackson, after exploring the country in that vicinity, returned to the Cowlitz and took a claim as above stated. While returning for his family he met Simmons' party. John R. Jackson was a native of Durham, parish of Steindrop, England, born Jan. 13, 1800. He landed at New York Sept. 27, 1833, and weut directly to Ill., where he settled Nov. 5th, leaving his first American home for Or. in 1844. He was a butcher, kept a public house at Highlands, and dispensed good-cheer with good-humored hospitality during the early days of Washington. His house was a rendezvous for the transac- tion of public business, the first courts in Lewis county being held there, and there was discussed the propriety of a separate territorial organization. He died May 5, 1873. Olympia Transcript, May 31, 1873.

7 Signifying strong water, referring to the falls. This word displaced both the Des Chutes or Falls River of the French, and the New Market of Simmons. It is now common usage to say Tumwater Falls as well as Tum- water town. Skookum Chuck, the Chinook jargon for rapids, is better ver- nacular for strong water, and is the name of a branch of the Chehalis.

8 George W. Bush (colored) was born in 1790 in Penn., but in early life re- moved to Mo., and in 1844 to Or., finishing his long journey by going to Puget Sound. He was respected and honored by the pioneers for his gener- ,us and charitable traits and manliness of character. He resided on the prairie which bears his name until April 5, 1863, when he suddenly died of hemorrhage by the bursting of a blood-vessel. His son George became a highly esteemed citizen, who was made president of the Washington Indus- trial Association, and whose wheat, raised on Bush prairie, was awarded the first premium at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. Morse's Wash. T'er., MS., i. 54.

9 Mrs Tabitha Kindred, who was many years a widow, died June 12, 1872,

EARLY ANNALS OF TUMWATER.

Tumwater the following summer. These men had enough to do to discharge their debts to the Hudson's Bay Company. McLoughlin and Douglas, who, not- withstanding their efforts to turn the American settlers south of the Columbia, seeing they would go north, gave the officers of the company on Cowlitz prairie and at Fort Nisqually orders to furnish Simmons' company with 200 bushels of wheat at eighty cents a bushel, 100 bushels of pease at one dollar, 300 bushels of potatoes at fifty cents, and a dozen head of cattle at twelve dollars each.10 During the winter they were visited by a party of four men, who proceeded as far as Nisqually, but did not remain in this region.11 In March Mrs McAllister 12 gave birth to a son, who was named James Benton, the first American born on Puget Sound.

In the following year as many American men set- tled north of the Cowlitz and about the head of the Sound as in 1845, but not as many families. At the confluence of the Skookum Chuck and the Chehalis, half-way from the Cowlitz landing to Tumwater, two claims were made by Sidney S. Ford 13 and Joseph Barst. Those who went to the Sound were Charles H. Eaton,14 and his brother Nathan, who located him-

at the age of 89, having resided on Bush prairie 27 years. Olympia Transcript, June 15, 1872. The children were two sons, John and B. Kindred, and two daughters, Mrs Parrot of Oregon City, and Mrs Simmons of the Cowlitz. Olym- pia Courier, June 15, 1872. Mrs Gabriel Jones died July IS, 1868. Her home was two miles from Tumwater. Olympia Standard, July 25, 1868. She was 70 years of age, and had been several years a widow.

10 Evans' Historical Memoranda, consisting of a compilation of newspaper articles, chiefly written by himself, prepared as the foundation to future his- torical writing, and which he has generously placed in my hands, has furnished me with this item.

Il They were Wainbow, Wall, Smith, and Pickett.

12 Mrs McAllister died in 1874. Steilacoom Express, Sept. 10, 1874.

13 Ford was born in New York in 1801, and died Oct. 22, 1866. His wife, Nancy, was born in New York in 1806. They were married in 1823, and re- moved to Michigan in 1834, to Missouri in 1840, and to Oregon in 1845. Their children and descendants made their home on Ford prairie, ahont the head waters of the Chehalis.

14 Eaton was an immigrant of 1843. He was born in Oswego co., N. Y., Dec. 22, 1818, removing to Ohio at an early age, whence he came to Oregon. In the Indian war of 1855 he was commissioned capt. In 1856 he removed to Tenalcut prairie, and again to Yakima Valley in 1870, where he was en- gaged in stock-raising. He died at Yakima City Dec. 19, 1876.

THE FIRST SETTLEMENTS.

self on the east side of Budd Inlet, on what is now called Chambers prairie, being the first to take a claim north of Tumwater; Edmund Sylvester,15 of Oregon City, who, in partnership with Levi L. Smith, took two half-sections of land, one directly on Budd Inlet, two miles below Tumwater, and the other on the edge of Chambers prairie; Alonzo Marion Poe, Daniel D. Kinsey, and Antonio B. Rabbeson.16 Sev- eral other persons arrived at the Sound during the autumn, but did not remain at that time.17

In January 1847 three brothers from Marion county, named Davis, one with a family, arrived at Tumwater, besides Samuel Cool, A. J. Moore, Benjamin Gordon, Leander C. Wallace, Thomas W. Glasgow, and Sam- uel Hancock.18 In March there arrived Elisha and

15 Sylvester was born in Deer Isle, Maine. For antecedents, see Ilist. Or., i. 424, this series. His manuscript, entitled Olympia, which affords me many authoritative items of early history, is especially useful in the present volume. 16 Rabbeson was born in 1824, and was by trade a carpenter. He came to Oregon from New York City in 1846, and immediately went to Puget Sound, settling near Sylvester's claim, where he still resides. His manuscript, Growth of Towns, contains a narrative of the iminigration of 1846, with good character sketches of some of the men in it, followed by an interesting account of the settlement of Washington, his reason for coming to the Sound being a preference for salt-water. Most writers place Wallace in the immigration of 1847, but Rabbeson says he came with him in 1846. Growth of Towns, MS., 13. This is the Wallace killed in the attack on Nisqually in the spring of 1849. Hist. Or., ii. 67-8, this series. In January 1854 Rabbeson married Lucy Barnes of Olympia.

17 Elisha and William Packwood, Jason Peters, Thomas Canby, and Elisha and James McKindley examined the country and returned to the Willamette to winter. Two of them only finally settled north of the Columbia. Erang' Hist. Mem., 11. The names of David Colner and J. E. Conat also appear as settlers of this year, but more I do not know about them.

18 Hancock left Independence, Mo., in the spring of 1845, hnt remained in Or. City one year. He then started to go to Puget Sound with two others, names unknown, by the way of the Columbia, Baker Bay, the Pacific Ocean, and the strait of Fuca. They succeeded in drawing their canoe across the neck of sand north of Cape Disappointment, but the sight of the ocean in Nov. disheartened them, and they decided to try walking from the coast in- land, hoping to reach the Sound in that way. But Hancock, seized with fever, was left in charge of the Indians, who, after extorting every article he possessed, conveyed him to Astoria, where he recovercd. What became of his companions does not appear in his Thirteen Years' Residence in Washing- ton Territory, MS., from which I take his biography. After recovery, he again set out for the Sound by the way of the Cowlitz, arriving at Tumwater early in 1847, and going to work at shingle-making like the others. In the spring of 1849 Hancock went to Cal. for gold, where he had a great many ad- ventures, if we may credit the marvellous stories contained in his Thirteen Years. On returning to Puget Sound in the antumn of 1849, he brought a stock of goods to sell to settlers and natives, and having disposed of a portion,

PACKWOOD AND HANCOCK.

William Packwood, with their families. The first settled on land later owned by David J. Chambers. Packwood abandoned it in August to return to the Willamette. William Packwood took a claim on the

set out to explore for coal, having heard that this mineral was to be found in the neighborhood of the Sound. In these explorations he spent some months, probably trading at the same time with the Indians. In 1850 or spring of 1851 he took some goods to Neah Bay; but the Indians being hos- tile, he was compelled to save himself by an artifice, writing in the presence of the savages, and telling them that it was to bring the chief of all the white men to avenge him if slain. Their superstitious fear of paper missives, the power of which they had witnessed without understanding, conquered their love of plunder, and they carried him safely to Port Townsend. On his re- turn he once more explored for coal on the Snohomish and Stilaguamish riv- ers, where he found it, and discovered also the Cedar and Dwamish rivers. In Nov. 1851 he took passage in the brig Kendall, which was in the Sound, and went to S. F. to purchase machinery for a saw-mill, together with another stock of goods. Having completed his purchases, he shipped them on board a vessel, the Kayuga, for Puget Sound. Captain Davis was ignorant of nau- tical science, and had never been upon the coast of Oregon. When Hancock recognized the entrance to the strait of Fuca, Davis declined to enter, and to test the matter, a boat was sent ashore with Hancock, the mate, and three other persons, at an unknown island. A fog coming down hid the vessel, and the party were detained three days; and no sooner did the fog clear away than the natives discovered and attacked them, compelling them to put to sea. In the mean time the vessel was quite lost to sight. Two days more passed on another small island, but here again the Indians caused them to take to their hoat. Several days more were passed in this manner before the party was finally rescued by some Indians from V. I., under orders from an officer of the H. B. Co., to whom they had reported the condition of the boat's crew. Clothing and provisions were despatched to them, and they were brought to Sooke harbor, where they received unlimited hospitality for three days. On coming to Victoria the Kayuga was found to be there, having by chance got into the strait and to port, but without endeavoring to pick up that portion of her crew and passengers left without provisions on an unknown coast. But that was not all. A considerable portion of Hancock's goods had been sold, for which no satisfaction could be obtained in a foreign port. The summing up of the whole matter shows that he was disappointed in his project of building a mill at Clallam Bay, and was subjected to much loss, which he endeavored to make up by furnishing timber for the California market. In the autumn of 1852 he removed to Neah Bay, determined to establish a trad- ing-post among the Indians, which he succeeded in doing, though not without building fortifications and having some narrow escapes. He afterward pur- chased an interest in the brig Eagle, Wolfe master, and traded with the Ind- ians on the northern coast, until the brig was blown on shore and wrecked, and the savages had despoiled it of its cargo. From this expedition he re- turned alive, after many adventures with the savages and the exercise of much tact in averting their hostile intentions. Escaping to Clyaquot Bay, he found the schooner Demaris Cove, Capt. Eli Hathaway, lying there, which returned with his party to Neah Bay; but the Indians having become more threaten- ing than hefore at that place, Hancock determined to remove his goods to Whidbey Island, and did so-there being no vessel in port-by lashing together three canoes and covering them with planking, on which the movables were placed, a ship's long-boat being also loaded and towed behind. A sail was rigged by setting cedar planks upright, and then the craft was navigated 100 miles to Penn Cove. There he settled, and married Susan Crockett. His death occurred in Sept. 1883, at Coupeville.

THE FIRST SETTLEMENTS.

south bank of the Nisqually, and there remained.19 During the summer John Kindred, J. B. Logan, B. F. Shaw, Robert Logan, and A. D. Carnefix joined the settlement at the head of the Sound, and on the 10th of June the Skookum Chuck settlement was re- enforced by the birth of Angeline Ford,20 the first American girl born north of the Columbia. Late in the autumn there arrived at the Sound Thomas M. Chambers, with his sons, David, Andrew, Thomas J., and McLean, two of whom had families,21 and George Brail and George Shazar.

From Nisqually the settlers obtained pork, wheat, pease, potatoes, and such other needful articles as the company's stores furnished. In 1846 Simmons put up a small flouring mill at Des Chutes falls, in a log house, with a set of stones hewn out of some granite blocks found on the beach, which was ready to grind the first crop of wheat, if not to bolt it; but unbolted flour was a luxury after boiled wheat.

19 Packwood was a native of Patrick co., Va, born in 1813, removing with his father Elisha to Ind. in 1819. In 1834 he migrated to Mo., and ten years later to Or., finally coming to rest on the Nisqually. There was a large fam- ily of the Packwoods, six of whom arrived in Or. in 1845. See list on p. 526 and 530, Ilist. Or., i., this series. In 1848 William went to Cal., where his brother Elisha was then residing, but appears to have returned without much improving his fortunes. He constructed a ferry on the Nisqually, and re- mained on his claim-with the exception of a period of service in the Indian war of 1855-nntil 1867, when he sold it to Isaac P. Hawk. Later he made his residence at Centreville, on the Northern Pacific railroad. For many years Packwood occupied his summers in exploring the mountains east and west of the Sound, the pass at the head of the Cowlitz having been discovered by and named after him, and some valuable mineral deposits reported by him, especially of anthracite coal. Morse's Wash. Ter., MS., i. 54-87.

20 Miss Ford married John Shelton.

21 This family was of Scottish origin, but had been for half a century in the U. S., residing in Ind. and Ky. They emigrated to Or. in 1845. Their goods being detained at The Dalles, in Feb. 1846, the sons constructed a flat-boat, 12 by 20 feet, with a whip-saw and hammer, using oak pins for nails, and loading it with 13 wagons and the goods of seven families, descended the Co- lumbia. Thomas M. Chambers settled on the prairie south-east of Olympia, which bears his name, and where Eaton had settled before him. Here he lived, and at an advanced age died. David J. located on a smaller plain 3} miles east of Olympia, and made a fortnne in stock-raising; Andrew settled between the Nisqually plains and Yelm prairie. The first mill in Pierce co. was erected by Thomas M., on Chambers Creek near Steilacoom. He was born in Ky in 1791, and died at Steilacoom Dec. 1876. Rebecca, wife of Andrew J. Chambers, died June 29, 1853. On the ISth of January, 1854, he married Margaret White.

LUMBER AND LOVE.

Late the following year a saw-mill was completed at Tumwater, built by M. T. Simmons, B. F. Shaw, E. Sylvester, Jesse Ferguson, A. B. Rabbeson, Ga- briel Jones, A. D. Carnefix, and John R. Kindred, who formed the Puget Sound Milling Company, Oc- tober 25, 1847, Simmons holding the principal num- ber of shares, and being elected superintendent. The mill irons, which had been in use at Fort Vancouver, were obtained from the Hudson's Bay Company. The lumber found a market among the settlers, but chiefly at Nisqually, where it was sent in rafts, and also a little later was in requisition to erect barracks and officers' quarters at Steilacoom.22 Shingle-making was also an important industry, shingles passing cur- rent at Fort Nisqually in exchange for clothing or other articles. Room for idlers there was none, and this was fortunate, since indolence in contact with savagery soon breeds vice, aggravated by enforced solitude.

Daniel D. Kinsey was the first lucky bachelor to secure a mate in these wilds, by marrying, on the 6th of July, 1847, Ruth Brock, M. T. Simmons, one of the judges of Vancouver county, officiating. Samuel Hancock and A. B. Rabbeson were the first to vary shingle-making with brick-making, these two taking a contract to burn a kiln of brick in July 1847, on the farm of Simon Plomondon at the Cowlitz. And thus they not only held their own in the new country, but increased in property and power,

As early as the summer of this second year they had begun to recognize the necessity of communica- tion between points, and in August blazed out a trail from Tumwater to the claim of Sylvester and Smith, two miles below on the Sound, which now began to be called Smithfield, because Levi L. Smith resided there, and because it came to be the head of naviga- tion by the law of the tides.

22 The date of the lease from Simmons, proprietor of the claim, is August 20, 1847, to continue for 5 years with the privilege of ten. The site described was the north-west part of the lower fall. Evans' Hist. Mem., ii .; Hist. Or., ii. 70, this series.

THE FIRST SETTLEMENTS.

In the autumn of 1847, rendered memorable by the massacre at Waiilatpu, which alarmed these feeble settlements, and by the prevalence of measles among the Indians, for which the white people knew them- selves held responsible by the miserable victims and their friends, there were few additions to the popula- tion. Jonathan Burbee, an immigrant of that year, took to himself some land on the little Kalama River; Peter W. Crawford, E. West, and James O. Raynor located claims on the Cowlitz near its mouth, being the first settlers in this vicinity,23 and Andrew J. Simmons took a claim on Cowlitz prairie, where he died February 1872.24

Nor were there many accessions to the population of the Sound in 1848. Rev. Pascal Ricard, oblate father, established a mission three miles below Tum- water, June 14th, on the eastern shore of the inlet, and thereby secured half a section of land to the church. Thomas W. Glasgow made a tour of explo- ration down the Sound, and took a claim on Whidbey Island, the first settlement attempted there, and situated north-east from the Port Townsend of Van- couver, directly facing the strait of Fuca. Here he erected a cabin and planted potatoes and wheat. His loneliness seems to have been alleviated during his brief residence, a half-caste daughter testifying to the favor with which he was regarded by some native

33 In 1847, when Crawford, whose biography is given in my Hist. Or., i. 647, was looking for a place to settle, the only white persons living on the Cowlitz were Antoine Gobain, a Canadian, who had charge of the H. B. Co.'s warehouse on the west bank of the river abont two miles from the Columbia, and Thibault, another Canadian, who lived opposite on the east bank. From there to the Cowlitz farms all was an unbroken wilderness. Crawford and West took their claims adjoining each other on the cast bank, where Crawford permanently had his home, and Raynor on the west bank, where he designed laying out a town. Crawford's Nar., MS., 98. Owen W. Bozarth, who was of the immigration of 1845, settled, as I suppose, about this time on Cathla- pootle or Lewis River, so called from the land claim of A. Lee Lewis, about 7 miles above the mouth.

24 Olympia Wash. Standard, March 2, 1872. I find mention of Alexander Barron, who died in Feb. 1878; William Rutledge, who died June 1872; Henry Bechman, who died April 1879; Felix Dodd, who died the same month and year; J. H. Smith, who died May 1879; and John E. Picknell-all of whom settled north of the Columbia this year.

GLASGOW ON WHIDBEY ISLAND.

brunette;25 yet he returned to Tumwater to secure other companions, and persuaded Rabbeson and Carne- fix to accompany him back to his island home.

On the voyage, performed in a canoe, they pro- ceeded to the head of Case Inlet, and carrying their canoe across the portage to the head of Hood canal, explored that remarkable passage. Carnefix turned back from the mouth of the Skokomish River,26 Glasgow and Rabbeson continuing on to Whidbey Island, which they reached in July. But they were not permitted to remain. Soon after their arrival a general council of the tribes of the Sound was held on the island, at the instigation of Patkanim, chief of the Snoqualimichs, to confer upon the policy of per- mitting American settlements in their country. It was decided that Glasgow must quit the island, which he was at length forced to do,27 escaping by the aid of an Indian from the vicinity of Tumwater.

25 Glasgow's daughter married William Hastie. Morse's Wash. Ter., MS., i. 113.

26 It was the turn of Carnefix to cook and attend to camp work. A chief seeing this thought him to be a slave, and offered to purchase him. The jests of his companions so annoyed Carnefix that he abandoned their company. Evans' Hist. Mem. ii.

27 Patkauim exhibited the tact in this instance which marked him as a savage of uncommon intelligence. Parade has a great effect upon the human mind, whether savage or civilized. Patkanim gave a great hunt to the assem- bled chiefs. A corral was constructed, with wings extending across the island from Penn Cove to Glasgow's claim, and a drive made with dogs, by which more than 60 deer were secured for a grand banquet at the inauguration of the council. Patkanim then opened the conference by a speech, in which he urged that if the Americans were allowed to settle among them they would soon become numerous, and would carry off their people in large fire-ships to a distant country on which the sun never shone, where they would be left to perish. He argued that the few now preseut could easily be exterminated, which would discourage others from coming, and appealed to the cupidity of his race by representing that the death of the Americans in the country would put the Indians in possession of a large amount of property. But the Indians from the upper part of the Sound, who were better acquainted with the white people, did not agree with Patkanim. The chief of the bands about Tumwater, Snohodumtah, called by the Americans Grayhead, resisted the arguments of the Snoqualimich chief. He reminded the council that previous to the advent of the Americans the tribes from the lower sound often made war upon the weaker tribes of his section of the country, carrying them off for slaves, but that he had found the presence of the Boston men a protection, as they discouraged wars. Patkanim, angered at this opposition, created a great excitement, which seemed to threaten a battle between the tribes, and Rabbeson becoming alarmed fled back to the settlements. Two days later Glasgow followed, being assisted to escape by a friendly Indian, but leaving behind him all his property. Id., 11-12.

THE FIRST SETTLEMENTS.

Glasgow seems to have taken a claim subsequently in Pierce county, and to have finally left the terri- tory.28

During this summer Hancock took a claim on the west side of Budd Inlet, and built a wharf and warehouse; but having subsequently engaged in several commercial ventures involving loss, he finally settled in 1852 on Whidbey Island, Patkanim having in the mean time failed in his design of exterminating the American settlers. Rabbeson, glad to be well away from the neighborhood of the Snoqualimich chief, went with Ferguson to work in the wheat- fields of the Cowlitz farm, now in charge of George B. Roberts, where they taught the Frenchmen how to save grain by cradling, after which the new method was high in favor and the cradling party in demand.

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History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889, Part 3

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

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