An illustrated history of Skagit and Snohomish Counties; their people, their commerce and their resources, with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington, Part 16

Author: Inter-state Publishing Company (Chicago, Ill.)
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: [Chicago] Interstate Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1172

USA > Washington > Skagit County > An illustrated history of Skagit and Snohomish Counties; their people, their commerce and their resources, with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington > Part 16
USA > Washington > Snohomish County > An illustrated history of Skagit and Snohomish Counties; their people, their commerce and their resources, with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington > Part 16

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THE CAYUSE WAR

us cry, but we told them we would not fight, but if they desired to kill us they might. We should feel happy to know that we died innocent."

Upon arriving in the Cayuse country, Lee, in his capacity as superintendent, held a council of Nez Perces and others, on request of the Indians. Peo-peo-mox-mox, whose friendship had been alien- ated by the act of the legislature withholding ammu- nition from all Indians, again took a friendly attitude toward the whites, and it was evident that rein- forcements from the Willamette and the expecta- tion that a regiment of mounted riflemen would soon arrive from the United States were bringing the Indians to a humble and peaceable frame of mind. The red men in council were informed that the whites were determined to hold the country until the murderers were punished and the stolen prop- erty returned.

When Lee reached Waiilatpu about the 9th of May he reviewed the situation and determined that it was best he should resign the coloneley in favor of Lieutenant-Colonel Waters. "I have great con- fidence in him," he wrote, "and doubt not the troops will find him competent to the task before him. To prevent any discord or rupture in the regiment, at the request of the officers and men, I have consented to act as lieutenant-colonel during the approaching campaign." This act of self-abnegation and patriot- ism as a critical juncture restored harmony in the ranks and put the volunteers in condition for a vigorous campaign.

On the 11th of May more than four hundred men started for the Nez Perce country, whither, it was reported, the murderers had gone. At the Coppei river the forces divided, one hundred and twenty-one men under Lee going to Red Wolf's camp to prevent the fugitives escaping to the motin- tains ; the remainder of the volunteers going to the mouth of the Palouse, to cut off their retreat down the Columbia. Lee learned, on reaching Red Wolf's camp, that Tiloukaikt's band, two days before, had escaped from the country with everything they owned except some stock at Lapwai. There he went, arriving on the 21st and taking charge of the aban- doned cattle. By aid of the friendly Nez Perces, he was enabled to drive back to Waters' camp one hundred and eighteen head of horses and forty head of cattle.

The main command, under Colonel Waters, had succeeded, after considerable delay, in crossing the Snake river, and had also pushed on toward Lapwai. On the 22d a letter was received from Rev. Cushing Fells stating that the Spokanes were divided in their sentiments toward the Americans and the war, though all condemned the massacre. The messen- gers who brought the letter volunteered to bring in a number of Tiloukaikt's cattle and succeeded in doing so, bringing in also two Nez Perces who informed the colonel that the main band was near Snake river. They also stated that Tiloukaikt him-

self had fled to the mountains. Major Magone, with a hundred mien, was sent to bring in the stock belonging to the hostiles and to capture any Indians suspected of acting with the fugitives. The stock was brought in, according to orders, but the only suspect encountered was run down and killed con- trary to orders.

It became evident that nothing could be accom- plished by a regiment in the Nez Perce country, as the Cayuses had fled. Even the capture and con- fiscation of property was unsatisfactory, as it was sure to be elaimed by some professedly friendly Indian, and the volunteers could hardly choose but return it. The governor and military officers, there- fore, determined to close the campaign, notwith- standing the murderers had not been captured. A detachment of fifty-five men under Major Magone went to Fort Colville to give Missionaries Eells and Walker, who had sought protection there when the war broke out, safe conduct to The Dalles. The remainder of the command returned to Waiilatpu. There a council of war was held to determine whether to abandon or to hold Fort Waters. The majority favored abandonment, but Lee was de- termined that the advantages gained by the war should not be lost by a complete withdrawal from the country. By interesting some responsible men in a scheme of colonization and promising to secure them, as far as was in his power, against treaty stipulations prejudicial to their interests, he suc- ceeded in inducing fifty-five volunteers to remain in the fort with Captain William Martin until Sep- tember, when, it was expected, Captain Thompson would return with a colony of intending settlers. The emigrant road was thus kept in a condition of comparative safety, so that the emigration of 1848. numbering about eight hundred souls, experienced no trouble with Indians.

The results of the war may be summed up briefly. While the murderers were not captured and hanged, they were severely punished by being despoiled of their property and made wanderers and vagabonds on the face of the earth. The power and prestige of the Cayuse tribe were broken for- ever. The other tribes of the interior who had been led by the nonresistance and reluctance to fight displayed by emigrants passing through their country with families and herds to consider the Americans a race of cowards were effectually taught their error, and while the race struggle was not ended, it was delayed until the whites were much better able to contest successfully against the savages arrayed in the pathway of progress.

Negotiations were kept up constantly with the tribes of the interior for the peaceful surrender of the murderers after the provisional government was eventually superseded by a territorial form. The Cayuses, though war was no longer waged against them, saw that their case was becoming more and more hopeless by reason of the fact that the United

INTRODUCTORY

States government had at last extended protecting arms to Oregon and the American power in the West was rapidly increasing. At last, despairing of their ability to protect longer the murderers, they compelled or induced five of them to surrender for trial. These were Tiloukaikt, Tamahas, Klokamas,

Isaiachalakis, and Kiamasumpkin. They were given a fair trial, convicted on the 3d of June, executed, all of them, at Oregon City. Thus ignobly perished probably the last of those immediately concerned in the massacre, though the fate of Joe Lewis and others may not be certainly known.

CHAPTER VIH

EARLY DAYS OF WASHINGTON

The territory north of the Columbia river did not share in the benefits derived from the earliest immigrations into the Northwest. In the diplo- matic contest for the country, it had been steadfastly claimed by Great Britain, whose proposal, several times reiterated, was that the Columbia should form the boundary. Perhaps on account of the indus- trious inculcating on the part of the Hudson's Bay Company of the belief that northern Oregon would be conceded to Great Britain, the benefits of the provisional government were not expressly extended to the territory now forming Washington state, and for several years after the Americanization of the Willamette valley began, the fur company held un- disputed sway over the trans-Columbia region. In order to strengthen further the hands of the British government in its territorial claims, that company had organized the Puget Sound Agricultural Com- pany, through which considerable progress was made in farming and stock-raising, as is shown by the following description of the Cowlitz and Nis- qually tracts written in 1841 by the pen of Sir George Simpson :

"Between the Cowlitz river and Puget sound, a distance of abont sixty miles, the country, which is watered by many streams and lakes, consists of an alternation of plains and belts of wood. It is well adapted both for tillage and pasturage, pos- sessing a genial climate, good soil, excellent timber, water power, natural clearings and a sea-port, and that, too, within reach of more than one advan- tageous market. When this tract was explored, a few years ago, the Hudson's Bay Company estab- lished two farms upon it, which were subsequently transferred to the Puget Sound Agricultural Com- pany, formed under the company's anspices, with the view of producing wheat, wool. hides and tallow, for exportation. On the Cowlitz farm there were already about a thousand acres of land under the plow, besides a large dairy, and an extensive park

for horses and stock; and the crop this season amounted to eight or nine thousand bushels of wheat, four thousand of oats, with a due propor- tion of barley, potatoes, etc. The other farm was on the shores of Puget sound ( Nisqually plains), and, as its soil was found to be better fitted for pasturage than tillage, it had been appropriated almost exclusively to the flocks and herds. So that now. with only two hundred acres of cultivated land, it possessed six thousand sheep, twelve hun- dred cattle, besides horses, pigs, etc. In addition to these two farms, there was a Catholic mission, with about one hundred and sixty acres under the plow. There were also a few Canadian settlers, retired servants of the Hudson's Bay Company; and it was to the same neighborhood that the emigrants from Red river were wending their way.'

To strengthen still further British claim to northern Oregon, as the country was then called, the Hudson's Bay Company undertook the task of settling the still nnoccupied lands or some of them with British subjects from the Red river country of Canada. As an inducement to such to make the tedious journey over the many weary leagnes which intervened between the Red river of the North and Puget sound. the company offered to each head of a family, upon arrival, the use and increase of fifteen cows, fifteen ewes, all needful work oxen or horses and the use of house and barns. In answer to this call an emigration left the vicinity of Fort Garry, on the 15th of June, 1811. They were overtaken by the party of Sir George Simpson, who described them as consisting of agricnlturists and others, principally natives of the Red river settlement. "There were twenty-three families," says he, "the heads being young and active, though a few of them were advanced in life, more partienlarly one poor woman, upwards of seventy-five years of age, who was following after her son to his new home. As a contrast to this

EARLY DAYS OF WASHINGTON

superannuated daughter of the Saskatchewan, the band contained several young travelers, who had, in fact, made their appearance in this world since the commencement of the journey. Beyond the inevitable detention which seldom exceeded a few hours, these interesting events had never interfered with the progress of the brigade ; and both mother and child used to jog on, as if jogging on were the condition of human existence. Each family had two or three carts, together with bands of horses, cattle and dogs. The men and lads traveled in the saddle, while the vehicles, which were covered with awnings against the sun and rain, carried the women and young children. As they marched in single file, their cavalcade extended above a mile in length ; and we increased the length of the column by marching in company. The emigrants were all healthy and happy, living in the greatest abundance and enjoying the journey with the highest relish. Before coming up to these people, we had seen evidence of the comfortable state of their com- missariat in the shape of two or three still warm buffaloes, from which only the tongue and a few' other choice bits had been taken."

The company crossed the Rocky mountains early in August, reached Fort Walla Walla on the 4th of October, assisted in removing valuables from that fort, which burned that night or the next morning, and finally arrived, after the loss of two or three members, who changed their destination while en route, in the Sound country. Some of the families remained at the Cowlitz farm over winter and some at Fort Nisqually. It was claimed by them that the company acted in bad faith in the matter of fulfilling its pledges. Whether or not this be true, not many of the families located per- manently in the country, and the colonization scheme may be considered a failure.

The honor of having made the initial attempt to colonize northern Oregon in American interests is universally conceded to one Michael T. Simmons. the "Daniel Boone of Washington." Simmons is described as a stalwart Kentuckian, endowed with the splendid physique and indomitable courage for which the sons of that state are famous. Arriving at Vancouver in 1844, he spent most of the winter there, and doubtless learned from the chance ex- pressions of Hudson's Bay men something of the value of the country to the northward. At any rate, he gave up his former intentions of going to southern Oregon, as the company wished him to do, and determined to explore the forests of the north, as the company very much opposed his doing. He is credited with having patriotic as well as personal motives for undertaking this spying out of the land. He started on his exploring expe- dition with five companions during the winter of 1844-5, purposing to find or make a pathway to Puget sound. But the inclemencies of the season necessitated his temporary abandonment of the

enterprise, and having ascended the Cowlitz river about fifty miles he returned to Vancouver. In July he set out again with eight companions. Reach- ing the sound in due season, he made some explo- rations of its shores in canoes and informed himself of its resources and value. He chose as a site for his colony a picturesque spot near the falls of the Des Chutes river, made a return trip to Vancouver and soon was back on the sound with James Mc- Allister, Gabriel Jones, David Kindred and George W. Bush and their families, also S. B. Crockett and Jesse Ferguson. Such is the personnel of the first American colony in Washington.

"Not one entering the region at the present time." wrote the late H. K. Hines, "can form any idea of the difficulty attending the enterprise of these people. The forests of the country were almost impenetrable, and they covered nearly all its space. To open a trail from the Cowlitz river northward was the hard work of weeks, and then to make such an inroad upon the forest as to give any hope of future support for their families was a task that only brave and manly men would dare to undertake. But empire and destiny were in these men's hands and hearts, and they were equal to the work they had undertaken. But as we now think of it, after fifty years, we wonder how these seven men, iso- lated one hundred and fifty miles from any who could aid them, and surrounded by the savages of Puget sound, who were watching with evil eye the inroads of the whites, succeeded in establishing themselves and their families in this then most inhospitable region. That they did marks them as heroes.'

The next year. 1846, added a very few more to the American population of Washington. among them Edward Sylvester, upon whose land claim Olympia was afterward built, and the well-known men. A. B. Robbinson and S. S. Ford. A small number settled in 1842, but these few "were of the same sterling stuff as those who had preceded them and added much to the moral and intellectual fibre of the infant settlement."

"This year was also signalized." says Hines. "by the erection of a saw mill at the falls of the Des Chutes, since called Tumwater, on the land claim of M. T. Simmons. A small flouring mill had before been erected at the same place, with buhrs hewn out of some granite rock found on the beach of Budd's inlet, which afforded some unbolted flour as a change from boiled wheat for bread."

A somewhat larger settlement was effected during 1848, many of the new comers taking claims along the Cowlitz river. One man. Thomas W. Glasgow, attempted settlement on Whidby's island. A few others started to establish homes in his vicinity during the summer, but all were compelled to withdraw, the Indians at a council called by Patkanim, chief of the Snoqualmies, having decided not to allow them to remain on the island. The

INTRODUCTORY

next two years were years of apparent retrogres- sion rather than progress, for the adult male popu- lation was induced away by the discovery of gold in California, leaving none but women and boys to sow and reap, or plan and execute new enterprises. Later, however, the spray from the tidal wave of population attracted to the Golden state by the dis- covery of the precious metal spread over Puget sound, bringing activity and progress.

Mr. Simmons, the advance agent of American occupancy, gained further distinction in 1850 by giving inception to American commerce on the sound. \ brig had reached these waters during the year, having been purchased by several of the sound residents from certain gold-seekers from Maine. Simmons bought her, loaded her with piles, and taking these to San Francisco exchanged them for general merchandise. The goods were exposed for sale in a small building in Smithfield, the town which later became known as Olympia.

"This initial stake of business having been thus successfully set at Olympia," says Hines, "the lines of settlement began to extend from it in every direc- tion. Steilacoom, occupying a point on the sound below Olympia, and abreast of the Nisqually plains, was settled and a large business house erected there. Port Townsend was settled by H. C. Wilson. I. N. Ebey, late in the fall of 1850, occupied the claim on Whidby's island from which Glasgow had been driven by the hostilities of Patkanim, and R. H. Lansdale took a claim at the head of Penn's cove. These were among the first, if not the first, who established themselves above the lower portions of the sound, but they were soon followed by Petty- grove and Hastings. A town was laid out on the west side of Port Townsend bay, called after the bay itself, Port Townsend, and so the year 1850 closed, having registered a somewhat substantial advancement in the country of Puget sound. Still the settlements were only a frayed and fretted fringe of white on the edge of the dark forests and darker humanity, of the vast region encompassing the waters of the great inland sea. But the time had come for a more appreciable advance."

The year 1851 brought not a few immigrants who wished to seek their fortunes on the shores of the sound. Of these some were ambitious to build homes for themselves wherever the agricultural possibilities of the country were greatest and most easily developed ; others to find a spot which must eventually become a trade center and become rich through the "unearned increment" in the value of their holdings. Among the latter class were C. C. Terry, A. A. and D. T. Denny, W. N. Bell, C. T. Boren, John C. Holgate and John Low, who selected claims on Elliot bay and became prominent in the founding and building of Seattle. It is stated that in four years this town had a population of three hundred.

Contemporaneous with, or within a year or

two after the settlement already adverted to, was the settlement of Whidby's island, New Dunginess, Bellingham bay, the north bank of the Columbia river from the Cascade mountains to its mouth, Baker's bay, Shoalwater bay, Gray's harbor and other places. The coal and timber resources of the country began attracting attention at this time, re- sulting in the building up of immense milling enter- prises at different points on the sound.

The ambition of these pioneers to become the founders of a new commonwealth, to add a new star to the American constellation, had co-operated with the natural advantages of the country from the first to induce them into and hold them in the sound basin. That ambition began its struggle for accomplishment as early as the 4th of July, 1851, when J. B. Chapman addressed all those who met in Olympia to celebrate the nation's birthday, upon the subject "The Future State of Columbia." So great were his enthusiasm and eloquence that they inspired the people to immediate activity. They held a meeting forthwith and decided that a convention should be held at Cowlitz Landing, said convention to be composed of delegates from all the election districts north of the Columbia. Its purpose was "to take into careful consideration the peculiar position of the northern portion of the territory, its wants, the best methods of supplying those wants, and the propriety of an early appeal to congress for a division of the territory.'

On the day appointed the convention met. It adopted a memorial to congress praying for the division of the territory ; for a territorial road from Puget sound over the Cascades to Walla Walla ; for a plank road from the mouth of the Cowlitz river to the sound, and that the provisions of the Oregon Land Law should be continued provided the division prayed for should be granted.

No action was had by congress on the memorial, and enthusiasm for segregation for a time waned. However, it was not suffered to die out entirely, for a paper named the Columbian was established at Olympia with the keeping alive of the new territory project as its main purpose. The first issue of this pioneer publication appeared September 11, 1852.

This journal was successful in compassing the convention of another body of men on organization bent. They met at Monticello, near the mouth of the Cowlitz and prepared a memorial to congress pleading most eloquently the cause of segregation from Oregon. The efforts of this convention were supplemented by the legislature of Oregon territory, a few members of which, however, favored a project to make the Cascade range the boundary between the territory of Oregon and the territory of Col- umbia. The scheme of these contemplated the bounding of Oregon, north, south and west by the British line, the California line and the ocean res- pectively and east by Columbia territory, the Ca's- cade range being the boundary line.

EARLY DAYS OF WASHINGTON

But the majority of the representatives and the majority of the people both north and south of the Columbia favored that river as the line of division. General Lane, Oregon's delegate, brought the matter before congress. That body could not turn a deaf ear to the almost unanimous voice of the people directly affected by the proposed legis- lation, and on March 2, 1853, the territory was organized as prayed for, the name "Washington' being substituted for "Columbia," however. A

full quota of officers was appointed for the new ter- ritory; namely, governor, Isaac Ingall Stevens ; secretary, C. H. Mason; chief justice, Edward Lander; associate justices, John R. Miller and Victor Monroe ; district attorney, J. S. Clendenin ; J Patton Anderson, United States marshal. Miller refused the appointment, and O. B. McFadden, of Oregon, became associate justice in his stead. While all of these officers were capable and efficient, the choice for governor was especially felicitous, Stevens being just the man to guide the newly built ship of state through the stormy seas it was so soon to sail.

Governor Stevens began bestowing blessings upon the new territory long before he reached its borders, for ere he left Washington he obtained charge of the survey of the northern route for the proposed trans-continental railway,-one of the first grand schemes of the American government for the subjugation and development of its vast terri- torial possessions. This circumstance gave to the northern route a zealous, able and well informed advocate. There can be no doubt that the full and accurate reports of Governor Stevens and his zeal for the route which he believed the most expedient did more than anything else to fix the general loca- tion of the Northern Pacific railroad, and to give to the young commonwealth over which Stevens presided that most potential factor in its subsequent development.

Having arrived at length in the young common- wealth of which he had been called to assume execu- tive control, Governor Stevens at once addressed himself to the mastery of the difficult problems presenting themselves. He found a field of labor presenting a splendid opportunity for the exercise of his extraordinary abilities. Of the conditions as he found them, his son, Hazard, in his excellent life of Washington's first governor, thus writes :

"It was indeed a wild country, untouched by civilization, and a scanty white population, sparsely sprinkled over the immense area, that were awaiting the arrival of Governor Stevens to organize civil government, and shape the destinies of the future. A mere handful of settlers, 3,965 all told, were widely scattered over western Washington, between the lower Columbia and the straits of Fuca. A small hamlet clustered around the military post at Vancouver. A few settlers were spread widely apart along the Columbia, among whom were Co-

himbia Lancaster on Lewis river : Seth Catlin, Dr. Nathaniel Ostrander and the Huntingtons about the mouth of the Cowlitz; Alexander S. Abernethy at Oak Point and Judge William Strong at Cathlamet. Some oystermen in Shoalwater bay were taking shell fish for the San Francisco market. At Cow- litz Landing, thirty miles up that river, were exten- sive prairies, where farms had been cultivated by the Hudson's Bay Company, under the name of the Puget Sound Agricultural Company, for fifteen years ; and here were a few Americans, a number of Scotch and Canadians, former employees of that company, and now looking forward to becoming American citizens, and settling down upon their own claims under the Donation Act, which gave three hundred and twenty acres to every settler and as much more to his wife. A score of hardy pioneers had settled upon the scattered prairies be- tween the Cowlitz farms and the sound; among them were John R. Jackson, typical English yeo- man, on his prairie, ten miles from the Cowlitz ; S S. Saunders, on Saunders bottom, where now stands the town of Chehalis; George Washington, a colored man, on the next prairie, the site of Cen- tralia ; Judge Sidney S. Ford on his prairie on the Chehalis river, below the mouth of Skookumchuck creek ; W. B. Goodell, B. L. Henness and Stephen l Iodgdon on Grand Mound prairie ; A. B. Robbeson and W. W. Plumb on Mound prairie. A number of settlers had taken up the prairies about Olympia. the principal of whom were W. O. Bush, Gabriel Jones, William Rutledge and David Kendrick on Bush prairie; J. N. Low, Andrew J. Chambers, Nathan Eaton, Stephen D. Ruddell and Urban E. Hicks on Chambers' prairie; David J. Chambers on the prairie of his name. James McAlister and William Packwood were on the Nisqually bottom. at the mouth of the river, just north of which, on the verge of the Nisqually plains, was situated the Hudson's Bay Company's post, Fort Nisqually, a parallelogram of log buildings and stockade under charge of Dr. W. F. Tolmie, a warm hearted and true Scot. Great herds of Spanish cattle, the prop- erty of the company, roamed over the Nisqually plains, little cared for and more than half wild, and, it is to be feared, occasionally fell prey to the rifles of hungry American emigrants. Two miles below Olympia, on the east side of the bay, was located a Catholic mission under Fathers Richard and Blan- chet, where were a large building, an orchard and a garden. They had made a number of converts among the Indians.

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An illustrated history of Skagit and Snohomish Counties; their people, their commerce and their resources, with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington, Part 16

Author: Inter-state Publishing Company (Chicago, Ill.) Publication date: 1906 Publisher: [Chicago] Interstate Publishing Company Number of Pages: 1172

Author: Inter-state Publishing Company (Chicago, Ill.)
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: [Chicago] Interstate Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1172