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 26

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 26
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 26

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We have already seen that the first cabin in that neighborhood was built by W. H. Sartwell, who was assisted in the work by Orrin Kincaid and Mr. Todd. The three men soon formed a partnership and established in the cabin a trading post for the purpose of exchanging goods and merchandise with the Indians for furs. The difficulty of purchasing goods, however, by reason of the exorbitant charges of the wholesalers at Seattle and Olympia, who wished to monopolize the Indian trade themselves, rendered this first mercantile venture on the Skagit unprofitable, and soon after Mr. Kincaid went to California. In the meantime Mr. Todd died and for some time Sartwell was alone on that immediate portion of the river.

Thomas P. Hastie homesteaded his present place near Fir in June, 1820, coming over from Whidby island. He lived on the place on and off until he proved up in 1872. In 1870 he found the following settlers in his neighborhood : North fork of the Skagit, Franklyn Buck, DeWitt Clinton Dennison, Gus Lill, Samuel S. Tingley, Magnus Anderson, William Brown, Joseph L. Maddox, Thomas R. Jones, Peter Vander Kuyl, Moses Kane, John Guinea, Quinby Clark, - Fay, T. J. Rawlins and Charles Henry ; south fork, Orrin Kincaid, living on the present Wilson ranch, William Sartwell, who came with Kincaid, on an adjoining ranch, Joseph

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Wilson, William Johnson, William Smith, Alonzo Sweet, opposite the site of Skagit City, Joseph Lisk, William Kayton, George or "Long" Wilson, Will- iam. McAlpin, at the site of Skagit City, and Will- iam Alexander, who later sold out to Robert and W. L. Kelly. William Brown had settled in 1865 at the mouth of the slough to which his name was applied, and Maddox about that year also settled on the north fork just above Brown's slough.

Beginning about 1800 there was a rapid influx of men with families into the regions of the lower Skagit. At that time it was considered impracti- cable to locate above the big jam near the site of the present Mount Vernon, and most of the settlers took claims in the dense timber back of the lower river rather than try the regions above which have since become so attractive. True to the genuine American idea those early settlers soon began to establish schools, churches and other civilizing agencies. In a building erected for a barn on the ranch of D. E. Kimble the first school in the Skagit valley was taught by Ida Lanning, a daughter of Isaac Lanning, who had located near by in 1869. She was followed a year after by G. E. Hartson, afterward and until the present time one of the leading citizens of Mount Vernon. Contemporary with Miss Lanning was Zena Tingley, now Mrs. J. D. Moores, who taught in what afterward was called Skagit district, where she gathered her young charges in a cabin belonging to Joe Wilson.

There were many Methodists among those early settlers, and a Methodist organization was effected about 1870 by Rev. M. J. Luark, who was soon after succeeded by Rev. J. M. Denison.

At that early day Skagit City seems to have been the center of operations. At the Union hall in that place all manner of public assemblages, religious meetings, political conventions, entertainments, Good Templars' meetings, balls and socials, festivals and fairs were accustomed to gather. The Skagit City of that time was about half a mile above its present location. It seems to have been the general ren- dezvous for canoes, seows, booms of logs, and steamboats in so far as they appeared at all. The removal of the big jam from the vicinity of Mount Vernon a few years later destroyed the prestige of Skagit City.

Practically the entire region then open to settle- ment was heavily timbered, and the work of clearing land, difficult at all times, was increased many fold by the lack of teams. To obviate this difficulty in so far as possible logging bees became the accepted social and industrial means of ridding the country of unnecessary timber. Some of the old settlers, however, record their conviction that the guests at the logging bees used more energy in disposing of the bountiful viands which the host provided than in ridding his claim of the impeding logs. Neverthe- less the pleasure and the social entertainment afforded by those old logging bees was a great com-

pensation for the hard tread-mill of life at that time and place.

The nearest postoffice during the first period of settlement on the lower Skagit was Utsalady (mean- ing "land of berries" in the Indian tongue), but as soon as possible La Conner became the center of mail service. Most of the settlers were obliged to go or to send to Coupeville to get supplies. A man named Campbell, in 1868, established a small store at the forks of the river, where he kept and disposed of the standard goods for cash, a rather large amount of the latter being necessary to effect a trade for such patrons as had run out of their regular store. This pioncer storekeeper of the Skagit had the untoward habit of spirituous im- bibition to an unhealthy degree. On one occasion when he had reached a satiated condition, in his strenuous efforts to handle a barrel of sugar, which constituted his whole stock in trade, he managed to dump it in the river and to follow it immediately himself. A Siwash, who was not quite so drunk, extricated him from the watery depths. After some tedious work the barrel of sugar was also landed. It had absorbed so much water as to be turned to molasses, in which condition he disposed of it at advantageous prices to the hungry Indians. Camp- bell soon disposed of his mercantile interests to J. J. Conner, and he in turn sold out to D. E. Gage, who is still engaged in merchandising at Skagit City.

The first date at which the Skagit valley country took any part in an election was 1811, there being at that time but one precinct in the entire valley. There was a total vote of sixty-one in the election for delegate to congress, the candidates being that silver-tongued spellbinder, Selucius Garfield, and J. V. MeFadden. In spite of his eloquence and the fascination which Garfield wielded over all with whom he came in contact, luis lack of steadfast principle and his personal bad habits had by that time so affected his general reputation that his com- petitor was chosen.

In those early days potatoes constituted the legal tender of the community. In the rich new lands and the soft, moist climate of the Skagit and its outlying islands these indispensable vegetables yielded most prolifically and were sold in large quan- tities to the trading sloops which visited that part of the sound. Money being very scarce it became a common thing to accept potatoes as legal tender.

Practically the only way of getting out of or into the Skagit valley was by boat. Canoes and sailboats would frequently intercept the steamer Mary Woodruff, then running from Whatcom to Seattle and stopping at Utsalady. The fare at that time from Utsalady to Whatcom was five dollars, and it took three days to make the trip. There was no regular steamboat service upon the Skagit river itself until 1874, when the Fanny Lake, in com- mand of Captain John S. Ilill, began making regular

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monthly trips between Seattle and Skagit City. Her arrival at the latter place was the chief event of the month to the inhabitants, who always gathered almost to a man, woman and child to witness it.

The great log jams in the Skagit river in the vicinity of the site of Mount Vernon, one extending a mile above that point and the other about half a inile below, long prevented settlement in the upper part of the valley, but in 18:1 Harrison Clothier and Edward English founded the town of Mount Vernon, Mr. Clothier purchasing ten acres of Jasper Gates, which he platted for the purpose. He became the postmaster at Mount Vernon in September of 1811. the mail being carried in a skiff from La Conner to Skagit City and thence by foot to Mount Vernon. In 1876 the great work of removing the jams on the river had been undertaken by settlers and loggers and two years later the steamer Wenat made a trip to Mount Vernon, Henry Bailey being captain.

The logging business, which became so important a factor in the development of the Skagit valley. seems to have come into existence on the lower river as early as 1871. By the year 1815 there were hundreds of men engaged in logging at various points in the Skagit and Samish regions.

For a new region the Skagit valley seems to have been somewhat singularly free from affrays and crimes. The only recorded murder of very early date occurred at Skagit City in the winter of 1869-20. A certain trader named John Barker had come to the valley during the previous year and had erected a shake shanty on the island near the junction of the forks. Among other merchandise in which Barker dealt was the ever-present and ever-destructive whiskey, with which he supplied whites and Indians alike. Immediately across the north fork a band of Indians had established them- selves and made some small clearings upon which were erected rude huts. One morning Barker was found lying in his shanty, his throat cut and his store ransacked. Shortly afterward some goods supposed to have been a part of the stock were found in the possession of Quinby Clark, who lived near, but before any investigation had been under- taken. Clark left the region. It is said that some of the south forkers formed a mob in the meantime and hanged two Indians, supposing them to be the guilty parties. It appeared by subsequent investi- gation that Clark had shortly before wanted to get a squaw for whom thirty dollars was demanded, and that right after the murder he raised the necessary money. Also a subsequent investigation of the store showed plainly that the robbery and murder had been committed by a white man, for things which Indians would have taken were left and those which a white man would have taken were gone. Barker had been a Mason and the members of this

fraternity spent three years in seeking the supposed murderer, but without avail.

As typical of the history of the Skagit as well as of other pioneer communities we may well make a brief reference here to the experience of D. E. Kimble and family, the first home-builders in the region adjacent to what is now Mount Vernon. Their former home had been in Illinois, whence Mr. Kimble with his wife and five young children came in 1868 to Whidby island. In December of 1869 Mr. Kimble, having formed the impression that his fortune would be better made in a new region than in the comparatively well-settled Whidby island, came to the Skagit valley seeking a home. Earlier attempts, so Mr. Kimble relates, had been broken up by the belligerent Indians who made their head- quarters there. When Mr. Kimble with his family located in the region he found sixteen squaw-men in the valley, the names of whom have already been given in the list of early settlers. In his quest for a location which should entirely satisfy his wishes Mr. Kimble pursued his explorations up the river to the lower end of the big jam and established him- self upon the spot which has been his home ever since, adjoining the city of Mount Vernon. Settlers were obliged at that time to go clear to Olympia to file upon government land. With the Kimbles came the families of Jasper Gates and William Gage, the party chartering the steamer Linnie, as already narrated, for the purpose of carrying their families and possessions to their new homes, paying fifty dollars for the service. Mr. Kimble learned from the Indians that the big jam had been in existence from time immemorial. So solidly was this jam packed that it could be crossed at almost any point in its entire extent and upon it had grown a veritable forest, in some instances trees of even two or three feet in diameter growing upon what was merely a mass of rotten debris with no lodgment in the earth at all. Underneath the tangled mass of logs, moss, bushes and trees the impetuous torrent of the Skagit forced its way in some places in furious cataracts, in others in deep black pools filled with fish, which could, however, be reached at very few points by sportsmen. Upon their home carved out of the wil- derness, Mr. Kimble and his family toiled for all those years clearing the fat, wet soil, setting out trees and converting the wild land into rich clover meadows and garden tracts, gradually accumulating a competency.

The settlement of the upper Skagit valley, while partaking of the same general conditions which operated in the lower, was in the nature of the case later in time and in the main slower in progress than the portion of the valley contiguous to the sound. It was, however, discovered at quite an early day that the upper Skagit valley was rich in the precious metals as well as in coal and iron and pos- sessed also vast stores of the finest timber, while the land once cleared would yield, under the influence

COLLAPSE OF D.A.R.R. BATAAF OVER THE SKAGITTRAVER.

CROCKET' BLOCKHOUSE Whidbey Island

bincumpshenne 76 Ft

BO SART BLOCKHOUSE EBEY'S PRAIAJE

HIF SAWMILL

FISHING BOATS MOUTH SKAFLY RIVER

DESCRIPTIVE AND HISTORICAL

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PERIOD OF SETTLEMENT

of the genial climate, the finest crops of all kinds. Hence the more adventurous class of pioneers and prospectors early turned their attention to securing the advantages so lavishly bestowed.

A. R. Williamson, one of the first hop-growers in the Puyallup valley and later the pioneer hop- grower of the Skagit, is credited with having been the first settler on the upper Skagit above the jam, settling in 1811, or, some say, 1812. Mr. William- son lived for a number of years near Lyman, where he died November 6, 1883. The next settler above the jam appears to have been Rev. B. N. L. Davis, a Baptist minister, who, soon after Williamson's advent, took up his abode on the south side of the river at the point where the Great Northern bridge spans the Skagit. In 1819 Davis rented William- son's hop ranch and two or three years later made himself widely known on the coast by netting some- thing like forty thousand dollars for his hops one season. Immediately afterward he entered the stock business on an extensive scale, at one time bringing seven carloads of registered Holstein cattle to his Skagit river ranch from the eastern states, thus introducing that stock in this county. He also brought out some very highly bred horses at this time.

In 1813 Amasa Everett, a native of Maine and for some time a resident of Minnesota, came to Skagit county, late that fall joining Orlando Gra- ham, another Minnesotan, who had taken a claim on Fidalgo island in the spring of that year. These men, together with Lafayette S. Stevens, a Nevada miner who came to the Skagit country about that time to prospect, are deserving of a special place in any history of the Skagit region, for they were the discoverers of the coal mines of the upper valley. During the summer of 1814 Graham and Everett, while working on the Swinomish flats, met Stevens and the trio went on an expedition in the latter part of September, 1834, to the vicinity of what later became the site of Hamilton. These men had seen samples of gold brought by the Indians to the lower river and hoped to strike a fortune in the precious metal, though Graham, not being a miner, said he would look for coal. Having reached the vicinity of Hamilton they learned from some Indians with whom they talked that there was some sort of a peculiar black metal in the mountains thereabouts. Investigations showed this to be coal and that great discovery was made.

On this trip, while prospecting, Mr. Everett was struck by a rolling rock, which broke his leg. His partners, called to the place by the Indian com- panion of Mr. Everett, set the broken limb by the rude surgery of the frontier, but upon his return to civilization the doctors deemed it necessary to am- putate it and Everett was accordingly taken to Seattle by Graham, where the operation was success- fully performed. Stevens made regular trips in and out of the coal region throughout the succeed-

ing winter. In the meantime, James O'Laughlin and James J. Conner were added to the company, which then filed upon one hundred and sixty acres of coal land. In 1815, finding reasons to believe that the mines were worthy of the investment of capital, the partners, together with a force of laborers, sunk a shaft a hundred feet in depth by which they took out twenty tons of coal, which they shipped to San Francisco. They made a number of improvements of permanent value in connection with this. However, they were obliged to trans- port their coal in canoes to the head of the big jam. There they cut a road through the forest two miles in extent around it, then loaded the coal upon the steamer Chehalis, which had come up for that pur- pose. This coal mine remained comparatively un- developed through lack of capital for two years, and then Conner, having secured additional resources, pushed it successfully for a number of years, ulti- mately selling or bonding an interest to San Fran- cisco parties under the name of the Skagit-Cum- berland Coal Company.

In October of 1815 Mr. Everett, in company with Stevens, Graham and John Rowley, a coal miner, went up the river nearly to the present loca- tion of Marblemount. They found only two settlers on the river above the jam, Rev. B. N. L. Davis, who had been for some months stopping on a place at the site of the present Great Northern bridge, and A. R. Williamson.

The men named were the only settlers on the river above Mount Vernon prior to 1815, although Lafayette Stevens had staked out a claim at what is now Sterling, where he subsequently lived, while Otto Klement had also staked a claim near the pres- ent site of Avon, upon which, however, he made no permanent settlement. The claim established by Everett, in 18:5, was at the confluence of Baker river ( formerly called the Nahcullum) with the Skagit river, on the north side of the river ; while Rowley took a place directly across the Skagit. Both erected cabins, although both at the time were bachelors. The winter was spent by Everett and Rowley in prospecting for gold, which they found at many points but not in paying quantities. Con- trary to the general reputation of the Skagit Indians, these caused the two solitary settlers no trouble, Everett having secured their acquiescence to his staking a claim by agreeing to start a store. At first the Indians would consent to his taking but a small piece of land, but subsequently, for a consid- eration of twenty-five dollars, allowed him to take a whole strip of bottom land of ninety acres. Ever- ett and Rowley went through the usual experience of early settlers in clearing of little patches of land and starting of gardens and in splitting out shakes for buildings. Both being good carpenters they found it profitable to split the beautiful straight cedar logs which abounded there into doors, which they would take down the river and sell to the in-

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coming settlers for four dollars apiece. They also would make cedar oars, for which they could get from boatmen two dollars a pair. A few years later Rowley became noted also as the discoverer of the Ruby Creek mines.

Worthy of special notice in connection with the early settlements as pioneers in special callings, are the following: John Cornelius, a government sur- veyor who came from Whidby island to the Skagit country and surveyed Lummi island, the Swinomish flats, the Samish country and the first settled por- tion of the Skagit valley ; James Gaches, a merchant of La Conner in 1823; Otto Klement, the pioneer merchant of Lyman: Dr. John S. Church, who located at La Conner in 1813. the first physician in the Skagit valley ; and Dr. G. V. Calhoun, another of the earliest physicians on the flats.

In respect to the earliest logging undertakings in the Skagit country, it may be stated that Dan Dingwall is believed to have started a logging camp on Samish island in 1861. Two years later Edward Barrington and James Follansbee estab- lished a camp on Kayton's slough opposite the present town of Fir. In 1822 Thomas Moore and Alfred Densmore located a camp on the south fork of the Skagit a mile above the junction. The camp of William Gage, a mile and a half below Mount Vernon, was established in 1814. These consti- tuted the logging camps established prior to 1815. Mr. Kimble informs us that there were no destruc- tive forest fires until after logging had been for some time in progress, the reason of this, according to his statement, being that the timber in the Skagit valley was so dense that vegetation never became dry enough for the fire to seize upon it, therefore, not until logging had exposed the woods to the sun and wind and created a mass of dead, dry limbs and refuse were forest fires prevalent.

Several of the pioneers of 1873 who located at some of the smaller points in the valley may prop- erly be named at this point. Among these was William Tracy, of Edison, who filed on a claim near Conway, although he subsequently abandoned it and engaged in mining for several years ; Charles Villeneuve, proprietor of the St. Charles hotel at Sedro-Woolley, also located on the present site of Conway, and Thomas Jones located at a point near Villeneuve on the south. Mrs. Villeneuve was the first white woman in that neighborhood. In a short time Thomas Moore, John Moore. Robert Gage and Mr. McAlpine established themselves in the vicinity of Villeneuve, both Thomas and John Moore being accompanied by their wives. As illustrating the difficulty of carrying on improvements at that time we may note the fact that it took Mr. Villeneuve four days to bring a raft of sawed lumber from L'tsalady to his place on the Skagit. The house which he then built was the first constructed of lumber in that region. It is stated by the old settlers that in the vicinity of what became known in a short

time as Mann's Landing, now Fir, there was an old Indian burial place. After the usual custom of the Indians, the bodies were wrapped in blankets and placed in canoes which were sustained on plat- forms in the trees. The curious statement is made that some of these Indians had long, fiery red hair. Mr. Villeneuve conducted the first store and post- office at Conway, while his wife devoted herself to establishing and maintaining a school for the place.

As denoting something of the status of the Northern Pacific railroad and the selection of a western terminus, together with the drift of public sentiment about the land grant, it is quite interesting to observe in the Bellingham Bay Mail of August 2, 1823, the following resolutions by citizens of the Skagit and Whatcom regions: "Whereas the North- ern Pacific Railroad Company has located its west- ern terminus at Commencement bay in Pierce coun- ty, W. T., and whereas the withdrawal of lands for the benefit of said railroad north of Pierce county. to-wit: in King. Kitsap. Snohomish, Island and Whatcom counties, which include vast coal fields and large traets of timber and rich agricultural lands ; and whereas said withdrawal is retarding the growth and development of said counties ; Therefore be it Resolved, That the interests of said counties and justice to the inhabitants thereof demand an immediate vacation of said withdrawal. Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be forwarded to the Hon. Willis Drummond. Commissioner of the general land office and Hon. C. Delna, Secretary of the Interior."

We find as early as 1813 the first rumblings of the movement which, as will be hereafter related in full, eventuated in the division of Whatcom county and the establishment of Skagit. In the Bellingham Bay Mail of October 25, 1813, a corre- spondent at La Conner makes mention of the fact that a petition had been circulated which was en- trusted to Hon. Walter Crockett, a member of the legislature for Island county, calling upon the legislature to pass a bill for the erection of a new county. The petition names William Dean of Sa- mish, H. A. March, of Fidalgo, and J. F. D'Arcy, of Stillaguamish, as commissioners in case the county is established. To offset this movement a meeting was held in Sehome remonstrating against any such action on the part of the legislature.

As early as 1813 the farmers upon the tide lands of the Swinomish were beginning to be re- warded for their exceedingly hard toil in diking and clearing those fertile swamp lands. Some of them reported yields of over one hundred bushels of oats to the acre and several secured for their first crop from three thousand to five thousand bushels, enough at the prices then prevailing to put them in comparatively comfortable circumstances. Among these early farmers of the Swinomish whose crop yields are noted in the Bellingham papers were Thomas Calhoun, John Cornelius,

PERIOD OF SETTLEMENT

111

Michael Hintz and James Harrison. Very unfor- tunately disaster followed hard upon the successful crop season of that year ; for on January 18, 1811. came the famous high tide, as a result of which several of the most important dikes and dams were destroyed and much destruction of property in the way of buildings, implements and stock resulted. Messrs. McClellan and Seigfried, together with the Whitney and Sisson company of Padilla, lost their dikes and their farms were covered with salt water, which meant the loss of at least a year's time.

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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 26

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