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 89

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 89
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 89

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August Sth-Rain. Just above the jam the river runs rapid among snags. With the passengers aboard the canoes are too heavily loaded to navi- gate this box of water. The professor took com- mand of the fleet and we became land forces. We

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had only about four miles along the bank to go to the next jam just above the south slough and by very strenuous labor we got there before dark. We got aboard the canoes and went a short distance up south slough and made a portage across a narrow strip of land between the slough and the river above the jam (about where the G. N. R. R. bridge now is) and camped on this point Aug- ust Sth.

August 9th-River running yellow and too full of drift to navigate-steady downpour-con- cluded to wait and let the river clear some. Only feared that at the rate the drift was coming the river would jam up to its head before the flood went down. * *

August 10th-Still raining but less drift in the river. Launched the shovel noses above the jam and proceeded up stream. I am now informed that we are above the influences of the tide and that above this point the Stillaguamish, like any civilized river, runs down stream. We had very tangible evidence directly as whole rafts of drift bore down on us and we had to hug the bank behind a snag to let it pass. I never saw more tangible evidence. In the afternoon we arrived at the mouth of the Pilchuck which was free of drift and we made harbor. This is our initial point for the survey.

August 11th-Our point of beginning the survey is near the mouth of the Pilchuck. Dur- ing the night we had just enough clear sky to get a pole star observation and we established a meridian about fifty feet long into a crab apple jungle. Next morning we got some good exer- cise cutting through it. Crab apple is hard and tough and the trees were growing about as thick as they could stand and were twisted and matted together so that it was impossible to get them down after they were cut. We simply had to cut a tunnel. It took two hours to cut three hundred feet of line. This jungle terminated in a swamp with about two feet of water and two hundred feet more or less of mud. We bridged across this swamp by piling brush into it and arrived at the foot of a steep hill. This hillside was completely covered with fallen timber and progress on the ground being impossible we took the chipmunk route. Each man carried a pack of fifty pounds or more and the exercise we got on this aerial ascent was decidedly of the stren- uous kind. About half way up the hill Jim slipped and fell, Jim on one side of the log he was walking, and his pack on the other. There he hung about twenty feet from the ground. The remarks the boys made to poor, hung-up, helpless Jim were scandalous. Bud said he looked like the decorations on a mining camp clothes line and suggested that he be left until dry. Sam said he looked like a horse thief in the last act. But Jim being cook, we had to have him, and after some maneuvering we got him separated from his pack and hoisted back on the

elevated, and after ten minutes more balancing we arrived on terra firma, at the top of the hill.

From this point we have a magnificent view of the valley of the Stillaguamish. Southward across a sea of tree tops the view is bounded in the far distance by the horizon-to the cast by the ragged summits and ice fields of the Cas- cades, to the west by Puget sound, with its islands, and the Olympic range, serrated and snow streaked, with the bald head of Olympus towering above Mount Constance, Three Brothers and other monarchs of the range, and in line of the straits the limitless expanse of the Pacific Ocean. This view is not a picture, it is a pano- rama. This I ventured to remark at the time, and for once the professor agreed with me.

To the west the view terminated at the nearly solid wall of virgin forest. Not the mark of an axe or a foot print of man anywhere. Only forest giants alive and dead, erect and prostrate, covered with damp moss, the atmosphere charged with the smell of decaying wood. It is solitude personified-no twitter of bird or chirp of chip- munk-only vegetation run riot in the gloom, the walls of giants excluding the rays of the sun from the struggling undergrowth at their feet. A break in the clouds in the south lets a flood of sunlight across the valley, bringing out details of the foliage in the dark green mass of fir tops and the lighter green of the deciduous belt of trees along the river giving the valley a resemblance to a dark green rug with a lighter green serpent

across it. Here and there the river appears like a broken thread of silver. On the side hill just described we found croppings of coal, a brown lignite. Later we tried it for fuel. It made some fire and much smell. It is probably of no value except as an indication that we are in the coal measures.

To continue Mr. Iverson's highly humorous and interesting account of the further experi- ences of this pioneer surveying party is foreign to the purpose of our work. The great signifi- cance of his "discovery of the Stillaguamish" consists in the fact that while engaged on this survey he became impressed with the possibili- ties of the country. His faith in it and the advertising he gave it among his friends and countrymen soon led to the settlement of large numbers of Norsemen in the valley, and the ultimate development of its natural resources to a degree which would have been impossible without the presence of those industrious and thrifty Scandinavian-Americans.

EDISON'S GOLD EXCITEMENT

There are few western communities in prox- imity to mineral districts that have not had their hoax gold excitements with accompanying humorous incidents. It is distinctly a Western amusement, never fails to draw, always leaves

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in its wake broad smiles and happy recollec- tions.

" Edison gave its "gold discovery" comedy in 1891. One week of the balmy month of May had about sped by when, on a Friday (unlucky day), a coterie of the village wits, after long and ardently canvassing the situation, came to the unanimous conclusion that a wholesome tonic was needed to stimulate life. The peace and quiet that reigned on the Samish was depressing; the limit had been reached. Nothing would wake people up so quickly, so thoroughly as a gold excitement. That was just the thing. Once decided upon, quick action was taken and before the sun went down on the seventh day of May, the scenery was arranged, characters selected and the play made ready for performance. Several pieces of bronze and brass had been filed up and the "dust" scattered judiciously as well as lavishly over a patch of ground on Pat Smith's place near Edison.

At ten o'clock that evening, or thereabouts, the curtain rose. Paddy Mohr, a cook in the Blanchard Logging Company's camp, gathering around him Jack Cain, John Morrison, Lee Byles, Charlie Barber, and one or two other kin- dred spirits, announced the discovery of yellow dust on Smith's place that afternoon, exhibiting some "pay dirt" to back up his statements. Of course, only a casual examination in the shade of a flickering lamp high against the wall was allowed the curious, and care was taken to secure comparative secrecy. "Thought we'd let a few of you Samish fellows in on the deal before the news leaks out and the whole country piles in on us," explained Mohr.

It was also suggested that then was the accepted time to stake a claim.

In small groups, by couples and sometimes singly, the gold seekers silently stole out into the darkness. The news spread with rapidity, a prerogative of such secrets, and by midnight the rush was on in dead earnest. Lanterns and lamps flitted over the flats like frolicking fireflies. Joe Bland, the local justice of the peace and notary public, was summoned from his warm bed to draw filing papers before half the hours allotted to man for sleep had passed. Edison awoke earlier even than on the Fourth of July. By eight o'clock twenty claims had been staked on Smith's ranch and "prospectors" were branching out over the adjoining property. "Colors" were plentiful and dirt began to fly at break of day. Soon quantities of the gold began to move toward town for closer private inspection and for the assayer. A sound steamer left early for Seattle and one man, en- thusiastic over his good fortune and determined to startle Seattle with the good news, boarded the boat with a coffee sack well filled with the precious pay dirt, but before the boat pulled out he was persuaded to wait another

day. The name of this excited individual is omitted out of consideration to his feelings. Mining property commenced moving at a good figure, early, too, and quite a number of claims changed hands on surface showings.

Thus the play went on without interruption, act by act. The few who saw through the plot merely winked cautiously at one another. At the opportune moment, when the comic had been carried as far as taste and discretion would per- mit, the curtain was allowed to drop, and the star actor explained in an epilogue the harmlessness and purport of the little performance. Its humor was appreciated by all the spectators and those performers who furnished sport at their own expense soon forgot their chagrin and joined in the general laugh.

A CELEBRATED ADVERTISEMENT

Peculiar interest attaches to the following unique advertisement from the pen of Morti- mer Cook, founder of Sedro, now part of the com- bined city of Sedro-Woolley. The advertise- ment is illustrative of the writer's character, who, by the way, attained unusual success in business, and was copied throughout the United States, even in Europe it is said. It was pub- lished in the first issue of the Sedro Times in 1890.

STOREKEEPING

BY MORTIMER COOK

About the lowest and most unprofitable business on this earth is keeping a one-horse store; and the more horses you put on the more dangerous it becomes. Any man with money, brains and jaw enough to make a success in this line can make ten times as much in some other way. The average youth and many beyond in years think if they can only get a nice store somewhere, talk obsequiously to customers, particularly the ladies, under- stand book-keeping, write a nice letter, make out a bill quickly and smartly, get insured, have a nice spread-eagle "ad" in the local paper that no one ever sees or cares a -about except themselves, part their hair in the middle, etc., that they are on the high road that leads to glory.

Not so. The solid substance of this earth don't come that way. Five years, and nine-tenths of these poor, deluded people will be sunk deep in deeper moats, or rising out of them, if brains enough, with worn and dirty garments, looking dazed but wiser.

Now as for myself, must plead guilty of keeping a small shop in Sedro-overflowed Sedro! Jumping, buck- ing, floating, but always coming Sedro. Kumtux? Don't pretend to keep a full stock of anything, always out of something; don't get goods by every steamer or train, nor are they all fresh; lots of things no good. Nor do I for a moment pretend to sell cheap or at one price, or strictly for cash, or otherwise.

All the clerks are instructed to put on such a price as they please, sizing every customer up, and to get the most money out of them possible. And finally if Fritz or Smash 'em pays one thirty-second of a cent more than some other man, don't want him to come 'round whining. Let him go out and kick a stump or improve his looks "Capit."

THE SALMON AGE

Benson creek, or slough, rising on Coal mountain just above Sedro-Woolley, and flowing

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into the Skagit river at the old Benson place, has always been noted as a fishing and spawning stream despite its small size. Emmett Van Fleet, living on the creek near its mouth, says that years ago he often speared as many as four hundred hook bill salmon in two hours during the spawning season. To get a wagon load was an easy task; in fact the surrounding settlers were accustomed for a long time to take them away by the wagon load for use as orchard fertilizer. Not only was Benson creek full of fish in season but every stream down to mere rivulets was alive with the finny tribe. Even the dogs went fre- quently to these runways and fished by the hour apparently enjoying the sport as much as men and women. Bears were so fond of salmon that they infested these little shallow streams by night as well as by day and in season ate so many fish that bear meat was positively sickening, repelling in odor and taste. Hogs, also, soon learned to like the salmon and with their glut- tonous appetites more often than not became worthless as meat. The fact of the matter is, says Mr. Van Fleet, that for a time salmon threatened to embarrass the pioneer along the streams, strange as it may seem to the present generation.

AN INCIDENT OF PIONEER TRAVEL

Before the days of transcontinental railroads when people westward bound had to travel by wagon much of the way to the Pacific, many thrilling adventures were had by the weary pilgrims, many experiences which tried their souls as with fire. Mrs. John Ball, now residing on the Swinomish flats, has a very vivid picture on her memory's wall of one such experience in central Washington. She and her husband and family had been camped for weeks in the Yakima valley waiting for the genial warmth of spring to melt the snow in the mountains and call the succulent grasses into being. At length they decided to press on. Indians warned them not to attempt a passage of the Yakima river as they would surely be drowned, but they heeded not the warning. In making the crossing Mrs. Ball occupied a seat on a roll of blankets and other bedding which in turn was on top of a trunk in the front part of the wagon. In one arm she held her two small children, Amos and Globe, while with the free hand she led three unharnessed horses. Soon horses, wagon, people and all began floating rapidly down the stream and it looked as though the prediction of the Indians was about to be fulfilled; but at the critical moment, when the struggle seemed lost, a tall bay mare in front gained a foothold on terra firma and she brought all safely to the land.

Shortly afterward Mrs. Ball's nerves were put to a still more severe test. When the family reached Thorp's Prairie, her husband found it

necessary to leave her alone with the children, while he went on with an Indian guide to pro- cure a log raft and prepare for the crossing of a lake ahead. That evening, when the lonely lady had milked the cow and was just ready to sit down with the children to supper, she heard a dog bark and, looking in the direction of the sound, saw a dozen stalwart Indians approaching rapidly on their fleet ponies. In a moment they were all around the camp, brandishing knives, shouting their awful war whoops and striving to outdo each other in demonstrations of savage frenzy. The terror of the poor woman may be imagined. Clinging to her dress were her frightened, crying children ; around her frenzied, yelling, apparently hostile savages and nowhere any prospect of help. The situation was soon relieved, however, for presently the Indians, obedient to some unknown impulse, suddenly mounted their ponies and were gone.

It is possible they may have gained knowl- edge of the approach of white men, for no sooner had they disappeared than two came to camp, much to the relief of Mrs. Ball. They reported having seen her husband near the lake and told her not to fear as they would camp near by for the night and afford her what protec- tion they could. But her nervousness was not entirely overcome, and throughout the long, lonely winter night, with her husband's old 1859 six-shooter in her hand and the dog for her com- panion she stood guard over her sleeping children and her belongings. Next day Mr. Ball returned and the journey was continued without exciting incident until they were safe in Skagit county.

ALPINE, THE DESERTED VILLAGE BY ELIZAN M. WALLACE

Shade of Oliver Goldsmith, where have I found thee! Not in far away English romance, but in Skagit county at the end of a runaway road, up hill and down dale ;- there, on the shores of Lake Cavanaugh lies Alpine.

Lake Cavanaugh is fourteen miles northeast of McMurray and can be reached only by wagon road. It is one of the most beautiful and pictur- esque lakes of our Northwest, three miles long and a mile wide. It is a nursling of the hills and is guarded closely by their wooded slopes. Many years ago an effort was made to establish a pleas- ure resort at this place. A number of families filed on the land bordering the lake, building their homes at the water's edge. Some erected very comfortable two-story houses of split cedar. The most pretentious of these was designed for a hotel but was never entirely completed. A school- house was built and school held within. A post- office was also established and mail arrived three times a week, being carried in by way of the McMurray road.

After a time the homesteads were proved up

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and the owners, seeming to find the loneliness growing oppressive, returned one by one to outer civilization. Many things were left behind rather than pay the expense and take the trouble of hauling them over the long, uneven road. In the upper story of Hotel Cavanaugh are beds, decaying carpets, half detached from the floors, clothing, old furniture-habitations now of scurry- ing wood rats. Below the rickety stairs are kitchen utensils and heavy dishes which the sum- mer camper may use at pleasure, -if he choose.

Tumble-down stoves, tables and bedsteads add to the internal desolation of this dilapidated building. Upon the edge of the lake, a good boat

and two dugouts are lying. Tacked on the hotel door is a cordial invitation to all comers to make free use of the boat, mildly requesting that oars and oarlocks be returned to the house after use. The old schoolhouse, with its once used register still within, still stands, so deserted one can scarcely imagine it ever rang with merry chil- dren's voices or echoed the teacher's bell. In the old postoffice, until very recently, the old post- office stamp remained, its impress bearing the legend, "Alpine, August 7, 1SS6, Washington," probably the date of the last receipt of mail.

This is Alpine, the deserted village.

In the gardens Japanese wineberry bushes bear fruit beside their country cousins, the salmon berries. Luscious cherries and plums drop from the burdened limbs to tangled grass in the midst of alder growth and young firs, while wild black- berry vines peep curiously in at broken windows. Quail and pheasants whir away through the trees, startled from their feeding places.

There is something mutely pathetic about it all. The empty houses, haunted by ghosts of bygone memories and lying so drearily in the solemn silence of the hills; the tangle of wild vines overgrowing the door steps undisturbed by straying feet; the half open doors, swinging like soldiers' empty sleeves; the orchards and gardens springing up with wild growth, Nature's perpetual protest against the invasion of her domain; the old well with curb caving in-age without a staff-all are monuments of unfulfilled human ambition.

CAUGHT IN A PUGET SOUND BLIZZARD

The terrible experience of G. W. L. Allen and his ten-year-old daughter, Minnie, now Mrs. Paul Jones of Semiahinoo, during a blizzard which swept this section in 1880, is vividly recalled by many Skagit county pioneers.

Wednesday, January 7th, according to the date recorded in E. A. Sisson's noted diary, Sheriff Allen, accompanied by his daughter, went to Fidalgo on business. Late in the afternoon he headed his boat homeward across Padilla bay. Hardly had they gotten well started on the five- mile row, however, before a snow storm set in

which soon became a blinding blizzard. The flakes of snow and the darkness, together with a high, cold wind from the north, resulted in the boat's being diverted from its course in spite of all that the sheriff could do, and the result was that he landed at the mouth of Telegraph instead of at the mouth of Indian slough. This placed him on an island embracing about two hundred and fifty acres, in the form of a square, bounded by the bay, Telegraph and Indian sloughs, and a canal dug by the settlers in 1877, connecting the two sloughs. Telegraph slough was so named from the fact that the old Western Union's wires were strung along its banks.

Night had now fallen. The storm raged with unabated fury, blotting out the whole world from view, though fortunately the temperature was not dangerously low. The hardy old pioneer and his child were not very warmly clad, and natur- ally they made all haste to reach shelter. They went straight across the field to R. E. Whitney's place, which was on the opposite side of Indian slough, to the east, and tried with all their might to attract attention, but without success. The elements were against them. Then they struck out toward the home of H. E. Dewey, Mr. Whitney's nephew, who lived on the slough nearby.

In the darkness they missed the house, again reaching Telegragh slough after a hard tramp lasting what seemed to them ages. In fact they tramped around in the deepening snow, wet to the skin and chilled, for hours, in futile efforts to locate a house. As often as they started on a course, they went astray. Ultimately their con- dition became so serious that had they stopped to rest, they must surely have been overcome by the cold and frozen to death, but they tramped and tramped unceasingly through the long night. Toward morning they reached Telegraph slough once more. Carefully following it to the canal, they slowly and painfully followed that until they reached a point opposite James Calahan's place on Indian slough. Here the distance to the house was not great, and after exhausting efforts by both father and daughter, Calahan was at last aroused. He quickly responded with a boat and soon had the sufferers snug under his hos- pitable roof. Only with the utmost care and skill were serious effects of the exposure averted and it was long afterward before the recovery of either of the unfortunate pair was complete. Mr. Sisson found the boat the next day.

REMINISCENCES OF AN EX-INDIAN AGENT BY JOHN P. MCGLINN

I arrived in Olympia from Logansport, Indi- ana, in October, 1872, having been appointed Indian farmer for the Tulalip Indian Agency by General R. H. Milroy, superintendent of Indian Affairs for the territory of Washington. The

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white population of the territory at that time numbered thirty thousand. My arrival was shortly after President Grant's famous order changing the whole system of Indian govern- ment. The president, by an executive order, divided the Indian agencies of the United States among the different Christian denominations, holding each denomination responsible for the good conduct of the Indians, as well as the honest and efficient administration of their respective agencies. Grant's policy was fiercely assailed by different factions of the American press. Its result, as foreseen from the start, was that it pleased very few, least of all the politicians, and after years of trial it was finally abandoned. Under the new regime the Tulalip agency was assigned to the Catholic church and the Rev. Father E. C. Chirouse, one of the oldest missionaries on the Pacific coast, was appointed Indian agent.

Father Chirouse was one of the best of men, one of the most unselfish men it was ever my good fortune to be associated with. He was a Frenchman who, with other young French priests as zealous and as self-sacrificing as himself, abandoned home and kindred to establish mis- sions and schools among the Indians on the Pacific coast. One of those missions was established at Priest point, opposite the present city of Everett, but was afterward removed to Tulalip. As a linguist of the different Indian dialects, Father Chirouse had no equal on the coast. He, with his co-laborers, not only taught the young Indian the common rudiments of an English education, but compiled a dictionary of their own language. The Lord's Prayer and the Apostle's Creed as well as the hymns of the church were translated by him into the Indian tongue. Father Chirouse has been dead many years, but his good works live, and perhaps, always will live.

My first visit to La Conner was in December, 1872. I was sent by the agent to the Swinomish reservation on some business in relation to the agency that has escaped my memory. There were three white people residing on the reserva- tion, L. L. Andrews, the post-trader, and James A. Gilliland and wife. Mr. Gilliland was the Western Union telegraph operator. La Conner, directly across the channel from the Indian village, was located on what was at high tide an island. It is hold and rugged, the highest elevation being about eighty feet, and must in ages gone by have been thrown up by some convulsions of nature. The adult population of the place were J. S. Conner and wife, James O'Loughlin and wife, Messrs. J. J. Conner, James and George Gaches, and Dr. Winslow, brother of Admiral Winslow. 'There was a store and postoffice combined, conducted by the Gaches brothers. J. J. Conner was owner of the town-site claim and proprietor of the hotel,

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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 89

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