An illustrated history of the state of Washington, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens, Part 22

Author: Hines, Harvey K., 1828-1902
Publication date: 1893
Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 1056

USA > Washington > An illustrated history of the state of Washington, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens > Part 22

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

Of course during this brief time little occur- red in' the Territory that made mnch impression on the history of the country. A regiment of mounted rifles was sent across the plains in the summer of 1848, and were stationed at various posts, as Oregon City, which was its head quar- ters, Vancouver, Astoria and on Puget sound This regiment was commanded by Colonel Lor- ing, afterward general, who achieved notoriety, if not reputation, in Egypt as Loring Pasha. The regiment was greatly weakened by deser- tion, 400 deserting at once and leaving for the gold mines in California. General Lane, being appealed to by the colonel, collected a body of volunteers and pursued them as far as Rogue river, where 260 surrendered to him and were brought back, but the remainder succeeded in reaching California, and were never returned to their service.

In May Governor Lane made a journey to southern Oregon to conclude a treaty with the Indians of that region, who had always been turbulent, and after completing it satisfactorily he passed on into California. Ile had fixed on the 18th of June as the time in which he would vacate the office of governor, and so, like so many others at that time, he kept on into the gold mines seeking for a better fortune. Governor Gaines reached Oregon City and assumed the duties to which he had been appointed by l'resi- dent Taylor on the 19th of September, nearly a year after his appointment. There was also au entire change in Territorial offices, consequent on the incoming of the Whig national adminis- tration. Edward Hamilton was made secretary : John McLain and William Strong, judges; Amory Holbrook, United States attorney; John Adair, collector of customs; and Henry II. Spaulding, Indian agent. Joseph L. Meek re- tained the position of United States marshal. The Legislative Assembly, whose members had been elected in June, met in December. This body being Democratic, was not in political har- mony with the Territorial officers who were Whigs and the session was not as productive of good to the Territory as it should have been. The Legislature was an able body of inen, in- cluding some who have done as much to mold the character of Oregon socially and politically as any men ever in the State, among whom, for the length and eminence of his service may be mentioned the name of M. P. Deady, long one of the most eminent jurists of the nation.

It devolved on this body to give the Territory a code of laws, and to adjust all legislation to the new conditions introduced by the new form of goverment, and the great increase of popu- lation and enlarged commercial and social de- mands. The members of the body ably and patriotically met their obligations, and the re- solt of their generally wise action was increased and permanent prosperity in the Territory.

Two events occurred in the autumn of 1850 and the early part of 1851, that were both the product of the new era and an omen of its en-

140

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.

larging life. These were the establishment of three newspapers, and the building of a steam- boat to ply on the Willamette and Columbia rivers. For some years a newspaper called the Oregon Spectator had been published at Oregon City by an association of gentlemen of which George Abernethy was president, which had contributed much to the social attraction and general advancement of the people. But with the inauguration of the Territorial era there was a large influx of ambitions and talented men, anxious for place, and as anxious for organs by which they could reach and influence the public mind. Also rival towns, with views of metro- politan importance and greatness before the eyes of their founders, were established, and they too innst needs have mediums by which their ad- vantages and the disadvantages of their rivals might be made known to the world. Accord- ingly, on the 29th of November, 1850, the Western Star rose on the horizon of Milwaukee, then a vigorous and formidable rival of Port- land and all other places for metropolitan honors. Lot Whitcomb, a name very widely and honorably known in Oregon in these early days, was its publisher, and John Orvis Water- man its editor. On the 4th of December Mr. Thomas J. Dryer issued the first number of the Oregonian in Portland. In the following March the first number of the Oregon Statesman was issned by Mr. Asahel Bush at Oregon City. From the first the Oregonian and Statesman became the organs of the two great political parties of the country,-the Whig and Demo- cratic. They were both of the most pronounced type of party journalism. Their editors were men of talent, full of zeal for their parties and fearless in their advocacy of their principles and candidates. While it is proper to concede to both of the able editors of these papers a sin- cere desire to advance the interest of the Terri- tory, it is necessary to the truth of history to say that the style of their work was far more that of the bitter partisan rather than of the broad statesman. But, in the disjointed and conglomerate state of social life then prevalent

on the Pacific coast, where, more than anywhere else in the world, every man did what he pleased, and said what he pleased, perhaps it would have been too much to expect that newspapers would be specially distinguished by their suariter in modo rather than by their fortiter in re. C'er- tainly these were not, and they won an unenvi- able notoriety for the style of their journalism; bnt at the same time they did much in these early and not very quiet days for the progress and development of the new Territory.

The Western Star did not long remain above the horizon. The Statesman has had a some- what checkered career, but still exists, and is now published at Salem, the capital of the State.

The Oregonian has held on its steady course of publication in the eity in which it was estab- lished; growing with the growth and strength- ening with the strength of the city and the country, nntil in scope and power as a daily and weekly journal it is fully the equal, if not indeed the real superior, of any newspaper pub- lished on the Pacific coast; and there are few in the nation that can stand as its rival.

The steamer built in the autumn of 1850 was constructed at Milwaukee, and called in honor of its owner the "Lot Whitcomb " of Oregon. She was launched on Christmas day, a great crowd of people attending, amid peals of cannon and the cheers of the multitude, Governor Gaines formally christening her as she moved from her ways into the waters of the Willamette.

Early in 1851 Samnel R. Thurston, delegate to Congress from the Territory, died. He was on his way home from Washington, and while at sea between Panama and Acapulco, closed his life, and was buried at Acapulco. When the news reached Oregon a few weeks later it caused a general expression of sorrow. He was a brilliant young man, full of fiery ambition, and it was expected that he would not only secure fame for himself but would accomplish much for his adopted Territory. He had made a fine reputation during the short time he was in Congress for ability and efficiency, and it was thought that he would be returned, as he

141

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.

belonged to the party that was strongly domi- nant in the politics of the Territory. At its next session the legislature honored him by be-

stowing his name upon a county organized north of the Columbia river, and now including the capital of the State of Washington.

CHAPTER XV.

OPENING HISTORY NORTH OF THE COLUMBIA.

THE OLD CHANGING INTO THE NEW-REASONS-M. T. SIMMONS AND HIS ASSOCIATES-ATTEMPTED VISIT TO PUGET SOUND-REACH THE SOUND AND BEGIN A SETTLEMENT-SLOW PROGRESS-SET- TLEMENTS OF 1848-DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN CALIFORNIA-RESULTS ON THE SETTLEMENTS-IN- DIAN TROUBLES-RETURN OF THE MINERS-FIRST AMERICAN VESSEL ARRIVES-SETTLEMENTS EXTENDING NORTHWARD-PORT TOWNSHEND-ARRIVALS OF 1851 AND '52-SEATTLE SETTLED- ITS PIONEERS-WHIDBY'S ISLAND-ON THE COLUMBIA-ON THE CHEHALIS-AT THE CASCADES.

U p to this point we have been obliged to treat of the history of all the Pacific Northwest as a unity. It could not be otherwise. The entire country was known as "Oregon," and all questions of international diplomacy and negotiation were summed up under the general head of the " Oregon ques- tion." Still they related as much to the terri- tory now included in the State of Washington as to that included in Oregon, and in some respects even more. It was the country lying north of the Columbia river that Great Britain really expected to secure to herself, and although her ambassadors and government contended for all Oregon, it was only to make sure of that part. Hence it was necessary that we treated the whole subject of that controversy in this his- torical sketch of Washington, notwithstanding the honored name of that now great State does not appear in this portion of the history. In treating this portion of her history we have thought it best to carry forward the story of logically related events beyond their order chron- ologically. Our former pages have conducted our readers to the full instatement of a Terri- torial government over the whole region known as Oregon up to 1853,-an event that superseded the old orders of personal and irresponsible action as also of that temporary government called the " Provisional." After the date reached.

in our last chapter, 1851, little or nothing oc- curred of such general historical interest, or that so largely influenced the destiny of the country that we need to consume space in re- cording it. We therefore turn to the story of that specific region now included in the State of Washington.

American history fairly begun on Puget Sound just a decade after it began in the Willamette valley. It was on this wise. As the controver- sy concerning the ownership of Oregon opened to the minds of the gentlemen of the Hudson's Bay Company, it became probable to Dr. Mc- Loughlin and his associates that Great Britain would not be able to vindicate her pretensions to the country south of the Columbia, but they hoped a compromise would be made on the line of that river as the boundary between the two countries. With this hope they discouraged all American settlement north of it, and it was not until the winter of 1844 and 1845 that any attempt was made to carry American occupancy to the shores of Puget Sound. The leader of this attempt was Michael T. Simmons, an em- migrant of 1844, who had remained at Fort Vancouver during the winter following his ar- rival in the country. It was doubtless his resi- dence in the near neighborhood of these gentle- men, and his consequent information concerning their views and purposes that determined him to

142

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.

give the emphasis of an actual American settle- ment to the other claims of the United States to that region. As this decision of Mr. Simmons made his name historic, as, par excellence, tlie pioneer of Washington, it is snitable that we introduce him more ceremoniously to our readers.

Mr. Simmons was a stalwart Kentuckian, born in 1814, and inheriting the splendid physique and indomitable purpose and courage that have made Kentnekians so famous. Just past thirty when he reached the Pacific Coast, he was in the morning of his best powers and life. Independ- ent, courageous, intensely American, what the Hudson's Bay people desired him not to do was the very thing that he would be most certain to perform. He therefore abandoned his previous purpose to settle in Southern Oregon, where they desired him to go, and resolved to go northward, where they desired him not to go, and see what it was in that region that was so enticing to British cupidity. Accordingly, in the winter of 1844 and 1845, with five companions, he at- tempted to penetrate the hundred miles of wil- derness that lay between the Columbia river and Puget Sound. The company found the season too unpropitions for the exploration of such continuous and gigantic forests, and, after as- cending the Cowlitz river about fifty miles they returned to Fort Vancouver. Yet his purpose was not abandoned, but only postponed. In July, with eight companions, he again set out, and finally reached Puget Sound under the guid- ance of Mr. Peter Borcier. He performed a canoe voyage as far as Whidby's Island, explor- ing different parts of the shore on his way, and fully satisfied himself of the commercial value of the country. Returning, he selected a picturesque spot at the head of Budd's Inlet, the most southern extension of the waters of the Sound, at the Falls of Des Chutes river, as the site for his future home, and the first American settlement north of the Columbia. He then returned to Vancouver, and in October, accom- panied by Messrs. James McAllister, David Kindred, Gabriel Jones, George W. Bush and

their families, and S. B. Crockett and Jesse Fer- guson, two single men, found his way back again to the place selected for their settlement. These seven were the first Americans to per- manently locate on Puget Sound, and they be- long to history as the pioneers of Washington.

This first settlement occupied a radius of about six miles about the head of Budd's Inlet, and but a little sonth of where Olympia, the present capital of the State, now is. It was also not many miles from Nisqually, the head- quarters of the Hudson's Bay Company in that region, from which company, by order of Dr. McLoughlin, they received considerable mer- cantile favors, never, however, to the detriment of the company. Thus, nine years after the first American families had effected a settlement sonth of the Columbia, these people had per- formed the same patriotic office for the region of Puget Sound.

No one entering this region at the present time can forin any idea of the difficulty attend- ing the enterprise of these people. The forests of the country were almost impenetrable, and they covered nearly all its face. To open a trail from the Cowlitz river northward was the hard work of weeks, and then to make such an inroad upon the forests as to give any hope of future support for their families was a task that only brave and manly men would dare to under- take. 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 think of it now, after fifty years, we wonder how these seven men, isolated 150 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, snc- ceeded in establishing themselves and their families in this then most inhospitable region. . That they did marks them as heroes.

The year 1846 passed with only small addi- tions to the little settlements. Abont the same number of men, but not so many families, were added to their number. Among them were Mr. Edmund Sylvester, who selected the land claim

143

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.

on which Olympia now stands, Mr. A. B. Rob- bison, and Mr. S. S. Ford, who became perma- nently associated with the future development of the country.

There was scarcely more progress to settle- ment in 1847 than in 1846, but the few who . came 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. The Davises, the Packwoods, the Chambers, were of this number, and these names are honorably fixed in the history of Washington. This year was also signalized by the erection of a sawmill at the falls of the Des Chutes, since called Tumwater, on the land claim of M. T. Simmons. A small flour- ing mill had before been erected at the same place, with bubrs hewn out of some granite rocks found on the beach of Budd's Inlet, which afforded some unbolted flour as a change from boiled wheat for bread. During the autumn of this year the Whitman massacre occurred at Waiiletpu, near Fort Walla Walla, in the east- ern part of the present State of Washington, an account of which is given elsewhere. Its cir- eninstances of atrocity sent a tremor through all the infant settlements of the territory, and awakened the most fearful apprehensions for their own fate.

The following year, 1848, a few immigrants settled along the Cowlitz river aud on Cowlitz prairie, on the middle part of that stream. Thomas W. Glasgow also explored the shores of Puget Sound as far north as Whidby Island, where he took a land claim and began farming on a small scale, where he was joined by a few other settlers before the summer was over. But they were not permitted to remain. The In- dians of that part of the sound held a general council on the island, at the instigation of Pat- kanim, chief of the Snoqualimies, and the coun- cil decided against allowing the Americans to settle in their country. Glasgow was compelled to quit the island, escaping with difficulty by the aid of a friendly Indian from Budd's Inlet, leaving behind him all his property. This

closed for a time all attempts to effect a settle- ment on Whidby's island, and soon after an event occurred which changed all the currents of thought and action, north as well as south of the Columbia. That event was the discovery of gold in California, the news of which seemed borne on the wind from the Sacramento to Puget's Sound, and startled every man from the sober plodding of careful industry to the excited daring of adventure and speculation. Nearly every man set off at once for the gold fields of the South, leaving their families and possessions in the isolation of the wilderness, and exposed to the dangers of Indian barbarity.

Though the distance from these settlements to the gold fields was not much greater than from the Willamette valley, the difficulty of reaching them was more than doubled. Indeed it was more difficult to pass over the 150 miles between the head of Puget Sound and the prairies of the Willamette valley than to make all the journey thence to the Sacramento. But all diffienlties and dangers can be braved for gold; and certainly the men who had made the 2,000 miles journey from Tennessee or Ken- tucky or Illinois to the shores of Puget Sound would not hesitate to undertake the 600 miles pilgrimage down the southward valleys and over the intervening mountains to where they expected. to find the gold rolling down the channels of the streams or mixed with the sand on every hillside.

This exodus of the adult male population for the gold fields had a very depressing effect on the present prosperity of the country north of the Columbia, inasmuch as it left none to clear the ground, or to sow and reap a harvest. All in- dustries were suspended and the people who re- mained, mostly women and children, had noth- ing to do but to wait the return of the gold- hunters, whether they came back with the golden fleece or not. But while their absence was an apparent loss, in the outcome of things it was a great benefit to the feeble and strng- gling settlements, for, on their return at the end of two years, they introdueed an era of pros-

144

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.

perity that a score of years would hardly have secured under the conditions existing pre- viously. The discovery of gold had turned the attention of the whole world to the Pacific coast, and the tide of population that rolled over the plains of California could not fail to send its human spray over the shores of Puget Sound as well. So, in a reflex way, the whole coast felt the movement of a new life, and three or four years accomplished what a quarter of a century might have failed otherwise to secure.

But the period from 1848 to 1851 was a time of special peril to the scattered families north of the Columbia. The Indians of the lower sound threatened the extermination of the settlements, and even attacked the Hudson's Bay post at Nisqually, with the intention of securing, by its capture, ammunition with which to carry on a war of extermination against the whites. This movement was under the leader. ship of Patkanim, chief of the Suoqualmies, a man of great influence among the neighboring tribes. Their attempt was a failure, however, but still, so determined were the Indians on driving the whites out of the country that Pat- kanim sent word to them that they would be permitted to leave unmolested personally by leaving all their property. The whites answered this threat of Patkanim with defiance, assuring him that they had come to stay. They imme- diately erected blockhouses at Tumwater and at several other places and prepared to defend themselves from Indian attacks. Added to their own readiness to meet the attacks of Patkanim and those who sympathized with him, the In- dians_about the head of the sound were friendly and assured the whites of their sympathy and help. Meantime the decisive measures of Gov- ernor Lane, who had arrived at Oregon City in March, and the erection of Fort Steilacoom in July, convinced Patkanim and his adherents that a war with the whites would be a disaster to themselves, and their plans and purposes were abandoned. This auspicions result of the first serions threat of an Indian war on the Sound, occurring as it did when the people were

so comparatively defenceless, gave the whites confidence, and to a proportionate extent made the Indians more careful and friendly for some years to come.

The year 1849 saw but very little increase in the population of the country. California was still the Mecca of the wealth-seekers of the coast, and . nothing but the fact that so many who had left their families in the wilds north of the Colum- bia prevented its almost entire abandonment. But after a time the husbands and fathers whose wives and children were in the perilous loneli- ness of these northern wilds began to long for them again, and by the opening of 1850 a large number of them were back on their claims, and had resumed the usual vocations of home- builders, perhaps somewhat richer in gold than when they had left, and probably not appreciat- ing less the country that they had chosen as their home. The early part of this year was signalized also by the first attempt at commer- cial business beyond the little " corner grocery " where some aspiring tradesman had provided a few of the barest necessities for the homes of the self-denying frontiersmen. The brig Orbit of Calais, Maine, under the command of Captain W. H. Dunham, arrived in the Sound. She was the first American vessel that had visited these waters since the American settle- ment was commenced. She was owned by Edmund Sylvester, I. N. Ebey, B. F. Shead and one Jackson, and had been purchased by them in San Francisco from a company of gold-seek- ers who had come in her from Maine to the El- dorado of the Pacific. She was afterward pur- chased by M. T. Simmons, freighted witlı piles for San Francisco where her cargo was exchanged for general merchandise, and returned to the Sound, where her cargo was discharged at " Smithfield," or, as it was soon after called, " Olympia," later the capital of the Territory and now of the State of Washington. Mr. Simmons erected a small building for a store in which were exposed for sale the goods the Orbit had brought. She was the beginning of American commerce on Puget Sound. At this time there

FIRST HOUSE IN JEFFERSON COUNTY, WASHINGTON TERRITORY. Built at Port Townsend in 1851. by Plummer, Batchelder, Pettygrove and Hastings.

PORT TOWNSEND, 1893 .- OVERLOOKING THE BAY.

149

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.

were not more than 100 white inhabitants in the region tributary to Olympia.

This initial stake of business having been thus successfully set at Olympia, the lines of settlement began to extend from it in every direction. Steilacoom, occupying a point ou the sound below Olympia, and abreast of the Nisqually plains, was settled and a large busi- ness house erected there. Port Townshend was settled by H. C. Wilson. I. N. Ebey late in the fall occupied the claim on Whidby's Island from which Glasgow had been driven by the hostilities of Patkanim, and R. HI. Lansdale took a claim at the head of Penn's Cove. 'These were among the first, if not the first, who es- tablished themselves about the lower portion of the Sound: but they were soon followed by Pettygrove and Hastings. A town was laid out on the west side of Port Townshend Bay, called after the bay itself, Port Townshend, 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 whites on the edge of the dark forests, and darker humanity, of the vast region encompassing the waters of that great inland sea. But the time had come for a more appreciable advance.

With the Oregon immigration of 1851 there were quite a number of very resolute people who had already determined to seek their for- tnnes in this farthest west on "the Sound "-as this country had come to be familiarly called. When, therefore, that immigration reached Ore- gon City they were prepared to turn their faces northward, and, following the course of the old Hudson's Bay trail, seek homes and fortunes in the great wilderness that girted these waters. Many of them were hunting for town sites,- places where great cities were to grow up, and where they could become wealthy by the easy growth of the years. Others whose ambitions culminated in the hoped-for possession of some spot of earth that could be called "home," were content to find some rural vale or sheltered cove where they could rear a cabin and build around

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

An illustrated history of the state of Washington, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens, Part 22

Author: Hines, Harvey K., 1828-1902 Publication date: 1893 Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis publishing company Number of Pages: 1056

Author: Hines, Harvey K., 1828-1902
Publication date: 1893
Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 1056