USA > Washington > Thurston County > Early history of Thurston County, Washington : together with biographies and reminiscences of those identified with pioneer days > Part 15
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That summer was a very dreary one for us, as we had never been where there were forest fires before. We feared that the fire might come on us at any time as the grass on the prairie was very thick and dry. For days the sun hung like a
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ball of fire in the heavens. When the rain came and cleared the smoke away all was again pleasant and we soon forgot our disagreeable times.
Our housekeeping for my brothers was of short duration, as my neice decided to become somebody's else housekeeper. On the morning of September 22, 1853, she was married to A. W. Stewart, a young man who had crossed the plains with us.
After her departure I made my home with my brother and his wife until January, 1854.
On the 18th of that month I was married to Andrew J. Chambers, and came to reside in this house. We have spent our lives here since then, and, by the laws of Nature, we haven't many more years to live, but hope we shall live them here, where we have seen our greatest joys and sor- rows. I must say that I had never known what true happiness was until I was married, as I had never known the love of father or mother. I found great happiness in a loving. affec- tionate husband. I only hope that all my daughters may be as happy in marriage as their mother. We have raised a large family of girls (that we are more than proud of) ten in number, seven of whom are still living to cheer our declin- ing days.
The Indian war of 1855-56 was a trying time for the new settlers. About this time I had a bad scare. Although the Indians east of the mountains were on the war path and we heard all kinds of rumors of their intention to take our section of the country, the Sound Indians were apparently friendly. An Indian lad who had worked for us told us we - were in danger, but we paid little attention to him, although I was frightened and uneasy.
A brother of my husband's lived a mile from us, on the place his father had settled in 1848. This brother and a young man who lived with him were sitting out in front of their cabin, in the twilight, one evening within hearing of the Indian camp. As they understood the Indian language and heard their names mentioned, they listened and heard an old Indian say. as he passed his finger over the sharp edge of a knife he had bought from John Chambers: "Little did John think he was selling me the knife to kill him with." Then they talked and planned how they could execute their
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bloody work, and about this time the boys made tracks for our house, so seared that they even left their guns. How well I remember that night ! When we heard the gate open and shut, Mr. Chambers sprang out of bed and grasped his gun. I tell you, those boys made tracks when they heard him, for they knew he had his revolvers and gun ready. As soon as they could speak they called to him, and I can tell you we were relieved when we heard who it was. Oh, how I shook ! Just like one with the ague.
Then the men sat up on guard and run bullets all night, as that was the only kind of ammunition we had in those days.
Early the next morning the boys returned to their home to see how things looked. The old Indian was as fine as he could be, and wanted to be very gracious. He had told John Chambers some time before that he had come to camp by him and was going to live and die by him. The old hypocrite! When he saw the boys he asked them where they slept. They replied : "In bed." "Not here." he said. Then they asked him how he knew. He said they were in the house for some medicine for a sick child, which was another story.
Very soon we heard of men being waylaid and shot, and the country was all excitement. Shortly the people began to gather into forts to protect themselves. The fort for this part of the country was on our place and is still in use as a barn. There were block houses on each corner. At one time there were thirty-two families in this fort. There were any number of children and dogs, and, consequently, any amount of music, especially of evenings. We had many startling events, of which I well remember one. My husband was lieutenant of the company of volunteers within the fort, so he was ordered by the captain of the company to take a number of men and make a scout through the neighborhood and see if there were any Indians prowling around. They mounted their horses about five o'clock one afternoon and rode away toward Yelm Prairie. Shortly afterwards the command was given for every man to get his gun and stand in readiness, as the Indians might attack the fort at any moment, as they had undoubtedly attacked the men who had gone on the scouting expedition, for
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they had heard the report of several guns in the direction they had gone.
Such a commotion ! My feelings can better be imagined and described, but time told us our fears were groundless.
That was a long night. Not a wink of sleep for me. Morning came, but no signs of Indians. The men were out two days and never saw nor heard an Indian. How rejoiced I was when I saw my good husband again !
There was one man in the company who used to give us a scare by firing his gun while on guard. The orders were not a gun was to be shot unless at an Indian. Knowing this, imagine yourself, sitting by the fire, with everything quiet. and then hear one shot after another! The old man always said he saw Indians.
The war broke out in October, 1855. and ended in June. 1856. The last battle was fought east of the mountains.
There is a great deal more that I could write, but time will not permit me.
MK
PUBLIC LIBRARY
CIOR, LEAUX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONE.
JACOB OTT AND WIFE
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MRS. JACOB OTT
"I wish Mr. Ott were here to tell you about the exciting experiences he went through in early days," said Mrs. Jacob Ott, when interviewed and asked to tell the story of her life in Olympia. "I never knew any hardships, and, although the life in America was new and strange to me, upon my arrival from my girlhood home in Switzerland, I was always com- fortable. All dangers from Indian outrages was over and civilization was quite well advanced.
"But when Mr. Ott came to America in 1850, he found the country very different from what he had been accustomed to. He was also born in Switzerland and it was there that he learned his trade of carpenter. When quite a young man he came to this country, stopping first in St. Louis. Later he joined a train of emigrants bound for the Golden West. All places were alike to the young man. adventure, and perhaps a chance to gather some of the gold he heard so much about, was what he was looking for. The trip was made in the regulation way-ox teams-to Portland, Oregon. After six months in that settlement. Mr. Ott heard so much talk of the opportunities to be found on Puget Sound, that he determined to try his luck there. Tumwater was the only place of any importance then, so he came. arriving here in 1852. From Monticello Landing, Mr. Ott made the trip to Tumwater on horseback. The prospects of this section of the Northwest looked good to him, so he decided to stay here.
"Among the first things Mr. Ott did was to buy a num- ber of lots of timber land in the town and begin clearing them off. The lots were very heavily wooded, and almost the first thing that happened to the young man was an incident that at the time frightened him into a cold perspiration. One morn- ing he had laid his ax at the root of a tall fir and had it chopped part way through, so the mighty trunk began to bend towards the ground, when there dropped at the feet of the
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young woodsman a small Indian baby, which had apparently only been dead a short time. Mr. Ott was simply paralyzed with fear and for a while thought the child must have been thrown at him by some unseen Indians as a menace of some sort. But after a while it occurred to him to examine the top branches of the tree, and there he discovered the rude cradle in which the papoose had been put to sleep his last sleep. A further search disclosed three other Indians repos- ing in the tree tops and then it dawned on him that he had intruded on an Indian 'burying' ground, if I may call it that. The experience was an unusual one to a young man fresh to the manners and customs of the wilderness. He always looked carefully in the branches of a tree before beginning cutting after that.
"Before Mr. Ott had lived in the West very long. he took up a claim, five miles out from Tumwater, and built a little shack on the land. living there alone while he cleared and got the place ready for planting.
"He didn't spend much time or labor on the house and used shakes he cut himself, in the construction. So flimsy was the structure that many a night he stood guard all night long, with an ax in his hands, to protect himself and pro- visions from the cougars, which whined and growled at the rude door and threatened to break in at any moment. The wild animals smelled the meat which Mr. Ott would have in his shack and were determined to have their share. This lasted till he could take time to build a more secure house.
"Mr. Ott served his six months in the Indian war, as did most of the men living here in the days of the trouble with the Indians. His special work was teaming for the government, hauling supplies to the forts and wherever troops were sta- tioned. As the rascals were anxious for the provisions and blankets, with which the wagons were loaded, this was con- sidered to be especially dangerous. and Mr. Ott used to tell me about sleeping at nights holding the lariat ropes of his cattle all night long to prevent a stampede.
"One night, I remember my husband telling me about, the Indians were all around the teams and an ambush was feared at any moment. There were five or six teamsters in the train and their wagons were loaded with what would have been a
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rich haul for the Indians. Night was coming on and the men were worried at the prospects of camping there, being al- most sure they would be attacked before morning. A halt was called to discuss the situation when there was seen com- ing towards them, the most wrinkled old squaw the eve of man had ever beheld. She must have passed the century mark in years, so old and feeble did she appear. Holding up her hand in sign of peace, she came up to the men, and in Chinook, told them not to go that way that night for they would surely be killed if they did, but instead to camp for the night under a certain tree which stood all by itself on a cleared place a little way off.
"The men didn't know anything better to do, although they were afraid of treachery on the part of the squaw. But after a consultation, they decided to take the warning and camp where the squaw directed them to do.
"Sure enough, the tree was found just as had been de- scribed and when the teams reached the spot, the wagons were corraled and the men prepared to spend the night. They were not molested, and in the morning proceeded on their way in peace. The mystery of the squaw's protection was never ex- plained, nor why they were not attacked during the night. Mr. Ott often wondered if there was not some sort of an Indian superstition about the tree which safeguarded anyone who sought shelter beneath its branches.
"After a number of years, Mr. Ott prospered so well that he began to think he would like to see his boyhood home and friends again, so he went back to Switzerland on a visit. While there he met me, then quite a young girl, and induced me to come to America with him. We were passengers on the second train that ever started to cross the continent.
"When I arrived here I couldn't tell 'yes' from 'no' in English, and I thought I never would be able to make my- self understood. I could have learned Chinook quicker than I did English, only I was so afraid of the Indians. Mr. Ott was a favorite with them and when we got here they came in dusky swarms, crowding right up to the door of the house to see Jake's wife. I nearly died, I was so frightened of them.
"I was that lonesome and homesick that when my Henry
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was born I thought if anything should happen to that baby I'd just end it all by jumping into the bay. But he kept me from moping around much, for he was the greatest care for a , long time. The poor little thing was so tiny that for the first six weeks we kept him in a ten-pound tea box, wrapped in cotton. He was too small to dress and when he was big enough to handle. I had to make him a complete new ward- robe, for everything I had made before he was born was too large for him.
"When we finally decided to move from Tumwater and came to Olympia, Mr. Ott built this house, where we have lived ever since. Every stick in the house was put here by Mr. Ott's own hands.
"Fifteen years ago. in August, 1899. my husband died in this house, after an illness of only a few moments, so ful- filling the desire of his later years that when Death called him he would go quick.
"We have had three children, Henry, born February 18, 1870; Walter, born in Baker, Oregon, March 20, 1872; Ger- trude, born at Globe, Arizona, February 28, 1875."
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DR. ALONZO GERRY COOK
While not a Thurston County pioneer within the strictest meaning of the term, Dr. Alonzo Gerry Cook has spent so many summers with his daughter, Mrs. Millard Lemon, on Puget Sound, and during his younger manhood so frequently visited the Territorial capital in pursuit of official duty, that a history of this section would be incomplete without some mention of this grand old man and his devoted wife.
Born in Portland, Maine, on May 13, 1839, the young Alonzo spent his infant years at this place, accompanying his parents to Illinois, settling about sixty miles from Chicago. Here he grew to young manhood, and after graduating from a law school, was admitted to practice law. In 1861 Mr. Cook met and married Miss Isabella Webster. Dr. Cook's tribute to the devotion of his wife was beautiful. He said: "My wife, born in London, England, came to America in a sailing vessel before steam was commonly used. The ocean trip con- sumed six weeks, then through the Erie Canal to Buffalo, and then through Lake Erie to Ohio. Later, after our marriage to Washington, then to Long Beach and Los Angeles-cows, mules and stage being the means of conveyance for the three times this noble woman has accompanied me across the plains. In later years we have taken the trip several times with all the luxury and conveniences furnished by the Pullman Com- pany, but Mrs. Cook was as cheerful and uncomplaining dur- ing those days of hardship and trial as she was when we traveled in comfort."
In the Spring of 1862, Mr. Cook and his girl bride started to cross the plains with a team of four cows. After the usual hardships attendant on the emigrant trip, the young couple finally reached The Dalles. Two of their cows succumbed to the rigors of the trip and the wagon was hauled the last stages of the journey by the two remaining animals. Dr. Cook tells as characteristic the way these pioneer emigrants had to manage, how the Snake River was crossed in those days long before man had set a pier or placed a stick in the building of bridges across any of the western streams. "We took off
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the wagon bed, when we came to Snake River, unloaded our plunder and my wife spared a garment and I spared another, to tear into strips. With these we caulked the wagon box the best we could and put it in shallow water to soak over night. In the morning, partly loading our equipment in the box, we started to paddle over. I steered and rowed the ex- temporized craft the best I could, but the water rushed in in spite of our caulking, so my wife bailed for dear life till we landed on the far shore. Then we had to return, and make the trip several times, for we did not dare to put much of our plunder in at one time. The cows then swam across the river, we reloaded and proceeded on our way, nothing daunted and hardly considering that we had done anything remarkable, as that was the only way of crossing large streams in those days.
"When The Dalles was reached, we sold our remaining cows for barely money enough to take us to Portland. This city was then only a village of one street and few business houses. We stayed the first night at the old Portland Hotel a small wooden building. The next morning I went out on the streets to look for a job. We were broke and I needed a job the worst way. Almost the first man I met was a farmer from Yamhill County, named Griner. He was road master in his section and wanted a man to work on the road. He told me he could give me and my wife house room while I was working for him. I gladly accepted and soon was armed with a pick and shovel. Mr. Griner was in doubt as to some of his legal privileges in his work and asked my advice. I told him I did not know what the local custom was but so and so was the law on the case. He was surprised at my legal knowledge and asked me about it. I told him I had the theory but had never vet practised law. Mr. Griner told me to drop the pick and shovel and take my wife and go to Lafayette, Oregon. He wanted to send his young lady daughter to school and wanted to board her with a cultured family, and assured us he would see that we had enough to eat during the winter. This was the end of our very hard times. While we were in Lafayette. our only child. Marabell, was born."
Mr. Cook then related that soon after the birth of his child he was offered the position of district attorney for that
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section of the Northwest that is now Idaho. He went to Boise City alone, but sent for Mrs. Cook and the baby within a short time. They remained in Boise City a couple of years and then Mr. Cook was sent to the Eastern States for the purpose of securing a charter for the First National Bank of that city. Chris Moore was the bank president. His wife accompanied him on this trip, which was made by stage.
Upon Mr. Cook's return to the West he settled in Van- couver, where he became a partner in a law office with the Hon. H. G. Struve. Struve afterwards was made District At- torney over a group of ten counties, of which Thurston was one. When Struve's term expired, Mr. Cook was elected to succeed his former law partner.
During the two years of this service, Mr. Cook made fre- quent trips to attend the Supreme Court in Olympia and be- came very well acquainted with the best people of the Capitol City. He can remember when Tacoma was only a dream of the future, one settler, Job Carr, being the entire population of the City of Destiny.
About this time Mr. Cook's health began to fail him, and in looking over some medical books to investigate his ail- ments he became interested in medicine and decided to study that profession. He took a course in the Cooper Medical College in San Francisco. Then he went to Chicago where he became a graduate of the Hahnemann Homeopathic College.
During the year of 1872 Dr. and Mrs. Cook and their young daughter went to California to make their home. They were accompanied on this trip by William Lemon and family to Los Angeles. Dr. Cook practised medicine in this city and Oakland for many years.
Although the doctor has now retired from active practise he has by no means retired from active life for when the compiler of these reminiscences called upon him at the home of his son-in-law, Millard Lemon, he told about having spent the greater part of the day pruning a pear tree 50 feet high in its top boughs.
Dr. and Mrs. Cook claim Long Beach, California, for their home, but every summer the lure of Puget Sound calls them and they come up and spend the hot months visiting at the home of their only daughter, Mrs. Millard Lemon.
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WILLIAM D. KING
The history of William D. King as related by his son, Charles D. King, is but a repetition of the sturdy expression of the spirit of adventure which led so many from comfortable homes in the Eastern States, to undergo the hardships and privations of a frontier life.
In 1852. William King left his young wife, Caroline, in their Michigan home, and crossed the plains with the customary ox teams. Arriving in this section, the summer was spent at Grand Mound Prairie, looking for a place of permanent loca- tion.
In the spring of 1853. Mr. King decided to take up a dona- tion claim in Cowlitz County, and selected a site just above the town of Kelso on the Cowlitz River. For a couple of years Mr. King worked on his claim, subduing the wilderness and build- ing up a home for his young wife.
Finally, in 1855, Mrs. King was sent for, to join her hus- band, and made the trip to Washington by way of Panama, being among the first passengers to travel on the railroad which had recently been built across the Isthmus. The Kings continued to occupy their farm on the Cowlitz until the year 1863, and during this time, in 1859, their son, Charles D., was born.
During the time of the Indian war troubles, in 1855-56, Mr. and Mrs. King and son were obliged to take refuge in the block house on the Cowlitz. It was during their sojourn in this place of refuge that their second son, the late H. S. King, was born.
Neighbors of the King family in the fort were the Ostrander and the Catlin families, whose names are among the best known of the pioneers of that section.
Mr. King was the second auditor ever elected in Cowlitz County, which office he held for several terms.
In 1863, the family sold their donation claim and removed
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to Clackamas County, Oregon, afterwards settling in Umatilla County, where they lived until the time of Mr. King's death. This latter event occurred while he was on a trip to Michigan, where he had taken his younger son to place him in school, and was caused by a railroad wreck.
The son, Charles, then wandered forth in the world on his own responsibility, leading the checkered career of a young man striving to educate himself, and at the same time earn his living on the frontier. The lad drifted to California, then to Winnemucca, Nevada, then on into Idaho, finally settling for several years at Weiser City, in that Territory.
It was at Winnemucca that he was admitted to practise law, and here, too, he was living at the time of the Bannock and Nez Perce Indian wars. Mr. King was one of the guard stationed outside that frontier town to give warning to the citizens of the approach of the Indians who were ravaging the country in Idaho and Nevada, terrorizing the settlers, and freighters, and even the inhabitants of the smaller towns, who feared an attack. The tribes at one time joined forces and numbered 2,000 warriors.
The younger King, before practising law, for a time, led a wild life as a cowboy on the Idaho ranges, and during this time was participant in many exciting adventures.
In 1891, C. D. King came to Olympia, and began the practise of law. He still continues to live in this city.
His only brother, H. S. King, died in Olympia, in 1912.
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WILLIAM LEMON
William Lemon and his wife were among the pioneers of the Cowlitz River settlement, and later of Cowlitz Prairie, and their experiences in this section were such as to try men's souls, until land was cleared and cultivated and neighbors began to arrive.
The subject of this sketch, William Lemon, was born in Orange County. New York, his parents later going to Michi- gan, then to Illinois, and still later out to Iowa, where they lived for several years. Here William became a man and was finally married to a blithe Irish. lass.
The young couple, with their one child, caught the emigra- tion fever and decided to cast their fortunes with other emi- grants and go to Oregon, so in 1852 the trip was made with ox teams.
When The Dalles was reached, late in the fall, Mr. Lemon decided to leave his considerable number of cattle there to winter, and go on down to Portland. Here he expected to find work at his trade of carpenter.
However, before the little family reached this point, an important event happened. Their second child was born. His birth place was beside the Snake River in what is now Idaho, but was then comprised within the Oregon boundary. His cradle was a box in the wagon bed, his lullaby the rustle of the wind through the sage brush and grease wood. His mother told. to the time of her last illness, how the little fellow cried day and night, after he was taken into the house, for the rock- ing of the wagon. That child is now Millard Lemon of Olympia.
When spring came, Mr. Lemon went back to The Dalles to round up his cattle. The winter had been a hard one, and in common with many other emigrants, who had hoped their cattle would winter without other feed than what the animals could pick up on the ranges, Mr. Lemon lost every one of
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his cattle except one ox. Owing to the hardness of the winter and unexpected rush of emigration during the year of 1852-3. the crop of potatoes produced by the few farmers around Portland was soon used up and the prices for this vegetable soared to the sky. The elder Lemon thought there must be a fortune in potatoes, judging from the price he was obliged to pay. So when spring came, he took his family and went on up to the Cowlitz country. took up a piece of land, and put it all in potatoes. As everyone else in the country had been pos- sessed with the same inspiration, there was almost no giving this humble vegetable away, and priees scarcely paid for the digging.
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