USA > Washington > Thurston County > Early history of Thurston County, Washington : together with biographies and reminiscences of those identified with pioneer days > Part 22
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The hugh pile of bricks with its iron grated wards filled with gibbering, gestieulating maniacs, the squads of the more orderly inmates in charge of their attendants working and resting around the beautiful grounds is, perhaps, a sight to interest the curious, but one which fills the average beholder with sadness. Here the cottages which were officers' quarters in the days of military occupancy of the place are now used as homes for the assistant physicians, engineer and accountants. employed in the asylum. In a field adjoining are still to be seen the "Z" shaped earth works thrown up by the soldiers of Captain Pickett's regiment. For over twenty-five years one of the attendants in the men's ward of the asylum has been Mr. Fred Guyot, formerly an Olympia boy, son of Julian Guyot. the pioneer jeweler of Olympia. Fred was born in Calaveras County. California, in 1851. His father, a native of Switzer- land had, with his young wife, been among the gold seekers of 49. On July 4, 1859, shortly after the death of Fred's mother. the elder Guyot and his little son left San Francisco for Puget Sound. The trip was made on the steamship Northerner and was the last voyage of this vessel, as upon her return to San Francisco she was wrecked off the Oregon coast.
When the Guyots arrived at Olympia the steamer landed at the historic Brown's Wharf on the West Side. Father and
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son, with other passengers, were brought to the town in a row boat, which was manned and operated for hire by the brothers AAlonzo and Theodore Woodard. Until a permanent boarding place could be found the new arrivals stayed at the Pacific Hotel, which was then managed by Mrs. Warbass. The elder Guyot engaged in the jewelry and watch repairing business. Watches were sent him from all over the western part of the territory to be made as good as new again.
Mr. Julian Guyot died in Olympia in 1877. The younger Guyot attended the public school of the place, and remembers John and Robert Yantis, Billy Clark, Bernham Huntington, Will Reinhart, Ben Cock, Frank Hicks, Lizzie Warbass. and Fannie Yantis, as among his schoolmates. His first Sunday School teacher was Mrs. George F. Whitworth. Mr. Guyot was ap- pointed attendant at the asylum under Dr. Waughop, in 1889. The visitor to Steilacoom strolling through the abandoned cemetery in the rear of the huge pile of buildings and within the asylum enclosure finds plenty of food for reflection upon the unstability of human greatness. Here, underneath a mossy siab of marble with the lettering all but defaced, the wild grasses growing in a tangle within the little enclosure made of decaying pickets rest the remains of the fourth governor of the territory, Col. William H. Wallace.
Within a few feet from the grave of this honored man is standing a wooden slab bearing this inscription : "In mem- ory of Charles McDonald, aged 36 years. Died at the hands of violence, 1870."
Mr. Guyot's account of the tragic circumstances of Mc- Donald's death is given in his own words: "Charlie Mc- Donald and his partner, named Gibson, had staked out a claim not far from Fort Steilacoom, which they had worked and improved until they had developed a valuable property. Mc- Donald was a remarkably handsome young man with black flashing eyes, black hair, worn, as was the fashion of the time. well down over his coat collar, erect figure and gallant bear- ing. He was a fine figure of a man as he rode into town mounted on his spirited horse.
Now, infesting the prairie and surrounding section held forth as lawless and vicious a band of men as could be found on the frontier. The leader of these leagued rogues had cast
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covetous eyes upon MeDonald's and Gibson's claim, and as was so often done in those wild days took steps to secure the land by preferring the charge that the partners were what was known in the parlance of the day. "claim jumpers." Mc- Donald and Gibson acknowledged the subpeona served upon them and set out to appear in court to answer to the summons.
When within a short distance from the fort, where the trail wound through the woods, the men were ambushed by the gang of claim jumpers, who began pouring a rain of bullets at them. Their horses dashed forward and McDonald escaped unharmed, but not so Gibson, who was unfortunate enough to receive eight bullet wounds in his arms and legs, none striking a vital spot. however. McDonald helped his partner into the fort, where he was turned over to the army physician to have his wounds dressed. The young man then rode on into the town of Steilacoom to demand protection of the Sheriff. Ike Carson, who was, however, out of the country, as the mob well knew. Soon the gang followed him into town. ranging themselves in line on the opposite side of the street from a saloon in which MeDonald was standing and began to call upon him to show himself. Thinking to argue with the mob. McDonald stepped to the door, and said. "Now, boys. let's talk this matter over. There must be some misunderstanding and to show you that I want peace I'll throw my gun away." Suiting the action to the word he hurled his weapon into the dust of the street. Scarcely had he done so, however, when the gang opened fire. Realizing then that they would not stop short of murder, McDonald turned and ran through the saloon and down an alley in the rear. The men started after him in full cry, firing as they ran. Before the fugitive had gone forty feet a bullet reached its mark and he fell mortally wounded.
As he lay there in the pitiless sun, a small boy, attracted by the shots, came down the alley. Hearing McDonald's gasp- ing cry for "water" the lad started to bring him some, but the leader of the murderers stepped out and warned the child that McDonald's fate would be his if he dared to relieve his distress, the boy shrank, whimpering away, leaving the dying man to groan aloud in his death agony.
But, look, is this an angel bending piteously over the sufferer? So she must have seemed to McDonald as his dying
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gaze looked into the sad. tender eyes of a Sister of Charity.
This sister, one of a band of noble women inhabiting the nunnery, which the Catholic Church had early established in Steilacoom, had hastened to the awful scene as soon as she heard the shots and realized that her ministrations might be needed.
"Go, sister, leave me, your life is in danger," gasped Me- Donald. "By all the powers of God, church and humanity, I dare them to interfere with me." said the Sister as she moist- ened the lips and straightened the limbs of the dying man. Not one of that lawless band moved a finger to prevent the sister in her work of mercy. When life was extinct McDonald's remains were taken into the little old Catholic Church, which still stands as a shrine to the weary at the top of the hill, and tenderly prepared for burial. Not yet satisfied with their bloody work the mob started back along the road to find Gib- son. The latter, after having his wounds dressed, had insisted on being placed in a wagon and started to town to learn the fate of his partner. McDonald. Within a mile of town the mob met and surrounded the vehicle. Gibson, weak and almost fainting from loss of blood, raised himself in the wagonbed until he could snatch the revolver from the belt of the Indian driver. One shot was all he had strength for but that struck one of the mob in the leg. and had Gibson not been too over- come with the exertion to take aim correctly he would have avenged McDonald's death. The mob made short work of Gibson and shot him through the head.
Almost within the shadow of the asylum is the spot where Chief Leschi expiated his crime of the murder of Joseph Miles and A. Benton Moses at the beginning of the Indian war. This Indian had been surrendered by one of his relatives for a reward of fifty blankets. Leschi was brought to trial before a jury. among whom were Ezra Meeker and Wm. M. Kincaid. After listening to the evidence these men stood for acquittal with the result that the jury, being unable to agree. was finally discharged. At a second trial before Chief Justice Lander the Indian was convicted and sentenced to be hung. Appeal was then taken to the Supreme Court which stayed the execution for a while. The case was this time argued before Justices O. B. McFadden and F. A. Chenoweth. The
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decision against Leschi by the Court was unanimous. The opinion was written by Judge McFadden and sealed Leschi's doom. The date of execution was set for January 22, 1858.
Leschi was then sent to Fort Steilacoom to await the ful- fillment of his sentence. Dr. Tolmie and other officials of the Hudson Bay Company took active steps to secure a pardon from Governor McMullen, but this was refused.
When the day of execution finally arrived Leschi's friends secured a further delay by working a clever trick. The sheriff of Pierce County and his deputy were placed under arrest by Lieutenant MeKibben, who had been appointed a deputy Unit- ed States Marshal, the trumped up charge against the Sheriff and deputy being the selling of liquor to Indians. They were released from custody as soon as the hour set for the execu- tion was passed. This action on the part of the military offi- cers and Hudson Bay people led to intense indignation among the citizens. Mass meetings were held in Steilacoom and Olym -- pia, at which Governor McMullen and Secretary Mason voiced the indignation of the people at the manner in which the law had been trampled on, and a series of resolutions were adopted denouncing, by name the officers of Forts Nesqually and Steil- acoom and Leschi's attorney. As the Territorial Legislature was in session an act was railroaded through both houses demand- ing a special session of the Supreme Court to pronounce upon the case of Leschi as it then stood.
At this special session the prisoner was resentenced for a third time and William Mitchell, then acting Sheriff of Thurs- ton County was appointed to carry the sentence into execution. The date fixed was February 19. Captain Isaac Hays, Sheriff of Thurston County, was at this time absent from the state, so the unpleasant duty naturally fell upon the deputy.
In Mr. Mitchell's words :
"On the day set for the execution, Ed. Furst, John Head, George Blankenship, Charley Granger and myself set out on horseback and went to Fort Steilacoom, where the prisoner was turned over to me. The scaffold had been erected about a half mile from the fort and there the execution took place. Know- ing that Charley Granger had been a sailor, I asked him to tie the noose about the neck of the condemned man, which he did. Leschi made a speech to the Indians that were there, but as
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his talk was in his native tongue and no interpreter being pro- vided I do not know what he said. These formalities having been gone through with, I knocked the pin out from under the trapdoor and Chief Leschi was sent to the happy hunting grounds. He was undoubtedly as cruel and cunning an Indian as there was in the Puget Sound country and deserved hanging."
The scene of the closing act of the "Tragedy of Leschi" was a short distance east of Fort Steilacoom and near the north end of the lake of that name. Here the prairie sinks into a rounding depression forming a natural ampitheatre, in the center of which the gallows had been erected. The scene must have been a dismal one; the rain drizzled down, dripping drearily from the fringe of stunted oaks which outlined the depression. Making a hollow square around the rude scaffold was a line of soldiers and a considerable number of Indians and settlers stood near watching the end of the tragedy.
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THE CROSBY FAMILY
Like unto a saga of old, runs the story of the coming of the Crosby family into the West. In all the wild experiences re- lated during the compilation of this book, none were more picturesque and interesting than the history of an entire fam- ily of stalwart sons and fair daughters with their aged, but sturdy father, coming with their own ship, laden with their own goods, their children and themselves, to take their part in conquering the wilderness. 'Way back in 1846 the United States government sent Capt. Nathaniel Crosby-one of a fam- ily of sea captains-in command of the brig O. C. Raymond, to take supplies to relieve the distress of those immigrants, who, illy prepared, as were all too many, had joined the wild rush to seek their fortunes on the Pacific Coast.
So impressed was Capt. Crosby with the prospects of for- tunes to be gained in this land of opportunities for the venture- some, that he decided to have his kinsmen join him. After sending back for his brothers to buy and fit out a brig with everything needful for a home in the West, he waited with what patience he might, the arrival of his family.
Clanrick Crosby, an elder brother, bought the brig Grecian -270 tons capacity-and the start was made in 1849. Clanrick was captain of the brig, with a brother-in-law, Washington Hurd, first officer and Alfred Crosby second officer. In the eabin were: Captain Nathaniel Crosby, Sr., father of Captain Clanrick and Officer Alfred Crosby, who remained in the West a couple of years before returning to his home in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where he died, Mrs. Clanrick Crosby, Phoebe, and their three children, Clanrick, Phoebe Louisa and Cecelia, Mrs. Elizabeth Hurd and little daughter, Ella-Mrs. Hurd was Captain Crosby's sister, Mrs. Clara Nickerson Crosby, wife of Alfred Crosby, Mrs. Mary Crosby, wife of Capt. Nathaniel, Jr., and their three children, Nathaniel, Mary L. and Martha R., Mrs. Holmes, companion and housekeeper, and one passenger.
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Mr. Converse Lilly. Before the mast were Richard Hartley. Joseph Taylor and Foster and Nathaniel Lincoln, brothers of Mrs. Nathaniel Crosby, Jr. The Grecian arrived at Portland in March, 1850.
The two elder Crosby brothers came on to Tumwater, Capt. Nathaniel remaining in Oregon. Among the Crosby children who made the famous trip in the Grecian was the little Martha, then nine years of age. That child is now Mrs. Andrew J. Burr and the reminiscences contributed by this lady were among the most interesting of the many related by pioneer men and women during the preparation of this volume. After living in Portland until she was 11 years old, her father, Capt. Nathaniel Crosby, took a cargo of spars from St. Helens. Ore- gon, to Hong Kong, China, the first big sticks that were ever sent from the Pacific Coast forests to the Orient. After a couple of years of wandering in various ports, Capt. Crosby, leaving his family in China, came to Olympia and loaded his ship with a second cargo of spars for China, this second load having been cut from Butlers Cove, and was the first shipment of Puget Sound timber. In Hong Kong the Crosby family re- mained for several years. Martha and the other children were sent to school there and the child became a young woman. Here Capt. Crosby died, the family still making their home in this foreign land. In 1864 Martha became the wife of Samuel C. Woodruff, a wealthy ship chandler of Hong Kong.
Her first child, Samuel L. Woodruff, was born there. The cholera was raging at this time in China, so the young mother brought her son to San Francisco until the danger had abated a little. While living in this city her second child, Ada, was born.
With her two little children Mrs. Wooruff came to Olympia to visit her mother and brothers. The very first steamer which came into port after their arrival here brought the news that Mr. Woodruff had died from an attack of cholera. The widow and her children continued to make Tumwater their home for the following two years. Then she met and, in due time, was married to Andrew J. Burr. The wedding took place in the old Crosby house in Tumwater and Mr. and Mrs. Burr came to Olympia to make their home.
To them were born three children, Maud. now Mrs. T. F.
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Basse of Seattle; Chas. A. Burr, still of Olympia, and June Burr of Seattle.
Mr. Burr was possessed of considerable property at one time in Olympia and was one of the city's leading spirits in business and political affairs. For eight years he was post- master of the Capital City, and in his prime was quite noted for his political speaking. He at one time stumped the territory with Selucius Garfielde in one of the hottest campaigns known in the history of his party. He was of an extraordinarily genial and witty nature and his speeches were in great demand when there was a political strife being carried on.
Mr. Burr died in Olympia in the year 1900.
Of the two children born to Mrs. Burr by her former marriage both have become prominently known in their re- spective life's work-Sam Woodruff having been identified with the state institutions. formerly with the Western Wash- ington Hospital for Insane and at present the efficient super- intendent of the School for Defective Youth at Medical Lake. Ada Woodruff Anderson is an authoress of more than state- wide celebrity, having been the writer of several novels and magazine stories and sketches which have brought her name prominently before the literary world. She makes her home on Mercer Island, near Seattle. At one time Mrs. Anderson taught the county school at Yelm Prairie. She tells with some reminiscent pride that her teacher's certificate was presented to her upon her graduation by the late Rev. John R. Thompson.
Among Mrs. Burr's personal reminiscences is singing in the now famous choir of the Taylor Street M. E. Church when she was still a mere child. Beside her in this choir, singing with all his sweet young voice stood John Miller Murphy. This was in Portland before either the little Martha or Johnnie Murphy came to Puget Sound.
Soon after the arrival of the Crosby family in Portland Martha and her sister were invited to join some young people of the settlement on a blackberry picking expedition on a cer- tain day of the week. As the children were anxious to get acquainted the invitation was accepted. On the appointed day early in the morning, the sisters commenced to get ready for their first social function in the West. White dresses were carefully pressed out, hair put up in curl papers and strapped
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slippers donned over spotless white stockings. The sisters were chagrined when their companions arrived to accompany them to the berry patch and they saw how inappropriate was their attire.
Mrs. Burr now makes her home in Seattle with her daughter, Mrs. Basse.
Captain Clanrick Crosby was one of the dominant spirits in Tumwater for many years, foremost in every enterprise for the development and advancement of the community. He it was who presented the original plot of land for the Masonic and Odd Fellows cemeteries.
The children of Clanrick and Mrs. Crosby were Clan- rick, jr., dead these many years. Phoebe Louise, Cecelia, Win. Walter and Fannie. The eldest daughter is Mrs. George Biles and the youngest girl is well known, not only in Olympia, but Seattle, and Alaska points as well. as Mrs. John Y. Ostrander.
Walter Crosby is too well known in Olympia to need any description. These two younger Crosbys were born after Capt. and Mrs. Clanrick Crosby reached Tumwater. Mrs. Biles being the oldest of the living children of Clanrick Crosby was invited to contribute her reminiscences of her early life in Tumwater. This lady was about nine years of age when the Indian war broke out and well remembers the night some friendly Indians came to her father's house and warned Mr. Crosby that there was danger of an attack from the hostiles. Already the few residents of Tumwater had built the block house which stood for many years at the end of the bridge across the Des Chutes River, but so far many of the families continued to live in their own houses.
On this particular night Mr. Crosby was inclined to be skeptical of there being any real danger, but the Indians told him to watch for the light of burning buildings, and sure enough, as soon as it was quite dark the heavens were lighted up with the flare of the Glasgow and Linklighter barns, which had been set on fire by the enemy.
That was convincing proof that the Indians were sincere in giving the alarm. Hastily rousing the children from their beds and dressing them, flight to the block house was made. The little Phoebe-Mrs. Biles-was the proud possessor of a bran new sun bonnet, which in the haste of the family to get
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away, was left hanging on the kitchen wall. After reaching the fort, while her parents were getting the younger children settled for the remainder of the night, the little girl slipped out in the dark and ran all alone all the way to her home to get her precious sun bonnet.
Phoebe returned in safety, but her parents reprimanded her severely for the fright she had given them.
In later years, 1865, Phoebe was married to George Biles. himself the son of a pioneer. His father, James Biles, with his wife and seven children, had arrived in Tumwater in 1853.
Accustomed as was the Biles family to the comparative luxury of a Kentucky plantation, the life on Puget Sound was a striking contrast. Clams. salmon and potatoes for staples of diet, a log cabin to live in and nearest neighbors savage Indians, the prospect was not especially alluring, but with characteristic pluck and energy Mr. Biles succeeded in carving a comfortable home out of the wilderness.
The Biles family were among the very first emigrants to reach this section through the wild Natchez Pass. Before reaching this pass their train was met by Ashur Seargent, who was then acting as a guide to divert travel to the Puget Sound country.
Besides George Biles there were these children in the Biles family : James B., Kate E., now Mrs. F. M. Seargent of Seattle, S. Isabelle, now Mrs. M. S. Drew, of Port Gamble.
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B. F. YANTIS
Snow beginning the latter part of October and falling to a depth of fifteen inches, and himself and eight children being forced to subsist on potatoes and dried salmon straight all through the winter months, was the experience of Judge B. F. Yantis and family, when they reached Bush Prairie in 1852.
Starting in the Spring of that year from the old home in Missouri, where, although money might be a little scarce, there was an abundance of the fat of the land for subsistence, travelling all those long, weary months over the old Oregon trail, leaving his wife and the mother of his children in a lonely grave on the sage brush plains of Idaho, with his motherless child, Fannie, an infant of but three years of age, the prospect awaiting the hardy emigrant when he reached the El Dorado of his dreams seemed cold and forbidding.
The trip, undertaken in company with a number of kins- men and friends, had been an unusually trying experience. Besides that of Mrs. Yantis, there were many other deaths occurring in the train, owing to the appearance of black measles, a sister, Mrs. Eliza Ostrander, with her children, being among the sufferers. Judge Yantis' oldest daughter, Mrs. W. H. Pullen, with her three-year-old baby in her arms. was obliged, as were all the women and children, to walk across the five miles of portage below The Dalles. This child was ill when the weary march through the hot sun was be- gun, and grew rapidly worse as the mother plodded along. Before the little boat was reached in which the party was to be brought on down the Columbia, the baby was dead in the distracted mother's arms. That evening a tiny grave was made by the banks of the majestic river and the party were obliged to proceed on their journey.
When the Big Sandy was reached the march was again resumed to the Cowlitz River, where Indian canoes and ba- teaus were employed to bring the weary emigrants to Cow-
B. F. YANTIS
THLNEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
MITSK, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS,
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litz Landing. Judge Yantis' oxen were so exhausted by the trip across the plains that he left them to be wintered at The Dalles. In the Spring he found that all had perished but one ox. But nothing dismayed, and with the pluck and endur- ance which was characteristic of the sturdy pioneers, Judge Yantis at once proceeded to take advantage of the opportunity he saw on every hand, for bettering his financial affairs. A homestead was pre-empted out on Bush Prairie, a few miles from where Plum Station now is, and a comfortable home was soon established.
Before the family had lived many months in their new home, another terrible blow was dealt them. The oldest boy, James, became a pony express rider, carrying the mail from Cowlitz Landing to Olympia. One day, being hot and dusty from the riding, he went in swimming in Barnes' Lake, and contracted inflammatory rheumatism, which caused his death within a few days.
After several years spent on the homestead, Judge Yantis moved into Olympia and took a contract for carrying mail and passengers from Cowlitz Landing to Olympia. This was a two days' travel, over what has frequently been described by other pioneers as the "worst roads on earth," but the mail was always delivered with regularity, and the passengers in safety.
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