USA > Washington > Thurston County > Early history of Thurston County, Washington : together with biographies and reminiscences of those identified with pioneer days > Part 27
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CAPTAIN SAMUEL WILLEY
In reviewing the list of men who have been most promi- nently identified with the development of Thurston County business it was considered appropriate to mention the men who organized what has for many years been known as the S. Willey Navigation Company.
Although the Willeys', father and sons, were not the first men to venture their fortunes in water craft plying between Olympia and down Sound points, their steamers Multnomah and City of Aberdeen were so well known on Puget Sound that they are actually a part of the history of Thurston County.
Captain Samuel Willey was one of the gold seekers in California as early as 1859, leaving his family in their home in Cherryfield, Maine, while he pursued the search of the Golden Fleece. After having enjoyed a fair measure of success from mining in Syskiyou County, Mr. Willey decided to re turn to the East again. He remained with his family until 1867 when he came out West again, this time settling in Mason County. The family were then sent for and the fortunes of the Willeys became identified with this section of the country He engaged in lumbering during the first few years of his Washington residence, but when, in 1880, his son, Lafayette, P. L., and George, organized the S. Willey Navigation Com pany the elder Willey removed to Olympia and built his comfortable home on Eighth street, where he died in the year 1897.
The Willey family consisted of the father and mother three brothers and a sister. Shortly after their arrival here the brothers took the contract for carrying the mail between Olympia and Oakland, which was then the county seat of Mason County. For two years the brothers carried the mail twenty-five miles in a row boat and then over a country road for a further twelve miles, until finally they felt justified in investing in a tiny steamer, the Hornet. This gave place within a short time to the Susie, which in turn was replaced by the
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Willey. This latter steamer was quite a good-sized craft and was put on the run between Olympia and Shelton. In 1889 the Willeys purchased the Multnomah and a little later the City of Aberdeen and put them on the run between this city and Seattle, the elder brothers becoming Captains of the boats
The sister of the Willey brothers, Lucretia, was an especially pretty and charming young girl and was an un- disputed belle of Mason County up to the time of her marriage to Mr. Leighton and came to Olympia to make her home. She became the mother of two children, Charles Leighton of Seattle and her daughter, Bertha. Mrs. Leighton died at the home of the latter in Olympia in 1911.
ELISHA NELSON SARJENT
When on August 28, 1914, Elisha N. Sarjent passed over the Great Divide, there disappeared one who had been a familiar landmark in Thurston County for the past 65 years- one who had been identified with the development of this section of Washington from earliest pioneer days.
Elisha Sarjent was gathered to his fathers after a life rich in experiences such as are encountered by but few-none in these later days. Coming to Puget Sound in the winter of 1849-50 he at once identified himself with the frontier life of the region he had selected for his future home. Mr. Sarjent lived to the ripe old age of eighty-seven years and at the funeral his friend of many years, Hon. Allen Wier, pronounced the following heartfelt eulogy :
"Elisha Nelson Sarjent was born September 8, 1827, in Fountain County, Indiana. In 1849 he left Indiana on his way to the gold fields of California. While crossing the plains he was lost for fourteen days before he got back to his train. He did not remain in California long, but pushed his
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way north and west and arrived at Puget Sound on a sailing vessel during the winter of 1849-50, thus identifying himseli with the original and adventurous gold seekers commonly known as '49ers.' He helped to build the first house in. Olympia, thus his identity as one of the real argonauts of Thurston County is established.
"Among his experiences in the then unknown wilds of the great Northwest, was being shipwrecked in Queen Charlotte Sound, among the Northern Indians, in the winter of 1851-52. when he and others were captured and held among hostile savages during a period of fifty-three days. Among his com- panions was John Thornton, a respected old-time citizen and resident of Clallam County, in this State.
"In 1853 Mr. Sarjent went out from the Puget Sound basin across the Cascade Mountains and met the incoming immigrant train and piloted the new comers through the Natchez Pass into Pierce County. This was the first influx of settlers coming by way of the Natchez Pass. Among those coming at that time were members of the Himes family who settled in Olympia, and the family of Mrs. Frasier, who was reported as coming into this country riding on the back of an ox.
"Mr. Sarjent saw valiant service in the Indian war of 1855-56, in which he was a First Lieutenant of Volunteers.
"He took a donation claim near Grand Mound, in Thurs- ton County, where his house has stood for something like sixty-five years, and where he was married more than fifty- four years ago. His wife, who was Miss Lucretia Mounts, has been by his side during these years, a faithful helpmeet through good and evil report. Their two sons, Fred Sarjent and Asher Sarjent, with their families were among the sorrow- ing mourners at the funeral.
"Mr. Sarjent was one of the most modest of men, seldom speaking of these trying times that tested the courage and manhood of those who had to stand guard at block house defenses and protect the women and children from hostile attack. Nevertheless, his duty was always quietly performed, and with credit to himself. No one ever heard of a dishonor- able act on his part, and a significant comment by one of his nearest neighbors was that during an intimate acquaintance of something like sixty years, when line fences were often
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out of repair and stock became frequently mixed up, nothing even remotely resembling a quarrel ever occurred.
"Could anything more fully attest the sterling worth of the hardy manhood and womanhood of our honored pioneers ? "May their shadows never be less, and the worthy ex- ample thus shown be followed by later comers.
"Nelson Sarjent has gone to his reward. Like a sheaf of fully ripened grain, he has been gathered. His example has been one of duty fully performed. His place among the army of worthy citizens who demonstrated their right in the front rank of worthy pioneers of this great Northwest has passed beyond question.
"On Fame's eternal camping ground
Their silent tents are spread.
While glory guard with solemn round Their bivouac of the dead."
MR. P. D. MOORE
Hale, clear-minded, genial and active with a life of almost ninety years stretching out behind him, Mr. P. D. Moore is a remarkable example of the staunch timber that went to- wards the making of the men and women of the past century.
When this grand old-young man was asked to contribute some of his reminiscences of early days on Puget Sound, of which he was in a position to recall many. owing to his long residence here and the many stirring events of which he was a participant. Mr. Moore said :
"It is over fifty years since I first came to Olympia and on my arrival I was pleasantly surprised to find not only a charming climate and magnificent scenery but its people educated, cultured, enterprising and extremely hospitable and neighborly, reminding me of a New England town. Of course the country was new and the town young, but the people were
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as one family, helpful, generous and sociable. Whether it be a funeral or a dance everybody was there. Money was plenti . ful and prices of products and goods were high, but there were no croakers or kickers. In 1864 Blockhouse Smith sold to Charlie Williams five tons of butter at 55 cents a pound. The same year the only 4th of July celebration on Puget Sound was at Olympia when seventeen steamers brought crowds and it was estimated that between four and five thousand people assmbled at the Capital grounds to do honor to the Nation's birthday. Governor Pickering presided. On Christmas day. the only Christmas tree was in the hall of the Washington hotel (now the New England Hotel), but there were presents on that tree of a total value of over $2,500 and everybody was there.
"The principal merchants of Olympia when I first came here were Chas. E. Williams, Edmund Sylvester. L. Bettman George Barnes, I. Lichtner and I. Harris. But we also had the "Busy B's"-Bush, Barnes. Biles, Billings, Blankenship, Brown, Bettman, Bigelow and Beatty. They have all passed to the "Great Beyond", except Mr. Beatty, who still remains with ns in the enjoyment of a ripe old age.
"In 1863 I was appointed by President Lincoln, Collector of Internal Revenue for Washington and Idaho, and then 1 brought my family from New Jersey, and on the Bark Naramisie they were sixty-three days coming from San Fran- cisco to Puget Sound. breaking the record for time in coming from San Francisco.
"In those early days-the '60s-there were many ex- citing and interesting events. In the session of the Legislature in 1868 the House of Representatives elected me its Chaplain, the first instance of a free-thinking Quaker being elected to that office. At the same session Miss Peebles, now Mrs. Mack- intosh. of Seattle, and mother of Judge Mackintosh, was elected Enrolling and Engrosing Clerk, being the first woman elected to serve in a legislative body in the history of the world. I may add she done her work so promptly and ably that she received the unanimous commendation of the House of Rep- resentatives.
"At a session of the Legislature, Chas. Bradshaw was elected President of the Council, but as he did not act to suit
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H. K. Struve, also a member of the Council, he was deposed from the Presidency by Struve's vote, whereupon Struve, by his own vote, made himself President of the Council. This procedure caused much excitement in Olympia and an indigna- tion meeting, largely attended, was held, at which Garfield and others scored Struve severely. Struve was for a long time Secre- tary of the Territory, during which time and when he was a member of the Legislature, he was not a citizen, never having been naturalized, and moreover he was a deserter from the Army, liable to be caught and shot. Some cheek and some nerve that ! But it must be admitted, nevertheless, he was a very able and useful man. In 1864 or 65, I obtained from the East the first Early Rose potatoes, paying $2.00 a pound for them, and I also introduced the first asparagus at the same time, both being the first introduced in the Pacific Northwest, and very successfully cultivated in my garden at Main and Four- teenth Streets, where there has recently been erected a large apartment house.
"I took the U. S. Census in 1870 for Thurston and Lewis Counties, and at that time Olympia was the largest town or city in the Territory, having a population of 1,232, and nearly a hundred more than Seattle. In taking the census in Lewis County I came across Marcel Bernier, born in 1820 of French Canadian parents at Fort Colville, being the first white child born in the Commonwealth of Washington. In 1880 I took the U. S. Census in Chehalis County, and where Aberdeen is now, I found only Sam Benn and family, and at Hoquiam only two families-Ed. Campbell and family, and Mr. Karr and family. Some growth at these two places since then!
"Olympia had a prominent character in the person of Mrs. Rebecca Howard, proprietor of the principal hotel-the Pacific House, at the corner of Third and Main Streets. She was a handsome colored woman from Boston, Mass., and a very enterprising, popular and successful business woman. Some addressed her as Aunt Becky, instead of Mrs. Howard, but she resented it. On one occasion a somewhat eminent man addressed her as Aunt Becky and she promptly inquired of him whether she was his father's or his mother's sister.
"When the news of President Lincoln's assassination was received in Olympia, the Democratic party was holding its Territorial Convention here. Major Haller was a delegate
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and was in my office when the word came. He was overcome with emotion and freely shed manly tears, and went to the convention and proposed an adjournment without making a nomination for Delegate to Congress, which nearly carried.
"I was a witness and participant in several very dramatic events on Puget Sound in the early '60s-notably the capture of the Custom House at Port Townsend in 1862, when the guns of the Revenue Cutter, double-shotted were brought to bear on the Custom House and notice given to surrender or at the end of fifteen minutes the building would be shelled.
"Also the capture of the 'Shubrick' in the middle of the Straits of Fuca, when an attempt was made to run into the rebel service. The details of these and other events have an historie interest which I hope to write out some time. But you must now excuse me, as, although I am about 89 years young, yet I am a busy man."
Mr. Moore was born in Rahway, New Jersey, and married Miss Phoebe Earle in Newark of the same State. Ten children were born to the couple, of whom only three still live: A. Schooley, Janet S. and Lindley D. Of the remaining children, two boys, Edward and Phillip, and a daughter, Ella D., died before the family ventured their fortunes in the West. The eldest daughter, Lida, became the wife of W. P. Winans, a Walla Walla banker and capitalist, and became the mother of three sons, Gilbert P., Phillip M. and Allen Lida, all making their home in Walla Walla. Mrs. Winans died in San Fran- cisco many years ago, but her memory is still cherished by the pioneers of an early day of Thurston County. The chil- dren who died in Olympia are Waldo G., Gerald and Edna W., the latter having become Mrs. Eddings and the mother of one daughter, Edna Earle Eddings. Mrs. Moore died in Olympia on July 17, 1899, after a well spent life, during which time she had had the satisfaction of seeing her living children all grown to maturity and comfortably settled in life. Mrs. Moore was a charter member of the Woman's Club of Olympia and a leader in every good work for the benefit of mankind and the uplift of society.
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CAPTAIN SAMUEL WING PERCIVAL
(By His Daughter, Georgiana Percival Ford.)
Captain Samuel Wing Percival of Hanover, Mass., had followed the sea from a boy until the time of his marriage, and had shown such aptitude and evinced so high a sense of responsibility that he was made master, by the owners of the vessel, on his third voyage. These voyages were to ports on the Mediterrean Sea, Barcelona, Marseilles, Constantinople and through the Black Sea to Odessa, also through the Baltic Sea to St. Petersburg. and while these voyages were not lack- ing in thrilling experiences, he brought his ship safely to port each trip, and letters from the owners are preserved filled with expressions of commendation and gratitude. These letters show a high ideal, and abound with expressions that would doubtless cause great surprise today, counseling the young captain to hold the honorable name of the ship's owners above dollars and cents, and voicing their full confidence in their belief that he would never descend to a dishonorable transac- tion for mere gain.
Mrs. Lurana Ware Percival made the trip from her home in Plymouth, Mass., around Cape Horn, arriving at San Fran- cisco May 5th, 1850. She embarked from New York on the Clipper Brig "Reindeer" and the trip was made in 153 sail- ing days, the record trip to that date. The weather and other conditions were favorable for a successful and interesting voyage, and she always spoke of the varied experiences of that five months' journey with great pleasure.
She found San Francisco a small Mexican-Spanish town. consisting of a row of adobe houses around the Plaza, a few frame houses and many zinc houses and tents scattered over vacant lots, reaching from Broadway street to Telegraph Hill. She landed from the ship's boat on Montgomery street, the bay extending to the street.
In November, 1850, she went with friends to Portland, Oregon. A number of passengers were anxious to get into the Territory before the time expired to secure 640 acres of land. For this reason the Captain took his ship in to the
CAPT. AND MRS. S. W. PERCIVAL
THE NEW YORK PUBLICLIBRARY
ASTER, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS.
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Umpqua River, and landed these passengers and they walked 10 Roseburg. Umpqua City consisted of two small zinc houses, occupied by a few white men, who had taken claims and were trading with the Indians, and a settlement of Indian houses ; these houses were boarded around the sides, the tops covered with Indian mats. In a paper entitled "Personal Reminiscences of Early Days," read before the Woman's Club of Olympia, (from which many of the incidents given are gleaned) my mother says: "I had never seen such long and wide boards, they were from three to four feet wide. Upor inquiry I learned that the Indians burned the tree instead of eutting it down, split the cedar logs into boards by driving in wedges, then kept them over a slow fire until they were suffi- ciently charred to be rubbed with smooth stones until they were the required thickness and nicely polished." Mrs. Percival was the first white woman to step on shore at the mouth of the Umpqua River, and was a great curiosity to the natives, who were most attentive to her, coming out to the ship in canoes the next day, with presents of huckleberries, which grew in great abundance near the village, and when she was on shore. bending down the bushes, which were high, that she might pick the berries. The bay being land-locked with a dangerous bar, the captain waited ten days for a fair wind to enable him to eross in safety; during this time the weather was delight- fully warm and those who wished to go were one day rowed up the river about ten miles to a beautiful island, where coffee was made and a pienic lunch served. Picnics and ripe huck- leberries late in November were amazing facts to a young woman from the New England states.
The Columbia River bar was reached late in the after- noon and found to be very rough. No pilot responded to the captain's signals, so he steered off coast for more sea room: and it was well he did, for my mother records that they had. that night, the hardest storm she ever experienced at sea. The decks were washed of every thing movable, bulwarks stove in. cargo shifted, so that the vessel lay over on one side; the sailors performed their duties with ropes fastened about their waists; several seas washed entirely over the ship, forcing water through the skylight into the cabin, where the passengers sat speechless. The storm abated as morning dawned and the entire day was given to righting the vessel, using the pumps
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and moving the cargo; they had drifted so far that two days were required to return to the river.
Again failing to secure a pilot, the Captain determined to run in without one, although it was his first trip to the Columbia River. He crossed the bar safely and was soon an- chored at Astoria. I again quote from the paper already men- tioned : "When speaking of pioneer life on the Pacific Coast, few ever mention the difficult and dangerous pioneer work done by sailing vessels and their crews; nearly every harbor and river on the coast is barred except Puget Sound and it was several years before there were steam tugs enough for all these ports. Working a vessel up the river was a long and tedious trip for sailors; all things favorable, it took from a week to ten days to reach Portland and had to be done by kedging, and towing with row boats."
Portland was a small village, there were no cleared streets and the townsite having been heavily timbered. huge stumps breast high, were left standing, making it necessary to carry a lantern or a candle after dark, and it was the custom for a box of candles to be kept by the door, and the departing eve- ning caller was handed a lighted candle, which he extinguished and deposited in the box at the next house he entered.
There was but one house boasting a brick chimney, the home of Captain Nathaniel Crosby (grandfather of Samuel C. Woodruff and Ada Woodruff Anderson, author of "The Heart of the Red Firs" and "The Strain of White," also Charles A. Burr, Mrs. Maude Basse, and June Burr). The brick for the chimney and other materials necessary for a well-built house, had been shipped around Cape Horn, and those who were privileged to enjoy the delightful hospitality of that home were fortunate indeed. While in Portland a trip was made in a rowboat to Milwaukee, to be present at the launching of the first steamer built in Oregon. the "Lot Whit- comb." (On this occasion Mrs. Percival made the acquaint- ance of Judge Matthew P. Deady). All were handsomely entertained, at the residence of Mr. Lot Whitcomb, the founder of the town, and rowed down the river to Portland in the evening. Another trip was one. made with saddle horses, De- cember 31, 1850, to Oregon City, the largest village on the Willamette. There were no roads and the party followed the
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narrow Indian trails, one after the other, in true Indian style, ferrying on scows pulled by ropes stretched across the river ; the hotel was very comfortable and my mother was happily surprised to meet a young man there, who had come around the Horn on the ship she had passage on. She also made the acquaintance of Captain S. W. Percival, (who commanded the schooner "Crescent City," also loading in Portland) whom she afterward married in San Francisco, April 3rd, 1851. The next day the party returned to Portland, as they had come, and all attended the New Year's ball in the evening. An- other outing was a trip to Fort Vancouver. The Willamette was ferried, a forest was traversed (now East Portland). On the banks of the Columbia River men were found with very large row boats to convey passengers to the other shore; as they returned, after crossing the river and taking the horses, snow began to fall, thick and fast, and the trail was soon obliterated. The party consulted and decided that, as the horses were cold and hungry, they would doubtless take the shortest route home, and ceased to guide them. They emerged from the forest before dark and the party received a warm welcome and hot supper on the Brig "Reindeer," where some uneasiness had been felt as to their safety.
After his marriage my father purchased a large store on Washington street, San Francisco, and commenced business, occupying the story above as a dwelling house, and my par- ents were well settled by the first of May. On June 22, they were burned out by the third great fire, which consumd nearly all the city. House, furniture, nearly all the contents of the store were swept away, but the greater part of the clothing was saved. They moved into an unfinished building on Mont- gomery street and began business again.
In 1852 they went to Parks Bar, a good-sized mining town, on the Yuba River. While there they buried their eldest child, Lurana Curtis Percival, and at the end of the year, on account of the prevalence of cholera, and the failure of the mines that season, they returned to San Francisco and took passage on the Barque Sarah Warren, Captain A. B. Gove, deciding to begin life again in that part of the Northwest which had so great an attraction for them. They arrived in Olympia, January 1, 1853.
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My mother was the sixth woman to settle in town. She writes : "I found Mrs. Geo. Barnes, Mrs. Simpson P. Moses. wife of Collector of Customs; Mrs. C. H. Hale, Mrs. Close, wife of first Methodist minister, and Mrs. Fischer, (a widow). Mrs. Adam Wiley was living on a claim two miles down the bay. At Tumwater were the Simmons, Crosby, Barnes and Kindred families and Mr. and Mrs. R. M. Walker, also several families on the prairies beside the Chambers and Hays. Our principal amusement was horseback riding, so we were quite neighborly with our prairie friends."
Again, I quote: "We commenced housekeeping in one large room, ran the stovepipe through the window. one corner was kitchen, one bedroom, one store room, sitting room in center. The trees had been felled from Main street to the water (on the west) as far as Sixth street, and from Fourth street to the water (on the north). All along the beach were Indian huts, and the whole beach was lined with canoes. The Indian women had all the work to do, and had been treated like beasts so long that, for a time, it was thought to be use- less to try to teach them anything. Each family would take an Indian boy and most of them were quick to learn. For several years we were our own dress makers and milliners, took care of each other when sick, and in fact, did all kinds of work, even to making the most of our furniture. When a few of the squaws learned to wash and iron it was a great help to us; the well known 'Old Betsy' was one of the first to learn; they preferred old clothes to money for their work until they learned to sew. During the year of 1853 many families came, which gave us plenty of society." Record is made of the delightful horseback parties, clam bakes, boat rides and dances. and Mrs. Percival says: "The only draw- back to our pleasure. was the length of time it took to hear from our eastern friends. We had a steamer from San Fran- cisco once each month, bringing our mails; sailing vessels came. often bringing freight, passengers and news from San Francisco." A sewing society was soon formed, and at the first fair $500.00 was cleared, which sum was used to finish off the second story of the school house and furnish it with seats, two chairs, a table and lamps, that the clergymen of
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