USA > Washington > History of Washington the evergreen state : from early dawn to daylight with portraits and biographies Vol. II > Part 2
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Espey, R. H.
61
Espey, Julia A 67
Fenton, James E. 193 Ferguson, Myron 343
Fortson, George H 325
Fouts, W. H. H. 289
Freeman, Legh R. 229
319
Hewitt, Henry Jr
31
Houghton, Alice.
139
Howell, I. M.
337
Huson, H. S
157
Jenner, C. K.
145
Jones, W. C ..
199
Kelling, Henry
169
Kindred, W. S.
415
Kindred, Lizzie.
415
Latham, Mary A
73
Lathrow, James 435
Llewellyn, William 1I 223
McGilvra, J. J.
103
McGowan, P. J.
283
McGregor, Peter.
361
MacLachlan, J. A.
289
Matthews, A. G.
91
Mercer, Thomas.
97
Merriman, H. E.
361
Million, E. C. 361
Mitchell, John H , Jr.
331
Monaghan, James
79
Moody, C. S. 361
Murphey, Alonzo M. 205
Osborn, Richard. 325
Paul, C. E 373
Paul, John P
277
Gray, W. P.
XV
ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE Perkins, J. A. Pritchard, W. H. 121
85 Pugh, F. K 145 Reichenbach, Charles 445
Rhoades, Catharine. 241
Rhoades, L. H.
241
Roscoe, Chris. T
295
Ruff, George C.
355
Scofield, T. D 109
Smith, A. J 485
Smith, E. D 163
Stallcup, John C. 121
Stewart, John A. 379
Stinson, Ulmer. 235
Thompson, Walter J
115
Tilton, Howard.
217
Truax, D. W 151
True, M. C. 175
Twichell, F. A.
325
Windus, W. V. 175
Yesler, H. L. .
Frontispiece
Puget Sound Pulp and Paper Mill. 181
Puget Sound Reduction Company . 181
Puget Sound Wire Nail and Steel Company 367
Yards of Pacific Steel Barge Company . 367
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON
VOLUME II.
CHAPTER XXI.
PARTITION OF WASHINGTON AND OREGON.
" How grand fair Washington's domain, Her eagle flight from mount to main, Her wealth of woods-her sweep of seas, The arching of her endless trees. Her mighty rivers dash and leap From forest fountain to the deep. Her inland lakes, that calm and still,
Nestle in hollows of the hill, Her fertile sod, her hidden mines,
The mile-wide fragrance of her pines."
-BREWERTON.
WITH the history of Oregon as such our narrative has nothing to do-it has been told under the title of "The Story of Ore- gon :" and though the mother, or twin sister, if it be preferred, of the State of which we write-the territorial life of both hav- ing flowed in one stream, ofttimes sadly troubled, from the same fountain-head of settlement till divided by legislative action- we must devote our remaining space to the history of Washing- ton alone.
We take as our initial point the date of March 2d, 1853, when, with scarcely any congressional friction, the vast territory then known as Oregon-an empire in extent, a mine of undeveloped wealth, and rich beyond expression in future possibilities-was harmoniously divided into the Territories of Oregon and Wash- ington.
2
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HISTORY OF WASHIINGTON.
A brief résumé of the manner in which this peaceable partition, so mutually advantageous to both, was brought about, and the causes which led to the adoption of the Columbia River as their separating and common boundary, will properly engage our at- tention here.
That the great river Columbia, the Mississippi of the Pacific coast, rising from its snow-fed streams in the Rocky Mountains to roll an inland sea ere it is lost in the breakers of its terrible bar, should become something more than a mere dividing line between two people of the same race, name, and nationality is by no means singular, and will make itself understood when we study the situation. In the case of the early settlement of Ore- gon a variety of circumstances made this result almost unavoid- able. The people south of the Columbia, the first and-if one may use the term to designate so small a beginning-the most thickly settled region, early acquired an individuality which served to divide them from the few stragglers who found their way northward and established a feeble colony on Puget Sound. The same spirit seems to have actuated the dwellers on our own side of " the big river." And this feeling grew and increased, . not in any spirit of enmity or rivalry, but as a natural sequence of the geographical features of their separate surroundings. The Columbia, for instance, and its branches furnished the one peo- ple-those of the south-not only with an inland water-way, but an outlet to the sea. Their commerce, therefore, followed this natural road, and found its nearest and most convenient market and source of supply in San Francisco. With the dwell- ers to the north it was different ; they naturally looked to Puget Sound, with the Strait of Fuca for their outlet to the Pacific, and Vancouver as a near neighbor, from whence they could obtain necessaries and sell or barter their products. So it will be seen that their final division was the outgrowth of natu- ral causes, bringing about results which could hardly have been otherwise in the best interests of both parties.
The legislative action which at length gave legal force and authority to this peaceful settlement dates its birth, as was most fitting, from a patriotic celebration of our country's natal dav. It was the first Fourth of July celebration that Olympia had ever known, held at that place (the State capital yet to be) in 18{2. The people had gathered together-the salmon fisher
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HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.
and trader from the coast, the hunter and the farmer from in- land fields. The bone and sinew, the brain and talent of the surrounding settlements were there. They came with their wives and daughters, with the little ones now playing their parts as middle-aged people in the Washington of to-day. In their frontier garb, with their rude wagons, from almost every part of Northern Oregon and from the shores of Puget Sound they flocked in, emerging from canoes or their long rides over the blazed forest trails and beneath the shadows of continuous pines, to celebrate the day they still revered-the birthday of the flag and the nationality that in their far-away Eastern homes they had been taught and learned to love. The old pioneers were there, the men who had let the light in upon their clearing's with their busy axes, built their humble log cabins, and then defended those homes, rifle in hand, against the prowling sav- age and the less dangerous beast of prey -- all with one com- mon aim, to keep the day, to remember beneath the old flag the nation's former victories, to give their children (many of them for the first time) an object lesson in patriotism. What a re- union it must have been-what a season of rejoicing ! Daniel R. Bigelow was their orator. He had come as a passenger by the Exact, that sailed from Portland for Puget Sound in 1851, and settled at Olympia, where he was admitted to practise law in January, 1852, at a term of the Supreme Court of Oregon Terri- tory, held by Judge Strong, of the Third Judicial District. We can easily imagine how the hearts of all must have responded as they warmed to the young attorney's patriotic utterances, spoken in the almost unbroken wilderness of that far-off day- that time of small beginnings, when he talked to his rude audience beneath the shadow of the odor-breathing pines. The Declaration was read by Simpson P. Moses, who, with the cele- brated Elwood Evans, the historian of the Northwest, had just been admitted to practice by Judge Strong. Mr. Moses was also an appointee, under Fillmore's administration, as Collector of the Port of Nisqually, in which capacity he figures in the cor- respondence connected with the looting of the schooner Georgi- ana by the Hydah Indians. Frank Shaw acted as marshal.
The ceremonies of the day being concluded, a mass-meeting was improvised, where great enthusiasm prevailed. The object was to discuss and by all proper means_forward the division of
20
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.
Oregon Territory. It resulted in an arrangement for a conven- tion to meet in the fall to formulate plans to bring about so de- sirable an object.
September of this year (1852) was also made memorable by the issue of the first number of the Columbian, the pioneer sheet of many newspaper successors in Washington. It was established by the enterprise of James W. Wiley, who figured afterward, when a Democratic editor and councilman from Thurston County, as a- defender of Governor Stevens in declar- ing martial law. He was also a zealous member of the Monti- cello Convention, and for three years a member of the Territorial Council. He died at Olympia, March 30th, 1860, in the fortieth year of his age. With this gentleman was associated Thorn- ton F. McElroy, but Mr. Wiley was its sole editor. This paper, as was to be expected, was a strong advocate of territorial divi- sion and the interests of Northern Washington in general. It suggested that the new Territory should embrace all the country north of the Columbia River, and that the region so set off should be called the Territory of Columbia. This division ques- tion, it may be premised, was no new thing. As far back as 1851 county meetings had been held and the separation seriously agitated ; but as a consequence of the Olympia celebration, and the action then taken, the fall of 1852 found it the all-absorbing political question of Northern Washington. The people were aroused, and proceeded energetically to bring about the result they so much desired. Meetings were held and delegates elect- ed by all of the counties and communities north of the Colum- bia and west of the Cascade Mountains to attend a convention at Monticello, Cowlitz River, on November 25th, 1852. The pre- siding officer of this assembly was George N. McConaha, of Seattle, who most ably directed its deliberations. He was after- ward president of the first Territorial Council. Evans thus speaks of him and his tragic fate :
" President McConaha had proved himself in that session" (the one above referred to) " a thorough parliamentarian, an able debater, and a master of invective ; he was a consummate jury lawyer, and most successful advocate. On the sound, though a recent comer, he had acquired an enviable popularity with the masses. He was in the prime of vigorous manhood, and had he lived, a brilliant future awaited him. While returning from
21
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.
the session of the Legislature to his home, in Seattle, in a canoe, accompanied by Captain B. P. Barstow, with a crew of Indians, the canoe was swamped between Vashon Island and Alki Point, and, with the exception of one Indian, the whole party found a watery grave."
R. J. White was named secretary. The result of this conven- tion was what Evans very truly characterizes as "a manly, straightforward memorial, which was unanimously adopted, praying for the establishment of a separate territorial govern- ment." To quote from the original document, in " that portion of Oregon Territory lying north of the Columbia River and west of the great northern branch thereof, to be called the Territory of Columbia."
This memorial went to General Joseph Lane, the delegate to Congress, ever the consistent friend and advocate of the Pacific Northwest. It was signed by all the members of the Monticello Convention. Early in the congressional session of 1852-53 we find it was referred, on motion of General Lane, to the Commit- tee on Territories, with instructions to report by bill. In the mean while the Territorial Legislature of Oregon had not been idle. In the same year, when Lewis County was represented by Colonel Isaac N. Ebey, we find them taking the separation ques- tion under consideration, and by an almost unanimous vote passing a legislative memorial urging upon Congress a division in the manner prayed for by the Monticello Convention in their memorial. The bill, being reported, was taken up by the United States House of Representatives on February 8th, 1853. It was entitled " A bill to organize the Territory of Columbia," and was earnestly defended and pressed to a passage by General Lane, who deserves to be entitled the congressional champion of the Northwest.
The bill was amended on motion of Robert H. Stanton, of Kentucky, by striking out the word " Columbia" and inserting " Washington" in lieu thereof. In connection with this change of title we may remark that, though eminently patriotic in in- tention, and an appropriate compliment to the memory of the leader who was at once patriot, general, and statesman, guiding our people in their hour of deepest trial into a liberty more per- fect and abiding than our fathers ever dreamed, yet, as regarded from the standpoint of convenience and the prevention of confu-
22
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.
sion in geographical nomenclature, it would have been far better to have retained the name first selected and embodied in the original bill -- that of Columbia. A name written upon the minds and undyingly linked with the history of the American people needed not the naming of a State washed by the Pacific to refresh or retain the memory of him who stood and must ever remain " first in the hearts of his countrymen." But as all things yielded to him in 1776, so the name of Washington ap- pears to have been equally irresistible in 1853.
On February 10th, 1853, the bill thus amended passed the House by a vote of 128 yeas to 29 nays, the objectors being, with three exceptions, all representatives of the slave States -- a fact which probably accounted for their opposition. Should the reader feel curious to ascertain the force and location of this antagonistic element, he will find it detailed as follows : Alabama gave 5 ; North Carolina, 4; South Carolina, 3 ; Geor- gia, 4 ; Indiana, 1; New York, 2; Tennessee, 4, and Virginia, 1. On March 2d the Senate passed the bill without op- position. On the same day it received the signature of Mil- lard Fillmore, President of the United States, thus becoming a law, and bringing to its birth the Territory of Washington.
Its Organic Act limited the new domain as follows, giving metes and bounds to a region rivalling in extent many States of the Old World, whose teeming millions would find an ample dwelling-place within the area of Washington. It reads as fol- lows :
" That from and after the passage of this Act, all that portion of Oregon Territory lying and being south of the forty-ninth de- gree of north latitude and north of the middle of the main chan- nel of the Columbia River from its mouth to where the forty- sixth degree of latitude crosses said river, near Fort Walla Walla, thence with said forty-sixth degree of latitude to the summit of the Rocky Mountains, be organized into and consti- tute a temporary government by the name of the TERRITORY OF WASHINGTON."
How airy and grand the flight, when from the dry legal phraseology of the document just quoted we extract its broader and more political meaning ! The eye of imagination traverses the field, yet fails to realize the full extent of this eagle swoop from main to mountain ; from the surges of the Pacific along so
23
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.
vast a coast, extending from Cape Flattery's wave-beaten shores to the Columbia ; then following the great river from its tidal outflow to the snow-born parent springs of their mountain home, and yet again tracing the Juan de Fuca channel, where we sacrificed so much to England's game of bluff and the inter- ests of that institution of slavery whose lease of life was even then almost expired. These are but the exterior bul- warks, the wall of wood, or wave, or mountain steep, that holds our even yet unimproved wealth of hidden mine and fruitful soil and happy homesteads still to be. Truly ours is a goodly heri- tage, and the lines of the dwellers in Washington have fallen to them in pleasant places-fair as her own summer days.
CHAPTER XXII.
FIRST SETTLEMENT OF PUGET SOUND.
" I hear the tread of Pioneers, Of nations yet to be ; The first faint wash of waves, where soon Shall roll a human sea."
- WHITTIER.
AND now our history must retrograde, going back for nearly a decade of years, to follow the little trickling stream of Ameri- can emigration, the pioneers of Puget Sound, whose advent may well be likened to " the first faint wash of waves," though then requiring no little stretch of prophetic fancy to imagine them the harbingers of our present " human sea."
When the London managers of the Hudson's Bay Fur Com- pany instructed their agents at Vancouver to use every effort to in- duce American settlers to go south of the Columbia, they evinced a very English ignorance of the average Yankee char- acter, by giving the strongest reason to every long-headed son of the soil for not following their disinterested advice. It was the old story of the forbidden fruit in Eden over again. John Bull wanted that particular tree, or, to speak less figuratively, that special location for its produce of furs and peltries ; and Brother Jonathan, equally keen in his perceptions of "a good thing," determined to taste and try it for himself. The pioneer of this belief, that what was valuable to the Britisher might possibly be advantageous for Uncle Sam, was, as Bancroft tells us, "a stanch Kentuckian, Michael T. Simmons, an emigrant to Ore- gon in 1844, but spending the ensuing winter at Fort Vancouver, where he improved his time by making shingles for a living," while his wife, no less industrious, celebrated their residence in those then Northwestern wilds by presenting him with a son named Christopher, the first American born in Western Wash- ington. Simmons " had come to stay," and, as our first settler, is well entitled even to so large a space as Bancroft accords him.
Eng by F G. Kernan N.Y
yours Truly V. G. Blalock
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HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.
Nevertheless, we are compelled to reduce that historian's full- length to a cabinet size, so sketch him in accordingly :
Born at Shepherdsville, Ky., on August 5th, 1814, our first settler was possessed of a Western physique. An unlettered man, yet abundantly supplied with that hard common-sense and those excellent qualities of courage and independence which fit men to found colonies and leave their mark upon the savage wildernesses, which erelong they convert into homes worthy of civilization. He had intended to settle in the valley of Rogue River, but the strong advice of the British agents that he should not go north of the Columbia determined him to do so. During the winter of 1844-45, with but five companions, he travelled northward, yet only reached the fork of the Cowlitz, and returned again to Fort Vancouver. Again, in the following July, he set out with eight others, guided by one Borcier, who had performed the same service for Wilkes in 1841, and not only reached the sound, but journeyed in a canoe as far as Whidby Island. Looking about him with the same keen eye to the main chance, he made, not knowing or possibly dreaming of the nearness of sites of cities yet to be, a very practical selection, at the head of Budd's Inlet. Here the Des Chutes River, dropping eighty feet by successive falls, made its way to the sound, and offered the power for a mill site, which he afterward utilized, and which was undoubtedly the temptation that influenced his pitch upon that particular spot. Moreover, Fort Nisqually, the only supply post in that part of the Territory, was near at hand ; altogether it was a wise choice, and he does not appear to have regretted it. Having thus settled his location, he returned to the Colum- bia to remove his family, which he did in October, accompanied by James McAllister, David Kindred, Gabriel Jones, George W. Bush (colored, who must, therefore, be noted as the first of his race to settle upon the sound), and their families, and two sin- gle men, Jesse Ferguson and Samuel B. Crockett, these seven being the first to settle in the region of Puget Sound, though John R. Jackson had been a little beforehand with them and taken up a claim five miles north of the French settlements and" ten beyond the Cowlitz landing, where he had already erected a house. So difficult in those times was the country of access, that no less than fifteen days were occupied in opening a road for the ox teams from Cowlitz to Budd's Inlet, a distance of less than
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HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.
sixty miles. Simmons named his place Newmarket, but subse- quent settlers changed to it to the Indian-Tuinwater-which it still retains. These incomers all settled within a radius of six miles.
" The first house, we are told, was built on Kindred's claim, at the west edge of Bush Prairie, Simmons building at Tumwater during the following summer. In March Mrs. McAllister gave birth to a son, who was named James Benton, the first American born on Puget Sound." Our space will not permit an enumera- tion of the names of those who followed in the footsteps of these adventurous spirits. We must refer the reader who desires more minute information to the exhaustive details of Bancroft's ex- cellent " History of the Pacific States," with- Elwood Evans's equally valuable records of Oregon and Washington, to both of which we desire to acknowledge our indebtedness for fountains of information, on which we have drawn liberally in the prepara- tion of the present work.
In the following year many American men settled north of the Cowlitz, but few families. Claims were made at the conflu- ence of the Skookum, Chuck and the Chehalis, and two others located on the sound at what is now called Chambers Prairie. Others arrived during the autumn, but did not remain. In Janu- ary, 1847, came three brothers from Marion County, one with his family, to be followed by others in March. During this summer the Skookum Creek settlement rejoiced at the birth of Angeline Ford, the first American girl born north of the Colum- bia ; and so the human tide poured in, by driblets at first, yet steadily increasing, as some river gathers income from rivulets and wayside rills till it flows at last with ever-deepening and broadening tide, to sink majestically into the sea.
The year 1848 brought but a meagre addition to the popula- tion of the sound, yet it is marked by Rev. Pascal Richards, oblate father, establishing a mission three miles below Tum- water, and thus securing a half section of land to the church. An amusing story is told about this time of one Carnefix, who accompanied a party to Whidby Island, but while taking his turn to cook and do the work of the camp was observed by an Indian chief, who, presuming him to be a slave and owned by his companions, offered to purchase him. The joke was so good and the jests called forth by the incident so keen and telling
29
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.
that Carnefix, unable to bear their allusions, determined to for- sake his companions, and abandoned them accordingly at the mouth of the Skokomish River.
Bancroft, the great and most reliable resource of all who desire to gain information of the Pacific Northwest, tells us that our new settlers obtained such supplies as they required from the company's stores at Nisqually. In 1846 Simmons, who seems to have been the mainspring in every enterprise, put up a small flouring mill at Des Chutes Falls, in a log house, with a set of stones hewed out of some granite blocks found upon the beach, which was ready to grind the first crop of wheat, if not to bolt it ; but unbolted flour was a luxury after wheat. We fancy that the good housewives of those early and primitive times were happily ignorant of the "new process" which converts to a snowy dust of impalpable powder the original grain -a white- ness which takes its revenge in indigestion, leaving the stomach nothing to seize on. Simmons and his companions probably ate their bread, thanked Heaven, and found no fault if it was a little off color. Dyspepsia is not often a disease of the frontiers.
Then in the following year comes the first saw-mill, built by a company of eight individuals, of whom Simmons, who holds the majority of the stock, is, of course, the superintendent. We find them self-incorporated on October 25th, 1847, under the title of the Puget Sound Milling Company. The mill irons which had been in use at Fort Vancouver were obtained from the Hudson's Bay Company, who seem, now that they find themselves unable to keep the Yankee settlers out, well disposed to turn an honest penny from their necessities. This new enter- prise, the first and parent of many a magnificent successor, seems to have thriven from the first, selling the most of its output at Nisqually, to which point they rafted their lumber, besides sup- plying the settlers, and later on taking a Government contract to furnish the material for the building of the officers' barracks at the military post of Steilacoom. Shingle-making, too, was becoming an important industry-indeed, shingles had become a currency at Fort Nisqually, where they passed readily in ex- change for groceries and clothing-very much after the fashion of certain periods in New England's colonial history, when money being almost unknown, trade and barter took its place.
So we find this infant colony already growing not only in
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HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.
numbers but in material wealth, devoting themselves to self-im- posed industries, which shut out temptation to idleness -- a fortu- nate thing where solitude and savage surroundings relax the restraints of civilization, throw each man on his own resources, and too often lead to dissipation or self-neglectful sloth. It was well, too, for the community, of which this little band was to be as a drop to the tide, a mustard-seed of human harvest yet to come, that they began right, laying, in thrift and industry, a good foundation for those who were to follow. There was neither room nor encouragement for idlers in that little first set- tlement at Tumwater, on Puget Sound.
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