USA > Washington > History of Washington; the rise and progress of an American state, Vol. II > Part 28
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36
386
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
in charge of the new buildings, a few blankets, two kegs of potatoes and a few garden seeds, McDonald returned to Fort Vancouver. On the 30th of May he arrived back at Nisqually "with four men, four yoke of oxen and four horses, after a journey of fourteen days." He was also accompanied by Dr. W. F. Tolmie, "a young gentleman lately arrived from England as surgeon for the Company," who was then on his way to one of the northern stations, as he supposed, but an accident to one of the employees was to detain him at the new station for several weeks, and he was in time to return to it as chief factor, in which capacity he was to remain in charge of it during a long and eventful period.
McDonald had expected to find the schooner Vancouver awaiting his arrival, with trading goods and provision, as she had sailed the same day he had started, with the inten- tion of meeting him, but she had not yet arrived. This was apparently something of a disappointment, for after enumerating his four oxen, four horses, and the four men he had brought with him, together with the three others who were awaiting his arrival, McDonald says: "This is all the semblance of a settlement there is at this moment; but little as it is, it possesses an advantage over all the other settlements we have made on this coast."
What this advantage was it would be interesting now to know. If the station had been founded a few years later, and the business so largely carried on at it immediately begun, it would be natural to suspect that it had or might have some advantage in helping to hold the country for the British, or to strengthen the British claim to it, but at that time there was no reason for either the Hudson's Bay Com- pany or the British cabinet to feel anxiety on that score. The American immigrants had not yet begun to appear.
387
OF AN AMERICAN STATE
Not even a missionary had yet arrived. Wyeth and Bonne- ville had been forced to leave the country, and nobody then guessed that the former would make a second venture. The convention for joint occupation had recently been extended for an indefinite time. Congress had ceased to talk about Oregon, for the time being, and there was no indication that it would ever begin again. Under the arrangement for joint occupation the Hudson's Bay people had no reason to doubt that they would be able to maintain their sole occupation as successfully in years to come as they had in years past. The advantage of the place must therefore have been only those peculiar to the fur trade, and it doubtless was of that kind.
There was at that time a large Indian population in the neighborhood, and there was a vastly larger number living on the numerous bays and inlets of the Sound, and the streams flowing into it, who could easily reach the station in their canoes. In the beginning, and for some time afterwards, it had been intended to establish another station on or near Whidby Island, but this was found un- necessary, as the Indians easily came to Nisqually from all their camps on Admiralty Inlet and Puget Sound, and from regions far north along the coast. Communication between this post and the other stations of the Company farther north-Fort Langley on Fraser River, Fort Simpson at the Russian boundary, and Fort McLoughlin, which was between the two last named-was always safe and easy. Fort Nisqually in time became a supply station for these and other outlying posts. The furs which they col- lected during the year were brought hither by the small schooners Cadborough and the Vancouver, and later by the steamer Beaver, and thence sent across to Vancouver
388
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
on pack animals, which in return brought back the bales of blankets, the arms and ammunition, the beaver traps, and the beads and trinkets which formed the trading sup- plies of the forts. It was more expeditious and safer to transport them in this way than to send them by ship, because of the vexatious delays encountered in going up and down the Columbia, and because of the storms so fre- quently encountered off its mouth. Through the placid waters of Admiralty Inlet, the Gulf of Georgia, and the protected channels along the coast, now known as the Inside Passage, the Company's ships could come and go, with regularity and safety, between this point and the remotest settlements of the Russians in the far North. Most of the food products with which the Company regularly supplied these stations were produced at the Cowlitz farms, which were almost as near the Sound as the Columbia. In time a larger share, particularly of beef, pork and mutton, would be grown on the broad plains surrounding the fort itself. In time also trails would be made over the moun- tains, by which the Yakimas, the Klikitats, and other great Indian tribes inhabiting the country between the Cascades and the Columbia, would bring their trade to the new station, and ultimately the brigades from Colvile and Okano- gon would bring their bales of furs to it on pack animals, rather than send them down the river by the old route to Fort Vancouver. When that happened the annual ships from England would get a large part of their cargoes at Nisqually, and leave there the supplies for all the posts northward, and many of those in the interior.
The site selected for the new fort was in a broad, gently undulating plain, dotted here and there with small lakes that now bear the names American, Gravely, Steilacoom,
389
OF AN AMERICAN STATE
Spanaway, and others smaller in extent but not less beauti- ful, whose banks are usually bordered with a thick growth of deciduous trees and flowering shrubs, among which are the syringa, spirea, the dogwood, rhododendron, and the wild currant, and mingled with which were stately firs and more solemn cedars. The plain was also studded here and there with smaller firs, and clumps of oak which made it a beautiful natural park.
The buildings were located about half a mile or more from the shore, and on the bank of a small stream called Sequalachew Creek, which took its rise in a little lake bear- ing the same musical name, located not far from the south- ern end of American Lake. The place commanded a fine view of the Sound and its numerous islands, and of the rugged Olympics in the distance, while the Cascades, with their several symmetrical snow-covered peaks, from Mount Baker in the north to St. Helens and Adams in the south, shut it in on its eastern side. It was a sightly location few spots on earth command such a variety of inspiring views-so many of the grand works of nature.
All the buildings were of logs, and the principal one was fifty-five feet long by twenty wide and twelve feet high. The roofs were of cedar bark, held in place by poles; the floors were of puncheons, and an immense fireplace, with a chimney built of sticks plastered with clay, served to warm the room occupied by the chief factor and the few who on rare occasions were admitted to his society. The other members of the party, accustomed as they were to living in camp and on the trail, found little difficulty in making themselves comfortable in log shacks, or cabins more hastily constructed, and which gave them shelter from the rain and wind and little more. In time a palisade, made of split
390
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
logs, one end of which was firmly planted in the ground, and the other fastened by stout wooden pins to a railing near the top, enclosed these buildings, and a plot of ground two hundred by two hundred and fifty feet in size. This palisaded fort was strengthened by bastions at the corners, built of squared logs, pierced with port holes, the upper stories projecting beyond the palisade walls so that those within might, from this safe retreat, watch the fort from its outside, and so defend it from attack by fire as well as by bullets. The upper stories of these bastions were always kept well stocked with firearms and ammunition, while their lower part formed a prison house in which ob- streperous servants and occasionally a marauding Indian were imprisoned.
In time a saw pit was arranged where timber was whip- sawed, a process well understood fifty years ago, but now, when steam and electric power are so readily and cheaply provided, entirely disused. By this device one man stood on the log, and another under it and alternately drew a long saw with a handle at either end, up and down through it, until it was divided into boards, or beams, or planks, of the dimensions required. The process was tedious, but it was the only one by which lumber was made for many centuries. In this way all the boards were made that were used for the floors, doors, and door and window casings, and for the inside finishing of the several buildings, so far as they were finished, at Fort Nisqually. The heavy planks from which the gates of the stockade were made, as well as all the lumber of every sort used about the place, was cut in the same way. Wheels for the carts and wagons used to haul goods, as they were unloaded from the Company's ships, to the trading house at the fort, and to haul grain
391
OF AN AMERICAN STATE
from the fields, as well as beef, baled furs, wool, hides and tallow from the fort to the ships, when ready for shipment, were made by sawing discs from logs of proper size, and as nearly round as they could be obtained. Holes were bored or burned through the centres of these discs, and if they were not then found to be as round as was hoped, they were finished by hewing them with axes. They were then fitted to their axles and fastened on with strong wooden bolts. These rude wagons were very heavy, but oxen were plenty and drivers were expert, and, though the clumsy wheels thus rudely fitted to ruder axles gave forth ear-torturing com- plaints wherever these primitive and ponderous machines were called upon for service, there were no neighbors to protest, and servicable loads were hauled to and from the beach on them for several years after better vehicles could have been easily obtained.
A diary, called the "Journal of Occurrences," was faith- fully kept at this, as well as all the other stations of the Company, and these dog-eared and sometimes mouse- eaten volumes still exist and furnish much interesting and reliable information for the historian. The entries are sometimes most aggravatingly brief, particularly when some fact is recorded which has an interest now that it did not then possess, but the writers probably never suspected that the record thus made would have an interest beyond their own time. These journals appear to have been kept for the information of the Company's officers only. The state of the weather is always first carefully noted, although it is evident enough, that for many years at least the stations were not provided either with thermometers or barometers. Then the kind of work at which each person was employed is indicated, and sometimes the number of Indians who
392
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
visited the fort, the names of their tribes, and the kind of skins they offered to trade are mentioned.
For the first few months after McDonald began to work at this place, everybody was busy with the new buildings, and later with their furniture, for everything about the place had to be hewed or sawed out of the standing trees by the rude art of the employees of the Company. Later an ever- increasing troop of Indian women would be planting or weeding in the garden. Sometimes the keeper of this journal confides to it some of his own lonely reflections, as for example on the evening of October 26, 1835, Mr. Kitson wrote: "This day I have entered on my forty-first year, eighteen of which I have passed in the Indian country. Thanks be to God I am still in sound health." Again on November 21st of the same year he says: "Saturday : . . . Anawiscum was busy making a small bedstead. I have got a feather bed made and this night I shall, for the first time on the Columbia, sleep on such a thing." In later years Dr. Tolmie would note the days on which the first spring flowers appeared, and on one occasion mentioned that he had seen a wild bee, a fact which some naturalists will perhaps doubt.
On April 14th the first mention of oysters appears in the journal, though the people at the fort were certainly not unacquainted with them previous to that time. Some Indians brought a supply of them for sale on that day, together with fresh salmon and venison. During these early years nearly all the meat and fish used at the fort was bought of the Indians, although it was sometimes necessary, when there were not many Indians about, to send out white hunters to procure game. The herd of cattle was still small, and under Dr. McLoughlin's orders, was carefully
393
OF AN AMERICAN STATE
cherished. "No animal was killed for beef," he says, "until 1838," when the supply brought up from California, by the Company which Mr. Slacum had done so much to organ- ize and encourage, enabled everybody, the Hudson's Bay people included, to have beef when they wished it. That oysters were not a novelty during these years when beef was scarce, may be guessed from an entry made on February 6, 1838, when this same Anawiscum-who was probably a Hawaiian, a large number of whom were employed by the Company-"was busy building a chimney, and making lime from shells." As there are not many other shellfish in that neighborhood, except clams, which are abundant nearly everywhere on the Sound, we may guess that the shells used were oyster shells, in considerable part at least. They must also have been received in considerable quantity, for lime enough was made to furnish plaster for several rooms in the principal buildings.
In November 1834 some apple seeds were planted in a hot bed, and from them grew the trees, many of which were still standing when the site of the old fort was sold to a powder company in 1906. Melon, cucumber and pumpkin seeds were planted in March 1837, if not earlier, and Wilkes saw "salad three feet high" in the garden in 1841. In May 1837 three hens were brought up from Vancouver, and in June a rooster was procured from the veteran Plomondon, who had previously left the service of the Company and started a farm of his own on the Cow- litz. In July 1835 a pig stye was made, and we may presume that home-grown pork began to furnish the tables of the chief trader and his employees not long afterward. Thus slowly and patiently did the chief trader in charge and the other white people at the fort provide
394
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
themselves with the ordinary comforts and luxuries of pioneer life.
It seems strange at the present day, when the relative value of the upland and valley land in western Washington is so well known, that these first farmers west of the Cascades should have confined their efforts at tilling the soil wholly to the high table-lands, when the rich valleys were so near. There is scarcely anywhere in Washington a prospect less inviting to the agriculturist than the gravel prairie on which this old fort once stood. Those who saw it sixty years ago say it was then covered with luxuriant grass, on which the herds of cattle and sheep belonging to the Puget Sound Agricultural Company throve most satis- factorily, though this scarcely seems possible to those who know it at the present day, when the short grass it produces is green only in spring, and when the deep bed of almost perfectly clean gravel which underlies it is made so apparent by the long seams which the railroad builders have made through it. And yet not only the Hudson's Bay people but the early American settlers chose this in preference to all other land at first, and much bitterness of feeling grew out of the attempts of the latter to locate claims on it in opposi- tion to the chief factor's wishes. At one time the Hudson's Bay people had about two hundred acres under cultivation here. The crops it produced were never very satisfactory. One year the barley was harvested by pulling it up by the roots, because the straw was too short to be cut with a scythe, and it yielded only about two bushels for one of seed, while potatoes did but little better. The latter were very small, according to the journal, "scarcely larger than bullets." That same year Challicum, an Indian chief belonging to one of the northern tribes, brought down forty potatoes
395
OF AN AMERICAN STATE
from Fort Langley, each of which weighed at least a pound, and one weighed two pounds and a half. These seemed remarkably fine, to Mr. Kitson, who was then in charge, though he could have secured equal or perhaps better results had he done his planting in the Nisqually bottoms, scarcely more than two miles away.
It was while Mr. Heron was in charge, in 1834, that the two Japanese, who have already been mentioned, were brought to the fort. On January 27th an Indian brought the news that a strange vessel had been wrecked near Cape Flattery, and all on board lost except two, who were then with the Indians, who had made slaves of them. Ouvrie, the French Canadian, who was the most trustworthy man about the place, was immediately dispatched with an Indian companion to rescue them if possible. The first day after he had started on his journey, he was overtaken by one of the severest storms ever known in the Sound country. The oldest Indians could not remember to have seen or heard of anything like it. Part of the palisade at the fort was blown down, and much damage done to the buildings. For some days much anxiety was felt for Ouvrie and his companion, but they were experienced canoemen and suffered no harm, and but little inconvenience. They returned on February 7th, having been told by the Clallams near Port Discovery that they had heard of no wreck, and they therefore concluded that none had occurred.
But the wreck had occurred nevertheless, though it was four months later before the truth was learned. On the afternoon of June 9th, about two o'clock, a cannon shot was heard at the fort, from the neighborhood of the Narrows, as the journal informs us, and Mr. Heron put off in a canoe with six men, and "went on board the Llama and had the
396
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
pleasure of taking tea with Captain McNeil, who pointed out two Chinese (Japanese) he had picked up from the natives near Cape Flattery, where a vessel of that nation had been wrecked not long since. There is still one among the Indians inland, but a promise was made of getting the poor fellow on the coast by the time the Llama gets there." This promise the Indians kept and the poor fellow was rescued sometime later. The three were subsequently sent back to their own country, but were not allowed to land, the Japanese law at that time forbidding any resident of that country who should leave it from returning to it, and prohibited all foreigners from entering it.
The early traders and factors who were in charge at Fort Nisqually did the first missionary work in western Wash- ington or Oregon. These traders were all protestants; Dr. Tolmie was an Episcopalian, and Heron seems to have been a Presbyterian, though this is not certainly known. The first service appears to have been held on July 21, 1833. The entry in the journal for that day says only: "No skins traded today, the Indians having been informed last night, that we intended in future not to trade on Sunday." But Dr. Tolmie has left this record of what occurred in his diary: "Today, the Indians assembled in front of the house to the number of seventy or eighty, male and female. With Brown as interpreter, who spoke in Chinook, Heron and I explained the Creation of the world, the reason why Christians and Jews abstained from work on Sunday; and had got as far as the Deluge in sacred history, when we were requested to stop, as the Indians could not comprehend things clearly."
This was more than a year before Jason Lee and his party arrived, and more than three years before Whitman and
DR. WILLIAM FRASER TOLMIE.
Born at Inverness, Scotland, Feb. 3, 1812, studied medicine and surgery in Edinburgh, and came to this country in 1833, as a surgeon in the employ of the Hudson's Bay Company. He early became a trader, and then a factor, and finally a chief factor in charge of Fort Nisqually, where he dealt more extensively with the early settlers of Washington, than any other agent of the company. Soon after the Fraser River gold excitement, he removed to Victoria, where he spent the remainder of his life, continuing in the service of the company until 1870.
THE RISE AND PROGRESS НІМІОТ ЯЗГАЯЯ MAIJJIV .ЯС
01- Takito fea ARBEMENTE who pointed
sendo volqmussent mipidagiga shes has Picstrop from the
a fost sido s ylisna. bas ,Totosi s nods bac one among
POOT-TE ow on the coast B imHaladtoets there." This is thedias sned 8 GBmemor a fellow was rescued sometime later. TherightNowwanegoghed quently sent back to their own country, but were not allowed to land, the Japanese law at that time forbidding any resident of that country who should leave it from returning to it, and prohibited all foreigners from entering it.
The carly traders and factors who were in charge at Fort Nisqually did the first missionary work in western Wash- ington or Oregon. These traders were all protestants; Dr. Tolmie way an Episcopalian, and Heron seems to have been a Prebyterjay though this is not certainly known. The fri service appears to have been held on July 21, 1833. The Youy in the journal for that day says only: "No iline traded todak the Indians having been informed last mely, that we introlyd in future not to trade on Sunday." Mir DE Tolmie has teo die record of sbal occurred in Jan "Today, the Indians swer biel in front of the Wwe to the ciber of seventy or eighty, male and female. Mil Wowy w Tmwiress who spoke in Chinook, Heron langhood che Crvary of the world, the reason why and Jem Jowamed for work on Sunday; and KA g & Go ts the Debug Wo awvred history, when we were y a i Indians could not comprehend
Der marwor than a year before Jason Lee and his party arrival and than three years before Whitman and
397
OF AN AMERICAN STATE
Spalding began their work. From the beginning thus made, religious services were held with considerable regularity every Sunday, when there were Indians about the fort, unless the weather was so stormy as to prevent, for there was as yet no building in which any considerable number of people could be accommodated .*
While this was the first missionary work done among the Indians west of the Cascades, so far as the record we now have shows, it is almost certain that similar work was done at a much earlier day on both sides of the mountains. Pierre Pambrum, who was a Catholic, had begun some time before Bonneville's visit to teach the Indians in the neighborhood of Fort Walla Walla. Several of his fellow traders and factors, who were not Catholics, were quite as mindful of their religious duties as he was. Wilkes found that James
* Some of the entries subsequently made in the journal are as follows:
"Sunday, December 22. Cold frosty weather. Several Indian families came in as usual to get some religious instruction. I began to give them some instruction soon after my arrival, which they treated with much indifference; but have at last succeeded in altering their savage nature so far that they not only listen with attention to what I tell them, but actually practice it.
"Sunday, August 10, 1834. The natives assembled and requested me to point out to them what was proper for them to act in regard to our Divine Being. I told them that they should endeavor to keep their hands from killing and stealing, to love one another, and to pray only to the Great Master of Life, or, as they say, the Great Chief who resides on high. In fact I did my best to make them understand Good from Evil. They, on their part, promised fair, and had their devotional dance, for without it they would think very little of what we say to them.
"Sunday, October 17. All the Indians assembled to hear the wonders of our Divine Being.
"Sunday, October 24. A great day for the Indians, who assembled here for a dance, and to hear from me what was right to do. I made them a speech in the Flathead language, which was understood by the chief Frenchman, who was the linguist for the rest of the tribes present. Every one of them seemed to pay attention to what I said, and it is to
398
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
Douglas was regularly reading the service of the Episcopal church at Fort Vancouver in 1841, and that a number of the employees at the fort were accustomed to meet with him for that purpose. John Work and Joe Pambrum were Episcopalians, while Ogden was a Presbyterian. Heron and Kitson had been in the employ of the Company for a considerable time before they were at Fort Nisqually. It is quite probable, at least, that they were as thoughtful about the intellectual and religious welfare of the natives at other posts where they had served as they were at Nis- qually. One of Dr. Tolmie's daughters is authority for the statement that her father was very much interested in missionary work and at one time thought seriously of re- signing from the Company in order to engage in it.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.