USA > Washington > History of Washington; the rise and progress of an American state, Vol. III > Part 13
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Most of the practice of these pioneer lawyers was in the justice courts, of which there were three in the Sound country. Not one of the justices was a lawyer. Two of them were Mormora and the third was, or had been, a clerk in Balch's
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store. They were Dr. Lansdale at Olympia, Dr. Maynard at Seattle and Henry C. Wilson at Port Townsend.
In later years Hon. H. G. Struve, himself a pioneer of honored memory, gave this account of some of these pioneer lawyers and their practice :
"Among the earliest lawyers in this Territory were Colonel J. B. Chapman, one of the founders of Steilacoom, and Daniel R. Bigelow, then and still an honored citizen of Olympia. These two gentlemen engaged occasionally in a forensic combat before our worthy friend, Dr. Lansdale, the local Justice, who is yet alive; and it is said of Mr. Bigelow, who was a modest retiring man, and understood his profession well, that while he might not always cope with his wily antagonist in stratagem, he always had the grammar and the Queen's English on his side.
"A little later Quincy A. Brooks, for many years after- wards officiating as Postal Agent on this coast, made his appearance. A gentleman who kept a diary in those early days said of Mr. Brooks, that on many occasions he helped to while away the dreadful long nights of this northern latitude by his admirable performance upon the violin, of which in- strument he was a master, and that it seemed to him that, should Mr. Brooks fail to convince a jury by his oratory, he might, by leave of the court, prove irresistible with his fiddle.
"In 1851 Hon. Elwood Evans made his advent. Having received a finished education, and possessing a mind richly stored with scholastic and versatile attainments, embracing every branch of useful knowledge, skillfully trained as a lawyer, by nature adapted to all kinds of literary and histor- ical pursuits, his coming was a. very valuable acquisition to the population of the territory. Having creditably dis- charged many high and important functions in various
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positions, having made many contributions to literature and history, the result of patient labor and research, he is well entitled to enjoy the repose of an honorable and well-spent life." *
The business which then promised most, and gave the set- tlers most encouragement, was that which already furnished those who had need of it readiest employment. At Olympia, Steilacoom, New York and Seattle, and at various points along the west shore of the inlet, from Hood's Canal to Port Townsend, there was demand for men to cut spars and piles, and assist in getting them on board the ships which were waiting to take them to market. The first small saw mills at Tumwater, Steilacoom, Warbassport and on the Chehalis found the local demand for their product greater than they could supply. Some of the ships were taking squared logs to be sawed in San Francisco, and it was evident enough that mills which could furnish them with lumber would do a profitable business. The first of these to furnish cargo for this outside trade was undoubtedly Yesler's at Seattle, but by 1853 several others were building. A correspondent of the "Columbian," whose letter was printed in the issue of May 21st of that year, says he had just completed a tour of the lower Sound where many improvements were going forward. At Port Ludlow W. P. Sayward was "building an extensive system of steam and water power mills" and "J. J. Felt was also building a steam mill at Apple Tree Cove." The mill which Nicholas DeLin, M. T. Simmons and Smith Hays were building at the mouth of the Puyallupt
* Address to the Washington Pioneer Association, Seattle, 1886, by H. G. Struve.
t This mill is spoken of by Evans and others as located near the mouth of the Puyallup, though its site, which is still well known, is fully a mile
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was nearly completed, while McAllister & Wells were at work on a new mill on McAllister's Creek, and A. J. Sim- mons & Co. had one nearing completion on Henderson's Bay. L. Bills had just built and launched a clipper sloop at Port Steilacoom. In a still earlier edition John L. Butler had advertised that he was just completing "an excellent dry dock on the west side of the inlet, three miles below Olympia," where he will soon be prepared to repair vessels of all kinds. Luther M. Collins also advertises that he has two hundred thousand apple, peach, pear, plum and cherry trees for sale, at his place on the Duwamish, and "dray number one" has made its appearance in Olym- pia, "with a long-eared, high strung, double bass singer attached," and the editor sees "no reason why the enter- prise should not succeed."
To all these evidences of prosperous advancement was added the further encouragement that settlers were arriving in greater numbers than even the most confident had ex- pected. Some of those who had crossed the plains in 1852 had come direct to the Sound from the Columbia. Some who arrived late continued on up the Cowlitz long after the winter had begun. Even late in December the report was that every house between Olympia and the Cowlitz was crowded with them, and "the cry is still they come."* As the spring opened others came in increasing numbers. The canoes and batteaux owned by Warbass & Townsend at Warbassport, and which they advertised would "forward both passengers and freight without delay," were taxed to
from deep water. Evans says the George Emery took two cargoes of lumber from it soon after it was completed, and anchored while loading in five fathoms, at a point where now the tideland is almost bare at high water.
* "Columbian," Dec. 18th.
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their full capacity. Some of these batteaux were capable of accommodating eight or ten families, with their house- hold goods, their wagons, ox-yokes and chains, and manned by eight or ten expert Indians would make the trip from the mouth of the Cowlitz to Warbassport in about three days. A letter from Cowlitz Landing printed on May 14th says about fifty families have passed that point during the previous three weeks, and among them were "several hand- some representatives of female youth." "There are lots of strangers in Olympia," says the "Columbian." "All the homes and boarding houses are full," while all news from the East indicated that the immigration for the current year would be larger than ever.
The coming of all those settlers, and the consequent advancement in all lines of useful activity, particularly in the lumber business, made the road question more important and interesting than ever. Particularly did the desirability of getting the road opened from Walla Walla to Steilacoom impress itself upon all. Great hopes were entertained that Colonel Ebey would induce the legislature to memorialize Congress in its interest, and he did not disappoint them. His memorial was among the earliest prepared, and although various amendments were offered by members from the south side of the river, who were anxious to get other memo- rials adopted, in the interest of roads in their own neighbor- hoods, they were all voted down and his was approved and duly forwarded to Washington. It asked for an appropria- tion of $30,000 for the improvement. He also got a memorial adopted recommending an appropriation of $6,000 for a military road from Steilacoom to Vancouver.
But as the season advanced the settlers were reminded that these memorials did not build the roads they were so
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anxious for. Early in March notice was received that Congress had appropriated $20,000 for the Walla Walla road, but by the end of April it began to be apparent that it would not be expended in time to be of any benefit that year, and it was the immigrants of that year that everybody had hoped to have it ready for. The "Columbian" accordingly began to call upon the settlers to "put their own shoulders to the wheel,"* and this they soon resolved to do. On May 18th, a public meeting was held at Olympia at which offers of labor were volunteered, and John Edgar, White- field Kirtley, Edward J. Allen and George Shazer were designated as a committee to explore the road, and they almost immediately began their work. Rev. Benjamin Close, A. W. Moore, E. Sylvester, James Hurd and John Alex- ander undertook to raise subscriptions either in money or labor.
These and all others interested in the enterprise were greatly encouraged by the receipt of a letter early in June, from Isaac I. Stevens, the newly appointed governor of the territory, which had now been created, in which he gave notice of his appointment and that he was setting out for his new post of duty; that he was to explore the route for a Pacific railroad while on the way, but this would not delay the organization of the territorial government, as a census would have to be taken before anything else could be done, and the new United States marshal would soon arrive to begin that work. The $20,000 appropriation for the Cascade road had been placed in the hands, and the expenditure of it had been intrusted to a "vigorous and energetic officer," Captain George B. McClellan, who would also soon be on the ground.
* "Columbian," April 23d.
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This was cheering news. Captain McClellan was notified of his appointment in April, but he did not reach Fort Van- couver until July, although the mails were carried from New York to San Francisco in eighteen days, and there was a regular weekly mail steamer between San Francisco and Portland. At Vancouver his movements were so deliberate that the settlers, wearying of the delay, and fearing that nothing would be done in time to be of benefit to the immi- grants of that year, finally concluded to go on with the work themselves.
In a very short time $6,600 was subscribed in money and labor. The money was invested in tools and provisions, and those who had agreed to contribute labor were assembled, and Edward J. Allen of the immigration of 1852 was given charge of the work by general consent. From that time forward, as Elwood Evans well says, he was engineer, con- tractor and the soul of the work. The exploring committee, of which he had been a member, had followed the trail which the Klickitat and Yakima Indians had used for years in their visits to Fort Nisqually. Edgar, who was an old Hudson's Bay man, who had married a Klickitat woman, had pointed it out, and they were easily convinced that it was the most practicable route to be found. A party com- posed of Whitefield Kirtley, Edwin Marsh, Nelson Sargent, Paul Ruddell, Edward Miller, J. W. Fouts, John L. Perkins, Isaac M. Brown, James Alverson, Nathaniel Stewart, William Carpenter and Mr. Clyne, was sent forward to begin work at the eastern end, while Allen himself, A. C. Burge, Thomas Dixon, Ephraim Allyn, James H. Allyn, George Githers, John Walker, John H. Mills, R. S. More, R. Foreman, Ed. Crofts, James Boise, Robert Patterson, Edward Miller, Edward Wallace, Lewis Wallace, James
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R. Smith, John Barrow and James Meek began work at the western end. The time was short for an undertaking of such formidable appearance. July was already well advanced: August would be at hand before the work was well started, and settlers would begin to arrive in September or early in October.
But no time was lost or wasted. So confident were the builders that they would get the way open in time, that hand- bills were printed giving notice that the new road was open, and messengers were sent out to distribute them along the trails, and to urge the arriving settlers to come direct to the Sound, the true land of promise. Some of the trains arrived at the Columbia before the ferry, which it had been proposed to construct there, had been begun, and they were detained until some sort of rafts or flatboats to convey their wagons across could be constructed. This required four or five days, and they did not reach the summit of the Cascades until about the first of October. Here the road had not quite been completed. Allen and his associates, having been informed that no settlers were coming that year, had given up the work for the time being and returned to Olympia. Enough had been done, however, to enable the new arrivals to get through, and several trains came over the road that season, as we have already seen.
No part of the $20,000 appropriated by Congress for this road was used to reimburse the settlers for the money they had contributed, or the work they had done to get it opened. During the summer and fall Captain McClellan, "the vigor- ous and energetic" officer of whom so much had been expected, arranged to have it inspected. The route chosen was duly approved, and a promise was made that a report should be sent to Congress recommending an appropriation
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for their reimbursement. The promise was faithfully kept, but Congress did nothing. In those times the Constitution was strictly construed, and no appropriations were made for any purpose within the boundaries of any single State or territory, that would assist its struggling settlers in any of their own enterprises. All improvements of that kind, if made at all, must be made by the State or territorial govern- ments, or if no such government had been organized, or provided for, by the settlers themselves. But a military road might be built by the national government, and the $20,000 had been appropriated for such a road from Fort Walla Walla, still a Hudson's Bay station, to Fort Steila- coom. The nice distinction was made, apparently, that the settlers had not been building a military road, but an immigrant road, and therefore they must pay for it, notwith- standing the fact that the government appropriated their emigrant road, and made use of it for all the purposes a military road was designed to provide. The $20,000 was subsequently expended without greatly improving on the work which Allen and his fellow settlers had done at a cost of $6,600.
While local roadmaking was still in this primitive con- dition, transcontinental railroads were beginning to be hoped for, and their coming at an early day was even thought to be probable. A letter from the national capitol, printed in the "Columbian" of March 5, 1853, conveys the intelligence that capitalists had made application to Congress for a right of way across the continent, and for a loan of govern- ment credit at the rate of $15,000 per mile, to assist in building a road, and the sanguine correspondent expresses the opinion that "a thousand miles will be under contract within thirty days after the act is passed." Doubtless this was cheering
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intelligence to the people of that day, who knew little about the cost of transcontinental railroad building, or the avarice of transcontinental railroad builders, who would find ways, in later times, to get much larger loans, and then to get them doubled as the work advanced, even "removing moun- tains," as Mr. Lincoln once said, by their representations. But Congress did not encourage the hopes of these capitalists. When the letter from Governor Stevens, already referred to, was received in June, with news that he was actually to make a reconnoissance for a Pacific railroad, while on his way to the territory, the prospect seemed more encouraging. The hopes of the settlers rose accordingly, though many years were yet to pass before the first rails would be laid.
In June 1853 Collector Moses received notice of his removal from office, and that Colonel Ebey had been named as his successor. He had never regained the confidence of the authorities in Washington, after he had lost or badly shaken it, by sending to the relief of the shipwrecked gold- seekers on Queen Charlotte's Island, and incurring a bill of some thousands of dollars which he asked, and expected, the government to pay. Now a new administration and another party had come into power, and it was anxious to be rid of him. Charges of mismanagement in his official affairs were preferred and, although they seem never to have been proven, he was forced out.
Although a surveyor general had been appointed for Oregon, and had reached Oregon City in April 1851, no surveys were made north of the Columbia until 1853. In the fall of 1852 a skeleton map was issued from his office, with notice that a surveying party would be sent north of the river during the following year. This notice was the cause of no small satisfaction among the settlers, all of whom
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so far, had marked the boundaries of their claims as best they could, and there was already beginning to be trouble, or prospect of it, in regard to these boundary lines. It was now announced* that four townships in range I, and a fractional township in range 2 east, commencing at Vancouver, would be surveyed. Then commencing nine miles above the mouth of the Cowlitz, four townships in ranges 1 and 2 west, and still further north two townships in ranges I east and I west, and extending as far north as Steilacoom were to be surveyed.
In April following the surveyor general's report, dated October 23, 1852, was published. It showed that up to that date notice from 777 settlers, claiming 640 acres each, and from 202 claiming 320 acres each, under section 4 of the land law, and from 80 others claiming 320 acres each, and 20 claiming 160 acres each, under section 5, had been filed in his office, making a total of 590,720 acres claimed by 1,079 individuals and families. From this showing it did not appear that the national domain would be speedily bankrupted by the demands of these settlers. By their coming to the territory they had materially aided in securing to the nation undisputed title to something near 300,000,000 acres. The surveyor general's office had now been open for a period of nearly eighteen months, and in that time all the people who had come to the territory since 1842, a period of ten years, had laid claim to less than one three-hundredth part of what they had helped so effectually to secure. The nation's generosity did not seem likely to prove so expen- sive after all.
On July 4, 1851, the first celebration of the national anniversary was held in Olympia-the first north of the
* "Columbian," Nov. 20, 1852.
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Columbia after that held by Wilkes and his sailors on the prairie near Fort Nisqually, just ten years earlier. Colonel John B. Chapman seems to have been the orator of the occasion, and to have then suggested that the territory be divided. The day was celebrated in the following year when R. D. Bigelow was the principal speaker, and his address was printed in full in the first issue of the "Columbian" in September. In the following year the territory had been formed, and the day was celebrated with much enthusiasm, both at Olympia and Warbassport, J. Patton Anderson, the new United States marshal, being the orator at the latter place. At Olympia an elaborate program was arranged and successfully carried out. Joseph Cushman presided, and Colonel Frank Shaw was marshal of the day. Prayer was offered by Rev. Benjamin Close, and the Declara- tion of Independence was read by Simpson P. Moses. An elaborate dinner was served, after which a number of patri- otic speeches were made, one of the speakers being Lieutenant A. V. Kautz, afterwards famous as major general in the army of the Potomac, and for many years well known among the residents of Puget Sound.
CHAPTER XL. WANING POWER OF HUDSON'S BAY.
I T WILL be well now to review the change that had taken place in the affairs of the Hudson's Bay Com- pany, and its subsidiary concern, the Puget Sound Agricultural Company, in the eight years since the Bush-Simmons party arrived at Budd's Inlet. This change had been very great-indeed it could hardly have been greater, for the former had ceased to be the sole governing power in all the vast region then known as Oregon, and both had become mere trading concerns, doing business in a foreign country, where their agents and employees were continually made to feel they were not altogether welcome. Both were still rich and powerful-powerful because of their wealth, because of their established trade relations with the outside world, because of the employment they were able to offer to those who were in need of it, and the market they furnished for such produce as the settlers had to sell, and the supplies they furnished in return for it, and particularly on account of the fortified positions they still held at various points in the territory, and more than all because of the great influence they still had with the Indians.
Dr. McLoughlin no longer ruled at Fort Vancouver. In August 1845, while Simmons and his friends were absent on their tour of exploration in the Sound country, Lieutenants Warre and Vavasour, of the Royal Engineers, arrived at Vancouver, with instructions to investigate the condition of Oregon, and certain representations that seem to have been made in London that officers of the Hudson's Bay Company, and particularly Dr. McLoughlin, had "encour- aged American settlements in that region; that they had sold goods to American settlers cheaper than to British subjects; had joined the provisional government without reserve, save the mere form of oath, and were accessory to
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the appropriation of the territory by the American settlers." Finding himself thus misrepresented, censured, and spied upon, McLoughlin had resigned from the Company and retired to his claim at the falls of the Willamette, where he was to spend the remainder of his days in fruitless efforts to defend his own against the attacks of those he had often befriended, and who, but for the assistance he had given them in their hour of extremest need, would have perished, or been forced to leave the country.
With his resignation his influence on the settlement of the country, particularly that part of it with which this history has to do, came to an end. But one who has borne so great a part in the direction of affairs does not cease to be interesting simply because he has laid aside the cares of office, or the responsibilities of authority. Succeeding generations, for many years to come, will learn with sorrow, and remember with regret, that the later years of this great man's life were embittered by many needless annoyances, by the unjust censure of those he had long and faithfully served, by the ingratitude of those he had befriended, by criticism from those who should have been his foremost defenders, by the suspicion of those whose confidence he had nobly earned, and that his gray hairs were finally brought down in sorrow to the grave, in a land of which he is now justly known as the father, but which, while he lived, grudgingly gave him the shelter of a home.
As early as 1829 he had determined to erect a saw mill and a grist mill at the falls of the Willamette, where Oregon City now stands, to supply lumber to the settlers he was encouraging to locate in the valley in defiance of the strict rule of his company, and to grind their wheat when they should produce it. During the winter of that year he sent
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workmen to the place to begin preparations for building. As there was then no urgent need for either mill, these work- men made progress but slowly. They first built three log houses for themselves, and in the following year cultivated a small garden. It was not until 1832 that the mill race was blasted out, nor were the squared logs for the mill build- ings all prepared until 1838. In that year also a new house and store building were erected, the houses first built having been destroyed by Indians.
This was undoubtedly the first occupation of the ground, and should have given Dr. McLoughlin first claim to it, whether his original intention was to hold it for himself or for the use of the Company .* The Company could not acquire title to it, in any event, whether the country should become British or American. The use of it while it should be permitted to remain in the country, together with such claim for compensation for its improvements as occupancy would finally give it, was all it could reasonably hope for. All this it would enjoy, and preserve claim to, if McLoughlin finally laid claim to the ground in his own right, while an unfriendly claimant would probably demand undisputed possession. Under the treaty of joint occupation all the country jointly occupied was equally open to British subjects and American citizens. Both were encouraged to go there and make homes for themselves. Our own Congress had amply foreshadowed the policy it would finally adopt
* Sir George Simpson says plainly, in a report to headquarters, dated Fort Vancouver, November 25, 1841, that "McLoughlin had taken posses- sion of it on behalf of the Company, some years ago." (Paragraph 48.) And again: "I visited this spot in 1828 accompanied by C. F. (Chief Factor) McLoughlin, when it was determined to take possession of a part of this water fall for the Company." "The American Historical Magazine," October 1908.
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