USA > Washington > History of Washington; the rise and progress of an American state, Vol. III > Part 9
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Having chosen their claims the party now returned to Nisqually. They owned together some twenty head of horses and cattle, and they built a scow for the purpose of transfer- ring them and their household effects down the Sound to their new home. They were unable to make it serve for their animals, however, and were forced to drive them along the beach at low tide, a rather tedious process. But it was accomplished in time, the scow with the lares and penates
* Prophecy is no part of history, and yet, realizing that this is the age of steam, electricity and the automobile; that there is no longer any reason why the people of modern cities should live on twenty-five-, fifty- or hundred-foot lots; that there are now more than 90,000,000 people in the United States; that the amount of this level valley land approaching the Sound, and giving convenient access for railroads to its harbors, is extremely limited, I venture to leave here this record of my conviction, that there are people now living who will yet see the whole of this valley, unmarked by the foot of white man as it was only fifty- six years ago, entirely occupied by the activities of commerce, and the highland to the west of it, and much of that on its eastern side, covered with the uncrowded homes of a contented and prosperous people.
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of the several families following, as far as the tide flats in what is now Seattle Harbor. Here it was necessary to take the animals on board, and with care they were con- veyed up the river to a place where they could be safely landed, and thence driven to their new home.
In all this labor Van Asselt and Samuel Maple had been able to render but comparatively little assistance, for the latter had cut his foot with an ax after reaching Nisqually, and the former had been painfully wounded by the acci- dental discharge of a shotgun, loaded with buckshot, while crossing the Columbia. Several of the leaden pellets had entered his arm and shoulder, and as there was no surgeon at hand they were perforce suffered to remain there. Although he was thus forced to make all his explorations while carry- ing one arm in a sling, the circumstance was not without its advantages, for the Indians in his neighborhood forever afterwards looked upon him as bearing a charmed life, it being a theory among them that anyone who had lead in his flesh could not be killed. This theory he took occasion to encourage and strengthen upon occasion by shooting birds on the wing in their presence, and giving other exhibitions of his skill with a shotgun, with the use of which for bird shooting they were not much acquainted, having been accustomed only to their rifles, and when they became troublesome in later years he was usually able to go among them with safety.
These four earliest settlers on the east side of the Sound were not long without neighbors. George Holt arrived soon after and took his claim December 13th, while E. A. Clark and John Harvey arrived in April following .*
* Those who took donation claims on the Duwamish after Collins, Van Asselt and the Maples, arrived in the following order apparently :
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During their first winter they were obliged to go to Steila- coom for their supplies, and, if they did not find what they required in Balch's store at that place, they went on to Olympia. There were no roads except along the beach, and none there except when the tide was out. The only means of travel was by canoe, and this required a journey of from four days to three weeks, according to which place was visited, and the condition of the weather meantime. No matter what these conditions were, the travelers were obliged to sleep out of doors and do their own cooking during the journey. Sometimes even when the weather was not very stormy, the wind would sweep around some projecting point so strongly that they would not be able to pass it for some days together, during which they would be com- pelled to remain in their camp and make themselves as comfortable as they might.
George Holt, Dec. 13, 1851. E. A. Clark, Apr. 10, 1852. John Harvey, Apr. 10, 1852. August Hograve, Sept. 24, 1852. John C. Holgate, Jan. 21, 1853. Timothy Grow, Feb. 25, 1853.
William Heebner, July 10, 1853. Ruben Bean, Jan. 20, 1854. L. J. Holgate, Mar. 26, 1855.
John J. Moss, June 1, 1855.
Edward Hanford, Mar. 1, 1855.
The following took claims further up in White River Valley :
John Buckley, Feb. 10, 1852. Joseph Foster, June 1, 1853.
B. L. John, Apr. 20, 1854.
J. M. Thomas, July 17, 1854.
S. W. Russel, Sept. 7, 1854.
W. H. Gilliam, June 1, 1853. Stephen Foster, Oct. 1, 1853. M. Kirkland, Oct. 5, 1854.
H. H. Jones, Oct. 13, 1853. D. A. Neely, Nov. 15, 1854.
H. H. Tobin, Nov. 24, 1853. H. Meters, Dec. 15, 1854.
C. C. Lewis, Dec. 12, 1853. H. Meader, Dec. 25, 1854.
C. C. Thompson, Jan. 15, 1853.
J. A. Lake, Mar. 30, 1855.
Charles E. Brownell and a Dr. Bigelow took claims on Black River, but did not perfect their title to them. Seymour Hanford, Eli B. Maple and Francis McNatt also took claims and afterwards abandoned them.
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Only a few days after Collins and Van Asselt had made their selections and determined to make their homes per- manently in the Duwamish Valley, another party arrived in the neighborhood. Their purpose was not to find farms but to found a city. Although the site they first chose for the purpose was not as favorably located as they thought, they and other members of the party of which they were the advance guard, soon afterwards selected the site, founded and named the present city of Seattle.
This advance party was composed of David T. Denny, John N. Low, Lee Terry and Captain Robert C. Fay. The two first named had arrived in Portland only a few days earlier, in company with John Denny, who was David T. Denny's father, Arthur A. Denny, his brother, C. D. Boren and W. N. Bell and their families, all of whom had crossed the plains together during the summer, or became acquainted on the journey.
John Denny was a native of Kentucky, but had lived in Indiana and Illinois. He had been a member of the legis- lature in the latter State, where he had known Abraham Lincoln, and been one of his staunch supporters and admirers. Low was a native of Ohio, and Terry of New York. All or nearly all of this party had started west with the expecta- tion of settling in the Willamette Valley, but somewhere on the Umatilla they had met a man named Brock, who had been in the Sound country, and who spoke of its beauties and advantages so enthusiastically that some of them deter- mined to examine it before settling elsewhere.
From the Dalles the party sent their wagons over the mountains by the Barlow Road, while their goods and their families were sent down to the Cascades by boat, and around those rapids by Judge Chenoweth's tramway, then hardly
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completed, and thence to Portland by the brig Henry. This part of the journey occupied ten days, and was so trying that some of them were made sick by it, and were obliged to remain in Portland for a time to rest and recuperate.
But Low and the younger Denny, who was then unmarried, set out at once for the Sound country, partly to explore it, and partly because Low wished to find a place where his cattle might obtain pasturage during the winter, and he had been told that he would most likely find this at Judge Ford's place on the Chehalis. From Ford's they went on to Olympia, where they met Terry and Fay, with whom they continued their explorations down the Sound.
Having examined the eastern shore as far as Elliot Bay, ascended the Duwamish and visited the new settlers in that locality, they returned to Alki Point, the low-lying situation of which, contrasting strongly with the abrupt shores which everywhere else along their way presented themselves, had attracted their attention. Upon further examination, Terry and Low decided that this would be a favorable spot to locate a city, and they accordingly disembarked such goods as they had brought with them, and began to make arrangements to remain permanently. Some trees were cut down, and on September 28th the first logs were laid together for the foundation of a house. Having high hopes of the future of their city they determined, at Terry's suggestion, to call it New York.
Leaving Denny in charge to make such progress as he could with the work of preparing shelter for the other mem- bers of the party, Low returned to Portland, to make report of what had been done, and encourage as many as possible of his recent companions to return with him. He found most of them quite willing to go, and, the health of those who
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had been sick being now restored, preparations were begun for an early departure. It happened that the schooner Exact, Captain Folger, was then about ready to sail for Queen Charlotte's Island with a party of goldhunters-it having been recently reported that gold had been found there in tempting quantity-and as Low had not found the passage up the Cowlitz and across the country to Tum- water an easy one, it was determined to go by sea. There was still room on the Exact, among the goldhunters, and their passage having been arranged for with Captain Folger, their goods were taken on board, and on November 5th they sailed down the Willamette and out into the broad Columbia. On the 7th they were at Astoria, and passed out over the bar that evening. As the weather was favor- able, the voyage was made without any notable incident, and on the 13th they reached their destination and landed their goods at low tide. The weather was rainy and the women assisted at this work for a time. Then, as Mr. Bell says, in an all too brief account of that memorable landing, they "sat down and cried." Whether their tears were tears of sorrow or satisfaction, who shall say ?
The party that had come by the Exact was composed of Arthur A. Denny and family, Carson D. Boren and family, John N. Low and family, William N. Bell and family, and Charles C. Terry. With Lee Terry and David T. Denny, who had remained at the point when Low returned to Port- land, and had continued work on the cabin which they had started to build before he left, they were just twenty-four persons in all. Other settlers came up with them on board the ship but none of them stopped off here. Daniel R. Bigelow, afterwards famous among the early lawyers, went on to Olympia, James M. Hughes settled at Steilacoom,
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H. H. Pinto and family went on to the Cowlitz, and John Alexander and family and Alfred Millen took claims on Whidby Island.
For a time all the party at Alki Point found shelter, so far as they were sheltered at all, in Low's cabin. Then a log house was built for A. A. Denny. By the time these two were under roof the party had learned, either from their own experience or from the Indians, that the long, straight-grained cedar trees in the vicinity could be easily split into very tolerable boards, and consequently the houses for the Bell and Boren families were made of this material.
We have no very definite information as to how the party procured their provisions during the winter. There were none to be had in the neighborhood except such as could be procured from the Indians, who usually had fish in abun- dance, and sometimes venison and other game. The nearest point of supply was Steilacoom, which was thirty miles distant, and Fort Nisqually, which was five miles beyond. From the latter place they procured one hundred bushels of potatoes in March, paying a dollar per bushel for them, and they were delivered by Edward Huggins and a crew of Indians, in the big war canoe which Dr. Tolmie had pur- chased some years earlier from the warlike Haidahs of Alaska .* They probably procured other supplies from the fort, and for the rest subsisted on clams as all the other settlers did.
* Mr. Huggins has left an account of this trip in manuscript. He arrived at Alki in a violent storm, and in landing the canoe was carried far up on the shore by a wave, where it was dashed on the ground with such violence as to split it from one end to the other. It was afterwards supplied with a frame at Bolton's shipyard, at Steilacoom, and did good service as a mailboat for many years afterwards.
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During the winter the party supplied the brig Leonesa with a cargo of piles for San Francisco. These were cut near the water for the most part, as they were the first cut in the neighborhood, but it was still so difficult to get them to the ship that Lee Terry was sent to Nisqually for a team of oxen. These he procured and drove along the beach to the settlement, as Collins and Van Asselt had driven theirs.
Low and Terry were anxious enough to have all the mem- bers of the party remain permanently at the point, and offered to give them lots to build new houses upon if they would accept them. But they had not come so far to be content with town lots, when the government was offering each family six hundred and forty acres of land of their own choosing. They had made their long journey to secure all that the government offered, and there was as yet no reason why they should take less, for they were among the first who had arrived, and nearly the whole shore of the Sound, as well as much other land, was as yet unclaimed. Doubt- less they observed, as the winter passed, that the point was not specially well chosen as a site for a city. It afforded but little shelter for ships, while just beyond it there was an ample bay which would give them abundant protection. Coming as they had from the interior, they were not much acquainted with ships and their needs, but they soon saw, what Low and Terry had not seen apparently, that the sheltered shore inside the harbor was likely to become valuable far earlier than that outside. Possibly the officers of the Leonesa gave them some hints along these lines, and indeed it is something more than likely that they did so. At any rate they sought and found an early opportunity, after the cargo of the ship had been provided, to explore
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the land lying along the inner rim of the bay. This they did in February.
They now knew that timber suitable for piling was in demand, and would probably find a ready market for some time to come. After that squared timbers, such as could be made from the larger trees, would be sought for, and in time mills would appear that would cut everything suitable for market. They therefore sought for claims that were well covered with timber, and so near the water that the logs might be got to it and to the ships that would come for them, as easily as possible, for their means of hauling them through the forest were as yet of the most primitive kind. If they thought about selecting a site for a city at this time, it was seemingly not the first object they had in view. The need was too great to secure something that would yield an immediate return.
The first exploring party was composed of A. A. Denny, Boren and Bell. They set out in a small boat, for which Bell and Boren furnished the motive power. As the whole shore of the bay, and of the Sound everywhere, seemed to be about equally well covered with timber, their first care was to investigate the depth of the water, particularly near the shore, and the character of the shore itself. They did not yet know that the most striking characteristic of the Sound is its extreme depth, and that the next is that its shores are very abrupt. Mr. Denny made the soundings as they went along, using for the purpose an old horseshoe, or perhaps two or three of them, fastened to a strong clothes line of considerable length, and yet not long enough, as they soon found to their surprise, to reach bottom in many places. Even close to the shore the water was very deep, and for the most part the bay seemed to be bottomless.
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They soon determined that it would be possible to lay a ship close along shore almost anywhere.
They appear to have begun their investigations on the north shore near Smith's Cove. By noon they had coasted along toward the east as far as University Street, and here they went ashore, climbed the steep bank, opened their dinner pails, and made ready their noonday meal. Mr. Denny was pleased with the situation and, then or soon after, determined to make his home on the spot where that first meal was eaten, which he subsequently did.
After lunch the party continued their journey eastward, or southeastward, finding the shore gradually diminishing in height, until at last for a considerable space it broke down to the level of the tide flats. But before reaching the flats they found a small stream with soft, muddy banks, covered with salt, marsh grass, and near it a curious mound thirty or forty feet high. Beyond it and along the shore southward was a rather inviting meadow, the first they had seen, and as it promised to afford pasturage for their cattle, they determined to include it or part of it in one of their claims.
As yet no survey had been made north of the Columbia River, and each settler was therefore entitled to take a claim in any shape he wished. If any part of the shore line pleased him, he might make it the boundary on that side, and then by running lines at any angle he pleased, from either extremity of it, include so much land as he was entitled to take, whether married or single. He was not even required to make his boundaries by regular lines, but might vary them so as to include some particularly choice piece of land, or to exclude a swampy hollow or gravelly hilltop. The members of this party therefore had little difficulty in selecting the land
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they would include in their three claims. As they would need the little bit of meadow near the head of the bay as a pasture, they resolved to make it their southern boundary; they would claim a shore line about a mile and a half in length, along the northeast side of the bay, and enough of the hill land back of it in a regular body to make up their three claims. This was a very reasonable selection, for each of them, being married, was entitled to take a whole section, which is a square mile, and each might have claimed a mile of water-front had he so desired. Indeed he might have claimed two or three times that amount had he seen fit to do so, since by making his claim narrow he could have lengthened it in proportion. But these claimants evidently preferred to leave something that would attract other settlers, as neighbors were at that day more desirable than water- front.
It was then arranged that Boren should take the southern- most of the three claims, Denny the middle, which would include the spot where they had eaten their first meal, and on which he desired to build his first home, and Bell should take the northernmost. D. T. Denny was invited to join with them in this selection, the others offering to rearrange their claims so as to accommodate him, but as he was still unmarried he was in no hurry to make his choice, and did not avail himself of their generosity. Later he took a claim north of Bell's.
For the next few weeks the party employed themselves in getting their cattle across the country from Oregon, where they had been left for the winter. In this they were again aided by the Exact, which returned about this time with her party of disappointed prospectors, who had found no gold at Queen Charlotte's Island. She took Boren and D. T.
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Denny as far as Olympia, whence they made their way over the old Cowlitz trail to Portland, and in due time returned with their stock.
On the last day of March the little colony at the point received its first reinforcement. They had been visited in the preceding November by Hastings and Pettygrove, who were on their way down Sound, but now they had a visitor who was to remain and help them to found a city. This was Dr. D. S. Maynard, a Vermonter by birth, who had come to Oregon in 1850, and had just spent a winter in Olympia, where he had acquired such information as he could in regard to the possibilities of the salmon industry, and was now seeking a location where he might make an an attempt to get it successfully started. He was a man of education and some business experience, and also possessed of a temper of his own, as we shall see later, for the plat of Seattle bears permanent evidence of it. In his search for information about the salmon, the doctor had fallen in with an Indian chief of one of the Nisqually tribes, named Seattle, or Sealth, as the Indians seemed to pronounce it, who had been very helpful to him, and who had now accompanied him to this bay, on the shores of which his own band, known as the Duwamish, made their abiding place during a con- siderable part of each year. He had assured the doctor that salmon were generally abundant here, and had also promised that he and his people would catch as many for him as he might wish. How much he knew of Wyeth's failure to start this business, or of the success with which the Hudson's Bay people had long carried it on at Fort Langley, on the Fraser, is not now known.
He found no place on the shore of the bay so well suited to his wishes as that on the southern side of the tract which
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Denny, Boren and Bell selected, and which had been already assigned to Boren, but it was so desirable to get this, the first industry offering, located in the neighborhood, that the three readily agreed to rearrange their claims so as to give Maynard what he wanted, and this was accordingly done, although the doctor at first thought it unnecessary, as he only wanted ground enough for his fishing sta- tion.
On April 3d, most of the party removed from the first temporary houses they had built for themselves at Alki Point, to their own claims, now covered by the city of Seattle. They had built no houses or even cabins as yet, and so for a considerable time lived in camp, as they had done while crossing the plains. Boren fixed his camp on the southerly part of the townsite and Bell on the northern part. Mr. Denny did not remove to his claim until some days later, being still troubled with his old-time enemy, the ague, which indeed still afflicted several other members of the party .* Before he was ready to move over, the other members of the party had built a hut for him on the site he had selected. But here he found difficulty in getting water. He dug a well in a neighboring gulch, to a depth of more than forty feet, but found a quicksand bottom which discouraged him, and finally he chose another site near what is now First Avenue and Marion Street, and here he built his first home. A satisfactory supply of fresh water was secured here and
* The Oregon Historical Society has received more than fifteen thou- sand replies to a circular letter sent out to the families of the earlier settlers in Oregon and Washington, for the purpose of collecting infor- mation as to their number, date of emigration, etc. One of the inquiries made in this circular is for the reasons prompting them to come so far, and to this a large majority have replied that one chief reason was they hoped to escape the ague, which was then very prevalent in most parts of the old West.
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access to the Sound was also more convenient. This, at that time, was a very desirable consideration.
The settlers spent their first summer in Seattle in building their homes, and making such improvements on their claims as were most necessary. They were visited meantime by two vessels, the brigs Franklin Adams and John Davis, both of which had come to the Sound for piles. From these ships they procured some of the supplies they were in need of, and it was a great convenience to be thus provided for. In the succeeding winter so few ships came that there was almost a famine in the land, and for a time all were very much concerned about their food supply. Pork and butter came around Cape Horn, flour from Chile and sugar from China, and the supply in the country was not large. "That fall," says Mr. Denny,* "I paid $90 for two barrels of pork and $20 for a barrel of flour. I left one barrel of the pork on the beach, in front of my cabin, as I supposed above high tide, until it was needed. Just about the time to roll it up and open it, there came a high tide and heavy wind at night, and like the house that was built upon the sand, it fell, or anyway it disappeared. It was the last barrel of pork in King County, and the loss of it was felt by the whole com- munity to be a very serious matter."
There is no promise that pork cast upon the waters will ever return, and this particular barrel of it never did, and was never again heard from. Whether it sank in deep water, or floated away, or whether possibly the Indians may have found it after many days, and towed it to some distant camp and there made merry over it, no white man ever knew. Possibly it is still somewhere at the bottom of the Sound, preserved by the abundance of brine which surrounds it,
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