History of Thurston County, Washington from 1845 to 1895

by J. C. Rathbun
Editor of The Paladium


Published at Olympia, Washington, 1895



Electronically Transcribed June, 2000
by Edward Echtle: ThurstonHistory@earthlink.net


Transcribed verbatim, including errors.
Unclear passages should be checked against an original copy.
Text in [brackets] inserted to aid searching




PREFACE.
	It is customary for books to have a Preface or an Introduction or both. 
Sometimes the author ought to write it, sometimes the publisher.  Sometimes it 
aids the reader to understand the motives and purpose of the publication; 
sometimes it is an apology for the book's existence.
	If the following pages need an Introduction it must of necessity be for 
the benefit of those readers who have not read the series of articles on the 
History of Thurston county as they have appeared in the Palladium during the 
past year.
	A few years ago the writer became cognizant of many important events that 
had transpired at Olympia and in Thurston county that deserved to be preserved 
for future use and reference.  The further his researches extended the more he 
became impressed with the importance of gathering from the pioneers that fund of 
historic information which reposed largely in their memories.  He speculated 
that it is now comparatively easy to gather much historical matter which, a few 
years hence, it would be impossible to gather at all.
	While in this frame of mind he went to work, as his idle moments occurred 
to accumulate in a connected way the many interesting events that have occurred 
in Thurston county since its first settlement.  In doing so, he doubtless 
accumulated much matter that is unimportant and, as is to be expected, has 
failed to obtain some that deserves to have a place in our local history.  Nor 
is this surprising but notwithstanding these imperfections he thinks his labors 
will make easier the work of him who next puts forth effort on the same line and 
also make a story that will be of interest to the residents of Thurston county 
and to the many who did pioneer work here but have since made their homes in 
other places.
	Doubtless an explanation, some may call it an apology, might be made for 
the mechanical appearance of the work.  The only one at hand is this: as each 
weekly article was published in the Palladium the type was taken to the job 
printing room and a book form made up and printed.  During the year several 
pressman have had a hand at the work, which accounts for many imperfections that 
the experienced pressman and bookmaker will readily detect.
	The writer is under obligations to many old settlers who have favored him 
with data but owing to their number he must forego the pleasure of mentioning 
them in this connection.

J. C. R.
Olympia, Wash., December, 1895.

History of Thurston County Washington from 1845 to 1895

by J C Rathbun




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THE OREGON QUESTION.
	To properly appreciate the motives of and external influences surrounding 
the first settlers north of the Columbia river and particularly in the region of 
Puget Sound, it is necessary to refer briefly to that event known in American 
history as the Oregon Question and to show how the Sound country came to be a 
part of the United States, instead of a part of British America. It has been 
stated in public addresses that the present state of Washington was acquired 
from France as a part of the Louisiana purchase in 1804. The weight of authority 
is against that proposition.
	Nations acquire title to territory in one of four ways: (1) By immemorial 
occupation; (2) by conquest; (3) by purchase


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or gift, and (4) by discovery followed by occupation. The discovery of the mouth 
of a river and the occupation of the territory give title, by the Law of Nations 
to the territory drained by the river and its tributaries.
	Applying the facts of history to these principles of -international law, 
as the same bears upon the Puget Sound settlement, we find:
	FIRST. In 1792 Vancouver, an English navigator entered and took possession 
of the -sound country in the name Of his sovereign.
	SECOND. In the same year Captain Robert Gray, of the ship Columbia, sent 
out by a company of Boston merchants, entered the mouth of the great river on 
the western coast of the United States and gave it the name of


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his ship. Neither discovery was followed by occupation and no attention was paid 
to them until 1804.
	THIRD. In 1804 President Jefferson sent out two surveyors, Merriwether 
Lewis and William Clark and in 1806 these men explored the country west of the 
Rocky Mountains and down the Columbia river.
	FOURTH. In 1811 John Jacob Astor, an American merchant, established a 
trading post at Astoria.
	FIFTH. In 1813, by the treachery of the manager of this post, the valuable 
property was transferred to an English company and a British war sloop, took 
possession, hoisted the British flag and changed the name to Fort George.
	SIXTH. In 1814, by the treaty which concluded the War of 1812, this 
property was ceded back to the united States. British fur and trading companies 
however, continued to operate in this region and lost no opportunity to so shape 
matters that they could regain possession of the territory.
	Thus after the United States by Captain Gray had discovered the country in 
1892; after it had been explored by the authority of the president; after a 
citizen of the United States had established a trading post there; after it had 
been acknowledged as belonging to the United States by a treaty which terminated 
a war, yet the United States acknowledged that it did not know whether it owned 
Oregon or not.
	SEVENTH. In 1818 it agreed with Great Britain upon a joint occupancy of 
the territory west of the Rocky Mountains in the following  terms: "That any 
country claimed by either party on the northwest coast of America, together with 
its harbors, bays and creeks, and the navigation of all rivers within the same 
be free and open for the term of ten years to the


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subjects, citizens and vessels of the two powers."
	This opened the country to the free movements of the British fur and 
trading companies and England gained by diplomacy what belonged to the United 
States through discovery and occupation.
	EIGHTH. At the expiration of the ten years or in 1828 the treaty was 
renewed for an indefinite period of time, terminable, however, on a years notice 
by either party to the other.  For present purposes it is not intended to go 
into the details of events that transpired during those years. There were the 
Hudson's Bay company, the Puget Sound Agricultural Company; there were 
Speculators, Indians, priests, explorers and adventurers of all sorts. Troubles 
were growing; murders were committed. Yet in spite of these, immigration was 
turning westward.
	NINTH.  In 1844 the United States gave to England notice that it desired 
to terminate the treaty of 1818 and in 1847 the forty-ninth parallel of latitude 
was made the international boundary from the summit of the Rocky mountains to 
the middle of the channel which separates the continent from Vancouver's Island; 
thence through the middle of said channel and of Fuca's straits to the Pacific.  
The free navigation of the Columbia river was given to the Hudson's Bay company 
and other British subjects.  If the British government had any claim to the 
Puget Sound basin through the discovery of Vancouver in 1792 it was surrendered 
by this treaty of 1846.
	Though not germain to present purposes, it might be added that subsequent 
to the convention of 1846, England claimed that Rassario's strait was the 
channel intended while the United States insisted upon Canal de Haro.  Both are 
deep sea channels and between lies the island of San Juan occupied by the 
Hudson's Bay


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Company.  In 1858 the two governments agreed upon a joint occupancy of the 
disputed island. By the convention of 1871 which was called to settle the 
Alabama claims, the north-west boundary question was referred to Emperor William 
of Germany for arbitration.  The decision was in favor of the United States and 
in November 1872 the British garrison was withdrawn. The disputed island is the 
present county of San Juan of this state.

THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE.
	Reference has been made to the Louisiana Purchase and a few facts 
concerning that event are stated.
	Four nations were concerned in the boundaries to Louisiana: France, who 
was making the purchase, England who owned the country to the north and Spain 
who owned the Floridas on the southeast and Texas and California on the 
southwest. The south-western limit, in the treaty, was defined as "along the 
main channel of the Sabine river from its mouth to the thirty-first parallel of 
latitude: thence due north to Red river: thence up that stream to the one-
hundredth meridian of longitude; thence due north to the Arkansas river, thence 
up that river to it's source; thence north along the crest of tile Rocky 
Mountains to the forty-second parallel of latitude."  The United States and 
France, the parties to the deal, were willing the southern boundary should then 
extend along that parallel to the Pacific. This was satisfactory to England but 
Spain, who owned California, objected and the matter rested until 1819. In a 
convention of that year, the United States made a concession relating to Texas, 
and Spain yielded Florida and Oregon.
	The decade of the 40's witnessed a tremendous immigration to the north-
west. The country was occupied by servants and employees of the Hudson's .Bay 
Company. The latter established


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forts and trading posts in different parts of the country, all tending to 
establish an occupation of the country that would ultimately save it to the 
British flag. They had twenty-three forts and five trading stations.  At the 
mouth of the Cowlitz they had a farm and small post and a more extensive farm 
twenty-five miles up the river.  At Vancouver they built a stockade.  This fort 
was the general depot for the southwestern branch of their system. Several of 
their institutions were established east of the mountains. On Puget Sound was 
Fort Nisqually, formerly a stockade. They also had two steamers with which they 
entered the bays and rivers along the coast from Mexico to Russian America, now 
Alaska, to subserve their interests.  They had thoroughly explored the country 
and knew its topography.  There was little liklihood of immigration setting in 
the Sound country except it entered by the way of Vancouver and the Cowlitz 
river.  By strategy and deception the occupants at Vancouver and Cowlitz sought 
to turn the tide of immigration to the Willamette valley and to deter it from 
Puget Sound.  The Hudson's Bay people relied upon the near future to fix the 
Columbia river as the boundary line between the United States and Great Britain 
and looked jealously upon an effort to found homes north of that stream.

GENERAL HISTORY.
	In the immigration of 1844 was a company from Missouri, destined for the 
Rogue river valley in Southern Oregon. They came down the Columbia river and 
camped at Washougal near Fort Vancouver.  In the party was Michael T. Simmons 
and George Bush with their families.  They had  been neighbors in Missouri.  
George. Bush was a mulatto, but a man of true merit and sterling manhood.  The 
efforts of the Hudson's Bay people at


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Vancouver to keep people from going to the Sound country had its effect upon 
Simmons and with his true Americanism and inherent combativeness he proposed to 
resent the interference of the Britishers and to fight his way to Puget Sound.
	The provisional government of Oregon had passed a law excluding from the 
territory all free negroes and mulattoes.  George Bush concluded that the Rogue 
river valley was no place for him and that, should the Sound Country ultimately 
become Britain or American, so long as the British claim prevailed, his color 
would not deter him from asserting his manhood nor deprive him of the protection 
of her institutions.
	In December 1844, Col. Simmons, who had been designated by the company as 
the one to make a reconnaissance of the Sound country, started in company with 
Messrs. Loomis, Williamson and three brothers, John, Henry and James Owens.  
They travelled up the Cowlitz to the forks when their provisions became short 
and the navigation of the stream discouraging.  The Colonel, however, who had a 
fair share of superstition in his nature, said afterwards that he really turned 
his face "homewards" because of a vision he had before leaving Missouri, 
indicating that he would find just such a place as the Forks of the Cowlitz, and 
be compelled to abandon his enterprise.  In that place he saw mapped out the 
spot which appeared to him in his dream.
	Colonel Simmons, on his return, determined to resume the exploration at a 
more fitting season.  This he did, but none of the others attempted the journey 
again.
	In April 1845, while at Washougal, Mrs. Simmons gave birth to a son, 
Christopher C., the first white American child born North and West of the


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Columbia river, and the first white male child within the confines of the 
present State of Washington.  The first white American child born in Washington 
was a daughter of Mrs. Marcus Whitman, at Wailatpu, in the present county of 
Walla Walla, several miles east of the Columbia river.
	In July, 1845, Colonel Simmons again started from the Columbia for Puget 
Sound, accompanied by George Wanch afterwards a settler near Skookumchuck, 
William Shaw (father of Colonel B. P. Shaw, of Vancouver, the famous Indian 
fighter) and seven others, none of whom, however, settled in the country, save 
Simmons and Wanch.
	Colonel Simmons and party upon reaching the Cowlitz prairie, procured the 
services of Peter Bercier, as guide and started for the Sound.  It is proper to 
add that they learned at this point that John R. Jackson had been in the 
vicinity just before, and being pleased with the country had made a location and 
was then upon his return to Oregon City for his stock and effects.  Thus, it 
will be observed, that while Colonel Simmons had essayed, in the winter of 1844-
5, the first exploration with a view to settlement, that John R. Jackson had 
made the first location.  For both of these old settlers the claim of "Pioneer" 
has been asserted.
	Colonel Simmons and party reached the shores of Puget Sound in August and 
obtaining canoes, went down the Sound examining the various points, passed 
around the north end of Whidby's Island, returning through Deception Pass came 
back on the East side of that island.  The party having returned to the Columbia 
river, Colonel Simmons and his family were joined by James McAllister and 
family, David Kindred and family, Gabriel Jones and family, George Bush and 
family and Messrs. Jesse Ferguson and Samuel B. Crockett. Peter Bercier again 
acting as guide and conducting


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through the first American colony on Puget Sound.
	These hardy frontiersmen were fifteen days cutting out the road from 
Cowlitz Landing to Tumwater, a distance of fifty-eight miles, where they arrived 
late in October, 1845. Colonel Simmons took the claim at Tumwater, calling it 
New Market, while all who accompanied him made settlement in the vicinity, 
principally on what has ever since been known as Bush Prairie.  This was the 
first settlement in Thurston county.
	Notwithstanding that the Hudson's Bay people at Fort Vancouver made 
strenuous efforts to discourage the American colonization, north of the 
Columbia, yet, in September, 1840, when the little band of pioneers under 
Simmons started for the Sound country, Dr. McLaughlin and Governor Douglas gave 
an order on Messrs. Forrest and Tolmie- the former in charge of the Cowlitz 
stations and the latter at Fort Nisqually- to furnish the party on credit with 
two hundred bushels of wheat, at eighty cents; one hundred bushels of peas, at 
one dollar; three hundred bushels of potatoes, at fifty cents; and ten or twelve 
head of beef cattle, at twelve dollars per head.
	The claim taken as Kindred's on the edge of Bush Prairie, as the timber 
skirting the city of Olympia is entered, was the first built upon in 1845.  
During the next summer Colonel Simmons himself built.
	On March 15, 1846, Mrs. James McAllister gave birth to a son (James 
Benton), the first-born of the Puget Sound Settlement.
	In the summer of 1846, Sidney  S. Ford, Senior, and family, and, Joseph 
Borst, settled at the confluence of the Skookumchuck and Chehalis rivers,  half-
way between Cowlitz Landing and New Market.
	A. M. Poe, Daniel T. Kinsey. A. B. Rabbeson, Charles Eaton, Levi L.


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Smith and Edmund Sylvester arrived early in October and all made permanent 
settlements.  Messrs. Smith and Sylvester were in partnership, and under the 
partnership clause of the land law of Oregon, each located half-sections of 
land, the former making his residence upon what is now the City of Olympia, and 
designating it Smithfield.  Mr. Sylvester took up the claim on the edge of 
Chamber's Prairie, better known as the Dunham Donation Claim.  Mr. Eaton made 
the Pioneer. settlement on Chamber's Prairie proper.
	Shortly afterwards, and during the same month, the Sound country was 
visited by Elisha and William Packwood, Jackson Peters, Dr. Thomas Canby, and 
Elisha and James McKindly, who examined the region and returned to the 
Willamette valley to winter.
	This year, 1846,  also marked the erection of a grist mill at New Market 
by Col. Simmons, in which he ground wheat, but did not attempt to bolt it.
	The return made by John R. Jackson, the first Assessor of Lewis County, 
for the year 1846, exhibits the following as it's produce: oats, nine thousand 
two hundred and fifty bushels; peas, four thousand four hundred and seventy-five 
bushels: potatoes, five thousand seven hundred and sixty bushels.  Of course the 
greater portion of these products was grown by the Puget Sound Agricultural 
company, on their claims at Cowlitz and Nisqually, but it goes to show that the 
settlers had already begun in earnest to cultivate the country and raise the 
means to live.
	In January, 1847, Messrs. Davis and family, Samuel Cool, A. J. Moore, 
Benjamin Gordon, Thomas W. Glasgow, Samuel Hancock and Leander C. Wallace 
arrived at New Market and made settlement in the neighborhood.
	In March, 1847, the brothers Packwood,

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Elisha and William, returned with their families. Elisha P. located on the claim 
now owned by David J. Chambers, where he remained until August, when he returned 
to the Willamette valley.  His brother William settled permanently in the 
country.
	At the organization of the Provisional Government of Oregon in July, the 
territory North of the Columbia river formed a single county known as Vancouver 
District.  Sir James Douglas, M. T. Simmons and James Forrest, were the first 
County Commissioners, or County judges.  Lewis county was organized by act of 
the Oregon House of Representatives, approved December 25, 1845, to go into 
effect after the June election of 1846 and embraced all of the territory lying 
North of the Columbia river and West of the Cowlitz river.  At the June 
election, Doctor W. F. Tolmie, of Nisqually, was elected the first 
Representative.  The county continued of the limits defined in the act creating 
it, until the treaty of June 15, 1846, made the forty-ninth parallel the 
Northern boundary of Oregon.
	At the time to which we have traced the settlement (spring, 1847), this 
region had already attained importance in Oregon politics.  Indeed, the vote of 
Lewis county determined the election of the Governor of Oregon at the last 
gubernatorial election held, under the Provisional Government.  The contest 
between Governor George Abernethy, nominated for re-election, and General A. L. 
Lovejoy, was extremely close.  The other counties were in; and the vote stood, 
for Abernethy, four hundred and seventy-seven; for Lovejoy, five hundred and 
eighteen; Lewis county, last to be heard from, gave sixty-one for Abernethy and 
two for Lovejoy, changing the result, and re-electing the former by a plurality 
of sixteen.  Simon Plemondon was sent to the House of Representatives


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and A. M. Poe, elected sheriff.
	In the summer, A. D. Carnefix, J. B. Logan and Frank Shaw (the Col. Shaw 
of the Indian War of 1855-6), arrived.
	On June 10, 1847, Mrs. Sidney S. Ford, gave birth to a daughter 
(afterwards Mrs. John Shelton), the first American girl born North and West of 
the Columbia.  Here, too, is another indication of progress- the first given in 
marriage in the little colony;  "Married at New Market, Puget Sound, at the 
house of Mr. Davis, on the 6th of July, by Judge Simmons, Mr. Daniel P. Kinsey 
to Miss Ruth Brock, of the former place."
	In July, Messrs. Samuel Hancock and A. B. Rabbeson were employed by Simon 
Plemondon to build a brick kiln on his farm at Cowlitz.  These were the first 
brick made and, we believe used North of the Columbia. In August, Colonel 
Simmons, Frank Shaw, E. Sylvester, Jesse Ferguson, A. B. Rabbeson, Gabriel 
Jones, A. D. Carnefix and John Kindred formed themselves into a company for the 
purpose of erecting a saw mill at New Market named the Puget Sound Milling 
company.  The date of the lease from, Colonel Simmons, proprietor of the claim, 
is August 20, 1847, the lease to continue for five years with the privilege of 
ten.  The site described was the northwest part of the Lower Falls.  On August 
24th, the trail between Smithfield (Olympia) and the Falls was blazed. out.  On 
the same date the Puget Sound Milling Company completed its organization by the 
election of Colonel Simmons, Superintendent, and upon the following day 
commenced the erection of the mill, which was completed during the winter 
months.
	In the latter part of the fall (1847) the settlement was strengthened by 
the arrival of Thomas M. Chambers, with his sons David Andrew, Thomas J. and 
McLean, and the families of the


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two first; also Messrs. Brail and Geo. Shazer.

1848-9.
	At the election of 1848 (the last held in Lewis county under the 
Provisional Government) A. B. Rabbeson was elected sheriff and Levi Lathrop 
Smith Representative to the Oregon Provisional Legislature.  The latter never 
entered upon his duties.  Late in the month of August, while going to New Market 
in a canoe, Mr. Smith was seized with an epileptic fit and in this helpless 
condition was drowned. This was the first death of an American in the 
settlement.
	Sheets of a diary left by the deceased show that the disease, to which he 
had long been subject, preyed upon his spirits, and his dreamy loneliness, so 
often referred to and graphically portrayed in his melancholy record, excites 
warmest sympathy.  He was a man of considerable culture, a genial 
conversationalist and of refined sensibility.  His recorded thoughts amid his 
desolation, and oft-repeated discouragement, exhibit him as a religious 
enthusiast, passionately grateful to Providence for the occasional revival from 
gloom and the temporary enjoyment of renewed health between the attacks of 
disease.  His journal bears testimony to the attentive kindness of his partner, 
Mr. Sylvester, Who passed as much time with him as the labors on the farm would 
admit, and when he is unable. to chronicle that "Sylvester was at home today," 
such recitals as this appear: "The first canoe today has just passed;" "nothing 
Stirring;, "not even an Indian has been seen today."
	How like a vision the scene must have appeared that beautiful October 
morning when he came down from New Market and gazed for the first time upon the 
enchanting view spread out before him!  Stretching off to the north the placid 
waters of the beautiful


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bay, its shores lined with the primeval forests; in the back ground the white 
peaks of the Olympics, to the right the grand old Rainier - while all around 
were the gigantic forests of fir and cedar!  What wonder that his soul swelled 
with the grandeur of the occasion!  And to contemplate that this scene, in all 
its magnificence, was his for the taking!  Could man more proudly plan the site 
for a future city?  But fate willed otherwise and through those inscrutable ways 
of Providence the headwaters of that little bay pass to history with a name, a 
glory and a prestige that almost hides the memory of its first beholder.
	Shortly after Mr. Smith's decease Sylvester abandoned the prairie claim 
and became the permanent occupant of Smithfield.  It is proper to add here that 
the 'partnership clause' of the land law of the Oregon provisional government 
authorized the occupancy of claims by each partner for the common benefit of the 
firm. Thus while Smith resided on the "Smithfield claim," Sylvester owned an 
equal interest in it; Smith enjoyed the same relation to the prairie farm. Mr. 
Sylvester as survivor succeeded to the right of the firm and became the sole 
possessor of the claim, now the site of the city of Olympia.  Here he built the 
first hotel.  It was of logs, 16x24 feet, containing two rooms.  Guests were 
accommodated on bunks in the attic.
	On June 14, 1848, Rev. Pascal Ricard with a small party of Oblat 
missionaries, established the mission of St. Joseph on the East side of Budd's 
Inlet, about a mile North of Sylvester's claim.  Shortly after, Samuel Hancock 
located the claim on the West side of the inlet, subsequently occupied by Konrad 
Schneider, and built a warehouse and wharf.
	At the time. summer 1848, there was but one grain cradle North of the 
Columbia


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which was the property of Jesse Ferguson.  Messrs. Ferguson and Rabbeson 
concluded to go to the Cowlitz farms and put in the season cradling wheat, but 
the French settlers scouted the idea that grain could be saved in any other way 
than with the sickle; but as laborers were few and crops heavy the experiment 
was permitted by old Simon Plemondon, so much to the satisfaction of himself and 
others, that the cradling party had all the work they could perform that 
harvest.
	On August 14, 1848, the act of Congress establishing the Territorial 
government of Oregon was approved.  The territory thus acquired included all the 
Pacific possessions of the United States North to the thirty-second parallel, 
the northern boundary being the line fixed by the treaty of June 15, 1846, 
between Great Britain and the United States.
	It was during this fall that the so called Puget Sound Agricultural 
Company conceived the idea of making claim under the treaty to the immense tract 
called the Nisqually claim.  At that time they proposed to set a title to land 
South of the Nisqually river and with that view drove a large herd of cattle 
across the stream.  On learning this the American residents called a meeting, 
over which Colonel Isaac N. Ebey, who had just arrived in the country, presided.  
Messrs. A. B. Rabbeson and Jesse Ferguson were appointed a committee to wait on 
Dr. W. F. Tolmie, agent of the company, and protest against such an act.  One 
week's time was allowed the corporation to remove their stock to the north side 
of the river, the present dividing line between the counties of Pierce and 
Thurston.  The demand of the settlers was complied with and the claim of the 
Puget Sound Company limited to the demand of all the valuable portion of present 
Pierce county.


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	As soon as the gold discoveries in California had become known in Oregon 
there was a general rush of the male population to the mines.  Many abandoned 
their farms neglecting to sow or put in crops; many of those who had taken that 
precaution failed to return until after the harvest.
	Thus, to a great extent the labors of this season were materially 
valueless.  While money and "dust" became plentiful, improvements were 
suspended; no buildings were erected; the mills stood idle; all industrial 
pursuits stagnated and the prices of labor and produce advanced to exorbitant 
rates.  While it is doubtless true that the development of the great mineral 
wealth to California attracted the world's attention to the Pacific coast, 
hastened its settlement, opened new avenues of commerce, materially added to the 
wealth of the world and almost revolutionized trade, yet it cannot be denied 
that the California gold stampede of 1848-49 was a most grievous check to the 
healthy growth of Oregon Territory.  The great exodus of this year was a notable 
event in in history and it required years of steady, sober advancement and 
industry to recuperate from its consequences.
	Notice has already been taken of the Oregon Organic Act, approved August 
14, 1848.  Contemporaneous with its passage, General Joseph Lane had been 
appointed governor and ex officio Superintendent of Indian Affairs, and he with 
Joseph L. Meek, the first United States Marshal, crossed the plains, reaching 
Oregon City, March 2, 1849.  General John Adair, Collector at Astoria, 
established as a port of entry by the same act, arrived by sea at his post in 
the latter part of the same month.  Hon. William P. Bryant Chief Justice; Peter 
H. Burnett (afterward the first Governor of the State of California,)


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and James Turney constituted the Supreme Court but of these the Chief Justice 
alone accepted the appointment.  William A. Hall was commissioned in place of 
Mr. Turney, September 1, 1848 but resigned November 22nd when Hon. 0. C. Pratt 
was appointed.  Governor Lane issued his proclamation May 13th, dividing the 
territory into Judicial districts and assigning the Judges.  The county of 
Vancouver with several counties south of the Columbia, constituted the first 
judicial district to which was assigned Chief justice Bryant; to the second 
lying wholly south of the Columbia, was assigned Hon. 0. C. Pratt; Lewis County 
alone constituted the Third Judicial district, and to it there was no judge to 
assign.  Although within an organized territory of the United States, yet not an 
official clothed with federal or military authority was present north of the 
Columbia river, to afford protection or confidence to its growing settlements.
	In the winter of 1849, Messrs. Ebey, Shaw, Moore, Jackson and Sylvester 
bought the brig Orbit. She arrived at Olympia January 1, 1850 where she loaded a 
cargo of piles for San Francisco, Col. Simmons afterward purchasing the interest 
of Jackson. This was the first American vessel owned by Washington Territory 
residents hailing from Olympia, Puget Sound.
	By proclamation of Governor Lane, the country north of the Columbia, 
together with Clatsop county (now in Oregon) south, constituted a Council as 
well as a Representative district.  At the election provided for by said 
proclamation, the first under the territorial organization, Samuel T. McKean of 
Clatsop, and Michael T. Simmons of Lewis were elected first Councilman and 
Representative respectively.  This Assembly convened at Oregon City, July, 1849, 
and continued in session one hundred days.


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THE INDIANS.
	The history of all settlements in the New World begins with relations with 
the Indians;  sometimes this relation has been peaceful and pleasant but oftener 
stormy and troublesome.  The settlement at the head of Puget Sound is no 
exception.  From the time that Col. Simmons and his party blazed their trail 
from the Cowlitz to New Market, the growth of the colony and the march of 
improvement have been the outcome of a conflict, either peaceful or stormy, with 
the copper colored sons of the forest.
	In contemplating, the history of the Sound country and the Indian as he 
plays a part in that history, numerous queries relating to the aboriginal force 
themselves on the historians' attention.  Their origin., their manners, their 
customs, their language, their religions, their business habits, their family 
relations - all arise in the mind and a dissertation on each topic, though 
interesting, would be rather foreign to present purpose.
	The origin of the American Indian is a subject of speculation and 
research.  That they belong to the older races of mankind is not doubted.  But 
neither their history nor the circumstances or date of their advent to the New 
World has revealed itself to delvers in prehistoric realms. Theories have been 
advanced and traced; but they still remain theories.
	The legends of the Indians themselves shed no light.  Ask them concerning 
their origin and the answer is: "Sackaly tyee mamock nasika" (man on high made 
us.)  This statement, too, embodies the most of their religious sentiments.  The 
Indian language is an interesting study but it too is outside our present 
intentions.  Their vocabulary is a limited one: the tone the accent and the 
facial expression very largely taking the place of words.


p14 c1:

	The American Indian belongs to several distinct families or nations, and 
these again are composed of tribes.  West of the Rocky Mountains were four 
nations; the Shoshones, the Selish, the Klamaths and the Californians.  The 
present state of Washington was occupied by the Selish.
	The tribes of each nation were similar in the main although differences 
existed in their language but not of such character as to prevent intercourse 
among them.
	The present language of the Puget Sound Indians is a jargon, compiled and 
introduced among the Indians by a trader at Astoria and was subsequently adopted 
by the Hudson's Bay Company at their trading stations and became the common 
trading language with the Indian Tribes.
	In the spring of 1848 Thomas W. Glascow visited Whidby Island and took the 
claim known as Ebey's Landing, opposite Port Townsend.  He erected his cabin, 
planted wheat and potatoes, then returned to New Market and induced Carnefix and 
Rabbeson to accompany him to his new home.  They determined to explore Hood's 
canal on their voyage thither, and went by canoe to the head of Skookum bay and 
from thence carried their bark over the portage to the head of the former.  Here 
they found Indians in large numbers, many of whom had never seen a white man.  
While camped at the month of the Skokomish river, it was the turn of Carnefix to 
cook and attend to camp-work.  An old Indian chief seeing this, concluded Mr. 
Carnefix must be a slave and so expressed a desire to purchase him, offering a 
large number of skins, muskets, blankets and two Indian henchmen.  His 
companions joked Carnefix so much on this would-be commercial transaction that 
he abandoned the trip and came back.  Glasgow and Rabbeson continued their 
exploration


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by themselves, and finally arrived in July at Glasgow's house on the island.  
They had not long been there when there assembled a Grand Council of the Puget 
Sound tribes of Indians, invited by Patkanim, chief of the Snoqualmie nations, 
to discuss the propriety of resisting the further progress of American 
settlements.  The proceedings commenced with a grand hunt.  A net or corral was 
built of willow brush, with wings stretching across the island from the head of 
Penn's Cove to what is now called Ebey's Landing.  A drive was made with ,dogs, 
and upwards of sixty deer secured for the feast. Next the council assembled and 
many speeches were made.  Patkanim urged that if the Americans were allowed to 
settle in the country they would soon outnumber the Indians, and that the latter 
would be transported in fire-ships to a distant country where the sun never 
shone and there left to die; that they could easily exterminate the few now in 
the country, which would discourage others from coming; by the death of these 
here the Indians would acquire a large amount of property.  The last argument he 
dwelt upon with great earnestness.  The Upper Sound Indians, who had lived among 
the whites, strenuously resisted any hostile movement.  Sno-ho-dum-tah, 
principal chief of the Indian bands above New Market, familiarly known to the 
settlers as "Old Gray-Head, was the champion of peace.  He said that before the 
advent of the Americans, it was common for the strong tribes on the Lower Sound 
to make war upon the weaker, carry off their people and enslave them; but now 
the presence of the white man afforded them security and discouraged such wars; 
that they had found the "Boston" (the Indian word for distinguishing an American 
from a British subject, called by them "King George,")


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was just and honorable in all his dealings.  This refusal on the part of the 
upper sound Indians created great excitement and nearly provoked a conflict on 
the council ground.  Rabbeson became alarmed and fled the settlement, while two 
days afterwards Glasgow was compelled to abandon everything and only by the 
assistance of a friendly Indian did he effect his escape.
	It was fortunate for the little settlement that they recognized rules 
governing intercourse or trade with the Indians.  The latter were to be 
protected in their rights.  A complaint of injustice at the hands of a white man 
was investigated, A uniform price was established for every thing in trade and 
labor, while it was the general understanding among the citizens that a white 
man was to respect his contract.
	In illustration may be mentioned the case of an immigrant of 1847.  
Accompanied by his family he arrived at the month of the Cowlitz river destitute 
of funds.  An Indian named Tenas Tyee, who was then engaged in forwarding 
immigrants up that stream, brought the immigrant family up to the Landing, 
agreeing to take a paper for the passage money and wait twelve Moons.  Tenas 
Tyee held the note till it fell due and then waited upon the white man, but he 
not having the money, the Indian agreed to take a heifer in discharge of the 
debt, which offer was declined.  Tenas Tyee came over to the Sound and 
complained to the settlers.  A meeting was called, a committee of two was 
appointed to return with him, and they compelled the debtor to liquidate the 
debt by turning over the stock which the Indian accepted in satisfaction of his 
demand.
	In the latter part of April, or during the first days of May, 1849, an 
event occurred which hastened the advent of the United States troops.  A party 
of


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Snoqualmie Indians made an attack on the Hudson Bay Company's Fort Nisqually.
	This tribe were in the habit of visiting the fort in small numbers, for 
the purposes of trade but upon this occasion they were in force, their object 
being to settle a dispute with the Indians of the Nisqually tribe.  On the 
trial, their number was variously estimated, Doctor Tolmie says over one 
hundred, while Walter Ross, clerk of the fort, gave it at one hundred and fifty.  
Patkanim, head chief of the tribe, consisting of several bands, was within the 
fort engaged with Doctor Tolmie, agent in charge. The gates had been closed and 
all the other Indians had been excluded.  Just outside the stockade were Leander 
C. Wallace, Mr. Lewis and Mr. Walker, three Americans on a visit to the fort, 
and Charles Wren, who had but shortly before come in from an Indian camp.  The 
Snoqualmies, led by Kussass, brother to Patkanim, and Quallahwowt, another sub-
chief, were armed and painted as a war party, and made other hostile 
demonstrations.  Wallace and his companions, seeing their danger, kept their 
faces toward the advancing Indians and retreated hastily to the gates.  Wren 
reached it and stood with his back against it trying to edge in.  Walter Ross, 
with two Indians guarded the gate on the inside and refuse to open it.  The 
Indian guard, about this time discharged his gun in the air for the purpose of 
emptying it before reloading which act the Snoqualmies pretended to interpret as 
a defiance.  Kussass advanced, fired and killed Wallace on the spot.  Wren and 
his companions made another effort to get inside, and as they passed through the 
gate a volley rang forth wounding Lewis and Walker as well as an Indian boy who 
stood within.  The last survived but a short time.  The bastions were then 
manned, a volley


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fired and the Indians hastily retreated.  Mr. Wallace was the first American 
killed by the natives on Puget Sound of which there is any record.  Upon the 
tidings of this outbreak reaching him, Governor Lane visited Puget Sound, 
arriving at New Market, May 17th, and being there advised of the arrival at Fort 
Vancouver of two companies First Artillery, United States Army, he immediately 
returned to that post.  In June Fort Vancouver was occupied as a permanent 
military post by a company of the First Artillery, Major J. S. Hathaway 
commanding.  In July Company M, First Artillery, Captain Bennet H. Hill, was 
dispatched to the Sound and August 27th, he established a military post at Fort 
Steilacoom.
	Shortly after, Hon. J. Quinn Thornton, sub-Indian agent for the district 
of Oregon North of the Columbia,. visited the Indian tribes on the Sound and 
after an interview with Patkanim, on his return, September 7, 1848, authorized 
Captain Hill to pay eighty blankets for the delivery of the murderers of Wallace 
within three weeks, if not by that time the reward might be doubled.  The 
superintendent (Governor Lane) took very strong exception to this course of the 
sub-agent, very properly construing that such acts of outrage should be visited 
by a punishment instead of a premium.  But before Governor Lane could 
countermand the offer or initiate the proper steps for the chastisement of the 
tribe in the event of their refusal to surrender the guilty parties, Patkanim 
had delivered up six Snoqualmie Indians, charged to be the murderers, to Captain 
Hill, who had duly paid the reward purchasing the blankets from Fort Nisqually 
at the price of four hundred and eighty dollars.
	The news of the surrender of these Indians for trial reached Oregon City 
while the Legislative Assembly (the


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first under the Territorial Government) was in session.  This body at once 
passed an act attaching Lewis county to the First Judicial district and provided 
for a special term of court at Steilacoom, to be held by Chief Justice Bryant on 
the first Monday of October.
	The court convened on the first of October-the first United States court 
held North of the Columbia river.
	Captain Hill delivered to the United States Marshal, Kussaas, Quallahwowt, 
Sterhawai, Tatam, Whyeek and Quarlthumkyne, all of the Snoqualmie tribe and 
surrendered by their chief as participants in the attack on Fort Nisqually.  All 
were indicted for the murder of Leander C. Wallace. The prosecution was 
conducted by Judge Alonzo A. Skinner and the court assigned David Stone Esq., 
then prosecuting attorney of the Third Judicial district to defend the 
prisoners.  Kusass and Quallahwowt, both chiefs and ringleaders in the foray, 
were convicted, the remaining four being acquitted.  At the execution the next 
day, October 3rd, of the two murderers, the whole tribe was present besides a 
vast gathering of other Indians.  The occasion was embraced to teach the natives 
that the law would be rigorously enforced against those who committed outrages 
upon the white settlers or their property; while, it is also interesting to 
note, that so sparse were the settlements at this time, that several of the 
jurors traveled over two hundred miles from their homes to reach the place of 
holding court.

OLYMPIA.
	In 1850, E. Sylvester laid off and dedicated the Smithfield claim as a 
town, giving it the name of Olympia, at the suggestion of Charles Hart Smith, of 
the firm of Simmons & Smith, who had established, that summer, a store in the 
town near the corner


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of First and Main Streets.  The beautiful snow capped mountains of the Olympia 
or Coast range, which constitutes the background of the scene enjoyed upon a 
clear day, looking northward from the city, suggested the name.
	The mercantile operations of the little community were of the most 
primitive character.  The first store dealt only in necessaries and such 
trinkets as found favor with the Indians.  The counter was a rough table sided, 
up with rough plank and like most household furniture was fearfully and 
wonderfully made.
	But during the two or three years that elapsed since Smith first saw 
Olympia or Smithfield considerable of a traffic had grown up.  The advent of 
George A. Barnes, however, in the fall of 1852, with a stock of general 
merchandise marked a change in the character of the transactions and was the 
beginning of commerce on Puget Sound.  Mr. Barnes' first store was on the water 
front at the west end of First street
	Stores were also managed by Parker Coulter & Co., A. J. Moses, L. Bettman, 
Goldman & Rosenblatt, and Louisson & Co.  Trade was mostly with the Indians, 
several hundred of them living on the eastern shore of the west arm of the bay.  
Their section was called Chinook street, and their central wigwam was near the 
present site of the Carlton House.
	Congress established the Puget Sound Collection District February 14, 
1851, and a Customs House was located during the year at Olympia, then the only 
town on Puget Sound.  On the third of November, 1851, the sloop Georgianna, 
Captain Rowland, sailed with twenty-two passengers for Queen Charlotte's Island 
where gold had been discovered.  Among those who chartered this sloop were Wm. 
Billings,


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S. D. Howe, Charles Weed, S. S. Ford, Samuel Williams, J. Colvig and the Sargent 
Brothers, Asher, Wilson and Nelson.  On the 19th the vessel was cast ashore on 
the east side of the island, was plundered by the Indians, and the crew and 
passengers held in captivity.  Upon receipt of the news, the Collector of 
Customs at Olympia, dispatched the Damariscove, Captain Balch, with a force of 
volunteers and United States troops from Fort Steilacoom.  The schooner sailed 
December 18th, and returned to Olympia with the rescued men the last day of 
January, 1852.
	In 1852, a superior article of coal was found, something much needed on 
the coast, and capital was at once invested in developing the mines.  Three saw 
mills were built on the Sound, and during the year quite extensive shipments of 
coal, lumber and fish were made.  Many claims were taken up on the fine 
agricultural lands, and all the elements for a vigorous growth were collected.  
The chief settlements then in Northern Oregon were, Pacific City, Vancouver, the 
Hudson Bay Company's headquarters, consisting of a hundred houses occupied by 
its employees, chiefly Kanakas, inclosed by picket fences, and defended by armed 
bastions; Forts Walla Walla, Okanagan and Colville, further up the Columbia; 
Olympia, the new town on the Sound; Fort Nisqually on the Sound, occupied by the 
Puget Sound Agricultural Company, besides shipping products to the Sandwich 
Islands and the Russian post at Sitka. These, with many settlements along the 
Sound and between it and the Columbia formed a section distinct from Oregon 
proper, with which they had no community of interest, and from whom, being in 
the minority in the legislature, they were unable to obtain many of the rights 
they deemed themselves entitled to.  Many of them were five


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hundred miles from the seat of the Territorial Government.
	During the years the Hudson's Bay people were operating in the Columbia 
valley and Puget Sound basin a rather considerable population for those times 
had gathered here, and in 1845 as has been stated Lewis county was created by 
the Oregon legislature embracing the territory north of Cowlitz county.  In 1850 
the number of inhabitants north of the Columbia river was three hundred four and 
one hundred eighty of them were citizens.
	In 1851 Pacific county was created.
	In 1852 it was proposed to create a new county out of Lewis, the same to 
include the vast basin lying west of the cascade mountains and north of the 
Cowlitz divide.  When the bill to create the county was first reported it was 
proposed to name the county Simmons, but the sad death of Samuel R. Thurston, 
which occurred the spring before and a general disposition among the people of 
Oregon to perpetuate his memory, suggested his name for the new county.
	Samuel R. Thurston was born in 1816 and graduated at Bowdoin college, 
Mass. in 1843.  He settled in Iowa in 1845 and in 1847 crossed the plains to 
Oregon.  He was a Democrat but elected to congress as an opponent of the Hudson 
Bay Company.  While returning home from the federal capital by way of Cape Horn 
he was taken sick and died at sea April 9, 1851, between Panama and Acapulco. 
His remains were buried at the latter place.
	By authority of the legislature of Oregon they were exhumed and brought to 
Salem and a marble monument erected to his memory.  On one side was the 
inscription: "THURSTON. Erected by the people of Oregon."  On another, his name, 
age an date of his death, on a third side this sentiment: "Here rests Oregon's 
delegate, a man of genius and learning, a


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lawyer and a statesman, his Christian virtues equaled by his wide philanthropy, 
his public acts are his best eulogium."
	At a time when his virtues and untimely death were uppermost in the minds 
of his people the proposition to perpetuate his name and memory by connecting it 
with the new Sound county met with a ready response and Thurston was adopted.

COUNTY ORGANIZED.
	The year 1852 marks the beginning of organized government on Puget Sound. 
The act that created the county provided for holding an election to choose 
county officers.  The election was held in June 1852 at which A. J. Simmons was 
elected sheriff, A. M. Poe, county clerk; D. A. Bigelow, treasurer; R. S. 
Bailey, assessor; Edmund Sylvester, Coroner; A. A. Denny, S. S. Ford Sr. and 
David Shelton, county commissioners.
	On July 5th the board of county commissioners convened at the office of A. 
M. Poe in the town of Olympia.  Arthur A. Denny and David Shelton were present 
and took the oath of office and appointed D. R. Bigelow clerk of the board pro 
tempore. This done the board adjourned to the next day.
	On the 6th A. J. Simmons, sheriff, was present and the bonds of A. M. Poe 
as county clerk, D. R. Bigelow. county treasurer and R. S. Bailey, assessor, 
were approved.  David Shelton was designated as presiding judge of the county 
commissioners court.
	The following precincts were established:
	Scadget Precinct: To include Whidby's Island and all islands north to the 
northern boundary of the United States.
	Port Townsend precinct: The territory north of Hood's Canal on the west 
side of the Sound.
	Dewamps precinct: The territory


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east of Puget Sound and north of the Puyallup river and all south of Hood's 
canal to the parallel of the north parallel of the Puyallup river on the west 
side of the Sound.
	Steilacoom precinct: The territory north of the Nisqually river to the 
Puyallup on the east side of Puget Sound and all thence due west to the mouth of 
the Nesqually river to the parallel of the mouth of the Puyallup.
	Olympia precinct: The territory south of Steilacoom precinct.
	The entire county was then a school district in Lewis county.  At this 
session of the board David Shelton, Whitfield Kirtley and Geo. A. Barnes, as 
,directors of school district No. 2, represented that the district had been 
organized and asked that boundaries be established which was granted.  Dewamish 
precinct was designated as district No. 5; Scadget precinct as No. 6; Port 
Townsend precinct as district No. 7. The remainder of Olympia precinct after 
taking out district No. 2 was designated as No. 1.
	Commissioners Denny and Shelton drew lots for length of terms. Mr. Ford 
being absent was given the long term of three years; Mr. Denny drew the term of 
one year and Mr. Shelton that of two years.
	Wm. Coulter was granted a grocer's license for six month's and Edmund 
Sylvester one for three months.  On July 7th the board adjourned to the first 
Monday in September.
	At the fall meeting William Packwood asked for a school district between 
Olympia and Steilacoom, which was granted.
	Mr. Packwood was also granted a license for a ferry across the Nesqually 
river, for which he paid one dollar.
	Road districts were created and residents in each district were designated 
to work the roads in that district.
	The tax levy for that year was fixed


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at: 4 mills for county revenue, 1 1/2 mills for the school fund, 1 1/2 mills 
territorial fund and $1 poll tax.  The total valuation of the county was 
$124,602.  The tax was collected by the assessor at the time of making the 
assessment.  T. F. McElroy and Geo. Barnes were appointed justices of the peace 
for Olympia precinct.
	The first school in the county was taught this summer by D. L. Phillips.
	Lewis county was a part of the Third judicial district and the First term 
of court held at Olympia was a special term called to try seizures that had been 
made by the collector of customs.  At this term of the court Elwood Evans, D. B. 
Bigelow, Quincy A. Brooks and S. B. Moses were admitted to practice law.
	The summer of 1852 was a prosperous one for the new community.  Coal was 
discovered in the Skookumchuck valley.  A steady stream of immigration was 
flowing toward the Sound country and many claims of fine agricultural lands were 
taken on the prairies and in the valleys adjacent to the head of Budd's Inlet.
	The Willamette Valley in Oregon was also attracting attention and 
considerable rivalry existed between that fertile section and the equally 
enticing region about Puget Sound.
	In the summer of 1852 a newspaper outfit was brought over from Portland by 
T. F. McElroy and J. W. Wiley and the first number of the Columbian issued on 
September 11.  It received a liberal supply of advertising from the beginning.  
Both Portland and San Francisco patronized its columns.
	The paper took a, pronounced position for the development of the Sound 
country and at once agitated the question of a division of Oregon by the 
formation of a new territory north of the Columbia river.
	At a term of the district court held at the house of J. R. Jackson in 
Lewis


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county a convention was called to meet at Monticello on the last Thursday in 
November to memorialize Congress for a new territory.
	Monticello, then an important town, it being on the direct route to the 
Sound from the Columbia, was located on the Cowlitz, not far from the present 
site of Kalama.
	Delegates to the Monticello convention were elected from each county those 
from Thurston, elected at a mass convention being M. T. Simmons, S. D. Ruddle, 
S. P. Moses, Adam Wyle, Q. A. Brooks and C. H. Hale.
	The New Territory convention met at Monticello November 25, 1852.
	A memorial to Congress was prepared; stating the condition of this region 
and asking that body to create the Territory of Columbia out of that portion of 
Oregon lying North and West of the Columbia river.  There was no conflict in the 
matter between the two sections of Oregon, the people of Oregon south of the 
river raising no objection to the proposed new territory.
	In November 1852, Hon. Columbia Lancaster of Vancouver resigned his seat 
in the legislative Council and by common consent D. R. Bigelow of Olympia and A. 
A. Denny of Seattle, both of Thurston county, were fixed upon as candidates to 
fill the vacancy.  Concerning the candidates the Columbian said, "Mr. Bigelow is 
known to the citizens of Northern Oregon as an attorney at law, honorable in the 
practice of his profession, upright in his dealings and intercourse with the 
world, of fixed principles, backed with good business qualifications and a sound 
judgment."  "Mr. Denny is a farmer; plain and unostentatious, highly esteemed as 
a citizen and a neighbor, straightforward in his business transactions and 
eminently qualified


p20 c2:

to discharge with credit to himself any civil duties he may be called upon by 
the people to perform.  They are both young men of good general intelligence and 
steadfast friends of Northern Oregon."
	Mr. Bigelow withdrew from the field and Mr. Denny was elected at a special 
election held December 7.
	In the fall of this year a tax was levied and collected for the erection 
of a school house.  The house was built of split lumber on the hill where the 
Olympian office now stands at the south east corner of block 35.  In the 
construction the upper joists were not tied to the walls of the building.  A 
heavy snow fell the following winter and one night soon after school was 
dismissed the lateral pressure was so great that the walls gave way, entailing 
the collapse of the building.  Another building was secured and Mr. A. W. Moore, 
the teacher, continued the school.
	During the year 1852 the trail up the Cowlitz was continually lined with 
immigrants.  Every house along the road was crowded nightly with those who had 
heard of the salubrious climate and fertile soils on the shores of Puget Sound.
	This summer Ira Ward, N. Barnes and S. Hays started a saw mill at the 
upper falls at New Market.  It was of a single sash saw capable of cutting 2000 
to 3000 feet per day.

1853.
	The year 1853 opened propitiously for the growing colonies north of the 
Columbia river.  On December 6, 1852 Hon. Joseph Lane, delegate in Congress from 
Oregon introduced the subject of a new territory by procuring the passage of a 
resolution instructing the Committee on Territories to consider the question and 
report a bill.  The committee reported a bill to organize the Territory of 
Columbia, which


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came up February 8, 1853.  Richard H. Stanton, of Kentucky, moved to substitute 
the name of "Washington" for "Columbia," saying that we already had a District 
of Columbia while the name of the Father of our Country had been given to no 
territory in it.  With this amendment the bill passed through the house on the 
10th., with one hundred and twenty eight votes for and twenty-nine against.  On 
March 2, 1853, it was adopted by the Senate and received the president's 
signature the following day.
	The act created a territory more than twice the size asked for in the 
memorial, being "All that portion of Oregon Territory lying and being south of 
the forty-ninth degree of north latitude, and north of the middle of the main 
channel of the Columbia river from its mouth to where the forty sixth degree of 
north latitude crosses said river near Fort Walla Walla, thence with said forty-
sixth latitude to the summit of the Rocky mountains."  This included all of 
Washington as it now stands, and at portion of Idaho and Montana.  The act was 
in the usual form creating territories, and provided for a Governor, to be ex 
officio Commander in chief of the militia and Superintendent of Indian affairs, 
a Secretary, a Supreme Court of three Judges, an attorney and a Marshal, all to 
be appointed by the President for a term  of four years.
	It also called for a delegate to Congress whose first term was to last 
during the Congress to which he was elected.  A territorial legislature was 
created with two branches- a Council with nine members and a term of three 
years, the first ones to serve one, two and three years as decided by lot among 
them; and a House of eighteen members, with a term of one year, to be increased 
from time to time to not more than thirty.  Twenty thousand


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dollars were appropriated to defray the expenses of a census, after the taking 
of which the Governor was to apportion the members of the Legislature and call 
an election to choose them and the Delegate to Congress.
	The first Legislature was to meet at any place the Governor might select 
and was then to fix the seat of government itself; five thousand dollars were 
appropriated for public buildings, and the same amount for a library.  County 
and local officers then serving were to hold their positions until successors 
were chosen under acts to be passed by the legislature of the new territory.  
Causes were to be transferred from the Oregon courts, and the territory was to 
be divided into three districts, in each of which one of the Supreme Judges was 
to hold a district court. Sections sixteen and thirty-six of the public lands or 
their equivalent were given to the territory for the benefit of the public 
schools.
	In January 1853 the territorial legislature of Oregon created four new 
counties, all out of Thurston county, to-wit:--  Pierce, King, Island and 
Jefferson, leaving Thurston county to include the present counties of Thurston, 
Chehalis and Mason.
	In March of this year J. W. Wiley transferred his interests in the 
Columbian to J. J. Beebe, the publishers then being McElroy and Beebe.
	Soon after his inauguration President Pierce appointed Major Isaac I. 
Stevens, United States Engineers, Governor; Charles H. Mason of Rhode Island, 
Secretary; J. S. Clendenin of Mississippi, Attorney; J. Patton Anderson of 
Tennessee, Marshal; Edward Lander of Indiana, Chief Justice; Victor Monroe of 
Kentucky and 0. B. McFadden, of Pennsylvania Associate Justices.  Marshal 
Anderson arrived early in the summer, and took a census provided for in the act, 
returning a total population of three


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thousand nine hundred and sixty-five, of whom sixteen hundred and eighty- two 
were voters.  Governor Stevens was in charge of the expedition sent out by the 
War department to survey a northern route for a transcontinental railroad, and 
was thus occupied all the summer and fall.  Upon crossing the boundary line of 
the now territory, September 29, 1853, he issued a proclamation from the summit 
of the Rocky mountains, declaring the act of Congress and assuming his duties as 
executive.
	During the preceding years more or less trouble had been experienced with 
the mails.  Stages ran each week to the Columbia river where connection was made 
for Portland.  There was usually considerable necessary delay, but to a large 
extent the conveniences and anxious expectations of the people depended on the 
sweet pleasures of the stage driver.  At this time (1853) the mail left Olympia 
every Tuesday and the fact that the driver occasionally indulged in a spree 
before starting gave rise to numerous complaints.  In the fall of this year, 
however a change occurred in contractors, Rabbeson & Yantis became proprietors 
of the stage line and advertised to put passengers through from Olympia to 
Cowlitz Landing in twelve hours.
	In April 1853 a bed of natural oysters was found in Budd's Inlet.
	The mammoth, trees of Olympia were becoming known to the outside world and 
at this time hewed timber was quoted at 16 to 18 cents per cubic foot; shingles 
at $4.50 to $5 -per M and cordwood at $4 per cord.  During the seven years since 
the first immigrant came to Puget Sound immigration had been by the way of 
Vancouver and the Cowlitz river but in the spring of 1853 an effort was made to 
find an immigrant route over the Cascade mountains and at a Public meeting of 
the citizens of Thurston county, Rev.


p2 c2:

Benj. Close, A. W. Moore, E. Sylvester, James Hurd and John Alexander were 
appointed a committee to locate a practical route.  In the effort they were 
joined by Walla Walla and a road through the Natchez pass was located.  This was 
designated as the People's Road as distinguished from the Columbia river route.  
The first arrival over the People's route was a Mr. Aikin and the arrival of his 
party was the occasion of a celebration by both Olympia and Steilacoom.
	The year of 1853 showed a steady improvement.  The creation of the new 
territory had directed immigration this way and the pioneers of the county were 
inspired to attack the gigantic forests and lay the foundation for permanent 
homes.
	The Columbian was published one year by Mr. McElroy, its founder, and in 
September '53 he sold it to Matt K. Smith.  Mr. Smith, however published it only 
a few months when, on December 3rd he sold it to J. W. Wiley.  Mr. Wiley changed 
the name to Washington Pioneer and continued it as a live local paper.  The 
change in the proprietors marked a change in the politics of the paper- from 
Whig to Democrat.
	The year was enlivened somewhat by the report of Indian hostilities at New 
Dungeness on the Straits of Fuca.  In March 1853 the county commissioners drew 
the first grand and petit juries for the county.  The grand jury was composed of 
the following men who served for the April term of the District court:- Andrew 
J. Chambers, Nathan Eaton, Nelson Barnes, Charles E. Weed, ---- White, C. 
Ethridge, Martin Shelton, R. B. D. Shelton, Isaac B. Power, John Chambers, 
Nathan Pattison. Henry Barnes, B. L. Hennis, James Taylor, Whitfield Kirtley, 
Wm. Billings, C. H. Hale. Robert Patterson, Moses Bettman, Thomas J.


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Chambers, Green McAfferty, John R. Kindred and A. J. Moses.
	For Petit jurors were drawn.-- John Edgar, Stephen Hodgson, Joseph 
Cushman, William Packwood, R. M. Walker, Joseph White, S. D. Ruddle, E. H. 
Wilson, Herbert Jeal, J. R. Wood, Alfred Allen, L. H, Calkins, J. R. Hurd, A. B. 
Rabbeson, David J. Chambers, James Blanchard, Jesse Ferguson, Franklin Yantis, 
Ignatius Colvin, Charles Eaton, B. F. Shaw, William P. Wells, J. M. Swan and 
George Brail.
	A census was taken this summer by U. S. Marshal J. P. Anderson, the 
population of Thurston county being 996.
	In the summer of 1853 D. C. Beatty began the manufacture of a line of 
household furniture suitable for the times.
	During the summer and fall the residents of the village awaited anxiously 
the arrival of Governor Stevens when the governmental machinery of the new 
territory was to be set in motion.  The settlement had an advance knowledge of 
the day the governor and party were expected to arrive and a committee of 
arrangements had been appointed to provide for a suitable reception.  
Preparations for a true pioneer greeting were well under way when, one afternoon 
the governor and party were seen coming along the trail that had been cut 
through the timber, a few days in advance of the time he was expected.  But in 
their pioneer simplicity they were too joyed to see him to feel any chagrin over 
their unfinished preparations.  A national salute was fired and the flag of the 
Kendall Company was thrown to the breeze.  The governor in the rough garb of a 
bold and adventurous American freeman, was received literally into the arms of a 
warm hearted, patriotic people.  The reception ceremonies were held at the 
Washington Hotel,


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corner of Main and Second streets kept by Lewis Ensign, on Saturday evening, 
November 26, 1853.  On the 28th the governor issued a proclamation dividing the 
territory into legislative and judicial districts and calling an election for 
January 30, 1854, for the election of members of the legislature which was to 
assemble February 27.
	The campaign for members of the legislature was an exciting one in 
Thurston county.  Three tickets were in the field: Democratic, Whig and Union.  
The Democratic ticket was-
	For Councilmen, D. R. Bigelow and S. D. Ruddle.
	For Representatives: L. D. Durgin, George Gallagher, David Shelton and A. 
J. Chambers.

WHIG TICKET.
	For Councilmen: B. F. Yantis and E. J. Allen.
	For Representatives: Ira Ward, C. H. Hale, J. L. Brown and Gallatin 
Hartsock.

UNION TICKET.
	For Councilmen: D. R. Bigelow and B. F. Yantis.
	For Representatives: A. W. Moore, F. W. Glascow, S. S. Ford, Sr. and James 
H. Roundtree.
	The election resulted in the choice of D. R. Bigelow and B. F. Yantis for 
the council and L. D. Durgin, David Shelton, Ira Ward and C. H. Hale for 
representatives.
	At this election Judge Columbia Lancaster was elected delegate to 
Congress.
The year 1853 drew to a close upon the sturdy pioneers in the different 
settlements of Thurston county with the star of Hope brilliant in their 
firmament.  The arrival of Gov. Stevens had agitated the subject of a Northern 
Pacific railway and the day was pictured as not far distant when the iron horse 
would dash through the Cascade mountains and make the forests


p24 c1:

ring with the rumble of his on coming train.
	In December the road was cut through from Olympia to the falls, the 
present Tumwater.  It is not quite clear when the name of the settlement at the 
falls was changed from New Market to Tumwater.  The name Tumwater is probably 
one of growth, being a modification or anglicizing of the Indian name Tum Chuck.  
"Chuck" in the Jargon signifies water and "Tum" with the peculiar Chinook accent 
is intended to represent the sound of falling water.  Hence in the Indian 
vocabulary any waterfall is called "tum chuck."  As the settlers gradually 
learned the Chinook they substituted the English "water" for the Indian "chuck" 
and coined the word "Tumwater," which has since remained the name of the 
picturesque little city at the falls.

1854.
	The legislature elected January 30, 1854 convened on the 27th of February 
in the building on Main street recently used as the Gold Bar restaurant.  It was 
destined to be a historic body.  Its assembling was an important occasion to the 
small town that was then dignified as the seat of government.  The members came 
to their legislative duties by various routes as the stern necessity of those 
days determined, either by paddling a boat up the Sound or by the lonely trail 
through the forest.  To a newspaper correspondent a few years ago, A. A. Denny, 
of Seattle who was a member, recounted the experiences of that memorable 
occasion. He said:-
	"Then Olympia had only 200 or 300 people but it was the greatest and about 
the only place north of Portland.  The entire council with two exceptions, was 
made up of men from the west side of the Cascade mountains.  The whole east side 
was represented


p24 c2:

by Messrs. Tappan and Bradford, who lived at the Cascade, or Wishram, as it was 
known to Bonneville.  Then Clarke county was spread all over the eastern 
country, and they represented Clarke.
	"Nearly the entire legislature journeyed to and from the capital in boats 
and it took two good hard days' tugging at the oars to get there from Seattle.  
The first night out, Mr. Denny said, they usually made it a point to camp on 
McNeil's island but sometimes they could not get that far.  By the next night, 
if they had toiled hard. they arrived at the seat of legislative power.
	"There were twenty seven members of that now historical body, nine in the 
council and eighteen in the house  They represented almost every walk and 
calling in life, and their dress, as may well be supposed, was typical of those 
early pioneer days.  Some wore caps made of wolf skins, while others had 
garments more or less betokening the period in which they lived."
	Without reviewing the acts of the first territorial legislature it is 
proper to state that a general code of law was enacted, besides several private 
and local laws pertaining to each county and the creation of new counties.  
Thurston county was reduced in size by taking off Chehalis county on the south 
west and Sawamish county on the northwest.  The name of the latter county was 
afterward changed to Mason in honor of Hon. C. H. Mason, the first territorial 
secretary and for a long time acting governor.
	The following territorial roads were established, as were also several 
others; From Olympia to Shoalwater Bay with Logan Hays, B. F. Yantis and John 
Vail appointed commissioners to locate the same; from Cathlamet to the house of 
S. S. Ford, Sr.. in Thurston county, with L. H. Davis. Justin Nye and James 
Birnie, Jr. commissioners;


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Olympia to the mouth of the Columbia river, with Alonzo Delabaugh, S. S. Ford 
and Nelson Barnes commissioners; Olympia to Monticello, with Gilmore Hays, J. C. 
Davis and F. Kennedy as commissioners.
	The legislature designated a corps of county officers in each county where 
vacancies existed who were to hold until their successors were elected and 
qualified. For Thurston county S. S. Ford, Sr., David J. Chambers and James 
McAllister were county commissioners; U. E. Hicks auditor; Frank Kennedy, 
sheriff; Whitfield Kirtley, assessor; Stephen D. Ruddle, probate judge; D. R. 
Bigelow, county treasurer; Elwood Evans, county school superintendent; William 
W. Plumb, Nathan Eaton and Joseph Broshears, justices of the peace.
	Olympia Lodge No. 5 of Free and Accepted Masons that had been acting under 
the grand jurisdiction of Oregon, was granted a charter.  This lodge is held by 
the fraternity as the parent of Free Masonry north of the Columbia river.
	Mr. Bigelow, who still resides at Olympia found his duties as county 
treasurer not irksome.  At one time his business called him to Chamber's 
Prairie.  Shortly before, he had received $1000 in silver.  Having no secure 
place in his office to leave it, he tied it in a bag and carried it with him.
	The new board of county commissioners organized June 5, and at this 
session directed county school superintendent, Elwood Evans to request the 
surveyor general of the territory to give an account of the surveyed lands 
reserved for school purposes that have been claimed by actual settlers, so that 
the board of commissioners might occupy other lands in lieu.  Upon Supt. Evans' 
report, C. H. Hale was


p25 c2

appointed to select an equal quantity of land to that taken.
	The license for retailing liquors was fixed by the board at $100 for six 
months, and for a bowling alley at $25 per annum.
	Stephen D. Ruddle, appointed Probate Judge by the legislature, declined 
the position and Joseph Cushman was selected.
	On July 8, Thomas J. Chambers was appointed by the county commissioners to 
examine and mark out a quarter section of land for the benefit of a county seat, 
"to be the best and most valuable unclaimed land he can find within the limits 
of the county and report at next term."  Mr. Chambers had evidently given the 
matter previous attention for on the 10th, two days after his appointment he 
reported the selection of the south east quarter of section 19, township 18, 
range 1, west and was allowed $6 for his work.
	The tax roll for 1854 showed a valuation of $418,140 and the rate of 
taxation was fixed at 3 mills.
	This year the commissioners appropriated $500 toward a bridge across the 
east fork of Budd's inlet and $1000 for a bridge across the Skookumchuck in the 
southern part of the county.  Frank Kennedy was appointed bridge commissioner to 
superintend the construction of both bridges.  The contract for the former was 
let to J. L. Perkins for $1550, one thousand dollars being made up by private 
subscription.
	In December 1854 A. B. Rabbeson was appointed a commissioner to let the 
contract for the construction of a suitable and convenient court house according 
to plans that he may deem best, provided that said contract shall not exceed 
$1200.
	During the two and a half years since the organization of the county the 
records were kept in a temporary sort of way, deeds being recorded on sheets of 
paper; likewise the record of


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the commissioners.  On December 7, 1854, the auditor was directed to procure 
suitable books, arrange papers and transcribe the records.
	The matter of improving the Cascade road was agitated during the year and 
a private subscription of $1195 was raised in Olympia to put the route in 
suitable condition for travel.  Jas. K. Hurd was disbursing agent of the 
citizen's committee that had the matter in charge.
	The election for representatives and county officers was held in September 
and the following tickets were placed in the field early in the summer:

DEMOCRATIC.
	For Representatives: Wm. Cock, B. L. Henness, Stephen Guthrie, Wm. P. 
Wells.
	County commissioners: Levi Shelton S. S. Ford Sr., John S. Low.
	Probate Judge: Joseph Cushman.
	School superintendent: D. R. Bigelow.
	Auditor: U. E. Hicks.
	Treasurer: Wm. Rutledge. Sheriff: A. B. Rabbeson.
	Assessor: Wm. Packwood.
	Coroner: A. J. Baldwin.

WHIG.
	For Representatives: Gilmore Hays, C. H. Hale, C. C. Hewitt, James Biles.
	County commissioners: E. Nelson Sargent, Moses Hurd, J. H, Conner.
	Probate Judge: A. W. Moore.
	School superintendent: Geo. F. Whitworth.
	Auditor: G. A. Lathrop.
	Treasurer: G. A. Barnes.
	Sheriff: Isaac Hays.
	Assessor: A. N. Hann.
	Coroner: Chapman Turner.

FREE SOIL.
	For Representatives: C. H. Hale, C. C. Hewitt, Samuel James, Wm. White.
	County commissioners: A. J. MeCormick,


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T. F. Berry, Pattison.
	Probate Judge: Joseph Cushman.
	Auditor: G. A. Lathrop.
	Treasurer: W. C. Dobbins.
	Sheriff: J. M. Swan.
	Assessor: B. F. Brown.
	The issues involved in the election were the same as those that were 
agitating national politics in the states.  The election resulted in the choice 
of the straight Democratic ticket.  United States marshal J. Patton Anderson was 
elected delegate to congress from the Territory.
	In December 1854 Wm. B. Goodell established a stage line between Olympia 
and Cowlitz via of Grand Mound, leaving Olympia on Tuesday and Friday of each 
week.  At Cowlitz, near the present site of Toledo, it made connections with 
boats for Monticello and Portland.  His charges were- from Olympia to Grand 
Mound, $3.50; to Cowlitz, $10.
	During the year numerous improvements were made in the village and also in 
the country, in common with other desirable locations on the Sound.  Two 
sawmills were erected at Tumwater. W. W. Miller began the operation of a steam 
saw mill a few miles down the bay on the eastside. The Masonic Hall was built 
this summer and fitted for the legislature of 1855.  Work was plenty and both 
laborers and mechanics were in demand.
	Edward Giddings had a wharf extending 300 feet from the foot of Main 
street and seriously contemplated extending it to deep water.
	The project of dyking the mud flats was conceived and discussed by local 
capitalists.
	The early advent of a railroad over the Cascades was a pleasant and oft- 
discussed topic. Taking the situation all in all, the actual bona fide 
improvements and the ephemeral speculations of would be capitalists, the year 
1854


p27 c1:

drew to a close, with the sturdy pioneers full of enthusiasm for the future, 
little dreaming of the dark cloud that was to descend on them ere the return of 
another twelve month.

1855.
	At the March term of the board of commissioners, county superintendent G. 
F. Whitworth, represented to the board that a portion of the county and 
territorial school fund had been misapplied, having been, probably 
inadvertently, paid out upon county orders on the general fund.  The treasurer 
was then directed to reimburse those funds from the money on hand, so far as it 
went and to cash no more county warrants until the amount drawn from the school 
funds was fully repaid.
	At this term A. M. Blanchett, Catholic Bishop, communicated with the board 
with reference to refunding the tax levied on the St. Joseph's Mission property, 
but no action was taken, the communication being laid on the table.
	Samuel Klacy who had been elected assessor the preceding summer resigned 
and Samuel Coulter was appointed to fill the vacancy.  Mr. Coulter reported the 
valuation of taxable property at $396,825 and the board fixed the rate at 4 
mills.  In June 1855 the county debt amounted to $4,388.29.
	At the June session of the board F. Kennedy, bridge commissioner, reported 
on the construction of the bridge to Swantown for which the county had 
appropriated $500 at a previous session.  The board refused to accept the bridge 
for three reasons: 1st, the law had not been complied with in its construction; 
2nd, the bridge was not built on bents; 3rd, the bridge was not a good and 
substantial structure.  The friends of the contractor in the town at once 
interested themselves in his behalf and the same day a petition with 73 
signatures was presented


p27 c2:

to the board, asking that the contractor be given the $500.  The bill was 
allowed and the bridge accepted.
	The duty of locating the permanent seat of government devolved on the 
legislature of 1855. The candidates were Vancouver on the Columbia and Olympia.  
When the question came to a vote it resulted in the choice of Olympia.  Hon. A. 
A. Denny of King county addressed the house of representatives as follows--
	"Mr. Speaker:- I propose to do now what I have not done before- I propose 
to say now what I have not heretofore said to anyone (if my memory serves me) 
relative to my views upon this location question.  I now for the first time 
announce my purpose to vote for the location of the territorial capital at or 
near Olympia; and for my vote upon this question shall briefly assign a few 
reasons.
	Justice to all sections of the territory require at our hands patient and 
careful investigation as to the proper place at which to locate the territorial 
capitol.  Its location should be central both as to its geographical position, 
as well as to its center compared with our population.  In my investigation of 
this question, I have arrived at the conclusion that Olympia is nearer the 
geographical center than any other point I have heard mentioned during the 
discussion on this subject- and that it is also nearer the center of our present 
population.  If, Mr. Speaker, you take Thurston county with its population and 
add it to the counties north, there will be found a clear and decided majority 
of the population of our Territory in those counties.  If you will take Thurston 
from the northern counties and unite her with the counties south, then it will 
show a still more decided majority south.  Thus it is clearly demonstrated that 
Olympia is about the center of population in this territory.  It is as easily


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accessible from all parts of the territory as any place which has been named 
during the pendency of this question, or that could have been named.  It is at 
the head of navigation at a point the farthest inland, accessible from all 
counties north by all manner of water craft from steamer down to the Indian 
canoe.  It is in a direct line from the counties south to the counties north, of 
the territory.  If you travel from the northern to the southern counties you 
must go through Thurston or travel out of your course.  If you travel from the 
southern to the northern counties you have to pass through Thurston.  Then as to 
the particular location the site is clearly eligible, the land selected is 
elevated and overlooks the placid waters of Puget sound for many miles to the 
Northward.  The scenery is grand and imposing- to the north the Coast Range is 
seen looming up in the distance, Mount Olympus standing out in bold relief 
amidst the hundreds of less elevated peaks in the vicinity.
	Indeed, Mr. Speaker, I know of no other place combining anything like the 
claims, all things considered, to the Territorial capital as does this immediate 
vicinity; hence I shall most willingly give my support to the bill under 
consideration.  In doing so, I am influenced by no motives of a pecuniary 
character- I own no town lots or landed estate in Thurston county and such is 
the poor estimate of my vote or influence that I have not had even the offer of 
an oyster supper from the good citizens of Olympia as an inducement for either."
	The legislature submitted the question of the manufacture and sale of 
ardent spirits to a vote of the people of the territory at the next election in 
July.  The campaign was a warm one throughout the territory.  At a meeting in 
this county Hon. Elwood Evans was appointed chairman of the executive


p28 c2:

committee and issued an announcement to temperance men in the territory to form 
county societies.
	The political feature of the campaign was also inaugurated early, by the 
democratic county committee calling a county convention for April 29.
	The following ticket was placed in the field:-
	Councilman. Wm. Cock.
	Representatives: C. B. Baker, Wm. Rutledge, Jr., David J. Chambers. 
Charles E. Weed, Rodolph M. Walker, John N. Low.
	Surveyor: Jared S. Hurd.
	Assessor- W. B. D. Newman.
	Commissioner. Joseph S. Broshears.
	Fence Viewer: R. M. Walker.
	Lieutenant Colonel: Joseph Miles.
	Major: J. K. Hurd.
	The Democratic candidate for Congress was J. Patton Anderson of this 
county.

WHIG TICKET.
	The Whig convention was hell on May 5 and the following nominations made:-
	Councilman: B. F. Yantis.
	Representatives: T. F. McElroy, C. H. Hale, G. Hartsock, Cyril Ward, C. G. 
Saylor, J. W. Goodell.
	Assessor:- Marion Sargent.
	Commissioner: William S. Parsons.
	Colonel. B. Harned.
	Lieutenant Colonel:- Wm. Miles.
	Major- J. J. Westbrook.
	The Whig candidate for Congress was William Strong.

FREE SOIL.
	A Free Soil county convention was held May 26 and the following ticket 
nominated.
	Councilman: B. F. Brown.
	Representatives- Samuel James, J. M. Swan, Wm. White, Mr. Lum. S. N. 
Woodruff and Wm. Patterson Sr.
	Surveyor: T. F. Berry.
	Commissioner: Mr. Stroll.
	Assessor: William Billings.


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	The candidate for Congress was Joseph Cushman.
	The democratic candidate for Congress carried the county by 9 majority. 
Wm. Cock was elected councilman.  Walker,  Baker and Chambers, Democrats- and 
Hale, Ward and McElroy- Whigs- were chosen representatives.  The democratic 
ticket was elected with the exception of Jared S. Hurd for surveyor, the free 
soil candidate, Mr. Berry being chosen.
	At this election the county cast 377 votes: Olympia precinct, 260; South 
Bay, 18; Black Lake, 15; Yelm Prairie, 18; Grand Mound, 39; Miami, 9; Coal Bank, 
18.  Prohibition received a majority of 14 votes in the county but failed to 
carry the territory.
	In August 1855 a new frame school house of two stories was erected on the 
site of the one that collapsed the year before.  The building still stands and 
from 1874 to 1892 was used as a court house.  It is now owned by Geo. Langridge 
and occupied by the Olympian.
	This summer the contract to carry the mail from Olympia to Seattle was 
awarded to Henry Winsor of Olympia at a rate not to exceed $1000 per annum.  He 
was permitted to carry it by either sail boat or horse.
	During the summer the work of developing the country went forward. 
Immigration continued and fertile lands in all parts of the Sound country were 
taken as claims. Forests were cleared in patches and permanent homes 
established.

INDIAN TROUBLES.
	In early fall reports of trouble with Indians in White River Valley, King 
county, began finding their way to Olympia and the settlers in the country 
around the capital manifested
more or less alarm.  The hostiles were of the Yakima tribe and the exciting 
cause of their depredations may


p29 c2:

be traced to the origin of all Indian troubles since the pale faces first began 
crowding the red man toward the setting sun.
	It is not our purpose to go into all the details that lead to the cruel 
attack on the Puget Sound settlements, but it is well for the reader to bear in 
mind that the Hudson's Bay people looked jealously on the American settlements 
north of the Columbia as tending to ultimately wrest this section of the country 
from the pretended claim of Great Britain and it is claimed by some that this 
company encouraged the Indians in order to discourage settlements.
	Early in 1854 a member of one of northern tribes, the Kake, had worked for 
H. L. Butler, at Butler's cove, and a dispute arose over the wages.  As a result 
of the controversy one Burke, who was working for Butler, killed the Indian.  
Following this murder it was customary for the northern Indians to make trips up 
the Sound in search of work and commit depredations on the settlements on their 
return.
	Their periodic visits increasing in number and boldness alarmed the 
settlers, and Commander Swartout of the United States navy, who was then on duty 
in Puget Sound waters, in charge of the Steamer Massachusetts, determined to 
drive them out and punish them.  On November 20, he made an attack on their camp 
at Port Gamble.  Twenty seven were killed and twenty one wounded and their huts 
and canoes destroyed.  The remainder he carried to Victoria and flattered 
himself that Puget Sound settlements were rid of them.  In this he was mistaken.  
His attack increased the hostile spirit of the savages.
	At this time the strength of the fighting warriors west of the Cascade 
mountains was estimated at 175, distributed as follows: The Nisquallies


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and Puyallups under Leschi and Quinmuth, 65; Green and White river Indians under 
Nelson and Kitsap, 35; Klickitats and their relations under Kanascut, 55; Upper 
Puyallups under O'Cuiltin, 20.
	Leschi of the Nisquallies had worked up a combination of these tribes to 
engage in a war against the white settlements in the Green and White river 
vallies.
	On October 14, 1855, acting governor Charles H. Mason issued a 
proclamation citing the fact that information had been received showing a state 
of hostility between the Yakima Indians and the United States government in the 
territory and calling for two companies of volunteers, each to consist of 1 
captain, 1 first lieutenant, 1 second lieutenant, 2 musicians, 4 sergeants, 4 
corporals, and 74 privates.  Vancouver and Olympia were designated as places of 
enrollment. The proclamation closed with: "All persons desirous of enrolling 
will, as far as practicable, provide their own arms and equipments.  The 
greatest possible expedition is requested as it is expedient for the companies 
to take the field at the earliest moment."
	The Olympia company adopted the name of the Puget Sound Mounted Volunteers 
and was officered as follows- Captain, Gilmore Hays; 1st lieutenant, Jared S. 
Hurd; 2nd lieutenant, William Martin; lst sergeant, Joseph Gibson.  2nd 
sergeant, H. D. Cock; 3rd Sergeant, Thos. Prather; 4th sergeant, Joseph White; 
1st corporal, Joseph S. Taylor; 2nd corporal, Whitfield Kirtly; 3rd corporal, D. 
T. Wheelock; 4th corporal, John Scott.
	Gov. Mason was expecting 1890 muskets, 100 accouterments, 30 cavalry 
sabers, 280,000 rifle caps, etc., by the steamer Willawantic.  The vessel was 
anxiously awaited, but when it arrived, to the great disappointment of every 
one, it brought no


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arms.  Surveyor general James A. Tilton then went to Seattle to visit the sloop 
of war Decatur and the revenue cutter Jeff Davis for the purpose of securing 
arms for the volunteers.  In this he was partially successful obtaining from the 
Decatur: 30 muskets, with bayonets, belts, etc.; 40 carbines, 50 holster 
pistols, 50 sabers with belts and 3500 ball cartridges.  From the revenue cutter 
he obtained, 6 musketoons and 6 sabers.  In all sufficient to arm 70 infantry 
and 50 light horse cavalry.
	After the organization of the volunteers Gov. Mason commissioned Chas. 
Eaton, a resident of the coast since 1843 and familiar with the Indians and 
their methods of fighting to organize a company of rangers, to consist of 30 
privates and 11 officers.  The order was instantly complied with and the company 
organized as follows: 1st lieutenant, James McAllister; 2nd lieutenant, James 
Tullis; 3rd lieutenant A. M. Poe; 1st sergeant, John Harold; 2nd sergeant Chas. 
E. Weed; 3rd sergeant William W. Miller; 4th sergeant, S. Phillips; 1st 
corporal, S. D. Rinehart; 2nd corporal, Thomas Bracken; 3rd corporal, S. 
Hodgden; 4th corporal, James Hughes.
	Both companies were presented with flags by the ladies of Olympia and left 
for the seat of war in the White river valley on October 20, 1855.  Much doubt 
existed as to the extent of the hostile feeling among the natives.  Capt. Bolen 
of the Willamantic said there more Indians at the lower Sound than he ever saw 
before.  It was known that the Yakimas were well united in a feeling of 
hostility, while the Klickitats were known to be divided.  It was considered by 
the troops and authorities very essential that the first battle be won, else the 
neutral Indians would join their hostile neighbors.
	A company was organized on Mound


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Prairie and the citizens there built a block house for protection.  A company 
was also formed at Chamber's Prairie.  The late Judge C. C. Hewitt was captain 
of a company organized at Seattle.
	On October 22, Gov. Mason issued a proclamation calling for four 
additional companies to be officered as were the two former.  Owing to the 
difficulties of communication, it was deemed prudent by the authorities to have 
a force in reserve to be called to action in case of emergency. By the 
proclamation the counties of Walla Walla, Skamania and Clarke were to furnish 
one company to enroll at Vancouver; the counties of Cowlitz, Wakiakum, Pacific 
and Chehalis one company to enroll at Cathlamet; Lewis, Thurston, Pierce and 
Sawamish, one company to enroll at Olympia and King, Island, Jefferson, Clalm 
and Whatcom one company, to enroll at Seattle.  These companies were expected to 
take the field only when necessity required it.
	Gov. Mason officially appointed James Tilton adjutant general of the 
volunteer forces of the territory during the war.  Charles Eaton of Thurston 
county was designated as captain of the Puget Sound Rangers.
	In obedience to the governors proclamation of the 22nd the counties of 
Lewis, Thurston, Pierce and Sawamish filled the roll of their company with 110 
men and on the 29th elected the following officers:- Captain Geo. B. Goudy; 1st 
lieutenant, W. B. Affleck; 2nd lieutenant, J. K. Hurd; 1st sergeant, Francis 
Lindler; 2nd, A. J. Baldwin; 3rd Sergeant, F. W. Sealy; 4th sergeant, James 
Roberts; 1st corporal, Joseph Walraven; 2nd corporal E. W. Austin; 3rd corporal, 
Hiel Barnes; 4th corporal, Joseph Deans.
	To protect the families located on claims, forts or stockades were erected 
in different parts of the territory.  In


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this county one was built on Chambers Prairie and one on Mound Prairie.
	The initial proceedings of the troops were to capture Leschi, the 
Nisqually chief who had been preparing his band for hostilities.  He was an 
Indian of more than ordinary wealth and power and was in possession of a 
considerable amount of farming land on the Nisqually bottoms between Packwood's 
ferry and the crossing of that stream at the Yelm.
	Business in the little settlement at Olympia was suspended and the claims 
in the country practically abandoned.  Men were either preparing to leave for 
the scenes of trouble or were employed in the different works of fortifying the 
town.
	On October 24th the Rangers left Olympia for the field and proceeded 
direct in quest of Leschi.  On arriving at his headquarters they found that he 
had fled to the White river valley.  The troops immediately started in pursuit.  
At Puyallup crossing the main body of the company halted and Captain Eaton, 
Lieutenant McAllister and a Mr. Cornell with a friendly Indian or two proceed to 
have a conference with the hostiles.  Lieut. McAllister acted as interpreter.  
The Indians professed friendship and promised to not engage in a war against the 
settlers.
	Upon returning to the command, the little company was fired upon from 
ambush and Lieutenant McAllister and Mr. Cornell killed.  One of the friendly 
Indians called Charley then rode to the McAllister claim told the family of Mr. 
McAllister's death and helped them to the fort on Chamber's Prairie.
	A few days later Cols. Joseph Miles and A. B. Moses were killed.
	When the news of Lieut. McAllister's death reached town it aroused the 
people to the horrors of the situation.


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	The number of fighting warriors was grossly exaggerated in the fears of 
the people,  This and the defenseless condition of the citizens aroused the 
populace to the highest excitement.  Straggling Indians were going through the 
county committing depredations upon the small herds.  Claims were abandoned and 
families took refuge in Olympia.  A town meeting was held at which Wm. Cock was 
chosen chairman and Elwood Evans secretary.  Adjutant General Tilton was 
present. The situation was thoroughly discussed and it was resolved to erect a 
stockade.  A committee consisting of Wm. Cock, Rev. J. F, Devore and R. M. 
Walker were appointed to confer with General Tilton and to proceed at once with 
the work of fortifying the town, and, if necessary to detain the brig Tarquina 
then lying in the harbor, as a refuge.
	On November 10th the bodies of Lieutenant McAllister and Cols. Miles and 
Moses were brought to Olympia for interment.  To add to the universal gloom that 
hung over the little community nature joined, and the bodies of these young men 
were borne to their graves on Chambers' Prairie under a heavy sky and during the 
falling of incessant rain.
	The committee appointed to devise means of fortifying the town erected a 
stockade along Fourth street from bay to bay with a block house at the corner of 
Main on which was placed a cannon.  In case of an attack the people were 
expected to seek safety north of the stockade or in the block house.
	But the war was short.  What fighting there was, was in the White and 
Puyallup valleys, in King and Pierce counties.  Matters were soon quieted down 
and in December the companies were discharged.
	On January 26, 1856, an attack was made on Seattle by the Indians and Gov. 
Stevens who had just returned


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from the east, issued a proclamation calling for six companies, two to enroll at 
Olympia.
	The first company to respond to the governor's call was organized on 
February 4th with the following officers. Captain, Gilmore Hays; 1st Lieutenant, 
A. B. Rabbeson; 2nd Lieutenant, Wm. Martin; orderly sergeant, Frank Ruth; 2nd 
sergeant, A. J. Moses, 3rd sergeant, D. Martin; 4th sergeant, M. Goodell; lst 
corporal, N. B. Coffey, 2nd corporal, J. L. Myers; 3rd corporal, F. Hughes; 4th 
corporal, H. Horton.
	A company of Mounted Rangers was organized February 6, and officered with 
B. L. Hennis as captain; G. C. Blankenship, 1st lieutenant, F. A. Goodwin, 2nd 
lieutenant; Joseph Cushman, lst sergeant; Wm. J. Yaeger, 2nd sergeant; Henry 
Laws, 3rd sergeant; James Phillips, 4th sergeant; Wm. E. Klady, 1st corporal; 
Thos. Hicks, 2nd corporal; S. A. Phillips 3rd corporal; H. A. Johnson, 4th 
corporal.
	On February 8 was organized the Pioneer or company of miners and sappers 
who entered the service in the capacity of axe-men, teamsters, packers, &c.  The 
functions of this organization were to cut roads, build block houses, guard 
stock and, as occasion required to take part in offensive and defensive 
demonstrations.  Its officers were: Captain, James A. White; 1st lieutenant, U. 
E. Hicks; 2nd lieutenant, T. McLain Chambers; 1st, sergeant, D. J. Hubbard; 2nd 
sergeant, C. White, 3rd sergeant, Marcus McMillan; 4th sergeant, H. G. Parsons; 
1st corporal, Isaac Lemons; 2nd corporal, Wm. Ruddell; 4th corporal Wm. Mengle.
	During the winter and spring of 1856 the citizens were in constant alarm.  
The seat of war was in the White and Puyallup valleys and news was eagerly 
sought.  James H. Goudy


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drove an express from Olympia to the camp, supplying soldiers with subsistence 
and this afforded the only means of communication.
	On March 1st Adjutant general Tilton issued a call for one hundred more 
men, to rendezvous at Olympia for service  under Major Hays and to strengthen 
the companies of Captains Henness, Rabbeson, White and Swindal.
	In April arose a demand for better protection of the town and it was 
determined to build a block house, sufficient to hold the entire population.  It 
was built of logs on the public square at the corner of Main and Sixth streets.
	More or less fighting was done as spring merged into summer.  The hope and 
enthusiasm of the settlers of the previous year was giving way to despondency.  
The town was slowly being depopulated, crops were not put in, improvements were 
suspended and the future was fraught with grave apprehensions.  The only ray of 
light that shot athwart the horizon was the growing indication that the savages 
themselves were tiring of the war.
	In June Gov. Stevens sent M. T. Simmons and Ed. C. Fitzhugh to treat with 
the Indians for peace.  Their efforts ended in failure.  But the Indians 
gradually abandoned their warlike attitude.  Encounters subsided and the 
soldiers returned to their homes.
	They were however subject to call until August, when they were formally 
mustered out of the service and on September 30 the horses, stores, &c. of the 
soldiers were sold at the post in Olympia.
	The chief Leschi and his brother Queimal were induced to give themselves 
up to the authorities under the promise of pardon.  Leschi surrendered to Col. 
Casey of the United States Army at Fort Steilacoom, but he was subsequently 
indicted for murder


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and after three trials sentenced to hang.  Queimal gave himself up to Gov. 
Stevens and while waiting in the ante room of the governor's office was murdered 
by unknown parties.
	Another Indian named Yelm Jim was indicted, tried and convicted of the 
murder of Sluggier, an Indian instrumental in the capture of Leschi.
	The case of Leschi was appealed to the Supreme court, where it was before 
the court seven days.  In a general review of the case Judge 0. B. McFadden 
affirmed the judgment of the district court and the villain was sentenced to be 
hanged on January 22, 1858 at Fort Steilacoom in Pierce county.
	As the time for carrying out the sentence of the court drew near, 
petitions for Leschi's pardon were presented to the governor.  Numerous 
remonstrances against a pardon were likewise filed.  The governor declined to 
interfere and nothing was expected but that the sentence of the court would be 
executed.  But January 22, 1858, passed by and Leschi did not hang.  Indignation 
meetings were held and a committee of citizens was appointed at Olympia to 
inquire into the failure of the officers to hang the murderer.  The report of 
this committee subjected the sheriff of Pierce county to severe censure and 
disclosed that the military authorities at the Fort had interfered to save the 
Indian's life.
	An extra session of the Supreme Court was held February 11, 1858, and 
Leschi resentenced to hang on February 19.  Judge Chynoweth delivered the 
opinion and ordered Sheriff Hays of Thurston county to carry out the order of 
the court.  Excitement was at a high pitch and trouble was feared.  In the 
absence of the sheriff, deputy Wm. L. Mitchell went with a posse of twelve men 
to Steilacoom where the sentence was carried


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out and the once powerful chief of the Nisquallies paid the penalty of his 
crimes.
	The case of Yelm Jim charged with the murder of Wm. White in March 1856 
was on the court calendar for several terms and came to a trial in April 1859 
when the accused was found guilty and was subsequently sentenced to hang on May 
4, 1860.  A strong public opinion set in favor of the murderer and numerous 
petitions for his pardon were circulated.  In March, 1860, two Indians named 
Wash and Watumpa came to Olympia and confessed to being the murderers of Wm. 
White and asked clemency for Yelm Jim.  It was argued that the war was over; 
that the Indians had abandoned the war path and that a little of "forgive and 
forget" spirit might avert further troubles.  On May 3rd, Gov. Gholson granted a 
reprieve to August 10th.  On that day the convict was granted an unqualified 
pardon.
	During the year 1856 little else than the Indian War attracted the 
attention of the residents of Thurston county and the remaining history of that 
year is soon written.  Back in the states a presidential campaign was on and 
politics was not entirely lost sight of at Olympia.
	The election of county officers was held July 14, and three full tickets 
were in the field: Democratic, Whig, and Free Soil, the following being the 
candidates for the several offices-

DEMOCRATIC.
	For Councilman: J. W. Wiley.
	For Representatives: B. L. Henness, C. B. Baker, J. Longmyer, Daniel 
Kizer, G. C. Blankenship, Wm. Rutledge, Jr.
	County Commissioners: A. J. Chambers, J. Cornell.
	Prosecuting Attorney: Victor Monroe.
	Sheriff: Samuel Coulter.
	Treasurer: G. K. Willard.


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	Auditor: Wm. Wright.
	Assessor: T. W. Glascow.
	Coroner: H. D. Morgan.

WHIG.
	For Councilman: B. F. Yantis.
	For Representatives: J. W. McAllister, Wm. McLain, A. O'Neil, Elwood 
Evans, E. W. Sargent, J. Dunlap.
	County Commissioners: C. Crosby, W. S. Parsons.
	Prosecuting Attorney: J. Anderson.
	Sheriff: Isaac Hays.
	Treasurer: E. Marsh.
	Assessor: D. T. Wheelock.

FREE SOIL.
	For Councilman- B. F. Brown.
	For Representatives: Ira Ward, J. M. Lum, W. Patterson, J. M. Swan, Wm. 
Billings, W. N. Ayers.
	County Commissioner: J. Shaw.
	Sheriff: Wm. Lyle.
	Treasurer: J. Allen.
	Auditor: D. C. Beatty.
	Assessor: G. W. French.

	The election resulted in the choice of the entire Democratic ticket except 
the candidate for sheriff.  For this office Isaac Hays, the Whig candidate was 
chosen,
	School was taught during the summer in Masonic Hall, a Miss Babb being the 
teacher,
	A private school, under the name of Puget Sound Institute, was established 
by Rev. J. F. Dillon and wife.  Mr. Dillon was pastor of the M. E. church.
	On September 6, the commissioners elected the preceding July, met and 
organized with the choice of A. J. Chambers, presiding judge.  Only routine 
business was transacted.  Edward Giddings, who had constructed the Wharf at the 
foot of Main street was allowed to make the following wharfage charges: vessels 
of 500 tons and over, $5 per day; vessels under 250 tons, $2.50 per day; teams 
crossing over the wharf, ten cents; goods landed on the wharf, fifty cents per 
ton.


p35 c1

In September 1856 T. W. Glascow of Tenalquot Plains brought the first threshing 
machine to the county.  Joseph Shaw opened a cabinet and chair shop.
	As the year drew to a close the settlers gradually recovered from the 
disorder into which they were thrown by the alarm of the war whoop.  Families 
that did not flee the country returned to their usual vocations and with renewed 
life and energy went to work to build up homes,
	In the fall J. M. Swan platted his donation claim adjoining the Sylvester 
tract on the east side of the bay.

1857.
	In January 1857 the legislature incorporated the Northern Pacific 
railroad, the incorporators being residents of Washington, Oregon, Minnesota, 
Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa and Maine.  The following were the Washington members 
of the corporation: I. I. Stevens, C. H. Mason, Ed. Lander, Geo. Gibbs, B. F. 
Kendall, Wm. Cock, R. M. Walker, W. W. Miller, W. H. Wallace, Lafayette Balch, 
M. T. Simmons, Elwood Evans, A. A. Denny, David Phillips, Alex. Abernethy, J. P. 
Keller, James Tilton, E. H. Fowler, S. D. Howe, Ed. C. Fitzhugh, Walter Crocket, 
Sr., L. H. Davis, C. C. Pagett, John R. Jackson, Seth Catlin, Wm. Strong, 
William Dillon, Sumner Barker, Wm. Kelly, Ira Patterson, H. D. Huntington, N. 
Ostrander and B. B. Bishop.  By the charter the line of road was to commence at 
one of the passes in the Rocky mountains between the territories of Washington 
and Nebraska and connecting with such road passing through the territories of 
Minnesota and Nebraska as the company may elect; thence extending westwardly 
through the territory of Washington by the Bitter Root valley, crossing the 
Coeur d'Aline mountains by the most practical route; thence across


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the great plain of the Columbia, with two branches, one down the Columbia to 
Vancouver the other over the Cascades to the Sound, with a connection from the 
river to the Sound."
	The legislature of this year passed "an act appointing a board of 
commissioners and giving them authority to build a bridge across the western arm 
of Budd's Inlet at Olympia."  The commissioners designated were: Wm. Cock, Edwin 
Marsh, W. W. Miller, Wm. McLain, J. K. Hurd, Jos. Cushman, S. W. Percival and 
Elwood Evans.  The commission met February 2, 1857 and organized by the election 
of Edwin Marsh president, S. W. Percival secretary and W. W. Miller, treasurer.  
Joseph Cushman, Benj. Harned and J. K. Hurd were appointed a committee to draft 
plans for the proposed bridge and to make an estimate on the cost of 
construction.  At a subsequent meeting the committee reported in favor of a 
bridge 1803 feet long; to contain two wenches for draws, 30 feet wide, two 
openings 35 feet wide for rafts and the estimated cost of the structure to be 
$3000.  Messrs. Morrow of Suwamish county, McLain, Cock, Miller and Hale of 
Thurston were authorized to open books for subscriptions of labor, material, 
cash, &C.
	Attention this year was turned to manufacturing and in various ways to 
developing the industrial resources of the county.
	Andrew J. Miller had in operation an extensive saw mill near Priest's 
point on the Eastside and this year Wills & Ethridge attached a sash and door 
factory.  A wharf 350 feet long and 34 feet wide was built for the convenience 
of vessels in loading.  Getting out ship spars was a lucrative business.
	Several store buildings were erected in the town.
	Ward and Hays who had erected a


p36 c1:

flouring mill at Tumwater during 1856 made several shipments.
	In August A. G. Da Lee of San Francisco opened a picture gallery.
	B. F. Harned built his residence near the public square.
	In November a brass band was organized.  There were nine members and 
instruction was received from Joseph Wright of Vancouver.
	A temperance organization was effected.
	So thoroughly had the Indian War depopulated the country surrounding 
Olympia that at the March term of the commissioners the election precincts of 
Coal Bank, Rabbeson's Prairie, Nesqually Prairie and Miami were abandoned and 
the territory attached to the adjoining precincts.
	The rate of taxation this year was fixed at 3 mills for county purposes, 1 
mill for court purposes, 1 mill for territorial purposes and 2 mills for school 
purposes.  In a report made by the auditor dated June 26, the amount of tax 
levied for 1856 was given at $3528.55; the amount collected, $3422.63, leaving a 
delinquency of only $105.92 being less than for any previous year. The current 
expenses for the year were $1854.94, appropriated as follows: County 
commissioners, $170.80; clerks and judges of election, $167.10: assessor, $156; 
Coroner, $37.50; Constable $88.95; Sheriff, $166.65; superintendent of schools, 
$100; probate judge $51; prosecuting attorney, $104; county treasurer, $51.83; 
auditor, $138.72; petit jurors, $36.30; office rent, $120; books and stationery, 
$45.09; support of the poor, $421.  The receipts for the year exceeded 
expenditures by $1028.48.  In closing the report Auditor Wright said: "It must 
be gratifying to all who feet an interest in the affairs of the county to learn 
from the above facts and figures that the county is steadily approaching a 
condition, financially, greatly to be desired, namely, freedom


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from debt."
	On July 13. occurred the annual election.  The opposition that existed 
against the Democrats the year before had united under the name of Republican, 
dubbed by the Democrats "Black Republican."  The following tickets were in the 
field,  the entire Democratic ticket being elected except the candidates for 
school superintendent, prosecuting attorney and coroner.

DEMOCRATIC.
	For Representatives: W. W. Miller, Stephen Guthrie, B. F. Shaw, C. B. 
Baker, Thos. W. Glascow.
	For Joint Representative: Wm. Morrow.
	For Probate Judge- G. K. Willard.
	For Assessor: J. R. Smith.
	For County Commissioner: James Biles.
	For School Superintendent: Albert Eggers.
	For Prosecuting, Attorney: Q. A. Brooks, C. W. Swindal. (Ind.)

REPUBLICAN.
	For Representatives: Elwood Evans, Wm. McLain, Ira Ward, Jr., A. H. 
Stewart, S. H. French.
	For Joint Representative. D. J. Burntrager.
	For Probate Judge: D. R. Bigelow.
	For Assessor: Samuel Dunlap.
	For County Commissioner: J. M. Shotwell.
	For School Superintendent: G. F. Whitworth.
	For Prosecuting Attorney: C. C Hewitt.
	Coroner. C. H. Hale.

	Gov. Stevens was elected delegate to Congress as the Democratic candidate 
and on August 11, resigned the office of governor.  His duties again devolved 
upon Secretary Mason.  In September his successor Fayette McMullen arrived and 
was received with a salute of cannon.
	This year the mail contract from


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San Francisco to Olympia via Port Townsend was awarded to the Pacific Mail 
Steamship Company.
	October 15th the Steamer Fairy, owned by A. B. Rabbeson of Olympia and 
plying between Olympia and Steilacoom was blown up just as it was leaving the 
dock at Steilacoom.

1858.
	The year 1857 closed with the people fairly recovered from the 
devastations of the Indian War.  But a new form of excitement was in store for 
the small settlements throughout the county.  There had been since the first 
settlement an abiding sentiment in the minds of  the people that gold lined the 
hills of Western Washington.  In May 1857 a party of four men started out with a 
pack horse to explore the Black Hills in the western part of the county.  They 
were gone about ten days and reported that favorable indications existed for 
future successful mining.  A new party was fitted out secretly to renew the 
explorations.
	Laboring under the Hallucination that gold existed everywhere, Ira Ward, 
Jacob Croll et al ascended the Deschutes about sixty miles and returned with the 
report that the prospects for gold were as good as in California, but in strange 
contradiction to this report they brought back no mineral, neither were they 
successful in finding any- only "indications."
	The discovery of gold in the Frazier river valley in British Columbia, 
afforded a genuine mining excitement.  Miners and adventurers in California 
flocked thither.  Settlers in Oregon and Washington abandoned their claims to 
take part in the feverish search.  Olympia, being the only town of importance 
north of the Columbia and the first on tide water, was the headquarters for 
miners and miners supplies.
	At the election in July a very light


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vote was polled, on account of the men being at the mines.  In the fall the 
excitement subsided and the prospectors returned.
	In 1858, Wells Fargo & Co., established an express office at Olympia with 
T. M. Reed as agent.
	The annual election this year was less exciting than the few previous 
ones, but resulted in the election of the entire Democratic ticket. The 
following tickets were at the polls:

DEMOCRATIC.
	For Councilman: W. W. Miller.
	For Representatives: E. Sylvester, B. L. Henness, Wm. Rutledge, Sr.,  John 
M. Hawk, James Longmire, Oliver Shead.
	Pros. Attorney: B. P. Anderson.
	County Commissioner: Joseph Cornell.
	Treasurer. G. K. Willard.
	Auditor: Richard Lane.
	Sheriff: G. C. Blankenship.
	Assessor: Wm. Martin.
	Coroner: A. J. Baldwin.

REPUBLICAN.
	For Councilman: C. H. Hale.
	For Representatives: Wm. McLain, J. M. Lum, A. W. Moore, R. J. Smith, A. 
J. Simmons, A. W. Stewart.
	Pros. Attorney: D. R. Bigelow.
	County Commissioner: John M. Swan.
	Treasurer. Geo. A. Barnes.
	Auditor: W. N. Ayers.
	Sheriff: Wm. Billings.
	Assessor: W. 0. Thompson.

	Notwithstanding the mining excitement this year the usual amount of 
attention was devoted to the subject of a Northern Pacific railroad.  A railroad 
meeting was held in Masonic Hall September 29 and Congress urged to grant lands 
to the Northern Pacific railway.  Elwood Evans was chairman of the meeting and 
R. M. Walker secretary.
	On September 4th a dead body was found floating near Priest's point on


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which was $520.  A coroner's jury found it to be that of Edward Connor, who, was 
drowned while fording a stream that enters the Sound near that point, at a time 
when it was swollen by heavy rains.
	Interest in fruitgrowing had attracted the attention of the settlers and 
two nurseries were established at Grand Mound, one by L. D. Durgin, the other by 
Gangloff & Moxlie.
	This fall witnessed a great improvement in the mail service of the Sound.  
A postal agent visited Olympia and arranged for the mail steamer Constitution 
leaving on Monday instead of Friday.  Connections were made at San Francisco by 
which the overland mail from St. Louis reached Olympia in twenty four days and 
the event was heralded as a great achievement.  In November the service from 
Olympia to Oakland on Skookum Bay was extended to Hood's canal.
	The Puget Sound Wesleyan Institute did not open in the fall of this year 
but closed in June until further notice.
	Wm. Martin who was elected assessor failed to qualify and Whitfield 
Kirtley was appointed to fill the vacancy.

1859.
	The year 1859 opened with the sun of prosperity beaming upon the beautiful 
village at the head of the Sound and the numerous settlers on the prairies 
around.  The inhabitants had recovered from their fright of three years before 
and taken hold of improvements with the vigor of '52.
	In May the commissioners called a special election to vote a tax of 4 
mills to build a new court house.  This, it was estimated would produce a 
revenue of about $5000, of which $2500 was to be used to pay existing 
indebtedness and $2500 to build a court house.
	The proposition was voted down by fully 4 to 1.


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	Politically the atmosphere surrounding the campaign was as warm as before 
the gold excitement of '58.  Two tickets were nominated, the Democratic and 
Republican as follows:-

DEMOCRATIC.
	For Councilman: James Biles.
	For Representatives: B. L. Henness. G. K. Willard, Oliver Shead. A. S. 
Yantis, Chas. E. Weed, Levi Shelton.
	County Commissioner: A. J. Chambers.
	Assessor: John Chambers.

REPUBLICAN.
	For Councilman: Stephen Guthrie.
	For Representatives: Elwood Evans, T. M. Reed, Wm. McLain, Abram Tilley, 
T. F. Berry, A. W. Sargent.

	The election resulted in the choice of the entire Democratic ticket.
	During the summer, July 28, occurred the death of Secretary C. H. Mason, 
which plunged the entire territory, particularly the capital, into great grief. 
He was a young man, only 29 years of age at the time of his death, and his 
conduct during the Indian troubles and his courteous and manly bearing had 
endeared him to the people of Olympia.
	On July 30, J. M. Swan held an auction of town lots in his addition on the 
east side of the bay.
	The year 1859 was one of general prosperity for the county.  Good crops 
prevailed in the country and permanent improvements were inaugurated in the 
village.
	A brick yard was opened on the east side on Fourth street in Swan's 
addition. A good sidewalk was laid up Main street to the capitol.
	The tide of immigration that had been suspended for four years again 
turned toward Thurston county and enthused the people with the life and vigor of 
ante bellum days.
	In October General Scott of Mexican War fame visited Olympia on his 
mission in connection with the San


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Juan question.  The Hudson's Bay Company had occupied the Island and insisted 
that it was on the British side of the line.
	The agitation of Northern Pacific railway continued spasmodically during 
the year.
	The year 1859 closed with a new character of excitement, which although 
brief was none the less intense.  The legislature assembled on the first 
Wednesday in December and on the 6th of the month, Mr. Short of Clarke county 
introduced a bill to remove the territorial capital from Olympia to Vancouver.  
There was little likelihood of the bill passing as the people supposed, and 
those not regularly members of the lobby or third house paid little attention to 
the volcano that was smouldering under them.  On the 14th the bill passed the 
house by a vote of 19 to 9.  The people were alarmed and every effort was made 
to defeat the bill in the council which was accomplished on the 30th by a vote 
of 5 to 4.  A narrow escape!  A. A. Denny, who favored Olympia when the question 
was first raised four years before, voted for Vancouver.
	In the early part of the winter of '59-'60, the town was invested with 
that class of nomads, latterly called tramps, or hobos.  Several fires occurred.  
The old blockhouse at the corner of Main and Fourth streets was burned.  On 
December 24th a meeting was held at the school house to discuss the project of 
organizing a hook and ladder company.  As an outgrowth of the agitation of the 
question, then instituted, was formed the Alert Hook & Ladder Company.  It was 
organized with the following officers: Foreman, C. E. Williams; 1st assistant 
foreman, John L. Head; 2nd assistant foreman, H. D. Morgan; president, T. M. 
Reed; Secretary, A. J. Moses; treasurer, W. G. Dunlap.  An attempt to buy a fire


p39 c2

engine failed.
	During a session of the legislature this winter the Puget Sound University 
was chartered.  The trustees organized by the election of D. R. Bigelow., 
chancellor and G. A. Barnes, vice- president.  Rev. B. C. Lippencott, was 
elected president and general agent.  This institution was located on a point of 
land opposited the house of L. Offut.
	In the spring of 1859 five sharks were caught at Teekalet on Hood's Canal.  
In the stomach of one was found a human hand in a perfect state of preservation.
	The town of Olympia was incorporated January 29, 1859.  By the act of 
incorporation the annual town election was to be held on the first Monday in 
April.  The same act designated Geo. A. Barnes, T. F. McElroy, James Tilton, 
Joseph Cushman and Elwood Evans as trustees until the election in April.  Joseph 
Cushman was elected president of the board.  At the April election U. G. 
Warbass, Geo. A. Barnes Edwin Marsh, W. G. Dunlap and Isaac Lightner were chosen 
trustees; Geo. A. Barnes was elected president of the board and Richard Lane 
clerk.  Dr. Warbass declined to serve and Elwood Evans was appointed.  The 
principal work of the board this year was constructing cisterns and laying 
sidewalks.
	The removal of the blockhouse on Sixth street was proposed but 
remonstrated against and it was fitted up for a jail.
	Contract to build cisterns at the corners of Second, Third and Fourth 
streets with Main street was awarded to Thomas Seeley for $155.

1860.
	The year of 1860 brought to the business interests of Thurston county a 
period of hard times.  An exciting presidential campaign, in the east, coupled 
with a reaction from the boom feeling of the previous year produced


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a cessation of the stimulus that had urged forward the growth of the county 
since the close of the Indian troubles.  The people began to agitate the capitol 
removal.  The year before the scheme to remove it to Vancouver failed by a very 
narrow margin, and the question was entering the legislative campaign in each 
county.
	The year witnessed enormous assessments, the basis taken being too nearly 
the boom valuations of the year before.  The rate of taxation was 3 mills for 
county purposes, 2 mills for schools, 1 mill for court purposes and 1/4 mill for 
territorial purposes.
	In May the building of Wm. Wright on the corner of Main and Fourth streets 
was rented for the offices of sheriff and clerk of the district court.
	William Wright resigned the office of county treasurer and T. F. McElroy 
was appointed to fill the vacancy.
	The county superintendent was appointed agent to locate school lands in 
lieu of those taken by settlers; also to locate a quarter section for the 
benefit of the county seat.
	This summer the town had four churches: Methodist, Catholic, Presbyterian 
and Episcopal.
	At the election this summer the two tickets in the field were the 
Democratic and Republican as follows:

DEMOCRATIC.
	For representatives: D. L. Phillips, B. F. Ruth, B. L. Henness, U. G 
Warbass, M. Z. Goodell, G. T. Grow.
	For sheriff: John Aikin.
	For school superintendent: R. M. Walker.
	For auditor: Richard Lane.
	For treasurer: Wm. Wright.
	For county commissioner: S. S. Ford Sr.
	For probate judge: R M. Walker.
	For assessor: A. W. Sargent.

REPUBLICAN.
	For representatives: S. D. Ruddell, Gilmore Hays, C. H. Hale, F. W. Brown,

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T. P. Berry, Henry Kendall.
	For sheriff: Wm. Billings.
	For school superintendent: Elwood Evans.
	For auditor: W. G. Dunlap.
	For treasurer: Geo. A. Barnes.
	For county commissioner. Abram Tilley.
	For probate judge: D. R. Bigelow.
	For assessor. A. B. Powers.
	The agitation of the slavery question in the states had its influence in 
this far off northwestern territory and although the Democrats had control of 
the press of Thurston county the Republicans, so to speak, got in their work, 
which, like an entering wedge in later years split their opponents in twain.
	Of the above tickets the Democratic was elected with the exception of 
Goodell and Grow for representatives and John Aikin for sheriff.  Instead of the 
former, Gilmore Hayes and C. H. Hale were elected to the legislature and William 
Billings secured his first election as sheriff.
	The legislature of 1860 took steps towards the erection of a capitol and 
appointed a commission for that purpose.  August 24th, had been set by the 
commission for the opening of bids but prior to that date one of the 
commissioners, Geo. Gallagher, was removed from the commission by the governor 
and R. M. Walker appointed.  Gallagher instituted injunction proceedings to 
restrain Walker from acting but his application was denied by Judge 0. B. 
McFadden.  No satisfactory bid was received for the construction of the capitol 
and the matter was passed by.
	The federal census taken in the summer of 1860 showed a population for 
Thurston county of 1489, being 967 males and 522 females; of the males 621 were 
over twenty-one years of age. The population included 145 of foreign birth.  The 
value of real estate in the


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county was $942,990; of personal property; $586,710.
	In the fall of this year a daily mail contract from Olympia to Monticello 
was awarded to H. Winsor.
	In November the Pioneer and Democrat that had been doing noble work for 
Thurston county and Democracy for six years was sold by Messrs. Wiley & Furste 
to James Lodge.
	About the same time John Miller Murphy, encouraged by hopeful Republicans 
came over from Portland and established the Washington Standard and at once 
began battling for Olympia, Thurston county and Washington Territory.  
Politically it was Republican and was a firm supporter of Lincoln's 
administration during the civil war.  Its day of publication was Friday and it 
is now Mr. Murphy's boast that during the ups and downs of his newspaper 
experiences at Olympia, the Standard has never missed an issue; has never 
failed, during the lapse of thirty-four years, to supply the good families of 
Thurston county with their regular Sunday reading.
	Notwithstanding the general feeling of hard times during the year 1860, 
the people went forward with improvements.  Streets were opened by the removal 
of stumps and in a limited and unsystematic way more or less grading was done.  
A foot bridge to Swantown was constructed.  The trustees elected at the spring 
election were: Geo. A. Barnes, Elwood Evans, W. G. Dunlap, Isaac Lightner and 
Edwin Marsh.  Mr. Evans was chosen president. Wm. Billings was chosen marshal 
and D. R. Bigelow, police magistrate.

1861.
	The year 1861 was one of particular interest to Thurston county, as it was 
to the United States. The war cloud hovering in the east cast its mighty shadow 
over Puget Sound.  But aside


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from this, Olympia bad two contests on hand to maintain her supremacy.
	Oregon, the mother territory, particularly Portland had not entirely 
abandoned the idea of securing the capital of Washington at Vancouver and when 
the legislature of 1860-61 convened, early in December, a bill was introduced 
with that purpose in view.  The bill passed both houses and received the 
executive approval.  How thoroughly Portland had done the work will be seen from 
the fact that the same legislature removed the penitentiary from Vancouver to 
Port Townsend and located the state university at Seattle.
	Soon after the legislature adjourned it was disco