Francis Henry was an early Olympia settler. His cousin Anson Henry, a close friend and physician to Abraham Lincoln, also settled in Olympia. Francis Henry has lived on in posterity as the author of the song “The Old Settler,” sometimes called the unofficial folk song of Washington State, with its iconic line “surrounded by acres of clams.”
late 1800 photo, Courtesy State Capital Museum collection, Washington State Historical Society, catalog C1952.226.12
Text © Deborah Ross and the Olympian 2022